Author's Note: I know I usually just start off with a disclaimer and leave the Author's Note until the end, but this chapter deserves special treatment. This is the meeting with Minervamon, and because of who she is, she's going to be giving a massive history lesson of the Digital World. Since this chapter is going to basically be a brief overview of world history, it will probably be the most boring chapter for many readers. Still, this was also the chapter that required the most work, so I'm hoping at least a few readers enjoy filling in the backstory of the world as much as I do. So, pour yourself a cup of coffee and make yourselves comfortable, because this chapter has a lot of information. It might make you glad that I don't own Digimon, since my timeline might be a little more convoluted than the original (though with Milleniummon, that claim might not be entirely accurate).

Izzy, Joe, Yolei, and Cody found themselves in a circular room, facing twelve empty thrones. Their guide merely walked silently up to the side of one of the thrones, and then suddenly used her giant sword as a vault to spring herself onto the chair before smiling at the DigiDestined.

"Greetings, DigiDestined. I am Minervamon, Goddess of Wisdom and member of the Olympos XII." As all of her visitors' jaws dropped, Minervamon couldn't help but chuckle. "Sorry, couldn't really help myself. I just love the look of surprise on visitors' faces when they realize I'm actually not just a servant to the gods and am one myself. Now, I have been watching you for quite some time, and I know you seek answers on a strict deadline, so I'll have to ask you not to interrupt me with too many questions. Right now, you wish to know the nature of the plan Lilithmon of the Demon Lords is working on as your main goal. I will answer that, but I believe I will start with a few of your more minor questions, such as why I appear the way I do, how we formulated the Twelve Trials, why a powerful group of Mega Digimon such as the Olympos XII has stood by and allowed the various dark forces you have fought throughout your adventures to continue, and lastly, how I know you are thinking all of these questions."

"But, we don't have time—"

"While I have always appreciated your headstrong personality, Miyako Inoue, I am afraid I will have to remind you not to waste time with interruptions. The reason I must give an extremely long answer to your main question is precisely because I am the Goddess of Wisdom. If you just wanted answers, you'd have to get the knowledge some other way. I will give you the background information that will allow you to understand the answers. To use a mundane example from your world, consider me a tutor. I will help you get the answer, but I won't just hand you the answer key. I assure you, I will cut out much of the information that is only tangentially related to your current problem in the interest of time, but you must follow my method if you wish to have my help."

While Joe and Cody nodded their heads immediately, it took a few moments before Izzy and Yolei could manage to wrestle down their objections to this plan: Yolei due to her hurry to get the answers, and Izzy due to his curiosity that would make him want to ask more questions as they came up. Finally, the DigiDestined were all ready to listen, so Minervamon began her explanation. "Okay, the first question I will answer will be the simplest: the matter of my appearance. After all, wisdom is usually associated with age, and I am obviously a young girl. The main reason for this is simple: when you have lived as long as I have, you realize life is much more fun when you look at things from a child's viewpoint when you don't need to be serious. There is also another reason. I do have an older form that I can shift to at will, but I unlocked that form when I pursued elegance and sensuality. As such, my form has certain, well, features that tend to be distracting to humans. Knowing your hurry, I decided it would be best if you were focusing on my mental assets instead of being slightly distracted by physical form."

"The answers to many of your other questions are more tied together. For example, the reason why the Olympos XII have not gotten directly involved in conflicts before is found in the history of the Digital World, as is the true nature of the Demon Lords' current actions. And one of the benefits of being an Olympian is the ability to view just about all aspects of Digital World history: past, present, and future. It is a similar power to that of the Fates from your world's mythology, only we have less control but better vision. Apart from a few special cases, we are aware of just about anything, though we tend to limit our view for practicality's sake. Thus, we are some of the very few beings that can give an accurate telling of historical events undistorted by legend. Along with this ability to see through time is an ability to create shades of any beings we observe. That was what you experienced for most of the Trials: we observed many Digimon, created replicas of ones that fit a certain theme, and then used those replicas as our Guardians. Many of the Digimon you fought were based on monsters that existed well before the Digital World took its current formation, though some, like Kimeramon, were more recent, and others are Digimon that do not exist yet, but will soon enough."

"However, to say the Olympos XII do not interfere with conflicts in the Digital World would not be completely accurate. In most cases, we try not to pick a side in conflicts: things like light and darkness or good and evil are all part of the natural cycle of the world. Our job is to protect the Digital World and ensure it doesn't fall into complete barbarism, but other than that we do not interfere. However, there have been limited cases where the world itself has almost been destroyed, and in those cases, we have taken measures to fight back. Of course, we swore an oath not to get involved directly, but that doesn't mean we can't provide information or fighters who can help restore balance. One of our personal favorite methods is arranging for human children to come save the world in its darkest hour. These Chosen Children are more commonly known as the DigiDestined. So far, we have called in groups at two separate instances, if you are willing to view everything since the Highton View Terrace Incident until present as one instance. This explains how I am able to predict your questions, since after all, I helped in the process of choosing you to become DigiDestined, and have observed your exploits up to the present."

"Now, I understand this is coming as a shock, but I am afraid you are on a very strict deadline, so I must continue on. We have reached the point where you must educate yourselves on the history of the Digital World in order to understand the answer to your most pressing question. I shall do my best to be brief, but there are many important events that you are currently unaware of, so it shall seem like an extremely long and pointless story. Added to its length, the history of the Digital World is much more complex than that of your world. There are actually numerous Digital Worlds all spawning from the same source, and within each of these separate dimensions the nature of time itself is much less rigid than it is in your world. Of course, it doesn't help when you have a creature such as Millenniummon creating time paradoxes and stable time loops, and since Millenniummon played an influence at the very beginning of the Digital World and set into motion many of the events that resulted in the current situation, we must include him in this little history lesson. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to place an origin for Millenniummon to a certain point in time, so I shall begin with the events occurring immediately prior to the incident at Highton View Terrace that led to the beginning of your group of DigiDestined. Koushiro, it would be best if you were to record this on your laptop, as it will be difficult to keep track of everything in this story if you only hear it."

"Now, Koushiro and Jyou already know most of the things that resulted from the event, but the events that caused Highton View Terrace are important to the history of the Digital World. Shortly before the fight you two witnessed as children, something beyond even our powers to predict happened. Now, the Digital World has many similarities to human computers, and one of these is a place for deleted files to go. In the Digital World, the Dark Area serves as a graveyard for deleted data from which there shouldn't be any escape. However, a mass of the deleted data of hundreds of species of deleted Digimon suddenly reformatted itself and gained life. This new being, Apocalymon, was such an abomination that he warped the fabric of reality. This warping resulted in four Digimon who were created at the Mega level and escaped the Dark Area. These four Digimon acted as Apocalymon's hands to bring about the destruction of the Digital World as a punishment for the world's survival after the data that composed Apocalymon was deleted. This was the birth of the Dark Masters, who took the forms of MetalSeadramon, Puppetmon, Machinedramon, and Piedmon. Apocalymon's existence also caused effects he did not intend: time began moving at a much greater rate in the Digital World, and two Digi-Eggs were pushed into your world: one which hatched and evolved into a Greymon, and another which hatched into a Parrotmon. As you already know, Tai and Kari befriended the Greymon and allowed it to tie a fight it really should have lost, and eight child witnesses of the battle were scanned to become the first of a new group of DigiDestined. Of course, as your Digimon, Crests, and Digivices were being prepared, the Dark Masters raided the temple housing Gennai's order, destroying many, forcing Gennai to flee, and separating Gatomon from the other seven. When the Digimon were ready, the first seven kids were called into the Digital World, and I really don't think I need to give many details about what happened then."

"However, something very peculiar happened toward the end of that first adventure. During your battles with the Dark Masters, you managed to defeat Apocalymon's children one by one. However, something unprecedented happened when WarGreymon defeated Machinedramon. While his body was destroyed, part of Machinedramon's data managed to survive for a brief period of time and came in contact with a dying Kimeramon. Both of these Digimon were seconds away from death, but they somehow managed to combine themselves. This imitated a DNA Digivolution and gave birth to Millenniummon, a creature with the ability to manipulate time and space itself. It took Millenniummon several months to return to his full strength, and he then began attacking the Digital World. Once again, the DigiDestined were called in to fight the newest threat, but Millenniummon proved too powerful to stop. He resurrected all the villains the DigiDestined had previously fought, and eventually succeeded in capturing all the DigiDestined and all their partners except Agumon. Now, the Digital World certainly wasn't prepared for its protectors to fall so quickly, and in a panic we sent out another cry for help to the human world, which was answered by one boy named Ryo Akiyama. Astonishingly, this one human child managed to use Taichi Kamiya's Digivice, not to Digivolve, but to convert members of Millenniummon's army to his own cause. Using this army and Agumon, he defeated countless enemies, saved the DigiDestined, and defeated Millenniummon. So, now that one Tamer had succeeded where the eight DigiDestined had failed, the Digital World finally seemed to be stepping towards a lasting peace."

"Of course, Millenniummon already had a history of surviving when all the laws of nature say he should be dead, and his defeat at Ryo's hands did not stop him for long. He decided to announce his return in his own special way: he noticed a young boy in America attempting to create a Digimon in an effort to make a new friend, and decided to turn that Digimon into a virus that threatened to destroy the human world as a means to destroy Ryo. However, Koushiro managed to detect the Digi-Egg, and after numerous attempts at stopping the now-hatched Digimon, Omnimon managed to defeat Diaboromon right before a nuclear missile would have detonated and killed Ryo as he watched the battle with his friend, a young Ken Ichijouji."

"Once again, Miyako, I can tell you wish to have an angry outburst, but you must not interrupt the story. There is a very good reason Ken has never told you any of this despite how close you are, and that reason is important to the story. Before I get to that, however, I must tell you what happened immediately after Omnimon defeated Diaboromon. Millenniummon realized he would be unable to defeat Ryo indirectly, so he decided to draw Ryo into the Digital World. He used his abilities to create another Diaboromon and set it loose in the Digital World. Now, at the time, we did not realize Millenniummon's intentions, so we helped him by pulling Ryo in ourselves. After all, we had already seen the DigiDestined were incapable of beating this threat while Ryo was, so we had to call him in. We intended to give him his own partner, but for all of our knowledge we were unable to find him, so we instead sent another partner Digimon: the Veemon who would eventually be partnered to Daisuke Motomiya. Using another borrowed partner and another borrowed Digivice, Ryo once again entered the Digital World, this time accompanied by Ken, who came along accidentally. Ryo and Veemon tracked down the Diaboromon, only for Millenniummon to delete it and greet Ryo by splitting the Digital World in two, stranding Ryo and Ken on opposite sides of a dimensional rift."

"However, Ryo and Ken did not let this stop them, and after Ken found his partner Wormmon, they managed to fight through various trials to collect fragments of the Digimental of Desire. Now, while most Digimentals only allow Armor Digivolution, Millenniummon had used this particular Digimental to seal away his vulnerable soul, ensuring he could never be defeated. Only by collecting all the pieces could Ryo and Ken undo this seal and reunite the Digital World. When they undid the seal, they found themselves within Millenniummon's mind, and faced off against their enemy in a more powerful form, Moon=Millenniummon. Ryo and Ken eventually triumphed, but as Moon=Millenniummon was destroyed, he released a wave of Dark Spores towards the two in an effort to maintain his consciousness. Ken jumped between Ryo and the spores, saving Ryo at the cost of having a single Dark Spore embed itself in his neck. While Ken did a remarkable job repressing the spore, its effects still changed him. He went from a very gentle boy who was an embodiment of Kindness to the Digimon Emperor. In addition to the change in intelligence, athleticism, and personality, Millenniummon's essence caused him to forget his adventure and planted a few false memories to explain how he knew of the Digital World and Wormmon. While this is skipping ahead of a few events in my story, I should also note that it was Millenniummon's essence that convinced Ken to combine the data of multiple Digimon into one being, inspiring the creation of the Kimeramon that you fought shortly before Ken broke free of the spore's influence."

"Of course, if just one Dark Spore could preserve Millenniummon's essence for that extended period of time in a host that fights off the effects, the hundreds of spores still remaining in the Digital World could do a much better job. Hours after Ryo and Ken returned to Earth, the spores began joining together as Moon=Millenniummon resurrected himself. Now, Moon=Millenniummon was a threat far too powerful for anyone in the Digital World to defeat, so we were once again forced to call for Ryo to help, as he was the only one who could defeat Moon=Millenniummon. However, given Ryo's inability to completely destroy the monster, we needed a way for him to get stronger in the hopes that he would finally succeed, so the four Sovereigns arranged a training regimen under the ruse of a tournament. In order to ensure Ryo would join, the Sovereigns concocted a story where three of them had gone evil, and the fourth was searching for a powerful human Tamer to help him fight the other three and save the world. The Sovereigns then called in a group of DigiDestined, consisting of Izzy, Mimi, Matt, Tai, and numerous international children, and explained the plan before sending Ryo a Digital Gate disguised as a questionnaire that dragged him in after he selected the name of a Sovereign at random. The selected Sovereign played the role of the only good one, and Ryo went through the tournament, eventually winning. He didn't exactly take the revelation that he had been lied to well when he found out the true nature of the tournament, but he still went to face the threat and confronted Moon=Millenniummon. However, even after his defeat, Moon=Millenniummon refused to die, and claiming he would take Ryo with him, he unleashed a giant explosion in time rather than space. Whether this was the original intention or not, the explosion hurled Moon=Millenniummon's data into the distant future, while Ryo was sent back to the origin of the Digital World."

"Upon his arrival in the future, Moon=Millenniummon reformatted once again, becoming a nearly unstoppable evil god capable of travelling freely between time, space, and parallel dimensions. With his unrivaled power, the newly formed ZeedMillenniummon sought to rule the entire multiverse, and was only opposed by small but determined resistance groups in each dimension. Now, ZeedMillenniummon easily could have crushed all the resistance groups on his own, but he instead decided to send his armies back to the origin of the Digital World in order to destroy any chance of a resistance forming in any dimension before it happened. Now, the Digital World was created from data in the human world, which means the Digital World began when human beings created the first computers, ENIAC and ABC. How the world worked back then involved ENIAC working directly to maintain several different Digital Worlds using its capability to create stable time loops while ABC shadowed ENIAC, keeping ENIAC working. ZeedMillenniummon was unaware of ABC, but knew ENIAC was the only being capable of saving the resistance forces he was fighting, so he sent forces back in time to destroy ENIAC. Luckily, Ryo arrived in that time period shortly before ZeedMillenniummon's forces, and by teaming up with a Monodramon, Ryo saved ENIAC from destruction."

"Sensing Ryo's reappearance, ZeedMillenniummon changed tactics and began sending his forces to crush various resistance factions with sheer force, focusing on this Digital World and one other world in particular. This forced ENIAC to burn up enormous amounts of energy sending Ryo to save the resistance factions, eventually forcing it to shut down. However, ZeedMillenniummon still hadn't won despite ENIAC shutting down, making him realize ABC's existence. Knowing it would not be able to survive long against ZeedMillenniummon's assault, ABC decided to send Ryo directly to ZeedMillenniummon's lair, where the two once again fought. While the fight was for the fate of the world, it also had a much more personal side than any of the previous battles. ZeedMillenniummon revealed that the reason Ryo had as of yet been unable to destroy him: ZeedMillenniummon was Ryo's true partner, and the two were bound together. However, the Monodramon Ryo had teamed up with felt that he deserved to be Ryo's partner, and after ZeedMillenniummon was defeated, Monodramon forced an unstable DNA Digivolution, combining with ZeedMillenniummon into a Digi-Egg and ending the inter-dimensional threat. As a reward for saving the world, ABC offered Ryo a chance to return home, but remembering how he had only been used to defeat Millenniummon by many people he had thought were friends, Ryo instead decided to return to the other Digital World ZeedMillenniummon had focused on. He ended up living a new life on a parallel version of Earth and continuing on exciting adventures, but those do not pertain to the current situation, so I will save them for another time."

"Unfortunately, Ryo stopping ZeedMillenniummon did not repair the damage he had caused throughout the multiverse. Some Digital Worlds disappeared entirely, and others found their evolution corrupted by influence from parallel dimensions. This problem was made worse by ABC using up a majority of its energy to send Ryo to fight ZeedMillenniummon and then send him to the other universe, meaning the Digital World was in danger of losing the source of its stability. In order to solve this problem, ABC used the last of its power to create numerous supercomputers that would be in charge of maintaining only one Digital World each, so they wouldn't have to handle the pressure of maintaining a multiverse. It named all of these computers Yggdrasil, as they were all branches that connected to the different worlds, much like the tree in Norse Mythology. With that, ABC shut down, and all the different Digital Worlds began diverging."

"For a long time, Yggdrasil led the Digital World in an area of prosperity. Darkness and Light existed in perfect harmony and the strength of thirteen powerful Royal Knights helped to maintain network security. The world was an absolute paradise, but the ideal conditions had an unfortunate outcome. The population of the Digital World grew exponentially, and eventually Yggdrasil could not handle the strain of maintaining so many creatures. In order to save its own existence, Yggdrasil created a new Digital World and started Project Arc. The goal of this project was to move a small proportion of the population of the old Digital World to the new world. Then, Yggdrasil would release the X-Program on the old Digital World to destroy all Digital life. Yggdrasil saved its subservient Royal Knights and two percent of the population, intending to destroy the rest of the population of Digimon. However, a few Digimon in the old world managed to adjust their DigiCores and become immune to the X-Program, developing what was known as the X-Antibody."

"This X-Antibody gave more than just protection, however, as it changed host Digimon into a more powerful form and could be transferred between Digimon. These two facts caused all the Digimon in the old Digital World to try to kill any X-Antibody Digimon they found in order to gain the antibody and preserve their own life. In addition, Yggdrasil saw that the X-Program was failing, and decided to try a new plan to eliminate all digital life. He took Alphamon, the leader of the Royal Knights, and reverted him back to his rookie form of Dorumon before modifying him with an X-Antibody. Yggdrasil then wiped Dorumon's memories and sent him to the dying world, where he would unknowingly gather information Yggdrasil would use in a second attempt at destroying Digimon."

"Of course, given the fact that every Digimon still alive in the old world wished to kill X-Antibody Digimon, Dorumon eventually followed numerous other X-Antibody Digimon to the new Digital World. Yggdrasil did not tolerate this, and sent the twelve remaining Royal Knights out with orders to kill all X-Antibody Digimon. Many of the Royal Knights were uneasy with the order, but they had sworn loyalty to Yggdrasil and believed their master was going to set up an eternal utopia, and thus used that perceived end to justify the means. Eventually, Yggdrasil captured Dorumon and used his data to create an army of DexDoruGreymon that would seek out anything with a DigiCore and devour it, eliminating any Digimon and preventing Yggdrasil from shutting down due to strain. This caused a few members of the Royal Knights to question Yggdrasil, but it took Gallantmon joining a resistance group after gaining his own X-Antibody and Dorumon returning to his Mega form of Alphamon to convince Omnimon to openly rebel. While Gallantmon fought the army of DexDoruGreymon, Omnimon and Alphamon went to confront Yggdrasil directly. Seeing the confrontation coming, Yggdrasil created Dexmon from Alphamon's data, and ensured that Dexmon's life would be bound to Alphamon. With no other way to reach Yggdrasil, Alphamon sacrificed himself and gave his X-Antibody to Omnimon, who destroyed Yggdrasil and reset the Digital World."

"Unfortunately, the lack of a clear ruler in the recently liberated Digital World could not have come at a worse time. The ultimate being of darkness, GranDracmon, had been left behind on the old Digital World, yet survived by developing his own X-Antibody. Upon his arrival in the new Digital World, he was hunted by many members of the Royal Knights. His strength was much greater than theirs, so he survived all the encounters, but their constant attacks on top of Yggdrasil's betrayal angered him to the point he started a massive war as he sought to avenge all of the wrongs Yggdrasil had committed on the old Digital World. The main target of his anger was Shakamon, the ultimate being of light who had been the closest to Yggdrasil. Shakamon and GranDracmon fought in an enormous battle that threatened to tear the world apart. This battle resulted in the death of all but two of the Royal Knights, all but a handful of X-Antibody Digimon, and a majority of the remaining population. Without Yggdrasil to provide order, the world fell into chaos. What happened next is something we are unable to know for sure, but something caused Shakamon and GranDracmon both to disappear from the Digital World. They are both too powerful for us to see what happened, but it is clear that the loss of the two strongest combatants in the war left the two armies confused, and regrettably turned the world into a very primitive place. Over time, the two sides of the conflict shifted from GranDracmon's army against Shakamon's army to human-type Digimon against Beast-type Digimon. Even though the two strongest combatants had disappeared, the length of the newest conflict nearly resulted in the elimination of all life in the Digital World, until an Angel Digimon named Lucemon suddenly descended into the world and brought order and harmony."

"While Lucemon had succeeded in restoring peace to the world, he eventually became overconfident in his power. By this time, the true knowledge of the beginning of the conflict had faded from memory, leaving only rumors. One of these rumors blamed GranDracmon for the start of the war, which was technically true but failed to cover the justification for his actions. Seeing GranDracmon as a threat to the order of the world, and more importantly his own power, Lucemon sought to find and destroy the beast. He somehow managed to find GranDracmon in the Dark Area, and engaged in a colossal battle. While we are unable to know exactly what happened in that fight, as GranDracmon is capable of hiding any of his actions from us, what is clear is Lucemon failed to defeat his opponent and returned to rule the Digital World. This in and of itself was a surprise: GranDracmon is quite possibly the strongest Digimon in existence, possessing an undying body and the ability to seal away the hearts of any opponents, and Lucemon managed to survive his battle and return. However, something during that fight changed Lucemon. Perhaps it was coming into contact with such strong darkness that he was unprepared to face, but upon his return, Lucemon had been driven insane with his own power. While he had always been a little too proud of his power, he had still ruled fairly prior to his battle with GranDracmon. After the fight, Lucemon began viewing the entire world and all of its inhabitants as his own playthings. He became an insatiable tyrant, and inspired a rebellion among the other Digimon. From these oppressed Digimon, ten incredibly powerful Mega-level Digimon with powers tied to the elements of the world itself bravely engaged Lucemon in battle, finally managing to seal him away within the Dark Area to prevent him from causing further harm to the world and earning the title of the Ten Legendary Warriors."

"However, despite their victory, the Legendary Warriors were drained of power, and knew they would not be able to survive much longer due to their injuries. To ensure lasting peace, they consulted with two different groups of Mega level Digimon on how to best handle running the Digital World. These two groups were the Celestial Digimon, composed of Ophanimon, Seraphimon, and Cherubimon, and the thirteen Olympians. It was at this time we consulted the ancient history of the Digital World, and realized it was necessary to split the functions of ruling and maintaining the world to prevent a repeat of what had happened with Yggdrasil and Lucemon where too much power caused a formerly benign ruler to destroy life. So, at this time, the Celestial Digimon were appointed the rulers of the Digital World, while all of the Olympians with the exception of Plutomon swore to remain neutral from conflicts and ensure the world stayed safe. In order to help us with our cause, we recreated a piece of Yggdrasil that would serve as a conduit for us to interact with the world and maintain balance. We named this fragment Homeostasis, and this was the entity that spoke through Kari in order to inform you of how you became DigiDestined the first time. With our neutral position settled, we took the moniker of the Olympos XII and moved our home to a secret location, where we would be less likely to be dragged into conflict."

"Our departure left the dying Legendary Warriors and the Celestial Digimon to handle the problem of actually ruling the Digital World. The Legendary Warriors knew they had only temporarily defeated Lucemon and he would one day return. Hoping to delay that return, AncientGreymon, the Legendary Warrior of Flame, encased the entire Dark Area with a Wall of Fire, but even with this precaution, the Legendary Warriors believed a time would come when their power would once again be needed to fight Lucemon. As such, they divided their power into twenty Spirits, with each warrior creating a Human Spirit and a Beast Spirit for its respective element. They entrusted these spirits to the care of the Celestial Digimon, before passing the remainder of their abilities along the lines of various types of Digimon. Thus, the world once again entered an era of peace, ruled by the Celestial Digimon and watched over by the Olympos XII."

"Unfortunately, like all eras of peace in the Digital World, this one was short lived. Most of the problem was due to the makeup of the Celestial Digimon themselves. While the Celestials were all friends, the fact that the world was ruled by two Human Digimon and one Beast Digimon so soon after a great conflict between those two groups caused a good deal of resentment. Cherubimon felt the other two were making laws only to benefit human Digimon, and seeing the other two planning together without him caused him to despair for the rights of the Beast Digimon he so loved. This despair made him vulnerable, and Lucemon used this vulnerability in a way nobody predicted: he reached his influence beyond the Wall of Fire despite remaining physically trapped and corrupted Cherubimon into his evil Virus form. In this form, he waged war on the other two Celestials, striking down Seraphimon and capturing Ophanimon when she offered her freedom in exchange for Seraphimon's life. Cherubimon then brought four of the spirits of the Legendary Warriors to life and used them to begin absorbing the data of the world itself, believing he was making himself all-powerful while in reality he was destabilizing the barrier with the Dark Area and setting the way for Lucemon's return."

"With no other hope for saving the world, Ophanimon called out to us for help. While we had sworn not to get directly involved, we realized we had another option: if a human had saved the Digital World from ZeedMillenniummon, perhaps more humans could save the world now. We allowed Ophanimon to call the human world for help, but at that time, human technology had not evolved to the point where they could receive the call. Thus, we manipulated time slightly to allow the call to be sent to what was for the Digital World the distant future, which happened to coincide with the rampage of another Cherubimon in your world shortly after Ken renounced his Digimon Emperor persona. Many children answered the call, but only five were chosen to bond with the Spirits of the Legendary Warriors. In the commotion, Cherubimon also managed to pull in another human child and create the last legendary warrior, resulting in five Legendary Warriors on each side of the conflict. The five children Ophanimon had called in somehow managed to overcome countless obstacles, free the sixth child from Cherubimon's control, and destroy Cherubimon before Lucemon could be revived, but Lucemon did not let this stop him and called in the last two members of the Royal Knights. While these two knights may not have fully agreed with Lucemon's methods, they had sworn to serve him just as they had sworn to serve Yggdrasil. Despite the constant resistance of the children, the Royal Knights managed to absorb the data for the entire Digital World, freeing Lucemon. However, Lucemon betrayed the Royal Knights and absorbed their data, allowing him to Digivolve from his Rookie form capable of destroying moons to his Ultimate form capable of destroying the barrier between the Digital and human worlds. Seeking to rule both worlds, he was poised to conquer the human world, but the children refused to give up and united all 20 spirits, successfully beating Lucemon's Ultimate and Mega forms. Their jobs completed, the children returned to their world while the Spirits of the Legendary Warriors fragmented Lucemon's data and sent it back to the Dark Area. To ensure something of this scale could never happen again, we reformatted the Digital World to its current state, strengthening the Wall of Fire and hoping to prevent any dark influence from entering the rest of the world."

"While the world was safer from the Dark Area than it had ever been in the past, many high-ranking Angel Digimon believed sealing away the problem was not a permanent enough solution. These Digimon used their power to enter the Dark Area in the hopes of destroying GranDracmon and preventing him from influencing anyone else. Predictably, these Digimon fared worse than Lucemon: GranDracmon's dark influence must have caused them to fall into corruption and shift into viral forms of themselves. After four unsuccessful attempts, Ophanimon and Seraphimon of the Celestial Digimon decided to try together, but enacted a failsafe in case their combined might was not enough. They left all twenty spirits in the care of Cherubimon, and then created another barrier around the Dark Area that combined the strength of both Hope and Light. This barrier could only be traversed if the world was destabilized, or beings blessed with powerful doses of both Hope and Light opened the way. In doing so, they created a scenario where they would either succeed in destroying the darkness, or fall and ensure everyone within the Dark Area remained sealed by losing contact with the light."

"Of course, GranDracmon proved to be too powerful for Ophanimon and Seraphimon, and they became their own evil counterparts. While this did ensure the maintenance of the seal, it was not as foolproof as Ophanimon and Seraphimon had hoped. GranDracmon managed to warp his prison enough to create a gate between the Dark Area and the outside world. This gate, the Gate of the Seven Deadly Sins, only required the smallest traces of Light and Hope to create a tunnel after it was opened. Luckily for the rest of the world, this gate required seven keys, and GranDracmon needed the keys to be placed from the outside. Since it would be much easier for other creatures to make use of smaller distortions to cross the barrier, GranDracmon entrusted the seven keys to the seven Digimon who had fallen after fighting him: the Code Key of Pride was given to Lucemon, who had managed to reform himself again; the Code Key of Envy was given to Leviamon; the Code Key of Wrath was given to Daemon, formerly the Celestial Digimon Seraphimon; the Code Key of Sloth was given to Belphemon; the Code Key of Greed was given to Barbamon; the Code Key of Gluttony was given to Beelzemon, and the Code Key of Lust was given to Lilithmon, formerly the Celestial Digimon Ophanimon. Each of these keys boosted their wielder's power beyond what they could achieve on their own, yet came at a cost: they were forever bound in their corrupted forms, would revert to a Code Key instead of a Digi-Egg upon defeat, and would forever trap the data of anybody they destroyed within their own bodies or the Dark Area. It was this last ability that caused the Digital World to greatly fear this group, now known as the Seven Great Demon Lords."

"While the history of the Digital World has many more interesting stories to tell, you now have the background necessary to understand exactly what you are facing. While you have only encountered Lilithmon, the truth is all of the Demon Lords are currently working on a plan to open the Gate of the Seven Deadly Sins, releasing GranDracmon from the Dark Area and enshrouding both the human and Digital worlds in darkness. The Demon Lords will then rule the two shrouded worlds. This plan came into fruition after you banished Daemon to the Dark Ocean: the barrier between the Dark Area and the Dark Ocean is significantly weaker than the barrier between the Digital World and the Dark Area, and Daemon managed to begin pulling other Demon Lords out of the Dark Area. As it stands, they already have six Demon Lords as well as the Digimentals of Hope and Light gathered on an island within the Dark Ocean, so they will soon be able to open the Gate. If that happens, you will be unable to stop GranDracmon, and both worlds will be conquered by darkness. As soon as your Digimon, as well as those of your friends, recover from their most recent battles, I suggest you head there immediately. However, be warned that we will not provide any further help in this matter. The Demon Lords are seeking to conquer, not destroy, the world. As such, we will not get involved. Providing you with information is something we would do regardless of side, and it may very well be that one of the Demon Lords shows up after you leave, and in that case I would tell them a similar story that would reveal your current plans."

While Joe, Cody, and Yolei all appeared to be struggling trying to process this massive information dump, Izzy merely nodded his head after finishing typing out a copy of Minervamon's story. "Okay, Minervamon, thank you for all of your information. It sounds like we really don't have time to waste, so I guess I'll have to save my many questions for another visit. Though as we leave, could I simply ask if everyone else is okay after the last battle you mentioned?"

Minervamon smiled. "Oh, four of the Digimon were knocked unconscious along with two of the DigiDestined, but there should be no lasting trouble. It will take a bit of time, but everyone will recover. And, since it isn't often I get a visitor who enjoys listening to my stories, I shall give you a present, Koushiro Izumi." With this, Minerva waved her hand, and Izzy's laptop was covered with a faint golden glow before returning to normal. "I have given you the ability to send messages directly to me. Now, I can't guarantee an immediate response, but if you seek an audience with me, I shall be willing to oblige. I will respond with a time you can meet with me, and then you can use your programing skills to send yourself here. Now, I know I cannot help you further in this instance, but for what it is worth, I wish you luck in saving your teammates and stopping the Demon Lords."

The DigiDestined all thanked Minervamon once again for her hospitality and her wish of good luck before they exited the temple. With the Demon Lords so close to unleashing ultimate darkness upon both worlds, they were all beginning to feel a much greater pressure than the looming unease they had felt at Lilithmon's unknown plan. Now, they had to return to the real world, regroup with the others, and then plan a raid on the Dark Ocean to hopefully stop the impending fall into darkness.

Author's Note: Well, congratulations on making it through the history class! I hope it was at least slightly interesting to see how I tied together Adventure, Frontier, and the X-Evolution movie. If you think this chapter was bad, at least it was all together. I don't know how many different sites I had to go to in order to get all the official chronologies and then tie them together. It was like writing a research paper, so hopefully putting all the results together will at least make it easier for everybody to reference if any questions come up in the future. After all, it would be pointless for me to tell all this history if it wouldn't actually matter at some point in the future, wouldn't it? Some of the things not directly related to the current plan with the Gate of the Seven Deadly Sins will be brought back later in the series. If any of you are still going to stick around after that wall of exposition, you can feel free to review or message me with anything. I hope I didn't scare all of you away…