In the center of the square, seven coffins floated silently above a bottomless abyss.
"Help me!"
Inside the coffins, three spirits twisted and struggled desperately, bundled up tightly like rice dumplings.
"Anyone, please, save me!"
"I'm a Zombie spirit! Don't use me as a Tribute!"
"Can someone help me out here? Help!"
The dog-eared girl at the front let out a shriek as piercing as a dying pig.
"Ash Blossom, keep it down. It's embarrassing."
"Yeah, if Ash Blossom hadn't insisted on running near the ruins to look for 'help'..."
The other two girls seemed much calmer, though they looked just as disheveled, having been tied up in the same restrictive manner.
"Who knew these guys didn't listen to reason!" Ash Blossom shouted resentfully. "They just grabbed us without saying a word. It's too much..."
"Excuse me..."
Just as Ash Blossom was cursing the Gravekeeper's natives for their lack of martial decorum, Lyman Banner, who was practically wrapped up like a mummy in a nearby coffin, couldn't help but interject.
"Are you all the legendary Duel Spirits?"
"Meow."
Beside him, Pharaoh, who was also tied into a round ball, let out a cooperative cry.
"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Ash Blossom glared at Banner.
Then, realizing something a second later, she frowned. "Wait, looking at you... you're a human, aren't you?"
"Ah... did you only just realize I'm human?" A drop of sweat rolled down Banner's forehead.
"Ha! This is the Duel Monster Spirit World. How did you humans get here?" Ash Blossom looked at Banner with suspicion.
"Well... I was just taking my students out for a picnic," Banner gave a strained chuckle.
"Taking students for a picnic?"
Realization dawned on Ash Blossom, and her eyes lit up.
"Wait, where are the students you brought? What are their names?"
"Uh, their names? Jaden Yuki... and Alexis Rhodes. Though, I really don't know where they are right now, meow," Banner said piteously.
"I knew it! Jaden Yuki came here too!" Hearing that name, Ash Blossom burst into tears of joy. "That's great! If Jaden Yuki is here, we're saved!"
"Lord Jaden! Come save me! If you get me out of here, I'm willing to serve you with the loyalty of a dog! Lord Jaden!"
Ghost Sister and Ghost Mourner: "..."
The girl's canine nature was fully exposed in that moment. Watching Ash Blossom wag her tail so hard it practically hit the sky, the two other spirits wanted nothing more than to pin her to the ground and give her a beating.
The noisy shouting caused the Gravekeeper's Spear Soldiers patrolling nearby to look over coldly.
Behind them, a middle-aged man wearing a black headscarf and ornate, expensive robes stepped forward. Looking at the noisy spirits in the coffins, the man's brow furrowed slightly.
"Chief, should we turn them into mummies and Tribute them now?" a spear soldier walked up to the man and asked respectfully.
"No. We are still missing two Tributes to make seven. We cannot perform the rite yet."
The Gravekeeper's Chief raised a hand slightly, silencing the soldier.
"And that boy named Jaden Yuki... he seems to be the hope these outsiders are relying on. Find him and extinguish their hope."
"Yes, sir."
Hearing the order, the spear soldier didn't hesitate. However, just as he prepared to leave, a sudden explosion rang out in the distance.
"Aaaaah!"
Along with the blast, several Gravekeeper's soldiers were sent flying by the powerful impact. A hole was instantly blown through the wall.
Amidst the dust and falling debris, a young man's silhouette stood tall. On his left arm, a Duel Disk glowed with a red light.
"Who goes there! How dare you trespass into the Gravekeeper's Forbidden Ground!"
Several spear soldiers immediately surrounded him. One of them raised his spear and threw it directly at the figure in the settling dust.
Boom!
A sturdy black shadow flashed in front of the youth. With a wave of its arm, the shadow swatted the spear away. A violent gust of wind cleared the remaining smoke.
A HERO wearing a blue cape and red armor appeared before everyone's eyes.
"It—It's Sunrise!" Seeing the HERO, Ash Blossom wept tears of joy. "Jaden Yuki! Jaden Yuki is here!"
"Jaden Yuki?" The Gravekeeper's Chief's expression shifted at the name as he turned toward the red-armored Elemental HERO Sunrise.
Sunrise stepped aside to make a path. The young man behind him walked out slowly.
He had brown, jellyfish-like hair and dark-gold pupils. His expression was cold, and he wore his iconic red jacket. This person was indeed Jaden Yuki.
"Jaden!" Banner burst into tears the moment he saw him. "Jaden! You finally came to save your teacher, meow!"
"Meow~" Pharaoh echoed the sentiment with a cry.
Jaden glanced at Banner and the three spirits tied up in the coffins. Then, with a calm face, he looked back at the crowd standing in formation.
"The Gravekeeper's... Spirits who, because of their destiny, must spend their entire lives guarding the outskirts of the graveyard..."
"Jaden, should I get rid of them?"
Yubel's voice whispered in Jaden's ear. That bloodthirsty sneer made it clear that if Jaden so much as nodded, Yubel would rush out and start a massacre.
"Let's clear things up before we make a move."
Jaden looked at the Gravekeeper's Chief. Noting the man's expression—as if he were facing a great enemy—Jaden took a step forward.
"You—what are you doing!"
The Gravekeeper's Chief instinctively took a step back, a hint of fear flickering in his eyes. He could feel that the aura emanating from this boy was wrong.
A spirit? No, not a spirit.
A human? He didn't quite seem human either.
The aura on this boy was incredibly complex. The Chief found that he couldn't see through Jaden's depth at all.
"This is the Gravekeeper's Forbidden Ground, outsider! Do you intend to disturb the sleep of the departed souls?"
Though his heart pounded, the Chief had a duty. As the head of the tribe, he couldn't abandon his post and let these outsiders wreak havoc in their territory.
"No, I have no such intentions," Jaden sighed, pointing at the individuals wrapped like mummies. "I just want to take my teacher and those spirits back. That's all."
"These are Tributes for the departed souls! Don't even think about taking them!" a spear soldier stepped forward and shouted.
"Is that so? Then I guess we'll have to do this the hard way."
Jaden's brow furrowed, and the dark-gold light in his eyes grew more intense. Jaden didn't want to deal with anything too troublesome, but if the other party was stubborn, he wasn't afraid to see things through to the end.
He activated his Duel Disk. Between his fingers, he already held the card [Evil HERO Malicious Bane].
A dark aura instantly spread. This terrifying and cold energy made the spirits in the coffins shiver.
"Such... such terrifying darkness. Is the power of The Supreme King really this horrifying?"
"What is this dark power...? It feels like the world is ending..."
Compared to the shock felt by Ghost Sister and Ghost Mourner, the Ash Blossom on the side might have been smiling on the surface, but she was actually breaking out in a cold sweat.
Holy crap.
Supreme King, you're actually this powerful? If I knew you were this scary, I wouldn't have pulled those stunts before.
I'm doomed. If I get rescued by The Supreme King, is he going to tear me apart limb from limb? I feel like being stuck in a coffin as a mummy might actually be the better outcome...
"Wait! Wait a minute!"
"Don't get excited! Let's talk this out nicely!"
Realizing the massive gap in strength, the Gravekeeper's Chief turned pale with fright and yelled for a halt.
"We have no intention of becoming your enemy! It's just... if you wish to take these people, you must follow the rules of the Gravekeeper's!"
"Rules?" Jaden lowered his card, and his aura retracted slightly.
"Yes... yes." Wiping the cold sweat from his brow, the Gravekeeper's Chief let out a breath of relief.
Thank goodness... this person was someone he could actually talk to. If he had just attacked without a word, the Gravekeeper's might have gone extinct today.
After wiping his forehead, the Chief pulled a stack of Duel Monsters cards from his pocket.
"Since you are an outsider, we shall proceed according to the outsider's rules."
"As long as you can defeat me in this trial duel, I will release you and all of your friends. How does that sound?"
"A duel?" Jaden felt a bit of helplessness as he looked at the cards in the Chief's hand.
As expected. In a world of card games, everything eventually circled back to playing cards. Still, as a duelist, he couldn't very well refuse a challenge.
"Fine, if we're going to settle this with a duel." Jaden put his card back. Sunrise gradually vanished beside him.
"However, if you lose..." the Gravekeeper's Chief's tone suddenly shifted, his expression becoming solemn. "Not only will you fail to save your friends, but you yourself will become a Tribute for this Shadow Duel."
"What do you say?"
"A Shadow Duel?" Jaden smiled faintly.
"Sorry, but Shadow Duels are like a second nature to me."
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