The duel ended.
Hikaru put away his cards and looked around.
Most of the Spirits were slowly recovering. These must have been the ones recently brought in for puppetization, so the process wasn't deep yet. They should have time to recover gradually.
But the humans...
Perhaps the grudge held by Lapis was too strong. Even the possibility of reversal was slim. If Hikaru were to personally attempt to "shatter" and "sublimate" them, it wouldn't be impossible to restore them, but as previously stated, Hikaru wasn't that kind.
With hatred that intense, Hikaru found it hard to believe they were innocent.
Captain Crystal slowly descended from the sky. Its knees buckled, nearly collapsing, but a hand caught it at that moment. Turning back, it saw the grinning Flame Swordsman and the arms-crossed Dark Flare Knight.
The two had always followed Hikaru, standing guard by his side. When Captain Crystal rushed in to absorb all that pain and resentment, they naturally stepped in to protect Hikaru from attacks.
Now that the duel was over, they flew over at once.
"Haha, you brat, you nailed it!" Flame Swordsman laughed heartily, patting Crystal's armor.
Dark Flare Knight chuckled lightly from the side.
They were Hikaru's earliest Spirits. Soon after, Captain Crystal and Fullmetal Alkahest joined the team. The four of them joined around the same time and got along well. The three warriors who handled external combat naturally grew close over time.
Seeing Crystal perform like that, they cheered for him.
It left Crystal feeling a little embarrassed.
He glanced back at the massive Lapis and, seeing it slowly shrink, let out a breath of relief. With Flame Swordsman's help, he approached Hikaru and knelt on one knee.
"Lord Amagi..."
"Captain, what are you doing?"
Captain Crystal coughed a few times. Clearly, he hadn't fully recovered. His voice was steady, as if preparing himself. Flame Swordsman and Dark Flare Knight understood immediately.
"Lord Amagi, please allow me to follow you always."
Hikaru blinked.
Crystal had always followed his own principles as a knight. Until today, he had longed to return to his original world to protect his kin.
He had, truthfully, been thinking of only himself.
Until today.
When he finally realized his accident was no ordinary incident, and that he had caused countless disasters, bringing pain to many humans and Spirits. Even if it wasn't "his fault," seeing Lapis suffer like that, he couldn't ignore it.
As Lady Winda once said, he should not be lost in confusion. What he needed was to relieve suffering and punish evil, just like Lord Hikaru always did.
"Please allow me to follow you always, to be your retainer, to learn from you, to punish evil alongside you, and bring justice."
"Uh..." Hikaru was dumbfounded. He raised his hand to reach out and said, "Captain, don't do this."
"You've always been one of us."
Compared to Crystal, Hikaru was too modern-minded to grasp the whole "knight" mindset.
The two swordsmen had expected this. One led Hikaru forward, while the other handed him a sword and instructed him on how to accept Crystal's vow properly. Then, Crystal solemnly swore eternal loyalty to Amagi Hikaru, to serve until death. When he finished, his body wavered and collapsed with a thud.
"Captain?!"
"Crystal!" The two swordsmen were startled.
On the side, Tierra raised her hand casually. Several puppet strings flew out, wrapped around him, and with a pop, turned him into a card.
"See, Hikaru? I told you. You should've just turned him into a FIRE attribute already," she whispered near his ear. "Look at him, absorbed too much power and grief, and knocked himself out."
Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
He carefully took the card and looked at it. The two swordsmen leaned over to look as well.
"Ohoho! Is Captain finally becoming a Fusion Monster too?"
"Mmm, that's more like it. A knight of his lord should definitely be a Fusion Monster."
Even the usually quiet Dark Flare Knight chimed in.
Hikaru rolled his eyes.
'What a joke.'
Without Fusion Materials, how was he supposed to fuse anything? Was he supposed to open every duel with Instant Fusion?
Still...
He looked at the card, now with a purple background and tangled puppet strings in the artwork. He wasn't as panicked as he was when it was Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem or Armityle the Chaos Phantom.
For one simple reason.
Gem-Knight Fusion cards didn't require specifically Captain Crystal, as long as the Fusion Material included a Gem-Knight monster, it worked. He still had several lower-level Gem-Knights, and missing Captain Crystal wouldn't be a problem.
Even if Crystal became "El Shaddoll Grysta," Shaddoll fusions required a Shaddoll monster and a monster of the appropriate attribute, so Fusion Materials wouldn't be an issue either.
Quite the opposite, Hikaru put the card away. If Crystal did become Grysta, that would be a real boost.
"Captain, take a rest. When we return, Alkahest and I will examine you again and refine your core."
"Much appreciated," Crystal said weakly.
With that resolved, Hikaru was about to check the state of the Spirits in this dimension, when Tierra suddenly turned to the two swordsmen and said, "Hey, you two. I heard from Hikaru that you were his very first Spirits, right?"
She extended a hand. A purple string emerged from her fingertip, tracing her movements as it slowly formed a data chart.
"Why haven't you two shown any big changes until now?" she asked, clearly confused.
Even gods had questions, "When I checked you last time, you were already showing signs of evolution. Yet after all these months, aside from wider swords, thicker armor, and a steady rise in Spirit energy, there's been no breakthrough."
She drew a chart with a steady growth curve that flattened out.
"Today, even Crystal has evolved. What's up with you two?"
Though Crystal's growth came from absorbing huge amounts of grudge energy, their lack of growth still baffled Tierra, making her start scolding.
"Well… Uh, Your Holiness, I don't know either?" Flame Swordsman scratched his head, baffled.
Dark Flare Knight simply shook his head.
He had thought about it.
"It's fine. Steady growth is a good thing." Hikaru wasn't bothered. Flame Swordsman always got himself into trouble.
Couldn't he enjoy life a little? It's not like there was "no" progress.
Hikaru had also been considering this.
The two swordsmen did have evolutionary trends. However, unlike other Spirits who underwent breakthrough transformations, their growth was stable and continuous.
At first glance, it might seem they lagged behind. While in hindsight, Hikaru could understand.
It was simple. Flame Swordsman and Dark Flare Knight had followed him from the beginning, and from the start, they fully embraced his ideal of "Fusion." Their hearts aligned with Hikaru's. They didn't need breakthroughs. They had always supported him, no complaints about dirty or flashy work, even fighting parasites.
Plus, their base forms were already Fusion Monsters.
To this day, Hikaru had never used Super Polymerization on Fusion Monsters. Once you became a Fusion Monster, it was as if you were certified, safe from harm.
On the flip side, maybe mastering higher-tier alchemy or even unlocking Super Polymerization was precisely the path forward?
...
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