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Chapter 719: Invader Bakura
"Who goes there!?" Priest Seto looked at the mysterious newcomer in the Royal Palace Hall, his eyes slightly narrowed in annoyance. So, with the new Pharaoh's ascension today, the Assassins just keep coming, huh? Just dealt with one, and another one shows up.
Not only was he annoyed by the audacious Assassin who didn't know his place, Seto also glanced at the other two Priests beside him: "Isis, what's going on? Why didn't you give a warning?"
"Just by standing here, I can smell the stench of the Evil Power emanating from this incredibly foul-smelling fellow, a smell worse than vomit. Why didn't you, who possess the Millennium Necklace capable of Future Sight, foresee this and inform us beforehand!"
Seto, in a bad mood, didn't even bother maintaining the pretense of harmony among colleagues, and questioned the female Priest.
The Priest named Isis frowned, her hands touching the Millennium Necklace around her neck, which only now belatedly emitted a golden light as a warning: "My apologies, my synergy with the Millennium Necklace is insufficient. I can only detect one person at a time, and I was restrained by that Assassin just now."
"Hmph, is that so? They exploited the opening between two instances of Future Sight? It seems your training is indeed lacking. Make an effort to be worthy of the title of the Pharaoh's Priest, and stop holding me back." Seto reluctantly accepted Isis's reason, then glanced at Mahad on the other side, "And what's your deal, Mahad?"
"Aren't you in charge of the Royal Palace Guard? What's with Assassins repeatedly breaking in? Is your Millennium Ring just a pretty decoration?" Questioning Mahad, who posed the biggest threat to his status among all the Priests, Seto sneered, "Didn't the Pharaoh's Tomb you were in charge of also get attacked by Grave Robbers before?"
"You are not the Pharaoh I pledge my loyalty to, Priest Seto. I have no need to report to you!" Mahad didn't seem like someone who would passively accept things either. Facing the aggressive Seto, he also adopted a confrontational stance.
Even though a mysterious Invader had appeared in the Great Hall and had even quietly approached the Pharaoh's Throne, the Priests under the Pharaoh were actually quarreling at this moment. Seeing this, the white-haired Invader wasn't in a hurry to do anything. He watched the scene with interest, and even spoke to Seto and Mahad, "Tsk tsk tsk, is this the skill level of the Pharaoh's Priests? You're arguing right in front of me, completely ignoring me."
What he didn't notice, however, was that although both Mahad and Seto looked like they were about to argue, there was no anger in their eyes. Instead, they were watching the Soldiers quietly approaching the Invader from behind under their cover.
"Now!" A Soldier suddenly reached out and directly locked one of the Invader's arms with a chain, restraining him, while the other Soldiers also moved in unison, "There's only one person opposite us, let's all go together and grab him!"
For a moment, the Soldiers surrounded the Invader, seemingly having successfully restrained him. Beside Dark Yugi, who had stood up with a vigilant expression after just beginning to see the Invader, Priest Shimon leaned over and said, "Although Priest Mahad and Priest Seto do have some friction between them on a daily basis, rest assured, Pharaoh, they were just trying to confuse the enemy just now."
"Hmph, it is confirmed to be as Priest Shimon said, but I wasn't hiding my opinion of Mahad. As a Priest, he is very incompetent." With his arms crossed over his chest, Seto said with a cold snort.
Hearing Seto's words, Mahad didn't show an angry appearance like before. Instead, he accepted it by default, knelt down before Dark Yugi, and lowered his head: "Pharaoh, as Priest Seto said, I, who am responsible for the City's security and the Royal Tomb, failed to do my job properly. Recently, the pointer of the Millennium Ring has been spinning wildly, unable to fully detect the malice of Sinners. Please, Pharaoh, bestow punishment upon me."
"We can discuss that later, Mahad." Dark Yugi glanced at the Priests in the Great Hall, then pointed towards the Invader surrounded by Soldiers in the center of the Palace, "That Invader is fundamentally not an opponent that Soldiers can deal with by just swarming him. That guy is an existence that must be countered with full power."
"I'm right, aren't I, Bakura!"
As Dark Yugi's words fell, the Soldiers surrounding the Invader were suddenly pushed away by a powerful repulsive force, revealing the completely unharmed figure of Bakura.
"Hahaha, it's me, Yugi! No, in this era, I should call you Pharaoh, right?" Looking at the many fallen Soldiers before him, and the Priests who were treating him as a formidable enemy, Bakura's face showed a proud smile, "We finally meet. This ultimate Dark Game should officially begin now. What excites me even more is that the Millennium Items are all here!"
"Come now, Pharaoh's Priests. If you are not short-sighted fools, understand that the Pharaoh behind you cannot bring you a sufficient future. Why not pledge your loyalty to me instead, and offer up the Millennium Items? I can bestow many things upon you!"
As he spoke, Bakura reached into his cloak and pulled something out, throwing it outwards. It turned out to be countless gold and silver jewelry, necklaces, and other ornaments, pulled from beneath his cloak and thrown towards the Priests.
However, the Priests were unmoved. Mere jewelry was fundamentally not enough to attract their attention. They weren't villains from the slums who were single-mindedly focused on getting rich, even willing to harm the wealthy Family that adopted them for it. Moreover, they quickly noticed something: the jewelry thrown by Bakura was fundamentally not ordinary jewelry.
"That's... the Pharaoh's burial goods!" Simon, who had been in charge of matters concerning this, was the quickest to recognize the source of the jewelry. He glared at Bakura and said, "Where did you get that from— Wait, white hair?!"
"You're that Grave Robber who stole from the Pharaoh's Tomb, the one who should have been caught before!"
"Hahaha, it's Yours Truly! After all, this white hair is quite rare in Egypt, isn't it?" Bakura didn't hide it, generously admitting his identity. At the same time, he glanced at the Priests and said, "What, not interested in my gift? It's alright. Besides this jewelry, I've brought an even bigger gift."
As he spoke, Bakura blew a whistle, and from the darkness behind him, a coffin was actually thrown out. After sliding a distance on the ground, it was stopped by Bakura stepping on it. Witnessing this scene and seeing the pattern on the coffin clearly, Simon's eyes widened in fury, and he shouted, "That's... the coffin of the Previous Pharaoh - King Aknamkanon!"
"The Previous Pharaoh... isn't that my Father!?" Dark Yugi also clenched his fists, "Bakura, you bastard!"
"Bringing the Previous Pharaoh's coffin here as a provocation, not subjecting you to the most severe punishment would simply be the greatest humiliation to us Priests!" Aknadin looked at the Previous Pharaoh's coffin, his face full of an angry expression, but within that anger, there was also a strange look that was hard to describe.
"Listen up, Grave Robber! These seven Millennium Items are treasures that our dynasty finally obtained with great effort. They possess the divine power to maintain the World's order and are extremely precious. Only we Priests, who have undergone arduous training and been chosen by the Millennium Items, as well as the incarnation of God on Earth, the noble Pharaoh, are qualified to use them. A petty scoundrel like you, whose inner thoughts are filled with evil, doesn't even have the qualification to touch them. You will be burned to ashes along with your soul!"
While angrily rebuking Bakura, Aknadin quietly used the power of the Millennium Eye to observe the darkness on Bakura's body. But with just one glance, he was so astonished that he was speechless. Because he saw a terrifying monster that was difficult to describe with his meager words!
"Hard-earned treasures, even souls will be burned to ashes? You say such funny things, it just makes me want to get my hands on all of them even more." Bakura's hooked smile turned into a cold snort, "But it seems that merely tempting you with benefits won't make you obediently hand over the Millennium Items."
"It doesn't matter. Anyway, I never thought I could achieve my goal so easily from the start. Before 'temptation', there's also the word 'coercion'."
As soon as Bakura finished speaking, sensing the evil power released from his body, Aknadin quickly reminded everyone, "Everyone be careful! This man is absolutely no ordinary person. The powerful darkness on his body is a terror I have never witnessed in my life!"
"Even Lord Aknadin says so!" My Millennium Key is the same. The spirit in this man's heart is unlike anything I've seen before; it simply is as if it came from another world!" Priest Shada also said so.
"Boom!"
Before the Priests' horrified gaze, the darkness in Bakura's heart, without being controlled by the power of the Millennium Items they held, actually emerged from Bakura's body on its own and gathered into a form behind Bakura. It was a tall existence, completely white, with two pairs of wings on its back like an angel. But whether it was the lower body that was fundamentally a snake, or the ferocious face, it all proved that a spirit is ultimately a spirit.
"He actually released the spirit within his inner thoughts on his own, without the power of the Millennium Items!?" The last of the Priests, the middle-aged man holding the Millennium Scale - Priest Karim, looked at the scales in his hand, which were shaking non-stop and unable to recover balance, and said in astonishment, "No, this strength is fundamentally not an existence that can be sealed by a stone tablet!"
"Hmph, I don't care what rules you use to measure it. How will you know if you don't try?" Although Karim had said it couldn't be done, Seto, as if defying evil, swung the Millennium Rod in his hand, "I will annihilate that ugly spirit completely! That is my rule!"
As he spoke, the Millennium Rod suddenly radiated light. Fortunately, there was more than just the one stone tablet for sealing monsters in the Great Hall that was used to seal the spirit in the Assassin's heart before. The white, half-human, half-snake spirit behind Bakura, restrained by the Millennium Rod, turned into a black smoke and disappeared into a stone tablet.
Seeing the monster enter the stone tablet, Seto's lips curled up. But before he could laugh out loud, he heard a "crack".
"Don't think a stone tablet of this level can seal my Diabound, Seto!" Looking at Priest Seto, who was extremely similar to Kaiba Seto, Bakura sneered, and raised his hand to snap his fingers.
Only to see the stone tablet that had just sealed Bakura's spirit - **Diabound Kernel** suddenly develop a large number of rifts, and then violently crack open. Diabound Kernel was fundamentally not successfully sealed by the Millennium Rod; it merely entered the stone tablet for an instant before successfully breaking free!
"No, this is bad! Such a powerful opponent!" Seeing that the six Priests holding Millennium Items seemed unable to withstand Bakura and his spirit, Diabound Kernel, Priest Shimon gritted his teeth and said to Dark Yugi beside him, "Please leave here quickly, Pharaoh. Let us, The Seven Priests, deal with this villain. Don't look at me like this, I was also a Priest who used the Millennium Key, just like Aknadin."
"Yes, Pharaoh, your dragon body is important. You absolutely must not get injured." A Soldier who had appeared beside Dark Yugi at some point also spoke up to persuade him, "Quickly hide to the side. We will deal with this guy."
But facing their persuasion, Dark Yugi did not obey. Instead, he stubbornly said, "No, the person Bakura is looking for is me. I will be his opponent."
As he spoke, Dark Yugi took a step forward. Then, suddenly, he recalled something: the Soldier who had just spoken seemed to have used slightly incorrect wording. Who in Ancient Egypt would refer to the Pharaoh's body as a "dragon body"?
"Honestly, you haven't changed at all. Even at a critical moment like this, you still don't prioritize your own safety," the strange Soldier removed the white cloth from his head, revealing a face that was both familiar and unfamiliar to Dark Yugi, a confident smile lingering on his lips, "In this ultimate Dark Game, your safety is clearly quite important."
"Well, I'm not qualified to say anything either, so let's go together, Yugi!"
"You are—" Looking at the clearly young boy in loose clothing before him, Dark Yugi said in astonishment, "Hayato?!"
"Hayato Kobayashi!?" Bakura was equally astonished by Hayato's appearing, "You bastard, why are you here!"
"Could it be that you also infiltrated through that Entrance that was inexplicably unguarded?!"
"Huh? An unguarded Entrance?" Hayato raised an eyebrow, "Hold on, you bastard, don't tell me you broke into the Royal Palace from the side where I took care of the Guard! Hey, hey, pay the toll, you jerk! And we're both visiting the Royal Palace of Ancient Egypt for the first time, right? Why did you get here faster than me? I circled around several times before I finally managed to find this place!"
"Don't you know to head towards the busiest place, idiot?" Bakura looked Hayato up and down and said disdainfully, "Haha, you turned into a kid after entering this World? How lucky! This is a great opportunity to take care of both Yugi and you while you can't use those troublesome Duel Monsters like before!"
"Go, Diabound Kernel! Kill everyone here and bring me the Millennium Items!"
"Who goes there!?" Priest Seto looked at the mysterious newcomer in the Royal Palace Hall, his eyes slightly narrowed in annoyance. So, with the new Pharaoh's ascension today, the Assassins just keep coming, huh? Just dealt with one, and another one shows up.
Not only was he annoyed by the audacious Assassin who didn't know his place, Seto also glanced at the other two Priests beside him: "Isis, what's going on? Why didn't you give a warning?"
"Just by standing here, I can smell the stench of the Evil Power emanating from this incredibly foul-smelling fellow, a smell worse than vomit. Why didn't you, who possess the Millennium Necklace capable of Future Sight, foresee this and inform us beforehand!"
Seto, in a bad mood, didn't even bother maintaining the pretense of harmony among colleagues, and questioned the female Priest.
The Priest named Isis frowned, her hands touching the Millennium Necklace around her neck, which only now belatedly emitted a golden light as a warning: "My apologies, my synergy with the Millennium Necklace is insufficient. I can only detect one person at a time, and I was restrained by that Assassin just now."
"Hmph, is that so? They exploited the opening between two instances of Future Sight? It seems your training is indeed lacking. Make an effort to be worthy of the title of the Pharaoh's Priest, and stop holding me back." Seto reluctantly accepted Isis's reason, then glanced at Mahad on the other side, "And what's your deal, Mahad?"
"Aren't you in charge of the Royal Palace Guard? What's with Assassins repeatedly breaking in? Is your Millennium Ring just a pretty decoration?" Questioning Mahad, who posed the biggest threat to his status among all the Priests, Seto sneered, "Didn't the Pharaoh's Tomb you were in charge of also get attacked by Grave Robbers before?"
"You are not the Pharaoh I pledge my loyalty to, Priest Seto. I have no need to report to you!" Mahad didn't seem like someone who would passively accept things either. Facing the aggressive Seto, he also adopted a confrontational stance.
Even though a mysterious Invader had appeared in the Great Hall and had even quietly approached the Pharaoh's Throne, the Priests under the Pharaoh were actually quarreling at this moment. Seeing this, the white-haired Invader wasn't in a hurry to do anything. He watched the scene with interest, and even spoke to Seto and Mahad, "Tsk tsk tsk, is this the skill level of the Pharaoh's Priests? You're arguing right in front of me, completely ignoring me."
What he didn't notice, however, was that although both Mahad and Seto looked like they were about to argue, there was no anger in their eyes. Instead, they were watching the Soldiers quietly approaching the Invader from behind under their cover.
"Now!" A Soldier suddenly reached out and directly locked one of the Invader's arms with a chain, restraining him, while the other Soldiers also moved in unison, "There's only one person opposite us, let's all go together and grab him!"
For a moment, the Soldiers surrounded the Invader, seemingly having successfully restrained him. Beside Dark Yugi, who had stood up with a vigilant expression after just beginning to see the Invader, Priest Shimon leaned over and said, "Although Priest Mahad and Priest Seto do have some friction between them on a daily basis, rest assured, Pharaoh, they were just trying to confuse the enemy just now."
"Hmph, it is confirmed to be as Priest Shimon said, but I wasn't hiding my opinion of Mahad. As a Priest, he is very incompetent." With his arms crossed over his chest, Seto said with a cold snort.
Hearing Seto's words, Mahad didn't show an angry appearance like before. Instead, he accepted it by default, knelt down before Dark Yugi, and lowered his head: "Pharaoh, as Priest Seto said, I, who am responsible for the City's security and the Royal Tomb, failed to do my job properly. Recently, the pointer of the Millennium Ring has been spinning wildly, unable to fully detect the malice of Sinners. Please, Pharaoh, bestow punishment upon me."
"We can discuss that later, Mahad." Dark Yugi glanced at the Priests in the Great Hall, then pointed towards the Invader surrounded by Soldiers in the center of the Palace, "That Invader is fundamentally not an opponent that Soldiers can deal with by just swarming him. That guy is an existence that must be countered with full power."
"I'm right, aren't I, Bakura!"
As Dark Yugi's words fell, the Soldiers surrounding the Invader were suddenly pushed away by a powerful repulsive force, revealing the completely unharmed figure of Bakura.
"Hahaha, it's me, Yugi! No, in this era, I should call you Pharaoh, right?" Looking at the many fallen Soldiers before him, and the Priests who were treating him as a formidable enemy, Bakura's face showed a proud smile, "We finally meet. This ultimate Dark Game should officially begin now. What excites me even more is that the Millennium Items are all here!"
"Come now, Pharaoh's Priests. If you are not short-sighted fools, understand that the Pharaoh behind you cannot bring you a sufficient future. Why not pledge your loyalty to me instead, and offer up the Millennium Items? I can bestow many things upon you!"
As he spoke, Bakura reached into his cloak and pulled something out, throwing it outwards. It turned out to be countless gold and silver jewelry, necklaces, and other ornaments, pulled from beneath his cloak and thrown towards the Priests.
However, the Priests were unmoved. Mere jewelry was fundamentally not enough to attract their attention. They weren't villains from the slums who were single-mindedly focused on getting rich, even willing to harm the wealthy Family that adopted them for it. Moreover, they quickly noticed something: the jewelry thrown by Bakura was fundamentally not ordinary jewelry.
"That's... the Pharaoh's burial goods!" Simon, who had been in charge of matters concerning this, was the quickest to recognize the source of the jewelry. He glared at Bakura and said, "Where did you get that from— Wait, white hair?!"
"You're that Grave Robber who stole from the Pharaoh's Tomb, the one who should have been caught before!"
"Hahaha, it's Yours Truly! After all, this white hair is quite rare in Egypt, isn't it?" Bakura didn't hide it, generously admitting his identity. At the same time, he glanced at the Priests and said, "What, not interested in my gift? It's alright. Besides this jewelry, I've brought an even bigger gift."
As he spoke, Bakura blew a whistle, and from the darkness behind him, a coffin was actually thrown out. After sliding a distance on the ground, it was stopped by Bakura stepping on it. Witnessing this scene and seeing the pattern on the coffin clearly, Simon's eyes widened in fury, and he shouted, "That's... the coffin of the Previous Pharaoh - King Aknamkanon!"
"The Previous Pharaoh... isn't that my Father!?" Dark Yugi also clenched his fists, "Bakura, you bastard!"
"Bringing the Previous Pharaoh's coffin here as a provocation, not subjecting you to the most severe punishment would simply be the greatest humiliation to us Priests!" Aknadin looked at the Previous Pharaoh's coffin, his face full of an angry expression, but within that anger, there was also a strange look that was hard to describe.
"Listen up, Grave Robber! These seven Millennium Items are treasures that our dynasty finally obtained with great effort. They possess the divine power to maintain the World's order and are extremely precious. Only we Priests, who have undergone arduous training and been chosen by the Millennium Items, as well as the incarnation of God on Earth, the noble Pharaoh, are qualified to use them. A petty scoundrel like you, whose inner thoughts are filled with evil, doesn't even have the qualification to touch them. You will be burned to ashes along with your soul!"
While angrily rebuking Bakura, Aknadin quietly used the power of the Millennium Eye to observe the darkness on Bakura's body. But with just one glance, he was so astonished that he was speechless. Because he saw a terrifying monster that was difficult to describe with his meager words!
"Hard-earned treasures, even souls will be burned to ashes? You say such funny things, it just makes me want to get my hands on all of them even more." Bakura's hooked smile turned into a cold snort, "But it seems that merely tempting you with benefits won't make you obediently hand over the Millennium Items."
"It doesn't matter. Anyway, I never thought I could achieve my goal so easily from the start. Before 'temptation', there's also the word 'coercion'."
As soon as Bakura finished speaking, sensing the evil power released from his body, Aknadin quickly reminded everyone, "Everyone be careful! This man is absolutely no ordinary person. The powerful darkness on his body is a terror I have never witnessed in my life!"
"Even Lord Aknadin says so!" My Millennium Key is the same. The spirit in this man's heart is unlike anything I've seen before; it simply is as if it came from another world!" Priest Shada also said so.
"Boom!"
Before the Priests' horrified gaze, the darkness in Bakura's heart, without being controlled by the power of the Millennium Items they held, actually emerged from Bakura's body on its own and gathered into a form behind Bakura. It was a tall existence, completely white, with two pairs of wings on its back like an angel. But whether it was the lower body that was fundamentally a snake, or the ferocious face, it all proved that a spirit is ultimately a spirit.
"He actually released the spirit within his inner thoughts on his own, without the power of the Millennium Items!?" The last of the Priests, the middle-aged man holding the Millennium Scale - Priest Karim, looked at the scales in his hand, which were shaking non-stop and unable to recover balance, and said in astonishment, "No, this strength is fundamentally not an existence that can be sealed by a stone tablet!"
"Hmph, I don't care what rules you use to measure it. How will you know if you don't try?" Although Karim had said it couldn't be done, Seto, as if defying evil, swung the Millennium Rod in his hand, "I will annihilate that ugly spirit completely! That is my rule!"
As he spoke, the Millennium Rod suddenly radiated light. Fortunately, there was more than just the one stone tablet for sealing monsters in the Great Hall that was used to seal the spirit in the Assassin's heart before. The white, half-human, half-snake spirit behind Bakura, restrained by the Millennium Rod, turned into a black smoke and disappeared into a stone tablet.
Seeing the monster enter the stone tablet, Seto's lips curled up. But before he could laugh out loud, he heard a "crack".
"Don't think a stone tablet of this level can seal my Diabound, Seto!" Looking at Priest Seto, who was extremely similar to Kaiba Seto, Bakura sneered, and raised his hand to snap his fingers.
Only to see the stone tablet that had just sealed Bakura's spirit - **Diabound Kernel** suddenly develop a large number of rifts, and then violently crack open. Diabound Kernel was fundamentally not successfully sealed by the Millennium Rod; it merely entered the stone tablet for an instant before successfully breaking free!
"No, this is bad! Such a powerful opponent!" Seeing that the six Priests holding Millennium Items seemed unable to withstand Bakura and his spirit, Diabound Kernel, Priest Shimon gritted his teeth and said to Dark Yugi beside him, "Please leave here quickly, Pharaoh. Let us, The Seven Priests, deal with this villain. Don't look at me like this, I was also a Priest who used the Millennium Key, just like Aknadin."
"Yes, Pharaoh, your dragon body is important. You absolutely must not get injured." A Soldier who had appeared beside Dark Yugi at some point also spoke up to persuade him, "Quickly hide to the side. We will deal with this guy."
But facing their persuasion, Dark Yugi did not obey. Instead, he stubbornly said, "No, the person Bakura is looking for is me. I will be his opponent."
As he spoke, Dark Yugi took a step forward. Then, suddenly, he recalled something: the Soldier who had just spoken seemed to have used slightly incorrect wording. Who in Ancient Egypt would refer to the Pharaoh's body as a "dragon body"?
"Honestly, you haven't changed at all. Even at a critical moment like this, you still don't prioritize your own safety," the strange Soldier removed the white cloth from his head, revealing a face that was both familiar and unfamiliar to Dark Yugi, a confident smile lingering on his lips, "In this ultimate Dark Game, your safety is clearly quite important."
"Well, I'm not qualified to say anything either, so let's go together, Yugi!"
"You are—" Looking at the clearly young boy in loose clothing before him, Dark Yugi said in astonishment, "Hayato?!"
"Hayato Kobayashi!?" Bakura was equally astonished by Hayato's appearing, "You bastard, why are you here!"
"Could it be that you also infiltrated through that Entrance that was inexplicably unguarded?!"
"Huh? An unguarded Entrance?" Hayato raised an eyebrow, "Hold on, you bastard, don't tell me you broke into the Royal Palace from the side where I took care of the Guard! Hey, hey, pay the toll, you jerk! And we're both visiting the Royal Palace of Ancient Egypt for the first time, right? Why did you get here faster than me? I circled around several times before I finally managed to find this place!"
"Don't you know to head towards the busiest place, idiot?" Bakura looked Hayato up and down and said disdainfully, "Haha, you turned into a kid after entering this World? How lucky! This is a great opportunity to take care of both Yugi and you while you can't use those troublesome Duel Monsters like before!"
"Go, Diabound Kernel! Kill everyone here and bring me the Millennium Items!"
