Thin silver-white armor wrapped the slender body, tracing the lines of the torso to perfection.
Columnar sensors stood upright at both ears, forming a V with the curve of the chin, while a purple visor hid the upper half of the face, leaving only thin lips and a delicate jaw in view.
After the suit-up, that silver mirror had become a heart-guard mirror engraved with mysterious runes.
Dark tilted his head back a fraction, and a feeling of impossible lightness swept through him. His toes had already left the ground.
"So this is Armament Evolution?"
Power surged through every inch of him. He found himself half worried that once he grew used to this, he would never be able to tolerate the sluggishness of his own body again.
A moment later he settled his mind and studied the changes in "Moon God Spirit I" in detail.
After the use of "Godhood Armament - Moon God", this armament card seemed to have converted into an inner substance much like that of a Magic Guide Spirit Card.
Dark's current form was presented in the format of a Magic Guide Spirit Card.
[Card Name: Moon God (Godhood Armament)]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ??????]
[Race: Illusory God Species]
[Attribute: Shadow-type]
[Mana: 3000]
[Attack: 3000]
[Defense: 3000]
[Ultimate Moves: Godhood Armament, Moon God Mirror, [Moon Palace], Lunar Eclipse.]
"Only four Ultimate Moves?"
Dark's eyes narrowed slightly, a thread of puzzlement running through the information feeding back to him.
"A Gold Card already has four Ultimate Moves. I assumed a God Card, which sits above Gold, would have more than four."
"It seems the so-called 'God Card' doesn't belong to the same system as the five ranks of white, blue, purple, orange and gold."
"As for the six-star level, that at least matches what I expected."
"For now this Godhood Armament should be the humanoid Armament Evolution analogous to a 'Warrior Spirit'. That puts it in the category of a Champion level Digimon, equivalent to a second-tier Magic Guide Spirit."
"And the attribute... still Shadow?"
Admittedly, "Lust" did fit Shadow-type and Fairy-type best of all.
But in her normal form this Moon God had given Dark a distinct sense of light.
He wouldn't have been surprised if the post-Armament Evolution "Moon God" had turned out to be Light-type. Instead it remained Shadow.
Beyond that, the Moon God's stat spread followed the same pattern as Devimon: all three core stats maxed out, with nothing standing out beyond that.
Satisfactory, but no surprises.
So he quickly turned his attention to those four Ultimate Moves.
The first Ultimate Move - "Godhood Armament"!
The name alone made it fairly obvious that this was most likely a universal Ultimate Move shared by every Godhood Armament, and probably a passive at that.
Dark closed his eyes and felt his way through it carefully, drawing out more information.
[Godhood Armament: Passive skill. A Godhood Armament possesses the power of a god. Not only does it grant the wearer far greater strength.
It also elevates the wearer's Rank, nullifying most status-type Ultimate Moves that target them. Magic +1000, Attack +1000, Defense +1000, Rank +1.]
"This Ultimate Move..."
Delight welled up in Dark's eyes.
"An upgraded 'Holy Ring'? Now it's finally starting to feel like a god's card."
"A thousand each to Magic, Attack and Defense pushes the post-evolution 'Moon God' straight to full eight-star numbers across the board."
"And Rank +1 promotes 'Moon God' from the second tier to the third."
"As for the immunity to status-type Ultimate Moves..."
"That means Ultimate Moves like Shuckle's Power Split and Meowth's Foul Play are useless against 'Moon God'. It guarantees that whenever 'Moon God' has higher core stats than an opponent, that advantage holds."
"Honestly, that effect may be the real core of the 'Godhood Armament'."
Dark digested that portion quickly and dove straight into the second Ultimate Move - "Moon God Mirror"!
[Moon God Mirror: Absorbs Moonlight and converts its power into the user's own magic, allowing [Godhood Armament: Moon God] to run at night without consuming the wearer's magic. Even in daylight, the stored Moonlight power within the Moon God Mirror can be drawn upon to sustain the armament's upkeep.
When necessary, all the Moonlight power stored in the Moon God Mirror can be released at once to form a round mirror of condensed Moonlight, completely blocking the opponent's attacks for thirty seconds and remaining unaffected by most Ultimate Moves.]
"A charge-based Ultimate Move, of all things."
"I see. This 'Moon God Mirror' works like an external power core, supplying energy to [Godhood Armament: Moon God]. And it comes with an ability similar to [Protect] on the side."
"With this 'Moon God Mirror', even a Magic Guide Spirit with no magic recovery ability has a shot at wearing it!"
"In that case, I can use this armament card even in duel matches where the duelist can't take the field. Though which Magic Guide Spirits can wear it and which can't will take testing."
Dark, thoroughly pleased, moved straight to the third Ultimate Move - "[Moon Palace]".
Of the Moon God's four Ultimate Moves, this was the only one Dark already knew well.
Because Rose's "[Aurora Moon Rabbit]" possessed the very same move.
[[Moon Palace]: Conjures a vast, magnificent moon palace in the sky through Illusory Transformation, granting all life within the palace's coverage a charm bonus and a healing bonus.
On the night of a full moon, [Moon God's Blessing] can be released... if the user is [Moon God], [Charming Body] and (Moonlight Hymn) are also gained.]
[Moon God's Blessing: Releases a wide-area wave of healing light, restoring one third of maximum health to all life beneath the moon palace.]
[Charming Body: May infatuate members of the opposite sex who make contact with the user.]
[Moonlight Hymn: Absorbs Moonlight, restoring 1% of maximum magic per second.]
"This Ultimate Move..."
Dark's eyelid twitched.
"[Moon Palace]" was unquestionably a field technique, and he had written it off as the sort of thing that looked more impressive than it performed. He had not expected it to carry extra effects specifically for "Moon God".
"Charming Body and Moonlight Hymn..."
Dark raised a hand toward Gatomon, fingers itching, sorely tempted to run a test.
In truth he knew "Charming Body" inside and out. No test needed.
"Either way, the main problem with '[Moon Palace]' is probably duration. It only holds for about three minutes. It isn't a field technique that can stay deployed indefinitely the way '[Paradise]' can."
"Then again, 'Armament Evolution' has a limited duration to begin with, so it hardly matters."
Dark steadied himself and finally turned to the last Ultimate Move - "Lunar Eclipse".
[Lunar Eclipse: Summons Moonlight to strike the target. Each beam of Moonlight deals erosion damage and causes brief stunning. Up to twelve beams can be summoned in succession. Power is doubled when released on a moonlit night!]
As the last of the four, "Lunar Eclipse" was at last an Ultimate Move with real offensive punch.
The way Dark understood it, it amounted to twelve shots of "Moon Power" with a short stun attached to each!
Others might struggle to control a move like that, but in the hands of Sylveon it would answer like an extension of her own arm.
Dark considered for a moment, then jabbed a finger upward. A shaft of Moonlight came slamming down and hammered into the open ground.
The beam was enormously thick, a pillar of light. Where it struck the earth it burst outward like a flooding tide, and the sheer visual force of it was enough to make the heart lurch.
Dark lifted his hand again. An aurora streaked across the sky, and a magnificent moon palace surfaced overhead like a mirage.
The palace was vast and breathtaking. To look up at it was to be drawn in.
Dark did not move at all. Simply bathing in the lunar radiance pouring from [Moon Palace], he felt the magic he had spent on his Ultimate Moves refilling at speed.
That sensation of being topped off in an instant was dangerously addictive.
"A 1% recovery rate sounds small, but with 3000 magic, 1% per second is 30 points per second. A hundred seconds and the full 3000 is back."
Dark worked his limbs loose, then pushed off with the tip of one foot and rose into the sky without the slightest hitch, walking on empty air.
This levitation ability wasn't recorded among the Ultimate Moves, but it was nothing to dismiss either.
He set off at once, striding through the air.
Moonlight wrapped around him, leaving him light as a swallow and terrifyingly quick.
His dynamic vision sharpened along with it, every reaction coming effortlessly.
"Armament Transform" had already boosted his own capabilities. This "Armament Evolution" took it a step further, and he had no trouble reining it in.
...
Fifteen minutes later, Dark sensed that "Armament Evolution" was about to run out, and only then did he descend, reluctant to let it go.
He raised his hand a little and the Magic Guide Card "Moon God Spirit I" surfaced in his palm. Radiance spilled from his body in a great flood and gathered entirely into the card.
Dark landed lightly beneath the lingering Moonlight and felt, as expected, his whole body turn heavy and faintly uncomfortable.
"That's about it. The cooldown on this Moon God Armament should also run around sixty minutes from activation, so it'll be roughly forty-five more before I can try out the other armament form."
Dark gave a small smile to the Magic Guide Spirits who had gathered around him without his noticing, then set about clearing away the remains of the experiment.
Ten-odd minutes later, everything was packed into his bag, leaving only a set of test tubes and a single Thought Bottle.
The Thought Bottle and the tubes were already full of the Moon God version of "Lust". Preserved properly, that was two copies of "Lust III - Moon".
By now he was thoroughly convinced that mixing in his own "Lust" really could improve "Lust III - Moon".
But his "Lust" index currently stood at only 80 points, nowhere near the threshold for extraction.
So for the moment, a genuine attempt was out of reach.
"I'll just store it for now!"
Decision made, Dark tucked the tubes and the Thought Bottle into his bag as well. He planned to stay in the temple another half hour, test "Major Sin Armament - Lust", and then leave the secret passage.
But he had barely sat down to rest when he heard something crack.
His head snapped up, and there on the surface of the hollowed-out Moon Goddess statue was an enormously long fissure.
More hairline cracks spread out around it, and a low rumbling came from inside the statue.
Dark's expression changed and he backed away fast.
He had just reached the temple entrance when the Moon Goddess statue came down with a roar and crumbled to powder in an instant.
Then the entire temple began to shake, clearly on the verge of collapse.
"Just as I thought. Without the Moon God's remnant soul, this temple can't last either."
Light flashed in Dark's eyes. The Magic Guide Cards fanned open in his hand, and every Magic Guide Spirit around him turned to light and poured in. In the next breath, DemiDevimon and Leomon rose at his side.
"Time to go, Leomon!"
"Mm."
Leomon bent slightly and hoisted him onto one shoulder with a thick arm.
Dark settled himself there and recalled the last of "[Paradise]" with a casual gesture.
As the light drew in, Leomon spun and broke into a sprint. Torches along both walls of the passage lit themselves, keeping the way ahead bright.
A thunderous roar rolled behind them.
Dark whipped his head around and saw the magnificent temple come crashing down, billowing dust surging skyward until it swallowed the ruins whole.
...
After that, Dark didn't linger in the secret passage.
Leomon ran flat out for nearly three hours before they finally emerged from it.
Curfew hadn't arrived yet. Once Dark had squeezed out through the passage's exit, he recalled Leomon into his Magic Guide Card too, then made for the Noble House tower at a brisk pace and pushed the door open under the Feathered Serpent Golem's watchful gaze.
The common room was nearly empty. He blew out a breath, crossed it, and climbed the stairs.
Not long after, he was back inside his own dormitory at last.
"Meow-"
Dark bent down, scooped up Catnip as she came bounding at him, then drew out the "Magic Guide Scribe" and summoned it.
After that he handed the rest of the summoning work over to it.
He set his bag down and, unable to wait a moment longer, picked up "Moon God Spirit I" again.
"In the name of Dark Demon, Magic Guide Summon!"
The Moon God Spirit took shape in the summoning array, then looked around with wide, curious eyes. "Is this your bedroom?"
"More or less." The corner of Dark's mouth curled. "Mind if I use you one more time?"
Moon God Spirit: "??"
By the time she turned around in alarm, Dark had already spoken the activation phrase for "Major Sin Armament - Lust": "In the name of Dark Demon, Magic Guide Summon!"
The words had barely left his mouth when the strange war-hammer-shaped weapon in the Moon God Spirit's hand blazed with light.
Silver mirror and all, the Moon God Spirit's body was absorbed into that hammer in the space of a blink, leaving only the weapon drifting quietly in the air.
"So the second form is a weapon-type armament?"
The thought moved him to reach out and grip it. At once a stream of information flowed in through the magic seeping from his fingertips, giving him a full understanding of the armament.
[Card Name: Yearning for Lust (Major Sin Armament)]
[Type: Item Card]
[Effect: Within the range illuminated by the light of Lust, all opponents' weapons are subjected to weapon nullification and armament disassembly.]
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