Chapter Ninety-Two: The Miracle Card and Change

Wade stood before the scales. It was plainly something that had appeared only after he had broken through the barrier.

At first, there had been only the die in his mental space. When he absorbed the soul flames of sixty-four skeletons and felt, for the first time, a stirring of advancement, a gate appeared before him.

After he broke through the second barrier, another thing sprang into being: a balance.

By this pattern, it seemed that each time he ascended, this space changed along with him in some fashion.

Perhaps that was also one of the twenty-sided die’s effects.

Wade pondered the reason for the scales’ appearance. He could not be certain, but these changes seemed to arise from some desire hidden in his heart.

He wanted to go beyond the wasteland, and so the gate appeared.

He wanted a way to leap over process and obtain the result at once, and so the scales appeared.

By that logic, the next time he grew to the barrier and broke through it, this space would surely undergo still more change.

What it would become, he could not know. That was still a little far away.

He looked at the crystals in his hand. With only three of them, they were little more than ornaments. Since he now had a way to make use of them, he might as well try.

Wade placed one pure crystal on the left side of the balance. The pan dipped slightly, but the “value” offered for exchange was not yet enough. With only one crystal, he could obtain nothing.

He proceeded step by step and set down a second crystal. The pan sank further.

Two crystals were already enough to make an exchange, but he felt he could still raise the stakes.

Then all in. Going all in was a kind of wisdom.

Money that is not spent is nothing but scrap paper.

Wade placed the third crystal on the left pan as well. It was as though a heavy iron weight had been dropped there; the scale arm plunged at once.

He stepped back. The moment his hand left the pan, the balance slowly tilted to the right.

The crystals on the left still remained, but it was as if something else had been placed on the right pan to weigh them.

Like a merchant using weights to calculate the value of goods, when the scales once more came to rest, the three crystals vanished in an instant.

Wade did not see how the thing appeared. When the crystals disappeared, a card was already lying on the right pan.

He picked it up. It was a strange yet exquisite card, with relief-like oil paintings upon it.

There were paintings on both sides. Unlike ordinary cards, which had an image on only one face, this one bore different designs on each side.

On the upper side were three pure white souls beneath the moon, gathered in a circle and radiating halos from the outside, as if shielding whatever lay at the center.

On the lower side was a skeleton under moonlight, sword in hand, with a faint and indistinct shadow behind it.

The instant he touched the card, Wade understood its purpose.

It was a product born from his own soul. He was the owner of this card, and its sole owner.

The oil painting on the front represented the power of protection. It was the gratitude of the vengeful spirits when they departed from him, able to shield him for a single instant at no cost, rendering him untouchable by any force at the moment he used the card.

The oil painting on the reverse represented the power of summoning. It was the shared will of battle between the souls and him. Through this power, he could summon an avatar of a soul to his side, to fight at his side.

The moment he touched the card, knowledge flooded into his mind.

He suddenly understood what those pure crystals were. They were not merely gifts from the vengeful spirits, but the thanks of every soul he had released to him, or perhaps something one might call a form of faith.

They were crystals of faith, a power purer than magic and closer than anything else to the origin of the world.

The card exchanged for with crystals of faith possessed two abilities that could truly be called magic, or rather:

Miracles.

The card he had obtained in exchange was a card of miracles, bearing the powers of protection and summoning.

This miracle card was not driven by magic power. It was more like a law, like the law by which apples fall to the ground.

Wade had already paid the price to use it.

It was not a consumable item like a magic scroll, but each natural day, Wade could use only one of its effects. Once he used it, he would have to wait another natural day for it to renew.

A card of miracles...

Wade turned the card over in his fingers, studying the paintings on both sides.

In this mental space, could he also witness a miracle?

He flipped the card to the skeleton side and silently activated its power.

This side represented summoning. He called forth an avatar of a soul to come to his side.

The next second, light flashed. The glow on the card dimmed, and a skeleton appeared before Wade.

The skeleton scratched at its own head, somewhat bewildered.

It was the body of the skeleton carpenter, which Wade had been moving about not long ago.

The instant Wade used the card, that body and the carpenter’s soul had merged together.

Wade circled the skeleton carpenter, and every detail of the body remained exactly as he remembered it.

The body outside still existed, but the card had created an avatar within his mental space and summoned the carpenter’s soul here.

Wade had truly witnessed an inconceivable miracle.

His fingers moved, and like a conjurer’s trick, the card appeared and vanished in his hand.

He believed in the power of this miracle card. If he went into the outside world, he could use it to summon those souls that had bodies.

In other words, on the wasteland he could match the souls with suitable bodies, arm them, and then, anywhere he wished, use the card to summon their avatars to his side.

That was what a miracle was. Even in a dream, in some vague and intangible thing called mental space, he could still create miracles.

Interesting. So when he next went outside, he would have a skeleton army he could dispatch at any time.

Before, he could only bring souls like Mia with him as they moved back and forth. But now, with this miraculous power, he could truly “summon.”

However, these avatars had a limited duration.

The time limit was not calculated by the summoner’s strength. The card counted only quantity.

One avatar could remain for one natural day, allowing seamless continuation, but with each additional avatar, the time would be divided evenly.

If two avatars existed at once, they could last only half a natural day; four would reduce the time to a quarter, and so on. The more numerous they were, the shorter each avatar could remain active.

The summoning could be canceled early, but the duration of the avatars could not be extended.

Wade fully understood the miracle card’s ability. He dismissed the avatar, and the skeleton body vanished from the white space, leaving only the glowing point of the carpenter’s soul.

Wade no longer disturbed the carpenter and the other souls in their arrangements. He awoke from the dream and returned to the cavern.

He extended his hand, and the miracle card appeared in it.

But the card was dim, because Wade had just used it. He would need to wait another natural day before it regained its power.

The next day, after a period of rest, the souls had finished making their plans, and Mia had awakened as well.

The carpenter told Wade the materials and tools he needed. Wade picked up a hammer and, together with Mia, headed for the skeleton sands.

He left the skeleton carpenter in the cavern. Wade had the carpenter help with the clutter inside, such as waiting for the ice Mia made to melt so it could water the moss, and drawing the plans on the ground.

He brought Mia and the other souls to the sands.

The closer they came to the sand, the more skeletons roamed outside.

Wade discovered something strange: some skeletons no longer fought among themselves. They no longer gnawed at their own kind nearby, but instead gathered in groups, as if they had developed some notion of teamwork.

This was an unprecedented phenomenon. Had it too come about because of the changes in the moon’s phase?

Wade looked up at the blood moon in the sky. There were still far too many secrets of this wasteland he did not know.

But from the information he had gathered so far, this place seemed entirely cut off from the world outside.

Perhaps, in the past, it had not been the empty wasteland it was now. It might well have been the homeland that Yulia Silvermoon had always wished to return to.

Yet there were no ruins to be found on the surface.

Where, then, were the skeletons that gushed forth from the sands coming from?

Surely the sands could not have produced them on their own. Could there be a skeleton lair beneath the ground?

Were the ruins and the skeletons all buried below?

Like the underground cities and ancient tombs adventurers sometimes uncovered?

There is a saying: when you find one cockroach in your house, in truth they are already hiding in every dark corner.

Could it be that the skeletons pouring out of the sands were only the tip of the iceberg?

Wade watched the skeleton patrols marching in formation and faintly felt that something was not right.

He sensed a breath of danger and change. The storm had subsided, but the shifting phases of the moon still continued to influence this land without end.