Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Hayato responded with an eye roll: "Seriously, you've ruined the whole atmosphere of breaking into Resident Evil."

Although Fujiwara Yusuke, who lived there, had disappeared, the dormitory was not without power despite being locked up. As Hayato flipped the switch, the indoor lights connected to it turned on, and Daitokuji was able to muster up a little courage and walk into the villa's hall.

As soon as Hayato entered the villa, he saw several stone slabs placed on both sides of the rather spacious hall, and the patterns engraved on the stone slabs were none other than the [Millennium Items]!

Given that Daitokuji Temple had previously mentioned that the villa had been lent to them by Fujiwara Yusuke for the alchemy advancement club's activities, Hayato naturally suspected someone of being the source of these stone tablets.

"Master Daitokuji?"

"No, don't misunderstand, Principal Hayato. While I did place these stone tablets here to create an atmosphere for the Alchemy Advancement Club's activities, they're all fake, meow!" Daitokuji quickly explained as soon as he heard Hayato call his name. "These are clay tablets that I copied myself after downloading pictures from the Egyptian Antiquities Authority's official website, meow."

"Clay tablets?" Upon hearing this, Hayato moved a little closer and confirmed that, as Daitokuji had said, these "stone tablets" were actually just clay tablets that imitated the patterns of stone tablets, and were not genuine stone tablets at all. "No wonder the ancient Egyptian priestly script written on them is such a nonsensical mess with so many typos. All those pictures posted on the Egyptian Antiquities Authority's official website are fake."

"Huh? How do you know such inside information, Principal Hayato? No, thinking about it carefully, isn't the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script supposed to be lost? Even after tomb raiding in Egypt... I mean, I've been doing archaeology for a long time and still can't decipher it."

Upon hearing Daitokuji's words, Hayato touched a ring on the ring finger of his left hand and casually said, "Is ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs difficult? I'm not bragging, but in my high school class of forty people, if you threw a brick at anyone, there was a one in ten chance that it would hit someone who could decipher or even read the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs."

Chapter 1047 The Eye of Ugato

Ignoring the clay tablets that were fake in every way, Hayato and Daitokuji walked through the hall and deeper into the villa. After passing through a corridor, they arrived at what seemed to be a living room, but all they saw were white cloths covering the sofas and coffee tables to keep out the dust.

Up to this point, everything was still within the scope of the dormitory design submitted by Fujiwara Yusuke to the academy. However, on the wall at the end of the living room on the first basement floor, which was clearly unused and lower than Hayato and the others and required stairs to descend, there was a crudely made opening that allowed at least three people to walk side by side into the tunnel.

Judging from the huge oil painting placed beside the tunnel, which is taller than Hayato, that's probably how Fujiwara Yusuke usually covers up this expansion project.

"So I still maintain that the school assigns too little homework. If they had so much homework that they wouldn't have time to cause trouble after class, would they have gotten into such big trouble?" Hayato said to Daitokuji as they walked up the stairs, one after the other. "At least they wouldn't have had the energy to dig such a large tunnel."

"Um, it seems that Fujiwara-kun is also favored by the spirits," Daitokuji said weakly to Hayato, his narrowed eyes opening a crack as he looked into the deep tunnel.

He discovered this tunnel on his last visit. Daitokuji felt he had failed in his duty by not being able to detect his student's actions. However, more than regret, he couldn't understand why, although he could sense the dangerous aura outside the villa, he could no longer track down the threat even after entering the villa, even after arriving at this hidden tunnel.

Where did the magic power that was channeled by that inferior alchemical array go?

“With a spirit lending a hand, everything’s fine.” Unaware of what Daitokuji was pondering, Hayato walked ahead, showing no concern for the potential dangers of the tunnel, and entered. The tunnel wasn’t connected to the villa’s power and lighting systems, but it wasn’t very long overall. The bright lights in the living room illuminated a considerable distance, and after only two bends, Hayato and Daitokuji reached the exit at the other end of the tunnel.

Despite being underground and without any light source, and with the light from the villa behind them having been exhausted after several turns, Daitokuji and Hayato were able to see their surroundings with crystal clarity when they arrived at the exit of what should have been a pitch-black tunnel.

Beneath Fujiwara Yusuke's honor student dormitory, he had actually dug out a huge, nearly circular space and carved a rather complex alchemical array on the specially treated, leveled ground. Around the alchemical array, there were also eight snake-head statues placed at even intervals at key nodes.

“This is it, Mr. Hayato. This is the location of the outdated alchemical array I mentioned.” Daitokuji opened his eyes and looked at the alchemical array, which had no magical power whatsoever and looked like a failed experiment. “Although it’s not the first time I’ve seen it, I still have to say that even a third-rate alchemist probably couldn’t draw such a stupid array.”

"I don't know much about alchemy, can you explain it to me?" Hayato jumped down from the height difference at the tunnel exit and landed on the flat ground inscribed with alchemical circles. Looking at the crooked lines on the ground, he said, "Well, maybe I don't need to explain it."

"Alchemy isn't some idealistic thing like 'believing in the magic of the heart,' it's also very much about 'science.' But when Fujiwara Yusuke was drawing such an important alchemical diagram and performing the ritual without permission, he couldn't even draw a straight line or an arc properly. Am I supposed to teach someone alchemy by starting with how to draw an egg?!" Even the mild-mannered Daitokuji couldn't help but get a little angry. "It's only because he's studying at the Duel Academy that he deserves to fail! If he were at an art academy, he would only deserve to fail!"

"Fast forward to the speech in the pub and the 500,000 yen sushi."

As he spoke, Hayato stood up and looked around at the snake-headed statues: "But you can continue to talk about other extensions of this alchemy circle."

Upon hearing Hayato's interest in his field of expertise, Daitokuji immediately forgot about continuing to observe the alchemy circle and enthusiastically explained, "Although this alchemy circle is old-fashioned, it is actually a fairly classic composite array. It incorporates the concepts of 'life' and 'power,' which are located on the two rings at either end of the array. Furthermore, these two concepts are not fixed and can be transformed into each other. Finally, it is bound by the outermost 'summoning' array. It was the first original work I completed when I was thirty years old, and I recorded it in my notebook because it was very meaningful."

“Through the means of ‘summoning,’ this alchemical circle can summon ‘power’ and transform ‘power’ into ‘life’, or it can exchange ‘life’ for ‘power’ to achieve the result of ‘summoning’.” Daitokuji paused as he spoke, “But what I can’t understand is why Fujiwara Yusuke is so obsessed with the concepts of ‘life’ and ‘power’?”

"Because his parents died, and the existence of parents is often the last barrier between a person and death. I know quite a few people who have gone down a path of fanaticism after their parents die because they face death directly." Especially looking at the snake heads all around, it's hard not to think of that biologist in the "Ninja Shadow" film set next door who was way ahead of his time.

Although Hayato didn't quite remember how to activate the alchemy circle, he was certain that the snake heads surrounding it were not just decorations. Since snakes were a favorite decoration of the Atlanteans, these snake heads reminded Hayato of Dartz, the perpetually gay man who lusted after his good looks. Annoyed, Hayato reached out, and the Duel Disk he had already put on automatically unfolded.

"Hmph, even if you are just inanimate objects without any self-awareness, who allowed you reptiles who are only fit to crawl on the ground to stand up and look up at my glory?"

From Hayato's deck, the spirits emerge from the cards they reside in and begin to materialize, each tasked with dismantling the snake heads surrounding the alchemy circle.

But at that moment, as if sensing the danger they were about to encounter, the snake heads that had not emitted any magic power even when looked directly at by Daitokuji suddenly lit up with light from their mouths and shot out together, converging at the center of the alchemy array!

In an instant, a huge geoglyph suddenly lit up in the center of a depression in the alchemy circle. Although it was not very clear from Hayato's perspective, from Daitokuji's perspective, which was still standing on high ground, it was clearly a standard "Eye of Ugato"!

At the same time, the magic that Daitokuji couldn't find and had hidden before surged out of the alchemy circle with the lighting of the "Eye of Ugato", and in the blink of an eye it turned into a semi-circular black and purple energy shield, which enveloped Hayato in the alchemy circle!

Chapter 1048 Darkness

The alchemical array that suddenly activated formed a dark purple hemispherical energy shield that enveloped Hayato, making him look like a caged bird.

"Hayato-san!" Although he couldn't see what was happening outside, Hayato could hear Daitokuji, who hadn't been involved, anxiously calling his name from outside.

"Mr. Hayato, are you alright? You absolutely can't get hurt, I'm afraid to go back alone in the dark!"

Hearing Daitokuji's shouts, Hayato immediately replied, "Even if you die, I won't die. Instead of yelling, you should go outside and see how to remove this barrier."

"I'm so glad you're alright, Mr. Hayato!" Daitokuji said happily when he heard Hayato's voice coming from inside the energy shield. But after standing up and looking around, he replied to Hayato, "But it seems that won't work. This alchemy array suddenly activated and swallowed the entire array. We can't see anything from the outside. I'm afraid you'll have to operate it from the inside to deactivate it, Mr. Hayato."

"It's completely useless, Daitokuji." Hayato sighed, looking inside the energy shield, but could only see pitch black. The dark purple energy shield that isolated Hayato seemed to cover everything, even the alchemy array on the ground that Hayato could have seen by looking down was now covered by a layer of dark purple energy.

Gazing into the darkness, Hayato suddenly spoke: "You audacious monster, how dare you show off your skills in front of me! You truly don't know your place! Quickly reveal your true form!"

The instant Hayato finished speaking, holes actually appeared in the darkness in front of him, and a large number of soft, spherical monsters poured out and rushed towards him!

This energy shield was like a trap, imprisoning Hayato with these obviously difficult monsters!

"Clang!"

A sharp trident pierced the ground, and Gaia, appearing in the form of the Dark Knight Gaia Warrior, materialized beside Hayato. Even without making any attacking moves, Gaia's overwhelming aura alone suppressed these seemingly weak dark monsters, preventing them from approaching Hayato any further.

Meanwhile, the Half-Dragon Maid and Dragon Butler appeared right after Gaia and began hunting down the monsters that Hayato had imprisoned. Even the relatively weaker spirits like Rainbow Kuriboh were helping out. Even the Disruptive Monsters—well, that's not true. The Disruptive Monsters couldn't even handle a single monster and were being chased. It was only when the Armed Dragon casually stepped on one of them that they were saved.

Seemingly aware that these small fry would be ineffective against Hayato, the people controlling them behind the scenes began to eliminate the monsters as the spirits beside Hayato reacted. The monsters trapped in the energy shield with Hayato had nowhere to escape and were about to be wiped out. So, the monsters simply gathered together again and suddenly turned into cards.

After the remaining elves eliminated the scattered monsters, they stopped out of caution and temporarily observed the blackish-purple sphere formed by the cards. However, [Gray Flow Beauty] fearlessly kicked it, and then squatted down to cover her toes with tears in her eyes, which drew loud laughter from Little Blue, who was held back by [Half-Dragon Maid/Dragon Girl Butler] and did not have time to join in the fun.

A moment later, a venomous voice suddenly came from within the sphere:

"Kobayashi Hayato!"

"Huh? Do I know you, you...ball?" Hayato asked, puzzled, when he heard the ball in front of him calling his name. "If we haven't met before, could you not shout so loudly? I'm afraid people will misunderstand that I have some kind of misunderstanding with a ball."

"You bastard, you've already gotten in my way once before, and now you can't even remember my name?" The voice from inside the sphere seemed somewhat angry. "Since you insist on stepping into this place to die, then remember my name before you die—Darkness!"

Several tentacle-like things emerged from the sphere, intertwining in front to form a tall, slender humanoid figure. When the figure, draped in a long black cloak, looked up at Hayato, a skull-like ram's head was revealed beneath the hood.

"Oh my, a skull-goat-headed demon, you wouldn't happen to be called Baphomet, would you?" Hayato looked at the terrifying skull-goat-headed creature without any fear, and said to the "person" in front of him, "But I really don't remember ever defeating someone who looks like you. If you're that ugly, I would have a hard time forgetting you."

"It's Darkness!" The ram-headed skull that called itself "Darkness" corrected Hayato's address. A ghostly blue light shone from the hollows of its eye sockets. "The me before you is merely a new form chosen to better bring destruction upon this world that should have been destroyed long ago. The last time I was, because the civilization at that time was Atlantis, I took the form of a giant sea dragon."

"Atlantis? Wait, could it be that you are... that 'Orichalcos'?" Hearing Darkness mention "Atlantis," Hayato couldn't help but recall the "Orichalcos" named "Leviathan" whom he had previously pinned to death atop the city of Atlantis using [Creator God - Tiera]. "You've been resurrected?"

"Resurrection? I have no concept of death, you foolish humans!" Although it was a skull without a single muscle, Hayato could still see the mocking sneer coming from Darkness's gaping jaw. "I am the indestructible convergence of darkness in this world, a part of what constitutes the world, an incomparable existence!"

"Then you were killed by the 'Legendary Dragon' ten thousand years ago, and after being unconscious for ten thousand years, you were broken up by Dartz?"

Hayato's words caused Darkness's wild, dark aura to falter, and he retorted, "That's why I said I am the embodiment of the indestructible darkness of this world, and the 'Legendary Dragon' is an invader from the Elf World. As for Dartz, hmph! I shouldn't have chosen him as the executor of world destruction ten thousand years ago!"

Fearing that Hayato would expose his boasting again, Darkness stopped bragging about how powerful he was and instead pointed at Hayato: "In short, I have now returned to the human world. This time, without the help of the elves to resist me, and without the emperor of Atlantis to steal my power, you humans are destined to face the destruction that I bring!"

"When I fully awaken, the world will tremble because of me!"

However, Hayato still noticed the key words in Darkness's words and raised an eyebrow: "Completely awakened? You talk so arrogantly, but after all this time you can't actually destroy the world? No, maybe you can't even get out of this barrier? What are you talking about? I was saying that when I have ten points of mana, I'll go to the river to fish for a blue dragon all day."

Darkness was enraged when Hayato looked down on her time and time again!

"I'll kill you, I'll kill you!"

With a roar, several pairs of bat wings unfurled from Darkness's back, and then he reached out—a Duel Monsters card appeared in his hand.

Chapter 1049 Fantasy Demon

"This is a big improvement compared to last time. At least you know how to transform into human form to solve problems by playing cards." Hayato raised his hand, and the spirits around him immediately gathered towards the deck on his duel disk. "However, I still want to confirm before we begin whether my student's disappearance is related to you?"

Darkness shook his head upon hearing this: "On the contrary, I haven't had a chance to do anything to any human yet. It was a human who sacrificed his life to summon me before I was even awake. In exchange, I made him a part of me and gave him the power he wanted."

"However, after he merged with me, to whom did he give that remaining power and how did he use it? Ha, I don't care who an ant delivers a grain of rice to."

“I see, I understand completely now.” Hayato nodded, making it unclear to others what he had understood, and pulled out a card, saying, “So you can’t do something like holding a hostage in front of you and threatening me that if I dare to beat your hostage, I’ll die, right?”

"Then I can kill you without any worries."

"Duel!"

[Hayato: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand]

"I am the darkness that seeps into the depths of this world, but that doesn't mean I'm as despicable as you humans." Darkness said, seemingly looking at Hayato with disdain, "Duel!"

"Then prepare to be destroyed and reduced to nothingness, Hayato Kobayashi!"

[Darkness: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand]

Seeing that Hayato had drawn his hand first and could have taken the initiative when he drew his own card but didn't, Darkness's eyes flickered with a strange light, as if he was a little puzzled. However, he still accepted the initiative and drew a card: "I have the initiative. Draw a card."

"During my Main Phase, I activate this card I draw, the Continuous Spell Card [Card Scan], and use its effect."

Darkness placed a Continuous Spell Card on the back row and pointed at Hayato with his pale, skeletal fingers. "This card's effect is to bring forward the end of the future. It can be activated once per turn by declaring one type of card. Both players reveal the bottom card of their respective decks. If it is the declared type, add that card to your hand; otherwise, place the revealed card on top of your deck."

"So, if you guess right, you can earn a card per turn, and even if you guess wrong, you can still know what card your opponent will draw next turn? That's pretty fake." Hayato glanced at his Duel Disk. "But the bottom of the deck... even I can't see through fifty or so cards to see what the bottom card is."

"This is the shortsightedness of you humans, able to see only the present but not the future. Because of this superficial vision, you humans will only face a catastrophic future like the Atlanteans of ten thousand years ago," Darkness declared. "My declared type is 'Monster Card,' and then, we will reveal our futures to each other!"

Darkness pulled a card from the void and showed it to Hayato, who caught the bottom card that popped out of his deck and flipped it over. Both players simultaneously checked each other's cards. The bottom card in Hayato's deck was "Angel's Charity," which, unfortunately, wasn't the monster card Darkness had declared. Hayato needed to place it at the top of his deck. However, drawing "Angel's Charity" wasn't so bad.

Hayato was taken aback when he saw the card Darkness displayed. He could see that the card Darkness showed was a monster card, which meant that Darkness could add it to her hand from the bottom of the deck, replenishing the hand lost by activating [Card Scan] and thus neither gaining nor losing. However, what caught Hayato's attention was that the monster card seemed somewhat special.

"I discard the [Feathered Serpent] that I just added to my hand and activate its effect. I add one monster with the name of [Mega Beast Fusion] from my deck to my hand, other than [Feathered Serpent]. I add [Mirror Sword Knight] to my hand and Normal Summon it in Attack Position."

Behind Darkness, a monster with a green body and a bright yellow belly, resembling a corn cob, appeared in a phantom form with bat wings on its back. It then shattered and disappeared, and when it gathered again, the points of light transformed into an armored swordsman wielding a sword, with a mirror hanging on his chest armor.

But when Hayato looked closely, he discovered that it was just an empty suit of armor. The knight's armor without a wearer was floating with a sword, and there were even soul-like blue flames dancing on the helmet and joints. The "Eye of Ugato" could even be vaguely seen in the mirror on the chest.

Upon closer reflection, it seems that the [Cornfield Feathered Serpent God] that just shattered and disappeared also had the mark of the "Eye of Ugato" on its forehead?

【Mirror Sword Knight】【4☆/Light】

[Fantasy Demon Race/Effect]

[1900/300]

"The Fantasy Demons!?" Even the well-traveled Hayato had never seen monsters of this race appear on the Darkness field before. "And there's also the 'Eye of Ugato'... What on earth is going on with these monsters?"

"Do you fantasize, Hayato Kobayashi? No human being can avoid fantasies born of desire." Instead of directly answering Hayato's question, Darkness spoke of something completely unrelated, "Fantasies of a bright future are naturally full of light, but humans are also inevitably subject to dark fantasies."

"The darkness flowing into the inner world naturally includes those dark fantasies, and from this are the monsters called the 'Fantasy Demons.' They are incompatible beings rejected from the human spiritual world, and thus they are the greatest force that will bring destruction upon the world!"

Upon hearing Darkness's words, Hayato recalled for a moment and suddenly realized, "So that's how it is. The existences in the myths of the Mayan civilization—the feathered serpent god and the smoke mirror—are the prototypes of your two fantasy demon monsters? To be precise, they are the dueling monsters of legends that have been completely destroyed and have not been preserved."

"But how could the 'Eye of Ugato'...?"

Darkness didn't answer Hayato. Instead, it picked up the card "Mirror Sword Knight," which was placed on its bat wings and presumably summoned to the monster zone, and said, "I have no need to answer all your questions. Just walk towards destruction with your confusion, Hayato Kobayashi, in the face of the darkness that is about to appear."