Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2827: Konjur: The Snow Goblin Devil

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Three Mischief Encampment, Limitless Celestial Blood Fate Rule Domain

”You have my undivided attention now—especially you, little girl. Because of your little stunt, I’ve spent well beyond my reimbursement limit.”

Konjur stared at the natives, irritation simmering beneath his composure. To undo what had nearly killed him, he had been forced to expend more faith than the family would ever reimburse. First, he had to synchronize his mastery of time rule with the Card World’s time flow, just to make it usable here. Then, he rewound reality to the moment before the serpent girl got to use her miniature supernova, that almost ended him.

The cost stung. He had planned to pocket the surplus faith and indulge in a bit of gambling and betting on the side. It was perks like that that made someone of his caliber willing to take on what he would otherwise consider a menial assignment.

”Bring it, you knockoff snow elf.”

Corey wasn’t about to be intimidated by a few threats. She fired back with a taunt, using an insult typically reserved for darker races against Konjur’s kind. His race—Snow Goblins, the tallest among the goblin species—were often mocked as crude imitations of the snow elves. They almost resembled Caucasian humans, with a mix of black and gray hair—never blonde or ginger. However, their blood-red pupils, pointed ears and nose, and longer incisors were dead giveaways.

”You backwater, red-blooded, card-wielding mutt—how dare you insult me? I’ll give you the slowest, most painful death imaginable for this.”

Konjur lost his composure the moment Corey called him a knockoff Snow Elf, his threats no longer idle but promises he fully intended to keep.

But Corey wasn’t finished. She summoned her Forsling corpse-puppet card spirit and pointed at him, breaking into the most diabolical laugh I had ever heard—somehow both deliberate and utterly natural.

Meanwhile, the Field Marshal and I exchanged looks, trying to find a way out of this dilemma. Every option we came up with could be easily undone by Konjur’s faith and he had abundance of it as evidenced by his halo horn. The only thing beyond his reach was my primordial energy—but using it came with its own risks. If word got out that there was someone capable of drawing primordial energy from the origin source, the consequences would be severe. By then, I wouldn’t even trust the Card Celestial itself.

Field Marshal Lorn and I were beginning to understand how the Dark Cults could stand against the Devil Merchant Code—a sentient spell said to be closest to achieving transcendence. There was even talk that the only reason the Devil Merchant Code was considered superior was its greater numbers and its alignment with traditional dark race ideology.

”I said, bring it, you deformed Snow Elf.”

”Let’s see how long you can keep running your mouth!”

Konjur immediately invoked his mastery over the time rule, channeling faith to accelerate the flow of time around him. In an instant, his opponents were left lagging in a slower frame of time, while he moved freely within an accelerated one.

But the moment he did, every one of his senses blared in alarm. A sudden weakness crept through his body—subtle at first, then unmistakable. He poured faith into resisting whatever was draining him and immediately reverted the flow of time to normal as his intuition screamed at him—if he remained in that accelerated time flow even a moment longer, it would kill him.

I watched as Konjur accelerated the flow of time to a level the overclock card—designed and crafted by Morningstar University—couldn’t keep up with. After all, it was a ranked card, bound by the limits of the Card World’s power system.

What Konjur was doing should have been impossible. The card celestial’s suppression was meant to ensure he couldn’t push time beyond the defined minimum and maximum thresholds of Card World’s time flow. Yet, with his faith, he forced his way past those limits.

Such a feat clearly demanded a significant amount of faith, but he expended it without so much as blinking. That was the luxury of possessing an abundance of something so versatile and powerful.

However, I was caught off guard when he immediately restored the flow of time to normal. What shocked me even more was when he returned to the original time flow he began to cough up blood.

Like the snow elves, the snow goblins also possessed blue blood. It was copper-based blood—adapted to bind oxygen efficiently in colder environments. In such conditions, where metabolism slows, systems like his could still function smoothly.

I used my soul pupils on Konjur to figure out what had gone wrong, only to discover that he had been poisoned by Lil’ Baem’s gray vapor venom. That left me confused. When did that happen?

I had been watching him the entire time he accelerated the flow of time and then brought it back to normal. He never once got close to Corey. And yet, somehow, during that brief window, the poison had taken hold in his body—so deeply that even his abundant faith struggled to suppress its symptoms from showing outwardly. For the first time, cracks showed through his invincible image, betraying his faith in his faith.

”Yes, it worked, it worked! Yuhoho!”

”In your face, you damned cheap snow elf wannabe.”

”In your face, Wyatt.”

”I dare you—go on, try using the time rule against me. I dare you!”

”You... you did this? How?”

Only then did I notice it—Lil’ Baem’s gray vapor venom had spread across the entire divine dominion. But this time it didn’t mist cloud like before. As each vapour was denser, each one spaced farther apart. The vapors appeared to have fused into a concerted vapour that demanded more room to exist. As a result each vapour was so far apart and didn’t blanket everything in visible gray even though they permeated the entire domain. They were there—everywhere—just out of sight.

Soon, even the Emissary of Light began to cough up blood, poisoned by the same concentrated gray vapor venom.