"What a pitiful creature."
Leaping high into the air like a ninja, Renamon stared down coldly at Meramon, who writhed helplessly in blind fury below her. The contemptuous smirk on her face gradually shifted into pity.
In truth, when Renamon first learned about the fate of Digimon who ended up trapped within EDEN's network, she felt nothing special.
After all, even in the Digital World, survival of the fittest and dominance through slavery were commonplace occurrences.
Especially for someone like Renamon, who'd survived alone since birth, she had no compassion to spare for weaklings who fell victim to such cruelty.
But only now, upon directly encountering Meramon, did Renamon sense that something wasn't quite as she'd imagined.
It wasn't empathy toward a fellow Digimon enslaved by humans—after all, being captured meant Meramon himself must have had some fatal flaw.
Instead, Renamon only felt regretful. Meramon clearly possessed immense power, yet because he'd been subjugated by humans, he was utterly helpless against even a Rookie-level Digimon like herself.
"Then, allow me to end your miserable life right here!"
A fierce, deadly glint flashed through Renamon's eyes. Facing the mighty Meramon, she resolved to end his pitiful existence in her own way.
Swoosh!
Meramon sensed mortal danger but only had enough time to look upwards, where he saw three identical "Renamons" descending from the sky, each targeting his vital points from different directions.
—Kohenkyo!
A technique that concealed attacks behind illusions, creating false images to distract the enemy. Summoning multiple copies of herself was one of Renamon's signature battle strategies.
Back at Hikarigaoka, Renamon had relied on this same illusion technique to eliminate both Angemon and Deputymon, formidable Champions vastly stronger than ordinary Rookies.
"What the hell...? How can that Digimon be this powerful?!"
Meanwhile, the two surviving hackers who'd fled from the battlefield watched incredulously as Renamon effortlessly split herself into three illusory clones, dominating Meramon from above.
Whether it was the earlier claw attack that tore through Meramon's flames, directly damaging his core essence...
Or this impossible cloning illusion now—each shattered their understanding of Digimon capabilities.
In their previous experiences, although captured Digimon possessed a variety of unique abilities, very few displayed skillful versatility comparable to Renamon's.
In most hacker battles, controlled Digimon fought mechanically—one side firing off a big move, then the other returning fire, repeating in a dull, turn-based routine.
Encountering a Digimon like Renamon—one possessing a clear will and extensive combat experience—was utterly unprecedented for them.
But it wasn't just these two from the "Three Musketeers"; all the surrounding hackers who'd stopped to spectate were similarly shocked by Renamon's display of autonomy and aggression.
Compared to the puppet-like Meramon, Renamon's nimble agility and flexibility made her seem genuinely alive, freely deciding how best to attack.
Such vivid autonomy belonged solely to living beings—not to mere "programs" whose intellect and instincts had been forcibly suppressed.
But what these hackers didn't know was that Digimon were, in fact, genuinely living creatures—and Renamon herself stood out even among her own kind.
"We can't let this continue."
The leader of the trio regained his senses first. If this went on any longer, Meramon would suffer the same fate as countless previous victims—mercilessly destroyed by Renamon, who would then devour his data completely.
"We have to finish her off now!"
A malicious gleam flashed across his eyes as the hacker leader quickly opened his virtual interface, intending to activate a certain special program.
"No, you can't! If you use that, Meramon will disappear forever!"
Seeing this, the third hacker frantically grabbed his boss's arm, desperately trying to stop him.
"So what if Meramon disappears? If we can capture that fox-like Digimon instead, his sacrifice would be more than worth it!"
The leader viciously glared at his subordinate, ignoring the pleading look in the other's eyes as he coldly activated the mysterious program they'd stumbled upon.
In the next instant, an unspeakable disaster was unleashed.
"What?!"
Thanks to her extraordinary senses, Renamon immediately noticed the abnormality in Meramon's condition. Without hesitation, all three of her clones dispersed in different directions, retreating swiftly.
Renamon's true body, previously concealed, also vanished instantly from the battlefield, planning to observe from the shadows before taking further action.
Her instincts proved correct—this Meramon was no longer the same Digimon she'd fought just moments before.
"GAAAAHHH!"
As the strange program activated, Meramon, once puppeteered, now screamed out in unbearable pain.
His howls were filled with agony incomparably worse than before, echoing through the digital space, conveying vividly his rage and utter despair even to the distant spectators.
Krrk! Krrrk!
Seconds later, the flames engulfing Meramon's body vanished entirely, replaced by eerie, mechanical clicking noises.
It sounded disturbingly like something unknown had invaded Meramon's body, using it as a host, and was now struggling to emerge through his shattered form.
"What is that... thing?"
Everyone, including Chen Ze, stared wide-eyed as an unknown lifeform violently tore open Meramon's chest, slowly crawling out from within.
Krrrk! Krrrk...
From afar, it appeared to be some sort of nautilus-shaped monstrosity.
A mechanical, emotionless single eye stared coldly from the creature's side, while the front sprouted elongated, tentacle-like appendages.
Its appearance felt like an eldritch abomination summoned straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare. Coupled with the twisted black-and-white patterns spiraling across its surface, the being radiated a visceral, spine-chilling sense of distortion and wrongness.
And perhaps due to having absorbed Meramon's data, this bizarre creature's distorted limbs had begun to mimic an eerie, vaguely humanoid form.
"Oh no!"
Unlike the other hackers who were still frozen in shock, the teenage hacker standing beside Chen Ze appeared to recognize the creature immediately. In panic, he momentarily forgot Chen Ze was still standing right next to him.
"How could those three idiots possibly get their hands on something like that?"
Hearing this, Chen Ze quickly glanced toward the two hackers already fleeing far into the distance, then lowered his voice urgently:
"You recognize that creature?"
Because from the moment the strange being appeared, Chen Ze's own DigiCore had begun sounding frantic warnings—it was something specifically born to prey upon Digimon, or rather, digital data itself.
He didn't need any explicit explanation. As someone who currently existed as a subspecies of Agumon, Chen Ze knew instinctively—
That monster was unquestionably the natural predator of all Digimon.
---
A/N: The main storyline's boss has finally arrived.
T/N: i think its an Eater?
bonus chaps
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200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
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