Crimson: born as noble lived as phantom

The heavy smell of fresh blood cut through the pouring rain. The Blood Tyrant stood completely still, his huge body taking over the ruined warehouse floor.

Thud.

He took a heavy step forward, his giant sword resting on his shoulder. He had been holding back his true strength until the exact second I cut off his left arm. Now, his real power was out. Only thirty seconds remained before my Ace of Spades timer ran out.

Stab!

Before my mind could even track his move, his giant blade pierced straight through my stomach. A thick splash of blood came out from behind my crimson mask.

I was at an absolute disadvantage. This monster had regrown a cut arm in seconds, treating it like a joke.

I have to focus everything into one single attack, I thought, my eyes blurring as my core burned through its energy. Based on the small cuts from earlier, I know my black fire can burn him a bit. If this final close-range attack fails... I am completely done for.

“Tell me, kid,” the Blood Tyrant whispered, turning his sword inside me. His double voice echoed through the smoke. “How do you feel right now? What happened to all that big talk about taking my head?”

I grabbed the sharp edge of his sword with my gloved hands, forcing my eyes to look at his scarred face. “Blood Tyrant... tell me one thing. Where did you get this inhuman strength?”

“Is this your last wish?” Ruken let out a low, chilling laugh. “Then I will tell you. It was a devil who gave me this strength.”

“But—”

“Enough talking.”

He pulled his blade out of my stomach and rushed forward at a speed I couldn't even see.

THUD!!!

A direct, crushing hit slammed into my chest, breaking my ribs and throwing me into the air.

At this rate, I was going to die. Only ten seconds remained on my failed contract. The Blood Tyrant rushed at me again through the rain to finish me. Pushing my mind past its limits, I focused every bit of my black flames into one single point at the front of my twin swords.

The Blood Tyrant was right in front of my face.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

I struck with all my focused fire right against his body. At that exact millisecond, the clock hit zero. My three-minute timer was up, and the Ace of Spades card disappeared.

DEATH’S GAMBIT.

The deck quickly reset, showing the four outcomes of the explosion in my mind:

 Ace of Spades:The target will die instantly.

Queen of Spades:The target will get a severe wound.

Jack of Spades:The target’s body will be perfectly fine.

King of Spades:The target will fall unconscious. 

Flash

 It was the Queen of Spades.

There was no way a human could be fine after taking that much fire at close range. As the thick black smoke cleared, the tall form of the Blood Tyrant appeared through the rain. A huge hole had been blasted right through the side of his stomach—the exact spot where my swords hit.

Ruken looked down at the bleeding hole in his side, his dark smile growing wider.

“From the look on your face, you didn't know this rule either,” the Blood Tyrant said softly, his voice shaking the wet ground. “When the mind of a person with demonic power enters a state of total concentration, and their body touches another source of demonic power... the internal powers evolve to close the gap. That is the reason Kiro became so strong during the church incident twelve years ago.”

The pieces of the puzzle clicked together in my mind. Twelve years ago, Kiro was focused on Urena’s death, while his body touched Ruken’s flaring demonic power. The combination evolved his monstrous arm.

“Sorry for holding back until now,” Ruken whispered, his red eyes glowing with an intense bloodlust as his wound began to hiss with black tendrils. “But now... I truly believe you can take the full weight of this.”

Suddenly, the broken Queen of Spades card appeared right in front of my eyes and broke into a million pieces.

A terrifying vision of the future five seconds from now flooded my brain. In exactly five seconds, the whole area would be completely destroyed—and Ruken's blade would be stabbed straight through my heart.

Suddenly, Ruken’s monstrous mana exploded into something unimaginably huge.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The buildings all around us started to blow apart from the sheer force. My own King’s mana could never inflict this much physical damage to real objects. His output was easily three times bigger than my King’s aura. The atmospheric shockwave sent me flying backward, the blinding smoke blocking my vision so I couldn't see a single thing.

According to my vision, this was the exact moment I was supposed to get stabbed.

Trusting the Queen of Spades foresight completely, I gripped both of my modified swords and swung them with all my might toward the empty air where the attack was predicted to come from.

Thud!

My steel blades violently clashed against the Tyrant’s massive frame.

Because I knew the future trajectory, I did not just dodge his lethal strike—I actively stabbed him right back in his blind spot.

Instantly, another five-second future vision flashed inside my brain. In this new timeline, the Blood Tyrant was going to rush forward at full speed to slice my entire body into two clean halves.

Now!

He charged through the rain, swinging his giant broadsword with an extreme, bone-crushing velocity. But because he was so completely certain of his absolute superiority, his posture was entirely cocky and wide open. I ducked beneath the horizontal arc, dodging his ultimate attack effortlessly.

As he overextended, I drove my blade straight into his torso instead.

It does not matter how strong the Blood Tyrant's raw demonic mana is if his attacks can never land. With the absolute power of the Queen's foresight, I have completely turned the tables on the King of Blood.

I will win this war.

The Blood Tyrant rushed at me again. I looked into the future using my foresight, but this time, the vision split into two separate paths. My contract was showing me two different conditions at once. In the first choice, I dodged his blade by a few inches, but the raw pressure of his mana still tore into my hand, causing deep wounds. In the second choice, I tried to block the attack with my sword, but the sheer force of the Tyrant’s mana shattered my weapon into tiny pieces in a single second.

He was already too close. I had no choice but to dodge and take the damage on my hand.

Thud!

The pain shot through my arm, but my vision flashed again. The Blood Tyrant was going to gather all his magic into one spot and shoot it right at my face from zero distance. The explosion would be so massive that even if I jumped away now, the blast radius would still catch me and crush my body.

What was the point of seeing the future if his next move was completely unavoidable?

No, there had to be a way out. The Blood Tyrant did not know that my three-minute limit on the hellfire had just run out. If I took the exact same fighting stance I used to shoot the black flames at close range, he would think the deadly fire was coming back. He would be forced to pull back.

He moved in fast, focusing his dark mana into the very tip of his gigantic blade. I quickly extended my arms, copying the exact stance for the hellfire blast. If my calculations were right, he would dodge—not because my flames were weak, but because they were too fast for a direct gamble.

Just as I expected, the moment he saw my stance, his face changed and he leaped backward to avoid the fake blast. By forcing him away, he was now going to attack me from a distance, which finally gave me the extra space I needed to dodge his next move.

BOOM!!!

He unleashed his ranged blast anyway. The buildings all around us turned into pure white ash in an instant. Even with the extra distance, I was only able to jump out of the way by a paper-thin margin. The heat scorched the edges of my suit.

My Queen's foresight card only had one minute left before it disappeared.

I had to find an opening, but suddenly, my mind was flooded with four different visions for four different conditions. If I blocked his next move, I died. If I tried to dodge it, I died. If I jumped forward to attack him, I died. If I stood perfectly still and did nothing, I still died.

What the hell was going on? If every single choice ended in my immediate death, how was I supposed to keep fighting this monster?

The Blood Tyrant charged at me, his destructive speed and strength ready to pierce my body in a fraction of a second. I tightly gripped the fated sword in my right hand and ran straight toward him. I had to risk it.

Thud!

Our blades met with a deafening crash. My balance completely trembled under his weight, and my feet skidded across the muddy ground. My guard was down, and he instantly moved his sword to deliver the final killing blow. Seeing me completely wide open, a dark grin spread across his face.

But right as his blade descended, I shoved my left hand deep into my pouch, pulled out a fistful of objects, and threw the stones straight at his face.

“Throwing pebbles at me now? Fufufu!” the Tyrant laughed, not even bothering to move away. He took the stones head-on, confident that his armor would protect him.

But that was exactly what I wanted.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The moment the stones touched his massive aura, they violently erupted into a chain of fiery explosions. These were Grim’s special trick stones—designed to burst into a heavy blast the moment they met a source of magic greater than the user. I had thirty of them left in my bag, and I began throwing them in a non-stop, desperate barrage. For thirty seconds, the entire courtyard turned into a blinding warzone of fire and noise. I threw them left and right, blinding his sight, resetting my footing, and slicing through the smoke to chip away at his guard while the ground shattered beneath us. He swung his heavy sword blindly through the fire, but the continuous explosions disrupted his balance, forcing him to step back as the smoke covered the area.

The Queen's card finally ended. My foresight was completely gone, and I had to use the Death’s Gambit deck again.

DEATH’S GAMBIT.

The spectral cards flashed inside my mind. I needed a successful bet just to survive.

Anything would work. Anything at all. I lunged through the clearing smoke, unleashing a direct horizontal strike.

Slash!

To my absolute shock, he didn't try to dodge. He didn't try to block. He didn't even try to strike me back. He stood perfectly still and took my blade right against his chest, the metal sliding off his dark skin without leaving a single scratch.

“Just as I thought... you have grown completely tired, kid,” the Blood Tyrant whispered, his hand clamping down on my wrist like an iron vise.

Suddenly, a strange, dark card appeared directly in front of my eyes. It wasn't the Ace, the Jack, the Queen, or the King.

It was the Joker Card.

The card instantly broke into a million floating black pieces. The moment it shattered, my vision violently spun, and the burning warehouse vanished. I was suddenly standing in the exact same cold, empty place where my consciousness had gone after Grim killed me the very first time.

“Hehehehehehehe...” a chilling, hollow laugh echoed from the deep darkness all around me.

“Ikalgo...?” my voice trembled in the void. “What happened? Explain this to me right now!”

“Your turn to fight is officially over, kid,” the demonic voice purred from the shadows, a pair of giant, glowing eyes opening in the dark. “And it is finally my turn to play.”

Before I could utter another word, the floor beneath my feet completely disappeared, and I fell backward into an endless, suffocating pit of absolute darkness.

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AUTHORS NOTE : SORRY GUYS BUT IT WAS DIFFICULT TO HANDLE THE QUEEN CARD SO I ENDED ITS EFFECT QUICKLY WITH FAST PACING

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