Chapter 194: I Am a Noble Royal Knight!
The deafening roar of gunfire shattered the battlefield, followed instantly by the sharp, glass-like crack of brilliant blue crystals exploding outward.
Yet, the figure trapped at the epicenter did not share the crystals' fragile fate.
Magnamon was sent hurtling backward, surfing the violent shockwave of the blast. His boots carved deep, smoking trenches into the earth before he finally ground to a halt. Aside from a few scuff marks on his gleaming golden armor, he looked entirely unscathed—merely a bit disheveled.
Mizuki watched the display without a single flicker of surprise. The violent winds whipped at his coat, but his posture remained perfectly relaxed.
Belle's data-rewriting authority was undeniably potent, but in terms of raw, brute-force output, she simply didn't have the sheer firepower required to puncture Magnamon's Chrome Digizoid defenses.
Or rather, she hadn't yet mastered the specific frequency needed to break him.
Through the dissipating smoke, Belle lowered her smoking barrels, her beautiful eyes narrowing behind her mask. A flash of genuine surprise rippled through her gaze. She hadn't expected the golden knight's durability to be quite this absurd.
"Crystal Revolution?" Magnamon's haughty voice echoed across the cratered ground as he casually dusted off his shoulder guard. "Isn't that GranDracmon's technique?"
He scoffed, his tone dripping with aristocratic disdain. "How did a mere BeelStarmon like you manage to steal such a move?"
Before Belle could answer, Magnamon shook his head, dismissing the thought entirely. "It matters little. That has nothing to do with me."
He raised his chin, his golden armor flaring with blinding intensity. "After all, your end... and the end of that human cowering behind you, remains exactly the same."
"And that is—absolute extinction!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Magnamon vanished.
He became a brilliant, lethal arc of golden light, tearing through the air at supersonic speeds directly toward them.
Seeing the Royal Knight's overwhelming assault, Belle didn't retreat a single step. With a sharp, mechanical clack, she fluidly transformed her dual handguns into their gun-blade mode and threw herself directly into his path!
"I told you, it's useless!" Magnamon roared.
Facing the vicious, sweeping arcs of Belle's gun-blades, Magnamon didn't even bother to raise his guard. He simply let the heavy blades crash against his chest plate.
CLANG!
A blinding shower of sparks erupted as the blades bounced harmlessly off the Chrome Digizoid. Ignoring the strike completely, Magnamon pulled his fist back and drove it straight toward Belle's face, the sheer kinetic force of the punch tearing the air apart.
Under normal circumstances, feeling that lethal wind pressure against her skin, Belle would have used her superior agility to slip away.
But right now, a feral thrill danced in her eyes. She refused to yield an inch. Mimicking Magnamon's own reckless, brawling fighting style, she ignored the incoming fist and slashed her blades back down against his armor!
A flash of deep pity and disgust crossed Magnamon's eyes.
Foolish.
It was true that his standard physical attack power sat near the bottom tier among the Royal Knights. But that didn't mean some random Mega-level Digimon could just trade blows with him and survive.
Royal Knights and ordinary Megas existed on entirely different planes of reality!
Not to mention, BeelStarmon was hardly known for its defensive capabilities.
'If you had used your flexibility and speed to kite me, I might have actually found this slightly annoying,'Magnamon thought, already picturing the satisfying crunch of Belle's skull shattering under his knuckles.'But you foolishly threw away your only advantage.'
"Curse your fate!" Magnamon sneered. "Curse your miserable luck for not being born with Chrome Digizoid armor!"
Yet, just as the triumphant thought bloomed in his mind, reality fractured.
Magnamon's fist slammed into an invisible wall less than a centimeter from Belle's forehead. The kinetic force dispersed into the air with a dull thud, completely nullified. It was as if an impenetrable, phantom armor had manifested out of thin air to shield her.
"What?!" Magnamon gasped, his pupils shrinking.
More terrifying than the blocked punch was the sickeningly familiar resonance radiating from that invisible barrier.
Before the Royal Knight could process the shock, Belle's lips curled into a wicked, mocking smirk.
"Magnamon, I'm returning your exact words to you, I say!"
She leaned in close, her voice a lethal whisper. "Curse your fate! Curse your miserable luck for not having 'Final Mode'!"
Without giving him a fraction of a second to recover, Belle twisted her wrists. Under Magnamon's horrified gaze, she executed a brutal, point-blank cross-slash!
The sheer force of the blow shattered his stance. Taking immediate advantage of his broken balance, Belle pivoted on her heel and delivered a flawless, devastating roundhouse kick directly to his chest, sending the golden knight rocketing backward to close out their second exchange.
Magnamon flipped gracefully in mid-air, his boots skidding against the earth as he forced himself to a halt.
He immediately clutched his chest plate. As expected, Belle's physical strikes hadn't left a single scratch on his armor.
But his digital core was reeling from an unmatched wave of psychological shock.
"That feeling..." Magnamon gritted his teeth, his golden aura flickering erratically. "There's no mistake!"
"BeelStarmon... you parasitic bastard—!"
Belle completely ignored the Royal Knight's murderous glare—a glare perfectly suited for someone whose intellectual property had just been blatantly stolen.
She flexed her fingers, carefully analyzing the golden, miraculous energy now humming beneath her skin.
"Magnamon's defensive ability... it really does contain a trace of the Power of Miracles, doesn't it?" she mused aloud. "The sensation is quite similar to the power Mizu uses, just... vastly inferior in quality."
As she acclimated to her stolen data, Mizuki's calm voice drifted over from behind.
"Belle, while Magnamon's ability grants you an incredibly sturdy defense, you must not let yourself rely on it too heavily."
Mizuki stepped forward, his tone carrying the gentle weight of a teacher. "Seeking an advantage and avoiding harm is a basic biological instinct. But it is precisely because pain exists that we are able to maintain our reverence for life."
Belle turned back, her feral grin softening instantly. "I understand, Mizu."
"You actually have the sheer audacity to stand there and chat?!" Magnamon's furious roar shattered their quiet moment. "Do not underestimate me!"
Golden energy violently converged around his armor, forming dozens of blinding spheres of light.
[Plasma Shoot!]
"...Tsk. I was clearly in the middle of talking to Mizu, I say."
Catching the incoming barrage of high-explosive energy out of the corner of her eye, Belle clicked her tongue in deep annoyance. She casually raised her gun-blades and fired a volley of concentrated energy spheres, perfectly intercepting and neutralizing every single one of Magnamon's blasts in a series of deafening mid-air explosions.
Magnamon's jaw practically hit the floor. "That was—my Plasma Shoot?!"
His golden armor trembled with absolute rage. "Damn you! You despicable, thieving rat!"
Unable to comprehend how a Digimon could just casually rewrite his signature moves, Magnamon whipped his head toward the human standing nearby.
"It's you, isn't it?!" he bellowed, his eyes practically bleeding loathing. "You naturally evil human anomaly!"
Mizuki blinked. "Eh?"
He looked to his left, looked to his right, and then pointed a finger at his own chest with a perfectly innocent expression.
"How else could a mere BeelStarmon master such bizarre, heretical power?!" Magnamon snarled, taking a threatening step forward. "It has to be you! You must have infected her with some vile corruption!"
The Royal Knight raised his fist. "No wonder His Majesty Yggdrasil ordered your immediate execution! You humans are truly—"
Magnamon never finished that sentence.
Without a sound, the brilliant blue crystals from earlier suddenly erupted directly out of the joints in his golden armor. They bloomed like parasitic flowers, violently locking his limbs in place.
Before he could even struggle, Belle materialized directly in front of him, her eyes burning with cold fury.
"Evil power?" she hissed. "This is the crystallization born from the absolute bond between me and Mizu!"
She glared down at the paralyzed knight. "How could a rigid, brainwashed fanatic like you ever understand that, I say?!"
Belle tossed her dual gun-blades aside. They clattered uselessly against the dirt.
"Originally, I was just going to restrain you and be done with it. But now..." Her voice dropped to a terrifyingly sweet register. "I've changed my mind, I say."
A blinding, majestic pillar of evolutionary light erupted from her core, swallowing her figure entirely.
"Mode Change."
"Mega Level—Magnamon Mode!"
The light shattered, revealing Belle clad in a twisted, crystal-infused mockery of his own golden armor.
"A bad guy with a filthy mouth like you desperately needs to be taught a lesson!!!"
Drawing back her newly armored fist, Belle drove it straight into Magnamon's face with bone-rattling force.
[Kyanite Impact!]
BAM!
Magnamon's head snapped back. While the Chrome Digizoid prevented any actual structural damage, the sheer kinetic shockwave rattled his digital core, leaving a loud, disorienting ringing in his ears.
Before he could even process the indignity of being punched in the face, Belle's second fist arrived.
[Kyanite Impact!]
BAM!
Snapping out of his daze, Magnamon desperately tried to raise his arms to block the barrage.
But he couldn't move. The blue crystals had completely fused with his joints, and worse—they were actively devouring his data bit by bit!
It wasn't a lethal drain. Between Belle's inherently gentle nature holding back the killing intent, and Magnamon's own Power of Miracles fighting the corruption, his life wasn't in danger. Perhaps his body was still exhausted from firing the Extreme Jihad earlier, or perhaps he really was just this vulnerable to data-rewriting.
Either way, it would take him at least a few minutes to shatter the crystal bindings.
And a few minutes was more than enough time for Belle to absolutely tenderize his face.
[Kyanite Impact!]
[Kyanite Impact!]
[Kyanite Impact!]
A relentless, humiliating rhythm of crystal-infused punches rained down on the Royal Knight's head.
Finally, pushed entirely past the absolute limit of his sanity and pride, Magnamon let out a hysterical roar.
"ENOUGH!"
Startled by the sheer volume of his screech, Belle actually paused her assault, her fist hovering an inch from his nose.
Seizing the momentary reprieve, Magnamon glared at her, his chest heaving. "I am a noble Royal Knight! And you—you are nothing but a lowly, ordinary Digimon!"
He spat the words like venom. "How dare you treat me with such disrespect!"
Belle blinked. "?!"
Fine. You still have the energy to run your mouth?
She pulled her fist back, fully intending to cave his visor in, when the soft, familiar crunch of footsteps approached from behind.
"That sentence..." Mizuki's voice drifted over, smooth as silk. "I can't just pretend I didn't hear that."
"Mizu?"
Belle turned her head. Mizuki, who had been perfectly content to watch the battle from the sidelines, had closed the distance.
His face still wore its usual, gentle smile. But as Belle looked closer, she felt a sudden chill. The smile didn't reach his eyes. In fact, his eyes were terrifyingly flat.
"Personally, I couldn't care less about how others evaluate me," Mizuki said, his tone light and conversational. "However..."
He stopped right in front of the paralyzed Royal Knight.
"...that does not mean I will tolerate anyone insulting my most precious family member."
Under Belle's intensely curious gaze, Mizuki reached out, grabbed the crystallized, statue-like Magnamon by the waist, lifted him effortlessly into the air, and violently shoved him head-first into the dirt.
(It was worth noting that Mizuki currently possessed the physical strength of an Ultimate-level Digimon).
"Mizu, what are you doing?" Belle asked, tilting her head.
Mizuki dusted off his hands and smiled warmly at her. "Belle, did you know? Back in my hometown, there is a traditional folk game called 'spinning the top'."
He gestured casually to the upside-down Royal Knight. "The general idea is to continuously strike a conical object with a whip, forcing it to spin rapidly on smooth ground."
Belle's eyes lit up behind her mask. "That sounds like it might be very interesting, I say!"
"So, would you like to give it a try?"
With a flick of his wrist, Mizuki transformed his elegant parasol into a long, wicked-looking whip, offering the handle to Belle.
He pointed a finger at the struggling, inverted golden knight. "Look. Doesn't this statue right in front of us look an awful lot like a conical object?"
Magnamon: "!!!"
Because he was currently buried head-first in the soil, the noble Royal Knight's furious protests were reduced to a series of muffled, pathetic "wu-wu-wu" sounds.
Guided by Mizuki's patient, cheerful explanation, Belle quickly grasped the mechanics of the game.
"Yes! I want to play, I say!"
As far as Belle was concerned, if it was an activity Mizuki suggested, she was more than happy to participate. Not to mention, it was the perfect way to vent the last of her irritation.
And so, completely ignoring Magnamon's frantic, muffled screaming, an incredibly excited Belle took the whip from the hands of the gently smiling Mizuki.
"Mizu~ I'll do my best~"
"Mhm. I believe in you, Belle!"
Wait, what?
Magnamon: "!!!!"
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