Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2823: Faith Order Dark Cult

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

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

”Who is Kidd?”

The clueless idiot asked, utterly unaware of the situation.

Meanwhile, sensing that the entity before us was bordering on Semi-Ruler class despite the suppression from the Card Celestial, I issued a mental command to the Field Marshal and Lil’ Baem. ’You two take Corey and run. I’ll handle him.’

”Wyatt—”

”No. I can’t give it my all if I’m distracted worrying about your safety.”

”Hurry. I have Karl with me.”

The Field Marshal hesitated, clearly unwilling to leave, but I asserted sternly, giving my reason as politely as possible. After a tense pause, she gave the entity one last look before climbing atop Lil’ Baem’s head and used her mastery of the space rule to teleport three of them out of here.

”Corey! What the hell?”

”I’m not leaving you behind and running to safety. You’re not getting rid of us that easily.”

”Well, well... what do we have here? A devil merchant and two demon merchants? I was under the impression this realm had no native demon merchants.”

To my shock, Corey interrupted the teleportation. Before I could give her a piece of my mind, the entity slowly descended, shifting its attention from the Emissary to us.

As it drew closer, its features were unmistakably clear. It looked almost human—except for its unnaturally pale, chalk-white skin. It was completely blemish-free, ice-cold, and unchanging, with a firmness that felt almost unreal with no pores, no scars, or no imperfections. Like a living statue sculpted from diamond and marble... merely imitating life.

Yet even that eerie, flawless beauty was overshadowed by a single radiant golden horn emerging from its right temple. It curved gracefully around its head, looping back to form a perfect arc, as if a halo of solid gold hovered just above it. However, my soul pupils told me it wasn’t gold at all, but solidified faith.

In that instant, I knew what I was dealing with. He was from the Dark Cults—the only true rivals to the Devil Merchant Code, aside from that organization of dimension-hopping bandits, in the Dark Realm, even the entire Myriad Realms.

What shocked me even more was the Emissary of Light’s connection to all this. He belonged to the Faith Order, one of the largest and most influential factions within the Dark Cults. I recognized it immediately. After my earlier clash with his incarnation, I had spent time studying the Dark Cults of the Dark Realm, trying to better understand the nature of faith.

Though I hadn’t made much progress in understanding faith itself, I had learned a fair bit about the factions and entities within the Dark Cults. Devils bearing a radiant horn shaped like a halo typically belonged to the upper middle ranks of the Faith Order. They were either just a step away from the Ruler class or had only recently entered it within the past century.

Either way, this one was essentially a more experienced, more stronger, enhanced version of the Emissary of Light with enough faith reserves to splurge faith on growing a halo horn.

Yes, the halo-like horn on his head wasn’t an innate trait. It was something the devils of many Dark Cults cultivated—faith condensed and refined until it solidified into a golden horn, gradually curving and growing into that halo-like arc. There were many variations in the horn’s shape and design, but they all shared that halo-like form. It served as a mark of status—an unspoken declaration of prestige and authority among allies and a quiet, unnerving warning to anyone who was foolish enough to stand against them.

”Kidd, I am ashamed that you were brought down by slaves of the Devil Merchant Code. Honestly, you deserve death. But there is no replacement for you in this realm, so consider yourself lucky.”

The devil ignored us entirely, his gaze fixed on the Emissary, who was fighting for his life within the gray mist. A vampiric sword was lodged in his skull, and Sansa was steadily turning his followers into Catherine’s. Cut off from his usual supply, he had no choice but to halt the flow of faith to the Faith Order and divert what little remained to sustain himself, desperately clinging to his waning existence while waiting for reinforcements.

Familiar with how the Faith Order and other Dark Cults operated, I quickly pieced together what was happening. And in that moment, everything clicked. I finally understood why the Emissary of Light never left the Card World in Clown Mask’s future vision—and why he had been so intent on becoming the true son of the Card World in this present.

He was completing his first mission... to get promoted from the grunt force to the Faith Order’s management class.

This mission was the same for all non–Dark Realm native members: harvest the faith of their entire home realm, funnel fifty percent to the organization, and keep the rest for themselves. That bastard had never planned to leave the Card World. Not until he had turned the entire card apprentice population into his followers, turning the Card World into a Faith Farm for his actual masters, the Faith Order, to secure his place in the Faith Order’s management class.

Now I was beginning to understand the Emissary’s hatred for Gideon Grim—something the other Mischiefs never seemed to share. It also explained why he never even considered seeking Gideon’s help to procure rare or extinct resources. He simply didn’t need to. He already had his own channel—and in that market, everything was traded in faith.

But that raised another question in my mind—was the Emissary of Light’s origin card forged from his own fate ingredient, or had it been created using a faith-based relic granted by the Faith Order of the Dark Cults?

My bet leaned toward the latter.

After the Devil Merchant Code fell into inactivity in the Card World, leaving a vacuum behind, the Faith Order likely saw their opening. With no real opposition watching, they must have decided to try their hand at turning the entire realm into a faith farm.

I snapped to attention just as the devil’s halo horn flared to life, releasing a golden beam of condensed faith-fire at the Field Marshal without warning, burning a hole through her abdomen.