Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Lil’ Red Storm Realm, Freedom Magelopolis

Meanwhile, Asong and Moon Fright had already moved to control the crowd. The sudden evacuation had thrown the entire population into confusion.

Card Apprentices and Froslings alike had been whisked away from their homes, workplaces, and whatever else they had been doing without any proper warning.

Some had been in the middle of meals. Others still held tools or cooking utensils. A few had apparently been relaxing at home and were dressed in ways they clearly hadn’t intended to be seen wearing in public.

One particularly embarrassed Frosling hurriedly wrapped herself in a blanket that someone had conjured for her. Confused voices and nervous questions quickly spread across the barren island.

“What happened?”

“Are we under attack?”

“Where are we?”

“Where’s Her Highness?”

Asong raised her voice, trying to bring the Card Apprentices under control, while Moon Fright moved toward the Froslings and began organizing them into groups.

Neither of them had any answers. But panic spread faster when no one appeared to be in control.

So, for now, they did the only thing they could. They kept everyone calm. And hoped that whatever Dalia was facing outside wasn’t something even the Array Celestial needed to evacuate an entire city to confront.

“Hive Spirit, what’s going on?” Asong asked, finally remembering the ever-present assistant, observer, and occasional spy their ruler had planted throughout the New Empire’s affairs. A response immediately appeared on her grimoire.

[Card Apprentice does not possess the required clearance to access Hive Spirit.]

‘WTF?’ Asong nearly lost it. For a moment, she simply stared at the message as if sheer disbelief could make it disappear.

Then reality caught up with her. She had no actual authority within the New Empire’s system. The one official position she had been offered, she had rejected.

And now, when something important was happening, she was effectively just another Card Apprentice asking questions. A sharp pang of regret stabbed through her chest.

‘Great. Brilliant job, Asong,’ Still, regretting it wasn’t going to help anyone right now. She turned toward Dulas and Moon Fright, “Do either of you have access to Hive Spirit?”

“Hive Spirit?” Dulas and Moon Fright repeated almost simultaneously.

They exchanged confused looks. Neither of them had been to the VR-Universe to learn about Hive Spirit on their own, and no one had formally introduced her to them yet. At present, Hive Spirit’s direct assistance was still largely limited to the officials and leadership of the New Empire.

“Forget it.” Asong sighed. Before either of them could ask what she meant, she hurried toward a newly arrived group.

Ceed had just appeared above the floating island before dropping off another batch of Card Apprentices. Among them was a familiar figure, and Asong’s eyes immediately lit up. She pushed through the crowd, calling out, “Demigod Baylor!”

“Congresswoman Asong? What are you doing here? I thought you rejected Her Highness’s generosity,” Demigod Baylor asked, unable to completely hide the faint envy in his voice.

The leaders of the Freedom Fighters had been trying to get closer to Her Highness Dalia ever since they arrived in the Lil’ Red Storm Realm, yet none of them had managed to establish anything resembling a personal relationship with her.

Then there was Asong. Someone Dalia had personally approached. Someone she had offered an opportunity to. And Asong had rejected her.

Baylor genuinely couldn’t understand it. In his eyes, she had been both ignorant and entitled. That didn’t mean Baylor blindly worshipped every Celestial he encountered. He had lived long enough to know that strength and virtue weren’t always the same thing.

But this was different. To him, Dalia represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Celestials rarely concerned themselves with mortals. At most, they occasionally paid attention to those native to their own realms, and even that was far from guaranteed.

Her Highness Dalia, however, was unlike any Celestial Baylor had encountered. She hadn’t merely allowed mortals to live in her realm. She lived among them.

She cared about how they lived, what problems they faced, and whether the city she ruled was actually becoming a place where they could build a future. She had even gone so far as to seek the opinion of an ordinary mortal on how to solve those problems.

Asong had been given precisely the kind of opportunity philosophers, politicians, and reformers throughout history could only dream of. She could have gained direct access to one of the most powerful beings in the Myriad Realms.

More importantly, she could have used that position to turn the ideals she constantly spoke about in her speeches and debates into actual changes. Instead, she had rejected it.

Baylor had no idea whether her decision came from ignorance, arrogance, or simply poor judgment. He only knew one thing. Asong was, without question, one incredibly foolish woman.

And judging from the way she had just rushed toward him, Baylor suspected reality had finally caught up with her.

“Do you know what’s happening out there?” Asong asked, ignoring both his earlier question and the subtle resentment still lingering in his eyes.

Dulas and Moon Fright caught up with her a moment later, both clearly eager to hear what the Freedom Fighters knew.

“We don’t know much,” Baylor answered with a frown. “Hive Spirit alerted us that the Lil’ Red Storm Realm was under attack, so we immediately headed for the inter-realm teleportation hub.”

His gaze briefly swept across the increasingly crowded floating island.

“When we arrived in Freedom City, the entire city was already covered in a layer of frost. Streets, buildings, even the surrounding air. Before we could investigate what was happening, Ceed appeared and teleported us here without giving us a single explanation.”

Moon Fright’s expression tightened as she blurted out, “A layer of frost?”

“No, it can’t be.” She seemed to have already connected the dots.

Her Highness Dalia had asked the Half-Bloods to stay behind, and now the city was covered in frost. That wasn’t natural, not with the Lil’ Realm’s climate and the city barrier’s temperature-control formation.

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