[Well, here's the next chapter. Things are drawing towards the end, and only a few chapters remain. However, it might be a little harder getting chapters out in a timely fashion with school about to start again. Still, I'll try to get this done as soon as possible. Oh by the way, you all might want to check out my pictures, as Protomon recently got a little upgrade. No then, back to the fight…]
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"The faster we got this over with, the better," said Bahadramon. "I'm going in. I'll make him pay for everything he's done…"
"Be careful, Bahadramon," Seraphimon warned. "If you try to use your hatred as a weapon against the Corrupter, he can turn it against you in the blink of an eye."
"Let me worry about that," said Bahadramon coldly. "You just have to worry about getting in there to back me up."
Bahadramon spread his wings and before Seraphimon could say another word he took to the air. He streaked forward with a hard, determined expression in his eyes. NightmareOmnimon saw him approaching and stood casually with the utmost confidence, waiting for his next victim to arrive. Bahadramon beat his wings with increasing fury, building up his speed with each flap. NightmareOmnimon bobbed his head slightly as he moved his right arm across his chest so that he could swat Bahadramon out of the sky like a gnat. Bahadramon drew closer… and closer… and closer, and then, NightmareOmnimon swung his arm through Bahadramon's flight path, hitting nothing but air. At the very last possible instant, Bahadramon had pulled back, using his wings to create a sudden bubble of air resistance in front of him, which slowed him down just enough to keep him out of harm's way. With NightmareOmnimon's attack having missed, Bahadramon continued towards his chest plate, folding his wings in front of him as he went so that the large bones protruding from each converged on a single point. Unable to stop Bahadramon, NightmareOmnimon fell victim to his vicious Nail Wing attack. The spear-like bones punctured NightmareOmnimon's armored torso. Acting quickly, Bahadramon spread his wings with all the force he could muster, tearing away even more of NightmareOmnimon's chest-plate. Bahadramon then shoved himself away from NightmareOmnimon, trying to get whatever distance he could between himself and the infuriated evil entity. NightmareOmnimon could only look down at the wound for a moment and shudder. He then slowly turned his gaze on the rapidly retreating Bahadramon, a look of utter disdain in his eyes.
"No escape…" growled NightmareOmnimon.
NightmareOmnimon lunged forward, closing the distance between Bahadramon and himself nearly instantaneously. Bahadramon stopped as quickly as he could when he saw NightmareOmnimon appear directly in front of him. Bahadramon looked stunned for a moment, but his surprise quickly turned to anger.
"I'll make you pay for everything you've done to us," Bahadramon snarled. "That's a promise…"
"Miserable little wretch…" said NightmareOmnimon in a particularly contemptuous voice. "I offered you the infinite rewards of existing as one with me, but you rejected me. For your treachery, you and your pathetic friends will pay the ultimate price."
"I've taken all I can stand!" said Bahadramon. "This ends NOW!"
Bahadramon spread all of his appendages as wide as he could. His eyes began to glow and a field of energy whipped up around him. His teeth were bared as his muscles began to swell and pulsate with a sudden increase of power. NightmareOmnimon meanwhile just watched with minor curiosity. Bahadramon's limbs continued to stretch and strain under the building power as bolts of energy streaked around his body. Slowly, his mouth began to creek open, revealing a strange energy welling up from deep inside him.
"Gaea Flare!" screamed Bahadramon, opening his mouth and unleashing a cluster of yellow streams of light, the force of which knocked Bahadramon back over ten feet.
Once the pulses of energy were discharged, they seemed to take on minds of their own, heading in completely random directions with irregular twists and turns, like missiles without guidance mechanisms. Soon enough though, the bolts all turned towards NightmareOmnimon, inundating his whole body with a wave of explosions. Now that the first phase of the attack had been completed, Bahadramon launched the second phase, wherein he opened his mouth once again and charged a glowing, purple sphere just in front of hi snout. Bahadramon pulled back all of his appendages and let all of his power go in one massive assault. Hurling the ball of energy into the center of NightmareOmnimon's mass, Bahadramon expelled an enormous amount of energy. After only a moment, the attack struck NightmareOmnimon, causing a gigantic purple explosion that expanded exponentially as it spread outward, sparking smaller explosions along its outer edges. Everything nearby was swallowed in the blast, including Bahadramon, who had tried his best to shield himself with his wings.
The next seconds passed slowly. Over the course of the next minute, the blinding light began to fade away, leaving only a smoldering crater in its tracks. Smoke and debris poured into the air from the crater, concealing everything within. Waving the debris away from her face and looking very closely, Magnadramon began to see a dark shape within the cloud.
"Well…?" asked Seraphimon. "Is it Bahadramon, or is it… him?"
"I can't tell," said Magnadramon. "This smoke is too thick. Give it a moment…"
All eyes were on the dark shape in the debris cloud. Gradually, the smog began to clear, and at last they could see the bruised and battered form of Bahadramon. His wings had taken the bulk of the damage. Large patches of skin had been torn or burned away, but he was still able to maintain flight. He was breathing heavily and sweating. His arms, legs, and tail hung limply, still swollen with power. His eyes seemed sunken and tired as they stared straight ahead.
"He made it…" said Jack with a smile. "He made it!"
"He's alright!" said Kari joyously.
"Did we actually just win it all?" asked Joe.
"I think we did!" said Mimi.
A second later though, all such hopes were shattered, when the mangled, but very much alive figure of NightmareOmnimon appeared in the retreating debris field. His left arm had been blown away, his cape was shredded, most of his armor had been peeled away and scorched, but the damage was much more predominant on his left side. Even his left eye and a sizeable chunk of his helmet had been torn away.
"No…!" said Bahadramon in a moment of complete terror. "There's… there's just no way you could've survived that! No way!"
"Wrong yet again…" scoffed NightmareOmnimon. "Did you honestly think such a pitiful attack would work?"
NightmareOmnimon's remaining eye lit up and sent out a wave of distortions all around him. His body began to regenerate itself with dramatic speed.
"No… I can't…" gasped Bahadramon. "I used so much power…"
"Only now do you realize how truly foolish you have been," said NightmareOmnimon as his left eye regenerated. "Your hatred for me has only hastened your death. Even those weakling over there realized the truth."
NightmareOmnimon pointed with his rebuilt left arm to the pile of injured digimon not too far away.
"They realized what you could not," NightmareOmnimon continued. "They knew that if they expelled all of their energy with one attack, they would have absolutely no chance for victory."
"This can't be happening!" screamed Bahadramon. "This can't be real!"
"Oh, but it is," said NightmareOmnimon. "This is much more than a bad dream. This is a bad dream that none of you will ever wake from…"
Suddenly, NightmareOmnimon sprang into action again. With one absolutely brutal punch, he sent Bahadramon reeling backward over the desert. NightmareOmnimon seemed to settle for a moment, but then sped off so fast that he was only a blur, if that. When NightmareOmnimon reappeared, he was behind Bahadramon. NightmareOmnimon lifted his right arm up over his head, and just when Bahadramon reached the right distance away from him, NightmareOmnimon brought his hand crashing down on the dragon, smashing bone and armor with equal ease.
"This is the price you pay for betraying me," said NightmareOmnimon, staring down at Bahadramon.
A moment later though, a swirling stream of fire tore through the air, slicing through NightmareOmnimon's right arm, melting the metal as it went. NightmareOmnimon cried out as the attack quickly severed the arm, causing it to fall to the ground. A number of black spheres were ejected from the gaping wound, but Magnadramon and Seraphimon dodged them easily as the charged forward. NightmareOmnimon glared angrily at the approaching angel-type digimon, swiftly rebuilding his lost arm as the severed one disintegrated. NightmareOmnimon once again prepared to strike with his Infernal Sword. Seraphimon drew closer, and NightmareOmnimon attacked with a broad slash with his weapon. Seraphimon quickly brought up his heavily armored wrists to block the blow. His heavy gauntlets absorbed the force behind the sword with only a few minor cracks. Seraphimon then charged at NightmareOmnimon again. He landed with both feet firmly against NightmareOmnimon's chest. NightmareOmnimon tried hitting Seraphimon with his left hand, but ended up merely striking his chest, as Seraphimon had bounded straight up into the air a moment before. Seraphimon headed up and flipped over NightmareOmnimon's had, coming to a stop behind him. Acting quickly, Seraphimon charged up his Seven Heavens attack and fired the seven spheres of golden light. They all headed off in different directions; one of them tore through the blade of his Infernal Sword, another pierced his left shoulder, a third blew through his left hip, taking a lot of material with it. Shot number four severed his left arm completely at the elbow. The fifth and sixth shots hammered through his torso at two separate points. The seventh and final shot blew through NightmareOmnimon's head with ease, destroying it completely. One last shot came from Magnadramon, floating high overhead. She unleashed her Fire Tornado downwards. The burning shot pierced NightmareOmnimon right through the core, striking the spot where his head had been and proceeding downward through the rest of his body. When the attacks were completed, NightmareOmnimon's broken and battered body fell to its knees and then collapsed to the ground completely.
"Justice has been done," said Seraphimon.
"The Corrupter ends here," said Magnadramon.
"NO…" said a dark, ominous voice that echoed throughout the desert.
"What?!" gasped Magnadramon.
"It's just not possible!" said Seraphimon.
"I SAID IT BEFORE…" said the voice. "I CAN NEVER DIE!"
Suddenly, the dark clouds overhead became quite active. They began to swirl and shoot bolts of lightning in every direction. Powerful winds picked up and a strange feeling overcame all of the DigiDestined and digimon. The very air seemed to quake. Distortions once again began to swell up around NightmareOmnimon, but now they were far more intense than they had ever been before. The great, dark night began to stir slightly, pushing himself back up with his broken blade.
"Magnadramon!" shouted Seraphimon. "We can't let him come back! Attack now!"
"Right!" said Magnadramon, who had by then floated down to where Seraphimon was.
The two great angel digimon fired their Seven Heavens and Fire Tornado attack together. The attacks drew closer and closer to NightmareOmnimon, who was slowly rebuilding his damaged body piece by piece. The attacks continued to approach, but then they hit the distortion field and just seemed to dissipate before they could even reach NightmareOmnimon.
"No!" said Magnadramon.
"This can't be!" said Seraphimon.
"Oh, but it is," said NightmareOmnimon, returning to his feet and looking back at the digimon with his newly restored head. "And every time you damage my body, I'll just restore it stronger than ever."
"Why aren't their attacks working like they did before?" asked TK. "When we fought against him as Protomon, Seraphimon's attack kept him from being able to regenerate himself!"
"He must've found a way to improve himself," said Ken. "It's the only way!"
"We've got to fry him completely," said Tai. "If even one tiny piece of his body remains, he'll just regenerate again!"
"And how do you suggest we do that?" asked Matt. "Seraphimon and Magnadramon don't have the firepower, and the rest of the digimon are in no condition to continue the fight."
"Uh, guys?" Izzy cut in.
"Well I don't know!" Tai said without hearing Izzy. "I'm just telling you what needs to be done! If we don't even have a plan then we don't stand a chance!"
"Guys!" Izzy said a little more urgently.
"Tai, we have half a plan!" said Matt. "Without the firepower to carry it out, we can't even use your idea!"
"GUYS!" shouted Izzy.
"What?!" asked Matt and Tai together.
"I think we all might want to see this!" said Izzy.
Everyone turned their gazes towards NightmareOmnimon. He was fully restored and laughing to himself quietly. The distortion field around him was not disappearing. Instead, it was expanding, and growing much more intense. The sand seemed to swirl together. The air looked almost like it was melting, as that was the only way to describe the phenomenon.
"A phase warp…" said Izzy in a moment of realization.
"A what?" asked Yolei.
"You guys really need to pay more attention," said Izzy. "And unfortunately, I don't have the time to explain at the moment. In short, something very bad is about to happen."
"Are you sure?" asked Mimi.
"Oh yeah," said Izzy.
Right beneath NightmareOmnimon's feet their appeared a spiraling vortex in the sand, which began to pull everything it could find into it. The vortex quickly started to expand, creating an infinitely deep, black pit beneath the great dark digimon.
"My work here is done for now," said NightmareOmnimon. "I finally have the strength I need to open the gate to my completion. When we meet next, DigiDestined, I can show you and all other beings my full potential."
With a vicious laugh, NightmareOmnimon turned over and flew straight into the twisting void.
"What do we do?!" asked Seraphimon, trying to keep from being dragged in to the vortex.
"I think it's fairly obvious," said Wargreymon, who had by then regained consciousness. "We must go after him."
"But we have no idea where that phase warp will take us!" said Izzy.
"It doesn't matter," said Metalgarurumon. "We can't let him escape from us. The longer he's out of our sight, the more damage he could do."
"He's right," said TK. "We don't have much choice in the matter."
"Someone needs to grab Bahadramon," said Jack.
"I've got him," said Magnadramon, grabbing the unconscious dragon by the waist and picking him up.
"Are we ready then?" asked Joe.
"Ready as we'll ever be," said HerculesKabuterimon.
"Alright then," said Tai. "Let's do this."
The DigiDestined all clung tightly to their digimon as they stood over the precipice, looking down into the infinite darkness. After a moment of silent reflection, they all plunged into the void. The feeling within the blackness was like being pulled in every direction at once. The stresses were incredible, but somehow they all hung on. At they end of the long, dark tunnel, they could make out a dim light that continued to grow bigger as they came ever closer to it.
"Hang on!" yelled Davis.
"Just a few more seconds!" said Michael.
And then, they hit the other side. They were through the gate, finding themselves in a park at night. They all tumbled out amidst the trees and dirt and concrete walkways. The sheer size of many of the Mega digimon flattened the surrounding greenery. The DigiDestined considered themselves lucky not to be crushed by the behemoths. After a few moments, they began to stir and stand up. All of them wore curious and bewildered expressions on their faces. Looking up over the trees, they saw the unmistakable city skyline of Tokyo. NightmareOmnimon was nowhere to be found, but several yards away, amongst a large group of people, all eyes were focussed on the new arrivals.