Challenge to the King

The Gladiator Beast Deck had been stolen.

It had happened suddenly. On the very day Kira heard about it, the incident occurred. Industrial Illusions' European branch had reportedly been attacked, and a Duelist of unknown origin had taken the Deck.

But that wasn't entirely accurate, because the Gladiator Beast "Deck" did not even exist yet. All Industrial Illusions had excavated were stone tablets; the Deck still required further development.

Yet the intelligence from there firmly stated that the person had indeed taken a Deck.

There was only one explanation, then.

The intruder had unleashed the stone tablets' power at the scene and created the Deck from scratch.

That was not impossible. Using scientific research to turn stone tablets into cards was merely the most conventional method. But there were some people in this world—people powerful enough—who needed no technology, no research, and did not even need to understand the principles behind it. As long as the mood was right, they could create a Deck from scratch.

There had been countless examples like that in every generation of Yu-Gi-Oh!, most often among the top players of each era's Seafood Head Yu-line. Legendary top-tier Alchemists were said to turn stone into gold, but at least they needed a stone. Seafood Head masters, on the other hand, needed nothing at all—they could make new cards out of thin air. It was utterly unreasonable.

Someone with sufficient power really could have the ability to create a Gladiator Beast Deck from scratch.

That very night, Pegasus Tsukikage immediately set out for Europe. Mokuba had wanted to go as well after hearing the news, but with Brother absent, he already had endless company matters to handle. Besides, he figured he probably would not be much help even if he went, so he decided against it and