Chapter 135: BlackGatomon: It's Gatomon! They Killed Phantomon!
"Yo-ho~ What is everyone gathered here for?"
A sweet, melodic voice echoed through the ruined courtyard.
"If you're having a class reunion, how about including me? Although I'm just a newbie who joined a week ago, I want to become friendly partners with everyone too~"
BlackGatomon strolled out from the shadows, a brilliant, flawless smile plastered across her face. Her dark fur seemed to absorb the dim light of the wasteland, and her tail swayed in a relaxed, almost hypnotic rhythm.
However, her cheerful greeting did nothing to dilute the heavy air. If anything, the atmosphere grew suffocating. The surrounding debris seemed to press inward, and the silence stretched tight enough to snap.
Gatomon felt the fur along her spine bristle. Beside her, Leomon's grip on his sword tightened until his knuckles popped. Over the past week, both of them had experienced this dark feline's methods firsthand.
BlackGatomon possessed a terrifying intuition. She seemed capable of peering directly into the core of every Digimon she met, expertly weaving highly inflammatory words to manipulate their deepest fears and desires. She played them like pieces on a board. Yet, not a single Digimon could see through her smiling facade to the cold calculations hiding beneath.
Worse still, her raw power was utterly monstrous. Gatomon strongly suspected that this supposed Champion level had already brushed against the threshold of the Ultimate level.
BlackGatomon might not share Myotismon's explosive, violent temper, but watching her effortlessly assemble a massive, fiercely loyal faction in just seven days had forced Gatomon to reevaluate. In her mind, BlackGatomon now sat at the exact same danger level as their vampiric lord.
A creature with such bottomless schemes might not immediately declare herself an enemy, but she could never, ever be a friend.
While Gatomon sized up the newcomer, Phantomon floated silently to the side, his tattered cloak billowing in the stagnant wind. He had heard the whispers regarding BlackGatomon's recent exploits.
Unlike Gatomon's rigid wariness, Phantomon felt a cold sense of approval. His own spectral body was battered from recent skirmishes, his energy reserves dangerously low. Looking at this cunning, capable dark feline, he considered the benefits of delegating his heavy workload to her. He could introduce her directly to Lord Myotismon. She would make an excellent tool.
But first, he had a mess to clean up.
Phantomon raised a ragged, cloth-draped arm, pointing a skeletal digit toward the opposing group. His voice rasped like grinding tombstones.
"BlackGatomon. Do not let these wretches escape. They are traitors!"
Gatomon did not waste a single breath refuting the accusation. Her jaw locked. She had made her choice, severing her chains, and there was absolutely no turning back. She refused to return to that dark, sunless existence under Myotismon's heel.
"Traitors?" BlackGatomon tilted her head, her large eyes blinking in exaggerated confusion. "Gatomon? How is that possible~ I've spent time with her, and she is clearly such a good, loyal partner~ Could there be some tiny misunderstanding between you two—"
"There is no misunderstanding," Gatomon spat, her claws sliding free. "I was never on the same path as you people to begin with!"
Catching a momentary lapse in Phantomon's guard, Gatomon lunged. Her leg muscles coiled and snapped, launching her across the broken ground straight at the grim reaper.
"Lightning Paw!"
Phantomon flinched, his glowing eyes widening. He hurriedly tried to raise his scythe to block, but the lingering damage across his spectral form caused his movements to stutter.
He braced for the impact. It never came.
A black blur materialized directly in front of him. BlackGatomon caught Gatomon's glowing fist in her bare paw, halting the kinetic force dead in its tracks.
"Oh my~" BlackGatomon purred, her smile perfectly intact. "Attacking without a single word of warning. Gatomon, you really are scary."
Gatomon gritted her teeth, straining against the iron grip, but the dark feline didn't budge an inch.
"We were worlds apart, yet meeting like this is fate," BlackGatomon continued in a leisurely, conversational tone. "Whatever the matter is, why can't we just sit down and talk it over properly?"
"I said... I have nothing to talk about with you!"
Realizing she stood absolutely no chance in a contest of raw strength, Gatomon kicked off BlackGatomon's arm, backflipping through the air to put a safe distance between them.
The moment her paws touched the ground, Gatomon widened her eyes, channeling her energy into a hypnotic glare.
"Cat's Eye Hypnotism!"
Rings of crimson light pulsed outward, designed to hijack the enemy's mind and force them to attack themselves. The light washed over BlackGatomon.
The dark feline merely blinked. Her smile didn't even twitch. The sheer chasm in their power levels rendered the mind-altering attack completely useless.
But Gatomon had anticipated this.
"Now!" she screamed.
"I understand!"
The moment Gatomon had engaged BlackGatomon, Leomon, Ogremon, and Wizardmon had already shifted into motion.
Their target was never the dark feline.
They pivoted in unison, unleashing their full fury upon the crippled Phantomon.
"Fist of the Beast King!" Leomon roared, thrusting his fist forward to release a blazing, lion-shaped aura.
"Pummel Whack!" Ogremon bellowed, swinging his bone club to fire a massive shockwave of dark energy.
"Thunder Blaster!" Wizardmon chanted, his staff crackling as a dense storm cloud materialized and hurled jagged lightning.
Phantomon had assumed they would clash with BlackGatomon first. Caught entirely off guard, he could only drag his battered body backward, desperately trying to summon a defensive barrier.
The three signature moves slammed into Phantomon in rapid succession. The concussive blasts tore through the courtyard, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and shattered stone. Already severely injured and denied a single second to recover, Phantomon was utterly crushed beneath the combined siege.
When the smoke cleared, the grim reaper lay crumpled on the ground. He had miraculously survived the barrage, but his spectral form flickered violently, completely stripped of his combat capability.
Watching the dust settle, BlackGatomon dropped her playful facade. The sweet smile vanished, replaced by a cold, flat stare.
"Gatomon... you all have gone a bit too far~"
Gatomon had kept her guard raised to the absolute maximum, yet she still didn't see it coming. The speed BlackGatomon had displayed earlier was a mere fraction of her true capability.
Before Gatomon could even twitch, the dark feline broke the sound barrier, materializing directly in front of her face.
Staring into eyes that mirrored her own, BlackGatomon pulled her arm back. There was no hesitation. No holding back.
"Lightning Paw!"
The impact sounded like a cannon shot. Gatomon felt an incomparably crushing force cave into her chest. Her feet left the ground. She became a living projectile, flying backward with terrifying velocity, smashing through one stone wall, then a second, before finally collapsing into a heap of rubble.
"This power!?" Leomon gasped.
Seeing Gatomon—a veteran fighter whose combat prowess rivaled his own Champion level strength—reduced to a broken mess in a single strike, a heavy shadow fell over Leomon's eyes.
"So you really have touched it?" Leomon demanded, gripping his blade. "That boundary..."
Hearing the question, BlackGatomon casually flexed her dark claws. The unfathomable, sweet smile crept back onto her cute face.
"Who knows~ about that kind of thing." She tilted her head. "I'm just a Champion level Digimon who wants to get along well with everyone~"
"Damn it, how dare you do that to Gatomon!"
Wizardmon scrambled through the debris, gently pulling the severely injured Gatomon from the crushed stone. He raised his staff, magic flaring at the tip, ready to unleash a desperate attack on BlackGatomon.
Leomon threw his arm out, blocking the spellcaster.
"That's enough, Wizardmon! Take Gatomon and let's go!" Leomon ordered, his eyes locked on the dark feline. "Ogremon, you too! Stop watching!"
"Eh!?" Ogremon grunted, his grip tightening on his bone club. "It's rare to have such a good opponent..."
Witnessing BlackGatomon's overwhelming display of force had ignited a fierce itch in the green brawler's hands. He wanted to fight. But seeing Leomon and Wizardmon already falling back, Ogremon ground his teeth in a brief internal struggle.
"Forget it," Ogremon spat, turning on his heel. "I can fight anytime. For now, I'd better catch up with Leomon and the others!"
Heaving his club over his shoulder, Ogremon sprinted after the retreating trio.
Watching his enemies flee, Phantomon weakly raised his head from the dirt. He opened his mouth to issue a command, but BlackGatomon beat him to it.
"Damn traitors!" BlackGatomon shouted, her voice dripping with venom. "Don't think you can run!"
Phantomon stared at her, slightly stunned. She looked like a predator practically vibrating with the urge to tear Gatomon and the others limb from limb. Why had her attitude shifted so drastically?
Before Phantomon's sluggish, damaged mind could process the situation, BlackGatomon lunged forward as if to give chase.
But as she passed by Phantomon's crumpled form, she pivoted without a single fraction of a second's warning.
Her dark claws plunged directly through Phantomon's chest with a sickening crunch.
The grim reaper's eyes bulged. He didn't even have the breath to scream. BlackGatomon's claws closed around his Digicore, and with a ruthless squeeze, she shattered it into digital dust.
Phantomon's data dissolved instantly, swirling through the air before being completely devoured by BlackGatomon's waiting form.
Wiping her claws clean, BlackGatomon turned toward the courtyard entrance. The sounds of the battle had drawn a massive crowd of Digimon reinforcements, who were now pouring into the ruined area.
BlackGatomon dropped to her knees. Her ears flattened against her head, and she let out a piercing, sorrowful wail.
"Everyone! It's terrible!" she cried out, her voice cracking with perfectly manufactured grief. "Lord Phantomon has been murdered by Gatomon and the others!"
The arriving Digimon froze, staring in shock at the lingering data particles and the weeping dark feline.
"Those shameful traitors have harmed our commander!" BlackGatomon sobbed, pointing a trembling claw toward the distant, fleeing silhouettes of Leomon's group. "We must make them pay the price!"
A collective roar of fury and panic erupted from the crowd.
Although the newly arrived Digimon had no idea what had actually transpired in the courtyard, the scene before them painted a clear picture. They saw the retreating backs of Gatomon's squad, the devastated landscape, and the tragic demise of their superior. They swallowed the lie whole.
Without a second thought, the horde surged forward, chasing frantically in the direction Leomon and the others had fled.
However, their burning motivation had very little to do with avenging Phantomon.
The veterans among them knew the truth. They had survived under Myotismon long enough to understand his methods. A commander had died on their watch. If they didn't capture the culprits to take the blame, Myotismon's wrath would fall upon them all.
[Akarin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/AkarinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/AkarinTL
🔗 All My Links: linktr[.]ee/AkarinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]