And here is Chapter 10. We're slowly getting through this, aren't we? We're roughly around the half-way point.
Let's talk about some reviews, shall we?
MrQuestionMark: Yeah... this is building to something, and it is actually the big event in the CS story, the events of Under Zero. Glad you liked the idea of Mikoto running around! Can't have Touma be the only Index character present, after all!
whwsms: Not even in the digital world and Othinus escape her size issue... And yeah; Hiraku is like a bad cold that keeps coming back... but it's for a reason! I'm just glad people are starting to notice the hot-head. He was a character who was definitely fun to make and have around.
WilliamZ0: Too each their own. I love both games, but I would be lying if I said I didn't like Hacker's Memory more; it hit me in a nice emotional spot hat was more than a little personal for me, especially with it somewhat implied that Keisuke did keep his memories too. Yes, Nokia finally appears; you just had to be patient! And he gives Hiraku a pounding... which is becoming a thing, as you'll see. I feel liek you have some negative bias toward Mikoto... keep in mind; her abilities are more than suited for hacking, as she has done on multiple occasions... and Touma's hacking ability is right around 0, and would otherwise be going in solo because... that how Touma rolls; leaving him often roadblocked a lot because hacking not his forte by a long shot. I can tell your not really fond of her... but try and set aside the bias if you can; she is definitely there for a reason, not just because I want her to be.
wolfking: You'll see! I got plenty of secrets to unveil here!
oshawottlover: I'm not telling anything! Most of the romantic options I'm leaving up for interpretations this time around.
Guest (1): The Chaos of Under Zero will soon be known... fufu!
Mr. X: I didn't say anything... because you were actually rather close to the money with those suggestions. Yeah; I tried to keep Nokia and Touma's interactions fun, as Touma is the straight man, Nokia is the airhead, and Chitose as the wingman; fun stuff. I don't want to tip my hand as to who does/doesn't appear... but those two specifically are unlikely. Seria because I'm not sure how to work her in, and Misaki because, even though I like her, due to her conditions with Touma, she's hard to have regularly involved... plus, Mental Out breaks the game, and this is more of an action story. Sorry about that.
wiliamsusanto: Yup! That mess is here! As for Kimeramon... you'll see... fufu!
With that taken care of... Enjoy!
Only a few days passed before the invasion of Under Zero began.
Just as it started, one unlucky Kamijou arrived there as soon as he could. Chitose had actually been keeping him updated on the Zaxon side of things and let the spiky-haired teen know just when it began.
Even though it just started however, fighting was already breaking out.
Wild digimon were loose in the Valhalla server, likely some kind of security measure, but on top of that, rival hackers from other groups were duking it out with each other, trying to stall other teams from reaching the end first.
However, there was no sign of Machina Revolution.
Touma moved around quietly in-between the fighting factions, slithering his way slowly but surely toward the access point to the next floor, taking it without hesitation. The second floor was much like the first, filled with hackers and wild digimon. While maneuvering around, Touma could have sworn he saw a familiar face or two, but pressed on regardless; he had a job to do.
Upon reaching a red firewall however, something that had been nagging him in the back of his mind finally hit its peak.
"…Where is Misaka!? I can't move ahead without her!" Touma shouted, pounding on the firewall in a vain attempt to break through. "Oh come on… I sent her a text when I first got here… where is she…!?"
A few hard hits later, Touma sighed as he laid his head against the barrier in front of him. Not long after, a voice called out to him, but not one he was familiar with.
"Well… lookie here; someone made it to the end!"
"Too bad it's just a normie who can break through a level 1 fire wall; talk about pathetic, am I right?"
It was a pair of two male hackers. They didn't appear to be Zaxon, but they were clearly from the same team.
"…Such misfortune…" Touma uttered with depression quite clear in his voice. Dorugamon spawned next to him with a growl.
"What do you know? The loser does have a Digimon! Just a champion though… heh!" One of the hackers stated.
"That just means we get to have some fun first! What do you say we-"
Suddenly, both hackers lit up with a bright blue light, their bodies twitching incoherently; a reaction akin to electrocution. Eventually, both of the hacker's avatars vanished, likely deleted entirely, and a certain brown haired girl was standing right behind where the two unfortunate souls once stood.
"…Hey Misaka."
"I-I save your ass and that's all the thanks I get!?" Mikoto shouted.
"On one hand, I'm grateful. On the other, I'm annoyed that you showed up late." Touma deadpanned.
"L-late!? I was here before you, idiot!"
"That why didn't you say anything!?" Touma fired back. "I texted you four or five times! I even tried calling you, but there was no answer!"
"Those two were following you, so I was shadowing them to make sure they didn't pull anything before I could stop them! I did just save you, remember!?" Mikoto shouted.
For a brief moment, Touma was quiet.
"…You're right; and I thank you for that, Misaka." Touma replied. "…But that doesn't answer why you didn't text me back for any kind of warning."
The Railgun suddenly froze in place with an embarrassed blush across her face.
"…Anyway…"
"You intend to gloss over this, don't you?" Touma deadpanned.
"A-N-Y-W-A-Y!" Mikoto shouted. "Let me take care of that firewall before anyone else gets any bright ideas." Mikoto placed her hand on the firewall as sparks flew from her body. The barrier began to glitch out, changing in size, shape, and color repeatedly before it completely vanished as if it was never there. Compared to other instances of breaking through firewalls, this particular take down seemed odd, but it definitely got the job done.
"…So was that actually a level 1 security wall? Or…?" Touma asked.
"Nah; level four. Those two assholes were just talking crap." Mikoto stated. "But the ID code on that fire wall belongs to Kamishiro though… if that's accurate, then it's probably likely that no one has descended yet… should we even bother heading down deeper to look?"
"These guys and teleport around cyber space and around walls and obstacles like its nothing; even if a firewall was blocking the way down, a quick look around can't hurt. Worse case scenario we only see wild digimon loose in the server and we have to come back and wait for them to try something." Touma argued. The Railgun nodded in agreement rather quickly and the two took the narrow path downward, eventually ending in an access point to the third floor. Dorugamon returned to Touma's Digivice at his point and the two pressed forward.
When they reached the third floor however, an unusual surprise was waiting for them.
"…Kamijou?"
"Ryuji-san?"
Just a few meters away from the entrance to the second floor of the Valhalla Server, one Mishima Ryuji stood.
"You're the one who disabled the firewall?" Ryuji asked.
"Me, actually." Mikoto corrected. "Had to get down here somehow, you know?"
"…Suddenly the whole situation Chitose-san was talking about makes sense." Touma rubbed his neck.
"Chitose, huh…" Ryuji looked down for a brief moment before refocusing his gaze on the unlucky Kamijou. "Either way; I'm the one guarding this floor. It doesn't matter to me why, but if you want to keep going, you're going to have to get past me, got it?"
Ryuji looked serious. His Cyberdramon spawned behind him to emphasize his point. Touma didn't know why, but the Hudie Leader looked deathly serious and ready to strike down whoever was unlucky enough to cross him.
However…
"…So, no one has come down here aside from me and Misaka-san, right?" Touma asked. "No one has done any floor hopping?"
"I figured that was implied by the situation." Ryuji replied. "Even if someone did make it around, I have access to Kamishiro's security network; I can keep track of anyone across all floors you know. I don't know why you're here, but this is your last chance; go home."
As if Touma's existence was destined to throw off the Hudie Leader however, the unlucky Kamijou let out a relieved sigh.
"That's good… if that's the case, the chance of them being down here is virtually zero." Touma crossed his arms and smiled lightly.
"…He could be lying, you know." Mikoto stated.
"I doubt it… if they had those guys on pay roll, I don't think we'd see as many people up above then…" Touma reasoned out. "Plus, if they were working together, there'd be no reason for Ryuji to be here, and he's clearly working for them at the moment… even if I don't understand why."
"…Wait," Ryuji spoke up. "You're… not here for Under Zero, are you?" Ryuji seemed to ease up, but he didn't recall his digimon to his Digivice.
"Could care less. This whole server could bite the dust and it wouldn't affect me at all." Touma replied. "I'm just looking for some unwanted people that could take this entire shit-storm and make it worse."
"Who?" Ryuji asked.
"Machina Revolution," Touma answered. "Took a look at their server; practically said that they were getting in on this too when I met up with some of them that happened to stay behind."
"You're kidding…" Ryuji's eyes narrowed; it was clear he didn't like this news any more than Touma did. "They aren't anywhere in the upper floors yet?"
"Nope; not when we looked anyway. Figured since they can shift in and out of servers at will that it might be worth looking beyond the firewall… but if you have this whole place under lock and key…" Touma trailed off.
"…I can't let anyone down beyond this point, so you're just going to have to take my word for it when I say there is no one else who has made it past here yet." Ryuji replied. Touma thought for a moment before nodding in agreement.
"In that case, I'll head back up then and keep my eyes open for them." The unlucky Kamijou spoke. "Since you are going to be standing guard here anyway, do you think you could let me know if you see them?"
"…Listen, there's a lot you really don't know about my position at the moment. I'm not sure if I can agree to that right now, even if you're the one asking." The stern leader replied, crossing his arms in the process.
"If it were any other day or situation, I'd ask what was happening and see how I could help… but I can only do so much at once, so I won't question it and you don't have to tell me a thing about what you're going through if you don't want." Touma shook his head. "But… considering what these guys did to those digimon… you can see why it'd be bad if they somehow got down to Under Zero and pulled a similar stunt with that instead, right?"
Ryuji tensed up, looking off to the side with a look of guilt plastered on his face. However, in the end, he looked back at the unlucky Kamijou and nodded, though the act was clearly reluctant.
"…You have a point. All right, if by some off chance I see any of them and they manage to get around me, I'll message you." Ryuji replied. "…But if I can beat them down and send them packing, promise me you'll get out of here, ok?"
"That was the plan from the start. I'm no hacker; this really isn't the place for someone like me." Touma replied. "I'm going to head back up. They might just charge through the front door and make their way down, after all."
"Stay safe and be careful; there is more to this place than what meets the eye." Ryuji bid the duo farewell as they went back to the access point, returning to the first floor in the process.
"…Do you really think we can trust him? I know he's a friend of yours, but…" Mikoto crossed her arms.
"To be honest… I'm questioning that myself." Touma replied. "…But the confliction in his words felt real, plus he tried to order us back rather than attacking us on sight; if he wanted us gone he could have just attacked us and been done with it."
"…You assume I'd lose?" Mikoto sparked lightly.
"You know what I mean; if he really didn't care, he would have attacked first and asked questions later. I want to know what he's going through… but sometimes stuff like this is mutually exclusive; you can't save everyone, you know."
"Hard to believe you said that… especially since you pull stunts like that constantly. Everyone being saved but you is the norm when you're involved." Mikoto replied.
"…So what you're saying is, me just being here practically ensures all of this will work out, but I'll somehow find myself in the emergency room with a few broken arms and legs as the price to pay?" Touma smiled cheekily.
"…Ok, one: It disturbs me how used to this song and dance you are. Two: I don't even want to know how you'd get your physical body hospitalized due to physical injuries from a digital platform." Mikoto deadpanned.
"Hey; if there's a way, I'm practically doomed to find it." Touma replied, but sighed not long after. "That's… depressing to think about… such misfortune."
The clashes in the Valhalla server appeared to get worse during the two's absence. As Mikoto and Touma made their way back to the first floor, the fighting was getting increasingly violent, and the number of participants grew as more hacker teams got involved. The first floor was in better shape, as many people had moved on. The only ones remaining where the unfortunate losers as well as the few winners who were unfortunately unable to move on.
The two pressed on, keeping their eyes peeled for any unusual activity. However, during this the unlucky Kamijou almost ran into another person, just barely able to avoid the collision as the two danced around to avoid the other.
It was yet another surprise appearance.
"A-Aiba-san!?"
"Kamijou-san?"
Now standing across from the unlucky Kamijou was a familiar red-haired Cyber Sleuth.
"What are you doing here? You don't strike me as the type to be interested in something like this." Touma asked.
"We could ask you the same thing, you know?" A different voice answered, revealing it to belong to Sanada Arata. "Damn… this huge mess even got you dragged in, huh?"
"More or less… just some people I'd rather not have involved are dipping their hands into it…" Touma replied.
"…Struggle never ends, does it?" Arata asked.
"Not a chance in hell." Touma let out an exasperated sigh.
"…Seriously, just how many people do you know?" Mikoto asked.
"I can ask him the same thing; it's hard not to recognize Academy City's poster child, you know." Arata slipped his hands into his pockets. "He sure gets around a lot, huh?"
"You're telling me…" Mikoto shook her head.
"…Why do I feel like I'm being judged?" Touma deadpanned.
"Kamijou-san… do you have a second?" Ami asked. "I'm looking for my friend. She kind of got hyped up about all this Under Zero business and came down here with her own group… her name is Shiramine Nokia and she has red hair, might be wearing an overly revealing dress..."
"…Prefers to be called Akkino?" Touma asked.
"Yes! That's her to a T; have you seen her?"
"I… might have seen her on the second floor? Sorry; I was focusing on looking for some specific people and kind of blocked everything else out." Touma replied.
"Who exactly are you looking for so badly that it needs that much concentration?" Arata asked.
"I do believe he is looking for me if I had to guess."
A new voice resonated a small stance behind the room, towards the server entrance.
Much to their surprise, one Samson Ainsworth stood with his hands in his pockets… the odd part of that being that prior to this encounter, Samson had lost one of his arms entirely. It was reasonable to assume that he would have simply needed to log out and log back in to reform his avatar's missing limb, but something about his appearance gave off a rather unsettling vibe.
"…Figures that you'd be the first one to show up out of Machina Revolution." Touma's face turned serious as his gaze shifted to the well-dressed cabal boss.
"And here I thought our meeting was just a simple fortunate coincidence; someone must have went and told, huh?" Samson replied.
"You could say that… what do you mean by meeting me again being fortunate?" Touma asked.
"Well, the fact that it's a shame that we don't see eye to eye, of course." Samson answered. "I was angry with my project's failure, but one must not dwell on the past lest they be absorbed by it and all that. This meeting is a positive one because it delivers onto me the opportunity to have you see things my way."
"Sorry, but I don't think that's going to happen." The spiky haired teen shot back.
"Oh I assure you that the possibility is very real, and that I intend to pursue it whole heartedly. Not by shifting your perception with some kind of spell, but with cold, hard results." The well-dressed mage replied. "However, that will have to wait for a moment or two. I have an appointment to keep in the depths of this server. I hope that's not too much of an issue. After all, I assume as long as I'm in this server, you will be here as well, correct?"
"Do you really think I'm going to let you slip by on your own?" Touma asked. Dorugamon appeared next to him with a low growl to emphasize his point.
Samson glanced around for a moment before letting out a soft laugh.
"Oh of course, silly me! I forgot to send out the signal!"
The moment those words left the cabal bosses lips, several portals appeared in the digital space, each one with magi walking through in mass.
There must have been around forty of them. Oddly, it appeared that the usual interloper, Hiraku, was absent.
"Ten of you, with me! The rest; clean up everything so that my appointment goes undisturbed." Samson ordered. The magi began to call out their respective digimon and began to assault the various other hackers in the area. Without another word more, Samson and the ten he called out vanished into another rift.
"Damn it all…!" Touma cursed.
"So that's the guy huh… and these guys are from his group…" Mikoto stated. "…I'd say we should press on ahead and stop him before he pulls whatever stunt he's going for, but considering it sounds like these guys will make their way slowly downward…"
"Yeah, they might take us from behind if we ignore them…" Touma cursed. "…Hey, Aiba-san, Sanada-san; you two should move on."
"And leave you two alone with the hoard? You crazy!?" Arata shouted.
"Yeah, and if this hoard reaches the lower levels in the clean sweep they're aiming for, they'll catch your friend!" Touma shouted. "Well hold them off and meet up with you later, then we can all get out of here in one piece!"
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on this idiot. Make sure your friend is safe; we'll be fine." Mikoto added. Arata clicked his teeth; as much as he hated to admit it, their goal was to pull Nokia's butt out of the fire she threw herself in, and considering she was on a crash course with Zaxon's finest in the lower levels, there really was only one call to make.
"…Ami, let's go!" Arata turned down the path and ran. Ami herself hung back for a moment however.
"Stay safe, Kamijou-san!" She shouted before running after Arata, descending to the next floor with him.
So the Imagine Breaker and the Railgun were left alone, save for Touma's Dorugamon who stood in-between them.
"…You know, sending them off was probably a bad idea; really could have used their help with this." Mikoto commented.
"Stick around; I'm full of bad ideas." Touma shot back.
"So; what's the plan? I still have my QueenChessmon, a mega level, but her taking on thirty of these guys is probably a stretch… and I don't exactly have anything metallic to fire off my railgun here in cyber space, you know."
Touma nodded with a frown, glancing down toward his Dorugamon. However, just as he did so he remembered something important.
"…Yes you do, Misaka." Touma ruffled his partner's fur for a moment. "Just wait for my signal."
The thirty magi tore through the exhausted and weakened hackers left behind as if they were paper. The few that offered any kind of real resistance were quickly swarmed and done in without remorse. The group moved as a large unit, making their way across the room, approaching the path to the access point.
"…Hey, is that the Imagine Breaker?" One of the magi pointed out, recognizing the spiky haired teen.
"Well, isn't this perfect? Let's take him down!" Another shouted. The group seemingly agreeing began to march forward with their respective digimon, as well as several beginning to prepare spells.
This event didn't go unnoticed, however.
"Shit… we're out of time!" Touma shouted, darting to his left. "Misaka, Dorugamon! Do it now!"
At his command, Dorugamon fired one of his signature Cannonball attacks. However, he didn't shoot it towards the magi, but rather up into the air, and with noticeably less power than normal, causing it to come back down rather quickly. As it did so, Mikoto punched the side of the iron sphere.
The reason was simple; there was no metal for the Railgun to take advantage of in cyber space. Even if something appeared to be metal, it was just a simulated texture rather than carrying any of irons true properties.
However, there was a notable exception. Digimon were not simulated being or existences of any kind; their bodies felt and appeared as real as any normal animal, despite the digital setting and their digital appearance.
That trait carried on to their attacks. Fire felt like fire, water felt like water… and iron felt like real iron.
…And if that iron was just like real iron, then…
"Eat this you bastards!"
It could be fired off like real iron.
Instantly, the iron sphere shot off, easily surpassing the speed of sound as it shined a bright orange, slamming right into the crowd of magi and ripping it in half. Those directly hit by the railgun blast where annihilated instantly along with their digimon, while the shockwave from such a fast object quickly took care of the vast majority of the rest of them, blasting them off the server's edges and plunging them into the abyss.
Only a select few managed to stay on the platform, and those few quickly realized the gravity of the situation.
Though the magi had succeeded so far in dealing with a great amount of hackers, they were not finished with their purge, and with more than half of their numbers obliterated…
Mikoto and Touma joined in on the ensuing mob of hackers, pummeling and then deleting the avatars of the remaining members of Machina Revolution.
"…Tell me; did you know that would work?" Mikoto asked after the last mage had been dealt with.
"Truthfully? Not even the slightest clue." Touma admitted.
"S-so you bet this entire thing on one big ass gamble!? What if it didn't work you idiot!" Mikoto shouted.
"W-well… hey! It worked out, so let's not get too bent out of shape about it! Dumb ideas work out sometimes, right?" Touma began to stroke his Dorugamon's fur. "Isn't that right? Good boy!" Dorugamon began to smile at the affection he was receiving.
"H-hey! What about me!? I'm the one who fired off the railgun, after all!" Mikoto stated. Touma eyed her for a moment before nodding in agreement.
He then began to pat her head, causing Mikoto's face to turn bright red.
"Good… girl?" Touma didn't sound sure of himself.
"I-I M-M-MEANT THANKING ME Y-YOU IDIOT!" The Railgun shouted loud, clearly embarrassed. Touma reflexively pulled back his hand.
"R-right! Sorry! Em… t-thanks Misaka! Couldn't have done it without you!" Touma stated.
"S-seriously… why was that your first reaction…?" Mikoto huffed and turned away. She decided to keep the fact that she enjoyed the attention a secret for the sake of saving her the embarrassment.
"S-sorry… anyway, with that taken care of, let's-" Touma turned to begin walking towards the access point when he stopped in his tracks.
Because a Humanoid Eater was right in his path.
He didn't move, appearing to lock eyes with the monstrosity, not daring to move to avoid setting it off.
However, when the tendril monster made a move to wrap its "arms" around the unlucky Kamijou, his retaliation was swift. He brought his right arm up and slammed it into the humanoid Eater's side, with Imagine Breaker obliterating the creature without a moment to spare.
"…What was that thing?" Mikoto asked. "…A digimon? But you took it down in one hit, so…"
"…An Eater, in here?" Touma gulped. The sight of the Eater itself wasn't particularly alarming, but where it appeared however was a completely different story.
While a problem, Touma's school server security when updated proved to be enough to keep them at bay. Even if the monsters naturally eroded and devoured data, a regularly maintained security presence of some kind could keep them out of secure servers, and surely Kamishiro knew this was possible if they made the system to begin with, and likely had security in place for just that reason.
Therefore… if that was indeed the case, and if Eaters had managed to infiltrate the Valhalla server, Kamishiro's oldest and most important location in EDEN…
"H-hey! What are these things!?"
…Was likely because someone else let them into the server purposefully.
Touma turned to see the coalition of exhausted hackers beginning to be swarmed by Eaters, both normal and humanoid. From the looks of these, a few had already fallen victim to the data-craving beasts.
"Misaka! Blast every single one of them! These things aren't digimon!" Touma ran towards the crowd of hackers, punching Eaters as he came across them. Mikoto wasted little time with unleashing her electricity to eradicate a large pack of the black and white horrors.
However, despite eliminating them in mass, more kept pouring into the server.
"What the hell are these things!? Don't just tell me to attack them without an explanation you idiot!" Mikoto shouted.
"Does it look like we have the time to chat!?" Touma fired back. He looked around quickly, looking for the logout terminal. It was easy to find, but it was completely cut off due to the hoard. "Misaka! Blast a hole right through these freaks to these guys can escape!"
"Fine, you got it!" A large wave of pure electricity rippled out from the Railgun, slamming into the hoard, forcefully erasing them. A hole in their numbers was made, but it wouldn't last for long. Touma turned toward the group of hackers and shouted loud.
"Hey, the way out is open! Take it while you can and log out; these things will chase you wherever you go otherwise, got it!?"
"Y-you got it man, thanks! Try and get out when you can too, alright!?" One of the hackers answered as the group made a mad dash for the logout terminal, every single one of them eager to escape the tentacle horrors.
Touma ran back to his companions to find Mikoto doing her best to manage the numbers and Dorugamon helping as much as he could.
"We're getting overwhelmed here; what's the plan? You're the one who knows these things!" Mikoto shouted. Initially, Touma had the idea of them making a break for the exit themselves, but when a certain thought occurred to him.
"…Wait, if this is just the first floor… what about the others?" Touma suggested. Mikoto's face took a grim turn upon processing the information.
"…If we head in deeper, I don't know how long we can deal with these things." Mikoto stated.
"I know that, but I have some friends down here! I can't just leave them to these monsters!" Touma replied.
"That's fine; just making sure you understand. I'm with you!" The Railgun nodded, accepting Touma's reasoning.
"In that case… Dorugamon, get back in my Digivice; we're running for it!" Touma announced. Dorugamon did as he was told and retreated to Touma's Digivice as the two made a break for the access point leading to the second floor. Mikoto's ability proved effective at keeping the Eaters at bay, but their numbers was still very much a problem.
They eventually reached the second floor, which was in a much worse state. Unlike the first, it had already been completely overrun. They pressed on to the third floor to find it very much in the same condition, with Ryuji nowhere in sight.
There was little time to look for the Hudie Leader however, as the number of Eaters continued to drastically rise. They had no choice but to move forward and deal with the monsters that approached, eventually reaching the fourth and final floor.
The location itself was in a large circle with a large black cube in the middle, and the area itself was rather plain in design. This floor however did still have people active, but the situation was far from positive.
Hackers were being consumed left and right without restraint. Several however appeared to still have the strength to fight, calling out their digimon to fend off the black and white horrors.
What stood out amongst the chaos was a large white Digimon, easily taller than most of the other entities in the location. Its body was white with black joints, and had a long flowing white cape. The unusual part of its design were its arms; its right bared a distinct resemblance to the head of WarGreymon, while its left was very similar to that of MetalGarurumon. A large blade suddenly shot out from the WarGreymon head and cleaved through a section Eaters as if they were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
However, just as quickly as Touma saw the figure, it shot up into the sky. Touma looked up to see a large crack near the top, and the white digimon was flying right towards it; perhaps that is where the Eaters had been coming from?
His thoughts where interrupted by a loud shout.
"RYUJI!"
It sounded just like Chitose, the other Hudie hacker Touma had just met not that long ago. He turned towards where the voice came from to see Mishima Ryuji, standing rather awkwardly with a disturbed look on his face with an Eater pouncing on him.
Followed by Chitose shoving Ryuji out of the way, ending up devoured instead. The monster coiled around the blond's body, and after a few moments, not even a single speck of him was left behind.
Touma covered his mouth as if to prevent himself from making a sound, but in truth he was horrified at what he had witnessed.
Eaters devour the mental data of EDEN users, effectively eating the minds of their victims and leaving their real bodies comatose with no chance of recovery.
In essence: Imai Chitose died right in front of the unlucky Kamijou, and the whole event happened so quickly there was nothing he could have done to stop it.
"What… happened to him…?" Mikoto asked. "He's… going to be fine, right? If his avatar is destroyed or deleted, he'll just have his mind ejected… right?"
Touma's silence on the topic gave the Railgun all the information she needed to know. Her frown turned to disgust upon finally realizing the gravity of the situation.
"A-and… the people on the other floors…?" She asked.
"…Just like him… who… who the hell did this!?" Touma shouted with anger. No one bothered to answer him however; everyone left was fighting for their lives. He even caught the sight of Ami and Keisuke fighting with their respective digimon as he looked around, searching hopelessly for a culprit. He saw others; Nokia, Yuugo, and Arata, but those people weren't who he was looking for.
He eventually locked eyes with one Samson Ainsworth, who he could see backing out from the fighting.
"…You! What did you!?" Touma ran towards him with his face twisted in anger.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Samson replied.
"This! All of this! What the hell did you do!?" Touma shouted. "I know about your tactics; destroying everything and taking what's left… but this is way too far! You of all people should know what these things are capable of!"
"…I have a general idea of what's running through your head, but you're barking up the wrong tree." Samson shook his head. "I'm just as much a victim in this as you and everyone else. Take another look around before you start accusing me of manipulating these things."
The Imagine Breaker stared down the cabal boss, but he did notice something; despite coming down with at least ten people, he was now completely alone. A quick look around made it clear; all ten of them were gone.
"…Were they…?" He asked.
"I did everything I could…" Samson answered. "One of them… sacrificed their life just to save mine… someone with such strong belief in our cause gave everything they had for me… I did everything I could for them all but… they appeared so suddenly…"
It was just as Samson suggested; he and his cabal were just as much prey for these monsters as everyone else. His subordinates were devoured like the rest, and only he was able to survive.
"…I see…" Touma appeared to calm down.
"I can understand why you would accuse me, as we have a checkered past… but honestly; not even I would attempt something this horrific. The "purpose" of all of this is supposedly to remove everyone who's a thorn in Kamishiro's side in one fell swoop, but this? A tragedy… an honest tragedy…" Samson shook his head again.
"…Wait, you knew this was going to happen…?" Touma asked.
"Yes and no," The cabal boss began. "Yes, I knew Kamishiro was going to attempt to stop this incursion; I was even contacted about it and requested to arrive here in force, so I assumed I was part of this plan… but about this? Monsters that devour people's minds? That I have nothing to do with… I believe that they intended to take me out with all of this as well…"
"But… you could have done something, right? Warned them that it was a trap…!" Mikoto spoke up, finally snapping out of her horrified daze.
"If I had known this was their plan, I would have been inclined to… but such is in the past." Samson stated. "I had been working with the company for some time, but now I see that I must be more creative in the future… so these people's sacrifice will not be in vain…"
"…How long have you been working with them?" Touma sternly questioned the cabal boss.
"Quite some time. They provided funding so we may procure what we needed, and even looked the other way to our activities. Specifically, they wanted us to harass and probe the hacker community, specifically Zaxon… yes; I do believe their intention was to assist in leading to this outcome, though I think it was the Demons that ultimately allowed this to come to pass." Samson crossed his arms.
"…Why are you telling me this? You know that makes you at least someone responsible, right?" Touma shouted.
"Because it hardly matters anymore." The well-dressed magician concluded. "My dealings with Kamishiro and Zaxon are finished. The dead are dead, and those who survive will continue to do so, it's hardly worth dwelling on any longer. Those who sided with me gave their very lives to see me succeed… so I have a task to uphold much more important than worrying about innocence of the situation."
"…What about everyone else?" Touma formed a fist with his right hand. "Innocent people died here, and I don't see how you can gloss over it like its nothing…!"
"Of course these people's sacrifice is notable and I have no intention of saying otherwise. However sad it is, the fact that it must be so is a necessary expense to give in exchange for the ability to change the world." Samson answered. "They died so that others may live; sacrificed their lives… one of them even sacrificed himself just to save me specifically as I told you, giving me time to prepare a proper defense… surely that means what I'm doing is just and worthy of preserving, no?"
Samson spoke with a smile slowly creeping upon his face.
"Do not worry, Kamijou Touma. In the world I intend to create… such sacrifices shall be a thing of the past. No more shall innocent men and women give their lives over petty squabbles… but to create a world without sacrifice, one must sacrifice much, as such is the way of the current world. Every cause, no matter how noble or vile, has its price to pay… and I'll be more than happy to pay that price if it means creating true paradise free from horrors such as this."
Touma frowned at hearing this.
"How… can you say that when it is already innocent people being sacrificed here? How can you just accept people giving up their lives so easily…? I don't get it…" He asked, looking down.
Samson retained his smile as he spoke.
"It is a matter of value." The cabal boss replied. "They passed on, but I survived…they gave up their lives for someone with value… one who will bring about great things, so as long as I survive, everything will be fine."
"…What?" Touma shook his head.
"Value is determined by the power of change and progress one will bring, you see." Samson began. "They could not bring about their change, thus they sacrificed themselves so that I could do it in their place. And those that died? They serve a similar purpose, although they do so unwillingly, which is unfortunate, but one must not complain about good fortune…"
"…What the hell are you talking about? These are people's lives! Show them some respect!" Touma fired back.
"Oh but I am showing them respect by thanking them for surrendering their very lives for my cause." Samson slowly stood back up. "And of course those who valiantly fought with all they had to save their friends are just as worthy, which is why I intend to avenge them. They fight and die so that the people of value, people like me who will change this world, can survive… what better praise can I offer than to redouble my efforts and ensure their deaths are not in vain? After all, if I am the one with value, then I must make use of their noble sacrifice and act, right?"
"You don't decide who has value and who doesn't…!" Touma spat.
"You're right; I don't… but the people do. Clearly, that means that since I was saved, that I have value, right? What I'm doing is just, right? The paradise I intend to create is for the greater good… right?" Samson stated. "The fact that I was saved must mean that… if I could save them, I most certainly would, but the fact that they passed on yet I still draw breath must be proof… proof that what I intend to do is right. Don't worry; as the one with value, I'll see this through to the end, and forge that new paradise for everyone…!"
Touma's fist tightened as he walked over to the cabal boss, and just as he was about to speak once more, the unlucky Kamijou punched Samson across the face hard enough to send him tumbling backwards.
"People's lives aren't just things that exist to die at your convenience! People live, dream, and die for themselves, not some egomaniac like you! Not everyone lives and breathes to be your stepping stones to greatness you son of a bitch!" Touma spat.
Samson sat up slowly. Similarly to when his arm was removed, blood leaked from the cabal bosses nose, despite the fact that his existence on EDEN should be an avatar without blood or the organs that require it.
"…It seems that I have upset you." Samson commented upon wiping the blood from his nostril.
"Of course you did; how did you expect me to react!? People are out here dying and your reaction is "As long as it wasn't me, its fine," or something!? What kind of outlook is that!?" The Imagine Breaker shouted. "Even if you're talking about saving people, making some kind of future for everyone, what the hell is the god damn point if you kill everyone while forging it!? The only thing I'm hearing being spat from your god damn mouth is contempt for the very lives you're supposedly working for!"
"And what does it matter if a few people die here or there?" Samson argued. "If the end result is attained, nothing else matters. People die for the sake of the important all the time; how is this any different. I intend to make a system that obliterates the very concept of this world, so what does it matter if I use the old system to make the new!? I'll sacrifice anything and everything to forge my paradise!"
It really wasn't that rational in retrospect. People were fighting for their lives, but Touma was focused on just one man.
He didn't even notice that the flow of Eaters had stopped and that the counterattack against them had begun.
Even though others were fighting, the only thing Kamijou Touma could focus on was Samson Ainsworth… and how much he wanted to punch him in the face. Even if he wasn't directly responsible... even if he lost people to this horrific event just like everyone else.
Touma could not stand the words coming from Samson Ainsworth's mouth.
He ran towards the cabal boss with a fist ready to throw once more, but a large blade made out of bones stabbed into the ground between them; Titamon had once more entered the fray. The green behemoth lifted up its massive sword and brought it down to strike the unlucky Kamijou when a familiar queen-like figure appeared wielding a large mallet, blocking the blade.
"QueenChessmon, keep that green piece of crap busy. We have business with the guy's master." Mikoto commented.
"…You as well?" Samson asked.
"I really don't fully understand what's happening here… I really don't," Mikoto began. "But the bull flowing from that sad and pathetic mouth of yours is really pissing me off."
"…Very well… in that case…!" The cabal boss brought up his arms, preparing for some kind of spell. Dorugamon appeared once more to Touma's left with a growl, more than eager to beat Samson down.
But not everything was as it seemed. Mysteriously, a lone Eater broke off from its companions and began wandering towards the conflict preparing to unfold.
The act itself wasn't unusual; Eaters value data consumption above all else, and one could have simply detected Kamijou Touma's Imagine Breaker and moved to attempt to consume it like so many had before.
The odd thing was that rather than approach Touma, it instead was making its way towards Samson, stopping relatively close to the cabal boss.
Samson's response was simple; he moved to unleash an attack to obliterate the possible attacker, but just as he did so, the unthinkable happened.
The Eater began to glitch and warp in appearance, growing in size rather rapidly, and even going so far as to change color. Four clawed arms began to appear, along with a few sets of wings.
In mere moments, the simple Eater had radically changed… and an entity strongly resembling the fallen Kimeramon stood in its place. It roared loudly, taking a few steps forward before turning towards the Railgun and the Imagine Breaker.
"What… the hell? Kimeramon!?" Touma shouted. "But… that thing should be dead… how is it here? And why did an Eater evolve into it!?"
"I'm assuming that's not normal..." Mikoto commented.
"Not even close! Apparently those things can change form based on input data… but I've never seen them turn into a digimon before…!" Touma replied.
As the two looked in confusion, laughter began to echo out in the room, and it was coming from a certain cabal boss.
"You… came back to me!" Samson spoke in the middle of his merriment. "I don't know how… but you returned! You came back from the edge of death itself… to defend me!"
Samson carefully began to pat Kimeramon's hind legs. Ordinarily, something as simple as casual contact with an Eater, regardless of state, could prove fatal as any part of their body was more than capable of devouring data, but Samson remained unharmed.
"Surely… surely this is fate acting in my favor! This must be proof that my path is just, and what I desire is right!" He shouted. "Look! Look and behold, Imagine Breaker! Living proof that the path I walk shall lead to the salvation of mankind! That the sacrifices I make will lead to a prosperous future!"
Kimeramon roared out and charged ahead, racing straight toward the three opposing its master. They split off to dodge the charge, just narrowly avoiding the behemoth.
"So what now!? You got a plan over there?" Mikoto shouted.
"Not a chance in hell; I was not prepared for this! Dorugamon isn't a match for this thing!" Touma replied. "What are the chances of your QueenChessmon helping us out?"
A simple look answered that question quickly. Despite the clear difference in size and strength, the clash between Titamon and QueenChessmon was fairly balanced, with QueenChessmon making use of her smaller and more agile form to deal with Titamon's oppressive bulk and power.
She would be unable to help them anytime soon.
"She's more than a little busy, any other ideas?" Mikoto called back.
"Not right- shit!" Touma was interrupted when blasts of energy erupted from the palms of the composite digimon's hands, flying straight toward the unlucky Kamijou, forcing him to block with his right hand. They fired off one after another and the ones that missed appeared to be intentional; if Touma moved to dodge, he would be hit by them.
Dorugamon ran to the side, firing off Cannonball attacks to hammer against the monster's flesh. However, these attacks did little to alter Kimeramon's intent, at least until one shot hit the creature in the eye, causing it to cry out in pain and swing its arms toward Dorugamon, narrowly missing the beast digimon as it fired a shot purposefully to propel itself backward.
Kimeramon began to gather energy for another assault when it suddenly began to cry out in pain, falling to one knee as sparks could be seen flying from the monster's form.
Beams of electricity flowed freely from the Railgun, slamming right into Kimeramon's body, electrocuting him.
"Let's see how you like this you bastard!" Mikoto shouted, forcing more power into her attack. Kimeramon continued to howl in pain, eventually getting to the point where it was only supporting itself with its hands.
However, not long after, the beast closed its mouth, gritting its teeth before pushing itself up ever so slightly.
"You've got to be kidding me… this monster can still move…!?" Mikoto scowled as she ramped up her voltage output even higher. Kimeramon suddenly jerked, holding out one hand towards the Railgun and firing a blast straight toward her. Dorugamon, who was running around since the composite digimon's apparent paralysis, tackled Mikoto out of the attacks path.
Touma ran toward the monster with a chambered right fist upon seeing it attacking Mikoto. However, Kimeramon caught a glimpse of the spiky-haired teen and slammed its tail onto the ground with enough force to send it into the air, dodging the attack. It used its wings to maintain flight, raining attacks down from the air upon the unlucky Kamijou, but Touma persisted with pursuing the behemoth.
His decision to attempt to slay the monster with Imagine Breaker was not a sudden change of heart from the last encounter; his stance very much remained the same.
However, it was rather an act of desperation due to the composite digimon attacking someone he considered a friend. He didn't know what would happen if Kimeramon managed to successfully attack Mikoto due to the monster's transformation from an Eater; it was very easy to assume that she would be rendered comatose just like every other victim of EDEN Syndrome.
Imagine Breaker would likely still be fatal to the fused monstrosity… so casual contact would still kill it… a fate Touma dreaded; if it was just himself on the line he doubted he'd be able to do the deed, just as before.
But if Kimeramon was going to attack someone close to him, that was an entirely different situation entirely. If the monster insisted on attacking Misaka Mikoto, he decided that he'd silence it, even if he would hate himself afterward for having to take another's life.
Samson didn't bother to lift a finger; he simply stood with a wide smile as Kimeramon kept in the air and bombed the Imagine Breaker from above, simply relishing in the fact that his creation had returned once more.
Slowly Mikoto pushed herself up, patting Dorugamon's head lightly.
"Thanks… you saved me big guy…" She stated as she stood up fully, watching the fight unfold in front of her. Dorugamon nudged against her lightly before jerking his head towards Kimeramon with a yelp. It made a similar motion to when it fired off his cannon balls and jerked toward Kimeramon again, seemingly eager to fight.
Mikoto caught on rather quickly; Dorugamon wanted to take down Kimeramon, but he couldn't do it alone.
Kimeramon kept in the air, bombarding the ground with barrage after barrage, forcing Touma to either block or dodge the assault. Eventually however, the onslaught paused, only to reveal Kimeramon charging orbs of energy in all four hands, getting ready for its signature attack.
Touma could only block one blast at a time, but the monster's primary technique involved four separate attacks all at once. Before it could unleash it however, a bright orange beam of light suddenly struck the monster's stomach, knocking it out of the air.
It was a Railgun.
"Kamijou!" In a rare instance, Mikoto called out Touma's name. "I think we can handle this guy for a bit. It might be a good idea to stay out of the crossfire; these iron balls hold up for railguns way better than my arcade coins you know!"
Touma blinked for a moment before nodded in agreement.
"Alright, got it!" He said as he ran to get out of the way. Kimeramon rose to its feet once again, but was met with a second railgun attack, this time slamming into the monster's face and sending it rolling backward.
With the monster held at bay, a secondary option became clear. Even if Kimeramon was the offensive force at work during all the chaos with the Eaters, there was one very clear way to end its rampage.
Its master.
"…So you came at me again?" Samson frowned.
"Call off your Frankenstein project!" Touma answered. "This is between you and me; there's no need to involve our partners in this!"
"Oh but I disagree; Kimeramon is a testament to my plan's destiny for success. You can't expect me to simply give up when I'm ordered to, right?" Samson questioned.
"In that case… I'll make you! I'm not finished with that twisted ideology just yet!" Touma shouted back, keeping up his charge straight toward him. Samson held out one finger pointed at the spiky-haired teen, and it suddenly began to dissolve away as a mass of energy appeared in its place, causing blood to leak from the missing limb. The blast fired off like a bullet, but it wasn't fast enough to avoid Touma negating the attack with Imagine Breaker. However, this event did not stop the cabal boss from simply firing another by using another finger as a catalyst.
Samson Ainsworth's magic was becoming increasingly clearer to the unlucky Kamijou; it was the concept of "self-sacrifice" itself. He would give up parts of his body to cast spells, and in Samson's case, he interpreted them as "sacrifices made to create miracles," the miracles being the spells themselves.
Considering Samson's attitude toward those around him, realizing this fact only made Touma even angrier. He was forcing people to make sacrifices like that just to fuel his desire for the "paradise" he'd force down other people's throats.
A blast was fired towards Touma's legs, an awkward place to defend as it forced him to jump back. By this point, Samson had sacrificed every finger on his right hand, including his thumb.
"Must we really do this? Surely you understand what I intend to do, right?" Samson asked. "All I want to do is to craft out a perfect paradise… that's all. Surely such a thing as an admirable act, right?"
"…I don't really get what paradise you intend to make, but no matter how good your intentions are, your way of doing it is all wrong." Touma replied.
"What are you talking about? The sacrifices I make, while sad, are necessary to craft it. A price must always be payed for progress." The cabal boss stated.
"But does that price truly have to be human lives?" The Imagine Breaker argued. "I'll admit it… what angered me earlier was how you spoke as though human lives simply existed to be sacrificed for your cause; as if those without value should be happy to die to make your own dreams come true… but this goes beyond that! How can you call that a paradise if everyone you're intending to make it for dies before they can ever see it!? Can you really just say "Die for a better future," and expect them to just be content with it!?"
As Touma spoke, another railgun was unleashed using Dorugamon's cannonballs as ammunition. However, Kimeramon fired a beam of its own to match the railgun, blowing apart the attack's metal core and racing forward.
"You can't be serious… what I strive for can only be made by the sacrifices we make as a people! Be it by giving our time, our effort, or our lives! As I told you, I won't be stopping here, no matter what kind of sacrifices I have to make to bring about my paradise!" Samson prepared another series of spells using the fingers on his other hand as a catalyst.
Mikoto and Dorugamon continued to fire railgun blasts at Kimeramon, but it finally was able to properly deal with them, either by dodging them outright or destroying them; the damage they inflicted was severe, but if he could destroy the cannonballs the railgun attacks could be rendered harmless.
"That's exactly the problem, you bastard!" Touma shot back. "If the paradise you intend to create exists upon the bodies of the people you intend to make it for, then it's nothing more than a lie! I'm not going to stand here and let you kill and send innocent people to their deaths under the illusion of it being for their salvation! If you're supposed to be the big hero, intending to save the world by killing innocent people, then I'll be the villain as many times as it god damn takes to shatter that illusion of yours!"
Kimeramon finally reached its two assailants, preparing an assault. Dorugamon stepped in front of Mikoto, ready to challenge the composite digimon personally. However, before either one could attack, Dorugamon's eyes widened as a blinding flash of light erupted, forcing Kimeramon to back off and shield its eyes from it.
The light was coming from Dorugamon, who was now bathed in it. In the light, Dorugamon's form began to shift and change, growing larger to match even Kimeramon's own imposing form.
Dorugamon was Digivolving. As it did so, part of the evolving digimon's body slammed into Kimeramon's torso, forcing it back. After a few moments, the light faded away, revealing his new form.
In addition to his increase in size, the beast digimon was now fully quadrupedal. His new form had a long neck, and while his fur on its underside that ran up the bottom of his neck remained white, the rest of his fur turned a bright red with black zigzag markings in a consistent pattern throughout. His tail had lengthened out along with his neck, and now ended on a large golden spike. He now had two sets of black dragon-like wings, the front set much larger than the bottom, and both had gold spike decorations along each wing's front edge. His head now sported a large lagged horn from the top of his snout, and a large patch of bushy white fur was visible on the back of his head that extended to about half way down his neck. However, the red gem on his forehead remained unchanged and still rested in roughly the same position.
This sudden digivolution caught the attention of both Touma and Samson. The Imagine Breaker's HUD informed him of the change.
Dorugamon had digivolved into DoruGreymon, an ultimate level digimon.
Kimeramon roared aloud, a gesture that the newly formed DoruGreymon retuned before charging at the composite digimon and slamming his body into it.
"DoruGreymon!" Touma called out, turning towards his partner. The quick glance he had gave him all the information he needed to figure out the situation; Kimeramon had managed to get close for a physical assault and DoruGreymon's digivolution appeared to be the one thing that saved them. Just as began to move though, a blast of energy flew past his face, just narrowly missing.
"I do believe your foe here is me… don't get ahead of yourself!" Samson shouted. Touma clenched his fists as he shifted back towards Samson as he prepared another spell, but just as he would unleash it, a sudden wave of fire slammed into his body, forcing him to scream in pain as the flames engulfed him for a time. He ended up changing the spell to vanquish the flames, but where they came from made him fully realize the bad position he was in.
As one Stiyl Magnus walked out from a pocket of space, followed by a humanoid digimon wearing a stereotypical wizard's hat wielding a wand, and moved toward the cabal boss.
"You've been a pain in the ass to find, Samson Ainsworth." Red-haired mage spoke.
"Stiyl… how did you get here?" Touma asked.
"Long story; I'll explain later. You can focus your attention onto your partner… Me and my Wizardmon will take over dealing with this scumbag if you don't mind." Stiyl stated.
"But…"
"Don't worry; there will be plenty left of him for you to smack around. Taking down that monster of his should do wonders for making him cooperate." Stiyl answered again. "Besides… considering what his men did to me not to long ago… I think it's time for a little revenge…!"
Touma glanced between the two, weighing his options. After a moment, he nodded and ran for his partner.
If Samson was going to be contained, then Touma was free to go to DoruGreymon's aid. What Stiyl said was true; to truly defeat him, both Samson and his creation had to go down before he would even begin to consider what he was saying.
As Touma ran, Mikoto ran up to him, running alongside him.
"So I guess that guy had a bone to pick with this Samson guy, huh?" Mikoto asked. "In that case, what are we doing?"
"Stiyl is going to be keeping Samson in check for a bit, so I'm heading over to DoruGreymon to see what I can do to help. Think you could help out your QueenChessmon take down that Titamon just in case we need the back up?" Touma replied.
"You got it; stay safe!" The railgun spoke. Touma nodded quickly and Mikoto broke off and moved toward her own partner. QueenChessmon was beginning to be worn down by Titamon's relentless assault.
A little known fact however was that QueenChessmon's body was primarily made of metal. This allowed Mikoto to use electromagnetism to run up her partner digimon's back. When Titamon began to swing its sword once more, Mikoto leapt off QueenChessmon's shoulder and unleashed a blast of lightning straight into Titamon's head, the combination of the electricity and the flash caused by it staggering the green giant and giving QueenChessmon an opportunity to slam her mallet into Titamon's side, knocking him over.
As Mikoto began to do battle alongside her digimon, Touma ran over to DoruGreymon and Kimeramon. The two were wrestling rather intensely, although Kimeramon had a clear advantage due to his number of arms grabbing at the beast digimon in front of him. Upon closer inspection however, DoruGreymon had embedded his horn into Kimeramon's side, and seemingly the reason Kimeramon hadn't done anything else to attack was due to this; the risk of DoruGreymon tearing out the entire right side of its body with just the horn was a real possibility.
Kimeramon however appeared to have had enough, as it began charging up another attack from its mouth; a variation of its trademark attack, Heat Viper.
"Get off of him you son of a bitch!" Touma raced toward the duo with his right arm outstretched. Kimeramon saw this and immediately backed off, flapping its wings to give distance between him and the unlucky Kamijou despite the extra damage from DoruGreymon's horn because of it.
It was clear that Kimeramon knew very well that Touma's right arm was a threat. It shifted its head towards him and prepared to fire towards the unlucky Kamijou instead. However, DoruGreymon was far from finished as he swung his body around and flung his tail at the composite digimon. The golden spike at the end was able to rip right through Kimeramon's body, but Touma's beast digimon wasn't done as he used his tail to throw Kimeramon higher into the air.
Despite being gored, impaled and thrown however, the monster was still very much alive. Energy continued to gather in Kimeramon's mouth, preparing to fire.
Touma didn't want to do it, but this fight had to end.
"DoruGreymon! Finish this!" Touma shouted. DoruGreymon answered in kind of his signature technique.
Metal Meteor.
In incredibly dense piece of metal fired from DoruGreymon's mouth, traveling at great speed. Flames enveloped the metal sphere as it traveled, as if it were a meteor flying through the Earth's atmosphere. It struck Kimeramon with incredible speed and power, but not just anywhere.
Where the monster had been ran through by DoruGreymon's tail.
The burning piece of metal ripped through Kimeramon's body due to striking an already weakened area, leaving the monster with a huge gaping hole in its torso. Kimeramon landed with a loud crash after the attack, motionless. The monster had finally been felled and would trouble them no longer.
However, something odd began to occur with the body of the composite creature. Slowly, Kimeramon's form began to shrink and shift, eventually returning to the form of the Eater it previously held. The Eater shared all the wounds DoruGreymon had inflicted, and shortly after the transformation was complete, the Eater self-destructed, obliterating itself from existence.
"…I have no idea how that happened… but there are other things to worry about right now." Touma stated. He turned his attention back over to Mikoto to see the fight going in her favor rather quickly. Mikoto's ability to take advantage of QueenChessmon's metal body meant that she could effectively ride on and attack from her partner from virtually any angle. Titamon however was proved as resilient as ever, and intended to keep fighting until the bitter end.
Touma's attention shifted towards Samson and Stiyl. The cabal boss had clear burns across his body, and several pieces of it were missing, likely sacrificed to cast his magic. Stiyl appeared to be injured to some degree, but was still able to fight.
The Imagine Breaker closed his eyes for a moment before moving toward Samson. Mikoto would be fine more than likely, and taking down Titamon's master would also ensure Titamon's defeat as well.
Samson began to prepare an attack, but a sudden surge of fire from above dissuaded him and forced him to dodge. Wizardmon followed up Stiyl's attack with one of his own, unleashing a blast of lightning from his wand and striking Samson's torso. The cabal boss rolled to the side, doubled over in pain for a time. Slowly he began to push himself up, but when he did, he saw Touma and his DoruGreymon not that far behind him approaching.
In addition, his Kimeramon was nowhere to be found.
"He… lost again…!?" Samson asked with anger quite apparent in his voice.
"That's right… he packs a lot of power, but so much armor you know." Touma stated. "His bulk can only get him so far… punch through that and he's done."
"Is that so…!?" Samson stood up fully, dealing with his injuries rather well. Just like before, it appeared as though it was his physical body rather than a digital avatar, so blood leaked from the cabal bosses body all over.
"All wrapped up already, huh?" Stiyl commented.
"Got a few lucky hits in… that's all." Touma shook his head.
"I see… so it's my loss then…" Samson turned towards his Titamon. The green behemoth looked back and nodded before suddenly vanishing, retreating into Samson's own Digivice. Mikoto looked over from QueenChessmon's shoulder to watch events unfold upon noticing her opponent's departure.
Samson's arms suddenly began to dissolve and vanish, and just as that happened, a rift opened up behind him.
He was retreating.
"I'm not finished… I can't afford to give up here… not yet!" Samson shouted.
"Why are you trying so hard?" Touma shook his head. "I don't get it. You're sacrificing and killing people… for what? Paradise? Is it even worth it if that's the price you have to pay?"
"…Because I've seen it with my own eyes." The cabal boss replied. "I know it… I know exactly what it looks like and what can happen there." Samson stated. "I know what it is like… what it has, and how beings live there… and if they were able to accomplish it once upon a time… I know I can bring it here too!"
As Samson spoke, the rift he had formed behind him began to envelop him as he slowly moved backwards.
"So I'll sacrifice it… I'll sacrifice everything if I have to! I've seen what true paradise has to offer, and I won't stop until I have brought it to life for everyone to witness! I don't care what I have to do, I won't stop! I'll-"
Samson's speech was cut off when a flaming sword flew straight into his abdomen.
"I've had enough of you ranting for one day, you sad excuse for a man. Rot in hell while you pray for that paradise you don't deserve." The red-haired mage spat. Samson stated something, but his voice was so soft due to the sudden attack that what exactly he said couldn't be heard. His eyes rolled back into his head as the rift enveloped the cabal boss.
Not a trace of him was left behind.
"Why… did you-" Touma was cut off when Stiyl abruptly began to speak.
"My actual goal was to capture him… but with that disappearing act he and his subordinates use was a massive pain… if I rushed at him, all he'd need to do is step back faster to escape… better to leave something like that rather than have him escape scot-free."
Touma glanced back towards where the cabal boss once stood. Blood was all over the floor, likely from Samson himself. The oddities with his body were too prevalent to ignore; it was as if he somehow had his real body inside of EDEN.
"…Do you think that… actually finished him off…?" Touma asked.
"Don't know actually… I doubt he'd use that sacrificial magic without some kind of a failsafe…" Stiyl replied. This reminded Touma of the fact that Samson always came back with his body perfectly intact as if it had never been harmed… if it was his real body, or one that greatly resembled it in its function, how was that possible?
It was a question that Touma wouldn't receive an answer to at the moment, so he decided to stop thinking about it.
"Best case scenario, as much as you'd disagree, that blow kills him somehow. Worst case… this crushing failure should at least shut him up a bit." Stiyl crossed his arms.
"But… it should be possible to actually kill someone on EDEN outside of those Eaters devouring someone's mental data, right?" Touma asked.
"That's why I said "somehow." Stiyl shook his head. "It's bad enough I had to make Wizardmon use his own abilities to hide us to get the jump on him… hopefully he's actually gone down."
"…And his confession that it was just him working with Kamishiro should settle the debate of who's responsible between the science and magic sides, right?" Touma suggested.
"Both sides will probably want hard evidence… but the fact it came right from the big guy's mouth should at least quiet things down a bit." The red-haired mage replied. By this point, Mikoto had descended from the shoulder of QueenChessmon and recalled her to her Digivice. Not long after, she approached the two.
"…So that settles it, right?" She asked.
"It at least should deter Machina Revolution form acting for a while… I'd say that we stopped them from taking Under Zero, but from the sound of things, they never wanted it to begin with. Poor guys who got attacked ended up duped just like everyone else…" Touma stated.
Suddenly, he felt something wet on his cheek. DoruGreymon had licked his cheek with his now massive tongue. Touma patted the big beast digimon's head, and he responded in kind by pressing his head against the unlucky Kamijou.
"No matter how big and fluffy you get, you really are just a big puppy, aren't you?" Touma smiled and stroked the side of DoruGreymon's head. "Next time I get my hands on a big piece of meat in here, it's all yours."
"Good job, you were my savior back there you know." Mikoto joined in, stroking DoruGreymon's side. The red beast digimon just seemed more than happy to get affection.
"In that case, I'll be taking my leave." Stiyl commented. "I wouldn't recommend staying for too long… the aftermath of all of this is rather depressing." His Wizardmon vanished, seemingly into whatever Stiyl was using for a Digivice, and the red-haired mage began to move toward the access point to reach the upper floor's logout zone.
What Stiyl meant was clear. In the end, the Hackers appeared to have won, but at a heavy cost. More than half of them had been eliminated and devoured by the Eater menace. Several people were asking around for information on their missing friends… and in some cases, missing family members that had come with the various hackers in an attempt to support them.
Several people he knew were missing too. Chitose was gone; devoured by an Eater right in front of him. He could have seen Yuugo at one point, but now he was a no show; a worrying development. What upset Touma for a brief moment was that Ami had vanished, but a quick look at his message log showed that she was alive and well. She had also seen Touma in the final battlefield as well and was asking for an update as she had been displaced from her friends, who apparently outside of Nokia hadn't been answering her.
Nokia herself was in the server, thankfully unharmed. Touma caught the sight of an angered Arata leaving the area. He could still see Ryuji, but he was quite distraught; he sat on the ground looking down, looking more than a little disturbed.
Touma shook his head at looking it all.
"This is a disaster…" He spoke. "And this is something that was planned? Luring all these people here just to kill them off with Eaters…?"
Mikoto approached him from the side.
"Hey… are you ok?" She asked carefully.
"…Not even close." Touma couldn't lie; as mad as Samson made him earlier, the fact that this was all I giant set-up for a massacre made him angrier. "To be honest, I'm pissed… and to make it worse… I don't have the slightest clue where to throw it at either… who could have done this and still call themselves human…!"
A set of footsteps could be heard approaching the two.
"…Hey, Kamijou-san… you alright?" This time it was Keisuke, walking with his hands in his pockets.
"Like I told Misaka, no I'm not… but…" Touma shook his head. "Forget about me; how are you holding up?"
"Could be better, definitely… especially since… well, Chitose…" Keisuke trailed off.
"Right… yeah… I suppose I don't need to ask how Ryuji-san is taking it…" Touma rubbed his neck, not really sure of what else to say.
"…Yeah, Ryuji and Chitose really do go way back… they were part of an old hacking team a long time ago called Jude… before Digimon were every really a thing. He's… not going to be… back to normal for… I… really don't know what to say here…" Keisuke sighed. It was fairly obvious that he was affected greatly by the loss as well.
"…Sorry; when I saw the Eaters everywhere on the upper floors, I raced down as fast as I could… if I had made it down here a little faster…"
"Don't; please don't," Keisuke spoke up. "It's not your fault… you did what you could to try and get down here… besides; it looked like to me that you had your own battle to fight.
"I… suppose…" Touma shook his head. "I just wish I could have done something more…"
Keisuke frowned, but suddenly perked up. He looked away as if he was listening to someone on a cell phone, even holding up his hand to his ear to replicate it.
"…Ok, I'll ask him." The Hudie Hacker suddenly stated.
"Guessing Erika-san is talking to you? What's up?" Touma asked.
"Yeah… I don't know if you heard it, but on this floor, there was a loud voice speaking before the Eaters showed up. I didn't recognize it at first, but Erika heard it through me and thinks she knows who's responsible; she wanted to know if you might be interested in whatever plan she has cooked up."
It didn't take long for Touma to reply.
"Just tell me who I'm punching and I'll call it good." Touma answered with a stern expression. "Two people pissed me off today; Samson and whoever pulled this horrible stunt. And I'm looking to rough up number two since the first one is already dealt with…"
"Believe me; you're not the only one… I don't know what Erika has in mind, but if she's personally doing it… it's going to be good." Keisuke replied. "Well… if you're in, there's really no point in beating around the bush…"
It was here that Kamijou Touma learned the culprit behind the entire scheme.
"Does the name Kishibe Rie mean anything to you?"
And here we are at the bottom. Normally, this story is more focused on Touma's own route with occasional overlaps... next chapter will be one instances of this not truly being in effect... but for good reason, I'm sure you'll understand.
That said... how did you enjoy this little spice of darkness? Was it to your liking? Hopefully you'll see as things get a little more serious going forward.
I hope you all enjoyed. Please, review at your leisure; I still enjoy feedback.
Have a good day, my friends!
Sincerely,
ArmoredCoreNineBall, your friendly (not)robotic (not)overlord (possibly)person who occasionally writes things.