Tai stared at the monitor in front of him, his hands flying over the keyboard. All around him, countless Hagurumon were also busy tapping away at keyboards. The massive central computer was crunching an enormous amount of data, torrents of information racing along different circuits in a blur of activity.
The aftermath of this last battle had dealt a devastating blow to Tai City. The mechanical Digimon forces that had once filled the city had taken catastrophic losses, and more than half of Tai City itself had been destroyed. But right now, Tai had no time nor mood to care about any of that. He was pouring everything he had into searching for any trace of the sealed MoonMillenniummon. Until he confirmed that MoonMillenniummon was truly dealt with, he couldn't relax for even a moment. And the vortex that had swallowed MoonMillenniummon had radiated nothing but darkness from inside out—that darkness belonged to the Dark Area.
He didn't know exactly who in the Dark Area had taken MoonMillenniummon away, but whoever it was, it definitely wasn't a good thing. Tai felt it was very likely Machinedramon's doing. The first priority now was to track down MoonMillenniummon as quickly as possible and find a way to completely erase it. On top of that, Machinedramon had mysteriously vanished during this battle as well. Tai had a bad feeling. Everything in this chain of events lined up a little too neatly, as if someone behind the scenes were deliberately pushing things forward.
The data on Diaboromon was extremely similar to that of Machinedramon. It had been left on the network back when Koromon first came to the Kamiya household from the Digital World, and had stayed dormant ever since—until someone secretly activated it. Then, while Tai was fighting Machinedramon, Machinedramon himself suddenly disappeared.
And now, the overall power level of the Digital World had fallen to rock bottom. Across the entire Digital World, only the Digimon protected by the seven Holy Stones and Piximon's barrier had survived. Not only were Ultimate-level Digimon now extremely rare, even Champions were few and far between, and there wasn't a single Mega left. Of the hundreds of Ultimates that had once garrisoned Tai City, fewer than ten remained. There were still many Champion-level mechanical Digimon, and more could be manufactured at any time—but that didn't really mean much. A single combat-type Ultimate like Andromon could crush an uncountable number of Champions.
Creating new Ultimates was not something that could be done in a short time. Those hundreds of Ultimates had taken hundreds of years of Digital World time to build up—basically one Ultimate per year. As for Megas, there wasn't a single one in the city; in the Digital World, Megas were "god-like" beings. Given enough time, a single Mega could wreck the entire Digital World if it really wanted to. While Ultimates could still be created by stockpiling materials and data, that alone wasn't enough for Megas. To become a Mega, something else was required—something fundamental that no one had ever truly identified.
If it were otherwise, the old Steel Empire would never have stopped at modifying and creating just Machinedramon as their one and only Mega. After Machinedramon, they repeated the same modification process countless times, but not a single further experiment succeeded—and they never worked out why.
From the formation of the Digital World to now, the number of Digimon that had lived there could only be counted in the billions. There were so many Champion-level Digimon they couldn't even be tallied, and there had been tens of thousands of Ultimates across history. But if you take away the Seven Great Demon Lords and the Thirteen Royal Knights—those twenty special Megas created directly by darkness or by the World Tree—then across all of time, there had only ever been about one hundred Megas in total. And remember, the Digital World had existed for hundreds of thousands of years, and the concept of Mega evolution had existed for tens of thousands. Even so, there were only around one hundred. During the era of the Dark Masters, the number of Megas had reached an all-time peak—almost all the Megas in history were gathered in that one age. No other era could compare. You could call it the "Mega boom." Before that, Ultimates were practically the absolute ceiling of the Digital World's power.
Now, though, there wasn't a single Mega left in the Digital World. Tai's own strength had plummeted after he used up almost everything to seal MoonMillenniummon. He could no longer reach Mega-class power himself—he couldn't even match a combat-type Ultimate right now. Meanwhile, the Dark Area had the Seven Great Demon Lords, seven Megas sealed away there to begin with. And although dark-attribute Digimon had much higher chances of evolution failure, their evolutionary speed was something no other type of Digimon could keep up with. Nobody knew how many Megas the Dark Area truly possessed, because aside from dark Digimon, any other Digimon that entered the Dark Area would find their power completely suppressed—meaning no one could gather reliable intel.
Which meant that right now, the Digital World was essentially defenseless. If the Dark Area decided to launch a full invasion, the Digital World simply had no strength left to fight back.
Darkness. Everywhere he looked was darkness.
The sound of water, swish, swish, echoed around him. A place that had originally been a forest was now submerged by suddenly rising water, all the way up to the boy's ankles. But when he looked down, the "water" at his feet wasn't clear at all; it was a deep, bottomless black.
"Where is this…?" the boy asked nervously, fear in his voice. Without realizing it, he took a step back.
"Come now. Put the Digivice in your hand into the water," a voice rose from the dark surface, filled with seductive coaxing. "Then it will be yours—no longer your brother Xiaozhi's. It'll belong only to you."
"Belong only to me… my own Digivice…" The boy looked at the Digivice glowing faintly in his hand, his face full of hesitation.
"That's right. A Digivice that belongs to you alone. No one will ever steal your Digivice again. As long as you put it into the water, no one will ever be able to take it from you." The voice continued to tempt him.
"This is my Digivice. It belongs to me alone. No one is allowed to take it. No one…"
Thinking about how his Digivice had been taken from him before, the boy's eyes hardened as he muttered to himself.
Then he thrust the Digivice into the water with both hands.
The Digivice shone within the dark water, but its light grew steadily weaker until it vanished completely. The "lake" water seeped into the Digivice's body. The originally silver-white Digivice slowly turned pitch-black, and its shape started to change as well. It was no longer the old hexagonal design, but looked more like a cellphone with a little antenna.
He lifted the now-transformed Digivice out of the water. As he stared at the black Digivice in his hand, it was as if the darkness had infected him too—his eyes turned into deep, inky black pools.
"This is my Digivice. It belongs only to me."
"You've come," Tai said quietly.
Behind Tai, motes of light suddenly appeared out of thin air.
"Darkness is about to start eroding this world," the tiny lights said. "Darkness is spreading throughout the Digital World. All evolution will have to be forbidden, or the Digimon will be swallowed up by the darkness themselves."
"So what are you planning to do?" Tai asked. "I don't exactly have much fighting power left right now."
"We didn't come to you for that," the cluster of light continued. "The Digital World needs to awaken an ancient power to oppose the darkness."
"You mean the Armor Project?" Tai asked.
"The Armor Project was originally the result of the Steel Empire's research into ancient power. But the Digimon of today have a very hard time drawing out the full strength of Armor, so it was abandoned. Later, together with the Agent, we prepared the Digivices, and at the same time we also began preparing the Armor Project. But that work was interrupted by the Dark Masters. Fortunately, you later made up for that. Now the Digital World needs ancient power again. The Armor Project has to be restarted."
"Did you find a way to solve the problem of Armor power not being fully drawn out? Even now, activating Armor still takes a huge amount of energy."
"Since it's ancient power, we can just use ancient Digimon to activate it."
"In that case, the current Digivices and the D-2 Digivices can't be used to trigger Armor anymore. We'll need new Digivices specifically for Armor."
"We've already found the pattern we need. The darkness has already chosen the people it wanted. I recorded that waveform. If we design new devices using the inverse of that waveform, they'll be able to resist the darkness."
"Then the next step is to create Digivices that can resonate with the Armor," Tai said.
"That's why we came to you. The Digital World doesn't have much time left."
"Yeah." Tai fell silent, staring out the window at the beautiful scenery of the Digital World. "I don't know how much longer a view like this is going to last."
Tai looked back one last time at Tai City, then turned and sealed the gate shut. Tai City had now been completely put into stasis. All the Ultimates were locked in deep sleep, and wouldn't be awakened unless absolutely necessary. Only a handful of Champion-level Guardromon stayed active to keep the city's basic systems running.
Turning around, Tai spoke to the only remaining Ultimate in front of him, Andromon. "From here on out, Tai City is in your hands. I've transferred control of the Guardromon to you. Don't wake those sealed Ultimates unless there's truly no other choice. Stop mass-producing new machines too. Without my orders, you're not allowed to activate any of them. Got it?"
"Understood, Lord Tai," Andromon replied in a mechanical voice.
Tai nodded. Then, together with Datamon and Agumon, he boarded the airship headed toward Homeostasis and the Agent. Ever since Homeostasis last came to visit him, Tai had already sealed up Tai City, preparing to throw himself fully into the Armor Project.
Brand-new Digi-Armors sat arranged one by one under glass domes—eight in total. They corresponded to the eight Crests: Courage, Friendship, Knowledge, Love, Reliability, Sincerity, Hope, and Light.
Looking at the Digi-Armor that represented Light, Tai hesitated. "Kari, you've already borne responsibilities you never should have had to. I can't let you carry that burden again this time."
He put away the Armor of Light. The Agent glanced over but didn't say anything, merely storing away the remaining seven Armors and having them hidden in different locations. Two ancient-type Digimon were placed beneath the Armors of Love and Knowledge, silently waiting for their partners to arrive.
Tai personally set the Armor of Courage onto Veemon's life-support capsule, letting the Digi-Armor rest atop it. Then he placed the newest model Digivice next to it as well, and left everything there, waiting for the day Veemon would be reawakened.
Two years had already passed since the defeat of MoonMillenniummon. Darkness had begun to blanket the Digital World. The final showdown with the darkness was drawing ever closer.
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