Even as all this went on, a fierce battle for the future of the Digital World was being waged. It was a grand melee as Greymon and Black Greymon tore at each other, fighting tooth and nail. Garurumon and Black Garurumon had rolled into a ball and nipped at each other with their fangs and occasionally jabbed with their claws. This was all taking place at such close-quarters that using any special attack would be impossible. Greymon was of course very careful to keep his right shoulder away from Black Greymon's snapping jaws and razor-sharp nails. He'd already sustained enough damage there and any more would probably put him out of the fight.
Black Greymon let out a fearsome roar just before lunging at Greymon, his mouth wide open. Greymon quickly countered though by spinning around and thwacking Black Greymon across the jaw with his powerful tail, decking the enraged dinosaur. With Black Greymon stunned for the moment, Greymon took the opportunity fire a Nova Blast at Black Garurumon, who had momentarily separated from Garurumon. Black Garurumon nimbly dodged to the side, but Garurumon anticipated his move and fired his Howling Blaster at just the right spot to intercept his evil counterpart. The attack hit home and launched Black Garurumon through the air right at Greymon. Greymon swiftly backhanded Black Garurumon before he could crash into him, and with a quick lash from his tail, Greymon slammed Black Garurumon into the ground.
"Go Greymon!" shouted Tai.
"You can do it Garurumon!" yelled Matt.
Black Greymon, upon seeing his companion's fall, retaliated against the distracted Greymon with a Nova Destroyer, a huge ball of blue flame that rammed into Greymon with the force of a train. Greymon was thrown across the ground, but he brought himself to a premature halt by digging his claws into the floor. Greymon shakily began to return to his feet, but only opened his eyes just in time to see Black Greymon charging at him at full-speed. One potent head-butt from the charging behemoth catapulted Greymon back against the wall. With a cruel smile, Black Greymon lowered his head and aimed right at Greymon with his deadly horns. With unheard of ferocity, Black Greymon charged, letting out a great yell as he did so. The charging beast drew closer, and closer, and closer until the very last possible second, when Garurumon stepped in, throwing himself against Black Greymon with all his strength. Black Greymon was thrown completely off balance. Not only did he veer off course from Greymon, but he also tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. The beast shuddered for a moment and his muscles flexed, but then his body went limp and a gust of air escaped his snout.
Meanwhile, the other DigiDestined and the digimon that accompanied them found themselves somewhere that they were totally unfamiliar with. All of them, even Infermon, huddled closely together. They glanced nervously in all directions, wondering what to expect. What surrounded was a dark expanse with no visible walls, ceiling, or even a floor. All that they could see was a kind of swirling, indigo mist that trailed off into eternity. They soon noticed an even more startling quality of this place. Whenever they would move, they would leave slowly fading trails as they did so. Any sound, no matter how insignificant, seemed to reverberate forever.
"Where are we?" whispered Yolei.
"I wish I knew…" said Wizardmon.
"It's so strange…" said Joe.
"Do you think this is the virus' doing?" Angewomon asked.
"No way," responded Lillymon.
"I don't get it," said Davis. "What happens now?"
"Now, is the time to listen," boomed a thunderous, and yet strangely kind voice.
Very slowly, a faint blue point of light appeared in front of the group. The light drew closer very rapidly, and as it did so it grew considerably. Before they knew what was going on, the light had seemingly filled the entire sky, and then they saw him. He hovered majestically not more than fifty feet from them. Basked in a brilliant blue aura and with an air of peace around him, Azulongmon appeared before the small group.
"Azulongmon…" gasped Meramon.
The fiery digimon very nearly fell to his knees at the very sight of the most impressive sovereign.
"Be brave, my son," said Azulongmon. "I have no need of your worship, just as you have no need to fear me."
"I can't believe it's really you, sir," said Cody. "It's been a long time."
"That it has, child," said Azulongmon.
"We missed you," said Kari.
"As I have missed you," said Azulongmon. "You have no idea how much I enjoyed learning of your heroic exploits."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Azulongmon," said Izzy. "If I may ask, where exactly are we?"
"It is, difficult to explain," said Azulongmon. "Let us just say that we have allowed you to take a small step out of reality. This place is what you might call oblivion."
"Wow…" said Izzy.
"Hey," asserted Davis. "Who exactly is 'we'?"
"'We' are the four Sovereigns," explained Azulongmon.
The group then noticed three other lights appear much like the first. To Azulongmon's left appeared a faint red light. On his right appeared a green light, and on the opposite side of the group from him appeared a white light. The group looked on in awe as the three lights drew closer and closer until three bursts of energy swallowed them up one after another just like the first and they found themselves surrounded by Sovereigns on all sides.
"These are my companions," said Azulongmon. "I am Azulongmon, the Sovereign of the east."
"I am Zuqiaomon," explained the great, red, phoenix digimon on Azulongmon's left. "I am the Sovereign to the southern quadrant."
"I am Baihumon," said the fierce-looking white tiger digimon behind them. "I am Sovereign over the digimon in the west."
"Und we be Ebonwumon," said both heads of the odd-looking turtle digimon with a forest growing from its back. "We hail from the north."
"Amazing," said Yolei. "It's just like in Kyoto."
"Hold on a minute," said Gomamon. "I thought you guys joined together to become Protomon."
"You are correct, young one," said Zuqiaomon. "We four once existed as a single entity, and now we do so again."
"We are still Protomon," said Azulongmon. "Only now, in this state, can we connect with you as individuals."
"Look, I'm sorry to rush you," said Sora. "Unfortunately, we don't have time for this. Our friends are fighting against the virus right this very second. I don't know how long they can hold on."
"Don't be afraid," said Baihumon. "They will be able to resist. Right now, you must concern yourself with what we must relate to you all."
"But Tai and Matt—" started Mimi.
"—Will not be going anywhere," finished Azulongmon. "Just listen."
"We summoned ye 'ere to tell ye some important stuff," said Ebonwumon. "This'll go a lot smoother if ye don't interrupt."
"Summoned us?" asked Michael.
"That's right," said Zuqiaomon. "It was all Azulongmon's idea. In this egg, our powers are limited, but not absent. We were able to reach one of you in his dreams. He was supposed to bring you here immediately, but he apparently failed."
"Matt…" said Sora. "So that's what the dream was all about." [See The Crest of Corruption chapter 4]
"We ran into some trouble along the way," said Izzy.
"No matter," said Azulongmon. "The past is passed. What matters is the here and now. If you have any further questions, I'd get them out of the way right now."
"I have one," said Joe. "Why didn't anyone tell us that some super-evil villain named D-Reaper nearly destroyed the entire Digital World a few months back?"
"Ah yes, that," said Azulongmon. "Simply put, we all thought it best if you didn't get involved."
"Accepting the aid of humans is not something I relish," said Zuqiaomon.
"That is the least of the reasons," said Azulongmon. "The truth is that I was doing it to protect you and your world. I was very doubtful of our chances for victory. The D-Reaper had already spread over most of the Digital World. It had even managed to gain a foothold in one of the human realms. I wanted to protect you and your world from the flame, so the gate was sealed and no effort was made to contact you. It was only shortly after the incident with Malo Myotismon, and we didn't wish to put you in any further danger."
"Hold on just one minute," said Willis. "Are you telling us that there's another human realm out there?"
"There are a total of four, actually," said Zuqiaomon. "Each quadrant connects to a different Earth. While each world may be indistinct from the other three on a much grander scale, each holds minor differences, just as it is with the different quadrants."
"Amazing," said Izzy. "So, is there another me on one of those worlds?"
"If there was, you'd never know," said Baihumon. "People are rarely the same in the different worlds. Each individual is truly unique, just as is the case with us digimon."
"Be thankful your world was protected from the D-Reaper," said Azulongmon. "Though it was defeated in the end through the valiant efforts of humans and digimon alike in the Earth connecting through the southern quadrant, the damage had been done. That Earth was lucky to escape with very little true damage, since the D-Reaper had delayed its attack in the interest of studying humans. It granted no such reprieve to we who remained in the Digital World, though. By the end, the Digital World had been completely devastated. Most of the digimon were dead or dying. We had to summon an immense amount of power to begin repairs. To restore the Digital World to the way you see it now meant draining the surviving digimon of most of their power, including ourselves."
"The drain of our own life energy reduced our powers greatly," said Zuqiaomon. "We knew that, individually, we could not continue. We gave up too much of our energy to survive. The Digital World had been restored to more than sixty percent of what it was before the D-Reaper. Digimon thrived once again. However, it nearly cost us our lives."
"We knew what had to be done," said Baihumon. "Even though it would mean breaking a vow that has stood for a millennium, we could not leave the Digital World to fend for itself. We were still needed, and so we joined our powers together. We surrendered our individuality and rejoined to create Protomon, from whom we four sprung an age ago."
"We must've spent near a month in that egg," said Ebonwumon. "The Digital World, which was so grateful for what we'd done fer her, began to amass a great deal of energy within the crater where we lay. She was tryin' to give back what we'd given her. I'm pretty sure ye know the rest o' the tale."
"We were not at full strength when we fought against you," said Azulongmon. "With all the power we gave up, we were very weak. It is for that reason alone that you are still alive today."
"We want revenge against the virus as much as you," said Zuqiaomon. "We want to make it pay not only for using us, but for all the destruction it has caused."
"The Digital World is still incredibly weak, though," said Baihumon. "We can't afford to fail now. If we can't stop the virus, everything is done for. Even though it is not nearly as strong as we once were, it is very possible that it could completely destroy this fragile world which we fought so hard to preserve."
"Aye, lads," said Ebonwumon. "These be dire times. Even when our strength is unleashed, I'm not certain we can defeat this virus. Remember that we're not what we used to be. We may still need ye humans to take up the fight."
"Azulongmon, what can you tell us about this base?" asked Tentomon. "Maybe that can help us in some way."
"The base has been abandoned for many years," began Azulongmon. "It was once used by the Guardians, a group that was led by the one you know as Gennai. Though they were few in numbers, they are solely responsible for recruiting the DigiDestined, the human warriors of the east. It is here that they created the digivices and stored the digieggs that would one day grow into your partner digimon."
"Hey, I remember this story," said TK. "We heard it years ago when that… thing… took control of Kari. I remember that Piedmon came storming in and tried to take the digieggs."
"Luckily, Gennai prevented that," said Azulongmon. "But Piedmon did not completely fail. He seized the crests and scattered the Guardians. The base was abandoned and left to rot. Piedmon was even successful in infusing a powerful computer program into Gennai. The program caused him to age a great deal in a short amount of time. Though he could not kill Gennai, Piedmon had eliminated him as a threat. Unable to carry on the fight in such a state, Gennai set to work preparing for the arrival of seven DigiDestined from Earth."
"And that's where we come in," said Mimi.
"Well that certainly clears up a thing or two," said Joe.
"Your explanations have been most informative," said Izzy. "But one thing still has me perplexed. I still for the life of me can't think of why we never knew about the Digital World very nearly being totally wiped out so recently."
"It was obviously just dumb luck," said TK. "Don't you remember how there was about a month when we were all in the real world? I don't remember hearing of anyone even trying to open the Digiport during that time. The older guys was just so happy to be seeing their digimon again that I don't think anyone really gave it much thought, and the rest of us were really trying to rest up. Besides all that, I don't think anyone really wanted to go to the Digital World for a little while there… too many bad memories."
"An inspired answer," said Zuqiaomon.
"I guess that seems logical," said Izzy.
"Well I hope that answers all your questions," said Azulongmon. "Right now, there is information vital to your survival that we must share with you."
At that very moment, things had seemingly come to a stalemate on the battlefield. Greymon and Garurumon were both sweating and breathing heavily as they tried to ignore their wounds. Their evil counterparts had recovered from the most recent blows dealt to them, and were as ready for battle as ever. Both teams had fallen back to be with their partners, and seemed to be engaged in a classic stare-down.
"Enough of this, Geno!" said Tai. "This fight is pointless!"
"I do hope you're not thinking about leaving," said Geno. "The fun is just getting started, after all."
"Geno, you are one sick dude," said Matt.
"Why thank you," said Geno. "I'm afraid that compliments will get you nowhere, though. When all is said and done, I'll still be on top, and you'll both be dead."
"Don't worry, guys," said Greymon. "We're on top of it."
"I certainly hope so," replied Tai.
"If I may interject…" said a sinister voice from the door behind the DigiDestined.
All eyes quickly turned and beheld the sight of the Emperor walking confidently into the room.
"Emperor…" muttered Geno. "I believe I told you that I would handle this situation myself."
"Of that I had no doubt, master," Ken said with a bow. "But having completed my own task, I felt it would be a valuable learning experience to come watch you work."
"Very well," said Geno. "Just remain behind me and keep quiet."
"As you wish," said Ken, swiftly walking across the long room.
He finally came to a stop at Geno's side. He wore a cruel smile as always.
"Great, just great," said Matt.
"This is exactly what we didn't need," said Tai.
Yet no one who was there could have possibly predicted what plan the Emperor had tucked up his sleeve.