so, the chapter ended up getting cut in half due to lack of progress, sorry about that...
"Can you see it? That large mountain sticking out above the trees?" SistermonBlanc asked.
"That's where the ruins are? All the way up there?" J.P. asked looking out towards said mountain.
"No, that's where the entrance is. The ruin's themselves are said to extend through the mountain and continue out bellow the forest floor. No one knows just how deep or how far they go through." SistermonNoir corrected.
"The artifact your friend was interested in is said to lie in the innermost heart of the ruins, but no one knows where exactly that is." SistermonBlanc explained.
"So basically she just ran off head first into a wild goose chase claiming to be back in only three hours." Koji scoffed.
"Well, maybe she had some kind of plan?" Tommy suggested.
"How? They basically just said it's an uncharted labyrinth." JP pointed out irritatedly.
"Not necessarily. Remember what Seraphimon said about her being connected to the digital world in the past and about her father? Maybe she knows something we don't," Bokomon suggested, then more to himself he added, "at least I would hope she does..."
"Maybe, she does seem the type to think things through..." Zoe agreed.
"But only to an extent, no matter what the case she still manges to overlook her own stamina. If she pulled an all nighter again last night and then had Dorumon digivolve to get there then there's no garentee she'll last long enough for them to get back, or that they even made it there." Koji pointed out.
"Ok.. Now I'm worried." Takuya muttered as his eyes widened.
"but then what are we supposed to do? we don't really have a way of getting there ourselfs and if they didn't even make it then we'll never know." Tommy said.
"We do have a way, we can fly with our spirits." Zoe suggested.
"We would also gladly take you as close as we can." SistermonBlanc volunteered.
"That would be great!" Takuya remarked.
"Um, could Tobucatmon, Puroromon and I wait here? Kiry said it was important for getting back, though I don't really know how." Ryudamon said.
"So she did have a plan to get back?" Tommy asked.
"Doesn't make going any less reckless." Koji huffed.
"Well, alright. Then it's desided. You guys'll wait here while we go get Kiry." Takuya said.
Once the pirates took them close enough Takuya and JP started to spirit evolve.
"Execute! Spirit Evolution!" They both cried.
"Beetlemon!"
"Agunimon!"
Agunimon then jumped from the ship and yelled "Slide Evolution! BurningGreymon!"
Then they took off, Tommy, Bokomon, and Neemon road with Beetlemon, while Koji and Zoe road with BurningGreymon.
Once they came to fly over the large mountain they found an area where the trees parted to make a clearing and landed, except the view from the land turned out to be quiet different from the one from the sky.
"So this is it?" Koji asked as they arrived.
"Woah! It's huge!" Takuya, who along with the others had already de-digivolved, exclaimed.
Before them was large, grandice temple with large columns decorated with fruit vines ascending infinitely towards the sky despite not being visible from the air, there were no walls but insted a distorted space accented by shrubbery that stuck out the from the same place it protruded the area, the space inside appeared to go on forever despite occupying only a relatively small mountain top. The entrance was marked only by a few small steps leading to the stone platform within.
"What's that?" Tommy exclaimed, pointing up as they walked inside.
Far above them hovered a grand statue of untold size.
"Is it supposed to be a cloud?" JP asked, baffled.
"I don't think so, it looks like it has some kind of figure head..." Zoe commented.
"I've never seen anything like it before." Bokomon observed with intrigue.
"You mean this isn't something commen to the digital world?" JP asked.
"If it was I'd sure like to ride one!" Neemon declaired.
"Ride? How can you ride a stationary statue how would you be get to one in the sky like that!" Bokomon exclaimed.
"I don't know, maybe find a flying trailmon?" Neemon said.
Bokomon snapped his pants before proceeding to ignore him.
"In any case it sure is cool." Takuya observed.
"Nevermind that now, we should get moving." Koji said as he turned and started walking.
"Always going ahead on his own.." JP sighed
After what felt like three miles of walking JP and Tommy finally collapsed on to their knees.
"What the hell? This mountain top couldn't have been more then 100 metters across when we flew over it. How is it possible that this place still keeps going?" JP wined.
"I'm with JP, this is pretty wierd." Zoe agreed, rubbing her arms.
"We can't just stop though..." Takuya frowned.
"Hey, I think I see something!" Neemon exclaimed.
"It's called a hallucination Neemon, there's nothing here." JP grunted.
"No, he's right I see it too." Bokomon said. "It's still far off but you can see it." He explained.
They squinted their eyes and in the distance they could make out a solitary grey object, blurred by the distance.
"Let's go check it out." Takuya said before he suddenly ran off with the others close behind, JP and Tommy were lagging a bit since they had to get up first.
When they reached the place they found not one, not two, but three more magnificent looking status, each was floating, but the did not seem quite as grand as the first.
"They're all dragons." Koji observed.
"Or more like Dragon digimon." Bokomon corrected. "I recognize these three, they're Magnadramon, Goldramon, and Megidramon. All mega level Dragon digimon." He explained.
"What about the one at the entrance?" Zoe asked.
"Hm... Well going with the pattern he must be a Mega level Dragon digimon too I suppose, but the thing is I've never seen a digimon like that before." Bokomon admited.
"It seems like they were pretty important to whoever built this place though..." Tommy observed.
"Hm... And here I thought I was versed in most all the ancient cultures." Bokomon pouted.
Suddenly Zoe caught something in the corner of her eye.
"Hey guys! I found some stairs!" She called.
The stairs sat directly infront of the Magnadrmon statue.
As they proceeded down they found them self's in a huge tunnle leading in to directions and on the wall directly infront of them was a discription.
"Be warned, inside the depest layer of this temple maze sleeps a maze of heart, if you are true you may find your own way, if not you may find yourself pray to the demons that sleep in these walls." Bokomon read.
"Heart? Demons? What's it talking about?" JP questioned.
"Hm... Quite frankly I have no idea, who ever built this place, it seems apparent I'm not framiliar with their culture..." Bokomon sighed.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to be extra careful... Anyone got a marker or something so we can mark where we've been?" Takuya suggested.
"I've got one here." Tommy volunteered.
"Alright, then we'll leave it to you buddy." Takuya grined.
"So which way should we go?" Koji asked.
"Hm... I think we should go this way." Zoe said, pointing to the left.
"Why the left?" JP asked, curiously.
Zoe smirked.
"Never question a woman's intuition, isn't that obvious?" She said with confidence.
"Well we've got nothing better to go on, might as well." Takuya shrugged.
The followed the path for a wile, taking turns desiding which path to take, only coming to places they'd already been twice, when they started to hear loud cloping noises from behind them.
As they turned to look back they saw what seemed like some kind of samari on horse back.
"Uh-oh, that's Zanbamon! A virus attributed mega level, demon man type digimon. His speacial attack unleashes a shock wave that can cut his opponents apart!" Bokomon cried.
"Damn. Let's go! Execute! Spirit-ugh!" Takuya started to say but was cut off as Zanbamon started swinging his blade around in attacks that tore apart the floor and walls.
"There's no time! Everybody run!" Koji called to his friends as they all panicked desperately in efforts to avoid the swings.
As they ran franticly they saw that up ahead the path diverged into two directions.
"Ugh, I say we go right!" JP declared and the group suddenly split into two.
Takuya and Koji, who were up ahead, and Bokomon, who had his head in the book, and Neemon, who was blindly following him, all ran right, while Zoe and Tommy followed JP, who had looked back and then in mist the fear of when he saw the digimon swinging his sword again a bit to the right, panicked and accidentally ran left.
Zanbamon turned and pursued the side with the three humans without a single thought of hesitation.
"Hey, JP! You said to go right why did you go left?" Zoe scolded.
"I don't know, I was too busy being scared to remember which way was actually right and with was left!" JP exclaimed.
"We've been separated from the others, now what'll we do?" Tommy wined.
"I don't know, but for now, just run!" JP panicked as they ran.
Takuya, Koji, Bokomon and Neemon on the other hand had been running quite a wile before Koji noticed that the sounds of the attacks were dieing off and turned to see what had happened.
At the sight of the missing he stopped dead in his tracks getting the attention of the others who now realized what had happened as well.
"This isn't good..." Takuya sighed.
"Why did even the one who sad to go right run left? What an idiot." Koji questioned.
"I wish we noticed they weren't following sooner, there's no telling how far they've gotten by now." Takuya groaned in frustration.
"Why not just break through a wall? The paths were right net to each other right?" Neemon asked, earning him a wack from Bokomon.
"Really, have you not been paying attention at all? This place is a laborenth, the paths aren't going to just continue right next to each other, even if there is a path on the other side it might just be one that takes us even further from our destination!" Bokomon scolded him.
"Where is our destination anyways?" Neemon asked blissfully.
"Well, SistermonBlanc said Kiry was headed for the innermost heart of the ruins, but we have no idea where that is or if she even made it there." Takuya sighed.
"And now we've been split up in a dangerous place to boot. What was she thinking coming here?" Koji groaned.
"Well, we can ask her about it after we find her but there's not much we can do about it now. I'm worried about the others too. We could spirit evolve now but we don't know where they went." Takuya contimplated.
"Well, we can always start by going back to the place we got split up." Bokomon suggested.
"That's true. It'll go faster if we spirit evolve first." Koji put in.
"Right." Takuya agreed.
"Execute! Beast Spirit Evolution!"
"BurningGreymon!"
"KendoGarurumon!"
"You guys best get on." KendoGarurumon said to Bokomon and Neemon as he leaned down to let them on and they took off after the others.
Meanwhile with JP, Zoe, and Tommy.
"Damn... I can't... keep running like this..." JP huffed, exosted.
"Don't you give up on us JP!" Zoe warned.
"My legs really hurt too..." Tommy moaned before collapsing.
"Tommy!" Zoe and JP turned back to see Zanbamon about to bring down his sword on Tommy.
"Lightning Arrow!" Someone called and a bunch of arrows hit Zanbamon's arm, making him drop his sword so it just missed Tommy.
"Phoenix Claw!" Another voice shouted as a big golden bird suddenly rammed Zanbamon into the wall.
"Argh!" Zanbamon cried as he threw the bird off of him and reclaimed his blade.
"Hunting knife!" He yelled as he charged and swung his sword at the bird.
"Fenrir Sword!" The other voice called out as a third digimon that looked like a cross between a man and a bird appeared, swinging his sword at Zanbamon and freezing the digimon in place.
"Are you alright?" The man-bird digimon asked, turning to the three children.
"W-we're fine, thank you. But... Who are you guys...?" Zoe asked, still trying to prosses what had happened.
"They're Valkyrimon and Eaglemon, the guardians of these ruins." A new, but framiliar voice explained.
They quickly spun around to see the source of the voice and were supprised and relieved at what, or rather who, they saw.
"Kiry!" Tommy exclaimed.
"Your alright!" Zoe also exclaimed with relief.
"Of course." Kiry smiled cheekily, Dorumon following along behind her.
"I didn't think you guys would follow us though, these ruins aren't a good place to be wandering around without a map." Kiry said, more seriously.
"You have map of the place?" J.P. asked in surprise.
"Yeah. It wasn't easy to get though. Are the others here too? I hope they haven't gotten lost, or worse..." Kiry said in concern.
"What do you mean by worse?" J.P. asked nervously.
"Become chou for a Mega of course." Kiry said flippantly.
"Of course. Sorry I asked..." JP wined.
"What's so much worse about megas anyway? We fight strong opponents all the time, why be so warry of these ones?" Tommy asked curiously.
"Mega level digimon are in a league all their own. I did some research, all the big names you hear, the celestial digimon, the original ten legendary warriors, all megas. It seems like most all of them possess incredible power. You guys could barely take on the other warriors. If a Mega shows up we need to split. Fast." Kiry explained.
As for Takuya, Koji, Bokomon, and Neemon they were still trying to catch up with the others when they crossed a place that had been particularly damaged by Zanbamon's rampage, so much so that just the wind sturred up by a beat of BurningGreymon wings was enough to force the entire area of the hall to collapse, ceiling, walls, floor, and all.
Three out that underneath was a long drop and the force of getting hit by the rubble forced the two warriors to de-digivolve, though somehow they still survived, even though they were seriously banged up.
"Ugh... Bokomon? Neemon? Koji? You guys ok?" Takuya asked as he picked himself up, holding his head as he did so.
"I'm alive... I think..." Koji moaned, he too was holding his head.
"We're alright too." Bokomon supplied. Koji had managed to shield him and Neemon so they didn't get particularly hurt.
"Looks like we have some luck at least, most the rubble got stuck up there. We'd be dead otherwise." Koji commented, looking up to see that most the mess had been caught by a stray wall and support beam that had somehow gotten stuck.
"Jeez. Just where the heck are we anyways? This place gives me the creeps!" Takuya complained, running his arms to retain warmth as he looked around, the room they were currently in was rather cold.
"It appears to be some kind of ancient burial ground of some sort..." Bokomon said as he studied an inscription he found on the walls carefuly with a magnifying glass while consulting the book.
"Burial ground? But I thought that digimon couldn't actually die, so what's there to bury?" Koji asked sceptically.
"I'm not sure... To be honest there are a lot of ancient terms I'm not framiliar with. I'm trying to consult the book but it's not translating over very smoothly, it's almost like it's in a code like the one at Seraphimon's castle, but this one seems more discreet and challenging..." Bokomon observed.
Suddenly they heard a loud but mopholed "Bam," followed by another and another.
"Footsteps. Big ones." Koji said.
"That can't be good." Takuya groaned.
They all turned just in time to see a large, blue, armored Dragon standing in the doorway growling at them.
Bokomon's eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sight.
"That's Darkdramon! Not good can't even begin to cover it! He's a virus attribute, mega level, cyborg digimon; the 'Gigastick Lance' in his right hand is said to rival Gallentmon's holy lance, 'Gram,' and it's said no one can survive a hit from his special move 'Dark Roar,' that fires dark matter as energy shots!" Bokomon exclaimed.
"Sounds like we'd better concentrate on getting out of here alive!" Takuya declared before both he and Koji pulled out their D-tectors.
"Execute! Beast spirit evolution!" They both shouted.
"BurningGreymon!"
"KendoGarurumon!"
To be continued...
sorry to cut the chapter short after all but it was taking way too long so I didn't have much choice...
