On the light-screen, the footage flowed again.
The glorious deeds of the original Tai began to play.
…
The cut was not hot-blooded battle, but a deathly, uncanny stillness.
Thick gray fog blanketed all of Odaiba. Visibility was frighteningly low.
The towering Fuji TV Building had become a ruin. Shattered walls and broken beams told of the recent, brutal clash.
Angewomon's sacred arrow had indeed destroyed Myotismon's core body.
But the joy of victory did not last.
The DigiDestined stood atop the rubble, faces full of confusion and unease.
"What's going on?"
Tai frowned, scanning all around, on guard.
"Didn't we already defeat Myotismon? Why hasn't this fog cleared?"
Beside him, Agumon clenched nervously at his pant leg.
"Tai, I… I feel something really bad is about to come out."
"Everyone, be careful. Something's off."
Matt kept calm as he warned them. Gabumon had already taken a battle stance, a low growl in his throat.
Just as everyone sank into wary confusion—sudden change.
Izzy's pineapple-brand laptop let out a sharp series of beeps.
"An email!"
Izzy clicked it open. The sender's name made everyone perk up.
"It's from Gennai!"
The message was short, like some ancient, obscure verse. Every word reeked of ill omen.
[First, bats shall descend from the heavens.]
[All will cry out the name of the legendary Digimon Demon Lord.]
[When the time aligns with the Devil's Number, the Demon Lord shall appear in true form.]
[Then an angel shall appear and shoot an arrow into the one most loved by those they guard.]
[Then a miracle shall occur.]
…
[Digimon Adventure (1999) World]
"This prophecy…"
Tai stared at the words on the screen. His gaze hardened at once.
Of course he remembered.
This passage was the beginning of the nightmare.
"Damn it! If only we'd decoded it sooner!"
He smacked a fist into his palm in frustration.
Agumon nudged him.
"Tai, it wasn't your fault."
"Hmph."
Matt snorted.
"Even if we'd decoded it, we didn't have the power back then to stop anything."
Cold words, but true.
Elsewhere, Myotismon—who moments ago raged at ranking below Tai—blinked at the prophecy, then broke into manic laughter.
"Prophecy! So it was prophecy all along!"
"Hahahahaha! My resurrection was predestined! The will of the world itself!"
"Tai! Did you hear that?! I am the Demon Lord favored by fate! You are nothing but a stepping stone! A foolish stepping stone!"
DemiDevimon shrieked along.
"Long live Lord Myotismon! Lord Myotismon is the strongest!"
Gennai only sighed faintly at the light-screen and said nothing.
…
[Digimon Tamers World]
"This prophecy… is very specific."
Henry adjusted his glasses, face grave.
"Every condition is written clearly. It reads like a ritual procedure."
"A ritual?"
Takato's eyes widened.
"A ritual to resurrect that Myotismon?"
Guilmon hid behind Takato and whispered.
"Takato, what's a 'Devil's Number'…?"
"'An arrow will be shot into the one most loved by those they guard'…"
Rika focused on another line, brows knit, eyes holding puzzlement and resistance.
"What does that mean? To trigger a miracle, you have to attack your own ally?"
"What a joke."
Renamon's eyes turned razor sharp.
"I could never do that."
Nearby, Ryo, the so-called legendary Tamer, folded his arms, a playful arc to his lips.
"Interesting. Use the sacrifice of the dearest one as a key to open the door to a miracle?"
"What a delightfully perverse setup."
…
[Pokémon World]
"Whoa! What a weird prophecy!"
Ash looked completely baffled.
"Why would an angel shoot the person you love most? Aren't angels supposed to be good?"
Misty nodded hard.
"Exactly! It makes no sense. It's way too strange!"
Brock rested his chin in thought.
"Maybe, in that world, love itself is a powerful energy. And that arrow is the switch that triggers it."
In the lab, Professor Oak took notes, excited.
"Remarkable! Truly remarkable worldbuilding!"
"Emotion as an energy source, transformed through a specific ritual, provoking a 'miracle'—this is a trans-era research topic!"
Dawn and May didn't follow all of it, but both felt the weight.
"Whatever it is, having to strike the one you love most is too cruel…"
…
On the screen, the kids had no time to ponder the prophecy's deeper meaning. Ominous signs in the real world surged in like a tsunami.
"Screee—screee—!"
Ear-splitting shrieks ripped the sky.
Within the fog, innumerable scarlet points lit up.
Then swarms upon swarms of bats poured out, black as pitch save for their blood-red eyes, more ghastly than any normal bat.
They swept through Odaiba's streets like a storm of darkness.
People fled in panic and screamed.
Then, a more chilling sight.
Those shrouded by the fog—minds clouded—stopped. They stared blankly at the sky and began to chant, unconsciously, mechanically, again and again, a single name.
"Myotismon…"
"Myotismon…"
"Myotismon…"
One person.
Ten people.
Hundreds. Thousands.
The entire city became a colossal altar.
All became sacrifices calling the Demon Lord back.
That monotonous, eerie chant fused into a scalp-numbing wave of sound that echoed through the dead city.
…
[Digimon Xros Wars / Fusion World]
"It's a large-scale psychic attack!"
Mikey Kudo judged at a glance.
"And those bats seem to be gathering something!"
Shoutmon's eyes bulged.
"They're eating! Eating the scattered data of Digimon!"
Angie Hinomoto and Jeremy Tsurugi stared at the grotesque scene, goosebumps rising.
"This is worse than a horror film."
"How strong is this Myotismon's obsession, seriously?!"
…
On the screen, the kids' faces went pale.
Izzy stared at his laptop, fingers flying.
"Bats falling from the sky… everyone chanting the Demon Lord's name…"
He muttered the prophecy under his breath.
"The conditions… they're being fulfilled one by one!"
Suddenly, his pupils shrank. A terrifying term exploded in his mind.
"The Devil's Number!"
As if shocked by a current, he snapped his head to the bottom-right clock.
[18:05:40]
6:05:40 p.m.!
"I get it! I know what 'when the time aligns with the Devil's Number' means!"
Izzy's voice went shrill with fear.
"It's time! 6:06:06 p.m.!"
"Six-six-six! The Devil's Number recorded in the Bible!"
His shout made every heart sink.
Instinctively, they looked to the sky, the ruins, the gathering bats.
Less than thirty seconds left.
…
[Cyber Sleuth World]
"Pfft, 666. What an unoriginal number."
Arata curled his lip, fingers tapping his terminal.
"Still, using a specific time as an activation key? Very hacker-brained."
"What good is snarking now?!"
Nokia hopped in place in a panic.
"Tell them! Make them stop the time from hitting!"
Kyoko Kuremi gently blew across her cup, eyes knife-sharp behind the lenses.
"Too late."
"This isn't a simple timer. Prophecy, sacrifices, site, specific time… all components assembled."
"This is a rule-and-causality based 'magic.' Once triggered, it won't be cut off by external force."
"All we can do now is witness the birth of a Mega."
…
Within the footage, time seemed to slow.
Every second dragged like a century.
On Izzy's screen, the digits ticked forward, merciless under all eyes.
18:06:04
18:06:05
…
18:06:06!
At the instant the clock locked onto that ominous sequence—
The world fell silent.
The bats, once swarming and shrieking, froze midair all at once.
Next second—
Fwoooosh!
Every bat wheeled and streaked toward the ruins above Fuji TV like black streams of light.
They were no longer individuals, but a single, colossal vortex of darkness.
Data, dark energy, and the fear and malice harvested from humans were crushed, compressed, and fused within the whirl.
"ROOOAAAR—!!"
A howl unlike any living creature's—packed with pain and rage—detonated at the vortex's core.
The energy in that sound warped the very space over Odaiba.
Even through a different dimension, countless viewers before the screen felt their souls tremble.
At the core, a silhouette vast enough to crush hope took shape.
No longer the elegance and reason of a human-shaped Myotismon.
What emerged was pure, primal, born for destruction and slaughter—a monster.
BOOM!!!
The black vortex burst apart into a billion motes of light.
A towering horror filled every gaze.
Bestial, trunk-thick lower limbs knotted with explosive muscle.
An upper body encased in a chitinous, beetle-like carapace. Two gigantic faces—Myotismon's—were twisted and fixed upon its shoulders like ornaments of agony.
Its own face was gone. In its place gaped a fanged maw and bestial, scarlet eyes burning with annihilation.
The gentleman's reason was gone.
Only the urge to destroy and kill remained.
[Mega-level, Demon Beast Digimon — VenomMyotismon!]
Blood-red letters floated at its side.
The darkness radiating from its body was so dense it seemed tangible, thickening the air, pressing breath from lungs.
…
[Digimon Adventure (1999) World]
"…"
Tai stared at the towering monster, breath arrested.
"So that's… what that thing… really looks like…"
Agumon cowered behind him, trembling.
"Tai… it's so big… so scary…"
Matt's pupils shrank to pinpoints. Cold sweat beaded his brow.
"Are you kidding me… How do we even fight that?"
Elsewhere—
Myotismon stared at his "evolved" Mega form. He froze, then fell into unprecedented ecstasy and madness.
"Ha… hahahahahaha!"
"Yes! This power!"
He drank in the pure destructive might crossing time and space. A sick flush rose on his face.
"This is what it means to be Mega! The Demon Lord's true bearing!"
"Reason? Wisdom? Chains that bind! Only pure power! Pure destruction! That is the king's way!"
"Tai! Do you see?! This is my complete self! I stand above all! Hahahaha!"
He was gone to madness.
This countdown was no longer humiliation.
It had become a stage to display his strongest form to myriad worlds.
…
[Digimon Adventure 02 World]
"M—my gosh…"
Davis fell on his butt, face drained.
"S-so this is the thing we ran into later?"
Veemon hid behind him, shaking.
"Davis, let's go home. This countdown is too intense. My heart can't take it."
Ken's expression was just as shaken.
"Incredible… With an enemy at that level, how did senior Tai and the others… win?"
Wormmon shivered at his side.
Even BlackWarGreymon, ever proud, changed at the sight of VenomMyotismon.
Not fear, but a fierce battle lust… and resonance.
"Pure destructive impulse… no purpose, no reason… existence for the sake of destruction…"
He murmured.
"This one is interesting."
Azulongmon's august voice rolled through space.
"This is one pinnacle of dark power—runaway, berserk, all-devouring. Hence the need for balance is paramount."
…
[Digimon Adventure tri. World]
"…"
Tri-Tai looked at the screen and shut his eyes, face pale.
That sense of despair still made his heart seize even now.
"The real nightmare… began here."
Beside him, WarGreymon's armor let out a faint hum—the primal warning of combat instinct.
The man disguised as Gennai clapped in delight.
His face showed undisguised, twisted pleasure.
"Yes! Yes! That's it! That feeling!"
"Despair! Helplessness! Watching former hope turn worthless before absolute power!"
"Come, Tai! Show me! Show me how you struggled back then! Let me savor it again! Hahahahaha!"
The diseased laughter echoed on and on.
Gankoomon and Alphamon traded a look; both faces were grave.
"So this is… the past he faced?"
(End of Chapter)
If I see that this fanfic has support, I will upload 20+ chapters to Patreon!!
[[email protected]/Zukooo]
[Thanks for your support!]