SaberLeomon

Unimon's special move struck Leomon, and a faint layer of white light instantly covered Leomon's entire body. Clearly, the light was protecting Leomon. In its glow, countless streams of black data energy could be seen trying to enter Leomon's body from Infinite Mountain, crashing against the white light one after another.

At that moment, Nuwa's phantom moved. With a sweep of her hands, she scattered the faith energy gathered on Infinite Mountain. Then she formed another hand seal, gathering data energy this time. Nuwa's phantom pressed the mass of data energy down through the top of Leomon's head, instantly robbing Leomon of the ability to resist. Now free to act, Elderlymon and Unimon began to move.

Unimon reared onto its hind legs, its horn and the black wings on its back blazing with light. Within that light, Elderlymon planted its staff in the ground and shouted, "Barrier!" A membrane of light appeared out of thin air, enclosing an area ten meters in radius. Zheng Fan could no longer hold on. He spat out another mouthful of blood, Nuwa's phantom faded away, and the faith energy she had scattered gathered once more.

Although Elderlymon's barrier offered immensely powerful resistance to data energy, it was a sieve when it came to faith energy. Elderlymon had known little about faith energy before, but after watching Nuwa's phantom manipulate it, Elderlymon could sense this strange power that affected the mind. Now that it was surging toward them, there was no way to counter it.

Just then, Leomon moved. An intense aura burst from Leomon's body, and a beam of light descended from the sky. "Leomon, digivolve to... SaberLeomon!" To Zheng Fan, Digimon evolution was unlike that of any known race, because a Digimon's entire form of life could change completely during evolution.

After evolving, Leomon stood four meters tall, clad entirely in golden armor. A golden mask covered the face, leaving only the eyes exposed. The armor's shoulders, belt, and knee guards were all shaped like roaring lion heads, with fangs protruding from their mouths. Digimon could control all their own data energy, and armor was nothing more than data energy too. Anyone fighting in close quarters would have to beware of being bitten by those lion heads.

"Lion King's Roar!" The move carried an unmistakable mental attack. With Leomon's shout, the faith energy that had gathered again was scattered.

"SaberLeomon, congratulations on evolving to Ultimate," Elderlymon said. SaberLeomon did not immediately realize Elderlymon was speaking to them. Only after Zheng Fan offered a reminder did SaberLeomon remember that SaberLeomon was now their name.

"I should choose a name for myself," SaberLeomon said. "One that won't change, no matter how I evolve." Elderlymon did not understand why Leomon thought this way until Zheng Fan and Leomon explained the conclusions they had reached while researching with Andromon. Then Elderlymon, too, felt that Digimon ought to have names that remained unchanged regardless of evolution.

Just as everyone was celebrating, another voice finally came from Infinite Mountain.

"Devimon, aren't you supposed to be powerful? Go kill them." The voice carried an innate sense of superiority, as though its owner ruled everything in the world. Two Digimon emerged from the mountain. One was black all over, with terrifying skulls on its knees. The wings on its back were tattered; wings like those could hardly allow it to fly freely. Two horns grew from its head, though they did not look particularly formidable. Its blood-red middle fingers seemed to proclaim the lives lost at its hands.

"It's Devimon," Elderlymon explained. "Devimon is a Virus-type Champion Digimon, and one of the rare Fallen Angels-the nobility among Virus-type Digimon. Watch out for its hands. Its special move, Death Claw, lets it suddenly extend them."

With Devimon's appearance, it seemed to abandon any attempt at concealment. Dense, dark data energy spread everywhere. Even the Ultimate-level SaberLeomon could not operate for long in such an environment, especially with a deity watching for an opening. Right now, only SaberLeomon's Lion King's Roar could counter the deity's mental intrusion.

"One Sword Slashes the Heavenly Dipper!" As the first move of the Earthly Sha Sword Art, it required not only power but control. An art hailed as the Strongest on Land naturally could not let enemies soar freely overhead. Just as Zheng Fan had expected, although Devimon's tattered wings could carry it through the air, they could not resist the pull of the earth's power. Under Zheng Fan's control, the airborne Devimon slammed heavily onto the mountain path.

Zheng Fan had used the Earthly Sha Sword Art not only to control Devimon but also to test the deity. A deity born on Infinite Mountain was its mountain god. Controlling Infinite Mountain's earth veins should have been as easy as drinking water. Judging by what they had seen on the way up, however, this deity might not know very much. Since Zheng Fan could still draw on the power of Infinite Mountain's earth veins, the deity evidently could not control them-and probably was not much better in other respects.

Although Devimon had slammed hard into the ground, it suffered no damage. It could suddenly turn its body intangible to evade physical attacks, and its control over its body extended to practically every inch of skin. It either dodged Zheng Fan's moves with its agile body or rendered them useless by becoming intangible.

Of course, Zheng Fan was no pushover either. "Tai Chi Sword, Two Principles!" This Tai Chi was not the same as the other Tai Chi, though their general principles were similar. Wudang's Tai Chi relied on martial intuition, emphasizing moving second but striking first and turning an opponent's strength against them. Its ultimate purpose was to dissipate force, though Wudang's Tai Chi Sword also had aggressive attacks. The Tai Chi Sword Zheng Fan now used had been created by Zhang Sanfeng after he arrived in Buzhou. It required far more formidable calculation, using the enemy's strength to redirect one's own attacks so that two or three strikes would ultimately hit at once. Two Principles was the most basic version, landing two strikes simultaneously.

As expected, Devimon could only make one part of its body intangible at a time. Zheng Fan's Night Dawn Sword pierced its shoulder. But just as he tried to sever its arm, a sudden wave of dizziness struck him. He could only shove Devimon hard and use the recoil to retreat. Sure enough, once Zheng Fan expelled the deity's mental influence, he saw clearly that Devimon's hand had suddenly extended to more than three times its length. Judging by its position, if he had failed to dodge, having his guts ripped open would have been more than a figure of speech.

Even while Zheng Fan fought Devimon, the deity continued interfering with him. However, a deity born in Digimon World had never systematically learned how spirits fought. Seeing that its intangible state could not disrupt Zheng Fan, it actually formed a physical body. Sure enough, Zheng Fan fell for it.

"That's... Kabuterimon's head, Angemon's wings, Greymon's body, Garurumon's hind legs, the hands of SkullGreymon and Devimon, and Kuwagamon's hands too. That tail belongs to Triceramon. What kind of Digimon is this?" Elderlymon was indeed knowledgeable, identifying which Digimon each part belonged to the moment the phantom appeared. Zheng Fan knew the arms belonged to Kuwagamon.

"Elderlymon, this is the deity, isn't it? I suppose this is what it considers the perfect body."

"A deity? I like that name. But you're wrong. This isn't my ideal body. How could such a defective thing serve as my noble body?" As expected, that innately superior voice belonged to this deity. Even its speech carried a powerful mental influence.

"That's right," Elderlymon said. "Although these Digimon's body parts are among the strongest at the Champion level, they're nothing compared to a Mega. Are you the Digimon born from our past faith in Infinite Mountain?" Unless someone was rotten to the core, they could not accept seeing their own child commit evil. Although the Digimon had placed great hope in Infinite Mountain, they had not begged it to grant them everything the way mortals did. Naturally, they would not prostrate themselves before a deity as mortals would. Elderlymon regarded it as one of the younger generation.

"I tried. A Mega's power is too strong. Even a single body part is beyond my control. I had no choice but to make do with this body for now," the deity explained to them.

Zheng Fan could sense that this was the deity's true body. It really was an untrained deity, actually confronting enemies with its true self. Eighteen ways to destroy it outright came to Zheng Fan's mind, but Elderlymon was still talking to it, so he could only prepare in secret.

Before long, the conversation between Elderlymon and the deity broke down. "It was you! My original body was so perfect. Look what you did! You dug channels through my body and buried all sorts of machinery inside it. Otherwise, why would I have had to prepare a new body for myself? That's why I want revenge."

"Was it really all our fault?" Elderlymon's voice was full of remorse. Zheng Fan knew something was wrong and told SaberLeomon to act immediately.

"Lion King's Roar!" With SaberLeomon's furious shout, Elderlymon regained clarity and realized they had nearly walked out of the barrier.

Zheng Fan and the others could only rely on the barrier to resist the corrosion of the dark energy. Although Zheng Fan could leave it, he lacked the strength to overcome Devimon and the deity together. If Elderlymon stepped outside, they could only be corrupted and transformed.

"Zheng Fan, can you use the Sunlight Sword?" SaberLeomon asked. Zheng Fan understood the suggestion, but replied helplessly, "The Sunlight Sword is strongest under the sun. There's no sun here."

"Zheng Fan, I wonder if my special move, Sunshine, could help you," Elderlymon said.

"Sunshine!" Elderlymon unleashed the special move without waiting for Zheng Fan's agreement. Sunshine was immensely powerful against dark power. Even if it could not help Zheng Fan, the energy would not be wasted.

Zheng Fan sensed the sun's presence within Sunshine and immediately raised the Night Dawn Sword over his head. All the light Sunshine should have brought to the world was absorbed by the Night Dawn Sword, which shone with a dazzling radiance.

"Solar Radiance, Slaying Strike!" With Zheng Fan's furious shout, the sunlight gathered on the Night Dawn Sword condensed into a gigantic blade of light dozens of meters long. It pierced straight through the barrier. Like a beacon in the dead of night, the enormous light sword drew the surrounding dark energy like moths to a flame, annihilating it on contact. Although Infinite Mountain's dark energy was nearly endless, by the time the light sword was completely exhausted, the lingering dark energy could no longer threaten Champion Digimon.