Chapter 274: The Opponent for the Last Puzzle Card Is...
The essence of the Duel Monster life force absorbed by Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder and Uria, Lord of Searing Flames was, in reality, a certain passion for Duel Monsters, as well as the power of Duel Monster spirits. If Chumley hadn't intervened today, Hesiod most likely wouldn't have suddenly been kind enough to return the power of the card spirits he had absorbed.
In this way, Chazz Princeton would lose his intense passion for Duel Monsters and enter the business world. Chazz Princeton's Light and Darkness Dragon would also be unable to awaken its power due to suffering too much loss before its card spirit awakened, leading it to be no longer valued by Chazz. This would indirectly cause Chazz in the future to no longer primarily use Dragon-Type Monsters as in the manga, but instead a deck of miscellaneous monsters.
Fate, it's quite wondrous, isn't it?
----The Last Sacred Beast----
After parting ways with the Princeton Brothers, Chumley once again walked the streets of Domino City. With time passing, about a day had already gone by since the opening of Battle City. The sky was growing dark, and the streetlights flickered on.
However, even with Darkness descending, it didn't make the passionate Duelists stop. Instead, after exchanging their gains with acquaintances they had also Dueled with all day, they became even more proactive, unwilling to fall behind others.
But after a day, they finally recognized a cruel truth — compared to "Legendary Duelists" like Yugi, Hayato, and Seto Kaiba, their strength was simply no match.
If you see a kid with starfish hair, a loud-laughing guy, or a zombie-faced person wearing a white anti-gravity trench coat, absolutely do not easily challenge them.
Looking at the passersby who walked around him, afraid to accept a Duel, Chumley felt conflicted. During the day, he didn't really want to Duel, but a crowd surrounded him, refusing to let him leave unless he Dueled. Yet, when night fell and his OCD kicked in, making him want to quickly collect all the puzzle cards, these Fourth-Rate Duelists actually started avoiding Dueling.
Chumley's mood was probably like preferring to freeze to death in summer rather than suffer from the heat, and preferring to die from the heat in winter rather than freeze to death.
"I saw so many people during the day: Mai Valentine, Rex, Mr. Sheppard. Why can't I find them at night?" Chumley, filled with curiosity, picked up the Millennium Ring hanging around his neck and rubbed its golden wheel as if it were a magic lamp.
"Millennium Ring, oh Millennium Ring, who is the fairest in the land, bah, help me find the nearest Duelist who has a certain level of strength."
The Eye of Udjat faintly glowed, and five cones floated into the air, all pointing in one direction. Chumley followed the direction indicated by the cones and found them pointing to an alleyway beside the road.
It looked like a fairly ordinary alley. At the entrance, two large trash cans were placed for simple sorting. One recycling bin was full of trash, while the other food waste bin seemed to have been cleared that morning, containing only a bag of egg shells.
"I can't believe I actually get to participate in a famous alley plotline? What kind will it be? The alley of no return, the Alley Alliance, or Vector's slaughterhouse?" Muttering to himself, Chumley hesitated before stepping over a garbage bag that had fallen out of the trash can and entered the alley.
Although the Millennium Ring's function was comparable to Google Maps and its accuracy quite high, could there really be a Duelist of a certain strength in such an alley?
Chumley entered the alley with such a skeptical mindset.
Not far from Chumley, a Rare Hunters member dressed in black robes knelt on the ground in terror. "No, Lord Odion, please spare me, Lord Odion!"
But the person standing before this Rare Hunters member was not Marik, but Odion, who had taken off his hood, revealing a shining bald head. He looked at the Rare Hunters member prostrating himself and begging for mercy on the ground, and in his mind link with Marik, he asked, "Lord Marik."
"I told you, Odion, you don't have to consult me on everything. You are free; just make your own decisions." Far away in the underground base, Marik flipped through his Deck card by card, holding the Millennium Rod in one hand to maintain communication. "I must figure out a way to defeat Hayato and take Ra back."
"Therefore, I will maintain a minimal mind link with you for communication. During this time, you will manage the Rare Hunters."
With that, Marik closed his eyes again, recalling the composition of the Deck he had just completed. In his mind, his simulated opponents were Ojama Monsters that flip their ATK and DEF, XYZ-Dragon Cannon for single-target destruction, Armed Dragon for mass annihilation, and Performapal for complex effects and group strategy.
Of course, Marik didn't forget to include Chumley's Gaia, which would always appear in his hand at the right moment. Also included were the Earth Spirit God, Earthbound Immortal, and The Winged Dragon of Ra that had been taken from Marik.
Standing before the Rare Hunters member who was endlessly begging for mercy, seemingly having realized his mistakes, Odion sensed Marik's intense focus on the other end. He silently watched the man kneeling and begging for mercy, then sighed helplessly, "This is the last time. Next time, Lord Marik won't be so kind as to forgive your mistakes."
Although Odion had followed Marik for a long time, and even helped Marik establish the foundation of the Rare Hunters criminal organization, he still couldn't easily take another person's life. His behavior in the Rare Hunters was truly out of place; if not for his connection to Marik, he would have likely left the Rare Hunters long ago.
This person in front of him had unauthorizedly misappropriated a large sum of Rare Hunters funds in Domino City, intended for bribing the mayor of Domino City. Marik had attributed KaibaCorp's previous crackdown on the Rare Hunters to this, ordering him to hand over the money.
But who knew this guy was actually a pachinko enthusiast and a gacha mobile game player? He had misappropriated a total of seventy million (currency implied) from selling fake cards and stolen real cards. The crucial point was that he had gained nothing from either pachinko or gacha games, and couldn't even sell off the cards for much money.
Marik, just then, was busy adjusting his Deck. For a guy who was too much of a waste to die, Marik arranged for his most trusted Odion to temporarily play the role of "cleaner."
"Thank you, thank you, Lord Odion. Thank you very much." The man kneeling and begging for mercy seemed quite surprised and overjoyed to hear Marik apparently letting him go. He stood up and bowed profusely to Odion in thanks. However, as his words of gratitude continued, his tone suddenly changed at a certain moment.
"I must thank you, Lord Odion, for believing in me so easily." Taking advantage of Odion's inattention, he pulled a dagger from his pocket and clutched it, screaming excitedly, "I'm not going to be a Rare Hunters member anymore, Odion! I'll use your blood to commemorate my new life!"
Uttering Dio-esque words, if this were the set of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure next door, someone might have used a once-in-a-lifetime teleportation to flash in front of Odion and block the attack for him. But unfortunately, this was the Duelist's World where martial ethics don't exist.
"Splat!"
The Black-robed Figure stared blankly at the hand gripping the dagger that he had just thrust forward. Just then, a sound like water leaking from a broken pipe suddenly echoed from there. However, it wasn't the sound of blood flowing from Odion's wound after being stabbed by the dagger, but the sound of his main artery gushing blood after his hand was severed out of thin air!
"Urgh, ahhhhhh!!!" Clasping his endlessly bleeding wrist, the Black-robed Figure was kicked unconscious by Odion. Behind Odion, a tall blue fiend phantom image gradually vanished.
Looking at the Rare Hunters traitor lying unconscious on the ground, pale from excessive blood loss, Odion felt annoyed that he had actually considered showing mercy. He turned his head to glance at the fiend phantom image fading behind him and sighed.
He might truly not be suited for the Rare Hunters' environment, yet Lord Marik was stubbornly set on "revenge" against the Pharaoh, and neither he nor Lord Ishizu could reason with him. Now he could only hope that Hayato truly possessed the ability to make Lord Marik let go of his hatred.
But before that, as long as Marik had not left the Darkness, he would continue to exist as a shadow by his side, even if it meant harming others against his own will.
Thinking of this, Odion took out the card Marik had given him. Raviel, Lord of Phantasms was one of the three cards Marik had traded for from the guy named Bakura, and was said to be the strongest of the three.
Although Marik had temporarily lost Ra, he still held Osiris in his hand and didn't think much of the cards Ryo Bakura called "Sacred Beasts". He gave them individually to three of his subordinates to enhance the Rare Hunters' strength. The strongest Sacred Beast, naturally, was given to Odion, Marik's most trusted subordinate.
Unlike "God Cards," the "Sacred Beasts" did not have very strict requirements for their users, nor was there the cost of unqualified users being deprived of life. However, the "Sacred Beasts" had a much stronger self-will.
Specifically, when Odion was just attacked, he didn't even react. That attack was entirely carried out by Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, which craved blood and soul, acting on its own accord.
If the "Egyptian God Cards" were cars that were difficult to activate but easy to drive once activated, then the "Sacred Beasts" were motorcycles with low activation difficulty but extremely hard to control.
(end of chapter)