The Night Blooms

by The Blue Tigrex

The worst has happened. The other orders of digimon are gone. The Demon Lords forces are marching closer by the day. The Royal Knights can feel the pressure by the hour. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and so Alphamon asks Lord Drasil to reactivate the chosen system to bring forth a group of humans to help save their world... But Lucemon was way ahead of them...

11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Crossing

….

"Wake up, human."

Boris Zima's eyes ground open, soreness racking his limbs from where he'd been given only a barely workable cot to sleep on. The pipes holding it together threatened to cut his skin, and the cloth had worn away enough that he was essentially sleeping on the floor. Boris did not complain however, for he knew it was more than Daemon provided for most of his soldiers, even if they did not possess free will, they deserved better treatment than the Lord of Wrath gave.

The titanic form of Shroudmon loomed over Boris, the purple glow of his empty abdomen providing the light needed for the young man to really wake.

Unlike Daemon, Shroudmon was patient with Boris, giving him time to fully wake up and stand before speaking again, "Lord Daemon has called us."

Boris knew what this meant as the demon digimon turned around and left, but Boris did not groan as he began to exit the tent to go and see Daemon. He knew complaining would fall on deaf ears, that Daemon would simply punish him in a roundabout manner to avoid inciting the wrath of his fellow chosen. He knew that Daemon simply saw him as a weapon, and he knew that he could not do anything because it would put Pomumon's life on the line.

Boris nearly bumped into one of the hundreds of identical digimon working in the camp as he exited, on instinct he would utter, "Sorry."

The creature didn't even glance at the human however, it's black rubber body marching ever onward as silver pipes moved with its limbs, the rat-shaped gas mask providing no look into it, if there was any living thing under the black glass of the mask anyways. They were called troopmon, an empty husk of a digimon that was weak, but innumerable and inexhaustible. Exactly the type of army that Daemon would field as they could not rebel, and would throw themselves to their enemies with no regard for their own lives.

Even still, they were lives that were spent, and for Boris, that meant something.

The walk was quiet, after all, there was no one to interact with for the chosen under wrath's control, the only company he really had being the shadow of the fortress the Seven Demon Lord's had met in towering overhead, of which the rest of the seven and their companies long having left to enact the will of Lucemon, with the exception of the legion Boris belonged to.

The only thing Boris could do to alleviate the weight on his shoulders was to pick a single flower that had somehow not been trampled under foot by the ever-working troopmon. A single tulip, or at least the digital version of one, reaching for the sky far up above.

If it had a few more petals, perhaps Boris may have used for a quick telling of fortune, a little bit of hope among the detestable conditions of this camp.

A comforting voice would be his hope however, the sound of Pomumon talking far too much to the Lord of Wrath and his commanders within the tent a few meters away from where he was approaching.

"It's a great idea, I promise you. If you just let us go and attempt it, it could let us finally get the power that Arshan or Milana have! The one you keep complaining about!"

"Do you believe I would trust you two simply not to flee would the opportunity to present itself? You have long presented how you would act should I falter for even a moment of watching you. I know your kind, worthless fruit. The kind that would sell out his siblings to survive just a little while longer, the kind that weaves lies about himself to keep attackers away, the kind that produces only shortcomings as you weave a failing..." Daemon's voice briefly stopped as Boris approached the entrance to the tent, about to continue speaking when he noticed the young man's feet, "Boris. You may enter."

Boris was quick to step in to the tent, observing Pomumon standing on the table with an irritated expression as Daemon gripped the edge he stood at, cracks having quickly formed along it as Boris' partner clearly did not improve the demon lord digimon's mood. Shroudmon stood silently behind his master, looming as a silent guardian that belied the fact that Daemon was by far the strongest being in the room underneath his cloak.

"At last, with you here, we will discuss our next moves. That which will decide the next stage of this campaign," Daemon's voice became oddly polite compared to his usual tone towards Boris. The chosen knew however that this was not an oddity, but meant that it was one of Daemon's rare moments of pleasure, and that he had come closer to accomplishing some twisted goal within his monstrous mind.

"Shroudmon, if you would unroll the map please."

The towering digimon did so without a word, unrolling it across the table as Pomumon jumped over its edge to let it unroll, walking all over the drawing of the west side of the continent.

"I'll recap Lucemon's plans for you as I'm sure you forgot the details of the meeting already Boris, mingling with your fellow apes as you were," Daemon strutted around the table pointing at a spot of interest that was brown and mountainous, "We are of course here, at the former fortress of the Sage of Death. Failure as he was, he has given us a momentous point of spread. Beelzemon and Barbamon's legions are to punch in from the South-Western border where Belphemon has already devastated their forces, the Lord of Sloth's Phaleg legion will move north to intercept Jesmon and prevent his intervention. Trapping him between our lands and the three armies. While Lucemon and Lilithmon's legions are of course reinforcing our hold over our priorly conquered areas while Leviamon has begun the largest campaign on his own by beginning to conquer the entirety of the Net Ocean itself. Now, in our case, Lucemon requested we reinforce the border on the East side by going around the Northern zones. I know you're wondering what this means, Boris. After all, a human knows nothing of our world, but I have estimated that a previous failure of my fellow demon lord Barbamon is... Extant still."

Daemon would drag his clawed finger to an empty segment of land on the other side of Yggdrasil's castle, "I may not have the location of Arcadiamon, but my eyes have found something else. A remnant of a conflict we were uninvolved in that I wish to access for myself. You and Pomumon will personally accompany me while Shroudmon and Metamormon do as Lucemon commanded to give guise to our actions."

Boris merely nodded, wary of anything he said as it could send Daemon over the edge immediately at being spoken to by what he perceived as lesser.

Pomumon was clearly far less wary as the partner digimon spoke up, "Did you even confirm it's actually there this time? Or is it another wild swanmon chase like the one you sent Barbamon on?"

Daemon's hand immediately clutched the table and loudly cracked it, Shroudmon stepping back in case of his lords anger before the demon lord simply replied, "Be glad I do not know of a way to replace you as the human's partner."

Boris gripped his hands at Daemon's words, he was a compassionate and pacifistic person normally, but Daemon's very presence was devastating to his attitude. Daemon reminded him of aspects of his life he wished so desperately to forget, scars that the demon lord knew he was exploiting. By threatening Pomumon, Boris was forced to follow Daemon, his desire to get out of these constant fights overridden by the fact that Daemon was pulling his strings like a puppet.

'I must do more,' was the simple thought he had to cap off his quietness.

"Human," Daemon's voice shook Boris out his thoughts as the demon lord now loomed over his shoulder, "Come along. We must move ahead of the troopmon to maintain the appearance."

Boris couldn't help the frown that found its way on his face as he began to follow Daemon, looking down at Pomumon as they walked and trying to whisper to him, "Please, Dragon Fruit. Do not risk yourself. We must wait and do."

Pomumon attempted to whisper back, aware he was on thin edge with Daemon already, "First off: I've told you not to call me 'Dragon fruit'. That's demeaning. Secondly, I know I have the potential to do what I said. I will protect you if it comes to it and he turns on us. I'm not just any surviving pomumon."

Boris frown deepened as his eyebrows curved in a concerned manner, "Please."

Pomumon, acknowledging that pushing his luck was pretty adverse to his survival growled before nodding his head, essentially his whole body, in agreement with Boris, "Fair enough. But only fair, for now."

The blue orbs under Daemon's hood stared forward as he listened to the two, fully aware of them speaking as he mused to himself about the future, and specifically about the two behind him, 'Wait as long as you wish. The results of such inaction will only favor myself.'

…...

Ysanne glanced behind herself as she walked towards the direction where Yggdrasil's castle would have been when they had left some days before, unknown thoughts coursing through the disguised being's head as her swimmon partner continued to circle in her small bowl, uncaring for the world outside of it.

Cecilia however had no intentions of talking to her, as the poor girl was about to fall over from hours of switching between walking and jogging, not to mention the environment they walked through was steadily becoming more hostile with heat, rock, and dryness. Avani napped on her head contently despite the heat as her partner struggled to power through the distance. The dog-like Lancelot's many eyes glancing at her repeatably with concern as its body eerily slithered along.

Noticing her exhausted state, Kyou would jog a bit closer to Gallantmon as Blaze kept an eye on Cecilia in case she suddenly had a collapse or something far more severe, the young man asking the knight, "How much farther till we take set up camp?"

Gallantmon didn't so much as glance at Kyou as he continued marching, the beating sun making a still present crack in his helmet seem much larger than it was, "Only about an hour away. We'll be stopping just before where Examon should have... Had his camp."

The knight stopped briefly, acknowledging in his head that while they did not have absolute confirmation about it like Gankoomon's fate, it was all but certain Examon had been slain as well.

Kyou would glance at Cecilia before looking at Gallantmon again, "Maybe it would be better for us all if we stopped a bit earlier? Isn't it kind of, well, strategically flawed to go marching where the enemy has already won?"

"What would a kid like you know about strategy?"

"More than some. You don't make tougher choices by not doing things strategically."

Gallantmon went silent for some moments, glancing around at their environment now as he seemed to ponder Kyou's request. Cecilia quickly took the chance to nearly keel over, taking deep breaths as Avani yelped upon her sudden awakening as she nearly rolled off and struggled to hang on to her partner's head.

Ryu would walk up beside her and offer a flask of water, "Here, you definitely need it more than I do."

Cecilia shakily took it before standing straight and began guzzling it down, only to try and slow as Ryu raised a brow, "Slowly. Don't make yourself heave."

Taking a minute to catch her breath again, she would respond, "H-how are you guys not hurting at moving so much?"

"Well, to be fair, I'm used to backbreaking work where I come from despite my hobbies. As for him," Ryu looks to where Kyou was watching Gallantmon, "I have no idea."

Cecilia's expression blanked at that empty guess at how Kyou was in decent shape as well before taking a deeper breath to try and balance herself.

Tiamat would wander in, "I take it you didn't have a good balance?"

Cecilia tilted her head at the black guilmon's question only for Ryu to clarify, "She's asking about you exercising."

"O-oh... Well... I uh... Only enough to keep from being overweight," Cecilia admitted hesitantly, "A-and I've never gone... This long a distance before."

She would take another deep breath as Tiamat let out a thoughtful hum before looking to Ryu, "Perhaps... I should digivolve if you are too-"

"No," Gallantmon's voice said to the duo in the back, turning to face them, "Don't waste the energy on that."

"What are you on about?" Tiamat would respond, "Digivolving doesn't exhaust me, it-"

"Not you, your partners. You haven't noticed it yet because you're only at the level of champions, but there is a time limit to your digivolving."

Tiamat would grunt at Gallantmon angrily, "So? If it only takes an hour to get there, and the time limit isn't that bad, then what's the harm? I can tell you're just amusing Kyou there and we're still gonna force Cecilia to go the whole-"

"Do not, do not place your judgments in my thoughts," Gallantmon would respond to the black digimon, moving closer and leaning over her, "This is an environment where our enemies can come from any direction, and the faster we get past their new border, the less likely we are to run into any of the larger groups of the demon lords minions."

Tiamat was clearly about to begin mouthing off at Gallantmon when Ryu would step in between the two digimon rather boldly, "Hey, Gallantmon. To be fair, I am in better shape than most of the others, except for maybe Clive and Victor. I don't see the harm in sleeping extra hard tonight if it means watching out for each other."

Gallantmon stared at Ryu, his eyes narrowing before looking past them all at Ysanne, who was staring back at him emotionlessly, even the swimmon within its bowl having stopped to glance at the royal knight.

Something about that caused Gallantmon to relent, responding to the duo before turning and digging his heels into the dirt before beginning to move again, "Do as you want. Don't blame me when it starts wearing you down later."

Tiamat would stare at the royal knight before looking at Ryu and nodding, body beginning to glow as they got ready to help their ailing companion with the distance.

…...

"Where are we heading?" The question came out long after Dynasmon ushered his charges into a Trainmon heading southwest of Yggdrasil's castle.

Dynasmon, cramped as he was inside Trainmon's car, turned to Alizee. "We are heading towards Sata Port Castle. There's a one-eyed oaf I wanted to see before we make our next stop."

"Oaf?" Victor repeated before he and the others noticed the affectionate tone despite the insult.

"Saber Leomon. He's..." The dragonic knight trailed off. Before nostalgia could overcome him and fully break down his usual face of seriousness, Dynasmon answered. "All I'll say is that he knew me before I became a Royal Knight."

His face fell into a frown as he recalled something else. "And if he calls me something strange, ignore him."

"Something strange?" Alizee tilted her head as she repeated the words.

When Dynasmon said nothing more, Clive spoke up. "You know, I've been keeping track of our direction. Why are we going westward when that's where the Demon Lords are coming from?"

Dynasmon looked at Clive, "Sata Port Castle is a heavily fortified area, not to mention out of the way of the potential pathways towards Yggdrasil's castle. And while it's not anything like Examon's point, any Demon Lord Army foolish enough to go through the vast open plains will be torn apart before they reach the first outer walls by the speed of Saber Leomon's troops."

The calmness of the Royal Knight soothed everyone's worry. However, the Trainmon screeching to a halt quickly brought back that anxiety tenfold.

"What's going on?!" Jordan, along with the others, all stood up in a panic at the sudden stop.

"Open the train!" Dynasmon shouted, allowing an opening for everyone among Dynasmon's group to exit the mobile Digimon. It didn't take long for everyone to see why Trainmon stopped.

"Is," Luna gulped as she and the others only stared at the sight before them. "Is that Sata Port Castle? The one on fire?"

It looked to be a medieval castle with bits of a motherboard sticking out in the wall. However, there was a gaping, smoking crater where half of the castle should have been. Further past the castle, screams, and attacks flew from all sides, signaling a fierce battle.

"No! How could they have made it this far so quickly!?" Dynasmon stepped forward but stopped himself when he remembered those of his charge. Without waiting, he took the eight under his arms and flew towards the castle.

Past the mountains, Dynasmon's group could only watch with silent horror. The beautiful fields they once passed by were now scared with craters and scorch marks as far as the eye could see, walls were crushed and destroyed, and the likes of Alizee and Jordan only paled as they spotted digimon killing one another.

They knew that they had all accepted being a part of the digimon's war, but to see it in all its horror was an experience none of them would ever forget.

"I know those banners..." Everyone turned to Dynasmon as he looked ahead towards two massive armies fighting in the distance. "The Araton Legion and The Hagith Legion. Both Beelzemon and Barbamon are here."

The words echoed among the minds of the Chosen and their digimon. Two of their greatest enemies were already so close to the Yggdrasil Castle? They had only recently left their headquarters, yet their enemies had gained that much ground?

Dynasmon's attention went downward when he spotted a large group of digimon escaping from the fight. His eyes widened when he recognized the one leading the runaway group. "Kyukimon?"

Without another word, Dynasmon dove towards the retreating group. The Chosen soon realized that besides the injured Ultimates in the front, the rest of the digimon looked to be civilians of some kind.

Kyukimon was an odd looking digimon, with bright pink flesh and a mane of dark blue. Her head was rather cat-like, with a blue star on its forehead and something like a blade in her maw, of which her body was also covered in blades, including her arms... Only for the realization to hit that this creature was missing one of its arms. She raised her remaining blade as she did not realize that it was Dynasmon who had dived down upon her, prepared for her final battle until she realized who had intercepted her group.

"Lord Dynasmon!" Kyukimon lowered her arm down. Her action calming the Panjyamon with a fresh blindfold and the Groundramon without his left hind leg and tail. "It's you!"

"Kyukimon," Dynasmon let down the Chosen before standing back up. "What happened!?"

The Panjyamon stepped forward, "The Hagith Legion! We don't know how, but it was like they knew our attack strategies and hidden flanking positions! They tore through our formations with a legion of machmon, pistmon, and runnermon with ranged digimon riding atop them!"

Victor and Clive suddenly shared a look, "Clive?"

"That sounds like a cavalry charge, but with digimon? This doesn't sound like the work of a common digimon..." The light brown-haired man stroked his beard thoughtfully before his eyes narrowed.

Victor knew what he was implying, but Alizee overheard and spelled it out for their group, "The other Chosen: they're here, aren't they?"

It wasn't just the Demon Lords on par with the power of the Royal Knights, but the other Chosen, the ones raised by the Demon Lords that were said to be more powerful than any of them were nearby.

"That would explain it," Groundramon scoffed, "We were utterly outmaneuvered. One of their chosen must be this rumored infamous tactician that made our strategies fail."

Clive's brow raised as he heard this, "Excuse me? They have an infamous tactician?"

"The moniker of this tactician is known as the Counter Tactician, as they have broken and defeated other attempts against them." The green ultimate scoffed as he looked to where his tail once was. "It was uncanny how they knew where my battalion was before we had even reacted to their attack."

Dynasmon shook his head before looking back to Kyukimon. "Where is Saber Leomon?"

The three ultimates looked downcast as they heard the name. Kyukimon eventually answered, "He... he led those still able to fight in a desperate charge against Barbamon and Beelzemon to buy enough time for the civilians and injured to escape."

"THAT OAF!" Dynasmon shouted as he unfurled his wings, his eyes locked in the direction where the worst of the fighting looked to be. "All those years of scolding me for being rash, and he goes and does..."

"Lord Dynasmon, please!" Kyukimon ran up to the Royal Knight, "If you were to head there, you'd be slaughtered by their numbers! Please, help evacuate those here!"

Dynasmon gripped his fist as he heard the Ultimate attempting to stop him. However, he felt something touch his leg and looked down. The Royal Knight's urgency died down when he saw Alizee. She didn't say anything, but her eyes begged Dynasmon not to leave them alone.

Seeing his student, the Royal Knight took a moment before relaxing his wings with a deep exhale. He looked at the rest of the injured soldiers and scared civilians desperately looking at him for any sign of salvation.

"... Go south of here. There should be a Trainmon that will bring all of you to safety." Dynasmon pointed down to the Trainmon that the group originally left behind.

"Thank you, Lord Dynasmon." Kyukimon bowed before motioning everyone to move where the Royal Knight pointed.

Dynasmon turned around, intending to lead everyone to safety.

However, his eyes widened. Faster than even the ultimates could realize, Dynasmon turned and shot two laser palms beyond the escaping civilians. His two attacks met with a barrage of missiles and a strike of green thunder.

"Everyone, go!" Dynasmon practically roared as he unfurled his wings once more.

"How unexpected that a Royal Knight is here when we were meant to capture or finish off stragglers," Electricity crackled around Kazuchimon's body as he stepped out of the smoke. "But it is not unwelcome." He claimed as he pointed one of his blades to the Royal Knight.

A massive shadow would loom as the smoke cleared, revealing a monstrosity of a machine digimon that one could wonder how it even functioned. Its form was vaguely saurian with the plates of its armor intricately laid in the form of hexagons or layers, but nearly ever piece of its body had at least one gun or cannon emerging from its form. Its head alone had three embedded onto it, from its knees and heels machine gun barrels emerged, and its very hands were massive revolvers. It's tail was a massive gun and from its back a mash of gigantic revolvers and pistals jutted out like messed up wings. The only place where no gun seemed to be was directly on its torso, which seemed to likely be where all of its ammo would be. As it spoke and revealed a masculine voice with a deep, country accent like an outlaw of old, "I didn't think I'd be adding a royalty knight to my list of kills this soon, but I ain't minding the chance for it."

Dynasmon narrowed his eyes as he realized the two were generals of both the Hagith Legion and Araton Legion, Kazuchimon the warrior of lightning and Gundramon, the long range equivalent of a machinedramon. If he fought these two for too long, the other generals with their Demon Lords would be upon him and his chosen. But at the same time, he was the only one who could battle these two among those that were here. He only hoped he could create an opening to escape later on.

"So, were those your charges, mister knight?" Gundramon would ask as he aimed his barrels at Dynasmon and Kazuchimon placed himself between the two, ready to slice the knight down should he dash for Gundramon, "Shame they're about to get blasted by our own humans, but then again, if they're as tough as you, maybe their works cut out for them and I'll get the chance to add a few humans to my list."

Kazuchimon was clearly not amused by the jest as he responded to Gundramon, "If they were on his level, they would no doubt assist him in out battle. No, my companion and your child will more than be able to handle those who have not yet been made warriors."

Dynasmon's eyes widened as he came to a realization what the two were talking about, that the Demon Lord's chosen humans were not only here, they were already closing in on his charges.

This was no longer a fight to prevent the arrival of the other generals, but a fight to save the life of his charges, and his student.

There was no hesitation as he jumped up and dove down upon his foes.

...

"We can't leave Dynasmon!" Alizee shouted as she ran with the others.

"We can't fight two Megas!" Victor yelled back, "Trust Dynasmon! He's not going to fight them for long and will escape when he sees the chance! We need to get everyone else out!"

While they were running, Luna and Alizee froze where they ran. This made the other Chosen do the same as the rest of the refugees, and escapees ran ahead.

"Luna? Alizee?" Victor looked over to the two, "What's wrong?"

Alizee found it hard to breathe but took out her Digivice. There was a symbol she had never seen before on her D-Tect: instead of the pink runes that symbolized wind, there was this black, pulsating symbol that she didn't recognize consciously, but her instincts felt like she knew what it was.

Alizee could sense it, another one of the Legendary Ten Spirits. But knowing about the ones the Royal Knights had this also meant one of their other worst fears... "They're here."

Darkness

Darkness swept over the Chosen for one soul-chilling second before the shadow cast over them flew over towards the refugees and injured soldiers.

Victor realized what was about to happen. "SCATTER!"

He yelled with all his might, but the warning came too late as a giant blast of dark energy nailed the group of escaping Digimon.

The Royal Knight Chosen and their Digimon all covered each other from the shockwave of the blast. But as silence came over the area, realization dawned on them in the cruelest of ways.

Where the runaway Digimon once was, there was now only a smoking crater that glitched in and out of existence, as if the attack had enough power to weaken the barriers of digital space.

"T-They... they weren't even soldiers!" Victor trembled as righteous fury came over him. "Those... bastards!"

"I'm with you, Victor," Sif snarled. Her mind thought back to her past, where a painful memory resurfaced now as it did back then, "The Demon Lords will pay for this senseless slaughter!"

Clive looked up. "We need to digi—"

His warning came too late as something swooped to the ground with the speed of a bullet. As the dust settled, the humans' minds went back to every mythological tale they ever heard. How could they not? Mythology always described primordial and destructive monsters the likes that even Heroes would fear, and that was the being that was now in front of them. It was akin to a crow monster, and the size of a mega; the beast turned all of its blood-colored eyes towards Victor and the others.

"What do we have here? Other humans?" Vulgar began to speak with interest in his voice.

"Other humans!?" Before anyone else could say anything, a new voice, one everyone recognized belonging to a small girl, came behind the head of the dark Digimon. Everyone, especially Sif, gapped as they saw what looked to be a little girl climbing on top of the demonic Digimon. "Woooow! Oothherrr humans, Vulgar! I wish Arshy and Coro were here to see this!"

"He..." Vulgar held in what sounded like a combination of both a scoff and a laugh, "He was afraid of these other humans, was he not? The ones Lord Lucemon warned us about, Mary?"

"Aww! I promised to protect poor Arshy! I wished he stayed with us, but he was right, and we needed to cover more ground!~" Mary rubbed the head of the monstrous raven affectionately.

"That's a child? A human child?" Sif looked on with disbelief, "But why is she with?"

Victor, seeing the confused state of his partner, turned to Mary and Vulgar, "You! Bird! Why did you kill all those innocent Digimon!?"

"Innocent Digimon?" Mary answered for Vulgar, "What innocent Digimon? Grandpa Barbamon told me all these Digimon were eeevvvviiillll. And I had to make sure they would pay for their wiiicccked crimes!"

The Royal Knights chosen could only gape as they heard such conviction from the fellow human. She sounded like she truly believed that the digimon were evil, and it was her who ordered the slaughter of such innocents!

Sif started to gasp for air, a sign that she was starting to hyperventilate, "No! It's not them who are evil, but the Demon Lords! They've slaughtered my village!" Flashes of being a lone survivor amongst ash, ruins, and far too many tiny corpses bombarded Sif's mind.

"Nuh-uh!" Mary answered back in a way children do. But the others realized her innocence was dangerously mixed with the power and ideals she wielded, "Grandpa Barbramon says that all this suffering is the Royal Knights fault, and we have to kill them all to bring peace back to the Digital World! Anyone who says otherwise has been brainwashed by them!"

"Did," Jordan almost choked as he caught the name. "Did she say Barbamon was her grandpa?"

"You can't do this," Sif looked down, her pupils trembling uncontrollably, "Children shouldn't be like...like..."

"Sif?" Victor turned to his partner.

"Everyone, we need to Digivolve! Now!" Clive shouted as he took out his digivice.

"Okaaayyy, Vulgar," Mary looked sad for a second before she raised her hand towards the Royal Knight's Chosen. However, the moment passed as her point fully locked on to them, "Sic them."

As Vulgar started to gather energy, Alizee and the others instinctively scattered, with Victor tackling a stunned Sif out of the way. Vulgar unleashed several beams that caused a massive explosion to cover the area.

…

Jordan groaned as he got back up. For some reason, his landing felt softer than he thought it was. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was atop a mushroom the size of a tree that had some bits of a motherboard sticking out. He was glad to know that all the weirdness of the Digital world worked in his favor this time. But Jordan wouldn't like to see what would have happened if he landed anywhere else.

"Jordan?" The blonde teen turned to see Clive and Black with Luna running up to him from other nearby giant mushrooms, "There you are; we need to get back up there."

"Up?" Jordan looked past the mushrooms to see a large cliff that they must have fallen off from Vulgar's attack, "Wait, how long were we out?"

"I don't think too long, but every second counts, and we need to get back up there to save the others from that crazed brat! Digivolve so our partners can get us back up there!" Clive took out his Digivice as he exclaimed this.

"Hey! Those are Digivices!" A youthful voice forced the four to turn their attention to the other side of the clearing. There, a coronamon stood proudly on top of a boulder.

"We were just following Mary and Vulgar's attacks, then boom! Here you guys are, and you're humans I've never seen before! Whoa! That means you guys must be the Chosen of the Royal Knights like Lord Lucemon said!"

On the surface, this rookie didn't look like much. But Clive and even the others felt... off... looking at the rookie. Despite his youthful and energetic voice, no one could shake this feeling that they were facing someone as old as the Royal Knights. Not to mention, they heard the little one just address Lucemon as if he knew the greatest threat to the Royal Knights personally.

"Alright then!" The coronamon nodded to himself, "If you're the Royal Knight's Chosen, you all must be super tough! How about we fight to see who's stronger?!"

Clive's eyes lit up as he heard the confident boast of the rookie Digimon. His mind realized this might be good for them. The Digimon in front of them struck him as the honorable sort, which meant they were more likely to survive if they played by his rules. Not to mention, Clive's ego felt happy that even their enemies could see how great they were, "A fight, huh? I admire your confidence, but you're dealing with Clive Williams! The strongest and most brilliant of the Royal Knights Chosen!"

"And his partner! Black!" Black stepped forward with her spear, standing with Clive.

"The strongest among you guys?! That's great!" Jordan raised his brow. For a second, while the coronamon was getting excited, did he hear someone whimper? However, the coronamon went on, "Then we, Coro and Arshan, generals of the Hagith Legion, challenge you guys to a fight!"

Jordan and Luna gapped at the fact the rookie before them was a general? As in the same level as a Mega?! Meanwhile, Clive narrowed his eyes, and Black readied herself as they started to realize the power level of their threat.

"You're a general!?" Jordan blurted out before another thought came to him, "Wait, we? But there's only one of you?"

The one called Coro looked confused. "What do you mean, one of me?" He turned to his right but acted surprised when he saw nothing there. "What?! Arshan?!" He turned back to the rock he was standing on and looked behind it. "Arshan! What are you doing there!?"

"No!" Unlike the coronamon, the voice behind the rock sounded meek and sacred, "I don't want to fight the strongest of the Royal Knight's Chosen! I can't even dream of beating Milana!"

Jordan didn't know why, but that name the scared voice shouted out sounded familiar to him.

The fire rookie pouted before he did a double-take at Clive and Jordan before looking back behind the rock. "Aww, come on, Arshan! This is a great chance to see how we square up against their best!" Coro jumped behind the rock and what followed was what everyone else could describe as a cartoon fight. Two young voices struggled against each other before Coro appeared from the side of the rock, pulling on the arm of a lanky teen with dark green eyes.

"Noooo! This is horrible; we're going to die!" Clive and Jordan figured out very quickly that the human in front of them was no doubt a Demon Lord Chosen. But compared to the horrifying and twisted Mary, this Arshan's first impression was to practically cry when people so much as looked at him.

It took a long second for Clive to process what he was seeing as Coro kept trying to pester the taller teen to stand up, "Wait, is he a Demon Lord Chosen?" He knew that he had to be, but Arshan was the exact opposite of his and everyone's expectations.

"You're a loser," Black didn't have as much tact or patience for the scene before them. To her, she was expecting more from supposed generals of a Demon Lord's army.

"Hey!" Coro looked back at the rest of them, looking somewhat peeved, "Arshan may act, look, and is a scardey cat most of the time!"

"That's rubbing salt in the wound, Coro," Arshan groaned as he slouched.

Yet, Coro's face was one of absolute faith and trust as he exclaimed, "But he's earned the right to be called the Counter Tactician! He's defeated some of the best strategies other megas took years to perfect! So don't underestimate him or me!"

"What?" Clive's eyes widened as he looked at the teen that was cowering under everyone else's gaze, "You're the tactician that outmaneuvered SaberLeomon's forces!?"

"I-I mean..." Arshan slowly got up because of Coro's constant pushing, "All he did was just put ambush forces in obvious places. They weren't hard to figure out even from our view."

Hearing the way he dismissed the general's tactics made Clive realize that this sad teenager was indeed the one that caused so much devastation and suffering. His gaze hardened over that fact. To him, this Arshan fellow might be just as bad, if not worse than Mary in causing suffering to the innocent Digimon. Clive silently promised to not hold back when it came to defeating this opponent.

"Okay!" Coro, after making sure Arshan stood up, turned to the other Royal Knight Chosen, "Now it's time to fight! Digivolve so we can begin!"

Clive and Black would nod to each as digivice and digimon glowed in union as Black became Knight Chessmon.

Coro's gaze lingered over Luna for a second more than usual before he shook his head. He had an expectant look on his face as he then asked, "Well? What are you waiting for? Go to Mega!"

"Mega? We can't reach mega!" Jordan yelled out before he realized his mistake and clasped his mouth.

"What?" Coro and Arshan both turned to Jordan before they looked back to see the hardened look on Clive's face.

An awkward silence passed between the six as the situation started to unfold to all of them.

"O-Okay? How about Ultimate, then?" Coro unfolded his arms.

Yet, when silence answered his next question, Coro and Arshan's eyes widened with alarm and disbelief. Jordan, Luna, and Black started to inwardly panic at the thought their opponent truly was capable of reaching the Mega Level already.

Clive felt anger rising. This Arshan character rubbed him off the wrong way because he disliked shy people. But he loathed the fact this crybaby and scaredy-cat kid seemed to pity him!?

"We'll show you we're a force to be reckoned with even without mega! go on, evolve!" Clive shouted heatedly.

Coro and Arshan shared a look before the lanky teen nervously pulled out his Digivice, but unlike where he had battled Darkdramon, Coro's form took on a different appearance. Standing upon four legs as a proud flaming lion as the shine ended. With a hawk's orange wings, light armor that would occasionally spew flames, and with a tail that ended in a bulb of fire. This digimon had an air around it that did not radiate the strength of a mega level digimon.

"Coronamon digivolved to... Firamon!"

As the evolution ended, the air around Coro changed. Already, Black and Luna started to tense more in their battle stance as the atmosphere shifted suddenly.

"Alright," Coro's voice carried a strong nobility even as a champion, one that even the likes of Jordan and Clive found themselves respecting on a subconscious level, "Are you ready?"

"Uh?" Jordan found himself gripping his Digivice harder than he thought he did, "A-Aren't you just at Champion Level?"

Black heard this then quickly pointed her dart at her opponent. "You face us both as a Champion?! You stand no chance against all of us if you don't reach the Ultimate Level!"

Coro looked unconvinced. His gaze met with Black's, and the proud black Digimon disliked the fact her body flinched first when their eyes met, "Earn it."

Unknowingly, Coro had dealt the first blow. Not by physical means but by striking and insulting the egos of both Clive and Black. The two always prided themselves as strong and great, yet a tiny but growing part of their minds told them that every boast they claimed to be, the two in front of them were.

And they loathed that.

Black, despising the insult of her opponent holding back so much, cantered with enough speed and power to rival Nascar-level vehicles before she leapt at maximum velocity towards the firamon.

"Knight Lancer!"

She used her momentum to launch her giant dart towards her opponent.

Yet...

With speed no one expected of the opposing Champion, Coro tilted his head away before snapping his fangs on the blade of Black's dart. Alarmingly, everyone saw that Coro held the giant dart in place, keeping Black suspended in the air.

The Knightchessmon grunted as she tried to pull her dart back, but it was like her arm was stuck in a mountain. "Let-GO!" She yelled but realized her mistake as Coro was more than willing to oblige by tossing her away. Black misjudged her landing, causing her to trip over to her side.

The Lekismon would rush in and perform a Moon Night Kick. Even though Coro saw it coming, he seemed unfocused as he noticed the digimon he now faced and looked into Luna's eyes. His sudden distraction allowing the attack to land head-on.

…

Gallantmon's eyes scanned the landscape of mesas and dust with unease now. He had been certain that the closer they got to where Examon had likely fallen, they would have encountered or seen at least a single patrol from their foes by now.

There was nothing, just the empty expanse, not even a watch tower on the horizon or the sign of a bird digimon.

And now that he thought about it, Gallantmon noticed that there were no feral digimon around either. It was silent, empty, and even the wind did not blow through where they were walking.

He would glance back at his charges, watching as Cecilia was basically carried like a baby in the digivolved Tiamat's arms, Avani rambling at the black growlmon, who was clearly in her own thoughts as Lancelot slithered along the larger digimon's side. Ryu, Kyou, and Blaze were having some irrelevant conversation that he did not care for while Ysanne and Swimmon of course quietly followed..

His eyes would scan the landscape around the group before he suddenly spun around, the group stopping and staring at him as he did. Everyone staring at him in confusion just before dove at Tiamat and shoved her out of the way as the ground began to cave in, Gallantmon roaring as the sound of activating machinery clashed against his voice, "Final elys-!"

His shield did not activate in time, and Gallantmon would disappear into the caving earth.

Dust and rock burst into the air, clouding everyone's sight from what had just happened.

Blaze had grabbed the two humans closest to him and launched away from the dust plume with them, his feet digging into the dirt before placing them down as his blue eyes narrowed.

Ryu would be the first to speak after several tense seconds, asking, "So... What just happened?"

Kyou seemed to have already picked up what had happened as he responded simply with, "Ambush."

"It would seem we were ambushed by something waiting, rather than something following."

All three boys would almost jump out of their skin as Ysanne spoke from behind, the young girl's blue bow gently swaying with the wind produced by the attack, while swimmon still swam quietly in its bowl.

"I'm... Not even gonna ask how you moved there so fast," Kyou would respond as he waved for Blaze to lower his guard a bit, "How would you know that?"

"Swimmon did not detect any movement until we were directly over the spot we were just attacked from," the girl would answer without any hint of emotion, eerily reminding them of a robot rather than a little girl. Was it the result of her being the daughter of such a famous and rich businessman?

Before anything else could be said however, Ryu would speak up as he looked back to the plume of dust and the hole it lingered above, "I'm not the only one seeing that right?"

Kyou and Blaze would turn back to the dust plume, eyes widening as they caught a glimpse of their absolutely massive attacker. A pair of mechanical silver tails swaying into the dust, ending in massive constantly swinging drills before disappearing into the dust, the earth now shaking violently as whatever that was began to move away, when Ryu then added, "What are the chances the rest of our group is on the other side of that?"

"Way too high," Kyou would respond before beginning to run around the plume to avoid the newly made crater, "Lets move before everyone else gets sunk by that thing!"

"Right behind you," Blaze would respond simply before booking it after Kyou with Ryu close behind.

Strangely enough, Ysanne seemed to be able to keep pace easily despite only doing a light jog in comparison with her small frame, but that didn't matter at the moment to the trio, who were more concerned with their friend's fates.

...

On the other side the of the plume, Tiamat gently sat Avani and Cecilia down as she grit her teeth then said, "Not even a rumble in the earth, not even so much as a speck of dust moved. How the hell did they get us so easily?!"

Cecilia looked at her and asked, "You're saying that we were attacked?"

"Correction, we are being attacked!" Avani would respond as she noticed that the edges of the crater were now expanding outward towards them, Lancelot hissing and roaring at something unseen within the dust.

Tiamat's eyes would widen as a pair of massive green excavators dug into the sides of the hole and rapidly caved in its sides before a long mechanical neck leaned over the edge outside the range of the dust, four drill bits poked out of the top of the brace holding the camouflage colored piece of its body, spinning constantly as a berserk scarlet eye stared at the four individuals. The head of the massive machine was an amalgamation of an excavator arm and a drill. The singular spinning part acting as its frontal horn as three drill bits spun atop its head. It's jaw, if one could call the mishmash of parts and flesh a jaw, hung open with no obvious ability to close. Outer prongs acting as carapace based teeth as the gums and daggers within slobbered despite the dryness of the air. The top half portion of its head was a forest green in clash with the camouflage coloration of its jaw, signs of age far more obvious along that upper half than its hideous maw.

Then it roared, a horrendous sound that was mixture of titanic dragon and the amalgamation of an unknown amount of machinery. Tearing at the groups ears and causing Lancelot to cower in fear from the massive monstrosity before immediately fusing into Tiamat's shadow, causing her to shudder as though a ghost had just come over her.

With Lancelot's blatant fear, they all knew that whatever this digimon was, they didn't stand a chance without Gallantmon, but had he already fallen? Tiamat scowled at the thought before grabbing both Cecilia and Avani, roaring herself before beginning to book it directly away from the machine digimon, who's every movement caused the plateau to cave in on itself further, expanding the crater it was stuck in with every movement as it waded through the rock like water.

"Wherever that idiot royal knights gotten launched to," Tiamat mumbled to herself as she glanced down to see Avani and Cecilia huddled against her, "He better come back fast."

...

Luna's kick directly slammed into Coro's side, only for the sun digimon to not even flinch from the force of the attack.

"Coro!"

Whatever trance Coro was under immediately went away by Arshan's voice. He clamped and caught Luna's leg in a way that didn't chew off her leg before throwing her at Black, who had just gotten back up.

Seeing how easily their opponent overpowered the others, Jordan yelled out, "What!? He's supposed to be a champion! Why is he so strong!?"

It was far worse for the two than he realized as Clive noticed that they didn't even make Coro take a step back from their attacks.

"Coro has always been strong," Arshan answered, although he seemed nervous as he did, "Even as a Champion, he could fight Ultimates and fought Megas as an Ultimate. I-I thought you guys would be the same."

Clive grunted after hearing that, "We are greater than an Ultimate!" He yelled out loud towards the teen, who only shrunk back after hearing the shout. Clive seethed at the thought that the one with all that power was such a spinless ditz! "Black, keep up the attack!"

This time, both Black and Luna rushed towards Coro. However, the firamon narrowed his eyes as his maw started to shine.

"Holy Bomb!" Coro roared as light erupted from his maw. A sphere of light raced between the two champions before exploding and sending the two back some distance away.

Jordan gulped. Even in a two vs one, were the Demon Lord Chosen this strong? But wait, if this one was purposely holding back, what about the one Victor and Alizee...!?

….

As the dust settled, Alizee felt her headache. It took her a second to get back up on her feet then to realize Victor and the others were missing.

"Vulgar?" Mary's voice sounded confused, "It's not like you to miss something not moving. Are you alright? You're not getting sick, are you?"

"I," Vulgar did not know what came over him. In the last second of his attack, something deep within Vulgar told him to tone down the attack meant to eviscerate the other chosen, "Sorry, Mary, I won't make that mistake again."

Alizee mouthed a french curse under her breath when Mary and Vulgar spotted her all alone.

"Hey, Vulgar?" The raven-haired girl found herself looking right at Alizee, "Did you blow away her partner?"

Vulgar turned his body towards Alizee, "No, Mary. When we met, I did not see a digimon beside that female. Curious."

Seeing no other option, Alizee took out her digivice, the band of light surrounding her hand as she yelled out, "Spirit evolution!"

The wind itself picked up as Alizee's appearance changed before Mary's eyes. As Alizee finished transforming, Mary's Digivice began to glow pink with a symbol she did not notice and would not recognize.

"Kazemon!" Upon her declaration, Alizee would take the skies without hesitation to at least start out with some height on her foe.

Mary then gasped as she saw what had happened, "Vulgar, she can turn into a Digimon!?"

"I... I did not expect a human to do that," Vulgar used his eyes to scan over the human-turned-Digimon. He motioned to obscure Mary from their opponent, as if unsure how to react to this new development.

"Oooo! I wanna turn into a Digimon too! Let me get my camera!" As she made her way to fish her pockets, she finally noticed the pink glow on her Digivice.

Alizee felt sick as she heard the little girl. Her mind recognized how sweet and innocent the girl truly was, but the empty crater behind her showed how dangerous her personality was combined with her digimon's power.

Seeing the overwhelming power of Vulgar, Alizee figured she wouldn't be able to do much in terms of damage. She had a hard time even imagining knocking off a single feather. Yet her soul cried out to her in response to the senseless slaughter caused by such a gentle spirit. It gave her words where her digital powers failed.

"Why are you doing this!?" Alizee shouted down to Mary, "It's one thing to fight in a war, but even back in our home, it was a war crime to attack unwilling enemies! You know this isn't right!"

Mary looked back up to Alizee, "Grandpa Barbramon says that we need to end this war quickly! If any Evil Digimon remains, peace will never come to the Digital World! That's why we have to eliminate them all!"

"And you believe him!? That doesn't sound like something a good person would say at all!" Alizee shouted in return.

Mary started to look annoyed at Alizee's words, "Don't try to trick me! I always believe my Grandpa!"

The words made Alizee flinch, but not for the reason most expected. Her own memories resurfaced at that moment. The idea of blind trust in parental figures, even if they meant well, made Alizee's free spirit ache.

"Look! I know parents mean well, but they don't know everything! We can't always rely on them to think for us; we have to grow up and pick our own paths! You have to think for yourself!" Alizee yelled from the bottom of her heart. The words came out as if honed by years of arguing by those who would never listen, yet this time? They had struck a chord with the little girl.

As one could imagine, Mary had many opponents who had claimed that they were actually good while the likes of Barbamon were evil. However, she always ignored and dismissed them. But Alizee? She did something none of Vulgar's struggling opponents had ever done: she challenged Mary to think for herself, not to just blindly believe what the first person told her to do.

Even with her Digimon's eyes being obscured, Mary felt like Alizee... could connect to her that her words were as meant for Alizee as they were for Mary.

However, the moment passed as Vulgar snarled to life and sent half a dozen lasers right at an unsuspecting Alizee. Her digimon instincts kicked in to save her life as she barely dodged the first two, but the rest of them quickly exploded, knocking her back into the ground.

….

Victor woke up as he saw Alizee transforming into Kazemon. He knew that Alizee didn't stand a chance alone, so he went to check on Sif.

"Sif," Victor stated to his partner, "We need to help Alizee!"

However, his face fell when he saw the disbelief in Sif's face, "How could a child like that do something so...?"

Victor felt his heart rate quicken as Alizee started to shout something towards Mary. Whatever time she was buying would soon run out with the way Vulgar seemed to be vibrating.

Yet, he needed to focus.

"Sif, what's wrong?" Victor asked as he moved closer to his friend.

"She's a child, Victor! T-That isn't right!"

The young man with dirty blonde hair sighed. He took his friend's hand calmly, looked into her eyes, and asked, "Sif. Tell me. What's wrong?"

The renamon calmed down, even if only a little. "I was a protector of a primary village, one that housed newborn digimon. Even when the war began, I thought we would be safe. Exempt from the Demon Lord's rampage. It was an unspoke rule that Primary Villages, where even the evil Digimon came to be reborn, was a neutral territory that neither side should harm."

Victor looked back, seeing Vulgar starting to attack. He was worried but tried to focus back on Sif.

"But they didn't," Sif spat as she did her best not to think back to the day so many innocent baby Digimon... "So, how could monsters who slaughter children recruit them to perpetuate their atrocities?"

Victor could understand how much Sif loved children. Sif abhorred the idea of children not only being hurt but being twisted by this horrible war. Sadly, this was no time to discuss this, "Sif, I am sorry. Mary does seem like a nice girl, and I don't have an answer to how these bastards can keep doing horrible things like that, but right now? Alizee needs our help. Everyone needs us. If we don't, there's going to be more children hurt; both Digimon and human kids."

Victor got his Digivice while Sif looked on in time to see Alizee get knocked down by Vulgar, then start to avoid more attacks. Seeing Alizee close to getting pinned down spurned both of them to act at last.

"Vulgar, why'd you suddenly attack?!" Mary asked her partner as he kept firing dark lasers towards Alizee.

"Her words angered me, Mary. Do not listen to her," Although he said this, those sharper than Mary would have noticed the calm tone in his voice, indicating he was never angry. Or at least, he wasn't alarmed until he felt Mary actually considered her opponent's words for the first time.

The two felt a shine of light to their right.

Unaware that another opponent had entered the ring, Sif's form was envoloped by light, her skin and color peeling away to reveal the frame below. It began to take the form of a fox-like creature who stood on four legs with nine flowing tails, only for light and shadow to flow into her frame. The silhouette spinning faster and faster before the light and dark faded as a humanoid digimon emerged from the digivolution. The sky above seemed to echo with her arrival, fierce blue eyes staring down Mary and Vulgar, radiating power far more equal to the ultimate level digimon that had begun assaulting them. Her outfit seemed odd at first glance, a tall hat with a veil that covered the back of her head behind it. Baggy purple pants coating her heavyset legs although allowing a singular fox's tail to sway behind her as her bizarrely long sleeves flowed gently in the wind, decorative pauldrons that held the symbol of balance: the yin-yang sat on her shoulders in complement to the yin-yang upon her chest. Her face was like a flatter version of a renamon's face, but as with her eyes, held a deep set scowl with a fierceness and determination that was far more intimidating.

"Renamon matrix digivolved to... Taomon!"

"Sif," Victor stepped out with his digivice shinning. "It's time to discipline some unruly children."

"I couldn't agree more," Sif declared as her sleeves fell back and she held her left hand in a sign as her right hand started to make a strange symbol in the air.

Vulgar turned his full attention towards the ultimate as he unfurled his entire wingspan. He raced upward to avoid talismans shot in his direction at the speeds of a bullet. Victor ran forward while Sif summoned a giant brush. With speed and precision, she created an unfamiliar rune whose light shot out at the flying Vulgar. But the Darkness Spirit moved with speed and grace that no one expected of the destructive creature. That didn't deter Sif from continually firing seal after seal in hopes one would hit the spirit of Darkness.

Victor ran to a downed Alizee as Sif gave the two cover.

"You alright?"

"Putain de merde!" Alizee hissed as she held her arm but felt a ringing pain all over her body. "He's some kind of demon crow! Why does he shoot lasers!? That's not thematically consistent!"

"If you're angry enough to complain about that, then you seem fine," Victor half smirked before he knelt to her, "How's your arm?"

"It's not just my arm. My right leg also feels numb. Putain digimon body! I felt it turn my leg towards that last attack!"

Sif dropped her weapon and threw a seal forward, which quickly created a barrier that took on the attacks of Vulgar.

Meanwhile, Victor noticed Alizee's wings fluttering, "I think your body deemed your wings as your most important part to protect. That's why it made you turn your legs towards that last explosion. But sorry, we're too out in the open now. So we need to get moving."

Victor stepped back, and Alizee muttered under her breath before using her wings to get airborne again.

"What's he doing?" Sif's voice made Alizee and Victor turn towards Vulgar, who dove but flew above the ground high enough to dip his wing and trace it on the ground. Seeing as her opponent was no longer attacking, Sif dropped her barrier and fired another one of seal markings. However, Vulgar used his attack defensively by using it to clash with Sif's seals.

Alizee's artistic side picked up what everyone failed to notice.

"Victor, he's tracing a circle around us!" She yelled as Vulgar had already made a little over half of the attack.

"Sif, get us out of here!" The Ultimate moved the moment she heard her name and quickly summoned around a dozen seals to create and surround the three of them in a thick energy barrier before speeding towards the opposite end of where Vulgar was completing the circle.

However, just before they could cross, the Spirit of Darkness completed his circle.

Not even a second passed before the area erupted like a geyser of darkness. Luckily, the bubble Sif created was more than able to last long enough for all of them to cross the barrier, but not enough to protect them from the clashing energies. As such, the three of them were violently ejected outward... towards the area where Clive and Jordan fell...

"After them, Vulgar!" Mary cried out as her partner dove after their targets.

…..

The fight, Jordan realized, looked more and more like a farce as time went on. Coro wasn't just powerful; he was experienced. After his first energy attack, he stopped using moves and relied solely on his physical prowess. Even with him no longer using moves, every dodge and counterattack always put Coro in a better position than both Luna and Black ever were.

If that wasn't bad enough, Jordan noticed the increasingly angry look on Clive's face as Coro made a fool of them both.

However, Clive knew enough that he had to calm down. He spotted something in the area that interested him before looking back out on the field. "Black!" Clive threw his hand out. "Circle him and head towards the cliff wall!"

Black did as she was told, avoiding Coro while positioning herself to where Clive had pointed.

Coro eyed this and went in after Bla—

"Coro!" The Champion looked back at Arshan. Everyone else saw the teen suddenly move his hands to quickly touch random parts of his body.

"What?" Clive looked at the opposing chosen in disbelief, "What's he doing?"

"It looks like sign language?" Jordan squinted his eyes towards Arshan. The teen with a cap could have sworn he had seen something like that before.

Clive heard the question, "I studied sign language—that's not it at all—"

However, Coro's eyes widened before he looked above Black. He fired a blast of light from his maw that exploded an area that held loose boulders.

It didn't look stable, and the impact of the attack caused a miniature landslide of rocks that forced Black to escape. However, as she got out, Coro tackled Black head-first into her torso, causing her to stagger some distance back.

"W-What!? He saw through me!?" Clive ended up cursing. During the fight, he had noticed an opening in the cliff that barely held loose boulders. His original plan was to bait Coro in so Black could attack the wall and pin him in the landslide. He wasn't expecting the opposing Champion to stop and fire right at the object he intended to use.

"Wait, now I know!" Jordan cried out as he looked at a nervous Arshan, "You used baseball signals to warn your Digimon!"

Clive couldn't believe it. Not only was Coro a strong Digimon, but the other Chosen so easily saw through his ingenious trap!? The nineteen-year-old abhorred the fact that his brilliant plan to turn things around was so easily thwarted by... by...

"You absolute idiot!" It seemed like Black unknowingly shared the same sentiments as Clive, but her words and weapon were directed at Coro, "That last attack was even weaker! You're holding back even more!" She realized the action when it was the first time that she took on a strong attack by the enemy champion and didn't fall.

"I said to earn it," Coro narrowed his eyes. The Demon Lord Digimon had to admit, he'd usually give anyone an honest fight, but he was still a little peeved these people insulted Arshan, "You didn't."

Black threw out her lance in with equal parts frustration and anger. "How about you!? I bet you're not strong enough to defeat us, which is why you have to hide behind your physical strength!"

"Uh, Black?!" Luna cried out while a little winded, "Don't make him stronger!"

Yet, the proud Digimon had enough of being treated like some background soldier, "Shut up! Don't you see he sees us as a joke!?" She pointed her weapon at Coro again, "You're no warrior; you're just some kind of bully!"

Coro narrowed his eyes at the insult. He braced his stance as the gem on his forehead started to glow.

"Uh oh," Luna and Jordan braced themselves as Coro started to gather energy.

"Fira Bomb!" Coro roared before he tilted his attack away from Black. A ball of fire raced past the Knightchessmon before it exploded and incinerated some of the mushrooms the Royal Knights Chosen landed on sometime before.

The power behind it was akin to a dozen tank blasts in one: sudden and destructive. Black had to realize that even then, Coro aimed his attack away out of pity. Ego could not deny reality forever, especially when fear and the need for survival started to rise; Black started to realize how outclassed she was, and it hurt her more than the fight ever did, "Clive, I need your help with this! ... Clive!?"

When she and Jordan looked at their friend, they noticed the vacant expression he had towards the fire. As he stared, his mind was no longer in Digital World, but one year ago on Earth where he stood in disbelief at the burnt corpses that were once his parents.

"Coro, stop using fire attacks!" Clive snapped back not to his partner or ally's words. The words that forcefully brought him back to the present belonged to his enemy, Arshan.

Arshan flinched at the gaze, but then he seemed to calm down and with eyes that seemed to understand him, asked, "A-Are you afraid of fire?"

The boy meant well; he truly did. But to Clive, all he could see was a sniffling loser... seeing him as the same as him. And the worst part of it was that no matter how much he wanted it to be wrong, reality had punched him in the gut with this question: if an idiot and scaredy-cat were stronger and smarter than him, what was he really?

"Luna, now!"

While everyone was distracted, Luna closed the distance once more on a distracted Coro. Coro started to move in defense—but he froze. Looking into Luna's eyes made him see someone else: a vision of a digimon who symbolized the moon.

"Moon Night Bomb!"

The attack connected, and for the first time in the fight, Coro fell where he stood, put to sleep by Luna's attack.

"Let's go!" Jordan grabbed Clive's hand and booked it into the cover of the giant mushrooms to hide them from sight.

Luna followed and glanced over to Black, "Come on!"

"What?" Black took a second to look at the sleeping Coro. Why were they running when they finally had a chance to strike and win? "But we can w—"

"Coro!"

Black looked back to see Arshan running up to his friend. His digivice started to glow, and the enemy Champion stirred awake slowly. Black hated how they had missed the chance to attack, but Jordan was right: this was a losing fight.

"The next time will be different!" Black yelled as she cantered after Luna and the others.

As Arshan saw the other chosen all leave, he exhaled a sigh of relief and petted Coro's head as he slowly woke up, "They really don't know they're running to a dead-end, do they?"

…

Gallantmon groaned as he slowly sat up within the crater his ambusher had been in mere minutes ago. The Royal Knight would grab his lance and shield first before standing, looking down the only way that the titan could have gone, which likely meant it was in pursuit of his charges.

"A breakdramon," he would mumble, "Can't have been here too long at that size, but that certainly explains the absence of other digimon."

The Crimson Knight took a deep breath as he cursed himself for leaving Grani back at his lord's castle for the sake of maintaining a low profile before bursting after his monstrous foe, per-emptavily readying another burst from his shield Aegis as he could easily make out his towering foe in the distance.

It's full body was quite the sight, the breakdramon's form was essentially the ultimate amalgamation of the destructive aspect of construction based vehicles. It's massive, long tails rending the earth behind it as the drills at the ends dug into the walls around it with every swing, constantly expanding the chasm it was making. Every stomp from its stubby yet powerful limbs shook the earth violently, orange braces on each green foot leaving deep imprints within the earth. A bulldozer blade attached to the front of the thing cut through and smashed any boulder within the dirt that its blocky frame and limbs alone did not crush. Its excavator-like arms tore down the earth before it with ease, the monstrosity every so often bashing its face into the wall when it was not going fast enough in a berserking manner. A normal breakdramon was already large, but this one was an absolute titan in size to so easily create a new canyon just by moving forward.

Gallantmon noted that, even for a breakdramon, it seemed rather twitchy in its berserk state as he closed in on its massive frame. Only to be launched back with a grunt by the swinging of its mighty tails, the Crimson Knight's eyes narrowing as he caught himself when landing, flipping onto his feet and grinding to a halt quickly.

He wasn't going to be able to gets its attention from down here, he needed to get back up top, and fast if he wanted whoever it was chasing to survive.

He would let the breakdramon put some distance between them before taking a deep breath and running at one of the walls, outstretching his lance before bellowing, "Screw saber!"

Using the rivets in the rock wall as his form spun like a tornado, Gallantmon was carried up at an awkward angle to the top, the Royal Knight almost not making it but just barely catching the edge with his shield hand. He would throw Gram over first before using both arms to pull himself up, quickly grabbing his lance and preparing to resume pursuit when Kyou's voice rang out, "Gallantmon!"

The Crimson Knight would stop and turn to see Kyou, Blaze, Ryu, and Ysanne stop before him to which he said, "I take it the rest of you are being pursued by breakdramon?"

Blaze's eyes would widen, "That thing's a breakdramon? I've only heard stories of their destructiveness, but that thing... It's massive!"

Ryu would be the one to ask for him and Kyou, "What exactly is a breakdramon?"

Gallantmon would glance in the distance at their moving foe before taking the risk by responding, "A massive machine dragon that is feared as "the ultimate engine of destruction". Although there are a few breakdramon that maintain their individuality, most become raging berserkers that rampage until they're put down or shut down. They're the definition of a classical dragon a hero has to face... But even I'll admit, this one's big even for a breakdramon."

"How do we deal with it?"

"You all won't be doing anything. Breakdramon isn't some metal phantomon, it's a mega level that even most other mega digimon hesitate to face. I want you all to get your companions and to get out of the way."

He would stop for a moment as his eyes settled on Ysanne, or rather, on Swimmon as an idea clicked within his head, "Lo-... Ysanne, I have a request of your partner and her abilities."

Ysanne would blankly look into Gallantmon's eyes, simply responding, "What is your plan?"

...

Dynasmon knew things got worse when he sensed dark energy among the explosions where he last saw his charges runoff. Of all the things to happen to them on this journey, making contact with the Demon Lord Chosen before anyone was ready should have been last on his list!

Then again, so was fighting Gallantmon's brother.

He shook his head and needed to focus. He would stick to the basics as Saber Leomon had taught him so long ago. Kazuchimon and Gundramon were an undeniably scary pair: Kazuchimon was considered a walking war god, and Gundramon rivaled Machinedramon if not surpassed the perfect digimon in artillery fire and long-range ballistics.

But if there was one silver lining to this, the two attacking him were pure specialists in their fields.

Dynasmon had no interest in fighting both of them at their best. He would dive in from above and tackled Gundramon with enough force to smash him into a nearby hill, but he kept himself in close range near the titans middle and unleashed a rapid jab of heated punches right into the torso of the metal Mega.

"I ain't about this!" Gundramon cursed as he tried to use his rocket boosters to get out of Dyansmon's close combat. At the same time, Dynasmon noticed Kazuchimon heading their way. He fired two Dragon's Roar blasts from his palms, making the two lasers strike the path Kazuchimon attempted to close in. The explosions forcing the electrical Mega to huddle and cover himself and allowed Dynasmon more time to chase after Gundramon to prevent him from using any of his more destructive equipment on him.

"Doggone it, varmint, leave me alone!" Gundramon grunted before Dynasmon rushed in with another flurry of strikes that started to dent even his digizoid armor. He used his body to try and escape the Royal Knight, but Dynasmon was more than fast enough to keep up with the bulky tank.

Kazuchimon cut through the smoke and ran towards the two. Seeing this, Dynasmon tackled Gundramon, heading further into higher ground and leaving behind the electrical Samurai.

"You dare desecrate this fight!? Shinden Shouraikou!" Kazuchimon shouted before he gathered energy in his blade and sent an electrical slash towards the Royal Knight.

"I'm here to win a war, not a battle for glory, Kazuchimon," Dynasmon turned before shooting his attacks from both his palms to counter the incoming attack of the Hagith Legion General.

Gundramon grunted as he tried to escape Dynasmon's deadlock. "Yeah, ain't you Royal Knights supposed to fight fair?! Granted, I don't, but you're supposed ta!"

Gundramon could move faster than most people expected of the massive machine. However, he made too much noise as he moved. Before Dynasmon could even get in range of his stronger guns, the Royal Knight had already flew back into close range. Ticked off, Gundramon also attempted to point his face gun down on the Royal Knight, the only gun he had available to use in close range, only for Dynasmon to slap it away with enough force to rival even the most titanic digimon. With that, he continued to strike Gundramon in such a way that it would hurt, but not enough to knock him away from close range.

Even though Dynasmon was technically winning, his eyes always looked back towards where he knew the Chosen were. He could sense a battle taking place in two areas, and he could feel two overwhelming auras against two smaller ones. Inwardly, it meant that the Demon Lord Chosen were indeed stronger than they had feared.

The Royal Knight wanted nothing more than to race towards Alizee and the others and escape before Beelzemon and Barbamon would show up.
But this deadlock Dynasmon created also trapped him. If he broke it, he'd leave himself open to Gundramon's unbelievable firepower. And if he somehow survived Gundramon's onslaught, he'd be too weak to fight off Kazuchimon's thunderous sword skills.

"Last a little longer, all of you," Dynasmon whispered to himself as he kept attacking Gundramon.

Moments after whispering however, he would see two large blasts in two different areas, Dynasmon knew that the Demon Lord Chosen had the upper hand. But he still couldn't risk breaking the deadlock.

Unfortunately for him, both Gundramon and Kazuchimon would break the deadlock soon enough.

Kazuchimon calmed his rising anger as he readied his blades. "Gundramon, shoot me!"

Despising being a literal punching bag, Gundramon had no choice but to trust his ally.

"Der Blitz!" He aimed one of his gun arms at the Hagith General and fired six shots. Kazuchimon narrowed his eyes as he brought up his blades and tilted them both before parrying each shot.

However, Kazuchimon had deflected each shot in such a way that they'd bounce off his blade and ricochet into the back of Dynasmon. The Royal Knight roared as the attacks hit him square on the back, but it allowed Gundramon enough time to finally get out of Dynasmon's deadlock and aim the rest of his guns at his enemy.

"It's payback time! Gewaltschwärmer!" Without wasting a second, the Araton General unleashed his payload into the Royal Knight, hailing him with metal and lead that had more than enough power to knock Dynasmon from the sky.

... Right into Kazuchimon's range.

"Nitou Seirai!" The Mega swung both his blades with the speed and power of his element. Dynasmon was able to bring up his guard but he still took the brunt of the attack.

The Royal Knight took the blow but slid away from the two opposing Megas. He inwardly cursed at how he lost his deadlock over the two as he wasn't expecting such a move. Dynasmon would have no choice but to book it and escape with the other. Yet, it would be impossible with Gundramon training his weapons at him at all tim—

Several things would suddenly happen at once as his thoughts finished themselves. The ground split open and swallowed Kazuchimon. A blade tornado appeared with a giant fist of ice and pummeled into Gundramon. Dynasmon spotted Kyukimon, stabbing her one arm into the cracks he had created in Gundramon's armor.

Panjamon appeared in front of Dynasmon. However, he looked to be on the brink of deletion as he forced his body to remain solid, "Lord Dynasmon, you must flee!"

"What happened to you!?" He asked before noticing the same with Kyukimon and hearing the sounds of electricity where Kazuchimon fell.

"We... failed in our mission to protect the fleeing, Lord Dynasmon. The Demon Lord Chosen... only we three barely survived..." Panjamon turned towards Gundramon and fired another Ice Fist, "But we will not fail you! Go! We will spend the last of our energies to ensure your escape!"

"... You have not failed," Dynasmon unfurled his wings, "The oaf would have been proud."

"General Saber Leomon would never have said it, but he was proud of you, sir..." The blinded Panjamon smiled, "He always was... Pinky."

The embarrassing nickname from an accident over a lifetime ago caused a storm of emotions in Dynasmon at that moment, "Damn that oaf for spreading that nickname!" With one last shout, Dynasmon left, flying towards the chosen. As he did, he gripped his fist, knowing for sure that those he once called friends would never return. Another remnant of his past dead.

As he did, Panjamon felt Groundramon fade into data and sensed Kyukimon being torn apart by bullets. He could feel Gundramon looking at him with Kazuchimon returning to the battlefield.

The Ultimate unleashed every ounce of power he had left, "FOR THE ROYAL KNIGHTS!"

He roared as he charged the two Demon Lord generals. Gundramon and Kazuchimon raised their weapons at the dying Ultimate...

….

Cecilia would look at Avani as Tiamat continued to carry them, "Avani, I need you to become kuwagamon to get us out of here!"

"B-but Cecilia, you know my digivolving isn't stable enough to guarantee me becoming that!"

"Well, its either you digivolve," Tiamat would pant out between breathes as she heard their conversation, "Or I devolve and we become that things next meal!"

Avani would cover her eyes and groan in response, fear clearly all over the wormmons form before she went, "F-fine! I-if I don't have a choice!"

"Okay, I'm gonna do something you're really not gonna like," Tiamat would say as both Cecilia and Avani looked up at her only for the black growlmon to grab Avani, and then threw her like a baseball.

"A-Avani!"

"Evolve me! Evolve me! Evolve me! Evolve me! Evolve meeeeee!" The wormmon would scream in panic as she flew into the air, her partner fiddling with her digivice in a panic before it began to glow, and so the wormmon did too in response.

Avani's body began to glow vibrantly, her data starting to peel away, only for a sudden burst of shadow to emerge and to coat the wormmon like a cocoon. Followed by it eerily taking a vaguely humanoid shape, limbs long and spindly as bands and chains burst into existence all along her arms and legs as her arms reached down to her feet. A purple bat-like symbol would burst into existence upon her chest as torn up wings burst from the back of the figure, followed by skulls appearing on the left shoulder and right knee. A pair of horns burst from the sides of her head as her fingers became more like bone than flesh, the air itself cooling around her as the darkness became ice white in coloration, several black belts appearing around Avani's waist before her red eyes popped into existence within its head, revealing a hood covering the upper half of the digimon's face as a deep set frown appeared among snow white skin on the lower half of her head.

"Wormmon digivolved to... Ice Devimon!"

This announcement was followed by Avani immediately falling to the ground and scrambling to get up in a panic, now as tall as Tiamat was and forced to run alongside her as she screamed, "This was a terrible idea!"

"You have wings, dumbass! Use them!"

"They won't flap! I-I don't know if I can use them!"

Cecilia placed her face in her hands, taking slow deep breaths trying to keep calm as the end seemed to come closer every second. The earth shuddering harder and harder with every step of the titan behind them, its every growl seemed closer, and now they really were all about to-

"From the depths I call the waters forth! Eraser below!"

Her eyes widened at the new voice, a female one that was deep and commanding followed by the sound of their pursuer screeching and slowing down as what sounded like a tidal wave slamming into it from behind echoed.

"Nice work, Swimmon! Or I guess I should call you Tylomon now, huh?"

Tiamat's head would crane as she stopped and spun around to face where their pursuer had stopped, looking to see Ryu grinning with Kyou and Blaze as a mysterious digimon floated upon water that swirled around it.

Most of its body was a sky blue as a thick, paddle-like tail swayed back and forth, with a pair of front fins and back fins on its sides, with the front being far larger and stretching out like blades. From its back jutted two literal blades that likely acted as a way for it to slice through the waters it dwelled in, a pattern of dark blue crescents followed along its back in-between those blades. Its head was heavily armored with dark blue carapace, seven large horns pointing straight back, a single gray triangle followed by three similar bands sitting on the center of its pointed head. It's maw flexed open and closed, occasionally spraying water into its own maw with its personal whirlpool as bright blue eyes looked where the massive construction digimon was struggling to stand upon the softened earth beneath thanks to the tidal wave that this digimon, Tylomon, had called upon.

"Alright, you all know the drill. Get your friends and meet me up ahead! I'll deal with this!" Gallantmon would burst onto the scene, landing between Tiamat and the flailing breakdramon.

He would ignore the exchange between the chosen and their partners as he aimed Aegis at the breakdramon's eye, aiming to irritate it not by attacking it, but by reflecting the sun into its vision so as to draw its ire to him.

Its berserk nature worked quickly in Gallantmon's favor, as the creature began to regain its footing among the mud and water at the bottom of its crevice, it would immediately swing at Gallantmon with left arm. The Crimson Knight simply dodged away as it did so, keeping the reflection of the sun in the creatures eyes so as to keep its focus on him, all so he could buy the time needed to let the chosen put distance between them, so he could go all out on the titan.

He would move to the breakdramon's left side, the machine dragon slowly turning to face him before attempting to barrel forward, being met with the soft earth at its feet and the rock wall not drilling as fast it wanted.

Already irritated, breakdramon displayed power it had not shown when pursuing Tiamat's group as it roared and shook the entire plateau with ease before every drill on its body fired off like cannons, instead of shredding rock or drilling through it as it they had when attached, they smashed right through the rock walls like paper. Turning meters upon meters of rock to rubble in an instant, and taking away Gallantmon's footing, the knight growling as he used his shield to brace himself from hitting the ground too hard, only to realize that the breakdramon had essentially turned the entire plateau into an elevated crater.

His vision would come off of breakdramon for an instant, looking at the direction where the chosen had gone and seeing nothing, he clenched his hands tight around his weapons in hope that they had gotten the distance they needed by his Lord's grace as the massive shadow of Breakdramon towered over Gallantmon. Its drills re-attaching to its body as it roared at the royal knight, lifting a leg to bring it down on him.

The Crimson knight would dodge forward underneath the frame of Breakdramon, only to find the machine dragon attempting to smash him down into the earth with its body, joints groaning with every movement. Gallantmon would barely have time to lift his shield and brace himself as the force of several thousands of tons slammed down upon him with constant force, as though gravity itself had turned on him. The earth itself cracking beneath them as he held back Breakdramon's weight with one arm, only to be met with the sound of whirring as the dragon's tail drills swung underneath to try and impale the royal knight while he was stuck in place. The drills sunk into the earth as they closed in, so as to avoid impaling their own user as Gallantmon was forced to drop his shield and allow the titan to slam down, only for it to immediately stand again as it felt its own drills begin to bore into its body.

Gallantmon would be forced to drop Aegis completely, but the royal knight would roll out from under the behemoth's belly as mud clung to his white armor, swinging Gram around to aim at the titan's head and yelling out, "Royal saber!"

With a burst of light, the lance would fire a jolt of energy at Breakdramon's head, only to disperse against the titanic machine's hull. The berserker's eyes rotated in their sockets to look at Gallantmon, growing more enraged with every moment that Gallantmon kept breathing.

Gallantmon dove out of the way as the thing used its arm to slightly lift its torso to try and crush him. The remaining wet earth moving away as the rock beneath that shattered from the force, although that did little to steal away Gallantmon's balance now that the playing field was on even ground.

Breakdramon began to swing around, getting ready to try and charge Gallantmon so as to trample him underfoot. The Crimson Knight braced in response, getting ready to move out of the way when he noticed that on the machine dragon's right leg was an odd symbol, instead of the white bar symbolizing caution like most breakdramons, this one had a dragons head with two prominent horns.

Gallantmon knew only two digimon who had markings like that on their bodies, a marking of their union, before they had fused to create the largest digimon to ever exist. They together were the Royal Knight Examon: Breakdramon and Slayerdramon, and for this breakdramon to have that symbol upon its leg meant that...

"This is our Breakdramon," Gallantmon would bluntly note to himself before beginning to spring out of Breakdramon's path, only to be launched away, now dropping Gram as he was forced to balance himself midair before landing.

This revelation meant that he couldn't kill Breakdramon without fully finishing off someone who had been his comrade. Gallantmon knew that it was likely that whatever had forced him to defuse with Slayerdramon combined with her absence, likely demise, had driven Breakdramon to berserk like his common kin.

If he were a normal digimon, he'd likely have calmed by now, but as a breakdramon, his stamina was basically endless, and as such, so was his rage.

Gallantmon leapt upwards to dodge the swing of one of Breakdramon's limbs, a deep scar in the earth left where he had just been standing as the Crimson Knight's eyes scanned the battlefield, looking for any sign of Aegis, which was now his one hope of ending this battle without one of them leaving the field in a digi-egg.

This was a tactical error however, as he would find that Breakdramon had managed to entirely turn to face him, and being in the front of a raging one was basically a death sentence.

Breakdramon would roar as its limbs groaned, pushing their drivers to the max as they rapidly swung at Gallantmon using the deadly attack called the Destroyed Rush. Now without his lance or shield, he was forced to try and dodge every speeding blow from its arms, head, and drills. An near impossible task for a digimon who's battle style revolved around the medium and his armaments.

Gallantmon dodged the first few blows, only to be smashed in the earth then for where he had been to practically turn to dust as he was sent flying from Breakdramon's head smashing into dirt just short of his position. The Royal Knight's form smashed across the landscape before rolling several times across the debris covered crater, he shakily stood, eyes now focused on the titan approaching him.

He needed to find Aegis fast.

….

Tiamat looked around, confused before looking behind herself to see a massive plume of dust in the distance where their enemy was now fighting Breakdramon.

She would gently set Cecilia down as she asked out loud, "We teleported? But how did we-"

Her attention would divert to Kyou yelling out, "Hey, Ysanne! Are you alright?"

The little girl had fallen into the young man's arms, panting heavily as she responded, "F-fine, I was... Just hit by a sudden sense of vertigo is all."

"Maybe not everyone can be suddenly teleported out of nowhere," Ryu would speculate from behind Kyou as Blaze lifted a hand over his brow to try and scan the distance where Gallantmon would have still been to fight Breakdramon.

"You think he's gonna be able to handle that titan on his own?"

Blaze would be met with a response from Tylomon, a surprisingly soft voice coming from the rough looking digimon, "He has faced greater foes than a breakdramon. I am certain that he will dominate his foe and return to us quickly."

Blaze's eyes would settle on Tylomon, who's eyes were filled with the utmost faith in her statement, to which he responded, "I'll trust you on that."

Cecilia would speak next to everyone, "So... Do we just wait here for Gallantmon to finish his battle?"

"No," Kyou would answer her as his eyes jolted to see Lancelot emerging from Tiamat's shadow, the eyesmon's many optics looking around wildly, "If there was any enemy patrol even miles on miles away, there's no doubt they heard that thing start attacking us. We better move fast or else-"

"Kyou," Ryu would interrupt his fellow chosen by simply saying his name, who gave him a stern look, only for the sound of buzzing to fill their ears.

Tiamat would growl and get out a command, clearly recognizing what the noise was, "Everyone! Circle formation now!"

"Circle formation?" Cecilia would respond only for Kyou to yank her behind a turning Tiamat, Ryu picking the tired and quiet Ysanne up in his arms as Tylomon followed Tiamat's command by moving opposite of her. Blaze would move to Tylomon's right as Lancelot filled in the gap between the agunimon and Tiamat.

Avani, still in the form of ice devimon, had been looking her new monstrous evolution over, only to see them all lining up, apparently not having noticed the buzzing growing steadily louder as she moved to between Tiamat and Tylomon, "Is anyone else getting a pit in their stomach? Like death itself is closing in?"

Lancelot would growl in affirmation to Avani's questions, the eyesmon's size already having doubled as it used it's stored up data to bulk itself up in size and strength. Its eyes rotating rapidly in all their sockets as the other three digimon kept their eyes on the sky, Kyou would note something however as he realized where they were coming from, "They're in the canyon surrounding us."

"Geez, you think!? A swarm that big-!"

"Tiamat, quiet," Ryu would respond as he took in what Kyou was saying, that the swarm had been spreading out and hadn't actually homed in on them.

It would be too late however as massive, wasp-like digimon flew up over the edge. An eyeless head with thunderbolt markings staring the group down, a pair of massive stingers twitching its abdomen as it clacked its front limbs together. Dark red wings flapping too rapidly to really make out any details before it screeched out, "Humans! I have found humans!"

Blaze was already mid-attack as it screeched out an alarm, balls of flame flying from his fists and into the digimons wings, lighting them aflame and tearing the ability of flight from it, causing it to fall with an roar.

The group closed the circle in tighter now as the buzzing intensified massively, only for several dozen bug digimon to launch over the sides. More of the wasp-like digimon stayed in the air above them, dozens of kuwagamon and large blue digimon similar to the red beetle digimon emerging rapidly from the canyon around the group's plateau. These bugs had five fingers on each hand instead of three, shell-less wings, and a carapace helmet with a single prominent horn upon their heads.

It did not take long for all of them to begin repeating a single phrase, "The tyrant will be pleased! The tyrant will be pleased! The tyrant will be pleased!"

Cecilia was absolutely creeped out by this, moving closer to Kyou who had a deathly serious look upon his face at the sight of such a massive swarm of enemies while Ysanne, still held by Ryu, was apparently too tired to react beyond a look of discomfort at their situation.

Ryu however, was intrigued instead of distressed, "Hey Tiamat, who do you think the 'tyrant' is?"

"Does it matter?" The black growlmon would ask him, "If he's a bug, I'll squash him all the same."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but they have us outnumbered a hundred to one," Avani would say to Tiamat in response, "Do we even stand a chance?"

"I doubt it," Blaze would respond to her before glancing to Kyou and the others behind him, "But who ever said the right path was easy?"

"Okay, so hear me out, I've got a plan," Kyou would say, "On three, we need to-"

Unfortunately, as their enemies could hear them conversing, they did not wait for them to act on a plan. The swarm of big digimon coming in all at once upon the chosen's partner digimon and forcing them to act as they could.

Lancelot's eyes would light up first as the bugs swarmed in, the serpent immediately bisecting the front lines of his side of the swarm with his barrage as Blaze leapt back and aimed his arms upward to yell out, "Blazing salamander!"

A tornado of flame would burst to life from his gauntlets, firing upward and taking the form of a burning dragon as several of the wasp digimon dove straight into the blaze, having been trying to dive down to grab the humans from the circle. The swarm, being very close together, quickly lit several of their closer buddies on fire before they scattered away from the center of the battle.

Tiamat would immediately spray her closest foes with flame, finding that kuwagamon lit on fire far easier than the blue beetle digimon did to which she mumbled, "Plasma blade," which began to heat the blades on her arms. The black growlmon then throwing herself at her foes and leaving a gap in the circle formation as she began to cut down one insect digimon then lit another on fire, repeating her movements with grace and simplicity despite the feeling of rage overtaking her form.

Avani would begin to panic as her side of insects began to close in, glancing behind her and yelling at Cecilia, "W-what do I do!"

Cecilia would notice her panicking partner even as Blaze did his best to knock the wasps out of the air and keep any flaming bodies from falling on them, "I don't know! Uh... Try using snow wings! Leather punch! No... Hm... Zero freeze!?"

"It is odd that Avani has no instinctual drive for her evolutions," Tylomon would note before roaring and spraying her enemies with a stream of water, the bugs laughing at her seemingly feeble attack briefly before all beginning to scream and panic as their carapace began to rot into pure data as something that had been within the water ate at their forms.

"Z-zero freeze!" For the first few seconds, nothing would happen for Avani as the bugs closed in, her sense of panic growing followed immediately by her eyes glowing then spewing a bright blue laser into the nearest kuwagamon, freezing its torso and causing it to fall over and flail, now trapped in ice. Avani would quickly lose control from shock however, nearly falling over as the beam went up with her head and partially froze several of the wasp digimon, causing them to fall to earth as their balance was disrupted.

This process lasted several minutes, a cycle of picking off the bugs, who seemed oddly easy to keep back from the group as they simply threw themselves at the chosen...

"All flymon, do not hesitate to fire your stingers unto your foes! Kabuterimon, use your electrical abilities and paralyze that beast already! Kuwagamon, why have you not restrained that aquatic creature?!"

A new voice would quickly boom into existence as the fight continued, Lancelot being the first one to notice the new arrival high above the center zone where their human partners were. The eyesmon growling at the sight of a being who's voice screamed of death to everyone present, forcing chills down all their spines as empty pink eyes surveyed what he saw as a pathetic attempt at resistance, and an even more pathetic attempt to capture the enemy, even if they did have some tactical value. The digimon was vaguely humanoid, standing on two legs as an ape did, but that was where the similarity with mankind ended. Bat-like wings clearly did not help keep it aloft, as they did not flap for its form. Its torso was bizarrely muscular, clad in black and adorned with a necklace that held the pentagram upon it, but caved far too greatly for any organ to properly function in that torso. Its lower half was that of a goat, upper legs clad in a large amount of dark purple fur, massive hooves simply hanging limply as it floated in the sky above the now stalled battle. Its arms were bizarrely long, with the upper half clad in purple shoulder-cloth and black-orange sleeves, its lower arms bulking up bizarrely with more purple fur and ending in hairless hands as large as a gorillas. Its goat-like head was eerie as its empty eyes stared at all below, purple mane flowing gently in the winds above as over sized horns seemed to threaten to tip the digimon over at any moment.

One of the now named flymon would speak in protest at the newly arrived digimon "But lieutenant Mephismon! The tyrant will want them alive!"

With a snap of its fingers, Mephismon engulfed the protesting digimon in a cloud of darkness, nothing emerging as Mephismon spoke, "Unlike most of the legion, the lot of you are easily replaceable! Now defeat them with all your might! If some of them die! That is a sacrifice worth taking!"

"Talk about a caricature villain," Ryu would say as he looked at Kyou, "Killed his own troop and everything."

"I imagine the majority of the Demon Lords troops are unlike him," Kyou responded, "The Demon Lords would have lost on lack of troops alone with any digimon like that one."

The Mephismon, through some unknown means, growled at their talk about its sudden execution, to which it pointed and demanded, "Kill those two first!"

The flymon, not eager to meet their fellows fate, revealed themselves to have an ability they had refused to use, firing their stingers now en masse at the humans in the center, both Tylomon and Blaze's eyes widening before they both bolted there to block the attacks with their own.

"Terror spiral!"

"Fire darts!"

A tornado of water would quickly surround the humans, Tylomon, and Blaze, diverting the stingers away and back into the crowd of bugs around them. Many of who quickly dropped to the ground, twitching violently in response to the massive stingers now in their bodies, likely dripping with some unknown venom. Blaze's bolts of flame covered their weak spot, blasting the stingers out from above, his blue eyes however were focused on Mephismon still directly above them, the digimon having crossed its arms to observe the swarm it commanded to finish the fight.

"What about Avani and Lancelot!"

"Tiamat!"

Indeed, now that they were no longer holding back, the kuwagamon and kabuterimon were a force to be reckoned with. Tiamat had cut through a few dozen of them with her blades, only to find herself being shocked into submission by the group of kabuterimon surrounding her, bolts of lighting firing from their horns and stealing any energy she had had in her dancing rage before.

Avani, already struggling with using the form of ice devimon, was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of Kuwagamon, the great red insect digimon forcing her to the ground and pinning her limbs, three kuwagamon per limb, with another taking the sacrifice in case she tried to use her eyes again and covering her face.

Lancelot was the last of the three still standing, its all around defense-offense standard proving far too strong for champion levels to handle, the rapid firing of lasers from every eye on its body cutting down any kabuterimon or kuwagamon who got near enough to try and attack it. Only for them to quickly rectify their mistake by beginning to give it a wide berth, followed by a bombardment of flymon stingers slamming into Lancelot's shadowy form. The shadow digimon howled in pain as several of its eyes were pierced, Lancelot quickly beginning to flail and try to attack what was attacking it from above only to miss as it began to rapidly slow down and shrink as the stingers venom began to overwhelm it. It's body slowly becoming paralyzed and the insect digimon swarm beginning to close in as his paralyzed state gave them the opportunity they needed.

Kyou would scowl, despising this feeling of being helpless in the face of an overwhelming force. He would never admit it, but things were not looking good for them. At some point, Ysanne had passed out, which was a worrying sign as Ryu's usual cool began to break down and Cecilia was showing signs of beginning to bawl at her two partners being defeated.

What could they do? How could they get out of this? There had to be something! Anything to escape this hellish situation before their training had even really begun!

Tylomon's tornado of water was powerful enough to keep the kuwagamon and kabuterimon from breaking through as well as keep the stingmon's attacks at bay, but already she was showing signs of tiring.

Blaze was the only one who seemed to be in tip top shape, but it was blatant that even he would be overwhelmed as he couldn't defend and attack at the same time once Tylomon's vortex fell...

Kyou simply couldn't accept it, even the most desperate situation had a way out! He just had to find it in time for them all to escape alive...

Even as Mephismon grew board of watching, and began to grow a mass of darkness in the palm of its hand...

Unknown to those were panicked and felt that the end was near, hope stood watching in the distance atop another plateau, observing to see if those chosen by the Royal Knights had the skill yet to get themselves out of the desperate situation.

One of them was clearly human, dressed in the armor of a knight, their armor hiding any defining features and the visor preventing anyone from looking to see who may be within. Around their wrist between their gauntlets and gloves, an odd digivice sat quietly. It heavily resembled a black fitness bracelet with two buttons on one side and with a singular button on the other, an odd port being between the two buttons. It was small compared to all of those present on the chosen of the Royal Knights and the Demon Lords chosen, but the symbol above its screen was unmistakable: that of one chosen to be the partner of a digimon.

Beside them stood a digimon resembling a fusion of a fox and dragon, its hair primarily purple and fluffy. Its long, fluffy tail swaying behind it as tiny bat-like wings flapped on its back, a red gem on its forehead shining in the light as bright red eyes watched the battle in the distance, one that had a clear victor now. It took a deep breath through its toothed mouth, scratching its tiny claws together as adorable ears twitched when it looked up at its partner and asked with a male's voice, "Is it time to intervene on her behalf?"

The Knight simply nodded as the screen of their digivice began to glow.

….

It took Clive a second to realize that Jordan had pulled him through the giant mushrooms. Soon, Lekismon ran up before tripping up, making Black catch her as she transformed back to Lunamon.

"S-Sorry, my body ached too much." The rookie said as Black put her on her back.

Black was also tired from the thrashing but knew if she degenerated, they'd all be in trouble. "You did great."

"Yeah," Clive thought back to how it was Jordan and Luna who ultimately gave them the chance to escape, not him and Black. "You did... great..."

"Clive," Jordan kept running. "Are you really afraid of fire?"

The brunette flinched as the younger teen asked him. "That's..."

"What!? Everyone, stop!" Black suddenly yelled before everyone saw that the path ended. Literally. It was the edge of a steep cliff that spanned a beautiful view of the sun setting. However, anything other than airborne digimon would not appreciate that the closest ground surface was a skyscraper's distance below it.

"Any chance you guys can digivolve into something that can fly?" Jordan looked to Black and Luna, who shook their heads. "Drat."

Black turned back towards where they came from, raising her dart as everyone else saw movement. Jordan and Clive panicked at the thought that Coro and Arshan caught up to th—

"Jordan, Clive!?" Instead of those two, Alizee as Kazemon pushed past a mushroom with Victor and an evolved Sif.

Jordan looked over to the taomon, "Sif! You're an Ultimate!?" Clive looked at the taller man as he did not know that Sif could reach a higher level than him.

"I recently attained this form before all of you had gathered thanks to Gankoomon," She put a palm to her chest, "I never got the chance to thank him properly."

"Well, at least we've got one!" Jordan exhaled before he noticed Clive flinching at the tone.

"What happened to you guys?" Alizee looked at how roughed up Black and Luna were, "Did you two get hit that hard by that little girl?"

"It wasn't her; we met another DL Chosen! And he had a stupid-strong partner!" Jordan couldn't believe how large the gap between them was. He knew The Demon Lord Chosen could reach Mega Level, but he wasn't expecting them to get overpowered at the same level!

"We could have beaten him!" Clive shouted, making everyone look at him as he looked at the ground and clenched his fist, "He was just lucky; a little more time, and I would have seen his weakness. I will beat him no matter what!"

"Wait," Victor held up his hand. "There's another DL Chosen here?!" It seemed like the older tamer picked up the shortened version of what to call their enemies.

"Please tell me it isn't another crazed little girl with more power than she's supposed to have." Alizee held her forehead in some vain attempt to stop a headache she got thinking about another laser-shooting demon crow.

"The kid was the same age as me, I think," Jordan told them, "But he was a huge wimp! He didn't even want to fight us until his Digimon dragged him out into the open."

Victor raised his brow before shaking his head, "Is he after you?" He asked as he looked back while holding his Digivice.

"No, Luna got lucky and put his Digimon to sleep before we booked it."

"Well, we barely escaped Mary and Vulgar," Victor began. "So let's get out of..." He trailed off as he finally noticed the drop behind Clive and Jordan. "That's going to be a problem."

If them realizing they were in a dead-end was a problem, what happened next would fit the phrase, "out of the frying pan and into the fire".

In their case, Vulgar darkened the sky as he spotted all seven of them near the cliff. "I fffooouunnnndddd yyyoooouuu~!" Mary's voice sang as Vulgar flew to block off their path back in.

"I am so sick of her," Alizee muttered under her breath as the rest of them attempted to get into fighting stances.

Vulgar gathered energy, which prompted Victor to turn to Sif, "Barrier!"

The ultimate did as she was told and erected a dome around the seven of them as Vulgar unleashed a full-powered attack down on them. The barrier would not hold against the raw power of the Spirit of Darkness, but luckily for them, the cliff beneath them broke first.

The seven screamed as they fell with only Alizee worrying about who to catch. However, something sped past Mary and Vulgar and caught all seven of them with ease.

Dynasmon had finally arrived, prompting the others to degenerate from the energy they had spent fighting, making it slightly easier for the dragon knight to hold them all.

"You hold the Spirit of Darkness," Dynasmon eyed the girl ridding atop of Vulgar, "A shame, you could have been a beacon for the Digital World instead of a herald of destruction."

The Royal Knight was barely able to hold onto all the chosen and their partners, and even as an ultimate level, a velgrmon was not something he could risk fighting. His primary abilities all revolved around him lighting himself up with energy before assaulting his opponents with that, but as he was now, all he could use would be the Dragon's Roar.

Before the conversation could even truly begin however, the sound of a voice that was vaguely familiar to him rang in his ears.

"Dynasmon! I challenge you to a duel!"

The dragon knight would look down at his challenger standing at the cliff's edge to see someone who should have been dead, Apollomon.

"My name is Coro, and I'd like this to end with minimum bloodshed if you'd accept my challenge!"

Minimal bloodshed? Those words lit Dynasmon's blood with flame, some of his closest friends had died to gain him the time to flee with the chosen, they had taken a chunk of his past away! To even suggest a duel where surrender was the outcome was a fools bargain when his enemies had already slaughtered everyone here!

He would note however behind Apollomon that presence of a human boy, hunkering and hiding from him...

To think that the Demon Lord's would receive a chosen bound to a member of the twelve, but if his personality was the same as it was then, even in reincarnation, he would do all he could to save his partner.

Dynasmon lit his free hand aflame without a word, Vulgar dodging away with Mary out of instinct as Coro frowned as he thought that Dynasmon might use the Royal Knight's chosen as a barrier for the briefest moment, only to realize what was happening as he lifted his palm.

"Arshan! Run!"

Coro would move to save Arshan from the brunt of the blast as Dynasmon let it off before bursting backwards and flying away with the chosen. No one saying a word after what they had just seen and how badly they had just been beaten by their enemies. Clive and Black brooded deeply as Luna hugged onto Jordan to keep him calm, Victor gave silent signal to Sif to stay wary in case they had to force another digitization to be ready to throw up a barrier in case their enemies pursued or fired upon them while Alizee stared at the falling apart cliffside behind them, where she could see that little girl and her partner had snatched the two who had fallen from the air, no sign of any pursuers coming from behind them.

As the two chosen of the Demon Lords and their partners watched their foes fly away, Arshan would make a note aloud with a confused tone, "They're doing deeper into our territory? Why?"

"Why eeeellllse, Arshy? They must want to harm the people we've saved!" Mary would declare above him on Vulgar's back, "We neeeed to let Uncle Beezy and Grandpa know!"

Arshan questioned Mary's line of thought subtly, but did not voice it as Coro roared in rage at their fleeing foe, a slight sense of fear at his partners rage making itself known, even if it was in his defense and in response to one with an honorable reputation taking a low handed move, "I won't let this stand, Dynasmon! You hear me!? Your hear me!? No one attacks Arshan while I'm here! No one!"

Coro would receive no response as their foes blended with the horizon. With this crushing defeat of the Royal Knight's chosen, it seemed all but inevitable that the Demon Lords would clamp down upon Yggdrasil's lands in due time..

….

Gallantmon groaned as the dust settled around him, having just been bodied by another of Breakdramon's rushes.

His armor was holding up thankfully, chrome digizoid was basically the best one could hope for, but being launched and smacked around like a doll did not feel good either way. He would push himself out of the new crater he'd just been used to make as he decided to take a different approach to handling this. Chances were he wasn't going to find Aegis as long as Breakdramon kept smashing down on him, and it was only a matter of time until the machine dragon broke through his armor and ended him. He needed a vantage point, and there was no better vantage point than his foe's own body.

Gallantmon would crack his neck as Breakdramon lumbered his way over to begin smashing down on Gallantmon again.

The Crimson knight recognized that dashing under Breakdramon would just get him crushed, and that side to side was basically impossible with the titan just abusing his Destroyed Rush.

He needed to go up, and there was one way to do that. Gallantmon bent his knees, placing a hand upon the ground as he waited for Breakdramon to close the distance before leaping up as the first excavator smashed down where he had been, when the second came at Gallantmon would brace, letting it smash him back down in the earth before he quickly tried to stand as Breakdramon's head came down, drill ready to at last pierce the knight's armor.

Gallantmon however was ready, even as the earth gave out and created a new crater at Breakdramon's feet, his used the force of the blow to push upwards, weakly grabbing onto the spinning drillbits on Breakdramon's head and holding on as the monstrous digimon kept smashing where he had been. The high speed flailing of the titan's form threatening to go ahead and launch Gallantmon again, yet the Crimson Knight held tight to the drill bits even as they dug into the palms of his hands.

When the rush at last stopped, Breakdramon was clearly confused at first, the titan slowly looking around as Gallantmon tried to quietly stand and look around the landscape for the sign of his shield, raising his hand as he stood, Aegis would react to his presence and shine from far behind Breakdramon close to where he had initially lost it.

Unfortunately, it was clear that Breakdramon also saw the shining of the shield as its red eyes rotated to look at it, the machine dragon growling as it began to turn to face it, likely assuming that it was Gallantmon himself.

Recognizing that if Breakdramon got to his shield first that this fight was basically over, Gallantmon would leap down and hold onto the edge of Breakdramon's head, swinging backwards as the titan's eye suddenly focused on him before his feet went right into it, not with enough force to severely damage his eye, but certainly enough that when his feet hit, Breakdramon flailed madly, unused to actually feeling pain on his body as Gallantmon dropped to the ground dozens of meters below.

The Crimson Knight almost stuck the landing, rolling but losing control and falling out onto the dirt. Failing to get a running start on Breakdramon, of which the initial shock of having his eye attacked was quickly wearing off.

The shine of his shield quickly fading again, Gallantmon shakily stood and began to sprint to its location as he heard Breakdramon begin to move again, the titan roaring in response to being harmed, its rage growing ever more.

It was a mad dash, Breakdramon's shadow slowly overtaking Gallantmon as he ran, his shield coming into sight just he heard Breakdramon gearing up to begin another rush.

The Crimson Knight dove for Aegis as Breakdramon came down upon him...

Only for his attacks to ring loudly against the strength of Aegis' build, the legendary shield more than capable of easily repelling attacks from even a digimon of near god-like strength like Breakdramon. Roaring in rage, Breakdramon continued to slam its limbs and head against the shield, of which Gallantmon began to slowly stand with it in a braced form. Preventing Breakdramon from pushing him back or taking the shield from his exhausted limbs.

This clearly irritated the machine further, as its attacks increased in frequency as Gallantmon braced his torso against Aegis, slowly inching his way towards Breakdramon and waiting for the right moment to make his move.

Every blow shredded more of the earth away from around Gallantmon, created deeper scars and crevices, and caused both dust and rock to coat the landscape as Breakdramon did its damnedest to kill the Royal Knight...

Then as it pulled its head back to smash it into the shield, Gallantmon made his move, repeating his earlier attack by grabbing onto the drillbits on its head. Breakdramon was clearly aware of what the Crimson knight had done this time, quickly leaning back and flailing to try and get him off.

It would eventually lean forward, throwing its head to the sky, which is when Gallantmon let go. Flying up into the sky for some time before beginning to fall back to earth, he aimed Aegis at Breakdramon's head as his descent rapidly increased in speed. The Knight's eyes narrowed as Breakdramon began to ready to swat him down, the creature maneuvering its head in knowledge of what his shield could do, the knight quickly changed his positioning in response so that Aegis slowed him down, almost yanking the shield from his hands as fatigue threatened to overtake him.

As a arm swung at Gallantmon, his sudden slow allowed him to dodge it before he waited for the second to close in, using his shield to block it as he was smacked to the side away from Breakdramon.

Clearly a ranged attacked was out of the question.

Gallantmon's eyes ran along Breakdramon's body as he stood up once more, dusting the dirt off himself as he took several deep breaths to balance himself as he came up with his final attempt to stop Breakdramon without killing him.

He did something he hoped the titan did not expect, charging its form directly and causing it to flail and miss with its limbs as it tried yet again to rush him, the Royal Knight leapt up, grabbing onto and pulling himself up into the bulldozer blade as Breakdramon's eyes focused in on him. Breakdramon would growl, attempting to more gently get Gallantmon off of it with its arms only to find him using the arm as a pathway up the machine dragon's body.

Gallantmon leapt off as Breakdramon shook the arm he had used to scale the titan quickly to remove him, landing on Breakdramon's back with massive drills behind him and Breakdramon's neck before him. He didn't hesitate, quickly beginning to make his way up Breakdramon's neck even as he began to rapidly move it up and down to try and get him off, followed by several far off swings from Breakdramon's claws.

Gallantmon recognized he had one last chance as he made it to the center of Breakdramon's neck, the machine dragon slowing down as it was unable to keep sight of him in its blind spot and was forced to check if he had fallen off. Gallantmon stood up, quickly dashing across Breakdramon's neck and across its head, dropping down to try and blast him through the eyes with Aegis' purifying light, only to lose his grip and nearly fall off of Breakdramon. Barely managing to catch the edge of the titan's jaw and then trying to slowly pull himself in, only for Breakdramon to start flailing wildly as it felt the knight within its maw.

Gallantmon growled then shoved his legs into the corners of Breakdramon's mouth, feet below his tongue and using his free arm to finish bracing himself in its maw as he aimed Aegis in the once place he had left to aim, directly down Breakdramon's throat.

"Be cleansed of your rage and remember who you are, Breakdramon! Shield of the just!"

The announcement of his move caused Aegis to alight, a beam of holy light filling Breakdramon's maw as it struggled to remove Gallantmon from its maw, only to slowly stop moving as its eyes changed colors rapidly for several moments, Aegis' power cleansing the mega level digimon of the unseen force driving him berserk.

As Breakdramon stopped moving, reality hit Gallantmon hard, the knight falling to one knee within Breakdramon's mouth as he took several deep breaths. His wounds from his brother still had not fully healed, and battling not just any Breakdramon, but the titan that had once made up Examon had taken its toll.

It was only when Breakdramon spoke that Gallantmon seemed to come back to reality again, "Gallantmon, my friend, my liege. We have much to speak of."

Gallantmon however would realize he had forgotten about his charges in his fight with Breakdramon, and realized instantly that their battle had likely acted as an instant beacon for any enemies who had been nearby, and instead of greeting his calmed friend, commanded him, "Breakdramon! We must pursue the chosen before they are found!"

…...

All hope seemed lost now, Mephismon was preparing to finish the chosen of the Royal Knights, Tylomon's vortex was rapidly failing as Blaze braced to put up a last stand. Avani and Tiamat struggled against their captors as their bodies at last devolved, a wormmon and black guilmon far easier for a single kuwagamon or kabuterimon to contain as they looked with horror at their partners, reality about to tear them from them so soon. Lancelot could do nothing but twitch, its body stuck in place now as the flymon's venom took full effect on its form.

"With this, I have assured victory like no other for my lady Lilithmon!" Mephismon would announce as it aimed its hand at the group below, "Black sabbath! Take their souls and grant them a painful death!"

Silence would follow, not a word or twitch from any being present as Cecilia closed her eyes, Ryu crossed his arms in defiance, and Kyou tried to come up with something down to the last minute...

Then the darkness came down on them from Mephismon, death given form, slamming into the chosen and two still standing partners and seemingly ending it as Avani and Tiamat cried out for their partners.

Only for the darkness to clear, and nothing to have happened beyond Tylomon finally dropping her vortex.

"What!?" Mephismon roared as the chosen humans checked themselves over, Tylomon collapsing and reverting to Swimmon only for Ryu to react and grab the flailing digimon to hold her close even without her fishbowl. Cecilia was without words as she checked herself over while Blaze moved to his partner and asked, "I don't know why nothing happened, but it seems we've got a moment."

Kyou was shocked as well, and he was unable to respond to Blaze for several moments, "I... Ahem, how much more do you have in you?"

"Not much honestly, I've spent too much just blocking those stingers from the-" He would be cut off as Mephismon began to rage at those below it.

"I have control over death itself! The Black sabbath demands your souls! It should have gifted your souls directly to my lady herself! What madness is-"

"Only one authority controls death," a dark and grating voice would speak within the minds of every entity present despite its low tone followed by the sound of teeth chattering from seemingly every direction. Every insect digimon in the area would shudder violently, a presence of death that made Mephismon seem tame overtaking the majority and freezing many in place with raw, primal fear. Yet to the chosen and their partners, there was no sense of that over them, and all they would feel was confusion at the noise.

"And no mere demon is that authority."

Mephismon's face would twitch disturbingly, clearly unperturbed by the feeling of such a powerful presence as its left fist was enveloped by darkness, the demon digimon trying to blast the chosen again down below, only to be met with a jet black blur moving faster than the human eye could ever hope to keep up with. All Mephismon could do was widen its eyes as the blur struck past it, its arm that had been charging up its attack now gone as corrupted, purple data flowed from the wound. The demon howling with rage and pain at the loss of its limb as the blur then sliced through the frontlines of the insectoid digimon fast enough that it caused a great many of the swarm to abandon their mission immediately at their allies faster-than-sound demises as it landed next to the chosen humans and Blaze, revealing the new digimon, who's now clear presence completely dwarfed any digimon they had met so far except for the Royal Knights themselves at their peak. Avani and Tiamat would blink as they realized their captors had been sliced down faster than they had recognized, Lancelot slowly standing as some unknown power filled the shadow, as though one of kin had arrived.

The arrival towered over even the biggest bug digimon present, his shining black armor reflecting the suns rays intimidatingly. He stood on narrow toes, a balance like no other showing despite the massive pauldrons on his shoulders and the great flowing red cape behind him, damaged and torn at the edges. A single orange core sat on the center of his chest piece, a golden crest with two prominent horns upon the brow of his helmet as red eyes that judged the dead and dying scanned those he had deemed worthy of such judgment alongside their leader. He flexed his five fingered hands, golden talons scratched the metal on his palms, a skeletal tail moving behind him like it had a mind of its own, a pincer at the end clicking open and closed alongside the ten maws with monstrous metallic teeth upon his body. On his pauldrons, upon his faulds, and along the line of his breastplate and upper portions of his limbs, all chattering with excitement as blue tongues slipped out once ever few chatterings.

Every individual in the area was struck with awe or terror at this towering figure of judgment come to the Chosen's aid.

"I-it cannot be..." Mephismon would murmur before yelling to ask, "How!? How did you survive Milana's assault upon the twelve?! Plutomon!"

"That is not for you to know," Plutomon would respond as he bent his knees, becoming a blur once more as he became a blur once more, the wind itself blowing the hair of the chosen as Mephismon took a moment to register its foe was behind it, eye trying to turn only to find that with a single blow, its very mind had checked out as an unseen blade cut through its body with ease. All below would stare in shock as Mephismon's body began slowly peeling into two as Plutomon landed back down below, staring at Mephismon's remains before the demon digimon exploded into purple data and dispersed, "Milana Velvette did not plan for everything."

"W-what!?" Cecilia would shout at the name dropped by Plutomon, her attention completely diverted now from what had just happened, "That name! How do you know that name!?"

She would receive no response however as Plutomon ignored her, now approaching the remains of the swarm that had not died or fled, all frozen in terror, "Begone!"

A single word of mercy was more than enough for all the remaining flymon, kuwagamon, and kabuterimon to flee without hesitation. Pure fear driving all of them to flee in every direction, many slamming into one another or even collapsing into the canyon at the edges of the plateau in their attempt to put as much distance between them and Plutomon as possible, who merely made sure they did not attempt to harm the chosen and their partners once more.

Once the enemy had cleared out, Plutomon would slowly turn his head to look at the group only to find Cecilia running up to him with no fear, "You said my sisters name! Why!? Is she here?!"

Ryu would raise a brow, "Her sister?"

Kyou would piece the earlier quotes together quickly however, to which he said to Ryu, "I really hope that its just a coincidence. For Cecilia's sake."

Plutomon would simply stare Cecilia down even as Lancelot and Avani waddled or slithered up to their partner, Avani slowly tugging on Cecilia to try and move her away from the intimidating digimon.

A rumble on the horizon however would draw everyone else's attention away, but Cecilia couldn't help but watch as Plutomon, without another word, moved away as a blur, bouncing across plateau after plateau and leaving the girl wondering why her sister's name had come up. Avani still tugging on her as Lancelot began to rub against her for comfort after such a stressful encounter.

Ryu would flop on the ground, still holding swimmon in his hands, as he looked at the now approaching Breakdramon causing the rumbling in the distance, clearly exhausted mentally, and just said, "You know, either Gallantmon tamed that thing, or its coming to finish us off."

Kyou would shake his head as he sat the still passed out Ysanne up, "Definitely the first. Not when... Plutomon was clearly working to defend us from a superior foe."

"Maybe he just got scared and ran off."

"I have a feeling he could take on the Royal Knight's best if he wanted to."

"Kyou is right," Tiamat would respond as she walked up the two, breathing heavily as she almost considered latching onto Ryu, "As short as that encounter was. I could feel that digimon had enough power to fight directly with Alphamon himself."

"She's right," Blaze would add he slowly as he sat himself down next to Kyou, "And I have an idea based on Mephismon's words where he came from."

"You do?" Kyou would say in response to Blaze's declaration.

"The Olympos XII, they were another group like the Royal Knights or Demon Lords that ruled over a world connected to ours, but as far as I was aware, they had been destroyed in the pre-war. Entirely annihilated by the Demon Lords to prevent them from interfering in their conquering of our world."

"So Plutomon's a survivor of that slaughter? Hell, with how strong that guy seemed, why don't we throw him at the Demon Lords?" Ryu responded, although his second question had a joking tone that wasn't quite heard as Breakdramon began to close in.

"I imagine him alone probably wouldn't be enough," Kyou would respond bluntly, "But damn I wouldn't mind having him working with us. It'd take a Demon lord to stop us then."

They would all go silent now as Cecilia walked back over to the group with Avani and sat down, Lancelot curling down next to her as they waited for Breakdramon to close in. Normally Cecilia would have asked why they weren't running, but after what they had just endured, she was too exhausted and too traumatized to even think of that as she hugged her wormmon partner closely. No one brought up what she had said to Plutomon, the name the god-like digimon had dropped, and no one brought up the fact that there was now the possibility she was facing family on the opposing team. After just barely surviving death, all they wanted was silence until Gallantmon reunited with them...

Yet in the distance, no one could notice as the knight watched over them. The fox-like digimon with its bright red eyes threatening to judge any who got too close to the chosen of the Royal Knights.

...

Author notes

Quick note regarding updates

"DEAR GOD BLUE, WHY DID YOU DIE FOR MONTHS?!"

Rough times, simply put. Thankfully, I have someone wonderful thats helping me get back on track and aiding me in writing this now. On here he's known as ToBlazePurple, to me he's a great friend and is acting as my back up writer now. He wrote at least half this chapter(The Dynasmon group half) to help me balance it and is really helping me balance out my ideas or detail ones I was considering. I really appreciate his help and work, and I hope you all do too!

Anyways, hopefully with this updates will be at a minimum once a month. There might come months where there's more, but hopefully things have settled out now and I won't have to worry too much and ya'll won't have to wait so long for me to do what I said.

I legitimately love this story and you all have given me such wonderful characters to work with. I Promise you that, even if it does take me a while, chapters are coming without a doubt.

Anyways, I'll go ahead and explain one thing: That being Gallantmon's usage of the same move by different name "Final elysion" Vs "Shield of the Just". The main reason being that the effect of a move varies by author and that both variations are within canon, however, I felt I could diversify his moveset "Final Elysion" being a massive laser like in Tamers vs the short story where it acts a holy beam of purification as "Shield of the just". I might do this in the future for other Digimon as well so we don't end up with multiple digimon using the same name for basically different attacks.

Anyways, as its been forever. I'm gonna sit on reviews again, but I'll definitely get to them next time if there are any non-spoilery questions.

Once again, please give a big round of applause to ToBlazePurple, who is half the reason this chapter came out at over 22k words!