Old Gennai

"Sacred power, gather within me!"

As he shouted, Angemon raised the staff in his hand over his head.

Shiiiiing~~

At Angemon's call, the Digivices carried by the DigiDestined all shone, sending beams of light toward him.

"What are you trying to do?!"

Although Devimon feared Angemon's power of light, everything had its counter. With his sheer size, he might still stand a chance against the Angemon before him.

But this dirty trick Angemon was pulling... was it any different from his own use of the Black Gears' dark power earlier?

"Stop! If you insist on doing this, you could lose your life too."

With the battle having reached this point, and Angemon clearly prepared to risk his life, Devimon no longer wanted to keep fighting.

"But we have no other choice, no matter what happens to me."

"Devimon, the forces of darkness have grown too powerful. Today, I will destroy you!"

Having already gathered all that power, Angemon dared not gamble on sparing Devimon and trusting him not to strike back later, when everyone was weakened.

"Aah!"

Ogremon, who had been dwelling inside Devimon's body, had no understanding of Devimon's fear. He rushed straight out, ready to bring his club down on Angemon's head.

Before Angemon even made a move, however, his staff knocked Ogremon flying.

"Angemon!"

Seeing Angemon's overwhelming strength, T.K. gaped, his eyes filled with joy.

"I'm sorry, T.K.!"

Yet when he heard T.K. call out, there was not a trace of happiness on Angemon's face.

"I'll finish you!" Seeing Angemon's resolve, Devimon abandoned his last illusions and thrust both claws at him.

"Hand of Fate!"

Facing Devimon's outstretched claws, Angemon made no attempt to dodge.

Besides, in this situation, there was no need to dodge anymore.

Whoooosh~~

A single Hand of Fate punched straight through Devimon's body, its lingering force shooting far into the starry sky and refusing to fade.

"How careless. You've been far too careless, Angemon. You used every last bit of your power to defeat me, but what will you do afterward?"

"File Island isn't the only place where the power of darkness is spreading. Across the sea, there are Digimon whose dark power is greater than mine!"

"You're finished! All of you are finished! Hahahahaha!"

Devimon's dying words made everyone's faces fall before they even had a chance to celebrate.

Forces of darkness even stronger than Devimon...

"Angemon!"

Watching Angemon slowly fade away, T.K. froze.

Everyone else's partners had digivolved without any trouble. Everything had been perfectly normal. Why did things keep going wrong when it came to his partner? Now Angemon even looked as though he was dying...

"T.K., we will meet again, as long as you wish for it."

After hastily leaving him with those cryptic words, Angemon vanished into the air along with Devimon, leaving only a few pure white feathers drifting slowly down before T.K.

"Angemon!!!"

At that sight, T.K. could no longer hold his emotions in.

The other children came over to him.

Shiiiing~~

Just then, the feathers in front of T.K. began giving off white light. They fused together, and a brand-new Digi-Egg appeared before everyone.

"It's a Digi-Egg!"

Tentomon's voice held a hint of joy.

"Is it Angemon's?"

"Angemon has to be born again from a Digi-Egg."

"That's right. As long as his digivolution goes smoothly, you'll definitely see him again."

Seeing this, Agumon and the others hurried to comfort T.K.

"I'll take good care of it." Hearing their answers, T.K. hugged Angemon's Digi-Egg tightly to his chest.

"Look! The pieces of File Island are coming back."

Sora suddenly noticed a large number of island fragments on the sea beginning to converge on the main island in the center.

"The dark power hanging over this island must have disappeared."

Tai guessed that this was because they had defeated Devimon.

"Huh? Where's Devimon? Was he defeated?"

Far off, Ogremon, who had picked a fight with Angemon and been sent flying by his staff, finally climbed off the ground after all this time.

"Well? Want to go another round?" Leomon looked at him, but felt little desire to kill him.

Now that Devimon, the mastermind, had perished, someone like Ogremon could hardly amount to much of a threat.

"No, no, no! Please, no..."

Faced with Leomon's challenge, Ogremon chose to flee in panic.

What a joke. Without Devimon backing him up, he might not even be able to beat Leomon, let alone that terrifying Angemon and the children's other Digimon.

Meanwhile, the DigiDestined looked bewildered. Devimon had been defeated, yet there was still no sign that they could return home.

"Devimon said there were even stronger forces of darkness across the sea. I thought we could go back to our own world once we beat him."

After waiting a long while with nothing happening, Matt finally remembered what Devimon had said before he died.

"Then we still have to keep fighting? Ah, I don't want to..." Mimi recalled the crushing pressure Devimon had exerted on them. If they had to face forces of darkness even stronger than him, would they really live long enough to get home?

"But we have to fight, no matter who we're up against..."

Crack~~

Before Tai could finish his words of encouragement, the ground in front of them suddenly split open...

"Huh? What was that sound?"

Already on edge, Joe looked like a startled bird the moment he heard the noise.

Is he coming out now? Gennai... Whew, stay calm. I'm just an ordinary boy who stumbled into the Digital World by accident, someone outside their plans. As long as I don't interfere with Gennai and Homeostasis's plans, they probably won't go out of their way to target me, right? After all, Tai and the others are watching. As long as Gennai still wants to use them to carry out the sacred plan, he shouldn't do anything too outrageous.

Looking at the strange device emitting white light before him, Zhou Zhu wore the same curious expression as the DigiDestined.

As the light shone, a short old man appeared before them.

"So, you are the DigiDestined? You managed to defeat Devimon. How impressive."

Gennai looked at Tai and the others, feigning great surprise in his voice.

"Who are you?"

Unlike when he had met Zhou Zhu, Tai was filled with wariness as he looked at Gennai.