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Selene was surfacing the way a swimmer rises from deep water, slowly and from a long way down, one hand still wrapped around her own ankle where she'd been hugging her knees on the sofa. Across the room, Luke hadn't moved. His head was down over the Card Editor, and that strange resonance still hung around him, faint as heat off a summer road.
"That was... strange." Her voice hadn't come all the way back yet. "Wonderful. Like nothing I've ever felt." She let go of her ankle and flexed the fingers, as if checking they were hers. "I think if I remade the Simurgh right now, I could handle everything that tripped me up last time, and handle it clean." Then the rest of her caught up, and she turned. "Teacher, what just happened to me?"
Lilith hadn't stirred from where she lay along the far end of the sofa. She told Selene what had happened while she was under, the pull of Luke's resonance and the state it drew a Card Master into, in the tone another woman might use for a dress she'd seen in a window, and finished with a lazy wave of two fingers. "When you have the time, try going back over that feeling. It will do your crafting some good."
"Sss." Selene's mouth pulled to one side, half rueful, half pleased, and she looked at the back of Luke's head as if it owed her money. "Looks like I really do owe my junior brother a proper thank-you." Then she was already past it, chin coming up. "So that's a second special card he's on now?"
"Most likely."
Even as Lilith said it, both women felt the change. Luke's mana deepened another shade, a pulse through the room like a door closing somewhere in the house, though it still hadn't broken past his current grade. Lilith's eyelids lifted a fraction. "There. It seems so."
"Two special cards, conceived and crafted, in this short a span." Lilith breathed out slowly and let her head fall back against the cushion, eyes on the ceiling. "His talent here is anything but ordinary." She'd suspected as much before. Having it confirmed was another thing.
These few weeks had already handed her more surprises than the whole year before them.
"He seems to have stopped." Selene had tucked her feet back under her and was watching Luke's hands, gone still on the Editor. Special cards were new ground for her. She'd only learned they existed not long ago, so none of her teacher's wonder reached her. Still hands, to her mind, meant Luke was done for the day.
"A special card is no easier to conceive than a spirit card." Lilith had noticed the stillness too, and didn't lift her head from the cushion to say it. "Even with the talent Luke has shown, two of them back to back is very likely his limit."
"Is that so?" Selene nodded along as if she understood, which she didn't, and reached for the cold cup of tea at her elbow to have something to do with her hands.
...
「 Chaos Ritual 」 Type: Ritual Card Effect: Usable only when equipped. Upon activation, unfolds the Chaos Ritual, granting the equipper a Chaos Form and activating that form's exclusive Command skill.
"Another new type? Though it works about like the Counter Cards and the Equipment Cards. Timaeus is still the odd one out." Luke read the effect twice, chewing on it. "Only takes effect when equipped. So a card spirit has to be the one using it."
"So if I want another spirit Chaotified, I need another Chaos Ritual. Except with the Chaos Aura I've got left, that's not happening yet. It'll have to wait."
With the Rewrite and Reorganize authority and enough time, Luke could produce the Chaos Aura the Ritual demanded. But the Aura was high-grade stuff, and even with the upgraded Eternal Sun as a reserve of power, he couldn't churn it out in bulk right away.
"Best stick to the plan and make the last card first." Lilith and Selene were both right there beside him, and rewriting materials in front of them wasn't exactly convenient.
The Chaos Ritual had cost him a little time, but he was soon deep in the third and final card.
「 Modification: one of the ways a Duel Spirit may raise its strength. 」
「 Conventional modification involves the replacement of mechanical parts, and inflicts negative effects of varying severity on the Duel Spirit afterward. 」
「 To resolve these effects, the Duel Spirits at last developed a new scheme of modification: liquid metal armor. 」
「 Of the liquid metal armors, the Metalized Magic Reflection Armor combines a boost to combat strength, reflection, and several further effects, and is one of the most sought-after of its line. 」
「 Card background approved. Complete the card art and add materials. 」
Luke was moving again. He sketched the card art, a liquid-metal machine taking shape line by line in the Card Editor, and right behind it he fed the remaining materials in, one after another.
Selene took it in for a long moment, then turned to Lilith without a word, and finally said it. "Teacher. Are you sure Luke's at his limit?" That wasn't what you said a minute ago. Her junior brother was plainly making a third card, and in all likelihood it was, once again, yet again, a special one.
"Er." For once, even Lilith had nothing ready. Luke's latest stunt had thrown her completely.
The Corridor might grant a longer passage of time, but that too had its limits, and even Lilith couldn't swear that at Luke's age she could have turned out special cards in a row like this.
Going by my own experience, two really was the limit. Can't this little rascal leave me a little face? Lilith grumbled it where no one could hear, and out loud stayed perfectly composed. "That was only my guess. I'm not Luke, after all."
"As for you, girl." Lilith turned on Selene without a breath between. "If you don't buckle down, there's a real chance Luke overtakes you before long. And even if you don't find that embarrassing, I will."
...?
How had this landed on her? Selene was fairly sure her teacher had just taken a slap to the face and was now training her fire on the nearest target.
While the two of them stared each other down, another ripple passed through Luke, and the mana in him deepened one more time.
"Three crafts straight and every one a success. That success rate is just unfair." Selene griped. Now that she thought of it, back at the exam he hadn't failed a single craft either.
One thought of her own long trail of failed crafts on the way up, and Selene could have wept on the spot.
"The success rate is a touch high, yes." Lilith considered it a moment and nodded. "But Luke has already shown a trace of Grandmaster-level technique in his crafting. A rate that high is no accident."
Then her eyes slid back to Selene, and she sighed, a small, sorrowful thing. "If only you could reach the Grandmaster level in crafting as well. I'd have far less to worry about."
Oh, for crying out loud!
That sigh finished her. Selene stalked off to sulk in the nearest corner. It was simply too infuriating.
Watching her go, Lilith's mouth curved. Little girl, you're still far too young.
But when Luke caught the edge of her vision, the curve slowly settled back into place, and she lifted a hand to rub at her brow. The boy kept outrunning every estimate she made of him.
"Still, this is for the best. The faster Luke grows, the faster his strength climbs. And if the day comes when outsiders uncover his secret, he'll have means enough to protect himself."
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