Chapter 188: It Wasn't a Complete Heart-to-Heart, But It Yielded Results
"Omega inForce..."
Gallantmon murmured, testing the unfamiliar syllables Mizuki had just spoken. The Royal Knight's crimson cape shifted slightly in the wind as he turned his visor toward the young man, a sharp glint of inquiry piercing through the narrow slit of his holy helmet. "Your Excellency, do you mean to say they are already capable of achieving Fusion digivolution?"
"I never said that."
Mizuki shook his head. His dark eyes drifted—perhaps intentionally, perhaps not—toward the distant, solitary figure of WarGreymon X. The armored dragon warrior stood with his back to them, radiating a heavy, unapproachable aura. After a brief moment, Mizuki pulled his gaze back to the metallic wolf standing right in front of him. "Or, to be more accurate, they almost completed it."
"Almost completed it?" Gallantmon repeated, the tone of his voice dropping as his eyes narrowed beneath his armor.
Mizuki didn't look at the pensive Royal Knight. Instead, he focused entirely on the cyborg beast before him. "MetalGarurumon X, do you remember the scene from earlier?" he asked, his voice steady and grounding. "Think back to that exact moment. Your state of mind, and the sudden changes that occurred within WarGreymon X."
"My... state of mind?"
The mechanical wolf lowered his massive head. Under Mizuki's gentle guidance, his memory circuits whirred, dragging him back to the intense emotional clash they had just experienced.
He remembered the crushing weight of his own self-doubt. The bitter realization of his past indecision. He had calmly, almost painfully, accepted his own weakness. And beneath that quiet acceptance lay a deep, burning envy—a desperate longing to possess the unwavering conviction that WarGreymon X always seemed to carry into battle.
"If the past me..." MetalGarurumon X began, his metallic voice grinding with heavy sorrow. "If I had faced those impossible choices with his resolve, instead of being paralyzed by indecision... would the ending have been a little better than the tragedy we live in now?"
"The past cannot be undone," Mizuki said softly. He reached out, his hand resting gently against the cold, Chrome Digizoid plating of MetalGarurumon X's foreleg. "We can look back to reflect on our mistakes, but we must never let ourselves drown in them."
"I understand. Thank you, Your Excellency Mizuki." The wolf's optical sensors dimmed slightly in gratitude.
"I believe you have the wisdom to see through the fog of your own regrets," Mizuki replied, meeting the cyborg beast's gaze with an encouraging nod. "Though it might sound a bit strange, your shift in mindset back there—that raw vulnerability and acceptance—brought you to a state where you were, to some extent, 'of one mind' with WarGreymon X."
"...Well, that logic certainly holds up." Gallantmon subconsciously raised a gauntleted hand to rub his armored chin. A subtle, complex emotion flickered in his eyes. "But if their hearts and minds were already aligned in that brief window, then why did the fusion fail to—"
The Royal Knight stopped mid-sentence. The realization hit him like a physical blow. He remembered the stories. The bloody, tragic history tied to WarGreymon X.
"WarGreymon X..."
MetalGarurumon X whispered the name, his gaze locking onto the broad, spiked back of his comrade.
As a close friend who had fought alongside him through countless battlefields, MetalGarurumon X knew the dragon warrior's history intimately. And because he had just confronted his own demons, he could finally pierce through WarGreymon X's stoic exterior and understand the crushing emotional weight the dragon was currently bearing.
WarGreymon X was wavering. He was beginning to question the bloody path he had walked. Yet, his pride and his guilt absolutely refused to let him accept those doubts. In the dragon warrior's mind, any hesitation now was a vile betrayal of the comrades who had bled and died beside him. Back then, they had placed their absolute faith in his leadership. They had marched into the jaws of death with smiles on their faces, trusting his vision.
If he allowed himself to harbor regrets about those past choices now, what did that make their sacrifices? It would render the deaths of every Digimon who had followed him into the abyss completely meaningless.
'If there is anything the current me can do...'
A sharp, resolute light flared within MetalGarurumon X's optical sensors. The heavy fog of confusion lifted, replaced by a crystal-clear understanding of what he needed to do.
Right on cue, Mizuki's gentle, steady voice drifted over. "Go, MetalGarurumon X."
The young man offered a small, knowing smile. "Do what you need to do. Not just to save WarGreymon X from his own guilt, but to finally free your own heart as well."
Hearing Mizuki's words, MetalGarurumon X nodded firmly. Without another word of hesitation, he turned and stepped toward WarGreymon X, his heavy paws crunching against the scorched earth.
Gallantmon watched the massive metallic wolf stride away. Only when MetalGarurumon X was out of earshot did the Royal Knight finally speak.
"Is this truly for the best?" Gallantmon asked slowly, his tone laced with a quiet caution.
"Yes, this is exactly how it should be." Mizuki nodded, the corners of his lips curling into a faint, easy smile. He understood the hidden layer beneath Gallantmon's question perfectly.
A MetalGarurumon X lost in a maze of confusion, and a WarGreymon X whose iron will was finally beginning to fracture. From a tactical standpoint, this was the absolute perfect moment for a leader to step in. By acting as their savior—by personally guiding them through their darkest emotional bottlenecks—Mizuki could have easily secured their eternal gratitude. He could have bound their absolute loyalty to himself. It was the oldest trick in the book: the classic art of winning hearts and minds to build an unstoppable army.
But Mizuki had zero interest in playing the manipulative overlord.
Admittedly, WarGreymon X and MetalGarurumon X were two overwhelmingly powerful Mega-level Digimon. And their fused form—Omnimon X—was a legendary existence that stood at the absolute pinnacle of the Digital World. Securing such a weapon would be a dream for any ambitious conqueror.
Yet, in Mizuki's eyes, stepping in to play the wise master felt cheap. It was infinitely more meaningful for the two partners to become each other's guides, forging their bond through mutual understanding rather than relying on an outsider.
As for amassing power or collecting subordinates? It was true that back in his original world, countless Digimon had flocked to his banner voluntarily, drawn by his strength and his spirit. Expanding territory, ruling over a digital empire? It sounded like a grand fantasy. But Mizuki had never harbored a single shred of ambition for a throne.
From the very beginning, right down to his core, he was still just a young man who craved the thrill of adventure and the joy of discovering new horizons. His ultimate pursuit was painfully simple: he just wanted to spend his days laughing, fighting, and living freely alongside the companions he cherished. Even now, standing in a position where he possessed the raw power and tactical genius to control everything around him, that pure, untainted original intention remained completely untouched by worldly greed.
"...I see."
Gallantmon exhaled a long, quiet breath. Having witnessed Mizuki's choice, and having been granted another rare glimpse into the human's genuine heart, the Royal Knight felt a strange mixture of helplessness and deep gratification. He had not misjudged this boy.
Perhaps those driven by ruthless ambition and overwhelming strength were better suited to carving out grand, bloody empires. But a soul capable of mastering its own inner desires—a leader who refused to exploit the vulnerable for personal gain—was far more capable of nurturing a world where everyone could actually find happiness.
Thinking back to the distant past, the former Yggdrasil Majesty had once possessed a similar light. She, too, had governed with a gentle, impartial hand.
It was precisely because he remembered that golden era that Gallantmon found the current reality so impossible to swallow. He simply could not understand how the benevolent god he once served had twisted into the tyrant she was today—a cold, calculating entity obsessed with holding every variable in her absolute grasp. Her new doctrine was terrifyingly simple: If it cannot be controlled, it must be completely destroyed.
Standing in the quiet aftermath of the battle, Gallantmon clenched his armored fists, steeling his resolve once more.
'Yggdrasil Majesty...'he vowed silently, his crimson eyes burning beneath his visor.'I swear on my honor as a Royal Knight, I will uncover exactly what happened to corrupt your light...'
While Gallantmon reaffirmed his silent oath, MetalGarurumon X finally closed the distance, halting just a few paces behind WarGreymon X.
Hearing the deliberate footsteps stop behind him, the dragon warrior stiffened. Yet, WarGreymon X refused to turn around. He kept his gaze locked on the empty horizon, his broad shoulders tense beneath his golden armor.
MetalGarurumon X didn't mind the cold reception. He simply stood there, letting a heavy, suffocating silence stretch between them.
The quiet dragged on, thick with unspoken grief and unresolved tension. It wasn't until the pressure became physically unbearable that WarGreymon X finally broke. He let out a harsh, bitter scoff, essentially throwing his remaining pride to the wind.
"You win, MetalGarurumon X," the dragon warrior rasped, his voice rough like grinding stones. "So? Are you here to mock me now?"
"Win?" MetalGarurumon X repeated softly. He shook his massive head, the missile pods on his shoulders shifting with the movement. "Do you really think so?"
WarGreymon X finally turned his head slightly, glaring over his shoulder.
"Actually, neither of us won today," MetalGarurumon X continued, his tone devoid of any malice or triumph. "At the exact moment your iron will began to crack and waver... was I not also drowning in my own pathetic confusion?"
"WarGreymon X, you remember what I said to you before the battle, right?"
As the dragon warrior fully turned around, his fierce, reptilian eyes meeting the calm optical sensors of his comrade, MetalGarurumon X held his gaze without flinching. He spoke slowly, letting the raw, ugly truth of his words sink into the space between them.
"We are both losers."
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