The Crystal Gate
Part Eight: A Feeling of Impending Doom
Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, all characters and profit made from it, is not mine. The plot of this story is (mostly) mine. Don't steal, don't sue, don't forget to moo.
Moo.
It was late afternoon, the sun unbearable, when they reached the tower that had been a blur in the distance that morning. Despite the fact that the sun was only barely beginning to sink and there was no wind, Shijo felt goose bumps appear on his skin and shivered as though he were cold.
"It's the dark magic," V-mon told him, shaking his head. He looked up at his partner. "Are we going to get rid of it?" he asked.
Daisuke had been sullen since that morning's reunion with Miyako, and had not, after all, explained things to Shijo as he had originally intended. He had barely spoken two words since he'd stormed away from the mage. Even now, he had a severe frown on his face as he peered up at the tower before them. He took a deep breath as though preparing himself for something, and nodded.
"Let's hope this is as easy as it looks to be," he mumbled under his breath. "Digimental up!"
"Woo!" V-mon half-cheered. Shijo squinted as a bright light almost blinded him. Beyond the light, which oddly enough seemed to be making noise, he could hear the digimon shouting. "V-mon armor evolve! Fladramon!"
"Wow," both Shijo and his partner Koromon gasped in near unison. When the light had faded, a tall, two-legged digimon with stylized orange flames on his arms and legs had appeared in place of V-mon.
The exciting things were still yet to come, however. "Fire Rocket!" shouted Fladramon, aiming one of his fists in the direction of the tower before him. A ball of fire sped from his arm and slammed into the dark, polished surface of the tower. Almost immediately, a crack ran up the side of the object, but it didn't break entirely.
"Watch out," Fladramon advised, leaping into the air and running to another side of the tower. "This will fell it for sure. Fire Rocket!" Another fireball crashed into this side of the tower, this one with more power. The crack that had formed originally grew wider, and a second crack appeared near the bottom.
For a moment, the dark obelisk swayed and teetered and then it fell to the ground as though it were a tree that had been chopped down. The once formidable tower was now nothing more than a crumbled mess on the ground.
"Probably the easiest one ever," Daisuke noted, looking around as though he expected enemies to jump from under the sand and attack. He shrugged. "Ah well. Good job."
Another white light surrounded Fladramon, and then he was V-mon once more. "Thanks," he said, grinning. "I was hoping to get some action on this trip."
"Let's hope for no more than that," his partner answered, frowning.
"Now what?" Shijo asked, for there was nothing else in the area but more sand. They were in the middle of a valley at the moment, tall dunes surrounding them on every side.
Miyako had chosen a faster way of travel than walking, and taken to the air immediately. Holsmon soared over the empty desert. Although she felt some concern about leaving Daisuke to his own devices, it had been clear that he wanted no assistance, and so she did as he wished, promising herself that she would find him again before nightfall.
From the air, she had easily spotted the tower that Daisuke and Shijo were heading in the direction of, but her more immediate concern was to follow the magic of the crystal while she still could. "He's walked through the desert on his own before, survived far worse than this," she said, defending her actions more to herself than Holsmon. "I'm sure he'll be fine, right?"
"Let's only hope Hikari feels the same way you do," her partner answered gravely, and Miyako frowned.
"She wouldn't – I mean, she did want him to find himself, didn't she? Hikari wouldn't have left if she didn't think…Oh I don't know," she finally confessed, frustrated. "I can't force him to come with me, and I can't follow him around. It's not as though he's a child, right?"
"I suppose," Holsmon agreed. "I see something down there, if you're interested."
"Of course I'm interested," Miyako scolded, peering over the edge of her partner's wings. "Do you suppose that's it?"
"If it is," he said, "then Daisuke is headed in the right direction." She peered over the opposite side to see that he and Shijo were indeed heading in that direction, although it would likely take them a few hours to reach it.
What she saw appeared from the sky to be no more than a pile of rocks in the sand, and yet she knew from experience it was much larger on the ground than it seemed to be from the air. "It looks," she said slowly, "like some sort of wreckage, the ruins of some building that was once very big. I suppose it could be what we're looking for. I do sense ancient magic there. Dark magic."
"It's worth looking into, nonetheless," Holsmon answered. "I don't remember there being many buildings in this desert, so if that's wreckage of something, it's likely the wreckage we're looking for. It's not far from the snow boundary, after all."
The snow of the far north at the edge of the desert was a short distance to the north, as it had been when Miyako had briefly seen this building standing before a combination of Chimeramon, Magnamon, and many other digimon had succeeded in destroying not only the Kaiser's fortress but the Kaiser himself. Since then, no one had ventured back to the desert, to this place…except for perhaps Ken.
When it had been standing, the building had inspired in Miyako a great deal of fear; now the wreckage seemed to be engulfed in a miasma of sadness. Holsmon landed some distance away and de-evolved. For a few moments, Miyako only stared, lost in memories as well as magic, and Hawkmon didn't speak. She thought that she would not have been surprised to hear Ken's voice now, but it was not likely that he had come this far as quickly as she had, unless he knew of some magic.
"Is the crystal in there?" Hawkmon questioned, and she nodded, mutely, having lost interest for the moment in spoken words. He noticed that she took a deep breath and clenched both her hands tightly before she began to walk, slowly, toward the building.
Takeru spent the whole of his first day in Hida cleaning. After introducing himself to everyone of importance and explaining (not precisely untruthfully) that he had come in the middle of the night to be of help to Iori, he volunteered to lead a large group of people, mostly women and children, and coordinate the cleaning efforts. Despite the cluttered, dusty state of the upstairs, the first floor was in a horrid enough state that it would be wise to begin there and work upwards.
Meanwhile, the workers who had been brought in from the capital and the rest of the kingdom worked diligently to rebuild the homes and shops that had been destroyed. The village men who did not assist the outside workers tended the fields as they had done before the Tyrannomon attacks. Women, seamstresses, and tailors worked with the large amount of fabric that had been brought in to create hundreds of blankets and rugs and curtains and clothes that had been destroyed by the fire. Those who were not already occupied with these tasks helped Takeru.
The first thing to do was to clear out the furniture that was no longer usable, and then to mash this into firewood. The furniture, little though there was, which was salvageable was set aside so that it could be repaired and restored. After the rooms had been emptied, buckets upon buckets of water were brought in so that the floors and walls and windows could be washed. This took a significant amount of effort, but after a few hours, the room sparkled. Takeru divided his forces into three groups and set each group a room to focus on. By the time the sun began to set, three more rooms were cleaned and ready to be occupied.
Feeling exhausted, Takeru found himself a spot to sit in the middle of the entrance hall. He leaned against the wall and rested for a few moments. Already the smell of food was filling the hall, awakening his stomach and his hunger. He was certain that he had not worked the hardest of the cleaners, and yet he felt tired.
'It must be that I am not used to hard work like that,' he thought to himself, and wondered for the first time if maybe Hida and Iori did not need him, but he needed this place. Before he had time to think further on this subject, however, a cheer arose from the large doorway and the leader of the builders entered the hall.
"I am pleased to announce," he said in a loud clear voice, "that I was commissioned to build three hundred buildings, and three hundred buildings have been built."
A very large cheer rose up from the villagers at this statement, and Takeru joined in the clapping, watching as the crowd parted to let the builder cross the room. He could see between the people well enough to watch as Iori shook hands with the builder, thanking him and his men for their hard work.
"If my tavern were open," said a man near Takeru with a loud voice, "I would offer a free drink to every one of those who has helped us." He shook his head. "Unfortunately, I have no ale to serve them!"
"Did none of it survive the fires?" a woman questioned.
"Some," he admitted. "Most was destroyed, though, and that what survived has already been drunk!" He seemed to find this hilarious, and burst into hearty laughter. Several men who had been standing nearby joined in.
Even without liquor, the crowd seemed to find the meal prepared to be well up to standards, as loud conversation continued for some time. When everyone had eaten but no one had left, a few of the villagers got up and provided entertainment. Two women who had worked in the village tavern serenaded the crowd with a joyful number, accompanied not by instruments (which had been destroyed in the attack) but joined by a large number of other people. Apparently, the song they sung was very popular and well known to patrons of the tavern.
A few other songs were taken up, and then an old man climbed (with some assistance) to the top of a crate and motioned the crowd to be silent. A solemn hush fell over the crowd as the villagers seemed to be aware that the time for celebration had nearly finished.
"My friends," said the man, who Takeru recognized as having been on the steps the afternoon before. "This will be our last night spent intruding upon the hospitality of our generous host and new Lord."
A loud burst of applause and cheering followed this statement. Takeru found Iori in the crowd and saw that he was bowing humbly.
"Our homes and businesses have been rebuilt," the eldest of the elders continued. "We have worked well as a community, and without that, Hida would have long ago faltered and died."
Another burst of applause interrupted this as the people congratulated each other on their work. Several men standing nearby turned to shake hands with each other, and a few of the women hugged each other.
"Let us not forget this spirit of community in the months to come," the old man went on. "For though we have rebuilt the buildings, there is still much work to do if we are to prosper. I have no doubt that we will succeed, and under our new leadership!"
The loudest burst of applause and cheering came then as the people congratulated each other and cheered their new Lord. Feeling exhausted and sensing that the celebration was not likely to finish for a few more hours, Takeru got to his feet and left the hall in search of a quiet place to sleep.
The sun was nearly sunk and the stars were high overhead. Miyako waited at the edge of the ruins she had spotted from the air, sitting on a large stone that had once been part of the tall towers. She was waiting for Daisuke, for she knew that he and Shijo would undoubtedly be arriving at this place before long, and she was meditating, taking the time to magically examine the ruins.
It was, as she sensed, ancient dark magic that had held the building itself together. Although she could sense a few small threads of Ken, most of the magic involved was from centuries before their time. It was powerful to have survived so long and still be present strong enough so that she could sense it so well.
She could hear footsteps in the sand behind her, slow and shuffling through the sand, and knew that Daisuke was there, though he didn't speak. When she opened her eyes, she saw that it was significantly darker than it had been when she'd arrived.
"You're here," she said, not glancing back in his direction. "Now what?" Miyako held out her right hand, concentrated, and after a moment a small flame appeared, floating in midair above her palm. Slowly, it grew larger, though it was still small. She'd taken a lot of magical energy to travel out to the desert; she couldn't keep a fire together forever, but it was enough to see by.
"I don't know," Daisuke answered, his voice still sharp, as though he was most displeased to find her there. He took a few steps toward the ruins and stopped abruptly, inhaling sharply.
Shijo, confused, ventured to ask, "What's wrong?"
He shivered, shook his head, and stepped backward two steps. "We'll wait until morning," he decided.
"You can feel it, can't you?" Miyako questioned of him, not having moved from her seat. "You spent enough time engulfed in it, too, didn't you? Surely you can sense it. It's faint, but powerful."
He didn't answer immediately. She thought she could see something on his face – pain? Confusion? She wasn't sure. He turned away from the ruins and she could see by the firelight that there was a strange look in his eyes she was not used to seeing.
A moment passed, and it was gone, his eyes almost blank, almost lifeless again. Miyako shivered, wondering what he was feeling.
"I'm not eager to venture in myself," she said, her voice quiet, as though she were consoling him. "Not without Ken…or at least Hikari. At the very least, I think it'd be best if we wait until daylight."
He sighed heavily and sat down on another large stone. After a moment, Shijo (who'd felt nothing, magical or otherwise, and was thus rather confused) sat down as well.
"Did you bring anything to eat?" Daisuke questioned after a long period of silence. "Or at least some water?"
She shook her head, though smiling slightly. "How would you have managed without me?" she wondered.
Daisuke only shrugged. "I was planning on coming alone," he said again, glancing briefly toward Shijo. "I brought enough for one."
Shijo studied his feet with an incredible amount of interest not usually given to feet.
The celebration had gone on late into the night even without the assistance of alcohol, and Takeru, who felt far too tired to join in any sort of partying, retreated as far as possible from the entrance hall. He found a mostly-empty, half-cleaned room and found that when he shut the door it largely blocked the sounds of voices from beyond.
Patamon was already asleep atop his usual perch on his partner's head, and did not waken when he was lifted from that perch and set on the floor. He simply rolled over, snoring lightly. Takeru, having carried in a blanket and a candle to see by, set the blanket on the ground and fell asleep within minutes, not even bothering to put out the candle.
It was some time later that he awoke, shivering. The candle had burned down to a stub of wax. Patamon was awake, peering through the tall window on the northern wall, looking out at the night beyond the glass.
"Why's it so cold?" Takeru mumbled crossly, pulling the blanket over his shoulders. He got to his feet and stumbled over to the window in the near darkness.
"Something evil's coming, I think," Patamon answered gravely. "The cold sinks right through to the bones."
He shivered, yawned, and squinted through the window. It was covered with twenty years' worth of dust, and beyond the starlight was faint, half concealed by clouds. Not much was visible beyond some nearby trees. "Sure it's not because we're so far north, the mountains nearby?" he asked hopefully.
"Doubtful," Patamon answered, turning to look up at his partner. "We should go."
"Yeah, I thought you might say that," his partner agreed with a sigh. He pulled the blanket around him like a cloak to shield against the cold and put on his shoes, the only bit of clothing he'd bothered to remove before falling asleep. Patamon took his usual spot atop Takeru's head.
The rest of the house beyond the room seemed quiet. The villagers had apparently all returned to their homes or fallen asleep, and the corridors were devoid of people and digimon of all sorts. Immediately, Takeru thought to look for Koushiro, but before he had reached the wizard's room, there was the sound of a loud explosion in the distance.
The calm silence was interrupted nearly immediately by the sound of a baby crying somewhere in the distance. Some of the villagers who were still camped out in the entrance hall had obviously been awakened. Takeru, now fully awake, was at Koushiro's door a half-second later.
A half-second after that, Koushiro had emerged from the room and was standing in the hallway. "Let's go," he said simply, and in the light from the candle he held, Takeru could see that Tentomon was following after him.
The entrance hall was slowly awakening to a state of mild panic. A few children and babies had awakened and begun to cry, but many of the adults seemed oblivious to whatever threat might be lurking here. Iori emerged into the hall at almost the exact time that Takeru reached it. Saying nothing, he nodded toward both of them, and Takeru understood immediately that it would not be wise to agitate the villagers and cause further panic.
The night air was cold, the sun only barely hinting at its imminent arrival and doing nothing to warm the air or give light to the area. Iori quietly shut the heavy doors behind them and, dropping the false calmness he'd been portraying within, asked Koushiro in a near whisper: "Where'd it come from?"
"North," Takeru said before the wizard could answer. He was looking in that direction, and, though he was not sure why he had said so, he felt absolutely certain of it, for the cold air seemed to be coming from that direction. Above, Patamon nodded once in agreement.
Iori stared at him blankly for a brief moment, but Koushiro nodded. "Let's go north, then," he decided.
The height of flight did not provide the expected assistance. There was nothing to suggest what had caused the recent explosion, nothing to even suggest that an explosion had occurred. Takeru wondered if he had imagined the entire thing, and then recalled that it was night, and therefore rather difficult to see.
The air was colder in the sky, and the further north they went the colder it seemed to be. Absently, Takeru wondered how far they were from the Northern Kingdom's border, and then hoped that some attacking army from that kingdom had not caused the explosion. He certainly didn't want to become involved in the beginnings of a war.
"There!" Iori called, pointing at some dark spot in the sky that was becoming larger and larger the further they went.
"What is it?" Takeru shouted across the distance between Pegasmon and Kabuterimon, who carried Iori and Koushiro.
"Can't tell," Iori answered, squinting through the darkness. "Looks a bit familiar…sort of...sort of like…."
"Like Airdramon," Armadimon finished in a low voice only barely heard over the wind.
"It does," Koushiro agreed, his frown so serious Takeru could see it in the darkness. "What could they be doing up here…?"
"Causing trouble, maybe," Takeru theorized. "Here comes one. Maybe…."
But the rest of his sentence was cut off as the serpentine flyer rushed past him at such a speed he barely had time to blink. In the dim light, it was hard to see, but he was fairly certain there was a human rider on the back of it.
"It's possible he didn't see us," Pegasmon suggested, but this theory was proven to be false almost immediately as the Airdramon turned around in midair and zoomed past them from the opposite direction. This time, the rider was clearly visible, and Takeru caught sight of some long, thin object before he felt something connect solidly with his head. He began to feel rather dizzy, and the next thing he knew, he was falling.
To the great disappointment of everyone present, the ruins of what had once been a formidable fortress did not look or feel the least bit friendlier when the sun had risen.
Miyako had, thankfully, brought enough food to last for a few days, and so they lingered for a bit over the meal. It was nearly two hours past sunrise by the time they finished, each person present having taken quite a bit longer to eat than might usually be expected.
Except for Shijo. The boy had devoured his food and drank a rather large gulp of water with all deliberate speed, being that he was quite hungry and quite eager to be on the move again. If not for him, he wondered if the others would ever have managed to get up and head toward the ruins.
He still didn't understand what these stones lying around were, why they were there, or what purpose going further into the pile of them would serve, but he was sure that there would be some sort of adventure within, and he was not about to turn down the possibility of adventure.
After what seemed like an eternity, Miyako got to her feet and said, "We cannot sit here all day. If we're going, let's go before night falls again and we run out of food. I don't plan to die here."
Daisuke sighed heavily as though preparing himself for some difficult task and got to his feet as well. "Let's do it," he said, turning towards the ruins in question. After a moment, he began to walk toward the pile of heavy bricks and stones, his face schooled into a determined expression.
"It seems as though there is a dark aura around the building that grows stronger the closer you get to the center," Miyako said, more to distract herself than because either Daisuke or Shijo had shown any interest. "It's very old. If I had to guess, I'd say it's about as old as the magic that caused the weather barrier between the woods and the desert. In fact," she went on, the idea occurring to her even as she spoke it, "I would not be surprised if this magic created the barrier between the snow and the desert. I never had much chance to examine that one." She frowned in thought, considering this for a moment.
Daisuke looked toward her, surprisingly showing some amount of interest. "An ancient boundary formed by dark magic?" he questioned. "On the other side, an ancient boundary formed by…light magic?"
"So, the desert was some sort of neutral ground?" V-mon wondered.
"Maybe," she answered, then shivered, more because of the darkness than the cold from the snows beyond the ruins.
They continued on in silence for a few moments, every step somehow an effort. A wall of still-connected stones stood before them, slightly taller than the average human, nowhere near as tall as the building had originally begin. Miyako screwed her face into an expression of concentration.
"I wish I remembered more about what this place looked like before it was destroyed," she said, voicing her frustration. "Maybe we should wait for Ken."
He shook his head. "No," he answered. "I know how to find what I'm looking for. You worry about the crystal. Use…magic, or whatever it is you do." He shrugged.
"I'm not wandering around this place alone!" Miyako told him, her voice easily raising an octave or so above its usual range despite her efforts to hide it.
"Am I no one?" Hawkmon questioned dryly.
"No," she answered in a more normal sort of voice. "That's not what I meant…."
Daisuke was already a few steps closer to the wall, Shijo a few steps behind him. Miyako followed, feeling uneasy. "It isn't as though there's anything here," V-mon said, sounding lazy, even sleepy. "Everything left when the place was knocked down."
"That doesn't mean that something might not show up," Miyako returned. "If there is a crystal here, then…."
"Oh, wonderful," Daisuke mumbled sarcastically. "That's what we need, Mummymon attacking." He sighed heavily again and turned to his right, heading along the edge of the wall, running one hand along the stones as he did so. "He'll destroy what's left of the place, and everything within, and then what?"
"And then maybe they'll get the crystal!" Miyako finished, each passing moment making her feel more and more nervous and unglued. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "I'll follow you wherever you're going if you don't abandon me. Please?"
"I don't need you to follow me," Daisuke answered, sounding curiously calmer with every step.
Nonetheless, Miyako followed after him before he disappeared around a corner. "What exactly are you doing?" she wondered, after having watched him move along the wall for some time. "Is there a way to go through the wall?"
"Not that I know of," he said, turning and grinning a rather insane-looking grin. "I plan to go under it." He took a step backwards.
Before Miyako could respond to this ludicrous statement, the ground opened up beneath him and he had disappeared. She was left blinking, staring at the space he had once been.
It was Shijo who spoke then. "Wow, a secret tunnel!" he said, his voice a gasp of astonished wonder. "I'm coming, too!" he called, then took a step forward and vanished as well.
"Wonderful," Miyako sighed, attempting to calm herself. For a few moments she debated not going after him, but the feel of the dark magic around her was too strong and she was too fearful. She took a step forward and the ground disappeared beneath her.
A little bit of action here, building slowly yet steadily toward a big bang, or at least that's the way I've planned it. I'm not sure if it's my own technique or simply the nature of this story, but it seems to be taking forever. Sigh.
Coming soon there'll be a battle and some other stuff. Excitement. Yay.