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"I knew Luke would surprise us. I just didn't expect the surprise to come with wings and a thirty-foot wingspan." Victor was barely containing himself. "A Spellcaster-type Original Card and a dragon-type card. If he performs at this level during the entrance exam, he has a real shot at first place in the entire Eastern Region."
A Commander Realm Card Master with a loadout that rivaled a Monarch's. Fewer cards, sure. But in terms of individual quality, Luke wasn't behind at all.
They'd already known he was extraordinary. The Original Card and its new worldview had settled that question permanently during the exam. But somehow, against all reason, the kid kept finding new ways to make them feel like they still hadn't grasped the full picture. An Original Card, a Perfect quality Spellcaster, and now a dragon-type on top of it. At some point, being surprised by Luke Mercer was going to start feeling like a personal failing.
"People misunderstand Original Cards," Harrison said, reading the mood in the room. "Building a new worldview is remarkable, yes. But it's only the foundation. The backbone. Actually pulling Card Spirits out of that worldview is an entirely separate challenge. Card Masters who've created original worldviews still fail dozens of times trying to craft individual cards from them. The worldview gives you access to a pool of potential spirits, but success isn't guaranteed. Far from it."
He let that sink in.
"Luke hasn't just created a worldview. He's pulled two completely different Card Spirits from it, one Spellcaster, one Dragon, and both appear to have succeeded on the first attempt. That's not just talent. I don't have a word for what that is."
"Hold on." Brandt's frown deepened. "If both the Spellcaster and this dragon came from the same worldview... does that mean there are dragons in whatever world Luke created?"
The room went quiet.
"A worldview that contains both high-level spellcasters and a dragon lineage." Townsend spoke slowly, the implications hitting him one by one. "What exactly is in that boy's head? How deep does this world of his go?"
Nobody had an answer. Luke's Original worldview was a black box. They'd seen two cards emerge from it, and both were Six-Star Perfect. If dragon-type spirits existed inside it alongside the Spellcaster, then the potential pool of future cards was staggering. And nobody except Luke knew what else might be waiting in there.
Harrison was already calculating the implications for the Association. Harlow was mentally composing the most insufferable "I told you so" speech in Ashenvale history.
"Bigger than I thought." Luke craned his neck. Black Star's body blocked the sun, casting the entire clearing into shadow. Crimson-black scales rippled with internal heat, and every breath the dragon took sent waves of distortion through the air.
He was glad he'd resisted the urge to summon this thing inside his apartment.
But the awe lasted only a moment. The mana drain hit him immediately, a steady, aggressive pull on his reserves that was noticeably worse than Mana's. Dragon-types were expensive to maintain. Horrifyingly expensive. If Mana was a steady draw on his resources, Black Star was a firehose pointed at his tank.
I'm turning into Ultraman's chest light. Blinking red before the fight even starts. Speed was everything.
"Black Star. Go."
Dark Star Soul activated the instant the dragon materialized. Perfect quality surged to Legendary. The aura that had already been suffocating intensified until the air itself felt heavy. Dragon Pressure compounded on top, and the Predator Man-Eater Flower, which had been creeping its vines forward looking for an opening, abandoned all pretense of aggression.
It bolted. Vines retracted, body compressing, the entire sixteen-foot mass trying to burrow underground and disappear.
Too slow.
Black Star crossed the distance in a single wingbeat. Air displaced by the movement flattened trees on both sides of the clearing. One massive claw punched through the Flower's vine barrier like it was made of wet paper, scattering barbed tendrils in every direction, and clamped down on the top of the Flower's bulbous head.
The thing was already half-buried, roots digging frantically into the soil. Black Star didn't care. The dragon's claw tightened, and with a grinding crunch that echoed across the Hollow, it ripped the Predator Man-Eater Flower out of the ground. Roots, dirt, and all. Sixteen feet of armored plant-beast dangling from a dragon's grip like a weed.
"A head-pat kill." Luke watched the scene with an expression caught somewhere between amusement and secondhand embarrassment. "Though I don't think the Flower appreciates the gesture."
Black Star held the Flower at arm's length with one claw and gripped its root cluster with the other, stretching the creature straight like a candle wick. The Flower thrashed, vines lashing against the dragon's forearms, barbed hooks scraping uselessly across scales that were harder than anything in this Dimensional Plane. Venom sprayed. Acid dripped. None of it mattered.
Then Black Star opened its jaws, and a torrent of dragon fire engulfed the Flower from crown to root.
The effect was immediate and absolute. Like gasoline meeting a match, the entire plant-beast erupted into an inferno. It burned so fast and so hot that the vines charring away couldn't even curl properly before they were ash. The Flower's body became a torch, blazing white-orange against the canopy, throwing wild shadows across the clearing while the creature it had once been screamed in frequencies that made the remaining trees shudder.
Black Star held it there until every trace of life was gone. Then it tossed the husk aside without looking at it, the way a person might discard a used napkin.
The corpse hit the ground and crumbled.
"Not bad at all." Harlow's voice was the verbal equivalent of a man who'd just won the lottery and was trying very, very hard to be humble about it. He was failing.
"The dragon didn't even use a named skill," Townsend said flatly. "It ripped the Flower out of the ground and set it on fire. That's it. Raw physicality and dragon flame against a Six-Star Perfect enemy, and it wasn't even a contest."
"And the dragon's quality looked like it jumped on summon," Brandt added, frowning. "Some kind of passive self-enhancement? It was strong before it appeared, but the moment it materialized, the aura spiked again."
They couldn't identify Dark Star Soul. They didn't have the framework. But they could feel the difference.
"Your dragon isn't yours, Harlow," Townsend said through gritted teeth. "Stop looking so smug."
"My student, my school, my pride." Harlow's expression was insufferable.
"Remarkable." Harrison was shaking his head slowly. "My decision to grant Luke early membership is looking better by the minute."
Townsend and Brandt turned their glares on him. Is everyone in this room trying to make us angry?
"Alright, alright." Victor stood, preparing to call the expedition to a close. "The three-day window is nearly up. Let's get the students out and..."
He stopped. Mid-sentence. Mid-motion. His eyes locked on the screen, and every trace of warmth drained from his face.
"What is it?" Harlow followed his gaze.
Where the Predator Man-Eater Flower's corpse had landed, black particles were bleeding out of the ground. Dozens of them, then hundreds, rising and swirling like a cloud of dark fireflies. They gathered, compressed, and began to tear a seam in the air itself.
A crack. Widening. Deepening. The edges flickered with light that didn't belong in this world.
Brandt was the first to say it.
"A Black Gate." Her face went white. "How is this possible?"