Chapter 1140: The Fate of the Shadow Marked
Chapter 1140: The Fate of the Shadow Marked
In an unknown void, a starry background with meteors occasionally streaking across the sky, a figure in a white robe sat amidst the emptiness.
"Hehehe, Placido, that guy. He boasted so confidently, but in the end, he ended up in such a miserable state."
Luciano covered his mouth and laughed mischievously, squinting his eyes and shaking his head.
Placido, sitting opposite him, glared with bloodshot eyes.
"Do you want to die?"
Luciano was undaunted: "Is that so? Then come on, let's see who's afraid of who."
"Enough!"
The oldest of the trio, Jose, spoke up.
Luciano stuck out his tongue and sat back in the chair that was too large for him, his short legs dangling and swinging.
Placido grunted and turned his head away, refusing to speak.
"You were indeed reckless, Placido", Jose said, looking at him with a critical tone. "This guy, even if he is an 'anomaly,' is not an ordinary one.
We know everything about the history of all things, but this person's appearance has no background, no trace in the timeline we know.
Such a person is certainly not someone to be taken lightly."
Placido replied coldly, "So your point is that we should avoid him and let him be?"
"That's not what I meant, Placido", Jose said. "But no matter what, every move we make represents the will of God, and we should always act with caution.
At least until we figure out who this person really is."
"Boring to the extreme!"
Placido stood up abruptly and strode out.
"Where are you going, Placido?" Jose asked.
"What else? To challenge him again, of course", Placido huffed. "Just now, I only sent a ghost machine to fight for me, using a copied deck.
If I had gone myself, how could I have lost to that guy?"
He didn't finish his sentence, but the image of the white-haired man with Godwin's face and that infuriating smile kept flashing in his mind, repeatedly showing the card in his hand: "Take this, Fireball!"
"Fireball!"
"Fireball, Fireball, Fireball!"
"..."
He was so infuriating!
How could he, one of the Three Sovereigns of Taiyi, let this grudge go?
Luciano egged him on, laughing: "It's a good thing you didn't go yourself and used a copied deck.
If you had gone, wouldn't the power of the Machine King granted by God have been taken by an outsider?"
Placido grew even angrier: "Are you saying I would have lost!?"
"Well, who knows?" Luciano chuckled.
"You—"
"Enough!"
Jose interrupted, giving Luciano a sharp look.
"Say less."
Luciano raised his hands and fell silent.
"Placido, Luciano has a point. This person's background is unknown, and his strength is impossible to gauge. If you make a mistake, it's one thing, but if you disrupt our plans and go against God's will—"
Placido grunted, though he didn't speak, he didn't continue to move outward.
Despite his rebellious nature, he held great reverence for the "God" Jose spoke of. His personal honor was trivial compared to the potential disruption of God's plans, which would indeed be disastrous.
"So are we just going to sit here and watch?" Placido asked, irritated.
"No. If things continue this way, the 'anomaly' among the Shadow Marked will likely face him soon", Jose said gravely.
"From their confrontation, we might learn more. For now, we'll hold back."
Placido grunted again but didn't voice any objection.
"Be patient, Placido", Jose said in a low voice. "This person wasn't part of our original plan. God might have special plans for him."
At the same time, the battle between the Dragon Marked and the Shadow Marked officially began.
Just like in the original story, Yusei faced off against Kiryu, the user of the unique no-hand Deck "Eternal Fire" and one of Yusei's close friends from the Satellite District in the past.
Back then, Kiryu and Yusei were life-and-death friends. But later, due to a misunderstanding, Kiryu believed that Yusei and the others had betrayed him and reported him to the Security Bureau. After his death, Kiryu was chosen to become a Shadow Marked and returned with the power of the Earthbound God to seek revenge on Yusei.
The Eternal Fire Deck was quite powerful during the Synchro era. As the name suggests, this Deck only unleashed its strength when the player had no cards in hand, with most card effects only activating under those conditions.
Before the cards were real, everyone would have thought this was a gimmicky, second-rate Deck, given the unprecedented and bizarre concept of "losing all your cards as quickly as possible", which seemed useless in the environment where card advantage was paramount.
However, once the cards were real, this Deck immediately had a massive impact on the meta, even rising to become a top-tier competitive Deck.
In the anime, this was where Yusei suffered his first defeat in 5D's. Facing the Earthbound God's terrifying ability to attack the player directly without targeting monsters, Yusei should have lost.
But this battle gave rise to Yusei's legendary "screw-up" moment. Yusei should have lost after taking a hit from the Earthbound God, but a D-Wheel malfunction caused the Duel to forcibly end, saving his life.
Technically, the Duel was unfinished and should have been a draw, but in reality, Yusei still lost.
To a large extent, this was due to the information gap. The Earthbound God's ability to attack the player directly and its immunity to Traps made it particularly deadly in a Ride Duel, especially the first time someone faced it.
But the timeline had changed. When Baram came to seek revenge against "Commander Godwin", he had already used the Earthbound God. Yusei had witnessed this battle and was aware of the existence of the Earthbound God that the Shadow Marked wielded, thus closing the information gap.
With this prior knowledge, Yusei had the upper hand over the Shadow Marked Kiryu. Therefore, this time, he won his first battle against Kiryu without the screw-up moment.
On the other side, Jack faced off against his fated opponent, Carrie, just like in the original story.
In the original, Carrie had been secretly investigating the New World Movement and was killed by Divine, turning her into a Shadow Marked. Although Youxuan had eliminated Divine, causing a timeline shift, Carrie still couldn't escape her fate as a Shadow Marked.
In this timeline, Carrie still met the fallen Jack after the Lucky Cup, and they spent some time together. Afterward, Jack bid farewell to Carrie and set out to prepare for his battle against the Shadow Marked. However, that same night, Carrie "accidentally" fell from a viaduct and died, only to be chosen and transformed into a Shadow Marked, just as fate had decreed.
"Interesting."
Youxuan, watching the Dragon Marked's battles through the Security Bureau's surveillance, murmured to himself.
"Does this mean that who becomes a Shadow Marked, just like who becomes a Dragon Marked, is a destiny that is already decided?"
(End of Chapter)
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