Heroic Spirit Deck in Yu-Gi-Oh!

"Alright, let's get going~"

After finishing the meal, Marlene stood up, patted her shapely thighs, and motioned to Hoshino Alter and Kaiba.

Hoshino blinked in surprise. "Eh? We're heading out this late? Wouldn't it be safer to wait until morning?"

A tomb at night sounded ten times scarier than during the day. Honestly, Hoshino Alter was starting to get a little spooked.

As they bundled up the miscellaneous supplies and loaded them onto the transport camel, Sid clapped the dust off his hands and explained, "Tombs can only be entered at night. It's the rule."

Even the usually silent Bruce spoke up—rare for him. "Breaking the rule... is dangerous."

The corner of Hoshino Alter's mouth twitched. You're grave robbing a former Pharaoh, and you're worried about some dumb rule?

Still, she was an outsider. Not her place to argue. If Marlene and the others were going, then to survive the desert, she had no choice but to go along.

After returning Kaiba's coat, Hoshino received some warm clothing from Marlene. Just like she'd warned earlier, the desert grew cold at night. Without that energy boost earlier, Kaiba might've handled it, but she herself would've definitely frozen out here.

And yet—despite the chill—Marlene continued wearing that revealing outfit. Bare thighs, bare midriff, and not a hint of discomfort on her face.

Is this the legendary bounty hunter aura? She really is impressive...

They walked for what felt like ages. No matter how far they went, the scenery remained the same—just endless yellow sand. Hoshino Alter gradually lost all sense of time.

Sid sidled up to Kaiba and asked, "You got lost in the middle of the desert? Did you run into bandits?"

Back in this era, bandits would ambush caravans, steal their supplies, and toss out anyone they found useless to die in the desert. That way, they didn't even have to dirty their hands with murder.

Marlene, walking beside Hoshino Alter now, showed interest as well. "But with how you look, Hoshino, if you'd been caught by bandits, I doubt they'd throw you out. That rare skin of yours would fetch a high price from some nobleman."

Ancient Egypt still operated under a slave system, where nobles with power and status often owned many slaves. In such a resource-scarce era, nobles took pride in showing off exotic slaves to one another.

If a noble could purchase a beautiful, foreign slave, it would definitely boost their prestige.

Marlene continued, "So—are you two in a relationship?"

Kaiba shook his head. "No. We are rivals."

"Ri...rivals, huh...?"

That response completely threw Marlene off. For a moment, she was speechless.

Rivals? A tall, strong guy like you, and a tiny girl—rivals?

...In what way?

Trying to ease the awkwardness, Sid interjected, "Let's not pry into personal matters, Marlene. People like us all have things we'd rather not talk about. And besides—"

He suddenly stopped and surveyed the area.

"—I think we're almost there."

Hoshino Alter tilted her head, puzzled. "Here? But there's nothing around. Shouldn't a Pharaoh's tomb be, like, a grand pyramid or something?"

"You're not wrong," Marlene said, brushing away some sand with her foot. "But the tomb of Pharaoh Aknamkanon is different. The geology here is extremely hard. The entrance should be nearby, Sid."

From that point on, Hoshino Alter had little to contribute. Sid and Marlene continued scouring the ground, feeling around for something, while Bruce unloaded supplies from the camel and began setting up camp.

"Kaiba, if this really is ancient Egypt... what will you do?" she asked quietly.

She wasn't sure what kind of proof Kaiba would need to truly believe this was time travel, but she figured it was worth asking.

"Find a way back," Kaiba replied firmly and without hesitation.

"No place can trap Seto Kaiba. Even across time—I will break through!"

"As expected of the Kaiba Corp president. You really are dependable."

.

..

...

After what felt like forever, Hoshino lay bored inside the tent Bruce had set up, staring at the stars. That's when Sid's excited voice rang out.

"Found it! The entrance to the tomb! Everyone, come help out!"

Beneath the yellow sand was a massive stone slab. Movable, but barely. It took all five of them just to lift it enough.

Honestly, with Hoshino Alter's skinny arms, her "help" wasn't much more useful than cheering from the sidelines.

Wiping sweat from her forehead, Marlene smiled with satisfaction. "Good thing we had you two with us. Just the three of us would've had a hard time~"

Looking at the revealed entrance below, Hoshino Alter exclaimed, "It's an underground tomb! I thought Pharaohs were always buried in pyramids?"

"It is a pyramid," Sid said, casually picking up a rock and tossing it inside. They could hear it rolling down a slope, rather than falling straight down.

"It's an inverted pyramid—Aknamkanon's tomb is unique. We're standing at a corner of its base. The entire structure is embedded upside-down beneath the desert."

Marlene added, "Legend has it that though Aknamkanon was a wise and beloved king, near the end of his reign, he slaughtered an entire village and melted the villagers into molten gold. An act that would surely offend the gods of the underworld. To atone—and suppress the lingering grudge—the tomb was built as an inverted pyramid."

"So that's why Ozymandias's Noble Phantasm uses inverted pyramids!" Hoshino exclaimed, finally connecting the dots. It all makes sense now...

"Let's not waste time," Sid said. "Entry must be done at night. We have to be out before sunrise." Without hesitation, he slid down the slope into the tomb.

Marlene strapped on a pre-prepared goatskin satchel and called to Bruce, "We'll be counting on you for breakfast. We'll be starving when we get back~"

As always, Bruce just grinned goofily and watched her disappear into the darkness.

"Kaiba... are we really going too?" Hoshino Alter asked nervously, feeling a chill wafting from the entrance.

Kaiba answered with action. He jumped in, sliding smoothly down the inclined wall.

"Materialists really are amazing... they're not afraid of ghosts or spirits at all."

Since Kaiba had already gone in, Hoshino couldn't stay behind. After all, Anubis from the Pyramid of Light counted as an Egyptian god. If something happened, maybe the dog would protect her.

But just as she slid in after them, something caught her eye—carved into the stone slab that had covered the entrance:

"—Those who dare disturb the Pharaoh's slumber shall face the wrath of Horus, god of the sky!"

Sliding down along the wall of the tower, the increasingly cold and gloomy aura seemed to pierce straight into Hoshino Alter's spine at that moment, giving her the illusion that she was descending into the abyss of hell.

Fortunately, the inverted pyramid was composed of multiple layers and didn't lead straight to the bottom. Just as the friction from the soles of Hoshino Alter's shoes was about to spark flames, she finally hit the ground with a heavy thud.

The pitch-dark and gloomy space was filled with a pungent stench that made everyone feel extremely uncomfortable.

Seeing Kaiba and Hoshino Alter land one after another, Marlene teased, "You two are braver than I thought~ I figured if Sid and I didn't force you, there's no way you'd have jumped down with us."

Kaiba surveyed the dark surroundings seriously. "I said I would witness this myself. How could I back down from something like this?"

Compared to leaping across millennia, entering a Pharaoh's tomb wasn't such a big deal after all.

"At this rate, you won't be witnessing much of anything unless we use a light source."

Marlene was growing increasingly fond of the two who had no prior experience with tomb exploration yet had the guts to jump in without hesitation.

But tomb raiding wasn't something you could manage with courage alone—doing it recklessly was no different from seeking death. Thankfully, Kaiba and Hoshino Alter didn't seem like the reckless types.

"For the upcoming actions, you must follow Sid's instructions. There's a reason he's the team leader—he's very experienced with things like this."

As she spoke, Marlene pulled two torches from her goatskin bag, lit them, and handed them to Hoshino Alter and Kaiba.

"My job is to deal with the traps in the tomb. You two just take care of the lighting and assist me."

"Traps, huh… I figured there'd be things like that…" Hoshino Alter sighed as she took the torch.

When one thinks of a Pharaoh's tomb, curses and traps naturally come to mind. Tomb raiding was essentially exchanging your life for money.

The weak light from the torches illuminated the dim space. Now that all four of them could finally see their surroundings, the atmosphere suddenly grew heavy.

Sid had a complicated expression and gave a bitter smile. "Looks like some impatient thieves beat us to the punch."

Corpses riddled with countless arrows lay sprawled across the center of the corridor, twisted in agony, their skin already corrupted into a grotesque purplish-red.

The foul smell Hoshino Alter noticed when she landed likely came from these corpses. Judging by their condition, they had been dead for several days, but thanks to the cold and sealed environment, the decomposition wasn't severe.

Marlene let out a quiet breath of relief. "Good thing we didn't move around after landing. Otherwise, this little game would've ended before it even started."

"You call this a game when there are traps that can kill at any time? Marlene, your nerves are something else."

Hoshino Alter's stomach churned violently, and the boiled salted beans she had eaten earlier were threatening to come back up. But knowing they were a precious source of energy and protein, she forced herself to swallow it back down.

"If someone already got here before us, doesn't that mean the thing we're looking for might have already been taken?"

Kaiba, still composed, analyzed the situation: "Considering the entrance was sealed when we arrived, those people probably retrieved something and then sealed it back up."

Marlene shook her head. "They look like your typical treasure-hunting thieves, so they were likely after the Pharaoh's treasures. Their goal probably doesn't conflict with ours. Besides, for a team of rookies to lose so many members right off the bat, they may not have made it out alive. The stone slab at the entrance was probably reset by one of their lookout companions."

"And there's nothing more reliable as a danger sign than a corpse. Where there are bodies, there are definitely deadly traps. Let's make good use of the 'legacy' they've left behind~"

Sid waved his hand at Kaiba. "Hey, cutie, throw your torch to the other side of the corridor—as far as you can."

Following Sid's direction, Kaiba hurled the torch with all his strength. Instantly, a rain of arrows poured down like a storm, triggered along the path the torch had flown.

Fortunately, the torch was much smaller than a person, and thanks to Kaiba's strength, it made it across safely, even while threading through the barrage of arrows.

Marlene praised him. "You're amazing! A direct hit on the first try~"

After all, Kaiba had once stormed Pegasus' castle solo, relying on his throwing skills and physical prowess. This was nothing for him.

The corridor across the way, now illuminated by the torch, revealed a black serpent head and unfamiliar ancient glyphs carved into the wall.

Sid looked troubled. "This is bad. It's a sensor-based trap… I thought it would be pressure-based."

Pressure-based traps activate from stepping on a floor plate due to body weight, whereas sensor-based ones trigger by detecting heat. If a flying torch could trigger the trap, then the mechanism definitely wasn't on the floor.

"If the mechanism isn't on the ground, it gets more complicated. We'll have to find and disable the sensor's source."

In such a dark and cramped space, walking around blindly might trigger even more traps. Finding the sensor wouldn't be easy.

"—'Mehen, the gaze of the Eye of Death shall claim the lives of intruders.'"

Just as everyone was stumped, Kaiba suddenly blurted out an odd sentence.

Hoshino Alter asked, "What's with you, Kaiba? Suddenly acting like an edgelord?"

"It's what's written on the wall across from us."

Marlene was surprised. "On the wall? You can read the royal language!?"

The royal script was different from the common writing system—it was more like a secret code. Commoners didn't even get the chance to see it, let alone read it.

"Wow, Kaiba, I couldn't tell at all!"

If it were like language comprehension granted during a time-travel, Hoshino Alter should've been able to read it too. But in reality, out of the four of them, only Kaiba could understand the hieroglyphs.

Kaiba's eyes widened slightly as a wave of shock hit him. Why… Why can I read this? And why does it feel… so sorrowful…?

In the next moment, his mind flickered like a slideshow, flashing scenes he had never experienced before.

He saw himself in strange clothing, tightly embracing a girl with pale blue hair, kneeling sorrowfully before the stone slab of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

"Blue-Eyes… White Dragon?"

Though he had no memory of anything related to it, the sight made Kaiba's heart ache uncontrollably.

(*****)

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