Chapter 41: The Chosen Children vs. Devimon
[Mega Flame!]
The roar tore through the night air. Devimon's clawed hand had been reaching toward the Village of Beginnings, his dark intent locked onto Kari, but he was forced to pull back. Bolstered by the burning intensity of Taichi's emotions, Greymon did not hesitate. The massive dinosaur planted his feet, the earth cracking beneath his weight, and unleashed a torrent of searing fire straight at the fallen angel.
High up on Greymon's broad shoulder, Taichi gripped the rough scales to steady himself. Through the blinding glare of the flames, he locked eyes with Aegiochusmon. They barely knew each other, having crossed paths only recently, but the heat of battle forged an instant, unspoken understanding between them.
A single, sharp nod from the boy was all it took.
'Leave it to me,'the Digimon's fierce gaze seemed to say.'Let's get to work.'
Aegiochusmon lowered his stance, his muscles coiling like tightly wound springs. The ground shattered beneath his powerful hooves as he launched himself forward, moving with a speed that defied his muscular frame. Devimon had just raised his dark wings to deflect the lingering embers of Greymon's attack, leaving his guard completely open. Seizing the perfect window, Aegiochusmon vaulted high into the air, twisting his body to deliver a devastating, momentum-fueled kick squarely into the demon's midsection.
[Steel Faith!]
"Guh..." Devimon choked out a gasp, his crimson eyes widening in genuine shock. "That wretched... Elecmon!"
The sheer kinetic force radiating from his abdomen sent a jolt of pain through his dark data. A heavy, grim realization settled over the fallen angel. He had completely dismissed the small, red-furred Rookie earlier, treating him as nothing more than a nuisance. He never anticipated that this insignificant creature could achieve an digivolution packing such tremendous, bone-crushing power.
But Aegiochusmon had no intention of giving his enemy a moment to breathe. The golden armor on his arms sparked violently, and blinding arcs of electricity surged around his tightly clenched fists, illuminating the dark battlefield.
[Paralyzing Blow!]
"Ora! Ora! Ora!"
A relentless barrage of heavy, lightning-laced punches rained down on Devimon. The strikes fell like a torrential downpour of steel and thunder. Each impact drove the demon further back, the high-voltage electricity scorching his pale skin and causing thick wisps of black smoke to rise from his body.
"Remember this well!" the beast-man roared, his voice echoing with raw, untamed power. "My name is now... Aegiochusmon!"
With a final, deafening battle cry, he poured every ounce of his electrical energy into a devastating uppercut. The impact sounded like a thunderclap. Devimon's feet left the ground entirely, his tall, slender frame sent hurtling backward through the air like a broken ragdoll.
Landing gracefully on his hooves, Aegiochusmon immediately turned his head toward Taichi, who was already advancing with Greymon.
"I'm in position on my end!"
"Right! Now it's our turn!" Taichi yelled back, his fists clenched in determination.
He quickly scanned their surroundings. The dense cluster of trees and the fragile nursery of the Village of Beginnings were now far behind them. The heavy knot of anxiety in Taichi's chest finally unraveled. This had been the entire point of their silent exchange. He needed Aegiochusmon to act as the vanguard, using brute force to physically drive Devimon away from the vulnerable, injured Digimon. Out here in the open wasteland, they could finally cut loose without holding back.
"Greymon! Let's go!"
"I've been waiting for this, Taichi!" the great dinosaur bellowed.
Even as his massive legs pounded across the dirt, Greymon's jaw unhinged. Deep within his throat, a terrifying accumulation of thermal energy began to glow, casting a harsh orange light over the dark terrain. The moment Devimon's tumbling form slowed to a halt, Greymon planted his feet. A searing, concentrated pillar of fire, vastly hotter and denser than any attack he had used before, erupted from his jaws.
[Mega Flame!]
"What?!" Devimon gasped, struggling to right himself.
He stared at the incoming sea of fire sweeping toward him like a devastating tsunami, genuine shock finally piercing his arrogant composure. He had encountered Greymon species in the past. Even the most exceptional among them had absolutely no reason to possess a Mega Flame of this terrifying magnitude. His crimson eyes narrowed against the blinding glare. No, was this even a standard Mega Flame at all? The sheer width of the blast radius and the volatile, explosive pressure radiating from it completely shattered his previous combat data.
If Mizuki had been standing there to witness it, his sharp eyes would have recognized the anomaly in an instant. What Greymon was unleashing right now was absolutely not a standard Mega Flame. Driven by the pure, unyielding courage of his partner, the attack had mutated. It was a high-tier technique normally restricted to the rare Greymon variants possessing the X-Antibody, or the highly aggressive subspecies known as GeoGreymon.
[Mega Burst!]
'Tch... In my current state, taking that head-on is suicide,' Devimon calculated rapidly, his mind whirring through the grim probabilities.
Even from a distance, the ambient heat threatened to singe his dark data, promising total incineration to anything caught in its path. Without a second thought, the fallen angel flared his tattered, leathery wings. Catching the updraft generated by the intense heat, he launched himself violently into the night sky, using his superior aerial mobility to completely bypass the devastating inferno below.
Strangely, as the massive fireblast scorched nothing but empty earth, Taichi showed no signs of frustration. Instead, the boy simply looked up at the escaping demon, the corner of his mouth curving into a sharp, knowing smirk.
High above, Devimon caught that fleeting expression in his peripheral vision. A blaring alarm of pure, instinctual dread went off in his mind.
An ambush?! He twisted his neck, desperately searching the dark clouds above him. Was there time to evade?
No. It was already too late.
A blinding flash of blue lightning shattered the darkness. Before Devimon could even twitch his wings to alter his trajectory, a massive, crackling sphere of high-voltage electricity slammed directly into his exposed back. The concussive force blasted the newly airborne demon straight back down toward the earth.
Hovering in the space Devimon had just occupied was a massive, insectoid beast. His hardened, blue exoskeleton gleamed with a cold, metallic luster under the pale moonlight, and his four rapidly vibrating wings whipped the surrounding air into a violent gale. It was the Champion-level digivolution of Tentomon—Kabuterimon!
"Don't give him a single second to breathe! Follow up with another attack!" a young voice commanded from above.
"Understood, Izzy!" the giant insect buzzed in response.
[Mega Blaster!]
A deafening explosion rocked the sky as another sphere of concentrated static discharged from Kabuterimon's horn. Down below, Taichi kept his eyes glued to the massive insectoid figure streaking across the night sky, cheering loudly for the boy clinging tightly to Kabuterimon's armored back.
"Nice work, Izzy!" Taichi shouted over the roaring winds.
"Taichi, keep your guard up! Now is not the time to relax!" Izzy called back, his hands gripping his laptop tightly even in mid-air.
"He's right!" Aegiochusmon yelled, his hooves stomping the ground as he prepared to charge again. "While Devimon is still disoriented, everyone hit him with everything you've got! Stack your attacks!"
"Understood!" Greymon and Kabuterimon roared in unison.
"I'll take the lead!" Aegiochusmon declared.
"Damn you... all of you insects—" Devimon hissed, struggling to push himself up from the cratered earth.
But before the demon could even finish his curse, Aegiochusmon was already there. Propelled by the explosive strength of his hind legs, the beast-man closed the distance in a fraction of a second. He pulled his arm back and drove a vicious, crackling fist straight into Devimon's pale face.
[Paralyzing Blow!]
"Guh!!!" Devimon's head snapped back violently.
The sheer kinetic force was devastating enough, but the high-voltage electrical shock that followed instantly flooded his nervous system, locking his muscles in a rigid, agonizing paralysis. Having delivered the crucial stun, Aegiochusmon kicked off the ground, decisively pulling back to clear the firing line.
The timing was flawless. The very second Aegiochusmon cleared the area, a blinding sphere of electricity descended from the heavens, striking the paralyzed Devimon dead center.
[Mega Blaster!]
The blast cratered the earth further, burying the demon in a storm of blue static and flying debris. High above, Kabuterimon's wings slowed slightly, his heavy breathing audible even over the wind. Having executed three consecutive, full-power attacks in such a short window, his stamina was draining rapidly.
It was time to pass the baton to their heavy hitter.
"Greymon! The rest is up to you!" Izzy yelled down.
"I've been waiting for this!!!" Greymon roared back, his massive jaws parting wide.
The reflection of blazing, untamed fire danced in Taichi's wide eyes. Standing together, boy and dinosaur shared a deep emotional resonance, their combined willpower burning so brightly they seemed to manifest as a rising sun against the dark wasteland.
"We are ending this right now!" Taichi and Greymon shouted as one, their voices overlapping in perfect sync.
[Mega—Burst!!!]
A cataclysmic roar shook the very foundations of the island.
The surging, hyper-condensed flames erupted forward like ten thousand crashing waves, completely swallowing the entire battlefield in a blinding white-hot inferno. Devimon, the terrifying embodiment of darkness who had plagued them for so long, suddenly looked incredibly frail and minuscule before the apocalyptic sea of fire. In the blink of an eye, his dark silhouette was entirely consumed by the roaring blaze.
"Did... did we get him?" Taichi muttered, shielding his face from the intense, radiating heat.
Greymon's massive chest heaved with heavy, ragged breaths. Executing such high-intensity attacks back-to-back had taken a severe toll on his energy reserves, even with the continuous emotional boost flowing from Taichi. Above them, Kabuterimon was faring no better, his wings beating with a sluggish, labored rhythm.
Yet, neither of them dared to relax. Until they had absolute visual confirmation that the enemy was reduced to data, Kabuterimon refused to land. Securing the aerial high ground to strip Devimon of his flight advantage and protect the grounded fighters—that had been the core of the tactical plan Izzy had formulated in mere minutes.
Aegiochusmon stood a few paces away, his golden armor reflecting the orange glow of the fire. His expression remained incredibly grim. While the sheer destructive power Greymon had just unleashed was staggering, Aegiochusmon still remembered the bitter sting of his previous clash with the fallen angel just days prior. That memory left a gnawing doubt in his mind. He simply could not believe that Devimon would go down so easily.
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the wasteland. Under the tense, unblinking gaze of the three Digimon and the two Chosen Children, the roaring inferno finally began to die down, the thick smoke slowly parting to reveal whatever remained in the crater...
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