"It's not... bad." I said. "It's a manifestation of your bond with each other."

"Our bond?"

"Yes." I leaned back. "When Guilmon does that; it's... oddly reminiscent of what's happen when you merge."

"How does merging like ghost limbs?"

"Okay, it's like this." I held my hands up.

A pair of figures appeared in my hand- miniatures of Takato and Guilmon. "This is you."

A small, golden, transparent energy band appeared between them. "This is your bond."

I put the figures together, shifting them both into a miniature Megidramon. "This is what happens when you merge."

I pulled, separating it back into two figures. "Now, when you merge into Megidramon, you fuse your bodies together, and tie your souls together. In doing so, you trigger the Digivolution process, and jump straight to Mega."

"Okay." He nodded. "So how is that like ghost limbs?"

"Patience, Takato." I held the figures up again. "Now, when Guilmon generates a phantasmal limb, he's... kind of doing the same thing." I created a transparent form of Megidramon, letting it hover over Guilmon.

"Except, instead of merging together and transforming, he's drawing power from your bond and using it to create that phantasmal limb."

"How... is that even possible?"

"Good question." I shrugged. "I have no idea."

He stared at me.

"Probably has something to do with the Digital Hazard." I speculated. "Megidramon, as a Digimon, doesn't exactly follow the rules."

I paused.

"Actually, speaking of; since we're alone and outside of the universe, you two should Biomerge."

"Huh?"

"Just to check if something's changed." I stated.

He blinked.

"Ah... Guilmon?"

Guilmon purred.

Takato pulled out his D-Power, and I warped back, getting out of the way for them

A few moments later, a red pillar rose into the sky, fading away quickly after.

Much more quickly than either of the two previous times.

Megidramon straightened up, appearing... exactly the same as before.

My eyes traced his form, looking for anything even slightly out of place- but there wasn't anything. My vision flickered as I examined him a metaphysical level- but there wasn't anything different there, either.

"Feel any different?"

Megidramon held still for a few seconds, before shaking his head. "No."

"Right." I nodded. "I... can't see anything different about you, but that isn't exactly the most... reliable way of telling that nothing is wrong."

Megidramon held still.

Unnaturally still.

"Megidramon?" He shifted, slightly. "Something wrong?"

"No." Takato's voice came. "Nothing's wrong. It's just..."

"Normally, the words 'it's just' tend to mean that something is wrong."

"We're not... angry?" He wondered. "The last two times, there was that urge to destroy things, but now..."

"You're not feeling it?"

Megidramon shook his head.

I leaned back.

Huh.

"You know, I've actually had a similar experience."

He looked down at me.

"A destructive instinct that I was used to suddenly vanishing." I elaborated.

The urge to hunt, to kill, to devour, to spread and multiply and destroy.

I looked to the distance, raising several columns of stone into the air. And then several more, all around the place. "Go and test your abilities. You'll want to know if anything changed now rather than later."

He stared at me for a moment, and then nodded.

Megidramon took a deep breath.

"Megiddo Flame!" Crimson flames shot out, spilling over the area, shooting wide and far, bathing an entire section of my dimension in searing flames.

"Was that the best you had?" I asked.

Megidramon shook his head. "No."

"Why not?" I asked. "If you can go better than that, why didn't you?"

"You said that if we went too, we could kill people." He said. "We were worried about you."

I blinked.

"First off, that's touching." I spoke. "Second off, don't bother holding back for my sake. There are few things in existence that can truly hurt me, and you're not one of them."

He turned to me. "But... what if you do get hurt?"

"I won't." I promised. "But if it assuages your worries... tell me, have you ever felt what it is like to exist inside the core of a star?" I asked, rhetorically.

He stared at me.

"It's very hot. It's also very radioactive, and under tremendous amounts of pressure." My head tilted to the side. "And I know that very, very well from experience."

He stared at me.

"Compared to that, your hottest flames are nothing. Go wild. It isn't going to hurt me."

He stared at me.

"Hold on, back up." Takato's voice came. "You've been on the inside of a star?"

"Do keep up Takato, I just said that."

"How... how is that even possible?!" He just about roared. "Stars are... stars!"

Perhaps I shouldn't have said that.

"Yeah." I nodded. "It's a consequence of my nature."

"What?"

"Nevermind." I waved him off. "Just go ahead and don't hold back. Trust me, I can take whatever firepower you can throw around."

He stared at me for a moment, before turning away. "Okay. Whatever."

He took a deep breath. "Hell Howling!"

He, true to form, released a howl, which was accompanied by a powerful shockwave.

A really powerful shockwave.

The ground underneath his body cracked, ripping and shredding, spreading out-

And then the shockwave slammed into me, so powerful that it reduced me to smoke instantly, pulsing through me and slightly scattering me.

I waited a few moments before reforming, coming back together into a solid form as Megidramon gazed on, watching me.

"Okay, I'll admit, it's been a while since the last time that happened." I turned around, looking at the cracked, broken ground, torn apart by the force of the howl.

Oh dear- that sure went on for a while.

There was a massive circle of broken ground in every direction, pulped and ruined.

Even the area behind Megidramon hadn't escaped the carnage- though I noted that the effect had been lessened significantly.

But it had still easily cracked solid stone- and quite deeply at that, wrecking everything around.

"Right, so don't use that anywhere near anything important, either." I turned back to Megidramon. "Because that would easily and violently kill most Humans, a considerably large portion of Digimon, and utterly wreck the environment on top of that. You certainly don't do destruction by half, do you?"

He stared at me.

"What?"