For 30 advance/early chapters : p atreon.com/AutumnXd
"Captain — we need to pull back. We don't have the Psionic for any more Tier 3 summons."
"Have those students been warned?"
"They were told, but it looks like they haven't moved."
"Hold for two more minutes. Then we retreat."
A few hundred yards from Ethan's group, the Response Team's dozen members communicated through earpieces while fighting a controlled retreat. They couldn't hold any one position for long — staying still meant getting flanked.
Every team member had a mobility card on standby. Human legs alone couldn't cut it in this terrain.
The team captain rode an Iron-Framed Cavalry unit overhead, directing the battle from the air. He spent most of his time observing, calling positions, and plotting retreat routes.
Just as he finished coordinating the withdrawal, heavy footsteps shook the ground.
Not monster footsteps. Something heavier.
He turned — and saw a thirty-foot cyborg dinosaur and a eight-winged angel emerging from the treeline.
His first instinct: More monsters?
But then he saw a kid riding on the dinosaur's shoulder. A boy wearing goggles, sitting up there like he belonged on a war machine.
Since when were children on the battlefield? Who was responsible for—
He opened his mouth to shout a warning.
MetalGreymon charged past him.
"DANGER!" the captain yelled into his earpiece. "That's an Epic-grade Tier 3 monster! Someone get that kid to—"
MetalGreymon's right arm extended — the mechanical claw that was longer than a pickup truck — and slammed into the nearest monster with a sound like a thunderclap.
The impact launched the creature backward, carving a trench in the dirt. Visible damage. High damage.
The captain's words died in his throat.
None of the Tier 3 Purple cards his team had summoned could hit like that. Not even close. Their attacks had felt like punching a brick wall — the monsters shrugged them off and kept coming.
This thing had just launched one thirty feet.
Before his brain could catch up, the six-winged angel arrived. One wave of its hand, and a massive golden doorframe materialized in the air above the wounded monster.
Heaven's Gate.
The suction was immense. The monster — still reeling from MetalGreymon's hit — clawed at the ground, trying to resist. For one second, two seconds, its legs dug grooves in the earth.
Then it was dragged through the portal. The gate snapped shut.
The monster dissolved into nothing.
One turn. One kill.
Dead silence on the comms.
The captain stared at the empty space where an Epic-grade Tier 3 monster had been standing three seconds ago. His team had spent over ten minutes — dozens of summons, thousands of Psionic — and eliminated three.
These two had done one in a single exchange.
"What the—"
"Was that a portal?"
"Captain, are those reinforcements?"
"Did that angel just... erase it?"
The earpiece exploded with overlapping voices. The captain cut through them.
"Cancel the retreat. All units — prepare for counter-attack."
The tactic was brutally simple.
MagnaAngemon's Heaven's Gate was a seal-type ability. It opened a portal with immense gravitational pull that erased anything dragged through it. But it only worked on targets weaker than MagnaAngemon — or targets that had been weakened enough.
That was MetalGreymon's job.
"Giga Destroyer!"
The mechanical hatches on MetalGreymon's chest opened, launching a barrage of organic missiles that hammered into the next monster. The Response Team, catching on fast, piled on additional damage.
The monster staggered. Its aura flickered — the telltale sign of crossing the weakness threshold.
Heaven's Gate opened behind it. The suction spiked.
The monster roared, digging its claws in, trying to hold—
Gone. Sucked through. Gate closed. Starlight.
"There's another one," someone breathed into the comms.
MetalGreymon was already moving to the next target. A swipe of the mechanical claw. A Mega Flame from Greymon's jaw. The Response Team's cards swarmed in to add chip damage.
The monster weakened. Gate opened. Monster erased.
Again.
And again.
The Response Team members watched in stunned silence as the pattern repeated. MetalGreymon would soften a target — raw power, missiles, claw strikes — and the moment its aura dropped below the threshold, MagnaAngemon's Heaven's Gate swallowed it whole.
Beating these monsters was supposed to be hard. Their defense was absurd. They healed between engagements. They covered each other.
But Heaven's Gate didn't care about any of that. It wasn't about overpowering the enemy. It was about bullying the weak.
Strong enough to resist? Fine, take another missile.
Too wounded to hold on? Sorry — you're getting vacuumed.
"What kind of sinister tactic is this?" one of the team members muttered.
"Effective," the captain said quietly. "That's what it is."
MagnaAngemon's current power was equivalent to Immortal-rank. At minimum, peak Legendary — an evolution beyond Legendary.
Against Epic-grade Tier 3 monsters that had already been softened up, the Gate was irresistible.
Five minutes.
All ten monsters eliminated.
The entire Response Team stood in the aftermath, their own summons still deployed, weapons still raised — with nothing left to fight.
"Did... did that just happen?" someone asked.
MagnaAngemon flew back to Ethan's position.
He landed beside T.K., and the two spoke quietly for a moment before the angel turned to Ethan.
"That last fight consumed too much energy. I won't be able to hold this form much longer. You should withdraw T.K. and me now."
Ordinary cards would never ask to be recalled — even if they were dying.
But most of Ethan's cards would. Because they had their own consciousness.
This wasn't cowardice. MagnaAngemon simply figured: fight's over, start the cooldown early rather than waste energy standing around.
Use it early, cooldown early. Everyone understood the logic.
"Got it." Ethan recalled both MagnaAngemon and T.K.
He turned to Tai and Agumon, who had just trotted back. Agumon had reverted to his small form — barely two feet tall, looking like a plush toy after all that destruction.
"I'm starving!" Agumon didn't ask to be recalled. He had different priorities. "Can you take me to a buffet when we get out?"
"Of course. Once we're out, all-you-can-eat. My treat."
"Yay!"
Tai smiled at the exchange. He was used to this by now.
When he'd first been summoned, there had been... resistance. Being told you were a card character wasn't easy to accept. The System added settings to their subconscious — personality, backstory, loyalty — but they were still conscious beings. There was bound to be friction.
They wouldn't voice it. Wouldn't break the rules. Even if they died, they just returned to the card. Nothing caused them real harm.
But Ethan treated them differently. Asking for autographs at their first meeting. Taking them out for food. Buying boba. Things that were completely outside what any of them had expected.
So Tai had come to see Ethan as a genuine friend.
"Agumon probably doesn't have much energy left either," Tai said. "Send us back."
"Thanks for the hard work. Meal's on me when we get out."
"Don't mention it."
After recalling those two, the only summon remaining was Sideswipe — and he was transport, so he stayed.
"The way you communicate with your cards is... truly unique." Lily's voice was soft with amazement.
She'd never seen anyone interact with summons like this. Normally, you brought them out when needed and put them away when you didn't.
Why was he offering to take them to dinner?
"Maybe the bond between us is just special."
Ethan didn't have a better explanation. These were characters from stories he'd loved his entire previous life. He couldn't bring himself to treat them as tools.
Unless he summoned Piedmon. That guy could get treated however.
"I see," Lily murmured, blinking thoughtfully.
The Response Team captain touched down and walked over.
His team was collecting monster cores and materials — valuable resources that couldn't be left behind.
"Where's that boy from earlier?" was his first question upon arrival. "The one riding the big dinosaur."
Plz Throw Powerstones