Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2913: The Founding Of The Five Regions

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City, TSR Tower, Basement

”Aqua, stop digging up the past. You’ve already killed us several times over because of it,” Petra said flatly, though the swagger in her voice practically screamed, ’Call me Mountain God one more time and see what happens.’

”Not enough,” Aqualas replied instantly. The manic smile on her face disappeared, replaced by raw bitterness.

”I treated her like she was my own. I gave her everything anyone could ever desire. Power. Protection. Territory. Status. I even fought for her.”

Her voice gradually rose with each word.

”And how did she repay me?”

The water composing her body began fluctuating violently. The surrounding pool of blood started swirling around her in spiraling currents as the water mixed within it reacted to her emotions. Waves spread across the basement despite nobody touching the surface.

”She colluded with those ungrateful creatures against me...” Aqualas growled, her eyes filling with ancient fury. ”And then she handed over the very domain I designed for her, this land, to them.”

The moment she said that, the blood flooding the basement churned violently like a stormy sea. Crimson whirlpools formed around Aqualas while cracks began spreading across nearby walls under the pressure leaking from her emotions alone.

Even the blood flowing from tears in space around the basement trembled faintly.

For a brief second, Cortney felt as though the entire basement might explode under the weight of Aqualas’s rage.

Then Aqualas abruptly stopped speaking and closed her eyes. The swirling blood gradually calmed as she forcibly suppressed the anger threatening to erupt out of control. Still, faint currents continued circling around her body like an ocean barely restrained from becoming a tsunami.

Cortney had always known there was a hierarchy among the Supreme Beings, but she previously assumed it only mattered when they fought over territory.

However, listening to Aqualas now, she realized the situation ran far deeper than that.

From the sound of it, Bloodette had repeatedly disregarded that hierarchy for the sake of card apprentices, often enough to earn the hatred of a large number of Supreme Beings. The resentment ran so deep that even after countless millennia, they still couldn’t forgive her for it.

”I don’t need to remind you what she did,” Aqualas coldly shot back at Petra. ”You and your little group experienced her ungrateful betrayal firsthand.”

Her words dragged up another ugly piece of history.

After betraying Aqualas, Bloodette had apparently been taken in by Petra and her faction for a time. Yet from the frown on Petra’s face, it was obvious Bloodette had eventually betrayed them as well. Aqualas wasn’t lying.

Cortney suddenly felt a headache coming on.

The deeper she learned about Bloodette’s past, the more she realized her best friend had somehow managed to betray terrifying ancient monsters in multiple directions across several eras... so much so that they still hold grudges against her to this day.

”I already forgave her for that. You should too,” Petra said with a helpless shake of her head. ”Besides, she genuinely doesn’t seem to remember any of it. It’s almost like someone stole those memories from her.”

Among the Supreme Beings, relationships were often influenced by the very rules they embodied. Just as certain rules naturally complemented one another, the Supreme Beings connected to those rules frequently shared deep bonds as well.

That had once been the case between the Ocean Supreme, Aqualas, and the Blood Supreme, Bloodette.

Long ago, when the Card World’s understanding of Blood Rules was still primitive compared to most other rules, Aqualas had taken Bloodette under her wing. At the time, humanity barely existed as more than fragile creatures struggling to survive in a brutal world ruled by Supreme Beings, plagued by dungeons, and roamed by monsters.

Humans were weak, so they relied on the Supreme Beings for protection and guidance. In return, those same humans brought meaning and change into the lives of beings who would otherwise spend eternity doing nothing but comprehending rules and their meanings.

For a while, the relationship between the two sides remained peaceful.

Even when humans eventually rose in power and began calling themselves card apprentices, most Supreme Beings didn’t care much. To them, it was merely another race growing stronger beneath their watch.

But things gradually changed.

The moment card apprentices started carving out territories for themselves from lands belonging to the Supreme Beings, conflicts inevitably erupted. Small skirmishes turned into wars, and those wars stretched across several millennia.

Then came Bloodette’s betrayal.

At some point during the conflict, she abandoned Aqualas and sided with the card apprentices instead. Worse still, she actively helped humanity establish territories of their own, territories that would later develop into the Five Regions known today, after Bloodette used and betrayed Petra and her group of Supreme Beings.

A tremendous amount of the card apprentices’ early success had apparently been built on Bloodette’s support.

And then, after helping shape the foundation of the modern world itself... she vanished completely. No one among the Supreme Beings knew what became of her after that. Not until the bloodstorm appeared across the Card world.

”Enough. Step aside,” Aqualas said coldly as the water around her began to ripple violently once more. ”I’ll make this quick and painless.”

Her gaze shifted past Petra toward the crying Bloodette floating within the pool of blood.

”But if you stubbornly insist on standing in my way...”

The temperature in the basement suddenly dropped. The surrounding blood started trembling while streams of water formed spiraling currents around Aqualas’s body like miniature oceans orbiting her.

”Then think carefully about that girl behind you,” she warned while glancing toward Cortney. ”And the several thousand people inside the structures above us and throughout the surrounding area.”

Her manic smile slowly returned, though this time it carried genuine danger behind it.

”I will freaking turn this entire place into an ocean bed.”

Aqualas knew perfectly well that reaching Bloodette meant dealing with Petra first. Under normal circumstances, she would have already attacked.

However, she hadn’t come here for Bloodette alone. She was also helping Seraphina, which meant she needed to keep things as quiet as possible and avoid drawing unnecessary attention to themselves.

And fighting Petra was the exact opposite of keeping things quiet.