Chapter 2788: Scared To Insanity
Date: Unspecified
Time: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Gideon Grimās Camp
Now I understood how Gideon Grim could sell out his own native realm the moment he got the chance.
Now I understood why he never appeared in Clown Maskās future vision, or in the card worldās history, until I dragged him into the light.
Because in the end, despite all his heinous and sickening crimes, he was a fucking coward.
"What the fuck is he doing?" Corey asked, her enthusiasm to fight Gideon wavered seeing his current state.
Even I had a hard time believing this was the same Gideon Grim, once the most wanted man in the Card World. So I used my soul pupils on him and checked his soul pathways and arrangements. His soul pathways matched a strain of soul pathway I extracted from the soul pathways in the roots that his origin cardās ability implanted in his victims.
So yeah, it was him, Gideon Grim A.K.A Handsome Fox, alright. The Card Worldās first Devil Merchant.
"Heās ignoring you," I remarked to Corey. "Go show him the price of underestimating you." I tried to push Corey into the fight, but Gideon didnāt even react, still repeating the same thing over and over again expecting a different result like a mad man.
"Why are you singling me out when youāre standing right next to me?" Corey shot back, not taking the bait. "For all we know, he might be looking down on you."
"Fine," I said with a shrug. "Letās just agree heās ignoring both of us. Now go kick his ass."
Corey still didnāt move.
"Didnāt you say you wanted to fight him?" I pressed. "Heās right in front of you. Go do your worst."
"No. Iāve lost all my fighting spirit," Corey said, her voice flat as she looked at Gideon. "Just look at him. Heās pathetic. I think heās lost his marbles. I donāt want to be known for killing a mentally broken man. You go fight him."
A few minutes ago, sheād been ready to throw hands with me just to get a shot at him. Now she wouldnāt even step forward.
"Mentally broken?" I scoffed. "That bastard is responsible for multiple genocides across the Northern Region. Weād be the sinners if we let him walk."
I let that sit for a second before adding, "If you donāt want to do it, send Lilā Baem. Sheās always hungry. A demigod should keep her fed for a week or two."
Everything I said was backed by what my sinner squad had uncovered in the Northern Region. Only recently had they connected the dots, the disappearances, the frozen towns, the vanishing villages, up north, all of it had one person in common: Gideon Grim.
They had missed it the first time because he never used the same identity twice. Every village, every town, a new alias. A clean trail. Or at least, it had been until he grew confident of his strength and means. Honestly, Iām surprised he wasnāt in cahoots with the demons much earlier.
"No way. What if Lilā Baem goes insane after eating him?" Corey shot back, refusing to fight Gideon herself or let her pet snake do it.
"Fortunately, stupidity isnāt contagious. Sheāll be fine," I said. "If she is not going to fight. Just call your Forsling Corpse Puppet card spirit and let her handle him."
I kept pushing. This wasnāt just about Gideon anymore. It was about Corey seeing this through. Where I come from, we finish what we start.
"Why are you pressing me so hard?" Corey snapped. "If you want him dead, you kill him. Iām not fighting a mentally broken person, let alone kill one."
That... felt off. It wasnāt just refusal. It sounded like something else was leaking through. Now I was certain. On the surface, Corey seemed normal after inheriting the memories of her past life. But underneath, she wasnāt. She was carrying the weight of it, the emotions, the guilt, the hesitation. This was concerning as she had already become one with the darkness in her title demon core, so such lingering effects shouldnāt exist after she inherited her past life memories.
These lingering effects were subtle, but they were there. You could see them surface whenever she felt cornered or put on the spot. So I turned my soul pupils on her title demon core. What I saw was... concerning.
Her union with the coreās darkness had weakened. Not by much, just a few degrees, but enough to matter. She could no longer be considered fully one with her darkness.
And that wasnāt a small thing. It raised too many questions. What kind of memories had she inherited to undo that balance? Had something gone wrong while recalling her past life? Or was becoming one with the darkness never permanent to begin with but a temporary state that one needs to keep maintaining?
If the last one was true, it meant there was still a lot I didnāt understand about the darkness in artificial demon cores created from the pearls of the clampedo monsters.
I had thought her past life memories were helping Corey mature, giving her a deeper understanding of life through her previous reincarnationās experience. But now it was clear she wasnāt just taking in the good. She was carrying the bad with it, and it was starting to show. And from the looks of it would only get worse unless we treated it.
"If you donāt want to fight and kill, then leave," I instructed no longer pressing Corey to finish what she asked for. "Iāll catch up once Iām done here. Go." I couldnāt execute Gideon in front of her after the resistance sheād shown about killing someone she saw as mentally broken.
"What about them?" Corey asked, pointing at the card apprentices lying asleep, all of them victims of Gideon Grimās brainwashing.
"Donāt worry about them. Iāll handle it too," I replied. "Now go."
She hesitated for a moment, then nodded, saying, "Iāll wait outside."
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