Chapter 173 - 172: One After Another
Leon encountered the Shuffle Demon at Watchtower Port; otherwise, the Volcanic Island was crawling with creatures, from Fire Melt Salamanders to Salamanders, from Magma Land Sharks to Efreeti—it had everything. A mere Shuffle Demon would never have reached him.
"You smell like Impermanence Cards."
No, it wasn’t Leon who discovered the Shuffle Demon first. It was the Shuffle Demon that found him, jumped in front of him, and only then did he recognize that the short, gnome-like figure hindering his path was a Shuffle Demon.
That wasn’t surprising. Leon had never seen a Shuffle Demon before, and naturally wouldn’t pay attention to one unless it blocked his way. At that moment, he recalled something the Brass Dragon once mentioned—
Shuffle Demons are diminutive fairy-like beings resembling gnomes, obsessively infatuated with fate itself. Their very bodies are composed of cards, roaming between the Material Plane and the Fairy Wilderness, endlessly searching for Impermanence Cards.
"So, then what?" Leon thought to himself. Shuffle Demons collect, trade, and hoard cards—even leaving behind cards for adventurers in desperate need of them. But they might also snatch Impermanence Cards from innocent owners, aiming to manipulate the fate of the multiverse through some incomprehensible means.
"What is it that you want?" Leon asked with genuine curiosity about the Shuffle Demon’s intentions in stopping him.
"Are you carrying Impermanence Cards, or have you come into contact with them?" The Shuffle Demon ignored Leon’s question and instead asked, "Do you have a complete set, or just individual cards?"
Leon had no particular pressing matters to attend to and was simply wandering in Watchtower Port. He wasn’t opposed to indulging the Shuffle Demon in conversation, and said, "Why don’t you answer my question first? You still haven’t answered me."
"Look over there; there’s a cat," the Shuffle Demon suddenly said.
Leon followed the Shuffle Demon’s gaze and indeed saw a cat—skinny and fragile, curled up in the corner of a wall. Then he noticed the Shuffle Demon rubbing its fingers together, summoning a spectral card out of thin air and hurling it at the cat. The spinning card brutally gutted the cat before vanishing.