I would like to thank everyone for reviewing the last chapter. I hope that you guys liked the addition of Lekismon, but don't worry Demidevimon will return, maybe in this story or in a sequel that I have planned after this is finished.
We were nearly to the Rose Morning Star, as soon as we got out of this gorge then we were there. I looked behind us, missing the presence of Demidevimon. We approached the edge of a cliff and saw a giant slab of rock with a castle floating out in front of us.
"We finally made it." Takuya said. Suddenly Ophanimon's voice came from Takuya's D-Tector,
"Hear me." We all approached Takuya.
"Children, you finally made it. With the spirits of the 12 Legendary Warriors, you must defeat Cherubimon here."
"Gladly." I said.
"Cherubimon is here too?" Koji asked.
"He is anticipating your arrival." Ophanimon answered. After she said this, streams of fractal code began to appear and go into the castle. My stomach lurched as the thought of all the innocent digimon being hurt passed through my head.
"Whoa, where's all that data going?" Tommy questioned.
"The data is..." Opanimon's transmission got staticky before failing all together.
"Her signal dropped out. The huge data stream must have overloaded things and cut us off." Takuya exclaimed.
"Like a thunderstorm in the real world." I said.
"Where do you think that data is coming from?" Zoe asked.
"Maybe Lunamon or Koichi know something about it." Tommy suggested.
"Yeah, they were both Duskmon." JP said and looked over at Koji, "Hey Koji your brother was on the darkside for a little bit, ask him what gives." JP shouted. Both Zoe and I elbowed him in the side. He groaned in pain as Zoe said,
"Now that was subtle, Polatso, you ever think about becoming a diplomat?" Lunamon chuckled.
"Well somebody's got ask." He defended.
"I wish I knew. Cherubimon is gathering data for some reason, but I don't know why." Koichi replied.
"What about you, Lunamon?" Loryn asked.
"I don't know much, but it has to do something with energy and power." The rabbit replied.
"Anyway, what we really need to do now is rescue Ophanimon." Takuya pointed out.
"How are we going to get to there from here?" Tommy asked.
"Seems to me our only option is to use those big floating rocks." JP suggested.
"I'll bet its a trap." Zoe said.
"I'll place five bucks, Admiral Ackbar." I joked.
"A trap?! But I'm to young to fly." Neemon exclaimed. Bokomon snapped the rabbit's waistband and said,
"You ninny, need I remind you that our friends have overcome greater obstacles than this. They are fearless warriors, to whom traps are part of the game. Am. I right, Takuya?"
"Actually, Neemon has a point." Bokomon panicked a but before Takuya added, "Gotcha, of course we're going. Now lets do this." All eight of us pulled out our D-Tectors.
"Execute, Spirit Evolution!"
"Agunimon!"
"Lobomon!"
"Grademon!"
"Kazemon!"
"Beetlemon!"
"Kumamon!"
"Loweemon!"
"HeartBearmon!" Takuya, Koji, Koichi, Loryn, and I bounced from floating rock as JP carried Tommy with Zoe following close behind.
"Hurry, we must make haste! Ophanimon's in peril!" Bokomon shouted.
"Next time, no hitchhikers!" JP said. Soon we set foot on the floating slab of land that the castle was supposed to be on. All we saw was a large door just sitting there, apparently leading to nowhere.
"Does this remind anyone of the Dark Gate, or is it just me?" JP asked.
"This must be the entrance to the castle." Takuya said.
"Okay, but there's nothing back here to enter into." Koji said.
"Well you'd think that this gate would have to lead to somewhere." Takuya replied. Out of nowhere these little metal balls attached to chains tried to hit us before returning back to two ghost like digimon wearing red capes and holding golden scythes. Phantomon.
"Nice reception!" Takuya exclaimed.
"It is time for the harvest," the first one started.
"Of your souls!" The second finished.
"Those Phantomon are the grim reapers of the digital world!" Bokomon exclaimed.
"Doesn't matter, by the time we're done with them there will be nothing left but digital ectoplasma." I said right before one of them attacked me with a scythe. Koji tried to attack with Lobo Kendo but the Phantomon disappeared and reappeared behind her. Koichi attacked with Shadow Meteor causing it to back off.
"Nice shot." Koji said. Zoe tried attacking next, the same thing happend. Kumamon warded the Phantomon back with Frozen Tundra.
"You sure froze him out." The fairy digimon said.
"It was my pleasure." Kumamon replied. JP attacked with Thunder Fist, and missed.
"Slippery little devils aren't they." He said.
"Emphasis on 'devils'." I growled, having missed one of the Phantomon.
"Nice try." One of them taunted before they both disappeared.
"Great, they vanished." Takuya said.
"Use extreme caution! Their clairvoyant crystals can trap you in another dimension" Bokomon shouted, hiding behind a rock with the other digimon. Next, one by one the others were captured until it was just me and Koichi. We stood back to back, waiting for one of the ghosts to appear. One did.
"Once trapped inside our crystal spheres," it started as the other appeared.
"You can never escape!" The other finished.
"Join them!" They said simultaneously, circling us like sharks.
"Never!" Koichi shouted.
"I'd rather destroy you two numskulls." I added. They disappeared again, but Koichi managed to hit them with his Shadow Lance. The others were freed as the two digimon's fractal code showed. Lowemon purified them, and the digieggs floated into the sky.
"Outstanding!" Bokomon congratulated.
"Thanks for saving us from those ghouls." Loryn said.
"Who ya gonna call?" I said, causing a volley of laughter. The gate had opened, so we walked through to find something out of Alice in Wonderland. There were stairs that seemed to be upside down, and mirrors everywhere. We all stared in wonder at the strangeness of the place.
"What in the world is this place?" Takuya asked.
"Who knows. This world gets weirder by the minute." JP said. As we approached a group of mirrors, I heard a strange sound and quickly unsheathed my swords. I felt a wave of darkness wash through the room. I looked over to Koji and Koichi, they could sense it too.
"I'm shutting my eyes, I don't wanna know what happens." Neemon whimpered. Right then, dark shadows with piercing red eyes appeared in the mirrors. Their black hands reached out and tried to attack us. I slashed my sword through one of the arms with no effect.
"How do we stop these things?" Zoe asked as I tried slashing through it again. Before I could try for a third time a sound, like a bell, rang through the room. The sound made the creatures freeze and retreat back into the mirrors.
"Whatever that is, it stopped them." Takuya said. Out of the shadows walked a goat like digimon with a golden bell hanging from it's neck. I sheathed my swords, knowing that he was our friend.
"This is the hall of shadows, all those who have fallen prey to Cherubimon's treachery are locked forever within." The goat said.
"And just who are you?" Takuya asked.
"My name is Oryxmon, I am not your enemy. Cherubimon's castle is filled with many traps, but I can lead you safely to Lady Ophanimon."
"What do ya think?" Takuya whispered.
"I don't know. I'm not sure if we can trust this guy." Koji replied. I walked towards Oryxmon.
"Well I trust him, and besides there are two things wrong with your view. One, he is not a literal guy since he is a digimon. Two, he saved us from the shadow hands." Everyone agreed and we followed Oryxmon through the many twists and turns of the castle. Finally he led us into a room filled with light, A giant glowing sphere was floating near the top. Through the blinding light. I could see a figure in the orb.
"Lady Ophanimon is being held in the sphere above us." Oryxmon stated.
"It's so bright." Tommy said.
"And warm." Zoe added.
"It's beautiful." Loryn stated.
"The glowing entity you see before you is one oft he three great angels, Lady Ophanimon." Oryxmon informed. As I stared harder I recognized the digimon that Kari's Gatomon had digivolved into once before. The green armor seemed to shine brighter because of all the light bouncing around the room.
"You made it, the Legendary Warriors have returned." She said.
"Well, almost all of us." I said sadly, thinking about the loss of DemiDevimon. Ophanimon wore a sad look for just a second but it soon changed back to her normal expression of joy.
"Young Warrior, do not despair for Digimon cannot truly die, you will see your friend again." Her words made me smile, it was nice to be reminded of that. Kazemon and Beetle flew up towards the sphere and tried to break through it. They weren't powerful enough though and came back down.
"The seal is too strong to break through." Zoe told us.
"Thank you children, but you must not waste your powers on me." Ophanimon said.
"But why?" Takuya asked.
"Isn't that we're here for?" Loryn questioned. Ophanimon smiled.
"No, there is a greater purpose that you are here for, but before you put yourselves into anymore danger you must know why all of you were called into this world. Ages ago there was a terrible war, a fierce battle waged between the Human and Beast type digimon-"
"Like that lost island place." I interupted, before chuckling sheepishly.
"Lucemon and stopped the fighting, bringing peace to this world; but soon after, Lucemon grew mad with power, tormenting and oppressing digimon. It was then that the 12 Legendary Warriors rose up, carrying the light of truth and right in their hearts. Oh, how bravely they fought against Lucemon and his injustice. After defeating him, the 12 Legendary Warriors disappeared. Cherubimon, Seraphimon, and I worked together to bring peace and harmony to the Digital World once more."
"This just like the story Seraphimon told us." Neemon pointed out.
"Shh, be quiet." Bokomon said and snapped the rabbit's waist band.
"But it wouldn't last. Seraphimon upheld our world's system of law and order, Cherubimon protected all of our knowledge and legends, and I fostered the appreciation of all life and love. And yet it soon became clear that Cherubimon's ideas and philosophies were quite different from our own. Seraphimon and I decided that we should meet alone and try to find a way to reconcile our views to Cherubimon. But when Cherubimon heard us talking, he misunderstood our intentions. He though we were trying to undermine him and subvert the beliefs he held.
"Our world exploded. We were treated like traitors by Cherubimon's followers. He had convinced the Beast types that were the cause of all their problems. Cherubimon lead them in an aggressive campaign against the Human type Digimon. He had become a monster steeped in evil. Ever since that moment I have been imprisoned in this castle, waiting for Seraphimon to awaken."
"I wish everybody would just play nice." Patamon said.
"I wonder if all of this happened because Cherubimon liked Ophanimon?" Zoe questioned.
"No way!" JP argued.
"Love is a mysterious force that has cause more fighting than anything else in history. Be it the love of friends, the love for a country, or the love of a soul-mate." I said knowledgeably.
"It's easy to see why Cherubimon was your partner." Lunamon and Bearmon said simultaneously.
"To gain power, Cherubimon possessed 7 of the 12 spirits. He used four of them to create his own evil warriors. He then hid two to be found by two of you. Finally he implanted the last one, the spirit of Darkness, into Koichi who had stumbled into this world. Jason defeated him however and so, to make things more diffucult for him, Cherubimon put it in his second partner Lunamon. Your strength and courage triumphed over the many ordeals that you have faced. Now you face the task of defeating Cherubimon, but you posses the spirts of the 12 legendary warriors. You are our greatest hope to conquer his evil.
"You are a fool, Ophanimon!" A voice shouted, I recognized it as Cherubimon.
"It's Cherubimon." Oryxmon exclaimed.
"I hear him, but where is he?" Zoe asked.
"Haven't you wondered why I allowed the human children to come here without destroying them? Surely I have the strength to do so." Cheeubimon said.
"What are you saying?" Ophanimon asked. Suddenly I realized his plan.
"Crud." I said, causing the others to look at me.
"What?" They questioned.
"This was his plan all along. He wanted us to get this far. He has all 12 spirits assembled in the same room, ripe for the plucking."I explained, causing them to gasp. Cherubimon appeared in the room.
"I always knew you were worthy to be my partner." He chuckled ominously, "You and these humans have brought my plan into fruition. Let's end it." All of our marks began to glow, and I felt a little wierd.
"My Spirit!" Takuya said.
"It's starting to glow." Tommy said.
"What's going on?" JP asked.
"Bokomon, what is happening?" Zoe asked.
"Finally, it has all come to this shining moment when my evil will reign supreme!" Cherubimon shouted victoriously as I unsheathed my swords, preparing to fight.