"T.K." Matt tugged on his younger brother.
"Sorry, Dad." T.K. realized he'd gotten too worked up and immediately lowered his head to apologize.
"It's okay, T.K." Hiroaki Ishida looked at Patamon. "Thank you for always protecting T.K."
"Yeah." Patamon shook his head. "T.K. and I are partners, so of course I'll protect him."
"Mm. I believe that." Hiroaki Ishida said with a faint smile. He stood up and went back to his room. "You kids have fun. I'm going to rest."
Wisemon stood and looked at the kids. "When I came back this time, I saw that the outside of the Digital World has already been engulfed by darkness for more than half of it. If this keeps going, the Digital World will be destroyed."
"Then what do we do next?" Davis asked urgently.
"What we need right now is to defeat the Digimon Emperor and completely destroy the Control Spires he built. Once we do that, we can restore the Digital World to how it was before—and then deal with the other enemies," Tai said.
"Before I returned, while I was still in Witchelny, I asked the Grand Sorcerer to make a prophecy for you. The result was: 'Gentleness will bloom into a miraculous light. Holy radiance will drive away the haze of darkness.'"
"What does that mean?" Yolei asked.
"That's something you'll have to find yourselves. DigiDestined… the future of the Digital World is in your hands." Wisemon's tone grew heavier. "And the enemy this time is absolutely not just the Digimon Emperor you see on the surface. There's a stronger dark power behind him. That NeoMyotismon we encountered only confirms my suspicion. You all saw it—NeoMyotismon was just a puppet. The force that created it must be vast… and terrifyingly powerful. So you need to be careful."
"What's wrong, Wisemon?" Gatomon sensed something off in Wisemon's voice.
"I have to return to Witchelny. I'm still needed there."
"But we just met again… are we really separating already?"
"I'm sorry, Gatomon. We'll definitely meet again."
Kari picked up Gatomon and looked at the guilty Wisemon. "It's okay, Wisemon. You have to come back again. Don't forget—you have partners here who'll always be waiting for you."
Wisemon nodded. He opened the book in his right hand, and a beam of light poured out, forming a glowing door in front of him. Wisemon gave the kids a final nod and leapt through. The light door vanished right after.
Gatomon lowered the hand she'd been waving, looking hollow and lonely. Kari gently stroked the fur on top of Gatomon's head to comfort her. "It's okay. You'll see each other again."
"Yeah." Gatomon nodded hard.
After seeing Wisemon off, the kids put away their sadness and began discussing how to deal with the Digimon Emperor.
"This time we can't just destroy a few Control Spires," Izzy said. "We have to return home every day, while the Digimon Emperor stays there the whole time—so this time, we go straight to his base, defeat him, and then we won't have to worry about more Control Spires being built. After that, we can slowly destroy the ones that are already up. And once we beat the Digimon Emperor, our Digimon will be able to Digivolve again. When that happens, destroying the Control Spires will be way faster."
"But we don't even know where the Digimon Emperor's base is," Yolei said worriedly.
"That's something we'll have to find ourselves. But we can use the Control Spires he builds as our clue," Izzy analyzed. "If I were the Digimon Emperor, I'd definitely build enough Control Spires around my base. Using that as a lead, our search area gets a lot smaller."
"Alright! Then tomorrow we head to the Digital World!" Davis said, fired up.
"Yeah. Come to my place tomorrow," Izzy suggested. "We'll go to the Digital World from there."
"Sorry… I'm going back to America soon," Mimi said guiltily. "And the time difference is different on both sides, so I probably won't be able to help much."
"Same here," Sora added. "The tennis team has training camp tomorrow, so I can't go."
"I have cram school," Joe said with an awkward expression. "I skipped today just to come out."
"It's fine," Tai reassured them. "We're just searching for the Digimon Emperor's base. With the strength we have right now, it's enough to handle it. When the time comes, me and Matt—plus Izzy—will be enough."
"Yeah, sure," Sora complained. "Tai, you've already skipped soccer practice so many times. Your coach came to me to ask where you've been."
"Haha, really?" Tai dodged the point. "He's seriously overreacting. I already asked for leave. Besides, what's the big deal if I miss practice? My skills are strong enough. Also… tomorrow, I'm counting on you to ask for leave again."
"Honestly…" Sora sighed, helpless. "Fine. I'll tell him."
The next day, the kids split up in the Digital World and began searching for the Digimon Emperor's base. Each team was assigned both an aerial fighter and a ground fighter to handle any situation, and they agreed that if anything happened, they'd contact each other immediately through the D-Terminal.
Tai took Davis and Kari into the jungle. T.K., Matt, and Yolei went to the beach region. Izzy took Cody into the hilly area.
Cody was climbing a steep mountain. Every mountain here was desolate—not even a single blade of grass. Cody slipped and started sliding down, but a hand shot out and grabbed him—it was Izzy.
"Cody, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Really." With help from Izzy and Armadillomon, Cody climbed back up.
"Izzy, how's it looking over there?" Izzy lifted his head and called to Tentomon, who had already gone up to the peak.
"Izzy, hurry up and get up here—there's something going on!" Tentomon said in a Kansai-style drawl.
The two of them climbed to the summit, and the view opened wide. On the far side of the mountain was a vast open plain. Countless Control Spires stood packed together across the land, and more Control Spires stretched outward in every direction—so far that they couldn't see the end. In the center of the plain sat a fortress made of some unknown material. Digimon kept pouring out of it, and outside, huge numbers of Digimon were slaughtering each other.
"This is…" Izzy said, stunned.
"How can there be so many Control Spires?" Cody was equally shocked.
Just then, Izzy and Cody saw Digimon again—running out from a sunken area, charging into the open plain, and immediately throwing themselves into the killing.
"That's horrible!" Cody said furiously.
"They look like they're coming out of that sunken place," Armadillomon said.
"I'm guessing… this might be where the Digimon Emperor's base is," Izzy said boldly. After all, nobody actually knew where the Digimon Emperor's base was.
"Oh no—we might've been spotted!" Izzy yelped. His Digivice had turned into garbled code. "No—this place is under the influence of the Control Spires. We can't Digivolve at all!"
Right then, a bright-red Kuwagamon suddenly appeared in front of them, making the kids jump in shock.
"Leave this to me. You two run!" Armadillomon said, stepping in front of Izzy and Cody.
"Please, Armadillomon—Armor Digivolve!" Cody shouted, then fled downhill with Izzy.
"Armadillomon, Armor Digivolve to… Digmon!"
On the other side, Digmon held off Kuwagamon to cover their retreat. Cody and Izzy slid down the mountain on a sheet of metal, racing toward the base. Izzy was frantic—he needed to get out of the Control Spires' range as fast as possible so Tentomon could Digivolve. They had to escape and warn everyone that they'd found the Digimon Emperor's base.
"We're far enough now." Izzy took out his Digivice and checked—it was no longer garbled. He immediately told Tentomon, "Tentomon, get ready to Digivolve!"
But a shadow suddenly flew overhead. They looked up and saw the Digimon Emperor riding on a Devidramon, hovering right above them. The Digimon Emperor smiled and greeted them. "Long time no see."
Devidramon is feared as the "Demon with Compound Eyes," a terrifying Evil Dragon Digimon. It was summoned from the Dark Area by the dark emissary Devimon, and there are few Digimon as evil as it is. A dragon-type whose arms and legs have grown abnormally, it tears enemies apart with its long arms and flies through the darkness on powerful wings. Cruel by nature, it has no mercy. With four eyes burning deep crimson, it locks onto its target and leaves them unable to move, cutting them apart without resistance. The tip of its tail spreads into a hooked claw that pierces its prey. Born brutal, it is often used by evil hackers who destroy networks to satisfy their greed. Its special move is Crimson Claw, in which it slices the opponent with giant claws as a blood tribute.
"The Digimon Emperor!" Izzy and Cody blurted out.
"What are you doing here?" the Digimon Emperor asked with curiosity.
"This… I'm not going to tell you the answer," Cody replied—the kind of answer that didn't involve lying.
Just as Tentomon tried to secretly Digivolve, the Digimon Emperor thrust out the Dark D-3 Digivice in his hand. A black ripple spread outward, and Tentomon—still not Digivolved—realized he still couldn't Digivolve.
"Hahahaha!" the Digimon Emperor laughed smugly. "Within the range of my Dark D-3 Digivice, Digivolution is impossible. Did you forget?"
With no options left, Izzy and Cody could only glare at the smug Digimon Emperor—but he clearly didn't care in the slightest.
Then, while they were still sliding down, Izzy and Cody suddenly dropped into loose sand and vanished from the Digimon Emperor's line of sight.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810.