With the 3rd gear stopped, the Signers gain access to the Center Gear, and Yusei rejoins the others, telling them the truth about Antinomy, and about the Delta Accel Synchro method. They continue onwards to the center of the Ark Cradle, where they spot more, but smaller gears, as well as the Ener-D Generator that was called the Center Gear, which was powering most of the negative Ener-D of the Ark Cradle. Then, they enter a room with blue walls, located at the very heart of the Ark Cradle, where ZONE awaits them. ZONE reveals he was behind the Zero Reverse incident, as well as Paradox's scheme, to try to stop the existence of Synchro Monsters, and Ener-D. ZONE then decides to settle things in a duel, and if Yusei wins, the Center Gear would stop working (the Center Gear is really a key Ener-D generator, which is the main source of power for the Ark Cradle's overall Ener-D Generator), and the Ark Cradle would disappear for real. Yusei then agrees on those terms, and as he prepares to face ZONE, Aporia appears, though badly damaged, and challenges ZONE to a duel instead, having learnt from his duel with Leo that he has always had hope, and he also tells ZONE that he has found hope, unlike ZONE. He also questions ZONE about why he erased Antinomy's memories, theorising that he wanted Team 5D's to evolve in order to change the future. Aporia also reveals that the Black Hole that Antinomy was trapped in was a part of the Ark Cradle, but somewhere in future space, asks ZONE if he was holding Antinomy hostage for some purpose for the future. Aporia then demands that he returns Antinomy to Yusei, and states that is the final task that Aporia will make ZONE accomplish, now that he has hope. With ZONE then tells Aporia that the time for despair is near, and then he summons 2 huge mechanicle dueling arms, and giant deck, and turns his huge stone tablets, that were scattered all over the room into real, giant cards, which all file into ZONE's deck. Despite Aporia summoning out his Machine Emperors Grannel and Wisel, ZONE counters his attacks with trap cards that can be activated from his hand, as well as the first Temporal Machine God, Metaion, using his trap card, Zero Machine Ein, which allows him to special summon a Temporal Machine God without any releases, but will lower its attack points to 0. The resulting combo reduces Aporia's life points down to 500, and sends both Grannel and Wisel back to his deck. But Aporia is able to draw a new spell card, After Glow, which could reverse Aporia's desperate situation. Seeing a way he could win with this card in his hand, Aporia then summons Sky Core, planning to special summon Machine Emperor Skiel Infinity, and then use After Glow to his advantage.