I took all of us directly into the Sovereign's domain, appearing in roughly the same place where I had left.
Zhuqiaomon wasn't around -back over at his castle/land/whatever-, but Azulongmon was.
"Whoa." Henry breathed, looking over the area. "This is the Digital World?"
"This is the Sovereign's domain." I stated. "It's only a very small part of the Digital World."
"Indeed." Azulongmon rumbled, shooting upwards past us, bringing him into the view of the children and their partners.
"Azulongmon." I greeted.
"Drich." He looked at me for a moment.
I idly noticed that Zhuqiaomon's Heart was now coming closer.
"This is Takato Matsuki and Guilmon, Rika Nonaka and Renamon, and Henry Wong and Terriermon." I introduced.
He looked at each of them in turn, before staring at me. "They don't look like much."
"I think that counts as rude." Terriermon sniffed. Henry sighed, and poked his partner.
Rika crossed her arms and glared at him, Renamon simply directing a stare at him.
Takato gave a slightly nervous laugh as he looked up, his eyes tracing Azulongmon's form.
Azulongmon glanced at them for a moment. "Well, at least they have spirit."
"Indeed." I turned to the side. "Zhuqiaomon is about to arrive."
Azulongmon looked up, and then nodded.
The children turned around, spotting Zhuqiaomon's glowing form with ease.
Kind of hard to miss him, after all.
"Drich has told me that you would surprise me." Azulongmon stated, turning back to the children. "I must admit, I am... looking forward to whatever it is that you have."
"You have arrived!" Zhuqiaomon screeched, his voice drowning out whatever reply that they would have made.
He swooped forwards, coming to a stop and hovering above them at around about the same height and distance as Azulongmon himself was.
"And you look pathetic." He sneered.
Together, all three children glared at him.
"If we could go ahead and avoid the pointless taunts, that would be great."
"Ha!" Zhuqiaomon gave a barking laugh. "But, very well. "
He came to hover a bit lower, his four eyes remaining locked on us all.
"Personally, I believe Humans to be pathetic, and worthless." He stated, delightfully blunt. "Show me whatever it is that you think will make me believe otherwise." He demanded.
Takato, Rika, and Henry pulled out their D-Powers, the first holding his up to his chest.
"Not yet, Takato." I put a hand on his shoulder. "Let Rika and Henry go first."
He looked at me, frowning. "But..."
"Do you remember Gorou's reaction?" I asked. "Hold off, just for now."
He frowned, but sighed.
"Ready, Renamon?" Rika asked.
"Of course."
"I don't really need to ask, but... Are you ready, Terriermon?"
Terriermon grinned, leaping off of Henry's head. "Yes!"
Together, the two held their D-Powers against the chest-
And a moment later, both were consumed in pillars of light.
White pillars, I noticed. Not the red of Megidramon.
A few moments later, this pillars burst, fading away, and revealing the two Mega Level Digimon that Rika, Renamon, Henry, and Terriermon had become.
MegaGargomon was the most blatantly obvious, standing several times the size of Sakuyamon, though the bright green cyborg Digimon still not even remotely close to the size of either of the Sovereigns.
Sakuyamon stood tall, gold and black armour covering her form, the four Kuda-gitsune swirling around her, her Khakkhara in hand.
Sakuyamon glanced at MegaGargomon, before looking back at Zhuqiaomon. "We're the smallest."
"We are."
"You merged..." Zhuqiaomon rumbled. "You... you... Blazing Helix!"
He flapped his wings, sending off twin streams of fire, heading directly for us.
I twisted space, warping Takato, Guilmon, and myself away, taking us away from the path of the flames.
I needn't have bothered.
Sakuyamon shot up into the air, the Khakkhara beginning to spin in her hand. "Crystal Sphere!" She called, a barrier shimmering into place around her, the flames hitting it and, somehow, stopping.
MegaGargomon looked up, staring at Zhuqiaomon. "We don't actually have a name for this."
"I know, it's sad!"
With a metallic clicking and whirling, the metallic plates of his body opened up, revealing enough weapons to make the entire American army blush.
Lasers, missiles, vulcans, more missiles, flamethrowers, and even more missiles were promptly aimed at Zhuqiaomon, and MegaGargomon opened fire a moment later.
Zhuqiaomon dove to the side, trying, and failing, to get out of the way of MegaGargomon's obscene amount of firepower, using his wings to shield himself from the stream of bullets from the vulcans and the continuous laser pulses, ignoring the flamethrowers entirely, and exhaling gouts of flames at the missiles, detonating them before they could get too close.
Unfortunately for him, that meant that he was ignoring Sakuyamon.
"Amethyst Wind!" Sakuyamon called, sending a storm of pink... petals? at Zhuqiaomon, which slammed into him with more force than it seemed to have any right to possess, each of the petals bursting into energy as they collided with him, forcing him back, further away.
MegaGargomon stopped firing, the weapons retracting back into his body. He shifted slightly; smoke beginning to come out of the back ports of his shoulder missiles.
Zhuqiaomon righted himself with a shout of anger, the red aura once again surrounding him. "Phoenix Fire!"
His mouth opened, and blast of red fire came out, lancing towards Sakuyamon, who created a shield to protect herself.
"Gargo missiles." MegaGargomon declared, the missiles immediately shooting forwards, both heading directly towards Zhuqiaomon- who, unfortunately for him, was focused on Sakuyamon.
The missiles darted forwards, Zhuqiaomon not noticing them until it was far, far too late, both colliding with his chest.
Both detonated, a blinding light instantly consuming Zhuqiaomon's form, obscuring him entirely.
A few seconds later, the shockwave reached us, loud, rumbling, screaming, and very powerful.
So powerful, in fact, that it nearly blew Takato off of his feet, if not for the fact that I was holding on to him.
Beside us, Guilmon dug his claws into the ground, riding the shockwave out.
I just stood there and basked in it, keeping myself anchored to the ground by a pair of spikes extending from my feet, holding Takato against my body as the world shook.
But, eventually, it stopped, the light fading away, the rumbling dying down. I caught sight of Zhuqiaomon as he fell to the ground, seeing the scorched flesh, burnt wings, and seared feathers.
There was a thunderous crash as Zhuqiaomon smashed into one of the mountains of Azulongmon's island.
"That looked like it hurt a lot."
"He's had worse." Azulongmon stated. "But the very fact that they had the power to do this in the first place..."
He turned to look at me. "You were right. I am surprised."
An angry growl caught our attention, and we turned back to where Zhuqiaomon had crashed.
He was shifting, moving to get back up- the fact that he could move at all was nothing short of amazing, especially since he'd just taken a pair of missiles that would have annihilated just about anything else outright.
But, perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised.
Zhuqiaomon was one of the Sovereigns for a reason.
He pushed himself in the air, his wings spreading out, his body beginning to burn in a crimson aura.
His voice rasped as he spoke, his four red eyes glaring murder.
"You..."