Chapter 265: Regulus
"Hmph, what boring guys." Bakura looked at Hayato with disdain. Although the power of the Millennium Eye couldn't read Hayato's thoughts at the moment because of the Millennium Puzzle, Hayato's expression had already revealed everything.
"Duel City is a rather interesting competition. I have no intention of settling grudges with you two for now, so feel free to continue enjoying your Duel Monsters game. I'll be leaving too." Swallowing the Millennium Eye back into his stomach, Bakura smiled sinisterly, took a step back, and gradually retreated into the shadow cast by the large tree beside them.
Being quite satisfied with his current body, Dark Bakura had no desire to shove the Millennium Eye into his eye socket and become a cyclops for the time being. To prevent something like Hayato taking his Millennium Puzzle last time from happening again, he chose to store the Millennium Eye in his stomach.
While this method was a bit disgusting, it was effective in a way. Although Hayato's first reaction just now was to think of fencing, his second reaction was to take the Millennium Eye from Bakura. However, after remembering that the Millennium Eye had been soaked in Pegasus's blood, Bakura's saliva, and stomach acid, Hayato regretfully gave up on the idea.
"You guys, you're actually leaving so obediently?" Hayato narrowed his eyes. "You specifically appeared before us just to say that?"
"Heh heh, of course not, you two fools." In the shadows, Bakura raised his hand and flipped his palm, revealing a card. "Although Haga is just a trash whose strength doesn't match his fame, because his duel opponent was Yugi, this card unexpectedly collected some decent quality Duel Energy."
"As compensation for this Duel Energy, I will be kind enough to give you a reminder." Bakura's figure gradually disappeared into thin air within the shadows, leaving only his final words echoing in Hayato and Yugi's ears,
"Among the duelists gathered in Domino City right now, an ancient DARK force is also targeting the two of you."
Watching Bakura's figure disappear, Yugi frowned: "An ancient DARK force?"
"That guy Bakura, he really put on a show." Hayato pulled out his mobile phone, intending to send Kaiba a message to tell him someone was dead, while patting Yugi's shoulder. "Although I don't know if what Bakura said is true or false, no matter what organization it is, Celestial Humans, Foundation X, Akatsuki, Shocker, whatever."
"As duelists, we just need to defeat them with duels. Everything can be dueled, that's the rules of this world."
Not long after the text message was sent, Hayato was about to put away his mobile phone when he found that Kaiba had actually replied with a message immediately. Before Hayato could open it to check, the sound of helicopter rotors spinning at high speed came from above his and Yugi's heads, along with Kaiba's voice, which couldn't be drowned out even by the sound of the rotors.
"Hmph, you finished the duel so quickly?"
Wearing a white trench coat that would be associated with him from now on, Kaiba grabbed the safety cable with one hand and jumped directly down from the helicopter. After landing rapidly, he released the cable used for buffering and deceleration, allowing the helicopter, which had completed its task, to leave.
"Kaiba," Yugi greeted.
Putting his hands behind his back, Kaiba snorted coldly: "Hmph, Hayato, Yugi, you two are gathered together like small fry again. What, are you already certain about your spots in the Duel City Top 8?"
"More importantly, is your hand okay?" Hayato glanced at the hand Kaiba was hiding behind his back. "You grabbed the helicopter cable for a rapid descent without even wearing gloves. I didn't expect you to be the one who could show off more."
"Shut up, you fool!"
Kaiba stiffly changed the subject, glancing at Haga, or rather Haga's corpse, lying motionless not far away, and frowned.
"I think KaibaCorp, knowing that the Ghouls use pirated cards, especially pirated cards like Blue-Eyes Green Dragon, should increase data surveillance on the cards used in Duel Disks, right?"
Hayato said, walking over to Haga and flipping his body over to the side. First, he picked up the scattered cards on the ground, then pointed at Haga's rolled-back eyes and said, "In that case, you should know what kind of cards that guy Haga used, Kaiba?"
"Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, this card doesn't exist in the card database KaibaCorp obtained from Industrial Illusions, just like your Performapal."
Kaiba looked at Hayato as if he wanted Hayato to explain where his cards came from. They didn't exist in the records but could pass the card identification system, which was the opposite of pirated cards that existed in the database but couldn't pass identification.
"You don't need to know that much about Duel Monsters."
Seeing Hayato evade the question, Kaiba didn't pay too much attention. He was only slightly interested in Performapal. What he truly wanted were powerful monsters like the Three Egyptian God Cards.
"Hmph, then let's skip this question. Although I didn't find information about Uria, Lord of Searing Flames in the Duel Monsters card database, I got a copy of Pegasus's notes from when he designed Duel Monsters."
"After Pegasus created Duel Monsters based on the stone tablets excavated from ancient Egypt, his inspiration exploded, and he began to look at legends other than ancient Egypt."
"Referencing planets and Roman mythology - The Agents, futuristic weapons of war imagined by science fiction writers - machine type monsters, and among the numerous mythological systems worldwide, the Bible mythology, which is one of the most well-known."
Hayato couldn't help but retort: "You mean the design of Uria, Lord of Searing Flames comes from Bible mythology, right? I know that without you saying it. The name 'Uria' is simply the Japanese language reading of 'Uriel' (Uria), one of the four archangels in Bible mythology."
Kaiba glared at Hayato: "If you're so talkative, you can continue."
"Then forget it, you continue, you continue." Hayato waved his hand. "But to design an archangel from the Bible into a demonic duel monster, that guy Pegasus really has a lot of malice towards the Bible."
"The reason I investigated is that Pegasus had a childhood sweetheart, his first love, who left the world at the age of 18 due to illness, and her death was euthanasia. In the Bible, people who commit suicide cannot ascend to heaven, and Pegasus's girlfriend happened to be a Christian."
"Is that why Pegasus designed and created the Uria, Lord of Searing Flames card as a demonic beast instead of a divine beast like the Three Egyptian God Cards?" Yugi exclaimed. "It's just that Pegasus's story feels so familiar, it's practically another 'Vlad the Impaler'."
"No, you're wrong about one thing."
Kaiba said: "Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, and two other monster cards of the same level, Pegasus designed them, but he never actively created these three cards. Including Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, the cards Pegasus called the Three Sacred Beasts that were qualified to confront the Three Egyptian God Cards, appeared out of thin air in his design studio overnight after he completed the design drafts!"
*
The conversation between Yugi, Hayato, and Kaiba by the riverbank was temporarily put aside.
In an ordinary residential house in Domino City, a black-robed figure pushed open the door and walked into the empty room.
After confirming that no one was following him, the black-robed figure reached out and grasped a wall lamp on the wall, rotating it.
Opposite the wall lamp, a glass display cabinet that was originally disguised as a wall filled with action figures and models suddenly slid open to both sides, revealing a passage leading underground.
But the black-robed figure did not enter immediately. Instead, he pulled the wall lamp three more times. With a "click" sound, he confirmed that the second mechanism at the passage entrance was disarmed. Only then did the black-robed figure reset the wall lamp and walk into the passage.
As he walked, the black robe could not completely conceal his tall and muscular build, revealing dark muscles and spiky yellow hair. However, since no one was around, no one saw his true face.
Halfway through the underground passage, the black-robed figure suddenly stopped. Without waiting for the person who quietly appeared behind him to speak, he preemptively gave the password: "Master Marik, may you enjoy eternal blessings and live as long as the heavens."
"Well, don't be too nervous, 'Regulus'. The password is just a formality. I personally recruited you into our organization, so how could I not trust you?" The person who appeared behind 'Regulus' said so, but quietly put away the pistol aimed at 'Regulus''s head.
"Our Ghouls have been invaded so many times by Kobayashi Hayato and Seto Kaiba. It's right to be cautious, senior." The muscular black-robed figure seemed unaware that a gun had just been pointed at his head, and said calmly to the short figure who walked in front of him.
"Oh, you have quite high awareness. Then you'll have to work even harder in the future. Maybe it won't be too long before you can become a Ghouls executive like me." Saying this, the short black-robed figure led the way.
The two arrived at the end of the passage, which was another rather large basement space. If Hayato were here, he would definitely complain that the Ghouls were like rats, so fond of using basements as hiding places. The underground of Domino City was almost dug hollow by them.
In this underground room, more than a dozen black-robed figures had already gathered. Noticing the short figure who brought the burly man in, several people nodded and turned their gaze to a corner of the room. On several steps, the only person not wearing a black robe, but revealing his true face, sat in front of a chair, looking very unhappy.
Marik stroked the Millennium Rod in his hand. His gloomy expression could not hide the weakness between his brows. Clearly, he had not yet recovered from his defeat in the dark game last night.
It wasn't just the damage from the dark game; more importantly, he had also lost one of the two God Cards he held at the same time. The key was, if he had given the card to someone else and then lost the God Card, he would at least have an outlet to vent, but instead, he had personally gone out and been defeated by Kobayashi Hayato.
Looking at the dozen or so people in front of him, Marik's fingers lightly tapped the armrest of the chair, and he spoke: "Is this all of our Ghouls in Domino City?"
"Hmph, a bunch of trash!" The Millennium Rod began to glow as anger rose in Marik's heart. For a moment, almost all the black-robed figures covered their heads in pain and knelt on the ground, including the burly man brought in by the short figure.
However, compared to the "senior" who led him in, who was already covered in sweat from the pain, the burly man also had a pained expression, but if you looked directly into his eyes, you could easily see - he was faking it. And under the burly man's black robe, a crystal shard-like pendant on his chest emitted a faint, almost imperceptible dark green light.
The "only" black-robed figure who was not being tormented stood on the steps in front of Marik and bowed respectfully to him: "Master Marik, please forgive our mistakes. They are still useful."
"Hmph, since Rishid has spoken." Marik snorted coldly, snapped his fingers, and finally released his control over his subordinates, allowing them to finally catch their breath and rest.
"I'll give you one day. Go find Seto Kaiba and Kobayashi Hayato, and use your lives to take the Three Egyptian God Cards back from them!" The bottom of the golden scepter lightly tapped the armrest of the chair. Marik waved his hand with a grim expression, dismissing these useless subordinates.
He had specifically summoned his subordinates just to collectively punish them. Marik seemed to be venting his dissatisfaction with this childish method.
The black-robed figures left one by one in the direction they came from. As Marik watched the last black-robed figure leave the room, he sighed helplessly and looked at Rishid beside him.
But just as he was about to say something, the Millennium Rod in his hand began to glow without reason.
Marik wasn't surprised, just looked coldly at the shadow in the corner of the room: "How is it? Did you get what you wanted?"
"Hoh ya, I was discovered." Licking the Millennium Eye with a "rerorero" sound, Bakura appeared out of thin air in this hidden basement. "Mutou Yuugi, or rather the Pharaoh's duel will, was truly delicious. Thanks to your subordinates, Marik."
"Hmph, just a basic exchange of interests. I did what I promised, you'd better keep your word and not play any tricks."
"Don't worry, don't worry, I'm the most trustworthy person." Bakura said, his gaze looking in the direction the black-robed figures had left. He smelled an interesting scent.
But tell Marik that there was a special guy among his subordinates? He wouldn't ruin an interesting drama.
Among the departing black-robed figures, the short figure wiped the sweat from his forehead with his black robe and let out a long breath: "Phew, the leader's aura is really strong. I almost suffocated and fainted just now."
Looking at the burly man beside him who was also wiping his forehead with his black robe, the short figure said with a grin: "Heh heh, were you scared? You'll get used to it later."
"Oh right, 'Regulus', want to come with me to find that King of Games - Kobayashi Hayato?"