Chapter Fifty Eight: Shatter

[Koichi's P.O.V]

Before any of us could react the massive shadow had formed arms and the arms came sweeping at us. The force of the wind sent us all flying but all I saw was a glimmer of blonde before the shadow's fist closed. Even though I barely saw what happened I knew who was clutched in the shadow's hands.

"Storm!" I called her name but I got nothing and I feared that he had crushed her.

"Shit, it just had to be the overgrown monster!" That was all it took for me to know who we would now be facing, Belphemon.

"Let go of her!" I don't know where it came from.

I had forced myself up and it seemed like I hadn't even felt the pain from being flung. I didn't know where the courage came from. As I looked at him he fully solidified, no longer just being a mass of shadows. He easily towered at least three stories in height, he was even slouching slightly so he was probably actually four stories in height. I should've been afraid; if not afraid of his height then the fact that he was one of the Demon Lords. He was the Demon Lord that was said to be almost as strong as Lucemon but was said to be stupid.

"Let go of who?" I was almost surprised by the almost seemingly innocent question from him.

"If you're gonna question him you gotta be very specific Koichi." I always thought despite being called stupid that he wasn't as stupid as Daisuke was trying to imply.

"Let go of Storm!" He tilted his head before moving his hand.

He opened his fist but he held Storm by her head. Storm hung there limply. She was unconscious and I gulped. Until I saw the fact that her chest still moved from breathing, however shallow it was, I was afraid that she was dead. I gripped my D Tector despite the fact that it would probably be no use. Belphemon had the worst timing. We couldn't fight him then again maybe they were watching. They might've chosen this time so we would be easy picking.

"Is this 'Storm'?" I was fighting shock; he almost didn't seem like a Demon Lord.

He seemed innocent almost, almost being the key word. He had done it on purpose. He had grabbed her on purpose. He knew what he did to her; he had to know what he did.

"Yes." He shook his head.

"Her name's Zale Aleister, she's one of my toys." He shook her slightly and I growled.

"Stop that!" Kari screamed the words but he did stop.

"Do you think I killed her?" I watched as he raised her so her body was level with his eyes.

"I was hoping to play like we did last time." He closed her limp body in his hand.

"I don't need something broken." I watched horrified as he cocked his arm back and threw her.

Before she went very far she was caught. A Digimon that I didn't know had caught her, an orange thing wearing golden armor. I almost let out a sigh of relief when a fist was flying at them; it was big enough to stir up a violent gust that almost knocked me off of my feet. The orange armored thing managed to get out of the way but he got flung slightly by a gust that whipped him pretty much. This would become our problem if we fought him. Belphemon was huge; his size came with a bunch of added bonus for him and a lot of headaches for us.

"Good job WarGreymon!" I glanced at Kari's brother, Tai.

"Now, how are we going to deal with the oversized beast when you guys can't even fight?" Daisuke's question brought my attention from WarGreymon that was busy trying to dodge Belphemon.

"He uh seems easily distracted." Daisuke sighed at Kari's words.

"True but at this point he only sees WarGreymon as an opponent. He might be stupid but I bet even he has something set up." I watched Daisuke bend over and pick up a stone, tossing it in his hand.

"Since he used a Demon Gate he came for a fight, this means Lucemon gave him an order and no matter how stupid he is he follows every order." I watched as Daisuke threw the stone.

It flew through the air at an incredible speed. Yet once it reached the tree line green flames roared to life and the stone was incinerated. No it wasn't just incinerated, it was just gone. So I guess we're not running away. I looked at him and I noticed something. He only seemed to be half-heartedly attacking WarGreymon.

"Some help would be nice!" When WarGreymon called that out Belphemon looked back to us and I gulped.

"Who should be next?" His other hand came flying at us.

"I wanna play with you Daisuke." I had to jump out of the way but to my surprise Daisuke managed to dodge Belphemon.

Daisuke was up in the sky when blue veins appeared and spread to cover his body. He stayed in the air but before Belphemon could go to grab him feathers of fire impaled his arm. Belphemon wheeled back and snatched his hand backwards. I looked at where the feathers had come from only to find the girl in the shredded clothing. She seemed terrified and her hand shook but she tried to put on a brave face.

"Owie that hurt!" I was surprised to hear that, he was the first Demon Lord that has ever expressed any kind of pain.

"Yeah, they're not invincible. Nori, try to work your magic while I distract him!" Before anyone could argue with Daisuke he zipped through the air.

"He really isn't what he pretended to be. He really is kind; Daisuke is the DigiDestined of Friendship." I looked to 'Nori' surprised to hear that.

"I thought you could only use illusions!?" She gave a nervous laugh at Tai's words while she watched Belphemon.

"I said they were my main power, I can use some over things but it hurts most of the time." She flashed her hand towards him, it was burned pretty badly.

"Kari, try your Digivice again. Earlier there was a jammer somewhere but it's gone." Kari finally tore her eyes from watched the fight and nodded.

"Let me see your Digivices." She stepped towards Takuya and Koji who were closer to her than I was.

Takuya pulled his out but I noticed that something wasn't right with him. Something bothered him; he's been far too quiet recently. Koji didn't budge and he didn't make a move to pull out his D Tector. Takuya nudged him and Koji shook his head. He glanced at me and I bit my lip. I think we were in the same boat. Our D Tectors were probably beyond repair. I glanced at my D Tector, the cracks were steadily spreading and fragments dropped to the ground and I winced. Only once I looked at my hand did I realize that a few of the shards had cut into my palm.

"Even if you saw it there is no way you could fix it. I doubt you can magically fix our D Tector." As I lifted my eyes from my D Tector I saw Angewomon join the fray.

They had successfully drawn attention away from us. I noticed that WarGreymon was fighting. I looked from him to the group, Storm was laid on the ground and Kari was beside her. I walked over so I stood beside Koji and Takuya. Even if Kari could fight with that card it should be a last resort, she can't control it. Only Storm knew about that card currently so the drawbacks were unknown, after Kari collapsing the way she did it could only be assumed that the card had a rather big drawback.

"True but she has shards of a Digital Ruler's core embedded into her back." I froze, we all did.

Nori screamed as a chain wrapped around her as if it was a snake. She was yanked high into the sky, screaming the whole way up. She tried to struggle but the chain just grew tighter and she stopped screaming, probably not being able to breath.

"Nori!" Daisuke shot through the air towards her but he was whipped by a chain.

"Sorry but she's my toy now. She should be interesting since she has shards of a Ruler embedded into her back." Daisuke slammed into the ground and he gasped for breath, he would be lucky if he didn't have broken bones.

"Terra Force!" The words were accompanied by a ball of fire.

"Celestial Arrow!" The two attacks managed to hit the chain that held Nori but it didn't release her.

"Gift of Darkness!" Jets of black fire slammed into Angewomon head first while WarGreymon tried to dodge it but he still got swallowed by the slash like attack.

"Angewomon!" Kari ran towards where Angewomon was falling, mid fall she reverted back to In-Training I think.

"WarGreymon!" Kari's brother copied her movements, they managed to catch their now both In-Training class partners.

"Weak, you people are so weak! I don't know how you people are supposed to defeat us!" Kari's shoulders shook but before anything could be asked data seemed to explode from her hands.

I stared at the data, knowing what had just happened. The data swirled around her before seeming to flow among a breeze and it vanished. Kari's arms dropped to her side and her whole body shook. Her partner, it had to be going back to the Digital World. Right? I've heard of Digimon taking an attack from a Demon Lord and never reforming but that was just lies. It was just a rumor to scare people. It had to be.

"Puny Digimon and puny humans need to learn they are only good toys!" When he roared the words out I was surprised.

I looked to Koji, light pulsed around him. Koji glared at Belphemon and I noticed that his D Tector was pouring out light as well. He let out a growl and fractal code surrounded him. When the fractal code turned to pure light I knew what was going on. This was his version of whatever Spirit Evolution that I had done twice already. I gulped when the thought of what it would do to his D Tector came to my mind. If his D Tector was as broken as mine was then his D Tector might just shatter.

"Our reason really was tiny." When Koji spoke the ball of light cracked before it shattered.

He burst out of the ball of light without giving time to react. He moved faster than my eyes could track so I didn't even know what he looked like in that form. All I saw was what looked like an arrow made of light kind of as it zipped through the air leaving a trail behind it. Even Belphemon couldn't keep up with it.

"Light Fall!" Koji stopped once he was above Belphemon, too far for me to make anything out.

Well that was until a massive circle of light formed and before Belphemon could move a pillar of light descended from the circle. The light blasted Belphemon and instead of bending around him like normal light it drove Belphemon downwards. I was a surprise to see Belphemon brought to his knees from the force of the attack yet before it could drive him down any farther it vanished. Belphemon growled and a chained lashed out towards Koji.

"Lampranthus!" Black fire went flying towards Koji but Koji darted away, turning once more into what seemed like pure light.

Looking at that level from the outside made me realize something. It was the next level; it was a level that we would probably never have achieved. Something about that level was special. Koji came to stop within range to make things out. The basic form was like the form of Lobomon. The silver armor but what had been purple was now white which was hard to spot the differences. The scarf that Lobomon had was now made out of light and it even still acted like a scarf. Belphemon sent a chain at him but Koji just raised the two beam swords that he had.

"Absolute Zero." The name rung in my head for some reason but suddenly it felt freezing cold.

The beam swords that had been crossed in front of him sparked and another circle of light appeared and it shot towards Belphemon, there even seemed to be a bit of ice that edged it. Koji's attack clashed with Belphemon's attack, since the fire had come from his chains Belphemon had redirected the attack. Koji's attack actually seemed like it might stand a chance when Koji was smacked in back by another chain. That one attack was enough to cause cracks appeared or at least make them much more apparent, the D Tector was the catalyst for our Spirit Evolutions and if they were broken it hindered our Spirit Evolution so since it was in such a vulnerable state then so was what made up our Spirit Evolutions.

"Just a little please." My eyes snapped to Takuya.

My eyes widened seeing what he was doing. Fractal Code appeared around his hand but it seemed to glitch. When the Fractal Code seemed to catch fire when he scanned it he didn't even flinch, perhaps that dealt with the fact that shards were actually also falling from his D Tector.

"Fusion Evolution: Aldamon!" Takuya didn't waste any time taking off and trying to draw Belphemon's attention.

"Atomic Inferno!" The flames slammed into Belphemon but Belphemon just growled.

"Impact!" I was surprised by that, it came from Daisuke.

Water hit Belphemon but Daisuke got the pleasant surprise of a chain come speeding at him. The chain him hit full force but his body seemed to have been made from water and it splashed outwards. The water rushed through the air before coming back together and he formed but he sank to his knees. He survived that but I guess he must've still felt that or he was pushing himself to move after getting whipped by a chain the first time.

"Light Blitz!" The sudden flash of light that seemed to strike Belphemon in dozens of different places caught everyone off guard, Koji had vanished from where he had been and managed to launch the attack but he got whipped with a chain that was cloaked in the black fire.

Koji lost whatever his form was but he didn't slam into the ground like I thought he would. Electricity sparked underneath of him forming a three layer ring, it kept him floating almost without gravity for a matter of seconds before he fell. I looked at Storm expecting to see her awake but she wasn't moving. That's when something else came to my attention. She wasn't moving at all. She wasn't breathing.

"Storm!" I raced to her side but even once beside her, I couldn't find any sign of her breathing.

No. This had to be a trick. This had to be, she's the only one who can use electricity.

"Did Zeal finally give up?" I stared at Storm and Belphemon's childlike taunting voice bounced in my head.

"I killed one! I finally killed her! I killed your beloved friend that you gave your life to save Locke!" His triumphant laugh grated me and made my body shake.

Slowly I looked from Storm and I saw everything that I tried to deny. Kari had now sunk to her knees; her brother was trying to get some kind of reaction from her. Her partner was probably dead, gone for good and never to be seen again. Takuya had been smacked out of the sky at some point; Takuya was barely standing while his D Tector was slipping from his grasp. Koji had managed to get up but he looked ready to fall to his knees; his D Tector had slipped from his hand when I looked at him. His D Tector didn't even hit the ground since it shattered before it hit the ground.

"From the beginning, this wasn't a fair fight." I looked back to Takuya; his D Tector slipped from his hand and managed to hit the ground before it broke.

"This is the end of the line!" Belphemon raised his arms and black fire surrounded his hands.

I turned away from him and I just stared at Storm. I glanced at my D Tector; it was worthless because it was still slowly cracking. I was probably never really meant to be a DigiDestined from the start. Cherubimon had pulled me through after I fell down the steps and should've died. In the end I still wasn't able to do much good. I gripping my D Tector just a bit tighter but I almost laughed, a crack split it nearly in half before it shattered.

"It truly is end of the line." I closed my eyes and waited for what would come now.

So, am I mean for the cliff hanger? [Also, sorry about the missed dates. I had a bunch of projects that I had to work on.] I hope I wrote it well, I really feel like I can't write fight scenes. Also sorry that it's shorter than usual by the way.