Chapter 207

“But what would happen if I grabbed the Sacred Beasts’ cards first, right now?”

Rowan looked at the mass of energy on the little stone platform that had risen from the center of the ground in the distance, and put the idea forward.

“The Sacred Beasts’ cards hold enormous power. Unless one has strength or darkness greater than theirs, they cannot be commanded!”

Just then, an old voice suddenly rang out from the sky far above, answering in place of Chancellor Sheppard and the others.

“Whoosh!!”

The next instant, a silver mechanical device came plummeting down like a cannonball, at terrific speed, from somewhere high above the horizon!

It slammed down near the little stone platform holding the Sacred Beasts’ cards with a tremendous “Boom!”

A cloud of dust billowed up!

Chancellor Sheppard, Professor Crowler, and the others all instinctively threw up their arms to shield themselves from the blast of wind and the drifting dust.

Only Rowan was spared, since Ishizu’s spirit power, manifested beside him, formed a protective barrier that automatically blocked the gust.

He could clearly see what was happening in the distance!

“Clack, clack!!”

As the dust quickly settled, a machine like a mechanical spider was revealed within it, with several steel spider legs and a large cylindrical glass life-support tank.

Inside that tank, filled with a special nutrient fluid, floated an old man with his eyes wide open!

Several cables ran from his head and limbs, controlling the spider-like device.

And the three Sacred Beast cards that had been inside the glow of energy were already gone, plucked away by two crude, claw-like mechanical arms on the machine.

“What is that machine…?!”

Jaden, Chazz, and Zane Truesdale, the Kaiser, and the others lowered their arms and opened their eyes, only now seeing what was going on.

“He got the Sacred Beasts’ cards first!”

Alexis, standing not far from Rowan, glanced over and cried out as she saw it too.

But compared with their surprise, the shock on Chancellor Sheppard’s face, once he clearly made out the old figure inside the life-support machine, was far greater.

“Impossible?! That figure… It’s Chairman Kagemaru!”

“Chairman Kagemaru?!”

At those words, everyone from the blond, mushroom-headed Professor Crowler to Zane the Kaiser, Bastion, and Atticus wore expressions of pure shock.

They stared at the old figure inside the tank, just as unable to believe it!

Kagemaru, the chairman of Duel Academy, whose authority exceeded even the Chancellor’s.

He was the mastermind behind the Seven Stars dark faction this whole time?!

“Hmph hmph. I did not think you would recognize me, Chancellor Sheppard.”

The old man inside the mechanical life-support tank looked at bald Chancellor Sheppard, and his aged voice carried out from the machine.

“Now then, let us begin the Shadow Duel ritual to resurrect the Sacred Beasts!”

At Kagemaru’s command, the two crude mechanical arms on the spider promptly placed the three Sacred Beast cards they were holding into the deck slot of the mechanical Duel Disk on its other side.

“Then I, as the top student of Duel Academy, will be your opponent and crush your ambition!”

Zane Truesdale, the Kaiser, clenched his fist and stepped forward with a grave expression, addressing old Kagemaru in the machine far off.

“No, let me take it! I’m The Chazz! Chazz it up!”

Chazz, still propped up by Syrus, forced the words out.

He even struck a pose and announced his own name, giving himself an introduction.

The sight made Rowan’s eye twitch.

He badly wanted to ask whether Chazz thought this was a talent show.

“None of you are qualified…!”

Before Bastion and Atticus, on the other side, could speak up and announce their own names too, old Kagemaru cut them off with a single line!

“Only those with great power slumbering inside them, who can command Duel Spirits, are qualified to be my opponent in the Sacred Beasts’ revival ritual.”

“Yes, the two of you. Jaden Yuki, and you, the brat named Rowan who just extorted a good deal of money out of me!”

Old Kagemaru inside the life-support tank fixed his gaze directly on Rowan, and on that hot-blooded idiot Jaden beside him!

“Hm? Extorted a good deal of money…?”

Chancellor Sheppard, Professor Crowler, and the others could not help but look puzzled.

What was that about?

Alexis and her friends, meanwhile, had sweat drops rolling down their faces.

“Ahem… Then I’ll be your opponent for this Shadow Duel!”

Rowan quickly coughed and cut off old Kagemaru’s words.

It also served to divert Chancellor Sheppard and the others’ attention!

At the same time, he took the Duel Disk Alexis was holding out to him.

Not long ago, Alexis had fought a Shadow Duel against the squinty-eyed Professor Banner.

So she had kept a Duel Disk on her wrist the whole way here.

Which came in handy now for a certain someone who found them a hassle and almost never carried one…

“Rowan, please be careful!”

Alexis said, a trace of worry and gravity on her face, and seemed to hesitate before speaking.

She had wanted to tell him that if this Shadow Duel was won and everyone came out safe, she had something to say to him.

But it felt too much like the “flag” Rowan had once mentioned, so in the end Alexis did not say it.