The Divine Card Game

The gods poured down wisdom like golden sand, yet set the mortal world ablaze with silver-blue fire.

In a legend forged in blood and flame, the alchemist Oris, cloaked in a mantle woven from the stars, distilled forbidden power from the blood and bones of fifty-two chosen ones.

When those dusky blue lines of divine favor crept across the mithril cards, the pendulum in the dusk began to swing backward.

To make amends for the devastation caused by this power spiraling out of control, Oris offered himself as a sacrifice, gaining the strength to end it all.

People say the cards were stained with divine blood. In the yellowed pages of an old notebook, the same prophecy is always recorded: "When fifty-four rays of starlight pierce the eternal night, the gods' crown will fall into the hand of the one who made the sacrifice."

Now, the spire of a skyscraper pierces the rain clouds. The hem of Luo Ye's black suit snaps in the wind, while spotlights slash through the night like swords of judgment.

Thousands upon thousands of playing cards whirl around him, their metallic faces reflecting a cold, moonlike gleam, like a swarm of startled butterflies sweeping across the seething darkness.

"Ladies and gentlemen!"

Two cards tear through the curtain of light and hover before his caramel-colored eyes. The thorned pattern on the Three of Spades seeps blood, while the Joker's grin stretches to his ears.

His final words are swept toward the neon-lit distance by the gale. The instant his leather heel taps against the glass facade, the two cards suddenly burst into an eerie light.

Two cross-shaped fissures explode across the seething night sky.

"That's party time!"