Higher bonds might even make future draws more precise, he thought with satisfaction. He almost felt like thanking Bandit Keith for the unexpected opportunity.
"So annoying," Bandit Keith muttered, his face dark.
"This, that, all of it. You're exactly like those disgusting people. Honor of a Duelist, trusting cards, heart and bonds. It's unbearable. People like you are the worst."
Yugen guessed he was talking about Yugi Muto and Joey Wheeler. After losing to Maximillion Pegasus back then, Keith had fallen completely, willing to do anything to win. Before the Duelist Kingdom tournament, he had even tried to steal Joey Wheeler's entry card, and during the Duel he had resorted to cheating methods like hiding cards in his sleeve.
"Then I'll bury your naive ideas along with your so-called partners!"
Bandit Keith shouted, raising his voice.
"At the moment Mystic Tomato was destroyed, its effect had already activated! When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, I can special summon a DARK monster with ATK 1500 or less from my Deck in face-up attack position!"
"I special summon 'Dark Effigy'!"
Dark Effigy, ATK 1500.
"Then I set one card, and end my turn."
Silent Magician, ATK 3000.
"My Turn! Card Draw!"
After this Card Draw, Bandit Keith's movement clearly stalled. There was a brief silence, and then the muscles in his face twisted as his mouth curved upward uncontrollably.
"Heh. Heh heh. Hahahaha!"
That reaction immediately put Yugen on guard. It looked like he had drawn something dangerous.
"Heh, it's over, Yugi Muto, kid," Bandit Keith laughed loudly. "I've drawn this card, the ultimate manifestation of god-given power. Watch closely. I'll use it to awaken the darkness in my heart!"
The slot on the side of his Duel Disk snapped open. Keith raised the card high like a devoted believer, and blinding green light burst from it.
"Field Spell. The Seal of Orichalcos!"
Yugen froze in shock.
For a moment, he thought he had misheard. Orichalcos should have been from a much earlier era, something from long ago. That power should have been destroyed already.
But when the card merged into the field through the Duel Disk, he knew it was real. Green sparks crackled from Keith's device, energy flooding his body as his clothes whipped around him. He threw his head back and roared, his whole form engulfed in green flame-like light.
The glow gathered on his forehead, forming a six-pointed star that radiated eerie green light. The ground beneath both duelists was soon covered in the same symbol, green light shooting skyward to form an unbreakable barrier.
The Seal of Orichalcos could not be stopped once activated. It could not be negated or removed, and the loser's soul would become nourishment for a Dark God. The duel would not end unless one side fell. (ANIME EFFECT)
In the past, this seal was infamous because everyone who used it lost. Even Pharaoh Atem had suffered one of his rare defeats because of it.
"So that so-called Dark God is just The Seal of Orichalcos again?" Yugen asked despite himself.
"Fool!" Keith shouted. "The Seal of Orichalcos is the darkness of the human heart and the dark will of this planet. No matter how many times it is defeated, it will always return!"
That explanation sounded familiar. As long as humanity and the planet existed, The Seal of Orichalcos would never truly disappear.
So even if it had been beaten by the Egyptian God Cards, it was only sealed, not erased. If anything, it might have grown bolder with time.
Yugen felt a headache coming on. Still, the end of the world was not his concern right now. What mattered was surviving this duel.
The moment the seal activated, he could clearly feel the change. Bandit Keith seemed larger somehow, pressing down with an invisible weight. His destiny as a Duelist had clearly surged.
The Seal of Orichalcos was like a forbidden artifact, able to borrow part of The Seal of Orichalcos's power. Even an ordinary person could briefly gain the destiny to challenge the strong.
"Ah, this feeling," Bandit Keith said with a twisted smile, green light shining in his eyes. "Power really is something else."
He stared straight at Yugen.
"Now then, are you ready to die?"
Bandit Keith laughed coldly. "With Orichalcos active, you have no chances left. Let this Duel become the ritual to revive the Dark God, offering you and your beloved Spirit together."
With a wide swing of his arm, Bandit Keith slapped a Spell Card into his Duel Disk. His voice rose as he declared his move, confident and sharp, as if the result were already decided.
"First, Spell Card, Fissure! This card destroys the monster on your field with the lowest ATK!"
The green Spell Card burst open on Keith's field. The ground in front of Yugen shook violently, the surface splitting as a massive Rift tore open like a deep abyss before quickly spreading outward.
"You only have one monster on your field, Silent Magician." Keith sneered. "Such a short life for a pretty Dark Magician Girl."
"Silent Magician, effect activation," Yugen said calmly. "Once per turn, she can negate the activation of a Spell Card. I negate the destruction effect of Fissure."
White light erupted from Silent Magician at the center. The Fissure card was lifted into the air by a transparent magical storm and shattered into powder, and the cracked ground restored itself as if nothing had happened.
"Tch, so she can do that too," Bandit Keith muttered, clearly annoyed.
"Then I'll activate the effect of Snipe Hunter!" Keith continued. "I discard one card from my hand and roll a die. If the result is anything other than 1 or 6, I destroy one card on the field! (ANIME EFFECT)"
Yugen remembered it now. This guy had always loved dice-based effects, along with his old trick of hiding cards in his sleeves. He was a gambler by nature, though he had never gambled against the right opponent back then.
Snipe Hunter was a strong low-level monster from early Yu-Gi-Oh!. As long as the roll was not 1 or 6, a card could be destroyed, giving it a two-thirds success rate as long as luck did not completely fail.
"Your Silent Magician up front is annoying," Keith said, narrowing his eyes. His gaze shifted between the magician and the face-down card on Yugen's back row.
"Silent Magician gains ATK based on the number of cards in your hand. Yet you were willing to lower her ATK just to set that card, which means you think it's worth it. Let me guess, something like 'Mirror Force', a Trap that can flip the whole situation at once."
Yugen stayed silent.
"But that's useless!" Keith shouted. "I'll show you that cheap traps don't work on me. Snipe Hunter's effect, Wheel of Fate!"
Although the effect said it used a die, the monster's design replaced it with the revolver cylinder on its gun. The black-clad gunman raised his weapon, the rear spinning rapidly before slowing down and stopping on the number four.
"The result is four!" Keith burst out laughing. "So I destroy your face-down card!"
The sniper fired, and the shot tore straight through the back-row card, shattering it instantly. The destruction effect flashed only briefly, and Keith caught a glimpse of the artwork. It was not Mirror Force, nor a common Trap he recognized.
"Now your back row is empty," Bandit Keith said. "Next, I activate the Spell Card 'Fiend Sanctuary' from my hand, Special Summoning one Metal Fiend Token to my field!"
Metal Fiend Token, ATK 0.
"Then I activate the Spell Card 'Precious Cards from Beyond'. When I successfully perform a Tribute Summon using two or more monsters, I can draw two cards from my Deck. (ANIME EFFECT)"
"Now I tribute Metal Fiend Token and Snipe Hunter to perform a Tribute Summon!" Keith roared. "Let the roar of metal bring eternal nightmares to my enemy. Level seven, Barrel Dragon, summon!"
The two monsters broke apart as tribute, their energy gathering into a violent summoning storm. Dark steel took shape amid the flying particles, forming a massive mechanical dragon with three heavy gun barrels, sharp fangs, and grinding gears as it landed on the field.
Barrel Dragon, ATK 2600.