Chapter 46: An Existence from Ancient Times
"It is finally... over..."
Aegiochusmon let out a long, ragged exhale. He stood at the edge of the blasted crater, tending to the unconscious Matt and the others, his eyes fixed on the horizon. The colossal, grotesque musculature of DoneDevimon was breaking apart. Chunks of the maddened Mega-level monstrosity dissolved into cascading streams of black and green binary code, scattering like ash in the wind.
With the destruction of DoneDevimon's physical form, the suffocating canopy of dark clouds that had choked File Island for weeks finally fractured. Shafts of pale sunlight pierced through the gloom, illuminating the scarred earth.
Yet, the victory carried a bitter metallic taste. The vast majority of the island's native Digimon had been sacrificed, their data forcibly absorbed to fuel Devimon's desperate digivolution.
A dry, ironic chuckle escaped Aegiochusmon's throat. Devimon, the grand architect of despair, the mastermind who had played the entire island like a chessboard, had ultimately been outmaneuvered and crushed by a newly born BeelStarmon and a human child.
A sudden, warm swell of pride puffed up Aegiochusmon's chest. He lifted his chin, a smug grin tugging at his lips.
'Did you see that?'he thought, practically beaming at the sky.'Whether it is Mizuki or BeelStarmon, they are all children I guided! My teachings are flawless!'
His self-congratulatory thoughts were interrupted by the crunch of boots against broken stone.
Aegiochusmon turned to see Izzy stumbling into view, his arm draped heavily over Mimi's shoulders.
"Aegiochusmon... how is the situation over here?" Izzy panted, his voice hoarse. He scanned the clearing, his chest heaving until his eyes locked onto a familiar silhouette standing near the crater's edge. "Taichi... is Taichi—"
The knot of anxiety in Izzy's chest instantly loosened.
"So that is it. Mizuki arrived in time..." Izzy managed a weak smile. "I am relieved then... cough! Cough, cough!"
A violent fit of coughing racked his small frame. He doubled over, clutching his chest.
"Izzy?!" Mimi gasped, her hands fluttering in panic as she tried to support his weight. "Are... are you alright?!"
"I am fine," Izzy wheezed, waving a hand dismissively. "Just a little exhausted. I will be fine once I catch my breath."
He shook his head, looking up to reassure her. However, his words died in his throat. Mimi's face was mere inches from his own, her large eyes wide with genuine worry, her sweet floral scent cutting through the smell of ozone and burnt earth. Heat instantly flared across Izzy's cheeks. He swallowed hard and hurriedly snapped his gaze away, staring fixedly at a random rock on the ground.
Unfortunately for him, Tentomon and Palmon were watching from the sidelines.
"Izzy, your face is completely red..." Tentomon pointed out, buzzing his wings in confusion.
"It really is!" Palmon chimed in, tilting her leafy head.
Izzy stiffened, his blush deepening to the tips of his ears. "—!"
Mimi blinked, entirely oblivious to the cause, her head tilting in pure curiosity.
Hearing the commotion, Taichi glanced over his shoulder. A weary but genuine smile crossed his face. He adjusted his grip on Koromon—who had exhausted his energy and devolved from MetalGreymon—and walked over to where Mizuki was standing.
"Mizuki, what is wrong?" Taichi asked, his smile faltering.
From the moment the battle ended, Taichi had noticed Mizuki's strange posture. The young strategist was leaning heavily against the handle of his parasol, his knuckles white. His eyes were narrowed, tracking every single stray pixel of DoneDevimon's fading data. There was no relief on his face. No joy of victory. Only cold, calculating scrutiny.
Taichi's stomach tightened. "Could it be... is Devimon not actually dead?"
"...Who knows?"
Mizuki remained silent for a long moment, his gaze fixed on the lingering black particles in the air. "DoneDevimon lost his mind when he forced that Mega-level digivolution. A rabid dog does not plan for the future. But with his original intellect? He might have prepared a contingency before he lost his sanity."
"If that is the case, then that guy is way too dangerous, isn't he?" Taichi grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck. "I heard from Elecmon... well, Aegiochusmon now. He said this guy has fought you multiple times already!"
"A crushed centipede still twitches," Mizuki murmured softly, his voice barely carrying over the wind. "That is the meaning of the proverb, after all."
In truth, Mizuki was overthinking. Forcing an digivolution of that magnitude was a miraculous, desperate feat. Devimon simply did not have the spare energy or capacity to weave a resurrection contingency.
However, the icy prickle of dread creeping up Mizuki's spine was not an illusion.
Because, deep in the shadows, a certain existence that had been silently watching this entire war unfold was finally making its move.
— — — —
— — — —
'Did I... fail?'
At the absolute precipice of death, Devimon's consciousness snapped awake, violently torn from the mindless rage of his DoneDevimon form.
He found himself drowning in an endless, suffocating void of absolute black. No sound. No light. Only the bitter, agonizing memories of his defeat playing on a loop. He tried to clench his phantom fists, his soul burning with a toxic mixture of humiliation and extreme unwillingness.
Before he could tear his throat raw with a scream of frustration, a voice bled out from the darkness.
"Little one... Do you feel unwilling?"
Devimon's phantom head snapped up. He strained his senses, but the void remained impenetrable.
"Who are you?!" he snarled, his voice echoing into nothingness.
"Hehe... Who I am is entirely unimportant. What matters is that you have caught my interest." The voice was magnetic, slow, and dripped with a terrifying, casual ease. "So, I have decided to give you a little push."
"What is your purpose?!" Devimon demanded, his instincts screaming at him. He was a creature of deceit; he knew better than anyone that there were no free gifts in the Digital World.
The entity in the dark merely chuckled. The sound vibrated through the void, rattling the very core of Devimon's data.
"Purpose, you ask?" The tone was lazy, almost bored. "Indeed. For a creature like you, purpose is everything. If you must have a reason... then perhaps it is simply for entertainment."
"!!!"
With those words, a fraction of the entity's aura leaked into the void.
Devimon froze. The pressure was catastrophic. It felt as though the entire weight of the Digital World was pressing down on his fragile consciousness. Even without a physical form to perceive, Devimon could feel the crushing, ancient age radiating from that voice.
This was a primordial terror. An existence that had likely reigned since the ancient Genesis of the world.
Could it be... the true mastermind behind the Dark Masters?
The thought paralyzed him for a fraction of a second, but Devimon's survival instinct violently overrode his fear. He immediately bowed his phantom head, his tone shifting to desperate reverence.
"My Lord, please forgive my insolence!" Devimon pleaded, his pride entirely discarded. "I am unwilling to rot in this abyss! I want to live! I want to tear that hateful BeelStarmon to shreds!"
"No problem."
A sharp snap of fingers echoed like a thunderclap across the void.
"After all, that is exactly why I am here."
The moment the sound faded, a torrential flood of power violently breached Devimon's soul. It was not just pure, concentrated dark data. There was something else woven into it.
A crystal materialized in the pitch-black space. It was flawless, radiating a sickeningly sweet, alluring pulse of absolute vitality. The mere proximity of it made Devimon's data boil with euphoric strength.
"Is... is this my new power?!" Devimon gasped, his phantom hands reaching out to absorb the crystal.
"So much power!"
The darkness around him began to warp and crack.
"I feel it! A perfect body! Endless vitality—!"
"Oh oh oh oh oh!"
Roaring in manic, triumphant ecstasy, Devimon's consciousness was violently ejected from the void, tearing back into the material plane.
The void fell silent once more.
The ancient existence lingered in the dark, letting out a soft, contemplative sigh.
"I did not expect that this little one's body actually contained a fragment left behind by that one. Was it the Bear-beast's data?"
A low, amused chuckle vibrated through the emptiness. "Just borrowing it for a moment. I hope the Demon Lord will not throw a fit. After all... aside from throwing a tantrum, there is not much else he can actually do."
The entity shifted its unseen gaze outward. Its vision effortlessly pierced through the dimensional barriers, bypassing the fragmented dark clouds of File Island, and locked directly onto the young man leaning against his parasol.
"Did he sense something?" the voice mused, noting Mizuki's lingering vigilance. "No matter. It makes no difference in the end."
"Let me see what kind of capabilities you truly possess, child chosen by Homeostasis."
The entity's tone grew a fraction softer, carrying a strange, detached anticipation. "I wonder if you and your little BeelStarmon can reach the heights of that other anomaly. That existence beyond specification, entirely unconstrained by the laws of this world."
"Aside from that one Veedramon... will a second miracle be born?"
"I am looking forward to it."
He spoke to the empty void.
His attitude remained perfectly casual. He did not care about the triumph of light or the victory of darkness. He did not care if the world continued to spin or if it burned to ash.
His demeanor was not born of arrogance, but of a complete, absolute indifference to all creation.
To this primordial being, the struggles of mortals, the wars of gods, and the very meaning of existence were reduced to a single, trivial pursuit.
Amusement.
That was all.
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