Chapter 370: My Cards Contain Thoughts |
While I briefly lost consciousness, strange memories seeped into my mind like a dream.
Whose memory is this now?
King Elric?
Could the lingering thoughts of someone who died centuries ago still remain?
I had suspected something was off.
Elric the Goldenarch.
She had ruled over the Golden Palace for an unimaginably long time, bearing the appearance of the former King of the Golden Empire while speaking and acting exactly like a monarch.
According to Hector’s thoughts, she had looked the same ever since he was young.
She was a part of the Golden Lord, yet she was oddly independent, possessing a strong sense of self.
Some unburied corpses do manage to retain their original form under specific circumstances, lingering in the world and exerting influence long after death.
Just like the preserved bodies in the Abyss, King Elric had maintained her form even under the power of the Golden Lord, leaving behind traces of her will.
So that’s why she had felt so… alive.
It wasn’t that the Golden Lord had reached a grotesque level of delusion.
Apologies for doubting you, Golden Lord.
I should’ve known—someone who can’t even introduce variety into his city designs wouldn’t be capable of replicating a woman so vividly.
Maybe, just maybe, the two of them together had made the Golden Lord more complete.
Well, that’s all in the past now.
A single resting place in the columbarium should suffice.
I’m sure they would have wanted to be buried together.
As my consciousness wavered, I bid them a final farewell—
And let reality pull me back.
***
“Woof, Woof, Woof!”
Scratching noises echoed.
Through the pitch-black darkness, a crack trembled at the edge of my vision.
I squinted, trying to make sense of it when the crack suddenly split wide open, flooding my surroundings with light.
Azzy had found me buried beneath the rubble, lifting her head and howling.
“Awoooo! Nice to see you!”
“I wouldn’t call this nice. That’s not the right word to use here.”
The King of Humans had nearly been crushed to death under some ruins.
How disgraceful. I might as well never call myself king again.
Grumbling, I groaned and wriggled my way out.
Not long ago, the Golden Palace had been a massive fortress, tearing its way across the wastelands.
But now, the fortress was gone.
Instead, the cubic blocks that once formed its structure lay scattered, completely disassembled.
Most likely, something the Golden Lord did had caused the blocks to lose cohesion, leading to the collapse—and burying me in the process.
If not for Azzy, I might have stayed there indefinitely.
What was once a mighty fortress was now a pitiful collection of tumbling cubes.
The bloom of prosperity is fleeting.Even the sturdiest walls crumble before the Golden Lord.
Brushing off the dust, I patted Azzy’s head.
“Good job, Azzy. You found me.”
“Woof! Easy! I hide bones all the time!”
“There’s no point in hiding them. We’re always on the move.”
“Investment for the future!”
“You’re supposed to invest in something you can actually recover later. You’re just burying them in the ground for no reason.”
“Woof Woof! I’ll get them back! Someday!”
“…Why are you looking at me when you say that?”
Her eyes gleamed with unsettling determination.
…Somehow that gaze scared me.
It was as if she was planning to collect something from me.
Not that I intended to cheat her, but there were limits to what I could do.
I didn’t break promises, but if I couldn’t fulfill one, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
Just then, the Regressor came bounding across the debris toward me, hopping across the scattered blocks.
After barely escaping death, even seeing the Regressor felt reassuring.
I raised a hand to wave at her—
“Hughes! What happened to the Golden Lord?”
—I stopped mid-wave.
My face immediately soured.
“Could you worry about me first? I was just trapped under all that rubble, you know.”
“It’s not like anyone attacked you. The debris just collapsed a little.”
“A ‘little’?! Normal people die when that happens! Do you have any idea how terrifying and dangerous it was?”
Unlike her, I wasn’t brimming with overflowing Qi or carrying some mythical treasure.
It was a miracle I had survived.
While I continued to grumble, the Regressor scoffed and shifted her gaze.
Her Seven Colored Eyes gleamed—piercing through everything except metal.
“Don’t be dramatic. It wasn’t even that dangerous.”
She lifted a chunk of debris with Jizan.
Beneath it, a small gap was revealed—barely large enough for me to squeeze into.
Surrounding that space was a house made of cards.
Damn it.
Cheater.
I couldn’t even exaggerate because of her cheat abilities.
The Regressor examined the structure with curiosity.
“Even as the rubble collapsed, you managed to create a shelter… But what is this? Steel cards? Is this…alchemy?”
Alchemy?
Maybe.
But honestly, it was something closer to a miracle of the Divine.
Alchemy is something humans have already discovered, thus I could use it as the Human King.
Like any other alchemist, as long as I have alchemized materials and extra mana, I can transmute whatever I want.
That’s how my card equipment was made.
Of course, just because we have the same materials doesn’t mean we get the same results.
A skilled alchemist’s creations are far more intricate and functional than mine.
Mana is power and with my meager mana, I can barely shape something with alchemy, while someone else with more mana can enhance it and even add countless additional properties.
To put it in terms of house-building: while I struggle to stack logs into a crude shelter, an alchemist would refine those logs into planks and build a proper house—complete with furniture.
But no matter how skilled an alchemist is, they can’t create value from nothing.
If all they have is dirt, no amount of mana will turn it into anything more than brittle, subpar alchemized steel.
The Primarchs have Unique Magic that allows them to make use of even worthless alchemized steel, which is why their abilities are often seen as “cheating.”
But that was just a workaround. It was not “true” creation.
However… The Golden Lord’s enlightenment, Elixir, was something else entirely different.
Humans could use Earthweave in rudimentary ways—digging holes and leveling the ground, at best.
But the Grandmaster’s true enlightenment, Gaia Ego, lay in understanding the very earth we stand on.
Likewise, alchemy, which alters the structure and form of matter, was a refined technology—but one designed for human use.
That was not the essence of Elixir.
All matter shares the same origin—gold, steel, even coarse sand that seems utterly useless.
Even humans.
The materials that make up our bodies aren’t special.
It’s just how they’re arranged that determines form and function.
The Golden Lord realized this.
Everything is made of infinitely small blocks.
My Spade Cards are idols of the Divine—a medium that channeled the enlightenment glimpsed by the Divines, touching upon the Great Truth.
After all, even the Divines were once human.
As the Human King, I too could use that power.
Regardless of type, I could transmute any material into something else.
The problem is…
“Why does it have to be cards?!”
“What?”
Because I’m still an ordinary person, I can only summon a limited amount of power through the idol.
My Eight of Spades ability only transmuted whatever it touched into a steel card—nothing more.
Regardless of the material or type, I can only create identical Eight of Spades.
It makes sense.
Even if I were granted the power to create anything, I don’t have the strength, mana, or technique to use it properly.
Just because someone learns Earthweave doesn’t mean they become the Grand Master.
Just because someone studies Druidism doesn’t mean they can match Nevida.
Even if I glimpsed the pinnacle of Alchemy, I couldn’t transmute everything like the Golden Lord.
It makes sense that the thing I’ve created most often—a card—would be the easiest to reproduce.
But still…!
Why cards, of all things?!
Couldn’t it be something more useful?!
I fumed internally, but at least I had something.
I should be grateful. I took a deep breath and calmed myself.
“It wasn’t me. It seems the Golden Lord saved me.”
“The Golden Lord saved you?”
“Yeah. Peru managed to reach him, after all.”
The Golden Palace had collapsed.
At the last moment, the Golden Lord made a decision, saved Peru, and did something.
I couldn’t read his thoughts, so I didn’t know exactly what he did, but based on the situation…
One thing was clear.
The Golden Lord was dead.
Of course, he was already dead to begin with, so it wasn’t the best description.
But at the very least, he had abandoned his obsession with restoring the Golden Empire.
Instead…
- Ding.
A bell rang from somewhere.
Not far away, the blocks stirred.
An invisible force was stacking the blocks, shaping them into a building.
The collapsed remains of the fortress reassembled themselves, forming a structure that led into darkness—as if opening a path underground.
And from that passage… a person emerged.
Peru.
She was still injured.
The scattered wounds and bloodstains told the story of the battles she had fought.
Her complexion, already poor, was even worse—she looked like she might drop dead at any moment.
But there was one difference.
Tied to her waist was a small golden bell.
And with each chime, the blocks rearranged themselves, forming a path ahead of her, as if blessing her journey.
The Golden Lord had entrusted his will to Peru.
Like a relic, he had left behind only his power, devoid of intent.
Now, Peru would be the one to wield that immense power—for the Fallen Dominion.
The Regressor, stepping onto the newly formed platforms, called out to her.
“Witherarch. Looks like the plan worked, huh?”
“… Ugh”
“Even though you’re the antithesis of alchemy, I didn’t expect you to actually stop the Golden Lord. Thanks to you, we survived. So, the ceasefire negotiations will proceed as planned, right?”
“… Nngh”
With a faint groan, Peru collapsed forward.
The Regressor’s eyes widened in shock.
“H-Hey?! Witherarch?!”
“Mr. Shei, I told you. Not everyone is like you. Just being down there was a life-threatening experience for her.”
“This isn’t the time to be calm! Her energy is unstable!”
“You were the calmest one until now. What did I say? You should’ve worried about us first.”
Well, to be fair, Peru wasn’t injured by the collapse itself.
And it’s not like the Golden Lord had intentionally tried to kill us—the collapse wasn’t as dangerous as it seemed.
Peru’s condition was likely because she had been healed after sustaining serious injuries.
Unlike a homunculus, she was still human, meaning her body was struggling to adjust to the changes.
The Regressor, unaware of this, leaped across the surrounding terrain towards her.
But just before she reached Peru, Hilde emerged first, pushing aside the debris.
She had been buried under even more blocks than I had, but as one of the Six Star Generals, she was completely unharmed.
Casually supporting Peru, Hilde covered her mouth with her hand and smirked mischievously.
“Oh my~ Peru, are you dying? You went through all the trouble of erasing the Golden Lord, but now you’re collapsing from exhaustion? So does that mean the Fallen Dominion is now… ownerless? Free? ‘Mine’~?”
“Leave her alone! If you try anything, I won’t stand for it!”
The Regressor, seething with anger, stormed forward.
Hilde pouted, then practically shoved Peru into her arms.
“What? Anyone listening would think ‘I’m’ the one who sent her to her death~ You were the one who pushed her into this fight, weren’t you, Shei?”
“She agreed to it! Thanks to her, the Golden Lord’s rampage stopped! If he had gone unchecked, even the Military State wouldn’t have survived!”
“Oh, ‘I’ already said thank you~ But look at this! This Golden Bell… no matter how you see it…”
Just as Hilde reached for the bell, a sharp aura flew past between them.
Hilde flinched and took a step back, raising both hands in surrender.
The Regressor, exuding a murderous glare, warned her.
“Hands off. That’s not yours.”
Even though she was only an inch away from being cut, Hilde remained unfazed and casually responded.
“Then what? Is it yours now? You’re quite greedy. Are you planning to claim even the Golden Lord’s relic for yourself?”
“If necessary, but that’s for later. Until the Witherarch wakes up, don’t touch it.”
｢I don’t know how things will play out now that things have barely settled. For now, I’ll hand it to the Witherarch and see how things go. There shouldn’t be a problem if I took it myself, but she seems more reasonable… compared to the Military State, at least.｣
The Regressor may live life recklessly, but when it came to the relics of the Divine, she was always strict.
Because a Divine’s relic could become either a power to save the future or a catastrophe to destroy it.
Still… saying “if necessary, I’ll take it” is way too blunt, isn’t it?
Hilde will remember that choice.
You’d better be careful.
“I wasn’t really planning to take it anyway~ But more importantly, you haven’t forgotten, have you? About the ceasefire deadline?”
“Deadline?”
“Stopping the Golden Lord was one thing, but the ceasefire isn’t official yet, is it? If we don’t get a definitive answer within the next two days, there might be a war.”
From the start, while we were heading to the Fallen Dominion, Hilde had specified a one-week timeframe.
Once an army is mobilized, it is like a rolling wheel—if it doesn’t move somewhere, it collapses under its own weight.
Whether they return to the Military State or march forward into the Fallen Dominion depends entirely on the decision made here.
“But right now, there’s no one left to negotiate the ceasefire, is there? Even if the Fallen Dominion is the Land of Alchemy, they can’t exactly alchemize their own leader back to life, can they? Oh dear, what to do~?”
Now that the Golden Lord is gone, there’s no authority left to make the decision.
Hilde pointed this out while spinning playfully in a circle.
She looked absolutely delighted that the peace she supposedly wished for hadn’t arrived.
***
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