Author's Note: Well, with Neo's army marching on Holy Angel Castle, I'm not sure I want to waste time with this author's note. So, on with the story!
HolyAngemon forced himself to strengthen his resolve as he saw Neo's army advancing on his castle. The situation certainly looked bleak even compared to the last battle here: Neo's army was approximately the same size as Daemon's had been in that attack, while the defenders had less than half the force of the previous engagement. True, they had a greater number of Mega levels on their side this time, but even that might not be enough. As Dominimon, he was weaker than he had been as Seraphimon, but he hoped other factors compensated for the overall decrease in power. By focusing all attack power into his sword, he actually had improved on his Excalibur attack, and by removing almost all of Seraphimon's armor he had greatly increased speed. Of course, this came at the expense of losing defense, as instead of a full suit of armor he was now reduced to two large, shield-like plates covering his arms. Hopefully, his increased speed would render defense irrelevant, and considering the ferocity of Dot Matrix, HolyAngemon was happy to make the trade.
Whereas HolyAngemon was weaker than he had been in the previous fight, Leo had obviously increased in power. He was bigger and bulkier than he had been as IceLeomon, but his mobility had actually increased as he was now capable of flying. He lost access to his ice attacks, but replaced them with attacks based on pure energy. Add to this the fact that the DigiDestined and Alias III were now fighting on the side of Holy Angel Castle, and HolyAngemon knew his army was stronger than it had ever been, even taking into account the loss of most of his fighters from the previous battle.
Unfortunately, the increased strength on the side of Holy Angel Castle was replicated by Neo's army compared to Daemon's. Where the bulk of Daemon's army had been composed of Devimon, Neo had managed to get the forces to undergo a mass Digivolution, and now NeoDevimon formed the backbone of the invading army. To make matters worse, there were four strange Digimon leading the charge that exuded the same feeling Arkadimon did: the feeling that they shouldn't even exist within the Digital World. They were obviously incredibly powerful, but the fact that they were leading the charge instead of Neo and Arkadimon only made them seem more menacing.
Luckily for HolyAngemon, the four figures leading Neo's army weren't unfamiliar to all of the defenders. Upon seeing them, Yolei could quickly identify them. "Now I know what Minervamon meant when she said some of the shades we fought were of Digimon that were about to exist. Listen, Cody and I have fought against those four monsters before. The bear is Callismon, the wizard Hermmon, the goat Panimon, and the wolf Lycamon. Well, we fought against exact copies of them, if that makes sense. They're powerful, but we managed to beat them with a Champion and an Ultimate level working together thanks to a combination of luck and strategy."
Cody nodded. "We got lucky in our fights against them, but at least we know what they can do. Hermmon is either incredibly fast or capable of teleportation; it's hard to tell which. He likes to keep his distance and attack with blasts of lightning or fire. Still, if the real version has the same mindset as the copy we fought, he isn't one to pay attention to his surroundings, and he lets his ego cloud his better judgment." Hearing this, Sigma grinned. "Sounds like he's the perfect opponent for me and Piedmon. After all, what better way to fight a magic user than by using another magic user? We'll see who's better with teleportation."
With the first matchup decided, Yolei took over the briefing. "Actually, all of these monsters had a bit of an ego problem, except maybe Panimon. Callismon is incredibly proud of his strength, but he can back it up. He has a homing Rodeo Bullet attack, and he can cause earthquakes with his Deep Forest. Still, he isn't that quick, either physically or mentally. We beat him by flying through his Rodeo Bullet so he ended up being hit by his own attack."
HolyAngemon nodded. "Sounds like we should rely on speed to beat Callismon. No offense, Leo, but that probably rules you out. Still, I'd like to hear about the others before we decide matchups. After all, Omegamon is much stronger than I am, so we should save him for the most threatening opponent."
Cody nodded, and began explaining the other two monsters. "There really isn't much to explain about with Panimon. I'm not even sure if he has any attacks- in our fight, he just relied on brute strength, and it worked pretty well for him. Still, he had something like tunnel vision, only focusing on one target and ignoring everything else. As for Lycamon, he seemed a lot smarter than the rest, though that may have been because we fought him in an area that helped him more than us. He's capable of disappearing within a blizzard, and he's really good with his sword. We beat him because we got lucky and found a lake to soak him before hitting him with electricity."
Hideto copied Sigma's earlier grin. "Lycamon sounds perfect for me. After all, one of my partners is a wolf who's pretty good with ice himself, and Omegamon is no slouch with a sword. Besides, from your description, he sounds like the most dangerous to me anyway." HolyAngemon nodded. "That leaves Callismon to me and Panimon to Leo. Any objections?" When nobody spoke up, HolyAngemon turned to the DigiDestined.
"Listen, I know you would like to help out right away, but we must be smart about this. Even if we defeat all of these forces, we cannot win unless we defeat Arkadimon, so we mustn't use all of our energy before he even arrives. I have no doubt that some of you will need to join the fight before that happens to prevent us from being overrun, and I know I have no right to order you around, but please, stay out of this fight if at all possible, and if you do join, be smart about how you fight. Thank you for the help, and I look forward to seeing you under better circumstances."
With that, HolyAngemon led his army out of the castle alongside Sigma and Hideto. All the DigiDestined stood by, ready to have their partners Warp Digivolve at the first sign their allies needed help. All except Davis, who was feeling somewhat helpless. Veemon still hadn't woken up within the intensive care unit, meaning he wasn't able to join this fight even if he wanted to. Ken could tell what his best friend was going through, and tried to cheer the leader of the younger DigiDestined up. "Don't worry Davis; I'm sure you'll be able to help before this battle is over. Veemon's probably sleeping in on purpose so he can wake up right when Arkadimon shows up and then save the day. After all, our only defense against Dot Matrix is speed, and nobody is faster than AeroVeedramon." Davis gave a slight smile at the thought, but it quickly faded away as the two armies finally met outside Holy Angel Castle.
The first shot of the battle came courtesy of Hermmon, who launched a bolt of lightning at Piedmon. The Demon Man countered with his Ending Snipe, and the two attacks caused a thunderclap that signaled the start of a full-scale confrontation. Panimon tried charging past the front lines towards the castle, only to get stopped when Leo blasted him with his Beast King Wave. This drew the goat-like Digimon's attention, and he immediately charged at his attacker, ignoring all else. As the two Beast Digimon grappled, HolyAngemon flew down and landed in front of Callismon. "You have the same foul aura about you as Arkadimon did. I cannot let you besmirch the holy grounds where my castle stands!" Callismon merely laughed. "I don't think you have any choice in the matter. I was made with the power data of Arkadimon. I'll cut you down before you get the chance to stop me!" He charged ahead with a surprising display of speed, forcing Dominimon to quickly take to the air to dodge.
While Panimon, Callismon, and Hermmon had all rushed into battle, Lycamon seemed to advance much more cautiously. He drew his sword and watched Omegamon closely, but didn't make any threatening moves. Hideto sat back for a while as well as he tried to scan the opponent's data, but Neo must have put some sort of data protection on his new monsters that prevented the Digivice 01 from getting any information. Giving up on scanning his opponent's data, Hideto observed the rest of the battlefield. Hermmon had teleported right next to Sigma and Piedmon presumably to taunt his opponent, but this just gave Piedmon an opening to trap Hermmon within Masks Square. With the battle moved to another dimension, Hideto knew he wouldn't be getting any updates from that particular fight. Leo seemed to have the upper hand fighting Panimon, and the goat-like monster had retreated a short distance in order to attack with a sonic wave of some sort. Meanwhile, HolyAngemon was flying through the air dodging Callismon's Rodeo Bullet attack, using the vast numbers of NeoDevimon to absorb the attacks while simultaneously thinning out Neo's forces.
Unfortunately, while the four leaders of Holy Angel Castle's defense force were doing well against the leaders of the attack, the same could not be said for the general army. The NeoDevimon were carving through the Angemon that made up the defense force like they weren't even there. It wouldn't be long before they reached the castle, so Hideto knew he would have to hurry and finish of Lycamon so he could help against the swarm. Omegamon charged towards the werewolf, who responded by firing a blizzard at the Royal Knight. Omegamon merely dispelled the snowstorm with his cape before using his Transcendent Sword to block Lycamon's oncoming slash, breaking the werewolf's sword in the process. The wolf fell back and tried attacking with another blizzard, but Omegamon retracted his sword and launched a stream of fire out of his WarGreymon arm, easily cutting right through the attack and setting the helpless Lycamon on fire. All it took was one stab of the Transcendent Sword to put Lycamon out of his misery, having never been a match for somebody as strong as Omegamon.
Having defeated his opponent, Hideto turned his attention to the seemingly endless swarm of NeoDevimon ahead of him. Seeing the vast number of enemies, Hideto briefly wished he could perfectly copy Neo's Infinite Jogress, which would allow him to repeatedly use Omega Howling to cut through the advancing army and then immediately regain all of his energy. Unfortunately, Warg and Melga were unable to accomplish this. All of Neo's monsters had been raised specifically to use Infinite Jogress, and there was an extremely narrow range of stats that allowed for true Infinite Jogress. Warg and Melga came close, capable of Jogressing repeatedly with no apparent limit, though Omegamon lost some energy each time he formed within the same battle. Since Arkadimon could show up at any time and Omegamon was still the strongest monster they had to oppose Neo, Hideto couldn't afford to waste the energy using any of Omegamon's stronger attacks.
Still, he couldn't just let the NeoDevimon get past him without a fight, so he had Omegamon begin thinning out the crowd with his Double Torrent attack. While the streams of fire and ice easily destroyed any NeoDevimon they connected with, it wasn't enough to make a dent in the number of soldiers Neo had mustered. Knowing he had to change strategies, he crossed his wrists together in order to Partition Omegamon. While Warg and Melga weren't nearly as strong fighting separately as they were fused together, this gave Hideto a couple of advantages. First, he didn't have to worry about saving energy anymore, as Omegamon would always Jogress to the same energy level regardless of how much energy Warg and Melga expended before fusing. Second, he now had access to some wide-scale attacks that could really put a dent in the charging armies. Between the flurry of freezing missiles from Melga's Grace Cross Freezer and the multiple flaming tornadoes summoned by Warg's Ultra Tornado, Hideto felt like he was finally hitting enough enemies to make a difference, even if some of them were only getting slowed down instead of outright destroyed.
Hideto hadn't been the only one forced to change the original plan in order to hold off the NeoDevimon army. The sheer multitude of opponents that had gotten through the front line had forced the DigiDestined to start getting involved in the battle themselves. Willis had been the first to join the fray, having Terriermon Golden Armor Digivolve. Since the Digimental of Destiny effectively prevented any damage or energy drain after its use, Willis figured he was still sticking to the original plan while having GoldRapidmon join the fight. Unfortunately, each NeoDevimon was strong enough to be a challenge to GoldRapidmon, forcing more Digimon to join the fray. At first, Cherubimon started using his Heaven's Judgment attack to strike down multitudes of the Fallen Angel Digimon, but for every one he destroyed two more seemed to spring up. When GoldRapidmon was eventually overwhelmed, Willis quickly had Terriermon Warp Digivolve, and MegaGargomon finally got to show what his weapons were capable of. Unlike Omegamon, the NeoDevimon couldn't withstand his Mega Barrage, and he blew through legions of the demonic Digimon.
For all the damage Willis's partners were inflicting, they were also using up too much energy. Eventually, they could no longer continue the battle, reverting to their In-Training forms. Michael and Ken immediately stepped up to fill the void, letting GranKuwagamon and MetalSeadramon take their turn against the opposing army, which finally seemed to be thinning out. MetalSeadramon was alternating between firing his River of Power into the crowd and using his Poseidon Divide to send walls of water out that at the very least pushed the army back. Meanwhile, GranKuwagamon finally got to show off his Catastrophe attack, which started by creating a small black sphere and throwing it into the oncoming army. After travelling a certain distance, the sphere expanded before immediately collapsing in on itself, taking anything within its boundaries with it. Effectively, GranKuwagamon was throwing miniature black holes into the swarms of NeoDevimon, easily taking out twenty opponents at a time.
Yolei and Cody stood back and waited to have Valkyrimon and Vikemon join the fight whenever they would be needed, but GranKuwagamon and MetalSeadramon seemed to be enough to stem the tide for now. This was mostly because of the actions of the first line of defenders, who were now focusing almost exclusively on the NeoDevimon army. Warg and Melga were nearing the point of exhaustion, but they were still taking on as many opponents as they could. Hideto was surprised they had been able to last this long without needing to Jogress, but for some reason the NeoDevimon seemed content to ignore them as they rushed towards Holy Angel Castle. HolyAngemon was continuing to use Callismon's attacks against the army, as the bear was too enraged to realize he was playing right into his opponent's hands and kept firing in the hope that eventually there would be too many bullets for his agile opponent to dodge. And compared to Panimon, Callismon was the picture of tranquility. The goat-like Digimon didn't even seem to care where Leo was, just as long as he got to fire off his sonic cannon attack. Because of their opponents, Leo and HolyAngemon were probably doing the best job of saving their energy for when Arkadimon finally arrived.
Another major blow against the NeoDevimon army came courtesy of Sigma and Piedmon, who were replicating GranKuwagamon's successful strategy. The fight with Hermmon had taken longer than Sigma would have liked, but it couldn't be helped when two opponents capable of teleportation engaged each other. Luckily, Hermmon hadn't been able to teleport outside of Masks Square, and Piedmon had the advantage of having a partner to keep track of things. Even with his teleportation, Hermmon found himself continuously harassed by Piedmon's Trump Sword attack, and eventually the wizard made the mistake of stopping for a split second to fire off an attack of his own. Unfortunately for him, Sigma had noticed, and Piedmon managed to warp his swords directly into Hermmon's DigiCore before he effortlessly teleported away from the stream of fire.
With Hermmon taken care of, Piedmon had dispersed Masks Square in order to return to the Digital World and view the situation. Seeing the danger of being overrun by NeoDevimon, Sigma and Piedmon quickly decided they were done saving energy. After all, Arkadimon had already defeated Piedmon at full power, and with Dot Matrix Arkadimon could neutralize Masks Square, the only skill Piedmon had that had any chance of turning the battle in his favor. With that decision made, Piedmon began hurling his Mask Square throughout the swarm, taking as many opponents as he could into the dimension before destroying them all. It wasn't as quick as GranKuwagamon's Catastrophe attack, but it was just as lethal.
When Warg and Melga were just about to collapse from exhaustion, Hideto was finally forced to Jogress them once again. Looking at everybody else now expending a bunch of energy trying to eliminate the NeoDevimon swarm, he decided he could no longer wait to truly make a difference. He had been hoping to save his ace in the hole until Neo was here, but it looked like he would need to use it if he wanted any chance of backup when Arkadimon finally arrived. With a short command, Omegamon unleashed all of his power into one Omega Howling attack. The repeated bursts struck down the NeoDevimon with all the effectiveness of a frigid winter striking tropical life. When the attack finished, Hideto immediately had Omegamon land before using a special potion Jijimon had helped him concoct the previous night. It had used up all of Hideto's sparse inventory of medicine, but the result fully healed and revitalized Omegamon, bringing the Royal Knight to perfect fighting condition. Hideto had originally planned on saving that as a surprise for Neo, who would expect Hideto to just use Jogress in order to heal Omegamon.
Omegamon had been fully healed before the residual snow from his attack all hit the ground. The first rays of the sun glinted off of the massive ice formations left behind, forcing Hideto and Omegamon to turn away and shield their eyes. Glancing behind them, they saw the last of the NeoDevimon fall to GranKuwagamon and Piedmon's efforts. Then, with no reason to keep their designated opponents alive any longer, Leo and HolyAngemon went back on the offensive. Charging all of his power into his sword, HolyAngemon charged at Callismon with his Final Excalibur. The sheer amount of holy power could not be contained within the blade, which was glowing bright green within a white aura. Callismon didn't seem to regard this as any threat, glad to finally be able to get a good hit on his opponent. He reached his claws forward for a Deep Forest attack, only for the holy blade to cut directly through him without HolyAngemon exerting any effort. In a similar way, Leo quickly dispatched Panimon now that he was no longer useful. He overpowered Panimon's sonic wave with his Beast King Wave, and before the goat could recover Leo had sent a blade of energy from his sword in his Regulus Cutter attack. The blow decapitated the last member of the attacking army, giving the defenders of the castle a much needed chance to catch their breath.
While Hideto was glad for the brief respite, he knew it wouldn't last long. Turning back towards the sunrise, he thought he could glimpse two dark spots blocking out a bit of the glare from the ice. As the spots flew closer, Hideto knew the real fight was just about to start. As the sun moved completely over the horizon, the shadows took on distinctive forms, and Hideto was only mildly aware of HolyAngemon and Leo landing on the ground next to Omegamon. His attention was entirely focused on the approaching abomination that was Arkadimon and the smaller Gryphonmon that was carrying his former best friend.
Neo smirked at his welcoming committee. "Well, if it isn't all the losers gathered together in one place. From the looks of things, two of you have developed a new form just to get some revenge for your previous defeats. Not that it matters. Weak monsters like you would never be able to defeat Arkadimon, no matter how many times you try."
Leo scowled back at the human who would dare try to conquer the world. "So, you just think we're weak losers, do you? What exactly does that make your army, then? As far as I could tell, you had four generals and hundreds if not thousands of NeoDevimon, but it doesn't look like any of them even lasted long enough for you to show your face."
Neo only sighed in exasperation. "As if any of those fools meant anything to me. They were all pitifully weak, even when augmented with Arkadimon's data. Then again, I suppose I shouldn't be too harsh on the NeoDevimon. If you copy the same set of data hundreds of times, the quality of the copies is bound to suffer. Which explains why you are still here: they were ordered to get to the castle and wipe out all Digimon that didn't have a human partner. Perhaps because you fought them outside the castle, they focused on the first part of the order to the detriment of the second."
Hideto didn't really care what Neo's excuse was for the performance of the artificial Digimon, but he couldn't overlook something else Neo said. "What, you only sent your army to destroy non-partner Digimon? Did you finally realize you don't want to fight against us anymore?" He said this in a tone that could only be described as friendly, but the determined glare never left his eyes. While he was verbally extending an olive branch, he clearly was expecting this to come to a fight.
Neo merely started laughing, either because he noticed the hostility in Hideto's eyes or because he just didn't care about anything Hideto had to say. "I assure you, I have my reasons, but it's pointless to tell you. You won't be able to make a difference anyway. I'll just destroy all the other Digimon here myself, and then I will have complete control of this world within my grasp. I stand on the verge of a power that would make me a god of the Digital World. Why should I bother explaining myself to you? Arkadimon, eliminate them!" At Neo's command, the beast charged towards the three waiting Digimon, who scattered and took up positions surrounding Arkadimon. While they knew some details about Dot Matrix, they still didn't know exactly where the attack came from, so they couldn't afford to all be caught within the range of the attack. If they stayed in this formation, at the very worst two Digimon would be able to get attacks in while Arkadimon absorbed the third.
Of course, since none of the Digimon particularly wanted to be absorbed, they were still trying to destroy Arkadimon before it came to that situation. Leo tried striking the beast with his Regulus Cutter, only for Arkadimon to easily dodge out of the way, moving at a similar speed to Omegamon at his best. In fact, Arkadimon's speed was shown to be perfectly equal to Omegamon's, as Neo ordered Arkadimon to skewer his opponents one by one, starting with the Royal Knight. Arkadimon matched Omegamon move for move, not able to close in but also never falling behind. With Omegamon unable to shake his pursuer, Hideto knew he needed to come up with a strategy.
Almost immediately, Hideto had an idea, but he wasn't eager to try it. True, it would turn this situation to his advantage, but at a steep cost. He wasn't sure he wanted to subject Omegamon to this plan, but then the Royal Knight executed a quick aerial maneuver that allowed him to lock eyes with his Tamer for a fraction of a second. In that one moment, Hideto understood the message Omegamon was sending him. The Royal Knight was asking for a command, and simultaneously telling Hideto he didn't have to worry about him. Nodding grimly, he shouted, "All right! I'm counting on you, Omegamon!" before sending what could very well be the last command Omegamon ever received.
Enacting Hideto's command, Omegamon suddenly turned and faced directly into Arkadimon's charge. Neo was taken aback at this strategy, wondering why Hideto would order his monster to just give up. However, this was nowhere near Omegamon's intention. Bringing his MetalGarurumon arm up, he launched his Omega Cannon directly into Arkadimon's face. With only a few feet separating the tip of the cannon from its target, the icy explosion engulfed both Arkadimon and Omegamon, erasing both Digimon from sight.
Far away from the scene of the battle, Pal and Pul were busy exploring the deserted castle that had once served as Daemon's base of operations. So far, they hadn't discovered anything that seemed particularly helpful against Arkadimon, though they at least hadn't come up completely empty handed. While exploring, they had stumbled on a room that Neo must have used for storage, as it had around twenty Digivices scattered around. Whatever Digimon these had been bonded to must have been deleted, as they were all completely blank right now, but Pal and Pul still each grabbed one. After all, the only Digimon they knew that went to the human world besides Daemon all were bonded to one of these Digivices. It might not have been a requirement, but it couldn't hurt their chances of going back to the human world with Rei and the other friendly humans.
Still, Pal was getting frustrated by the lack of success finding anything that would help their friends survive long enough to even make it back to the human world. Their search had brought them down to basement levels they hadn't even known existed, but all they got for their trouble was a strange wall covered in DigiCode they couldn't even recognize. The secret to ultimate power could be hidden right in front of them, but the DigiCode must have been so ancient that it was unreadable if it wasn't supposed to be complete gibberish. Pul seemed to think he would figure it out by staring at it forever, but Pal didn't have the patience.
"If you can't read it now, you're not going to be able to read it in the next hour. Let's keep looking, Pul." When her brother ignored her, Pal ended up resorting to her usual method of getting Pul to listen to her: she hit him with her baton. However, Pul seemed to be taken by surprise at the attack, having actually been too engrossed in trying to decode the message that he hadn't heard her speaking, and he ended up getting knocked off balance and falling into the wall. Pal hadn't meant to actually hurt him, and was about to apologize for hitting him too hard when the Digivice 01 that Pul was carrying started to glow slightly, causing a similar reaction in the wall. The glow intensified to the point where both PetitMamon had to shield their eyes, and then it faded away just as quickly as it started. Cautiously looking back towards the wall, Pal and Pul were surprised to see that there wasn't a wall anymore, and what had once been a dead end was now a tunnel leading further down.
Pal was shocked into silence, but Pul couldn't resist the opportunity to flaunt his rare triumph over his sister. "What was that you were saying? Looks like I managed to get past the wall in a few seconds. Not such a dummy now, am I?" Hearing her brother taunt her this way immediately brought Pal back to normal. "Yeah, and who was it that caused the Digivice to hit the wall in the first place? If it wasn't for me hitting you, you'd still be sitting there trying to read. Now, are you going to keep arguing with me, or shall we go investigate?"
Before Pul could even respond, Pal was flying down the tunnel. Grumbling under his breath, he didn't even notice Pal had stopped at the entrance to a circular room, and he soon received another whack from his sister's baton when he bumped into her. Rubbing his head, he asked why Pal had stopped, only for her to whack her stick against what seemed to be the air in the doorway. When the baton rebounded, Pul immediately guessed the cause. "It must be a force field of some kind. That's weird, though. Why have a force field behind the trick wall…" Glancing through the invisible barrier, he could make out four glowing objects. Staring at the small points of black, brown, silver, and indigo, Pul was instantly reminded of one of the security measures this castle featured. "Pal, we have to go back up and get Rei. Or at the very least, any human will do. We just found something that's bound to help out."
Author's Note: Well, we've managed to take out most of Neo's army, but it came at a pretty high price- we've lost access to MegaGargomon, Cherubimon, GranKuwagamon, and MetalSeadramon. With Veemon still in recovery, Piedmon exhausted, and Omegamon caught in his own attack, do the DigiDestined have enough left to claim victory when the dust (or in this case, snow) settles? And what was hidden deep beneath Daemon's castle? Guess you'll just have to keep reading to find out.
Putting aside somewhat desperate-sounding attempts to build suspense, I want to know what all of you thought about the fight in this chapter. I feel like the whole 'fight against the whole army' could have been handled a lot better, seeing as I did the exact same thing in Dark Uprising's climax. And with so many Digimon against so few, I couldn't really extend individual fights. At least this time all the Digimon at least appeared earlier in the story (NeoDevimon as TK's partner, and the artificial Digimon as shades on the way to meeting with Minervamon). Still, are scenes like that okay, or do you prefer my more detailed one-on-one battles? The climax for the conclusion to this trilogy is nowhere near set in stone, so I'd like feedback on whether to go for the large scale or stay smaller but more focused. So, please review or send me a PM!