Chapter 128: The People Who Get It Are Already Laughing

"Rowan!"

Seeing that Rowan was about to agree to a Shadow Duel with Camula, Alexis couldn't help crying out in worried surprise, wanting to talk him out of it.

Her brother had only just been found again after going missing for so long.

She didn't want to see something happen to Rowan too.

"Of course. With the Shadow Duel's ritual space serving as arbiter, let's change the terms of victory and defeat. If I lose this Shadow Duel, I'll be sealed inside that dark card in your hand instead."

Seeing this, Camula immediately agreed to the terms Rowan had proposed, clearly worried that Rowan, having finally agreed to the Shadow Duel, might still be talked out of it by Alexis.

"Rowan!"

Chazz, Bastion, and the others were equally taken aback that Rowan would still agree to it after learning the full situation.

Was he, like Jaden, letting Camula's provocation and the urge to save his friends cloud his judgment?

"No need to worry. Even if she tries that trick again, it'll only work if that card actually manages to activate."

Rowan waved his hand, signaling for Alexis and the others to relax.

Then, he walked up the steps nearby and made his way onto the raised platform directly across from Camula, setting the deck in his hand onto his Duel Disk.

"Didn't expect you'd actually be brave enough to accept. I'll give you credit for that courage. Let me turn you into an adorable little doll, just like these two."

Camula said, brimming with confidence, the two dolls in her hand dissolving into faint light and vanishing as she tucked them away.

"You really do have zero self-awareness about your own doll-making skills, huh..." Rowan said, giving Camula a deadpan look as he took the jab.

At the same time, the Duel Disk on his left wrist lit up with red light and unfolded fully.

"You irritating little brat! Let's begin!"

"Duel!"

"Duel!"

As Rowan and Camula called it out together, each drew five starting cards from their decks, and identical Life Point counters of 4000 flickered into view beside both of their platforms.

"I'll take the first move this time. Draw!"

Rowan wasted no time claiming the first turn, drawing straight from the top of his deck.

In fact, he immediately made use of his Superior Still Water Clarity's miracle draw ability, right on the very first turn.

"That feeling... what kind of power is that?!" Camula's expression shifted slightly, her brow furrowing.

For just an instant, she'd sensed a peculiar aura of power radiating from Rowan.

This sharp-tongued brat hadn't beaten that Darkness on luck alone after all.

Even Chazz, watching from the red carpet below, was startled this time to sense that same familiar aura of power off Rowan, the one belonging to the Superior Still Water Clarity.

"From my hand, I activate the Spell Card, Pre-Preparation of Rites!"

Rowan barely glanced at the card he'd just drawn before setting it onto his Duel Disk and activating it, as though he'd already known exactly what it was going to be.

"Bzzzz!!"

A Spell Card bearing the image of a strange, two-faced bird materialized on the field of the platform floating before him.

"This card's effect lets me pick a Ritual Spell from my Deck, along with its corresponding Ritual Monster, and add them both to my hand!"

"Pre-Preparation of Rites?! Is he going to Special Summon some kind of Ritual Monster?!"

Alexis and Bastion, among others, couldn't help but show a flicker of surprise.

None of them had expected that the new deck Rowan had mentioned preparing would turn out to be a Ritual deck.

But were there Ritual Monsters out there hellish enough to fit the bill?

Whether it was Alexis and her two friends, or Bastion and Chazz, the very first thing that crossed all of their minds ran in that exact direction.

Camula, meanwhile, watched Rowan's every move with some wariness, curious to see just how powerful a Ritual Monster he was about to summon.

All that could be said was, those who didn't really know Rowan, standing across the dueling field from him, were still wondering just how high the ATK of his coming Ritual Monster might be.

Meanwhile, those who actually knew him were already wondering just how many stars this Ritual Monster would rank on the hellishness scale.

"The Ritual Spell and its matching Ritual Monster I've chosen to add to my hand from my Deck are, naturally, Dawn of the Herald, and Herald of Perfection!"

Rowan drew two cards from his deck in the blink of an eye, holding them up to show Camula across from him.

"Herald of Perfection? A damned Fairy-Type monster?!" Camula could faintly make out a presence radiating from the card in Rowan's hand, one she found thoroughly unpleasant.

The angelic wings depicted on it only made its type all the more obvious.

"Naturally, you need a Fairy-Type monster to deal with a vampire." Rowan said with a faint smile.

With that, he immediately activated the two cards he'd just drawn from his deck.

"Next, I activate this Ritual Spell, Dawn of the Herald! By sending monsters with a combined Level of 6 from my hand or field to the Graveyard, I Special Summon Herald of Perfection!"

"I choose to offer up the Level 6 monster in my hand, Cyber Angel Benten, as the Ritual Tribute, sending it to the Graveyard!"

"Come forth into this world, Herald of Perfection!"

As Rowan's words fell, a massive, sacred Ritual Magic Circle bloomed into being on the field before him, resembling some kind of pool of angelic reincarnation.

At the same moment he revealed the mature, elegant-looking monster card in his hand and sent it to the Graveyard, a figure appeared atop that sacred circle: a striking, long-haired beauty dressed in traditional Japanese-style robes, holding a red folding fan.

In an instant, she vanished as tribute, swallowed up in a rising pillar of pure white light.

From within that pillar of light, a figure slowly emerged: a four-armed, two-legged angelic monster with vividly colored wings, its body resembling two white metallic spheres stacked one atop the other.

It descended in Defense Position, its four arms crossed, appearing atop the towering card silhouette that had materialized on the field before Rowan.

[Herald of Perfection] [Level: 6] [Attribute: LIGHT] [ATK: 1800] [DEF: 2800]