135

Holy Light

"And there was a firmament again, and a wind, and a glare of purple light… There were gods and presences and wills; beauty and evil, and the shrieking of noxious night robbed of its prey." – H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath"

They all felt it at once. Where there had been one will not their own within them, now there were two. Something cut through the creeping pall that had fallen over their minds. It did not disperse Dagomon's influence, but they felt as if something had come to their aid, something that would shield them if it could. And the instant afterward, each distinctly heard Hikari calling to them.

None heard more clearly than Tailmon. To her the cry was so vivid that she glanced immediately at her partner's face, but Hikari's eyes were still closed, and her expression remained blank and unconscious. But Tailmon didn't have long to take in the seeming contradiction. The next moment something else had hit her, still more emphatically. A surge of energy swept through her body, clearing away the fatigue of her battle and the pain of the many injuries she had sustained, and she felt the trident's power to restrict her movements weaken.

It was then that Hikari's eyes opened. Far above her, Dagomon's own red eyes narrowed. With a tug he freed the barbed points of his trident from the surface of Odaiba, then stood motionless, watching intently.

Hikari got slowly to her feet, one hand resting reassuringly a moment on her amazed partner's back. Around them Hikari's fellow Chosen Children had quietened as the emanations of their friend's mind, augmented by the power of the Homeostasis within her, took the edge from Dagomon's mental influence. Hikari could still sense the thoughts and feelings of her friends. She could sense also the measure of relief that she had managed to bring them. Their presence, both mental and physical, gave her the courage to raise her eyes to the dark form towering above them. She still shook slightly under the regard of the burning eyes – she knew that they were focused on her alone now – but she did not look away.

A light, pink in color, had begun to emanate from her, faintly at first but growing in intensity as the moments passed.

With a quick movement, Dagomon's tentacles shifted their grip on the trident and prepared to strike again.

"Hikari!"

Tailmon, her strength restored, leapt into the air as if to somehow shield her partner from the onrushing attack. In that moment the pink light exploded. Its rays bent, converged on the little white Digimon, and were absorbed. The great trident stopped in the midst of its rush as for the first time Dagomon took a step backward, as if dazzled by the burst. The ocean's dark waves rippled and frothed as a sphere of bright pink rose higher into the air, radiating great beams of light.

"Tailmon, Warp Evolve…Holydramon!"

Hikari and several of her friends had seen once before, in America, the form that now hovered in the sky above them. Though nowhere near as gigantic as Dagomon, it was large for a partner Digimon – a maned dragon, with light pink fur and ten shining wings. Even after the evolution had ended a glowing aura clung to her, Tailmon's final form.

By now many of the other Chosen Children had also risen from where they lay. Dagomon's mental assault had ebbed away like a receding tide as his concentration centered on this new and unexpected opponent, and some measure of strength had returned to his human victims.

Taichi had been going to rejoin his sister and friends when the sight of Holydramon had arrested him with awe. "This is Hikari's…" he whispered.

"Hikari-chan?"

Hikari turned to look at Takeru, who now stood beside her, holding Patamon.

"I'm going to fight," she said, "thanks to you and everyone. There's no point in hiding anymore." She managed a smile, then turned back, her head tilted so that she could see Holydramon and Dagomon confronting each other. A solemn expression replaced the smile. "We're going to destroy that thing – for us, and for all the Digimon that have been hurt. And for the Chosen Children."

Takeru nodded. And yet a part of him could not fully enter into Hikari's frame of mind. He knew which group of Chosen Children she meant, and he knew she meant all of them.

Dagomon's huge right arm wrapped more tightly around his weapon, and with blinding speed he thrust it at Holydramon. A clang rang out over the island. The claws of Holydramon's arms had stopped Dagomon's attack. For several seconds the two opponents matched their strengths against each other, Dagomon trying to overcome the claws and impale his target. The trident glowed blue, crackled with electricity, but the phenomena faded without effect. Still, it seemed that Dagomon's superior physical strength might prevail in the end.

Suddenly Holydramon went into motion. The points of the trident shot past her, ringing on her claws. With a lithe, rapid motion she circled in the air. Her mouth opened, and between her jaws a sphere of greenish light formed.

"Holy Flame!"

The sphere became a flaming spiral. Coiling through the air, it began to melt whatever parts of the trident it made contact with. As Dagomon dropped his blunted weapon, the tornado of holy fire tore right through one of his grotesque wings and continued on its way, only stopping when it struck the enormous Dark Tower on the horizon and exploded in a great cross of white light. When the light faded, those on the shore could see that the tower had begun to fall.

Dagomon uttered a sibilant roar of rage. As the reddish tentacles of the destroyed wing began to regenerate and lengthen, another black sphere of mental energy appeared in the air before him. But instead of growing like before, it remained at its original size, and it did not advance. Hikari, watching from below, realized with exultation that her powers and the powers of the Homeostasis were working. Drawing strength from the bonds between the twelve friends, a new psychic power had arisen, great enough to rival Dagomon's own.

The next moment, her excitement faded somewhat. Dagomon's attack had failed, but his destroyed wing had now fully reformed itself. If that monstrosity continued to recover from every injury, how could they hope to destroy him?

Dagomon slashed at Holydramon with his right arm. She avoided the blow without difficulty, but the tentacles of Dagomon's left arm were also in motion, and were waiting for her when she dodged. Like an army of vipers they struck, from all directions, and though Holydramon avoided some, bit through one, and shredded others with the claws of her four limbs, the tentacles continued to multiply and lengthen, and in the end she could not help but be ensnared by over half a dozen of them. Her ten wings flapped, and her serpentine body writhed and twisted, but it was no use. She was held fast.

Her mouth opened, and another sphere of holy energy began to accumulate. But before she could launch it as a Holy Flame, Dagomon's right arm slammed into the side of her head with all its force. She cried out, and the light was extinguished as her jaws snapped shut.

"Holydramon!"

At her partner's voice Holydramon made another heaving twist, but the tentacles had begun to constrict, slowly squeezing the breath and strength out of her. "Hikari…"

"Don't give up!" Hikari called.

And as she did a strange thing happened. The other Chosen Children felt something bright and clean cry out again in their minds. For a moment there existed among them a clarity of understanding, a perfection of purpose. United by the emanations of Hikari's mind, her inner light, finally taking its stand and refusing to fade before the onslaughts of despair, reproduced itself in them. It stoked the fires of their own hopes, their common desire to end this invasion from the darkness and to defend each other and those things they all lived for. Their sympathy rebounded, and Hikari felt it. The partner Digimon, whether conscious or unconscious, felt it too. Holydramon felt it.

"We won't give up… Hikari…" Holydramon said. Her voice sounded weak, but there was conviction in it. As she spoke the glow of her aura brightened perceptibly. "I will stop this evil… if it's the last thing I do… Everyone's light…"

Suddenly, above the two struggling titans, those on the ground saw a flash of brilliant white light. From its center fell a beam like the tail of a meteor. The ocean's surface exploded where it landed, and when the spray cleared the Chosen Children saw Holydramon flying free once more, the severed tentacles falling from her. Dagomon's left arm had been shorn entirely off just short of the chains bundling it together.

"I don't know what will happen, Hikari," Holydramon said. "Forgive me if…"

"What do you mean?" Hikari asked.

"Don't worry," her partner answered. "I promise that this is still only the beginning for us."

Shining still brighter, Holydramon shot upwards into the sky. Dagomon roared, his right arm extending, shooting upwards at bullet-train speed, but it was not quick enough.

"Apocalypse!"

A constellation of white flashes exploded in the sky high above Dagomon. The shining beams rained down relentlessly as Holydramon's light strengthened and whitened until her features could no longer be made out. The meteoric rays blasted through Dagomon's membranous wings, chains, tentacles, and body, erupting in radiant domes of force wherever they landed. The Dark Ocean became a seething chaos, and over the Chosen Children the ripples of the holy apocalypse washed harmlessly.

For nearly a full minute the barrage continued, blotting out completely even the mountainous form of Dagomon. Unseen within that maelstrom of light and water the High Priest of Darkness regenerated each fragment of his body a thousand times, and a thousand times they were again vaporized. No other sound could be heard above the concussions of the holy beams, but in the minds of all present something that was not sound began to rise – a hissing bellow of rage and hatred, growing louder and louder, and then slowly fading away into nothingness.

Finally, the rain of light rays came to an end, and a profound silence fell over the world. Those who had watched the battle were too much in awe at first to react. Then all eyes turned aloft to Holydramon, still shining pure white in the gray sky. Slowly and noiselessly she had begun to descend, and as she fell her shape changed and shrunk. Hikari, remembering Holydramon's words and feeling a vague apprehension, ran to catch her partner. A tiny round form dropped into Hikari's arms. The glow faded, and she recognized the unconscious Digimon as Nyaromon, one of Tailmon's Baby forms.

By now the other Chosen Children were looking about them, the older ones seeking for signs of the partner Digimon they'd lost track of when the trident had struck, and they were the first ones to notice the change coming over the landscape.

From the distant horizon rumbling could be heard, and the ground beneath everyone's feet vibrated a little. The dark city of R'lyeh had begun to sink, its black buildings crumbling as it did so. A change came slowly over the sky and waves – hints of blue returned to the grayness. The day – and it felt like a true day now – began to regain its brightness. Yamato called to the others as he spotted the motionless forms of Digimon and Agents lying a ways off, and Miyako, holding Hawkmon, gave a louder exclamation as the other half of Odaiba started fading back into existence. A clear line could be made out where the blasted concrete on which they all stood met the perfectly untouched surface of the reappearing pavement.

Of the Deep Ones there was no sign. None of the Chosen Children had seen them go. Perhaps, their god defeated, they had been drawn by the ebbtide of the dark powers back into their ocean realm. Perhaps they had only been creations of their master, and without him had ceased to exist.

For the moment, all that mattered was the Chosen Children's dawning realization that somehow they had managed to win, and that the long nightmare appeared to be over. Hikari only dared to believe it when, after several minutes of anxious watching, she saw Nyaromon's eyes partially open, and the little Digimon's mouth manage a smile.

Hikari smiled back. Tears of joy moistened her eyes. Then suddenly she raised her head and looked about her. Nyaromon gave no indication of having heard, but Hikari had thought a little girl's voice had spoken from somewhere nearby.

Thank you, Hikari-san.