Author's Note: Sorry for the hiatus on this story! But now, bi-weekly updates return for Digital Extra! I had to take a break, was out of steam on Digimon content, so decided to focus on other stories and new projects I had been wanting to write for a while.

"After an endless dream, in this world of nothingness. It seems as if our beloved dreams will lose. Even with these unreliable wings, covered in images that tend to stay. I'm sure we can fly, on my love!"

Digital/Extra

Chapter 85: Lunar Path to Light, Love, and Magic

Hakuno Kishinami had found it. A near impossibility brought to her by sheer dumb luck, an object that drew her closer to her goal and wish now sat in the ravine below. While the magus girl logically knew the chances of finding one while under the watch of Blackwargreymon to be minuscule, it yet stood there as if taunting the odds and granting her a push forward in progress.

A Destiny Stone.

It was there, in the desolate ravine, tempting her to access its connections with a Code Cast.

How incredible that the rumor was true, that it had been in the very arid region that the artificial digimon had taken her too.

But she had not come this far by carelessly interacting with such powerful devices, while there were some exceptions, experience and caution served to keep recklessness at bay. Hakuno still needed a way to head down there, as she did not trust herself in climbing down manually with little skill and no equipment.

And since her Servant was nowhere near that left her wayward companion.

Blackwargreymon stood passively nearby, his stance giving off the same expressive note that indicated his continuous pondering. Ever since his discussion with her in the prior night, the artificial Digimon had become quiet and would routinely just stare off in the distance, paying little to the Digital Human save to occasionally glance to verify her continued presence, following her as they wandered around in search for the Destiny Stones.

She could not leave his side, even to aid in whatever conflict her Servant Caster, and by proxy, the Digidestined were fighting against. The Portable Terminal had been rather silent, but there was that subtle drain on Hakuno's od reserves and slight pulsing sensation of her Command Seals that indicated Caster's ongoing combat.

There wasn't anything Hakuno could do to help them. Sure, a Command Spell could be used, but without knowing what was occurring it would be a complete waste of a miracle.

A sinking feeling tugged at her heart, fear that Caster could perish, Hakuno tried to ignore it by instead focusing on the Destiny Stone below.

"Blackwargreymon," Hakuno spoke in an attempt to catch the pondering artificial Digimon's attention.

He shifted her head ever so slightly towards her, an indicator she caught that meant he was listening.

She continued, "I've spotted a Destiny Stone, it is below us in the ravine," She paused for a moment. "Can you help me get down there?"

The black-coated chrome digizoid glimmered in the sunlight as he didn't reply for a minute, before moving and lifting the Digital Human in a quite careful manner. Hakuno Kishinami was rather surprised by this action, that he seemed to take the consideration not to harm her as he carried her.

It didn't take them long to approach the Destiny Stone, Blackwargreymon spoke up, "This is the object you spoke of?"

"Yes," Hakuno said, recognizing the ambient energy around the Destiny Stone is identical to the one surrounding her Private Room. "I need to interact with it. Don't do anything to the Destiny Stone, alright?"

"And what should it be my concern if I should do something to a rock?" Blackwargreymon questioned as he set the magus down on the ground floor.

"I explained before what they do," Hakuno answered.

"The boundaries of the Digital World shouldn't matter," He spoke harshly.

"They do, remember? If you destroy what you're looking for, you will never get the answers," Hakuno referred back to the prior night's conversation. "And these are something that would decimate everything in the world if reduced to rubble."

"Mmh… Then I suppose I will relent on this," He agreed. "It would not benefit me if such objects' elimination disturbed my journey for answers."

Satisfied that Blackwargreymon would not destroy the Destiny Stone, Hakuno Kishinami took a deep breath, preparing herself mentally. She took a step forward, placing a hand against the golden halo wrapped around the boulder. It was cold, and felt like rustic metal and seemed outright mundane, but the energy she could feel around it betrayed the stone's nature.

She had only ever interacted with the Destiny Stone below the Private Room. And never intentionally as deep as she now planned, only had utilized it for Soul Attunement.

Her mind flashed with the memory image of a city aflame, her magic circuits activated with od surging through them.

"Code Cast: Hack," Hakuno spoke aloud the digital magecraft.

Her vision twisted and contorted, the sensation of sight, sound, and touch stripped away and replaced by a familiar environment.

She was sinking…

Deeper… and Deeper…

The chimeric lunar ocean surrounded her every side…

Hakuno Kishinami recognized this terrifying place.

It was the core.

Moon Cell's Core.

Fear gripped her heart, a cold chill running through her, in reflex her body jolted and moved suddenly in the underwater tomb. This action shocked her mind back into reality, an illogical movement that contrasted the actual memory.

Calm down, Hakuno forced herself.

She was not in the Moon Cell's Core, this was an illusion, it bore similarities, but she could move. Inside the Core, her body had been in the process of disassembling and deletion, unable to respond without immense effort. This was not the case here.

Hakuno's body floated upright, the magus girl glanced around and focused on the true differences. At initial glance, it was an underwater sea, but there were floating lines of data streams that didn't match the Moon Cell's own.

This was the Destiny Stone's interior, perhaps? Had it taken inspiration from her memories, from her time in the Moon Cell Core, and replicated it in its interior? There had been multiple times where it had attempted to connect and recognized her as a Digital Human.

"Focus," Hakuno Kishinami spoke to herself, the water was an illusion, a falsehood, she could breathe just as well as inside the Core.

She hacked into the Destiny Stone for a driven purpose.

For answers.

And to help Archer.

If this fake replica of the Moon Cell's Core functioned with the same, or similar, manner. Then here she would be able to inquire and take action with matters related to the Digital World. It would be likely not to have much influence, not without the other Destiny Stones. Still, Hakuno delved into the mysteries of the data cycles occurring within this immense object.

She brought forward her hand, reconnected with her Code Cast: Hack, and a variety of screens in a holographic blue sheen popped around her, encircling the girl in so many that she would have to turn her head to see them all.

Her head began to hurt, a mild pain that seemed like it was inside her skull. She knew what this was, a backlash of using her Code Cast in a way beyond her even her digital body's limitations.

"Search, Archer," She spoke as her fingers tentatively hovered over the screens.

They shifted and turned, but the information was vague. There were depictions, the battle between Archer and Mummymon was shown like a low-quality recording before apparently her Servant used the Reality Marble which the Destiny Stones were unable to comprehend.

That made sense, given what Hakuno did know about Reality Marbles in a basic sense.

He Command Seal stung, Hakuno's eyes glanced over to the dormant segment, which was flashing between crimson and gray. Perhaps an indicator that it was trying to re-establish the contract with Archer? She could feel bits of her magical energy drain further with each flash, maybe rejuvenating the Nameless Heroic Spirit, but Hakuno logically knew that she could not keep this up for long.

Caster was still actively in combat, after all. Hakuno could not handle two Servants at once.

"Establish link to Private Room," Hakuno connected this Destiny Stone to her own in a more intricate way. "Inquire… Homeostasis?"

She frowned.

The information was restricted, the limited Destiny Stones in her newly formed network did not have the processing power to as of yet compete against whatever this King Drasil had.

Well, she had done what's needed for now. With a private network established to the Private Room's own Destiny Stone. Hakuno Kishinami would be able to access two of these holy stones' processing capabilities. But, she needed more than just the duo, especially to find possible avenues in getting her to the Real World without side effects.

She retracted her Code Cast…

But as the ocean disappeared around her and she began to leave this plane… The magus girl caught a glimmer of what appeared to be the slumbering state of a large aquamarine-hued serpentine dragon.

Then her vision swirled…

Her senses reset…

Hakuno Kishinami stumbled right on her rear end on dirt and rock, her eyes blinked a few times as her mind recollected and gained awareness of her surroundings. She had returned to the normalcy of the Digital World's environment.

She looked around and spotted Blackwargreymon standing against the nearby cliff-wall, eyeing the Destiny Stone and her.

"I'm done," Hakuno spoke.

"We will search for more, I wish to see your interaction again," Blackwargreymon replied.

"Huh? Did something happen while I was working?" She questioned.

His head turned up.

Hakuno followed his movements and was stunned.

There, floating way high in the sky, was the shape of a gigantic blue cube, flashing seemingly in and out of existence for a few more moments before fading away into obscurity, as if never there.

It seems that a connection had been formed with the Moon Cell for a period of time.

That wasn't a comforting thought.

If it wasn't clear before, it became clear now. Knightmon was a dangerous opponent that challenged the Digidestined and their supportive Heroic Spirit, Caster. If Knightmon's previous strength wasn't already a challenge enough, the unknown, Code Cast-like abilities and additional skills available to the Royal Knight precursor created a whole slew of problems. Ironic, that the best individual to counter this, Hakuno Kishinami, was also the very target that Knightmon sought to destroy. Hence, the Digidestined were driven to defeat Knightmon, or at the very least, push the enemy Digimon into a retreat.

But, it became clear that the limited evolutionary strength available to the Digidestined's partners couldn't place a solid dent on Knightmon. Yes, they could delay their tenacious foe, but not damage. After theorizing that the attack attributes of the new skills were less effective against their digimon, they attempted to try different Armor Digivolution variants on Knightmon, to little effect.

The most 'effective' digimon in their arsenal against Knightmon was Aquilamon and Veemon's evolution line. Meanwhile, the others did negligible damage, and Caster was starting to slow down notably.

Hakuno's fox maiden was beginning to run out of steam, which was pressuring the Digidestined even more as Caster had been dealing the most significant portion against Knightmon. But the magical energy available to the Servant was becoming more and more an issue as the battle prolonged.

Quite simply, the Digidestined lacked power.

"If only we had our Crests," Hikari said, holding her D-3 Digivice close to her chest. "Then Gatomon could digivolve to Angewomon."

Yolei looked at her friend, "What about the time with Daemon, Kari? She became Angewomon then."

"That was a one-time exception, Gatomon had the energy stored for an emergency at the time," Hikari explained.

Cody suddenly shouted, "Digmon!"

His partner, Digmon, had been struck with Knightmon's blade. His versatility in slowing down the enemy digimon had been a crucial advantage, but now the drilling armor digimon had taken a critical blow. As a result, he de-digivolved to Armadillomon to avoid fatal wound, a last resort to escape potential deletion that was unique to the Digidestineds' companions.

"Curse: Thunder Heaven!" The magical fox girl tossed a tag that lit up like a lightning bolt, stunning the knight long enough for Pegasusmon to swoop in and grab Armadillomon, retreating from the battlefield back to the human children's relatively safer position.

"Good job, Pegasusmon," Takeru praised his partner.

"Sorry, Cody," Armadillomon apologized.

"No it's alright," Cody shook his head as his hand stroked over his partner's hard shell. "You did your best, rest and heal up now."

"We've exhausted nearly every tactic," Takeru said. "And Caster is struggling."

"She's covering for our digimon a lot," Yolei replied. "We don't have the firepower to beat Knightmon."

Daisuke clenched his fists, "Digmon really helped out with slowing Knightmon. Most of our and Caster's attacks landed because of that."

"Right," Takeru nodded in agreement. "Pegasusmon and Nefertimon's Golden Loose has been circumvented. Knightmon just cuts through it."

The goggle-head boy shouted to his partner, "Exveemon! To the left!l

"Gak!" Exveemon was too slow to avoid an incoming blast of light, another skill that was unknown to the Digidestined. He tried in vain to defend himself, but the damage taken throughout the battle had finally taken its toll, his form was enveloped in the light of digivolution and Exveemon shrunk in size back to his rookie stage.

Veemom started to free-fall, but Caster leaped up and caught the small dinosaur. Then took the time to avoid another swing by Knightmon, kicking off the enemy's flat side of the sword as a launchpad towards the Digidestined.

"Here you go! Catch!" She shouted and threw Veemon toward Daisuke.

"I got you!" Daisuke exclaimed as he caught and fell down to the ground with a solid thud, then briefly examined his partner who had swirls for eyes, clearly not able to battle anymore.

"This is bad-" Hikari began, but was interrupted.

A bright cerulean light shot into the air from the distance, easily spottable from even its far location. The entire sky seemed to bolt as the light impacted against it, the normal blue atmosphere and white clouds were washed away by an expanding ring of data.

Then, taking shape at the epicenter, a massive floating cube formed into existence. Its size was colossal, you could spot it from one end of the continent to the other. The cube itself had square designs throughout its exterior, but an open gap revealing a yellow light with a black backdrop.

But, after a minute of silence, of an unspoken peace in the break of combat. The superstructure faded away, leaving behind the normal painted-like sky of the Digital World, the beam of light having passed into history.

It was thought to be a mystery, the Digidestined hadn't paid in too much mind. They had pushed aside the icon and connected occurrences as an oddity tied to Hakuno Kishinami, something exclusive to the Digital Human.

However, it became clear that this 'Moon Cell' was far more than a simple symbol. They had seen it with their old attempts to access Hakuno's conquered regions, and also when connecting directly to her Portable Terminal.

And so, this phenomenon that just occurred was likely due to the magus girl.

They weren't the only ones to know.

"Though I detest such blatant alteration to King Drasil's Digital World, a beacon directly to the interferer's position is most helpful!" Knightmon shouted.

"No way!" Caster exclaimed as she stood between Knightmon and the general direction of her Master. "You aren't getting anyway near my husband!"

"Nefertimon!" Hikari yelled, "Back her up!"

"You too Aquilamon!" Yolei exclaimed.

"Out of my way!" Knightmon swung her blade, which's sheer kinetic force created a gust of wind towards the three. They were pushed back, Aquilamon sent spiraling into the air while Caster crashed into Nefertimon who was down low. Having already been injured during the long battle, Nefertimon reverted back to Gatomon.

While Gatomon was a champion level, without her holy ring, she had reduced strength.

Hikari took a step forward, but Yolei grasped the girl's arm.

"Don't Kari," Yolei said in concern.

"What can we do, Yolei? Gatomon is hurt now, Caster isn't much better. And now Hakuno is even more danger, again!" Hikari responded, shaking her head out of Yolei's grip, she continued, "I'm the Bearer of Light, yet it's the Light that's aiming to kill our friend! Light and Darkness, both beating us."

"I know," Yolei said. "I'm supposed to bear the Digi-Eggs of Love and Sincerity," She said. "But neither seems to be worth enough to help."

Kari paused, "You said… You said before that you'd be my light."

The glasses-wearing girl blinked, but determination appeared, "Yes when you can't be, I will. I promise you that."

"Then…" Hikari glanced back towards the direction where the event occurred, before looking at Yolei. "If you can take my Light, then I can take your Love. If we work together-"

"-Together it won't be Light or Darkness that stops us from protecting our friend," Yolei gripped Hikari's hands. "I…" Her eyes widened. "I feel… Warm?"

Hikari was stunned, "I can hear two heartbeats… Is that yours and mine…?"

"Our D-3's are shining!" Yolei raised hers.

Aquilamon stabilized in the air, his form began glowing, "This… Power!"

"Me too, I can feel a surge of power!" Gatomon stood up, her form shining.

Jogress

Evolution

"Aquilamon…!"

"Gatomon…!"

"Jogress shinka…!"

Both Aquilamon and Gatomon shifted into spheres of colors that collided together into a bright flash of light, this orb took form and expanded into a humanoid shape. The light of evolution shredded off, revealing a mixture of white skin and brown feathered avian legs, with a human face covered by a metallic visor, the chest covered in an armor of identical make.

"Silphymon!"

The newly digivolved Silphymon raised its head towards Knightmon, standing between their foe and the Heroic Spirit. Silphymon took a few seconds to glance over itself, then glare towards the royal knight precursor.

"We will stand in your way!" Silphymon shouted.

"Gatomon…" Hikari spoke stunned.

"And Aquilamon…" Yolei was likewise.

They looked at each other, "They fused!"

"It makes little matter if they fused!" Knightmon shouted. "Take this-"

"Static Force!" Silphymon interrupted by conjuring a sphere of pinkish-hued energy and blasting it at Knightmon.

"What!" Knightmon braced and took the blast head-on, an explosion rocked the terrain and the digimon was pushed back by the tremendous force. When the smoke cleared, Knightmon staggered a bit, "Impossible… That's only an Ultimate Level Digimon! How could I take damage?"

"Hah!" Caster laughed. "Now it's like two Servants together! Well, I'm probably still a bit better, but not complaining about the power-up for my dear's friends!"

"Don't think this will change anything," Knightmon retorted. "I'm still a Royal Knight!"

"More like royal trash!" Caster mocked.

"You abomination!" Their enemy shouted and charged forward recklessly towards them.

"Watch your step~!" The fox maiden warned.

"Huh?" Knightmon was too late as a barrage of flame explosions from hidden Curse: Fiery Heaven tags which were planted earlier.

"Let's take our chance!" Hikari shouted.

"You got it, Kari!" Silphymon acknowledged and leaped forward. "Here's a second Static Force!" Another sphere launched forward and combined with Caster's earlier tags, conjoined together into an enlarged destructive pillar of fire and smoke.

"Curses…" Knightmon retreated back, the armor of the digimon now charred and dirtied. "I… I… I will take my loss this time. I'm not foolish enough to stay but know this, Digidestined. Crossing King Drasil only places your group in his eyes of enemies."

With that said, Knightmon vanished into motes of data light, more akin to some sort of transportation.

Silphymon separated back into the baby form of Hawkmon, a small pink feathered avian, and Gatomon into her rookie stage of a puppy.

"Aw~ That's cute," Was Caster's comment as everyone finally relaxed after a hard-fought battle.