Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2580: Time Ambush

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Brothwork Manor, Temporal Separation Array

”They’ve spotted us,” the demigod with the long, pointed beard reported from within the temporal-separation array the moment Jill sensed the danger ahead. ”I told you—placing an array right at the gate was too obvious. We need to act now, before he calls Henricks.”

”No need,” replied another demigod concealed within the bearded one’s shadow, cautioning him against sounding the alarm prematurely. ”Even Henricks can’t step into the space inside Brothwork Manor. The isolation arrays layered over the estate were designed by the founders themselves, tailored to the manor’s geography. There’s only one exit, and it leads directly to us. Unless he plans to live as the Brothwork family’s guest indefinitely, he’ll have to come out.”

”What if he contacts the Southern Royal Family for help? Any one of those unparalleled monsters could get him out safely. Or what if she calls her father? Then everything we’ve done will amount to nothing.”

The bearded demigod’s mind spiraled through every possible way their operation could collapse, but the demigod in his shadow answered with steady patience, ”The higher-ups have already arranged interference should that happen. Still... let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

”Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that? What the hell is that even supposed to mean? Who in their right mind wouldn’t call for help after realizing there’s an ambush ahead—”

The bearded demigod abruptly stopped speaking as he watched the youth—renowned as one of the brightest minds of his generation—walk straight into their ambush with his lover at his side. ”Did they not notice us? I watched her—they definitely did. Then what are they thinking?”

”They did say that boy is extremely arrogant. Maybe today is the day his arrogance finally catches up to him through us,” the demigod lurking in his colleague’s shadow offered, drawing from the briefing he’d received on their target.

”Let’s hope it’s just that,” the bearded demigod murmured, silently praying this wasn’t one of those moments where the hunters found themselves becoming the hunted.

...

”Wow, that felt exactly like entering a dungeon gate,” I remarked as our hover bike slipped into the temporal-separation array. It was as if we had crossed into an entirely different world with its own time flow. Usually, the moment one were to pass through one time flow to another, they would be hit with a heavy wave of temporal dissonance—an abrupt, disorienting jet lag that they couldn’t ignore.

For an average card demigod, it would take minutes for their body and divinity to acclimate to the local time. As for a card master or a card emperor, they wouldn’t even get that chance. Caught in an ambush here, their strength would be crippled, their bodies reduced to dust long before they could adapt. And that was only one of the array’s many passive effects. Everything about this formation was engineered for assassination.

But Jill and I were different.

I had my innate resistance to time rules, and Jill—daughter of Demigod Norley and a researcher at Morningstar University—carried an entire arsenal of time-rule cards.

The time within a temporal-separation array doesn’t speed up or slow down the flow of reality—it creates an entirely separate time zone that exists parallel to ours. Anyone authorized by the array can wield time-rule abilities or time-related cards at half their usual effort and cost, granting them far greater efficiency than their targets.

In other words, entering the array doesn’t require time-rule comprehension to survive its shift; anyone who steps in is forcibly integrated into its temporal field. Their body and divinity simply need time to adjust to the change—much like stepping into cold water. It bites at first, but once your senses recalibrate, the chill fades into familiarity.

For Jill and me, my time-rule resistance and her arsenal of time-rule cards allowed our bodies and ego gems to adapt instantly, without either of us even noticing the transition.

Also, the new time zone within the array actively suppresses anyone it traps, doubling the effort and cost needed to invoke time-rule powers and cards or any abilities tied to them. That obstacle didn’t affect me—and Jill had more than enough time-rule energy and cards to ignore it entirely.

”What now—are we just going to sit here and wait for them to attack us? Is that really your plan?” Jill demanded as I eased the hover bike to a halt, letting it drift silently in midair. ”Tell me you have something better. Because if you don’t, I swear I’ll beat you to a pulp before they get the chance.”

”There are forty-five demigods hidden within the array’s time flow,” I reported, studying the seemingly empty expanse around us. ”At least a dozen have comprehended the time rule, and the rest are armed with high-level time-related cards.”

To the naked eye, the array looked deserted, but it was anything but that. The demigods were using accelerated time streams to conceal themselves; anyone remaining in the normal flow wouldn’t sense them—much less see them. On top of that, two more demigods were tucked into the array’s shadow, guarding its core with shadow-rule techniques.

They’d covered every angle. They were thorough, no question about it.

”How are you even sensing them?” Jill demanded, stunned. ”My time cards are still scanning the time flow second by second in ascending order, trying to determine the speed of their time stream in this time flow. They haven’t found anything yet.”

Her reaction made sense. A time-related card could identify temporal anomalies, but it couldn’t simply leap to the highest possible acceleration to spot someone hiding using accelerated time streams without the proper time rule and meaning comprehension. It had to check each temporal layer one second at a time until it matched the enemy’s accelerated flow—only then could it pull the user into that same stream, allowing them to fight on equal footing.

But that method only worked if the enemy was slow, careless, or significantly weaker—long enough for the scanning to finish. Yet here I was, someone who hadn’t even comprehended the time rule, pinpointing enemies concealed in accelerated time the moment we stepped in. Jill couldn’t help but wonder whether I had created a new time-related card, something far superior to the ones she carried.