Chapter 101: Oh, What Did I Find? A Lone, Weak Little Brat
Myotismon swore upon his dark core that ever since he ascended to the Ultimate level, he had never suffered such a humiliating defeat.
His crimson cape hung in tatters, the edges still smoldering with lingering holy fire. Those so-called DigiDestined... their raw strength completely defied his calculations. Angemon alone was a walking nightmare, radiating that blinding, sickening light born specifically to eradicate Dark-type Digimon like himself.
But the true anomaly was MetalGreymon.
How could a Digimon achieve Ultimate level digivolution without the catalyst of a Crest? Was it a freak mutation of that specific individual, or did the sheer, unbridled potential of those human children run that deep?
And worse... the eighth child. The missing piece had actually surfaced. Every single gear of his carefully crafted plan had violently derailed.
"Tsk..."
A sharp hiss escaped his fangs. Chaotic variables spun through his mind, colliding with the agonizing, burning sensation tearing through his digital flesh. His pale, aristocratic features twisted into a grotesque snarl. Dark violet veins bulged against his temples, throbbing with erratic data.
'No... focus,'he commanded himself, clutching his searing chest.'I must stabilize my core and recover from these injuries before I can salvage this operation.'
"Life..." he rasped, his crimson eyes locking onto the dark horizon. "I need... life energy..."
He cast his gaze toward the sky. The heavy clouds offered a comforting shroud; there was still plenty of time before the hated dawn would break. He had a window of opportunity.
Closing his eyes, Myotismon expanded his dark perception, casting an invisible net across the digital landscape to hunt for the most abundant source of life data. Almost instantly, his senses snagged on something massive. A pulse of life energy so dense, so overwhelmingly rich, that it made his fangs ache with sudden hunger.
'That direction... the Desert Area?'Confusion flickered through his pain.'Why would a barren wasteland harbor such a colossal concentration of life?'
The energy drifting through the air was intoxicating. It carried a mellow, pure sweetness, like a masterfully aged vintage of blood wine. Even at his absolute peak, Myotismon would have found such a delicacy impossible to resist. If he could sink his fangs into the data radiating that aura, it wouldn't just mend his shattered code—it would push his power to entirely new heights.
Driven by a sudden, ravenous thirst, he accelerated, tearing through the night sky toward the desert.
Yet, the stinging burns across his chest served as a harsh reminder. Desire could not override caution. He had just suffered a catastrophic miscalculation against the DigiDestined; arrogance was a luxury he could no longer afford.
Halting his flight, Myotismon raised his pale hands. With a sharp command, a massive cloud of screeching, red-eyed bats erupted from his cape. He severed a fraction of his own consciousness, infusing it directly into the swarm. They would act as his harvesters, sent ahead to drain this mysterious life force on his behalf. Meanwhile, his heavily damaged main body would retreat to the absolute safety of his base camp.
Miles away, the screeching cloud of bats descended upon the coordinates. Through their shared crimson eyes, the fragment of Myotismon's consciousness expected to see endless, desolate dunes. Instead, a wave of genuine shock rippled through the hive mind.
The arid, suffocating wasteland had vanished. In its place sprawled a vibrant, impossibly lush forest, teeming with emerald canopies and thick undergrowth. If not for the massive, dilapidated structure of an inverted pyramid looming in the distance, Myotismon would have assumed his navigation had failed entirely.
Wait. A pyramid?!
This was the territory of that loudmouthed fool, Etemon.
A flicker of apprehension flared, but it quickly cooled as he recalled the recent intelligence reports. Etemon was dead. Erased. Given the terrifying combat potential he had just witnessed from the DigiDestined, it was all but guaranteed those brats were the ones responsible for annihilating the monkey.
By extension, this miraculous terraforming was likely some lingering side effect of their battle or their strange devices. If the DigiDestined had already cleared the area and moved on, this newly birthed oasis was completely undefended. A free feast.
Reassured, Myotismon commanded the bat swarm to dive straight into the heart of the dense foliage.
His deduction proved entirely correct. The forest was populated, but the life signs were pitifully weak. A scattering of insignificant lower-level Digimon dozed peacefully beneath the broad leaves. For an Ultimate-level predator, these tiny specks of data were little more than dust.
The bat swarm glided silently over a group of drowsy Rookie-level Agumon and resting Tyrannomon, not even pausing to cast a shadow over them. They were entirely unworthy of his attention. He pushed the swarm faster, homing in on the blindingly sweet scent of the core life aura.
Within moments, the dense trees parted, revealing the epicenter of the oasis.
'What in the Digital World is this?!'
The collective consciousness of the bat swarm reeled in unmatched shock. Hovering at the edge of a moonlit clearing, Myotismon stared at a figure bathed in a soft, ethereal luminescence.
The sheer existence of this light defied all his logic. As a creature born of the abyss, a Dark-type Digimon of the highest caliber, Myotismon instinctively loathed anything remotely associated with holy energy. Light was meant to burn, to sear, to eradicate.
Yet, the gentle radiance spilling across the clearing carried no hostility. It didn't scorch his bats. Instead, the moment the soft rays brushed against their leathery wings, Myotismon felt a sudden, intoxicating surge of vitality. The fragmented data of his swarm was actually growing stronger, feeding off the ambient glow.
And the source of this impossible miracle? A human child sitting right in the center of the illumination.
'How is this possible?'Myotismon's mind raced, his crimson eyes narrowing through the bats.'The prophecy, the data... everything dictated there were only eight DigiDestined. Who exactly is this extra ninth child?'
Before Myotismon could formulate a strategy to capture this prize, a clear, calm voice drifted across the clearing, slicing right through his calculations.
"Who is it?"
A ripple of alarm passed through the swarm. He had been detected?
The bats fluttered erratically for a split second before Myotismon forced his consciousness back into a state of icy calm. What did it matter if he was spotted? Even if this human could generate such a miraculous, nourishing light, ultimately, it was still just a fragile, flesh-and-blood brat.
, this child was completely alone, separated from the main group of DigiDestined. An outcast, perhaps? Left behind to fend for themselves?
'How wonderfully pathetic,'Myotismon mused, a cruel amusement echoing in his mind.'A lonely, abandoned child. I can certainly make use of this.'
With a mental command, the swirling vortex of bats descended into the center of the clearing. They spiraled tightly together, their dark data weaving and compressing until they coalesced into a flawless, albeit weaker, replica of Myotismon's aristocratic form.
Smoothing his lapels, the vampire lord stepped forward into the light. He met the child's gaze and forced the corners of his pale lips upward, crafting a smile he believed to be the absolute picture of gentlemanly warmth.
"Little girl, there is no need to be nervous," Myotismon purred, his voice dripping with practiced velvet.
"I am not some evil existence lurking in the dark. I merely came here out of sheer curiosity, wondering how this barren desert transformed into such a stunning oasis."
"Is that so..."
The delicate-looking, white-haired girl tilted her head, blinking wide, innocent eyes as a thoughtful expression crossed her face. She turned slightly, exchanging a brief, unreadable glance with the blonde-haired companion sitting quietly beside her, before looking back at the vampire.
"About that, we actually aren't very sure either. We only know that after waking up, this place had turned into this."
"I see..."
Myotismon hummed, his crimson eyes narrowing slightly as he took a closer look at the pair. His gaze drifted from the white-haired child to the blonde companion. Beneath the humanoid appearance, his dark senses easily pierced the veil—that blonde girl was not human. She was a Digimon.
Yet, as he probed her data signature, he felt absolutely nothing. No surging power, no sharp killing intent, no aura of a seasoned warrior. She felt completely hollow, like a harmless civilian.
'Just a pair of helpless weaklings,' Myotismon concluded, his internal sneer widening.
While this temporary avatar constructed from the bat swarm only possessed the raw data capacity of a Champion-level Digimon, it was piloted by his Ultimate-level consciousness. Armed with centuries of combat experience and a vast arsenal of dark arts, this clone could comfortably spar with lesser Ultimates.
Against fragile prey like this? He could crush them into digital dust with a single flick of his wrist.
The realization shifted his entire approach. Why bother with the tedious charade of deception? Trickery was a tool reserved for equals or those with enough power to be a nuisance. For the weak, there was only one law in the Digital World: absolute subjugation.
His fake, amiable smile slowly melted away, replaced by something far more predatory and deep. The shadows around his feet seemed to lengthen, creeping toward the center of the clearing.
"Child," Myotismon began, his voice dropping an octave, taking on a hypnotic, commanding resonance. "While I do not know why your companions would leave you alone in such an isolated place, one thing is certain. With your pitiful lack of strength, remaining here is far too dangerous."
He took a slow, measured step forward. "If you do not mind, I can provide you with a secure, temporary residence."
"Really?" The white-haired child shrank back slightly, their voice trembling with perfectly executed timidity. "Wouldn't... wouldn't taking us in cause you trouble?"
In Myotismon's eyes, that fearful stutter was the sweetest music. Timid, desperate prey were always the easiest to break and leash.
"Rest assured, little one," Myotismon chuckled, the sound dry and hollow. "My home is very large. Once we get there, you may stay wherever you like. It doesn't matter how you wish to live."
He closed the distance, his polished boots crushing the soft grass beneath them. The suffocating malice radiating from his crimson eyes was no longer concealed; it spilled out, thick and venomous.
"Of course, you only need to pay a very small price for my hospitality." He raised a pale, clawed hand, his fangs elongating in the moonlight. "And that price... is your blood!"
The instant the words left his mouth, a tidal wave of boundless, suffocating darkness erupted from his cape, lunging forward to swallow the earth whole.
But the darkness never reached its target.
SHING!
In the span of a single heartbeat, a razor-thin crescent of pure, blinding light—like the first piercing ray of the morning sun shattering the horizon—cleaved straight through the encroaching shadows.
Myotismon froze. The oppressive darkness dissipated into wisps of harmless smoke. He blinked, his crimson eyes slowly tracking downward.
His right arm, severed cleanly at the elbow, dissolved into a flurry of red bats before it even hit the ground. He stared at the empty space where his limb used to be, his mind entirely blank with shock.
When he finally looked back up, the timid, trembling girl he thought he held in the palm of his hand was gone. In their place sat the exact same child, but the innocent facade had vanished without a trace. The child's posture was relaxed, their expression carved from absolute, chilling indifference.
"Are you surprised?"
The voice was no longer high-pitched or trembling. It was smooth, grounded, and laced with a dry, mocking amusement.
She... or rather, to be completely accurate, he.
Mizuki rested his chin on his hand, looking at the stunned vampire lord with an expression of mild boredom. He used a calm tone and slowly said, "Seeing you stand there looking so utterly confused, let me make a few small corrections to your assumptions."
Mizuki raised one finger. "First, I am not some little girl. I am a boy."
He raised a second finger, a mischievous smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "Second, I am not some innocent child who knows nothing of how this world works. Acting like that at first was just because I was genuinely curious to see what you wanted to do."
Mizuki let out a soft, dismissive sigh. "As for the result... I can only say it was exactly as I expected."
At that moment, the heavy clouds above finally parted. A brilliant shaft of silver moonlight pierced the canopy, cascading directly over the boy. The illumination caught the faint, ethereal hum of the Digi-Soul coursing just beneath his skin, displaying his otherworldly aura to the absolute fullest.
Beneath the stark white of his hair, a pair of unique pink eyes locked onto the vampire. Reflected in the moonlight, those eyes shimmered with a strange, dangerous radiance.
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