Despite the existence of the Trailmon, despite the tracks that crisscrossed the digital world, no one had got around to building massive train stations; perhaps the number of users did not justify them.
The Chosen Children got off at "Digivice Temple", which was barely more marked than a bus stop. Only the Trailmon's own confidence and the black water they could see on the other side of the cliff convinced the children and their partners that they were indeed in the right location.
The titular temple was a vast and blocky building. Its rectangular construction recalled the shape of the devices given to them upon the beginning of their journey, although both its brick coloration and the added stories of the structure left that association a fairly loose one. In this time period, said temple was not yet a ruin. Indeed, the vast streams of parishioners and pilgrims making their way on foot or wing spoke to the desperation of the era; with their world ending, many, many digimon were praying for help.
It seemed wrong to the children to greet them, wrong to ask them for advice, wrong to even say hello – what if they let them all down? So instead, they watched carefully from the surrounding forest. They hoped not to be discovered, but were unable to peel their eyes away from the sight.
But humans can not hide very well in the digital world, so they were soon discovered by a Kentarumon patrolling the temple grounds. "Welcome, Chosen Children."
"Can you show us to the firewall?" Maki asked. "And if so, how are we to repair it?"
"I can show you what's left of it," Kentarumon said. "It's not far from here."
The ground before them was white and bouncy and covered in strange writing. The substance they had started walking on was clearly like nothing found on Earth, although a loose comparison could be made to a gym mat or a very soft carpet.
Even in its present state, the firewall was truly an impressive sight. Red and black flames that towered as high as they could see, and likely far higher still. The phrase "the edge of the world" came to mind, like the thing people supposedly expected Columbus to sail off of, or the Antarctic Ice Wall so important in the theories of the Flat Earth Society.
The world they came from was in truth round, but humans had long imagined otherwise, and the digital world is boundless.
It was hot here, and approaching it felt even hotter; there were no true 'gaps' in the firewall, at least not yet. But there were places where they could see nothing but flames, and places where, on the other side, they could see the cities of Earth. Boston. San Francisco. Geneva. And, next to the biggest gap, the place someone might actually be able to race through if they tried and got lucky, Tokyo.
And then there were the stranger places. An ocean of darkness, a sunken city that recalled Lovecraft's R'lyeh. Its waves lapped up against the very edge of the firewall, but evaporated into steam instead of putting it out. A giant, metal door, which stretched halfway up the firewall – one might legitimately have called it the gates of Hades, for the three-headed dog which guarded it was definitely a Cerberumon. An immense dark blue polyhedron with something shaped like a small man in a black cape riding atop it. And a world of pure thought and ideas, of hopes and dreams, without even computer networks to anchor it to material reality.
"Well, we're here to repair this, right?"
Gotsumon, Bearmon, and Bakumon evolved into their adult levels. Monochromon's Volcano Strike and Golemon's Curse Crimson at least added a couple flames to the firewall, and Leomon's Beast King Fist, while in truth just an energy burst, melded into the flames as well.
But Floramon and Ukkomon were not able to contribute even this little, for their techniques were entirely the wrong kind. Indeed, Floramon stood behind Oikawa as she tried in vain to stay cool in the face of the firewall's immense heat.
"Are three adult digimon really the ones we need?" Maki wondered aloud. "There have to be a lot of fire digimon this strong out there, maybe we're not ready yet…"
"It's such a shame to seal those worlds away," Oikawa mused. "They're so interesting…"
"Do not fear. Your life will someday surely end in one of them." The voice came from Maki's body, but it was not Maki's. Her body itself was shining now, engulfed in a brilliant, all-encompassing light.
In the darkest period of Oikawa Yukio's life, when he was contemplating suicide, he would someday remember those words, and they would sustain him.
"A great sacrifice will save two worlds." The conclusion of the prophecy had slipped Daigo's mind when he first heard it, but he suddenly remembered it, and it gravely troubled him. "Sacrifice" could mean many different things, but none of them were good; was a human sacrifice what whoever was talking through Maki meant?
"Light sails south to give birth to fire…" Daigo remembered from that prophecy. Well, here was light, enveloping Maki's body, and there was fire, fire they needed to restore. "Don't do it, Maki!"
"Do not worry, Chosen Children. The time has not yet come to repair the firewall, nor are you able to make your sacrifice. Your journey is only halfway to its conclusion. Be assured, this world thanks you for your heroism. We are truly sorry that we could not handle this alone."
"And we can?!" Daigo shouted; it was so weird to yell at Maki's body, but this creature had stolen Maki's body; it wasn't her. Their digimon, as hard as they tried to raise them, simply lacked the power to contend with such a horrifying threat.
"You will." They spoke with a strange confidence which was hard to defy, but only Ukkomon agreed with the creature or creatures who had taken over Maki. "We would not have chosen you if you lacked the ability."
"You chose us?" Hiroki asked. "Why?"
Through the flames, the children saw a vision. Of Andromon and Centarumon and Volcamon hard at work programming. Of a master copy delivered through an inter-dimensional portal, of credits full of aliases that obviously belonged to digimon, Of copies in stores, mostly overlooked, a few taken home by parents, most of them confused. And of children – themselves, only slightly younger – who truly fell in love with the creatures and their world, who were scanned by another white light through their television screens.
"You were the five most suitable candidates we could locate."
"But why only five?" Lui asked. "I wouldn't mind more friends, and more of us would mean more power, right?"
"There are only so many digimon at this time who can bond with humans, and the prophecy did not call for more."
Were Maki conscious, she would have noted the precise number named in said prophecy, but none of the others had taken it nearly as closely to heart.
"If we weren't supposed to visit the firewall, what is our true destination?" Daigo asked.
"You are where you were meant to be." Homeostasis assured them. "There were things here which you had to witness. And you shall come here again, when you have become strong enough to repair this world."
"So where do we go now?" Oikawa asked. Become strong enough. It'd been their one real, driving goal in the digital world, yet it still felt so far away.
"Wind flows in between light and darkness," Homeostasis quoted, and with those words, a vast current stirred up from within the firewall, and a powerful, hot gust sent them all flying away.
Megadramon rode the wind for hours, the children and the other digimon on her back, until she reached a place where the wind did not stop so much as blow equally in every direction. Towers of giant fans regulated the temperature here, and the ground temperature was accordingly hotter than the air. Lui let out an "ouch" when he stepped off Megadramon, for he was unprepared for sand that burned even hotter than the wind.
Maki had been knocked out cold by her service as messenger, but had clung desperately to her partner the whole way in her sleep; Megadramon, in her evolved form, could not eat her horrifying dreams.
"I can't let her off. It's not safe for her to sleep on this ground." Megadramon said. "I should fly back up and search for a cave or something where she can rest."
"I'm up, I'm up." Maki rubbed her eyes, awakened by the sudden stop, arms wrapped tight around Megadramon. "Oh good, everyone's still here. Don't leave me…"
Daigo propped her up a little as she dismounted, and Bakumon, once she devolved, did likewise. Maki soon regained her bearings, then looked around this windy desert, in search of for either a friendly digimon or a clue on how to save this world – the very things they'd always been searching for.
"I think this is the wind that flows between light and darkness," she said, struggling to keep even her short bangs out of her eyes.
"Light sinks into darkness and returns to earth… does this just mean Homeostasis stops possessing you?" Daigo asked. "Have we met that condition already?"
"Remember, we're not actually on Earth," Oikawa said. "So I think the prophecy means like an element, not like the planet."
A pair of Sunarizamon walked slowly through the desert as they talked. They handled the heat far better than any of the children, despite being too low to the ground to feel the gales that protected the humans from heat stroke.
"The wind has blown outsiders here," one said to the other.
"Let's inform Lord Groundramon," the other replied, and the two scurried off.
The children were not sure which direction to walk in; Megadramon had landed in the center of a wind vortex, so whichever way they went, they struggled to make any headway at all. The one they eventually picked was random; it made sense to walk towards and ultimately past a fan tower, if only to get out of there, but they couldn't reject the possibility that a different direction contained whatever it was that they were truly guided here to see.
They weren't facing divine intervention this time around, or even a friendly digimon trying to dissuade them (indeed, few digimon at all survived in this climate, and fewer still could be distinguished at a distance from the terrain), so they kept on walking, even as a sandstorm picked up.
At first, they attributed it to nothing more than the fan tower itself, and shielded themselves as best they could; it was annoying and unpleasant, but nothing serious. Floramon offered to evolve into Togemon, reasoning that a cactus walking in front would do a lot to protect them from the hot sand; Oikawa dissuaded him, although he was just trying to act tough and would have been better served to do otherwise.
A large, low green dragon emerged from the swirling sands, stomping the ground angrily. "Intruders? Who dares to invade this land?"
"We were blown here," Daigo said apologetically. "We didn't know you owned this place."
"I smell Megadramon on the wind," Groundramon spat. "I may have been forced to allow these cooling fans, but I think wind digimon need to learn not to push their luck. This is my territory."
"The place where the digital world's winds all meet belongs to an Earth dragon?" Bakumon asked incredulously, and her words definitely qualified as 'pushing her luck'.
"The place with the digital world's one Huanglong Mine, the place where its tunnels also meet. I have won this land through battle; do not think that I fear to retain it in that way! Megadramon, wherever she is hiding, will not succeed where Wingdramon failed!"
"We are travelers, not invaders," Oikawa was quick to play peacemaker. "My apologies if we have trespassed on your land. By all means, direct us to its border; we mean you no harm."
"Liar! I have seen the banner that flies atop Infinity Mountain! I can see your strange and twisted bodies, your failure to adapt to the digital world! Megaton Hammer Crush!" The tail weapon was similar enough to LoaderLeomon's own Loader Morning Star to give Groundramon's attack a distinct resemblance, albeit with a shorter, thicker tail and less range; they did come off of dramatically different bodies.
But Oikawa, not Daigo, was the target, so it wasn't Bearmon who evolved. "Floramon, shinka! Togemon!" The cactus managed, just barely, to stop the attack with his gloves… and a portion of his body. His needles embedded themselves in the hammer, while spikes got stuck in his cactus skin.
"And now you play God with evolution itself!" Groundramon roared. "Is there no low to which you invaders will not sink?"
"Do you think that murdering travelers will bring your domain anything except infamy?" Togemon answered. "As a desert digimon myself, I'm ashamed to be associated with you!"
"Don't worry about it," Groundramon said. "We won't be together much longer! Scrapless Claw!"
Togemon was using every ounce of its strength to prevent the Dragon of Earth's tail from ripping open its body, and could do nothing when faced with the blood-red claws on top of its non-functional but no less imposing wings.
"Friends aren't supposed to lose," Ukkomon said, and his determination merged with Oikawa's own.
"Togemon, chou shinka! Triceramon!" and a cactus became a dinosaur. The two digimon squaring off now might almost have been relatives; they shared a shade of green and a long, reptilian body plan.
Triceramon's two long, red horns equalled Groundramon's claws. The battle, already a melee, devolved into something of a shoving match, with "Tri-horn Attack!" and "Scrapless Claw!" merely things to shout as they pushed.
"You're evenly matched, and there are three more of us behind Triceramon. You can't win." Daigo still didn't want this fight.
"If you attempt to escape by such cowardly measures, do not forget that I have minions of my own!" Groundramon roared again.
Daigo did wonder if it was a bluff – the only digimon he'd seen were child level, and the mental image of LoaderLeomon clashing with Groundramon tail to tail did not escape his mind.
"Stay back. This is my fight!" It was Triceramon's own pride as a digimon which dissuaded him from jumping in; they'd all done the same for Leomon when it was his own turn to evolve, after all.
"I see at least one digimon here is a worthy opponent!" Groundramon wasn't angry anymore; if anything, he enjoyed the thrill of combat. "Giga Crack!"
The ground opened up, and much of the hot sand they'd been throwing this way and that poured into a brilliant underground cavern, a golden mine full of Huanglong ore. Triceramon's body was sturdy enough to survive a fall, but he still balanced as best he could, which was no easy task when his legs were on opposite sides of the fissure.
Groundramon had backed up a few steps, both to have room to get off the attack and to avoid the effects of using his own technique in such unstable terrain.
There is something very terrifying about hearing a Triceramon jump to escape an earthquake; no mammal had witnessed anything like it in 66 million years, and in truth Triceramon were even larger and (being semi-bipedal) more imposing creatures than their Cretaceous counterparts. But he did clear the cracking ground, and it gave him enough space to do something other than pit horn against claw. "Tai Atari!"
The digimon's furious tackle was indeed enough to topple Groundramon; the technique sent them both plummeting into the cavern, a ten-limbed mass of dark green still jawing at each other as they fell.
Groundramon's attack had not revealed a door to the cavern, let alone a magic staircase or anything else so convenient. Yet Bakumon was inexorably drawn to the underground ore, and Oikawa's fear of falling and lack of expertise in rock climbing could not hope to equal his concern for his injured partner. Ukkomon's tentacles served as harnesses as they all descended, for everyone except Gotsumon at least, who (being made of rock himself) jumped down without a care in the world.
The dirt was not so super-heated here, and the winds did not blow. But the golden light of the ore was so brilliant that it was blinding; any digimon who could wear it as armor must truly be someone special. It would have been nice to interrogate Groundramon himself about this topic, if he was in a better mood once he regained consciousness; for now, all they could do was investigate on their own.
"So that Groundramon is the boss around here?" Oikawa wondered aloud. "Did we just conquer this place?"
"Supposedly its scales are infused with this ore, but I just don't see it," a devolved Floramon said. "Why are they green and red then, instead of gold? But that is the rumor…"
Solarmon and Golden Guardromon milled around the area, picking up and carrying equally golden stones. None of the mining digimon had noticed Groundramon had fallen, but they were all mechanized, perhaps robotic, with nary a Drimogemon or Digmon among them. Had it always been that way, or had the fortress on Infinity Mountain lured away this digimon's organic miners? If so, it was a little easier to understand his anger.
A mural shined within the mine, carved in golden foil that closely resembled the ore. The medium did not permit the use of color, so any correspondence to the four gods could not be too strong. But the creatures depicted – a very long dragon in chains, a two-headed tortoise-headed creature with a tree on its back, a six-winged firebird with a sharp beak, and an armored feline with four eyes and inverted fangs – did bear a striking resemblance to the prophesied Harmonious Ones. Each was surrounded by twelve circles – little more than dots, at least upon the wall, perhaps too big or too small compared to their true forms but clearly very important to whoever made that image.
At the center of the four beasts was an armored dragon, made of mail, with six eyes and extra-large spikes from its torso – or was it a fully functional suit of mail, one carved into the wall itself?
One got the impression of a hidden shrine, that they had stumbled into a sacred space dedicated to some long-dead religion. Or a modern one – after all, accessible or not, this was supposedly still a fully functional mine.
"Blue Dragon, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise," Daigo quoted. "I can't speak for the colors, but these are the right beasts. Is this it?"
"Light sinks into darkness and returns to Earth." It was Hiroki puzzling over the prophecy this time. "We returned to Earth, in more ways than one, but it's so bright in this cave."
"So is the great sacrifice next? How is that supposed to work?" Oikawa asked. "I don't see an altar here, and what are we even supposed to sacrifice?"
"Don't forget the preceding line. The Chosen Four who hold great power, reveal your true powers. But we haven't revealed any true powers here," Maki said, "and remember, there are five beasts on this mural. I think there's some kind of connection, but that doesn't mean we've met the condition yet."
Bakumon floated over to put a nervous paw on the mural, but direct contact unlocked neither a power-up nor a trapdoor.
"Who made these prophecies?" Lui asked. It was a legitimate question, a surprisingly wise one. Was Gennai their source, or just their discoverer? Had someone seen these digimon before, and if so, when and how?
They still had so many questions, but the miners didn't have answers. They had barely even noticed that humans were here, and rerouted around the children whenever they tried getting in their way. So there was nothing to do but follow their paths back up to the surface and hope that the key to saving this world was located above the ground.
The wind could not have blown them anywhere near the center of the digital world, for they had already been there, already fortified it; it was impossible not to recognize Infinity Mountain. And yet they were surprised, upon emerging from the mining tunnels, to find themselves wading through ankle-deep water.
"It's gotta be a coolant," Oikawa said. "Between this water and all that wind, I've gotta think that the natural temperature of Huanglong ore is extremely high."
The water was not poisoning them, at least; its extremely murky color had more green in it than black, and likely reflected nothing more than the surrounding swamp. They stumbled onto a green and leafy shore, following a blue tadpole out of the water.
A large castle sat in the middle of this swamp, almost like something out of the Edo period, but the foil it was gilded with was made of Huanglong ore and its banners had large, strange frogs on them. It somehow did not sink into the water; perhaps the swamp was nowhere deep enough. One was reminded of the concept of a moat, and the whole body of water surely provided its defenders with some degree of protection.
The sound of a loud tuba rippled suddenly through the waves, a samurai song which pained the children's eardrums. Lui actually tried to retreat into the tunnels to get away, but Ukkomon stopped him with a tentacle: "What if all these vibrations make it cave in?" Fortunately, whatever digimon was responsible for the vocals stopped singing, and the children soon spotted a series of wooden bridges which allowed them to traverse the area without getting wet.
The background music was less loud now, at least, less lyrical. But it was no less disorienting; Ukkomon had to grab not only Lui, but the rest of the children and their partners (except Bakumon, who floated) with how much they had started stumbling and falling.
Were they headed to the castle to ask the local digimon for help, offer them their protection, or simply to ask them to turn down the music? It would've been nice to discuss their plans out loud, with actual words, but all that any of them could hear over the din were scattered, nonsense syllables.
Although they were walking into the very source of the sound, the children regained their bearings when the two Geckomon at the entrance stopped playing music and waved them through the castle doors.
It is an odd sight to be begged for help, in a full dogeza pose, by a frog many times one's own size. Then again, this world had all but obliterated their very conception of 'normal'.
"Chosen Children… I will do whatever you require, even become your vassal, if you can assist me," TonosamaGeckomon said.
"What do you want us to do?" Daigo asked.
"The water here… is being contaminated. Digimon from the sea besiege us day after day. I am loath to admit this to my subjects, but I fear that I can no longer protect this castle without your aid."
"Is it pollution from the mine?" Hiroki asked.
"No! Our connection with the Huanglong Mine is ancient, even our armor is made from its ores! If it were dangerous, I would not still be standing here."
"But you're not standing," Maki teased, before an earthquake, two frantic Geckomon, and Daigo convinced her to retract her words.
"Our lord is a very serious ruler and does not appreciate your jests," one of the Geckomon retainers said.
"Now you tell me," Maki replied. Couldn't he have warned us when he was escorting us in?
"It's not just the swamp," Oikawa explained. "Most of the rivers are as black as the Net Ocean by now. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of your habitat."
"Are you saying I should be happy for what I have?!" The dogeza pose was gone now; TonosamaGeckomon was always quick to anger. He stood up and looked on the verge of blasting them all out of the castle.
"No, not at all!" both Oikawa and Daigo desperately reassured him. "We merely sought to communicate the scope of this disaster."
"As black as the Net Ocean," TonosamaGeckomon thought. "That is… a new phrase to me. When I last witnessed it, as an emissary, the ocean was a clear blue." Nothing about a black and toxic ocean had ever struck the Chosen Children as correct, and the digimon game they played used a regular blue color for water, but this was the first explicit confirmation they had received that the ocean here had once been otherwise. "I wonder if that is why oceanic digimon are invading my lands…"
"So are they refugees?" Hiroki said. "Then again, even in our world's history, sufficiently desperate refugees have at times become invaders. For instance, Earth's first great civilizations were destroyed by something called the Sea Peoples…"
"Perhaps future generations will speak similarly of the Sea Digimon," TonosamaGeckomon answered. "I do not know what MetalSeadramon and his ilk are fleeing from, and would not be averse to negotiation. But I will do everything in my power to ensure this castle will not fall!"
TonosamaGeckomon spoke with excitement now; card games and music were nice, but the true passion of any lord, no matter how grim the circumstances, was battle. "Bring me my armor, Geckomon! Children, I hope I can trust you to fight by my side!"
Unfortunately, the sea serpent racing through the swamp was if anything even more brilliantly armored, and was no less enthralled by the prospect of battle.
"Why are you doing this?" Floramon asked MetalSeadramon. "You're not a virus digimon. Why join with the ones who blackened the Net Ocean? Together, we could free all the digital world's seas!"
The serpent laughed. "It was I who blackened the Net Ocean! It may be a problem for a weakling like you, who's not a true aquatic digimon at all, but my Deep Savers army has no trouble thriving in this environment! We can surface now without being blinded by light. And the other Dark Masters promised me control of all the digital world's waterways – including this one!"
The disorienting music resumed, as Otamamon, Geckomon, and TonosamaGeckomon himself all did their best to put on the digital world's most confusing concert. The Hangyomon who accompanied MetalSeadramon beneath the waterline struggled with the sound, and the Chosen Children themselves only avoided it by being castle-side and upwind of the speakers.
MetalSeadramon, however, mocked it. "Do you think a bunch of noise is enough to confuse the Emperor of the Net Ocean? Ultimate Stream!"
A blast of pure power from the sea serpent's nose was enough to pierce TonosamaGeckomon's helmet and slice his topknot clean off. Which meant that the song was having an effect, for the attack was a wide and accurate one, and came only a couple inches away from outright ending the lord's life.
"Bearmon, shinka! Leomon! Leomon, chou shinka! LoaderLeomon!"
"Gotsumon, shinka! Golemon! Golemon, chou shinka! Orochimon!"
"Bakumon, shinka! Monochromon! Monochromon, chou shinka! Megadramon!"
"Floramon, shinka! Ebidramon! Ebidramon, chou shinka! Jagamon!"
There was no choice but to fight, but to hope that together they could make up for what they still lacked in individual strength. An armored lion, two serpents with nine heads between them (along with wings and missiles) and a genuinely new creature; Floramon chose Ebidramon over Togemon in such watery terrain, and Ukkomon granted it yet another perfect evolution. Was it a low-to-ground feline, perhaps a distant relative of Gotsumon and Golemon, or was it just a spiky potato with a leafy tail? Only one thing remained consistent, in every stage except perhaps Floramon's; Oikawa was the only one who did not ever get hungry looking at his partner, and MetalSeadramon, for one, thought potatoes a delicious meal.
Orochimon coiled around the larger sea serpent, eight white heads desperately striving to hold a golden body in place. Jagamon shouted "Smash Potato!" as it fired off its spiky skin in search of a weak spot in MetalSeadramon's armor. LoaderLeomon took the head, its Boring Storm rotating face to face, gold against gold. He hoped his drill mane could do something to clog the snake's deadly nose, that he was not simply exposing himself to a point-blank attack.
Megadramon kept her distance, the only one of the group to do so, but she was no less committed to the battle; she searched carefully for a weak spot, for somewhere on the interlocking Chrome Digizoid armor plates where an explosion might expose the squishy Seadramon body beneath. Circling around, she eventually aimed her "Genocide Attack" for the back of the Dark Master's head, and produced an explosion that singed his hair. She probably did more damage to her own teammate; two of his heads thrust suddenly backwards as Orochimon loosened his grip.
"Sorry about that," Megadramon said.
"Don't worry about it. This strategy puts me in danger; I'm fine as long as it hurts MetalSeadramon more," Orochimon answered, the lead, black head doing the talking.
"Ame no Murakumo!" Orochimon slashed his black tail at his even lengthier foe, but the attack did nothing more than bounce off the armor; if anything, MetalSeadramon was visibly amused.
"You're on top of a Chrome Digizoid mine and you don't even know what it does!" he laughed. "Nothing is breaking through my armor!"
"I'll just have to sink you, then! Fried Charge!" Jagamon ran to the edge of the moat and leaped into MetalSeadramon, attempting to simply crush his opponent, armor and all. He landed on the sea serpent's back, but his weight proved a less significant factor than the digimon's slick coating; Jagamon struggled to even stay on board as he pounded his head into his opponent.
TonosamaGeckomon was wounded and humiliated, but not yet out of the fight. "Good idea, Jagamon-dono, but I think you need someone heavier! If my music won't do it… Tonosama Jump!" The frog certainly had something in size that Jagamon lacked, with a large, fat body that at least looked capable of sinking MetalSeadramon. And accordingly, his opponent took him more seriously, twisting and turning his lower body despite the digimon already on his back; TonosamaGeckomon splashed harmlessly into the swamp.
"Enough of this nonsense!" MetalSeadramon shouted, swimming around in a furious circle. "I've come here to conquer, not to play with you! Poseidon Divide!" A whirlpool became its direct opposite, immense waves of water expelling the chosen children, their digimon, and even the locals in every direction, the vortex of water rising higher than the mountains.