Card Apprentice Daily Log



Date- 13 April 2321

Time- 9:50

Location- Southern Region, Southern Capital

Losing both her corpse puppets, Arnas had lost her eyes and ears from both the battlefields, the southern capital and the dual gate dungeon. Now she could only depend on the narration of her teammates to learn about the progress on the battlefield.

Losing two highest quality SSS-rank corpse puppets was unexpected but the rebellion of devil merchant Erza was shocking. Especially, considering that his strength was way-way stronger than what the central government had gauged. If they knew he was this strong they would have asked Ada to summon another devil in his place.

Arnas was frustrated, unable to understand how the devil Ezra destroyed her corpse puppet when she did not even see or feel his attack land on her, was he hiding his strength from the get-go? 

And how come he was able to so blatantly breach the summoning contract and not face any backlash? Unless his true name was not Ezra but something else. 

Does that mean that everything the central government knew about this devil was false? Devil Marchant Ezra was one of the oldest devils recorded by the central government, so its history was quiet clear to them but now al that seems to be false. How deep was this devil hiding? 

The million-dollar question here was why would someone so cunning and calculative be willing to reveal himself now for the soul of an insignificant card master no less. Unless the devil considered that the soul of the card master in question was worth more than maintaining its cover that it had worked centuries to build. 

After a lot of contemplation, Arnas came to the conclusion that a soul valued so much by the devil must have something special about it. With this new development, Arnas had to make new changes to her plans though the priority of her plan remained the same, to kidnap Dalton Wyatt.

'What the—' Sansa who was watching the central government's mistake unfold almost cussed watching the SSS-rank Corpse puppet be defeated in a single move from the mohawk devil carrying a huge hourglass on its back. 

However, what concerned her even more than the death of Arnas's corpse puppet was that the devil's actions were odd. Why would a devil from the dark realm be after Wyatt, a mere card master's soul? 

Was there something special about this soul that she did not know about? Considering Wyatt's performance so far, it was highly likely. Since a devil of such caliber ignored so many demigod vessels and went after Wyatt's soul meant it must be precious. 

The more Sansa tried to understand why the powerful mohawk devil carrying an hourglass on its back would greed after the soul of a card master like Wyatt the more she started to feel like there was a big secret related to Wyatt's soul. 

Having learned that the world's will was helping Wyatt to comprehend how to enter the 'one with the world' state physically by granting him two enlightenments back-to-back through the memories of the empty beast, Sansa felt that her hunch about there being something special about Wyatt's soul was right. 

Getting this impression Sansa grew eager to get her hands on Wyatt and explore his memories to understand the mystery of why a powerful devil from the dark realm was after his soul. She was more eager to make Wyatt part of her paw clan than ever. As for her hatred for Wyatt's mother, she finally found the prize to let go of that hatred. 

This question wasn't just plaguing Sansa but everyone in the Southern Royal family and Central government forces too. They could not help but wonder why such a powerful devil was after the soul of a card master. Nobody could understand why an existence like the devil from the dark realm even knew about Wyatt. 

"Change of plans, teams 6 to 15, split into 5 groups and handle the other five devils. Teams 1 to 5 protect Wyatt at all costs and retreat to the royal palace grounds," Ann barked new orders to demigod teams, seeing the situation change so fast. 

Ann thought the devils would blindly rampage and the conspirators would use this moment, when her forces were divided fighting the devils and their demon army, to try and capture Wyatt.

Ann's deduction of the plans of the central government forces was spot on but it did not matter because of the unforeseen variable known as Devil Merchant Ezra which even the central government forces failed to predict and control. 

The unanticipated actions of the giant devil with a mohawk and a huge hourglass strapped to its back with a bulky golden chain had the situation spiral into the worst possible scenario. A scenario that no one was in control of, not even the central government forces who started this chain of events. 

Unlike Ann's previous assumptions, the devils were not rampaging but the powerful one of them directly targeted their primary priority, Dalton Wyatt. It was one thing to retreat when the devils and their demon army were busy aimlessly rampaging but now that one of them had set their sight on Wyatt it would be very difficult for them to retreat while fighting off a devil. 

"Wyatt, pissing off people in this world wasn't enough, you had to piss off a devil too?" Jill said sarcastically as her apparition hovered next to Wyatt. 

"Jill, is it my fault that people want to steal from me? This devil wants my soul while your father and his friends want my VR universe. Clearly, I am the victim here," Wyatt commented that Jill was blaming the victim. 

"Are you calling my father a thief? Wyatt, for the last time, my father had nothing to do with this incident. In a way you owe him, because if not for him informing me about the collaboration between the central government and Morningstar University forces, you would never be this prepared as you are now," Jill defended her father aggressively. 

"Fine, I believe you," Wyatt said without giving it much thought because he was in no mood to argue with Jill when devil merchant Ezra's eyes were locked on him.