Poké Ball? Pokémon?

In truth, the device the mage used to retrieve Volcanion was a magical tool Ye Ting had created on a whim, modeled after the Poké Balls from Pokémon.

The principle behind retrieving "Volcanion" was not like a Poké Ball recalling a Pokémon. Instead, it reverted Volcanion into a spirit core, then retrieved that spirit core.

Its sole function was to retrieve the spirit cores of energy-materialized lifeforms and recharge and repair them within.

Although truly soul-materialized lifeforms possessed inexhaustible energy, a lifeform like the "Volcanion" Ye Ting had created, possessing only a pseudo-soul, could not possibly gain the infinite energy of a perpetual soul even under the effects of the Third Magic.

Using the Servants of the Holy Grail War as a reference, these energy-materialized lifeforms were similar to Servants. They needed energy to grant their materialized bodies through their spirit cores, but they also required a constant supply of magical power to sustain their existence.

Generally speaking, the way to sustain them was to form a contract with a mage, connecting to the mage's Magic Circuits through that contract and drawing upon the mage's magical power to maintain their existence.

But Ye Ting wanted to popularize energy lifeforms as tools and make them usable by ordinary people. How could he accomplish that?

Ordinary people had no awakened Magic Circuits and no magical power to sustain them.

In places rich in magical power, especially near ley lines, it would be manageable. By drawing magical power from the ley lines or the atmosphere, energy-materialized lifeforms could be sustained—the price being that they would be bound to one location.

But what if magical power was not abundant—such as after the Age of Gods ended—or in places without ley lines?

That was when Ye Ting thought of using "Poké Balls" as an indirect