Discovering traces of the Fusion Army in the Frightfur Sanctuary, for Tenjo Hikari, could not be said to be entirely unexpected, but rather a prediction that was pretty close to reality.
During this semester, when Tenjo Hikari dueled with the new head of the Integration Department, Fukami Subaru, he had seen "Frightfur". But afterward, he never saw the Fusion Army use Frightfur again, and only learned from Fukami Subaru that even within the Fusion Army, Frightfur was a matter known only to the top-level "Spirits".
However, even if hidden, Fukami Subaru had warned Tenjo Hikari, and besides, the Dimensional Coordinates were given to him by Saiou, saying they were obtained from the Fusion Army, which made it even more evident.
In this Frightfur Sanctuary, there must have been the existence of the Fusion Army.
However, now it seems, within the Frightfur Sanctuary, there appears to be no trace of human presence.
Walking in the Frightfur Sanctuary, he did not intentionally hide his presence—currently, he had no need to evade the sight of the Fusion Army, even if they knew of his arrival and had the opportunity to ambush him, for Tenjo Hikari, it would no longer be troublesome.
However, what surprised Tenjo Hikari was, as he wandered around this place, he saw very few traces of humans.
Even...
Even Spirits were absent.
Tenjo Hikari frowned, pondering when suddenly, Tierra raised her voice sharply, "What's going on—"
Tierra rarely appeared panicked, no, or rather, Tierra rarely reacted this strongly to things she didn't care about.
He looked toward Tierra's voice and saw Tierra rummaging through boxes, throwing things all over the Sanctuary.
She was fussing with something inside a box, then furiously and indignantly yelled up at the sky.
"Darn thing, darn thing—"
She cursed softly, showing anger rarely seen, holding something bizarre in her hand.
From its appearance, it seemed to be a bear paw. The bear paw was furry on the outside, filled with cotton inside.
It was a paw from a Fluffal Bear.
Tenjo Hikari's eyebrows raised sharply.
Tierra looked at the bear paw in her hand, angrily for once, then hurriedly searched around.
Tenjo Hikari, also not wasting words, searched with her, and soon they found a heap of materials on the ground amid various cartons and equipment.
Tenjo Hikari held a bear head, carefully placing it on a production line; inside that head, a pair of red eyes weakly looked at Tenjo Hikari and Tierra.
Tierra lightly lifted her hand, countless puppet strings flew from all directions; she waved in the air, the magic staff in her hands transformed into a giant needle, threading the puppet strings to slowly combine the scattered parts on the ground.
After a while, under Tierra's sewing, it slowly turned into a pink toy bear the size of a person, though the angelic white wings on its back, due to Tierra's personal preference, had transformed into a metal-framed wing.
After finishing all this, Tierra lightly snapped her fingers, and blue flames ignited on the toy bear, in no time, the toy bear actually started to move, slowly flexing its limbs and wings.
Seeing this, Tierra waved her hand again, dissipating the flames.
Now, this "toy bear" was completely brought to life.
"Can you now even revive half-dead Spirits?" Tenjo Hikari asked in surprise from the side.
Given his understanding of Spirits and past experiences, typically this Spirit had to be sent to the Great Cosmic Workshop, to gradually revive relying on the power of the Philosopher's Stone within the Workshop.
"Heh heh heh, Tenjo Hikari, you might know Spirits and Duels well, but you don't understand machinery. While it's a Spirit, it's also a toy. How could the Toy Demon I personally repaired be so troublesome?" Tierra scoffed lightly, very contented.
In this aspect, she surely had the authority to speak.
Though, according to Tenjo Hikari's understanding, this Fluffal Bear should have been of the Fairy-Type.
"Thank you." Although it didn't know where these two beings came from, the Fluffal Bear still struggled to open its mouth in gratitude.
If not for Tierra repairing it, it probably wouldn't last a few more days before completely dissipating.
Thus, it bowed deeply towards the two, full of gratefulness.
"No problem, no problem, tell us how you became like this." Tierra waved her hand, unconcerned about such petty matters, instead curiously asking what's significant.
"Uhm, it's those humans..."
Fluffal Bear lowered its head, began mumbling.
The Frightfur Sanctuary was where the Frightfur monsters resided and rested, usually, only some upper-level Frightfur spirits lived here.
Spirits like it usually lived in the "Frightfur Factory", striving to learn and train, working together with the Edge Imp partners to accomplish "Fusion", then advance as Frightfur and come to this Sanctuary.
In a sense, the Sanctuary was the "Celestial Realm After Ascension" for such small toys.
One day, some humans suddenly discovered the Spirits of the Frightfur faction. After negotiating and conversing with the Frightfurs, they gradually gained their approval and started making dolls of the Fluffals and Frightfurs for some children. In return, these Spirits provided the humans with the power they desired.
Of course, a necessary trial was a must.
The Frightfurs, a budding Spirit Influence, were not well-known in the Spirit Realm. However, the strength of their cards was still quite commendable. The humans recorded to have gained their approval were just one child besides someone about as old as Tenjo Hikari.
Though they were scary toys, they were still toys and preferred children.
Anyway, this was how they had always interacted with humans from that influence.
As it turned out, one day, those humans fully mobilized, and as their partners, these Frightfur Spirits blindly participated. When their "allies" took action, they realized these humans were actually invading other humans.
However, before they could react, the humans from the opposing world countered instantly and defeated them with a loud bang.
While the upper-level Spirits of the Frightfurs were still in a daze, those allies used some strange force to control them, forcing them to be the rear guard...
"The last brother all died, they all died..." Fluffal Bear wiped his tears with his paw, "There was simply no way to resist such control. All the upper-level Spirit brothers and sisters who followed became cannon fodder for the rear guard, and our Duel Ceremony had barely started before we confusedly died."
Tierra and Tenjo Hikari exchanged a glance.
She spoke calmly, extending her hand, and a strange blackness emerged from it.
"Is it this?"
"Yes, yes, it's exactly this!"
It was the power of the Shaddoll.
Tenjo Hikari nodded silently in his heart.
Indeed, the power of the Shaddoll, besides infecting ordinary Spirits and being used for experiments, could easily control toy and puppet-type Spirits.
Those in the Fusion Army actively treated the Frightfurs as scapegoats during the big retreat.
Tsk—
"...Hah, don't worry. From now on, just have faith in me. I will protect you." Tierra spread her arms wide open, no longer exhibiting her usual bored demeanor. Her face was stern, a faint divine light emanating from her body, like a God descended to the world.
She had already spoken to Tenjo Hikari.
She really liked the design of the Frightfurs.
With an exterior of an angel and an interior of sharp weapons, the fusion of the two turned into an archfiend tearing apart the angel's facade.
Every aspect matched her tastes.
For such beings, if they truly had faith in her, she didn't mind letting them become the first batch of ordinary believers resurrected before.
"You, you are..." Although she hadn't revealed her true form, Fluffal Bear could already feel Tierra's Divine Grace and became agitated at once.
"God, Lord God, please, please save our other brothers—"
The light around Tierra grew brighter, and she nearly couldn't help but burst into laughter.
It was the first time she genuinely felt the call of believers.
"They, they should be desperately holding on now, resisting."
"What's the matter? Is it people from the X Dimension fighting you?" Tenjo Hikari asked.
"No, it's not—it's that guy, that human. He was wearing a blue uniform, our—no, their warrior!"
That guy wanted us to cooperate with them again, talking about reclaiming their honor or something. But this time, we knew what they were up to and didn't agree, so that guy started attacking!"
"I was torn apart instantly and quickly sent to the Sanctuary to escape disaster, but there, I have no idea what's happening now!"
"Okay—Tenjo Hikari, hurry up and kill that damn Fusion Army soldier."
She spoke bluntly, without a hint of mercy, completely unlike her earlier divine demeanor.
But considering she rarely wanted to do something good voluntarily now, they didn't disturb her interest but continued to ask, "Where are they?"
"At the factory—"
"How do we get there? Take us there now!"
"Okay, okay!" It hurriedly got up, leading Tenjo Hikari and the others to run to the other side of the Sanctuary.
There, a dimensional portal connected to the Frightfur Factory.