Faced with the might of Ai's LINK-6 "The Arrival Cyberse @Ignister", Playmaker finds himself in a tight spot. Learning of Ai's sorrow, Playmaker tries to convince him to stop the duel. Ai refuses to relent, however, as he has gone too far to back down from the duel.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Chekhov's Gunman: It turns out the card Ryoken gave Yusaku was "Borreload Furious Dragon", specifically as a means to counter Ai's "Judgment Arrows".
- Continuity Nod: When Playmaker turns his Link Tokens into Dark-Attribute Dragon-Type tokens, they gain a similar appearance to Revolver's Dragonoid Tokens way back in their first duel in season 1.
- Death by a Thousand Cuts: "Darkwight @Ignister" has the secondary effect of dealing 500 damage whenever Playmaker loses a monster. This severely limits Playmaker's ability to stall until he can draw something to counter "The Arrival Cyberse", since it's quite difficult to both negate damage and protect his monsters. Ai then ups the ante by summoning "Gussari @Ignister", which will deal damage to Playmaker equal to the ATK of the monster destroyed by "The Arrival Cyberse".
- Despair Event Horizon: Ai reveals that Lightning left a simulation showing how the world would be destroyed if Ai were the only Ignis left. Ai experienced countless permutations trying to find a future where this wouldn't happen, but all of them ended the same. Unable to change anything, he deduced that the only way around it was to be erased from existence himself.
- Fatal Flaw: Discussed; Ai notes how easy it is for AI with free will to think themselves as superior to humans after seeing it happen to Lightning, Bohman, and Roboppi, which is why he wants to erase himself before it happens to him.
- Gaslighting: Playmaker suggests that Lightning's simulations of humanity's downfall are a trap set up to drive Ai to a state of despair, and thus tries to dissuade him from taking them to heart. Ai, however, affirms that he thought of that and personally modified the simulation countless times, yet it always came out the same, and thus came to the conclusion that his presence in the world really is the problem.
- So Last Season: Downplayed. Playmaker summons Firewall Dragon Darkfluid, the monster that defeated Bohman, to combat Ai's The Arrival. While it does well, even inflicting damage to Ai's LP, Ai manages to wear it down and destroy it next turn, while Ai's ace monster is only weakened. It is also justified since Firewall Dragon Darkfluid was created by Ai, so he knows how to work around it.
- Taking You with Me: Playmaker uses "Borreload Furious's" effect to take itself out with "Judgment Arrows", thereby nullifying "The Arrival's" ATK boost it gained from its battle with "Darkfluid".
- We Can Rule Together: Ai suggests that Playmaker turn his consciousness into data and merge with Ai, allowing the two to exist in the network for eternity.
- Wham Shot: Playmaker summons, of all things, "Borreload Furious Dragon", the card given to him by Ryoken prior to Playmaker's final showdown with Ai.
