Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2514: Ovumite’s Marvelous Phyisque

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Morningstar University Campus, Garden of Beginning

”Yes. So, just step away from the stake for now,” I said, reassuring Lucine and asking her not to remove it until I gave the signal.

”No. I’ll stay right here—just in case,” she refused, shaking her head with a grim, steady resolve.

I couldn’t help but find it a little endearing—like a fully domesticated husky refusing to step outside into winter snow, choosing heated floors over loyalty, yet still trying to look brave.

”Don’t worry, I won’t remove it unless there’s no other choice. And... are you alright?” Lucine added, unable to hide her concern. She had sensed it—my energy signature had already fallen back to the Card Master realm. She couldn’t help but wonder what price I had paid to wield that power.

The guilt sank in sharply. She had come here to save me, yet she was the one being protected. The realization left her embarrassed—almost ashamed.

”Yeah, I’m fine. Just give me a minute to finish this. Then we can leave this bloody past behind us,” I replied, turning my attention to the coffin. I had used every curse in my arsenal to seal Slay, so naturally, my realm had reverted to its original state.

The Evil-Sealing Thousand-Curse Coffin, with Slay bound within it, slowly drifted toward me. It stood upright, allowing our gazes to meet directly. Sealed at the very moment she believed she had finally escaped her time-prison, I had expected frustration or agony on her face. Instead, the greed in her eyes for me only deepened.

”My prince... you truly surprised me,” Slay murmured, her voice disturbingly serene—as if she had simply discovered something she desired even more, having realized that the Hybrid Celestial was far stronger than she had ever anticipated.

As a member of a race born to fight and pursue the ultimate perfected physique, Slay, though clearly disappointed, accepted defeat against me gracefully. Unlike the ancestors of Lucine, who had tricked and trapped her in their temporal prison, he had defeated her body directly—overpowering her physique in a fair and honest fight.

Because of that, she felt no anger toward him. Instead, her desire toward him only intensified. To her, the stronger the Hybrid Celestial proved to be, the further she could advance toward physical perfection by claiming his essence.

This realization alone filled her with hope and joy. In her eyes, he had not defeated her but had proved himself to her. This mindset prevented her from having a mental breakdown, having been sealed right when she was beginning to think that not only she was free but hit the jackpot.

Seeing her current mental state, I found myself both impressed and relieved. It made the conversation I intended to have with her far easier than I had anticipated. And truly, she had nothing to be ashamed of in falling victim to my Evil-Sealing Thousand-Curse Coffin. It was one of the ultimate techniques I had devised specifically to counter beings on the level of the Deviant Devil Mamas Mulias, Librarian Jr., Elder Chaos Dwarfs, and similar entities.

Actually, the fact that her physique had nearly resisted it—if not for the curses exploiting its precise weak points and being fueled by primordial energy—spoke volumes about her strength. Yet that realization brought another to the forefront: Perhaps my ultimate techniques were still not as strong enough as I would like them to be. To restrain beings capable of traversing anywhere in myriad realms as if they were merely strolling through their neighborhood.

”You seem to be in a rather good mood for someone who just lost everything she held in the palm of her hand,” I remarked, teasing lightly before steering toward the point.

”What can I say? I’m an optimist,” Slay replied with a calm and conversational tone. ”I don’t dwell on what I lose, only on what I stand to gain. After all, you have to give something up to make room for more, don’t you think?” She spoke as though she weren’t sealed and a prisoner, but a couple of friends talking over a cup of coffee. Instead of standing on opposite sides of the bars.

I wasn’t sure what fueled her composure—and I didn’t have the time to deduce it. The wooden stake carved from the twig of a World Calamity Tree was burning faster now, the embers consuming it at a visibly accelerating rate. If this continued, in just a few more minutes there wouldn’t be enough material left for me to offer to my Primordial Calamity Soul Gem as an evolutionary ingredient to satisfy one of the conditions for unlocking my Fifth Transformation.

”Haha, you’re right. Then, if you don’t mind my asking—what exactly are you trying to make room for?” I asked, marking the beginning of the negotiation. Slay was far more valuable to me alive as a blood kin than dead or reduced to a mere calamity daughter gem.

If I simply wanted a semi–ruler-class Ovumite Calamity Daughter Gem, I could have fed her a daughter gem and been done with it. But for obvious reasons, I intended to recruit Slay as blood kin, not convert her into a daughter gem.

In most cases, I would first recruit the target into a calamity daughter gem and then prompt them into blood kin. But with Slay, I needed to take a different approach to maximize the potential of her marvelous physique. For that, she had to be brought in as bloodkin from the start.

Thanks to the extraordinary physiology of the Ovumite, Slay would not simply turn into a calamity daughter gem when fed one. Instead, she would conceive a new body through it—and be reborn as a perfected Primordial Calamity Daughter Gem. Now imagine that process occurring under the influence of my cursed bloodline.

From what I had learned through my existing bloodkin, as long as the target willingly surrendered themselves and allowed their body to become a calamity daughter gem, they would be chosen by the cursed bloodline and reborn as bloodkin.

Given that, and considering our current circumstances, I believed I could negotiate with Slay to join me as one of my bloodkins.

Did this negotiation really need to happen now, of all times?

Yes, because I didn’t have a storage card capable of storing away the Evil Sealing Thousand Curse Coffin. And knowing a Celestial’s temper, the moment the Card Celestial arrives, it would erase Slay from existence without hesitation—to eliminate even the slightest perceived threat to itself. Like everything else up to this point, this was now or never.

If the negotiation failed... I could always cut my losses and convert her into a calamity daughter gem. Then Card Celestial will have to show mercy, or else I had other methods to ensure the safety of my daughter gems.