Chapter 142: The Royal Temple of the Gravekeepers

"Rowan, we should hurry over too!"

Seeing the three eerie suns overhead and hearing the crash of thunder and lightning, Alexis Rhodes quickly called out to Rowan.

"That spot over there can only fit three or four people at most. Let's head for that archway instead."

Rowan glanced over at squinty-eyed Professor Banner, Syrus, Jaden, Chumley, and the cat, who had already run beneath the old ruined structure, and shook his head.

Then he simply took Alexis's hand and pulled her toward a broken archway on the other side to take shelter.

"Eh?" Alexis blinked, caught off guard, staring down at her hand now held in Rowan's.

For a moment she completely forgot what she'd been about to say, and let herself be tugged along, jogging beside him toward the archway not far off.

That left Camula standing alone where they'd been, her expression dark, a vein twitching at her temple.

This scheming little brat, completely unconcerned with whether she lived or died... She was technically his servant now, wasn't she!

Still, Camula didn't dare linger there for long. She quickly turned incorporeal and drifted after them, catching up to Rowan.

As a vampire, even though sunlight itself didn't bother her much, being scorched by three suns at once was another matter entirely, and plenty uncomfortable.

"Hummmm!!"

Soon, as the thunder and lightning picked up pace, the light pouring from the three suns overhead grew brighter and brighter, forcing Rowan and Alexis, along with Jaden and the others sheltering under the ruins on the other side, to instinctively raise their hands to shield their eyes.

Once the blinding white flash finally passed and Rowan opened his eyes again, he saw that the surroundings had completely transformed.

Not far ahead stood a massive, pyramid-shaped temple in tawny brown stone, the ground around it paved with matching stone bricks.

The whole scene had taken on the look of ancient Egypt.

Even the broken, moss-covered archway where he and Alexis had taken shelter now stood whole and pristine, solemn and intact.

"Could this place be... the world where Duel Spirits live?"

Alexis had come back to her senses as well, looking around in bewilderment at the thoroughly Egyptian scenery surrounding them, especially the three suns overhead, clearly not something that belonged in the real world.

Camula had mentioned something about the power of the Duel Spirits' world right when that light first appeared, so Alexis guessed this had to be it.

"To be precise, this is probably just one part of the world where Duel Spirits live."

Rowan nodded, giving her a confirming answer.

He glanced around and realized Camula was nowhere in sight.

Then, as if remembering something, he pulled the dark card out of his pocket and saw that Camula had already retreated inside it.

It had to be said, an environment with three suns really wasn't kind to vampires.

"Kuri kuri!"

Just then, the round Kuriboh suddenly appeared, materializing and crying out toward Rowan, pointing a stubby little paw in a particular direction to warn them that someone was coming.

Even without understanding the cry itself, Alexis got the gist from the gesture, and turned along with Rowan to look where it was pointing.

Before long, they spotted a dignified woman with wheat-colored skin, dressed in black robes, who had appeared not far off without either of them noticing.

Her face was set in a stern expression as she dropped a bag on the ground and addressed them.

"This is the sacred burial ground of the Gravekeeper clan. It is not a place for the likes of you. Leave now, before the patrol finds you here!"

"Otherwise, you'll end up like those others before you, caught by the elders, wrapped up as mummies, and sealed in stone coffins, buried alive as punishment for grave robbing!"

At her words, Rowan immediately caught on to a few key details.

His expression turned strange as he asked the kindhearted young Gravekeeper woman, "So you're saying our companions who came here with us have already been caught and tied up?"

Alexis's expression turned grave as well, a chill of alarm running through her at the thought of the friends she knew being on the verge of being buried alive.

She waited anxiously for the woman's answer. She had also recognized the bag the woman had dropped on the ground;

it looked like it belonged to one of the boys, either Professor Banner, Jaden, or Chumley.

"That's right. Trespassers who intrude upon the Gravekeeper clan's sacred burial ground can only escape being buried alive if they survive a Shadow Duel trial against one of the elders."

The dignified, wheat-skinned woman in black robes nodded seriously, not bothering to dodge the question.

She seemed intent on continuing to explain the gravity of the situation, trying to talk Rowan and Alexis into leaving right away.

"Right now, your companions have basically all been tied up, waiting to be buried alive. One boy among them, chosen to represent the group, stands as their last hope. He's currently facing one of our clan elders in a Shadow Duel trial, and things aren't looking good at all."

"If he loses, then all of them will be completely sealed away in stone coffins and buried alive!"

Before she could say anything more to Rowan and Alexis, her expression suddenly shifted, as if she'd been summoned by something.

"Oh no, they're calling me to the dueling grounds." "If you don't want to be dragged into a Shadow Duel trial yourselves, you'd best leave now, as trespassers."

With those final words, she began to fade away in a faint shimmer of dark light, and was soon gone.

"Rowan, what should we do now...?" Alexis asked, a note of unease creeping into her voice as she turned to Rowan.

"Since Jaden's already in the middle of a duel, obviously we're going to go take a look."

Rowan said with an easy, unworried smile. He was already looking forward to it, he told himself.

He was going to show that Gravekeeper elder what a real Underworld Gravekeeper's Deck looked like today.