Chapter 10: Light of Digivolution
"Keita, you're hurting my arm..." Shinsuke mumbles to me, his voice barely a whisper when I'm just beside him. We both couldn't- no, didn't dare speak out in this situation. The atmosphere around us is suffocating and heavy; the silence crushes us under its hold; the glares between the three of them intensifies. Trees loom over us, creating a dim environment, where the dark shades of the Digimon are my only identification.
"Die!" Flymon lets out a yell, propelling herself with her thin wings towards the two Digimon. Talons out, she thrusts them horizontally against the two rookies, pushing them back through the dirt, then down to the ground. She goes for a stab, but Gazimon tears the grass into Flymon's face. The monstrous fly recoils back. Following up with the blinding attempt, Gaomon rises to his feet, punches the other square in the pincers and lands a backhand on the same spot, thrusting her back.
Flymon stabilizes herself with a strong beat of her wings. She takes to the sky, going out of everyone's views, leaving Gazimon and Gaomon to look up. Suddenly, pincers rain down from the sky, stabbing into the ground and disappearing into particles.
"Yikes!" Shinsuke yelps, as one of the pincers, fall right next to us. Glancing towards me, he mutters, "You didn't hear that."
"Oh, I sure did," I smirk, enjoying the boy's expression turning to a frown once more.
"Hey, don't get stabbed by these things!" Gazimon warns us, bringing our sights back to the battle. "They turn you purple, then crumble your body into pieces!" The canine Digimon explains, running around on all fours, along with Gaomon, to evade these pincers.
My face starts to turn blue.
C-Crumble into pieces? Pieces?! You're telling me that these pincers not only can impale you, but they can wither your body away?! Ah... I'm thankful to have lived through that barrage of pincers with Shinsuke.
Flymon comes into view once more, rocketing towards the two rookies once more with her claws out. The two Digimon were tired out from running and avoiding the pincers, so they couldn't move out of the way. Instead, Gazimon points himself at Flymon and goes into focus.
"Electric Stun Blast!" He shouts, shooting out an electric, yellow ball towards Flymon.
It collides with her, stunning the monstrous fly and causing her to drop from the sky. Unable to move, she smashes into the ground, a cloud of dust forming around her.
"We have to end this quick..." Gazimon says. "I'll distract her. You barrage her." And with a nod of agreement from Gaomon, the two of them carry out their plan. The purple canine digs through the ground quickly while the other runs forward. In this same moment, my ears catch rustling noises from the side, near the entrance to this area. Shinsuke notices it too, the two of us turning to the side.
"You heard it too, right?" He whispers to me. "I don't think I'm going crazy from this yet."
With a shaky voice, I reply, "Y-Yeah..."
There's already a monster of an enemy in front of us, we don't need another! Shinsuke moves forward, and with my hand gripping onto his arm tightly, I move as well. The two of us walk gently, our footsteps barely making a sound as they glide over the grass blades. The trees shift pass us, the light peeks in from the entrance to this fighting area, and in our sight, we see the 'monster' causing the frightful noises that kept us on our toes.
It was three injured Kunemon slithering in.
"Oh thank god, it was just some Kunemon..." Shinsuke heaves a sigh of relief as my grip on his arm loosens. I take a sigh of relief as well. Geez, I thought it was another boss monster...
"Aargh!" Flymon screams once more, directing our attention towards the fight. A still scene of Gazimon upper-cutting Flymon from directly below with a hole beneath the two and Gaomon coming in with a flurry of punches plays out into motion. The monstrous bee is pushed back once more, barely hovering above the grass now.
"They're doing it. Those two are actually doing it!" I speak out, a smile coming onto my face.
Flymon hovers to the right, turning our view of the fight to the side. Gazimon and Gaomon follow suit and the three Kunemon come up just behind the two rookies, their shadows covering the worm Digimon.
"Not so mighty and tough now, eh?" Gazimon says in his usual arrogant tone, folding his arms together.
"Make that payback for our last fight!" Gaomon follows up with a similar tone of arrogance.
Flymon stays quiet, not responding to the comments with any comebacks. She only lifts her pincer up and faces it to the rookies, muttering something to herself. However, my ears catch her last words.
"... Do not be so cocky." She fires the brown pincer. It accelerates through the air, moving straight with precision towards Gazimon and Gaomon. The two Digimon spot her attack and duck away, leaving the pincer to strike something else behind them.
A piercing sound rings out.
Everyone goes silent once more, staring at something which we never expected to happen. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It doesn't look like it would affect anyone, yet it did for everyone.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! No, no, no... NO!" Flymon shrieks, her voice nearly cracking from the pitch and the emotion. She struggles to fly towards them, her body wavering to the side and, her wings barely beating fast enough to keep her afloat. Gazimon and Gaomon only stood there, shocked like the rest of us.
Flymon takes the Kunemon up in her claws, their bodies slowly turning to purple. They twitch and turn, but they didn't make a sound at all. All they did was stare at Flymon.
"No, wake up! Please! Y-You aren't dead! I n-never hit you at all! Why are you looking at me like that? Please... Don't look at me like I'm a killer..." For the first time, the monster's words, the one who tried to kill us all, struck something in me.
Oh, guilt. You've always returned to me time and time again. It's the only feeling that has stuck by me throughout my time here, and it's been eating away at me. It makes me feel bad, feel like I've done something wrong, feel like I should never have been born.
But I can't blame it, because I really did make a mistake.
And that was choosing to come here.
The Kunemon's bodies rot away quickly, despite the cries and protests of Flymon, whose voice beats about repeatedly in this dim, dense forest. Soon, their bodies became white particles. They circle around Flymon, who stops altogether, lowering herself to the grass.
My grip loosens on Shinsuke's arm, no longer seeing the Digimon as a threat.
"We should get out of here." I whisper to the boy. He flinches from suddenly hearing my voice, but he recovers from it. His face holds a deep frown, one that doesn't seem to express sorrow for himself, but for others instead.
Was this what 'mourning for others' meant? Maybe so.
"Yeah... It's better to leave her to grieve." He says, still staring at the Digimon. The two of us move to Gazimon and Gaomon, who still stood in place, staring at the depressed Flymon with guilty expressions. Gazimon especially.
I guess they understand how I feel about this too... If we weren't here, would any of this have happened?
I place my hand on Gazimon's shoulder, feeling his light trembling. "When Digimon die..." Gaomon starts to speak. "We always revert back to our egg forms. If so, why aren't they becoming eggs? W-Why are they only particles...?" His voice nearly breaks as he wipes his eyes with his gloves.
Shinsuke grabs the Blue Digimon by the shoulders and brings him towards himself, laying the Digimon against his body in an attempt to comfort him.
"Not all Digimon can revert back to being eggs, Gaomon... Their very core had been shattered by her attack. The shock was too much for them." Gazimon maintains his voice, speaking in a low and serious tone. He refuses to turn around and face me but allows me to hold onto his shoulder.
"That's not fair..."
"When was it ever fair? It's not the first time we saw someone die." Anger starts to slowly take the canine Digimon's words.
"Let's take this outside, you two. We shouldn't still be here." Shinsuke tries to quell the saddened Gaomon and the angry Gazimon, whereas I couldn't even form a sentence to speak out.
I give one last look at Flymon and nearly got the shock of my life. The Queen Bee Digimon glares straight at us, her wings unmoving and the white particles surrounding her. They emanate from the entrance to this pathway and slowly begin to circle her, but she doesn't reject them nor attempt to get away from it.
"What?" The others notice as well.
"It's all your fault." Flymon begins to say. "It's all your fault. It's all your fault. It's all your fault. IT'S ALL YOUR DAMN FAULT!" She rises from the grass, the white particles following her. "You're the reason they died, you're the ones who killed them! You're the ones who slaughtered my family! And now... I'll exterminate you."
As soon as she says that, the white particles start to quickly loop around Flymon, gathering in large amounts, and gets absorbed by the monstrous fly. A white cocoon encloses the Digimon, shining a blaring light and blinding all of us.
"What's happening?!" Shinsuke asks, covering his eyes with his arm.
"This is... the light of Digivolution!" Gaomon answers, equally surprised.
"The light of what?"
"Death." The cocoon of light dissipates, revealing an entirely new Digimon in its wake. Its form takes on a stag beetle with a silver coating, pincers for arms and four legs, instead of having no limbs. The purple, illusionary wings from earlier have been replaced by two pairs of ordinary, yet bigger ones. Red markings of unusual designs surround the Digimon's body.
Is this even the same Digimon anymore? It looks completely different!
Gazimon and Gaomon step back, pushing against the two of us. Their bodies tremble vigorously, upon seeing this new Digimon. Whatever that is, it's definitely not good news for us.
"Is that even Flymon anymore?" I ask, taking a step back as well.
"No, that's not Flymon." Gazimon shakes his head. "She just digivolved into Okuwamon, an Ultimate Digimon! We stand no chance now!"
"Raawrgh!" It lets out a vicious roar before disappearing. It then reappears in front of us and grabs the two Digimon by its pincers, lifting them off the ground. We couldn't even react before Okuwamon races to the sky once more and flings the two Digimon in the air. Pincers open, it propels itself with its wings and zips past them several times, slicing their bodies each time. Then, with a tremendous blow, the insect Digimon knocks them down instantly to the ground. Gazimon and Gaomon both lay on the ground in front of us, cuts surrounding their body.
"Ga-" Okuwamon lands back on the ground, stomping the two Digimon with its feet. At that moment, I thought I heard something crack.
"Gck!" The two rookies gasp for breath under its hold.
There was only a tiny bit of distance between Okuwamon and us. We couldn't run anywhere, we couldn't even dare fight it head-on, and no one else is going to save us. It's only the two humans versus a monster of an insect.
"Shinsuke, please tell me you have a plan against this thing." I glance over to him with hope. However, he doesn't answer me back. He stares at the Digimon in front of us with wide eyes, his breathing going slightly erratic and his body shivering lightly. It's obvious.
We stand no chance against this Digimon.
"Raaargh!" Okuwamon roars at us, making my ears go deaf. The two of us were frozen in place, unable to take a step back or look away from the monster. We could only watch as Okuwamon's mouth opens wide and leans towards us, its tongue moving out as well.
"Meteor Wing!"