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The Digimon evolution roster extended further than the Champion and Ultimate tiers Luke had built tonight. Beyond Ultimate sat Mega, the final standard tier, accessible only through more specialized evolution catalysts. And beyond even Mega were the variant pathways: Armor Evolution, Jogress, Burst Evolution, X Evolution, and a handful of other specialized routes that the Digimon franchise had developed over the years.
Luke had design documentation prepared for most of those. He simply hadn't had the materials or the time to construct any of them tonight.
But the experience he'd gained from crafting the Hyper Evolution Unit S and the Blue Card was real. The mechanics of Evolution Card construction were now familiar to him, and subsequent crafts of similar items would proceed faster and more reliably. The foundation was laid.
He shelved the unbuilt cards in his mental backlog and turned to what remained of his time.
"I don't know what Phase Two will involve," Luke murmured. "Since I have a little time, I should at least register Sistermon Blanc's data into the D-Ark before the second phase starts. That way I can deploy the swipe combos immediately when needed."
One of the cards in his hand began to transform.
The D-Ark, which had been sitting in his storage as a folded card form, manifested into its physical configuration. The transformation completed in a single smooth gesture, the rectangular card shape unfolding into a handheld device with the familiar third-generation Tamers-anime silhouette.
A golden circular frame surrounded a central viewing window. Around the frame's outer edge, intricate lines of Digital script chased themselves in unhurried patterns, the iconic encoding visible from any angle. A slot for card-swiping ran along one side, narrow and precisely sized for evolution card thickness.
The D-Ark in Luke's hand matched the canonical version from his memory with eerie precision. Apparently the Magic Card Civilization had rendered the device by reading directly from his mental reference, and his mental reference had been the version from the Tamers protagonist's possession.
"That's the Special Card Luke crafted."
Lilith Crescent's peach-blossom eyes had narrowed slightly the moment the device manifested. Across the Capital City Lord's Mansion, she was the only viewer with the contextual knowledge to recognize the category of what she was looking at.
She studied the device intently, but the limitation she'd noted earlier still applied. Without being the Card Master who had crafted it, she had no direct visibility into its effect parameters. She could only observe the externally visible form.
The form, by itself, was striking. Unlike anything she had personally crafted.
"Confirmed Special Card," Aldric agreed. "Effect unknown, but the manifestation is distinctive. It doesn't resemble any Skill Card I've seen from the Mansion's vault collection."
The Skill Cards in the Capital City Lord's Mansion's vault, including the Crystallization Technique he'd given Luke, all had relatively simple physical forms. Small rectangular templates with internal sigils. What Luke held now was an order of magnitude more elaborate.
Ashenvale City Lord's Mansion.
"What in the world is that?"
Geoffrey Falk's voice carried genuine confusion. The other Ashenvale viewers were similarly perplexed.
The Card transformation didn't match any standard Spirit Card summoning pattern. Spirit Cards manifested into card spirits, living anthropomorphic or creature forms. What Luke held now was a device. A handheld piece of equipment.
"Could it be a Spirit Card after all? Mechanical-type?" Geoffrey ventured. The mechanical Spirit Card category included some of the most exotic forms in the field, ranging from animated armor to autonomous constructs to free-floating geometric machines. A device-shaped mechanical card spirit wasn't unprecedented.
"Even for mechanical-type, that's an unusual presentation," Harrison Cole countered. "I've encountered enough mechanical card spirits to recognize the typical aesthetic ranges. This doesn't match any of them. It looks more like an artifact than a spirit."
The aesthetic ranges of mechanical card spirits were broad, but they were still recognizable patterns. What Luke held in his hand fit none of them. Whatever it was, it sat outside the category map the senior figures had developed over their careers.
Inside the exam space.
"Card Swipe! Sistermon Blanc!"
Luke held the Sistermon Blanc card in one hand and the D-Ark in the other. With a fluid motion, he swiped the Sistermon Blanc card through the D-Ark's reader slot.
The device responded immediately. A pulse of golden light flashed along the swipe path, and the Sistermon Blanc card's image appeared on the D-Ark's central display, alongside lines of registration data.
「 Data registration successful. Sistermon Blanc has been bound to the D-Ark. Higher-tier evolution potential can now be released via the device. 」
. The registration was complete. From this point forward, Luke could swipe the Hyper Evolution Unit S or the Blue Card through the D-Ark to trigger Sistermon Blanc's tier advancement on demand.
Without registration, the evolution cards couldn't access Blanc's data structure. The D-Ark was the only bridge between Spirit Card and Evolution Card; the registration was the handshake that opened the bridge.
"What was the point of that swipe?"
Selene Dawnford was visibly confused. Spirit Cards normally summoned their associated spirits the moment the Card Master invoked them. The card-in, swipe-through-device approach Luke had just demonstrated had no precedent in the standard Card Master toolkit.
"It looked stylish, though," she added belatedly. The swipe motion had been a small piece of theatricality, and she had to admit it was visually satisfying.
"Without the Card Master demonstrating the Special Card's effects directly," Lilith said, "speculation isn't going to be productive. We need to see the deployment in action before we'll understand what the device does."
As the only currently active Special Card crafter in the chamber, her remarks carried weight. But even she was operating on incomplete information.
Luke flicked the Sistermon Blanc card forward. The summoning circle formed, and Sistermon Blanc materialized in front of him.
She was small. A young girl's form, just slightly under shoulder-height, dressed in pristine white nun's attire. Her skirt fell to mid-thigh, with white knee-high boots completing the lower silhouette. On her head, a white rabbit-shaped nun's coif sat at a slightly off-center angle, lending her appearance an unexpectedly cute affectation.
Her face was soft, framed in light brown bangs, with an expression that hovered between gentle uncertainty and quiet determination. In her hands, she held the trident designated Cross Barbie, the weapon canonical to the Sistermon line, the contrast between her delicate appearance and the formidable polearm producing a striking visual tension.
"So cute."
Selene's voice slipped into involuntary appreciation. Even another young woman couldn't entirely resist the visual design of the small white-clad figure. A particular kind of aesthetic appeal in the combination of innocence and weapon that crossed gender lines.
Roland Hargrove, viewing from the Capital, registered the design with a more professional eye. "Another female Spirit Card, similar concept to Mana but different aesthetic positioning. The question is whether her ability roster has Mana's depth, or whether she's a simpler-design counterpart."
The Spellcaster's ability roster had been extensive, based on what Roland had witnessed at the Mist Relic. Spell-sealing pulses, hat-network teleportation, attack-redirection cylinders, raw burst output, and the fusion potential with Timaeus. Whether this new spirit carried comparable depth was something he couldn't determine from external observation.
"We'll see," Edmund said. "Soon enough."
The Phase One clock above the exam space had nearly completed its rotation.
"Tamer-sama. Sistermon Blanc, reporting for duty."
Blanc's voice was soft and slightly hesitant. The hesitation matched her canonical personality from Luke's previous-life reference material, the version of Sistermon Blanc who tended to approach combat with reluctance and required emotional support from her sisters to engage.
Luke smiled.
"Blanche," he said, deciding on the spot to use a more affectionate nickname. The formal Sistermon Blanc was, frankly, a mouthful in everyday use, and the shortened version felt warmer for a partnership he intended to deploy regularly.
"From here on, things might get a little intense. Are you comfortable with combat?"
The question wasn't rhetorical. Canonically, Blanc was the timid sister, the one most likely to need encouragement before engaging. Luke wanted to confirm her current temperament before committing her to Phase Two.
Blanc's response surprised him.
"Please trust me, Tamer-sama. My sisters are with me."
The voice was still soft, but the words carried more confidence than he'd expected. The reference to her sisters, Noir and Ciel, brought a small light into her eyes. Apparently the worldview-level integration of Network Evolution had shifted her psychological baseline. With Blanc able to project echoes of her sisters into the field through Sister Cross, she wasn't fighting alone in the way her canonical isolation had implied.
"Good. We're going to make a strong showing together."
The conversation cut short as the golden clock above completed its rotation.
The hour, minute, and second hands all aligned at the twelve-o'clock position simultaneously, and the deep tolling of the closing bell resonated through every Phase One exam space across the country.
White light enveloped every candidate in unison.
Phase One was over.
Phase Two was about to begin.