Chapter 7: Event after Event
A cloaked figure with tatters around stood by in the middle of a wasteland. "...In the end... that world ended up being consumed by the Dulled entirely..."
"Mr. Leon?"
The figure turns to see someone flying over and landing close to him. A bipedal dragon with light orange skin, a striated cream underbelly and having a pair of teal membrane wings. A horn and two wavy antennae stick out from the top of his head.
"What are you doing here?"
"...I can only just make sure other worlds don't end up disappearing through complete destruction." The figure named Leon replies.
"Oh...The thing is...Did you hear what happened to the Digital World?" The dragon asked, fixing the halberd he wielded.
"...I heard that half of it was wiped out in a sudden."
"Yes and...I haven't heard from Camelot since then and their leaders disappeared."
"...Magic."
The dragon looked back. Where were they able to gather that much magic?
"An incredible amount of magic had been used to cause this disaster. ...It makes me think how magic could be easily used to destroy countless lives."
"I know that the inhabitants can be revived but...Those caught in the blast had their Data completely annihilated."
"..."
"We need to stop them, should we return to HQ?"
"You go on ahead."
"Alright, see you later, Mr. Leon." The dragon spread his wings but before he left, he asks. "When will you come back? Firion and the others are waiting for you."
"...If you can, just tell them I'll be alright. To Maria, in particular."
"Okay..." the dragon then took off.
Leon nods quietly. He looks back at his surroundings. 'The road of conquest for power is always a tough road to handle... It's not easy to just let all of what has been done prior to that.'
He held the hilt of a sword. 'Another step to finish what I'm continuing.'
Noct looked over the reports of what happened to a world. Half of the most recent world was destroyed and that world was stated to be a large world but...
"So... what you're all saying.. is that this world is still intact despite that half-world annihilation?" He repeats.
"Indeed, that world is called the Digital World." Stella answered. "Unlike us, that world is composed of Data. Everything that dwells there are made of Data and can revert back as time comes. But...With that magic used on it...It prevented the reformation of Data and everything that were destroyed by that attack could never reformed."
"...Oh..." Noct reread the reports. "...Really bad news..."
"But the thing is, we've been looking for survivors in that catastrophe. There must be some strong enough to withstand it."
"We will? So that means that's a mission we'll go to?"
"We can...But that world was in a civil war after their remaining God was dying. Without a God to guide them, everything went lost."
"...Ooookay..."
"Anyways, there is a piece of that half nearby. We could check on that."
"Alright, let's..." Noct looks over at some of the members who have signed in prior to this meeting. "...Is it a good idea to have... him there?"
He points over to a name, "Glitch Atad".
"I mean, I'm not judging, but-"
"He can help with beings made of Data. He is one himself but isn't a Digimon."
"Uh... sure... Can he fight, though?"
"He may not look like it, but he isn't someone to underestimate."
"Oh... okay... No more questions." He got up from his seat.
"Oh, so that's why..." Stella whispered.
"Huh?" Noct turned to her.
"Just musing about why Glitch took this mission." Stella assured. "Usually, he's lazy to take on missions."
"Oh..." Noct scratched his head.
...
"...He's an Organization member!?"
"Yes, why would he take this mission if he isn't?"
"...Oh..."
Stella took out her phone to see the head of the familiar Porygon-Z. It moved for a bit. "Good morning, Atad."
"Ho-ho~! Morning!" The head replies.
Noct stared as she handed out her phone as the Porygon-Z's head slowly went out of it. After which, his arms then body followed through.
"Mission, mission time~!" The erratic movements of Glitch makes Noct flinch a bit.
Noct looked around the piece of land they all stood on. He looked up and saw the vacuums of space all around them. He wondered about why he could still breathe despite wearing nothing but his uniform in combat. He inhaled and felt oxygen enter his lungs.
"So..." He begins.
"This is a piece of the Digital World." Stella finished. "From what we know, the reason why you can breathe is because the Data here provided the oxygen needed for you to walk on it. It can manage your gravity here so you won't float away."
"...Oh, okay."
They looked from behind to see Glitch floating beside them in erratic movement. He seemed to be excited.
"...Err... Will we really be okay?"
"We will." Stella reassured. "Remember what I told you?"
"...Oh... Right." Noct nods slowly.
The team of three looked around the place. "...Pretty... wrecked. Where can we start?" He wonders, looking at one chasm that appears to have no end.
"Ho~!" Glitch floated over to the empty space around. "Scan~"
"He started the search already." Stella told him.
"...Complete~!"
Glitch floats back to the two human companions, showing a large-scale scan with several colored dots.
"Hm..." Stella looked over the map he made. "Good job."
"Oho~" Glitch sings.
Noct looked at the map he made instantly. So this was why Glitch joined them.
"That's a really good job..." he mutters. "I can see the entire environment scaled... so, these dots..."
"Must be a survivor." Stella analyzed.
"Let's go check them out." Noct suggests.
They looked at Glitch even more eager to find more about this survivor. What was the reason he wanted to meet and find this survivor as soon as possible?
"Ohoho~ Must rescue~!" He keeps on talking to himself.
They looked at him as he charged off into the direction of where the dots were. Noct looked around the map again and...Did he just saw six-packs with those dots?
He rubbed his eyes. "...I get a feeling..."
"Come on, we need to follow him." Stella advised.
"Oh, sure." Noct nods in attention and they traverse over the abyss.
Noct looked over the Dulled disappearing around him. This was the way Glitch went to.
"They didn't waste time to start infesting these all over again, huh." He comments.
After a look around, making sure none were left in the area for now, Noct follows ahead. Glitch... should be okay.
He heard someone laughing as he heard shots of fire, lightning, and ice getting fired. Stella looked around and spotted some turrets moving about, firing shots at Dulled.
"...Er..." Noct looks at the shots that shot at rapid fire speed, easily taking down some unfortunate to have remained in their positions down in instant seconds. Several Fellverns got their wing membranes torn apart before their body is engulfed in those continuous fire.
"Those are the turrets Glitch could deploy." Stella explained as she deployed her rapier. She threw it and sliced a Fell Mole before she flipped to evade a Fellvern that swooped down to her and was destroyed by a shot of ice.
"Hahahaha." Glitch laughed in a completely neutral tone as Fell Moles tried to dig and burst out but get shot by his gun-turned-arms, firing like how a machine gun would.
Noct stared in silence of the massacre Glitch unleashed over the opposing Dulled. Stella nimbly moved about to make quick work of the Dulled around her, already weakened by the shots Glitch fired from his arm and the Dulled around him. He wanted to join in, but he knew that he lacked the speed Stella had and it would be quite risky as he might get shot by those shots. He wondered, what Element was Glitch?
He wasn't that sure... He could use many three elements in succession though... maybe Nature? Or... is it just only Nature? He didn't know what to do but sit in a corner and waited for the massacre to end. He turned to see a flash of light beside him and Stella appeared beside him. She sighed.
"Sorry, I cannot join in more." She apologized. "He deployed too much turrets that I cannot keep on evading them and waste anymore stamina."
"So... he got this in the bag, I guess..." Noct nods.
"Yes." She nodded.
"Friendly fire got a whole new definition..."
"That's why he was qualified as an Elite but...He was too lazy to become one."
"...Oh."
It took a couple of moments until Noct heard the rumbles and explosions stopped. He peeked about to see a total devastation of the area. Smoking craters, fading corpses of their enemies, more smoking craters... and one crazily waving digital duck as the turrets disintegrated into data.
"Okay..." Stella checked the map. "Not much Dulled are here and only the survivor is here."
"Oho~!" Glitch stops dancing about in the air and his arms return back to those normal oval shapes. Noct just stared blankly. "...Uh. Let's go."
The three looked over while Glitch immediately had those line-eyes. They looked over the state the survivor was in.
"Yay~ We're here~ To rescue this survivor~" Glitch sings.
Noct looked over the wounds he sustained, all gapping wounds were filled with green binary codes. A being made of Data...
"So... that is a Digimon?" Noct questions the two. "This survivor here..."
"He is." Stella nodded, looking at the giant crimson dragon lying on the ground on his back. "We've only read about them but judging from his appearance, he's an Examon, the 11th Royal Knight with the title, 'Dragon Emperor'."
Glitch was quite... quiet...entirely focused on this unconscious Examon. Noct looked over the rising and falling chest, it was burst open and he could see some kind of core in it. It was filled with some sort of codes of every type. Beside it was a heart.
"He took some heavy wounds." Stella analyzed. "His condition seemed to be in critical condition, can you do something, Glitch?"
"...Ho~ Leave it to me~"
They watched as Glitch creates some sort of portal close to the Examon and waves his arms. Forms of metallic appendages held onto the Examon's figure while making sure they strayed from the wounds so as to not cause further damage and slowly pulls him into that portal.
"Shortcut~"
They watched as the Examon entered the portal before disappearing. Noct looked shock of how large the portal Glitch made was to make that more than 5 meters high dragon in the portal and those wings of his was twice as large as his body.
"Rescue of this survivor done~" Glitch begins waving his arms about as if it was some sort of personal achievement.
"..." Stella looked over something Glitch gave her that automatically showed what the status of those he saved. "...25 years old."
"What?" Noct asks.
"That's his age." Stella explained. "His name's Ryuunosuke Sato, 25 years old, male." 25? He's that young? But...Uh...
"...25? 25?" Noct says. Glitch nods rapidly.
"He's some years older than Glitch." This caused Noct to jolt and look at Glitch. How old was this duck?
"...Glitch's age?"
"Oh, he's..." Stella began as Glitch jumped in and showed his identification and current age through a digital projection.
Glitch was...20 years old!?
"...Are you serious?" Noct could just sputter at this revelation.
"Unfortunately, that's the correct one." Stella confirmed. "How old did you think they were?"
"...Somewhere around their thirties for Glitch and whatever large age for that Examon?"
"Oh...Well, if you are used to the people around us, it would be easy to identify how old they are."
"...If you say so..."
Noct looked about the number of worlds destroyed around this dimension. Then at another board filled with posters of missing people. He looked down...This was why he needed to join them. That Ryuunosuke was one of many survivors and missing people.
"...Yeah... All of these people and worlds... are all getting erased off from where we can see or meet them."
He looked around himself. Many individuals, part of the Organization, bustling in all directions as they got ready for their upcoming missions. All with the same goal... to stop this threat.
He looked over at Locke. "So... we will have this next mission next?" He asks.
Locke nodded. "Yeah. Though, you have to be careful around this particular area. Omega resides here, after all." Locke tells him.
"Omega?"
He nodded before showing him some kind of mechanical being. "Really, don't even think of facing it in battle: It'd literally wipe you off from the face of the land." Locke explains. "We should definitely stay away from it at any moment possible."
Noct looked. These were the thing they would be facing now. However, he knew that he couldn't let those people die.
"I get it..." he nods. "Stay away from Omega during our mission."
The two went off to start this mission. They wouldn't know what they would encounter for this mission but they knew needed to complete this.
They made sure the coordinates are set before the duo headed into the created portal.
Throughout floating slabs of land, the thunderous clouds roar with lightning striking whenever it pleases. The earth that were kept afloat due to a special form of magic had already been scarred by these lightning strikes.
...Though, this wasn't the focus of this land right now.
Their mission here now was to search for survivors. Save them.
"This place is a mess." Locke comments, watching another lightning bolt strike down onto land. Rickety wooden bridges, or remains of it, rock wildly across connected pieces of land.
"Then, let's get..." Noct begins as he looks at one floating piece of land nearby, picking up speed with his run before he leaps. "...going!" He rolls forward after his landing, with Locke following soon after.
Locke looked at how eager Noct was now than from before. He wondered what got him this motivated than from before.
"This kinda takes me back..." Locke muses quietly to himself.
Noct looked back at him with a questioning look. What did he meant?
"Locke? What do you mean?"
"Oh... nothing that important."
Noct looked above him and wondered about the continuous lightning coming down on them. Why was there so much of them and when did they go around?
"That's pretty normal for this world." Locke says. He then thought to himself. '...Though... the lightning here looks more intense, when I think about it...'
"...Guess I have to get used to all these, huh." Noct sighs after hearing that.
"To coin it...yep."
More worlds, more madness as they say.
The two of them wondered about this, the mission was going so well. The Dulled they've encountered so far were low-leveled creatures. Nothing threatening had came up. No signs of Omega yet.
"We haven't checked these areas yet, right?" Noct points at unmarked areas of the virtual map projected..
"Not yet." Locke answers.
Noct wondered about what to do. Go back or search the area some more. He did learn something when he joined to never explore unexplored areas and let those of Recon take care of it.
He sighed. There weren't much information as of now. And though that their current covered and known field were of this level, it didn't necessarily mean that the entirety would spell the same.
He looked at Locke of what the next thing to do was.
"...Let's see..." Locke looks back at their assignment. Searching for an item that would help in finding the data needed of finding any clues of the Seven Deadly Sins' whereabouts.
He looks about their current surroundings again. "There should be something..."
Locke pauses, something catching his eye.
He spotted some kind of dirty white feather fluttering about.
"Locke? What is it?" Noct asks.
The light brown-haired man stares at the feather which fell into his sight. "..." He looks around the area from where this feather was found. The surrounding area appeared to have large gashes run through the ground and other environmental objects such as fallen trees or perfectly sliced boulders.
"...I got a bad feeling..."
These signs... slashes... feathers... does that mean...
They heard a massive explosion from a distance. They looked to see smoke filling the sky above them.
"What was that?!" Noct said, turning to where they could see the pouring smoke in the air.
"...They're after Omega!"
Locke began rushing into that direction, quickly crossing over the masses of floating rocks. "Wha-hey!" Noct follows after him, quite certainly lost.
After landing on a fifth piece of land, Locke quickly swerved and grabs Noct, pulling them to the sides just before a large energy beam tore through where they were. Before dust was given a chance to settle from the tearing of the ground, Locke quickly ushers Noct to get up before crossing over to another land.
The duo then hid behind a rock before peeking out to see a fallen angel hovering over a large mechanical being.
The mechanical being groans loudly, legs completely damaged, sparks coming out every second of destroyed mechanical wiring... the single eye of the machine flickers consistently.
The fallen angel lands in front of the disabled machine. He draws back the scimitar he wielded towards the machine... Before he moved, the machine's eye suddenly released a blast of energy onto his body.
...But... after a few seconds, the angel remains unmoved from his position despite the surprise blast. But the wolf's head on his abdomen did.
The two watched it open up then fired a blast of energy at close proximity at the machine, causing a frightful screeching of metal. After the blast settles, the machine's mechanical shell from where it had been hit had been completely torn by the blast. The angel then stabs through the eye of the machine, causing a jolt as the sound of machinery shutting down echoes loudly. Its' legs fully fell spread to the sides, it no longer moving.
This kind of power this fallen angel possessed, the very presence could just have been felt from where the duo stood.
The fallen angel just stood there for a while before leaving. The two watched him leave as he suddenly stopped.
"..."
"..." Both remained quiet. The last thing they needed was to be found by this one.
"..."
The fallen angel ignored it and left, disappearing from their sights through a portal he summoned. Once the portal disappeared, the two looked out of their hiding spot.
"...Who... what was that?" Noct begins.
Locke looked at the motionless mechanical wreckage that is now left by the spot... Now Omega has been destroyed... This power and him taking no damage from Omega's monstrous power...
'...It's getting worse every day... The death of gods that which may remain since Heavensfall, slaying of beings like Shinryu and Omega... They definitely want to convey something...'
"Locke?"
"...Noct... We'd better inform the others about this."
He nodded as they made their way back to HQ.