Is this the poker world?Ada thief!

Although Hayato's side defeated Gaussa, the Hundred-Armed Invisible God, who was released from the Phantom Gate, they failed strategically because they did not achieve their initial goal—capturing Yubel.

In their original plan, they intended to block the two leyline magic singularities of the Magic Academy - Lamaison and the magic trading city "Pantamelon", and drive Yubel, who had invaded this world, toward the magic city - Endymion.

The "Three Wise Men" of the past century have long since parted ways. The partners who once fought side by side in perfect harmony are now like strangers. Alai and Vera are forced by Hayato's strength and, since their positions are barely on the same side, they can still show some of the way they used to be together. However, they cannot be sure whether Endymion is willing to cooperate with them to fight the enemy.

This is also why the two of them planned to force Yubel to their side—since they couldn't get Endymion to cooperate with them and take the initiative to attack and surround Yubel, they would let Yubel go to their side. That way, no matter how unwilling he was, he would have to accept the cooperation for the sake of the Kingdom of [Magic City - Endymion].

By then, the three sages, having prepared, will have set up a spell to block spatial teleportation. If Yubel dares to break in, she will have absolutely no chance of escaping. Previously, she was able to escape from beings like Odin and Timaeus mainly because of her triple escape ability: herself, the Ultimate Jewel God - Rainbow Dark Dragon, and the "Three Phantom Demons." With these precautions in place, it will be impossible for her to escape again.

However, it's too late to say all this now. Yubel has already been to this world once and will never set foot here again. After all, the spirit world is not just this one. There are many spirit worlds in this vast dimensional realm that can have their world fragments taken from them. Even if they don't have the power to usurp this world, they can make up for it with sheer numbers.

However, Hayato and his group had at least achieved some success, and after resting, Hayato planned to set off again to catch up with the fleeing Yubel. Alai collected traces of the world Yubel had fled to from the location where she left. Although she had tried to conceal it to confuse Hayato, Alai and the others, who were proficient in this kind of technique, quickly made a judgment.

—It seems that the other party ran to other worlds to bypass this place and continue to collect the power of the world's origin, but in reality, they simply escaped back to the "new world" she created, which is the "unified world" where Jaden and the others are currently located, pieced together from the fragments of many worlds!
Turning our attention to Jaden and his group, the group, who had recently escaped the pursuit of [Bron, the Mad King of the Dark World], were currently resting. However, Amon, who was supposed to be keeping watch near the camp, had left their side and was standing on a pool of water. In front of the pool, a huge iron gate was bound by chains, as if something was sealed inside.

"Amon!"

Behind him, a voice called his name, but Amon just looked up at the huge iron gate in front of him and did not respond.

In the woods behind, O'Brien led Jaden and the others to catch up.

O'Brien, a mercenary, considered himself to be very vigilant, but Amon seemed to have received special training in this area. He had only gone to gather some firewood to prevent the campfire in the center of the tent from going out, and in the blink of an eye, Amon had disappeared.

Remembering that Amon and Judai had both shown unusual reactions to a certain direction, O'Brien woke up Fubuki and Manjoume, who were lying near the outside of the tent, without disturbing the others. After having them take over his night watch, he followed Amon. However, when he arrived at the grove of trees that seemed to contain something, he found nothing.

Left with no other choice, he returned to the tent. Coincidentally, Jaden, also in a bad mood, hadn't slept very well and woke up in the middle of the night. After discussing it, Fubuki and Jim, who had also woken up in the middle of the night, stayed in the tent, while Jaden, Manjoume, and O'Brien went out to search for the missing Amon.

It was the same place, but after Judai and Manjoume joined the party, when O'Brien and the others arrived at the forest where they couldn't find anything, a strange spatial shift occurred. In a moment of confusion, their surroundings changed abruptly, and the group found a tall iron gate suddenly appearing in the distance. Following a path that inexplicably existed in the forest, they reached its end and finally found Amon in a pool of water in front of the iron gate.

"Where is this place?" Manjoume frowned, looking at Amon, who was standing on the pool and shrouded in mist. "What's wrong with you, Amon Garlem, coming to such a strange place in the middle of the night and making everyone come out to look for you?"

However, Amon still ignored the group and looked up at the iron gate, saying, "Is that so? What's missing?"

"Bang!" "Roar—!!!"

Suddenly, a metallic knocking sound came from inside the iron gate, as if something had slammed heavily against the locked gate. The iron chains that sealed the gate rattled loudly, followed by a furious roar.

Not to mention Manjoume, who was already sleepless due to inexplicable irritability, and Judai, who was in a similarly bad state, even O'Brien was startled: "Is there something in here?"

"Hey, Amon, we'd better get away from there!"

Judai called out, but Amon merely turned to look at them, calmly adjusted his glasses, and shook his head, saying, "I'm afraid that won't work, Judai. Besides, what is the purpose of our next action?"

"Save John Anderson? No, didn't we already learn of his death from that [Mad King of the Dark World - Brûl]? Don't say things like 'we want to see him alive or dead.' We've seen all the people who die in this world; they simply vanish into nothingness. In other words, your goal of returning to this world has failed."

"but--"

Just as Judai was about to say something, Amon continued, "I know you want to say, what about Ryo Marufuji and Ed Phoenix, right? Even if you can't bring John Anderson back, don't you think you have a responsibility to ensure the team that came to this world returns intact?" "According to the current intelligence, although the 'Overlord Army' is searching for strong individuals, they won't kill them on the spot. They won't waste even ordinary combat power like [Warrior-Raz]; they'll capture them all and concentrate them in one place," O'Brien stepped forward and said. "Although they stayed behind to delay our pursuers, Caesar and Ed Phoenix still have a chance of survival."

Amon glanced at O'Brien, then shook his head again, saying, "It's strange. It's one thing for Jaden, but why are you, O'Brien, becoming so naive? You've seen far more of the cruelty of the world than anyone else, haven't you?"

"We move forward to gain something, but after failing, we think that if we retreat now, we can preserve what we have and not lose more? If only the world were that happy, but the reality is that you are already losing something while you are moving forward."

Wan Zhangmu frowned: "Why are you suddenly saying something so nonsensical?"

Amon glanced at Wan Zhangmu without saying anything, then turned back to look at the locked iron gate: "A bird in a cage gains the guarantee of survival but loses the freedom to soar; a child grows up but loses his innocent dreams; to gain something, you must inevitably lose something—isn't this a very common truth in the world?"

Although Amon said a lot, he never got to the point. He was just talking about something that no one else could understand, and he was just spouting riddles that only he could understand.

Jaden didn't know anything else, but he still regarded Amon as a comrade. He stepped forward and said, "No matter what, I still think it's necessary to go back and see where Caesar and Edward left behind, and do our best to bring everyone back. Isn't that what we wanted to do to come back to this world to rescue John?"

"It wasn't 'us'." Looking at Judai, Amon was silent for a moment before revealing the truth. "I'm sorry, Judai, I deceived you back then. At that time, it wasn't 'us' who were thinking about saving John Anderson; it was only you who were thinking about it."

"In our duel before, Jaden, you saw the darkness in my heart and my past, didn't you? But that's all. You don't know much about my past or my identity."

"Are you trying to show off that you're actually the young master of the Gallamy Corporation?" Manjoume sneered.

Amon ignored them and said seriously to Jaden and the others, "Mr. Putah, who gave me the ability to live and has raised me for more than ten years, actually underwent special spy training to repay this kindness. I acted as a member of the Gallam Foundation's secret spy unit—'Galam Boys'. My joining the Duel Academy and participating in the exchange student activities was entirely out of my covetousness for the cards with special powers on the island."

"The cards with special powers that exist on the island... the 'Three Phantom Demons'?" Manjoume said in surprise. "How greedy! The Gallam Foundation has already expanded its industries to cover multiple fields, including arms and energy, and has become the number one entity in Europe and Africa. Even some small countries have to look up to you. Yet you still greedily set your sights on Duel Monsters?"

"With enough strategic vision, one can see that Duel Monsters is the field with the most decisive power in the future. Industries such as military and energy will likely be completely encroached upon and covered by Duel Monsters in the future. Therefore, for the future development of the Gallam Foundation, it is necessary to enter the Duel Monsters field as early as possible."

Looking at Manjoume, Amon curled his lips into a smile: "You're really lucky, Manjoume. No, I'm not targeting you because you have two older brothers who are extremely successful in business and politics, so they can protect you and keep you from being naive. The good fortune I envy is the 'Manjoume Group' itself."

"According to calculations within the Garham Foundation, if a certain point in the past had been altered, the Manjoume Foundation would now be a small, obscure entity relegated to a remote corner, perhaps able to dominate its own little corner, but unable to reach the national or even global level. However, due to an unexpected event eight years ago, a duel between that person and your brother completely changed the future of the Manjoume Foundation."

"Eight years ago at Domino City High School, Masaji Manjoume, who mistakenly believed that Hayato Kobayashi would get involved with his sweetheart and regarded him as a love rival, challenged him. Although he lost the duel, he got involved with Hayato Kobayashi and the two huge conglomerates behind him - International Illusion Company and Kaiba Entertainment Group. This led to the cooperation between the Manjoume Conglomerate and the two groups, and eventually he became the mayor of Domino City."

Amon's sudden revelation surprised not only Judai and O'Brien, but even Manjoume himself: "Shoji-nii always refused to tell me how he met Hayato-sensei. It was because of that kind of melodramatic misunderstanding? No, how would the Gallam Foundation know about such an old and boring piece of gossip?"

“Because there’s also a ‘Galem Doji’ at Domino City High School.” Amon didn’t go into detail about this topic, after all, he wasn’t there to gossip with Jaden and the others. “Your brother was quite lucky to have dueled the Duel King before he became famous. He even caught the wave of the times and got to enjoy the early profits from the Duel Monster era—a large number of Duel Monster-related orders from International Illusion and Kaiba Corporation. The dueling platforms and dueling disks used in the early duels were all produced by your Manjoume Foundation.”

"However, there are only so many places where one can rise to prominence. Unlike the Manjoume Group, the Gallam Group has no chance. In the Duel Monsters field, which has been almost entirely devoured by the two giants and is already overcrowded despite only a few companies entering the market, they can only find another way. That is, cards with special powers like the 'Three Phantoms' or the [Yubel], which I also had my eye on back then, though I didn't know its true nature."

“I see.” O’Brien looked enlightened. “The reason we met in the forest on the day the ‘Duel of Exposure’ began was because you wanted to go to Professor Cobra’s SAL Research Institute where he hid the [Yubel] card, right? That’s why you were controlled by him and then attacked us.”

“No matter how rigorous the training, the power of the Duel Monster can easily gain the upper hand. I even underwent special brainwashing training, and I was still easily controlled, even twice.” Amon smiled, but there was no warmth in his smile. “Therefore, I must obtain a card with special power, perhaps the ‘Three Phantom Demons,’ perhaps [Yubel], or perhaps—the card sealed here!”

"Bang!" "Roar—!!!"

Rather than rioting because of Amon's voice, it seemed more like a response to Amon, a call to Amon, as the iron gate behind them slammed shut again, and Amon opened his arms, as if responding to or calling out to the other party. (End of Chapter)