Chapter 44: 12.000 Years, Uno still Exists

"So you met this uncanny harlot who calls herself 'lady luck' and she says that I've killed you over 4443 times?"

"Yepper, she also put all memories of it into my cranium. The pain is real."

You put green-five into the ground.

"Do I go to heaven when I mess you up?"

"Nope, didn't live long enough to see it."

Goyang puts a green-six.

"Bollocks!" Lues take one more ethereal card from the deck, a visible cherry-red small cloud is emitted from the card she takes.

The three of you are now reoccupying the campsite, after your eyes gaze at the endless expectations on the ever stretching wasteland hoping for a Humvee and a pink haired someone, somehow your ultimately reliable companion named Chronos didn't match the settled target. So in the midst of boredom, Lues conjures a surprisingly familiar card set made out of her crimson-mist material and now here you are.

You put a yellow-six on top of the discarded cards as your nose pinpoints the location of the cooking pan cradling an almost-ready Yelper meat that Lues purified, topped with melting extra cheese mushrooms left on your backpack. The cooking sets do their job in this kind of situation, especially when you realize that you can purify the impurities from the beast calamity's flesh.

"I'll prepare the meal, you two can duel for the meantime," you say, with a drool dripping from your mouth.

"It baffles me that Goyang can play this sacred game."

'It baffles me on how an ancient spirit knows uno.'

And another baffling thing is that your dummy, goofy, and perverted cube friend actually has a real capability of inverse-idiocy.

You then use the black dagger to slice the meat into numerous cubes and serve it on a hardened-blood platter. Unlike the last time you tried to form a blade, now you're able to assimilate almost anything you can think of, using the mysterious substances your Chroling has found. It will only be a matter of time until you can do many awesome tricks using blood manipulation.

As for why there is no plate, that is because Chronos only leaves you with the cooking sets, not the eating sets.

The Chrolings also put out a report about your quadriplegia. Is this the side effect of the acidic substances from the realm? The yellow-black varicolored dust proved to be very beneficial for your spell and circuit enhancing. Strangely, it also improves your consciousness constitution to branch an even longer 'string' for conversion, enabling you for more effective mana gathering, and this is the total effect without mentioning the newly built 'Autonomous Mana Converter Device' made by the Chrolings.

Lues also did say something about exploring. Is commencing an adventure within your own mana sea a thing?

"Meal is ready!" you say.

Lues rubs her palms in anticipation, "Holy jolly, I'm curious of the flavor."

Preparing beforehand, you seperate Goyang's share on a smaller blood-plate. He seems to be enjoying it, as you also put a customized virus to temporarily enhance the pain receptors. Of course, it's already served with pain in the first place..

'Aww, he's so happy.'

You can't remember whether you actually had a pet in your former life back then, so seeing Goyang exuding such contentment is a new drug for you—this is also not mentioning the fact that you began to form some kind of addiction on inflicting an authorized pain on others.

The jolt of adrenaline is something else but you're making sure that you won't go far into that road.

"Oh yeah, I'm curious," you declare.

Lues takes a big bite as the food floats to her bidding, in and out to the mouth. She then takes a pause. "Hmm? Anything I can help you with?"

"My past, who am I? Fortune says that I'm a candidate, but a candidate for what? What is a Lamentor?"

"My love, I think you need to learn a bit of proper manners." The juicy meat covered in cheese is wafting into her mouth, she chews it down with a plain expression until it's ready to swallow. "Don't ask such complicated things when someone is eating their delicious treat!"

"Hmm, reasonable."

Heartily, you make one set of fork and knife with the blood manipulation. Licking your lips with excitement, you slice a piece of meat and stab it while making sure that the cheese is covering the whole bite.

Even without salt, you're sure that you can die happily if you eat this everyday.

"I wonder if the Citadel has this kind of food there."

"I'm sure they do. life expectancy is high, the rich individuals might want delicious food rather than fancy clothes, you know?"

"How do you know? you don't even look like a rich person."

"Rich people have standards, I have too, that means I'm a rich person."

The sharp teeth are shown as she blasts her powerful smugness in every direction.

Suddenly, the expected individual appears. Shoving her head into the bite pieces on the blood fork you hold, "Nwope, nobody alive in this era who could purify the void within the beast calamity. Only a certain someone from the past that I've killed could do that."

Chronos appears with no indication and presence, she is just there. Munching on the bite-sized piece that was supposed to be yours!

"The frick, Chronos! Go get your own meal!" you rant as she guides your hands from behind to take another bite piece, then eats it.

"Mhmmw! It's been a long time, isn't that right?."

"You're welcome," replies Lues.

The anger took over until you forcefully steal the whole meal and move into another position far from those two, pouting. Such audacity, as if leaving you alone is not enough, she has the impudence to take a bite of your precious meal!

Lues condenses her meal into a small circular pill then swallows it in an instant to immediately focus on the long time acquaintance, "You've thought through all of this, didn't cha?"

"The existence of the Diemer Mirror is not within my plan, someone is sabotaging it. Or else my precious Long Leggy wouldn't need to go through all of this." Contradicting her speech, she still dons that confident smile.

"Aren't you the one who made me go through all of this," you mumble softly.

Lues absorbs the uno cards and other stuff she materializes before continuing to speak, "At least I'll be watching over her from now on, you can rest assured."

'You two speak as if I'm the child or something.'

"How suspicious—regardless! let's go back to the citadel. Something crucial will happen soon," says Chronos