And here's yet another chapter of the story you all enjoy so much.
Though, this one's a bit shorter than most, as it's a breather chapter we milked as much from it as we possibly could, but even that has limits.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Truths in the Light, Schemes in the Dark
Their first return from the Digital World after being in there for several weeks had… not turned out as they had expected. Then again…there really was no conceivable reason why they'd expect to suddenly have one of the Royal Knights who served Yggdrasil suddenly show up in their current hideout. That was why there was a rather awkward silence after Gankoomon introduced himself, and they expressed their surprise.
Eventually though the silence was broken by Blake who spoke up. "...not that we have any issues but…might we ask why a Royal Knight is here on Remnant?" she asked…before another thought crossed her mind. "How DID you get here, and find us for that matter?"
"Well, getting to the real world isn't too difficult in all honesty." Gankoomon said with a chuckle, and finding you was just a matter of asking other Digimon what they knew, and they were able to point me in the direction of Mistral." he said "As for the why… well, originally I was coming here to help train you all… but looking at you… you don't really need my help." he admitted with a smirk at the end.
"Considering we actually train whenever we get the chance, yeah." Veemon said with a sweatdrop.
Gankoomon laughed a bit at that. "And I'd expect nothing less from the Chosen Children. That is why I opted to pass the time by giving your allies a bit of training," he said, looking towards the others who were looking absolutely exhausted.
"Training?! I thought you were trying to make our limbs fall off!" came Oscar's shout from where he was too exhausted to get up.
Gankoomon just laughed at that. "You can't grow stronger if you can't endure a little bit of hardship," he said jovially.
"But my limbs feel just fine. Does that mean my training was not as effective?" Penny asked, tilting her head a little.
"Penny…I don't think the usual rules apply to you…" Monodramon said tiredly.
"I will admit, I had forgotten that humans couldn't take as much in the ways of training as Digimon." Gankoomon said "After all, we've been training our newest member for such a long time so she can be ready."
"Newest member?" Gyro asked curiously.
"Of course, while we Royal Knights all began as a specific group, sometimes our comrades fall. But one day, we know another Digimon will evolve to take their seat at our table." Gankoomon said proudly.
"Sounds pretty interesting." Agumon admitted "So… what's this new member like?"
Gankoomon… winced a bit "She is… VERY headstrong, more than I would have expected in all honesty. She trains herself into the ground almost as much as I do, and I know I can handle it, but her…"
"What about us?!" Huckmon shouted at him "You've been here for three days and each time we finish we can barely move!"
"The keyword there is 'barely' young one." Gankoomon shot back at him "SHE trains herself until she can't even lift a finger."
"Wow…what's her deal?" Emerald couldn't help but ask. There was training…and there was over training.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Digital World…
"I can… still… keep going…" a woman's voice panted near a large tree.
The owner of the voice was a decently tall humanoid Digimon by human standards, covered head to toe in pink armor that had gold colored edges, her winged helmet completely hiding her face, with a silver mouthplate over her, well, mouth. Gold colored ribbons were attached around her chest plate, trailing behind her for the most part, except for one that she was holding in her hand, leaving it completely straightened out as she was stabbing it into the ground to hold herself up, while a large golden pile bunker type weapon was attached to her right arm.
"I'd say you CAN'T keep going." another voice, this one male, spoke, before sighing "Crusadermon, for once, just take a break. Trust me when I say that with how much you train, you've more than earned it."
Digimon Analyzer: Crusadermon
Crusadermon. Virus Type. An Ultimate Level Holy Knight Digimon. One of thirteen Royal Knights said to uphold order in the Digital World. Said to (normally) rule over all other Knightmon, she is faithful to what she views as justice, and apparently considers that the end justifies the means. She is the most ruthless of the other Royal Knights, and focuses on her duties first and foremost, but makes a priority of taking down targets rather than focusing on any Digimon in distress. Special attacks are Spiral Masquerade, chopping up her opponents to pieces using the four sash blades attached to her armor, and Argent Fear, instantly getting into the opponent's guard and sending them flying thanks to the Pile Bunker on her arm.
Crusadermon panted still, before finally, she collapsed onto the ground, clearly finally accepting that she was done for now.
"Finally." the Digimon standing in front of her sighed. He was covered head to toe in dark purple armor, a long strip of cloth hanging from the front of his waist, large black shoulder pads bearing yellow skulls on them, his helmet looking almost like a skull itself, with two holes for his small red eyes to shine through them, a pair of small horns on the helmet from which purple plumes were attached. In his hands were a large double ended spear-like weapon, and a large black shield, though they quickly turned into data and disappeared as he let himself relax.
"Feeling tired Craniamon?" a deep voice rumbled from above, making him turn his head skywards to look.
Digimon Analyzer: Craniamon
Craniamon. Vaccine Type. An Ultimate Level Holy Knight Digimon. One of thirteen Royal Knights said to uphold order in the Digital World. Said to be a perfectionist, he always makes sure to never miss any single detail when completing his missions, and prefers to duel his opponents one on one, and is extremely delighted when his opponent is a powerful one. His armor was modified by Yggdrasil itself into Black Digizoid, allowing it to generate its weapons from it, the magic spear Claiomh Solais, and the magic shield Avalon. Special attacks are End Waltz, spinning his weapon to release a powerful sonic wave, and God Bless, generating an indestructible barrier from his shield.
"Not physically at least my friend." Craniamon spoke as large wingbeats were heard, the owner soon landing on the ground, causing it to tremble slightly, as they were rather… massive.
Which made sense as they were a huge red dragon with long white horns coming out the back of his head, a golden one at the tip of his snout, the scales of his stomach white as they went down the bottom half of his long tail all the way to the golden capped tip, two pairs of wings coming out his back, one rather normally sized for his body… and the second pair being massive, each wing being as big as he was, while in his hand was an equally massive gunlance.
"But as always, her tenacity is grating on the mind, yes?" the huge dragon said in knowing amusement.
Craniamon sighed, shaking his head "As always, you are correct, Examon."
Digimon Analyzer: Examon
Examon. Data Type. An Ultimate Level Holy Knight Digimon. One of thirteen Royal Knights said to uphold order in the Digital World. Known as the Dragon Emperor, he rules over all other Dragon Digimon, standing as the peak of their combined power, with the help of his gunlance, Ambrosius, and the gigantic sentient wings known as Caledfwlch. These giant wings are said to be made entirely out of Chrome Digizoid and have a mind of their own, acting both as wings, and as a shield to protect him from harm. Special attacks are Avalon's Gate, impaling the enemy on Ambrosius and firing every single one of his bullets into their body to destroy them from the inside, and Pendragon's Glory, flying high into the air before firing a high powered beam from the tip of his weapon.
"Not always… but mostly." Examon chuckled in amusement "My mission went well by the way. The gate to the Dark Area is still sealed tight, so those seven aren't about to get out anytime soon."
"Here's hoping 'anytime soon' will mean 'never'," Craniamon grunted. "It's hard enough maintaining the seal on it with our reduced numbers. If more Digimon could evolve to fill in our seats we'd finally be able to make sure it goes back to 100% secure."
"Well there's always the partners of the Chosen." Examon said with a shrug.
"And we already said no to that." Craniamon reminded him dryly. "They are partnered Digimon. We cannot take them away from their lives."
"What about the ones that use that brand new evolution method? Biomerge?" Examon pointed out "The pairs fuse into a single being after all, and there's already a few of our numbers born from those fusions."
"I'm not even going to bother explaining why that's a terrible idea." Craniamon pointed out with a deadpan stare.
"Fair enough," Examon chuckled. "I just wanted to list out our options, however less than viable they are," he said before his expression turned serious. "At any rate, this is the hand we've been dealt, and we will use it to the best of our abilities, just as we and all who came before us always have."
"Indeed. And if nothing else, the new generation is no less promising," Craniamon said, looking towards Crusadermon who was moving to get up…before her body decided to remind her why overtraining was a bad idea as she flopped down again. "...if a little too impatient for my liking…" Craniamon sighed.
Examon snorted, before looking off towards the horizon "How do you think Sleipmon's mission is going?"
"Hopefully well." Craniamon said, following his gaze "There's not much we can do beyond hope though. After all, he IS in the Human World."
"I just hope he doesn't get TOO sentimental again. Lord Yggdrasil may be lenient with the rules, but I do hope he doesn't forget he's supposed to be a Royal Knight first," Examon sighed.
Meanwhile, back in Mistral…
By now the group who'd gone through Gankoomon's insane (by human standards) training regiment had regained the feeling in their limbs and were able to sit down. Once everyone was together, the Chosen quickly brought them up to speed on what had been going on…at least the stuff they hadn't mentioned in their messages during their time in the Digital World.
"The strangest part though was that Golemon. It was some kind of I guess puppet that looked like a Digimon but it wasn't," Ruby frowned.
"Think that crazy Nero kid sent it?" Qrow mused.
"Wouldn't be surprised if he was, but let's not jump to conclusions TOO quickly," Oren sighed.
"Still we'd better keep an eye out for any more of those weird things. Where there's one there's bound to be more," Weiss frowned.
"A wise move," Gankoomon nodded, looking very pleased. "As long as you all keep up that attitude, I am certain you will prevail over the looming threat."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Jaune smiled a bit.
"Though speaking of looming threats, how's our favorite crazy lady doing?" Gomamon said, his voice dripping with sarcasm on the 'favorite' part.
"A question we should be able to easily answer," Penny said, before she quickly set up the private connection they had with Rei who soon responded.
"Been a while since I've heard from all of you," Rei said. "But I imagine I know what you're hoping to learn," he said.
"Pretty much. Even if we're ready to deal with her, it pays to know how far or how close Cinder is from reaching Haven," Pyrrha said, frowning a little.
"Well, she's still quite a ways away. I'd estimate she'll still need a month or two to reach Haven at the average rate she's going," Rei mused. "But that aside, I found something else that you might find interesting."
"What is it?" Ruby asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, I looked into Headmaster Lionheart. It seems that recently, he's practically become a shut-in. People almost never see him in-person anymore these days." Rei explained "That's not normal, is it?"
"It's… really not." Gyro said with a frown, tapping his chin in thought.
"Maybe Salem's making him work overtime because of what we're doing?" Gabumon suggested.
"It's a possibility." Pyrrha said with a frown "Well… see if you can't look in on him from time to time, see if anything changes."
"Will do. Rei out." and the call was ended.
"...so…think Lionheart is just being squeezed harder by Salem, or do you think something's going on?" Yang frowned.
"Honestly? I'm hoping its JUST him being squeezed," Weiss frowned. "We have enough to deal with between repairs to the Digital World, preparations for future threats, and of course we have to be ready in case more Digimon like that strange Golemon show up."
"That's a lot of things to worry about," Huckmon sweat dropped.
"Things like this are rarely easy," Falcomon sighed.
"Well if that's the case, you all focus on the Digital World side of things," Qrow said, getting up. "Leave picking some info from Leo to me. After all, he can't exactly say no to me discussing…important things…without risking blowing his cover," he smirked a little at that.
Yang chuckled "True. Guess we did forget we can rely on you sometimes you dusty old crow." she said jokingly.
"Hey, that's MR. Dusty old crow to you." Qrow shot back with a smirk.
Meanwhile…
"Are you sure this will work?" Lionheart frowned, as rather than working on papers that would deal with his job as a headmaster or making reports for Salem…he was instead looking through a number of archeological articles and going through information of museums in Remnant.
'Of course it will,' the voice in his head reassured. 'As long as even one found its way to Remnant, once secured all your fears will soon be put to rest.'
It had become something of a strange new normal for him. Ever since the voice in his head suddenly started speaking to him, he'd found himself following its lead. And honestly…why wouldn't he? It seemed to know how to handle a lot of things better than he did. How to keep Salem confounded, how to manage some of the staff who were still asking questions about his decisions, and even telling him things that were useful to him. Tricks on how people operated, little secrets that proved helpful, and now…it was offering him a chance to finally get out of this vicious stalemate that he'd gotten roped into.
He was sick and tired of this stupid game. When he first became a Hunter, he thought that he was fighting for the betterment of Remnant, for the people. Instead, now he was stuck as a pawn in a game played by two people who probably only saw the world as a big chess board that they played their endless game upon. Well he was sick of it. He was sick of being under Salem's thumb, he was sick of running a school made to churn out more disposable soldiers for Ozpin, and most of all he wanted it all to end. And the voice…the voice told him it knew a way for him to do it.
Oh sure, he had his doubts, but if the voice could get him what he wanted, to finally put an end to it all…well…it was worth the risk and effort he supposed. Now he just had to make sure nobody found out what he was doing. He couldn't trust anyone with this. All of them could have someone's hooks in them. It had to be him. He had to save the world.
Meanwhile, Lionheart wasn't the only one making plans of his own…
"Alright, beginning test number 5 in 3…2…1!" Nero said as he pressed the button on the control panel in front of him. He was standing alongside his two associates, with Raven next to him and holding his egg on a pillow that was being carried on a platter… and all of them were wearing hardhats on their heads, a protective case over the egg that was bolted to the platter, with all of them standing behind a fiberglass wall, security goggles over their eyes.
"Let's hope this works this time," the man sighed, as beyond the fiberglass wall, a mechanical hand dipped a needle into a vial of green liquid, a familiar mutagen.
Getting his hands on it had been a proper pain considering the Chosen had completely razed the island to the ground, but they didn't know it started deep underground, so he just needed a proper submarine to get him to the underwater remains of the island and extract as much of it as he could. Of course, while he got his hands on it, using it wasn't as simple as he'd thought.
The first time he'd tried using it as a possible fuel since as few standards as he had, messing with the Grimm was a line he wasn't planning on crossing. That idea might as well have had the words 'imminent backfire' written all over it. He'd tried using it as a possible fuel source but…the ruined site was enough to make him decide that was a bad idea.
Honestly, this mutagen was too unstable for his liking. Getting the mix wrong would either cause the Dark Tower they were testing this on to melt into a puddle, or worse, blow up in their faces. The only reason someone hadn't ALREADY found them was because they were carrying out these experiments in the Dark Ocean which they'd long since turned into their main base.
The needle was soon removed from the latest mutagen mix, now glowing green before the hand used the needle to prick a nearby Dark Tower, the needle soon sinking into it.
For a moment, it almost seemed as if nothing would happen… before a ripple came over the tower as it started changing, taking on a completely different shape, one that was distinctly… insectoid as well.
Once it finished taking the shape, the actual 'skin' so to speak formed over it, revealing the transformed tower to now be a Kuwagamon… except much more fierce looking.
Nero grinned, the insect Digimon standing before them, before turning to the woman in red "Order it to do something simple."
She nodded, before holding up a megaphone for her voice to carry "Lift your arms up and fly up ten feet before coming back down."
The Kuwagamon obeyed, his arms going up, and holding the pose even as his wings buzzed and he flew up a bit, before letting himself drop back down after a few moments.
Nero chuckled at that "Perfect. Looks like it finally works. Now we can unleash Kuwagamon X whenever we want." he said, before adopting a more evil grin "After we make even more of those X Digimon that is." he said with a low, dark laugh.
"Though just a small reminder, the Dark Towers no longer have their evolution blocking function," the woman said. "Needless to say even with our new means of building an army, it would be in our best interest to not deploy them carelessly. Even our resources have limits."
"Oh don't worry, I'm well aware of that. We'll come up with a plan, but for now, this itself is a step forward for us," Nero smirked a bit, already his mind was thinking how to make use of this for future endeavors.
As with before, they were not the only ones making plans. Elsewhere, another party had plans. Though this party was decidedly less…threatening…in the grand scheme.
Mercury stared with a bored eye as Cinder was 'honing' her powers as usual, shooting out fireballs at makeshift targets, and creating swords to slash hodge-podge dummies with.
… She kind of sucked at it too.
Her aim was never dead center, and her swings were too wild and wide.
… Why was he afraid of her again?
Honestly these days she was so terrible… she wasn't even aware of the fact that she kept giving him perfect openings to kill her. The only reason he hadn't done it being that he'd probably be even more bored if he didn't get to watch her flail about like an idiot.
Glancing aside… the doll was just sitting still like always, staring blankly.
No entertainment value there.
But a curse from the other side made him smirk as he looked towards Watts… the man practically tearing his hair out trying to hack into anything these days.
Apparently, the system made by Oren Joyeux was SO good, Atlas had spread it around to the rest of the kingdoms and cities.
Which meant Watts was… comically useless at this point. And he only got worse with every Update to the security that that Oren guy kept releasing.
And MAN was it fun to watch the smug snake crumble to dust and be replaced by a whiny baby.
His attention was soon back on Cinder as she immolated a bigger than normal training dummy…one that had a crudely painted image of some of the Digimon. Seeing that…made Mercury wonder about the future. Not in a philosophical way, but rather in a…'should I just bail?' way.
Eventually, he let out a low sigh, knocking the back of his head against the tree he was leaning on.
'I can't believe I'm thinking this… but Roman was right.' he thought to himself.
Yeah, he was done with Cinder's bullshit. As soon as she was asleep, he was just going to leave. Maybe try to find some Digimon that'd be fine with fighting him for fun. At least THAT would be interesting. Honestly, the only reason he'd stuck around so long was because this USED to be the winning team, but ever since those Digimon showed up…nope. He'd followed the news. Digimon were beating Grimm left and right, reclaiming land that used to be Grimm infested, Cinder was fixated on a goal that was the definition of a fool's errand, Watts was basically useless meaning no way they'd be able to sneak into cities easily anymore (not to mention Cinder now stuck out like a sore thumb), and of course Tyrian and Hazel had basically dropped off the face of the planet. In short, as far as he saw it he was on a sinking ship. And he had no intention of going down with said ship.
Salem's new world order? Feh, it was clear that the ones making the new world order were those Digimon, and they were perfectly happy with basically just inserting themselves into the current world order. Oh well, if you can't beat them, join them he supposed.
And this was the night that Mercury Black disappeared into the darkness.
And there!
Yeah, a couple of surprises in this chapter, namely the introduction of three more Royal Knights, some more hints about what's going on with Lionheart, Nero making a much stronger Dark Tower Mon than canon did... and Mercury leaving Cinder high and dry because he knows she's a sinking ship.
Yeah, bet that last one was pretty surprising to read.
Now, this isn't him having a full on change of heart and seeing the error of his ways, it's just, like stated in the story, he knows she has no chance of winning, so he's not about to go down with her.
As for what he'll do now... who knows, yeah?
But for now...
The Adventure Evolves