The Night Blooms

by The Blue Tigrex

The worst has happened. The other orders of digimon are gone. The Demon Lords forces are marching closer by the day. The Royal Knights can feel the pressure by the hour. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and so Alphamon asks Lord Drasil to reactivate the chosen system to bring forth a group of humans to help save their world... But Lucemon had already acted. SYOC closed.

13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Fire and Ice

…...

Clive instinctively stroked a burn mark on his right arm. As he did, his mind flashed back to the fires—

—burning, screaming, blindness, pain, worthlessness, loneliness—

—of Coro and the annoying kid that saw through him. The Hagith Legion symbol was something Clive promised to personally help get rid of once he and the others saved the Digital World.

"I can't believe we've never noticed it until now," Victor found himself eyeing the Sheriff's building while they waited for Palmon to return with their supplies, "You wouldn't think this place acts like a Demon Lord outpost."

Black looked over to Clive, who kept staring at the symbols. "Clive?"

"I was just wondering," Clive let go of his arm, "How did the Hagith Legion come to even make this place? It doesn't sound like something any of them would do."

"You're not wrong," Everyone else turned to see Palmon walking up to them with a cart of supplies behind her, "Beelzemon only made this place and others like it cause Arshan asked him to."

"Arshan?" Jordan thought back to how the teen around his age; who couldn't even look them in the eye for more than a few seconds. How could a cowardly guy like that ask something of a Demon Lord Digimon? And the Demon Lord even complied with him?

"General Arshan is one of the main generals of the Hagith Legion," Palmon explained as if Jordan asked who the boy was, "He's a human! Huh, now that I think of it, you guys kinda look human too. But if you were humans, wouldn't you be with the Demon Lords?" The rookie squinted her eyes towards the group.

It seemed no one in the west knew about the Royal Knights summoning humans of their own, outside of those in the Demon Lords' armies.

Alizee, not wanting to get caught in enemy territory, clapped her hands together. "So! About those supplies!? Are these it?"

"Yep! Here ya go!" Palmon motioned to the cart, "You can even keep the cart!"

"Really?" Luna asked.

The rookie patted the side of the wooden cart, "It's old anyway, and we got newer carts in the latest shipment."

Vegimon returned from helping XU Ballistamon as Palmon said this, "I reckon it's all swell. The Hagith Legion sends monthly supplies all the way out here." The Champion then scoffed, "Better than anything the Royal Knights have ever done, that's for sure."

"What?" Sif folded her arms, "What do you mean by that? The Royal Knights are protectors of the Digital World."

"Oh yeah," Vegimon would have rolled his eyes if he had any, "Only for when the big stuff happens. They don't care about anyone else so long as their precious order is kept in place. At least the Demon Lords have the decency to realize the damage they do."

"Hey, Vegimon, I need another round!" A Digimon called out before the Bartender excused himself and walked into the bar.

"Sorry about that," Palmon rubbed the back of her head, "Vegimon hates the Royal Knights."

"Why? How could he possibly think the Demon Lords are better than the Royal Knights!?" Sif had to calm herself.

"Well, the Royal Knights indirectly killed his family," Many couldn't believe what Palmon said, "Okay, I don't know the gritty details, but this was a while back when Ulforce Veedramon slew the two gulfmon twins. Sure, he prevented them from eating everything, but the battlefield was ruined for generations and the knights didn't do nothing to fix it. Turns out, Vegimon's clan had this millennium-long pilgrimage to where the gulfmon twins died. They didn't realize their harvest was tainted by the corrupted data of the two Demon Digimon. And well..." Palmon scratched her head. "He's the only survivor, so he's not exactly keen on them." She then had a look of realization on her face, " Now that I think about it, he ain't the only one. From what I hear, those Royal Knights are only good at beating up powerful Digimon and not much else. Fellas here are all victims of them not caring about the consequences after their fights."

The Royal Knight chosen looked around after hearing that. The idea they were surrounded by people whose lives were ruined by the Royal Knights but saved by the Demon Lords felt so alien to them. They expected the opposite of this thought.

"That... can't be right," Victor raised his brow after hearing that.

"Where do ya think all the refugees come from?" Palmon's question ironically confirmed that the people they've helped all came from the Royal Knight territories.

"Hey, Palmon! I need your help in the back!" Vegimon's voice called out to the rookie.

"Coming, Vegimon!" Palmon shouted back as she fixed her hat. She turned to the Royal Knights Chosen, "I sure didn't mean to end our conversation on a bad note. If ya'll come back, give me a call. I'll pay for another first round."

Palmon left, leaving everyone with food for their stomach and food for thought.

However, for Jordan in particular, no one spotted him seething in silence after hearing about how the Royal Knights abandoned those under their care. He already had trouble trusting them due to the fact they reminded the blonde teen of a person he loathed with his being, but with this new information, whatever trust he decided to give them was now broken because of this.

Jordan worried for Cecilia. He hoped that she was faring better than them.
…...

Cecilia stared down at her feet, snow crunching underneath her shoes. If it weren't for the thoughts of her estranged sister plaguing her currently, she may have been more astounded, as her home didn't see snow often. Much less such a thick layer, coating the empty landscape for miles and miles so that everything seemed to be a blank white surface. Only a singular mountain could be seen, so far into the distance it may as well have been a small cone.

Breakdramon had split from the group to head south back at the wastelands some time ago, the mega level digimon hoping to be a sufficient enough distraction for the enemy as he made his way back to Yggdrasil's castle. Leaving Gallantmon's group as it was once again, silence pervading the group at Gallantmon's command for fear that the enemy could be lurking anywhere at any point for a round two.

It would not last much longer however as Gallantmon raised his arm to stop the group and looked back at them all to say, "We're at our next stop."

Ryu and Tiamat would both raise a brow and glance around at the empty space while Kyou and Blaze would glance at each other and shrug as Gallantmon hit the hilt of his lance on the ground four times in a specific succession.

This would seem confusing at first, until the snow to the groups right exploded and a digimon that appeared rather like a bearish snowman stood in the open with a large hole now behind it. It had no mouth on its round head, two beady black eyes and a nose like coal sitting on its face. Two big red orbs sat on its spherical torso, and its limbs were ill-defined, little more than limbs with spheres on the end. The only thing differing its hands from its feet were the thumbs on each one.

The snowman spoke despite its lack of a mouth, revealing it to be male, "Milord Gallantmon! W-we were not expecting reinforcements! We haven't heard anything from the northern front for weeks! We've already set up to bunker in, and I apologize but-"

"Frigimon," Gallantmon would raise a hand to calm the snowman digimon as he spoke, "It's alright. We didn't bring a whole army with us and hopefully we didn't bring the enemy army with us."

Frigimon's black eyes settled on Gallantmon's for a few moments, "Hopefully?"

"We uh, ran into a bit of trouble on the way here," Gallantmon would shrug to the chosen, "These humans and their partners are key to our plan, and I was hoping that those stationed here would be willing to let us use the Frosty Ravine to cut part of the trip to an old friend in half."

"Oh! You're hoping to visit... Would darkdramon even agree to let this occur?"

"Well, you see, Darkdramon isn't exactly around to disagree now to my knowledge..."

Frigimon would take this information in, first the chosen, a royal knight, and darkdramon apparently being deceased. This was well above his pay-grade and he knew that he had to take the group to his leaders, "Follow me. I'll take you to see Blizzarmon."

Frigimon would then disappear into the hole he had emerged from, Gallantmon waving the chosen along, "Be careful about the drop. The inside is bigger than it looks."

Tiamat scoffed as she walked over and jumped in, "Big enough for a frigimon, sure, but any tunnel beneath the ice cannot be too-"

The black guilmon yelped as the hole was revealed to be nearly sixty feet deep, revealing a massive tunnel that stretched both north and south that seemed more like an underground highway carved into the ice than a tunnel. Frigimon would catch Tiamat and set her down gently, the black guilmon stumbling away embarrassed as she responded, "Uh, thanks..."

Ryu chuckled from above at his partners surprise before jumping down as well, Frigimon repeating the action and catching him before setting him down, Ryu noting, "Huh, you're surprisingly soft for a guy made out of ice."

Frigimon responded as he caught Kyou next, "Well, I would hate to harm someone on accident, well, at all really. I make sure to pack my body just right with the help of my friend Panjyamon."

"Neat," Ryu would respond simply and raise a brow as Frigimon caught and sat down Blaze, Ysanne with Swimmon, and Avani.

A ways away, a small group of digimon seemed to patiently waiting for them to all jump down, being humanoid in shape but looking like they all consisted of a number of rocks of varying sizes. Two of them acting like ears and five as teeth to seal their mouths as big, yellow eyes that seemed ever so childish watched the group jump down from above, now waiting for Cecilia to jump down as she looked into the tunnel.

Cecilia, still above, looked down at the drop with some fear, "Are you sure this is safe, Gallantmon?"

"Safe? Probably not, but I trust Frigimon to catch you all safely."

That response did not steel Cecilia's nerves as she froze up and asked, "A-are you sure there isn't another way down?"

"Nope!" Gallantmon responded bluntly as he pushed Cecilia rather rudely, determining her route for her as her throat sealed up and felt her heart drop for the few seconds until Frigimon caught her.

"Don't worry, I know its scary when you're still young, but there is nothing I will not do to ensure your safety," Frigimon's words were warm and friendly as he spoke, indeed calming Cecilia slightly.

At the same time, at least something had partially tore her mind off her sister.

Up above, Lancelot hissed at Gallantmon for pushing his partner down, the knight not particularly caring as he then jumped down after them with Lancelot quickly attaching to his shadow and coming down with him.

Up above, one could observe a pillar of rock closing where they had entered as it became clear that the rock digimon were who were allowing them in and out. Said rock digimon then quickly began to disperse as they finished their apparent job, Frigimon waving to one in particular with a damaged maw as he yelled out, "Gotsumon, you're in charge of the rest until I return from showing Lord Gallantmon to Blizzarmon!"

With that, the chosen began to follow the snowman digimon as Kyou noted something in the brief moments of hearing Frigimon speak, "Why are you calling Gallantmon 'milord' but not referring to Blizzarmon by any title, who I'm assuming is your commander?

Frigimon would glance at the partner of the fire spirit to confirm who was speaking before responding, "Blizzarmon isn't really what you would call a usual commander. He cares about us troops a lot more than most commanders, at least I think so. Doesn't want us to call him by any title, does his best to address us all individually, and I like to think he would be the first one in a fight if it ever came down to it. Although I wonder if that's the least I can expect from the one of the twenty spirits."

Blaze nearly stumbled over himself at hearing that Blizzarmon was one of the twenty spirits, "One of the guys like me!?"

Frigimon would finally seem to register who was walking with him in humorous fashion, his eyes nearly falling off as he went, "Oh! You're the human spirit of flame aren't you!?"

"Yeah, was it... Was it not obvious?"

"Now that you mention it, you don't quite seem like the humans you're traveling with," Frigimon turned around, walking backwards as he scanned Blaze up and down, "Ohhhh, so you are a digimon!"

"Uhuh," Blaze ignored that Frigimon didn't register him as one of his own before asking, "What else can you tell me about Blizzarmon?"

"I'm curious as well," Kyou would speak alongside his partner, "It'd be the first other digimon we met that inherited the spirits."

"Oh, perhaps I should clarify. Blizzarmon bears only the beast spirit of ice, his younger brother inherited the human spirit of ice and is one of our captains. Although I think they're both simply wonderful at their jobs!"

Listening to the conversation between snowman and the burning spirits, Ryu looked to Gallantmon, "The ice spirits are separate?"

Gallantmon would look over to Ryu, "Ah, right. You all don't know how the spirits really function. I mean, if it isn't blunt, the spirits 'choose' whoever gets to wield them, and the beast and human halves don't always agree on who should be the wielding them. Alizee and Blaze would be lucky exceptions to that rule as they've inherited both, although they only have the ability to access the human forms right now."

"That brings up a couple of questions actually," Ryu would respond as he took a deep breath and looked ahead, "Like which ones do we have, or why can Alizee and Blaze only access their human forms?"

"Last I knew, we had both spirits when it came to water, ice, fire, and wind. You've already met two of those wielders, and you're about to meet a third. That said, we only managed to get the human spirit of light and beast spirit of thunder. The rest are well... We simply don't know. Could be they chose a digimon out of our range or they've even fallen into the demon lords cruel hands. As for the lock, that's simply cause the beast spirits have decided they aren't yet ready to advance that far."

"That bit about the demon lords having their own does not bode well for us if true," Ryu noted before asking, "But not ready to advance that far?"

"Poor choice of words. Hm..." Gallantmon pondered a moment before responding again, "It isn't quite like your usual digimon where they simply grow stronger with each form. A human spirit tends to be more skilled but lacks raw power, where as a beast spirit gains raw power but lacks the skill of the human spirit. That isn't to say they're worse about combat, on the contrary, Blizzarmon is far better at close combat than his human spirit brother, but his brother has far better agility and some extremely advanced equipment in comparison. Both spirits have their advantages, although I suppose beast spirits may be better for a human like Alizee if only because she may be able to apply her human skills better to the stronger beast form than a digimon."

Ryu would nod as they continued to trudge before asking, "So... Where are the Spirits of Water if the Spirits of Ice are here?"

Gallantmon glanced away for a moment, looking at Ysanne before responding, "Last I checked they-"

Ysanne made a signal for the knight to lie about their location as he spoke.

"-Are still at Lord Drasil's castle. We still haven't found a compatible match for them unfortunately."

"I see," Ryu would respond, scratching his chin and beginning to ponder.

It would take quite a while for their journey to reach its next stop...

…...

Several miles away from where the Gallantmon led group had gone underground, a beetle-like digimon scurried through the landscape to its master. Its silver carapace blending in quite well with the snow around it as its six legs carried it quickly, a radar dish on its back bearing the crest of knowledge spinning as it took in data from its allies who were spread far across the snowfields, keeping up with the vibrations beneath the earth to know where their enemies were heading. Its bright red eyes reflected as its master landed with a squadron of kuwagamon and kabuterimon, silver antannae twitching as the three blue talons on each foot scraped away the snow so it could reach him. It opened its tiny maw to squeak as he reached down to pick it up, handing it a berry from some unknown location as he spoke, "Such a good little searchmon. Finding our foes without even a suspicion you were there."

The five blade-like talons that made up his hands scratched the chin of the searchmon affectionately before setting it back on the ground. The purple spheres that made up his forearms shined in clash with the snow around him as four black hexagonal carapaces lined their tops before ending in a pair of pincers. His upper arms were thin, but were clad in that same black carapace before disappearing into massive purple pauldrons, each with a singular spike jutting outward as eight insectoid wings held him aloft without making a noise as they vibrated. His pauldrons connected directly behind his reptilian head, a forever open maw of silver threatening to crunch down and annihilate whatever entered them, a pair of horns jutting from the sides of his maw forward without interfering with it. Purple carapace curved over into his torso, where an odd ribline formed behind the spot where an orange core was held into his body by parts that seemed to belond to a machine rather than an insect digimon lay embedded with it. Two pairs of vestigial arms connected just below it on each side of its body as a long and legless purple tail flow without touching the ground, ending in a massive silver stinger than seemed simply made to inflict pain rather than any form of venom. Another eight wings burst from his hips, buzzing just as fast as the four set as a pair of thin whip-like protrusions floated with his tail, curling around them back and forth without any obeying of physics, the flail-like endings longing for a victim.

The power this digimon emanated was beyond most digimon, and was clearly something that even most mega level digimon would hesitate to fight immediately.

His glowing blue eyes scanned the landscape, seeing what no human eye could see as he spoke to the human and ice dragon that landed next to him, "It would seem you were right, Aurelia. They indeed were hoping we would be fooled into following a distraction."

Aurelia smirked with confidence as she was put down by Alph, "Then you'll let me help capture them, right?"

"For now, we merely follow," the reptilian insect digimon responded, "We will decide if the time is opportune."

He considered his words carefully before continuing, "As weak as we believe them to be, I would prefer to take them warily for now. Especially as-"

"My king," A kabuterimon approached him from the side just as he was about to continue speaking, "I believe we should gather the whole of us to you. The swarm will not last without your hea-"

The "king" smacked the kabuterimon into the ground with enough force to completely shatter its helmet and horn, shaming it instantly for the rest of its miserable existence, "Why do you think we brought that angels beast brigade? I am well aware that our foes hold us at an elemental disadvantage, but that is easily rectified should it even matter."

Alph would ask in response to the brutal display, "Tyrant Kabuterimon, must you be so violent with your underlings?"

"Most insect digimon would not obey my commands then, Alph. Snimon nor beemon care for words, and what does a tiger vespamon have but loyalty to her queen? But pure strength over both their bodies and wills? In the dominion of insects, the word of the strong is an absolute above all others," the King of Bugs loomed over Alph, "I will not mistreat any outside my domain, I swore that to Lilithmon, but my domain, the domain of insects, is mine to rule as I need to."

Aurelia looked at the poor kabuterimon on the ground, and felt a twinge of guilt for a moment, what had it really done to deserve that but express concern for its comrades? It had no freedom compared to her, although she knew well that Tyrant Kabuterimon was not her friend, this was all the more reason to be wary of him. Tyrant Kabuterimon had none of the mercy that Lilithmon's two other leaders bore, none of their kindness nor warmth. He was a monster who acknowledged only strength within the bounds of his dominion.

"Alph, I would like you to ensure that swarms sixteen through thirty five are in position to continue following the searchmons signal. If any fall into the snow, leave them to freeze, as they have failed to use their own sense to survive despite the angels staffs."

It was clear he did not wish to discuss more with the chosen duo than he had to as Alph merely nodded and snatched Aurelia away from the mega level digimon, who crossed his arms and now quietly observed the landscape.

As Alph flew up into the air, he asked his partner, "Are you certain it was wise to only have Tyrant Kabuterimon with us, Aura? I am not certain he can be trusted to not try to harm you."

"He is a monster who steals the freedom of those who never had it to begin with," Aurelia responded, "But his loyalty to Lilithmon is the real deal. His loss to her and his own self inflicted rules ensured that he won't turn."

Alph let out a hum at Aurelia's mention of how Tyrant Kabuterimon came to fall under their partnered demon lord, that he had been challenged to a duel by Lilithmon and had both lost and been spared. Tyrant Kabuterimon ruled his kingdom only by Lilithmon's mercy, a mercy many didn't believe existed.

"Besides," Aurelia spoke up again as she noted her partners worries, "Arthur is watching us from a distance with Cu. He may... He may wander off from his role, but he values freedom as I do. He won't let us down."

The paledramon glanced at his partner again before merely nodding in affirmation, bracing his soul for the upcoming assault on wherever their foes were headed.

…...

"The Hagith Legion created that town?" Dynasmon repeated out loud after his team returned from gathering supplies, "That is unlike him. But at the same time, Beelzemon would be more likely to do this than the rest of the Demon Lords."

Jordan stayed on the edge of the group, narrowing his eyes at Dynasmon. He didn't like how everyone still chose to trust the Royal Knights even after hearing how the Demon Lords treated Digimon better than they did. Why couldn't anyone see it but him? Even Clive and Victor, who usually were so sharp, didn't even see anything wrong with returning to these... control freaks.

"Hey, uh Dynasmon?" Everyone turned to Alizee, "When we were there, we found out something as well. Most of the Digimon there," She looked hesitant before exhaling deeply, "They said that they were abandoned by the Royal Knights."

Alizee was bothered by the fact that one of the Royal Knights would be so careless after one of their exploits. She wanted to know what Dynasmon thought about this.

The Royal Knight became silent after hearing the story of Palmon through Alizee's voice. Eventually though, he found his words, "My tasks as a Royal Knight are to fight the Digimon who threaten the peace of the Digital World. We are asked not to interfere with anything less. Though, I will admit that rule is not enforced." He thought back to before the war, when Gankoomon rarely stayed in the Yggdrasil Castle and preferred to travel the Digital World or how Omnimon sparkled as a beacon of hope because of how he would pick a fight even with a street thief for the sake of one, "Although some would disagree with our rule, we have always preserved the free will of Digimon and have let them choose what path they would take, whether good or ill. We remain distant to allow the Digital World to make its own decisions. The Demon Lords will ultimately take freedom away from those under their charges, whether they realize it or not. I'm willing to bet not everything is as glamorous as they believe."

Soon after he finished saying that however, the Royal Knights chosen heard the sound of distant explosions. When they did, they recognized that it came from the town they had left.

It didn't take long for Dynasmon's group to see what was going on. But, the sight confused them. It looked like a fair number of raiders were attacking Vaquero Town. But who would be foolish enough to attack a town protected by a Demon Lord Legion?

"The Araton Legion?" Dynasmon noticed the banners from where he stood, "So there is infighting between the Demon Lords. It appears Barbamon's legion shares his greed and not his cunning, which works in our favor. If we're lucky, Beelzemon's and Barbamon's forces will destroy each other, and that will leave one less outpost for Beelzemon and less manpower for Barbamon."

Every human in the group stared in varying levels of horror after hearing such a thing. Alizee spoke up first, "Dynasmon, we can't let that happen! We need to save those Digimon!"

Dynasmon looked to his student, "May I remind you we are in an overwhelming disadvantage against the Demon Lords. Any victory we can achieve, no matter how small, boosts the survival odds of not only the digital world, but your own. And you're asking me to risk your lives for my enemies?"

Victor stepped in, "But Dynasmon, they're not our enemies. They're civilians who chose to live with the Demon Lords. Not only that, they welcomed us with open arms when we arrived. We can't repay their kindness with indifference! We have to help them!"

The Royal Knight scanned everyone's face. He saw nothing but determination except for Jordan. The youngest in the group looked away, but Dynasmon could feel something off about the teen. However, time was of the essence and it could not be addressed, not now.

The Royal Knight sighed, "If you are so adamant, I can't stop you. I don't sense the presence of any mega level digimon, so you all may go and help them," He folded his arms, "I can not however, interfere. If even one of those digimon were to report that they saw me, the Demon Lords would be hot on our trail once more."

On the quieter side, Dynasmon did realize this might be one of the big chances to train the chosen that his fellow knights had told him to watch for. If they truly weren't able to overcome these odds, the digital world may belong to the Demon Lords already.

"Thanks, Dynasmon," Victor turned to everyone else, "Let's go!"

They all took out their digivices. Four flashes of light later, and the seven raced off towards Vaquero town.

As they reached the outskirts of the town, the Royal Knights Chosen stopped as they saw what looked to be fighting. Many of them spotted Black Rapidmon racing around the area. It looked like he was avoiding a green blur moving as fast as him, if not faster. The Captain of the Hagith Legion flew upward and fired a barrage of missiles toward the blur's direction, seemingly hitting its target.

As the dust settled, everyone saw a bipedal insectoid emerge. Its bright green body was coated in prisms that emitted a rainbow-colored radiance, its entire body clad in carapace as it twirled a bright red spear with enough speed to be almost unseen by the humans present. Bright red eyes glare down their foe as a pair of wire-like antannae twitched with irritation. The insectoid would then summon their wings and chase after Black Rapidmon, determined to make minced data of the sheriff. Things however looked to be a stalemate until chains shot out of the ground and ensnared Black Rapidmon.

The trapped ultimate watched as the insectoid dove in for the finishing strike until a barrier appeared and repelled the ultimate. Black Rapidmon acted fast as he freed a blaster arm and fired down on the chains, causing another insectoid that no one caught a good sight of to release his hold and escape in the dust.

"Appreciate the help, stranger! But the are raiders in the city! They need help more than me against a jewelbeemon!" As he said this, he fired more rocket blasts at the now identified jewelbeemon only for the opposing ultimate to zip around the air like a fly.

Victor turned to the others, "Sif and I will help out Black Rapidmon. The rest of you help the civilians!" The others all nodded before racing into the city.

Victor held his digivice, "Sif, spread out your tags. That digimon on the ground can blend in with its surroundings."

"I can't believe I'm helping a Demon Lord digimon..." Sif scoffed as she threw a dozen tags in a circle around them.

"If it helps, we're also fighting them too. But leave the aerial battle to Black Rapidmon. We gotta keep an eye out for that invisible ultimate."

…...

"Damn it!" The muscular giant called Blizzarmon slammed his fist on the stone table before him that as he discussed the war with Gallantmon across the table. His body was coated in stark white fur with the exceptions of his face, his human-like hands, and his three taloned feet, all colored a medium shade of brown. Bronze armor covered his chest and shoulders as golden bracers marked with the symbol of ice covered his forearms. He was a hunchback in positioning, his head bearing two goat-like horns over a bear-like face with fierce brown eyes. Braided fur lined his neck and back, flowing behind him and each braid ending in an individual harpoon that one may think was for defense. Behind him, two large battleaxes lay against the rooms wall that seemed to be bluntly his. "Gryphonmon still owed me a drink, that dastard! She wasn't supposed to up and..."

Blizzarmon took a deep breath to calm his grief and fury as he looked at Gallantmon, "How did the front bear where you and the chosen left?"

Gallantmon had his arms crossed, "Not well. Beelzemon's legion in particular has been running us ragged wherever it appears. Which is the main reason Lord Drasil sent us out to begin with, its only a matter of months, maybe even weeks before the castle falls."

"And Lord Drasil contented himself to stay there?"

"To my knowledge, yes," Gallantmon lied.

"Meanwhile, me and my boys are stuck out here playing sentry duty," Blizzarmon was clearly malcontent with the state of affairs, "Why not recall us? The knights clearly need every digimon on the front. I could turn things on some of those beasts, I'm sure!"

"Blizzarmon, trust me, we need digimon like you and your brother everywhere. If things do get that bad and we can't go back, well, the humans and their partners will get stronger, but they can't be camping out every single minute, every day and night."

Blizzarmon would look at the chosen and their partners, all whispering among themselves as he said, "And you're certain they can turn the tide on our foes?"

"With Bancho Leomon's help, I'm one hundred percent sure they won't know what hit them."

"About that..." Blizzarmon looked Gallantmon in the eyes, "I don't think he will help you, even as poor as things are now."

"Surely you jest. Darkdramon is gone and the demon lords are at our doorstep, every digimon in the world is at risk."

"That's the thing, Gallantmon. My scouts have reported that the demon lords aren't risking anyones lives. They say that they're even helping them with rebuilding their villages and cities. One of my scouts himself went to one and found an angel that claimed to be with Lilithmon! An angel!"

"Impossible, the demon lords would have killed any angel on sight."

"I know it sounds mad, but is it possible the Demon Lords have in fact changed ?"

Gallantmon thought on it for a moment before responding, "It could all be a farce."

"Could be, but this consistently brings that heavily into doubt."

Gallantmon gripped his shoulders tightly as he recognized what they were about to discuss may disillusion the chosen he had with him and looked to the other spirit in the room, quietly waiting at his end of the table for his brother to indicate he could speak, "Kumamon, could you let them out? Maybe show them around the ravine?"

"Of course, Lord Gallantmon," the younger brother of the spirits was far shorter than Blizzarmon, who stood over Gallantmon in height, maybe three feet tall at most. His fur was the same shade of white as his brother, and as his name indicated, he was rather bear-like in appearance. He had three fingers on each hand, while his round torso and shoulders were clad in armor, the center of his chest bearing the seal of ice. His feet was clad in brown-green snow shoes with orange detailing. His topless helmet made his eyes look more menacing than he looked in general, with a bears head sitting in its center as he had a stripe of orange on each cheek to appear more commandoish. On his back seemed to be a rocket launcher, strapped on and seemingly not too heavy for the little guy as he walked up to the group and gave a big, cartoony grin to try and be friendly, "I hope you guys don't mind cold food. I'm not sure what humans like."

Glancing around and seeing Kyou not respond nor any of the others, Blaze took it upon himself to greet his fellow spirit with a hand outstretched, "Glad to see you're not giving us the cold shoulder. I was worried we would meet frozen stiff resistance to being friends."

Kumamon giggled loudly as Kyou groaned, the bear-like digimon taking Blaze's hand in turn and shaking it with surprising strength, "I like your sense of humor! I was a little worried that you'd burn me up with how serious you all looked!"

Quickly realizing he'd found a kindred spirit, Blaze's grin grew twice as large, "I'm Agunimon, but my friends call me Blaze."

"Kumamon, one of the proud defenders of the Frosty Ravine!"

Blaze would take a step back and push Kyou up, "This here is my partner, nobody else I would be as willing to trust in a fight. Well... So far, might have to look for a new one if I can't melt his quiet side."

Kyou would finally crack with a chuckle, "So far? I don't see any partner shopping centers do you?"

He would reach out his hand to shake Kumamon's, who eagerly took it, "Kyou Kagita."

It wasn't often Kyou felt like he could be open with a new person, but this Kumamon had a distinct feeling of a child, not to mention he looked a lot like a military brat. A small and not always accurate comfort, but for now he figured he could trust Blaze's judgment. Subtly, Kyou was still appreciating not being put in the same group as Jordan or Clive, who he absolutely didn't trust to do the right thing. Although he didn't know Ysanne very well, she just seemed like a quiet child from what he had observed so far. Cecilia was naive, Avani was overprotective, Lancelot was like a dog, Ryu was rather chill, and Gallantmon seemed to be one of the more casual of the Royal Knights. The only person he was still iffy on was Tiamat, who he felt was too aggressive, and her outburst at Cecilia the other night only furthered that line of thought on her.

"A fiery punmaster and a silent brooder, I can just tell you two make a perfect pair of partners," Kumamon stated happily as he waved for the entire group to follow, "Everyone else want to introduce themselves?"

No one really noticed as Ysanne and Swimmon stayed behind, her quiet self already able to sneak away, or perhaps was it something more?

Ryu waved lightly at Kumamon, enjoying how easy the short digimon was to read, "Ryu Sanchez. Nice to meet you."

"Same to you, and who's your partner?"

Tiamat aggressively declared her presence in simple manner, "I am the black guilmon, Tiamat."

Kumamon would nod with a simple "mhm!" before looking at Cecilia and Avani, "What about you two?"

Cecilia had reverted back to her thoughts by this point, the conversation between Blizzarmon and Gallantmon having drawn her back to the thoughts of her sister...

Kyou would slink back and pat her on the back, causing her to jump with a yelp and drop Avani, the wormmon bouncing off the floor with a youch as she looked around before Kyou shrugged to Kumamon.

Kumamon stared at her before asking, "Heavy problems on your mind, huh? I understand, we've all got those around here nowadays."

Cecilia blinked, "W-what? Heavy problems?"

"Ya know, like how a lot of us lost our homes in the initial sieges by the Demon lords. Some of us lost family. Although I'd think yours is related to being in a different world?"

"Er... No?"

"Aw, I had a whole speech about homesickness and everything too," Kumamon stopped the group and walked up again to shake Cecilia's hand, "What's your name?"

"O-oh... Cecilia. C-Cecilia Velvette."

"Well, its a pleasure to meet you Cecilia. If you want someone to talk to, there's plenty of us around willing to listen," Kumamon looked at Avani, "And you are?"

Avani pulled her face out of the ground and rubbed her head before responding, "Ah, um, I'm Avani. One of Cecilia's partners."

"Partners? Plural?"

As Kumamon asked this, Lancelot rose out of Kumamon's shadow, the bear digimon spinning and pulling his launcher on the eyesmon faster than anyone could have expected.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Don't worry! He's with us, big guy's name is Lancelot. He won't do anything," Blaze was fast to declare to try and de-escalate the situation as the eyesmon scanned Kumamon up and down, the cub clearly nervous around something that appeared so unnatural.

Kumamon scanned Lancelot warily only for the eyesmon to grow bored quickly and slither his way back over to his partner, Cecilia rubbing his snout and Lancelot eagerly pushing back, "Er... Sorry, I um... Should have warned you I guess?"

Kumamon slowly put his launcher away, "Two partners, and one's an eyesmon? That's the stuff of big legends right there, although... Being honest, he gives me the chills to look at."

"Isn't it hard to be chilly, when you're already ice cold?" Blaze tried to help defuse the situation more with yet another terrible and half-baked pun on Kumamon's nature as an ice digimon.

Kumamon did seem slightly less wary now when Blaze did that, although he did put most of the group between him and Eyesmon as they approached the end of the tunnel. Light filling their vision briefly before the entire group collectively gasped at the amazing sight of a massive ravine of ice decorated with bridges and tunnels all along it, the sky so far above it was breathtaking, "Welcome to the central hub and name maker for the Frosty Ravine!"

"It's... It's massive," Cecilia stated the obvious as she looked over all of it in awe, watching as dozens of digimon at all distances moved about. Bipedal lions coated in white fur, more frigimon, small white dinosaurs, blue goblins in winter clothes, penguins with long ears, rotund yetis, and more. There was such a variety of digimon, all living together and working together to survive both in the domain of their enemies and in this frozen environment.

"So..." Kyou said as he looked around in the same amount of awe at what was basically a work of art, "Where are we headed?"

Kumamon grinned as he pointed along a path that led deeper downwards into the ravine, "I'm gonna show your guys the digimon that made this ravine before any of us were even born!"

This caught everyone's attention immediately, and even Lancelot seemed moderately interested at what tale was woven here as the cub began to lead them down the wayward path.

None of them noticed as a kuwagamon flew over the ravine.

…...

Clive, Alize, and Jordan felt ill as they saw the bits of fire and ruined buildings before they entered the town.

This fear and horror only grew when they saw torn cowboy hats and other articles left on the ground.

"They were supposed to be on the same side," Alize looked around, "And these were refugees! How could they..." She trailed off when she saw a familiar pink hat on the ground with a burnt hole at the top.

Clive recognized who would be the owner of the hat as well. His face hardened, "We need to help clear out the Aaraton Legion."

As soon as he said this, a small number of Digimon ran out of one of the buildings. All of them carried sacks of loot, but they all wore symbols different than the Hagith Legion.

Clive snarled at the thought of never repaying Palmon's kindness. He prayed she would have to settle for justice, "Black, run them through!"

Black had already moved the moment she saw the raiders. They looked like a collection of rookies and few champions, so they were nothing to the chosen's digimon.

Alizee however noticed a familiar injured body as she observed the battlefield from above and flew to the downed being. "Palmon! Palmon!"

The rookie in question looked beaten up badly, but Alizee felt relief as she saw the plant digimon stir.

"R-Run..." She tried to say. "Gotta... run..."

"Don't worry, we're here to help!" Alizee tried to say before she looked around for a safer place to hide her friend.

"No... Ultimate..." Palmon gasped.

"Victor, Sif, and your Sheriff are handling the two Ultimates," Alizee looked over to see Luna and Black handling more ransackers.

"... of... them..."

Alizee turned back to Palmon.

Her eyelids wavered before she lost consciousness, but she said one last one: "Three..."

Alizee replayed the words in her mind. Behind her visor, her eyes widened as she warned the others.

"Guys, there's a third Ultimate!" Is what she tried to say. By the second word, the bar exploded, forcing the others to brace themselves.

They didn't know what to expect, yet even if they were, nothing could prepare them for an imposing, humanoid figure to walk out of the flames without a hint of even annoyance at the severe level of heat he was putting out.

The flames around him, instead of fading, turned pale blue, revealing the monster before them was indeed a kind of Digimon. Which, at first the others couldn't believe.

They all couldn't help but think of a certain comic book hero that involved skull-heads and fire, which in real life looked far more intimidating than any comic could ever convey. Underneath the flame, one could make out human-like pale flesh and swollen muscle, but the horrifying skull-like mask stared at the arrivals with red dots in the sockets. His blue hair flowed with the towns wind as his black leather pants didn't care that his body was covered in blue flames. His torso was entirely covered in chains, with some of them wrapping up and down his arms as he complemented them with bands around the lower half of his legs, silver skulls decorating the front of his boots.

The chosen noticed this Digimon holding something in his hands. It took a few seconds for them to realize that it was the burnt corpse of Xros Up Ballistamon before his body then exploded into data.

Unfortunately for the Chosen, this new ultimate spotted them immediately, "Huh. I thought I defeated the last of this town's weaklings." Without even waiting, he lifted his palm as it sparked with blue fire, "Oh well, it's not like I'm in a hurry."

Instincts shrieked at the Royal Knight chosen. Luna and Black pushed their partners away while Alizee carried Palmon away from the fireball that blew up one of the already damaged buildings.

"Slippery," The flaming digimon noted out loud before aiming for Luna and Jordan.

"Tempest Twist!" Alizee shouted as she closed the distance and slammed her foot into the side of the Aaraton digimon. Everyone heard the impact of the blow connecting. Yet seconds later, it was drowned out by the sound of sizzling, followed by Alizee screeching as how her foot burned.

As Alizee backed off, the flame Digimon laughed, "You think something like that can take on Skull Meramon!?" After revealing his name, the Ultimate swung a backhand at the Chosen of the Wind. Luckily for her, Alizee regained enough of her senses to dodge the incoming attack.

Luna rushed in to help, reaching for the protrusions on her back before yanking them out as they formed into... "Ice Arrows!" She yelled before the attacks made contact.

However, the flames around DeathMeramon only intensified, making the ice melt before they even reached his body, "Now that's just adorable. My turn."

DeathMeramon laughed as he fired weaker bolts of fire at Luna and Alizee. The chosen realizing their opponent was mocking them by purposely aiming in their general direction rather than at them.

Black stood up, "Clive, we need a plan!" She yelled before she received silence from her usually boisterous partner, "Clive?!"

She tilted her head down to see Clive staring at the burning house.

Black called out to her partner, but Clive's mind was elsewhere. The curly-haired young man did not see an old western house on fire. His trauma dragged him back to when the one on fire was his house... while screams came from inside. The people most important to his life unable to be helped.

What brought him back was Black slapping him with her free hand, "Clive! We need you!"

"R-Right!" Clive shook his head and turned away from the building—only to halt in his turn when he saw Skull Meramon covered in an intense fire.

"Wha—" Black looked back between the two flames. However, when Luna got hit by a stray attack from Meramon, she cursed her luck. "Jordan! Get to Clive!" The champion yelled before cantering towards the flame ultimate.

Jordan watched Black use Knight Lancer at her opponent, only for the Ultimate to smack it away with barely any effort. Alizee returned and launched a long-range attack in Hurricane Wave into the back of Skull Meramon, giving Black a momentary chance to hurry for her lost weapon.

However, the attack only seemed to annoy Skull Meramon as he started to increase the intensity of his attacks.

Jordan reached the stunned chosen before shaking him, "Clive, we need you! Please, snap out of it!"

"W-What?"

Jordan pointed to Skull Meramon as Luna, Black, and Alizee fought desperately without any sign of progress, "We need your help! We can't beat an ultimate without a plan!"

"R-Right. Right!" Clive shook his head. He started to think, "W-We need to move! Head further east in the town!" He yelled out the last sentence to everyone fighting.

Alizee nodded before diving in front of Skull Meramon and creating a tornado in front of him. Luna and Black raced off while Clive and Jordan made for a shortcut.

"What's the plan?!" Jordan cried out.

"He's still fire! I remember taking in the details of this town, and I saw something that will help us!"

…...

Kumamon grinned as everyone stared at the frozen body of the monstrous digimon, "May I present! Skull Greymon! The imprisoned aberration!"

Within a giant hunk of ice barely sticking out the wall, the skeleton of a great dragon loomed over the group as it stood meters upon meters tall. A single horn curved out of its monstrous skull, a tooth filled maw stuck open as though bellowing in rage. Its long arms ended in massive talons, or perhaps just sharp bones of what were once fingers. Along its spine, six great spikes curved outward alongside six smaller ones beneath those, carrying a great orange thing that seemed an amalgamation of flesh, shoved over its spine and flowing into its bizarrely small ribcage. Despite being imprisoned, the entire group couldn't help but feel the ice's prisoner was glaring them down with its empty sockets...

Ryu would be the one to ask, "What's this things story?"

Kumamon puffed his chest out with pride as he told the tale, "Local legend tells that a long time ago, before any of the current Royal Knights were around and their predecessors did not act, this Skull Greymon was rampaging and destroying village after village in our snowy region. The cold couldn't stop it, as it had no flesh to freeze. Raw strength did little to deter it, as it felt no pain. Bribery did nothing as it had no greater desire. The digimon of the snow fields despaired, certain that their destruction had come at the hands of this abomination, created from some greymon that lost its mind in battle. Then, he came!"

"He came?" Avani would tilt her head.

"Clad in dark blue and gold armor, a mane of white, a cloak of red, and the ice of ages past! The legendary Knight of Icy Magic, Hexeblaumon appeared to save our people! He confronted Skull Greymon, the monstrosity attacking with its hateful instincts. Determined that Hexeblaumon would be just another victim, but Hexeblaumon is no mere champion level digimon, he was a mega and a digimon that bears the potential to battle one of the Royal Knights! Enraged that its foe would not die so easily to the miasma that flowed from its maw nor to its great talons, Skull Greymon unleashed its deadliest attack. It grows a disgusting orange thing from its spines, and launches them like projectiles! Devastating miles upon miles of land! But here, in this icy land, the land bore enough tunnels beneath them that Skull Greymon's attacks backfired on it as Hexeblaumon used his magic to protect himself from the devastating explosions! Skull Greymon fell to the bottom of the ravine it had created, roaring and thrashing as its movement became limited by the space within! It did not hesitate however to load another of its bombs, the flesh growing from its back as it prepared to try and take Hexeblaumon with it. Yet, it was not ready for the sorcery that the knight had readied! A spell so powerful that the air itself, as water-less as it is in this icy place, froze Skull Greymon in place near instantly. From there, Hexeblaumon embedded Skull Greymon into the wall of this place, a warning to all that came through these tunnels that trouble for our lands would not be tolerated! With Skull Greymon's imprisonment, we were at last free to rebuild, and the people rejoiced with their new protector, one who had acted when no other would on their behalf!"

"Hexeblaumon, huh," Kyou noted the tale seemed to subtly jab that the Royal Knights hadn't come to the rescue of the people, and that this wandering knight had done it instead, "Sounds like a guy we could really use on our side about now..."

Cecilia, Avani, and Blaze applauded Kumamon's tale, the bear digimon taking a proud bow at their applause before Avani then asked, "Do we know what Hexeblaumon looked like for sure?"

"That we do!" Kumamon responded, "His tomb is just a few miles west if you get to the surface of the ravine, and he had successors for years until..."

Kumamon trailed off as the reality of an unspoken situation hit him, but it didn't take a genius to guess what had happened.

"They... They ended his lineage didn't they?" Cecilia was the one who asked.

Kumamon stood silent for a moment before answering, "... They did, and we didn't stand a chance. They locked us out of our own castle, and we could only watch as they got in... As they... He's gone... C-cause they had a strategy none of us could have guessed..."

Kumamon's smile faded rapidly as he began to sniffle, only for Blaze to walk up and kneel to be on his level, pulling in the smaller digimon who hugged him. He knew not to say something like its okay, or he's in the cycle now. Not when the demon lords were involved, Kumamon just needed a moment to collect himself with someone.

It took a few minutes, but Kumamon eventually pulled away and wiped his eyes, "I'm fine. I'm fine. It's just... He was like my a-and Blizzarmon's Dad. Just... I... I wasn't ready to say b-bye."

Cecilia's thoughts returned to Milana in that moment, that she could be on the side that was conquering like that. It was selfish, but the thought of her sister aiding those that seemed to be so cruel as to wage a war for the world, it truly horrified her in ways she couldn't begin to unravel at the moment...

Surely, surely her sister was under threat or mind controlled or something, and she was called here to undo it? Surely?

Tiamat continued to stare up at Skull Greymon, Ryu walking up next to her, "What is it that's got you so drawn in?"

"Something about it, Ryu," Tiamat responded rather softly, "I feel like... There's a sense I need to be careful about who I am when I look at this thing. A thing overwhelmed by its desire to fight alone."

Ryu would place a hand on the black guilmon's shoulder, "Tiamat, whoever this thing was, he lost himself cause he had no one. I'm sure of that. You, well, you have me to keep you calm."

"Hm, and I suppose I'm here to kick you into action."

"That's the spirit," He took a breath and looked back up at the abominations sockets with her, "I would never let you fall that far to anger."

"Thanks, Ryu... I know I have moments, and I should probably apologize, both to you and-"

Suddenly, a loud horn would echo through the ravine as one of the penguin digimon yelled from above, "Air raid! Air raid! The enemy is coming by air!"

Before any of the group could even react, the sound of buzzing filled the air, followed by several massive forms slamming down into the ground around the chosen and Kumamon.

Three of them were Kabuterimon, three were Kuwagamon, eager to begin combat with their targets. Yet oddly enough, two of the digimon seemed human, but with four angelic wings of gold behind them. They were both female in shape, with a golden mask covering the top half other faces as a red cloth was wrapped around their neck and head to hide blonde hair, of which only a few locks were falling out. They each wore a gold breast plate that did not cover their midriff, instead allowing an odd amount of belts do the job as a flowing loin cloth decorated in symbols cover their lower body, golden kneepads and boots armored their legs. In one hand they bore a sword, while in the other, they held a staff that was clearly emitting heat and allowing the bugs to act as they would were they not in the icy cold tundra.

"Darcmon!" Kumamon exclaimed, "The sightings were true! Angels are working with the demon lords!"

As if to make things even worse however, another form slammed down in-between the darcmon a few moments later, a quadrapedal nightmare bursting from the snow and darting straight for Tiamat only for Ryu to tackle her out of the way as the thing slammed into Skull Greymon's tomb. From its maw, a long and sloshing tongue fell back and forth as it clearly hungered with daggers for teeth. An armored helmet lined with three connected eye-like symbols glaring down Tiamat as white mane flowed from its edges. A pair of mangled wings emerged from the helmet as well, likely completely useless for the monster of a digimon as various bands, collars, and wrappings on its body meant to keep it under control did little to calm its fury. Its gray toned body twitched violently as three mangled tails swayed behind it, each ending in a red-tipped blue stinger as its blue claws and talons dug into the ground. The star-shaped five talon hands each bearing a maw on them that chattered violently and terrifyingly.

"We need to move! That's a manticoremon! None of us are ready to fight that!"

The manticoremon bellowed before dashing forward again, ready to this time strike Avani, only for Lancelot to burst out of the wormmon's shadow and slam into the monstrosity's head, beams ready and blasting into the enemy digimon with no hesitation, though several notably hit and began to melt the ice containing Skull Greymon...

No one noticed this however as Ryu raised his digivice, "Tiamat! Digivolve!"

The black guilmon nodded as her body lit up and digivolved, black growlmon emerging after a few moments as Blaze leapt behind Manticoremon and grabbed its tails before it could sting Lancelot only for the ultimate level digimon to display far greater strength and throw him to the side before attempting to sting the eyesmon.

It failed however, as Lancelet sank into Manticoremon's shadow before bursting out from underneath and biting into its belly, eliciting a howl from it before it simply slammed its belly into the ground, stunning Lancelot.

Done with standing around, the bugs quickly zoomed in to gather up the chosen humans with their partners distracted, only for one of the kuwagamon to find Tiamat with a heated up blade ready to stab into its face, forcing it back away as Kumamon readied his launcher and fired out supercooled snowballs at one of the kabuterimon, which instantly put it out of commission as its body refused to handle the sheer cold of the spirit digimon's attack, its limbs locking up and leaving it a prisoner in its own body. The pair of darcmon noted this immediately, and quickly labeled who was the real threat among their foes as Kumamon blasted the second kabuterimon with an onslaught of snowballs, ensuring the giant insect wouldn't get back up without some serious warmth.

As they darted at the cub however, Blaze had stood back up and realized where they were going, from which he bodied the one closest to him with a shoulder charge, sending it falling into the snow as he pulled an arm back and went, "Burning salamander!"

Flames flew at the angel from his fist, only for Manticoremon to suddenly appear in front of its master, its fur not even remotely singed from the attack as it roared at the darcmon's assaulter than launched at him with a burst of speed he couldn't hope to dodge. The thing pinning the agunimon and readying its stingers all at once to impale him, only for Lancelot use its body as a cable and pull against them, diverting them all just to the right of Blaze, who took a breath to acknowledge being saved by the eyesmon.

The other darcmon found her blade blocked by Tiamat's armblade, the black growlmon bearing a grimace that would scare any child digimon as her mouth lit up flames, only to turn her head and blast the kuwagamon that was charging her as she held the darcmon in place. Kumamon moved closer, taking the moment to then blast the kuwagamon, cooling its now superheated carapace so fast that it shattered near instantly when it tried to keep moving, body exploding into shards of red and data.

As the group was fighting however, the swarms totality all moved in. The ravine up and down now filled with bugs, angels, and ice digimon all fighting each other in a mess of a brawl where the bugs held a chaos advantage but the ice digimon held an elemental advantage. It was clear however that the angels were the deciding factor, as angels besides the darcmon appeared alongside more manticoremon ready to devour the defenders. The defenders only option would be the begin falling back into the tunnels or fall to their foes.

It was all moving too fast for Cecilia to really register, who had moved close to the prison of Skull Greymon, but Avani was getting irritated as her partner failed to digivolve her, "C-Cecilia! What are you doing!? You need to digivolve me!"

Her partner looked at her and was about respond only for a voice to yell out, "Dodge you two!"

Cecilia would yelp as she dropped to the ground, a second manticoremon having seen the battle and impaling its stingers into the ice containing Skull Greymon, rapidly melting away a chunk of the ice near its hand, which quickly began to show signs of stress as whites lines appeared across the ice...

Lancelot's eyes rolled over to its partners as it struggled with Blaze against the first manticoremon, eyes lighting up as it attempted to blast the creature away from its partners, only for the second manticoremon to move away and allow Lancelot to melt away more of the ice containing Skull Greymon, of which the cracks were now noticeable to everyone as they began to rapidly expand around the left side of the ice prison.

Kumamon was the only one however who noticed it and yelled at Cecilia, "Get away from Skull Greymon! His tomb is melting!"

"Huh?" Cecilia stood up and looked behind her only to see a chunk of ice fall out and hit the manticoremon that was about to dive at her. The girl stopped for a moment before survival took over, to which she quickly began to run with Avani in her arms as Skull Greymon's arm burst out of the ice, grasping for anything it could before reaching down and grabbing the manticoremon that had gotten hit by the ice. The ultimate level attempted to sting the awakening aberration, only to find its stingers could not pierce its bone and make up for a lack of flesh. The sound of its screams filled everyone's heads as it was slowly crushed in Skull Greymon's hand, the nightmare's empty sockets lighting up with green orbs as it recognized the potential for escape it now had before it's arm came swinging into its prison, the ice cracking more and more with each hit.

Kumamon's eyes narrowed seriously, "All of you, group up with me! Get the humans in the center and form a circle! We're gonna have to make our way back into the tunnels before that nightmare gets out!"

Blaze and Lancelot glanced behind them at Kumamon as their manticoremon and darcmon slowly approached them, while Tiamat held off a growing hoard of bugs by threatening them with her breath and continued to parry the darcmon she was faced with.

Kyou, Ryu, and Cecilia all acknowledged Kumamon's command, coming closer to the cub digimon as Avani bore a frustrated look on her face.

Tiamat was the first to move in front of them, using her bulk to act as a cover before firing off a stream of flame at a particularly bold snimon that Kumamon took advantage of to shatter like he did the previous kuwagamon. The bugs could go down easy if they combo'ed them correctly, but it was obvious that if they got split apart, it was all over.

Another kabuterimon and kuwagamon would attempt to cut off Blaze and Lancelot as Skull Greymon's tomb continued to fall apart. The eyesmon ducked into the giant bugs shadows as Blaze lured the kabuterimon closer, letting it attempt to snatch him as he used its horn to pull himself up on its neck before jumping off it like a pad. The agunimon hitting the ground next to Tiamat as Lancelot emerged from Tiamat's shadow, eyes glowing vibrantly as Kumamon gave more directions, "Slow and steady! Don't let the manticoremon disperse us!"

As he said that however, a miasma began to seep out of the cracks in Skull Greymon's prison, Kumamon, on seeing this, went, "Ooor maybe we should start going as fast as we can. Tiamat! Lancelot! Cover our rears, Blaze, with me at the front!"

That was easier said than done however, as their foes sheer numbers made it nigh impossible to get to the path Kumamon was hoping to use. No one said it aloud, but it was looking a lot like a repeat of the previous assault, and there was no Plutomon to save them this time.

"Lightning charge!"

"Terror plankton!"

"Frozen Torpedoes!"

Blizzarmon appeared from seemingly nowhere, his harpoon-lined locks impaling a small crowd of the enemy as a wave of toxic water soaked them from Tylomon and Ysanne on the bridge far above, followed by Gallantmon's blast of lightning electrocuting the crowd as the Royal Knight leapt down in the fray behind Blizzarmon. His lance impaling the nearest manticoremon's body as it leapt for the chosen, causing it to screech as it was pinned to the ground, only to explode into data as Gallantmon ripped his lance through it.

As if to belie this last minute show up however, Skull Greymon tore its torso out of the ice, legs stepping forth to crush some of the insect digimon beneath its bulk as it quickly tore its right side out of the ice, leaving a thin layer of bone data behind in the process as purple miasma began to flow freely from its maw. The missile on its back shuddered, the sound of it trying to activate all too apparent as it raised its claws and roared, terrifying every digimon in the place immediately as the nightmare began to move forward and slashed a group of insect digimon to data ribbons in a flash.

Gallantmon growled as he used a flash from Aegis to ward off Skull Greymon's miasma from the group as the rest of the bugs and angels attempted to take to the air or move away from the deadly fog. Blasts of ice and water trapping some in it and forcing them to watch as their own flesh turned into data and sloughed off their bodies, turning many into little more than rapidly decaying piles of gooey data.

The Royal Knight would say to Blizzarmon as the spirit leapt to land next to him, "I know these tactics despite these angels presence. The champion level insects act like mooks and swarm, wearing down the defenders until the wave of ultimate level insects come and play clean up. It's Tyrant Kabuterimon."

Blizzarmon would raise a brow, "This far north and allied with the Demon Lords?"

"It doesn't take much to guess that he cowered to those stronger than him," Gallantmon responded, "Where can I take the humans to get a head start to the Bancho's territory?"

"It's about two miles down, highest bridge in the whole place," Blizzarmon responded as he looked to where Skull Greymon was making his way towards the shallow end of the ravine, "But I would prefer not to leave that one to rampage as it pleases because of a fools mistake."

Gallantmon almost said something about the prison breaking too easily, but kept it down, instead asking, "And how do you plan to stop it when you don't have any other ultimates or megas?"

"I don't," Blizzarmon responded, "I intend to slow it down enough that it kills mostly the Tyrant's forces and gives both my troops a chance to rally and run while you and the humans escape to the tunnels."

Gallantmon almost protested but Blizzarmon gave him a stare like no other, "I don't intend on dying here, and you know well how good I am at disappearing when the jobs done."

"... You're right," Gallantmon would respond as Kumamon walked up and stood next to Blizzarmon.

"I intend to stay and distract it too! I can't let it just slaughter everyone if it makes it to the shallow end and out the ravine!"

The humans expected Blizzarmon to protest or disagree, only for him to surprise them as he went, "That's the spirit, brother! Together we shall live up to Hexeblaumon's legacy and keep Skull Greymon from down in the pit where he belongs!"

"Are you sure this is a smart move?" Tiamat would ask as Blizzarmon shook his head.

"Not at all, but its the best we have for now. The bugs are definitely going to be drawn towards us with how loud that abomination is."

Up above, Ysanne shook her head, as though she did in fact know a better solution that none of the group were pursuing in the moment as she climbed on Tylomon's back, the water digimon producing a stream of water to slide down and meet with the group, to which Kyou raised a brow as he suddenly realized he hadn't noticed she stayed behind, "Ysanne... Why weren't you with us?"

She had an instant excuse ready however, "I took a nap instead. Swimmon woke me when the buzzing started."

Kyou felt a sense, like a compulsion even, that she absolutely had to be telling the truth. Which revised some of his earlier thoughts, suddenly, he had a feeling about Ysanne, that she wasn't quite... The same as the rest of them regardless of her age. It was odd, and he had nothing on it but a gut feeling.

But all the same, he trusted that feeling.

Now was not the time for ponder that though as Blizzarmon and Kumamon took off after Skulll Greymon without another word, Gallantmon turning to the chosen, "You heard him! I'll lead you all to the bridge he was talking about."

The Royal Knight and his entourage however didn't notice that far above, someone was watching them. Wings of ice carrying Alph and Aurelia as they waited for a moment to dive and snatch one of the humans from the hands of their enemies.

…...

The nature of Victor and Sif's battle differed from the fighting above them. While Black Rapidmon and Jewelbeemon traced the sky with all the chaos of a riot, not even the wind blew in the fight below. Victor and Sif shifted their eyes for any sign of the second ultimate.

Then, a shine.

Sif moved her paintbrush to block incoming knives launched at the speed of a blur. However, she couldn't evade it all in time, making some skin and stab into her shoulder and left arm.

Sif then counter-attacked, sending a talisman at the same speed where the attack came from. Yet nothing but dust was caught in the explosion of Sif's move.

"This isn't going to work! He's waiting for us to lower our guards before striking! It must be some kind of ninja digimon!"

Victor was inclined to agree until he saw what Sif pulled out of her shoulder, "Hold on a second. Give me that."

Victor thought it was a kunai or knife that had been thrown at Sif and him but this... "This is a piston used for climbing. But it's shaped like a weapon."

"So?" Sif kept her eyes around the area.

"Wait a bloody second, Gankoomon told me about this Digimon!" Victor turned to Sif, "Can your magic change the colors of something else?"

"Changing colors?" Sif raised her brow, "I can do that? But what does that have to do with—" She stopped and erected a barrier to block incoming pickaxes thrown in their direction.

"Just do it! Change the color of the entire area and then strike as fast as you can!"

Sif dropped her paintbrush and sent out over a dozen talismans. With a single prayer, the entire desert turned blue. In that instant, Sif saw it: a large humanoid roach-like creature clad in climbing gear in the colors of the desert. Its colors started to change to the new environment, but Sif threw another talisman at the opponent.

By the sound of a pained scream, they knew the attack was a direct hit.
Victor spotted the digital body decomposing within moments as Sif's magic faded, "Climbmon; these guys can turn invisible by camouflage. Maybe it was a good thing Gankoomon told random stories about his adventures to inspire our workouts." The eldest chosen shook his head, "Come on, let's help Black Rapidmon."

…...

"Get back here! No one makes a fool out of Skull Meramon and lives to tell the tale!" The tornado Alizee made to slow down the ultimate only served to make him angrier.

"Clive!" Black shouted to her tamer, "How long do we have to run!?"

Dark blue eyes narrowed at their goal, "Everyone, here!"

Everyone turned to face the incoming ultimate. But Clive went up and whispered into Black's ear.

"K-Keep fighting!" Clive fought his own mind as he stared at the—burning, home, screams, loneliness—Aaraton Digimon. "Cycle our attacks! Use hit and run tactics!"

They did as they were told. Although they may not have been fighting long, the likes of Alizee, Luna, and Black were coordinated enough to mess with the ultimate, who seemed only to be used to fighting those who couldn't fight back.

"Now, Black!" Clive yelled as he saw Skull Meramon get into position.

The Knight Chessmon threw her weapon at... a water tower?! The weapon hit one of its legs, and the tower collapsed on top of Skull Meramon, causing an eruption of steam on contact.

"Now, attack with everything you've got!" Clive yelled to Luna and Alizee, who didn't let up to unleash everything they had on the area they last saw the Ultimate.

After a barrage of attacks, silence filled the field.

"GggggrraAAAHHHH!?" Fires erupted full force as Skull Meramon reappeared. His glowing turned to Clive, who froze up again at the sight of the intense flames.

"You'll pay for that! Flame Chain!" Metallic chains flew towards Clive like a whip, but a blur of black intercepted the attack.

Or rather, Black used her body to take the brunt of the blow meant for Clive. Her body sprawled mid-air before crashing into a wall.

"Gahhh!" Skull Meramon flared up more than usual while Alizee flew up and blasted the Digimon to get his attention while Luna went left.

Jordan looked again to see Clive frozen. "Clive! Clive!"

"W-What? What just..."

"Get to Black! We'll hold him off!"

"What?"

Jordan pushed the older man towards his partner. "GO!" He yelled before running back to help Luna and Alizee in any way he could.

Clive looked to where Black went flying, and it was only then that he realized what had finally happened. "Black!?"

Black attempted to get back up by the time Clive ran to her.

"Are you alright?!"

"Do I look alright, you thick-skulled wax-head?!" She used her dart to help herself back up. "Where's the Clive that boasts about being the best!? It's not like you to just... stand there and do nothing!"

"I... I..."

The injured champion sighed as if calming herself down, "Why are you afraid of fire, Clive?"

Clive struggled. His mind abhorred the possibility of being seen as weak to anyone, especially to Black.

"There was... an accident. My parents burned in a gas leak, but I survived. The fires... I haven't fully healed from all those burns. I... I watched them die. Helplessly. Ever since then, I've been..."

Alizee's screams of pain made Black look up to see the others struggling against the raging ultimate.

"You're scared, aren't you?" Black turned back to Clive. She knew they had to hurry, but Clive needed to do this.

"... I am. All I remember was pain and screaming, and I don't even know if it was me or my parents who were screaming over the fire. And I hate this feeling."

Black looked up again before her eyes widened. "Clive, look out!"

The champion digimon threw Clive away before a fireball slammed into her and exploded the building they were in.

"BLACK!?" Clive yelled before he looked back to see Alizee and Luna desperately attacking Skull Meramon, who was clearly reaching the end of his patience.

Clive cursed himself for dragging the team down with him, but he set that aside as he tried to find Black once more. He spotted her in the house but stopped when he saw the inside set aflame from the attack.

Black was in the middle of all the fire, in her rookie form, passed out from exhaustion and from two direct attacks meant for him.

Clive made an effort to step forward, only to step back when the flames ignited. He heard the sound of wooden pillars cracking and saw the house slant, signaling it was going to collapse soon. Clive hoped against all odds someone would help him. But the older adolescent saw Luna and Alizee injured and practically on their last legs trying to evade the wild ultimate.

Clive looked back at Black, who was unmoving even as the house started to break under its own weight.

Even though Clive knew this, his body wouldn't move. His trauma wouldn't let him save any of his friends.

It was just like that day.

It was just like that day!

Why was he such a coward!?

Wait. Coward?

Arshan was a coward. Yet... that boy who Clive despised... he was brave enough to tell his digimon to stand down and demand something out of a Demon Lord. As much as Clive despised the flighty teen, their enemy showed courage despite his meek personality.

And if he was going to defeat Arshan, his rival, how could he lag so far behind in facing fears?

"I'm an idiot. But let that only be this once!" Clive started breathing as he found control of his body, forcing it through its fear, and with it he stepped forward. "I am Clive Williams! The greatest of the chosen brought here by both the knights and lords! And even something like this... will not stop us!"

Clive raced into the building, unaware that his pocket was shining with light.

As he reached Black, the building finally collapsed on itself, burying the two inside it.

"CLIVE!?" Jordan yelled as he saw the chosen run into the building.

"Finally!" Skull Meramon yelled, "One of you actually went down. And for the pair of you, I'm gonna savor killing both of you..."

His words stopped however when the ground beneath them started to rumble. From where Black and Clive were, a figure rose from the debris and kept growing past the size of Dynasmon. A "castle" was the first word that came across everyone's mind before "fortress". It was a giant made of black stone, styled similar to the chess piece known as a Rook. Guns stationed around its form where gaps opened. As the being raised its head, on the right shoulder of the titan, was Clive, crossing his arms and looking down with a triumphant smile that could not be knocked down.

"Rejoice! This marks a new chapter in the passage of Clive's rise to greatness! Friends, stand in awe! Enemies, prepare for defeat! For now you face, Clive and..."

"Black!" The chosen Digimon flexed her arms before aiming all her cannons at a livid Skull Meramon, "The RookChessmon! Rook Gattling!"

Black's bullets slammed into Skull Meramon, one exploding beneath him and sending the ultimate sliding down the road.

After the display of power, Jordan stared in awe. "Are they really on the same level?"

Even though it looked like it was a direct hit, Skull Meramon roared as he got back up, "You'll pay for that!" He inhaled before unleashing an attack called, Heavy Metal Fire. He spewed hundreds, maybe thousands, of pieces of flaming metal at Luna, Alizee, and Jordan.

But despite her bulky frame, Black moved faster than anyone expected and stood between the attack and her allies.
"Castle Wall!"

She hardened her body before taking the attack head-on, taking not even a scratch on her defensive form even though Deathmeramon showed such overwhelming power beforehand.

This only made Skull Meramon angrier as he started to flare more, causing nearby buildings to enflame.

Clive narrowed his eyes. "We need to finish this..." He trailed off as he saw two lines zipping in the sky. "Huh. Black, listen for a bit."

He started to whisper to his partner. However, they were soon interrupted when Skull Meramon unfurled all his chains and threw them back with enough force to shatter a house as if it were cardboard.

He wrenched in his chain, forcing them to move at the speed of sound right for Black.

But it seems he, and everyone but Clive, remembered that Black was deceptively speedy. She moved her hands, swiping the air and making the chains coil around her arm.

She started to spin her upper torso independently of her lower half, pulling along Skull Meramon before tossing him...

"Over there!" Clive shouted and pointed, making Black throw the ultimate to the sky. "Now, let them have it!" Black pointed and fired all of her guns at Skull Meramon.

Mid-air, DeathMeramon flared up as he saw the incoming Chosen's attack. He readied himself for the counterattack. "I! Will! KI—"

Whatever threat he was about to finish got interrupted when Jewelbeemon smashed into him. Both were surprised the other was there, but it only lasted a second.

The combined firepower of Black's attacks and Skull Meramon's misfire triggered an explosion that even Dynasmon saw from where he was.

"... Perhaps there is hope after all," The Royal Knight let loose a breath he had been holding in for some time.

Back in Vaquero town, the Royal Knight chosen saw the last two Aaraton ultimates fade away with the explosion.

"Good throw, Black." Clive patted his partner's head.

"I'm surprised you were able to track those two flying in the air, let alone know which one was our enemy."

"Ha! Don't doubt the great Clive! It was obvious that our enemy was the green streak while our ally was the same color as you! And despite their speeds, they both had readable patterns!"

"Don't forget!" Black placed her arms on her hips before puffing herself up, "Those opponents were nothing after me! ... And... It's good to have you back, Clive."

"Yeah. ... Thanks for snapping me out of it. I'm still afraid of fire, but... I will overcome it. We have to if we want our rematch with the General and Olympian."

"Those two won't know what hit 'em!" Black pounded her fists together.

…...

"We're almost there!" Gallantmon declared to the the chosen and their partners as they burst into the light. Battle still waging as a squad of kuwagamon flew over their bridge they now stood on, towering above the battle below where Skull Greymon had made it about halfway through the ravine below. Having collapsed bridge after bridge and tearing through both the army of the Tyrant and the defenders of the Frosty Ravine. One could almost make out Blizzarmon and Kumamon trying their damnedest to slow the nightmare down.

Kyou looked behind him as his breath froze in the air with how heavy everyone was breathing, noticing that Cecilia and her partners were falling behind, "Come on Cecilia! Only a little more and we can catch our breathes!"

Cecilia could only nod as she struggled to keep up with them, the rest of the group turning to make sure Cecilia made it as they all ran into the tunnel, Cecilia still quite a bit behind as Kyou slowed and turned, "Cecilia! Come on! You have to-"

He stopped as noticed something behind the cyan haired girl, yelling out, "Duck!"

Cecilia didn't notice the call out, but Lancelot certainly did as it tackled its partner and Avani to the ground. An object moving fast enough to completely cave the tunnel entrance that the rest of the chosen had entered through bouncing off the entrance and slamming down on the side of the bridge where the royal knight chosen had come through.

"So you're one of the people they dragged here, to think the knights would bring someone so unready," the white haired girl that slid off the ice-clad dragon that had just cut off their route stared Cecilia down as she stood back up, in shock that there was a human who had confronted her here.

…...

"Cecilia!" Kyou roared as the entrance collapsed, Blaze and Tiamat stopping and turning first at the sound of the collapsing entrance.

"Wait, did that slowpoke not make it through!?"

"Shit, Kyou move! I'll melt the ice!"

Blaze ran up, arm pulled back and ready to start only for Gallantmon to grab his arm and stop him, "Don't, you'll bring the tunnel down on us."

"What? Surely these tunnels can stand a bit of heat before-"

"No, they won't," Ysanne would support Gallantmon as she walked up and pointed at the ceiling, which had rapidly growing cracks, "This place will not last long even if we don't melt away the collapse."

"So what? We just leave Cecilia to fend for herself?" Kyou was clearly irritated by that option.

"We have to trust that Cecilia and her partners can save themselves from whoever did this," Gallantmon said as he looked at the collapse, "Let's hope she knows where to meet up with us."

Kyou wanted to protest, to have Blaze meltdown the collapsed entrance and save his friend right then and there, but they were right. Gallantmon might survive the tunnel collapsing, but the humans in the ground definitely wouldn't.

Ryu would put a hand on Kyou's shoulder, "Have a bit of faith in her. Her luck can't stay bad forever."

"... I hope you're right, Ryu. Otherwise I'm gonna find out who did this and make them wish-" He took a deep breath before moving to start headed out, "Get yourself out of there, Cecilia."

…...

The icy caverns shook violently as Skull Greymon continued to rampage on its way to find an exit, every so often the missile on its back would tick, hinting at the armed and thawing armament getting ready to burst. Ice crumbling and collapsing all through the ravine now as the icy defenders began to make their way into tunnels and collapsed them themselves, some ice digimon would be trapped with the enemy but it trapped the attacking bug digimon in cold tombs as their comrades exploded into data with every critical shot by the left behind. The defenders were taking plenty of their foes with them, but their sheer numbers made it utterly impossible for victory that wasn't pyrrhic to even be seen. They could only hope that enough of them, and especially both their leaders and the chosen, made the sacrifice of the Frost Ravine worth it.

Yet it seemed for not as Lilithmon's chosen and her paledramon partner confronted Cecilia, Avani, and Lancelot upon the ice bridge that acted as one of the few exits to this deathtrap.

"Two partners," Aura would mutter under her breath as she observed Cecilia after her statement before, "It reminds me of her..."

Internally, the burning desire to prove herself to Lilithmon and her fellow chosen was burning bright as Alph faced down Lancelot, the eyesmon's shadowy form bristling to try and intimidate its foe.

Alph felt no fear in the face of this, he was well aware of what an eyesmon was capable of, but here it had just as limited a space to move as he did. It could not ambush or flank him on this narrow bridge of ice, Aurelia was safe on this side of the bridge, while the enemy was trapped by a collapsed exit. The advantage was his and there was little his foes could do to change that without putting themselves at risk. The only real wild card was how much data did this eyesmon have stored up to fire off at him?

And if really came down to it, he could always destroy the bridge and slowly descend with Aura while his foes fell to their demises.

Cecilia would be the first to speak and attempt to call off the stand-off as ice continued to fall, "We don't have to do this! We're both going to die here if we spend too long fighting once Skull Greymon thaws, we can just escape and settle it out-"

"You're wrong," Aurelia would respond, shutting down Cecilia immediately, "I have to stop you here, I have to take you in... And not to mention, what reason do I have to trust you would keep your word? We who are only aware of each other as foes?"

"I-I... Isn't it just human decency to trust another persons word? I think most people would um... accept any moment of peace for a retreating enemy? E-especially with both parties at r-risk..."

Something about this girl's apparent naivete struck a chord in Aurelia, that a person unaware of the troubles of others, troubles of those who went through a deep a hell as she had and as deep as those who had seen what the knights and the war took. It boiled for a moment, fusing with the flames of her desire to have her own strengths acknowledged, the serious expression on her face unchanging, "You've never for a moment ever doubted another human being have you? The idea that someone would lie to and manipulate you a foreign entity. That one such as you could never experience the feeling of freedom so close yet never there... It is clear you don't understand what it is you're involved in yet."

The way this girl, who looked several years younger than Cecilia spoke was simply unnerving.

"Cecilia, I don't think she's gonna listen to you," Avani would yell to overwhelm the noise of the falling ice, "You need to digivolve me!"

That name the wormmon said struck a sense of familiarity in Aurelia, but it wasn't enough to dissuade her as she crossed her arms, "Alph! Do it!"

The paledramon launched himself like a rocket at Lancelot, the shadowy nature of the eyesmon battered by the light coming down from above. It did not move however, as its eyes recognized that Cecilia was liable to be hit by the charging ice dragon if it dodged. Instead, it attempted to slow its foe down, the front of its body glowing red as dozens of beams slammed into its foe just before Alph hit it.

There simply was not enough time and energy for Lancelot to counter however, the battles of past days having drained it of its ultimate killing ability. It needed time to recharge, to restock on the data it had used when fighting the metal phantomon, when escaping Breakdramon, when battling the bugs, when battling manticoremon, when escaping from their enemies now. Lancelot simply didn't have the energy to battle Alph now.

And so the paledramon slammed Lancelot into the bridge, which shuddered violently from the impact. Subtle cracks forming immediately within the structure as Cecilia gasped in horror at one of her partners taking such a heavy hit while it's opponent was nearly unfazed by its counter attack.

An eyesmon was not a digimon to go down simply however, as it quickly wrapped itself around Alph's legs and merged itself with the dragon's shadow in an effort to take away his balance and take an advantage for itself.

Alph growled as he could feel his body resisting his commands, eyes rolling to look down at his shadow in front of him, where dozens of bright red orbs were quickly charging up to sustain enough lasers on him while he was restrained to end the fight quickly.

Once again though, Lancelot was too weak already to put up a real struggle as it charged in the shadow. Alph himself letting out a frost worse than the cold of the ravine flow from his maw slowly, cooling down the eyes of his foe and preventing anything that could melt his armor. Lancelot could only whimper as his beams were prevented from even occurring, as his data began to freeze away into nothing.

Recognizing that their friend was done if she didn't fight, Avani looked up at Cecilia and lost it, "You have to digivolve me! Why are you hesitating now when you've never before!?"

"W-wait! That monstrosity is directly below us now! If we-"

"Cecilia, do you want to find out if your sister is on this world, and what she's doing with them?! With a brat who speaks in riddles like that!?"

Cecilia wanted to respond, but she knew Avani was right. They were going to be captured by their enemies if she didn't take risks, and right now she needed to take a big risk. She had to be like Jordan was that day, willing to do anything to help anyone, especially one of those that called itself her partner.

Yet she still hesitated, and Avani, watching as Lancelot was about to be put down, let out a roar as she pushed her way out of Cecilia's arms. Something within her bursting to help her friend with or without her human partner as she began to glow in unison with Cecilia's untouched digivice, a black winged symbol appearing on the screen without either of them noticing.

Aurelia was quick to notice the glow however, yelling out for her partner, "Alph! She's digivolving the wormmon!"

The paledramon, assuming his eyesmon foe was down, looked at Avani and flapped his wings to burst at her only to slam straight into the bridge as Lancelot weakly held onto the enemy digimon to give his partners the moment they needed as Alph looked at him in shock, "You still have the energy to struggle!?"

Avani's body exploded into light this time before turning into ones and zeroes, the framework of a wormmon revealing itself briefly before beginning to unfold. Her torso extended rapidly, becoming thin and serpent-like as her tiny limbs fused into her body to form bands and symbols that quickly filled with red and gold respectively. Her tail spines fused into a single golden rattle from which a metal rod shaped like a flame emerged. From where her neck met her head, a pair of silver, angelic wings burst forth to carry her form above the bridge before a plumage of green feathers burst between them alongside the top of her neck. Her head squeezed downwards as her mandibles disappeared, her eyes shrinking down to fit into a serpentine head clad in armor. Then the color filled in, revealing bright white metallic plating that covered the majority of the digimons body as bright blue eyes stared down upon her foe, the symbol of the sun and light sitting on the center of her head before howling at him, the winds that filled the cavern now suddenly seeming to turn their fangs on Alph... Yet for some reason, that symbol was now letting off a purple glow.

"Wormmon digivolved to... Coatlmon!"

With everyone distracted by her sudden change, only Alph noticed that something seemed different about the digimon. It felt distinctly similar to the presence of-

Before Alph could finish off Lancelot or his train of thought, Avani quickly curled her body into a spiral and fired off like a rocket at the paledramon, slamming into him and driving him off the edge of the bridge. Both digimon going into freefall towards the grand battle below where bug and ice digimon clashed as Skull Greymon battled against Kumamon and Blizzarmon.

Aurelia ran over to the edge quickly, a sudden realization that their foe had more fight than she had thought coming in while Cecilia ran over to the nearly unconscious Lancelot, "C-come on Lance. You're gonna be just fine."

The eyesmon would grunt in a manner that was either relieved or disappointed at its partner, before fusing with her shadow, its eyes fading quickly as it entrusted Cecilia's safety to Avani and it chose to retreat and recover in the face of its near defeat.

Avani and Alph fell dozens of meters, the serpent digimon wrapped around the ice dragon to prevent him from using his wings as she snapped at his face in an animalistic manner, Alph growling as he processed how to quickly get out of this situation. The newly digivolved coatlmon clearly had resistance to both the wind and ice as his body was having no effect on her, but he still held one other advantage.

Alph roared as he fell, a kuwagamon that was attempting to aid in the restraining of the ice digimon quickly turning its head and processed what was going on before howling and lifting off towards the falling enemies.

Seeing the kuwagamon, Avani unwrapped from Alph and pushed back away from him with the flexibility of someone who had used her form before as the giant red insect barely missed her with its massive jaw, getting a gruff comment from her that didn't quite seem in character, "Not against low-blow tactics, huh? I respect that from someone who looks as stuck up as you."

Alph's wings burst into flight, light reflecting off them as he caught himself and flew back at his serpentine foe, "I will use all the resources given to me by Lady Lilithmon for the sake of Aura's will. That is war and it is foolish to expect your foe to even the playing field!"

Growling again, Avani extended her tail and flipped as the kuwagamon came back for a second round, roaring "Freeze wave" as the cold winds of the ravine suddenly unleashed a freezing frost on the kuwagamon's wings, forcing it into a direct crash course with the ravines wall as Avani turned to look and see Alph almost to her.

If any of her allies were there, they would all be asking what had happened to her inability to use any moves without prior knowledge?

Avani hissed like a beast as she braced for him to hit her, only for the paledramon to fly straight past, going higher and higher away from the coatlmon. Avani was left confused as her eyes followed his movements, at first concerned he may be going for Cecilia only for him to keep going up, causing her further confusion...

Followed by an explosion of frost and blue light from where her foe had gone, and the sudden realization of what Alph was doing as the ice dragon roared from above, "Meteor hail!"

Alph came down like an asteroid, far too fast to evade, and thus forcing Avani to brace with an instinctive reaction, roaring yet another move she shouldn't know, "Toltecan wind!"

The force of a hurricane slammed against Alph from nowhere, attempting to slow him down at all as he came down upon Avani. Hitting her in the middle of her torso and dragging her straight down into a distracted Skull Greymon, smashing into the giants skull with enough force to actually cause it to stumble from the shock.

Alph didn't care that he was now close to the berserking abomination, determined to reduce his foe back to the child state and ensure his partner's victory as he raised a hand to strike Avani again, only for a snowball to hit him in the side of the head as Kumamon aimed his launcher at the enemy, the cub digimon recognizing who Alph was fighting, "Avani! Run for it!"

The snow bear blasted Alph with several more supercooled snowballs, which did little against a digimon who could bear the cold at its sharpest, but did sufficiently distract him enough for Avani to ignore Kumamon's command and suddenly bite into the paledramons shoulder, a burst of data popping from the inflicted wound as Avani's body lit up with electricity as she said in muffled manner, "Dead or alive!"

Alph howled with pain as volts upon volts lit every nerve in his body up like a firecracker, pain he had not truly felt before slammed into his mind like a freight train as the ice that made up much of the armor on his body began to heat up and melt. Struggling to lift a claw, Alph would jab a talon into Avani's eye, the coatlmon screeching and letting go, allowing Alph to flutter upward as Avani dropped downward and avoided Skull Greymon's hand, the green orb in the aberrations empty socket now focused on them despite Kumamon blasting its maw with more snowballs and Blizzarmon stabbing his axes deeper into its bones with every swing.

Skull Greymon should have been the focus of the pair at the moment it turned towards them, they should have been moving away from its monstrous self as toxic fog flowed from its maw and its missile grew closer and closer to thawing with every minute that passed. Yet neither Avani nor Alph feared Skull Greymon at that moment, in the heat of battle, they only wanted to beat the other one down as they believed their partners wanted them to.

In reality however, Cecilia and Aurelia both watched with severe concern from above, worry about the fate of whoever lost weighing on both of them. Cecilia noted that her partner was acting strange, as she was suddenly far more competent in a fight and was far more eager about it than before where as Aurelia was concerned about Alph being so close to the abomination that is Skull Greymon.

The pair of enemies slammed into each other again, Alph using a lesser form of meteor hail and Avani toltecan wind, the pair bouncing off each other like pinballs as they evaded Skull Greymon's claws and floated ever too close to the miasma it was producing. Every smash against each other producing a wave of violent wind that threatened to create a plume of it that would consume them. The pair only stopped for a brief moment to re-catch some of the height they lost after clashing for minutes, their glares becoming steadily more and more personal.

As Alph and Avani readied to fire into each other again however, Avani would suddenly be shot out of the way of a diving Alph by a rapid fire of snowballs, Kumamon glaring at her as the symbol on the coatlmon's head suddenly cleared into a bright gold, a look of confusion spreading across her face. That brutal fury she had displayed disappearing as she stared at her new assailant, only to realize what she needed to do, "Cecilia!"

Alph growled as he prepared to continue the fight but would find that Blizzarmon had climbed Skull Greymon's spine, the ultimate level bashing the flat of his left axe into the unsuspecting dragon's torso and launching him sideways away from Avani as he roared, "Go and get out of here! It won't be long till the big guy blows!"

The coatlmon glanced at Blizzarmon, the sense that Avani was confused how she had gotten down there filling her concerned blue eyes before bursting upwards towards the bridge above and the sky towering further away than that.

Skull Greymon however still had focus on this target now, its green orbs following the fleeing coatlmon with an empty groan emerging from its maw as it began to march towards the ice wall, digging its talons into wall to try and climb out the ravine, the wall of ice at first collapsing before the inner layers began to hold its weight.

Blizzarmon roared as he bashed his axes into its skull despite the undead dragon not particular caring about the damage, "Oh no you don't! We haven't finished yet!"

Alph meanwhile, would groan as a kabuterimon helped him out of the crater that Blizzarmon had smashed him into, "Are you okay, lord Alph?"

"Enough to fly still," Alph responded as he looked above and growled at the rapidly fading sight of Avani fleeing, the fact that she had moved past the bridge implying that she had grabbed Cecilia without so much as a word and no time to waste before even Aura could likely react, "She has a lucky streak, that one."

"It would seem so sir, should we flee to our king's side?"

"No," Alph would respond as he looked at Kumamon and Blizzarmon still battling Skull Greymon, "... Rally the ultimates, we do still have something to get out of this. Enough that it should sate Tyrant Kabuterimonat least..."

….

Arthur watched as Avani sped out of the ravine with Cecilia on her back and Lancelot in her shadow from the snow on the ravine's edge. Lowering his binoculars as the wind blew his pony tail and he looked over at Tyrant Kabuterimon, the mega with his arms crossed, "Sure you don't want to go ahead and catch that one?"

"Would that not defeat the point of what you spoke to me about, Evans?"

"Would the Royal Knights really miss one of their chosen when they still have the rest?"

"No. No, I suppose they would not, but I am not like Milana, who would rather defeat our foes before they ever blossom. I desire to see the true potential of the chosen, both of our own and of those brought in by the Royal Knights. To see true strength brought to light for the preservation of the weak."

"And what did you see in that girl who fled?"

"Hesitation, conflict, weakness," the tyrant responded coldly, "But there is potential. Even in the records, there have only ever been a few who could manage having multiple digimon partners. Not to mention, her one partner seems to be of an existence that has not reincarnated."

Arthur raised a brow, "Mind explaining it to me?"

"Her data is unstable and liable to fall apart at any moment yet she forcibly digivolved herself without her partners consent," Tyrant Kabuterimon responded, "Alph should have bore the advantage and ended that fight immediately, yet she held her own against him exceptionally well despite being in a state that should have her falling apart. Even as much knowledge as I bear however, I am uncertain what exactly the cause is."

His head tilted to look more at Arthur as they both observed Alph flying up to retrieve Aurelia down below. Even further down, one could barely make out the form of Skull Greymon being restrained by dozens upon dozens upon dozens of bug digimon and the angels that had accompanied them, holy magic and restraints of silk slowing down and preventing the countdown that their opponents had no knowledge of how to stop. However, there was also no sign of either Blizzarmon or Kumamon...

"What of the other ones?"

"The human partnered with the spirit of flame shows wariness, an admirable trait to bear in a world where few can be trusted, but I have not observed to what extent he acts upon it. The one partnered to chaos incarnate seems laid back but displays twitching in his body that implies he craves a fight as we do. However, the last one, the child, I must admit she was... Rather unreadable. It was rather queenly, the ability to hide oneself entirely from my view is rare indeed."

"They all display key weaknesses however, and if I had desired, they would not be fleeing with Gallantmon now."

An easy-going smile made its way onto Arthur's face, "And do you think Aura and Alph made any progress here?"

"Perhaps, but I do not believe it was much," the Tyrant responded, "There is something lacking in their bond. A key piece that prevents Alph from going beyond the champion level for Aurelia's sake."

"Think you can keep them both going at it despite their dislike of you?"

"For the debt I owe you, Evans, I will attempt it to the best of my ability."

"Thanks, big guy," Arthur turned and began to walk away, a waiting form of a rather narrow humanoid a short distance away, "I'll check in the next time the boss is sleeping for a week. See how she's progressing."

"Hmph, never focusing on your work are you?"

"No need to, Belphemon has everything in hand anyways and to be blunt, with what I just observed, I think its in the bag. It'll all be done before we know it, and my story will just keep on moving. Like always."

Tyrant Kabuterimon turned his head at the last bit of Arthur's sentence, detecting a sense of emptiness there, but after a few moments, instead opted to say nothing as he looked back down into the Ravine. Observing Alph and Aurelia checking each other over for wounds like siblings.

What exactly was it that those two lacked in comparison to everyone else, and how could he push them into acting to correct it?

…...

Despite their victory, the group came back together at the entrance of Vaquero Town.

"Well, I suppose it coulda been much worse without ya," Black Rapidmon looked sadly at the broken welcome sign before turning to the Royal Knight Chosen, "Palmon here told me Darcmon evacuated the others. So it'll take some time to rebuild the place and pay respect ta those that didn't make it. And with how we just got and lost our next shipment... ah well! It ain't like we're pushovers in the first place!"

"Don't worry, Sheriff! Vegimon is great at planting gardens! He'll fix up the place in a jiffy!" Palmon raised her hands up.

"I hear ya," Black Rapidmon nodded before he looked ahead, "Say, why don't ya give the others the all-clear?"

Palmon nodded before making her way out. Black Rapidmon turned to Royal Knight Chosen.

"I thought I'd give y'all a proper thank you. That was mighty kind of ya to give us a hand. Especially cause you're the Commander's enemy."

The Royal Knights Chosen froze where they stood after hearing those words.

Black Rapidmon noticed this and spoke up, "What? I spent time with General Arshan. Y'all didn't think I won't recognize a Human and Digimon pair when I see one?"

"Wait," Sif took a step forward, "You've known this whole time!? But you had a chance to turn us in or even report us!"

"Now why in tarnation would I do that?" The Hagith Legion Captain asked, "The only reason I ain't back in an egg was cause of a human. I owe my life to the General. Figured I pay him back by being nice to the next human I met."

Victor raised his brow, "You do know we might have to fight your General and his Commander, right?"

"That's how I intend to thank them!" The Ultimate gave a hearty chuckle, "They're looking for a good fight, and you're obviously gonna give 'em one!"

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, a stressed-out teen felt his blood pressure rising for no reason.

"Really?" Clive was interested in hearing how a cowardly boy sought epic battles. In actuality, the poor teen abhorred them, but misunderstandings tend to travel faster than the truth, "I didn't expect that from him. Perhaps that little punk might be a worthy opponent after all to the Great Clive!"

Black Rapidmon laughed in amusement, "If ya come back, I'll tell ya a tale about their horrible first impressions. But y'all better hurry on outta here. I bet that Royal Knight over yonder is getting impatient. I promise I won't say anything about ya being here." Black Rapidmon turned in the direction where they came from.

Victor felt it was time to leav,. "And thank you for your hospitality. Take care of other refugees, Sheriff?"

"Right, lots to do here. Good Luck!" Black Rapidmon flew off before going the same direction where Palmon left.

As the group started to move, Victor turned to the curly-haired young man, "Congratulations for reaching Ultimate, Clive."

"Why thank you, Victor. But it was only necessary for my great story!" He pointed to the unofficial head of the group, "In fact, I will be the first to reach the mega level among all our allies and defeat a Demon Lord! For it's only natural!"

"You mean us," Black emphasized that last word before huffing up, "But I have to admit, I bet I can beat up that Coro jerk now with this new evolution."

Spirits were high with Dynasmon's group. It looked like things were looking—

Everyone stopped when they heard Alizee gasp. They turned to the brunette who used her Digivice to transform back to Kazemon, "We need to get to Dynasmon and run!"

Victor and Clive quickly evolved their digimon. Jordan was the only one confused. "What? Why!?"

Instead of answering him, Alizee turned her digivice for everyone to see.

It had a different symbol on it: the symbol of Darkness.

…...

Mary looked at her Digivice as it glowed pink with the symbol of wind before fading away.

"Grandpaaaaa~!" She yelled over to Barbramon before pointing, "Dynasmon went that way!"

The Demon Lord Digimon chuckled before looking forward, "Excellently done, Mary. With you at the helm, it is only a matter of time till the digital world is saved!"

Mary smiled at how happy her Grandfather was. Yet, it triggered a recent memory of hers, specifically the words of another human like her.

-You have to think for yourself!-

"Grandfather?" Mary began, making both Barbramon and Vulgar pause as the girl referred to the Demon Lord in uncharacteristic manner. Mary herself didn't know why she spoke up. But seeing as she got everyone's attention, she uncharacteristically looked away. "...It's nothing." She dismissed before the Demon Lord simply nodded and went on his way.

However, Vulgar narrowed his eyes towards Mary's Digivice. Silently, he knew that when they caught up with Dynasmon, he'd rip out the wings off the Wind Spirit.

The Tsukaimon only hoped the Lord of Sloth would be far away after hearing his sworn target killed by anyone but him.

…...

Dynasmon's group flew until they reached a coast where stones grew into the shape of baobab trees, and the sea was wine-colored.

He let down his charges in a nearby clearing and turned to Alizee, "Is your device still shining black?"

The brunette looked at her digivice. Despite it no longer shining, it didn't remove the sullen look on her face, "No, it's gone," She gripped it tighter, "For now."

"Alizee," Sif put a paw on her shoulder, "It will be alright."

"Will it?" Alizee asked despondently, "I didn't know my Digivice connected to Mary's. W-What if they find us and it's all my...?"

"Do you think something like that is enough to make the Great Clive abandon his allies?" Clive stepped forward, pounding his chest, "Purge such thoughts from your mind! As long as you're with us, victory is assured no matter what!"

Victor walked up, "Clive is right. He's also going overboard, but he's right. None of this is your fault. We need to find a way to stop the connection between you and Mary's Digivice." The eldest of the group looked up to Dynasmon. "Do you know anything?"

"I will first agree with Clive and Victor," Dynasmon spoke firmly before his voice softened. "This is not your doing. We were warned multiple times the variance in digivices could cause any number of side effects. It simply did not long before one of them revealed itself." The mega looked up, "I do wish Omnimon or Lord Alphamon was here however. They would more than likely know what to do about this specific situation. Still, hope is not lost. I was there when Omnimon spoke of a digimon who could understand the workings of a digivice: a digimon known as Datamon."

"Then all we need to do is find a Datamon!" Clive huffed at the creation of a plan.

"Uhh?" Everyone turned to Luna, who seemed to shy away after their gazes turned to her. Yet, the little rookie felt the need to speak up. "W-We might have a problem? There's a good chance the Demon Lords recruited all the datamon."

"Luna is not wrong," Dynasmon narrowed his eyes, "Most Digimon of the Metal Empire would and have allied themselves with the Demon Lords. And even if they did not, I cannot imagine a single one rallying under our banner willingly." The Wyvern Lord's eyes snapped open. "… No. Wait. Perhaps there is a place where a datamon may help us."

"Where is it?" Jordan asked, his eyes slowly narrowing.

"I will explain on the way. We must make haste before Barbamon brings Mary within range."

As everyone gathered together, Luna noticed Jordan standing there, scowling at Dynasmon before shaking his head. Luna looked down at the ground.

She wished Jordan would open up to her more.

…...

Avani just kept going north, not stopping, never stopping.

Was the swarm still on them?

Why had her mind blanked out during her fight?

What was going to happen to Blizzarmon and Kumamon?

Where were their companions?

These questions were bluntly smashing against her mind as she flew, only for her to look at Cecilia, her partner.

She had evolved her, even if took an outburst to do. Avani was still a little confused, wondering why Cecilia hesitated so much in that battle. Was it because she had failed to really fight before? Was it the stuff about her sister still weighing on her?

The questions just kept coming.

It took several more minutes of just quiet thoughts among the blowing winds before Avani began to slow down and descend, feeling her energy running out and with that would be the end of this digivolution.

Cecilia quietly landed on her knees in the snow as Avani's body bursting into light as she shrunk down and landed right in front of her. Lancelot, having been able to quietly rest in Avani's shadow for a little while, emerged as well, the eyesmon immediately going on look out in case their enemies were pursuing them.

"I... Avani," Cecilia spoke first, "I'm sorry."

"You... Why did you hesitate so much?"

"... I'm letting her weigh me down too much. The thoughts of Milana. It's too much and its driving me... I even feel like I should have asked that girl back there if Milana was with them."

Avani slowly waddled her way up to her partner, "Cecilia... What is it about her that's weighing you down so much? Didn't you love her as your sister?"

Cecilia hesitated a moment, but the look Avani gave her caved her in, "When Victor comforted me a few days ago, I didn't really think much of it. I... Didn't really think of her too often anymore, it always hurt when I thought of her. That look of pure fury when I tried to leave with her, the judging eyes of my parents that I picked her over them, the words leaving her mouth as she declared I wasn't her sister anymore. But now that we're here, and she may be here on the enemies side? What if she does hate me? What if she takes it further than that? I... I wouldn't stand a chance. She-"

Avani would finish her sentence, "She's near-perfect, right?"

"Y-yeah..."

The wormmon would rub her chin before suddenly jumping onto Cecilia and latching on in a form of hug, "Cecilia! As your partner, you need to have more faith in others! If she's so perfect, then she'll be happy to see you! Maybe even join us on sight! Just like both I and Lancelot would do anything for you!"

"H-huh?!"

Despite her exclamation, and Lancelot quickly coming up to be included on the hug as well by curling around them gently, Cecilia did feel comforted by the hugs although that declaration...

"I-is not believing in others enough?"

"Believing in others is one things. It works with strangers, but with the people you know and love? You can't just believe in them, you need to know they're going be ready for you, to do what's needed for you, and you need to be ready to do the same for them too!"

Avani detached from her and tried to make an odd movement to symbolize love before giving up, "Cecilia, its only been a few weeks, but I would do anything to make sure you're always safe! And so would Lancelot too!"

The eyesmon would let out a low growl in agreement, snuggling against the both of them briefly before all his eyes focused on something in the distance.

Cecilia looked away, words were always worth less than actions, but in this moment, as her heart felt, she agreed with Avani, "I-I'll try."

"And you'll succeed! Milana won't know what hit her she'll be so full of pride when she see's you growing in strength!"

Cecilia rubbed her hair, which Avani mistook out of embarrassment, when it was really nervousness.

Lancelot would quickly grab their attention however as he half-barked, half-roared at a set of figures in the distance north of them.

Avani and Cecilia would look, gasping at the sight, "Is that? They came back!"

Avani would respond, "I told you! Know what your friends will do for you, Cecilia!"

It was unrealistic to expect such, Cecilia had been taught that when her sister left her alone for years. To grow up without her.

There was so much more to it than her partner realized...

It took a few minutes for them to gather, Kyou looked almost ready to tackle all three of the separated trio as he said, "I knew you had it in you!"

"He was the most worried out of all us," Ryu quipped in as he walked up, "He and Blaze were gonna try get back to you even if it took the tunnel down."

"It was adorable," Tiamat added, "And maybe a little pitiful."

"Really, I was the one who called that they would get out of that," Gallantmon would say as he trudged up, "But that said, we need to cut the reunion short and get moving again. If it isn't obvious, those bugs are tracking us, and I imagine they'll do it all the way to the Bancho's territory. Which will be the only thing close to safe."

Kyou, a little iffy at not being able to really check in on Cecilia asked, "How are they doing that among all this snow?"

"If I had to guess, smaller bug digimon. No idea which exact one. I'm not sure about which ones are efficient enough to function in the cold," Gallantmon responded before waving, "Now let's get going, I'm not gonna save you all this time if another swarm shows up."

"That's mean to say, Gallantmon," Ysanne would state blankly as she carried Swimmon with her, somehow having produced the fishbowl that one would have swore she didn't have earlier for the digimon to be within.

"Maybe, but I think it provides encouragement."

"Perhaps Gankoomon has rubbed off too much on you."

"No, he's way too stiff."

"I am certain he has."

…...

Authors notes

It is almost 3 AM. I am going to sleep now. I had more to say but I've completely forgotten it I'm so tired.

Aight, I did not leave one of these last time as I was hella embarrassed that I took so long to update. This chapter only took a month and a half thankfully and I hope the length is worth it.

I didn't even realize it, but we've hit over 100,000 words as of last chapter. Guess this story is gonna be hefty, huh?

I know this chapter only focused on the Royal Knights for the most part, but don't worry. Next chapter is gonna have a bunch of little side moments as we take a break from Dynasmon's group to let Gallantmon's group catch-up and we'll have plenty of moments for a few DL characters that aren't getting as much screentime.

I'd also like to add that if ya'll want to contact me to check on chapter development, have character ideas, just talk, send fanart, or whatever, you're free to DM me and ask for my discord. I'm a lot more active on there nowadays than I am on FFN.