Life Points zeroed out, Kagemaru along with the machine was blasted away. The blow from the Fiendish Emperor seemed to stir up a gale within the room, violently overturning the crawling robot, dragging it along the ground with a long trail of sparks, crashing heavily against the wall in the back.
The physical impact of the Dark Duel destroyed most of the robot's systems, the joints of the mechanical arms also fractured open. The metal shell was damaged in several places, exposing broken wires, and the abandoned circuit board crackled with electrical sparks, like the machine's wails.
In the collision, the Life Support Pod cracked under the pressure, and a large amount of water gushed out. The figure hiding behind the glass cover finally revealed its true appearance. He slumped in the broken glass pod, his head drooped motionless.
It was an elderly shadow, all naked, with skin shriveled like cracked bark. Just from the appearance, it could hardly be called human, but rather a desiccated corpse wrapped in skin and bones.
Youyu immediately recognized the identity of the other party.
No mistake, this guy is the early boss of GX, that old undead Kagemaru.
"Finally meeting face to face, President Kagemaru."
Youyu shut down the Duel Disc system, and the image of the Fiendish Emperor vanished behind him.
He stepped forward and spoke slowly: "The rules between Dark Duelists require that each victory comes with a condition, I believe you also know the rules. So I'll cut straight to the point and ask directly..."
He paused abruptly, realizing something was wrong.
Youyu hurried forward, reaching out to check Kagemaru's breath...there was no movement.
Damn, did I accidentally go too hard and kill him directly?
Thinking of it this way, the President was already hanging by a thread, possibly unable to withstand the shock of a Dark Duel with his old bones and muscles...
This is now a bit of trouble.
Although Kagemaru might really be the mastermind, taking him out might solve all the subsequent troubles...but Youyu was quite intrigued by Kagemaru's earlier words "You don't even know who I am."
Just bluffing?
Unfortunately, the dead won't speak, and some unresolved doubts might just be taken to the grave by Kagemaru.
Youyu called Mokuba, asking him to arrange for Kaiba Company's professionals to come and clean up the aftermath. This island is not small, having such a large sanatorium with only Kagemaru alone is rather odd. Having professionals conduct a thorough inspection might lead to some unexpected discoveries.
Mokuba agreed and said he would immediately arrange for the team to come over.
Youyu hung up the phone, ready to leave, but his gaze was inexplicably drawn to the broken robot Kagemaru had just used.
Seeing that the paralyzed robot system seemed not completely collapsed, with the screen still flickering, Youyu's mind stirred, and he came to the machine's control panel, flipping through its records.
This machine was directly linked to Kagemaru's Life Support Pod. It directly managed Kagemaru's life support system, which meant the system indeed should have relevant records.
Youyu's assumption was correct. But at that moment, he had no expectation of what he would see in the system records; those contents briefly rendered him frozen on the spot, as doubts flooded his mind.
The life system clearly recorded that the owner of this system—president Kagemaru before him, had already breathed his last three months ago.
He had been dead for a while.
Youyu furrowed his brows.
So the one who just dueled with me...who is he?
...
Elsewhere.
"Puh!"
A man's eyes snapped open, suddenly spitting out a mouthful of blood.
A woman quickly stepped forward to support him: "Sir, are you okay?"
The man gave her a cold, icy glance.
It was a woman in typical secretary attire. Her looks may not be outstanding, but still pleasing to the eye. Her soft lips were coated with thick lip gloss, slender legs clad in black stockings, and high heels, posing a definite threat to the average man.
However...
Without a word, the man placed a hand atop the woman's head. Her pupils shrank in terror, feeling that everything inside her was being siphoned away like a flood, continuously funneled into the man's palm.
She opened her mouth, perhaps trying to plead for mercy, but her tongue turned as rigid as a rusty iron rod, and her vocal organs refused to work.
Within seconds, the light in the woman's eyes faded, leaving her limp and collapsed on the ground.
The man took a deep breath, seeming to regain composure. He looked down at his hand, letting out an indignant snort.
"Human bodies are really troublesome, weak, vulnerable. A duel of such level actually inflicted such severe damage..."
He paused, squinting his eyes.
"Duel King Youyu, even using my remote-controlled puppet as a medium, could still harm the original embodiment...looks like I underestimated him."
In the GX Animation original work, Kagemaru might have been the final boss of the Three Phantasms chapter, but evidently not here.
Three months ago, this man found Kagemaru. Through a duel, he decisively overwhelmed Kagemaru's card deck with absolute crushing power, killing the president of the Duel Academy. Since then, President Kagemaru became his puppet.
Heaven and Earth Imaging Society was completely in the dark. They only thought their president old man had gone mad, but no one expected orders were already being given by someone else entirely.
This giant corporation had long been a toy in this man's hands.
And this man—or precisely, this body—was merely a puppet as well.
The true identity occupying this body is a more powerful, ancient entity named...
...Tragoedia!!!
This is a monster from three thousand years ago. It's extremely powerful, unparalleled in its evil, wielding an intimidating darkness. Its power transcended even the strength of the Millennium Item, once a nightmare for Egyptian Priests!
It is the ultimate boss throughout the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga, boasting overwhelming strength akin to domination, nearly invincible among all characters appearing in the manga.
Now you might ask, if Tragoedia was so formidable, how was it sealed three thousand years ago?
This story is somewhat amusing.
Three thousand years ago.
Hidden within a host body, Tragoedia was captured by the Egyptian Priests, brought to the Egyptian Royal Palace.
It actually possessed the capacity to easily break free from restraints, could strike back anytime and wipe out these priests, but it chose not to do so.
Tragoedia expressed a desire to play dumb and catch the priests off guard, planning to ambush them at the Royal Palace before suddenly erupting and seizing great wealth quietly.
To put it simply, it wanted to put on a show!
The priests summoned the spirit of "Winged Kuriboh." Winged Kuriboh had the ability to extract the heart of the wicked and assess the demon's malevolence level using the "Millennium Scale."
Tragoedia sneered as Kuriboh took away its heart, smugly imagining the priests' shocked expressions upon realizing its power level.
Eventually, it indeed demonstrated its pretentiousness—the priests couldn't help but cry out in astonishment upon seeing the results, exclaiming about the existence of such wicked malice in the world!
Tragoedia was indeed pleased seeing the priests panicking, thinking its show had achieved the objective of impressing. Just as it prepared to unleash its might and obliterate the priests on the spot, suddenly realized a fatal flaw—
—Crap! My heart's still with the spirit!
Without its heart, Tragoedia's strength was severely reduced. Though it furiously charged towards Winged Kuriboh, it quickly got suppressed by the combined efforts of the priests and was sealed for three thousand years since then...
Cause of Death: Playing dumb, ended up becoming truly dumb...
Having sealed it, the priests remained apprehensive. Someone wiped cold sweat, remarking the monster's power was extraordinary, assuring that they'd be no match in its complete form.
Luckily it seemed not particularly clever...
But three thousand years later, an archaeological team excavated the tablet sealing it from the unseen depths underground.
This mighty monster finally resurfaced!
This time, drawing lessons from three thousand years ago, it would no longer stumble in the same trenches.
This time, there would be no Old King, no Guardian Priests.
This world would be its for the taking!