Catastrophe Card King

What was even more bizarre was that Camilla had seemingly just smashed Old Cook into ice shards, yet there was another hunchbacked figure in a cloak right next to the teleportation array, looking exactly the same.

Before he could think more deeply, Noah Wright said, “It’s too late to stop it. The teleportation array has already started operating.”

Leonard Churchill’s eyebrows furrowed upon hearing this; whatever Old Cook was teleporting over must be some troublesome demon.

Since there was no stopping it, he swiftly changed his thoughts and, ignoring the teleportation array, charged rapidly into the depths of the cave.

His goal this time was to find the Holy Grail, not to slay some monster.

First things first, he needed to confirm whether the Holy Grail was indeed in the Hero’s Tomb.

Camilla and Noah Wright shared the same thought and dashed into the cave as well.

…

This underground cave beneath the Holy Spirit Mountain Range was not some constructed tomb; there were no mechanical traps or secret passages.

Leonard Churchill and his companions quickly followed the footprints to a massive space.

The rock walls here were covered with an abundance of luminous moss, making the whole space highly visible.

What they saw was a strange stone sculpture towering a hundred meters tall.

With a shield in the left hand, a spear in the right, its armor was tattered, riddled with holes all over, and even beneath the helmet was hollow.

The craftsmanship was incredibly exquisite, as if it contained intense emotions.

Both the story and the imagery emerged instantly.

As if its flesh and soul had been hollowed out by demons, it still stood, driven by an iron will, undaunted.

One could immediately perceive a sense of tragic nobility in the hero’s downfall.

Upon seeing the statue, Leonard instinctively confirmed that this was the epic hero Garen mentioned on the tombstone.

But for the tomb of an epic hero, the fact that there was only one statue and no accompanying burial offerings seemed overly simplistic.

Leonard was quite interested in the story of the Holy Knight Garen, but at the moment, he was even more intrigued by the Holy Grail.

All three sets of eyes were instantly drawn to it.

Because at the foot of the statue there was a glowing cup.

The Holy Grail was not large, appearing to be made of mithril, with delicate and mysterious runes engraved all over its surface, both ancient and mysterious.

The Enlightenment Display revealed its name—it was the Xismark Holy Grail!

“It really is here!”

Leonard, seeing the object of his quest before him, had his pupils shrink sharply.

Contained within the Holy Grail was a full cup of bright and radiant liquid.

This was the legendary Life Elixir that was said to heal all diseases instantly, remove various negative statuses, and restore expended life force!

But his instincts also told him that such an item, far exceeding the current plot’s difficulty level, definitely would not be easy to obtain.

While observing the Holy Grail, a quick glance gave Leonard a view of a luxuriously dressed skeleton lying beside it.

“The princess of the Delaney Kingdom? How did she end up dying here?”

Seeing the dried corpse in a luxurious gem-studded dress, Leonard guessed something.

The details of that robe bore the “Holy Cross Emblem” everywhere, the family totem of the Delaney Royal Family.

Furthermore, the three-headed Sheep, Snake, Lion, and Griffin on that golden scepter signified the Demon God — ‘King of War and Destruction’ Akris, whom the people of the Delaney Kingdom worshiped!

Leonard had encountered a description in Mage Rolan’s manuscripts, so he guessed at a glance that this skeleton had no ordinary identity.

An epic hero and royal princess?

Could it be that the outside inscription was of this princess rather than some retainer?

A story of mutual devotion, or something similar?

Seeing the scene before him, a multitude of stories flashed through Leonard’s mind.

But each was sadder than the last.

Noah Wright, however, knew more and whispered, “The high-tiered [Club Jack – War God] of a sequence lost in history, the one who points to that Demon God, has appeared here…”

“???”

Leonard listened, slightly astonished.

The Card Master Civilization had fragmented countless times; traditions had long been shattered.

To this day, not all of the fifty-two paths to divinity have been handed down completely.

The Federation has detailed records of only about twenty or thirty complete sequences.

Moreover, many are known only by their names, with fragmented Profession Cards, or are sequences whose names remain unknown.

And that [Club Jack – War God] sequence of the path of war was just a legend mentioned in textbooks.

No one had seen it, no one knew what it was.

It had likely been lost for thousands of years.

Yet this Demon God worshipped by the Delaney Dynasty turns out to be the [Club Jack] of that sequence?

Wasn’t it said that the fifty-two Epic Source Cards’ Demon Gods were the source of power for card masters, so how did they become the Ancient Gods?

What exactly was going on?

This seemed to be tied up in some high-level secrets.

Neither Leonard nor Camilla could make heads or tails of it.

Seeing their confusion, Noah Wright took the initiative to explain, “This is a case of divine disarray. If no human card master manages to integrate that sequence’s origin card for a long time, or if some merged super tier card masters lose control and mutate, the restrictions of the Demon Mark on the Demon God weaken… When divinity goes out of control, it contaminates intelligent beings, and then there are ‘believers’ and the Old Days Sect. Faith is undying, and so gods do not perish. That’s why shadows of Ancient Gods always exist in the history of any civilization, and why they cannot be eradicated—it’s for that reason…”

So that was it.

This topic suddenly became a bit too complex.

Leonard listened, impressed but confused.

Meanwhile, Mushroomhead added, “And it’s not just this one. Various signs indicate that ‘Master of Dreams and Pleasure’ Arachne, worshiped by the Silver Moon Sect, is very likely the Demon God referred to by the [Club Queen – Moonlight Empress] sequence… However, that sequence has been lost for tens of thousands of years, and there’s no evidence to directly support this theory; it’s just a conjecture on my part…”