A/N: Chapter 8 is here! Sorry for late update, a new study season in my college has started. I need to maintain my time between studying and writing fanfiction, so chapter 9 and the next ones will be a little late, but I'll try to post them once per week.
Thanks for all of my reviewers, thanks for good suggestions and critiques. I'll try to improve my skill on writing and character development.
Once again, if in my past chapters I used any inappropriate words or something that offended my readers, I'm deeply sorry. I'll try to avoid it in my next chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. You should have known it already, right?
Disclaimer finished, let's move to the story. Oh yeah, don't forget to review, okay? Please tell me what you feel about this story. Any critiques and suggestions are accepted, so please review, ok?
Chapter 8
The Real Test
"Imperialdramon, are you okay?" Valkyrimon asked as she arrived in the battlefield.
"I don't think so. I'm badly injured from his counterattack before!" Imperialdramon replied.
"Okay then, I'll take over! Let's go! Feral Sword!!" Valkyrimon shouted, and then before Chaosdramon could even move, she slashed him from behind, making Chaosdramon distracted and canceling his attack.
"Wow, she is very fast!" Taichi commented as he checked Agumon.
"Of course, Valkyrimon is one of the fastest Mega Level Digimon. Her speed would put even Chaosdramon's speed in a poor level!" Koushiro explained.
Meanwhile, in the battlefield, Valkyrimon repeatedly slashed Chaosdramon with her sword. Although the sword itself couldn't cause much damage because of Chaosdramon's insanely high physical defense, but Valkyrimon could keep Chaosdramon distracted, giving a very good chance for Imperialdramon to recover his condition.
"Gaah, that's enough, take this! Doomsday Countdown!!" Chaosdramon shouted angrily, firing his cannon again to every direction. He thought that even Valkyrimon couldn't avoid that attack, but he was wrong. Valkyrimon avoided every shot with ease.
"Hah, your attack is too slow!" Valkyrimon shouted, dodging the last shot, "Now's my turn! Laser Javelin!!" Valkyrimon shouted, firing a powerful laser attack that hit Chaosdramon dead, and knocking him good.
"Imperialdramon, how do you feel now?" Daisuke asked.
"I'm still hurt, but I'm slowly recovering." Imperialdramon replied.
"Good then, tell us when you're ready!" Ken smiled.
Back to the battlefield, the frustrated Chaosdramon now was attacking Valkyrimon with his Chaos Crusher, but like before, Valkyrimon could dodge every blow with ease, thanks to her extremely high speed. Valkyrimon then countered it with her Lightning Arrows attack, which once again hit Chaosdramon dead.
"Hah, girly, maybe you can avoid my attacks, but still you can't defeat me with your puny attacks!" Chaosdramon shouted in frustration seeing Valkyrimon avoided his Hyper Mugen Cannon.
"And who said that I was going to defeat you alone!?" Valkyrimon replied sarcastically.
"What do you mean!?" Chaosdramon yelled.
"I said that I was just distracting you from Imperialdramon so he can recover. Just take a look by yourself now!" Valkyrimon smiled, pointing at Imperialdramon who was readied for battle once again.
"Gaah, why you little-. " Chaosdramon spat and lauched his Hyper Mugen Cannon again on her, but like before, she could avoid it with ease.
"Just how many times I have to tell you that you are too slow?" Valkyrimon shouted, "Take this! Punishing Storm!!" she whipped a terrible windstorm from her shield, paralyzing Chaosdramon for awhile.
"Imperialdramon, now!" Daisuke and Ken shouted together, pointing their D-3 to Imperialdramon. The light from their D-3 encircled Imperialdramon, giving him a new power.
CHANGE MODE ACTIVATION…
Imperialdramon Dragon Mode changed mode into…Imperialdramon Fighter Mode!
Chaosdramon gazed at Imperialdramon as he changed mode in horror. Honestly, if Imperialdramon was still in his dragon mode and without the aid from Valkyrimon, he could win with ease, but this time, this was the different story because Imperialdramon Fighter Mode has more power than his dragon mode.
"The tide of battle has turned away! Let's send him back to where he belongs!" Imperialdramon FM shouted.
"Yes, let's finish him!" Valkyrimon shouted, readied her Feral Sword once again.
"Big talk! I will win, for the sake of Lord Millennium! I'll show you! This is just the beginning!!" Chaosdramon shouted angrily, "Take this, Hyper Mugen Cannon!!"
"Positron Laser!!" Imperialdramon FM shouted, firing a huge positron laser to counter Chaosdramon's Hyper Mugen Cannon. This time, not only the Positron Laser could cancel Hyper Mugen Cannon, but also for the first time, it could badly damage Chaosdramon.
"I'll help! Feral Sword!!" Valkyrimon shouted, slashed Chaosdramon with full power, and after taking much damage from those attacks, Chaosdramon's Red-Digizoid armor began to crumble, making it vulnerable to any kind of attack.
"This is our chance! His armor has been badly damaged! Strike him with all you've got!" Koushiro shouted.
"All right, it's over now! Giga Crusher, full power!!" Imperialdramon FM shouted, firing a huge energy wave at Chaosdramon.
"Punishing Storm!!" Valkyrimon shouted, raising a huge tornado, and those two attacks merged and stroke Chaosdramon dead.
"Damn, I may lose against you, but still, you haven't heard the last of Lord Millennium! He'll send another Millennium General to capture Veemon and destroy all of you!" Chaosdramon laughed as he was being deleted.
"He's gone." Sora said after the data of Chaosdramon completely disappeared, while Valkyrimon and Imperialdramon reverted to their rookie forms (champion for Gatomon).
"Yes, he's even stronger than Machinedramon!" Taichi commented while he took care of Agumon's injury.
"But this is definitely not the end, let's move before another Millennium General appear!" Takeru stated.
"Here's one question: where should we go!?" Daisuke asked him sarcastically, "There's no sign of any temple in here!"
"Hmm, you've got a point here, let's search for it! Maybe there's a secret path to go to the Iris' Shrine!" Iori added.
So, they continued to search the Iris' Temple. Although the location of Iris' Temple was there, they had a hard time to find it because it was hidden. Finally, after at least two hours of searching, they found a clue to get into Iris' Shrine.
"Hey, look at this!" Hikari stated, pointing at the old script in the rock near the waterfall.
"Hmm, it's the same old characters we found in the Sol Sanctum before, just give time to translate it!" Koushiro added excitedly.
"Sol Sanctum!? What's that?" Yamato asked.
"Oh, I assume that we haven't explained that, right, bro?" Takeru asked, and Yamato nodded, "The Sol Sanctum is the place where Fanglongmon kept the Light of Eden, the purest holy power on this world."
"So, we need the Light of Eden to purify the curse seal of Veemon?" Sora asked.
"Yes, you're right!" Miyako said, "But unfortunately, the Sol Sanctum itself is remaining locked until we can set the four spirit flames on that place."
"Oh, so the reason we searching the spirits is to open the Sol Sanctum?" Taichi asked, and all of them nodded, "I thought we need them to defeat that no-good Lord Millennium!"
"Okay, I've finished the translation!" Koushiro smiled.
"What does it say?" Jyou asked.
"Well, it says like this: "You who seek to find the spirit, show the true power of Courage and Love!'" Koushiro replied.
"To what?" Sora asked.
"Look, there!" Ken shouted, pointing at the wall. Symbol of Courage and Love was painted there side by side.
"Okay then, let's do it!" Taichi stated, and Sora agreed. Both of them pointed their crests into there, and after that, the Symbol of Courage and Love in the wall shone brightly.
"Wow, that's beautiful!" Miyako glanced at them amazedly.
Soon after the symbols shone, the wall was tore away, showing the new path for them. There was a dragon symbol on it, indicating that the path led them to Salamander.
"Alright! Let's go!" Daisuke shouted excitedly.
Digital World, South Region, Dragon's Path…
They continued their journey through this path. The path itself was not easy because it was very hot inside, but thankfully, the path was straight, didn't have any branches, so they didn't get lost.
A half hour later…
"Whew, this tunnel is very hot, I can't take it anymore!" Gomamon grumbled. Poor him, being a aqua Digimon, he couldn't stand too much heat.
"Huh? Is that so?" Veemon asked chirpily.
"Yeah, I like this!" Agumon stated.
"You're lucky that you're a dragon type Digimon, both of you! You can stand heat!" Patamon said, "But for us, non-dragon and non-fire type Digimon, that's a different story!"
"Yes, I can't stand heat very much!" Wormmon shouted. Like aqua type Digimon, insect-type Digimon like Tentomon and himself couldn't stand heat very much.
"I must admit it! It is getting hotter and hotter as we walk!" Gatomon muttered.
"Quiet, all of you! All of your complaints make us feel hotter and hotter!" Miyako yelled at them.
"Yeah, and looking at Veemon and Agumon only makes me feel more and more tired!" Ken muttered. Honestly, it seemed that Veemon and Agumon didn't feel tired at all, even after the great battle with Chaosdramon a little while ago.
"I hope this path will end quickly. I feel that if I take it anymore, I'm going to faint!" Hikari swatted sweat from her face.
Takeru noticed that, and then he asked, "Hikari, are you sure you can take it anymore? You look very pale? Should we take a rest for awhile?"
Hikari smiled a little and then answered, "Thanks for your concern, Takeru. I'm a little tired, but knowing that you care so much at me, I will be okay, really!"
Takeru blushed a little, but quickly he snapped out, "Okay then, let's get moving! We don't want to be left, right? But be sure to tell me if you need a rest, okay?"
"Y-yes, let's move!" Hikari answered, and suddenly she felt so strong knowing that Takeru is truly care of her.
"Look!" Taichi shouted. A river of lava lay in front of them, blocking their way.
"D-do we have to cross it?" Wormmon asked nervously.
"Of course, silly, otherwise we'll stuck here and get roasted by this heat!" Hawkmon replied.
"But how?" Gomamon asked, "There are no rocks or something for us to step!"
"Hmm, good question!" Iori stated, "There must be some secret switch to trigger a bridge or something!"
Before any of them replied, from the bottom of river, there was a loud noise, and rocks began to rise to the surface of the river. The rocks were not so wide, but they could be used to cross the lava river.
"Great, now we can cross the lava river!" Veemon said excitedly.
"You said it! We need to be very careful for this one, or we'll get roasted!" Daisuke shouted.
"Okay, I don't wanna get roasted, either!" Veemon replied.
So they crossed the lava river carefully. Armadillomon, Wormmon, and Gomamon crossed the river with the help of their partner, while Hawkmon and Patamon just flew to the other side. The others spent a hard time trying to jump from one rock to another. Sure that the rocks were very hot, but somehow they could endure.
Finally, after passed the lava river, the road reached its end. In the end of this road, like in the Zephyr Tower, there was a teleport device that was already activated.
"Finally!" Hikari said after they reached the end of the Dragon's Path.
"Let's get out of this road before we're getting roasted!" Gomamon shouted.
So, they took the teleport device and with the blink of light, they vanished.
Digital World, South Region, Iris' Shrine…
"So, where are we now?" Daisuke asked as they reappeared in the new place. This place itself was like the hall with many strange statues of dragon and Iris, the goddess of rainbow. In the middle of the room, there was a huge magic circle like in the Zephyr Tower. The difference was the magic circle was red instead of purple.
"I think we finally arrived in the real Iris' Shrine!" Jyou stated, "Look at those statues! Those are Iris Statues!"
"You're correct! Welcome to Iris' Shrine, children!" A deep voice echoed.
"Who said that?" Agumon asked.
"I'm Salamander, the spirit of fire!" The voice replied, and suddenly a fire dragon appeared in front of them. He was composed by pure fire, but looked like a little small for a dragon.
"So, you're Salamander, eh? You look kinda small for a dragon, you know!" Daisuke commented.
"Small, eh!? You really got some nerve calling me like that! I'll show you who the real small here!" Salamander growled, he sounded just like his master, Zhuqiaomon.
"Pardon for my friend's rudeness!" Miyako pulled Daisuke's ear, "He didn't really intend to offend you!"
"Aww, mind your own business, nerdette!" Daisuke muttered, but Hikari glared at him, so he stopped.
"So, what did bring you here!?" Salamander asked.
"Actually, we want to ask you if you can help us!" Takeru answered.
"Help? Help what?" Salamander asked again with the same rude tone.
"Lord Millennium has woken up again, and he put some curse seal on our friend, Veemon, so we need the Light of Eden to purify it. But, in order to get it, we need to gather the four elemental spirits to open the Sol Sanctum!" Iori explained.
Salamander glance to each of them carefully, and then said, "All of you seem inexperienced, so I believe that I can't trust you for this!"
"WHAT!?" Everyone yelled loudly.
"Be quiet, brats! You don't have to yell so loud like that!" Salamander growled, covering his ears.
"But we need your help! Our friend's life is depended on you! Did Zhuqiaomon tell you before?" Takeru asked.
"Lord Zhuqiaomon!?" Salamander asked confusedly, "Nope, he hasn't come here, either!"
"He didn't even inform you?" Ken asked, couldn't believe it. So, Zhuqiaomon didn't even care of them at all.
"So, what do we need to make sure that you can trust you?" Yamato asked.
"Hmm, let's see, I challenge you all for a battle, so I can be sure that you're worthy enough for me to trust you!" Salamander stated.
"Do we really need to battle you?" Sora asked.
"Yes, but if you don't like that idea, please leave right now, I wont' stop you!" Salamander replied.
Everyone thought hard after he said that, and then Salamander asked again, "So, what's your decision? Do you accept my challenge? It's not a big deal if you really want to save this world, right!?"
"I think we don't have any choice, we accept your challenge!" Daisuke shouted.
"Yes, we'll show you!" Veemon added chirpily.
"Hmph, I see that you all have a high confidence, let's see if your confidence is as high as your skill! But I'll not cheat; I know that all of you are tired after battling a Chaosdramon before, so we'll begin our battle tomorrow! Be sure to have a good rest!" Salamander stated rudely, and then he vanished.
"How can he know that we battled Chaosdramon before!?" Takeru asked confusedly.
"And for him, beating Chaosdramon is not good enough to prove our worthiness? I don't get it!" Yamato added.
"Didn't you remember what Sylph said before?" Iori asked, "She said that Salamander loves to fight, right? Just like the fire itself!"
"Yeah, you're right, but I still don't get it. Azulongmon said that Zhuqiaomon would help us, but you see, he didn't even make effort to help us!" Daisuke scratched his head in frustration.
"Well, that's more like him!" Veemon stated cheerily.
"What do you mean!?" Taichi asked.
"You see, Zhuqiaomon didn't trust humans very much!" Armadillomon replied, "He's very different from Azulongmon who trusts humans very much."
"Some Sovereign he is!" Daisuke muttered, "Anyway, let's get a good rest to prepare for tomorrow!"
"Can't sleep, Gato?" Patamon asked Gatomon. Yes, Gatomon couldn't sleep tonight for some reason, and decided to take a little walk in the Iris' Shrine garden.
Gatomon startled a little and turned back to see who spoke to her, and then she blushed a little when she saw Patamon, "Yeah, I can't sleep, and I think taking a walk a little will help."
"Is that so?" Patamon asked, "Mind if I tag along?"
"No, not at all." Gatomon replied, and then those two took a walk for awhile.
Gatomon flushed a little as Patamon grabbed her hand and walked together. Yes, the true reason that she couldn't sleep tonight was because she thought about the statement Patamon gave her when he and Armadillomon as Shakkoumon covered she and Hawkmon as Silphymon when Chaosdramon tried to take out them first.
(Gatomon's Flashback)
"S-Shakkoumon, why did you save me?" Silphymon asked, seeing Shakkoumon de-digivolved into Patamon and Armadillomon.
"I…do it for you, Gatomon!" Patamon stated weakly, "I don't want to see you hurt, because you're the most important Digimon in my life!"
'Come on!' Hawkmon in Silphymon stated, 'We can't let their sacrifice go for naught!'
'Y-yes,' Gatomon stated, 'Patamon…, thank you!'
"Huh, Gato, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling OK?" Patamon asked, seeing Gatomon stopped and closed her eyes.
"N-no, I'm okay, let's continue!" Gatomon replied nervously.
"Oh, good to hear that!" Patamon said.
"Uhm, about earlier, thanks for saving me, although I think that you shouldn't do that." Gatomon stated.
"Nonsense, I do it for you, because…you're the most important Digimon in my life. I'll even sacrifice myself for your sake of happiness!" Patamon replied.
Gatomon kept silent for awhile. She didn't know what to say. Yes, she knew that Patamon and Veemon like her very much. Veemon is okay, she thought, but Patamon is somewhat special because he is always with her even in the darkest situation in her life. This feeling is very warm and tender; he truly loves her from the bottom of his heart.
"…That's so sweet of you, Patamon!" finally Gatomon replied, smiling, and then slowly she kissed Patamon.
'Oh, she's so sweet when she's smiling like that. Oh, I think I'm gonna die just to see her like that!' Patamon thought, blushing madly.
"Now, shall we go to sleep? We need to rest to face the battle tomorrow!" Gatomon stated slowly after awhile.
"R-right! Let's go!" Patamon replied, and then they went back together.
Oh, he felt that he was in the top of the world after that wonderful kissing.
Unknown to them, Veemon couldn't sleep, either, and accidentally he spotted Gatomon and Patamon when Gatomon kissed Patamon. Of course, he felt heartbroken seeing that Gatomon kissed Patamon, his rival, but he also spotted something that he'd never seen before: the true happiness painted in Gatomon's face.
'Oh, what's gotten on me anyway? I feel jealous on Patamon, but I feel happy seeing Gatomon so happy like that as well.' Veemon thought confusedly.
'Maybe I should let them to grasp their happiness; they are my friends, after all, and this feeling, yes, I feel happy if my friends are happy too. I think this is the true meaning of friendship, after all.' Veemon smiled, although deep in his heart he was still a little hurt, but the happiness seeing Patamon and Gatomon were so happy eased his heart's pain.
'I think I should go back to sleep as well. I need to prepare for tomorrow to teach that arrogant dragon a lesson!' Veemon thought again, and then he went back without being noticed by Patamon and Gatomon.
To be continued...
A/N: So, how's that? Gatomon finally realized that Patamon loved her very much. I hope you satisfied with that that scene, but this is definitely not the end, there will be another scene for Takari and PataGato.
The next chapter will be a great battle between the DigiDestined and Salamander. How strong Salamander is really? And why he didn't trust the DigiDestined from the beginning? These will be answered in the next chapter!
Finally, just like always, review please! Reviews really make me happy, so after you read this story, please express your opinions, comments, or critiques on your reviews, ok?
