Speaker 1: Hello friends from across the nation and around the world.
My Martin and you are listening to Dad's bedtime stories,
and tonight we are finally headed back to the Cards
of Power universe. If you haven't been listening in a while,
our current arc has taken us to a deity level tournament.
You have recently passed the preliminary rounds and now it's
time for the actual tournament, which means it's time for
a listener's suggestion. Let's see what we have here.
Speaker 2: I'm Martin, I'm Dominic. I live in Australia, and I
have a suggestion for the cardon Power series where in
the Deity tournament, Magnus is sick, so you have to
use Dominique the Dingo, and then at the very end
only or to one or two of his clones is left,
and then eventually his clones win and his opponent is
a armadillo that has like titanium almah, and its power
is like speed and strength. So yeah, thanks Martin.
Speaker 1: Love the book cost by Well Dominic. I really do
like Dominic the Dingo. It might be because I've done
like three full episodes on him. I think his backstory
and everything that you can check out if you want to,
And it might just be because you know, he has
time manipulation powers and time clones, which I think is
really cool. Any Ways, if you have an idea for
the Cards of Power series, or really any other series,
I am particularly interested in getting ideas for opponents for
the Deity level tournament. You know both other card holders
and their powers. So leave me those suggestions and you
just might find it on a future episode. If you
like the podcast, don't forget to rate it, review it,
interact with it, or share it with a friend. It
all helps a lot. We are a small, independent podcast,
and by we, I mean just me. It's really just me.
You're running this whole thing by myself, so any support
goes a long way. Now it's time to get as
comfy as you can in that bed, close your eyes
and imagine yourself doing what the kid in the story does.
You wake up inside your highly advanced looking hotel. You
nudge Magnus awake as well. Ah, what what's going on?
It's time for the actual tournament. You say, we're in
round one. We pass the preliminaries. Oh oh yeah, I
mean of course we did. With me around How could
you possibly lose. Magnus says, uh right, well, let's go
get some breakfast. You head downstairs to the main lobby,
where you have a pretty amazing Continental Hotel breakfast, as
you usually do. Then you check one of the screens
to see where you're set to battle, but it indicates
that you're in main battle Arena three. You haven't been
in one of the main battle arenas before, so you're
interested to see what it looks like. You pull up
the map, check the location, and then head outside. Outside
you summon your magical wings card, and you and Magnus
fly high above all of the people and things below.
From up above, it's also easier to tell where the
battle arena you're looking for is because it, well, it
looks a lot more like the map you were looking at.
You spot a very large building off in the distance,
surrounded by smaller battle arenas, and you fly directly toward it. Below,
you see streams and streams of people headed into the arena.
They must be spectators ready to watch your battle. The
whole idea of that many people watching makes you a
little bit nervous. You soon spot another entrance that's labeled
for competitors. You float down and land in front of
the door planes present your credentials. A robotic looking person says,
you produce your ID card from your card core. Understood,
you will be taking part in the first mas of
the day. Please proceed through the doors to dressing room one.
When it's time for the tournament to begin, the doors
will open and you will enter the main battle stadium.
Oh okay, got it, you say. You make your way
down the hall and into a large and very empty
dressing room. What do we do now, Magnus asks, I
guess we just wait, you say. As you sit down
on the bench, you can hear the crowd getting louder
and louder from outside the dressing room, and soon the
doors open. Well, I guess the time, buddy. Are you ready?
Am I ready? I was born ready? Those other creatures
better watch it. I can probably defeat all of them
on my own. You won't even need your other cards.
Oh good, you say, but at least I have them
just in case. You head out the main doorway and
enter into a gigantic arena. It's on a completely different
scale from the other ones you've battled in so far.
There are stands covered by some sort of protective force
field with thousands or maybe tens of thousands of spectators
that look like they're from all different planets. There's floating
cameras and drones circling around the battlefield, a giant holographic
screen displaying close ups of well you and Magnus walking
in in this case, along with your power readings and
no card abilities. There also seem to be several alien
announcers commenting from little floating glass booths that make their
way around the arena. One of the announcers is playing
over the speaker. Our next competitor is something of a
historical curiosity, the first cardholder from Earth to enter this
tournament in over one hundred years. That's Roy Gary. The
Earth only recently reopened its Deity level protected area. Until then,
the most powerful cards were stored off world, primarily in
their lunar zone. Very interesting indeed. Now on the other
end of the tournament's stadium, we have a crowd favorite Vorlax.
You look across the stadium to see an enormous blue
alien with four arms, a wide head, and tiny little
legs that never touch the ground because he's floating on
a hell a high tech looking chair he looks lazy,
but he's clearly an experienced tournament cardholder. You make your
way to the center line of the stadium, where a
referee walks towards you. We'll hurright, everybody, good to have
you here. Now, I just need to go over the
rules of the competition. As you probably already know, each
competitor is going to select three creature cards. Only one
magical creature card can be active at any time. When
a creature is defeated, it will, of course automatically return
to its card, and your opponent will receive one point.
The first card holder to get two points by defeating
two of the other person's creatures will win. A victorious
magical creature can remain for the next round, or it
can be voluntarily withdrawn. Now, please make way to your
protected areas. You nod and understanding, and you and Magnus
head to the back of the arena. Do you stand
inside a circle and a force field immediately appears around you,
shooting all the way up to the top of the arena. Magnez,
understanding that he's obviously going to go, first, steps forward
and begins to evolve. He moves through all of his
evolutions this time, first transforming into a bipedal dragon, then
growing larger into a traditional fire dragon, before growing into
an incredibly sized mythic dragon, and then shrinking down a
little bit to his deity level, a black dragon with
veins of pure sunlight energy, and of course, a connection
to pretty much every element. At this point, Vorlax lights
up his cardcore from across the arena, light streams out
of it and forms itself into a gigantic blob of
slime or something, a huge living slime creature. It honestly
resembles a giant pile of snot or something like that. Competitors,
are you ready? You nod to the referee in agreement,
Vorlax nods as well. A shield appears around the referee
and he floats up into the air. Then we will
begin in three two one go. Magnus doesn't hesitate at all.
He takes a huge breath and unleashes a blast of
solar fire. It hits the slime directly and causes it
to explode into a whole bunch of different pieces that
fly all over the arena. They hit the walls, they
hit the sh shields, they hit the ground, the ceiling,
and well, a few of them even hit Magnus. Ah cross,
Magnus says, quickly, trying to rub off the slime, he
sets his entire body on fire to try to burn
it away. Then all of the little balls of goo
begin to move, transforming into smaller versions of the slime
itself and moving back down towards Magnus. One by one,
they spring off of the surfaces they've landed on and
shoot directly at the dragon. Magnus attempts to dodge. He
moves out of the way, swings his tail, bats some
of them to the side, but others collide with his body,
creating really nasty looking goobers all over him. Oh it's
is disgusting, Magnus says. Then he lights up into a
bright white light, as bright as the sun itself, and
the little pieces of slime begin to boil and then
completely melt away off of his body. Unfortunately, more slime
starts to approach. Magnus looks to the little water feature
inside the arena, reaches out with his mind, grabs the water,
and begins flying it all over the arena. He splashes
as many of the creatures as he can and instantly
freezes the water into ice. As they attempt to attack again,
Magnus shoots a column of earth up around his body
and i'll different directions and continues to attack using the water.
Creature after creature is well frozen solid and unable to move.
But well, there's just too many of them. Magnus gets
hit from behind with a ball of slime. He can't
quite figure out exactly what it does, but well, it
doesn't feel very good. In response, he decides to go
well nuclear. Magnus lights up a bright white color again,
until an aura that creates a sort of mini sun
around him begins to burn. Everything in the arena becomes
incredibly hot. The ground melts into lava, the water evaporates.
All of the plant life, and grass and trees spread
throughout the arena almost instantly incinerates. Even through your protective shield,
you can feel the heat. But luckily for you, it
does seem to work. The little goobery creatures start to
disintegrate themselves, and soon, in a flash of light, the
creature disappears and reforms into its cardcore. Ladies and gentlemen,
we seem to have a winner. One point awarded. The
crowd jeers the cameras spin around Magnus as he allows
the heat to dissipate from the arena as he turns
the floor into well obsidian. As he often leaves arenas.
The place is completely destroyed after such a powerful display
of heat magic. But well, at least the slime creature
was defeated. But Magnus suddenly doesn't look so well. He
takes in a deep breath and unleashes a gigantic sneeze
that brings fire with it. Ah, I suddenly feel really
dizzy and really sick. He sits down on the ground. Ah.
Maybe that's what the creature's powers were. You say you
defeated it before it defeated you, but it seems like
it still impacted you. Ah well, let's get on with
the next round, Magnet says, because I need a nap,
A buddy, I think it's probably better if you take
a nap now you don't look so well, And if
you get defeated in the arena, then well we lose
a point a fine. Turn me back into a card,
and with that you know that Magnus really isn't feeling well.
He hates being a card. You reach out with your
card core and recall the creature. He transforms into a
bright blue energy, then zips across the arena and slams
into your card core. Your opponent, Vorlax, produces another creature
from his card core, a gigantic armadillo that looks like
it's covered in titanium. You think about all of your options,
all of the deity level creatures you have, but your
mind lands on one in particular, one that, uh well,
is almost as difficult to defeat as Magnus Dominic. Dominic
the dingo your card core glows, A stream of blue
light shoots out of it and forms itself into a
dingo that's well about twice the size of a wooly
mammoth Dominic. He immediately summons a sort of stone armor
around his body, and vines shoot up out of the ground.
We will begin round two men three two one go Immediately,
Dominic begins to summon clones. They are energy clones, exactly
like most magical clones are. Dominic's clones are a little
bit different. Each one is actually a different version of
Dominic from a different timeline, a different possible reality that
never came to be. The clones start to appear all
around the arena surrounding the Titanium Armadillo. Each one looks
a little bit different than the others. One has dark
stone armor, another has really long claws. Another is covered
in thick vines rather than any kind of stone at
all some of them. Some are different colors too. There's
a silver one, a dark black one. There's one with
glowing blue eyes, and another that looks rather battle scarred,
a slash across one of his eyes and a whole
bunch of scars across his body. Dominic disappears, He activates
his camouflage ability and well presumably sits to watch the battle.
After all, Dominic has never been one to get involved
entirely on his own. When his clones can do the job,
he saves his own involvement for more important situations. In
an instant, the Titanium Armadillo begins to flash across the arena.
He moves quicker than you can possibly see, and in
a flash, one of the clones turns back into energy
and disappears. In another flash, the armadillo rolls across the
arena and crashes into another clone, the one covered in vines.
Clearly the Armadillo's fast, lucky for you, though, Dominic has
never been one to you know, accept time as it is.
After realizing what's happening with the other clones, the remaining
ones shift their awareness into a new rate of existence,
a much faster rate of existence. Though from your perspective,
the battle simply transforms into a bunch of flashes that
shoot from place to place. You catch a glimpse of
one of the Dingoes every now and then, or the
Titanium Armadillo, but in general they're all moving too quickly
for you to perceive. A few more of the clones
are destroyed, but they do add a couple scratches to
the armadillo. In the meantime, you see the Titanium creature
reappear behind two of the clones and slash them with
his claws. The two clones disappear, transforming back into energy,
leaving only a few clones behind. The armadillo flashes across
the arena, again appears in front of another clone, and
then freezes in place as a strange sound passes across
the arena, a beautiful sound, Dominic. The Dingo, the original one,
reappears behind the Armadillo, its mouth open, letting out an
incredibly soothing sound. The armadillo seems content and well, sort
of stunned for a moment, And at that exact moment,
every one of Dominic's remaining clones suddenly appear beside it.
An unleash, a swape of their claws, a bite of
their teeth, a smash of their tail. The armadillo was
wrapped in vines, hit with stone attacks, and pummeled until
it eventually cracks. Then, in a flash, Dominic, the original one,
disappears from where he's stay and reappears with his mouth
around the armadillo. He crushes its armor, and soon the
entire thing transforms back into blue energy and shoots into
your opponent's core. The crowd cheers. Well, ladies and gentlemen,
I believe we have a winner, second point awarded match over.
The crowd cheers. The protective force field surrounding you disappears.
When you walk back towards the center of the arena.
You call Dominic back into your card core. His remaining
clones glow, rejoin Dominic, and then Dominic himself begins to
glow and shoot into your cardcore. The announcer's voices appear again,
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we are making history here again.
A competitor from Earth, once again, the first competitor in
over one hundred years from Earth at the deity level tournament,
has just defeated a tournament favorite, Vorlax. You put your
hand out towards Vorlax, ready for a handshake, but instead
Vorlax turns his nose up, spins around in his little
flying chair, and leaves the arena. Uh okay, you say,
walking towards your dressing room door again. The doors open automatically,
and as you walk inside, the noise of the crowd
gets quieter and quieter. You head out of the dressing
room door and down the competitor's hallway. You leave the
building and immediately summon your magic wing card, allowing you
to float high up into the air and back over
towards your hotel. Seeing all sorts of people crowded outside
with cameras and microphones and that sort of thing, you
decide it might be better to avoid crowds right now.
You spot the balcony for your room. You fly directly
over to it and land on the porch. You scan
your key card, the door unlocks and you enter inside
the building. You immediately collapse ups onto the bed. The
lights turn off. You close your eyes, and with each
breath your body starts to sink down deeper and deeper
into the mattress, And with each breath your mind begins
to wander off to thoughts of new dreams, new deity
level cards, and new adventures to come. Good night, everyone,
m M M M never nion m N New York
more Union, no thing, no more. Never mo m M
one one mo
Speaker 2: M