The cold raindrops felt like sharp needles piercing his skin as he stared at the severed head at his feet.
His mind recognized every single detail of that face. The shape of the eyes, the curve of the nose, and the pale lips all belonged to the woman he had promised a beautiful life to in his original world.
Elias felt an agonizing sting in his chest, as if an invisible hand was violently crushing his heart. Thousands of questions flooded his mind. Why was his wife's face here, inside a horrific trash pit in another dimension?
A massive wave of emotion threatened to drown his sanity. He wanted to scream and lose his mind. He wanted to hug that bloody head and beg for forgiveness for all his failures in their life together.
But before the first tear could even fall from his eyes, a familiar mechanism inside his brain suddenly kicked in. It was the exact same survival instinct that had saved him countless times whenever his life was on the line in the gambling dens.
In the world of betting, emotion is poison. Fear, pity, and sorrow are cards that opponents can easily read. The moment the guy across the table sees you hurting, that's when they go all in to wipe you out completely.
Elias forced himself to swallow the heavy lump in his throat. He ruthlessly killed any trace of humanity in his eyes and replaced it with a cold, indifferent stare. He faced the situation like a game he desperately needed to win.
He shifted his gaze from the severed head up to the three shadows standing at the top of the cliff. The green fire from their torches cast a terrifying glow on their golden armor. The weapons pointed at him weren't ordinary bows or guns.
They were long metal tubes wrapped in glowing blue stones. Elias could feel the intense energy radiating from those weapons. Just one hit from them would be enough to erase his entire body from this world.
"A slave who survived the death ritual and killed a monster using magic," the man in the middle said. His voice was calm but dripping with extreme arrogance and disgust. "I thought your strength was entirely drained, Number Zero. I didn't expect you to have any value left."
Elias carefully watched the speaker's movements. He noticed the slight raise of his eyebrow and the unconscious tightening of his grip on his weapon. These were tiny signs known in the gambling world as physical tells. This man wasn't angry.
This man was confused and feeling a hint of fear toward things he couldn't explain. They couldn't understand how a lowly slave, stripped of his right to live, suddenly gained power.
It hit Elias that the severed head at his feet might not even be real. If these people could use magic, it would be incredibly easy for them to read the fears in his mind and create an illusion to break his resolve.
They were using his wife's image to test his limits. It was an intense mind game, the exact same kind he used to play against his own opponents back then.
A weak, broken laugh slowly escaped Elias's lips. It started as a quiet chuckle until it grew into a loud sound that echoed throughout the pit of the dead. He looked up at the three nobles, flashing a smile completely devoid of fear.
The two guards flanking the noble exchanged glances. The tips of their weapons lowered slightly in confusion. No victim would ever laugh while standing on the brink of death.
"What's so funny, piece of trash?" the noble asked angrily as he readied his weapon to fire. Blue energy swirled at the tip of its metal barrel.
"It's funny because you actually think you're still in control of the game," Elias answered as he slowly stood up. He ignored the agonizing pain radiating from his wounds and the paralysis in his left arm. He looked the noble dead in the eye. "I can see the fear in your hands. You're scared because you have no idea what kind of cards I'm holding right now."
Elias focused on the invisible scale inside his mind. He was going to use this newly discovered law of equivalent exchange not to attack, but to pull off the biggest bluff he could muster. He had no physical strength left to fight, and he had no vital body parts left that he was willing to sacrifice.
But he didn't need real power to win. He only needed to make the people in front of him believe that he could drag them down to hell with him.
In his mind, he placed a tiny bet. He offered his sense of taste for three days in exchange for a simple burst of light. The moment the scale accepted his wager, the blue sparks reappeared around his right fist.
But Elias put his acting skills to work. He forced his breathing to sound heavy and strained, making the veins in his neck bulge as if he was holding back a massively dangerous amount of energy.
"Do you know what I bet earlier to kill that monster?" Elias asked seriously, raising his right hand that kept emitting artificial sparks. "I bet my entire left arm. So now I'm asking you. Do you know what I'm willing to bet right now?"
The two guards took a half-step back. Elias saw the noble in the middle swallow hard. He took the bait. People who are used to gambling with other people's lives always turn into cowards the moment their own lives are at risk. They are the type of players who fold when they see their opponent is willing to die just to deal some damage.
"Stop talking nonsense," the noble shouted, but the tremor in his voice was obvious. "One move and we'll blow a hole through your skull."
"Try it," Elias challenged as he took a step closer to the base of the steep cliff. He spread his arms wide open to show he wasn't protecting himself at all. "I'll bet the very soul of this body and every last breath I have left. In exchange, I'll get an explosion big enough to wipe out this entire trash pit along with you. You'll kill me, but I guarantee the three of you are going down with me. Come on, let's show our cards."
A heavy silence blanketed the area. Only the sound of the falling rain and the crackling energy in Elias's hand could be heard. Elias locked his sharp eyes on the group's leader, waiting for a decision. In the art of bluffing, the first one to look away is the loser.
Elias didn't even blink, even though he could feel extreme exhaustion slowly eating away at his mind. If this noble chose to pull the trigger, he would be erased completely. It was a bet with his life on the line.
A long sigh escaped the noble before he slowly lowered his weapon. The two guards followed suit, taking their aim off Elias's chest. His bluff won. The enemy folded because they couldn't risk their luxurious lives against a slave who had absolutely nothing left to lose.
"Something strange happened to your brain after the ritual," the noble said, watching him with a mix of interest. "It would be a waste if you just died here. A slave who knows how to use the law of equivalent exchange is a perfect toy for the Colosseum of Fates. I might even win back the gold my family lost if I bet you there."
The noble raised his free hand, and a swirling symbol appeared in the air. From that symbol emerged a long chain made of pure black energy. It quickly shot down like a snake and instantly wrapped itself around Elias's neck.
He felt the freezing cold of the chain as it rapidly absorbed the blue sparks from his right hand. He lost his ability to use magic, and the heavy weight of his exhaustion crashed down on his body once again.
"Drag that dog up here," the noble ordered his guards before turning his back and walking away from the cliff's edge.
Just before the two guards could pull him all the way up, Elias took one last look at the severed head resting on top of the corpses. Just as he expected, his wife's bloody face slowly turned into black smoke before completely blending into the cold night air. It really was just an illusion created from his memories to terrify him. It was a dirty trick from a merciless world.
Elias let the chain drag him up the steep dirt wall. He didn't fight back because he knew he had just secured the first step of his long-term plan.
He was alive, and he was going to get a chance to enter the heart of this society. He ignored the cuts and scrapes he got from the rocks and vines as he was pulled up. His entire focus was locked on planning his next moves.
When he finally reached flat ground, he was greeted by a sight that completely changed his understanding of this world. Right below the high mountain where they stood was a massive, sprawling city.
Endless towers made of black glass reached all the way up to the clouds. The entire area was bathed in blinding lights coming from different colors of magic. This wasn't just a simple kingdom. It was a colossal machine built on luxury and greed. It was a massive casino where the buildings were built from the blood and lives of the poor.
A carriage made of dark iron, pulled by two monsters that looked like skinless horses, was waiting for them. The first guard shoved him into a cramped cage at the back of the vehicle. Elias crashed onto the cold steel floor as the second guard hooked the end of his chain to the sturdy wall of the cage.
Elias sat quietly in a corner and closed his eyes to rest his battered body. His mind was busy calculating his next steps. The Empire looked incredibly strong from the outside, but as a gambler, he knew that every grand casino had a hidden weakness.
He was going to find that weakness and slowly poison their system from the inside until everything they took pride in crumbled to the ground.
But before the carriage could even move, a strangely familiar sound broke his train of thought. He heard a soft, cautious whisper coming from the dark side of the cage, and it definitely didn't come from the guards outside. He opened his eyes and squinted at the far end of the cell where the moonlight couldn't reach. There was someone else chained inside.
The shadow slowly moved, revealing a man whose face was covered in dirt and wounds. His eyes showed extreme exhaustion, yet they carried a strange sharpness as he stared at Elias. The man checked their surroundings to make sure the guards couldn't hear them before he spoke again in a calm voice.
"That was a nice bluff you pulled up there," the stranger whispered, flashing a bitter smile. "A clean act using death as your bet. But your pupils dilated the moment he lowered his weapon. A rookie mistake. If I were in that noble's shoes, I would've called your bluff and collected your life right then and there."
Elias's whole body went cold when he heard that. This stranger didn't just see right through his bluff. He also knew the tiny tells of a person trying to fake a winning hand.
The man stopped talking and stared intensely at Elias. "I never expected to see a fellow gambler from the old world inside this hellhole."