Chapter 201

“This duel has been turning against you more and more, Chazz!”

Professor Banner glanced at the four cards he had drawn with the Spell Card Black Process – Negredo, then smiled at Chazz through his narrowed eyes.

He still wore that same squinting expression, but now that his glasses were gone and his hair had turned pale, Rowan could feel the difference at once. The gentle, kindly air the professor once carried had vanished. In its place was something sharper, something that pressed in on you!

“I’m The Chazz!” Chazz snapped back, correcting him immediately.

“No, seriously, why are you so hung up on that?” The corner of Rowan’s mouth twitched, and he muttered the complaint with a dark cloud of exasperation hanging over his head.

Alexis, Jaden, Chumley, and Syrus were all staring at Chazz, equally speechless.

“Now then, allow me to show you the power of true alchemy!”

As he spoke, Banner slapped one of the four cards in his hand onto his Duel Disk!

“I activate a Spell Card from my hand! White Process – Albedo!”

A Spell Card with a white design, the opposite of the one before it, promptly rose into view on the field in front of him!

“By this card’s effect, while the Continuous Spell Chaos Distill is on the field, I can Special Summon one Golden Homunculus from my Deck or hand!”

“Roooar!!”

As Banner’s voice faded, an orange-gold glow flared on the field before him. It swelled into the towering figure of a giant made of golden rock!

[Golden Homunculus] [Level: 6] [Attribute: LIGHT] [ATK: 1500] [DEF: 1500]

“1500 ATK can’t beat my Armed Dragon LV5!” Chazz shot back at once.

“Heh heh, that remains to be seen. For every card I have banished, Golden Homunculus gains 300 ATK and DEF!”

Banner chuckled.

“That’s the one!”

Alexis cried out, her expression turning noticeably graver as she stared at the golden rock giant. This was the very monster whose attack had beaten her earlier!

“Counting Black Process and White Process, which were both banished by the effect of Chaos Distill instead of going to the Graveyard, Professor Banner has seven cards banished now. That means Golden Homunculus gains 2100 ATK and DEF…?”

Rowan ran the numbers in his head.

The duel had already gone two turns by the time he, Alexis, and the others arrived. But even without having seen that earlier turn, he knew enough about this squinty-eyed professor’s Alchemy deck to work out which cards had been used, and what they were.

“Exactly right, a gain of 2100. It seems you know a thing or two about my Alchemy deck, Rowan.”

Banner looked mildly surprised, then gave Rowan a meaningful look.

Meanwhile, the golden giant’s original 1500 ATK began ticking upward, tick tick tick, climbing by 2100 until it reached 3600!

“3600 ATK?!” Chazz gasped, unable to believe it.

Even with his 2400 ATK Armed Dragon LV5 on the field, if it took that hit, he would lose a full 1200 Life Points!

“If you still believe you can survive this turn, Chazz, then all it proves is that you are far too naive.”

Banner spoke as though he had read Chazz’s thoughts. At the same time, he pulled two cards from his remaining three and set them on his Duel Disk!

“Next, I activate two Spell Cards from my hand, Tin Spell Circle and Mercury Hourglass!”

“While Chaos Distill is on my field, these cards let me Special Summon Alchemy Beast – Aretos the Tin and Alchemy Beast – Ekenas the Mercury from my Deck, one each!”

“Appear once more, my Alchemy Beasts!”

Banner raised a hand as he spoke, and the two Spell Cards’ images fell into the flames of the great red kettle on the field before him.

“Whoom!!”

The next moment, two orange-gold beams of light shot out from the blaze and landed on his field. One became a hawk-like eagle of tin-gray metal, the other a strange fish of mercury silver, and both appeared with a shriek!

[Alchemy Beast – Aretos the Tin / Ekenas the Mercury] [Level: 3] [Attribute: WIND / WATER] [ATK: 500] [DEF: 500]

“Apart from their Attributes, names, and appearance, they’re practically identical to the other three Alchemy Beasts from before!”

Jaden, Chumley, and Syrus all realized something at once, their voices tight with alarm…

“Which means these two are 500 ATK Alchemy Beasts that can attack directly too?!”

Chazz seemed to grasp it as well. His face went rigid and he ground his teeth.

He really was on the verge of losing. He might not even make it through the third turn!

“Correct. And with those two Spells banished by Chaos Distill as well, instead of going to the Graveyard…”

“Golden Homunculus gains another 600 ATK!”

Banner said slowly.

Almost at the same instant, the golden rock giant on the field before him began climbing again, tick tick tick, gaining 600 more until it reached a terrifying 4200!