Miracle Card Shop: All My Cards Can Be Actualize

Chapter 352  Lucifer’s Treachery

Hearing Lucifer's words, Envy let out a smirk. "Then you are sorely mistaken, and you shouldn't have taken the price in the first place. Because this would mean you need to cough up all of those lifespans you took and even provide us with some serious compensation," she said.

"What do you mean? I clearly granted her instant mastery over that swordsmanship. The only reason she lost to that man is because her natural physical fitness is not up to the standard of that swordsmanship. It's not about skill," Lucifer refuted.

"I know that," Envy responded, continuing, "But are you sure that the skill doesn't require any more training? What she has learned is not the entirety of that swordsmanship. It's just the tip of the iceberg. What she learned is just the basics, the sword techniques used to fight monsters. I presume she still hasn't learned the techniques used to deal with colossal monsters," said Envy.

"What are you saying, Leviathan? The lost skill can't be improved! Even if the lost skill just recovered a part of it, my power is able to recover the part that was lost and grant it to her. There's no way it will include parts she hasn't learned! The only way the lost skill can have parts she hasn't learned is if the one who invented that skill or technique was resurrected and had invented a new deviation of his…" Lucifer tried to refute, then started to realize something.

Refusing to return Pride's lifespan, Lucifer knew he could temporarily defy the contract's power in the dominant realm of Hell. Having already drained almost all of Pride's lifespan, she now had only one month left to live. He calculated that he could resist the contract's power for that time and secure both her body and the gateway to the mortal realm.

"Wait… You mean that young man was a sword saint from at least 500 years ago and was resurrected!?" Lucifer uttered in disbelief, raising his hand to exert his power on Pride, only to realize he no longer had power over her.

"This… this is impossible! There's no way someone can resurrect those powerful people unless… the god that governs the soul allows it... Is it Hades? No... this is Japan... Is it Izanami!? It shouldn't be…" Lucifer muttered under his breath.

Seeing this, Envy let out a smile, feeling a surge of satisfaction at witnessing Lucifer in such a dilemma.

"I think it's time for you to pay us your compensation," said Envy firmly.

"No!" Lucifer vehemently refused, already planning to retreat back to his hell realm.

Refusing to return Pride's lifespan, Lucifer knew he could temporarily defy the contract's power in the dominant realm of Hell. Having already drained almost all of Pride's lifespan, she now had only one month left to live. He calculated that he could resist the contract's power for that time and secure both her body and the gateway to the mortal realm.

"You want to compensate us the hard way! Then so be it!" Envy roared in anger, tapping into her demonic power.

Within the dreamscape, Envy's transformation was ominous, her once-human form now adorned with horns protruding from her head and her purple hair swaying wildly as her demonic energy surged. A bolt of purple demonic energy struck Lucifer as he attempted to flee, delaying his escape and causing him to stumble. As he faltered, his avatar, a mere fragment of his power, began to fracture and disintegrate.

"No! You won't win! Her lifespan is MINE!!!" Lucifer roared, his angelic visage contorting into a grotesque demonic form, far from his usual appearance.

With a deafening boom, Lucifer's body shattered into pieces, and his soul fragment, used as an avatar, dissipated. However, the lifespan he had taken did not return to Pride.

"Tch! If Sloth were here, he would not have had a chance to escape from the dreamscape," Envy cursed in frustration. Lucifer had sacrificed his avatar, constructed from a tiny fragment of his soul, but had still managed to abscond with nearly all of Pride's lifespan.

As Lucifer departed, the dreamscape crumbled and vanished.

In the real world, Envy sat beside Pride's bed in their hideout, her hand gently touching Pride's chest and head as she projected her avatar into Pride's dreamscape.

Pride's eyes slowly opened, fatigue evident as she looked at Envy with an uncharacteristic sincerity, a departure from her usual prideful demeanor induced by her witch power.

"Thank you, teacher, for always helping me," Pride said weakly, her voice carrying the weight of exhaustion.

Envy returned the smile, though concern lined her features. "It's okay, dear. Can you tell me what happened? Why did you suddenly infiltrate the prison, fight with Momotaro, and end up like this?" she inquired, her worry for her youngest student palpable.

Recalling the events that led to her current state, Pride recounted how she had been abruptly awakened in the middle of the night by her secretary, Odysseus, regarding an urgent contact. Attending the meeting hastily summoned by Odysseus in her pajamas, she learned of the infiltration of the temporary prison constructed by Daniel to detain the POWs.

At the time, she didn't know who the infiltrator was, but when Momotaro mentioned that the intruder seemed capable of learning his swordsmanship upon their first encounter, Envy immediately discerned the identity, as she was familiar with all the witches' special powers.

She swiftly gathered more details from Momotaro, realizing that the intruder displayed a remarkably high mastery of swordsmanship, almost as if she had instantly attained perfect proficiency. Envy then inquired about Momotaro's strategy against colossal opponents like Orochi.

In response to her suggestion, Momotaro expressed his gratitude and assured her that he would devise a plan to combat such oversized adversaries.

Envy hurried to Pride's location upon sensing demonic energy emanating from that direction, discovering Pride asleep under Lucifer's influence.

Pride looked at Envy and smiled weakly. "Regarding the deal we, the Path of Knowledge, had with the Hojo... I'm afraid Daniel will despise both me and my father," she confessed, her voice tinged with self-pity. "I'm afraid he'll know that we wanted to exploit the opportunity to study Orochi through Koyuki to find a means to control Orochi ourselves."

Hearing this, Envy looked at Pride once again before speaking sternly. "It's not you at all, right? It's just your father alone," she asked.

Pride smiled and nodded. There was no point in lying to Envy, who knew a lot about the Curtained World. "Yes... I don't want this to affect the negotiations that will come."

"Sigh… foolish child," Envy sighed, gently stroking Pride's hair. "I'll help you get back your lifespan. And you should tell the truth to Daniel," she advised.

"What? He'll hate me. And it will affect the negotiation with the Confederacy!" Pride wanted to protest, but her weak stamina limited her ability to do so.

"If you let him discover it himself, things will get worse. Trust me, even if I didn't tell him. What will stop him from discovering it from your father? He might feel paranoid, then suddenly use his magic to read your father's mind and know about this. Trust me… he's that paranoid," Envy explained.

Hearing this, Pride fell silent for a moment, contemplating the pros and cons before deciding on the next course of action.

"Come on, dear, I'll help you persuade him too. Besides, if things go well, and he likes you enough, or maybe you could ask Koyuki to help persuade him. He might even help you get back at Lucifer too," Envy said with a wink.

The thought of asking Koyuki for help in persuading Daniel made Pride hesitant, considering their long standing rivalry. This reluctance only added to Pride's unwillingness to tell Daniel about the situation.

"Come on, dear, lower your pride a little, and this problem will be solved," Envy tried to persuade Pride, but Pride still did not respond.

Seeing this, Envy started to get annoyed. She leaned toward Pride and whispered in her ear, "If you don't want to, I'll bring all of your fanfic that you wrote about those Korean celebrities for him to read."

"No! No! Anything but that!" As if tapping into a reserve energy pool, Pride suddenly sat upright.

Pow!

"Ouch! / Kya!" Both Pride and Envy clutched their heads since Pride's sudden movement made her head knock against Envy's shin. But Pride quickly suppressed the pain and roared at Envy.

"Teacher Envy! You intruded into my old dorm at the Hightower!? That's very rude of you!" Pride admonished her teacher.

Envy let out a tired sigh and weakly smiled. "That can't be helped, right? You suddenly dropped out mid-year, and we needed to clear the dorm for new students too!" Envy explained.

"But my dorm is a private property!" Pride protested.

"Even so, we need to check if students have any dangerous magic running in their dorms or not. Who will guarantee that none of them will not run their rituals that might summon some interdimensional horror into our world or hide some forbidden relic in their dorm?" Envy reasoned with Pride.

"Ugh… well… that... that's true, but that doesn't mean you need to read my fanfic!" Pride still wanted to protest.

"Dear… Your fanfic was written in a notebook that its cover was made from Swamp Hydra skin and paper made from cursed trees in a forest where thousands of people use it as a suicide ground. I need to check that thing to see if you wrote some curse in it," Envy reasoned again, which made Pride stutter.