The Steel Claw fell.
The terrifying strike tore through the bound and struggling Eternatus, dragging a shrill metallic screech across its enormous body.
"Pin them onto the bone plates formed by the cave."
"Return them to dust."
Eternatus could only watch helplessly as WarGreymon's massive body closed in and the attack landed head-on.
Boom! Boom!
A deafening explosion echoed out.
Eternatus's head was bitten into by the enormous dragon-shaped claw.
The mountains and wilderness roared as if the sky had collapsed and the earth had split apart.
The ancient trees in every direction were blown apart, and broken branches and shattered leaves scattered across the ground.
A furious roar that pierced the clouds rang out.
Only after the dust and smoke covering the wilderness gradually settled did the battlefield finally become visible again.
Eternatus crawled forward from beneath the shattered ground.
Its enormous body was wrapped in the pungent smell of blood after being swept through by that terrifying shockwave.
Its torn body had almost been cut apart.
From the wounds left by the Steel Claw, several small, snake-like streams of pitch-black energy actually crawled out, twisting and circling in chaos.
Dark light flickered endlessly.
That final blow had been dragged entirely onto Eternatus itself.
Shiko stepped out.
He slowly closed his eyes and took two breaths.
There were several wounds on his body.
The blood flowing from half of those wounds had already stopped.
His battle armor was damaged, and only a thin layer of blood remained across some parts of his body.
He had forcefully taken those attacks head-on.
The energy serpents surrounding the battlefield had even scraped away the final traces of protection on his body.
Eternatus crawled out from the torn ground.
One section of its massive body was covered in pitch-black blood.
Shiko reached up, brushed away the dust on his face, then coldly snorted and shook his head.
The sound of the wind echoed.
Outside the ruined wilderness, countless dark energy serpents flew across the sky.
The energy serpents that had been watching the battlefield rushed over.
However, it was already too late.
Eternatus raised its head again.
Flames of rage burned in its eyes.
Its torn body was covered with bloodstains, as if the bone chains beneath its body had all been hacked apart.
Hiss!
The piercing sound of a blade cut through the air.
This time, Eternatus no longer looked relaxed at all.
Had it really been stepped on twice so easily?
Of course not.
Eternatus was still extremely difficult to deal with.
If this old monster were truly allowed to keep fighting, it would probably be able to force out another wave of terrifying power.
Even though it had only a little strength left compared to its peak state, the power it carried as a First-tier Legendary still could not be ignored.
The bloody marks covering its body made it look as though it had entered a mad, fanatical state.
More importantly, this place was not Eternatus's own home field.
It was not a defensive space prepared for it to live and recover in.
That meant it could not unleash its full power while in an injured and explosive state.
Of course, there was another point it could not display.
Its strange recovery ability had also been suppressed.
Palkia and Giratina had already been dragged down by Shiko and WarGreymon.
No matter how much they wanted to help, they could no longer change anything.
The torn fragments of energy and flesh piled up across the battlefield.
So this battle had never been Eternatus's easy victory.
Instead, it had become its present defeat.
Its power had been badly damaged.
Under this death battle, the torn body of Eternatus finally reached its limit.
The battlefield in the wilderness had already been beaten into a complete mess.
First, it had been shattered by the aftermath of Shiko and the Dark Masters' battles.
Then the chaotic, surging flames, smoke, and energy storms tore through the area again.
Now, behind the battlefield, everything had already changed beyond recognition.
And under that blazing light, Shiko's level had already surpassed the range that ordinary First-tier Legendaries could measure.
At this moment, there was only one thought in his mind.
He only wanted to use the power he had gained from this battle to strike forward once more.
He wanted to see just how far his current strength had reached.
At that moment.
The system notification suddenly rang out.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host, for defeating Eternatus!]
[Reward obtained: Omegamon evolution route unlocked!]
When he heard the system notification, Shiko was slightly surprised.
But the moment he clearly heard the contents of the reward, his entire body trembled.
Holy crap!
He immediately focused on the system reward.
According to normal circumstances, if WarGreymon wanted to evolve one step further into Omegamon, he would need to fuse with MetalGarurumon.
But the problem was this.
In the current Main World and the Digital World, he was the only special existence of his kind.
In that case, who was he supposed to fuse with?
Besides, even if he could rely on the Digimon data and evolution factors in his own body to create a MetalGarurumon, what would happen after the fusion?
Would the Omegamon born from that fusion still be him?
If the consciousness did not belong completely to him, then wouldn't he be putting in all that effort only to benefit someone else?
That possibility was extremely dangerous.
The outcome could even be disastrous.
Fortunately, the system reward he had obtained this time perfectly solved that problem.
He could now directly transform into Omegamon.
And the body after transformation would still belong one hundred percent to him.
There would only be one consciousness inside it.
Him.
For Shiko's future improvement, this was undoubtedly an unimaginably good piece of news.
Just as Shiko was thinking about how to adjust his evolution factors and complete the fusion route, and whether he could directly step into the Omegamon state in one move…
The originally calm sky suddenly changed again.
An extremely terrifying aura and fluctuation spread through the entire space.
Shiko looked up.
The originally peaceful sky was breaking apart at full speed.
Collapsing.
Shattering.
Then, as if someone had split the entire sky from the middle, a blazing crack appeared across the heavens.
The crack tore open the sky and extended all the way into the depths behind the collapsing space, stretching toward an unreachable height.
It looked as if half the sky had been peeled open.
In the next second.
A figure bathed in brilliant, sacred radiance slowly appeared from the end of that crack.
Step by step, it moved closer to Earth.
As that figure gradually became clear, the vast rules and aura across the entire sky were affected.
Even the enormous pressure around Shiko was influenced.
When that figure drew closer and closer, Shiko finally saw its full appearance.
It was none other than the ruler of this universe.
The Creator God who had created everything.
Arceus.
At this moment, after sensing that every plan it had sent out had failed, Arceus finally could no longer remain still.
It had personally arrived.
It had never expected that its arrangement this time would fail again.
Even mighty existences like Eternatus, Palkia, and Giratina had failed at Shiko's hands.
This also meant that the challenger standing before it had already grown far beyond what it had expected.
The order of the Main World was slipping out of its control.
And in such a short span of time, Shiko had already stepped into this realm.
That alone was enough to show just how terrifying Shiko's potential truly was.
If Shiko were allowed to continue developing like this, then very soon, he would cause an enormous impact on Arceus's rule.
That was something Arceus was unwilling to see.
So, before Shiko could fully grow into an existence capable of threatening its position, Arceus would erase him completely.
That was Arceus's true thought.
That was why it had appeared here.
For an existence like Arceus, one that ruled over the universe, any unknown thing that exceeded its control would stir up an intense displeasure within it.
And after that displeasure came absolute suppression.
When the light around the Creator God gradually dispersed, its figure appeared in the Main World.
It was not only Shiko who saw it.
Every human living on Earth saw it as well.
"My god! That's… that's actually the Creator God!"
"Heavens! We're actually seeing the real Creator God!"
"The Creator God has truly appeared in this world!"
"Why did it come here? Why did it suddenly appear?"
This was an existence that had only ever appeared in books.
Today, it had appeared before everyone's eyes.
Naturally, everyone felt shock and disbelief.
The pressure brought by the Creator God was incomparably powerful.
Although that aura did not directly destroy the Main World, it was still overwhelming to every individual.
When people raised their heads and looked up at it, they felt an unprecedented urge to kneel down and worship.
This was the power of the highest existence that governed the universe.
Apart from that spreading divine pressure, what shocked everyone even more was this:
Why had this being suddenly appeared here?
According to human records, Arceus had only appeared once in the entirety of human history.
That was when the conflict between humans and Pokémon had intensified into war.
At that time, the entire world had been plunged into misery and ruin.
Both humans and Pokémon had suffered devastating losses.
They had nearly reached the point of mutual destruction.
At the most chaotic and hopeless moment, Arceus appeared.
It brought both sides to the negotiating table.
And it offered mediation.
It was precisely because of that mediation that the current era, where humans and Pokémon could coexist in harmony, was created.
After the long passage of time, that balance slowly developed into the civilization and society of the present day.
That was the only time Arceus had truly appeared in history.
Aside from that one time, across the thousands of blank years in human history, the legitimate Creator God had never appeared again.
Because of that, its existence had gradually become a legend.
A legend that almost no one could ever witness.
And now.
The god that existed in everyone's heart had appeared once again.
How could they possibly not feel shock and surprise?
But after the shock and surprise came even more confusion.
Why had it not appeared for so many years…
Yet appeared today of all days?
Could it be because of what had happened earlier?
Everyone quickly had an answer.
There was no need to say it.
It had to be because of Shiko.
Only that guy could cause such a massive disturbance.
Only he could attract the Creator God's gaze.
Sure enough, just as everyone expected, after Arceus descended above Earth, its figure flashed in the next second.
When it appeared again, it was already at the place where Shiko had defeated Eternatus.
It hovered in midair.
Its enormous divine eyes looked down at Shiko.
Its expression was deep and unreadable.
The divine pressure spreading from its body made the surrounding space tremble violently.
"You are Shiko?"
Arceus questioned Shiko in an icy, solemn voice.
"Yes."
Shiko nodded.
His blue eyes stared fixedly at Arceus.
After sensing that dangerous aura that made even him feel fear, his heart felt as if it were being torn apart and crushed.
But within his dragon eyes, dazzling flames burned even brighter.
He wanted to fight.
He wanted to have a true duel against this strongest opponent.
"You have courage."
"The life laws within you are completely different from those of this world. Where exactly did you come from?"
Arceus's eyes swept across Shiko's body.
This was Shiko's first direct contact with the Creator God.
Before he even answered, the highest existence of this universe had already seen that Shiko carried traces of another universe.
The life laws and energy flow covering his body were completely different from the Main World.
Although his appearance was similar to a creature of the Main World, his essence belonged to another biological system entirely.
The light around Arceus circled Shiko, and then Arceus continued speaking.
"There is no need for me to ask anything else."
"I only have one question for you."
"As a law not permitted by me, do you believe you have any path other than death?"
"As expected."
Without even needing to think, Shiko immediately prepared for battle.
Why had he not died?
Why had he been able to walk against fate and reach this point?
He had never cared about Arceus's questions.
Instead, he raised his head and asked back:
"Am I some kind of murderer?"
"You appear and decide that I must die no matter what?"
"Good. Then I no longer need your answer."
Arceus's voice turned completely cold.
"I came here to erase you from this universe."
(End of Chapter)
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