Tears of defeat are bitter enough, but the fruit of tenderness is sweet.
For the first time, Gatomon let go of her stubbornness, showing herself before Dark like a child not even a year old, rather than the sensible big sister who never needed anyone's worry.
The Magic Guide Spirits couldn't hold back the urge to comfort her.
Even Leomon, who had lost to Gatomon, felt the pull to cheer her on.
But the mood-breaker chose that exact moment to arrive.
Having finished dealing with Diana, the "Silver Wolf Knight" Camilla walked over, crossed her arms, and looked down at Dark. "Dark, how about a match?"
Dark looked up, surprise plain on his face.
Camilla smiled. "The Duke wants to see your strongest armament."
"My strongest armament?" Dark's brow furrowed slightly.
"A fight is the best test," Camilla said. "Your mother wants to know how far your research into Armament Forging has come. Of course, you're free to use your own weapon."
As she spoke, she raised a hand and pointed at the Honedge floating in the air.
A trace of gravity entered Dark's eyes. "So you mean lifting all restrictions on weapon and armament, then?"
Camilla nodded. "You could put it that way."
"Alright then."
Dark patted Gatomon's back and rose to his feet.
Gatomon wiped away her tears and looked toward the Honedge drifting behind Dark.
The Honedge slid out a length of blade, catching a glint of light.
Gatomon nodded at it, then reached out and grabbed—the Honedge flew instantly into her palm.
She then held the Honedge out and passed it to Dark.
Dark took it with one hand, then plucked three cards from his deck: Honedge, Moon God Spirit I, and Wishful Die.
He pinched the three cards between thumb and forefinger, gave them a light rub, and spread them into a fan.
"Between weapon and armament, these three are all I have to work with."
...
Camilla studied the three Magic Guide Cards carefully. With all her meridian wheels fully open, her senses were sharp enough to catch the unusual aura seeping out of them.
A flicker of surprise crossed her face. She turned toward Alvit standing across from her and said, "Alvit, want to take this one yourself?"
Alvit shook her head slightly.
"Just teasing," Camilla said with a laugh.
She waved Diana off to the side to watch, then smiled at Dark. "I didn't expect you to have forged an armament of this caliber already, and you're only a first-year."
Dark smiled back. "I did inherit my mother's treasure trove, after all."
Camilla nodded. "She mentioned it to me—the [Tri-Armed Transmutation Circle], wasn't it? It's remarkable that you actually managed to learn to use it."
"I failed more times than I can count before I worked out a little something," Dark said. "Some of it was luck."
Camilla shook her head. "There's no such thing as that much luck. Come on, it's time to get on the field!"
With that, she turned and walked toward the center of the arena.
Of the three Magic Guide Cards in Dark's hand, she'd actually seen two of them before.
Honedge, for instance, belonged to one of the students in the study group she supervised.
She'd known for a while that Honedge could shift into a "weapon form."
What she never expected was that the "Moon Maiden" was also a weapon—or an armament!
"Not a single trace of it showed."
Camilla tapped her forehead, thinking she must have simply grown too relaxed after the war and let her senses dull.
But in truth, it was the faint trace of divinity leaking from the Moon God Spirit that had been clouding her perception all along.
Back when the Moon God Spirit had first been placed into Ms. Cook's study group under the name "Moon Maiden," three of the four tutors had already sensed that this Magic Guide Spirit was no ordinary one.
It was only that the "Silent Sage" Cyrus was too fixated on observing the spiritual intelligence of Magic Guide Spirits, while Ms. Plante was too absorbed in the endless possibilities of Trash Slime and Miltank's Sap Sipper Ultimate Move, that neither of them paid the matter any mind.
These tutors, having passed the "trust" vetting from the very start, were beyond reproach in character.
There was no chance any of them would grow covetous over a single "card of gods."
A card of gods!
And an armament-type card of gods, at that!
And one he had forged himself!
Camilla stopped at a suitable spot, flicked her fingers, and drew out a "weapon card," releasing it on the spot.
Much like Alvit, Camilla was skilled with a wide range of weapons, though her true forte was hand-to-hand combat. On the battlefield, though, she wielded a spear.
As the summoning light scattered like scattered stars, a divine spear glowing with a faint silver sheen appeared in her palm.
The spear's shaft held nothing particularly unusual in its construction, but black incantations were engraved along the haft, and the spearhead was cast from a transparent metal that let light pass straight through.
Once swung at speed, the spearhead would vanish from an opponent's field of vision, tricking them into fatal misjudgments.
It had no tassel—the whole spear was forged as a single unbroken piece, thick and long, radiating raw dominance.
"Its name is Fenrir," Camilla said, lifting the long spear slowly.
...
"Fenrir?"
Dark studied the spear closely and felt a thread of menace radiating from it.
In Norse mythology of his past life, Fenrir was the great wolf who devoured and killed Odin, king of the gods, during Twilight of the Gods.
In this world, though, Fenrir was a legendary demon wolf whose greatest feat had been swallowing the moon itself!
A divine spear named after Fenrir might well carry some connection to that.
"It probably has the power to devour magic power, or perhaps life force."
After a moment's thought, Dark managed to piece together some conclusions from the scant information available.
He raised his hand and murmured, "Honedge, Weaponize."
Clang!
Honedge instantly drew in her ribbons, closed her eyes, and shifted into weapon form.
Wielding a Holy Sword meant giving up its inherent traits, but its surface-level abilities remained plenty strong.
The Ultimate Moves "Chain Slash" and "Swords Dance"—even in their weakened form—were nothing to scoff at.
Not to mention that once Dark's armament evolution kicked in, he'd be a six-star Magic Guide Spirit himself, gaining an attack boost of Star Rank ×300!
"Aunt Camilla, I'm starting now."
Seeing that Camilla had gone still after manifesting the Fenrir Spear, Dark gave a light word of warning.
The corner of Camilla's mouth curled upward, and deep in her eyes surfaced a battle-hunger that had lain dormant for years.
"Come, then. Let me see this armament of yours!"
...
Off the field...
Diana and Aurora both showed shock upon hearing Camilla's words.
Once Dark had taken the field, Diana had squeezed in beside Aurora, chatting away with easy familiarity.
Aurora couldn't help asking, "Sister Diana, does Dark really have a divine armament?"
Diana looked away. "How would I know? I'm just a bear."
Aurora's words caught in her throat, and she quickly said, "I suppose it's normal not to know—cards of gods are absolute secrets, even in most people's hands."
But while the two of them were talking, a small head suddenly poked up between them.
The Vampire Young Lady chirped cheerfully, "Hee, so Sister Aurora didn't know either?"
"Me?" Aurora turned, startled.
"Mm-hm." The Vampire Young Lady nodded eagerly, then discreetly pointed at the Moon God Spirit still standing quietly nearby, and whispered, "She's been right here the whole time."
"Her?" Aurora turned in confusion, and only when she followed the Vampire Young Lady's finger to the Moon God Spirit did realization dawn.
"Who is she?" Diana asked, utterly lost.
"Ahem."
The Moon God Spirit, finding herself suddenly the focus of everyone's attention, felt a little bubble of delight rise inside her.
She instinctively basked in the feeling of many eyes on her, craving the sensation of being the center of it all.
But Dark had specifically instructed her to call herself only the "Moon Maiden" in front of outsiders, never revealing her true identity as the "Moon God."
Otherwise, doing so would place enormous obstacles in the way of her eventual "resurrection."
And since her resurrection was on the line, the Moon God Spirit was, naturally, perfectly obedient.
"I'm Moo—"
At that exact moment, Dark's incantation rang out across the field.
"In the name of Dark, Magic Guide Summon!"
The Moon God Spirit's form rapidly faded and vanished.
Under the astonished gazes of Aurora and the others, a translucent silhouette of the Moon God Spirit rose up behind Dark.
She spread her arms and wrapped them around him from behind.
Above her head hung a silver mirror.
A blinding light burst from deep within the mirror, bursting through its surface in an instant and illuminating Dark's entire body.
A silver radiance, pure as moonlight, wrapped itself completely around him.
His very life-form began to shift dramatically under that silver glow.
This wasn't merely a Digimon's "evolution" into a higher stage—it was the transformation of a human being into a Digimon.
As the glow grew more intense, Dark's body stretched rapidly, shifting from the frame of a twelve-year-old to that of an eighteen-year-old—revealing the height he would one day reach as an adult.
Silver-white armor manifested piece by piece around his body, its surface shimmering with flowing light.
So resplendent was the sight that it seized the attention of everyone watching from outside the field.
Never mind Aurora and Diana, their small mouths half-open in adorable astonishment—
even Claire, up on the platform, wore a look of genuine shock.
As someone deeply versed in the study of life-forms, she recognized almost instantly what was happening to Dark.
This was absolutely not what people called an "armament Transform."
Indeed, the moment she saw Dark undergo "armament evolution," she'd already grasped its true nature.
Alvit, too, saw the difference at once.
Even the Valkyrie, whose research into "armaments" was unrivaled, found herself rubbing at the corner of her eye, wondering if she was seeing things.
She knew of the Moon God Spirit's existence, and she knew Dark had used "armament Transform" once before, in a dream he'd encountered aboard the Magic Guide Train. She had been curious ever since about exactly what kind of transformation it was—but whoever heard of a transformation that was actually real?
Whether it was the Kamen Rider series, which relied on belts to trigger their armaments, or her own Twelve Golden Holy Armors, honestly speaking, they were all just a shell layered over the surface.
If the very inner nature changed as well, then that wasn't an "armament Transform" at all—that was a "Transformation Spell"!
Speaking of which, Dark's own "Transformation Spell" project was still unfinished...
Alvit drew a breath and turned back to watch the field.
Her precious son had already given her more shocks than she could count. One more wouldn't make a difference.
...
The one who felt it most keenly, though, was Camilla, standing face to face with Dark.
Camilla clearly sensed Dark's aura climbing in three successive leaps.
As the silver-white armor pressed snugly against his body, silver light flowing through every seam and gap between the plates, that aura finally reached its peak!
The light collapsed inward all at once.
And there, before everyone's eyes, stood Dark's "Moon God" form.
Tall and elegant, yet not the least bit thin.
The silver-white armor clung close to his body, flowing and natural, without a hint of the stiffness one would expect from ordinary armor.
The V-shaped armor plating across his face gave him an air of extreme, honed sharpness.
From beneath the purple visor, half his face showed—so exquisitely handsome that one couldn't help wanting to lift the visor and see, once and for all, just how beautiful he'd become as an adult.
In truth, both Alvit off the field and Claire up on the platform were barely holding themselves back.
Diana and Aurora had their eyes wide open, staring without blinking.
Aurora murmured, "So this is what he looks like grown up..."
Diana asked, confused, "Wait, can't we not see his face?"
"Feel it with your heart," Aurora said.
"Huh??" Diana blinked.
...
This wasn't the first time Dark's Magic Guide Spirits had seen his "Moon God" form, but they were still utterly captivated.
That figure, handsome as a god.
Even the maids watching among the crowd found themselves drawn in, unable to look away for a long while.
...
"So this is a divine armament? What a surprise!"
Camilla drew a deep breath. For a moment, she thought she glimpsed a shadow of the Valkyrie in Dark.
No—there was no way the Valkyrie, at this same age, could have forged an armament this terrifying.
She could tell clearly: after "suiting up," Dark had become a six-star Magic Guide Spirit.
Six stars—the third rank within the second tier.
By the standard hierarchy of Magic Guide Spirits, that wasn't especially high.
Camilla was even confident she could beat him bare-handed, and quite easily at that.
But her instincts told her something entirely different: this "six-star" Magic Guide Spirit before her clearly carried the raw power of a top-tier eight-star.
And in truth, it did.
The "Moon God's" passive Ultimate Move—"Godhood Armament"—granted a jaw-dropping boost of 1000 points each to magic attack and defense, pushing what had originally been 3000 points each up to a full 4000!
A stat line of 4000 was a monstrous baseline that couldn't be matched even among eight-star Magic Guide Spirits.
That level of strength likely belonged only to nine-star Magic Guide Spirits.
How could a student who'd spent just a single year at St. Marian's Academy have forged a divine armament of this caliber?
Camilla didn't dare think any further down that path.
She couldn't hold back her admiration. "Incredible. You're the most gifted Magic Guide Master I've ever seen!"
"You flatter me," Dark said.
Having evolved his armament into the "Moon God," his life-form was now based on that of a Digimon, so speech came naturally to him.
But his voice had clearly lost its childish edge, taking on the deeper, masculine timbre of an adult man.
That low, rich voice seemed to carry a natural allure, one that pulled at the listener without them quite noticing.
Camilla watched with a purely analytical eye, judging that Dark's current form likely carried some kind of "Attract" ability, and probably an Ultimate Move that enhanced that Attract effect further.
A flicker of wariness ran through her, and she tightened her grip on the Fenrir Spear.
This divine spear, her companion through years of battlefield campaigns, had always been the source of her confidence.
And this time would be no different.
With a spear in hand, any road could be walked!
"Come at me, then! Don't tell me this form of yours is all show and no substance!"
She gave a sharp cry and lunged, the spear striking out like a coiling dragon in an instant.
A glint of cold light flashed, and Camilla moved as one with the spear—impossible to tell whether she carried the spear or the spear carried her—until the two of them became a single silver arrow.
Whoosh—
The air split apart.
The invisible spearpoint came screaming in.
With Honedge in hand, if Dark met the attack with the blade, his strongest strike could reach 5800 points!
That figure exceeded the base values of the third tier, rivaling the raw attack power of the fourth tier!
Any Magic Guide Card that surpassed nine stars entered the fourth tier—a tier with no upper ceiling at all.
That represented infinite possibility!
Facing the "Silver Wolf Knight's" thunderous spear-thrust, Dark didn't flinch, driving his blade forward without hesitation.
Though his stance shifted only slightly, his strength had fully condensed into a single point. This strike fully expressed everything he'd trained over the past two weeks, and combined with his improved base strength, it unleashed a terrifying amount of force!
Boom!
Sword tip met spear tip.
The result was a burst of concussive sound.
A massive shockwave exploded outward in every direction, kicking up a sudden cloud of dust across the field.
But the dust was thin enough not to hide the two figures.
A shockwave of that scale couldn't shake either of them.
A second spear thrust...
A second sword strike...
Both sides pressed forward without pause.
The "Silver Wolf Knight" Camilla fought with a wolf's ferocity and cunning, her strength and skill both pushed to their absolute limits.
Her deep study of lunar magic had made her a solitary wolf dancing beneath the moon.
Though she hadn't taken part in the final battle against the Demon King, Camilla was, without question, a warrior every bit as formidable as City Lord Montielfali.
Wielding nothing but a single spear, she held her ground against Dark's fierce assault with an unstoppable force.
"Ha!"
A sudden fierce shout rang out.
Camilla stepped forward abruptly, her silver-white hair drifting though no wind blew, as an intense current of energy burst upward from her feet.
Faintly, a round moon seemed to form behind her head.
Across the surface of her skin, a pure, luminous moonlight bloomed.
That silvery moonlight gathered into a great tide, its points of light rushing madly to converge at the tip of her spear.
Unmistakably clear now—
the transparent spearhead of the Fenrir Spear had become saturated with silvery moonlight.
As Dark thrust his sword forward again, the force erupting from the spearpoint far exceeded anything before.
His expression shifted slightly, and he instantly redirected his blade's course, letting the sword tip slide beneath the spearhead, hook up along its side, and flick it away in an instant.
Clang!
For a brief moment, Dark could feel magic power draining away at the point where sword and spear met.
But Camilla was clearly holding back, keeping the Fenrir Spear's core power from fully unleashing.
"Going easy on me?"
Dark couldn't help but think back to his earlier match against Diana.
Though he'd seemed calm on the surface, unaffected by that defeat, even finding it in himself to comfort his defeated Magic Guide Spirits—
at his core, he was nowhere near the kind of person who could take wins and losses so lightly.
A loss was a loss.
Talk of "getting them back next time" was just something you said for other people's benefit.
If he could, he'd want to settle the score immediately!
...
There was no doubt about it.
Camilla's challenge had lit a fire of battle-hunger in him.
Even knowing his opponent was a hero of the war, and undoubtedly far stronger than Diana by more than a small margin—
he still accepted the fight without a moment's hesitation.
Being able to use a Magic Guide Card—even just an armament and weapon combination—let him show his real strength as a Magic Guide Master.
Dark never shied away from a fight.
Camilla might have intended this as an elder's way of gauging the strength of his armament.
But sorry—
Dark had gone into this determined to win from the very first moment!
"First, I need to make her understand—this isn't a fight she can go easy in!"
The instant that thought settled in his mind—
the aura surrounding Dark's body surged sharply upward!
It closely resembled the same kind of "presence" Camilla was releasing through her "Moon-Convergence Wheel."
But in truth, it was something else entirely.
Dark sheathed his sword and stood firm, gripping the hilt with both hands, holding the blade upright before him.
A wild current of energy immediately surged upward from beneath his feet.
It spiraled upward, forming a violent storm around his body.
"What is this?"
Camilla had never witnessed Gatomon or Leomon's Holy Sword performance, and knew nothing of Honedge's Ultimate Move.
Though Dark lacked Hero Aptitude and couldn't fully unleash the Holy Sword's power, he could still bring out half the strength of "Swords Dance," boosting his base attack by 50%.
The stat boost granted by the Ultimate Move "Godhood Armament" and Gatomon's "Holy Ring" were of the same nature—both classified under the most fundamental category, "base attack."
So with the "Moon God's" base attack now at a towering 4000 points, 50% of that came out to a full 2000 points!
Dark planted both feet firmly, and his aura kept climbing.
His study of "qi" seemed to have made him even more adept at unleashing "Swords Dance."
The blade of the Honedge was already wrapped in a wild, raging current of energy.
That surging air current didn't just rise—it twisted upward like a small, terrifying tornado.
Camilla felt the sheer menace of it and her expression tightened sharply.
The Fenrir Spear in her hand shuddered violently, letting out what sounded, faintly, like the howl of a wolf!
Camilla took a small step back, slowly raising the long spear once more.
Deep in her eyes, her battle-hunger kept surfacing, unrestrained.
A warrior's instinct told her, little by little.
If this went on any further, she wouldn't be able to hold herself back much longer!
Her fingers had already begun to tremble.
...
"Ha!"
Dark let out a sudden sharp cry.
The pressure of "Swords Dance" surged to its absolute peak.
Before Camilla could react with any counter-move, his feet moved like dance steps, driving forward at incredible speed. His sword, wrapped in that raging storm of energy, moved with a deceptive slowness that concealed true speed, and struck fiercely at the spear named Fenrir!
And in Camilla's eyes, an unmistakable spark of excitement finally showed through.
Over a decade of life as a housewife had done nothing to dull her battle-hunger.
In this moment, with her fighting spirit reignited, she felt as though she had never once left the battlefield.
"Roooar!"
A furious wolf's howl burst through the empty air.
Camilla activated her seventh Brahmarandhra, and the "Might of the Wolf God" dwelling within it erupted all at once.
It fused and rose together with the "Moon-Convergence Might" from her eighth Moon-Convergence Wheel.
The Fenrir Spear in her hand had by now fully manifested the shadow of a wolf god, as tangible as reality itself.
The terrifying demon wolf lunged forward, jaws snapping wide!
____
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