# Chapter 279: Transaction
"Special Summon during the Battle Phase?!"
Under Rishid's gaze, Sky Galloping Gaia the Dragon Champion, which had just completed an attack, turned golden all over, just like when it first appeared, and accelerated once more, vanishing from his sight.
"By Tributing the Dragon-Type Fusion Monster Sky Galloping Gaia the Dragon Champion, I Special Summon this monster from my hand. This effect can even be activated during your turn."
"Let me show you the limit of my bond with Gaia," Hayato said, playing the card in his hand. "Show the world your power, prove that you're not just a cripple who can only ride a horse!"
"Dark Knight Gaia The Fierce Knight!!!"
A disgruntled Gaia reappeared on Hayato's field. He wanted to press Hayato down and sew his mouth shut so he couldn't talk nonsense anymore, but considering this was his new form's first appearance and he needed to make a strong impression, he could only pose coolly with his sword, a dark look on his face.
Dark Knight Gaia The Fierce Knight [Level 8/DARK]
[Warrior/Effect]
[2600/2100]
Dark Knight Gaia, having dismounted, did not suffer an ATK decrease despite losing the assistance of Curse of Dragonfire. After replacing the long lance used in cavalry battle with a trident for infantry battle, Dark Knight Gaia The Fierce Knight looked at Rishid's empty field with killing intent.
"Because it was Special Summoned during the Battle Phase, Dark Knight Gaia The Fierce Knight also has the right to attack," Hayato said calmly. "First, let me confirm, your hand isn't Kuriboh or Xiao Zhan, right? Alright, here I come!"
"Cha!"
Looking at Rishid, who showed no intention of resisting and calmly accepted his defeat, Dark Knight Gaia The Fierce Knight showed no mercy at all. Instead, it used its full power within the confines of the Duel rules, forcefully knocking Rishid unconscious.
[Rishid: 2100LP → 0]
Until it disappeared, Dark Knight Gaia The Fierce Knight kept staring at the unconscious Rishid. Hayato used to shout a cool line when his horse-riding or dragon-riding forms first appeared, so why was it so lame today?
I told you I'm not just a cripple who rides horses!
Dark Knight Gaia The Fierce Knight, who had knocked out the only witness, dissipated as the Duel ended. The moment the Duel finished, Hayato rushed towards the unconscious Rishid, removed the Duel Disk from his wrist, and immediately retrieved Raviel, Lord of Phantasms from the Graveyard.
Holding the blue "Strongest Phantasm God" card in his hand, Hayato looked around suspiciously. The previous two Phantasm Gods had already been pocketed by that elusive guy Bakura. Uria, Lord of Searing Flames was one thing, but Hayato was the one who defeated Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder.
Hayato was usually the one stealing from others, but today Bakura had stolen cards from him, which made him quite annoyed. Therefore, after confirming that Rishid possessed Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, he immediately decided to intercept this card.
However, what surprised Hayato was that Bakura didn't appear out of nowhere nearby like the previous two times.
"Hmm, why can't I hear Rishid's voice all of a sudden? This feeling, is it the Millennium Ring?!"
Just as Hayato reached out to support Rishid, Marik, who had been maintaining a mind link with him, frowned. Due to the interference effect of the Millennium Ring, the mind link maintained by the Millennium Rod was suddenly and forcefully interrupted.
This annoyed Marik, and he angrily shouted Hayato's name in the basement where he was alone:
"Onore Kobayashi Hayato!"
However, he wasn't too worried about Rishid's safety.
Perhaps it was a bond, or perhaps a tacit understanding, but because of being protected by Rishid during his childhood, Marik possessed a special ability beyond the Millennium Rod: no matter how far apart they were, he could always sense Rishid's condition.
Just like now, although the Millennium Rod's mind link was blocked by the Millennium Ring, Marik could feel that Rishid was quite safe, and his condition hadn't changed much, remaining stable.
But that was limited to his physical condition.
"Aniki, are you really letting us do whatever you want?" Dressed as painters, Ojama Yellow stood before a group of similarly dressed Ojama monsters, holding a bucket of paint and a brush, looking at Hayato with anticipation.
"I told you, even though everything he did wasn't from his subjective will but under the instruction of that three-year-old Marik, crime is still crime." Hayato held Rishid's cards, carefully selecting them. He casually threw the cards he didn't need into the Shop to recycle, while adding the useful cards to his card pool.
"Before Kaiba's people get here, I'll leave this guy to you. Consider it part of his punishment," Hayato finished speaking and saw Ojama Yellow leading the Ojama family and a few Performapal monsters who liked to join the fun, starting to graffiti on Rishid's face.
Although they looked disgusting, Hayato unexpectedly discovered at this moment that the Ojama family actually had quite a talent for this.
Hayato looked back at the cards in his hand.
He had to admit, Rishid's deck was like "a vegetable patch after the radishes have been pulled" - full of traps. The entire deck had about fifty cards, of which about thirty were various kinds of traps, with only eight monsters and a dozen or so spell cards, including Raviel, Lord of Phantasms.
Among these thirty-odd cards, there were attack declaration traps like Dimensional Prison and the forever unactivatable Sakuretsu Armor, summon traps like Torrential Tribute and various kinds of Trap Hole, counter traps like Magic Jammer and Solemn Judgment, and restriction traps like Curse of the Six-Pointed Star and Gravity Bind.
He even had fake traps like Fake Trap and Security Orb prepared. If he hadn't confirmed that Rishid's deck didn't contain Traptrix, Hayato would have thought this was actually a Traptrix deck.
Hayato even discovered something quite interesting - Rishid had actually awakened a card spirit, but unlike other Duelists whose card spirits were monster cards, he, like Hayato who initially received System help, had awakened a card spirit from a trap card - Apophis the Embodiment of Apophis, a "monster trap" that was still quite rare, at least Hayato was seeing it for the first time.
This type of trap card was somewhat similar to spell cards like Fires of Doomsday that summon tokens, except "monster trap cards" after activation weren't used to summon tokens. Instead, the card itself was treated directly as a monster card and placed in the monster zone, gaining level, attribute, type, and ATK/DEF. They could be treated as trap cards or monster cards.
Although he didn't have a collection of this type of card yet, Hayato considered himself to have strong principles and didn't keep or sell this card. Instead, he put it back into Rishid's pocket.
Then he casually took his Puzzle Card and compared it with the few he had on hand, showing a satisfied smile.
Good luck, he didn't get two duplicate puzzles in a row like he did at the very beginning. With this, Hayato had finally collected six different Puzzle Cards. In other words, he now had the qualification to enter the Duel City Top 8. The only difference was that he still needed to go to the second stage duel arena to confirm his qualification.
However, Hayato, who knew the future plot, didn't actually need to bother with that. Just now, he had sent another text message to Kaiba, informing him that he had caught a Ghouls suspect and had encountered a deceased person again - halfway through Hayato's Duel with Rishid, the Ghouls member whose wrist had been severed had already died from excessive blood loss.
And that guy Kaiba's reply to Hayato was quite sharp:
"Kobayashi Hayato! Are you a grim reaper who brings death wherever you go? This is the third time!"
"If there's a next time, I'll directly call the Domino City Police Department and have you, a major suspect, arrested!"
"Also, this number of mine isn't for you to use as a wishing machine!"
However, despite the bad tone in the text message, Kaiba did say "I'll have someone handle it" at the end.
Being able to help with a phone call, and quite efficiently too, Hayato felt Kaiba was much more useful than the Holy Grail or anything like that.
Just as he was thinking this, Hayato heard the sound of a car braking outside the alley, the sound of tires rubbing against the ground. In a moment, four or five fully armed security personnel escorted three doctors to Hayato. After a simple confirmation, the group took Rishid and the deceased Ghouls member away.
Hayato initially thought about catching a ride with these people to the KaibaCorp Building, but before he could walk out of the alley, in that instant, he felt a chilling magic power sweep over him.
When he turned his head to look again, the bodies of the medical personnel and security personnel carrying Rishid's stretcher had suddenly stopped moving, looking exactly as if someone had shouted "Za Warudo".
Hayato had seen this scene more than once before. Of course, it had nothing to do with "Stands"; he had seen it from Maximillion Pegasus.
Turning his head, sure enough, Hayato saw Bakura's figure.
"What walks into an alley on six legs and walks out on two legs? The answer is Kobayashi Hayato and the Ghouls," Bakura said with a mysterious smile, sniffing the overly damp air in the alley, which perpetually saw no sunlight.
Hayato curled his lip in disdain. "I thought the answer was the Batman family."
Looking at Bakura, Hayato played with a card in his hand. "Everyone else is hunting for Puzzle Cards everywhere to get the Duel City Top 8 qualification, but Bakura, you're really leisurely."
"After all, I'm not a powerful Duelist like you, Hayato-kun, am I? For me, something like the Duel City Top 8 is completely dispensable," Bakura said, his gaze sharp as he looked at the card Hayato was flipping. "However, the card in your hand interests me more."
The card spirit of Raviel, Lord of Phantasms struggled a bit in Hayato's hand, trying to act on its own to control Hayato and leave his grasp. However, under the "friendly" persuasion of The Winged Dragon of Ra and the Earthbound Immortal, Raviel, Lord of Phantasms shrank back into the card.
"You want this card? Just say so if you want it. If you don't say it, how would I know you want it?" Hayato glanced at Raviel, Lord of Phantasms obediently squatting at the bottom of the card, flipped the card to show Bakura, and casually tapped the side. "But before that, answer me a question, Bakura."
"What kind of transaction did you make with that guy Marik? So far, I can't see what benefits you've gained from him, or what he can gain from you."
Looking at the silent Bakura, Hayato took out another The Winged Dragon of Ra and looked at it. "Although the Three Sacred Beasts can be considered cards with a certain strength, Marik already has God Cards; he doesn't care about these cards at all, even casually bestowing them upon his subordinates to use."
"And you've been recovering the Three Sacred Beasts cards. Didn't you hand them over yourself? Passing from one hand to the other. Your only gains are the duel energy collected during the Three Sacred Beasts' usage. Don't tell me you're already planning to seek immortality this early."
After hearing Hayato's question, Bakura only showed a strange smile. "The Three Sacred Beasts are just substitutes I found, just like the Millennium Eye. I don't mind telling you about my transaction with Marik. Anyway, it's about to be completed!"
As soon as the words fell, Bakura, who was standing in front of Hayato, suddenly turned into a shadow and melted into the ground, attacking towards Hayato!
Hayato reacted quickly. He held The Winged Dragon of Ra's card between his fingers and swung his hand out. "In the name of the God, I command you to retreat! The Winged Dragon of Ra!"
In an instant, the immortal bird's golden flames completely enveloped and protected Hayato's body. But what Hayato didn't expect was that Bakura's attack target wasn't him. Instead, he crossed over the solar flame and attacked the unconscious Rishid, who had already been sent into the vehicle interior!
"The attack target is Rishid? Could it be you!" The moment Hayato confirmed Bakura's attack target, he understood what Bakura's purpose was.
Rishid's greatest value wasn't Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, which he previously held and had now fallen into Hayato's hands, nor was it his position as the highest level in the Ghouls besides Marik, and even less so the Tomb Keepers' spell inscribed on his body.
His bond with Marik was the most precious thing! Marik, who possessed a dual personality, had always had his dark personality sealed away by Rishid's existence. Once Rishid died, the surface Marik would likely be instantly replaced by the Dark Marik personality!
Hayato finally figured something out. Although the person who made the transaction with Bakura was Marik, it was likely that Regular Marik was completely in the dark about this matter. Bakura's real transaction was actually with Dark Marik; that guy was the biggest beneficiary!
Having figured all this out, Hayato immediately changed his strategy and attacked towards Bakura. But Hayato, attacking second, was still a step too slow. The instant The Winged Dragon of Ra's flames attacked Bakura's shadow form, he had already successfully hit the unconscious Rishid.
The moment they touched, Bakura released Uria, Lord of Searing Flames and Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, which he had previously recycled. As soon as the two Phantasm Gods appeared, they immediately frantically absorbed Rishid's life force. In a short instant, Rishid's condition plummeted like bungee jumping; his life was instantly in critical condition!
Hayato's attack successfully sent Bakura flying, but Bakura, who crashed into the wall, laughed triumphantly. "Heh hahahaha, Kobayashi Hayato, you still fell for it! This is my real attack route!"
"You were still one step behind!"
The two Phantasm Gods were easily abandoned by Bakura, treated as single-use items. Leaving the two cards behind like scrap paper, Bakura immediately fled from here. The moment after he disappeared, The Winged Dragon of Ra's flames fell, but only burned down the concrete wall.
Hayato cursed under his breath in annoyance, thinking Bakura was becoming more and more like a rabbit. He quickly pushed away the medical personnel who had just recovered from the influence of the Millennium Eye and leaped into the vehicle interior to check on Rishid's condition.
As for Uria, Lord of Searing Flames and Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, although they arrogantly tried to attack Hayato when they first appeared, after being taught a lesson by The Winged Dragon of Ra and the Earthbound Immortal, and seeing their boss Raviel, Lord of Phantasms obediently staying to the side, they also obediently hid inside the cards.
"Hey, Rishid, Rishid!" Hayato anxiously walked to Rishid's side, looking at Rishid who had woken up from being unconscious due to pain. "You idiot, now is not the time for you to die!"
"Kobayashi Hayato..." Rishid said weakly. "I want to ask you for a favor..."
At the same time, Marik, far away in the basement, drew a card in a bad mood, thinking about whether to add this card to his deck. Suddenly, he felt his heart stop for a moment, and everything suddenly went black before his eyes. Before he could realize anything, he had already fallen unconscious, leaning back in his chair with his head tilted up.
After only a few seconds, he opened his eyes again. However, compared to before, the gaze of the Marik who had woken up this time was much more dangerous, and he was making an exaggerated expression, laughing madly as he looked at his hands.
"Yada! That troublesome guy Rishid finally got out of the way!"
Holding the Millennium Rod in his hand, Marik stood up from his seat, lifting his slightly drooping bangs over his head with one hand, his face full of madness. "How many years has it been? I'm finally out!"
"Hmph hmph, hehe, hmph hahaha, hahahahahaha!"
"What unpleasant laughter. It's just a mere dozen years of darkness, is there a need to be so happy?" In the corner of the basement, Bakura's figure suddenly appeared. He was leaning against the wall with narrowed eyes, looking at the madly laughing Marik, or rather, "Dark Marik".
The moment he sensed Rishid's life was in critical condition, the mind seal that had sealed Dark Marik away for over ten years was finally released. Having escaped, he naturally defeated Regular Marik and took dominance over the body immediately.
"Bakura Ryo? Hmph hmph, this is our first time meeting in the real world, isn't it?" Marik glanced sideways at Bakura as if he didn't care about him, seriously examining the Millennium Rod in his hand. "I'm very satisfied with our transaction. You indeed killed that Rishid for me as agreed."
Although Dark Marik had been sealed within the darkness of Marik's inner world and denied freedom ever since the day he was born due to the bond between Regular Marik and Rishid, as Marik's baseless hatred towards the "Pharaoh" deepened day by day, Dark Marik's power, as the avatar of Marik's dark mind, was actually increasing day by day.
Although unable to struggle against the restraint, Dark Marik could somewhat influence a part of Regular Marik's thought, especially under the premise that Regular Marik himself didn't realize he had a second personality at all.
This point was evident from the original timeline, where Marik forcefully demanded that Rishid exchange an easily obtainable victory for the usage of the fake card of the copied The Winged Dragon of Ra. Even though the Ghouls members had conducted countless experiments before without a single successful one, Marik was determined to let Rishid use the fake card at that time. Dark Marik's influence was present in this.
Originally, Dark Marik indeed had this plan, waiting for a suitable opportunity for Rishid to die from divine punishment due to using a copy card, and he would then be able to escape. However, before he could implement this plan, he quite luckily met Bakura.
At that time, Bakura actively sought out Regular Marik, wanting to make a transaction with him. The arrogant Regular Marik immediately used the Millennium Rod to teach this inexplicable guy a good lesson. Bakura naturally struck back using the power of the Millennium Eye.
The confrontation between the two Millennium Items, respectively symbolizing thought and memory, unexpectedly led Bakura's consciousness into Marik's body, facilitating the meeting between Dark Marik and Bakura.
After recognizing that the other party also had some strength, Regular Marik accepted the Three Sacred Beasts as Bakura's show of good faith, promising to arrange for people to collect duel energy for him. In exchange, Bakura would kill the "Pharaoh", Mutou Yuugi, for him.
But Regular Marik didn't know that in the inner world he was completely unaware of, Dark Marik and Bakura reached another transaction - Bakura would help Dark Marik kill Rishid, and Dark Marik would then hand over the Millennium Rod, which Bakura truly wanted, to him.
"I've already killed that Rishid for you as agreed. It really wasn't an easy matter to direct the hatred onto that guy Kobayashi Hayato," Bakura said impatiently, extending his hand. "So, shouldn't our transaction be concluded? Give me the Millennium Rod."
"Of course," Dark Marik said, turning around with a sinister smile, his back to Bakura, and handed out the Millennium Rod.
Two streams of dark magic collided in this basement.