…
Everything unfolded in a tense, almost palpable silence, as if the very air were suspended in an unsettling calm. For them, this was something unfamiliar, a void that baffled their senses. For as long as they could remember, they had been trapped in a cycle of constant danger: fighting, survival, stealthy advancement. But this time, something different deeply unsettled them. Despite knowing that Vamdemon commanded a relentless army, there was no sign of any presence here; an absolute silence that echoed in their minds.
That didn't mean the place was dead. The cave walls bore gigantic marks, scratches that seemed to have been made by colossal claws, cutting into the stone with primitive fury. Huge footprints, similar to those of a bird of enormous power, dotted the ground in bewildering patterns. A colossal dining room, with the remains of half-eaten food.
Not long ago, there were still Digimon here. But now, there was no one left. Only a silence that seemed to emanate from the tombs and nothing else.
"How strange," Izzy muttered, squinting at the holographic map.
"W-What's going on?" Joe asked in a trembling voice as he and Gomamon did their best to hold on to Kabuterimon's exoskeleton.
"Eyesmon's point suddenly disappeared when it made contact with another point," Izzy explained, frowning in confusion as he looked at the map from different angles, but there was no trace of Eyesmon's red point. As if it had vanished into thin air.
It wasn't long before the other two dots disappeared as if by magic.
"The other two disappeared too!" Izzy exclaimed with a scrutinizing look. One of the red dots had moved with abnormal speed, almost as if it had teleported.
"Maybe it's a trap, be on your guard!" Sora warned with narrowed eyes, looking around.
The other Digimon raised their guard, expecting anything from the giant ink stain. But the further they advanced, the more obvious it became that there was really no one here; the only noise in the immense cave system beneath the castle came from themselves.
Matt and Noah had a feeling that something was terribly wrong, but they didn't know what exactly, which only served to make them even more uneasy. They both expected Vamdemon to be similar to Etemon, someone impulsive and extremely arrogant who flaunted his superior strength as a Perfect Digimon; of course, Gennai had already warned them that Vamdemon was nothing like Etemon, but they had to see it to believe it.
Finally, the group came to a sudden halt when they reached the final room of the cave system.
Before them stood an indescribable anomaly, a presence that defied all logic. It was as if a white wall, ethereal and enigmatic in appearance, had suddenly emerged, devouring a portion of the room and transforming it into an unknown space. The surface of that wall was strange, dotted with reddish, bluish, and greenish particles that resembled symbols, letters, and numbers floating in a breath, only to vanish into nothingness seconds later. At its corners, the world seemed to blur, as if the space between that wall and reality itself stretched and distorted, pulling both dimensions apart in a silent, alien chaos.
It was as if the world ended right there and another began.
Everyone knew, instinctively, what they were seeing.
A portal.
A fundamental one, unlike any other they had ever seen. Some of them could almost hear the sound of the ocean coming from the portal.
Without anyone saying a word, Izzy approached the pedestal in the middle of the room with cautious steps. Although the strange pentagram on the floor glowed with supernatural force, it did not seem to have a noticeable effect on Izzy, which was a considerable relief for the red-haired boy.
Holding his breath, Izzy connected his laptop to the pedestal, and immediately, his device's screen was transformed into a shower of incomprehensible letters, numbers, and symbols, which seemed to move back and forth without any visible rhythm or pattern. It wasn't something he hadn't seen before; it had happened during the assault on Etemon's Pyramid and when he analyzed Vamdemon's Castle.
But this time, he couldn't decipher anything. Although the letters were similar, they had clear differences and new commands he had never seen before. The same was true of the numbers: instead of following a specific order, it seemed as if the entire number system was working backwards. If that made any sense to begin with.
Izzy let out a confused noise before taking out his Digivice and connecting it directly to the computer. The small blue Tamagotchi emitted a strange beep before displaying a charcoal-black holographic screen, surrounded by a border that looked like broken glass, with green and red letters flashing. The red-haired boy frowned for a moment as he observed the distinctive color of the screen. Around him, four normal holographic screens began to appear: one notifying him of a new achievement, two others with unspecified information, and the last showing a drawing of the pentagram on the floor, now no longer worn or cracked by the passage of time.
Izzy barely paid attention to the pop-up notifications as he continued to read the cracked screen. His frown grew deeper with the occasional thoughtful hum. Suddenly, Izzy's complexion seemed to pale as his eyes stopped at the end of the holographic screen.
Noticing the change in Izzy, Joe approached cautiously before touching the red-haired boy's shoulder, causing the latter to startle before looking at Joe with a nervous laugh.
"Izzy, are you okay?" Joe asked with concern as he watched Izzy closely.
"O-Oh, sorry, it's just... it's a lot of information." Izzy took a step to the side, away from the pedestal and a concerned Joe, before clapping his hands, drawing the attention of everyone, who had begun to explore the room with curiosity, trying to find some clue as to Eyesmon's whereabouts, only to find nothing and nothing more.
Seeing that everyone had gathered around him, he coughed into his fist before pointing to the pedestal with his laptop and Digivice still connected. "Listen carefully because this is important, but I'll do my best to summarize it."
"Okay. This pedestal is a DigiLink, a kind of bridge that allows travel from the Digital World to other Worlds, not exclusively the Human World. It seems that the DigiLink can only be opened when all the Cards have been collected, and depending on the order in which they are placed on the pedestal, they will open a window to a specific World. Which is about..." Izzy narrowed his eyes thoughtfully before nodding to himself. "Three hundred sixty-two thousand eight hundred eighty possible combinations, and their equivalent in possible worlds."
A deathly silence fell over the room as each child in the group tried and failed to imagine the magnitude of that number.
"...and all of those are worlds we can visit?" Matt muttered in disbelief before opening his eyes wide with stars in them. "That means the Super Sentai could be real?!?"
"Matt..." Sora sighed as she ran a hand across her forehead, barely hiding her smile.
"...they're not real?" TK asked in confusion, causing Matt to freeze as sweat began to pour down his back.
"I-I mean—"
"It's not a good idea to travel to other worlds we don't know," Izzy interrupted as he disconnected his computer from the pedestal. "Mainly because if we want to come back, we would need that world to have its own method of travel to bring us back."
"So, Izzy..." Noah approached curiously as he looked at the portal suspiciously. "That portal is connected to our world, right? I don't feel like having to gather the Dragon Balls and ask Shenlong to send us home."
"Yes, from the information I'm receiving, it's connected to our world and..." Izzy seemed to want to say something else, but quickly stopped himself, biting his tongue. Instead, he said: "Anyway, we should cross over as soon as possible. The longer we stay here, the more opportunities Vamdemon has to do his dirty deeds."
Noah stared at the little red-haired boy with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Izzy hesitated for a moment before nodding silently, long enough to let the taller boy know that not everything was okay.
They stared at each other for a few seconds before Izzy deflated and let out a tired sigh. "...I'll tell you later. I promise."
Noah looked at him for a moment longer before slowly nodding. "Okay."
"So, what are we waiting for?" TK exclaimed as he returned Angemon to Patamon, who stood right next to the boy of hope. "We have a Vampire King to stop!"
"Finally! I can change my clothes and take a bath!" Mimi exclaimed with tears of joy as she turned Togemon back into Palmon to hug her tightly.
"I'll finally get to meet your mom!" Filmon exclaimed before a light turned him back into Herrismon, who, with his usual radiant smile, jumped from side to side, illuminating the dark cave.
Noah simply smiled happily at the thought of seeing his mother again and ran a hand through the little hedgehog's fur. "Yes, you will. And then we can sleep as long as we want."
Finally, with all the Digimon returned to their Child forms and the Children ready to return home, they all walked toward the portal with mixed feelings in their hearts. However, they shared the same longing and deep happiness at being able to return home.
A loud sound like waves crashing against each other filled everyone's ears.
And so, with their hearts pounding with excitement and longing,
The Chosen Children returned home.
...
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