novelhk #1557 - The Ultimate Jade God Hamon?
#1557 - The Ultimate Jade God Hamon?
“Hooray! Finally won!”
Watching Frans's Life Points hit zero, his entire body plummeting from mid-air to the ground in a lifeless heap, John had no mind to spare for his opponent's condition. He collapsed onto the ground, sighing in relief, “I'm exhausted. Even though the user isn't a professional duelist, 'God Cards' are seriously powerful!”
“But in the end, you still won, John. Congratulations.” Jaden approached John and extended a hand, “That was a truly interesting duel!”
“I feel like I've never seen a duel like yours before. People say I'm a talented duelist because I rely more on instinct than thinking, but your performance in the duel, John, was as if you were the darling of Duel Monsters. Although the individual attack power of the 【Crystal Beasts】 isn't much, you were able to directly confront a 'God Card'…”
Speaking of which, Jaden suddenly paused, “Huh? Attack power isn't much… Wait a minute, John, you mean!”
“Hmm?” John tilted his head, puzzled by Jaden's sudden outburst.
“John, you actually won against a 'God' without even summoning your ace monster!”
“Eh!? How did you know, Jaden? It's like you can read minds!” Hearing Jaden's words, John looked genuinely surprised. Then, he smiled sheepishly, “As expected of you. I felt an instant connection with you from the moment we met. You were able to guess that much without me giving away any clues. You're really something.”
John didn't explicitly confirm it, but it was clear that Jaden's guess was correct. Hearing his words, Jaden's face lit up with excitement, “So, it's true!”
“Yes, it's the ultimate form of the seven 【Crystal Beasts】 combined. An aggregation of the seven-colored light released by the 【Crystal Beasts】, ultimately creating a rainbow bridge that transcends all obstacles. That is the strongest ace card of the 【Crystal Beast】 deck—【Rainbow Dragon】!”
“Whoa! Just hearing your description, John, is making me excited!” Jaden said, his blood pumping with excitement. “Want to take a break, John? I can't wait to see your exciting ace monster—【Rainbow Dragon】!”
“If you have such a strong card, hurry up and let me see it!”
However, to Jaden's surprise, John refused, “Hehe, I can't do that.”
“Huh?”
“【Rainbow Dragon】 is to be reserved, reserved, and reserved again, only to be played when the situation is absolutely perfect,” John said seriously, putting on an act. “Otherwise, it must absolutely be saved until the very end and never played lightly!”
Hearing this, Jaden was about to say, “Then I'll definitely force you to play that card in a duel,” but the next moment, John's expression changed, and he said with a helpless look, “Well, that's the line I use on other people, but if the opponent is you, Jaden, you'd quickly see through it in a duel, right? So, I'll be honest with you.”
“Actually, the 【Rainbow Dragon】 card is indeed in my possession, but you could also say it isn't. Just take a look, Jaden, and you'll understand.”
As he spoke, John took a card from his deck and showed it to Jaden. Jaden saw the name of the card John was holding, a 【Ultimate Crystal Beast】 different from the other 【Crystal Beasts】.
“【Ultimate Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon】? What a powerful card. It has 3000 attack points!”
After a pause, Jaden said with some confusion, “But why is the effect text area on this card blank? There's nothing written there.”
“Ah! Could it be that, like the rumored 【The Winged Dragon of Ra】 card, the 【Ultimate Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon】 is the type of card that only reveals its effect text after it's summoned?”
But John simply shook his head at Jaden's guess, “Unfortunately, that's not the case. The reason 【Ultimate Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon】 is in this state is simply because it hasn't been completed yet.”
Since he had already said this much, John didn't mind telling Jaden a bit more about the 【Crystal Beasts】. In any case, Frans wouldn't be waking up and running away anytime soon in his current state. “You heard a part of it when I was dueling Frans earlier, right, Jaden? About how the 【Crystal Beasts】 were made from seven ancient Roman gemstone tablets?”
“Those seven gemstone tablets were collected by the extremely famous Gaius Julius Caesar of ancient Rome. Since these seven tablets were regarded as symbols of the territories ruled by ancient Rome, there naturally existed a special tablet that could serve as a symbol of Rome itself—the 'ruler,' which is the 【Rainbow Dragon】 tablet.”
“But unlike the seven gemstone tablets that were lost in a shipwreck during transport back to ancient Rome, the eighth 【Rainbow Dragon】 tablet was originally located within Rome. After all, being completely made by Rome better demonstrated the purity of that rule. However, precisely because of this, these eight tablets were not kept together. Years ago, when Maximillion Pegasus of Industrial Illusions accidentally obtained the seven 【Crystal Beast】 tablets, the eighth 【Rainbow Dragon】 tablet was still nowhere to be found.”
“Trying to find the 【Rainbow Dragon】 tablet without any clues is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“How could that be…” Jaden looked disappointed. “It's like drawing 【Winged Kuriboh】, 【Elemental HERO Burstinatrix】, and 【Elemental HERO Bubbleman】, the three 【HERO】 cards that can be used as fusion materials for 【Elemental HERO Flame Wingman】, but missing the 【Polymerization】 Spell Card.”
“Although your analogy is a bit strange, Jaden, that's exactly what it's like.” Although Jaden's example was a bit abstract, John could really understand how frustrating that situation would be.
“Huh? That doesn't make sense either. If the tablet hasn't been found, then what's this 【Ultimate Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon】 card, John?” Suddenly snapping back to reality, Jaden pointed at the 【Ultimate Crystal Beast】 card that John was still holding and asked strangely, “Did you draw your own 【Rainbow Dragon】 and launch it into space to turn it into a Duel Monster card?”
“I don't have any potential in card design. Besides, the card-making process you described isn't quite the same as what I've heard.”
“Hehe, that's how my 【Neo-Spacians】 were born,” Jaden said, showing off his various 【Neo-Spacians】 to John.
“Amazing!” Somewhat amazed by the variety of 【Neo-Spacians】 in Jaden's hand, John exclaimed, holding up the 【Ultimate Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon】 card and saying, “Although the process of its birth was quite bumpy, this 【Rainbow Dragon】 card, like other Duel Monster cards, was re-created from the tablet by a designer who redrew the tablet's image, then took material from the tablet itself.”
“There was no news about the 【Rainbow Dragon】 tablet at all. That was indeed the situation at first. Until a few years ago, when I was working as a model for the 【Crystal Bond】 card and was invited to Industrial Illusions by Mr. Pegasus, I happened to meet Mr. Seto Kaiba, who rarely appeared at Industrial Illusions.”
“After looking at me for a few moments, Mr. Kaiba suddenly said something strange like, 'The drop list has been updated with the G family,' and then he dragged me away to duel for an entire afternoon, ditching Mr. Pegasus. Then, because he thought I was too weak and the duel wasn't enjoyable enough for him, he asked about the 【Rainbow Dragon】.”
“After learning that I still hadn't found any news about the 【Rainbow Dragon】 tablet after all these years, Mr. Kaiba suddenly said, 'Isn't the 【Rainbow Dragon】 tablet buried under the Colosseum in Rome? You haven't found it after all these years. Unforgivable, Pegasus!'” John shrugged helplessly. “So that's how it was. Mr. Kaiba suddenly told us where the 【Rainbow Dragon】 tablet was, and then Mr. Pegasus naturally found the 【Rainbow Dragon】 tablet very quickly.”
“Then is there something wrong with the tablet?” Jaden glanced at the 【Ultimate Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon】 card. “Is it damaged because it's too old or something?”
“It's somewhat related to its age, but it's not that the tablet is damaged. It's just that the 【Rainbow Dragon】 sleeping inside the tablet is sleeping so soundly that it didn't even notice it was about to lose all of its power. After all, from the moment it was born, it never had the opportunity to gather with the other 【Crystal Beasts】 and unleash its power. If you count it, it's been sleeping without a chance to wake up ever since Caesar defeated Gnaeus Pompeius and became the dictator of Rome in 49 BC.”
At this point, John looked a little embarrassed. “This has resulted in the fact that in order to completely finish the 【Rainbow Dragon】 card and turn it from a sleeping 【Ultimate Crystal Beast】 into an 【Ultimate Crystal God】, two very important things are missing. One of them, of course, is the ability to communicate with spirits and awaken it. Anyone who can see the spirits of cards, a 'Spirit Charmer,' can do that. But more importantly, there's another thing—something to replenish the power that the 【Rainbow Dragon】 has lost during its two thousand years of slumber.”
“Power?” Jaden thought of something. “Direct current or alternating current?”
“Not that power. It's the unique power of card spirits, and not just any spirit can satisfy it. I don't want to coerce other spirits to sacrifice their power for it in order to awaken the 【Rainbow Dragon】.”
John paused and continued, “So, relying on the power willingly offered by the 【Crystal Beasts】, I spent two years since entering the Duel Academy's North Branch to allow the 【Ultimate Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon】 to display its basic name, card art, and data. But to awaken its effect, it will take at least another year, not to mention the power needed to show its true form.”
“So you've just been keeping 【Ultimate Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon】 in your card case and haven't added it to your deck, John.” Jaden nodded, finally understanding everything. “It'll take at least another year to awaken the 【Rainbow Dragon】 as an 【Ultimate Crystal God】. That's so tantalizing.”
“Tell me about it. But at least it's much better than the situation at the beginning, when we couldn't even find the 【Rainbow Dragon】 tablet.” John smiled, then suddenly became mysterious. “And, maybe it won't take a year.”
“Because the reason I came to the Duel Academy Main Branch this time was because Principal Ichinose kept begging me to come, saying things so humble and almost pleading, saying 'Onegai' 'Watashi' and such. Even Mr. Pegasus knew that I came to the Duel Academy and asked me to also help Frans stop him.”
“Principal Ichinose, I remember him. He seemed to have come to the Academy Exchange Tournament last year. His baldness is on par with Vice-Principal Samejima.” Jaden recalled and remembered where he had heard the name.
“Right, right. And he's very superstitious about the 'hair growth curry' recipe of a teacher named 'Kabayama' from the Main Branch who had an exchange activity at the North Branch last year. Although those curries were really delicious... cough, cough, I accidentally digressed.”
Glancing at Frans, who was still lying on the ground and almost made people suspect he was dead if it weren't for the rise and fall of his body, John continued, “But in the end, I came because of Principal Ichinose. He asked me to help retrieve a sealed card that was stolen from the North Branch. And as compensation for the request, he negotiated with Mr. Kaiba to exchange a sealed card from the Main Branch.”
Putting a card and the 【Ultimate Crystal Beast Rainbow Dragon】 in his hand into his deck together, John, who was still full of energy despite just finishing a duel with a 'God,' revealed a passion for dueling that was no less than Jaden's. “It might even be possible to complete the 【Ultimate Crystal God】 in this duel!”
“Let's duel, Jaden!”
Faced with John's invitation, Jaden said happily, “Of course. I haven't dueled today, so I can't refuse your challenge. That's what we agreed on before, right.”
“Let me witness the power of the 'Three Sacred Beasts' that I didn't have a chance to face directly before!”
“Duel!” X2 (End of Chapter)