The Master of Cards Chapter 69: Activating the Artifact

The cultists kept pouring in from the caves behind them, shocking the entire group. How could there be so many cultists?

A picture of slaughter broke out as blades of blood flashed and various kinds of cards got activated.

Alex was using his Energy Affinity in full force to anticipate attacks and neutralize them with his stick's vibratory force. Even though hundreds upon hundreds of cultists kept madly pouring in, they were mostly card initiates and the expedition group, which was outnumbered, still didn't face any casualties.

However, the number of cultists had forced most of the expedition members to draw out their cards overdrawing their stamina as they killed their enemies.

Red haired Luke was crazily laughing. "Kill them! Kill them all! Let the blood of the battle field flow through the altar!"

Then Red haired Luke took out a blood attribute card with a picture of a pentagram on it and activated it. The card was clearly a high level card, and upon activating it, Red haired Luke coughed out a lot of blood and his muscle mass disappeared turning him into bare bones. Alex was reminded of himself going through something similar earlier.

Suddenly the entire hall had a red glow and a huge pentagram illuminated on the ground below the constant battle, absorbing the blood overflowing from the dying cultists blindly sacrificing themselves in the battle.

Over time Alex was starting to feel overwhelmed by the numbers of the opponents who didn't seem to stop and finally activated his Light aura, but only in his stick. He would then activate the aura to become a sharp spear from his stick, piercing the opponent's chest in a sudden move.

Alex felt helpless. This kind of indiscriminate killing, he wasn't sure he wanted to do this. However, he had been thrown into a situation where he was forced to do this.

Several people from the expedition had gotten injured and several others had died. From fifty, the numbers went down to thirty five, but eventually the cultists had finally stopped. Thousands were dead.

Red haired Luke, who looked like a skeleton with skin, looked on and laughed. "Finally, finally it will awaken!"

Then all the blood in the battlefield dried up, the remaining thirty five and red haired Luke looked on as the tablet began to shine. A crack slowly began to appear in the space and a person descended down from the crack.

The person had no eyes or nose. It just had a mouth for a face and it's body felt intangible. A blood attribute card suddenly appeared in front of the person and glowed.

"Oh?" The ethereal person said, then turned around to look at Red haired Luke.

"Why did you summon me using a battlefield sacrifice?" It asked. Its voice boomed throughout the hall and banged into everyone's ear drums.

The dried up Luke looked up in anticipation. "I wish to undergo the Blood Rebirth! Reforge my physical body to become invincible at the same level!"

The ethereal being put a hand up and supported its non physical chin. "I do not sense any holy blood in this dimension." It shook his head. "Your request cannot be satisfied. I shall now return."

Then the ethereal being once again entered the crack in space and the crack sealed itself, like there was nothing there.

Red haired Luke was dumbfounded. "How is this possible!" He screamed at the top of his voice, but then he suffered a terrifying backlash and both red haired Luke and the clay tablet disintegrated into dust.

The expedition group looked at the situation in horror, which was completely out of their control. However, Alex, who had heard the conversation earlier, had sweat down his back.

Who was red haired Luke? He wanted to perform Blood Rebirth? The voice said it could not sense any holy blood, could it have been the blood drop?

Alex's mind was racing. The others were also shell shocked by what happened, but some people remained unfazed.

Nia commented. "Looks like the cults have a strong backing."

Alex sighed. "Was that an alien?" Alex asked.

"I don't know." Qianyu said. "We have to return and report this matter to the higher ups. The cult might have deeper roots than previously expected.

Alex suddenly spoke. "The red haired person, looks eerily the same as another Card initiate in the Scarlet Tide from my school, who died."

"This..." Everyone was even more confused.

"Let us return. Our mission to eradicate this division of the cult was successful." A Family Alliance member said.

However Qianyu gritted her teeth. "That may be the case, but we acted according to the intentions of that cult leader!"

The group made their way back to the shelter after the terrifying battle. On the way back Nia asked Alex a question.

"I saw you fighting earlier. You are a Light attribute user? The card you used, it is unlike any I have ever seen before." She said.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked, playing dumb.

"I saw your black stick being coated with Light and suddenly turning into a spear to pierce the opponent at decisive intervals." She said.

"It's nothing much." Alex said blandly and activated his Light Aura card, but only coating his stick with the aura. He had to eventually show off his ability at some point, so better now than ever, he thought to himself.

Nia touched the stick which had been coated with the Light Aura. Alex had rendered it harmless so it only felt like a thin cushion.

"It is very gentle and soothing. I can feel my life attribute being stimulated by touching this cushion of light." Nia said.

Alex nodded, and then withdrew the Light Aura and hung the stick on his waist.

After a few days, the group returned to the shelter. The group disbanded and Alex could go to receive the reward later from the Family Alliance. Meanwhile Qianyu went to report the matter.

Alex went to the shelter and booked a room in an inn amd went to rest. This expedition's turn of events had been extremely anticlimactic and he couldn't help but think that it was somehow related to himself killing that drop of blood. Just who was the red haired Luke? He wondered, as he fell asleep.

Chapter end