The weakened Digimon World

"Only powerful Digimon can survive anywhere, no matter what dangers they face. All the weaklings can go die." Phantomon rambled on as he floated in midair. Beneath him, something as black as ink flowed, seemingly a projection of an endless dark space into the real world.

"Now, Kabuterimon, are you still planning to resist me, little fellow?" Standing on the ground, Phantomon looked like a ten-year-old child draped in a bedsheet to scare people, while Kabuterimon was the size of a room. Yet Phantomon called Kabuterimon a little fellow as though it were perfectly natural. Even an onlooker would not have found it strange.

Kabuterimon did not answer Phantomon at all. In fact, as he prepared to charge his Mega Cannon, he had no strength left to spare.

"I really can't let you finish that. Otherwise, you might hurt me. Try this instead." As Phantomon spoke, black light flickered at the tip of his scythe. "Eight Scythe Slaughter!" Phantomon moved at incredible speed, the scythe in his hands seeming both to move and remain still. A huge character for "death" appeared in the air and surged toward Kabuterimon. In another instant, it would dismember him.

"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon darted out from nowhere and unleashed her special attack at the character. Meteor Wing was a physical attack, and although it was cut apart the instant it touched the character, the fragments still hurtled toward Phantomon wreathed in flames. Meanwhile, Birdramon took the recoil herself, pressing Kabuterimon down a full two body lengths. The character swept over Birdramon's head. The meteors struck Phantomon, and he shattered on the spot. It turned out to be nothing more than an afterimage he had left behind.

"Kabuterimon, break through the barrier below!" As they passed each other, Sora Takenouchi jumped off Birdramon and climbed onto Kabuterimon's head.

Kabuterimon aimed at the darkness below and launched the enormous ball of plasma in front of him. "Mega Cannon!"

The Mega Cannon struck the blackness as though hitting a membrane. The dark surface caved in deeply, but it was still nowhere near breaking.

"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon beat her fiery red wings hard. Several burning meteors appeared out of thin air and smashed into the pitch-black barrier. In an instant, they tore open a gap, ripping through the darkness.

"Look over there!" Following the direction T.K. Takaishi pointed, everyone saw purple and red light shining together, illuminating the entire sky. Only then did they realize that the place trapping them was merely a semicircle with a radius of twenty meters.

"Joe Kido, this is great! I've finally found you again!" A gray figure slammed straight into Joe Kido, knocking him to the ground.

"This is great, Gomamon. This is great!" Joe Kido was so excited that he could barely speak. Tears streamed down his face.

Mimi Tachikawa snatched Gomamon out of Joe Kido's arms. "Gomamon, you still remember me, right?"

"Mimi Tachikawa, how could I forget you all? Tai, Izzy Izumi, T.K. Takaishi, I, Gomamon, am back!" Gomamon declared with boundless swagger.

"Gomamon, I still remember. A certain Digimon sneaked into our girls' bathroom that night." Two horns seemed to sprout from Mimi Tachikawa's head.

Gomamon shuddered, immediately jumped out of Mimi Tachikawa's arms, and ran back to Joe Kido. "Joe Kido, hurry up and let me digivolve! I want to fight alongside everyone."

"Gomamon digivolve to... Ikkakumon!"

Only a few minutes had passed between the barrier being torn open and Ikkakumon's arrival, but the chosen Digimon fighting Phantomon had already fallen behind across the board. Only when Ikkakumon blasted Phantomon with his Harpoon Vulcan did Birdramon finally get a breather. She swooped down, and while she was still more than ten meters above the ground, Sora Takenouchi covered her head and jumped off at an angle. She rolled several times on the ground, then stood steadily before everyone.

"Mimi Tachikawa, what happened to your hair?" The first thing Sora Takenouchi did after landing was not straighten her own clothes, but deal a vicious blow to Mimi Tachikawa's feelings.

Seeing Tai and the others staring blankly at her, Sora Takenouchi finally realized how astonishing her actions had been. She explained, "Tai, don't look at me like that. You know, the Digimon World is different from the human world. As long as a Digimon isn't attacking you, you won't get hurt even if you fall from more than ten meters up."

In the Digimon World, when data energy collided, the weaker side would be injured. This was the most basic form of physical trauma. But the simple conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy, without any Digimon-or rather, data energy-involved, could rarely meet the threshold for injury, even when the subject was a fragile human.

Of course Tai knew this. He had even done this sort of high-altitude training before. Yet even with Zheng Fan's help, neither he nor Joe Kido, two grown men, could move freely more than five meters in the air. Sora Takenouchi had outstripped them countless times over.

"One, two, three, four, five. Aren't there supposed to be eight chosen Digimon? Are you five little fellows looking down on me?" Phantomon looked as though the fight had cost him nothing. Even if it had, none of the humans or Digimon present could tell.

"Phantomon, you only dare come out and throw your weight around when Zheng Fan and the others aren't here! You rotten bastard, fight me head-on if you've got the guts!" Greymon retorted.

"Heh, even as an Ultimate Digimon, I couldn't possibly fight a Dragon's Domain fellow like you hand-to-hand. Just surrender quietly. If I'm in a good mood, perhaps I can try helping you digivolve into Bakemon while keeping your memories. Don't pin your hopes on your poor big brother Zheng Fan. They probably can't even hold on to their own consciousness anymore."

"Harpoon Vulcan! Spiky Bump Punch! Mega Cannon! Meteor Wing! Super Flame!" The Digimon answered Bakemon with their respective special attacks. Even with little battle experience, they knew that negotiating with Phantomon was utterly pointless.

"Damn it. Izzy Izumi, please try again and see if you can help me digivolve," Patamon pleaded pitifully, flapping his wings.

"All right. I'll give it a try." Izzy Izumi could also see that the battle was evenly matched. Perhaps once Patamon digivolved, he could defeat Phantomon.

Thanks to Master Lu-mon's earlier modifications, Izzy Izumi's laptop had long since advanced an entire technological era beyond Earth. Its ability to absorb data energy directly as a power source meant that it would never have to worry about running out of battery in the Digimon World again. Its speed had then been optimized to the limit; booting up in one second was no longer a dream. Its memory and other capabilities were also on par with an In-Training Digimon. In-Training Digimon were not to be underestimated. Even compared to humans, all they lacked was experience and some basic knowledge. Of course, the laptop still had no intelligence. True intelligence required at least a Digicore. That was Master Lu-mon's bottom line, and the bottom line of every Digimon. It could not be violated.

Izzy Izumi's hands danced across the computer, leaving trails of afterimages. If his speed, intensity, and precision were converted into pure statistics, they would have been enough to crush all sorts of Diamond and Strongest King players.

"Patamon, get ready." The moment Izzy Izumi said this, everyone instinctively cleared a space for Patamon to digivolve, terrified of being crushed beneath him afterward.

As the Evolution Program Izzy Izumi had written began running, streams of data energy visible to the naked eye spun around Patamon, seeming ready to merge into his body at any moment. "I can feel it! The Holy Place, as beautiful as heaven!" Patamon cheered as he prepared to digivolve.

"The data energy is draining away. Why is this happening?" Izzy Izumi angrily snapped his laptop shut. "Damn it, where did it go wrong? Damn it!" A technician's anger could be frightening, too. Worse, none of the others even knew what he was angry about. Only Patamon silently sensed the unknown presence that had stolen the data energy meant to support his digivolution.

"Matt, are you all right?" After Leomon's warning, Gabumon had digivolved into Garurumon. But even Garurumon, renowned for his speed, could not catch up with the Night Dawn Sword while it carried someone.

"It hurts, Garurumon. Why am I so miserable?" Matt hugged Garurumon's leg and began whining.

"Acting pitiful with me won't help. The Night Dawn Sword is Zheng Fan's sword. I have no authority over it," Leomon said helplessly after catching up from behind and seeing Matt like this.

"Leomon, Matt, that power has disappeared. Are we still going over there?" Garurumon reminded them.

Leomon looked at Matt. After a moment's thought, Matt swung himself onto Garurumon's back. "Garurumon, sorry for the trouble." "No problem. Matt, hold on tight!" Carrying Matt, Garurumon became a gust of wind as he chased after the Night Dawn Sword. Although the sword had long since flown far away, the clear sword intent along its path was the most conspicuous trail marker of all.

In midair, a sword flew left, then right. If it had been a person, that person would certainly have been mentally ill.

"No matter what, I was the one who created you. Those children need your help right now." As soon as the voice finished speaking, the Night Dawn Sword flew toward Phantomon.

"I was born because my master nurtured me day and night. Even without your interference, I would still have been born. My master is in danger now. I must go to him immediately." A young voice argued back, reclaiming control of the sword.

"Your master isn't in danger for the moment, but the same can't be said for those children. They're your master's own kind." The steady voice seemed to be reasoning with the other, yet did not hesitate to take control of the Night Dawn Sword's direction.

"They're also the people you chose. If they can't even overcome a trial like this, you might as well choose another group." The Night Dawn Sword's Sword Spirit turned the blade around again.

"All right, Matt is here too. There are six of them now. Can I go find my master?" Sensing the arrival of Matt and Garurumon, the Night Dawn Sword grew even more determined.

"Fine. Let me make one sword strike. We must at least seriously wound Phantomon. After that, I won't control you anymore." The gentle voice compromised as well.