Card Apprentice Daily LogCard Apprentice Daily Log
Date: Unspecified
Time: Unspecified
Location: Lil Red Storm Planet, Unspecified
Listening to the celestial core spirit, with its sweet and innocent voice, beg him to stop hurting it. Wyatt was taken aback and left speechless. The spirit's voice resembled that of an eight-or nine-year-old child, and hearing such a voice wailing and crying was good for his fighting spirit when one was fighting for their life. It was disheartening, making the adrenaline in his body rush backward.
Wyatt was at his wit's end. Based on his calculations, at the current rate his plague was consuming his energy, devouring the core, and multiplying, he would run out of energy before he could even break through the core's outer shell, let alone reach the spirit at the center of core. This meant his loss was definite. In an attempt to increase his chances, Wyatt stopped the multiplication of his plague, though this action was not without cost. Given the size of the core and the time it would take for his plague to devour it, his odds remained bleak.
Interestingly, once his plague started devouring the core, the core ceased its signature combo attack of celestial force and space rule, which had previously been diminishing the plague's numbers. As a result, the plague's cell count remained constant. Seeing this, Wyatt didn't hesitate to halt the plague's multiplication altogether to buy some more no matter how insignificant.
This was only possible because instead of retaliating, the core spirit screamed in pain and begged Wyatt to stop, as if the agony made it forget to fight back. Wyatt pondered whether the pain of being devoured was too overwhelming or if the core spirit had never experienced pain before and therefore lacked the mental and physical resilience to cope with it. Even the slightest pain seemed to render it helpless. It act very much like a child that fell for the first time.
Considering the toughness of the core's outer shell, Wyatt believed the former was impossible. It had to be the latter-the celestial core's spirit was mentally fragile, like a child experiencing the ant's bite for the first time.
His observations, combined with the core spirit's pleading, made Wyatt feel that violence might not be the best solution to his current predicament. Perhaps persuasion was the answer. As he continued his assault, he finally responded to the spirit's pleas, 'You're the one who attacked us first: Hearing Wyatt's reply, the spirit, amidst its agony, felt a glimmer of hope and hurriedly said, 'No, I didn't! I just wanted to stop you from leaving. Please stop-it hurts! I won't attack you anymore. From this exchange, Wyatt realized that while the spirit sounded like a young child, it was far more mentally mature but had little to no experience with the worldly affairs. Yet, it was capable of holding a complete conversation and conveying its intentions. He believed this was due to the celestial skill 'Celestial Voice.'
Though the spirit claimed it would no longer attack, it also mentioned it didn't want them to leave. Wyatt didn't ease his attack, let alone stop it. He intended to use the spirit's pain as leverage to persuade it into allowing them to leave this realm peaceful or more.
'Don't lie. What about the meteor strikes you launched at us from your nearest planetary ring?" Wyatt pointed out.
'I only did that to scare your friend, to stop her from struggling. Although she's not strong, she managed to pinpoint the weak spots in my celestial space hold and attack them. She almost succeeded in breaking free if I hadn't immediately reinforced the areas she targeted. Had she been a little faster, I wouldn't have been able to stop her. So, I used the meteor shower to distract her. I never meant to harm you or your friend from the start. Please stop hurting me; the core spirit explained, causing Wyatt to understand that the spirit took pride in its 'Celestial Space Hold' skill and had some battle experience.
'If you didn't mean us any harm, why did you use your celestial space hold on us and lock this realm out of the myriad realms?' Wyatt asked. The core spirit was being cooperative, so Wyatt decided to ease his attack to show that if it continued to cooperate, the pain would lessen or even stop.
'I only used my celestial space hold because you insisted on leaving, even though your friend asked you to stay and continue what you were doing. Now that you know I didn't mean any harm, can you stop hurting me? It really hurts, the spirit replied, its tone appeared to blame Wyatt for current situation, as if it had no fault in how things had escalated.
From the spirit's words, Wyatt realized it was referring to the time he and the Field Marshal were arguing about whether to leave the realm or continue mining it. It seemed the spirit had been monitoring and eavesdropping on them. When Wyatt ultimately decided they should leave, the spirit had acted swiftly to stop them, leading to the current situation.
It became clear to Wyatt that the spirit truly hadn't intended to harm them. He had misunderstood it. His first instinct upon discovering its presence had been to retreat to the Dark Realm did not help either. Still, this wasn't enough to put him at ease. Though the spirit wasn't as strong as a celestial being, it was still far stronger than him and the Field Marshal combined. Wyatt needed reassurance before he could let his guard down.
With a plan forming in his mind, Wyatt decided to find out what the core spirit wanted from him. Why don't you want me to leave?' he asked.
Only by understanding what the celestial core spirit wanted from him could Wyatt decide on a bait to manipulate the spirit. If it was truly as innocent as it sounded, then that should be easy. Then, not only would he be able to get it to allow them to leave the realm peacefully, but he could also try his luck and seek its permission to continue their mining activities.