The ongoing conversation between Gdark and Gilbron continued in the alleyway, a distance away from the Grand Calvarias. The alleyway stayed between the humongous building its upper part took the shape of the shoe on the left, while the right one unfolded a cotton-white building with its rooftop projecting the show of ballet dancers majestically dancing in a circle.
Moreover, Gdark halted his footsteps when he reached a dead-end wall of the alleyway, peeking his sight to the back. He watched the trio lock their observative glances toward him, preparing to resume the flow of their conversation. A thrilled grin concealed on Gdark's lips, provoking him to turn around.
Beside Gdark's left, his close friend, Prila darted suspicious glances toward The Young Man who stepped forward. Blistering pink flashes temporarily shone within her eyes as she observed the trio of strangers, biting her lips in concern when she switched her stare to Gdark.
"If we wanted to settle our matters, we do it in Parallel Freedom," Gdark suggested, shoving his forehand that showed the black watch.
"Simply the pocket dimension I created to challenge my chosen foe such as you, " Gdark added.
Gilbron rubbed his chin and professed, "That's sound more exciting."
"So are we going to fight with our power or use Cardvalion instead?" Gilbron asked, boldly showing his red deck box.
Gdark sighed, "I supposed it was a good idea."
"So far, the players I defeated are a bunch of fools who rely too much on meta and archetypes," Gdark exclaimed and grinned. "I hope you can bring a satisfying match even though I will be the one who wins the match."
The recent answer of Gdark poured a bemused look on his close friend's expression, tilting his head onto him from left to right. Not only Prila, the blonde twin even dropped their shocked jaws at The Young Man who declared an out-loud chuckle and tightened the grip on his deck box.
"This is quite unexpected, but I do like this," The Young Man said, pushing his deck box on his chest. "So is there any special rule you wanted to make in our battle."
Gdark giggled and tapped the portal icon on his watch, "You will soon find out when we entered my dimension."
"Trophy Girl, you may go now," Gdark ordered and explained. "I wanted to settle this with Pendoswing alone. Also, this is just a simple card game fight."
"Gdark, you sure with this?" Prila asked worriedly. "You aware that you face one of the most infamous rogues?"
"I'm aware you wanted to settle the score by playing a silly card game, but please I suggest to let me join just in case there is something bad happens to you, Gdark," Prila insisted.
Gdark cleared his throat and shouted, "As I told you before, stay away now!!"
Prila could only wince in a shuddering hesitation and took a few steps back when she caught the sighting of the encircling particles emerging, whirling beneath Gdark and Gilbron like a storm. The Young Man switched his excited stare toward the blonde twins, heaving his eyebrows.
"Can I bring the twins too?" The Young Man made a request. "Don't worry, they are going to be a spectator."
Gdark grunted, "Fine."
"I shall do your request," Gdark stated.
"Then, step right into the portal," Gdark ordered, lifting his forehand to glance at the sky view and clearing his throat.
Casmine and Lorina traded their doubtful faces especially with Gdark boiling his irritated furrow, convincing The Young Man to thumbs up. Nonetheless, the blonde twin exhaled the hefty airs away from lingering in their throat, kindling their confidence as they stepped onto the whirling particles.
"Are you ready to watch Gilbron winning his favorite card game again, Lorina?" Casmine asked calmly at her twin sister and stroked the left side of her wavery hair that blocked her sight.
Lorina rolled her eyes, "Not exactly."
"I'm even more surprised, a wannabe supermodel intrigued to watch geeks settling their matter with a ridiculous card game," Lorina muttered, igniting the annoyance within her throat.
"At least it's better than eating dozen of food like a glutton pig," Casmine teased, crossing her arms and joyfully smirking.
A storm of particles gushed out, enveloping Gdark, and the trio that was similar to forming a giant cocoon. Therefore, the particles finally dispersed into a complete nothingness on the alleyway. The recent disappearance of Gdark led Prila to tap the golden earbud patching on her left ear, emitting a buzzing noise.
"Pendoswing has returned to Gloricon again," Prila blurted out a cautious warning, gritting her lips and sighing. "And he recently confronted Gdark. Specifically, they settled their matters in Gdark's pocket dimension."
"Possibly he returned here to make Gdark into his newest rival," Prila reported. "Also, my location is in the alleyway near the Rockastyle Shoe shop. Also, I will stay here to monitor our potential threats."
...
***
A blistering wave of particles rose in the middle of Parallel Freedom, shifting the entire area's color into a glimmering gold. The arising particles specifically spawned on the area filled with gushing cloudy surfaces, a group of translucent red and blue hovering cards on the sides, and lastly, the magenta card projection levitating on the center of the sky.
The particles quickly dissolved, transporting Gdark and his trio of future opponents into the pocket dimension's area. Gilbron dropped his jaw in thrill when he scanned the area, while Casmine inhaled the chilling air of the pocket dimension and encouraged her to close her eyes restfully.
As for Lorina, she closed her wrapping fist, commanding The Ghost Compass to cease out from her sight, leaving no traces anymore. Then, she tapped The Young Man on his left shoulder after watching Gdark taking a few steps forward. It lured Gilbron to shift his glance forward, slowly trailing his foe.
"No wonder there is no footage of you fighting so far, you hid your opponent in here. Gilbron uttered confidently, observing the card projection and blurting out a praise. "Impressive effort for creating the pocket dimension based on our incoming Cardvalion match."
"So it's the area is always like this or you always love to change it depending on your opponent?" Gilbron asked, sharpening his curious sight at his foe who paused his steps and turned around.
Gdark cleared his throat and smirked shortly, "I praise for your correct guessing."
"I indeed love to change the Parallel Freedom scenery with my mind," Gdark confirmed, snapping his fingers."Since this is a trading card match, I wanted Parallel Freedom to be changed like this."
"I'm surprised one of the dangerous rogues is a Cardvalion player," Gdark said.
A storm of particles materialized behind Gdark who caught the attention of his future foe to center his focus on it, quickly stepping closer. The particles faded out to produce the silk-white table with its surface reflecting the glowing screen's surface, popping out rainbow flashes for brief seconds.
Inside the screen on the table, a golden line lay in the center acting as the divider of the dark red area on the left and the navy blue area on the right. Each colored side of the table consisted of the three lined-up circles on the front, gleaming green icons that took the shape of the card, and lastly, the wide rectangular spot collecting the five azure blue diamonds being placed on the above left of the board.
The wary look began to unveil on Casmine as Gdark exposed his baleful expression and waved his provoking hand. Cold shiver stung into the course of her veins with Casmine feeling her legs tremoring in dread the longer she marked her staret her close companion's foe.
"Before we started to engage in our fight with a card game, how did you even find me in the first place?" Gdark asked, moving closer to the white table and putting his palm onto its freezing surface.
Gdark sneaked his sight at the twin and guessed. "Is it because one of the blonde twins has sort of tracking ability?"
"Thanks to Lorina, I can conveniently meet you in the card shop, The Mighty Viscable," The Young Man explained enthusiastically, directing his marking fingers toward Lorina who shook her head.
"Oh yeah, I forgot, we haven't properly introduced ourselves," Gilbron added, tapping his chest.
Gdark cleared his throat and countered, "I don't need you to explain a nuisance backstory of yourself.
" I already dug a dozen pieces of information about you and even the twins, especially in your previous fight with Triumph Makers," Gdark argued proudly, turning his vigilant sight toward the twin who anxiously cringed as if they caught the intimidating atmosphere before switching his sight at Gilbron.
Gdark chuckled and guessed, "I heard you even considered one of the most dangerous rogues in Gloricon because of your unstoppablecosmic power."
"It's exaggerating, but I do like that even Triumph Makers appreciate the effort of breaking my limit," Gilbron admitted gladly, holding the necklace and leniently swinging it from right to left.
"I do admit one of the members, Prila is indeed one of the toughest opponents I ever faced in my entire life," Gilbron mentioned, stinging the unnerving dread into Casmine as she frowned.
Afterward, Gdark occupied the red space off the board and hoisted his palm generating the gale of particles above him. The particles cleanly manifested into the deck of cards, allowing Gdark to hold it and push it to the deck zone on the right. A dark purple rectangular wormhole of the same size as the card emerged below Gdark's deck.
Noticing Gdark readied to engage the card match, The Young Man followed and marked the blue sport for his card spot by touching the table's edge. Gilbron grabbed his deck box and pulled out his deck of cards in his grip, placing them on the top of the card-shaped projection on his left, spawning the purplish wormhole beneath it. He whistled in amazement when watching the debut of the wormhole, immediately switching his attention toward his future foe.
"Is that the Null Zone?" Gilbron asked, pointing his fingers at the wormhole.
Gdark nodded, "Correct."
"Amazing," Gilbron praised before he coughed and resumed the conversation, "So can you teach me a bit about the rule?"
Gilbron scratched his head and admitted, "I haven't played the game itself for 2 years."
"I mostly collected the card for the past 2 years since I was too busy improving my power and perfecting my deck," Gillbron explained, sheepishly letting a giggle that flared an annoyed furrow on his foe's expression.
Gdark groaned, "Fine, I shall explain the game from the basics first."
"Thank you very much," Gilbron spoke thankfully.
The haunting fear within Casmine was slowly tamed when she eyed The Young Man, cheerfully giggling especially with her watching Gdark fueled his disgruntled face. Lorina peeked at her twin sister's recent demeanor, humming and pinching her chin the longer she locked her stare onto her.
"Ah yes, he is pretending tactic never gets old," Casmine commented. "It seems, his future rival even gets annoyed with it."
Lorina tilted her head to the right, "Since this is the fight between card game geeks, I didn't care much about it."
On the card game table, Gdark cautiously rotated his glance at the blonde twin before he switched back to The Young Man. Then, Gdark decided to pick his deck and repeatedly shuffle his card while centering his sight toward Gilbron, flaring his beating heart with the dark flames.
Observing that his future rival finished his shuffle and placed the deck on the top of the card projection, Gilbron smoothly copied the exact thing. He even raised the speed of the shuffle, painting surprised eyebrows on Gdark's entire face. It forced Gdark to take the six cards from his deck.
"You must take six cards from your deck," Gdark ordered.
"And after that pick which card you need to redraw," Gdark added, obtaining the view of The Young Man taking the six cards from his deck and dropping his gladful jaw. "Do you have any cards you need to redraw?"
Gilbron shook his head and folded all the six cards "I don't need it because I got a good card right now."
"So about this special zone?" Gilbron switched his attention to the rectangular spot filled with five gems. "Is this one the mana zone right?"
Gdark nodded, "You're indeed correct."
"Each of our cards contains mana cost on top right," Gdark spoke, tapping the above right side of one of his cards. "The manas will be restored in every turn if you are curious to know."
"Before we dive deeper into the game, shall we add a deal?" Gdark proposed, grinning in delight.
Gilbron giggled, "Why not."
"I like having more stake in the card game," Gilbron remarked, convincing Lorina to raise her bemused eyebrows and Casmine unfolding her mirthful lips.
"I do like enthusiastic spirit," Gdark replied, igniting the black torch on his palm and stretching his malicious smile.
Gdark chuckled, "It will be more satisfying when I crush your hope in Cardvalion!"
A storming black portal ascended from the dept of the ground behind Gdark, signaling the twin blonde to swallow a gulp of their salivas. The portal rapidly ragged out the towering object and dispersed into thin air. Gilbron extended his look of enthrallment at the fresh arrival of the new object joining their card match.
The new object was a towering black-cloth pillar with the shiny silver statue of the dreaded man unshackled his petrified jaw. Two giant magenta lanterns with shapes resembling human skeletons hung on the middle of the pillar, brimming the radiating white flashes. The debut of the pillar shivered Casmine as she frigidly rubbed her arms for a short time.
"Meet the reconstructed Bangasoul Pillar I gained from Langorold," Gdark announced.
Gilbron uncontrollably widened his enthusiastic jaw and murmured, "Interesting object."
"It is interesting because when you lose this card match, it will instantly collect your soul," Gdark stated brazenly. "Same with me if I somehow lost the match."
"Are you ready with this, Annoying Rogue?" Gdark added, hoisting his card in front of his sight.
Gilbron raised his thumb and assured, "I was born ready for having a deadly card game. So come on, bring your best shot!!"
…
***