Disclaimer:
Toei and Bandai own Digimon, and Nintendo
owns Pokemon. Some Digimon used in this fic belong to me. Some
reviewers have contributed the following characters.
Metal
Devidramon - Ninetalesuk
Skyemon - Gijinka Renamon
Socramon -
Cavecat
Sins of the State
By: RB3
Chapter 25: War's End
Having been ripped from Ash's very body, Lucemon's evil spirit was adrift in the skies of war torn Washington, DC. The fallen angel was washed along by the currents of air like driftwood in the ocean. The minutes turned to hours as the evil spirit wandered the world devoid of a body. A great force encapsulated him in an aura of dark violet energy. It dragged him through the air like a fisherman towing his catch onto his boat. The Lord of Pride found himself returning to his last remaining stronghold in the US, a base hallowed out of the body of a mountain just north of Washington, DC.
Lucemon's spirit floated through the metal walls of the fortress to great a room with six cylinders filled with oily black ooze. The Sinners in the room hauled the bodies of their fallen comrades and tossed each and every one of them into six cylinders. Each one was for one of the six types of Sinners in his army. After loading enough corpses to fill the cylinders, they activated the devices and ground them into the ooze like a blender. The slime travelled along a set of tubes into seven moulds in the centre. The outer six were shaped like each of the Sinners but the seventh and central one was like an angel. Already, this seventh mould was filled halfway and a body was forming inside.
"Damn those Warriors!" gasped Lucemon.
"Don't worry my lord," assured a female Seducer foreman. "We've already prepared for just such an occasion. Soon, you'll have a new body to call your own. It will be even better than your original."
Back at the Rose Morning Star, the Warriors had carried Ash's remains to Cherubimon, the Great Angel. Cherubimon glowed with pink light as he channelled great amounts of holy energy into Ash's body. "There, Ash's body is preserved so that you can make the journey. You may take him to Ho-oh whenever you're ready."
"Thank you, Cherubimon," said Misty.
"Lord Cherubimon!" cried Oryxmon as he rushed into the room. "Our Washington base was attacked just an hour ago. Lucemon was the one who lead the charge. He somehow gained a new body and has kidnapped Betsumon and Youkomon. He wants the Warriors to meet him near the ruins of the White House or else he will eliminate them."
"They are two of our best agents," noted Cherubimon.
"It looks like a trap," observed Koji. "He's trying to lure us out. I know it."
"Indeed, but we have not choice." Cherubimon sighed. "It has now come down to this final showdown. Warriors, you must rescue Betsumon and Youkomon from Lucemon's clutches and defeat him once and for all. Only then will the war be over and the Digital and Real Worlds be safe," said Cherubimon. "While you face the Lord of Pride, our armies will find Lucemon's last stronghold and eliminate it. Good luck, Warriors. I pray for your success."
The Warriors, in their Fusion Hybrid forms, entered the area around the ruins of the White House. The once proud and pristine heart of American leadership had been reduced to nothing but rubble strewn about. Blast marks dotted the front lawn and the smoky smell of charcoal still filled the air. No one from the White House was present. Everyone had either fled or had become victims of the Sinners of the State.
At the top of an intact flagpole were Betsumon and Youkomon, who were tied to the post by ropes. The two had marks and bruises all over their body, an obvious sign that they had been beaten. At the base of the pole was Lucemon himself, smiling smugly at the Warriors' arrival. As Oryxmon mentioned, he had somehow acquired a new body. It was an exact copy of his Chaos Mode, the angel torn between the light and the darkness. Whatever he wanted was not known to the Warriors, but certainly not something that would be pleasant.
"Youkomon! Betsumon!" cried Aldamon.
"Don't worry about those two. They'll live," announced Lucemon smugly. "You on the other hand, won't be so lucky."
"Why did you call us out here?" asked Beowolfmon. "I know you have a bigger reason for bringing us out here."
"Of course I did. I wanted all you to be alone with me with no one to interfere. You killed my original body and even drove me out of my new host, but now I have a new body to call my very own. I can feel the power flowing through my veins. With this new power, I know I will finally be rid of you pests once and for all. Your screams will be music to my ears and your agony my deepest joy. Enough small talk, prepare to die, Warriors!"
Lucemon gathered negative energy into a sphere of darkness the size of a baseball. The Warriors scattered as Lucemon threw the sphere, which exploded in their midst. "Brock, Brendan, he only wants us. Get those two to safety, we'll cover you," ordered Maridmon.
"Okay," replied Brock.
The Warriors of Ophanimon hurled blasts of flame, light, wind, ice, and lightning at Lucemon, but he stopped the attacks with nothing but an exertion of negative energy. The Warriors of Cherubimon followed their comrades' lead with blasts of darkness, metal, water, nature, and earth, but Lucemon once again stopped the attacks. The fallen angel threw a sphere darkness then a sphere of light, both of which the Warriors narrowly dodged. Aldamon threw several Atomic Inferno plasma balls at Lucemon, who blocked the attacks with a positive energy barrier.
Dai Penmon sprayed a torrent of freezing ice and snow which caught Lucemon in his unprotected backside. The fallen angel doubled over covered in frost and winced at the Warrior of Ice. Out of spite, he charged at the penguin and pummelled him with a flurry of punches. Each punch was so fast and so powerful that even something as large as Dai Penmon shuddered with each hit. With a final kick, Lucemon sent the Warrior of Ice crashing into the ground.
Aldamon and Beowolfmon charged at Lucemon only to have him catch Beowolfmon's sword arm and toss him into Aldamon. The mass of bodies flew backwards and crashed into Jet Silphymon, sending all three crashing into the ground. Dryamon sprayed Eucalyptus Gas into Lucemon's eyes which burned intensely. Seeing Lucemon momentarily blinded, Diamon slammed the ground, raising spikes of diamond which skewered Lucemon. The fallen angel staggered backwards and growled.
"That's enough fun for now. Time to move on!" announced Lucemon.
Lucemon gathered up energy to create a sphere of positive energy in one hand and one of negative energy in the other. Throwing the positive energy first, Lucemon stunned the Warriors with a great flash of light. Upon throwing the negative energy ball, the positive and negative energy reacted with each other violently. Within, the Warriors screamed in pain. They felt as though they were being strained through someone's bowels, diced and cut up all along the way. The arcing, conflicting energies transformed into a great roulette-like sphere before vanishing. All that remained were the Warriors in their human forms lying in a heap.
That victory went straight to Lucemon's head. "Hah hah hah hah hah! I didn't think it would be so easy to defeat the Legendary Warriors. I am back and better than ever before," gloated Lucemon.
"We're not through with you yet," cried Takuya as he tried to stand. The boy slowly made it on to both legs, but was visibly wobbly and could tip over at any moment.
"I'd say otherwise. Just look at yourselves. You can barely stand! Your Spirits' powers have left you and all you can throw at me are words, but they're just words. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me!" mocked Lucemon.
"Lucemon, even if you destroy us, others will rise up to take you down!" decried Koji as he rose on to one knee.
"If any dares to oppose me, they'll meet the same fate you ten are about to meet," said Lucemon. "No one can stop me now, no one."
"You should have been destroyed a long time ago you monster!" decried Koichi, rising to his feet.
"Yeah, but you can't keep the most powerful being in the universe down for long," said Lucemon.
"No, but those who created your new body forgot to account for a critical flaw," said Koichi, now in a voice much deeper and ancient that his own; an inhuman voice that was all too familiar to Lucemon. The dark Warrior's eyes began to glow with an eerie crimson glow. Similarly, his moonstone necklace began to emit a blood red glow of its own.
"Ancient Sphinxmon?" gasped Lucemon.
Tommy arose from the ground with eyes emitting a frosty blue glow and his moonstone necklace emitting an amber glow. "Yes, when your followers created your new body, they used the last bits of data captured from the other six Demon Lords."
"So they did, big deal. With their powers added to mine, I'm even more powerful than ever before," said Lucemon.
Misty did the same, standing up through the great, mysterious power of an Ancient Digimon. Her eyes glowed a deep blue like that of the ocean, as did her moonstone necklace. "Indeed you are, Lucemon, but it is the others who allowed you to return to life. So long as any of the Demon Lords live, the others will return to life. In gathering all of the essences of your brethren together, you have guaranteed the finality of your destruction."
Lucemon's eyes widened in horror as he realized the magnitude of Ancient Mermaidmon's speech. "That's right Lucemon, once you die, it is the end for you," said Tommy, as Ancient Megatheriummon, seemingly to drive the point home.
"Now, fallen angel of Light, you time is at an end. Tremble as you face the instrument of your destruction," said Koichi as Ancient Sphinxmon.
"Ancient Spirits unite!" cried Koichi, Misty, and Tommy in unison.
The three Warriors became dark silhouettes that melted into inky darkness within a still bamboo forest. The darkness brought on the night and the full moon shone in silvery glory. A dark young man in black, hooded robes ascended into the sky until the moon's light silhouetted his body. He reared his scythe and sliced all of the bamboo shoots with a single stroke. The wave of negative energy caused hundreds of human souls to arise from the forest and flow into the man's body. He shot into the air and swung his scythe in a circle upon landing on the ground.
"Tsukiyomimon!"
-Digimon
Analyzer
Name: Tsukiyomimon
Attributes: Variable, Ancient
Hybrid, Dark/Water/Ice type
This dark, brooding Digimon was born from the power of the moon. As Death incarnate, he comes to reap a harvest of souls with his scythe. Tsukiyomimon has appeared to lay the fallen angel Lucemon to his final rest.
Special
Abilities/Traits:
Flying, amphibious, teleportation, dimension
travel, invisibility, enhanced strength/accelerated healing:
darkness, elemental powers: negative energy/ice/water, fear inspiring
Necrophilic Scythe (Dark) - Tsukiyomimon wields a deadly scythe with a blade shaped like the crescent moon. It can be thrown like a boomerang and generates a shockwave of negative energy upon swinging.
Necro Surfacing (Water) - Tsukiyomimon can summon skulls which represent the souls of those who have died, particularly in water. They seek out the living at their master's command and gnaw away at their flesh and soul.
Crystalline Moonbeam (Ice) - Tsukiyomimon can wield the energy of the pale, silvery moon. This silvery ice beam freezes whatever its hits upon contact.
"Well, well, Lucemon, do you hear that? That is the sound of the Reaper coming for you," taunted Tsukiyomimon, who seemed to speak with the voices of thousands of dead spirits as well as the Warriors who created him.
"You think I'm afraid of you? I'll show you that I'm afraid of no one!" cried Lucemon. The fallen angel charged at Tsukiyomimon and threw hundreds and thousands of punches in rapid succession. Tsukiyomimon shuddered with each hit of the Paradise Lost attack. With a powerful uppercut, Lucemon sent the Ancient of the Moon crashing into the ground. "Ha ha ha! See, what did I tell you?" Suddenly, Tsukiyomimon vanished in puff of darkness! "Where are you? Show yourself!"
"Where am I? Where indeed?" asked Tsukiyomimon rhetorically. His voice seemed to be coming from every direction. "I could be anywhere," said Tsukiyomimon, in Koichi's voice.
"I could be in front of you," said Tommy.
"I could be beside you," said Misty. Lucemon looked to the right and the left, but found nothing.
"I could even be... behind you," said Koichi.
Lucemon looked behind but found nothing but ruins. The other Warriors had vanished, just like Tsukiyomimon. "Grrr... Show yourself! You can't hide from me forever!" cried Lucemon.
Tsukiyomimon chuckled. "Oh, is it just me or do I detect a hint of fear in your voice? If my ears didn't betray me, I remember you saying that I wouldn't scare you off."
Rather than waste time trying to find Tsukiyomimon, Lucemon decided to blast him out. The fallen angel's first shot, a beam of positive energy, blew up a pile of rubble where he last heard Tsukiyomimon speak. "I'll get you sooner or later, so run while you still can!" warned Lucemon.
"Ha ha ha ha ha!" laughed Tsukiyomimon. Lucemon traced the source of the voice and blasted the flagpole that once held his hostages. "Don't like the American flag? Considering how you treated that country, I'm not surprised." He blasted a pile of rubble that was once the White House. "Such disrespect. You level a national monument to the ground and still continue to desecrate it further."
"Grrr!" growled Lucemon, blasting the wreckage of a car on the road. Over and over again, the fallen angel fired positive energy at wherever he heard Tsukiyomimon speak. Lucemon was beginning to panic now and intensified his attacks to hit Tsukiyomimon. Each time, he had hit nothing but empty space and exhausted himself in the process. "Damn! Where the hell is he?"
"So, you want me to come out and play?" asked Tsukiyomimon. "I'll humour you just this once."
Suddenly, a great blade cut Lucemon from behind. An icy beam followed, throwing the fallen angel into the ground. As he fell backwards, Lucemon threw a ball of light and a ball of darkness where the attacks originated. Tsukiyomimon was trapped in the destructive merging of positive and negative energy. The energies arced like lightning on a ball of light which trapped the Ancient of the Moon within.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! Fool! Did you think I was just sitting there cowering like a little girl? I was waiting for you to make your move. You fell right into my trap. That attack will destroy anything and not even splitting apart like Susanoomon will save you this time!" gloated Lucemon.
The energies clashed and arced throughout the orb of light. This contradiction of holy and unholy energy was ripping Tsukiyomimon apart from within and without. Suddenly, the ferocity of the negative energy began to die down until it subsided. Tsukiyomimon had opened his mouth and sucked all of the dark energy into himself, leaving behind the positive energy orb, which he destroyed in a single stroke. "Smart more, Lucemon, very smart. It would've work too, had your attack not used negative energy."
Lucemon's jaw literally dropped. "How?"
"You powers of darkness pale in comparison to mine. Without the negative energy in your attack, it breaks down and becomes harmless. Now then, it's time for you to join those who died at your hands. Arise, spirits of the dead, feast upon the soul of your slayer!"
Spirits of the dead, manifesting as skulls made of water, appeared all around the Ancient of the Moon. The skulls opened their jaws to hiss at Lucemon vengefully. Lucemon was noticeably terrified of this attack. On their master's command, they pounced on the fallen angel like a pack of rabid animals. Lucemon fought as hard as he could but the skulls kept coming again and again. He screamed in terror as the skulls bit into his flesh and ripped him to pieces like cheap cloth. All that remained of the Lord of Pride was a nimbus of Fractal Code.
"...And so it ends," remarked Tsukiyomimon.
Suddenly, the spirits of the seven Demon Lords arose from Lucemon's remains. "This is not over yet!" decried Lucemon's spirit. "Join me, Lords of Sin, give me your power and we will remake this pathetic world in our image!"
The spirits of the other six Demon Lords swirled around Lucemon in a rapid ascent to the sky. The dark energy of their union turned the sky as black as the darkest obsidian. Clouds covered the sky and lightning flashed like spears of light. From all around America, the corpses of the Sinners of the State decomposed. Their data flowed into the sky and gathered around the spirits of the Demon Lords. Not wanting to see the result, Tsukiyomimon threw his scythe in a pre-emptive strike. The blade bounced off of a barrier of unholy energy which revealed itself on impact.
The data coalesced into a great hydra that seemed to have been spawned from the darkest, vilest places there could ever be. Its body was covered in violet scales and radiated a violet aura of unholiness. The great beast had seven long necks which ended in a differed head. Tsukiyomimon recognized this beast as Lucemon's Satan Mode, a dragon-like creature. Unlike its first incarnation, this new one had six new heads in addition to its central, violet one crowned by gold. From left to right, the heads were light blue, yellow, red, violet, green, dark blue, and orange. Each head represented one of the seven deadly sins.
The light blue head had a decidedly female, beautiful appearance. The yellow head looked like that of an old miser with obsessive eyes. The red head looked like that of a devil's and was twisted by the purest hate and rage. The violet, gold-crowned head was the original head of Lucemon's dragon form and was the only one that truly matched his body. The green head looked like that of a serpent with eyes that gleamed with emerald light. The dark blue head was that of a goat's and had droopy, sleepy eyes. The final head, the orange one, drooled uncontrollably and resembled a pig with the eyes and antennae of a fly.
-Digimon
Analyzer
Name: Lucemon Satan Mode
Attributes: Virus,
Mega, Dark/Dragon/Flying/Steel/Fire/Water/Grass/Bug/Poison type
Lucemon drew upon the last of the Demon Lords powers to transform into this monstrosity. Unlike its first incarnation, the dragon has sprouted a set of six new heads, each representing the other six deadly sins.
Special Abilities/Traits:
Flying,
negative energy/wind/metal/fire/water/poison breathing, dimensional travel
Tides of Despair (Fire) - Lucemon belches out immense gouts of flame from each of his heads. These unholy flames are so brimming with evil that they are violet in colour and almost as black as his heart.
Nihilism Maelstrom (None) - Lucemon opens seven portals from which beams of energy rush out and annihilate everything around him.
"Be gone, fool!" cried Lucemon.
The great hydra breathed out the Tides of Despair, which came forward with a force greater than that of the fiercest hurricanes. The dark violet flames engulfed Tsukiyomimon and hurled him backwards. Having driven his foe away, Lucemon flew into the air and sped off to lands beyond the sea. In the meantime, Tsukiyomimon arose from a massive crater deep within the ruins of Washington, DC. That crater was the result of Tides of Despair burning away the ground. Its depth was as high as an adult tree and smaller violet fires continued to burn sporadically.
The other Warriors and their trainer allies converged on the crater just after Tsukiyomimon separated into Koichi, Misty, and Tommy. "Are you guys alright?" asked May.
"We're fine, but Lucemon got away," replied Koichi.
"Yeah, we saw the whole thing," said JP. "He turned into that dragon we fought the last time. Only now, he's grown six new heads..."
"We can't stay here, we have to follow him!" said Takuya.
"Warriors, listen to me," said Cherubimon. His voice came through the Digivices of the Warriors and their Spirits. "Lucemon has embraced the full power of the seven Demon Lords. He is rampaging across the world and destroying everything in his path. Once he's finished with this world, he will likely go to the Digital World and begin its destruction. You must not allow him to cause any further damage."
"How can we defeat something so powerful?" asked Tommy. "He wiped us out even as Tsukiyomimon!"
"Don't give up hope yet," said Cherubimon. "I detected a great power just moments before you three became Tsukiyomimon. It was from the treasures you discovered while on your Spirit Quests. The key to defeat Lucemon lies within these treasures. Do you understand what they are?"
"They were left behind by the Ancient Digimon like the Spirits were," replied Max. "Ancient Wisemon knew that Lucemon would return someday. He and the others left the treasures so that people in the future could fight him."
"...But why did the treasures take on the form they did?" asked Cherubimon. "Once you understand why, you will be able to tap into their true potential."
"I thought the treasures looked familiar. The Ancient Hybrids are the gods of the Shinto religion; Susanoo, Tsukiyomi, and Amaterasu," remarked Zoe.
"That still doesn't explain why the treasures are what they are," said Max.
"It's simple, they are items related to the gods," continued Zoe. "Tsukiyomi is a moon god, so it's fitting that to get his power, we needed something related to the moon."
"Ah, the moonstones!" said Koichi.
"Yep, we also got Susanoo's power when we combined the Spirits together during our battle against Lucemon the first time," continued Zoe. "All we need to do now is get Amaterasu's power and we're all set. We already have her three treasures; the sword, the jewels, and the mirror."
Max, May, and Shinya pulled out the treasures they found on their Spirit quests and showed them to Zoe. "These are Amaterasu's treasures?" asked Max.
"Yep, the legend goes that Amaterasu gave them to the first emperor of Japan. They became heirlooms of the Japanese royal family. Every new emperor in Japan has been crowned with these treasures ever since," said Zoe.
The treasures began to glow with a refreshing and empowering divine light. Zoe, Shinya, Max, and May bathed in this light, which was as golden as the sun itself. The Spirits of Wind, Earth, Metal, and Wood hovered aloft beside their masters to bask in the radiance of divinity. "Ancient Spirits unite!" cried the four Warriors.
The three treasures rotated in a rapid circle as they rose to the air. The fires of the great sun shifted and formed the outline of a beautiful woman. Gradually the golden flames transformed into the goddess' bare flesh and locks of lovely black hair. The sword placed itself into her right hand as her weapon and the mirror went to her left as her shield. The last of the treasures, the jewels, fastened themselves around her neck as a charm of magical protection. The winds clothed the woman in a dress of purest white which fluttered with their motion.
"Amaterasumon!"
-Digimon Analyzer
Name: Amaterasumon
Attributes: Variable, Hybrid, Holy/Flying/Wood/Metal/Earth type
This beautiful, radiant Digimon is the goddess of the sun. Born from the union of the three treasures' power, she is the counterpart to Tsukiyomimon and Susanoomon. Her beauty and radiance fills her enemies with awe and her strength allows her to strike down armies of evil with a single stroke.
Special
Abilities/Traits:
Flying, dimensional travel, teleportation,
accelerated healing/enhanced strength: sunlight, elemental powers:
positive energy/nature/wind/metal, awe inspiring
Kusanagi (Grass) - Amaterasumon is armed with a magical katana with a blade of amber. This sword, Kusanagi, the "Grasscutter," produces natural energy shockwaves when swung.
Eight-Handed Mirror (Steel) - Amaterasumon bears an octagonal mirror which is used as a shield. This mirror has both defensive and offensive purposes such as reflecting attacks or firing rays of energy.
Magatama Jewels (Ground/Rock) - Amaterasumon wears a necklace with comma-shaped, jade jewels. It can be used to invoke earth-based magic or to attack and tie up enemies.
When the transformation subsided, Zoe and the holders of the treasures admired their new form. "Wow, this is nice!" remarked Zoe.
Zoe and the treasure holders weren't the only ones to transform. Due to the release of the treasures' powers, the Spirits of the other Warriors were empowered. Beside her stood Susanoomon and Tsukiyomimon, both radiating the power of their respective domains. "Yeah, it is," remarked Susanoomon.
"Let's go," urged Tsukiyomimon. "We have a dragon to slay!"
The three gods took to the sky and soared forward with immense speed. In but the span of a minute, leagues and leagues of land and sea had passed behind them. They soon came across the sight of a massive dragon looming in the distance. The seven-headed beast spewed its destructive breath in every direction imaginable. Steams of fire, darkness, and poison slaughtered hundreds of soldiers. Streams of water, metal, and wind destroyed hundreds more. Countless terrified African tribesmen fled their straw huts and homes in a blind panic. Behind the dragon was a path of destruction that extended back as far as the eye could see.
"There he is!" cried Susanoomon.
"Let's put an end to this once and for all!" said Tsukiyomimon.
The Ancient of the Moon unleashed streams of freezing ice at the rampaging Lucemon. The blast of withering, freezing light slammed into the light blue head of Lust and encased it in a shell of ice. Amaterasumon unleashed a rain of stones which battered Lucemon to and fro. As the final touch to the combination, Susanoomon rained lightning down the dragon from clouds of violet. Lucemon fell to the ground and despite Susanoomon's efforts to keep him pinned down, he broke through the lightning and stood up just a brief moment later. The Warriors initial attack had only infuriated the unholy dragon.
The Lust head shattered Tsukiyomimon's ice. "You guys again?" it asked with an exasperated, feminine voice.
The dragon's central head turned to the face the Warriors. "Don't you know when to quit? This time, I'll making sure you won't ever interfere again!"
Lucemon opened his mouths in unison and exhaled a raging torrent of unholy flame. The Tides of Despair raced forward like a brushfire threatening to engulf the Ancient Hybrids. In the middle of the attack, the head of Pride cut off the flow of flames from his mouth. It chanted a blasphemous spell which opened seven gates in the sky around his body. The Nihilism Maelstrom repeatedly spewed beams of energy everywhere that bounced the three Ancients around like balls in a pinball machine. When the storm was finally over, the three were sprawled on the ground.
Lucemon reared his heads in preparation to attack. Streams of flame, poison, metal shrapnel, water, wind, and negative energy gushed out of the mouths of the dragon. At the last moment, each of the gods slipped out of the way of certain doom. The deadly blasts punched several craters into the ground deep enough to swallow them five times over. A bolt of lightning arced from Susanoomon's hand, zapping the head of Wrath with devastating power. As he was preoccupied, the head of Greed spit metal spikes. Susanoomon saw the spikes approach, dodging the first five and kicking the sixth away.
During the commotion, Amaterasumon had snuck to the rear of the great dragon with sword at ready. With a burst of speed, she ran through the orange head of Gluttony, slicing it clean off of the dragon's body. As the dragon stumbled about in pain, the neighbouring dark blue head of Sloth turned around and expelled a cloud of black pollen. Amaterasumon could feel the pollen attempting to suffocate her and sped out of the area as quickly as she could. Behind her, the cloud gradually spread out like a blanket of fog before dissipating. Tsukiyomimon regrouped beside her after having severed the violet head of Pride.
The dragon stumbled around before regaining its composure. Data began to leak through the stumps where the two heads were once attached. In a glimmer of Fractal Code, the heads reformed themselves. "It's no good, we can't beat him that way," remarked Amaterasumon. "He'll keep regenerating his heads every time we cut them off."
"Shooting the heads won't do much good either. If only we could cut them off all at the same time," said Susanoomon. "I know, I can use the Celestial Blade."
"Yeah, but your Heaven's Thunder won't hold him down like last time," said Tsukiyomimon. "You'll also need time to get ready for it."
"I know, but that's why I need your help. Someone has to keep the big guy busy while I get ready,"
Lucemon sprayed a torrent of violet, hellish flames which overtook the gods. The three went crashing to the ground in different directions. Lucemon pressed the attack, spraying flames, poison, water, negative energy, and spitting metal and seeds at his fallen enemies. The attacks hit the ground with devastating force, erupting into massive explosion which battered the gods about. As the dragon summoned the Nihilism Maelstrom, the three gods scattered to safety. All of them were fatigued from taking such a brutal beating from Lucemon's attacks. If they took any more, it would be the end for them.
"I have an idea, but I need to get closer to him," offered Amaterasumon. "Tsukiyomimon, can you hold him still for a moment?"
"I can, I hope whatever you have in mind works," replied the Ancient of the Moon.
"Susanoomon, you stay back and get ready. When I give the signal, you hit him with the Celestial Blade," said Amaterasumon.
The Ancient of the Sun fired beams of positive energy like rays of the sun. The attacks seared the flesh of the head of Wrath, goading it and its brothers into retaliation. As the jets of elemental energy roared their way forward, Amaterasumon, disappeared in a flicker of light. Tsukiyomimon snuck to the dragon's rear with speed so great as to make himself appear as a blur. The Ancient of the Moon summoned the energy of his planetoid as a beam of white light. The freezing ray chilled the air so greatly that a shell of ice had formed around the legs of the dragon.
Above, his sister pelted the dragon's heads with beams of elemental energy, keeping the heads constantly preoccupied with her. Second by second, the ice became harder and harder until it was as hard as diamond itself. Amaterasumon backed away from the dragon to evade a jet of negative energy. As Lucemon attempted to follow, the ice kept his legs pinned in place. The head of Lust looked at the ground, spotting the ice and then Tsukiyomimon before making the connection. The light blue head sprayed a piercing vortex of wind which the moon god evaded through teleportation.
Amaterasumon charged at the heads with her mirror raised in defence. The heads immediately turned their attention to the goddess and lunged forward in attempts to bite her. She slashed at the green head of Envy as it came in. The yellow head of Greed lurched forward to bite her only to be violently repulsed by the Eight-Handed Mirror's power. The head of Pride attempted to ram the goddess but she was a step ahead and struck it with Kusanagi. More heads attempted to charge, only to end up violently repulsed by the Eight-Handed Mirror.
"Do it! Finish him off!" cried Amaterasumon.
"You're in the way! If I attack with the Celestial Blade, I'll cut you too!" cried Susanoomon.
Amaterasumon slashed the head of Wrath, forcing it to recoil backwards in agony. "I can take care of myself. This is your only chance! It's now or never!"
Susanoomon did not say another word as he summoned his weapon into being. His weapon, Orochi, was rectangular, high-tech cannon with two red dragon heads adorning the muzzle. The cannon lit up as a blade of energy, miles upon miles in length, extended from the muzzle. For the second that Susanoomon swung the blade, time slowed to a crawl. Inch by inch the blade approached leftward towards the dragon's heads. The blade sliced through the head of Gluttony like air and passed through the head of Sloth and then that of Envy.
The blade inched its way through the green head, now mere inches from hitting the head of Pride and Amaterasumon. Amaterasumon turned her head to face the blade of doom just moments before it passed through her and the head of Pride. Time sped up and the blade sliced its way through the remaining three heads. As the heads detached from their body, all Lucemon could do was scream in agony. "Damn you, Warriors!"
The heads felled to the ground and disintegrated into rings of Fractal Code. Having lost its heads, the body thrashed around mindlessly crushing everything nearby with its massive bulk. It kicked up a massive cloud of dust before it collapsed to the ground in defeat. Bands and bands of Fractal Code wavered in the air like tornadoes of data as the dragon decomposed . The sky began to clear as Africans all around cheered the death of the monster that had ravaged their lands. Tsukiyomimon and Susanoomon split up into the Warriors.
"We did it!" cheered Tommy.
"Yeah, we did," lamented Takuya.
"Takuya!" cried a female voice.
Takuya looked up and saw the Warriors that formed Amaterasumon running up to him. "Zoe? But how did you survive?"
"Easy," replied Shinya. "You didn't cut us. We separated at the last moment, just before your blade hit us. It was really close."
Takuya hugged his brother and Zoe. "I don't care. I just happy to have you back."
"What now?" asked Tommy.
"I guess this means we're going our separate ways," said Koichi. The Spirits of Wood, Metal, and Water, with their job finished, fled their masters' bodies and entered Koichi's D-Tector.
"Yeah, we all have journeys we need to continue back home," said Brock.
"It was great knowing you all," said May. "It really was."
Thus, the war in the Real World came to a close. The Warriors saw the trainers off as they returned to their world through the gates in Steel Town. Even with though the major fighting had ended, there was still much work to do. Many parts of the Real World had been decimated by the rampage of Sinners and Lucemon. The Warriors worked alongside the Digimon and the people to rebuild what was lost. Dozens of mighty Digimon hauled massive bags of cement to the skeleton of a building. In this location would be a new condominium to house the homeless and destitute. It would not be long before America returned to its former glory.
While America was beginning its rise, someone in a world far from the Warriors' Real World was about to complete his fall. A young, violet-haired boy made his way through a world of darkness. Everything in this world seemed to be part of the world as depicted in the negative of a photograph. Everything was in black and white from the trees to the sun itself, which was merely a ball of white, but slightly greyed, light. There was nary a colour to be seen anywhere. The boy continued onwards as though a powerful force was compelling him forward.
The boy reached the shores of a great ocean whose waters were as black as ink itself. The waters seemed to beckon the boy to come towards it. The boy fetched his Digivice from his pocket and dipped it into the foul waters of the ocean. Through strange magic, his rectangular Digivice took on new form, becoming a more rounded device that was held vertically rather than horizontally. This transformation empowered him greatly. He could feel this newfound power coursing through his veins. The boy laughed maniacally as he beheld the Digivice, the symbol of his newfound strength.
Once finished admiring himself, the boy opened a fissure to the Digital World. There, he came upon the ruins of what seemed to be a laboratory at one time. Smashed concrete and metal were strewn about, forgotten by the rest of the world. The boy looked around until he found what appeared to be a ring of black metal. Unlike normal metal, the boy could feel the lingering traces of dark power flowing through this artefact. As though consulting a great, but mysterious force, the boy learned the true purpose of the object.
A small caterpillar-like Digimon came up to the boy. "Hi Ken! It's been a long time. Where have you been?" asked the Digimon.
"Around," replied the boy simply as he took the Digimon in his arms.
"I missed you so much," said the Digimon.
"Yeah, I missed you too, Wormmon," said Ken "Now that we're back together, we can do many things..." Ken cast a glance at the band of black metal, which seemed to hum silently his hand. "...Many great things indeed."
THE END