…
"Run!"
"Come on, Agumon, hang in there!"
"Uff... uff..."
Agumon, Ryo, Stiker, and I were currently running around like headless chickens while dozens of humanoid and skeletal figures followed us like vengeful ghosts.
Suddenly, Stikedramon turned around before raising both hands toward the figures.
"Accel Strike!"
From the palms of the draco's hands, a rain of electric missiles struck the horde directly, kicking up a large cloud of dust.
We all paused for a second to catch our breath.
But—
The figures quickly emerged from the dust cloud, remaining intact after the attack. The horde's deformed eyes were fixed on us, while inhuman screams and shrieks came out of their mouths. Without thinking twice, none of us hesitated to start running again.
Desperate, I looked around until my eyes fell on a large statue, not far from us. We just had to climb that small hill.
"Follow me!" I shouted with all my might, starting to run as I heard the footsteps of Ryo, Agumon, and Strikedramon behind me.
I didn't know how long we had been running, but I could feel the adrenaline coursing through every fiber of my body. Even though I knew I shouldn't, I forced myself to look back for a second and—
Nothing.
A frown formed on my face. "They're not following us anymore..."
"What?" Ryo looked back before stopping running and frowning. "Well, that's weird."
"What were those things?" Agumon asked, panting from the effort.
"Eaters. Forms made from clusters of Data and negative feelings in The Net," Ryo explained with a shrug before striking a thoughtful pose as he looked back at where we had come from. "Although they've never been this powerful before..."
"Grr..." Strikedramon growled angrily as he clanked his metal claws together.
"Don't worry, next time we'll be stronger and we'll defeat them!" Ryo exclaimed with a carefree smile, reassuring the metal draco.
"Anyway, let's just keep moving forward and—". I stopped dead in my tracks as I looked at the scene in front of me.
I felt my heart rise in my throat as I stared intently at what I thought was a huge statue.
Well, I was wrong.
Very wrong.
Impaled like a pig and hung like a thief was a huge old man dressed in red and black robes with intricate gold decorations and reddish orbs. His pants appeared to be some kind of loose-fitting garment of a light brown color; his shoes, similar to those of a goblin, were red. The old man's face seemed to be covered by a golden mask that hid his long nose and sickly bluish skin.
The scene was brutal, cruel, even cruel in a way.
Various types of weapons were stuck in the old man's limbs.
A large broadsword with strange golden runes and a hilt resembled a familiar orange dinosaur. A golden sword split in half with a golden wolf hilt. A silver medieval jousting spear with golden and reddish decorations. And a curved blade, almost like a katana, white with sky-blue runes in the center of its blade.
A sinister, enormous staff pierced the old man's body vertically, entering through his mouth, passing through his throat, and exiting through his upper back. The staff had a metal skull biting an ominous reddish orb at one end, with intricate metal decorations along the length of the staff, ending in an abnormally pointed tip. And finally, a strange blood-red rapier with small thorn-like spikes protruding from its blade; it did not appear to have a hilt, or if it did, it was hidden by the amount of gray hair protruding from what appeared to be a kind of cloak crowned by an eye staring into nothingness.
I could see purple Data pouring out of each wound, quickly dispersing into the air.
This was not a statue, it was a public execution.
The mere thought made me want to vomit.
I looked at the swords stuck in the old man's body with a lump in my throat, feeling the pure power emanating from each one. Each pulsed with different types of primal energy; I couldn't describe it, but I felt that each sword had a different story, a unique purpose, a reason for its creation, but they all ended up in the same place for some reason.
Perhaps the most striking thing about the figure was his long gray hair and beard, along with his six red demonic wings and that strange purple circle that flashed slowly at the top of the old man's head.
A thought that I knew was not my own came to mind as soon as I looked at the strange circle on the old man's head.
Greed.
"Something's wrong with this place," I thought cautiously before feeling a slight breeze behind me. Through my bond with Agumon, I could sense the surprise and alarm felt by the little orange dinosaur even before I could process the situation.
"You shouldn't be here," a chillingly expressionless voice echoed in my ear, giving me goosebumps.
I immediately moved away from the voice as I turned around; I glanced sideways at Ryo, who was holding up his strange Digivice and sweating profusely next to an intimidating but cautious Strikedramon.
I narrowed my eyes as I took a step back to stare at the stranger.
I immediately had to look up, and up, and up to see the masked face of a humanoid jackal at least the size of Greymon, perhaps larger. The mask was fuchsia in color and covered the entire upper part of the canine's face, leaving its long black hair, which was tied in a long tail, to fall down its back. Its body was slender, with a small frame that contrasted with its enormous hands and legs; its skin was a light blue color with strange tattoos on its forearms, ribs, and shoulders.
He was dressed in an extravagant outfit, loose-fitting yellowish pants with black lines down the sides, which were held up by a bandage belt that seemed strangely immaculate. Around his neck shone a gold and red Egyptian necklace that matched the bracelets on his forearms of the same color. His shoes looked like they came straight out of a Greek myth, a pair of gold sandals with small gold wings protruding from their sides.
Perhaps the most striking thing about the Digimon were its expressionless eyes and the enormous golden wings that sprouted from its back and spread outwards, displaying them proudly.
"Who are you?!" I exclaimed with a frown as I silently took another step back; the more distance between this Digimon and me, the better.
Ignoring my question, the Digimon, which bore a strange resemblance to a certain Egyptian god, stared at us all with a blank expression for what seemed like minutes.
I hadn't noticed it before, but around the jackal, it was as if the world itself was slightly warped in a kind of thin aura.
It resembled the heat distortion effect when cooking over high heat in the kitchen.
"Bearer of the Emblem of Courage and Heir of Fire, Taichi Yagami," the jackal suddenly spoke in a deep, heavy voice, and I could almost see myself straightening up stiffly.
"Tamer, Ryo Akiyama." The jackal's gaze fell heavily on Ryo, who swallowed audibly.
Crossing his arms, the jackal stared at us for a few more seconds before giving us a slightly respectful nod.
"I am Anubimon," the huge jackal introduced himself simply, but with an undeniable strength in his name, as if it meant something more. "And you two must leave this place right now."
Ryo and I looked at each other with the same confused expression on our faces.
"Why?" Ryo asked, putting away his Digivice. "And what the hell is this place?"
I nodded before pointing my thumb at the old man behind me. "And who the hell is the old man who—"
"Your questions are irrelevant," the winged jackal interrupted before narrowing his eyes, causing a familiar glint to shine in them. "And I wasn't asking."
"Tot."
With a golden flash, everything around me turned white; my head seemed to be filled with static for a moment, preventing me from thinking about anything. The next thing I knew, we were all trapped in an intricate sphere of golden energy with various symbols and rings around it.
It was as if we were inside a gyroscope.
Outside, Anubimon levitated the sphere with one of his hands as he narrowed his eyes at the old man's figure. I could see the tension on his face for a split second before his gaze fell on us.
I tried to scream and point my finger, but no sound came out of my mouth. In fact, no sound entered my ears and no sound came out of my mouth; everything remained in perfect silence.
Showing no reaction to my cries and questions, the huge jackal turned around before shooting off into the sky, and in an instant, the reddish island and the figure of the impaled old man were just a mere dot in the distance. The world began to move around us; the ocean passed by without relevance, the dark sky and greenish clouds were mere blurs in my vision, the distant islands and fragmented lands that appeared were just a blur of color without relevance.
When we finally stopped, I felt the urge to vomit rise quickly in my throat and try to escape from my mouth, but only air and saliva came out. I had to take a whole minute before I could wipe my mouth and look around.
I felt my eyebrows rise as high as they could go and my eyes widen.
Infinite darkness spread out wherever I looked; there was no up or down, no beginning or end. However, tiny points of light filtered through the small cracks in the darkness, tiny, the size of an ant, perhaps even smaller.
I held my breath as my heart pounded.
Space.
We were in space.
I looked down with a lump in my throat; below us was a planet that vaguely reminded me of Jupiter, but reddish and gray instead of orange and white. I could see huge storms ravaging the planet's surface with enormous bursts of violet lightning visible even from here.
A hand on my shoulder snapped me out of my amazement, and I turned my head to find a carefree Ryo pointing his finger at the jackal, who had begun to form symbol after symbol in the air with various hand movements.
I looked to the side to see Strikedramon and Agumon being held in spheres different from ours, with both of them trying to break out of their spheres, but they didn't seem to be able to manifest any of their special attacks for some reason. Not to mention that the link between Agumon and me had been severed.
"Seriously, what the hell were these spheres made of?"
A hand passing right in front of my eyes made me blink twice before I noticed Ryo, who had an irritated expression as he continued to point his fingers at Anubimon's symbols.
I let out an inaudible grunt as I raised both arms and shook my head, letting him know that I had no idea what they were or what they meant; maybe if it were Izzy, he might have some idea, but unfortunately, it wasn't.
Although the feeling they conveyed reminded me of the big... explosion? Implosion? ...whatever it was that caused Etemon and me to be adsorbed by—
"Etemon!" I had completely forgotten about the self-proclaimed King of Digimon. My head spun for a moment before I forced myself to take a deep breath, or at least attempt to. "M-Maybe he died during the explosion on the way here; after all, he was seriously injured by SkullGreymon, wasn't he? ... What am I thinking? This is no time to think about that!"
Ryo looked at me with concern on his face before turning to a corner of the sphere and starting to punch it with his fists, accomplishing... absolutely nothing.
I tried shouting, hitting the sphere, and even raising my Digivice, now turned to stone, and my Emblem, but it was all useless. Finally, I gave up as I crossed my arms and clenched my teeth tightly; I hated feeling useless, and here I was now twice as useless!
No Digivice, a useless Emblem, no group, and captured by a Digimon with unknown intentions. Just perfect.
However, in the back of my mind, a familiar laugh, a quiet chuckle, an evil presence seemed to approach my ear and—
The jackal suddenly stopped before turning to look at me sideways with impassivity.
I could feel Kaizer's presence quickly receding.
I took advantage of the moment to flip off the jackal while sticking my tongue out at him.
"See if you like this!"
Anubimon simply rolled his eyes before turning away completely and clasping his hands together in a gesture of prayer.
"Aaru."
The words echoed in my head.
A heartbeat later, outer space shattered into billions of pieces.
Cuts, cracks, fissures.
It was as if thousands of stones had been thrown at a glass window until it was completely shattered.
The reality around us began to lose meaning.
I could see my fingers stretching infinitely. My own eyes staring back at me. Like thousands of hundreds of millions of connections, similar to those of a huge spider web, spreading across dimensions, alternate realities, and entire universes, with nothing separating them from its reach. I felt as if my body was being turned inside out and vice versa.
Suddenly, everything stopped.
Strangely, I felt no nausea or dizziness, only as if all the sensations from a moment ago had vanished from my head. I stood stunned, staring into space for a moment as my mind slowly reorganized itself. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful blue sky above me, then the clouds, the sun, and, strangest of all, golden leaves.
Looking down, I could see a true marvel in front of me.
On one side of the tree, structures flew back and forth on small islands. A familiar coliseum, a huge wizard's tower, a gigantic medieval castle, a large statue with dozens of figures side by side, and a huge white obelisk.
It was as if a fantasy story had taken shape and was now unfolding before me.
I continued to look down and—
'Kari?'
My younger sister, Kari, was talking face to face with Anubimon. I was taken aback for a second before reality sank in. I immediately tried to hit the golden sphere that held me prisoner, but it didn't work; I tried to scream, but my ears were completely silenced.
"If this bastard lays a single finger on her..."
Kari nodded to the huge jackal before turning to look at me with her head tilted, then waving a small farewell gesture with her hand and giving me a fake smile. Anubimon simply nodded before staring at me with his usual expressionless gaze.
"Heir of Fire, I will open a portal to your ancestral land. An ancient enemy of the Saints has escaped from the Celestial Realm and set his sights on this sacred land. Your presence is needed, for destiny so commands." The jackal's voice echoed directly in my head; his deep, weary voice made me freeze instinctively.
Before I could say anything, the gleam in Anubimon's eyes flooded everything around him.
"Maʽat."
The sound of waves crashing into each other echoed in my head.
And everything went black.
...
A/N: Phew, I hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of the rabbit hole. This chapter was a complete torture to write, but I hope I conveyed the feeling that each part of the chapter should have conveyed. On another note, I'm back for another semester of college, you know how it is.
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