Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

However, the Millennium Jewelry isn't just ordinary gold; its ability to "foresee the future" outweighs its "burden." Mai wondered if Isis was somewhat fatigued from using the Millennium Jewelry's power for so long.

Hearing Peacock Dance's concern, Isis simply shook her head calmly, removed her hand from the [Millennium Jewelry], revealing its dull and lifeless state, and said, "I'm fine, it's just that from the very beginning, the [Millennium Jewelry] has become unable to predict the future."

"It's like... something's been interfered with." Despite delivering bad news, Isis smiled.

On the rooftop, Rafiel discovered that the wrong soul was sealed within the [Orichalcos Barrier]. He immediately turned around and glanced at Yugi, who was still lying motionless on the ground.

Although I don't know what happened, if the sealed soul is not right, I'll seal it again. Luckily, I haven't left yet and I checked it. Otherwise, wouldn't I have let the nameless pharaoh escape with his life?

As for the fact that the game is currently unconscious and unable to wake up to fight Rafael again, that has nothing to do with it.

The moment humanity admits defeat, its soul energy approaches zero. This is the basis for things like the "Orichalcos Barrier" and the Dark Games, which collect powerful souls. Rafael had already defeated Yugi once, and sealing Yugi's soul while he was unconscious was the same thing.

Rafiel casually tossed the [Orichalcos Barrier] card, which sealed the soul of an unknown minor character, onto the ground. Since the [Orichalcos Barrier], having already sealed a soul, couldn't be used again, Rafiel took out a spare blank [Orichalcos Barrier] card and walked towards the game.

Meanwhile, Kaiba, who was arriving at the rooftop in a helicopter, immediately spotted Rafael, dressed in black and standing out against the white ground. After a quick mental calculation, and with a look of horror on Keipi's face in the passenger seat, Kaiba, sitting in the pilot's seat, actually unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed open the door?

"N-Nissama!?!"

"Hold the lever, Keihei." The lever was hastily taken by Keihei, who, without a hint of concern that Keihei couldn't fly the helicopter, jumped out of it while wearing the Duel Disk!

Due to inertia, the seahorse that jumped out of the helicopter drew an arc in the air. With a "bang", the seahorse landed just on the edge of the rooftop, rolled to dissipate the force, and then threw a card at Rafiru!

"Get out of my way, you lackey of Dorma!"

Although he made a sound, Kaiba threw out the card before he even spoke, which was tantamount to a sneak attack. Although Rafael heard the sound of Kaiba landing, he was just a powerful duelist, not a martial artist, and couldn't react to Kaiba's sneak attack at all. When he turned to look at Kaiba, he could only watch helplessly as a card called "Goddess of Reversal" flew towards him.

As Seto Kaiba's designated card for his Flip, "Goddess of Reversal" has never been used by Kaiba in his card games, but it has cut through chains, wires, and human flesh, and even blocked a gunshot about to fire. However, while Rafael was surprised by Kaiba's sudden appearance, she wasn't worried about getting hurt.

He wasn't standing here alone; [Guardian - Etos] was already poised to intercept the flying card.

Just before [Guardian-Aetos] could make its move, a small yellow monster was thrown into the trajectory of [Goddess of Reversal] and precisely "caught" the card.

"Ugh!" The yellow monster that suddenly appeared out of nowhere—[Disruption Yellow]—screamed in pain and fell next to Rafael while clutching the card. A cheerful voice came from the side: "Well, I was pretty accurate."

Rafael turned his head and looked at the person who had suddenly appeared in front of him with confusion: "Kobayashi Hayato? When did you get here?"

Hayato casually shrugged and put the [Disruption - Yellow] card back into his storage, then smiled and said, "Let's take the stairs."

Holding the [Disruption Yellow] card that kept complaining about being sold again, Hayato looked at the [Orichalcum Barrier] card that Rafael had thrown on the ground.

It seems he really did include the [Dark Knight - Gaia] card in his deck. Hayato thought to himself.

The [Orichalcos Barrier] is as mechanical as a low-level program that only has a counting function when collecting souls. Any soul is enough to meet the sealing requirements. Knowing this, Hayato deliberately left the [Dark Knight - Gaia] card, which contained a useless soul, in Conflict Town so that Yugi could find it. This was to prevent the situation from happening again, where the protagonist was sealed as in the original work.

As for where that useless soul came from, actually, after obtaining the card [Divine Flame Emperor - Uria] at the end of the KC Cup, Hayato tried to remove the special influence on the game left by Bakura on that card. The specific method of removal was to take out all the awakened Pokémon cards in his hand and have a "one-on-one battle".

【Uria】was quite spirited; its mouth was held shut by 【Giant Warrior】, and it didn't utter a single scream until 【Sky Dragon】electrified it and forced it out. After 【Divine Flame Emperor - Uria】regurgitated all the souls it had previously swallowed, the card returned to normal.

What Hayato didn't expect was that the influence actually came from the obsession with the game by a duelist who had died at the hands of [Divine Flame Emperor - Uria].

In other words, Yuumochi is a former Japanese national champion, an insect expert, a bespectacled brat, the earliest provider of the "Candle in the Wind Kill" technique, an "Old Ai Killer," and an "Insect Bastard," who joined the Gurus organization in Duel City, carried the card of "God Flame Emperor - Uria," and recklessly sought "revenge" from Yugi, but was defeated and killed by "God Flame Emperor - Uria."

To be honest, at that time, Hayato had considered having Uria swallow the moth's soul again, but it seemed that Uria was too scared of being shocked by Osiris's Sky Dragon. After returning to normal, Uria refused to come out of the card. Hayato then used the moth's soul as an experiment and accidentally learned the technique of storing souls in cards.

Although it sounds simple, Hayato can guarantee that anyone can learn it after seven or eight tries if they have experience performing soul surgery, a group of card spirits that are very cooperative and powerful, and who are not worried about damaging the souls used in the experiment.

With the assistance of [Summoner Aleister], Hayato set his sights even on "Orichalcos"...

However, the plan targeting "Orichalcos" will take some time to complete. Compared to those plans, Hayato is more interested in the serious-looking Kaiba in front of him.

"You actually jumped off the plane, as expected of you, Seth." Passing Rafael, Hayato walked towards Kaiba, as if to shield Rafael from Kaiba's interference in sealing Yugi's soul. "However, your carefree days are about to end. Hand over the [Fang of Critia] to me."

“If you want it, you should take it yourself. You know the rules of duelists.” Looking at Hayato standing opposite him, Kaiba didn’t show any reluctance to fight like Yugi and Jonouchi. He simply raised the Duel Disk on his wrist with a calm expression.

Hayato, who never expected Kaiba to hand over the card just because he said that, smiled indifferently: "I knew you would say that."

Seeing Hayato raise his Duel Disk and unfold it as well, Kaiba, lost in thought, said, "How many times have we fought each other?"

"I don't know, but as far as I can remember, every time I went to Haima Group to see you, you would play a game of cards with me." Hayato recalled, as if chatting with a friend, "but I won more often."

"Where did you learn math? It was clearly a draw!" Kaiba corrected him quite seriously. "Besides, you never take informal duels seriously and use me as a guinea pig for all sorts of weird decks."

"But you seemed to be having a lot of fun playing cards," Hayato chuckled. "It's been so long."

Hayato pulled out a card and held it between his fingers, and the figure of a huge blue demon gradually emerged behind him.

The card he drew was [Phantom Emperor - Rabiel].

"While reminiscing about the past can be quite interesting, everything comes to an end, even for us. It's about time..."

“It’s all over.” Kaiba looked at the incredibly absurd materialized card Pokémon that appeared behind Hayato, and unusually, he didn’t complain. Instead, he took a deep breath and reached out his hand towards Rafael.

Rafael looked at the seahorse with a puzzled expression. He didn't understand why the seahorse was reaching out to him when he hadn't interrupted the two of them.

However, with a "ding" sound, Rafael heard the elevator door open behind him and realized that Kaiba wasn't reaching out to him.

Without hesitation, Rafiru turned to the side and then saw a strange sight: a white-haired creature being dragged by a short golden staff and flying towards the seahorse.

Seeing the elevator stop at the top floor, Malik, who had just taken the elevator with everyone to the rooftop, was wondering why the Millennium Scepter he wore on his waist had suddenly started to glow and vibrate. When the elevator arrived at the rooftop and the door opened, and he saw the seahorse reaching out to him, he recalled his past experiences.

Malik still hasn't forgotten what happened during the Duel City quarterfinals, when Bakura Ryo planned to use the Millennium Eye to control Seto Kaiba!

"WDNMD! Not again!?" Malik only managed to utter this sentence before being dragged out of the elevator by the Millennium Scepter and flying towards the seahorse.

Chapter 630 OO, you don't want OO to get hurt, do you?

The moment Kaiba grasped the Millennium Scepter that he had summoned, the white dragon instantly transformed from an illusion into a physical entity, and with all its might, it rammed into and blocked the giant fist that was coming at Kaiba!

Despite not having the ability to awaken a spirit master and not even being able to see his own card spirits, Kaiba managed to materialize his card spirits at this moment!

"Is that the Blue-Eyes White Dragon? Is it Seto Kaiba's card Pokémon?"

The elevator doors in front of him had just opened when Ryuzaki saw Malik, who was standing next to him, suddenly fly out. Then, Seto Kaiba, who was holding Malik's golden staff, suddenly summoned the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon to face off against the blue, ghost-like giant summoned by Hayato Kobayashi.

"I thought 'Spirit Master' was some rare talent at first, but it turns out that anyone can summon a Card Spirit after I awakened it." Ryuzaki complained, looking at the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, who had managed to withstand the attack from [Phantom Emperor - Labyrinth], albeit with some difficulty.

This is actually a kind of "survivorship bias". Don't be fooled by the fact that everyone Ryuzaki knows now, whether it's Jonouchi, Hayato, Yugi, or Kaiba, are Spirit Users. It's because they are all powerful duelists at the pinnacle of this world. On a global scale, duelists who have awakened their Spirit User abilities are still extremely rare.

Putting aside everything else, even Mai Peacock, who defeated Ryuzaki to win the All-American Championship, is not a Spirit Master. Malik and Isis were able to materialize their Spirits only by relying on the dark power provided by their respective Millennium Treasures, so they are not Spirit Masters either.

But Ryuzaki didn't think that far ahead. He only knew that there was another Spirit Master he knew, and that Kaiba was using the powerful and handsome Blue-Eyes White Dragon. This made Ryuzaki turn his head to look at the Spirit Egg next to him and give it a resentful look.

Yugi Muto can use the cool "Dark Magician" and the cute "Dark Magician Girl," and even "Kuriboh." Jonouchi and Kaiba also have powerful dragon-type card spirits. Not to mention Hayato Kobayashi, that giant blue demon—Ryuzaki doesn't recognize what card it is, but it looks really cool. Why is his own spirit just an egg?!

However, Ryuzaki, who focused on the fact that "Seto Kaiba is also a Spirit Master," was more concerned about something else.

"Could that be—"

"Game!" "Game!"

As they stepped out of the elevator, the three of them immediately turned their attention not to Kaiba, who caught the Millennium Scepter with even more natural ease than Malik, the owner, but to Yugi, who was lying on the ground, his condition unknown.

And then there's Rafiru, who's approaching the game with a blank card in his hand. It's unclear what he's planning to do to the game, but it's definitely not for anything good.

"Get away from the game, Rafael!" Jonouchi hurriedly drew a card of [Red-Eyes Black Dragon] and slammed it onto the Duel Disk. He charged forward along with [Red-Eyes] that appeared beside him and threw a punch at Rafael.

"boom!"

"Clang!"

Jonouchi's direct right punch was blocked by Rafael's crossed arms, while the black dragon's pounce was also blocked by a sharp sword. After protecting Rafael, [Guardian - Etos] retreated back onto Rafael. Rafael, who was once again prevented from sealing Yugi's soul, had no choice but to retreat a distance.

Standing next to Hayato, Rafael's arms hung naturally at his sides, his fingertips trembling slightly.

'This guy named Jonouchi, he's just like Baron, always getting physical, and the force he's using is way too much. Could Baron have lost because he got beaten to death in a boxing match with this guy?'

Although inwardly he was complaining about the force of Jonouchi's punches, which didn't seem like those of a minor, Rafael outwardly remained calm as he retreated to Hayato's side. Looking at Jonouchi, who was standing beside Kaiba in front of the unconscious Yugi, he said, "There are more people in the way now."

"game!"

Behind Jonouchi, Honda and Kyoko rushed to the side of the collapsed Yugi and helped him up to check on his condition. Although Yugi was still breathing and his body temperature was normal, perhaps because the Millennium Puzzle was suppressed by the Orichalcos Barrier and did not defend itself well against the impact of Dark Yugi, no matter how much Honda and Kyoko called out to him, they could not wake him up.

“What exactly is Yugi…” Looking back at Yugi’s condition, and seeing that Yugi couldn’t wake up no matter what, Jonouchi couldn’t help but turn to look at Hayato and Rafael standing side by side not far away. “Damn it, are the people of Doma using Hayato to hurt Yugi again! How dare they take advantage of friendship like this!”

“Don’t underestimate your opponent, you’re mediocre.” Kaiba reminded Jonouchi in a contemptuous tone, “Hayato arrived after I did. Although I don’t know what happened during the duel, Yugi was defeated by that guy named Rafael. That result is undeniable.”

"However, he's just a lackey of Dorma who spouts nonsense about 'souls' and such. There's no need to consider anything other than killing him."

Upon hearing Kaiba's words, Jonouchi didn't immediately look at Rafael. Instead, he turned to look at Kaiba with a strange expression: "Kaiba, you're a Pokémon who has already obtained the Millennium Scepter and even summoned the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Are you still clinging to superstition?"

The seahorse smirked: "Hmph, mediocre talent. Don't think of me as someone like you. I'm not some fool who believes in superstitious things like 'souls' and 'superpowers.' The 'Millennium Scepter' and the 'Millennium Eye' are just empty boasts and deceptive props."

"Bekas's ability to read minds is nothing more than the use of hidden cameras installed throughout his castle and the underhanded tricks he made to the dueling arena. As for tricks like 'mind manipulation,' they are just a combination of hypnotic techniques and tools that exploit the subconscious mind."

"The materialization of Duel Monsters is a shoddy copy of the virtual projection system and impact simulation system of the Hiba Group. Although I have to admire the superb knock-off technology for integrating so many functions into such a small device, it can't fool me at all."

The confident seahorse paused for a moment, then continued, "So-called 'magic' can only fool idiots like you who don't study hard. You're 20,000 years too late to fool me."

Kaiba, who still clings to scientific beliefs even now, is talking at length about the "Millennium Treasure," leaving even Jonouchi somewhat exasperated: "If that's really what you think, then so be it."

"Speaking of which, Malik, are you alright?"

"Something's happened! Something really serious!"

Lying on the cold rooftop, Malik stood up, pulling up his pants with one hand, and said with a disgruntled expression, "This is the second time! This is the second time! Why did my Millennium Scepter inexplicably end up in Seto Kaiba's hands?! And it even tore my pants worth 20,000 yen! This is a limited edition from the first Omega series!"

Malik couldn't understand it. Although he had long since betrayed the Tomb Keepers, he was still one of the most legitimate successors to the Tomb Keeper's patriarch. He also possessed the compatibility and talent to be hailed as "the best in a thousand years" when it came to the Millennium Scepter, one of the Millennium Artifacts kept by the Tomb Keepers.

But why is Seto Kaiba, a Japanese man who has absolutely no connection to Egypt, more like the owner of the Millennium Scepter than himself, even able to make the Millennium Scepter come running to him with a wave of his hand?

"To be honest, even I didn't know that the Millennium Item had this kind of remote control function. It's not like it's some kind of hammer that can summon lightning." While complaining, Malik glared at Kaiba like a victim of NTR, and snatched his Millennium Scepter back from Kaiba's hand.

This time, however, he didn't tuck it into his waistband; instead, he held it in his hand. It wasn't that he was afraid the other half of his pants would get torn; it was mainly that if there was a next time, he could easily let go and avoid being dragged away.

As Malik, who had NTR'd others too many times, finally got NTR'd himself, he took away the Millennium Scepter. The figure of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in front of Kaiba slowly disappeared. However, before it completely vanished, the white dragon turned around and affectionately and gently rubbed its chin against Kaiba.

A strange feeling stirred within him, causing Kaiba to slightly waver in his disdain for the "Millennium Artifact," but only for a moment before his gaze returned to its usual calm.

"Lord Malik, are you alright?"

Lishid walked up behind Malik and asked with concern, but Malik just shook his head: "I'm fine, Lishid. However, I suddenly believe the truth of the message Honda sent me earlier."

“While it’s hard to believe that the Doma organization could defeat the combined forces of Jonouchi and the Pharaoh, it’s certainly possible if it were my brother-in-law.” As he spoke, Malik looked at Hayato, who was standing next to Rafael. “However, I still don’t quite understand, brother-in-law.”

"How many times have I told you? I'm not your brother-in-law, you three-year-old." Hayato, who had been silent since the beginning, looked at Malik, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, and said with a helpless expression, "You're not going to ask me why I joined Doma, are you? Isn't the answer to that obvious? I did it for power—"

"No, I don't care about that kind of thing." Holding the Millennium Scepter, which was gradually glowing with golden light, Malik walked past Jonouchi and Kaiba, looking directly at Hayato. "I want to ask you, since you're still alive, why did you keep it from everyone!"

Do you even know how my sister feels?

As Malik took a step forward, the rising air currents lifted his drooping hair, making each strand stand up, as if the personality of Dark Malik, who had long been dead, had been resurrected at this moment!

"Lord Malik!" Seeing Malik begin to wield the Millennium Scepter, Rishid hurriedly said, "Your body cannot—"

"My body doesn't matter, I've already died once!" Even with Rishid's persuasion, Malik remained extremely defiant, resolutely continuing to wield the Millennium Scepter in his hand and stride towards Hayato. "Do you know that after you disappeared, my sister kept futilely trying to foresee the future with the Millennium Jewelry!"