Date: Unspecified
Ti: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Way Beyond, Unknown
Had I known that Petra and Bloodette were this close, I would have reconsidered my approach. At the very least, I wouldn’t have made Bloodette’s circumstances sound so miserable to Petra. Now, I had no idea how to get her off my back about taking her to et Bloodette.
"What are you thinking?" Petra snapped. "Stop wasting ti and take to her already."
Her impatience snapped out of my thoughts, only reinforcing the realization that I had played this entirely wrong. But how was I supposed to know she would care so deeply about soone whose very na made her radiate such thick killing intent?
Shaking my head, I said, "Fine, I will take you there, but you will have to take an oath in the presence of the world’s will, that you will listen and follow my arrangent."
Knowing I couldn’t get rid of Petra, I decided to recruit her instead. Her Petruth Rune would co in handy. Perhaps she could even help create cards modeled after her Petruth Rune. Having a powerful supre being at my beck and call wouldn’t hurt if she agreed to take the oath in the presence of the card world’s will.
"You do know that oaths don’t actually work on us, right? We can break them anyti we want," Petra said, looking at with a sneer.
Hearing that, I realized sothing crucial. Supre beings had their own rule stream spirits backing them. No oath could truly bind them. They could always rely on their connections to escape the consequences. In other words, trying to use oaths taken in the presence of the world’s will to trick the supre being wasn’t possible unless they chose to honor it themselves.
My thoughts imdiately drifted to the idea of using a demon rchant contract, but I quickly suppressed it. That would be crossing a line. After all, the Card Celestial had been remarkably accommodating toward my existence, even offering its assistance on several occasions. There was a chance it might extend the sa consideration to in Petra’s case as well.
If that were the case, then an oath taken in the presence of the world’s will could still hold weight, so long as I neither hard nor coerced Petra into doing anything shady. It wasn’t as though I planned to do that anyway, so I decided to give it a try.
"It’s fine. I trust you," I said, doing my best to sound casual. "If you take an oath in the presence of the world’s will, I can take you to where Bloodette is."
Petra imdiately sneered. "So you think I am lying to you, huh? Don’t co crying to when it doesn’t work. Either way, you’ll still have to take to Bloodette, no matter what."
"Yes, yes," I nodded, quickly urging Petra to proceed before she could change her mind. She took the oath as follows:
"I, Petra Petros, the Stone Supre, swear in the presence of the world’s will to follow Dalton Wyatt’s arrangents and commands, in exchange for him taking to where Bloodette is sealed."
After swearing the oath, Petra then ordered , "Now, take to where Bloodette is."
"First, morph into a complete human, or change your form into a ring or bracelet. That way, I can take you into the Five Regions without drawing any attention. You decide," I instructed Petra, intending to test whether my hunch was correct.
I never got the chance as Petra was unexpectedly obedient. In the blink of an eye, she morphed into a human woman clad in full-body crystal armor. Her facial features and physique remained the sa as before, except now they were ford of flesh rather than condensed Stone Rule power.
"Good. Now find a secluded location where no one can disturb us, but one that’s suitable for setting up a teleportation array formation. That way, you’ll be able to travel back and forth," I instructed Petra.
Since this was her domain, she would know the terrain far better than I ever could. She was the best person to choose a location for a teleportation hub that wouldn’t be discovered by monsters or the Empire’s card apprentices.
"A teleportation array formation? In that case, this place should suit your needs," Petra said.
Without any warning, she grabbed by the waist and plunged straight into the ground. I didn’t resist.
Taking advantage of her confidence that the oath wouldn’t truly bind her, I had deliberately kept its wording as vague as possible. That ambiguity granted considerable leeway, enough to compel Petra to act according to my arrangents when necessary.
Even so, I still didn’t know whether the Card Celestial would uphold her oath on my behalf, out of consideration for . Based on my past interactions with it, however, I had a strong feeling that it would. After all, I wasn’t harming Petra or restraining her against her will.
I didn’t know what rule aning Petra was using, but it allowed her to carry through the crust of the card world as though we were diving into an ocean. Before long, we erged into a vast subterranean world. Seeing my montary awe, Petra asked smugly, "Welco to my ho. What do you think?"
Under different circumstances, I might have applauded with tears in my eyes. Unfortunately, countless journeys through dungeons and other realms had long since dulled my sensitivity to such spectacles. Take my and Dredre’s creation, the Ceed World, for example. It was several tis more srizing than Petra’s subterranean realm.
Regardless, it was a good location to build a teleportation hub, but it lay several miles below ground level. I doubted Petra would be willing to personally assist my subordinates with commuting between the hub and the surface.
Although it wasn’t an ideal site for my Way Beyond exploration plans, I decided it would suffice as a temporary solution.
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