VENGEANCE
Chapter 20 – Corruption of the Crest
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Velgamon flew with great speed straight towards Emeraldo City without noticing that the Digidestined had caught sight on him. His attention was focused mainly on making sure that the city wouldn't fall out from his power. He knew that the Digidestined would come over to the city, and wanted to unveil himself for the first time in front of them.
"If you want things done right, you'll have to do it yourself," Velgamon muttered slowly. "Besides, maybe I should look forward on meeting a certain old friend," he continued, and grinned mentally (as it would be impossible for him to do so physically, given his current buzzard-like state).
"Ken Ichijouji," he said, eyes glinting evilly. "It's been a long time."
He landed expertly several meters from the main entrance of Emeraldo City, which he noted with satisfaction, was guarded by a Mekanorimon and a Cyclonemon. Mekanorimon isn't that powerful, but Cyclonemon was strong for a Champion.
His body began to glow with red lights, and Velgamon transformed back into Chaos Specter. This time however, there was an addition to his usual black and silver garment. His shoulders, chest and back were now protected with silver chest armor. He was holding the cobra staff that he used earlier in his battle with Pharaohmon. Chaos Specter then walked into the city, and found Chaos Seadramon with a troop of red-eyed Mekanorimon and three Blossomon.
The Mekanorimon were monitoring a group of Golemon and Monochromon pulling a cart full of emeralds towards where Chaos Seadramon was. At there itself there was already a meter-high pile of emerald of different shapes and colors.
"Master," Chaos Seadramon began politely. "I've found out that the emeralds from this city can be used as a great source of fuel for the Velvet Claw. They generate a strange power, and the digimon here each use only a small one meter square cubical emerald to generate enough power for the lights in their houses."
Chaos Specter picked an emerald and studied it closely. "Very strange," he said slowly. "I've yet to see these kinds of emeralds from my travels between dimensions. Good work, Chaos Seadramon. With this abundant source of power we won't have to worry about Velvet Claw to run out of power. Take them all."
After giving out the command, Chaos Specter decided to have a look around.
On a corner of Emeraldo City, one Mekanorimon was seen harassing a group of Palmon and Kokuwamon. A Guardromon was there, defending the two Rookie digimon but another two Mekanorimon then stepped on his way and restrained the Guardromon, who looked like he was already injured, as there were scorch and scratch marks on his body. Despite his condition, the Guardromon was undaunted and was struggling to break free from the Mekanorimon's holds.
Most digimon of Emeraldo stayed in their houses, afraid to come out from the sanctuary of their homes. Chaos Specter snickered silently and looked up as a swarm of Flymon passed by. They were also under his command, and Chaos Specter gave them a nod of approval as they bowed their heads.
The Digidestined, accompanied by their digimon, the three angels, Piximon and GrapLeomon, walked in silence as they were approaching Emeraldo City. Seeing that a Mekanorimon and a Cyclonemon guarded the city, the Digidestined prepared to digivolve their digimon partners before D'Archmon stopped them.
"Wait," she said, raising both hands. "Let us fight them, you need to save your energy to fight the stronger opponents inside."
Angemon and Piddomon both raised their staffs and nodded. "We'll take care of them easily," Angemon assured. "The Cyclonemon might take a while, though."
"Well, get going now," Piximon said.
The angels nodded and flew past the others and straight towards the entrance while the others watched silently from inside the woods. Upon seeing the angels, Mekanorimon and Cyclonemon quickly charged forward.
D'Archmon took out her sword, and cried out, "La Pucelle!!" Her sword glimmered with amber lights, and sent out sparks of fireworks towards Mekanorimon. The attack managed to short-circuit Mekanorimon and D'Archmon sprung forward, preparing to deliver a final blow to delete Mekanorimon once and for all.
Both her palms emitted out radiant pink lights, and D'Archmon then thrust both palms forward with full force.
"Battement D'Amor!!" she summoned, and immediately the place where D'Archmon had struck Mekanorimon exploded, leaving a hole on Mekanorimon's metallic body. D'Archmon then took a few steps backwards as Mekanorimon combusted into data particles.
Angemon and Piddomon teamed up to fight on the stronger and bigger Cyclonemon. Cyclonemon had a head start when it attacked Piddomon with its signature attack. Piddomon had retaliated with his own Apollo Tornado, and the attacks cancelled each other out. Angemon then delivered the Hand of Fate attack straight towards Cyclonemon's body.
"Fire Feathers!!" Piddomon joined in, sending fiery feathers that darted in a manner that befit those of arrows towards Cyclonemon. Their attacks hit Cyclonemon, but Cyclonemon didn't show any signs of being deleted. Instead, he let out an ear-splitting roar and his body glowed crimson. The crimson aura energized from his body seemed to increase his power. Cyclonemon's eyes glinted maliciously and his expression looked more menacing than before.
"You're weak!!" Cyclonemon bellowed and charged towards the two angels. Both angels however flew away, unharmed. "You're no match for me!"
"Oh yeah? Well, we'll see about that!" Angemon said hotly and brought forth his staff. Piddomon followed suit. Both angels then spun their staffs with both their hands, energizing them with holy powers. Strong winds formed from the spinning staffs, which then emitted dazzling blue, violet and white lights.
"Now!!" Piddomon yelled, and posed as if he was about to throw a boomerang.
"Behold, Cyclonemon! Angel Rod!!" Angemon shouted, and threw his staff towards Cyclonemon. The staff spun swiftly and with outstanding speed before Piddomon's own staff joined it. Both staffs then joined with each other, forming an X-shaped spinning boomerang, which charged towards Cyclonemon. With a blink of the eye, it then cut through Cyclonemon before changing back to its original states. Cyclonemon was defeated.
"That was amazing!!" the Digidestined exclaimed as they came out from their hiding places. "You guys are really great."
"Thank you," Piddomon said, with a slight bow.
"I wish I can do something like that," Armadillomon said in awe.
"I guess being HolyAngemon's disciples must have its plus points," Gatomon said with a slight shrug.
Piximon cleared his throat. "We can celebrate later, my friends. But now, we have something else to do. Let's hope that we can do this safely, unharmed, and return to Asuka by the end of the day."
"I certainly hope so," Yolei agreed.
Ken knitted his eyebrows, frowning. "I wonder if Velgamon's waiting for all of us. I think it's really weird for him to show up after all this time."
"Do you think this Velgamon might be working with that Chaos Specter?" Davis asked. "The strangest thing that came to me is that… does it ever occur to any of you guys that we've never seen this Chaos Specter? Not even once?"
"If you ask me, I think he's too chicken to show up," Veemon said nonchalantly.
"I agree with you, Davis," Kari said, with Yolei and Cody mouthing their agreements as well. Ken however looked lost in thoughts.
"The Chaos Generals were just too strong the last time we met them," Yolei said with a shudder. "I hate to think how strong is Chaos Specter actually is. Maybe it's better that we do not meet him at all."
"If that's the case, sorry to disappoint you," a voice interrupted them with a tone that was polite, but followed by a sinister snicker. The Digidestined and the digimon were surprised to see an armored raven-haired young man with blazing green eyes staring towards them. His garments were similar to those worn by Myotismon, but with black and silver coloring.
"Finally we get to meet each other, Digidestined," the young man said, his voice increasing. His tone however was cold and uninviting, and anger could be seen in his eyes. "I've never thought that a bunch of kids such as the likes of you could cause me too much trouble."
"Who are you?" Davis asked boldly.
"I am none other than Chaos Specter," the man said calmly.
The Digidestined gasped in surprise after hearing the confession. Never would they have thought that Chaos Specter was a human. Or at least, had the appearance of a human. They stood still, unsure of what to do as Chaos Specter glared towards all of them, assessing the strength of his adversaries.
Chaos Specter then switched his attention towards Ken.
"Ah, my young friend, Ken. We meet again," he said, smiling coldly. "Although I have to say that I've been expecting you. It's been so long since we've seen each other."
Ken's eyes shot up as something occurred to him. Chaos Specter's voice was so familiar to him. The resemblance was uncanny.
"It's you," Ken said slowly.
"I don't blame you for not remembering me, Ken," Chaos Specter said. "You were too young that time. Too naïve. Milleniummon's Dark Spore didn't affect you that much at that time."
"You were Duskmon when we met three years ago," Ken said flatly, running his hand subconsciously towards the back of his neck.
"Oh yes, that, too," Chaos Specter agreed. "I see that your memories are all coming back now, Ken. Yes, don't be too surprised. I know a lot of things happening here in this world. I know you've lost your partner once, and I…"
"Quiet!!" Ken screamed and closed both his ears with his hands. "Shut up!!" His knees buckled involuntarily and Ken knelt onto the grounds.
"So you still harbor that feeling of guilt inside you, Ken," Chaos Specter said with a sinister smile. "How touching. I'm sure Wormmon appreciates that."
"That's enough!" Davis yelled. "If you're Chaos Specter, and you're also that buzzard we saw just now then that makes you our enemy. Diginizer Energize!!"
From the sky, partially hidden by the clouds, a digimon was watching the whole ordeal happening inside Emeraldo City unnoticed. Wearing purple body armor, gloves and boots on top of a black catsuit, the digimon was distinctively a female one, judging by her flowing white hair, which was tied into two. A purple mask depicting that of a fox's head covered her feminine facial features.The digimon was none other than Kuzuhamon, the guardian of the Ice Lake of the Kulon Mines. She had come all the way from the North Sector in pursuit of Chaos Wargreymon, wanting to get the Zeed Crystal back.
"Chaos Specter," Kuzuhamon said slowly, although from the sky it was impossible for anyone to hear her. "So he's Chaos Wargreymon's master. By now he must have the Zeed Crystal, I'm sure Chaos Wargreymon has given him the crystal."
Averting her attention towards a group of children accompanied by a group of digimon, clearly being Chaos Specter's antagonists, Kuzuhamon watched as two of the children merged with two digimon, forming Paildramon and Angewomon.
"They must be the newest batch of Digidestined," Kuzuhamon said to herself. "It has been too long since I've met the first batch, I don't even remember how long. My meeting with them was short, but they had set me to the right path."
Kuzuhamon then disappeared out of sight from the clouds, and appeared again on too of the tallest branch of the tallest tree of the woods near the entrance of Emeraldo City. From there she could see the Digidestined even closer.
"Chaos Wargreymon is very strong himself, his master must have unimaginable powers," Kuzuhamon said to herself. "I must help them, and perhaps they will help me get back the Zeed Crystal. But I will wait first, and intervene when the time is right."
Chaos Specter found himself surrounded by his enemies in every way possible. From the air, Angewomon and the three angels hovered over him while Paildramon, Stingmon, Aquilamon, Ankylomon, Piximon and GrapLeomon cornered him on the grounds. Assessing his opponents' strength, Chaos Specter remained calm. He didn't make any motion to run, which was unnerving, considering that he was only a human. He merely fixed his eyes on his opponents, and remained silent.
"What should we do?" Aquilamon asked. "Should we make the first move?"
"No, wait," Angewomon said, pointing towards Chaos Specter. "Look!"
Chaos Specter was waving his cobra staff over the air. The eyes of the cobra idol on the staff shone with red lights, and a strange hissing sound was heard. Purple mists erupted from the eyes, and Chaos Specter snickered.
"Let's see whether you can resist the mist from my cobra staff, digimon! It's poisonous," Chaos Specter said with a smile as the mist spread out fast. "There's no use trying to run, once you inhale the mist you will be poisoned, and possibly paralyzed. It's all depending on your tolerance against poison."
Alarmed, the digimon tried to avoid the mist. Aquilamon flapped his wings to send the mist away from him, and the Digidestined who were standing near him. Ankylomon had no means of defending himself, and had to run. However his massive size slowed him down and he accidentally inhaled the mist. Instantly he felt weak and collapsed on the grounds, unconscious but remained in his Champion form.
"No! Ankylomon!" Cody cried.
"This is serious," Angewomon said as GrapLeomon was paralyzed by the mist as well, and had fallen over to his knees. Angewomon then fired the Heaven's Charm attack towards the mist. The attack had neutralized some of the mist, but Chaos Specter waved his staff again and more mist came out from the cobra's eyes. Soon, the pink holy energy died out and Angewomon had to shield herself with her wings and the pink aura that was surrounding her to stop her from inhaling the mist. She was unharmed, but the disciples of HolyAngemon were not that lucky. They had inhaled the poisonous mist as well and suffered the same fate as Ankylomon.
"We have to destroy the staff!" Paildramon said to Stingmon. Both of them were tolerant to poison, Stingmon especially, since he was poisonous himself. Paildramon was able to resist the poison due to the data of Stingmon within him.
"Let's move in to attack his staff!" Stingmon said, and darted forward.
"I'm with you," Paildramon said. He took both guns forward and launched the Desperado Blaster attack towards Chaos Specter. Stingmon followed up with his Spiking Strike attack.
Chaos Specter did not anticipate the bold moves from Paildramon and Stingmon, and was flustered even more when Angewomon struck the staff away from him successfully with a well-aimed Celestial Arrow. Aquilamon and Piximon then fired their attacks towards the staff, and broken the eyes of the cobra. Instantly the mists disappeared, but the casualties of the mist remained down for the count.
"Clever," Chaos Specter said without a hint of anger. "But that was just starters."
Closing his eyes, Chaos Specter summoned the power of darkness within him. Black armors began to form around his body; his shoulder-length black hair elongated and turned into light blonde. His height increased as a black helmet that only revealed his mouth and eyes covered his face. Red blades emerged from the gruesome skeletons that covered his hand. Chaos Specter's new look gave him the facade of a warrior of darkness.
"Duskmon," Ken said slowly.
Yolei and Cody looked towards each other, recalling back what Ken had related to them earlier about his encounter with Duskmon. They winced slightly upon seeing Duskmon.
"He's… hideous!!" Yolei cried, unable to restrain herself.
"Yolei!" Cody hissed. "He'll hear you."
Ken shuddered as past memories flashed back in his minds, one after another. It was about his first encounter with Duskmon, whom he now knew was also Chaos Specter, the villain he was facing now.
"What if I failed to retrieve the prophecy?"
"Take this vial with you. You can overcome any digimon that cross your path."
"After I retrieve the prophecy… will you help me with the pain on my neck?"
"Absolutely."
"What do you want from us?" Ken asked angrily. "What do you hope to achieve by capturing the four Harmonious Ones? What plan do you have in mind?"
"That's a lot of questions, wielder of Kindness," Duskmon replied, and laughed. "But in order not to disappoint you I will answer them. Do you recall our first meeting, Ken? I'm sure you'll find all your answers by doing so."
Ken frowned. "I can't recall some of my past memories."
"Is that so? Well this is interesting, but that's just too bad," Duskmon said mockingly.
"What are you?" Paildramon inquired. "Are you digimon, or human?"
"I'm digimon, and I am also human," Duskmon answered. "Just like you, Paildramon. The only difference is that I am what I am, I do not merge with digimon like you, I become a digimon! Now, enough talking, I've waited too long to meet all of you, but apparently one of you is missing. But no matter, it'll be easier for me to finish all of you."
Duskmon then energized the crimson blades on his hand and charged towards the nearest digimon, who so happened to be Piximon. The attack was uncalled upon, Piximon had no way of knowing he was about to be attacked. With one swipe of the blade, Duskmon cut Piximon's staff in half and sent the little pink pixie flying.
"Join your fallen friends, Piximon!" Duskmon said, roaring with laughter that sounded pure evil. Piximon was about to crash on top of the unconscious GrapLeomon when suddenly GrapLeomon jumped over to retrieve the fallen pixie.
Duskmon was appalled slightly. "You're supposed to be unconscious! Didn't you inhale the mist earlier?"
GrapLeomon placed Piximon, who was stunned by the blades, near the three unconscious angels and snickered when he faced Duskmon.
"I'm quite crafty when it comes to battle, you buffoon!!" GrapLeomon said, in Ogremon's manner. "I only pretended to be affected by the mist. The truth is I held my breath when the mist surrounded me. Now… Lion Beast Killing Wave!!" GrapLeomon sent out his mighty attack towards Duskmon and hit Duskmon point-blanc.
"How dare you!!" Duskmon shouted furiously. The force from GrapLeomon's attack had shattered his helmet, revealing a grotesque humanly face, which did not resemble Chaos Specter's handsome face any bit. He was about to charge towards the man-lion when suddenly two attacks hit him from behind.
"Bulls-eye, baby!!" Paildramon exclaimed, glancing towards Angewomon. "Nice arrow shot, Angewomon!"
Gritting his teeth angrily, Duskmon knew that he was facing against three Ultimates that were stronger than average. One was DNA Digivolved, and the other two were Transdigivolved digimon. One on one, he was stronger but he was outmatched if they decided to attack him together.
"I'll deal with the Digidestined later. First I'll take care of that arrogant GrapLeomon. He'll pay for insulting and fooling me," Duskmon muttered, and to the good guys' astonishment he suddenly disappeared out of sight.
"Hey, where did he go?" Paildramon asked around.
"Be careful, he might be around here. Maybe he's planning for a sneak attack," Angewomon warned.
Stingmon and Aquilamon hovered close towards the unconscious Ankylomon, not wanting their fallen friend to be hurt.
"I got an idea," Stingmon said, and raised the antennae on his head upwards. Looking around alertly, Stingmon continued, "Perhaps I can use my antennae to look for Duskmon. Wait, I think I… oh no!! Look out, GrapLeomon!!" he shouted, pointing out towards GrapLeomon.
Bewildered, the others looked towards GrapLeomon when suddenly Duskmon materialized out of nowhere only a few meters away from the back of GrapLeomon. Two rays of intense laser beam shot out from Duskmon's eyes and hit GrapLeomon on the chest, causing GrapLeomon to be stunned. Dropping down on his knees, GrapLeomon struggled to get up when Duskmon fired again the lasers from his eyes without mercy straight towards GrapLeomon's chest again. The armor protecting GrapLeomon's body smashed to pieces and he was severely hurt.
Duskmon walked briskly towards the severely hurt GrapLeomon. His face contorted into an evil sneer.
"I must say, GrapLeomon, I've never been fooled before. You're the only one that had managed to do so," Duskmon said. "A trick worthy of a prize, and here's your PRIZE!!" Duskmon raised his sword high, preparing to slash the defenseless GrapLeomon and sending him to his doom.
"Celestial Arrow!!" Angewomon attacked quickly, and her arrow hit Duskmon's blade. However it wasn't strong enough to destroy it.
"Nice try, little girl," Duskmon said, and shot out multiple lasers towards Angewomon. Angewomon managed to evade the first laser, but as a series of lasers were shot towards her at the same time, she wasn't able to defend herself and the blazing lasers blasted her wings. The lasers burnt her wings and Angewomon found herself losing balance. She began to fall, but was caught by Paildramon.
"I'll teach you to mess with Kari!" Paildramon cried angrily. With one hand holding Angewomon, Paildramon tossed out a gun on his free hand and began firing towards Duskmon madly.
"Such gallantry," Duskmon mocked, and countered all the attacks with his lasers. He then shot out more lasers towards Paildramon and shattered a portion of Paildramon's thick armor. Turning over to finish off GrapLeomon, Duskmon was shocked to see that the lion-man was gone!
"What?!" he bellowed angrily, but then a large shadow passed over him. Duskmon saw the shadow on the ground, and looked up. He saw Stingmon, carrying GrapLeomon away from him.
"Not so fast!" Duskmon shouted, and fired the atrocious eye-lasers towards Stingmon. The lasers burned the insect warrior's wings, and both Stingmon and GrapLeomon crashed onto the ground.
"Stingmon! No!!" Ken cried, worried over the fate of his partner. Looking around, he saw that both Paildramon and Angewomon were badly hurt. Ankylomon, Piximon and the three angels were still knocked out, and Aquilamon was defending them. Ken shuddered, realizing that Duskmon had managed to defeat them all.
Without him noticing, something was glowing inside the pockets of his trousers. Faint violet lights came out from the pocket.
Duskmon glanced towards Ken. "Why Ken, I almost forgot that Stingmon is your partner digimon!" he said, and laughed. He walked over towards where Stingmon and GrapLeomon were lying, and kicked GrapLeomon away forcefully. Then, he averted his attention towards Stingmon, and kicked him in the same manner he did to GrapLeomon. Next, he fired the lasers again towards Stingmon, hitting him on the back. Stingmon let out an excruciating cry of extreme pain.
"No! Stingmon!!" both Paildramon and Angewomon cried. Aquilamon was heard shouting as well, but he couldn't abandon the fallen digimon and the Digidestined he was protecting.
Ken was shaking. Yolei and Cody were trying to calm him down, but Ken was too furious towards Duskmon for hurting Stingmon and the other digimon.
"Duskmon!!" he shouted. "Leave my partner alone!!"
Brilliant violet lights erupted from Ken's trousers pocket; it was the broken Crest of Kindness. The symbol of the flower, despite the cracks, was shining brightly. Then, something strange happened. The Crest of Kindness turned black, emitting strange dark purple lights. Ken however was too angry that he didn't notice the bizarre event that was happening; his attention was fixed solely towards the safety of his partner. Duskmon was too busy trying to finish off Stingmon to notice. Only Yolei, Cody and Aquilamon noticed it. At the same time, dark clouds materialized on top of the city, and lightning flashed dangerously.
"Leave Stingmon alone!!" Ken cried angrily, and the Crest of Kindness shot out dark energy beam towards Stingmon. The thunders and lightning intensified as dark purple lights enveloped Stingmon who was lying on the grounds, his face facing the earth. Duskmon's right foot was on top of his back, restraining him from moving.
Stingmon glowed with the darkest shades of purple, which perplexed Duskmon. As Stingmon began to grow in size, Duskmon had to jump away for his safety. Stingmon roared loudly, feeling more and more energized by the dark lights.
Ken finally realized what was happening; his anger had somehow triggered the Crest of Kindness, which had yet to be activated. However, at the same time his rage had corrupted the crest, causing Stingmon to lead a flawed digivolution process. Ken was unsure whether the fact that the crest was broken had anything to do with it as he helplessly watched his partner digivolving.
"Stingmon, Dark Digivolve to…"
Far from the commotion happening at Emeraldo City, a menacing digimon was rampaging inside the forests of the southern quadrant of the East Sector. Inside the Kicking Forest, an earsplitting angry roar was heard followed by multiple cries of defeat. Then, the forest was silent again and faint lights came from the site where the roar and the cries were heard. After a few moments the lights intensified and the source of the lights became apparent; the forest was set afire. Blazes of red and yellow fire burned the lush greenery of the trees of the forests, sending hordes of digimon residing inside the forest away. An evil laughter echoed the entire burning forest, and a hulking shadow of the digimon responsible for the entire event stepped out from the flames.
"Data," Chaosdramon said, scanning around hungrily in hopes of finding more digimon to feed on. "More data for more power!"
Catching sight of a trio of Goblimon running away from the forests, Chaosdramon aimed his cannon silently. The helpless Rookies didn't know what were coming for them as Chaosdramon mercilessly shot them from the back, and fed on their data. His body glowed temporarily before returning back to their original red color. As he adjusted himself to the new data inside his body, Chaosdramon reflected back to events happening a few days ago leading into this event.
After his defeat to Paildramon at Harmona Town, MetalTyrannomon ran without stop, all the while vowing to have revenge for the humiliation he had suffered. Without drawing any attention to him, he had attacked unsuspecting digimon along his way, and took their data for his own in order to sustain his Mega form. For days, he had fed on digimon of all levels except for a Mega. His big chance came when he encountered a slightly weak Ultimate digimon, Meteormon. MetalTyrannomon instantly engaged Meteormon in a battle, and to his surprise Meteormon gave him a good fight. However, owing to the powers he'd gotten by joining the Chaos Force, MetalTyrannomon had the upper hand. He defeated Meteormon and downloaded his data, and digivolved permanently into Chaosdramon again. Plotting to attack Tyrannovalley before Chaos Specter, Chaosdramon then headed back to his clan, whom he had betrayed. Vowing to take over the position as a ruler of the Tyranno Clan, Chaosdramon grabbed any chance for him to increase his power and attacked every digimon he'd caught sight on.
The fire he had set ablaze onto the forest instantly drew the attentions of two Pteramon who were flying nearby. These Armor digimon served the Tyranno Clan, which was a clan of dinosaur-based digimon. They were patrolling on air, and easily caught sight of the fire and Chaosdramon.
"The rumors are true! That traitorous MetalTyrannomon has digivolved!" one Pteramon squawked.
"We have to report this to MasterTyrannomon," the other one said.
Quickly the pteranodon digimon flew back to Tyrannovalley, which was located at the farthest end of the Kicking Forest. Hidden by a huge amount of trees, fogs and rocky mountains, the valley was perfectly out of sight. Situated behind the mountains, there were only two ways to reach the valley. One was by flying over the mountains, and the other option was by using the secret tunnel. The secret tunnel was located somewhere at the foot of the mountains. Being airborne digimon, the Pteramon opted to fly over the mountains and navigated themselves carefully inside the thick fogs. The fogs had caused a few accidents among digimon who couldn't see their way and hit the peak of the mountains.
The Pteramon safely arrived at the gate of Tyrannovalley, which was constructed on the bare grounds of the valley. Massive animal bones were used as walls aside from the huge rocks. It was believed that an unbelievably huge SkullMammothmon had lived during the ancient times of the Digital World. It lived for thousands of years, and when it died, instead of dissolving into data particles like all digimon, SkullMammothmon decomposed in a manner like the animals of Earth. The founder of Tyrannovalley and the first ruler of the Tyranno Clan, who was an aged MasterTyrannomon, then used the large bones to assemble the valley a few millennia after the death of SkullMammothmon.
A Triceramon greeted the Pteramon, followed by two Allomon.
"What's wrong?" Triceramon began, noting the frantic behavior of the Pteramon.
"We have to see MasterTyrannomon now," the Pteramon chorused. "The traitor has returned, and he's now a Mega!"
Triceramon nodded, and ordered the Allomon to guard the gate while he took the Pteramon to see their ruler. They took a series of mazes, all constructed from the bones of one digimon (hard as it may be to believe). Tyrannovalley was a small valley, but considering that it was made from the bones of a digimon, it was significantly large. It seemed like they were walking inside the rib bones of the digimon until they reached a platform, which was created using a huge pillar of grey stone. Behind the platform was the skull of the deceased SkullMammothmon, without its tusks. MasterTyrannomon was standing on the platform, his eyes glowing intelligently, showing his wisdom.
Immediately, the Pteramon reported about Chaosdramon coming over to the valley. All the while, MasterTyrannomon listened intently without interrupting the Pteramon. Then, he nodded and sighed heavily.
"I have to say that I've expected him to return," MasterTyrannomon said solemnly. "But I've never thought that he's able to become a Mega. He was vying for the position as ruler with me for a long time, when we were both nominated as the heir to our late master's power. MetalTyrannomon however was greedy, wanting the power for himself instead of using it for the good of our small clan. Thus the master chose me before he was deleted due to old age."
"None of us would have chosen him," a Pteramon spoke up. "You are our benevolent leader, master."
Triceramon nodded. "I've watched the two of you progress, master. You have shown great qualities as a leader since you were a Rookie, while MetalTyrannomon didn't. He was a bully to his peers, and enjoyed bossing around those who were weaker than him. I, as the advisor of the leader of the clan, have served our late master and I will continue serve you."
MasterTyrannomon's expression lifted. "I'm so much younger than any of you," he said towards Triceramon and the Pteramon. "But I'm afraid that MetalTyrannomon will cause the unnecessary deletion of the members of our clan. He's now Chaosdramon, a Mega, and he's far stronger than any of us. It is me he wants to fight, and he wants the position as the ruler of our clan."
"You will not surrender, master," Triceramon said sternly. "We will not have another master other than you, and we won't have Chaosdramon as our leader."
"I have to stop him from entering our valley," MasterTyrannomon said thoughtfully. "Our late master had wanted me to protect this valley and the Ivory Citadel as well. A close friend of our late master lives there alone all by herself, and the citadel is considered as a part of our valley."
"Yes, I remember the master used to meditate there before he gave the place for the lady friend of his to live in. It was said that she saved him in a battle, and as a token of gratitude the master granted her the Ivory Citadel as she was looking for a place to stay. She was permitted to use the Ivory Citadel in any way she saw fit. Under her care the citadel and the lands surrounding it became more and more beautiful. However none of us knew her identity, she was aloof and wished not to be disturbed by anyone. So our late master ordered that none of us were to go there," Triceramon said.
"That is true. So we must make sure that Chaosdramon will never get through this valley, and will not take over our clan," MasterTyrannomon responded. "I only wish that the lady digimon would help us as well. From what I've heard from the master, she is a Mega digimon, which would increase our chance in defeating Chaosdramon."
Triceramon voiced his agreement. "I agree, but she is not a part of our clan, so we must not rely on her, master. She may be a friend of our late master, but she has no ties with us. Thus we must not rely on her but try our best to defend our clan."
"You are right," MasterTyrannomon said. "Send everyone to defend the gate. We must be ready for the traitor's arrival!"
