The woman before him was mesmerizing, yet strange. She moved with the grace of a dancer, her eyes calculating, intaking Clyde inside and out. In fact, she seemed predatory. Her golden dress looked fancy enough to immediately draw the gazes of a king’s court. A contrast to the robes worn on the card.

“Come, take a seat anywhere,” she said in a musical voice. Despite making it sound like a choice, the sorceress sat him on the bed. “Give me your pledging words.”

Somehow, Clyde knew them without being instructed—he just did. They flowed out of his tongue, a chant and a song.

“Let my strength reawaken the golden veil between our worlds. My essence becomes one with the cards. My deck leader, Amina, I call you into this world. Into my heart.”

The sorceress seemed giddy from the words. She walked over to Clyde and surprised the young man with an undeserved kiss. It took him a second to realize that’s how she made her deals. Magic-style.

“With that sealing oath kiss, my power is yours,” she whispered. “My power, heart, essence. I hope we’ll get to know each other, very well.”

[Your relationship with Amina has changed from neutral to interested.]

[You have received the rest of the Sorcerer’s Creed deck. Congratulations, you can now challenge card bearers to a duel. You may choose a Real game with stakes, Non-real without stakes, or a practice game, a game without the magic used to summon attackers or events. Warning: there are dark forces out there that can only be dealt with via the game of Stone-Tokken. Losing to them will have dire consequences.]

Just like that, he was back in the restaurant. Dark and Selkie’s stares seemed to penetrate him. Glowing gold marks that looked trees briefly flickered on Clyde’s wrists before fading out of existence.

“The tree of life,” Dark hissed. “Never thought I’d see it.” He looked at Clyde. “I suppose you’re going to gloat.”

“Gloat?” Clyde said, “no.” He shook his head. “I think I need therapy. Maybe guidance. Because over and over, I keep allowing myself to get pulled into things.” He rested an elbow on the table. “So, there are dark forces and losing to them ensures dire consequences. Shadow realm shit probably. Goddammit. What did you trick me into? Don’t answer that. I know. The deities above were going to sign me up for this whether I wanted to play or not. None of them understand what’s like to be ripped from your world and thrown into both heaven and hell.”

Dark nodded.

“No use complaining about it now. Unless you want to surrender your powers to me.”

Clyde shook his head.

“Even I know it doesn’t work like that.”

“Not when you’re born with the power,” Selkie said.

“What? What do you mean, born with this?” Clyde said, raising an eyebrow.

“You were born with your powers,” she said. “Anyway, I’ve said too much. Way too much. Dark, teach him the game but don’t challenge him in anything other than a practice match, then let’s go. We’ve got a few hours left to get to the airport.”

“Can we take this somewhere else?” Clyde said.

“We could always go outside in the heat,” Dark said.

“And what, play on the ground?” Clyde said.

“No, a real game will summon something like a mat in front of you, midair,” Dark said. “Suitable for a supreme being like me. But… well, you’ve seen Yu-gi-oh, right?”

“Don’t tell me the—”

“Yep,” Dark said. “And you’ll lose real HP.” He gave Clyde an evil grin. “Hope you enjoy the game.”

“Well, I guess this is far from the worse decision I’ve made,” Clyde said, voice tinged with a little sarcasm. “Let’s get this over with. I suppose you’re not going to go easy on me.”

“The lord of the dark goes easy on no one,” Dark said.

Dark started with the basics of the game. Summon attackers and deplete your opponent’s life force. Each player is still subjected to HP damage during a Real or Non-real game.

The chuuni drilled Clyde on the basics for nearly an hour until he felt the young man was ready for a practice game.

“Let’s roll for first,” Dark said, pulling out a small die. “In a Real or Non-real game, it’s determined at random by…well, you’ll see.”

[You have accepted a practice duel with Dark.]

“Six to your four. I’ll start with this. Summon attacker Dark Flow, Hines. Go.”

“The practice game is going to feel dull,” Selkie said. “But in the Real and Non-real, the environment can change. Also, there is no limit on the number of players in a fight, so if you’re outnumbered, run.”

[Field, opponent: Dark Flow, Hines.]

Clyde drew from his deck, his hand now containing six cards. First-turn opponents weren’t allowed to draw.

“First, I’ll play….Fever Draw. Paying two hundred life force. Draw two cards. I uhmm..”

He was a little disappointed to not draw his deck leader until he saw the card that could remedy that. The cards in his hand seemed to shimmer and vibrate. “Let’s try this guy out.”

[Field, you: SC- Druid Karla.]

“Her effect when summoned allows me to add a Sorcerer’s creed card from my deck to my hand then—”

“Yeah, no, Hine’s effect triggers,” Dark said, thrusting out his right hand. Clyde frowned.

[Field, opponent: Hine’s instant effect.]

“Once per turn, during any turn, I can deactivate your silly effect by discarding one Dark Flow attacker.” He smirked. “Get that shit out of here.”

Clyde’s eyes widened. He also realized that both the chuuni and Selkie took this game very seriously. Too bad his effort was wasted.

[Field, you, Druid Karla’s effect.]

“Nice try but Karla’s other effect, which is also an instant, deactivates your effect first then destroy it.”

“What?” Dark said. Clyde was surprised it wasn’t one of those over exaggerated anime yells.

“Now I’ll add my deck leader if you don’t mind.”

“Actually, do mind—I know how powerful that card is,” Dark said. “So eat this. Action card, instant. Falling down.” He made to sure to play that after Clyde added his deck leader. “We both shuffle our hands into the deck and draw the same number of cards and then one extra.”

Clyde glared at the smiling chuuni.

“The great lord of the dark will not let some amateur have his way.”

Clyde frowned at his new hand. A hand without the deck leader.

“Since Karla’s power is higher than Hines, kill.”

[Field, you, battle step, Karla attacks.]

Clyde saw Dark move to play one of his cards and said, “let me guess. You’re going to stop the attack.”

“I’m going to do better than that, light lover,” he said. “Feast your eyes on this.” He made an exaggerated motion then placed his card on the table. “Action card, instant. Shattered offense. And I’m going to combo it with this.” He sat down even another card. “Action card, instant, double damage. So not only does Karla goes bye-bye, but you take damage equal to her power. Doubled.”

“Wow, what bullshit,” Clyde said as he placed his druid in the graveyard.

“Welcome to my world.” Selkie was leaning right over him. He turned, attempting to tune her out. At least she didn’t backseat-play his cards. Her perfume smelled incredibly expensive.

[Clyde LF remaining: 500]

[Dark LF: 1000]

“May as well call it quits,” Selkie said. “Now that you’re wide open, he’s going for the fucking murder house.”

Dark grinned.

“Do you have more plays or will you end?”

“I end my turn,” Clyde said reluctantly.

Dark nodded when he drew his card.

“When I return to this city, you’d better be well-versed in this game. Because we’re going either Real or Non-real, maybe in the middle of my dark palace.”

“Dark palace?” Clyde said, confused.

“Oh, we never told you where Charles is actually living,” Selkie said. “I gave him one of my spare palaces. He has his own servants too, but if you ask me, many of them would rather ruffle his hair and spoil him than—”

“Don’t carelessly give away my secrets,” Dark exclaimed.

Clyde nearly choked on the air.

“You have a palace? What the fuck—these assholes only gave me an apartment. I have to fight to the death against thousands of nightmarish horrors and all I get is….” He paused, raising a hand at Selkie’s incoming protest. “I get it. Anime main character. This is still horseshit and I’d like to file a complaint.”

“Says the guy with a harem,” Dark said.

“I don’t have a harem,” Clyde snapped, only to invoke Dark’s laughter. “Freaking palace and servants. You still up for trading stone for leaf?”

A few moments of silence and they both laughed.

“Well, time to die,” Dark said. “Activating Hine’s other effect.”

[Field, opponent. Hine’s effect.]

“He can tribute himself and evolve. I’ll let you see—”

As if triggering a cliché, Clyde’s phone rung. He answered.

“Clyde, you have to come quick. We saw Melody and Chika bolted after her,” Harumi said. “Somehow Chika obtained her number and they’ve been taunting and arguing since last night. Can you ask Selkie to teleport you? We’re on Twenty-first street. Hurry.”

“We’ll be right there—shit. What is she thinking in broad daylight? Both of them.”

Clyde warped his phone back to the inventory. “We could really use your help, Selkie. Melody’s a trickster demon and is the daughter of some demon god.”

Selkie’s eyes widened. Even Dark stood, instantly recalling his cards into the inventory. Clyde did the same.

“Where to,” Selkie said, voice deadly.