Chapter 36: Oh No, I've Become Calumon?!
On the other side of the Village of Beginnings, the air hung heavy with the scent of ozone and singed data. Elecmon, despite his drooping tails and the clear exhaustion pulling at his features, forced a strained smile. He had just finished explaining the village's grim situation to Mizuki, but his concern for his friends quickly overrode his own fatigue.
"Mizuki, what about you two?" Elecmon asked, his voice raspy but earnest. "Did you find what you were looking for out there? You didn't run into any danger, did you?"
Mizuki paused. He exchanged a brief, heavy look with LadyDevimon. "Actually, about that..."
Taking a slow breath, Mizuki laid it all out. He didn't sugarcoat the events. He detailed the surge of power they obtained from Andromon, the sudden, vicious ambush by Devimon, and finally, the tragic fate that had befallen Bearmon in Toy Town.
At first, a spark of relief had danced in Elecmon's eyes upon hearing that Mizuki and LadyDevimon had grown stronger. But the moment Bearmon's name was mentioned—and the cruel end he met at Devimon's hands—that spark was snuffed out, replaced by a suffocating gloom.
"Bearmon..." Elecmon's voice trembled, his claws digging into the dirt. "How... how could this happen?"
The distance between Toy Town and the Village of Beginnings meant the two rarely saw each other, but their bond was obvious. Bearmon had been a gentle soul, tirelessly sending shipments of toys to bring joy to the freshly hatched baby Digimon.
To think such a kindhearted Digimon had fallen victim to Devimon...
A low growl vibrated in Elecmon's throat. The more he pictured Bearmon's demise, the hotter the fury burned in his chest. It was a righteous, blinding anger that seemed to incinerate the very exhaustion weighing down his limbs. Static electricity began to crackle violently through his fur, snapping in the air around him.
Mizuki reached out, intending to offer a comforting hand, but a sudden, blinding pillar of white light erupted from Elecmon's body, forcing him to shield his eyes.
"W-What's happening to me?!" Elecmon cried out, his voice echoing from within the luminous cocoon.
While Elecmon panicked, Mizuki's eyes widened in immediate recognition. He knew exactly what this phenomenon was.
Rings of binary code materialized, swirling rapidly around the small mammal. Under Mizuki's watchful gaze, Elecmon's form began to stretch and shift. His quadrupedal, beast-like frame elongated, rising onto two legs as his silhouette morphed into something distinctly humanoid.
Elecmon, Digivolve to...!
Aegiomon!
The brilliant light shattered into shimmering data fragments, revealing a new figure. Standing before Mizuki was a Digimon with the youthful appearance of a human child, sporting small horns and the lower body of a goat.
"I... I evolved!?"
Aegiomon stared down at his new hands, flexing his fingers. The crushing fatigue from moments ago was entirely gone, replaced by a surging, overflowing torrent of raw power. His young face was painted with absolute shock.
"That's right," Mizuki said, a faint smile touching his lips as he lowered his arm. "You've evolved into the Champion-level Aegiomon."
Admiration laced Mizuki's tone. Elecmon had been stuck at the Rookie level for a long time, his data reserves slowly filling up over countless battles. Add in the fact that he had been constantly surrounded by the DigiDestined and the ambient energy of their Digivices, and it made perfect sense. All he needed was a powerful emotional catalyst to push him over the edge.
The Digital World, after all, was deeply reactive to the heart.
What truly amazed Mizuki, however, was the specific evolutionary path Elecmon had unlocked.
Aegiomon. A Champion-level, Vaccine-attribute, God Man Digimon.
Despite his unassuming, child-like stature, he harbored a dormant power that completely eclipsed ordinary Digimon. This was a lineage that resulted in Jupitermon—a literal 'God King' possessing absolute top-tier Mega-level strength.
Normally, an Elecmon achieving this specific, mythological digivolution was incredibly rare.
'Could it be related to Devimon?'Mizuki mused silently, studying Aegiomon as the goat-boy tested his balance.'Devimon absorbed Bearmon's data and forced his way onto a Demon Lord path. Did the world react to that?'
His thoughts drifted to the entity known as Homeostasis—the will that desired absolute stability in the Digital World. Maintaining the delicate equilibrium between light and darkness was the core of that stability.
But a nagging detail tugged at Mizuki's mind. Elecmon hadn't evolved while Mizuki was away. He evolved the exact moment Mizuki returned and delivered the emotional trigger.
Was it just a coincidence?
Or... because Mizuki had been marked by Homeostasis, did his mere presence act as a catalyst for Digimon digivolution?
As the implications crashed over him, Mizuki's expression twisted into a mask of sheer horror.
LadyDevimon, floating silently beside him, caught the bizarre shift in his demeanor. She tilted her head, her crimson eyes blinking in curiosity. "Mizu?"
"LadyDevimon..." Mizuki muttered, staring blankly ahead. "I think... I might have messed up on a catastrophic scale."
LadyDevimon: "???"
Mizuki's mind raced. If he truly possessed a passive aura that guided and accelerated Digimon digivolution, then Devimon's impossible leap into NeoDevimon—while somehow retaining his sanity—suddenly made horrifying sense.
It also explained why Devimon kept relentlessly targeting him, a completely ordinary human, instead of focusing solely on the actual DigiDestined. A cunning creature like Devimon operated purely on the principle of maximizing gains and minimizing risks. He must have sensed Mizuki's unique, battery-like nature from the very beginning.
The more Mizuki analyzed it, the more his soul left his body.
'Wait. Does this mean I'm the biggest traitor here? Have I been accidentally buffing the enemy this whole time?!''Am I... Am I literally Calumon?!'
The image of the cute, squeaky mascot with the crystal on its forehead flashed in his mind. Mizuki violently shook his head, trying to throw the thought out of his ears.
Hell no! He was a hardened survivor! A man determined to punch Ultimate-levels in the face with his bare hands! He was absolutely not some adorable, walking digivolution-dispenser!
Aegiomon, having finally acclimated to his new bipedal stance, turned around just in time to see Mizuki shaking his head like a madman.
Blinking in confusion, the goat-boy looked up at the towering dark angel beside him. "What's wrong with Mizuki?"
LadyDevimon chuckled softly, a fond smile gracing her dark lips. "I don't know. He's probably formulating a brilliant master plan to save the world."
As expected, LadyDevimon's affection came with a heavy, rose-tinted filter.
Aegiomon's eyes sparkled with awe. "Is... is that so? Amazing..."
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"There are more and more injured Digimon coming in..."
Kari knelt in the dirt, her small hands hovering over a battered, whimpering Koromon. A deep sense of pity and a maturity far beyond her eight years reflected in her warm brown eyes.
Over the past few days, she had spent every waking moment with these creatures. She had grown deeply attached to their simple, earnest natures. Seeing them covered in scorch marks and lacerations made her own chest ache with phantom pain.
But unlike the others, she wasn't entirely helpless.
'Please, get better,' she prayed silently.
A soft, pure white light blossomed from her palms. It wasn't blinding, but rather gentle and warm, like the morning sun breaking through winter clouds. As the radiance washed over the Koromon, its jagged wounds began to knit together, the corrupted data purifying and restoring itself at a visible rate.
Around the makeshift medical camp, dozens of other injured Digimon watched in absolute silence. Their eyes held a mixture of deep respect, awe, and longing. To them, the small girl bathed in white light wasn't just a human child; she was a living saint, a beacon of hope descending into their fractured world.
Just then, Mizuki and Aegiomon arrived at the edge of the clearing. Mizuki stopped in his tracks, his eyes reflecting the gentle glow.
"Is this... the power of light?" he murmured, genuinely captivated by the sight.
Aegiomon, standing beside him, nodded solemnly. "That's right. Kari is a truly special child."
The God Man Digimon crossed his arms, his tone filled with reverence. "I don't understand the mechanics of it, but she can channel that light to heal our wounds. If it weren't for her, so many of the Digimon here would have faded away into raw data by now."
Mizuki watched Kari's tireless back as she moved to the next patient. It made perfect sense. The Crest of Light inherently possessed purifying and restorative properties. Add the fact that Kari was the sole chosen vessel for Homeostasis, and her spiritual affinity was practically off the charts.
Still, a thought crossed Mizuki's mind. He glanced down at Aegiomon, a sly, knowing glint in his eye.
"By the way," Mizuki asked casually, "did Kari awaken this healing power right after seeing Tai get injured during one of their training sessions?"
Aegiomon whipped his head around, his jaw dropping in absolute shock. "Eh?! How did you know that?!"
Mizuki just smirked, shrugging his shoulders with an exaggerated sigh of deep wisdom.
"I just knew it."
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