THE CARDS OF FORTUNE: THE REVENGE OF THE SCORNED SON-IN-LAW

Chapter 6: The Third Card Of Fortune

Ethan stared at the third card in his hand, but for several seconds, he could not bring himself to turn it over. After everything that had happened tonight, he had learned one thing: the cards were never as simple as they looked.

His thumb slowly brushed across the smooth surface as an uneasy feeling settled in his chest. What kind of fortune was waiting for him on the other side? He took a deep breath and forced himself to stop imagining the worst. Whatever was going to happen would happen.

With deliberate care, Ethan turned the card over.

The moment he saw the front, his breath caught.

Golden words shimmered against the dark surface of the card, glowing softly as though they had been written with liquid gold.

ETERNAL DIVINE GUARDIAN.

Ethan stared at the words, expecting something to happen, but nothing happened. His eyes moved from the card to the old man sitting across the table. The old man remained completely silent, his expression impossible to read.

Ethan frowned. "That's it?" he asked, genuine confusion entering his voice. "What does this mean?"

The old man gave him no response.

Ethan looked back at the card and turned it between his fingers, examining it from different angles as if he might discover some hidden message. “Eternal Divine Guardian,” he murmured, testing the strange words in his mouth. “Is this supposed to be the fortune?”

The old man’s eyes widened slightly when he heard those words, but he still said nothing.

Ethan waited a few more seconds before slowly exhaling. The tension that had been building inside him finally began to ease. Maybe he had expected too much. Perhaps this was simply another meaningless reward, something that sounded impressive but had no real effect. The old man's earlier warning suddenly seemed unnecessary.

Suddenly, the temperature dropped.

A chill swept across the room so suddenly that Ethan felt it crawl beneath his clothes. His skin prickled, and a thin cloud of white mist escaped his lips when he breathed. He looked around in confusion, wondering if he had somehow imagined it.

"What the hell?" he muttered, his heart already racing with fear.

Before he could make sense of what was happening, the lights above them flickered twice, then every light in the room went out, and darkness swallowed everything.

Ethan's body stiffened. He immediately pushed himself to his feet, his chair scraping across the floor with a sharp sound that seemed unnaturally loud in the sudden silence. He stared into the darkness, trying to see anything at all.

"What is happening?" he demanded.

The old man did not answer. He did not even move, and that frightened Ethan more than the darkness.

The old man had warned him that the third card was different. Whatever was happening now, he clearly knew about it. Yet he sat there as calmly as if he were waiting for a cup of tea.

A deep rumble suddenly rolled through the room.

Ethan froze immediately.

At first, it sounded distant, almost like thunder buried beneath the earth. Then the sound grew louder, and the windows began to shake violently. The table trembled beneath Ethan's hands while the chairs rattled against the floor. Glass vibrated in its frames, producing a sharp, nervous ringing that filled the room.

Another powerful tremor passed through the building.

Ethan instinctively widened his stance to keep his balance. “Old man, what did I just trigger?” he demanded, his voice rising above the growing noise as he struggled to see in the thick darkness. “Tell me what is happening!”

Still, the old man said nothing, as if whatever was happening meant nothing to him.

Ethan suddenly felt something warm against his palm, and when he looked down, he saw the card glowing. His eyes widened as the golden words began shining with an intensity that made them almost impossible to look at. 

A faint white light appeared around the edges of the card, spreading across its surface like cracks of light beneath a frozen lake.

“What...”

Ethan barely managed to speak before the card suddenly erupted with white light. He threw an arm over his eyes as the entire room was flooded with blinding radiance. A powerful vibration surged through the floor, and the air itself seemed to tremble around him.

“What is this?!” Ethan shouted as he threw his arm up to cover his eyes.

The card slipped from his fingers, but it did not fall. It remained suspended in the air.

Ethan slowly lowered his arm, staring at it in disbelief.

The card floated several inches above the ground, surrounded by streams of white energy. They poured from its surface and twisted through the air like living ribbons, circling one another faster and faster. The strange energy carried an overwhelming cold with it, and Ethan could feel the temperature dropping with every passing second.

Then the light began gathering, right in front of him.

Ethan's heartbeat quickened as something began forming inside the radiance. At first, he could see only a vague silhouette. A head. Broad shoulders. Long arms. The shape gradually became clearer as the white light condensed around it.

Then a man stepped out.

Ethan's entire body went rigid.

The stranger was impossibly tall, standing far above an ordinary man with broad shoulders and a powerful physique that was hidden beneath an immaculate white suit. Every part of his appearance was flawless. His clothes were perfectly fitted, without a single wrinkle, while his silver hair fell neatly around a face that looked almost too perfect to belong to a human being.

But his eyes were what truly terrified Ethan. They were pale gold. Pure, luminous gold.

The moment Ethan met the stranger's gaze, an instinctive fear exploded inside him. Every nerve in his body screamed at him to run. Ethan did not understand why. The man had not attacked him. He had not even spoken. Yet something deep inside Ethan recognized the truth before his mind could accept it.

This man was not human.

The stranger took a slow step forward, his shoes touching the floor without making a sound.

Ethan's muscles tightened, and he instinctively raised his hands, preparing himself for whatever attack might come next. Instead, when he reached Ethan, he stopped.

For several seconds, the two simply stared at each other. Then, to Ethan's complete disbelief, the mysterious man slowly lowered himself onto one knee and bowed his head.

The sight left Ethan speechless.

A being who had appeared from a supernatural card, a being whose presence alone made every instinct in Ethan's body scream in fear, was kneeling before him.

“Master,” the stranger said respectfully, his deep voice carrying an authority that seemed to vibrate through the room.

Before Ethan could say a word, a sudden movement came from the other side of the table.

The old man stood so quickly that Ethan barely had time to follow him with his eyes. Then, without hesitation, the old man dropped to both knees and bowed deeply toward the mysterious being, his forehead nearly touching the floor.

Ethan froze, and for a moment, he thought he had misunderstood what he was seeing.

The old man was kneeling.

The same old man who had remained calm while the room shook. The same man who had watched the supernatural card appear without showing the slightest trace of fear. The same man who had acted as though he knew exactly what was going to happen.

Now he was trembling on his knees before the silver-haired being.