Free Web NovelChapter 120: Chapter 119: Lilith Speaks: "Luke, I Want Him"
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"Seven-Star."
Aldric Ashford spoke the words slowly, one at a time. He hadn’t seen the angelic card spirit’s parameters, but his tone carried absolute conviction, and his chest was tight with an excitement he hadn’t felt in years.
"From a Three-Star starting point, crossing Four-Star, Five-Star, Six-Star, all the way to a Seven-Star tier now. This single card that Luke crafted completely breaks the Magic Card Civilization’s existing rules."
He turned the implications over, and his excitement only built.
"It means a card spirit can grow alongside a Card Master for that Master’s entire career."
The point mattered more than it sounded. Under normal conditions, the low-tier cards a Card Master crafted early in life eventually became keepsakes. Mascots. Sentimental relics with no combat relevance, unless the card happened to possess some rare special ability. As the Master ascended through the realms, the early cards were simply left behind.
Luke and the angelic card spirit broke that pattern. They were a more direct, more visceral demonstration than even Luke’s Spellcaster of a card spirit keeping pace with its Master’s rising strength.
"A once-in-an-era genius. This is absolutely the conception and vision of a once-in-an-era genius." Aldric couldn’t restrain himself any longer, and a delighted laugh escaped him.
If Luke’s situation could be generalized, the strength floor of every Card Master in the Capital would rise dramatically. It had been generations since the Capital had produced a talent of this magnitude. Aldric was already imagining the conversations he would get to have with the Stormvale and Mistvale Governors, the bragging rights, the prestige.
It felt good. It felt extraordinarily good.
Then he remembered Lilith Crescent was sitting beside him, and he reined the laughter back in. Enjoyable as the moment was, a certain decorum was still appropriate in the Night Empress’s presence.
Lilith gave him a sidelong glance and spoke unhurriedly.
"It isn’t as simple as you’re imagining. Luke’s situation is extremely specific. It almost certainly can’t be generalized."
Aldric’s laughter faded into attentiveness.
"A card spirit growing alongside its Master for an entire career is a beautiful idea. But the first problem to solve is the mechanism behind the tier increases. We’ve watched the whole sequence, and we can both see that the key to the escalation lies in the evolution process, which depends on the device Luke crafted."
She let that settle.
"Set aside, for the moment, the production difficulty of Special Cards. In the current era, how many Card Masters even know Special Cards exist? How many of those could actually produce one?"
"Ah." Aldric came back to himself. It was a point he’d overlooked in his excitement. The Capital City Lord’s Mansion held Special Cards in its vault, the Crystallization Technique among them, but Aldric himself hadn’t known the history of Special Cards until Lilith had recounted it. Ordinary Card Masters wouldn’t know the category existed at all. Most had never even heard the term.
"Beyond that, there’s a more fundamental obstacle," Lilith continued. "This particular card spirit comes from Luke’s Original Worldview. And the method of escalating its strength is built on linkage with Special Cards. Generalizing Luke’s approach would require Card Masters to publicly disclose their Original Worldviews and Original Cards. Do you think Luke would be willing to do that?"
"Absolutely not." Selene Dawnford interjected without hesitation. If she were in Luke’s position, she wouldn’t share any of it either. These were personal secrets, the foundation of a Card Master’s entire competitive identity.
"True. I hadn’t thought it through." Aldric nodded, the last of his giddy enthusiasm settling into something more measured. He’d been too excited to reason carefully.
The production difficulty of Special Cards alone was an insurmountable barrier. Even the Capital City Lord’s Mansion’s vault held only a handful of Special Cards like the Crystallization Technique, countable on one hand. And that was the simplest of the obstacles. Add the requirement of an Original Worldview, and the linkage architecture between Original Cards and Special Cards, and the difficulty climbed to a height that would make any reasonable Card Master abandon the attempt.
Replicating Luke’s situation was, functionally, impossible.
"That said," Aldric mused, "Luke now possesses high-tier combat power, but he’s still at the very start of a Card Master’s path. He would benefit from a guide. Someone to lead the way."
Lilith’s response made both Aldric and Selene turn sharply toward her.
"After the exam concludes, Selene, you’ll accompany me to Ashenvale personally."
So you’re planning to take him yourself. Aldric mentally raised a middle finger in Lilith’s general direction, but the gesture was accompanied by genuine relief. His original objective, the entire reason he’d routed information to Lilith through Selene, had just been accomplished.
Lilith clearly intended to take Luke as her personal student. There was no other reason for the Eastern Region’s Governor to travel to a satellite city in person. And once Luke became Lilith’s student, the implicit benefits to Ashenvale, and to the Capital as a whole, would be substantial and lasting.
"Yes, Master." Selene’s eyes lit with anticipation. She’d suspected this might happen back at the Night Palace, but watching Luke’s exam performance had made her genuinely grateful that Lilith was coming along. Selene’s own strength wasn’t remotely sufficient to mentor someone like Luke. With Lilith leading, the arrangement actually made sense.
Inside the exam space.
A sequence of system notifications cascaded through Luke’s awareness.
「 Sistermon Noir evolution successful. Angewomon data updated. Mana backflow received. Realm advanced to Six-Star Leader Realm. 」
「 Sistermon Noir evolution successful. Angewomon data updated. Mana backflow received. Realm advanced to Seven-Star Leader Realm. 」
「 Sistermon Noir evolution successful. Angewomon data updated. Mana backflow received. Realm advanced to Eight-Star Leader Realm. 」
"A triple jump. Not bad at all." Luke was quietly pleased with the mana backflow that an Ultimate-tier card produced. The higher the evolution tier, the more substantial the realm advancement that came with it.
The updated card information surfaced alongside the notifications.
「 Angewomon 」 Race: Digimon (Angel-type) Quality: Legendary Level: ★★★★★★★ (Seven-Star) Skills: Holy Arrow, Heaven’s Charm, Saint Bubble, Arrow of Light
Holy Arrow: Fires a light-element spear infused with divine-judgment energy. Carries penetration and lightning-strike effects. Damage against Dark-element opponents is tripled.
Heaven’s Charm: Releases purifying holy light. Dispels all beneficial status effects on the struck target. Damage against Dark-element opponents is doubled.
Saint Bubble: When activated, all attacks within the affected zone are frozen into a suspended state. Angewomon can absorb the suspended attacks and convert them for her own use. Allied units within the Saint Bubble’s zone receive a healing effect.
Arrow of Light: Condenses internal light-element energy into a piercing arrow. The struck target’s level is unconditionally raised by one tier. If the struck target is a Digimon, the arrow additionally unleashes the full extent of that Digimon’s latent potential.
"Another partner card joins the roster." Luke looked up at Angewomon hovering in the arena’s sky, a satisfied smile on his face.
If Mana was the goddess of Yu-Gi-Oh’s first generation, then Angewomon was, without question, the goddess of Digimon’s.
Angewomon’s skill set wasn’t as extensive as Mana’s, especially Mana equipped with her full suite of Special Cards. But every skill Angewomon did carry was tuned to a peak of practical utility.
Holy Arrow and Heaven’s Charm both came loaded with multiple effects, and both dealt double or triple damage against Dark-element opponents. Angewomon was, by design, a hard counter to anything Dark-aligned.
Saint Bubble functioned exactly as Luke remembered it from his reference material: an attack-absorbing field that could turn an enemy’s offense into Angewomon’s own, plus a healing effect for allies. It was a control-and-sustain tool of exceptional flexibility. frёewebnoѵēl.com
And the last skill, Arrow of Light. Luke had a particularly vivid memory of that one. In Digimon Adventure’s first generation, the Mega evolutions of Agumon and Gabumon had been triggered specifically by the arrows of light fired by Angewomon and Angemon.
