The night was very still…
Bathed in darkness, the Granzort gave off an aura utterly out of place in this world.
Standing behind it, Chief Maid Jasmine and Head Maid Ollie both couldn't hide their astonishment.
"What is this?" Jasmine murmured.
"It's an 'Armament,'" Ollie said.
"Have you ever seen an Armament like this?" Jasmine's voice rose without her meaning it to.
"Haven't I just seen one?" Ollie's lips curved into a faint smile.
Ever since he'd first touched Magic Guide technology, the young master's brilliance had only grown more dazzling.
Perhaps this was what people called talent.
Some were born with monstrous strength, others with a gift for the sword — in the field they excelled at versus the one they didn't, they seemed like two entirely different people.
It seemed the young master had an extraordinary gift for Magic Guide technology.
...
A machine this massive suddenly appearing within the Duke's estate was naturally impossible to keep quiet.
Alvit and Claire had just been about to turn in for the night when they caught the disturbance and, throwing robes over their nightclothes, hurried out into the hallway.
Alvit's room was the master bedroom; Claire's chamber wasn't far from hers.
The two exchanged a glance as they stepped out, then made their way to the nearest window to look outside.
Out on the open ground, Dark and Meowth stood craning their necks up at the "Granzort," puzzling over how to get inside it.
"Meow, meow-meow."
Meowth swiped a paw a few times, then suddenly bolted forward.
It scrambled up the Granzort's leg in a few bounding leaps, all the way to the top of its head, and began pawing around.
Of course, it wasn't going to find anything that way.
The Granzort's cockpit was located behind the heart-guard mirror on its chest, not in its head.
Dark walked up to stand at the Granzort's feet and studied it for a moment, then drew out his Flying Charm and, relying on memory, flew up to the heart-guard mirror to try touching it.
The instant his palm made contact, he felt a sudden ripple of magic power, and an inward pull yanked him inside.
When he steadied himself again, he was standing inside the Granzort's inner space.
It wasn't a cockpit with seats and control panels — just a special chamber with a single six-pointed star array floating beneath his feet.
Standing in that space felt as though his entire body had fused with the Granzort.
No control stick was needed; a single thought was enough to set the towering machine in motion.
But at the same time, the sheer volume of magic power flooding out of him made it clear that keeping this machine running wouldn't be easy.
Compared to a ordinary Armament, the Granzort clearly consumed far more — and not just a little more.
Even Dark, already accustomed to supplying magic power to his Magic Guide Spirits, found it draining, to say nothing of a Magic Guide Spirit lacking any means of recovering magic power on its own.
Clearly, unlike the Godhood Armament "Moon God Spirit I," this thing didn't have its own energy core.
Even calculating a conservative thirty points of magic power per second, sustaining it for a single round would cost nine hundred points.
Only a Magic Guide Spirit like the Phoenix Maiden could pilot the Granzort for any real length of time.
But the Phoenix Maiden wasn't Dark's Magic Guide Spirit, and in theory the Granzort would reject her.
Given that, unless Dark intended to launch a Self-Destruct attack, it really wasn't suited to having his Magic Guide Spirits pilot it.
Put another way — his Magic Guide Spirits could ride the Granzort specifically to carry out a Self-Destruct attack!
That was clearly a viable tactic.
Provided, of course, that the Granzort's strength justified it.
Dark closed his eyes and traced the flow of magic power to sense the Granzort more deeply.
Since mastering "qi," his ability to sense magic power had risen in tandem — he could now perceive far more, and in far finer detail.
After a long moment, he suddenly opened his eyes, and the Granzort took a massive step forward.
The towering, six-meter-tall machine planted one foot down, and the ground around it shuddered faintly.
The immense power contained within it was laid bare for all to see.
[Card Name: Mado Gun]
[Type: Item Card]
[Effect: Summons the "Granzort."]
[Granzort: Earth Mado King, who commands the power of flame and earth.]
[Magic Power: ?]
[Attack: 2500]
[Defense: 2500]
[Ultimate Move: As-You-Wish Divine Sword]
"Come forth, As-You-Wish Divine Sword!"
As the information flowed into his mind, Dark stretched out his hand and closed it as if gripping something, and light gathered into the shape of a sword in his grasp.
A massive crimson blade rose slowly out of the cracked earth, drawn forth by the Granzort.
A thrill of excitement he couldn't quite suppress ran through him.
This Granzort was clearly different from ordinary Armaments — most Armaments were, in essence, outer shells, boosting the wearer's own base stats.
But the Granzort had fixed attack and defense values of its own.
Both its Attack and its Magic Power sat at 2500 — already a full five-star maximum in strength.
The quality of the materials used in Forging an Armament Card mattered far more than it did for a Magic Guide Spirit.
The odds of producing a high-tier Armament from ordinary materials were essentially nonexistent.
By the same token, an Armament made from high-tier materials, even if it fell short of expectations, would never turn out too badly so long as the Forging succeeded.
That materials of the caliber used to make this Granzort could produce something on par with an Armament for a top five-star Magic Guide Spirit was already remarkable.
As for how much combat value it actually had beyond its looks and collector's appeal…
That all came down to just how "as one wished" its bonus Ultimate Move — the As-You-Wish Divine Sword — really was!
Dark had the Granzort raise the As-You-Wish Divine Sword overhead, and the blade suddenly blazed with brilliant golden light, transforming into a great sword of pure light.
"Meow?"
Perched atop the Granzort's head, Meowth eyed the glowing blade with curiosity, tilting its head to one side.
Dark suppressed the urge to swing the sword right then, focusing instead every scrap of his attention on sensing the As-You-Wish Divine Sword's true nature.
[As-You-Wish Divine Sword: Absolute Severance — attacks ignore any changes to the opponent's abilities and strike directly through any defense; Attack +500.]
A five-hundred-point Attack bonus put it on par in raw strength with Leomon's "Shishiomaru," but without the side effect of lowered judgment.
What gave it its true, irreplaceable value, though, were the attached properties: "Absolute Severance" and "Ignores Defense."
At the Easter Dueling Festival, Dark had already tasted the joy of ignoring an opponent's defense — but that had been a low-probability effect tied to the Holy Sword. This As-You-Wish Divine Sword ignored defense every single time!
That property alone made it irreplaceable.
The only problem was…
Dark's expression darkened. He let go with both hands, and the As-You-Wish Divine Sword instantly dissolved into scattering motes of magic power.
"It drains way too much magic power!"
"No wonder in the show it was only ever used for the finishing blow."
"It's probably burning an extra hundred points of magic power every single second!"
"Well, that settles it — if a Magic Guide Spirit ever wields this, it'll really only be for a Self-Destruct attack."
Dark rubbed his temples, took a single step, and emerged floating out of the Granzort's heart-guard mirror.
The Granzort cupped its palm beneath him, letting him stand in it.
He glanced up at the second floor of the estate and smiled at Alvit and Claire, both of whom let out an audible gasp.
Then, with a little "boop," Meowth leapt down from above and clung tightly to his pant leg.
"You want to give it a try too?" Dark asked, looking down.
"Meow!" Meowth nodded fiercely.
Dark smiled faintly and lifted it up, tucking it into the triangular heart-guard mirror.
The Granzort immediately lurched into motion.
Dark hastily cast his Flying Charm to get airborne.
He watched as the Granzort suddenly dropped down onto all fours and started happily scampering around the open ground.
A vein throbbed visibly at his temple.
...
Fortunately, Meowth's 1500 points of magic power couldn't sustain such antics for long.
Once its magic power was nearly spent, Dark raised his hand and recalled the Granzort into its Magic Guide Card.
Then he reached out and caught Meowth as it dropped from the air.
The night sky was pitch black now, with only a scattering of stars twinkling — quite a poetic sight, really.
Alvit had leapt down from the corridor at some point without his noticing, and asked curiously, "What kind of Armament is that?"
"Earth Mado King," Dark said. "I like to call it the Granzort."
"Granzort? That sword of light really did carry an overwhelming aura," Alvit mused. "Though it seems very different from ordinary Armaments?"
Dark blinked. "Very different?"
Alvit smiled. "Very."
Dark tilted his head up to look at the night sky. "I really wish it could be even bigger."
...
The successful Forging of the Granzort gave Dark a huge boost of confidence.
Once back in his room, he couldn't help but start thinking about Forging other Armaments.
Of course, he knew perfectly well in his mind that this particular success would be extremely hard to replicate.
The Granzort's structure had already been quite simple, and yet even so, the final result — aside from retaining the As-You-Wish Divine Sword — hadn't been ideal.
If he wanted to replicate the stronger machines he remembered, he'd need far more time to study and gather materials.
Still, successfully Forging the Granzort meant his study of "Driven Armaments" had advanced to a new stage.
What he needed to do next was further familiarize himself with, and master, the two Forging methods for "Armor Armaments" and "Driven Armaments."
That would be something to work on alongside his other coursework.
...
Still carrying a lingering trace of excitement, Dark took out his magic-brain dropper and extracted the "Major Sin" he hadn't managed to draw out that evening for storage.
It was now just past midnight — before midnight it had been Friday, July sixth.
Counting this latest draw, he'd made six extractions total.
Three of "Pride," two of "Lust," and one of "Greed."
His remaining reserves stood at:
Pride: 20;
Lust: 4.5;
Greed: 11;
...
Of these, the "Pride" would keep accumulating for now.
The "Greed," though, could actually be put to use.
Dark took stock of the materials he had on hand that might serve as a core, and found he still had four Magic Crystal Coins that paired especially well with "Greed."
"Maybe I could Forge another Meowth?"
He glanced over at Meowth, currently busy carving a wooden model of the Granzort, then shook his head.
One Meowth was already exhausting enough, wasn't it?
Add another one and wouldn't they tear the roof off the place?
"'Greed' is symbolized by Saturn, and its associated types are Rock-type, Ground-type, and Ice-type."
"Among the Pokémon, abilities connected to 'Greed' include things like 'Gluttony' and 'Pickup.'"
"Let's see… Rock-, Ground-, and Ice-type Magic Guide Spirits with the Gluttony ability…"
"Shuckle?"
"Could I Forge another Shuckle?"
A Magic Guide Spirit like Shuckle, he could never have too many of.
"So what about Rock-, Ground-, and Ice-type spirits with the Pickup ability?"
"Phanpy, maybe? Or Diggersby?"
"Hm—"
As he mulled it over, Dark unfolded his [Zoo] indoors.
The [Zoo] and [Paradise] effects didn't conflict with each other, but they didn't stack either.
Among his unregistered Magic Guide Spirits, both Meowth and Leomon could benefit from the Zoo's bonus.
At least while Dark was asleep, those two Magic Guide Spirits could take leave from the Watchers' Alliance duty roster.
With everything sorted out, Dark finally crawled into bed.
Before drifting off, he kept turning it over in his mind.
"If Rock-, Ground-, and Ice-types don't pan out, maybe going for something universally applicable — Normal-type — is the way to go."
"And when it comes to Pokémon that pair well with Normal-type, there's really no beating Snorlax."
"Also — Zigzagoon, Teddiursa, Linoone… why is it always bears?"
...
"Ah!"
Dark jolted awake with a start, waking from a terrifying dream of being flattened by Great Bear.
Then, without thinking, he started mulling things over again.
"Five Catnips — cat, ox, fox, lion, dragon."
"Which of those — cat, ox, fox, lion, or dragon — line up with 'Greed'?"
(Urgent, online now, need answers!)
By the time he'd finished washing up, he walked to the middle of his room and said to his Magic Guide Spirits, who were all still pretending to be asleep, "Get ready — we're heading out today."
...
It had been over a month since they'd returned to the royal capital.
Both Dark and his Magic Guide Spirits had been holed up in the Duke's estate that whole time.
Dark himself didn't much mind — he could happily stay cooped up in the Duke's estate right up until school started.
But his Magic Guide Spirits had been studying hard all this time and deserved some kind of reward, so he figured he might as well take this outing as a chance to let them see a bit of the world.
When he announced this, though, his Magic Guide Spirits all just blinked at him as though they'd misheard.
Dark took a deep breath and, looking thoroughly exasperated, repeated himself: "Get ready — we're heading out today!"
"Meow meow meow!"
"Meow meow meow!"
"Meow meow meow!"
In an instant, the room was filled with an uproar of meowing.
A moment later, the Virgo Palace Maid Corps poured into the room and, following the Magic Guide Spirits' instructions, began dressing them up.
Of course, to make things easier to move around in, they wouldn't be dressed as formally as they'd been for the birthday banquet — at most a little hat, a little bow tie, a little vest, or a little dress.
And spirits like Gatomon and Sylveon each already had their own little hats and little dresses.
Watching his Magic Guide Spirits' excited, beaming faces, Dark couldn't help but smile, and reached out to take a freshly made bottle of "candy beans" from Ollie's hands.
A child's burden is a father's to carry.
____
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