Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"Please lend me your strength!"

“In this way, when I die and enter the underworld, I will be able to face the previous pharaohs.” As he said this, tears welled up in Aknadi’s eyes, as if he were deeply moved.

Upon hearing Aknadi's passionate speech, the soldiers, who had initially been puzzled as to why Aknadi had led them all the way from the royal city to the ruins of the bandit village, suddenly felt the sacred mission they carried.

If Aknadi hadn't told them, they really wouldn't have known such explosive news. Priest Set had actually repelled the thief Bakura, who even Pharaoh and Priest Shada couldn't handle. And now they were actually here to chase after the thief Bakura. So if I were lucky enough to capture Bakura, wouldn't I be practically the Pharaoh?

Lord Aknadi is so kind to us, he really is... I'm so happy I could cry.

"Lord Aknadi!" "We swear to defend the kingdom to the death!" "For the Pharaoh!"

Almost without Aknadi saying anything more, the soldiers had already spontaneously begun searching for the ruins of the bandit village of Kreelna. The previous rumors of a "curse" and an "ominous place" were no longer a concern, and they were all full of energy.

The pitch-black alleyway is indeed terrifying for those who are afraid of the dark, but if you also witness someone throwing a gold brick into it, that fear will probably be relieved in an instant.

Before long, thanks to the efforts of the soldiers who were wholeheartedly devoted to their country, they actually found something—they found a basement. Although they couldn't find the whereabouts of Bakura, which they were most looking for, they did find a very unusual stone slab with the image of a monster engraved on it.

Aknadi was the priest who knew the stone tablet monster best among the priests, and he was also the priest in charge of handling and keeping the stone tablet. The soldiers who did not act rashly reported this to Aknadi immediately and brought him to the stone tablet.

Not many people came down from the empty room. There were only three people: the soldier who first discovered the basement and the stone slab, the soldier who led the way, and Aknadi. After Aknadi saw the stone slab, he immediately said with certainty, "Yes, that's right. This stone slab is the [Diaband] stone slab used by the thief Bakula."

"Just as you said, Lord Aknadi, the thief Bakula is indeed hiding here!" the soldier exclaimed excitedly.

Aknadi nodded, glanced at the Diaband stone tablet in front of him a few more times, and then said, "Bakura's ability to do whatever he wants is nothing more than this Diaband. Although I cannot destroy this stone tablet, because that would release the evil monster sealed within, I will leave it here to seal it so that Bakura can no longer summon Diaband."

"Tell the others that you must act even faster, and capture Bakula before he can summon Diaband again and escape."

Patting the soldier on the shoulder, Aknadi said with a kind expression, "The fate of the world is in your hands."

"Yes, Lord Aknadi!" Entrusted with an important task by Aknadi, the soldiers were naturally extremely excited. They were not worried that Aknadi, who had the best reputation among the priests, would take credit for their discovery of the stone tablet. They immediately turned around and left the basement with the [Diabund] stone tablet, so as not to disturb the priest's work on the stone tablet because they did not understand the stone tablet monster.

As the two men left, Aknadi's smile vanished, replaced by a treacherous sneer.

"Heh, you idiot, there's no Bakula here."

Aknadi's initial purpose in coming to the Thieves' Village was indeed to find Bakura, seeking cooperation to assassinate Yami Yugi. If Yami Yugi died, the Pharaoh's position would be vacant, allowing Set to become Pharaoh without Aknadi having to get his hands dirty—a win-win situation.

However, despite this plan, halfway through the journey, under Bakura's manipulation outside the chessboard, Aknati sensed the death of Bakura, who had gained the same dark power as him. The disappearance of his partner, however, filled Aknati with unexpected joy. Bakura's death was irrelevant; he could instead seize the opportunity to obtain the power Bakura had left behind.

That power exists in the Thieves' Village, its original destination, and one of its components is the stone tablet of Diaband in front of it.

The destruction of the stone slab would release the monsters. Aknadi was just fooling the soldiers who knew nothing about the stone slab monsters. He deliberately sent the soldiers away and looked at the stone slab of [Diabund]. Aknadi completely unleashed the power of the [Millennium Eye] and made direct contact with the vengeful spirits and malice entwined on the stone slab.

Malice, terror, anger, hatred, despair, struggle, murderous intent, destruction, annihilation, extinction...

Negative emotions, capable of almost devouring all normal human thought, engulfed Aknadi's mind. On the stone slab of [Diaband], formed from the evil thoughts of the villagers who were slaughtered in the village of thieves, evil spirits clung to their killer—Aknadi before them!

The evil spirit rushed into Aknadi's body from his gaping mouth, but in this situation, Aknadi's smile became even more wicked, the [Millennium Eye] blazing with light, and his voice, filled with madness, rang out: "All those who stand in the way of Set becoming Pharaoh, I, Aknadi, will purge you!"

"God, kneel before me!"

"I am, the High Priest of Darkness!"

Chapter 779 The streets are really quiet.

After traveling for a whole afternoon, until the sun had completely sunk below the horizon and disappeared, and the stars were shining brightly in the sky, Hayato and his party finally arrived near the thief village of Clay Elna.

On a small hill, Isis said to Hayato beside her, "Hayato, the ruins of Clay Elna are just ahead."

From afar, Hayato on the hill could see a scorched earth. Although in Hayato's memory, Klay Elna did indeed disappear into a sea of ​​fire, that was fifteen years ago. It was quite unusual that Klay Elna, now in the desert, had not been erased by the sandstorms after fifteen years.

Behind Hayato, Mariko, who had had enough of the long journey, got off the camel and rubbed his backside without caring about his image. Even though the camel's back was cushioned by a layer of fat, sitting on a camel for almost ten hours had made Mariko extremely uncomfortable. He complained, "I say, since we're already so close, it wouldn't hurt to rest for a night before going over."

"That Maliku is really lame."

Hayato glanced at Kaima, who had ridden a bicycle and a dragon but never a camel, and looked quite relaxed and comfortable on horseback. Then he looked at Mariko, who was clearly from the desert but was performing poorly. Hayato expressed his disdain and said, "Although we are indeed very close, it seems like we will be there in about ten minutes. Asking for a night's rest doesn't seem unreasonable."

“But I refused. Because what I, Hayato Kobayashi, like to do most is to say 'no' to self-righteous people.”

“Now that we’re so close, Maliku, just bear with it a little longer. Things will be much easier once we get to Kreel.”

Hayato adapted a parent's rhetoric that things would be easier in college, successfully calming Mariko down and stopping him from complaining further. Muttering, "You're likely to run into ghosts if you're traveling at night," the group climbed the hill and continued towards Clay Elna.

But as they walked, Kalim, who was at the front of the group, noticed something was amiss. With his keen observation skills, he glanced at the ground and noticed that there were many footprints left in the sand ahead of them.

In the desert, footprints are buried by the wind and destroyed by shifting sands, and they certainly don't last long. The large area of ​​clear footprints in front of them is unlikely to have been left a long time ago. This means that someone had been to Klay Elna not long before they arrived, and judging from the number of footprints, there were quite a few people there!

"Mr. Hayato..."

“Yes, I noticed that too.” Hayato nodded, his brow furrowing. “So many footprints, I have a bad feeling. Everyone, stay alert as you move forward.”

Continuing into the village, a patch of scorched earth was covered with messy footprints, as if the people who came before had conducted a large-scale, dispersed search for something. However, despite the many footprints, the village was eerily silent, as if all the footprints were just illusions and that no one had actually been to the village.

The wind whistled through the gaps in the wreckage, accompanied by the panting of camels, the breathing of people, and the sound of camel hooves pounding on the sand—this was all that could be heard in this silent place.

However, after walking into the village for a while, suddenly, a "crack" sound came from somewhere, as if someone had broken something.

"The streets are really quiet. We didn't see anyone who came here before us. They probably found nothing and left," Mariko said casually. But Hayato suddenly reached out and grabbed his collar as he continued walking. "Watch out!"

As Maliku's camel stepped on a slightly sunken stone brick, the decaying brick suddenly shattered, and the camel, without any foothold, stumbled and fell. At the same moment, several arms made of human bones burst forth from beneath the sand-buried ground. Despite the lack of muscle exertion, the bony hands easily pierced the fallen camel's body, killing it instantly!

Mariko was still in shock. If Hayato hadn't pulled him back in time, he probably would have been ambushed and killed like his camel!

"Click!" "Click!" "Click!"

The killing of Maliku's camel at the front was not an isolated incident. Almost simultaneously, the ground around the others also split open, and one after another, terrifying skeletons crawled out, brandishing sharp bone claws and attacking the group.

However, it wasn't just Hayato who reacted. Apart from Maric, Carim, Isis, and Kaiba all raised their Gladiator's Disks and summoned their respective monsters.

"[Thunder Dragon]!"

"[Argento]!"

"Blue-Ace-Tilted-Head-Doragon!"

Amidst the honest summoning of Kalim and Isis, and the passionate chanting of Kaiba, only two monsters appeared before the three who were raising their gladiator disks to summon.

Isis and Carim looked at Kaiba strangely, wondering why he was yelling so loudly when he hadn't summoned anything. Kaiba, annoyed, put down the Arena: "Tch, even using the Arena didn't work? Is the bond between us still not enough to make you respond, [Blue-Eyes]?"

Although the imposing seahorse ultimately failed to summon anything and caused a blunder, the two monsters summoned by Kalim and Isis were more than enough to deal with the skeleton monsters in front of them.

Although it can be a little frightening to suddenly see a bare skeleton, if you drape these skeletons in a cloth, they're just the infamous "minor monster" [White Bones].

As priests, Kalim and Isis performed far worse than the disgraceful Marik. They showed no mercy to the skeletons that had just attacked them with the intention of killing them, and the two commanded their respective monsters to easily destroy the group of skeletons closest to them.

"Hmph, even Priestess Isis is working hard, so I, Kalim, must also step up my game. After all, I can't let all my years of effort go to waste." Glancing at Isis beside him, Kalim said with great enthusiasm, "Then let's continue, the rest of the [Thunder Dragons]!"

Without wasting a single square on the gladiator's disk, Kalim summoned all three Thunder Dragons in one go and sent them all charging outwards.

Unlike Kalim, Isis wasn't driven by a strong competitive spirit. Instead, she used the power of the Millennium Jewelry to the fullest extent, beginning to foresee the future. The Millennium Jewelry's ability to foresee the future has two modes: one is to actively glimpse fragments of the future, and the other is for the Millennium Jewelry to automatically warn of impending danger in a passive situation.

Compared to the latter, using the former would be a considerable burden for Isis, and Isis could not always be in a state of proactively foreseeing the future. Therefore, Isis used the latter mode most of the time and only used the former in a few necessary situations. The passive mode was sufficient to warn of most crises.

After Bakura's death, Isis used the Millennium Jewelry once. At that time, she clearly saw that the future would be restored and that she could clearly foresee it. On her way to the Thieves' Village, she also confirmed that the Millennium Jewelry was still working normally.

However, when the horde of skeletons emerged from the ground and attacked everyone, the Millennium Jewelry did not give any warning, which was very unusual. After all, the putrid stench unique to the undead was impossible to conceal from the horde of skeletons that emerged from the ground. The Millennium Jewelry, which is very sensitive to dark forces, should have given a warning in advance.

Upon entering the Thieves' Village and using the power of the Millennium Jewelry for the first time, Isis was stunned. She discovered that the phenomenon of the future being obscured by darkness, which had existed since Bakura's appearance, had reappeared, and the power of this darkness was even greater than the darkness brought by Bakura.

Using the power of the Millennium Jewelry, Isis managed to capture a glimpse of the future, albeit with all her might—a scene of her and her companions' camels being killed by the Skeletons.

Isis suddenly remembered that although it was normal for the [Bones] to be defeated by her and the priest Kalim’s stone tablet monsters, the resistance they encountered was far too weak. Moreover, these monsters should be classified as undead monsters, so how could they be defeated so easily?

A thought suddenly popped into Isis's mind, and she quickly reminded Kalim, who had already let the Thunder Dragon fight its way too far: "No, Priest Kalim, this is a trap! Quickly bring your Slate Monster back!"

Isis's warning was as timely as possible, but it was still a step too late. The bones on the ground, which had been easily destroyed by the attacks of the Thunder Dragons, actually reassembled on their own and charged towards Kalim before the Thunder Dragons could react!

Immediately, Isis summoned two more stone tablet monsters—[Keldor] and [Kelberk]—to protect the group. However, the expected attack on the people on the camels never came. The group left the camels unharmed, but all the camels they had ridden were killed without exception.

Even the slowest to react sensed something was amiss. Even Marik said with some bewilderment, "It feels like these monsters aren't targeting us, but our camels? Were they kicked to death by the camels? Why do they have such a deep hatred for camels?"

“No, I’m afraid the controllers behind these [Bones] are planning to kill our mounts as soon as possible so that we can’t leave this ruin.” Kalim voiced his conjecture, controlling the [Thunder Dragon] to return and protect him.

This time, having already been exposed, they no longer bothered to pretend. The [Bones] displayed a completely different combat power than before. They were no longer as easily killed by any attack, regardless of its intensity, as they had been at the beginning. Even Kalim's [Thunder Dragon] was slightly injured during its return attack.

After the Thunder Dragons returned to Kalim's side, the Skeletons who had fallen due to the Thunder Dragons' attacks demonstrated a powerful resurrection ability. Their disassembled skeletons were pieced back together in an instant, and even broken bones quickly healed themselves.

"What's the purpose of leaving us here?" Seahorse frowned, looking at the swarm of skeletons surrounding them. After fighting for so long, the number of skeletons hadn't decreased at all; on the contrary, more and more skeletons were gathering from all over the village as time went on. "This will never end. If my Blue Eye is here..."

"Stop thinking about your Blue Eye all day. We need to find the source of these bones." Hayato said, the Millennium Wisdom Wheel on his chest glowing slightly, the golden cones on the disc pointing to a single location. "The Millennium Wisdom Wheel can guide us. The task of clearing the way for us is entrusted to you, Kalim!"

"Don't worry, Mr. Hayato!" Kalim knew that Hayato wanted to save his power for last, to deal with the source of the [Bones]. The [Ra's Winged Dragon] had proven its power many times, and Kalim had great faith in it. He didn't complain at all about clearing the way. "Then, I'll begin. The power of the [Millennium Scales] will be displayed here!"

"Come forth, my strongest stone tablet monster, [Two-Headed Thunder Dragon]! And then, unleash the maximum-range spread lightning cannon!"

Despite its lackluster appearance, the powerful Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon appeared before the group. Following the direction indicated by Hayato's Millennium Wisdom Wheel, the Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon unleashed a pillar of lightning, clearing away all the skeletons blocking its path.

However, even the attacks of the [Two-Headed Thunder Dragon] failed to completely destroy the [Bones]. The [Bones] that were knocked down quickly recovered and regrouped. But Kalim hadn't intended to kill them by having the [Two-Headed Thunder Dragon] spread its attack range as much as possible; clearing a path forward was enough.

Maric, who was incredibly cowardly in battle but excelled at running away, took the lead and ran ahead, followed by Hayato and Isis. Kaiba and Karim brought up the rear, and the five of them charged forward headfirst. The Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon cleared a path twice before the Millennium Wisdom Wheel led them to a well-preserved house, a rarity in the ruined thief village.

With practiced ease, Malik kicked open the locked door and rushed inside. The others followed suit. When Kalim, the last person in the group, entered, Malik slammed the door shut without hesitation, even grabbing Kalim's arm, which was about to grab him, causing it to writhe on the ground.

Although the house wasn't a particularly sturdy fortress, the [Bones] were ultimately just a bunch of weaklings who were troublesome and numerous, but didn't possess any real strength. The people who entered the house were temporarily safe, and they then noticed that a section of the wall had been smashed open, revealing a staircase leading to the underground.

Chapter 780 Impossible, Absolutely Impossible

No matter how you look at it, these steps leading to the underground don't seem like a cellar built by an ordinary family. After all, anyone with eyes can see the broken wall at the entrance, and just by standing in front of the steps, Hayato and his group can feel the dark aura constantly surging from underground.

With the guidance of the [Millennial Wisdom Wheel], there is no doubt that this staircase leads to the source of power for the large groups of [White Bones] in the Thieves Village.

Hayato and Kaiba exchanged a glance, then walked together at the front down the steps, with Kalim and Isis following closely behind. Marik initially hesitated to follow, but without Hayato and the others urging him on, the sound of the [skeleton] scraping against the wall outside the door startled Marik, who quickly caught up.

The steps weren't very long. As they walked down, Hayato and the others arrived at a spacious underground space. It was pitch black, and they could only vaguely see a figure sitting on a raised spot not far in front of the steps. That was also the place where the darkness was most intense.

Without a doubt, the attack by the [Bones] earlier must have been caused by that person. The impatient Kalim walked ahead and approached the figure in the opposite direction, questioning, "Hey, you cowardly rat hiding over there, is it you who manipulated those monsters on the ground to ambush us!"

In response to Kalim's question, as soon as he finished speaking, flames suddenly burst forth from all around the underground space, illuminating the darkness. The sudden burst of flames made Kalim instinctively tense up, but after realizing there was nothing else amiss, he calmed down and looked at the figure still in the unlit darkness.

"Who exactly are you?!"

Kalim questioned him again, and this time, the man finally reacted, looking up at Kalim. For a moment, Kalim felt as if he had been suddenly immersed in ice water, as if he had been seen through completely.

Looking at Kalim, the man said, "I am, the priest..."

“Unlike you priests who serve the Pharaoh, the light, and the gods, I am a priest who serves the underworld and the abyss, who serves darkness.” Standing up, the figure in the darkness looked down at the crowd. “I am the High Priest of Darkness.”

"Heh, what nonsense, Dark High Priest?" Kalim said dismissively, but as the other person stood up, and the flickering firelight illuminated the figure, Kalim's brows furrowed. "Th-that is!"

His waist-length, messy red hair looked as if it were dyed with blood. He wore a sinister purple armor, and a cloak covered most of his body, revealing only his dark hands with sharp nails. Even his face was mostly covered by a mask, with only his left eye showing.

But it was this exposed left eye that shocked Kalim, for the left eye of the person before him was none other than the "Millennium Eye," the "Millennium Artifact" of the Aknadi priest!?

Furthermore, looking down at the figure, one could see that it was standing on a human-shaped stone slab, with numerous empty spaces, the shapes of which corresponded perfectly to all seven Millennium Artifacts known to Kalim. At this moment, two of the empty spaces on the slab had already been filled with gold—that was—