Date: Unspecified
Ti: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Mischief Encampnt, Matron’s Camp
"What’s wrong?" I asked the Field Marshal, noticing the way her face had turned crimson as she glanced between and Dredre.
She hesitated, then reluctantly said, "What if Gideon Grim escapes back to his dark faction’s base using the devil rchant code? Wouldn’t Corey be walking straight into a trap?"
Before I could answer, Corey explained, "No, he won’t—unless he doesn’t mind becoming another devil’s little bitch."
"What Corey is trying to say is that the dark faction isn’t a place where you can show weakness," I began to explain. "If you do, the devils will prey on you, even if you’re their comrade—" Corey cut off before I could finish, saying, "Especially if you’re their comrade. That way, they already know your limits and your background. Park learned that the hard way. You can’t show weakness to the dark races, no matter how good your terms are with them. It’s in their nature—they get off on taking advantage of others."
"So what’s the point of forming a faction?" the Field Marshal asked, unable to understand why anyone would join one if they couldn’t trust the people in it to have their back.
"It’s like a bunch of assholes coming together to defend their piece of the poop from bigger, stinkier assholes," Corey replied, but that only confused the Field Marshal further, even as she tried her best to follow. Corey wasn’t done. "What you’re asking is like wondering why people get married, promising to stay together forever, when one of them can just walk out and file for divorce."
I looked at Corey to see if she was done and she wouldn’t cut off again, then replied, "It’s not loyalty—it’s convenience. They stand together because it’s safer than standing alone, and they can go after bigger, better pieces of the pie that way. Like that, as a faction, they can aim to conquer a world to mine its will fragnts instead of drifting through the Myriad Realms, moving from one world to another as rchants that barely scrape by.
"But the mont you beco a liability? You’re no longer part of the faction—you’re the next thing it feeds on. It’s like the saying: there’s no honor among thieves. Though not all dark races are like that. So are more tolerable than others."
"Yes, but only to their own. Not to others, and especially not to outsiders. Believe , I know. Park used to run her own faction, and even those who lived because of her generosity saw it as weakness. After her death, they switched sides imdiately," Corey said once I was done, making wonder why she was suddenly bringing up Park today. But she wasn’t wrong. There was a reason most Semi-Ruler and Ruler-class factions were run by families or clans.
Just then, I caught the Field Marshal staring at Dredre again and once again her face couldn’t help but turn tomato red. The latter had finished her fill of nuts and flown back to perch on my hair, her legs dangling over my forehead.
So I asked the Field Marshal again, "Alright, what’s wrong? Spit it out already."
Field Marshal Lorn’s face turned tomato red before she said, "It’s about Elder Pixie MayMay. She couldn’t reach you through the devil codex, so she asked to pass along a ssage—"
"No, not here. Not now. We’ll talk later," I cut her off the mont I realized it was about Elder Pixie MayMay and that she had sent a ssage. There was a reason I had been ignoring her ssages on my demon codex—they were so randy that I was disgusted by myself for corrupting an innocent soul. I can’t help it, I am a hybrid World Calamity tree and Pixies were attracted to despite their better judgent.
Now I understood why the Field Marshal’s face kept turning crimson every ti she looked at and Dredre together. Hopely, MayMay had the sense to show so discretion in ssage. But from the Field Marshal’s reaction, I don’t think that was the case.
Catching the embarrassnt on my face, Corey imdiately pressed, "What is it? Who is Elder Pixie MayMay? And where did you even et an Elder Pixie in the first place? Park visited plenty of Infinity Library branches in the dark realm and never t one."
Hearing there was an older, stronger version of pixies, Lil’ Baem—who had been pretending to sleep—couldn’t help but lift her head to listen as I answered her master.
Seeing how intently she was listening, I scoffed. "What are you getting excited about? You were defeated by Dredre. What makes you think you can handle an Elder Pixie—the guardian of pixies? Go back to sleep."
"Hiss!" Lil’ Baem bared her fangs at , her eyes flashing like Dredre’s as she perched on my hair. Clearly, she hadn’t learned her lesson. If Corey wasn’t here—or even looking—she would’ve already pounced on Dredre to try her luck again. Greedy pig would be a more fitting title than sinister snake for her.
"Wyatt, stop provoking her. Don’t co complaining to if she bites you," Corey said, coming to her baby snake’s defense.
Lil’ Baem rubbed her head affectionately against Corey’s wrist, occasionally flicking it toward as if pointing out. Even an elven year could tell she was complaining about to her mama. Unfortunately for her, she was barking up the wrong tree.
Just then, an eerie floating appeared in the camp out of thin air—it was Nick and his empty beast. The creature opened its mouth and produced a cushion, giving it to Sansa, it vanished from sight as if it had never existed.
Sansa took the cushion and handed it to Corey, saying, "According to my people, this was one of the cushions Gideon used while cultivating his active soul percentage in his hideout, about a hundred miles south of here. Check if it works. Otherwise, we’ll need to get our hands on sothing better than a cushion he actually sat on."
Corey took the cushion and held it in front of Lil’ Baem. "Baem, see if you can track a person using the traces of his sll on this."
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