Date: Unspecified
Ti: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Three Mischief Encampnt
"Fuck!"
I cursed as neither Konjur nor Peyote took the bait. I couldn’t fault Corey for failing to draw them in—she had done a magnificent job. Her attack, Bolas Supernova, was devastating, almost excessively so. The fact that it barely earned more than a glance from Konjur or Peyote spoke volus about their strength, not any lack on her part. No one could deny the sheer power behind her strike.
Unfortunately, she had gone up against two anomalies among the semi-ruler class. Their abilities were so far outside the norm that conventional asures of strength simply didn’t apply to them. Especially the nature of their abilities, they were unique enough to give anyone a head going against them.
Now that my original bait had failed, I needed a new one—sothing that would draw an imdiate response from them, or at least one of them. The other would follow the mont an opportunity appeared. The real question was what could serve as that bait.
The obvious choice was the Emissary of Light. But he was clearly not above, nor within the storm clouds. I had already scanned them with my soul pupils and found nothing. That left the land below. Yet even Karl hadn’t been able to locate him. It was as if he had been wiped from the face of the world.
That thought stirred sothing uneasy in . What if the Emissary of Light had already left for the Sky Blossom City? After all, through , he could regain everything he had lost—and to get to , all he would need was a handful of hostages I actually cared about.
My heart lurched at the possibility, then steadied just as quickly.
The Emissary was no longer in his pri, and Sky Blossom City wasn’t undefended. It was under the protection of so of the strongest bloodkins—Redfall, Saintess Catherine, and others like them. If he truly intended to attack the city, then he had just made the second-worst decision of his week—the first being agreeing to help Karl capture .
Usually, people who cross don’t get a second chance. The Emissary only had one thanks to Konjur—but he might not be smart enough to recognize it, let alone make good use of it.
Now that I had no bait, all I could do was wait—like a hunter stalking its prey—until the two of them either settled on a clear victor or wore each other down enough for to strike decisively.
That was because my only real advantage over them was the elent of surprise. Not just in timing, but in the nature of the attack itself. At their level of strength, timing alone ant little—they could still react. But the type of attack mattered. If it was sothing they neither anticipated nor had ever encountered, then in that brief instant before impact, they wouldn’t have the chance to react or adapt.
Which ant I had one shot. And if I failed to end it with that strike, I would most likely beco the one being hunted for possessing sothing beyond my strength.
As I watched the clash between Konjur and the Sandalphon, I noticed the Sandalphon suddenly open its sewn-shut eyes. They didn’t turn toward Konjur—instead, they drifted in my direction. Before our gazes could et, I dissolved my own eyes. And relied on Hive Spirit to guide .
Sandalphons were believed to be among the most empathic beings in existence. Their eyes don’t just see—they pierce through another’s eyes, laying bare every emotion within their heart. Worse, this ability isn’t sothing they can freely control. Unlike my soul pupils, which I can activate at will, their sight was always active.
To restrain it, they sew their own eyes shut with their eye lashes. Even then, the ability isn’t fully suppressed—they can still perceive fragnts of the emotions around them, just enough to navigate the myriad realms despite their eyes being sewed shut.
Closing one’s eyes offered no protection against their gaze. It slipped past eyelids as if they weren’t there, reaching straight into the heart to read the emotions within. That wasn’t even the full extent of its power. If it wanted to, it could read the mories associated with those emotions.
If it had been an ordinary Sandalphon, I wouldn’t have minded it peering into my eyes and uncovering what I felt. Those emotions would only serve as fuel, sharpening the miracles born of its faith. Like hitting a critical strike.
In fact, many people willingly t a Sandalphon’s gaze for that very reason. It was one of the reasons that contributed to their choice to sew their own eyelids shut with their eye lashes—to limit the constant flood of emotions they would otherwise be forced to perceive.
However, this wasn’t an ordinary Sandalphon—it was under Peyote’s influence, and he wouldn’t hesitate to use its ability to pry into my mories. So I didn’t hesitate either. I disintegrated my eyes before it could complete the glance. One look was all it took for a Sandalphon to read not just the emotions in a person’s heart, but the mories that shaped them.
If you asked , Sandalphons were like walking confession boxes. People sought them out in hopes of salvation, laying bare even their most unspeakable atrocities. Whether it truly worked or not, no one could say for certain—but those who ca away from it were unmistakably changed. The weight of guilt and fear would be gone, replaced by a strange clarity, as if they had been given a clean slate... for better or worse.
For the Sandalphons themselves, however, it was tornt. As deeply empathic beings, they were forced to endure those raw, tainted emotions without respite. Their inability to control their natural abilities left them unable to shut it out, turning every such encounter into a quiet, unending torture. So unbearable was that burden that they resorted to mutilating themselves—sewing their own eyelids shut with their lashes in a desperate attempt to dull it.
Just then, a pair of ssages struck almost simultaneously—one from Karl through the Hive Spirit, the other from the Field Marshal via the grimoire network—shattering my train of thought.
"Boss, we found the Emissary of Light."
[Wyatt, we found the Emissary of Light.]
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