AKA The Story Arc that Took SIX YEARS to complete.
After finally putting an end to both the Entity and Lord Vyce, Linkara is given an invitation to join the 1,049th Contest of Champions, an interdimensional tournament hosted by the Temlins that pits numerous "Champions" against each other, with the winner granted a prize beyond their imagination; the prize for this contest is a variant of the Infinity Gauntlet with only five Infinity Stones. Linkara decides to join the contest upon learning of the prize, if only to make sure the Gauntlet doesn't fall into the wrong hands.
- Anti-Climax: Discussed and defied by Linkara. During his duel with The Bandit Chief in the finals, Linksano reveals that Bandit Chief has been cheating in the Contest, including in this very duel, and the Temlins promptly disqualify him and declare Linkara the winner. However, Linkara refuses to let this end in a Disqualification-Induced Victory, in part due to how long this has gone on for him, and not wanting the question of if he could have won to hang over his head forever, so he decides to finish the duel with Bandit Chief, and properly defeats him to claim victory.
- Book Ends: The Contest began with the first opponent Lavidian Scarn being disqualified for defying his loss by attempting to threaten the Temlins after Linkara legitimately won against him. It ends with the Bandit Chief being disqualified for his cheating and attempting to hold the Temlins hostage to get the Infinity Gauntlet, only to then also suffer the humiliation of losing to Linkara legitimately at Duel Monsters.
- Didn't Think This Through: When the Bandit Chief's cheating is uncovered, he activates his back-up plan to hijack the stadium and hold everyone hostage until they surrender the Infinity Gauntlet to him. But as Dr. Linksano points out, it's a really dumb plan to try to pull off a hostage situation on cosmic beings who are quite literally omnipotent and can easily banish him without even trying.
- The Dreaded: The Bandit Chief is considered the most dangerous foe for Linkara. He's managed to defeat Jaeris in a prior contest, is a Combat Pragmatist who will use any method outside of killing due to the rules, and has made it very far in all prior contests. According to Jaeris, his best asset is when he gets to pick the stage for fighting, as it allows him to set up traps and use the terrain to his advantage.
- Duels Decide Everything: Ultimately, the final match between Linkara and The Bandit Chief is decided with a game of Yu-Gi-Oh! (or "Duel Monsters" as the anime calls it).
- "Eureka!" Moment: Linksano gets several of these during the contest, which proves critical to Linkara's successes:
- During the final contest of the Contest of Champions between the Bandit Chief and Linkara, Linksano has been studying the box that the Confession Spirit came in back in 2020, in an attempt to figure out where it came from. After running into numerous dead ends, he soon manages to narrow things down when he realizes that he's only been having Nimue scan the box, but not the pigment of the writing itself. Soon enough, after more narrowing down, it's revealed that one of the ingredients for the pigment, argent desilicate, only comes from fifty one parallel universes, compared to the thousands that the other materials come from. And only one contestant comes from one of those universes: The Bandit Chief.
- Good Is Not Nice: Jaeris warns Linkara of this when explaining the tournament, noting that the only requirement for being a champion is "strong enough to defend their dimension", meaning that a tyrannical warlord is just as viable a contestant as, say, a pacifist with Mind Control powers.
- It Amused Me: The main justification for the Temlins' hosting of the tournament. They're omniscient and all-powerful, and have grown bored of it. So they pass the time and entertain themselves by hosting the contest, even offering reality warping prizes.
- It Can Think: Implied to be the case with Destrogalga, since one of the requirements for participating in the tournament is being sentient.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: By the end of the arc, Linkara mentions how long this has gone on for him, going on a small rant about how the tournament has taken years out of his life and everything he has gone through during it, including the other arcs, several real life events, and how in general has had to just sit and wait for it to continue.
- Lethal Joke Character: One of the contestants is Pilo, a sentient pile of rocks. He is an In-Universe Ensemble Dark Horse for the tournament, and has managed to get as far as second place in a previous tournament.
- The Reveal: At the end of the storyline, we find out that great secret of The Contest of Champions: The items that are offered as prizes don't actually work, thus why winners do not come back. Linksano learns this the hard way when Linkara hands him the Infinity Gauntlet and when he tries to use it, it doesn't work: as established as early as JLA/Avengers, the Gauntlet only works in the universe they came from and they have absolutely no idea where it came from.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: After spending years going through the Contest of Champions with the sole goal of making sure the Infinity Gauntlet doesn't fall into the wrong hands, Linkara learns that the Gauntlet doesn't actually work in the victor's home universe. In fact, none of the previous prizes offered by the Temlins actually work in the winner's home dimension. So while the Infinity Gauntlet does contain ultimate power, it's functionally useless and is really no more than a fancy trophy. That being said, he does give it to Linksano to analyze in the hope he might be able to get it to work.
- Starter Villain: Linkara's first actual opponent is Lavidian Scarn, who seeks to win the Gauntlet so he can get revenge on his brother for deposing him and resume his tyrannical reign. Although Linkara beats him, he attempts to kill Linkara and demands the watching Temlin give him the Gauntlet. The Temlin instead disqualifies him and bars him from any future contests.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Linkara and Viga are forced to move again due to a botched test of the security systems that resulted Linkara accidentally activating a self-destruct sequence. Since that house was a rental, word spread about the shenanigans Linkara gets into, so now no one will let him rent. So, he and Viga have to buy a house, since it's gotten to the point that no one trusts him with a loan.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: One of the rules for the contest is that contestants are forbidden from killing their opponents; should they try, the Temlin will immediately disqualify them and bar them from participating in future tournaments.
- Tournament Arc: The contest is an interdimensional tournament between the greatest beings each reality has to offer.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Jaeris reveals that, after losing a previous tournament, he tried to steal the winner's prize, Linkara gives him a disapproving look.
- World's Strongest Man: Each champion is considered to be the best protector their reality has to offer, and the ones the Temlins consider best suited to defend their realms. They don't have to be good, however, just the best at protecting their individual worlds, meaning individuals like the kaiju Destrogalga, the galactic warlord Lavidian Scarn, and the mercenary Bandit Chief are all capable of entering the contest.
