Leviathana of Envy #4
“Hng—?”
“In this situation...?”
“Atomic Core?”
“Atomic Core's special ability definitely gives extra Factory Gauge, right?”
“But that's useless right now! We'll lose next turn to the replicated Nautilus attacks...!”
The students buzzed with confusion. I answered their rising doubts with a card.
“Deploy magic circle, Trojan Horse!”
Kiiieeeek...
The [Atomic Core] vanished into the belly of a massive wooden horse. The horse neighed once with a resounding prrrrng, then charged straight toward Leviathana's side of the field.
“What—?”
“Trojan Horse is a card that moves one creature from my side to the opponent's. In exchange, the opponent can't activate card effects from their side this turn.”
That was why she hadn't pulled out Siren Tower even after her Soul Points dropped below 1,000.
Of course, that wasn't the real goal.
“So you're handing the Atomic Core to that woman?”
“Sure, that dodges defeat next turn, but...”
Dodges defeat? Hardly. This was the setup for victory.
I drew the final piece from my hand—the last card I'd drawn this turn.
“And one more magic circle: Grave Robber Sorcerer Herethu!”
“...Grave Robber Sorcerer Herethu! Picks a magic circle from the opponent's graveyard and deploys it to your side or theirs!”
“M-my graveyard—?”
Eden's face lit up in realization with a gasp, while Leviathana scowled, her melted features twisting.
Without a word, I selected one card from Leviathana's graveyard displayed on the Battle Arc.
There was only one card I could deploy in this situation.
“From your graveyard, deploy Digest Fusion to your side!”
“—?!”
“Now I'll fuse one of your Void Slime - Blanks with the Atomic Core!”
-Grgrrrrrr...
The Blank mimicking [Nautilus] growled at the Trojan Horse. It drooled thick slime in insatiable hunger, then gaped its massive maw and swallowed the horse—and the Atomic Core inside—whole.
“Even if it copied Nautilus's appearance, the mimicry isn't perfect. Void Slime - Blank is still Darkness type! And the Atomic Core it just swallowed is Light type! Before the fusion even completes!”
Light and Darkness repel each other.
-Kyaaaaaaaah...!!
Boom! Boom boom!!
A glowing orb swelled like a tumor from the Blank's chest. The Nautilus-mimicking slime writhed in agony, its body dissolving into transparent mucus everywhere—like ice cream under the sun.
“Wh-what is—!?”
“Light and Darkness clashing—the two types repel, causing your Blank to self-destruct!”
And the Atomic Core suffered the same fate.
-Kya, ook, kweek, grraaack...!
Flash—!
Light erupted from the grotesquely melting, convulsing Blank. Cracks spiderwebbed across the Atomic Core's surface.
-Kak...!
A final death rattle. That was the trigger.
Kwaaaaaang—!!
Another explosion engulfed the field.
It swallowed the second Blank still on Leviathana's side as well.
“And now, Atomic Core's special ability activates! The moment this creature is destroyed! It destroys all cards on that side of the field and deals damage to the controller's Soul Points equal to the total stats of the destroyed creatures!”
“────!!”
“Atomic Core was destroyed on your side! So all cards on your side are destroyed!”
“Y-you—!”
“Two Blanks mimicking Nautilus, plus Atomic Core's total stats! Eat 8,500 damage, Leviathana!”
【Leviathana of Envy】
Soul Point 1,000 → 0
“Gasp, guhkk...”
Leviathana's Soul Points finally hit rock bottom, returning to zero. She convulsed with a strangled gurgle, rolling her eyes to glare at me.
“...Heh.”
Then, as her lower face melted away, she curved the corners of her eyes in a thin smile.
“Th-this timeee—, y-your victoryyy—, so envioussss—.”
Leviathana crumbled, losing even her human form. Yet she stubbornly pressed on.
“...Wh-what are you?”
“Heh, hehehehehe... Sliiiime—, spliiit—.”
“...!”
So that's it. My face twisted.
Not just me or the students—even with professors and guards surrounding us—she'd been so brazen. Turns out the Leviathana here wasn't the real deal.
“...You!”
“See youuu— againnn—?”
Splorch.
With those final words, her clone fully melted. All that remained was a mindless blob of slime.
§
“Hm—? Oh? It's cut off—.”
In the Bewitching Forest near Federico Academy, inside a small cave hidden by dense foliage and trees.
A woman muttered casually amid the flickering magical light sources casting eerie shadows.
Her black hair cascaded like a dark waterfall down to her hips. Beneath it, a flawless porcelain face gleamed. Upturned eyes, a tongue licking her lips at the slightest intrigue. Plump breasts and hips that seemed to yield under a finger's press, contrasted by a slender waist. And a thick jasmine scent wafting from her entire body.
Every element screamed seduction, enough to reduce any man—or beast—to putty.
Leviathana of Envy, one of the Seven Fingers executives commanding the continent's underworld.
Her true human form.
She blinked her magenta eyes wide upon sensing the signal from her clone at the academy cut off.
Federico Academy was teeming with powerhouses, professors included. Sure, time had drawn in profit-chasing flies, diluting its former glory, but its reputation still carried weight.
She'd sent a throwaway clone expecting as much, so its destruction wasn't surprising.
...But the memories are gone too?
The memory data that should have transferred to her upon the clone's demise never arrived, no matter how long she waited.
Only one implication: the clone took such catastrophic damage it had to abandon the memory transfer.
“Hng—.”
Leviathana let out a sultry moan, her tongue licking her lips with unusual stickiness.
“Well, still—.”
Her lips curved into a deep smile.
The lost memories stung, but she'd achieved her true aim.
“This— came through perfectly.”
Leviathana gazed down, savoring the immense power in her hand.
[Machinery's Abyssal Dragon - Nautilus].
More precisely, the Blank that had mimicked it.
Blank's limits meant it couldn't copy type, attribute, or special abilities—but this was harvest enough. Fully copying abilities would have been useless anyway, with no way for her to build Factory Gauge.
“...Hm—?”
Leviathana raised one eyebrow curiously. For some reason, the red camera eye on the card's Nautilus illustration seemed to glare at her fiercely.
“...Illusion—?”
But this was no true Nautilus—just her clone Blank, mimicking its form and partial power. No way it would turn hostile. She dismissed it.
Her mind was already elsewhere.
Blub...
That was her fatal mistake.
A bubble rose from the card's surface. Before she could react, it boiled up like a tumor and burst free.
“...Ah?”
The mechanical dragon's head formed in an instant, jaws gaping wide.
Crunch!
It chomped and swallowed her head whole.
Dragons symbolized legendary might—but also untamable violence.
Ricardo's dragons were avatars of war.
Even a copy was no match for a mere slime to control.
“G-guhk, grrrk.”
The headless body staggered, then straightened.
Leviathana was a slime; the human form mere mimicry. The head wasn't vital.
Still, the shock lingered. She regenerated her head with labored breaths.
In that moment, a tiny gap opened in the barrier sealing the cave.
The dragon card she'd briefly held bloated with black slime, rapidly rotting away.
“...S-sooo, annoyingly tricky...?”
Clutching her throbbing head, Leviathana ground her teeth.
To avoid a rampaging dragon, she'd opted for replication via Seven Fingers' secret arts instead of stealing the Origin Card outright.
Who knew even the copy would harbor such ferocity.
All she'd done was stir up the academy for nothing.
“Boss is gonna chew me out—.”
The Seven Fingers' real goal wasn't the dragon card.
That was bait. The true prize: an ancient demon card slumbering beneath the academy.
But with her clone infiltrating and even touching a student, plotting further would be tough for a while.
“Hmm— don't wanna deal with that—.”
That would mean taking the full blame from the boss—Pride's Chipera. She needed another way.
...Like a accomplice. Or a scapegoat.
“That guy's perfect—?”
Gluttony's Glontes, another executive—already beaten by her once, fidgeting over his diminished power.
Lure him with the dragon card, and he'd come drooling. She'd slip away scot-free.
If played right, she could pin everything on him. Leviathana giggled.
“Aww, what a shame—. The owner of a dragon with such a fierce ego... If I'd met him myself, I'd have hugged him tiiight—.”
Murmuring dreamily, she wriggled her voluptuous body and glanced at the sleeping elf girl in the cave corner.
Come to think of it, this elf was Ricardo Bardi's friend, right?
“So envious—. Makes me jealous enough to burst.”
Her slender finger poked the elf girl's cheek.
“What to do—.”
Her glossy lips parted. A snake-like tongue flicked out.
“Feeling a bit mean— right now.”