Golden super Digi-alloy armor flowed over Tai's body like water, plating itself across him until he was completely encased. Red and white lines swept over the gold, forming mysterious streams of digital code, while a silver cloak rippled without wind, occasionally revealing the Digicode sigils inscribed upon it. A small shield was set into his left forearm, and a beam saber was mounted in his right. His head was fully enclosed in a helmet, leaving only a dark, visor-like band over his eyes.
Right now Tai looked absolutely radiant. Even Kari and the others who were with him all the time were stunned by his appearance, let alone the children watching from all over the world. Only one phrase echoed in their minds: That's insanely cool.
With his "transformation" complete, Tai shot toward WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon. Seeing him approach, Izzy snapped back to his senses and opened another data gate. Tai exchanged a quick look with WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, then the three of them dove in together.
On Izzy's computer, the flood of e-mails from all over the world still hadn't stopped. Kids everywhere were sending their thoughts and questions.
"So many e-mails…" After Tai's entrance, the already overwhelming number of messages spiked again:
"Go, WarGreymon!"
"You won't lose, MetalGarurumon!"
"Is that last one also a Digimon? Either way, do your best—we're counting on you!"
T.K. watched Matt, who had all his attention glued to the screen, and saw sweat streaming down his big brother's forehead. Hugging Patamon tight, he could only whisper, "Don't give up, big brother."
"I'm going to hold on to the very end. I'm not going to lose to Tai," Matt said, his voice utterly unwavering.
"Do your best, big brother."
Kari stared at Tai's figure without blinking, silently cheering him on in her heart.
The missile was drawing ever closer to its destination; its trajectory was now visible to the naked eye. At the same time, Tai and the others reached Diaboromon's location.
Everywhere they looked, it was black. When they focused, they realized that vast black mass was nothing but Diaboromon, packed together so tightly it looked like a living wall. The instant Tai's group appeared, the entire swarm turned toward them.
"How many are there…" Izzy stared at the sea of Diaboromon, at a loss for words.
"Tai…" Sora was worried sick, but she didn't even know what she was supposed to say anymore.
"Forty thousand… eighty thousand… one hundred sixty thousand… it's doubling its copies," Izzy said, his voice changing, edging toward hysteria.
All of the Diaboromon turned in unison, aiming their chest ports at Tai, WarGreymon, and MetalGarurumon, and unleashed salvo after salvo of blood-red Catastrophe Cannon blasts. A storm of energy shells blotted out the entire field of view.
Like a rain of destruction, the shots pounded down from every direction. Tai raised his left arm; the small shield mounted there expanded in an instant, unfolding until it covered his whole body. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon dodged as best they could while deploying their own shields, blocking the blasts they couldn't evade.
"At this rate, we're done for." Tai frowned behind his visor as the shield in front of him absorbed ever more violent hits. Diaboromon was still duplicating itself; the longer this dragged on, the worse their chances would become.
"Divine Protection!"
At Tai's shout, the magic shield Avalon flew from his hand, scattering outward and forming an iron-wall, full-surround barrier that wrapped around WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.
"WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon—hurry up and DNA Digivolve!"
"Right!"
WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon exchanged a nod; they understood exactly what Tai meant.
"WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon… DNA Digivolve to… Omnimon!"
Appearing before the eyes of children all over the world was Omnimon, one of the Royal Knights, known as the "virus killer." His overwhelming, stylish presence made every kid watching at their computers cry out in awe.
Seeing Omnimon appear, Tai finally let out a breath and withdrew the energy-hungry Divine Protection barrier. He flicked his right wrist and the beam saber snapped fully into place, then swung it in a wide arc. Blades of light exploded outward from the sword, carving through the horde. Wherever they passed, they ripped through the massed Diaboromon and detonated in chains of violent explosions, clearing an entire swath of space.
Raising his left arm, Omnimon aimed the Garuru Cannon at the enemy swarm and fired. Each shell from the cannon detonated with enormous force, erasing countless Diaboromon at once. The Garuru Cannon roared nonstop, explosions overlapping one after another as Diaboromon were turned to digital dust in droves.
"Amazing…" Izzy was stunned by Omnimon's combat power. He'd always known Omnimon was strong, but that had been in one-on-one battles. This time he was facing an army of Mega-level Digimon and still wiping them out by the dozens—there was no clearer proof that Omnimon's strength was far beyond that of an ordinary Mega.
Under Tai and Omnimon's full-force assault, the once-dense mass of Diaboromon thinned rapidly. The entire space burned with explosion-fire, and the shockwaves whipped Omnimon's cloak and Tai's cape so hard they snapped and cracked in the wind.
Every child watching around the globe was frozen by the sight. A moment ago, even four Diaboromon had been too much to handle—but once two Digimon merged into Omnimon, they were actually mowing down an endless swarm of them.
When the flames and smoke finally cleared, the wall of Diaboromon that had filled the entire space had been reduced to just one—the one carrying the timer.
"There! That's the last one! He's the one with the timer!" Izzy all but shouted, shaking with excitement. Victory was so close he could taste it.
The remaining Diaboromon suddenly accelerated, darting about at high speed. Knowing he couldn't win in a straight fight, he tried to use his speed to stall for time. It worked, to a point—Omnimon really was slower than he was.
But Tai was still there.
With a flare from the thrusters on his armor, Tai's speed surged, surpassing Diaboromon's in an instant.
A ripping sound cut through the air as Tai, reflected in Diaboromon's wide, despairing eyes, drove his lightsaber straight into its forehead. With a sharp flick, he wrenched the blade upward—when it emerged, the tip of the beam saber was skewering a cracked, broken watch: the timer Diaboromon had used to control the nuke.
At that exact moment, the missile plunged down toward Tokyo Bay, striking the water and throwing up a towering pillar of spray. People watched the nuclear warhead fall without exploding and exhaled in shaky relief.
"We made it in time…" Izzy slumped back and let out a long sigh.
But Tai didn't relax. Right before him, Diaboromon's body began to change in a bizarre way. A translucent crystal rose up out of what remained of its form, and sealed within that crystal was a black Digimon with two heads. Even though no sound carried through the screen, everyone could hear its voiceless roar resonating in their hearts.
"What is that…?" Sora asked, her voice trembling. Just looking at that Digimon made a cold, instinctive fear well up from the depths of her heart.
Kari, who was extremely sensitive to darkness, felt it even more strongly. Terror surged through her chest, and she clutched her head in both hands, wracked with pain. Seeing this, Sora hurried to pull her into her arms and try to comfort her.
Everyone else who saw the crystal and the Digimon inside it felt the same thing—a visceral sense of wrongness, an inexplicable dread and discomfort rising from deep within.
The others didn't recognize it, but Tai knew it all too well. In fact, he'd branded it into his heart and never let himself forget.
"Moon=Millenniummon…" His voice was thick with barely-contained fury. It was the one that had been manipulating the darkness of the Digital World from behind the scenes, the source of its instability and unrest.
Moon=Millenniummon existed within Millenniummon's inner world as a spiritual-type Digimon—a manifestation of Millenniummon's dark heart, with no fixed form of its own. It usually appeared as a crystal, but when its hatred and rage toward its enemies surged, it would change shape. And as a spiritual entity, it had no physical body; physical attacks could not affect it at all.
To defeat Moon=Millenniummon, you had to first defeat its true body, Millenniummon. But there probably wasn't a Digimon alive capable of that. And even if, by some miracle, someone did manage to defeat Millenniummon, its fallen body would only split apart, transcend time and space, and revive once more.
Its special attack, Death Crystal, had no physical destructive power at all—instead, it was said to sever the heart of any Digimon that stood against it.
"Shhhhaa… shhhhaa…"
Moon=Millenniummon glared at Tai and roared in anger. As it screamed, its originally crystalline body began to change.
Bulges rose on the surface of the crystal, stretching outward and growing. As the transformation continued, the entire body expanded, twisting and reshaping itself. In the end, it took on the form of Millenniummon—but with four Infinite Cannons on its back instead of two. Its claws were now forged from Digi-alloy, and its entire body was sheathed in the same metal. Overall it resembled Machinedramon, but with an extra pair of claws and an even more vicious, nightmarish air.
"Infinite Cannon!"
The four cannons on Moon=Millenniummon's back began to roar, their firing rate increasing rapidly.
An endless barrage of super ultra-class energy waves poured toward Tai and Omnimon, dense as a swarm of bees. Tai's thrusters flared at maximum output as he wove through the onslaught, and his right-hand lightsaber flashed again and again, slicing apart the incoming blasts. At first he just barely managed to keep up—but the number of beams multiplied, growing so dense it became literally impossible to avoid them all.
One of the super ultra-class energy waves slammed into his arm. Tai felt a sharp stab of pain and his speed faltered for a moment—just enough for even more blasts to crash into him. The resulting explosions engulfed him completely in smoke and flame, with further waves of energy continuing to hammer his position.
"Tai! Tai!" Sora shouted his name at the top of her lungs.
"Big brother!" Kari cried, her voice breaking with sobs.
Omnimon, whose speed wasn't great to begin with, had it even worse. The density of the super ultra-class energy waves was far beyond what he could dodge. After batting away a portion of the incoming barrage with the Brave Sword and the Garuru Cannon, he too was overwhelmed. The rest of the blasts slammed into him and wrapped his body in fire and shockwaves. Only Omnimon's pained roar could be heard from within the blazing maelstrom.
The cannons on Moon=Millenniummon's back continued to fire relentlessly. Their rate of fire had climbed to the point where each cannon was releasing five super ultra-class energy waves every second. The endless barrage split into two torrents, one surging toward Tai, the other toward Omnimon.
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