Meanwhile, in the shadows of a corridor outside the main arena.
Dressed in a dark blue trench coat, Zane Truesdale leaned calmly against the railing.
Since North Campus had sent only Chazz Princeton as its sole representative this time, the rules called for a one-on-one showdown between the top first-years. Naturally, Zane Truesdale, the main campus's emperor, Kaiser, had no opportunity to compete.
However, Zane felt absolutely no regret over that.
Right now, he had no spare attention for some Inter-School Friendly Match against Chazz.
In his hands was a battered manuscript with a yellowed cover, unearthed from the ancient archives in the deepest part of the Cyber Style Dojo.
Its pages bore obscure ancient totems, among which he could vaguely make out several strange dragons, pitch-black all over and bristling with vicious mechanical barbs.
"Darkness... the ultimate power of two sides of the same coin..."
Zane slowly rubbed his fingertips over the ancient writing, a fiery, pitch-black glimmer flickering deep in his eyes.
Ever since Yūki had blasted him head-on with that Cyber End Dragon boasting sixteen thousand attack points, the words "insufficient power" had become a barb lodged deep in his heart.
The evolution of LIGHT machines had already hit a bottleneck.
He had to find a new breakthrough, even if that power lay hidden in a forbidden abyss...
Zane closed the ancient book, swept his gaze toward the bustling open-air main Dueling Field in the distance, and murmured to himself.
"Yūki, let me see... how much further you've come during this time."
"Ladies! Gentlemen! And the hundreds of thousands, the millions of passionate fellow duelists watching on televisions across Japan! Mamma mia! Welcome to this year's most anticipated inter-school celebration, the Friendly Match between Duel Academy's main campus and North Campus, na no ne!!"
On a