The Crystal Gate
Part Nineteen: The Battle Has Begun
Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, all related characters, etc, do not belong to me. Plot, however, does. Mostly. Don't steal, don't sue, don't forget to moo.
Moo.
"I'm glad I'm not down there," Mimi said glumly, looking down at the clouds of smoke rising from the town below. "Yet I wonder what's going on."
"Whatever it is, it's probably dangerous and bad," Jyou replied in an equally glum voice, peering over her shoulder. "Who did you say is involved? They're likely to be injured. Explosions? I wonder what's caused them?"
"I can guess who," Gomamon piped up from his partner's shoulder. "I'd guess the same lady that attacked Kido."
"Oh, that sorceress?" Mimi asked, shaking her head with a sigh. "I should have guessed. If she's here, then we'll probably see that crazy digimon, too."
"Mummymon, you mean," Palmon inserted.
"Yes, him," her partner replied, shivering at the memory of her brief meeting with Mummymon. "I'm glad the palace is protected with ancient magic."
"I'd hate to see what would happen if he managed to get inside here," Jyou agreed.
"Gone! Damn!" Yamato muttered, a bit louder than he had intended. "Who the hell was he?"
"I wish I knew," Sora answered quietly, bending to take her partner in her arms. "Are you all right?"
"I think so," Piyomon answered, looking a bit dazed. The pink bird digimon was carefully holding her head in one wing.
"I'm certain he must be some sort of dark wizard," Gabumon reported, shaking his head to clear his vision. "He produced something – a powerful shield, I'd guess – I couldn't get near him for more than a second or two. Attacks seemed to do no harm, either."
"That sounds like a dark wizard to me," Taichi said glumly. A severe frown was on his face as he peered over the ruins of the fountain, arms folded. "I don't understand who he is, or how a dark wizard could have been so near to the palace and no one sensed him."
"I don't know much about magic," Yamato answered, "but I'd suppose that if he's very powerful, he might be able to hide himself."
"Wouldn't that be part of a dark wizard's skills?" Sora asked, half speaking to herself. "An ability to hide? Is it not a skill of dark magic to conceal? And, if the mages of the palace are not used to the sense of dark magic…."
"Not used to it?" Yamato echoed, half shouting. "Miyako and Koushiro spent an entire winter around dark magic in the east!"
There was a moment of silence as they all paused to consider the implications of this statement. "Miyako is not here," Sora said, slowly. "Koushiro…."
"Damn," Taichi muttered in a far more quieter tone than Yamato had used. "This was planned, wasn't it? To separate us, somehow, while they planned something, right here! To get the crystal that was hidden in the town. Damn."
There was a long silence, which was broken by the sound of voices coming from south of the town center. All around, distantly, came the sounds of shouting as the townsfolk dealt with damage to their buildings caused by the explosions. The rain was ending, but the sun had not appeared. What little light there was would likely end soon because the sun would soon sent.
Feeling suddenly tired, Taichi sat down on a chunk of stone that had once been a piece of the fountain. He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands.
"Taichi," Sora said, slowly stepping forward. "Are you….?"
"I'm all right, I think," he said, sounding for the moment as tired as he looked.
Instead of answering the question Iori had posed, Koushiro turned his head toward the south, though not toward the palace but the town nearby. "What the - ?" he questioned. A moment later, a shower of mini explosions sent grass flying into the air all around, and the earth shook as though an earthquake had happened.
"What's going on?" Li Tan called over the noise, his voice sounding terrified. He'd been in many battles, but earthquakes, explosions, and magic he was not used to at all.
"Mummymon," Patamon reported, having spotted the tall, thin digimon through the haze of dust and dirt. "I thought so."
"No," Koushiro returned, shaking his head. "No, those other explosions – it wasn't all caused by him."
"You have it," the mummy said simply. "I want it. If you will not give it, I will take it by force! Ah-ha ha!"
The wail of an activated digivice was barely audible over the latest barrage of explosions and the mummy's insane laughter.
"Armadimon evolve! Ankylomon!"
"Back! Get back!" Takeru shouted, stepping back and then running back, away from Mummymon. The ground shaking beneath his massive footsteps, Armadimon put himself between the insane mummy and his prey. The explosive missiles bounced harmlessly off his armor, falling to the ground with small clinks.
"Let's just hope he doesn't bring reinforcements," Iori said with a sigh, glancing toward Koushiro. The wizard was once again looking toward the south, however, seeming almost not to have heard this statement, and immediately the youngest of the Chosen was filled with a sense of dread. "Don't tell me…."
"There is dark magic near here," Koushiro answered with certainty, still staring toward the town. "It was used to attack…."
"Attack?" Takeru echoed. "Attack what? Who?"
"I don't know…," the wizard replied, "but I assume it was the cause of that." He raised one arm and pointed toward the town. A tall column of smoke was rising from the center square.
"Uh…what about that?" Tentomon interrupted, indicating another column of smoke rising beyond the first, further south.
"They're attacking the palace?" Li Tan questioned, confused.
"No," Koushiro answered, shaking his head. "They can't. Not with dark magic. Not without an immense amount of it. It's too well guarded. A thousand years worth of magical spells, reinforced with every new birth. The magic is stronger now than ever before. If the princess is within the castle, it will stand as long as she lives."
"Is she, though?" Iori wondered, frowning. He glanced up toward Takeru. "She was with you in Takaishi, wasn't she? Suppose she is still there?"
The rain had all but halted, the previous thundering downpour now replaced by the sound of an occasional drip, drop of water on the stone paths leading to the palace ahead. Distantly, the sounds of explosions and the aftermath of stones flying could be heard in the town.
"Should we go down there?" Miyako wondered, turning her head toward the sound. A cold breeze danced through the grasses, scattering drops of rainwater through the air. She shivered.
"No," Ken answered, though she had not been specifically speaking to him. "I'll go."
"Alone?" Wormmon asked, glancing up toward his partner.
"Not precisely," he answered, casting a faint smile in the caterpillar's direction as he lifted him in his arms and headed for the town.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Miyako asked, but he was already gone. She glanced back toward Daisuke, who had said nothing, and was looking toward the palace with a thoughtful expression. "Daisuke? Are you going to let him go alone?"
As though the matter were of no great concern to him, Daisuke shrugged casually and took a few steps toward the palace. "It's something that has to be done," he called over his shoulder. "Go where you want."
Anything Miyako would have liked to say in response to that was cut off by the sound of loud rumbling, and the ground began to shake violently, forcing her to expend all her energies on keeping herself stable. A crack emerged in the earth only a few steps in front of Daisuke, blocking his path, and then the air began to shake.
Miyako could feel a strong, though faint pain growing inside her chest, quite similar to the pain that she had felt before. Now, however, the pain was a mere annoyance rather than a debilitating attack, and she was able to focus her senses – her magical senses – without being distracted by the pain. A great concentration of magic was forming above her, and she could somehow feel that the fabric of the air – of the space – was being opened.
"A portal," she realized, staring upward. "She's opening a portal to another world!"
Hawkmon sighed, regarding his partner with a patient expression. "You've been saying they were going to do that for weeks now," he reminded her. "I don't know why you should be so surprised."
To normal vision, everything looked exactly the same, and for the first time in a while, Miyako completely removed the spectacles that allowed her to see without magic and stuffed them in a mostly-undamaged pocket of her skirt. With magical sight, the air directly above her was a swirling mass of colors spinning around in a whirlwind of magic. Slowly, the colors faded as they spun, becoming darker and darker shades, until they were nothing but black. A flash of lightning crashed into the ground, throwing everyone back.
Pulling herself up from the ground and the shallow, muddy puddle that she'd landed in, Miyako squinted through the haze of dust that had risen from the ground. Four tall shapes and four smaller shapes had become visible, and as she watched, the dust faded. The taller shapes became men, or at least very good imitations of men, clad entirely in black with black masks covering their faces so that only their eyes were visible. Each of them held a dangerous, long sword. The smaller shapes were Gotsumon, small but dangerous digimon that appeared to be made entirely out of rocks. Their eyes were glinting with the fire of battle, and they seemed prepared to fight. Miyako had no time to glance toward her partner or Daisuke before the Gotsumon leapt forward.
"Angry rock!" they chorused, and two of them leapt toward Miyako. They other two, she presumed, leapt toward Daisuke, but she didn't have time to look in his direction. Hurriedly, she raised a shield, knowing that it wouldn't hold for long, and fumbled in her pocket for her digivice. The Gotsumon pounded on the shield with their stone fists.
"Digimental up!" Miyako shouted, having reached with her hand the object she'd been looking for. She let the shield drop and stepped backward from the line of battle.
"Hawkmon armor evolve! Shurimon!" called her partner at the same time that two of the men leapt forward, the metal of their swords glinting in the dim light. "Kusanagi!"
Faster than the eye could follow, Shurimon darted between the two men, slicing and cutting with the sharp pointed blades at the end of his limbs. He was only a pale green blur between the dark and gray colors of the men and Gotsumon, and a second later he was once again beside Miyako. One of the men glanced briefly toward his right shoulder, where a slit in his shirt revealed that he was indeed made of flesh and blood, some of which was dripping from his wound. The other had a similar wound on his left thigh, but he seemed to pay it no attention.
There was no time for rest, however, for only a moment later, a powerful earthquake shook the ground, and a few chunks of stone fell off of an already badly damaged building. It landed with a loud thud in the midst of the courtyard, sending a cloud of dust scattering into the winds. A solitary bolt of lightning, odd in the rain-free skies, slammed into the ground at the space where the fountain had once been, and even more dust rose into the skies.
"Does it never end!" Yamato shouted over the noise, half a question, half a frustrated exclamation.
"For you?" said a female voice, sounding sweet and gentle. "For you, it ends here!"
The dust faded and Yamato looked upward to see the digimon who had spoken hovering above him. She had long white hair and black wings, which were tattered and torn so much that it was a wonder she could fly. Her skin was a pale white, and very little of it was covered. What she did wear appeared to be made from leather, tightly hugging the curves of her torso. Leather strips traveled up her long, pale legs, stretching from black boots. One arm was encased entirely in a form-fitting leather glove; the other was bare and ordinary looking until the eyes reached the elbow, from there it was a mechanical, metal contraption with sharp claws.
"Who - ?" Sora could be heard gasping, but before she could finish the question she became aware of five smaller shapes appearing in the fading cloud of dust. "What - ?"
"Ogremon!" Piyomon answered the second question, recognizing the newcomers before any one else.
"Bone Club!" shouted the five Ogremon in unison, leaping into the air. All around the square, the sounds of stone smashing could be heard as the ogres' clubs slammed into buildings and anything else that stood in their way. Their mission seemed to be to destroy everything in their paths.
Yamato had not taken his eyes from the female digimon in the sky. Eyes upward, he was the first to notice the screeching wail of an approaching Airdramon coming from the north. A moment later, a flash of white light slammed into the flying digimon's chest. She screamed in pain and fell back, searching the skies for the source of the attack.
"Lady Devimon!" called a powerful sounding voice; Angemon was the one who had attacked. "You will not wreak havoc here!"
"Try to stop me, fool!" she called back, recovering her strength and flying higher in the sky. "You haven't the power! Darkness Wave!"
A wave of dark energy soared toward Angemon, who raised his fist in defiance. "Heaven's Knuckle!" he shouted, sending the same flash of white light toward his opponent.
So intent upon watching the battle was Yamato that he barely noticed the sound of the Airdramon landing behind him. When he did turn, he saw that his brother was climbing down from a saddle on the back of the flying serpent, and that another man and a fierce-looking Lopmon were riding on the back.
"Upon the back of an Airdramon?" Yamato questioned, shaking his head. "I have seen everything, now."
Before Takeru could answer, however, there was another screech as the Airdramon took to the air again. Although his rider had been able to calm it long enough to carry a passenger, the sounds of explosions and battle had made the normally ferocious digimon nervous and anxious, and he took to the sky again.
"Bone Club!" shouted an Ogremon, running toward them, now. He seemed intent upon attacking rather than simply destroying, and he leapt into the air, his huge club prepared to pound human flesh rather than simply a stone.
"Gabumon evolve!" came a voice over the sound of a screeching digivice, and then a massive white beast with blue stripes appeared. "Garurumon! Fox Fire!"
The Ogremon seemed undeterred by the fact that he was on fire, for he slammed into the ground a short distance away, sending up a cloud of dust. He roared, perhaps in pain but mostly in anger, and took a step forward, swinging his club. "Bone Club!" he shouted again, and leapt high into the air.
"Fox Fire!" called Garurumon, and the Ogremon was engulfed in flames. He broke through them, however, once more oblivious to the flames, and swung his now flaming club toward Garurumon, who took a step backwards.
"Bone Club!" shouted a second Ogremon, leaping from the dust and rubble to attack from behind. Before he had reached the ground, however, something intercepted him that could only be identified as a green blur. It slammed into the Ogremon, sending him flying, and then was gone, apparently flying on to something else.
Takeru was not fortunate enough to be armed, but his brother had taken to carrying his favorite sword in case a battle should rescue him from paperwork. He unsheathed it now and was barely able to block the attack of a third Ogremon as it lunged toward the brothers. "I could use some help!" he shouted.
"I haven't got anything to fight with!" Takeru answered. "Do you want me to run at him with my bare hands?"
"How do you head to battle unarmed?" the elder brother demanded, his voice scolding. Although he had been able to the attack of the Ogremon, his return swings did little damage, and the ogre digimon was largely undeterred. His bulging muscles flexing, he swung his club wildly, narrowly missing Takeru only because he was quick enough to dodge.
"I didn't know I was heading to battle!" he replied indignantly, grabbing some heavy stones from the ground. He chucked a few at the ogre's head, which had the effect of greatly angering it. It turned away from Yamato, whose arms were beginning to feel like mud, and sought out the source of the stones.
"Idiot," Yamato muttered under his breath, referring to both the Ogremon and his brother. Once the ugly green digimon had turned away, he lunged with his sword, slicing a clean cut down the back of the digimon. It screamed in agony and sank to one knee, fighting against the pull of the ground below.
"Bone Club!" shouted the Ogremon, its injury seeming not to effect it, and Yamato was able to leap quickly out of harm's way.
"Fox Fire!" came the voice of Garurumon at that exact moment, and the Ogremon he had been fighting deleted into nothingness, defeated. Noting his partner's distress, the large digimon shouted his attack again, and the already badly damaged ogre deleted in the same manner. Takeru dropped the rocks he'd been throwing, feeling tired, and Yamato sheathed his sword and wiped the sweat from his brow.
"It looks bad out there," Mimi observed with a sigh. Although the skies above the town below were clearing and only the occasional drop of rain was falling, the sky above the palace was dark and dismal, and the occasional bolt of lightning illuminated the sky. Thunder rumbled often, and each time it did, she shivered and stepped back from the window, only to return a moment later, noting the appearance of another cloud of smoke.
A giant battle appeared to be taking place in the center of the town, for dust and smoke had clouded this area and it had not yet cleared, though it had been nearly an hour since the first explosions had rocked the palace. With a sigh, Mimi turned away from the window.
Jyou had given up on watching the battles below, and was studying the crystal in his hand with an interest he'd never had time to take before. It was a simple enough tiny stone, barely as long as his longest finger, and only a little wider. At first glance, it seemed inconspicuous an ordinary as any other crystal he'd seen, most of which had been in objects of jewelry worn by the ladies at the palace. The more one studied it, however, the more it seemed to catch the light, and the more it seemed to catch the light, the more it seemed that it was not merely catching the light but producing its own light.
This was impossible, of course, so far as Jyou knew. Yet if it was magic – and it certainly seemed to be – it was possible. He had seen magic do far stranger things than make light from a rock.
Hikari had not yet moved, save for the brief period in which she had advised Yamato. An expression of serene concentration was on her face, and had not altered. "It's begun," she mumbled now, shaking her head, and frowned. Jyou looked up from his contemplation of the crystal and Mimi turned away from the window. For a tense moment, they waited, and then she opened her eyes.
It had been so long since she had moved or spoken that Mimi had begun to forget that she was capable of such things. Now, however, Tailmon was yawning and stretching as though she were awaking from a long nap. For a moment, Hikari contemplated the sword in front of her as though she were reading an interesting book. Mimi glanced toward her partner, who shrugged, and then toward Jyou, who was slowly rising to his feet.
"Are you all right?" the doctor questioned, stepping forward, and then stepped back as she unexpectedly swung the sword in front of her. She nodded once, and turned to face him.
"The battle has begun," she said. "We should go to help."
Sorry for the immense delay in updating. I've been a bit busy, and it's been difficult to find time to sit down and work out unraveling this puzzle I've created. I'm not sure if I'm completely happy with how this is working, but I figured it was better to post something instead of nothing.
One, maybe two chapters left. Still not sure of how it's ending. Working on it. Thanks for reading.