Location: Lil Red Storm Realm
"You don't seem satisfied with your progress in strength," Clone Wyatt observed, noting Corey's bubbling emotions clearly written on her face.
"I'm still not strong enough to defeat Wyatt," Corey admitted with frustration and a hint of helplessness. She was unwilling to be outdone by Wyatt, let alone his clone. They were of the same age, yet he excelled in everything compared to her. If she considered her past lives, she was much older than Wyatt, which only worsened her mood.
"I don't know if it helps, but our match ended in a draw. Maybe next time, you could defeat him," Clone Wyatt suggested. Though his intentions were good, it was clear he lacked experience in consoling others.
Corey glared at the clone and asked, "A draw? You call that a draw? Are you pitying me?"
"No, no," the clone stammered, hastily explaining, "Though I might have negated your fist arts, I don't have any cards or runes that could help me defeat you without killing you. And—don't look at me like that—you also held back from using your more lethal moves and only stuck to the first verse of your fist art. Not to forget, these sinner's marks on both my palms. That's why I declared it a draw."
"Just take me to Wyatt," Corey demanded, ignoring the clone consideration she ordered it to let her into the seed world.
"That, I can't do. You can't enter the living section of the seed world until you've neatly stored these resources in the warehouse section," the clone relayed Wyatt's instructions to Corey. But seeing Corey's glare, it hurriedly added, "It's not me—it's the original who gave the order."
"Are you sure you're Wyatt's clone? You're too cowardly," Corey scoffed as she began preparing to store the resources in the warehouse. After all, she was Wyatt's employee. As his friend, she could be willful, but as his employee, she had to execute his orders without complaint. That was the price she paid to become a demon merchant.
"Though we are Wyatt's clones, we have our own individualities to ensure that we don't mistake ourselves for the original," the clone explained, noticing that Corey had withdrawn her skill, Sinner's Marks.
"We? How many of you are there?" Corey asked curiously as she stored as many resources as she could in her storage cards while using her spirituality to arrange the bricks in an orderly fashion, stacking them just like Dalie had, so that when summoned, they would arrive neatly arranged.
"Not a lot, just a little over a thousand," the clone replied, using his celestial force to carry as many resources as he could into the seed world. Though the main primordial spirit hadn't explicitly instructed him to help Corey, Wyatt hadn't forbidden it either.
"A thousand! Wyatt has over a thousand clones like you?" Corey asked in shock, pausing her work. Her mind went blank at the thought of facing a thousand of Wyatt's clones, especially when she struggled to defeat just one of them.
However, recalling her skill 'Sin Smoke' and martial art 'Armageddon Song,' both of which had widespread area effects that could target multiple enemies at once, even a small army if conditions were favorable, she calmed down. Not to mention, she hadn't let her ego flame, Park, possess her, as she had a point to prove to Wyatt. But if she had, with Park having regained all her past life's techniques and their proficiency, she could have rendered Wyatt unable to battle within a minute, let alone thousands of his clones.
"Y-yes," the clone replied awkwardly, unable to comprehend Corey's shock. Having thousands of clones wasn't a big deal to him, as most of his knowledge came from the Infinity Library, where the standards were too high. Nothing less than a semi-ruler class was enough to surprise him anymore.
"Good for him," Corey muttered, resolving to master all the martial arts that Park had reached sage level in when she was alive, aiming to reach that level herself before challenging Wyatt next time. This time around, she planned to take Park's advice seriously, especially after her match with Wyatt's clone had played out just as Park had warned.
"Are you done? Let's unload these resources in the warehouse first and return for more," the clone suggested, choosing to ignore Corey's rivalry toward Wyatt.
Dalie could have moved all these resources into the seed's warehouse space with a snap of her fingers, but Wyatt wanted to punish Corey, warning her that her actions would no longer go without consequences.
"Yeah, let's hurry. I need to go find JJ after this," Corey urged the clone, indicating she had other matters to attend to.
"Alright," the clone agreed, and soon they appeared on a barren floating island with plain stone flooring and rows of huge stone shelves, efficient enough to store all of Dalie's resources.
"By the way, where are we, and where did Wyatt get these resources?" Corey asked, her mind finally calm enough to focus on what was in front of her.
"We are in the Lil Red Storm Realm, Dalie's realm. She prepared all these resources as a gift for her little brother," the clone answered as he used his celestial force to neatly stored the stored he had carried in, organizing them in their respective shelves.
"Dalie's realm? Isn't she from the Card Realm? Also, from what I saw, the realm isn't capable of sustaining life. How did Dalie manage to live here?" Corey was shocked to learn that Dalie wasn't a native of the Card World despite appearing human, and even more surprised to discover that she had grown up on a desolate realm all alone.
"She doesn't live on it; she is the Lil Red Storm Realm," the clone revealed, as Dalie had already shared her origin with the rest of the group. Wyatt never intended to keep it a secret from his friends. Otherwise, he would not have introduced Dalie to them in the first place.
"Dalie is a celestial!" Corey exclaimed in shock.