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"No." Harrison finally spoke, shaking his head with quiet confidence. "Luke hasn't shown his real strength yet."
The statement landed in the monitoring chamber like a pebble dropped into still water. Ripples of skepticism, disbelief, and indignation spread outward.
Dorian Webb's head snapped around first, his lingering resentment from the Audrey incident flaring.
"Are you serious right now?" Webb's voice was sharp. "Harrison, Luke has fielded a single card against every opponent so far. That card has already shown Silence Seal, Magical Hats with teleportation, attack absorption, and attack reflection. What exactly do you think he's been saving?"
"Plenty." Harrison's response was maddening in its simplicity.
Miles Thornton and Grant Whitfield both frowned, but neither weighed in. Neither of them could see what Harrison was claiming Luke still had in reserve. Everything Luke had demonstrated up to this point already put him in elite territory for his age bracket. Claiming there was more felt less like confidence and more like posturing.
And if Harrison was posturing at this late stage, with Elise's Flower Field Domain already deployed, he was doing it at his own expense.
"Care to put something on that opinion?" Webb's eyes narrowed. After the Audrey humiliation, a chance to make Harrison eat his words was worth any price.
"Happy to." Harrison's smile didn't waver.
"Raging Thunder Wolf Core and Fire Demon Heart," Webb named immediately. Two high-grade materials, valuable enough that losing them would sting for any branch president. "My wager. If Luke loses, both come to me."
"Agreed." Harrison didn't flinch. "Light Sword and Holy Spirit Ring. My wager. When Luke wins, both come to Ashenvale."
"When?" Webb's mouth twitched. "Fine. Let's make it official. The rest of you are witnesses."
The other branch presidents exchanged amused glances. Material-based wagers between branch presidents were a long tradition, and two stubborn men digging themselves into opposite sides of an increasingly unlikely position was exactly what a tedious monitoring session needed.
Grant Whitfield clapped Harrison on the shoulder with a sympathetic smile that didn't quite hide his skepticism. "Old friend, I hope you know what you're doing."
Harrison's expression didn't change. He was, in fact, absolutely certain he knew what he was doing.
Luke, don't disappoint me. I have materials to win.
-----
Inside the sanctum, Luke surveyed the Flower Field Domain with the measured attention of a man assessing a complex tactical problem.
The three Six-Star Perfects were arrayed in a triangle around Elise's position. The domain saturation had stabilized, its boundary pressing against the walls of the sanctum and absorbing the residual luminescence from the Holy Dragon Furnace Heart. Every vine, every flower, every leaf was imbued with active life-energy that the Mandragora Queen, Crystal Orchid, and Dragon Maiden Flower were feeding in real time.
His mind immediately went to Digimon parallels. Rosemon. Lilymon. The floral queens of the Digital World's evolution trees. This domain reminded him strongly of territory those Mega-level Digimon would construct during their apex battles, a field of play where the environment itself fought on their behalf.
If I ever get around to building Rosemon, Lilymon, or the combined Great King Flower form, the domain I'll need to architect would be at this scale or larger.
He filed the observation away.
"Three Six-Star Perfects and a Flower Field Domain that covers the entire sanctum." Luke's voice was neutral, almost conversational. "You think highly of me."
"I do." Elise's reply was honest. The three card spirits around her didn't move, but their auras tightened in response to her focus. "I've watched every one of your matches. I don't want any surprises in this fight."
"That makes two of us."
Luke extended one hand, and a card slid from his card space into his waiting fingers.
"Mana." His voice was calm. The Dark Magician Girl floated into position beside him, her staff held in a casual ready stance, her green eyes fixed on the three plant spirits across the sanctum. "You know what we're doing."
"Yes, Master." Mana's voice carried a ripple of anticipation. She'd been waiting for this. The Flower Field Domain didn't intimidate her. It made her feel hungry.
"Then let's clear the board."
Luke flicked the card forward.
The card spun through the air once, twice, and as it crossed the midpoint between Luke and the Flower Field Domain, it ignited with sapphire light. The summoning circle that unfurled beneath it wasn't the standard pentagonal pattern of a Spellcaster summon. It was wider. Deeper. Laced with serpentine runes that coiled and uncoiled in ways that evoked scales, wings, and ancient reptilian authority.
The circle expanded to fill a twenty-meter radius of the sanctum floor, overlapping the boundary of the Flower Field Domain and pushing vine growth backward through sheer presence.
Then the pressure arrived.
It descended from the open sky of the Dimensional Plane itself, not localized, not directional, but a saturating weight that filled the entire Mist Relic in a single crushing instant. An oppressive atmosphere that reduced the world to a single question: what just entered this space?
Elise's face went white. Her three card spirits, who had been radiating calm confidence a moment earlier, all took an involuntary step backward, their coordinated stance breaking under the sudden pressure of something higher on the food chain.
The Mandragora Queen's innocent face tightened with instinctive fear. The Eternal Crystal Orchid's parasol trembled in her hand. The Dragon Maiden Flower, despite her dragon-blood infusion, lowered her gaze as if the act of looking at the source of the pressure was physically painful.
Across the Mist Relic, every remaining competitor who hadn't yet been eliminated felt the wave at the same moment. It rolled outward from the sanctum and blanketed the entire Dimensional Plane, saturating the fog, pressing against skin and bone and spirit.
"What is that?"
"The core… something's happening at the core…"
"My card spirit is shaking. Not scared like 'nervous.' Scared like 'prey.'"
Competitors crouched where they stood. Card spirits materialized beside their masters despite not being summoned, responding on instinct to the need to be close to their Card Master in the presence of an apex predator. Several of them simply trembled, refusing to face the direction the pressure was emanating from, as if looking would make it worse.
Whatever was happening at the core, they could feel it, but they couldn't see it. The fog blocked the visual, but nothing could block what was being felt.
Elise's eyes were wide. She recognized the sensation immediately, because she'd been trained from childhood to recognize it.
Dragon Pressure.
True, apex-class Dragon Pressure. An aura that established hierarchies without a single blow being struck.
And it was emanating from whatever card Luke had just summoned.
At the Capital Association plaza, the monitoring chamber erupted.
"What in the absolute…"
"That's Dragon Pressure! High-tier Dragon Pressure, at least Seven-Star equivalent, possibly higher!"
"Luke's summoning a dragon?"
Harrison's face, which had been so composed a moment earlier, finally cracked. Not into surprise. Into a slow, deeply satisfied smile.
At the front of the monitoring deck, Edmund Hargrove and Roland had both gone completely still. Roland's hand had involuntarily gripped the edge of his display panel. Edmund's expression had sharpened into the focused attention of an Immortal Realm Card Master who was about to witness something he hadn't anticipated.
A second Original Card. One that's clearly dragon-type. And based on this pressure signature… it's stronger than the first one.
In the center of the sanctum, the summoning circle finished its expansion. The sapphire light at its core pulsed once, twice, a third time, each pulse matching the beat of a massive invisible heart.
Then the circle began to rise.