Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 3119: Thalorien’s Anticipatory Grief

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Lil’ Red Storm Realm

‘This ain’t right.’ Thalorien stared at Dalia from across the chamber, his thoughts churning faster than he could organize them.

She was sitting on a throne fashioned from Spirit Gold Ore, its surface gleaming faintly beneath the strange light of the realm. Her posture was completely relaxed, one arm resting against the throne as she regarded him with an annoying, almost irritating teasing smile. She wasn’t doing anything. That was what bothered him most.

‘Why isn’t she doing anything?’ Thalorien had expected her to react the moment he revealed that he knew about the interference with his Devil Merchant Codex. He had expected anger, perhaps an attempt to intimidate him, or at the very least a renewed effort to persuade him to accept the seed she had offered.

Instead, Dalia simply ignored him and sat there, watching him, waiting.

‘Why isn’t she trying to persuade me to take the seed? Why is she just sitting there without saying anything?’ His eyes narrowed slightly thinking over the questions that bothered him, one more than all the others. ‘What the fuck is taking the Demon Merchant Code so long?’

Thalorien’s mind became a tangled mess as he tried to reconcile reality with the scenario he had expected. His plan had been simple.

Expose Dalia’s interference. Pretend to be shocked. Buy time. Wait for the Demon Merchant Code to notice the violation. Then let the situation spiral out of Dalia’s control. But none of it was happening. Instead, Dalia had become unnervingly patient.

She had even slowed down the rate at which her roots were devouring his Frost Rule Stream. The roots that had previously been greedily siphoning away his accumulated power were now moving at a pace so leisurely that it almost felt deliberate.

As if she wasn’t in a hurry. As if she knew there was no reason to hurry. And through all of it, her eyes never left him, not once. For the past few hours, Dalia had simply watched him from her Spirit Gold Ore throne with that faintly teasing smile. Thalorien felt a chill that had nothing to do with Frost Rule. The longer this continued, the more uncomfortable he became.

He had spent countless years surviving by anticipating the actions of others. He could calculate battlefields, predict enemy strategies, identify hidden motives, and prepare contingencies for situations that most beings would not even recognize as dangerous.

Yet Dalia’s current behavior made none of his calculations fit. There was no urgency in her, no impatience, no desperation. She wasn’t even attempting to stop him from thinking. That was perhaps the most frightening part.

Aside from Dalia’s complete indifference to his actions, what bothered Thalorien the most was the Demon Merchant Code.

The Demon Merchant Code should have already descended its wrath upon the abomination that had dared to tamper with one of its Devil Merchant Codices. Even if Thalorien accounted for the time dilution within the Lil’ Red Storm Realm, something he normally shouldn’t have needed to consider when dealing with an entity as powerful as the Demon Merchant Code, enough time had already passed.

Far too much time. Yet there was no response, no warning, no intervention. Not even the slightest indication that the Demon Merchant Code had detected the intrusion.

Thalorien had always considered himself exceptionally patient. He had survived situations where a single moment of panic could have cost him everything. He was a mighty Ruler-class Snow Elf whose Frost Rule Stream was believed to be larger than even that of the Dark Realm itself.

Yet now, he felt as though time itself had become his enemy. There was an old saying that time felt slower during difficult times. Thalorien was beginning to understand just how terrifyingly literal that could feel. Every passing moment seemed to stretch endlessly. A few breaths felt like minutes. Minutes felt like hours. And the hours he had already spent sitting beneath Dalia’s watchful gaze seemed to drag on without end.

His awareness became increasingly focused on the passage of time. He would think that surely another few moments had passed, only to realize that barely any time had actually gone by. Then, when he stopped paying attention, an interval would seemingly disappear altogether.

It was maddening.

For a being whose mind could process countless Frost Rule meanings simultaneously, being unable to accurately judge something as simple as the passage of time was deeply unsettling. And Thalorien had no idea that this was not entirely his own perception.

Hive Spirit and Sansa were quietly working together. They weren’t simply interfering with his memories and decisions. They were also subtly manipulating his perception of time. Nothing drastic enough to trigger his instincts, nothing obvious enough for him to identify as an attack.

A few moments could feel slightly longer than they should. His attention could linger on one thought just a little too long, while other moments seemed to slip past without leaving a clear impression. The distortions accumulated gradually. Like a barely noticeable flaw in a mirror, the reflection remained convincing until one stared at it for too long.

Thalorien believed he was experiencing the psychological distortion of time caused by his desperate circumstances. He thought his anxiety, uncertainty, and growing impatience were making every second feel unbearable.

In reality, his perception itself was being quietly guided.

Hive Spirit handled the subtle adjustments while Sansa’s Innate Calamity helped obscure his awareness of the changes, ensuring that even when Thalorien noticed something strange, his mind naturally supplied an explanation that required him to look no deeper. And that was what made it so effective.

Thalorien was not being forced to believe something impossible. He was being encouraged to misunderstand something that was actually happening. He was waiting for the Demon Merchant Code to respond. He was convinced that it should have responded by now. And every additional moment that passed only made him more convinced that something was terribly wrong.

Meanwhile, Dalia remained seated upon her Spirit Gold Ore throne, watching him with that same irritating smile. She knew exactly what was happening. Thalorien was waiting for a reckoning that was never coming.