FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Revelations...

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Sleep clouded my vision, but even through the milky-white haze I could easily see the depth of Raion and Meiryosa's displeasure. Meiryosa's hands were balled into tight fists. Her left clenched the wooden hilt of her knife with such a grip I thought it might snap in two like an overly dried twig. Her face was so red that I thought for a moment she'd gotten severely sunburned somewhere. Her eyes were a crackling storm, a mixture of fear and barely-controlled, hellish fury. Raion's stance and demeanor were much more measured. His body was straight, and his arms were crossed over his chest. He held a strong, confident air, one of authority, but like most felines, the signals that gave away his own emotions were subtle: the irritated twitching of his tail, the way his ears turned back and forth in their socket like miniature radar detector, his intently-staring gaze, and the way his right-hand set of whiskers twitched. In short, I was in trouble, and my mind could form only two questions: why, and how far would I have to run to escape the wrath of an angry mother and a raging lion.

Meiryosa didn't leave me wondering for very long. "Where is he?!" she barked.

Still groggy, I slowly sat up, trying to understand the implications of her question. "Where is..." I shook my head.

"Koneko!" Meiryosa raged, "Where is my son?!"

So alarmed was her voice that all remaining traces of sleep fled like shadows before a sunrise. I sought to soothe her. "He's right..." I paused, trying to remember where he'd fallen asleep the previous night. Not five meters away, Shori and Okami were rousing themselves, while Riina stood a short distance further to the east, looking toward the sunrise with arms crossed.

It occurred to me that Koneko had actually fallen asleep in my lap, but now... now he was absolutely nowhere to be found. I scrambled to my feet, only to collapse with a groan. The injuries sustained from our flight still sent burning pains through my body. "He... he was sleeping in my lap just a short time ago," I explained, though my assurance sounded weak even to my ears.

If it was possible, Meiryosa's body tensed even more. "You... lost... my son!" she cried. I was unaware so many emotions could come through at once in a single person's voice: fear, anger, sadness, a mother's undying, limitless love. All of them were present in those few, simple words.

As Meiryosa broke down into tears, it was Raion's turn to take over the questioning. His eyes worked their way over my whole body, inspecting every cute and bruise. By the way he tightened his black lips together, it was apparent he had some ideas of his own. "Tell me what happened, Cheisu," he said. His tone was measured, patient, but there was a certain edge to it... one I could easily cut myself on if not careful.

Even with all the added pressure, it was not difficult to recount every painful detail. Through it all, Raion's concern never faded, although when I talked about how Koneko digivolved to save me, I did see a hint of fatherly pride showing through. "... and that's the whole story," I concluded , "We all got out safely, and Koneko fell asleep in my lap."

"You were attacked directly by the enemy, and you didn't even think to set a watch?!" Meiryosa shouted, her voice almost at a cracking pitch.

Raion placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, but the look she gave him said it was definitely not enough. Still, the lion kept his paw in place. "Meiryosa is right," he said evenly, "Even though you were tired, you should have placed a watch to guard you. This place is obviously no longer a safe haven."

"And because you didn't, my son is missing!" Meiryosa took over the tongue lashing again.

"No I'm not!"

The parents turned around quickly, only to find their now-digivolved offspring standing at Raion's heels. I'd been so busy warding off verbal darts that I hadn't even noticed his approach. Koneko stood on his hind legs, his expression confused, but nevertheless quite obviously pleased with himself. At his feet was a thorn bush full of juicy-looking red berries.

Meiryosa quickly hid the relieved look that flooded her features. "Where have you been, Koneko?!" she demanded.

"Well, I woke up and everybody was still asleep," the young elecmon explained, "I knew there were some berry bushes nearby, and after everything that happened I knew they'd be hungry. I thought I'd be back before anyone else woke up."

There was a moment of silence as Meiryosa just stood, as if her heart and body couldn't decide on what to do next. Her eyes reddened as she tried to blink back tears. Her lips opened and closed soundlessly, as if she wanted to say something but could not find the right words. Finally though, her internal tug-ended-war ended. She fell to her knees, arms reaching out to embrace her son as her tears finally flowed. All the anger she felt before vanished in a single instant.

She stood and turned to face me. Her shoulders were slumped as if in an admission of guilt, and hard as she tried, Meiryosa could not seem to meet my gaze. Apparently, having to admit being wrong was a new thing to her. "Cheisu I..." Her voice was soft, and her fingers twitched, tightening and loosening fists as she tried to force out the words, as if their very presence left a taste like bile in her mouth, "I'm... sorry," she managed at last, "I shouldn't have lost my temper like that. It was inexcusable."

Before I could respond, Riina moved to her side, placing her gentle hand on the shoulder opposite of Raion's. "You were concerned for your son," she offered, "Given your position, I cannot say I would have hesitated to do the same." Somehow, the way Riina said those words struck me. She was clearly not a mother herself, but she knew parenthood's concerns far too well. I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened had one of the baby digimon on File Island gone missing. Her tone told me that perhaps that pain was more real than she wanted to concede.

Perhaps it was this simple understanding, or perhas it was the reassurance of another female, even a female digimon, or maybe it was the unspoken forgiveness echoing in Riina's words. Whatever the case, Meiryosa noticeably straightened. I offered the most genuine smile I could. "Riina's right," I said, "Besides, we have more important things to concern us now."

"Like finding a new place to live?" Koneko helpfully ventured.

Raion shook his head as his eyes visibly darkened. "I'm afraid that is, for the time being, an impossible task."

"But why?" Koneko asked. His voice betrayed his mix of fear and youthful curiosity.

"The attack last night confirms everything I feared at the start," Raion explained. "The Digital World is dying..."

{[_]}DIGIMON{[_]}

"Dying?!" Riina repeated the word. She punctuated it with such shock and horror that even Shori and Okami finally took notice and came to join us. For a time, awkward silence hung in the air as each of us tried to process Raion's latest revelation. Riina, for her part, wore a complex mask surprise, fear, hope and determination all rolled into one. Meiryosa's expression was sad, but her lips were pursed slightly together; her eyes smoldered with a grim determination. Shori seemed afraid, as if the seriousness of all this was only now dawning on her. Okami was stoic as ever, but I knew him well enough to believe he wouldn't just meekly give up. Koneko's ears twitched, confused. As for me, I was as unwilling to accept this news as Okami. I'd heard other tales before, of course: stories about the Digital World facing destruction at the hands of some malevolent force, only to be saved by the intervention of the Digidestined, and now I knew most of those stories to be true. This was only the first time, however, that I could remember the threat spoke of like some horrifying, gangrenous disease.

When he felt the time was right, Raion finally broke the silence."You should all know something of the history of our world and the threats it has faced before," he explained, "Each time digimon and human alike united to drive the most dangerous foes back, but like all other battles, scars remained. We did our best to restore the world as it was before, but with less and less assistance from humanity, loss was inevitable. Eventually, rumors about the stone tablets left behind by the last digidestined began to spread. The very concept of these artifacts and their secrets they contained caused even once-docile digimon to turn on one another. War engulfed our world. Some sought power from the tablets. Others, well-intentioned and otherwise, sought to destroy them. Rifts between and within these factions grew wider and deeper with each passing day. From our research, Meiryosa and I believe we know why."

In the corner of my vision, I saw Riina and Okami shifting uncomfortably. Although it had never escalated into all-out war, their rivalry had always been a source of conflict. Perhaps even they were not immune to this spreading darkness. In fact, something told me they knew more of the truth of Raion's words than they were willing to let on.

If Raion noticed their reactions, he ignored them. Instead, he turned to Meiryosa and nodded. "In the past, everyone assumed that once the slaves of darkness were defeated, the danger would pass, and the trouble would be over," she said, picking up with her theory right where her partner had left off, "After Apocalymon and his Dark Masters were defeated, for example, the Digital World was thought to be completely reborn. The Digidestined of the time released their powers into the world and together created a barrier that would seal the darkness out."

We all nodded. I bit my lip as I fought to keep from asking if there was a point to all this recitation of known history. Meiryosa seemed to sense my impatience, because she got right to the heart of the matter. "What if that was the wrong thing to do? We remained quiet, waiting for an answer to her hypothetical.

Meiryosa took her time. Her eyes darted this way and that as she tried to ensure the theory made sense in her own mind before presenting it to us. "What if, instead of being totally destroyed, something of Apocalymon -or at least the darkness that gave birth to him- survived? It wouldn't have taken much, just a byte or two really... When the Digital World was first reconfigured, it required a massive infusion of data from all corners of this realm. Apocalymon's data would have been swept up in the tide... and sealed in by the Digidestined...

With every battle, every war that came after the barriers were weakened... more and more scars were ripped open.. He must have fed on all of it, even as he started to corrupt the Digital World from the inside out! Now, that corruption is spreading... It's like a spider's poison, spreading out from the source, rotting everything in its path. Don't you see? The one's responsible for this world's death are we... the Digidestined!"

For all of Meiryosa's exposition, she was offering precious little in the way of proof. True enough it made sense, her theory, but I still wasn't ready to accept that those responsible for the Digital World's salvation were also responsible for its ultimate destruction. I fixed my eyes directly on hers and searched... searched for any hint of uncertainty, even deception... but there was nothing there but cold, hard conviction. Even so, the time had come for me to ask the questions. "How do you know all of this?" I asked directly.

"Because Raion and I saw it," Meiryosa whispered, shuddering at the memory, "We saw the darkness."

{[_]}DIGIMON{[_]}

Meiryosa's thin fingers gripped tightly to Raion's muscular fore-arm as the Warui Yokan Mountains loomed over them. The lengthening shadows cast by the sun's twilight causted the peaks to take on an appearance all the more sinister, etching threatening faces and grasping, unnaturally-curved appendages into the them, as if the shadows themselves concealed a hundred sinister sculptors, each one delighting in bringing fear to those who observed his work. Her heart broke into a panicked, irregular rhythm as a warm but foul-smelling wind whipped through the crags and crevices, giving the mountains a haunting voice all their own. As much as Meiryosa hated to leave Koneko behind in the company of strangers that could not even be trusted to defend one another, she was all the more convinced that this was no place for her little Wanyamon.

"Remind me again why we're here?" Meiryosa said, although she already knew the answer. She simply needed the reassurance of her husband and partner. Unlike her, she knew, Raion was always confident in his actions. It was one of the reasons she was first drawn to him.

Beside her, Raion's leonine body was tense. His eyes and ears were hard at work to alert him at the first sign of danger. He drew in a sharp breath as her sudden touch surprised him. With the realization that it was she, he forced himself to relax a bit more. Mentally he berated himself. Jumping at every little sound like a frightened cub wouldn't do any good for either one of them.

Despite the seriousness of it, he couldn't help but smile at Meiryosa's question. This was the side of her that the rest of us never saw. Away from the responsibilities of motherhood and the expectations of others, her veneer of unshakable calm melted away, revealing the tender, easily-frightened young woman beneath. Still, this was not something he would lord over her, especially after all the two had endured together.

Raion turned and with his strong, gentle hands tilted her head upward. His steady, calm gaze fixed itself on her doe eyes. Warmth spread through her as he leaned forward, his soft black lips meeting her equally soft pink ones. Her arms instinctively wrapped around his waist, whilst his rested against her shoulder blades. For a moment, the two stood like that, locked securely in one another's embrace against the danger of the outside world. Even the wind's taunting chorus faded into silence as if out of respect for the young couple.

Slowly the lion pulled back even as his hands kept a firm hold upon his mate. "You know why," he said, "These mountains should be completely abandoned, but they're obviously not. Between the half dozen virus digimon we've encountered and Musyamon's attack against the other digidestined, we know that this is much more than simply another 'cursed place.' We need to find out how much more."

Meiryosa nodded. Raion was right. She did know the reason, but it helped to have him remind her. Confidence restored, she found herself able to let go and turn her focus to the task ahead. The pair had already left the relative safety of the desert behind them; now there was nothing left but to proceed further in and hope their search yielded some answers sooner rather than later.

She placed one hand on Raion's arm for balance and used the other to help feel her way along. She winced at the feeling of the moss and dew-slicked stone beneath her fingers. Sharp rock fragments threatened to tear her bare feet despite the fact that nearly seven years without serviceable shoes or socks had left her soles as leathery tough as those of her feline companion. With each step, the air frew hotter and thicker, but Meiryosa found herself shivering, goose pimples marring her smooth skin.

Raion also found the atmosphere of this place stifling. His mouth grew dry, and even his keen lion's night vision was little help as the world around him shifted from twilight to near-complete blackness. His own words about the oppressiveness of this place's evil came back to him.

As they moved farther, the paths began to grow fewer in number, forcing them to wedge their bodies into thinner and thinner gaps in order to progress. The wind began to wail again. This time the smell was all the more noxious, something sickly-sweet like the scent of week-old rotting fruit. Meiryosa found her stomach turning; from the way Raion wrinkled his nose, she supposed he was faring little better.

Eventually they made their way through a space so thin, Raion almost didn't make it out. The sheath holding his sword tore free of his belt. As Raion slithered from the gap, the chrome digizoid blade clattered to the ground. Raion's ears pinned against his head as a painfully-loud clangor echoed through the mountain passes. Meiryosa grimaced, and for a few, tense seconds, the two held their breath, but as the ringing died away and Raion stretched to retrieve his weapon, all seemed quiet.

Looking at one another, Raion and Meiryosa breathed a sigh of relief, but it was too soon. Beaking the silence came the sound of skittering, scraping claws. Raion's nose twitched as he sniffed the air. With the familiar scent, his fur stood on end. "Dokugumon," he growled.

His voice was soft, as if he feared the very mention of them would invite disaster. He was right. Aware that their presence was no longer a secret, the meter-tall digimon swarmed from their hiding places. The mountains seemed to vanish, replaced by a thick, squirming blanket of arachnid legs and poisonous, white thread. Meiryosa recoiled at the sight of them. Even as a child, she'd never liked insects, and spiders were the worst of all. Her hand shot to her hip; in the blink of an eye her knife was unsheathed and at the ready.

Raion followed suit. As the first of the horrifying digimon fell upon them, time seemed to slow down, as it often did in the opening moments of a battle. His mind absorbed every striking detail of his enemies. All of the Dokugumon were similar in appearance, with only minor variations between them. Their mostly black, spider-like bodies were divided into two sections, and their oversized abdomen was tattooed by a grinning skull and crossbones to warn any who faced them of their deadly poisons. They all walked on six of their eight spindly legs, digging their flesh-piercing red claws into the dirt beneath them. The claws of their front legs grasped tightly to long locks of flaming red hair, which flowed down their backs from beneath the golden bull's horn helmets that obscured the majority of their facial features. Their mouths were open wide, revealing row after row of sawblade-like teeth. Six glowing, green eyes were the only other distinguishable feature, their gaze unrelenting and cruel. It was said that Dokugumon carried a strange, but leathal combination of computer viruses along with the natural poisons inside of them. Raion had no intention of finding out.

Time resumed its normal flow as Raion shifted his body just in time to avoid one set of snapping teeth. Striking out with a backhand slash of his sword, he easily cleaved the insectoid digimon in two. Dokugumon screamed in pain as its body disintegrated into a flurry of violet data particles that disappeared quickly as they came. From beside him came Meiryosa's battle cry, followed by another death wail as she plunged her knife into another spider's midsection.

For awhile Meiryosa and Raion lost all sense of time. The sun climbed higher, and the smell in the air frew all the more nauseating as the endless minutes ticked by with no end of the hoard in sight. "FIST OF THE BEAST KING!" The sunset-colored burst of energy flew outward from Leomon's first and left a smoking blast crater in its wake. Those Dokugumon in the vicinity not immediately deleted by the explosion were propelled into the air or ground against the rocks by the attack's sheer concussive force.

Still the attacks continued. Meiryosa's body was soon covered in thick layers of dust and some sort of sticky purple gore. Her lungs burned, and her limbs ached. With each attack deflected or launched, she found herself growing a fraction of a second slower. She couldn't recall sharing her energies with Raion ever being this taxing before. Then again, the two of them had never before faced an enemy like this, weak on its own, but nigh invincible as part of a larger whole. "Raison, there's too many!" she panted, straining to raise her voice above the chaos. "We're as good as dead if we stay out here in the open!"

Raion nodded as his sword hacked the left legs off an enemy, only to finish the spider with a thrust that severed head from neck as it hit the ground. That dokugumon couldn't even scream as it burst into nothingness. Raion cast a desperate glance back in the direction they'd come; immediately his heart sank. The creatures had been busy. The entire crevasse was now sealed with sticky, poisonous spiderweb, and so was every other route of escape. They were literally trapped like flies in a giant spider's web.

Determined this place would not be their grave, Raion slashed his way through another trio of dokugumon and rushed toward the wall. "POISON THREAD!" Raion jumped to the side as noxious purple mist sprayed from one spider's maw, covering the ground where he stood only half a second before. Steam rose from the spot and a slight depression formed beneath.

The beast lord digimon struck back. He sent his saber hurtling through the air. Metal screeched against metal as the weapon penetrated Dokugumon's helmet and continued on its flight path, thoroughly slicing his enemy in half and then embedding itself in the cliff face. Raion bolted past as the shocked spider lingered only a moment longer before it joined its brethren in oblivion.

Raion easily pulled his sword free of its stone prison and then turned his attention to the ensnaring webs. He retraced his steps until he found the opening he sought, pausing only to dispatch those digimon that got in his way. He raised his weapon to strike, hoping to open the way forward.

"STICKY THREAD!" Once more Raion's blade was wrenched free of his grip, drawing a startled shout from him. As if by some cue, the dokugumon backed away. Checking behind him, Raion was relieved to see Meiryosa surrounded as he, but alive. "Leaving so soon?" a deep, yet surprisingly sultry voice questioned, "Such rude houseguests. And after I had my children redecorate my parlor too."

Raion and Meiryosa turned their heads upward. There, resting easily on the underside of a web that spanned the whole clearing was yet another dokugumon. She was three times larger than the others, at least. Her colors were brighter, emphasizing deadly violet and yellow hues. Her skull and crossbones were obscured by at least a dozen spiders only a quarter of the size of the others: her offspring. Clearly, she was the real threat. She was the mother who had just witnessed her children's lives cut short by a noisy pair of interlopers.

Not even bothering with the wall, Mama let go of her perch, using her own thread to keep stead as she descended, landing squarely between Meiryosa and her partner to cut them off physically from one another. "What do you want from us?!" Meiryosa demanded, "We came here peacefully."

Dokugumon laughed, a sound like something between a cackle and a screech. Her children joined in, the cacophonous chorus forcing Raion to pin back his ears, while Meiryosa fell to her knees, clutching hers. As the sound faded away, Dokugumon spoke again. "It matters little how or why," she said, "Not when I have hundreds of mouths to feed. I've been ordered to end you, and for my reward, my children will devour your data for their dinner. You see... it always pays for me to obey orders."

The mother monster drew herself to her full height, towering over Meiryosa and Raion. She chittered excitedly as she tried to decide whom to devour first. Raion wasn't going to let her make that choice. "FIST OF THE BEAST KING!"

Despite the extra bulk clinging to her, Dokugumon was a surprisingly agile opponent. Her six legs launched her into the air. "Bad shooting, Kitty!" she taunted.

"I wasn't aiming for you!" Raion retorted. Dokugumon looked down. Her eight eyes followed the line of streaking, scorched earth... only to shriek in outrage. Half of the spiders surrounding Meiryosa vanished in a cloud of purple. The rest quickly fell to the human girl's knife.

Breathing hard, Meiryosa rushed to Raion's side, her weapon held at the ready. Dokugumon screamed a second time. Her children backed away, and even the spiderlings on her back abandoned her, fleeing back to the safe confines of their webs. "POISON MIST!" Acidic fumes burst from the spider's maw, forcing the pair to jump out of the way.

Raion rolled and came up running. Orange light shot from his fist as he attacked, but a casual swipe from Dokugumon dissipated the blast. Meiryosa, seeing this, realized a simple energy attack wasn't going to be enough. Raion needed his sword if he was going to stand any chance at all.

Again Dokugumon attacked, and again Raion launched another useless volley. Meiryosa took advantage of the momentary distraction and dodged low, knife thrust upward as she passed beneath the foe's belly. It was certainly not enough to destroy her, but as Meiryosa ran from beneath her, hands stained purple, the attack did have its desired effect. The angry arachnid turned to chase after the fleeing digidestined woman. "Raion, hurry!" Meiryosa called.

Grasping her intent, Raion turned his attention upward. His sword was still dangling by its blade from the webbing. Raion didn't think it looked very sturdy, but how to get to it? Quickly looking over his surroundings, Raion realized the truth of the matter. There was only one way. Like all felines, he had the ability to unsheathe hidden claws, but it was one he rarely used.

He did so now. Rushing forward, he leaped and sank his natural weapon into the bodies of a pair of dokugumon. Without pause he used his fragile hold to fling himself further along the wall. Another pair of the fiends felt his wrath, claws digging into their bodies just as the first pair was erased. In this way he managed to scramble his way along, evading the piercing appendages and maws of his enemies all the while.

In the meantime, Meiryosa struggled to keep the mother spider focused on her. As fast on her feet as she usually was, the long battle had drained her. It was all she could do to stay out of Dokugumon's grasp.

Dokugumon, for her part, seemed largely content just to toy with her, holding back when she could easily have ended the battle. Like all spiders, she seemed to enjoy feeding on her prey's fear almost as much as she enjoyed feeding on their organs and blood. She laughed and hissed excitedly as she finally managed to back Meiryosa into a corner with her unceasing attacks. The human girl searched frantically for a means of escape, but the smaller dokugumon, possibly taking a cue from their mother, had already moved to block any attempt. "Your fear is delicious!" Dokugumon gloated, "But where are your screams?! I want to hear you beg for your life before you die!"

"I'm not begging for anything from you!" Meiryosa stood defiant, fighting to keep her gaze on the mother. The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to Raion. She had to give him a little more time...

Dokugumon cried out in pain and reared back. As she thrashed about, Meiryosa saw her plan had succeeded. Raion's sword was buried up to the hilt just below the base of the spider digimon's skull, and he was holding onto it as tightly as he could. All of Dokugumon's earlier threats and taunts were forgotten as she tried to dislodge her like a bull attempting to throw its rider. The smaller digimon scrambled out of the way. Those who were too slow were crushed or impaled by their own mother's claws.

The terrified wails of her offspring seemed to snap Dokugumon from her bestial rage. She calmed herself for a moment, and Raion allowed himself to relax, thinking that perhaps the battle was over. It was that small lapse in judgment she needed. Without warning, Dokugumon reared backward.

Raion lost his grip and flew through the air, impacting against the cliff wall with a sickening crack! "Raion!" Meiryosa wildly swung her knife to clear her path as she rushed toward him. Raion was lying on the ground, struggling to get up, but from the unnatural, slightly-stiff way he moved and the pained grunts that left his lips everytime he tried, Meiryosa felt for certain that something was broken. She knelt down, hands feeling around his chest for thebreak. Behind her, she heard the scrape of Dokugumon's claws as the spider approached, obviously sure that last bout had taken the last of the fight from her prey. Her children joined her, but kept a respectful distance. They all knew this victory was hers.

Meiryosa couldn't bring herself to look back at them. In these few moments, she couldn't tear her yes from the damaged body of her champion, her husband and lover. Tears filled her ision. "Meiryosa, help me stand," Raion rasped. She sniffed but nodded. Seven years with Raion had taught her one thing: if he met his end, he would rather do so on his feet. Raion grunted as he tried to keep from putting too much of his weight on her shoulders. "Thankyou, Meiryosa," he whispered, "for everything."

Meiryosa sniffed again. "I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too, Meiryosa." He let go and stepped toward the waiting arms of his enemy, all too ready to meet his fate. Meiryosa reached for the digivice clipped to her hip and pulled it close to her chest. She fought back the surge of emotion that threatened to overwhelm her. "Here kitty, kitty." Meiryosa tried to block out Dokugumon's taunting. "The mighty warrior," the spider hissed, "Brought to his knees by his own arrogance."

Raion didn't flinch, even as he braced one arm against his broken body. "Come on then!" he yelled, "Finish it!"

Dokugumon obliged. She lunged forward, mouth wide as she thought to consume her helpless opponent. Meiryosa swallowed, unable to look away. Naturally she did not see her digivice starting to glow.

Just as Dokugumon's wicked teeth reached him, Raion's body vanished, enveloped in a sphere of light. Every one of the monsterous spiders recoiled as if having taken a flash of sunlight directly to their eyes. Even Dokugumon toppled onto her back like a pin struck by a bowling ball. A flurry of violet data particles, sparkling like shards of amethyst in the light of Raion's digivolution sphere, revealed the fate of another dozen of her children.

Within the light, Raion's blody grew larger as each of his wounds healed. "LEOMON DIGIVOLVE TO..." A wintery blast of air sliced like a newly-sharpened knife through his core. With it came a surge of power like Raion had never before felt. His mane lengthened. His fur turned ghostly white, eyes brightening into an icy shade of blue. "ICELEOMON."

The light faded. The newly-digivolved IceLeomon stood tall now, keeping hold with a reversed grip of the weapon that had somehow returned to his hand. Steam flared from his nostrils, while his eyes narrowed, cold and unforgiving as the winter mountains. As Meiryosa looked on, she was certain she'd never seen anything so terrible... or so beautiful as this, his ultimate form.

Dokugumon finally managed to stop her legs thrashing and right herself. Seeing her enemy revived, the mother spider howled her outrage and lunged. Raion met her attack with one of his own. "FROZEN FURY!" Raion threw his fist forward, launching a chilly blast of energy, instantly freezing half of the spider's face. She reared back and started to tear frantically at it with her front claws, attempting to clear away the thick layer of ice that now obscured her vision.

Hope soared in Meiryosa's heart, and like her partner, she found her energies renewed. As Dokugumon's children came forward to aide their mother, the girl charged. Her knife flashed through the air, taking down spiderlings left and right. "Meiryosa, stay back!" Meiryosa halted at Raion's warning.

Dokugumon had managed to clear her eyes and even now was attempting to regain the offensive. Raion leaped back as Dokugumon's teeth met the stone where he stood only moments before. Stunned temporarily, she was powerless to resist as Raion jumped to her back. "COLD BREATH!" Raion opened his mouth wide, issuing forth a freezing white blast that iced over the she-spider's neck and head in an instant, pinning it to the ground.

Dokugumon's legs thrashed, but this time Raion was ready. Even as his enemy's struggles shook the earth around him, he raised his sword high into the air and brought it down in a wide swing, cleanly severing her head from her midsection. Her body reared back, forcing Raion to jump for his life as gore sprayed everywhere.

The white lion digimon threw himself in front of Meiryosa as the remaining spiders fled. Those not fast enough found themselves dissolved, screaming, as the noxious mix of acid and poison coated them like paint, causing a foul-smelling steam to rise from their bodies. An instant later, they were nothing more than data fragments. Raion's "Frozen Fury" attacks were the only thing keeping Meiryosa and him safe, turning globs of poison into bright purple ice which was easily shattered by his sword.

When Dokugumon's death throes came to an end and her legs twitched for the last time before she vanished, Meiryosa took in the carnage around her. Numerous, slow-melting shards of ice littered a landscape that had come to resemble the surface of a golf ball. Raion's fierce attacks and the spiders' acid had eaten pock marks, scorched and smoking, into the solid rock. Thick, white webs lined the cliff faces like vines and stretched out over crevices to form semi-solid barriers. Most striking of all, however, was the now-empty shell of ice cast into a mold of the spider's head. Meiryosa bit her lip. "They must have been protecting something," she mused, slipping her knife back into her belt, "I've never seen dokugumon fight that hard before."

Raion pursed his lips together, shaking his head. "Nor have I," he agreed, "Cursed places are most often places of secrets. We may have stumbled too close to this one for our enemy's comfort." With the defeat and departure of the dokugumon, the overpowering scent had lessened somewhat. He turned his nose skyward. It wrinkled as he sought to determine the point of origin for the still-pungent odor. "There!" he declared, pointing toward one opening.

Fighting back the exhaustion that now plagued them from their night-long struggle, the pair forged ahead. It took only a single blast from Raion's fist to freeze the spider's webbing solid. From there it was an effortless matter to shatter the barrier, along with some of the stone beneath, and create a path forward.

Meiryosa clung to Raion for an entirely different reason as he reverted to his champion form of Leomon. The idea that she'd nearly lost him weighed heavily on her mind. It made her wonder: If even her champion was barely able to walk away from a fight like this, against a digimon like Dokugumon, what did that say about the chances for the rest of us? Beyond that, if Dokugumon had proved such a match for someone as strong as strong as Raion, what chance did any of us stand in fighting the darkness itself?

The wind's dire, howling threats fell ominously silent. The smell the two had noticed earlier grew overpowering, to the point where Raion had to physically hold his nose to avoid becoming violently ill. "We're getting closer to the source!" Meiryosa's words hardly needed to be said. As a sharply-sloped path led her digimon partner and her down into another clearing, her breath caught in her throat.

The scene before her was like something born out of a nightmare. A thin strip of land, barely enough for Raion to walk on stretched out before her, leading to an otherwise inaccessible island, the whole of which was dominated by a single arched structure. A convex disk within the strucuture shimmered and reflected the world around it, giving the whole thing the appearance of a gigantic, full-length mirror. The island itself was a dead brown mass drifting amidst a sea of blackness. Meiryosa found herself unable to decide whether the substance, spread out in every direction was water, or sand, or some combination of both. It moved and shifted like desert dunes, but the inky quality and acrid fumes were more consistent with a slough, a thick swamp back in the human world.

Looking at one another and nodding unspoken agreement, Meiryosa and Raion tentatively began their trek across the too-narrow land bridge. Raion was first, planting each pawstep with utmost caution. His feet sank several centimeters into the muddy, spongy earth each time. Meiryosa did her best to walk directly where he did, her movements so light as to not leave a mark behind.

As soon as they reached the island, they found the earth solid beneath their feet. Meiryosa craned her neck to stare up at the awesome structure they had previously seen in the distance. Now that they were closer, she could appreciate just how complex it actually was.

The arch itself was made up of a series of boulders roughly carved into the shape of truncated pyramids. These were set atop a pair of tall columns, one on each side of the convex disk, and each inscribed with something Meiryosa could only interpret to be ancient digital script, possibly the very program that made this place what it was. A small, octagonal stone was embedded into the rock at the apex of the structure's arch. It seemed to possess no color of its own, but emitted a strange, bronze-colored light.

Raion's concern revolved around the massive convex itself. The surface was smoothe and had a definite edge all its own, but now that he was close, it didn't appear to be nearly so solid as it had before. The surface of it rippled and shimmered, and instead of reflecting the world around it, Raion thought it showed him blurred, distorted images of other places.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Raion reached forward to touch the glassy object. He abruptly pulled back as though stung. "Raion?" Leomon looked at his partner who in turn was looking back at him with a mixture of curiosity and concern. "Raion, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he assured.

Meiryosa didn't seem convinced. "You touched that thing and went still for at least five minutes. What is it anyway?"

Raion pursed his lips, unsure of himself. "I don't know," he admitted, "But if my memory of the old legends serves, we may be looking at a doorway to the human world."

Meiryosa stood, dumbfounded for a few moments as she considered Raion's words. The human world, the home she'd left behind seven years prior was practically within her grasp, but the thought of returning frightened her. After all this time in the Digital World, ours was a place alien and strange... and yet as she watched the strangely shifting images, something inside told her she would soon have to go back. "We should return and tell the others," Raion said. Meiryosa could only nod her agreement.

{[_]}DIGIMON{[_]}

Raion led the way once again, picking a safe path along the precarious landbridge. His brow furrowed with concentration. Behind, he felt the light touch of his partner's hands as they clung to his hips for security. It made his work more difficult, but also reminded him of just how important his work was. He frowned. Something had changed since the two had first crossed out to that strange island. It was harder for him to find his footing than before. Even though he picked his steps just as carefully, the black waters lapped at his paws. Their surprisingly-sticky tendrils latched onto his claws like fingers, as though attempting to drag him down. Ahead, the path appeared to be growing thinner.

And then it hit him, the answer to all the riddles of the Warui Yokan Mountains. All of it was right here! Spinnning around, Raion scooped up Meiryosa in his arms. With her secure, he took off at top speed as the darkness rose up around him.

Scooped from her feet so quickly, Meiryosa could do little more than squeak. Without thought she threw her arms around Raion's neck to steady herself. She cast an inquisitive look up at her lover. Never in her life had she seen him afraid, and yet now...

She quickly understood why as the wind began to blow again. The black waters shifted, their movement unlike anything she had seen before. The inky darkness rose around them like mountains, each singular peak writhing as if a smaller part of some living beast, ready to pounce like a cat upon its prey. Turning her head, Meiryosa watched as the path before them vanished until only a thin strip, little more than a few centimeters wide remained.

Raion growled in frustration. "It's trying to cut us off!"

Meiryosa could see how exhausted he still was, but the darkness couldn't literally be trying to trap them unless... "It's alive!" she cried out as the revelation hit her.

Raion nodded. "It would seem," he panted, "we have stumbled into our enemy's den!"

The tendrils of black water had grown longer and thicker. They tore at Raion's legs in an attempt to throw him. It took all of the lion's strength and concentration to stay on the now invisible path, but eventually, miraculously, the two made it.

Raion sighed as he reached dry land and released his partner from his arms. Risking a look back down the path, he saw the waters receding, as if giving up the chase. "Why did it stop?" he heard Meiryosa ask.

He shook his head. "Perhaps our enemy cannot chase us this far."

"Or has no desire to," Meiryosa muttered. She shuddered at the thought that it could just have been... toying with them.

"Whatever the reason, the others will need to know about this discovery as well. They need to know the truth about what we've found here."

"And what do you think that is?" Meiryosa asked, "What have we really found?"

"The beginning of all this," Raion answered, "And perhaps the end as well."