76
The Trap Springs
"There is one woman who in fell loveliness excels all the rest. Her poisonous charms are like a honeyed flower growing on the brink of hell." – H. P. Lovecraft, "The Diary of Alonzo Typer"
Hiraga Ayaki was back on sitting duty, but he was restless, and took periodical walks about the computer room. Tonight was as quiet as ever, but that didn't stop his eyes from roving about, verifying that he had a feel for where everything was, preparing him for any kind of disturbance. He knew that the twelve children and their Digimon were expected by Lilithmon tonight, and he did not know when or where they would make their entrance. Probably he should have discussed Lilithmon's plan with her in more detail, but he didn't care to deal with Digimon any more than he had to. He had fulfilled his responsibilities by passing on Sato's instructions to her. In lieu of knowing the plan in its entirety, he had taken greater pains than usual in readying the handgun that he always kept on his person, but he knew that his best defense lay in Lilithmon acting intelligently.
When one of the doors along the wall opened, his gaze darted in its direction. He didn't reach for his gun – it was probably nothing – but he was aware of the way it hung in its shoulder holster, and knew that he could have it ready to fire at a moment's notice. In the newly opened door stood Lilithmon. She was smiling, but it was a manic expression, and Hiraga could guess why.
"They're here!" she said.
"The children?" Hiraga asked. "Where are they?"
"In the subbasement," Lilithmon answered. She was all but glowing with excitement. "I felt them come. And now I think it's time I went and welcomed them. You just stay up here."
"Don't let them into the inhabited parts of the building," Hiraga reminded her.
"Oh," Lilithmon giggled, "I know, Hiraga-chan." Then the girlishness left her, and it was the sensuous voice of a woman that said, "They won't be going anywhere."
She shut the door and was gone. Hiraga didn't immediately return his gaze to a computer screen. He had a sense that something was different, but it took him a second to realize what had changed. The thin line of light under the door had become a line of pitch blackness.
The partner Digimon had not been as affected by the sight of a human corpse as their partners were, but it was the first they had really seen, and it had still been a shocking experience, especially coupled with the reaction of their human friends. They offered what comfort they could, but didn't know exactly what to say. For a long minute there was no talk of what to do next. Instead there were hasty reassurances from the Digimon, while the Chosen Children grappled with the fact that their only chance to get out of this terrible place was to press onward.
It was Jou who finally faced the problem at hand. "What now?" he asked.
"Should we try the other door?" Gomamon suggested.
"I don't want to," Mimi said. "What if it's like the last room?"
"We have to go somewhere," Sora reminded her in a voice that was compassionate, but firm. "I don't want to see anything like that again, but we can't stay here."
"That's right," Yamato said. "We still have to find Takeru and everyone else."
"Yeah," Taichi said. He was recovering from his initial shock, and his courage began to reassert itself as he thought of his sister and friends. The memories of too many bad dreams were swirling through his head for him to remain idle, and his horror at what he had seen had returned to a fear of what could be.
"Alright," Koshiro said. "We'll press on."
There may have been a second exit from the room where the murdered man lay, but no one suggested reentering it. The group turned their attention to the other door of the room they were in, which they hadn't yet opened.
"We'll go first if you want, Sora," Piyomon said. She and the other Digimon gathered about the door, and Gabumon reached up to turn the silver doorknob. The Chosen Children stood back, waiting.
"It's just a hallway," Tentomon said, as he and Agumon peered through the crack between the door and the wall.
Gabumon pulled the door farther open, and the humans could see that it was indeed a hallway, as nondescript as the other two rooms in terms of decoration. There was one odd thing about it, however. The whole hall was dimly lit, as they had come to expect of every part of this building, but at the far end there was what appeared to be a wall of perfect blackness. But they knew that it wasn't a wall. It was another strange dark space like the one they had come through to get here.
They all started cautiously forward. No one really wanted to be in the front of the group, or be the one to bring up the rear, but there was no cowardly argument over position. Most of the Digimon were in the lead, but there was many a backward glance as the group moved into the hallway. In the dim glow of the wall sconces, they were able to make out more details of the hall as they advanced. About halfway between the blackness and the door they had come through there was an intersection, with another hallway opening to the left. And just before the black region, also on the left, was a closed pair of double doors.
"There's more doors this way," Agumon said, peeking around the corner. The twelve humans and Digimon hesitated at the intersection, trying to decide which way they should go.
"If we enter that blackness," Koshiro said, "There's no telling where we might end up. I suggest that we explore this area before moving on."
"Right!" Taichi said. "They might be here." He looked down the other long hall, but none of the three doors that he could see looked more promising than any other. He cupped his hands about his mouth and yelled down the silent corridor. "Hikari!"
Jou was opening his mouth to tell Taichi to be more quiet, when the double doors clicked and swung open. They all turned in that direction – hoping to see a friendly face appear, fearing that the enemy had answered Taichi's call instead.
The doors remained open, but the opener didn't emerge, maybe staying hidden behind the doors, which had opened out into the hallway. The Chosen didn't dare to move forward. They stood where they were, prepared for anything.
"Hikari?" Taichi asked quietly.
"'Light?'" said a voice from behind the doors. "That's the last thing you'll find here." And with that, Lilithmon stepped out into the center of the hallway. Her gaze swept back and forth, taking them all in.
"After all, I am the Goddess of Darkness," she said. "Now… Who will be the first to worship?"
"Now is it time to evolve?" Agumon asked, talking to the humans at his back.
"Yeah," Taichi said. "Now we fight."
"Oh?" Lilithmon said, "But some of you seem to be missing." There was no outward change in her tone, but within her she felt the first twinge of a new anger. Had BlackTailmon really managed to ensnare only half of her enemies?
"That's enough!" Taichi said. "Agumon!"
"Not your turn yet!" Lilithmon said. She thrust forward the golden claws of her right hand, and her shadow on the floor leaped ahead of her and vanished. Then Yamato gasped as a hole suddenly gaped beneath his feet, and he fell into blackness. There was no longer any floor under Piyomon either, but her wings managed to keep her from plummeting with him. Koshiro stepped backwards, away from the edge of the circular pit.
"Yamato!"
Gabumon and Sora called out as one and rushed to stare down into the darkness, but there was no sign of him.
"Here we play by my rules," Lilithmon said, smiling. "Now you have my permission to make a move."
"Then how's this?" Taichi snarled as his Digivice began to glow.
"Agumon, Warp Evolve! … WarGreymon!"
As WarGreymon advanced on her, Lilithmon laughed and spun back into the shelter of the open doors. WarGreymon's Dramon Killer plunged into the faux wood of the nearest door and tore it completely off its hinges, but Lilithmon was no longer behind it. Instead, those of the Chosen who weren't staring at the place where Yamato had disappeared saw only blackness beyond the threshold.
But WarGreymon could still see Lilithmon, the only spot of color in the abyss beyond the doorframe. She beckoned to him with one long-nailed finger. Taichi rushed to his partner's side.
"Let's get her," he said to WarGreymon. Looking quickly over his shoulder he yelled back to his friends. "We'll handle Lilithmon! Find Yamato and the others!"
WarGreymon leapt into the darkness, and Taichi followed without hesitation. There was nothing beneath his feet, but he found that he could run anyway, as in the space where they had encountered Apocalymon.
"Gaia Force!"
WarGreymon held a bright ball of energy above his head, but there was nothing to illuminate, and the blackness remained unchanged. He hurled it in Lilithmon's direction. She shot upwards, if up had any meaning here, and the great orb passed under her. Flipping over, twisting around in midair, she reached the peak of her jump, fell a little, and returned to a standing position, though now upside-down from her opponents' perspective.
Angry as he was, worried as he was about his friends, Taichi still couldn't help but notice the beauty and grace of the Digimon before him. It occurred to him that her sensuality was another of her weapons. It could distract, attract, or fool someone into mistaking her for harmless.
"Like what you see?" she asked, as if reading his thoughts. "I'm a little disappointed, myself. I was so hoping to get to know the others. It's times like these I wish I could be two places at once." She raised a hand to her mouth to stifle a playful giggle. "Well, there is one thing I could do…"
She began to sweep the thorny claws of her right hand in a slow arc.
"Don't say you're going to handle me," she said, "until we see that you can handle this. Empress Emblaze!"
As the words left her mouth there was a change in the quality of the darkness. The cold black space quivered. Taichi and WarGreymon saw something shuddering into existence, appearing behind Lilithmon and surging forward above her as a wave of confused matter. The shape it finally assumed was a portrait of lunacy. Five beaked, golden heads plunged towards the Chosen, growing from a cancerous mass in which two wet, red mouths opened. The whole gigantic thing was alive with eyes of all shapes and sizes, and it shrieked as it bore down on them, more hideous than any Digimon.
WarGreymon wasn't given much time to react. As the thing loomed over him, a gigantic parody of Lilithmon's hand, the five champing heads drawing together to seize him and rend him to pieces, he knew that he could not grapple with such a monstrosity. Instead of counterattacking, he darted to one side, catching Taichi with an outflung arm and propelling both of them out of the abomination's way.
Taichi and his partner looked back from where they came to a stop. The thing was still there. Having closed on empty air, it turned slowly in their direction, seeming to regard them with the multitudes of eyes on each head, and the single great eye in its palm, in which floated half a dozen irises and pupils. The huge mass wavered towards them, swaying from side to side in jerky movements, like the horrible blind groping of a disembodied hand. Maybe it couldn't see them after all. The eyes rolled aimlessly in their myriad sockets.
WarGreymon wrenched his gaze away from it to look for Lilithmon, but she was nowhere to be seen.
"She's after the others!" Taichi yelled, struggling to be heard over the ceaseless moaning of the hand monster.
"Don't worry, Taichi," his partner said. "When I've killed this, we'll go after her!"