Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Malik, who was standing to the side, also turned his gaze away from the [Ra's Winged Dragon - Spherical Shape], which he had never seen before, and casually remarked, "Rather than believing that such a setting actually exists, I suspect it's more likely a lie made up by garlic farmers, gold and silver shop salesmen, and mediocre carpenters to trick people into buying things."

Seeing Hayato and Malik start chatting as if no one else was around, Camus frowned but corrected them, saying, "No, silver and wooden stakes do have a miraculous effect on us vampires. Silver can suppress our regeneration, and if a wooden stake pierces our heart, the source of our power, it can kill us vampires completely. We only learned this hundreds of years ago during the extermination campaign launched by you humans against us vampires."

"Huh? It's actually true?"

Even now, Camus still can't understand it. When he was born, his vampire clan had already existed in the world for about a thousand years. During those thousand years, there were vampires who liked to court death and would self-harm in various ways to enjoy the pain. However, in those thousand years, the vampire clan really failed to discover the special effects of wooden stakes and silver objects on themselves. But after a human was captured by that green-haired man from back then, several weaknesses were revealed one after another.

It's as if their vampire clan, which has existed for thousands of years, hasn't lived as long as any human. It's a bit embarrassing to think about.

The reason for correcting Hayato and Malik is mainly because Camus has been traveling in this world for so long since his resurrection. Occasionally, he would encounter two humans who discovered his vampire identity. When they wanted to kill him, they would inexplicably drag him out into the scorching sun, which he didn't like, and feed him foul-smelling garlic. Although it didn't have any effect, it was still very unpleasant and uncomfortable.

Camus wants to revive the vampire clan, but the first thing he needs to do is dispel this inexplicable rumor. The vampire clan is not afraid of the sun or garlic; it's too damaging to their reputation.

"Do you know why I'm telling you about the vampires' weakness? You despicable humans, with your vile methods, no bottom line, no respect for power, and no fear of anything, like Hayato Kobayashi? The answer is, I sensed it. The intense dark power emanating from the card at the top of my deck."

Raising his duel disk, Camus flashed a confident smile, his expression menacing. "While your performance in your turn was quite impressive, you'd be sorely mistaken if you thought that would make the noble vampires submit to you!"

"Tremble before this card that represents the ultimate power of the vampires!"

"My turn, here to display the glory of the vampires and the despair of darkness, draw a card!"

Camus's smile grew even more arrogant as he yanked out the top card of his deck. The dark power residing within the card he had just drawn was now unleashed as it was no longer suppressed!

"Clang!"

However, before the dark power on the card in Camus's hand could spread far, a golden light suddenly shone from the Millennium Wisdom Wheel on Hayato's chest. At the same time, the Winged Dragon of Ra in the sky also emitted a strong light like the sun, suppressing the darkness on the card and keeping it around Camus from spreading.

Although unaffected by the emanating dark power, Hayato frowned strangely. The reason was simple: he had a rather odd feeling, as if he had experienced the same dark power as the card somewhere before.

Isn't that strange? Camus said that card was the ultimate power of the vampires, something that existed hundreds of years ago, but Hayato felt a sense of familiarity with it.

Before Hayato could think for long, he saw Camus throw out the card in his hand, and a huge door suddenly rose up behind Camus. The door that Hayato was very familiar with slowly opened.

“…Damn it.” Looking at the gate in front of him, Hayato paused for a moment before slowly uttering this single word.

Anyone would be unsettled to see something that almost killed them reappear. You see, the last time Hayato saw something like this, he was prepared to sacrifice himself.

His fist was hardened. Recalling how he almost got killed by Anubis, Hayato naturally transferred that resentment to Camus, who used the move a second time, regardless of the fact that Anubis himself had actually been fused into a card by Hayato.

The card that Camus played at this moment was none other than the "Gate of the Pyramid of Light," a creation formed by Anubis, who, in desperation and in a desperate attempt to drag Hayato down with him, manipulated the three Phantom Demons using knowledge he had learned from the "Millennium Magic Book"—a being called the "Gate of the Phantom Demons"!

Camus had no idea what Hayato was thinking when his face suddenly darkened. He assumed that Hayato was trembling with fear because he sensed the powerful force emanating from the [Gate of Illusions]. Camus laughed triumphantly and said, "[Gate of Illusions], this card is the true trump card in my deck. It has absolutely invincible power and is the ultimate power that the noble vampires have inherited since their birth!"

"This card's effect is to destroy all monsters on your opponent's field!" Camus pointed at Hayato's field. "Let everything lead to the end of nothingness!"

As Camus finished speaking, the [Gate of Illusions] opened completely. With a "boom," Hayato's [Inferno Lilith] and [Cyber ​​Dragon] were crushed by the dark power released from the gate without any resistance and were destroyed and sent to the graveyard.

But that wasn't all. Camus continued, "After that, I can choose one monster from all the monsters my opponent has summoned in this duel and Special Summon it to my field, ignoring all restrictions."

"The monster I'm choosing is the one with the highest attack power, the [Hellfire Teara] in your graveyard!"

Amid Camus's loud laughter, the [Hellfire Machine - Tiera], who had been fried and eaten by Hayato and sent to the graveyard, reappeared, shrouded in black aura and looking extremely evil.

【Hellfire Machine - Tiera】【ATK3400】

Although it wasn't much better to begin with.

"Seeing your monster appear on the opponent's field, Hayato Kobayashi, how do you feel right now? How do you feel right now!"

Seeing Camus's arrogant smile, Malik couldn't help but complain, "Isn't that effect a bit too cheating? There's no cost whatsoever to using a card with such an exaggerated effect?"

"No price at all? Heh, not at all." Hearing Malik's words, Camus, feeling confident of victory, explained smugly, "The [Gate of Illusions] has a terrifying activation condition: the soul of the loser of this duel will be devoured by the 'Illusion Demon' within the [Gate of Illusions]."

With a cold laugh, Camus pointed to himself and said, "In your words, 'Powerful cards often come with great risks'? Unfortunately, I prepared a substitute for my soul beforehand. Humans are really useful; not only can they provide blood for vampires to drink, but their souls can also be used to pay the price for using powerful abilities."

As he spoke, Camus snapped his fingers, and a phantom soul emerged from his body and disappeared into the door behind him.

Seeing this, even Malik, the former leader of a notorious villainous organization, couldn't help but feel displeased. He looked at Camus and said, "How dare you harm innocent people like this! How many people have you killed so far?!"

"Ha, do you even remember how much bread you've eaten?" Camus replied nonchalantly to Malik's question.

Chapter 680 Although it's not written on the card, this card can be Special Summoned.

Instead of instinctively answering "Thirteen slices, I'm a Japanese food enthusiast," Hayato gave Malik a slightly strange look, wondering why the guy was so agitated, acting as if he were some kind of good person.

Although we don't know what Camus, this vampire, is usually like, his act of casually sucking the blood of the flight attendant who was being held hostage just now shows that he simply treats humans as moving food. His answer to Malik's question, "Do you remember how many slices of bread you've eaten?" also confirms this.

However, how much better is Malik? The fact that he killed his own father shows that he is not a good person. After founding Grus, he printed pirated cards of the Winged Dragon of Ra in order to test and explore the power of the God Cards as much as possible, and even used his subordinates as sacrifices to suffer divine punishment.

But then Hayato thought again and realized why Malik was so agitated. It was simply because he saw Camus take the place of other people's souls to suffer the punishment of the Dark Games, and it reminded him of when he was thrown out as a substitute by his own dark personality in Duel City.

That makes sense.

Looking at his empty front row due to the effect of [Phantom Gate], and the powerful [Inferno Machine - Tierra] that had also come to his field due to the same effect of [Phantom Gate], Camus smiled smugly: "Without a doubt, I have the future of victory in my hands now. That card in your back row is the one you recovered with [Washer Dragon's Dilemma], isn't it?"

"Hmph, what a pity. That card can only be used after your next turn, right? That means that without any cards to protect you, I'll be launching a direct attack right away!"

"Entering the battle phase, and although I don't have the ability to deal damage, I will use this [Ra's Winged Rathalos - Spherical Shape] that originally belonged to you to launch an attack on you!"

"Ultra-Ultimate Solar Impact!"

Camus grinned maliciously and waved his hand, giving the order.

In regular duels using Kaiba Corporation's virtual projection system, the intensity of the impact on the duelist is generally determined by the magnitude of the damage; monsters with higher attack power can cause a greater impact, even destroying the dueling ring. However, cards with the power of spirits and Dark Games follow a different set of rules.

The monster's attack power is no longer the most important factor in determining the amount of damage. Instead, things like the card's "rank" are more important. For example, although [Narcissus] is a Level 1 monster with only 0 attack power, it almost knocked out Hayato and Yugi in the Dark Game that Pegasus started.

While the information about Ra's Winged Rathalos doesn't quite match the one Camus remembered, its "divine" attribute is undeniable. Even if a monster of this level has zero attack power, a direct attack from it would be enough to give Hayato a hard time.

But this is contingent on the Winged Ra - Sphere form truly obeying Camus's orders and attacking Hayato.

Camus had been declaring his attack for quite some time, but the golden egg in the sky seemed oblivious to his command, remaining motionless for a long while, much to Camus's puzzlement. Could it be that he didn't know the correct name of the card's attack move, hence the lack of response?

"Don't be discouraged. One in five men experiences this. It's normal to be unable to perform as you get older."

Hayato's teasing made Camus realize that his inability to use [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra - Spherical Shape] was indeed unrelated to him: "Why is that? Why can't this monster attack you?"

"Would you look up at the sun and ask it why it shines?" Hayato raised his hand and pointed to the sun in the sky. "The reason you can't attack me with [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Form] is, of course, because of the bond between me and [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Form], which makes it refuse to harm me!"

This is a lie.

Hayato was simply fooling Camus by claiming that the words written on the card [Ra's Winged Dragon - Sphere] were ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that Camus didn't recognize.

Although Hayato went on a card-drawing spree after the Duel City arc to get the "Creator of Light," only to be defeated after drawing a bunch of support cards for the Egyptian God cards, the "Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere" card he's using now wasn't drawn at that time. It was a split that "Winged Dragon of Ra" itself created long before the Duel City finals against Kaiba, because it didn't want to be removed from Hayato's deck.

Furthermore, it seems that the spirit of Ra's original form was also transferred to the card Ra's original form, which went to the Spirit World with Hayato during the "Pyramid of Light" incident. Therefore, a card of Ra's original form without the power of a spirit was used as a substitute, thus avoiding the fate of having its power absorbed by "Orichalcos".

As a card split from [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra], [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere] uses conventional characters for its name and attributes, but its effect description area is blank, just like [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra]. The ability details, written in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, only appear after the card is summoned.

This script is so special that Hayato knows of no more than ten people who are capable of deciphering it, including Kaiba, Yugi, Sugoroku, Isis, Malik, and Hayato himself. There are only these six people. Even Pegasus, the creator of the card, cannot decipher it.

Of the six people, only Malik and Isis are Egyptian. The other four have no connection to Egypt whatsoever. Moreover, aside from the fact that Sugoroku had traveled to ancient sites all over the world, Hayato, Yugi, and Kaiba have never learned a single word of Egyptian hieroglyphs. They can't even understand modern Egyptian hieroglyphs, yet they can understand the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that have long been lost without any instruction.

Hayato couldn't remember the specific principles, but he was certain that Camus, the vampire, couldn't understand the effects on the cards, so he could start spouting nonsense without any scruples.

If Malik, who is currently standing on the sidelines, were to examine the text on the card closely, he could decipher the following information:

This card cannot be Special Summoned. If this card is Normal Summoned, you must Tribute three monsters on your field to Summon it, or Tribute three monsters on your opponent's field to Summon it. Control of this card that is Normal Summoned returns to its original owner during the End Phase of the next turn.

①: This card cannot attack and cannot be the target of the opponent's attacks or effects.

②: You can activate this effect by Tributing this card. Special Summon one "Winged Dragon of Ra" from your hand or Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions, and change its ATK and DEF to 4000.

'Although it's not written on the card, this card has that effect.'.jpg

Camus wasn't sure if Hayato was telling the truth or not. The situation on the field was indeed as Hayato described—[Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere] refused to attack him. However, Camus's intuition told him that Hayato, this guy who talked nonsense, was lying to him, but he couldn't produce any evidence. He also couldn't understand the meaning of the scribbled characters on the [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere] card.

But it doesn't matter. It's just that one monster can't attack. I still have another monster on my field, which is the [Hellfire Machine - Tierra] that I stole from Hayato's grave!

"Since that's the case, then I'll use this monster to attack! [Hellfire Machine - Tiera], strike your master down!"

"Ultimate Flame Impact!"

"The name is terrible! It's just a word different from that ridiculous attack move called 'Rathalos - Spherical'!" Malik chimed in with a quick comment. "I'd rather accept my brother-in-law's haphazard naming than this kind of perfunctory move name."

“I’m so touched, Malik, but let me correct you again, I’m not your brother-in-law.”

As Hayato spoke, he looked down at him from above, where the giant beast with the head of a lion and the body of a snake—[Hellfire Machine Tiera]—its eyes shrouded in black mist. The two spheres in its hands were about to smash down, but its face remained calm and unhurried: "Trying to use my monster against me? Heh, what a show of authority! But it's still 20,000 years too early!"

"At this very moment, the effect of [Rainbow Kuriboh] in my graveyard activates!"

That's right. Of the three cards that were dumped from the top of Hayato's deck to the graveyard by the second effect of [Hellfire Tira], besides [Heavenly Treasure] and [Laundry Dragon Girl Dilemma] which recycled one card, the third card was none other than Hayato's invincible Aibo, the eternal god [Rainbow Kuriboh]!

What is the real Tamashi? (Tactical lean back)

As [Hellfire Tierra] prepared to launch its attack, a rainbow-like ribbon flew out from Hayato's Duel Disk area, forming a wall of light around him. When the two black and white spheres in [Hellfire Tierra]'s hands, whose attack power surpassed that of [Blue-Eyes White Dragon], slammed down, they failed to budge this wall of light in the slightest. It was as if all misfortune had been rejected outside the light barrier in that instant!

"Soy milk~" Looking at the Rainbow Kuriboh floating in front of him, supporting a wall of light, Hayato covered his face with one hand and laughed loudly inside the light wall, "See that, Camus? The card spirit likes me, Hayato Kobayashi! You won't even have a chance to hurt me with the slightest bit of damage!"

"If Rainbow Kuriboh is in my Graveyard, activate her effect when your opponent declares a direct attack. Special Summon Rainbow Kuriboh from my Graveyard, and then banish the Rainbow Kuriboh Special Summoned by this effect if it leaves the field."

【Rainbow Chestnut Balls】【DEF100】

A mere 100 points of defense is so weak, like a light barrier that seems to break at the slightest touch. Yet, it is precisely this mere 100 points of defense that has blocked the attack of [Hellfire Machine - Tiera]. Even infinite power would be blocked by this defense.

However, this defense only lasted for a moment. As the Rainbow Kuriboh disappeared, the light barrier around Hayato shattered.

"Even in this absolutely isolated and helpless situation, a spirit still appears?" As a vampire, a supernatural race, Camus naturally noticed that a spirit resided on the [Rainbow Kuriboh] card. Feeling very annoyed by the thwarted attack, he gritted his teeth and said, "You won't be so lucky next turn, Hayato Kobayashi. I'll change [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere] to Defense Position, and then end this turn."

Camus only drew the card "Phantom Gate" this turn. After using it, he had no cards left in his hand. He couldn't make any plays in the second main phase after the battle phase ended. Since he didn't know the effect of "Ra's Winged Dragon - Sphere", he felt that he couldn't let this weakling with 0 attack power become Hayato's breakthrough to defeat him. So he changed it to defense position to avoid being hit by a high-attack direct hit.

"Next round? No, you don't have a next round, Camus."

However, to Camus's surprise, the moment after he declared the end of the round, Hayato raised his hand and pointed to the sky: "Grandma said that as long as I want it, fate will definitely be on my side, and the same is true of the sun's radiance."

"Return to my side, [Rathalos]!"

As Hayato finished speaking, Camus's eyes widened in surprise. He saw that the [Raydinosaur - Sphere Form], which had been hovering high above his own field and completely unresponsive like a deaf person, suddenly lit up twice after hearing Hayato's call and scurried over to Hayato's field, as if it had been waiting impatiently for a long time!

"Control of [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere] returns to its original owner at the end of the turn following its successful summoning." Hayato didn't explain this effect to Camus, but instead caught the [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere] card that materialized out of thin air in his hand, saying, "Now, I hold the future in my hands."

Camus: 4000LP, 0 cards in hand

【Hellfire Machine - Tiera】【ATK3400】

"Tch, after eating my three monsters, it ran back? Did it treat the duel like a buffet?!" Camus looked at Hayato's golden egg on the field with displeasure and snorted coldly. "Hmph, so what? It's just a weak monster, what waves can it possibly make?"

Camus's base score is still 4000 points, and he also has the [Hellfire Machine Tiera] he took from Hayato to protect him. He can't think of any way he could lose.

“Is that so? Then open your eyes wide and watch closely, Camus. This is my struggle for victory.” Hayato said, drawing a card from his deck but not playing it. Instead, he pointed to the [Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere] above his head.

"The stage I promised you is ready. Although it's just a small role, don't worry about it. Let's show our brilliance to the fullest, [Ra's Winged Dragon]!"

"I release [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere], and then Special Summon [Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra] from my Deck!"

"I'll skip the long introduction and the priestly text; come forth, [Ra's Winged Dragon]!"