And here we are people, the next chapter, and it's... gonna be a fun one, that's for sure.
Enjoy!
Journey of Redemption - Part 7
"I think we're almost there." Emerald said, looking down at her compass, before looking back up at the surrounding canyon like area they were in, the walls of stone around them pale and starting to slowly go from a regular stone color to pure white, crystals occasionally being visible from the walls.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure these are the signs of the Holy Highlands," Igneetmon said with a smile.
"Yeah, I'm sure we'll be able to see the rest of it real soon," Morphomon grinned.
"Alright then, let's go!" Emerald grinned as well as she gunned the engine, getting them closer and closer, but… "...did we take a wrong turn?"
The reason for that? The area that was covered in what looked like a thick dark cloud, plants actually rotting away under the substance.
"This...can't be right…!" Morphomon gasped in alarm. "The Holy Highlands shouldn't be like this!"
Norn also frowned when she saw the sight...before picking up a rock and throwing it into the stuff...the rock promptly fizzing a bit. "That...doesn't look good," she gulped.
"How are we supposed to get through this and find SlashAngemon?" Igneetmon frowned, knowing if they went through that miasma they'd just be getting hurt.
Emerald frowned in thought at that, thinking about it, before she felt her Digivice start to vibrate on her belt, making her bring it up in confusion, seeing it start to glow "What the…?" she trailed off in confusion, before leaning back in shock with a gasp as a bright light shot out from the Digivice and right into the fog, literally cutting through it.
"...what can those NOT do?" Morphomon whistled.
"No idea, but I'm not complaining," Emerald chuckled.
"It's just too bad we can't appreciate the beauty of the Highlands." Norn said with a frown.
"I'm sure we'll get a chance once we figure out what's causing this," Igneetmon said. "The 'nice' thing about things caused by Digimon, assuming another Digimon is causing this, we can always undo the damage."
"Right. But first things first...where do we even go in this muck?" Emerald frowned.
"Well… SlashAngemon SHOULD live in a castle here, right?" Morphomon said "Then maybe if you think of his castle while holding your compass…"
Emerald hummed in thought at that, looking down at her compass and focusing on what Morphomon said, and the arrow pointed right ahead… and then her Digivice started shaking in her hand and floated out of it before moving to stay on top of the compass, the light from it pointing in the same direction as the arrow.
"Looks like we've got our heading. Let's go," Morphomon said, and follow the light they did.
The trip through the miasma was anything but pleasant. The world seemed dead all around them under the grip of the miasma. "This is just...wrong…" Norn frowned.
"It is…" Emerald frowned. It reminded her too much of the area that Salem called home. A dead world that the more she thought about it, made her wonder how it took literally ending up in the Digital World for her to realize she was in a HORRIBLE crowd.
"I think I can see a lake through the fog… looks pretty horrible though." Igneetmon frowned as he looked through the miasma and could barely see a lake that looked to be filled with sludge rather than water.
"Whoever's causing this… we need to stop them." Morphomon frowned as they continued through the miasma, the compass looking to be taking them through a path that would be taking them towards the castle since they could gradually feel themselves getting higher and higher.
"I think I see something up ahead." Norn said after a while of driving in silence, barely able to make out a large shape ahead of them.
"Might be the castle." Emerald said, gunning the engine a bit to get there faster.
As they got closer though, the Miasma seemed to be getting thicker, forcing her to drive slower. The way things were going, the Digivice was cutting through the miasma at a slower rate than before.
"I see the castle...and it's definitely seen better days," Igneetmon frowned.
Indeed, the castle looked to be in rather hard shape, the corrosion of the miasma having seemingly melted parts of it down to sludge, other areas of it still slowly hissing and fizzing away.
Heck, the moat around it was the same polluted sludge as the lake they saw earlier, and worse, when they saw the drawbridge, parts of the stone had melted onto the wooden part, meaning it was stuck together. In short they wouldn't be using that way anytime soon.
"Looks like we'll have to find another way in then," Emerald frowned. "Preferably one that doesn't involve us swimming through a pool that just screams death." Seriously, that pool looked only a little safer than a Grimm Pool, and that's really not saying much.
"Well, maybe we could find something to be used as a bridge," Igneetmon suggested.
"Or maybe Morphomon can evolve and bring us flying across?" Norn added.
"That's not a bad idea," Morphomon said.
"Hang on though," Emerald said, stopping her. "With how important this place is...you sure there isn't some kind of shield or something?" she asked.
The group paused at that, looking at the castle, before Igneetmon threw one of his weapons towards it… and it bounced against an invisible shield, going back to him "Looks like there is." he sighed.
"Okay...so add figuring a way through the shield to the list," Emerald frowned, grabbing a rock and throwing it at the shield, causing it to bounce off.
"What's that for?" Norn asked.
"I'm hoping if we do this, we can see a clue as to where the shield is coming from," Emerald said, throwing another rock, then another and another. Eventually they DID notice that each time the shield went up, it seemed to be lighting up from certain spots within the miasma.
"Okay, looks like whatever those lights are, they're whatever is making this barrier," Morphomon frowned.
"Here's hoping that THOSE aren't protected by something as well," Emerald sighed.
"Well, guess we won't know until we look for them," Norn said, earning a few nods of agreement.
Clearing out more of the miasma around the castle, they went towards one of the light sources, eventually spotting something glinting in the fog on the barrier "Huh… what's that up there?" Igneetmon said with a narrowed gaze as he tried to get a better look.
Emerald hummed, before holding her Digivice up, trying to focus on it as much as she could… though it seemed it already knew what she wanted, as it let loose a large blast of light that cleared out the area around them in a dome that went all around the castle, clearing all the miasma from it and letting them see everything clearly.
It seemed to be a sculpture of some kind, though calling it a sculpture might be hard to say too. If they were to sum it up, it was a stone sculpture, though what it was supposed to be was hard to say, seeing as the most notable part was the ball-like formation on the top...with what appeared to be a gemstone embedded at the base of said ball-like formation. "Okay, I may not be a magic expert, but I'm pretty sure that gem is important," Emerald sweat dropped.
"So...make like thieves?" Morphomon teased slightly.
"Make like thieves, yes," Emerald snorted in amusement. With that said, they carefully made their way towards the sculpture, and to their pleasant surprise, there didn't seem to be any defenses on the sculpture itself, and thus it wasn't long before she easily grabbed the gemstone and pulled it out, causing the sculpture to glow for a moment before the light died off.
"I think we turned it off," Norn said.
"Now let's get to the others just to be safe," Igneetmon chuckled lightly.
With that they continued to make their way around the barrier, repeating the process about four more times, each time the barrier flickered a bit, before finally, it disappeared, which meant they actually had a chance to find a way in now.
"Alright… now we just need an entry point." Emerald said, looking around the large castle in thought.
"We should probably not go in through an obvious path. If whatever is making this muck is inside, I don't think we want it to know we're here too soon," Morphomon frowned.
"Hm...let's start by getting on the wall first, then work our way from there," Igneetmon suggested.
"That could work," Emerald nodded, and one Evolution later, Hudiemon was ferrying them to the wall, and soon they could begin their infiltration.
They eventually chose to enter via a broken window on one of the higher floors, and the first thing that hit them was how full of the miasma this castle was, the only thing stopping them from being overwhelmed by it was the light of Emerald's Digivice.
"I'm starting to dread whatever it is that is making all this muck…" Emerald groaned, as even with the protection the smell was still a problem.
"Where is this stuff even coming from?" Hudiemon wondered as she flew above the muck, the light from Emerald's Digivice clearing the miasma away still.
"Let's find a spot we can land first." Norn said, the group flying around the castle until they found a set of stairs they could stand on that didn't have any sludge on it.
"Alright, so the source of all this miasma and sludge is definitely in here." Igneetmon said "How do we find it though?"
Emerald hummed "I'd say… go where it's thickest. That's pretty much our only option if we want to be able to move around freely."
"Right, so… where does it seem to be the thickest then?" Hudiemon mused, looking around.
Norn looked thoughtful, before a thought hit her "Maybe… the basement?"
"Huh… that would make sense actually, air travels up inside of buildings most of the time, so it would be easy for the source to just stay downstairs and let everything come up on its own." Emerald mused.
"Then we'd better be ready for whatever we run into," Norn frowned.
The group continued onward, looking for the basement. As they did, they were able to look around the castle a bit and they had a feeling it would have been a beautiful castle before whatever did this came by. What were probably once white walls had darkened from the muck, and things were rotting here and there.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again. This place is disgusting as it is right now," Igneetmon said in disgust. Even DeviWitchmon's castle which was in varying states of disrepair was in better condition than this place.
"I hope whoever actually owns this place knows how to clean up, cause you couldn't get me to clean this up even if you paid me," Emerald agreed, pinching her nose.
The group continued onward, and the biggest clue they were on the right track was how the smell got worse the closer they got to what they assume was the basement. Eventually they found the basement, and following a classic stairway down, came upon...a surprisingly spacious location...which was full of the noxious fumes which Emerald's Digivice worked hard to keep to bearable levels.
"Dear Yggdrasil, I feel like my nostrils are going to be burned away." Hudiemon gagged at how bad it smelled.
"The source of all this miasma has to be down here." Emerald said, pinching her nose.
"I just wished it stopped smelling so bad." Igneetmon groaned as he kept his nose covered.
"Agreed." Norn said, her nose pinched as well.
"Who's saying I stink?" a low voice groaned from the darkness of the basement, though it almost sounded layered from many voices.
The group paused at that, sharing a look "We all heard that… yeah?" Igneetmon asked.
"Yes. Yes we did." Norn said with a nod.
Emerald and Hudiemon however both had a sinking feeling, sharing a concerned frown "This is… eerily familiar right now." Hudiemon said.
"Yeah… feels like we're facing that pile of stinking sludge again." Emerald added.
"Who you calling stinking sludge?!" the voice shouted as it got closer to them, before the lights suddenly came on in the basement, illuminating the area, and revealing something shambling out of the darkness.
"What… the… fuck?" Emerald said in disgust as she looked at the Digimon in front of them.
It was… something, stuck in an eternally decomposing state, its body mostly green sludge, covered in eyes and mouths with bits of cybernetic pieces sticking out here and there, but the top part of its body was covered in black armor with a huge mouth on top of the head, a single eye glaring at them, specifically, at Emerald "You again!"
THAT caught the group by surprise "Uh… do we know you?" Igneetmon asked.
"You're the one who said I stinked while I was visiting the museum!" the Digimon said, pointing at Emerald with one of his… arms? Yeah, sure, arms.
Emerald suddenly groaned as she realised who this was "Oh not YOU again."
"Wait… that's Raremon?!" Hudiemon gasped in shock.
Raremon(?) laughed "Close, but not quite! I've evolved! I'm RareRaremon now!"
Digimon Analyzer: RareRaremon
RareRaremon. Virus Type. A Perfect Level Undead Digimon. A Raremon that survived by further mechanizing its decaying body, resulting in this grotesque monstrosity that smells so bad, even Ultimates hesitate to get near. Its body decays itself and repairs from the mechanization at such a fast rate that eyes and mouths appear and disappear just as quickly all over its body. Special attacks are Digest, swallowing the enemy whole via the mouth on top of its head and dissolving them inside its body, and Decayson, spewing out a toxic miasma that kills anybody who inhales it, along with destroying and intoxicating the land around it.
"That's the stupidest name change I've ever heard." Hudiemon deadpanned.
RareRaremon glared at her...before noticing her AND Emerald. "Wait a second…" he growled. "You're that annoying Morphomon who was with that brat over there!" he growled, before smirking. "That's perfect! I still got a bone to pick with you two bitches!"
"Oh great he recognized me too." Hudiemon groaned.
"What did you two do to him?" Igneetmon couldn't help but ask.
"We uh… may have insulted him to his face… a few times." Emerald said with a blush on her face.
"Then we may have used Gravity Dust to send him flying." Hudiemon added with a nervous chuckle.
"And almost landed me in a fucking lava pit!" RareRaremon roared.
"...would you accept a 'we're really sorry' and maybe be willing to call it good?" Hudiemon gulped, she and Emerald having HUGE sweat drops at that one.
"Sure, RIGHT AFTER I MELT THE FLESH OFF YOUR BONES!" RareRaremon roared.
"...that's a no then," Emerald groaned. "Guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way…"
"Looks like it yeah," Norn nodded. "Maybe next time you two should be careful who you insult," she couldn't help but half-tease.
"Is now REALLY the time?" Hudiemon groaned, but she and Emerald were both feeling a little sheepish for inadvertently causing this problem for the group.
"Yeah, I think it's not really time to talk anymore." Igneetmon said nervously "And I think this is going to be all you. I am NOT equipped to fight a Perfect at all."
Hudiemon and Emerald sighed "Yeah… we figured." they said together, before Emerald held up her Digivice while her Crest started to glow.
(Play 'Brave Heart')
"Hudiemon, Super Evolution! Papillonmon!"
"What the-?! How did that twerp jump from Child to Perfect so quickly?!" RareRaremon gasped.
"Because fuck you, that's how," Papillonmon said simply. "We'll apologize for the lava pit, but we also hold that you're the one who attacked us first, so yeah. Sorry, but we've got someone to find, and you're in the way of doing that."
"If you think I'm just gonna let you go, then you got another thing coming!" RareRaremon roared. "Decayson!" he called out, spewing more of his miasma, but they were ready as Emerald held up her Digivice, shielding her, Norn, and Igneetmon from the attack.
"Avalon Dust!" Papillonmon countered, blocking the attack herself, and slowly undoing the effects of the miasma in the area.
RareRaremon growled, before extending his...well...body parts, the part opening into a mouth, but Papillonmon saw it coming and evaded, but not before spreading more Avalon Dust, causing the part to start to freeze up. "Grrr! Stand still!" RareRaremon snarled.
"If you actually think I'd do that, then you're dumber than you look!" Papillonmon shot back. "Seriously, who'd actually stop and take a hit just because they're told to!"
"I'm gonna melt you for that one!" RareRaremon roared angrily, before extending more of his body, aiming to try and catch her.
Papillonmon deftly evaded each and every one of them, but eventually RareRaremon noticed Emerald and the others who had been firmly defending the whole time, mainly against the miasma, which gave him an idea. Opening one of his mouths, he went straight for them, the three of them unable to move much if at all due to the fact the miasma was all around them.
Papillonmon though saw that and acted quickly, getting between them...which was exactly what RareRaremon was aiming for. "Gotcha now! Digest!" RareRaremon roared triumphantly as he opened his mouth wide, aiming to eat Papillonmon, but before he could, his mouth was suddenly stopped, Papillonmon holding out her arm...while creating a Kaleidoscope Reflector.
"Okay, I was willing to try to be a bit nice, but you just did something you shouldn't have," Papillonmon growled. "Also, thanks for giving me an easy target! Kaleidoscope Reflector!" she called out, the shield glowing, before firing the beam of energy...right into RareRaremon.
RareRaremon's eyes widened, as he felt the attack hit him on the inside...before bouncing all over his insides, causing him to swell up from the attack and well…
"He's gonna blow!" Emerald shouted, as Papillonmon kicked off of RareRaremon and Emerald instinctively held up her Digivice and Crest, to which both glowed and created a barrier, something Papillonmon helped with her Reflector. Just in time too, because well...doesn't need to be said.
"...okay, him trying to eat us alive aside, not a kill method I'd want to repeat…" Papillonmon grimaced as their shield was covered in RareRaremon's leftovers which were thankfully starting to break down into data.
(Song End)
Once the last of the bits were gone, Papillonmon relaxed and soon reverted to Puroromon again. Additionally, with the source gone, the miasma finally faded away fully… sort of, as it turned into regular fog rather than a poisonous one.
"Okay, now that he's gone...let's get to looking for the person we're supposed to find," Norn said...albeit still pinching her nose because the smell still lingered.
"Yeah… SlashAngemon should be somewhere around here… hopefully." Emerald said while Puroromon flew to her shoulder.
"If he's not, we'll need to figure out WHERE he is." Puroromon added.
"Let's just head back to the main floor and look for now. We can at least move around freely now that the miasma has turned back into fog." Igneetmon suggested, earning nods before they went back up to the first floor, the castle no longer slowly degrading.
"Okay, now that we can move around, and we're not stuck thinking of that gods awful smell…" Emerald frowned, taking out her compass. With her now able to focus on what she wanted (it was hard to think of anything other than 'make that stink stop!' earlier), the compass soon pointed the way, which they all followed, and before long, they found what appeared to be stairways that led up the castle. They continued to follow them till they found themselves well at the highest point of the castle. When they reached a room the compass seemed to be pointing too…
"I think we found him," Igneetmon gasped.
"Yeah… looks like it." Puroromon frowned.
"What happened here?" Emerald wondered, as the room they had entered was covered in black crystals, with a rather large one in the center of the room holding a humanoid figure within that seemed to have wings on their back.
"I don't know, but what I can safely guess is that someone sealed him in her for some reason," Igneetmon frowned.
"How do we get him out though?" Puroromon asked.
Emerald frowned, before walking up to the crystal, taking out her Digivice and Crest. "Think these can break through the crystal?" she asked.
"It's worth a shot," Norn nodded.
"With the power they've shown up till now, I believe they can," Igneetmon agreed.
Nodding at that, Emerald held up the two towards the crystal, both glowing brightly, before sending out waves of light, which hit the crystal and though at first nothing seemed to happen, slowly but surely they saw more and more cracks appearing on the crystal which seemed to spread, causing dark smoke to leak out of the crystal and break down in the face of the light, before eventually the crystal was covered in cracks while also turning into a more clear crystal...and started to shake, which at that point Emerald decided it was time to get a bit of distance. Good thing too as before long the crystal broke apart, revealing the one who'd been trapped within.
It was, simply put, an angel clad in silver and blue armor, with wings made out of blades, and swords for arms, spiky blue hair coming out the back of his horned helmet that had a simple visor for his eyes to look through.
He groaned as he landed on a knee on the ground "What… happened?"
"Lord SlashAngemon!" Igneetmon gasped before going up to the Digimon to try to help him up "You were stuck in a dark crystal of some kind."
"A… dark crystal?" SlashAngemon said as he stood up with Igneetmon's help, before looking at the group "And you freed me I take it? You have my thanks then. As you no doubt guessed, I am SlashAngemon, appointed by Lord Yggdrasil himself to oversee Folder."
Digimon Analyzer: SlashAngemon
SlashAngemon. Vaccine Type. An Ultimate Level Power Digimon. A holy angel Digimon that commands those with the rank of Authorities, cutting as a vanguard through battle against evil forces. With blades of pure Chrome Digizoid for wings and hands, he is a being born to fight wickedness until all evil falls. Special attacks are Heaven's Ripper, charging at the opponent with staggering momentum to cut them to pieces using the many blades on his body, and Holy Espada, slashing the opponent with a cross shaped energy blast.
"Yeah, we kinda guessed something must have happened to you since you're supposed to be taking care of this place, but the continent is… pretty lawless." Emerald said with a frown.
SlashAngemon frowned at this "Lawless? I see… I must have been sealed for a long time."
"Yes, unfortunately you've been sealed for a LONG time," a new voice said, right before the familiar form of Mirei appeared. "About 5 thousand years sadly," she sighed.
SlashAngemon looked at her, and to everyone else's surprise, immediately fell to a knee. "Lady Homeostasis! I apologize for my failure in being unable to free myself!"
"Homeostasis?" Emerald said in confusion as she looked at Mirei.
"Another name of mine." Mirei waved it off "And you don't need to apologize for that SlashAngemon. Whatever trapped you in that crystal was so powerful even I couldn't get close to your castle until the crystal was broken, and the residual energy finally cleared away."
"I see… then it's a good thing I was freed then." SlashAngemon said, before noticing what Emerald was holding "Wait… one of the holy devices? And… is that a Crest?"
"Yeah… you said something about that last time actually." Emerald said, turning to Mirei.
Mirei nodded, smiling a bit "Yes… I suppose I do owe you a clearer explanation since you've just given Folder a chance to head back in the right direction. You see, Yggdrasil chose you because he could sense that your heart wasn't as dark and corrupt as those you worked with. He decided to give you a chance to turn your life around, and once he was sure he'd made the right choice… he gave you the Crest of Redemption, one he made just for you. Normally Crests are attuned to the partner Digimon while said Digimon is still an egg, but your bond to Morphomon when she nearly died was strong enough for the Crest to attune itself to her Digicore that it allowed her to Super Evolve."
"So… Yggdrasil put it into my path when I first found it then?" Norn asked.
"That's correct, he was certain you'd find it." Mirei said with a smile.
"That's…" Emerald frowned. "I...honestly don't know how to feel about this. I mean...I'm GLAD that I got to finally realize how messed up my life was AND be given a chance to turn it around, but...I still feel like it was…"
"Manipulative?" Mirei guessed, earning a small nod from Emerald. At that she sighed. "Perhaps it was, but in the end, while we did set you on the course, it was your choice to continue onward. Your choice to let Morphomon in, to form a bond with her, and to stick with your friends even when you could have ran anytime. Make no mistake, Emerald Sustrai, this world can only open the door. The one who chose to step through it was you and you alone," she finished with a smile.
Emerald was silent for a long moment, before eventually, she smiled a bit "I… thanks… that does make it better."
Mirei nodded with a smile "Of course. And, here, before you go, a small present." she said, waving her hand, and Puroromon gasped before she suddenly evolved back to Morphomon.
"Woah… that felt a bit weird." Morphomon said, shaking herself a bit "Thanks though, feels good to be myself again."
"Of course." Mirei giggled "Now, I assume you're ready?"
"Um… actually…" Igneetmon spoke up "I… I think I want to stay here."
The girls looked at him in surprise at that "You're sure?" Norn asked him.
Igneetmon nodded "Yeah." he said, before looking up at SlashAngemon "I've heard a lot of stories about you Lord SlashAngemon, and… I'd love to have a chance to serve under you and be trained by you."
SlashAngemon looked somewhat surprised at this, before he smiled "Of course. If that is your desire young one, then I'll be glad to take you into my tutelage."
Igneetmon nodded, before he went to stand next to SlashAngemon.
"Well, guess this is goodbye then." Emerald said with a bit of a sad smile.
"Yeah… I'm sure we'll see each other again though." Igneetmon said with a grin.
Emerald nodded, smiling a bit more.
"Now then, since you're ready…" Mirei said, before nodding to SlashAngemon, who nodded in turn, before turning around and crossing his arm blades in front of himself, slashing right into the air in front of him… and cutting it open, before Mirei held her hand towards the cut to widen it "Here, this will take you to where you can find the other Chosen Children. You'll need to join them if you want to be able to continue helping the Digital World."
"Wait, what about Emerald's bike?" Morphomon asked.
Mirei chuckled at that "Don't worry, I'll send it through myself right after you all go through."
"Right… let's go then." Emerald said, stepping up to the tear with Morphomon and Norn.
The world turned white for them, but eventually the light faded, revealing what appeared to be a rather cozy house...and if she were to guess they were probably in Mistral and...oh…
She just realized that the house wasn't empty, and looking right back at her were Team RWGBY, JNPPR, a few other people she'd never met, Penny Polendina...and Qrow Branwen. Fuck.
True enough, she and her friends blinked, they blinked...and suddenly (but not surprisingly) everyone was pointing their weapons at her.
Bet you didn't see that ending coming huh?
Yeahp, Emerald 's story is now at a close... because it's reconnected to the main story and she's in a... precarious position.
You'll see how things turn out next time, because...
The Adventure Evolves