Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.
Chapter 9: The Lord of Greed
Just when ZeedMillenniummon had been eliminated and Ryo was brought back to his true self, the group faced a new threat from Barbamon, whom Rika, Izzy, and Cody had found out earlier was one of the Seven Lords. What was worse was that Barbamon had summoned what he called his pet, BlackImperialdramon. Rika and Renamon, who had become Viximon after losing so much energy, were in no condition to fight, and neither were Motimon, Armadillomon, or Hawkmon. This left Justimon to fight Barbamon one on one while Imperialdramon fought his evil counterpart. The only thing the others could do was watch.
"Kill them BlackImperialdramon!" Barbamon commanded.
BlackImperialdramon roared and flew at Imperialdramon. The dragon warrior caught his doppelganger and threw him against the far wall. BlackImperialdramon got back up and fired a sphere of black energy from his mouth, but imperialdramon deflected it with a beam from his positron laser.
"Be careful Imperialdramon!" Davis called to the dragon warrior.
"Relax, I'm a whole level above this guy," Imperialdramon confidently pointed out. "There's no way I can lose!"
Suddenly BlackImperialdramon began to morph into a humanoid shape that looked exactly like Imperialdramon's current form, only blacker.
"Oh you son of a…" Imperialdramon began to curse, though before he could finish he was hit in the chest by BlackImperialdramon's positron laser and was knocked to the ground.
Meanwhile, Barbamon's fight with Justimon was just beginning. Justimon opened with a sphere of blue electrical energy fired from the fist of his mechanical arm that hit Barbamon in the chest. Barbamon recovered quickly though and fired a stream of hellfire from the orb of his staff, which Justimon narrowly dodged. With lightning speed Justimon moved over to Barbamon's left and hit the old wizard with a roundhouse kick. Before Barbamon could recover Justimon hit him with a devastating charged punch with his mechanical fist and knocked him to the ground.
"So…it seems as though I have earned your wrath," Barbamon observed as he got back to his feet using his staff. "I told you it was nothing personal, you were just a means to get what I desire."
"And you don't care who you hurt to get what you want?" Justimon asked coldly.
Barbamon chuckled. "I am the Lord of Greed. If I want something I simply take it, and I'm willing to use any tricks to do so. What do I care if anyone else gets hurt?"
"You should care about the lives that you ruin and destroy! Nothing is worth the cost of hurting innocent people! I will make you pay for your evil deeds!"
With that, the battle continued. Meanwhile Imperialdramon was struggling against his evil counterpart. The two dragon warriors kept trading blows and destroying the cavernous throne room in the process. Despite having changed to his Fighter Mode, BlackImperialdramon had the ferocity of a wild animal. He was a beast driven only by rage and the instinct to fight and destroy. That beast mentality somehow seemed to give the dark dragon warrior an edge over Imperialdramon. With another blast from BlackImperialdramon's positron laser Imperialdramon was knocked to the ground.
"Get up Imperialdramon!" Davis told the fallen dragon warrior. "I know you can beat this monster!"
"Davis is right!" Ken told Imperialdramon. "That BlackImperialdramon may be powerful, but you have a power he can't tap into because he gave into his instincts and became an animal! All you have to do is tap into that power and you can win! Don't give up!"
Imperialdramon finally got back to his feet and with a cry suddenly flashed with a brilliant white light.
"Imperialdramon mode change to…Paladin Mode!" Imperialdramon cried as he transformed.
When the light finally faded Imperialdramon's armor and wings had become pure white. In his hands he carried a giant ornate sword with symbols in the language of the Digital World written down the side on the blade. At this point BlackImperialdramon charged at Imperialdramon to try and deliver a final blow.
"Omni Sword!" Imperialdramon cried as he hit the dark dragon warrior with a horizontal slash.
BlackImperialdramon was cut in two by the sword. The two halves of his body dissolved into particles of data before hitting the ground. Meanwhile, Justimon and Barbamon's battle raged on. Barbamon was using his staff to block most of Justimon's attacks. Justimon charged forward and Barbamon raised his staff to block what he thought was going to be another punch, but at the last second Justimon's mechanical forearm changed to its energy blade form. The blade not only cut Barbamon's staff in two but also cut his beard and slashed into his chest. As soon as his arm returned to his original form, Justimon stepped back to deliver the final blow.
"Justice Kick!" Justimon cried as he leapt up and delivered a powerful flying kick that not only hurled Barbamon into the wall but also left an impression.
After a moment, Barbamon slumped to the ground and dissolved into particles of data. With the battle finally over, Justimon began walking back to the rest of the group, splitting into Ryo and Cyberdramon as he did so. Rika walked forward from where she was standing next to Yolei and Izzy carrying Viximon in her arms, meeting Ryo half way.
"That wasn't an easy battle, but I got him just like I always do," Ryo confidently declared.
"Why do you always have to be so cocky?" Rika asked with a small smile. "You moron."
"Guess you were right Daemon. The old man really was gonna stab us in the back," a voice suddenly spoke.
Everyone looked around and saw that the one who spoke was a humanoid Digimon with three red eyes, blond hair, and light-blue skin wearing a black mask, a black leather jacket with a white furred collar and a red bandana tied around his left arm, and a pair of spiked boots that held shotguns. A black cord-like tail hung down from behind him.
"Beelzemon?" Rika asked the Digimon with a shocked expression. "What're you doing here?"
"Am I supposed to know you?" Beelzemon asked with a quirked brow.
"Rika, that's not the Beelzemon from our world," Viximon spoke in her soft high voice.
After a brief moment the group noticed that there were two other Digimon with Beelzemon. One was a woman with raven-black hair, pale skin, and pointed ears. Her hair was tied up with gold ornaments and she wore a tight-fitting black bodysuit that revealed her shoulders and part of her cleavage. Attached to the suit was a long purple skirt that was open in front and long baggy purple sleeves. A large batwing-shaped bow was attacked to the back of her waist, and a black bat symbol adorned her forehead. Her right hand was a claw with decayed looking skin. Davis immediately recognized the Digimon as Lilithmon, and he went completely white when he saw her.
The third Digimon, who was standing in between Beelzemon and Lilithmon, was completely robbed in red and wore a red hood over his head that only revealed his blue demonic eyes. Although a large pair of black horns stuck out from the sides, and on his back was a large pair of bat-like wings. The members of the group who were Digidestined recognized this third Digimon right away and were shocked to see him.
"Daemon!" Ken exclaimed as he narrowed his eyes at the evil Digimon. "I thought we got rid of you!"
Daemon chuckled. "Don't be so surprised to me again Ken. I told you all those years ago that I would return."
"Does this mean you're one of the Seven Lords?" Izzy asked.
"That I am," The demon lord confirmed. "I am the Lord of Wrath, and one of the strongest of my brethren."
"So Barbamon was working with you this whole time?" Yolei asked.
"Not exactly," Lilithmon answered.
"Barbamon did indeed tell us he was going to gain for us the lost powers of Millenniummon, something I had attempted to do when I went after Ken's Dark Spore all those years ago," Daemon explained. "But as I suspected, he was really planning to take that power all for himself. We came here to keep an eye on Barbamon and deal with him if necessary, but you have saved us the trouble."
"So now what, are you going to fight us?" Imperialdramon asked as he raised his sword.
"Not today," Daemon answered. "The three of us shall take our leave now. Consider it a thank you for taking care of Barbamon. But next time we shall face each other in battle, and you will be destroyed."
With that, Daemon and Beelzemon disappeared in a burst of flames. Lilithmon stayed behind for a moment and looked at Davis.
"I'll see you again soon, Davis darling," Lilithmon told him with an evil grin before vanishing in a burst of flames, causing Davis to shudder.
Shortly after the Demon Lords left, the whole room suddenly began to shake.
"I think the fortress is starting to collapse!" Izzy realized. "We need to get out of here now!"
The others nodded and Imperialdramon regressed back into his dragon form. The group got on Imperialdramon's back as quickly as they could. With everyone aboard, the dragon Digimon took off through the massive hole in the ceiling. A few minutes later the group had landed far away from the fortress, which had since fallen to the ground and exploded. Imperialdramon had split into Veemon's Fresh form of Chibomon, a small round blue creature with black marble-like eyes, and Wormmon's Fresh form Leafmon, a small green creature with eyes like Chibomon's and a large leaf-shaped tail. With their quest finished, the group entered the nearest Digi-Port to return home.
Author's Note: There certainly has been a lot of battling in this story. Of course I'm not new to writing fight scenes, what with the monster battles in the one Yu-Gi-Oh! GX fanfic I wrote. Plus there were battles in the last two Digimon stories I've done. Anyway, one of the reasons I had that part where Daemon, Lilithmon, and Beelzemon showed up was to make it clear that the Beelzemon in these stories is not the same one from Tamers. Although I think that was pretty obvious.
This story isn't over yet. There's one more chapter coming up that will serve to resolve this story and set up the next one, so stay tuned. In the meantime, please review and let me know what you think.