"You need pants."

Irwin felt his face color, but there was little he could do. With his size, he was pretty sure he'd need a ship sail. He wanted to swat at Greldo for his stupid joke, but was afraid of what might happen if he actually hit his friend.

Wait, steam!

He focused on his sweltering skill, feeling his first soulcard shiver painfully. Still, within moments, a dense layer of steam condensed around his lower body, covering it up.

"That should work for now," Greldo said as he looked at the books. He skimmed them quickly, and Irwin saw his eyes widen as he paused on one of the books. He continued soon after, and when he finished, he handed one to Elder Sigora.

"This is filled with vegetation stuff. I take it you asked for yourself, or…"

Elder Sigora sighed as she accepted the book. "For the others. Let's hope it will pay for some of the damage done to my people."

Irwin looked around, and when he didn't see what he saw, he turned to Elder Sigora.

"What happened to Elder Roark?"

Elder Sigora sighed. "He was heavily wounded, and I'll go and pick him up in a minute."

"Glad to hear he's still alive," Greldo said as he held up the other books to Irwin.

Irwin leaned down and carefully took them, putting them in his soulscape. His gaze met Greldo's, and he saw the deep worry in his friend's eyes before he tried to hide it behind a frown and a chin-tap.

"The shadow card on the fifth page… see if you can do something with that?"

"I will if I can," Irwin said, wondering what kind of card that would be.

"Thanks…. Now, what do we do?" Greldo asked, looking up at Irwin.

Irwin could read what he meant in his eyes, and he held back a weary sigh. His friend wanted to know what he was going to do about his size.

"Just in case, I'll check the cards we got," he said, which was exactly what Ambraz and his otherself were already doing. "And at the same time, I'm going to start shrinking myself down."

"How long will it take?" Greldo asked.

Irwin shrugged. "I have no idea, but it will take a while."

"Can you get yourself back to normal?"

"I… don't know," Irwin said, sighing.

He looked around, noticing dozens of faces peering back at him from the distant roofs.

"Let's head back to where we entered to have some privacy."

"You do that," Greldo said as he walked over to the remnants of Lasther. "I'll go and see what Lasther had before checking if I can find his hideout. He has to have had some information on what is going on."

Irwin hesitated, wanting to tell his friend about what Ambraz had found out. Then he turned to Elder Sigora.

"Thank you for all your help. If there's something I can do…?"

"Go and rest somewhere. You look ready to fall over," the old Viridian said. "If you manage to get yourself small enough to enter somewhere, come and find me in The Root Cellar. I think we need to have a talk."

Irwin grimaced as he looked around the destroyed district. He wanted to say he was sorry, but held back. It wasn't his fault that this had happened.

"I will," he said, glancing at Greldo. "You going to be okay?"

"Coal can't find any more shadewalkers," Greldo said. He stopped fiddling with Lasther's ripped armor and cocked his head, smiling thinly. "Or at least, none that can do anything to me. Go. I'll find you as soon as I'm done scouting around."

Irwin nodded but waited to see if Greldo found anything.

After a short while, Greldo got back up, holding a few things bundled up in his hands.

"Just a pouch with a few thousand soulshards and some wrapped-up mission statements to find you," he said, sounding annoyed.

"I guess it was too much to ask to have him hold a diary or something," Irwin said.

Greldo laughed, then shook his head. "Who knows? Maybe there's one in his hidden base. Now go. I'm hearing a lot of people who come this way, and I don't know about you, but I don't feel like explaining what happened."

"Neither do I," Elder Sigora said as she began hobbling away, one of her vines slithering along with her like a snake. It was raised up for her to hold with one hand, which was a good thing as she was swaying on her feet.

Irwin was about to trigger his soundwave teleport when he hesitated. Would everything work as it should? He was so much bigger now…

Only one way to find out.

He clicked his tongue and, with his full focus, shot away across the resulting soundwaves.

--

Greldo watched his friend vanish in a blur that was too fast for him to track. He still heard him reappear after a few moments before clicking his tongue again and vanishing.

I need to tell him to pick another trigger sound, he thought. Otherwise, people are going to call him the tongue-clicker or something.

His own stupid joke caused him to grin, and then he turned and jogged after Elder Sigora. Even partially hunched over, she was taller than he was, and Greldo looked up into her curious eyes.

"Thank you for your help," he said. "Can you tell me anything about those two white-haired creeps? Are we going to get problems with them later?"

"Sas and Bas. No, they are just two opportunistic little woodlice," Elder Sigora said. "They are among the weakest of the high-ranked soulcarded in Dimarintsia."

"How many more are there?" Greldo asked, feeling a slight worry. If they hadn't shown themselves now, did that mean they were not going to or just biding their time?

"Don't worry," Elder Sigora said with a sad sigh. "The other factions will likely be ecstatic. The Mercenaries were a thorn in their side, especially when they showed they had hidden half their powerhouses."

"Who are these other factions?"

"The nobles, merchants, crafter guilds…" she sighed. "Though the crafters were led by the Cardsmith's guild, and without them, they had only two people of note. Either way, there were the unaffiliated, as they called us. People like me and Roark, who weren't interested in joining their politics."

Greldo's mind spun quickly as he connected some dots.

"Those two, Sad and Bas? They were part of The Mercenaries?"

"You would think so, with how they act," Sigora said with a snort. "No, they are the other two unaffiliated. Before the storm, we knew about five of the powerful mercenaries, and just the Ungaryt family countered those. Together with the other nobles, they used to be, and now are, the most powerful faction. But when the storm hit, the mercenaries showed they had been hiding their power. With eight powerhouses, it became hard to resist them. Now, things are as they were before. I don't think Lasther left anyone who didn't do as he said alive, meaning only Hardy is left. He will be consolidating his power before likely taking all the ships he can get his hands on and heading out to the Tweelak branch."

Powerhouses… Greldo thought with a frown.

"Why the focus on four and five-carded," he asked. "A combat-oriented two or three-carded should be able to overpower a five-carded with no combat cards."

Elder Sigora blinked, then laughed softly.

"Ahhh, those who have smiths as friends. Such a joy to talk to."

Greldo's frown deepened.

"Young one, do you really think combat cards, especially those like what you have, are like fruit? Most people make do with what they get, and although there are likely powerful two or three soulcarded in the city, they are part of the factions I just mentioned," Sigora said, looking at him.

She must have seen his confusion as she smiled.

" Think about it like this… do you think your old one-soulcarded or two-soulcarded self could win in a fight against your now? What do you think the main reason for that is?"

Greldo pictured that and immediately knew that she was right. If he had to fight himself with just two soulcards, it would barely be a competition. His current self was far faster and stronger, both physically and with the shadowrealm. More importantly, he had so much more soulforce… he could keep fighting far longer."

"The amount of soulforce," he said, wanting to slap himself for not making the connection. He knew this, but the long fight had worn him out.

"Exactly," Sigora said. "There are always exceptions, but I have never heard about a two-soulcarded like Rodd that has the amount of soulforce he has. Even accounting for his incredible size, he should have had barely half of the soulforce he used during the fight."

Greldo heard the careful question but didn't answer it. Instead, he pondered what she'd told him.

"So, why didn't those nobles show up?" he asked.

"Oh, I bet they are looking at what has been happening with joy," Sigora said, snorting a laugh. "But why should they show up now? Lasther proved to be far more powerful than even Roark and I, and we were thought to be the strongest individual fighters in the city. Your friend showed little trouble killing him, with only that soulforce-draining ability holding him back. There's no one strong with a similar ability, meaning they are biding their time, waiting to see what you two will do."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Greldo nodded slowly, glad Coal had sent a few of his soulclones with Irwin.

"Will you be alright?" Greldo asked as Sigora entered an old and heavily damaged building.

"Oh, I'll be fine," she said. "Go and search for whatever Lasther was hiding, and make sure to come and talk to me and Roark about it."

Greldo nodded and didn't follow her into the building. He did signal Coal to keep a few of his clones with her just in case. Then he stepped into the shadowrealm.

Now let's see where you were hiding, he thought, shooting toward where the Holy Shadow Inn had been.

--

Irwin sat down against the side of a ruined column, feeling the stone crack softly against his back. It had taken him a while to find a good spot, as he couldn't enter most of the ruins at his current size. Eventually, he'd just decided to stay near one of the lowest ruins. There was a pavilion there, encircled with columns fifty feet tall.

He closed his eyes, relishing in the simple act of sitting still. His head was throbbing, while his body felt full of energy, a weird combination.

After a few minutes, he went over everything that had happened, ending with the death of Lasther.

I wonder where that attack came from.

He would have to ask Sigora when he saw her again, but to do that, he needed to take care of something else first. Focusing on his otherself, the one within his soulscape, he dozed off.

-- Irwin's Soulscape --

"Who would slot this…?" Irwin muttered, staring in slight awe at the ruby-rank card nestled in the book's page.

It showed an image of an enormous wolf standing side-by-side with a humanoid figure that barely reached halfway up the stocky canine's legs. The text to the side was in a script he couldn't read, but it likely held the same explanation of the card that Ambraz had given him.

Card: Starswallower Wolf

Type: Shapechange, Ruby

Owner: -

The wielder of this card is endowed with the insane endurance, power, and abilities of a Starswallower Wolf while gaining the ability to permanently change their shape into this massive creature. If done, the wielder would gain all of the abilities the Sharswallower Wolf has.

Passive: Greatly increased endurance and constitution

Passive: Increased strength and agility

Passive: Heightened senses

Active: Concentrated light beam

Active: Change into the shape of a Starswallower Wolf [Irreversible]

"I have no idea…" Ambraz replied. "But permanent shape change cards are rare and deemed cursed by most people."

"Yeah," Irwin muttered, pulling the card from the page and adding it to his own collection. "I wonder where Hardy found this one."

He continued inspecting the cards they had gained, taking some more time with the one Greldo had wanted him to look at. It was a simple amethyst shadow-type card that allowed someone to put small objects into the shadowrealm, which would follow the person around and could be retrieved when needed.

"For an amethyst card, this is very promising," Greldo said. "We should try to change it to a single item and increase its size."

"He wants to be able to pull a ship in," Irwin said with a nod. "Do you think…"

"If we can get it to diamond rank, I don't see why not," Ambraz agreed.

Irwin felt a sense of anticipation as he put the card to the side and continued flipping through the books.

When he finished, he put the books on the table and looked at them with slight distaste. Seeing Ambraz still inspecting some cards, he leaned back and looked around. His house was still the original size, as were all the things inside his soulscape. He'd worried that everything had grown as his body had, but the only things that had were his soulscape and soullake. The latter of which was now closer to an inland sea, while his soulscape's borders were so distant that he knew that a non-carded person might not even realize they weren't in a real world if they didn't approach the borders.

I wonder how big it can become, Irwin thought as he sensed the three other beings in the house.

He felt a slight worry as they had still to awake. They had been unconscious when he found them, and he'd put them in beds in the newly added section that Ambraz had made.

"This is a pretty impressive collection," Ambraz finally said as he flitted away from the books, landing on the other side of the table.

"It's not that good," Irwin said, frowning at the books. "There are only four useful cards and barely any pure cards."

"Kid… you do know that most people never even see ruby-rank cards?" Ambraz asked. "And I know you prefer pure cards that either give summons or shape changes or allow control over elements, but that's just your inner Cardsmith speaking. Those types of cards, especially the ones that grant control over things like fire, metal, shadows, or anything else, are rare. Most cards that drop are specific, like that set of crafting cards that allow the wielder to increase their efficiency by remembering the best way they moved their hands while carving a bow and reusing it."

Irwin rubbed his eyes.

"I know. They taught us that in the academy. But they also told us that these types of cards end up being more powerful."

"Not necessarily," Ambraz said. "A card that allows control over all fire will be more versatile than one that only allows control over, for instance, Sequirion Flame, but not more powerful. If two carded, one with generic fire control and one with a card specific to a type of fire, wrestle for control over the specific fire, the specific one will win. Their control will be far stronger."

Irwin frowned, recalling a lecture about this. "We were told that eventually, the generic, purer forms of control are more powerful," he said.

"Only because they will have more options eventually," Ambraz said. "Anyway, let's not discuss this now. It's a topic that has divided Smiths for ages, and we have more important things to do. You are procrastinating… try and shrink."

Irwin wanted to tell Ambraz he was wrong, but he knew it was a lie. He had been hesitating, afraid that his newest card wouldn't be able to help him shrink after all.

"Fine," he muttered, waking his otherself and his body.

"Don't worry! It will be fine," Ambraz said.

Irwin just nodded as he pulled his entire focus into his body.

-- Real-world --

Irwin raised his hands, staring at the card images. His left hand looked like an artist had tried to create a beautiful tattoo that wrapped around all of his card slots. The titan card's image was so clear that he knew that anyone who could recognize it would recognize it for what it was: a very high-quality Ammolite card. But would anyone understand the tattoos?

Not that it matters, he thought, glancing at the other two cards before examining his right hand.

The first card in his right-hand card was almost as crisp as the ammolite card, which was surprising as it was two tiers lower. That said, Irwin felt the difference in soulforce weight they had- almost incomparable.

Would it be able to undo what the cursed titan had done?

He took a deep breath, then triggered the ability, focusing on shrinking. With a tiny jolt, his soulforce began flowing through the card, which consumed it. A thrumming resonance began to pulse through his body, calm and soothing as he felt himself shrink. It was a tiny amount compared to how much soulforce he felt flowing away, but within a minute, he had shrunk an inch.

Feeling his hope grow, he kept a close eye on the cursed card, fully expecting it to return from its slumber.

Minutes passed, and soon, an hour had gone by in which he had drained close to half his soulforce and had shrunk from roughly twenty-five feet to fifteen. It was a massive change, but it didn't come without a cost. There was a heavy diminishing return on his soulforce, and from his and Ambraz's calculations, going from fifteen to fourteen would drain his entire remaining soulforce, while going from fourteen to thirteen would likely cost him multiple days.

"From what I can tell, it will take you almost four weeks to get back to nine feet, after which every foot will cost you months," Ambraz said.

Irwin nodded. "But it won't stop?"

"Not from what I can see, kid. Don't worry, it will just take time," Ambraz said soothingly.

Irwin let out a relaxed sigh. He'd already almost halved his size, and although nine feet tall was too much to be considered normal even by the largest of species, at least he'd be able to walk around. Besides, if what he could see was correct, it would cost only a year to return to his previous seven feet.

As the worry about perpetual giantism slowly faded, his mind seemed to start working again.

I wonder what will happen if I make a heartcard out of it, he pondered.

The idea took root, and he began scanning his five cards, wondering what he should add. He had size, which was new, but also fire and kinetic to link with his existing soulcard. Then there was the gift card, which gave him increased control over whatever his sixth card would be.

As no idea came to him, he began thinking about what he would have to do when the storm stopped, and an army led by more Guidar showed up. There was no way he could beat all of them as he was, and his mind began drifting to cards.

As his soulforce kept moving into his Gentrils Body Control card, he began thinking about armies and the cards with which to equip them.

"How large do you think the Guidar-controlled army will be?" he asked Ambraz.

"Everything the Acenti told us leads me to believe it is going to be larger than any army this branch has," Ambraz said. "Add those Guidar… I don't know if Lasther was powerful by Guidar standards or not, but he said something…"

"That if he'd known how fast I was, he would have prepared differently," Irwin said.

"Exactly. Even if they aren't as strong as you can become, they might be incredibly versatile, and if there's enough of them…"

Irwin thought about the story Ambraz had told him of thousands of Guidar moving through the enormous storm portal. He had no idea if they could and had reproduced. Maybe they were just undying?

It didn't matter. No matter how many there were, he didn't believe all of them were as strong as Lasther. Still, he had to plan for that option. This meant that he needed the same versatility…

"I need to find out how to create cards out of ambient soulforce," he said as his mind began spinning. "We need massive amounts of soulforce, and it has to be condensed… Wait. Do you think I have enough soulforce myself?"

"We don't even know how to do it yet," Ambraz muttered before snorting. "But I don't think so. You have more soulforce than nearly every five-soulcarded we have come across in this city, but the people here are weak compared to those on the central branches. Even those in the Tweelak branch are likely weak compared to the true powerhouses of the strongest guilds and families in the Connected Portal Gallery Alliance."

"Then we need a way to get more," Irwin said. "Even if we return to Smolderball-" his mood dampened as he thought about the moon he and his family had lived on for years.

"Even if we go back there," he continued after a moment. "We don't have enough Aurorium to really experiment. What I need is enough soulforce to try… Even if we can only create Quartz cards, we can reforge them up."

"Irwin, even if you find out how to do this, you can't create cards for everyone," Ambraz said. "Let's assume you get that much soulforce; you could create perhaps one card per day. Unless you are prepared to head to Smolderball, then up to the gas giant and stay there for a few thousand years to create only cards…?"

Irwin took a deep breath, then exhaled. "So, we need to find a way to do it with ambient soulforce."

"Exactly, and you need to experiment. So far, you haven't even been able to truly manipulate it!"

Irwin began tapping his knee, nodding slowly.

"True, but we have a sixth slot beside a control card… we have so many cards. Isn't there one we can slot that would give us proper control?"

Ambraz was quiet for a bit, and Irwin knew he was likely going through all the cards they currently had. After a short while, he hummed.

"There is an option… but you aren't going to like it."

"What is it?" Irwin asked, leaning forward, wondering what he'd missed.

"There's a card among the size-altering ones we gained that increases soulforce resonance based on the amount of soulforce someone has," Ambraz said slowly.

Irwin blinked, then blinked again as he recalled the card Ambraz said.

"But that one only lets me increase my size," he exclaimed.

"Exactly," Ambraz said with a weary sigh. "If you add it to your sixth cardslot, there is going to be an issue when we create the heartcard. The chances are that we remove your ability to shrink…"

Irwin closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall.

"If I do that, it might mean my body will become even bigger," he muttered. "Say I do that, I'd have to use my entire next card to shrink myself back down… if it doesn't clash too much with the cards I already have."

And it would take years…

As he lay there, wondering if he should do that and then return to the gas giant to use the time there to fill his soullake, Ambraz flitted to the side.

"How did you get here without me sensing you!?"

Irwin snapped his head to the side, ready to use any of his abilities to defend himself. He saw a young woman partially hidden behind a corner of the ruins. She swallowed, quickly raising her hands in surrender.

"I'm sorry," she said, her face scrunching up with fear. "I have a card that allows me to hide my presence, and-"

"From me?!" Ambraz exclaimed, surging forward and causing the young woman to take a worried step back. "Your cards are only topaz."

"I… my first card has a type-"

Irwin sensed a surge of surprise from Ambraz, and the Ganvil hissed.

"Absolute Veil…." Ambraz whispered.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.