"Go go go, charge charge charge~?"
"The Astral Express is on the move~?"
Like the enchanted flying carpet of ancient Arabia from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, they soared through the open sky.
Wind cards, as lower-tier cards beneath the main Wind-type, could sprout wings from Sakura's wand and carry her aloft — so attaching a higher-tier card to a carpet naturally produced a flying carpet instead.
"Racing along the blazing trail~?"
Sitting at the very front, the gray-haired girl let her long, slender legs dangle freely — one leg sheathed in a single black stocking, swaying in a lazy, idle rhythm; the other bare and smooth as snow, adorned with a blue-green leg ring that created an oddly captivating contrast against the black stocking. It was an aesthetic clash that shouldn't have worked, yet somehow did.
It wasn't a particularly ladylike pose. The black spade red-plaid miniskirt caught the wind and flipped up, revealing a brief flash of what lay beneath.
"Is this the spark of wondrous wisdom~?"
Only Caelus-cub could see what was under the skirt, so there was no need to worry about it. Stelle gripped her Galaxy Bat in one hand, and as the flying carpet streaked forward, it left a wake of wind like a comet's tail — slicing an S-shaped arc through the air as she smashed every bronze mirror they encountered along the way.
"I see zero sparks of wisdom. All I see is violence," March 7th said, watching the spectacle unfold, too drained to even bother complaining properly.
"This place is in constant flux — it obstructs any living creature that tries to leave," Xueyi observed, identifying the pattern.
Every time Caelus turned the carpet sideways or backward — toward any direction away from the center — bronze mirrors would materialize in their path, some even floating suspended in midair, projecting phantom silhouettes within their frames to lure the group deeper into the illusion. The standard script called for the trapped protagonists to engage in some heartfelt dialogue with those phantoms and locate the hidden exit buried within.
However, every single mirror had been smashed to pieces by the Stellaron spirit.
"Hah, this Galaxy Batwoman isn't trying to run in the first place."
Crack—!
A crisp sound of shattering glass rang out as Stelle rose to her feet and casually bat-smashed another mirror: "Surpassing time and space, blazing the Trailblaze trail~!"
"What are you even singing? It doesn't match at all — my DNA is about to tie itself in a knot listening to you," Caelus said.
His right hand closed into a tight fist. His left foot slid back half a step, the toe grinding into the ground as he twisted at the waist — hips and core winding up like a bow drawn to full draw.
"ROAR—!"
A dragon's cry rang out for a thousand li in solitary resonance. Blazing light condensed into a silver-white divine dragon that wheeled through the heavens, splitting dark clouds apart, crashing head-on into the swarm of blood-bats hurtling toward them from the front.
Thunder erupted all across the Galaxy Silver Dragon's form — crackling, surging, wild winds and lightning coiling between its five claws, shredding the bats apart and driving back all evil that stood in its way.
"Tsk."
Steele glanced at Caelus's ability — visual effects cranked all the way up to maximum spectacle — then looked back down at the perfectly ordinary bat in her own hands and clicked her tongue softly.
"Caelus-cub, did you secretly cheat your way up?"
"What do you mean 'cheat'? Don't go throwing around baseless accusations — you need evidence for claims like that. This is all the product of my hard work and sweat."
And it was true — no hidden stat allocation, no skill cards from Blazing Teens that came pre-loaded with proficiency. Caelus had put roughly eighty percent of his Learning Chips into grinding the combo skill series. Every bit of it had been earned the hard way, in late-night dream training sessions.
"This is a combo move that Leylah and I poured our blood and fire into!"
Leylah's phantom shimmered into view around the yo-yo, turning toward Stelle with a shy, radiant smile.
With Divine Awakening applied through the Curio yo-yo, the Galaxy Silver Dragon Caelus unleashed carried far more punch than the original technique. Right now he'd only scratched the surface of it — nowhere near its true potential.
Higher-tier Learning Chips were pretty effective, all things considered. Worth grinding a few of those out.
"Ugh, stop showing off already!"
Stelle puffed out her cheeks in adorable indignation, studying Leylah and Caelus for a long moment.
Then she seemed to make up her mind. She held out the bat toward Caelus, expression resolute and unwavering.
"Made your decision?"
By the unspoken intuition the two of them shared, Caelus didn't need Stelle to say a word — he could read her intentions clearly in those identical amber eyes.
"Hurry it up, quick, quick — don't give me time to change my mind."
Stelle shoved the bat firmly into Caelus's hands, then pulled out the flaming Lance and cradled it against her chest with a soothing pat: "Sorry, my Weapon Girl. If I ever get the chance, I'll make it up to you~"
"At least you have a clear sense of self-awareness," Caelus remarked.
He slapped the last Equipment Reforge Card onto the Galaxy Bat.
He'd promised Stelle a long time ago — he'd turn one of her weapons into a Weapon Girl someday. She'd been torn between the bat and the flaming Lance ever since, agonizing over the choice right up until this moment.
Watching Caelus and Leylah show off with their combo, Stelle finally hit her limit and made the call. In the spirit of finishing what you start, she'd begin with the weapon she'd had from the beginning — the flaming Lance could wait for another time.
"Oh, not bad — the affinity level's pretty high. Give it a bit more time and the bat will awaken into a proper Weapon Girl."
Generally speaking, the condition for Divine Awakening was reaching a high-tier affinity between the weapon and Caelus.
However, since Stelle and Caelus were fundamentally one and the same, the system had glitched slightly in their favor. The bat's current affinity was sitting at the latter half of Stage Five — the same tier as Seele's Black Abyss White Flower.
"Hehe~ Good work, big sis is rewarding you. Mua~!"
She planted a big kiss on Caelus's cheek, then snatched the bat back, hugging it against her chest with a blissful expression, nuzzling it with her cheek.
"..."
Xueyi watched the two gray-haired figures acting completely inexplicably — flirting one moment, squabbling over a toy the next — and fell silent. She was having real trouble categorizing their relationship.
March 7th blinked. She'd long since grown used to the dynamic between Stelle and Caelus. One second they were all sweet and clingy; the next they were at each other's throats. Perfectly normal.
She drew her bow and loosed an arrow, freezing an incoming bat mid-flight into an ice sculpture. Gazing at her powder-blue longbow, she found herself idly imagining what it would look like if her weapon awakened into a Weapon Girl.
…On reflection, she decided to pass. It just wasn't really her style.
The flying carpet cruised at fifty meters per second. The closer they drew to the center of the illusory labyrinth realm, the denser the blood-bat swarms became — pitch-black fog laced with crimson churned through the dim and chaotic sky overhead.
"Is that… Chongxi?"
Fuyan, who had been silently drifting in a corner trying to minimize its presence, suddenly blinked its single eye and looked toward a distant point.
At the words, Caelus turned to look. At the very edge of his vision, a swarm of beating-winged bats was circling and closing in around a cluster of pale green spirit-flame, carrying it toward the central zone.
"A friend of yours?"
"Ha — that scrub have friends?"
Tail's face twisted in contempt, then she seemed to remember who was nearby and broke into a gleeful laugh: "That Chongxi is just as off in the head as the rest of them."
"Oh? What happened?"
Caelus caught the scent of gossip.
"Nothing much — that guy was following me around for a while, spouting something about wanting to 'merge into one with me.'"
Fuyan shot Tail a furious glare. It would have been better coming from Fuyan itself — having Tail be the one to say it was somehow worse.
"Among Heliobus, it's called fusion-gathering! Not 'merging into one'!"
"So Chongxi is Fuyan's admirer?"
Huo Huo raised her head carefully.
"Wait — do Heliobus even have genders?"
March 7th identified what she thought was a blind spot in her knowledge.
Caelus's face went through a full cycle of alarm and outrage: "March, who gave you the right to assume a Heliobus's gender?"
March 7th: "?"
The poor girl had never seen a zero-frame-startup sucker punch launched straight into thin air before — she stood there completely stunned.
Where did I assume anything?
"Heliobus, by the nature of their physical constitution, possess no distinction of male or female in bodily form," Xueyi said.
Her pale wrist turned over in a smooth arc. The air shrieked with a tearing whine as the Demon-Quelling Awl on its iron chain lashed out in a path like a black serpent's darting tongue — once, twice, three times — while Stelle screamed "Lightning Five-Crack-Whip!?" in the background.
"Yet their inherent natures diverge — some lean firm, some yielding, each manifesting differently. Thus, gender among Heliobus is discerned by the nature of the soul, not the shape of the form."
"Oh, oh, I see, I see."
The Synesthesia Beacon's translation of classical Xianzhou tongue was notoriously unreliable. March 7th nodded along with an expression of vague comprehension, understanding nothing at all.
But since both Stelle and Caelus could understand the local Xianzhou dialect just fine, she couldn't very well let herself look uneducated now, could she~?
"No way — even that thing has a Heliobus chasing after it?"
Stelle was genuinely taken aback, pointing at Fuyan with an expression of absolute disbelief.
With no ranged attacks of her own, she was reduced to floating along and pitching in where she could.
"You..."
Fuyan felt the sting of the insult, but didn't dare say so.
"By soul-nature, Chongxi over there would be classified as male," Tail said with the smug, gleeful look of someone sprawled on a beach chair watching a disaster unfold.
"Shut up!"
Fuyan erupted.
It didn't dare talk back to Stelle or Caelus — but when it came to mouthing off at Tail, it had not just a little courage but quite a lot.
"Oh oh~"
Stelle's tone rose and fell in the most exaggeratedly patronizing singsong, her expression oozing peak condescension: "So — are we going to go rescue your dear boo? We can help, you know."
Fuyan nearly lost it — then swallowed it back down through sheer force of will.
This gray-haired little demon devours Heliobus without even spitting out the bones!
"Of course, if you'd rather die for love, please do it somewhere else — or better yet, sacrifice yourself so I can turn you into a snack. I'll be grateful," Caelus added pleasantly, surveying the area.
Scattered among the dense ink-dark bat swarms, tiny clusters of flame were being ferried toward the center — every one of them a captured Heliobus.
"Please, absolutely anything but that!"
Fuyan dropped into an instant full kowtow and pivoted at light speed to change the subject.
"Huiyan is just up ahead!"
"I can see that."
Caelus pressed his thumb against the cord and gave his wrist a sharp, precise vibration — like snapping out a great spear — sending three interlocking arcs whipping out like dragon claws, ripping through the blood-bats and rescuing what he had mentally filed under: snacks and crafting materials.
Fuyan quietly thought it was probably better to just let Huiyan swallow those brethren instead.
Below, a crater over a hundred meters in diameter yawned open, surrounded by crumbled, collapsed buildings — evidence that a fierce battle had torn through this place not long ago.
"What on earth is that!?"
March 7th's eyes went wide, and she drew a sharp, quiet breath.
At the center of the crater sat an enormous dark Cocoon.
It looked less like a cocoon and more like a writhing, pulsing mass of energy-flesh — placental tissue tangled with black ooze, twisted and contorted together, faintly gelatinous in texture, with crimson threads of energy separating and branching away from its heaving surface.
Just looking at it sent a wave of visceral, bone-deep wrongness crawling up the spine.
As the bat swarms dropped Heliobus into it one by one, the pitch-black seething energy spread outward from the black-ooze Cocoon in every direction, creeping like a swamp.
"The fiend is inside that thing," the Herta puppet said.
Those amethyst eyes could perceive far more than anything a Judge's puppet body could — Xueyi could make out the silhouette at the center of the black ooze Cocoon clearly.
A blood-winged demon. Threads of molten lava-like ichor flowed between the membranes of its wings, and its face was hidden behind a six-eyed golden bull-horned mask.
The mask was now cracking — as though it could no longer contain the power surging within — allowing a glimpse of the narrow, elongated amber eyes beneath.
The smaller Heliobus surrounding it trembled like fireflies caught in a spider's web.
"Ultimate level, as expected."
Caelus had anticipated this. After consuming that many Heliobus — essentially the combined energy of nearly half of Ignamar plus the innate darkness of this new breed Digimon — it would have been strange if it hadn't evolved.
Caelus had been planning for an Ultimate-level opponent from the very start. Even so, the creature before him exceeded expectations.
This was no longer an ordinary Ultimate.
"We can't let it keep feeding. Move in now."
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