…
The sound of the wind hit my ears, stunning them. I felt my stomach sink heavily, while my body seemed to resist my commands for a moment. It took me a few seconds to understand what was happening, as my eyes focused on the clouds rapidly moving away.
The realization hit me like a truck.
We were falling.
"WHAT THE HELL, PIXIMON?!!" I didn't know if it was my own voice, someone else's, or my own thoughts. With a grunt of effort, I managed to turn around just to see the ground and a gigantic structure rapidly approaching with each passing second.
"We're going to die! We're going to die! We're going to die!"
Before I could close my eyes, a huge orange figure stopped my fall and Gabumon's with its body. I couldn't help but let out a painful moan as I clung with all my strength to Birdramon's flaming feathers as if my life depended on it.
Because, in fact, it did depend on it.
My heart was pumping hard as I breathed irregularly; I turned my gaze to Sora, who didn't seem to be in any better shape than I was, if her tousled red hair and the absence of her strange hat were anything to go by. Without saying a word, Birdramon moved to catch Joe, Mimi, and TK, as well as their respective Digimon partners.
"That was amazing!" TK exclaimed with an energetic laugh as Patamon trembled slightly beside him. "We have to do it again!"
"No, no way, nope, never, ever," Mimi shook her head repeatedly as she looked at TK as if he were crazy.
"...when I see that fairy..." I muttered in a flat voice as
On one side, I heard a familiar buzzing sound, and it didn't take me long to set my gaze on the huge blue insect carrying Izzy and Noah on its back while Filmon clung as best he could to one of its many hands.
Without wasting any time, Kabuterimon and Birdramon slowly lowered us down, allowing me to observe the gigantic structure that stood there in detail.
It was, in fact, a castle. A huge one that took up almost half of an entire mountain, as if to demonstrate its grandeur; its walls looked old and abandoned, emanating an ominous aura around them. In the central part of the castle, you could see a large garden with a giant dead tree in the middle.
It was creepy.
No matter where I looked, there was not a single trace of life anywhere. Not even in the surrounding mountains was there a single trace of plant life or anything to indicate the existence of Digimons in that area. The only thing that broke the gloomy silence was the cold breeze that clung to my bones and sang in my ears.
I swallowed hard as we finally touched the ground, letting out a shaky sigh as I climbed down from the huge bird along with Gabumon.
"So... here we are." I nodded slightly at Gabumon's words as I continued to admire the colossal size of the castle. It was easily as big as the Pyramid of Etemon, no, it was at least twice as big as the Pyramid.
"Huh, I thought they would ambush us as soon as we set foot in this place," Izzy commented suspiciously, and I couldn't help but agree with his thoughts. I was really expecting a bloody battle between Vandemon's army and me.
"Don't let your guard down," Sora looked at us with narrowed eyes and a frown, making sure we were paying full attention before speaking. "We just have to stop Vandemon and get out of here. We don't have to stay any longer than necessary, is that clear?"
We all held our breath, feeling the atmosphere change at those words. It wasn't advice or a warning from Sora, it was an order. And for the first time in a long time, I agreed with her.
I turned my gaze to the main door; like the rest of the castle, the door was just as gigantic, made of old wood and rusty iron towering above us, perhaps to facilitate the entry and exit of large Digimon such as Birdramon or Kabuterimon.
Noah stepped forward as he stared at the door with narrowed eyes.
"We should look for another entran—"
Brrrrr....
Before he could finish speaking, I watched as Joe, Mimi, Gomamon, and Palmon opened the door by pushing it with their hands. The large door emitted an uncomfortable squeak that made my skin crawl.
"Well... it looks like no one's home," Mimi said lightly as she wiped the sweat from her forehead.
Noah muttered something I couldn't hear, but I could understand how he was feeling at that moment from the resigned look and frown on his face. I shook my head as we entered the front door of the castle of our greatest enemy to date.
What could go wrong, right?
***
As we walked through the castle corridors, things didn't get any less strange—quite the opposite, in fact. The corridors were deserted, the candles on the walls looked as if they had been extinguished long ago,
and in all this silence, my mind couldn't help but bring to light what Eyesmon had made me see and hear.
"I have to work to earn money! You spend almost everything visiting spas and eating expensive food! You're a freeloading, ungrateful bitch! You can't even do one thing right in this place, it looks like a pigsty!"
"Don't you dare call me that! At least I don't look like I've been in a damn war zone! Have you seen your face?! You look like you haven't slept in days! You don't even look at the house now! The kids have started wondering where you are all the time!!"
"What do I care how I look, damn it! What I do care about is coming home from work and not having to clean the house because my damn wife is a filthy bitch! A woman who can't cook or clean?! How are you supposed to be useful then?!!"
"You're... you're a bastard! Agh!"
"Say it again! Come on! Say it!"
Old memories whispered in the corners of my mind, familiar but twisted. Voices similar but not the same, phrases similar but spoken with venom and hatred that may or may not have been really there.
Mom and Dad.
I let out a low growl as I put a hand on my neck and turned my head slightly upward, causing a crack to echo down the hallway. I let out a slight sigh of satisfaction as I fixed my eyes on the ceiling... only to freeze for a second, processing what my eyes were seeing. I could hear Gabumon's footsteps freeze as he felt my urgency through the link between us.
Without thinking twice, I took out my Digivice.
[-Gabumon Digievolved to... Garurumon!-]
And in an instant, Garurumon launched a flame of fire into the darkness above us.
"FIREFOX!!"
With a huge burst of blue flame, the darkness moved above us as one. An inhuman scream echoed throughout the castle. Above us, a tide of what I could only describe as ink began to move desperately to dodge Garurumon's flame at all costs. From the ink, countless reddish eyes appeared as they all spun like a whirlwind; like a kind of fist, the huge tide of ink crashed directly into Angemon, Garurumon, and Filmon, enveloping them as if it were a kind of slime.
"Garurumon!"
Before I could say anything, the ground beneath us began to shake violently.
With a wild scream more like that of a beast than a man or machine. MadLeomon appeared from the other side of the hallway and lunged at us with eyes full of madness. It took only two seconds for the enormous killer beast to suddenly appear in the middle of us all and throw a brutal punch at Togemon's face, smashing him into one of the castle windows and throwing him into the first-floor garden.
MadLeomon let out a scream like a chainsaw and a howl of pain before throwing himself out the window and crashing into the already fallen Togemon.
"TK, prepare Angemon!" I exclaimed as I gave a quick mental command to Garurumon, noticing that Eyesmon had not covered my partner's mouth. "Now!"
"Wolf Cry!" Garurumon let out a thunderous howl that shook the entire mass of ink and eyes surrounding them for a few seconds; the windows in the hallway began to crack and break due to the sonic attack.
Those few seconds of stunning were all TK and Angemon needed to turn the situation around.
"Holy Mantle!"
At that very moment, a power that could only be described as divine emerged, manifesting itself in waves of pure energy that burst forth with intensity. With a burst of pure light, a quarter of Eyemon evaporated in an instant, disintegrating in a flash of energy. From Angemon, these waves spread out, mercilessly eliminating all evil in their path, leaving a trail of justice and purity in their wake.
Eyesmon let out another cry that seemed more like a pained sob than anything else as he quickly moved away from Angemon and backed up to the end of the hallway.
Before anyone could do anything else.
A feeling of dread washed over us all, causing the hallway to fall into an unnatural silence. No one moved, no one blinked, no one dared to breathe.
Out of nowhere, a pair of sharp blue eyes appeared in the darkness, staring at us with what I could only describe as hatred. Pure, condensed hatred, a hell specially prepared and calculated, a torture that has no end.
A hatred so strong that it almost made me want to hide under the bed.
This was not a Digimon.
"Chosen Children."
A low but elegant and respectful voice echoed throughout the hallway.
"Welcome to my castle."
This was a monster.
...
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