All around Kei, the others were awakening from their spirit-induced dreams. A few Paladimon were already up and running inwards, towards the centre of the cave where the DigiEgg was supposed to be held. Lily was still down on the ground, curled up in the fetal position. She muttered the names of family members in desperation as she wept. Kei knelt down next to her, trying to calm the girl, but she seemed impenetrable.
"Leave her," commanded one of the Paladimon. "The girl must face her trials alone. If she is not worthy to enter this shrine, then she shall die. There is nothing that can be done."
Kei's cheeks flushed angrily. Hearing the thunderous footsteps of the DarkKnightmon growing louder, he protested "We can't! They'll kill her!"
"They must face the same trials as we do," the Paladimon reasoned, his tone unchanging. "And believe me, with their dark hearts, none shall pass. Now come. We shall need as many as we can, and you have already proved yourself to me."
The brown-haired boy glanced back. Danger was near, and he now felt afraid instead of angry. "All right," he said softly. Thinking his job done, Paladimon turned and galloped off.
The next room was a long and narrow hallway made of some sort of orange stone. The walls were covered with tapestries depicting lions and other fearsome beasts. The majority of the floor was not floor at all, but a path of coals that steamed with heat. The Paladimon paid this obstacle no heed, and charged ahead single file, though a few horses let out shrieks of pain.
"Gee, don't I get a horse?" Kei wondered snidely, though no one was listening. He noted that he was already falling behind, with legs much shorter than the mounts. "Oh well... here goes..."
Sucking in a breath, Kei leapt forward onto the coals. They felt hotter than anything Kei had ever touched! Letting out a yelp, he sprinted onto the next coal, and having it burn the other foot. He kept the picture of Lily and the DarkKnightmon advancing, in his mind as he sprinted across the bed of coals. When he reached the tile at the end, the soles of his shoes had been melted, and he sported several large burns on his foot. But the pain seemed far away.
Walking testily on his injured feet, he went into the next room as far as he could determine,
the centre of the temple. It was a large circular chamber, resembling almost a religious place.
The DigiEgg lay in the centre, but truth be told, it didn't look like muchsimply a round egg,
with flamelike designs, and something that might have been a horn sticking out of it. "That's
it?" Kei asked.
"Yes," one of the Paladimon said, with a deep voice. Kei noticed he had dismounted. Looking
back, he now saw what he presumed to be the final hazarda ring of lava, fifteen feet wide,
surrounding the island on which the egg sat. The only way to get there, besides making an
impossible jump, was a series of small rock spires, forming stepping stones to the other side.
They looked pointy, and somewhat flimsy.
Kei paused. He supposed that one of the Paladimon would have to leap from spire to spire on foot. But something told him that wasn't such a good idea.
With a loud crash, the far wall of the domed room fell in, and a group of DarkKnightmon marched through. This was the first time Kei had actually seen them, and he realized that they looked a lot like Paladimon, only instead of shining white their armour was obsidian black. They all carried an assortment of painful, medieval weapons.
"Curses!" cried the Paladimon who had spoke before, reaching for his lance and steed. "They must have found a way to get through without the test! Curs!"
Kei looked towards the advancing DarkKnightmon, and then at the DigiEgg sitting out in the middle of the lava. "I'll get it. You go and fight them. I'm lighter anyway," he volunteered himself. Several of the Paladimon gave him what might have been questioning looks, but he couldn't see their faces.
Then, the deep-voiced Paladimon gave a simple "God speed, Humon."
Kei grinned. "I told you not to call me that." But the Paladimon had already gone, leading the charge into battle. The DarkKnightmon met them. Crusade Lance attacks were met with Dark Blades, and Kei couldn't make out much of the battle. He remembered that he had a task, and turned to the stepping stones that led to the DigiEgg. Then, for a moment, Kei hesitated. There sure was a lot of space between spires...
He shook his head, to clear it. The others were counting on himthose Paladimon were fighting
so that he could do this. Determined not to look down, Kei leapt out to the first rock
protrusion, two feet away. He made it, but felt the hard rock jab into his already tender feet.
There was barely room enough for one foot, and it felt somewhat wobbly as it was. Scared of
falling, Kei jumped to the next one.
And so he continued, doing a sort of wide run as he went from spire to spire, his fear of falling
keeping him moving until finally he hit the large island in the middle, causing him to stumble.
He saw the DigiEgg in front of him, and heard the raucous sounds of battle behind him. Grimly,
he reached forward and touched the weapon.
But it wouldn't budge. It was slightly warm to the touch, but it seemed stuck to the stonealmost as if it was a part of it. Kei moaned and yanked on it, but if anything it seemed more firmly entrenched.
He turned his head, and saw that one of the DarkKnightmon had abandoned the battle and was leaping straight at him! This fellow, a bit larger than normal, seemed to have given up on fighting and just leapt across the gap. He's not going to make it, Kei thought. But then the DarkKnightmon stood up on his stead, using it to propell his jump onto the platform. The black horse let out a cry as it fell into the lava.
The DarkKnightmon landed with a thump on the rock island. Kei kept pulling at the DigiEgg of Courage, but it wouldn't budge. He looked up and gulped. The Ultimate Digimon seemed a lot larger in person. He held up his weapona morningstar, known to Kei as just a spiked ball on a chainand began to twirl it in circles, the bludgeon crackling with dark energy. In no time at all, it had formed a spinning disc of darkness. Kei looked up in panic before the DarkKnightmon brought it down with a cry of "DARK BLADE!"
Kei scrambled out of the way, which probably saved his life. Still, the dark energy cut into his left side, just to the left of his ribs. The boy let out a cry of pain, and fell to the ground. The DarkKnightmon loomed above him, giving what Kei imagined must have been a condensing smile before bringing the blade of dark energy down again for a finishing blow.
The brown-haired boy could have evaded it, but he didn't feel like running. Even if he did, what would he do? He couldn't dodge for ever, nor could he abandon the egg. The others were counting on him. With that, Kei jumped to his feet, a new vigour inspiring him, as the dark attack cut into the ground where he used to be. Kei threw out a punch...
And recoiled as it hit hard armour, causing Kei to stumble back with bruised knuckles. The knight Digimon laughed and attacked with another "DARK BLADE!"
But this one didn't hit either. The DarkKnightmon, confused, saw that Kei was still wincing, waiting for the inevitable blow. But what had stopped the attack was the DigiEgg, having removed itself from it's pedestal. The artifact's orange aura had negated the dark energy and deflected the mace.
Kei opened his eyes, and was fascinated. The DigiEgg itself had saved him. With an odd sort of sentience, it now attacked, the horn-like protrusion stabbing through the chinks in the knight's armour. DarkKnightmon stumbled back, then burst into flame. Letting out a cry of anguish, the Digimon joined his horse in the lava.
Now it floated in front of Kei, waiting. He nodded, understanding what he never knew. He planted his hand on the DigiEgg, and though it was still hot, it was the warmth of courage. Channelling it's power, he yelled "DIGI-ARMOUR ENERGIZE!"
The boy emerged warm from his shell, and wearing a body armour. It had the same pattern as the DigiEgg of Courage, and completely covered his legs and chest. It also extended down his arms, but instead of gloves ended in some kind of cannon-shaped things. Kei felt odd, as if he was lacking something. But to hell with that! There was a battle going on.
With a mighty leap, Kei travelled over the lava and into the centre of battle. This disrupted it quite a lot. The newly armoured teen started attacking DarkKnightmon immediately, brawling like he never knew how to. With the final uppercut in a long chain of blows, Kei's fists caught on fire, but it didn't hurt. Instead, he used it to his advantage, yelling "INFERNO PUNCH!" The fiery attack knocked one DarkKnightmon off his horse.
"CRUSADE LANCE!" yelled a Paladimon, a beam of light extending from his lance to impale the downed DarkKnightmon. The viral Digimon let out a cry before exploding into digital fragments. Slowly, the Paladimon force was winning. Kei believed that the had turned the tide of battlehe wasn't as strong as the others, but he was more agile, which had helped to end the fierce stand-off they had before.
With two DarkKnightmon down and another injured, the attacking forces decided to exercise the better part of valour. Covering their tracks with a wall of Dark Blades, they whipped their horses around and galloped through the hole in the wall they had entered through.
Kei growled, and gave chase. He charged directly through the attacks, not waiting until they had dissipated. It hurt a bit, but strangely, he didn't mind. He finally realized what was missing from this situationfear. He honestly didn't care what happened to him, as long as it helped the goal. It was an exhilarating feeling.
With the added power in his legs, Kei was almost as fast as the DarkKnightmon's horses. Indeed, he caught up with the slowest onea knight somewhat scrawnier than the othersand, with one leap, landed on the back of his horse.
"What?" shouted the DarkKnightmon in an oddly familiar tone. Feeling the weight of two riders, the horse bucked wildly, making keeping balance even harder for Kei.
He decided to take the fight to better conditions for himthe ground. "INFERNO PUNCH!" He cried again, unleashing an uppercut on the knight. To his surprise, it knocked his opponent off the horse, at about the same time Kei was thrown off as well. The DarkKnightmon's helmet had been lifted into the air and fell down several feet away. Strange, that hadn't happened to any of the others.
"Holy shit! Kei?" asked his prone opponent. Kei got to his knees before looking up to see a familiar faceone he had forgotten about in the last day or so.
"Ryo?" Kei asked in disbelief. Sure enough, there was Ryo Akiyama, complete with ruffled brown hair and an arrogant smirk on his face. "What the hell are you doing on their side?"
"Their side?" Ryo asked. "Don't tell me you've gotten into a war already?"
"Well, isn't that what you've done?" Kei asks, blood boiling. It felt as if Ryo had betrayed him shattering what little trust or respect he had for the guy.
"No," Ryo said, taking on a serious look. "I came for my Digivice, Kei. Give it back and I'll let you go."
"Huh?" Kei asked, taken aback by the request.
"That!" Ryo yelled, pointing at the square device which now hung at Kei's waist.
The newly-empowered Kei paused for a moment. Would it really matter if he gave Ryo what he wanted. No, the boy had clearly gone badwell, worse than before. If he wanted it, there must be more to the devices than Kei had thought. The younger boy snarled. "No."
"Damnit, give it to me!" Ryo yelled, charging forth once again. "DARK BLADE!" Kei's new enemy did a perfect imitation of the DarkKnightmon attack, and his shortsword rammed through Kei's breastplate. Kei fell back, but was not seriously wounded.
Ryo pressed the offense, leaping on Kei and trying to tear the Digivice from him. They brawled on the ground, exchanging gaunletted punches until Kei finally thew Ryo away with an Inferno Punch.
It was about that Lily ran into the middle of the fight. "Stop!" she yelled emotionally. "Ryo, what are you doing here? Why are you two fighting?"
"I'll explain later," Kei said, leveling his arm cannon. "Get out of the way, Lily."
"No!" Lily protested.
Ryo, meanwhile, had gotten up. The fire attack had more or less melted one of the arms on his black armour, but didn't seem hurt aside from a burn on his face. "You've got her on your side, Kei?" he asked with disgust. He began charging his blade with dark energy.
"I'm not on anyone's side!" Lily snapped. "Now why don't you two boys stop fighting for once and tell me what's going on!"
Both opened their mouths, but a low horn, loud and gutteral, interrupted them. "Fine," Ryo said,
sheathing his sword and dismissing the dark energy. "You win this round, Miyamo. But I'll be
back." With that, he sprinted away.
"What was that all about?" Lily asked, walking over to Kei.
"Don't ask me," replied the equally puzzled boy. "Apparently he wanted one of these," he indicated the device. Then, suddenly, Kei dropped to the floor, panting. "Heh... guess Ryo got a few more hits in than I thought."
Lily was about to reprimand him, when she noticed a black shape moving over the hill behind Kei.
"Watch out! They're coming again!"
Kei looked up and muttered some choice obscenities. A swarm of DarkKnightmon was advancing down the hill, waving their weapons menacingly. "I can't... fight them," he managed to get out.
"It's okay," Lily said. "Loremon told me about this place... but we have to hurry!"
"I'll be fine," Kei said as he rose to his feet. With a thought, the armour disappeared, as it was draining his now low supply of energy and would be wearing him down. He knew, though, that the armour was still in his possession somehow.
Following Lily's lead, Kei ran into the forest, darting between trees and over bushes. The blond-haired girl seemed full of energy, and was determined to reach the unknown point of salvation. It was a side of her Kei hadn't seen before.
The DarkKnightmon were pursuing them on horseback, and Kei knew that in a straight chase they would have already been cut down by now. But this forest was quite dense, and the DarkKnightmon had to choose between trying near-impossible manoeuvres to get their horse around the trees, slowing down so that their prey were faster than them, or cutting through the trees. None of the options seemed to be particularly successful.
Still, one of them was moving at breakneck speed around the trees, and gaining on Kei and Lily. "There it is!" Lily yelled, pointing forward. Kei didn't see it at first, but realized that a small sliver of the forest seemed oddnot like the rest. Then he realized that it actually was a different place. "It's a portal!" Lily explained before leaping through.
Unfortunately, the DarkKnightmon was now almost directly on Kei. Worse yet, the portal was closing rather quickly, and Kei wondered if he would be able to get through. The DarkKnightmon raised his sword. "DARK..."
With one last shot of adrenaline, Kei jumped and hit the ground in a ball. "...BLADE!" The dark attack cut into the ground, but missed the boy completely. As it shut, Kei rolled through the portal and landed on the other side, flat on his back.
"Okay..." Kei panted, out of energy. "I'm done." He looked up at their new surroundings. They were in a lush green forest, verging on being a jungle. He heard all sorts of animal calls around him. Lily stood above him, looking similarly worn out but still concerned. But what drew Kei's attention was above them.
It was a giant red tree, and from it hung what looked to be an entire town. The wooden structure was suspended by dozens of cables, and hung like a birdhouse. Kei saw several layers of homes, stores, and streets, with little peopleDigimon, he supposedwalking on them. It was simply magnificent.
"Azlynth," Lily said, remembering what the DarkKnightmon had told her. "The hanging city."
To be continued...
Author's Notes:
This chapter should have been done sooner. Well, it was done sooner, but my laptop was being an ass. Anyways, I think this chapter came out well, even if it mutated a bit from my original plans (the whole fic is doing it... don't they always?) So, see you whenever the next chapter is out, I suppose.