Chapter 276: Ch 276 : The Encyclopedia of Cards

"Did you call for me, God?"Merlin’s voice sounded in the empty throne room of Sunny. He stood in the center of the room, his blue robes mended but still carrying the stain of his near-death experience.

He looked up, his gaze fixing on the masked figure seated upon the throne, a figure that seemed less like a person and more like a cosmic energy shaped like a human.

Sunny sat in silence for a moment, his eyes observing the demigod before him. To Sunny, Merlin was an open book. But to Merlin, Sunny was an enigma wrapped in terrifying power.

"Hmm," Sunny hummed, the sound vibrating deep within Merlin’s chest, rattling his very bones. "You have arrived. Come, let me show you something."

Sunny stood up. His movement was smooth, his dark robes swirling around him like the galaxies in the sky, stars shifted within the fabric with every step.

He descended the stairs, bypassing Merlin, and walked toward the right side of the throne room.

Merlin hesitated for a fraction of a second, his eyes darting around the hall.

He was thousands of years old. In his home multiverse, he was a legend; an SS-Grade Card Master who had raided the tombs of forgotten eras.

But here? In the City of Gods? He felt like a toddler stumbling through a war council of giants.

During the time he was in the city. He had seen millions of Gods flying in the sky, some of them walked around the city in hurry.

He had sensed their auras. Most of them were individually weaker than the Gods of his home multiverse.

But the quantity? It was suffocating. Merlin knew that the twenty-two Gods of Arcana, with their petty squabbles and resource hoarding, would be washed away like sandcastles if this army ever decided to march.

And the being leading them, who was walking away from him, expecting to be followed.

"Why are you daydreaming?" Sunny’s voice cut through his thoughts, calm but commanding. He gestured to the empty air. "Follow me."

Sunny waved his hand. He willed for a portal to open and reality obeyed.

Space tore open. A portal materialized, swirling not with the blue mana of Veridia, nor the void energy of the outside, but with a strange energy that Merlin was very familiar with.

Merlin swallowed his fear and hurried forward. He knew his position. If this God wanted to kill him, he could simply erase him where he stood. There was no point in caution.

He stepped through the portal.

Immediately, the feeling of oppression disappeared. The crushing pressure of the City of Gods vanished. In its place was a familiar resonance.

It felt like home.

Merlin froze. The nostalgia hit him like a physical blow, followed instantly by a wave of terror.

"God!" he gasped, his composure breaking. He reached out, his hand hovering inches from Sunny’s sleeve before he caught himself and recoiled. "We... we can’t be here! You don’t understand!"

Panic seized his throat. He looked around the swirling darkness of the space, expecting at any moment to see the blinding white pillar of the God of White Flame or the crushing gravity of the God of red earth descending upon them.

"If the other Gods sense you, if they find out an outsider has breached the barrier, they will unite!" Merlin pleaded, his voice cracking.

"They hate each other, yes, but they hate intruders more! There are twenty-two of them! They possess SSS-Grade cards! They will fight you with everything they have!"

He backed away, his eyes wide. "Please, Your Majesty! We must retreat! At least call for backup! Bring a few hundred of your Gods! You cannot face them alone!"

Merlin wanted revenge. He burned for it. But he needed Sunny alive to get it. Walking blindly into the lion’s den was suicide, even for a monster like Cosmos.

Sunny stopped. He turned slowly, the galaxy pattern on his mask shifting lazily. He looked at the terrified demigod, and Merlin could almost feel the amusement radiating from him.

"Merlin," Sunny said, his voice dropping, becoming heavy with authority. "Look at me."

Merlin forced himself to meet those violet-gold eyes.

"I alone am enough to erase those twenty-two Gods from existence," Sunny stated. It wasn’t a boast. It was spoken with the same certainty as stating that water is wet.

"My clones have slaughtered more than a hundred Demon Gods in the last week"

He stepped closer, his aura flaring just enough to make the space around them tremble.

"You cannot fathom the depth of the ocean by standing on the shore, Card Master. Do not insult me by comparing me to the scavengers of your world."

Merlin shuddered. The pressure was immense. It wasn’t just power; it was hierarchy. His soul instinctively wanted to kneel.

"But do not worry," Sunny continued, the pressure vanishing instantly as he turned back to the void. "This isn’t your multiverse. Your enemies have a few more years to live."

He spread his arms wide, encompassing the swirling galaxies and stars of the pocket dimension.

"This is a universe I created. It is infinitely smaller than your home, yes. But it follows the same laws. It is a garden I built... for you."

Merlin blinked, his brain struggling to process the information. "You... created a universe?"

"I did," Sunny confirmed. "And in a few days of my time, which will be thousands of years inside this space, the resources you need to become a God will be born here."

Sunny turned his head, looking at Merlin with a knowing gaze. "The Primordial Water Essence. The Heart of an Elemental Divine Beast. The Tears of the Weeping Sky. The ingredients for your Divine Water Card."

Merlin’s knees went weak. He staggered, barely keeping his balance.

Those names. Those were the legendary materials. The mythical resources he had spent two thousand years searching for in the ruins of Arcana.

He had risked his life a thousand times, lost his friends, and eventually lost his lover and his life to betrayal, all for a glimpse of those items.

And this being... he spoke of them as if they were groceries on a list.

"A card that could help you become a God," Sunny whispered, his voice taking on a seductive turn.

"A card that would allow you to stand before the God of White Flame, look him in the eye, and crush his throat with your own hands. Not mine. Not my army’s. Yours."

Sunny paused, letting the vision of vengeance sink into Merlin’s soul.

"Do you think you could find these resources in your home multiverse?" Sunny asked softly. "Hunted as you are? With Calley knowing your secrets? With twenty-two Gods watching every ruin, hoarding every scrap of power?"

Merlin shook his head silently. Tears stung his eyes. It was impossible.

"But here?" Sunny gestured to the growing universe of the pocket dimension. "Here, you are the first. You are the caretaker of this universe. The garden is yours to harvest."

Merlin looked at the stars. He felt the potential of the universe. It was empty, waiting to be filled.

He knew if what Sunny said was true, than it wasn’t a farfetched dream to take his revenge.

But in reality this not what Sunny wanted for Merlin, he wanted him to have something else, the path that the God of the cards followed from his birth, not some water law.

Sunny walked closer to Merlin, the distance between them closing until Sunny loomed over him. The Emperor’s demeanor shifted.

"Merlin," Sunny said, as he leaned down. "Do you think your path is well-suited for you?"

Merlin frowned, confusion cutting through his emotional turmoil. "My path? You mean my affinity? In Arcana, we don’t need affinities like your mages do. We just need formulas. Even if I chose a Fire path, I could master it if I had the right cards. There is no suitable or unsuitable."

"I know that," Sunny interrupted gently, waving a hand dismissively. "I am asking about you."

"Think of it like a career. A mortal can become a doctor or an engineer if they study hard. They can be competent. They can be successful. Some follow their talent, while others follow their heart."

"What does your heart want, Merlin? Does your heart beats for the law of water?"

Merlin opened his mouth to answer ’yes’ to defend his life’s work. But the word died in his throat.

Did he love water?

No. He used it because his family had found a high-grade card formula in a ruin. He used it because Water was flexible; it could heal, defend, and attack.

But saying that his heart beats for that law? No.

So what did his heart beats for?

His heart began to pound against his ribs. ’What does it want?’

He closed his eyes. He remembered his childhood. He remembered sneaking into the Grand Archives of his family, to read about the formulas, to study about different cards.

He remembered the thrill of finding a new card, understanding it. He remembered the joy of cataloging the infinite combinations, the beautiful symmetry of the formulas.

"My heart..." Merlin whispered, his voice trembling as he unearthed a truth he had buried for centuries. "My heart beats for... every card."

He looked up at Sunny, his eyes burning with a fierce intensity mixed with shame.

"I want to have them all. It feels like they are a part of me. Like I am incomplete without them. It’s like... they are me, and I am them."

He slumped slightly. "Is that... wishful thinking? Is it greed?"

Sunny looked at him. Behind the mask, a satisfied smile spread across his face. This was what he was waiting for.

"It is not wishful thinking," Sunny said.

"I can help you with that. I can create a card for you. A card that will not only grant you Godhood but allow you to catalog and utilize any card available in the entire multiverse."

As Sunny’s world fell, the entire universe and even the distant multiverse of Arcana shook.

It yearned for the return of it’s creator, and the laws were sensing that he was returning.