After Crow’s victory, the two hurriedly cleaned up the scene before entering the tunnel the suited man had come from.
“Hey, Kazumo, after making such a huge commotion just now, are you sure we didn’t alert anyone else?”
Crow held up his phone for illumination, his face full of concern.
“Mmph…
mmph mmph…
mmph mmph mmph.”
Hearing such an incomprehensible response, Crow turned around.
He saw Kazumo behind him biting down on the flashlight in his mouth while shining it over the Deck in his hands, carefully flipping through the cards.
Obviously, Kazumo had not taken Crow’s question seriously at all.
He had replied casually without even taking the flashlight out of his mouth.
Crow’s face instantly darkened.
“What’s so interesting about that suited guy’s crappy Deck?
You’ve been staring at it forever!”
After the suited man was defeated, Crow had immediately gone over and taken the man’s Deck.
For a Duelist from the upper districts, a Deck like this was considered a rare commodity in Satellite, so naturally the frugal Crow was not going to let it go.
Even so, after flipping through it, Crow had been greatly disappointed.
Based on his experience over the past few months of frequently “visiting” the Public Security’s card printing facilities, this Psychic Deck was not particularly rare.
Even quite a few smugglers in Satellite possessed related stock.
So, after briefly looking through the Deck, Crow handed it over to Kazumo to see whether there were any useful cards inside.
After thoroughly checking through it, Kazumo stuffed the cards into his pocket, spat out the flashlight from his mouth, and wiped the corner of his lips with his sleeve.
Only then did he leisurely begin speaking.
“Relax.
With the level you two are at, the area affected by the Shadow Duel is pretty small.”
Kazumo wiped the flashlight, now covered in saliva, against the cloak before gripping it again and continuing his explanation.
“A Duel normally produces a huge amount of holographic sound and light effects.
That said, under a Shadow Duel, those effects become completely real.”
“So the size of the materialized area depends on the strength of the Duelist initiating the Shadow Duel.
Once it exceeds that range, all sounds and impacts dissipate after losing the support of that power.”
At this point, Kazumo shrugged helplessly.
“You expect your brother here, a ‘half-baked amateur,’ to create that large of an area?
What?
You think I can cover the entire Satellite?
Getting a few meters is already impressive.”
Hearing this, all concern vanished from Crow’s face, replaced instead with disdain.
“Tch, and here I thought you were really strong.
Kazumo immediately rolled his eyes and ignored the remark.
“Speaking of which, what’s the deal with that Deck?” Seeing Kazumo refuse to respond, Crow changed the subject.
“You’ve been looking at it forever.”
“There’s nothing special about the Deck itself.
The problem lies with the person using it.” Kazumo shook his head.
“The person has problems?” Crow asked in confusion.
Kazumo nodded.
“Spirit Duelists are incredibly rare.
In the upper districts, they’re talents fought over by every major faction.”
“And yet now they’re appearing in Satellite as hired muscle, participating in the capture of residents.
That can only mean one thing…”
Following Kazumo’s train of thought, Crow quickly arrived at the answer.
“You mean the major powers in the upper districts are the real masterminds behind these cults?!”
“Exactly.”
“Damn it!
Throwing us here like garbage and leaving us to fend for ourselves still wasn’t enough?!” Crow furiously slammed a fist against the rocky wall, gritting his teeth.
“And now they’re even harming everyone like this!”
…
The rest of the journey passed in silence.
Looking at Crow’s tightly clenched fists still trembling slightly, it was obvious he was furious.
Without another word, the two finally crossed the long tunnel and arrived at a new area.
Having learned their lesson from exposing themselves by speaking last time, the two silently began exploring.
The tunnel connected directly to a massive plaza that had clearly undergone artificial restoration.
The floor was paved with marble tiles, while giant crystal chandeliers hung overhead, emitting dim yellow light that cast wavering shadows across the entire space.
At the center of the plaza stood a massive altar, upon which a gigantic stone tablet was enshrined.
Surrounding the altar were numerous complex and obscure magic circles and runes drawn across the ground.
Scattered across the magic circles were large amounts of clothing.
Kazumo picked some up to inspect them.
They were all somewhat worn everyday clothes, while the owners of those clothes were nowhere to be seen.
At the far end of the plaza, there were no more tunnels… only a staircase leading upward.
Kazumo’s expression instantly darkened.
Crow beside him might not understand the current situation; however, Kazumo, who knew the original story, understood that the owners of these clothes had already been sacrificed!
The two continued forward, and the image engraved upon the stone tablet gradually became clearer.
It was a relief carving of a card.
Although most of it had been eroded away, part of the text could still be identified:
“[…pac Ap, Level 10…]”
This was the god they worshipped:
Earthbound Immortal Ccapac Apu.
In the real world, people often joked about that line.
However, in this Yu-Gi-Oh!
world, the statement was absolutely true.
As a powerful card, using an Earthbound Immortal naturally came with a price.
That price was… offering up souls!
At that exact moment, a sudden change erupted.
A blinding purple light burst forth from the stone tablet–the Earthbound Immortal engraved upon it suddenly began moving, transforming into a streak of light that broke free from the tablet’s restraints before blasting through the ceiling above and vanishing.
“Not good!
It’s been summoned!”
Kazumo shouted before dashing toward the staircase, chasing after the light upward.
Seeing Kazumo’s anxious expression, Crow immediately ran after him as well.
The two rushed out from the entrance concealed beneath an underground wine cellar, returning to the surface of Satellite.
The sight before them made both of them freeze.
Large numbers of cloaked figures stood lined up in rows, collectively chanting hymns in worship toward the distance.
Following the direction of their worship, the two saw a gigantic stone heart floating in midair.
The heart pulsed continuously, revealing strange rune-like patterns.
Even from such a great distance away, the heavy thumping sound of its heartbeat could still be heard clearly.
BOOM!
The heart suddenly released a massive beat, as though urging something onward.
At once, the fanatics before them transformed into blue-white soul particles, gathering toward the stone heart
On the ground, all that remained were empty sets of clothing.
At the same time, countless souls were also surging toward the heart from every corner of Satellite under the influence of its power.
Seeing this scene, Crow instantly understood the meaning behind the clothes left behind on the altar earlier.
Before, he had only heard Kazumo describe it… but now that he was witnessing it with his own eyes, Crow felt an unprecedented mixture of fury and fear.
And the fear came from the overwhelming pressure of the evil god.
If not for the protection of the Spirit Power, Crow felt as though his own soul would have left his body and been devoured by the heart.
Suddenly, the sound of the heartbeat stopped.
After the dead silence came violent tremors shaking the entire earth.
A pillar of light exploded from the heart, piercing straight through heaven and earth; a blink after, a gigantic black hand tore out from beneath the ground within the pillar of light.
BOOM!
The giant hand slammed heavily between the buildings.
The deafening impact and tremors echoed throughout Satellite.
Countless buildings were smashed apart on the spot as rolling clouds of dust surged outward–the shockwave coming from the distance was powerful enough to make even Kazumo and Crow stagger.
The hand exerted force, and that colossal figure slowly pulled itself upward, crawling out from underground and descending upon the earth once more!
[Earthbound Immortal Ccapac Apu] Level 10│DARK│Fiend│3000 ATK