Chapter Summaries

Alva lost his duel to Professor Lily but left the venue eager to hunt, only to be stopped by his uncle. Sloane revealed the Grim Reaper Form of his Netherworld Death Dragon against Tiffany, who conceded; then the next matches were announced, including Mallory Blood’s return and Quintina North’s lightning-filled duel.

• Professor Lily defeated Alva after striking his exposed openings, and Alva left the venue before his uncle caught him and put him in trouble.
• Tiffany Innem summoned two Sky Guardians against Sloane’s Netherworld Death Dragon, but Sloane transformed it into its Grim Reaper Form before Tiffany conceded.
• The Pope ordered the Holy Church to identify which Netherworld God stood behind Sloane’s God Card.
• Dark learned that Mallory Blood, former commander of the Demon Hunting Knights and Professor Jones’s former superior, would compete next.
• Quintina North faced a Dwarf with Titan blood and strong Electric Type resistance, and thunder and lightning soon filled the arena.

Dark Demon waited through the final preliminary draws and was assigned Dulles as his opponent for the sixty-third duel. Ergane remained in the competition, while the chapter ended with Professor Harvey asking Dark whether Dulles was the contestant he had mentioned before.

• Professor Power Jones defeated Mallory in the fifty-sixth duel, leaving all four Saint Marian Academy professors through to the second round of preliminaries.
• Winnie Scathach was drawn against a formidable contestant and won the fifty-ninth duel after summoning her twenty-meter Frost Giant.
• Mephistogram was paired with contestant 047, while Dark avoided drawing Ergane in that round.
• Dark Demon was selected as the contestant for the sixty-third duel in the final grouping draw.
• The next draw matched Dark Demon with Dulles, and Professor Harvey asked whether Dulles was the opponent Dark had mentioned.

Dark faced Dulles in the first preliminary round of the World Cup, while Dulles secretly consulted Zoe, the Necromancer in his ring, about Dark’s connection to Steven. The duel began with both duelists drawing their opening cards, leaving Dark wary of Dulles’s hidden strength and possible trump cards.

• Ailuli defeated an Orc contestant in the sixty-first duel, and Mephistogram overwhelmed Atwood in the next match.
• Mephistogram’s victory delighted the Orcs and troubled the Lionheart King, who remained wary of the powerful Orc and worried about his people’s lack of magitech talent.
• Dark and Dulles entered the arena from opposite passages, deployed their domains, and prepared their decks for the duel.
• Dulles spoke telepathically with Zoe, who identified Dark as Steven’s disciple and urged Dulles to kill him; Dulles said Dark was favored by death, like himself.
• Grace Leon praised Dark on the commentary platform and said it would not be strange if he won the World Cup, just before both duelists drew their opening cards.

Dark faced Dulles in the World Cup qualifiers as Dulles transformed his Duel Field and summoned a nine-star Terror Ghost. After Terror Ghost cursed Astamon into its controlled ox-goat form, Astamon broke free through sheer will, leaving Dulles and Zoe stunned by the possibility that Dark’s card contained a soul.

• Dark chose his Dark Type deck against Dulles and watched Dulles transform the Duel Field into a terrifying cemetery-like setting.
• Dark summoned Gabumon and evolved it into Astamon, then prepared to summon a second Gabumon.
• Dulles used Horror Birth to summon the nine-star Terror Ghost and ordered it to curse Astamon with Cow-Sheep Curse.
• The curse changed Astamon into a Ghost-type Undead ox-goat and placed it under Terror Ghost’s control, but Astamon resisted its orders.
• Astamon broke Terror Ghost’s domination with a howl, while Dulles ordered Ox-Goat Fission and Zoe speculated that Dark’s Magitech Card held a soul.

Dark used his summoned Magic Spirits to pressure Dulles, whose ability to retreat into Death Space protected him but left him unable to act. After Antylamon defeated Dulles's Ox Ogre and Goat Ogre, Dark moved the Fairy Mist closer to investigate while Dulles remained hidden.

• Dark evolved his second Gabumon into Astamon and ordered both Astamon to attack Dulles with Hellfire.
• Dulles evaded Dark's Dark Dagger by entering Death Space, and Dark used Hellfire bullets to keep him trapped there.
• Dark summoned Black Lopmon, evolved it into Antylamon, and sent it into the mist to attack Ox Ogre and Goat Ogre.
• Antylamon killed Ox Ogre and Goat Ogre, forcing them to re-form as the weakened Ox-Goat Ogre, then continued attacking it.
• Dark left the Terror Ghost for Antylamon and moved the Fairy Mist toward Dulles, who remained inside Death Space.

Dark’s duel against Dulles stalled while Dulles hid in an undead space, and Dark realized the space was pushing him toward death. Dulles emerged and attempted a counterattack, but his Life Points reached zero before he could turn the duel around.

• Dark noticed Dulles was unresponsive and asked the referees whether they could rule against him for passive play, but they could not decide how to handle the situation.
• Dark spotted livor mortis spreading across Dulles’s skin and inferred that hiding in Death Space was assimilating him into an undead creature.
• Dark summoned Renamon and evolved it into Taomon as protection while he waited for Dulles to emerge.
• Dulles emerged from Death Space, dodged Astamon’s first bullet, and followed Zoe’s instructions while preparing to summon Undead Legion.
• Dulles completed his summoning, but his Life Points fell from eight thousand to zero, and he asked Zoe what had happened.

Dark defeated Dulles, whose defeat exposed the presence of Zoe, then turned his attention to Ergane’s first duel in the qualifiers. Ergane’s Snake of Wisdom blocked Whitney’s nine-star King of Yellow Sand, but Whitney launched a new attack that left the duel unresolved.

• Astamon’s tracking Hellfire bullets overwhelmed Dulles, and Dark ended the duel after Antylamon pinned Terror Ghost.
• Dark questioned Dulles about Zoe, then waited for him outside the contestants’ lounge before returning inside.
• Dark asked Professor Harvey whether he knew Zoe, and Professor Harvey said the name seemed familiar.
• Ergane and Whitney began the day’s final duel, with Ergane summoning her three-star Snake of Wisdom and Whitney summoning the nine-star King of Yellow Sand.
• The Snake of Wisdom’s rainbow barrier blocked the King of Yellow Sand’s Burrowing Scorpion Tail attack.
• Whitney used Armor-Rending Yellow Wind and [Yellow Sand Iron Coffin] to send a massive arrow of sand toward Ergane.

Whitney struggled to defend against Ergane’s strange cube and her low-star Magic Spirits, which overturned the yellow-sand battlefield and disabled Whitney’s strongest defensive summon. The chapter ended with Whitney hiding behind the King of Yellow Sand and trying to survive the Child of the Desert’s transformation into a tiny snake.

• Whitney trapped Ergane inside the Yellow Sand Iron Coffin, but Ergane emerged unharmed after her rainbow barrier endured the attack.
• Ergane used a multicolored cube to absorb Whitney’s yellow sand and take control of the resulting tornado, sweeping the Desert Mouse away.
• Whitney sacrificed the Desert Mouse to summon the nine-star Child of the Desert and sheltered inside its sandcastle fortress.
• Ergane summoned the Pink Witch, whose beam transformed the Child of the Desert into a tiny snake and caused its fortress to disappear.
• Whitney picked up the transformed Child of the Desert and hid behind the King of Yellow Sand, hoping to hold out for thirty seconds.

Ergane defeated Whitney by turning her summoned Desert God into a harmless snake, shaking the public’s confidence in God Cards and drawing powerful figures’ attention to Ergane. Pope Xis ordered Caleb to investigate her.

• Whitney used the King of Yellow Sand as a vessel to summon the Desert God, but Ergane’s Pink Witch turned the god into a snake.
• Whitney lost her will to fight, and Ergane broke her life shield to win the duel.
• The duel’s conclusion sparked arguments about God Cards and strengthened the public’s awe of Ergane and Saint Marian Academy.
• Leaders across the continent demanded investigations into Ergane, while Pope Xis addressed Caleb with a grim expression.

Dark learned that the Holy Church had captured Dulles and the necromancer Zoe, while Saint Marian Academy prepared for the next round of preliminaries. Zoe revealed how he had survived as a ghost inside the Holy Spirit Ring, and the chapter left Dulles immobilized as the Church took possession of the ring.

• The Pope ordered Caleb Norris to capture Dulles that night and arranged to meet Dark Dimon after the next day’s preliminaries.
• Ergane returned to the contestants’ lounge with Whitney and Feifein, whom she said had recognized her divinity.
• Saint Marian Academy celebrated its successful first day of preliminaries, and Dark later saw holy light flare over Duel City.
• Dark’s maid reported that the Holy Church had captured Dulles and Zoe, with Professor Steven Harvey among those involved.
• Edmond Roly tried to persuade Dulles to surrender Zoe, but Dulles refused until Zoe revealed himself from the Holy Spirit Ring.
• Edmond sent someone to take the ring, and Dulles found himself unable to move as Zoe turned away.

Dark learned Professor Harvey’s history with Zoe and the Necromancer Tower, then worked with Ramon to refine a God Card. Ramon merged his divine soul fragment into the card, which took the form of Thundurus, leaving Dark surprised by the result.

• Dark learned that Professor Harvey had been sold to the Necromancer Tower as a child, where Zoe’s remark saved him from remaining a test subject and he eventually escaped.
• Dark told the maid to erase traces of Professor Harvey’s involvement and seal the records, while Dulles remained in the Holy Church’s custody.
• Ramon brought Dark divine fiber, and Dark used the Eye of Truth to follow the blurred steps of God Card refinement.
• Dark completed the card’s vessel and left its final transformation to Ramon, who fused his divine soul fragment into it.
• The completed God Card revealed Thundurus as its Magic Spirit, surprising Dark, who had expected a form closer to Raikou.

Dark refined Ramon into the God Card Thundurus, giving him a path from Thunder God toward true dragonhood and the Azure Dragon’s Therian Forme. Dark examined the card’s abilities and learned how Thundurus could be summoned and grow stronger, while Ramon demonstrated its elemental power.

• Dark chose Thundurus as Ramon’s new form and considered how Ramon might eventually reach Therian Forme, potentially using a Reveal Glass or the card’s Ultimate Moves.
• Ramon sensed a path from Thunder God to true dragon through the card, emerged from it in a Thundurus-like form, and expressed his satisfaction with the transformation.
• Dark inspected Thundurus’s card data and discovered that its Thunder God I Ultimate Move boosted its stats, granted immunity to Electric-Type attacks, and unlocked four additional abilities, including Therian Forme.
• Ramon demonstrated Thunder God Heart’s ability to raise nearby Electric-Type elemental concentration, and Dark learned that the requirement for summoning Thundurus was only three times that of a six-star Elemental Species.
• Ramon explained that Thunder God Heart increased the elemental concentration and Thundurus’s stats over time, reaching its maximum in about ninety seconds.

Dark completed his analysis of Thundurus’s abilities, then arrived just in time for the second preliminary round’s draw. Pandora Doragon was matched against Inquisition bishop Laurien Bell, and their duel began with both summoning powerful nine-star Light Type Magic Spirits.

• Dark learned that Thundurus’s Thunder God I included Lightning Charge, Thunder, and Therian Forme, along with powerful storm and lightning attacks.
• Dark reached the contestants’ lounge before the draw, and Mephis Gram was selected for the opening match.
• Pandora Doragon and Laurien Bell were drawn as the second pair, while Lucia Artemis and Selena Teresa were selected for the third match.
• Mephis Gram defeated his Sage opponent, and Pandora and Laurien stepped onto the stage as the crowd favored Pandora over the unpopular bishop.
• Pandora and Laurien began their duel by summoning the nine-star Light Type Magic Spirits Dragon Maiden Sword Attendant and Lightblade Lion Fiend.

Pandora defeated Laurien in the second qualifying round by overcoming his twelve-star Magic Spirits with her Dragon Maiden deck. The next duel began between Lucia Artemis and Selena Teresa, whose dark-and-water deck challenged Lucia’s preparations against Water Type attacks.

• Laurien summoned the twelve-star Dedication Angel, but Pandora’s Dragon Maiden Spear Attendant destroyed it after the attendants combined their defenses and weapons.
• Laurien used Faith Salvation to summon the Dragon-Slaying Saint, but Pandora fused her four Dragon Maiden Attendants into the Dragonman War God, which defeated it.
• Pandora won the duel, ending Laurien’s run in the second round of the preliminaries.
• Lucia Artemis faced Selena Teresa in the next duel, and Lucia’s Steel Divine Soldier countered Selena’s Water Type attacks.
• Selena summoned a dark creature with Abyss Summoning Spell after realizing her Water Type attacks were ineffective, but Lucia had anticipated the move.

Lucia, Professor Kazel, Charles, Eliza, Professor Power Jones, Quintina, and Ai Luli advanced through a string of second-round duels, while several Saint Marian contestants were eliminated. Ai Luli gained breathing room against a powerful Holy Church contestant and drew the card she needed on her seventh turn, but the chapter ended before the duel’s outcome was revealed.

• Lucia purified Selena’s dark creatures, won their duel, and advanced to the third round.
• Louis Kenan defeated Joliette, eliminating the last of the Dimon Family maids from the competition, while Professor Kazel defeated Isaiah Rogier.
• Charles defeated Noah Sharp, then Eliza used Flickering Candle Kill to defeat Emily Grantham and advance.
• Professor Power Jones defeated Gina Grant, and Quintina used Zeus’s Thunder Eagle to defeat Winnie Skadi.
• Ai Luli fought a powerful Holy Church contestant, transformed his Magic Spirits with Fantasy Principle, and drew the Magitech Card she needed on her seventh turn.

Ai Luli summoned the legendary Pixie Nia Arystarck and advanced, while Ergane and Sloane also won their duels. The chapter ended as Hailey Saint Meredith faced Amirida Ingersoll, revealing her Armed Card and preparing to fight as an Artificial Saint.

• Ai Luli summoned Legendary Pixie Nia Arystarck, defeated her Holy Church opponent, and told Dark and the others how Nia had become a Magic Spirit Card.
• Ergane defeated an Orc wizard by countering her curses, poison, and binding spells with prepared Magitech Cards and low-star Magic Spirits.
• Sloane defeated Diyuer after Diyuer summoned the God Card Devil Clown, ending the duel without using his own God Card.
• Professor Steven Harvey advanced after turning his Sea Clan opponent’s oceanic field into a mountain of bones.
• Amirida Ingersoll faced the Bloody Saintess Hailey Saint Meredith, who donned blood-red armor with an Armed Card before their duel.

Dark Dimon prepared for his second-round preliminary duel against Holy Church Archbishop Lans Gascoigne after Hayley defeated Amyrida. Dark reached the arena with the crowd cheering for him more loudly than for the Archbishop.

• Hayley defeated Amyrida with her Blood Soul Spear, eliminating the Sky City contestant despite exhausting herself in the duel.
• Will Smith and Abagon Moliere won their second-round duels, while eight of the qualifier top ten advanced to the third preliminary round.
• The draw matched Dark against Lans Gascoigne, and Dark chose to combine his Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Bliss Evolution cards while keeping his Golden Kingdom deck hidden.
• Professor Lily drew a Behemoth royal as her opponent for the thirty-first duel.
• Dark and Lans entered the arena, where Lans bristled at receiving less support from the crowd than Dark.

Dark faced Lance Gascoigne in a duel watched closely by the Holy Church, whose leaders hoped their representative would defeat him. Dark summoned the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Lunamon, while Lance used the Light Nun, Light-Engraving Swordsman, and Light Clown to attack and conceal himself; the chapter ended as the dragon’s claw swept toward the swordsman.

• Dark sensed hostility from the Archbishop but set it aside as the duel against Lance Gascoigne began.
• Dark summoned Ally of Justice, Kaiba Man, who brought forth the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, while Lance summoned the Light Nun and used its ability to call the Light-Engraving Swordsman.
• The Blue-Eyes White Dragon charged Destructive White Burst, but the Light-Engraving Swordsman dodged the beam and advanced as Dark summoned Lunamon.
• Lance summoned the Light Clown, which teleported the swordsman past the dragon and hid Lance and the Light Nun inside one of three shifting gift boxes.
• Lunamon used its spatial ability to teleport the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in front of Dark, and the dragon swung its claw at the approaching swordsman.

Dark Dimon and Lance Gascoyne began their second turn, with Dark evolving Lunamon into Crescemon while Lance used holy weapons to counter Dark’s Magic Spirits. Crescemon’s dance helped the Blue-Eyes White Dragon defeat the Light-Engraving Swordsman, and she rushed toward Lance’s hiding place after shielding herself from his crossbow bolts.

• The Blue-Eyes White Dragon destroyed the Light Nun, whose Holy Light Calling revived her in an untargetable, inactive state, while the Light-Engraving Swordsman used Vanish into Thin Air to evade attacks.
• Dark tracked the Light-Engraving Swordsman with the Eye of Truth and guided Lunamon’s evolution as Lance summoned Light Armory and unleashed Holy Soul Requiem to weaken Dark’s Magic Spirits.
• At the start of the second turn, Lunamon evolved into Crescemon, whose headache from the holy hymns eased when Dark synchronized their minds.
• Dark summoned Blue-Eyes Dragon Egg and ordered Crescemon to perform Charm Dance, captivating the Light-Engraving Swordsman long enough for the Blue-Eyes White Dragon to destroy it.
• Lance fired three bolts from the Light Holy Crossbow at Dark, but Crescemon blocked them with her Crescent Shield and charged toward Lance’s gift box.

Dark and Lance Gascor continued their duel as Lance used a divine barrier to protect himself and summoned the Hero King of Light. Dark answered by summoning Thundurus, leaving both duelists’ powerful twelve-star spirits poised to determine the match.

• Lance Gascor summoned the Deified Angel, whose Divine Blessing of Humanity created the God-Blessed Wall that only humans could cross.
• Dark tested the wall with Crescemon, then spent the second turn expanding his field while neither duelist broke through the barrier.
• On the third turn, Dark sacrificed LadyDevimon and Kaibaman to summon Thundurus, stunning the spectators and unsettling Lance’s supporters.
• Lance sacrificed Light Nun and Body of Faith to summon the twelve-star Hero King of Light.
• Dark watched Lance’s summon and silently entrusted the duel’s outcome to Ramon.