Chapter 5

Nyctophobia

The day had long passed, and the full moon over the castle of Yggdrasil aided in lighting its dim halls as Leopardmon crouched down next to a knightmon that had seemingly fallen asleep against the wall. Omnimon keeping watch down the halls as Leopardmon pulled pieces off the warrior digimon, testing various ways to wake it.

"Another one in a comatose state..."

"Any idea what digimon is causing this yet?"

"Still too broad a list, though I can at least say the cowards seem to stick only to the halls," Leopardmon stood and faced down the way opposite of Omnimon, "Our choice to send most of our knightmon to secure the borders may have been a poor decision to make."

"Too much of a coincidence that this happened as soon as the chosen all came together," Omnimon's blue eyes continued to scan the hallway.

"I believe it may very well be a coincidence," Leopardmon replied as the two slowly began making their way down the hall again, "Although Craniamon's report spoke of a strike team sent to attack Ryu and Clive, if our intruders were aligned with the demon lords, I have no doubt we'd be seeing the chosen already battling our foes or possibly worse. Yet instead, we face an enemy who is silently emptying the halls of their guards as though to remove witnesses, rather than attacking those already in their rooms."

Omnimon pondered what Leopardmon spoke of for a moment before responding, "Let us hope the chosen stay within their rooms this night then."

"Indeed."

…...

'Gallantmon' marched down the eerily empty hallways towards the room where the black guilmon was sleeping with her partner.

As he turned the corner however, he'd be met with none other than Dynasmon leaning against the door that led into their room, the wyvern knight's eyes darting to look at 'Gallantmon' before he stood straight and faced him, his words earlier having subtly tugged at the truth that the imposter thought he had hidden, "You're still too obvious, even after more than a century."

Dynasmon took several steps forward as 'Gallantmon' marched towards him, the Crimson Knight speaking, "Move, Dynasmon. She needs to be dealt with. Now."

Dynasmon put an arm out in front of 'Gallantmon', preventing him from passing as he spoke to confirm his suspicions, "This isn't like you. Your distaste for your own kind has always been a poor example for the Royal Knights but the way you spoke earlier, the way you spoke of our lords, and to attempt to kill her in the dead of night? These actions are unlike you."

'Gallantmon's' eyes narrowed at Dynasmon, "She will become a colossal complication far down the road, Dynasmon. My brother has escaped, which means that should she digivolve, he will not be the only megidramon rampaging if we allow her to live. Much less should we allow a human-powered megidramon run around as it pleases."

Dynasmon narrowed his eyes at "Gallantmon" as he seemed to forget he told Dynasmon how his brother was no longer the rage filled dragon but was now like him, however he said something else in response to the now obvious fake, "you must have a better excuse than that to attempt to assassinate one of those brought here by Lord Drasil."

"Dynasmon, you know as well as I that if too many digital hazard users gain access to the megidramon state, that it will begin eroding the very digital world we live in. Add the fact that all megidramon either become either insane from the sheer power or blatantly evil. All of them have only caused destruction or damage in a lust for more power. Our justice cannot allow them a chance to even spawn, much less digivolve to that form. Their evil cannot be allowed to spread across our already ailing world. They-"

Dynasmon would interrupt him in the middle of the fake Gallantmon's slandering speech as he uncrossed his arms, "Evil and lusting for power? How interesting. Doesn't that sound quite a bit just like yourself when you became megidramon all that time ago, brother of my old friend?"

The false Gallantmon's eyes widened in response before attempting to impale Dynasmon with a spear that glowed bright purple, the wyvern knight merely stepping left before decking the impostor with all his strength through the wall, causing a massive section to completely explode outward as a small shockwave filled the hall. Shuddering the doors violently, blowing out every torch in that hall, and shattering anything not nailed to the floor. Dynasmon then gently hit the door leading to the Ryu and Tiamat's room and yelled, "Stay inside!"

The white-clad knight then quickly followed through the gaping hole in the wall and floated far above where his foe slammed his feet into a guard tower to land, the impostor having slashed through and killed the two surprised knightmon on duty before they could react, their data flowing into his lance as his true colors were revealed and the illusionary data above his form destroyed. Much of the bright white parts of his armor turning a dark shade of gray as the parts once red turned dark purple, his cloak flowing behind him more like a dragons wings than with a knights grace. The golden eyes in his helm held not the pupils of an honorable knight, but those of a beast wearing a knights armor.

"Your raw power is great, but for a monster recently turned knight, you will need far more than that to defeat me, Chaos Gallantmon," Dynasmon's eyes were fierce and filled with rage as he looked down on the false gallantmon, "Where is your brother?"

"Where do you think, Dynasmon," he responded, "My rage! My hatred of you Royal Knights! It finally gifted me what I needed to defeat him!"

"Yet you failed to kill him before he escaped your battle, and thus you had hoped he would come here where you could claim he was the impostor between you two? Or perhaps at the least, that was your original plan before seeing the black guilmon."

Chaos Gallantmon did not respond as his shield began to glow vibrantly with a dark energy.

"Your silence is all the answer I need," Dynasmon responded as his body began to glow bright blue in response to his foe's own charge-up.

…..

Mere minutes before Dynasmon confronted Chaos Gallantmon, Cecilia, Kyou, and their digimon companions went from room to room looking for where Jordan had holed up. Both she and Kyou had little idea of where they were in the castle, and they were lucky enough that most of the rooms seemed to be empty, though Cecilia could have swore that sometimes the shadows felt a little to lifelike in some of the rooms. Finally, Luna would start hopping up and down as they approached a door in the middle of a hall on one of the higher floors. This seemed to be the room Jordan was in, with Kyou nodding to Cecilia, "I'll stay out here. Uh... You know, make sure nothing comes our way."

Cecilia smiled at him in thanks before knocking on the door a few times as Kyou leaned against the wall and Blaze crossed his arms to wait.

"Jordan?" The girl waited a moment for a response before pushing the door open to find Jordan sitting in a chair, facing the open window to stare at the full moon far above.

She silently entered, Avani on her head and Luna holding onto her fingers as they walked to behind Jordan. Cecilia however remained unaware her earlier observations proved true as a large shadow maneuvered through the tiny crack under the door and stopped moving near the bed, none of those in the room noticing it.

"... I'm sorry for earlier. I just... I couldn't handle that pressure," the boy would say without looking at them.

Cecilia would look to the right, where a somewhat oversized chair was lodged under a half-made desk the room had come with, before struggling a bit to pull it out so she could sit next to Jordan, though he refused to look at her, "You've been acting odd ever since we got... No, since we met Omnimon. And then you left Luna at the table like that when they asked you about helping them."

Jordan slowly looked down at his hands, where Luna had walked in front of him and taken hold of them, the boy responding to Cecilia, "I... I don't exactly... L-look, this is hard for me to talk about. I-I don't even really know you that well for how friendly you act."

"Well... We did survive giant man-eating mantises-"

"Snimon," Avani would cheerfully correct Cecilia mid-sentence.

"Snimon, together. You put yourself in danger to help me and Avani survive while we had no idea what we were doing... Being honest, I don't really know what I'm doing now either. I kind of just... Followed the group with those affirmations earlier..."

Jordan would stay silent, and the lack of response got a frown from her, "Look... I... I get that I probably really don't understand, maybe its worse for you than I'm imagining. For one reason or another, it isn't just something about confidence. But I want to understand so I can help you overcome your burden, and if you still don't want to train with us and be stronger. I'd think that's fine too, as long you're okay," Cecilia looked to Luna, "and don't leave her behind."

Jordan stared deep into Luna's eyes, his partners concern obvious to which he gently lifted her up and sat her on his lap, the digimon quickly taking the next action of hugging onto him.

"She's your partner, even if you don't fight with us against... Whoever we're fighting, she deserves to be by your side. You love Digimon, and it's clear to me that somehow you knew about them before we even got here. She wants to help you too, Jordan."

The boy would bite his bottom lip for a moment before responding with a quiet, "You're right, I should..."

Cecilia would stand up and move in front of Jordan, the boy looking up at her into her green eyes, "Even if you don't think I'm your friend now, Jordan. We still can be later. So, would you please give us a-"

Jordan's eyes widened as she spoke, suddenly grabbing her arm as a purple glow became evident with how quickly it coated the room in light, Jordan pulling Cecilia forward onto him and Luna, flipping the chair backwards and painfully rolling them all away from the wall with a mixture of yelps from everyone as Dynasmon slammed into and through the wall, where he would have crushed Cecilia had Jordan not pulled her back. The shadow that had been observing the duo bulged slightly, as though quietly hissing at the sudden crash like a dog.

The wyvern knight groaned before beginning to stand as one of his eyes noticed the four on the ground starting to get up as Chaos Gallantmon's voice yelled out, "It seems you've underestimated just how powerful my rage has made me, Dynasmon!"

The Chaos Knight was barely parried by Dynasmon as he attempted to slam into him, the floor in the room threatening to give out from the impact, his eyes also settling on the four as the door slammed open from Kyou and Blaze breaking in to check what had happened, "Seems we've stumbled across a few of your precious humans. Wouldn't it be a shame if you lost them to our bout?"

Dynasmon's eyes widened as the shield facing Cecilia, Jordan, Kyou, and their partners began to glow vibrantly, the Chaos Knight's eyes moving in a way indicating a grin, only to be met with Dynasmon allowing the lance to pierce into and through his shoulder as used his free arm to smash Chaos Gallantmon into and through the floor below as Jordan grabbed Cecilia's hand and yanked her through the door out of the room. Luna picking up and holding Avani upside down over her head, much to the wormmons disorientation, and following them as Kyou and Blaze guided them down the hall away from the battle. Dynasmon's eyes would widen as he observed the shadow suddenly following the group, but he was unable to pursue it as Chaos Gallantmon leapt up at Dynasmon.

"That's just so precious!" Chaos Gallantmon said that in a mocking tone as he pulled his lance from Dynasmon's shoulder, bright blue data leaking from the hole in the wyvern knight's shoulder as Dynasmon gritted his teeth and clenched his hands despite the fact it would increase the flow of the data escaping his body.

"It seems that you just aren't up to par to what you once were," Chaos Gallantmon's lance began glowing in tandem with his shield as he landed.

"Do you... Never shut up?!" Dynasmon's palms began glowing, Chaos Gallantmon grinning at what he thought Dynasmon was going to do and preparing his charging shield, only to be met with the wyvern knight aiming his palms at the floor again, "Dragon's roar!"

Several floors turned to dust and embers as Chaos Gallantmon fell through, although he attempted to aim his shield at where Dynasmon had been standing above him, "Judecca prison!"

Another massive beam of purple fired from the evil knight's shield, Dynasmon diving out the open wall and letting himself fall along with Chaos Gallantmon before spreading his wings to dodge a second burst from the Chaos Knight's lance.

Slamming down onto the ground floor, with no outer wall to separate rooms from courtyard, Chaos Gallantmon looked up at Dynasmon and growled as his shield began to glow, followed by small streaks of energy transferring it to his lance as the wyvern knight's body glowed, his body rapidly dispersing that energy within him as far larger versions of the energy dragons that Dynasmon had been using to train Alizee manifested all around in the air above Chaos Gallantmon.

Chaos Gallantmon growled as he aimed his lance at Dynasmon, but instead of firing it, he waited until the wyvern knight fired off the apparitions.

"Dragon collider!"

"Chaos shot!"

The Chaos Knight attempted to mitigate as much of the devastating ability as he could by firing several shots of dark energy at the apparitions. Causing some to implode, which then caught others in a chain reaction that began to arc towards both Chaos Gallantmon and Dynasmon, though the wyvern knight was unconcerned compared to his now panicked foe.

Seeing how the attack was arching, Chaos Gallantmon raised his shield to block the explosion, which did provide some protection at the cost of devastating his arm holding the shield, the sheer force behind the explosion sending Chaos Gallantmon skidding back several feet into an inner wall that managed to hold up despite it utterly incinerating a chunk of the castle above him. He quickly stumbled away from it into the open field as Dynasmon began to float downward, the usage of dragon collider at its full strength taking a massive chunk of his energy in turn.

The wyvern knight dodged another chaos shot from Chaos Gallantmon with a growl as his feet touched the ground. The Chaos Knight then launching himself at Dynasmon, aiming his lance at the royal knight's head, of which Dynasmon caught it with his talons, his damaged arm shaking violently as Chaos Gallantmon began to charge the lance's energy as he kept the constant pressure to pierce Dynasmon's skull if he let go, leaving Dynasmon no choice but to begin charging his form up again despite his ailing energies, both knights roaring internally...

…..

The group of chosen hadn't stopped running since they had narrowly avoided being included in Dynasmon's battle.

Blaze would suddenly stop the group however, Kyou about to remark about the sudden stop only to note the serious look on his partner's face as the warrior of flame looked down the hall, "What's there, Blaze?"

"Dynasmon's foe did not act alone," Blaze would respond as the rest of the group leaned to look past him down the dark hall.

Several ghost-like creatures were feeding on a knightmon as a cloaked figure floated behind them, it's head slowly looking towards them as light from the battle outside flashed. Revealing a metallic skull underneath the hood, empty sockets with red pupils staring down the chosen and their partners.

"T-that's a metal phantomon," Avani would state with fear in her voice, "W-we can't take that!"

"Great observation, but I don't think we have the choice here," Blaze would respond as the cloaked figure turned to face them entirely. It's robe moving away to reveal an energy filled orb connected to a metal spine and ribcage, bonds of electricity connecting it's hands as it ignited the pole grasped by them to reveal a massive scythe of energy.

Avani would take a deep breath to try and deafen her fears slightly before looking to Cecilia, "Do the thing."

Her partner would look at her with a befuddled look, "Do what?"

"Digivolve me!"

"R-right," Cecilia would pull her digivice out of her pocket, only to realize, "... I-I don't know how I activated it before!"

Kyou had to ignore the want to facepalm before saying to Blaze, "We might have to do this on our own."

Jordan would then go, "... I'm here too."

Kyou would look at the boy, who took a deep breath as he glanced at Cecilia and Avani before looking to Luna, who nodded in affirmation. He would then take the digivice out and exclaiming to Luna, who moved next to Blaze, the devices screen bursting to life, "Lunamon! Digivolve!"

Cecilia had seen Lekismon before, but hadn't seen her digivolution before. In comparison to Avani, and unknown to her the companions of Ryu and Clive, the colors of Luna's body burst off of her and rotated around her like moons as the wire frame beneath instead expanded outwards rather than unfolding. The details of her digivolution bursting from her form, her legs forcibly bending into their rabbit-like state while her little robe collapsed into her form as her six tendrils burst from her back, her helm bursting into existence with a flash of light before her color slammed back into her and filled all the details that Cecilia remembered.

"Lunamon digivolved to Lekismon!"

Internally, Jordan attempted to strengthen his resolve, even if it was a temporary boost, it was a start for those who wanted to help him overcome what was holding him back. A hint of self-doubt slammed into the back of those thoughts for a moment, making him wince briefly, only for Luna's voice to say, "Thank you, Jordan."

Her voice brought him away from those thoughts, to which he simply nodded to her as she turned to face the metal phantomon and its ghostly fellows. The boy then looking to Cecilia and Avani, the duo panicking in a rather comical manner about their inability to figure out how to get the wormmon to digivolve, to which he would then tell them, "Focus on your bond. The friendship you two are building and what you want to accomplish together."

Both of them looked at him before both rubbing their heads, Cecilia her hair and Avani her chin since it was far as she could reach with her little arms, "W-we'll try?"

"I'll just be dealing with these ones while you figure that out," Blaze would say as his fist lit on fire and he bashed one of the ghost digimon into the ground, where it exploded into data, "Don't hold back. Bakemon are fragile, but they'll drink your data like digital soup if you let them linger close too long!"

Luna merely nodded before kicking a bakemon in-between the eyes and sending it careening into its fellows as she took a breath to try something new, the tendrils on her back suddenly producing several arrows made of pure ice, the moon rabbit digimon grabbing one and throwing it with all her strength at the bakemon she had just kicked, piercing it and one behind it, causing them to burst like balloons as the rest of the pile began to untangle themselves.

Blaze would move in on the pile Luna made as both of his arms lit on fire, "Burning salamander!"

As he punched at the bakemon, a blaze of fire came forth in the shape of a dragon, enveloping and incinerating most of the bakemon in the pile. Blaze noting something about the ghost digimon's behavior, "They're acting too direct for bakemon. It's like they're just drones..."

Seeing that it's minions, even with numbers on their side, were already failing against their fellow champion level digimon, the metal phantomon slowly began to loom closer as it's jaw clicked a few times as it's scythe began to glow brighter. The bakemon seemed to notice this clacking, quickly beginning to retreat from the two champions.

Realizing what was happening, Blaze read his opponents mechanical movements and closed in, a loud scream echoing through the hall as the metal phantomon lifted it's scythe and swing down. A slash of pure energy bursting from its weapon and flowing down the hall at high speed. The humans quickly maneuvering to the sides of the hall as Luna and Blaze leapt to the sides of the attack, a good chunk of the remaining bakemon being consumed by the slash while the rest managed to retreat behind the metal phantomon.

The agunimon's fist would light ablaze again as he brought it into direct contact with the metal phantomon's skull after dodging, only to growl and leap back while shaking his fist.

Lunamon would run up next to Blaze as the metal phantomon's eerie pupils scanned them, processing how to handle it's foes before looking behind them at the humans further back.

Kyou would be the first to realize this, "We should give this fight some space."

Jordan would nod in agreement, the two taking off, having assumed Cecilia was paying attention.

The girl however was still struggling with her digivice, far too focused on trying to figure out how to get Avani to digivolve again.

The other two were already far down the hall by the time this occurred to them, Jordan looking behind them, "Cecilia!"

She would come to and look behind her, "Huh?"

Blaze would growl as the metal phantomon attempted to rush past him at the girl, moving in the way and this time spin kicking the metal phantomon, though the metallic digimon merely let out a gurgle of annoyance as it attempted to slash him in half again, only to be met with several arrows of ice pelting its form from Luna, tearing apart its robe, and pelting it with broken ice as they shattered against it.

It's scythe would make another screaming sound as it enlarged to ridiculous proportions, much to Blaze and Luna's horror as it pulled it back to swing, rapidly throwing blows at the duo. Ensuring they could do nothing but dodge burst after burst of energy, the metal phantomon slowly forcing them to move so that it's blows were aimed at the human behind them.

Cecilia had Avani in her arms as she ran, only to stop and close her eyes as the energy slashes closed the gap between her and them, expecting it to be over for not taking the situation seriously enough. Only for the shadow that had been quietly following the group to fly into action, monstrous eyes colored red bursting to life across the shadow as a draconic maw formed in-between them. The eye-covered shadow shining bright as a large boulder manifested from nothing in-between it and the slashes. The boulder falling apart in the process, but protecting Cecilia, Avani and it from the attacks as it hissed in a horrifying manner. Now that the shadow had revealed itself, it's form was vaguely like a deformed dragon, the two claws emerging from its sides shifting in size every few moments as its maw was stuck in a deformed smile, even the 'horns' from its vaguely identifiable head had large eyes on them.

Avani clearly couldn't speak as her throat filled with terror at the shadow digimon's appearance, but Cecilia was instead stunned by it and let out a confused, "Thank you?"

The odd digimon hissed in approval of her thanks before diving into the shadows on the wall like a sea serpent into water. It's large shadow now obvious to everyone as it maneuvered towards its foe, Blaze and Luna both unsure what to think of this new arrival as it burst out to dodge another slash from the metal phantomon, its serpentine form letting it weave between each slash with ease, forcing the metal phantomon to slow its assault as the shadow digimon closed in.

Jordan and Kyou both ran up to Cecilia and Avani, saying at the same time, "Are you two alright?!"

Both of them would look at each other, though Jordan would then look away sheepishly as Cecilia would respond, eyes filled with bewilderment, "Y-yes... But, what digimon is that?"

"E-e-e-eyesm-m-mon," Avani would respond, terror still all over her, "T-t-terrifying..."

"For a terrifying digimon though, it does seem to be on our side," Kyou would state as he crossed his arms and looked down the hall back to the battle.

Blaze and Luna nodded to each other as they maneuvered in opposite directions just out of range of its scythe, making it impossible for the metal phantomon to hit all of them at once even just by spinning, Eyesmon occasionally snapping at their foe with its monstrous jaw to keep it focused on it.

Luna continued to pelt the digimon with ice arrows as Blaze let his thoughts process, his training with Leopardmon showing the fruits of his labor as he dodged the few blows the metal phantomon made at him as it tried to hit each of them.

Then Eyesmon's body began to glow, rather all of its eyes began to glow at once, slamming the metal phantomon with enough heat that its body began to glow, which sparked an idea in Blaze's head.

"Luna! Hold your fire for a minute!"

The lekismon did so, her face one of confusion for the moment as Blaze looked to the shadow digimon and yelled, "Can you sustain that beam?!"

The shadow digimon had a few of its eyes settle disturbingly on Blaze for a moment before its head nodded as it dodged a scream fueled slash from the metal phantomon once again.

"Do it again in as close to ten seconds as you can get!"

Blaze would back away from the metal phantomon as it did a backslash at him, lowering himself closer to the ground, "Leopardmon wouldn't agree with using tactics like this against a stronger foe, but we'll never get anywhere just hitting it."

With the ten seconds Blaze asked for, Eyesmon's eyes all lit up once again and began to bombard metal phantomon with the lasers, its body glowing even brighter than the first bombardment. Followed by Blaze using a small explosion produced from both hands to burst over the metal phantomon, his hands gripping its skull-like head as he let his flames go wild without a word, its skull heating up to the point it began to distort. The metal digimon beginning to recognize their plan and struggling to get the agunimon off as he pulled his body back and wrapped his legs around the metal phantomon's rib cage to keep hold on its head, his fingers digging into its empty eye sockets as he began to squeeze, distorting its head further before he let go and allowed himself to fall to the ground as he yelled, "Aim for its head, Luna!"

The Lekismon produced a number of ice arrows, firing off and several piercing into its now much softer head. Though the metal phantomon didn't drop dead yet as it began to swing its scythe wildly and without the precision it had been attempting before, forcing all three digimon away from it as it began to go berserk.

Blaze would look to the shadow, which nodded at him with an unknown plan, only for Blaze to recognize what it was doing as a small distortion of space surrounded the metal phantomon before several boulders manifested from nothing. Slowing its movement in a brief enough moment to allow the agunimon to close in as he roared, "Gatling burst!"

He grabbed hold onto the metal phantomon by one of its ribs, his free hand raising as he rapidly began to punch its already distorted skull with a flame coated fist.

Punch one had an audible cracking sound come from the holes placed in its head by Luna.

Punch two saw those cracks become visible around those holes.

By punch three, those cracks began to rapidly expand as more punches kept coming faster than the metal phantomon's already damaged core could process before its robotic skull caved with an explosion of data from the metal phantomon and its victims. Data that was rainbow colored mixed in with plenty of white colored data from the knightmon it had forced into sleep, likely collected from the bakemon it had been using as minions.

Its form went slack without its head to control its body, its form briefly beginning to decay into data before bursting much the same as the other ghost digimon had. Blaze breathing heavily as his hand was still gripped like he was holding the metal ghost's ribs, Luna and the shadow both coming close to check on their companion.

"... Ultimate level, huh? Definitely more like an abysmal level."

He would smile despite the confused looks from the other two digimon, "Yeah, not my best work that one, but can you blame a digimon who just beat one a whole class above him with the help of two buds? Er... You are a friend, right?"

His question was addressed to Eyesmon, which nodded heavily in a rather comical manner as the humans, and Avani, came to the trio.

Avani was clearly attempting to stifle her terror at the shadow digimon as she shuddered in Cecilia's arms, though she spoke to it, "T-thank you."

Cecilia would come even closer to Eyesmon, much to Avani's horror, and reached a hand out to its eye-covered claw, touching part of its talon that didn't have an eye on it, the shadow digimon letting out a growl like a content dog.

"I think it likes you, Cecilia," Jordan would state the obvious as Luna looked down the hall at where their remaining foes were standing and took a battle stance just in-case.

The remaining bakemon that had been watching the fight however now had confused looks on their faces, before quickly beginning to panic as the knightmon nearby that had been unconscious began to stir, its mental and spiritual data returned to it by metal phantomon's defeat. The ghost digimon didn't hesitate to begin fleeing, their forms going through the walls to escape to where ever was closest to home for the ghost-type digimon.

The knightmon groaned as he rubbed his head, slowly standing and facing the chosen, "You... Why are you all-"

He would be cut off by a massive explosion outside the castle, the fight between Chaos Gallantmon and Dynasmon that had been forgotten now remembered as the chosen all looked between each other before rushing to the windows to look alongside their digimon. The knightmon running over beside all of them as well to look...

…..

Although Chaos Gallantmon's maneuver earlier had rendered his shield arm limp, Dynasmon was currently the one far worse for wear as their fight had continued. Holes and slash marks coated Dynasmon's body, data leaking gently from every wound, and one could wonder if it were only the wyvern knight's sheer force of will that allowed him to keep standing against Chaos Gallantmon.

"Well, Dynasmon," his foe would say while taking gasping breaths, "It seems this fight goes to me."

Chaos Gallantmon's lance began to glow as Dynasmon forced his body to take several steps forward, determined to not fall to this foe even as he obviously was the one about to lose...

"You're looking worse for wear, old friend!"

Dynasmon's eyes would widen alongside Chaos Gallantmon's, who would turn to aim his lance at the new arrival, a glowing shield greeting him.

"Demonic disaster!"

"Final Elysion!"

The beam from Chaos Gallantmon's lance would be overpowered by that of the glowing shield of the Crimson Knight, slamming into Chaos Gallantmon and sending him rolling across the courtyard, the true Gallantmon falling onto one knee as he revealed his worse for wear appearance, even more on his last legs than Dynasmon was, yet the shape of Gallantmon's eyes indicated his grinning at his downed brother.

"You... It's always you," Chaos Gallantmon's voice was coated in venom like no other towards his brother as he shakily began to stand, though the arrival of the other knight seemed to indicate the time to retreat for Chaos Gallantmon as he aimed his lance at the sky once he was up, a purple shine coating his body.

"Leaving right as I just got here?" Gallantmon's voice was taunting towards Chaos Gallantmon, who sneered at him.

"This was just a test run, Gallantmon. Neither of you will be able to stand before me nor my allies before too long," Chaos Gallantmon leapt up to dodge a singular burst of energy from Dynasmon, who had attempted to take advantage of the Chaos Knight's talking.

"Till next time," a golden blur would suddenly zoom into and collide with Chaos Gallantmon, snatching him from view as it zoomed over the walls and over the horizon, fast enough that only Ulforce Veedramon could keep up with the speed, were he present.

Dynasmon and Gallantmon both stood there, watching him go before both falling backwards onto the grass, Gallantmon yelling to his fellow knight, "Did he get the drop on you for you to get so beat up?"

"No," was Dynasmon's simple response as he stared at the stars above.

"Then does that mean technically I finally won a spar since it took using an ambush to get me?"

"No."

Gallantmon chuckled, "Simple responses from you, god I missed those. A few days half-dead makes one appreciate simpler things in life."

The Crimson Knight took a deep breath, "It's a shame the news I bring is a lot worse than my brother becoming 'Chaos Gallantmon'."

"Has he allied with the demon lords?"

"Do you really think his pride would let him?"

"... True enough," Dynasmon would rotate his head as he heard the sound of movement, "It would seem our allies have cleaned up whatever mess was distracting them."

"Lord Dynasmon! Lord Gallantmon!"

A small group of knightmon would rush out, carrying medical supplies and preparing to help carry their lords to where they could rest. Behind them came Omnimon and Magnamon, both far calmer in their movements and clearly confident their allies would be okay.

Omnimon would walk over to the laying down Gallantmon and kneel next to him to look into his eyes, "Stubborn enough to carry yourself half-way across the continent in a state that most digimon would die within the first hour from. I appreciate that you never change, Gallantmon."

"Wouldn't want to disappoint you."

"Apologies that we forced you to have to use your ailing energy to defend Dynasmon. It would seem your brother has hired allies we hadn't expected. Metal phantomon were roaming the castle alongside groups of mindless bakemon," Omnimon would wait till the knightmon finished spraying Gallantmon's more severe wounds before lifting one of the Crimson knight's arms over his shoulder to help carry him to a chamber to rest, "Leopardmon has already began making a list of possible mercenary groups."

"Course he would, the guy never fails to plan for what he knows," Gallantmon would respond, "Well... Most of the time anyway."

"I suppose you are thinking of the time where you didn't listen to him about how Nidhoggmon is essentially a living volcano and you still went in shield shining?"

"Not quite," Gallantmon would respond before adding, "You have no idea how glad I am to see you."

"I feel much the same," Omnimon would respond, "The world would be much more boring without you here to stand with us."

"I... Somehow doubt that, Omnimon."

…...

The knightmon wouldn't let the chosen past their line to go speak with the royal knights carrying their injured away.

Kyou was arguing with one in-particular knightmon who seemed rather aggressive towards the chosen compared to the rest, a sense of hotheadedness coming from the conversation, with Kyou threatening to try fist fighting the knightmon much to Blaze's disapproval.

At some point, Ryu and Tiamat had come down from their room, though they listened to the knightmon and only watched as Gallantmon was helped to where he would rest. Tiamat's eyes watching him with a curiosity she didn't have towards the deceiving brother.

Victor and Sif had come down as well, though Victor had a look on his face indicating boredom, Sif held obvious concern for the younger chosen and their partners as she watched them from a distance.

Alizee had come down as well, and was also arguing with the knightmon that she should be allowed past to check on Dynasmon, as he was her instructor and teacher. The knightmon she was arguing with far more stubborn in the loyalty it held to its orders in preventing her from speaking with him.

Clive and Black were speaking with one of the knightmon on their own, Clive showing concern about what had happened, though there was a sense in his attitude that he was a bit upset he wasn't included in the incident.

Cecilia was defending Eyesmon from the inquisitiveness of the knightmon, who were being aggressive about its illegal presence within Yggdrasil's castle. Avani bouncing on her partner's head as she agreed with Cecilia despite her nervousness to still be near the living shadow, who's eyes were simply and curiously scanning the massive area they were in.

Jordan watched Cecilia argue from a distance as he held Luna in his arms, the digimon content to be back with her partner.

The voice of the Royal Knight's leader would speak from behind Jordan, almost causing him to jump out of his skin, "You would seem to have made up your mind."

Jordan took a deep breath to calm his nerves as he turned around and faced Alphamon, the black knight's eyes filled with a kind patience as the boy responded strongly, "I'll help you, but not for the Royal Knights. I'm going to help you because of those I call my friends."

"A noble reason enough," Alphamon would respond, "Know that I look forward to seeing you and your friends grow together."

Jordan felt bashful at those words, still unsure how to deal with the kind authority before him and looking away.

"Whatever plagues your mind, your bond with your allies will only grow through the coming days, and hopefully through them your chains will at last be broken," Alphamon gave Jordan some last supporting words before moving on to speak with some more knightmon coming over to check with their leader the status of the castle itself and the possibility of remaining foes within.

Jordan would look down at Luna, who returned his stare before offering him a smile that seemed to agree with Alphamon's words. A strong feeling hitting Jordan's heart, the belief that his faith and bond with his allies, now and future, could eventually make it easier to open up about the problems eating him inside.

But for now, the affirmations he had made would do as he offered a smile back to his partner.

…...

Chaos Gallantmon roared as a group of metal phantomon shoved the joint of his shield arm back into place, the chaos knight half making a movement to destroy them before his savior's voice spoke out.

"Don't break my troops, Gallantmon."

His body was blocky and mechanical, his right arm a thin railgun and his left arm a massive mechanical claw, a thick tail swinging behind him with precise movements as the gold that plated most of his body shone in the moonlight. A pair of wings that seemed more like they belonged a jet than a cyborg jutted from the top of his torso as his silver neck bent to look at Chaos Gallantmon, his head the most organic-looking thing on his body, his golden helm designed with ridges and a large silver horn coming out the nose while two real horns jutted from the sides, lower jaw clad in silver as his open mouth revealed a disgusting maw lined with only the occasional tooth.

"Zeke Greymon, I got the material for you to make them, I can break them as I wish," Chaos Gallantmon responded rather rudely.

This got a grunt from the gold-clad cyborg, "Was your plan worth being caught before your brother was dealt with?"

"Was it? Of course it was," Chaos Gallantmon stood up from where he had been resting, "I now know the location of several imprisoned digimon neither the Royal Knights nor the Demon Lords want released, and so, I will require your and your troops services for a while longer."

Behind Zeke Greymon, a few figures hidden by the shadows of the night shuffled as their leader spoke, "As long as you keep paying us beforehand, we'll do whatever job you have in mind, no matter how insane it might be. The UXgold mercenary corps is yours to command."

"A deal is a deal," Chaos Gallantmon replied, "And unlike our foes, I will pay whatever you ask. As long as I get what I want in the end. As long as my hatred is fulfilled."

Authors note

Don't you just wish you could wear Wormmon like a hat?

I AM STILL ON TIME! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I was really dissatisfied with the last half of the chapter and completely deleted it to do it from the ground up again. I was initially going to have Victor save the group and another ally of Chaos Gallantmon arrive instead of Zeke Greymon but upon writing it, I absolutely hated how it came out. Completely thought I was gonna be slammed by the clock on this one but it worked out... Maybe. Zeke Greymon was originally going to be Demon Lord aligned but I changed that out with someone else now.

Definitely gonna give Alizee and/or Victor some focus next chapter alongside continuing from where we left Examon.

I was actually a little scared of having champion levels battle an ultimate, but metal phantomon got his arse kicked by greymon in the new show on his own anyways. I think having them do it through teamwork works as a much better way of displaying how lower ranked digimon can overcome a higher ranked one though to be honest.

Doesn't seem there are questions to answer this week in the reviews, so until next time.