The metallic frame hummed softly.
Victor Von Doom adjusted one final crystalline conductor before tightening a small brass screw into place. A faint magical rune carved along its surface flickered briefly before settling into a steady glow.
Satisfied, he leaned back.
The device occupying nearly half of his workbench was unlike anything the engineering department would recognise.
Copper wiring intertwined with silver inlays engraved with ancient runes; vacuum tubes rested beside enchanted gemstones; it was pure scientific precision and arcane craftsmanship merged into a single creation.
Victor studied it silently before commenting, "It's almost complete."
His eyes wandered across the scattered notes covering the desk.
Circuit diagrams, magical formulas, calculations, Spirit Energy observations.
Half a year, only six months had passed, yet it felt as though an entirely different lifetime separated the Victor of today from the one who had first arrived in America.
Six months earlier, the State University located in Hegeman, New York State, had offered him a full scholarship shortly after his sixteenth birthday.
Victor hadn't required time to consider the offer.
State University ranked among the finest private universities in the United States.
Superior laboratories, superior libraries, superior professors. Every additional resource increased his chances of accomplishing the only objective that truly mattered, saving his mother and taking out Mephisto.
Everything else remained secondary.
University life proved to be acceptable. Most lectures failed to present concepts Victor hadn't already explored independently, but the facilities more than compensated, and during this time he became obsessed with finding a way to contact the afterlife.
More surprisingly, he met two individuals worth remembering.
Benjamin Grimm, an All-American football player and, despite his brutish appearance, also a fairly capable engineer with an easygoing personality.
And Reed Richards.
For the first time in years, Victor encountered someone capable of genuinely challenging him intellectually.
Their discussions quickly became legendary throughout the faculty.
A casual conversation between the two inevitably evolved into debates spanning theoretical physics, higher mathematics, dimensional mechanics, quantum interactions and occasionally even philosophy.
More than once, professors quietly gathered nearby simply to listen.
Several openly compared their brilliance to the likes of Einstein or Leonardo da Vinci.
Victor personally considered such comparisons rather unimaginative and limited.
Unfortunately, intelligence alone did not guarantee refinement, as Richards possessed an irritating tendency toward informality.
Their disagreements gradually evolved into something resembling rivalry.
Then came the trophy incident.
Victor still remembered discovering that someone had altered the engraved plaque.
Instead of Victor Von Doom, it read: Victor Von Doof.
Richards later claimed it had merely been a harmless joke, but Victor remained unconvinced. There was nothing amusing about deliberate incompetence.
Not long afterwards, Victor experienced a familiar sensation.
A quiet certainty.
The same instinct that had convinced him to leave Latveria for America whispered once more that destiny awaited him elsewhere.
Unlike most people, Victor trusted such feelings.
He returned to his room, prepared the necessary reagents, drew a divination circle across the floor and after a brief incantation, shimmering threads of magic spread outward before converging toward a single direction.
California.
Victor extinguished the candles.
The spell had spoken, and that alone was sufficient.
The following morning, he requested temporary leave from the university before boarding the earliest available flight.
California proved unexpected.
Victor had anticipated magical ruins, hidden libraries, ancient relics, and some resurfacing power; instead, he found a card game.
Posters decorated storefront windows, children discussed strategy while walking home from school, adults crowded around hobby shops.
Even businessmen could occasionally be seen carrying small deck boxes.
"Duel Monsters..."
Curiosity prompted him to step inside one particular hobby store.
Rows of colourful cards filled the shelves, Starter Boxes, Starter Decks, Booster Packs, Rulebooks, nothing particularly remarkable until Victor picked up one of the cards.
His eyes narrowed, and he muttered, "Interesting..."
The cardboard itself was ordinary, the craftsmanship excellent, but beneath that something else lingered, a subtle energy almost imperceptible yet undeniably present.
Not magical, not entirely, it was something different, something that seemed connected to feelings and emotion.
Victor purchased a Starter Deck, Mystic Control, along with several Booster Packs before returning to his hotel.
Learning the rules required little effort.
The game's complexity, however, pleasantly surprised him as each duel rewarded careful planning over raw aggression.
Probability intertwined with strategy, risk balanced against resource management; it was elegant.
Within only a few days, Victor had already begun refining his Deck through additional Booster Packs and trades with other players.
Winning quickly became routine. Each match reinforced Victor's belief that Duel Monsters, despite its superficial appearance as a children's pastime, rewarded disciplined preparation far more than chance. Opponents often attributed his victories to luck whenever the perfect card appeared at precisely the right moment.
Victor dismissed such complaints outright. Proper deck construction reduced randomness. Probability was not fortune but a science to be mastered, yet as the number of duels increased, certain moments began resisting explanation.
There were occasions when drawing a particular card felt less like coincidence and more like expectation. Not certainty, but an unfamiliar sense that another will had anticipated the moment alongside him. The sensation proved subtle enough that Victor initially dismissed it as pattern recognition, an unconscious interpretation of statistical variance.
Even so, the phenomenon persisted, thus increasing his interest in the game; then he learned of something far more interesting.
The Duel Monsters Grand Prix, but more importantly, its creator would be present.
The young visionary responsible for creating the game itself.
Victor immediately registered.
The tournament itself only deepened his curiosity.
The stronger his concentration became during each duel, the more vividly he perceived that mysterious energy surrounding certain cards, and he wasn't the only one, as he noticed the same phenomenon happening to other contestants as well.
Among the cards in his possession, Summoned Skull and Witch of the Black Forest were the most impressive ones.
Whenever either card appeared in his hand, the sensation became noticeably stronger. As though something on the opposite side acknowledged his existence.
Victor understood neither the mechanism nor the cause, but he refused to dismiss observable evidence simply because it lacked explanation.
Naturally, he ended up winning the tournament and claiming the grand prize, but that was expected.
The prize money was negligible, but the Ultra Rare card that came with it was much more exceptional, Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
The moment his fingers touched the card, the connection manifested instantly.
That card alone gave him the strongest reaction he ever felt; it felt strange, like immense untapped potential, prouder and far stronger than anything he had experienced before, yet at the same time, it felt right, almost like finding the perfect match in a puzzle.
Then, shortly after the tournament, everything changed.
The demon, the battle, Alexander and more importantly, the revelation of the Duel Spirits and the Spirit World.
Watching Alexander work with beings that should not have existed fundamentally altered Victor's understanding of reality.
His suspicions had been correct. The cards truly served as bridges to another reality.
Alexander's brief explanation afterwards only confirmed what Victor had already begun suspecting. The cards housed connections to living spiritual beings of immense power and potential.
The implications were staggering.
Victor had travelled to California seeking a fortuitous encounter or useful knowledge, and he returned possessing far more than he had anticipated.
Victor smiled as he knew he had made the correct decision coming to California.
Returning to State University brought changes to his daily routine. Classes, research experiments, only now he completely abandoned his research on contacting the afterlife as he realised that his vision was way too narrow and thus bound to fail, and now Duel Monsters occupied part of that schedule.
Alexander's advice echoed clearly in his memory.
"Play and enjoy the game."
A simple piece of advice but a remarkably effective one.
Victor played regularly. Each duel strengthened the invisible bond connecting him to several of his monsters.
Weeks gradually became months.
Eventually the bond evolved, not into spoken conversation, not at first, but rather emotions, instincts and brief impressions, making him understand the entities called Duel Spirits better.
Summoned Skull possessed the quiet composure of an ancient warrior.
Its presence rarely fluctuated; it was calm, patient, unshakable.
Red-Eyes Black Dragon radiated entirely different emotions.
Pride, determination and a fierce competitive spirit that refused to yield.
Victor found the dragon strangely relatable.
Then there was Witch of the Black Forest.
She was gentle, watchful, almost protective. More than once Victor found himself instinctively calming down whenever her card rested within his hand. It fascinated him.
Every Duel Spirit possessed an identity entirely independent of their owner, which meant Alexander had been correct once again.
The bond wasn't ownership, but it was genuine partnership.
Naturally, Victor refused to stop there.
Understanding demanded experimentation, and experimentation demanded results; thus the machine.
Science and magic represented merely two different methods of describing reality.
To insist one invalidated the other was no different than claiming mathematics rendered language obsolete. Both described reality. They simply spoke different dialects.
There existed no reason they could not complement one another.
Reed, predictably, disagreed.
"A children's card game?" Richards shook his head while watching Victor organise another Deck between lectures, "I still don't understand why you've become so obsessed with that."
Victor never even looked up and replied, "Your inability to understand something does not diminish its importance."
"You seriously believe those cards are worth wasting your precious time over them?"
"I know they are."
Richards sighed, "I think you're making a great mistake."
Victor simply returned to sorting his Deck as Richards lacked the ability to perceive Spirit Energy, and consequently his opinion carried little weight.
Despite returning to New York, Victor maintained occasional contact with Alexander.
Sometimes through letters, sometimes by telephone. Whenever university holidays permitted, they even met once or twice, exchanging ideas over several duels before inevitably drifting into discussions that lasted far longer than the games themselves.
Spirit Energy, dimensional theory, ancient history, few subjects remained untouched. More than once, Alexander proposed conclusions Victor initially dismissed as intuition masquerading as scholarship, only for subsequent experimentation to produce results disturbingly close to what Alexander had predicted.
Victor found the process irritating yet equally enlightening.
Alexander remained unusual. Victor had encountered many brilliant minds, and very few possessed knowledge beyond the limits of conventional science.
Alexander approached the unknown from the opposite direction, beginning with impossible premises and somehow arriving at demonstrably correct conclusions often enough that dismissing them outright became intellectually dishonest.
Victor neither considered him superior nor inferior, simply a peer worthy of respect, perhaps even a friend. The realisation surprised him far more than he cared to admit.
Victor's thoughts returned to the present, 'Enough reminiscing. The project awaits. This is going to be a huge step forward...'
He carefully tightened one final connector before stepping back.
His machine was complete, and it consisted of only a round disc that could be attached to the wrist where the card could be placed.
Victor's gaze swept across the device one final time.
The wrist-mounted frame served merely as a housing. Beneath its polished brass exterior rested the true achievement.
The crystalline lattice would amplify and stabilise Spirit Energy without contaminating it with ambient magical energies. Silver runic inlays anchored the projection to the physical world while the miniature vacuum tubes regulated electrical output, ensuring neither system overwhelmed the other. Neither magic nor science held precedence. Both performed precisely the functions for which they were best suited.
The final component lay at the device's centre.
A single card slot.
Inelegant by conventional engineering standards, perhaps, but indispensable. The card itself was not the source of the connection. It merely provided a fixed point through which an already existing bond could be strengthened.
Elegant in its simplicity.
He inspected every component one final time and made sure that there were no flaws or imperfections.
He polished away an almost invisible fingerprint from the brass housing before allowing himself to proceed.
Then he declared with certainty in his tone, "It will function."
Victor reached for his Deck before carefully removing a single card, Witch of the Black Forest.
Immediately afterwards, he stepped into the engraved magic circle surrounding the machine, picked it up and attached it to his wrist.
He gently inserted the card into the device's central housing, then one hand rested upon the control panel while the other began tracing familiar arcane symbols through the air.
Magic flowed first, then electricity and finally Victor consciously reached toward the bond connecting himself to the Witch of the Black Forest.
The machine responded instantly.
Runes illuminated, electrical coils vibrated, Spirit Energy surged through every conductor.
For several long seconds, nothing happened; then light shimmered above the machine.
Light gathered above the device in scattered fragments, as though countless tiny stars had begun converging upon a single point. The projection wavered, unstable at first, before individual details gradually emerged. A flowing cloak. Long silver hair. Delicate fingers. Every passing second sharpened the image until the familiar silhouette stood before him.
Witch of the Black Forest.
She was faint, barely visible. Almost as though she existed between two worlds.
At the same time, Victor analysed everything that was happening in front of him, 'Density stable. Form consistent. No spontaneous Spirit Energy dispersion. Extraordinary...'
Witch of the Black Forest slowly opened her eyes.
Her gaze wandered across the laboratory with quiet curiosity before settling upon Victor, and recognition immediately replaced uncertainty.
She smiled, a small, gentle smile.
Victor found himself returning it almost unconsciously before his eyes widened ever so slightly as he muttered, "It's working..."
But then he realised that something immediately felt wrong as the machine strained violently.
Several circuits glowed dangerously bright, and more importantly, Victor sensed the Duel Spirit herself making him realise, 'Impossible... The machine isn't sustaining the manifestation. It can't. Its output remains nearly thirty per cent below the theoretical requirement. Which means...'
Victor's eyes lifted toward Witch of the Black Forest as he concluded, '...She is maintaining the bridge herself. She isn't being dragged into reality; she is actively helping by supporting the connection from the opposite side. Without her cooperation, the machine alone would never have succeeded.'
A smile almost formed across Victor's face as he thought, 'He has been correct. This is a partnership, not domination...'
Before he could speak, Witch of the Black Forest suddenly looked past him.
Her gentle expression disappeared as concern replaced it.
She raised one hand urgently and said, "Master..."
Her voice flickered like static, "...Evil..."
The image distorted violently, "...Coming... Please, be careful..."
The machine erupted in sparks as smoke poured from its interior before the projection vanished.
Silence filled the room.
Victor stared at the burnt circuitry for a moment, then he quickly pulled out the card from it before it could get damaged.
His experiment had failed, and yet it had also succeeded. Not only had Witch of the Black Forest manifested, but she had also chosen to exhaust herself helping him only to warn him.
Victor's expression hardened.
If she considered something dangerous enough to interrupt the experiment, he would not ignore it.
Without hesitation, he knelt, rapidly sketching a divination circle onto the floor with practised efficiency.
The incantation lasted only moments before threads of pale light converged almost immediately, making him mutter, "The campus..."
Victor stood as he realised that the danger remained close.
So he made a move; he snatched his Deck from the workbench before taking off the ruined machine, leaving it there and rushing out of the room while thinking, 'There will be time for repairs and upgrades later. Now... Something else requires my attention.'
The campus had grown unusually quiet as most students had already returned to their dormitories, leaving only scattered lights illuminating the pathways.
Victor followed the magical trail with unwavering confidence.
Eventually it led him toward one of the older sections of the university grounds.
There, standing alone beneath the shadow of several trees, waited a young man Victor vaguely recognised from one of the engineering courses.
His back remained turned, completely motionless.
Victor immediately sensed that something was wrong. Not the student but the presence surrounding him, it felt malicious, hungry, savage.
The young man slowly turned around.
His smile stretched far wider than any human expression should.
When he spoke, the voice wasn't his own, "Huhuhu... How fortunate..."
The grin widened further, "A delicious soul... So soon after obtaining this body."
Victor's eyes narrowed.
The thing laughed.
A sound utterly devoid of humanity. Then it spread both arms wide as it declared, "Let the Shadow Game... Begin!"
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter