23
Land, Sky, and Sea
"And the day wore on, and still Olney listened to rumors of old times and places, and heard how the kings of Atlantis fought with the slippery blasphemies that wriggled out of rifts in ocean's floor, and how the pillared and weedy temple of Poseidonis is still glimpsed at midnight by lost ships, who knew by its sight that they are lost." – H. P. Lovecraft, "The Strange High House in the Mist"
Still Takeru and Pegasmon hovered above the ocean's surface with no response from either of the other two groups. They were worried, and frustrated at their inability to help. They could not go to their other friends' aid, because then Submarimon and Iori would be left without the support which had proved crucial to their defeat of the Octmon. Takeru thought back to February, when Patamon had used the Digimental of Light and become the fish-like Manbomon. They could use it now, though he felt sure Hikari was glad to have it with her.
Below the surface, the battle still went on. The defenders of the underwater city had the disadvantage in terms of numbers, but Submarimon had been able to destroy four of the five Dark Towers. It had been a rough fight. They had been careful not to be taken by surprise again, but there were so many of the Hangyomon and their tentacled allies that the going was painfully slow.
He steered towards the fifth, and could see that all unoccupied enemies had gathered around it, and were waiting for his approach. All of the ruins' inhabitants were either downed or battling. Submarimon would have to deal with the Dark Tower himself. A gang of Hangyomon was there, backed up by one of the massive Octmon and a pair of considerably smaller Gesomon. The latter drew in water and propelled themselves toward him.
"Don't let them get close," Iori said.
"I'll attack from here, dagyaa! Oxygen Homing!" The air-torpedoes found their mark in one of the Gesomon, which exploded in a cloud of black ink, but the other dodged and shot its elastic arms forward. Submarimon plunged to the side, evading the tentacles, but was left with no immediate means of counterattack. Iori looked to the side. The Octmon and Hangyomon had not yet moved.
The remaining Gesomon closed in again, lashing out with the claws on its two longest appendages. But Submarimon was faster, and soon he was making a wide turn in open water, trying to bring the enemy back into his sights.
"Esgrima!" Paildramon's lance extended and he thrust his arm forward, but the wolf faded from existence, and the sharp point dug into the earth the creature had stood upon. Paildramon blinked, almost surprised that even with his returned strength and speed the thing was untouchable.
"Was that Digimon in his shadow the entire time?" Ken asked. He wondered whether that was the cause of Paildramon's lack of energy. Had the unseen wolf been feeding off him somehow?
"We just need to hit it! Like the other one," Daisuke said. His fury had abated, and his face was now set and grim. "If it uses that attack again…"
Ken wondered if it would, after seeing what had happened to its companion. As long as they were unable to strike back, it could wear Paildramon down regardless of any difference in their evolutionary levels.
Even as the thoughts crossed his mind the wolf creature leaped into solidity once more, behind Paildramon, and its teeth cut like razors through one of his white wings. Paildramon screamed and twisted around, shaking the monster off, though a good part of the wing went too, with a sickening ripping sound.
"Paildramon!" Daisuke yelled in horror.
Ken's hands were shaking in a combination of anxiety and anger. Their partner, no matter how fast, couldn't last much longer. In addition to the ruined wing, there were still deep groves in his back carved out by the first wolf's blade-like claws. Ken realized that Daisuke was rushing forward, then felt the mist swirl about his face as he followed.
Like Ken's, Daisuke's advance had not been premeditated. His partner was in trouble, and he would be there, would do something. This wolf thing wasn't Demon, or BelialVamdemon, or Armagemon. Its power lay not in its attack, certainly not in its defense, but in its cowardice, its cheating. They couldn't lose here after all they'd been through. That would be ridiculous!
"Paildramon!" he called again.
His partner turned and saw the two humans approach, and saw the mist thicken in front of them. The wolf was there, the boys were staring past its fangs and down its throat as it came to meet them. Paildramon saw the beast's intention, and struck without hesitation. But again, the thing was gone once more into the mist, still unharmed.
There's something wrong about this fog, Paildramon thought, That Digimon fades right into it. Maybe… New hope dawned suddenly within him, and a familiar power began to wake. The light of evolution played about him.
"Paildramon, Ultimate Evolve!...Imperialdramon!"
Within moments Daisuke and Ken found themselves standing atop the massive dragon's back, ensorcelled in the familiar blue light, and out of the mist's cold dampness. Imperialdramon beat his mighty wings and took to the air.
"Are we running away!?" Daisuke asked in disbelief.
"No," was his partner's simple answer. There was no way the wolf creature could harm him in this form, but rendering it impotent was not enough after what they had suffered. The mist was the key. The vapors had gathered as if by magic just before the creatures' attack. Whenever the wolf things wished they could become a part of that mist, and move freely within it. The Chosen would never be able to hit it unless the mist was obliterated. Imperialdramon stopped in the air and turned back towards the scene he had left behind. There was a small, dark shape down there, half obscured.
"Mega Death!" A sphere of light emerged from Imperialdramon's mouth and sped toward the ground. The shape in the fog vanished as it approached, but Imperialdramon knew there was no cause for alarm. The projectile struck the ground, and from that incredible seed an explosion of energy blossomed, its radius greater even than that of the anomalous mist.
And when that brilliant light had faded, there was left no mist, no shape, only the monotony of blasted earth.
The second Gesomon was deleted by Aqua Vulcan, and Submarimon aimed himself again at the Dark Tower. The Octmon was still there. But the next instant, both it and the tower had disappeared behind a curtain of pitch black ink. The ink cloud's radius was incredible. Not even the Dark Tower's pinnacle reached above it.
"Oxygen Homing!" The best Submarimon could do was fire blindly into the tenebrous mess. The torpedoes entered the ink cloud, but the hoped for explosion didn't come. What did emerge were the Hangyomon, three of them, with their harpoons at the ready.
"We need a new plan, dagyaa."
Iori nodded in agreement. The Hangyomon didn't look very intimidating, but they were still Perfect-level Digimon, and nothing to be taken lightly.
"Can you get around them?" Iori asked.
"I can try, dagyaa," Submarimon replied, jerking suddenly to the left as the first of the thrown spears cleaved towards him through the water. The second spear was thrown, and Submarimon managed to avoid this one as well, but could not maneuver wholly out of the way of the third, which had been hurled a split second after the second. The weapon glanced off the top of his glass dome, causing Iori to wince.
"Hydro Jet!"
Once again, Iori had to hold tight to the handles in front of him as Submarimon accelerated, blasting through the water with the added propulsion of his rear jets. Instead of moving straight upwards as he had the previous time, Submarimon steered hard to the right, arcing around the ink enshrouded Dark Tower and leaving the surprised Hangyomon far behind him.
"We'll have to do this fast, before they catch up," Iori warned him. As the boy finished speaking, Submarimon had come to the far side of the cloud. He let off on his jets and turned towards where the Dark Tower should be. As he approached, there was a sudden swirl within the dark mass, and a great plume of ink rushed outwards as Octmon fired at them from inside.
Submarimon saw the attack coming, but chose not to dodge. The Octmon was behind that black jet, and the Dark Tower would surely be beyond. It was a good plan, but he had underestimated the power of the enemy's attack. Iori was rendered blind as the ink engulfed them both, and heard Submarimon's yell, hoarse with pain, in the blackness.
The corrosive substance began to eat away at Submarimon's shell on contact, but he drove onward, through the black pain, and plunged into the obscuring cloud.
"Submarine Attack!"
The Octmon had not moved. Submarimon hadn't dodged, and the thing must have at least thought that he wouldn't plunge right through the attack. The drill on Submarimon's snout passed through the Octmon's clay helmet as it would through cheese. It cleaved the thing's bulbous head in half, went through the back wall of the helmet, and finally lodged itself in an alien material that could only be the Dark Tower.
Iori, now enshrouded not in the blackness of ink but the blackness within Octmon's body, saw a blinding, ice-blue glare. The cloud of ink was instantly dispersed, and the Octmon dissolved into the water. Submarimon rocked backwards from the force of the explosion, flipped end over end.
By the time he had regained control, and human and Digimon looked once more across the underwater plain where the various battles had so lately raged, silence reigned. The underwater town was still there, free now of Dark Towers, but there was no sign of the enemy. Hangyomon, Octmon, and Gesomon had all vanished. Most of the defenders had gone too. Only a few scattered individuals cruised dazedly and aimlessly among the ruins of their home.