144 The Masked Man: Cuckolding is the greatest! Long live cuckolding!

"Yusei! Jack! Crow! I'll gladly accept your monsters!"

"What?!"

With a shout, the mysterious man drew three cards simultaneously from his hand. Instead of placing them into his Duel Disk, he flipped them around to display their blank fronts to the three men behind him.

"This is... a semi-finished blank card with no artwork or effects!?"

The backs bore the standard dual-colored spiral Duel Monsters card design, but the fronts were entirely blank! They were known as "semi-finished blank cards."

Amidst their astonished gazes, a scene that gradually filled them with shock unfolded over the next few moments.

"Whoosh!"

A stack of cards with normal backs projected outward from the fronts of the three blank cards in the mysterious man's hand. Like layers accumulating, they rapidly extended right in front of Stardust Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend, and Black-Winged Dragon soaring in the sky.

Seeing these cards suddenly rushing toward them, Stardust Dragon and Black-Winged Dragon opened their jaws to gather energy, while Red Dragon Archfiend's right paw ignited with flames as it tried to smash these encroaching cards with a single punch!

Before the three of them could finish gathering their power, however, these overlapping cards slammed into their bellies with a muffled thud. Amidst the painful groans emitted by each of the three dragons, the cards rapidly spread out like swarms of insects, densely weaving into a spherical cage that trapped all three of them within!

"Roar! Rooooar!!"

The three dragons struggled desperately, but not only did they fail to break free from the bondage of these energy cards, their own physical sizes began to shrink rapidly the harder they struggled, until they turned into three fist-sized energy spheres glowing with white, red, and black light.

"Whoosh—"

The cards retracted, returning backward like a rewind into the three blank cards in the man's hands. Yet, as the three energy spheres representing the dragons finally pulled back inside, the cards in the man's hands transformed! They turned into usable cards bearing full illustrations!

"Bokana! Stardust Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend, and Black-Winged Dragon have actually been absorbed by this guy's blank cards?!!"

Gazing at the three cards in the mysterious man's hand—which had originally been blank cards and now displayed the images of Stardust Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend, and Black-Winged Dragon, complete with black card borders distinct from the white frames of normal Synchro Monsters—the three men were struck dumb with amazement.

"Heheheh! Hahahahahaha!"

Looking at the three cards in his hand that had absorbed the trio's ace monsters, the mysterious man couldn't help bursting into laughter. The cards entrusted to him by Z-ONE truly possessed the power to absorb other people's Duel Monsters and convert them into his own cards!

With a sharp reverse turn, the mysterious man shifted his D-Wheel to face them and rode backward. Glaring at Yusei and the others who looked at him with enraged expressions, the mysterious man chuckled lightly with an NTR-esque tone, completely unfazed:

"Yusei, Jack, Crow... I have received your gifts! As a reward, perish alongside this era! Hahahahaha!"

"What did you say!?"

Ignoring the three of them further, the mysterious man switched back to his forward-driving direction. With a twist of his throttle, his motorcycle shot forward instantly with a sharp "Whoosh—". By the time the three recovered their senses, the blonde mysterious man had already vanished into the Riding Duel Highway.

"Screech—"

Manually stopping his D-Wheel and glancing in the direction where the man had disappeared, each of the three picked up their respective ace monster cards from their Duel Disks. Disregarding the fact that the monster illustrations had vanished, the card names, levels, Attributes, Types, effects, and stats remained intact; yet there was no doubt whatsoever that the dragons of all three of them had been stolen away by the enemy!

*Perish alongside this era... Just who on earth is this guy?*

...

...

Duel Monsters Era, Year 20.

Europe, Italy, the St. Mark's Campanile district.

At this moment, what should have been a pitch-black night was illuminated by a crimson sky reflecting like fire!

Amidst that blazing red, thick plumes of black smoke could be clearly seen drifting upward.

"Boom-crash!"

A crimson, fireball-like beam of light blasted forth from the firmament, and right in the trajectory of that incoming beam was a young man.

He wore a crimson trench coat-style school uniform jacket, blue-black trousers, a V-necked black long-sleeved turtleneck, and brown hair shaped remarkably like a jellyfish, with the top portion tinted a dusty yellow.

The young man sprinted like a traceur across the rooftops of the buildings. In the sky behind him, a massive, mechanical, three-headed white dragon-like "monster" flapped its white mechanical wings while spewing fireballs from its three dragon jaws.

Narrowly dodging these successive attacks, the young man finally leaped down from a rooftop several meters high and landed steadily on the ground.

*Yusei! Are you alright?*

"This height is nothing, Professor Daitokuji!"

Judai waved a hand, letting Professor Daitokuji—currently in his spirit form—know not to worry. His global travels over this period had not only allowed him to witness the appearance of a completely new world, but had also pushed his physical fitness far beyond his school days!

Jumping down from a height of over a dozen meters was completely fine! Call him a "Super Duel Academy Man" for all it mattered!

Brushing off the explosion dust clinging to his clothes, Judai turned to look at the sky, where the white mechanical three-headed dragon that had been pursuing him was now nowhere to be seen.

Just as Judai was wondering where the giant dragon had gone, a roar that sounded more organic and lacked the previous mechanical chill echoed out.

From behind the bell tower, a brand-new white giant dragon spread its wings and flew into view!

Unlike the previous mechanical dragon, this white giant dragon looked much closer to an "organic lifeform" upon closer inspection.

It possessed angelic white wings, golden crystal-like bone structures hanging along both sides of its chest, and a long neck inlaid with sparkling, crystal-clear gems radiating a rainbow of colors.

"Tch! To think that even Johan's Rainbow Dragon is...!"

Gazing at the rainbow-gem-inlaid giant dragon, Judai wore an expression of anger. That was the ace monster of his dearest friend, Johan Anderson—Rainbow Dragon!

*Judai! Be careful!*

Professor Daitokuji's warning reached him. Judai quickly threw himself sideways and rolled, as a beam of beam-laser brushed right past the spot he had just occupied.

*Kenzan-kun's Cyber End Dragon... Johan-kun's Rainbow Dragon... What on earth is the mastermind trying to do?*

Gazing at the two giant dragons in the sky that belonged to his former student, Marufuji Ryo, and his good friend, Johan Anderson, Professor Daitokuji in his spirit form murmured thoughtfully.

Destroying Duel Monster cards, materializing Duel Monsters, ordering the materialized Duel Monsters to destroy cities, and the commanded monsters being the ace monsters of acquaintances...

What could the mastermind possibly be aiming for by doing all this?

"Roar!!"

Seeing that their previous attacks had missed, the two giant dragons decided to launch a coordinated strike this time, approaching from an extremely tricky pincer angle destined to deliver a fatal blow to Judai!

*Judai!*

"Got it!"

Instantly deploying the Duel Disk on his arm, he drew a card from the top of his deck.

"Defense Summon 'Elemental HERO Neos'!"

Just as Cyber End Dragon's beam and Rainbow Dragon's rainbow breath were about to strike Judai, a Duel Monster resembling a humanoid figure with a blue circular gem embedded in the center of its chest materialized before Judai. Crossing its arms in a defensive posture, it blocked the attacks of both giant dragons entirely!

"Ugh~!"

Under Neos's desperate block, the two attacks, unable to break through the defense, ultimately fractured into a scattered "X"-shaped beam of light that sliced outward in all directions, gouging "X"-shaped ravines deep into the ground!

"As expected of the ace monsters of those two! Their attack power is even more formidable after materializing!"

Looking at the fine cracks spider-webbing across Neos's arms, Judai finally turned solemn.

*To be able to control two such powerful dragon-type monsters simultaneously, Cyber End Dragon and Rainbow Dragon... The mastermind's strength is completely uninferior to yours, Judai!*

Professor Daitokuji said. At that very moment, the sound of high heels clicking against the ground suddenly rang out nearby.

atop the blazing bell tower, a tall, blonde man clad in a black-and-white trench coat and wearing a black-and-white mask emerged from the dark shadows of a distant building.

"Yuki Judai... A special Duelist possessing the power to manipulate spirits!"

Hearing this person directly call out his name, Judai's brow furrowed slightly.

*The Duel Monster disappearance incident must be his doing, right?*

Neither Cyber End Dragon nor Rainbow Dragon launched any attacks against this suddenly appeared man, which further indicated that both the disappearance of Duel Monsters worldwide and the manipulation of the two giant dragons were orchestrated by the person before them.

*I can sense it! An immense amount of energy is radiating from this man's deck! Furthermore, faintly discernible, there is another kind of negative power filled with sin, helplessness, and despair!*

The sexy and beautiful Yubel stood with arms crossed behind Judai, staring at the giant dragons flanking the mastermind as she spoke.

*Judai! Be careful nonetheless! The danger level this time really might be, just as your professor said, far beyond anything that has ever happened before!*

Seeing that Judai below remained silent, the masked man didn't mind. Gazing out over the blazing plaza, the masked man spoke softly to himself:

"It is time to head to the final destination of this plan! To go and meet that man!"