064 The Bribe of the Demon Palace

The lid of Pandora’s chest was flung open, revealing a card renowned among counter-trap cards—a classic, the Palace of Bribery! As the Witchcraft High Priestess was about to revive from the graveyard, a projection resembling Pandora hurried over to the side of Yugi, addressing another projection with a similar appearance:

“Master! Do you think you could pause this resurrection ritual for a moment?”

“Hm?!” Hearing ‘Pandora’s’ words, ‘Yugi’ frowned, drawing out his response in a nasal tone.

“Master! Look at this!” As he spoke, ‘Pandora’ pulled a fistful of gold coins from his pocket. “If you agree to pause the resurrection, all these coins are yours!”

“Hmm~” Staring at the heap of coins, ‘Yugi’ pondered. Seeing this, ‘Pandora’ knew the master before him was open to negotiation.

For him, the merchant, there was nothing money couldn’t accomplish in this world; if there was, then surely he hadn’t offered enough. Of course, so long as the matter was open for discussion.

“Master! Even if you revive your Witchcraft High Priestess from the graveyard, a single monster won’t defeat my Chaos High Priest on the field. Rather than conducting a ritual to revive your monster, why not wager everything on this card draw?”

“Hiss~ That makes sense!” ‘Yugi’s’ eyes brightened, agreeing with ‘Pandora’s’ proposal. Just as Pandora was bending over, nodding and repeatedly affirming, ‘Yugi’s’ right hand suddenly shot out toward ‘Pandora’.

(ΩДΩ)

‘Pandora’s’ expression instantly morphed into shock.

“I could, but… heh heh! The price must go up!”

Feeling the smooth, firm coins in his hand, ‘Yugi’ smacked his lips and cackled slyly.

“Uh… that’s negotiable, quite negotiable!” ‘Pandora’ trembled slightly, agreeing to ‘Yugi’s’ proposition with an awkward, forced smile.

Pandora: “……”

Yugi: “……”

When the duel projection displayed the successful activation of “Palace of Bribery,” with its vivid 3D imagery, the two fell into involuntary silence.

“President Yugi… It seems your company’s duel disks have a bit of a problem?” After a long pause, Pandora finally spoke up.

“You’re right,” Yugi replied, coldly sending the magic card “Witchcraft Lethargy” to the graveyard. “Once this tournament ends, I’ll have all the distributed duel disks recalled, make the necessary adjustments, and drag out the programmer who wrote the ‘Palace’ projection code—then kick them out of the company!”

With that, Yugi drew a card from the top of his deck, as dictated by the bribe’s effect.

Just one glance at the card made the corners of Yugi’s mouth curl upward, and the earlier fiasco with the palace projection was forgotten.

“Pandora! I’d like to return a phrase you said earlier!”

“?”

“Thank you for the card sent by ‘Palace of Bribery!’ Because of it, I now possess all the pieces needed for victory!”

Pandora:!?

Under Pandora’s uncertain gaze, Yugi played his second Witchcraft spell from his hand:

“Activate the spell card ‘Witchcraft Creation.’ By its effect, I add ‘Witchcraft Artisan – Pottery Witch’ from my deck to my hand, then use my once-per-turn normal summon to call Pottery Witch in defense position!”

A cute little girl with yellow-green hair tied into two high buns, holding a short staff and surrounded by tiny sprites, appeared on Yugi’s field.

“Next, I activate the fusion spell card—‘Fusion Magic’!”

Seeing this card, you must have guessed Yugi’s intent.

With a rare touch of drama, Yugi raised his right arm, pointing skyward and declared:

“I banish the Spellcaster monsters on my field—‘Witchcraft Artisan – Pottery Witch’—and the Spellcaster monsters in my graveyard—‘Witchcraft Artisan – Painting Witch,’ ‘Witchcraft Artisan – Forging Witch,’ ‘Witchcraft Artisan – Gem Witch,’ and ‘Witchcraft Artisan – Clothing Witch’—five Spellcasters in total! Then—”

With Painting Witch discarded by “Dark World Dealings,” all five witches dove into the swirling vortex of fusion magic, and a force as mighty as the heavens swept across the field!

“Fusion Summon! Supreme! Ultimate! Unparalleled! Peerless Archmage—The Five-Ring Mage!!!”

Five golden magic circles materialized, their laser-like lines etching the visage of the strongest mage. When the golden eyes opened, revealing green pupils, Pandora and his Chaos Mage across from Yugi trembled uncontrollably, dropping to their knees!

“What… what… what kind of monster is this? Why… why have I never… heard of it among Spellcasters?!” Staring at the being cloaked in divine golden light, revealing nothing but its form to anyone but Yugi, Pandora was shaken, his heart filled with confusion.

As a practitioner of black magic, he had never heard of such a god-like existence among Spellcasters!

“Ha! The existence of the Peerless Archmage is not something a mere member of the Gurus Group could comprehend!” Even the original anime’s only disciple of the Dark Magician—a female, the “Dark Magician Girl”—was unknown to him, yet he dared call himself the world’s greatest ‘Dark Magic Duelist’!

“The Five-Ring Mage requires five Spellcasters as material, and can only be summoned by fusion!”

“And if you use five different Spellcasters as fusion materials, upon the Five-Ring Mage’s appearance, it suppresses the opponent’s entire duel field—meaning, not a single card is left for the opponent!”

To ensure Pandora’s despair, Yugi went on to explain the archmage’s second effect:

“Moreover, as long as ‘Five-Ring Mage’ is face-up on the field, it cannot be tributed, cannot be used as fusion material, and cannot be destroyed by card effects!”

Pandora: “……” Abba abba abba

With 4500 attack and defense, only the fusion monsters “Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon” and “Five-Headed Dragon” could rival it at this stage; as for monster effects, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon is a vanilla fusion monster with no effects, and Five-Headed Dragon merely can’t be destroyed in battle except by Light-attribute monsters.

How could a mere magician like him possibly win against such a being?!

But his defeat didn’t mean the “existence” behind him couldn’t win! If that “existence” played either of the two cards in their hand, they could easily crush this so-called strongest mage!

Yet, all of that is pointless. The one who can defeat the Five-Ring Mage isn’t Pandora!

Now, the only choices before him are to surrender or wait to be crushed next turn—either way, he’s doomed.