-102 years ago-
"You no longer deserve that Digi chip" Soichiro picking up Ankou's chip, and throws it to the ground "you are a traitor and I'll make sure everyone knows that, if I ever see your face again I'll kill you where you stand" he turned to Damien, Rei, Kazuma, and Sorami, and he left followed shortly by them, leaving Ankou alone with a dying Lilithmon, one of her hands clasped between both of his. "We will hunt down anyone that worships to the false old one" he walked into the hallway to see robed bearing the order "I kill you all" his Digimon digievolving, behind him, his Digimon partners now surging through his hands, he grabbed the first robed person by the face, frying his face behind the mask he wore, bloody tears came from the eye holes and bubbled on its surface, and he then pushes the person hard into the wall, blood-smeared the wall as the person fell.
"By the Maker, what are you doing?" Damien said, gasping in confusion.
"I am doing what I said I was doing; I am hunting down. And exterminating those who worship false deities, I don't believe in the Kamuy of life…anymore!" Soichiro said. Before clotheslining two more people wearing the robes with the infinite Eight symbols on it.
"We are the DigiDestined, we are the chosen, we were supposed to save humanity from darkness, and evil, but you have seemingly fallen?" Kazuma said, averting his eyes from Soichiro "I am not going to be any part of thi…"
Kazuma was interrupted by Soichiro, who put his hand in his mouth "If you aren't with me, you are against me" he said, before frying his fellow DigiDestined's brain, then Soichiro looked over at Sorami Yagami, Damien Star, and Rei, who all hesitantly nodded because they didn't want to be killed like Kazuma. "We are now the Guardians of this world, to protect it from corruption, and from itself, we are starting by killing everyone in this temple, then we hunt down those on pilgrimages, and other sects of this order, the order of Life Kamuy, Order of Nazar, whatever it's called we will purge it all, No matter where they are hiding"
Digimon Sync 02 Episode 9 "Meet me in the Crowd"
-Location Unknown-
And the static returned on every screen in the room it was different this time, it wasn't a voice like the Lorrigan threat, but displaying the words WE FOUND YOU! It repeatedly scrolled across the screen over and over. There was another shake of the archive, but this time no explosion, it was like someone was pulling it backward, yet another shake as it seemed to impact something.
"The front door is opening, how the heck are they doing this, and who is doing this" Virgil said, running from the room, followed by the rest of the DigiDestined. They go to the door as it opened, standing at the door was a lot of people cloaked in the shadow of the archives massive opening door, the darkness started to recede, from the mass of strangers.
In an instance, Juniko saw a world in flames, Takajin and his Digimon, dead on the ground in front of her, she began to panic, when it suddenly cleared, when Enna stepped in front of her and began to sing, the the shadow that cloaked the people at the entrance cleared, she knew them all, they were the people of her kingdom. They were now welcoming her and the DigiDestined with a chorus of beautiful music, as some of the crowd had musical instruments, she felt for once something she hadn't felt since fleeing the oasis, love beating in her chest, and fresh tears streaked from her eyes and down her cheeks.
Once the song was over, Enna turned to the Digidestined, Juniko specifically "Princess, Welcome to the festival of Lilithmon, you and your fellow Digidestined and the refugees are invited to attend the festivities" she said, with a smile on her face, her cheeks pinker than usual. she had her usually loose hair tied up in a very ornate ponytail, revealing her ears, her right ear had an interesting tattoo, it was a symbol from Lilithian script.
Sakura pointed at the ear "Interesting Tattoo, what does it mean?" she asked, trying not to be nosey.
"All my people have these, we get them at the age of maturity, but mine means desire, as in a desire for a better future" Enna cheerfully, answered Sakura, not minding it at all "as the rest I am very proud of my heritage, We the Lilithians, who still worship Lilithmon, in all her gloriousness and beauty" Enna then turned to the crowd and shouted, "The Princess Juniko has returned!"
The crowd started singing again, but repeated "Behold! Behold! The Princess Juniko has returned, behold! Behold!" it was beautiful like the song before it, and more so.
Juniko cheeks flushed red, she wiped away the tears from her cheeks, it had been several months since the incident at the oasis, she hadn't returned to Lilithia, she hadn't expected this kind of welcome
A heavyset man, stepped out of the crowd, his thick silver-white beard, completely hiding neck, his left ear tattoo visible, a different glyph than the one Enna had, his attire more ornate, too, his skin tan, and slightly cracked from dryness, he made his way to Juniko and bowed deeply to her. "Do you remember me, I am the Nispa of your Kingdom and the head of its defenders, I am Aterui Soma, I am pleased to let you know that everything is secure, and the chichikew has been dealt with"
"chichikew?" Juniko asked, not knowing that word, she hadn't completely learned the native language of the Lilithians, a complex and rich language her royal adviser had been trying to teach to her since she was named princess of Lilithia.
"Sorry, your highness, I thought you knew that word, it means monsters in our native tongue, may it be big or small, it's still referred to as a chichikew, we will talk about this later I shouldn't have brought it up, it's a celebration, we should be joyous, I'll meet with you in your meeting chamber later" he rejoined the crowd, but his massive frame still made him noticeable even in the large crowd.
Enna joined the crowd, but gestured, for the DigiDestined to follow "my little big sister will follow in a bit with the refugees, she is preparing them for the festival, with fresh clothing, we brought them in via the mirror… oh crap we forgot to let you know this first" she said, clapping her hands, apologetically sighing, then slapping with both hands.
"Calm down, please!" Juniko said while placing her hand on Enna's shoulder "just lead us to this festival"
Enna took a deep breath, and relaxed, and began to gesture anew "Follow me, Digidestined, we have a feast of traditional Lilithian from our various cultures, native or immigrated under our asylum" she said with cheerful delight.
Digidestined followed Enna Kamiya, as the crowd followed, but kept their distance, but now and then there was someone shouting Lilithmon we love you, which made flush with embarrassment, every time it happened, but the crowd after a while started to disperse, but the sounds of partying people didn't, it got louder the further into the city they got. After several minutes they finally reached a heavily decorated building, it was covered in banners in a strange language, accompanied by very beautiful runes. When they were close enough to the building, people in strange garb appeared doing an unusual dance involving flapping their arms and bringing part of their clothing into the back of their head, making it look like wings, these outfits shared the runes, that were on the decorations.
"This is one of our people's traditional dances, we are a proud people, we want to show our princess happiness, showing her our love, which is unlimited, for the Elder Kamuy," Enna said excitedly "We know some of the people of the world have turned its back on you, but we will never do the same, they will also never silence us"
"It's good to hear that," Juniko said, memorized by the rhythmic dancing, they were passing, it was beautiful as everything else they had previously been shown.
Very ornate huge double doors began to open in front of them, revealing a heavily decorated dining hall, each table was completely covered, from edge to edge with delicious-looking food, the smell was also intoxicating, Sakura hadn't seen such food in her lifetime, seeing all this was overwhelming to her, and she didn't know where to start. Each DigiDestined took a seat, with Juniko sitting at the head of the table. After they were all seated, more people entered, all dressed in robes, bearing the mark of Lilithmon, it was the mark before the fall. Before Kurokami Brigade, they were following the nispa, who was dressed in the same attire, as the dancers now, with the ornate runes.
"These are the surviving members of the Order of Life Kamuy/Order of Nazar, they weren't in the temple when Soichiro Kamiya purge happened, they were home or out of the kingdom," The Nispa said, pointing to each of the people that came in with him.
"My name is Asir Rera, I was in the temple when it happened, I survived by hiding, I know what you are going to ask I am not over a hundred years old, I went back to the temple years later looking for the door of endings and ended up trapped with the rest of my people," said an old woman, with wild grey hair, silver eyes, dressed in a very ornate robe with Lilithmon's sideways eight on it, but the rest of the people with her had the same attire. She was the only one to take a seat near the DigiDestined, the the seat beside Juniko. "To answer the question you were probably thinking, None of us blame you for what happened, our love is eternal for the great Kamuy of creation"
"How hard is it seeing, everyone you knew back then, back and not even aged a day from the time you last saw them?" Virgil asked, gesturing to the Nispa.
"It was weird at first, seeing my childhood friends, still children, but it was great to be reunited with them, I still love them like it was yesterday, I introduced them to the family I started when growing up after I escaped, my grandchildren are now friends with them," Asir said, a serene smile spread across her face. She stepped aside and let the other survivors tell their stories, even though, those weren't as dramatic as Asir's, but the DigiDestined sat and listened to each of them recite them in great detail, by the end they shook as they became being near Juniko, even if they still looked at her like she was a being a great reverence it was quite disconcerting, and off-putting, even when Juniko was named Princess as a placeholder title to be dropped when she ascended back to being the great old one Lilithmon again, she never actually felt special at all, so those times when people treat her differently than she was used to didn't seem right and made her uncomfortable, and she sometimes wished they would stop it, but other times enjoyed the attention it was confusing how she flipped flopped those two emotions. She then thought this was probably more uncomfortable for Sakura, who had been up to recently been treated as a pariah when she had no Digimon partner, now having people in awe of her being a DigiDestined, and seemingly admiring the scar across her nose, like it was now a badge of honor instead of it is a symbol of prior abuse. It was great how her life had changed, from getting a Digimon, still figuring how that had happened. That's when her mind wandered back to her missing friends, Mikuni, Hikaru, and Takajin, her boyfriend, all of them were still missing, she could be searching for them instead of wasting time with the luxury, and decadence of this festival, they could be in danger, and she is just sitting there, getting ready to stuff her face with great food, and laughing with friends and perfect strangers, she then put a pin in those thoughts, she needed to be her to lift the morale of her people, they needed her right now.
That's when the lights in the room went out and a spotlight shined on a single location near the entrance, and the sound of female voices singing, a woman stepped into the spotlight, followed by a very intimidating looking bald man, with goatee and mustache combo, both were dressed very fancy garb, a younger girl joined them, looking like she didn't want to be there at all. The spotlight followed them as they walked to the center of the room. And then the singing stopped and a voice announced we now welcome representatives from the Empire of Strelegard, another man stood nonchalantly at the entrance in leather armor but had the expression he wanted to murder everyone in the room and drink their blood.
"Oh they came, Empress Merle, Emperor Marcus XXV, and Princess Myna from the Strelegard Empire, they seem like the only ones to answer the invite," The Nispa said excitedly "I hope people from Dark Haven showed up too" he looked over to Juniko, who seemed like she was going say something about that and decided it was the right to let him know that kingdoms fate.
Princess Myna was glaring a hole in the DigiDestined like they had farted in her presence, that's when the huge bandage over her nose was noticed, it marred her pristine face, and she then in a huff turned to look away from them. Whatever happened to her face had happened in the last couple of months.
"What happened to your f…" Leoben was about to ask when Princess Myna interrupted him with such a venomous expression, it made his entire sprout with goosebumps, and made him wish he had never spoken at all.
"None of your business, you little rude Street rat," Myna said, with even more venom in her tone, it made Leomon wish he was not there right now.
"Myna, mind your manner these are the DigiDestined, and you are in the presence of the great old one of life," Empress Merle said, chastising her daughter, but with a semi-sarcastic tone, that didn't seem to mean what she had said. "Pardon, my daughter, she has had a terrible few months but she is right its Strelegard business and nothing for you to be concerned about"
Emperor Marcus just nodded in agreement and seemed to wave something or someone off, Lance Xandros, had stood up and now was taking his seat and he was now staring murderously at Juniko, while the Emperor ignored it like nothing was going on.
Juniko mentally brushed off what was going on, and took a deep breath, she already didn't like the Strelegard Empire, they were so full of themselves, it reminded her how Mikuni use to be, when they first meet, even though in the years she was an egocentric with no filter on what she said, but an under a layer of caring was there, and she loved Mikuni and missed her deeply as she was still missing, and she didn't know where she was.
Like the Nispa understood there was a tension in the room, he tapped his finger on a goblet and was going to give a toast "To the return of old friends, and Life Kamuy, and such a great feast to welcome you to our humble kingdom during this festival, this is no place to be hostile, we should be celebrating" He said, taking the empress's, then princess's hand and then Juinko's hand and kissed each in that order, it seemed like a gesture of welcoming, Sakura seemed annoyed yet relieve that her hand hadn't been kissed too.
"All these ruins are beautiful, but even in the history of Lilithia books, none of this has appeared in them and I have read every book in the archive about this kingdom, one of those being the vale of Lilithia codex, please can you explain this" Virgil asked, giving a curious look.
Nispa clasped his hands together like he was giving the question a lot of thought, then he nodded "Its about time I clear up that matter, Lorrimon right after the fall, went to archive, she deleted everything to do with most of this culture, hoping to convince we were gone, we found a note talking in great detail about this pinned to the wall of one of the house, she probably put it up and this kingdom returned, I bet all of it has returned too and you just haven't noticed" he said like it was a matter of fact.
"I guess I'll have to check that section of the archive again to see if you are right, I would love to learn more about this beautiful culture," Virgil said, with a renewed excitement. "up until last year when Lilithia was restored unexpectedly the only representatives of this culture Tajiri Kamiya, even though he is a generation separated from it, but far enough removed sadly that all tradition is gone"
Myna rolled her eyes, at what Virgil had said like he was talking complete nonsense "There is no culture more historically robust, and elegant as the Empire of Strelegard, Other cultures may come and go, but my empire is timeless" she said, with an air of pomposity, her father beside wordlessly nodding in agreement.
"In my opinion, no culture is superior to any other, just different in some ways, that makes them interesting," Virgil said, ignoring the disgusted look Myna was giving at that moment, but also noticed briefly that once again that Lance Xandros was heading back to standing where he had been before, he hadn't noticed the big had come to the table, wondered why he keeps coming to the table, without speaking or getting food, was it when someone said something offensive to his royalty, that he had come to the table to kill someone, and was waved off from doing so, and was probably him this time, that he had almost tried to kill.
"In my opinion, the Lilithian culture should have remained gone, its 100 years' behind civilizations when it comes to advancement, they are now an out of touch backwater trash of a kingdom, and calling the great old one a princess as a placeholder title is beyond revolting, she was born to common blood, she was a bodyguard to an actual prince, that is now missing, some protector," Myna said, with a shit-eating grin on her face, despite the bandage on her nose. "they should have gone Beyond the door, instead of coming back"
"even though it may be true, that was very uncouth of my daughter, she should apologize to the reincarnation of Lilithmon, even though she hasn't fully awakened yet," Emperor Marcus said, with mock sincerity.
"I am sorry" Myna replied, also with mock sincerity, like she didn't mean it at all, like her father who spoke before her, they were starting to get on the nerves of everyone that wasn't from Strelegard, even the Nispa had stopped smiling.
"This is a Celebration of the Life Kamuy, please can we not argue over pointless matters," The Nispa said, cutting off Virgil, who had been getting ready to stand, and give his opinion angrily about what Myna had said about the Lilithian culture. The Nispa was trying to bring order to the degenerating situation.
"Yes let's stop," Juniko said, not taking her off eyes off Myna and Emperor Marcus, since the Empress hasn't even spoken a word since arriving, or even ate anything on the table like it was beneath her to partake in traditional Lilithian cuisine.
After a few minutes' things seemed to settle in the room, and almost everyone went back to eating, it was back to celebrating, as Virgil ate, he openly glared at Myna, but she ignored him and ate her food. The tension the room remained high and palpable, and probably could be sliced with a knife, so anything could probably happen.
-Edge of Lilithia-
Like a dark curtain, the chaotic darkness Engulfed the landscape Surrounding Lilithia, it was sinuous, like flesh, in it was unknown how many Sentinels it kept out of sight, the number probably in the thousands, congealed blood monsters, that if they scratch you, will eventually turn you into one of its ravenous hordes, it now seemed like something was trying to push its way through it, which started off looking like a shapeless blob, before starting to take the shape of a person, head covered in a mask that looked like it was made from the same substance as chaotic darkness, but in the center was a huge toothy grin that spread from ear to ear, it was one of the dark DigiDestined, who began to laugh revealing it was Temujin and all his madness, he had seemingly escaped his imprisonment by Erebosmon. "time to break another mirror" he said to himself, as the mask began to drool, which he spattered everywhere as he began to laugh again, as he dropped to his knees.
-To Be Continued-
Will the Digidestined stop Temujin in time, or will he destroy another traveling mirror, To answer these questions, and more, please tune in to the next Digimon digital monsters!