In the distance, Hikari could hear the ocean lapping at the shore greedily.
It made sense, in all honesty. After all, they were still on the cliffside that they had fought on in the past, and the cliff had overlooked the sands and ocean down below, so they were certainly close enough to overhear the song of the twisted sea. Still, that did little to calm Hikari down on the matter. She detested the idea that they were in such close proximity to the ocean itself since the sea seemed to be almost as dangerous as the Deep Ones themselves in a strange way. It made sense that the ocean was there, but that didn't mean that she wanted to hear it. In fact, she would have been more than content with blocking all the noise out forever.
That was the other thing; the battle at hand was so overwhelmingly noisy that it was upsetting to her whether she wanted to admit it or not. The Deep Ones were screaming in anguish when they got hit, and those that were not attacked by the Chosen Children and their partners wound up screaming regardless as a way of showing their readiness for the battle at hand. It seemed to be a cry of determination, and Hikari hated having to listen to so much. It was overwhelming her in a thousand different ways, and she wished not for the first time that she was not as empathetic as she was.
GrandisKuwagamon's first appearance had come as a nice surprise, she had to confess. She was glad that Ken seemed to be doing better, at long last overcoming the painful struggle that he had been battling for quite some time. Well, perhaps overcoming was a strong word when he had not been given much of any time to truly push through his agony. He was making progress though, and that had to count for something given the dreary circumstances that the group found themselves in.
Angewomon released an arrow from her bow that speared one of the LadyDevimon straight through the upper thigh. There were more Deep Ones that had completed the transformation process by now, though there were still a few that were fusing and growing to their full sizes. Angewomon was more than glad to leave the other Deep Ones to the rest of the Chosen Children, and she concentrated on this LadyDevimon. She clapped her hands together in front of her body before spreading her arms outward, creating a pink blast of energy that spread forward rapidly. The LadyDevimon screeched at the attack, only barely managing to keep herself from dissipating into data that spiraled into the open sky. A few other Digimon were clipped by the Heaven's Charm attack, though they were damaged less by it in comparison to LadyDevimon.
HolyAngemon swept into view a moment later, and he thrust his sword forward in the direction of one of the SkullSatamon that had drawn a bit too close to him. The data sphere at the center of the Digimon began to crack before it splintered entirely. The last sound that he made was a cry of agony before he turned to data and joined the darkened skies along with so many of the other Digimon. Once again, Hikari resisted the urge to shove her hands over her ears and wait until everything was over. The Dark Ocean's mere existence was a place of stress for her, and it seemed even more impossible to escape compared to everything else that had been an issue for her in the weeks leading up to that point.
At long last, there was an opening in the large batch of enemies, Hikari noticed. She let out a gasp and turned to the other Chosen Children in surprise, just to make sure that they had seen the same thing that she had. Sure enough, Yamato was cupping one hand around his mouth to attract the attention of MetalGarurumon. "Daemon is there!" he exclaimed.
Sure enough, at the other side of the shifting cloud of Deep Ones, Daemon could be seen. He was so far away that the details on his body were difficult to make out, but Hikari could have sworn that she saw his shoulders grow tense with stress. He was starting to realize that there was something going wrong in this battle, and he wouldn't be able to escape as easily as he would have liked.
MetalGarurumon was the first to charge through the Deep Ones in Daemon's direction, and he was followed shortly after by Magnamon and GrandisKuwagamon. The Deep Ones noticed that they had left an opening in their defenses after that, prompting them to move once again to make sure that they covered the spot where the three had broken through their protective line. As soon as that happened though, Vikemon took a step in their direction. He raised his fist before slamming it down a moment later, causing many Deep Ones to either scatter or perish under the weight of the steel. Afterward, he sent out his twin spiked balls of metal from where they rested atop his shoulders. The balls and chains swung outward in either direction before returning to their home on his body once again a moment later.
Rosemon lashed out with her thorny whip a beat later, piercing the arm of a LadyDevimon along the way. WarGreymon raised his hands above his head to summon an attack of orange energy, and when he tossed the strike down to the ground a moment later, it consumed countless Digimon in its destructive wake. Those that managed to survive were then slashed to smithereens a moment later by WarGreymon. The other few Digimon lucky enough to endure WarGreymon's original attack were then set as the targets of Hououmon's attacks, and she spread out large spheres of energy in every direction. There was no way for anyone to escape her reach, it seemed. The darkened stream of data in the sky only seemed to grow thicker.
Hikari turned her head in the direction of the heavens. Every Deep One that was defeated was ultimately shifted into smaller particles of darkness, and from there, they scattered on the wind and vanished into the distance. It felt grotesque to her in its own way. She knew that there was no blood being spilled in textbook terms and that the Deep Ones were once Digimon who had been mangled beyond recognition, but something at the back of her mind still felt nauseous.
The Deep Ones were strange creatures, though this was hardly a difficult conclusion for anyone to reach. In fact, it seemed obvious to anyone who bothered to look at the situation for even a short while. They could change shape freely in a way that no Digimon could, and they had so much untapped potential that it was impossible to properly describe. Everything about them was simply incredible in a way that was twisted to Hikari. Hiraku had explained that they were creatures who had been sent to the Dark Area below the sea of the Digital World, and when Dagomon broke free of the Dark Area, he wound up bringing the creatures with him as well. From there, everything about them began to change and distort. They were beasts of the darkness themselves, and the mere implications of such a concept made Hikari feel much more upset than she would have expected.
"Hikari?"
She only snapped out of her trance when she saw Meiko standing nearby. The dark-haired girl had addressed her slowly, seemingly afraid of what might happen if she pushed the subject too much. "I... Are you alright?" Meiko asked, her voice still wavering with a note of anxiety that was almost impossible for Hikari to ignore.
"I'll be fine," Hikari assured her, though she wasn't even entirely sure if that was true or not. The answer was instinctual, but she would have to consider at another time if it was honest. She closed her eyes and shook her head carefully, trying her best to focus on the battle at hand once more. She couldn't get distracted at a time like this. Everyone was counting on her, and beyond that, she had to be able to rely on herself.
Hikari couldn't tell if Meiko believed her or not, in all honesty. After that, Meiko fell silent and didn't say much of anything to her. Hikari shifted her attention instead in the direction of the battlefield nearby. She could see Valkyrimon had taken to slashing his own path through the area, undoubtedly part of an effort to reach the trio of Digimon at the back of the group where Daemon could be found. Meicrackmon was helping Valkyrimon in such an endeavor, albeit in a much slower way due to her comparative lack of strength when placed beside the other Digimon in the area. Meicrackmon ultimately jumped backward when she noticed that she was cornered, and Valkyrimon continued to charge forward. SlashAngemon wound up being the one to come to Meicrackmon's assistance, and the two continued their own side of the fight soon afterward.
At the back of the battlefield, Daemon's eyes narrowed as he addressed the four Digimon that had come to surround him. MetalGarurumon, Magnamon, Valkyrimon, and GrandisKuwagamon were on the verge of destroying him as soon as they were given the chance to do so, and Daemon seemed to recognize the precarious position that he was in. "You give me no choice but to show the full extent of my power," Daemon told them simply. Magnamon's eyes went wide, undoubtedly a sign that he was about to ask what Daemon was trying to mean by saying such a thing, but he was never given the chance to fully question what was happening.
Instead, Daemon's body simply began to glow with an ominous black light that Hikari had seen in the Dark Ocean before. Years prior, she had seen the glow at the heart of a lighthouse ruled by a Dark Tower, and it had sent a cold shudder through her body back then as well. This time around, she had much the same response, though she knew that it was bound to produce a worse result than a mere Dark Tower.
Sure enough, Daemon's hood began to melt away, and when it was fully gone from sight, a new creature stood in Daemon's place. He was primarily black and a pale purple color, his clothing torn and rough around the edges. He had the same horns and wings as Daemon had displayed previously, though Hikari could tell that this was form was even stronger. Daemon had given them so much trouble in the past, and yet, he hadn't even been using the full extent of his power. Hikari felt another cold shudder wash over her body.
"What's going on?" came an intense inquiry from Valkyrimon. "He didn't evolve, did he? I didn't realize that he had the ability to do that!"
"He shouldn't be able to," MetalGarurumon told him, his eyes narrowing. "This isn't the same thing as an evolution... It simply can't be."
"You would be correct," Daemon said with a nod to MetalGarurumon. "My previous form restrained some of my power, but it seems that the time has come for me to show you all that I am truly capable of. The Dark Ocean has granted me new strength to use as I so please, and this is simply the beginning of what I can do. You will come to regret raising a hand against me and my army soon enough, Chosen Children. I intend to take what I have come for, and none of you will stand in my way!"
Daemon started off by sending out a series of smaller spheres of energy, and the four Digimon near him all jumped out of the way at the last possible moment. The energy spheres collided with one another to create larger explosions after missing their initial targets though, and the quartet of Digimon was left thrown around in every imaginable direction as the damages grew. Daemon chuckled and shook his head. "You never should have come here. If you knew what was good for you, then you would have stayed as far away as possible," he told them simply.
"If you think that we're going to let you get away with this, then you would be wrong!" Magnamon proclaimed. He sent out a column of golden energy in Daemon's direction a moment later, and the demonic Digimon was hit square in the chest.
However, Daemon did not flinch away from the attack, instead simply returning to his full height a moment later. "If you believe that you will be able to stop me so easily, then you will find soon enough that you are sorely mistaken," he told Magnamon, his voice just as even and ominous as ever. He prepared to send out yet another attack, and the four Digimon around him were once again sent into the scrambling process of trying to dodge his strikes.
"We have to push forward!" Taichi exclaimed from the area where the Chosen Children were located. He gestured for the group to follow him, and a moment later, they all began to dash in his footsteps closer to the battle against the Deep Ones. The numbers of the Deep Ones were starting to thin, and Daemon's once-powerful army had been reduced to a fraction of its former potential.
WarGreymon and Hououmon once again came together to defeat as many Deep Ones at once as they possibly could. The remnants of the group were picked off by the other Digimon in the area one by one. The Deep Ones were stronger in the Dark Ocean than they had been on Earth, but there was ultimately little that they could do when faced with Digimon that had this much raw power. Hikari found herself trying desperately to count the Deep Ones that were left, but it seemed like each time she came close to a headcount, another two or three of their foes went down thanks to the combined efforts of the many Digimon in the area. Hikari couldn't help but smile to herself with something that felt a bit like sobering relief. At long last, it seemed as if the end was in sight.
Meicrackmon was ultimately the Digimon to take care of the final Deep One. SlashAngemon, who was continuing to fight with her after their previous partnership earlier in the battle, was pinning the last of the Deep Ones in place with little to no effort. Meicrackmon used her trails to debilitate and paralyze the Deep One before shoving one clawed hand into its chest, and from there, everything seemed to fall right into place. Data continued to spiral into the sky, and she glanced in the direction of the Chosen Children for orders. The rest of the Digimon remained focused on the distant battle against Daemon.
"Let's go!" Taichi exclaimed. From there, the Digimon rushed in the direction of their targets, and not a moment was wasted as they converged around Daemon. The four Digimon that had been keeping him occupied up to that point were doing their best to dodge the attacks being sent their way, though it was clear that they were going to need more help before they would be able to find victory. Luckily for them, help was more than on the way. The Chosen Children all dashed after their partners, weaving in between the few trees that marked the area to arrive in the general vicinity of the battle with Daemon. They were close enough to see what was happening but far enough away to prevent any potential clashes with danger.
Daemon halted in his assault briefly after the rest of the Chosen Children and their partners appeared around him. "You have much more confidence than I thought, risking so much under the belief that you can defeat me," Daemon commented simply. His voice remained passive, moving slightly in the direction of cocky overconfidence. "You will see soon enough that this is a dire mistake that you should have never made in the first place."
MetalGarurumon was ultimately the one to shatter the delicate sense of peace and balance that had fallen over the immediate area, sending out a barrage of bullets at Daemon before exhaling with an icy breath attack. Daemon raised one hand to stop the energy and bullets that were rocketing toward him, but in doing so, he left his defenses down temporarily on his other side. That was something that SlashAngemon more than took advantage of, and he was able to get in a good slice at Daemon's left side while the Digimon was temporarily distracted.
As soon as the attack made contact with his body, Daemon let out an angry hiss. His defenses began to crumble from the right as well, and he was left open to attack from all directions. Hououmon was the first to take advantage of this, sending out countless attacks of fiery energy toward Daemon. He was too unfocused from his previous surprise to realize that the attack was coming until it was too late, and he was hit square in the chest. When combined with a slamming hit from one of Vikemon's ball and chains, Daemon was left to slide backward through the grass before he hit a nearby tree. The force was more than enough to knock the wind from his lungs, and Daemon's shoulders slumped over slightly due to the damage that he had sustained.
Magnamon immediately moved in Daemon's direction, ready to unleash a strike of his golden energy at the enemy Digimon. Daemon's eyes went wide, and he shifted out of the way at the last possible moment. However, his distorted reaction time was still a beat too slow, and his wing was left clipped by the attack. A small trail of smoke spiraled up from the tip of his right wing, becoming one with the darkened leaves on the overhead trees.
"You're making a mistake," Daemon cautioned. Hikari could tell that there was pain starting to appear at the edges of his words though. He was trying to caution the group in a way that would prompt disbelief in themselves if she had to guess. Daemon could tell that he was losing the advantage, and he was going to try and reclaim it by using some of the underhanded tactics that he had undoubtedly refined during his time in the Dark Ocean.
"You were the one who made a mistake when you came to Earth in the first place," Taichi told him, his eyes narrowing in a way that edged on being dangerous. Hikari did her best to hide her shock at how stony Taichi's expression was. She had noticed a slight shift in her brother as of late, but she had never been sure as to how she was meant to handle it. In a way, it only seemed to hit a peak in that moment, and Hikari could have sworn that she felt her heart skip a beat in her chest.
"If you continue to insist on keeping me from accomplishing my goal, then you will face the full force of my strength," Daemon continued. Once again, Hikari found herself believing that this was an empty threat even though she had no proper evidence on the matter. Perhaps this was in part her trying to convince herself that the situation wasn't as disastrous as it seemed, but she found herself holding tightly to the idea of hope for what felt like one of the first times since she and the rest of the Chosen Children first entered the Dark Ocean. One could even argue that this was the best she had felt since before the Dark Ocean entered her life once again.
HeraklesKabuterimon unleashed a powerful attack a moment later, hitting Daemon with all the strength that he could muster. Daemon was unable to get out of the way of such a large strike, leaving him to slouch over against the grass. His wings folded around his body in a manner that seemed almost protective. He could truly see that he was going to lose if he wasn't careful, and Daemon was doing his best to prepare for it. In a way, it was an ironic turn of events. Daemon was so confident in his skills that he found it impossible that he could lose, but at the same time, he was starting to see more and more how such a thing had the potential of happening. Even so, he refused to allow himself to be shaken, it seemed, and Daemon shoved himself off the ground. He wasn't going to show that his pride was starting to take a hit from the battle at hand.
The next of the Digimon to lash out was none other than Rosemon, who slammed her whip against the ground before sending it flying in Daemon's direction. Daemon shrugged off the attack to the best of his ability, though a few of the thorns still found a way to dig into his skin and deal at least a small amount of damage. Next came the attack of Angewomon, and she created her angelic bow before sending an arrow flying. The tip of the arrow found a home embedded in the lower half of one of his wings. HolyAngemon came up behind Daemon when he recoiled in pain from Angewomon's attack, and from there, he plunged his blade into the other wing sticking out from Daemon's back. The sword was in a similar position to Angewomon's bow, but unlike the arrow, it could easily be removed, and as such, HolyAngemon wrenched it free a moment later. A small hole could be seen in Daemon's wing where the sword had previously been located.
With Daemon distracted with other matters, Rosemon hit him with her whip once again. WarGreymon surged forward to strike Daemon with a quick slash of his claws, and Daemon stumbled backward. There was no nearby tree for him to lean against, and as such, Daemon was left on his own as he gasped greedily for air. The Digimon remained nearby, ready to lunge at Daemon as soon as they were given the command to do so. Every new attack was doing more damage against Daemon even in this stronger form. He had been using the Deep Ones as a shield previously, likely because he understood that if the Chosen Children were able to combine all of their strength against him at once, he would be unlikely to survive. Once again, that deep sensation of hope that Hikari had been unable to understand for so long was rushing back to her, and her chest began to swell with something gleeful.
Valkyrimon lunged in Daemon's direction, and Meicrackmon followed suit a moment later. The combined force of Valkyrimon's sword and Meicrackmon's trails hitting Daemon left him struggling to move soon afterward. Meicrackmon alone wouldn't have had the strength necessary to debilitate him, but the combined power of her working with Valkryimon was more than enough, and Daemon once again seemed to recognize the glaring disadvantage that he was at.
Ken started to walk in Daemon's direction soon afterward, his eyes narrowed in something determined and almost spiteful. His Digivice was still pulsing gently with light from its place in his palm. "You may have thought that you would be able to reclaim the Dark Spore by making me believe that there was no hope... But you were wrong," Ken said, his voice so quiet and dangerous that it almost made Hikari shudder. "I won't let you hurt me or my friends ever again. This is where it ends. You won't be able to use me or anyone else to your advantage as long as I have a say in it... Goodbye once and for all, Daemon."
Ken pointed forward a moment later, and GrandisKuwagamon nodded his understanding. Daemon had seemingly lost the ability to protest the fate that he knew was coming, and a moment later, GrandisKuwagamon surged toward him. The black Digimon sunk his claws deep into the chest of his foe. Daemon's eyes went wider than Hikari thought possible, and a moment later, he slumped over limply. Soon afterward, data began to spread outward from the injury in his chest, and GrandisKuwagamon pulled away without anything resembling mercy in his eyes. The sky had lost much of its dark coloration because quite some time had passed since the last Deep One was defeated, but the heavens were once again dyed black thanks to Daemon's traces fading away on the wind. The area was left silent save for the gentle whisper of the breeze. Hikari's heart pounded in her chest, and the sound seemed to echo throughout her entire body.
"He's gone..." Yamato whispered, his eyes wide. He was the first to find the confidence to break through the silence, and from there, the rest of the group fully recognized what he was saying. As soon as the initial realization hit, everything seemed to change, and the previous darkness that had fallen over the Chosen Children melted away so quickly that one had to wonder if it had even existed in the first place.
Cheers rose into the air, and Taichi grinned wildly as he addressed the rest of the group. "It looks like we're finished here," he declared. Relief swept so quickly over the Chosen Children that it was almost dizzying to Hikari, and she couldn't help but smile. She didn't think that she had felt this light since the quest to defeat Daemon had started. The first mention of the Dark Ocean had started to weigh her down, but at long last, she felt as if she was free of the debilitating weight. She was going to be alright. All of them were going to find a way to be okay.
Daisuke threw his arms around Ken, and the dark-haired boy was left to chuckle absentmindedly at the sudden attention he was getting. The chatter of the Chosen Children became an indistinct cacophony in the back of Hikari's mind, and she looked over in the direction of their Digimon partners. The Digimon were already starting to change shape, and a moment later, they were all left much smaller than they had been previously. For the most part, they had all reverted back to their Baby forms, though Patamon, Plotmon, and Meimon ultimately made themselves out to be the exceptions.
Plotmon's eyes were filled with something dark and shadowy as she glanced around the area, though most of the other members of the group were too caught up in their celebration to recognize her moment of concern. Hikari, on the other hand, frowned in Plotmon's direction and started to approach her partner as all of the other pairings nearby reunited. Hikari leaned down and pulled Plotmon into her grasp. She didn't realize how much she was shaking from the shock of the situation until after she had reached for her partner, and she was glad for the sensation of the familiar weight in her arms. It grounded her against the chaos that she had just managed to survive somehow.
"What's wrong?" Hikari questioned of Plotmon, looking down as she stroked gently at the top of her partner's head. She left the rest of her sentences silent, knowing that Plotmon was fully aware of how worried she was without the need for such a thing to be verbalized.
"It isn't over," Plotmon responded bluntly. "Can you feel it? There's still something else here in the Dark Ocean that we have to be careful of. Daemon wasn't the end. He might have been partially responsible for the barrier getting weaker, but there's still something else out there for us to defeat before we can go back to Odaiba."
Each passing word made Hikari's body and nerves grow tighter. After all, she knew that her partner had a point. As soon as she concentrated on what Plotmon was saying, she recognized the truth of the matter. There was a lot that they had yet to do whether they wanted to take care of it or not. Daemon was one of multiple powerful forces within the Dark Ocean, and the barrier between the worlds wasn't going to grow any stronger as long as there was something else still pushing at it from this side.
Hikari already felt like she knew what was going to happen next. She had heard mentions of the Dark Ocean's ruler in the past, and the mere concept crossing through her mind made her stomach churn to the point that she was confident that she was about to collapse from sheer anxiety. Maki had been cautious of the creature, and everyone else had been as well. That was because this Digimon was a beast to be feared, and it was still out there somewhere.
Hikari opened her mouth to say something to the rest of her team, but it seemed as if she couldn't bring herself to speak no matter how hard she tried. It felt as if her throat was closing itself up as she considered speaking out about what she had realized. She hated to break their celebratory joy, but beyond that, she was afraid of what they might find. Hikari had been afraid of Daemon at least to some degree, yes, but she was even more terrified of the Dark Ocean itself. She was scared of what else was lurking in the hidden depths of the shadowed sea and why the Deep Ones had requested her to join them in the first place.
Hikari moved carefully on shaky legs back in the direction of her teammates, trying her best to figure out how she was meant to pose her concerns to the rest of the group. The excitement seemed to be winding down though, giving way to a quiet chatter that covered the Chosen Children. Hikari found herself continuing to struggle to latch on specifically to any one train of thought. Everything simply blurred together in a mess of conversation that she couldn't differentiate, and every attempt to try and break through the chaos only seemed to make her feel worse.
Her thoughts of concern both fell silent and grew louder as soon as the ground began to shake from beneath her feet. Hikari knew that they were not standing anywhere near the epicenter of the earthquake; the cause was somewhere in the distance, and these small tremors were the aftermath of something destructive and violent taking place. She turned her face in the direction of the ocean, knowing that the source of the issue had to be somewhere in the general vicinity of the sea waiting on the other side of the cliff's edge. Hikari swallowed dryly.
"What is that?" Mimi questioned anxiously. She glanced around the group nervously, searching silently for someone to either offer her an answer or start to push the team in the direction of the strange source of animosity.
"The Digimon are too weak for us to fight back," Taichi told the rest of the group. "If we come into conflict with anyone right now, we're going to get wiped out. We have to do something to get out of here before that can happen."
"Whatever made that earthquake has to be huge," Daisuke pointed out. "I don't think that it's going to be quite so easy for us to just run away. That thing has to be able to move fast for how large it is. All it would take is a few steps for someone to reach here from the ocean, right? Assuming that this thing really is as big as we think, then..."
"We have to get back to Earth," Koushiro announced. He reached for his D-Terminal and flicked it open without a beat of hesitation. A moment later, he was furiously typing away on the small keyboard. He had always been one of the fastest in terms of communication as far as D-Terminals were concerned, and it was bound to be faster than using his laptop.
"We're going to need to contact Mr. Nishijima to make sure that he can open a portal for us," Yamato announced, though that much seemed clear as could be. "Jou, get out Koushiro's laptop so that we can be ready to jump through as soon as we get the chance."
Jou nodded, not missing a beat in unzipping Koushiro's bag and pulling the electronic free of its bindings. He opened it soon afterward, and Koushiro shut his D-Terminal with his message having been completed. He reached for his laptop next, and Hikari felt her anxiety levels rising even further than she could have ever thought to be possible.
We aren't going to make it.
Hikari did her best to silence the frustratingly loud voice of doubt that had appeared at the back of her mind as she glanced at the other members of the group. The humans had taken to holding their Digimon tighter than before, and Hikari was hardly an exception. "Hikari..." Plotmon began to say.
Hikari silenced her with a shake of her head, but the quiet did not last long. Plotmon continued on in spite of Hikari's request for quiet. "I can sense something coming... And this isn't the first time that I've felt it," Plotmon told her.
Hikari's eyes went wide, and the pieces seemed to slam into place all too quickly from there. When she thought about it that way, she was sure that she had been around this oncoming creature in the past as well. She hadn't recognized it at the time, but everything seemed all too clear all of a sudden. She had felt this ominous presence back when she was in the Dark Ocean for the first time, but she had thought it to simply be part of the environment itself. Instead, it was something else entirely.
"The ruler of the Dark Ocean..." Hikari realized, her voice barely above a shaking whisper. "That has to be who this is. The ruler of the Dark Ocean has realized that we're here, and he's coming for us."
As soon as these words left her lips, Hikari found herself overwhelmed by a sudden barrage of wind. It seemed as if the air around her was trying to rip everything in the area to pieces. Hikari raised one arm to protect her face while still holding as tightly to Plotmon as she could. Branches snapped off of trees, and the trunks seemed about ready to give way and collapse fully as well. In fact, there were a few trees that completely caved after just a few moments of the pressure. Hikari dug her heels into the grass below as much as she possibly could to make sure that the breeze didn't completely carry her away.
The moments that followed were a bit of a blur, and Hikari found herself hopelessly dizzy. She clamped her eyes shut with as much force as she could manage because of how strong the wind was. She could barely tell what direction was up as everything seemed to peel away around her. All that she knew was that after a few seconds of this weightless yet heavy feeling, she wound up on the ground. There was dirt smeared across her cheek and her upper arm, and the grass was prickling at her skin without mercy.
"Hikari!"
Miyako's voice came from somewhere overhead, and Hikari slowly tilted her head upward to see Miyako standing over her, concern glossing over her brown eyes. Miyako was reaching down to Hikari with the one hand that was not holding Poromon tightly to her chest. Hikari managed to take Miyako's fingers between her own despite the fact that her body was protesting anything at all resembling movement. She silently wished that Koushiro would be able to open the gateway sooner rather than later.
It's already too late. We aren't going to be able to get out of here.
Hikari once again urged the voice at the back of her mind to fall silent even though she knew that such a thing was unlikely to happen at best. She instead chose to focus everything that she had on Plotmon and Miyako. The world was a chaotic stream of events that she barely seemed to understand, but she had to stay focused to the best of her ability. That was the only way that they were going to be getting out of there intact.
"It's the ruler of the Dark Ocean," Hikari found herself telling Miyako. "That has to be the one behind this. We don't know of any other powerful forces in the Dark Ocean that could deal this much damage to us without even blinking."
"You have got to be kidding me," Miyako muttered, though she knew just as well as anyone else that there was no joke to be found in Hikari's words. Her glasses sat tilted on her face, and she glanced up in the direction of the sky to see if there was any evidence of Hikari's suspicions regarding their assailant.
There was a series of echoing footsteps in the moments that followed, and Hikari searched frantically for Koushiro. He was sitting on the ground right next to a fallen tree with Jou partially shielding him from the elements. Lines of stress had appeared on Koushiro's face, and Hikari realized that he had come to the same conclusion that she had. Unless something happened to stop their foe from coming any closer, they weren't going to be able to escape to Earth in time. Worse, they still had no ways of defending themselves. The Digimon were too weak after the fight with Daemon, and they were going to need time to rest before they would be ready to take on anyone, much less the one who held dominion over an entire world.
The Digimon that appeared over the edge of the horizon was gray in color, and his body seemed to be made of tentacles. The best way to define him was a monstrosity of unparalleled destruction. His wings were a gnarled yellow color with red lining. The same red marked his forehead, and his eyes, while relatively small compared to the rest of his body, seemed all too large as they looked down at the Chosen Children. He had come out of the distant ocean and was standing on the sands next to the sea. The waves were slamming against the shore with more vitriol than Hikari had ever thought to be possible.
"The ruler of the Dark Ocean..." Miyako murmured, her eyes going wide. Poromon was staring as well, and many of the other Chosen Children and Digimon were in much the same category.
"Dagomon..." Hikari found herself whispering before she even recognized the fact that she was speaking. She didn't know where the name had come from, but she knew that it was correct. She had always been connected with the Digital World, and since the ruler of the Dark Ocean had once been a Digimon, she could sense the truth of him as well.
Miyako glanced over in Koushiro's direction, furiously trying to will the portal to open faster, but it seemed as if there was no way for such a thing to happen. The light of the screen was reflected across Koushiro's face, illuminating his pure determination to get them out of there, but the group was scattered to the point that not all of them were even confirmed to have the ability to reach the gate should it open at all. Hikari wished for nothing more than to return to Earth, but she knew better than to fully believe that such a thing was bound to happen.
Hiraku's clacking typing against the keyboard was already stressing out Daigo. The message that Koushiro had sent had been desperate, and he spared no efforts to get across the vital fact that this was urgent. Hiraku's expression was contorted with stress, and he was wordless as he glared at the screen of his office. Maki stood beside Daigo, looking over Hiraku's shoulder at the screen. Daigo barely understood what was happening, but he knew well enough that this was taking longer than it should have.
"What's the problem?" Maki questioned, her voice edged in agitation.
"It took us ages to figure out how to open the gateway to the Dark Ocean in the first place," Hiraku explained. "This isn't something that we're going to be able to do again so quickly even if we have more experience this time around." He didn't say anything after that, and Daigo's heart dropped into his stomach.
There was no light streaming in through the windows. Hours had passed since the Chosen Children first left, and night had fallen in Odaiba. Midnight was approaching, but Daigo had agreed with Maki and Hiraku that they weren't going to be getting any rest until after they received a message from the Chosen Children. Koushiro's quick message to them hadn't even said whether or not they had succeeded in their mission of defeating Daemon. It simply claimed that they had to get out of the Dark Ocean immediately. Daigo knew that it was easy to assume that something had gone sour, but since he was lacking in details, he didn't know how to cure the tightness that had washed over his chest. Exhaustion and boredom had become his greatest foes over the course of the past few hours, but he wished that he could return to that because of how simple it was. At least he hadn't been left to fear if the Chosen Children were going to be alright in those moments.
Maki let out a gasp as something overcame the screen. It was a flicker of what appeared to be dark lightning on the screen. Everything went black after that, and Hiraku yelped in surprise before he took to slamming his fingers against seemingly random keys. His stress levels were rising once again, and Daigo felt his heart skip a beat from its home at the center of his chest.
"What just happened?!" Maki roared, though her anger was not directed at Hiraku or Daigo. She was simply upset the same way that both of the men in the room were, and Daigo knew that perfectly well.
"Something interfered with the process of opening the gate!" Hiraku exclaimed. "I don't know how it's even possible at all for something like that to happen, but... Something managed to interrupt the startup process, and I don't know if we're going to be able to fix it in time!"
"No," Daigo whispered, unwilling to believe what was happening. His stomach tied itself into a knot, and he felt like he was going to be sick if he was left unattended for even a moment too long. "Please, kids... Tell us that you're alright."
Maki had opened her laptop and was staring at the message from Koushiro. She had already sent a message asking what had happened, but in the end, she received no response. Once again, she asked for a status report. Daigo counted twelve seconds before Maki was frantically keying out another message, though both of them knew that it was her final show of fear. Something had gone horribly wrong, and they were fully aware of the fact that everything was on the verge of falling apart.
Hiraku gasped once again as the screen returned to light, and he resumed his frantic typing in hopes of opening the gateway. Daigo tapped his foot impatiently against the hardwood floor of the office as he watched at Maki's chat log with Koushiro. There was no response. Maki sent out a few other replies, and at long last, something crossed the screen.
It was the start of another message. Koushiro was typing, and that meant that the Chosen Children were still alive. Daigo felt as if he was on the verge of tipping off the edge of a cliff if he was put through such emotional rings for much longer. Maki stared and practically seethed at the screen, angry at it for not providing her with a response as to what was happening to their successors. Daigo bit down on his lip, knowing that he was going to break the skin if he didn't take some of the stress off soon.
"The gate is back to opening again!" Hiraku cried out, and Maki and Daigo both looked up at the screen. The computer stared back at them, its light practically blinding in the darkness of the room. Daigo once again wished for anything that would explain to them what was going on, and he watched as the tab that had the gate on it start to shift. The loading bar filled itself out, and he let out a sigh of pure relief.
Please, kids... Be alright. I'm begging you.
Dagomon was looming closer, but Koushiro still didn't appear to be any closer to being able to open the gate. Hikari's heart continued to pound in her chest without anything resembling mercy. She had an awful feeling about this, knowing that it wasn't going to be easy for them to get away. Part of her had already accepted the fact that escape was going to be out of their reach, but she still found herself holding onto at least a little bit of hope. She didn't want to let go of her optimism after struggling so much to reach such a point.
Koushiro was still typing away at his computer screen, his expression growing more tense as the seconds ticked by. Hikari glanced around the area furiously, trying her best to locate all of the members of the group in the area. Miyako appeared to be doing much the same, though she was calculating how far they were from being able to dash over to Koushiro and complete the process of being transported back to Earth.
For the most part, the Chosen Children were paired off, their partners remaining close by at all times. Taichi and Yamato were close by, but Sora and Mimi weren't quite so lucky and wound up at the far edge of the clearing. Daisuke and Ken were a bit closer than Sora and Mimi, but it still didn't seem as if they were close enough to be able to make a dash for Koushiro and Jou in time. Takeru and Iori were nearby as well, but Meiko was completely gone from view. Hikari assumed that Meiko was hiding on the other side of a tree that had collapsed under the influence of the previous explosion of air.
Dagomon's eyes flickered over the entire group, almost as if he was searching for something. Hikari knew what he was looking for, and she wanted nothing more than to melt into the ground, and part of her was hoping that she would never surface again if it would make all of this easier to avoid. Her grip on Miyako's hand grew tighter. Moving would only attract attention in her direction, and she didn't want to risk such a thing until after Koushiro had prepared the portal for them to go home.
We aren't going to make it. There's no way that we're going to be able to get out of here in time.
A stream of bubbles came exploding from one of the Digimon elsewhere in the group, but Hikari had no way of saying where they had come from. She knew that it didn't matter much at the end of the day anyway. Her eyes remained locked solely on Dagomon, and unfortunately for her, he seemed all too intent on returning the favor.
As soon as Dagomon noticed, one of his arms began to shift. Hikari could tell what was happening, and she prepared to launch herself in Koushiro's direction at a moment's notice. Plotmon was snarling with rage in Dagomon's direction, desperate to evolve but unable to do so because of how draining the battle with Daemon and the Deep Ones had been. Hikari glanced over to Koushiro, praying that the gate would complete the process of opening sooner rather than later.
As if on cue, Koushiro let out a gasp. "Come on!" he shouted. His computer screen had shifted its patterns of light, and Hikari gasped as well. By some stroke of a miracle, he had managed to figure it out. She followed her body's commands and ran in the direction of the gate, pulling Miyako along for the ride. Plotmon's gaze remained locked on Dagomon, trying to make sure that he wouldn't be lashing out with an attack while the group was distracted with other matters.
The group of Chosen Children dashed toward the gate from their various places across the immediate area. Hikari finally saw Meiko appear in view once again, her dark hair whipping behind her as she clutched Meiamon to her chest. She was farther away than any other member of the group, merely a black streak against the already darkened sky. Hikari's stomach sunk into her feet.
There's no way that we get there in time.
Hiraku let out a gasp, clapping his hands together immediately. "The gate is ready! All that's got to happen next is for them to get through before it closes!" he exclaimed. The gate was sure enough positioned at the center of the screen. Maki and Daigo both took steps back, knowing that they were going to wind up crushed under the weight of the Chosen Children flying through the gate as soon as they left behind the Dark Ocean to arrive back on Earth.
Maki's heart was pounding in her chest, and she reached out for her laptop to stare down at the chat log once again. Koushiro had stopped typing, undoubtedly focused on the fact that the gate was opened in full for the team to pass through. Even so, she found herself desperate for some type of explanation as to what was going on. She hated how desperate Koushiro had seemed in his message when he asked for help in the first place, and deep down, Maki knew that something had gone terribly wrong.
They hadn't received any updates. For all she knew, the Chosen Children had come to arms against Daemon once again. He had overwhelmed the group when he first arrived in Odaiba, and it wasn't out of the question to say that such a thing could happen again. Beyond that, the Dark Ocean was an unexplored place of shadow and mystery in the worst way possible. Anything could have been lurking in the darkness there, ready to jump out at a moment's notice. Even if the Chosen Children were strong, there was no way of saying for sure that they wouldn't be caught in the crossfire of the Dark Ocean's power.
Beyond that, Maki couldn't help but remember everything that had happened with the ruler of the Dark Ocean. She had only come close to him once, but he had been so overwhelmingly powerful in all of his negative energy that it could have suffocated her. She had managed to survive, but that was primarily because she had been able to rely on her friends to pull her out of the situation. Bakumon had saved her, and she owed everything to him even years later. She had lost herself, but he had done everything to find her again.
"Why aren't they coming through the gate?" Hiraku questioned, and Maki snapped out of her fearful musings regarding the Dark Ocean's ruler. She stared at the screen and noticed that about twenty seconds had passed, but the Chosen Children had yet to do much of anything to show that they were going to be coming through the gate. She felt sick at the idea that something could have happened to them while she was distracted, but she knew that her worries weren't going to do anything to help them out of the dark situation that they had found themselves in.
"They have to be here again soon," Daigo said, his voice edging on anxious desperation. "Why won't they tell us what happened in the first place? It has to be pretty bad, but... I'm worried."
Maki was impressed at Daigo's ability to sound even somewhat calm in a situation that made her want to tear her hair out and then punch the wall, but she didn't say anything about it. Instead, she shifted her attention to the corner of Hiraku's computer screen. The clock was ticking away with each passing second, and with each moment that flew by like a whisper on the wind, nothing new happened to show that the Chosen Children were coming. Maki hated this more than words could ever describe, but beyond her hatred and rage, she prayed that they were alright one way or another.
Hikari was getting closer to Koushiro and was set to arrive within the next fifteen seconds when the ground started to shake once again. Rather than reaching out for her, Dagomon had opted for something else, slamming his tentacled arm into the cliffside that the Chosen Children were standing on. The earth rumbled with all the rage of a thousand gods, and Hikari's legs threatened to cave from beneath her. She had already been put through the wringer along with the rest of the team over the course of the past day, and this was only making her feel worse.
A second hit came to the cliffside, and Hikari was unable to keep herself standing under the weight of the trembling. Her ankle collided with a rock, and she was sent tilting sideways. Her cheek hit the dirt once again, and Miyako came down on top of her. Hikari held onto Plotmon with all that she had, treating the small Digimon as a lifeline and the one living thing that could keep her held together. Poromon whined when Miyako moved, and Hikari took that as proof that he was still present and alright. A quick glance around the area told Hikari that the other members of the group had fallen to the ground for the most part too. Taichi had one arm hooked around a tree while his other hand kept Koromon in place. Yamato's hand was clenched onto Taichi's lower arm, but he was on the ground. Sora had one arm grasping at a tree's trunk as she held onto Pyocomon, and Mimi had wrapped her free arm-the one that wasn't holding Tanemon-around her waist.
Hikari was about to try and push herself to her feet when something hit the cliffside once again, but unlike the past few attempts at violence, it wasn't a tentacled arm slamming into the rocks. It was something much worse, she realized. Dagomon was actively attacking the side of the cliff with some type of blast of energy. If this kept up, everything was going to start falling apart.
This time when the ground began to shake, Hikari knew that there was no way for her to stabilize herself. She felt Poromon's body suddenly pressed against her torso as Miyako scrambled for her. Poromon had yanked Miyako's glasses off her face to make sure that they weren't lost in the scuffle, and the lenses were resting against Hikari's body as well.
Everything seemed to devolve into a weightless feeling that Hikari couldn't fully describe after that. Her feet were off the ground. As a matter of fact, her entire body had left behind the earth, and she was in the air. The attack from Dagomon had destroyed the cliff, and she had no idea where she was going to be headed next. Hikari's eyes were clamped shut against the world around her, and she was too afraid to open them again to see what was happening around her.
Before she could even think of trying to fight back, everything seemed to fall apart. Her mind slowly began to float away from her, and the darkness that overcame her had nothing to do with the fact that her eyes were shut. The noise echoing around her-the sounds of pure destruction-seemed to fade away as well, and she had no way of grounding herself.
From there, all she could do was lose consciousness, and Hikari wasn't able to fight back no matter how hard she tried.
The room fell silent, and the only noise that reached Daigo's ears was the gentle hum of Hiraku's computer console. He stared at the screen and the simple message that was etched across the tab where the gate should have been. He felt like he was going to be sick, so he wrapped his fingers around the back of Hiraku's chair to try and keep himself grounded.
Connection interrupted.
The path of connection between Hiraku's computer and Koushiro's laptop had been severed. Given the message that the trio had received just a few minutes prior, it was easy to hazard a guess that the connection had been broken because something happened with the Chosen Children in the Digital World. The bridge that was keeping the devices held together had been cut by pure force, and there was no way of saying how they were going to restore such a link. Something in the back of Daigo's mind wondered if such a thing was even going to be possible anytime soon.
"No," was all Maki could whisper. She was the only person in the room with the confidence to try and shatter the quiet that had overcome the room. She clenched one hand into a fist as her laptop slid onto the edge of the desk. The device was still open to the chat log. Koushiro had stopped typing, and the last messages that had gone through were the inquiries as to what had happened that Maki had sent in her fruitless desperation.
Connection interrupted.
Maki's clenched fist slammed against the desk a moment later, her lips curled in a snarl. "Damn it!" she shouted. Hiraku's computer screen seemed to quiver precariously from its place a few inches away. There were undoubtedly dozens of other angry thoughts swirling around inside her head, but she didn't give voice to any of them. Instead, she simply raised her hands to her temples, hiding her eyes from view in the process. Her entire body was practically quaking with anger, but she was doing her best to keep the others from seeing it.
Daigo, meanwhile, had his eyes locked on the screen. No matter how many times he read the words, he couldn't seem to get them out of his head. It was as if they were destined to be burned into his memory for the rest of eternity with escape an impossible dream that he would never be able to reach.
Connection interrupted, connection interrupted, connection interrupted.
Hiraku was staring at the screen as well, horror etched on his expression. Light was cast across all three of their faces, the only illumination aside from the laptop in the room. Midnight had come and gone in their moment of notable stress, but none of them was tired the way that they had been before the alert came through. Instead, they were simply desperate, wishing that none of this had happened in the first place.
It was the lack of answers that bothered Daigo the most, and something inside of him seemed to open up and try to swallow him whole. He knew that the Chosen Children were resilient, but at the same time, he couldn't shake the fear that they had lost their successors. He tried to tell himself that it wasn't true, but he could never seem to make himself believe it. Instead, all he did was continue to stare up at the screen, wondering when the hell everything had fallen so far out of his control.
Connection interrupted.
Oh boy! That's not good! Cliffhanger endings for everybody!
On a brighter note, this chapter marks the end of the Daemon miniature arc! We've still got quite a bit left to go before we'll be able to consider act three completed since that won't be ending until chapter fifty, but for the time being, we can mark this as one victory in the books. It turns out that having a lot of Ultimate-level Digimon together makes it a lot easier to take out your worst enemies. Who would have thought? It's a shame that didn't wind up working out for Dagomon.
Speaking of Dagomon, he's here now! Yeah. I'm going to be elaborating more on all of that soon enough, but for the time being, this is what you get. He'll be acting as the main villain throughout the rest of act three. I always wanted to see more from him, and I thought it would be fitting to have him show up as we were tying up loose ends from Zero Two. That's what this arc seems to revolve around, huh? It's like the two teams are taking turns on getting attention. Zero Two gets arcs one and three while Adventure took the focus in act two. How about acts four and five? We'll just have to see, I suppose.
For now, I'm going to leave you off here since I'm an asshole and in love with cliffhangers. Next week, we'll see what awful situation the team has found themselves in this time. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital