Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.
Chapter 11: Beast of Sin
Suzie walked as cautiously as she could up the stairs of the old abandoned inn, being very careful not to make a single sound. Though it seemed that the rotting old building was completely abandoned, Suzie couldn't help but think that there were other things living in that place, things that were far from human. And if she were to alert those things to her presence, her life and Lopmon's would most likely be in danger. Suzie tried not to dwell too much on what creatures might be hiding in that loathsome inn and focused on finding Alex. After finally making it up the stairs of the inn, Suzie began her search of the inn's upper floor.
As Suzie and Lopmon walked down the halls of the inn, they tried all the doors of the rooms to find them locked tight. Eventually the two came upon a room that had the door broken off its hinges. Suzie walked into the room to investigate. There was no sign of Alex, but she and Lopmon quickly found that the massive hole in the wall where the room's large window would've been.
"I wonder what happened here?" Lopmon quietly spoke. "Do you think that Alex was being held here and busted out?"
"No… Alex is still here somewhere. I'm sure of it." Suzie whispered back. "Let's keep looking."
The two of them left the room and quietly resumed their search. After trying several more room doors, Suzie came upon one and the end of the hall that gave her a sort of warm familiar feeling. She tried the door, only to find it locked like most of the others. Yet she was certain that she had found where Alex was.
"Lopmon, can you break down the door?" Suzie asked.
"I think so, but I'm bound to make some noise if I do." Lopmon answered.
"We'll just have to take the risk." Suzie decided. "Do it."
Lopmon hopped off of Suzie's shoulder to the ground and began spinning like a top. As he spun, he created a small twister of pink air that broke the old door off its hinges. Suzie and Lopmon quickly went into the room only for a small creature to leap at them with what looked like a flaming sword. The two quickly managed to avoid the attack and found that the thing that tried to strike them was Kotemon.
Kotemon quickly noticed his error. "Oh! Ms. Suzie and Lopmon. I'm terribly sorry about almost attacking you. I thought you were the creatures that live in this place, or perhaps something much worse."
"How did you end up here?" Lopmon asked.
"Well, Alex and I had fallen asleep in our cell, and then when we woke up we were suddenly on that beach outside." Kotemon explained. "Soon after we arrived, the creatures that live here attacked us, knocked us out, and locked us up in this room. Alex and I would've tried to escape, but we're outnumbered. Plus Alex hasn't been doing well since we got here."
"Where is Alex?" Suzie asked.
"She's hiding in the closest thing this room has to a bathroom." Kotemon answered. "You'll find her in the tub. And I have to say, I've never seen her this frightened before."
"You guys stay out here and stand guard." Suzie told the two Digimon. "I'll go in and get Alex."
Suzie entered the room's small bathroom and quickly spotted an old bathtub with a closed shower curtain. She went over and opened the curtain to find Alex sitting in the tub with her knees to her chest. Alex flinched and cried out a bit when the shower curtain opened. Suzie had never seen Alex looked so frightened before. Before, Alex was always so calm and confident, like she could take on just about anything. Now she had been reduced to a scared little girl. It broke Suzie's heart to see Alex like that.
"Alex, it's okay." Suzie told her. "It's me."
Alex blinked a bit as she slowly realized who was speaking to her. "…Suzie?"
"That's right." Suzie confirmed as she held out her hand. "C'mon, I'm getting you out of here."
After a moment of hesitation, Alex took Suzie's hand and got out of the bathtub. The two of them went back out to the main room where Lopmon and Kotemon were still waiting.
"Okay, we need to get out of here." Suzie told them.
"That's not going to be easy." Kotemon told her. "Those creatures that live here are probably going to be coming after us pretty soon."
"Can't you and Alex biomerge into Crusadermon?" Lopmon asked.
"Alex's D-Arc is still busted." The reptile Digimon answered. "And even if it wasn't, Alex is in no shape to try biomerging right now."
"Then we better get out of here quick." Suzie decided.
Lopmon and Kotemon led the way out of the room and back down to the lobby. The four of them didn't bother trying to keep silent going down the stairs, as they were sure the point was moot. They got to the front door of the inn to find one of the shadowy fish-frog creatures of that wretched ocean standing in their way. Kotemon charged forward as his bamboo sword began to catch fire again. The little kendo Digimon jumped up and struck the creature on the head, knocking it to the ground.
Suzie and the others made it past the fallen creature and headed out onto the beach as fast as their legs could carry them. But as they got further away from that decaying inn of the damned, ten more of the fish-frog creatures suddenly emerged from the dark water of the ocean. The group tried to turn and run, only to find that eleven more of the creatures had gotten behind them. They were completely surrounded. Alex cowered behind Suzie as the creatures closed in around them. Kotemon readied himself to swing his bamboo sword, but it was in vein. There were far too many of the creatures for him to take on by himself.
"What are all of you?" Suzie asked the creatures, not knowing if they could speak any human language. "What do you want?"
"We want the maiden you took from the old prison house." One of the loathsome creatures spoke. "She is to be sacrificed for our sacred ritual. Her blood may revive our fallen undersea god who was slain by the foul Child of Hope."
"We should take the other girl as well." Another of the creatures suggested to its brethren. "She is strong. With her, we may be able to produce some powerful offspring."
Suzie did not at all like the sound of the one creature's suggestion. As the things continued to advance, they suddenly froze when a loud noise that sounded like a demonic shriek rang through the air. The fish-frog creatures quickly ran back into the ocean to hide beneath the waves.
"What the heck was that?" Suzie wondered.
"I don't know. But at least it scared off those creatures." Kotemon pointed out.
"Yeah, but… I get the feeling that things are about to get a whole lot worse." Lopmon told them.
Lopmon suspicions were confirmed when the ground began to shake with the sound of something immense coming their way. From around the corner of a large rock-face on the beach emerged a massive demonic-looking creature that was mostly black in color. It had seven legs with red claws that were joined at the top by something that could be called a torso. Stabbed into the knee of each leg was a sword with a crest made of light above the handle. At the top of the creature was a purple head with a pair of slender black horns, a wide mouth full of fangs, and a single green reptilian eye.
Suzie got out her D-Arc to find out what they were dealing with. "Ogudomon, a Mega-level Digimon. It's listed as a Super Demon Lord."
"I don't think I like the sound of that." Kotemon spoke.
As the beast lumbered closer, Suzie and the others could see more of its features. On its underside was another large mouth lined with small fangs. Surrounding the second mouth were seven red eyes.
"We gotta get out of here!" Kotemon told them.
"And go where?" Lopmon asked. "There aren't really many places to hide around here! And I'm not sure we can outrun that thing!"
Alex slumped down to her knees with a defeated expression. "Suzie, you go on ahead and leave me here. I'll let that thing devour me to buy you and the other some time."
"What? Alex, I'm not going to leave you!" Suzie told her. "Not after I've come all this way for you!"
"Forget about me." Alex requested. "I deserve to die after what I did during that battle. Besides, I couldn't live with myself if you were killed because of me. Just do me a favor and look after Kotemon."
"Dammit, I'm not leaving you!" Suzie insisted. "Ever since we met, you've protected me from harm! Well now it's my turn to protect you! And I'm going to do that even if it means giving up my own life!"
Suddenly Suzie began to glow with a pink aura and her D-Arc began to beep. At the same time, Lopmon suddenly began glowing with a brilliant pink light and rose into the air. The intensity of the light made Ogudomon growl and turn its head away.
"Lopmon warp digivolve to… Cherubimon!" Lopmon called out as he transformed, his voice changing with the utterance of his other name.
The light emanating from Lopmon faded a bit to reveal the rabbit Digimon in a new form. He was much larger and still rabbit-like. His body had become light pink and white and his arms had become much longer with well-developed hands. Expanding out around his neck was the sort of collar one might find on a jester or a clown. The shape of his long ears had become like feathered wings, and around the base of each ear was a golden ring.
"Lopmon just evolved into a Mega-level Digimon!" Kotemon observed. "We might just have a chance!"
Cherubimon hovered up into the air before Ogudomon and began to grow in size until he was roughly just as big as the demon beast. The divine bunny raised his right arm and a spear made of lighting appeared in his hand. Cherubimon threw the spear at Ogudomon, causing the demon to roar in pain and stumble back slightly.
"I'm through with just standing on the sidelines." Suzie declared as she pulled out a modify card. "Digi-Modify! Angewomon card, activate!"
Appearing to hover in the air was the ghostly image an angelic woman with long blonde hair and eight white-feathered wings. A greyish-black helmet with small white-feathered wings on the sides covered the top half of her face. The ghostly angel flew up and entered Cherubimon's back.
Cherubimon raised both his arms forward. "Holy Air!"
A pink mist began to hang over the area and Ogudomon roared in pain as bolts of blue electricity began to shock him. At the same time, a ball of white light flew out of Kotemon's sword and went into Cherubimon's chest.
"Storm of Judgment!" Cherubimon called out in an echoing voice.
Several bolts of lighting began to rain down from the sky and started striking Ogudomon repeatedly. The demon beast cried out in pain and began to stumble back further. When the lighting storm ended, Cherubimon began to repeatedly throw more spears of lightning at the demon. With one loud cry, the holy rabbit threw one final spear in the creature's face. That final strike created a small explosion that shrouded Ogudomon in smoke.
Suddenly a beam of light pierced through the grey twilight sky above. Before the smoke of the explosion could clear, Cherubimon turned away from Ogudomon and scooped Suzie, Alex, and Kotemon into his hands.
"What are you doing?" Suzie asked.
"I don't know how, but that battle has created a way out for us." Cherubimon quickly explained as he began to fly towards the light. "I'm not sure if I defeated Ogudomon, but I'm not sticking around to find out. The most important thing right now is getting you out of here."
Cherubimon continued to fly towards the light in the sky, getting further and further from the wretched beach below. As they got closer, the light continued to get brighter until it got to the point where Suzie couldn't see anything. By the time they began to pass through that portal in the sky, Suzie blacked out.
Author's Note: Apologies for the rather short chapter. I didn't expect to wrap this part of the story up so quickly. By the way, the room with the broken wall in it near the start of this chapter was the room that Kari was imprisoned in during Home by the Sea. I had actually forgotten that a certain pair of characters had blown that wall open in that story. In won't say anything more on that, because I don't want to spoil Home by the Sea for those who may not have read it yet.
Please review and let me know what you think.
