Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Zoe cursed as her nap was interrupted by a burst of static from her D-Tector. Six years ago, she would have jumped at the chance to get her D-Tector back, just so she would always have a tangible souvenir of her time as the Legendary Warrior of Wind. Now, she had regained the ability to Spirit Evolve, but not under any circumstances she would have liked. Zoe quickly got dressed and ran out the door. Glancing around to see if anybody would see her, she ducked into the alleyway behind her apartment complex. Now that she was sure there were no witnesses, she pulled out her D-Tector. While she wasn’t too happy about the circumstances forcing her to reclaim the title of Legendary Warrior, Zoe still couldn’t help feeling a bit of a thrill every time she did this. After all, it was something she never got to do on her first adventure. “Execute, Fusion Evolution! JetSilphymon!”

After the DigiDestined had barely managed to prevail in their battle in the Dark Ocean, Lilithmon had needed to come to Earth in order to prevent Lucemon from obtaining the Code Key of Lust. However, nobody was sure of a good place for her to live until Cody remembered Oikawa’s former hideout. Back when he had been possessed by Myotismon, Oikawa had obtained the land entirely off the record. After his death, nobody except the DigiDestined even knew it existed, which made it the perfect place to hide a Digimon from a world that had experienced a new surge of anti-Digimon sentiment after the latest Digimon invasion.

Once Lilithmon had settled in, Cody had arranged for the Legendary Warriors to meet with her. After overcoming the initial surprise after being reunited after six years for the humans and hundreds of years for the Digimon, Lilithmon presented a gift to her former protectors: six new D-Tectors complete with their spirits. While most of the teens were just happy to have their own spirits back, Takuya was quick to notice something missing. “Hey, not that I’m not grateful or anything, but do you think we could also get the other Spirits too? From what the DigiDestined have told me, we’re going to have to fight Lucemon by the time this is over. We could take him down as Susanoomon, but we’ll need all twenty spirits for that.”

Lilithmon merely shook her head. “Well, sorry I didn’t have all the spirits on me. I only took your twelve spirits because they gave me a reminder of much happier times. I didn’t bother taking the Spirits of Wood, Water, Steel, or Earth. Besides, even if I had them, you wouldn’t be able to use them anyway. Your upgraded D-Tectors only have enough storage ability to cover your own spirits as well as some loose fractal code. You wouldn’t be able to become EmperorGreymon again, let alone Susanoomon.”

“Okay, so our new D-Tectors have fewer capabilities than our old ones. Why exactly are they upgrades?”

Lilithmon smirked. “Simple, Koji. These ones will allow you to Spirit Evolve here on Earth. With the old model, you had to interface your fractal code with the Spirit in order to evolve. You can be my guest and try to do the same thing here. Good luck manifesting your fractal code when you don’t have one. And before you say Koichi managed just fine last time, there isn’t any reason to think that could carry over. What Koichi did shouldn’t have been possible, but the Digital World occasionally breaks its own rules. I don’t think we can expect the same thing to occur in this world where the laws are more absolute. However, because I had to focus on using only two spirits, I was able to ensure you would all be able to at least Fusion Evolve this time around. Be happy that I could at least manage that.”

When they had first relocated Lilithmon from the Digital World, the DigiDestined had hoped she would be granted political asylum for two reasons. The first of these was simple: if Lilithmon were granted refugee status, she would be allowed to legally live within Japan, and would not have to worry about the government hunting her down as a threat to society. The second reason was more of a long-term goal: if a refugee from the Digital World would be officially recognized, it would amount to the Digital World itself being viewed as an official power, which would be the first step to setting up a form of peaceful coexistence between the two worlds. Tai had been entertaining the dream of having the Digital World join the United Nations, and getting Japan to recognize the Digital World would be a key first step.

At first, Tai’s dream seemed close to becoming a reality. As soon as Lilithmon had settled in, he redoubled his efforts to get people to accept Digimon, focusing on one person in particular: his classmate Rei Saiba. Even though Rei was only 20, she was already working on her senior thesis for a Political Science degree, and she happened to have the perfect combination of knowledge, connections, and motivation for this task. Her father was a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and she had always dreamed of following in his footsteps. Not even a tragic accident when she was 16 that left her paralyzed from the waist down would deter her, and she merely put more effort into her studies while confined in her wheelchair. Thus, despite studying for only two years, she was almost ready to receive her degree.

Since her thesis was about restructuring the refugee system to prevent people from falling through the cracks, Tai knew she would be a perfect person to convince in order to start convincing the government. However, just telling her about the situation posed a huge risk. While Tai had always been vocal about supporting Digimon, he had never revealed himself as a DigiDestined. Keeping that a secret had been a deeply ingrained habit, and with the latest Digimon attack it became a practical measure as well: public feeling was deeply anti-Digimon, and saying you had a Digimon was inviting discrimination at best and violence at worst. However, this wasn’t something he would be able to keep secret if he expected her help.

Despite being the DigiDestined of Courage, Tai found himself struggling to gather the nerve to talk to Rei. It was a feeling he could only remember experiencing once before: when he had been struggling with asking Sora out in the weeks before the World Tour. He supposed he couldn’t help making the comparison: both times involved him agonizing over revealing a personal secret to a close female friend with her reaction having drastic consequences. Tai quickly tried shaking those thoughts out of his head: it’s not like he had any problems with Sora turning him down. Obviously, it had hurt at the time, but he was over it. Sora and Matt were happy together and had been for almost six years. It just hadn’t worked out for him, and he had long since accepted that and moved on. Suddenly, Tai smiled to himself. He had needed that little reminder: he had done this before, and even though it had initially backfired, it worked out okay in the end. He didn’t have to worry about this nearly as much as he had been.

Of course, being resolved to do something the night before often doesn’t translate into being ready to do it when the time comes. Tai once again found himself struggling with doubt throughout his next lecture, to the point where he wasn’t really paying attention at all. He didn’t even notice class had been dismissed until he felt a hand being placed lightly on his shoulder. Snapping out of his daze, he suddenly found himself staring into Rei’s eyes. The auburn-haired girl smiled at him before speaking.

“Earth to Tai, you okay? Usually, you stop staring into space when the bell rings instead of staying in your chair for a minute. What’s on your mind?”

“Oh, sorry about that. I’ve just got something big coming up that’s really worrying me. I actually need your help with something, and I just wasn’t really sure how to ask. Would you mind swinging by my place tonight, say around six? I don’t really want to talk about this in public.”

“What, a nearly empty lecture hall isn’t private enough for you? Did you do something illegal?”

“No, no, nothing like that. Just something personal I need some help with.”

“Alright, fine, I’ll do it. Though you have to promise you aren’t going to be using me as a replacement for your roommate’s girlfriend. I know Sora and I always joke that we look the same, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Also, since I’ll be missing dinner to come over and see you, you better make something good for me to eat. Nothing from the dining hall, and especially nothing your mom made for you.”

As time wound down to his arranged meeting with Rei, Tai couldn’t help feeling more and more nervous. He supposed his nerves weren’t helped by Sora catching him cooking, something he never usually did, and assuming he was having a date over. A guy could invite a girl over, cook a meal for her, and then talk about personal stuff without it being a date, couldn’t he? Sora merely shook her head before informing Tai that she and Matt were heading out tonight and wouldn’t be around. Matt didn’t do a very good job of hiding a surprised look on his face; however, giving Tai the distinct impression that Sora was just doing this to mess with him. He tried asking them to stay and help him explain the whole DigiDestined thing, but all he got in response was an apology from Matt and a snide comment from Sora that he’d have to figure out his own girl problems for once.

After failing spectacularly at his cooking attempt and being ditched by his two friends, Tai had been forced to resort to plan B. He quickly went to the Digital World and picked up Agumon before returning to his apartment and whipping up his trademark omelets. They might not be fancy, but at least he could guarantee they would turn out well. He then had Agumon hide in his room as he heard a knock on his door. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door to let Rei in. As the girl wheeled into the room, she noticed the table and immediately started asking questions.

“Wait, why is the table set for three people? I know Matt lives here too, but don’t he and Sora usually spend just about every meal together? Did they have a fight or something?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. Matt and Sora conveniently decided to go out to get dinner tonight. There is someone else here that I want you to meet, but you have to promise not to freak out when you see him, okay?” Rei looked at Tai skeptically, but trusting her friend she nodded. Tai then called somebody in from the next room, but instead of a person walking in, what appeared to be a miniature orange tyrannosaurus came out of his room. Recognizing what this creature was, Rei immediately reacted.

“Okay Tai, whatever you and your Digimon need help with, I’m in.”

“Listen, I know he looks scary, but he’s really—wait, did you just say you’d help us? You’re not freaking out about this?”

“Why would I? I’ve been helping out with your Digimon awareness group ever since we met, remember? I can’t believe I never guessed you had your own Digimon before now, but it really explains why you’re so involved in getting Digimon recognized. Besides, I feel like I sort of owe Digimon—you haven’t met my brother, but he never had any real friends until he started playing the videogames. Now that I think of it, his first friend had a Digimon in the game that looked a bit like your Digimon—did you say his name was Agumon? Anyway, how can I help?”

With how easy convincing Rei to help had been, Tai was certain that he would be achieving his goal of recognition for the Digital World within a few weeks. From Rei’s updates, she had managed to convince her father, who slowly managed to convince other members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the importance of establishing some form of official communication with the Digital World. However, such progress reached a grinding halt when the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shinobu Akiyama, found out about the proposal. A former member of the military who had been awarded numerous medals of honor for going above and beyond the call of duty in order to save victims of disasters both natural and Digital, Akiyama was perhaps the most well-revered member of the Diet. As such, his opinion held the most sway, and Akiyama made it clear that there would never be interactions with such monsters while he was in power. Far from approving the proposal, he began suggesting the government implement stronger measures to protect the country from threatening Digimon by creating a specific task force to hunt down and eliminate any invading digital life form. While such a step had not yet been taken, laws against Digimon sprang up, leaving any DigiDestined suddenly worried about losing their partner or being arrested for harboring a fugitive.

By the time Zoe flew into the latest battle, she saw it was a much bigger invasion than usual. With Lucemon’s activities destabilizing the Digital World, it wasn’t uncommon for a few Digimon to accidentally stumble through a dimensional rift and end up attacking, but the Demon Lord of Pride also seemed to enjoy sending small portions of his army to Earth on occasion just to harass the DigiDestined. This seemed to be the latter case. There were too many different Digimon of Champion or higher level to be a random occurrence. And, the location just further made this seem like Lucemon was trying to be annoying—random portals tended to open in areas where there was a presence from the Digital World on the other side, so they usually occurred in places where the DigiDestined were nearby. However, Zoe wasn’t even in the Shinjuku District this weekend, but a virtual army of MetalTyrannomon as well as a few other Digimon had decided to come calling.

Since the attack was so far away from everybody else, Zoe wasn’t even sure who was even here. She wouldn’t be surprised if she was one of the first even with her leaving later than the others, because her Fusion form was incredibly fast. JetSilphymon was an appropriate name, as even with the giant pinwheel causing massive amounts of drag she could move faster than the eye could follow. She took a split second trying to decide where she should start fighting when a blast of lightning made the decision for her.

As Zoe managed to shake off the electrical attack, she saw the source was a giant green bird. Still, the Parrotmon had made a bit of a mistake by attacking her. True, she might still be one of the weaker Legendary Warriors in terms of pure destructive power, but she was still approximately equal to a Mega level. Brandishing her pinwheel, she unleashed her Ultra Turbulence attack, blowing the Ultimate level into the ground and nearly crushing it into oblivion with the air pressure. She only stopped when Parrotmon’s Fractal Code started to appear, allowing her to quickly fly down and scan it. This was perhaps the biggest advantage the Legendary Warriors had over the DigiDestined: their D-Tectors allowed them to absorb data from opponents even in the real world, meaning they never had to worry about permanently killing a Digimon. The DigiDestined would use lethal force as a last resort, but in situations like this it was better to act quickly and minimize the damage.

After taking care of Parrotmon, Zoe quickly scanned the skies for more aerial foes. She was the best aerial combatant the group had, not counting Sora who was away in Kyoto, but it looked like she wouldn’t need to put that into practice here. She turned her attention back to the ground, and started flying through the town hoping to contain the damage.

As Zoe was flying into more battles, a couple other Legendary Warriors were in the middle of their own fights. JP and Tommy had luckily been in Shinjuku when the attack started, and had done their best to thin the numbers. They had split up after Fusion Evolving, but Tommy wished he had gone the way JP had after he ended up with his current opponents. On paper, they shouldn’t have been too difficult: Kinkakumon and Ginkakumon were both only Champion levels, but Ginkakumon was a silver-armored colossus who had fire attacks while Kinkakumon was much smaller, but made up for it with lightning attacks and a giant spiked club. Neither of which were the best matchups for Daipenmon, the Fusion Warrior of Ice. Tommy wasn’t particularly happy with turning into a giant fluffy penguin who used popsicles for swords—it probably would have been better if he unlocked this form back when he was eight instead of fifteen—but at least he was the go-to fighter whenever little children were in danger. Unfortunately, his relatively cute and non-threatening appearance backfired in this situation.

Kinkakumon seemed to be smitten with the Legendary Warrior of Ice, but she had a—well, Tommy supposed the polite term would be enthusiastic—way of showing it. As in, she reacted by violently attacking him with her club. Tommy was glad he could easily reform his blue Kakikaki-kun and red Kochikochi-kun swords, as she had already smashed two of each to pieces. And that was before her ‘little’ brother got involved. Apparently, Ginkakumon was fiercely overprotective of his ‘big’ sister, and between his Kiendan fireballs and Ginkaku Tokkan rushes Tommy had lost count of the times he had to remake his swords. At least his Strawberry Death and Blue Hawaii Death were strong enough to repel incoming attacks, but he wasn’t making a lot of progress in terms of doing damage. He was reaching his wit’s end when he heard a sound similar to a jet, but at a much lower altitude. Knowing the likely cause of this, he shouted out, “ZOE!”

Hearing her name, Zoe turned back to the source to see Tommy fighting two opponents. A quick scan of the two Oni Digimon showed them to only be Champion levels, leaving her to wonder why Tommy, who had about as much power as she did, was struggling. However, looking closer at Kinkakumon, Zoe got an idea of what could be the reason. The smaller of the two Oni Digimon looked like the kind of videogame character a fifteen-year-old boy would design—only wearing armor above the shoulders and below her elbows and knees, an impossibly well-developed figure, and no other clothing except for a cape and fur underwear that looked like it came straight from a lingerie store. So, of course this would be the Digimon that got in a fight with the resident fifteen-year-old boy. Still, now wasn’t exactly the best time to let hormones cloud his judgment.

Landing next to her friend, Zoe got straight to the point. “Tommy, you need to stop holding back so much. You should have no problem taking down two Champion levels. Just ignore her appearance and hit her!”

Zoe almost had to laugh at the blush that came to Tommy’s face. Daipenmon may have looked cuddly before, but when he was blushing he was downright adorable. Not that Zoe would ever say that out loud, because she knew Tommy was embarrassed about his Fusion form as it was. Still, Tommy seemed to get her accusation, immediately stuttering out some excuses.

“Why would you think this has anything to do with that? These two are a lot tougher than their level suggests. Besides, I seem to remember a Rookie level punching us into a moon hard enough to destroy another moon. Level doesn’t mean anything. Besides, she’s a Digimon! Why would I get all flustered by her appearance?”

“Uh, because you’re a teenage boy and she’s rocking some serious assets? Nothing to be ashamed of—puberty happens to everybody. Besides, we’re all practically half Digimon anyway thanks to our bond with the Spirits. Something like this was bound to happen eventually—and if we had been any older our first time in the Digital World, I’m sure everybody would have been drooling over me when I became Kazemon. She’s hot, so you’re attracted to her. Perfectly natural, especially at your age. Though, we do have the misfortune of fighting a war right now, so you might want to put a lid on those hormones until the battle is over.”

Tommy wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but the battle gave him a perfect excuse not to answer. When Zoe had landed, Kinkakumon seemed to go into a state of shock, only staring at the new Digimon that seemed to be moving in on her next true love to steal her territory. Ginkakumon, who was incredibly strong and had a great heart but not too much to brag about in terms of brains, could only try to puzzle out what the sudden appearance of a fairy meant. Still, this state of confusion only lasted until Zoe finished her talk when Kinkakumon smashed her club in the ground, shattering the street like it was made of porcelain.

“You whore! How dare you come in and steal my boyfriend! And you! Did you purposely lead me on and tell me you loved me when you had this tramp on the side the whole time! I HATE YOU! Brother, we have to crush them!”

Kinkakumon started emitting an electrical current that could rival Beetlemon’s output, while Zoe could only glance towards Tommy, who immediately started defending himself. “Don’t listen to her—she’s completely psychotic! Apparently, her way of saying ‘I love you’ is hitting you with her club. So, when I attacked back, she took it the wrong way!”

Zoe couldn’t help letting out a small laugh. “Well, since you hitting someone involves giving them free ice cream, is she really taking it the wrong way?” Tommy’s resultant glare would have immediately caused her to shut up, if it weren’t for the fact that Daipenmon couldn’t pull off an intimidating look. Still, she knew better than to keep pushing her friend’s buttons, so she turned back towards her opponents. Unfortunately, she and Tommy had already wasted too much time, as they only had time to see Kinkakumon riding inside a strangely pleased looking Ginkakumon before they were bowled over by an electrified tackle.

Zoe managed to pull herself out of the nearest house with some measure of dignity, which she almost promptly lost by laughing at the sight of Daipenmon using his two swords like wings to fly out of a pile of rubble. She supposed being caught off guard was her punishment for laughing at her friend, but since this was her first time fighting alongside Daipenmon in person she wasn’t quite prepared for the sights she had witnessed. Still, if she wanted to tell Tommy to get over appearances, she would have to take her own advice. Flying to Daipenmon’s side, she quickly outlined a plan.

“Alright, I think I’ve got a way out of this. Do you have any ranged attacks? We could hit them with a combination of our own. Sure, I usually do that with Takuya, but Wind can drive Ice just as well as it can drive Flame. If we can’t take them out with a blizzard, I do have a plan B, but you probably aren’t going to like that so let’s make sure plan A works out.”

“I have one ranged attack, but I’m sure whatever your plan B is would be better than the alternative.” The sudden arrival of Ginkakumon cut short any further conversation. Daipenmon quickly launched his Kakikaki-kun Blast attack, breaking apart his blue sword and shooting the chunks at Ginkakumon. JetSilphymon added her Jet Winter attack, blasting cold air from each of her arms. The two attacks combined to create a blizzard of Blue Hawaii flavored ice cream that completely encased Ginkakumon and froze him solid.

 Tommy and Zoe both let out sighs of relief, only for a crackle of electricity to start destroying Ginkakumon’s tomb. The Silver Oni Brother may have been frozen solid, but that didn’t extend to his big sister. She was using her Doki Doki Dokyun attack to start breaking her brother out of his prison. Unfortunately, she was also protected from retaliation by both her brother’s armor and the icy prison, so there wasn’t anything Zoe and Tommy could do to stop her. Well, nothing obvious, but Zoe thought her plan B might have some merit now. Flying directly in front of Kinkakumon, she landed and undid her Spirit Evolution, facing the Oni Digimon as a human. As Zoe expected, this was surprising enough to stop Kinkakumon in the middle of her attack. Using the opening, Zoe went into her plan B: trying to reason with the Oni Digimon. On the off chance that she wasn’t directly working for Lucemon and was just randomly here, it might get them out of the situation without having to fight any further.

“Hey, Kinkakumon, is it? My name is Zoe, but you might know me as the Legendary Warrior of Wind. I’ve bonded with the spirit of AncientKazemon, which allows me to Spirit Evolve—which is why I was JetSilphymon earlier. That Daipenmon back there is just like me—he’s actually my friend Tommy, who inherited the spirit of AncientMegatheriummon. So, just like me, he’s actually a human who takes on Digimon form.”

Zoe had intended this speech as an easy way to let Kinkakumon down easily from her attraction to Daipenmon, but that didn’t seem to get through to the love-crazed Digimon. “What, so he doesn’t like me because I’m not a human? Well, fine! If the Legendary Warriors can merge with humans, then so can I! If we can use Bacchusmon’s gift to turn Digimon into alcohol, then I’ll just deconstruct a human and merge with them like I do with my brother!”

Zoe gulped, but quickly came to a decision. If she had to choose between giving false hope to someone who would quickly become her friend’s obsessive, alcoholic stalker with a brother complex or releasing said terror onto the rest of the world, at least Tommy could handle himself better.

“That’s not what I meant at all! All I meant was, humans have a bit of a different way of showing affection. I’m not sure how it is for most Digimon, but most humans don’t like it when someone attacks them or constantly forces their presence on them. And Tommy’s a bit younger than I am, so he’s new to the whole romance thing. If you just give him some space for a while and try being his friend, you might just have a shot with him.”

Zoe winced as she heard an undignified squawk and crash from behind her that sounded suspiciously like Daipenmon doing a faceplant, but Kinkakumon’s angry glare was replaced by an equally disturbing smile. “Really? I would have never guessed. You mean you and him aren’t an item?”

Zoe let out a nervous chuckle, careful not to push any wrong buttons. “No, not at all. He’s great, but I decided a long time ago not to date within the Legendary Warriors anymore. Not that it ever went badly, but it was too much like dating a family member.” Zoe winced at bringing that up, especially with Kinkakumon’s close relationship to her brother, but the Oni Digimon didn’t seem to notice.

“Alright, brother, let’s get out of here. I’ve got something much better to do than just going on a joyride here. That cowboy can take care of his own mission.” When Ginkakumon didn’t respond on account of still being frozen, Kinkakumon sighed.

“Fine, I’ll just do it myself. Raikou Kishou!” Charging her foot with electricity, she unleashed a powerful kick that blew right through the cockpit in Ginkakumon’s abdomen as well as the ice covering her little brother. The sudden pain seemed to awaken a primal strength within the Silver Oni, as he managed to easily shatter his icy prison, though all he managed to do afterwards was curl into a ball and whimper pitifully.

Kinkakumon didn’t seem to feel any sympathy at her brother’s plight, as she started scolding him while she started unstrapping the red gourd he carried on his back. “Oh, man up and walk it off. We’re heading back home.” Turning to Zoe, she took on a much calmer tone. “Would going back to the Digital World be enough distance for now? The Beni Hisago that Bacchusmon gave us is supposed to turn things to alcohol, but its connection to an alternate dimension allows us to use it to head home.”

Hoping to just get this whole scenario over with, Zoe only nodded. Thankfully, the two Oni Digimon must have done whatever they needed to activate the gourd, quickly being sucked within the gourd which then winked out of existence. Zoe let out a sigh of relief, only for a giant blue popsicle to suddenly obstruct her field of vision. Knowing the cause, she turned to look into Daipenmon’s face which bore an oddly calm expression.

“Not that I’m not thankful for getting rid of them, but I feel like I owe you. Sounds like you set me up with a stalker, so I may as well return the favor. I’m sure the Toucanmon would be happy to—”

Tommy never got to finish his threat, as two MetalTyrannomon went flying through the houses on their street. The cause of this was immediately apparent, as RhinoKabuterimon was standing through the gap with his horn glowing. JP must have used his Ultimate Thunder attack to send them flying, but unfortunately Zoe and Tommy were now in a position to be caught in the crossfire, and Zoe didn’t even have the time to Spirit Evolve again judging by the still-charging Nuclear Laser attacks on their left arms.

Luckily for Zoe, Tommy and JP were still Spirit Evolved and reacted quickly. Without anything distracting him, Tommy could use his full power, and his Storm Hammer Breaker crushed one of the attacking Digimon. At the same time, JP used his Condenser Storm attack to release all of the power of the Legendary Warrior of Thunder in a lightning storm that blasted the second MetalTyrannomon to pieces. Letting out a sigh of relief, Zoe quickly Fusion Evolved again and the three Legendary Warriors split up to maximize their coverage of the city.

Chapter Text

While the Shinjuku District was in chaos, two dark figures were currently standing on the rooftops of the neighboring Minato district, staring across the bay towards the island of Odaiba. One of the figures appeared to be a demonic cowboy, which did not seem to fit with his companion, who was a four-winged angel wielding a staff and a sword. However, when the apparently female angel spoke with an evil, masculine voice, it was clear she was not exactly what she seemed.

“So, AvengeKidmon, would you care to tell me why you decided to expend most of our army in Shinjuku while our targets are in Odaiba? You know Lord Lucemon wants the Legendary Warriors unharmed until he can deal with them personally, yet they are the only ones involved in the battle at the moment.”

AvengeKidmon sneered as he polished one of his gauntlets. “Why should I listen to a little shit like you who can’t even stay in his own form? You have your way of doing your job, and I have my way of doing mine. Still, I would have thought an espionage expert like yourself would appreciate a plan that relies on a bit of subtlety and misdirection. Let Lucemon’s mindless flunkies be a distraction to the Legendary Warriors, who we can’t harm anyway. Then, we just pick off the reinforcements as they arrive. Besides, I think this way is a bit more fun, both for myself and my recruits.”

The other Digimon, who must have been only disguised as a Darcmon, let out a derisive snort, but otherwise didn’t respond. He had already argued against AvengeKidmon’s recruits to Lucemon himself, but the Demon Lord of Pride didn’t seem to mind recruiting underlings who only fought for kicks instead of a sense of loyalty. Still, it wasn’t like there were a lot of recruits following AvengeKidmon instead of Lucemon, as he had only brought a Kinkakumon, a Ginkakumon, a Musyamon, and a WaruSeadramon. The two Oni Digimon had stayed behind with the majority of the army in Shinjuku, but Musyamon was busy wandering the streets searching for a worthy opponent and WaruSeadramon was in the process of sinking a cruise ship out in the bay.

As soon as the ship started sinking, AvengeKidmon let out a smile. “See, I told you this approach would work. We get three Legendary Warriors in Shinjuku and two others stuck guarding that traitorous bitch in the mountains, which means we have a high chance of our targets coming to provide backup. And it looks like we have our first victim down by that ship.”

Glancing towards the sinking ship, the disguised Darcmon saw WaruSeadramon quickly swimming further out into the bay, while a set of white tentacles was holding the ship up and preventing it from sinking further. As the ship was carried to shore, its savior was identified as a Gesomon, which proved the DigiDestined of Reliability had been one busy brat since the last time Lucemon’s spy had checked in on him.

Sure enough, standing on the deck of the now rescued cruise ship was one Joe Kido, who was sighing in relief. Of course the one weekend he heads home to Odaiba from his school in Shinjuku would be the weekend an attack happened in that district. He was lucky he turned on the news when he did, because he would have never heard about the attack otherwise. For all their experience saving the world, the DigiDestined and the Legendary Warriors had made one obvious mistake: the assumed the other group could easily communicate with them, when the D-Tectors and the D-Terminals operated on a completely different frequency. Since cell phones weren’t reliable in the midst of battle, they’d have to fix that error as soon as they had their next meeting.

Still, the late start may have been a blessing in disguise. If Joe had gotten an earlier start, he wouldn’t have seen WaruSeadramon attack the cruise ship, and Gesomon wouldn’t have been here to stop it from sinking. Gomamon’s Dark Digivolution line wasn’t as good in battle as his normal Digivolution line, but here was one situation where it certainly proved its usefulness.

Gesomon seemed to be on the same wavelength as his partner, since as soon as he set the ship down he started laying out a plan of attack. “Joe, we should Dark Digivolve again. We need to catch up to WaruSeadramon, and MarineDevimon is by far my fastest form. Of course, I probably won’t be able to beat him in that form, but we could always use the excuse to practice.”

“Do we have to do that? Wouldn’t it be better just to use Plesiomon?” Still, Joe’s objection fell on deaf ears.

“Please, he’s just an Ultimate. I seem to remember having an easy time as Zudomon against MegaSeadramon, so going to Plesiomon for a WaruSeadramon would just be overkill. At least this way we can be ready in case anybody else pulls a Gulfmon on us.”

Joe knew he wouldn’t be able to dissuade his partner, so he let out another sigh, this time in defeat. “Fine, but you have to promise to hurry up when you fight him. You won’t be able to carry me, and I don’t want to spend longer than I have to treading water while listening to you when you think you’ve become British. It’s bad enough that you switch to speaking English, but between your accent and your word choice I can only understand a third of what you say.”

“Aw, come on, it’s fun to talk like that! And it’s part of my data—I can’t help it!” Joe only rolled his eyes before activating his Crest of Reliability to Dark Digivolve Gesomon once again. As soon as MarineDevimon finished assuming his Ultimate form, he grabbed his partner and swam off after the retreating Aquatic Digimon. Since the sea serpent was seeking to cause more chaos, he wasn’t swimming at full speed, allowing the sea devil to easily catch up. WaruSeadramon finally noticed the oncoming foe and used his Evil Icicle attack to drop a giant icicle on MarineDevimon, who only seemed to have time to push his partner to the side and not dodge the attack himself. Seeing his opponent driven under the water and a human apparently helpless, WaruSeadramon started channeling the powers of darkness in an attempt to use his ultimate move, the Darkstrom.

Unfortunately for WaruSeadramon, Joe and MarineDevimon had planned on launching a surprise attack from underwater. And far from being helpless, Joe was already activating his Crest of Reliability to Digivolve again. Before WaruSeadramon could even release his Darkstrom attack, a horribly thick Cockney accent called out, “Sod off, you wanker!”

Springing from the water, a pufferfish with a metal helmet and spiked knuckles slammed his fists into the startled sea serpent. Pukumon knew his Globefish Poison attack would easily destroy WaruSeadramon given enough time, but he knew Joe wanted him to hurry up, so he added his Needle Squall attack, launching all the spikes from his metal helmet and ending the battle.

If AvengeKidmon was in any way disappointed with WaruSeadramon’s performance, he didn’t show it. His companion was about to make a snide comment, when a loud fit of coughing down from the street drew his attention. In an unbelievable stroke of luck, the DigiDestined of Knowledge seemed to be walking towards Shinjuku accompanied only by his partner at the Rookie level. As an added bonus, the human was clearly fighting off some illness, with bags under his unfocused eyes and an unsteady walk. This was the perfect opportunity to eliminate a major thorn in Lucemon’s side, but AvengeKidmon didn’t seem particularly interested in capitalizing on it. He was busy polishing his other gauntlet. When the disguised Darcmon pointed out the clear opportunity to just shoot the human, AvengeKidmon merely pointed at the DigiDestined and rolled his eyes.

“Bang. There, I shot him. Is that what you want me to do? You stick to hiding in the shadows and disguising yourself. I like to have a little fun with the vermin before I exterminate them. So, let’s let Musyamon have a crack at it first.”

With this AvengeKidmon snapped his fingers and caused a dark portal to appear in front of Izzy. Working for Lucemon certainly did have its privileges, as AvengeKidmon had greater access to the powers of darkness and could create portals like this to bring Musyamon right to Izzy’s position. Musyamon seemed just as disoriented as Izzy was at his sudden arrival, but after a second he seemed to notice the new opponent.

“So, at last I meet one of the great DigiDestined. I joined this battle for the sole purpose of fighting one of the legendary heroes who defeated the Dark Masters. On my honor as a warrior, I must test my strength against you!”

Izzy thought he must be imagining this meeting and wasn’t as recovered from his illness as he had thought when he snuck out of his house, but Tentomon seemed to be responding to this ridiculous new arrival. “Well, if you want an honorable fight, would you mind waiting until after this current crisis is resolved? Izzy and I really need to get to the front lines.”

“You dare turn down a challenge? I thought a hero such as yourself would have more honor than that. If I must, I will attack your human until you reconsider.” As he said this, he coated his sword in blue flames and assumed a fighting stance. Tentomon only responded by crackling with electricity.

“You do realize I have access to the Mega level and could destroy you in seconds, correct? Just something you might want to consider before threatening my friend. Still, if it appeals to your warped sense of honor, I’ll beat you without going beyond your level.”

As he said this, he started glowing with the light of Digivolution, but it was purple instead of the usual white. Izzy hadn’t exactly been trying to use a Dark Digivolution, but at this point all of their partners could pretty much go to the Champion level at will. It did make it easier when the humans weren’t running at a hundred percent, and Tentomon must have been angry enough to go straight to his Dark form. The months of fighting Lucemon without any appreciable headway had been emotionally stressful for all the fighters involved, meaning everybody was running on shorter fuses than normal.

Even with his feverish mind telling him things he already knew, Izzy managed to narrate all this in his head before Tentomon finished Digivolving into his BladeKuwagamon form. Perhaps Tentomon had chosen this form on purpose—Musyamon wanted what he viewed as an honorable battle, so Tentomon was giving him a straight-up sword fight. Well, as straight-up of a fight as can be expected when one combatant has a flaming sword and the other one is actually an insect whose mechanized body is basically a sword. Not wasting any time introducing himself or calling his attack, BladeKuwagamon flew forward with his Spark Blade attack, becoming a blade of light that flew towards Musyamon. The Demon Man Digimon tried to counter with his Ninja Blade, but BladeKuwagamon proved stronger and got a few good slashes in.

Musyamon jumped back and started preparing his Shogun Sword attack, already trying to bring the fight to a distance since he was outmatched in close quarters. However, as soon as the blue flames of Musyamon’s sword formed into a dragon, they were slashed apart. BladeKuwagamon seemed to be slashing nothing, but Izzy knew this was his Air Knife attack. Much like a master swordsman in a video game, BladeKuwagamon was capable of slicing the air itself and sending a blade of wind flying towards his foe.

AvengeKidmon sighed as Musyamon got effortlessly thrashed by a silent BladeKuwagamon. At the start, this seemed like it could be an entertaining fight, with Musyamon’s insistence on following his own code of honor that did not mesh at all with Tentomon’s view. And then it turned into a fight between a samurai and a living sword. Still, apparently that whole adage about viewing a sword as an extension of your body if you wanted to be a good swordsman had some merit, as the warrior using a sword was getting utterly thrashed by the one who actually was a sword. It was just pitiful to watch, but AvengeKidmon was willing to give Musyamon another chance. Of course, it would come at the cost of Musyamon’s free will, but you don’t get to work for someone like Lucemon if you let little things like that get in the way of doing your job.

Extending his hand toward Musyamon, AvengeKidmon began channeling the power Lucemon gave him into the Demon Man. Almost immediately, Musyamon began to scream and was overcome with a dark glow. Soon enough, his form shifted to a large warrior with four arms and three faces. Perhaps the Ultimate level Asuramon would be able to put up a better fight against whatever BladeKuwagamon’s next form would be than Musyamon had against the Machine Digimon.

Sure enough, BladeKuwagamon was quickly put on the defensive as Asuramon launched his Asura Bakunenken attack, shooting flames from all four of its arms at the mechanical insect and causing a huge explosion. Izzy knew his partner would need a little more power for this fight, so he started focusing on activating his Crest. It took longer than usual to activate since his mind was still a little fuzzy, but BladeKuwagamon managed to dodge around Asuramon’s ranged attacks long enough to begin Digivolving. Asuramon paused briefly before rushing in with his Asura Shinken attack, hoping to obliterate his opponent with a flurry of flaming punches. However, the slight pause proved to be his undoing, as it gave just enough time for BladeKuwagamon to finish Digivolving and catch Asuramon’s charge. AvengeKidmon couldn’t help but feel a little impressed. It wasn’t too often you saw a MetallifeKuwagamon in the Digital World, and this brat had managed to unlock the form.

The humanoid insect wearing golden armor quickly threw Asuramon back using his grappling skills, and then dashed forwards while emitting a beam of energy from his hand shaped like a sword. Using the Emit Blade attack, he stabbed Asuramon through the chest. As Asuramon burst into data, however, MetallifeKuwagamon quickly turned and fired his Homing Laser attack at a nearby rooftop. AvengeKidmon was surprised his position had been discovered, but he supposed it was time for him to get involved personally.

Calling up another dark corridor, AvengeKidmon disappeared right before the attack could reach him and reappeared right in front of MetallifeKuwagamon firing off his Destruction Trigger attack. The Insect Digimon was sent flying backwards, but AvengeKidmon noticed his opponent’s armor had saved him from a debilitating blow. To top it all off, MetallifeKuwagamon’s previous Homing Blast attack had changed its course and was heading right back at AvengeKidmon. The Dragon Man Digimon sneered. Apparently, the rumors about MetallifeKuwagamon being one of the best Ultimates in terms of balance between offense, defense, speed, and accuracy were all true. However, AvengeKidmon’s sneer soon turned into a smirk. After all, against someone with his abilities, it didn’t really matter how good MetallifeKuwagamon was.

Right before the Homing Blast could connect again, AvengeKidmon disappeared into another dark corridor. Instead of doing a one-time teleportation, however, he repeatedly warped around MetallifeKuwagamon, firing off a ball of energy from seemingly every angle at once. The Insect Digimon was helpless against the Misery Bullet Rain attack, and quickly reverted back to Motimon. AvengeKidmon stopped his attack and calmly walked up to the unconscious In-Training Digimon. “Don’t take it personally, kid. You just happened to get in my way, and killing things is just what I do. You were pretty good, but against someone with the powers of darkness like me you’ll always be second best.”

However, this gloating proved to be premature, as before AvengeKidmon could charge up another shot he was sent flying by a red blast of energy. A commanding voice called out, “You know, it’s almost funny. I was about to say the same thing to you. You may think you’ve mastered the powers of darkness, but as Rhihimon I’m channeling the powers of AncientSphinxmon. You’ve misused the power of darkness to spread destruction, and now the darkness calls for you!”

If AvengeKidmon was impressed with Rhihimon’s speech, he didn’t show it. Calmly standing up and dusting himself off, he turned to the Legendary Warrior of Darkness. “Well, you’ve certainly gotten preachy. From what I’ve heard, you didn’t do such a great job of controlling the powers of darkness yourself, boy. It’s a pity Lucemon wants you alive, but he never said I couldn’t rough you up a little bit. Hide behind that form all you want, you’re still just going to be a scared little human.”

As he said this, he launched into another Misery Bullet Rain attack. Koichi found himself put on the defensive, but he was faring better than MetallifeKuwagamon had. As the Warrior of Darkness, he could sense whenever AvengeKidmon opened a portal and where it would end up, meaning he wasn’t taken by surprise by any of the attacks. However, AvengeKidmon was still jumping around to quickly to be struck with Rhihimon’s Red Cross attack, forcing the lion-armored warrior to use his staff to deflect all incoming attacks.

When AvengeKidmon showed no signs of letting up his attack any time soon, Koichi knew he would have to adjust his strategy. It wouldn’t be easy to pull off, but he had an attack that would end this fight. Only problem was, he’d have to take a few hits as he started it. Still, he couldn’t afford to block attacks forever, so he’d just have to go with it. He called out “Black Theorem!” only to be struck by a few of AvengeKidmon’s shots as he announced his attack. Still, the momentarily lapse came accompanied with a black aura, and once Koichi returned to blocking attacks he seemed to be faster and more powerful than before. Still, after 30 seconds of blocking attacks without doing anything else, it was looking like the attack hadn’t really accomplished anything.

This was not lost on AvengeKidmon, who started throwing taunts along with his attacks while constantly teleporting around Koichi. “Oh, so this is the true power of Darkness you were going on about? Looks like it’s just a slight powerup to me. I always thought it funny that a Digimon known as the ‘Guardian Emperor of Darkness’ never appeared outside of legends and rumors. Now I see the reason—you don’t have any real power to speak of!” Koichi only let out a small chuckle. “Actually…”

An instant later, Izzy could only stare in shock as AvengeKidmon stopped appearing and Koichi calmly finished his sentence with “that attack just takes a while to charge before I can use it.” He then undid his transformation and sagged downward as if exhausted, but he looked as though the fight was over. To Izzy, the fight seemed to end instantaneously, which was better than AvengeKidmon could say. By the time he returned to a Digi-Egg, he would only have vague memories of ever being on Earth in the first place, let alone fighting against the Legendary Warrior of Darkness. Indeed, because of the nature of the Black Theorem attack, only Koichi would ever know how the fight had ended so quickly.

The Black Theorem attack may have had a large charge time, but once it fired it was practically an instant win. It worked by essentially violating the laws of physics, allowing Koichi to move and attack with infinite speed. To Koichi, it was like he stopped time for everything else around him. Of course, this did have some drawbacks—light itself stopped, meaning he had to move his head into photons in order for them to interact with his eyes and see, but he could overcome that drawback by closing his eyes and using the powers of Darkness to sense his opponent. Then, it was a simple matter of repeatedly attacking the helpless opponent until he felt like stopping. If he so chose, he could utterly destroy even the tiniest fragment of data to completely erase an enemy, but he took pity on AvengeKidmon and scanned his Fractal Code to eventually release it back into the Digital World.

Unfortunately, an attack that powerful had other drawbacks. Koichi was too exhausted to even Spirit Evolve again, let alone Fusion Evolve. From his time practicing with that attack, he knew he’d be out of action until he got a good night’s sleep at the very least. So, he was essentially out of this fight before he even got to the battle he had been planning on joining. Still, at least he had managed to save Izzy, and Joe should be able to take his place finishing the fight in Shinjuku.

The Legendary Warriors all gathered at the safe house after another long day of fighting. In the four months since they had regained their Spirits, they had seen all too much of this mountain scenery. In fact, the scene had gotten even more depressing recently with the changes in Lilithmon. While at their first meeting, she had been much less kind than she had been as Ophanimon, she at least had a sense of liveliness about her. Now, she always seemed exhausted, a condition she ascribed to ‘spending months away from the Digital World and being bonded to the Code Key of Lust while surrounded by a bunch of hormonal teenagers’.

Unfortunately, there was no end in sight for these conditions. With the current legal backlash against Digimon, there was no hope of moving Lilithmon somewhere else, forcing constant guard duty. To make matters worse, Lucemon seemed to entertain himself by randomly sending various weak monsters to Earth just to mess with them, meaning there were very few breaks between guarding Lilithmon and protecting Japan. The other DigiDestined did their best to help, but with the added legal pressure, they had to be very careful not to get caught with their Digimon outside of their homes. This meant the Legendary Warriors did the brunt of the work as they turned directly into Digimon and just had to make sure nobody saw them Spirit Evolve. Doing their best to still help, many of the DigiDestined had taken to spending even more time in the Digital World, trying to track down Lucemon and Daemon while simultaneously training themselves to master the new forms they had unlocked in the battle months ago.

If anything, working conditions for the DigiDestined were about to get worse, not better. Christmas was rapidly approaching, but even with the end of classes, the team found itself even shorter on free time. With TK about to go to college in the next year, both the Takaishi and Ishida families wanted to spend one last Christmastime together as a family while TK and Matt were still within a few hours of each other. So, TK and Matt would be flying with their mother the next day in order to spend the weekend with the Takaishi family in France, after which they would fly back in order to spend a few days celebrating with their father’s side of the family. TK and Matt were reluctant to leave, but without any clear emergency they couldn’t justify skipping out on the meeting. They would be able to go to the Digital World at any time in case of an emergency there, but when it came to anything attacking Japan they would be hard-pressed to make it back in time.

TK and Matt’s impending departure only would make things worse for the already short-staffed DigiDestined. Izzy had been sidelined for a long time by a nasty case of the flu, and was only just now getting back to full strength. Tai and Kari had been forced to leave the country a few days ago when their uncle Fred suffered a stroke and had been hospitalized in San Francisco. Luckily, he was recovering nicely, but it would still be a few days before the Kamiya family would return to Japan. With Mimi still in America, the DigiDestined would only be operating at half strength for the next few days, meaning more long hours of waiting for the next attack for all those who were left.

It was exactly these conditions that found an exhausted Ken, Davis, Yolei, and Cody called into the Digital World to investigate a disturbance near the Koromon village on Server. Sora and Joe were forced to stay behind in order to allow Gomamon and Biyomon time to recover after a particularly taxing battle against a SkullMammothmon and a Gryphonmon that had either been sent by Lucemon or just accidentally wandered into the real world. The disturbance itself was nothing more specific than reports of something causing explosions in the forest, but the DigiDestined had long since taken to investigating everything suspicious in the hopes of not being taken by surprise whenever Lucemon or Daemon made their next move. So, Imperialdramon was currently flying as quietly as possible towards the dust clouds that periodically rose from the center of the forest, making sure to keep the rising sun directly behind them. While such an approach was slow, it still allowed the DigiDestined to have a Mega ready for anything while still maintaining the element of surprise.

However, for all their intent at having surprise on their side, the DigiDestined couldn’t help but be shocked at what they saw. Sitting in the middle of the forest clearing without any body of water in sight was a Seadramon, who seemed to have a personal vendetta against trees as he continually fired his Ice Breath attack and used his powerful tail to topple sections of the forest. Then, the wind shifted slightly, and the DigiDestined noticed two blond teens sitting next to the serpent. While this raised many questions, they at least had a place to direct them, so Imperialdramon finally announced his presence before landing and letting his passengers out.

Before the DigiDestined could even begin asking Michael why he was having Seadramon level the forest, Davis was knocked over by a brown, rabbit like Digimon that had flown in and was now using its long floppy ears to hug him. The blond teen accompanying Michael merely rolled his eyes before pulling the Digimon off of the confused Davis.

“Lopmon, how many times do I have to tell you it’s rude to just jump on people like that? Sorry about that, Davis, but he just likes greeting people that way.”

Davis just picked himself up off the ground and shook the dirt off. “Ah, it’s not really a problem. Wait a second, how do you—” However, at that moment, Davis noticed a white Digimon identical to the Lopmon that had tackled him, and suddenly everything clicked. “Willis? Is that you buddy?”

Willis nodded. “Yeah, it’s good to see you all again. I still can’t thank you enough for saving Lopmon from that virus. Though, I don’t remember meeting your friend there before.” Sticking out his hand towards Ken, he started introducing himself. “Hi, my name is Willis Kennedy, and I’m a DigiDestined from Colorado. My partners here are Terriermon and Lopmon. What’s your name?”

“I’m Ken Ichijouji, and this is my partner Wormmon. It’s nice to finally meet you Willis, but if you don’t mind me asking, what’s going on here? We came to investigate a disturbance—” At this point, Seadramon succeeded in felling a few more trees while Michael was still sitting down facing away from the others. After waiting a second for the crash to fade away, Ken continued, “but when we get here all we see is this. Do you know what’s going on?”

Willis only smiled. “Well, Michael and Mimi had a bit of a fight. I’m not sure exactly what it was about, but he looked like he needed some help. I figured he could benefit from blowing off steam, so I brought him here. He gets to enjoy trashing the place for a bit, and we don’t have to worry about any long-term damage because I can just reprogram the data for this section of forest after a bit.”

Hearing this, Yolei interrupted. “Wait, you just reprogram the Digital World? Doesn’t that sound kind of dangerous? Not that I don’t trust you, but you don’t exactly have the best track record in terms of creating things. What’s going to stop these trees from becoming the next Diaboromon?”

“Relax, I’m not a kid anymore. I’ve learned from my mistakes, and I always troubleshoot my programs three times before I ever try to run them. Also, seeing as I’ve used this program to reset the forest three times in the last half hour, I think it works fine. Here, I’ll show you.”

Willis pulled out his laptop and executed a quick series of commands. “Right now you see a destroyed clearing, and now it will go back to being an undisturbed forest.” Willis hit enter, and the destroyed trees suddenly split into data only to reform perfectly where they had been standing before Seadramon attacked them. However, nobody had the time to be impressed, as they suddenly felt a familiar pull before flickering out of existence. A few seconds later, they all hit the ground in what appeared to be a giant desert. As Ken pulled himself out of the sand, he wondered what exactly had just happened.

As a veteran of inter-dimensional travel, he had a base knowledge of what various trips felt like. This recent transportation didn’t really feel like being pulled into the Dark Ocean or even Izzy’s occasional travel program. What it was most similar to was the feeling of entering the Digital World through a standard Digital Gate, but Ken was unsure how exactly Willis had managed to pull them into a random desert with a program that had previously worked in a completely different manner. However, before he could even begin to ask Willis what had happened, an explosion rang out behind him. Spinning to see the source, his blood ran cold as he beheld a familiar robed figure fighting a group of Knightmon and Angemon. Immediately, Ken called out for help.

“Davis, we need Imperialdramon right now! Daemon’s here!”

Unfortunately, Ken’s shout also alerted Daemon to the presence of the DigiDestined. He cursed at the abhorrent timing of the new arrivals. He had come here to secure the last step in Phase 1 of his ultimate plan in isolating the Folder Continent. However, he received communication that the Super Ultimate was unstable just as he was finishing the task, and then a squadron of that foolish HolyAngemon’s soldiers had to stall him. Now, the DigiDestined had arrived. If he didn’t hurry back to stabilize the Super Ultimate, it could be destroyed and end his plan immediately. While the DigiDestined were a nuisance he had been hoping to avoid, he did not have the time to engage in battle at the moment. Snarling, Daemon resorted to a skill he had absorbed from Dragomon and opened a dark portal around the DigiDestined. Instead of summoning something through this portal, however, he merely banished all the DigiDestined through it.

This banishment was not nearly as controlled as Daemon would have liked: he had not yet mastered control of destination or targeting, so the DigiDestined and the remaining soldiers had all been sent to parts unknown. Daemon knew such a move might end up causing him all sorts of trouble in the future, but he had no choice: either he got rid of all obstacles immediately, or his trump card would forever be lost. As he returned to his lair, Daemon grew thoughtful. Phase I had ended up being a partial success, and now the DigiDestined were here. The situation was not optimistic, but it was still redeemable. After tending to the Super Ultimate, he would just need to move into Phase III immediately, skipping Phase II. It would be more difficult, but if he played his cards correctly, ultimate power was still within his reach.

Chapter Text

           Michael couldn’t help but wonder if the universe was just trying to accentuate how stupid his argument with Mimi had been. Okay, maybe blowing off some steam in the Digital World wasn’t the most mature way to deal with an argument over something as simple as Mimi never telling him when she was heading to the Digital World. He understood she needed to practice with Palmon in order to master two different Mega forms, but she could have at least talked about it instead of always running off without so much as leaving a message. Heck, Michael could have even joined along so Palmon would have a training partner and Betamon would also benefit. Still, he knew he had overreacted a bit, and was just letting himself feel angry for a while before he was going to apologize. He did not need to be transported to parts unknown to encounter one of the things that Mimi was training to fight before being sent on another incredibly jarring ride ending with him splashing down in what appeared to be a tropical ocean.

            Luckily, Michael hadn’t been alone when he landed. As soon as he managed to swim to the nearby beach, he happened to find Betamon’s fin sticking out of the sand, and dug his grateful partner out. Then, upon hearing a friendly sounding laugh, he noticed he had landed next to a Gomamon wearing a medal. Apparently, this Gomamon couldn’t help but laugh at a creature so strange that it could teleport above the ocean yet had to struggle to swim back and dig out a friend. This told Michael two things: first, this Gomamon wasn’t the one partnered to Joe, and second, he must be in a remote area of the Digital World that hadn’t had much contact with humans if he was only viewed as a strange creature. This theory was further supported when the Gomamon introduced himself as Gon, as Michael had not yet heard of any Digimon named anything other than its species. Still, despite the differences, Gon seemed friendly enough, and offered to let Michael and Betamon come to his house for some food. Deciding this might be the best place to start looking for answers as to what exactly was going on, Michael agreed.

            Along the way, Michael learned that he had landed on the continent of Folder in the Digital World near a place called Netsurf Village. However, that was the extent of useful information, as Gon started to go into a tour-guide type explanation of the beauty of the Net Ocean, which caused Betamon to start discussing a bunch of stuff about swimming in various types of water that really didn’t interest Michael in the slightest. Gon continued this discussion right through the streets of the colorful village, but Michael immediately noticed something odd: despite the lively appearance of the village, there weren’t any Digimon around. Still, Michael couldn’t help feeling he was being watched by something. These bouts of paranoia had started becoming all too common after months of random Digimon encounters in the real world, but Gon seemed like he would be a good help in this new land.

            Deciding to follow along yet be prepared, Michael merely gripped his Digivice and followed Gon into his house, ready to have Betamon Digivolve if it became necessary. The feeling of being watched continued even in the house, so Michael decided to do a quick check. He purposely dropped some of the food Gon had offered, and as he bent down to pick it up, he looked out the door. To his surprise, there were a group of Digimon watching him, but instead of being the expected evil Digimon like Bakemon or Vilemon, it was instead a collection of Digimon like Crabmon and Penguinmon that probably lived in this village. However, as soon as they noticed Michael looking at them, all the villagers immediately tried to hide. Finally having enough of being in the dark, Michael interrupted Betamon and Gon’s ongoing conversation.

            “Hey Gon, sorry to interrupt, but is there a reason everybody in this village except for you is scared of us? I feel like they’ve been watching us this whole time, and they just went and hid when I looked at them. I could understand it if it were just Betamon and me because they’ve probably never seen a human before, but why didn’t any of them come out when they saw you with me?”

            “Don’t worry about that. Everybody’s just a little nervous. Recently, a horrible monster appeared nearby. He’s known as the Demon of the Deep, and he sends his underlings to attack the village and steal our food. Everybody’s too scared to even go out swimming. If he had shown up much earlier, our guardian Lord Whamon would be able to stop him, but that isn’t an option anymore. Lord HolyAngemon also won’t be able to help us now that he’s busy fighting Daemon, so there’s nothing we can do about it.”

            “Hey, don’t talk like that. Just because it looks like you won’t be able to win doesn’t mean you should just give up and let a monster push you around. Besides, if you need help, Betamon and I will help you fight back. Nobody should have to live in fear.”

            “Hah, really funny. There’s no way you could beat him. He’s really strong, you don’t look like you’d be much use in an underwater fight, and you’re travelling with a Rookie Digimon. Believe me, I understand where you’re coming from, but there’s no way you’d win.”

            “Sure, we might not look like much now, but you’d be surprised at the things we’ve managed to beat. I’m a DigiDestined—fighting to save the Digital World is what I do. Betamon and I have helped beat Ultimate and Mega Digimon before. Heck, four months ago we fought the army of the Seven Demon Lords. We can handle this.”

            “Wait, did you say DigiDestined? Then that means—wait, that can’t be right. Lord Whamon said the DigiDestined would be a savior called in when all hope seems lost who would restore peace to the world. He said a DigiDestined would work with a Digimon more powerful than any seen before, and I’ve seen plenty of Betamon. You wouldn’t be able to beat underlings, let alone the boss.”

            Michael was about to reply, but before he had the opportunity a crash rang out from outside the house. Running to see the source, he saw a Gesomon and an Octomon were in the process of destroying a few houses. Immediately taking stock of the situation, Michael started to issue commands.

             “Alright, I think it’s safe to say those two don’t belong here. It’s only two Champion levels, so if we work together, we should be able to drive them off no problem. Keep the Gesomon busy while we deal with the Octomon, and then we’ll help you get rid of him.” However, none of the gathered villagers were in the mood to cooperate.

              A Penguinmon elected himself as spokesperson for the group. “Are you crazy? Those guys are way too evil too fight. All we can do is ignore them and hope they go away.”

            Michael ground his teeth, but didn’t want to waste any time arguing. “Fine, I guess Betamon and I will have to handle this one ourselves. Should be a piece of cake.” As he started off towards the enemies, however, he lowered his voice so only Betamon could hear him. “Right, this one’s going to be tricky. If we had some help this really would be an easy thing to do, but until we convince the villagers to stand up for themselves we’ll have to do some careful planning. I don’t think we’ll be able to win this if we hold anything back, so we might be forced to destroy these guys. You okay with that, buddy?” Betamon nodded, so Michael continued. “Okay then, I’ve got a plan that should work, but it’ll be tricky. First…”

            Gesomon and Octomon laughed as they destroyed another house. Ever since they had first arrived here, the villagers were content to just sit back and give them anything they wanted. It was the perfect job. The only one who even bothered attempting to stop them had been that Gomamon, but even he had given up after getting the stuffing beaten out of him a few times. With Whamon driven into hiding, nobody had the power or the bravery to attempt a fight. They could show up, destroy the place, and then be given all the food they wanted. Life was just perf—

            “Well, I’ve always been told to treat others the way you want to be treated. Since you seem to enjoy destroying people’s homes, you must not mind that I’m about to destroy you!”

            Shocked, Gesomon and Octomon stopped their rampage and turned towards the defiant voice. Standing down the beach was a strange looking creature that looked a little bit like an Angemon without any wings. While they had never seen anything quite like this before, Lord Marine had received a warning from Lord Daemon that something called a DigiDestined had arrived on Folder, and that Lord Marine must guard the tag at all costs or Daemon would personally destroy him. This new creature must have been this DigiDestined, but it didn’t look like it was much of a threat, so why exactly did Daemon sound worried about it?

            Unfortunately for them, Gesomon and Octomon’s confusion proved to be exactly the opening Michael had been hoping to create. While he had distracted them, Seadramon had managed to swim up behind the two Digimon and launch his Ice Breath attack to freeze both of them. Knowing this attack wouldn’t hold the two for very long, Seadramon wrapped his tail around the frozen Octomon and threw him into the air, where a Water Blast attack was sufficient to send him flying out into deeper water. However, the time it took to dispatch Octomon proved to be enough time for Gesomon to break free of the ice, and now that Seadramon no longer had the element of surprise, the next fight promised to be more difficult.

            Sure enough, Gesomon was angry, and immediately pressed his attack. He struck at Seadramon’s head with his Coral Crusher attack, but Seadramon managed to coil away from the blow and retaliate by biting down on the tentacle. Michael started to cheer as his partner appeared to have the upper hand, but Gesomon merely struck out with his other enlarged tentacle and knocked the sea serpent reeling. The Mollusk Digimon managed to get a few more hits in on his opponent’s body before Seadramon managed to recover from the blow to the head and start fighting back.

            Michael could only watch as his partner continued to exchange blows with Gesomon. While the fight was currently even, Michael knew he was at a disadvantage. All of Seadramon’s attacks had a bit of a delay before they could be used, but Gesomon wasn’t leaving any opening big enough. In addition, Seadramon could only fight with his body, while Gesomon had the advantage of multiple tentacles to attack with. Any time Seadramon would be able to immobilize one, the other would just quickly lash out and strike a serious blow. If Seadramon wanted win this one, he’d have to immobilize Gesomon entirely before striking one finishing blow. Suddenly, Michael smiled. He had a plan that should end this fight, but obviously it wouldn’t work if Gesomon heard him yell it out to Seadramon. Of course, there was an easy way to get around that problem, and Michael highly doubted that a creature in an area that hadn’t yet come into contact with humans would be able to crack such a simple code.

            “Seadramon, pull a Remember the Titans, and then hit him with the Indiana Jones special!”

            Seadramon’s eyes lit up. Who said it didn’t pay to have a partner deeply involved in the movie business? As Gesomon lashed out once again, Seadramon bit onto his tentacle. Sure, such a move would let Gesomon get right through his defenses again, but this time, that was the plan. Not that it didn’t hurt to execute—instead of attacking with the other tentacle, Gesomon launched his Deadly Shade attack right into Seadramon’s face, immediately blinding the sea serpent. However, Seadramon didn’t need to see in order to finish this fight. While Gesomon had been busy focusing on his head, Seadramon had managed to surround his opponent with his body. This was just the setup Seadramon needed for his Ice Winder attack. He quickly snapped his coils around Gesomon, pinning all of the Mollusk Digimon’s tentacles in place. Then, he emitted a freezing pulse from all of his scales as he applied more and more pressure until his opponent finally exploded into a cloud of data.

            With Gesomon defeated, Seadramon started talking to his partner. “You know, in Remember the Titans, Sunshine didn’t get hurt nearly that much when he let that guy come in unblocked. I’m going to really need your help with Octomon, since I can’t see anything at the moment.”

            Michael quickly spun to stare back out into the ocean. By focusing so much on the fight with Gesomon, he had forgotten about Octomon entirely. If he was about as strong as Gesomon had been, he wouldn’t have been destroyed by the surprise attack. However, Michael could find no trace of Octomon out in the ocean, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t there, waiting under the water for the perfect chance to strike. Luckily, Gon’s voice soon rang out.

            “Don’t worry about him, guys. I decided to keep an eye on him, but he just ran away as soon as he could swim again. I’m guessing he didn’t like the fact that somebody finally decided to fight back, and he’s off licking his wounds somewhere. We should have a break before we hear from him again. Still, I guess we owe you and Seadramon a lot for helping us. Tell you what, I know some really good healing plants that grow around here. We can get Seadramon back as good as new, and then there’s somebody I’d like you to meet.”

            It only took twenty minutes for Seadramon to make a full recovery, as Gon hadn’t been exaggerating when he claimed there were healing plants nearby. Michael wasn’t sure if all seaweed in the Digital World had medicinal properties or not, but he decided to pocket a bit of the extra strands just in case they would be needed later. Now that Seadramon had been treated, Gon lead Michael and his partner into the ocean to meet with somebody. However, when Gon eventually stopped, all Michael could see was what appeared to be a boulder buried in the seafloor. Michael was about to signal Seadramon to ask what was going on, but before he could communicate with his partner, the boulder appeared to rise out of the ground, revealing it to be a Whamon. Michael tried to gasp in shock, only to remember that he was currently underwater. However, before he could do anything else, the Whamon rapidly swam towards its three visitors and swallowed them whole.

            It only took Michael a few seconds to get over his initial panic. He was even mad at himself for panicking, since Mimi had mentioned travelling inside of a Whamon numerous times, so he really shouldn’t have ever worried about being eaten. Sure enough, instead of ending up inside a whale’s stomach, Michael now found himself in the middle of a brightly colored space that was completely empty except for himself, Seadramon, and Gon. Almost immediately, a deep voice rang out from seemingly everywhere at once, leaving Michael no doubt that Whamon was currently addressing him.

            “Welcome, DigiDestined, and thank you for saving the village from those two attackers. In truth, defending the village is my responsibility, but I am too old to fight. I have only survived this long so that I may fulfill one final purpose. There is a terrible virus threatening this world. His name is Daemon, and he has grown powerful enough to start warping the fabric of the world itself. It is up to you, DigiDestined, to stop this threat. Unfortunately, he has sealed himself away in an ancient structure that can only be accessed by collecting five tags scattered throughout the continent. One tag is located near here, at the bottom of the Net Ocean. However, it is guarded by an Ultimate level Digimon chosen by Daemon himself. Only by perfectly working in sync with your partner will you be able to beat this foe. As such, I leave this as my gift to you!”

            Suddenly, Michael felt a tingling all along his arm. Turning to look, he noticed a glowing light encasing his wrist. As the light faded, he noticed he had what appeared to be a larger version of a Digivice combined with a bracelet. When Whamon introduced it as a Digivice 01, Michael had to interrupt.

            “It’s not that I’m not thankful or anything, but I already have a Digivice that allows me to Digivolve Betamon into Seadramon. Also, there were six of us DigiDestined that got pulled in here, not just one. Is this really going to be needed? Because if it is, I’m not exactly the strongest of the group, so I’m not sure I’d be the best one to have this.”

            Whamon seemed taken aback by this information. “What? The legends never said anything about multiple DigiDestined. They implied the savior would be one human partnered with an unknown monster. Still, this ability to change your partner’s form may be the unknown ability it mentioned, as I have never heard of that capability. The device I just gave you is unable to replicate that feat, but it does have other abilities that may prove helpful in your journey. It can scan data allowing you to see the abilities and statistics of any Digimon, send messages electronically allowing you to communicate even underwater, and even upload and store data. This final capability will allow you to carry things like food and medicine, and even allow you to store away your partner in case of emergency. I have already pre-loaded Seadramon’s data into the device, so you need not worry about it registering anything else as the one Digimon it can safely upload. I just hope it will be enough to aid you. You must attempt to reunite with your friends, gather all the tags, and destroy Daemon. I wish I could aid you further, but my time is rapidly ending.”

           With this, Whamon opened his mouth, allowing Michael, Gon, and Seadramon to exit. Almost immediately after they had left, Whamon began glowing with a bright light before he started to shrink. Gon gasped at what was happening, but Whamon merely sighed out a final message. “Do not worry so much, Gon. I have finally fulfilled my purpose, so it is my time to go. I shall return someday, but from now on, you are to be the protector of the Net Ocean. The medal you received from me is proof of that. It will be up to you to ensure the courage inspired by our two visitors never fades again.” With that, Whamon disappeared, living only a DigiEgg behind.

            Michael stared into the face of the MarineDevimon who had been nicknamed the Demon of the Deep. Now that he was finally face to face with his opponent, he could admit that he was scared. Before, he had always put on an air of invincibility for the benefit of the villagers, but now it was impossible to keep the charade up. Gon and the others had needed somebody to look to in order to restore their courage, so Michael had just slipped into one of his father’s action hero roles. And it seemed to have worked—he destroyed Gesomon in full view of the village, and then easily beat Octomon when the Mollusk Digimon had shown up to investigate the commotion caused by Whamon’s death. That seemed to really inspire Gon, but Michael had insisted Gon return to his village with Whamon’s DigiEgg. Somebody needed to take care of it, and this way Gon could at least evacuate the village if Michael failed to win this fight.

           Of course, Michael had at least known this situation was coming, so he had a plan of sorts. After all, the goal of this fight wasn’t so much to destroy MarineDevimon as it was to collect the tag he was guarding. Seadramon didn’t have the power to destroy his opponent, but he could still distract him. It would be tough, but Seadramon was certain he could buy Michael enough time to find the tag and at the very least relocate it to a nearby island. Hopefully, MarineDevimon wouldn’t find the new hiding place, which would mean somebody could more easily come along later to get it without having to fight the Ultimate level Digimon at all. After all, Michael and Seadramon had long since accepted the fact that they weren’t the main fighters of the DigiDestined, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be the best support team possible. Using his new Digivice 01, Michael sent Seadramon some encouragement before preparing to swim off on his own.

           As soon as Seadramon received Michael’s message, he launched a flurry of Water Breath attacks towards his foe. Normally, this attack wasn’t very effective when used underwater, but its purpose this time was more to force MarineDevimon to react and hopefully lose track of Michael in the process. Unfortunately, Seadramon had severely underestimated MarineDevimon’s speed. Before the attack had even crossed half the distance, MarineDevimon seemed to disappear, only to reappear laughing in front of Seadramon and swat him deeper into the ocean. Seadramon barely had time to stop his descent before MarineDevimon appeared in front of him again. Seadramon tried to bite his opponent, but MarineDevimon disappeared as quickly as he appeared, and Seadramon was suddenly struck from behind. As he recovered, Seadramon saw MarineDevimon floating fifty feet away.

             “You know, I’m almost excited. When Lord Daemon said the DigiDestined were here, I thought I’d have the laughable job of fighting some terrestrial Digimon. Can you imagine, a terrestrial Digimon attempting to defeat me, Lord Marine? There isn’t a single being that can match my underwater speed, and such power would have been wasted on an opponent who would have succumbed to the ocean with minimal effort. Luckily, I get to fight an aquatic Digimon, which means I’ll be able to enjoy beating you for so much longer!”

             With that, he once again sped towards Seadramon, and struck another blow before retreating. Still, despite the pain, Seadramon couldn’t help but celebrate a small victory. MarineDevimon seemed to have forgotten about Michael, which meant phase one of the plan had at least worked. Also, MarineDevimon seemed to be the type to toy with opponents rather than outright destroy them, which meant the diversion might actually last long enough for Michael to succeed in his part of the plan. Not that any of that would make it any easier to escape later, as MarineDevimon darted in to land another blow.

             At this rate, Seadramon might not last long enough even with his opponent’s help. Deciding he needed to at least make the fight interesting, Seadramon got inventive. When he next saw MarineDevimon, he used a modification of his Ice Winder attack to freeze a thin layer of water around himself instead of its usual approach of freezing and squeezing the enemy. As soon as he saw MarineDevimon disappear, he quickly shattered this invisible barrier, sending shards of transparent ice in all directions. Sure enough, he was rewarded with a grunt of pain towards his right, and he saw MarineDevimon had a few cuts spread along his body. Unfortunately, his opponent’s pain quickly turned to anger. Seadramon quickly repeated his previous maneuver, but before he had a chance to shatter the ice MarineDevimon appeared right in front of him and blasted him in the face with his Dark Deluge attack.

             MarineDevimon snarled as he beheld his now paralyzed foe. That had been much closer than he imagined. He didn’t think it was possible for anybody to hit him in his own element, and he had perhaps grown complacent with that fact. That last attack may have been a lucky hit, but it had damaged him much more than he had thought possible. Clearly, he would need to find a way to improve his defensive skills in the future before this weakness would cost him dearly. However, that was a future matter, and right now, he had the simple task of revenge. For every single bit of damage he received, he was going to ensure his opponent felt double the punishment…

              After a few minutes of vicious beating, Seadramon was on the verge of destruction, barely managing to hold his data together. Having calmed down slightly, MarineDevimon decided he could pause the attack in order to further gloat. “Well, it looks like Lord Daemon had nothing to fear from you. He made it sound like the DigiDestined would be a challenge. If he’s so scared of somebody like you, I wonder how he’d fare if I dragged him into my territory. After all, the partner Digimon that he warned everybody—wait a minute, partner? Where did your human go?” Quickly spinning around, MarineDevimon noticed a small shape entering the water from a nearby island. Snarling, he grabbed Seadramon’s motionless body and hurled it towards the island, only to speed after it himself.

             Michael breathed a sigh of relief. He had managed to easily find the tag, which looked much like a soldier’s dog tags except for the fact it was triangular and encased in a blue V. However, the biggest mystery about the tag was the fact that it had started glowing aqua as soon as Michael touched it, and it seemed to have his name carved into it. However, he hadn’t really had time to ponder this, as he knew Seadramon wouldn’t be able to hold on forever. Quickly swimming to a nearby island, he hid the tag and returned to the water, hoping to swim around the battle and come from another direction in order to lead MarineDevimon away from the true location of the tag. Then, he’d find a way to get Seadramon out of there and hopefully escape. However, before he could implement this plan, he saw Seadramon’s head break the surface of the water. Any celebratory thought quickly left him, however, as he found himself ensnared in the tentacles of a battered but extremely angry MarineDevimon.

              “So, you thought you’d be clever and use your own partner as a distraction while you steal my tag, did you? Now, I know you took it, and if you want to see another few minutes of this life, you’ll tell me where it is!”

               As MarineDevimon slowly squeezed tighter, Michael realized his time was almost up. Seadramon was barely alive and hadn’t moved at all, so he couldn’t expect any help from that direction. Nobody but Gon knew exactly where he was, and even if he were to come and help, there would be no way for them to escape MarineDevimon when he was this angry. Michael knew he couldn’t tell MarineDevimon where the tag was, so he resolved to at least take that notion of victory with him. Then again, there was one thing he could do right now, so he started laughing in MarineDevimon’s face.

               “You’re a riot, you know that? So you’ve almost killed my partner and you’re about to kill me. That still doesn’t mean you won! I knew we wouldn’t be able to destroy you, so I changed the victory conditions before we even started. You fell right into my trap. So, go ahead and destroy us. Then you’ll just have to explain to your boss how you got beaten by a dead guy. You made the fatal mistake of underestimating me. Congratulations, you’ve officially been beaten by America’s best DigiDestined.”

                MarineDevimon didn’t seem to take this rant well, but before he could do anything a massive aqua light suddenly burst into existence on the nearby island. MarineDevimon let go of Michael in order to use his tentacles in an attempt to shield his eyes, but the pain in his eyes quickly faded as a new sensation took its place: an indescribable pain in his chest. Glancing down, he saw he was impaled on a jagged silver blade protruding from the golden helmet of a red sea serpent.

                “If I may add to my partner’s lovely speech, you also made the mistake of toying with me instead of destroying me when you had the chance. Too bad I won’t repeat that. Lightning Javelin!” MarineDevimon was suddenly blasted with blue lightning and disintegrated into data. Michael could only stare in awe at his partner’s new form. In addition to the new horn, color, and helmet, he had grown to almost twice his original size, and had numerous red fins extending all along his body that probably made him much faster in addition to stronger. However, Michael’s look of awe was mirrored by a look of worry on his partner’s face.

                “Michael, are you okay? This isn’t an action movie! You can’t just count on something coming in to save the hero at the last minute. If I hadn’t Digivolved to MegaSeadramon right there, we would have both been killed. That isn’t exactly the time to start bragging.” However, MegaSeadramon still couldn’t resist smiling at his partner. “Besides, best American DigiDestined? You do realize Mimi became an American citizen last year, and she can reach two separate Mega forms. In the future, next time you go all crazy action hero on me, at least make your boasts accurate.”

                Michael couldn’t help but start to laugh. “Hey, I was originally planning on just staying silent, but how often do you get a chance to go out like that? I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly. Still, what exactly happened there? I understand how you Digivolving got us the win, but how did that even happen? I thought you needed a Crest for that…”

               Michael trailed off at that moment, because a glowing orb was slowly coming towards him from the island. Instinctively, he reached out and grabbed it, only to see it was really the tag he had recovered earlier emitting the light. Before he could make a comment, the tag suddenly seemed to change in his hands. Instead of the triangular dog tag, it looked exactly like the tag that Mimi used to wear her Crest. The only difference was the Crest itself: whereas Mimi’s was green and had a teardrop-type symbol on it, this new Crest was more of an aqua color and had a shape that resembled a gunbai from an old samurai film. Michael couldn’t help but smile as he put the tag on. Now that he had a Crest, he could help take the fight to Daemon instead of sitting by on the sidelines.

            Gon couldn’t help growling in frustration. Despite everything that had happened, the other villagers were stubbornly refusing to do anything to help themselves. Michael was out there risking his life in order for them to at least have a chance to escape, but they seemed content to wish the problem away without doing anything. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore, and he just snapped.

            “That’s it! If you won’t do anything to save yourselves, then I guess I have to. Lord Whamon named me his successor, but I won’t be able to save you from yourselves. I’m heading out to help Michael and Seadramon. At least they seem to care about what goes on around here more than you do!”

            The villagers all seemed to be reduced to staring at Gon in shock. Actually, it looked like they were staring in shock at something behind him. Turning around, Gon noticed a giant red sea serpent rising out of the water behind him. However, before he could do anything more than gulp in shock, the MegaSeadramon started glowing and shrunk all the way down to a small green Digimon that looked like a cross between a penguin and a seal. This allowed Gon to see Michael standing behind the Digimon, and suddenly everything clicked. While Gon started laughing with exhilaration, Michael seemed to be slightly disappointed in his partner, though even he couldn’t keep a smile off of his face.

            “Really, you couldn’t have stayed as MegaSeadramon for a few more seconds? You kind of ruined the entrance by switching back to your In-Training form.”

            “Hey, you try Digivolving to Ultimate once in a while and see how well you hold up. I’m not sure how long it will take me to get used to that, but it will probably be a while until I can hold my rookie form even after reverting from Ultimate. Until then, you may as well get used to calling me Chapmon.”

            “Alright, fine. Though if anybody ever asks us how this happened, say we stayed at the Ultimate level long enough to start a parade or something.” Michael then turned from his partner towards Gon. “Thanks for offering to help, by the way. If the tag hadn’t turned into this new Crest, I don’t think we would have made it on our own. Still, do you know exactly why that happened? The tag didn’t look like this at first, and by changing it might have lost the ability to open up Daemon’s hideout.”

            Gon sadly shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t know anything about that. Lord Whamon would have been able to describe everything to you if he were still here, but until he hatches I won’t be able to tell you anything. That doesn’t mean I can’t help you though! I know exactly where to go to find answers. When you recover from your fight, you should head to Holy Angel Castle. Its ruler, Lord HolyAngemon, is the leader of this land, and the general in charge of fighting Daemon. He’ll be able to answer all of your questions. You’ll also probably run into all of your friends there, too. After all, if they’re anything like you, they’ll be helping other Digimon across the continent, and they’ll probably get directed to Holy Angel Castle as well. Now, the castle is pretty far away, but there is a fairly safe way to get there. You should be fine.”

            Michael nodded. “Alright, looks like our next stop is Holy Angel Castle. Though, promise me one thing, Gon. You’ll have to take care of the Net Ocean while I’m gone, and next time I need it, you’ll come to save me instead of me saving you.”

            “You don’t have to ask me twice. Next time we meet, I’ll make sure I’m strong enough to beat even you!”

Chapter Text

Cody gritted his teeth as he prepared for his upcoming battle. Suffice to say, this was not what he had been expecting on what was supposed to be a routine patrol. He had bumped into Michael and Willis, got transported into the middle of a fight with Daemon, and then roughly transported again into a barren wasteland. After making sure that Armadillomon was all right, he had immediately pulled out his D-Terminal and tried to communicate with everybody to find out how they were doing. Davis, Ken, and Yolei all responded that they were fine, but Cody didn’t get any response from Michael and Willis. Not that he had really been expecting any—since neither of them had their own D-Terminals, he had been forced to email Willis instead of using real-time communication, and Michael might not have had any way to receive his email. When Cody tried sending a message to Joe and the others back on Earth to let them know about the situation, the messages had all come up with an error and couldn’t be sent. With no other obvious choice of action, Cody decided to do the only thing available to him: wander around and hope he ran into somebody that could help him or at the very least see if he could get into range of somebody else to pick up the signal from their Digivice.

Luckily for Cody, he didn’t have to wander long before he ran into a couple of Digimon, at least informing him he was most likely somewhere in the Digital World. However, the Digimon in question were a Tortomon that was attacking a Gabumon. When the Gabumon pleaded for help, Cody had Armadillomon Digivolve, and after a brief scuffle, Ankylomon knocked his opponent unconscious, allowing Gabumon to finally explain what was going on. Gabo (as the Gabumon introduced himself) was apparently a messenger for Holy Angel Castle, the main base for the resistance against Daemon. He had been carrying out his duties when he had been attacked by Tortomon, who seemed to be the latest in a long line of Digimon on the Folder Continent to fall under Daemon’s influence. While he hadn’t known anything about the other DigiDestined or the communication problems, Gabo at least gave Cody a basic idea of where he was and what was happening. However, it was the next visitor that provided Cody with a next course of action.

Almost immediately after Gabo had started talking with Cody, a sound reminiscent of microphone feedback interrupted any further attempts at conversation. The source of this was soon revealed as a Digimon resembling a monkey suit came riding in on a Monochromon. As soon as he saw this, Cody couldn’t help but suppress a groan. After all, he had heard all about the first time the DigiDestined had faced an Etemon. This one also seemed to act like a villain who couldn’t be taken seriously, yet he would probably pack just as much power as a typical Ultimate level.

However, this Etemon seemed to want to talk more than fight. He introduced himself as Etemonkey and claimed to have orders from Daemon to kill all DigiDestined. However, he said such a task was beneath Daemon’s top lieutenant, so instead of killing them right away, he decided to play a little game. Apparently, he had placed an Ultimate level Digimon to guard five tags scattered around the continent. At first, Cody had no idea how any of this pertained to him, but Etemonkey seemed content to explain everything. The only way to access Daemon’s castle was to collect the five tags, and the only way to collect the tags would be to defeat the five Ultimate levels. Etemonkey then rode off, loudly congratulating himself on anticipating the DigiDestined’s plan and countering it.

Cody and Ankylomon had a hard time believing what had just happened. Usually, people working for whichever villain was trying to take over the world would show up, attack as flashily as possible, and only go away when they were defeated. Now, a top lieutenant had rode up, told him everything he needed to do, and then ran away, congratulating himself on anticipating the moves Cody would have never made in the first place. Still, he guessed he should just be thankful he at least knew what to do. Going back to his D-Terminal, he alerted everybody he could about the necessary steps to gain access to Daemon’s stronghold before suggesting Holy Angel Castle as a rendezvous point. It seemed to be a well-known location, and as the base for the resistance against Daemon it was the only place that would for sure be friendly. Having at least cemented a plan of action, Cody felt better about the current situation.

Cody sighed after the latest battle. The Ultimate level was nowhere in sight, meaning there was time to take a slight break. After running into Etemonkey, Gabo had agreed to lead the DigiDestined toward the nearest tag. As such, they had arrived at a shallow pond fed by a waterfall in an area called the Valley of the Dragon. Almost immediately, they were attacked by a DarkTyrannomon and a Deltamon. While Ankylomon was strong enough to handle either one of them on his own after months of training, the combination of the two had pushed him further than he would have liked considering he would be fighting an Ultimate level soon.

While Ankylomon eventually won the fight and took very little damage, Cody was not pleased with the final result: both his opponents had been destroyed. Ankylomon had managed to knock DarkTyrannomon unconscious, but a wayward shot of Deltamon’s Triple Force attack had struck the fallen dinosaur and reduced him to data. Then, Ankylomon had been forced to destroy the Composition Digimon when its skeletal arm tried to eat Cody well after its main body had been knocked out. Cody knew there was nothing else that could have been done, but he still wished a fight against Daemon didn’t have to involve the death of any other Digimon.

Before Cody could muse any further, a series of rumbling steps from behind the waterfall shook the ground. Three red and black horns poked out of the waterfall, followed by a giant green triceratops. Cody cursed his luck: Triceramon, like Ankylomon, was a Digimon that focused more on defense than offense. In the current situation, Digmon and Submarimon were next to useless, as the pond was too shallow for Submarimon yet still deep enough that it would flood Digmon out of any tunnel in the ground. This meant Ankylomon would be the only form available to battle, but without any strategic advantage defeating a higher-level foe would be much more difficult.

Just as Cody feared, the battle between Ankylomon and Triceramon became a war of attrition, with neither side seeming to gain any noticeable advantage. Triceramon had managed to shrug off Tail Hammer and Megaton Press attacks without seeming to take any damage, while Ankylomon had managed to avoid Triceramon’s Tri-Horn Attacks by using his Rhythmical Knock attack to shift the ground beneath his opponent as he charged the attack. While this allowed Ankylomon to avoid being hit, the blasts still carved out massive sections of rock leaving Cody no doubt that Ankylomon would lose if he took a direct hit. Of course, just because he was avoiding Triceramon’s main attack didn’t mean Ankylomon was avoiding every hit. He had been hit by his fair share of Mega Dashes and Tail Slaps, one for every successful attack he landed. The Champion level was clearly showing more fatigue than his opponent, but Cody wasn’t sure how to change the situation.

After what seemed like hours of fighting, but what must have been only ten minutes, Ankylomon managed to catch a little break. He caught Triceramon in a crevasse after another Rhythmical Knock, which gave him a little bit of time to catch his breath. As he stood there panting, he started to talk to his partner. “Hey, Cody, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to finish this guy off. His defenses are just too strong for me. I miss sparring with Gesomon and MarineDevimon- at least in those forms, Gomamon still took damage.”

“I know it looks tough, Ankylomon, but we have to keep trying. Eventually, something has to give. As long as we never give up, that something will have to be him. Now—what?” Cody was suddenly forced to shield his eyes. Triceramon had freed himself from the crevasse, but in doing so he had collapsed a portion of the rock wall, revealing a bright white light. The light began floating towards Cody, who instinctively reached out and grabbed it. Curious to see what it was, he opened his hand to reveal a metal triangle with a red border that must have been the tag. However, before he could wonder what had caused this to happen, the tag suddenly changed shape into something he had only ever seen on the original eight DigiDestined: a Crest Tag, complete with a white crest decorated with a symbol that appeared to be a leaf sticking out of a flat landscape. Cody could only gasp in shock before Ankylomon began glowing with a white light. “Ankylomon, Digivolve to… Shakkoumon!”

In the few seconds it took Cody to process what had just happened, Shakkoumon unleashed his Kachina Bombs attack, blanketing Triceramon in explosions. As his enemy reeled back, Shakkoumon addressed his partner. “Well, this was unexpected. Looks like we just unlocked the Ultimate level on our own. That must mean the tag was actually your Crest this entire time. Strange how that worked out. Still, at least now I can win this fight, and I don’t even have to worry about adjusting to a new form. It is a bit weird not sharing a mind with Angemon when I do this, but at least I know exactly what to expect.”

However, at this time, Triceramon got back up, forcing Shakkoumon to turn his attention back to the battle. The Dinosaur Digimon finally showed some signs of damage, but he was nowhere near defeated. He launched another Tri-Horn Attack, and this time he finally struck his foe. Shakkoumon was blasted backwards, lamenting the fact that he no longer had an attack like Rhythmical Knock to avoid such a hit. Triceramon tried finishing off his foe with another Tri-Horn Attack, but this time Shakkoumon was ready and countered with his Justice Beam. The red and green beams clashed, and at the green beam seemed to be overpowering the red. Seeing his partner about to lose the beam struggle, Cody clenched his Digivice and Crest tightly before shouting encouragement at the Mutant Digimon.

“Shakkoumon, don’t give up. We can still win this. Just keep pushing, and we can knock him back. You can do this!” With this, a surge of energy shot from Cody to Shakkoumon, seeming to recharge the Ultimate level. With the newfound energy, he managed to slowly push back Triceramon’s attack until it exploded right in the dinosaur’s face.

Shakkoumon no longer had the energy to stay hovering, so he came down to rest on the ground. Panting after the exertion of the fight, he turned to Cody. “Thanks, partner, if it wasn’t for that last burst of energy, I’d be a goner right now. I’m sorry he ended up destroyed, but there wasn’t any other way to—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Triceramon burst out from a pile of rubble. He gave an angry roar, but it was clear that he wasn’t holding together very well after the last attack. He would occasionally flicker, like his data was on the verge of splitting apart. However, he didn’t seem like he cared, as he snarled out one last message to his opponent.

“Did you honestly expect to get away from here so easily? I might have gone down, but at the very least I’m taking you out with me. Mega Dash!”

With this, Triceramon’s entire body glowed a bright green before he launched himself at Shakkoumon. The Mutant Digimon didn’t have enough time to dodge the attack, so he did the next best thing: he reach out his arms and grabbed the charging dinosaur by his horns. Shakkoumon was plowed backwards, but he merely dug his legs into the ground and with a Herculean effort managed to throw Triceramon aside, where the Dinosaur Digimon reverted all the way to a Digi-Egg. Before Shakkoumon could feel any relief at surviving his opponent’s suicidal attack, he himself reverted all the way back to Tsubumon and immediately passed out.

Cody rushed over to pick up his fallen partner. While Tsubumon didn’t wake up, he was at least breathing, which meant he would be okay after a long rest. Deciding on his next course of action, Cody called out for Gabo, who sheepishly came out of hiding. Cody then grabbed Triceramon’s DigiEgg and told Gabo to lead him to Holy Angel Castle. Tsubumon wouldn’t be ready to fight anytime soon, so it made more sense to go to the meeting point rather than try to collect another tag. Besides, if all the DigiDestined gathered together, it would be much easier to take the fight to Daemon. In the short time he had been here, Cody had already seen three Digimon be destroyed. The quicker they stopped Daemon, the quicker such pointless deaths could come to an end.

Yolei let out a scream of frustration. Why did stuff like this always happen to her? Okay, getting suddenly yanked into a battle with Daemon and then sent on another bumpy ride happened to everybody else too, but none of them had to deal with this. After she got Cody’s messages, she had decided to set out in a random direction hoping to come across some sign of Digimon life. Of course, after twenty minutes of walking, she just had to find this. True, it meant something had once been here, but a digital graveyard wasn’t exactly the welcome she had been expecting. However, there was a castle in the center of the graveyard that had lights glowing in the windows, meaning they would have to walk through the graveyard to run into anybody that could possibly point them in the direction of a tag or this Holy Angel Castle. Piece of cake, right?

“Hey Hawkmon, why would there even be a graveyard in the Digital World? I mean, usually Digimon come back as eggs, and the only exception to that is if a Demon Lord destroys them, where they get trapped in the Dark Area. This just has to be one of those weird, unexplainable things that show up here, right?”

“I don’t think you have to worry about anything, Yolei. Sure, there are a bunch of stories of Digimon being improperly deleted and sightings of a mysterious entity known only as Shademon, but those all sound like the kind of thing a Bakemon would make up in order to scare people away. If you ask me, this place shouldn’t be any scarier than any other area in the Digital—eep!”

Hawkmon suddenly jumped in fright and cowered behind Yolei’s legs. Yolei was about to make a sarcastic comment about her partner being scared of this area, when she suddenly heard a piteous moaning from behind the nearest gravestone. Swallowing back the rising panic, Yolei cautiously went to investigate, only to breathe out a sigh of relief when the source of the sound turned out to be a Patamon cowering in fear. After Yolei convinced Patamon that she wouldn’t hurt him, he started explaining everything. Apparently, this area had once been a normal village, until a cursed monster moved into the area. The villagers became possessed by an evil force and had started destroying each other, and the land itself started to change its shape. Hearing this, Yolei promised not to leave Patamon alone, and asked him if he knew anything about the tags or Holy Angel Castle. The smaller Digimon’s eyes lit up, and he offered to lead Yolei to a tag if she promised not to leave him alone. Yolei and Hawkmon quickly agreed, and started following as Patamon lead them towards the castle in the center of the graveyard.

Yolei couldn’t help but feel a bit suspicious at everything that had just happened. She was in a castle in the middle of a graveyard, and there was supposed to be a horrible monster in the area. It didn’t take much to guess this monster would be the Ultimate Daemon was using to guard the tag. However, she had just waltzed right in to the seemingly abandoned castle and claimed the purple-bordered tag from a glowing pillar of light. The closest thing to a guard she had come across was a lone bat. Which, while startling, hadn’t done anything threatening other than fly away. Something definitely wasn’t right here.

Sure enough, no sooner had she finished thinking this than the room suddenly filled with clouds of a strange yellow gas. Yolei thought she heard a strange laugh, but quickly passed out. When she came to, she saw that Patamon and Hawkmon both seemed to be fine and worried about her, but Hawkmon had a strange look in his eyes. Chalking that up to an effect of the mystery gas, she asked exactly how long she had been out, but Hawkmon revealed she had only been unconscious for less than a minute. After all the strangeness in the castle, Yolei was almost glad when all the candles in the chandelier came to life and revealed themselves to be Candlemon before attacking. At least this was more of the straightforward fighting she had been used to. While Hawkmon could easily handle one Candlemon in a fight, six would be more of a challenge, so Yolei grabbed her Digivice and had Hawkmon Digivolve.

As soon as Aquilamon appeared, he launched his Blast Rings attack, easily destroying the wax bodies of his opponents. The ease of destruction came as a complete surprise to both Yolei and Aquilamon, as they had never seen that happen before. While they hadn’t had much experience destroying any real Digimon, they still knew Digimon fragmented into data instead of just falling apart. Either those Candlemon weren’t real, or something about this castle really messed around with the structure of a Digimon. Patamon seemed shocked at Aquilamon quickly destroying the attackers, but Yolei quickly came to her partner’s defense. Even if the Candlemon had been normal Digimon, and she explained her reasons to think they weren’t, it wasn’t exactly Aquilamon’s fault they had been destroyed. That attack had been used before on low level Digimon, and it never outright destroyed them. So, he hadn’t exactly been trying to do that kind of damage. At worst, it was just an unfortunate mistake that would only result in the Candlemon being reborn somewhere other than a haunted castle.

However, after explaining this, Yolei noticed Patamon was behaving oddly. He hadn’t seemed all that surprised when the Candlemon attacked, but now that she had finished explaining everything, he seemed completely at a loss for a reaction. Now, if he had been relieved the fight was over or even outraged that somebody would try justifying such a degree of violence, she would have at least understood why he acted that way. Something was off about the whole situation, but before Yolei could ask Patamon anything he gave a quick sigh of relief that was followed by a cry of pain from Aquilamon. Turning to check on her partner, Yolei saw that he had been attacked by the wisps of flame. They looked exactly like the flames that had been on the heads of the Candlemon, making Yolei realize she had spoken too soon when she talked about the Candlemon being destroyed.

Aquilamon recovered from the surprise attack and retaliated with his Wind Breath, easily extinguishing the little wisps of flame. Now that the battle finally appeared to be over, Yolei was quick to apologize to her partner for not paying closer attention. While Aquilamon seemed a little bit angrier than he usually would be given the situation, he still readily accepted the apology. With that taken care of, Yolei returned her attention to Patamon to ask him what was going on, but the little Digimon was merely staring at them with its jaw dropped. In fact, its jaw was dropping much more than should be possible for a Patamon to manage, but the reason for this was revealed when the shape of the Mammal Digimon slowly shifted into a floating ghost. Yolei resisted the urge to slap herself for falling for this—she had seen Bakemon shapeshift all the way back to her first month as a DigiDestined, and six years later she hadn’t considered it when she noticed a Digimon acting strangely. Still, at least it wasn’t too late to fix that mistake.

“Alright, Bakemon, I think it’s about time you told us what’s really going on here, and if you don’t give any good answers, you’ll see what Aquilamon can do when he isn’t holding back.”

However, the ghost Digimon didn’t really seem to register Yolei’s words at all, as he was too busy mumbling to himself. In a tone that told Yolei he really wasn’t meaning to say these thoughts out loud, the Bakemon complained about something called a Nightmare Wave that apparently hadn’t worked. However, before he could get any further, he suddenly let out a horrible shriek and what little color was present on his body completely drained away. He began piteously moaning,

“Wait, Lord Vamdemon, I promise I can fix this. Just give me another chance…” Yolei quickly spun around to see what the ghost was talking about, and beheld a vampiric Digimon wearing a red mask and a cape. While she hadn’t seen this Digimon personally, she had heard way too much for her liking. The Myotismon merely let out an evil chuckle as he faced the DigiDestined.

“No, Bakemon, I don’t think you can fix this. Grisly Wing!”

Aquilamon groaned as he regained consciousness. Myotismon’s swarm of bats had been bad enough, but then the vampire had blasted him with a Nightmare Claw attack. That was the last thing he remembered until waking up just now. He slowly opened his eyes, only to be greeted by a gentlemanly voice.

“Ah, so you’re waking up already. Good, the experiment can now begin.” Snapping back awake at the sound of the voice, Aquilamon found himself in a vast room staring at a smiling Myotismon. There was no sign of Yolei anywhere, but there was a massive army of Champion-level Digimon surrounding the Giant Bird Digimon. However, it took Aquilamon a second to notice that something was unusual: the army consisted entirely of Data and Vaccine types like Meramon, Unimon, and Kabuterimon. The typical Virus types like Bakemon and Vilemon were completely absent. Myotismon took note of his captive’s wondering gaze and smirked.

“I see you’ve noticed my personal army here. No doubt you’re thinking it strange that I don’t have the typical soldiers you’ve seen before. Why would such good-natured Digimon consort with such a clearly malevolent fellow as me, known far and wide as the terrible Vamdemon? Well, it’s quite simple. I—”

“I don’t really care about your life story.” Aquilamon interrupted. “Where’s Yolei?” The Myotismon, apparently named Vamdemon, sighed at the interruption, and then formed a bright red whip in his hand.

“You know, it is incredibly rude for a guest to interrupt his host when he’s speaking. If you must know, your human partner is fine. I dare say she is even having the time of her life. Now, if you’d like to keep it that way and not have me test what a Crimson Lightning attack does to a human being, I suggest you listen.” 

Aquilamon knew better than to trust any enemy Digimon, but decided to comply with his captor’s wishes. After all, there wasn’t much he would be able to do against the Ultimate anyway, especially in this condition. He was barely managing to maintain the Champion level. When Vamdemon seemed content with his captive’s silence, he continued his story.

“Now, as I was saying before I was interrupted, I appear to keep some unusual company. The answer to this is quite simple. Among Ultimate Digimon, Myotismon is probably the most feared and powerful. However, I have always failed to live up to that caliber of strength. As such…”

Aquilamon silently rolled his eyes as Vamdemon went on to tell an incredibly long and pointless story detailing exactly how his life had led up to this point. Sometimes, Aquilamon wished evil Digimon would just get straight to the point instead of trying to talk an opponent to death. He didn’t particularly care about how Vamdemon was constantly laughed at by his peers, and thus spent countless hours practicing his Nightmare Wave attack. Still, Vamdemon seemed insistent on revealing he had advanced this one attack to the point where he could completely force his will on the mind of any creature instead of just causing visions of betrayal. Sure, that detail explained why the entire population of the village appeared to be serving him, but Aquilamon didn’t really care since the knowledge wouldn’t help him out of the current situation. Vamdemon seemed to notice the boredom rolling in waves off of his ‘guest’, causing the vampire to let out another exasperated sigh.

“Why doesn’t anybody ever appreciate a riveting history? I see you won’t listen if I talk any further, so I may as well skip to the part that involves you. You see, you are the first being to ever resist my Nightmare Wave. Lord Daemon warned me that the DigiDestined and their partners possessed a power beyond what most Digimon could comprehend. I wish to see exactly what this power that scares even him is like! So, I had to ensure you still had that bond in order to see exactly what makes it work. You may have shrugged off the wave when it was channeled through Bakemon, but how will you handle it with an entire room full of transmitters? NIGHTMARE WAVE!”

Aquilamon squeezed his eyes shut at the impending attack. However, after a few seconds, he noticed a distinct lack of any unpleasant feelings. Wondering what exactly was going on, he opened his eyes to see some form of magenta energy field protecting him from the electric blasts. However, Aquilamon didn’t really care about that as much of the sight of Yolei standing behind Vamdemon. Clutching at a glowing Crest, Yolei decided to announce her presence.

“Hey, Myotismon, next time you want to get me out of the way, I suggest you try something other than trapping me in an illusion that fulfills all the shallow desires I have. That didn’t work when a MaloMyotismon tried it six years ago. Now, Aquilamon, get him!”

With this, Yolei held out her Crest and Digivice, and Aquilamon felt the rush of energy that could only signal one thing: a Digivolution. Getting caught up in the moment, he proudly shouted, “Aquilamon, Digivolve to… Silphymon!” With that out of the way, he decided to take advantage of Vamdemon’s shock and launch his Astral Laser attack. The energy duplicate carried the Nightmare Wave attack along with it, causing Vamdemon to scream as he was blasted with his own attack. Pressing his advantage, Silphymon launched a Static Force that slammed into the vampire and destroyed him, leaving nothing behind but a red mask.

Yolei was quite surprised at how quickly the fight had ended. She had heard all the stories about the first fight with Myotismon, and there was no way a Digimon that had shrugged off six Ultimates would fall so easily to one. Something just wasn’t adding up here. Yolei stared at the symbol on her new Crest trying to see if she could find an answer, but the spiral inscribed in a heart didn’t offer up any explanation. Eventually giving up, she and Silphymon went around to all the Digimon who seemed to be recovering from their stint as Myotismon’s thralls. After a few minutes, all the Digimon seemed to be recovering fine, so Yolei and the newly-reverted Poromon asked for directions to Holy Angel Castle. The two then went on their way, with Yolei sending an elated message to all of her teammates she could still contact.

Daemon snarled as he witnessed Vamdemon’s defeat. That marked three tags in the hands of the DigiDestined. What was worse, the tags apparently had been created from Crests, meaning the one bit of good fortune he had had in facing the DigiDestined incapable of reaching the Ultimate level was rapidly disappearing. Still, there was nothing that could be done about it. This stronghold on Folder had been his fallback plan during the debacle in the Dark Ocean months ago, meaning he hadn’t been able to move his forces to this location and had been forced to rely on the troops of the local virus Digimon. Clearly, Etemonkey had exaggerated the competence of his own followers.

However, Daemon knew that some of the blame extended to himself. He had resorted to banishing his foes with Dragomon’s ability before he had fully mastered that aspect. As such, he had left their destination up to fate, and this in turn seemed to carry them right towards their destined Crests. He strongly desired to go out himself and engage the DigiDestined in order to rectify that mistake, but such open behavior would pretty much guarantee Lucemon would find him before Daemon could obtain his trump card. Though he loathed admitting it, Daemon knew he was far too weak to survive an encounter with Lucemon unless the conditions were exactly perfect. As such, he would have to control himself for just a little longer. Not that the plan didn’t allow him plenty of opportunities for entertainment. Smiling, he turned to the easier of Dragomon’s powers to control, and summoned Etemonkey into his presence.

The Puppet Digimon seemed nervous at the unexpected summons, but before he could ask any questions, Daemon silenced him with a raised hand. “Now, Etemonkey, I’ve summoned you because of some disturbing information I’ve received. Three tags have already been claimed by the DigiDestined, and the remaining two only remain under our control due to sheer luck that the two nearest them have been distracted by other matters. Now, I seem to recall you ensuring me on your position as lieutenant that your forces could protect the tags. So, it seems you are no longer worthy of your position. Normally, I would destroy you for such a failure, but circumstances have me feeling a bit lenient at the moment. As such, I shall give you the opportunity to fight for your life against the aspiring candidates for your position.”

Etemonkey visibly sagged in relief. After all, he had been the strongest Digimon among all the virus types here until Daemon had taken over. He would be able to handle fighting against anybody else, so long as Daemon didn’t attack. However, when he saw the two monsters he would have to fight emerge from behind Daemon’s throne, he quickly went from relieved to insulted. He was second in command of the army, and Daemon thought an Ogremon and a Devimon could replace him? If this was the level of standards Daemon had, maybe the Demon Lord wasn’t nearly as strong as he appeared.

“Alright, fine, I’ll admit I haven’t done my fullest to stop the DigiDestined. Probably because they actually seem like I could have some fun if I hung around with them instead of you. Still, don’t think you can get rid of me this easily. If you are going to rely on two Champions to replace me, you’re more pathetic than I imagined. You’ll see that you needed me much more than I needed you. Dark Network!”

Etemonkey launched a sphere of dark energy at each of the Champion level Digimon, injuring each of them to the point where they wouldn’t be able to fight. However, such a display only seemed to amuse Daemon, who couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “You’re probably thinking you just earned your job back, aren’t you? Well, they weren’t exactly the ones you were competing against.”

However, it was the second voice that Etemonkey heard that sent shivers down his spine. “Ultimate level Puppet Digimon. Virus type. Special Attacks: Concert Crush and Dark Network. Average in-game lifespan: 105 hours. That’s Etemon: nothing more, nothing less.”

Etemonkey turned to the source of this new voice that sounded even colder than Daemon’s. To his shock, the speaker wasn’t some new Mega-level Digimon, but rather a human with white hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a white vest over a black t-shirt with white peace signs on the sleeves, white pants, and a white scarf draping over his shoulders like a cape. His arms were covered in bandages from the end of his sleeves down to his wrists, which were hidden in his pockets. As Etemonkey stared slack-jawed at the new arrival, Daemon burst into laughter.

“What’s the matter, Etemonkey? Did you honestly think after all my battles with the DigiDestined I wouldn’t do something like this? For some reason, working with a human partner enables a Digimon to fight at its full potential. As such, I called Neo here to the Digital World in order for him to raise the Super Ultimate into the perfect monster!”

Etemonkey was still taken aback. Sure, Daemon’s explanation made sense on the surface, but there was a major problem. Daemon had made it clear he was planning on invading and subjugating the human world once he had the power to take over the Digital World. Why would this human work with Daemon when it would doom his own world? He wasn’t even a child to be easily manipulated, as he was clearly older than the DigiDestined Etemonkey had encountered earlier. However, before Etemonkey could articulate his surprise, Neo gave a cold smirk and pulled his hands out of his pockets, revealing a Digivice 01 on each wrist. The sight finally knocked Etemonkey out of his stupor.

“Listen, kid, you don’t want to do this. Honestly, I’ve only been working with Daemon because I’d have a chance to go to the human world. I’ve always just wanted a chance to play with humans, and I have no desire to destroy them. But Daemon’s different. His goal is the utter eradication of all humans. This isn’t just some video game where you can just reload from the last save point. He’s going to kill everybody in your world!”

Neo’s only reaction to this was to start chuckling. “You seem to think that I don’t know about that, and that I care what happens to the human world. It’s the opposite. I know exactly what Daemon is planning, and I don’t care. Speaking of knowing and caring, I know this isn’t a video game, where everything is reduced to a simple statistic. So, my analysis of you had an incorrect lifespan. I don’t care how long you’ve lived up until this point, but I know you won’t make it another minute.” With this, he slammed his fists together and shouted, “Jogress! SkullSatamon!”

Ogremon and Devimon were reduced to gridlines before they spiraled together, forming the Ultimate level Undead Digimon. Before Etemonkey could do anything, he was blasted into data by his opponent’s Nail Bone attack. Daemon could only smirk at the cruelty of his new lieutenant. His plan was coming together perfectly. Now, it was time to see how the DigiDestined fared when they were competing against a fellow partner Digimon.

Chapter Text

Willis closed his laptop in defeat. He had been triple checking every line of code in the program he had been using to restore the landscape of the Digital World, but he couldn’t find anything that would cause everybody to get sent into the middle of a fight with Daemon. Either something else had caused the first transportation in a similar manner to Daemon causing the second trip, or the Digital World just liked to laugh off any attempts at being logically consistent. Giving up finding the answer to that particular question as a lost cause, he looked towards his two partners sitting by the side of the path they had landed on. The two rabbit-like Digimon noticed Willis was no longer buried in his laptop and started cheering. When Willis asked exactly what was going on, they decided to take turns responding.

Lopmon went first. After being reborn without the effects of the virus that had corrupted him, he had developed a very polite and caring personality. The brown rabbit might not be the bravest of partners, but he was always willing to listen and try to help a friend in need. “Well, we knew you were going to be busy checking your program, so we decided to just pass the time with a little game. We’re just cheering because you must have figured out what to do next.”

“Well, that, and I Spy gets really boring when the only things you can see are grass, trees, a road, and clouds,” Terriermon added. Ever since his brother had come back, the doglike Digimon (who insisted he was not a rabbit) had undergone a slight personality change. Before Kokomon had been infected, he had always been a bit of a prankster, but he had repressed that side of him when Kokomon vanished and he had been the only one there for Willis. Now that Lopmon was back to balance him out, he made a lot of sarcastic comments and was more of a fan of brutal honesty instead of being nice. “Besides, you really need to stop spending so much time in your computer. Isn’t that why Alex and Taylor dumped you?”

Willis sighed. Another thing Terriermon had picked up in the past few years was a habit of teasing his partner about his love life. Still, Willis wasn’t too upset about that. It was just part of their friendship. It felt good to have a more normal life where he actually had real friends, both human and Digimon, and a love life that consisted of more than a couple of kisses on the cheek and a ‘girlfriend’ who had actually been his babysitter when he was six.

“As I’ve repeatedly told you, they didn’t dump me. We mutually decided it just wasn’t working out. And don’t think I don’t know you’re rolling your eyes at me as you say that. Besides, I needed to make sure there wasn’t a bug in my program. I’d hate it if I messed up anything again.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Lopmon interrupted. “It’s not like you meant to do anything wrong, and even if something bad happens, you have both of us here this time. Besides, the program worked perfectly the first few times, so it can’t have been anything you did. Though, I am worried about what happened to all the others. Do you think they’ll all be okay?”

Willis nodded. “I’m sure they’ll be fine. After all, they have a lot more experience than we do. Still, I wish there was a way for us to contact them. For all the good the DigiNet did in helping us stay in touch in the real world, it doesn’t work here. Not that any of them would be able to access it anyway. Michael’s phone doesn’t work here, and everybody else’s D-Terminals are half a decade too old to be able to handle that much workload.”

Terriermon gave an exaggerated sigh. “And you’re supposedly the brightest mind of your generation. Sure, the others can’t access your fancy chat, but they still can get emails, can’t they? It would be better than nothing. It won’t help us find Michael, but if we can get together with Davis and Ken, Imperialdramon would really help the search.”

Willis had to resist the urge to slap himself for missing the obvious solution. Pulling his laptop open again, he opened up his email, only to find messages from Davis, Ken, Yolei, and Cody. From these, he learned they were all okay, and had already set a rendezvous point for Holy Angel Castle. In addition, they had to collect five tags, two of which Cody and Yolei had already collected and used in order to Digivolve to the Ultimate level. Now that he knew something about what was going on, Willis wanted to hurry up and take action. After all, this Holy Angel Castle sounded like a good place to get answers. He sent a quick message telling everybody that he was okay before setting off. The road they were on seemed well-travelled, which meant there had to be something important at each end. If they just picked a direction, they were bound to find someone eventually who could give them directions.

Willis, Terriermon, and Lopmon stared at the imposing metal doorway before them. They had followed the road all the way to a large building with a sign calling it the Metal Factory, but apart from the now-paved road and the obviously industrial building, they hadn’t found any signs of life. However, there was a strange hum coming from the building, indicating that at least something was going on inside. Normally, Willis would have taken that as a sure indication that he had found somebody, but after his latest experience he wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to trust everything to rational thought. Still, he couldn’t just walk away from the most promising source of information he had found. The door seemed to be controlled by an electronic lock, but Willis wasn’t too worried. He was fairly good at getting around security systems—before he had really learned what hacking was, he had viewed various firewalls and such as just a fun puzzle—so a simple lock like this was quite literally child’s play for him. Within seconds, he had cracked the code and the door was creakily swinging outwards.

As the three entered the factory, Willis immediately started to lose hope of finding anybody helpful. While some machines were slowly running, most of them had long since fallen into disrepair, implying the factory hadn’t seen use in a very long time. However, even if it had been working perfectly, this factory probably wasn’t home to anybody friendly. Strewn along the ground were various mechanical components that looked eerily similar to body parts of machine Digimon. While the gears weren’t necessarily from things like Hagurumon, there were arms and legs scattered about that were distinctly like what would be found on Andromon and Guardromon. Still, Willis supposed he shouldn’t jump to the worst conclusion. Maybe this factory didn’t break mechanical Digimon down, but just built them… though, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful. Staring past the disturbing piles of debris, he saw the factory consisted of this one large room with various catwalks forming a second floor of sorts and a bunch of doors that must lead to other rooms. Sticking by his partners, he decided to start searching these rooms, on the off chance of finding someone friendly.

The nearest room was once again locked, but Willis quickly overcame that problem. As the door slid open, a cloud of steam billowed out, temporarily obscuring everybody’s vision. Terriermon started commenting on how this place was something right out of a bad horror movie, but Lopmon became much quieter and hugged Willis’s leg, something he only did when he was particularly scared. Finally, the steam cleared, only for Willis, Lopmon, and Terriermon all to gasp in shock as they saw a fully assembled Machinedramon glaring at them. However, after a few tense seconds of inactivity, the three let out their breaths. The Machinedramon may have been assembled, but its utter lack of movement showed it must have been deactivated.

Still, Lopmon didn’t seem satisfied. “Guys, something is really wrong here. We have to go, now.” Willis was a bit surprised at the tone of his partner’s voice, but Terriermon apparently didn’t catch on.

“Gee, whatever gave you that idea? Finding the giant monster in the mechanical version of Frankenstein’s lab is always a good sign in the movies…”

However, Lopmon insisted. “It’s not just that. This feels like the virus.”

That claim immediately caused Terriermon and Willis to drop any sense of levity and become serious. As an unspoken rule, the three of them never really talked about the time Lopmon had been infected with the virus. If Lopmon himself was bringing it up, this wasn’t the time for sarcasm. Some things you just didn’t joke about. Immediately deciding to abandon the search, Willis lead his partners back into the main room of the factory, only for both of the open doors to ominously close on their own. Before the three could do anything other than assume a ready stance, a cold voice addressed them from above.

“You know, for one of the legendary DigiDestined said to bring out the full potential of Digimon in battle, I was expecting an opponent who wouldn’t walk head first into such an obvious trap.”

Looking towards the source of the noise, Willis and his partners were shocked to see another human instead of an evil Digimon talking to them like that. While Terriermon and Lopmon were distracted by the strange outfit the new arrival was wearing, Willis couldn’t help but notice something familiar about his face. It took him a while to place it, but eventually he remembered where he had seen this person before.

“Wait a minute, I know you. You’re Neo Saiba. You won the 2005 Virtual Pet World Championship. You probably don’t remember me, but my name’s Willis Kennedy. You beat my Piximon in the semifinals with your Megadramon. What are you doing here in the Digital World?”

Neo gave a mirthless chuckle. “You’re right, I don’t remember you. You were nothing more than a speed bump on my path to the title.  And I’m not just the 2005 champion—I’ve been the champion every year since the game was created. And that’s how I arrived in the Digital World—after establishing myself as the greatest Tamer on the planet, Daemon saw fit to bring me here and give me a chance to prove myself with real monsters. I’ll be the Tamer to raise the Super Ultimate monster that’s about to hatch. To be partnered with a legendary creature never before seen by humans—it’s the highest honor a Tamer could have.”

Willis had a hard time believing what he was hearing. Sure, he hadn’t known Neo all that well, but he still had a hard time believing he would go as far as working for Daemon just to prove he was the best. True, Neo was the kind of competitor who was obsessed with having the strongest monster, but he also had bragged about knowing all the details on every monster in the game while breezing to victory the last time they had met. Someone who did that much research on Digimon had to know Daemon couldn’t be trusted. Even putting aside Daemon, Willis was all too familiar with the potential devastation of a previously unknown Digimon, and the Diaboromon affair wasn’t exactly a big secret. He opened his mouth to start arguing his case, but Neo cut him off by throwing something at him. Willis managed to catch the object before it hit his face, and was surprised to find himself holding a triangular metal tag. He wondered why somebody working with Daemon would just hand over a tag, but Neo began explaining before Willis could even ask.

“According to Daemon, you and your friends need these to Digivolve beyond the Champion level outside of specific circumstances. It wouldn’t be any challenge at all to beat down a couple of champion levels, so at least try to make the fight more interesting for me. After all, I may be the greatest Tamer on Earth, but here in the Digital World, that honor is held by the DigiDestined. I just have to win that title away from you, but I could never call myself the best if I merely relied on having monsters at a higher level than my opponent.”

Hearing this, Willis realized he wouldn’t just be able to talk some sense into Neo. He seemed to be treating this all as an extension of some game and not caring about the real consequences. There would be only one way of getting through to him: Willis would have to beat him at his own game. Still, Willis couldn’t help but give a little smile. Sure, Neo had completely beaten him earlier, but that had been in a simple game. Now, Willis had his two very real partners by his side to fight instead of a crudely programmed replica of a Piximon. Plus, there were some things the real world had that had no counterpart in the game, and Willis had a very powerful example on his side.

He turned back to Neo and replied. “Alright, fine. If it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you’ll get. And even if your Megadramon Digivolved from the last time I saw him, don’t think I’ll be such a pushover this time around. I’ve got my friends this time, and Destiny is on my side.”

Terriermon and Lopmon instantly understood what Willis meant by that last statement, and shifted their positions so that Terriermon was in front while Lopmon hung back by Willis. However, Neo didn’t seem to particularly care about the shift. “Oh, I’m afraid you won’t have the chance for a rematch. I stopped using that monster a long time ago. It took away all the skill needed for victory after it Digivolved and nobody could beat it. The world’s worst Tamer could win battles like that. No, I’ll be fighting you in a way that’s more reflective of the difference in our skill, not of the difference in sheer power.”

With that, Neo pulled out his laptop, and a door on the far side of the room slid open. A pair of glowing yellow eyes shone out of the darkness, and then a horrible sounding roar forced Willis to cover his ears. As the sound faded, Willis turned back to the source to see Digimon slowly stepping into the main room. Willis recognized it from his experience in the games as a MetalGreymon, but it had a few more mechanized areas and instead of being orange its flesh appeared to have decayed slightly and now had a sickly blue color. As it came closer to him, Willis realized the decay wasn’t just a visual difference, as a sickly smell began to permeate the room. Instantly, Willis was overcome with pity. Here was a monster presumably under Daemon’s control that spent all of its time in a factory while it slowly rotted away, replacing its flesh with more and more mechanical components. Normally, he wouldn’t be in favor of killing any Digimon, but this was reminding Willis all too much of when Lopmon had been infected. In order to get a better life, Lopmon had had to die and be reborn. Hopefully, this MetalGreymon would be born into a much happier life the next time around as well.

Having made up his mind, Willis wanted to get this fight over as soon as possible. Pulling out his laptop, he entered the program that allowed him to materialize the Digimental of Destiny. Wasting no time, he called out “Golden Armor Energize,” and Terriermon Golden Armor Digivolved into Rapidmon. The Holy Knight Digimon wasted no time starting the fight and launched his Rapid Fire attack, firing two missiles that were a lot more threatening than the cute faces painted on them would lead anybody to believe. The attack struck the opposing Ultimate, causing him to disappear within the explosion. However, when the smoke cleared, MetalGreymon was still standing, injured yet unmoved. Instead of doing what both Willis and Rapidmon had expected and retaliating with an attack, he instead turned to Neo and started talking.

“Neo! I can win this! I’ll show you I’m not the same as I was back then. Revenge Flame!” With this, he unleashed a stream of fire from his claw at Rapidmon, who easily dodged it. Still, Rapidmon wasn’t quite used to fighting something that didn’t act like a feral animal, so instead of using the opening to launch another attack he asked MetalGreymon exactly what he meant by that. MetalGreymon at first seemed reluctant to give any answer other than launching his Trident Arm attack, but after Rapidmon easily dodged that he seemed to try distracting Rapidmon with the story while continually trying to connect with a barrage of Metal Slashes, Booster Claws, and Megaton Punches.

While none of the attacks came anywhere near connecting with the much faster Digimon, the story itself did much more psychological damage. Apparently, when he was a Greymon, this MetalGreymon had been one of Neo’s monsters in the Virtual Pet videogame, but he had failed to win any practice matches. Neo had deleted him as a trash monster, but his data had managed to reformat here in the Digital World. Wanting to prove he wasn’t just trash, he had come here to the Metal Factory and mechanized his body in order to gain the strength needed to fight at Neo’s side once again. Then, Daemon had taken over and brought Neo back, finally allowing MetalGreymon the chance to prove himself to his Tamer.

Hearing this, Willis started to lose his resolve. When he had first seen MetalGreymon, he had immediately decided to destroy it like it was a suffering animal that had to be put down to stop its misery. However, from this story, it was clear that HE was not an IT and had put himself through all that suffering to fulfill its dream of reuniting with his partner. Destroying him wouldn’t be a merciful act, but rather an act of murder. Still, Willis knew he’d have to act quickly. His program didn’t allow Rapidmon to maintain his form for more than a couple of minutes, and that time was drawing to a close. Coming up with a quick plan, he turned away from the Digimon and addressed Neo.

“Neo, we don’t have to do this. Look at what your partner put himself through just so you’d work with him again. Do you know what that must have felt like? It isn’t easy to deal with people who hate you because of who you are. Trust me, it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to overcome, and that includes the time I almost started a nuclear war by accident. Clearly, Digimon have feelings and dreams just like humans. And Daemon’s trying to destroy their home before he moves on to Earth and does the same thing there. You can’t seriously think that proving you’re the best is worth dooming both worlds. Come and join us against Daemon. You can prove your skill by saving both worlds instead of destroying them.”

Neo didn’t even bother looking away from his computer screen as he responded. “You’re making a lot of assumptions here. First, I don’t buy into this whole partner nonsense. I’ve had over a hundred Digimon, and they have all merely been tools. As soon as they lose their usefulness, they are to be discarded and replaced. I’ve deleted all but one of the Digimon outside the six I currently use, and that’s only because my first one became glitched to the point of being impossible to delete.”

With this, he finally looked up from his computer, and Willis could see the first hints of emotion cracking through Neo’s cold façade. “Second, you seem to think I care about what happens to this world and the Earth. Daemon can plan to do whatever he likes. I have my own goal, and I don’t care what devils I must work with in order to attain it. The worlds are both imperfect, yet this one has the ability to overcome that flaw. I just have to get rid of everything here and start over!”

Having said this, Neo seemed to regain control of his emotions and turned back towards the fight. “MetalGreymon, I thought you wanted to be useful. I’ve only managed to scan 60% of his data, and I won’t know anything about his defenses unless you actually manage to land a hit.  Unless I’ll just have to delete some metal trash this time?”

With this, Willis had had enough. Neo clearly needed to learn a lesson. As somebody who had once lost a partner, Willis wouldn’t stand to hear someone address their partner in that cold manner. He supposed he wouldn’t have been this angry if Neo had behaved toward everything that way, but it was obvious from his little outburst earlier that he was capable of caring about something beyond his own skill, as when he mentioned his goal he finally showed some passion. Still, he was refusing to turn that level of caring towards somebody who was just trying to understand why he couldn’t be loved. That struck too close to home for Willis to ignore. He ordered Rapidmon to finish off his opponent, hoping that MetalGreymon would be reborn when Neo finally came around or at the very least would be reborn with no memories of his suffering. Hearing this, Rapidmon launched his Golden Triangle attack, easily destroying his Virus type opponent. He then turned towards Neo intending to give him a piece of his mind, but before he had the chance to move his Digivolution wore off, and he glided back to Willis’s side as Terriermon.

Neo didn’t seem to care about the glares of his opponents as he closed his laptop and continued to address Willis. “Another assumption you’re making is the belief that you’ve just won. That MetalGreymon was already here working for Daemon as the guardian of the tag. I haven’t even started to battle you yet. And you’ll regret wasting that special evolution of yours on MetalGreymon. I may not have fully scanned your data, but I know that form you took is a temporary boost that you won’t be able to repeat in the near future. Without that ability, I’ll give you one minute in this fight.” 

With that, he held out both of his arms, and an Ogremon and a Devimon suddenly appeared, seeming to come out of the strange Digivices he was wearing on each wrist. As the two Digimon jumped down to fight, Willis pulled out his own Digivice. After all, he might not be able to use the Digi-Egg of Destiny for another half hour, but he had other options when it came to fighting against two champions. Lopmon ran forward to join his brother, and then both of them disappeared in the glow of Digivolution.

“Terriermon, Digivolve to… Gargomon!”

“Lopmon, Digivolve to… Turuiemon!”

After assuming their Champion forms, the two Digimon jumped into battle. While Lopmon was typically very timid, he became a much more confidant fighter in his Champion form. It never got quite to the eagerness he had shown in his Dark form of Wendigomon while under the virus’s influence, but whenever he became the purple rabbit warrior, he took a new joy in fighting. He leaped towards Ogremon, and began dancing around his enemy’s Pummel Whacks while striking back with his Ninja Fist. In contrast, his brother became slightly less eager to fight upon Digivolving. Not that Gargomon didn’t enjoy fighting, but some of the brashness he tended to exhibit as Terriermon disappeared and he preferred engaging foes from a distance until he had a better grasp of the situation at hand. Which worked just perfectly in this case, as Devimon seemed to prefer staying airborne and waiting for an opening before striking. The oddly rabbit-like dog soon had Devimon on the defensive as he repeatedly fired his Gargo Pellets attack, giving the Fallen Angel Digimon no opportunity to attack.

Willis cheered his partners on, but something started bothering him. This fight seemed almost too easy. Sure, he believed in his partners and certainly thought they could win, but Neo had seemed too confidant in his victory for the fight to end like this. Now that he thought about it, Neo hadn’t done anything except unleash the two Digimon, and now he was back looking at his computer. For somebody who believed himself the greatest Tamer, there was no way he would fight at this level. He had to have some hidden strategy here, or at the very least he should be giving orders to his Digimon. However, he didn’t really have time to dwell on this, as Gargomon and Turuiemon decided to finish the battle off. In an oddly synchronized move pattern, Gargomon leaped into Devimon and uppercut the Fallen Angel with his Bunny Pummel attack at the same time Turuiemon kicked Ogremon upwards before jumping after him and slashing repeatedly with his Gauntlet Claw attack. The twin Digimon gracefully landed on their feet, while their two opponents crashed into the ground and appeared to be unable to fight.

Noticing this, Turuiemon turned to Neo. “Well, looks like instead of you beating us in a minute, we beat you in one minute. Not so tough now, are you?” Neo responded by merely closing his computer and standing up.

“The one minute wasn’t how long it would take me to beat you, but how much of a head start I was giving you. You may have severely weakened my monsters, but I managed to scan all of your data. And any damage to my monsters is meaningless at this point.”

With this, he slammed his fists together, shouting out “Jogress!” Ogremon and Devimon were suddenly reduced to gridlines before they spiraled into each other. Then, in the center of where the two had been lying on the ground, Willis caught a glance of what appeared to be a red skeleton before it suddenly vanished. An instant later, Turuiemon was sent flying and crashed into the wall, and the red skeleton could be briefly seen before it vanished again and Gargomon was knocked to the ground.

With its two opponents defeated, the skeletal Digimon finally slowed down enough for Willis to recognize it as a SkullSatamon. However, this knowledge didn’t really help, as even in the Virtual Pet game SkullSatamon possessed a dangerous combination of speed and power that made him difficult to hit before he did serious damage. Judging from how quickly Turuiemon and Gargomon had been knocked out, the real thing was at least as bad as his in-game counterpart. Willis’s mind whirred trying to come up with a plan to salvage the situation, but Neo wasn’t about to give him the chance.

“You know, I’m almost disappointed. Not that I ever expected to have any trouble beating you, but I at least thought a DigiDestined would provide a bit of a challenge. Quite frankly, you’re wasting my time. SkullSatamon, finish them off.”

With both of his opponents unable to respond, SkullSatamon slowly walked towards Turuiemon and prepared to destroy the rabbit with his Skull Hammer attack. As the Undead Digimon approached his partner, Willis could do nothing but clench his fist and hope that fate would intervene. Suddenly, a golden brown light started shining inside his hand, and a similar light shone from Turuiemon, actually stopping SkullSatamon’s advance as the skeletal Digimon tried to shield his eye sockets from the sudden glare. However, Willis didn’t particularly care about any of this, as he was focused on the voice of his partner. “Turuiemon, Digivolve to… Antylamon!”

Before the glow of Digivolution had even faded, Antylamon launched right into his Bunny Blades attack, spinning like a tornado and slashing into SkullSatamon. Only after the Undead Digimon was sent crashing into the ground with shredded wings and numerous broken bones did Antylamon stop his attack and finally allow Willis to get a good look at his partner’s new form. Or rather an unfortunately familiar form. At the Ultimate level, it was almost impossible to tell the difference between Lopmon’s current form and the Ultimate form he had taken under the influence of the virus. In fact, the only differences Willis could notice were this time Antylamon was wearing purple pants instead of white and he also had a purple scarf around his neck. Otherwise, he was the exact same rabbit Digimon. Trying to avoid the bad memories, Willis instead glanced at his hand, which had also emitted the light earlier. Opening his fist, he saw that the tag he still had in his hand had changed, and now displayed the same S-like symbol as the one on the Digimental of Destiny. He must have gotten his own Crest now, just like Yolei and Cody had earlier.

Willis turned back to the fight, only to see Antylamon had turned both of his arms into axes. This must have been the ability he had used the first time to attack SkullSatamon, but instead of launching another spin attack, he seemed to be gathering even more energy and strengthening the blades. Finally, he was ready, and addressed his crippled opponent.

“Normally, I don’t get too angry in the middle of a fight. But if you attack my family, you’re not going to survive long enough to regret it. Arm Bomber!” With that, Antylamon sprang up into the air, did a flip, and started plunging blade first towards his immobilized foe. Willis was certain the fight would come to an end, but his celebrations were interrupted by Neo calmly calling out “Partition.”

Willis turned away for a second to see Neo standing with his wrists crossed above his head, but instead of trying to figure out what exactly that meant he turned back to the battle and was shocked by what he saw. Antylamon had his axe blades buried in the ground, and standing unharmed on either side of him were Ogremon and Devimon. The two champions each sprang forward before joining together again with Neo’s call of “Jogress,” and SkullSatamon struck Antylamon a heavy blow before the rabbit had a chance to free his arms.

As Antylamon struggled to regain his footing, Willis could only watch on in shock. He knew all about DNA Digivolution, or Jogress as it was called in the games, but he had no idea it was possible to split the Ultimate level apart to its Champion components and then refuse them right away. And if real world DNA Digivolution worked anything like in the game…

Neo seemed to guess the direction Willis’s thoughts were taking and gave a hollow chuckle. “Well, looks like you weren’t a complete disappointment. You forced me to start using my Infinite Jogress. It’s really quite simple: when Jogressing two Champions, they combine into an Ultimate at full health. Normally, you could only do that once, but if you raise your monsters the right way, you can Partition them and still have enough energy to Jogress once again. And since Jogress restores energy as well, the cycle can continue forever.”

Willis quickly tuned the rest of Neo’s speech out as he tried to find a way to turn the fight in his favor. Listening to Neo brag wouldn’t help, but Willis hoped he would be able to analyze Neo’s infinite loop and break it. However, that would be easier said than done. Antylamon appeared to be on his last legs, and Gargomon was only finally standing up after the initial hit on him. With the current state of his partners, Willis wasn’t sure if this fight would last long enough for him to solve the problem. SkullSatamon seemed to have the same idea, as he charged toward Antylamon without even bothering to use his full speed. Glad to finally be able to react to an incoming attack for the first time, Antylamon prepared his Treasure Axe attack, only for SkullSatamon to separate right before he met the attack, fuse again after passing behind Antylamon, and then strike the off-balance rabbit once again.

Antylamon turned back towards SkullSatamon and considered his options. If he didn’t do something quickly, he’d revert back into his In-Training form from all the damage, and that was only if he hadn’t been destroyed by that time. Still, he might have a way to at least buy some time. When SkullSatamon charged at him again, he once again brought out his Treasure Axes forward as if he were going to attack, but when SkullSatamon split apart to avoid the blow Antylamon immediately used his Meditation Cure attack. By the time SkullSatamon re-fused, Antylamon had healed all of his previous damage. Still, this was nothing more than a stall tactic. Antylamon knew he wouldn’t be able to hit SkullSatamon without being exceptionally lucky, and Meditation Cure still used up energy, so he couldn’t keep healing himself forever. Best case scenario, he managed to get a lucky shot in at random at some point in the near future.

While Antylamon resigned himself to a long fight of just hoping to land a single hit, Willis and Gargomon were trying to find a way to break the loop that didn’t rely on luck. Gargomon wished he could get back into the fight, but he was still a little woozy from the last attack and didn’t want to start attacking for fear of hitting Antylamon by accident. SkullSatamon’s attack must have done something to mess with his data. Judging by Antylamon, Digivolution would restore that, but it wasn’t like… Gargomon almost slapped himself in the face. Why hadn’t he thought of that sooner?

“Hey, Willis, I know you’re probably busy trying to solve this problem, but don’t you think now might be a good time for me to Digivolve? At the very least, I’d serve as a much better distraction so Antylamon doesn’t have to take all of these hits.”

Willis merely showed his Crest to his partner in response. “That’s a good idea, Gargomon, but how exactly do you suggest I do that? Judging by the symbol, this is the Crest of Destiny. In order for you to Digivolve, I have to activate the Crest, which happens when I express the trait the Crest embodies. At least, that’s how Mimi always explained it. So, how exactly do I express Destiny? Sure, I believe everybody can control their own destiny, but that’s not exactly a character trait. Best guess, the Crest will activate when it’s supposed to. I don’t think there’s anything I can do about that.”

As soon as Willis finished saying this, the Crest started glowing again, and Gargomon disappeared behind the same golden-brown light from earlier. Willis could only roll his eyes at the horribly coincidental timing, but decided not to bother questioning why this was happening. Meanwhile, Gargomon was just happy to finally get the chance to help out as he started to Digivolve. “Gargomon, Digivolve to… Rapidmon!”

Upon assuming his Ultimate form, Rapidmon couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Instead of having a new form, he was basically a green version of the form he took when he Golden Armor Digivolved. He didn’t even feel the same level of power, making this new form seem a lot less useful than he would have hoped. However, that line of thought abruptly ended when he saw SkullSatamon make another lunge at Antylamon. Having had enough of watching his brother get beaten around like a rag doll, Rapidmon put on a burst of speed and punched SkullSatamon before he covered half of the distance, sending the surprised skeleton flying back a few feet. With that taken care of, Rapidmon started taunting his opponent. “Not so fun when somebody else uses their speed against you, now is it?”

Willis was glad both of his partners were now fighting side by side, but it was only the first step towards winning. SkullSatamon had stopped showing off, and was now using all of his quickness to attack, leaving Willis unable to keep up with most of the fight. Luckily, Rapidmon was just as fast and could usually stop the Undead Digimon before he did any serious damage to the slower Antylamon. However, while Rapidmon was fast enough to counter SkullSatamon, he didn’t have the power to do any actual damage. All of his attacks were long range attacks that travelled slower than Rapidmon himself could, meaning SkullSatamon would easily be able to dodge from a distance. His attacks also weren’t suited for point blank range—his missile attacks would hurt himself as much as SkullSatamon, and Tri-Beam took too long to charge and fire for it to be practical.

While Rapidmon’s speed didn’t help deal any significant damage to SkullSatamon, Willis noticed it had another key effect on the fight: Neo seemed to be speeding up his Jogress commands. Before, Ogremon and Devimon would fully materialize for around a second before recombining, but now each Partition was followed so quickly by a Jogress that the Champion levels would appear as nothing more than gridlines before SkullSatamon appeared once again. This closed off the one opening Willis had been hoping to exploit, but it gave him another idea. He couldn’t take advantage of the lag between Partition and Jogress to attack, but the fact that Neo was devoting so much effort into continuing the loop must have meant there was some other weakness he was trying to conceal. Thinking back on all the times Neo had used Jogress, Willis suddenly realized a pattern. And that pattern could lead to exactly the opening he needed to end this fight. “Antylamon, get ready to use your Bunny Blades attack on my signal. Rapidmon, grab SkullSatamon and fly him directly into Antylamon!”

Antylamon and Rapidmon both readied themselves to follow Willis’s orders, though they didn’t see what good such a move would do. SkullSatamon had managed to Partition out of Rapidmon’s hands before, so even if Rapidmon carried him right into Antylamon he could just split apart. Still, they trusted Willis, so they went along with his plan. Rapidmon managed to grab onto SkullSatamon and flew him towards Antylamon, who had his axes ready. Sure enough, SkullSatamon split apart a few feet away from contact, and Rapidmon could barely stop himself from colliding with his brother. However, Willis didn’t care about any of that, as he immediately ordered Antylamon to launch his Bunny Blades attack in place. Antylamon immediately started spinning, and to his surprise he managed to land a hit on something directly behind him. Turning around, he saw SkullSatamon lying on the ground, once again having deep cuts all along his body. Thinking quickly, Antylamon slammed his axes into the exposed DigiCore of his opponent, finally destroying the Undead Digimon.

Willis turned and smiled at Neo, who had a surprised look on his face. “Infinite Jogress may seem perfect, but it does have one flaw—whenever you Jogress, the Ultimate level appears in the exact center of where the two champions were. Took me a while to see the pattern, but thanks to you showing me the move so many times, it was all too easy to find. When you Partition, the Champions always end up five feet apart and keep moving at the same speed they were immediately before they separated. Then they join together in the same place every time. Not too hard to land a hit when you know exactly where your opponent is going to be.”

Neo lost his surprised look, but actually seemed happy at Willis’s statements. “Well, it looks like you’re a lot better at this than I thought. I finally see why Daemon seems so scared of the DigiDestined. But don’t think this is over. Counting myself, you are the fifth person to exploit the weakness of Infinite Jogress. But just because three other people can beat this strategy doesn’t mean those three are better Tamers than I am. I have plenty of other strategies that I can use to defeat you.”

As Neo finished this, he started flickering, almost like he was a picture on an old TV set. “Well, looks like Daemon doesn’t want me sticking around here. Oh well. Enjoy this victory while it lasts. Even if I wasn’t using my full power, there aren’t too many people who can say they’ve ever beaten me. I hope all of your friends are as much of a challenge as you were. Being a Tamer is so much more enjoyable when you actually have to try in order to win.” With that, Neo fully disappeared, signaling an end to the fight.

Chapter Text

Davis sighed and hopped off of Raidramon’s back. It had been a busy hour since getting thrown to this section of the Digital World. From a few brief pauses in the action, he managed to at least stay informed on the whereabouts of most of his friends, but he hadn’t quite shared in their luck. While most of them had landed in relatively deserted areas, Davis had landed in the middle of a crowded city called Hospitown. Unfortunately for him, he had arrived in the middle of an attack by a group of Champion level Digimon working under Daemon. While there were a handful of Digimon trying to fight off the invaders, most Digimon cowered in fear at the army and wished to avoid trouble. This left Davis to do most of the heavy lifting alongside a Greymon, a Meramon, and a Centarumon who were apparently soldiers for Holy Angel Castle. With only four soldiers covering an entire city, Davis had spent more time running back and forth on Raidramon to get to a fight than actually fighting.

By the time Daemon’s army had been eliminated, Veemon had been ready to collapse from exhaustion. The fights themselves hadn’t been too difficult—after the last battle in the Dark Ocean, all the DigiDestined had been training to prepare for the next major fight and Veemon was a lot stronger because of it—but the sheer number of opponents had worn him down. Being forced to fight as Raidramon hadn’t helped, but with the need to constantly travel across the city he couldn’t afford to waste any energy constantly switching to more battle-oriented forms. Still, the months of training had made up for the difference, and even as Raidramon he had managed to defeat a Cyclonemon that would have been too strong for even Flamedramon and ExVeemon a few months ago. Fortunately, Hospitown had that name for a reason, and after the battle was over Veemon paid a visit to the town doctor, a Jijimon. Davis barely had time to wonder why this section of the Digital World had doctors when File Island and Server didn’t before Veemon came out feeling as good as new. 

While Veemon appeared to be fully recovered, Davis had wanted to take some additional time to rest until he received an email from Willis. Now that he knew Daemon was working together with a human, Davis knew he didn’t have time to waste. After all, he had seen firsthand the damage a DigiDestined could cause when being manipulated by an evil Digimon. Luckily, he also had plenty of experience bringing said DigiDestined back to the good side, so maybe he would be able to turn this Neo person against Daemon just like he had helped save Ken from the influence of the Dark Spore. He only waited long enough for Jijimon to give him some last-minute help in the form of a couple of first aid kits and the location of the nearby tag before he had Veemon Armor Digivolve to Raidramon once more and rode off towards the next fight.

Snapping back to the present, Davis got his D3 ready for Veemon to Digivolve as soon as Raidramon reverted to his Rookie form. The tag they were searching for was on the top of a giant tree, and would be impossible to access from the ground. Well, according to Jijimon, there was an elevator of sorts, but it only worked if someone had the other four tags. Since that was out, the only option left was to have ExVeemon fly him up. It certainly wasn’t the most comfortable solution—ExVeemon was definitely built for power more than transportation—but it was better than sitting on the ground while ExVeemon fought against at least one Ultimate level.

When ExVeemon got to the top of the tree, Davis immediately took note of his surroundings. In typical Digital World logic, there was a giant rocky platform at the top of a tree, with another tree growing from the platform off to the side. However, what Davis most paid attention to was the other human standing on the opposite side of the platform. He looked like he was Joe’s age or maybe a bit older, and was dressed in the same black-and-white getup that Willis had described. Still, Davis knew better than to comment on his opponent’s fashion sense. After all, for his first year or so, he had always ended up wearing a flaming jacket. It just took a while before the Digital World stopped giving you an unchanging set of clothes and let you keep what you were wearing through the portal. Neo merely stared back at Davis with a bored look in his eye, and didn’t act until ExVeemon landed and readied himself for battle.

Davis was surprised Neo hadn’t done anything while they were flying up, but he didn’t have any time to ask what was going on before Neo used his two Digivices to materialize a Kokatorimon and a Kuwagamon. Not exactly the easiest of opponents to fight—Kokatorimon could turn enemies to stone with one attack and Kuwagamon had a nasty habit of always coming out on top in fights with the DigiDestined. Then again, if all went according to plan, he wouldn’t have to deal with either of them at all. Sure enough, ExVeemon immediately blasted Kokatorimon with his Vee-Laser attack, and Neo immediately started to have his Digimon DNA Digivolve.

If it hadn’t been for Willis, Davis would have probably been taken by surprise, but with the prior warning he was actually hoping the fight would come to this. Besides, he had another gift from Willis that would allow him to not only handle whatever Ultimate was coming but also allow him to break Neo’s Infinite Jogress before he could even start it. As Kokatorimon and Kuwagamon fused, ExVeemon reverted to his Rookie form, and Davis called out “Golden Armor Energize!”

Using a program Izzy created that matched what Willis had made months ago, Veemon could Golden Armor Digivolve even without the presence of the others to create the real Digimental of Miracles. The transformation wouldn’t last as long as even the brief period of time the original would work, but it’s not like Magnamon would need very long to beat an Ultimate. Magnamon finished Digivolving at the exact time Neo’s two Digimon combined to form a Megadramon.

The Dark Dragon Digimon started the battle by flying towards Magnamon with his claws extended, hoping to score a quick victory with his Ultimate Slicer attack. However, such a tactic wouldn’t work on an opponent like Magnamon, who merely flew forward and landed a Magna Kick on his opponent’s armored head, knocking the dragon backwards. Magnamon followed immediately with his Magna Blast attack, launching a flurry of missiles towards Megadramon. The attack would have been more effective if he had focused all the missiles on one point, but the purpose of the attack wasn’t to actually damage Megadramon, but to prevent him from splitting apart. After all, an Ultimate level could survive a hit by a few missiles, but a Champion couldn’t. If Megadramon couldn’t safely Partition, then Infinite Jogress wouldn’t become an issue.

Unfortunately, this approach also gave Megadramon an opening to defend himself, and after the first hit he managed to destroy the incoming projectiles with his Parry Force attack. He then countered by launching his own barrage of missiles with his Dark Side Attack, but Magnamon was ready. He launched his Magna Blaster attack, taking out the missiles with beams of plasma. It would have been quicker for him just to use his Magna Explosion to eliminate them all in one shot, but he didn’t want to risk hurting Davis or destroying the platform he and Neo were standing on. Still, the plasma beams did the trick, and succeeded in pushing Megadramon back further. His Parry Force couldn’t keep up with the multitude of attacks, and at the current pace, Megadramon wouldn’t last more than a minute.

Seeing the fight ending so quickly, Davis turned to Neo. “Is that all you got? I expected more from somebody who calls themselves ‘the greatest tamer.’ Is DNA Digivolution really your best trick? Because I’ve been doing that for a long time, and it wasn’t enough for me to win many fights on my own.”

Neo didn’t rise to Davis’s taunts. “You’re right; my Infinite Jogress isn’t enough to overcome this situation. But did you honestly think I expected it to be? Would any mildly competent strategist use a move that his opponent knows how to beat? If your friend could beat Infinite Jogress, I knew you’d find a way to counter it. Which is why I came prepared.” With that comment, he took the Digivice off of his left wrist and replaced it with another Digivice that had been buried in his pocket. He then slammed his fists together, shouting “Triple Jogress!”

With that, Megadramon was reduced to gridlines, allowing Magnamon’s attack to pass harmlessly through him. He spiraled off in the direction of the giant tree growing out of the platform, but when Davis saw the tree had also been reduced to gridlines, he had to mentally kick himself. He should have realized he hadn’t seen the Ultimate level who guarded the tag, and Mimi showed all too well that a giant tree could very well be an Ultimate level Digimon. However, it was too late to worry about that now, as the entire sky turned black, the platform began to shake and crack apart, and the wind began swirling like crazy. Whatever form Megadramon and Cherrymon had DNA Digivolved into, it certainly was making a flashy entrance.

Davis had been expecting the storm to fade away when the Digivolution ended, but even after Davis could see his newest opponent the wind continued to howl all around. Which was especially surprising, because Davis recognized his foe and didn’t think it was capable of having such an effect. He had never fought one personally, but the demonic form with an eye in each of its clawed hands and the one giant eye in its face had to be a Ghoulmon like the ones that had made up a large portion of Barbamon’s army a few months ago. From what the others had said, they were strong, but not to the point where they were far beyond most Mega level Digimon. Davis had seen things like Armageddemon and MaloMyotismon form with much less fanfare. Either this Ghoulmon was much stronger than he should be, or something else was going on here.

Before Davis could think anything else, Ghoulmon launched a black arrow from the eye in its right hand directly at Magnamon. The Holy Knight Digimon was caught by surprise—it didn’t look like Neo had given any order and Ghoulmon hadn’t called out his attack—but he managed to get up his Aura Barrier in time, and the barrier of light nullified the incoming attack. However, Ghoulmon wasn’t deterred, and continued to shoot out the blasts of darkness apparently at random. More ominously, it changed color from a pale gray to jet black, and its attacks started exploding in the sky. It was only when Davis noticed what appeared to be holes in the wake of the explosion that he suddenly realized exactly what was going on. Somehow, Ghoulmon was able to rip holes in the dimensional barrier between the Digital World and Earth!

Still, that wasn’t the worst part of this. After all, every DigiDestined had the same ability, and Digimon like Daemon and Lilithmon had also been able to do the exact same thing. The worst part was the fact that Ghoulmon seemed to be running wild and had no control over its actions. It could easily destroy both worlds without meaning to. Davis wondered what exactly Neo had been thinking calling forth something like this, but when he turned to ask he saw Neo had seemingly disappeared. After a few seconds, he saw Neo standing on Ghoulmon’s shoulder, furiously typing something into his Digivice. Whatever Neo had done, it seemed to calm Ghoulmon down, as he went back to his original grey coloring, the wind died out, and the sky returned to normal. Davis breathed a sigh of relief, only to hear Neo addressing him.

“Well, I’m sorry you had to see that. Apparently, the Cherrymon that was left to guard this tag wasn’t quite as ready to reach the Mega level as I expected. Don’t worry; this monster won’t go berserk like that again. I’ll defeat you with my own skill, not an application of brute force.”

The arrogance in his voice made Davis want to punch Neo in the face. His Digimon could have just ripped the world apart, and he was still viewing this as some sort of game. To make matters worse, he was talking about beating Magnamon, yet he wasn’t making this anywhere close to a fair fight. One on one, Magnamon could win hands down. Now that Neo was riding on Ghoulmon in order to keep him under control, however, Magnamon couldn’t use any of his strongest attacks without killing Neo. It was bad enough that the war against the Demon Lords forced them to kill Digimon, but killing a human was one line none of the DigiDestined or their partners would ever cross.

Unfortunately, Ghoulmon didn’t have any reason to be reluctant to attack, and his main eye began glowing crimson. Neo smirked and took the liberty of calling out the next attack, and Ghoulmon launched a massive red beam with its Explosion Eye attack. Magnamon, who had been busy trying to think of a way to separate Neo from Ghoulmon without hurting him, was a bit slow reacting and was unable to move completely out of the way of the expanding blast. He managed to get his Aura Barrier up, but Ghoulmon’s attack still did a fair bit of damage even though it was only a glancing blow. It took Magnamon a second to recover, but Neo took advantage of the opening and repositioned Ghoulmon before having him charge up another Explosion Eye attack. Magnamon was ready for this, however, and prepared to dodge when Neo laughed.

“I’m well aware that Explosion Eye is too slow to hit you normally. But are you sure you want to dodge this? You can’t see it, but you are directly between me and the Digimon city known as Hospitown. If you get out of the way, there’s nothing to stop the attack, and I assure you, Ghoulmon does have that kind of range. Explosion Eye!”

Magnamon knew he had no choice. He couldn’t just let Hospitown be destroyed, so he’d have to stand his ground. But that didn’t mean he’d just have to let Ghoulmon’s attack hit. It was time to try out something new he had developed in the past few months. His entire body glowed with a golden light, and he fired a golden beam that was basically his Magna Explosion attack, only focused in one direction. In this case, he aimed slightly below the center of Ghoulmon’s blast, hoping to at least deflect Ghoulmon’s attack upwards and at most overpower Ghoulmon’s attack and destroy him in such a way that Neo wouldn’t be hit directly. Sure, Neo would still end up falling from the sky, but Magnamon would at least be able to catch him. In theory.

Davis watched as his partner’s golden beam collided with Ghoulmon’s crimson one. He couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive—Magnamon had never quite mastered this variation of the Magna Explosion in training. He’d gotten close, but it was still risky to rely on such an untested move. Not that Neo had given him any choice by threatening a city of innocents. Even in his Digimon Emperor days, Ken hadn’t gone for whole-scale destruction until he had gone a bit crazy with the Dark Whirlpool and created Kimeramon, which was more the spirit of Millenniummon controlling him through the Dark Spore anyway. This Neo creep was lucky there was a precedent for reclaiming evil DigiDestined, or he might not earn forgiveness from the now adult DigiDestined as easily as Ken did years ago. Thinking that, Davis took a deep breath to calm down. All of this might not be Neo’s fault. After all, he was working with Daemon, who could very much be doing the exact same thing Arukenimon did to Ken. The Emperor thought he was doing his own thing, but that wasn’t the case. Who was to say Neo wasn’t being controlled in a similar way?

While Davis was thinking this over, Magnamon’s attack finally started to overpower Ghoulmon’s. After the initial stalemate, the attack slowly pushed toward Ghoulmon. When the attack got within a few feet of Ghoulmon’s eye, Davis started to cheer, but the celebration quickly turned to panic as the golden beam suddenly winked out of existence. Ghoulmon’s attack flew off into the sky, luckily at a higher angle than it had initially been fired. However, Davis wasn’t focused on the attack going up as he was a small blue body falling down. The Digi-Egg of Miracles must have worn off, and now Veemon was falling helplessly towards the ground.

Quickly grabbing his D3, Davis had Veemon Digivolve, and ExVeemon flew back to land on the platform. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about falling to death, but he’d still have to fight a Mega level as a Champion. A fact that was painfully driven home as Ghoulmon blasted off ExVeemon’s wings with more of his black arrows before shooting even smaller versions into both of the screaming dragon’s knees. Ghoulmon’s right arm then began glowing with a black energy as Neo addressed his immobilized foe.

“You’ve only ever experienced the smaller, quicker version of this attack. Don’t worry; the full version will probably be less painful. Death Arrow!” As Ghoulmon began firing a larger version of his black arrow attack, Davis started running towards ExVeemon. He didn’t have a plan, but he knew he couldn’t let his partner just die like this without doing something. He managed to tackle ExVeemon before the blast hit, but the arrow exploded on contact with the ground and Davis hadn’t had enough momentum to carry him and his partner outside the blast radius. The shockwave hit them in midair, pushing them further along their trajectory and sending them flying off of the edge of the platform.

Davis and ExVeemon had a hard time processing what was happening. It was kind of difficult to process anything when you were falling like a stone with no way to stop yourself other than hitting the ground. The Digimental of Miracles would be unusable for a while, ExVeemon couldn’t fly without his wings, and none of Veemon’s other forms could fly at all. Short of a miracle, there was nothing he could do about the situation. However, he was painfully knocked out of this train of thought when something knocked into his head. Turning to see what it was, he was surprised to find what looked like a Digivice instead of just a rock. More importantly, there was a small triangular piece of metal hanging from it, something that could only be the tag for this area. Considering everybody else had gotten to Ultimate thanks to the tag and he had nothing to lose at this point, Davis grabbed onto the tag, and was rewarded with a golden glow. As ExVeemon started glowing, Davis was forced to close his eyes, but he still heard what might have been his favorite sentence ever: “ExVeemon, Digivolve to… AeroVeedramon!”

Before Davis even opened his eyes, he felt like he went through a loop on a roller coaster, and he was suddenly flying upwards even faster than he had been falling. He quickly found his feet back on solid ground, and only then could he truly see the new form his partner had taken. It took him a little while to place it, but he eventually recognized the new form. He looked just like Zeromaru, the Digimon partnered to an alternate dimension’s version of Tai that he met when fighting Parallelmon. The only differences were AeroVeedramon’s horns were more curved, the horn on his nose was much longer, and his wings were tattered. He also had a hard glint in his eye, but Davis figured that might have had something to do with being angry at Neo over the near-death experience. In a low growl, AeroVeedramon addressed Davis. “Listen, stay here. I’m going to take him down, and as cool as it would be to carry you with me, I’m not sure your bones would be able to handle the stress of riding me in battle.” Lowering his voice to a dangerous snarl, he added, “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt Neo—at least not permanently.”

With that, AeroVeedramon took off, and all Davis could see was a blue blur before Ghoulmon was hit with a devastating punch courtesy of a Magnum Crush attack. It was obvious the attack did a lot of damage, causing Davis to pull up his Digimon Analyzer to check something. Before he could even open the program, AeroVeedramon struck another heavy blow, this time with his V-Breath Arrow. Ghoulmon barely managed to stay in the sky, and even though he started shifting to his black form, there were no outside effects. Finally, Davis opened his Digimon Analyzer, and was shocked to find that AeroVeedramon was only listed as an Ultimate. With the level of power he was currently showing, Davis had thought for sure he had somehow skipped a level in Digivolving. AeroVeedramon might even be stronger than MagnaAngemon, and that meant he was beyond what some Megas could claim in power.

Unbeknownst to Davis, Neo was also scanning AeroVeedramon’s data, but Neo’s shock was possibly even greater. In a disbelieving tone, he read off the data. “AeroVeedramon. Ultimate level Holy Dragon Digimon. Average Lifespan: 0.00 hours. Existence believed to only be a legend from ancient times. Said to be able to overwrite its data in order to exceed its limitations in combat.” Having reached the end of the overview, he looked into AeroVeedramon’s more specific statistics, and started to rant. “I’m the world’s greatest Tamer. How could anybody else unlock a legendary Digimon? This has to be a bug! This world was supposed to be perfect! I can’t let this glitch monster and its glitch partner interfere with my perfect world!  Ghoulmon, SHOOT HIM DOWN!”

In his shock, Neo didn’t even realize he was no longer in control of Ghoulmon, as he had pulled his Digivice away from controlling it in order to scan AeroVeedramon. Not that being in control of Ghoulmon would have helped him anyway. In his berserk state, Ghoulmon was firing Death Arrows at random, which was probably the best way to hit AeroVeedramon, who was flying around so quickly he either disappeared from view or left multiple images of himself at locations where he so much as changed direction. However, AeroVeedramon’s antics, intended to taunt his opponents, backfired horribly. Neo was too busy ranting at his Digivice and Ghoulmon to even notice what was happening, and Ghoulmon seemed to develop a rational thought and launched his Explosion Eye attack—at Davis. AeroVeedramon cursed and flew between the attack and his partner. Crossing his arms, he spread his wings and then quickly flapped them down, unleashing his Wind Guardian attack. Ghoulmon’s attack hit the wall of wind, and was deflected harmlessly upward.

Not wanting to make the mistake of prolonging the fight any further again, AeroVeedramon immediately started his next attack. His wings started glowing with light, and he launched his V-Wing Blade attack directly at Ghoulmon. The V-shaped energy blast cut the Mega level in half, and AeroVeedramon allowed himself a few moments of congratulations as his opponent’s data dissipated before flying in to catch Neo—or at least trying to. Before he could as much as move, he suddenly reverted all the way back to his Baby form of Chibomon before passing out and falling from the sky as well. Luckily for Chibomon, he had been flying above the platform, and Davis managed to catch him as he fell. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of Ghoulmon, and Davis was forced to helplessly watch as Neo fell beyond the edge of the platform and out of sight.

Ken poked his head out of the cave he and Wormmon were hiding in, saw the coast was clear, and sighed with relief. He and Stingmon had ended up in the middle of a mountain range after the brief encounter with Daemon, but things hadn’t exactly gone well for him. Stingmon had tried to simply fly them off the mountain in the direction of what appeared to be a town in the distance, but they barely got off the ground before they were suddenly swarmed by a bunch of SandYanmamon. The dragonfly-like Champion levels were no match for Stingmon one on one, but the sheer multitude of opponents would have overwhelmed Ken’s partner. In addition, Ken wasn’t sure he wanted to fight this battle. The SandYanmamon didn’t seem to be evil, just defending their homes. Ken couldn’t blame them for attacking when a strange intruder just showed up out of nowhere. They had managed to lose the swarm a couple times, but whenever Stingmon started flying the swarm immediately returned to chase them. It didn’t take long for Ken to figure out they were tracking the sound of Stingmon’s wings, so when he found a cave around a blind corner he had Stingmon revert back to Rookie before quickly hiding in the back of the cave.

            Once he was safely hidden away in the cave, all Ken had to do was wait for the buzzing sound to disappear. It took a long time, but at least the cave didn’t interfere with his D-Terminal, so he could stay updated with how everybody else that had been pulled here was doing. Yolei, Cody, and Willis had all managed to find their Crests and unlock the Ultimate level, while Davis was about to go fight to claim another tag. While it was good to stay informed, Ken had a new appreciation for the phrase ‘ignorance is bliss’. He had recovered the Crest of Kindness months ago, but he hadn’t ever managed to get Stingmon to Digivolve to Ultimate despite constantly trying. Now, his friends were all managing to pull it off as soon as they got their Crests, and to top it off, Daemon had recruited a human ally that, from Willis’s description, was essentially a second Digimon Emperor. Not exactly the kind of news that would cheer Ken up. Still, now that the coast was clear, he at least could do something other than brood in a dark cave. He and Wormmon started heading out and trying to get off of the mountain, but before they could go more than a few steps the sky suddenly turned black and an earthquake struck the mountain range.

Wormmon was forced to Digivolve once again in order to save Ken as part of the mountain face collapsed, but luckily the SandYanmamon were too concerned with the landslide to pay any attention to Stingmon this time around. And now that the mountain face had shifted, Ken could see exactly why the SandYanmamon were so defensive of this area—beneath the rocky exterior, the inside of the mountain had been hollowed out, and was filled with Dokunemon, SandYanmamon’s Rookie form. The entire mountain had basically been turned into a giant anthill where the SandYanmamon raised their young. However, Ken didn’t have much time to marvel at this natural wonder as the SandYanmamon suddenly all flew down a nearby valley, and were even joined by a couple of Scorpiomon who crawled out of the tunnels exposed by the landslide. Wondering what could have caused such a large disturbance, Ken decided to investigate and had Stingmon fly in the same general direction as the SandYanmamon. As they came around a mountain and could finally see into the valley, they immediately saw the cause of the concern. It looked like Sora was down in the valley, sitting on top of a Scorpiomon half buried in rubble! However, on a second glance, Ken realized this person couldn’t be Sora. Biyomon was nowhere to be seen, and this girl had auburn hair instead of being a redhead like Sora. In a way, that made this even worse. Sora could probably handle a huge swarm like this just by having Biyomon Warp Digivolve. Whoever this new girl was, she wouldn’t be able to Digivolve beyond Champion, if she even had a Digimon partner at all. Immediately coming up with a plan of action, Ken and Stingmon flew in to the rescue.

Stingmon started with his Multi Moon Shooter, firing multiple huge needles to scatter the SandYanmamon away from the girl. With that, Ken quickly hopped off, while Stingmon used his Spinning Spiking Strike in an attempt to free the trapped Scorpiomon. After all, Stingmon wouldn’t be able to fight off the swarm of enemies, so maybe if he helped out one Scorpiomon, everybody else would just let him leave peacefully. While Stingmon was kicking away the debris, Ken asked the shocked girl if she was alright. She seemed to be a little overwhelmed at everything that was going on, but managed to nod her head. Ken decided pressing for any further information would have to wait until they weren’t surrounded by hostile Digimon. Luckily, Stingmon quickly managed to destroy the rubble imprisoning the Scorpiomon. Unfortunately, the Scorpiomon didn’t seem very grateful, and launched its Tail Blade attack not at Stingmon, but at the two humans. Ken managed to push the girl out of the way of the blue energy blast, but didn’t have time to dodge himself. Luckily, he didn’t have to. He was suddenly enveloped in a pale lilac colored glow that nullified Scorpiomon’s attack completely. Then, Stingmon became covered in a similar glow and shouted out, “Stingmon, Digivolve to… JewelBeemon!”

Ken couldn’t help but smile as he finally managed to Digivolve to Ultimate. He didn’t even care that JewelBeemon didn’t look all that different from Stingmon—the only real differences were JewelBeemon was a little bit sleeker, carried a red spear, and had multiple jewels embedded along his body that emitted a rainbow-colored glow. JewelBeemon didn’t bother waiting around to test out his new form, and quickly grabbed both humans and started flying away. The SandYanmamon tried to strike him down with their Bottom Cutter attacks, but JewelBeemon had the perfect attack to get through the crowd. Using his Spike Buster attack, he whirled his spear around and created a multicolored shockwave that knocked all the SandYanmamon back. Now that he had an opening, he started flying away, only to get hit by another Scorpiomon’s Twin Sword attack as he flew around a cliff face. He managed to right himself before hitting the ground, but in the few moments it took, the SandYanmamon had caught up, and a few more Scorpiomon had tunneled out of the surrounding mountains. The Scorpiomon all launched their Scorpion Storm attack, while the SandYanmamon added their Desert Wind. Faced with being caught in a massive sandstorm he wouldn’t be able to survive, JewelBeemon took the only option left to him: he pointed his spear at the ground and fired his Shot Claw attack with all his power. The blast blew a deep hole into the floor of the valley, allowing JewelBeemon to fly underground and turn into an underground tunnel just before the sand buried him.

After flying out of reach of the sand, JewelBeemon set his two passengers down and landed himself. After all, the SandYanmamon seemed to be able to track him easily if he flew, and he wasn’t sure how many more narrow escapes he had left in him. Ken was just glad to take a break from the action, and decided it was finally time to find out who exactly he had rescued. “Well, I’m sorry that was so close back there, but I hope you’re still okay. My name is Ken Ichijouji, and this is my partner Digimon. He’s usually a Wormmon, but we just Digivolved to the Ultimate level, so he’s JewelBeemon now.”

It took a few seconds for Ken’s companion to gather herself before she responded. “Wait, did you say partner Digimon? Does that mean you’re a—what was the word Tai used— DigiDestined? Oh sorry, I guess I forgot to introduce myself. My name’s Rei.”

Rei still seemed to be a little bit in shock, but Ken suddenly realized who she was. “Wait, did you say you know Tai? Are you the Rei who tried to help us out with Lilithmon?” Rei only nodded at this, but Ken let out a sigh of relief. With this Neo helping out Daemon, he hadn’t been sure if he could trust any human he saw that he didn’t know. Luckily, Rei was already an ally, so he hadn’t been helping out an enemy. Still, that left one question: why was she here? According to Tai, she didn’t know anything about Digimon before he told her, so she couldn’t have her own partner and Digivice to come here.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Rei. I’m one of the DigiDestined in Tai’s group—well, I suppose I’m technically in a group with Tai’s younger sister, but we all view Tai as the overall leader. Anyway, I’m sorry to pry, but what exactly are you doing here? From what Tai said, you didn’t have a partner Digimon or Digivice, so you shouldn’t be able to come to the Digital World.”

Rei finally seemed to be adjusting to her new situation, as she was much quicker responding. “I don’t know why I’m here. Last I remember, I was at my computer when there was a bright flash of light. Next thing I knew, I was in this mountain range. I started dancing, and then the cliff I was on collapsed and I ended up falling onto that scorpion thing. Then you got here.”

Ken gave her a questioning look. “So, you end up somewhere completely strange, and your first instinct is to dance?”

Rei sighed. “I know it sounds crazy, but I thought I was just dreaming. Four years ago, I got hit by a car, and I’ve been paralyzed from the waist down ever since. Here, my legs work fine. Add to that the fact that apart from the leggings, I don’t own any clothes like this…” She gestured to her outfit, which consisted of an orange jacket, an orange skirt over black leggings, orange boots, and a pendant necklace that seemed to be glowing slightly, “and is it really that hard to blame me? Before the accident, I was really into ballet, so whenever I dream that my legs work, I always find myself dancing. Besides, with all the monsters everywhere, how do I know I’m not dreaming? Tai told me about Digimon, but he described them as friendly creatures for the most part. Not exactly an accurate description of that welcoming committee back there.”

Ken sighed. “It might not have looked like it, but those Digimon did have a pretty good reason for attacking us. At least one of the mountains up there is basically a giant anthill filled with the younger forms of the Digimon that were attacking us. They were just protecting their young from a couple of strange invaders. Imagine how you’d react if some monstrous thing you hadn’t seen before showed up in your family’s house. These Digimon probably haven’t seen humans before, so how could they know we’re not going to hurt them? Just because something attacks doesn’t mean—what was that?”

Rei merely looked confused, but Ken could have sworn he had heard a strange rustling sound. Suddenly feeling unsafe, he signaled for Rei to follow him before he and JewelBeemon set off down the path in front of them on foot. They didn’t want to attract extra attention to themselves by making undo amounts of noise, and JewelBeemon even dimmed the glow from his jewels so they were as dull as possible while still allowing the group to see the tunnel. As they advanced, they couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched. While they didn’t notice anything to cause that feeling, they couldn’t help but feel slightly nervous as the shape of the tunnel shifted. Originally, it had been winding and uneven, like they would expect from a natural formation. However, it was now becoming more and more of a rectangular hallway, making it look less and less like this had been created by nature or even years of activity by insect Digimon.

Ken knew it was dangerous to apply logic that was consistent on Earth to the Digital World, but he still felt he was walking into something that had been purposely built for something other than the surface inhabitants. This suspicion was confirmed a minute later when the group entered a much larger cavern. JewelBeemon started glowing brighter to allow the group a chance to examine the wider space, and Ken saw what appeared to be a large square room with what was unmistakably a door on the far side. However, while Ken was busy looking forward into the room, Rei had turned her eyes back in order to shield them from the suddenly brighter light. However, what she saw behind her only caused her to let out a terrified scream.

Ken and JewelBeemon quickly spun around to see what was going on, but one look told them exactly why Rei had screamed. Following behind the group was what appeared to be the skeleton of a giant scorpion. The nightmarish creature hissed out “Poison Pierce!” and brought its tail stinger down towards Rei, but JewelBeemon managed to grab her out of the way just before she was impaled. While the opposing Digimon’s tail only struck the rock on the bottom of the tunnel, a small purple mist seeped out accompanied by a hissing sound, as if the rock was being melted by acid. Not wanting to be caught by that attack, JewelBeemon grabbed Rei and Ken and flew them into the larger room, where he set them near the door on the far end from the tunnel. While JewelBeemon flew off to engage his enemy in combat, Ken pulled up the Digimon’s profile on his Digimon Analyzer. However, he didn’t get much help—the only data present said the Digimon was SkullScorpiomon, an Ultimate level Digimon with Poison Pierce and Blackout attacks.

While Ken was pulling up SkullScorpiomon’s profile, JewelBeemon had assumed a ready stance in the center of the room. As soon as SkullScorpiomon started coming out of the tunnel, JewelBeemon blasted him with his Shot Claw attack. SkullScorpiomon raised his claws to block, but the force of the attack ended up blowing one of his claws off. However, he didn’t seem to notice the loss of a body part, and lashed out with his poisonous tail. JewelBeemon was taken by surprise, and only barely managed to raise his spear in time to deflect the blow. However, a few stray drops of poison landed on JewelBeemon’s arm, and the immediate burning told him that SkullScorpiomon’s poison did indeed act like acid. Not a very comforting thought, especially when SkullScorpiomon managed to grab JewelBeemon with his one remaining claw.

Knowing he didn’t have much time before SkullScorpiomon lashed out with his tail again, JewelBeemon struggled to free his spear. He managed it just as the dreaded tail was coming towards him again, and used a much more focused version of his Spike Buster attack. The ensuing shockwave blew off the tip of SkullScorpiomon’s tail and his last remaining claw, leaving the scorpion much less threatening. Wanting to press his advantage, JewelBeemon flew forward and buried his spear in SkullScorpiomon’s head. Where the insect Digimon hadn’t seemed to notice the loss of his appendages, he did take notice of his latest injury—by emitting a sound that could only be described as a rasping chuckle, followed by a hiss of “Blackout!” A green mist suddenly emanated from SkullScorpiomon’s entire body, and JewelBeemon cried out as his eyes started burning and he lost the ability to see. Still, he knew exactly where SkullScorpiomon was, so he could at least end the fight. He fired one more Shot Claw attack, and since his spear was still buried in SkullScorpiomon’s head, the opposing Insect Digimon was powerless to block the attack and finally burst into a cloud of data. With the last of his energy, JewelBeemon flew out of the acid cloud and reverted to Minomon.

Ken quickly ran and scooped up his partner. Minomon still wasn’t able to see, but he managed to tell Ken he would be fine and warned Ken not to go into the poisonous cloud before passing out. Ken had pretty much figured out that last bit on his own, but he was too relieved that his partner was okay to say anything about it. Rei, however, wasn’t caught up in a feeling of relief and interrupted the moment.

“Um, I don’t know if this is the best time, but can he go back to being that big Digimon again? There are two more of those skeleton things coming at us.” Ken groaned as he saw the two SkullScorpiomon coming down the tunnel. Minomon certainly wouldn’t be able to fight them off, which left only one option. He merely shouted “Run!” before sprinting to the door and throwing it open. Rei was one step behind him running down the hallway behind the door, and the SkullScorpiomon didn’t seem to know how to react. They ran to the door, but refused to cross over the threshold. Ken gave a sigh of relief—he hadn’t really expected to be able to outrun an Ultimate level Digimon, even at his level of athleticism. He slowed down to let Rei, who didn’t possess the same speed or stamina, catch up, and then continued more cautiously down the hallway until he came to another door.

Since Ken’s only options were to open the door and advance or turn back and face the SkullScorpiomon again, he opened the door. However, as soon as he did, an ancient sounding voice growled out “Rinkazan!” and Ken instinctively ducked. He felt the rush of something passing directly over his head, and an eerie light trail remained floating above him. Ken backed up a few steps before standing up again, and he was glad he did—the upper part of the door had started to collapse, and the pieces of rubble were sliced cleanly whenever they came into contact with the glowing track of light. Finally, the glow started to fade, and Ken looked beyond the door to see what exactly had attacked him. At first, Ken thought it was a BlackWarGreymon, but this Digimon seemed to be wearing samurai armor. He wielded two strangely bent swords that were both glowing, and his entire armor was covered in scars. It looked like his armor originally had blades attached to the elbows and shoulders, but they had been broken in various places. Even without looking at the Digimon’s long, grey hair, Ken could tell he was looking at an ancient Digimon that had lived through a great deal of battles. Unfortunately, that was all Ken could observe before he suddenly found two glowing swords crossed millimeters away from his neck. Their wielder merely glared at Ken with bloodshot eyes as he snarled “Get… out!”

Ken’s mind pretty much shut down at this situation, but luckily, he wasn’t the only conscious one in the group. Rei immediately called out for the Digimon to stop, and calmly explained they were looking for a way out but didn’t know how to find it. She then politely asked if the Digimon would put the swords down and asked for directions. With this, the pendant around her neck glowed slightly, and the Digimon dropped both of his swords and put his hands on his head before staggering over to the far wall. Ken let out the breath he had been holding and quickly pulled up his Digimon Analyzer to see what he was dealing with. The Digimon was a Mega level Dragon Man Digimon called Gaiomon, but other than that the Digimon Analyzer displayed a complete string of nonsense. Something about this Gaiomon must have made its data so different from other Digimon that the program just couldn’t handle it. While Ken was looking at the profile, Gaiomon seemed to get over his headache and placed both of his hands against the wall. His hands began glowing with a red energy, and with a call of “Gaia Reactor,” the entire mountainside was blasted outward, leaving a wide exit tunnel for Ken and Rei.

Ken was shocked at the level of power Gaiomon had displayed, but perhaps more shocking was Gaiomon suddenly speaking in complete sentences for the first time. “That passage should be the quickest way out of this area. The insects have learned not to come this far. They can at least see the value of their lives… been so long… lost purpose…” Gaiomon suddenly slipped back into his broken speech pattern, and carried on mumbling things nobody could hear. He walked over and picked up his swords, then walked out of the room like he didn’t even notice the Ken and Rei’s presence.

Ken went to thank Gaiomon for his help, but Rei grabbed his shoulder to stop him. “Listen, just don’t. He probably would attack you again. Trust me, you can’t help—I went through the same thing with my grandfather. Let’s just get out of here.” Ken could see that interacting with Gaiomon had clearly disturbed Rei, so he didn’t press the issue and quietly followed her out the newly created exit. He then sent a message to everybody he could informing them about everything that had happened, and hoped they would be able to join together soon in order to stop Daemon and earn a break from all the constant fighting.

Chapter Text

Michael let out a sigh of relief as he approached a building that could only be Holy Angel Castle. It was certainly a majestic building, built out of something that looked halfway between blue glass and marble. The more translucent sections revealed lines that resembled a circuit board. However, even if Holy Angel Castle had been just a run-down shack, Michael would have been just as happy to see it. The route Gon had pointed out may have been the quickest way to reach the castle, but it certainly wasn’t the easiest. Just about 90% of the trip had been walking through a desert, and apparently Daemon had somehow gotten the local population of Golemon and Tortomon to work for him.

Normally, this wouldn’t be so bad, but considering Betamon was an aquatic Digimon in the middle of a desert, fights even as MegaSeadramon were fairly difficult. Luckily, Michael’s Digivice 01 could store a large quantity of water by reducing it to data, so Michael could at least rehydrate Chapmon in between fights. Still, it had been a rough journey, and Michael was glad to reach his destination. He had always assumed Mimi exaggerated the stories of her first trip to the Digital World when it came to wandering through deserts, but now he had a greater appreciation for exactly what she went through.

Putting aside his thoughts of Mimi, Michael stepped through the castle gates, only to be greeted by an even better sight than the castle: Cody, Yolei, Ken, and some girl he didn’t recognize were all waiting in the courtyard. Michael called out to them, and they all turned to greet him. Cody and Yolei were holding the In-Training forms of their partners, while Wormmon was currently missing. When Michael asked about this, Ken merely pointed across the courtyard, where a tall insectoid warrior with a spear was dueling against a sword-wielding white lion. Ken explained that the insect was JewelBeemon, Wormmon’s Ultimate form, while the lion was an IceLeomon named Leo who served as the combat officer in HolyAngemon’s army. HolyAngemon himself was currently in a meeting with various other army members, so Leo had offered to spar with the DigiDestined’s partners while they waited to meet with the general. It seemed like a good way for everybody to at the very least get used to their Ultimate forms, so they had taken turns sparring. Hearing this, Michael realized he really needed to catch up on everything that happened, so he started asking everybody else for the details of their journeys. Upon hearing that he had been the only one out of the loop, he sat down and prepared himself for a long story session.

A few minutes after Michael was all caught up, Willis arrived at Holy Angel Castle. According to Terriermon, they would have arrived much earlier, but Willis had spent hours examining some new code that had shown up in his computer. To hear Willis tell the story, he had only taken a few minutes to go over the code that had shown up after his battle with Neo, and judging from the data his programmed Digimental of Destiny had reacted to the energy from his Crest to create a much more stable program that may have been the true Digimental. What had taken the most time was testing it out—unlike his old program which only affected Terriermon, this new Digimental worked on either one of his partners. In addition, it could be used even from the In-Training level. Seeing this, he had wanted to test out exactly how useful the Digimental would be before jumping into actual combat, causing the delay.

 From the tests, he learned that both Lopmon and Terriermon Golden Armor Digivolved into Rapidmon—or GoldRapidmon as Willis had started calling it in order to distinguish it from Terriermon’s normal Ultimate form—though Terriermon seemed better at using the form, probably due to practice. Perhaps more usefully, the Digimental now lasted three times as long as it used to, and seemed to prevent any energy drain by its use—no matter what he did, GoldRapidmon only ever reverted to Rookie, and that Rookie was able to Digivolve to Ultimate right away without needing to rest. This even worked if GoldRapidmon was knocked out of his higher form before time expired. This gave him access to a combo almost as devastating as Infinite Jogress—he could Golden Armor Digivolve, then if that wore off he could merely Digivolve normally to the Ultimate level again. And that was only taking into account one partner. The only drawback was the recharge period for the Digimental was still in effect, so Willis wouldn’t be able use this combination more than once in any given fight unless his opponent let him or was severely distracted. Still, it would probably be useful against whatever strategy Neo was going to use next, assuming Davis hadn’t managed to convince Neo to stop working for Daemon.

When Willis mentioned Davis, an uneasy look settled across the rest of the DigiDestined. Davis hadn’t contacted them since his message saying he was heading to the top of the tree to fight for the tag. That had been some time ago, but he still hadn’t given them any updates. They were pretty sure Davis had won the battle—Leo had heard reports that a Ghoulmon had appeared at the tree and then been destroyed by a blue dragon that must have been Veemon—but Davis had been uncharacteristically silent after the fight. Something must have been going on to keep him busy, but until he decided to contact him there was nothing they could do but wait and hope for the best.

Davis wouldn’t arrive at Holy Angel Castle for another hour. Since AeroVeedramon had reverted to Chibomon, he didn’t have any way to get down from the tree. He made use of the first aid kit he had gotten from Dr. Jijimon in order to help Chibomon recover, but he still had to wait a long time until his partner was ready to Digivolve to Champion once again. With nothing to help pass the time, Davis couldn’t help playing over the end of the last battle in his mind. The sight of Neo falling helplessly as AeroVeedramon reverted back to his baby form just wouldn’t leave him. He had seen his fair share of Digimon deaths, and he had been there when Oikawa sacrificed himself in order to restore the Digital World, but this had been different. The Digimon he had seen die had been in a kill or be killed scenario, and Oikawa chose to give up his life for a greater purpose. Neither of those had been the case with Neo.

True, Neo was working with Daemon, and he had pulled some dirty tricks in the fight, but Neo clearly valued human life. For proof of this, Davis only needed to look at his crest, and the Digivice it had been tied to. It was larger than a D3, and clearly was meant to be worn around the wrist instead of being carried. In short, it was the exact model of Digivice Neo had, and only had one explanation: Neo had thrown him the Crest in the hope that ExVeemon could Digivolve and fly again in order to save his life. This put Davis in a new position—as a DigiDestined, he owed it to the world to stop Neo from continuing his path of destruction, but as a person, he owed Neo his life.

By the time Chibomon had finally returned to Veemon, Davis still hadn’t resolved his conflicting feelings, but he had come to a decision. He’d just view Neo as a second Digimon Emperor—he had to be stopped, but he still had some good buried deep within him. When he next faced Neo—and he knew he’d have the chance since Daemon wouldn’t just leave a valuable asset to die when he could easily summon Neo away—he’d just have to convince him Digital life was just as important as human life. It wouldn’t be easy, but it was the right thing to do. Having at least decided this, he had Veemon Digivolve and flew off of the tree. ExVeemon clearly wasn’t feeling the best, however, so instead of heading for Holy Angel Castle he instead turned back toward Hospitown. ExVeemon protested, but Davis refused to be persuaded. In order to conserve energy, Davis pulled out his D-Terminal in order to have Veemon Armor Digivolve to Raidramon, but stopped in surprise. Instead of having his usual two Digimentals, he now had an additional one that had to be the Digimental of Miracles. It must have somehow come to him after he used its corresponding Crest. While it was a nice discovery, he decided getting back to Hospitown was more important than trying to piece together what exactly that meant, so Davis had Raidramon simply run back to Hospitown for an emergency checkup.

As Veemon spent some time in a recovery pod, Dr. Jijimon explained the reason for his injuries. AeroVeedramon was an Ancient Digimon, and possessed an ability to overwrite his data when his emotions flared up. While the overwrite granted great power and even new abilities, it came with a major drawback: it shortened the lifespan of the monster using it. When Ancient Digimon were more common, they rarely managed to survive long enough to reach the Ultimate level due to the strain on their data.  AeroVeedramon’s power may allow him to defeat Mega level Digimon, but at the cost of his own life. Davis found himself cursing his luck—of all the Ultimate levels, he had to get the one that was the most powerful and yet the most dangerous. He wished he would just be able to use Magnamon whenever higher forms were called for, but he knew that just wasn’t how fights worked. The enemies they were going to face in the future were going to be beyond Magnamon’s level, and they wouldn’t always be able to rely on having Omnimon and Imperialdramon available when the major battles started.

Davis only snapped out of his brooding when Veemon came to greet him. Veemon immediately offered to Digivolve and fly to Holy Angel Castle, but Davis was quick to refuse. He didn’t want to shorten Veemon’s lifespan just to save time getting to the castle. Not wanting to worry Veemon about the dangers of his newest form, he started making some excuse, but Veemon was quick to interrupt him.

“Davis, it’s great that you’re worried about my safety, but trust me, I’ll be fine. Dr. Jijimon explained everything to me. The way I see it, the only way I get hurt is by using the overwrite, which only happens when I get really angry. I’ll be able to fly without using that power. Besides, the quicker we meet up with Ken, the quicker we can use Imperialdramon again and then we won’t need AeroVeedramon in a fight.”

With that, Davis relented. Besides, if no harm came from just using the Ultimate form, it made more sense to practice it as much as possible to get used to it before they actually needed to fight at that level. With no more objections, Davis pulled his goggles over his eyes and had Veemon Digivolve twice before finally flying off in the direction of Holy Angel Castle and a hopeful reunion with all of his friends.

Daemon snarled as he heard the report that the DigiDestined had all reunited. True, he hadn’t expected any of the local Digimon to stand a chance against a group that had managed to defeat him and banish him to the Dark Ocean, but he had been hoping Neo would have been more useful. He had been tasked with taking down two separate enemies that could only go beyond Champion level for a short time, and he had handed over the means to Digivolve further in both fights. In the first case, Daemon supposed he could understand the error—many stronger Digimon had lost to the DigiDestined due to hubris—but the second case was truly worrying. Neo had been prepared for Golden Armor Digivolution, and had victory in the palm of his hand. However, he wavered when he had the chance to eliminate the goggle brat for good. Not only that, he had handed over a weapon with the power to seriously threaten Daemon and his plan. If AeroVeedramon managed to Digivolve to Mega, the whole plan might fall apart. Perhaps he had been foolish to think he could attain the power of the Super Ultimate by relying on a human.

Daemon began rising from his throne and planned to enter the battle himself. However, right as he began conjuring a dark portal to take him to the DigiDestined, a pair of PetitMamon came rushing into the room. Daemon immediately closed off the portal. These two pitiful excuses for Nightmare Soldier Digimon were too cowardly to spend any time near Daemon normally, so the fact that they had effectively barged in must have meant they were carrying important news. Daemon gave the two Digimon a second to state their message, but when the brother and sister started arguing about who would get to deliver it first, Daemon quickly lost his patience and snapped his fingers, creating a small ring of flame around the squabbling imps. Immediately, the two snapped to attention, and uttered in unison, “The egg has hatched, Lord Daemon!”

Upon hearing this news, a wicked grin spread across Daemon’s face. Perhaps he had been a bit too hasty to abandon his plan. After all, it wasn’t like he had anything to gain by striking now. The DigiDestined had all unlocked the Ultimate level already, and judging by their track record they would unlock their Mega levels in the next major battle. The group was essentially at its strongest level already, and he had already seen to it that there would be no further outside interference. If there was nothing the DigiDestined could do to strengthen their position, he had time to execute the remainder of his original plan. He would only have to play this infuriating role of sitting back and doing nothing for a short while longer, and then he would have the power needed to challenge Lucemon. Turning his attention back to the messengers, Daemon extinguished the flames. “You bring excellent news. I suppose a reward is in order. Very well, I shall summon the humans here.”

As Daemon announced this, the two PetitMamon’s eyes lit up with glee. They wanted nothing more than to meet some real humans. Daemon was slightly disturbed at their level of fascination with humanity, but he supposed at the very least the eccentric duo was more entertaining to have around than the usual company that surrounded a Demon Lord. They watched with glee as Daemon opened up a dark portal, and Neo walked calmly out of it. Daemon was pleasantly surprised at how well Neo was controlling himself—after Daemon had rescued him from falling to his death, Neo had been raving about bugs in the universe—and that was before he had been banished to an empty realm as punishment for his failure to kill the DigiDestined. “Well, Neo, I can see you’ve finally managed to gain control of yourself. Now, if you wish to avoid extreme punishment, you will not fail me again.”

Neo merely gave Daemon a disinterested look. “I can see why you haven’t managed to beat the DigiDestined on your own. Your ‘punishment’ was leaving me in a blank dimension. I haven’t had such a relaxing vacation in years. And as for failure, I don’t see it. You told me to fight the DigiDestined to stall them from reuniting. I believe I accomplished that much.”

“My orders were to eliminate the threat of the DigiDestined if possible! You had the option of eliminating one of them by doing nothing, yet you saved his life and threw him the tool of your own defeat!”

“Let’s get one thing straight, Daemon. You came to me because you needed my help. You’ve already given me the only thing I need to accomplish my own goals. Since you need me while I don’t need you, you have no right to tell me how to act. I will defeat the DigiDestined however I feel like, and you will appreciate any help I give you from this point on. Besides, the DigiDestined themselves are no threat. It’s only their Digimon that could pose a problem. When you invade the real world, then you can decide whether or not to kill humans for yourself, but until that happens, I will decide how I conduct my own battles.”

Daemon had conflicting feelings regarding Neo’s pronouncement. On one hand, it was clear insubordination, and the Demon Lord of Wrath did not take kindly to a lack of respect. On the other hand, Neo was playing right into Daemon’s hands, and Neo’s cooperation in the plan was the hardest aspect to control. The thought of his plan coming together was just enough to prevent Daemon from lashing out at his lieutenant.

“You may be correct for now, but do not expect the situation to continue to favor you. At the moment, all six of the DigiDestined have gathered together, and your stunt with Ghoulmon could have made the situation much worse. By tearing open the wall between dimensions in your fight, you could have allowed the eight other members of their group access to this continent. It is only by dumb luck that you are not currently facing members of a group strong enough to make that AeroVeedramon you fought look like a weak opponent. In light of the situation, I have decided to call in the other three to make sure you do not fail to destroy the DigiDestined this time around.”

Neo shrugged his shoulders. “Alright, fine, call in the Alias III if you wish, but they won’t be necessary. After all, that DigiDestined brought a broken, glitched monster into the fight. Now that he’s done that, I can do the same, and you’ll see exactly why I am the best Digimon Tamer.”

At first, Daemon was confused as to how Neo knew the Super Ultimate had hatched, but then he realized Neo was referring to a different monster. “As much as I would love to see this partner of yours in action, I’m afraid that will not be necessary. It is time for you to fulfill the purpose that brought you here. The Super Ultimate Digimon has hatched, and you must raise it to its full potential.”

Hearing this, Neo smirked. “Well, I guess you should call in the others. After all, it will take me some time to analyze the capabilities of this monster, and then it will have to Digivolve a few times in order to be ready to fight.” With this, Daemon opened three more portals, and three other humans entered the room, much to the delight of the PetitMamon. Ignoring their squeals of fascination, Neo immediately began briefing his Aliases.

“Welcome back to the Digital World. It’s time to move on to the next phase of our plan. The Super Ultimate has hatched, so we are approaching our perfect world. However, we’ve run into a slight glitch in the plan: there are six other Tamers here, calling themselves the DigiDestined. They’ll be trying to stop us, and I’ll need some time to raise the Super Ultimate. That’s where you come in. I’ll need you to stall the bugs.”

Hearing this, one of the Aliases cut in with a mechanical sounding voice. “There is no need to involve the others. Piedmon and I can squash these bugs on our own.” Neo merely smiled as he turned to speaker, a very short young man wearing white robes and a silver mask that covered all of his facial features. Apart from his clothes, he had no identifying features other than long, spiky blond hair and communication strictly through a text to voice application on his laptop.

“Thank you for volunteering, Sigma, but I’m afraid I will need all three of you. One on one, I’m sure you could beat any of these DigiDestined. With all six of them, they’d probably manage to break through your little trick room. No, you’ll engage them at first, and then split them up.”

Sigma remained silent, which Neo knew was a sign of acknowledgement. Catching on to the plan, the second Alias, a tall woman with blond hair done up in pigtails, let out a giggle. “So, Mask-boy over here is going to be splitting up our enemies so we can stall them, huh?” Neo noticed as Sigma gave a little flinch at the nickname, but ignored it as he responded to the second Alias.

“That’s the plan, Mari. And I believe your approach will be particularly effective against this group.”

Hearing this, Mari started fidgeting with her outfit, which consisted of nothing but a black strapless crop top, black short shorts, and black leather boots. Putting on a falsely innocent tone, she responded with “Who, me? I’m just a girl who ended up here and has no idea how to fight.” Shifting her body language and voice immediately, she continued in a flirty tone, “Surely a nice, strong man like you can think of something more fun to do with me than battling these monsters…” Having had a bit of fun, she returned to a more serious tone. “This ought to be fun. Hey, Mask-boy, try to send a couple of hot guys my way. I have my standards, and I’d hate to waste my routine on just anybody.”

Neo let out a slow chuckle. “I wouldn’t antagonize Sigma so much, Mari. After all, he’s going to be the one in charge of actually dividing the DigiDestined and sending them to their appropriate place. Though, there are two DigiDestined that you should reserve for Hideto. One of them has two partners, a Lopmon and a Terriermon, while the other is partnered with a Veemon. Each one of them has access to a Holy Knight as a higher form, and the Veemon is bugged to Digivolve into an AeroVeedramon that exceeds the normal limitations for Digimon. I believe you all know exactly how dangerous such an opponent can be.”

Hideto, the third Alias, merely responded by pulling two Digivices out of the pockets of his gray jeans. With a matter-of-fact tone, the tall man with black hair replied, “It doesn’t matter how strong they are. Omegamon shall stomp out any resistance on our path to the perfect world.” He then slid the Digivices over the sleeves of his black shirt, being careful not to get them caught on any one of the unusually placed zippers that had no apparent pattern or purpose.

Neo smiled. “I suppose we never did get to see how your two partners would fare in a fight against a glitched opponent with their new form, did we? I almost regret that I won’t be able to watch it all play out. Daemon will be able to finish briefing you and arrange transport to the battleground. Now, I have a new Digimon to analyze.” With that, Neo walked out of the room, and the Alias III materialized their partner Digimon and prepared for battle.

Davis ground his teeth in frustration. After arriving in Holy Angel Castle, he had finally reunited with his friends, only to be immediately rushed into a meeting with the ruler of this land. Lord HolyAngemon was a MagnaAngemon that looked a little different from TK’s partner, having only two large wings and being dressed completely in white, but it was obvious that he was just as powerful and caring as would be expected for the Archangel Digimon. However, HolyAngemon was also a bit longwinded, and wasted too much time explaining the full situation. While some of the information was good to know, Davis hadn’t really needed to hear the military history of the Folder Continent to understand Daemon needed to be stopped. Also, he had taken up some time to explain the nature of the Digital World, which would have been nice if everybody here hadn’t been a DigiDestined for years. Even Michael and Willis, who were the least experienced of the group, knew the basics after years of being a DigiDestined. Still, HolyAngemon had such a presence that none of the DigiDestined could work up the nerve to interrupt his story, so they sat back and listened.

When HolyAngemon finished his story by asking the DigiDestined if they would be willing to help, everybody responded eagerly and started heading for the door. Unfortunately, they went so quickly as to make one of HolyAngemon’s advisors, a ShogunGeckomon named Geckovitch, think they weren’t taking the fight seriously. Geckovitch challenged them to prove their strength, and while the annoying frog quickly backed down when he found himself facing seven Ultimate levels, it just reminded the DigiDestined of how many times they had been called to save the world by people who never really seemed to trust them.

The one good thing that came from the confrontation was HolyAngemon revealing the history of the newly-revealed Crests. Apparently, nine Crests had once been hidden on Folder just as the original eight Crests and Ken’s Crest of Kindness had been hidden on Server. Four of these Crests had disappeared from history, with even their names being lost, while the other five were eventually used as the basis for the five keys to the castle at the center of the Continent. This castle supposedly once housed the god of the Digital World, but had been abandoned long ago until Daemon took it for his own. These five keys came from what HolyAngemon revealed were now Cody’s Crest of Tenacity, Yolei’s Crest of Desire, Michael’s Crest of Pride, Willis’s Crest of Destiny, and Davis’s Crest of Miracles.

After giving the DigiDestined this useful information—they now had a direction to focus on mastering their Crests—HolyAngemon gave them directions to Daemon’s Castle and asked them to hurry before the Super Ultimate Digimon he was raising could hatch. Hence Davis’s frustration—HolyAngemon brought them here for help, told them an unnecessarily long story, and then gave them information they could actually use before he asked them to hurry. If the Digital World kept needing to call for help from the DigiDestined, the least it could do was treat them like equals and give them all the information they needed right away while trusting them to handle the rest. Still, they all knew that when the chips were down, they would never be able to say no to a request for help. Having wasted enough time at the castle, the DigiDestined immediately prepared to move out, and rocketed towards Daemon’s Castle as soon as AeroVeedramon and JewelBeemon had reverted and then DNA Digivolved into Imperialdramon.

It was only after the flight started that Davis realized he hadn’t bothered keeping up with everybody else’s stories and sharing his own since before his fight with Neo. Knowing Imperialdramon’s speed, he didn’t think he’d have time to get the full stories, but he asked for a brief summary of what everybody did. However, this only caused Yolei to complain about him not even bothering to try and stay in contact with the D-Terminals, and Davis then remembered he hadn’t so much as looked at his D-Terminal since before his fight with Neo, meaning everybody else had no idea what had happened with him except for the fact that he had the Crest of Miracles and Veemon had unlocked his Ultimate form. Before he could start filling everybody else in, however, a girl he hadn’t noticed before walked right up to him. “You must be Davis, right? It’s nice to meet you. My name is Rei. Tai’s told me a lot about you.”

It took Davis a second to react. He wasn’t exactly used to good-looking girls just coming up and introducing themselves to him. However, once he finally registered Rei’s words, he couldn’t help but smile. After all, Tai had been saying a lot of things as well, and from Tai’s description of her personality and her appearance, Davis could suddenly tell that Rei perfectly fit Tai’s type. Judging by the way Rei said Tai’s name, she might have had a thing for him as well. For somebody who wasn’t exactly the best at being subtle when it came to his own affections, Davis had a knack at picking up subtle clues from others. However, he quickly abandoned that train of thought when Rei just looked at him oddly while having her hand outstretched, so Davis quickly shook her hand.

“Sorry about that—it’s just I didn’t really notice you before, and I feel kinda bad about that. And you look a lot like our friend Sora, so that shocked me a little bit too. Anyway, it’s nice to meet you, Rei. Tai’s been telling all of us how much help you’ve been at getting Digimon accepted by the government, but he never said you’d dealt with Digimon before. How long have you been coming to the Digital World?”

Davis noticed how Rei blushed a little bit when he relayed Tai’s compliment of her, but decided pushing any further could wait. He could afford to be Tai’s wingman after Daemon was no longer a threat. Rei quickly collected herself and responded, “Actually, this is my first time in the Digital World. Before Tai introduced me to Agumon, I thought Digimon was just a game that my brother and his best friend were really good at. Even when I knew they were real, I never expected to come to this world without somebody taking me. All I was doing was sitting at home when my computer screen started flashing, and next thing I knew I was on the digital equivalent of an anthill being saved by Ken. You don’t mind if I tag along with you, do you? I figure you have the best chance of being able to get me home, and I’d get to see exactly what being a DigiDestined is all about on the digital side instead of the Earth side.”

Davis nodded. “Sure, you can stick with us, but try to be careful. While most Digimon are friendly, some of them can be pretty dangerous. You never know when you could be attack—”

Before Davis could even finish his sentence, Imperialdramon gave a massive jolt and started falling towards the ground. After picking himself up, Davis saw the reason: buried in the nearest wing were two swords, the hilts decorated with a spade and a diamond, almost like playing cards. Glancing to the other wing, Davis could see the matching club and heart swords. While Imperialdramon managed to recover enough to stop falling, he continued his path toward the ground, hoping to land safely and let his passengers out before exposing himself to more attacks. Luckily, Imperialdramon managed to land without incident, and as soon as all of his passengers disembarked he Mode Changed into Fighter Mode, causing the swords to disappear from his wings. Everybody else Digivolved into their Champion forms, deciding to wait to see what they were up against before Digivolving further.

After the glows of Digivolution had all faded, Davis could finally see what they were up against. Two humanoid figures appeared, but neither of them were good news. The first one appeared to be a clown carrying four swords on his back and wearing a black and white mask over his face. Davis had never faced this monster before, but he had heard enough to instantly identify him. They were facing Piedmon, the Digimon that had been the strongest of the Dark Masters and one of the hardest foes the original DigiDestined had had to face. However, as strong as Piedmon was, he wasn’t the most worrying thing facing the DigiDestined. That would be the second figure, who was clearly a human, though it was impossible to tell whether they were a boy, girl, man, or woman due to their short height and the silver mask that was covering the entirety of their face. The only thing Davis knew for sure was this person wasn’t Neo—they were far too short, and Neo didn’t have the same long, blond hair this person had. This could only mean that Daemon had recruited another human to his cause, and this one had a partner already at the Mega level.

Seeming to grow tired of the staring contest, the enemy Tamer began talking to the DigiDestined in what seemed to be a mechanical voice. It took Davis a second to realize the figure wasn’t talking at all, but rather typing into a computer that was then repeating the words out loud. “My battle name is Sigma. I am Alias I, and I shall not let you pass and interfere with Neo’s plan.”

Growing tired of his opponent’s artificial voice as soon as he heard it, Imperialdramon growled. “If Neo couldn’t stop us, what makes you think a henchman can? Splendor Blade!” Manifesting a sword of light, Imperialdramon rushed towards Piedmon, hoping to end the fight quickly. After all, Piedmon may be a powerful Mega, but Imperialdramon, at least in Fighter Mode, was a level beyond Mega—not quite as strong as Omnimon, but about twice as powerful as the average Mega level. However, Piedmon didn’t so much as flinch, and instead called out “Masks Square” and threw what appeared to be a black cube directly into the charging Imperialdramon’s face. Piedmon then merely laughed as the cube expanded into a bunch of squares that surrounded Imperialdramon along with all the other DigiDestined and their partners. Finally, the squares transformed into what Davis could only call a rainbow-colored bubble, complete with the same circuit board pattern that had been within Holy Angel Castle.

Floating just ahead of Imperialdramon and cackling away was Piedmon, who didn’t seem to have a care in the world. Imperialdramon quickly stretched out his arm, only for his Splendor Blade to pass through air as Piedmon continued laughing from thirty feet away. Wondering how exactly that had happened, Imperialdramon tried shooting his Positron Laser at the distant enemy, only for the attack to disappear before it travelled half the distance. Before Imperialdramon could do anything other than gasp in shock, he was suddenly hit in the back by a powerful attack. As he doubled over in pain, the DigiDestined exchanged glances of horror. After all, they had seen the attack that had struck Imperialdramon: his own Positron Laser. If their own attacks could be used against them, how could they hope to beat Piedmon? The demonic clown then immediately appeared beside Imperialdramon, asked “Why did you hit yourself?” and then immediately disappeared, leaving ringing laughter in his wake. He then reappeared back near his original position, floating next to his partner.

Sigma took this moment to laugh at the DigiDestined, which was incredibly annoying as he was still using his text to voice program to do so. “This is my world, the world of Masks Square. Here, I can control everything.” As he said this, he input a quick command on his computer, and Imperialdramon suddenly split back into a confused ExVeemon and Stingmon. “As long as you are in my world, there shall be no Jogress with any of your Digimon.” Typing something else into his computer, Yolei and Aquilamon suddenly disappeared, causing Ken to cry out. Hearing this, Sigma entered another command, and Ken and Stingmon disappeared as well. As the remaining DigiDestined turned to glare at Sigma, he merely let out another fake chuckle. “What’s the matter? I told you I could control everything here. Whether it’s a human, a Digimon, or an attack, I have absolute control over where everything goes.” Rapidly typing in a few more commands, Sigma caused Rei, Willis, Davis, and their partners to disappear, leaving Michael and Cody alone against their seemingly unbeatable foe.

Chapter Text

Davis groaned as he crashed into the ground. Honestly, he was getting sick of just being randomly transported all throughout the Digital World just because of Daemon and his lackeys. It was starting to feel like when he first started travelling to and from the Digital World and smooth landings were impossible. Shaking the memories out of his head, he started taking in his surroundings. Scattered across the ground were ExVeemon, Willis, Turuiemon, Gargomon, and Rei. Davis let out a sigh of relief. As bad as it was being split from the rest of the group, at least he and Willis still had their partners, and the one person who didn’t have their own Digimon had been lucky enough to end up in the same group as the one person who had two Digimon. Everybody started picking themselves up, but Rei suddenly gasped in shock.

Turning to see what she was looking at, Davis thought she might have been underreacting. Standing in the sky above them was what appeared to be another DigiDestined, doubtless one of Neo’s allies or Aliases or whatever they were called. The multitude of random zippers across his shirt betrayed his status as a newcomer to the Digital World, but what he was standing on more than made up for that fact. Davis recognized the giant white knight, and finally gained an appreciation for what Diaboromon and the Demon Lords must have felt. He was facing one of the strongest Digimon the DigiDestined could muster, and this one wasn’t going to be friendly. He turned to Willis, who seemed to be having the same thoughts. How could the two of them, who couldn’t even reach the Mega level yet, defeat an Omnimon?

Aquilamon grumbled as he nursed his injured wing. After the latest involuntary travelling, he had barely managed to get up off the ground before Stingmon suddenly crashed into him, getting his claws caught in Aquilamon’s feathers. It didn’t result in any major injury, but the slight pain was enough to add to all the annoyances this journey had caused and put the Giant Bird Digimon in a foul mood. Still, annoyances aside, the two Digimon quickly began searching for their partners, only to find Ken sprawled out on top of Yolei in the middle of a cluster of bushes.

Seeing the situation the DigiDestined were in, Stingmon could only moan “Not again…” Aquilamon turned to the insectoid Digmon. “What do you mean, again? Actually, I don’t want to know. Yolei, Ken, this isn’t exactly the time for… whatever it is you’re doing.” The two DigiDestined immediately sprang up, blushes on both their cheeks. Yolei quickly exclaimed that it wasn’t what it looked like, while Ken weakly made the excuse that he had just so happened to land on top of her after Sigma had sent him here. Stingmon tried aiding his partner by saying it did look a bit different from the last time he saw them in a similar situation, but this only mortified Ken and Yolei further. They had thought their secret make-out sessions had been, well, a secret, but apparently Wormmon had witnessed at least one. They almost were glad when what appeared to be a dragon made of red flames shot over their heads. After all, a fight might be the best way to ignore the embarrassment.

Turning to the source of the flames, the DigiDestined saw what appeared to be a blue, nine-tailed fox with its legs and tails covered in orange flame. However, the more notable figure was what appeared to be a blond woman currently petting the Digimon. Ken and Yolei both stared in incredulity at the outfit this woman was wearing, which could only be politely described as revealing, though the term skanky was probably closer to the truth. Which was in direct contrast to how she talked, which gave off a vibe of something between a ditzy cheerleader and an overexcited toddler.

“Hi, my name’s Mari Gotokuji. I’m one of Neo’s Aliases, Alias II to be exact, but I’m not really sure what all that means. All I know is Neo said he was going to become king of this world, and then he’d make me his queen! Isn’t it great? I’ve always dreamed of being a princess, and I’ll get to be a real queen! It’s perfect for somebody as pretty as me, don’t you think? But before I can do that, Neo said I’d have to fight against some people called the DigiDestined. I’m guessing that’s you? I mean, I’ve played the Digimon games before, but I wasn’t very good, and now everything is so real it’s sort of confusing. I wasn’t sure the best way to start this fight, so I just had this cutie here launch his attack over you. Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce you. This is Youkomon, a Champion level Digimon. Isn’t he the cutest?”

Yolei couldn’t help but cringe a little bit inside. She knew that she could be a little spastic, but this Mari person seemed to take that to a whole new level. For one of Neo’s recruits, Mari didn’t seem to have anywhere near the level of competence Yolei was expecting. Neo had his Infinite Jogress trick to perpetually have a full-strength Ultimate and most likely had stronger tricks up his sleeve, Sigma had Piedmon and his strange dimension, and this girl was coming at them with a Champion. Not exactly the most threatening opponent. As if to prove the point, Youkomon launched his Fire Ball attack towards Aquilamon, who merely used his Wind Breath to send the ball back towards the fox. Mari squealed and dove out of the way as Youkomon was hit with his own attack.

After taking the hit, Youkomon began running in the opposite direction of the battle. Mari stared flabbergasted at the burnt patch of vegetation where the fox used to stand before bursting into tears. “Waaah! Why’d you have to scare Youkomon away? Wait, I know. I can stop him before he gets too far. Come on out, Rosemon!” Yolei and Ken almost fell over in shock when the Digimon they recognized as Mimi’s partner at the Mega level suddenly shot out of a nearby bush. They quickly reached for their Digivices after the much stronger opponent suddenly appeared, but before they could do anything Rosemon loudly yawned. “What’s the matter, Mari? I was having such a nice nap.”

As the DigiDestined and their partners continued to stare in shock, Mari quickly started blubbering to the Mega level. “Those big meanies scared away Youkomon! You have to do something to stop him from getting away. He is just too cute to let him go!”

Rosemon stretched, seemed to give the matter a moment’s thought, and then started jumping up and down. “Ooh, ooh, I have an idea. Let’s try this! Rose Velvet!” She materialized one of her thorn whips and slammed it into the ground, causing a sea of thorns to erupt all around her, trapping the DigiDestined and Mari but missing Youkomon entirely. Mari sighed.

“Rosemon, you missed! Come on, let’s go after him!” Rosemon eagerly jumped into the air and shouted “OK,” but Mari didn’t move for a few seconds. She seemed utterly confused by this, before she started crying again. “Waah! Rosemon, you got thorns all over the soles of my shoes. I can’t move!”

Rosemon once again seemed to think a few moments before jumping up and down once again. “I know, why don’t you just take off your shoes?” Mari’s eyes lit up.

“That’s a great idea, Rosemon. You’re the best!” She slid her feet out of her black boots and took a step, only to immediately start hopping around in pain as her bare feet hit the thorns. Of course, each time she jumped into the air, she had no choice but to land in the thorns, repeating the cycle. Yolei and Ken almost fell over from the sheer ineptitude on display, and then started chuckling that this near-fall onto the thorns was the closest to any real danger that had come from this fight. However, they then noticed a Ninjamon suddenly burst out of the thorns and go flying towards Mari with its sword outstretched. Their shock at the sudden appearance and attack was quickly outclassed by Mari’s response. She went from hopping around crazily to suddenly still, and managed to swat the Ninjamon aside mid-lunge. Rosemon then immediately wrapped the Champion up in her whip, and Yolei and Ken realized everything had just been an act. They quickly pulled out their Digivices and their partners began to Digivolve as Mari gave a sadistic laugh.

“It’s funny. I could have sworn we deleted you earlier, yet you still insisted on making trouble. I guess I can understand using the element of surprise, but even with your ‘excellent’ plan you couldn’t even touch me, let alone Rosemon. Normally, I’d delete you for that, but I have bigger issues to deal with. Rosemon?” Rosemon gave a nod before sending her Beauty Shock attack to leave Ninjamon unconscious. Turning back to the DigiDestined, she continued to smile with a cold look in her eye, compared to the warmth and innocence that had been in her face earlier. “The plan was really just to stall you for a while, but I guess I don’t have a choice now. Get them, Rosemon!”

Davis and Willis had finally managed to gather themselves and prepare for a fight. Luckily, their opponent hadn’t made any move since they had gotten here, allowing them the time to Digivolve their partners into AeroVeedramon, GoldRapidmon, and Rapidmon. They knew they had no hope matching the Royal Knight in power, so they were hoping they could keep the advantage in speed and maybe pull off a victory. Luckily, their opponent seemed about as respectful as Omnimon Zwart had been when the others had fought him in the Dark Ocean, as he hadn’t done anything until they had finished Digivolving. Now that the wait was over, Omnimon started flying towards the three Digimon with his sword ready, but as soon as he got closer, Rei suddenly asked, “Hideto?”

A look of shock crossed the Alias’s face as he heard her. “Rei, is that you? How did you get here? And how are you…” He trailed off for a little bit before hopping off of his partner. When he resumed speaking, it was in a much friendlier tone. “I didn’t think anybody who didn’t have their own Digimon would be able to come here. Or did Neo finally convince you to start playing?”

Rei let out a small laugh. “Nope, despite the best efforts of each of you, I never could really get into that game. It was fun enough just to watch, but I couldn’t get serious enough about it to actually play. I ended up just getting sucked into here from my computer. Why are you here?”

Hideto immediately took a more serious tone. “I’m here to help Neo with something. If you want, I can take you to him. It probably isn’t safe for you to just be wandering around like this—it might be calm now, but this whole area is basically a warzone.”

Rei nodded and started walking towards Hideto, much to Davis and Willis’s shock. They could only stare for a few seconds, but while everybody else was distracted, AeroVeedramon launched his V-Wing Blade at Omnimon. AeroVeedramon knew that attacking in this situation wasn’t exactly the most honorable thing to do, but if he was going to have to fight somebody as strong as Omnimon, he had to make use of any opening he could find. However, for all the good the attack did, he may as well have not used it at all: the Royal Knight didn’t even flinch, and after the glow of the attack faded he didn’t have any damage on him. As AeroVeedramon took a few seconds to stare in shock—he hadn’t expected the attack to do significant damage to Omnimon, but he expected to at least do something—Davis finally snapped out of shock and tried to stop Rei from walking right into the Alias’s hands. “Rei, don’t go with him. You don’t know what he could do. He’s working for Daemon and trying to destroy the Digital World!”

Rei merely pulled away from Davis. “Don’t worry, Davis. This is Hideto. He’s one of my best friends, and has been for years. He wouldn’t do something like that.” A brief flash of regret crossed Hideto’s face, but he was quick to hide it.

“Relax, I won’t hurt her. I’m just taking her to see Neo. Omegamon, let’s go.” At this command, the Omnimon, clearly named Omegamon, reached out his arms and placed Hideto and Rei on his shoulder behind the shield on his WarGreymon arm. As Omegamon began to fly off, Willis quickly came up with a new strategy. Rapidmon picked up both humans and began flying after the fleeing Royal Knight, while GoldRapidmon and AeroVeedramon flew ahead to engage in battle. Davis called out for his partner to be careful not to hurt either Hideto or Rei, but AeroVeedramon’s Magnum Crush attack only managed to collide with empty air as Omegamon vanished to reappear beside Rapidmon. Hideto gave the slightest hint of a smirk. “You don’t have to worry about being careful. You won’t be able to lay a finger on Omegamon. And even if you did, you couldn’t hurt him.”

GoldRapidmon tried to make use of the opening to land an attack, but Omegamon merely swatted him away with his MetalGarurumon arm without so much as looking. AeroVeedramon angrily charged back into the fray, but he met the same fate courtesy of the WarGreymon arm. Seeing this, Rei turned to Hideto.

“Do you really have to fight them? They helped me out earlier, and seemed like nice people.” At this, Hideto gave a genuine smile.

“Don’t worry, we’re barely fighting back. I was supposed to stall them for Neo, but now that you’re here I’m changing the plan. I just have to convince them to give up from trying to stop us.” However, at a series of beeps from his Digivice, he quickly returned to a serious mood. “Man, Neo wasn’t kidding about the power of ancient types. I haven’t seen an overwrite this powerful before.”

The cause of this shift was made clear when AeroVeedramon burst back into the air, covered with a light blue glow. Davis clenched his fists in worry: this could only be AeroVeedramon’s overwrite power. It might finally give AeroVeedramon enough power to stand up to the opposing Omnimon, but at what cost? The power was a double-edged sword, and Omegamon seemed aware of the risks as he brought his Transcendent Sword to a ready position, seemingly abandoning attempts at punching AeroVeedramon down and going for a more decisive strike. Not backing down, AeroVeedramon channeled his energy into the blades on his arms, and dashed in with his Twister Saber attack. The attack collided head on with Omnimon’s Transcendent Sword, and Davis was shocked to see the result was a stalemate. True, AeroVeedramon seemed to have expended a lot more energy than Omegamon in the clash, but before now Davis would have sworn only something like Armageddemon or Imperialdramon Paladin Mode could take a slash from an Omnimon without taking severe damage.

However, AeroVeedramon wasn’t content with merely canceling out his opponent’s attack, and immediately disappeared from view. Omegamon glanced around trying to find his opponent, only to take a Magnum Crush attack directly in the middle of his back. AeroVeedramon had used Omegamon’s cape to hide his approach, and landed the second solid hit on the Royal Knight. While Omegamon’s only reaction to the sudden attack was to quickly spin around and knock AeroVeedramon away, Hideto gave a short gasp of shock. Turning back to Rei, he quickly started apologizing.

“I’m really sorry about this, Rei, but I’m afraid I’ll have to fight seriously. That Digimon is using an unbalanced power that’s letting him stand up to somebody well beyond his level. It’s strong enough that I have to take this seriously, but it’s also tearing him apart. If I don’t stop him soon, he’ll kill himself trying to fight me. I wish there was some other way.”

Before anybody could say anything else, AeroVeedramon shot back into the sky, glowing so brightly it was hard to look at him. He was clearly pushing the limits of the overwrite ability, and charged directly towards the Royal Knight. From the ferocity of the charge, it was clear that he was no longer concerned with the safety of Hideto or Rei, and was consumed with only one purpose: destroying his latest enemy. Hideto quickly called out, “Omega Sword!” and Omegamon once again brought out his Transcendent Sword, only this time it was covered in flames. AeroVeedramon began growling “Dragon IMP—,” but before he could finish calling his attack Omegamon had darted forward and struck him with the Omega Sword attack. The Royal Knight turned his blade at the last second in order to strike with the flat of the sword, preventing AeroVeedramon from being deleted on the spot. However, the blow still caused AeroVeedramon to crash into the ground like a meteor, leaving an unconscious Chibomon in the middle of a flaming crater.

Hideto breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever that last attack had been, it clearly would have been dangerous for him and for Rei. Luckily, Omegamon could handle it, and he hadn’t even been forced to destroy his opponent. As the kid with the goggles ran to recover his partner, Hideto turned to talk to Rei, only to see that she was gone. Before he could even wonder how this had happened, he suddenly felt himself being carried away from Omegamon, and was roughly dropped onto the ground. GoldRapidmon took a second to address the Alias after the quick snatch.

“Now, be nice and stay here. My brother and I have to fight your partner, and we’d really appreciate not having to worry about you getting caught in the crossfire.” As GoldRapidmon flew back to the battle, Hideto saw the green Rapidmon had set Rei down next to the blond kid and flown back into the fight as well. Apparently they had used AeroVeedramon’s attack as a distraction to get any humans out of the way, and were now planning on teaming up to defeat Omegamon. Hideto smiled as he stood up, and sent a simple command to Omegamon: “Have fun.”

Both of the Rapidmon variants started by using their Rapid Fire attacks to unleash a torrent of missiles at the Royal Knight, who responded by unleashing a freezing blast from his MetalGarurumon arm, creating a wall of ice that trapped all the missiles before they could detonate. The move caught the attacking Digimon by surprise, but they quickly retaliated with a combination Tri-Beam attack. Omegamon lazily flew around avoiding the golden beams before he suddenly disappeared from the sight of the two dog-like Digimon. It was only when Willis called out a warning that Rapidmon turned around and saw his opponent standing calmly behind him, almost appearing to be bored with the fight. The Android Digimon didn’t like being mocked, and punched the larger Digimon directly in the face. Omegamon didn’t so much as blink, and waited a full second before retaliating with a punch so strong it sent Rapidmon flying into GoldRapidmon and caused both of the brothers to revert, with Rapidmon falling as far as Gummymon while GoldRapidmon, who had taken less damage and had the Digimental of Destiny’s power protecting him, only reverted to Lopmon.

Willis groaned as his plan was thwarted. He hadn’t honestly expected his two partners to be able to beat Omnimon, but he had hoped they would last long enough for him to pick out some exploitable weakness behind Hideto’s strategy and use it against him. GoldRapidmon was supposed to have taken most of the damage, since he would be able to Digivolve to Antylamon after reverting anyway. Still, from what he had seen, Willis only knew that Omegamon was too fast for Antylamon to hit if he was going at full speed, too strong to take much damage from Ultimate level attacks even if they hit, and too powerful for Hideto to even need to apply any real strategy. Now, AeroVeedramon and Rapidmon were both out of the fight, and Antylamon had no information he could use to hopefully snag a victory, as he wasn’t fast enough to exploit the blind spot caused by Omegamon’s cape. Still, Willis had learned his lesson six years ago, and wasn’t going to run away just because he didn’t think he’d be able to win in a fight. He grabbed his Digivice and focused on activating his Crest, but the ensuing glow was much brighter than he had anticipated. As he shielded his eyes, he heard Lopmon exclaim, “Lopmon, Warp Digivolve to… Cherubimon!”

When Willis looked back at his partner, he wasn’t surprised to see the rabbit-like Cherub Digimon. After all, while he had seen the evil purple version for a longer time, his partner had briefly assumed this pink Mega form after being purified of the virus. Considering Antylamon’s appearance, he had been expecting Cherubimon to show up once he managed to unlock the Mega level—or at least, once his Crest decided he was destined to unlock the Mega level. Davis seemed to be echoing the last thought, as he came up with Chibomon cradled in his arms. “Hey, Willis, not that it isn’t cool that you’ve unlocked the Mega level and everything, but why did you wait until now to try? I mean, this could have been helpful back when you still had both of your partners in the fight.”

Willis rolled his eyes. “If I could have done that, don’t you think I would have? My crest is the Crest of Destiny. Not exactly the easiest thing to express. After all, do you have any control over when you cause a miracle to get a Digivolution? I’ve just been basically waiting for it to decide to activate itself, which seems to happen at convenient times. I was hoping it would happen before Rapidmon got taken out of the fight at least, since Lopmon would have been ready to go regardless of how much damage GoldRapidmon took.”

Davis suddenly looked thoughtful. “Wait, is that what your Golden Digimental does? Mine is almost the opposite—instead of preventing damage from carrying over, it heals it. Or at least, it can take an exhausted DemiVeemon to a full-strength Magnamon. Never tried it on Chibomon, but I guess we don’t have anything to lose here, right? Golden Armor Energize!”

As the golden Royal Knight appeared overhead, Davis noticed his partner give a slight wince. He quickly asked if he was okay, and Magnamon managed to give a pained chuckle. “Well, let’s just say I think even Miracles have their limits. Don’t worry though, I’ll be fine. Cherubimon, let’s do this together. We’ve got a rogue Royal Knight to debase.” The Cherub Digimon nodded, and the two Digimon rushed in to continue the fight.

JewelBeemon barely managed to parry Rosemon’s charge, using his spear to block her Roses Rapier attack. However, Rosemon merely smirked and reverted her spear-like vine back into its whip form, used it to grab JewelBeemon’s spear away from him, and then cut her opponent’s weapon in half with her other vine. Before JewelBeemon could even express his surprise, Rosemon immediately transitioned into her next attack, calling out “Rosy Cradle!”

The thorn patch left behind from her Rose Velvet attack bloomed into a rose garden, causing a heavy scent of roses to permeate the air. As soon as JewelBeemon was caught in the scent, he fell from the sky, having been knocked asleep. Luckily, Silphymon had been further away from the attack, and had enough time to use his Airfield attack to create a tornado and blow away the sleeping gas before it could affect him, Yolei, or Ken.

Rosemon was once again quick to launch a follow up attack, but Silphymon managed to get lucky and hit her with his Static Force attack before her Ivy Hug could ensnare him. The attack forced Rosemon to drop the whip in her right hand and sent her flying away, though it didn’t seem to do any significant damage. Pressing the opening, Silphymon launched his Astral Laser, but Rosemon was overcome by a pink glow before the attack could connect, and the energy duplicate ended up exploding harmlessly on a swirling vortex of rose petals. Silphymon quickly found himself resorting to his Airfield attack yet again in order to protect himself as Rosemon switched into the attacking variation of Forbidden Temptation. The tornado managed to redirect all the projectiles harmlessly into the ground, and Silphymon breathed a sigh of relief. He may not have been able to do much damage to his opponent, but at least he could defend against most of her attacks.

Shortly after having that thought, Silphymon felt a sharp pain in his left paw, and noticed a giant thorn protruding from it. Almost as if Rosemon had heard his thoughts and was emphasizing that he could only defend against most of her attacks, she followed up the Thorn Shoot attack with her Beauty Shock, using her remaining whip to shoot a blast of electricity at the injured Wind Guardian. Silphymon crashed into the ground, and Rosemon started laughing.

“I’m amazed at how often this happens. You get a Wind Guardian who thinks he’s fighting just another flowery Jungle Trooper who couldn’t possibly match the power of the sky, only for them to forget that the forest is always full of surprises. And if you think the electricity from my left whip was fun to handle, wait until you get a taste of what the right whip can do.”

She slammed her right hand into the thorns remaining from her opening Rose Velvet attack, which she used as an extension to connect her to the previously dropped whip that lay at Silphymon’s feet. Before Silphymon could do anything, the whip became electrified and wrapped tightly around him, causing his body to go rigid as his mind went completely blank from the shock.

With Silphymon taken out of the picture and JewelBeemon still asleep, Mari sighed and lowered her Digivice. She had been expecting a better fight out of the DigiDestined that Neo had talked about too much, but she guessed with just two Ultimates they hadn’t been able to handle Rosemon. She started walking towards her defeated opponents, and inwardly chuckled as the guy ran off to try and wake up his partner. At least it was better than the usual male reaction upon seeing her, but it was still pointless: once something got hit with Rose Cradle, it stayed asleep for a few hours. Oh well, that just left one person to talk to.

Mari walked up to Yolei, who immediately assumed what looked like an exaggerated martial arts stance. “I’m warning you, I’ve got a friend who’s a master at kendo, judo, and a whole bunch of other martial arts. You may have beaten Silphymon, but you still have to deal with—”

“Do you ever notice how your partner ends up reflecting yourself?” Yolei was thrown off by Mari’s interruption: not only was it a strange question to ask after a fight, but Mari’s tone was something completely new: it wasn’t her overly cute act, or her flirty or sadistic voice, but it almost sounded… sad. It wasn’t enough to make Yolei trust her, but it sounded genuine enough that Yolei was curious to see where Mari was taking this. Plus, it wasn’t like she had any other options: sure, she had picked a couple of things up from Cody over the past few months as all of the DigiDestined had been trying to learn self-defense, but even if she could fight Mari and win it wouldn’t do any good with Rosemon still capable of fighting. Mari seemed to take Yolei’s silence as an invitation to continue with her talk.

“Take Rosemon for instance. She’s beautiful and can look completely harmless, and then she whips out all the thorns and electricity. She can outright destroy opponents in battle, but her specialty is completely taming others to her own will. Perfect match for somebody like me: definitely got the sexiness down—and considering the size of my online following that isn’t just me bragging—and can look like I’m completely harmless, but underneath it all I can be a complete bitch who’s just as good at manipulating others to get what she wants. Then look at your partner: not quite sure whether he’s supposed to be a bird or a cat, good at stirring up a lot of hot air, and has some flashy moves but not enough to get the job done when it counts.”

Yolei fumed. “Don’t you dare insult Silphymon! Sure, what you said about me might be true—I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be, I talk a lot more than I probably need to, and I haven’t exactly been the best asset when it comes to fights. But that doesn’t give you any right to overlook Silphymon’s most important characteristic: his heart! He is always trying to do the right thing, and that’s something I learned from him. So, I’d much rather have him is my reflection than look at myself and see somebody so shallow that they would work to destroy a world just to become a queen.”

Mari rolled her eyes. “You know, next time you bust out the whole ‘you’re a horrible person’ speech, it would probably work better on somebody who didn’t already identify themselves as a bitch. And did you honestly believe all that ‘queen of the world’ crap? That was just part of the act. I’m in this for the exact same reason Neo’s doing this: to get a fresh start. I’ve done a pretty good job of ruining my life, and Neo found a way to fix the problems of the world. All we have to do is get rid of this world temporarily so we can create a perfect world without disease, injury, or any other problems. We can even bring back everything we kill in order to make that world when we’re done, so can you really say I’m just a shallow murderer?”

“Don’t expect me to pity you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard evil Digimon say they were improving the world by trying to destroy it. No matter how many pretty words you dress it up with, what you’re doing is wrong. And you can bet Ken and I will be right here to stop you, along with all of my other friends.”

“Whatever. But since you brought up your little boyfriend over there, I suppose I should give you some more advice: get rid of him. That whole partner reflection thing we were talking about? From what I see, you’ve got a guy who looks good, is willing to jump right into anything to be some sort of knight in shining armor, but not much else. He doesn’t seem like he’d actually be helpful to you, and beneath the shiny appearance he’s just another insect.”

If Yolei had been angry before when Mari had been speaking out against Silphymon, she was absolutely furious now. “You can insult me all you want. If you want to insult Silphymon for things that are a reflection of me, then I guess I can’t complain about that either. But you have absolutely no right to insult Ken! Sure, he has his flaws—and  believe me, I’ve seen him at his absolute worst—but he is the kindest person you will ever meet, and the same goes for JewelBeemon. And what I said earlier about not knowing what I want to be in life? Well, you can say all you want about getting to be a queen, or having a fresh start, or just being super popular, but I don’t care about any of that. If I don’t amount to anything in life but I get to stay with Ken, then I will have absolutely no regrets. There’s only one thing I want, and that’s him!”

Mari almost felt the need to gag on the pathetic amount of sap in this last rant, but when a bright magenta glow consumed both the DigiDestined and her partner, Mari went right back into business mode. Rosemon’s whip was sent flying away from the captive Silphymon as the Ultimate level began to Digivolve. When the glow faded, Silphymon hadn’t changed too much: he still looked like a humanoid bird, though the cat-like features had disappeared. His body was now completely covered in white feathers, and he had a strange golden bird perched on his arm. It was clear that this new form was a warrior, as he was wearing a suit of armor, had a crossbow slung across his back, and a sword and quiver of arrows hanging around his waist. Mari scanned the data of her newest opponent, and couldn’t believe her horrible luck.

“Great, Valkyrimon. A Mega level Warrior Digimon known for gale like speeds and frosty attacks. As if I wasn’t at enough of a handicap in this mission without Mask-Boy’s little pocket dimension or Hideto’s Omegamon, now I have to deal with somebody who’s faster than Rosemon and has an elemental advantage. Oh well, I’ve probably bought Neo enough time. Let’s just try to have fun with this, shall we Rosemon?” Turning towards her partner, Mari got ready for the upcoming battle. Now that she didn’t have the level advantage, Rosemon would need the help of her Tamer in the upcoming fight.

From the start, it was clear Valkyrimon would have the advantage. Knowing Rosemon had managed to extend the range of her attacks using the vines remaining from her initial attack, he drew his Fenrir Sword and began flying about faster than the eye could detect. The vines were easily cut away, and the extreme cold of the cursed blade killed them as effectively as a harsh winter. After he had removed all the vines from the vicinity of both himself and his friends, he finally turned to Rosemon, prepared to begin the real battle. Knowing Rosemon had a major disadvantage in close range combat, Mari sent a command for Rosemon to use her Beauty Shock attack, but Valkyrimon countered with his Punishing Storm attack. Much like Silphymon’s Airfield, this conjured up a tornado, but on a much larger scale. Not only was the tornado strong enough to block Rosemon’s electrical attack, but it also came chasing after Rosemon, who barely managed to get out of the way. In the effort it took to dodge the tornado, she didn’t notice Valkyrimon’s following attack until it was too late to fully dodge, and only managed to contort herself so the incoming arrow struck her shoulder instead of her chest.

Mari ground her teeth in frustration. While Rosemon hadn’t seen the attack until it was almost too late, she had seen Valkyrimon launch his Aurvandil’s Arrow attack—into the air in the complete opposite direction as Rosemon. If Valkyrimon had some form of magical, perfectly accurate arrows, she couldn’t afford to keep the fight long range, as Valkyrimon would be able to dodge while Rosemon wouldn’t. She had been hoping to avoid getting near the Fenrir Sword, but it looked like she had no choice if she wanted to win this battle. She sent her plan over to Rosemon, who seemed to understand what was needed. Now all Mari could do was sit back and hope for the best.

Rosemon immediately fired her Danger Thorn attack in Valkyrimon’s general direction. Normally an attack designed for multiple opponents, it was basically an enhanced Thorn Shoot attack that was an area of effect attack instead of a single target attack. Still, with an opponent as fast as Valkyrimon, this version was far more likely to produce any sort of success. And it did force Valkyrimon to put just enough effort into dodging that Rosemon could move into the next step of the attack plan unhindered: she began charging directly toward Yolei. It might not have been the most honorable method, but it was the only surefire way Mari knew to pin Valkyrimon down to a small enough area that Rosemon could engage in close quarters combat. If it seemed their Tamer was in danger, any Digimon—or at least any Digimon with a somewhat caring partner—would rush in to defend their partner. Sure enough, just as she had predicted, Valkyrimon flew between Rosemon and Yolei, and clashed his Fenrir Sword against Rosemon’s Roses Rapier.

Valkyrimon fully expected his Fenrir Sword to eliminate Rosemon’s weapon just as easily as it had taken care of her other vines. When the vine actually survived, it took him a second to see why: Rosemon had the blade constantly charged with electricity. While it wasn’t the perfect defense, it did counteract the effect of frost for long enough that Rosemon would have time for one attack, and Valkyrimon had left himself open. Gathering pink energy in her left hand, Rosemon blasted Valkyrimon, and let out a sigh of relief as the Warrior Digimon became encased in a pink glow. Rosemon felt herself slowly get stronger as her Fascination attack ran its course. While the binding power of this attack wasn’t quite as powerful as that of her Thorn Whip, this attack still immobilized an enemy as it slowly drained their life force. It wasn’t exactly Rosemon’s favorite tactic to use, but Valkyrimon hadn’t left her with many other options. Now, she just had to wait as Valkyrimon’s energy slowly transferred to her, and this fight would finally be over.

Just like Rosemon, Mari was breathing a sigh of relief. This fight had been a lot closer than she had been expecting. It wasn’t very often that Rosemon wordlessly agreed to any plan involving her Fascination attack, as she hated using that move. It had initially been one of Mari’s favorite techniques, but ever since meeting Rosemon in person, she had deferred to the Fairy Digimon’s wishes. Still, with Valkyrimon in Rosemon’s clutches, this fight was over. Not that victory or defeat mattered in the long run: she had already stalled the DigiDestined, which had been all she needed to do on this little assignment. Before she could think any further, however, Mari was distracted by a grunt of exertion. Turning to the source, she saw that JewelBeemon’s partner, who she had completely forgotten about by this point, had picked up half of his partner’s broken spear and flung it towards Rosemon. It wasn’t the most elegant of tosses and had no chance of causing severe damage to Rosemon, but it was such a strange maneuver that Mari was too surprised to even give Rosemon a warning.

As Rosemon felt something hit her across the back, her Fascination faltered for a brief second. The lapse in concentration wasn’t enough for Valkyrimon to completely break free, but it did allow the golden eagle to fly of off its perch. Before Rosemon could react, the eagle flew at her face, and by protecting herself from its beak and claws, she lost the ability to continue her Fascination attack. Not wanting to waste his newly-obtained freedom, Valkyrimon dealt Rosemon a savage blow with his Fenrir Sword, causing a trail of ice to form over her body as she plummeted toward the ground, flickering on the verge of being deleted. Turning back to his eagle, Valkyrimon said, “Thank you, Freyr, for saving me.” Freyr gave a slight nod of acknowledgement before returning to his perch and resuming his usual duty of watching for danger.

Unfortunately, while Valkyrimon was busy congratulating himself on winning the fight, Rosemon was falling directly towards Mari. The Alias seemed to be planning on catching her falling partner, but Ken quickly realized that wasn’t a good idea—Rosemon was falling too fast, and if Rosemon’s mass was anything comparable to the mass of a similarly sized human, the force of the impact would be too much for a human to survive. At least, using real-world physics the collision would be fatal. In the Digital World, it was pretty hard to predict any results. Still, Ken was only thinking these things as he was already running over to get Mari out of the way—the DigiDestined of Kindness couldn’t let somebody put themselves in danger for a stupid reason if he could stop it. He could only hope Yolei would end up forgiving him for re-enacting a scene from one of her favorite romantic comedies with somebody else. This was not a case where the guy realizes he’s dating the wrong girl by saving another girl’s life.

Ken tackled Mari out of the way, and as soon as he hit her he was blinded by a flash of lilac-colored light. He began to worry that he had actually been sucked into a bad romantic comedy, until he remembered that color was the same as his crest. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he stood up and helped Mari to her feet. “Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not doing this because I like you in any way. I saved you because I could, nothing more. I’ve had too many lives end while I just stood by already.”

Mari shook her head. “I know I accused you of trying to be a knight in shining armor earlier, but I wasn’t being serious. Now, I’m going to assume that giant bug holding Rosemon is your partner?”

Turning to look at what Mari was talking about, Ken saw Rosemon was being held in the hands—well, the most hand like appendages on the end of the middle set of legs—of a large black beetle that bore a strong resemblance to an Okuwamon. However, it was larger than an Okuwamon, it had orange hair reminiscent of Stingmon’s, and looked much fiercer, with sharp claws on all of its legs and a large spike jutting out from the back of his head. However, while he looked like a fearsome being, Ken could tell from the look in his eyes that this was just Wormmon in a new form. As further proof, the large insect gently set Rosemon on the ground, showing he maintained his kind nature despite his evil appearance.

Mari wasn’t really concerned with how the insect was acting, as her focus was exclusively on Rosemon. Acting quickly, she used her Digivice to send a healing program to Rosemon. It was far from perfect, and she would have to spend more time ensuring her partner would make a full recovery, but as emergency first aid it at the very least healed Rosemon enough that she stabilized and no longer flickered on the verge of deletion. Mari started to head toward Rosemon to begin more extensive healing, when she suddenly found herself restrained by one of the newly Digivolved insect’s hands. Mari’s only reaction was to sigh.

“How about we just cut the crap already? You may have beaten me in this fight, but what do you honestly expect to do now? You won’t kill me or Rosemon because you’re so confident that killing is wrong, and you can’t expect to keep us prisoner. Daemon can just summon us away from you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” As if to prove her point, she and Rosemon started flickering in the manner consistent with being dragged to the Dark Ocean instead of being deleted. Acting quickly, Mari worked her arm free and managed to beam something over to where Ninjamon was lying unconscious, causing the Mutant Digimon to begin stirring. “Still, you did beat me so you earned something. I was only supposed to stall you while Neo amassed an army to storm Holy Angel Castle. If you hurry, that red ball may be able to lead you there before it’s too—”

Mari’s words faded away as she vanished along with her partner. Seeing the fight was over, Wormmon’s new form blinked in surprise. “Wait, is that it? You mean to tell me I Digivolved into GranKuwagamon for no real reason? I never even got to show off my attacks! My Dimension Scissors can cut through space itself, and I don’t even get to demonstrate it. Let alone my Catastrophe…”

As GranKuwagamon trailed off, Ken couldn’t help but wonder what changes Wormmon had gone through. Ever since he had first Digivolved into Shadramon, all new forms he unlocked were much more brazen and confident than he had been as Wormmon or Stingmon. Still, he supposed it was only natural. After all, Ken had had his crest for months, yet Wormmon never Digivolved in that time. After all that time of being held back, it was only natural he’d want to demonstrate what his Mega form could do.

While Ken was busy musing about his partner, Valkyrimon had flown over, grabbed Ninjamon, and brought him over to the others. When he woke up, he started hyperactively ranting about delivering a message, but the sight of two Mega level Digimon seemed to shock him enough to calm down. At least until he guessed that the two he was looking at were responsible for defeating the Alias that had prevented him from delivering the message, at which point he introduced himself as Igamon and swore undying servitude to the two DigiDestined. Ken and Yolei were taken aback by how over the top Igamon was, but didn’t have time to argue. They merely asked Igamon which way to go to reach Holy Angel Castle, as they hoped to get there before Daemon’s army could destroy it. Hearing this, Igamon seemed to deflate a little, as his mission had been to deliver warning of the army to the castle and now it didn’t matter as these two already knew and were going to announce it for him.

Not wanting to depress their guide before he even gave them directions, Ken came up with a new idea: he gave Igamon a new mission. Since he and Yolei were taking care of his mission of alerting the castle, Igamon could take care of their mission to find and regroup with their friends. This seemed to cheer Igamon up, and after Ken described the other DigiDestined to the mutant Digimon, he gladly pointed the way to the castle before scurrying off on his new task. With that crazy encounter behind them, GranKuwagamon grabbed the DigiDestined and started flying towards Holy Angel Castle alongside Valkyrimon. Ken could only hope they wouldn’t be too late, and that GranKuwagamon would be able to demonstrate his skills while stopping the forces resisting Daemon from being annihilated.

Since Magnamon was still struggling with the aftereffects of AeroVeedramon’s overwrite ability, Cherubimon took the lead in attacking Omegamon. He launched his Lightning Spear attack, but the spear travelled too slowly to hit somebody as quick as the Royal Knight. When he dodged, Magnamon tried blasting him with his modified Magna Blaster attack, but he couldn’t seem to gather enough energy to do anything other than strain himself from the effort. Seeing this, Omegamon focused all of his attention on Cherubimon, who was clearly the biggest threat. He charged in with his Transcendent Sword, avoiding another Lightning Spear that Cherubimon tried to hit him with. Trying to do something to help his friend, Magnamon managed to successfully launch the missile variation of his Magna Blast attack, which didn’t seem to do any damage but at least caused Omegamon to stop his charge. Seeing an opening, Cherubimon began glowing with a blue energy. Raising his hands to the heavens, he called out, “Just try to dodge this! Heaven’s Judgment!”

As Cherubimon brought down his hands, the sky rained down countless bolts of blue lightning. The strikes covered a wide area around Omegamon, leaving the Royal Knight no room to dodge. As the Royal Knight disappeared within the glow, Cherubimon allowed himself a moment of relaxation after using his strongest attack. Unfortunately for the Cherub Digimon, Omegamon didn’t seem to share his need to take a break. With a simple swish of his cape, he dispelled the lightning strikes, and then used rushed in with his Ultimate Uppercut attack, sending Cherubimon skyward. Before Cherubimon could recover, Omegamon used his Sword of Ruin attack, dealing an explosive slash that caused Cherubimon to revert and sent Kokomon flying to the ground.

Willis managed to catch his falling partner, but Davis couldn’t stop his spirits from falling. He hadn’t expected the fight against an Omnimon to be easy, but he didn’t think it would go this badly. As a whole, the DigiDestined couldn’t say they won all of their battles, but when it counted they always found a way to unlock a new power needed to win. In this fight, they had made use of the Golden Digimentals and unlocked a new Mega form, but Omegamon had taken their best attacks without so much as flinching and quickly dispatched their strongest forms. Now, all that was left was Magnamon, who had taken so much damage, both from his opponent and his own overwrite ability, that he couldn’t even use his full range of attacks. This didn’t seem to deter Magnamon, who put all of his remaining energy into a Magna Punch attack and charged at the other Royal Knight. Still, despite Magnamon’s enthusiasm, Davis knew there was no way such an attack would succeed. As Omegamon moved forward with his Transcendent Sword to intercept Magnamon, Davis closed his eyes, and prepared himself to do something he wished he would never have to do: surrender a fight in order to save his partner’s life.

Before Davis could even say anything, however, somebody else called out, “STOP!!” Surprisingly, both Magnamon and Omegamon immediately complied, stopping their charges and turning towards the unexpected source of the order: Rei. Unused to bystanders ever playing a big role in the middle of a battle, the fighting Digimon and their partners were taken aback enough that Rei could finish her message without interruption. “I know I don’t really have any right to get in the way of business involving Digimon, but you don’t have to fight. I have to go with Hideto. Neo is… he’s my brother. Whatever is going on, I have to see him. Please, don’t keep chasing after us and getting yourselves hurt!”

With that, she quickly turned away and ran towards Hideto. Omegamon retracted his sword and grabbed the two before flying away from the scene. Davis and Willis were just glad the fight was over before their partners could be hurt any further, and Magnamon didn’t have the energy to complain, as he quickly reverted back to DemiVeemon and passed out. As Davis scooped up his partner, he started thinking about what to do next. This may have been a thorough defeat, but they had all lived to fight another day. Maybe Rei would be able to talk her brother out of destroying the world, but if she failed, he’d have to be ready to fight Omegamon again.

Chapter Text

Shakkoumon groaned as his punch missed Piedmon by a few inches. After Imperialdramon’s quick defeat and everybody else’s disappearance, he and MegaSeadramon had been forced to rely on close-quarters combat against the Demon Man Digimon. Not that Shakkoumon expected any form of physical strike he inflicted to do serious damage, but at least Piedmon couldn’t easily reflect a physical strike like he had with Imperialdramon’s Positron Laser. While MegaSeadramon at least had his Dramon Attack and Thunder Blade to rely on, Shakkoumon was forced to resort to an awkward attempt at martial arts if he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his own attack.

While Shakkoumon was definitely not built for this kind of fight, he pushed forward, drawing encouragement from two things. The first of these was the fact that he and MegaSeadramon had been doing the same routine for a couple of minutes, and Piedmon had only been dodging attacks instead of fighting back. This told Shakkoumon that while Piedmon had the ability to warp reality within Masks Square, it took a lot of focus to maintain that attack. This tied in to the second source of encouragement: since Masks Square took a lot of focus to maintain, even the weakest of hits, such as a punch, would jar Piedmon’s focus enough that they would be able to land bigger hits and hopefully do some serious damage.

While Cody was intently focused on the battling Digimon, Michael began trying a new tactic to hopefully break free of Masks Square. While the Digimon were currently employing a strategy that might result in victory if they got one lucky hit in, the DigiDestined of Pride was working on a way to speed up the first hit. After all, Sigma claimed Masks Square was his world, and he was constantly typing into his computer before Piedmon warped away, so maybe he was just as much a factor in keeping the attack running smoothly as Piedmon was. Luckily, Michael was intimately familiar with a slew of action movies where people talked their way out of impossible situations, so it was time to see just how well his acting career translated into real life.

“You do realize you’re going to lose this, right? From the looks of it, Piedmon can’t really do too much while running this little pocket dimension of his, and that’s after only a couple of minutes. Eventually, we’ll be able to land a hit, and when we do, this whole place is going to crumble. So, why don’t you just stop delaying the inevitable and put an end to this charade?”

Sigma didn’t even bother turning to face Michael, though he did type in a response. “You may be right about me delaying the inevitable, but I can’t lose this. My mission is to stall you, not defeat you. And Piedmon is only putting so much effort into maintaining this attack because he is controlling space and time. We may only have been here for a couple minutes, but to the outside world it has been much longer than that. By the time you eventually are free, Neo will have advanced too far to be stopped. Even if you defeat me and Piedmon in this battle, you will have already lost the war.”

Mari barely even noticed her surroundings as she arrived in Daemon’s castle, instead focusing on giving Rosemon much better treatment than she had been able to give in the midst of the battlefield. It was only after she was certain Rosemon had received decent emergency care that she turned her attention elsewhere and saw she wasn’t in the usual location of Daemon’s throne room. Instead, she was in a large open room, with Daemon sitting behind a large glass window halfway up the wall. Apart from Rosemon, the only other things in the room were Neo and a strange Digimon Mari could only assume was the newly hatched Super Ultimate. For as much as Neo and Daemon had raved about this creature, it didn’t look very intimidating: it was basically a silver leech, only it had six legs and glowing red eyes. Its eyes were fixed on Rosemon, and it began shuddering and letting out little “Gigi” noises. It qualified as creepy, but it was still clearly a low-level Digimon, which made it much less impressive to an experienced Tamer like Mari.

Much like Mari, Neo had also been a little disappointed with this so-called Super Ultimate monster. He didn’t doubt that it would be a major power when it Digivolved beyond the Mega level like it supposedly could, but at this point, all he had was a monster that had been very difficult to analyze. Even with full access to its data, he had very little idea of what this monster could actually do. So, until he had evidence to back up Daemon’s claim that even in its Baby form this Digimon could defeat a Mega level, he wasn’t going to march into battle. Which was why he and Mari were here now. Between Sigma’s ability to warp reality with Masks Square and the raw power of Hideto’s Omegamon, Mari had had the highest chance of losing to the DigiDestined, even in her own opinion. So, Neo wasn’t exactly surprised when she and Rosemon were the ones Daemon summoned in order to conduct this little test.

“Mari, do you think Rosemon would be up for a little sparring match? Daemon claims not even Mega Digimon can compare to this newly-hatched monster in power, but I personally have my doubts. I know Rosemon isn’t anywhere near 100 percent, but maybe in her current state the fight can actually teach me something interesting instead of having Rosemon just win instantaneously.”

After quickly scanning her Digivice, Mari responded. “Well, I’m not too sure if Rosemon can fight at the level of an Ultimate at the moment, but I doubt this little leech thing can fight at anything approaching the Champion level if he’s as young as he looks. I’m sure she’ll be fine. Though, would you mind filling me in a little bit on what this guy even is? My Digivice isn’t giving me anything.”

“Don’t feel so bad—I had this monster’s entire data to examine and even I can’t tell you everything about it. All I really know is it’s a Baby level at the moment, and its attack is much like Rosemon’s Fascination in that it absorbs the life energy of the target. I call the attack Data Drain, but I’ve never seen it in action. Other than that, I couldn’t even get a name, type, attribute, or family for this monster. I’ve taken to calling it Arkadimon. After all, it’s supposed to be the key that allows us to build our own Arcadia here in the Digital World. Assuming it can show me enough to warrant me keeping it around and not just cause me to delete it right away.”

With that, Mari and Neo moved to opposite ends of the room, while Rosemon and Arkadimon remained facing each other in the center. Arkadimon continued making its “Gi” sound effect in such a way that Rosemon felt it was looking at her as nothing more than a meal instead of an opponent. Even in her weakened state, Rosemon didn’t take kindly to being underestimated. “I might be injured, but I’m still a Mega. There’s no way I’m going to lose to you!”

Following Mari’s command, she flew in with her Rose’s Rapier attack, but before the attack could connect, Arkadimon opened a fanged mouth on top of its head, and a crablike arm extended out and impaled Rosemon. Before she or Mari could react to the speed of the attack, Arkadimon moved right into its Data Drain attack, and absorbed all of Rosemon’s data, not even leaving a DigiEgg behind. While Daemon began laughing uproariously at the spectacle, Neo almost looked sick. He had wanted to test Arkadimon’s power, but he hadn’t wanted to destroy Rosemon, especially not in such a brutal manner. When it came to most Digimon, he didn’t really care how they got deleted. However, the other Aliases all had much closer relationships with their partners, and he didn’t want to hurt his friends and eliminate a useful monster in one fell swoop. He didn’t really pay attention as Arkadimon began glowing, instead focusing solely on Mari.

The look on Mari’s face was something Neo hadn’t seen in years: the look of somebody who was absolutely broken inside. Instantly, Neo flashed back four years ago, when this look was the only thing he saw on both his and Hideto’s faces after Rei’s accident. Then, he flashed back to two years ago, when the funding for the medical research he was working on to find a cure dried up, seemingly eliminating any hope of recovery. The whole reason for him being in the Digital World was to create a new world where nobody would have to experience that feeling ever again. He glanced back at Arkadimon, who seemed to have assumed a new form, but he couldn’t quite make out any details before it glowed again and started changing. This was the tool needed to create a world without suffering, yet it had just done the opposite. Mari had agreed to become an Alias because she wanted a fresh start, as her entire life with the exception of her Digimon had essentially fallen apart. Now, she had just witnessed the one thing she viewed as holding her life together destroyed before her very eyes. Rosemon may have been a Digimon, but she was still something of a friend to Mari and a useful ally. Daemon may have found such suffering enjoyable, but not Neo.

“Mari… I’m sorry. I didn’t know how strong Arkadimon was… I thought Rosemon would have won the fight. I didn’t mean to destroy her…” Hearing the sincerity in Neo’s voice, Mari managed to pull herself together a little bit.

“Well, we did agree that some Digimon would have to die to make this work, right? I mean, they all come back anyway, so I just have to find Rosemon’s DigiEgg and we can start over in the perfect world.” From her voice, it was clear she didn’t fully believe what she was saying, and was almost trying to convince herself that everything was going to be okay. Neo was about to respond, but Daemon’s voice rang through the room.

“What’s the matter, human? You should be proud! Your partner’s data is now trapped within Arkadimon, and shall remain there for all eternity. From the looks of things, she was a tasty meal—Arkadimon has Digivolved to its Rookie form! You should be happy your sacrifice has ensured the success of our plan.”

Hearing this, Neo immediately turned towards Daemon’s window in anger. “Wait, you knew this would happen? Did you set this whole thing up on purpose just to feed one of our partners to Arkadimon?”

Daemon let out a quick chuckle. “Of course I knew about this. After all, the ability to absorb data has always been a hallmark of a Demon Lord. I sensed the ability within Arkadimon before it even hatched. And why are you so worried that one of your partners was destroyed? I seem to recall you planned on eliminating everything living in the Digital World in order for you to reformat it into your own personal paradise. Why should the Digimon who happened to be partners with your friends be spared while everybody else has to die?”

Neo was taken aback by Daemon’s comment, and wasn’t as confident sounding in his retort as he wanted to be. “Rosemon was still a valuable ally. I’m not one to toss away those that have proven their worth and can still help me. I may be hard to impress, but once a monster impresses me I don’t turn my back on them. And Rosemon won’t be trapped inside Arkadimon forever. I’ll find a way to free her data, and I will bring her back. I promise, Mari.” Mari gave a small smile, but Daemon once again interrupted.

“Don’t expect to be able to keep that promise, Neo. Even if you free her data, you’ll need help reformatting it into a DigiEgg. After all, she didn’t experience a standard death, so she won’t experience the standard easy reincarnation. There are very few beings in this world that have the power to restore a fallen Digimon at that point, and I doubt you’ll be able to find them, let alone convince them to help you. Then again, your girlfriend is used to being lied to and used by everybody, so I’m sure she won’t mind if you break your promise. Now, you really ought to get moving. You’ve wasted enough time as it is, and my army has already begun the assault on Holy Angel Castle. I’m sure they are wondering why their general is skipping out on the battle. Plus, the whole point of the Aliases was to stall the DigiDestined while you stormed the castle. Mari’s opponents are already on their way to support the castle, so the clock is ticking.”

After hearing the order, Neo managed to return to his calmer, more controlled personality. “That sounded like an order, Daemon. I believe I’ve discussed this with you before. I will fight your battles for you, but only under my own terms. And one of those terms was I wanted to know all about Arkadimon before I brought him into the middle of a battlefield. Though Arkadimon did beat Rosemon, it did so acting without my direct order. That’s a trait I do not approve of in any of my monsters. Plus, it’s now Digivolved twice. I’ll need to see what I can dig up about this new form before I go out to fight. In the interest of time, I’ll reduce it to a few scans instead of a full demonstration, but—”

Daemon continued his annoying habit of cutting off Neo by causing him and Arkadimon to start flickering away. “Your objections are noted, but I’ve gotten the hang of this whole banishing technique. So, you really don’t have a choice when I tell you that you are going to Holy Angel Castle right now. Just be sure to feed that fool HolyAngemon to Arkadimon. It would be a shame to let the data of one so strong go to waste.”

With that, Daemon got the last word as Neo fully disappeared. He turned away from the window, leaving Mari alone to process everything that had just happened. Daemon allowed himself to revel in the joy of a plan coming together. Arkadimon was already a Rookie, and would most likely be an Ultimate by the time Neo returned from the castle. At that point, he would most likely be too strong for the DigiDestined to do much of anything, and the timing would be perfect to engage the critical step of the plan. As a side bonus, he had even managed to get the better of Neo in an argument. It was just what Daemon needed for Neo to finally shut up, and it also showed the arrogant human exactly what insubordination felt like. It might have even taught him a lesson, but Daemon secretly hoped it hadn’t. After all, Neo’s role in the big picture was best served if he didn’t blindly follow Daemon’s orders, and it would be extremely satisfying when Neo thought he was serving his own interests while playing directly into Daemon’s hands.

When Neo arrived at Holy Angel Castle, the battle was well underway. The aerial battle was already going in favor of Daemon’s forces, with the Angemon and Kuwagamon defenders struggling against the numerically superior combination of Devimon, Devidramon, and Airdramon. By the looks of things, Daemon may have overestimated his foes, as he had a Megadramon, a Gigadramon, a Gryphonmon, a VenomMyotismon, and a Boltmon who were essentially staring down the commander of the defending force, a lone IceLeomon. From the looks of things, this battle was overkill well before Arkadimon arrived on the scene. Still, at least he’d have time to analyze Arkadimon’s data instead of throwing it directly into a fight.

As Neo started scanning Arkadimon’s data with his Digivice, a squadron of Knightmon showed up to back up the IceLeomon. Perhaps emboldened by the newly arrived reinforcements, IceLeomon addressed Neo. “So, this is the great human Tamer Daemon called in as his whipping boy. I’m guessing that little pink mantis thing next to you is the Super Ultimate, then? For a being of untold destruction, he certainly doesn’t look the part.”

Neo didn’t even bother looking up from his Digivice. “Yes, this is Arkadimon, and I can assure you, it is well beyond your feeble concepts of power. I’d like to tell you you’ll eat your words when Arkadimon Digivolves, but that would mean you’d live long enough to see that happen.”

With this, Megadramon and Gigadramon charged, only for two Knightmon to follow suit. Using their Berserk Sword attacks, they actually managed to cut the opposing dragons in half, quickly slaying them. “It looks like Commander Leo won’t even have to get involved here. Now who’s next?”

Shaking his head at the confidence of the two Knightmon, Boltmon stepped forward. “Showoffs. Let me show you how it’s done! Tomahawk Crush!” Throwing his massive battleax like it was a boomerang, Boltmon cut one Knightmon in half before decapitating the other. Catching his axe easily, he continued shaking his head. “Ultimate levels. Always so sure of themselves until a Mega level comes around and shows them what true power is. Now, time to take care of the commander.”

Boltmon charged with his battleax, while Leo merely drew his sword. The Mega level used his Battle Tomahawk attack, unleashing a mighty blow capable of reducing most targets into data if they were Digimon and powder if they weren’t. Leo didn’t particularly seem to care, and blocked the blow with his sword. Seeing this, Boltmon commented “Hmph—you blocked my ax. Oh well, anybody can get lucky once. Tomahawk Knuckle!”

The Cyborg Digimon launched into a berserk frenzy with his ax, but Leo always seemed to be one step ahead of him, managing to block or evade every attack. As the Tomahawk Knuckle attack ended, Boltmon began panting from exertion. “That’s… impossible… there’s no way… an Ultimate like you… could have so much power…”

Leo merely responded by blasting Boltmon in the chest with his Fist of Ice attack. As his opponent staggered back and began to be encased in a frozen block, he growled out a more specific answer towards Neo. “You’ll find that all of the defenders of Holy Angel Castle have such power. We are willing to defend this castle with our lives, as this castle is the light of this cruel world. Only the strong survive in this world, and many monsters die young. Here, they can be reborn, and this small light of hope for the future is what gives us strength.” Turning back towards the now frozen Boltmon, he brandished his sword, and vertically bisected his helpless foe. “I will not allow your filthy hands to tarnish the light!”

Neo allowed a small smile to cross his face. “Well, I must say I’m surprised. I didn’t think Boltmon would last long enough for me to finish my initial scans. Still, it never hurts to double check, so I’m afraid your next opponent won’t be—”

Before Neo could even finish his sentence, the VenomMyotismon had tried to smash Leo into the ground, but the commander easily dodged. This didn’t seem to faze the Demon Beast, as he began laughing and repeating the word “Kill.” Hearing this, Leo turned back to Neo. “I can’t say I’m surprised that such an uncouth monster is working with Daemon, but I am a bit surprised that you are working with him. From what I’ve heard, this guy doesn’t exactly live up to your standards.”

Neo sighed. “Don’t look at me. He’s acting on his own. What you see before you was once known as Vamdemon, master of illusions. He got destroyed, but his hatred lived on and allowed him to assume this new form. He even got stronger, but at the cost of his intelligence and sense of self. He’s just a slave to his impulse to kill now—I’m surprised he even waited this long to join the fight. He isn’t worthy of my time, but I don’t have total control over who Daemon recruits. You’ll know when I’m actually fighting against you.”

Leo was about to respond, but he had to quickly jump out of the way before he could speak. Apparently, while he had been distracted talking to Neo, VenomMyotismon had a major opening, and most likely could have obliterated Leo with an attack. Instead, the Demon Beast had tried to eat the Beast Man Digimon, giving him a chance to jump out of the way right before the fangs closed around him. Not wanting to give his Mega level opponent another opening, Leo used his Fist of Ice attack again, though VenomMyotismon, acting either out of instinct or sheer luck, managed to stick his arm between his face and the attack. Instead of his head becoming frozen in ice as an easy target for Leo’s sword, VenomMyotismon only lost the use of an arm and managed to straighten himself up, putting his head out of reach. Still, Leo wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to do serious damage and charged in anyway. While he was unable to decapitate the beast as was his original intention, Leo managed to cut a huge gash all along the monster’s torso. “Power or no, there can be no victory without intelligence. Now, human, what do you say we stop fooling around and see what your pet abomination can do?”

Neo sighed. He had been hoping to just sit back and finish examining Arkadimon’s data in peace, yet this lion continued to try and engage him in some form of banter. Now, Neo normally enjoyed the psychological combat typically expressed in trash talk, but there was a time for everything, and now was not that time. After all, VenomMyotismon wasn’t finished. Countless red tentacles suddenly sprang out of the massive wound on his chest and wrapped around a surprised Leo, completely immobilizing him. Using his uninjured arm, VenomMyotismon then began playing with Leo like he was an action figure, though Leo’s arm wasn’t quite as durable as it needed to be for the beast’s raw strength. As Leo screamed in pain from the broken arm, Neo finally finished going over Arkadimon’s data. “Well, looks like I’m finally ready for you to join the fight, Arkadimon, but I’m afraid the commander is a bit detained at the moment. Looks like he didn’t have enough intelligence to get around VenomMyotismon’s raw power.”

Neo was about to turn away and try to find another target worthy of facing Arkadimon when he was distracted by a high pitched voice shouting, “Let Leo go!” Turning to the source, he almost had to laugh as a Motimon led a Punimon and a Pabumon in using their Bubble Blow attacks against the Mega level. Surprisingly, such weak attacks actually had an effect on VenomMyotismon—they seemed to provoke a feeling of annoyance. He tried to step on what he viewed as insignificant fleas, but even though his foot missed the resulting shockwave still sent the In-Training and the two Babies flying. Seeing this, Leo began yelling at the injured Digimon. “Get back into the castle! I told you, it wasn’t safe out here!”

However, Motimon didn’t seem to heed Leo’s order, and he turned to face VenomMyotismon as he struggled to stay upright. “I’m sorry, Leo, but… I thought I could help. I couldn’t just let you get hurt while I did nothing. If only I were stronger—I’d fight right next to you, and we wouldn’t let the bad guys get their way!”

This speech seemed to awaken something within VenomMyotismon, as Motimon’s words somehow triggered a flashback to the kind of selfless bond Yolei and Silphymon had possessed that lead to his death. In a fit of anger, VenomMyotismon seemed to regain some fragment of intelligence, as he managed to say a new word: “Crush.” Not the most eloquent, perhaps, but he had still doubled his vocabulary. He started reaching toward Motimon, repeating “Crush,” but Leo shouted out “I won’t let that happen!” He began charging up his energy, and started glowing with a white aura. As the tentacles holding Leo in place began to freeze, the commander of Holy Angel Castle’s started growling. “I won’t let you die, Motimon. You are… the light that illuminates the future!”

As he finished his sentence, he unleashed a burst of energy that shattered the frozen tentacles. Landing on his feet, the aura took on an almost flame-like appearance as he stood with his sword in front of him in his one good arm. VenomMyotismon seemed to flinch back from his opponent, causing the lion to smile. “Looks like even your instinct is giving you an inkling of the ferocity of this attack. Reikiku Hazan! He leapt toward VenomMyotismon, ready to end the vampire with his ultimate attack. However, before the attack could connect, one of Arkadimon’s sickles transformed into a giant spear and impaled Leo, stopping him in his tracks. Arkadimon began its Soul Absorption attack, feeding on Leo’s data. Unable to move, Leo resorted to the last weapon he had: taunts. “A sneak attack… is the coward’s way of fighting.”

“Oh, really? In the human world, we have a saying that all is fair in love and war. We seem to be in the middle of a war right now, don’t we? After all, this is different from the simple fights I’m used to seeing between Digital Monsters. Those are more one on one affairs, and both Digimon put forth maximum effort in a battle that allows both sides to show what they are made of. Here, we have two armies clashing together, and just in the past few minutes we’ve had how many Digimon destroyed in one hit? Excuse me for thinking that in a Digital War, the only thing that mattered was winning or losing.” As Neo finished talking, Arkadimon let Leo fall to the ground. The commander was barely able to breathe, yet he was still alive. Seeing this, Neo broke out into a grin.

“Just be lucky that you aren’t the first to fight against Arkadimon. Last time, I couldn’t control its absorption ability, and it ended up killing an important ally. That’s why it took me so long to send Arkadimon into the fight—I needed to make sure I wouldn’t lose control of it again, and that I could control the strength of the attack. If it weren’t for my preparation, you wouldn’t be alive right now. Still, you did put up an entertaining fight, and you survived my little test. I think a reward is in order. I was originally planning on having Arkadimon completely absorb Lord HolyAngemon and everybody else in the castle, but now I think I’ll leave HolyAngemon in the same state you are and leave the rest alive. That ought to show Daemon he can’t order me around, at least for now. It won’t be relevant for much longer. Now, do you think your general will eventually come out to greet me himself, or should I bust into the castle myself? I’d hate to resort to force, but I’m honestly growing bored of keeping up this monologue in order to give him time to come to me.”

Within Holy Angel Castle, Geckovitch couldn’t believe the result of the battle he had just witnessed. “Lord HolyAngemon, Leo has been defeated! There is nothing we can do now. We must evacuate immediately! If we go now, we can keep you and all the little ones safe. This castle is a lost cause, but as long as you are alive we have a hope for the future.”

As his advisor continued going on a frightened rant, HolyAngemon clenched his fists in anger. Taking a deep breath, he managed to calm himself and issued a command. “You are partially right, Geckovitch. Take everybody and get out of here. You must evacuate. However, I cannot. This mess is one of my own creation, and it is time for me to accept that responsibility.”

“Sir, you… Please don’t, my lord! You can’t possibly join the fight yourself. You represent our last hope! And while you were indeed a mighty warrior, you sealed your power away so long ago. Are you still capable of fighting in this state?”

HolyAngemon gave a sad smile. “Indeed, it has been a long time since I revoked the way of battle and assumed Priest Mode. At the time, I believed such a move was necessary in order to provide a model of compassion and peace to the world after a time of war. However, by sitting on the sidelines and relying on the help of my army and kindhearted outsiders, I have allowed Daemon free reign on the world, and now he stands on the verge of wielding the legendary power of the Super Ultimate. I do not regret sealing away my power for battle, but now it is time I rejoin the fight.”

He began glowing with a white light as he Mode Changed. “Just like Leo, I am willing to put my life on the line so the light of the future will never be extinguished!” As the light faded, HolyAngemon had returned to his Battle Mode, the form all MagnaAngemon took when the world was skewed toward darkness. With eight wings, a beam shield, and the holy blade Excalibur, it was time for the ruler of Holy Angel Castle to restore balance to the continent of Folder.

Neo had been on the verge of having Arkadimon absorb VenomMyotismon out of sheer boredom when the door to Holy Angel Castle opened, revealing HolyAngemon was finally ready to fight. Leo could only stare in shock as he saw the leader of the castle had returned to his Battle Mode for the first time in decades. Remembering the reasons why HolyAngemon had locked away a good portion of his power, Leo realized that this was Holy Angel Castle’s last stand. Leo only hoped that his leader would be strong enough to end the threat as he was, or at the very least strong enough to face his fear of unleashing his full power.

However, instead of seeing a Digimon with a long personal history, Neo only saw an opponent to be destroyed. “It’s about time you showed up. I was getting impatient. And I see you’ve decided to take this seriously, but don’t think Battle Mode will help you. I’ve beaten many MagnaAngemon before, and in those fights my monsters were much weaker than Arkadimon is.”

Ignoring Neo for the moment, HolyAngemon instead addressed the legions that remained of Daemon’s army. “Reconsider your attack, evil ones, or else be purified by the holy light.” All compassion was gone from his tone, and he instead spoke with a cold seriousness that unnerved Motimon and the other young Digimon present who had never heard their leader act in such a way. While the young Digimon were somewhat frightened by his tone of voice, MaloMyotismon began lumbering towards HolyAngemon, hissing in rage. Seeing this, Neo sent his first command to the brutal creature, ordering it to stop immediately. “You can kill whoever else you want, but this one belongs to Arkadimon.”

Hearing this, HolyAngemon finally turned to Neo. “So, this is Arkadimon, is it? You should stop now, human. You do not realize the terror of the Super Ultimate. He has the energy to destroy the balance of all living things in this world. When he reaches his final form, nothing will be able to control him, especially not a human child. You are being used by Daemon, boy! He will discard you after you have raised the Super Ultimate and are no longer useful to him!”

Neo smirked. “So?” Beginning to chuckle, he continued. “He’s using me? He is using me? What is it with Digimon here trying to warn me that Daemon’s plans will hurt me in the long run? Do you really have that low of an opinion of my intelligence? I’m not a child, and I assure you, there is nothing mere about this particular human. I know full well that if I go along with Daemon’s plan and raise Arkadimon in the normal way, it’ll become an uncontrollable monster once it transcends the Mega level. But, there is another way to Digivolve beyond Mega. A holy artifact known as a Digimental, but not the run of the mill Digimental limited by its connection to a Crest. This is a true Digimental, with the power of Legends that will push any being beyond its limits.”

Leo managed to struggle his way back into a sitting position. “That’s impossible. Do you really think we’d fall for such a trick? The Digimental of Legends is named because it is nothing more than a legend. If such a thing were real, we would know about it.” Neo immediately responded. “Oh, I assure you, this is no trick. And you’re right. The Digimental of Legends would be known to your leader if it existed. Why don’t you ask him if such a thing is real?”

HolyAngemon noticeably flinched back at this. “What are you? How could you possibly know that secret?” Neo shook his head. “What, are you surprised? Did you really think the protections on that shrine would keep me out? They may have worked on somebody like Daemon, but I am far too resourceful and working towards far too good of a cause to be kept out by your puny defenses. I know all about the Digimental, including how to find it. It won’t be long until I have it, and then this world will be brushed aside in order to achieve perfection.”

Hearing this, HolyAngemon immediately returned to his serious demeanor. “You dare profane a holy temple and then plot to use a relic of the Tathagata to destroy the world? I cannot allow this to continue! I shall seal Arkadimon away in another dimension, where he shall be lost for all eternity!”

Using Excalibur, he traced a circle in the air, forming a round stone gate in the air. The gate opened, revealing a void that began pulling on Neo, causing him to lose focus as he braced himself. HolyAngemon seemed oblivious to this and yelled, “Gate of Destiny, suck in the evil ones!” The pull of the Gate intensified, drawing in many of the weaker members of Daemon’s army. Arkadimon managed to resist for a short while, but even it was unable to withstand the power of HolyAngemon’s ultimate attack. With the largest threat out of the way, HolyAngemon quickly closed the gate. While it still left some fairly powerful monsters fighting against him, it was more important to seal away the Super Ultimate than it was to stop VenomMyotismon and Gryphonmon. Turning to the slightly ruffled Neo, HolyAngemon sighed. “Don’t think too badly about me, boy. It’s over now.”

Neo managed to smooth himself out before responding. “You know, for an ordinary monster, it would be over. But we’re talking about Arkadimon, not an ordinary monster.” Shocked at this statement, HolyAngemon and the defenders of Holy Angel Castle turned towards the Gate of Destiny, wondering what Neo could be talking about. Almost immediately, they saw why Neo was so confident: while anything that got shut within the Gate was banished forever, that required the Gate to close fully. In this case, Arkadimon had managed to hook its claws over the stone doors, keeping a small gap open. As the defenders could only watch in shock, Arkadimon slowly pulled the doors apart and then shattered the stone gate. Landing on its feet in front of HolyAngemon, Arkadimon merely gave a hungry look and a couple of “Gi” sounds. Neo, however, was much more talkative. “Oh please, enough with the act already. Is this really the best you can do?”

Hearing this, HolyAngemon sighed in defeat. “You’re right. I swore I would never do this again, but you leave me no choice!” He began glowing with a white light much brighter than the light of Mode Changing. Within the glow, a powerful voice boomed out, “Mega Digivolution! Seraphimon!”

Chapter Text

Davis had been nervously pacing around the site of his recent defeat for a while now, struggling over whether he had made the correct decision. It wasn’t so much the loss itself that bothered him—looking back on it, he honestly couldn’t think of anything he could have done differently to beat something as powerful as an Omnimon with such short notice—but rather his decision to let Rei go without trying to explain fully why he was fighting against Neo and Hideto. At the time, he had thought that sending Rei to Neo might have been the best scenario—after all, Ken had turned evil because of the loss of a family member (among other things) and was only returned to normal by Wormmon’s act of compassion, so maybe seeing his sister and having her explain everything would be the push needed to get Neo off of his destructive path. Now, he couldn’t help but feel he had royally screwed up: Rei was a bystander who didn’t even have a Digimon, and he had just let her walk right into Daemon’s base. Not exactly the best move.

Willis grew tired of watching Davis pace and offered up a plan. “Listen, I get that losing this big of a fight sucked, and we need to come up with some sort of plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but can we do something other than just pace around here? If we go in the direction Hideto went, we might be able to sneak into Daemon’s castle and bust Rei out of there before we even have to fight again.”

Davis stopped pacing out of shock. “Wait, did you just suggest we break into Daemon’s castle? That’s strange. Usually I’m the one with the rash plan of action and everybody else has to convince me there’s a safer alternative. I thought you’d be more like Izzy—always looking at every possible option and choosing the best strategy. And since I was thinking about storming the castle earlier only to see all the ways that would go horribly wrong, I don’t think this is anywhere near the best strategy. So, did you think of something I didn’t that could help the plan actually work?”

Willis sighed and shook his head. “Sorry, just throwing out an idea. I just want to do something to help out Rei, you know?” Davis nodded. “Yeah, me… wait a second, do you want to help Rei because she’s in trouble, or do you want to help Rei because she’s Rei and she happens to be in trouble?” Willis merely looked confused, so Davis decided to be a bit more blunt. Subtlety had never been his strong suit anyway. “Are you so gung-ho about saving Rei because you’ve got a thing for her?”

Willis was stunned as he tried to figure out where this all came from, so he took a second before saying, “No, it’s not like that.”  Davis caught the pause and smirked. “You know, you don’t have to be embarrassed. Sure she’s in college now and three years older than us, but she’s pretty and you’ve been taking college classes since you were what, eight? It’s just too bad she’s taken. Well, kind of. Sora insists she and Tai are going to get together soon, and as the DigiDestined of Love I tend to just trust her on things like this.” Willis, understandably getting annoyed at all this, curtly responded “I don’t care. I’m not interested in her like that. She’s in danger, and as a DigiDestined it’s our duty to help her.”

Davis agreed with the last statement, but he wasn’t about to let Willis off the hook that easily. Sure, he knew he was being more annoying than he should be, but Willis was clearly bottling something up with the pauses and then quick answers. Now that they had Crests, bottling up feelings could be dangerous—they didn’t want to trigger a berserk Dark Digivolution when the pent up feelings burst out, so it was important to have a sort of safety valve. Now might not have seemed like the best time for this, but with their Digimon still recovering from the last fight they may as well do something.

“Okay, so you don’t have a thing for Rei. It isn’t because you’re still hung up on Yolei or Kari, right? ‘Cause you may have gotten to flirt with them last time, but you’ve missed your shot with Yolei. She’s with Ken now. I’d say you’ve missed your shot with Kari too, but honestly nobody ever really had a chance with her except TK. So, I’m afraid you’ll have to move on.”

Just as Davis expected, Willis started to snap. “For the last time, this has nothing to do with that! I’m not hung up on Yolei or Kari. I’m not hung up on any girl!” Davis smirked. Just like when he first became a DigiDestined, he still had the ability to be completely aggravating to his teammates. However, now that he had grown up a bit, he could use this as a weapon instead of using it unintentionally. It would only take a few more pushes for Willis to finally go over the edge. “So, not hung up on any girls, huh? You hung up on any guys, then?”

Terriermon and Lopmon both gasped in shock, while Willis went wide-eyed. “How did you know about me?” Judging by this reaction, Davis immediately figured out why Willis had been so quick to deny any feelings for Rei, and regretted pushing Willis so hard. He had wanted Willis to do nothing more than blow off some steam, but now he seemed to have dragged out a personal secret. Knowing he may have crossed a line, Davis was quick to apologize.

“Listen, sorry about that. I wasn’t seriously trying to pry into your life. I was just trying to think of something I could do while waiting for Veemon to recover so I wouldn’t keep second guessing myself for letting Rei go when I hit on an idea. I’m not sure if you know all the details from a few months ago, but we only won that fight because most of the older group managed to master Dark Digivolution. Now that we have our crests, we might have to do the same, so I was trying to see if I could come to terms with my inner darkness. It’s not a surefire method of control—everybody but Mimi ended up with some pretty nasty side effects—but it worked out a heck of a lot better than pretending you didn’t have inner darkness and letting the Dark Digivolution run wild. So, I was trying to work on not repressing any of my negative traits when you made your suggestion. At first, I was just shocked at the plan, and then I thought that maybe you really did have a thing for Rei. Still, from how you denied it, it was obvious you were hiding something big, and since I had just been thinking about not repressing stuff, I guess I got carried away trying to get you to stop hiding whatever you were feeling. I’m really sorry I was so pushy, and I hope you can forgive me. I was only trying to help, but I went about it the wrong way.”

Willis seemed to have a hard time processing what was going on. “Wait, what? You just found out about me, and you’re only apologizing about how you did it? Why aren’t you making a big deal about me being gay?”

Davis shrugged. “Because it isn’t really that big of a deal? I mean, you’re still Willis, right? Whether you’re interested in guys or girls doesn’t really change our friendship. Well, I guess I don’t even know if I deserve to call you a friend. I mean, I haven’t really tried to contact you since that summer with Nat-chan, and I did just sort of invade your privacy. I’d understand if you don’t want to be friends, but I hope you’ll still be willing to work with me to help save the Digital World.”

Willis still seemed to be in a bit of shock, as it took him a while to respond. “Of course I’ll still—wait, no. What I mean is, I’d still like to think of us as friends. Yeah, your method of getting me to open up could have been a lot better, and you could have told me what you were planning, but I understand you were only trying to help. And I guess I should thank you for something too—thanks for not looking at me like I’m some kind of monster now that you know.”

Davis smiled. “Glad we can still be friends. And you do realize that me looking at you like a monster wouldn’t be a bad thing, right? I mean, calling someone a monster might be an insult to most people, but we spend all of our time with Digital Monsters, don’t we? To a DigiDestined, ‘monster’ can pretty much be the same as ‘best friend’.”

Willis actually cracked a smile at this. “You know, Michael said the pretty much the exact same thing when he found out. I guess I don’t really have to worry about my friends finding out, do I? I guess you just get so used to keeping some things secret that it’s hard to stop hiding them.”

Davis sent a questioning look. “Alright, you don’t have to answer this if you aren’t comfortable with it, but why did you think you had to keep it a secret in the first place? Have most of the people who found out taken the news badly?”

Willis sighed. “Well, not too many people know about it, but I haven’t really gotten a lot of positive reception. Mimi and Michael figured it out, but they’re pretty much my best friends and they were great about accepting me. There were a couple guys I dated for a bit that obviously knew, but we never got past a second date, mostly because of my personality rather than anything else. Some of my classmates must have figured it out too, but then again I was always the weird kid who was taking college classes since elementary school so they already had enough ammo to pick on me as it was. The worst was my mom though. She kicked me out of the house.”

Davis looked horrified. “She did WHAT? How could she do that to her own son?” Willis put his hand on Davis’s shoulder to calm him down.

“Listen, I know it sounds horrible, but it’s not that bad. My mom and I were never very close anyway. How do you think I could just wander around between New York and Colorado only checking in by phone call when I felt like it? She was never a big factor in my life. There’s a reason Terriermon and Lopmon pretty much raised me. She could barely avoid getting in jail with her lifestyle, let alone raise a kid. It took me until I was sixteen and some of my inventions paid off that I could get her into a decent rehab facility. While there, she became a religious convert, and her beliefs are the only thing keeping her from going back to how she was before. Even if those beliefs say homosexuality is a sin and thus I can’t live under her roof, I’ll still take it over the alternative. I’d rather have a mother who can live a long time hating who I am than one that’s going to wind up dead in a back alley somewhere.”

Hearing this, Davis at least understood why Willis wasn’t lashing out at his mom, but he still didn’t think her actions were excusable. However, before he could voice his opinion, Terriermon cut him off. “Don’t bother arguing with him—his mind’s made up. I don’t think it’s right either, but if it’s how Willis wants it, we can’t really change his mind.”

Sighing in defeat, Davis decided to change the topic. “Alright, fine. So, now that that’s all behind us, how do you suppose we go about beating Omegamon? I’m sure we’ll have to fight him again between now and beating Daemon, so we should probably be ready for that.”

Willis immediately shifted back into a strategist’s mindset. “Well, ideally we could contact the others and gang up on him, but I’m not sure how well that would work. I say we find a place to fight that works to our advantage. He’s way too powerful to take on in the open like this, but if we find a spot with a lot of cover we might be able to use hit and run tactics on him until he eventually goes down. Problem is, we don’t know nearly enough about this continent to know which way to go to find something like that.”

Davis was suddenly struck by inspiration. “We may not know exactly where to find something like that, but I’ve got an idea. Hideto probably flew off in the direction of Daemon’s castle, right? How about we follow after him? If we find a good spot along the way, we’ll stop there, call for backup, and wait for him to come to us. If not, we’ll end up at the castle, and can at least scout out the area for when we’ll eventually have to fight there. Worst case scenario, we get AeroVeedramon to fly us the heck out of there if we are facing a fight we can’t win. He’s fast enough that we should get away.”

Willis nodded. “Sounds good to me. But listen, could you do me a favor? When you contact the others, could you not tell them about me? It’s something they should probably hear from me, and I’ll tell them when this is all over. It’s not that I’m worried about how they’ll react, but we are in the middle of a war right now and that’s probably not the best time for personal revelations.”

Davis snorted. “Yeah, you’d think that, but just ask TK and Kari what was going on when they finally got together. Tai and Matt had been brainwashed, we were about to invade the base of all seven Demon Lords, and they still found the time to set up a date. Still, it’s up to you when you want the others to find out, so your secret’s safe with me. Though, I might have just one condition…”

Willis noticed the joking tone of the last sentence, so he decided to play along. “Oh yeah, and what would that be?” Davis gave a giant grin. “Well, you just have to rate my attractiveness among the male DigiDestined. After all, I’ve got the looks, the athleticism, and the awesome personality. I’m totally a 10, right?”

Willis snorted in laughter. “Yeah, you’re a 10 alright. Maybe 10 out of 25, but not 10 out of 10.” As a hurt expression crossed Davis’s face, Willis managed to restrain himself to just a grin. “Sorry Davis, but I have my standards. But hey, tell you what. If you manage to beat Hideto and stop Daemon you might go from a four to a six on the ten point scale.”

Motimon could only stare in shock at the newly Digivolved Seraphimon. “Is that really Lord HolyAngemon?” Leo, who was starting to recover enough that it wasn’t a struggle just to hold himself in a seated position, answered.

“That is indeed the ruler of this castle, but what you see before you is his true form. HolyAngemon attained his Mega level long ago, but the energy from so much power disturbed the Digimon around him. When he decided to guard over Holy Angel Castle and protect newborn Digimon, he put a seal upon his Digivolution so he wouldn’t harm the ones he was trying to protect. He swore to never release the seal, at the risk of harming those around him.”

HolyAngemon responded in a voice filled with authority, to the point where Motimon felt like he was hearing a divine being. “I may have sworn that oath, but I have no choice. I cannot allow the Super Ultimate to have access to this world!”

However, Neo was unmoved by HolyAngemon’s resolve, instead staring at his Digivice with a look of something approaching pure glee as he analyzed HolyAngemon’s new capabilities. “Perfect! This is just perfect, Arkadimon!”

As the mantis-like Digimon charged at HolyAngemon, the Seraph Digmon dodged out of the way before replying “Abomination, taste my special attack. Seven Heavens!”

Seven spheres of holy light slammed directly into Arkadimon, obscuring the Rookie level in a cloud of smoke. When the dust cleared, Arkadimon had clearly taken a lot of damage, as all of its claws had been blown off in the explosion. Seeing this, Motimon began cheering at HolyAngemon’s apparent victory, while HolyAngemon himself extended a glowing blue sword from his wrist in order to finish off his opponent. Calling out his Excalibur attack, he began flying towards the wounded Arkadimon, ignoring Neo as the Tamer began chuckling.

“The thing about Arkadimon is the relationship between its level and its power is beyond the grasp of ordinary monsters.” True to Neo’s words, at the last second Arkadimon raised one of its arms, managing to block the holy blade. Leo could not believe that any Digimon could block the mystical blade with its own flesh, but Arkadimon wasn’t done surprising the forces of Holy Angel Castle. While HolyAngemon was busy trying to push through Arkadimon’s defense, one of its claws on the ground suddenly shot into the Seraphimon, cutting right through his armor. As he fell back, he noticed the claw change into a tentacle like appendage and reattach to Arkadimon’s arm, while the same thing happened with Arkadimon’s other claw.

While he had always known the Super Ultimate would be extremely dangerous even in its lower stages of Digivolution, HolyAngemon was still taken aback at how strong this Rookie level was. “You are indeed fearsome, Arkadimon, but this next attack will finish you off. Seven Heavens!” HolyAngemon took a bit longer to fire this attack, as he was clearly charging more energy into the seven spheres. However, Neo didn’t seem to care about the larger attack, as he once again started laughing.

“Looks like Arkadimon’s finished charging. It’s too bad. This attack looks like it could do some damage, but you’re too late. You can’t win now!” HolyAngemon, not one to believe hope was ever lost, ignored the Tamer’s gloating and fired his attack, causing Arkadimon to disappear in a massive burst of light.

Leo started cheering at HolyAngemon’s successful extermination of the threat, but then a shadowy figure appeared within the glow, and the celebration died within him. What he thought was the glow of the Seven Heavens attack that eliminated Arkadimon was something much worse: the glow that accompanied Arkadimon’s Digivolution. As the glow disappeared, Leo could see Arkadimon’s new form. It had become much taller and had a lanky appearance, with long arms ending in actual hands instead of sickles. It walked on its clawed toes, giving it a hunched appearance that allowed Leo to see two feather-like growths on its back that seemed to be the start of wings, but were much too small to be usable. This new, pale orange form seemed much more appropriate to the legendary Super Ultimate than the previous, almost cute Rookie stage.

Arkadimon seemed to come to terms with its new body fairly quickly and immediately continued its attack on HolyAngemon. The Seraph barely had time to dodge as Arkadimon’s arm stretched as if it were made of rubber and shot right towards him. Flying away, HolyAngemon made note of Arkadimon’s attack speed before the monster itself suddenly appeared right next to him and grabbed his face. Seeing this, Neo smiled and gave a simple command: “Prison Fist.” As HolyAngemon was held in place, countless tendrils sprang out of Arkadimon’s arm and impaled the leader of the resistance, absorbing his data. Leo tried to come to HolyAngemon’s rescue, but the aftereffects of Arkadimon’s attack made him too slow to react in time, and VenomMyotismon swatted him away before he could cover any substantial distance.

After about a minute, Neo sighed. “I think you’ve eaten enough, Arkadimon.” Using his Digivice, he sent Arkadimon a command that caused him to stop feeding and drop HolyAngemon to the ground. All the data for his Mega level had been absorbed out of him, causing him to crash to the ground in his Ultimate form. He lay in a bloody heap, barely able to breathe from the pain. Seeing this, Neo turned away.

“Well, Arkadimon has done what he came here to do. I’ve managed to absorb the power of the pinnacle of light on this continent. There’s really no reason for me to stay. Now, originally I was planning on sparing you once Arkadimon had his fill as a way to spite Daemon, but I suppose I do need to do something to reward this army. So, I think I’ll just let them demolish the rest—”

Neo’s words were cut off as he noticed a sudden gust of wind. This gust was coming from the exact opposite direction as the previous gentle breeze, immediately snatching the Tamer’s attention. Turning in the new direction, he saw what appeared to be two specks flying towards him, and felt a smirk cross his face. After all, these things were coming from the same direction where Mari had been stationed. This was bound to be interesting.

VenomMyotismon seemed to notice something amiss as well, and turned towards the gust of wind. However, by the time he was facing the oncoming enemies, they were close enough that Neo could hear the first shout of “Fenrir Sword!” Before VenomMyotismon could react, he had been decapitated by what he could only describe as a white blur. As ice began encasing his upper body once again, VenomMyotismon’s true face revealed itself, no longer having its decoy head to see with. However, before he could do anything more than snarl, he heard a buzzing voice call out “Dimension Scissors!” He barely had time to see a black insect shoot a claw shaped blast of energy from its pincers before the attack was passing through him. As the vampire burst into data, Neo had to admit Mari’s opponents knew how to make a flashy entrance. He started scanning the data of the Valkyrimon and GranKuwagamon that had so suddenly appeared on the scene, giving Yolei and Ken time to climb out of GranKuwagamon’s arms and return to solid ground.

Looking back up at his partner, Ken smiled. “Are you happy now, GranKuwagamon? You finally got to show off your attack, and it took out a VenomMyotismon with ease.” GranKuwagamon merely chuckled.

“If you think that was impressive, you should see what happens when I’m not holding on to you and forced to use the weaker, long-range version of that attack. In its melee form, that attack doesn’t so much cut things as it cuts space. It essentially turns me intangible as I cut through higher dimensional space. Things I hit don’t feel anything right up until they implode into the void that I cut.”

Yolei was a bit disturbed at how enthusiastic GranKuwagamon was about his rather brutal sounding attack before she realized something and turned to her own partner. “Wait, Valkyrimon, do you know what this means? We fought against MaloMyotismon in that dream world, beat a Myotismon here in Vamdemon, and now we beat a VenomMyotismon just now with Ken. We’ve beaten all three of Myotismon’s forms now!”

Valkyrimon seemed less impressed with this than his partner was. “Yes, that’s great Yolei, but now isn’t the best time. Sure, we took out one Mega, but there’s still a really big army here we have to worry about.”

Neo was content to let them talk instead of fighting until he finished scanning Valkyrimon and noticed something interesting. If he played his cards right, he could turn this new arrival into an unexpected success. And as the world’s best Tamer, he knew exactly how to play his cards right. In order to draw the attention of the new arrivals, he began a slow round of applause. “Well done. Most people wouldn’t be able to defeat a Mega level so quickly. Then again, I suppose I should expect nothing less from you. It isn’t easy to defeat Mari, after all.”

As expected, Neo’s speech managed to grab the DigiDestined’s attention. However, they were much less civil about returning his greeting. Yolei glared daggers at the Tamer, shouting out, “I don’t care what you think, Neo! We won’t let you get away with what you’ve done!” Neo merely sighed—when working with Daemon, displays of hostility quickly became routine.

“I was just trying to be polite, but I can see you aren’t in the mood for that. Very well, I suppose if you won’t stick to your manners, then I won’t have to stick to mine. Why don’t you fools look around you? I’ve already done what I needed to. The Super Ultimate has already hatched and fed. This orange monster you see is Arkadimon in its Champion stage. That IceLeomon you see hunched on the ground was the commander of the forces in this castle, and he fell to Arkadimon’s Rookie form. Then, that MagnaAngemon lying in a bloody heap Digivolved into a Seraphimon and tried to destroy Arkadimon, but Arkadimon Digivolved and absorbed his data.”

Yolei bristled. “You think any of that will make us want to stop you less? I told you, you won’t get away with what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter if you’ve done what you wanted, we’re going to make you pay for your actions!” Neo couldn’t help a small smile from crossing his face. It almost felt like he was arguing with Mari again, not a new foe.

“Yes, I understood you the first time, but you didn’t let me finish. As the Super Ultimate, Arkadimon grows a little bit differently than ordinary Digimon. It absorbs the data of opponents, and uses that to Digivolve. As a Baby, it fought against Rosemon, and used her data to Digivolve all the way to the Rookie stage. Then, as a Rookie, it absorbed IceLeomon’s data, later using it to Digivolve to the Champion level. It then easily defeated Seraphimon and absorbed his data. If you follow, that means as a Champion it is superior to the average power of a Mega level. And since it absorbed a good deal of data in its Champion form, it can now Digivolve even further!”

Arkadimon was then consumed by a painfully bright light, and when the DigiDestined could finally open their eyes they could see Arkadimon’s newest form. While it wasn’t significantly taller than its Champion stage, it had grown considerably more muscular, no longer appearing lanky. The feather-like extensions on its back had become full wings, and its hands now were tipped in something between tentacles and claws. Now, Arkadimon looked more demonic than insectoid, with the only remnants of its previous forms being the silver exoskeleton that served as a form of armor.

Neo smirked before continuing. “So, what do you think of the Super Ultimate now? This is only its Ultimate form, but I assure you it is more than a match for both of your partners combined.” Yolei looked like she was about to shout out a response, but Ken cut her off. Letting a cool edge slip into his voice, he copied Neo’s smirk before responding.

“Oh, your monster looks impressive all right, but we’re not exactly impressed with the claim that you’ll beat us. BlackWarGreymon was more than a match for all of us. MaloMyotismon was more than a match for all of us. Armageddemon was more than a match for all of us. The Seven Demon Lords were more than a match for all of us. Want to know what all of those have in common other than being more than a match for us? We fought them all, and we’re still here. Your monster might be superior to ours in every statistical regard, but you won’t beat us.”

Neo raised an eyebrow. “Lists of achievements are more effective when they aren’t just names that may as well have no meaning. And as much as I would enjoy proving you wrong, this was just an opening act as a teaser of Arkadimon’s power. If you want to get a better picture, I’d be happy to oblige, but I doubt you really want to see that.” Yolei rolled her eyes at this.

“Okay, I suppose I can give you a pass for BlackWarGreymon not sounding impressive, but if you had any connection with Digimon whatsoever you would know the other three. Every DigiDestined in the world came in to finish off MaloMyotismon, Armageddemon took over the internet as Diaboromon and then almost leveled Tokyo Bay, and you work for one of the Seven Demon Lords. Anyway, do you really think we’d just back down because it fits in to your little script? Valkyrimon, why don’t you show him—”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Neo interrupted. “Take a look around you. This castle’s forces are severely weakened, its commander and leader have both fallen and are on the verge of deletion, and I have Daemon’s army backing me up. Not that I need the army to defeat you, but what do you expect them to do while you are fighting me? If Arkadimon could easily defeat a Seraphimon as a Champion, I assure you it will take both of your monsters fighting against it to even stand a chance now that it’s an Ultimate. So, fighting against me now would be abandoning all the newborn Digimon sheltering here to fight against Daemon’s army. If you really want to do that, be my guest, but if I were you, I’d accept the deal I’m about to offer.”

Ken and Yolei were immediately suspicious about this deal, but knew they had no choice but at least listen to it. Neo was despicable to bring the newborn Digimon into this fight, but he was absolutely right that the DigiDestined would be unwilling to let innocent young Digimon be hurt without trying their absolute best to stop it from happening. Neo took their silence as acceptance of the situation and resumed talking.

“I see you’ve at least got some sense in you. Like I said, we can fight now, or I could call a ceasefire and bring Daemon’s army away from here and back to base. In exchange, I only ask for one simple thing.” Turning to Valkyrimon, he continued. “I’ve explained before how Arkadimon Digivolved from Baby to Rookie by absorbing data from Rosemon. However, this was before I was aware of all of Arkadimon’s abilities, and I didn’t even know it possessed that power. Now I have control to the point where I can stop the absorption at any point I want, but that wasn’t the case when Mari agreed to test out Arkadimon’s power. Rosemon was absorbed completely. I’ve managed to isolate Rosemon’s data and can extract it at any time, but it would just be loose data and scatter through the world. I need help restoring her to a DigiEgg so Mari can get her partner back.”

Hearing this, Ken and Yolei were overcome with a bit of surprise. It was almost like Neo had been wearing a mask of indifference, but it had now slipped away to reveal that underneath, he did care about some things. Almost as soon as they noticed the change, however, Neo slipped back into his usual personality before continuing. “According to my scans, Valkyrimon can produce an aurora that can resurrect fallen Digimon and return them to DigiEggs. So, in exchange for me sparing the lives of the survivors at this castle, you just have to bring one of my Digimon back to life. I’ll give you one minute to make your decision.”

Though Neo had given them one minute, it didn’t take the DigiDestined long to decide. While they weren’t all too fond of trusting enemies, and Ken knew how easy it was to seem to offer a deal when it was really just a ploy, the potential benefits far outweighed the risks. If Neo didn’t keep his word, the only setback they’d have would be returning Rosemon to the opposing side, but as a DigiEgg. Even if she hatched right away, she wouldn’t be able to go above Champion level since Mari didn’t have a Crest and it would be a very long time before she would be able to naturally Digivolve back to her Mega level. They’d still have to fight Arkadimon and Daemon’s army whether they denied the deal or accepted it and Neo broke it, so there wasn’t too much to lose in this case. Besides, Ken knew what it was like to lose his partner, and indeed it had been the loss of Wormmon that had made him see the truth behind his actions as the Emperor, so the DigiDestined of Kindness wasn’t about to let someone else wallow in that darkness when he had the ability to prevent it. Yolei seemed to be of a similar mind, and after exchanging a quick series of nods they agreed to Neo’s offer.

Of course, even though they were accepting Neo’s offer, they weren’t going to just blindly trust him. As Valkyrimon approached Arkadimon in preparation for restoring Rosemon’s data, GranKuwagamon hovered nearby, ready to use his claws at the slightest hint of betrayal. Still, Arkadimon remained almost docile, not caring about the Warrior Digimon floating a few yards away, even as Valkyrimon began emitting a red and gold aurora from his armor. When Valkyrimon was ready, he turned and nodded at Neo, who input a command into his Digivice. A small burst of data suddenly shot out of Arkadimon’s chest, and upon hitting Valkyrimon’s aurora it condensed into a pink DigiEgg with white spots. Neo slowly approached the DigiEgg, almost as if he didn’t quite believe what he saw, before he picked it up and turned away from the DigiDestined. As he began walking away, he was unable to hide the relief in his voice.

“Well, now it’s time for me to honor my end of the bargain. I suggest you work on healing up anybody left here—I can assure you this ceasefire will not be permanent. I’m sure we’ll meet again, and then we will see exactly how well you fare in a fight with Arkadimon.”

From his words, it was obvious that Neo wanted to keep up the appearance as the calm and collected Tamer trying to destroy the world, but the impression was ruined both by the tone of his voice and the gentle way he was cradling just one DigiEgg as he hopped up on Gryphonmon’s back. Gryphonmon then took off and flew away, closely followed by Arkadimon. The rest of Daemon’s army seemed more reluctant to retreat from the scene of a good slaughter, but the fear of what Neo would do to them for disobeying orders overrode their desire to fight and they too retreated. Without any further enemies in the area, GranKuwagamon and Valkyrimon both reverted to their In-Training forms, glad they wouldn’t have to hold their Mega forms for much longer as it had been a fairly lengthy flight just to get to the castle.

After Daemon’s army had disappeared over the horizon, Yolei let out the breath she had been holding for a while. “You know, I can’t believe our opponent offered us a deal and then stuck by it when we had done our part. I don’t think we’ve ever fought against somebody who would do that before—they either wouldn’t offer the deal in the first place, or they’d use it to set up some form of trap. It feels kinda weird.” Ken was still absorbed in his own thoughts, so Yolei instead turned towards Poromon.

“That’s really cool how you can bring Digimon back to life after they get deleted. How come you never mentioned that on the way here? GranKuwagamon practically talked about his abilities the entire way here.”

Minomon was too busy worrying about what Ken was thinking to respond to the playful jab, so Poromon spoke next. “Well, honestly it didn’t seem like that useful of an ability to mention. After all, in most cases Digimon automatically reformat into a DigiEgg without my ability. It might be useful in a fight in the real world, but that’s not exactly something I want to test out because if it doesn’t work we’ll have killed a Digimon for nothing. It worked great now, but it isn’t often we’re going to come up against something that’s absorbed the data for a bunch of Digimon and then decides to spit it all out right in front of me.”

Yolei had to agree with her partner, and then shot a glance back at Ken. Seeing that he was still brooding, she decided to find out what was bothering him. “What’s the matter, Ken? You’ve been spacing out ever since Neo left.” Not getting a response, she placed a hand on his shoulder, finally causing him to snap out of it.

“Sorry about that, Yolei, but I’ve just been having a lot of bad memories. Neo is doing so many things that are basically the same things I did as the Digimon Emperor. This whole thing with Arkadimon is pretty much what I was doing with Kimeramon, and from the looks of things he’s already got most of this area of the Digital World under his control. Then there was this whole thing with Rosemon’s DigiEgg. When I was the Emperor, Wormmon only stuck by me because he knew that the real me still existed, with the kindness hiding behind all the darkness. It took losing him and then getting him back in order to finally find myself again. I guess this whole thing with Rosemon’s DigiEgg is reminding me of that, and I can see some of the goodness within Neo now that he’s just trying to help one of his friends. All of this is just too familiar. I know I’ve moved beyond the Emperor, but seeing someone else do the exact same thing is just hard, I guess.”

Yolei nodded. “Hey, don’t worry. I’m sure this will all work out just fine in the end. After all, you only became the Emperor because an evil Digimon manipulated you when you were vulnerable. I don’t know about you, but Daemon seems like the evil, manipulative type to me, so Neo might be going through the exact same thing you did. We had to stop you in order to save you, so maybe we can do the same thing for Neo. Still, he was right in that we should help heal all the defenders left here. Not like we can go charging after him with two In-Trainings anyway.”

Ken let out a small smile. “Thanks for understanding, Yolei. Still, do you have any first aid kits on you or something? I’m not exactly sure how we’d even go about trying to heal everybody here.” Yolei started giggling nervously.

“Right, forgot about that. Um, maybe the castle has an infirmary or something? We could probably ask one of the baby Digimon.” This brought out some laughs from the DigiDestined and their partners, glad to have some time to de-stress before they were once again thrown into battle.

Chapter Text

After another minute of watching Shakkoumon and MegaSeadramon failing to land a hit on Piedmon, Michael had to admit the demonic clown was living up to his appearance. Normally, fights were serious business, but Piedmon was making a mockery of all that by letting attacks get within inches of connecting before warping away and retaliating with nothing more than a burst of laughter. And as the seconds ticked by, there was no way of knowing how much further into his plans Daemon was getting. He knew if he wanted to get back to the Digital World while it was still intact and he was still sane, he’d have to do something to shut Piedmon up. It wouldn’t be easy, seeing as Sigma seemed to be able to do literally anything he wanted, but there had to be a way to get a plan together. It wasn’t like he could just shout out orders to MegaSeadramon, but there had to be some way… Michael almost slapped himself. Here was Sigma, using a Digivice 01 to send commands to his Digimon without them being intercepted. The same type of Digivice 01 Michael had received from Whamon but hadn’t thought of using as anything other than glorified storage. Still, if Sigma could use his Digivice 01 to send information, did that mean he could also intercept commands? It was time to test that theory out. Deciding on a simple code, he sent a command to MegaSeadramon.

“Let’s do this like scene 7. See if you can sneak around behind Sigma, and then wait for an opening when Piedmon has his back turned.” MegaSeadramon began swimming through the air off to the side, a feat only possible because Masks Square had even more questionable physics than the Digital World itself. From the command, MegaSeadramon immediately knew Michael’s goal: in the current movie he was working on, Scene 7 featured a feint: a small army appeared to charge a castle, but the real objective was just seeing how the defenders would react. This whole order was a bluff intended to see if Sigma could catch their orders, but it was important MegaSeadramon follow the fake order in order to throw Sigma if he intercepted the message so he wouldn’t suspect the real order.

In an effort to distract Sigma from his partner’s motion, Michael once again started a conversation. “I guess I’m just having a hard time understanding you, Sigma. You’ve clearly got control over reality in here, but you don’t seem to be enjoying yourself. I mean, your partner has been laughing uncontrollably as he uses our partners as toys, but I haven’t heard anything but typing out of you.”

Sigma at least turned to Michael this time before typing a response. “Do you realize how feeble an attempt at a distraction this is? I’ve told you before, I control everything here, including all communications. Still, perhaps you need more tangible proof. Piedmon?”

Piedmon warped further away from Shakkoumon before pulling his swords out of the magic box on his back. The fours swords floated in front of him before he called out “Trump Sword!” and they all disappeared. However, MegaSeadramon’s sudden gasp of surprise caused Michael to turn to his partner and locate the swords: they had warped directly into the sea serpent’s body. It took a few seconds for the shock of suddenly having four swords appear within him to wear off enough that MegaSeadramon could actually feel the pain. Sigma merely responded by typing another response. “Good. I wasn’t trying to hit anything fatal, but I wasn’t quite sure with a sea snake what I could safely hit. It would be a shame for you to die so quickly.”

Hearing this, Michael started seething with fury. He could tolerate a lot of things, but somebody torturing his partner was not one of them. Luckily, he had already come up with a plan that would allow him to vent his anger and hopefully beat Piedmon in the process. First, he sent another coded command to MegaSeadramon: “Scene 23. Just take it easy—you’ve taken too much damage.”

MegaSeadramon nodded, not at the unencrypted message but at the scene 23 reference. If Michael was really planning on pulling this off, MegaSeadramon would almost think it was worth getting hit by a Trump Sword just to see this happen. Then, Michael turned to Cody. “Listen, Cody, I know this isn’t going to be easy, but you’re going to have to take care of Piedmon yourself for a while. Maybe MegaSeadramon can come back into the fight after a while, but it will take me a bit to be able to help. You got this covered?”

Cody couldn’t help but feel like Michael was trying to give a hidden message in his speech, as he was pretty much stating the obvious. Still, Michael couldn’t really be any more explicit, so Cody decided just to trust in his fellow DigiDestined. “Right, fighting Piedmon is basically like running into a brick wall for how much progress we can make on our own. Luckily for you, I’m pretty stubborn. Shakkoumon and I will keep going until Piedmon eventually gives up!” Cody’s crest started glowing a brilliant white, quickly followed by Shakkoumon as well. As Cody managed to mutter “I can’t believe that worked” under his breath, Shakkoumon was much louder in shouting out, “Shakkoumon, Digivolve to… Vikemon!”

As Cody saw Armadillomon’s Mega form, he couldn’t help but wonder why it looked so much like it belonged to Gomamon’s Digivolution line instead of Armadillomon’s. Vikemon was essentially a cross between Ikkakumon and a Viking berserker. He was covered in white fur that almost appeared to be made of ice, and he wore two morning stars on his back. Vikemon seemed especially happy about the new weapons, as he now had something better than Shakkoumon’s fist he could use to hit Piedmon. Calling out “Mjollnir,” he grabbed a mace in each hand and charged towards Piedmon. The Demon Man Digimon managed to warp out of the way, but it was clear he was paying much more attention to his opponent now that he was facing a Mega level. With Piedmon distracted, MegaSeadramon went to work trying to distract Sigma in order for Michael to enact his plan.

“Hey, Sigma, you never answered Michael’s question. Why is it that your partner seems ecstatic to be here, but you don’t? Isn’t playing around with us fun? Why don’t you take off that mask and let us hear you laugh?”

Sigma turned to the injured sea serpent, but responded with his program once again. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. It’s only by wearing a mask and not speaking that I can be myself. Just like an online chat room, here I am free to be myself.”

MegaSeadramon scoffed. “Is that what your life has become? You can’t even exist without some cloak of anonymity? You have to go through your entire life using an alias and hiding behind a mask. I don’t even know if I’d even call that having a life, let alone being free.”

“Like I would expect you to understand. You’ve probably been surrounded by friends your whole life. You don’t know what I had to live through.” MegaSeadramon had to restrain himself both from rolling his eyes and having a small celebration. The eye roll was because he was sensing a monologue detailing exactly why an opponent came to be what they are now, and he had lived through quite enough of those after working in the movie industry for so long. The celebration was precisely because a long monologue was coming, and that would be just the distraction Michael needed to execute scene 23.

Luckily, Sigma didn’t seem to notice MegaSeadramon’s response and continued right on with his story. “I suppose my life started out fairly well. My mother was a German exchange student who met my father while studying here, and by all accounts we were all set to be a happy family until a horrible car accident when I was four. I lost both of my parents, as did a baby in the other car. However, while the other boy was taken in by distant relatives, I had nobody and was dumped into an orphanage. There, my obvious differences in both name and appearance marked me as a special target, and it isn’t a surprise that I grew up to spend most of my time alone and had a difficult time talking to people. I made my first ‘friends’ when I was seven, but only because I’d offer to do their homework for them. Still, I just smiled and continued to hang out with these kids who pretended to be my friends, because they were the only ones who would bother playing with me. But the more I smiled, the more I lost sight of myself.”

“Then, I discovered the wonder of online chat rooms. By taking on an alias and wearing the mask of anonymity, I was free! I could say everything I couldn’t in real life, everything I had been holding back! By putting on a mask, I could finally reclaim myself. And then, four years ago, I found something even better. The Digimon video game was released, and I quickly found myself absorbed into online tournaments with Piedmon. While chat had allowed me to find myself, Digimon allowed others to see who I had become. Taking on my usual chat alias of Sigma, I became a top ranked player, winning just about every tournament. I managed to unlock secret techniques only known to the game designers, and became invincible with my Masks Square attack. Neo realized this, and sent me an email telling me my skills could be used more effectively and asked me to help him build a perfect world outside of Masks Square. To be recognized by the undisputed Digimon world champion thrilled me, so I agreed to work with him. And I was the one who inspired the name of our organization—my alias of Sigma became Alias I of the Alias III! Now, prepare—”

Sigma had continued typing a message, but whatever it was supposed to say was buried behind MegaSeadramon’s uproarious laughter. “Seriously? That’s the whole ‘this is why I’m evil’ monologue? I spend a lot of time around the sets of cheesy action movies, and I have to say this is one of the lamest speeches I’ve ever heard. I get it, your childhood sucked since you were alone. But do you honestly expect me to take you seriously when your response to that was to become a 22-year-old shut in who only lives online? Great, we’re fighting against the most stereotypical ubernerd: only interacts with others online, obsesses over a videogame, and seems to think he’s entitled to whatever he wants. You know, I’m almost glad you decided to help Neo, because at least it gets you outside, even if it is in the Digital World. Otherwise, you’d probably still be living in a basement somewhere. How does it feel to be the person that makes everybody else afraid to admit they like anything that would make them seem like a geek? Still, I guess this is more sad than funny. You’ll see the real reason why I’m laughing in a little less than a second.”

Just as MegaSeadramon predicted, Sigma became painfully aware of the reason for laughter courtesy of Michael’s fist slamming into his face, managing to crack his mask. As Sigma picked himself up, he saw his laptop in Michael’s arms as the DigiDestined stood over him, a look of pity and rage on his face.

“Listen, I’m not going to tell you how you should live your life. If you want to spend all of your time online and not interact with others in real life, I guess that is your choice. But one thing you can’t do is decide to rewrite the world just so it fits your idea of perfection. When you start choosing how other people have to live, you’ve crossed a line! And when you cross that line, there will always be people like us to stop you. You can claim you are all powerful, but you’re really just blinding yourself. You couldn’t even pick up on the fairly blatant hidden messages in my commands—why would I bother including movie scenes when the next sentence was the command MegaSeadramon followed? It’s because we’ve spent time together, and can know exactly what we mean with so few words. Scene 7: sneak around and launch a fake attack to see how the enemy reacts. Scene 23: the hero gets injured trying to save his partner, but he distracts the villain for long enough that his partner can save both of them. You’ll never be able to have a bond this powerful if you always hide yourself behind a mask!”

As Michael finished talking, multiple things happened at once. First, his crest and MegaSeadramon both began glowing a bright cyan. Second, Piedmon dodged another of Vikemon’s attacks and saw his partner on the ground. Wanting to retaliate, he magically recalled his swords, but without Sigma’s help he couldn’t warp them precisely enough to attack MegaSeadramon the same way as before. Instead, he merely threw his swords toward his Digivolving foe. MegaSeadramon had managed to shout out, “MegaSeadramon, Digivolve to…” before they impacted, but instead of hearing any reaction of pain, all Piedmon heard was a strange metallic clang. When the glow faded, he could see why. MegaSeadramon was now covered in golden armor that had deflected the swords without taking as much as a scratch. The only clear reaction was a look of extreme annoyance in his eyes as he responded by growling out “River of Power!”

The aqua colored stream of energy blasted towards Piedmon while he was still recovering from the surprise of his failed Trump Sword attack, sending the Demon Man flying backwards upon impact. It was clear the attack had done some damage, but perhaps the better news came when cracks started to appear throughout Masks Square, indicating the attack was falling apart. Not one to pass up an opening, Vikemon immediately used his Viking Flare attack, sending both of his maces rocketing into Piedmon’s back, doing further damage to the clown and his dimension.  The force of the impact was enough to send Piedmon flying back toward the metal sea serpent, who responding by lashing out with his twin spiked tails. This last impact proved enough to completely shatter Masks Square, returning the group to the craggy landscape where Piedmon had first ambushed Imperialdramon.

As Piedmon struggled to get off the ground, Michael’s partner took the time to speak. “Well, since I was so rudely interrupted last time, let me continue. MegaSeadramon, Digivolve to… MetalSeadramon! My armor is made of Chrondigizoit alloy, and your puny swords aren’t enough to pierce it. I’m the fastest aquatic Digimon, and I’ve been perfected for interception on land, sea, and air. See, if you had just let me finish my introduction earlier, I wouldn’t have had to beat you up and then give the full details of who I am.”

Piedmon stayed on the ground, but started chuckling. “Well, excuse me for having to rely on my swords while running Masks Square. It isn’t the easiest attack to maintain, you know. Now that you’ve told me exactly what you are and I don’t have to worry about keeping my attack active, however, I’m afraid I’ll have to end this little fight. Ending Snipe!”

From his position on the ground, he sent a stream of electricity from both of his hands into the sea serpent. While Chrondigizoit alloy provided a strong defense, it still conducted electricity, and MetalSeadramon’s status as a sea creature made him especially vulnerable to electric attacks. He was blasted back into a small, white slimy form that must have been his Baby level.

Piedmon groaned at the survival of his enemy. The barrage of attacks he had taken must have weakened him more than he thought if something as weak against electricity as MetalSeadramon managed to survive his Ending Snipe. It would be a simple matter of attacking again in order to delete his foe, but Piedmon decided against this maneuver. He had never intended on deleting his opponents from the start, and MetalSeadramon had merely forced his hand. Besides, he still had to worry about Vikemon, and it would be best to save his energy for the far more dangerous foe.

Unfortunately for Piedmon, Vikemon had no designs of saving his energy, and managed to freeze the demonic clown before he even had time to pick himself up off the ground. As Piedmon lay helpless within a block of ice, Vikemon let out a feral snarl. “You hurt my friend. You’ll pay for that. This is the first stage of my Arctic Blizzard attack. By flash freezing the air to absolute zero, I render foes helpless. Then, one tiny hit from Mjollnir and what was once your body becomes indistinguishable from a snowstorm.”

Even Cody was caught off guard by the sudden ferocity of his partner, who had always been more easygoing in his earlier stages. However, before he could even tell Vikemon to control himself, somebody else beat him to the punch by calling out “STOP!” The voice was a bit shaky, almost as if it hadn’t been used in a long time. The shock of hearing a new voice was enough to get through to Vikemon, who snapped out of his berserk rage and stopped himself just before he finished the Arctic Blizzard attack. Turning to see who it was, he saw Sigma kneeling on the ground, with the bottom half of his mask broken off. Even Sigma seemed shocked at the sound of his own voice, but he continued speaking in a much quieter manner.

“Please, don’t hurt Piedmon. He’s the only one who was really with me when I was all alone. He’s not just my partner, he’s my friend. I lost this battle, but I don’t want to lose him.” Cody walked over to Sigma and helped him off the ground, as Michael had gone to collect his partner.

“I guess when you really have something to say, it just comes out no matter how hard you try to bury it behind a mask. Maybe you could try talking from the heart more often? I’m sure you’d have a lot in common with our friends Izzy and Willis.”

Sigma merely walked over and picked up his laptop from where Michael had dropped it and then responded, “Why would I talk with your friends?” He went over to the thawed Piedmon and hopped onto his partner’s shoulder, and Piedmon started flying away to Daemon’s Castle. With the battle over, Vikemon reverted to Upamon, leaving the DigiDestined in no position to chase after Sigma. However, after a minute both Cody’s D-Terminal and Michael’s Digivice 01 gave off a beep that signaled they had received a message. “I suggest you go back to Holy Angel Castle. I don’t know exactly how much time has passed, but Neo was planning to attack it while the Alias III stalled you. And thank you. Sigma.”

Omegamon landed in the courtyard in front of Daemon’s castle and set Rei and Hideto on the ground. Hideto was surprised that Rei didn’t seem to react to the castle, which was basically the most stereotypically evil lair in existence. “Are you okay, Rei? You’ve been awfully quiet lately.”

Rei seemed to shake herself out of something. “Sorry, I guess I’m just not used to seeing Digimon fighting up close. It was bad enough with the SandYanmamon and Scorpiomon, but that went too quickly and was more running for our lives than an actual battle. Plus, I was sort of invading their nest so I can understand why they attacked. But this time, it was like watching my friends try to kill each other. I guess I just need some time to cope with what I saw, okay?”

Hideto let out a sigh. “Yeah, it does take some getting used to. I hate forcing Warg and Melga to fight, but we don’t really have a choice. Besides, I made sure we wouldn’t do any lasting damage. Digimon are a lot tougher than they look—Omegamon’s attacks did some damage, but nothing a bit of time won’t heal. It’d be even faster if they could do this. Partition!”

He crossed his wrists, and Rei was shocked to see Omegamon split into two Digimon: a wolf covered in metal and a dinosaur wearing armor. Hideto then slammed his fists together and called out “Jogress,” causing the two Digimon to return to their combined form. He then repeated the partition, causing a small smile to come to Rei’s lips. “So, this is what Warg and Melga really look like? Now that I’ve seen them, I see exactly how bad your art skills are. That’s nothing like the picture you drew for me.”

Hideto smiled at the old memory from when he and Rei first became friends. “Hey, I never claimed to be a great artist, and Neo pointed out how bad those pictures were right away anyway. But yeah, the wolf is Melga and the dragon is Warg. Though, now they spend most of their time fused together as Omegamon anyway. Usually they are only separated here at the castle, partly because it’s easier for them to fit through the hallways when they’re smaller and partially because Daemon doesn’t really like having someone as powerful as Omegamon in his castle. He doesn’t fully trust us, but I can’t blame him for that—we don’t exactly trust him either. He and Neo always seem to be struggling for power, and Daemon knows we wouldn’t take his side if it came to a fight.”

Rei seemed to shrink into herself a little bit. “Is it really that bad? From what the others told me, Daemon isn’t somebody you’d want to work with. Maybe you going against him would be good news. I won’t try to tell you what to do, though. I’m sure you know what’s going on a lot more than what I do, though you’ll have to fill me in. Promise?”

Hideto nodded. “Of course I will. I remember how hard it was when I first came to the Digital World, and that was after years of experience playing with Digimon. Still, it’s a long story, so we better get inside first before I give all the details.”

Rei nodded. “All right, but would you mind answering a quick question? I understand why you split Omegamon into Warg and Melga, but why did you do it twice?”

“Yeah, I guess that would look funny if you didn’t know the reason. Have you ever heard Neo or me talk about Infinite Jogress before? Basically, it’s possible to combine two Digimon into a stronger one with a technique called Jogress. When you combine two Digimon, they get healed to full health also. Omegamon may not have looked like it, but he actually took a fair bit of damage in that last fight. So, I split him apart and then fused him together again to fully heal him, and then I split him again so Warg and Melga would be at full health.”

“Now I wish I had paid more attention to you and Neo before. I thought that would be a simple question, but all these game mechanics are still a bit over my head. Let’s try something a little simpler: how did you know Omegamon had taken a bunch of damage? I haven’t seen many fights, but it didn’t look like any of the attacks that managed to hit him really did anything.”

Tapping one of his Digivices, Hideto responded. “Well, it’s pretty easy to tell how much damage a Digimon has taken when you have a Digivice 01. It can scan a Digimon’s data and reveal a bunch of information, including health. And I’m actually glad you didn’t notice Omegamon take any damage—that’s one of the best weapons we have. If you make your opponent think you are unbeatable, they are more likely to give up or screw up trying too hard. If we win the psychological aspect of the battle, we are less likely to have to resort to deadly force.” 

Having reached the main door to Daemon’s castle, Hideto paused for a second to dig a key card out of his pocket. Passing it in front of a scanner shaped like Daemon’s face, he turned back to Rei. “You’d think a castle like this would have a more complicated security system than an ID scanner, but this world sometimes doesn’t make sense. Just watch your step—the entryway is basically nothing but an unnecessarily long staircase heading down. If you need to take a break, just let me know.”

Rei was thankful for the offer, but she didn’t want to be a burden to Hideto. Besides, while it wasn’t obvious, she could just tell that something about this place really bothered Hideto. To an outsider, Hideto wouldn’t seem to be acting any differently than he was on the flight over here, but she and Hideto had been close friends for so long that she knew he was putting more effort into acting nonchalant.

Trying to lighten the mood, Rei smiled. “Okay, don’t worry. I’ll be fine. Look, I can even jump!” After jumping up and down for a while, she managed to get Hideto chuckling with genuine amusement. Having succeeded at that, she continued. “In all seriousness though, I think Melga would be fine carrying me if I need a rest.” She reached out and scratched Melga’s back where he wasn’t wearing armor. Much like a dog, Melga clearly enjoyed the attention and nuzzled closer to Rei.

Hideto could barely hold back laughter. “You really are something else, Rei. You see a wolf that’s barely shorter than you are, covered with armor and blades, and you still treat him like he’s a big puppy. From the looks of things, he’d be more than happy to carry you if you need it. Alright, let’s go.” Despite the length of the staircase, Rei managed to make it into the large room at the bottom that served as the greeting area of sorts. However, before she could take in many details, Hideto quickly pulled her aside, and Warg and Melga rushed in front of the two Tamers, clearly prepared for danger.

Hideto sent a glare at the robed figure sitting in the throne-like chair in the center of the room. While the castle did belong to Daemon, this room had essentially been taken over by Neo, and this was the designated meeting place for the Alias III upon return from their mission. Daemon usually spent his time locked away in his true throne room, so the fact that he was here while nobody else was could only be bad news. Still, Hideto wasn’t foolish enough to immediately jump into a fight without trying to understand the situation, so he tried to keep his tone civil. “I have to say I’m surprised to see you here, Daemon. It’s been a while since you stepped out of your throne room. Where are Neo and the others?”

Daemon let out a menacing chuckle. “Oh, you needn’t worry about the others. Neo recently finished his attack on Holy Angel Castle and Sigma was just defeated by the DigiDestined, so they are both on their way here. Mari has pretty much locked herself in her room after Arkadimon ate her partner, so she’s here but not in the mood to talk to anybody. As for why I’m here, it would be rude for the ruler of the castle not to greet a guest, wouldn’t it? Especially a guest as important as Rei Saiba, sister to my oh-so-aggravating general.”

The clear malice in Daemon’s voice caused Rei to instinctively duck behind Hideto, who had pulled out each of his Digivices and was ready to fuse Warg and Melga at any moment. The Digimon themselves shifted position so their weapons could be used against Daemon at the slightest provocation. However, this only seemed to amuse Daemon, who laughed as he burned off his cloak but otherwise made no threatening moves.

“You really should watch that temper of yours, Hideto. Don’t forget I’m the Demon Lord of Wrath. Your anger makes you an open book to me. Go ahead, try to attack. If you leave your monsters in their current form, they stand no chance of winning. Your Omnimon might be able to match me in power, but I’ve seen all the recent battles and know how to exploit the weakness of Jogress. Try to fuse them, and they will be helpless against my attack.”

Hideto didn’t offer any response, mostly because he had already known everything Daemon just said. Strategically, he was at a disadvantage if it came to a direct fight with Daemon as long as Warg and Melga were fighting instead of Omegamon. Daemon took Hideto’s silence as agreement and continued.

“Still, I suppose I really must thank you, Hideto. I was starting to wonder if I would ever be able to salvage this situation. My army has seen the Alias III and Neo both fail their missions with no repercussions, and it is starting to reflect poorly on my leadership. Now, in the cases of Sigma and Mari, there isn’t an issue. After all, their failures were losing to the DigiDestined in battle. Admittedly not the ideal situation, but I myself have also been defeated by the DigiDestined so I won’t punish them for that failure. Besides, they both managed to stall for longer than the needed time, and Mari managed to feed Arkadimon. While they failed to achieve a perfect victory, they still managed to accomplish enough that their fights cannot be considered a punishable failure.”

“However, you and Neo are a different story. Both of you have been in battles against the DigiDestined and had ultimate victory within your grasp, yet you have chosen to let them survive without as much as decreasing their overall strength. By letting my enemies survive, I cannot help but question your loyalty. However, unlike most of my minions, you are not so easily replaced. If I were to destroy you, who wields a power almost equal to my own, I would be severely crippling the strength of my army. Worse, if I destroy Neo, I lose access to Arkadimon, and I have devoted far too much energy into this project to turn back now. So, I needed to find a way to ensure your cooperation other than the threat of elimination. So, once again you have my gratitude. You have just brought me someone who is in no way necessary to my plan, yet means a great deal to both you and Neo. So, are you willing to cooperate, or will I have to just torture Rei for your failures?”

Hearing this, Warg and Melga didn’t even bother waiting for Hideto’s orders and charged at Daemon with their Mega Claw and Metal Fang attacks. However, the Demon Lord easily countered with his Double Dust attack, punching right through the attacks of the weaker Digimon and sending them flying into the wall on the far side of the room. As they started standing up, Daemon turned to Hideto.

“Well, I see such a threat even gets to your partners. These bonds of compassion are really quite a marvelous thing, both as a source of strength and a glaring weakness. Now, you have a few options. You can try Jogressing your partners and let Omnimon be struck down before he is fully formed, you can try fighting without Jogress and watch your partners be deleted, or you could try running away. Of course, I can always summon either you or Rei back to me, so both running and fighting are useless. So, how about we just skip over the part where you futilely try to resist? If you can capture or destroy the DigiDestined, I may just decide to let Rei go back to Earth.”

Hideto hated the situation, and especially hated Daemon for causing it. Still, he had made his decision a long time ago: no matter how despicable the methods, he was willing to go as far as was needed to help Rei. If he was already willing to kill everything in a world in order to create a paradise, even if everything that was killed would be reborn in said paradise, he could handle killing a few more Digimon. Still, that didn’t mean he had to enjoy being Daemon’s servant, and he also didn’t have to enjoy his task. Staring at Daemon with as much hate and defiance as he could muster, Hideto responded.

“Alright, fine, I’ll take care of the DigiDestined for you, but I’ll still do this my way. First, I’m going to escort Rei down to Mari’s room, and she’ll be able to stay here comfortably instead of being a prisoner. Second, I get to pick my opponents. I want another shot at the two I fought earlier, and that should at least eliminate their strongest. After that, you will let Rei go, and I will then work on going after the others. Third, let me fly out there myself. I’ll be more effective fighting if I have some time to prepare than if you throw me directly into the fray.”

As Hideto started leading Rei down the hallway towards the rooms the Alias III stayed in while in the Digital World, Daemon couldn’t help but smirk. This confrontation had worked out perfectly, but it really had been impossible to fail: no matter what happened, Daemon would be rid of a nuisance. If Hideto tried fighting, he would eliminate a powerful enemy in Omegamon. If he agreed to fight seriously against the DigiDestined, then either Omegamon eliminates the DigiDestined or the DigiDestined eliminate Omegamon, causing his enemies to weaken each other without Daemon even having to get involved. Still, the best part was testing out exactly how this little maneuver would affect his human ‘allies’. Just as he expected, it was very easy to manipulate a human into doing his bidding just by threatening a loved one. The intense surge of anger Hideto felt was also reassuring. If Hideto reacted this way, Daemon couldn’t wait to see Neo’s reaction. Either Neo would finally be put into his place, or he would do something even better and play right into Daemon’s hand. Apparently, Lilithmon had had the right idea all along that the best way to attack humans was not to target them directly, but to attack the ones they loved instead.

Chapter Text

Hideto sighed as he strolled down the corridor from Mari’s room on his way out of the castle. Convincing Rei to stay behind while he went to fight her new friends had not been easy. She had insisted that fighting like this was wrong, and practically ordered him to return to the way he used to be, back when he was always trying to do the right thing and Digimon was just a game played for fun. Luckily, the argument had carried them all the way to Mari’s door, and at that time Mari herself was just coming back. Mari had obviously been crying for a long time, and Rei immediately tried to comfort her. This allowed Hideto to leave unnoticed, and was possibly the perfect situation: Rei stayed behind with Mari, and Mari had someone to talk to and hopefully help her through the depression of losing a partner. Ideally, this would help both of the girls in the long run, and it gave Hideto a chance to start focusing on the upcoming battle. He had returned Warg and Melga to their Digivices to remain absolutely focused, and then started psyching himself up for the upcoming conflict. He normally wouldn’t fight with the intent of destroying an enemy, but now he had to. Luckily, Rei had reminded him of the past, which contained exactly the motivation he needed to walk into the upcoming battle.

“Back when Digimon was just about fun, huh?” Hideto mused allowed before flashing back to his first meeting with the Saibas. It had been halfway through his senior year of high school, back when Digimon was a fairly recent video game. Hideto was known as far and away the best player in the county, mostly for the fact that he was one of the first people in the world to raise his Digimon to the Mega level in game. However, on that day there were rumors of a new transfer student, one Neo Saiba. After school, Neo had walked right up to him and challenged him to a battle, easily defeating both Melga and Warg. Hideto was shocked at the loss, but only became more determined to beat this new rival when Neo suggested he delete his weak monsters.

With a combination of curiosity at Neo’s strength and a desire to prove Warg and Melga weren’t just trash to be deleted, Hideto found himself standing outside the large house belonging to the Saiba family. Having arrived at his destination, he mentally scolded himself for chasing down someone to their house just because they were better in a video game, but before he could leave Rei caught sight of him and asked him what he was doing at her house. Before Hideto could even explain himself, her face immediately lit up.

“Oh, I know. You must be here to see my brother! This is so great. He doesn’t usually make friends, and I don’t know if he’s ever had a friend come over before. Come on, let’s go get him!” Hideto was a little taken aback at the display of energy, but now couldn’t get himself out of meeting Neo. Neo immediately guessed that Hideto had only come over to try to find the secret of his strength, and then corrected Rei when she called Hideto his friend.

“He’s not my friend, he’s another Digimon Tamer. In other words, he’s a rival. Still, he’ll be a great rival. It isn’t often I have battles that are actually close.”

From that one awkward meeting started an instant rivalry. Throughout the upcoming week, Hideto and Neo repeatedly had their Digimon battle, with Hideto always coming closer to victory but never quite attaining it. From this rivalry, Hideto got to know both Saibas better, and quickly became friends with each of them. While Neo had a conflicting style of playing the game—he boiled his monsters down to statistics and deleted any monster that didn’t live up to his expectations while Hideto cared for his monsters and treated them almost like a real pet—they each had a mutual respect for the other’s strength and were glad to find somebody who could provide a remote challenge. While Rei didn’t play Digimon and thus couldn’t bond with Hideto over the game like Neo did, she still had such a lively personality that Hideto couldn’t help but consider her as a friend. She also seemed to value Hideto’s approach to the game more than her own brother’s, often asking him about what Warg and Melga were like instead of just worrying about their statistics. Soon, Hideto, Rei, and Neo became best friends, and they would spend just about all of their free time hanging out together.

However, the fun times could not last forever. A few weeks before graduation, Hideto managed to unlock Omegamon as a Jogress form for Warg and Melga. With this new form, he was confident that he would finally defeat Neo’s strongest monster, who Neo barely ever used anymore. He had discovered that the code for his first monster contained a glitch that granted it bursts of power beyond the capabilities of a Mega level, and immediately stopped using it for fear that using a glitched monster cheapened his victories. However, Hideto refused to face anything less than Neo’s best, and wanted to prove that when raised with enough care Warg and Melga would be able to overcome any difference in power. He had managed to catch up with Neo and Rei on the way to school and told them the news, causing Rei to turn back in the crosswalk in order to see the new monster. Unfortunately, this left Rei in the middle of the street right as a drunk driver ran a red light and careened through the intersection.

The resulting accident left Rei paralyzed from the waist down, and while she tried to convince Hideto that he wasn’t at fault, her words fell on deaf ears. The accident had done more than cripple Rei’s body: it had also taken her a couple of years to return to her usual cheerful self. During those years, Hideto had felt nothing but guilt, while Neo seemed to go even crazier. He developed such an obsession with medical studies in a search for a cure that he managed to get into med school after only five semesters of university studies, but when the financing for his research dried up he seemed to spiral into a depression. The only time he ever seemed to have any fun at all was in Digimon tournaments, and even then he was a lot colder than he used to be. Hideto had likewise retreated from his previous life, but that all changed when Neo came to him with a fantastic story about a Digital World. He had been pulled in by a Digimon called Daemon, and by raising one special Digimon he could reprogram the Digital World in order to create a paradise where things like paralysis were only a memory. A perfect world where drunk drivers couldn’t bribe their way out of jail time after ruining people’s lives was within their reach.

A look of extreme focus crossed Hideto’s face as he finished his flashback. The upcoming battle may not be to his liking, but he was willing to do whatever it took to achieve his goal. He would allow nothing to stand between him and a perfect world, where nobody had to be injured and justice always prevailed. Armed with a just cause, Omegamon would quickly eliminate the threat of the DigiDestined. Stepping out of the castle and into the sun, he brought Warg and Melga out of their Digivices and fused them together before he flew off towards the scene of his last battle. The DigiDestined may be strong, but they were fighting a losing battle. The forces of good would always prevail, and Hideto had no doubt that he was fighting on the winning side.

Mari couldn’t believe how bad this horribly this day was going. First, she lost Rosemon to Arkadimon and now she was stuck babysitting Neo’s little sister. Worse, Hideto had happened to come by when she wasn’t locked in her room, meaning Rei had seen that she had spent much of the recent time crying, so now Neo’s sister was trying to cheer her up. Finally getting sick of Rei’s constant attempts to get her to talk about what was bothering her, Mari finally snapped.

“Listen, just shut up. You don’t know what I’ve been going through. Next time your life falls apart, maybe then we’ll be able to talk.” Rei was taken aback by the hostility in Mari’s tone, but she wasn’t going to give in that easily.

“Yeah, right. I have no idea what it’s like to have everything in your life fall apart. It’s not like I got hit by a car, ended up paralyzed, and watched my brother and best friend sink into a depression because they blamed themselves for some idiot running a red light. Trust me, if you try to bottle that all up, it’ll just come back to haunt you for the next couple of years until you finally decide to talk about it and let it out.”

Mari rolled her eyes. “Yeah, fine. Let me know how that little psychology drivel works for you. You can bitch all you want about an accident years ago, but that doesn’t change the fact that you still have a best friend and a brother that are willing to literally take on a world in order to help you. Yeah, your life sucks so much right now. Pretty soon Neo is going to make your whole perfect world, but my best friend is stuck inside some demonic spider. So, sorry if I’m not going to be the most sympathetic to the horrors of your life.”

Rei saw that Mari wasn’t going to just start talking the easy way, but she wasn’t about to give up. After all, she was basically stuck here in a castle run by a demon who had already threatened her life, so she wasn’t going to let her only other chance at human communication slip through her fingers.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m over the accident, but only because I finally started to talk about it. Now, I have a new problem. I was just sitting by my computer minding my own business, and then suddenly I get sucked into a different dimension. I end up in the middle of a combination ant/scorpion colony, only escape thanks to running into some guy partnered with a giant insect, and then end up in the middle of a maze being chased by zombie scorpions. Then, I have a run-in with a dragon suffering the exact same mental problems as my late grandfather, finally get to safety only to be sucked into another battle, and to top it all off I am now being held hostage by a demon so my best friend has to try and kill some of my other friends. So, either you’re going to talk about your problems, or I’m just going to keep talking about mine until you give up.”

Mari was actually taken aback at this. From what Hideto and Neo had said about Rei, she was picturing somebody who was just always cheerful and pretty much the typical princess type—friendly, pretty, but unable to handle herself in difficult situations. However, she had just as much spunk as Mari herself. For the first time since becoming an Alias, Mari found herself respecting the reason Hideto and Neo were even here. Mari let out a weak chuckle.

“You know, despite the fact that Neo and Hideto are only here to help you and I’m helping them, I don’t think I’ve ever thought you were worth it. From how they describe you, you’re pretty much every fairy tale princess. I wasn’t expecting you to be able to face my bitch mode and stay on my level. Now I can see why Hideto has such a thing for you.”

This seemed to catch Rei off guard. “What do you mean, Hideto has a thing for me? We’re just best friends, nothing else.”

Mari rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Just don’t be surprised when that comes up later. And honestly, he’s a great guy, and now that I’ve met you I think you are one of the few people who are good enough for him.” Rei blushed a bit and tried to respond, but couldn’t find the words. Mari merely snorted. “Judging by the look on your face, this is all news to you. In fact, I’m also detecting a slight hint of guilt, which leads me to believe you don’t feel the same way about him and actually are either involved with another guy or looking to be involved with another guy. Wow, congratulations. You’ve just successfully gotten me to cheer up by showing me a problem I’m glad I don’t have.”

Rei seemed to shrink into herself at how easily Mari had read her, so Mari decided to take pity on her. “Hey, hey, I’m kidding. You’re what, 20 years old? There’s nothing wrong with having a love triangle around you at that age. Heck, there’s nothing wrong with it at just about any age. I’m sure it will work out. I know Hideto—he’ll be fine even if you reject him. Sure, it will suck for a bit, but he values your friendship too much to let something like this disrupt it. At the end of the day, if you’re happy he’ll be happy. He can handle rejection, and he’ll appreciate the honesty. I can’t speak for this other guy, but either he’ll be the same way or he didn’t deserve you in the first place anyway. Tell you what, if it makes you feel better I can tell you my whole depressing life story. I promise, it’ll make you glad for something as simple as a love triangle.”

Rei wasn’t quite happy with how the conversation had developed, but at least Mari was starting to talk about her problems. Instead of starting with recent events, however, Mari looked a lot further back. “Well, I guess you could say my ‘problems’ started back when I was born. My dad wasn’t really a part of my life, seeing as he was just a customer who paid quite a bit extra so he wouldn’t have to wear a condom and my mom was in a bad financial state so she wasn’t able to afford birth control. Even she never knew exactly who he was. Still, despite that, she really did her best raising me…”

Rei found herself listening to Mari’s life story without saying anything, but she could tell Mari hadn’t told this to anybody so she remained silent. Apparently, Mari’s mother had done the best she could to make sure Mari at least had a better life than she had, even to the point where she would sometimes go without food in order to buy Mari the things she needed. Still, finances were always tight, and when she turned thirteen Mari found a way to supplement the family income. One of her mother’s repeat customers had gifted her with a laptop including a webcam, and through that Mari had discovered the wonders of the internet. Within a few months, Mari had become a net idol, getting some money from visitors to her site. As she got older, she started to do more explicit things and get more money, finally managing to earn enough money to pay for college despite growing up on the streets. She even found something she could do for fun when Digimon was released online, and she quickly became one of the world’s top players.

However, the happiness couldn’t last, and disaster struck when Mari moved into college. Her mother was found dead under suspicious circumstances, and Mari lost the one person who had ever given her unconditional love. She tried to fill the void with countless flings in college, but her past was finally catching up to her. Due to her online fame, all the guys in her school already knew her and were expecting her to be just like she was online—in short, lots of empty sex, no emotional connections. In her grief, she wasn’t as smart as she should have been, and one day she found herself in a clinic receiving a positive diagnosis. Facing an incurable disease and nothing fulfilling in her life other than her Digimon, Mari really wasn’t sure what she should do next.

Perhaps the only good news for Mari was that Neo contacted her exactly at this time. Instead of wallowing in her situation, she now had a purpose: she could help create Neo’s perfect world. Instead of letting this disease define her life, she could now work to create a place where diseases didn’t even exist. To top it off, she got to go to the Digital World and meet her partner in person for the first time. She managed to apply her skill in the video games to a much greater degree now that she was a real-life Tamer, and managed to be just as successful as Hideto and Sigma despite the advantages they had with their partners. However, that was now all in the past, as Arkadimon had eaten Rosemon and trapped her data, meaning she wouldn’t even be reborn as a DigiEgg. Neo may not have done it intentionally, but he had still removed one of the only things that had made Mari’s life worthwhile. She knew she shouldn’t hold an accident against him, but she was still finding it hard to forgive him.

As Mari finished her story, Rei replied in a somber mood. “Well, I’d like to say Neo will make it up to you, but I’m not exactly sure how he could do that. I guess I’m not really sure how Neo can be doing anything at the moment. I always thought of him as the perfect brother, but now he’s trying to take over a world just for me. It’s just shocking to see how far he’s willing to go. I feel like the Neo I know wouldn’t destroy a world of living, thinking beings, but I guess that isn’t the case…”

As Rei’s voice trailed off, Mari tried to cheer her up. “Listen, I know it sounds harsh, but Neo doesn’t really view these Digimon as living things. In a way, I can see his point: even if we ‘kill’ every Digimon here and reformat the Digital World, all of their data will still remain and they can be brought back to life. If it’s impossible for something to really die outside of exceptional circumstances, can you really call them alive? I can’t blame Neo for thinking like that—after all, I signed up to help him because I agreed with his vision for the future. Now that Rosemon is gone, though, I can see how wrong we were. If Rosemon could be my friend, she obviously had to have a soul or something like that beyond just being made of data. And if Rosemon had a soul, every Digimon has to have one as well. Tell you what, when Neo gets back, we’ll talk to him. He’s done a lot, but it isn’t too late. We can still convince him to save the world instead of destroying it.”

Davis and Willis had been forced to stop and take a break. While following the path Hideto had taken away from their last battle seemed like a good idea, they had forgotten one key factor: they couldn’t rely on their partners to carry them. While Omegamon could easily carry Hideto and fly away, they only had three In-Training Digimon and thus had to travel on foot. They had done their best, but this section of the Digital World was similar to the badlands they had travelled through when Davis and Willis had first met. The rocky terrain offered little in protection from the scorching sun, and while Davis was in great physical shape from all the soccer he played, Willis spent most of his days on a computer and needed to stop and rest.

Luckily, the wait hadn’t been entirely counterproductive, as the extra time had allowed the Digimon to return to their Rookie forms. While they still were running too low on energy to Digivolve normally, Veemon was at least strong enough to Armor Digivolve into Raidramon. Unfortunately, unlike last time, Raidramon wasn’t big enough to carry both Davis and Willis, as the six-year difference between the fight with the corrupted Cherubimon and now had resulted in both DigiDestined growing considerably while Raidramon had remained the same size as always. Since Willis looked like he still needed to rest a bit, Davis volunteered to do a little scouting of the immediate area. From his communications with the others, he knew he and Willis wouldn’t be able to get any backup in the near future, as Ken and Yolei were helping Holy Angel Castle recover and Cody and Michael were on their way to the castle. Each group still had Digimon recovering from their first Digivolution to Mega, so they wouldn’t be able to cover this distance anytime soon. Without the ability to gang up on Omegamon to defeat him, Davis was going to take one last look around the surrounding area to see if there was a better location for a battle. If there wasn’t, he was going to cut his losses and head back towards Holy Angel Castle now, hopefully bringing everybody together before Neo or Daemon could make their next moves.

Davis and Raidramon were about to call their patrol a failure when they stumbled across a change of scenery by almost running off of a cliff. Glad that nobody had witnessed the particular lack of grace, they promised each other not to mention the incident to anybody else before glancing into the canyon below. Davis couldn’t help but be reminded of the Thunder Area where Yolei and Joe had fought Hermmon on the way to the Olympos XII. Countless rocky spires shot upward out of the ground, all curving into a vicious hook shape. The spires were so large that AeroVeedramon would have been able to hide behind them easily, giving Davis some ideas. In addition to the obvious cover, the thought of the Thunder Area and knowledge of Cherubimon’s Heaven’s Judgment attack made Davis think this would be the perfect place to set up an ambush for the enemy Royal Knight.

Finally having something interesting to report, Davis and Raidramon returned to where they had left Willis, he seemed to have recovered after the strenuous hike out to this point. They explained their findings, and then went to work on deciding what to do. While the canyon seemed to be the perfect location to try a rematch against Omegamon, it might not be enough of an advantage to ensure victory. While Cherubimon would be able to hide while launching his Heaven’s Judgment, the other Digimon would need to have a line of sight to Omegamon in order to hit him, which could potentially leave them exposed to a retaliatory strike. In addition, the abundance of cover might be a double-edged sword: the spires were large enough that Omegamon might be able to hide behind them as well, and then Hideto would have the advantage of being able to silently communicate with Omegamon using his Digivice 01 while Davis and Willis could only shout information at their partners. While the thought of winning on their own was tempting, it seemed like too big of a risk to try without having backup. They were about to turn away when an excited voice suddenly shouted right behind them. “At last, I’ve found you, DigiDestined!”

Davis and Willis immediately reached for their Digivices as they spun around. While the voice had sounded more excited than threatening, the words themselves sounded like a cliché villain speech, putting the two on guard. However, when they turned around, they only saw a Ninjamon standing behind them with a friendly grin on its face. Neither DigiDestined lowered their Digivices in case this was some form of trap, but the Ninjamon jumped right into an explanation before they could ask him any questions.

“You must be the DigiDestined named Davis and Willis, right? I am Igamon, master spy in the employ of Holy Angel Castle. I was planted within Daemon’s army, but I was discovered by the second Alias and nearly killed. Then, I was saved by two DigiDestined, partnered with a GranKuwagamon and a Valkyrimon. By saving me, they have earned my eternal servitude, and they requested that I find their other friends and help them reunite. And now I’ve found you!”

Davis and Willis had a hard time keeping up with the speed of Igamon’s voice, as the hyperactive ninja couldn’t seem to bother slowing down even while talking. Ken and Yolei hadn’t mentioned any encounter with a Ninjamon in their messages after defeating Mari, but enough of his story matched what they had said about the situation, so Davis was willing to give Igamon the benefit of the doubt. After all, if they were planning on getting to Holy Angel Castle to regroup with the others, they would need a guide. Wherever they had been teleported by Sigma, they were too far out of range to pick up the signals of anybody else’s Digivice, meaning they could either trust Igamon to lead them the right way or pick a random direction and hope it works out. Clearly, there was really only one option.

After explaining their situation to Igamon, he offered to guide them to the castle. However, upon seeing the condition of the partner Digimon, he quickly decided something else. “Actually, wait. It seems your friends could use some medical help. I have a friend nearby who can heal them right up. You should probably find some shelter, though: Daemon’s forces usually patrol this area. I’ll be back in a few minutes! Konoha Ranbu!”

Igamon spun in place and somehow kicked up a whirlwind of leaves before he suddenly disappeared. With that, the DigiDestined were left alone once again, still marveling at the energy the small Digimon seemed to exude at all times. Still, despite his personality, he didn’t seem to be a rash thinker: he had immediately noticed and taken steps to address the problem of the injured Digimon, and his suggestion to take shelter was the sort of logical thinking Davis didn’t really expect from someone who reminded him of himself in his younger days. With no other idea of where to go, Davis and Willis both headed for the canyon Davis had found earlier to wait for Igamon’s return.

Davis and Willis had been waiting for what seemed like half an hour and were starting to worry about Igamon when he came dashing into the canyon. While he was panting as if he had been sprinting for quite some distance, he still managed to talk at his usual speed. “Sorry about that. My friend is even better at avoiding detection than I am. Plus, he usually hangs around colder areas, and thus he hides away during the day whenever he ventures this far south. He is willing to help, but I have to warn you—he is very timid and quite mischievous. If you make any sudden moves and startle him, he will run away, and he might decide he doesn’t want to come back. So, just don’t do anything threatening, okay? It isn’t very often that Cutemon lets other beings see him.”

Davis was about to wonder if Cutemon was a legitimate Digimon name or if Igamon was merely pulling their legs when a pink rabbit-like Digimon came into view. It looked similar to Terriermon and Lopmon, but its ears were smaller and shaped like actual rabbit ears. He was also wearing a pink scarf and what looked like earmuffs. Cutemon seemed to look at the DigiDestined warily for a few seconds before approaching. Not wanting to startle the creature, Davis and Willis barely moved at all, instead only watching while Cutemon went up to Lopmon and said “Healing Glow.” A green glow seemed to travel from Cutemon into Lopmon, and after about a minute Lopmon felt as if he had never gotten in a fight with Omegamon. After healing Lopmon, Cutemon moved on to Terriermon and healed him before moving on to Veemon. However, after about half the time as it took to heal the other two, Cutemon’s ears suddenly went rigid, and he quickly ran away.

Veemon wasn’t sure what happened, but while he hadn’t made a full recovery he was at least glad that Cutemon had managed to heal him to the point where he didn’t feel shaky from the overwrite anymore. Igamon at least knew his friend enough to know what must have happened, but that didn’t make him feel any better. “Listen, that’s a bad sign. Those organs on Cutemon’s head that look like ears actually allow him to sense the approach of other Digimon instead of simply hearing something. For him to run away like that, something very bad must… be…”

Igamon trailed off as he started trembling. Whatever was coming, it must be something really bad, as Igamon suddenly got the feeling he was about to be killed. The only being that had ever made him feel this way had been Daemon, who exuded an aura of killing intent. Even then, he had never been this paralyzed by fear. Before he could sink into panic, he yelled for the DigiDestined. “Listen, if I die, just go out the canyon entrance we came in from and keep going along that line. You should run into a city there, and the occupants can direct you to Holy Angel Castle.”

Davis and Willis were a bit confused with Igamon’s sudden shift in tone, but a few seconds later they could see the reason for it. There was a Digimon rapidly flying towards them, and as it got closer they could clearly make out Hideto riding on Omegamon’s shoulders. As Omegamon landed on one of the cliffs ringing the canyon, even Davis and Willis could feel the threatening aura radiating from the Royal Knight that proved he was being serious this time around. Veemon, Lopmon, and Terriermon were all more keenly aware of this fact, but unlike Igamon they didn’t freeze in the face of this foe and instead readied themselves for battle. Davis and Willis instead focused on Hideto, who no longer seemed like the laid-back Tamer from the last encounter and was instead giving the DigiDestined an icy glare. Davis wasn’t too happy about the change, but he could at least hazard a guess as to why it happened.

“Hideto, where’s Rei?” However, while Davis had been hoping to at least knock Hideto off balance with the question, Hideto didn’t even change his expression.

“That’s none of your business. I will destroy you and anybody else who dares interfere with our plan. You cannot hope to stand against the power of Omegamon. You may either surrender now and be handed over to Daemon, or you can attempt to fight and understand what it feels like to be truly hopeless.”

Seeing that talking wasn’t getting them anywhere, Willis activated his Crest and responded, “So, our choices are to surrender and then have Daemon kill us or fight you and maybe have Omegamon kill us? Sorry, but we won’t give up that easily.”

Picking up right where Willis left off, Davis also chimed in. “Yeah, normally we might not stand a chance against Omegamon, but we have something nobody else does. We have the powers of Destiny and Miracles on our side!” Willis groaned at the cheesiness of the last statement, but his response was lost in the shouting that accompanied the massive golden glow emanating from their partners.

“Veemon, Digivolve to… ExVeemon!”

“Lopmon, Warp Digivolve to… Cherubimon!”

“ExVeemon, Digivolve to… AeroVeedramon!”

“Terriermon, Warp Digivolve to… MegaGargomon!”

Neo was surprised to find Mari waiting for him in the entrance room of Daemon’s castle. While Mari was one of the strongest people he knew, he hadn’t expected her to be doing this well after Rosemon’s death. Still, he was glad he ran into Mari before running into Daemon. His host most likely wouldn’t be pleased with his actions at Holy Angel Castle, and while Neo wasn’t worried about what the Demon Lord could do to him personally he could see Daemon destroying Rosemon’s DigiEgg out of spite. Now, however, he could hand off the pink egg to its rightful owner and then go face the demon he was forced to work with for the time being.

Neo carefully gave Rosemon’s DigiEgg to Mari, who accepted it with a show of emotion Neo had never seen her display: a genuine smile. After Neo explained how he had managed to get Rosemon’s data back into a DigiEgg, Mari couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.

“It’s funny. Yesterday if you said I would lose a battle and then have Rosemon taken away from me, I would have thought that would be the worst day of my life. Not that it wasn’t bad, but now today Rosemon was saved by the one who beat me, I’ve got her DigiEgg back, and I even made a new friend. Sure, for a while today sucked, but all in all I’d say things are looking up. Well, since you just gave me my best friend back, I suppose I can do something for you. Why don’t you head down to my room and knock on the door? I’m sure you’ll be happy with what you find there.”

Rolling his eyes, Neo decided to play along with Mari’s request. After working with her, he knew she just wouldn’t let some things go, and it was best for his sanity if he just complied with her wishes from the start whenever she got that look in her eye. As he knocked on Mari’s door, he couldn’t help but silently chuckle at himself. Here he was, the world’s best Digimon Tamer and future creator of a perfect world, and yet he wasn’t able to win an argument with a coworker. When all this was behind them, he was prepared for Hideto to make plenty of whipped jokes, but until that point he had other things to worry about. Before he had a chance to think any further, Mari’s door opened and all thoughts were suddenly driven from Neo’s mind as he saw his sister standing in front of him.

“R-Rei! What are you doing here! And you’re standing! Your legs—hmph!” Neo had the wind knocked out of him as Rei practically threw herself at him and pulled him into a giant hug. She started sobbing into his chest, and Neo managed to at least recover enough from the initial shock to hug her back.

“I’ve missed you so much, Neo! And then when I got here, I started hearing terrible things about you, and I wasn’t sure what to believe, and, and, then I met Hideto and he brought me here, but then Daemon…” Rei’s sentence faded away into sobs, but Neo could guess enough of what had happened. A hard look came into his eyes, but he still put his thoughts aside: right now, he was just a big brother trying to comfort his little sister and not a Digimon Tamer. Eventually, Rei seemed to calm down, allowing Neo to finally talk to her.

“Don’t worry, Rei, I’m here. Everything’s going to be okay. I promise I’ll be able to explain everything in a little bit, but why don’t you start at the beginning? How did you get here, and how are you feeling?” As Rei began telling her story, Neo started filling in the gaps himself. While Rei just thought she had been randomly pulled into this world, Neo guessed it had happened when Ghoulmon’s rampage had weakened the border between dimensions. He stayed mostly silent throughout her story, only reacting when she retold Daemon threatening her in order to force Hideto’s cooperation. Hearing this, Neo’s face became a mask of cold fury. “I’ll be right back, Rei. I promise, you won’t have to worry about Daemon again. I will take care of him, and then I’ll call Hideto back. Just stay here.”

Daemon lounged on his throne as Neo entered his room. By now, Neo must have known about Rei’s presence, but Daemon decided to ignore that for a moment just to see how Neo reacted. Instead, he focused on a different topic. “Ah, Neo, it’s been a while. Tell me, how is Arkadimon progressing? I’ve seen the rampage at Holy Angel Castle, but I’d like a more personal account.”

Neo smirked at the perfect opportunity. “Well, I could tell you, but why don’t I just show you?” He had Arkadimon materialize out of his Digivice, and the Ultimate level faced the Demon Lord with its usual hungry look.

Daemon merely laughed. “I see, so this is how you respond when I threaten your sister. I was hoping that you would lose that smug attitude of yours, but it should be more fun to beat the pride out of you!”

Arkadimon lunged towards Daemon with its Freeze Tentacle attack, but before it could cover half the distance it was interrupted when Daemon summoned countless blue tentacles that bound Arkadimon’s limbs and neck before pinning the Super Ultimate to the wall. “Did you honestly think I was unprepared for your treachery? There is a reason I am one of three surviving Great Demon Lords—I am always prepared for betrayal. Arkadimon is fearsome, but without the ability to move it is no threat. And I assure you, Dragomon’s data within me gives me much greater control over this Tentacle Flapping attack than your mindless beast could ever accomplish.”

However, Neo merely responded by laughing back. “I’m glad we’re on the same page, then. It was so tiring having to pretend we were on anything resembling the same side. The only question was when I would drop the act, but you provided the perfect opportunity. And as for Arkadimon, who said anything about it needing to use its tentacles?”

Daemon suddenly felt paralyzed, and his body began dissipating into data. “Wh…What is this attack?!”

Neo smirked. “I call it Dot Matrix. Don’t act so surprised—did you really think a Super Ultimate would be dependent on its limbs? After absorbing the pinnacle of light in this world, it was only a matter of time before we went after the pinnacle of darkness, so I purposely had Arkadimon hide its true potential from you. You were never meant to be anything other than prey!”

Daemon tried responding by sending an Evil Inferno attack at Neo, but due to his data being absorbed by Arkadimon the attack only managed to produce a black smoke that draped over Neo and caused him to undergo a coughing fit. With that, Daemon only had one response left: maniacal laughter. Neo quickly recovered from his fit and resumed his superior tone.

“Well, if that’s all you can accomplish, I can see why you spent this entire time hiding in your throne room. Just be glad your pathetic existence now has some use. You’ll become part of Arkadimon now. After absorbing you, Arkadimon will Digivolve to Mega!” Daemon’s body finally disappeared, and his data spiraled directly into Arkadimon’s chest. As the room was bathed in the glow of Digivolution, Neo began laughing maniacally, though there was something off about his voice…

Chapter Text

MegaGargomon cursed his luck. Of all the times to reach his Mega form, it had to happen now. Sure, the added power was a nice benefit, but his new form essentially prevented him from following the plan. As Rapidmon, he wouldn’t have been able to do much damage to Omegamon, but he could easily dart in and out of the rocks and hopefully wear the Royal Knight down. Now, he was much larger and carried a veritable armory of weapons on his person, but that worked against him. While he would still be able to barely conceal himself with this landscape, the added weapons and size absolutely crippled his speed. Against somebody as quick as Omegamon, he wouldn’t even be able to make it behind a rock before getting blasted. And while he was essentially a floating fortress, he didn’t think his increased defense could stand up to something with as much power as he was currently facing.

While the situation wasn’t the best for the mechanical Digimon, he tried to make the most of it. The battle plan wouldn’t work anymore for him, but it could still work for Cherubimon and AeroVeedramon. Resigning himself to his fate, he launched his Gargo Missiles attack at Omegamon, starting the battle. The Royal Knight easily dodged the two megaton-class missiles, which proceeded to explode in the distance. However, despite the apparent failure of the attack, MegaGargomon couldn’t help but smile. After all, he was taking the role of distraction, and Omegamon was now focused on him. Also, he had wanted to test something out, and the attack just confirmed he had an ability that would at least connect with Omegamon before MegaGargomon would be defeated.

However, the smile quickly faded from MegaGargomon’s face as he saw AeroVeedramon and Cherubimon staring at him in shock. Clearly, his distraction had worked a little too well, and his teammates were wondering what exactly he was thinking. Knowing he didn’t have much time to explain, he decided to be brief. “Listen, I can’t follow the plan anymore, but you have to. I’ll buy you as much time as I can. Now go! Mega Barrage!”

With this shout, MegaGargomon began launching every single weapon he had at Omegamon, filling the sky with missiles from his fingers, wrists, and shoulders. While Omegamon effortlessly dodged the first few rounds, he was taken by surprise as the missiles exploded in midair as soon as they passed him, knocking the Royal Knight off balance and giving MegaGargomon the option to hit him with everything else. From his first Gargo Missiles attack, he realized he could cause his missiles to explode whenever he wanted, and he was glad to use this skill to at least catch Omegamon off guard and buy time for Cherubimon and AeroVeedramon, who had finally flown off into the canyon and were most likely waiting for a clear moment to strike.

After a few minutes of constant firing, MegaGargomon finally ran out of ammo. The entire sky around Omegamon had been replaced with a giant smoke cloud, but MegaGargomon wasn’t about to get his hopes up. Sure, he may have just blasted Omegamon with more firepower than a typical army possessed, but that didn’t mean anything. After all, he had watched plenty of movies and TV shows where the only way to show how dangerous something really was involved the army blasting everything it had towards whatever monster was attacking only for it to do absolutely nothing. Perhaps because he himself was now a giant mecha, he found himself immediately doubting the power of standard weaponry. With somebody as strong as Omegamon, MegaGargomon fully expected that his attack either missed, or possibly even worse, hit yet did no damage.

When the smoke cleared, MegaGargomon felt slightly better to see Omegamon hiding behind a shield that was decorated with a combination of the Crest of Courage and the Crest of Friendship. While the Brave Shield Omega had protected Omegamon from damage, MegaGargomon felt at least a tiny sense of victory at forcing Omegamon to use such a defense, as that meant his attack wasn’t something Omegamon could just safely take without trying to defend himself. The small victory was extremely short lived, however, as Omegamon quickly took down the shield and launched right into his Omega Sword attack, impaling MegaGargomon with the flaming blade. As a testament to MegaGargomon’s strength, he actually managed to survive such an attack, though he did revert to Zerimon and barely remained conscious. Omegamon knew Hideto had to end this battle decisively, but he refrained from killing the helpless Baby Digimon. After all, Daemon had left the option of surrender open, and even if that wasn’t the case Omegamon wasn’t about to kill a helpless opponent while he was still in the middle of a fight against much larger threats.

As if to prove Omegamon’s point, AeroVeedramon chose that moment to come flying in with his Magnum Crush attack. Omegamon managed to block the blow using his MetalGarurumon arm and tried to counter with a blow from his WarGreymon arm, only for his blow to meet with empty air. AeroVeedramon had merely used his superior speed to duck back behind the rocks, and while Omegamon was surprised the Ultimate level launched his Twister Claw attack from the opposite side. Omegamon managed to block most of the attacks with his WarGreymon arm, but a few hits managed to sneak past the Royal Knight’s defenses.

As AeroVeedramon disappeared behind the rocks again, Hideto merely scoffed. “So, you’re hoping the landscape here will give you an advantage? What a childish strategy! Do you really think something that simple gives you any chance of winning? Omega Sword!” At this command, Omegamon once again brought out his burning sword, and swung it around in a circle. Previously, he had always limited his sword to close-range strikes, but this time it unleashed a blazing crescent of energy that cut the peaks off of all the spires in the surrounding area and barely missed hitting AeroVeedramon, who could only gasp in shock. Omegamon took advantage of the opening to rush in and deliver a powerful strike with his MetalGarurumon arm, sending AeroVeedramon onto a painful collision course with the ground.

Seeing the extent of Omegamon’s power, Igamon only fell further into shock. “He’s so powerful… he might be able to beat Daemon at this level… Why is such a strong, good monster our enemy?”

Hideto merely scoffed. “Because we are on the side of good, and that gives us the strength to destroy you.”

Davis and Willis merely rolled their eyes at this statement, but Igamon seemed to believe it. “But, if you’re on the side of good, than does that mean we’re the bad guys here?” Davis hadn’t wanted to stoop to the level of addressing Hideto’s claim, but he was getting tired of all the melodrama from Igamon and decided to calm the Mutant Digimon down for the sake of everyone’s sanity.

“Listen, Igamon, everybody thinks that they are on the side of good, but that doesn’t make it true. These guys are working for Daemon and actively engaged in trying to destroy the world. I don’t care what the reasons for their actions are, but there is no way what they are doing could ever be considered good.” He turned towards Hideto before continuing. “And deep down, you know that as well as I do, Hideto! As somebody who raised a monster like Omegamon, you have to know that what Neo is doing isn’t the right way to solve any problem!” AeroVeedramon had managed to get back off of the ground, and added his own verbal jab. “Yeah, and I’m sure Rei is going to be SO happy about what you’re doing now…”

This seemed to shatter Hideto’s composure, causing the Tamer to lash out in anger. “What would you know? I’ve known Rei for years. You’re just a monster. You don’t know anything! Omegamon, destroy him!”

Omegamon took this as his cue to once again use his Omega Sword attack, and a massive burst of thunder coincided with the reappearance of the burning weapon. Unfortunately for Omegamon, this was not just a dramatic coincidence, as the thunder came as a part of Cherubimon’s Heaven’s Judgment attack. The Cherub Digimon had spent the entire fight first getting to a safe distance and then charging up the attack, giving him the power to harm the Royal Knight while remaining safely out of sight, as it was impossible to track the attack back to its caster.

Having managed to finally implement his strategy, Willis turned to Hideto. “You say Rei would understand because of your years of friendship? Trust me, one action can erase years of love, let alone friendship. It’s not a position you want to be in, believe me. You can focus on the past all you want, but we look to the future. A future that has us stopping you from destroying this world!”

Hideto took a deep breath to calm himself down before responding. “Well, aren’t you optimistic. I guess you won’t get it until I get serious. I’ve been humoring you up until now, but now the gloves come off. We’ll see how your little future compares to my immense power! Omegamon, fire! Destroy their future!”

Hearing this, Omegamon used his Sword of Ruin attack to create an explosion above him, effectively deflecting Cherubimon’s attack away from him. Before the blast had even fully formed, he already prepared for his ultimate attack. Aiming his cannon at the canyon itself, he called out “Omega Howling!” in an authoritative voice.

What followed was a display of power unlike any Davis had ever seen before. He had seen the first time Omnimon had battled Diaboromon and the Royal Knight had effectively cut through millions of clones with a barrage of Supreme Cannon. This was similar, but on a seemingly much larger scale. It was as if Omegamon wasn’t even trying to hit Cherubimon, and was just waging war against the landscape itself. By the time Omegamon stopped firing, the canyon they were in had been reduced to the section of rocky spires close to the Royal Knight and then an icy plain extending to the horizon. While none of the blasts had hit anywhere near the DigiDestined, they found themselves shivering as the air temperature plummeted below freezing. The only small hope the DigiDestined had was in the form of a brown speck lying out on the ice fields that must have been Cherubimon’s Baby form, Conomon. He must have been lucky enough to avoid a direct hit, but even that hadn’t saved him from Omegamon’s ferocious assault. Now, all they had left was a slightly battered AeroVeedramon against an opponent strong enough to turn what was once a badlands into a polar icecap.

While Davis was more than a little disheartened to see his partner fighting alone against somebody with geologic levels of power, AeroVeedramon didn’t really care about any details. Knowing his friend had been hurt, his anger had caused his overwrite to flare up to the point where he wasn’t exactly thinking logically. He charged directly at Omegamon, who was unable to dodge after expending so much energy in the last attack. Instead of launching any attacks, AeroVeedramon simply crashed into the Royal Knight before grabbing him by the cape and hurling him into the ground. The impact created a small crater, but Omegamon merely stood up before the dust cloud could even fully dissipate. He addressed AeroVeedramon with a note of disappointment in his voice.

“It’s useless. At that rate, no matter how many times you try, you won’t be able to defeat me.” AeroVeedramon was past the point of listening and charged in again, but this time Omegamon was ready. There would still be a brief period of time where he wouldn’t be able to use his stronger attacks, but he didn’t need them against an opponent who merely rushed blindly into battle. Omegamon merely dodged slightly to the side before smacking AeroVeedramon with his WarGreymon arm, mostly using AeroVeedramon’s momentum against him to send the Holy Dragon Digimon skidding along the newly created icecap.

Hideto checked his Digivice 01 and grinned. “Well, we may have overdone it a bit with Omega Howling, but at least I got to see that even at its strongest, the overwrite of an ancient type is still no match for Omegamon’s power.” Davis could only grimace at this, but Willis, who hadn’t been updated on AeroVeedramon’s ability, asked Hideto what he meant by overwrite. Hideto had a hard time believing he had been forced to use Omega Howling against somebody who didn’t know what he considered something basic about Digimon, but he decided to explain anyway.

“It’s really quite simple. At their core, Digimon are just made up of data. They display emotions by rewriting their body’s data, just like biological creatures do with chemical reactions. This rewriting of data is known as an overwrite. By changing ones and zeroes, Digimon display their emotions and also change their dexterity. Ancient Types like AeroVeedramon have extremely violent data changes, granting them great power when they lose control of their emotions. However, since this overwrite changes the body’s data, it also shortens a Digimon’s lifespan. Much like rewriting over the same disk eventually causes it to degrade, Ancient Types are doomed to delete themselves. Even Ultimate level Ancient Types are almost unheard of—until your partner Digivolved, AeroVeedramon was an extinct species.”

Willis turned to Davis, only imagining what the other DigiDestined was going through if what Hideto said was true. “Is that right, Davis? Is AeroVeedramon really killing himself by fighting right now?” Davis merely nodded.

“I wish it wasn’t the case, but there’s nothing we can do about that. We can’t just let Daemon destroy this place, but the overwrite has been the only thing letting us fight with Digimon beyond our level up to this point. Unless AeroVeedramon Digivolves, we have to use the overwrite ability.”

Hearing this, Hideto scoffed. “Don’t hold your breath for a Digivolution. Look at all of your friends—whenever they got in a battle of this caliber, they all unlocked the Mega level. By this point, at least from what I’ve seen, you would have done the same by now. The reason you haven’t Digivolved is simple: AeroVeedramon has reached the end of his overwrite. He’s barely alive as it is right now, and he couldn’t last through the strain of changing his data to unlock a new form. Face it; you have no chance of winning this fight. Now I’ll say this again: you can surrender, or you can watch your partners die.”

Willis looked like he was ready to surrender to save his partners, but Davis held out his hand to cut him off. “You say that like those are two different options. What do you think Daemon is planning to do to us when you hand us over to him? I’ve dealt with enough creeps to know you can’t trust them when they offer you mercy. So, if the options are dying trying to stop you or turning my back on the Digital World and then dying, I’ll always stick to the first choice! Maybe AeroVeedramon can’t Digivolve, and maybe he’s historically doomed to an early death. But that doesn’t mean we can’t set a new precedent. I’m the DigiDestined of Miracles, after all. If it takes a miracle to win a fight, I guess I’ll just have to make one!”

With this, his Crest started to glow faintly, and Hideto was shocked to see a rejuvenated looking AeroVeedramon suddenly flying above the two DigiDestined holding an unmoving Conomon in his arms. The Holy Dragon had a faint blue glow around him, but instead of being consumed by anger he was actually smiling at Hideto.

“I guess I should be thanking you and Omegamon. That little skid down the ice was just what I needed to snap myself out of my blind rage. Then, you talked long enough for me to fly out and grab Conomon and come back here.” He passed the Baby Digimon to Willis before turning back to Omegamon.

Seeing that his partner was feeling much better, Davis broke into a grin. “Alright, looks like we’ll have to change the plan, buddy. Stick to close combat. You’re faster than he is, and at that range he won’t be able to use that cannon against you without blasting himself as well.” AeroVeedramon nodded before turning to Omegamon.

“Power wise, I might not be much more than an insect compared to you. But even an insect can sting an opponent to death. Let’s see how long you can last!” He charged at the Royal Knight, landing a flurry of punches along Omegamon’s armor.

Hideto scowled at the progression of the battle. “Land all the weak hits you like. There’s no way you can win. Don’t hold back, Omegamon. We are on the side of good! Show them the power that comes from righteousness!” AeroVeedramon almost gagged at how often Hideto was repeating this and similar lines like he was trying to convince himself of something, and the moment of distraction cost him. While Omegamon wasn’t up to using attacks yet, he still had a vicious punch. AeroVeedramon took a hit from the WarGreymon arm in his face before the MetalGarurumon arm slammed into his gut, effectively knocking the wind out of him. Before he had a chance to recover, Omegamon kicked him in the chest hard enough to send him crashing into the ground. He lay there unmoving while Omegamon moved in to finish the job. Having regained enough energy to use his weaker attacks, he called out “Transcendent Sword!” and prepared to finish off the Ultimate level.

However, just as he started to swing the enchanted sword, AeroVeedramon yelled “Psych!” and flew away, causing the Royal Knight’s attack to hit the ground and leaving an opening for a close-range V-Wing Blade. The attack managed to push Omegamon back a few feet, but when the attack faded it seemed to have done no damage. The only effect it seemed to have was causing a hard glint to come into the Royal Knight’s eyes, and he immediately rushed at the shocked AeroVeedramon. Before the dragon could react, he was hit with a clothesline and Omegamon was dragging him backwards until his wings were suddenly impaled by two of the remaining rocky spires. Unable to do anything but grunt from the pain, AeroVeedramon knew he was done for as he lost the one advantage he had in this fight: his speed.

Omegamon seemed to be thinking the same thing, as he calmly walked toward the trapped dragon. “With your current power, you won’t be able to free yourself. Your little trick will no longer protect you.” While Omegamon was now the picture of tranquil fury, Hideto was being a bit more expressive.

“How does it feel to see your partner up there on the gallows? The price for interfering with our dream is harsh. Omegamon, show them the hammer of justice!” Omegamon once more brought out his Transcendent Sword and prepared to execute his helpless opponent. Neither of the DigiDestined responded, as Davis was transfixed by the sight of his partner while Willis was rubbing his aching arms. The reason for this became clear when Omegamon suddenly stopped as he was hit by a flurry of pink bubbles. It wasn’t that taking the Acid Bubbles attack from the twin Baby Digimon did any damage, but the surprise at something so small even bothering to try and fight him was new to Omegamon. The attack continued until the Royal Knight was completely hidden behind bubbles, but for all the damage it did he may have just taken a bubble bath.

While everybody else was too dumbfounded by what was going on, Igamon seemed to finally snap out of his paralysis at the sight of two Baby levels fighting a Royal Knight and immediately jumped to their aid. However, instead of attacking Omegamon himself, he decided to do something more useful: he started attacking the rock spires imprisoning AeroVeedramon. The twin Digimon saw this and copied him, leaving all three Digimon attacking the rocks. Luckily, Acid Bubbles were marginally effective against the rock, allowing the two Baby levels to make the same slow progress Igamon was making in freeing their trapped friend.

Seeing this, Hideto seemed to snap. “You still mean to fight me? Fools! Even if you free AeroVeedramon, there is nothing he can do. He can’t even use his V-Wing Blade anymore, and even if he could it doesn’t affect Omegamon. But if you insist, I suppose I can pass justice upon all four of you. Omegamon, use your Supreme Cannon!”

The order seemed to shock Omegamon most of all, as he quickly dispelled the bubbles and turned to face his Tamer. Igamon, Zerimon, and Conomon all started attacking with renewed vigor as they knew their time was short, but AeroVeedramon began pleading with the Royal Knight. “Listen, leave them out of this. I’m the only one who can fight you. You don’t need to kill anybody else!”

Hideto started laughing. “You’re the only one who can fight him? You’re stuck on the rocks, and you’ve used up all of your overwrite power.” He stopped for a second before noticing his partner hadn’t acted. “What are you waiting for, Omegamon? Use Supreme Cannon!” The Royal Knight didn’t turn away from his partner. “But… there is no need to use Supreme Cannon…” Unused to having Omegamon question his orders, Hideto went back to ranting. “Why are you hesitating? Don’t forget our goal. We have to do this for Rei’s sake!”

Hearing this, Davis finally managed to regain his composure and turned to Hideto. “What’s Rei got to do with any of this? Don’t you dare try to blame anybody else for your actions! Trying to drag an innocent person into your mess is just dirty!”

Hideto couldn’t seem to hold himself together anymore, and he finally blurted out the truth. “Rei—she can’t walk in our world! She was hit by a car, and it was all my fault! Neo and Rei are my best friends, and I have to make it up to them. Neo said anything would be possible when we controlled the Digital World, so I’m fighting to recreate the world as it should be, like it was for me and Rei and Neo back then! That’s why I can’t let you interfere with our plans!”

As Hideto finished shouting, Davis decided to yell right back. “So Rei having an accident makes it all right to kill thousands of innocent monsters? How is genocide making up for anything? Digimon may be data, but they are just as alive as you or me! Rei wouldn’t want to live in a world where she could walk because you and Neo became mass murderers, now would she?”

Hideto reacted to the last question like Davis had punched him in the face, flinching back at the accusation. He had no answer to give to that question that wouldn’t be a blatant lie, and he could practically see Rei shouting the exact same thing at him. While Hideto was stunned, Willis decided to try and be the good cop to Davis’s bad cop.

“Listen, Hideto. You must be a really good Tamer to have raised Omegamon. You couldn’t have unlocked that form if you didn’t really care for your monsters and have a good heart. I know it may seem like you can’t turn back now, but it’s never too late to change. Trust me; I’ve made my share of deadly mistakes, seeing as I’m the one who created Diaboromon in the first place. I could have easily started a nuclear war and I did get one of my partners killed, but everyone forgave me long before I forgave myself. You can still make it so you don’t have to shout that you’re on the side of good for people to believe it.”

Hideto only responded by getting more belligerent. “SHUT UP! Be quiet! You’re just whitewashing things… Omegamon, attack! Kill all four of them with your Supreme Cannon!” Omegamon closed his eyes and raised his MetalGarurumon arm as if it were made of lead, but he still began charging energy into his cannon. Igamon quickly started apologizing to AeroVeedramon for taking too long to free him, but the Holy Dragon Digimon didn’t really hear him. Instead, he was too busy glaring with anger at Hideto while the familiar blue glow of the overwrite claimed his body. In a voice that was halfway between a roar and a growl, he proclaimed, “You try to destroy monsters regardless of their feelings and won’t hesitate to kill innocents… I won’t lose to that fake justice… I will protect everyone!”

With a massive roar, AeroVeedramon released a burst of power that shattered the rocks keeping him imprisoned. The wounds on his wings even appeared to heal as he shouted out, “DRAGON IMPULSE!” The glow from the overwrite reached such an intensity that it was hard to tell if AeroVeedramon even had a physical body anymore. In fact, it was looking like AeroVeedramon had become the light itself as it suddenly expanded into a gigantic dragon and launched towards Omegamon. As he stared in awe at the display of power from an Ultimate level, Omegamon lowered his cannon and only had time for one thought.

“So this is the power of a monster who is willing to risk everything for what he knows is the right cause. Hideto, it looks like we’ve lost.” Then the attack connected, and Omegamon was blasted with enough force to disintegrate his cape and send him crashing into the ground, where he lay unmoving. Hideto cried out for his partner, while Davis could only gasp in shock. However, it wasn’t so much at the fact that AeroVeedramon had managed to beat an Omnimon, but the fact that the attack had connected at all. Omegamon had had plenty of time to react to the attack, but he seemed to choose to do nothing. He couldn’t process exactly why Omegamon would do this before he was distracted by Hideto suddenly running towards the fallen Knight.

Hideto couldn’t believe the amount of damage Omegamon had taken from the attack, as the usually invincible looking Royal Knight was obviously battered and didn’t seem to be able to move. A quick scan with his Digivice caused him to sigh in relief, however. Omegamon’s health was dangerously low, but he wasn’t beyond the threshold where he wouldn’t be able to safely Partition. Getting both of his Digivices ready, he called out to his immobile partner.

“Listen, Omegamon, the fight isn’t over. I’ll help you recover! Partition!” He crossed his wrists and the battered Omegamon split into an equally battered looking Warg and Melga, but at least his partners were now capable of standing. Turning back to Davis and Willis, the maniacal grin once again crossed his face. “Now I’ll show you endless justice. Revive, Omegamon! Warg, Melga, Jogress!”

Hideto slammed his fists together, expecting his opponents to cower before the might of Infinite Jogress with a monster as powerful as Omegamon. However, when he turned back to his partners, instead of seeing the fully rejuvenated Royal Knight he only saw Warg and Melga digging their feet into the ground, as if they were actively resisting the fusion. The shock of his partners completely rebelling against him seemed to absolutely stun Hideto.

“Wha… What’s the matter? Why won’t you Jogress?” However, his partners didn’t explain beyond Warg’s dejected “Let’s stop this, Hideto” and Melga’s “We’ve… we’ve lost”, both said while looking down at the ground. Hideto started to argue with them, but when he claimed the battle wasn’t over and then ordered them as their Tamer to Jogress, both monsters fixed him with such a glare that he immediately stopped. He couldn’t understand why his monsters would look at him with such hatred, and remained staring blankly at them until Davis came up and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

“Do you still think you can call yourself their Tamer? How can you even consider yourself a Tamer at all if you don’t acknowledge a monster’s feelings? It took me a little bit to figure it out, but what’s your excuse for not seeing what your partner did? He just tried to kill himself!”

This caused the look of anger that Hideto had been sporting since Davis grabbed him to be replaced by confusion. Resisting the urge to literally smack some sense into Hideto, Davis spelled it out for him. “Omegamon saw that attack coming, and he had plenty of time to do something about it. He could have dodged, used his Brave Shield Omega, or even attacked back and he probably would have won. Instead, he took AeroVeedramon’s attack head on! Why would he do that unless he wanted to die?”

Hideto could only stammer out his response. “But, what reason would they have to die?” Warg and Melga returned to staring at the ground as they responded, taking turns to speak.

“Hideto, we just can’t defeat somebody fighting to protect the Digital World. You used to be a kind Tamer who protected us too, Hideto. Even when Neo called us weak and told you to delete us, you stuck by us. That’s why we tried to be strong for you and managed to Jogress for the first time. But now, you’ve become the sort of Tamer who would give orders to attack weak monsters without a thought… as long as we’re here, you won’t stop what you’re doing… as long as we’re here, you won’t change your ways… so we thought… we should just disappear…”

Davis was surprised at how easily Warg and Melga could hold a conversation as if they were the same entity, but he supposed it must have come from spending so much time fused together. However, Hideto was more focused on what his partners had said than their manner of talking. “No… no way…” As Hideto seemed to process what his partners had said, Melga made one last desperate plea to his Tamer.

“Please, Hideto, just go back to how you were before!” At this, Hideto completely broke down, starting to cry.

“That’s what I’m trying to do! I want to rebuild this world as it was back then, where everything is as it should be. I’m trying to go back to that time!” Willis placed a hand on Hideto’s shoulder.

“Listen, what Rei, Warg, and Melga need isn’t for you to rebuild the world before the accident, but for you to rebuild the kind person you were before the accident.” This seemed to finally get through to the Alias, and he walked over to his partners and did his best to try hugging both creatures at once as he collapsed into them.

“Warg, Melga… I’m sorry. I failed as your Tamer. In wanting to make up for Rei’s accident, I hurt you guys… I guess I always knew I was doing the wrong thing somewhere deep down, but I used Omegamon and my notions of justice to make myself feel like I was in the right… You guys should go with Davis and Willis… I don’t deserve to call you my partners after everything I’ve done… just promise me you’ll help stop Neo before he destroys this world…”

Hearing this, Warg picked Hideto up and set him back on his feet. “Don’t do this to yourself, Hideto. I understand that you were hurting during all of this too.” Melga then nuzzled up against Hideto much like he had done to Rei earlier. “After all, you’re really a kind Tamer…” Hearing this, Hideto’s voice caught. “But… I thought I wasn’t your Tamer anymore…”

While Davis was glad Hideto was finally repenting for his evil deeds, he wasn’t sure he could stand watching the emotional scene playing out before him, especially since he had been forced to watch Ken go through a similar process earlier. Also, with Neo and Daemon still on the move, he didn’t really have time to let a potential ally like Hideto wallow in self-pity. Relinquishing the role of bad cop he had been taking for most of the fight, he walked up to Hideto.

“Listen, I know you don’t feel like you deserve a second chance right now, but Warg and Melga still want to be your Digimon. They’ve already forgiven you, and that’s what friends are for. After all, my best friend pretty much did the same thing Neo was doing, only trying to take over the Digital World instead of remaking it. We all eventually forgave him, but it took him the longest to forgive himself. If you really want to feel better, you can help stop Neo and Daemon. After all, with the bonds you have with Warg and Melga, it’ll be just like me and Veemon, Willis and…”

Davis trailed off as he suddenly realized what he just said, and which Digimon was conspicuously absent from the scene. With a strangled cry of “VEEMON!” Davis began frantically searching the area for his friend, who had disappeared when the Dragon Impulse attack had faded. Luckily, Melga’s sensors quickly picked up a faint signal, and the group followed it to find Chibomon constantly flickering and on the verge of deletion. Davis wasn’t sure if there was anything he could do to prevent his partner from dying, but Hideto quickly typed something into his Digivice 01 and a healing tank similar to the ones Dr. Jijimon used suddenly materialized.

“Listen, get him inside this. It should help stabilize his data and let him make a full recovery. I don’t really have much use for this since I can always use Infinite Jogress to heal Omegamon anyway, so you can use it.” With a nod, Davis quickly loaded his partner into the pod, then let out a sigh of relief as the flickering stopped and Chibomon looked like he was almost sleeping peacefully. Hideto was glad he had been able to help out in a small way, but he still felt like he had a massive debt to repay. Knowing it was a small first step, he asked Davis and Willis to sit down before he started explaining the whole truth of everything that lead up to their most recent battle.

Chapter Text

Sigma wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting when he returned to Daemon’s castle, but he certainly wasn’t prepared to walk in and see Neo arguing with a girl wearing orange clothes. She must have had some connection to Neo, as she was yelling at him with what could only be described as disappointment. “I can’t believe you’re doing this! The Digimon in this world can cry, laugh, and communicate with humans. How could you want to destroy them? Let’s just go home, okay Neo?”

From what Sigma saw, Neo only responded with a smirk before turning away, reacting to this girl much like he did whenever Daemon or any Digimon would threaten him. Without even facing her, he asked in a patronizing tone, “You must be tired, Rei. Why don’t you have a rest?”

From this, Sigma didn’t need to hear Rei’s outburst of “Wait! Listen to me, brother!” to know who he was watching. However, from what Sigma knew of Neo, he would never treat Rei this way, considering his whole reason for being in the Digital World was to help her. The hostility between the Saiba siblings was completely incongruous with what Sigma knew of Neo directly and of Rei from Hideto and Neo’s descriptions. Not exactly the most familiar with social interaction, Sigma wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do in this situation, especially as Rei moved towards her brother and reached out to slap him. However, Neo didn’t bother to turn around even as he heard Rei coming at him, because he knew no harm would ever come to him. Sure enough, a pair of arms suddenly shot out of the shadows and grabbed Rei, immobilizing her. The owner of the arms soon stepped out and revealed himself to be a Devimon, one of Daemon’s former attendants now serving a new master.

As Rei struggled to free herself from the demon’s grasp, Neo turned to face her. “Rei, I hope you realize I’m not destroying this world for nothing. I just want to rebuild it.” Looking into her brother’s eyes, she could tell that something was seriously wrong with him. It was almost as if he were a completely different person now than he had been even just before he went off to fight Daemon.

“What is wrong with you, Neo? Can’t you see that what you’re doing is wrong? Just go back to being the brother I love so we can relive the happier times the right way!” Neo’s only response was to reach out and take away her necklace.

“I’m afraid it’s far too late to stop now, especially when victory is within my grasp. Thank you for delivering the Digimental to me. Now, I’m afraid this castle is still going to be dangerous for a while, so I’m going to have to take measures to ensure your safety. Devimon, take her to my old room and keep her there. Don’t let anybody other than me in. I’d hate for her to end up in any danger.”

With this, Neo began walking to Daemon’s old throne room, completely ignoring Rei’s protests as Devimon dragged her off to Neo’s room. Sigma could only stand in shock, and likely would have remained that way for a very long time if a little green ball that resembled an acorn hadn’t waddled up to him and started jumping on his foot with a large smile on its face. Shortly after this started, Sigma heard the sound of footsteps before Mari’s voice rang out.

“Datirimon, you need to stop wandering off. What if Neo caught you? He doesn’t seem like he’d be very friendly…” She trailed off as she saw exactly who her partner had run to. “Oh, hey, Mask-boy. Looks like you got a bit beat up in your fight. The DigiDestined decide to beat you up instead of Piedmon?”

Rolling his eyes at her usual show of hostility, Sigma typed a response. “Very funny, Mari. But for your information, they did have to inflict harm on both myself and Piedmon in order to defeat us. Now, is this Datirimon your newest puppet for your sickening cuteness act?”

Mari cringed a little, but knew she had to respond honestly. “Actually, this is Rosemon’s Baby form. The DigiDestined beat us, but Daemon summoned us back before she could die. Of course, then Arkadimon—that’s what Neo named the Super Ultimate—sort of… ate her. Neo set it up, but I don’t think he knew what was going to happen. Apparently, he jumped through some hoops to get Rosemon’s DigiEgg back, and she just hatched a little bit ago.”

Hearing this and imagining what it would be like for him to experience Piedmon’s death, Sigma quickly blurted out “I’m sorry. That must have been horrible.” Mari was about to respond that she hadn’t asked for pity, keeping up her usual antagonistic relationship with the masked Tamer when she realized something was different about the voice that addressed her. Instead of the cold, uncaring sounds of a voice program, this voice carried a tone of sincerity.

“Wait, did you just actually talk? Sigma, I don’t think I’ve ever heard your voice before. So, thanks. It was pretty bad, but at least I got Rosemon back and I actually feel like a better person after this whole ordeal. I even got to see that you have a sweet side.”

Even though the upper half of Sigma’s face was still covered by the mask, Mari could tell that her compliment was making him blush furiously. She kicked herself for forgetting about Sigma’s stunted social history and overwhelming him, but when Sigma started nervously typing back a response she stole his laptop from him.

“Listen, please don’t go back behind your computer. I’m getting sick of constantly dealing with Mask-boy. Just because the rest of us don’t wear physical masks doesn’t mean we don’t hide behind other personalities. Please, I actually like being around Sigma and I don’t want to go back to being the bitch I am around Mask-boy. Let me see the real Sigma… well, if that’s your real name. I don’t really know you all that well…”

Sigma was a bit surprised that Mari’s interaction with him had been just as false as his own interaction with others, and decided to trust her. “Sigma is… sort of my real name. It’s a nickname I gave myself, but it comes from my real name.” Mari waited for him to say more, but he seemed to have to pause for a while. Realizing the cause for this, Mari returned his laptop.

“Okay, Sigma, I get that you probably aren’t used to talking, so let’s make a deal. Long explanations you can use the computer for, but shorter stuff you’ll actually talk about. Agreed?”

Sigma nodded and started typing.

“My full name is Sigmund Matsumoto. As if my looks weren’t enough ammo for the bullies, I had to be given a name that clearly marked me as an outsider. So, when I created my first chat name, I merely took the Sig from my first name and the Ma from my last name to make the nickname Sigma. Really, the only people who know me as Sigmund are the people who ran the orphanage I grew up in and my current landlord. Honestly, I call myself Sigma now.”

Mari felt like she just had more questions now that Sigma had given her this information, but she decided not to pry too much into the other Alias’s life. After all, they had just gotten on speaking terms right now. Nodding, she responded. “All right, Sigma it is. Well, I’m glad you are just like Rei and a nice person deep down. Honestly, I was worried you’d end up like Neo. He went really far out of his way to get Rosemon back and he’s doing all of this because he cares for his sister, so I thought he actually was a nice person deep down. But after seeing that last scene with Rei, it’s like he’s turned into a worse person in a matter of minutes. I’d have thought after Arkadimon ate Daemon that this castle would be better, but Neo seems to be taking his place.”

Hearing this, Sigma suddenly gasped. “Mari, we might be in big trouble.” Knowing that his upcoming explanation would be longer, he started typing again. “We know next to nothing about Arkadimon’s abilities, so something very bad could be happening here. This mask I wear isn’t just to hide from the world; it also helps me in battles. It’s linked to my Digivice 01 so I can scan things without having to look away from them, but it also helps me connect to Piedmon much more easily. It’s why our Masks Square attack works so well—Piedmon and I can only work so easily together in that dimension because our connection is deepened. Maybe Arkadimon can do something like that without the mask. And if Arkadimon just absorbed Daemon, maybe Daemon’s essence is bouncing across that link. It would explain Neo’s apparent change in personality. Still, I’d have to scan Arkadimon’s data in order to verify the situation.”

Mari gave a grim nod. “Well, he did seem a little friendlier after Arkadimon absorbed Rosemon and again after Arkadimon absorbed HolyAngemon’s data, but honestly that could have just been him trying to make up for hurting me. After all, he isn’t one to throw away allies carelessly. Luckily, he’s put Arkadimon in some sort of stasis tank in the lab. If we go now, we should be able to analyze his data while Neo is still redecorating his new throne room. We better be careful, though. He told Devimon to protect Rei from any danger. Since he said that to Devimon, I think it’s safe to say he was counting us as the possible danger instead of the remains of Daemon’s army.”

With that, Mari picked up Datirimon and both Aliases made their way to the lab, where Arkadimon was asleep in a giant tank as it adjusted to its newfound power. Apart from a few minor differences, it looked very similar to its previous form, essentially growing a second set of wings and changing all of the red parts of its body to a purple color. With nobody around to notice him and Mari, Sigma quickly scanned the data, only to realize he couldn’t understand any of it. “It’s like Arkadimon’s data is encrypted or something. I’ll be able to crack it eventually, but it will take some time.” Mari, who couldn’t help but feel a little paranoid with Rosemon’s killer floating right in front of her, nodded.

“Just download a copy of his data and work on decoding it in your room. This place gives me the creeps, and it will probably look too suspicious if we sit here the whole time you’re trying to figure out what makes this thing tick.” Sigma didn’t respond outside of a nod, but he followed her plan. If Neo really had turned against them, they would need every advantage they could get in the upcoming battle. If it came to a fight now, Sigma was certain that Piedmon wouldn’t be able to win on his own.

Hideto finished recounting his story. “I know it was an accident, but when I think about what would have happened if I had never called out to her… I still can’t help but feel like I was partially responsible for everything that happened. I think I just wanted to get away from the guilt, which is why I listened to Neo so eagerly when he said the Digital World could return everything to the way it was back then. I can’t believe how stupid I was. Sacrificing monsters just to rid myself of some guilt? I said everything was for Rei, but really I was just being selfish.”

Davis nodded. “Listen, I’m going to have to be honest with you. What Willis and I said about forgiveness before was all true, but your situation is a bit more complicated than the ones we’ve dealt with before. Willis may have created Diaboromon, but he wasn’t trying to create a deadly monster. He was just trying to make a friend and a nasty virus happened to infect the data. As for my friend Ken, he thought he was just in a video game, and he also was being somewhat possessed by one evil Digimon while also being manipulated by another one. It took a little bit, but it was pretty easy to forgive them in the long run. You did everything of your own free will, so it won’t be as easy for you. I would like to be able to say I forgive you so easily, but it will take me a while until I can honestly say that and then take even longer until I can fully trust you.”

Willis was a bit surprised at how cynical Davis had become since the optimistic kid from six years ago, but Hideto seemed to accept this with a grim nod. “Fair enough. I’m glad you aren’t going to lie to me just because you need my help. And I don’t really know if I can ever earn forgiveness from everything, but I know where I’m going to start. This whole thing started with Rei, so she’s where I’m going to start looking for forgiveness.”

Willis immediately cut in. “Do you really think that’s important? I mean, she doesn’t blame you for the accident at all…”

Hideto let out a wry chuckle. “You think I don’t know that? I’m talking about asking her to forgive me for going so crazy about this. We were best friends, and then I had to pretty much become the worst version of myself I could possibly be while claiming it was for her. Honestly, I feel like that was the worst thing I did, seeing as everything else sprang from that decision…”

Willis snorted. “Honestly, I’m not sure if that’s going to be an issue. I mean, I may have only met Rei a few hours ago, but she seemed like the type who isn’t capable of thinking bad things about anybody. I’m sure she’ll be happy you’re back to your normal self.” Hideto shook his head.

“Thanks, but you don’t really know Rei. She always tries to project the appearance of happiness when things get really bad for her. Outside of a few issues, she bottles up her feelings so she doesn’t feel like she’s burdening others with her problems. After the accident, she was always super cheerful despite everything she was going through. I was the only one outside of her family that she ever showed her real feelings to. To outsiders, it can be hard to tell when she’s actually happy and when she’s about to break inside.”

Davis and Willis weren’t sure how to respond to this, but they were spared the need to answer when Hideto’s Digivice 01 suddenly beeped. “Huh, that’s strange. Nobody usually sends me messages here.” Glancing at the new message, Hideto smiled. “Well, it looks like we have one less problem to deal with. Neo just sent me a message that he destroyed Daemon. That means none of us have to worry about him anymore. So, now that that’s all behind us, I think I’m going to take a chance on the future. I’m heading back to Daemon’s old castle, and I’m going to try and convince Neo to stop this whole thing.”

Davis and Willis were a bit shocked at the certainty in Hideto’s voice as he said this, and Davis couldn’t help but interject. “That sounds great, but I don’t think Neo would just give up so easily. Are you really willing to fight him if you have to? Arkadimon is too strong for you to take on your own. Daemon is just as strong as an Omnimon, and Arkadimon would have only gotten stronger after absorbing Daemon’s data.”

Hideto smirked. “Who said anything about me being alone? I mean, you won’t exactly be able to help, considering your partners are all back at the Baby level, but I do have friends other than Neo, you know. Rei and I can probably convince Neo, and even if we can’t, I’m not the only Alias. I was the most fanatical, so I’m sure I’ll be able to convince the other two to back me up. Consider it one of the first steps on the road to forgiveness.”

Davis quickly shouted, “You don’t have to go off on a suicide mission just to atone for your mistakes!”

Hideto shook his head. “You seem to be missing out on a few points here. First, I don’t think this will be a suicide mission. In case you didn’t hear it the first fifty times I said it, Omegamon and I are at our strongest when we are fighting on the side of good. Now that Warg, Melga, and I are all on the same page, I’m sure we’ll be able to stand up to Arkadimon on our own, and with Sigma’s help we should be able to win. Second, you can’t really stop me. You have three Baby levels, only two of which are conscious, and I have two Megas who will be restored to full health as soon as I Jogress them. If it comes down to it, who do you think would win that fight?”

This effectively shut Davis up, so Hideto began speaking again. “Davis, I know it was impressive, but you should never have AeroVeedramon use Dragon Impulse again. The overwrite is hard enough on him as it is, but that attack boosts the strain immensely. The first time he used it, Omegamon managed to stop him before he could do any serious harm, but this time I could barely stabilize his data. If he uses it again, he won’t be able to return his data to a physical form. His data might even be scattered to the point where he won’t be reformatted into a DigiEgg. As for what you should do, I’ll send a map of this continent to Willis’s laptop. There’s a city not too far from here that holds an outpost for HolyAngemon’s army. They should be able to help you get to Holy Angel Castle. If you don’t hear back from me by tomorrow morning, you and all your friends should be ready to fight against Neo.”

Willis and Davis nodded, not really having any better plan than the one Hideto offered. Hideto quickly sent the map to Willis before flying off on the newly fused Omegamon. Watching his newest ally disappear into the evening sky, Davis couldn’t help but feel strange. What could very well be the final confrontation in this scenario was about to happen, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Even a few months ago when he hadn’t been present for the final battle against the Demon Lords, he had at least been able to help defend Earth from their army while the others fought. Now, Hideto was about to try and negotiate an end to the conflict or fight his way out, and all Davis could do was go to Holy Angel Castle and wait to see if Hideto succeeded. After so long of actively trying to save the world, it was difficult to adjust to being a bystander.

Rei dejectedly sat on Neo’s old bed. After Devimon had literally thrown her into the room, she had been stuck here. At least Devimon had decided to stand guard in the hallway instead of actually staying in the room with her, but she still had no way to get out of here. The door had locked behind her, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to slip past Devimon even if she could get it open. There was a window in her room, but it didn’t open and was too thick for her to break through. In a desperate attempt, she’d even tried jumping off of the bed and trying to get to the vent in the ceiling, but she had pretty much known that that wouldn’t have worked when she started. Sighing, she wondered how exactly she would get another chance to talk with Neo and finally convince him to stop this crazy plan. However, her thoughts were interrupted when she heard what seemed to be a banging coming from the vent, later followed by some voices.

“It must be this room!”

“Huh, really?”

“H…Hey, don’t push!”

With a loud crash, the grating fell off of the vent, and two dark figures fell into the room. Startled, Rei let out a small scream before she more clearly saw the intruders. Much like Devimon, these two resembled demons, only they were much smaller and looked a lot less threatening, almost to the point of being cute. The two didn’t even seem to acknowledge Rei’s presence as they began arguing. As they picked themselves up off the floor, they kept arguing over who had decided to come into this room and whose fault it was that they had fallen. Rei watched the bickering silently for a while until she finally made her presence known. “Um… excuse me, but who are you?”

The two demons immediately stopped arguing and turned towards Rei, causing her to shrink back a little. One of the two seemed to gasp in shock and ran towards her, holding out a notebook. He silently held it out to her for a few seconds before he blurted out, “Can I have your autograph?”

Rei almost fell off of the bed in shock, but the other Digimon also gave a yell of surprise. The more feminine sounding second demon turned to the first.

“Wait a minute, Pul, I thought you wanted Neo’s autograph!” The first demon, who Rei assumed was named Pul, didn’t bother turning away from Rei.

“But sis, this is Neo’s little sister! You are Rei Saiba, right? Your brother is Neo?”

Rei nodded, only to see a star struck look come over Pul’s face as he literally started floating in front of her. He didn’t come down until his sister whacked him with the little baton she carried. Turning to Rei, she decided to introduce themselves.

“Sorry about that whole thing. We’re PetitMamon that live here in the castle. My name is Pal, and this is my little brother Pul. This dummy wanted Neo’s autograph so badly we went and tried to find his room. I don’t know what he sees in him—sure, Neo’s all cool and scary, but he was basically just Daemon’s lackey until recently. Now, he’s gotten like a thousand times scarier and probably would tear up Pul’s paper when he asks for an autograph…”

“I don’t care!” Pul interrupted. “That would make me happy too! I’ve always wanted to meet real humans, and Neo’s the coolest one of all of them! Just having him acknowledge my presence would make my life worthwhile!”

Pal held her head as if her brother’s fanaticism was giving her a headache, but she decided to just play along. “Alright, fine. Let’s go see if we can actually find Neo’s room…” The two PetitMamon started flying back up to the vent, only to stop when Rei called out to them.

“Wait, take me with you! I need a chance to talk with my brother again!” Hearing this, Pal stopped to think. Surely, helping out Rei wouldn’t be that bad, would it? She may do a better job of hiding it than her brother, but she also wanted nothing more than a chance to play with some humans, and Rei certainly filled that criteria. If worst came to worst, she would even be a useful bargaining chip to get Neo’s autograph… Unfortunately, Pal was pulled from her thoughts as her brother Pul loudly whispered to Rei.

“You can tell she’s plotting something—that’s the only time she wags her tail like that.”

Once again whacking her brother with her baton, Pal shouted, “She didn’t need to know that, you idiot!” Turning back to Rei, she cleared her throat. “Alright, fine, I’ve made up my mind. You can come with me. But, you’re going to be the low man on the totem pole. You’d better not do anything to cross us!”

Rei wondered how exactly she could cross the two little devils since she hadn’t really made a deal with them, but outwardly she only said “Got it!” with a cheerful smile. The smile became more genuine when Pul came up to her and bowed, while saying “Nice to meet you!” This caused Pal to go into a bit of a tirade, but Rei couldn’t help enjoying the company of the two PetitMamon. If it hadn’t been crystal clear before, she now understood exactly what Tai had meant about being able to connect with monsters so easily.

Rei was only taken out of her thoughts when Pul suddenly grabbed her jacket and started flying upwards. Rei was actually shocked that Pul managed to even lift her off the ground—she was more than twice his size, yet he was slowly lifting her upward. It clearly wasn’t easy for the tiny demon, as progress was agonizingly slow, but Rei was still making her way up towards the vent. Pal saw her brother struggling, and decided to help in her own way.

“Pul, you dummy, you can do better than that! Lift her like you mean it!” With numerous grunts of exertion, Pul managed to lift Rei to the opening of the vent, where Rei grabbed on and started pulling herself up. Pal saw this and immediately decided to lend her own special brand of moral support to Rei’s efforts.

“Hey, stop slacking off!” Using her trusty baton, she whacked Rei in the legs, only remembering afterwards that Rei was a human and might not be as resistant to injury as most Digimon were.

Seeing Rei pull herself into the vent, Pal immediately flew up after her. As Rei and Pul both took a moment to rest, Pal immediately began apologizing.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t hit you too hard, did I?” Rei merely looked confused.

“What are you talking about?”

This caught Pal off guard, as she had put all of her usual intensity into the blow, and nobody had ever just ignored that before. “I hit you in the legs with my baton. I’d have thought that a human wouldn’t be able to withstand my strength, but I guess I underestimated you.”

Rei sighed. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about any of that. I just can’t feel anything in my legs. I had an accident when I was in the human world, and I couldn’t use my legs anymore. When I came to this world, I could move my legs, but I still don’t have any feeling in them.”

This called Pal to fly off into one of her rages. “An accident? Who did that to you? That’s terrible!” When Pul’s objection that Pal herself had just hit Rei failed to calm her down, Rei stepped in.

“It was an accident… nobody was really at fault. I just wasn’t paying attention, that’s all.” This calmed Pal down, but not because of the words themselves. Something about the way Rei said them told the Tiny Devil Digimon that Rei wasn’t telling the whole truth about the accident, and Pal wished she could help Rei express her real feelings.

“You know, it’s always the kind ones who end up blaming themselves. Now come on, let’s go. You two can rest after we find where Neo ended up!” With that, she started flying off down the vent, forcing Rei and Pul to follow her.

Hideto could see the sun beginning to set as he arrived at Daemon’s former castle. Truthfully, he could have arrived earlier, but he had purposefully taken his time coming towards the castle. While he had hoped to easily recruit the other Aliases and even convince Neo to stop this fight, he knew there were a lot of things that could easily go wrong. Not wanting to repeat the failure of his challenge with Daemon, he needed to find a way to bring Omegamon into the fight immediately instead of needing to start with Jogress. He hadn’t come up with a perfect solution, but he had at least come up with a plan that should work. Hopping off of Omegamon, he scanned his ID card and walked into the castle.

As he walked into the greeting area, he was surprised to find Sigma and Mari waiting for him. Well, Mari looked like she was waiting for him, as she immediately stopped playing with the small green Digimon following her around and jogged towards Hideto. Sigma merely stayed on his computer, intently glaring at the screen and occasionally typing in a few commands. Hideto wasn’t exactly sure how to bring up the topic of abandoning Neo’s plan, so when Mari immediately told him that they needed to stop Neo, he couldn’t help but feel like someone had stolen his thunder. “I was about to say that too. What exactly has been going on here that you decided to go against the plan? Other than the fact that Arkadimon absorbed Daemon, I haven’t been kept up to date on everything that’s going on.”

“Let’s just say Daemon might not be as dead as we’d like. Sure, he’s not exactly around anymore, but Arkadimon still has his data within it. Ever since that happened, Neo’s been acting all crazy. When Rei asked him to stop what he was doing, he had a Devimon capture her and lock her in his room, and it looks like he wanted to keep us from interacting with her more than anything else. And that’s only the start—he’s been modifying a bunch of Digimon to make them stronger. Since then, all of the Devimon have Digivolved to NeoDevimon, and he’s been doing something freaky to some other Digimon as well. He’s been experimenting with splicing Arkadimon’s data into other Digimon, and so far he’s managed to turn a Grizzlymon, a FlaWizarmon, a Sheepmon, and a Sethmon into these really crazy looking Mega levels. Sigma thinks it might have something to do with Arkadimon somehow psychically connecting to Neo and sending Daemon’s essence into him, but he hasn’t been able to decode Arkadimon’s data yet to know for certain.”

Hearing his name brought up into the conversation, Sigma turned to the other Aliases. “I’m afraid it will take too long to decrypt all of this data. At this rate, it will be another four hours before I possess all of its information. All I have been able to uncover so far is that it truly is a Mega level and possesses attacks called Dot Matrix and Exile Spear, though I don’t have descriptions for either move.”

Hideto was shocked to hear Sigma actually use his voice, but Mari just seemed relieved that Sigma managed to say more than two sentences at a time. Still, it hadn’t been good news. “Well, I don’t think we can afford to wait that long. Keep the decryption program running just in case, but we’re going to have to try to stop Neo before he does anything too drastic. Do you think Omegamon and Piedmon working together can beat Arkadimon? I wish I could help as well, but for the foreseeable future Rosemon is going to be stuck as Datirimon.”

Hideto grimly nodded. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to a fight, but if Neo could really lock away Rei like that I don’t think any of us will be able to convince him to stop. I did have a backup plan to fight it out, but I’m not sure how well it will work. If Arkadimon was still an Ultimate, I’m sure Omegamon could win on his own, but now that we’re fighting Arkadimon’s Mega form we’ll need Piedmon’s help. We should still be able to win, though. I have Omegamon ready to fight at a moment’s notice, so I guess we should just get this over with. Is Neo still in his lab?”

After Mari nodded, the three Aliases headed together to confront their leader and try to stop his destruction of the Digital World. They found Neo standing in front of Arkadimon’s lab tank, seemingly smiling at the sleeping behemoth. At first, they tried reasoning with Neo, but he merely laughed at their pleas that it was wrong to run from the real world, sacrifice monsters for a fresh start, and ignore what Rei wanted while claiming to build a world for her. Even Hideto’s appeal to their longtime friendship fell on deaf ears, and Neo finally had enough with letting the Aliases waste his time.

“If you really want to stop, I can send you back to the human world at any time. You’ve all served your purpose. I have no more need of you now that I possess the Digimental of Legends!” Holding up what had once been Rei’s necklace, Hideto was surprised to see how simple this magical artifact truly was. Still, now wasn’t the time to focus on appearances, so he merely stared back at Neo’s eyes.

“Yes, really impressive, but I know about that too. If you could use it to make Arkadimon Digivolve, you would have done it by now. I’m guessing that thing isn’t fully charged yet, so you may as well be holding a rock for all the difference that it makes.”

Neo seemed to find Hideto’s defiance amusing. “Well, I see someone was paying attention to the briefings. Still, do you really think I told you everything? The Digimental might not be fully charged, but I have plenty of sources to choose from. After all, it is charged by a very specific energy—the energy released when two Tamers fight against each other. It’s already received one dose from your fight when Rei was present, Hideto. I was planning on using all three of you separately to fully charge the Digimental, but apparently you’re just trash that can’t even fulfil that purpose. Oh well, I’ll just defeat you now and then battle those intruders myself!”

Hearing this, Mari couldn’t help but laugh right back at Neo. “I guess we should be thanking you then, shouldn’t we? I was really worried about how we would fare in a fight against the world’s greatest Tamer, but now I see you aren’t really him. The real Neo Saiba may have viewed monsters as tools, but he never would regard humans as trash to be used. Since you aren’t the Digimon World Champion, this fight should be a piece of cake. All thanks to what you just said.” Neo’s eyes seemed to flash red at this, though it may just have been a trick of the setting sun reflecting off of Arkadimon’s tank. After the brief lapse, he seemed to regain control of himself and coldly smiled back at Mari.

“What, did you think I was above just using all of you? I would have thought you of all people would understand what it’s like to be used, Mari. Why should I be different than any other man in your life? And I assure you, I planned on using you from the beginning. Everything up to this point has gone exactly as I planned. Even my beloved sister’s appearance was needed. Admittedly, she showed up earlier than I anticipated, but I was always planning on calling her in to this world.”

Hearing this, Hideto barely managed to contain his fury. “You mean you purposefully brought Rei alone into a strange and dangerous world? You’ll pay for that!”

However, Neo just began laughing once again. “You’ll make me pay? Please, you were never able to beat me before, and that won’t change now.” He pressed a button, and Arkadimon’s tank immediately opened. “Your Omegamon may be powerful, but you’ll never get the chance to use him. Arkadimon will be able to attack your two pathetic monsters as they Jogress. I hope you don’t think that I won’t exploit the weaknesses of a technique that I was the first to master.”

Now it was Hideto’s turn to smile. “It’s almost funny. Daemon said something similar when I last confronted him. I didn’t have a good response then, but I have one now. Come on, Omegamon!”

At his command, Omegamon burst through the wall. The Royal Knight may have only used a punch to accomplish this, but the force of the blow reverberated like an earthquake through the castle, reaching as far as Rei and the two PetitMamon in the air ducts. The PetitMamon quickly changed direction and started heading toward the laboratory, unaware of the scene they were about to walk in on. Before the dust settled, Sigma had materialized Piedmon, and the three Aliases stood together facing Neo and Arkadimon. As the last rays of sunset faded, they all agreed with Hideto’s challenge: “Neo, we are no longer your Aliases. We’re going to destroy your plans!”

Chapter Text

Neo began laughing as Arkadimon faced off against Piedmon and Omegamon. “Arkadimon, take care of them!” The Mega level quickly rushed out the hole Omegamon had punched in the wall, with Neo viewing Omegamon as the greatest threat at the moment. The Royal Knight was a bit surprised at how fast Arkadimon could move with only four small wings to carry his large body, but after fighting AeroVeedramon this wasn’t any form of speed that Omegamon couldn’t handle. He managed to counter Arkadimon’s rush with his WarGreymon arm before knocking the mindless Digimon away with his MetalGarurumon arm. However, the blows didn’t seem to do any damage, and Arkadimon twisted the tentacles that formed its fingers into a point, creating a rudimentary spear. It began rushing towards Omegamon faster than it had before, catching the Royal Knight off guard. Mari called out to Omegamon trying to warn him, but Piedmon intervened with his Clown Trick attack. The multi-purpose attack created a ring of fire that bound Arkadimon before the beast could cover half of the distance to Omegamon.

With Arkadimon currently immobilized, Hideto decided to go directly for the kill shot. “Omegamon, shoot right through it. Use Omega Cannon!” Omegamon immediately complied, firing off what was essentially a single-shot version of his Omega Howling attack. Arkadimon seemed to disappear in the icy blue blast for a second before it went flying into the ground. Keeping a close eye on where Arkadimon had landed, Hideto could only make out a cloud of dust and fog from the aftermath of Omegamon’s attack, and hoped the fight was now over. However, he wasn’t about to claim victory against something as unpredictable as Arkadimon, so he wasn’t surprised when Neo started laughing. “I’ve collected my data now. Arkadimon, you can go ahead and attack.”

Sure enough, the fog from Omegamon’s attack cleared, revealing an apparently unharmed Arkadimon. Hideto wasn’t impressed with the act, as he had Omegamon trained to act uninjured at all times, but Mari let out a gasp of shock. While she didn’t have a partner capable of joining the battle at the moment, she had decided to help by constantly scanning Arkadimon to keep track of everything the Super Ultimate did and hopefully find a weakness Sigma hadn’t been able to decode yet. As such, she was keeping an eye on Arkadimon’s stats, and she did not like what she saw. “This is impossible! Arkadimon didn’t take any damage at all—it’s like Omega Cannon didn’t even hit!”

This caught both Hideto and Sigma off guard. There wasn’t any way that Arkadimon could have dodged that attack, which gave only one option: it somehow had the defenses to negate the damage from Omegamon’s attack. Considering an individual blast of Omega Cannon was actually stronger than each constituent blast of Omega Howling, this meant Arkadimon had effectively shrugged off the strongest attack they could possibly dish out. Neo laughed at the other three Tamers standing with him on the balcony that had once been part of the laboratory. “I believe I already told you that Arkadimon was in a whole other league compared to any monsters you know. Now do you see how hopeless this fight is?”

Sigma had a hard time believing what was going on. “Impossible… there’s no way this thing can’t be damaged… what on Earth is Arkadimon?” Hideto was merely stunned into silence, but Mari wasn’t about to let the one time she decided to finally do the right thing end so easily.

“So Arkadimon can shrug off Omega Cannon. Regardless of how powerful that thing is, it’s still a Digimon. If it has health that means it can lose health! We’ve managed to hit it before, and we’ll hit it again!”

This was just what Hideto needed to hear to get him back into the fight. “She’s right. Sigma, let’s try hitting him with a combination.” Sigma nodded, and Piedmon and Omegamon rushed together at Arkadimon. If Omega Cannon had failed, they weren’t going to bother trying other long range attacks, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t try melee combat. Omegamon was using his Omega Sword attack, while Piedmon had grabbed two of his swords and used a variation of his Ending Snipe attack to charge them with lightning.

Arkadimon stood still in the face of the charging Digimon until the last second, where the Super Ultimate executed a quick spin and sent both opponents flying with a simple blow from its arms. As Piedmon and Omegamon were sent flying in different directions, Arkadimon once again ignored Piedmon in favor of attacking Omegamon. From this, Sigma gathered that Neo was discounting Piedmon as any threat, something he would pay for dearly. Sure enough, Piedmon managed to once again trap Arkadimon with his Clown Trick, giving Omegamon an opening to attack. Not wanting to waste energy with his Omega Sword just in case Arkadimon managed to break free and counter once again, Omegamon resorted to a powerful punch with his MetalGarurumon arm. Keeping her eye on her Digivice 01, Mari noticeably brightened. “That did some damage! Keep it up, Hideto!”

Hideto didn’t even need to relay her command to Omegamon, as the Royal Knight repeatedly punched the immobilized Arkadimon. Watching Arkadimon’s health continue to drop, Mari began to celebrate. Hideto, meanwhile, only gave Omegamon one order: “Finish it!” Nodding, Omegamon brought out his Omega Sword yet again and prepared to impale Arkadimon. Unfortunately for the Royal Knight, Neo took this as his cue to send his own order to Arkadimon. Within the span of a second, the Super Ultimate had broken out of Piedmon’s Clown Trick, punched Omegamon in the gut hard enough to send him flying away, and then repeated the same thing to Piedmon knocking the clown into a newly-made crater.

As Sigma gasped at seeing his partner take that much damage, Neo looked up from his computer. “It’s almost sad, really. Piedmon isn’t even good enough to test Arkadimon’s strength. Why don’t you just run back to the real world, Sigma? No monster you raise will ever be anywhere near a worthy opponent for Arkadimon.”

Sigma seemed to shrink into himself, only for a pained voice to cry out. “D…Don’t underestimate us, Neo!” Everyone turned to the source, only to see Piedmon hunched over yet floating up to Neo’s level. “Sigma is… a wonderful Tamer… much more than you could ever be! I won’t let you… or anyone… make fun of him!” Sigma merely quirked his eyebrow, wondering if Piedmon was trying to be threatening despite the fact that he was heavily wheezing throughout his speech.

Luckily, Piedmon wasn’t planning on talking Arkadimon to death, and he launched his Masks Square attack. As all combatants were transported to Piedmon’s new dimension, the clown took the time to continue addressing the opposing Tamer.

“Neo… you’ve seen this attack before, but this isn’t like those times. I’m not… going to waste any energy… warping myself or anything else around. Here, I have… absolute power. It is a small matter… to ensure Arkadimon… can’t move. Omegamon… you’ll have to… be the one to kill that thing.”

While Piedmon was busy talking to Neo, Sigma noticed a new message pop up on his computer. “Sigma… I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hold him. I’m also severely warping the flow of time here. Your computer should be able to run through all of his data at ten times its normal speed, and even analyze what Arkadimon is doing faster can he can do it. Good lu”

Piedmon’s message ended abruptly, and it wasn’t hard for Sigma to see why. It was almost like Arkadimon was somehow drawing Masks Square into its own body, shattering the attack. This was the last thought that crossed Sigma’s mind before he and Piedmon both passed out. As Masks Square was an extension of Piedmon’s being, when Arkadimon had destroyed the entirety of the dimension Piedmon felt as if his very being had been shattered. Unfortunately for Sigma, the connection between himself and Piedmon within Masks Square allowed him to feel the exact same situation. The trauma wasn’t as intense for Sigma as it was for Piedmon, but he still collapsed to the ground, barely remaining conscious. The same could not be said for Piedmon, whose response to the immense psychological trauma had been shutting down completely and passing out.

Suffice to say, this was not a situation Hideto and Mari had ever hoped to see. While Mari went to check and see if Sigma was okay, Hideto forced himself to focus on Omegamon and Arkadimon. He wasn’t about to leave an opening for Arkadimon to easily win the fight now that Piedmon had collapsed. Neo seemed to sense Hideto’s anger and turned to his former best friend.

“Now let’s finish what we started back then, Hideto.” Hideto glared at Neo, but managed to ask what he was talking about. Neo shook his head. “Don’t you remember? The battle that we stopped because of Rei’s accident. You wanted to beat me, didn’t you? Well, now we have your Omegamon facing off against one of my monsters that is well beyond the capacity of a Mega level. Apart from the identity of my monster, everything is exactly as it would have been back then.”

Hideto let out a cold smirk. “You’re right. I’m going to put an end to everything right now. Our battles and your plans!” With this, Omegamon rushed forward and tried to punch Arkadimon yet again, but Arkadimon merely blocked with one arm and stopped the Royal Knight in his tracks.

Neo started laughing. “Even with a handicap, nobody is a match for Arkadimon! Not even someone as strong as your Omegamon!”

Hideto laughed right back. “So, you acknowledge Omegamon’s strength? Well, the jokes on you. He’s more than just Omegamon, he’s Warg and Melga!” Omegamon reacted to this proclamation by flipping over Arkadimon’s arm, causing his cape to get in the mindless monster’s eyes. Using the momentary opening, he kicked Arkadimon in the face and sent the Super Ultimate crashing into the ground.

Hideto turned to a surprised Neo. “What do you think, Neo? These are the same monsters you told me to delete because they were weak! Well, we’ve learned from all of our defeats, and they’ve only made us stronger. That cape trick was courtesy of our first fight with AeroVeedramon, and that was only the beginning. Now you’ll see what happens when you bother to befriend your monsters instead of deleting them as soon as they lose a fight!”

Neo had quickly recomposed himself and responded by rolling his eyes. “If you’re done with the friendship speech, can we get on with the battle? I have no intention of taking back anything I said.” As he finished talking, Arkadimon rushed back towards Omegamon, making the “Gi” sounds that usually indicated Arkadimon was acting out of hunger rather than Neo’s orders.

Hideto kept his eyes on Neo. “If you want me to end the speech, then fine! It’s over right now. Warg, Melga, go!” He uploaded a quick order to Omegamon, who began charging his Omega Cannon. Within Omegamon’s thoughts, Warg and Melga had a conversation.

“Neo made fun of us, but Hideto raised us nonetheless…”

“… We’ve got to live up to his hopes!” The glow from the cannon intensified, and Arkadimon stopped from a combination of the light and Neo’s order to prepare for the attack. Sigma finally managed to stand back up, allowing Mari to return her attention to the fight. She saw what Omegamon was doing and called out for Hideto.

“Why are you doing this? We already know Omega Cannon doesn’t work, and at that range…”

However, Mari’s objection was cut off as Omegamon seemed to vanish within the glow. Then, the glow faded entirely, revealing nothing but empty space in front of Arkadimon. The beast almost seemed confused at the disappearance of its next meal, only for Neo to quickly send it an order to look up. There, floating above Arkadimon with a flaming sword held aloft, Omegamon charged forward to slay the abomination threatening the Digital World. The Royal Knight swung the enchanted blade in an arc, and Arkadimon’s attempt to block only resulted in the Super Ultimate losing an arm.

Mari was certain this would end the fight. Using Omega Cannon as a distraction, Omegamon had managed to attack with Omega Sword from Arkadimon’s blind spot. The monster hadn’t been able to react in time to avoid a hit that carried all the power of a Royal Knight. Arkadimon was left falling to the ground, missing an arm and sporting a flaming scar across its chest. However, something else hit the ground first, immediately causing Mari and Hideto to fill with dread. There, impaled in the ground, was half of the Transcendent Sword. Omegamon could only stare in shock at the remains of what had once been the supposedly indestructible blade extending from his arm. He continued to stare as Arkadimon flew back up to his level, not even noticing that the flames on Arkadimon’s chest had gone out revealing no real injury. Even the lack of an arm barely seemed like a hindrance, as Arkadimon grew a series of tentacles from its shoulder and twisted them into a giant black spear that glowed with a strange green energy. Neo called out “Exile Spear!” and Arkadimon plunged the spear through Omegamon’s chest.

Hideto begged his partner to get away, but Mari could see it was a lost cause. Omegamon’s health was down below the threshold where he could Partition, and Exile Spear seemed to have another effect that interfered with Omegamon’s energy, to the point where the Royal Knight wouldn’t be able to move, let alone counterattack. She wished it wasn’t the case, but the numbers didn’t lie: Arkadimon was too powerful even for Omegamon and Piedmon working together. Seeing Arkadimon’s strength, Mari couldn’t believe she had had a hand in unleashing this monster. And in this case, she meant monster in the traditional sense, not the Digital one.

Neo didn’t seem to care at the obvious danger Arkadimon presented to everything, just laughing at Hideto’s defeat. “Is this really the monster they call a Royal Knight? I can’t decide whether he’s even worth deleting. He certainly isn’t worth absorbing.” Hideto didn’t seem to hear Neo, and he just continued to quietly plead for Omegamon not to die. Seeing this, Neo continued chuckling. “Are you still letting your emotions get the best of you, Hideto? He’s just a monster, after all.”

This finally inspired a reaction from Hideto. “He’s not just a monster! When I strayed from the right path, he led me back! He’s my best friend!”

Neo let a smug grin cross his face. “Friend? Please. A monster who’s lost has no right to live. All a Tamer needs is his monster’s strength!”

Hideto shook his head. “Just strength? That isn’t all that binds a Tamer and his Digimon. If you can’t understand that, you don’t deserve to call yourself a Tamer!” This seemed to strike a nerve in Neo, as he quickly sent a command to Arkadimon. While one of his arms was still occupied with Omegamon, the other unraveled into a mass of tentacles that bound Hideto by his arms, legs, and neck. As Hideto struggled for breath, Neo addressed him with a cold edge to his voice.

“What was that you said? I couldn’t quite hear you. Now, if you want to help Omegamon, then all you have to do is say, ‘Master Neo is the best Tamer ever’!”

Hideto didn’t exactly have enough air to say anything, and Mari and Sigma were appalled at how far Neo was willing to go to validate his ego, but Neo didn’t listen to their protests. It wasn’t until a voice called out, “Stop it, brother!” that he seemed to react at all. As Rei stood in the entryway to the lab, Mari and Sigma both called out in surprise, but their reaction was nothing compared to Pal and Pul, who were flabbergasted that Rei had bothered to leave the safety of the air vent to run into Arkadimon’s attack range. Neo didn’t seem to react beyond a slight flinch, but he still had Arkadimon let Hideto go. Rei ran over to her friend and asked if he was okay, though she could obviously tell he was in pain from his recent ordeal. Moving past the standard question, she asked how he had ended up in this situation.

Hideto was still short of breath, but he tried explaining. “I tried to change Neo’s mind, but it’s useless… what are you doing here, Rei?” Rei sadly shook her head.

“Don’t feel bad. I tried convincing him too, but it didn’t go so well. He locked me in a room, but I managed to escape. I couldn’t let it end there, so I had to try again… maybe if I just talk to him and figure out what he’s thinking, I could finally convince him…” Turning to Neo, she confronted her brother. “Why are you doing this, Neo? I thought Hideto was your friend! We were always together—if we just go back to our world, we can all have fun together again. You don’t need to destroy this world for that to happen!”

“Our world? Why would I ever want to go back? This is my world now. Or at least, it will be soon!” Seeing Neo was even worse than her last conversation with her brother, she knew she couldn’t let the conversation end there.

“Listen, you’ve been deceived by Daemon… I heard you were just being manipulated by a monster named Daemon!” Neo waited a while before responding with a chuckle.

“You think a monster could manipulate me? How did that manipulation work out for Daemon? He’s long since been made a snack for Arkadimon! I am the master of his castle now, and soon I will be the master of this world!”

He started a stereotypical evil laugh, only to be cut off by a small voice from Mari. “Yeah, you’re totally above being manipulated by monsters…”

Neo immediately stopped laughing, and turned to his former Alias. “What did you say?” From the tone of his voice, Mari knew she was on dangerous ground, but she hadn’t exactly been safe ever since she decided to go against Neo and Arkadimon.

“Well, just look at the facts, Neo. What happened before Arkadimon absorbed Daemon? You went out of your way to save Rosemon, even if it meant weakening Arkadimon and leaving Holy Angel Castle outside of your control. All these things went against your current goals, and yet you did it anyway because you wanted to help a friend. After Daemon, you imprisoned your sister and just tried to kill Hideto. So, are you absolutely certain you aren’t being manipulated?”

Hideto and Rei saw that this seemed to be getting through to Neo, and they decided to press the one advantage they had in this argument. Rei took a verbal approach, drawing on examples throughout her life where Neo did things that showed him to be completely different from how he was acting now. Hideto decided to work off of Neo’s own pride as a Tamer. “If you need any more proof that you aren’t being yourself, just ask yourself one question: if you saw a way to make your monster stronger, would you take it or ignore it? Because Omegamon and I have a power you could easily take as your own, yet you refuse to acknowledge it.”

Neo scoffed. “Yes, because Omegamon clearly has an impressive power that’s allowing him to sit paralyzed on Arkadimon’s spear. He has no energy left. It’s hopeless!” Hideto merely smiled before calling to Omegamon. The Royal Knight seemed to regain consciousness at his partner’s call, and began to speak.

“Neo… it’s true my energy is gone… but there is something left… as long as Hideto and I are together, there’s still a possibility to do anything! The bond between partners gives rise to the energy of hope… THAT’S OUR STRENGTH!”

With a mighty shout, Omegamon managed to break Arkadimon’s spear with his MetalGarurumon arm. While he was far from being in fighting shape, he was now at least able to move freely. He went and landed in front of Rei and the Alias III, and all of Neo’s former allies fixed the elder Saiba with a determined glare. Rei took the role of delivering the final argument.

“If you raise a monster with love, it will respond in the same way—and that bond between a Tamer’s heart and their Digimon is what leads to real strength. Sigma and Piedmon share that bond, allowing him to bond to such a level that they both run Masks Square. Mari and Rosemon had that bond, being able to constantly read and adjust to each other’s moods. Hideto’s bond with Warg and Melga allowed them to Digivolve into Omegamon. And from what I remember, you had that bond once too. You deleted so many monsters, but there was always one you kept even after you viewed it as a failure. Is it any surprise that that one monster has always been your strongest?”

Seeing all of his friends gathered against him and unable to argue with their latest point, Neo felt the first shadow of doubt cross his mind. Almost immediately, he came down with a splitting headache, and barely avoiding collapsing to his knees. Not fully aware of his own actions, he sent a command to Arkadimon, causing the Super Ultimate to fly over, pick him up, and then fly off in a random direction. After finally seeming to get through to Neo, the remaining humans weren’t happy to see him fly off, but with Omegamon barely standing and Piedmon unconscious they couldn’t do anything to stop him. At least they had managed to survive the confrontation, which was a blessing considering how bleak the situation had looked when Omegamon had lost the battle. Realizing what he needed to do, Hideto took charge of the others.

“Listen everyone, we may have gotten through to Neo now, but whatever he’s fighting against inside will probably take over soon. Before that happens, we need to get out of here. The DigiDestined should all be meeting at Holy Angel Castle soon, and we’re going to need their help. Beating Arkadimon might be the only way to really save Neo, and they’ve proven to be strong enough to beat us. If we work with them, we’ll stand a much better chance of winning.”

Knowing asking for help was their only option, everybody quickly agreed with his plan. Omegamon assured everybody he could at the very least carry them to Holy Angel Castle, so everybody climbed on to the Royal Knight’s shoulders right away, with the exception of Sigma who stopped to store Piedmon in his Digivice 01 after placing him in another healing pod. However, just before Omegamon could take off, Rei gasped.

“Wait, hold on a minute!” Hideto turned to the girl next to him asking what she was doing, but she had already hopped off of Omegamon and started running back to the lab entrance. Catching sight of the two Tiny Devil Digimon, she smiled. “Pal, Pul, would you like to come with us? You’re more than welcome to, and I don’t want to leave you here if Neo comes back. I’d hate for some friends of mine to get hurt.” Both PetitMamon’s faces lit up at having a human call them friends, but to Pal’s surprise Pul shook himself out of it and refused Rei’s offer.

“It’s not that I don’t want to go with you, but you all inspired me so much! Instead of just getting your autograph, I want to be brave like you. So, I’d like to stay here for a while. This castle has a lot of secrets, and some of those might end up helping you in the fight.”

Hearing her brother’s words, Pal sighed. “Well, I can’t leave this dummy here by himself, now can I? Don’t worry, I’ll look out for him, and we’ll find all the secrets this place has to offer. After all, this place has been around since ancient times, and Daemon only moved in a few months ago. There has to be something good buried here. Just, promise you’ll come see us again before you head to the human world, okay?”

Rei nodded. “If you two think this will help, I’m sure it will. And don’t worry, I promise I’ll visit as often as I can when all this is over. After all, it’s the least I can do after you two busted me out of prison. Just watch out for each other, okay?” As the two PetitMamon agreed to her terms, Rei once again hopped up on the shoulder of Omegamon’s WarGreymon arm next to Hideto. With all of his passengers accounted for, Omegamon slowly took off, starting the long flight to Holy Angel Castle.

Davis tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep within the infirmary of Holy Angel Castle. With what was about to happen, he knew he needed all the sleep he could get, but it just seemed to elude him. He supposed he was just lucky to be at Holy Angel Castle with everybody else. After Hideto had left, he had meant to follow his advice and come directly here, but he had forgotten a key detail: they had no way to transport Chibomon’s medical pod. Unlike Hideto, they couldn’t just store things on their Digivices, and as Baby levels Willis’s partners were nowhere near capable of carrying the DigiDestined, let alone the enormous piece of medical equipment. Igamon claimed to have a possible solution and disappeared, mentioning something about calling in an old favor and needing a ton of luck.

The ninja Digimon had been gone for twenty minutes when Davis heard a rumbling in the distance. Within a minute, he had suddenly been forced to jump away as a railroad track appeared right under him, and even with his quick reaction he could have sworn he only missed being hit by a giant living train by a few feet. Nonetheless, Igamon quickly hopped off of the train and urged Davis and Willis to quickly load Chibomon on. They barely had time to comply and then board themselves before the train sped off towards Holy Angel Castle. Igamon took the time to explain the situation. Apparently, the train was a GranLocomon that Igamon had once saved when he had been derailed as a Locomon. Much like Igamon, this GranLocomon had a deep sense of honor that obliged him to pay off his debt. However, like all GranLocomon he had an obsession with speed, so he had been racing around the Folder continent all this time, only staying so close because of Igamon. Igamon had been lucky enough to find him, and now GranLocomon was repaying the debt.

Though Igamon had been incredibly brief, he had still struggled to finish the story before the supersonic train arrived at its destination. After quickly unloading Chibomon, all the passengers could only wave goodbye as GranLocomon sped away to parts unknown, no longer having a debt to keep him from speeding throughout the entire world. Then, Chibomon had quickly been shuttled to the infirmary, and Davis got a chance to see everybody who was left at Holy Angel Castle.

            In addition to all the DigiDestined and their partners, there were a few familiar faces. Doctor Jijimon and the soldiers from Hospitown were all present, as were a Gabumon Cody introduced as Gabo, an Ikkakumon Michael introduced as Gon, and the pitiful remainder of HolyAngemon’s army after Neo’s first attack. Other than that, the only Digimon present were a bunch of Baby and In-Training levels that were too young to take part in the battle. Shortly after Chibomon was put into Jijimon’s care, the DigiDestined finally got some good news, as Leo and HolyAngemon both finished their recovery.

However, as soon as they were briefed about the situation, the two guardians of the castle merely sent out orders to all remaining troops to retreat to Holy Angel Castle in preparation for a last stand. HolyAngemon explained that he hated abandoning the rest of the continent, but he would need everybody here in order to stand any chance of defeating Arkadimon and Neo’s army and finally free Server from Daemon’s lingering influence. With that, the two had disappeared into a training room of the castle, giving careful instructions that they were not to be disturbed until Neo’s army arrived, as they needed absolute focus in order to prepare for the upcoming ordeal.

Knowing what they were in for in the near future, all of the DigiDestined decided to check their partners into the infirmary so they could be in as close to top condition as possible in the upcoming fight. Then, Davis and Willis had been forced to quell a minor panic as Omegamon was seen flying towards the castle, but after a quick explanation the others quickly agreed that they could use all the help they could get against Neo. As Omegamon and Piedmon were both added to the list of Digimon getting medical attention, the DigiDestined could only listen in horror as they got a first-hand account of Arkadimon’s power. With the story finished, everybody but Sigma eventually tried going to sleep, while the masked Alias tried to finish analyzing Arkadimon’s data.

Davis eventually drifted off, only to be shaken awake a few hours before dawn. HolyAngemon and Leo must have returned from their training, as they were present in a war council with the DigiDestined and the Aliases. With everybody awake, Sigma began explaining his findings.

“Unfortunately, I was unable to scan all of Arkadimon’s data earlier. Whatever that thing really is, it isn’t like a normal Digimon in how it configures its data. Regardless, I at least have something on the nature of Dot Matrix. When Omegamon fought Arkadimon, he appeared to shatter his Omega Sword on Arkadimon’s body. However, analyzing that moment, the sword never made contact! In addition, in that brief moment, Arkadimon’s energy dropped radically for one instant before returning to normal after the sword broke. This is because of its Dot Matrix attack! It invisibly reduces anything digital in nature to its component data, and then absorbs it. What it hits disappears instantly, and it even restores Arkadimon’s power. That’s why it can seem to be hit and take no damage—it absorbs the attacks just before they connect, so it never actually gets hit in the first place!”

HolyAngemon frowned. “An instantaneous attack that strikes invisibly, is unblockable, and has zero drawbacks. I never should have allowed this abomination to see the light of day!” Sigma understood the archangel’s feelings, but he tried to calm HolyAngemon down.

“There was no way of knowing you wouldn’t be able to stop him as a Champion. Besides, Dot Matrix isn’t perfect. Arkadimon has to fire it from somewhere, and there is a slight lag between when the attack fires and when it takes effect. A very small window, but if we can figure out where he attacks from we might be able to dodge within that window.”

Any further briefing was interrupted as an alarm sounded throughout the castle. Knowing what this meant, all available fighters went to the entrance of the castle, to see the remains of Daemon’s army approaching the gates. Arkadimon was nowhere to be seen, but with the vast number of Digimon Neo might not have needed his trump card to win this fight. Apart from Veemon, all the partner Digimon had been restored to full health, and the DigiDestined all reached for their Digivices before Leo called for them to stop.

“Listen, don’t Digivolve just yet. This is just the advance force. We’ll need to save the bulk of our strength for as long as possible in case Arkadimon shows up. You can all reach the Mega level, but you don’t have the endurance to last through this whole fight. Leave this to us for as long as possible.”

The DigiDestined all began protesting, but HolyAngemon quelled any argument. “This is a war on our homeland, and we know the best way to fight it. Only those of you who have reached the Mega level naturally may join us now. With Omegamon and Piedmon, that leaves us with four Megas to counter the four monsters Neo has leading the army. My army will handle the rest of the forces for as long as possible, and only when they are overwhelmed may you join the battle.”

Yolei quickly spoke up. “Fine, but what do you mean, four Megas? Even if Omegamon were to split into Warg and Melga, that’s only three with Piedmon.” HolyAngemon merely smirked.

“You don’t think Leo and I were sitting around doing nothing, do you? We both managed to unlock our Mega forms. Well, he managed to unlock his Mega form, and I managed to unlock an alternate Mega form considering Arkadimon absorbed the data that allowed me to become Seraphimon. Of course, much like my problem with Seraphimon, we had to seal away our power when not in battle for fear of disturbing the little ones. Now, shall we begin the final battle?”

Hideto and Sigma nodded as they stepped forward. As Piedmon stood at the ready, the DigiDestined watched as their allies began to access higher forms.

“Warg, Melga, Jogress! Omegamon!”

“IceLeomon, Digivolve to… Regulumon!”

“MagnaAngemon, Digivolve to… Dominimon!”

Chapter Text

HolyAngemon forced himself to strengthen his resolve as he saw Neo’s army advancing on his castle. The situation certainly looked bleak even compared to the last battle here: Neo’s army was approximately the same size as Daemon’s had been in that attack, while the defenders had less than half the force of the previous engagement. True, they had a greater number of Mega levels on their side this time, but even that might not be enough. As Dominimon, he was weaker than he had been as Seraphimon, but he hoped other factors compensated for the overall decrease in power. By focusing all attack power into his sword, he actually had improved on his Excalibur attack, and by removing almost all of Seraphimon’s armor he had greatly increased speed. Of course, this came at the expense of losing defense, as instead of a full suit of armor he was now reduced to two large, shield-like plates covering his arms. Hopefully, his increased speed would render defense irrelevant, and considering the ferocity of Dot Matrix, HolyAngemon was happy to make the trade.

Whereas HolyAngemon was weaker than he had been in the previous fight, Leo had obviously increased in power. He was bigger and bulkier than he had been as IceLeomon, but his mobility had actually increased as he was now capable of flying. He lost access to his ice attacks, but replaced them with attacks based on pure energy. Add to this the fact that the DigiDestined and Alias III were now fighting on the side of Holy Angel Castle, and HolyAngemon knew his army was stronger than it had ever been, even taking into account the loss of most of his fighters from the previous battle.

Unfortunately, the increased strength on the side of Holy Angel Castle was replicated by Neo’s army compared to Daemon’s. Where the bulk of Daemon’s army had been composed of Devimon, Neo had managed to get the forces to undergo a mass Digivolution, and now NeoDevimon formed the backbone of the invading army. To make matters worse, there were four strange Digimon leading the charge that exuded the same feeling Arkadimon did: the feeling that they shouldn’t even exist within the Digital World. They were obviously incredibly powerful, but the fact that they were leading the charge instead of Neo and Arkadimon only made them seem more menacing.

Luckily for HolyAngemon, the four figures leading Neo’s army weren’t unfamiliar to all of the defenders. Upon seeing them, Yolei could quickly identify them. “Now I know what Minervamon meant when she said some of the shades we fought were of Digimon that were about to exist. Listen, Cody and I have fought against those four monsters before. The bear is Callismon, the wizard Hermmon, the goat Panimon, and the wolf Lycamon. Well, we fought against exact copies of them, if that makes sense. They’re powerful, but we managed to beat them with a Champion and an Ultimate level working together thanks to a combination of luck and strategy.”

Cody nodded. “We got lucky in our fights against them, but at least we know what they can do. Hermmon is either incredibly fast or capable of teleportation; it’s hard to tell which. He likes to keep his distance and attack with blasts of lightning or fire. Still, if the real version has the same mindset as the copy we fought, he isn’t one to pay attention to his surroundings, and he lets his ego cloud his better judgment.”

Hearing this, Sigma grinned. “Sounds like he’s the perfect opponent for me and Piedmon. After all, what better way to fight a magic user than by using another magic user? We’ll see who’s better with teleportation.”

With the first matchup decided, Yolei took over the briefing. “Actually, all of these monsters had a bit of an ego problem, except maybe Panimon. Callismon is incredibly proud of his strength, but he can back it up. He has a homing Rodeo Bullet attack, and he can cause earthquakes with his Deep Forest. Still, he isn’t that quick, either physically or mentally. We beat him by flying through his Rodeo Bullet so he ended up being hit by his own attack.”

HolyAngemon nodded. “Sounds like we should rely on speed to beat Callismon. No offense, Leo, but that probably rules you out. Still, I’d like to hear about the others before we decide matchups. After all, Omegamon is much stronger than I am, so we should save him for the most threatening opponent.”

Cody nodded, and began explaining the other two monsters. “There really isn’t much to explain about with Panimon. I’m not even sure if he has any attacks—in our fight, he just relied on brute strength, and it worked pretty well for him. Still, he had something like tunnel vision, only focusing on one target and ignoring everything else. As for Lycamon, he seemed a lot smarter than the rest, though that may have been because we fought him in an area that helped him more than us. He’s capable of disappearing within a blizzard, and he’s really good with his sword. We beat him because we got lucky and found a lake to soak him before hitting him with electricity.”

Hideto copied Sigma’s earlier grin. “Lycamon sounds perfect for me. After all, one of my partners is a wolf who’s pretty good with ice himself, and Omegamon is no slouch with a sword. Besides, from your description, he sounds like the most dangerous to me anyway.”

HolyAngemon nodded. “That leaves Callismon to me and Panimon to Leo. Any objections?” When nobody spoke up, HolyAngemon turned to the DigiDestined.

“Listen, I know you would like to help out right away, but we must be smart about this. Even if we defeat all of these forces, we cannot win unless we defeat Arkadimon, so we mustn’t use all of our energy before it even arrives. I have no doubt that some of you will need to join the fight before that happens to prevent us from being overrun, and I know I have no right to order you around, but please, stay out of this fight if at all possible, and if you do join, be smart about how you fight. Thank you for the help, and I look forward to seeing you under better circumstances.”

With that, HolyAngemon led his army out of the castle alongside Sigma and Hideto. All the DigiDestined stood by, ready to have their partners Warp Digivolve at the first sign their allies needed help. All except Davis, who was feeling somewhat helpless. Veemon still hadn’t woken up within the intensive care unit, meaning he wasn’t able to join this fight even if he wanted to. Ken could tell what his best friend was going through, and tried to cheer the leader of the younger DigiDestined up.

“Don’t worry Davis; I’m sure you’ll be able to help before this battle is over. Veemon’s probably sleeping in on purpose so he can wake up right when Arkadimon shows up and then save the day. After all, our only defense against Dot Matrix is speed, and nobody is faster than AeroVeedramon.” Davis gave a slight smile at the thought, but it quickly faded away as the two armies finally met outside Holy Angel Castle.

The first shot of the battle came courtesy of Hermmon, who launched a bolt of lightning at Piedmon. The Demon Man countered with his Ending Snipe, and the two attacks caused a thunderclap that signaled the start of a full-scale confrontation. Panimon tried charging past the front lines towards the castle, only to get stopped when Leo blasted him with his Beast King Wave. This drew the goat-like Digimon’s attention, and he immediately charged at his attacker, ignoring all else.

As the two Beast Digimon grappled, HolyAngemon flew down and landed in front of Callismon. “You have the same foul aura about you as Arkadimon did. I cannot let you besmirch the holy grounds where my castle stands!”

Callismon merely laughed. “I don’t think you have any choice in the matter. I was made with the power data of Arkadimon. I’ll cut you down before you get the chance to stop me!” He charged ahead with a surprising display of speed, forcing Dominimon to quickly take to the air to dodge.

While Panimon, Callismon, and Hermmon had all rushed into battle, Lycamon seemed to advance much more cautiously. He drew his sword and watched Omegamon closely, but didn’t make any threatening moves. Hideto sat back for a while as well as he tried to scan the opponent’s data, but Neo must have put some sort of data protection on his new monsters that prevented the Digivice 01 from getting any information. Giving up on scanning his opponent’s data, Hideto observed the rest of the battlefield. Hermmon had teleported right next to Sigma and Piedmon presumably to taunt his opponent, but this just gave Piedmon an opening to trap Hermmon within Masks Square. With the battle moved to another dimension, Hideto knew he wouldn’t be getting any updates from that particular fight. Leo seemed to have the upper hand fighting Panimon, and the goat-like monster had retreated a short distance in order to attack with a sonic wave of some sort. Meanwhile, HolyAngemon was flying through the air dodging Callismon’s Rodeo Bullet attack, using the vast numbers of NeoDevimon to absorb the attacks while simultaneously thinning out Neo’s forces.

Unfortunately, while the four leaders of Holy Angel Castle’s defense force were doing well against the leaders of the attack, the same could not be said for the general army. The NeoDevimon were carving through the Angemon that made up the defense force like they weren’t even there. It wouldn’t be long before they reached the castle, so Hideto knew he would have to hurry and finish of Lycamon so he could help against the swarm. Omegamon charged towards the werewolf, who responded by firing a blizzard at the Royal Knight. Omegamon merely dispelled the snowstorm with his cape before using his Transcendent Sword to block Lycamon’s oncoming slash, breaking the werewolf’s sword in the process. The wolf fell back and tried attacking with another blizzard, but Omegamon retracted his sword and launched a stream of fire out of his WarGreymon arm, easily cutting right through the attack and setting the helpless Lycamon on fire. All it took was one stab of the Transcendent Sword to put Lycamon out of his misery, having never been a match for somebody as strong as Omegamon.

Having defeated his opponent, Hideto turned his attention to the seemingly endless swarm of NeoDevimon ahead of him. Seeing the vast number of enemies, Hideto briefly wished he could perfectly copy Neo’s Infinite Jogress, which would allow him to repeatedly use Omega Howling to cut through the advancing army and then immediately regain all of his energy. Unfortunately, Warg and Melga were unable to accomplish this. All of Neo’s monsters had been raised specifically to use Infinite Jogress, and there was an extremely narrow range of stats that allowed for true Infinite Jogress. Warg and Melga came close, capable of Jogressing repeatedly with no apparent limit, though Omegamon lost some energy each time he formed within the same battle. Since Arkadimon could show up at any time and Omegamon was still the strongest monster they had to oppose Neo, Hideto couldn’t afford to waste the energy using any of Omegamon’s stronger attacks.

Still, he couldn’t just let the NeoDevimon get past him without a fight, so he had Omegamon begin thinning out the crowd with his Double Torrent attack. While the streams of fire and ice easily destroyed any NeoDevimon they connected with, it wasn’t enough to make a dent in the number of soldiers Neo had mustered. Knowing he had to change strategies, he crossed his wrists together in order to Partition Omegamon. While Warg and Melga weren’t nearly as strong fighting separately as they were fused together, this gave Hideto a couple of advantages. First, he didn’t have to worry about saving energy anymore, as Omegamon would always Jogress to the same energy level regardless of how much energy Warg and Melga expended before fusing. Second, he now had access to some wide-scale attacks that could really put a dent in the charging armies. Between the flurry of freezing missiles from Melga’s Grace Cross Freezer and the multiple flaming tornadoes summoned by Warg’s Ultra Tornado, Hideto felt like he was finally hitting enough enemies to make a difference, even if some of them were only getting slowed down instead of outright destroyed.

Hideto hadn’t been the only one forced to change the original plan in order to hold off the NeoDevimon army. The sheer multitude of opponents that had gotten through the front line had forced the DigiDestined to start getting involved in the battle themselves. Willis had been the first to join the fray, having Terriermon Golden Armor Digivolve. Since the Digimental of Destiny effectively prevented any damage or energy drain after its use, Willis figured he was still sticking to the original plan while having GoldRapidmon join the fight. Unfortunately, each NeoDevimon was strong enough to be a challenge to GoldRapidmon, forcing more Digimon to join the fray. At first, Cherubimon started using his Heaven’s Judgment attack to strike down multitudes of the Fallen Angel Digimon, but for every one he destroyed two more seemed to spring up. When GoldRapidmon was eventually overwhelmed, Willis quickly had Terriermon Warp Digivolve, and MegaGargomon finally got to show what his weapons were capable of. Unlike Omegamon, the NeoDevimon couldn’t withstand his Mega Barrage, and he blew through legions of the demonic Digimon.

For all the damage Willis’s partners were inflicting, they were also using up too much energy. Eventually, they could no longer continue the battle, reverting to their In-Training forms. Michael and Ken immediately stepped up to fill the void, letting GranKuwagamon and MetalSeadramon take their turn against the opposing army, which finally seemed to be thinning out. MetalSeadramon was alternating between firing his River of Power into the crowd and using his Poseidon Divide to send walls of water out that at the very least pushed the army back. Meanwhile, GranKuwagamon finally got to show off his Catastrophe attack, which started by creating a small black sphere and throwing it into the oncoming army. After travelling a certain distance, the sphere expanded before immediately collapsing in on itself, taking anything within its boundaries with it. Effectively, GranKuwagamon was throwing miniature black holes into the swarms of NeoDevimon, easily taking out twenty opponents at a time.

Yolei and Cody stood back and waited to have Valkyrimon and Vikemon join the fight whenever they would be needed, but GranKuwagamon and MetalSeadramon seemed to be enough to stem the tide for now. This was mostly because of the actions of the first line of defenders, who were now focusing almost exclusively on the NeoDevimon army. Warg and Melga were nearing the point of exhaustion, but they were still taking on as many opponents as they could. Hideto was surprised they had been able to last this long without needing to Jogress, but for some reason the NeoDevimon seemed content to ignore them as they rushed towards Holy Angel Castle. HolyAngemon was continuing to use Callismon’s attacks against the army, as the bear was too enraged to realize he was playing right into his opponent’s hands and kept firing in the hope that eventually there would be too many bullets for his agile opponent to dodge. And compared to Panimon, Callismon was the picture of tranquility. The goat-like Digimon didn’t even seem to care where Leo was, just as long as he got to fire off his sonic cannon attack. Because of their opponents, Leo and HolyAngemon were probably doing the best job of saving their energy for when Arkadimon finally arrived.

Another major blow against the NeoDevimon army came courtesy of Sigma and Piedmon, who were replicating GranKuwagamon’s successful strategy. The fight with Hermmon had taken longer than Sigma would have liked, but it couldn’t be helped when two opponents capable of teleportation engaged each other. Luckily, Hermmon hadn’t been able to teleport outside of Masks Square, and Piedmon had the advantage of having a partner to keep track of things. Even with his teleportation, Hermmon found himself continuously harassed by Piedmon’s Trump Sword attack, and eventually the wizard made the mistake of stopping for a split second to fire off an attack of his own. Unfortunately for him, Sigma had noticed, and Piedmon managed to warp his swords directly into Hermmon’s DigiCore before he effortlessly teleported away from the stream of fire.

With Hermmon taken care of, Piedmon had dispersed Masks Square in order to return to the Digital World and view the situation. Seeing the danger of being overrun by NeoDevimon, Sigma and Piedmon quickly decided they were done saving energy. After all, Arkadimon had already defeated Piedmon at full power, and with Dot Matrix Arkadimon could neutralize Masks Square, the only skill Piedmon had that had any chance of turning the battle in his favor. With that decision made, Piedmon began hurling his Mask Square throughout the swarm, taking as many opponents as he could into the dimension before destroying them all. It wasn’t as quick as GranKuwagamon’s Catastrophe attack, but it was just as lethal.

When Warg and Melga were just about to collapse from exhaustion, Hideto was finally forced to Jogress them once again. Looking at everybody else now expending a bunch of energy trying to eliminate the NeoDevimon swarm, he decided he could no longer wait to truly make a difference. He had been hoping to save his ace in the hole until Neo was here, but it looked like he would need to use it if he wanted any chance of backup when Arkadimon finally arrived. With a short command, Omegamon unleashed all of his power into one Omega Howling attack. The repeated bursts struck down the NeoDevimon with all the effectiveness of a frigid winter striking tropical life. When the attack finished, Hideto immediately had Omegamon land before using a special potion Jijimon had helped him concoct the previous night. It had used up all of Hideto’s sparse inventory of medicine, but the result fully healed and revitalized Omegamon, bringing the Royal Knight to perfect fighting condition. Hideto had originally planned on saving that as a surprise for Neo, who would expect Hideto to just use Jogress in order to heal Omegamon.

Omegamon had been fully healed before the residual snow from his attack all hit the ground. The first rays of the sun glinted off of the massive ice formations left behind, forcing Hideto and Omegamon to turn away and shield their eyes. Glancing behind them, they saw the last of the NeoDevimon fall to GranKuwagamon and Piedmon’s efforts. Then, with no reason to keep their designated opponents alive any longer, Leo and HolyAngemon went back on the offensive. Charging all of his power into his sword, HolyAngemon charged at Callismon with his Final Excalibur. The sheer amount of holy power could not be contained within the blade, which was glowing bright green within a white aura. Callismon didn’t seem to regard this as any threat, glad to finally be able to get a good hit on his opponent. He reached his claws forward for a Deep Forest attack, only for the holy blade to cut directly through him without HolyAngemon exerting any effort. In a similar way, Leo quickly dispatched Panimon now that he was no longer useful. He overpowered Panimon’s sonic wave with his Beast King Wave, and before the goat could recover Leo had sent a blade of energy from his sword in his Regulus Cutter attack. The blow decapitated the last member of the attacking army, giving the defenders of the castle a much-needed chance to catch their breath.

While Hideto was glad for the brief respite, he knew it wouldn’t last long. Turning back towards the sunrise, he thought he could glimpse two dark spots blocking out a bit of the glare from the ice. As the spots flew closer, Hideto knew the real fight was just about to start. As the sun moved completely over the horizon, the shadows took on distinctive forms, and Hideto was only mildly aware of HolyAngemon and Leo landing on the ground next to Omegamon. His attention was entirely focused on the approaching abomination that was Arkadimon and the smaller Gryphonmon that was carrying his former best friend.

Neo smirked at his welcoming committee. “Well, if it isn’t all the losers gathered together in one place. From the looks of things, two of you have developed a new form just to get some revenge for your previous defeats. Not that it matters. Weak monsters like you would never be able to defeat Arkadimon, no matter how many times you try.”

Leo scowled back at the human who would dare try to conquer the world. “So, you just think we’re weak losers, do you? What exactly does that make your army, then? As far as I could tell, you had four generals and hundreds if not thousands of NeoDevimon, but it doesn’t look like any of them even lasted long enough for you to show your face.”

Neo only sighed in exasperation. “As if any of those fools meant anything to me. They were all pitifully weak, even when augmented with Arkadimon’s data. Then again, I suppose I shouldn’t be too harsh on the NeoDevimon. If you copy the same set of data hundreds of times, the quality of the copies is bound to suffer. Which explains why you are still here: they were ordered to get to the castle and wipe out all Digimon that didn’t have a human partner. Perhaps because you fought them outside the castle, they focused on the first part of the order to the detriment of the second.”

Hideto didn’t really care what Neo’s excuse was for the performance of the artificial Digimon, but he couldn’t overlook something else Neo said. “What, you only sent your army to destroy non-partner Digimon? Did you finally realize you don’t want to fight against us anymore?” He said this in a tone that could only be described as friendly, but the determined glare never left his eyes. While he was verbally extending an olive branch, he clearly was expecting this to come to a fight.

Neo merely started laughing, either because he noticed the hostility in Hideto’s eyes or because he just didn’t care about anything Hideto had to say. “I assure you, I have my reasons, but it’s pointless to tell you. You won’t be able to make a difference anyway. I’ll just destroy all the other Digimon here myself, and then I will have complete control of this world within my grasp. I stand on the verge of a power that would make me a god of the Digital World. Why should I bother explaining myself to you? Arkadimon, eliminate them!”

At Neo’s command, the beast charged towards the three waiting Digimon, who scattered and took up positions surrounding Arkadimon. While they knew some details about Dot Matrix, they still didn’t know exactly where the attack came from, so they couldn’t afford to all be caught within the range of the attack. If they stayed in this formation, at the very worst two Digimon would be able to get attacks in while Arkadimon absorbed the third.

Of course, since none of the Digimon particularly wanted to be absorbed, they were still trying to destroy Arkadimon before it came to that situation. Leo tried striking the beast with his Regulus Cutter, only for Arkadimon to easily dodge out of the way, moving at a similar speed to Omegamon at his best. In fact, Arkadimon’s speed was shown to be perfectly equal to Omegamon’s, as Neo ordered Arkadimon to skewer his opponents one by one, starting with the Royal Knight. Arkadimon matched Omegamon move for move, not able to close in but also never falling behind. With Omegamon unable to shake his pursuer, Hideto knew he needed to come up with a strategy.

Almost immediately, Hideto had an idea, but he wasn’t eager to try it. True, it would turn this situation to his advantage, but at a steep cost. He wasn’t sure he wanted to subject Omegamon to this plan, but then the Royal Knight executed a quick aerial maneuver that allowed him to lock eyes with his Tamer for a fraction of a second. In that one moment, Hideto understood the message Omegamon was sending him. The Royal Knight was asking for a command, and simultaneously telling Hideto he didn’t have to worry about him. Nodding grimly, he shouted, “All right! I’m counting on you, Omegamon!” before sending what could very well be the last command Omegamon ever received.

Enacting Hideto’s command, Omegamon suddenly turned and faced directly into Arkadimon’s charge. Neo was taken aback at this strategy, wondering why Hideto would order his monster to just give up. However, this was nowhere near Omegamon’s intention. Bringing his MetalGarurumon arm up, he launched his Omega Cannon directly into Arkadimon’s face. With only a few feet separating the tip of the cannon from its target, the icy explosion engulfed both Arkadimon and Omegamon, erasing both Digimon from sight.

Far away from the scene of the battle, Pal and Pul were busy exploring the deserted castle that had once served as Daemon’s base of operations. So far, they hadn’t discovered anything that seemed particularly helpful against Arkadimon, though they at least hadn’t come up completely empty handed. While exploring, they had stumbled on a room that Neo must have used for storage, as it had around twenty Digivices scattered around. Whatever Digimon these had been bonded to must have been deleted, as they were all completely blank right now, but Pal and Pul still each grabbed one. After all, the only Digimon they knew that went to the human world besides Daemon all were bonded to one of these Digivices. It might not have been a requirement, but it couldn’t hurt their chances of going back to the human world with Rei and the other friendly humans.

Still, Pal was getting frustrated by the lack of success finding anything that would help their friends survive long enough to even make it back to the human world. Their search had brought them down to basement levels they hadn’t even known existed, but all they got for their trouble was a strange wall covered in DigiCode they couldn’t even recognize. The secret to ultimate power could be hidden right in front of them, but the DigiCode must have been so ancient that it was unreadable if it wasn’t supposed to be complete gibberish. Pul seemed to think he would figure it out by staring at it forever, but Pal didn’t have the patience.

“If you can’t read it now, you’re not going to be able to read it in the next hour. Let’s keep looking, Pul.” When her brother ignored her, Pal ended up resorting to her usual method of getting Pul to listen to her: she hit him with her baton. However, Pul seemed to be taken by surprise at the attack, having actually been too engrossed in trying to decode the message that he hadn’t heard her speaking, and he ended up getting knocked off balance and falling into the wall. Pal hadn’t meant to actually hurt him, and was about to apologize for hitting him too hard when the Digivice 01 that Pul was carrying started to glow slightly, causing a similar reaction in the wall. The glow intensified to the point where both PetitMamon had to shield their eyes, and then it faded away just as quickly as it started. Cautiously looking back towards the wall, Pal and Pul were surprised to see that there wasn’t a wall anymore, and what had once been a dead end was now a tunnel leading further down.

Pal was shocked into silence, but Pul couldn’t resist the opportunity to flaunt his rare triumph over his sister. “What was that you were saying? Looks like I managed to get past the wall in a few seconds. Not such a dummy now, am I?” Hearing her brother taunt her this way immediately brought Pal back to normal.

“Yeah, and who was it that caused the Digivice to hit the wall in the first place? If it wasn’t for me hitting you, you’d still be sitting there trying to read. Now, are you going to keep arguing with me, or shall we go investigate?”

Before Pul could even respond, Pal was flying down the tunnel. Grumbling under his breath, he didn’t even notice Pal had stopped at the entrance to a circular room, and he soon received another whack from his sister’s baton when he bumped into her. Rubbing his head, he asked why Pal had stopped, only for her to whack her stick against what seemed to be the air in the doorway. When the baton rebounded, Pul immediately guessed the cause. “It must be a force field of some kind. That’s weird, though. Why have a force field behind the trick wall…”

Glancing through the invisible barrier, he could make out four glowing objects. Staring at the small points of black, brown, silver, and indigo, Pul was instantly reminded of one of the security measures this castle featured. “Pal, we have to go back up and get Rei. Or at the very least, any human will do. We just found something that’s bound to help out.”

Chapter Text

While the DigiDestined had all been enjoying a slight break after the NeoDevimon army had been defeated, the explosion from Omegamon’s blast quickly drew their attention back to the battle. Unfortunately, they weren’t anywhere near full strength at the moment. MegaGargomon, Cherubimon, GranKuwagamon, and MetalSeadramon had used up all of their energy fighting off the Fallen Angel Digimon, leaving them in their In-Training forms. With Veemon still in intensive care, that left Hawkmon and Armadillomon as the only Digimon left who were capable of fighting. Yolei was about to have Hawkmon Warp Digivolve and fly out to join the fight, but then she remembered that this would leave Cody behind, as none of Armadillomon’s forms were built for speed. Glad she had caught her mistake before she made it, she turned to Cody and Armadillomon.

“Listen, we need to go out there and help them, but it’s best if we do it together. You two up for Valkyrimon giving you a lift? I know it will be tough for him to carry three passengers, but I don’t think we can afford to do anything else. We’ll need Vikemon out there, but he isn’t exactly capable of getting there quickly.”

Cody and Armadillomon nodded, and in a flash of magenta Hawkmon had assumed his Mega form. It wasn’t easy for Valkyrimon to carry three passengers, especially considering he was only slightly larger than the humans he was carrying, but he managed. While well below his usual speed, he could at least fly faster than Armadillomon would have been able to travel, meaning the DigiDestined were still saving time compared to the alternative. They could only hope that Omegamon, HolyAngemon, and Leo would be able to hold out a little longer until they could arrive at the battlefield.

While Valkyrimon flew off, Davis could only give a dejected sigh. Seeing this, Willis, Michael, and Ken tried to offer their support, but the most successful person in this endeavor was actually Mari. Pulling out her Digivice 01, she typed in a quick set of commands, causing another Digivice 01 to materialize. She held it out to Davis, who only stared at her in shock. Seeing this, Mari shook her head. “You know, I’d say I was disappointed that guys keep staring at me in shock, but for that to be true I’d have to be surprised. After all, I’m beautiful, famous, and my default clothes here in the Digital World look like the kind of thing I used to wear for work. Well, for the first minute or so of work, anyway.”

Davis started stammering incoherently, causing Mari to laugh. “Relax, I’m just kidding. You were just looking so down on yourself I had to try something. Or were you just surprised at the Digivice? I always keep a spare on me in case I find a wild Digimon I’d like to add to my collection. It’s all part of the deception act I use when I fight. And don’t be surprised I store them in my main Digivice, either. The Digivice 01 can pretty much store any data-based item, including other Digivices. Heck, it could probably store a person here in the Digital World, but I’m not too keen on testing out that possibility. Now, are you going to sit there staring at me, or are you going to accept the gift?”  

Davis managed to shake himself out of his shock. “Thank you, but I’m not exactly sure how this helps. Veemon’s going to be out of it for a while, and I don’t even know how to use all of the functions on this thing. Heck, I don’t even think Michael knows how to do everything with this, and he has one of these now.”

Mari rolled her eyes. “It really isn’t that difficult. I’ll give you a crash course on how to use the basic functions. And trust me, this thing is incredibly useful. It may not let Digimon Digivolve like your Digivices can, but it has incredible scanning, storage, and communication functions. By the time this thing is over, all of your friends will be asking for one of these. As for how it helps right now, the one thing we know about Dot Matrix is that it starts with a drop in Arkadimon’s energy. Using this, you could scan for that and maybe get advance warning that he’s attacking. From what I hear, AeroVeedramon is fast enough that even a split-second warning would be enough for him to dodge. Speaking of AeroVeedramon, you might want to check out what’s happening in the infirmary right now. I guarantee you’ll be glad you did.”

Mari wouldn’t say anything else, so Davis was forced to head back inside to see what she was talking about. When he entered the infirmary, he was shocked to find every single Digimon within Holy Angel Castle huddled around Veemon, with a rainbow of light emanating from each one heading straight into Veemon. It took Davis a second to place why the scene looked familiar, but then he realized: this is exactly what Agumon and the others had done when they gave Imperialdramon the energy needed to use Fighter Mode for the first time. Every Digimon that hadn’t gone out to fight themselves was now giving all the energy they had to Veemon!

Davis was taken aback by the gesture the collection of Baby, In-Training, Rookie, and Champion Digimon were making, and had no idea how to even begin expressing his gratitude. He turned to the distinctive figure of Jijimon, planning on starting by thanking the doctor who had helped Veemon all this time, but the Mega level cut off any attempts at saying thank you.

“There is no need to thank any of us, Davis. In truth, this is but a small step towards repaying the debt we owe all of you DigiDestined. Before you arrived, we were content to let Daemon control this land, with very few daring to fight back. You have reawakened the courage in this continent, and that is why we are all giving our energy to help Veemon. We may not be able to help in the fight ourselves, but we can at least do this.”

Davis was about to respond when Mari’s voice cut him off. “What do you mean, you can’t help in the fight yourselves? You’ve all played your role in this battle already, and even if it seems small it doesn’t mean it was any less important. Jijimon, if it weren’t for you, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have lasted this long in the fight, considering you healed just about everybody that’s out there. You’ve made more of a difference this way than you could have fighting, even if you are a Mega level.”

Davis was surprised that Mari had joined him back here, but the reason she knew about all of this anyway was made clear when she reached into the mass of Baby Digimon and picked up an exhausted Datirimon. Davis tried conveying his gratitude with a look, but Mari was busy focusing on Jijimon as he continued to speak.

“Do not confuse my level with fighting ability. I assure you, I am just as useful in a fight as I look. You may view Digimon as immortal, but we still age and eventually die like all creatures. And I have been around since before the world took the form it has today, back when humans were called to this world to wield the Spirits of the Legendary Warriors. I am lucky that it was my physical strength that waned with age and not my mental strength—I know of some Digimon even more ancient than I am that have gone completely insane, even though their fighting skills never faded.”

“Wait, you knew the Legendary Warriors? How would you like to meet them again? Due to the time difference between Earth and the Digital World and the Olympos XII sending them back in time to answer Ophanimon’s call, Takuya and the others are actually only six years older than they were back then. I’m sure they’d be happy to see an old friend again.”

Jijimon chuckled at Davis’s offer. “It would indeed be nice to see those six again, but I wouldn’t say I was much of a friend to them. I was just one of many Digimon they helped evacuate as the world faded away, and I doubt they could recognize me from the other Mojyamon that evacuated the Autumn Leaf Festival so long ago. It’s almost funny—the last time humans fought to protect my world, I was too young to help them directly. Now, I am too old to help them directly, despite only six years passing in the human world. Still, I am sure Veemon will awaken soon, and he may very well have the power needed to stop Arkadimon and make that reunion a possibility. All this energy should boost him to the power he normally exhibits with his overwrite, though without the drawbacks. It will be temporary, but it might be just what he needs to win.”

For the first time since this battle started, Davis felt like he could finally help his friends win. As a genuine smile came across his face, Mari called out to him. “Don’t just stand there grinning like an idiot. So you’re partner’s going to be stronger than ever in this fight. Don’t think that will be enough on its own. You’re going to have to fight alongside him, which means you’ll need to learn how to use this Digivice 01…”

The haze resulting from Omegamon’s blast eventually cleared, revealing the Royal Knight to be battered but alive. His armor was clearly damaged and he appeared to be covered in a layer of frost, but Hideto only needed to look at how Omegamon was carrying himself to know how severe the damage had been. The Royal Knight prided himself on hiding the extent of his injuries, but now he was struggling just to stay airborne. He didn’t even need to look at his Digivice 01 to see how costly his strategy had been. Unfortunately, when the haze of the attack fully dissipated, Arkadimon did not seem to be in such dire straits. Neo started laughing. “Don’t you get it, Hideto? Your tricks are worthless against Arkadimon. All you’ve managed to do is damage your own monster!”

Hideto let Neo think he had won, but the maneuver had succeeded in its main objective. While Omegamon was essentially dead in the water at the moment, his sacrifice hadn’t been in vain. Arkadimon’s wings, legs, and arms had all been affected similarly to Omegamon, though at a lesser degree. Apart from the extremities, Arkadimon appeared to have not taken any damage. Hideto knew this was because of Dot Matrix absorbing the impact of Omega Cannon, but that had always been the objective. The attack was at such close range that the explosion enveloped Arkadimon’s entire body before the beast could begin using Dot Matrix, so when only Arkadimon’s midsection was undamaged after the fact it was clear Dot Matrix fired from that area. It wasn’t much of a victory, but at least now they had an origin for the attack they absolutely had to avoid.

HolyAngemon immediately caught on to Hideto’s plan, and tried to take advantage of this opening. Arkadimon had to have been slowed down by the damage to its wings, and it was still focusing strictly on the Royal Knight in front of it. Since Dot Matrix fired from Arkadimon’s midsection in the direction Arkadimon was facing, that meant Arkadimon could be approached from behind. Taking all this into consideration, HolyAngemon charged in with his Final Excalibur, hoping to restore peace to the Digital World with one final blow.

Unfortunately for HolyAngemon, while Arkadimon had its back turned, Neo was still watching the battle. With a simple command, Arkadimon twisted its arm into a lance and impaled the angel through the chest without so much as turning around. The green glow around the spear blocked HolyAngemon’s energy much like it had done to Omegamon, and the energy coating HolyAngemon’s sword dispersed harmlessly. Neo couldn’t help but laugh again. “Did you honestly expect me not to plan for that? At least you didn’t bother shouting out your attack name while launching a sneak attack, but you really can’t expect me to fall for such a basic scheme. You’re better than that, Hideto.”

Leo tried to free his commander by blasting Arkadimon with his Beast King Wave, but the attack didn’t seem to have any noticeable effect on Arkadimon. It did seem to annoy Neo, as the Tamer growled out “Don’t interfere!” before sending another command to Arkadimon. The abomination twisted its other arm into a second lance, but Leo wasn’t too worried. After all, he was attacking from a distance, and Arkadimon still wouldn’t be capable of flying at full speed. Confident in his safety, he could do little more than gasp when the spear suddenly extended to three times its former length, stabbing the lion in the gut. With Omegamon still reeling from the previous damage and HolyAngemon and Leo both paralyzed, Neo found himself savoring the thrill of victory.

“Will you ever learn it doesn’t pay to underestimate Arkadimon? That level of power is beyond your comprehension, and that isn’t taking into account some of its other abilities. After all, Arkadimon did absorb the data of quite a few monsters, and gained some interesting techniques. For example, in our first encounter, Arkadimon absorbed data from IceLeomon. Obviously such a trifle didn’t give a monumental boost in power, but it did have some nice side effects, like resistance to cold-based attacks!” As he said this, Arkadimon purged the frost clinging to its extremities, and Leo saw he had relied too much on the appearance of weakness instead of actually seeing Arkadimon’s condition. He didn’t have much time to mentally chastise himself, however, as Neo continued speaking.

“After IceLeomon, Arkadimon absorbed the data of Seraphimon, taking all of the relevant data and reducing the general of this castle back to his Ultimate level. The pinnacle of light within the Digital World, absorbed by a monster two levels below him. And now Arkadimon is master of that power!” The green glow on the Exile Spear binding Leo suddenly changed to a bright gold, and Leo was blasted off of the spear by a surge of light energy. Neo watched impassively as the Regulumon burst into data.

“Don’t worry, General, I won’t have Arkadimon absorb your faithful commander. Honestly, there are very few creatures left that are worth having Arkadimon absorb them. Why fill the perfect life form with the data of weaklings? No, you’ll be much more entertaining as a test subject. After all, Arkadimon didn’t just absorb the pinnacle of light. By taking out Daemon, I am now master of the power of Darkness!”

At this, the Exile Spear went from a green glow to what could only be described as a black fog, and HolyAngemon immediately felt the corruption of darkness flow into him. Arkadimon then removed the spear, but the damage was done. HolyAngemon tried resisting the darkness, but he knew he would be too weak to avoid falling for long. Luckily, he still had one option. Just as he had always done before, he sealed away his Mega form. By shifting back to MagnaAngemon, he had effectively quarantined the corruption into his Dominimon form, preventing himself from losing control. However, this measure drained him of what little energy he had left, and HolyAngemon immediately passed out on the ground.

Having eliminated two out of his three opponents, Neo turned to Hideto. “And just like that, Omegamon stands all alone against Arkadimon once again. From the looks of things, he’s in even worse shape than he was last time, but part of being a good Tamer is learning from the rare experience of making a mistake. Last time, I assumed Omegamon was out of commission, but you still managed to make him move. I’m not going to give you time to repeat that situation!”

With this, Arkadimon charged at Omegamon, one arm maintaining its spear shape while the other returned to normal just in case Arkadimon would need to block a counterattack. Hideto saw the charge, but he didn’t express any worry. Neo may have said he didn’t want to give Hideto time to help Omegamon, but he was too late for that. Omegamon may not be able to fly quickly enough to dodge, but he still had enough health to do this. Just before Arkadimon’s attack connected, Hideto crossed his wrists and Omegamon Partitioned, letting Arkadimon fly through empty air between Warg and Melga.

Neo’s only response to Arkadimon’s failure was to blink before speaking. “So it’s come to this, then. But you can’t escape my scenario that easily. Sure, if you were to Jogress, that would restore Omegamon to full health, but that would also mean fusing the two of them together in the middle. I assure you, the end result would be the same as if Arkadimon’s last attack had connected. You’ve already lost!”

Hideto tried to think of a way out of the situation, when he got a short message on his Digivice 01. He didn’t open it to read it, but the subject told him enough. Smiling, he turned to Neo. “Oh, what you’re saying would be true, but like you said, Tamers learn from their mistakes. This isn’t the first time that flaw of Jogress has been exploited, and I have a way to counter it! Jogress!” He slammed his fists together, and Warg and Melga started to fuse. Neo immediately had Arkadimon rush in to attack, focused entirely on destroying Omegamon before he could return to full health.

Luckily, this played right into Hideto’s plans. The subject of the message he had received merely said “Distract him,” and that was all the information Hideto needed to know help was on the way. With Neo busy focusing on Omegamon, he didn’t notice the white flash in the sky until Vikemon fell directly into Arkadimon, smashing the beast with his Mjollnir and sending it crashing into the ground. The Beast Man Digimon had no qualms using the body of his foe to shield his own fall, and immediately flowed into his Arctic Blizzard attack. IceLeomon’s data may have given Arkadimon a resistance to cold-based attacks, but resistance and immunity were two separate things.

Neo could only stare in shock as his perfect monster lay cocooned in a sheet of ice beneath Vikemon. Glaring at the intruders, he saw Valkyrimon set Cody and Yolei on the ground next to Hideto before flying next to the newly fused Omegamon. Neo found himself seething with anger as Hideto started to taunt him.

“You know, calling in backup is such a simple strategy that any decent Tamer would have been prepared for it in this situation. And the funny thing is, you could have still taken out Omegamon before this happened if you hadn’t been scared of your own monster. Why else wouldn’t you use Dot Matrix on any of the Digimon fighting you? You’re afraid of Arkadimon reaching the Super Ultimate level, aren’t you? After all, you won’t be able to control him unless he assumes that form using the Digimental, but that isn’t charged, is it? It must be frustrating, knowing you’ll never be able to see the full power of your monster because you aren’t good enough to control it.”

This drove Neo over the edge. “That’s it, this fight is over!” With a quick command, Arkadimon exploded out of its icy prison, unleashing waves of alternating light and darkness in a devastating combination. Vikemon was sent flying and reverted to Tsubumon before he even hit the top of his flight arc, but Arkadimon wasn’t finished there. Transforming both arms into lances, Arkadimon tried stabbing Valkyrimon and Omegamon. Both Digimon dodged out of the way, only for the spears to suddenly split into five points, spreading out and hitting the Digimon who had expected only a single point of attack. Valkyrimon survived only because he reverted to Pururumon, who was small enough to fall between the spear points. Omegamon was not so lucky, and Arkadimon followed up the attack by once again channeling Seraphimon’s light energy through the spear, hitting Omegamon with an explosion that he barely survived.

If emotional whiplash were a thing, Hideto knew he would be experiencing it right now. Any feelings of triumph he had been experiencing immediately died away, only to be replaced by sorrow and fear. However, Neo didn’t seem to think this was enough of a lesson.

“You think I’m afraid of my own monster? I guess I’ll just have to prove you wrong, now won’t I? Arkadimon, shoot him! Use Dot Matrix!”

He was about to push the button to send the command that would end Omegamon’s life, when a blue bolt of energy shot from the direction of Holy Angel Castle and struck Arkadimon in the arm. Tracing back the attack, he saw Davis riding on AeroVeedramon’s back. Before Neo could even process the new arrival, AeroVeedramon had closed the distance between him and Arkadimon, set Davis next to the other DigiDestined, and returned to the sky. Davis was a bit shaken from the flight, but he managed to hide it in his voice. Pushing his goggles from his eyes back to their usual place on his forehead, he issued a challenge to the rogue Tamer.

“Neo, you’ve done enough damage to the Digital World, and that alone justifies us taking Arkadimon down. But when you hurt my friends like this, there’s no need for any justification. AeroVeedramon and I are going to crush you!”

Neo looked shocked for a while, before he started laughing. “If it isn’t the little glitch from earlier. You don’t seem to have gotten any stronger. You may have defeated Ghoulmon, but you weren’t any match for Omegamon. What makes you think you have any ability to make threats? If you go up against Arkadimon, I’ll just delete you in an instant. An error like you won’t destroy my plans!”

Arkadimon rushed towards AeroVeedramon with its Exile Spear, but the Holy Dragon was far too quick to be hit by something like that. Hideto was stunned at the increased speed, as AeroVeedramon was dodging quickly enough that it sometimes seemed like he was in two places at once. He had been fast before when he was fighting against Omegamon, but now he was in a whole new league. Shaking himself, he quickly passed on the information they had gleaned about Dot Matrix to Davis, who nodded before relaying it to AeroVeedramon.

AeroVeedramon continued running circles around Arkadimon, but he didn’t seem to be able to do any real damage. His V-Breath Arrow wasn’t having any effect, and his V-Wing Blade was only marginally better. Even with the power boost from all the other Digimon, it seemed he just didn’t have the strength to overpower Arkadimon. Neo seemed to notice this as well, as he turned to Davis. “I’ll admit, your partner is fast, but you won’t win by relying on speed alone. Do you honestly think you can run forever? The overwrite will kill your partner long before Arkadimon tires.”

Davis only smiled. “We’ll see about that. Besides, you won’t have to worry about that for too long. We’ll let you shoot the Dot Matrix.” At this, he sent a command to AeroVeedramon, who immediately stopped right in front of Arkadimon. Neo was taken aback at his opponent seeming to want to be hit with Dot Matrix, but he wasn’t about to let AeroVeedramon pull the same stunt Omegamon had.

“Fine, if you really want to be the victim of Dot Matrix, be my guest!” Arkadimon fired its ultimate attack, and AeroVeedramon instantly disappeared. However, just when Neo was about to declare victory, a voice rang out from behind Arkadimon.

“So much for Dot Matrix!”

Nobody could believe what they saw. AeroVeedramon had always been fast, but now he could outrun an instantaneous attack? The only one who wasn’t surprised was Davis, who had a giant grin on his face.

“You know what happened, don’t you Neo? Arkadimon’s energy just went way down. Is that proof enough for you that we’ve beaten Dot Matrix?” Neo clenched his teeth as he continued to order Arkadimon to attack, but he had no way to counter Davis’s statement. As AeroVeedramon continued to dance around Arkadimon’s Exile Spears, Hideto saw the brilliance behind Davis’s strategy.

“So, that’s your plan. Arkadimon always loses the same amount of energy as he absorbs with Dot Matrix, but you’re getting rid of the absorption stage. So, you’re going to run Arkadimon out of energy, and then he won’t be able to do anything! But how do you even react to the attack happening? Theoretically there’s a drop in energy when he fires, but it should be so quick that you shouldn’t be able to respond even if you could see it. You’re really something else, Davis.”

Davis shook his head. “Don’t give me too much credit. None of this would be possible on my own. I may be the only one who can make this work, but that’s just because my partner is AeroVeedramon and happens to be fast enough. Everything else isn’t really because of me. I know when the energy drops because Mari gave me a Digivice 01, and AeroVeedramon can only keep this up because every Digimon in the castle gave him their energy. Sure, our bond helps us communicate with each other, but all of the DigiDestined are close enough to their partners that they could pull it off.”

Neo stopped glaring at his computer screen and turned to Davis. “I don’t know how you did it, but this was just a fluke. There is no way you can dodge Dot Matrix. I refuse to accept that as a possibility!” He ordered Arkadimon to use Dot Matrix again, but AeroVeedramon once again dodged, this time following the evasion with his Twister Saber attack. Arkadimon didn’t take much damage from the attack, but it still crashed into the ground. Apparently, it was much less resilient against direct attacks than long-range attacks, even ignoring Dot Matrix’s defensive properties.

Neo didn’t seem to be capable of believing what he was seeing. He continued to order Arkadimon to repeat the same process, constantly muttering “This isn’t possible!” to himself. Eventually, Arkadimon had expired all of his energy, and while AeroVeedramon had burned off most of the energy donated to him by the residents of Holy Angel Castle, he was still operating at what would be his full power on his own. True, his attacks weren’t doing a lot of damage, but he could strike Arkadimon with impunity and eventually the beast would fall.

Davis turned to Neo. “Now do you see what your problem is? You put so much emphasis on your power that you lost sight of what’s important. You thought you could swat away everything in the Digital World like it was a fly, but now all the flies have started working together and you swatted yourself to death. Now, it’s time to finish this fight. You’ve lost, Neo.”

Neo finally stopped repeating his line about the impossibility of the current events and started laughing as if he had gone completely insane. “I’ve lost? Me?” He paused for some more laughter. “It’s true that you’ve got me and Arkadimon against a wall. But your little fly comparison works perfectly. After all, you and your partner are nothing more than a bug in my program. A persistent bug that has caused far more trouble than I ever thought possible, but not one that’s uncorrectable. Have you forgotten this?”

He held up what Davis only barely recognized as Rei’s old necklace, but Hideto seemed to understand what it really was. “The Digimental of Legends? Sure, that would be great in theory with the ability to Digivolve beyond the Mega level, but don’t expect to scare us. I know that thing isn’t charged. It may as well be an ordinary rock at the moment.”

Neo only laughed at Hideto. “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. You see, it wasn’t charged before, but things change. You remember how I said it needed a strange energy to charge, and I didn’t know how to get it? Well, I lied about that last part. In order to work properly, the Digimental needs to absorb the energy released when two Tamers battle each other, and it needs at least three complete battles to fully charge. You provided the first battle in your first fight against the intruders, seeing as Rei was standing there with you. Then, I had this when I defeated you and Sigma at my castle. And just now, I defeated you once again before this little bug showed up. So, I’d say I this is far more than an ordinary rock. I’d say this is the door to your despair. Game Over!”

The Digimental began to shine brightly, and Arkadimon was encased in what appeared to be lightning. Neo kept laughing as he addressed the shocked spectators. “I’ll show you a power that surpasses that of all other Digimon! Behold, the birth of the true Super Ultimate!” The lightning bolts surrounding Arkadimon all converged into a dangerous looking glow, but perhaps the most ominous thing about the unearthly scream Arkadimon was unleashing. This was a monster with seemingly no self-awareness that didn’t seem to care when it lost limbs and had only ever expressed hunger when getting attacked by powerful Digimon. Now, it was screaming in agony. The world itself seemed to rebel against this new Digivolution, as the sky immediately blackened and earthquakes shook the land. When the glow faded, Davis felt his confidence shake as he beheld Arkadimon’s true form.

The beast was massive, and seemed to be composed entirely of tentacles only bound together in a vaguely humanoid form by massive plates of dark blue armor. While its head and chest were similar to its Mega form just on a larger scale, its arms and legs had been reduced to giant extensions of armor. Arkadimon almost looked like a meteor floating in the sky, and Davis couldn’t shake the feeling that this new threat was just as capable of causing mass extinction. Even Sigma and Mari, who had just reunited at the castle, could hardly believe that any Digimon could become something like that. However, Neo didn’t seem to care about the reception Arkadimon was receiving, as he merely laughed harder than before. “Now I’m invincible! Let me show how the world will change. GOD MATRIX!”

Arkadimon seemed to shine with light before Davis was knocked off of his feet by what felt like a huge explosion behind him. Turning around, he saw all of the land between him and Holy Angel Castle engulfed in a dome of light before it suddenly dissipated into a bunch of zeroes and ones. Instead of leaving behind a crater, the attack left only a void. Davis had been impressed with Omegamon’s power to flatten a landscape. Now, he was fighting against a monster strong enough to destroy the concept of a landscape. Davis may have been the DigiDestined of Miracles, but now even he was beginning to think there was no way to win this fight…

Chapter Text

Neo could only laugh as he beheld the carnage from Arkadimon’s attack. “Just what I expected from a Super Ultimate! What amazing power!” Hearing this, Davis couldn’t help but question Neo.

“Are you really going to destroy the world, Neo?” True, he had heard Neo say that he would destroy the world before, but only now did Davis actually believe that such a feat was possible. Neo at least stopped laughing, but his next words showed he hadn’t changed his mind.

“I told you before, I’m not just going to destroy the world. I’m going to reset it and create a new one. An Arcadia that I will rule over myself! My own utopia, a world that runs entirely according to my rules. That’s why I named this monster Arkadimon. Because he is the tool that will build my Arcadia!”

Arkadimon punctuated this exclamation with another God Matrix, this time deleting the ground on the far side of Holy Angel Castle. Hideto glanced at his Digivice 01 hoping to see something about the attack that was flawed, but God Matrix seemingly didn’t even have the energy drain that Dot Matrix did. Seeing this, Hideto had no doubt that Neo could easily eliminate the castle or anything else at any time, but was just choosing to play with Arkadimon’s power as if it were a new toy. Hideto found himself flashing back to events he wished he could do differently, as he knew his life was now dependent entirely on the whim of a madman. By the looks on everybody else’s face, he knew he wasn’t alone in all of this. Even the Baby level Digimon looked crushed by failure. The only one who didn’t seem to feel this way was AeroVeedramon, who was screaming in anger.

“I won’t… let you… get…AWAY WITH THIS!” As he finished snarling out his message, AeroVeedramon was once again encompassed by the blue glow that signaled his overwrite was kicking in at full power. However, having seen the full power of Dragon Impulse before, Hideto knew this attempt wouldn’t be enough to do anything meaningful to the Super Ultimate.

He quickly turned to Davis. “You have to stop him, Davis! I know you don’t want to give up, but you saw what happened last time. Omegamon tried to get killed by Dragon Impulse, and even then it wasn’t enough. And AeroVeedramon’s body won’t be able to stand another use of the attack. You have to stop him before he kills himself!”

Davis seemed to struggle with himself for a moment before shouting to his partner. “Go, AeroVeedramon! Show him all you’ve got!” AeroVeedramon only responded with a yell as he turned into the light dragon again and repeatedly slammed into Arkadimon. Hideto couldn’t believe what Davis was doing.

“How can you let him do this? You know he won’t make it!”

Davis turned to Hideto with tears in his eyes. “Yes, I know he won’t make it! Do you think I like that? If there was a way for me to stop this, I would do it in a heartbeat. But AeroVeedramon wouldn’t stop even if I told him to. He knows what he’s doing, but he’d rather die trying to save the world than sit back and die doing nothing. As his partner, the only thing I can do is support him in his decision. I hate this, but the only thing I can do to help is show I still believe in him.” Turning back to the light dragon that kept ineffectively hitting the Super Ultimate, he shouted, “Keep it up, AeroVeedramon!”

AeroVeedramon probably didn’t even recognize his partner’s voice, being too busy hitting Arkadimon yet having no effect. After each failed hit, he would scream “I’m not done yet!” and glow even brighter before coming around for another pass, yet the Super Ultimate never took any damage. Eventually, the strain of keeping up the attack became too much for AeroVeedramon, and the light dragon burst apart into tiny droplets of light that quickly faded away, leaving no trace of AeroVeedramon anywhere.

Davis broke down crying at his partner’s death. He had always thought he understood the pain TK had gone through in his fight with Devimon, but now he knew how wrong he had been. He had imagined losing a partner would be a horrible experience, but his imagination failed to capture the feeling of what it felt like to have a little piece of your heart ripped away from you. Davis tuned out Neo’s laughter at the situation and focused on the happier memories he had with Veemon. With nothing left to stop Neo from testing what happened when a human was reduced to data, Davis didn’t want his last thoughts to be his partner’s death. Unlike TK or Ken, it didn’t look like he would be getting his partner back. All he would be able to do would be hold onto his memories of Veemon for as long as he could.

Lost in happier memories, Davis didn’t notice his Crest starting to glow. What he did notice were tiny little balls of light appearing throughout the sky that looked exactly like the ones that had appeared when the Dragon Impulse attack dissipated. Suddenly, Davis couldn’t help but feel a little optimistic as the light began to gather together directly overhead. That slight optimism was replaced with joy as he started to make out a blue figure within the light. Veemon was coming back!

Hideto, Yolei, and Cody could only stare in shock at the sight before them. By all accounts, what they were seeing was impossible. Somehow, Davis was using his Crest to reform his partner after death. The only thing that snapped them out of the shock was the sudden addition of a new voice. “So, it’s just like the ancient legend…” Turning in shock, the group saw Jijimon, Sigma, Mari, and Rei, who had apparently been carried here from the castle by a Centarumon and a Tyrannomon. Jijimon didn’t seem to notice everybody’s surprise at seeing him, as he quoted the legend that had been ancient even when he was born.

“At the dawn of zeroes and ones, a great light from ancient times will shine on the Dragon family. The holy light will become a sword to suppress the evil dragon. It will become a shield, giving new strength to the righteous dragon.” Jijimon turned to Davis. “You really are something special. Somehow, you’ve managed to unlock access to a holy power that only one Digimon in all of history managed to use. The holy light of Ulforce is now restoring your partner to physical form. However, he won’t be AeroVeedramon anymore. He will have taken on the mantle of the Royal Knights, and become UlforceVeedramon!”

With this, the light surrounding UlforceVeedramon faded, and Davis could see his partner’s Mega form. He appeared much more humanoid, and exuded a similar aura of power to Omnimon. His wings resembled a cape more than anything else, and he was clad in a blue armor accented with gold. On each of his arms he wore a silver gauntlet, and a giant gold V dominated his chest. Davis couldn’t help but laugh. Only Veemon would find a way to turn death into something this cool.

While everybody was shocked by UlforceVeedramon, Sigma questioned Jijimon further about the nature of Ulforce. The ancient Digimon paused a second before responding. “Well, when I was studying the overwrite of ancient types, I came across an interesting passage. In ancient types, the overwrite led to near extinction as their rough temperaments caused violent changes in data. But in one example, there was also an opposite effect among overwrites. A holy overwrite, born from a strong heart which desired to protect the ones it loved. This was Ulforce, a healing power that strengthened the body and led to evolution!”

Neo could only glare at the bugs that refused to be deleted. “Can’t you bugs do anything without relying on a miracle to save you?”

UlforceVeedramon only smiled back. “Sorry, Miracles are kind of our thing. Everybody else put their faith in me, so I couldn’t just give up on them. After all, it’s the ones who never give up that shape the future!”

Neo shook his head. “Those are pretty words, but nothing else. Who cares about Ulforce? It’s no match for the power of a Super Ultimate. You have no place in my world! I’ll just delete you with God Matrix!”

UlforceVeedramon disappeared before Neo could even finish his command, leaving everybody else in shock. AeroVeedramon had been the fastest Digimon they had ever seen. Now he was even faster, to the point where he was impossible to see while moving. Knowing his partner must still be there somewhere, Davis shouted encouragement.

“This guy may be huge, but that just means an even bigger blind spot. Find it and take this thing down!” UlforceVeedramon sped up behind Arkadimon and prepared to launch an attack when the mass of tentacles that made up Arkadimon’s body suddenly sprang to life and wrapped around the surprised Royal Knight.

Neo merely laughed. “Don’t let appearances fool you. Arkadimon has no blind spot! Now, Dystopia Lances!”

Keeping UlforceVeedramon wrapped in a ball, Arkadimon extended countless other tentacles that had shifted into spears at the trapped Royal Knight. However, rather than becoming a pincushion, UlforceVeedramon shouted out, “Ulforce Saber!” and a blue blade extended from the silver gauntlet on his right arm, easily slicing through his prison with more than enough time to dodge the Dystopia Lances. However, even with UlforceVeedramon’s speed, Arkadimon just had too many tentacles to dodge them all, and UlforceVeedramon’s leg got caught. He sliced through the tentacles with ease, but they had served their purpose, as Neo laughed while shouting “God Matrix!” UlforceVeedramon knew he would be fast enough to get out of the way, but he wasn’t sure what the limits of God Matrix’s range were. Besides, if he dodged, the blast would hit more of the Digital World, permanently eliminating it. So, instead of dodging, he held out his left bracelet and shouted, “Tensegrity Shield!”

Neo was certain he had just defeated UlforceVeedramon, but then he saw the Royal Knight floating unharmed within a shimmering web of blue energy. “What? Impossible! How could he survive a direct hit of God Matrix?” Even Jijimon, the one who knew the most about overwrites, was stunned at how the barrier hadn’t disintegrated when struck with God Matrix. It was only when Sigma analyzed the attack that he revealed the reason.

“That’s just incredible. That shield is changing its zeroes and ones faster than God Matrix could absorb them! It’s the perfect defense!”

Davis was ecstatic at his partner’s new abilities, but he couldn’t fight a sudden feeling of fatigue coming over him. It was almost as if something was draining his energy. Glancing down, he saw his Crest was still glowing, and guessed the cause. As AeroVeedramon, the overwrite had taken so much energy that it turned against his partner’s body. Now, UlforceVeedramon had to be expending even more energy, yet it was healing him instead of hurting him. All that energy had to come from somewhere, and Davis guessed he was providing a part of it. It was great that he could help his partner at a much greater level, but Davis also knew this could lead to drawbacks. After all, humans tended to have much less energy than Digimon did, so he could very well end up being a liability instead of an asset if UlforceVeedramon was forced into a long battle.

Knowing he had to avoid a long fight, Davis decided to goad Neo into making a mistake. “What now, Neo? I’d say your trump card was a total dud!”

This seemed to get to Neo, as he started ranting against both Davis and UlforceVeedramon. “Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! Holy overwrite? Ulforce? Shut up! I refuse to acknowledge your existence! Dystopia Lances!”

Arkadimon’s tentacles rushed in from all directions to skewer UlforceVeedramon, but instead of trying to dodge the attack, the Royal Knight decided to blow right through it. Charging golden energy into the V-shaped piece of armor on his chest, he called out “Ray of Victory!” The golden beam looked similar to Magnamon’s alternate Magna Explosion attack, but this seemed to have even more power. It not only destroyed all of Arkadimon’s tentacles in its path, but it managed to cut through the tentacles that connected the upper and lower halves of Arkadimon’s body. The abomination let out another horrible scream before stitching itself back together, but while Davis and the others cheered UlforceVeedramon couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. There was no way the Ray of Victory should have inflicted that much damage to Arkadimon in this form. There was another factor in play here, and UlforceVeedramon didn’t like the feeling that he was missing something.

Davis didn’t notice UlforceVeedramon’s hesitation and wanted to finish the fight, so he ordered UlforceVeedramon to attack again. The Royal Knight once again brought out his Ulforce Saber, figuring that a close-range attack would give him a better picture of what Arkadimon was up to. As he dodged around more strikes of Dystopia Lances, he heard Davis shouting to Neo.

“Now do you see the power that comes from trying to defend the world instead of destroying it? This is Ulforce—the strength of the future we believed in!” Just as Davis finished speaking, UlforceVeedramon saw and opening and dashed forward, managing to sever Arkadimon’s left arm with his Ulforce Saber.

UlforceVeedramon dashed back to his partner’s side before Arkadimon could even begin reattaching its arm. “Listen, Davis, something isn’t right here. I know I’m strong, but there is no way I should be able to do this much damage with my attacks. It’s like Arkadimon’s defense plummeted compared to his Mega form when he Digivolved, except he was a lot tougher than this when he was shrugging off my Dragon Impulse after Neo used the Digimental. There’s a big factor we’re all missing here.”

Davis nodded to his partner. “If you think something’s up, I’ll believe you. To me, it just looks like you’re strong enough to hurt him, but you’d know your own strength better than anyone. Unfortunately, I’m not too sure we’ll be able to do anything about it. I think I’m providing a lot of the energy for you to maintain that form. Right now, I feel like I’ve just played a doubleheader without ever being subbed out, so I’m not too sure how much longer I’ll be able to last. We’ll just have to smash him quickly before whatever is causing this becomes a problem to us.”

UlforceVeedramon nodded, but while he had been taking the time to talk with his partner, Neo had resumed his recent habit of ranting to himself. “Ulforce? That’s stupid. I won’t accept it… this world is impossible… it’s a bug… it has to be a bug… it’s all a bug!” Hopping onto the back of Gryphonmon, Neo sent one more command to Arkadimon. “Destroy the bugs, Arkadimon! Smash the world to smithereens!”

Arkadimon responded with its usual obedience, throwing God Matrix around seemingly at random. Hideto cursed and jumped backwards as the ground a foot away suddenly disappeared, leaving the DigiDestined and their allies standing on a cliff looking down into a blank abyss. Rei called out for her brother to stop, but he was too far gone to listen to her now. He only kept chanting to himself, “I won’t accept it… I won’t accept it! I won’t acknowledge these bugs. I won’t acknowledge this unpredictable world! I won’t allow unpredictable accidents into MY WORLD!”

Hideto saw the significance of the final sentence. “Accidents? Neo… you…” He trailed off for a little bit before starting again. “Is Rei’s accident really the reason for all this? Did your hatred for the irrationality of the real world make you try to build a Digital World where tragedies never happen like you told us, or are you just in this for power?” Hideto knew Neo had fallen more than a bit into madness by this point, but how he answered this question would show if any part of the current Neo was still Hideto’s friend, or if Neo had completely lost himself among Daemon’s influence channeled through Arkadimon.

Rei was somewhat torn on how she wanted Neo to respond. If he said this was all for her, it meant her brother was still in there somewhere, but also that she was partially responsible for all the horrible things that had happened to the Digital World. If he said he just wanted power, she wouldn’t be as guilty, but it also meant the person she knew as her brother may be gone forever. When Neo responded with an evil smirk and the words, “Rei… our world will soon be complete,” before ordering Arkadimon to eliminate all the intruders, Rei quickly realized she had been wrong. The fact that Neo still believed he was doing this for her was worse than Neo being gone forever. Now, she had to deal with the guilt for Neo’s actions as well as the fact that her brother seemed to have grown to the point where he was willing to kill everything to reach his goals. Regardless of the outcome, she had lost the brother who had cared about others.

The shock of all this was too much for Rei to process at once, and her legs gave out beneath her. Unfortunately for her, this coincided with another God Matrix from Arkadimon that destabilized the section of the cliff she was standing on. Hideto screamed Rei’s name and jumped forward to catch her, but he was too late. As Rei plummeted towards the abyss, only one thought crossed her mind. She had been wondering how to live with the guilt of Neo’s actions, but now it looked like she wouldn’t have to worry about that…

Hearing Hideto’s scream, UlforceVeedramon turned towards the DigiDestined and immediately started flying towards the falling Rei. At the same time, Neo saw his sister’s plight and immediately pushed all thoughts of fighting aside. Unfortunately, Arkadimon was still acting on previous orders and trying to kill UlforceVeedramon. With desperation in his voice, Neo yelled out, “Arkadimon, stop it!” When Arkadimon responded by reaching out and grabbing UlforceVeedramon with his tentacles, Neo almost lost it. Even though he knew he was too far away to make a difference, he had Gryphonmon start diving after Rei, all the while berating Arkadimon. “I said stop it, not stop him! Make yourself useful and catch Rei if you need to grab something! Just stop attacking!”

Arkadimon seemed to hear the stop command, but he didn’t release his hold on UlforceVeedramon. The Royal Knight didn’t exactly have the patience to wait for Arkadimon to finally listen to Neo’s command, and brought out his Ulforce Saber to once again free himself from Arkadimon’s grip. Not wanting the abomination to grab him again before he could catch Rei, he flew up and delivered a powerful punch to Arkadimon’s face before accelerating to his full speed and chasing after Rei. He caught up to her easily, but he waited a few seconds before catching her in order to match her falling speed and gently bring her to a stop. He didn’t want to catch Rei only to have her break her neck with the sudden stop, after all. Once he had a secure hold on Rei, he flew back up and set her on the ground next to the others, only to glare at another recent arrival: Neo, who had just hopped off of Gryphonmon.

The hostility in UlforceVeedramon’s glare would have paralyzed any Digimon below the Ultimate level, yet Neo completely ignored the Royal Knight as he walked up to his sister. “Rei… are you alright? Please be okay… I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t okay…”

Rei only looked at the ground dejectedly. “Maybe it would be better if I wasn’t okay… it’s my fault the world’s being destroyed… I just can’t stand it… maybe if I wasn’t here, all this destruction would finally stop…”

Neo was once again racked by a sudden severe headache, but apart from grabbing his head he didn’t change his conversation with Rei. “Why? Why would you think something as stupid as that? An accident made you unable to walk, and I’m trying to build a world where things like that can’t happen! You’ll be able to live in a perfect world, Rei! Nobody would ever have to be sad again!” Rei could see her brother struggling with something inside himself to keep talking to her, but he kept persevering. Seeing this, Rei knew she was actually getting a chance to talk to her brother for real, instead of what he had become since coming to the Digital World. With what might be her last opportunity to get through to him, she knew she had to make this count.

“Neo, I don’t want that world. The accident isn’t the worst thing that’s happened to me. The thing that made me the saddest was the way you and Hideto changed after the accident! I just wanted to be with you guys again the way you were, but you couldn’t see that! I don’t care if I never walk again, so long as I get my brother and my best friend back!”

This seemed to be getting through to Neo, but unfortunately Davis chose this moment to add his own thoughts on the matter. “Why would you think Rei was depressed about the accident? I only traveled with her a short time, and even I could tell she was an optimistic person. If she didn’t despair about her life, why would you? Hideto said you wanted to be a doctor, so why don’t you help her get better that way instead of doing all of this?”

Where Rei had brought about a positive change in Neo, Davis’s words seemed to send him spiraling back into anger. “Shut up! What would you know about any of this? You must be the luckiest bastard in the world. By some coincidence, your partner just happens to Digivolve, and by some coincidence you and your friends happen to keep winning… not all of us get every single lucky break! You couldn’t possibly understand my situation!”

Rei saw her brother slipping away once again, and reached out to drag him back. “I don’t think it was a coincidence, Neo. You should understand more than anyone. When they were fighting you, no matter how tough it was, they tried their best and didn’t give up. That’s why the future lent them a bit of strength!”

As Neo fell to his knees and grasped his head, Hideto also walked up to his friend. “Neo… you took that doctor’s words about Rei’s legs to heart and despaired more than any of us, didn’t you?”

As Neo knelt on the ground, he seemed to finally realize exactly what he had been doing this whole time. “I… you mean… I stole others’ future in order to build a future for Rei…?” As he said this, he seemed to be surrounded by a dark energy, and with a wrenching scream black lightning bolts flew from him to Arkadimon. The darkness shrouded the Super Ultimate from view, but everybody was focused on Neo panting on the ground as the Digimental fell from his hands and stopped glowing. Jijimon saw this and immediately understood what it meant.

“So, the Digimental lost its power. It can only be activated by a person’s pure heart, which is why I was so surprised that Neo could use it in the first place. But it looks like Neo’s feelings for Rei were true, so the Digimental gave him power. Neo, now that you finally realized that’s not the way to make her happy, the Digimental has stopped feeding Arkadimon. It should revert back to its Mega form, and its threat to the Digital World will be over.”

Everybody but Neo turned to face Arkadimon, expecting to see its Mega form. However, even if it hadn’t reverted, they were sure the fight was over. Arkadimon had never been able to act on its own, always needing Neo’s commands. Now that Neo was done fighting, Arkadimon would just stand still. Even if Arkadimon’s very existence posed a threat to the Digital World, it would now be a trivial manner for UlforceVeedramon to destroy the once fearsome monster.

 However, all these thoughts suddenly turned to panic when the dark lightning surrounding Arkadimon shot out and struck UlforceVeedramon. Though the Ulforce started healing the damage, Davis didn’t have enough energy to maintain the holy overwrite, and he promptly collapsed. With UlforceVeedramon still under attack and now bearing the full burden of maintaining his healing factor, it wasn’t long until he too succumbed and reverted to DemiVeemon. Before anybody could react to the quick change in the situation, a tentacle shot out from Arkadimon and grabbed Rei. The bulky Super Ultimate then started flying away, leaving the stunned DigiDestined with no option other than watch as their friend was kidnapped.

The first person to react in any way to the sudden defeat was Neo, who managed to pull himself off the ground. “So that’s how you want to play, you bastard? Well, if you wanted me pissed, you got it! And I assure you, you will not be happy about it!”

Hideto understood why Neo would be angry, but he wasn’t sure who exactly he was talking to. “Uh, Neo, I know Arkadimon just kidnapped Rei, but I don’t think that monster was really capable of wanting anything. Why would it want to make you angry?”

Neo shook his head. “Not Arkadimon. That monster can only follow orders. I’m pissed at Daemon! That bastard wormed his way inside my mind as soon as Arkadimon absorbed him, and I didn’t even notice it except for a brief flash the first time I fought you and then just now when I finally managed to push him out. I’m going to kill him for what he’s done!”

Sigma merely looked confused. “Kill him? I thought you already did that?” Neo gritted his teeth.

“I don’t have time for this. Gryphonmon, let’s…” Neo turned to where his transportation had been sitting up until Arkadimon’s attack, but the Mega level had disappeared. Neo punched the ground in frustration. “Great, as if I hadn’t been screwed over by luck enough since coming to this world. Fine, I guess I’ll just walk there myself!”

Neo got up off of the ground and started stumbling away, clearly not fully recovered after freeing himself from Daemon’s mental control. Mari was the first one to cut him off, and she tackled him before he could do something idiotic trying to make up for his recent mistakes. “Listen, I get it. You’re pissed, Rei’s in trouble, and Daemon needs to pay. But what do you think you can do about it? You’re not going to be able to just walk up to the Super Ultimate level that Daemon is controlling and talk them both to death. You can’t really do anything on your own.”

Neo pushed Mari off of him. “I said I was pissed, not stupid. I assure you, Daemon may have manipulated my mind, but he didn’t take away any of my competence as a Tamer. I’m going to pick up something to bring me from a zero percent chance of success to a five percent chance. Hell, maybe if these people have been right about the bond between human and Digimon, I can make it a ten percent chance. We’ll see if this whole thing about connecting with a partner really gives a boost in strength. After all, there’s only one Digimon that refused to be deleted enough that it could be considered my true partner.”

Neo continued walking away, only to be stopped once again when Hideto grabbed his shoulder. “Fine then, go to the Metal Factory and pick up your partner. But don’t think you’re going to do this alone. We’re going to get everybody back to Holy Angel Castle to heal first, and then all of us are charging in. You aren’t the only one who wants to save Rei, after all.”

Chapter Text

In the aftermath of Arkadimon’s latest attack, the DigiDestined and their new allies were thrown into a bit of disarray. Stranded a fair distance from Holy Angel Castle with all of their partners either unconscious or in forms below the Rookie level, they didn’t have the option of quick travel in a situation where every second might count. Neo seemed to accept that he would have to rely on others to help him in this fight, so he immediately placed himself in charge of getting everybody where they needed to go as quickly as possible. He had Jijimon ride Centarumon back to the castle, knowing the doctor was the most important part of the picture at the moment. Then, he had Cody and Yolei help load Davis and HolyAngemon onto the Tyrannomon so both unconscious members would be carried back. This left the others to make the walk back to the castle, but with all the Digimon either stored away in a Digivice 01 or in their baby forms they could at least manage that.

By the time everybody made it back to the castle, Davis had woken up. After Hideto filled him in on everything that had happened, Davis quickly made a decision. He turned to Jijimon, who was busy tending to HolyAngemon, and spoke in an authoritative tone. “Doctor, I know HolyAngemon is in rough shape, but focus on getting Minomon strong enough to at least make it to the Champion level. And you can take DemiVeemon out of that tank—he’ll be fine.” Jijimon didn’t want to leave HolyAngemon, who had a nasty black scar extending over his chest, but he decided to trust Davis. After all, this was the person who had managed to make ancient legends come to life. He must have had a good reason for this decision.

While Jijimon didn’t question Davis’s plan, the other DigiDestined seemed to want to ask why he was choosing to do this. Before they could, Davis asked his own question. “Neo, you’d probably be the best one to answer this. When we arrived here, this continent was completely cut off—no communication to the outside world, no Digital Gates, nothing. How did Daemon do that, and would it stop us from flying out of the area physically?”

Ken smiled as he caught on to Davis’s plan, but he let Neo do the talking. “I’m not exactly sure how Daemon did it, but it involved some ancient barrier centered in his old castle. It only works on interdimensional communications, though, so you should be able to fly out if you wanted to. Why?”

Davis nodded at Neo’s information before continuing his explanation. “I believe we agreed that we would need more backup for this fight, correct? Well, we’re going to bring in plenty. When Wormmon and Veemon DNA Digivolve and then reach the Mega level, they become Imperialdramon, who can fly at supersonic speeds. We’ll fly out of the range of the barrier, go back to Earth, and then pick up the other eight DigiDestined that make up our team. All of them have at least one Mega level, and we can even add another Omnimon to our roster. While we’re gone, Neo will go pick up his partner, and Sigma, Willis, and whoever else might be good at this sort of thing will work on bringing the barrier down at least here so we can jump back from Earth to here instead of having to show up a continent away. Any objections?”

Everybody could only stare in shock at Davis. Not only was he being a leader that even Neo couldn’t argue against strategically, but he was carrying himself like a real general instead of just the leader of a group of kids. Following his orders, everybody split into various groups. He and Ken had to stay together in order for Imperialdramon to cross the barrier, but the others pretty much divided into three groups. Hideto and Neo were going to the Metal Factory, with Michael tagging along because he still didn’t fully trust Neo. Sigma and Willis immediately started working on hacking Daemon’s barrier, with some assistance from Yolei. Meanwhile, Mari and Cody were also staying at the castle in order to help Jijimon heal as many fighters as possible.

With the groups decided, the teams began to move out. Hideto left Omegamon at the castle since he was still nowhere near healthy enough to Partition or fight, leaving Betamon as the only Digimon heading to the Metal Factory. Knowing the distance would be too far to travel on foot in a reasonable timeframe, one of the Tyrannomon volunteered to carry the group. He may not have been the fastest of Digmon, but he could still move faster than humans could run. A few minutes after that group left, Wormmon was finally ready to Digivolve after Jijimon’s care, so Davis and Ken headed outside. After a quick use of the Digimental of Miracles to bring DemiVeemon up to Magnamon and then an instantaneous reversion to Veemon, the two DigiDestined were ready to set off. As Wormmon and Veemon went through the series of transformations needed to reach Imperialdramon, Ken turned to his friend.

“That was really mature of you back there, Davis. I know you’ve been worried that as a whole our group was going to be completely useless now that the original eight all can reach Mega, so it must have been tough to turn to the others for help. You certainly earned those goggles.”

Davis let out a weary sigh. “Honestly, I’m just too tired to think of a way to win other than asking for help. Wake me up when we get back to Earth.” As he said this, he boarded the newly formed Imperialdramon, and he was fast asleep within minutes. Ken hoped he would be able to get enough rest, since even with the others helping UlforceVeedramon was the only Digimon who had completely cancelled out Arkadimon’s deadliest techniques.

After a long trek, Tyrannomon had finally made it to the Metal Factory. He let his passengers hop off before he collapsed to the ground, needing a long rest after his even longer run. Besides, he wasn’t too keen on going inside the Metal Factory. He had heard horror stories about what happened to Tyrannomon who came here seeking more power. Shaking his head, he resolved to let the humans deal with whatever they would find in there before drifting off to sleep.

Within the Metal Factory, Michael was having many of the same misgivings Willis had when he had first obtained his Crest. The various pieces of Machine Digimon lying around were bad enough, but it was the half-completed models that unnerved Michael the most. He couldn’t help but feel like he had walked straight into a horror film. Hideto and Neo, however, didn’t seem to care about the state of the factory, as Hideto had seen worse things within Daemon’s castle and Neo had done worse things himself when creating the artificial Digimon from Arkadimon’s data. Walking right up to the door they needed, they entered a code to unlock the door and let it open.

Michael almost jumped as he saw what was behind the door, but he managed to restrain himself at the last second. “Well, Neo, I have to hand it to you—you’ve got an intimidating partner. And from the stories Mimi told me, I’d say he fits your personality. But hold on—Hideto, didn’t you say you never beat Neo when he used this monster? Shouldn’t Warg have been able to slice him to bits with his Dramon Destroyers?”

Neo ignored Michael’s nervous babbling as he went through the process of reactivating his partner, but Hideto decided to answer. “Yeah, Warg would have had the advantage if he got a hit in, but as someone who’s been around a bunch of action movies I’m sure you know what happens when you bring a knife to a gun fight. And no, I’m not talking about those cannons you see right now. Just wait until this guy fully wakes up, and I’m sure you’ll see what I mean.”

As he said this, Neo seemed to finish reawakening his partner, as the formerly deactivated Machinedramon’s eyes flashed a blue color before he started moving with a metallic clanking sound. Michael found himself wondering how everybody else would react when Neo showed up riding this mechanical monstrosity…

Gathering all the DigiDestined together had proven to be a difficult task. Daemon’s communication barrier extended beyond the boundaries of the Folder Continent, forcing Imperialdramon to fly halfway across the ocean before Ken finally could communicate with the outside world. His D-Terminal was flooded with messages as soon as he could receive them, but he ignored them in favor of sending his own message telling all the DigiDestined to pick up their partners in the Digital World before returning to Earth, where Imperialdramon would pick them up if they hadn’t found a way to take down the barrier. Then, it was a simple matter of finding a Digital Gate, and the collection mission could begin.

Having arrived in Odaiba, the first stop was to pick up Sora, Joe, and Izzy. Izzy still hadn’t fully recovered from his illness, but he assured everybody else that he was healthy enough to help in the upcoming battle. They left the Legendary Warriors in charge of defending Lilithmon and the rest of Japan before flying out over the Pacific Ocean in order to pick up Tai and Kari in San Francisco. Luckily, the world as a whole was a bit more used to the presence of Digimon, so the sight of Imperialdramon flying into the city didn’t cause too much panic. However, they still made sure to spend as little time as possible near the city just in case the local DigiDestined or the army decided to do something about the menacing-looking dragon suddenly appearing in their airspace.

After picking up Tai and Kari, Imperialdramon started flying to New York in order to pick up Mimi when Ken got a message from Willis. They hadn’t managed to completely shut the barrier down, but they had managed to punch a hole through it. They were working on setting up a Digital Gate in Holy Angel Castle so everybody would be able to at least show up on the right continent. Since setting up the Digital Gate would only take a minute, Ken sent TK and Matt a message saying they would be better off waiting for the Digital Gate to form and heading to Holy Angel Castle on their own instead of waiting for Imperialdramon to pick them up in Paris. Sure enough, Willis and Sigma had the Digital Gate all set to go as soon as Imperialdramon touched down in Central Park to pick up Mimi, and after a brief delay while Ken worked on connecting to the newly opened gate the DigiDestined were all back in the Digital World.

Davis woke up just as Imperialdramon arrived at Holy Angel Castle. He was a little bit confused at first, since he had told Ken to wake him up when he got back to Earth, but he supposed any sleep he got would only help UlforceVeedramon in the upcoming battle so he couldn’t really complain. Entering the castle, he saw that they were the last group to arrive, as everybody else was already waiting in the courtyard. As soon as they arrived, Michael walked up to the group, focusing on Mimi.

“Listen, I know we don’t have much time to talk, Mimi, but I wanted to say I’m sorry. I was stupid to argue with you, and I’d rather not have my stupidity affect us when we’re fighting together.” Despite Michael’s claim of not having time to talk, Mimi started pulling him off to one corner of the courtyard. Not wanting to get involved in his friends’ personal lives, Davis quickly walked over towards the others, only to stop short when he noticed a new face standing with TK and Matt. She was absolutely gorgeous, with blue eyes and long, curly blonde hair. Davis stared for a few seconds before mentally slapping himself. Right before a battle was not a good time to be checking out a pretty face.

Davis was lucky to have composed himself when he did, because TK and Matt seemed to choose that exact moment to lead the girl and her Floramon partner over to the others. When they arrived, Matt immediately went to Sora’s side, while TK went up to Kari before starting the introductions. “Everybody, this is Catherine, a French DigiDestined. Tai and I met her on the world tour, and her family actually ended up becoming really close friends with my grandma and grandpa after that incident. Catherine, this is my girlfriend Kari, you’ve already met her brother Tai, and there’s Matt’s girlfriend Sora, our friends Davis, Ken…”

TK continued briefly telling Catherine everybody’s name, but as soon as he finished listing off everybody he knew Tai immediately cut in. “Listen, Catherine, I’m glad you wanted to tag along and help, but I’m not sure this is the best place for you at the moment. From what I hear, we’re going to be fighting against something far beyond the Mega level that’s already shown it has no problems targeting helpless bystanders. Kiwimon can only do so much to protect you.”

Matt cut his best friend off. “Don’t bother trying to change her mind, Tai. She was with us when we got the message about needing to go to the Digital World, and she wanted to help out. Once she got our grandma to take her case, we really didn’t have a choice—I’m sure Grandpa told you all about what she’s like.”

Not wanting to have Matt do all the speaking for her, Catherine immediately cut in. “I know Kiwimon and I are not the strongest fighters, but that doesn’t mean we cannot help. After all, if you are all busy fighting against this Arkadimon, somebody still will have to go and take care of—I think her name was Rei, yes? Why not send someone who couldn’t really help in the main fight even if they tried?”

Davis didn’t know what stuck out to him more: Catherine’s French accent that gave her a beautiful voice, or the fact that she had effectively just shut down Tai’s argument. He found himself once again needing a reminder to focus on the upcoming battle. This wasn’t like the old days where he could still win fights while fawning over a female companion, after all. It would probably be best if he gave Catherine a wide berth until after the fight was over, especially since he needed to be more focused than everybody else thanks to his connection with UlforceVeedramon.

Lost in his own mental argument, Davis didn’t notice Tai and the others all start to head over and talk with Neo and the Aliases. Trying to shake himself out of it, he started walking after them, only for someone to grab his shoulder. Turning around, he found himself staring directly into Catherine’s eyes. As a blush started forming on his cheeks, he couldn’t help but notice his whole ‘avoid Catherine’ plan was really not working out.

Luckily for Davis, Catherine didn’t seem to notice his reaction. “Davis, was it? Is there…something wrong with Tai? He seems much more… irritable than he did six years ago. Did something happen?” Davis quickly composed himself before responding.

“Yeah, he isn’t normally like that, but there’s just a lot piling on all at once. First, he seems to be under the impression that he has to act like Kari dating TK is the worst thing ever, even though everybody knows he’s happy for them. Then, he knows he has to lead us in this fight alongside Neo who pretty much caused this whole mess, and he’s probably stressing out over how well the team can work together. To top it all off, he apparently has a thing for Rei, who is not only kidnapped but also Neo’s sister. Add all this to the fact that we’ve been fighting a full-blown war and I think he’s allowed to be a bit irritable.”

“Wait, Tai is also involved with someone? So, Matt has a girlfriend, TK has a girlfriend, and now Tai is about to go rescue this girl. Why must all the cute guys be taken?”

Davis understood her plight a little bit, having lived through the experience of liking someone who was interested in somebody else, but he still couldn’t help but mutter, “Hey, I’m not taken…” under his breath.

Unfortunately, he might not have said it quietly enough, as Catherine immediately turned back to him. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

Davis responded a little bit too quickly. “Oh, no, nothing important anyway. We should probably get going though. Don’t want Imperialdramon to fly off without us, now do we?” Catherine could only shake her head as Davis practically ran off. Why did he think his own partner would leave him behind?

After the brief stop at Holy Angel Castle to pick up all the mostly-recuperated partner Digimon, everybody hopped on Imperialdramon in order to fly off after Arkadimon. Luckily, the Super Ultimate wasn’t that hard to track down: much like BlackWarGreymon, Arkadimon’s presence created a disturbance in the Digital World, and it was a simple matter of finding the disturbance and going towards it. This led the entire group to Daemon’s castle, where Arkadimon was simply floating above the building, seemingly oblivious to everything. Unfortunately, the behemoth was inside another defense mechanism of the castle, which took the form of an orange barrier comprised of interlocking hexagons.

Seeing the barrier, Neo started taking charge. Tai had taken a little bit of convincing to let Neo lead, but as the person who knew the most about Daemon’s castle and Arkadimon he was the best choice to plan the offensive. Tai wasn’t exactly happy about working with Neo, but he understood it was necessary in order to stop Arkadimon and save Rei. Neo ordered Imperialdramon to land and let everybody out before explaining what was happening.

“Okay, what you see before you is one of the many backup defenses of the castle. Whoever built this place must have imagined a scenario where the tags would fall into the wrong hands, so they created this energy field as a last line of defense. I’m surprised Arkadimon managed to turn this thing on, but it can’t be helped. I can’t turn it off from the outside, but I can test its power. Stand back. Now, Machinedramon! Use Giga Cannon!”

In one swift motion, he materialized his giant partner and scanned the barrier just as the mechanical dragon unleashed the golden blasts from its two cannons. The blasts exploded on the barrier, but seemed to do no damage. However, Neo only smirked. “Well, I guess the barrier isn’t as strong as I thought it would be. Hideto, if you wouldn’t mind lending me Omegamon’s power, I think the two of us will be able to bring it down.”

Hideto nodded and materialized Warg and Melga before Jogressing them. As the Royal Knight turned to face the barrier, Matt cut in. “Wouldn’t it be better if you had more help? After all, Hideto isn’t the only one with an Omnimon. All of us working together could shatter that thing no problem.”

Neo shook his head. “All I need is Omegamon and Machinedramon. It will take a lot of energy, but I’d rather place that burden on as few Digimon as possible so we have more fighters against Arkadimon. Leave all of your partners at the Mega level, though. I want as many chances as possible to turn the tide in our favor.”

Matt nodded, going along with Neo’s plan. As soon as the barrier came down, they expected Arkadimon to attack, so everybody had their partners Digivolve to Mega, with the obvious exceptions of Catherine and Mari, who resolved to sneak into the castle and look for Rei while everybody else was fighting Arkadimon. It wasn’t like Kiwimon or Datirimon would be able to do anything in a fight of this level anyway. With everybody ready, Neo decided to show off his trump card.

“Now, I suppose I wasn’t completely honest earlier when I said I could do this with Machinedramon and Omegamon. It will take two Digimon beyond the Mega level repeatedly blasting this thing to make it fall. Luckily, this Machinedramon isn’t your ordinary monster.” As he said this, Machinedramon suddenly flashed red before growing slightly. A vicious horn grew out of his helmet, and his armor turned crimson. Between the plates of armor, he seemed to emit an orange glow, and his cannons took on a sleeker, more modern design. It looked like he had Digivolved, but he was already a Mega and Neo hadn’t even used the Digimental!

As everybody except Hideto and Neo stared in shock at the new and improved Machinedramon, Neo couldn’t help the smirk that came to his face. “Everybody, I’d like you to meet the first Digimon I ever raised. He was exceptionally powerful when I got him, but he had this glitch that caused him to randomly grow beyond the Mega level for brief periods of time. Obviously, this wasn’t something that should have happened, so I got to name the phenomenon. I call it Burst Evolution, and this new form is named Chaosdramon. Are you ready, Hideto?”

Hideto nodded, and then both Tamers sent a simultaneous command to their monsters. Omegamon began pelting the barrier with his Omega Howling, while Chaosdramon flipped his two cannons forward and launched a barrage of red energy with his Hyper Infinity Cannon. Between the superdreadnought-class artillery blasts and Omegamon’s freezing barrage, the barrier had no chance of remaining active. When the barrier fell, Arkadimon seemed to wake up and started moving towards the group, but Omegamon and Chaosdramon bought their allies some time by attacking the Super Ultimate.

Neo immediately moved to the next phase of his plan and had all the DigiDestined huddle together. “Okay, Chaosdramon may be impressive, but he’s probably weaker than Omegamon is, so neither of them will be a match for a Super Ultimate like Arkadimon. That’s where you all come in. Now, I’m not sure if any of your partners are even capable of Digivolving further, but we don’t have anything to lose by trying, now do we?” He held up the Digimental of Legends, and it started activating once again. Neo was surprised when eight Digivices responded to the ancient artifact, and eight partner Digimon began transcending the Mega level.

“WarGreymon, Burst Evolve! VictoryGreymon!”

“MetalGarurumon, Burst Evolve! ZeedGarurumon!”

“Phoenixmon, Burst Evolve! Varodurumon!”

“HerculesKabuterimon, Burst Evolve! TyrantKabuterimon!”

“Plesiomon, Burst Evolve! Aegisdramon!”

“Rosemon, Burst Evolve! Rosemon Burst Mode!”

“GranKuwagamon, Burst Evolve! GrandisKuwagamon!”

“MetalSeadramon, Burst Evolve! GigaSeadramon!”

Neo supposed splitting the Digimental’s power so many different ways caused it to be less potent than it would normally be, but eight Bust level Digimon were still far more powerful than Neo had been expecting from this little stunt. However, the energy released from the Digimental wasn’t finished, as three more Digimon started to Digivolve as well, even though the Digimon shouldn’t have been able to Digivolve as they were either at their evolutionary limit or their partners didn’t have a Digivice with that functionality.

“Piedmon, Burst Evolve! ChaosPiedmon!”

“Kiwimon, Digivolve to… Blossomon!”

“Datirimon, Digivolve to… Budmon!”

Neo was surprised the power of the Digimental had expanded far enough to affect Mari and Catherine near the castle entrance, even if their Digivolutions were comparatively disappointing next to all the other ones. He didn’t have time to think any further about this, as the Burst Digimon all rushed in to relieve a tired Omegamon and Machinedramon, whose Burst transformation was extremely short-lived and had expired. ChaosPiedmon, who looked like his Mega level wearing black instead of red, started by charging black energy into his hands and shouting “Masks Square!”

Throwing the energy, the entire area surrounding Daemon’s old castle was transported into ChaosPiedmon’s own dimension, something three times the size of what Piedmon used to be able to control. He had purposefully left the castle out, keeping Mari and Catherine a dimension away from the fight. Arkadimon began glowing which Neo knew preceded the God Matrix attack, but the glow abruptly stopped as if the attack had been cut off. ChaosPiedmon only laughed.

“Can’t let you do that, Arkadimon. I’ve managed to seal away its God Matrix attack. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the limit of my control, but I’m sure everybody else will be able to take care of him now that his trump card is up my sleeve.”

With Arkadimon’s most fearsome attack now a complete non-factor, everybody else no longer had to worry about keeping their distance and started letting Arkadimon have a taste of their power. Rosemon, who was feeling a little underwhelmed at her transformation as she didn’t even get a new name and only switched into a white outfit, started with her Jewel of Heart attack. Shooting the Tifaret jewels floating around her head at Arkadimon didn’t do the most damage, but Arkadimon was too large for her to use her more fearsome Charité attack and she wasn’t about to use her Kiss of Breath attack in front of everybody else.

Following Rosemon’s attack, GigaSeadramon decided it was his turn. The sea serpent was larger and deadlier looking than MetalSeadramon, looking like a biological Assault Carrier. He unleashed his Sky Wave, sending a flurry of anti-aircraft energy shells from launchers all throughout his body into Arkadimon before topping off the barrage with his Giga Sea Destroyer, which was essentially a River of Power attack doubled in power, condensed into a torpedo, and fired from GigaSeadramon’s mouth.

Before Arkadimon could even attempt to repair the damage from GigaSeadramon’s attack, Varodurumon and Aegisdramon hit the Super Ultimate with a devastating combination. The Holy Bird Digimon had flown high above Arkadimon with her six wings before intensifying the rainbow glow of holy energy that surrounded her. With a call of Aurora Undulation, she focused the glow into a single point before firing it at Arkadimon’s head, causing an explosion that resembled a supernova on a small scale. At the same time, Aegisdramon had targeted Arkadimon’s lower half with his Shine Breaker. The Cyborg Digimon looked like a cross between Plesiomon and MetalSeadramon, and his body contained more cannons than the average battleship. All of these cannons blasted Arkadimon with a shining energy, encasing the Super Ultimate’s lower half in a golden glow that perfectly matched the holy explosion surrounding Arkadimon’s head.

After taking so much punishment, Neo wasn’t sure if Arkadimon could survive even with all of its power, but his former tool managed to regrow any body parts it lost and even lashed out with Dystopia Lances. Even with this show, however, it was obvious it hadn’t been able to heal off all of the damage. As its tentacles shot towards targets at random, the other Digimon started adding their attacks to the mix. MegaGargomon unleashed his Mega Barrage attack on all approaching tentacles, while Vikemon and Valkyrimon froze the attacks coming for them before smashing the now-brittle appendages. Cherubimon, Seraphimon, and Ophanimon were working together, synergizing their holy energy with each other in order to greatly increase the power of their Lightning Spear, Seven Heavens, and Sefirot Crystal attacks. Machinedramon, UlforceVeedramon, and Omegamon also worked together, pooling their efforts to make sure ChaosPiedmon didn’t take a hit and drop Masks Square.

Whereas the other Digimon were working just to repel the tentacles, the remaining Burst level Digimon planned to attack straight through the swarm. GrandisKuwagamon, who looked almost like a cross between WarGreymon and GranKuwagamon, easily sliced his way through any obstacle with his Gran Killer attack, while VictoryGreymon took a different approach. Instead of using his massive sword to break through the tentacles, the Dragon Man Digimon who still resembled his Mega form decided to copy some moves from his lower stage. He split his Dramon Breaker sword into three pieces and equipped them to his arm, resembling claws. Then, he began gathering energy just like for his Terra Force attack, but instead focused it into the tips of his blades. With a cry of “Trident Gaia!” he fired the energy and cut completely through Arkadimon’s body.

While GrandisKuwagamon and VictoryGreymon were inflicting damage by focusing their power in a small area, ZeedGarurumon and TyrantKabuterimon took the opposite approach. ZeedGarurumon, who looked like a larger MetalGarurumon with the addition of a giant cannon on his back, unleashed his Full Metal Blaze attack. In addition to blasts of energy from the superdreadnought-class cannon on his back, he unleashed a seemingly endless hail of bullets and missiles in an attempt to mow Arkadimon down. Not one to be outdone, TyrantKabuterimon added his own attack. The King of Bugs flew through the swarm of tentacles, letting their blows glance off of his purple shell composed of high-density Chrome Digizoid. When he reached Arkadimon’s main body he shouted “Shine of Bee!” The attack may not have had the most impressive name, but it certainly made up for it in terms of damage as a searing explosion radiated from TyrantKabuterimon’s entire body, burning much of Arkadimon’s body to ash.

Though Arkadimon was clearly losing the fight, it still slowly regenerated and pulled itself together. Neo almost felt sad for it: the creature was too mindless to understand things like defeat or strategy, so it couldn’t know it was doomed to failure. Arkadimon was essentially a rabid dog at this point: it was a danger to everything around it, yet it wasn’t capable of understanding why. Still, it was too late for regret, as all the Digimon rushed in to finally end Arkadimon’s existence.

Before their attacks could connect, a deep laughter suddenly came from Arkadimon’s chest. Acting completely on instinct, Neo, Hideto, and Michael all returned their partners to their Digivice 01s, and not a split second too soon. A familiar sounding voice called out “Dark Spreader!” and Arkadimon’s body seemed to convert entirely into dark energy before exploding outwards, engulfing everything in its path. UlforceVeedramon at least managed to outrun the explosion enough to land in front of all the humans and throw up his Tensegrity Shield in the hopes of protecting them, but the other Digimon were not so lucky. Even with the Tensegrity Shield, UlforceVeedramon struggled to keep the attack away from the humans.

When the wave of darkness finally dissipated, Neo couldn’t believe what he saw. UlforceVeedramon was standing in front of him looking mostly unharmed, but the Tensegrity Shield looked noticeably worse for wear than it had in its last appearance. Instead of twinkling and constantly forming a complete sphere, the web of energy was now incomplete and appeared to be frozen, as UlforceVeedramon struggled to even take it down. Looking beyond UlforceVeedramon, he saw all their other Digimon scattered throughout the area, but apart from ChaosPiedmon they had all reverted to a lower level, with Gatomon, Palmon, and Patamon the only ones who managed to stay above the In-Training level, probably because they had been furthest from the explosion.

However, for all of these details, Neo was more focused on what had happened to the enemy Digimon instead of his allies. All that was left of Arkadimon were the dark blue pieces of armor that seemed to have been blown off of the now-missing mass of tentacles. However, it wasn’t so much Arkadimon’s fate that worried Neo as it was the new figure flying over Arkadimon’s remains. He may have grown to four times his usual height and gained a much more muscular physique, but Neo’s former ally was easily recognizable.

“Daemon? How?” The sound of Neo’s voice seemed to wake all the DigiDestined from their shock. Mimi, TK, and Kari tried to have their partners Warp Digivolve, but their Crests failed to activate. Acting on a hunch, Mimi tried using Dark Digivolution, and was rewarded when Palmon was covered with a purple glow. TK and Kari started to copy her, but the remaining fighters weren’t waiting for them to start. ChaosPiedmon started with his Trump Swords II attack, throwing his four swords into Daemon’s chest. Then, Neo materialized Machinedramon and had his partner fire his Giga Cannon into the demon’s face. At this time, Palmon had finished Warp Digivolving, and Puppetmon used her Puppet Pummel to shoot Daemon’s neck. Next, Michael finally remembered how to materialize his partner, and while the Burst Mode seemed to have worn off he still was capable of having MetalSeadramon blast Daemon with his River of Power.

Despite taking the strongest attacks from the four Digimon that had made up the Dark Masters, Daemon only started laughing. “Yes, that felt great! Now, could you do the same thing on my arms and legs? They’re a little stiff. I’ll need some time to get used to this new, Super Ultimate body of mine.”

Neo glared at his former employer. “Super Ultimate? You shouldn’t even be here, let alone have the ability to Digivolve. I made you disappear when I fed you to Arkadimon! You only existed as a shade within my mind controlling my actions and then influencing Arkadimon after I kicked you out!”

“Don’t underestimate me, brat. I didn’t disappear because I entered Arkadimon of my own free will! I needed to use the power of the Digimental to reach my Super Ultimate form, but such a holy relic would never grant me strength. So, I fused with Arkadimon and then stole the power of the Super Ultimate from the inside! Even that mindless beast sensed my presence growing within it and it tried holding me back, but you never saw the truth that was right in your face. You really were the perfect pawn, faithfully doing my bidding right up to the point where you were no longer needed!”

Neo scowled as he thought back to all his interactions with Daemon. The whole time, he had viewed the Demon Lord as little more than a means to an end, and Daemon’s actions had played perfectly into that scenario. Neo had always thought he could outmaneuver the Demon Lord, who only sat back on his throne and let Neo set up his own plans. However, if Daemon had wanted to be absorbed all along, Neo could quickly see that everything he did played right into Daemon’s scenario. What Neo had thought were his own goals at Daemon’s expense had been what Daemon wanted all along.

Realizing this, Neo addressed the Demon Lord. “Fine, Daemon, I’ll admit that you outmaneuvered me before. You planned for everything I would do, and made sure no matter what happened you would benefit. And now, you’ve got your wish, and have reached the Super Ultimate form. But there’s one thing you forgot to include in your little scenario. We’re still here! And that means this fight isn’t over yet!”

At Neo’s words, UlforceVeedramon decided to stop trying to put away his Tensegrity Shield and instead smashed through it with his Ulforce Saber. However, any momentum he was planning on gaining in this fight instantly went away when Masks Square faded out of existence and ChaosPiedmon fell from the sky, hitting the ground right in front of UlforceVeedramon. As Sigma ran to his partner, everybody could hear Piedmon struggling to speak.

“Sigma… I’m sorry… I tried holding Masks Square longer but… after keeping everybody else alive in that explosion… I just… didn’t… have… the…” Piedmon never got the chance to finish his sentence, as he burst into data leaving only his mask behind. Sigma collapsed to his knees, only to see Piedmon’s mask suddenly shift into a yellow DigiEgg. Sigma grabbed the egg and held onto it like a lifeline, and Davis couldn’t help but sigh in relief. At the very least, Piedmon had only died from expending all of his energy instead of falling to one of Daemon’s attacks. Either way Piedmon was dead, but at least now he would be reborn instead of Daemon absorbing his data. The last thing they needed was to have Daemon capable of using Masks Square.

Seeing Piedmon die before his eyes, UlforceVeedramon found himself angered to the point where he would be capable of using Dragon Impulse if he was still AeroVeedramon. Luckily, the Ulforce overwrite didn’t cause him to lose control of himself like the standard overwrite did, but it didn’t change the fact that he dearly wanted to see Daemon’s data scattered to the wind. He charged at the Demon Lord with his Ulforce Saber, only for Daemon to continue laughing.

“You fool; don’t you realize that your Ulforce is useless against me? I’ve already eliminated it!” UlforceVeedramon didn’t listen, instead using his speed to dart forward and stab Daemon between the eyes. Or at least, that had been the plan. UlforceVeedramon wasn’t really expecting his blade to snap in half as soon as it made contact with Daemon’s skin. The Demon Lord only smiled before hitting the Royal Knight with a headbutt, knocking UlforceVeedramon from the sky and crushing one of his wings when he landed awkwardly. The Royal Knight fully expected the healing Ulforce to restore his injury, but after a few seconds where nothing happened he realized something was seriously wrong.

“Now do you believe me? My Super Ultimate Dark Virus is stronger than your Holy Ulforce! Your overwrite responds to the data changes due to emotions, but I can control that data now. Your overwrite is sealed away! Now, all I have to do is remove Lucemon from the picture, and I will have complete control over both the human and the Digital World!”

UlforceVeedramon tried to get up and prove Daemon wrong, but without one of his wings he couldn’t fly. Luckily, he wasn’t alone in this fight. TK’s Daemon launched his Evil Inferno attack at his Super Ultimate counterpart, but the hellfire hitting the evil Daemon’s body only seemed to elicit a sigh. “Please, did you honestly expect that to work? I have the Code Key of Wrath and a level advantage. Hitting me with my old attacks isn’t exactly the smartest idea. Though if you’d like, I can show you what real hellfire is like. Algol’s Flame!”

Daemon spat a green fireball towards his weaker counterpart, purposefully angling his attack so it would travel along the path of the Evil Inferno. TK’s partner saw the attack passing through his own as if it was facing no resistance at all, and he wisely decided to dodge out of the way. Even though he managed to avoid the fireball, the residual heat was still strong enough to light his fur on fire, and the Mega level Daemon had to quickly fly to the ground and roll out the flames.

As the Super Ultimate Daemon laughed at the humiliation of his weaker counterpart, he felt a slight stinging sensation in his arm. Looking down, he saw Lilithmon with her Nazar Nail buried in his left bicep. “Now see, this was a plan that at least had a slight chance of working. Even though you don’t have a Code Key, you would still be able to theoretically corrode my data with that attack. But, if I can control the zeroes and ones of other monsters, don’t you think I’d be able to control my own? At least you tried, but this may as well be a bee sting as an attack.”

Having said this, he took his right hand and flicked Lilithmon away. When she managed to stop her fall, Daemon frowned and swatted her again, this time successfully knocking her into the ground. He started to turn away before a wicked grin crossed his face. “You know, I was going to ignore you since your power is so insignificant, but even without a Code Key you can be useful. I don’t need the advantage, but absorbing your data could only help me get revenge on that other bitch who betrayed me… Algol’s Flame!”

The green fireball rushed towards Lilithmon, who was too disoriented to dodge out of the way. Luckily, before the attack could connect, a red energy blast collided with the fireball, knocking it off course. Daemon turned to the source of this, only to see Chaosdramon firing a missile from his right hand. The Destroyed Hook attack hit the Demon Lord in the face, and Daemon cried out in pain as it felt like his face was melting. He managed to heal off the damage, only to get hit by a full barrage of Hyper Infinity Cannon while he was still off balance. The red blasts actually managed to knock the Demon Lord backwards, until somebody else joined the fight. Omegamon had finally recovered his energy after his first use of Omega Howling, and was now using the attack on Daemon’s wings. With his face bombarded by the searing energy blasts and his wings frozen, Daemon fell from the sky.

Kari turned to Neo. “Thanks for saving Lilithmon, Neo. I’m not sure how she would have survived if you hadn’t ordered Chaosdramon to attack Daemon.”

Neo sadly shook his head. “I didn’t order him to attack Daemon. I ordered him to deflect the blast, and then I asked him if he would attack Daemon with all of his power. I ordered him not to go through with it if he didn’t want to, but this was just as much his choice as it was mine. He’s going to keep blasting Daemon until one of them is destroyed, and I’m pretty sure Daemon will be able to outlast Chaosdramon. It’s like when AeroVeedramon used Dragon Impulse on Arkadimon.”

Hearing this, Davis threw his hands in the air. “Well isn’t that just great. UlforceVeedramon has his power blocked, our Daemon and Lilithmon can’t do anything in a fight, Omegamon is running on fumes, and Chaosdramon is about to kill himself trying to do some damage. We go out of our way to bring in reinforcements for once, and we still can’t win!”

TK put his hand on Davis’s shoulder. “Relax, I know it looks bad, but we can win this.”

Davis snapped back at him. “Oh really? Then what major advantage am I not seeing? You have some new form tucked away you’ve been saving for a dramatic moment?”

TK rolled his eyes. “Okay, first, I’m the DigiDestined of Hope. It’s kind of my job to think we can win. That doesn’t always mean I know how we’ll win. In this case, that’s probably your job, considering you’re the DigiDestined of Miracles. And I don’t have a new form that can win this, but we can buy you a few minutes. It might be best if you close your eyes for a while, though.”

Davis turned towards TK to send him a questioning look, only to wish he had listened to TK’s advice. He really could have gone without seeing TK and Kari engaged in an extremely heavy make-out session, holding each other so tightly that there was no space between them. Davis quickly found himself growing angry.

“That’s you’re brilliant plan to buy a few minutes? You’re going to disgust Daemon by sucking face! I expected more from you and Kari…” Davis trailed off as TK and Kari both emitted a purple light, and a representation of the orange Code Key of Wrath and green Code Key of Lust appeared and seemed to overlap before the light surrounding TK and Kari shifted to black. Glancing towards Lilithmon and TK’s Daemon, Davis only saw a giant black mass before he heard the voices. “Lilithmon, Daemon, DNA Digivolve to… Ogudomon!”

The spider-like Incarnation Digimon immediately started running towards Daemon, just as Chaosdramon fired his last shots before reverting to a silver DigiEgg. Omegamon managed to extend the duration of his attack a few more seconds before he no longer had the energy to safely fire. Luckily, Ogudomon arrived at just that moment, meaning the Royal Knight didn’t have to sacrifice his own life to buy a few more seconds. While Daemon was still on the ground, Ogudomon jumped on top of him, biting into Daemon’s chest while sinking all seven of its legs into the ground to hold the Demon Lord in place. Daemon struggled to remove the monster, but all of his efforts were nullified as his own malice allowed Ogudomon to negate anything the Demon Lord tried.

Davis turned back to TK and Kari to apologize for his outburst, only to see them both blushing and avoiding eye contact with anybody. Tai looked like he was about to pop a blood vessel after watching the blatant PDA, and Matt was carefully positioning himself between his best friend and his little brother just in case. Knowing that TK had said they were only getting a few minutes, Davis decided it would be best for them to start explaining everything now.

“So, you guys managed to unlock Ogudomon. How did that happen?” TK and Kari glanced at each other before TK started talking.

“Well, I know you weren’t there, but I’m sure you know all about what happened to us in the Dark Ocean before we freed Tai and Matt from Lilithmon’s control. Kari and I lost control of ourselves, and though we eventually snapped ourselves out of it we wanted to avoid that happening again. Since we were also the key to breaking each other out of the influence of our particular sins, we started working on getting a handle on each other’s sins as well, and eventually we just sort of synced up and unlocked the new form.”

Tai was obviously struggling to keep control of himself. “So you two… decided to go off alone… and practice your lust?” Kari immediately cut her brother off.

“You reacting like this is exactly why we didn’t tell anyone about what we were doing. Well, that and the fact that we didn’t want anybody seeing stuff like that happening…” She realized she wasn’t doing a good job of calming her brother down, she tried again. “We were never alone, though! We mainly worked on it when it was our turn to guard Lilithmon, or with the Sovereigns when we needed to test Ogudomon’s power against something other than a Demon Lord.”

Tai let out a long sigh. “Fine. I can’t say I like it, but ever since this mess with the Demon Lords started I haven’t liked a lot of things we’ve had to do in order to stand a fighting chance. Now, how much time is Ogudomon good for just holding him like that? I’m assuming this Ogudomon is weaker than the one Lucemon became, and we need to know how much time we have to come up with a plan.”

TK responded. “Best case scenario, Ogudomon can hold that form for five minutes. Luckily, this is pretty close to the best case scenario. Unlike when Lucemon fused all seven Demon Lords, we only have two to work with. That means we can only completely negate damage coming from wrath or lust instead of any sin. Against anybody other than a Daemon or a Lilithmon, Ogudomon would still take damage from attacks. And we don’t have any attack power to speak of, so all we can do is stall. I haven’t been keeping exact track of time, but we probably only have a few minutes left.”

Neo couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “So, you combine two Megas to get a monster that has no attack power and can only negate damage against two specific foes. Normally I’d say that was an absolutely stupid idea, but I see the universe just lines everything up so it works for you DigiDestined.”

Kari just smiled. “What can we say; saving the worlds numerous times must make the universe more likely to throw good luck your way. Besides, if you want to talk about impractical, after we got the hang of Ogudomon we tried to see what would happen if we had Seraphimon and Ophanimon DNA Digivolve. That form only lasts two seconds before we burn through all of our energy.”

The shocked look on Neo’s face was priceless, but Davis decided not to waste any more time. “Right, well, I guess we may as well see if the universe is still smiling at us. Neo, could I have the Digimental please? I know it didn’t work for me before, but I don’t see any harm in trying again.” Neo was about to object, but then he handed the Digimental over. After all, Davis had always pulled a miracle out of nowhere in each of his earlier fights, so if anybody could pull this off, it would be him.

Sure enough, as soon as Davis grabbed the Digimental both it and his Crest started to glow in tandem. A bright light shot from him into UlforceVeedramon, healing the Royal Knight of all his wounds. However, that was only the first step of the process, as the glow intensified and UlforceVeedramon let out a tremendous yell. “UlforceVeedramon, Super Ultimate Digivolution! UlforceVeedramon Future Mode!”

Apart from a few new spikes on his armor, UlforceVeedramon looked the same as a Super Ultimate as he did at the Mega level. The only real difference was the divine glow that seemed to emit from his body without him trying to do anything. He flew over to his partner’s side, only for Neo to immediately question him. “Are you sure you’re a Super Ultimate? You called yourself UlforceVeedramon Future Mode and you don’t look that different, so maybe you only Mode Changed or Burst Evolved…”

The Royal Knight rolled his eyes. “Everyone’s a critic. Listen, when Arkadimon reached Super Ultimate, you still called it Arkadimon, and now that Daemon’s a Super Ultimate we still call him Daemon. So my slight name change is more than the other Super Ultimates got. Then again, it would probably be best if you just called me UlforceVeedramon. UlforceVeedramon Future Mode is kind of a mouthful. Oops, hold on a second, got to go.”

UlforceVeedramon seemed to freeze in place after saying this, but after a few seconds Neo realized the Royal Knight had flown away so fast he had left an image of himself behind. And it wasn’t a second too soon, as Ogudomon reverted to Tokomon and Salamon at that exact moment. Daemon started to get up, only to hear a voice shout “Ulforce V Saber!” However, Daemon only heard the voice after UlforceVeedramon’s sword bisected him, as the Royal Knight had far outstripped the speed of sound. UlforceVeedramon managed to catch Salamon and Tokomon and bring them back to their partners before Daemon finally felt the pain from being cut in half.

Daemon let out some terrifying screams before he started laughing again. “I’ll admit, that was a nice attack. But in case you’ve forgotten, I have absolute control over my own data. I can regenerate from this! And I have a source of energy that will last far longer than your human will! You can’t stop me!”

As Daemon said this, he heard a sudden rumbling from his castle. Turning to look, he saw a section of the wall suddenly collapse as a Blossomon cut it away with her Spiral Flower. The giant plant was followed by a Sorcermon and a Witchmon, who seemed lost in the middle of an argument. The Sorcermon was gesturing towards the wall with his staff.

“See, Pal, I told you my ice magic was better than your wind magic. I helped us get through that wall, and you just stood there doing nothing!” The witch just responded by whacking the sorcerer with her broom.

“Yeah, well just wait until I find a way to combine my water and my wind. It’ll be ten times better than your ice, Pul. Besides, Blossomon could have taken out that wall even if it wasn’t frozen!”

However, Daemon didn’t care so much about the Digimon escaping from the castle, but when he saw who was following them he couldn’t help snarling in anger. There was Rei, wearing two Digivice 01s and accompanied by Mari and another blond girl! After all that work to take a hostage, she had to go and escape! Daemon’s stopped his internal ranting when he noticed something indigo hanging around Mari’s neck. Looking closer, he immediately recognized the object, as well as the black, silver, and brown objects Catherine was carrying.

“What? They found the Crests? Impossible! Nobody else even knew those existed, let alone where they were! They were lost to history until I uncovered them. They’re mine! Algol’s Flame!” He launched the green fireball at the party, but UlforceVeedramon almost lazily put himself between them and the attack before calling out “Tensegrity Shield!” The holy barrier blocked Daemon’s attack just as easily as it had blocked Arkadimon’s, but UlforceVeedramon wasn’t finished.

“Let me guess, your secret energy source just left your castle. I’ll admit, stocking four Crests was a pretty good idea, but even if those weren’t what you were talking about I’ll just destroy you so thoroughly that there isn’t enough of you left to regenerate. Shining V Force!” The attack was similar to his Ray of Victory, only it came from his entire body instead of just the V on his armor. It was also significantly stronger, and the holy light utterly obliterated the Demon Lord before he could register the fact that he had been hit. UlforceVeedramon waited around for a few seconds to see if Daemon would reform himself, but he needn’t have worried. Daemon hadn’t so much as left a Code Key behind.

With the fight over, UlforceVeedramon gave Rei, Catherine, Mari, and their partners a lift to reunite with the others. When they arrived, the three Crests Catherine was holding suddenly sprang to life, flying to their destined owners. The silver Crest went to Neo, the black one to Sigma, and the brown one to Hideto. As soon as they received their Crests, Sigma and Neo also received another pleasant surprise, as their DigiEggs both hatched. Sigma looked overjoyed at the yellow Zurumon he was holding, but Neo only looked doubtfully at the MetalKoromon that resembled a computer mouse. He wasn’t quite sure if he deserved another chance at raising a Digimon after everything he had done.

While everybody else was busy watching Sigma and Neo, Davis kept staring transfixed at the site where Daemon had finally been defeated. He didn’t react when UlforceVeedramon landed in front of him and reverted to Chibomon, which immediately worried the Baby Digimon. However, nobody else seemed to notice Davis until Catherine walked up to him and gave him a hug. “You know, I wasn’t sure what to think of you when I first met you, but now that I’ve seen what you can do—Davis? Is everything okay?”

Catherine had noticed how Davis’s eyes weren’t focused on anything in particular, and realized he wasn’t really reacting to her hug. She started shaking him trying to get a response, but all Davis did was mumble “We won…” before his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed forward. Catharine hadn’t been ready to catch him, so she also ended up falling to the ground beneath his weight. Blushing slightly at the situation, she called out, “Can somebody help, please? I believe using the Super Ultimate level was a little too demanding for Davis. And he is heavier than he looks!”

Gryphonmon sat perched on the roof of Daemon’s castle, staring out at the location where the Demon Lord had perished. The DigiDestined had all left an hour ago, but Gryphonmon knew there were still important matters to attend to. And sure enough, his vigilance was rewarded when he saw an orange Code Key begin to reformat itself from stray data. Satisfied with his findings, Gryphonmon flew off. He had to report this to his master. After all, Lucemon would want to know the location of the sixth Code Key as well as the fact the DigiDestined had enough power to actually destroy Code Keys temporarily. And if his master were to tell Lucemon these things, the rewards were sure to be great indeed…