Author's Note: I can't believe I'm finally getting around to posting this story. This whole thing sprang from a few ideas I had sophomore year of college, where I wanted another story featuring the Adventure cast that would be compliant with the previous canon while still exploring some more themes I wanted explored. That one idea for a story spawned many more, and now I can finally start posting the last phase of those ideas.
Since this is the finale of a trilogy, I highly recommend you read Digimon Adventure: Dark Uprising and Digimon Adventure: Daemon's Inferno before jumping in to this story. With that and the usual disclaimer that I don't own any aspect of the Digimon franchise other than certain pieces of merchandise, I hope you enjoy this story!
Within the legends of the Digital World, there are rumors of a Hall of Olympus from which the gods of the Digital World watch over everything with a stance of neutrality. However, while the Olympos XII have occasionally met with other Digimon who passed their trials, no Digimon outside of the Olympians have ever so much as located this sacred ground, let alone entered. The reason for this was simple: the Hall of Olympus was not located within the Digital World, but rather within a gap between dimensions. From here, the gods could watch over the entire history of the Digital World and its parallel universes with absolute impunity.
However, the very isolation that kept the Hall of Olympus safe allowed a new enemy to strike at the gods: boredom. With no chance of outside contact, many of the Olympians preferred to spend most of their time at their various temples or fortresses protected by their own powers. The only exceptions to this rule were Jupitermon and Junomon, who seemed content to stay in the Hall as the rulers of the Olympians, never falling prey to boredom when they were together. As such, the fact that all twelve members of the Olympos XII were currently gathered in the Hall of Olympus testified to the severity of the current situation of the Digital World.
Despite the victories in the Dark Ocean and later on the Server Continent, the DigiDestined had still been unable to track down Lucemon, let alone stop him. For all of their efforts and new strength, the Demon Lord had only increased his power, to the point where he had now transcended the bounds of his own fate, rendering his future invisible to the Olympos XII. The only other beings that could claim such a distinction were Shakamon and GranDracmon, and if that level of power was held in the hands of a being who had already destroyed the world once in the past, they may already be too late to do anything to stop Lucemon's threat.
However, despite the sense of urgency, the Olympos XII were unable to agree upon a future course of action. Marsmon was the most vocal in support of joining the fight themselves, as would be expected from the god of war. The vow of neutrality had always been an annoyance to him, but now he was taking it personally. After all, war was the only word that could accurately describe the current battle between light and darkness, yet he was held back while others could still be involved. Minervamon had essentially taken the DigiDestined of Knowledge as an apprentice, Vulcanusmon had created the weapons that went on to be used by both sides, and Venusmon had managed to make her presence felt in the new relationships among the DigiDestined, but the god of war had been forced to sit on the sidelines.
Whereas Marsmon was eager to join the battle, other members of the Olympos XII were not enjoying the idea. Ceresmon, Venusmon, Vulcanusmon, and Bacchusmon had all benefited from not getting involved in battles, and wished to remain neutral in accordance with their long-standing oath. Minervamon, who had been the most involved in the fight so far, surprisingly agreed with this group, stating their personal involvement would not provide a significant difference now that the DigiDestined had surpassed them both in numbers and firepower. The goddess of wisdom argued that their key role would be supporting the DigiDestined rather than fighting directly. Though this path offered a compromise between the strict neutrality of earlier and outright fighting alongside the DigiDestined, the insinuation that the Olympos XII were now weak caused Apollomon, Dianamon, Neptunemon, and Merukimon to lend their support to Marsmon's cause.
Jupitermon and Junomon found themselves in an all too familiar situation: needing to cast the deciding votes between two factions of the other members. Though the Olympos XII were not nearly as dysfunctional as their counterparts in Earth mythology, they still had their fair share of squabbles. As the leader, Jupitermon's vote could break any tie, though Junomon often followed her husband's decisions so a tied vote was unlikely to happen in this situation. The ruler of the skies prepared to pass his decision when portal made of crackling black lightning appeared in the entryway and a badly wounded Plutomon collapsed into the Hall of Olympus.
The Olympos XII were taken aback by the sudden appearance of their brother, and felt a sense of dread upon seeing his condition. Though not a member of the Olympos XII, Plutomon had abilities that matched their own, and in terms of strength in battle he was among the most powerful of the Olympians. Whatever had reduced him to this condition was clearly a threat, even to the gods of the Digital World. Merukimon ran over to help the fallen Olympian, asking his brother what had happened. Plutomon let out a few coughs before he could speak.
"It's… Lucemon…" As soon as Plutomon finished speaking, he jammed his armored hand through Merukimon's chest, causing the messenger of the gods to cough in surprise as Plutomon's form changed into that of a demon with red wings wearing bird like armor. Murmukusmon smirked as he continued his statement. "He has a message for you. Your time as gods is over!"
The Count of the Dark Area only laughed as Merukimon burst into data before turning to the other Olympians. Venusmon barely had time to curse her foolishness in taking off her blindfold- had she kept it on, she would have seen through Murmukusmon's ruse- before she was blasted by a stream of hellfire and destroyed by the Demon Lord's Gehenna Flame attack. The other members of the Olympos XII tried to respond to the surprise attack, but Murmukusmon hadn't come alone. From the still open portal stepped Murmukusmon's faithful steed Gryphonmon and another demon wearing a tattered robe and carrying a machine gun.
Unlike Murmukusmon, the new arrivals didn't bother with talking to their opponents, instead going directly for the attack on the Olympians. Gryphonmon managed to destroy Ceresmon before she could reform the flying bird she used outside of the Hall of Olympus, while the other newcomer blasted away with a seemingly endless hail of bullets. Vulcanusmon recognized the demon by his weapon, though that brought no comfort to the God Man Digimon as he was blasted apart by a weapon he had created himself. Astamon only smirked as the maker of his prized Oro Salmón was destroyed. The Prince of the Dark Area only wished he had more time to rub the irony in the face of his opponent, but the other Olympians had now overcome their surprise and started fighting back.
Though the Ultimate level Astamon had strength beyond most Mega Digimon, he did not relish the thought of a direct fight with the remaining gods. He and Murmukusmon were undoubtedly strong, being some of the highest-ranking members of the Nightmare Soldiers. After the death of five Demon Lords and Lilithmon's exile to Earth, they were behind only Lucemon and GranDracmon in terms of leadership of the Dark Area. However, the remaining Olympians were far stronger than their defeated brethren, and most likely could defeat their three attackers.
Though Astamon knew all of this, he couldn't help but laugh cruelly in the faces of his foes. The surprise attack had succeeded in wiping out Bacchusmon, Ceresmon, Venusmon, Vulcanusmon, Minervamon, and Merukimon. Taking down half of the gods went well beyond the necessary conditions for this mission to be a success. With only six opponents left, the nobles of the Dark Area wouldn't even need to lift a finger in the upcoming slaughter. Instead, they just had to sit back and watch as Lucemon flew in through the still-open portal.
The remaining six Olympians all turned to face the newest threat, but Lucemon only held out his hands and channeled the powers of the other fallen Demon Lords. Dianamon was incinerated with Leviamon's Thunder Breath, Neptunemon was destroyed with the black flames of Belphemon's Lampranthus, Apollomon fell to Beelzemon's Double Impact, and Marsmon lost his life to Daemon's Evil Inferno. The only survivors were Jupitermon and Junomon, who somehow managed to overcome the explosion of Barbamon's Pandaemonium Lost. Lucemon only looked disappointed at the leaders of the Olympos XII before letting out a sigh.
"I suppose it was only to be expected that you two would survive if I split my attention into a five-way attack. Still, perhaps it's better this way. After all, it would be an awful shame if the new god of the Digital World managed to defeat the old ones without using any of his own power."
Jupitermon addressed the Demon Lord in a dispassionate voice. "I know not how you have come to enter this domain, Lucemon, but you have soiled sacred ground by killing my brethren." Switching to an angry tone, Jupitermon materialized a giant sword before growling out, "For such crimes, the only punishment is death!" Junomon smiled as her husband entered his Wrath Mode. For this fight, she knew she would need her Hysteric Mode but that was one thing she never wanted her husband to discover. Luckily, in Wrath Mode Jupitermon lost himself in a haze of anger. He gained immense strength and resistance to damage at the cost of fighting as a berserker without regard for self-preservation or the lives of his allies. In this form, Jupitermon would keep fighting until he died or all his enemies did. Only then would he regain his senses, which meant for now that Junomon could cut loose.
Lucemon knew he could have attacked the last Olympians while they were powering up, but the Demon Lord of Pride wanted them to use their full power only to see how outmatched they truly were. There was no need to rush his inevitable victory. Since he had a few seconds, he decided to respond to Jupitermon's statements.
"Really, it was quite simple to get here. I just tracked down an old associate and absorbed his data. You aren't the only Digimon that can travel between dimensions, but you do have a greater reach than Wisemon did. So, I really had to get your power in addition to his. As for punishing me with death, I'm afraid that won't work. Even if I didn't vastly outclass you in power, I've already absorbed the data of Plutomon. I am the ruler of death now, so you cannot give me what I've already mastered!"
The Olympians took this as their cue to attack, and Lucemon decided to let them have their fun. After all, he had great plans for what to do with the new power at his fingertips. Earlier, he had come to rule the Digital World. Then, he had destroyed the Digital World and set his sights on Earth. Now, he would have access to the entire history of not just those two worlds, but all parallel worlds. Just imagining the horrors he would unleash on all who opposed them was enough for Lucemon to ignore the minor wounds he was accumulating with his sloppy fighting style. Soon, he would have an entire multiverse at his feet!
Rei sighed as she prepared herself to leave her hiding place and throw herself back into the fray. In the past few months, she had been glad to lend a hand in the battles for the Digital World, though Hideto and Neo still tended to be overprotective of her on the battlefield. Her two partners had certainly grown from the bickering imps they had been, but they could still only go to the Champion level so some things were just beyond their power. Whenever threats like that came up, Neo and Hideto always tried to leave her behind for her own protection. Now that she had her own Digimon, Rei refused to just be a burden again, though she knew she had to catch up to the others fast. So, she was taking a leaf out of her brother's book and training constantly with Pal and Pul. However, even with their new level of skill, the current wasn't something her partners could help her with. Fights against invading Digimon they could handle. The rigors of campaign season, however, were a bit outside of their usual expertise.
As she wheeled herself out of the bathroom, Rei was struck with the irony of the situation. Half a year ago, she had been dead set on joining the political world and couldn't care less about Digimon battles, which were just something her brother and their best friend did for fun. Then, after the Arkadimon incident and her father's upcoming bid for re-election, Neo seemed to withdraw from events related to Digimon and she was the one wishing to battle instead of dealing with the realities of the campaign trail.
Normally, Rei would have been ecstatic to be an official campaign assistant for her father, as it would be a good starting point for her own future political career. However, she hadn't counted on the constant mutterings from other politicians and their camps that her father was only using her as a publicity stunt to draw in some sympathy votes. She supposed she would only have to get used to such things, but she wished more people would see her as her own person, and not just someone in a wheelchair.
Though the mutterings made her start to doubt if politics was really the right career path for her, they only served to increase her resolve for another task. She really did want to do her best to help her father get re-elected, and not just as a source of pity, but she had another reason for going on the campaign trail. Even before she met Pal and Pul, she had been entrusted with a mission to help the Digital World, and now that she had her own partners it was even more important to her. Minister Shinobu Akiyama may have refused to listen to any petitions for Digimon to be accepted as anything other than monsters, but even a revered national hero needed to campaign for re-election to keep his job. His term just happened to coincide with her father's, and since both members belonged to the same party there were bound to be events where both had to be present. If Akiyama wouldn't respond to letters or requests for meetings, she would just have to corner him at one of these functions to finally get a chance to talk to him.
Unfortunately, while this plan was sound in theory, she hadn't yet found an opportunity to put it into practice. Befitting a man of his position, Minister Akiyama always seemed to be the center of attention at these events, leaving little chance for a 20-year-old campaign assistant to get a word in edgewise. Tonight's dinner was the fourth campaign event that both her father and Minister Akiyama were attending, yet Rei had barely managed to keep an eye on the experienced politician between the swarms of journalists and VIPs that congregated around him. In fact, today was even more crowded than previous outings, forcing her to stay well away from the podium set up for speeches after the dinner was over. Instead of being somewhere near her father, she was pretty far backstage, to the point where she was more sitting near the stairs that led to the exit than anywhere near the proceedings. She could easily hear the speeches, but when reporters started asking questions she had to really strain her ears just to make out the words.
As most of the questions involved the same generic responses she had heard at the previous campaign events, Rei started tuning out the whole interview process and started trying to come up with a new plan to get a meeting with the minister. However, when a blonde woman stood up and introduced herself as Natsuko Takaishi, Rei immediately snapped to attention. She may have been new at this whole Digimon thing, and she really wasn't that close to too many of the DigiDestined, but she recognized that last name. After all, she had been friends with both Tai and Matt before she went to the Digital World, so she probably had heard more about TK and Kari- both separately and as a couple- than any of the DigiDestined who weren't involved in the adventures of 1999 or 2002.
When Ms. Takaishi asked her question, Rei felt as if she could hear a pin drop. Minister Akiyama was known for his anti-Digimon stance, and the journalist had just effectively issued a challenge. "Minister Akiyama, in light of the continuing activities of Digimon working together with humans to repel the recent invasions, are you planning on continuing your persecution of the only allies we have that are strong enough to protect Japan?" Holding her breath, Rei wondered what was about to happen. She understood why the mother of two DigiDestined would be so proactive in helping the cause, but Ms. Takaishi had just backed a national hero into a corner with an obviously leading question.
However, all his years of political service seemed to have granted Minister Akiyama with the ability to shrug off even the most persistent of journalists. Even with such a hot-button issue, he managed to keep his voice calm as he responded. "Ah, I see your trademark aggressive journalism is just as strong as ever, Ms. Takaishi. I would have thought the numerous times you had to be escorted from the Ministry would have cooled your head a bit, but I guess not. But if you insist on asking, my answer is not changed. Yes, there have been reports of Digimon working together with people to repel the invading forces. Invading forces which, I'm sure you are aware, have been composed entirely of Digimon as well. Judging by the sheer numbers of the invading forces and the damage they have repeatedly caused, I believe it is safe to say most Digimon are not our allies. These Digital Monsters carry enough power to be counted as living weapons of mass destruction, most of them have expressed hostile intent, and even those that you claim are helping us seem to end up dragging our children into the middle of a warzone. So, I do not see any reason to view these creatures as allies."
Despite her apparent failure, Rei had to give Ms. Takaishi credit. She may not have lead Akiyama into the response she wanted, but she had brought all attention squarely onto the Digital issue. If nothing else, she inspired all the other journalists to follow up on her line of inquiry, forcing all other politicians to reveal their stances. Akiyama soon found himself dealing with allegations of being a stubborn bigot and warmonger from some of the less professional journalists trying to make a name for themselves with a more sensational story. Eventually, he snapped, which for Akiyama merely sounded like a polite dismissal.
"Thank you all for your questions, but I'm afraid I have important work to take care of for the Diet tomorrow morning. I fear I will not be able to give any more responses. Ms. Takaishi, I thank you for at least tempering your personal beliefs with the appropriate decorum for a professional journalist like yourself. If only more people were so good at controlling themselves, we would live in a much better world. I at least understand why you champion your cause so strongly, so I hold no ill will towards you. You are only trying to do what you feel is best for your family. The same cause drives me, though the only family I have left is the people of Japan. Say hello to your sons for me."
With that, Akiyama began to leave, ignoring the flurry of reporters all trying to ask questions at the same time. Not deterred by his obvious dismissal, they began pushing their way past the podium and started following him down the exit hallway. Not wanting to get trampled by a stampede of reporters, Rei immediately called for the next elevator and wheeled herself inside before Akiyama and his followers could get too close. Before the doors even started to close, however, Rei started to make a plan. After all, Akiyama would be trying to escape the media as well, and this hallway only had two options: the stairs or the elevator. If he took the stairs, there wouldn't be much she could do to talk to him without the slew of reporters listening in, but if he took the elevator she just might get a chance. She started fiddling with one of her Digivice 01s, and let out a breath of relief as the minister hopped into the elevator just before the doors closed.
Tonight's dinner was held on the third floor, which normally wouldn't allow time for any detailed conversation on an elevator ride down to the exit. However, Rei had a few tools to make sure she could get a few minutes to finally talk with the minister. After all, she may not have expressed the traits nearly as much as her brother did, but she had the same level of determination as all Saibas did, and the same ability to work a little bit outside of the rules. Having a couple of Digital partners who liked to pull pranks and could easily transfer into and shut down electrical systems certainly didn't hurt, either. Pal and Pul managed to stop the elevator before it had even descended half a floor, giving Minister Akiyama nowhere to run from his next interview.
Still, while Rei could be just as good at making plans as her brother, she lacked the disposition needed to achieve his level of ruthless efficiency. Having stopped the elevator, she had a hard time overcoming her nerves and actually talking to the man she had practically taken hostage. For his part, Akiyama just sighed, remaining as calm as if the elevator were continuing to work. Turning to his companion, he started talking in a disinterested voice. "You're Saiba's daughter, aren't you? I've seen you tagging along before now, and you've always looked like you wanted to talk to me. Now seems like the perfect opportunity to finally accomplish that."
Rei gulped- it almost sounded like he knew this was a setup. "Well, I have wanted to talk to you, sir. You see, I've been wanting to go into politics for a long time now, and you've had such a distinguished career that I just wanted a chance to talk to you, but there were always reporters and other people in the way…" Akiyama held up his hand to cut off Rei's babbling. "First bit of advice- never let people see when you're nervous. If you can't suppress your own heart or get rid of it entirely, you'll be eaten alive in politics. It's why I've gotten so good at the job- reporters can't attack what isn't there."
Rei took a second to gather herself, but figured she could use this as a springboard to get to her real questions. "Speaking of reporters, you seemed like you almost knew that Ms. Takaishi from earlier. From what you said, she's been a big Digimon advocate, which I guess goes against your personal beliefs, but you even knew about her kids. Why was that?"
"Oh, so you know her kids too, do you? I suppose that makes sense. After all, you'd be around the same age. And I don't really know her children, but I know of them. The fact that you know too leads me to believe that why we're really here is you wanted to convince me to change my stance, and just like her kids you've got a Digital pet that would be perfect for stopping an elevator to get a chance to talk with me."
Rei couldn't hide the guilty look on her face, so she knew she shouldn't bother trying to deny his claim. This brilliant plan turned out about as well as Hideto's attempts at art. Still, she had already come this far, so she wasn't about to stop now. She was still a Saiba, and they weren't exactly easy to stop once they set their minds to a task. "Okay, sir, you're right about just about everything. I didn't exactly plan to trap you in an elevator to talk to you, but I've been trying to find some way to do it for a while now and then you were walking this way so I kind of just did it. Though, I wasn't planning on trying to make you change your stance. I just wanted to know why you feel that way. I've been to the Digital World, and I've seen Digimon and humans do some terrible things together while others banded together to stop them. I know the world is complex, and I thought an experienced politician yourself would know that too. What happened to you to cause you to see them all as monsters?"
Akiyama let out a small noise of disdain. "Normally, I'd just ignore that request, but normally I'm not being held hostage in an elevator. Now, I don't like telling this story, and you won't like what I could do to your father's career if I set my mind to it. So, we're going to compromise here. I'll be extremely brief, you will restart this elevator, and this conversation will never be mentioned again."
Without waiting for Rei to acknowledge his decision, he began his story. "This goes back almost ten years now. I was new on the political scene, and I had a happy family life. Until one day, where my son seemed to grow up overnight. And I don't mean that in the typical, they grow up so fast sense. He went from being a carefree boy to something that most closely resembled a veteran soldier. A few months later, the same thing happened, except he suddenly became best friends with a boy he never met overnight as well. I finally confronted him about everything, and he explained his situation with the Digital World to me. He mentioned a Matt Ishida and TK Takaishi, which is how I know of those two. A few weeks later, my son disappeared. The only clue was an email from the rulers of the Digital World asking him to come back and help. So, to me, the Digital World is a place populated with evil monsters, and the so-called good monsters that are willing to tear apart families without explanation. If you must know more, ask your friends about Ryo Akiyama."
Lucemon sighed as he sat on his recently acquired throne in the Hall of Olympus. He had thought overthrowing the gods of the Digital World would have felt a bit more rewarding than this. He hadn't exactly been expecting a power increase considering he had been well beyond their level of power after absorbing four other Code Keys, let alone Daemon's, but he thought he would be able to have a little fun with some of their more unique abilities. However, he hadn't accounted for a few drawbacks. First, somebody among the Olympos XII- most likely Minervamon- seemed to have predicted that something like this could happen. As such, they had somehow blocked certain humans from view and tampering. So, Lucemon couldn't even study the previous battles the Legendary Warriors or Crest-bearing DigiDestined had participated in, let alone adjust their timeline so he could kill them before they even interacted with the Digital world.
On its own, this problem wouldn't have been too difficult to overcome. Lucemon had seen the Legendary Warriors at their best first hand, and between the recent war in the Dark Ocean and Daemon's memories that stuck to his Code Key from Folder, he knew what the DigiDestined were capable of. However, any other aspect of temporal power was proving to be tedious to control. He had tried pulling an army of Digimon to the present time as a test of power, only to lose his grip and drop them somewhere within the history of the Digital World or its various parallel dimensions. And with no way to find these Digimon other than meticulously scanning every moment of history from each of the worlds, Lucemon was quick to deem this a lost cause. The Olympos XII probably had a system that allowed them to easily search through history, but they had taken whatever temporal search system they had used with them to their digital graves. Perhaps he should have left a few of them alive, if only to explain how his new toy really worked. So far, all it had been good for was spying on the Saiba girl as she dealt with some troublesome politician in her world, but that conversation hadn't exactly provided any useful information about the movement of the enemy.
Astamon and Murmukusmon merely observed silently as their leader sulked on his throne. As nobility of the Dark Area, they were completely unsurprised by Lucemon's actions. The Demon Lord of Pride had always behaved a bit like a spoiled brat, so his reaction on getting a new toy and then not having it work was far from unexpected. Still, there was no telling what the Demon Lord would do next. Lucemon's sanity had, if anything, deteriorated once he started reading the history of the world. He had gone from fits of destructive rage to bouts of laughter, with no clear indication of what had set him off. Still, for his insanity, Lucemon was highly competent- his mind could sometimes jump randomly from utter nonsense into a brilliant plan that would leave the rest of the world bowing at his feet.
Sure enough, Lucemon's face suddenly broke into a smirk. Now, as the Demon Lord of Pride, smirks were far from uncommon on Lucemon's face, but this particular smirk indicated he was hatching another plan. The last time he had smirked like this, he had orchestrated the transfer of the Demon Lords from the Dark Area into the Dark Ocean, superficially to open the Gate of the Seven Deadly Sins but with the actual intent of absorbing the other six Code Keys and finally overthrowing GranDracmon as the ultimate ruler of darkness. A plan that had nearly come to fruition, with Lucemon fully determined to complete it. In this way, Lucemon's insanity proved to be a great benefit to his success- his impulsive nature would normally have him give up on plans that took months to years to complete, but he could just as easily wait decades for the perfect moment to strike. This was the only reason he hadn't gone out and challenged the DigiDestined directly for Lilithmon's Code Key- he decided to treat the DigiDestined with the same caution he usually extended only to GranDracmon as a credible threat.
Turning to his two underlings, Lucemon decided to share his recent stroke of genius. "You know, spying on that Saiba girl actually proved to be useful. Turns out there's a DigiDestined brat who hopped a dimension. Such a move is bound to have left a bit of contamination between the two. And I may not be able to spy on the kids in this dimension, but I can in that one!" Astamon and Murmukusmon merely bowed their heads in silence. They knew better than to interrupt Lucemon by asking him to explain what he meant. Asking for context from an insane Demon Lord was more likely to result in death than understanding.
Lucemon didn't seem to care about his servants' lack of response and engrossed himself into observing this other dimension. "Oh, we definitely have something interesting going on here. After all, why would Digimon exist as a card game before that universe's Digimon started appearing in the real world? Hmm… it appears they also turned it into an anime. This ought to be enjoyable. Wait a minute- this anime seems to cover the lives of the DigiDestined from this world! Well, looks like I have three anime seasons and three movies to watch. It might not be fully accurate, but I should be able to check accuracy against what I know to have happened in their little adventures."
Lucemon went silent for a while, most likely as he examined whatever anime he had mentioned. However, after around a minute he burst out laughing. "Well, from what I've seen so far I think this universe deserves a little reward. I think I'll bring something from there over to here and let it loose. A pestilence should be exactly what I need to get those pests out of my way."
Murmukusmon and Astamon were about to laugh at Lucemon's lame pun- the jokes of a Demon Lord were always either funny or fatal to their minions- but when their master suddenly switched to a frown they quickly stopped themselves. "Well, I suppose it can't be helped, then. I just have to practice pulling things through time. And who knows what changes this thing will undergo when it crosses dimensions. Luckily, I have a backup plan if this won't work. After all, one pestilence is as good as another. How does that human myth about the end of the world go- four horsemen bringing pestilence, war, famine, and death? Seems like a nice setup for what I'm about to do." With this, Lucemon returned to his evil laughter as he plotted how to finally bring the DigiDestined to their end.
Author's Note: So, there we have the first chapter! Lucemon has always had a god complex (and arguably a justified one), but now that he's absorbed the Olympos XII he is serving as an actual god of the Digital World- with expanded reach through the multiverse. Of course, he isn't the most responsible deity in history, which doesn't bode well for reality. We also get some faces for the leaders of Lucemon's army- though only Astamon is newly introduced here. Murmukusmon appeared in Daemon's Inferno disguised as a D'arcmon before Koichi's fight with AvengeKidmon, while Gryphonmon is the same Digimon that served in Neo's army.
Back on Earth, we check in with Rei to get introduced to a new figure in our story: Shinobu Akiyama. If it wasn't obvious enough from the conversation, this character represents Ryo's father from the Wonderswan games. There are plenty of things to analyze about the events of those games, but one of the things I wanted to explore would be the ramifications of Ryo hopping to a different universe. After the events of Brave Tamer, anything focusing on Ryo is in the Tamers universe- but what about the world he left behind?
I thought there would need to be a face people could associate with the anti-Digimon legislation that's been mentioned throughout this series, and Ryo's father fit the bill perfectly. Here was a man who lost his family thanks to Digimon, so he has the motivation to pass harsh legislation other than "he's a bad person". I picked his name based on the character of Shinobu Sensui from YuYu Hakusho as someone who was a good person but had one event completely shift their worldview and leave them with a vendetta. It also means endurance, which I felt was appropriate for someone who would have had to endure as much as Ryo's dad has.
I have a plan for an update schedule but I'm not yet sure if I'll be able to keep it, so I want to give myself a little more time before I reveal what it is. Until I get that worked out though, I'll be shooting for updates at least weekly. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please leave some feedback if you have the time!
