Hey, Shrimp Dumpling~ Taste the dark game I’ve prepared for you! *slurp*

With the first duel between Yugi and Bakura over, everyone returned to their rooms for a half hour of rest. Meanwhile, the competitors for the second match, Dark Marik and Yugi, made their final deck adjustments before the start of the duel.

It was around ten in the morning.

“Now beginning the third match of the semifinal elimination round! Player Marik versus President Yugi!”

After the announcement, Isono returned to his referee’s station and took his place. At the same time, Yugi and Dark Marik stepped onto the duel stage together.

“Hey there, Shrimp Dumpling!”

As soon as the two had taken their positions, Dark Marik greeted him with mock friendliness.

Yugi frowned, and Dark Marik licked his lips before asking with feigned concern,

“Those two God cards you have, they’re both in your deck, right? Shrimp Dumpling?”

“They are. So what?”

Thinking back to when he had obtained his first God card, the Earth-God Hero, Obelisk the Tormentor, Yugi nodded and admitted that he had placed both Divine-Beast cards in his deck. Since receiving that card, a system message had set a main quest that would run through the entire City arc.

“Nothing, nothing. I was just asking out of concern.”

Dark Marik did not press the matter any further. Instead, he revealed his true thoughts.

“There are only three Divine-Beast cards in all, and among the eight finalists here, only you and I possess them! Now that the only two owners of the Divine Beasts are about to duel, doesn’t that mean the ‘clash of the gods’ is about to begin?”

“This duel is the stage where the power of the Divine Beasts will be displayed! That’s why I asked whether you put them in your deck. I just didn’t want an awkward situation where I alone had Ra in my deck while you failed to include your two God cards.”

It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, but Yugi made it clear he had not listened to a single word. What Dark Marik really wanted was to crush both Slifer the Sky Dragon and Obelisk the Tormentor head-on with the Winged Dragon of Ra, so that the strength of the eldest of the Three God Cards could be shown in full.

Well then, I’ll give you your chance.

Only, he did not know how many times Ra would be able to rise again from the graveyard in this duel.

On the other side, now certain that Yugi had indeed placed both Divine-Beast cards in his deck, Dark Marik was practically bursting with delight.

Shrimp Dumpling, cherish this duel well. This may very well be the last time you ever possess Divine-Beast cards. Hahaha!

Neither of them knew what the other was thinking, but both shared the same intent: to make the other taste the true power of their deck.

And so, with their own thoughts at heart, the duel between the two at last began—the second match of the semifinal elimination round.

Duel!

Dark Marik: 4000 LP
Yugi: 4000 LP

“Am I going first? In that case... slurp!”

Seeing that the duel system had given him the first turn, Dark Marik pulled the Millennium Rod from his pocket and gave the eye at its tip a long, greedy lick, his tongue moving with the same shameless enthusiasm as if he were lapping ice cream.

“Now then! Cover the entire field! Activate Dark Game!”

A vast mass of black mist suddenly emerged out of nothing from the void behind Dark Marik. In the blink of an eye, the visible world was swallowed by that unknown darkness!

“What is this? It feels even more sinister than the darkness from the field spell Dark Sanctuary that Bakura used before!”

Anzu, the most ordinary of the onlookers, crossed her arms uneasily as she stared at the space now sealed off by black mist. It was not only the evil aura that never ceased to radiate from it, but also the fact that the moment the mist appeared, the surrounding air seemed to drop several degrees in temperature. Even the warm clothes Yugi had given her could do nothing to help.

“A so-called Dark Game is a gambling game carried out in this special space.”

After briefly explaining what a Dark Game was, Dark Marik looked across at Yugi and could not help licking his lips again.

“Shrimp Dumpling, I prepared this Dark Game especially for you.”

“In this dark space, if both players use duel monsters as the basis of the game, then all damage inflicted on Life Points during the duel will be reflected on the players’ bodies in reality.”

“That pain is not something your company’s virtual pain system in the duel disks can compare to. Hahahaha!”

As he spoke, Dark Marik could not help laughing. What he loved most, after all, was the sound of players consumed by dark games, the screams of agony they made when the darkness gnawed at them.

That exquisitely tragic sound of being unable to live and unable to die, forced to endure real harm until the game ended.

Ah, yes... how delightful.

Forcing himself to cut off that fantasy of Yugi’s pained screams, Dark Marik returned to the matter at hand.

“A gambling game naturally has a wager, and for this Dark Game, my stake is the other personality within me.”

Ding.

The eye of the Millennium Rod in Dark Marik’s hand flashed. In the next instant, the figure of Marik appeared beside him. He stood with his head bowed, unconscious, his eyes closed, both arms and legs tightly bound by the darkness around him.

“And as for your stake, Shrimp Dumpling... ah, right! My mistake. I forgot! You’re different from me. You don’t have a second personality, and there isn’t another soul inside your body. So your stake is yourself!”

With an expression that seemed to say, Oops, I forgot you are not like us, the black mist stretched outward like ropes from the darkness surrounding them. Without giving Yugi the slightest chance to resist or struggle, it turned at once into shackles, binding his ankles and stealing away his freedom.

“Victory and defeat will be the boundary between triumph and suffering!”

“Shrimp Dumpling, you’ll soon come to understand the true appeal of a Dark Game. I promise you that! Hahaha!”

Once more Dark Marik laughed, and Yugi was forcibly made to accept the Dark Game. However...

Looking at the laughing Dark Marik before him, Yugi’s mouth twitched. He seemed on the verge of smiling, yet had to hold it back with visible effort.

Laugh all you want. I hope that after this duel, you’ll still have the chance.

“My turn. Draw!”

At last, Dark Marik made his first move.

After glancing at the six cards in his hand, he pulled out a monster card with an insect-like illustration and slammed it onto the monster zone of his duel disk.

“I summon Vampire Larva in attack position!”

A gray, fleshy worm, its body covered in several pink tentacles, appeared. Though it was called a worm, the creature was actually a Fiend-type monster.

“Vampire Larva, attack our beloved Shrimp Dumpling directly!”

“What?!”

Hearing Dark Marik’s declaration of an attack on the very first turn, everyone watching below the duel stage was stunned.

Bang!

Vampire Larva lunged forward, dealing direct damage to Yugi.

“Nggh!”

A mere five hundred points of damage would normally mean little to Yugi, but now that he was trapped within a Dark Game...

The five hundred points of attack damage from Vampire Larva felt as though he had been struck in the head by sports equipment hurled from afar.

Damn, that hurts!