Almond looked at his third deck and smiled.
[Vault of the Sovereign Keymaker]
Card Draw: 10 pulses per star of the card.
Card Pile: [1/4 — Inspiration 0 — Insight 0]
Master Key: Absolute Override
2.
3.
4.
The card floated quietly before his consciousness for a mont before dissolving into his interface, the conceptual darkness around him slowly settling once more.
---
On the other hand, Lily’s deck manifestation was far less quiet.
A phenonon of mirrors and clocks filled the space around her consciousness.
Thousands of mirrors floated in a dark void, reflecting one another endlessly until the reflections beca a labyrinth of shifting realities.
Between those mirrors hung enormous clocks.
Not ordinary clocks.
Their hands spun chaotically in every direction. So rotated forward, others backward, and so shattered into fragnts before reforming again. The ticking echoed through the void like the heartbeat of a broken machine.
Lily stood in the center of it all, watching the reflections multiply infinitely.
Every mirror showed a slightly different version of her.
In one reflection she moved a fraction of a second earlier.
In another she blinked slightly later.
In another she spoke before she even thought of the words.
"...Interesting."
She reached out.
The mont her finger touched one of the mirrors, the reflection inside it fractured into dozens of possibilities before collapsing into a single line.
A card slowly condensed from the shattered reflections.
[Clockwork of Chronus Paradox]
Card Draw: 10 pulses per star of the card.
Card Pile: [1/4 — Inspiration 0 — Insight 0]
Paradox Pendulum Trigger
2.
3.
4.
The mirrors shattered into glittering fragnts and the clocks dissolved into drifting motes of ti as her consciousness returned.
---
For Ainen, the darkness did not remain empty for long after he initiated the deck manifesting by choosing one of his True Concepts as the catalyst.
That True Concept was called Gunslinger.
Before losing many of his arsenal and arriving in this side, his main weaponry had been guns. He forged bullets himself, crafted exotic ammunition, and fueled his weapons with flas created through his other powers.
’’Let’s see what this cooks.’’
And indeed, a faint sll appeared in the darkness.
Smoke.
Not the acrid smoke of destruction, but the warm scent of sothing cooking over an open fla.
A small spark ignited in the void.
Then another.
Golden flas began appearing one after another, floating through the darkness like lanterns lighting an invisible kitchen.
Ainen blinked.
"Well," he muttered, looking around with interest. "This looks familiar."
The flas spread outward.
The darkness slowly transford.
Stone counters erged from the void, stretching endlessly in all directions. Iron grills assembled themselves piece by piece. Cauldrons rose from the ground, already filled with boiling broth made from glowing monster essence.
Knives floated through the air.
Ingredients appeared everywhere.
Massive cuts of astral-beast at.
Crystal vegetables pulsing with energy.
Monster cores radiating strange elental forces.
Everything drifted toward the flas.
And the flas began cooking.
Raw monster flesh dissolved into pure energy.
Energy condensed into glowing ammunition.
Spices turned into explosive powders.
Every transformation fed the growing fire.
The entire space had beco an infinite battlefield kitchen where ingredients were not ant to create als.
They were ant to create weapons.
Ainen crossed his arms, watching the process unfold with growing amusent.
"So this is how my third deck wants to introduce itself."
The flas grew larger.
The grills began forging tallic shapes.
Barrels.
Triggers.
Chambers.
Gun parts assembled themselves over the cooking flas as if forged by invisible hands.
Hundreds of firearms ford in the air.
Revolvers spun slowly.
Rifles assembled themselves from glowing components.
Massive artillery cannons rose from the endless kitchen counters.
Each weapon absorbed the cooked energy produced by the flas.
The air trembled as the arsenal grew.
Then the entire armory reacted to Ainen’s presence.
Every weapon turned toward him.
The barrels aligned.
The chambers clicked.
The flas roared.
The entire arsenal fired.
But instead of bullets, streams of golden energy surged inward toward a single point before Ainen’s consciousness.
The energy compressed.
The flas condensed.
The guns disassembled and rged together.
The entire battlefield kitchen collapsed inward until a single blazing sphere hovered before him.
Then the sphere flattened.
A card appeared.
Its surface resembled polished steel etched with countless firearm schematics layered over cooking diagrams. Beneath the surface, golden flas moved through intricate chambers like ammunition waiting to be fired.
At the center of the card stood the image of a lone gunslinger surrounded by an endless storm of blazing firearms.
The na manifested.
[Gunslinger of the Gluttonous Onslaught]
Card Draw: 10 Pulse per star of the card.
Card Pile: [1/4 — Inspiration: 0 — Insight: 0]
Hellfire Ammunition Kitchen
2.
3.
4.
Ainen grinned.
’’This will be fun.’’
---
Saffa selected her True Concept.
Shifting Gears.
Clack.
A sharp tallic click echoed sowhere in the darkness.
Then another.
Clack.
Massive gears began erging from the void.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
An endless chanical engine assembled itself around her consciousness as colossal gears interlocked with each other in rotating towers of machinery. Chains carried power through the chanism while shafts spun with thunderous montum.
Saffa crossed her arms, watching the machine build itself.
"Well," she muttered, "that’s certainly on-brand."
The gears accelerated.
Energy surged through the system.
Then the entire chanism collapsed inward.
The gears fused together.
Chains wrapped around a central shaft.
A weapon appeared.
A gigantic chanical warhamr assembled before her consciousness.
Its shaft was layered with rotating gear clusters while the hamr head consisted of stacked gear disks grinding against one another like a crushing engine.
The weapon turned toward her.
"...Now that’s more like it."
The hamr spun once.
Then collapsed inward.
A card appeared.
[Cataclysm Gearbreaker]
Card Draw: 10 Pulse per star of the card.
Card Pile: [1/4 — Inspiration 0 — Insight 0]
Gearbreaker Manifest
2.
3.
4.
---
Clovelle’s conceptual darkness awakened differently.
The True Concept she selected was Impact Drive.
At first the void remained silent.
Then a pulse erupted.
A shockwave blasted through the darkness like the detonation of a massive engine. Concentric rings of force rippled outward as chanical pillars appeared in the void.
Enormous propulsion engines ford around her.
Energy pistons.
Acceleration rails.
Massive cylindrical launchers that resembled siege weapons from a civilization obsessed with velocity.
Clovelle adjusted her glasses slightly as she observed the phenonon.
"Interesting."
The engines ignited.
Energy gathered at their cores.
A single weapon slowly assembled at the center of the system.
A massive impact lance launcher.
Its barrel extended several ters long while its core contained spinning accelerator rings that built enormous kinetic force.
The weapon vibrated as energy reached critical levels.
Then it collapsed inward.
A card appeared.
[Cathedral of Impact Drive Arsenal]
Card Draw: 10 Pulse per star of the card.
Card Pile: [1/4 — Inspiration 0 — Insight 0]
Impact Lance Accelerator
2.
3.
4.
---
Natalia’s conceptual realm ignited with chaos.
The True Concept she selected was Miss Fortune.
The darkness erupted with flashing lights.
Roulette wheels spun through the void.
Dice rolled endlessly.
Golden bullet casings rained down like tallic rain.
Then firearms appeared.
Hundreds of them.
Revolvers.
Rifles.
Cannons.
Ballistic weapons floated through the void while probability symbols flickered around them like shifting equations of fate.
Natalia grinned.
"Oh this one’s mine."
The guns fired.
Every shot beca streams of probability energy that spiraled together into a single point.
The energy condensed.
A card appeared.
[Infinite Fortune Ballistics]
Card Draw: 10 Pulse per star of the card.
Card Pile: [1/4 — Inspiration 0 — Insight 0]
Lucky Chamber Barrage
2.
3.
4.
Natalia laughed.
"Perfect."
---
Kayla selected her True Concept.
Verdant Cataclysm.
The darkness filled with roots.
Gigantic vines erupted from the void, twisting together into a colossal bow-like weapon grown entirely from living wood and crystal thorns.
Energy flowed through its structure like sap carrying destructive life-force.
The weapon pulled itself taut before collapsing inward.
A card ford.
[Worldroot Cataclysm Arsenal]
Card Draw: 10 Pulse per star of the card.
Card Pile: [1/4 — Inspiration 0 — Insight 0]
Verdant Ruin Bow
2.
3.
4.
---
Fraisea’s void froze.
Snow spread endlessly through the darkness as massive frost cannons erged from glaciers forming around her.
The cannons fired beams of absolute cold before collapsing into a card.
[Glacial Judgent Armory]
Card Draw: 10 Pulse per star of the card.
Card Pile: [1/4 — Inspiration 0 — Insight 0]
Absolute Zero Cannon
2.
3.
4.
---
And finally Gopu.
The small dragon’s consciousness entered darkness.
Then lightning exploded.
Storm clouds ford instantly while massive thunder cannons appeared across the sky.
The storm roared.
Lightning condensed into a single weapon shaped like a draconic railgun.
Then it collapsed into a card.
[Storm Tyrant’s Armants]
Card Draw: 10 Pulse per star of the card.
Card Pile: [1/4 — Inspiration 0 — Insight 0]
Heavenfall Rail Cannon
2.
3.
4.
---
Atop the summit of Vorara’s cultivation mountain, the nine of them opened their eyes.
Everyone could feel the aura of each other’s new decks.
Now, it was ti to ascend to the third layer—the realm of Kings and Puppets.
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