A white, angelic beam met a crackling serpent, and the resulting collision tore apart the space between.
Thin, black spatial cracks streamed out from the point where Soul Purge and Angel Arm met.
The entire Bounded Field, enhanced and reinforced with Ancient Magical Script, shook.
Strange glyphs began to dance as the spatial cracks reached the stormy sky and the unseen depths under the upended ground.
The world… was on the brink of ceasing to exist.
Then, suddenly, all the spatial cracks blurred out of existence, a loud BOOOM replacing the eerie, magical silence.
The explosion was so loud and powerful, in fact, that it sent the ladies flying at one end and dissipated the green-lightning storm on the other.
Matatabi, the Origami-Pokemon-Tailed Beast, was forced back into its Pokeball by the explosion. King Ghidorah, who had no such escape, had its wings torn apart, a hideous wound covering its dead body as the shockwave passed right through it. And Jormungandr, standing as tall as the Kaiju, was forced to coil itself to face the brunt of the explosion, too.
An astonished glow in Herpo the Foul's slitted eyes forced the dust to settle.
Far away from him, on the ground, the man who had appeared was unlike the man he had seen when he had entered the hidden world within the suitcase.
A torn, red greatcoat.
Shattered, golden glasses.
Spiked, blond hair that was struggling to keep itself up.
Red Sun, assuming the form of Vash the Stampede, that the Standalone Title — The Humanoid Typhoon — bestowed upon him, eyed Herpo the Foul back, carrying a silly grin on his face… his right arm missing because of the use of Angel Arm.
"Shameless," Red Sun said, coughing up blood. "Evil. Rascal… Plague? Maybe… You can call our Master all these things. But you cannot go so far as to call him a coward…"
Behind him, Meg, Moraine, Spawn, and Tina pulled themselves out of the debris as they heard his words. Shameless, selfish, cowardice weren't the only reasons behind Red Sun's decision not to join their ranks as they had been fighting against Herpo the Foul a few minutes ago. Nor was it the sole reason to contact His Majesty.
It was the fact that Red Sun stood the best chances of truly dying even before Herpo the Foul could get him first.
The Overall Grade of this timeline was only C+.
It meant that contestants above the 9th Floor couldn't appear here.
If they did, by using some backdoor, then the Systems wouldn't protect them against the Timelines and Deep Ones, either.
Kai was a very special case. He had the strength of a Contestant many Floors higher than the 9th, but he was still a 9th Floor Contestant himself.
Even if the timeline itself was advancing toward 10th and 11th Floor level, Red Sun… was an 11th Floor Contestant!
As such, he shouldn't even be here.
If it wasn't for the Bounded Field preventing him from the Timeline's gaze, then, regardless of the relationship She shared with Kai, Red Sun would have suffered the same fate as Black Ghost had suffered.
Death — torn apart by the Timeline.
"No wonder you were hiding…" Herpo the Foul commented, looking at the mutilated arm of the blond-haired man.
Red Sun chuckled, a black Long Colt appearing in his left hand.
"There's one more thing you got wrong about my Captain," he said, hurling out two Beast Balls. "That guy… don't make excuses before killing people… So, save your pretentious speeches for someone else, your worm. If you wanna fight, then… just fucking fight!"
A loud VROOM thundered through the space as Beelzemon, riding Behemoth the motorbike, came charging out of one Beast Ball.
From the second Beast Ball, an over 15 meters tall ShineGreymon took form, pure solar energy pulsating behind him, fueling its wings.
Herpo the Foul's eyes narrowed, an ugly frown settling on his face. "So… be it."
Boooooooooooooooom!
"HAHAHAHA!" Beelzemon roared out a laugh, Behemoth taking him to the sky. "Fighting a snake again, are we, lad?!"
Two massive shotguns appeared in the Devil Lord's hands as he appeared next to Jormungandr's head like a black shooting star.
"Double…" Beelzemon put the muzzles of the shotguns against the stunned serpent's head and fired. "… Impact!"
The thundering bangs rang from one side and came out from the other, sputtering blood, a muffled roar escaping the giant serpent's throat.
On the ground, ShineGreymon slammed its clawed hand into the earth as well.
"Let it be a testament to our friendship, Red Sun…" ShineGreymon said, an earthly energy upending the ground in his surroundings. "GeoGrey Sword!"
It was a massive, lance-like sword, with a round handle in the middle.
Mere brandishing it sent a current running through the earth.
As if that wasn't enough, an illogical amount of solar energy gathered on ShineGreymon's back before propelling it forward.
"Glorious—," the Mega Digimon traced a burning arc across the world. "—Burst!"
King Ghidorah's three heads gained thin, fiery lines before they effortlessly slid off the blood, falling on the ground with a loud thud.
A silence prevailed as Red Sun flew up toward the enemy.
Herpo the Foul… took a deep breath and nodded, acknowledging the display of power.
"I have seen the smile you are carrying on your face… many times," the Grand Wizard praised. "On battlefields. In distant dimensions. They all shared one common thing. Do you know what?"
Not waiting for an answer, Herpo the Foul raised the Basilisk Staff and kept it raised this time.
Slowly, a tiny spark appeared over the Basilisk's mouth.
Slowly, the tiny spark became a small green fireball.
Instantly, the small fireball became a Sun.
Souls burned.
It was like an acid reflux, making even Spawn double over, vomiting nothing but pure Breath.
The Wings of Grim Butterfly barely let Moraine stand, but Meg and Tina fared the worst, instantly losing over eighty percent of their SP.
Herpo the Foul let the Staff descend slowly — toward the world.
"They all knew they were going to die under my hands…" he finished, looking into the Contestant's eyes. "Soul Extermination!"
As if standing true to Herpo the Foul's claim, the smile on Red Sun's face became wider, becoming a grin.
"Worry not… ladies…" Red Sun chuckled, looking over his shoulder as ShineGreymon and Beelzemon joined him on either side. "… let me show you… Why they call me Relentless…"
Then, together, the three shot forward, the green Sun burning them from within.
However, just as Red Sun and his two Digimon had prepared themselves for their doomed fate, a black blur appeared between them and the Herpo the Foul's attack.
And this blur… carried two words with it.
Words that seeped into the burning souls, faster than the heat.
"Retrace… On!"
*****************
AN: Cinematic Scene of Red Sun, ShineGreymon, and Beelezemon's last stand against Soul Extermination is available
Up to 60 more chapters are available in advance across three Tiers. [Use the link in my Webnovel profile to access all options.]
You can even subscribe to the Trial Tier for just 1 dollar to have an experience of exclusive chapters for an entire month. I hope a few of you will consider supporting the work.
100 Power Stones/day: +1 Bonus Chapter next day