Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 3033: A Snow Goblin Legend

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Dark Realm, Gelid Alps, Snow Elven Region, Frosell District, Frosnow City

“Who are you?” the Snow Goblin Empyrean asked, the confidence in his voice finally giving way to suspicion. “There isn’t a single frost race in the Dark Realm that I know of capable of withstanding the effects of my domain.”

His narrowed eyes studied me intently and frowned adding, “Not even the elders of the mighty Winter Dragon race can remain unaffected within my Frost Rule Domain. Even a celestial would bend a knee by now, so how are you doing it?”

The longer he delayed, the closer his Frost Rule Domain crept toward absolute zero, toward Null. That was the essence of his domain. Everything imprisoned within it would also, little by little, grow the stillness of Null, where every trace of motion, change, and existence was gradually erased.

As the domain’s master, he naturally remained immune to its effects. Everyone else did not. Every passing second pushed them closer to the inevitable end.

Yet, it had already been quite some time since he had pulled the Curse Master into his Frost Rule Domain.

By all logic, my body should have been trembling from the unbearable cold. My blood should have begun freezing. My vitality should have been fading as my existence inched toward Null. Instead, nothing, not a shiver, not a frosted breath, not even the faintest layer of ice had formed on my body. I stood there like I was a warm furnace in a snowy mountain.

“Using various Ice Rule Meanings in combination to replicate the Ice Rule’s Null Meaning…” I said with a nonchalant shrug. “Genius.”

I glanced at the frozen souls scattered throughout the domain, I continued, “And the Ice Rule slaves are a nice touch. They really make this place feel like the Ice Rule Source.”

Outwardly, I appeared calm. Inwardly, however, I was anything but. Something wasn’t adding up. The old goblin shouldn’t have been alive. You couldn’t faithfully imitate something you didn’t understand. His Frost Rule Domain had reproduced too many characteristics of Null to be mere guesswork.

He understood it. Maybe not completely, but deeply enough to recreate its effects by weaving together other Ice Rule Meanings. That alone should have killed him.

The Null Meaning wasn’t something you could study halfway before backing out. Once you stepped onto that path, there was no turning back. The meaning revealed itself relentlessly, dragging your consciousness deeper and deeper until, before you even realized what was happening, you became Nothing. Yet here he stood, alive and using his understanding of null meaning against me.

An anomaly.

Which left only one possibility. He possessed something extraordinary that had allowed him to survive what should have been impossible. Something on the level of my cursed primordial bloodline. Or perhaps even more terrifying. I looked him in the eye and offered, “How about this? You tell me how you survived comprehending the Ice Rule’s Null Meaning and I’ll tell you why your near-perfect imitation doesn’t affect me. If you’re interested, be my guest. The floor is all yours.”

“You are well informed, I’ll give you that. Not many, not even among the Ruler Class, know of the Frost Rule’s Null Meaning. Before me, no one had ever used it in combat, or for anything else, because everyone who stumbled upon it while comprehending the Frost Rule became Nothing, including my mother,” the old goblin said, finally revealing how he had survived despite understanding the Ice Rule’s Null Meaning well enough to replicate it using various Ice Rule Meanings.

The current Snow Goblin Empyrean was born to a female Snow Goblin devil. He was her two thousand eight hundred and twelfth child, and her last. She died giving premature birth to him.

When members of the clan found the infant, the entire breeding cave had been sealed in frost. There was no trace of his mother, only a severed umbilical cord lying beside a crying newborn struggling to survive on the frozen ground. Those who witnessed the scene believed the child had killed his own mother with his extraordinary affinity for the Frost Rule.

Rumors of a legendary Snow Goblin infant soon spread throughout the Dark Realm. They claimed the Frost Rule itself had loved the child so much that it could not wait for his birth, killing his mother to bring the premature baby into the world.

The clan’s leaders knew the legend was nothing more than a fabrication. They knew exactly how the child’s mother had died, yet none of them stepped forward to reveal the truth. The tale had lifted the clan’s reputation and Snow Goblin population’s morale to unprecedented heights, giving the race a legend they desperately needed.

As the old goblin had just revealed, his mother had died while comprehending the Ice Rule’s Null Meaning. Yet, in what could only have been her final act of maternal instinct, or perhaps a miracle, she cut open her own womb and severed the umbilical cord before the Null Meaning completely consumed her, ensuring her unborn child would not become Nothing along with her.

Then her body vanished, without leaving behind any trace like a corpse, ashes, or even blood, just the cut off umbilical cord. She simply became Nothing, leaving only a crying infant alone in a cave frozen.

Based on what the old goblin had hinted, it seemed that surviving such a close brush with the Null Meaning had allowed him to comprehend it just enough to replicate its effects using other Ice Rule Meanings. If that was true, then the legend surrounding the Snow Goblin infant born with unparalleled affinity for the Frost Rule wasn’t entirely fabricated.

After all, one of the additional effects of comprehending the Null Meaning was a dramatic increase in one’s affinity for the corresponding Rule. The closer one came to becoming Nothing, the stronger that affinity became.

So, it was entirely possible that a fraction of that elevated affinity had been passed on from the mother to her unborn child before she separated it from her, giving rise to the extraordinary talent that later defined the Snow Goblin Empyrean.