Welcome back everyone to another Digital Story!

I think you can guess what we're at now, and it's time for Pierce's journey to continue!

Miracle Quest - Part 6

"Is it just me, or are these floors getting bigger?" X-Veemon couldn't help but ask as currently they were flying in the air, the group mapping out the floor as best as they could.

"It's not just you. This floor definitely is bigger than the 30th floor," Pierce frowned, sitting on Thunderbirdmon behind Annette. They'd been on this floor for about 3 months already, and needless to say they were all getting a bit impatient.

"I'm thinking it's even bigger than the 20th floor was… I'm thinking he put even more effort into the 40th." Annette said with a frown of her own as she sighed "We've already been in this damn game for almost half a year at this point… dammit I want to get you two home already!"

"Thanks for thinking of us, but we're more worried about you." X-Veemon said as he flew next to them with a smile.

"Your body's probably been moved to the hospital by now, that or your family got some medical equipment in your room." Pierce said thoughtfully. "I just hope they made sure to remember to move your arms and legs enough for you to not atrophy when you'll wake up."

"Mom's a nurse, so I should be good on that at least." Annette said with a sigh "But still, my family at least knows I'm safe, but yours has no idea if you're alive."

"Something that's always worrying me," Pierce sighed. "I want to believe they'll find a way to know I'm alive. Maybe Mirei might be able to tell them something, but more importantly with everything going on, all I can do is try to clear this game as fast as possible."

"And even if they don't have any proof back home, they'd believe in us." X-Veemon added "They know we wouldn't go down without a hell of a fight."

"But still, we'll go back home once this crazy bastard is dealt with… we gotta." Pierce added the final part with a sigh.

Annette frowned at that. "Hey…since we want to try and speed things up…do you think maybe it's about time we tried working with some of the Guilds? I think they've already set up a base on this floor a few months ago," she offered.

Pierce frowned a bit, thinking about it carefully. "I guess we SHOULD give it a shot," he sighed.

"And if nothing else it couldn't hurt to get some help," X-Veemon commented. "Let's fly back to town."

"Hopefully everyone's gonna be smart and there's not gonna be any smug morons like there were in SAO." Pierce added with a sigh.

"I doubt it, people like that got weeded out pretty quickly honestly." Annette sweat dropped with a slight nervous chuckle.

"This is still the biggest city in this game so far." Pierce said thoughtfully as the group walked through town on the sidewalk, the roads of the place actually being used by cars that were made by players themselves. People had been in this game for long enough at this point they'd made their own economy to have a semblance of a real life as they made their own jobs to help out others.

"Its nice to see people still trying to make a semblance of normality…even if we're probably disrupting that right now," Annette mused, as true enough a lot of players were stopping and gawking, particularly at Pierce. Not surprising really seeing as by now Pierce had gained quite the reputation, namely as the biggest trailblazer there was.

"Think we can ask for directions or would that just get us swarmed?" Pierce sweat dropped.

"I think its too late for that…" Annette sighed, right as there was a small tremor…and they saw what appeared to be a dust cloud…a dust cloud being made by a stampede of players running right at them. The reason…was fairly obvious.

"Oh sugar honey iced tea." Pierce groaned, before quickly reaching into his pocket to tap on his scroll, with Veemon glowing before he turned into Lighdramon.

"Yeah, I don't blame you." Lighdramon sighed, before Pierce and Annette climbed onto his back and they ran away from Pierce's horde of fans. A horde of fans that were…keeping up more than they should have been able to. And no, they were NOT using mounted Digimon. However, as much as they were empowered by their…enthusiasm…they were no match for Lighdramon's speed and endurance.

"That's the kind of fame I'd rather NOT have," Pierce groaned. He seriously thought rabid fans were only a thing in anime.

"Well…I guess it can't be helped. You're pretty much the reason we've progressed so far already," Annette sweatdropped. "Still…if this is gonna be normal, finding the Guild Base might be a problem…"

"I mean, they'd have some kind of bright sign on their building to let people know where they are, right?" Lighdramon asked, looking off in a certain direction.

"They probably would, yeah." Pierce figured with a shrug.

"I think I see them then." Lighdramon said idly, causing the two humans to turn around suddenly… and stare at the bright neon sign on one of the buildings that read 'Safe Haven Guild' with a small 'Prospective Members Welcome' just below it.

"...I'm not sure if this is convenient…or just plain gaudy," Annette sweat dropped.

"Kinda both honestly." Pierce said with a sweat drop, before he shook his head "Ah well, gift horses and all that. Let's go." he added as they climbed down the building, with Lighdramon reverting back to Veemon once they hit ground level before they walked into the building finally.

The inside of the building was fairly sparse, but it still had enough to show that this was a base, including a few trophies and banners. "Welcome to the Safe Haven Guild," a receptionist said, the group looking towards said table…to see a male Player who looked dead bored. He was even reading a book without so much as looking at them.

The three of them shared a look as they approached the table "Yeah, how do we join up?" Annette asked curiously.

"Go to that table over there and just enter your information, the guild leaders will see you after that." he said without looking up still as he pointed off to another table.

"Right… thanks." Pierce said with a sweatdrop at the guy just not looking at them at all, before they followed his directions and went to another table that had a computer on it. They did as instructed, putting in their information, but literally a few seconds after, they immediately saw a list of names…and their names were abruptly moved to the top, meaning the Guild Leader wanted to see them now, as evident by a door opening and a rather nervous looking player ushering them through.

Right as they were going through the door, that same player had gone out of the door and well…

"Hey, Guild Leader is wondering why we only found out Pierce showed up to join AFTER he imputed his own data. Pretty sure that's supposed to be why we have you here."

"Wait, what?!" was the startled response from the person at the reception, and despite themselves, the group couldn't help but smirk at the reaction.

Once they were in the Guild Leader's office, they saw a dark skinned woman with silver hair sitting at the desk, wearing a dark blue long coat, with a robotic, beetle like Digimon that Pierce quickly checked through his analyzer to find it was called Ballistamon, standing next to her.

"Well, it's nice to finally meet the man of the hour." the woman spoke up with a smile "My name is Amelia. It's an honor to finally meet you Pierce. You've helped out a lot of our members over the months we've all been here."

"Well, I'm just doing the right thing." Pierce shrugged with a smile.

"Not like we'd start acting like monsters just because it's a death game now, we're not assholes like in SAO." Annette said with a snort.

"Yes, we more or less used THAT series as a guide of what NOT to do," Amelia chuckled a bit.

"At least that series was good for something then," Pierce snorted. "Anyway, business time."

"Right." Amelia nodded as the two of them sat down in front of her, with Veemon grabbing himself a stool and moving it so he could sit next to his partner "That still gets to me whenever I see it." she commented idly.

The trio shared a look at that, before they nodded "Yeah, about that… since we're actually thinking about joining this time… we figured we should be honest with you at the very least." Pierce said.

"Honest how?" Amelia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not just a plain old program or hacker made mon." Veemon said "I'm a true blue, born in the digital world, partner Digimon."

"And I'm a Chosen Child. Specifically, the Chosen of Miracles." Pierce added, holding up his Digivice, which by now was almost fully repaired (they'd figured that due to not being near their own world, the repair process was being slow… at least they assumed) as the Crest of Miracles appeared on the screen briefly.

Amelia paused at that, doing pretty much nothing. Heck, they could almost imagine a loading screen going through her mind. "I… wait… seriously?"

"Yeah, weirdest part? Before he ended up here, he was basically going through the 02 series, smack dab in the middle of the BlackWarGreymon Arc… except they're dealing with BlackWarGreymon X, along with an Arukenimon and Mummymon who can go Ultimate." Annette said with a sigh.

"Apparently an apt comparison is that 'canon' was running on Normal Mode but we're on Hard Mode." Pierce said with a snort "No spoilers please by the way. Butterfly effect might kick me in the ass if I know what to expect."

"Right…the last thing we'd need is to accidentally cause something on the level of Flashpoint," Amelia groaned. "Still…I have to say…its kind of comforting to know we've got an ACTUAL Chosen Child helping us."

"And I fully plan to live up to those hopes…even if I'd rather we not blare it to the world," Pierce chuckled a bit.

"Oh don't worry, I know how to keep a secret. Plus, everyone's figured out by now that the asshole who made this place hates you so much everytime he sees you he seethes and looks away." Amelia snorted.

"In short, around Pierce is the best place to plan and not have to worry about that asshole watching or listening," Annette agreed. "And since we're on topic, our current plan is well…we're still looking for the Digimental Temple. So far we've always gone for those first, THEN went for the floor boss so we can open the next floor as fast as possible."

"Yeah, we've been keeping track on how you seemed to do things in the last floors," Amelia chuckled. "That's why we've been looking for the Temple too. We figured we'd be able to share the location once we found it."

"And the help is appreciated," Veemon chuckled. "Though…I'm guessing you haven't actually found it yet?"

"Unfortunately no, but we've got some clues and we THINK we've narrowed down a general area," Amelia said, before quickly sending them a message, one that contained the coordinates. "I won't go for any long winded ceremonies, so let's add you both into the guild real quick," she said, before giving them access to allow them to input their names. Quickly doing so, Amelia accepted them into the Guild as they were added to the roster, followed by Pierce and Annette getting a ping as they found a new piece of equipment in their inventories, which soon revealed to be pauldrons which bore the emblem of the Guild on them, showing what appeared to shooting stars, but in a position that made it look like they were rising up.

"Gotta say, the equipment to show we're part of a guild is a nice touch," Pierce mused.

"Yeah, it took a while to agree on the pauldron, but glad we picked that," Amelia chuckled.

"We'll be sure to let you know if anything comes up. Thanks again for the coordinates," Veemon chuckled as the group soon set off to check if the Digimental Temple was indeed in the area of the coordinates.

"No wonder we couldn't find this thing until now," X-Veemon grumbled, right before firing his attack, blowing open the entrance. As it turned out, unlike most of the other Temples so far, the Temple on this floor was literally underground, with the entrance easily missed if one was searching in a wide area. "You'd think he didn't want people finding this place."

"With how things are going? I wouldn't put it past him," Pierce frowned.

"He knows you're basically stealing the Digimentals and using them to get stronger, so he wants to make it as hard as he can for you, but probably the reason they aren't fully impossible is some kind of sense of pride." Annette said thoughtfully.

"He does seem like the type that would let his pride get in the way of everything." X-Veemon said with a sweatdrop as they walked in finally. The inside of the Temple was that of a factory of some kind. However, it wasn't long before they found the 'gimmick' of this temple.

"So basically we're in a Digimental Temple that looks like a factory, is underground…and full of traps," Pierce said, less than amused as they'd quickly avoided a spike trap. "This is the strangest Tomb Raider level ever."

"That or a super hard Megaman level, take your pick really." Annette said, crouching under a crusher trap that would have turned her upper body to pulp most likely.

X-Veemon shouted as he punched through another trap that almost sprung on them "Either way, this is probably going to be an annoying trek through the place… and the guy's most likely gonna unleash something big on us once we get to the end."

"He's kind of predictable like that, yeah," Pierce agreed as they soon started making their way deeper in. As expected, they were hit with quite the gauntlet of traps. And by gauntlet they mean Akiyoshi basically put just about every trap he could think of. Spike traps, pendulum of doom, flamethrowers, oil traps, acid traps. Even an out of place and over sized guillotine.

"Okay, the guy is just trying too hard now," Annette deapanned as they just avoided a trio of heavy objects consisting of an anvil, a safe, and an honest to God piano.

"He's starting to dip into ACME territory… think we're gonna start to find painted tunnels or piles of food as obvious traps?" X-Veemon couldn't help but wonder, chuckling a bit to himself.

"That'd be a yes," Pierce snorted, clearly trying to not burst out laughing as they looked where he was looking…and saw a tasty looking cake just lying on the ground randomly. "Points to him, he at least didn't make the trap part other than the bait obvious," he said, noting there were no obvious trip wires or the like.

The group shared a laugh at that before they continued on, pointedly ignoring the trap…and any conveniently placed 'shortcuts', weapons rooms, and really all sorts of stuff catered to people who never watched cartoons…or were just that desperate.

After several more unhinged traps of the sort, they reached a set of large double doors with the crests of Hope and Light on them… that was chained shut with several padlocks.

"Oh no, the door is locked. Whatever will we do?" X-Veemon said sarcastically…before charging up his attack, Pierce shifting Pandora X into a firearm as well. The door barely lasted 3 seconds before it was blown wide open, revealing the room where the two Digimentals sat.

"We're here to take shit and chew bubblegum." Pierce said as he walked in casually, shotgun in hand.

"And we're all out of bubblegum." X-Veemon added with a chuckle as he followed his partner up to the digimental altar, Annette following them with a sigh.

"Seriously you two." she said, even though she smiled a bit as X-Veemon reverted back to Veemon, while Pierce held his hands up, standing in front of the two pillars, wiggling his fingers a bit.

"Take your pick." he said idly, waiting for her to choose, before she summoned a Gabumon from her Digivice, grabbing herself a copy of the Digimental of Hope before she used it on the Gabumon… and it turned into a Moosemon.

"What the heck?" Veemon blinked in confusion.

"Yeah, I don't get it more than you guys do." Annette said with a sweatdrop.

Pierce and Veemon both sighed at that, before turning their attention back to the Digimentals, with Pierce quickly swiping the two… and he narrowly avoided a pair of cuffs grabbing onto his wrists.

"Jeez! Guess he wanted to try and keep me here." Pierce said in a bit of surprise.

It was at that point they heard some distant loud noise… with the room gradually starting to shake "Looks like he's sending something our way." Veemon said in worry.

"Wish we could greet it with overkill." Pierce said, looking down at his Digivice "Buuut it still doesn't feel repaired enough for Perfect. So, Digimental it is! Pick your poison buddy."

"Let's give Hope a shot." Veemon said, cracking his knuckles.

"With how things have been going so far with you getting your own, original evolutions, I'd say I don't know what to expect, other than probably something Greek, and Light will give you Egypt." Annette noted idly.

(Play Break Up!)

"Well then, let's see what we're getting! Digimental Up!" Pierce said with a grin as he held up the Digimental of Hope as it started glowing, with Veemon jumping up towards it with a grin of his own.

The void appeared once again with data flying through, as Veemon, the Crest of Hope and the Digimental of Hope appeared, settling into the familiar triangular formation. "Veemon, Armor Evolution!" Veemon called out as the three came together. A flash of light occurred as Veemon's body was covered in a white light, white feathers flying through the air as behind him was a faded image of Patamon, which was replaced by an image of Angemon, followed by HolyAngemon, and finally Seraphimon. As the images flashed, Veemon's form seemed to shift, becoming taller before the light cleared with a burst of white feathers, revealing his new form.

Standing there was a humanoid Digimon, clearly a Dragon Man like a few of his other evolutions, wearing golden armor on his torso, shoulders, forearms and legs, a white toga covering his body as well, a large, mirror-like shield attached to the armor of his left forearm, his head covered by a golden helmet that had a small, golden horn on the snout, and in his right hand was a long polearm with a curved blade "Hero of Hope! Perseumon!"

Digimon Analyzer: Perseumon

Perseumon. Vaccine Type. An Armor Level Dragon Man Digimon. A Veemon that evolved through the power of the Digimental of Hope, he has gained holy powers thanks to it. Digimon that don this Digimental will gain the power of the very stars that shine down upon the world, bathing their enemies in their light. His special attacks are Gorgon's Gaze, unleashing the power within his shield and turning whatever it hits to stone, and Harpe End, charging up energy in his blade before unleashing a final attack with it.

"Wow… that looks really badass." Annette said, blinking as she looked at Veemon's newest evolution.

"Huh… people don't talk about Perseus as much considering how famous Herakles and Achilles are, so maybe you'll spread the word some more." Pierce chuckled.

"We'll see." Perseumon snorted, before he got ready when the shaking got more intense… and the wall in front of them was suddenly broken open as a long neck smashed through it.

"That's a Brachimon! Guess he's starting to send Perfects after you!" Annette said as she recognized the large, Brachiosaur based Digimon.

"Then we'll just have to see how far the new Digimentals stack up against them," Pierce frowned as Perseumon was already on the move. Darting forward, he took the initiative, striking Brachimon with Harpe, leaving a shallow cut on its body.

"Not a very big wound." Annette said with a frown.

"Maybe not, but the fact he can do damage to a Perfect anyway just means it's gonna be a little slow." Pierce said with a grin as he grabbed Pandora X and jumped ahead to help his partner, striking at Brachimon's legs.

Brachimon growled and tried to hit them, but both of them were faster, weaving through the rather clumsy attempts to step on them. The two took full advantage of their greater speed and dealt damage wherever they could, even if Brachimon's own hide was making that a slow process. Even so, the increasing number of scratches and small gashes was still proof of their progress. Eventually though, Brachimon got wise and changed tactics, among other things rearing up on its hind legs and slamming down with an Aqua Shatter, causing a wave of ice and water to surge out.

"Scatter!' Pierce shouted as everyone immediately got out of the way, evading the wave for the most part, but still taking some hits, forcing them back further and naturally splitting everyone up a bit. With the group scattered, Brachimon shifted its focus and homed in on Perseumon. Opening its mouth, it charged up an attack and fired its Brachio Bubble, sending the countless bubbles flying at Perseumon.

However, Perseumon smirked under his mask. "Big mistake," he said right before raising his shield. The bubbles hit the shield, but were promptly absorbed into the shield's reflective surface…which promptly returned the attack at twice the speed, meaning Brachimon couldn't evade and was sent skidding back till it hit a nearby wall. "Let's not prolong this," Perseumon frowned before raising his shield again. "Gorgon's Gaze!" he declared as lines formed in the middle of the shield before the reflective surface opened up to reveal what looked like a cobra head, but rather than a lower jaw was the mouth of a woman, the eyes open wide as laser beams shot out of them towards Brachimon.

Brachimon tried to move out of the way, however the lasers hit it's body right in the neck, causing stone to spread around from the area where it was hit, Perseumon quickly moving the lasers downwards to hit one of Brachimon's legs, encasing it in stone connected to the ground. With the large Digimon immobilized, Perseumon raised his weapon, energy gathering in it as it shifted and transformed into a scythe as he prepared to finish this. Brachimon saw that, and quickly reared back his head, preparing for a Hammer Head, before swinging forward. Unfortunately, it was too late.

"Harpe End!" Perseumon called out as he swung his weapon while charging forward, the fully charged scythe blade meeting Brachimon…and cutting through, decapitating the enemy Digimon, and causing its body to immediately shatter into data.

(End Song)

Pierce whistled at the sight "Damn, way to go buddy!" he said with a grin.

Perseumon chuckled, before the Digimental flew back towards Pierce's scroll as he turned back into Veemon "Eh, you know how it is." he said, scratching his nose with a grin.

"You two just never cease to be powerhouses." Annette chuckled as well.

"Hey, you're not too bad yourself. You just gotta take the chance to show off." Pierce told her with a smirk.

"I doubt I could handle a Perfect just yet though." Annette said with a sweatdrop.

"You'd be surprised sometimes." Pierce said, grinning, before his face instantly became serious and he tackled her down… right as something flew over them.

"What the heck?!" Annette gasped in shock, seeing some black feathers falling down before she looked up as Pierce got back up, seeing a Karatenmon flying overhead and glaring down at them "Oh great, another one, and Akiyoshi's probably controlling this one directly too."

"Honestly, this is becoming par the course with that guy," Pierce groaned. "You still okay, Veemon?"

"I'm probably gonna be demolishing a buffet later, but I can keep going," Veemon nodded. "At least we got a chance to try out the other one immediately."

"True," Pierce chuckled as he quickly held up the Digimental of Light. "Digimental Up!"

(Start up Break Up again)

The void appeared once again with data flying through, as Veemon, the Crest of Light and the Digimental of Light appeared, settling into the familiar triangular formation. "Veemon, Armor Evolution!" he called out as the three came together and a powerful light burst forth. Veemon was covered in light with a pink hue as behind him a faded image of Salamon appeared, before she was replaced with an image of Gatomon, then Angewomon, and finally Mastemon. As that happened Veemon's form grew larger before the light dispersed, revealing his new form.

Like Perseumon, the form was humanoid, wearing a white robe under silver armor, the greaves on his legs being the same gauntlets on Nefertimon's front paws, large white wings coming out of his back, a pharaoh's headdress over his head with a silver, draconic shaped mask that let his eyes peer through, while in his hands appeared a long, golden staff with a bird molded into the top of it "The Eternal Light! Tutankhamon!"

Digimon Analyzer: Tutankhamon

Tutankhamon. Vaccine Type. An Armor Level God Man Digimon. A Veemon that evolved through the power of the Digimental of Light, gaining power over, well, light, thanks to it. Digimon that don the power of this Digimental will gain the power of pure light to banish attacks are Horus Call, charging energy in his staff before firing it at the enemy, and Final Rest, summoning a pyramid and dropping it on the opponent.

… is somebody laughing?

"That name!" Pierce shouted, laughing his ass off as he rolled around on the floor… and even Tutankhamon himself was hunched over, snorting as he tried to cover his snout.

"Seriously guys?" Annette said, facepalming, even as she let out an occasional snort herself.

Karatenmon, or rather Akiyoshi however, clearly didn't share their mirth. "Take this seriously you annoying brat!" he roared as he dived down, aiming straight for Pierce.

However, to his shock, his charge was stopped, Pierce holding Pandora X with a grin as he blocked Karatenmon's swords "Hey now, being called a brat by someone like you… leaves a bad taste in my mouth!" he shouted, swinging his weapon out and pushing Karatenmon back, much to Akiyoshi's surprise.

"That's…that's impossible!" Akiyoshi snarled. "You damn cheater! How did you make yourself this strong?! How did you subvert my systems to this extent?!"

"Easy." Pierce said "I've never been playing by your rules in the first place."

"Which is why you're never going to beat us." Tutankhamon suddenly said from behind Karatenmon before sending him flying away with a kick.

"This is my game! My world! I won't let you ruin it!" Akiyoshi roared as Karatenmon suddenly started moving faster than normal.

"Not bad moves, but I can deal with that," Tutankhamon smirked as energy gathered at his staff. "Say hello to my little friend! Horus Call!" he declared as the energy was launched and turned into an energy construct of a large falcon. Said falcon immediately flew after Karatenmon who initially evaded it, but the falcon kept going after it, getting faster and faster till eventually they were in a fast paced aerial chase, the falcon gaining on Karatenmon, before eventually ramming into him, causing an explosion that launched it against a wall.

Growling, Karatenmon pulled itself out of the small indent it had made, before flaring out its wings and firing forth a blast of feathers, which Tutankhamon quickly spun his staff in front of him, blocking the attacks, before surging forward and nailing Karatenmon in the gut, followed by a kick to the head which sent it flying away again.

"Okay, I'm getting hungry, so I don't want to deal with you anymore," Tutankhamon said using another Horus Call to send the falcon after Karatenmon, grabbing it with its talons and dragging it across the ground, before finally holding it in place. "Good night! Final Rest!" Tutankhamon declared as a large pyramid appeared over Karatenmon and was abruptly dropped on it, crushing it under the weight, causing it to break into data instantly.

(Theme end)

"Okay, he's not gonna drop another on us, right?" Annette spoke up, causing Pierce and Tutankhamon to look around for a bit, and a few minutes later after no sign of a new enemy, the latter relaxed as he reverted to Veemon.

"Looks like we're good now," Veemon sighed a bit.

"And we got two new evolutions for you." Pierce grinned, holding up his scroll as the Digimental of Light went into it. "Though realistically… these are probably gonna be obsolete soon. I think my Digivice is just about repaired enough we can get you to Perfect again."

"So I can become AeroVeedramon again… or something new if I go from X-Veemon." Veemon hummed, before he grinned "Looking forward to finding out!"

"Trust me, I'm pretty sure you're gonna like it." Annette said, smirking as she eyed her menu, looking at Stingmon in her party before she closed it and the three of them finally left, ready for more adventures.

And done!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and the two brand new Digimon.

If you're curious, I DID take some inspiration from the Fate series for Perseumon and Tutankhamon... especially since Tutankhamun had just come out in the JP version of FGO, lucky me.

I'm sure you can guess what's coming soon as well, and I hope you look forward to it, because...

The Adventure Evolves