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Chapter 681: Although I Don't Want to Admit It, It's All Because of Mistakes Made in My Youth
As previously stated, in a Dark Game, an existence like **The Winged Dragon of Ra**, which is on a level far surpassing other monsters, can inflict damage far beyond what other monsters can compare to, regardless of its ATK. Not to mention, Hayato increased **The Winged Dragon of Ra**'s ATK to a staggering 11599 points in one go.
Generally speaking, this amount of damage would be enough to burn to ashes the opponent facing **The Winged Dragon of Ra**'s attack, body and soul. However, Camus the Vampire was still alive. While Hayato holding back was a factor, it was also largely thanks to the Vampire Clan's life force, which, as supernatural creatures, far surpassed that of ordinary humans.
However, this did not mean that Camus would survive.
The Shadow Realm dispersed as the duel reached its conclusion, and the figures of the monsters faded. Only behind Camus, who lay on the ground, did the **Phantom Gate** he had used during the duel reappear.
"Wh-What's going on? Why did the **Phantom Gate** appear again?!" Camus seemed to have not anticipated this situation. For the **Phantom Gate** standing behind him, the more haughty he had been during the duel, the more fear he felt now.
Hadn't he already paid his soul as a cost to the **Phantom Gate**? Why had the **Phantom Gate** reappeared now, as if to take his soul?!
This wasn't the first time he had used the stronger **Phantom Gate** to overwrite the rules within a Dark Game that had already been set up. But why was this feeling of his soul being pulled?!
As a vampire, Camus's body possessed extreme vitality. Even if someone were to split his entire body vertically with a sword, he could stick the two halves back together with his hands. He could even survive having his head cut off, and shooting the moisture from his eyes out like lasers was also not a problem.
Ordinary methods couldn't kill a vampire, but the power of the Dark Game and the **Phantom Gate**, a secret technique card of the Vampire Clan, were different. They were powers that directly targeted life and soul. No matter how strong Camus's body was, he couldn't escape death.
Feeling his soul about to be pulled from his body, Camus's heart was filled with unwillingness and confusion. It was at this moment that he saw Hayato calmly take out three cards from a card box at his waist.
"**Phantom Gate**, huh? Although I don't know what connection your card has with the combined form of these guys, after all, they're both called '**Phantom Gate**'."
Turning the three cards in his hand, Camus saw the three cards in Hayato's hand—**Uria, Lord of Searing Flames**, **Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder**, and **Raviel, Lord of Phantasms**—fuse together, forming a card also named **Phantom Gate**.
"But who gave you permission to arbitrarily use that card to tamper with the Dark Game I set up?"
Holding the **Phantom Gate** card, which he had temporarily "transformed" using the method of fusing the Sacred Beasts that he had learned from Anubis, Hayato felt that he now had absolute control over the real **Phantom Gate** behind Camus, which was not a card but a real existence. Camus's life and death, having lost the duel, rested solely on his decision.
In that case, what was there to say? Why would he keep Camus alive?
Thinking this, Hayato was about to use the power of the **Phantom Gate** to re-impose the punishment of the Dark Game that Camus had evaded—being absorbed by darkness—upon him.
"That disrespectful card, let it be out of print from now on—"
"Wait, please wait! Please spare my life!" Just before Hayato was about to take Camus's soul, Camus, who was shocked that Hayato actually had the **Phantom Gate** card, seemed to sense his impending death. Unexpectedly for both Hayato and Marik, he suddenly knelt down right where he was, having just gotten up, and desperately begged Hayato for mercy.
Camus's current appearance of desperately begging for mercy formed a stark contrast with his haughty attitude before the duel. The strong contrast made Hayato pause for a moment. Camus, fearing that speaking too late would make Hayato change his mind, quickly said, "As long as you let me go, Sir Hayato Kobayashi, I can tell you who hired me to harm you!"
"Think about it, I am so weak and powerless before you. I pose no threat to you at all. And if you know who hired me, you can be prepared for your journey ahead, can't you? This is a very worthwhile deal!"
As Camus spoke while kneeling on the ground, he forced a very strained "smile" onto his face, while continuously gripping his own flesh with the hands resting on his knees, his fingernails almost embedding into his flesh and piercing his skin.
Humiliation, such humiliation. A noble Vampire Race actually knelt and begged for mercy from a human, who was merely food. To survive, he had to be so subservient and humble. The dignity of a noble Vampire Race was being trampled on the ground like this, truly humiliating!
But he had to survive, for the revival of the Vampire Race, he, a member of the Vampire Race, had to survive!
It was just temporary humiliation. Compared to his precious life, dignity could be discarded. Anyway, only Hayato Kobayashi and that guy next to him with the terribly foul breath, these two humans, knew about his shameful state. Once these two short-lived humans died of old age, his stain would naturally disappear.
If they could survive today...
Camus lowered his head slightly, hiding his sinister gaze so Hayato wouldn't notice.
"Using the information about your employer, which should have been kept secret, to exchange for your life? Heh, as a Mercenary, you really have professional ethics." Hayato looked at Camus, who was kneeling and begging for mercy, with contempt. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Alright, I really want to know who wants to kill me so badly. I accept your request."
Hearing that Hayato agreed to let him go, Camus was overjoyed and subconsciously wanted to say who hired him. But just as he raised his head and before the words left his mouth, he suddenly realized that among the information he had collected, someone seemed to have evaluated Hayato Kobayashi as a guy who was incredibly malicious.
Betrayal, breaking contracts, selling out teammates—while others might not be able to do these things, Hayato Kobayashi could do them without any psychological burden.
Thinking of this, Camus hesitated slightly, gritted his teeth, and said, "You have to swear that you absolutely won't harm me, otherwise I'll swallow this secret and take it to the Underworld without saying a word!"
Although he spoke toughly, Camus knew he fundamentally had no qualification to negotiate with Hayato. If he wasn't careful, Hayato might lose interest in getting the information because he was setting conditions, and then kill him. He was just gambling, gambling that Hayato didn't see him as someone who absolutely had to be killed, and that he would value the information that "someone wants to kill me".
Fortunately, Camus seemed to have gambled correctly. Hayato said helplessly, "I've always been a man of my word, okay? I absolutely won't go back on something I've promised. You don't believe the promise I, a man of my word, made? Alright, then I swear, as long as you tell me the information about who hired you, I absolutely will not harm you."
"I stake my Tamashii."
Hayato had said this much, even staking his soul card, which every Duelist regards as their life. Camus also believed that Hayato would indeed not harm him.
On the other hand, Marik glanced at Hayato with slight astonishment: "No way, Brother-in-law, are you really going to let this guy go? This guy isn't a good person, you know. And if you just let this guy leave like this, who knows if he'll come back and attack us again."
"Otherwise? I've already staked my cherished Tamashii. As long as this guy tells me the information, I can't go back on my word, right?" Turning his head, Hayato took out three cards and revealed them. "You know too, **Ojama Yellow** and the others are my beloved friends, my brothers."
"Aniki~" X3
Amidst the moved voices of the Ojama Brothers, Hayato winked at Marik. Seeing this, Marik recalled what Hayato had just said, and suddenly realized something, nodding understandingly.
Camus didn't see the two exchanging glances. Fearing that Hayato would change his mind because of Marik's words, he quickly spoke: "It's a guy who calls himself 'Tenma Yexing'. I haven't seen his face and don't know what he looks like, I only know that someone with this name wants to kill you."
"He promised a piece of property that once belonged to my Family as the reward for hiring me. The reason he wants to kill you seems to be because you killed Pegasus J. Crawford."
In one go, Camus spilled all the information he knew, with almost no reservation, just to satisfy Hayato and be allowed to leave.
"Tenma Yexing?" Marik rubbed his chin. "Why do I feel like I've seen a similar name somewhere? Right, didn't Pegasus have an adopted son named Tenma Tsukihiro? I saw him hosting on stage during the KC Cup before."
"Tenma Yexing, Tenma Tsukihiro, is there any relationship between these two people? Their names are so similar."
"This, I'm not too sure. I don't understand much about you humans, but there shouldn't be a relationship, right?" Camus answered Marik. Although he looked down on Marik, who looked very weak and had terrible breath, and had just spoken too much about things he shouldn't have, Camus didn't show any dissatisfaction towards Marik because of Hayato. After all, this guy was clearly someone with connections.
How could he tell? It was a joke, he even called Hayato "Brother-in-law", okay? Camus's ears were very sharp.
"No relationship? Probably, but to send someone to try and kill you, Brother-in-law, just because you 'killed Pegasus'..." Marik said, turning to look at Hayato.
Hayato turned his head and looked at the view outside the Aircraft Cabin: "Although I don't want to admit it, it's all because of mistakes made in my youth."
"Brother-in-law, you just became an adult, right? Are you referring to your chuunibyou period at thirteen or fourteen as your youth?" Marik delivered a precise retort.
"No, in Japan, 20 is the age of adulthood, and drinking alcohol and such is only allowed after 20. However, marriage is allowed at 16."
Hayato said casually, feeling a little strange in his heart. What was going on with this Tenma Yexing guy?
According to the information Kaiba had investigated before, it was indeed the brothers Tenma Yexing and Tenma Tsukihiro who were adopted by Pegasus back then. But for some reason, Tenma Yexing had vanished from the memories of almost everyone, as if his existence had vanished because his talented brother, Tenma Tsukihiro, attracted everyone's attention. Even Pegasus and Tenma Tsukihiro didn't know about Tenma Yexing's existence anymore.
In the commotion during the KC Cup back then, besides the defeated Schroeder Corporation and the Industrial Illusions that were destroyed along with Doma, Tenma Yexing, who seemed to have formed an alliance with Bakura, was also one of the participants. It was also at that time that he formed a grudge against him because he had initially agreed not to help KaibaCorp but then went back on his word and backstabbed them.
But if he wanted retaliation, couldn't he have made a move earlier? Why wait until now, and even use the excuse that he killed Pegasus? It wasn't like playing Civilization where you needed an excuse to declare war. Moreover, although he did kill Pegasus, Pegasus was revived later when Hayato Explode☆Killed the Orichalcos God, wasn't he? He didn't lose anything.
It was just that about 10% of the 40% stock of Industrial Illusions that Pegasus originally held was lost due to changing hands, making Pegasus's current stock the same as what Hayato and Yugi hold.
Well, it's completely no big deal. Didn't Pegasus say things like "One hundred million is a small goal for me", "I'm not interested in money", "Founding Industrial Illusions was my most mistaken decision"? Even if he didn't say them, just assume he did.
Hayato was thinking about what was going on with Tenma Yexing, while Camus, having said all the information he knew, didn't rush to get up. Instead, he continued to kneel on the ground, looking up at Hayato, and cautiously said, "That's all I know. I've fulfilled the deal, can you let me go now? You guaranteed it with your important spirit."
Under the suppression of the **Phantom Gate**, Camus didn't dare to make any big movements. Who knew if Hayato could control this card? If he accidentally got sucked in, it would be bad.
Although he hadn't asked Camus about the difference between the Sacred Beasts' **Phantom Gate** and the **Phantom Gate** that Camus claimed was passed down in his Family, Hayato wasn't particularly interested in finding out. With a casual wave of his hand, the **Phantom Gate** card in his hand turned back into the three Sacred Beasts cards, and the Phantom Gate behind Camus, which had been tearing at his soul, also stopped its movement. The open doorway began to slowly close.
Camus also let out a long breath. The feeling of having his life entrusted to someone else was truly unpleasant, but he had survived. Feeling his soul, which had almost been pulled out, return to his body, Camus, who felt he had successfully preserved his life, was about to stand up.
He had just moved his feet and before he could straighten his back, suddenly, Camus saw Marik take a golden object from Hayato's hand and suddenly swing it in a wide arc, smashing it into his face!
As previously stated, in a Dark Game, an existence like **The Winged Dragon of Ra**, which is on a level far surpassing other monsters, can inflict damage far beyond what other monsters can compare to, regardless of its ATK. Not to mention, Hayato increased **The Winged Dragon of Ra**'s ATK to a staggering 11599 points in one go.
Generally speaking, this amount of damage would be enough to burn to ashes the opponent facing **The Winged Dragon of Ra**'s attack, body and soul. However, Camus the Vampire was still alive. While Hayato holding back was a factor, it was also largely thanks to the Vampire Clan's life force, which, as supernatural creatures, far surpassed that of ordinary humans.
However, this did not mean that Camus would survive.
The Shadow Realm dispersed as the duel reached its conclusion, and the figures of the monsters faded. Only behind Camus, who lay on the ground, did the **Phantom Gate** he had used during the duel reappear.
"Wh-What's going on? Why did the **Phantom Gate** appear again?!" Camus seemed to have not anticipated this situation. For the **Phantom Gate** standing behind him, the more haughty he had been during the duel, the more fear he felt now.
Hadn't he already paid his soul as a cost to the **Phantom Gate**? Why had the **Phantom Gate** reappeared now, as if to take his soul?!
This wasn't the first time he had used the stronger **Phantom Gate** to overwrite the rules within a Dark Game that had already been set up. But why was this feeling of his soul being pulled?!
As a vampire, Camus's body possessed extreme vitality. Even if someone were to split his entire body vertically with a sword, he could stick the two halves back together with his hands. He could even survive having his head cut off, and shooting the moisture from his eyes out like lasers was also not a problem.
Ordinary methods couldn't kill a vampire, but the power of the Dark Game and the **Phantom Gate**, a secret technique card of the Vampire Clan, were different. They were powers that directly targeted life and soul. No matter how strong Camus's body was, he couldn't escape death.
Feeling his soul about to be pulled from his body, Camus's heart was filled with unwillingness and confusion. It was at this moment that he saw Hayato calmly take out three cards from a card box at his waist.
"**Phantom Gate**, huh? Although I don't know what connection your card has with the combined form of these guys, after all, they're both called '**Phantom Gate**'."
Turning the three cards in his hand, Camus saw the three cards in Hayato's hand—**Uria, Lord of Searing Flames**, **Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder**, and **Raviel, Lord of Phantasms**—fuse together, forming a card also named **Phantom Gate**.
"But who gave you permission to arbitrarily use that card to tamper with the Dark Game I set up?"
Holding the **Phantom Gate** card, which he had temporarily "transformed" using the method of fusing the Sacred Beasts that he had learned from Anubis, Hayato felt that he now had absolute control over the real **Phantom Gate** behind Camus, which was not a card but a real existence. Camus's life and death, having lost the duel, rested solely on his decision.
In that case, what was there to say? Why would he keep Camus alive?
Thinking this, Hayato was about to use the power of the **Phantom Gate** to re-impose the punishment of the Dark Game that Camus had evaded—being absorbed by darkness—upon him.
"That disrespectful card, let it be out of print from now on—"
"Wait, please wait! Please spare my life!" Just before Hayato was about to take Camus's soul, Camus, who was shocked that Hayato actually had the **Phantom Gate** card, seemed to sense his impending death. Unexpectedly for both Hayato and Marik, he suddenly knelt down right where he was, having just gotten up, and desperately begged Hayato for mercy.
Camus's current appearance of desperately begging for mercy formed a stark contrast with his haughty attitude before the duel. The strong contrast made Hayato pause for a moment. Camus, fearing that speaking too late would make Hayato change his mind, quickly said, "As long as you let me go, Sir Hayato Kobayashi, I can tell you who hired me to harm you!"
"Think about it, I am so weak and powerless before you. I pose no threat to you at all. And if you know who hired me, you can be prepared for your journey ahead, can't you? This is a very worthwhile deal!"
As Camus spoke while kneeling on the ground, he forced a very strained "smile" onto his face, while continuously gripping his own flesh with the hands resting on his knees, his fingernails almost embedding into his flesh and piercing his skin.
Humiliation, such humiliation. A noble Vampire Race actually knelt and begged for mercy from a human, who was merely food. To survive, he had to be so subservient and humble. The dignity of a noble Vampire Race was being trampled on the ground like this, truly humiliating!
But he had to survive, for the revival of the Vampire Race, he, a member of the Vampire Race, had to survive!
It was just temporary humiliation. Compared to his precious life, dignity could be discarded. Anyway, only Hayato Kobayashi and that guy next to him with the terribly foul breath, these two humans, knew about his shameful state. Once these two short-lived humans died of old age, his stain would naturally disappear.
If they could survive today...
Camus lowered his head slightly, hiding his sinister gaze so Hayato wouldn't notice.
"Using the information about your employer, which should have been kept secret, to exchange for your life? Heh, as a Mercenary, you really have professional ethics." Hayato looked at Camus, who was kneeling and begging for mercy, with contempt. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Alright, I really want to know who wants to kill me so badly. I accept your request."
Hearing that Hayato agreed to let him go, Camus was overjoyed and subconsciously wanted to say who hired him. But just as he raised his head and before the words left his mouth, he suddenly realized that among the information he had collected, someone seemed to have evaluated Hayato Kobayashi as a guy who was incredibly malicious.
Betrayal, breaking contracts, selling out teammates—while others might not be able to do these things, Hayato Kobayashi could do them without any psychological burden.
Thinking of this, Camus hesitated slightly, gritted his teeth, and said, "You have to swear that you absolutely won't harm me, otherwise I'll swallow this secret and take it to the Underworld without saying a word!"
Although he spoke toughly, Camus knew he fundamentally had no qualification to negotiate with Hayato. If he wasn't careful, Hayato might lose interest in getting the information because he was setting conditions, and then kill him. He was just gambling, gambling that Hayato didn't see him as someone who absolutely had to be killed, and that he would value the information that "someone wants to kill me".
Fortunately, Camus seemed to have gambled correctly. Hayato said helplessly, "I've always been a man of my word, okay? I absolutely won't go back on something I've promised. You don't believe the promise I, a man of my word, made? Alright, then I swear, as long as you tell me the information about who hired you, I absolutely will not harm you."
"I stake my Tamashii."
Hayato had said this much, even staking his soul card, which every Duelist regards as their life. Camus also believed that Hayato would indeed not harm him.
On the other hand, Marik glanced at Hayato with slight astonishment: "No way, Brother-in-law, are you really going to let this guy go? This guy isn't a good person, you know. And if you just let this guy leave like this, who knows if he'll come back and attack us again."
"Otherwise? I've already staked my cherished Tamashii. As long as this guy tells me the information, I can't go back on my word, right?" Turning his head, Hayato took out three cards and revealed them. "You know too, **Ojama Yellow** and the others are my beloved friends, my brothers."
"Aniki~" X3
Amidst the moved voices of the Ojama Brothers, Hayato winked at Marik. Seeing this, Marik recalled what Hayato had just said, and suddenly realized something, nodding understandingly.
Camus didn't see the two exchanging glances. Fearing that Hayato would change his mind because of Marik's words, he quickly spoke: "It's a guy who calls himself 'Tenma Yexing'. I haven't seen his face and don't know what he looks like, I only know that someone with this name wants to kill you."
"He promised a piece of property that once belonged to my Family as the reward for hiring me. The reason he wants to kill you seems to be because you killed Pegasus J. Crawford."
In one go, Camus spilled all the information he knew, with almost no reservation, just to satisfy Hayato and be allowed to leave.
"Tenma Yexing?" Marik rubbed his chin. "Why do I feel like I've seen a similar name somewhere? Right, didn't Pegasus have an adopted son named Tenma Tsukihiro? I saw him hosting on stage during the KC Cup before."
"Tenma Yexing, Tenma Tsukihiro, is there any relationship between these two people? Their names are so similar."
"This, I'm not too sure. I don't understand much about you humans, but there shouldn't be a relationship, right?" Camus answered Marik. Although he looked down on Marik, who looked very weak and had terrible breath, and had just spoken too much about things he shouldn't have, Camus didn't show any dissatisfaction towards Marik because of Hayato. After all, this guy was clearly someone with connections.
How could he tell? It was a joke, he even called Hayato "Brother-in-law", okay? Camus's ears were very sharp.
"No relationship? Probably, but to send someone to try and kill you, Brother-in-law, just because you 'killed Pegasus'..." Marik said, turning to look at Hayato.
Hayato turned his head and looked at the view outside the Aircraft Cabin: "Although I don't want to admit it, it's all because of mistakes made in my youth."
"Brother-in-law, you just became an adult, right? Are you referring to your chuunibyou period at thirteen or fourteen as your youth?" Marik delivered a precise retort.
"No, in Japan, 20 is the age of adulthood, and drinking alcohol and such is only allowed after 20. However, marriage is allowed at 16."
Hayato said casually, feeling a little strange in his heart. What was going on with this Tenma Yexing guy?
According to the information Kaiba had investigated before, it was indeed the brothers Tenma Yexing and Tenma Tsukihiro who were adopted by Pegasus back then. But for some reason, Tenma Yexing had vanished from the memories of almost everyone, as if his existence had vanished because his talented brother, Tenma Tsukihiro, attracted everyone's attention. Even Pegasus and Tenma Tsukihiro didn't know about Tenma Yexing's existence anymore.
In the commotion during the KC Cup back then, besides the defeated Schroeder Corporation and the Industrial Illusions that were destroyed along with Doma, Tenma Yexing, who seemed to have formed an alliance with Bakura, was also one of the participants. It was also at that time that he formed a grudge against him because he had initially agreed not to help KaibaCorp but then went back on his word and backstabbed them.
But if he wanted retaliation, couldn't he have made a move earlier? Why wait until now, and even use the excuse that he killed Pegasus? It wasn't like playing Civilization where you needed an excuse to declare war. Moreover, although he did kill Pegasus, Pegasus was revived later when Hayato Explode☆Killed the Orichalcos God, wasn't he? He didn't lose anything.
It was just that about 10% of the 40% stock of Industrial Illusions that Pegasus originally held was lost due to changing hands, making Pegasus's current stock the same as what Hayato and Yugi hold.
Well, it's completely no big deal. Didn't Pegasus say things like "One hundred million is a small goal for me", "I'm not interested in money", "Founding Industrial Illusions was my most mistaken decision"? Even if he didn't say them, just assume he did.
Hayato was thinking about what was going on with Tenma Yexing, while Camus, having said all the information he knew, didn't rush to get up. Instead, he continued to kneel on the ground, looking up at Hayato, and cautiously said, "That's all I know. I've fulfilled the deal, can you let me go now? You guaranteed it with your important spirit."
Under the suppression of the **Phantom Gate**, Camus didn't dare to make any big movements. Who knew if Hayato could control this card? If he accidentally got sucked in, it would be bad.
Although he hadn't asked Camus about the difference between the Sacred Beasts' **Phantom Gate** and the **Phantom Gate** that Camus claimed was passed down in his Family, Hayato wasn't particularly interested in finding out. With a casual wave of his hand, the **Phantom Gate** card in his hand turned back into the three Sacred Beasts cards, and the Phantom Gate behind Camus, which had been tearing at his soul, also stopped its movement. The open doorway began to slowly close.
Camus also let out a long breath. The feeling of having his life entrusted to someone else was truly unpleasant, but he had survived. Feeling his soul, which had almost been pulled out, return to his body, Camus, who felt he had successfully preserved his life, was about to stand up.
He had just moved his feet and before he could straighten his back, suddenly, Camus saw Marik take a golden object from Hayato's hand and suddenly swing it in a wide arc, smashing it into his face!
