Zero's GeoGrey Sword flared with golden‑red fire as he slashed toward the presence he'd sensed.
But halfway through the strike, the blade was halted—caught lightly between the fingers of a white-gloved hand that appeared out of thin air.
Those gloved fingers tightened, extinguishing the flames wrapped around the blade. Then the owner of the hand revealed himself.
An exaggerated clown costume. A face buried under heavy powder with no readable expression. Red lipstick stretched far past the corners of his mouth, forming a grotesquely wide smile.
This appearance alone made his identity unmistakable.
Leader of the Dark Masters. First commander of the Dark Army—
Piedmon.
From Zero's perspective, humans carried instinctive, almost genetic terrors: fear of snakes, spiders, cockroaches, rats…
But among these phobias, the most inexplicable had always been coulrophobia—fear of clowns.
Clowns were originally meant to be comedic. A fool character. Someone who made fun of himself to entertain others.
Yet in nearly every modern form of media—anime, novels, films, games—clowns had become symbols of uncanny dread, twisted mania, a creature who tormented not just himself but the audience too.
"Demonic clown." "Killer clown." The archetype was ingrained deeply.
And Piedmon embodied that concept perfectly—the living incarnation of the demonic clown.
Though, truth be told, he wasn't particularly high-ranked among all Mega-level Digimon. Machinedramon had once legitimately held the title of the strongest for a while. Piedmon, after several questionable portrayals across different works, often struggled to maintain his menace.
But this was still Adventure's era—where Ultimates were terrifying bosses and Megas were godlike.
And this Piedmon was clearly not an ordinary one. Just as multiple Demon Lord-type Digimon existed, but only seven bore the true crests of the Seven Great Demon Lords… Piedmon's mere presence showed he was the authentic Dark Master, the one who ranked above Machinedramon.
Meanwhile, the Digimon Kaiser and LadyDevimon had already been spirited away via Piedmon's "magic trick," freeing Zero's allies to rejoin the fight.
In an instant, Angewomon, Mistymon, and Kimeramon struck simultaneously with their strongest moves—
Combining with Zero, their main attacker, the four launched a coordinated assault at Piedmon.
A black, coffin-like magic box suddenly appeared beneath Piedmon, swallowing him whole.
At the same moment, an identical box manifested behind Angewomon. Before she could react, it sealed her inside as well.
"Not good!"
Zero twisted midair, redirecting his sword strike to avoid the box and unleashing a burst of swordlight to intercept his allies' attacks.
But just as he prevented their attacks from going astray, four throwing knives materialized from nowhere, shooting straight into the magic box—and a pained gasp sounded from within.
But when the box opened, it wasn't Piedmon inside—it was Angewomon, the one who'd originally been sealed.
The four knives had pierced clean through her. Light flashed; unable to maintain her form, Angewomon de-evolved into Gatomon and tumbled weakly out of the box.
At the same time, the other box—the one originally containing Angewomon—opened, revealing Piedmon unharmed.
"!"
Mistymon, a master of sleight-of-hand himself, couldn't understand what had happened. That instant of swapping positions was beyond anything resembling stage magic.
This isn't a magic trick—this is straight-up superpowers!
Piedmon flicked his hand. Two white cloths shot toward Kimeramon and Mistymon.
Kimeramon burned hers to ash instantly with a breath attack. Mistymon unleashed slashing magic, but his cloth wasn't damaged at all.
Zero leapt up, slicing apart the cloth chasing Mistymon—only to lose sight of Piedmon entirely in the very next second… until a silent, ghost-like silhouette appeared directly behind Mistymon.
Mistymon sensed danger, reflexively turning to slash—but Piedmon's body suddenly transformed into a square jack‑in‑the‑box painted with a clown's grin.
"!"
Mistymon's blade pierced the box, its lid snapping open as a skull-faced bomb popped out—
Tick.
—and exploded point‑blank.
Mistymon took the blast full force, unable to resist even slightly. His form collapsed back into Wizardmon.
"Gatomon! Wizardmon!"
Hikari and Koushiro rushed to their partners' sides, both wearing helpless, wry smiles.
"Sorry… I dragged everyone down…"
"This guy…" Taichi and Rina were speechless. In barely three exchanges, Piedmon had taken down two allies—it was unreal.
And his methods were so bizarre, it felt less like a battle and more like watching a twisted circus performance.
"How is it, dear audience… Are you enjoying my show?"
Piedmon's voice echoed from all directions—near and far, left and right—making it impossible to track him.
Zero lowered his arms and calmly closed his eyes.
Piedmon's battle style was overwhelmingly unpredictable—attacks that couldn't be foreseen, illusions, tricks, phantoms. His goal was clearly to disrupt their rhythm.
Don't follow his pace. Don't let him provoke you. Stay calm. If you get angry, you'll never catch him.
Zero let his thoughts still for a heartbeat—then his eyes snapped open.
Red light flashed along the GeoGrey Sword as he suddenly thrust toward a seemingly empty space.
The air shimmered—and Piedmon appeared right where Zero struck.
He attempted the same trick, reaching out to catch the blade—but the sword punched straight through his palm. Before he could even form an expression of surprise, the blade had already pierced through his chest.
"This time… let's call it a draw."
Zero lifted his gaze to meet Piedmon's. The clown looked down at the blade through his chest—and burst into hearty laughter.
"So you noticed? Hahaha, not bad. As you said—today, we'll call it a draw. Greymon of File Island… You're quite the marvel. I look forward to the day we fight for real—no more little warm-ups like this."
With those words, the body pierced by Zero's flame-wreathed sword burned away into ashes… leaving behind only a tattered cloth doll.
…A clone.
From the very start, the Piedmon present here had only been a puppet double. His real body had never been on this battlefield.
Feeling no further hostile presence, Zero canceled his evolution and turned back toward his teammates.
Taichi and Rina ran up, staring silently at the ragged doll.
"A puppet clone… meaning that wasn't even the real one?"
If this had been the real Piedmon, Gatomon and Wizardmon wouldn't have merely been knocked back to rookie. A genuine strike from him might've erased them from the fight entirely.
The thrill of defeating the Digimon Kaiser and Puppetmon evaporated instantly, leaving only a heavy sense of dread.
They had beaten MetalSeadramon and Puppetmon—two of the Dark Masters—but Machinedramon and Piedmon were on a far higher level.
And the one who felt this disparity most deeply was Zero—the only one who had struck down the clone.
Because he could fight the clone, he knew exactly how wide the gap to the real thing was.
Against Machinedramon and Puppetmon, Zero had full confidence he could win.
But against Piedmon… he once again felt the terror he'd known back on File Island when facing Devimon for the first time.
That crushing gap where even burning through every trump card still might not guarantee victory…
Zero took a long, steady breath—then smiled.
"Alright, everyone… don't let this get you down. Of course the enemy is strong. But we've changed too. From the very beginning until now, we've grown so much stronger. Even if Piedmon is too much for us right now, as long as we keep pushing ourselves, one day we'll beat him like we beat every other enemy."
Rina let out a long exhale, then forced a bright smile.
"Exactly! Back on File Island we were way weaker than now, and we still beat Devimon, who was way stronger than us~ Nothing to be afraid of!"
Their optimism finally lifted the oppressive mood. Gatomon and Wizardmon shook themselves and managed wobbly smiles.
"Right. We were just careless this time… and got ambushed right after a fight. Of course we'd lose. But now that we know what to expect, we'll win next time."
The gloomy heaviness finally melted away—except for Taichi and Koushiro, who still frowned anxiously.
"That guy… that kid who calls himself Digimon Kaiser—he's human, right? And he can use a Digivice. The Dark Masters… will they try to use him?"
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