Yu-Gi-Oh!: Starting with a Hellish Deck, Depressing the World, Part 36

Hearing Titan's words, Alexis Rhodes, Jaden Yuki, Syrus Truesdale, and the others all looked shocked.

"How... how could a Shadow Duel really exist...?!" Syrus said, trembling in disbelief.

After all, the scene before them looked utterly bizarre!

"Don't you need one of the legendary Millennium Items to start a Shadow Duel? Do you have something like that?!" Jaden said to Titan, a trace of sweat on his face as he struggled to believe it.

"Hmph. A kid really is just a kid. You won't believe it even when the truth is right in front of you. This is my Millennium Item, the Millennium Puzzle!" Titan said with a derisive chuckle, pulling out a golden, pyramid-shaped puzzle hanging from a cord!

The pyramid-shaped puzzle bore a mark resembling an eye made of pure gold.

The moment he took it out, it glowed!

What he failed to notice, however, was that Jiang He gave him an even stranger look after he produced the "Millennium Puzzle."

Chapter 53: Really Unlucky

"So my brother and the people who disappeared from this dorm really did vanish because of you!"

Seeing the Millennium Puzzle Titan had taken out, Alexis was instantly convinced that he was a Shadow Duelist and sternly confronted him.

"Alexis, your brother's disappearance probably has nothing at all to do with Titan."

Jiang He shook his head, interrupting Alexis.

Then he looked at the "Millennium Puzzle" held by the towering figure in the black coat across from him and said, at a loss for words,

"Look, even if you're going to pretend to be a Shadow Duelist, you could at least make your fake Millennium Puzzle a little more convincing.

Don't go waving around an empty shell with a light bulb inside it!"

"Besides, the real Millennium Puzzle has two curved marks beneath that golden eye, like eyebrows."

"..." Titan, the self-proclaimed Shadow Duelist, fell silent.

The Millennium Puzzle had eyebrows underneath it?

He had never imagined that, after pretending to be a Shadow Duelist and earning commission fees without a hitch for so long,

someone would one day teach him what the real Millennium Puzzle looked like!

Could this guy have seen the real Millennium Puzzle

and actually know how to conduct a Shadow Duel...?!

Titan suddenly began to panic.

Alexis Rhodes, Syrus Truesdale, Jaden Yuki, and the others also stared at Jiang He in confusion.

Was there really that much to know about the legendary Millennium Puzzle?

But... why did Jiang He know?

"S-since you don't believe me, there's no point in continuing this duel with you."

Titan stumbled over his words, forcing himself to remain calm.

With that, he prepared to turn and leave through the passage on the other side.

Thud!

The moment Titan raised his foot and took a step, it was as though he had triggered some mechanism.

On the scattered stones around the spacious chamber, points of light began to glow at regular intervals.

In an instant, they shone onto the ground in the center, forming a design resembling the eye on the Millennium Puzzle!

"A golden eye, and two curved marks beneath it, spreading apart like eyebrows...! What is this?!"

Titan stared in alarm at the large golden mark on the floor closest to him.

Alexis Rhodes and the others stared at the scene in surprise, then all looked questioningly at Jiang He.

Wasn't that the Millennium Puzzle's mark Jiang He had just described?

"It looks like it might already be a little too late for you to leave," Jiang He said, having sensed something.

He glanced around at the stone walls and saw some scribble-like symbols.

If he remembered correctly, someone had left them here a very long time ago.

They were also one of the reasons Alexis's brother, Atticus Rhodes, had disappeared.

"When you were hiding here just now, setting up the dry-ice fog and other effects, it seems you gradually activated something someone else left around here."

Jiang He looked at Titan, the panicked, towering figure in the black coat across from him, as though looking at a truly unlucky guy.

It seemed this guy was destined to be swallowed up by the dark power of the duel and duel him...

The Shadow Duel ritual had now begun.

Two people had to duel here and decide a winner, leaving the unfortunate loser to pay the price.

Although he had the Mark of the Crimson Dragon: Dragon Head Mark ability, which he had exchanged for through the system, and was immune to the harm of a Shadow Duel, meaning he could deliberately lose without suffering any harm at all,

Jiang He had no interest in trying to be overwhelmed by a swarm of revolting-looking dark entities...

Even with the external protection of the Crimson Dragon's guardian power, he had no such intention.

Especially when it meant saving Titan, the fake Shadow Duelist who had come after him.

In any case, the guy wouldn't die outright.

He would just have to suffer a little.

As Jiang He saw it,

he was granting the man's wish in a roundabout way, making him a real "Shadow Duelist"!

"N-nani?" Titan was dumbfounded at his words.

Had he accidentally triggered a real Shadow Duel just now?!

That meant...!

Countless pitch-black orbs with ferocious-looking faces emerged from the jumbled stone walls around them and surged like a tide toward Titan's towering figure in the black coat!

"Wah!! They're coming this way too!" Syrus immediately noticed the terrifying development and cried out.

Jiang He looked over.

Sure enough, a short distance away, a mass of pitch-black orbs was surging toward them as well!

"What on earth are these?" Alexis flinched, then looked at the swarming black orbs with distaste.

No girl could stomach a scene like this.

She instinctively moved as close to Jiang He as she could, seeking some comfort.

As though that could make her feel a little safer.

Jaden Yuki, Chumley, and the other boy also watched the approaching black orbs, cold sweat running down their faces.

They wanted to move closer to Jiang He too!

"Kuri, kuri!"

But soon, a small brown Sphere Kuriboh suddenly flew out from Jiang He's waist. With a fierce but adorable expression, he tried to scare the pitch-black orbs.

He frightened the black orbs surging toward Jiang He's side so badly that they all retreated like a receding tide!

They all went to the other side, toward Titan, who was already close to being engulfed.

"Kuri, kuri."

Seeing this, a little furball monster with a pair of small wings flew out from Jaden's side and followed Sphere Kuriboh's example, driving away the black orbs.

He soon drove those black orbs away as well.

But after seeing the look in Sphere Kuriboh's eyes, as though he wanted to lift his "fur pants" again,

Winged Kuriboh shuddered as soon as he was done and hurried back into the deck at Jaden's waist, vanishing from sight.

"Kuri, kuri...?" Sphere Kuriboh tilted his head and scratched it with a stubby hand in confusion.

The sight made Jiang He want to cover his face.

It seemed the Winged Kuriboh belonging to that hot-blooded idiot Jaden had been traumatized by his little guy...

"What an interesting little guy," Alexis Rhodes said with an interested smile, her eyes lighting up at the sight.

Then she put her hand on Sphere Kuriboh's head and gently stroked him.

Although Jiang He had summoned Sphere Kuriboh during their duel before, she couldn't see Duel Monsters spirits.

This was the first time she had seen Sphere Kuriboh in physical form like this, with all sorts of expressions and a mind of his own.

Chapter 54: The First Real Shadow Duel!

"Physical form?!" Alexis Rhodes suddenly froze, realizing something was wrong!

She could actually touch a Duel Monster?!

Syrus Truesdale and Chumley immediately noticed the same oddity.

It wasn't just Sphere Kuriboh beside Jiang He. Winged Kuriboh, who had flown out of Jaden's deck just now, seemed to have a physical form too!

They had all seen the two Duel Monsters driving away the pitch-black orbs!

"What's going on...?" Jaden Yuki scratched his cheek in confusion, glanced at Winged Kuriboh, who had withdrawn into his deck, and then looked questioningly at Jiang He.

"After the Shadow Duel ritual began, this place probably became a temporary dueling space that allows some Duel Monsters spirits to take physical form for a while."

Jiang He "rescued" the struggling little Sphere Kuriboh from Alexis Rhodes's hands as he offered his rough guess.

He set the little guy on his shoulder.

"Then..." Alexis Rhodes and the others were just about to ask their other questions.

"Ah!!"

Just then, a familiar scream suddenly rang out from the far side of the chamber.

A mass of pitch-black orbs was swarming into the mouth of Titan, the towering figure in the black coat!

As though cement were being poured into him.

Among them were quite a few of the black orbs that had just been driven away from their side.

All of them had chosen Titan as the target to attach themselves to.

In the blink of an eye, all the black orbs had poured into Titan, who seemed to have lost awareness.

Soon afterward, his eyes briefly turned scarlet behind his pitch-black mask.

An aura radiated from him that made everything feel much darker.

"Come and duel me, Jiang He, boy over there. Just as you said, the Shadow Duel ritual in this place has begun, and a winner must be decided."

Titan raised his right hand, which wore a special cylindrical dueling device, and fixed his gaze on Jiang He again.

"The loser will be completely swallowed by the darkness you just saw!"

"Jiang He!"