The Darkness Dragon Lord moaned as it stretched its wings. It then let out a huge yawn, nearly spilling out an attack of destruction that could've wiped out a village in an instant.
He looked around. How long had he slept for? It felt like mere hours- though at the same time it could've well been months. He felt no need to leave his nest- any food that was needed was eagerly brought by his vassals. And the hordes of gold that littered the place- mountains of gems and coins that would shame the treasuries of countries- brought solace and comfort to his heart.
Being a Dragon Lord, he was one who sat atop the food chain of this world. He had no natural enemies... well, that wasn't entirely true. The one thing that could ruin his mood was thoughts of his rival- the White Dragon Lord. But no matter- that fool had been dead for several millennia. Even now, his followers scoured the land looking for a trace of that old fool but had always come back empty-handed save for scant rumors.
After some time had passed- it could've been hours or days- it was of little consequence to a dragon whose existence spanned through the eons- his stomach began to rumble, a noise that could easily have been mistaken for an earthquake.
"FOOD!" it screamed out, and soon enough the sound of thousands of footsteps moving around him reached his ears. He would need a hundred- no, make that two hundred livestock to satiate his hunger.
Of course, it went without saying that 'livestock' for him included not only sheep and cattle, but elves, humans, demihumans, and all such manner of lower life forms.
Lord Henry watched the man from afar.
"Are you sure about this?" one of his advisors whispered to him. It was an odd decision to place their fates into the hands of someone they had just met.
"What other choice do we have?" Lord Henry asked.
Truth be told, he was no one important within the city. A minor noble, that was all- and his territory had been ravaged by the Merobonians several days ago. He had no real power or standing- save for the fact that his was the only noble house left whose body and mind were mostly intact. The people had just recently been freed, and of course, in the confusion they latched onto the only semblance of law and order that remained- the old aristocracy. However that would only remain for so long. New positions needed to be filled- and there was work to be done. The bodies had to be moved and buried, it was important that the human corpses be attempted to be buried with some dignity and ceremony so that their spirits could pass on to the afterlife. Though this might be impractical given how few of them had left, it was sorely needed to make an attempt.
Then, the city guards needed to be replaced. Even farmers were not easy to replace, let alone talented craftsmen or administrators. Based on his own estimates, only somewhere between ten to fifteen percent of the city's population had survived. Given this, it would take over a century before they would return to even a shadow of their former selves- many would prefer to flee to other countries.
"We do not have anyone left to defend ourselves," Lord Henry continued. "What will we do when another duelist walks in? We would be sitting ducks. Do you intend to wait for a dozen years to see if another duelist is born amongst our ranks?" They would be left as sitting ducks- either another race of demihumans would trample them underfoot, or they may even be conquered by one of the neighbouring countries. Pestoria, for example, would no doubt find a sudden supply of slaves to sell to be quite valuable.
"Still..." Lord Henry mused to himself. There was something extraordinarily odd about their savior. And not just his clothes or manner of speaking- he was behaving, quite frankly, like a child. Initially Henry thought the man had mounted his dragon just to end the fleeing beastmen, but he simply turned around and landed back in the courtyard as if he had been out for a strolle. Henry couldn't get a read on the man at al- oh look he was headed right this way.
"Alright, let's see if we can convince him to stay," he said.
The man walked toward him, and Henry pulled up a chari. He didn't even ask permission before sitting down, and Henry joined him. "Is there something that you would like to eat or drink?"
The man... his name was 'Say-toe' if he had heard correctly, shrugged. "Sure. What do you have?"
"Only water and some bread for now, I'm afraid," he said.
"Whatever. Where is the card shop?"
"Card... shop?"
"Yes. Where can I buy more cards?"
"I'm afraid I don't follow."
"Cards! Like the Berserk Gorilla that thing had, or my Blue-Eyes!" the man said, annoyed.
Seto Kaiba frowned. He wasn't sure if this man was lying to him- he didn't see the point of an NPC doing something like that, but what he was saying didn't make too much sense to him.
As Kaiba understood- this world didn't let someone simply buy cards. As a matter of fact, duelists themselves were very rare here, as per the man only 1 in 5-10,000 people could duel, and regarding cards, people simply got them as they improved. One was born a duelist or not- there was apparently no way for one to 'become' one (though there were stories of such happening, thought to be only myths). As he would understand it, this meant that cards were given after certain events or beating certain duelists- though he had gotten no cards since fighting till date. As for the small deck size and low life point totals he had seen up till now, the man, not being a duelist, wasn't certain, but said that both of those things changed the more experienced one was.
It irked Kaiba that there was no way for him to get new cards easily. When asked about life points, he was told that with time they would recover- when asked how long it would take, the man simply said that he didn't know.
It was rather frustrating getting no information, but there were no duelists left in the city for him to talk to.
Any inquiries regarding Mokuba also went nowhere, as no one similar to him had been sighted.
So now the question was what to do- in this game there was likely a final boss that had to be defeated, though probing this noble led to no answers. He asked what the greatest threat to humanity was- and the answer was nearly everything.
This world, as per him, was a world in which strength reigned supreme- and humans were one of the weakest species out there. They lacked the talons, claws, thick hide, or special abilities of demihumans, beastmen, or even dragons. Their only hope to survive was to rely on duelists to protect them- but it seemed that most human duelists were rather weaker than their alternate counterparts. Add to that plague, famine, monster attacks, and wars with neighboring countries, and it was obvious that humanity wasn't doing all too well.
It made him slightly worried as to what might happen if Mokuba had ended up somewhere else- while Kaiba was reasonably sure that Mokuba could handle himself in a fight, there was no guarantee there weren't more difficulty enemies around.
He would have to get up, go out, and search for Mokuba as soon as possible.
