Chapter 143: Old Man, You’re Outdated

"Boy, allow me to show you the consequences of trespassing upon the sacred royal burial grounds! My turn!"

By the time Rowan and Alexis, guided by the round Kuriboh, arrived near an altar site, they found a middle-aged elder in white robes, black cloth wrapped around his head, standing atop one of two raised platforms, locked in a duel with Jaden Yuki on the far side.

On Jaden's side of the field, there was nothing but a single face-down card.

His Life Points had dwindled to a pitiful 2300 LP.

On his opponent's side, meanwhile, stood a bald, potbellied figure in black robes wielding a spear, alongside a familiar-looking masked female assassin also dressed in black robes, holding an overwhelming advantage.

Even so, the elder's Life Points sat slightly lower than Jaden's, at only 1300 LP.

The moment the masked female assassin hovering over the field noticed Rowan and Alexis had arrived, she froze for an instant, clearly not expecting to see them show up here.

"What is it, Gravekeeper assassin?" The white-robed, black-hooded elder noticed the shift in her attention and turned to look.

Following her gaze, he quickly spotted Rowan and Alexis approaching not far from the altar.

He let out a short scoff. "So, two more trespassers have shown up, have they?"

The moment the elder spotted them, a group of Gravekeeper spearmen surged out from near the altar, closing in and surrounding Rowan and Alexis, along with the round Kuriboh perched on Rowan's shoulder, the sharp tips of their spears leveled straight at them.

"Hey now, watch where you point those things. If you tear my clothes, it's going to be pretty inconvenient for me during my Shadow Duel trial in a bit."

Rowan flicked away the spear tip that had come closest to him, grumbling under his breath.

He figured, why resort to blades and spears when a card game could settle everything just fine.

It wasn't as if he had any intention of running.

"Rowan! Alexis! You're both okay!"

Jaden called out the moment he spotted them. He, Syrus, and Professor Banner had taken shelter somewhere different from Rowan when the strange phenomenon first appeared, inside the ruined structure Professor Banner had pointed them toward.

The moment he'd opened his eyes again, he found himself right beside this altar, and had been captured on the spot by the Gravekeepers, forced into a Shadow Duel with no way around it.

Now, at last, he'd found out what had become of Rowan.

"Worry about that later. Right now you should focus on figuring out how you're going to win, Jaden."

Rowan waved a hand, giving the hotblooded fool a pointed reminder.

"Indeed. Though the two of you appear to be companions of his, since you two intruders arrived afterward, and given that you carry a Spirit Key with you," the elder standing atop the platform said, turning his attention back to his opponent across the way, "once I've finished dealing out punishment to you, it will soon be that new boy's turn to face this terrifying trial."

"A Spirit Key?" Rowan's brow rose at that.

So even this Gravekeeper elder knew about the Spirit Keys.

He didn't recall anything like this happening in the original storyline.

What was more, through his Mark of the Crimson Dragon — Dragon's Heart, he could faintly sense a trace of Seven Stars dark artifact power radiating from the elder, one bearing a slight resemblance to Camula's dark restraints.

It seemed things really had shifted, if only slightly, because of his presence here.

"Let the duel continue!"

Before Rowan could dwell on it further, the white-robed, black-hooded elder over by the altar had already drawn a card from his aged Duel Disk.

Raising his wrist, he placed the drawn card directly into the Field Spell Zone.

"I activate the Field Spell, Necrovalley!"

"BOOM!"

As the elder activated the Field Spell Necrovalley, the ground surrounding the altar shuddered violently, and a great tawny brown canyon surged up out of the earth, completely swallowing the altar in its place.

The two raised platforms where Jaden and the elder stood transformed into lone stone pillars, jutting up from the canyon floor now revealed far below.

"Waaugh!! We're gonna get buried!"

The violent tremor set off panicked shrieks from below, where three stone coffins sat in the canyon floor, each one containing a figure bound in bandages with only their head left exposed: squinty-eyed Professor Banner, Syrus, and Chumley, all three wailing in alarm.

Only now did Rowan and Alexis realize, with the altar gone, that three stone coffins lay in the canyon below.

Inside were the two unlucky souls and one self-sacrificing volunteer, squinty-eyed Professor Banner, along with a plump tawny brown cat, all of them wrapped up in bandages like a single long bundle, only their heads left showing.

Taking in the pitiful sight of Syrus and Chumley, Rowan found himself deeply appreciating the true meaning behind the saying that there were secretly eight Millennium Items, not seven.

He decided he'd personally crown these two the eighth Millennium Item: the Millennium Hostages.

"So you intend to use Necrovalley's effect to seal off my Graveyard."

Jaden's expression turned notably grim once he took in the transformed terrain, looking across at the Gravekeeper elder.

"Oh? So you actually know what Necrovalley's effect does?" The elder let out a startled, suspicious grunt.

"That's because someone already showed me the power of a Shadow HERO Deck before this," Jaden said with a grin.

"Which is why I've already thought up a pretty solid counter for it. Sorry, old man, but you're a step too late."