Alright the next chapter and the first real chapter of the second act.
Disclaimer: Je ne possède pas Digimon!
CaptainHookmon had kept his promise after two days on the sea the ship had reached a small bay, that was kind of a natural harbour. With a rough description how, they could get to Gennai the Digidestined had left the ship and had said farewell to their new-found friends.
It had been early in the morning when they had left the ship and had stepped onto the shore. The whole bay was surrounded by huge cliffs on the land side, but thanks to Deputymon's instructions they quickly had found a path that had been crafted out of the cliffs. When they had all walked up the path they quickly had found the waterfall and the river that was the origin of the waterfall, which was a crucial waypoint to find Gennai. According to Deputymon the easiest way to Gennai was to follow the river to its origin there they would be able to find Gennai.
"Remember what Deputymon had said we should never walk to far away from the river especially not in northern direction, north to us is a big desert were we easily could get lost." Reminded them Maikeru.
"And we should be careful when we reach the forest, there could live Digimon that are very hostile to strangers." Added Makani.
"Right, so let's always be careful and let's get going." Said May trying to cheer up the Digidestined.
After they had walked parallel to the river for several hours, afternoon was already approaching and they hadn't even reached the forest or had seen signs of the dessert. The ground was covered with grass in various colours and the landscape only had a few small hills. Apart from their partners they also hadn't met any Digimon yet since they had made a step on Server, the only good thing was that they didn't had to fear thirst, because it was very easy to walk close to the river.
It was then when they realized how far the way to Gennai could be, during a break around noon Maikeru had managed to create a rough map of Server based on the information he had got from Deputymon and CaptainHookmon.
Meanwhile Sakura had used her binocular to have a look at their closer surroundings, but she hadn't found much accept for small hills and grass.
After an hour they continued their march. The fact that their environment didn't change at all made their walk very dull and their mood became worse with every step.
"We really should start thinking about a place for the night." Said Tadashi while he looked at the sun that was slowly coming closer to the horizon.
"Let's take a small rest, I'll use the binocular again." Suggested Sakura. The other Digidestined agreed with her, being happy about any opportunity to have a break.
Sakura once again took a look around with the binocular, after a minute she saw something that caught her interest.
"Guys I think I found something interesting." She said looking at the biggest hill around them.
"What is it?" asked Andrew excited while he walked close to her.
She leaned a bit against his arm. "Do you see that big hill over there."
"Yeah, the one with the black rocks on top of it?"
Sakura smiled. "Yes, but it isn't just rocks I think it could be ruins or something like that."
"Are you sure?" he asked surprised.
She handed him the binocular. "I think so, but you can have a look too."
"Sure." Andrew took the binocular and looked at the hill Sakura had noticed. "No doubt there is an artificial structure on top of the hill."
"We should go there and have a look, maybe it's a good place to stay there for the night." Suggested Masaru.
No one disagreed a safe place for the night was they all wanted the most right now. Together they walked away from the river towards the hill with the structures. On their way they still didn't see any other Digimon expect for their partners. But Hoshi noticed that the closer they came to the hill the more often they saw patches of burned or rotten grass. Also, when they started to walk up the hill that the grass around them didn't look as healthy as close to the river. Maikeru meant it could be because of the distance to the running water, but still the Digidestined started to feel a bit uncomfortable because of the change in their environment.
As they came closer to the top of the hill they saw clearly that the structures on top of the hill were ruins and remnants of a small castle that had burned at least once.
When they had reached the top of the hill they saw that much more of the castle was intact than they had thought at first. Even if the walls were broken down and the tower was only a few debris on the ground, there was still the great hall.
"We could stay here I guess." Said Tadashi a bit sceptical.
"Let's have a look at least, I'm sure it's more comfortable to stay inside for the night than to stay outside." Suggested Masaru.
"I don't have a good feeling with this." Said Tadashi and Maikeru in unison.
May rolled her eyes. "Don't worry boys I'll go first."
"Wait, don't go alone, I'll go with you." Said Masaru and followed her quickly.
"Oh, are you my knight in a shining armour." She said with a smirk while she took a few closer looks at the ruins of the castle.
Masaru blushed slightly. "Sure, I mean if that is ok for you."
"Then come already." She said and went inside the great hall.
The sun was already setting and only a small amount of sunlight found its way into the hall. As far as they could see the great hall was mostly empty, but pretty dirty.
"You can come in, too. It looks save." Said May to the Digidestined outside.
Masaru had walked in as far as the sunlight was illuminating the room, he discovered a few old benches and big tables but nothing spectacular.
"Candlemon could you please make it a bit lighter?" asked Sakura her partner.
Candlemon nodded and concentrated all of its power into the flame on its head illuminating the while hall with a dim light.
"Why has this place to be so dirty?" asked Makani frustrated.
"This isn't just dirt." Said Maikeru who rubbed some of the dirt between his fingers. "It's almost more soot than dust."
Tadashi took a closer look at the wooden tables and benches. "The wood is also covered with a thin layer of soot, but it's not burned."
"Wow look at this." They heard Hoshi speak in amazement.
The other Digidestined turned around and walked over towards Hoshi, together with Renamon she had walked to the far end of the hall and had discovered some kind of oriel. When Candlemon came closer more light fell into the oriel revealing what was inside to the others. In the dim light Hoshi had only seen outlines but now it was clearly visible for all.
In the oriel was a stone and with a bit fantasy the stone had the shape of a pyramid and a sword stuck in the stone. The sword in the stone was very big it was at least as big as Tadashi, the tallest among the Digidestined. The sword itself had a very simple design with a lot of straight lines and no decorative elements it was practical, not fancy.
Only after a few more looks they found something unusual on the base of the edge was symbol approximately the size of hand, the symbol was a light green sword with a slightly oversized cross guard.
"I think we should stay away from that sword." Said Maikeru concerned.
"Why?" asked Masaru confused.
"Because the sword and the stone are absolutely clean, that's odd because everything else in here is covered with soot and dust; and that makes me really uncomfortable."
"That's a very good point, maybe we should clean up a bit on the opposite side of the hall and spend the night there." Added Tadashi.
The other Digidestined had a similar opinion and so the Digidestined walked to the other side of the hall. There wasn't an oriel but stairs went down into the ground and vanished in the darkness, Sakura and Candlemon went closer to the stairs to look for a door or something similar, but even with Candlemon Sakura wasn't able to see much. The darkness at the foot of the stairs seemed to swallow every bit of light that made its way down the stairs.
"We are certainly not going down there." Pointed Makani out.
"I think she is right." Added Andrew quickly.
"I won't disagree, I think we should rest not too far away from the entrance." Said Masaru.
The other Digidestined also shared that opinion no one wanted to be so close to the scary stairs or the sword in the stone. When they had made a few steps away from the from the stairs they suddenly heard a loud rumble coming from the darkness they just had left behind.
"We could also sleep outside I guess." Said Maikeru.
May turned her head to look at her brother. "I'm sure it wasn't something dangerous."
While she was still looking at her brother May made another step and accidently hit a tall iron candle holder, with a loud bang the iron clashed on the ground. A much louder rumble was the instant reply to the loud bang.
"Maybe we really should go outside now." Said Tadashi in a hurry.
All the Digidestined and their partner ran towards the door the entrance of the hall they had used before. Just a few seconds before they reached the entrance big flames bursted out of the threshold, the flames emitted so much heat they had to take a step back.
"You filthy maggots disturbed my sleep, therefore I will cleanse you in my holy fire." They heard a very deep and angry voice speak.
They saw a pair of yellow eyes appear from the darkness, then body with four arms became visible, parts of the body were covered with a golden metal and flames.
"You fools entered my dominion and tainted this holy place." Growled their enemy.
Maikeru's laptop showed a picture of the Digimon together with some information. "Be careful this is Asuramon an ultimate level Digimon. "
While Asuramon came closer facing them with an angry expression they saw the other two faces of Asuramon. With every step Asuramon made the flames around its fists became bigger and its facial expression angrier. The Digidestined pulled out their Digivices.
Kotemon digivolve to Gladimon!
Candlemon digivolve to Wizardmon!
Betamon digivolve to Seadramon!
Dracomon digivolve to Coredramon Blue!
Hagurumon digivolve to Guardomon!
Liollmon digivolve to Liamon!
Falcomon digivolve to Thunderbirdmon!
Renamon digivolve to Reppamon!
The eight Digimon surrounded Asuramon nearly destroying the ceiling of the hall. For a quick moment Asuramon's facial expression changed from wrath to a smile. "You are no match for me!" its facial expression turned back to wrath and it attacked.
Asuramon rushed forward and with four quick punches of its fist it knocked down Gladimon, Wizardmon, Liamon and Guardomon. Standing still Asuramon fired flames from its fists at the remaining four Digimon. The flames burned their skin forcing the Digimon to go into cover.
"You are to weak." Asuramon laughed and charged at the Digidestined.
"Split up and run." Yelled Masaru while running away from Asuramon.
Asuramon stood still and laughed at the Digidestined that were running away in different directions. Its six eyes glared at all the Digidestined. "I will have so much fun with you."
With three quick steps Asuramon walked over to May. "And I will start with you."
Realizing that she wouldn't be able to run away May brought her body into a fighting stance, considering that Asuramon was three times as big as her it looked really ridiculous.
"May don't." Masaru who stood the closest to her ran as fast as he could and manged to push her away just when Asuramon had raised its fist.
"Pathetic." It growled and kicked Masaru sending him fly across the hall and he crushed into the sword in the stone.
With a painful groan Masaru fell to the ground. He didn't know how but he somehow managed to stand up again and saw that May had changed her mind and was no evading Asuramon like the others, but the Digimon's fist came very close to his crush.
Touch the sword! TOUCH THE SWORD!
He heard a voice in his head that seemed a bit familiar to him.
"Put your filthy fingers away from that!" Masaru heard Asuramon's angry voice when he tried to touch the sword.
Asuramon changed its direction and charged at Masaru again, but Seadramon, Coredramon Blue, Thunderbirdmon and Reppamon attacked Asuramon, before it could reach Masaru. Even if the four Digimon had no chance against Asuramon they were able to prevent it from attacking Masaru.
Eventually Masaru touched the sword, but it seemed like nothing had happened, only when he looked a bit closer again he realized that the light green symbol on the sword had vanished.
Instead suddenly a light green light came out of Makani's backpack, the surprise scared her that much that she accidentally threw her backpack off her shoulder. That caused the wooden box that they had received from Deputymon to fall out of the backpack. Now everybody saw that the box was the origin of the green light. The lid had opened itself a bit and the green light came out of the small crack.
Asuramon had knocked out the four Digimon that had attacked it and now continued to make its way to Masaru, but suddenly Gladimon stood in Asuramon's way.
"I am ready Masaru." Said Gladimon confident.
"Ready for what?" asked Masaru flustered.
"Ready to win this fight!" confirmed Gladimon and Masaru looked surprised at his green glowing Digivice.
Gladimon ultimate digivolution to Knightmon!
Gladimon became as big as Asuramon and its body became even more humanoid and bulky, it's armour became stronger and thicker and instead of two sabres it was now holding a big medieval sword.
"What did just happen?" asked Asuramon confused.
"Destiny!" replied Knightmon with a deep and calm voice, before it swung its sword. "Berserk Sword!" An arc of energy followed the trail of the sword that directly aimed at Asuramon.
Asuramon barely managed to block the attack with its four arms, but with a quick movement that none expected from Knightmon it attacked again this time cutting through Asuramon from the head to the hip. The three faced Digimon dissolved into a cloud of data and Knightmon dedigivolved to Kapurimon.
With a painful moan Masaru fell to his knees, May ran to him and give him some support so that he wouldn't fall to the ground completely. When she felt that he tried to stand up she helped him and pulled him into a tight embrace.
"You scared the hell out of me, idiot." She whispered into his ear. "Don't do something like this again."
"I just wanted to protect you." He whispered back.
"I know, but I can't be happy when you save me and get beaten up like this." She said more gently and carefully rubbing his back. Feeling that he was able to stand alone again May slowly broke the embrace.
As soon as they had separated Sakura wanted to look after her brother too, but Kapurimon was faster and jumped into Masaru's arms.
Masaru looked at his partner. "Did you really just digivolve to the ultimate level?"
"Yes, your bravery gave me the power to surpass my limits." Squealed Kapurimon happy.
Masaru wanted to answer something but he was silenced by his sister that gave him a quiet hug.
After a few more moments of awkward silence Tadashi approached his oldest friend. "How's your back."
Masaru shrugged. "Surprisingly good, I mean it doesn't hurt that much, it's more like that my muscles feel very sore."
While everybody was looking after Masaru, Makani had picked up the wooden box, that had stopped to glow after the ultimate digivolution, she placed the box in the middle of the Digidestined.
"Let's have a look I guess." Said Maikeru, not waiting for an answer he carefully opened the box.
Inside the box were eight rhombus shaped pendants, they were crystal clear and looked like they were completely made out of glass, only one pendant was different: in the centre of the pendant was a light green sword with a slightly oversized cross guard.
Sakura took the pendant and gave it to her brother. "I think this one belongs to you."
"Eight Digidestined, eight Pendants this can't be just a coincidence." Sighed Maikeru.
"Great that only means even more trouble is ahead of us." Said Tadashi.
Eventually every Digidestined took a pendant and put it around its neck, after a quick discussion they agreed to still spend the night inside the hall, but they staid really close to the entrance. Now that the flames had died the Digidestined a really good idea why there was so much soot in the hall.
While the others prepared a small camp, May walked over to Masaru. "Take off your shirt."
Masaru looked confused at her, blushing. "What?"
She gave him a small smile. "Take off your shirt, I still got some of the ointment Sepikmon gave us at File Island, I'm sure it will help."
He smiled thankfully at her. "Thank you May."
Outside of the hall, hidden behind a big stone that was once a part of the wall stood two Digimon: a small orange dinosaur and an oversized ladybug.
"That was really close." Said the dinosaur like Digimon.
"But it was necessary." Answered the ladybug like Digimon.
And that's it for this chapter. Sadly, this is the last chapter for this year, I'll use the rest of the year for my other stories.
Also, I need a beta-reader for this story, mostly for grammar- and spell-check, so if you are interested PM me.
As always pls R&R and I see you soon, happy holidays.
sayonara