Chapter 220: Just for our sakes...
"...Ugh!"
"Lord Mizuki!?"
The sudden, pained groan slipping from the youth's lips instantly drew the attention of the surrounding Digimon.
Almost immediately, the towering figures of Dynasmon and Crusadermon closed the distance, their heavy armor clanking as they rushed to Mizuki's side.
"Lord Mizuki, are you alright?" Dynasmon asked, his usually booming voice laced with genuine concern.
"Please do not push yourself too hard," Crusadermon added, crossing their arms. "If you are truly feeling exhausted—"
"No... thank you for your concern, Dynasmon, Crusadermon." Mizuki took a slow, deep breath, steadying his trembling shoulders. He forced a reassuring smile and shook his head. "I am fine."
He straightened his posture, though a thin layer of sweat still clung to his forehead. "Rather than worrying about me, we need to hurry back to the survivor camp. I do not know why, but ever since a few moments ago, a terrible premonition has been gnawing at my chest."
The two Royal Knights exchanged a helpless glance. They desperately wanted to force Mizuki to sit down and rest, but seeing the unyielding stubbornness in his eyes, they knew arguing would be pointless. They could only choose to compromise.
In this kind of situation, the only one who could possibly persuade Lord Mizuki was BeelStarmon.
It was a pity, however. Dynasmon shook his head with a quiet sigh as he looked over at Belle. The blonde, gun-toting Digimon was standing close to Mizuki, her expression calm and entirely supportive of whatever decision he made. She clearly was not the type to try and hold him back.
With no other options, the group adjusted their formation and continued their trek across the desolate landscape.
"...Mizu, is it the world's rejection?" Belle asked softly, falling into step beside him.
Mizuki did not look surprised that she had noticed. He kept his eyes on the horizon. "Something catastrophic has happened to this world. I can feel the rejection pressing against me, but... it lacks malice. It isn't targeted specifically at me. Belle, do you understand what I mean?"
She tilted her head, her brow furrowing in brief thought before she spoke. "...Is the world being pushed to the brink of destruction?"
"Most likely..." Mizuki nodded, his expression turning solemn.
When he had first arrived in this dimension, Mizuki had been subjected to a fierce, targeted rejection led by the World Tree, simply because he was an anomaly who did not belong. However, by continuously fighting on the front lines and saving countless living beings, he had inadvertently earned the collective approval of the world's remaining inhabitants. That collective gratitude had acted as a shield, completely offsetting the world's natural immune response.
But now, that heavy, suffocating pressure was returning.
Yet, just as Mizuki had noted, it was entirely blind. It felt less like an active attack and more like the desperate, instinctual thrashing of a dying body trying to purge any foreign presence from its system.
"Is it because of the Eaters?" he murmured to himself. "Or perhaps... something else entirely..."
Mizuki closed his eyes, shaking his head to clear the creeping dread. Regardless of the cause, nothing would change his current objective. He had to stop this apocalypse.
It was not born from some grand, arrogant belief that he was a destined savior. It was far simpler than that. He just could not stomach the sight of innocent lives suffering.
'In the past, my own frailty kept me chained. I lacked the power to do anything but watch,'he thought, his fists clenching at his sides.'But now... things are different.'
As that conviction settled deep in his chest, Mizuki snapped his eyes open. A brilliant, unwavering light sparked within his pupils—the obvious manifestation of hope.
And yet, a strange sense of dissonance tugged at the back of his mind. A phantom itch he could not scratch.
'What did I forget... What is it that I truly desire—'He cut the thought short. No. Now was not the time to get lost in chaotic introspection. Mizuki shook his head sharply, casting the fragmented thoughts into the darkest corners of his mind. He had a job to do.'What is this sound?'
In a void choked by static and chaos, Wizardmon slowly opened his eyes.
The world that greeted him was a canvas of dim, suffocating darkness.
'Is it night?'he wondered, his mind sluggish.'No... that isn't right.'He forced his head up.'Why is the sky bleeding red? This... this isn't a sky at all.'
"Tyrannomon!?"
As his consciousness finally cleared, Wizardmon's eyes widened at the sight of the giant dinosaur Digimon standing just a few yards away. He instinctively reached out, wanting to shout a warning.
But before the words could leave his throat, the Tyrannomon let out a gargling roar, baring its teeth in a final, desperate display of defiance. In the blink of an eye, a swarm of pale, writhing tentacles descended upon it. The massive beast's body shattered into countless fragments of glowing data, exploding outward like glass.
"Mega...dramon..." Wizardmon rasped, his voice hollow as the massive serpentine cyborg plummeted from the red sky nearby, dissolving into nothingness before it even hit the ground.
Surrounded by a dense, endless ocean of Eaters, Wizardmon felt no grief for the fallen. There was no room left in his heart for sorrow. His eyes were entirely numb, devoid of the light of hope that had once driven him.
Moving purely on muscle memory, he reached down and silently picked up his fallen staff from the cracked earth.
He had nothing left to lose. His staff would light up this miserable graveyard one last time.
[Thunder Cloud!]
Rumble!
The air cracked open. Several jagged bolts of lightning tore down from the crimson sky, entirely under Wizardmon's control. The electricity danced across the broken land, weaving a violent, deafening symphony that blasted the nearest Eaters into ash.
It was a display of raw, devastating power that seemed entirely impossible for a mere Champion Level Digimon. But in this world, strength could not be judged solely by evolutionary stages. The sheer accumulation of data volume was a critical factor.
Data volume...
Feeling the heavy, turbulent mass of foreign data swirling within his core—data he had absorbed from the countless friends who had fallen beside him—Wizardmon gripped his staff tighter.
He possessed more than enough raw data to trigger a Digivolution. He had held this power for a long time. Yet, he had actively chosen never to consume it. To assimilate that data meant erasing the last lingering traces of his comrades. He refused to forget the shadows of his past. He refused to let them truly die.
But now...
Wizardmon looked around the desolate battlefield. The black-and-white monstrosities stretched out to the horizon. The few companions who had survived this long were already falling, their screams silenced by the relentless Eaters.
'I am so tired...''I really have had enough...''Just let it end right here. I no longer have the strength to keep holding on...'
As Wizardmon slowly let his eyes slide shut, resigning himself to the swarm, the massive reservoir of data within his body suddenly began to surge violently.
Perhaps it was the fragmented consciousnesses still clinging to the data, refusing to let him surrender. With Wizardmon no longer actively suppressing it, the accumulated energy rushed toward his Digicore in a frantic, desperate wave.
Could it force a miracle?
The answer was a cruel negative. The lingering wills within the data were too fragmented, too degraded to maintain any real cohesion. They were nothing but blind obsessions, rushing around like headless flies. Without a unified will to guide them, it was fundamentally impossible for such mottled, chaotic data to trigger a stable evolution.
'Survive...''Survive, Wizardmon...''Don't give up...'
"I see. Is this what you all truly wish for?"
Wizardmon flinched. "...?"
Who was that?
Through the haze of his impending death, Wizardmon heard a voice. It was warm, steady, and entirely out of place on this blood-soaked battlefield.
Before he could even attempt to locate the source, the voice spoke directly into his mind.
"If... and I only mean if, you still had the strength to keep. Would you keep walking?"
Wizardmon remained silent. The roaring of the Eaters seemed to fade into the background.
Could he keep walking? The logical answer was no. Even if he somehow found the physical strength to stand, his spirit was shattered. He would just—
Before the thought could finish, the world around him shimmered. In a trance, familiar figures began to materialize in the blood-red mist.
It was only for a fleeting second, but he saw them clearly. His friends from the past. The companions who had thrown themselves into the jaws of death just to buy him another day of life.
They stood shoulder to shoulder, looking back at him. And in perfect unison, their voices echoed in his soul.
"Just for our sakes..."
"Destroy this unreasonable world—"
Wizardmon's grip on his staff tightened until the wood groaned. His numb eyes suddenly ignited with a terrifying, absolute fury.
"Completely and utterly!!!"
As his roar tore through the battlefield, that warm, distant voice echoed in his ears one final time.
"In that case—"
The phantoms of his friends smiled. "Then take our souls."
Wizardmon gasped. "!!!"
At that exact moment, a blinding pillar of pure white light erupted from the very center of the battlefield. It pierced straight through the broken sky, connecting the heavens to the shattered earth.
But within seconds, that pure, holy light began to stain.
It did not fade; it inverted. It became an ultimate, deep darkness—a pitch-black abyss that swallowed every trace of light around it. Yet, this darkness did not evoke fear or oppression.
Because it was...
"The color of the night sky."
Miles away, standing on a desolate ridge, Mizuki slowly lowered his outstretched hand.
He swayed slightly, and Belle immediately stepped forward, wrapping an arm around his waist to support his weight.
"You are pushing yourself far too hard, Mizu," she murmured, her tone gentle but firm.
Dynasmon and Crusadermon stepped up beside them, staring at the distant horizon where the dark pillar still raged.
"To force so many Digimon to reach the Mega Level in a single breath..." Dynasmon muttered, his voice thick with awe and disbelief. "Even Yggdrasil in its prime would struggle to—" He cut himself off, turning a worried gaze toward the gunner. "BeelStarmon, is this really safe for him?"
"...Mm. It is okay." Belle did not look at the Royal Knights. She kept her soft, unwavering gaze entirely on Mizuki's pale face. "Because... this is what Mizu wishes for."
Dynasmon fell silent. Watching Belle support the youth with such absolute, unquestioning devotion, the two Royal Knights could only exchange a look and shake their heads in helpless resignation.
Back on the battlefield, the miracle had taken root. Across the wasteland, the few surviving Digimon were enveloped in their own pillars of light, their bodies rapidly reformatting as they achieved their ultimate transformations.
However, the attention of the Eaters—and the Royal Knights watching from afar—was entirely drawn to the epicenter of the darkness.
A figure stepped out from the pitch-black void. Crowned with the sin of Gluttony, his new form was forged entirely from the unyielding beliefs and tender sacrifices of the friends who had entrusted their souls to him.
"Mega Level Digivolution, huh..."
The deep, gravelly voice echoed across the silent battlefield. Although the evolution had completely repaired his broken body, the gaping void in his heart remained untouched.
He slowly raised his hands, clenching his leather-clad fingers into tight fists.
"I will... remember this bone-chilling hunger..."
He did not fight for himself. He fought for the ghosts that now lived within his core.
His oppressive, ice-cold eyes locked onto the endless sea of white monstrosities surrounding him. The temperature of the air seemed to plummet under his gaze.
In the next second, the ground beneath him shattered. Like a bullet fired from a divine chamber, his figure blurred into motion, charging straight into the heart of the enemy swarm.
Wizardmon's Digivolution was complete.
The Demon Lord of Gluttony: Beelzemon.
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