The great wall of Kamza wriggled, its vines like the legs of a centipede, its thorns dripping with a dozen types of venom. It had been almost five hundred years since its massive feast, and ever since then, it had hungered for more monster essences.

  But the initial tide of monsters from the Wild Tear had long gone, with only the odd straggler making it to the wall now and then these days. The wall had long since turned its attention outward, seeking any essences to feast on, even those belonging to intelligent kin.

  Unfortunately for it, the Accord of Kamza had been pruning and directing the wall since the very first day of its appearance. As one of the very first emergent card-born organisms and a literal wall between the Wild Tear and the civilized world, many people worshipped it, thinking it sacred.

  That wasn’t the case for the group of people gathered just outside of its lashing radius, however. The four humans dressed in identical priestly robes currently keeping up the invisibility field worshipped someone else entirely.

  The only other person present was an elven girl with glowing red hair, white eyes with the depth of an ocean, and a furry tail. She was currently tinkering with the odd cylindrical device the size of a barrel while using a small needle that let out wisps of ghastly mist to engrave runes into it.

  With a shimmer in the air, three more figures materialized inside the invisibility field, all dressed in war-priest robes of Oln. The woman on the left and the man on the right sported a metallic facemask.

  The man in the middle lacked a mask and had his hood down, putting his smooth skin and youthful face on display. His golden eyes glimmered and his short silver hair waved in the non-existent wind.

  The humans already present startled, then bowed.

  “Lord Oln!” the youngest one – a girl in her teens – addressed the man in the middle. “We heard the tremors! Is everything okay?”

  The man, Oln, narrowed his eyes at the girl.

  “No need to worry yourself, initiate. Everything is under control.”

  He then slowly raised his hand and let a card manifest into it.

  A pitch-black rim with tiny glowing dots of light peppered around it, winking in and out as their perspective shifted. Unlike cards of lesser rarities, this one had lost its smooth shape in favor of a spiky rectangle. To top it off, the card glowed with a bright white light that let everyone see its features without being blinding.

  The art depicted strange circular shapes folding into each other in a cacophony of colors, which would confuse many a person until they saw the title.

  ◆Interdimensional◆

  “I-Is that…?”

  “The corpse of a Shepherd, yes,” Oln confirmed.

  The initiate’s eyes lit up in awe.

  Meanwhile, the elf scoffed without even looking up from where she drew another part of a rune on the device.

  “You doomed an entire city for that thing. Such a waste! Seriously, was it even worth it killing all your precious humans who lived there?”

  The temperature dropped several degrees as the god of humans pinned the elven mechanic with his glare. The elf completely ignored it and continued to tinker.

  “H-How dare you speak like that to lord Oln–!” the initiate bit out, already stomping toward the elf. She froze in her steps when Oln raised his hand, still glaring at the elf.

  A moment of silence passed.

  “Yes,” the god stated, his tone cold. “As much as it pained me – yes, it was indeed worth it. A couple thousand lives is nothing if it gets us closer to ending the enemy once and for all. But you don’t need me to tell you, you know very well what’s at stake.”

  The elf sniggered.

  “Classic Oln. ‘It’s for the greater good!’ So noble! Well, not like I actually care. As long as it gets us to the hive.”

  Oln’s eyes narrowed further and his lips pursed in distaste. Every other human gritted their teeth and clenched their fists on their weapons, yet didn’t move. Not just because of their god’s orders, but also because barring the youngest one, they all knew very well how ineffective anything they tried would be against the elf.

  “Enough of this. Is the anchor stable?”

  Finally, the elf tore her eyes away from the device to glance at the god.

  “Stable? Absolutely not. What do you think we’re doing here? Building a shelf?” She rolled her eyes and reverted her needle into a card – it had the same spiky black rim with flickering dots of light as Oln’s essence, but lacked the glow.

  The elf straightened and locked eyes with Oln.

  “It’s as stable as I can get it. But what is it gonna do? Is it gonna carve the path that we want? Or is it gonna explode and kill you all? Who knows! I’d say it’s fifty-fifty odds!”

  The initiate paled at the words but didn’t dare speak up.

  “Not ideal, but it will do,” Oln said, ignoring the latter part of her response.

  The elf eyed the god.

  “Oh, really? You don’t mind it exploding and killing you, huh? Mmm, I wonder what an essence from a god looks like,” the elf ‘wondered’ out loud with a sharp grin.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  Already used to dealing with the elf, the human god ignored her jab and came closer to inspect the device. Obviously, unlike her, he didn’t have the skill and knowledge to tell whether this would be sufficient, but he would still go through with this. After all, this could be the key to ending the enemy once and for all. Losing a few of his followers here, even if not ideal, would still be worth it in the end.

  “Well? Any complaints, Olny boy? If you do, you can just hire one of your humans to try and match a god’s work, you know?”

  Once again, Oln turned his glare at the little elf, holding himself from smiting her where she stood.

  “We both know I won’t find anyone better for this job because of your domain.”

  “Ahahah, you flatter me so much!” The elf preened as she waved herself with a hand.

  Oln kept himself from reacting to the display. He knew it would only invigorate her further.

  “Enough of this. Let’s get started,” Oln ordered and gestured to his two aides to approach the device. They did so with their cards drawn.

  “Sure, sure. Let’s go tear reality into pieces! It’s gonna be great!” the irritating elf added.

  “W-Wait, what?!” the young initiate piped up, losing her composure. “That’s not what we’re doing here, is it?”

  “Of course not.” Oln bit out and threw another glare at the elf, who only gave him a sharp grin.

  “Then… Pardon me asking, but what is this device supposed to do, lord Oln?”

  The human god eyed her for a second as she stiffened under all the eyes directed at her. But to her surprise, instead of being scolded, Oln actually answered.

  “We are trying to create a bridge straight to the Liminid’s hive.”

  The initiate perked up upon hearing a familiar term.

  “You’re relatively new, so you don’t know, but we’re already tried many ways of getting to their domain.” Oln’s frown deepened. “All of which have failed, unfortunately.”

  “I… see. So this is another attempt?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will it work…?”

  “Who knows!” the elf interjected. “My bet is on it killing you all! Do you think I’ll be credited for the kills? I hope so!”

  “Ael,” Oln intoned, his tone freezing.

  All but his two aides flinched. The elf only grinned wider.

  “Yes, dear? Any problem?” From one moment to the next, the misty needle re-appeared in her hand.

  Oln’s eyes narrowed further but he refrained from making any aggressive moves.

  “Focus on the task. We have no room for error,” he reminded.

  “Oh…?” The elf’s eyes narrowed as she twiddled the needle with her fingers. “You think you have power over me, human? Just because I ascended later than you doesn’t mean you’re above me, you know?”

  A moment of tense silence followed as everyone stiffened. The only movement was the initiate mouthing ‘ascended’ in disbelief.

  Then the human god seemed to make a decision.

  “This is pointless. If you don’t feel like being helpful, then you’re not needed here. Me and my priests can handle the rest.”

  The elven goddess scoffed.

  “Ha! And let you have all the fun? I don’t think so! Let me just make a few adjustments here…”

  She flipped the needle in her hands and bent down to continue the inscription.

  Satisfied with how he mollified Ael, Oln stepped toward the device and motioned his two aides to surround it from the sides as he studied the thing.

  Truly unfortunate that he had to rely on someone like Ael. Even more unfortunate that she had been the one to luck into the time and space domains, but he knew better than to throw a tantrum over the unfairness of the world.

  Nonetheless, they needed to hurry before the tide of the monsters reach them as well. As effective as the invisibility field currently covering them could be, they couldn’t afford any distractions.

  “Hmm, yup! I think I’m done! This should work just perfectly!”

  “Good.” Oln nodded and glanced at each of his aides. “Let us begin, then. Mallo, Lina, you know what to do.”

  Both said their affirmation and pulled out cards.

  Oln took the essence he’d shown earlier, slowly lowered it toward the device… then paused and locked eyes with Ael.

  She smirked at him and wiggled her eyebrows.

  Unimpressed, the human god looked back at the device and finally activated the essence.

  It turned into a ball of brilliant light that overshadowed even the mid-day Sun – though thanks to their invisibility field, completely unnoticable by outsiders – and gradually seeped into the runes drawn on the device like a spilled ink bottle on a paper.

  The device began to hum and vibrate and soon they saw the first cracks in space around them.

  “Whooo! Didn’t explode! Nice… Now let’s–”

  Before she could finish her sentence, something burst inside the device and the force of it made it hop in place.

  “Whoa! Wait. No! You’re going too far! Dammit!”

  Unfortunately, the inanimate device didn’t listen to her nor did it care for her trying to modify some parts of the rune with her needle.

  “What’s happening?” Oln asked, his tone sharp.

  “The targeting’s all wrong! It’s going every which way! Why?! I thought I– Argh! I think the Liminids are interfering with it!”

  The phenomenon grew into an entire tree’s worth of dimensional cracks, winking in and out of existence as if being seen behind a moving lattice. Through the cracks, one could see distorted images of giant blocks of gray stone flashing by.

  Not wanting the experiment to fail again, Oln drew another card and immediately used it on the device, hoping to stabilize it.

  With a snap the device calmed down… and then began stuttering, teleporting centimeters away at a time, parts of it vanishing and reappearing at random.

  “What the fuck are you doing, you Ferrith dung?! You’re making it worse!”

  Oln gritted his teeth berating himself for acting so rashly.

  “How do we stabilize this again?”

  “I don’t know! This is going way beyond–”

  With a pop, the device disappeared.

  Like ripples in a pond, the cracks in space gradually winked out, taking any evidence of what had just occurred with them.

  The gathered elf and humans stared at the spot in disbelief for a moment. Then the elf opened her mouth to say something.

  But instead her eyes went wide and she let out a blood-chilling scream as she collapsed on the ground.

  None of the gathered humans had any idea why, except for Oln. His eyes went somehow even wider at what he’d felt. He frankly speaking couldn’t believe it.

  “Y-You… bastard!” the elf snarled as she climbed back to her feet, her eyes screaming murder. “What did you do?!”

  Oln had no answer. He could only stare at the elf’s changed visage. Her once glistening red hair had lost its shine and turn into dull red, while her eyes reverted to brown. Even her tail had disappeared like it had never existed.

  “You tricked me!” the now mortal elf howled. “You planned this all along to rid me of my divinity!”

  “I did not!” Oln shouted, breaking his composure – an act that somehow startled the other humans even more than the revelation that Ael had just ceased to be a goddess.

  “I see how it is,” Ael snarled in a low tone as violence lit up her eyes. “Old man Oln was jealous that an upstart like me got the better domains, huh? Planned on ambushing me and then–”

  Seeing as he wouldn’t be able to disabuse her of this notion, Oln saw no choice but to fight her right here right now. And if he had to do that, might as well be the first one to strike.

  With one swift motion, before she even finished her rant, he flicked a card in her direction, spearing her with a ray of light straight in the chest, killing her instantly–

  “Hahahaha! You think that will work?!” A voice called from behind him, causing him to whirl to face the threat.

  “Bastard! So I was right! You totally were gonna ambush me! Well, too bad! Even if I don’t have my divinity… hahaha! Look at this!”

  She flashed another one of those spiky black cards.

  “Looks like my divinity just broke into its components! Too bad, dirthole! I am still the queen of time and space!”

  She pulled out her needle card and transformed it. But this time, rather than a tiny needle, it turned into a giant greatsword many times her own size. The beast of a weapon let out torrents of mist that seemed to slow down the air around it to a crawl.

  “Evacuate!” Oln barked at his priests as he faced the maniac across from him.

  Luckily, despite clearly wanting to fight by his side, the priests listened and swifly left the place, leaving only him and Ael.

  He drew a card.

  She slashed with her sword.

  And a moment later, the great wall of Kamza screamed in pain.