A/N: Chapter 55
Digimon Tamers: Quantum Displacement Theory and Other Big Words
Chapter 55
We returned from our patrol, nothing new was visible and we had made no progress on finding a direction to travel in. Rika remained outside while I went to check on Kiara and Axel. That turned out to be a good idea since when I went in I had to quickly advert my eyes. Axel had woken obviously and both of them had taken the brief privacy to reacquaint themselves with their feelings. My eyes rose though of their own accord and I could easily see what Kiara saw in him, after all it was clearly visible from where I stood.
I snapped myself out of the semi trance I had fallen into and returned to Rika. She looked to me expectantly, I knew why.
"He's awake Rika, but don't go in there. He and Kiara are, um, not decent."
It took her a moment to register what I said, when she did she rolled her eyes. "Those two can't leave each other alone. The first thing they do when he wakes up... Honestly."
I hid a smile. "Axel will be Axel Rika, and Kiara won't be any different either. Give them a bit to adjust themselves, let then come out when they're ready."
Rika nodded just as a crash came from the shelter we had made for Axel. We turned to see Kiara staggering out into the open, half closed eyes and everything ruffled and creased. I hid my smile again as Rika scoffed quietly, did I detect a slight pang of jealousy from my tamer? I know I was jealous, but her too?
Kiara joined us, obviously out of breath. "He's awake."
"We know, Renamon saw." Kiara went wide eyed at Rika, who decided to rub it in some more. "She saw everything as you slept..."
Kiara paled as Axel himself emerged, his torn clothing showing no scars underneath. They weren't torn much mind, but the slash across his chest did show off a bit more than usual. He had gained a significant amount of muscle definition seemingly overnight, he was nowhere near that defined the day before. Rika's cheeks turned a rosy tint as she saw him, her eyes glued to his torso.
"Rika, if you keep staring at Axel like that Kiara will get pissed."
I watched the redhead struggle to avert her eyes, succeeding but having to fight herself not to look again. I suppressed a laugh, since I was also having trouble not looking at Axel's chest.
Axel didn't seem to notice as he stood beside Kiara, making me and Rika struggle more not to drop our gaze. Kiara leaned against him as he wrapped an arm around her, her head nuzzling into his neck.
"They keep staring at your chest Axel."
Now it was mine and Rika's turn to pale. Axel shrugged. "So?"
His nonchalant attitude bewildered me, how could he just dismiss that so easily?
Kiara ran a paw across his exposed torso, making me and Rika even more jealous. "When did you get that refined anyway? I haven't noticed it before."
Axel blinked. "I guess it's got something to do with the Strabimon's data I was given. I feel stronger and faster and my body obviously shows it." He shrugged again.
I wasn't sure what he meant by that but I wasn't about to ask, I was having enough trouble keeping my eyes on his face instead of his body. Rika was having similar trouble.
Axel clapped his hands together once. "Right. Now that I can move again we should get going. Aluna's guidance is working again now and it's telling me we can be at the core by the end of today. Shall we go ladies?"
I swear he said that on purpose.
We made good progress during the day. Rika and Renamon remained behind us, muttering quietly and assuming I couldn't hear them. Thanks to the data from Strabimon I had gained heightened senses, also being able to sense digimon, so I could hear them talking between themselves. I couldn't hear their words though, but one look at Kiara beside me told me she could. I had asked her what they were saying but she just grinned and remained quiet. She also gave me a look that I didn't like, one that seemed to promise something I wouldn't be comfortable with.
I shrugged it off as best as I could, concentrating on reaching the core. The Sovereigns were on the level above us, the central shaft that sat in the middle of their collective realms lead straight down to this level. We shouldn't run into any problems until we reached the D-reaper.
Eventually the giant shaft was visible in the layer above us. The core layer seemed to be the only one that allowed you to see the layers above it, all the others seemed like open sky. As it was there was almost no light on this level, all the layers above blotting out the sun as we moved closer to the core. It kept getting darker as we continued on our way, the rocky ground we tread upon only adding to the ominous feeling.
Kiara became nervous beside me. "We're close Axel. I can feel it."
"So can I. This is where it all ends, one way or another."
The atmosphere became tense and solemn. We all knew what was at stake if we failed, and what could happen if we succeeded. The air was thick with apprehension, Rika and Renamon now walking beside us as we made the final push to the now visible glowing core. Glowing with a pink light. The same pink as the D-reaper.
I swallowed thickly, readying myself for the impending confrontation and the ensuing fights. Kiara flexed her claws as she glanced at me, a nod being shared to show we both knew this was it. Rika and Renamon never broke stride with us, all four of us marching straight to the core.
After five minutes we peered over into the pit, the eerie pink light casting a rosy hue over us all as we took our first look at the D-reaper. The roiling pink mass seemed to breathe of its own energy, seemingly alive and possibly watching us. It put me on edge, thinking there was an intelligence behind such an intangible mass. How could anything looking like that possess a mind capable of thoughts and schemes, how could it be capable of anything besides mindless slaughter.
Yet it did. I knew it did, I could feel it. Its intelligence rivalled that of any living being in either world, thinking, planning and preparing to make its move. It was waiting for the right moment, and our arrival was that moment.
As I watched the mass shifted, a tendril the size of a bus lurching upwards and over the edge of the pit. The rest of the mass followed as it literally pulled itself from the hole, pooling beside us. But that's when things became very bad. It wasn't spreading out like it should, consuming all in its path. No, it was taking a shape, forming a body with which to use as its own.
I knew there were agents for the D-reaper. Aluna knew that too. Yet what we were seeing was the entire mass taking one single form. No agents, no swarms of beings to slow us down. Just one single entity forming to wipe us out.
But again, even with all that, something was wrong. The shape it took, I recognised it. A strong main body supported by four legs, a long forked tail waving behind it as an equally long neck stretched upwards, a serpent like head at the end. I knew this form. Then again something new. Colours. Gone went the pink, darkening into a jet black with red lines all over, yellow claws and four red eyes. I knew this beast, and it knew me.
Maraxus.
"Axel Mavor. How long I have waited for your arrival. But here you are, like lambs to the slaughter."
I was surprised, but not solely by his presence. "Maraxus. You're the D-reaper?"
He laughed menacingly. "No, I merely replaced it to destroy you and your friends. Perhaps you are wondering why I lead you here instead of destroying you when I first touched your mind? Simply put even I can't achieve such a task, you have to be before me so I can kill you. I may be all powerful but a few things still elude my grasp. No matter, you're here now. I can kill you and ruin Aluna's chances of saving this world."
Kiara took a step forwards before I stopped her. "Why? What do you gain by doing this?"
He shook his head with mirth. "I shouldn't expect you to know, nor understand my motives. You are such insignificant life forms with primitive thoughts and understanding, how could you ever hope to understand my kind? Aluna draws her power from the realms of reality, I draw mine from those of chaos. But my power dwindles, several realms of mine were lost due to collateral damage, their existence becoming too chaotic to maintain. Their collapse has left me weaker than I like, so I have to acquire new territories to regain my power. If Aluna has to lose some realms for my benefit then so be it, but your worlds will be mine!"
"Not on our watch!" Rika and Renamon stepped forwards, the redhead looking defiantly at the guardian beast before us. "These are our worlds and we won't give them up for you! Renamon! Let's go!"
"No Rika!" I tried in vain to stop them, but it was too late.
"Biomerge Activate!"
"Biomerge Digivolution!"
"Renamon biomerge to..."
I watched on in dismay as they both merged into their mega form, completely unaware of just how powerful Maraxus truly was. They didn't stand a chance.
"Sakuyamon!"
They charged forwards, already letting loose their attacks that just bounced off his body. He didn't even blink.
"Pathetic! Stand aside while I dispose of Axel, you may live your lives normally afterwards. The chaos won't take effect until your lives are safely over, generations will live and die before the chaos takes effect. Stand aside and you will live, defy me and I will wipe you from existence."
Sakuyamon just continued to fight, despite my pleas. Maraxus grew bored of them and directed his attention at us, or rather me specifically. His tail swung down at us, hitting the ground where we stood moments after Kiara phased us away.
"Stand still human! You cannot escape me!"
He swung again and again Kiara phased us clear. Time and time again he attacked, only for Kiara to move us away. His impatience grew as Sakuyamon still tried in vain to hurt the beast, only making him attack faster and faster.
"Kiara, we can't keep this up. We need to biomerge."
She looked at me before phasing us clear again. "Why Axel? What can we do against him? Rika and Renamon can't do anything!"
"Not alone they can't, and we have the shard. We have to try." We phased away again to avoid another tail strike. "Come on Kiara, if we don't then we are as good as dead. We will have achieved nothing!"
We phased again before she nodded. "Do it."
"Biomerge Activate!"
"Biomerge Digivolution!"
We became one again, taking out mega form as Maraxus simply laughed. "Fine, waste your time. I'll just kill you both!"
"Renamon biomerge to... Sakuyamon!"
We dodged another tail strike as well as a swipe from his clawed paws. Sakuyamon joined us, unrelenting in their attacks as well decided to step up the assault. We aimed for one set of eyes, tracking the movements of his head.
"Fox Drive!"
We sent our fireball straight into his left eyes. He obviously felt the attack wasn't going to make any difference, so I imagined his roar was of pain and surprise rolled in together. By the time the fires had gone out both his left eyes were closed, burned horrifically and useless to him now.
"You insolent, worthless worms! How dare you take half my sight! Don't think this is a victory for you, I can still strip your existence from you!"
Yeah, he's pissed.
We circled around to his blind area, Sakuyamon following. "You see Sakuyamon? We can beat him. Concentrate your attacks in venerable places. Eyes, mouth, backs of his knees. The areas you believe will cause the most damage. But watch for that tail."
"Got it." They nodded before racing off, already looking for an opening as Maraxus lashed out with anger.
We dodged his tail again before ducking under his body, smashing our staff against his left hind knee. As expected he didn't show any reaction, his hide was incredibly thick. But it didn't matter, we spun around to the back of the same leg and struck again, seeing the leg buckle very slightly. Good, he was weaker there. As I hoped.
We raced from underneath him as he tried to crush us, dodging his tail yet again.
"He has weaknesses Kiara, we need to find them and hit them till he drops."
We kept to his blind spot to discuss tactics. "It won't be easy Axel. This isn't a digimon so I can't tell how strong he is, but I can sense a vast power within him. If the D-reaper is really this Maraxus, can't we use the shard against him?"
I could sense some desperation from her already. "I suppose we can but I don't know how it works, how many times I can use it or when to use it. Aluna didn't specify anything about it."
That didn't help her, nor did it help me. I partially wished Aluna would give me some answers about this vast power I had been given. What use was a weapon if you weren't told how to use it?
We ducked Maraxus' tail again and lashed out with our staff, the weapon bouncing off harmlessly.
"Dammit! This staff is useless!"
Kiara's soothing thoughts came to me. "What about the spear? Can you upgrade us with that?"
I paused at that, I hadn't thought of that. "I honestly don't know, let's give it a go."
The principle would still apply, the cards themselves weren't important. All you had to do was believe that the card you held was the card you needed, if it was a power card but you needed speed then it would boost speed if you believed it could. In theory you didn't even need a card or a digivice, you could just believe you needed a speed card and the upgrade would happen. So that's what I did for my 'Orphanimon's Holy Spear' card. I simply thought of it and nothing else, and it activated.
In a flash of golden light our staff morphed into the spear, light reflecting off through golden surface as we swung it around to face Maraxus once more.
"Looks like it works Kiara, now let's get some!"
A feral growl sounded in my mind. "Let's dance!"
