The Mountain

"Huff—haah—" Hikaru Amagi took a few deep breaths.

Right now, he stood within a fairly lush jungle, surrounded by towering ancient trees and an assortment of treehouses. All around, various beings dressed in eccentric robes or high-tech equipment bustled about. Despite the clash of magical and scientific aesthetics, the entire village exuded a strange sense of harmony.

"Hikaru, are you feeling any discomfort? Anything unusual?" asked Captain Prismora, standing before him. He had clearly been waiting for a while, and upon seeing Hikaru arrive, immediately stepped forward.

"Don't worry, I've already scanned everything. There's no issue," Tierra chimed in, floating casually nearby and glancing around with a mischievous glint.

Despite her words, Hikaru still patted himself down, checking that everything was intact. Only after bouncing in place to confirm his own energy levels did he nod to himself.

"Seems fine enough," he muttered, stretching his limbs.

He looked behind him. Behind Hikaru stood a dimensional gate glowing with green runes—different from the usual pitch-black portals of the Academy. It was through this that he had arrived here.

This place, of course, was the same "Sanctum of the Spellcasters" he had visited once before.

After stabilizing his personal dimensional gate, Hikaru had sent Captain Prismora through first for a safety check. After confirming his successful transit and the gate's return function, he finally dared to go himself.

Throughout the process, the Philosopher's Stone served as a failsafe tether to forcibly pull Prismora back if anything went wrong—Hikaru wasn't about to gamble on a "spirit-body experiment" without a backup.

Fortunately, Professor Daitokuji's legacy project, "Dimensional Alchemy for Dummies," had proven itself simple and reliable. As long as the instructions were followed step by step, even a fool could build a gate safely.

Compared to the Academy's official gates—restricted to only a few uses per semester—having his own gave Hikaru much more freedom. With his high Spirit Synchronization rating, he could even manage two dimensional trips a month without ill effects, making his independent travel both feasible and efficient.

Now that his gate was operational, Hikaru could freely explore additional planes each month.

Of course, if his synchronization improved further—or if Tierra regained more of her original form—his travel limit could increase even more. But restoring Tierra's strength required highly specific materials, and last time, Hikaru had already burned through his rare "Neo-Spacian Controller" card from KaibaCorp just to craft "Satan."

Until he acquired more viable base materials, there'd be no powering up Tierra further.

Having arrived, Hikaru sought out the Spell Scientist. Today, the eccentric mage seemed deeply immersed in a massive experiment and didn't have time for pleasantries. Only after the test concluded did Hikaru get the chance to catch up and share recent events.

The topic of Hikaru turning their "Instant Fusion Cup Noodles" into a co-branded product? The scientist was surprisingly chill about it.

So long as Hikaru sent updates on how well they sold, he didn't mind at all.

Of course, Hikaru wasn't going to mooch. They signed a contract—now the two were linked via the Emerald Grimoire, which not only allowed them to communicate instantly, but also connected the Spell Scientist's arcane computer to the networks of the human world. He could monitor performance data in real-time and get a cut of Hikaru's profits.

Some spirits didn't care for mortal currency, but the Spell Scientist happened to be the type who did—he wanted to buy supplies and rare materials from the human world, so he was more than happy to accept.

But beyond that, Hikaru had a more pressing mission here.

Card exchange.

He brought stacks of excess cards from his own collection—things like "Fusion Conscription," "Invoked Fusion," and "Gem-Knight Fusion"—and offered them in trade.

Last time, he hadn't had the chance.

The Spell Scientist was thrilled. He agreed to research the magic behind them and let Hikaru pick from his own collection of rare Fusion monsters. Among them, Hikaru found a long-lost Fusion: "Frightfur Chimera," a nasty beast he figured could serve as either Instant Fusion bait or a specialized tech card.

It had the effect of suppressing flip summons—a pretty niche but handy ability.

Next, Hikaru finally posed the question he'd been holding back.

"How exactly did the Spirit Realm get shattered?"

The Spell Scientist, being a high-ranking spirit, simply shook his head.

"It's not that I don't want to tell you," he said helplessly. "Though I hold some sway in the Spellcaster community, I wasn't observing the phenomenon when it happened. I was buried in my own research."

He went on to explain: the investigation afterward had been spearheaded by the Triumvirate of Sages. Each encountered strange events during their pursuit of answers. Crowley, one of them, even went berserk—he had to be saved by a passing alchemist or else would've become a monster.

Ah. So that's how Professor Daitokuji met Aleister.

"Since then," the Spell Scientist continued, "the event has become taboo—no one talks about the collapse of the Spirit Realm anymore. And since spellcasters can still travel between planes, life carried on. No one's been too curious."

"I see," Hikaru nodded.

After seeing Aster again and recalling the threat of the Light of Destruction, Hikaru remembered something a vampire noble had once said: the Spirit Realm had fractured completely. Once a single, unified domain, it had now splintered into isolated dimensions.

Hikaru had long suspected Yubel's involvement. In the original anime, Yubel had done all sorts of damage just trying to find Jaden. And in this world, Yubel hadn't been exiled into space but instead landed in a rogue dimension.

Which meant: mischief in the multiverse? Entirely possible.

Hikaru planned to ask more high-level spirits… but the answer remained elusive.

He'd have to dig deeper into the realm himself.

He recalled the first "puzzle" Professor Daitokuji had left behind.

Coordinates. Just a single word: "Mountain."

No flowery metaphors. No clues. Just—

"The Mountain."

A place where Dragons, Winged Beasts, and Thunder-types converge.