Chapter 1288: Since You're Already Here

[Leo × Luna, LP 0]

Quintet Magician's judgment tore through the sky. When the light pillar entwined with five elements crashed down, Fake Leo instinctively shielded his sister beneath him, yet both were still flung away like fallen leaves by the shockwave. They separately slammed into a transparent barrier wall at the edge of the field. Spiderweb-like cracks spread across the transparent screen from Luna's back, while sparks of electricity burst from Leo's Duel Disk as it fell.

The copy Leo felt dizzy. He felt a dislocated pain in his left arm joint—the pain felt no different from that of a real person. As his vision blurred, he heard a weak cough from his sister ten meters away. His heavy eyelids suddenly trembled. Through his hazy sight, he saw Luna lying prone on the ground, electric sparks crackling across her body.

"Luna…"

Leo's fingernails dug into the cracks in the ground. His right leg was unnaturally twisted, yet muscle memory drove him to keep moving. He seemed to have no strength left to stand, but he still desperately crawled toward Luna. Just like every time in the past when his sister woke up from a nightmare, he would always appear first. The wrecked Duel Disk let out a mournful cry as he moved; the red "LP=0" characters on the display screen reflected in his eyes.

"Leo…"

At this moment, part of Luna's left eye had been destroyed, revealing the mechanical structure beneath. Her facial mechanical skeleton seemed dented from the heavy impact, and electric snakes danced continuously from the cracked parts.

Watching Leo struggling to crawl toward her, her memories flashed back to when she was six years old. Leo had carried her, who had a fever, across the rainy playground back to the infirmary.

So she subconsciously reached out toward Leo as well.

"Leo…"

"Luna…"

The siblings desperately crawled toward each other. The scene was so tragic, like a sorrowful elegy.

The culprit who caused all this—Kira: "…"

Wait, aren't you two robots? Your mechanical skeletons are even exposed. Do you really need to make it this tragic? Doesn't this make me look like the great villain again?

At this moment, the hands of the copy twins had tightly clasped together.

The copy Leo looked apologetic: "S-sorry, Luna. I'm useless. I clearly said I would protect you, yet I boasted so shamelessly…"

Copy Luna shook her head understandingly and smiled: "The Scarecrow tried very hard. It's all the fault of that evil Black Magician. It's okay."

Kira: "…"

Oh right, I almost forgot—I'm the Black Magician.

Kira only watched for a few seconds before turning and mounting his Duel Runner.

First the copy Trudge, then this pair of copy twins. Clearly, they were deliberately interfering with him, seemingly trying to stop him from reaching the other Yusei Fudo's location.

Kira had a premonition that these two were probably not the last wave.

And soon, reality proved his premonition correct.

He had traveled less than a kilometer further when the engine sound of Kira's Duel Runner suddenly became muffled, as if swallowed by some invisible force. The sky completed its transformation from starry to pitch black in three heartbeats. That black cloud was not natural—it resembled the churning stomach of some living creature, with asphalt-like viscous matter dripping from its edges.

The Duel Runner's dashboard suddenly burst with warning red lights. Speed dropped sharply, feeling as if struggling in syrup. Kira glanced at the rearview mirrors and saw the road behind disappearing, as if pure darkness had created a lightless prison.

Kira raised an eyebrow: "Hmm, this time it looks like something formidable has arrived."

The next moment, a strange light shot out from within that darkness, hurtling straight toward Kira's Duel Runner.

As expected, a mass of white light separated and materialized into the form of Silent Magician in front of Kira. The Silent Staff spun lightly, emitting a six-pointed star-shaped white light barrier. But when the strange light struck the barrier, the magic circle's patterns were instantly corroded into honeycomb-like holes. Successive explosions forced Silent to stagger backward, and the barrier in front shattered.

Kira narrowed his eyes.

For Silent to suffer in a spirit battle was truly rare in the past.

Kira knew this spirit battle would require more effort. Without hesitation, he drew another monster card. The moment he slapped it onto the Duel Disk, invisible energy erupted within the dark domain, as if trying to burst the sealed space apart.

"Uria, Lord of Searing Flames!"

Crimson dragon scales spewed not ordinary flames, but crimson lotus hellfire from the deepest abyss. When the dragon flames pierced the darkness, the space along the path produced glass-like cracks.

"Super Blaze Wave!"

Lord of Searing Flames opened its mouth, locking onto the direction from which the strange light had ambushed them. The flames condensed in its throat and erupted as a piercing blaze.

However, the moment the flame torrent hit its target, it underwent a bizarre refraction. The dark domain was torn open. The Super Blaze Wave seemed to have indeed struck something, but the flames quickly dispersed, apparently failing to shake the entity.

Kira frowned slightly.

Even the Three Sacred Beasts couldn't move it…

It seemed the opponent might be more troublesome than he thought.

The moment the darkness was torn, a huge mechanical body slowly emerged. It was entirely composed of cold metal. Glowing gears rotated at its joints, and every movement produced heavy mechanical rumbling. The most bizarre part was the enormous human face on its chest—utterly eerie, as if sealed behind a layer of purple glassware. The vessel was an inverted triangle, and the face appeared trapped within it, looking extremely strange.

Only then did Kira understand.

He recognized this thing and realized why even Silent had suffered against it, and why even the world-renowned Sacred Beast's strike couldn't shake this spirit.

Its name was Timelord.

Metaion, the Timelord.

Its concept originated from the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and Jewish mythology, modeled after the eleven spheres of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Correspondingly, there were exactly eleven Timelord monsters in total.

The Timelord were also the ultimate boss of 5D's—the lifelong crystallization of Z-ONE, the last human of the future, who was both a scientist and a Duelist. In the 5D's ending, Z-ONE used the Timelord to once push Yusei to the brink. If Yusei hadn't started printing cards without limit, it would have been hard to oppose him.

Hmm, precisely because of this, the Timelord also had the affectionate nickname "Crab-Eating Gods," rumored to be the natural enemy of Crab Bro.

Since a Timelord had appeared, its owner was probably obvious.

Uria, Lord of Searing Flames and Metaion, the Timelord confronted each other in the air. Kira looked up and spoke lightly into the darkness:

"Let me guess… Z-ONE from another world, right? Since you're already here, why hide behind the Timelord? Why not come out and chat?"

…