Ch11
In an area in the snowy outpost, Yamaki and Sinduramon are trying their best to sneak past some Digimons. He walks very closely to a wall, then carefully peeks at the enemies ahead, there are three of them. "It's too far." Yamaki thought, but he still thinks he can make it there. The wind is quite strong, and as the snowfall worsens, there is a chance.
Before he could take a step out of their hiding, Sinduramon tapped his hands. "Hey hey, don't lose your cool. Tell me how much and who they are first." The deva asked.
"Three, two Commandramons, one Ikkakumon." He replied.
Sinduramon sighs. "Are you insane? Look for the big one, leave them alone." They stare at each other in disagreement, so Sinduramon starts explaining to Yamaki. "It's better to go for the big guys, we're not here to feast all day long."
"You're still small, don't you think-"
"Just find a bigger one!" Said Sinduramon with an annoyed face. "How dare you underestimate me like that, get moving."
They venture deeper inside that base, each step becomes more dangerous as they get closer to the center of that place. Still, these Digimons are just too weak or too far away from their reach. Sinduramon relies on Yamaki's speed but he can't expect much from the man himself, this snowy terrain is just too hard for him to move freely. Not to mention they also need to be aware of dozens or more Commandramons who are taking some high place, they just aren't sure that this snowfall will cover their movement from them.
Now they move at a very slow speed, checking their surroundings takes longer, and they need to do that constantly, even when they think it's safe to move. Then, they spot at least four Digimons near a tent. They're just on the other side of that tent, Yamaki thinks this is their best chance, he's seen at least two Zudomons before. Two of those ultimate level Digimon should be enough for now, but he's not so sure about the other two, maybe he saw all of that wrong because of the snowfall. He leans his head out a bit to peek.
Sinduramon already jumped down from his hands, but he let Yamaki confirm it again first. "Hey, what-mmph!?"
The sudden move from Yamaki makes Sinduramon angry, the blonde man shuts his beak tight. He wants to struggle at first, but a horn suddenly pops out near them, one of them is very close. Yamaki slowly crouchs down and holds his breath, he also starts covering their bodies with snow as best he can. This one clearly isn't Zudomon and it's a weaker one as well, but if the worst thing comes, Sinduramon is ready to do it.
"Huh!? What'd you mean!?" Said Ikkakumon, its horn isn't visible, meaning it turns away from them. "I heard something over here." They hear some voices but they can't make anything out of them. "I swear I heard something, huh? Did you call me stupid!? What-"
Yamaki peeks once again, he's sure that those Digimons lines of sight are blocked by Ikkakumon's body, and he's right about it. He looks back at Sinduramon and nods at him, the deva quickly moves to follow that Ikkakumon.
It's not the safest way but he has no choice, this is their best chance to do it. Thanks to his currently small body, none of them notice his presence, he assumes what happened earlier is because of his voice. This Ikkakumon in front of him is so close to its peers, and Siduramon is very pleased that Yamaki scouted the right pack this time, two Zudomons and two Ikkakumons.
Once he's close enough, Sinduramon jumps into the middle of them. "Nap time!" They can't react properly thanks to their size, attacking Sinduramon without hurting their friends isn't possible. At the same time, Siduramon's golden pestle already sends electricity to them, all of them are staggered while their data is chipped away. Their size advantage slowly evaporates as Sinduramon grows while they shrink rapidly, they even revert to their weaker level bodies in no time.
Yamaki runs towards the now bigger Sinduramon. "Is that enough?"
Chuckle comes out of Sinduramon. "More than enough." The deva replied to Yamaki. "We can go after them with this much data." Yamaki smiles and he's about to step on Siduramon's wings, this time it's his turn to be carried.
"Move!"
Whooshh! Clank!
Yamaki steps to the side because Sinduramon yelled at him, thankfully the knife only grazed his cheek. That knife hit Sinduramon's armor and bounced away before landing on the snowy ground. A flash of red light can be seen before another knife is thrown at Sinduramon, this one narrowly misses his eyes and hits his beak. When the deva is still recovering from the shock, A Digimon charges towards Yamaki.
This Digimon is only as big as an adult human, Yamaki already heard this one from Renamon, Sealsdramon. Sealsdramon is attacking him without his knives, even without those on his hands, he still has an easy time overpowering Yamaki. The agent is taught some way to subdue a threat, but for humans, not for Digimon. Fortunately, this one attack pattern is quite predictable, a punch. Sealsdramon throws a right punch and Yamaki is able to dodge it, it was somewhat close to a straight right in boxing. He punches him back, right in the face.
"Wrong move." Sealsdramon calmly said to him. He's the one who punches, but he's also the one who reels back, his hand is in pain. "That's a good one, for a human. I give you that, but it's over now." Without a pause, Sealsdramon trips Yamaki's leg using his tail then kicks him right in the chest. Sending the man a few meters away.
Sealsdramon takes his knife while Yamaki coughing from the pain in his chest. He's ready for the coup de grâce but a big wing swings toward him, that wing is stopped by a big ice arrow. It explodes, forcing Sealsdramon to retreat, another Digimon barely shows up behind him. He's quite angry because of that and grunts even when he's saved by that arrow. "I said I'd do this alone."
"You said you'd agree to my terms." This Digimon voice is calm and soothing, Yamaki and Sinduramon could tell that this one has a lot of confidence in their strength. It's still shrouded by snowfall, but its shadowy figure is quite big, maybe taller than Zudomon. "I don't have the reason to hurt both of you, for now."
"WHAT!? Don't you see what they've done!? Look at them!" Shouted Sealsdramon angrily while pointing at four Gomamons laying on the ground. "They-"
"Not now, okay?" Sealsdramon stays silent. "Please?" When he finally nodded with a sigh, this Digimon seemed to get some relief.
That makes both Yamaki and Sinduramon confused, but they don't have the time to process that. Yamaki is trying his best to get up, he groans from the pain in his chest, that kick was very powerful for him. Meanwhile, Sinduramon starts charging his electricity once again. The mysterious Digimon finally reveals itself, this Digimon has a humanoid body, wears a set of white armor with a light purple accent. It wields a two ended polearm or scythe, the blades on both ends are wide and it has the resemblance of a crescent moon just like some ornament on its armor. But the most clear part of its feature is the leg armors, they have the shape of crescent moon facing forward with a face painted on them.
It's the right time to send the signal and take down these Digimons at the same time. Despite never having seen these two Digimons before, Sinduramon has bad feelings from them. "Stand back!" He shouts at Yamaki as he moves closer to them while charging his attack.
Suddenly, a flash of bright light hits them. Yamaki instantly feels weak and sleepy, it's hard to keep his eyes open. He slumps to the ground and can only watch what happens in front of him, he sees the source of that light and Sinduramon who's barely able to stay awake. There is another flash of light, this one is yellow, then everything goes dark.
It's not a Digimon, not even anything that resemble their kind of creature, just a vine in the middle of this tree. A big green vine is facing three of them, which makes Impmon quite annoyed since he expects something bigger, or at least something scary for his standard. Now this is more like an insult after they seemed to be an important guest before, but in the end they're just captives who got quite a bit more good treatment than they should. Ajatarmon greets his superior like he used to, then formally explains the situation to all of them.
Impmon grunted after he's done explaining. "Stop blabbering like we're a bunch of stupid Digimons, you don't even tell us your name." He smirks at this vine, which seems like a way to communicate with whoever is behind it. "Right now, all I see is a coward who hides behind your subordinate. Am I that scary for you? Hmm? I don't hit a soft spot over there, right?"
The vine is silent for a moment before letting out a sound of laughter. "That's a good point, Impmon. I won't deny that. Just playing it safe, no? I know both of you, one is a hero who bravely crossed to the other world to save both, other.." The vine leans toward Impmon a bit. "Just a pathetic loser who begs for power, selling his own friends on top of that."
Terriermon quickly holds his friend who almost snap from that, he can feel that Impmon's fists are heating up. "Don't.." He warns him calmly, and it works for now.
"Awww~ Did I hit a spot over there~?" Another laugh can be heard, this Digimon got him very good. "Hah, hahahah... sorry, I was just a bit pissed off when you called me a coward before. I just poked you back a bit alright, don't be mad at me Impmon, that glare of yours makes me shiver to the core~"
"What do you want? Just say it." Said Impmon sternly, he just wants this to be over already. "Is it the same bullshit this guy was spouting before?"
It laughed again, this time it sounded like a satisfied laugh. "Good, that saved us some time. Join me and help us put those pesky gods to the place where they belong, below us." Both of their expressions are not changing at all, this is the second time they heard that offer. "I don't care about that world, for all I care you two can go there as you like. All I want is to restore this world order back, it shouldn't be hard to understand." They're not amused at all, still taking this offer as it means nothing to them. "Hahh.. look at you, what do you get after doing all of that? A ceremony? Power? Nothing! You get nothing after you put your lives on the line, the reward you get is nothing but to be separated from your friends. Is that fair? They just do what they want with our expenses, isn't that pissed you off?"
There is a silence after that. Terriermon and Impmon glance at their bodies and then at each other. "Easy to say when you're doing nothing, what do you even know about what happened? You just heard about us from mouth to mouth." Said Terriermon.
"I'm just saying you two deserve better than this, is that a hard thing to grasp?" It asked back. "You might be okay, but your friend here had it different from you. What's that deva name again? Umm.. Caturamon?" Impmon's eyes widen and he glares at the vine once again. "Yeah, that must be the one. They turned you against your own friends. Then what? Coming back for your help when they realize the problem is too hard for them? Say, Impmon, you're lucky things didn't turn out to be worse, right? But what if it didn't end like that? Can you say the same thing?"
The view of Caturamon's face flashed inside Impmon's head, like watching a speed up movie. His hands are trembling and Terriermon notices that, this time Terriermon isn't able to calm him down as he's stuck in his own head. Once again, Impmon makes fist and they get hotter each second. No one is talking except Terriermon, who's still trying to calm him down. Even with closed eyes, Impmon is just too angry to think anything else, but he suddenly heard someone talking.
"It's just a trick, you've seen this before." Impmon opens his eyes. "You know it better than anyone else, don't fall for this again." What was that? He thought for a moment before looking around, making everyone confused by his action. He turns to the vine again.
"Now what's your next card, coward?" He said it calmly, but his eyes are glaring at the vine.
All three of them are shocked by his response, even Terriermon doesn't understand how he could say that after what just happened. Terriermon smirks, trying not to laugh, he can't believe that Impmon can act like that under pressure.
The vine laughs again. "Guess talking is out of option with me, you can go now."
"What!?" Said both of them in unison.
"I never wanted to make you my enemy, unless I had to. Ajartarmon." Ajatarmon escorts them but the vine stops them for a few words. "Consider this a good gesture from me, Impmon, Terriermon. There is still time to change your view, I hope you think about it carefully. Because the next time, either you're with us, or I delete your data. See ya."
Everything went so fast, both of them didn't even have time to think. Pick a card, digivolve, and off they go. Ruki only saw some of them scrambling to get ready, her focus was on Juri who quickly digivolved Gaomon to Gaogamon. That was the last thing she saw before Kyubimon started running, she's still worried about them even though they already split their task from the start.
"Ruki? Ruki!" Her partner's voice got her attention back. "Should I fight?"
Ruki sees some Digimons walking in a certain direction, it's the same as where she wants to go. Her hand rustles on her deck, she takes some cards before putting them back. "No." With a firm grip on Kyubinmon's white mane, Ruki is ready to give her the next order. "Run, we have no time."
With full trust in her partner, Kyubimon runs to those Digimons. Some of them notice her presence and start attacking, shooting their weapons and horns towards her. Thanks to the speed buff from Ruki's card, she managed to dodge all of them, but it's not the end. They're deep inside enemy territory with a heavy snowfall on top of them, both of them trying to find the source of that explosion. It's hard to do when all the Digimons around this place are coming to get them. While it's hard to see, Kyubimon can feel that the snow is thinner on some part, she moves towards the spot where the snow gets thinner. The more she moves towards a thin layer of snow, the more Digimons they encounter.
It didn't take long for them to realize what happened, so Kyubimon quickly hid with the help of this snowfall. They stop near a destroyed building, planning their next move. "Let's ask them for it." Kyubimon suggested to her partner, ready to strike a Digimon not far from them. That Digimon isn't aware of their presence, and that'll make an easy job for her.
"Tch.. do we have time?" Ruki really wants to do another check, but after alerting them, she doesn't have the confidence to check once more. "I don't know, it's hard to decide.."
"Ruki, I trust you." Kyubimon said. She tilts her head a bit to see her partner on her back. "We can go for it, or go back to help them. Your call."
Ruki closed her eyes for a few seconds. "Let's go back."
The journey into the center of this place doesn't get any easier, more Digimons on their way and Kyubimon has a hard time avoiding every attack thrown at her. With Ruki on her back, she can't just narrowly dodge an attack like before. They also notice something, some of them are heading in the same direction once again. If the last time those Digimons weren't in a hurry, these are not the same. Ruki is guessing that these Digimons are heading towards their friends who cause ruckus, and she's right about it.
They see their friends taking a stance on an area, and Kyubimon sees a Zudomon is about to fight Vajramon. She leaps up to the air and does a front flip, amidst that she uses one of her attack, Dragon Wheel. Blue flames shoot out from her tail, hitting Zudomon in the nape. The Walrus stumbled forward and greeted with a big knuckle sandwich from Vajramon, sending him a few meters away. The deva smiles and nods to Kyubimon. Meanwhile, Ruki almost throw up from that.
"Heheh, you okay missy~?" Kazu just can't help himself to laugh, it's a rare sight to see Ruki lose her cool.
Ruki gets down from Kyubimon, then glares at her. "That's on me, sorry." Said Kyubimon with a little giggle. Takato and Jian quickly run to her, their expressions quickly turn grim as they don't see Yamaki with her.
Ruki shakes her head. "Only a trace of that chicken power, it melted snow over there."
There is a big hole in front of them, which may be a way to the other plain, just like what her partner talked about before. She glances at them after staring at that hole, Jian nods to her. "Let's be positive, they must've dragged them away, at least for some info." It's a possibility, and Ruki tries her best to believe that. "We don't have much time, they seem to be afraid after their friend knocked down like that, this is our chance." Antylamon, Vajramon, and Gaogamon are still guarding them with their partners ready on their backs. No one dares to go near them after that Zudomon, but their number is growing steadily. It's a matter of time before they push through with sheer numbers alone.
Ruki hesitated. "Leaping into that, you sure?"
"What else? I mean.. it's working the last time, right?" Replied Takato as he tilted his head in the Kyubimon direction, he let out a chuckle. "Umm.. lady first?"
"I swear you-hahhh..." Ruki calls her partner. It's not like they have a choice on who's going first, Ruki and Renamon are the only ones that have already digivolved into mega level Digimons, hence becoming the spearheads of this group for now. "Here goes nothing." Ruki said before she and Renamon went inside this portal first.
On a different plain, in this seemingly harsh and unimportant plain, lots of strong Digimons gather in one place. They're just having a good time talking to each other, some are eating and a few others are slacking around. But the moment she set foot in that place, everyone stood up and greeted her. Not fully from fear, but this weirded out her. She just can't stand this kind of treatment.
"You guys didn't need to do that." She asked them nicely, yet none of them really dared to be relaxed once again. Now she's a bit annoyed and orders them with a quite stern voice. "Get back to your post." The moment she ordered them, everyone quickly dispersed.
This one mega level Digimon brings along her trusted subordinate and two prisoners, one human and the other a Digimon. An agent from another world holds a deva, both of them are exhausted but the deva got it worse, his size was reduced to the point where he really just a chicken with sphere armor and a golden pestle on his back. That last fight was brutal for him, and that wasn't a fight to begin with.
After walking quite a bit, they arrive at a spot that seems more unimportant. They walk into another building that is about to crumble, but inside this building is a secret way to get into a deeper part of this plain. A big icy staircase heading down surprises Yamaki, he doesn't expect this any bit. Before they went deeper, Yamaki stopped by the Digimon beside him.
"Then why bother bring me to this place?" He asked Sealsdramon. Sealsdramon just points at Siduramon who's on his hands, with no way to resist him, Yamaki reluctantly hands over the deva to his enemy.
All of them are going deeper, they split up and Yamaki finds himself alone with this mega level Digimon that he assumed to be their leader. This 'basement' is more like a nest than a base. Some are just having their time inside there, others are working to make the place bigger. Yamaki observes it carefully, trying to get as much good information as he can. But in the end, this place is just another plain in Digital World.
They go even deeper, now it's more quiet, not much Digimon can be seen but all Digimon he sees are Zudomons. They arrive in a room, two Zudomons guard this room but they don't enter when he and the leader enter the room. When they entered, Yamaki stopped immediately.
"What? You expect a throne over there?" Said the leader with a chuckle. "You want a coffee?"
Yamaki stares at this Digimon, he's not stronger or even bigger, not even as tall as her legs. But what he feels right now is confusion, not a shred of fear as he's still processing what he just heard. "Come again?" He wonders if he heard that right.
"That black water thing from your world, get it?" This time, Yamaki nods to this Digimon.
Watching their leader act like this raises confusion rather than suspicion for him. At first he felt something off, now he feels.. weird, in different way. Even so, he still keeps his guard up. When that leader go to the other room, he sitting on one of the rocks there. This room is huge and it resembles the streets of the ruins on the surface, big chunk of crumbling walls and rocks everywhere, which became spots to sit around. In about a minute or two, that Digimon comes back with two cups of drink. He got a small cup that fit his size, and to his surprise, this does look like plain black coffee. Yamaki blankly stares at a cup of coffee on his hands, not sure what to do. Overthinking things when setting foot on this base has proven to be useless. So much thinking and quick plans of running away now up in the air.
"Is it not to your liking? I've heard that humans drink something like this, then it brought to this world some time ago." The Digimon took a sip before continuing speaking. "Pardon me, where are my manners? My name is Dianamon, I take it that you don't want me rambling about how strong I am or comparing myself to other Digimons, right?"
Dianamon chuckles, giving him uneasy feelings yet he's not that scared. Something is still off yet he's not sure what it is. He finally takes a sip of his coffee. Not bad, he thought, just like those cheap instant coffees he always bought on the late night shift. "Guess you can read me quite well. So why bother?"
"Why.. bother?" She put her coffee aside. "What do you mean?"
"Why I'm still here, that's what I meant."
"Why should I delete you then? That seems excessive to someone who's not even part of them." She eyeing him from head to toe. "Are you coming on their behalf? This world isn't theirs, I want you to tell them that."
Yamaki isn't sure what she meant by that, and he doesn't know whether to be happy or not when she mentions that he's not with them. At least he's still in one piece after failing miserably, but that's not acceptable for his own standard. He scans the room, glancing from one side to the other. Is this prison? Chamber? Her private room? Not one of it makes sense, this room is huge yet nothing important inside it. There is a possibility that she hides it, he's not throwing that off the table, but it's not logical because why bother hide something if you're going to bring your enemies to that secret place?
A tap on his shoulder forces him to look up at her. "Rest easy, I'm not trying to hurt you here." Dianamon gets up to open the door, but stopped before she fully opens it. "If you're still sleepy, I can get you a place to sleep. I never fought humans before, maybe the effect lasts longer than I thought."
Again, he just doesn't get it. He stays silent for a moment before asking her. "Got a bad time with those Sovereigns? You want to replace them?"
Dianamon grabs her weapon, her double-ended spear or scythe, then quickly puts the blade right beside Yamaki. The blade size is bigger than his body, he wonders if he poked something that he shouldn't touch. But then, a loud clank comes from the blade, followed by a knife dropped a few meters from him. Dianamon sighs, and he knows that she is dissatisfied with that attack.
"Sealsdramon.." She said calmly. "I give you last warning right away for this one."
Sealsdramon walks to them, his expression is hard to read because it's hidden by his helmet, but Yamaki can tell easily that he's angry. He's standing not too far from them, Yamaki somewhat feels safe because Dianamon who was supposed to be their leader protected him. Still, that doesn't guarantee anything, even just for his safety right now.
"This again, warning this warning that.." Sealsdramon looked away and grunted before facing her. "Enough, okay? Please, look at what you're doing.. Are you this naive!? Huh!?"
Now Dianamon gets up again to properly face him, but she puts away her weapon. Same goes for Sealsdramon, he currently doesn't have another knife in his hands. "That's way out of line. Come on, this isn't you." She said to him, seemingly trying to hold her anger in Yamaki's perspective.
"Out of line? You-I.. why don't you ask yourself? Are you out of your mind now? You want to bring this up again?" Sealsdramon gets angrier with each word coming out of his mouth, his breath becomes short and heavy. "You think.. you think sending that human to them will bring us peace!?" He turns to Yamaki. "And you! Why are you even here? Why are you even doing what they told!?"
"Sealsdra-"
"SHUT UP!" His voice is echoing inside this room. "Don't you two understand, huh? Still hoping we have peace, or believing that doing as they told is right.. are bullshit. Tell me.. because what I see is.. in their eyes, we are, nothing." Sealsdramon looks at Dianamon, fully focused on her. "You think they've changed? Did you forget what happened!? DID YOU FORGET THAT!?"
Gee, I wonder if anyone trying guess what Digimon with that attack on last chapter. Is Dianamon comes to your mind when reading that last part on last chapter? I feel like that attack gave is quite easy, or maybe not.
Anyway, that's it for this chapter. Leave a critique if you have any. Thanks for reading, see you on the next chapter!