Chapter 289: Millennium Eye + Millennium Rod = ?
As Bakura's Life Points reached zero and the victor was decided, the Virtual Images of the Duel Monsters slowly dissipated. The fragmented "Dark Sanctuary" in the sky quickly melted like snow under the warm sun, and the figure of Obelisk the Tormentor, which had just secured Kaiba's victory, also gradually disappeared from the Field.
"Hmph, using a Trap Card against a God? There's no more foolish reason to lose." Marik crossed his arms over his chest, looking contemptuously at Bakura, who was still lying on the ground and hadn't gotten up. "For a God, petty Trap Cards and low-Level Monster Effects are all nullified. Even Higher-Level Monsters and Spell Cards only last for a single Turn."
"Not only that, God Cards cannot be Equipped. For 'Dark Sanctuary''s Effect to Activate, a Vengeful Spirit must possess a God." Hayato glanced at Marik and added, "But Six-Year-Old, you actually do think Trap Cards are beneath you, huh?"
Marik snorted coldly. "I told you, I am Marik, not Six-Year-Old. While Trap Cards may be petty, they are perfectly suitable as punishment for those who dare to defy a God's power."
"Hayato, you'd better pray you don't run into me later. As punishment for taking (The Winged Dragon of Ra) from Yami Yugi, I'll make sure to torment you thoroughly, heheheheh."
As he spoke, Marik turned his head to look at Kaiba, who was inside the Duel Field, tidying the Cards in his Hand. He thought to himself, 'There's no reason for this at all. Only those who possess the Millennium Items should be qualified to use the (Egyptian God Cards). How can this guy command Obelisk the Tormentor?'
'And rather than simply gaining the qualification to use a God, that last Draw felt more like Obelisk the Tormentor actively submitting to him?'
After defeating Bakura, Kaiba walked up to him, looking at Bakura still lying on the ground, and the Duel Disk that had fallen from his grasp. He snorted, picked up Bakura's Duel Disk, and pulled out his Cards, spreading them open. At a glance, Bakura's Deck was filled with supernatural entities such as Vengeful Spirits and ghosts; there were hardly any powerful Monsters.
With disdain, he scoffed at Bakura, whose Deck contained nothing of value. Kaiba slid the Deck back into the Duel Disk and tossed it back to the fallen Bakura. "Although Battle City has the Rule that 'the winner takes one Card from the loser,' you truly are just a Fourth-Rate Duelist using a third-rate Deck. Your Cards would only dilute the purity of my Deck if I added them to it."
As he spoke, Kaiba was about to turn and leave. But just then, Bakura, who was lying flat on his back, suddenly sat up as if reanimated. He suddenly grabbed Kaiba's wrist. "Purity, is it useful?"
"What!?" Kaiba was startled by Bakura's "reanimation." He shook his wrist, trying to break free, but found that although Bakura appeared quite frail, his hand at this moment felt like a hydraulic clamp, firmly gripping Kaiba's wrist!
His Adam's apple bobbed as Bakura opened his mouth and disgustingly spat out a golden-yellow eyeball. The instant he saw the eyeball, Kaiba was assailed by extremely unpleasant memories.
"That's... Pegasus's eye?"
"Oh, I thought Kaiba had long forgotten what happened back in Duelist Kingdom, which is why you're so adamant about denying Supernatural Power."
The golden eyeball rolled on Bakura's tongue. But what was incredibly bizarre was that the "pupil" side of the eyeball constantly faced Kaiba. The Eye of Udjat symbol gradually began to glow.
"Damn it, that Bakura!" Hayato noticed the rolling Darkness Aura around Bakura. At this moment, he was so close to Kaiba that there was no time to rescue him. Flipping over the Audience Seating railing, Hayato leaped into the Duel Field and ran towards Kaiba. As he ran, he shouted to Kaiba, "Seto, get away from him!"
"Too late, Hayato, even you can't reach this distance!" Bakura said with a dehumanized laugh, his tongue still sticking out. "Two seconds? Three seconds? How long will it take you to get here? It won't even take me one second to Control Seto Kaiba with the Millennium Eye!"
"This is your limit! Now, I will Control him!"
As he spoke, a powerful light burst forth from the Millennium Eye, almost completely obscuring Kaiba's vision. With virtually zero distance, the Millennium Eye's Dark Magic fully poured into Kaiba's body.
Just as Hayato thought Kaiba would again be corrupted by the Millennium Eye's Magical Energy and become Bakura's Puppet, as he was in Duelist Kingdom, suddenly, from the direction of the Audience Seating behind him, a wave of Magical Energy also surged. Immediately after, to Hayato's stunned disbelief, Marik, gripping his Millennium Rod tightly with both hands, was forcefully dragged from the Audience Seating, moving even faster than Hayato, and instantly crashed into Kaiba, who was still under the influence of the Millennium Eye's Magical Energy?!
In a pure white space, Kaiba opened his eyes.
"Where is this?" he asked, looking around in confusion. In this pure white space, there was nothing but Kaiba himself. "Hey!"
But there was no echo, as if this space was endless.
Perplexed, Kaiba took a step forward, wanting to see what was happening here. But the moment he stepped forward, countless fragmented images suddenly surged past him like a flood—
an adult woman in Egyptian attire leading a brown-haired, blue-eyed boy, wandering from place to place;
a grown-up brown-haired, blue-eyed boy and a white-haired girl riding a horse together, seemingly fleeing;
in what appeared to be an Ancient Egypt library, an old man in white robes instructing the brown-haired, blue-eyed boy, now dressed in blue and white attire;
At the same time, vague voices echoed, one after another:
"[], you have the qualifications to become a Pharaoh!"
"Kill []? I refuse!"
"My proud father already died in battle when I was young!"
"Sorry, [], I might have to go first."
In a daze, Kaiba opened his eyes again, only to find himself back on the Airship. Bakura, who had been gripping his wrist so tightly, had fallen unconscious again at some point.
"What was that just now...?" Kaiba instinctively raised a hand to wipe his cheek, finding it wet. "I'm... crying?"
Kaiba clearly remembered seeing those fragmented images and hearing those vague voices just moments ago. But no matter how hard he tried to recall, he couldn't remember what he had just heard or seen.
"Before you wipe away your tears," a resentful voice sounded in Kaiba's ear. He turned his head and saw one of the Top 8 participants, Marik Ishtar—who supposedly held two God Cards—standing beside him, looking indignant. "Give me back my Millennium Rod!"
Only when Marik reminded him did Kaiba notice that his hand was tightly clutching a golden scepter that Marik had previously treasured. Marik was pulling on one end of the scepter, trying to snatch it away.
"Hmph, mystical nonsense, do you think I'd be interested?" Although he had just experienced a rather miraculous and even somewhat eerie scene, Kaiba was still Kaiba. A firm believer in science, he had no great interest in something like the Millennium Rod. He straightforwardly released his Hand, allowing Marik to take the Millennium Rod back.
Leaving Marik, who was bizarrely examining his Millennium Rod to figure out what was wrong with it, Kaiba turned around, as if he had forgotten everything that had just happened, and walked towards the Audience Seating. As he walked, he spoke to Croquet, who was on the Judge's Stand and constantly monitoring the situation, "Tell someone to clean up the Duel Field and take that Fodder Monster away."
The "Fodder Monster" referred to Bakura, who had collapsed once more.
After Hayato removed Bakura's Deck, he caught up with the composed Kaiba, sizing him up with a strange expression. "Hey Seto," he asked, "you are yourself, right?"
"Has your brain been fried from taking too much Impact during the elimination rounds, Hayato?" Kaiba glanced at Hayato, his expression perfectly calm. "If you're still getting seriously injured just taking a Puzzle Card from a Fodder Monster, perhaps I should re-evaluate your strength, and while I'm at it, readjust the intensity of the Impact Simulation System."
"Still as sharp-tongued as ever. Looks like you're definitely Seto." Hayato said, patting Kaiba's shoulder. "But I'm curious, how exactly did you do that just now?"
Bakura, who was lying on the ground, was carried to the medical bay on the Airship. Téa and Serenity Wheeler, who were still unaware of Dark Bakura's existence, volunteered to go to the medical bay to check on Bakura's condition. Of course, the first sycophant, Tristan, and the second sycophant, Duke Devlin, followed them out.
As everyone in the Audience Seating waited, the ridiculously elaborate (Blue-Eyes White Dragon) lottery machine GO! GO!, which they had seen earlier in the hall, was raised to the Sky Duel Arena. It was reactivated to determine the Duelists for the second Match.
To everyone's expectant gazes, two orbs were spit out, one after another. The numbers on them differed by only one: "5" and "6", representing Duelist number five—Joey—and Duelist number six—Mai Valentine, respectively.
Croquet announced loudly, "Then, the second Match of the Battle City Top 8 to Top 4 Qualifier, the Duelists are—"
"Joey Wheeler, and Mai Valentine!"
Hearing this, a dumbfounded Joey turned his head to look at an equally dumbfounded Mai Valentine. They both exclaimed in unison, "My opponent, it's him/her?"
Compared to the oblivious Joey, Mai Valentine had, after all this time, gradually recognized the affection in her Heart for Joey. Thus, she was quite distressed that she was paired against Joey. "Even Yugi would be fine, but why does it have to be Joey, of all people?"
"Huh? Don't look down on me! I'm 1000% stronger now than I was during Duelist Kingdom!" Joey, however, didn't understand Mai Valentine's true meaning, thinking she found Dueling him unchallenging. He immediately retorted, "If you underestimate me, be careful you don't get easily defeated by yours truly, just like back then, Mai."
"You arrogant, clueless fool!" Mai Valentine said, annoyed. "Do you think you're the only one who's grown? I'm not the same as I used to be either!"
As she spoke, she crossed her arms over her chest, seemingly unconsciously adjusting the 'excess' in front of her. Unfortunately, while Joey would normally be an SP like most men, his Duel Addiction had consumed all his brain's processing power, leaving it only for Dueling.
"Since you're so confident, why don't we make a bet?" This was the first time in her life she had such good feelings for a man, yet Joey was a total blockhead—no, he was practically a humanoid (Gilti-Gearfried the Magical Steel Knight). This made Mai Valentine somewhat exasperated. She said with a cold laugh, "If I win, I don't want your (Red-Eyes Black Dragon). You'll simply be my attendant for a month."
In a month's time, she refused to believe she couldn't win him over! Mai Valentine thought this to herself.
"Hmph hmph, I won't lose!" Joey declared.
Yugi, though appearing a bit short, was quite perceptive. He immediately saw through Mai Valentine's feelings for Joey and smiled knowingly from the side. Hayato, watching the two blondes bicker, chuckled softly and whispered to Ishizu beside him, "When these two get married, I'm sitting at the kids' table."
The staff, who had finished calibrating the camera equipment that had surprisingly gone out of focus and slightly tilted due to Obelisk the Tormentor's previous Attack, withdrew from the Field. Joey and Mai Valentine stood on opposite sides of the Duel Field, quietly awaiting Croquet's command from the Judge's Stand.
In the Audience Seating, Ishizu was discussing with Hayato whether the kids' table or the elders' table would be more cost-effective for a banquet. Meanwhile, Marik's gaze darted back and forth between the Millennium Rod in his Hand and the calm-faced Kaiba, seemingly still trying to figure out why his Millennium Rod had dragged him over to Kaiba.
Kaiba was discussing various matters with Mokuba, such as the Airship's current location, if anything had happened with KaibaCorp, and the public's reaction to the first Duel video that had just been released online. Yugi, on the other hand, was deep in thought, pondering what method he should use if he had to face Kaiba's Obelisk the Tormentor.
On the Duel Field, Mai Valentine and Joey's gazes met.
"Just wait until you're my attendant for a month, Joey." Mai Valentine said with a smile.
"No way! I'm definitely going to win against you!" Joey returned a confident smile, then turned his head to the nearby camera. "Heheh, I never thought I'd have a day where I'd be on TV!"
"I announce the second Match of the Battle City Top 8 to Top 4 Qualifier!" Croquet raised both hands high, and after confirming both Duelists were ready, he sharply brought them down. "Now, let the Duel begin!"
"Duel!" x2
[Joey: 4000 LP, Hand 5]
[Mai Valentine: 4000 LP, Hand 5]
(end of chapter)