"I will fire a red bullet in the sky. This should alert the others about the danger of the situation," Sorel said, taking out the special gun they had prepared from her belt.
"Not that fast," Kairo waved. His eyes locked onto Selis and her people. "She did help us but she hasn't left afterwards. The chains in the void are also perfectly centered around us in a circle." Kairo was very keen on the little details. Although it could be argued she had done that to help them earlier, Kairo bet it wasn't only that.
"The group of your father should be safe with him around. As for the others, they have Nyx and Mirelle. If we launch the red alert now, they will definitely want to save you and this will place the entire group in unnecessary danger too early on," Kairo explained.
Kairo was not a dupe; he knew it would be bound to come to that at one point but it was not necessary to accelerate the confrontation. Furthermore, he was pretty sure as long as he had the Eye of Truth, Sorel and himself would be safe around these people.
Sorel nodded and said no more. Leaning on the tree trunk to stay on her feet, her face was getting even paler, giving the impression she was being sucked from within.
"She has been poisoned by something in the gas. The card fossil is probably at the origin of her state. We could help each other to catch it, Kairo. This is your chance," Selis proposed. She stretched her arm in Kairo's direction like a friend requesting to join hands.
Kairo's face twitched; he had no idea what was going on with Sorel but one thing was certain: her state was worsening. "Should I really team up with her?" Kairo asked.
His entire being screamed no, yet Kairo could not voice out his words. Before he could continue, the gas around them moved like water rippling to the side.
It was very brief but enough for them to catch a glimpse of the other shadowy gas figure holding onto a mage, his neck caught firmly in the gas's hands. His eyes were deep and profound, so abyssal one could easily get lost in them. On the left part of his chest was a card anchored into his very skin, as if it were part of the shadow.
"Hihihihi, it has been centuries. Slayer has not allowed us to feast on you inferior forms." The card fossil tossed the dead body away and stepped into Kairo and Selis's direction, sinking into the gas once more.
"The chaos is spreading," Kairo frowned. From his location he could faintly hear the summoning of card magic in the void, the circuitry of the void spanning the air in all possible directions. Keeping his brow furrowed,
He stepped to the side, taking Sorel with him. Moments later, a fire blast scorched their last location, turning the earth into debris of charred black earth.
"It's getting us to attack each other. In this dense fog we can't see anything," Kairo said. This was bad news for them. Many freelance mages had been close to the card mage group when the ascension started.
From above them, a rain of blue arrows fell on them.
However, Selis's magic left all her followers in awe. Before the falling arrows could touch them, she flickered the card in her hand. The chains condensed into a wide web above them, giving a dome-like shape.
"Kairo, it's not time to think with your brain but with your instinct. You don't need to like me to know we must stop the card fossil, otherwise we might really all fall here," Selis warned. Despite the rising noise of the fighting spreading, she never seemed disturbed at all, giving Kairo the false impression that all that mattered for her at the moment was him.
"Her influence comes not only from her strength but from her ability to force people to willingly follow her. She's really dangerous," Kairo thought. Despite his hesitation, the protector armor was set in motion. Having accumulated enough energy, he summoned the ember sky rays in his palm.
Seated in his knight armor, Kairo held a ball of lightning between his fingers. The Protector of the Ember Sky released its magic. This caused a bright explosion that sent the fog swaying backward.
The lightning was moving in between the fog like water riding on electricity. It wasn't hard to pinpoint the position of the card fossil.
"Now I will get him." Sorel moved. All this while she had been preparing for a chance to use her dagger and now it had appeared. She stepped in between the tree trunks. She swung her dagger in the shadowy figure's direction, fast enough for him not to evade.
"Keep dreaming," the card fossil smirked. On his right side of his chest, another card emerged anchored into his very skin, just like the one on the left side. Now the card fossil had two cards in his body. He spread out his arms. "We have been granted ultimate power. Coming to this island was sealing your deck," he said.
From the center of his body, there was a loud roar. His body shifted into two different directions like jelly dividing itself. The shadowy figure spread into two and then into three and then into more. In a matter of seconds, Sorel had no way to determine which part of him was real.
"Be careful, we have no idea of how their abilities function," Kairo warned. But given how slow the protector was, he couldn't be as agile as he wished. From his left hand he ejected another card and summoned the sand paladin.
But before the sand paladin could arrive, the shadowy figure had encircled Sorel, all holding the exact same dagger she had summoned. They danced and hacked in her direction, not aiming for any particular place; all they wanted was to tear her into pieces.
"It seems more than a simple ability to clone himself. It's our magic he clones, not himself." Kairo's heart skipped a beat. Pushing in on his feet, he moved the protector armor rushing to her side.
"They can summon their magic directly from their body. The more cards they have on them, the stronger the card fossils are. But we hadn't located any with more than one card in this vicinity," Sorel said. She was agile and swift, evading with the best of her ability. She stepped to the side and jumped onto a tree branch, trying to keep the clones away. The sand paladin followed after her frame, deflecting the clones' attacks with its lance, thus giving Sorel enough time to flee.
"Does that mean they descended from the mountain?" Kairo was perplexed. This was the only explanation he could think of. Furthermore, he was curious if the abilities of the card fossils were located on the cards in their bodies, what about Card Zero? After all, that figure had a katana with cards anchored into it.
Although Kairo had a few questions, he knew it was no time to think. The clones had formed a circle around him, mimicking the protector armor. Kairo was now facing an army of himself, all wielding lightning into their palms. He knew how terrifying that lightning could be, and thus Kairo dared not be careless.
"I have vowed to free card magic and my objective has not changed. Get ready for battle," Selis said. In her palm there was another beaming card. From within the light, a series of wards moved, dancing in the air like living letters.
The symbols were ancient and unrecognizable, resembling letters but with strange geometric shapes.
"It's an honor to be blessed by the boss. Song of Harmony. I feel way stronger now." Around Selis, her people were set in motion. Like wolves let loose, they summoned their magic one after the other. One summoned fireballs,
While the one on the right summoned a white-furred beast. When the Song of Harmony began circling around their magic, it intensified. The fireballs turned so big they shielded the entire void above them.
Each time the mage released his magic, the trees in the forest would be blown away, burned into ashes upon impact. The wolf was not only bigger; it had gotten as fast as the shadow. Its claws tore through the clones before they even had time to copy the mage's magic.
"This cannot drag on. In a fight of attrition, we will definitely lose," Kairo thought. He tilted his body to the side and stepped out of the way, just in time before the lightning from the clones hammered the protector armor.
"We need to defeat the card fossil himself if we want a chance, but how?" Kairo felt sweat trickle down his face. He lifted his left hand, catching the ball of lightning that scattered inches away in his field of vision. The electrified air made his skin tingle and itch slightly.