Chapter 168

"Those markings appearing on him... does that mean Bastion's actually turning into a member of the Amazoness clan, in the Duel Spirit world?"

Piecing together what he saw on Bastion's face with what Rowan had just said, Jaden looked startled as the realization hit him.

"So he's basically been turned into a Duel Spirit for the time being?!" Alexis said, equally shocked, catching on immediately.

"You said this Shadow Duel wouldn't cost anyone their soul like the others, but doesn't this end up being pretty much the same thing?!"

Chazz turned and demanded an answer directly from Tania, still standing across the arena.

Duel Spirits, after all, generally couldn't manifest physically in the real world. Not without a Shadow Charm, or unless their own power reached a certain threshold. Otherwise, they were stuck living out their entire existence in the Duel Spirit world.

"He's just switching which world he lives in, that's all. Compared to having your soul, or your whole self, sealed inside a Shadow Card and chained up forever with no way out, this is leagues better."

Tania waved a hand, entirely unconcerned.

"And since he's marrying into the Amazoness clan, naturally, he'll be living with us going forward."

"So that means you yourself are actually a Duel Spirit, one who's taken physical form through a Shadow Charm?" Jasmine said, sounding like she'd finally pieced it together, with Mindy nodding along beside her.

The others noticed it then too. One of Tania's hands was covered by a jet-black metal gauntlet. Set into the palm was a golden, metallic eye, matching the design of every other Shadow Charm they'd seen so far.

Clearly, that was Tania's own Shadow Charm, marking her as one of the Seven Stars Shadow Duelists.

"It's a bit more complicated than that in practice, but yeah, close enough. This is my Shadow Charm. The Hand of Darkness."

Tania didn't bother hiding it, raising the hand with the jet-black, clawed gauntlet with an easy laugh.

"Now then, kid, let's get this duel started already!"

"Choose your fate. I've got two decks here, one for Courage, one for Knowledge."

She held up both decks again, confident, waiting on Rowan's answer.

"No, I think I'll let you choose instead."

Rowan stayed perfectly calm, pulling out two decks of his own and holding them up toward Tania, still standing across the arena.

"I've got a couple of new decks I've been meaning to try out myself. One represents Healing. The other, Smiles."

"Which fate do you want to choose?"

These were, of course, the two cursed decks he'd decided on the moment he'd watched Tania summon her Amazoness monsters during Bastion's duel. Straight from the system shop's most recent refresh: the 500 point Quick-Draw Deck, and the 1500 point cursed frame-job build, the Amazoness Deck.

The first was more than capable of ending a duel in a single devastating turn, leaving the opponent with barely any time to process what had even happened.

Only he got to actually enjoy playing this game.

As for the second...

Well. He, Rowan, was about to personally teach this woman what a real frame-job looked like. Slowly. Thoroughly.

"Interesting choice. Since you've got two decks of your own on the table, kid, I suppose this time it's my turn to choose."

Tania blinked, caught off guard for a second, then dropped back into that oddly affected, exaggeratedly feminine register.

Rowan very nearly upgraded his mental tally of cursed decks from two to eight on the spot.

Every single card in his current collection capable of forcing that muscle-bound woman to keep dropping her tough guy voice and squealing in that horrifyingly mismatched pitch flashed through his mind at once.

"In that case, I'll go with the one representing Smiles!" Tania declared, snapping straight back to her usual gravelly voice, grinning as she made her choice.

Only Alexis, Jaden, and Chazz, the ones who actually knew Rowan well enough by now, wore matching, deeply skeptical expressions.

One for Healing, one for Smiles? Yeah, right.

They were both, without a doubt, going to turn out to be some flavor of thoroughly cursed.

Still, none of them had expected Rowan to have somehow produced two entirely new deck options out of nowhere, on top of everything else he already had.

His output of cursed decks seemed to be accelerating at an increasingly ridiculous rate.

The only real question left was what exactly Tania's chosen "Smiles" deck was going to turn out to be.

Alexis, Jaden, and Chazz all found themselves genuinely curious now, watching the arena intently.

"Since you've picked this Smiles deck, let's get started."

At Tania's choice, a warm, sunny grin spread across Rowan's face as he slotted the deck in his right hand into the Duel Disk on his left arm.

"I'm not planning on taking this slow, though. Because dear Tania here just can't wait to bring you home with me!"

Tania immediately dropped back into that mismatched, affected little voice, paired with her towering, muscular frame.

The whole effect somehow managed to hit peak absurdity all over again.

A moment later, she swapped the previously unused deck in her left hand into her Duel Disk, and dropped straight back to her usual husky tone.

"Let's use the deck that represents Courage, and end this fast!"

"Duel!"

"Duel!"

Rowan and Tania called it out together. Red light flared to life across both their Duel Disks, unfolding at once. Each drew a starting hand of five cards, and their Life Point counters lit up on either side.

4000 LP

The atmosphere in the arena instantly turned tense.