The ten yet to be blessed were assembled on the meadow, standing a few meters apart as they had been directed by Azulongmon and in two rows of five. Biyomon, Hawkmon, Tentomon, Wormmon and Palmon made the second row. Meramon, Shoutmon, SnowAgumon, the Veemon partnered to Jun and the Gomamon who was to Shuu stood as the first. Their humans stood next to them.
The four gods watched them intently, the dragon from above, each one in their respective direction. The other five Digidestined stood off at the right, the three Mega-levels behind their respective human. Davis, TK, and Tai watched them impatiently. The Motomiyas and their Veemon stood a bit to their left with Kari and Gatomon, with open anticipation like it was a show for their amusement.
There was nothing to hear as the forty-seven spheres glowed, orbs of heavenly light flying towards the scattered Digimon. As they all watched, the ten began to glow white and metamorphose. All of them grew taller, one far taller than the rest, each announcing their name along with a shout of 'Warp Digivolve to...'.
Within an orange space, the stream of energy was blasted from Meramon, up to a four-armored creature with three faces. Asuramon projected the power further up. As it had for the others, a landscape formed there - a wasteland filled with raging, dancing flames. Some were crimson, some were blue, some green and some golden. A lone figure walked in the inferno, with a stony expression and clenched fists, his name around him.
Within a lavender space, Hawkmon spun, a solid-lavender Aquilamon appearing above in turn and sending the burst of light further to a Silphymon who matched. A crimson bird flew towards him at lightning speed, rainbow flames in its wake. The two merging together, the sylph rocketed up, and took the form of a swordsman in white and gold and blue. His new name surrounded him.
Within a dark-green space, Wormmon released the transformative energy to Stingmon who sent it further up. An insect-dragon hybrid as similar to Paildramon as it was not appeared there, a black tortoise behind him. Its energies enveloping him, Dinobeemon shot upwards, emerging as a black beetle in a dark forest. A blast of electricity fired from its pincers, tearing through the trees, detonating when it hit the local castle.
Within a slate-gray space, SnowAgumon spun around, the energy delivered to Greymon and RizeGreymon in turn. A gray humanoid and horned figure appeared, a chest plate materializing on him and clicking shut as his hand-cannons appeared, clicking shut in turn while his back-mounted guns followed.
Within an orange space, Phoenixmon emerged from a colossal blaze, a veritable sea of fire. Within a green space, Rosemon stood with open arms, the center of a vast and bright and colorful meadow.
In moments, Shoutmon had settled on a thirty-meter height and the shape of a wide-winged dragon. He announced himself as Examon while the glow died down. A handful of other names were announced as well - Phoenixmon from the golden bird, Valkyrimon from the white warrior, GranKuwagamon from the black beetle, HerculesKabuterimon from the golden beetle, and others.
Yolei looked with awe to where Hawkmon had just been, and the swordsman smiled back at her. Keiko focused on a tall figure in bulky red armor, whose helmet resembled WarGreymon. Mina was met with a fire-winged man, armored in scarlet and gold. Jun with a dragon almost twenty meters tall, this one plated in scarlet and silver and golden armor.
Future Kari arched an eyebrow at what Shoutmon had become, deciding it not surprising after a moment's thought. Given how differently their Digital World worked, it would have been stranger to see OmniShoutmon here. Rina and Future Davis shared a look.
"Should we bring up Heaven Mode?" he asked her. Jun pricked her ears up at that.
"Nah," she replied promptly. "Let's leave that as an ace in the hole."
"Is that Aldamon?" GranKuwagamon asked while they talked. At once, Mina and Aldamon looked confused at the beetle.
"And just when I thought something was impossible in the Digital World," Mimi bemoaned jovially. Rosemon nodded in agreement, while a few others like BlitzGreymon looked lost.
"It's a long story, and we'll tell you once this is over," Matt was quick to inform them, while the gods and Jun inspected the other Azulongmon. Aldamon supposed that was good for now.
Ignoring their conversation, Noriko walked towards Examon, looking at the dragon with awe. Examon smiled back and went down on a bent knee.
"What do you think?" Examon asked.
"'Awesome' sounds good," Noriko said with a grin and raised her balled hand. Examon returned the gesture.
"We can admire our Digimon later," Tai called out to them all. A few of them responded agreeably, none of them disagreed.
"There is one more thing that I wish to tell you," Baihumon voiced. Everybody present looked up at him. "Each of you humans alone can raise your partners to their greatest forms again. Remember that when the power we have given runs out."
The mood that ensued among them was one of widespread confusion among the locals.
"But we don't have a Crest, or whatever you call that crap," Rika countered, saying what Cody was thinking. TK simply stared, doing the world's third-best impression of a goldfish.
"You do not need one," Baihumon answered. "The Crests are supplements to the power within your souls. Their primary purpose is to defend against Dark Digivolutions. Agumon can only draw on Tai's Courage, but Kyubimon can draw on all your emotions, positive and negative."
This explained a lot to Cody - all the people they had met in other dimensions could all Digivolve their partners to the Mega level. "At least that's simple."
"In other words, the seven of you are less able than others to evoke Digivolution in your partners, not better able, because of your Crests," Baihumon continued. "I tell you this because I believe the first of you have forgotten about this over the years since Homeostasis told you of it."
A pensive frown broke out on TK's face as he tried to recall what Baihumon meant. Seraphimon placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. A smug smirk filled Ruki's face.
"Achieving such heights will be difficult, but I have faith in you all to succeed," Baihumon finished. "Good luck, Digidestined."
Gatomon nodded to Kari, and Kari wordlessly raised her hand, fingers extended. Her eyes focused, and her hand freakin' began to freakin' glow. A small ball of lavender light formed in the air, just shy of her finger-tips. At the sight, TK recalled seeing the projection of Kari's image appear before them, years ago.
Rapidly expanding, the people around her saw a strange beach through the ring, a world drained of color. Shuu felt cold just looking at it, and grinned. "So that's the Dark Ocean, huh?" Studying it, he spotted a shadow-beaming lighthouse.
On the other side, a Deep One turned away from the widening portal. This, she knew her masters would like to hear. Far away, in the sea, Dagomon felt the familiar pain flare up, almost threatening to burn him whole. He anticipated seeing her again, despite the circumstances.
Kari lowered her hand, the portal now so wide that that pretty much anyone around here could pass through it. She looked back, to a lot of seriously baffled people.
"The Crest of Light comes with a super-power. Basically, I'm a reality warper," Future Kari exposited. She looked around, unsure if it was really a good time to say more right now. "What I've just done is the same thing Gennai did, only in my case, the code is auto-written." She made a brief pause, a smile forming. "You wouldn't believe how easy this makes vacations."
Shuu laughed at that, while a few other failed to suppress snickering. Rika stared blankly. Out of everything she had heard today - alternate universes, time travel, actual Hell - that was the freakiest thing.
"If everybody's ready, we're going in," Keiko said sternly. BlitzGreymon shot her a knowing look. The girl flushed, grinning defiantly.
Kari piped up. "Actually, I think I would appreciate a minute alone on the other side first." Almost everybody promptly looked questioningly at her. "There's a Digivolution method called Biomerging, where a Digimon and human become one. The human turns naked, so you can see my problem."
Examon huhhed. He'd always imagined that it would be called Human DNA Digivolution, but he was still happy to hear that his logic was right. Now he could rub it in Keiko's face. The thought brought a smirk to his face.
"Holy crap," Davis breathed, eyes almost physically gleaming with excitement. "So on top of being me from a parallel future where I'm super-smart, you can Biomerge like Henry and them?"
Rika concluded that the other her probably had her earth's Takato and Henry as friends too. She liked that idea.
"You got it," the older Davis answered, a small smile on his face. Meeting his past self was always fun. He was a dumbass at times at that age, but he had plenty of things that made up for it.
"I think I've heard about that from Joe, way back when," Shuu thought aloud. "Sure thing, go ahead," briefly thanking him, Kari and Gatomon went through and past the left edge. A call of "Gatomon Biomerge to!" was heard, and a bright light was seen, just as quickly followed by the announcement of their name.
Confusion broke out on TK's face at the name. "Your Gatomon doesn't Digivolve into Ophanimon?" The question brought a memory to Seraphimon's mind, of him and Ophanimon creating the Golden Digieggs.
Magnadramon decided to indulge him. A shout of "Magnadramon Slide Evolve to!" rang out, along with more light, and the declaration of "Ophanimon".
Walking back into view, Ophanimon said with a raised voice, "As Matt said, we can tell you the story later." TK looked forward to that.
Future Davis went across with Veemon and out of sight. Shuu wondered why this Slide thing was called 'Evolution' when everything else was called Digivolution. Another round of announcing accompanied by a light show ensued, and Imperialdramon came into their view.
While Rina and Veevee silently went across, GranKuwagamon said, "If it's fine with you guys, I'll rather DNA Digivolve."
"Yeah, you're right. It's more our style, anyway," Ken agreed. Another declaration of 'Veemon Biomerge to' rang out, followed by a shout of 'ULFORCEVEEDRAMON'.
Imperialdramon and GranKuwagamon began to glow, reverting to Rookie. As Davis and Ken held their D3s up, Cody looked at TK, Seraphimon, and Vikemon reverting as Veemon and Wormmon began to glow their respective colors. Tai and Matt did the same, Ophanimon stopping them in the act.
"Against the Deep Ones, we need numbers, not power," Ophanimon explained to them with both voices, while an unseen force pulled Wormmon and Veemon together, trails of green and blue light in their wakes, a blaze of light erupting where they collided and announced their Warp DNA Digivolution. The Digivolution's light cleared from the dragon. Ken watched, eyes filled with admiration. No matter how many times he saw this, the beauty and power of the Digivolution, he wouldn't ever get tired of it.
The older Davis wasn't liking how he felt about this. "How long has it been, Veemon?"
The dragon declared "Imperialdramon Slide DNA Digivolve to" at the top of their lungs, while Patamon and Armadillomon simultaneously declared their own Warp DNA Digivolution, pulled together and leaving streaks of yellow and orange light behind them. When Seraphimon took shape, Imperialdramon had turned into the black beetle. A thought occurred to Ken, that Wormmon and Hawkmon could DNA Digivolve.
"Now let's move, unless anyone else wants to waste time," TK said dryly. Ophanimon smiled sheepishly. None of them spoke while they walked across. Arms behind her head, Mina thought about making a joke while she followed Aldamon across.
"There's a Deep One town called Innsmouth a short walk away from here," Ophanimon said as BlitzGreymon followed Keiko across. Shuu rolled his eyes. "With a little luck, that's where they've taken her."
Tai looked up towards the cliff-front, resolute and vengeful.