Liora struggled to endure the pain surging through her body, biting her lip until a trickle of blood formed. She chose to redirect her mind from the agony—by inflicting a new one.

  “Turn end,” Liora whispered, trying to stand tall.

  “Isn’t it a bit too early to collapse already?” Nicholas said as he began his turn.

  “Raftel, return to the arena once more!”

  “Then, I summon to the field: Marvelous Performer, Pela and Beast Tamer, Leo,

  each by paying 1 OP.”

  “Raftel’s ability activates! All my followers' ATK drops to ZERO!

  And whenever they’re defeated in battle, my opponent will take half the ATK of the card that destroys them as damage!”

  “Turn end.”

  At this point, playing defensively was Nicholas’s best move.

  “To think I’d be winning this easily in the very first round,” Nicholas laughed, with Raftel at his side.

  The two of them looked like they were mocking Liora’s situation.

  “My life of success and happiness is almost within my grasp!”

  “…Is that your wish?” Liora asked flatly after hearing his boast.

  “Yeah,” Nicholas replied. “Who wouldn’t want a happy life?

  If I win the Desire Battle, I’ll become a winner in life!”

  “Wealth! Power! Women! All of it will come to me, and I’ll live in eternal happiness!”

  His voice brimmed with longing—a deep, human greed with no end.

  Liora sighed.

  To her, the Nicholas standing in front of her was painfully familiar.

  Something she’d seen before.

  Something she had once hoped wasn’t real.

  Nicholas sensed something had changed in her.

  Her gaze… wasn’t the usual hollow emptiness.

  “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT LOOK?!”

  Nicholas suddenly shouted, enraged.

  He recognized it—that look filled with sympathy and pity.

  The same look people always gave him…

  as they silently stood by while his life fell apart.

  “DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!!!”

  “I DON’T NEED YOUR DAMN PITY!!!”

  “And besides,” Nicholas shouted, “what is your wish anyway?!”

  “You! The one who never cares about anyone else!”

  “You! Who always looks like you’ve given up on life!”

  “Someone like you! What’s the point of having a wish?!”

  “You have no right to pity me!”

  Nicholas spat every word like venom, emotions overflowing.

  Liora lowered her head.

  She couldn’t deny it—everything Nicholas said was true.

  Her entire demeanor until now was the behavior of someone running from reality.

  She distanced herself from her friends, left home, turned her back on her sister.

  All of it… was Liora’s way of trying to forget everything she knew about humanity.

  Even if she tried to kill her emotions, in the end, she was nothing more than a disgusting human being.

  “You’re right,” she said, reaching for the top card of her deck.

  “Someone like me, who ran from the truth, has no right to pity someone like you…

  someone who’s still trying to face it.”

  Her eyes locked onto Nicholas.

  The pity in her gaze was gone—replaced by burning fire.

  “Draw!”

  “But! Let me correct one thing—”

  “This wish… means everything to me!”

  “This is the reason I’m still alive!”

  Nicholas’s expression shifted.

  He wasn’t laughing now.

  A drop of sweat trickled down his face.

  Why did tonight suddenly feel so much hotter?

  “OP limit increase! Generate 4 OP!”

  “Your reason for living?” Nicholas scoffed.

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  “You’re just making that up.”

  “So, what’s this all-important wish of yours?!”

  “…Truth.” Liora whispered.

  “The truth behind the broken lives of 500,000 people.”

  “The truth behind the deaths of 166,667 people in their sleep.”

  “The truth behind the suicides of 1,752 people.”

  “The truth behind the 32,000+ people locked away in mental hospitals.”

  “The truth… behind the tragedy that destroyed all of our lives!”

  “Truth…?” Nicholas stared, confused.

  He didn’t understand a single thing she was talking about.

  “By paying 3 OP, I summon to the arena—Desire Dancer, Adele!”

  Adele danced gracefully into the field. Her presence sparkled with purpose.

  “Adele’s ability activates on summon! I add two random followers from my deck to my hand!”

  Liora’s deck glowed. Two cards floated out, then the deck shuffled itself and returned to position.

  She caught the two cards with ease.

  “Perfect,” she said, satisfied.

  “I activate Omnigenerator! I discard two cards and recover 1 OP!”

  “Next, I activate support card: Leordo Storm!”

  “By paying 2 OP, I destroy all enemy followers in the battle zone!

  And if I’ve activated two other card effects in this turn,

  all my followers gain +1000 ATK until the end of turn!”

  Dorothy: 2,500 + 1,000 = 3,500

  Adele: 1,700 + 1,000 = 2,700

  Nicholas winced in horror at his now-empty field.

  “Damn it!!!”

  Next to him, Raftel was gnawing his fingers in frustration.

  “Battle!”

  “I deal direct damage with both of my followers!”

  Dorothy rose several feet into the air.

  She raised her hand skyward, and suddenly, the once-clear night sky was swallowed by storm clouds.

  She then pointed at Nicholas, her eyes brimming with contempt.

  From above, a thunderous lightning strike came crashing down—

  merciless and swift.

  Nicholas screamed in pain, collapsing onto the ground.

  His cards scattered across the floor.

  Above his head, the number 8,000 appeared—then dropped to 1,800.

  Still conscious, Nicholas slowly gathered his fallen cards… and stood back up.

  He hadn’t lost yet.

  “Turn end,” Liora gasped, ending her turn with labored breath.

  “My turn—DRAW!!” Nicholas shouted, brimming with emotion.

  He glanced at the card he drew—then burst out laughing.

  “Fate favors me!” he yelled with joy.

  “Screw your stupid truth!”

  “A life of success and overflowing happiness is about to be mine!”

  “Guide Call!”

  “Raftel! Let’s end this ridiculous charade of that girl and laugh as she drowns in despair!”

  Hearing that, Liora steeled herself.

  From his words, it was clear Nicholas intended to end the duel right now.

  In other words—if she could survive this turn, she would win.

  “I pay 1 OP each to summon Treasure Hunter, Boyle and Oathless Paladin, Joe!”

  “Raftel’s ability activates!”

  “This still isn’t enough! Not enough to win!”

  “I pay 2 OP and activate the support card—Mirroring Mirror!”

  “I choose one follower on the field and increase their ATK to 4,000!”

  “I choose—Dorothy!!!”

  “What?!”

  Liora’s eyes widened in shock.

  With that move alone, Nicholas could deal 6,000 damage just by attacking Dorothy.

  Nicholas laughed wildly.

  “I’ll make your loss caused by your own Guide! Isn’t that hilarious?!”

  “Battle!”

  “All my followers—attack Dorothy!!!”

  Raftel laughed maniacally, pulling out three molotov cocktails and hurling them at Dorothy.

  They exploded, engulfing her in a blazing inferno.

  Liora screamed in pain.

  It felt like her body was being roasted alive—but she forced herself to stand.

  She would not let it end here. Her LP still stood at 750.

  Nicholas saw the glimmer of determination in her eyes—and grinned wickedly.

  “My turn isn’t over yet!”

  Liora grit her teeth.

  He still had something else?!

  “From my Guide Zone, I activate Raftel’s ‘Frontier Protocol!’”

  Frontier Protocol—an ultimate ability possessed only by Frontier Guides.

  A broken, one-time-only power that could change the entire game.

  “You are the joke!!”

  Raftel returned to the field—once again.

  His ability activated on summon.

  Nicholas pointed straight at Liora.

  “This is the end—Raftel, attack Dorothy!!!”

  “That’s enough!!!” Liora shouted.

  “I activate the Construct Support—Gaia Library!”

  “When both players have 0 OP, I can trigger this effect by sending Gaia Library to the Rest Zone!”

  “I immediately activate a support card—straight from my deck!”

  “Defense Barrier!!!”

  “I stop Raftel’s attack!”

  Nicholas slammed his fist onto the transparent panel that served as his battle arena.

  “So damn close…” he hissed through clenched teeth, his voice trembling with frustration.

  “My turn—Draw!”

  Liora’s eyes scanned Nicholas’s field. The only card in his Battle Zone was Raftel.

  And with Raftel’s effect still active, attacking him would be a massive mistake.

  Her LP was too low—one wrong move and she’d lose everything.

  “Nicholas,” she said, for the first time calling his name.

  “I’ll admit it.”

  “You’re strong.”

  “Both as a duelist... and as a person.”

  A faint smile—gentle, sincere—tugged at the corners of her lips. For the first time since the match began.

  “That’s why I believe… you can get everything you want in life—without relying on this stupid tournament.”

  Nicholas’s eyes widened.

  That voice. That smile.

  Pure. Untainted. Unshaken.

  Beautiful.

  How unfair—to pull something like that at the very end.

  “I activate Dorothy’s Frontier Protocol!”

  ‘Even if it’s a dead end, step on and break the fog.’

  “I recover one support card from my Rest Zone.”

  “I recover Leordo Storm—and immediately activate it!”

  “Battle!”

  “Dorothy—direct attack!!!”

  Dorothy raised her hand with calm resolve, pointing at Nicholas with absolute confidence.

  A crackling bolt of lightning shot from her fingertip—straight at him.

  It struck Nicholas squarely, engulfing him in radiant electric energy.

  Nicholas’s LP dropped to 0.

  Liora had won.

  She had survived.

  And more than that—

  She had found another reason to live.