With the defeat of the leader Murdoch, the assault on the stronghold quickly came to an end.
Doma was caught off guard, and the followers were completely unprepared. Moreover, they faced a group whose actions and tactics were unpredictable, making them suffer quite a loss.
Followers like Gulimo, who was sent to attack Muto Yugi in the animation, Bourbon, who attacked Youyu, and Gasper, who appeared at the Nightwalker World Headquarters, were all high-ranking Duelists within Doma.
They not only possessed relatively powerful cards and stronger dueling skills, but their affinity with the power of Orichalcos was better, giving them more formidable "force" than other followers.
Ordinary followers didn't have nearly as much strength, and under the fearless onslaught of the players, they were inevitably overwhelmed.
The Seal of Orichalcos continuously contracted, with flashes of green divine light flickering in the great hall. Pillars of light pierced the ceiling and shot into the dark clouds above, each beam taking away a soul.
The number of Orichalcos followers dwindled visibly, and in no time, more than half of the followers in the stronghold were defeated.
Of course, on the player's side, there was no concept of Duelist ranking, and their card draws often relied on luck.
Even with a perfectly constructed deck, truly unlucky players could draw the most frustrating five cards from a forty-card deck. Conversely, despite having a mixed bag of a deck, those with immense luck would always have the key cards at hand.
Where there are perfect hands, there are also players with disastrous draws. It's not unheard of for a confident player to leap into the arena, activate their Duel Disc, draw five cards, and then find themselves stuck with a hand of dead cards.
The most stylish of them, drawing second, watched as the opponent activated The Seal of Orichalcos. He glanced at his hand and saw an entirely "perfect hand," so clogged it was infuriating. He spat out blood in frustration and mentally started playing the melancholic tune, "The Moon Reflected on the Second Spring," and without playing a single card, he surrendered.
The Seal of Orichalcos contracted, directly extracting his soul, leaving the Doma soldiers dumbfounded.
"What's with this guy?"
"Intentionally throwing the match? Is he an actor?"
Of course, players don't possess something like a soul.
If defeated within The Seal of Orichalcos, players are deemed "dead" by the system, and a resurrection countdown begins.
To do it thoroughly, the Nightwalker World didn't just raid a single stronghold. At the same time, all Doma branches in other areas of the Domino region were also attacked.
After communicating with Tenma Gekko, Gekko quickly mobilized Dark Duelists from Industrial Illusions Society to assist in the assault.
Simultaneous strikes on all strongholds left no room for a response.
According to the operation of Orichalcos, the "Seal of Orichalcos" in each follower's hand borrows a portion of the "God of Orichalcos's" legendary power. In return, the soul of the defeated would be offered to the God of Orichalcos as nourishment.
Judging by this, the God of Orichalcos was particularly busy tonight, getting a feast larger than any other day.
As beams of green light ascended, the Evil God's tally over its head went crazy with +1+1+1...
As the battle prolonged, Dartz in the Doma Headquarters began to sense something was amiss.
The news of all bases in the Domino region being exposed and fiercely attacked surprised Dartz but didn't concern him much.
After all, it was just a base in a single city, which, for a behemoth like Doma, spread globally, was at most a minor inconvenience.
Moreover, Dartz didn't care for his followers beneath him, considering them replaceable cannon fodder, and the lower-level ones were abundant.
His ultimate goal was still to resurrect the "God of Orichalcos," which required a large number of souls as sacrifices. These could be the souls of enemies or his own followers.
Thus, in the war, it didn't matter whether Doma won or lost. As long as every Seal of Orichalcos brought back a soul, the plan wouldn't be severely impacted.
However, as Dartz saw the engravings on the soul-collecting stone slab within the temple becoming more numerous and an influx of souls continuously flowing into the temple, he began realizing something was wrong.
Why did it seem that most of the souls coming in were ours?
Logically, the Dark Duelists of Doma were blessed with the Seal of Orichalcos and the Orichalcos Talisman; their "force" as Duelists should not be weak.
Even if they couldn't defeat someone like Yugi or Youyu, they should have put up a fight against the ordinary members of the Nightwalker World.
Feeling increasingly uneasy, Dartz decided to ignite the situation tonight, to probe further.
He stood from his throne and entered an empty temple within the Doma Headquarters.
The heavy stone door creaked open automatically before him. Dartz strode into the pitch-dark temple, its emptiness reacting to his presence as firepits along the path lit up one after another.
The flames danced and flickered, casting Dartz's shadow long across the ground.
When he reached the end of the temple, all the firepits in the large hall lit up in succession. Above each flame was a bronze snake's head, each one ferocious, with mouths agape and fangs reflecting the bright firelight.
This was the temple guarding the "Sealing Gate," the forbidden place for awakening the God of Orichalcos.
According to Dartz's original plan, as depicted in the animation, Doma would seize the Three Egyptian God Cards from the Duel King who emerged victorious in Duel City. The cards were then placed in this temple as a sacrifice to use divine power to open the Sealing Gate and awaken the slumbering God of Orichalcos.
But now, that plan had hit a small snag.
Currently, all three Egyptian God Cards were in Youyu's possession, and it didn't seem easy to acquire them.
However, having lain in wait for ten thousand years, Doma couldn't have prepared only this one plan when deciding to make a move.
In fact, this part of the animation somewhat felt like a plot convenience. Doma's Three Musketeers skipped the card dueling process and snatched the Divine Cards from the task NPC Yugi's grandfather, which seemed like the grandfather was intentionally giving them away to move the plot along.
To snatch the Three Egyptian God Cards from Muto Yugi and the Nameless Pharaoh would have been challenging for Doma.
Dartz, as a schemer, having decided to cause chaos, wouldn't pin the hope on a single plan.
If the grandfather didn't give away the cards, the evil plan of the antagonists wouldn't start... If that were the case, Dartz would be too naive. Even if the first plan didn't succeed, he'd definitely have a backup.
Once the God of Orichalcos is fully resurrected, Dartz believed he'd fear nothing, not even the Three Egyptian Gods!
"Our great God," Dartz raised his hands, "with your great power, open the gate between the other world and this one, and descend upon this era!
Revive! Great God of Orichalcos!!!"