As his consciousness gradually returned, Yugen felt the warm sunlight, a gentle breeze, mixed with a hint of fragrance.
He slowly opened his eyes, momentarily blinded by the sunlight, and instinctively raised an arm to shield himself. He could feel himself sitting on some kind of damp grassland.
As he tried to sit up, a hand supported his arm, helping him.
"Hmm?"
Yugen stood up and turned around, suddenly seeing that it was Silent Magician who had supported him, her white robes fluttering, her gaze in his eyes a bit worried.
Perhaps she was worried her master had become foolish.
But the moment their eyes met, the girl was startled, dropped her hand as if shocked, and bowed her head, holding her staff, retreating uneasily to the side.
Hmm, at least she didn't turn around and run straight back into the deck. Yugen felt this counted as progress in their relationship.
Wait, something wasn't quite right.
Yugen noticed something amiss. He furrowed his brows and walked seriously up to Silent Magician.
Then he tried to reach out and pinch her pure white, snow-like cheek.
The touch was very soft, still warm, just like a real person.
Unscientific.
Silent Magician: "???"
She held her staff, momentarily flustered, as if she didn't understand what her master was trying to do.
"So that's it, spirits can become physical..."
Yugen looked around at his surroundings.
Golden sunlight, like thin threads, filtered through the dense forest, forming dappled light and shadow on the ground. Tall, towering trees had luxuriant branches and leaves, like giant green umbrellas.
Although spirits weren't incapable of materializing, doing so in reality usually required significant effort and couldn't be maintained for too long. And considering his own spirit was a recluse, the fact that she was now materialized and hadn't retreated into the deck likely meant...
"Am I in the Spirit World?" Yugen boldly speculated.
Silent Magician nodded.
It's true.
The reason Yugen could make such a guess immediately was because similar events had occurred in the original work. For example, Yugi and Yami Yugi were transported to the Spirit World and implored by Dark Magician Girl to defeat the god of Orichalcos to save the Spirit World. There was also the plot in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's where the little loli Luna went to the Spirit World to rescue Ancient Pixie Dragon.
"Was that slab stone in the ruins a gate to the Spirit World?" Yugen mused.
The research team excavating the ruins seemed to have no idea. Did my approach trigger the reaction?
And he was certain he heard the "Here" sound coming from the direction of the slab stone before he approached.
Something was calling him.
While he was contemplating, he suddenly heard a rustling sound from the forest behind him. He looked back to see several dark, humanoid figures emerging from the bushes, carrying spear-like weapons.
They looked like some kind of dark-skinned Goblin race.
"Humans!"
The leading dark monster let out a strange howl.
He was a little surprised that he could understand what the spirits were saying, but then he remembered that in Yu-Gi-Oh, various dimensional spirit languages seemed to be common with humans, so it wasn't strange.
Yugen was also quite sure this was a warning, like discovering an intruder, not a warm welcome to a guest.
Immediately, more shouts responded from all directions, and a large group of dark monsters charged out, carrying spears as if they intended to turn him into tonight's extra meal.
Yugen's heart skipped a beat. Damn it, these natives have no dueling ethics! They just directly summoned themselves and started a brawl, not even giving me a chance to duel?
Silent Magician rushed forward, and with a gentle sweep of her staff, she instantly drew a circle of light, blasting away the first wave of Goblins that charged in.
"First, take down that magic guard!"
The Goblins were not deterred; they charged even more fiercely. Silent Magician pointed her staff repeatedly, and magical light projectiles continuously exploded all around. But the number of enemies was simply too great, and both sides began to show casualties, with archer Goblins joining in.
The natives even have different troop types!
Silent Magician continuously cast spells against the enemies, while also having to divide her attention to worry about her master's safety. The pressure was immense.
But Yugen's thoughts raced, and an idea suddenly flashed in his mind.
Wait a minute, if this is the Spirit World where the power of cards can materialize...
The situation was urgent, leaving no time for careful thought. He quickly drew a dozen cards from the top of his deck, his eyes quickly scanning them, and swiftly pulled out one, slamming it onto the Duel Disk.
A summoning light appeared before him, the summoning circle expanded, and a warrior in red armor and a flowing cape soared out, shield in his left hand, sword drawn in his right, charging into the enemy lines, his sword flashing as he began to cut through them like butter.
Breaker the Magical Warrior.
Indeed, just like in the GX other-dimension arc, even monsters not explicitly stated to be spirits could materialize.
And it wasn't just monsters.
Yugen directly fanned out his deck and took out a card, inserting it into the Duel Disk.
"Screech!"
A Goblin soldier in the forest yelled loudly, drew its bow, and fired an arrow at him. The arrow tore through the air and came hurtling towards him, but it seemed to hit an invisible wall about 1 meter away from Yugen, coming to a dead stop.
A layer of originally transparent, invisible, hemispherical protective barrier seemed to have materialized as a result of that arrow.
Mirror Force!
That's right, Yugen realized that in the Spirit World environment, there were basically no rules when not in a duel.
The cards in a duelist's hand were weapons, like spells that could be cast recklessly without cost. Activating the Spell Card "Hinotama" would be a Fireball spell, "Mystical Space Typhoon" would be a storm spell. There were no incantations or pre-requisites for skills. Theoretically, one could even activate five different skills simultaneously.
Realizing he could counter-attack, Yugen immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and in his good mood, he waved his hand: "Feel the noble power of Hano, and then fall into the endless abyss!"
Ahem, since no one else in the Spirit World can see, a little role-playing of a certain leader to express my joy is fine.
Oh, his own spirit, Silent Magician, saw it. But no big deal; at this moment, she was looking at the scene of the full-screen "Magic Cylinder" obliterating the enemy, casting admiring glances at her master.
An astonishing power erupted from the transparent protective barrier, a vast blue light bursting outwards, radiating into a sky full of light arrows, densely sweeping across the entire forest.
A full-screen AOE, truly a dimensional strike against those sword-wielding and archer Goblins. The front row of Goblins bore the brunt, instantly crushed into dust by the light with no resistance whatsoever.
The subsequent Goblins were utterly terrified, turning around and fleeing.
"Duelist! There's a duelist!"
"Oh my god, run! Run for your lives!"
Indeed, hearing the term "duelist" in this world seemed to imply an incredibly terrifying creature.
From a spirit's perspective, a "duelist" was like a walking, simple armory. A quick reach into their pocket could summon a 3000-4000 ATK behemoth to crush everything. All sorts of full-screen annihilation spells could be thrown around freely, like cheat codes.
Only duelists could sanction other duelists.
The only way for two duelists to decide life or death was through the legendary "sacred battle ritual."
Commonly known as dueling.
After instantly clearing the field and resolving the crisis, Yugen finally felt a little at ease.
What the heck, turns out I'm pretty strong even in the Spirit World.