The sudden earthquake caught everyone off guard—though fortunately, none of them were the sort who could be rattled by a mere tremor.
Setting aside the Digimon for the moment, Taichi and Hikari were from Japan's 11th Ward, a quake-prone island nation. And this one, coming swiftly and leaving even faster, was over after just a single violent jolt.
"What was that?"
Taichi looked around blankly. Zero, however, felt something stir inside him.
"No idea. I'll go check first…"
Even as he spoke, Zero had already dashed back through the passage, returning to Myotismon's throne room. Peering out the window behind the throne, he froze—because a brilliant aurora now spread across the sky.
Seven-colored neon light unfurled like streaming ribbons, draping the heavens. At the center of that aurora, a vortex-like wheel of light spun slowly.
"…What on earth?"
Zero had not expected the sky to suddenly cough up something this bizarre. But… auroras?
In the original Adventure, the gate that sent the first generation of Chosen Children into the Digital World appeared alongside an aurora. This sudden celestial phenomenon—could it also be related to a gate?
As he hesitated for that split second, the vortex and aurora vanished completely, as if they had never appeared at all.
The others, rushing in behind him, only managed to catch the final flickers before they disappeared. Not understanding the situation, they traded puzzled looks.
"What was that?"
With the Digital World in turmoil, even the slightest disturbance could herald something major. A celestial event of this scale was impossible to ignore.
"…Myotismon is dead, so the communication jamming he set up should be gone. Gennai-san—where is he right now? I should go ask him what's going on."
Since they'd already secured the gate, delaying their return by a few days wouldn't matter. After all, in the Real World it'd amount to only a few minutes.
Zero felt a faint, creeping unease. He needed to know what this phenomenon meant—
And if even Gennai, the acting agent of the Host Computer, didn't know, then only the one who caused it would.
"Alright. Leave the communication to me…"
Wizardmon pressed down the brim of his hat. Though Zero was far more accustomed to the Metal Empire's tech-based communication systems, Wizardmon had his own set of communication magic.
Zero had absorbed plenty of the Metal Empire's dark-tech by now, mastering a good portion of it. But when it came to mysticism, he was utterly clueless.
Myotismon, being the Undead King and an occult expert as well, had prepared plenty of magical mediums throughout his castle. His long-distance communication relied on bat-like familiars carrying messages.
Different trades, different tools. Wizardmon was the expert here. He fiddled with a nearly floor-length mirror, muttering and manipulating sigils. Soon, the mirror's surface rippled like water, light shimmering across it.
After a few moments, the familiar elderly face appeared within.
"Who's that?"
It was the Yagami siblings' first time seeing Gennai. Zero immediately spoke, briefly introducing both sides.
"This is Gennai-san. The Tags and Crests were provided by him."
Strictly speaking, they came from the Host Computer behind him. But since Gennai was the acting agent, he could be taken as the outward expression of the host computer's will.
"Cough… cough…" The old man in the mirror let out a rough cough, his deeply lined, weary face easing into a faint smile.
"…Well done. Congratulations on defeating Myotismon and achieving Mega. You've all far surpassed this old man's expectations."
"We just followed what was agreed on… Gennai-san, about that phenomenon just now—do you know what caused it?"
Gennai's hard-won smile disappeared, his expression clouding again.
"…Just now, a large-scale spatial tremor occurred deep within the Dark Area. What you felt was… merely the aftershock."
Zero stiffened. According to Gennai, a spatial tremor was what happened when two worlds collided momentarily. The aurora they saw was a visual effect produced when the wall between worlds blurred.
Zero fell silent. If the tremor came from the Dark Area, it had to be related to the Dark Army.
"The Dark Area is difficult for even me to observe clearly. But a spatial disturbance of this scale… is anything but ordinary. Most likely, the Dark Masters have begun acting."
Hearing this, Zero calmed instead.
"Yeah. Honestly, that tracks with what I expected…"
He had already predicted this. The Dark Masters' invasion window had two boundaries:
Upper limit — Spiral Mountain completed;
Lower limit — Myotismon destroyed.
Anything within that range was predictable.
"So the Dark Masters may be attempting to activate Spiral Mountain. And the tremor earlier was the result of a 'test run' of the program?"
If Spiral Mountain fully activated, Server Continent, File Island, and the entire Digital World would be forcibly twisted together.
Since Server Continent remained intact, the program clearly had not fully launched.
Meaning the disturbance earlier was likely only a trial run.
And if a trial had already begun… the official launch couldn't be far away.
Zero would've loved if the program behaved like some buggy beta-game and stayed in 'testing' for three years, but obviously the Dark Masters weren't that kind of performance artists.
"So in short, we don't have much time left…"
Oddly, saying it aloud brought a steadying calm. In the end, the outcome would be decided by force.
Zero had already attained Mega. His companions were reliable. This wasn't an unwinnable fight.
In the original Adventure, the eight Chosen Children were practically shoved onto the battlefield unprepared—scrambling, their team constantly at risk of breaking apart, their main DPS AFK half the time and when he finally logged in all he did was KS kills.
And even then, they won.
Zero's group was smaller, but at least here the Tamers could personally jump in and punch someone if needed. Mentally, that made things so much easier.
Mindset was a subtle thing—useless most of the time; if you're going to die, you'll die regardless…
…But occasionally, mindset alone could decide a battle. One teammate sulking could tilt the whole team, turning a winnable fight into a loss.
Back on File Island, when Zero had just awakened his human memories, he'd panicked beyond belief—any decent opponent could've wiped the floor with him.
Forget the Dark Masters or the power behind them—even DemiDevimon would have stomped him.
But now? The Dark Masters were no longer unreachable monsters. They were enemies he could actually fight.
"In any case, since the Dark Masters have begun preparing their full-scale invasion, we can't sit idle. We need to prepare our countermeasures."
"Of course. Before the Dark Army begins the full invasion, they will send vanguard units to test the waters. Recently, there have been frequent small-scale spatial disturbances across the Dark Area. Combined with the large one just now… likely many Digimon have already been sent into the human world. And…"
Gennai hesitated. His expression said he had more to say.
Zero frowned. "And? What else?"
"Because the two worlds are colliding repeatedly, their space-time laws have begun to synchronize to some degree."
Zero's heart tightened. This was something he already knew. With Spiral Mountain's completion, the two worlds would gradually synchronize, their time-flow eventually becoming identical—erasing the massive time difference.
"Don't tell me the time difference is already gone?"
"Oh, not immediately…"
Zero exhaled. Not the worst-case scenario, then. The worlds still flowed at different speeds—just… no longer as dramatically as before.
A thought struck him—
"…Then, from the moment I left the Real World and returned to the Digital World, I've been here for months. How long has passed over there?"
Originally, it should have been one or two days.
But now…
"…Two weeks. That is—half a month."
...
At the same time, deep within the Digital World—within its most abyssal depths.
A nightmare realm nurturing impossible darkness—where beings known as "Demon Lords" are born.
Rumor said this place was impossibly hidden, reachable only through special routes—just like that mysterious Dark Ocean…
Without the right route, one could wander the entire Digital World and never find an entrance. But once the correct "login address" was discovered, one could "jump" here from anywhere instantly.
A bat-like Digimon flitted through the darkness. A creature as weak as it should never have been able to travel here freely.
But something it carried radiated a particular aura—enough for the lurking predators of the Dark Area to begrudgingly ignore it.
After all, a tiny DemiDevimon offered barely a mouthful of data. These powerful hunters wouldn't bother with such scraps.
The Dark Army was mobilizing, preparing for their grand invasion. With war approaching, even the predators had grown more restrained, focused on conserving strength rather than playing games.
Yet despite wandering everywhere, DemiDevimon could not find the one it was supposed to meet. Panic crept in.
"What do I do… Myotismon-sama's orders…"
As it muttered anxiously, a ghost-like silhouette materialized from the darkness.
"Oh? What's this? A lost little visitor… Are you looking for someone?"
"!"