Eleven-thirty at night.
Dark closed his book and glanced at the Vampire Young Lady on the little bed beside him. She had already drifted off, half-dreaming.
Magic Guide Spirits didn't actually need sleep, but the Vampire Young Lady had plainly held on to her childish habits.
He lifted his head a little and met Leomon's eyes.
Leomon had set its reader aside as well, and had pushed back the half of the quilt it had been given, folding the corners neatly.
Dark pointed at the Magic Guide Card already propped up on the desk, and Leomon gave a slight nod.
A flicker of light, and Leomon was drawn back into the Magic Guide Card.
For a Magic Guide Spirit, the environment inside a Magic Guide Card was genuinely comfortable. Choose voluntary dormancy, and sleep came in an instant.
While dormant, their drain on magic was almost nothing.
Which was why the vast majority of Magic Guide Spirits remained dormant until their Magic Guide Master woke them.
Leomon, however, did not sleep after returning to its card.
It sat cross-legged, its gaze passing out through the face of the card, wandering aimlessly across the bedroom.
Ever since it had lived through the "madness" of the Dueling Festival, it often fell into solitary reflection, turning over the meaning of that "madness" — and never arriving anywhere.
It had decided the problem was simply that it hadn't read enough, and had thrown itself into study all the harder.
But this was not the hour for reflection.
Leomon's gaze steadied, settling on its master, who had already taken out "Greed III."
It was very interested in the evolutions the [Major Sin Card] brought about — a pity that a Level III Major Sin Card wasn't nearly enough to evolve a Champion-level Digimon like itself.
That didn't stop it from hoping.
If there was a III, there would be a IV. Wasn't that so?
…
After sending Leomon back into its card, Dark ran his eyes down the row of little beds.
None of the Magic Guide Spirits on them were asleep. Eevee-chan and the Trash Slime had both quietly poked their heads out.
The Honedge, meanwhile, was hooked over the edge of Gatomon's bed.
Dark weighed the three of them against one another and settled on Little Eevee.
DemiDevimon had used "Greed III" to evolve into the Ice-type "Ice Devimon," which had left him instinctively linking "Greed" with ice.
Which made him suspect Little Eevee might likewise evolve into the Ice-type Glaceon.
He wanted to confirm the idea.
If Eevee really did become Glaceon through "Greed III," then his hypothesis would be more or less proven.
The crest of "Greed" bore the astronomical symbol for "Saturn."
In the world of his previous life, Saturn was a gas giant composed chiefly of hydrogen, with a little helium and traces of other elements, its core containing rock and ice, its outer layers wrapped in strata of metallic hydrogen and gas.
In this world, Saturn had to be tied first and foremost to the literal attributes of its name — that is, to Rock-type and Ground-type.
And second, given that the settings here were derived from the real world, it wasn't strange at all for Saturn to be associated with ice.
"Greed" and Ice-type might turn out to be an unexpectedly good match.
…
"Bui—"
Eevee wriggled out from under its covers, trotted over and hopped up onto Dark's big bed, then burrowed into his quilt as if it were the most natural thing in the world, a fluffy little head popping out on his right side.
Dark teased its nose for a moment, then simply scooped it into his arms, slid "Greed III" under the quilt and cast a Normal Summon to activate it.
"In the name of Dark Demon — Magic Guide Summon!"
The dark-blue radiance of "Greed" was sealed inside the quilt, but enough leaked through to dye Eevee's fur deep blue.
Dark could clearly see the crest of "Greed" surfacing between its brows before the light of evolution swallowed it whole.
Under the effect of "Greed III," Eevee's very form changed at a speed the eye could follow.
Just as when Devimon had evolved into Ice Devimon, threads of cold air spread outward.
But this chill was nothing like as domineering as Ice Devimon's — only a faint coolness.
"So it really is Glaceon!"
The thought had barely formed when the evolution light drew fully inward, leaving in his arms an Eevee that had grown to twice its former size.
That pale blue body, that fox-like face, that cool touch against his skin — beyond any doubt, this was Glaceon!
Glaceon's head looked as though it wore a double-knit winter cap, and its inner ears, body and tail carried diamond-shaped dark blue markings that stood in sharp contrast to the pale blue of its coat.
Its legs bore dark blue patches too, as though it were wearing boots.
Its fur was fine and short. By lowering its body temperature it could freeze every hair on its body into needles sharp enough to fire like darts.
It could also use that cold to freeze the moisture in the surrounding air, generating fine ice crystals.
Of course, under ordinary circumstances a Glaceon was thoroughly gentle — like the one in Dark's arms, which, even under the influence of "Greed III," showed not the slightest inclination to squirm free.
Dark lifted it up and looked it over inch by inch before tucking it back under the covers, then picked up the Magic Guide Card, now changed to [Magic Beast: Glaceon], and poured in magic to draw out its information.
[Card Name: Glaceon]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ????]
[Race: Animal species]
[Attribute: Ice-type]
[Magic: 1900]
[Attack: 1200]
[Defense: 1800]
[Ultimate Moves: Mirror Coat, Ice Shard, Blizzard]
Still an orange card with three Ultimate Moves — a perfectly pure four-star Ice-type Magic Guide Spirit.
Compared with the "Espeon" and "Sylveon" evolutionary forms, Glaceon's defense clearly stood out.
It fell only slightly short of "Umbreon," though its attack was dismally low, and its highest stat was magic.
Since they all evolved from a one-star Magic Beast, none of Eevee's evolutions had especially impressive core stats.
But their Ultimate Moves never failed to astonish.
This Glaceon, for instance, came out of the gate with "Mirror Coat" — enough on its own to make it an indispensable evolutionary form.
[Mirror Coat: On the condition of withstanding the damage, reflect the opponent's spell attack back at double strength!]
Back when Dark had watched the Pokémon anime, he'd been extremely fond of a Pokémon called "Wobbuffet."
And Wobbuffet's two core moves were "Counter" and "Mirror Coat."
One doubled back physical attacks, the other doubled back spell attacks — shameless to the absolute limit.
Now that Glaceon had mastered "Mirror Coat," it counted as half a Wobbuffet.
Of course, though the anime never made it obvious, both "Counter" and "Mirror Coat" required taking the damage first before anything could be sent back.
So if you couldn't survive even a single hit, there was no point talking about reflection at all.
Fortunately, Glaceon's magic and defense were both respectable.
Besides "Mirror Coat," Glaceon had two other Ultimate Moves.
One of them was "Ice Shard"!
[Ice Shard: Instantly create a block of ice and hurl it at the opponent at tremendous speed, dealing damage.]
"Ice Shard" was not a particularly strong Ultimate Move — you could fairly call it weak.
But it launched with such speed that it usually struck first.
And "instantly create a block of ice" was, in fact, an outstanding ability.
You could even call it a vastly upgraded version of the "Barrier Charm."
Dark still remembered his duel with Tom Nixon, when he himself had built a Blood Platform in midair, leaving any Magic Guide Spirit that couldn't fly or leap high with nothing to do but watch.
Now, with Glaceon, he could raise a platform of ice in the air in an instant too.
As for actually throwing the thing as an attack…
Forcing it into service as an attack was probably worse than a basic strike.
By comparison, the damage from the other Ultimate Move — "Blizzard" — was genuinely impressive.
Even with Glaceon's low attack, "Blizzard" could still deal considerable damage.
[Blizzard: Whip up a savage snowstorm against the opponent to attack. May sometimes leave the opponent frozen.]
Blizzard's raw power was very high. The one regret was that it couldn't be sustained.
If "Blizzard" could be converted into a lasting field technique, it would grant an enormous boost to Ice-type Magic Guide Spirits.
Dark found himself turning the idea over.
As Eevee deepened its command of magic, a future evolution into Glaceon might well allow "Blizzard" to be converted into a field technique. That would be a fine development path.
For now, though, apart from "Mirror Coat," none of Glaceon's abilities stood out the way Persian's did.
That thought led him to remember the "secondary Forging" Sister Carian had mentioned.
If Eevee underwent a secondary Forging, raising its base stats to the five-hundred tier, or even making it a two-star Magic Guide Spirit — would the core stats of all its evolutionary forms rise along with it?
In theory, it should work.
But secondary Forging of a Magic Guide Spirit carried far too much risk. Unless he could guarantee the Magic Guide Card itself wouldn't be damaged, or find some means of preserving the spirit's intelligence intact, Dark certainly wasn't going to attempt it.
He shook his head, finished his notes right there on the bed, then spent a while cuddling and teasing Glaceon until it devolved.
Once it was Eevee again, it narrowed its big eyes and settled in to freeload on Dark's bed, the picture of contentment.
There was no chance Dark would chase a Magic Guide Spirit off his bed. He tucked Eevee against his chest and gave it another furious round of petting.
What the other Magic Guide Spirits were thinking at that moment is best left unmentioned.
In the deep quiet of night, time always slipped past quickly.
Before he knew it, it was twelve-thirty, then twelve-forty.
By then, Honedge and the Trash Slime were both primed and waiting.
Dark looked at Honedge and at Gatomon, who was holding it, then at the Trash Slime and at Ditto, who was hugging it, and in the end chose Honedge out of the two.
Honedge was a four-star Magic Guide Spirit Card in its own right — born into the second tier.
Although it still had two further evolutionary stages, a Level III Major Sin did have its ceiling; to this day it had never evolved a second-tier Magic Guide Spirit.
So Dark wasn't especially optimistic about Honedge's chances.
But experiments existed precisely to hunt for possibilities in the unknown.
As the saying goes, you never know until you try.
"Then it's decided — you're up, Honedge."
Gatomon promptly leapt down from the bed, made a full circuit of the room in front of every watching eye, burrowed into the empty side of Dark's quilt, and handed over the Honedge in its paws.
Honedge: ??
However it had happened, Honedge had arrived.
Dark lifted the covers, tucked it inside, and once again used "Greed III" beneath the quilt.
"In the name of Dark Demon — Magic Guide Summon!"
…
Fierce blue light shone the quilt transparent, spilling out in every direction, throwing dappled blue shadows across the ceiling like the swell of the sea.
Beside Dark, Gatomon and Eevee-chan both stared at the glowing patch of bedding, waiting in silence for Honedge to change.
And yes…
It really was changing.
Whether or not the energy in "Greed III" was sufficient, the evidence in front of him said the "Greed" line of Major Sin Cards could indeed drive Honedge to evolve.
The hilt jutting out from under the quilt twisted hard, its whole body wrapped in evolution light.
It had never looked like an ordinary Honedge to begin with, and its design didn't change now — it simply drew out like a strand of molten glass, splitting off an identical second half from its own body.
At the same time, an oval shape of light gradually took form within the glow.
That was the shield produced when Honedge reached its second stage.
For now the shield was still incomplete, incapable of supporting "King's Shield," the Ultimate Move that turned the spirit itself into shield form.
But that shield had already become an inseparable part of its body.
What mildly surprised Dark was how smoothly the evolution ran — no stalling at all, despite it being only a Level III Major Sin Card.
The eye set in its crossguard opened as wide as it could, the crest of "Greed" shining out from within, and every ounce of "Greed" light was drawn into that eye.
When the evolution light snapped inward, a Magic Guide Spirit with two swords and one oval shield lay in the bedding.
"Honedge" — "Doublade"!
Having evolved into Doublade, it was, just as its name suggested, now two blades, crossed in an X.
The overall design remained slender and exquisite, the openwork patterns on the scabbards as lavish as spider lilies.
The one difference from its previous form was that the eyes and ribbons of each blade had shifted from their old blue-purple to a far more vivid purplish red.
The shield at its back served like a sword case, holding the two blades together.
In combat the two blades would fly free, and one of the ribbon-tentacles would guard that shield. Only upon evolving into "Aegislash" would the shield become complete.
At that point it would not only be able to use the shield to absorb attacks, but to transform "Aegislash" itself into shield form.
Dark ran his fingers carefully along the blades, thoroughly pleased.
"So a Major Sin Card's power to drive evolution doesn't depend purely on its energy level."
"Between a Level III Major Sin Card and a Level II one there must be some difference more important than raw energy — the decisive factor that makes their effects so wildly unequal."
"No quantity of 'Major Sin II' can ever substitute for a 'Major Sin III.'"
In the middle of that thought Dark's brow furrowed. He had noticed Doublade's two ribbons quietly coiling around his wrist and Gatomon's — and he could feel his magic being siphoned away like running water.
After Gatomon's tutoring, Honedge had learned the virtue of taking a little at a time, drawing magic in small sips.
But clearly, greed had blinded it.
Dark peeled off the two hand-like ribbons, then turned them around and trussed Doublade up good and tight.
Which left Doublade twitching like a landed fish, letting out muffled little whimpers.
Dark seized the opportunity to pick up its Magic Guide Card and take a look.
As magic flowed in, a flood of information came back.
[Card Name: Doublade]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ??????]
[Race: Undead Species]
[Attribute: Steel-type/Ghost-type]
[Magic: 3000]
[Attack: 2200]
[Defense: 2200]
[Ultimate Moves: Weaponize, Chain Slash, Swords Dance, Holy Sword]
"So it's become a six-star Magic Guide Spirit?"
"But why is it that apart from magic going from 1500 to 3000, and defense from 1800 to 2200, nothing else changed at all?"
"Not even the Ultimate Moves changed!"
"Don't tell me this is what they call a pleasant surprise?"
Dark muttered to himself for a while, then dug into each Ultimate Move in detail.
[Weaponize: Doublade can transform into weapon form, and the type of the Magic Guide Card changes accordingly.]
"Chain Slash," "Swords Dance" and "Holy Sword" that followed were all identical as well — not a single word of difference from before.
Dark frowned slightly and said, "Transform into weapon form."
On receiving the order, Doublade closed the eyes on both blades at once, and the slender ribbons binding its bodies whipped back in, leaving two swords and a shield.
The shield was obviously good for nothing, but apart from the purplish-red of their ribbons and eyes, the two blades were exactly the same as a lone Honedge.
"One splits into two — is that all it means?"
Dark took a sword in each hand and examined them closely.
He soon discovered that the additional effects of each blade were identical to those of "Honedge (Weapon Form)."
Which was to say, aside from one sword becoming two, there was no difference whatsoever.
"Somehow that suddenly makes sense."
Dark's brow smoothed out.
The Ultimate Moves Doublade had kept — "Weaponize," "Chain Slash," "Swords Dance," "Holy Sword" — were all extremely powerful, and retaining every one of them was plainly a blessing.
The doubling of magic and the modest rise in defense meant that in evolving from Honedge to Doublade, its essence hadn't changed at all beyond splitting in two.
Looked at from that angle, it was clearly a good thing.
"In that case, Gatomon and Leomon can each have a Holy Sword. Perfect!"
At that thought Dark raised his head toward the "Leomon" Magic Guide Card on the desk — and Leomon, seeing him look over, promptly stuck up a thumb: Good Job!
…
What Dark didn't know was that at that very moment, DemiDevimon, with only a pair of eyes showing above the covers, was fantasizing about splitting into two itself.
"One turns into a black cat, one into a white cat — and then couldn't I just Fusion-evolve myself into Bastemon?"
The more DemiDevimon imagined it, the more blissful it got, until it was drooling.
…
By the time the bedroom went quiet again, it was past one.
Dark rarely stayed up this late anymore. His body clock kept sounding the alarm, and drowsiness crept in.
He picked up his book again and read to kill the time.
At last, at one-forty, "Greed III" finished its cooldown.
And the Trash Slime, which had been waiting a very long time, was carried down off the bed in Ditto's arms.
"Splat!"
Ditto bounced excitedly onto the bed and splatted across Dark's face like a mound of jelly.
With some resignation, Dark peeled it and the Trash Slime off his face, then tucked the Trash Slime under the quilt as before and used a Normal Summon to activate "Greed III."
The Trash Slime basked in the light of "Greed," gurgling contentedly.
And under the effect of "Greed III," its shape began, as expected, to change.
Dark had studied this beforehand.
Slimes generally had three great traits: transformation, merging, and devouring.
His "Trash Slime" was obviously built primarily around devouring.
So among the seven Major Sins, the one that fit it best should be "Gluttony," with "Greed" only second.
But with "Gluttony" nowhere in sight, the fact that "Greed" worked at all was wonderful news.
Dark scooped the Trash Slime out from under the quilt.
Its transformation had entered its final phase, only a faint blue glow still radiating beyond its outline.
When the blue light drew fully inward, a larger jelly-shaped slime sat in his palm.
His hand sank slightly under the weight, and he lowered it without thinking.
In the last instant of evolution, the Trash Slime suddenly swelled, becoming a large slime over a meter and a half across!
Compared with the evolution under "Greed II," this "Greed III" evolution showed an obvious qualitative leap from the outside alone!
Had the Trash Slime finally gotten its wish and evolved into a useful Magic Guide Spirit?
Dark's attention wandered for a heartbeat, and the entire upper half of his body — head included — was engulfed by that enormous transparent jelly.
His instinct was to resist, but he realized at once that even wrapped up inside it, he could breathe without difficulty, and his field of vision was relatively good.
"So it has a rich oxygen cycle inside it."
Dark stopped bothering to struggle free and simply took up the Magic Guide Card and poured magic in.
Information came flooding back.
[Card Name: Greed Slime II]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ????]
[Race: Elemental Species]
[Attribute: Grass-type]
[Magic: 3000]
[Attack: 0]
[Defense: 2000]
[Ultimate Moves: Greedy Nature, Divide and Succeed, Synthesis]
"Sure enough — not only did it jump straight from one star to four stars, but the magic value… 3000??"
Dark blinked hard, astonishment beyond words on his face.
He was long used to his own Magic Guide Spirits exceeding the top-tier caps in their core stats, but who exceeded them by more than a thousand points in one go?
That was the same magic value as Doublade, wasn't it?
And a full, flat 2000 points of defense on top of it!
____
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