Starting With A Trash Hand

Don't move! I have a door and I'm not afraid to use it!

Spring comes in two phases. The wait, symbolized by the spinning of the spear. And the welcome, which the downward s***h represented.

Earlier, when I fought with the knight, I felt that there was something more to the cards than I previously thought. The time I used Two Blades Like Wave differently gave me enlightenment.

The card had two extremes. Take for instance the Two Blades Like Wave, it could be used defensively like a ripple that absorbs damage. Or, it could use aggressively like a storm surge.

Finding the two faces of the elements where much easier than finding the two faces of the season. If you were to search for it on the web, you'd expect to find artistic pieces.

Too bad though, I don't have a blade to practice Five Blades Seeking Stars. Unless I buy one, but I'd rather not because Five Blades was an incomplete martial art.

So I guess I have to stick with a very hard-to-comprehend Six Blooms. Regardless, the martial path was never an easy one. The more you understand, the proficient you become.

And so I spent five long hours waving my spear against a holographic enemy in the hopes of getting enlightenment but to no avail.

I stopped before I exceeded the allotted time and took a shower at the facility, for which I paid an extra 10 gold. By the time I finished showering a spark went through my brain.

I reckon I'd find enlightenment by practicing in the same circumstances as the visions shown by the card. Which hopefully, I don't get to experience the fifth one.

Thinking about the bloodbath I saw made me uneasy. It was something I never want to experience personally.

****

Ruins of Cangmir.

Late in the morning, we were back to hunting. I slept late into the day to get that doctor-recommended six-hour sleep.

The familiar ruins greeted me again and I felt at home. No, seriously, it feels like I'm back home. Having this strange feeling inside me, I looked around to find out why. As my gaze landed upon the walls, I immediately knew the answer.

The previously indecipherable graffiti became legible. The Ynquish writing was composed of logoforms and circuit lines. An all-encompassing magical language, similar to that of the elven and dragon-tongue. But also much different from both.

The elven speak was a magical language suitable for both spell-casting and inscription. Dragon-tongue was focused solely on spell-casting. While Ynquish was more effective as magical inscriptions. This form of writing gave the fallen civilization a way to craft artifacts just by writing their language on an item. This means every one of them was an artificer. No wonder they made such advancements in terms of mana-tech.

And as the walls say, it was also the cause of their downfall. Or just part of it.

I made my way through the debris searching for more explanations.

The word "door" keeps showing up. And by the looks of it, the fallen civ wasn't happy with them. Words like "threat", "danger" and "invasion" were associated with the word "door".

This confused me as to what this meant. Usually one would think that a door protects you from whatever it is on the other side. Unless you don't have a wall beside it. This made me wonder how the fallen ynqueron ward off thieves when they don't have doors.

As I wandered around the broken houses, new words began to show up. "Beast", "Monster", "Corruption", "Beyond". This made me more confused. Almost every word I see was negative, except for a few ones including "door".

'Wait. Maybe "door" was also a negative? Huh.'

It took me a while to find something comprehensible.

//We rose greatly.

So did our pride.

We saw their coming.

Yet we put it off for tomorrow.

But tomorrow never came.

They came again.

And they came vast.

In legions, in swarms.

The portals we thought were ours weren't.

It was theirs and theirs alone.//

That was rich. And what did it mean by portal? Did the race invent something like interplanetary travel? If that was so then they probably made something similar to the gates.

"Wait!" I exclaimed. Gles was surprised but she didn't ask what was wrong.

I couldn't bother with her as I just had an omen. The writings were a great warning for those fortunate enough to read. Everything I've been reading so far had implied about the dangers that came from the gates.

The word "door" indicated by the ynqueron was the same thing as what we called "gate". I tried to crack my head on the subject and came up with an assumption.

The walls mentioned corrupted beasts and invasions. And the inscription said they came in legions. FROM. THE. GATES.

If this was true then we are in big trouble. The earlier shenanigans with the count had already given me a notion that a threat was coming. This made me believe that the higher-ups had encountered a gate corruption. That, or they had another menace messing up with the world. It was like Yuan Shao getting ambushed by Cao Cao from all sides.

This gave me a great headache. We spent the entire morning roaming around the ruins with Gles training against the animated objects while I would look into the writings trying to confirm my theory.

****

" You sure it's fine?" I questioned Gles as I adjusted my seat. We were riding towards Gles' home. She wanted to call for her chauffeur but I stopped her. I wanted to try out my new mount. And armor. And cape.

"Sure it is. You already met my dad, so it's fine."

"What happened to the reward I gave you." I just noticed that her skin didn't change. Not that it needed to, it was already beautiful as it is. But when it comes to skincare, women are never satisfied.

"Oh that. Ah... Well. You see."

"You didn't use it?"

"Well no. I... You'll understand when we get home."