The Holy Ring

Zheng Fan finally understood the helplessness of wanting to fight the enemy but having no power to turn the tide. Although he could make out some of the history from the murals, he could not understand the symbols that served as writing or something else, so he could not tell which side belonged to the darkness in those scenes of pursuit and slaughter. Centarumon had guarded these ruins for countless years, yet had only managed to decipher this one thing called a Digivice. A break in the continuity of a civilization was truly a terrifying thing.

After studying the symbols for ages without getting anywhere, Zheng Fan, who was no professional researcher, felt thoroughly frustrated. Whenever Centarumon was not looking, he had felt the urge to smash something more than once.

After examining the murals closely, Zheng Fan finally found something else. It appeared repeatedly in the scenes of pursuit, and its role in resisting the darkness invasion seemed almost as important as that of the Digivice.

"Centarumon, what is this?" Centarumon might not know much either, but all those years had to count for something. This time, however, Leomon spoke first. "Huh? Zheng Fan, the thing in this picture looks a lot like a Holy Ring." "A Holy Ring? A Holy Ring?" Zheng Fan repeated the name before asking, "Is the Holy Ring connected to this Digivice?" "Probably," Leomon answered uncertainly. "They say angel-type Digimon have Holy Rings. But the Holy Ring in this picture doesn't seem to be an angel Digimon's core ring. Instead, instead..." Leomon began mumbling. "Instead what, Leomon? Mumbling like that isn't your style."

Leomon finally settled on how to phrase it. "This Holy Ring reminds me of Tonkotsu's plates." "Tonkotsu's plates?" Zheng Fan and Centarumon cried out together. Going from a Holy Ring that only angel Digimon possessed to a plate was quite a leap. "That Tonkotsu left File Island without a word! Now I can't eat that food anymore. How infuriating!" Of all things, that was what bothered Centarumon. "Tonkotsu must have decided to leave File Island because you ordered takeout every day." Was Leomon really trying to argue on Tonkotsu's behalf? After hearing Leomon's explanation, Centarumon added, "That's right. This Holy Ring really does look a lot like Tonkotsu's plates." Even Centarumon said so. Would the angel-type Digimon all band together to hunt Tonkotsu down?

Seeing Zheng Fan's confusion, Leomon explained, "If a Digimon has a weapon, that weapon develops from the Digimon's core data. Take my Male Soul Blade. Once I evolved from Liollmon into Leomon, I had Man Soul. Ogremon's dead dragon bone club and your Night Dawn Sword are the same. But this Holy Ring is different. You can see it in the murals—the bearer keeps changing, and it even appears in a demon's hands. That's impossible for an angel Digimon. The only things I know with those properties are Tonkotsu's plates. In the Digimon world, only Tonkotsu can make plates, but those plates aren't Tonkotsu's core data. Any Digimon can pick them up, and breaking them doesn't affect Tonkotsu." When Leomon finished, a question occurred to Zheng Fan. "The Digimon resisting the darkness invasion made the Digivices. Maybe they made the Holy Rings too." Leomon grimaced. "Who knows? If they could make Holy Rings, wouldn't that mean they could control the sacred power of angel Digimon? If they could control that power, they could mass-produce angel Digimon without any trouble. Even the power of the Ancestor Angemon only created the three great noncombatant angels." As Leomon spoke, fear actually took hold. Golden light radiated from that body, and that presence weakened little by little. Centarumon noticed Leomon's fear and shouted, "Leomon, snap out of it! Things aren't that bad yet. The story of the Ancestor Angemon is only a legend, and core data isn't impossible to separate. If—if a great angel Digimon willingly sacrificed themselves, creating a Holy Ring might be possible." Centarumon's shout brought Leomon back to awareness. Noticing what was happening, Leomon tried to calm down but could not control the terror within, and even asked, "A great angel Digimon? An Ultimate angel, or a Mega angel? Our power is too weak. The power of darkness is too strong." With those words, a great mass of orange data energy spilled out of Leomon's body. Leomon shrank noticeably, and that presence grew even weaker. "Zheng Fan, hurry and stir up Leomon's fighting spirit! Otherwise, Leomon will devolve!" Centarumon slammed into Leomon, knocking Leomon down, and cursed, "Coward! What are you afraid of? Get up! Didn't you say you were the strongest Digimon? All I see is a spineless coward!" Zheng Fan addressed Leomon, who lay on the ground. "Leomon, you're the strongest Champion Digimon. As long as you can evolve, you'll become the strongest Ultimate Digimon, then the strongest Mega Digimon. You'll become the strongest Digimon of all, a warrior who surpasses every other Digimon." Through Centarumon and Zheng Fan's combined efforts, Leomon finally avoided devolving. But after shrinking, Leomon was not much bigger than Zheng Fan, and that presence was even weaker than Elecmon's, the Rookie Digimon guarding the Village of Beginnings. The orange data energy spilling out of Leomon felt much like Man Soul to Zheng Fan. Yet anyone could tell at a glance that Man Soul was Leomon's weapon and unusable by anyone else, while the orange data energy merely seemed especially suited to Leomon. Anyone could absorb it.

Looking at the powerful warriors depicted in the murals, Zheng Fan suddenly remembered those stories where martial arts were passed down through wall paintings. He began imitating the moves of a sword-wielding warrior in one of the pictures.

The powerful Digimon's sword moves did not suit Zheng Fan. His swordsmanship was light and agile, emphasizing nimble changes of direction and precise timing in battle, while the Digimon in the mural used heavy-sword techniques. Zheng Fan decided to memorize the pictures. After all, this was swordsmanship a powerful Digimon had used through countless battles. If he could return to Buzhou, he could add another sword art to its repertoire.

He acted as soon as the thought came to him, sitting cross-legged on the spot. He had not been born with an extraordinary memory, and his strength was only at the Emperor realm. To remember this much, he would have to circulate his cultivation technique to assist him. After his true qi flowed through his entire body, it gathered at the Baihui Acupoint on the crown of his head. The stimulation of true qi made his head hurt so badly that he began to convulse, but he did not stop. He snapped his eyes open, and light shot from them, sweeping across the mural like a scanner. Forcing knowledge into his mind brought not only the pain of true qi stimulating his brain, but also agony deep in his soul. Zheng Fan had no choice but to rest before scanning another wall. "Ah, I used to memorize a whole book for an exam without any trouble. What the hell?" Of course, the problem was not with Zheng Fan. Power in the Digimon world came from data. In other words, knowledge was power. Forcing knowledge into his mind would have been a way to increase his potential in Buzhou. Whether Digimon even had such a thing as potential was unknown, but when the rules of the Digimon world could not handle what was happening to Zheng Fan, they could only trigger the origin laws branded deep within his soul to deal with it. Zheng Fan had awakened the origin laws by sheer accident. Though it was excruciating, at least if he died in the Digimon world someday, those laws would protect him and send him into reincarnation, rather than letting the rules of the Digimon world stuff him into some Digi-Egg.

Once Zheng Fan had crammed all the walls into his mind, the agony finally ended. Only after the pain had passed did he remember that the Night Dawn Sword had also developed a sword soul. No matter how weak a newborn sword soul was, it could easily swallow memories concerning swords. I'm such an idiot. Drawing the Night Dawn Sword, Zheng Fan prepared to awaken its sword soul. Besides growing through slaughter, a sword soul could also grow by absorbing memories related to swords.

When Zheng Fan poured his true qi into Night Dawn and awakened its sword soul, he sensed Night Dawn's hunger. In fact, he had felt that hunger every time he killed a Digimon, but uncertainty about the Digimon world's data energy had kept him from letting Night Dawn absorb it. Today's events, however, had given Zheng Fan a sense of danger. Growing stronger was the only way to survive.

After Zheng Fan poured his true qi into the Night Dawn Sword, it gave off a faint, pale blue glow. A strange pulling force arose from the sword, and the patterns on the wall seemed about to be drawn toward it. Yet the wall seemed to come alive, resisting the Night Dawn Sword's pull. To counter Night Dawn's attraction, the wall generated a pulling force of its own. Its pull had no effect on the three physically present, but Leomon's orange data was sucked into the wall in an instant. Orange light immediately illuminated the entire room. After absorbing Leomon's data, the various symbols and characters seemed to come alive. The symbols appeared to want to leave the wall, but the wall held them fast. Zheng Fan had a feeling that what the wall needed was not Leomon's data, or the data of any particular Digimon, but a kind of vaccine energy. Seeing this, Centarumon thought for a moment and said, "Zheng Fan, I'll activate the ruins' energy core. Perhaps the ruins have some guidance to offer. Perhaps even if you aren't a Chosen Child, you still can't escape the onslaught of the darkness invasion." Activating the energy core turned out to mean nothing more than tracing a mark on the wall. At once, data filled the entire ruins. Arabic numerals, Roman letters, and other characters appeared in the air, while the symbols on the walls broke free and danced through the air, arranging themselves into various shapes. Of course, none of them could understand any of it. An enormous quantity of data whirled rapidly around the Night Dawn Sword, with the blade at its center, and actually began to merge into it. Only by sensing it did Zheng Fan realize that the data surrounding the blade was squeezing into the sword soul. Fortunately, the sword soul was unharmed, but an even greater quantity of data gathered at the hilt. Zheng Fan sensed a trace of resentment from the sword soul. The vast mass of data surrounding the hilt began to take physical form, while more data rushed toward the Night Dawn Sword like moths to a flame, feeding the vortex. At last, all the data vanished into the hilt, and the Night Dawn Sword reappeared before the three of them. "It hasn't changed at all." Having absorbed a little of the pure data energy drifting loose, Leomon was stronger than before. "Even its presence hasn't grown stronger," Centarumon added. Zheng Fan reached out and took the Night Dawn Sword floating in the air, and a powerful aura burst forth.