Chapter 4

Preparation

Commandramon rushed through the war camp as fast his legs could carry his saurian form, the panic in his form causing his camouflage-textured skin to rapidly swap between shades, his military gear shuddering with every thud as his assault rifle shook in its holster.

The massive general of the camp came into view long before he came close to speaking distance. The massive pair of silver and red wings that threatened to blot out the sky with their magnificence, the long skinny tail that seemed to have a mind of its own, the spines and horns that covered the red-scaled body of the bipedal dragon with a snow white belly, his equally as massive lance by his side as it would always be. Examon, perhaps the greatest dragon digimon to ever live, Royal Knight, and the one who held the title 'Dragon Emperor'. He was one of the few knights who did not command an army of those of the knightmon and maildramon lines, but did as his title commanded, Lord of Dragons, leader of an army of dragon digimon.

It took several more minutes for Commandramon to get close enough to see Examon speaking with a knightmon captain, indicated by the cape and blue bands around its arms, the dragon emperor's voice deep and booming, "We will see once the sealsdramon squads bring the information back from their run. I still do not see why our foes would strike here over the easier fronts while we sit surrounded by canyons and mountains. It would be their grave to attack a place as defensible as this."

He would yell out as he finally got within hearing range, "Lord Examon! I bring news from sealsdramon scout squads seven and twelve!"

The titantic red dragon's head careened to look at the much smaller dragon digimon, who stopped and saluted in his lords presence.

"At ease," Examon would say to the commandramon, "What news do you bring from their missions?"

"My lord! Squad twelve was completely annihilated with the exception of sealsdramon-eight-six-two! Squad seven confirmed the presence of two enemy legions gathering on the edges of grindlock canyon twenty kilometers north of our position! Enemy forces bear the banners of lust and gluttony! Enemy classification was too varied for one glance, but their numbers outnumber ours by at least two point five times!"

"Any identification on what digimon lead them?"

"None, Lord Examon."

"Did eight-six-two ID his attackers?"

"No, Lord Examon. They were bombarded from a distance along the ridge they were watching from."

The red dragon grumbled for a moment before responding, "Tell Darkdramon, Cyberdramon, and Gryphonmon to come here, I have new orders for them to give."

"O-of course, Lord Examon!" The commandramon saluted again before scrambling away toward a tent a good distance away from Examon and the knightmon captain.

The red dragon turned his head back to the knightmon, "I take back my earlier words. It seems that Leopardmon was indeed correct about our foes."

The knightmon nodded, ignoring a temptation to state the strategic genius of Leopardmon, "Thank you for the honor, Lord Examon. Lord Leopardmon seemed quite worried we would be too late to arrive and assist you, especially if his words ring true about the foe having chosen of their own."

"Indeed," Examon responded, "And I now do worry that it was not a digimon alone that may have slain squad twelve..."

Silence would reign for several minutes before the winds shifted and three digimon all arrived one after the other. The first being a cyborg humanoid with the traits of a dragon, a massive lance embedded on his right arm, energy bursting from the odd protrusions from his back and sides like wings of energy, red hair flowed down his neck as yellow eyes empty of pupils stared at Examon, a constant frown sat on his maw, a glass helm shaped like a V on his head, his stance powerful and the mood around him violent as he spoke his name, "Darkdramon. Present."

The second was simply put, a gryphon with a large helm sealed onto her head as a pair of human-like brown eyes stared out. Her lower jaw bright red as draconic, torn wings erupted from her lion-like body, tiger stripes on her back-half, though her front legs were much more bird-like. Her tail seemed to have a mind of its own, appearing like a eyeless snakes head, a constant grin on its face as it looked around while the chimera digimon spoke, "Gryphonmon! Present!"

The third was another draconic being, dressed in a black rubber suit with various pieces of armor assorted at certain points, jagged blades emerging from his elbows as four torn wings flapped behind him before closing, only his jaw visible from the silver helmet on his head, "Cyberdramon! Present!"

Examon began to speak, "I will be quick, as we are short on time, the sealsdramon scouts have found our foe is not far from our current location. So listen carefully to my instructions, if we are to hold this position, we are going to have to do everything as precise as only dragons can. Gryphonmon, your orders come first."

The chimera digimon responded, "Yes sir?"

"Have your gigadramon and megadramon pair up into squads of five, then assign three mail birdramon for each squad. Have all eight of our wingdramon form a single squadron, with remaining mail birdramon to act as their support. No particular formations until the battle starts and we've seen our foes choice of tactic. Have them ready for combat at any moment. Proper air support and logistics will remain as critical as always."

She nodded and replied "Yes, my lord" as Examon looked to cyberdramon, "Cyberdramon. I want you to set up our cannondramon."

The titanic dragon looked away and pointed at a hill just taller than the camp behind them "One there, have him hide behind the crest until the fighting starts," then to a mountain to the west, "Two there, make sure they're positioned just under the shadow of the peak," he then stopped pointing, " Have the third positioned near the air strip. Knightmon, I want you to have four of your knightmon accompany each of the first three cannondramon, and eight maildramon riders for the third."

"As you wish, Lord Examon," both cyberdramon and the knightmon captain would respond.

Examon continued, "Darkdramon. Have the tankdramon spread out in a defensive line, separated by thirty feet each, vaguely similar to the orochimon set-up. Assign two tankmon squads for each tankdramon similar to their class-u formation, then have the commandramon set up in infantry formation three in the trenches behind them for support. Knightmon, I'd like your remaining men to act as a last line of defense in case of the worst for the sake of any non-combatants."

Darkdramon didn't give any particular response compared to the rest besides a nod as they all quickly went, Examon clacking his jaw a bit before stating to himself, "War is not won with numbers and tactics alone, but I do hope the other knightmon arrived as ours have..."

….

Examon's hopes however were not to be answered, as far south from his camp, almost a world away, the group of knightmon sent to reinforce Gankoomon sloshed through the swamps as they slowly made their way to where his camp should have been. The towering knights sinking up to their knees in the muck, those riding maildramon found that their mounts made the trek all the slower, and they were clearly losing initiative as they made their way forward.

"Sistermon, shouldn't we have seen scouts from Gankoomon's forces already?"

The one leading this group of knightmon was not a knightmon herself, but was instead a nun-like character dressed in white. A light blue veil with a cap like a mouse atop her head, her bluish-black hair covering one eye as she carried a sheathed katana with her, the revealed bright blue eye having a pupil like that of a cross. Her stark white leggings had been turned a disgusting brown by the disgusting waters of the swamp, and her mood was clearly not a positive one.

She responded to the knightmon quietly, "Yes. I imagine we should have."

Her eyes were scanning the half-dead trees sticking out of the muck, half expecting an ambush at any moment as the knightmon around her were obviously on edge. The constant sloshing of their groups movements making them obvious if anything hostile were around, for the sistermon however, her concern was with about two other sistermon who would have been with Gankoomon.

Suddenly though, the water and mud just stopped, a dry edge of dirt going just over the waterline as though a massive drought had hit that area and raised the land from beneath the muck. The already decayed trees became little more than twigs as the group climbed over the edge of the dried dirt, some of the knightmon took the chance to dry their armor or wipe the muck off their maildramon mounts as the sistermon kept going forward, her heart starting to drop as it became obvious something had fired off a massive blast of pure power, and that they were on the edges of it. The cracked earth deadened and the the remnants of those trees quickly thinned away to an empty plain of dust and nothingness as far as the eye could see in front of them.

She began to run into it, looking for any sign of what had once been there, any sign of the camp they were supposed to support, for any sign of her sisters, or for the royal knight who had asked for their help away from Jesmon.

"How... Where... We... We were too late...?"

The sistermon would fall to her knees as one of the knightmon caught up, "Sistermon Ciel, we should leave. We don't know if the enemy who did this is still near by."

Ciel nodded, forcing down her grief as she slowly stood, nodded, only to see something gently flapping some distance away from them, followed by movement of someone trying to hide, "There!"

The knightmon looked to where she pointed, before waving for his fellow knightmon to follow, "We have a survivor! Stay on guard! The enemy could still be nearby!"

Sistermon Ciel didn't wait for them as she dashed to it as fast as she could, recognizing it as she got closer, "Is that... Gankoomon's jacket?"

She would practically slide down onto her knees as she stopped next to it, pulling it up to find a smaller sistermon with a rabbit-like veil who looked several years younger than Ciel if they were human. She was holding a broken trident as she hugged a small green amphibian digimon with an orange crest and a round body with six blue stripes, its orange eyes clenched closed with fear.

"B-Blanc!" Ciel wouldn't hesitate to pull the smaller sistermon and her companion into an embrace, the smaller sistermon hesitantly opening her eyes to Ciel's voice.

"S-sister?"

"It's me, Blanc! I'm here," Ciel would squeeze the smaller sistermon, who began to tear up a bit.

"C-Ciel... N-Noir... N-Noir i-is..."

"I-I know, Blanc."

The knightmon would catch up to Ciel, one of them reacting to the missing royal knight's coat, "D-does this mean Lord Gankoomon..."

"Indeed, it does," a relaxed male voice not belonging to any of the group would say from behind them, causing all the knightmon to turn and unsheathe their weapons at the new arrival. Ciel suddenly unbinding her hug and pulling her katana from its sheath in preparation for a fight. The human in front of them raised his arms to mean no harm, offering them an easy-going and friendly smile despite the situation. His skin tone was rather pale, with the cloudy sky over head making him seem even more so, his build rather thin for someone standing a good inch over six feet(185 cm), as though he needed to eat quite a bit more than he did. One might say his build looked rather sickly, especially with his long limbs. His medium-length black hair was tied into a low ponytail down to his shoulder blades, a spiky fringe on the front of his face. His droopy green eyes seemed rather sickly to Sistermon Ciel, the stubble along his jaw not helping her impression of him. His cyan button-up shirt had its sleeves rolled up, the red tie that was loosely done up and his beige slacks giving his look a rather lazy appearance. The black belt and black slip-on shoes though seemed to compliment this choice however, "Woah there. No need to pull out your swords and daggers... I ain't gonna attack ya, and I'm sure we'd all prefer to avoid a fight."

Ciel didn't see it, but some of the knightmon looked at his belt, where a digivice hung. One like the digivice Cecilia had, but colored orange except for the green ring around the screen and the darker green strap.

Next to him was a digimon that barely stood up to his knees. A large insect, with a bird-like purple beak that had jagged edges, black lightning bolts that acted as eyes on his dark green head, scraggly antennae wiggling slightly. More of those black bolts lined each segment of his caterpillar-like body, his legs were more like singular claws on its body, with his final segment ending in a large pair of pincers. Subtly, he gave off a powerful aura that said he was not in the strong state he could be.

"Lord Leopardmon was right," one of the knightmon said as he began to shudder, these words causing some of the other knightmon to look around nervously.

"Be wary of that dokunemon," another knight would say to the others, prompting a glance from Arthur if they knightmon began to defy their apparent leader.

Ciel narrowed her eyes at him as she spoke with venom, "Who are you, human?"

"Arthur Evans, it's a pleasure."

His voice was too laid back for Ciel to tell anything about him, his posture incredibly relaxed as though what should have been a tense-filled situation was just another day, and he seemed far too friendly for one who was obviously their enemy.

"Are you here to ambush us, servant of the demon lords?"

"I prefer to call it a tentative partnership. But no, I'm just here because an old man asked me to watch the kids," his eyes glanced at Sistermon Blanc and the green digimon behind Sistermon Ciel.

"An old man..." Ciel narrowed her eyes further before she asked, "What are your actual intentions then?"

"See, I'd like to let ya'll go. I just need a small favor in exchange for lettin' ya'll leave, you see," Arthur slowly lowered his arms and pulled his digivice off his belt, "These little devices have a special function that lets them consume and store data. Of which, that old man asked I collect the data of the digimon leading those coming here."

"They knew we were coming?"

"They expected you to be here already, but lo and behold, only two sisters present."

The knightmon looked between each other, this news off-putting to them that the demon lord's forces had known about their coming to aid Gankoomon when it had been less than a day.

"... What happened to create this hellscape?"

"Not to be irritating, but isn't it somewhat..." Arthur stopped for a moment to think of a word that wouldn't make the mood of the offset group of digimon more hostile, "Palpable. Palpable who it was? That old man woke up who I suppose I would call 'boss' to fight your royal knight."

The knights all shuffled at this news while Blanc and the green digimon tried to hide themselves behind the larger sistermon as Ciel mouthed silently, "Belphemon..."

"Course, he held up pretty well all things considered. Kept the boss' roar from melting your sisters and a few other digimon before duking it out. Shame the old man happened."

Ciel pieced it together by that singular sentence, "Barbamon killed Gankoomon as he was fighting Belphemon?"

"On the nail."

"And what of you then...?"

"Me? Well, personally I don't like conflict and Cu over here isn't much for... the direct version of it. Our relationship with them is a tentative one after all."

Ciel would make a careful consideration, knowing that Noir and anyone else was likely already a victim of either Barbamon or Belphemon, before asking to confirm about Arthur's offer, "... You only need some of my data to prove we're dealt with, correct?"

"Just enough to make the old man think you're gone. Then we can all be on our merry way. However much you think'll make him giggle," his relaxed nature was starting to unnerve Ciel, someone like him would normally seem insignificant, friendly, or even annoying, but here, in this dead land, he felt off.

"Fine. Knightmon, prepare some covering to stem my bleeding."

"What, Sistermon, what are you-?"

Sistermon Ciel lifted her blade to the horror of the knightmon and the two digimon behind her before painfully slicing her own arm off at the joint with a high pitched scream. Barely managing to keep standing through the pain as one of the mounted knightmon leapt off his maildramon with a thick piece of cloth to stem to flow of data from the gaping wound that was once her arm.

Arthur's eyes widened slightly, more out of response to her excessive choice to ensure the safety of those with her rather than simply attempting to bleed herself or using an option with less data loss, as he pressed a button the digivice, the flow of rainbow colored particles flowing from the decaying limb accelerating rapidly before it dissembled and flowed into the device as the man responded, "A bit excessive there. But, it'll definitely have him convinced."

Ciel grit her teeth in pain, unable to respond but content in her choice that would without a doubt convince the demon lords behind this man that her group was dealt with.

"With that, we can part ways without issue. And so, I bid you adieu," he would hook the digivice back onto his belt before starting to walk away, his digimon following closely as one of the knightmon picked Ciel up, the nun digimon watching him walk away as Blanc and the amphibian digimon went up to check on her.

Ciel silently watched as Arthur walked away, even as the knightmon ensured her wound wouldn't worsen, or as her still alive sister latched onto her remaining hand. There was a subtle fear in her heart of Arthur, a fear of somebody she couldn't read behind that smile.

…...

It would take a bit, but Arthur stopped moving once the Ciel led group of digimon were essentially dots on the horizon, taking a deep breath as he stuck his hands into his pockets and looked up to the sky at another dot far up above that had been circling since long before Arthur spoke with those digimon, which quickly came diving down at extraordinary speed, the blur turning crimson before it stopped suddenly to keep from slamming into the earth.

Before Arthur stood a massive bird, menacing in every way as three empty black sockets stared at him with a single yellow orb from each. It's expansive wingspan was covered in black feathers tipped in red, a single spine colored yellow erupting from the tip of each wing. It's main body was colored like blood, and seemed as though its skeleton was on the outside of its body rather than in, rib cage moving with every breath as a skeletal tail swayed behind it, though a mane of yellow covered its back. Arthur had to think a moment to remember its name was Velgrmon, a creature called 'the corpse eater'.

Another human was laying in its mane who would say to Arthur, "Are you suuuuure we should let them go? Vulgar keeps saying they're eeeeeevil."

A girl who looked rather like a child slid off the monstrous digimon as he laid close to the ground, she was no more than five feet(154 cm) tall, a rather oversized dark blue hoodie disguising most of her appearance, with it being designed like a cartoon monster, the opening being like the maw of the cartoony creature and two large cartoonish eyes on either side of the hood. One could see she had a skin tone even paler than that of Arthur that would threaten to burn under the heat of the sun were it out. One could vaguely make out her long black hair underneath, primarily by her bangs hanging on her forehead. Her face was rather round and cute, furthering her childish appearance with naive blue eyes, though her face seemed as tired as Arthurs but maintained a far more neutral expression than him. The tip of a red shirt could be seen just at bottom of the hoodies opening, a pair of black shorts on her lower body half hidden by the oversized clothing piece, with dark red running shoes finishing her appearance.

Arthur offered his same far-too easy going smile to the girl, "Mary, I assure you that was just a woman here to rescue her sister. A hostage held by the royal knights, and I simply made sure she could go home with her... Rescue party. Vulgar is just being wary since 'Lord Belphemon' came through here."

A painfully obvious lie with a bit of venom put on Belphemon's name, but the girl ate it up at face value as the Velgrmon, creatively nicknamed by Mary, Vulgar snorted in amusement, "Mmmmm, okayyyy! You're a good guy, Arthur, reuniting two sisters like that."

"Sure," Arthur knew he only did it because he'd rather be off somewhere doing anything else, rather than cleaning up the demon lord's mess, but the girl, despite her ever neutral expression, clearly believed his words with all her heart. At least, he was someone who could tell that, considering the invisible mask he wore every day.

"Soooo... Do we wait for the reaaaal baddies to come and let Vulgar do them in?"

Another snort from the bird digimon which got a look from Mary, "Are you getting a cold,Vulgar?"

"No, Mary, I am... Fine. Just all the dust causing me to cough," the monstrous bird replied in a forced manner that tried to dodge upsetting her as Arthur's partner digimon Cu seemed to be vibrating from boredom at this point, something that Arthur would subtly notice.

Mary would then offer, "Do you want to ride back in Vulgarrrrr's feet? Cu can riiiide on his back with me."

Arthur didn't hesitate to reply in as a kind a manner as he could muster to avoid being in the bird's talons, "I'll have to decline, I'd like to stretch my legs a little on the way back."

"Mmm, okayyyy," Mary's face didn't express any emotion, but Arthur could tell there was a hint of disappointment in his declining the offer, before she then began climbing back up onto Vulgar. The monstrous bird digimon clearly didn't like it, but was obviously loyal to Mary as she looked down at Arthur and said, "I'll see you thereeeee!"

Then the two were gone with a gust, leaving Arthur and Cu behind to begin walking, or rather for Arthur to do so as the dokunemon used his silk to pull himself up onto his partners shoulder, the dokunemon speaking for the first time in that period, "I really don't like having to stay quiet, Arthur. I mean, I know you're wary of me making Mary Maher mad and bringing Vulgar's wrath on our heads, and I know this place is dead since 'the boss' blew it up with that monster roar of his, but do I really have to just sit quietly? I haven't been able to have fun since we got dragged out here. Do you think when we get back that Milana will appreciate the new 'trick' I came up with? She seemed to get a laugh out of the last one, which really makes her one of my favorites since most of the commanders don't appreciate a good prank. When will we be out of this dusty place by the way? I really liked the swamp a lot more and I get an eerie feeling from this place since it was... You know. I kind of miss the half dead trees that-"

Arthur somewhat tuned out his partner as Cu revealed himself to be a bit of a chatterbox, the dokunemon beginning to point out every detail of the dusty wasteland and its history from the past few days, though Arthur kept his mind open enough to give simple responses to his partner as the duo began making their way out of the deadland to wherever he chose to go. He was in no rush to report back to Barbamon, the old man looking digimon too much of a cartoon villain for his tastes and it wasn't like Barbamon was actually his boss, not to mention Belphemon was a far more terrifying threat he could hold over the bastard, as the lord of sloth did seem to like him for some reason when he didn't even like the others that had been assigned to his legion.

Maybe he could try finding some of those mushrooms Cu had told him about one time, vigor mushrooms he believed they were called? It wasn't often he was given a full chance to cook after all, not in this environment run by a war he wished would end already.

…...

Kyou and Blaze were talking as they walked down the halls of Yggdrasil's castle, both of them soaked with sweat from the ever intense training of Leopardmon, but both of them were clearly in one of the best moods they'd been in since arriving at the castle, their partnership ever strengthening with every moment they spoke.

The both of them would stop by a balcony however, looking and seeing a rather sad Cecilia watching Avani and Luna chase each other, though the two digimon had a slowness to their movements indicating a sadness of their own they were trying to ignore.

Blaze took a moment to think before saying to Kyou, "I think you should say something."

"Wait, me? Why me?"

"It would help you learn to trust the people we're allied with, and from what I saw this morning anyways, that girl is worth trusting."

"What about her is worth trusting?"

"Let's see, I saw that she took the time to say good morning to every single knightmon she passed despite her upset mood over her friends rejection to aid the knights, she's taking care of that boy's partner like she's her own, she bent over backwards to help Alizee earlier when she crash landed from another of Dynasmon's bombardments, she and her partner clearly entertain or believe every word of that Clive guy to give him his sense of joy, and I do believe that's just beginning of a surprisingly long list for the first day."

"So she's either excessively naïve, a workaholic, or someone wearing a mask. Could even be all of the above."

"No offense to her, but she seems the type who couldn't put a false mask on if she tried. I'd make a pun about it, but..." Agunimon would snap his fingers and point at Kyou, "I'd like to save face."

Kyou's neutral expression would crumble with a chuckle as he responded, "I think that's the worst one yet."

"It still got a laugh out of you."

"Only because of how bad it was," Kyou began to do as Blaze suggested and walk over to Cecilia, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try and talk to her."

The girl would be quick to notice the approaching Kyou, and quickly rubbed her face to try and help hide her obvious distressed mood, though all it did was make her face red as she utterly failed to put on a neutral expression, showing that she was clearly not a master of controlling her emotions or expressions. If Kyou were to be honest about it, he had already developed a dislike for Jordan for apparently leaving his friends in the dirt.

"You seemed like you needed someone to talk to," Kyou said as we walked up and sat down next to her, his expression becoming neutral again and hard to read again. An unintentional thing he didn't mean to do, but habits and reactions were hard to get past.

Despite this, Cecilia's blue eyes looked to him as she responded, "You're... Kyou?"

"Yeah, Kyou Kagita."

"Um... Cecilia Velvette, I uh... Sorry if I seem too down."

"It's fine, I get that it's cause of that Jordan guy, right?"

She gave a simple and quiet, "Yeah..."

"Have you tried talking to him since he ran out?"

"I haven't been able to find him."

This got Kyou to raise a brow since he had in-fact seen the boy earlier, "Really? Did you check the upper floors? Cause I actually saw him wandering around a few of the empty rooms in the castles outer... Would it be a ring?"

Cecilia blinked at him as she thought on what he asked before responding, "I think it's called a ring."

"Right!" His sudden declaration of being correct caused her to flinch which made him feel a tad embarrassed though he maintained his expression, "Ah, sorry. But, I do know where Jordan is hanging out, if you want to try to speak again with-"

"I do!" Cecilia was the one to make a declaration this time, "I know that he probably didn't make the best impression yesterday, b-but I know that he's troubled by... Something! I want to help him with... Whatever it is that's dragging him down so far! I made a mistake by thinking it was just a confidence issue to be honest... But not just for the sake of repaying a debt for saving me and Avani, but as his friend. I want to try again."

Kyou felt a spark at those words, his guard melting away at her obvious zeal, to which he grinned, "Now, that's some passion I can get behind. How about we go find him, together, once the sun goes down and he's done wandering the halls like a ghost?"

He would offer her a hand to shake, "I don't feel like I introduced myself strongly enough. I'm Kyou Kagita, my partner is Blaze, the legendary warrior agunimon. Sorry if I came across as a little... Blank just now. Trust... Isn't something I can just hand out."

Cecilia felt a spark of confidence of her own kick in as she took his hand, the older boy shaking it heavily, "I uh... Maybe I'm a little more naive then you about trust, but, thank you. We all want to talk to and help Jordan with- H-huh?"

She had looked over to Avani and Luna, who had convinced Blaze to be some sort of giant for them to conquer, the two less mature digimon laughing as their sadness seemed to melt away for the moment, the agunimon having a small smile on his face to be able to take their concerns away for even a little while.

"Your partner seems to have everything together," Cecilia would say as she observed the digimon, noting his calm nature seemed to be a big part in helping the other two's mood.

"Nah, he's just able to keep "calm and collected" is all, at least that's what Leopardmon says. Even though he constantly flips Blaze on his back in-practice" Kyou's own smile hadn't faded either, though his wariness had come back in-case anyone else came and saw the situation.

Blaze would hear that and yell to Kyou, "Victor did the same to you today!"

"That was two times to your twenty, Blaze!"

"It still happened!"

Cecilia would finally smile at the exchange, hoping she could get Jordan to open up about what was holding him down with the help of a few others.

….

Those last hours of the day would fly past, the night that the five would look for Jordan coming as an event soon to set the chosen of both sides in motion came closer and closer...

Far outside the castle of Yggdrasil, where only its middle spire could be seen, as the moon came up and the sun fell. A figure one would have thought was already present in that castle came over the crest of one of the ever green hills.

His stark white armor was dented and beaten, one of the wings of the red visor on his helm missing from battle damage, his shield cracked along the edges from being pounded on by great force, his lance was slightly bent, and one of his eyes was covered by bandages within his helm. Yet his red cape flowed behind him with regality despite the tears and slash marks in it, his uncovered eye filled with a stubborn yet fluid nature one would find only in a few select individuals. There was no force in the digital world that would stop him from making it to that castle.

"Almost back now," Gallantmon would say to himself to push himself further, to take every step he needed to get back to the castle of his lord, "I refuse to fall... while he hides as me..."

Arthor's note

This chapter is a slight bit short and I apologize for that. Had to fix the formatting again too cause I got that weird error again where it puts random data bits before every sentence.

This is actually the chapter 4 I came up with after I had a moment of "Yeah, Wow, I really boned the pacing on chapter 4 didn't I." This is the chapter 4 I decided to do after I realized I should do my initial draft of chapter 4 as chapter 5. So I brought in some of our demon lord chosen to address a loss that will have plot relevance later, rather than, you know, throwing it in as a dialogue note. Thankfully I also have the excuse of this throwing the plot forward by a couple hundred yards. Specifically for the demon lord side, of which I imagine one of my readers is jumping up and down for what's coming with Examon.

Agunimon continues to make bad puns because bad puns slay me every time. I'll try expanding his inventory of jokes as the story goes on.

By the way, I think I'm gonna start putting review responses down here for questions or things I feel got poked at.

Like for example, regarding Gallantmon. I actually felt I made his dialogue a bit too obvious that the one Dynasmon spoke with wasn't our main boi with choice bits of dialogue(Between whispering parts of what he was saying, missing he with I's, and complementing himself) but I guess that's not true. Definitely obvious now though, hope ya'll are ready for a big boy fight.

I'm super glad people think the story itself is interesting, and I hope its raising plenty of(the right) questions for down the road.

Effects of being unstable? I'm making a list and checking it twice for every individual character.

-To Roggi: Yeppers, Alphamon is showing them evidence that the Demon lord chosen have been around longer than the Royal knights chosen. Though not all together, one at a time over a period of months.

-To BlazePurple: Regarding Cecilia as the main OC. Yeah, I guess that's kind of gonna happen at first since she's the character among the knights I have the best grasp of(Among the DL I feel I have the best grasp of Arthur rather than my own character. Which makes me nervous about writing her) and thus interactions involving her won't be as rough at first. Though I hope to spread out the interactions so everyone gets equal amounts of screen time and characterization.

-To those asking about Jordan: Jordan's arc is one of the ones I have planned out already, so a lot of his stuff will be among the earliest done.

Also, I completely forgot to state this last chapter. This is for my submitters. If a partner's(Or a partner entirely in the case of some of the DL) digivolution hasn't been displayed in story yet and you want to make changes about their digivolution. Feel free to ask to change if you want and I'll make the change.

Anyways

Arthur Evans belongs to Eternal Rain Spirit, and Mary Maher to Roggi.