7
Openers of the Way
"This central symbol consisted of the heads of seven principal Egyptian gods – Osiris, Isis, Ra, Bast, Thoth, Set, and Anubis. But the horror lay in the fact that all seven heads protruded from a common body, and it was not the body of any god heretofore known in myth." – Robert Bloch, "The Opener of the Way"
It had been over two years since Gennai had reversed the aging process by separating himself into multiple copies. He still lived in his house beneath the lake, though his clones had had to find their own residences to occupy. With the old castle destroyed, there was no "command center," so to speak, and for the most part this new generation of Agents worked independently. All were in touch with the Chosen Children, but Gennai himself had the most to do with them, helping Koshiro mostly.
By now it was evident to everyone that a new conflict was about to begin, and for the first time the Agents were considering the creation of a base of operations. Whoever the enemy was, they had considerable resources, and it was possible that they would follow in the footsteps of the Dark Masters and try to eliminate the Agents, which Gennai could no longer produce more of.
Not needing to sleep, Gennai watched throughout the night, occasionally contacting the other Agents to see if there was anything new to report, and monitoring constantly for new Dark Towers or more of the mysterious earthquakes. His vigil was rewarded – though "rewarded" perhaps wasn't the right word – at around five in the morning.
Dark energy suddenly swept across the Digital World. In its wake, at least ten Dark Towers had appeared on the map, in the same general area, but not right next to each other. The Chosen Children would have to be alerted, but Gennai's first order of business was to try and trace the distortion to its source. No luck. After the appearance of the towers, all trace of the energy that brought them into existence seemed to have vanished.
As he composed an email for Koshiro, Gennai thought about what it might mean. After the defeat of BelialVamdemon, Oikawa Yukio had given his life to restore the damage done to the Digital World. He may have hoped also to have defended it from future intrusions by the Dark powers, but one life may not have been enough. Somehow, the emanations of the Dark World were finding their way back into the Digital World. Who could be responsible? There was no Apocalymon or Millenniumon to point to this time.
The Chosen Children all suffered from some degree of drowsiness that morning. For some, sleep had been long in coming, and what sleep they had gotten was far from restful. Nevertheless, they set out into the Digital World immediately upon receiving Gennai's message. This time the Dark Towers were located some distance west of Arkham, each standing on a hilltop just out of sight of all the others.
Be careful, Koshiro had mailed Iori. With the towers being so close to Arkham you may run into resistance like you did yesterday. As the group approached the nearest of the towers, however, they saw no sign of any Digimon, much less an enemy. Wormmon tried evolving again, and again could not manage it. The Dark Towers were functional, but apparently unguarded.
Within very little time the Armor-level Digimon had rid the area of the structures. Just as they finished with the last, Iori's D-Terminal gave another beep. The others quieted down as he read. He stared at the screen for a few moments, then jerked his head up quickly and looked at them.
"Another group of towers has appeared!"
"Already?" Daisuke said.
"Where are they?" Miyako asked.
"According to Koshiro-san, the new group is located at least 400 kilometers north of here."
"Give us a break," Miyako moaned. "It'll take us all day to get there."
"We could return to the human world and open a different gate," Hikari suggested.
"Or use Imperialdramon," Ken said. "I'm not sure if he could resist the Dark Towers' influence, but he could at least get us within range of them."
Daisuke was torn somewhat between jumping at Hikari's idea and having his Digimon partner be the one to save the day. Said partner helped him decide.
"Why don't we do that, Daisuke? I haven't been Imperialdramon in forever!"
Ken turned to Wormmon.
"Feel up to it?" he asked. The larval Digimon inclined his head.
"It'll be good to help out again," Wormmon said. Daisuke and Ken raised their Digivices just before Iori's D-Terminal beeped again.
"Now what?" Daisuke asked, lowering the D-3.
Iori's grip tightened on the machine.
"It's happened again! This time the Dark Towers appeared about the same distance away, but towards the south."
The group's optimism began to give way to unease.
"We'll have to split up," Takeru said, not looking as though he relished the thought.
"It may be a trap," Hikari warned. The Digimon did not appear to be daunted.
"If Adult-level Digimon like Witchmon are the best they can do, there should be no problem," Hawkmon observed.
"I think we can do it," Tailmon agreed, and the other partners nodded enthusiastically. Then the D-Terminal received another message. Iori read it grimly, though he already knew what it would say.
"A third bunch," he said, "West this time."
"We'll split into three groups," Takeru said, "Jogress partners together. Are you okay with that… Ken? Daisuke?" He felt a little bad asking, and hoped neither Ken nor Wormmon would be offended. Wormmon could Armor Evolve like the other five, using the Digimental of Kindness, but his evolved form, Pucchiemon, was not a Digimon who specialized in combat.
"We'll be okay," Wormmon said, and the issue was settled. And so they started off. Daisuke and Ken would ride Imperialdramon to the towers in the west, while the other four pairs of partners would return to the human world and reenter the Digital World closer to their targets (Takeru and Iori to the south, Hikari and Miyako to the north). Within a few minutes, the hills west of Arkham were empty of life once more.
"Their optimism is… inspiring," the Dark Man said from his seat in the corner of the room. The place was full of shadows, though a normal observer may have found this comforting if only because those shadows helped to obscure the scenes carved into the walls of the large chamber. At the front of the room, where he sat watching the interactive map of the Digital World, Sato Katsu only nodded, not agreeing with the false sentimentality of the Dark Man's statement but rather with the sense of a hopeless situation which it implied.
"The guardians are in their places," Sato informed him. "What do you think of my choices?"
"I'm not here to tell you how to do your job," the Dark Man remarked. "I'm just here if you need some favors. Let's just see how this goes, alright?" He was silent for a moment, watching the colored dots on the screen which represented the Chosen Children, then turned to the Digimon who stood nearby. "Are you tired, O Opener of the Way?"
Anubimon was very tired. To open one portal to the Dark World took energy enough, but thirty in rapid succession? But he knew better than to say this out loud, and merely shook his head. Sato continued to watch the screen. Yes, things were going as planned. Not the slightest setback.
And yet something was bothering him. He thought of all the times when these children and their predecessors had been so overwhelmed and outmatched that their destruction seemed inevitable. But they always pulled through. Could they now? He had made some progress in Yagami Hikari's dreams, but not nearly what he had hoped for. He pushed the thoughts from his mind, tried to regain that sense of inevitable victory.
"We await the time…" he murmured under his breath. "We await the time…" And that time was coming.