Who Let Him Play Yu-Gi-Oh!-Chapter 97 – A Family Should Stay Together

King of the Skull Servant's hollow eye sockets stared blankly across the field, his gaze fixed and unmoving.

He was dumbfounded. Truly.

He thought getting brainwashed and dragged over to the opponent's side was already the lowest point of humiliation a monster could suffer in a duel.

He never expected there could be something worse.

The furthest distance in the world isn't life and death—

It's standing on one side while your wife is standing on the other...

Held hostage in the hand of the most despicable card-thief he'd ever met, King of the Skull Servant felt the ultimate combination of shame and helplessness, forced by an unbreakable rule of duel mechanics to submit... and obey the enemy.

Oh, and he had to watch it all unfold.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

King of the Skull Servant and his on-field duplicate looked like they were about to blow a fuse.

"Don't worry, my dear!" King of the Skull Servant shouted. "I'll beat this little brat and save you! Just... just hang in there!"

Before he could finish—

Kira revealed another card from his hand.

"Activate the effect of Marionette Mite in my hand.

By discarding this card to the Graveyard, I can take control of an opponent's Zombie monster.

I'll take your King of the Skull Servant."

King of the Skull Servant: "..."

Duel magic was absolute—unbreakable.

A second later, King of the Skull Servant watched helplessly as his duplicate trotted off to the enemy's field.

Then—right in front of him—the duplicate gently took Lady in Wight's delicate skeletal hand.

"My lady... I've come to rescue you. You've suffered enough."

Lady in Wight's voice trembled, "My King..."

The King of the Skull Servant duplicate nodded firmly:

"It's over now. We're together again."

Back on the other side of the field, King of the Skull Servant felt like he'd been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. His vision went dark. The world spun.

"You... you son of a... cough cough cough..."

Clutching his chest, he was so enraged he couldn't even speak.

If he weren't made of bones, he'd probably be coughing up blood.

"Banish Chaos Command Magician (LIGHT) and Breaker the Magical Warrior (DARK) from my Graveyard."

Kira raised a card high.

"Light and dark souls, sacrificed to the chaotic plane! I summon the ultimate warrior of legend—

He who opens the heavens—Level 8:

—Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning!"

The souls of light and dark shot upward, spiraling into a vortex. Energy surged, light exploded, and a blade of chaos cut through the shining curtain.

The warrior emerged from the magical torrent.

[Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning – ATK: 3000]

His arrival stirred a storm of chaos, and an invisible pressure swept across the field.

The skeleton soldiers trembled uncontrollably, as if feeling a difference in power level they couldn't comprehend.

Strangely, the one who should've felt this pressure the most— King of the Skull Servants —stood still, deaf to the warrior's presence.

His gaze never once shifted.

He was locked on the sight of the King of the Skull Servants duplicate holding hands with Lady in Wight—gently... intimately.

"This is enough."

"This way... we can be together forever."

"My King..."

Original King of the Skull Servants: "..."

"Black Luster Soldier, direct attack! Chaos Twin Slash!" Kira commanded.

The twin blades of light and dark slashed through space, a chaotic vortex consuming the battlefield.

Even up until the moment the blade devoured him, King of the Skull Servants' gaze remained fixed—not on his opponent, but on the couple across the field.

In those final moments, he couldn't help but wonder—

Was I truly too ruthless in life? Is this karma? Is this naive little brat the retribution that fate sent to torment me in the cruelest way possible?

Well...

At least it's finally over.

Let it end. Please.

Bone life was suffering.

[King of the Skull Servants – LP: 1600 → 0]

The green magic circle contracted. King of the Skull Servants' soul shot skyward, pulled into a swirling vortex, and vanished.

His duplicate followed soon after.

And not just him—the entire Skull Family was absorbed into the skyward beam:

King of the Skull Servants, Lady in Wight, Wightprince, Wightprinces... all gone.

It appeared that in this altar's sacrificial rituals when a Duelist lost, it wasn't just their LP that vanished—

The souls of the monsters in their deck were also taken.

On the bright side, at least the whole family was now... together. Forever.

A family should always stay together.

Kira stepped forward and pulled the deck off King of the Skull Servants' fallen body.

Though the soul of the King was now gone, the deck still physically existed.

There were no spirits left within, but it was still usable.

"Don't worry. You can rest in peace," Kira said sincerely.

"I'll make good use of your cards—your wife's and your children's. I won't let them go to waste."

...Or at least I'll sell them for a decent price.

Well, details.

After all, Skull Servant decks weren't exactly rare.

You could buy them in most places.

Kira continued looting. But there wasn't much to find on a skeleton. Even the duel disk seemed to be part of the King's own body—a magical construct that couldn't be removed.

He did, however, find a small green crystal.

"What's this?"

"A fragment of Orichalcos," said BLS.

BLS had once fought the Orichalcos forces in his dimension, so he had at least some familiarity with it.

"Is it dangerous?"

BLS shook his head.

"No. It's just a symbol of authority—bestowed upon regional agents by the Evil God.

It means this individual was an enforcer or proxy ruler of this territory."

Kira understood.

So... it's a command token?

His thoughts began racing.

"So hypothetically, if someone had this... could they infiltrate the organization?"

"...That, I'm not sure about," BLS replied.

Even within the Orichalcos ranks, only high-ranking lieutenants received these tokens—not just any grunt. So even he hadn't seen many of them.

"A regional commander, huh..."

Kira glanced back at the now-defeated King of the Skull Servants.

So, this guy was a mini-boss.

Having collected the spoils, Kira turned to face the skeleton soldiers below the altar.

With Black Luster Soldier having appeared earlier, the skeletal crowd had already been terrified into silence.

After witnessing what happened to the King of the Skull Servants, not one dared move.

Their simple skull brains could barely process what had just happened.

As far as they could tell:

The king's wife got taken.

Then the king himself got taken.

Then the king died.

Good news: The sacrificial ritual was a complete success.

Bad news: The priest got sacrificed.

But one thing was very clear:

This man was not to be messed with.

Kira hopped off the altar and landed before the skeletons.

"Alright then," he said.

"I've got a few questions."

PS: Read advanced Chapters at patreon.com/AbsoluteCode