"Ultimate Card Draw!"
Moss raised her hands, conjuring a digitized soul of Ultimate-level magnitude between her palms, compressing it into a glowing orb the size of a ping-pong ball, and gently tossed it into the air.
The orb fell under the pull of gravity, landing atop her head and melding into her body like a fish returning to water.
Her pursuit of justice, her thirst for knowledge—these came together to form a 100% evolution chance. Calling it a "card draw" was misleading; it was more like a guaranteed acquisition.
Like planting a seed, watering it, waiting patiently, and then harvesting the fruit.
This time, failure was not an option!Radiant light surged around Moss. But this time, the light wasn't empty—it gradually took the shape of a humanoid figure.
—Judgment Beast!
"A partner of justice, I've waited a long time for you!"
Moss braced herself, then immediately cast the Receiving Magic.
"Full Body Reception: Soul of Judgment Beast!"
In an instant, her appearance transformed dramatically.
She was now clad in a skintight suit with indigo as the primary color, accented by white lines and chest armor. A belt hugged her waist, making the entire outfit contour perfectly to her form.
Her slim waist, long legs, and the full curves of her body were all emphasized exquisitely by the outfit's tightness.
But the most eye-catching feature was her right arm.
It was covered in metallic armor, forming a mechanical limb.
Around her neck was a scarf—unlike the Judgment Beast's bold red one, hers was pink, infused with elements from Angewomon's flowing ribbons and inscribed with Digicode.
The back, which was originally supposed to be fully covered, was modified into an open-back design to allow room for wings—eight of them—now free to stretch gloriously.
Her headgear resembled that of Judgment Beast but was modified to accommodate a single ponytail of golden hair, and a reversed cross symbol adorned the smooth helmet, making it appear like a fusion of Judgment Beast's and Angewomon's helmets.
Moss walked up to a full-body mirror, looking herself over from top to bottom, even turning around to examine her reflection from all angles.
"Sorry… for thinking you weren't hot before. That was my bad."
She offered a sincere apology.
Though the front of the bodysuit didn't show any skin, the curves it traced were more than seductive.
From behind, the scarf and wings only partially covered the curve of her back, hinting at a line that invited imagination.
What a soul-stealing, freshly-baked anti-demon—ahem, battle maiden.
"No wonder I'm me~"
Looking at her new outfit, so closely resembling a Kamen Rider, memories from her past life stirred with increasing fervor.
She extended her arms and struck a few powerful poses, gazing forward with intensity and declaring:
"Heaven calls, Earth calls, people call… they call upon me to vanquish evil!"
"So cool!" Angewomon chimed in support.
Unfortunately, she couldn't clap, so she cheered instead.
"Hehe~" Moss smiled brightly.
But amidst the joy, a serious issue lingered.
—So long as the chance of failure existed, she would likely still fail.
Just like how she had an 80% chance to draw Judgment Beast before, yet still landed in the 20% failure margin.
This probably wasn't about luck.
It was about mindset—or rather, conviction.
She could evolve into Judgment Beast. That was more about external qualifications. But she lacked the inner conviction to become one. She fought crime out of utilitarian goals, not from a sense of justice.
Even if the result aligned with justice, evolution demanded alignment between thought and action, between the inner and outer self—an integration of subjective belief and objective condition.
She lacked a sense of justice. She lacked the spirit of a knight. That's why she kept failing at drawing the right card.
This time, she succeeded only because there was no failure option—the external conditions were locked in place, forcibly securing success, preventing her own belief from swaying the outcome.
"Conviction… that's tough."
Moss sighed inwardly.
Conviction meant truly believing in a principle—like justice, love, slacker spirit, or wolf-like drive.
Firm belief in an ideal was a kind of talent—not everyone had it.
Moss knew well that with her own way of thinking, truly believing in an ideal would be hard. And believing in it thoroughly and unshakably? Even harder.
If she had the right conviction, even a 1% evolution chance could work.
Without it, even with an 80% chance, she'd likely fail.
It was somewhat idealistic—but wasn't every supernatural power a little idealistic?
Courage, friendship, love, knowledge, innocence, honesty, hope, light, kindness…
Whether it was the virtues represented by the crests or the essence of Digisouls, Digimon evolution had always had a highly idealistic nature.
Idealism's lower bound was low enough to render one powerless—yet its upper bound was high enough to grant omnipotence.
Moss felt she couldn't master that idealistic power, and muttered, "I guess I should focus on maxing out the evolution chance instead… but isn't that just turning this into a progress bar grind? All grind, no spark."
Still, grinding was easier for her than believing in a grand idea.
The problem was—sometimes she couldn't even grind.
Take the last 20% of Judgment Beast's evolution, for instance—knowledge. If she'd relied solely on herself, who knew how long it would've taken.
Only with Angewomon's help did she manage it in ten days.
That realization gave her a jolt.
Because it pointed to another serious problem—
Back in the Fairy Tail world, it was Angewomon's awakening that made it possible for Moss to become LadyDevimon.
Otherwise, with her mindset, she'd only be fit to evolve into the likes of Myotismon or Zombieman Satan Mode.
So it was clear: whether it was her own consciousness and power, or Angewomon's, they were all part of the evolution conditions.
In other words, if it wasn't a matter of Reception, but a true evolution, then Moss and Angewomon's consciousness and souls would fuse into one.
This kind of fusion was unlike a regular Digimon Jogress Evolution—they only had one body.
If they evolved, the two souls would directly merge into one new entity…
Moss didn't want that—not because she feared becoming someone new, but because she couldn't bear to lose Angewomon.
Thankfully, she had learned the Reception Magic—and a version improved by Angewomon herself—so she didn't need to truly evolve, nor was there any need to.
She could always remain as Angewomon—always be together with her.
Yes, no need to evolve. Just maintain the status quo. Travel together, side by side.
"Moss, what's wrong?" Angewomon asked, sensing her sudden silence after the grinding speech.
Moss paused, then said, "Angewomon, let's always stay together."
"Of course," Angewomon replied without hesitation.
Moss felt deeply content, and shifted to a lighter topic: "Do you know how to sing?"
Angewomon blinked: "Uh… I don't."
Moss said, "If we had a battle song as background music, it'd make fights feel way more epic. You know, music can really amplify power—probably due to resonance or something."
Angewomon said, "Then I'll learn. Would a hymn be okay? I think I'm better suited for that kind of style."
She was an angel, after all, and hymns certainly suited her.
Moss replied, "That style might be a bit grand, but it's a good starting point."
She disengaged the Reception Magic and stepped out of the room, about to look for some musical therapy.
But then—disaster struck!
BOOM!A deafening explosion rang out.
District Thirteen, once an impenetrable fortress, had been invaded!
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Each 10 Powerstones? (1 Bonus Chapters)