Awakened

Awakened (覚醒 Kakusei) is the state of mind that Yuya Sakaki and his counterparts occasionally enter. This ability changes the user's personality, voice, and mannerism to become more malevolent and causes their eyes to glow.

Effects
This ability causes Yuya and his dimensional counterparts to go into a state of rage, and their eyes to glow. This usually occurs in a Duel invoking the Four Dimension Dragons where the dragons overtake their owner's mind or when the user is sufficiently angered, and its activation is usually accompanied by an excruciating amount of pain. It is also possible to force the activation of the ability by forcefully amplifying the aggressiveness of the user through electrical shocks. The activation of Yuya's awakening is depicted by the opening of an eye, followed by the instant annihilation of a shadowed city.

While Yuya and his counterparts are awakened, they are willing to harm or destroy their opponent in order to win the Duel. When they regain their senses, they generally have no knowledge of what happened while they were awakened unless prompted.

If they are awakened while merged with one of their counterparts, they become vulnerable to being influenced by that counterpart's own memories and desires.

Each counterpart's eyes glow a different color when awakened: Yuto's eyes glow blue, Yugo's green, Yuya's red, and Yuri's purple. While the other counterparts' eyes white out, Yuya's eyes are the most distinct, as only his iris and pupils glow in contrast to his counterparts, and the glow becomes stronger the longer he remains awakened. There are currently eight stages to Yuya's awakening, with each stage capable of progressing into the next with enough time.

In Stage I, his irises glow but Yuya remains in control. He is shown to enter this stage while Xyz Summoning "" with a conscious mind.

In Stage II, Yuya becomes collected and cold, speaking no more than necessary. Additionally, his hair becomes wild and his voice deeper (his voice remains the same pitch in the dub, though it becomes rougher), both his iris and pupils glow and mute any natural shine to them. He is occasionally surrounded by a dark aura. His card also become darker.

In Stage III, Yuya's hair sticks upwards, his pupils glow white, and he is constantly surrounded by a dark aura. He also becomes vicious and even sadistic, shown by his ruthlessness while Dueling the Obelisk Force and continued to thrash about while restrained by his friends. He is also capable of unleashing powerful shockwaves that are beyond normal for a person originating from the Standard Dimension.

In Stage IV, Yuya's pupils will glow even brighter and all of his counterparts will gain the same dark aura around them if they are in sync with Yuya. Yuya's anger in this stage grows to an almost primal rage, he become impervious to reason. This stage takes such a toll on their bodies and minds that their eyes becoming dull and empty as the glow fades, except for Yuya, whose eyes became brown and all of them pass out afterwards. Anything he is in contact with also gain black aura, in the same manner as Yuya.

In Stage V, Yuya's eyes become completely red. Yuya is surrounded by dark aura and start behaving like Zarc, wanting to show his own strength and ruthlessness to his opponents for his own pleasure. This stage is the closest stage to Zarc's Awakening.

In Stage VI, Yuya's pupils become white, his hair once again stick upwards, and surrounded by a thicker dark aura. At this level of extreme rage, Yuya somewhat gained unnatural strength as he broke free from "Binding Swords of Impact".

In Stage VII, Yūya's eyes completely white out and glow red like his counterparts. He is constantly surrounded by a dark aura and instantly release intense shockwaves of darkness from it. This stage takes a toll on Yuya's mind as Yuri, Yuto, and Yugo kept shouting to become one at Yuya while awakened and all Four Dimension Dragons out. This also caused him to forget who he was momentarily and needed help to remember from Declan.

In the Final Stage, As Zarc takes complete control over Yūya, Yūya's face takes a sinister appearance, sprouting veins and a wicked smile. His pupils become slit, like Yūri's, before glowing red and completely whiting out. The dark aura also flares up and overflows around him until the fusion between his counterparts and dragons are complete.

After consciously learning of his awakenings, Yuya has become capable of breaking out of it by sheer force of will. However, with each stage of awakening that Yuya progresses through, it becomes increasingly harder to break out of it, becoming impossible to quell himself out of it starting at Stage IV.

Jean-Michel Roget is somewhat aware of the awakenings, as he intensified the power of the chip he implanted in Yuya's helmet to awaken the ability.

It also seems that when all four of Yuya and his counterparts are in the same place at the same time when awakened, they tend to claim uniting into one, as well as causing a distortion in the sky.

According to Leo Akaba, the Awakened state is Zarc's will attempting to take over his reincarnations and revive.

History
When Zarc fused with his four dragons using, he awakened when they became Supreme King Dragon Zarc.

Pre-Arc League Championship
The very first instance of awakening occurred in Yuya's Duel against The Sledgehammer, during which Yuya achieved Pendulum Summoning for the first time. After the Duel concluded, Yuya snapped out of that state and did not remember what he did. Unlike the other instances of awakening, Yuya's eyes did not glow and the only change was him becoming more confident and serious, lacking any rage-filled desire to annihilate his opponent.

Arc League Championship
Awakening was properly introduced during the Duel between Yuto and Yugo. When Yuto Xyz Summoned his "" and Yugo Synchro Summoned his "" their eyes glowed. After being reminded by Yuya that he didn't want to hurt anyone, Yuto came out of his awakening but lost to Yugo a moment later, who remained gripped by the state until after his victory and didn't quite remember what he'd done.

Later in his Duel against Iggy Arlo, Yuto appeared in Yuya's mind and the two merged, causing Yuya to awaken and use Yuto's "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon" to win the Duel. When Yuya regained his senses, he was met with concerned stares from the audience and disdain from Iggy.

During his Duel against Taka and Nagi, "Dark Rebellion" appeared in Yuya's mind and he would have awakened had his ally, Dennis Macfield, not managed to bring him back to his senses before it fully consumed him. Though Yuya did summon "Dark Rebellion", he was able to remain in control for the remainder of the Duel.

After seeing the Knights of the Duel Disks students being turned into cards by the Obelisk Force, Yuto's memories of when Heartland was invaded and his vengeful hatred towards the Fusion Dimension flooded into Yuya's mind, triggering Yuya to awaken again to take revenge on them. This time, Yuya's awakening took on a whole different level; Yuya became more brutal and even enjoyed inflicting damage to his opponents. During the Duel against the Obelisk Force, Yuya progressively became more malicious and violent, becoming surrounded by a dark aura, and ultimately he summoned "" to defeat them all at once. After winning the Duel, he remained awakened and continued to where Sora and Shay were dueling, but was restrained by Gong, Aura, Reed, and Trout. While restrained, Yuya only kept on yelling violently in pain and struggling to escape (biting and uppercutting Trout) until passing out. Aura was able to determine that there were two souls within Yuya, along with a terrifying darkness. Yuto's soul was the one who initially triggered the awakening, but the darkness eventually took over both souls and caused their anger to intensify. After resting, Yuya returned to normal and was consciously informed of this state, along with what he had been doing while awakened and what Aura had discovered.

When Yuya saw his friends being sealed into cards by the Obelisk Force, he briefly awakened once more and chased after Sora. After reaching Sora, Yuya recalled Yuto's words and managed to calm down.

Friendship Cup
Goaded by Declan in their Duel, Yuya was about to awaken again before snapping out of it on his own. He briefly awaken again during his Duel against Duel Chaser 227, and though he snapped out of it soon enough, Yuya retained the serious demeanor throughout the rest of the Duel.

During the rematch between Dennis and Shay, Yuya briefly awakened again after learning about the former's affiliation with Duel Academy, but he managed to control his anger and snapped out of it.

Friendship Cup Finals
When the chip Roget planted inside Yuya's helmet activated during Yuya's Duel with Crow Hogan, Yuto, Yugo, and Yuri synchronized with Yuya's pain and all four became awakened. When Yuya Summoned "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon", his eyes glowed brighter while Yugo and Yuri started to gain dark auras around themselves. When Yuya won the Duel, all of them passed out and the chip was destroyed in the process.

The state was invoked again when Yuri, the Obelisk Force, and Yugo arrived at Yuya's location. With Yuya controlling "" and "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon in his Duel with Barrett and Yugo and Yuri summoning their "Clear Wing" and "" respectively, all of the Four Dimension Dragons were in play at the same time, causing Yuya and his counterparts awakened and synchronize again. After entering both states, Yuya, Yuto, Yugo, and Yuri started shouting that they waited for this time to become one and for a revival. But before the distortion caused by their dragons finished, Zuzu arrived and her bracelet teleported Yugo and Yuri away while Yuto's consciousness sank away.

Heartland City
Yuri was shown to have awakened with a purple aura appearing behind him briefly just before he sealed Alexis Rhodes into a card.

During his Duel with Lulu and Celina, a Parasite Monster landed on Yuya's shoulder and went inside his ear, attempting to take control of him. However, it caused him to awaken for a brief moment as the Darkness destroyed it. After the Doktor taunted Yuya by showing that Zuzu was under his control, Yuya and Yuto furiously awakened. The intense anger of their awakening caused the "s" to retreat in fear, while a sinister silhouette appeared behind Yuya. They summoned "" to defeat both Lulu and Celina simultaneously, destroying most of the Doktor's laboratory in the process. After the Duel, Yuya remained conscious and followed them to the Doktor.

Duel Academy
When Yugo and Yuri summoned "Clear Wing" and "Starving Venom" respectively, they, Yuya, and Yuto entered a synchronized awakening (with Yuya gaining his aura again) and started shouting that they would become one again. When ARC-V started to power up around the girls capsule, Yuya and Yuto was worried and angrily told Leo to stop this, causing them to awaken and gain dark aura. He and Yuto manage to overcome the pain including Zarc's influence but Yuya returned to the state when Fusion Summoning "". During the Duel, Yuya managed to fight most of the pain and even make brief contact to Declan with Yuto. But, Zarc's will continued to try to take over and when the Four Dimension Dragons were all out at the same time, Yuya's pain increased with his dark aura turning into a dragon's silhouette. As he Summoned "Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon", Yuya destroyed everything on the field and inflicting damage to Declan unintentionally. As he was about to defeat Leo and Declan, Yusho bound him to a pillar with "Binding Swords of Impact". Yuya then tried to break free as he sensed Yugo and Yuri coming to him soon and didn't want to be near them.

When Aster and Kite's Duel against Yugo and Yuri, they managed to push Yugo into a corner in order for him to regain his true self. Yugo started to show signs of breaking free when Aster mentioned about saving Rin. Aster managed to free Yugo from his awakening with "Destiny HERO - Duskutopiaguy", but Yuri told him it was too late to get him to smile. He then defeated Aster and Kite with the effect of "" and Yugo with the effect of "Starving Venom". When "Clear Wing" and "Starving Venom" resonated, Yugo awakened briefly and shouted to become one just before being absorbed by Yuri. Yuya resonated with Yuri's absorption but started to break free of his awakening when watching his father Duel Yuri. He broke free from it completely during their Duel but reawaken again when Yuri sealed his father into a card and showed it to Yuya, causing his rage to reach a breaking point, who then broke free from "Binding Swords of Impact".

During his Duel with Yuri, Yuya managed to calm down after drawing "" and remembering Yusho's words but remained awakened. When he and Yuri Summoned all Four Dimension Dragons, their resonation caused Yuri, Yugo, and Yuto entered a synchronized awakening and shout to become one while Yuya screamed in pain. When Yuri tried to convince Yuya to surrender and become one with him, he briefly awakened while he, Yuto, and Yugo kept shouting to become one. It also caused Yuya to awaken and release a shockwave of darkness until Declan made him remember Yusho's ideals to break free. Yuto and Yugo would also break free from their awakening when Yuya took control of "Dark Rebellion" and "Clear Wing" from Yuri. After Yuya defeated Yuri, he finally succumb to Zarc's will and awakened when he summoned "" to fuse with the Four Dimension Dragons. Yuri would also awaken briefly before being absorbed by Yuya to become the Supreme King Dragon Zarc.