Mr. Riddle had obtained three items that granted effects in exchange for lifespan, at the cost of three gaps in his life experiences. Shade guessed that the price was "paying with lifespan" likely because Mr. Riddle was merely an ordinary person. Had a Witch or a Ring-master entered the gamble, the price would most likely have been Spirit.
Therefore, while the Omnipresence cards could indeed play a massive role in the gamble, considering that each party had only ten slots, overusing functional cards that required paying with lifespan—as was happening now—was not actually the optimal solution for winning.
It was simply that Shade and Mr. Riddle had no other choice.
"There are no more. And even if there were, I couldn't give them to you," Shade said.
Currently, the two sides were evenly matched, but if the final card remained an Omnipresence card, it would mean the Black-robed God of Gambling's side had gained an extra unit of combat power out of thin air. If Mr. Riddle wanted to win, he could only use an item by paying with his lifespan once again.
"Then the last slot..."
"This is your gamble, Mr. Riddle. Therefore, you must end it with your own experience."
Shade pressed his hand onto the other man's shoulder once more.
"But experiences in Horror Castle cannot form cards. This game is part of the adventure in Horror Castle, and the rules of the table state that the gamble itself cannot be used as an experience on the table. So, Horror Castle doesn't count," Mr. Riddle said.
But Shade shook his head.
"What I'm referring to is indeed related to your current experience, but not your adventure in Horror Castle. It is this."
Mr. Riddle turned his head and saw Shade pointing to himself.
"Your meeting with me."
The middle-aged man's eyes widened slightly.
"At the final moment between life and death, you met me. You didn't know who I was—whether I was a human, a ghost of Horror Castle, or a messenger of God. You didn't even know if I truly existed or if I was merely a hallucination in your dying moments. But with my help, you entered a gamble with a god and have made it to the very end. Mr. Riddle, I believe your meeting with me can probably be considered a significant experience in your life, wouldn't you say?"
Shade asked softly. Mr. Riddle nodded blankly.
"Yes. Even if I forget what happened here after leaving Horror Castle, this experience will be permanently engraved in my soul, remaining indelible until I step toward madness and death."
He placed his hand into the final slot on the table. After a long while, he withdrew it, and a brand new card indeed appeared.
On the card, from a perspective looking up from the tabletop, appeared the upper body of Mr. Riddle. The Mr. Riddle on the card looked upward, while the real Mr. Riddle looked downward.
Shade's face did not appear on the card; only his hand was pressed upon Mr. Riddle's shoulder. Shade could be certain it was his own hand because it was covered in golden, crack-like fissures, resembling burning embers.
Gilded letters appeared slowly at the top of the card like flowing liquid gold. The card's name: 【The Person from the Future】.
"So you are..."
Mr. Riddle whipped his head around to look at Shade, but in the end, he did not voice the answer.
"How wonderful. You truly exist."
A thousand words were reduced to this single sentence. He sat up straight, preparing to welcome the end of the gamble.
The card shimmered with the radiance of a silver moon. After a short wait, Shade's figure appeared fully upon the card. This was Shade's current appearance, his body covered in the fissures of "Divine Afterglow."
This allowed the real Shade beside the table to breathe a sigh of relief. He had been worried that a version of himself as a normal Second Ring would appear. If that happened, without activating those lifespan-consuming items, Mr. Riddle's side would have lost.
The god's final card was still a Witch, though this one wore a black veil covering her face and a black gauze dress, possessing a somewhat terrifying aura.
Shade's phantom stood alongside the demon, the dragon, and the sea monster. As twenty brilliant streams of light flowed along the tabletop grooves toward the center, every movable phantom on the table charged toward the middle.
This was the most realistic and terrifying battle thus far. Although there had been wins and losses in the previous nine clashes, the phantoms summoned by the cards had not suffered real wounds on their images despite being injured.
But now that all twenty cards had appeared, it seemed the gamble had finally become complete. The two sides collided violently. Flesh and limbs of the Witch, fragments of the dragon, demon, and sea monster flew directly off the table amidst flashes of spiritual light and thunderous explosions.
Cracks appeared on the tabletop due to the real effects of the supernatural power. The scorching air and sharp wind pressure made it nearly impossible for Mr. Riddle to breathe. Once a character or monster corresponding to a card was injured, the card in the tabletop slot would also develop cracks.
Furthermore, both sides could now attack the altar, the temple, the house of man-eating, and the runic sword in the demon's hand; consequently, all the cards developed cracks of varying depths.
Even Shade had never witnessed such a brutal, meat-grinder style of combat.
He shifted his gaze to the far end of Mr. Riddle's side of the table and discovered that the phantom representing himself had not joined the fight, but was instead walking toward the three Omnipresence cards.
He waved his hand toward the holy silver moon floating above 【Omnipresence: Silver Moon】. The tabletop item, which originally could only be touched by Mr. Riddle, actually flew toward Shade's phantom.
"I've lost ownership of the table item! It's become equipment, like the runic sword!"
Mr. Riddle was even more surprised than Shade.
Holding the silver moon, Shade walked toward the center of the battling table, yet he still did not join the fray. Behind the relatively massive body of the sea monster, he suddenly raised his right hand, bringing the silver moon above his head.
The silver moon, which had previously only emitted a faint glow, suddenly flared with brilliance. Before Mr. Riddle could react to what was happening, Shade suddenly felt an extreme sense of foreboding
"Not good! Get away!"
The miniaturized real combat already made Mr. Riddle feel endangered. The moment Shade gave the warning, he dove directly under the table. Of course, he didn't forget to keep his hand on the stool to prevent the gamble from being judged as paused.
Since there were no other places to hide in the room, Shade also crouched down. Neither of them looked upward, yet both observed the next second: a silver moonlight, like a solar flare, sweeping across from the center of the table.
Even Shade felt the stinging sensation in his eyes linger for several seconds before fading.
Mr. Riddle groaned, covering his eyes. It took a full minute before he let go, but Shade could still see that his eyes were red, swollen, and tearing.
After helping Mr. Riddle with some treatment, and seeing that there was no further movement above, the battle seemed to have ended. Shade and Mr. Riddle cautiously peeked out from under the table.
"Is... is it over?"
The tabletop had returned to stillness. All the phantoms had vanished, leaving only the streams of light flowing along the grooves emitting a faint glow.
Mr. Riddle carefully sat back down on the stone chair, and Shade stood up, brushing the dust off his clothes.
Among the twenty cards of both sides, the three Omnipresence cards had been automatically ejected from their slots and lay scattered on the table. Of the remaining seventeen, only 【The Person from the Future】 remained intact; all other cards had shattered into pieces.
It appeared that the burst of moonlight from Shade's phantom had indiscriminately destroyed every target on the table except for itself.
"May I ask, O God, have I won?" Mr. Riddle asked cautiously.
Shade waved his hand, and the three cards automatically flew into his palm.
"Yes."
This was the first time the black-robed god across the table had spoken since Shade had seen Him. He used the same language as Mr. Riddle, and the voice was that of a man. Because He had only spoken a two-syllable word, no further information could be gleaned from the voice.
"You said that if I won the gamble, I could make one wish?"
"Yes."
The voice still came from beneath the black robe.
"I want to leave this place! Leave this place with all my memories!"
"Choose one. Leave this place, or retain your memories."
This voice did not come from beneath the black robe, but was the synchronized answer given by the corpses of varying degrees of decay leaning against the wall.
When Shade first arrived here, they had used this same method to inform him of the vague rules of the 【Life Gamble】.
"Very well, I choose to leave this place," Mr. Riddle said somewhat crestfallenly. He turned to look at Shade.
"Sir, I am truly happy—truly happy—to have met you here."
He formally extended his hand to Shade, and Shade grasped it with satisfaction. Though it felt somewhat surreal, the game was finally over.
"Mr. Riddle, it was my honor to meet you across a thousand years of time and complete this gamble together. I admire you—your wisdom, and your experiences."
He didn't say much more, nor did he introduce his name.
"Compared to wisdom, I actually believe courage is more important," the ancient prognosticator said softly. He looked at Shade intently, as if wanting to carve his image into his soul.
"I do not know your purpose for appearing here, nor do I know what the future looks like. But I will do my best to remember everything here. If possible, I will do my best to study the Omnipresence cards; I hope this will be of some help to you, as a token of my humble gratitude."
"Do not worry. From my perspective, you have already succeeded," Shade said.
Mr. Riddle paused, and then a smile appeared on his face.
"See, I knew I could do it. You informed me, and I reminded you; this too is a kind of 'Ring.' This is the protection of my Lord, 【Mr. Ring】!"