Miracle Card Shop: All My Cards Can Be Actualize

Leviathan looked toward the source of the voice and spotted a golden iguana perched on a custom-made piece of wood for pets. The iguana sat comfortably, uncaged, with a small wooden house just behind him.

{Mammon! Is that you!?} Leviathan sent a telepathic message in disbelief.

{Yeah, it's me,} Mammon replied calmly.

{HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Mammon! The demonic golden dragon! The greedy dragon who once slept atop mountains of priceless treasure—reduced to an iguana? And a pet for a child's enjoyment, no less! HAHAHAHA!} Leviathan laughed. If his mouth hadn't been bound by the restraints, he would have laughed out loud at Mammon's current state.

{You're one to talk, Leviathan. Aren't you in the same situation?} Mammon asked, his gaze pitying as he looked over Leviathan, now in the form of a small alligator, caged and powerless.

{Ha! I may have lost much of my power, but I've already regained some thanks to a fortuitous encounter! This is just a minor setback. I'll escape from here, and soon enough, I'll amass enough power to regain my throne! Meanwhile, you'll still be a mage's pet, you pathetic lizard! HAHAHAHA!} Leviathan sneered, feeling increasingly superior to Mammon with each word.

Mammon, unfazed by Leviathan's jeers, only looked at him with deeper pity. {Speaking of lizards… aren't you one yourself?} he replied calmly, his gaze filled with quiet sympathy.

{Wh... why are you looking at me like that?} Leviathan asked, feeling a strange unease as he looked into Mammon's eyes.

{Nothing. You want to escape from here, right? Well… good luck then... You'll need it.} Mammon replied indifferently before turning away and retreating into his wooden house.

Seeing this, Leviathan remained silent, thinking to himself. This fool has become too muddlehead. Mammon seemed perfectly content with his life as a pet, no longer striving to reclaim his former glory or regain his once-unrivaled power. This Mammon, the former Hell Lord of Greed, has lost his edge. How pathetic.

Yet… thinking of power stirred something in Leviathan's memory. He recalled the day he encountered that strange figure, the one who seemed to be a god's envoy. The Chromatic Philosopher's Stone he had obtained from him had allowed Leviathan to regain his power astonishingly quickly. Normally, it would have taken a hundred years to gather such strength, but with just one stone, his power had increased to this level.

That thing must be a divine relic—something that doesn't belong in this world. Otherwise, it could never have bestowed such incredible power from a single stone.

After a while, Leviathan heard a series of clicking sounds, like stones or glass balls being sorted in a box. Moments later, Mammon reappeared, perching back on the wooden bar with something held in his front paws. It was a Chromatic-like stone.

The sight of it shocked Leviathan to his core. He recognized that stone immediately—the pure, condensed sacred mana radiating from it was unforgettable.

{What!? What is that!? What is that thing in your hand!?} Leviathan demanded, unable to contain his astonishment.

*Munch*

Instead of replying immediately, Mammon took a few more bites and, when the piece was small enough, swallowed it whole. {Huh? What thing? It's just pet food—nothing special,} Mammon answered blandly, as though he'd merely eaten a typical snack.

{Do you take me for a fool, Mammon!? Isn't that...} Leviathan began, only to be interrupted by Mammon's telepathic response.

{Yes...}

{Yes, what, Mammon?} Leviathan asked, confused.

{I do, take you for a fool,} Mammon replied nonchalantly.

{You—!!} Rage surged through Leviathan, and he thrashed violently in the cage, desperate to break free or at least tear off the damn binding that tied his mouth shut.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Mammon watched Leviathan's struggle with mild disinterest, clicking his tongue in disapproval. "Tsk, tsk, tsk... Reckless."

The clamor from Leviathan's thrashing drew the attention of another creature. Sat, the dog, perked up its ears, roused from its nap outside its master's bedroom. Intrigued, it padded downstairs to investigate the noise, trotting directly to the cage that held Leviathan. Propping itself up with its two front paws on the table, the dog peered at the commotion inside the cage.

Leviathan immediately froze, feeling an intense gaze on him, and turned slowly toward the source.

A mixed-breed mongrel with a black, eye patch-like marking around its right eye—resembling a bruise—was staring intently at him, drool pooling at the edge of its mouth, then dropping on the table. Panting rapidly, it focused on Leviathan with the fixated stare of a predator eyeing its prey.

Leviathan felt a chill as he looked back, sensing an unexpected dread from the dog's gaze. Beneath the canine's dopey appearance, a feral, wrathful power seemed to lie dormant, masked under the guise of a harmless mutt.

{Sa... Satan? Wh... why are you here too?} Leviathan sent a telepathic message to the dog, sensing the infernal power of Satan lurking beneath the harmless guise of this mutt.

Sat tilted its head, confused by the strange message in its mind. It had no idea who "Satan" was and didn't care either. All it wanted was to devour the appetizing prey in front of it.

Woof!

Sat barked, eyeing the cage, which was already bent just enough for its mouth to slip through. Without hesitation, it leaped onto the table and pushed its muzzle into the cage.

"Mmmm! Mmm-mmm! Mmm!" Leviathan, alarmed by Sat's approach, retreated to the back of the cage, desperately avoiding the dog's drooling mouth, which left strings of saliva all over him.

At that moment, Tian Xingyun rushed over, lightly tapping Sat on the head. "Naughty dog! Bad dog! This is not your lunch!" She scolded Sat, pulling the cage away from it.

Noticing the bent bars of the cage, she glared at Sat with irritation. "You even tried to crush the cage! Are you that hungry? Didn't Sister Envy give you anything to eat, you greedy dog?" she scolded again.

*Whimper*

Sat whined, giving Tian Xingyun big, pitiful eyes as if to say the cage was already like that when it got there. But Tian Xingyun ignored the act completely, much to Sat's dismay, as it lay down with a wounded look, acting as if it had been wronged.

Tian Xingyun tore the cage door open, as it was too damaged to open normally. The moment she pried it loose, Leviathan lunged toward her, his eyes wide and desperate, looking like a lost puppy grateful for its rescuer after a near-death experience.

"Oh, it's okay. You must have been so scared. Just stay here while I get a few ingredients ready," Tian Xingyun said soothingly, moving Leviathan to the kitchen's prep table as she started gathering items for her stir-fried alligator dish.

Leviathan observed the setup in the kitchen, noting an array of vegetables and spices but no meat in sight. Was she making a vegetarian dish? he wondered. Glancing at the dining table, he saw that none of the dishes were vegetarian, so it was unlikely.

The question was... where was the meat?

Suspicion dawned on him as he glanced at Tian Xingyun, who was humming and smiling while she chopped vegetables for the stir-fry. A surge of survival instinct kicked in, and Leviathan leaped from the table to escape, but—

Zing!

A finger energy shot to the floor near him, blocking his path. Leviathan looked up and saw Tian Xingyun's cold smile.

"Your instincts are quite sharp, little one, but don't struggle. I'll make it quick—you won't feel a thing," she said with a bright smile.

"Mmmm! Mmm-mmmmmm!" Leviathan scrambled under the sofa in a desperate attempt to flee. Tian Xingyun wanted to stop him, but she hesitated, unwilling to damage the furniture, which wasn't made of the same durable, self-repairing material as the floor. Cursing under her breath, she set off in pursuit.

"Mmmm!" Leviathan tried to shout for help, but his mouth was still bound, so he quickly sent a frantic telepathic message to Mammon.

{Mammon! Help! Damn it, MAMMON!} Leviathan dashed past Mammon's wooden house, jumping up and down to catch his attention.

{What could I possibly do? I'm just a pet, remember?} Mammon replied nonchalantly, munching on a cherry tomato and acting like any ordinary iguana.

{F*ck you!} Leviathan mentally roared, then bolted in another direction as Tian Xingyun closed in on him.

Leviathan darted under the furniture, using it as cover to prevent Tian Xingyun from stopping him with her energy. He bolted from one piece of furniture to the next, knowing she hesitated to use her power for fear of damaging anything in her pursuit.

Then he dashed into a long hallway that led to Daniel's private workshop. The downside was that the hallway had no furniture to use for cover; the upside was the large aqueduct along one side. This duct was designed to funnel damaged or hazardous materials down to a furnace in the company laboratory beneath Daniel's house.

Leviathan quickly entered the duct, sprinting through it toward the workshop. But as he ran, he heard the faint wheeze of a motor and spotted a high-speed rotating blade whirring straight toward him. This blade was designed to clean out any debris in the duct, shredding anything that large enough to prevent potential blockages.