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Circe was a Twelve-Star card spirit, and the flagship of the Night Empress's collection. Together with Morgana, Medea, and Lorelei, the Four Enchantresses formed a unit whose combined power could cleanly execute Twelve-Star Mythic-tier card spirits. That synergy was one of the key reasons the Night Empress's combat rating sat firmly above the other three domain rulers.
"The creature that wounded Circe wasn't ordinary," Selene explained as they headed toward the Darkwater Plane's access point. "Even after this long, the corruption hasn't faded. My master decided reconstruction was the only option, and she plans to use the process as an opportunity to push Circe's quality higher."
Aldric nodded. The Glacial Wellspring was one of the most potent alchemical catalysts in the Eastern Region. If anything could serve as the foundation for a Twelve-Star card reconstruction, it was that.
"Let's not waste time, then." Aldric led the way. The Darkwater Plane wasn't a place you visited casually. But with an Immortal Realm governor as escort, even its most dangerous zones were manageable.
Three hundred miles south, in a modest apartment in Ashenvale, Luke Mercer finally opened his eyes.
"That was a long sleep." He checked the time. Nearly noon. He'd crashed hard after returning from the Hollow, and his body had apparently decided to make up for three days of constant combat by shutting down for fourteen hours straight.
The Moon Spirit Ring hummed faintly on his finger, its nourishing effect working through the night. His spiritual reserves felt topped off for the first time in days.
From downstairs, the smell of cooking drifted up. Familiar sounds: oil sizzling, something being chopped, a soft humming that was unmistakably Mana.
Luke smiled, grabbed a change of clothes, and headed for the shower.
"Master, you're up!" Mana turned from the stove, wearing an apron over her outfit, spatula in hand. "Lunch needs a few more minutes."
"No rush." Luke settled at the table and opened the Card Editor.
The Dragon Eye from the Association hadn't arrived yet. Harrison had said two days, and Luke was in no hurry. He'd need to run the Eye of Timaeus through Simulated Crafting before using the material anyway. No point rushing into construction with a one-of-a-kind ingredient.
What he could work on right now was the loot from the Hollow.
He laid out his special materials mentally. Radiant Moth Cloak from the Queen Moth. Bug Heart, Puppet Key, and Dark Night Veil from the Abyss Predator. Three completely different materials from three completely different sources, each with distinct properties.
Puppet Key controls puppet-type constructs. Dark Night Veil carries potent dark energy. Bug Heart catalyzes insect evolution. And the Moth Cloak commands lesser moths.
Three unrelated materials. Most Card Masters would use them separately, building three different cards from three different worldviews.
Luke closed his eyes and chased the flash of inspiration that had struck him inside the Hollow. It had been a fragment then, a half-formed idea that he hadn't had time to develop. Now, with a clear head and a full night's rest, the pieces clicked together.
Digimon.
Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon, Pokémon. The holy trinity of his childhood. Three franchises that had shaped his understanding of what monsters, companions, and evolution could be. He'd already built the Duel Spirits worldview for Yu-Gi-Oh. The time had come to start the second.
Luke activated Simulated Crafting, and for the first time, directed it not at a card but at an entirely new worldview: the Digital World.
The drain was immediate and steep. Worldview construction consumed far more spiritual energy than card simulation, and the progress crawled. After what felt like an eternity of concentrated effort, the progress bar ticked up by exactly one percent.
One percent. Per session.
Luke opened his eyes and did the math. At this rate, even running nonstop with the Moon Spirit Ring's recovery boost, the Digital World simulation would take over a week to complete. And that was the optimistic estimate.
But the investment was worth it. A worldview only had to be built once. Every card drawn from the Digital World afterward would benefit from the foundation. Build it right, build it deep, and the returns would compound for years.
And the Digital World had something that Yu-Gi-Oh didn't: Net Evolution.
In the Duel Spirits worldview, a card spirit's abilities were largely fixed at creation. Mana was Mana. Black Star was Black Star. They could be enhanced through equipment fusion, but their fundamental identity didn't change.
Digimon were different. A single Digimon could evolve along multiple branching paths, each leading to completely different forms with completely different abilities. The same base creature could become a holy angel or a demon lord, depending on which evolution chain was triggered. Net Evolution turned a single card into a toolkit of possibilities.
Luke's first planned Digimon card: Sistermon.
A puppet-type Digimon that wore a bunny-doll outfit. Cute on the surface, terrifying in potential. Sistermon came in three variants: White, Noir, and Ciel. The Puppet Key was a perfect material match for a puppet-type digital creature.
Sistermon Noir's evolution chain led to Angewomon, the angel warrior who'd been one of Luke's childhood favorites alongside Mana. Beyond Angewomon lay Ophanimon, the holy mother of the Digital World. But the same Noir base could branch in the opposite direction: LadyDevimon, the dark seductress, leading to Lilithmon, one of the Seven Great Demon Lords. The Dark Night Veil was practically designed for that evolution path.
Sistermon Ciel's evolution chain ended at Eosmon, the Goddess of Dawn, a butterfly-winged digital deity whose insect characteristics made the Bug Heart and Radiant Moth Cloak ideal catalysts.
One base card. Multiple evolution paths. Holy or demonic. Angel or demon lord. Dawn goddess or dark seductress. All from the same starting point, all switchable based on the situation.
If Luke could fully exploit Net Evolution, the potential of Digimon cards would shatter every assumption the Card Master world held about what a single card could do.
He still needed light-type materials for the holy evolution paths. That was a problem for another day.
"Master, lunch is ready!" Mana's voice pulled him back.
Luke set the simulation to run in the background. Unlike card simulation, he could manually work on individual card backgrounds while the worldview simulation processed. Both running in parallel. Maximum efficiency.
He headed to the kitchen, mind already churning with evolution trees and material requirements, while the Digital World slowly took shape in the back of his consciousness, one percent at a time.