O'Brien drove up to the storage facility the women had been previously kept in, following the arrows he left for Rose to make it out quickly.
To the women's surprise, all thirty-six lockers in the facility belonged to him.
They watched as he opened the doors and used a card to take away the contents of the first storage locker.
Two? There's one in his right hand, separate from the one he holds up, that seems to be the one taking away all the items.
Roya paid close attention to the methods O'brien was using for these magical cards. She was beginning to see just how extraordinary they were.
Jules couldn't help but ask, "How's he doing that? They just disappear into nothing. Is he destroying them?"
"Unlikely,” answered Lea, “Why go through so much trouble? He's probably storing them inside those cards."
"Yes, I think I heard him say storage and backpack when going over our cards at first, so I imagine he's putting them away somewhere else."
Despite saying this, Roya couldn't help but wonder how such a small palm-sized card held so many things. O'Brien was now at his 5th locker and was using the same card. He only switched to another one after the 7th.
“Maybe it holds some sort of pocket dimension?” Jules tried to guess.
They watched as he summoned a ring and a pouch, then put that pouch into the ring somehow.
The women all looked at each other, their eyes being questioned by their brain.
Spotting the roses coiled all over Rose, Lea shifted her attention to her friend. They didn't have much time before, but now there was a short break from the madness.
"Hey Rose, what's the deal with your new look? And those thorns on your body… Don't they hurt? "
"I don't… I don't know,” Rose muttered softly, looking down at herself. “It just happened. One moment I was tied up, the next a warmth seeped into my heart from the outside. My blood felt like it was boiling. I had a few waking dreams… Before I knew it, my binds came loose and I looked like this…"
She then looked at her hands, blood still under her fingernails. "I felt pretty powerful and gained new abilities from nowhere. Blood Sucking Thorns and Cursed Blood Power; their names just appeared within my mind. And while I was still in shock, I stumbled out of the place… That was when I saw people get attacked. Subconsciously, I used those abilities to fight off the monsters. It felt like second nature, like breathing and blinking, like I was born with these abilities all along.”
A scene seemed to flash through her sky blue eyes and she shut them tightly. “Unfortunately, I couldn't save half of the people I tried to. There were women, children, the old and frail. I had to watch as they died before me... I could hear them while fighting monsters…”
“The bones breaking, flesh tearing, blood splashing and the screams… Oh the screams… I never thought screams could contain such palpable fear and distraught until then. Until I heard them with my own ears..." She hugged herself, her voice trembling with her body.
There it was.
The reason she had been quiet all along.
As she let it out, the other women looked at each other. All familiar with her heart of hearts, how she must have suffered from being able to help, but not being able to help to the end.
Jules stepped forward to hug the shaking Rose, but only held her hand due to the thorns. Lea held the second hand, squeezing in comfort. Roya patted a part of Rose's shoulder somewhat mechanically, not really one to deal with emotional situations.
As they quietly comforted her, they heard a voice.
The content of the words and the familiar voice it belonged to caused them all to reel back in uncertainty.
It came from a tent larger than any of the storage lockers, as wide as three and tall as two, placed oddly in the corner.
"My wonderful baby. I missed you so much. Did you miss me?" Seeing O'Brien hug the head of a huge RV and act coquettish shocked the four onlookers, some with their jaws hung low in unspoken surprise.
Who was this imposter?!
When O'Brien saw them coming, he slowly stepped back, pretending nothing had happened without so much as a change in facial expression.
Yet his heart was beating thunderously in his chest.
All or nothing.
He took out the Black Iron Sealing Card he got from the women, pointing it towards the 55-foot long behemoth of a vehicle weighing several tonnes.
In reality, the Blue Stone Sealing Card he had collected himself could have possibly done the trick, but he was afraid it would be insufficient and shatter due to the size and complexity of the vehicle, so he opted for the higher quality sealing card just to be safe.
In the future, many would curse this prodigal son for using such a card on a old world technology, a mere man-made thing.
Wouldn't it be beneficial to simply use it on a monster or alien race? Maybe some great equipment made from card materials? Instead, it was wasted on something so trivial for survival.
But O'Brien couldn’t care less. He bought this vehicle for eighteen million, customized it for three million, and had additional special customizations by various experts which cost him ten million.
A lot of it could have been cheaper, but he needed it fast with a high quality, and that came at a premium. The spare parts cost another four million.
The total cost added up to a whopping thirty-five million.
Even the rich would look at him like a fool.
Even the workers mocked him, despite getting paid a pretty penny to drop everything and focus on getting it ready.
This RV was in breach of several laws and couldn't travel across a city, much less a state. It was too wide and the off-road wheels were too large. No car or truck could be beside him without risk.
Highways shunned this beautiful monster.
It was undrivable on almost any road in the world. The only smart thing he did was give it special off-road wheels, but even then it would struggle in the wilderness terrain with so many trees everywhere.
But O'Brien was adamant. He didn't care about the naysayers. This was luxury. This was a home. This was everything he ever wanted outside of cards in the future.
This also caused him to be so anxious at this moment.
If the card didn't seal the RV properly, his baby would be in much more danger in the New World.
Fortunately, he was worried for nothing and it was sealed up nicely. Forming a card depicting the crossover Marchi-Provost masterpiece with a Jet-inspired cockpit. This Custom SSR 180 Palazzo-Provost Ultimate was a thing of beauty.
O'Brien put the spare parts in his storage ring and concluded clearing out his storage lockers.
Stolen story; please report.
He would be self-sufficient for years on end.
*
"Was that an RV? Looked expensive."
"Forget that. Did you see how he was talking to it? Who was that person? Does he have a split personality?"
"Unlikely. It's probably just a difference in attitude. The truth of the matter is...we're likely placed lower in his heart than the RV."
“You think?”
On the drive back, hushed whispers in the back of the car discussed the prior wack series of events.
But it also brought to light something very clear.
"You've been preparing all along, haven't you?" Rose asked.
"Of course. How else would I have brought you in long before it began?" O'Brien responded, his tone much gentler but still lacking genuine kindness.
Had it been anyone else in the car, he might not have even responded.
"We're here, cutting it close on time with eight minutes remaining." O'Brien halted the beat-up car at a familiar skatepark a few feet from an ancient monument. It looked to belong to some civilization long faded in history.
The two-meter-tall earthy tombstone lay dead in the middle of the altar. The women were once again drawn in by the magic of this new creation, matching the mystery of the cards.
Under the curt guidance of the lovely Prince of Douche Kingdom, they each stepped forward to touch the yellow light one after the other, from youngest to oldest.
Where these altars and medallions came from, very little was known. Their markings and architecture somewhat matched that of the Orginal Civilization, posthumously dubbed Card Primal.
Ruins, secret realms, lost artifacts, and the ever-so-rare wandering NPCs, little was known specifically about the civilization, but remnants and fragments guided the Card Masters of the New World.
Knowledge of the realms of evolution and how to ascend from one rank to the next were gleaned from traces of this civilization, outside of that done by deduction and Fate-type cards.
Deductions from discoveries brought forth the possibility that the primary race of the Card Primals were humans from another place.
Each fragment of this civilization, once deciphered, saved decades and centuries of hard work for Earth's humanity.
Jules knew nothing of the Card Primals, of course, but she felt a subtle attraction to the magical medallion the moment she dripped her blood onto it as instructed.
Something inside her, something that she never knew existed, was tingling in anticipation.
It was like her very soul was thirsty and thick with desire for the warm yellow light.
As more and more of her blood dripped from her palm and seeped onto the earthen monument, the light shone brighter, almost blinding her.
The energy seeped into her body, resting between her kidneys and accumulating until they released an exploding sensation.
Soon after, her mind went blank, her entire body becoming soft as if she fell into a quagmire of clouds. Her heart relaxed, her fine hairs flattened, and her pores re-opened again.
In a short while, her entire body was perspiring.
She felt a warm embrace. She did not remember her time in the womb, but somehow she felt it was like this.
The whole experience felt long but only happened in a short amount of time.
A fleeting sensation, leaving as soon as it came.
Jules returned to her senses and felt something within her. She focused her attention into her body and found that below her navel and in between her kidneys were located, an aperture had formed out of thin air.
‘This is what I need to use those magical cards?’
The aperture was mysterious and unusual. Although it was located inside Jule’s body, it simultaneously wasn't sharing the same space with her internal organs. You could say that it was an infinitely small endless void.
Some called it the Nucleus of Evolution, Mana Heart, God's Source, and so on, but its most popular term of reference was the Card Pool Aperture.
The aperture was spherical, its surface covered in a thin layer of flowing white light. It was the layer of light from the medallion that previously exploded within her.
This thin membrane of light supported the aperture so it would not collapse, and inside the aperture was the card pool filled with mysterious energy akin to pond water.
The fluid energy was smooth like a mirror, an ashy grey color that was dense with a dark smoky lustre.
Only Tier Zero Card Masters could form this ashy grey sea essence, known as the sea of ashes.
This card essence was used by Card Masters to nourish, seal, and activate magic cards. That meant that from then on, Jules had formally entered the realm of a Tier Zero Card Master, a Card Apprentice. She was now a transcendent being, no longer purely mortal.
"If you want to soak in the sights you can, but time is ticking, so move over so the others can use it." O'Brien's lazy voice brought her back to reality.
Jules was excited to show the others, but quickly made way for them. She saw her smiling aunt and was going over to her to share the joy when O'Brien's annoying voice reached her again.
"Take out that favorite card of yours. The one with the boots. They are the best choice you have for your natal card. Your aperture is the most basic and many functions have yet to be revealed. Once you try to use the card, you will be drowned a powerful feeling to absorb the card. Don't resist it. It will shape your aperture into something more unique and powerful. You will also gain some powerful abilities through the natal card which you can use at will."
Jules's rapid steps slowed in tempo hearing this. He was actually not being a jerk for once.
She took out her favorite card in hesitation. The beautiful boots worthy of a god's feet enamored her even more, now that she was a transcendent being.
"How exactly do I do that?" she asked with barely concealed joy.
"Simple. Just focus on your newfound aperture and carefully move the water from within, directly into the card," O'Brien instructed, looking up to the colorful void in the sky that spit out the magical cards. "You can also hold the card and try to think about throwing it within the sea inside the aperture and that will do."
Meekly, Jules did as instructed.
Within her aperture, the unknown card depicting boots appeared above the sea. It slowly sank within it and was swallowed by her primal urge to evolve.
In the following moments, Jules watched with wonder as the card glowed brighter and brighter, gushing out golden light and transforming her card aperture bit by bit.
Soon an extra wall paved with gold covered the aperture, bright wings of light on each side. The former pool of ashy essence remained largely unchanged, save for penetrating several layers deep. It occupied only one layer before, but now it occupied five and a half layers in the aperture. The sea floor was no longer visible.
Most importantly, she now knew what the unknown card was and the amazing abilities it brought her.
The Legendary Relic, The Boots of Hermes.
Before Jules could fully explore and try out these new abilities, she heard a low rumble.
She looked over to Roya and Lea who had finished awakening their aperture and were similarly shocked.
"It's here,” O'Brien calmly dictated as he led by example, “Grab onto the Hope Medallion and hold tight."
The Prime Terraforming Event was here at long last, the true start to the New World.
It started as a dull rumble, easy to ignore at first, but soon a vibrating hum arose, growing louder, more insistent, until it became an unsettling roar from deep within the Earth's core. This was when the real chaos would begin.
The ground fractured underfoot with an ear splitting crack, jagged fissures snaking across sidewalks, sending manhole covers rocketing into the air as the planet violently expanded beneath their feet.
Buildings shrieked in protest, concrete foundations mangled as the buckling earth heaved them aside like toys.
The streets ruptured, tossing the poor abused vehicles high before they smashed down, some exploding in flames.
At first, the expanding horizon was scarcely noticeable, but soon it was horrifyingly clear that the Earth's very curvature was distorting, stretched out of shape as it swelled to many times its normal size.
What moments ago had been familiar city blocks were now becoming an alien landscape, nightmarish visions clawing their way out of the underworld.
Colossal mountains burst forth like the bony fingers of a long-buried titan, peaks vanishing miles overhead into roiling thunderclouds.
Vast forests and winding rivers erupted where concrete jungles once stood. Entire neighborhoods were swallowed by rising seas, lost beneath the black waves forever. Normal trees grew taller than the city skyscrapers.
All around, panicked screams and wails of terror echoed through the streets. But there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide as the world was torn asunder beneath their feet.
A primal force had been awakened. An ancient evil was remaking the Earth itself into a ghastly realm. As familiar sights warped into a hellish landscape, all hope was lost. The planet had turned against humanity at long last.
The sky stopped trembling, now housing two extra moons, red and purple, forming a trio with the silver white moon.
The bright card-shaped light seemed like a close constellation, having several belts of asteroids visible. This vision would continue even in the day time, though not as vivid.
Here it had descended at long last.
The Devil's Crusade New World.