Chapter 226: Intertwined Love and Hate
The sound of the wind whistling across the desolate battlefield...
The thick, choking dust permeating the ruined surroundings...
And the silent, lingering wailing of the dead.
Everything—absolutely everything—converged at this single, fateful moment. It formed the grim prelude to the final battle.
Omnimon.
He was one of the very first Digimon to pledge his loyalty to Yggdrasil. He was the legendary hero who had quelled the chaos and bloodshed of the ancient era, ushering in the bright dawn of a new age.
To countless Digimon, this Royal Knight was a beacon of hope, universally respected and deeply beloved.
[ LOVE ME! LOVE ME! ]
Yes, that was how it used to be.
Until everything fell apart.
[ HATE ME! HATE ME! ]
Even now, the desperate, agonizing echoes of the past continued to ring in Omnimon's ears.
"Lord Omnimon, I believe you must have your reasons!"
"We can talk about this!"
"If it is to save the world, there must be some other way!"
"As long as we all work together, just like in the past—"
"Lord Omnimon! Please, do not hurt any more innocent people!"
"You are a hero!!!"
"Omnimon!"
"Omnimon."
"Omnimon..."
[ LOVE ME! LOVE ME! ]
The fragmented memories came to a sudden, violent halt.
When his consciousness snapped back to the grim reality of the present, the voices reaching his ears were no longer filled with sorrowful reverence.
Instead, a roar overflowing with pure, unadulterated resentment tore through the air.
"Om—ni—mon!"
Beneath the shattered, fragmented sky, WarGreymon X lunged forward. His entire armored body was wreathed in roaring, blazing flames as he poured every ounce of his being toward the idol he had once worshipped.
Toward the enemy he now despised with every fiber of his being.
He swung his massive Dramon Killers, the razor-sharp claws intertwined with a millennium of hatred and fury.
[ KILL ME! KILL ME! ]
"Today! Right here—it is time to settle everything!!!"
BOOM!
The sheer, explosive impact of the strike slammed into Omnimon's chest. The corrupted knight was sent flying backward like a kite with a snapped string, his body tumbling through the dust along with those fleeting memories of a brighter past.
Yes, that is right, a quiet voice echoed in the depths of his fractured mind.
Just like this. Settle my sins.
Meanwhile, a short distance away, Gallantmon X stood in quiet observation, witnessing the tragedy unfold.
Reverence and hatred. Two conflicting emotions constantly surging and clashing.
It was precisely because he had witnessed countless tragedies like this that he truly understood the frantic, desperate melody WarGreymon X was playing with his very life.
This was no longer a simple act of venting anger or seeking petty revenge.
Struggling and thrashing through this nonsensical, broken era, bearing the heavy sacrifice of fallen comrades and the bitter humiliation of merely surviving...
The deep reverence and burning hatred that had once warred in his chest were always destined to collide on this final day.
With his upright, honorable stance, the dragon warrior would finally settle the bloody debts of the old world that had accumulated up to this very second.
"In a situation like this, how could I possibly interfere out of my own personal feelings?" Gallantmon X murmured, his crimson cape snapping in the harsh wind.
"Is that so..."
Hearing his comrade's quiet words, Dynasmon pondered for a brief moment before offering a helpless, dismissive shrug. "You, as always, love to say things that are completely exhausting to understand."
"Whatever."
Dynasmon brushed past the heavy atmosphere. With a casual, sweeping swing of his glowing energy ribbons, he effortlessly sliced through several grotesque Eaters that had been attempting to ambush them from the shadows.
"I previously thought your sudden death was a bit suspicious," Dynasmon remarked, not looking back. "Now it seems it was all a calculated risk to obtain this new power, right? The X-Antibody. Given your stubborn personality, there was no way you would have returned to this battlefield without making preparations."
After speaking, Dynasmon extended a hand toward the crimson knight.
Watching his colleague's incredibly matter-of-fact expression, the tattered cape fluttering behind Gallantmon X paused for a fraction of a second.
A moment later, he let out an irritable sigh. "Dynasmon, you guy..."
"I really don't get along with you."
Dynasmon smirked. "Even if we don't get along, we are still fighting side by side right now."
Gallantmon X shook his head slowly. "This is probably what they call... the impermanence of the world."
Perhaps it was just an illusion, but after ending that brief, dry exchange with Dynasmon, the heavy, suffocating block in Gallantmon X's chest suddenly felt a little lighter.
Just as the crimson knight began to spread the lingering hope left behind by Yggdrasil—the X-Program—the fierce clash between WarGreymon X and Omnimon rapidly approached a white-hot intensity.
The brutal battles fought over a millennium did not merely forge blind fury and mindless madness.
WarGreymon X was no longer the ordinary Ultimate-level Digimon that Omnimon could easily chase around and swat away in the past. He was a seasoned, lethal warrior.
, MetalGarurumon X had now entered the fray. The heavily armed cyborg wolf coordinated flawlessly with WarGreymon X, their combined assault inflicting severe, compounding wounds on the corrupted Royal Knight.
Facing the relentless siege of the two X-Antibody Digimon, Omnimon's single visible eye glazed over in a brief trance. Phantoms of the past flickered across his vision.
He vaguely remembered that, a long time ago, he too had a steadfast companion standing by his side.
But... when exactly did it start?
When did he end up all alone?
"Terra Force!"
"Garuru Tomahawk!"
Two devastating ultimate attacks tore through the battlefield, hurtling directly toward him.
Deep down, a fractured part of Omnimon truly wanted to just drop his arms and let them destroy him. Whether it was his shattered heart desperately desiring to make amends, or the fact that this corrupted body was already slipping beyond his own control—he yearned for the end.
But the insidious infection within him would not allow it.
Under the parasitic influence of the Eater, Omnimon's majestic weapons had long since become twisted, grotesque mockeries of their former glory.
Yet, even in this degraded state, blocking the incoming offensive was not a difficult task.
With a single, sweeping slash of his mutated blade, the explosive ultimate moves of WarGreymon X and MetalGarurumon X were effortlessly deflected, detonating harmlessly in the distance.
However, the very next second—
"Great Tornado!"
WarGreymon X slammed his massive claws together, his entire body rotating at a blinding, supersonic speed. He transformed into a drilling vortex of raw power, launching himself directly at Omnimon's chest.
"...A feint?"
Just as Omnimon raised his twisted, corrupted Grey Sword to block the drilling assault, a chilling frost silently descended from the sky.
As a jagged bloom of ice violently erupted across Omnimon's shoulder armor, another familiar silhouette materialized directly behind him.
It was MetalGarurumon X.
"You were the main attacker..."
Feeling the ambient temperature plummet sharply at his back, Omnimon's only remaining eye narrowed into a dangerous slit.
"Cocytus Breath!"
However—before the absolute-zero freezing breath could erupt from MetalGarurumon X's jaws, Omnimon stomped his foot down with devastating force.
The already ruined ground was instantly pulverized into fine dust under the sheer, destructive weight of his power.
Using that immense friction, Omnimon forcefully halted his body from being pushed back any further by WarGreymon X's drilling tornado.
"Still too naive..."
Although MetalGarurumon X had successfully seized the tactical upper hand, how could a battle-hardened veteran like Omnimon fall so easily?
He immediately launched a brutal counterattack.
The Garuru cannon on his right arm—now a twisted, nightmarish wolf head heavily mutated by the Eater infection—cracked open its giant, metallic maw, aiming point-blank at MetalGarurumon X.
However, what sprayed out from the dark barrel was not the familiar, devastating blast of freezing energy.
Instead, rows of writhing, hideous Eater tentacles violently erupted from the cannon, thrashing wildly through the air.
The once glorious, shining knight of justice had been reduced to such a twisted, abominable monstrosity.
His tragic fate was truly something to lament...
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