Chapter 49 – One Game Ends…
Despite the extreme lack of color in the Dark Ocean, the inhabitants were occasionally treated to several unique sights.
Such as Daemon cursing up a storm while pacing around.
Such sights were generally viewed safest from a great distance away, but a few usually got closer, much like the people who slow to gawk at bad car wrecks on the freeway.
Usually such a thing was fatal, but today Daemon was too caught up in his own problems to consider deleting the annoying flies that gawked at him.
Finally the Demon Lord Mega calmed himself. This was accomplished in the usual manner.
"EVIL INFERNO!"
When he had sufficiently settled his nerves, Daemon resumed pacing, without the cursing this time. These events bore looking into.
The outcome had been as he had suspected. Even the new destined gaining the mega level hadn't been surprising.
But the how…
It is… troubling. Portents of that nature must be studied thoroughly.
Eventually, he paused in his pacing as a sudden suspicion hit him like one of the boy's blows.
He raced back to the pool and focused it on a person. Focusing in on the real world was difficult, but his efforts were well rewarded this time. He then focused it upon an object of power, one that should also have been in the real world. It was… but not where he expected, for where it should have shown two different people, the person he focused on and the carrier of the item, it showed only as single face.
Daemon began to laugh. He was not truly in any better position by this development that he could tell, but the irony of the situation was not lost on him.
He laughed.
And laughed.
The howling laughter echoed through the Dark Ocean, and all the digimon in the realm shuddered and pelt pity for the object of Daemon's mirth.
When we got to Azulongmon's valley, having left the Ney York Digidestined to go home, Takato was sleeping, his head resting against BlackGuilmon's side. Gennai appeared then.
"Hello, Digidestined!"
I smiled.
"Hello, Gennai."
Tentomon buzzed around my shoulders, and responded as well.
"It's good to see you again."
Tai, on the other hand, only nodded, and walked over to Takato, and brought his leg back to kick the sleeping boy. Sora smacked him before he could, however.
"Tai Kamiya! What do you think you're doing?"
He turned, a frown on his face.
"Look, Sora. Takato's got to answer some questions, here. He's been ducking out of them for years, and it's beginning to wear thin."
Sora frowned herself.
"I agree on that much, Tai, but he just got deleted today. I'd think you could wait for him to wake up after that happened!"
Tai opened his mouth, but was cut off by a groan and Takato sleepily blinked his eyes and looked around.
"Uh… heh heh."
Tai smirked at Sora, who simply arched an eyebrow, daring him to do something about it. He backed down.
And people say he can't take a hint.
Since Tai was occupied with Sora, I decided to take the fore here. I walked over.
"Hey Takato."
He smiled a little.
"Hi, Izzy. Glad to see you're all right."
I nodded.
"Yeah, it was tough for a while there, but we seem to have come out of it all right. We need to talk."
He blinked at the sudden change in tone and topic, but nodded. The others started listening to the story as well.
"Yeah, I figured that. I…"
Gennai interrupted.
"Telling them everything that happened would not be wise, Takato. Tell them what you must."
We all turned to stare at Gennai. Takato sounded confused.
"But… doesn't the biomerge cover the last of the things that shouldn't be said?"
Gennai sighed.
"Not… necessarily. There are still other details about your world that would be… harmful to them. Like exactly why you knew so much about them before you came here."
Gennai's eyes narrowed at this, and Takato nodded, getting the point.
"That's probably true… okay, I'll just talk about the bio merging."
Takato sighed and looked over at BlackGuilmon, who was still sleeping before continuing.
"It's simple, really. Bio merge digivolution is the process in which a digimon achieves the mega level by merging with their partner. Not much to it really."
He chuckled.
"Just, usually, I use my digivice to start it up instead of being deleted."
Tai nodded slowly, trying to wrap himself around that. Ken broke in after a moment.
"So… uh, what did you tell our parents?"
Oh boy…
Another while later, we were back on better terms with each other, and were about to head out.
"The rest of you go ahead. Azulongmon and I need to talk to Takato for a bit."
They looked at us, and Tai looked like he was going to insist on staying. Gennai just waved his hands in a shooing motion.
"Go on. It's just some news from the southern quadrant that's best to be given in private, that's all."
Tai nodded, and turned around. T.K. leveled his digivice.
"Digiport open!"
When they were gone, Gennai's face came up serious.
"Think up something to tell them about home, Takato. This cannot get back to them. I realize you had to tell them everything about you, but this is worse."
I gulped.
How bad can this possibly get?
"You and I both know Carmela should not have been able to get Kotemon to mega, right?"
I nodded. There was almost no way she could have done that, Carmela should not have had the energy, and Kotemon didn't have the experience. Gennai continued.
"The ability to do that takes more power than most Digidestined have. Sure, most can do it eventually… but the speed is the issue here."
He paused for a moment.
"Note I said most."
"Something different about her?"
"Yes. This will seem off topic, but bear with me. Do you know why Kari was not called to the digital world when Tai and the others first came?"
"She was sick, and didn't make it to camp, right?"
He gave me a look.
"Do you really think it would have made that much of a difference?"
"Well, now that I think about it…"
"Kari was not the eighth child listed in the prophecy. Or at least, she wasn't supposed to be. When Tai brought her back, we… circumvented fate, brought out and fused the crest of light into her."
I blinked. That was new.
"Why?"
"That takes a bit of explaining, after all, there are other Digidestined without crests, right? Well, there are twelve virtues, represented by the crests, in the digital world."
I frowned.
"I thought it was nine? Well, ten if there's a crest of miracles to go with the egg."
"There is, and one for the crest of fate as well. Willis has the digi-egg of fate, if you recall."
"Then you still only have eleven, Gennai."
He sighed.
"That would be the problem. Did you ever wonder why, besides Wizardmon, Gatomon started out on Myotismon's side? Why Gatomon couldn't even find Kari for the longest time? Why Kari was sucked into the Dark Ocean? We used the crest of light as a seal."
A seal for what?
"A seal… for the crest of darkness."
My eyes went wide.
"What?"
"Yes."
I groaned. Then frowned.
"What does this have to do with Carmela?"
Gennai sighed.
"She was originally supposed to bear the crest of light, with Kotemon at her side."
I frowned.
"But the prophecy specifically said 'arrows of hope and light'. How does that work?"
Gennai looked worried.
"I think we outsmarted ourselves."
"Huh?"
"I think the prophecy forced us to go this far with it, bonding it to Kari, creating the 'arrow of light'. We tried to stem the darkness inside Kari… but the fact that none of Kotemon's levels had anything to do with arrows of any sort makes that obvious now."
I nodded slowly.
"Yes, but Angemon didn't have that either."
Gennai nodded.
"True, but the point still stands, since nothing short of Kotemon's mega form could produce an energy blast of the light element. And if he was meant to be a mega then…"
I finished the thought.
"Then risking Tai and Matt would have been useless."
He nodded, and resumed.
"So in the battle, the crest returned to Carmela, giving her a boost at a vital moment."
He looked me in the eye now.
"But that means that the seal is off the crest of darkness now! We have to make sure that it never activates. Ever."
"Oh?"
He nodded.
"The day it activates is the end of the digital world as we know it."
"What!"
He sighed and sat down on a rock. Not to be rude, I sat down in front of him.
"There's another prophecy. There are some things that happen before the activation of the crest of darkness, like the activation of the crest of fate, but until the crest of darkness activates, the entire thing can be averted. After that, there's no turning back. At that point the destruction of the digital world begins, and can't be reversed."
I gulped.
"Wow…"
He nodded.
"You need to keep an eye on things, Takato. If it activates… nothing will be able to stop… whatever this 'god-knight' is from taking over the digital world."
I nodded seriously.
"I'll do what I can."
He nodded.
"Good. Oh, one thing before you go. There is a little news from the south…"
I looked at him curiously.
"Oh?"
He nodded.
"I wouldn't usually mention it, but in light of the excuse I probably should. There have been some attacks there. Nothing your friends can't handle, but it's still a little odd. I'll let you know when we know more."
I nodded, waved goodbye, and left, my thoughts still on Kari, and the crest of darkness.
Daemon had resumed his pacing.
No one was really getting close this time, Daemon seemed to be in the mood to obliterate things. He glanced over to where his servants stood, ready for his orders. He motioned to the only male.
"Slow down the attacks for a bit."
The boy nodded.
"Yes sir."
Daemon grunted.
"Instead, travel to the southern digital quadrant. See if you can't convince more wild digimon to cross over. Go."
The boy nodded, and walked a short distance away before a gate opened for him and he stepped through. Daemon turned his attention back to the two females and a single digimon, who were still kneeling. He motioned to the dark haired one.
"I have a different sort of task for you."
She arched an eyebrow. She was the impudent one. As she was the only one with something resembling a success rate, he let it pass.
"Yes. There is a being of great power within this place. I lost track of it during a vital phase of last year's plan. It could prove extremely useful for us. Find it, and bring it back."
She rolled her eyes, but still instantly turned to go. Daemon stopped her before she could take more than a single step, and she wondered if she had perhaps gone too far that time.
"Stay close, girl. I may need you for another task shortly should Azulongmon or his pawns prove too curious about the tasks of your compatriots."
She nodded, and left for real this time, trudging into the jungle by the cliff side. The final girl was left kneeling. After a few minutes of silence, she spoke.
"And I, master?"
Daemon smiled, though no one could see it through the darkness of his hood.
"You and I, girl, shall make the final adjustments to the plan. This time, we can't afford failure. Not if we are to pave the way for my master's return. He grows impatient."
The girl nodded, and remained kneeling until he motioned for her to rise.
"Come. There is much to prepare for, much to plan."