Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

“But in the end, I have no intention of taking the lives of people in this world. It’s just a dark game. I can end it if I want to, because the Pharaoh is omnipotent on earth, and all things are in my hands!” After a pause, the man pointed to Marufuji Ryo’s chest and said, “But then again, even if I stopped the duel in advance, the thing on you seems to have seen your inevitable defeat in the previous duel.”

"What...!?" Subconsciously looking down at his chest, Marufuji Ryo was surprised to find that the key to the "Seven Essence Seal" hanging on his chest was melting away like ice and snow.

It seems that because he was in a state of absolute defeat in the duel and because the duel ended, the special mechanism was triggered, causing the key to mistakenly believe that Marufuji Ryo had lost the duel and was disappearing in order to open one of the seals of the "Seven Gates of Essence". Even though Marufuji Ryo reached out to grab the key, he could only grab empty air and touch the empty hanging rope.

But the next moment, the mysterious man suddenly reached out and grabbed at the air in front of him, saying, "Hmph, trying to escape? Stay obediently in my hands. You won't be allowed to disappear before I complete my goal!"

The fingers that were making a "pinching" motion stopped. To Marufuji Ryo's astonishment, the key to the "Seven Essence Seal" that had just disappeared out of thin air now seemed to be afraid of the man and obediently reassembled in his hand, as if it had never disappeared.

The man glanced at the key to the "Seven Essence Seal" in his hand, then held it up to Hayato and said, "So, what answer will you give now?"

"What an annoying guy. It's not like it's anything important. It's just an extracurricular activity I assigned to the students." Hayato sighed as he looked at the face opposite him that was exactly the same as his own. "Hey Meliamon, your days of stealing kids' toys are over."

Give me the key to the 'Seven Essence Seal'.

“If you want it, then come and get it yourself.” The man Hayato called “Meriamon” smiled, paused, and then added, “But you know the rules.”

With a sigh, Hayato turned off the projected map on his Duel Disk, restoring it to its initial state: "I knew you'd say that..." At the same time, a series of unintelligible drumbeats sounded from his Duel Disk.

"How many times have we dueled?" Just like Hayato, "Meriamon" restored his Duel Disk and Deck to their initial state and asked Hayato. A similar, unintelligible drumbeat also rang out from his ancient Egyptian-style golden Duel Disk.

“That’s a bit hard to say. As far as I can remember, I’ve been dueling with you ever since the first time I met you.” The drumbeats on Hayato’s Duel Disk didn’t stop. Hayato and “Meliamon” looked at each other and both smiled.

“It’s time to end all this, Meliamon.” Taking out his adjusted deck and inserting it into his Duel Disk, Hayato unfolded the disk and looked at his opponent, saying, “Let’s end this!”

Simultaneously, "Meriamon" also made the same move, unfolding the Duel Disk.

Both sides shouted in unison, "Duel!" x2

Marufuji Ryo watched the two finish their cryptic conversation, a thoughtful expression on his face: "Meriamon...? That name seems to..."

"It's normal to have an impression of this name, because even if the academy doesn't specifically teach history courses, when discussing the origins of modern Duel Monsters games, it's unavoidable to touch upon the dueling rituals of ancient Egypt three thousand years ago. And since it's related to ancient Egyptian culture, it's hard to avoid him." Hayato glanced at "Meriamon" across from him and said to Marufuji Ryo, "After all, he's almost one of the most famous pharaohs of ancient Egypt, and also one of the most unique among them."

“My name ‘Meliamun’ means ‘one protected by the god Amun,’ but my more fitting name should be ‘Ramses,’ that is, ‘the incarnation of Ra’!” Speaking with an earnestness and fervor completely different from his duel with Marufuji Ryo, the man stood atop his soaring golden airship, arms outstretched as if to bring the world under his rule, and declared, “I am the greatest of all pharaohs, above all gods, equal to Ra!”

"I am Ramses II, King of Kings! Even the omnipotent gods, upon witnessing my great deeds—will bow down in despair!"

(Rahula 2)

Ramses II: 4000 LP, 5 cards in hand

Seeing Ramses II across from him completely excited, Hayato said disdainfully, "Why are you so excited about playing cards?"

That's what he said, but Hayato raised his right hand to his forehead, touched his bangs, and then flicked them upwards, making his hair stand up as if he had applied hair gel to his hand. With an excited smile on his face, he said, "Alright~ Let's start the duel!"

(Hayato [epilepsy!])

[Kobayashi Hayato: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand]

The two, who were extremely similar yet different in some ways, quickly entered a duel. Although many questions remained unanswered, Marufuji Ryo stepped back a certain distance and watched the duel from the sidelines, while continuing to ponder what he truly desired deep down.

As Hayato drew five cards, Ramses II, who drew five even faster, said, "Let me guess, you've crammed some random cards into your deck again this time, haven't you?"

"What are you saying? How can the affairs of duelists be called nonsense? I call this universal love, not neglecting any card." He glanced at his hand, which contained three sets of cards in just five cards, and righteously refuted Ramses II.

"Ha, you are clearly not faithful, unlike me, who has loved Nefertari alone from beginning to end."

"Devoted? What about your other hundreds of wives and concubines? A man with hundreds of children really has the nerve to say that."

"Stop your nonsense, you NTR enthusiast whom I despise!"

"I wonder who shamelessly altered other people's monuments and buildings and claimed them as their own while they were still alive."

"Tsk, I've had enough of your nonsense." Having heard Hayato retort to every word he uttered, and once again realizing that compatibility between people of the same kind was never good, Ramses II changed the subject, drawing a card from his deck. "I'll take the first turn. Draw!"

He glanced at the card he had drawn and smiled, saying, "Although I only brought the 'Dark Night Sun Ship' with me when I came to the mortal world, both the 'Hot Sand Sphinx' that Horus transformed into and my temple came with me in other forms."

"Prepare to fall before my might, Hayato Kobayashi!" Ramses II declared, revealing a card from his hand. "Send the remaining two cards from my hand, including this one, to the Graveyard, and activate the effect of this card, [Glory of Horus - Imset]!"

"Add one [Coffin of the King] from my deck to my hand, and then you can draw one card!"

"Oh, shit!" Hayato exclaimed in surprise upon seeing Ramses II activate his card. "So, you came to the human world to play cards with me? You actually printed out Horus, didn't you? Damn it, it's such a powerful card! I'm so scared!"

"So strong, too strong! So I have to chain-activate the effect of this 0-attack Innocent Little Sister in my hand!" Sending a card from his hand to the graveyard, a grinning blond female imp appeared before Hayato.

"No search allowed, it's been blocked!"

(I'm posting this again even though I've already posted it before)

Chapter 1151 Activating the Berserk Magic Circle

【King's Coffin】, or 【Horus】, is the name of the deck currently used by Ramses II. It is an expansion of the early "LV" monster 【Horus the Black Dragon】 from the Yu-Gi-Oh! series, and its strongest monster can be considered a new version of 【Horus the Black Dragon】.

However, compared to the gradual evolution of Horus Black Dragon into its final form, the Horus deck focuses on repeatedly jumping from the graveyard. Its four "lower-level" monsters have the ability to be Special Summoned from the graveyard almost unconditionally, requiring only one Continuous Spell Card called King's Coffin to be on the field.

Just like the [Sin] deck that Paradox used when Hayato fought alongside Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei, the existence of those [Sin] monsters in the [Sin] deck that could skip the troublesome steps and directly and simply be Special Summoned relied on the field spell card [Sin-World], while the core card of the [Horus] deck was the [King's Coffin].

While it won't result in the entire Horus deck being wiped out without a Field Spell Card like the "Sin" deck, the threat level of the Horus deck will be significantly reduced if the deck cannot draw "King's Coffin" to allow the Horus decks to use their Special Summoning effect.

Therefore, how to search for [King's Coffin] is the key to the opening of the [Horus] deck. Coincidentally, one of the monsters of the [Horus] deck itself, [Horus's Glory - Imshet], has the ability to search for it. Because of this, this card is often called "Shet" because its effect is often called by omitting the first part of its name.

However, as powerful as its effect is, the biggest drawback of [Horus's Glory - Imset] is that it requires two cards from its hand to search for [Coffin of the King]. If it finds the card in its hand, that's fine, as it can be Special Summoned from the graveyard immediately if it has [Coffin of the King], but if the card is countered, it's a huge card disadvantage.

Upon hearing Hayato's words and seeing the [Ash Blossom] appear in front of him, just as he was about to use the effect of [Horus's Glory - Imset] to retrieve [Coffin of the King], Ramses II suddenly jumped out and kicked the [Coffin of the King] card back into his deck. Ramses II's expression was very displeased.

"You rascal, it's that annoying monster again."

"Nonsense, Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring is the ticket to the second-turn player." Hayato sent the used Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring card to the graveyard, saying, "The face-up Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring is the cutest monster in the world."

"And what about the one that's facing away from you, upside down?"

“Without a doubt, that’s nothing but a disgusting card that everyone hates,” Hayato replied confidently.

Ramses II shook his head helplessly. Although it wasn't the first time he had known about Hayato's personality, he still couldn't understand why Hayato's personality was so different from his own.

However, although the search effect of [Horus's Glory - Imset] has great flaws and drawbacks, almost equivalent to "losing everything", how could Ramses II not know this? The reason why he used the effect of [Horus's Glory - Imset] to search at the beginning was simply because he wanted to use it to test whether Hayato had drawn [Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring].

Over the years, not only Atum frequently returned to the human world, but Ramses II did the same, often playing cards with Hayato. He was extremely familiar with the effects of cards that appeared very often, such as Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Ghost Rabbit, and Primal Life Form - Nibiru, and naturally knew the flaws of the Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring card.

That is, its effect has the drawback that "the effect of this card name can only be used once per turn". In other words, after Hayato has already used the effect of [Ash Blossom] to negate the search of [Horus's Glory - Imset], even if Hayato has another [Ash Blossom] in his hand, he cannot use it to negate the effect of Ramses II's next card!

"Although you used that monster to stop my search for [King's Coffin], don't forget you're still standing on my chariot, Hayato Kobayashi!" Ramses II played a spell card. "Rewriting the battle environment is a piece of cake for me! Absolutely, easily!"

"Spell Card [Planet Transformation] activated! Add one Field Spell Card from my Deck to my hand. I choose Field Spell Card [Royal Tomb Wall] and activate it immediately!"

Despite its name as a "Field Spell Card," the actual manifestation of the "Royal Tomb Wall" is simply a golden stone wall that slowly rises behind Ramses II, inscribed with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and clearly depicted images of the "Four Sons of Horus" guarding the god Horus.

Hayato remembered that in ancient Egyptian mythology, Horus served as a guard after Osiris was mummified and became the god of the underworld. Horus's four sons, the "Four Sons of Hor," also became the pharaoh's guards in the underworld. The ancient Egyptian inscriptions on the stone wall of the royal tomb in front of him recorded this myth.

“The Pharaoh is the absolute being who rules over everything on earth, and I am the greatest among the Pharaohs. Even Horus, who once merged with the sun and became the ‘Sun God of the Day,’ must bow down before me—the King of Kings who is the embodiment of the sun!”

Ramses II said, waving his hand, "The first effect of [The Wall of the King's Tomb] is that while this card is in my field zone, its name is treated as [The King's Coffin]. And if [The King's Coffin] is on my field, these two monsters in my graveyard can be Special Summoned to the field!"

"Located in the south, the guardian of the liver in the human head!"

"The guardian of the stomach, located in the east, with the head of a jackal!"

"Return from the underworld to me!"

As Ramses II spoke, the reliefs of two of the "Four Sons of Hall" on the stone wall of the royal tomb behind him lit up with golden light, and parts of their limbs actually extended out from the stone wall, transforming from illusory soul forms into substantial bodies.

The two cards that Ramses II used to test Hayato with Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring were both Horus monsters. With the protection of the Stone Wall of the King's Tomb, which exists as the King's Coffin, they came out of the stone wall and stood on Ramses II's field!

Representing "humanity," Imset wields a spear and shield, wears a horned helmet and golden armor, and with a flap of his golden wings, he exudes an awe-inspiring presence!

【Horus's Glory - Imset】【8☆/Dark】

[Mage Race/Effect]

[3000/1800]

Domtef, with the jackal head representing "jackals and hounds," holds a drawn bow and sharp arrows. His golden wings are slightly folded, but when the perfect moment to begin the hunt arrives, they will immediately spread open, carrying him soaring through the sky and launching a swift kill towards his target!

【Horus's Blessing - Domtef】【8☆/Water】

[Orc/Effect]

[0/0]

"The second effect of 【Horus's Blessing - Domtef】 is that this card's ATK and DEF are increased by 1200 points for each 【Horus】 monster on the field. Since there are currently two 【Horus】 monsters on the field, 【Horus's Blessing - Domtef】's ATK and DEF are increased by 2400 points."

As Ramses II finished speaking, his [Blessed Horus - Domtef] on the field took a deep breath. Resembling Anubis, the "Grim Reaper" who also has a jackal head, it continuously absorbed power from the other [Horus]s on the field—although there were only itself and [Imset]—and its attack and defense increased dramatically!

【Horus's Blessing - Domtef】【DEF0→2400】

Ramses II easily summoned two Horus monsters on the field, each with considerable attack power and powerful effects as secret weapons, ready to surprise Hayato at any time. He looked at Hayato with pride, only to see Hayato leisurely drawing two cards from his deck.

Beside Hayato, a patch of "shadow" gathered together, with occasional glints of oily light flashing within it, as if some shelled animal was moving about.

"【G of Multiplication】You can activate this effect by sending this card from your hand to the Graveyard. For each monster your opponent Special Summons this turn, I draw one card from my Deck," Hayato explained. "This effect can also be activated during your opponent's turn. I chained this card when you activated 【Royal Tomb Wall】."

"Therefore, the two Special Summons of the Horus monster allowed me to draw two cards from my deck." Holding the two cards and shaking them, Hayato said smugly, "If you have to blame someone, blame yourself for using cards with such strong effects that you didn't even see what cards I used."

As Hayato said, in normal battles, Ramses II would never fail to observe carefully enough to give his opponent an opening.

Even though he used cards with less flashy effects, such as [Netherworld], the golden light from [Royal Tomb Wall] was too dazzling, and [G of Multiplication] was a card that didn't leave anything noticeable on the field after activation. This caused him to accidentally give Hayato a card advantage.

Although Hayato denies that he is similar to Ramses II, and Ramses II always feels that Hayato's personality is completely different from his own, in reality, if other people were to evaluate the two of them, they would only conclude that they are "cut from the same mold". Watching Hayato earn cards, Ramses II felt that it was more painful than losing cards himself!

"Hmph, using a cockroach card like that, you really are ruthless, Hayato Kobayashi." Ramses II immediately recognized the swarm of [Proliferating G] cards as a cluster of cockroaches and said with considerable disgust. Even the ancient Egyptians weren't much different from modern people in their attitude towards cockroaches; they all loathed these creatures, and seeing cockroaches in Duel Monsters only amplified their aversion.

Hayato immediately retorted, "No, no, some people are the same. They claim to be the incarnation of 'Ra,' so why don't they even have a card for 'Ra's Winged Dragon of Ra' and instead use 'Horus'?"

"Hmph, these cards of [Horus] are the embodiment of the power of 'Horus,' and the 'Scorching Sand Lion,' which I failed to bring to the present world, is also an embodiment of 'Horus.' If I say they are the same, then they are the same." Looking at Hayato's hand, which still held five cards after using two hand traps, and the still-active [G of Multiplication], Ramses II unhappily drew two cards from his hand and inserted them into his Spell & Trap Zone.

“Even I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to give you enough cards to squander, Kobayashi Hayato, so let’s stop my turn here. After placing two cards face down, my turn ends here.”

Ramses II: 4000 LP, 1 cards in hand

【Horus's Glory - Imset】【ATK3000】

【Horus's Blessing - Domtef】【DEF2400】

[GaiK] X2

Location: [The stone wall of the royal tomb]

Knowing that he couldn't achieve an OTK (One-Turn Kill) anyway, and that continuing to play would only help Hayato Kobayashi draw more cards, Ramses II naturally chose to end his turn to skip the turn with [G of Multiplication].

Hayato didn't mind drawing too few cards; in fact, he felt that drawing one [G of Proliferation] card was enough to break even, and drawing two was already a profit. His starting hand wasn't exactly a perfect hand, but rather a completely flawless one, lacking any potential for improvement. However, after playing two hand traps to replenish his hand, his hand has actually improved considerably.

"My turn, draw." Hayato drew a card from his deck, but instead of playing it, he activated a card, saying, "Field Spell Card? What's so great about that? Everyone has a Field Spell Card. I'm going to activate my Spell Card [Planetary Modification] and add a Field Spell Card to my hand!"

"I choose to add [Rampage Magic Circle] to my hand and activate this card!" Hayato chanted as he played the card, "Activate~ [Rampage~ Magic Circle]~"

Although it's a field spell card, "Rampage Magic Circle" and "Royal Tomb Wall" are not cards like "Skyscraper" that cause large-scale changes to the surroundings. It simply unfolds a huge magic circle at Hayato's feet that can encompass everything around him. The sudden unfolding of the ominous red magic circle even startled Marufuji Ryo.