Magic Card Era: Infinite Deck Enhancement — Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Doraemon, Dark Magician Girl, and a Dream!

The butterfly demons vaguely resembled the delicate insects from Luke’s past life, but only from a distance. Up close, the illusion shattered entirely. Their bodies were grotesquely magnified, exposing every bristling hair and twitching joint of their arthropod structure. It radiated an alien, stomach-churning wrongness.

If they had looked like Pokémon’s Butterfree, Luke might have given them a pass—after all, the gap between Pokémon’s charming art style and the gruesome reality of Extraterrestrial Beasts was massive. But these twisted things? Not a chance. Now, if they had resembled Digimon’s Lilamon, he might have entertained a completely different perspective.

“Mana, clear them out. Watch out for the hallucinogenic pollen when they take flight,” Luke commanded. The moment the swarm shifted, the system had already fed him their attributes, making the toxic hazards glaringly obvious.

“Understood, Master!” Mana replied brightly. Twirling her staff, the gemstone at its tip flared with a deep violet light. A concentrated volley of dark magic blasted forward, tearing through the air and initiating the slaughter.

The butterfly demons were Five-Star beasts, swarming with a distinct numerical advantage. But Mana’s quality had been elevated to Perfect-grade. Her raw strength and level completely eclipsed theirs. Empowered by the Magic Spellbook hovering faithfully at her side, a single blast of her dark magic effortlessly vaporized one, sometimes two, of the screeching beasts at a time. Their aerial mobility meant absolutely nothing against her tracking spells.

“I already knew Dark Magician Girl was extraordinary,” Zhao Chengyuan muttered, watching the monitors from the observation room. “But every time she fights, I swear I’m looking at a Seven-Star Magic Card, not a Six-Star.”

He shook his head in disbelief. Over a dozen Five-Star beasts were being routed. Mana was spamming high-tier magic, yet her output intensity never dipped. Does she have a built-in mana reactor?

“Exactly,” Da Baiman agreed, her eyes tracking the violet explosions. “Her total mana reserves and recovery rate completely defy logic.”

As a specialist in magic-type Magic Cards, she understood the sheer impossibility of this display better than anyone. Such relentless, high-yield bombardment should drain a magic-type card dry in seconds. Yet Mana looked completely refreshed, practically glowing with excess energy.

“She is an Original Magic Card, after all. There are bound to be underlying mechanics we simply cannot measure,” Principal Gu offered, falling back on his favorite, all-purpose excuse.

Luke had never publicly disclosed Mana’s true attributes. The wilder the gallery’s speculations grew, the more it cemented his terrifying potential. Cang Fenghua and Chairman Yu nodded along with the principal, though even they felt this performance pushed the boundaries of ‘Original’ far past the breaking point.

The one-sided slaughter finally forced the colony’s leader out of hiding. Lurking in the canopy, the Queen Butterfly brazenly launched a vicious blindside attack. Her massive wings snapped forward, compressing terrifying gales into a barrage of slender, highly toxic needles that rained down toward Mana.

[Name: Queen Butterfly]

[Race: Fairy]

[Quality: Normal]

[Level: Six-Star]

[Skills: Hallucinogenic Pollen, Poison Needle Rain, Command]

“A sneak attack? Clever, but pointless.” Luke read the glowing text flashing across his vision and didn’t even flinch.

Mana had casually dismantled the Storm Cloud Sparrow and the Silver Moon Fox. This Queen Butterfly was a step down in comparison., with the Magic Spellbook and Magic Cylinder in her arsenal, her tactical depth was suffocating. A simple ambush held zero threat.

The Poison Needle Rain tore through the air, leaving faint, acidic trails in its wake, and completely engulfed Mana’s position.

“She didn’t dodge?” Cang Fenghua leaned forward, his brow furrowing. With Mana’s agility, she had more than enough time to evade. Why did Luke order her to tank a lethal barrage?

“No, look!” Chairman Yu’s eyes narrowed sharply. “The attack didn’t connect.”

As the toxic dust settled, Mana was gone. In her place floated a massive, black-and-red cylindrical tube marked with a glowing yellow question mark. The poison needles had struck the Magic Cylinder, sinking harmlessly into its void. The ultimate attack had been completely swallowed.

“Up there!” Cang Fenghua pointed at the screen.

A second Magic Cylinder had materialized directly behind the Queen Butterfly. The ‘vanished’ Dark Magician Girl shot out from the open rim of the second cylinder, her staff already raised.

“A spatial transfer skill?!” The observation room erupted into chaos.

How many hidden mechanics did this single Six-Star card possess? It was insulting to every other high-tier Magic Card in existence.

“Which means… during the exchange match with Cang Yue City, Luke didn’t just hold back her Silence Spell. He kept this spatial transfer completely hidden too.” Cang Fenghua rubbed his temples, a wry smile forming. “This kid holds too many cards close to his chest.”

The Queen Butterfly froze, entirely bewildered by the sudden appearance of her prey. How did a living girl turn into a floating hat-trick?

Mana offered no grace period. The gemstone on her staff drew in a suffocating density of mana, glowing like a miniature dark sun.

“Dark Burning Attack!”

With a sweeping downward strike, the exact same apocalyptic blast that had erased the Storm Cloud Sparrow and Silver Moon Fox erupted outward. A blinding sphere of destructive energy swallowed the Queen Butterfly and the surviving drones in a single, deafening roar.

The smoke cleared. The charred, lifeless husk of the Queen Butterfly plummeted from the sky, crashing into the dirt alongside her ruined kin, forming a crater of scorched earth.

A clean sweep, Luke thought, observing the aftermath.

“Five minutes.” Zhao Chengyuan checked his watch, his voice hollow. “Five minutes to wipe out a medium-sized fierce beast colony. Even a Seven-Star Magic Card would struggle to match this efficiency.” He laughed bitterly. “When I was his age, I didn’t have a fraction of this kid’s ruthlessness.”

Da Baiman remained silent, but her expression mirrored his awe. The bitter regret of not recruiting Luke to her academy gnawed at her relentlessly.

“Mission complete, Master!” Mana floated down to the scorched earth, playfully raising two fingers in a crisp salute.

“Good job, Mana.” Luke smiled, reaching out to pinch her soft, delicate cheek. She let out a cute, breathy whine, leaning into his touch.

Pulling his hand back, Luke focused his energy and cast the Peeling Technique over the ruined battlefield.

“Not bad. Dropped some high-grade material.” A flash of light coalesced in the air, leaving behind a pristine pair of colorful, crystal-like butterfly wings hovering gently in front of him.