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"One more point. The rules mentioned at the end that every new student eliminated grants additional points, and the points earned on the Trial Road convert into credits after formal enrollment, while credits govern both ranking and the acquisition of resources. With that, they've genuinely forced everyone into grinding against each other." Only now did Luke grasp just how fierce the Academy's competition truly ran.
For crying out loud, this was merely the enrollment report, and it was already this cutthroat. He could scarcely imagine what heights the internal competition would reach once formal enrollment began.
"I don't know whether anyone else has thought of this angle, but with everyone scattered apart, if I mean to make a move without knowing where the others are, then the wiser course is to confirm their positions first." As the words left him, Luke waved a hand and summoned Sistermon Blanc, and in the same motion, the D-Ark and the Hyper Evolution Unit S appeared in his grasp.
"Blanc, get ready." The Hyper Evolution Unit S in Luke's hand was slashed through the D-Ark, and boundless data enveloped Blanc's body.
"Tamer, we meet at last." The data blanketing Blanc dissipated, but the one who emerged this time was not Noir. It was another member of the Sistermon family entirely. Sistermon Ciel!
*「 Sistermon Blanc evolution successful. Sistermon Ciel's information has been obtained and recorded. 」*
As another of Blanc's elder sisters, Ciel and Noir were twins. Setting their figures aside, the most striking distinction among the three Sistermon sisters lay in the animal hoods they wore.
Blanc's was a rabbit, Noir's a black cat, and Ciel's hood bore the shape of a mouse. Beyond that, the weapon Ciel carried was neither a trident nor twin guns, but a long blade passed down through the family line.
In temperament, too, Ciel differed from Blanc and Noir, carrying herself with far more steadiness and composure, and inwardly she was the most resilient of the three, which was among the reasons Luke had chosen her.
"Ciel, the scouting and investigation ahead will be in your hands." Hearing Luke address her, Ciel showed no confusion whatsoever, and Luke wasn't much surprised by that. Back when he'd first summoned Noir, there had been a similar display. The three Sistermon sisters seemed to share some manner of special connection between them.
*「 Sistermon Ciel 」*
Race: Digimon, Puppet type
Quality: Perfect
Level: ★★★★★ (Five-Star)
Skills: Shirotsume Ichimonji Slash, White Kill, Grand Sister Cross, Awakening
Shirotsume Ichimonji Slash: Swings her beloved blade, the Shirotsume Ichimonji, in a fierce slash at the target. The blade carries the power of light and can absorb all light-based effects, rendering the instant of the attack utterly silent.
White Kill: Sistermon Ciel excels at assassination techniques of every kind. In battle, she launches soundless attacks with the ninja-blades concealed in her sleeves, with a set chance of triggering an armor-breaking effect.
Grand Sister Cross: The combination technique passed down through the Sistermon line. During its release, she splits out White and Black forms to deliver coordinated, linked attacks. The destructive force of a full-power strike rivals an Ultimate-stage Digimon.
Awakening: Enters the Awakened state, raising her level by one.
"Data-wise, not much separates her from Noir. I'd predicted as much beforehand. But among the cards I currently hold, the one whose abilities best match my immediate needs is, without question, Ciel." Skimming through Ciel's information, Luke came away with a far more concrete grasp of this member of the Sistermon family.
Though she stood at only Five-Star, Ciel possessed the specialized traits of investigating while concealed, relaying what she found, and hunting down intelligence, which made her precisely the piece Luke needed at this moment.
"Leave it to me, Tamer." Stroking the beloved blade in her hands, Ciel wore an expression of quiet confidence. "If I complete the task smoothly, I'll be looking forward to your reward, Tamer." With that, Ciel's figure vanished on the spot, and in Luke's perception, she was already receding rapidly into the distance.
"Cloaking the power of light across her body's surface to seal away her aura, then absorbing every ray of light to weave a concealment built on visual error?" A thoughtful look crossed Luke's face. "That way, she stirs no great mana fluctuation at all. Even the spell races most sensitive to mana would struggle to perceive Ciel's figure."
"And it goes beyond mere visual error into genuine near-invisibility. An ability like that places extreme demands on the user's own caliber. Only someone like Ciel, long devoted to ranging far and wide on investigations, immersing herself in one unfamiliar environment after another, could master and wield it."
Drawing his thoughts back, Luke waved his hand once more and summoned Dark Magician Girl and Guilmon. "For this entrance trial, I'll be counting on the two of you as well."
The trial had only just begun, so for the moment there was no need to bring Red-Eyes Black Dragon onto the field. Besides, Luke intended to use this entrance trial to properly test Guilmon's strength.
---
"Grasping the Trial Road's rules and probing them through this quickly?" Tobias, watching the scene of Ciel's departure, had taken in all of it clearly, though he found nothing improper in it.
The Trial Road's formal assessment would begin only after the twenty minutes elapsed, but no rule forbade the new students from making preparations and taking action of every kind beforehand.
In truth, beyond Luke, plenty of students likewise intended to first confirm their own strength against each refreshed wave of beasts, weeding out the competition on that foundation. But the focus of most students rested squarely on the incoming beasts; few had spared a thought for scouting the other students. And even among those who had, how many possessed the actual capability? Students who could manage it numbered only a scant handful.
Yet set against Luke's planning and movements, what interested Tobias far more was Sistermon Ciel herself. "If I remember it right, the Sistermon Blanc in Luke's exam evolved into Sistermon Noir. But now she has evolved into Sistermon Ciel instead. Which means Luke's card spirits possess more than a single evolution form?"
Evolution was the crucial core of the Digimon cards, and Tobias, standing at the Undying Realm, had seen through to that point at a glance.
But even having discerned the key heart of the Digimon cards, he still had no means of crafting one himself.
For one, there was the problem of the worldview. For another, "evolution" was a word easily spoken, yet the evolution as he understood it and the evolution as Luke had designed it would inevitably diverge in subtle ways, and the card ultimately crafted from that divergence would differ by a world entire.
"If that truly is the case, then as this Sistermon Ciel continues evolving onward, what manner of card spirit will she become?" The deeper Tobias speculated, the more the interest welled up in him. This was the allure of the unknown that Original Cards carried, and even Tobias of the Undying Realm proved no more immune to it than anyone else.
All the more so because Luke's Digimon cards had, in a certain sense, overturned the Magic Card Civilization's very understanding of cards. A single card spirit capable of shifting among multiple forms was enough to spare its Card Master the risks and the losses that would otherwise have to be shouldered.