Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

"I attacked the Ancient Mechanical Giant with [Vampire Red Baron], and used the effect of [Vampire Heiress] to pay me 700 base points, increasing [Vampire Red Baron]'s attack power by an equivalent of 700 points during damage calculation, bringing it to 3100 points!"

[Camula: 1400→700LP]

【Vampire Red Baron】【ATK2400→3100】

Camilla's already low base score was further reduced by half, resulting in her [Vampire Red Baron] having an attack power that was exactly 100 points higher than [Ancient Mechanical Giant], just enough to surpass the latter's defense and defeat it.

The Vampire Red Baron, who had previously wasted 1000 of Camilla's base points, was now attacking with exceptional vigor. With a thrust of his lance, he pierced through the Ancient Mechanical Giant's defenses, empowered by the blood around him. The latter had been on the scene for less than a minute before being sent to Professor Chronos's grave.

However, because he was in defense mode, Chronos did not suffer any damage in this battle. He still had 1800 points left in his life points, which was more than enough to deal with the final monster's attack.

“Surviving me time and time again, your human resilience is truly disgusting,” Camilla said coldly, looking at Chronos. “Why won’t you surrender and become slaves of our vampire race, or simply die willingly?”

"[Vampire Heiress]'s direct attack! Although I can't finish you off this turn, let me collect some interest first, Blood Phantom!"

The beautiful "Vampire Heiress" walked gracefully from Camilla's field towards Chronos, who had no monsters blocking her way. From the strange shadow beneath her feet, countless magical bat familiars flew up and surrounded Chronos as they approached.

Immediately afterward, without using its fangs to bite, but merely by ramming, the massive number of bat familiars forcefully pushed Chronos backward, tearing several wounds into his body with their sharp claws.

In an instant, because of the effect of the second [Vampire's Domain] card that Camus activated before using [Phantom Gate], the blood brought by the bats that returned to [Vampire Heiress]'s feet was converted back into Camus's life points, somewhat making up for the large amount of life points lost this turn.

[Kronos: 1800→1200LP]

[Camula: 700→1300LP]

In contrast, although Chronos didn't suffer too much damage each time, the accumulation has finally caused his base score to drop to an extremely low 1200 points, allowing Camilla to successfully surpass him.

Looking at Chronos, whose face was visibly paler and who was clearly not much affected by the Dark Game, Camilla, though still very dissatisfied, still sneered: "It's a pity we couldn't end the duel this round. You really got lucky, ugly human."

Camilla said, "My Battle Phase ends, and at this very moment, the effect of [Vampire Red Baron]—which can only be activated at the end of the Battle Phase of a monster destroyed by battle—Special Summon as many monsters as possible from the Graveyard to my field. I'm going to—"

“However, the Ancient Machine Titan, like the Ancient Machine Titan - Ultimate Strike, is a monster that cannot be Special Summoned.” Interrupting Camilla, Professor Chronos smiled, his face pale. “I was right. Your Vampire monster does indeed have an ability similar to the Embrace.”

"Tch, don't get too cocky. It's just one less monster. I don't care anyway." That's what he said, but at the moment, the strongest monster Camilla could rely on was only the [Ancient Machine Giant - Ultimate Strike] he got from Chronos. So his words were not very convincing.

Looking at Chronos's smile, she sneered, "Let me guess what you're thinking. You don't think that since it's my turn, you can take advantage of all my monsters being in attack position and attacking the 'Vampire Heiress' with its 600 ATK to try and reduce my Life Points to 0, do you? But do you think I would leave such a big opening?"

"During Main Phase 2, I activate the effect of [Vampire's Kin] in my Graveyard, sending [Vampire Heiress] from my field to the Graveyard and Special Summoning it to my field in Defense Position." Without hesitation, she sends [Vampire Heiress], which had become useless to her and was merely an easy target for exploitation, to the Graveyard, and the Stitched Beast she used in the first turn reappears on her field.

[Vampire's Familiar] [DEF0]

Since Ancient Gear cannot be Special Summoned, Camilla wasn't worried that Chronos could use cards like Monster Resurrection to resummon Ancient Gear from her graveyard to the field. Therefore, she decisively changed Vampire's Familiar to Defense Position to avoid taking battle damage.

In this way, the only cards she can use to damage herself through battle are the 2400-ATK [Vampire Red Baron] and [Ancient Mechanical Giant - Ultimate Strike]. However, as if still feeling a bit unsafe, Camilla added, "And if [Vampire's Familiar] is successfully Special Summoned, I pay 500 Life Points to activate this effect, adding one [Vampire] Spell/Trap Card from my Deck to my hand."

[Camula: 1300→800LP]

Because of [Compensation for the Left Arm], Camilla couldn't set any cards this turn, so she naturally didn't choose a Trap Card. Instead, she took a Spell Card from her deck and immediately activated it, saying, "I choose this card and activate it immediately: Field Spell Card [Vampire Empire]!"

The field previously destroyed by [Great Storm] has reappeared in Camilla's field area. The town shrouded in blood moon and mist once again surrounds both sides. Also, due to the arrival of the Field Spell Card, the [Vampire] monsters have become noticeably more active.

The permanent effect that unconditionally increases the attack power of undead monsters by 500 points during damage calculation can completely defend against the multiple blocking abilities of the Ancient Mechanical Thermonuclear Dragon when it declares an attack. The existence of the Vampire Empire raises the minimum level at which Camilla's monsters can be destroyed in battle, so that even if Chronos summons a monster with an attack power of 3000 points, it can at most destroy the Vampire Red Baron and then deal 100 points of battle damage to Camilla.

[Ancient Machines] It's already outrageous that there are so many monsters with an attack power of 3000 points. Camilla alone has seen three of them in this duel. It's impossible for Chronos to send out a monster with an even higher attack power, right?

"My turn is over." With satisfaction looking around his field, Camilla declared the end of his turn.

Camilla: 800 LP, 0 cards in hand

【Ancient Mechanical Titan - Ultimate Strike】【ATK3000】

【Vampire Red Baron】【ATK2400】

[Vampire's Familiar] [DEF0]

The Vampire's Domain

Location: [Vampire Empire]

In terms of cards, I have a total of five cards on the field, which is the same as the number of cards in my opponent's hand. There is no card disadvantage. In fact, compared to the opponent's hand, which may not be able to be converted into actual power, the quality of my cards is obviously better.

In terms of base points, although I have fewer base points than Chronos, as long as [Vampire's Domain] exists, I will be able to recover the lost base points in the next turn sooner or later.

Camilla didn't know how he could possibly lose; the odds of winning were just too high. He was already certain of victory!

"My turn, draw a card." Chronos drew a card from his deck, paused for a moment, and then played it without hesitation. "I activate the Spell Card [Ancient Maintenance Field]. This card can target one [Ancient Gear] monster in my Graveyard. Add that monster to my hand, Nanonne."

"I chose [Ancient Mechanical Giant]."

Watching Chronos retrieve the Ancient Mechanical Giant, Camilla said dismissively, "So what? Putting aside the fact that the monster can't be Special Summoned, you don't have any usable Tributes on your field, so it's impossible to Normal Summon it."

"No way! Professor Chronos is amazing! He can gather all the offerings for the Ancient Machine Titan in a single turn!" Jaden, standing outside the arena, defended Professor Chronos after hearing Camilla's words. He was indeed the most qualified to speak on this point, since Chronos had personally performed the classic four-for-one combo during the entrance exam. This left a deep impression on Jaden, who often thought he should try it himself and find a powerful monster to slap down and give his opponent a shock.

“No, although I really want to use the combo of [Great Storm] and [Golden Evil God Statue], unfortunately, I don’t have those cards in my hand to use it.” Chronos glanced at the cards in his hand, shook his head and denied Jaden’s idea, and looked at Camilla, saying, “However, this duel is indeed coming to an end. Let’s use this 'forbidden card' that I also sealed, right now, right here!”

"I activate the Spell Card [Fusion], sending four monsters from my hand—[Ancient Gear Giant], [Ancient Gear Box], [Ancient Gear Body], and [Ancient Gear Beast]—to the Graveyard as Fusion Materials!"

Chapter 1127 Seahorse: A Tribute, All Tributes

"I activate the Spell Card [Fusion], sending four monsters from my hand—[Ancient Gear Giant], [Ancient Gear Box], [Ancient Gear Body], and [Ancient Gear Beast]—to the Graveyard as Fusion Materials!"

"O creations that have inherited ancient souls and are made of machinery, combine that power into one, and transform it into an immense, chaotic power!"

Holding a purple-bordered card above his head, Professor Chronos shouted, "Appear! Level 10☆! The Ultimate God of Destruction who will return everything to formless chaos!"

Behind Professor Chronos, four Ancient Machine monsters appeared and disintegrated into numerous fragmented parts, which began to reassemble, eventually forming a mechanical giant even larger than the Ancient Machine Giant!

As Professor Chronos placed the card in his hand on the Duel Disk, the gear transmission parts on the mechanical giant began to rotate and start, and the monitor in its eye suddenly lit up with a red light!

"Fusion Summon! [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant]!"

[Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant] [10☆/Dark]

[Mechanical Race/Fusion/Effect]

[4500/3000]

Seeing the towering mechanical giant descend upon him, Camilla was first stunned, then his face lit up with disbelief: "H-How is this possible?! A monster with an attack power of 4500 points, isn't that the same level of attack power as the legendary Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon?!"

"This is the 'forbidden' thing that I've sealed away all this time. It's the ultimate existence of an 'ancient machine' that can't be used on students. However, if the opponent isn't a teacher or student from the academy, even I can use it without any burden, no way."

Knowing that he would be dueling with the "Seven Stars" who had invaded the academy, and that the message from Professor Daitokuji mentioned that Judai had identified one of the "Seven Stars" he had encountered as Titan, the mercenary who had kidnapped Asuka, Professor Chronos's attitude toward dueling with the "Seven Stars" was completely different from that in the other timeline. He went from contempt for the charlatan duelists to going all out against the dangerous duelists who threatened the safety of the academy's teachers and students.

Not only did he agree to Asuka and the others' "trash talk to disrupt their mentality" tactic, he even adjusted his deck before the duel, adding back cards like "Ancient Gear Giant - Ultimate Strike" and "Ancient Gear Chaos Giant" that he had kept sealed away and never used.

How hard did Professor Chronos fight? You can tell how much he "struggled" just by the fact that the Ancient Machine Chaos Giant is a Dark-attribute, Machine-type Fusion Monster. The fact that he didn't shout "This is my struggle for victory" and then destroy the graveyard is already quite restrained.

"Enter my battle phase!"

As soon as he summoned the Ancient Gear Chaos Giant, Professor Chronos didn't offer any explanation and immediately entered his Battle Phase. Once he confirmed he had successfully entered the Battle Phase, he began to explain the monster's effect: "The Ancient Gear Chaos Giant's effect is that as long as this card is in the Monster Zone, it is unaffected by the effects of Spell/Trap Cards. Also, your opponent cannot activate monster effects during the Battle Phase!"

"That means that the moment I enter the battle phase, even if you have a card like [Super Electromagnetic Turtle] in your graveyard that forces the end of the battle phase, you can't use it!"

The reason Chronos rushed into the battle phase was for the effect of [Ancient Machine Chaos Giant]. If it weren't in the battle phase, its resistance would only be that it wouldn't be affected by the effects of Spell/Trap Cards. Although that's not weak, it's more reassuring to enter the battle phase to maximize its resistance.

The existence of this effect not only means that the opponent cannot chain the effects of their own cards with second-speed monsters to activate their own cards, such as Hayato's commonly used "Hellfire Machine" to dig up graves, but it also means that monsters such as "Winged Kuriboh" which is activated after being destroyed, and "Sunrise Knight" which is activated when a monster is attacked, cannot trigger their effects. Even if Chronos attacks with other monsters instead of "Ancient Machine Chaos Giant", this is still the case.

Although the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant alone is enough to defeat the opponent, there is no need to summon other monsters.

"The second effect of 【Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant】 is that this card can attack each of your opponent's monsters once, and if it attacks a Defense Position monster, it inflicts battle damage equal to the difference between the attack power and the defense power of that monster." Chronos pointed to Camilla's field and said, "You have three monsters on your field, so I can attack you three times now!"

A triple attack from a Fusion Monster with 4500 ATK, and one of its fusion materials is a Level 8 monster with 3000 ATK. If you didn't know better, you'd think Camilla was facing Seto Kaiba instead of Chronos.

After Camilla's initial shock at seeing the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant, she heard Chronos's words and suddenly realized her impending doom, turning deathly pale in an instant.

"A defense-piercing effect, a field-wide attack that can attack every monster, unaffected by Spell/Trap Card effects, and it even blocks the activation of my monster effects during the Battle Phase?!" Camilla's eyes widened as she calculated the damage she was about to take. "Attack on [Vampire's Familiar] deals 4500 damage, attack on [Vampire Red Baron] deals 1600 damage, attack on [Ancient Gear Giant - Ultimate Strike] deals 1500 damage..."

"I'm going to suffer a total of 7600 points of combat damage!?"

"You...you bastard! You...you can't, you can't...you can't do this, you can't!"

"Why not? I'm going to do it this way!" Chronos said without any pity when he heard Camilla's words. "Vampire Camilla, come and taste the attack of the strongest creation of humanity that you despise. This is the humiliation I have prepared for you, the ultimate humiliation, noonae!"

"First, attack the [Ancient Mechanical Giant - Ultimate Strike] and return my monster to me!"

"Chaos-Brust, fire in a row!"

An attack called "Chaos Burst Bullet" was released from the left arm cannon of the Ancient Machine Chaos Titan, instantly hitting Camilla's Ancient Machine Titan - Ultimate Strike on the field. The latter was destroyed without any resistance and returned to Professor Chronos's graveyard, while Camilla also suffered battle damage.

"Wow!"

Camilla: 800 → -700 LP

In a normal duel, the duel would end the moment Camus's Element Points reach zero. However, as the name suggests, Dark Games are particularly dark games. The darkness lies in the fact that the end of the duel is precisely the beginning of the game.

Professor Chronos also thought the duel would end when Camilla's life score reached zero, so his initial target was his own [Ancient Mechanical Titan - Ultimate Strike]. After all, it would be too pitiful for the duel to end when the monster was controlled by someone else. However, he did not expect that after Camilla's life score reached zero, the value did not stop changing, but continued to drop to a negative number lower than 0.

It's important to understand that in ordinary duels, let alone negative numbers, there aren't even decimal points. For example, if you activate "God's Declaration" with 1 Life Point, your Life Point will still show as 1. Even if a monster with 0 Attack Power drops its Attack Power by 2000, its Attack Power will still only be 0. However, Camilla's Life Point at this moment breaks this common sense.

Chronos was taken aback and did not take any action. Camilla screamed in pain from the real damage she had suffered from the Dark Game. However, the Ancient Machine Chaos Giant continued to execute the previous attack command. After destroying the Ancient Machine Giant - Ultimate Strike, the monitor turned to the side and showed the Vampire Red Baron, whose left arm was raised to reveal the fully charged cannon barrel.

Chaos-Brust, two hits in a row!

"boom!"

Although the Ancient Gear Chaos Giant is unaffected by the effects of Spell/Trap Cards, it lacks the ability to prevent Spell/Trap Cards from activating or taking effect. The power of the Vampire Empire boosted the attack power of the Vampire Red Baron by 500 points, but against the Ancient Gear Chaos Giant, this mere 500 points of attack power was utterly insufficient and could not change the fate of the Vampire Red Baron being destroyed.

Camilla suffered a second, additional blow. She, who had just managed to stand, was knocked back several steps by the impact and fell into the deep darkness revealed by the open [Phantom Gate].

Camilla: -700 → -2300 LP

"Ugh!" The pain in his soul, unable to suppress the fear in his heart, forced Camilla to regain his senses from the agony and suddenly realized why his Life Points were now negative. Normally, a Dark Game would end with Life Points reaching zero, and the loser would suffer the punishment of the Dark Game. But the biggest difference between this duel and a regular Dark Game was that he had activated the card [Phantom Gate]!

The reason my base score could still drop was purely because the [Gate of Illusions] prevented my soul from being torn apart by the power from the Dark Game. However, that wasn't to protect me; it was precisely to allow them to take my soul away in the end!

As Camus realized this, the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant lowered its attacking arms, its chest opening to reveal the largest-caliber cannon barrel directly connected to the power core. Blue energy surged within it, while blackish-purple lightning began to flicker around the power accumulated inside.

"Is this my end, the final end for us vampires?" Camilla looked at the [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant]. In her final moments, she understood many things. "No, since you humans are the final victors, no matter how strong our resistance is, it can't change anything. It should be said that we vampires are the ones who should be victors."

With a self-deprecating laugh, Camilla looked at Chronos and said, "Rejoice, humans, the last vampire has been killed by you, and you will continue to be the rulers of the world. But can you transcend the darkness hidden beneath the surface of the world? I look forward to your end."

“I’ll reluctantly accept this as a reward, a reward for wiping out yet another race. I’ll tell you three pieces of information about my ‘Seven Stars’.” With a smirk, Camilla, nearing the end of his life, said with amusement, “Although I didn’t think of it at first, I suddenly noticed that the brat over there looks somewhat like someone from the ‘Seven Stars’. I’ve seen his face under the mask once before, and he also has something like that on his chest.”

Camilla's gaze fell on Asuka, and amidst her bewildered expression, she glanced at the half-stone disc on Judai's chest. In Camilla's memory, the masked man called "Darkness" had a similar stone disc on his chest, and his face was remarkably similar to Asuka's.

Before Asuka and Jaden could react, Camilla continued, "Then there's the second piece of information. Although it's called 'Seven Stars,' there were actually more than seven people initially. However, a group of five was removed for some reason, and in their place was someone else recruited by the leader of our 'Seven Stars' organization. It's said that he had participated in a similar organization before and possesses extremely strong abilities."

After a pause, Camilla looked at Chronos and said, "Even with the strength you've shown so far, you're still inferior to that person. And the remaining members of the 'Seven Stars,' although they didn't come to the island with us, will soon arrive to hunt for the 'Seven Essence Seals' key in your possession and seize the sealed cards."

"And finally, among all the 'Seven Stars,' although I am confident that I am not the weakest, I am also aware that my strength is not the strongest. There are at least three people whose strength is above mine, including one who was once known as the 'Invincible Duelist'!"

Camilla's gaze swept across the faces of everyone present, and he said smugly, "Although there's a saying that 'the unknown is the most terrifying,' sometimes the more you know, the more despair you feel. This is the reward and punishment that I, Camilla—the last vampire—bestow upon you humans!"

"I'm in hell, waiting to witness your despair! Hahahaha!"

Camilla's laughter was completely drowned out by the sound of the Ancient Machine Chaos Giant's cannon firing. The final blow, gathering all its power, completely engulfed Camilla's Defense-positioned Vampire Familiar. The latter, with its 0 Defense, did not reduce the power of the Ancient Machine Chaos Giant's attack at all. Camilla was directly hit by the Chaos Burst!