Agonizing over what to call the thing was, of course, pointless.
In successfully obtaining an improved version of "Lust III - Moon", Dark had also opened up a whole crop of new questions.
First, there was the matter of how - and why - one might fuse two or more kinds of "Major Sin" together.
Second, there was the question of what the "Dark Factor" actually meant, and whether it could be stripped out and put to use.
And last… there were the dueling tactics that the successful improvement of "Lust III - Moon" implied, and how they would change.
The last one was the least important, naturally - and also the nearest at hand.
"Eleven already?"
With his experiment notes wrapped up, Dark glanced at the clock on the wall. He was feeling the fatigue tonight, and there genuinely wasn't enough time left, so he shelved the next round of experiments for tomorrow without hesitating.
The day after happened to be Wednesday, so he penciled in Wednesday afternoon to carry on.
Before that, though, he washed the Dragon Grass thoroughly clean and fed it three points of "Pride", coaxing a tender green shoot out of the top of its head.
Feeding "Catnip" seven points of "Major Sin" in one go would produce a [Major Sin Fruit] smoothly enough, but every time Dark did it that way it felt like yanking on the seedlings to make them grow faster.
So whenever he had the time, he gave the [Major Sin Fruit] room to develop at its own pace.
…
Wednesday afternoon had no classes, which left him plenty of time.
Dark pushed the improvement and Forging of the second "Lust III - Moon" back to the evening, and in his dormitory he set out to Forge a Magic Guide Spirit for the first time in ages.
Unlike the improvement and Forging of "Lust III - Moon", he ranked Forging a dragon breed as the higher priority.
Because every single material he planned to use this time had been hard-won and was extraordinarily rare.
That one scrap of [Dragon's Reverse Scale] most of all - precious, and freighted with meaning besides.
So alongside enormous enthusiasm, he brought an equal measure of caution.
At the outset of the experiment, he first wrote out the Forging formula in his notebook: "Fusion Factor" + "Fruit of Pride (Dragon)" + "[Dragon's Reverse Scale]" + "White Dragon Pearl" = ?
Of those four materials, the [Dragon's Reverse Scale] was the only one whose grade he had no clear read on.
The other three he understood well enough.
But in this particular equation, the [Dragon's Reverse Scale] was the core.
Which meant he had no way of estimating what tier of Magic Guide Spirit this Forging would yield. He could only hope.
…
"Anyway, first things first - feed the rest of this 'Pride' to the Dragon Grass."
Dark set down his pen, walked over to the Dragon Grass, hooked his hands under its forelegs and gathered it into the crook of his arm. The Dragon Grass burrowed reflexively against his chest.
After all this time raising it, the little thing was still timid, enthusiastic only about cramped, pitch-black places.
He carried it out to the balcony, opened the guard rail on the Insect Tree, and let it get at a Bug Branch.
Having tasted "Pride" for the first time the night before, the Dragon Grass sucked greedily now, unable to help itself.
Once it had drained one Bug Branch's worth, Dark used the magic-brain dropper to portion out a little more of the remaining "Pride" and injected it back into the emptied Bug Branch so the creature could keep drinking.
The flower of pride opening slowly above its head gave off a faint glow.
Inside that flower, the ovary at the base of the pistil swelled fast; the ovules came into being, grew, and developed into fruit.
Meanwhile the gaudy dark-gold petals began to wither at a rate visible to the naked eye.
By the time the Dragon Grass tipped its head back in contentment, every petal had crumbled to powder, leaving only a single round fruit and one root stem on the crown of its head.
Dark picked the fiery red fruit off with great care, then snipped the stem as well and stored it safely away.
By now he had saved up several stems from [Major Sin Fruit]s; with the right recipe they would serve as supplementary material.
He smiled faintly, called Shuckle over, dropped the round Fruit of Pride into its shell hole, and told it to start brewing.
Once the Fruit of Pride had been reduced to juice, all the materials were ready.
The method he was using this time was the "Dragon Breed - Light Attribute" Forging method. It still carried an element of randomness, but at least it steered things somewhat.
Dark steadied himself and began the experiment with the utmost care.
Nearly an hour later, he poured in magic power to activate the No.1 Forging Circle, first tossing in the supplementary materials and catalysts such as the "saliva", then slowly pouring in the juice of the Fruit of Pride.
A nebula formed within the No.1 Forging Circle, dark gold threaded with strands of fiery red. The red was gradually drawn toward the center, gathering into a blazing sun.
Around the rim of the nebula, blue circulated like flowing water - the mark of the water attribute.
Looking at the already-treated [Dragon's Reverse Scale] and White Dragon Pearl, Dark chose to smelt the White Dragon Pearl in first.
As the White Dragon Pearl went into the Forging Circle, the light attribute of the Fruit of Pride was steadily drawn out.
He fed in more magic power and kept stirring, coaxing out more and more of the light attribute, until the nebula inside the circle shifted from dark gold to a searing white.
Only when every attribute had bent toward light did Dark put in the last piece - the [Dragon's Reverse Scale].
His expression turned graver, his control over the magic power finer.
The scale bobbed and sank in the nebula, melting into it by degrees, and the Forging Circle's radiance flared all at once.
"It worked!"
Something leapt in Dark's chest, and he adjusted his magic output at once.
The light of the Forging Circle hit its peak and then snapped inward, the whole circle contracting into the face of a card. The card surface flickered, the pulses coming faster and faster.
Dark watched the changes in the Magic Guide Card intently.
Roughly two minutes later, a black substance seeped out of the card face and then swelled all at once, covering it completely like a slick of sludge.
Two more minutes, and the reaction in the Magic Guide Card finally stopped.
Dark used a tool to scrape the sludge aside, revealing the cocoon of light hidden beneath.
"Smooth enough, then."
He let out a breath.
Then he took up the mercury scalpel and slit the cocoon of light open from top to bottom with painstaking care.
Almost in that same instant a holy aura burst free, white light pouring out of the seam like a flood and lighting up the entire bedroom.
Dark sucked in a sharp breath and raised a hand.
The Magic Guide Spirits turned as one, drawn by the white light.
"Another light-attribute Magic Guide Spirit?" Gatomon padded over, brows drawing together.
Dark nodded. "Should be. I'm hoping it's a dragon I can ride."
The truth was that watching Claire leave on dragonback before Christmas had planted the idea in him.
After all, who doesn't want to ride a dragon?
…
Once the white light faded, Dark picked up the Magic Guide Card with tweezers - its surface still coated in black grime - and rinsed it clean in the sink.
As the card's surface layer was gradually exposed to the air, a faint golden halo radiated from it.
"A gold card again? So that dragon scale really was high quality - which means the odds of Forging a high-star dragon breed are even better!"
Dark's eyes lit up, and he brought the freshly rinsed card up to his face.
The first thing he noticed was the star rating on the card face - six of them.
But…
"Only six?"
Six stars was the highest star count in the second tier, but it was still only the second tier.
Dark had thought this attempt might just produce a third-tier Magic Guide Card - if it were a "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", it could even have been eight stars.
In other words, at six stars, it couldn't be a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
His gaze drifted down to the Magic Guide Spirit pictured on the card.
And the light that had dimmed in his eyes came back.
The Magic Guide Spirit on that card was not a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but it looked remarkably like the Blue-Eyes White Dragon he remembered.
The same silver-white dragon with blue-green eyes. The only difference between this one and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon was that it looked strikingly small.
Yes - this was a baby dragon.
A six-star baby dragon.
…
Dark studied it closely, and the longer he looked, the more it resembled the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. A suspicion took shape, and he immediately poured magic power into the Magic Guide Card, drawing back its information.
[Card Name: Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ]
[Race: Dragon Breed]
[Attribute: Light]
[Magic: 2500]
[Attack: 3000]
[Defense: 2500]
[Ultimate Moves: Dragon Egg Conversion, Call of the Baby Dragon, Dragon's Reverse Scale, Mausoleum of Light.]
"Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon? Don't tell me it's the infant form of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon…"
Dark rubbed the corner of his eye, and then came the Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon's attack and defense - the classic 3000 and 2500 - which drew a knowing smile out of him.
"Six-star dragon breed, light attribute, heavy attacker. Baby dragon or not, it's got exactly the same attack and defense as the 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' from Yu-Gi-Oh!. Let's see the Ultimate Moves…"
Dark looked first at the Ultimate Move whose name interested him most - "Dragon Egg Conversion".
He had a feeling that this move, one he had never heard of anywhere, might be the very essence of the Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon.
[Dragon Egg Conversion: A return to the beginning. The Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon can gather the essence of its entire body inward and revert to a dragon egg, thereby restoring itself to its original state.]
"Turn back into an egg, restore its original state? So it's the equivalent of a phoenix's rebirth?"
Dark turned it over in his mind.
An Ultimate Move that refilled every gauge was an excellent skill by any measure.
But it was easy to imagine the cooldown being brutally long.
Perhaps, like [Moon Palace], it ran on a twenty-four-hour cooldown.
"Not necessarily, though. It depends how long it takes to hatch again after becoming an egg, and how much defense the egg has."
"If the egg can be smashed open easily, that's no good at all."
"Either way, I won't know until I test it."
Leaving that question hanging, he moved on to the second Ultimate Move - "Call of the Baby Dragon".
[Call of the Baby Dragon: When the Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon encounters danger, it sends a call into the sky, temporarily summoning a blue-eyed white dragon to its side.]
"A summoning move?"
Dark's eyes brightened.
If "Dragon Egg Conversion" hadn't struck him as much of a surprise, "Call of the Baby Dragon" made up for everything it lacked.
As the saying goes, hit the little one and the big one comes running.
This Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon could use "Call of the Baby Dragon" to summon a Blue-Eyes White Dragon - and possibly the Blue-Eyes White Dragon's various subspecies as well.
That was plainly a formidable Ultimate Move: it let any blue-eyed, light-attribute white dragon in the deck, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon included, be summoned straight onto the field at no cost whatsoever.
It said "temporarily" in plain terms, but three or four minutes of summon duration would be more than enough.
The only problem was…
he needed to actually have at least one blue-eyed, light-attribute white dragon such as the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Dark had Forged a Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon, but Forging a second one would be extremely difficult.
This Forging had come very close to a directed Forging, but it still wasn't one.
And every material it required was punishingly hard to come by.
In the short term, at least, he could forget about it.
Even so, none of that changed the fact that this was a powerful Ultimate Move.
If Dark could one day Forge multiple Blue-Eyes White Dragons, he could build an entire "Blue-Eyes deck" with this Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon at its core.
He went on to the third Ultimate Move - "Dragon's Reverse Scale".
[Dragon's Reverse Scale: The Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon shatters its own reverse scale, throwing itself into a state of fury. Attack is greatly increased by 50% to 100%, but it falls into a state of Confusion. Duration: three minutes.]
"A textbook Berserk-type Ultimate Move that costs you your sanity. Its one virtue is that the attack boost is fairly respectable."
Dark shook his head slightly. He had no fondness for moves that left a Magic Guide Spirit unable to tell friend from foe - though at least this one had a duration, which made it manageable on that front.
"Now for the last one."
He turned to the final Ultimate Move - "Mausoleum of Light".
[Mausoleum of Light: The Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon offers up a prayer, calling the Mausoleum of Light down onto the field. A light-attribute Magic Guide Spirit that dies within the Mausoleum of Light will be reborn in spirit form.
The Mausoleum of Light lasts three minutes. The spirit form lasts three minutes and is not affected by the disappearance of the Mausoleum of Light.]
"Another field technique!"
"And one that grants a Magic Guide Spirit a brief resurrection, at that!"
That set Dark's mind turning.
He knew there was a field Magic Card in Yu-Gi-Oh! also called "Mausoleum of Light", but the two effects clearly had nothing to do with each other.
"This is obviously a core Ultimate Move for building a light-attribute deck."
"Pity that out of all my Magic Guide Spirits, only Gatomon is light-attribute."
"All told, this Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon is a Magic Guide Spirit Card with enormous potential - but it doesn't seem to fit my current lineup all that well?"
After thinking it through for a while, Dark decided to summon the Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon out and take a look at it first.
"Maybe there's something here I haven't figured out yet."
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