"Who are you?! Was everything that just happened your doing?!"
Kaiba, who had suddenly been transported to this unfamiliar place, had not relaxed his guard upon seeing the mysterious person abruptly appear before him. As he questioned the other party, he also raised the Duel Disk always worn on his wrist, ready for a duel.
However, seeing Kaiba's wary stance, the mysterious person calmly stepped forward from the points of light, standing in the bright area illuminated by the flames. He spoke in a slightly hoarse voice: "It's truly been a very, very long time, Seto."
"No, I misremembered. You are not Seto. After all, three thousand years have passed. Neither you nor I are as we once were."
The mysterious person's voice held a hint of nostalgia, making Kaiba once again feel that he must have heard this voice somewhere before. But Kaiba didn't need to rack his brain to guess, because the mysterious person himself pulled back his hood, revealing a face that left a deep impression on Kaiba.
"Karim?!"
"Hm? So you still recognize me, Seto. Could it be that reincarnation is different from what I know, and one can retain memories of their previous life?" With bangs cut straight across his eyebrows, and hair on both sides tucked slightly inward to his earlobes, styled in a standard bob cut, the middle-aged strong man wore a golden circlet as a headband. Who else could it be but Karim, the Priest from three thousand years ago?
"No, after all, you later became a Pharaoh. Perhaps a Pharaoh's reincarnation has some special privileges."
Unlike the arrogant and harsh aristocrat Kaiba remembered, the Karim before him wasn't as solemn and overly reserved as he was in the Memory World; he even joked.
This made Kaiba suspicious: "You, are you really Karim? Why are you, who should have died three thousand years ago, here?"
Because he fanatically believed in science, Kaiba until now still firmly believed that the events in the Memory World were merely past scenes he witnessed due to accidentally being in a quantum entanglement state at the time. Humans could absolutely not survive for over three thousand years; the "Karim" before him was definitely someone in disguise!
Ghosts? Such things were simply not within the purview of President Kaiba's genius mind.
Karim glanced at the suspicious Kaiba, frowning: "What's with that expression? Of course I'm Karim. It's rare for me to see someone I recognize before this remnant soul of mine dissipates. I wanted to chat a bit, but do I have to say something unpleasant for you to believe who I am?"
Hearing Karim speak with a stern face, Kaiba finally nodded. This tone felt right. Looking at Karim, he said, "No, now I'm certain. You must be Karim, no mistake. But let me state upfront, don't associate me with Seto. I have no relation to that person. My name is Seto Kaiba."
"Suit yourself, Seto, Seto. Isn't it still the same pronunciation?" Karim shrugged, saying indifferently.
Shifting his gaze from Karim, Seto once again surveyed his surroundings. Looking up, he saw the ceiling painted dark blue, which made him even more certain that this was some kind of burial site. In the Memory World, he had inadvertently heard Chumley mention that Ancient Egyptians painted the ceilings of burial sites blue to represent the Starry Sky, symbolizing the sky goddess and mother of all stars, Nut.
"Where exactly is this place? Did you bring me here, Karim?" Kaiba, unable to understand, asked Karim, "Why are you from three thousand years ago here now? What's your purpose in bringing me here? How did you do those things before? Also, what did you mean by 'remnant soul about to dissipate'?"
Hearing Kaiba's rapid-fire questions, Karim frowned again: "You should ask one question at a time. I remember Priest Aknadin taught you etiquette in that regard. With so many questions, where do you want me to start answering, Se— no, Seto Kaiba."
Although he said that, Karim saw that Kaiba's expression hadn't changed at all; he still stared intently, seemingly waiting for an answer. Karim sighed helplessly: "You say you've been reincarnated, but you're still just as stubborn and annoying as before. Fine, I'll start with the easy ones."
As he spoke, Karim waved to Kaiba, signaling him to follow. He turned and walked into the distant darkness. Kaiba, without a hint of worry about potential traps ahead, unhesitatingly followed.
As the two stepped into the darkness one after another, the fire basins behind them extinguished themselves as if their fuel had run out. The points of light that had appeared earlier when Kaiba read the hieroglyphs on the wall now drifted on their own towards unlit fire basins in the darkness. One by one, the fire basins lit up as Kaiba and Karim advanced, then extinguished one by one as they moved further away, keeping the two constantly in the light, yet only able to see the distant darkness.
"Your first question: What is this place?" Karim kept his gaze forward, as if the darkness Kaiba couldn't penetrate didn't exist for him, and said calmly, "It seems that although you recognize me, it's not through retained memories from reincarnation, but some other means. Otherwise, you should recognize this place."
"This is a stone tablet temple, similar to those around the royal city, used to house stone tablets that seal monsters. But it is also a burial site, a burial site for stone tablets. The Millennium Items held by us Priests can extract and seal the monster dwelling within a person's heart. While most stone tablets containing sealed monsters can be used by us, a considerable portion was too evil and had to be discarded and sealed, which led to the creation of this burial site."
Although Karim said this, Kaiba's "dueling brain" had already translated Karim's words to a certain extent: "So, you Priests made Duel Monsters cards, found you couldn't use them well, and rather than throwing them away, you prepared a storage room like this to keep the cards?"
Karim turned his head and gave Kaiba a deep look. After a moment, he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "You could say that, more or less."
"Also, there's a trap where you're about to step."
Kaiba's foot, which he had just lifted to step down, immediately halted. Looking down, he then realized that because his attention was primarily on Karim and the walls on both sides, he hadn't noticed that a stone tablet engraved with a relief had appeared beneath his feet at some point. The stone tablet was carved with a monster that had a crocodile head, a lion's upper body, and a hippopotamus's lower body.
"Ammit, the divine beast representing truth, fairness, and order, and also the assistant to Anubis, the God of Death, who devours the deeply sinful, preventing them from resting in peace. I did say this was a burial site, didn't I? Naturally, there would be traps prepared for graverobbers."
Karim watched Kaiba cautiously bypass the conspicuous stone tablet tile, a slight laugh in his voice as if he found Kaiba amusing, "Be careful, you know. Get any closer and you'll melt. That acid trap is very potent, if it hasn't expired yet."
Kaiba glared at Karim. If he didn't have several more questions for the other party, he would have already yelled at him.
Well, he had already yelled at him.
"Ahem, next is your second question: why am I here? I can explain this along with the reason I brought you here. However, rather than telling you, I think 'showing' might be more appropriate."
Saying this, Karim stretched out his hand towards the darkness ahead. The points of light around the two obeyed his command and flew forward, illuminating a stone tablet standing in the darkness far away. However, Kaiba noticed that this "stone tablet" was slightly different from the stone tablets he had seen in the Memory World before.
It wasn't about its size or material, but rather that this stone tablet didn't have carved patterns like the other stone tablets that sealed spirits. It was strangely flat. Even more peculiar and puzzling was that in the center of the stone tablet, there was an irregular hole, as if someone had intentionally dug it out.
As the points of light approached the stone tablet, Kaiba's eyes widened, because he saw several figures vaguely emerge around the stone tablet.
Seto holding the Millennium Rod, Karim balancing the Millennium Scale, and Aknadin wearing the Millennium Eye with a solemn expression. Kaiba actually saw the Priests who served the Pharaoh three thousand years ago reappear before him.
Looking at Karim beside him, Kaiba said, "Karim, why are there two of you?"
"No, look closely, Seto Kaiba. That is me, yet it is not me." Karim shook his head, answering Kaiba with an ambiguous statement. Although Kaiba didn't understand what he meant, he looked back towards the Priests and saw "Seto," "Karim," and "Aknadin" all with stern expressions, looking down at another figure before them.
That figure was dressed in simple white robes, but from the Usekh Collar around his neck, it was clear he was also a member of the elite class, not a commoner. Yet, this very person was now kneeling before the three Priests, head bowed, hands bound behind his back, like a criminal undergoing judgment.
Because his back was turned, Kaiba couldn't see what the kneeling person looked like.
"Tragoedia, as the Pharaoh's astrologer, why did you infiltrate this stone tablet temple that seals monsters!" "Aknadin" spoke with a serious and righteous expression, making it hard to imagine that he would later become the Dark High Priest who rebelled against the Pharaoh.
"Reason? Heh, Priests, shouldn't you know that best? Aren't you holding the answer that fuels the rage in my heart?" Hearing Aknadin's question, the astrologer Tragoedia spoke without concealment, his voice full of sarcasm.
"Seto" frowned upon hearing this: "We are holding the answer? Humph, are you coveting the Millennium Items that possess great power? Fool, to dare to break into the forbidden temple because you lust for power, you third-rate mediocre talent with a fourth-rate ambition."
"Coveting? I thought you, Priest Seto, as someone who also climbed from the bottom to a high position, could understand my anger, the anger of my village being destroyed." Hearing "Seto's" words, Tragoedia laughed, and ominous black power began to emanate from him, "My hometown, my village, my family, were destroyed by the kingdom, all for those Millennium Items in your hands!"
"This is the power of the sealed monster!?" Noticing the anomaly on Tragoedia, "Aknadin" was somewhat surprised, "Unbelievable, even we Priests with the Millennium Items find it difficult to command these buried stone tablets."
"No, it's not commanding, it's assimilation! He's merging with the spirit inside the stone tablet!" "Karim" instantly recognized the true situation with Tragoedia, "Unbelievable, the forbidden art that Priest Mahad and I are still researching has been used by this astrologer!"
"He's no longer human; he is the monster Tragoedia!"
The Tragoedia who had been kneeling on the ground ignored "Karim's" exclamation. Under the erosion of the dark power around him, his body rapidly mutated, and his voice changed: "Don't try to convince me with your so-called 'justice,' 'protection,' or 'greater good'! What you can easily give up is all we small people have! You big shots at the top don't understand anything!"
"Watch closely, this is the fury from Kureriel Village, which you destroyed---"
Just as his body was about to fully transform into the colossal, hideous monster Tragoedia, his voice abruptly cut off. "Seto" suddenly drew a hidden blade from his Millennium Rod and directly pierced it into Tragoedia's chest.
The human body, which hadn't fully transformed into a spirit, instantly died from the pierced heart, and the spirit power that hadn't yet fully expanded was forcibly extracted by the power of the Millennium Rod.
And while "Karim" and "Aknadin" had sounded quite surprised when speaking earlier, their expressions hadn't changed much from the beginning, nor were they surprised that "Seto" so easily controlled the Tragoedia before them.
Tragoedia, as an astrologer, originally had no special talents; he was just an ordinary person. And the monster he had merged with was also a monster previously sealed by the Priests. The combination of the two being so easily defeated was not unexpected at all. If he could genuinely give Seto, the second strongest Priest after Mahad, a hard time, that would be truly astonishing.
The two Priests jointly used the power of their respective Millennium Items to transfer the monster's power stolen by Tragoedia back into the stone tablet, transforming it into the monster Tragoedia sealed within the stone tablet. "Seto" pulled out the blade, and with a light flick, removed a portion of Tragoedia's extracted power, holding it in his hand.
Looking at the fallen Tragoedia, "Seto" said disdainfully, "You certainly talk too much, all flashy and no substance. Still just a fodder monster?"
(end of chapter)