After packing the chosen children assembled back at the citadel. Lilithmon has called them back, she stood in front of them now.
"The reason I called you back, because things are progressing faster than expected, another village has been tainted by Ikelosmon" Lilithmon said gesturing towards a crystalline mirror that seemed to grow out of the ground and an sideways 8 etched itself into its surface. It was the infinity symbol which was the symbol of Lilithmon. The surface of the mirror rippled showing a village in flames, a village being slowly. Standing in the middle of the destruction was a digimon that looked like it was part human, part dragon, with some serpent thrown in. The digimon chased after people, and whoever it touched, turned into strange creatures neither human nor were they digimon either, but the agony of transformation was still written on their faces.
"That is Ikelosmon, he is the embodiment of nightmares, a digimon that we wished had never been born in the Tartarus seal, but he was and now we have to deal with him before that becomes the fate of the entire planet" Lilithmon said as they continued to watch the scene depicted on the mirror.
A voice came from the mirror, it was deep and angry, which chilled everyone to the bone "Lilithmon, watch as everything you care about burn, and become the army that free my father" as the voice the mirror crackled and then shattered, and then reformed into the mirror etched with infinity symbol on it.
"We can't let you travel the distance, we don't have the time for you to travel unaided to Primary village, where the mirror that will take you to the green zone is. This mirror will take you there instantly, you just have to touch it, and when you get there touch that mirror too" Lilithmon said sounding deeply saddened by the events that were unfolding.
The Mirror now hummed like the buildings in the city, as Lilithmon began to sing, its surface started rippled showing the image of a village that looked like it was oversized toys "Before you go, if you ever need my help in any way there are obelisks, that dot the landscape of the tainted lands of the green zone leading to where we think Ikelosmon is making his headquarters. These portions of land are protected from Ikelosmon's evil and I can go there without being harmed and losing my powers temporally by being there" she walked up and handed Ankou a map "this will help you find them"
The Digidestined stood in front of the mirror. The situation was now dawning on them, they each stared at the mirror like looking at it was making them feel sick.
"A terminal that's what the mirror was, one of several that were created for Lilithmon to travel instantly from one point to another in the world, but some of them were designed for other things but those tales were only myth until now" Ankou said out loud, and not speaking to anyone in particular. He looked back towards Lilithmon, which steeled his nerves, and he walked forward towards the mirror, and stepped through it. Ankou was instantly in Primary Village, he turned to see if the others would follow. There was no one, he hoped that this didn't mean that the other didn't change their minds about going on this mission.
Digimon Sync Episode 42 "A Nightmare in Green Zone"
Those fears were abated when Sorami Yagami appeared, followed by Damien Star, and Soichiro Kamiya. Even though they were as nervous as heck and looked like they were going to throw up. There was a crowd of people to meet them like these people knew when they were going to show. A man stepped out of it, and walked towards them, from his attire and mannerisms he was probably the mayor of this village. He was very happy to see them. A very uncomfortable for a stranger type of happy. He hugged Soichiro tight enough that he had problems breathing.
"I am glad to see more of Lilithmon's emissaries, I am Mayor Sengoku Takemoto, and welcome to Primary village!" The man said somewhat glowingly "I was told by the one that was here first that you are chosen warriors of Lilithmon"
"What do you mean by another got here first" Soichiro said having forgotten the unclaimed digi chips that had flown away to find their wielders.
"That would be me" said a voice in the crowd, and a girl with hair the color of freshly picked ripe oranges, she stepped out from the crowd, she had an olive skin complexion, and her eyes were the same color as sunflowers. She wore a flame colored tank top, and yellow shorts "I am Kiseki Jinnouchi, I welcome you to my home village" She then winked at them, and threw up her hand in a weird greeting gesture.
"She is going to fit in very well with this ragtag bunch of weirdoes" Sorami said looking at Damien and Ankou before letting out a sigh "do we really need any more unique personalities in this group?"
"Be polite Sorami!" Damien said with arms crossed before walking over to Kiseki "what virtue might you be I am reliability?"
"I am what killed the cat digimon, I am the virtue of curiosity, and my digimon partner is Falcomon" Kiseki said as she pulled out her digivice like they expected her to show proof. "We were returning home from trading with a village a couple miles from here when some flew into my hands. Then this person appeared moments later and gave me the device I have here, and she told me everything that's going and what I have to do"
"it was great for to finally return home after so many years, we never thought she would come back, her parents having died in a fire" The Mayor letting go of the hug to wipe a tear from his right cheek. "The Great Old Ones have smiled upon us with her return, but it saddens me that she comes back to leave on such a dangerous quest. But it was her destiny and I could never argue with that"
"I promise I'll return" Kiseki walked up the mayor and patted him on the shoulder, before hugging him, after a few moments released it. "We need to hurry we need to stop the corruption of the green zone"
"but before I'll introduce you to all my friends" Damien said gesturing to each in turn as he said their names with the last one he gestured to was Sorami Yagami, who looked rather annoyed by the situation they were adding a new member to their group. She instantly hate the new girl, she didn't know why she did but something about her was annoying even though she barely knew her at all.
After the introduction were over the mayor, told them to follow him, he would take them to the other terminal, the one that will take them to the green zone. They come to what looked like a shrine and standing in front of it were girls in what looked like ceremonial garb. The mayor walked up to them chattering in some weird Lilithian dialect, and the girls began to sing, the mirror swirls till a deformed darkened landscape appeared in it. The now five digidestined stood in front of the mirror, as it showed them a nightmarish scene of the aftermath of another village lost to Ikelosmon. More hesitant than previously Ankou was still the first to start making his way towards the terminal mirror his motivation was thinking back to when Lilithmon kissed him on the cheek. Before he touched the mirror Kiseki ran passed him and through it before he did, and he followed right after her.
Standing now in the tainted green zone, Ankou, and Kiseki waited for the others to appear. Ankou turned to face her. "Sheesh I thought I was the only do that" he said trying not to laugh.
"She did say minutes before, that her virtue was that which killed the cat digimon" Falcomon said finally speaking, startling them because he never spoke up till that exact moment.
"Ah I told you repeatedly not to scare me like that" Kiseki said seemingly startled by her digimon suddenly talking "He seems to wait till when I forget he is there, and he always does this when he is right behind me" this made everyone else look at their own digimon partners, who they talk to very often, this made them think that Kiseki was weirder than they thought she was before.
Even with the sun everyone was dark, they could see the sun, but it was giving off no light what so ever, but everything well lit enough so they could see everything around them. Their current surroundings were void of all signs of life, "I think we should investigate the nearest dwelling" said Damian, before making his way toward a house that was to the left of him, the others hesitated before except Kiseki who was the first one to reach it. She knocked on the front door three, before forcefully kicking it in. She entered followed by Damien, and then everyone else. The house looked like any other dwelling but appeared to be vacated. Kiseki entered the kitchen and discovered uneaten food that looked in various stages of being eaten like people were eating breakfast when they had to leave in hurry suddenly.
"This whole thing is giving me the creeps" Sorami said to herself, while she was searching the upper floor with Soichiro, which was like every other place in the house, completely empty, she entered a bed room and looked in their there was still no one, she went to a closet and opened it. Something fell on her, she screamed as she came face with a statue with a horrified expression on its face, it was of a girl that looked like she was scream "Get it off! Get it off!" Sorami shouted, Soichiro ran into the room and pushed it off her. "That was probably a person at one point" she said looking at the statue.
Kiseki ran into the room, having come from the kitchen when she heard Sorami scream, she spotted the statue and gasped "Oh My Greats Old Ones!" she picked it up with the help of Soichiro, and prompt the stone girl against a wall so she stood upright. She placed her hand on the statue's face, and ran her fingers across it, while tears ran down her cheeks and dripped onto it.
"We need to move on, so this wouldn't never happen to anyone" Damian said placing his hand on Kiseki's shoulder. "We have to be strong"
"I know" Kiseki said wiping the tears from her eyes, and regained some of her composure, as she now stepped away from the statue that had been a person.
Ankou lingered staring at the statue, he had been the last to come running because of Sorami's scream, he wondered if he was the only one who noticed that this girl had been the same age Enna, he left several minutes after everyone else, and was the last to leave the house. They continued to search every other house for any signs of life, but there was no sign of any until one house a frying pan hit Damien in the face, it was a middle aged woman with green hair, and a complexion that showed she hadn't slept in days.
"I am sorry" She said helping Damien up "You started me, I was going out to get some water I thought you were one of those monsters, but I should have known better those things are only active at night. My name is Eldora, and you are welcome to stay in my humble home"
They entered Eldora's house, other than her there seemed to be no one else leaving until they entered the kitchen, where there were statues arranged around the kitchen table, their faces in various stages of terror like the girl they had found in her room.
"Mind your manner children, you haven't greeted our guests I thought I taught you all better than this" Eldora scolded the statues like they were still people. "Don't mind them they were born in a barn, at least one of them was, Right Diora" she said referring to the girl statue on the left side of the table. With every word the woman said the twitchier she seemed, like she was on the edge of completely losing it. On top of that it was like child statue was staring at them like they were the ones that did this to them. The woman started making toast, she took a knife and began to slice bread into piece, but because her hands were shaking the slices were very uneven, she came very close to cutting herself a few times, and she began to toast them over her oven. Once she was done she put a piece of toast in front of each statue first then offered some to Ankou, and the others, which each of them declined because the toast looked rather moldy. Eldora then put the knife she cut the bread with into her pocket, and then began to scratch a spot on her knee, the spot was darkened with blood, which dried after she gotten said wound.
"Are you ok" Ankou asked, when he noticed the blood on the woman's knee, he thought something that bled that much had to need some first aid.
"Its fine an old wound I keep scratching open" Eldora said pulling her hand away from her knee, like she just realized she was doing that. She slid her hand into pocket like she was getting the knife again, but she pulled her hand out without it. "This village was once beautiful, it was called the Village of Light, very ironic that it's now covered in darkness. Where are all of you from I knew you are new here?"
"They are from Lilithia, and I am from Primary village" Kiseki said, trying to remain calm in the current situation.
"Lilithia the home of the great old one Lilithmon, and Primary Village, the cradle of life" Eldora smile saying, but she reached for the knife in her pocket again, and withdrew without it again. "I wish to someday take my family there I heard those place are very lovely, I want to see the gardens of Lilithia the most"
"They are very beautiful, visited them with my father once since he is head of the Nazar order, then visited them again the other day, I hope to someday become a full member" Ankou said, thinking back on the beauty of the garden and the breathtaking sight of Lilithmon. He shook himself out of the memory and back to the present, it was too dangerous to get himself distracted by pleasant thoughts.
"Are you guys staying the night here?" Eldora said once again reaching for the knife in her pocket, it looked like she was going to take it out this time, as she had her hand wrapped around its handle.
"Sorry we can't stay, We need to leave" Damien said after several awkward silence from Eldora looking like an escape mental patient, but he know she wasn't to be blame after what had happened right in front of her to her entire family. "I suggest we walk backwards towards the door, we don't know what this woman's warped mind will make her do.
Before they could move an inch the woman started to scream, black oil-like substance like coagulated blood started pouring out of her eyes, and it coated her face, her teeth fell out of her mouth and dropped to the floor, and then her entire body was covered in the stuff that had been pouring from her eyes, she then started to growl gutturally. She was now a sentinel, one of those nightmarish creatures that had been shown in the mirror. She touched the statues of her children and they also transformed into sentinels. "You failed us digidestined, Ikelosmon wants you dead" and then they all began to vanish "Dead before dawn, see you at nightfall!" it said before they were completely gone.
Ankou was the first one to leave the house, and he instantly leaned over and threw up against a tree "What… the… hell… was… that… she… was… a… person… and… then… she… was… a… monster?" he said between retching up what was left of his breakfast.
"She must have been infected and took longer to succumb to it, it was unlucky we bumped into her right before it happened" Damien said contemplating what they had witnessed "We need to get to the first obelisks before night fall it's the only place we can be safe, We will figure out our next move once we are there" he pointed to a line of spots of light in the distance, but with all the searching they had done he didn't know if they would make it in time. The digidestined began their trek towards the first obelisks, each of them keeping track of the suns progression in the sky.
"That was horrible" Sorami Yagami said trying to forget the old woman that had turned into a monster, that imagine would probably haunt her for the rest of her life.
"I know it was like something that clawed its way out of my nightmares, and materialized into reality itself" Ankou said feeling a chill run down his spine, while he remembered it. "If we don't defeat Ikelosmon and get out of here in time will we turn into one of those things, if you see me ever turning into that you have permission to kill me before I completely turn"
"Same for me, I beg you to no let me become a monster!" Sorami said as she tried to stop the shaking in her hands.
"No one is going to become one of them, weren't we told that our digi chips will protect us from that happening?" Soichiro said reminding everyone of that fact. "But that doesn't mean they can't kill us though we need to move quickly and get to where to where we are going"
"This was once the luscious green zone, now it's a nightmarish wasteland" Kiseki said to herself looking at scenery that had once been a beautiful vista, it was like the happiness had been sucked out of the landscape.
They continued through the ruins, of the place that had once been filled with life, and people going on with their daily lives until it had been taken from them by Ikelosmon, every step they took was nerve racking because of what happened with, they were almost at the obelisk when the sun crested in the distance as it slowly disappeared into the horizon. The ground they were walking began to feel wet, it wasn't the water type wet it was gooey kind like they were water through pudding. Something just dawned on Damien, he grabbed hold of Kiseki, pulling her with him as he picked up speed and shouted "Run" to everyone else. They watch as behind them the ground congealed into Sentinels who just repeated the word die. The digidestined ran for the lives as they were chased by sentinels, monsters that looked like congealed blood, and smelled of rotting flesh. Every few minutes one of them nearly got grabbed by a sentinel.
The obelisk was within sight, but they just had to get theres, it light a beacon of hope right in front of them. They slide into the obelisk's light, and the Sentinels hit something leaving a black smear in the air. One of them managed to stop, and it formed in to Ikelosmon, his serpentine mouth formed into a sardonic sneer, "Digidestined you can't stay there forever, you are here to destroy me but sadly you are coming to your own deaths." It said before turning back into the black oil that it had transformed from.
When they finally could relax enough, they set up camp for the night, they wordlessly set up their sleeping bags, after he was done Ankou went to check out the obelisk itself, it was made out of chrome digizoid like the buildings in Lilithia, it was tall structure, and in front of was a pedestal with Lilithmon symbol on it that looked like a sideways eight. Ankou went to his knees in front of it, and wished for help and answers to what he needed to do. A light shot out from the obelisk and enveloped Ankou, all of sudden he was in a white room and Lilithmon was standing in front of him, and she was singing to him.
"Hey, it's Alright, Stand tall, one of my chosen heroes…" Lilithmon sang, her voice reassuringly, as she looked towards Ankou.
"I know I have to be strong but Ikelosmon, has shown us our worst nightmare, the confidence I had coming here is gone I don't know if we can defeat him" Ankou said trying not to show how shaken he really was.
"I'll see what I can put together, I will help no matter what it takes to do so I promise you that" Lilithmon said as she appeared inch away from Ankou, and placed her left hand on his cheek. Her expression that of compassion she wanted to do exactly what she said no matter what happened to her. That's when the light faded and Ankou was in front of the obelisk again, but his confidence was renewed at least he was not in the depth of despair like when he had arrived there, he knew that Lilithmon was good at keeping her word, everything he was taught by his father showed him that she would follow with her word.
He returned to the others, as they sat around, they hadn't noticed his departure, "Where did you go?" Damien asked as spotted Ankou joining them.
"I went to take a leak" Ankou lied, not knowing if he should tell them now about Lilithmon, and her promise to help them.
"OK sorry I asked" Damien said looking at Ankou with suspicion, he knew his friend was hiding something, he didn't know what it was, and he wasn't going to force him to tell either, he knew Ankou would tell them the truth later.
"Looking out there and knowing Ikelosmon is waiting for us out there, runs chills down my spine. What have we gotten ourselves into?" Soichiro asked out loud "are we strong to face something like this we are just children, what age is the oldest person I know I am 14, and so is Ankou and Sorami, How old are you Kiseki 13?"
"So I am 13, Lilithmon gave me the power to fight, and that's what I am doing, it's not like we have any other choice in that manner, it's our fate now live with it" Kiseki said looking rather annoyed with what Soichiro had been saying.
"This is all Lilithmon fault great old ones damn her, dragging us into her problems!" Soichiro said, and spat into the fire, but at that moment something stuck him across the face, a red hand print appeared on his cheek, Kiseki had just slapped him hard across the face.
"How dare you speak such blasphemy, She did not chose she created the very thing that did, and it will empower you to face the evil ahead" Kiseki shout in Soichiro's face, she was going to slap him again, when Damien grabbed her arm to stop her.
"We are all stressed, and we say things we might regret later, we are digidestined and we not suppose attack each other" Damien said looking sternly at his companions "that's what Ikelosmon probably wants for us to rip each other apart so there be no one to stop him, I know the chips will choose other wielders but who knows how long it would take for that to happen"
Soichiro rubbed the bruise on his cheek, it throbbed under his fingers with pain, this brought back his common sense "OK sorry I freaked out, I didn't mean what I just said" he said knowing that he had meant some of it but didn't want to fight anymore, this place was mentally messing with him so he might not have meant any of it. He looked out at the smear that had once been a sentinel, it was still there like a big oily finger print and an ominous sign of their future.
-To be Continued-
What will be the fate of each legendary digidestined, and what has Ikelosmon have in store for them, to answer this questions and more please tune into the next Digimon digital monsters
Happy Halloween ^_^ to all my readers