Chapter 686

The duel projection disappeared, and both duel disks were put away. The Marik siblings were speechless for a moment.

Marik kept his head down for a long time, as if deep in thought, replaying the duel in his mind, or perhaps he was utterly defeated, disheartened, and had lost his conviction.

Seeing her brother in this state, Ishizu wanted to step forward to offer some words of comfort, but she opened her mouth and didn't know what to say.

In fact, she had originally thought that Marik would likely not win this duel, and Marik himself should have known that. Before starting, on one hand, he wanted to test Fujiki You Xuan's depth for what was to come, and on the other, he was indeed curious about the strength of the current King of Games.

But Marik had been in seclusion for many years, and even if he had occasional duels, they were only sparring within the clan. He hadn't been out in the world for a long time, let alone played cards much. He only heard about the outside dueling environment occasionally and didn't understand it very well, and he was out of practice. So, losing was to be expected.

It's just that being burned to death by Lava Golem, and it being his own Lava Golem, and even being snatched back from the opponent's field by his own Remove Brainwashing...

She found it hard to imagine the size of her brother's psychological trauma at this moment.

"Mr. Marik?"

Fujiki You Xuan suddenly asked.

Marik looked up: "Ah? Oh, oh... I'm here. What is it?"

"Nothing, just saw you spacing out after the duel," Fujiki You Xuan said with a concerned look. "Are you okay?"

Marik gave him a meaningful look.

Then he let out a long, heavy breath and shook his head: "I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just a sparring match, what could be wrong? Aha, ahahaha..."

At the same time, he kept warning himself in his heart that it was just a sparring match, don't take it seriously, don't take it seriously...

Marik turned to look at Ishizu: "Sister, what do you think?"

Ishizu nodded and said: "Mr. Fujiki You Xuan is worthy of being the current King of Games; his reputation is well-deserved. His momentum and strategy as a duelist are top-tier in the world, no wonder even that Kaiba Seto is no match for him."

Saying this was certainly an affirmation of Fujiki You Xuan, but it was also to let Marik not take the victory or defeat to heart. Since even Kaiba Seto was no match, it was natural for us to lose.

Fujiki You Xuan actually felt that Marik's current strength hadn't improved compared to the DM era, but had instead regressed.

But it wasn't surprising; after all, "darkness makes you three times stronger, and washing away the darkness makes you three times weaker." Marik was a villain back then, and most of the time it was his dark personality doing the dueling. Now that the substitute had been permanently banned, and Mr. Marik wasn't a big shot like Yugi who hid behind a pro-player, his true colors were revealed, and his strength was naturally not as good as before.

Plus, Marik's entire deck back then revolved around The Winged Dragon of Ra; it wasn't so much that his deck was strong, but rather the individual strength of Ra. Now that Ra was gone, most of the strength was gone too. Although he was still a legendary expert among ordinary duelists, wanting to compete with the top gods like he did back then was probably no longer possible.

Marik said: "I'm starting to think that if it's you, maybe you really have a chance to suppress those evil gods."

He actually had half a sentence left unsaid in his heart. He thought this was called fighting poison with poison, using evil to control evil. If it weren't for such an 'underworld' duelist like you, I'm afraid it would be hard to make those three submit...

"I was just lucky," Fujiki You Xuan said politely.

Marik suddenly looked dim: "If the Pharaoh were still here, he would surely..."

Ishizu, however, said: "The Pharaoh has wandered for three thousand years to save this world. Now he has completed his part of the mission and has obtained the peace he deserves."

"The rest is the task for those of us still living in this world; we cannot always think of our predecessors for everything." Marik laughed: "Sister is right."

He walked to the now-collapsed ruins of the Ceremonial Battle and introduced it to Fujiki You Xuan: "This matter has never been made public, so not many people in the dueling world know about it today."

"But it was right here that the King from three thousand years ago and the first King of Games, Muto Yugi, held a sacred duel."

"Muto Yugi, with a mortal body, faced the Pharaoh who brought out all three Egyptian Gods, defeated that King head-on, and became the true King of Games."

Marik looked up at the now empty field, as if lost in past memories. Even though ten years had passed, the image was still so clear in his mind; it seemed as if the majestic three Egyptian Gods gathered on the field under the Pharaoh's command appeared before his eyes again, along with the boy who looked cowardly on the outside but faced the gods fearlessly with his small body.

Things have changed, years have passed, yet that earth-shattering duel from back then had become clearer in his heart.

"Muto Yugi's method of defeating the Egyptian Gods was indeed brilliant, and his tactical thinking as a duelist was also very important. But more importantly, it was his resilient will and his heart as a King."

Fujiki You Xuan looked at the field, his eyes filled with more respect for his predecessors.

"For Yugi at that time, the King was already his closest partner, perhaps even more important than his own life. Yet he had to do his best to defeat such a companion with his own hands and part with him. Just this determination and perseverance alone meant he already possessed the 'momentum' of a King."

Hearing this, Marik and Ishizu couldn't help but cast surprised glances at him.

The story of the King had never been disclosed in detail. Although students at the Academy, including Judai and others in the GX anime, had heard rumors of the Pharaoh and knew that another soul slept within the first King of Games, they didn't know the details, and certainly couldn't have known about the earth-shattering battle of the Ceremonial Battle at the end of DM.

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Yet this young King of Games in front of them, who should have been a child who barely understood the rules of dueling ten years ago, spoke of Muto Yugi from back then with a tone as if they were old friends who had known each other for years and were deeply acquainted, which was truly rare.

If it weren't for the fact that the Marik siblings had also dealt with Yugi back then and had an impression of the protagonist group's composition, they would have almost thought Fujiki You Xuan was one of the little friends by Yugi's side back then.

Marik and Ishizu looked at each other, seeing the strangeness in each other's eyes.

Then Marik asked: "It sounds like Mr. Fujiki You Xuan is acquainted with the King of Games, Muto Yugi?"

"Not really."

Fujiki You Xuan smiled and said.

"I do have the heart to make friends with that first King of Games, but I think ninety percent of the duelists in the world today probably think the same. After all, he is the truly recognized peak of this dueling world. It's just a pity that I never had the chance."

"However, many of my classmates at the Academy and I have always regarded him as an idol, often using Mr. Yugi's past deeds to spur ourselves on, so I can be considered to have some understanding."

The Marik siblings both thought that if it were just from public records, one couldn't know Yugi so well; this Fujiki You Xuan might really have had some interaction with Muto Yugi. But since the other party said so, he clearly didn't intend to explain in detail, and they didn't ask further.

(End of chapter)