Digimon: The Child of Miracles

...

With a look of terror on my face, I looked down to see the staggering bodies of my friends and their fellow Digimons scattered all over the ground. Noah's yellowish eyes looked up at me with a mixture of relief and fear that caused my breathing to stop for a second.

I looked past him to see the others slowly getting up.

'Th-They're okay!' A rush of relief ran through my entire body as I felt the weight on my shoulders slowly disappear. I could feel small tears in the corners of my eyes.

"...This is no time for whining, pi..." Piximon's familiar high-pitched but incredibly tired and pained voice over my head caused me to open my eyes slightly as I gently took the fairy in my hands.

"Are you... are you okay?" I frowned worriedly.

"Distracting SkullGreymon and creating such a large portal drained my strength, pi..." Exhaustion practically poured out of Piximon's voice as he created a small portal that the pink fairy quickly stepped through. "...I'll go back to my dimension and... get some sleep, pi..."

I swallowed hard before nodding and giving my thanks to the fairy as the latter closed the portal with the last ounce of strength he had left.

"M-MY PYRAMID! MY PALACE! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY PYRAMID?!"

Looking down I could see the tiny, familiar figure of Etemon tapping his foot on the ground as he pointed his finger at me.

A low growl echoed throughout the place. The vibration coursed through my entire body making my bones and organs shake all over.

I took a deep breath before putting all my intention and will back into my Emblem and my connection with SkullGreymon. It was as if I briefly submerged underwater, the sounds outside became distorted, my body felt heavy and my head quickly became completely flooded with dark and destructive thoughts.

The feeling of destruction, conquering, and ruling echoed with every part of my soul.

"Stop resisting, you know you want this" An arrogant voice whispered in my ears. "Power. Dominate. Be the one on top. The one in control. To be the one they look up to and the one they fear."

"Just accept it, Taichi. This is your true nature, you are the real you. Let me build our empire, let me forge our strength, let me help us..." The voice took on a low, sickly tone. "And when everyone will know our name... Taichi, Kaiser of the Digimons!"

I gritted my teeth as I gave a command through this sea of destruction and temptation.

'SkullGreymon-'

'Tch, you're too stubborn' The voice clicked its tongue in frustration.

'-attack Etemon!'

Responding to my command immediately, SkullGreymon lassoed a swift and merciless Death Nail at Etemon. The latter could barely avoid the blow that could easily have split him in two.

Etemon let out a scream of absolute rage as he leapt straight at SkullGreymon generating a crater from the sheer force of the monkey. Swallowing my fear, I gritted my teeth hard as I pointed my finger at the monkey.

'SkullGreymon! Destroy it!'

My Emblem emitted a brief glow before SkullGreymon swung one of its arms with extreme force and speed that generated a sandstorm around it. Easily blocking Etemon's blow as if it were nothing, SkullGreymon did a quick spin that whipped Etemon with its tail and sent him back to the ground in a cloud of smoke.

For a moment I thought that would be all, but out of the cloud of smoke came hundreds of black wires that quickly surrounded SkullGreymon's entire body, immobilizing it. And, despite the giant skeleton's best efforts, he was completely at Etemon's mercy.

"Air Dark Spirits!"

Raising both hands into the air, hundreds of tiny green energy balls appeared and were quickly launched towards SkullGreymon with a simple wave of Etemon's hands.

Being completely contained, SkullGreymon was completely bombarded by Etemon's wanderings to no apparent end. I barely managed to hold on to one of SkullGreymon's skeletal spines to keep from falling hundreds of feet to the ground.

Letting out a silent regid towards Etemon and resisting the brutal attack, the walking corpse opened its huge mouth to its limit and....

"Curse... Breath..."

From SkullGreymon's mouth a strange purple toxic gas started to come out and quickly began to spread around the giant skeleton, melting the wires completely. Etemon was forced to stop his attack as he accidentally breathed in some of the toxic gas which immediately paralyzed his every move as he fell to the ruined floor with a loud spasm.

Foaming at the mouth, Etemon put Saru to work at full power as panic filled every bit of space in his lines of code.

Without waiting for Tai's command, SkullGreymon did the only thing he knew how to do.

Destroy.

"...Ground... Zero!..."

Firing the missile on his back towards the fallen monkey. SkullGreymon took a big leap backwards as he placed one of his skeletal hands on me, covering me from the inevitable blast.

Despite being covered, I could feel the vibration coursing through my body and the unmistakable sound of the missile exploding in the distance.

A few seconds later, SkullGreymon stopped covering me, leaving me to appreciate a small part of the explosion with my own eyes. A huge dome of destruction and death stretched for several meters around me.

When the explosion finally died down, a huge mushroom cloud and death rose up into the sky. I blinked rapidly in an attempt to make the white dots disappear in my vision, and although that half worked, I couldn't shake the high-pitched ringing in my ears caused by the sound of the explosion.

The thought that the explosion might have harmed others crossed my mind, but that thought was quickly put aside as I saw what was hiding inside the cloud of smoke and death.

With several Data's leaving his body, Etemon stood completely upright as he raised both hands in the air with a completely determined expression on his face.

Above his head a huge sphere of energy formed and grew exponentially with each passing second. My eyes widened like saucers as I watched the huge sphere rapidly increase in size, almost matching the size of SkullGreymon's head.

With tense muscles but with a smile the King of the Digimons intoned:

"DARK SPIRITS!"

And lowered both hands at the same time.

"SkullGreymon!"

At my shout, the giant skeleton took a stance on all fours as a miniature sun began to form from its mouth. The air was rapidly beginning to heat up to the point of almost melting the sand under the skeleton's feet, forming a sort of boiling sauna around us.

Because of the heat I was forced to use my goggles to see what was going on.

"BURNIGN... SALAMANDER...!"

It was like watching a star explode.

***

Etemon and SkullGreymon released their most powerful attacks simultaneously. Etemon's giant ball of destruction energy was slowed down by the powerful laser-like flare coming out of SkullGreymon's mouth.

Gritting his teeth so hard to break through the metal, Etemon released even more energy into his attack causing it to increase in power and size. Causing the sphere of destruction to start gaining ground against the SkullGreymon laser, but as a consequence his control over Saru weakened considerably causing the wounds from the gas and explosion, which had not fully healed, to take effect tearing the skin of the monkey releasing even more Data and causing him hellish pain.

But even as he felt his lines of code tearing and melting, Etemon was adamant about finishing off the walking corpse.

For his part, SkullGreymon did his best to slow the advance of Etemon's death sphere to little or no avail.

Tai gritted his teeth hard, heedless of the glow of his Emblem. "Go! Go! Go! Go! We can't let this jerk defeat us! We are stronger and bigger than him! We are better!!!"

SkullGreymon's gaze seemed to focus for a few moments as the little sun inside him grew with the will of both of us. I couldn't tell if it was me or SkullGreymon, but a roar echoed loudly as the solar flare turned into a small but extremely powerful white laser.

Both attacks were completely evenly matched in both strength, power and will.

However, it was this very clash of wills that triggered an unexpected event.

With the sound of the glass shattering the very reality of the Digital World was torn apart like cloth by the sheer power and strength of both attacks.

The sky suddenly darkened, the time of the World stopped and advanced in irregular steps, the complete destruction around both Digimon Perfects seemed to disappear to be replaced by a vast valley of crimson with no end in sight. Not far away from the clash of power a large figure could be seen impaled on hundreds of blades that roared with holy power while powerful chains held him completely immobile.

Hundreds of messages appeared in the sky, before everything suddenly vanished to be replaced by an extremely powerful gravitational pull.

Right at the collision site of both attacks something resembling a black hole made of purple and red Data formed as a result of the tearing of reality, consuming both attacks, rapidly increasing in size and again consuming everything around it. The interior of the black hole seemed to lead into that same crimson valley, as if it were a large crystal ball reflecting a reflection that did not exist.

The hole consumed everything around it.

The ruins of the pyramid, the dark wires, the floating Data of Etemon's minions, time and space.

The hole consumed everything without a trace.

Not even those who caused such a disaster were safe.

Etemon desperately tried to move with all his might but the pull of the hole was simply too much and he was already extremely tired from the day's multiple fights.

Even for a Digimon Perfect of his caliber, this was simply too much.

After struggling in vain, Etemon turned his head and looked at the group of Chosen Children with a murderous look of utter hatred.

Everything, all of this was the fault of those damned children.

Their empire, their precious empire built on effort, data and sweat had been reduced to a pile of ashes that were quickly absorbed by the black hole. Nanomon had possibly died in the walking corpse attack so it was only a matter of time before the Dark-Web collapsed in on itself with no one to maintain it.

Years of hard work, thrown away by these stupid kids.

But most of all...

Etemon turned his gaze back to the teetering skeleton and centered his gaze on the child who could barely stand upright on said skeleton.

"...This will not be the last time you hear from me Chosen Children..." Etemon muttered through gritted teeth as he stopped resisting and was pulled towards the black hole. "I swear I will destroy what they love most... and then... and then... and then... AND THEN I WILL BE THE ONE LAUGHING ON THEIR DAMN GRAVES!"

And with that final oath made.

The King of the Digimons and conqueror of the Server Continent allowed himself to be sucked into the hole being instantly consumed and disappearing forever from this World.

The other children had quickly started to move away from the black hole that had been created at full speed with the help of their Digimons. Izzy and Kabuterimon, had managed to pick up Mimi, Togemon, Noah, Filmon and BlackGarurumon from the ground and had begun to pull away with all the strength they could muster with their wings in a desperate attempt to flee.

Sora and Birdramon had taken charge of carrying Matt and Garurumon while Angemon carried TK carefully barely being affected by the pull of gravity but feeling a sense of primordial malice inside the black hole.

But...

"SkulGreymon!!! Let's go!!!" Tai's desperate voice barely echoed around him as the unnatural sound of the black hole around him almost completely silenced him. "What's up buddy?!"

Despite sensing Tai's intent, SkullGreymon remained completely still as he let the pull of the hole slowly drag him down without any resistance, the only reason he hadn't been dragged down the hole yet was because of its immense size.

One of the reddish eyes of the imposing and terrifying Digimon looked Tai straight in the eye, freezing the latter. A sense of instinctive fear completely swept Tai's bones as those evil reddish orbs seemed to extract his very soul.

'...Tai...'

A familiar voice echoed in Tai's mind snapping him out of his momentary paralysis and causing the goggle boy to stare at the giant skeleton uncomprehendingly.

'...Tai...Tai...'

Tai's eyes widened like saucers as he opened and closed his mouth in complete shock.

A faint smile formed on Tai's face as he smiled at Skull-, no, at his fellow Digimon.

"Y-Yeah, it's me buddy... it's me."

SkullGreymon stared at the sobbing boy, before a light enveloped them both.

Flashing dazzlingly, the Emblem of Valor released a solar flare that completely enveloped SkullGreymon's figure, hiding it from everyone's view and taking the form of a huge pillar that reached up to the clouds and beyond.

The other Children paused momentarily as they looked up at the huge pillar of fire with a strange sense of warmth and nostalgia that brought back some of each child's happiest memories. All of their Digivice began to emit strange meaningless notifications as a familiar sun-like symbol appeared on the screen of all the devices at the same time.

It was at this precise moment that Noah felt another golden flash in his pocket. Reaching into his pocket, he found himself looking at the familiar and strange gold plaquette that he had completely forgotten about but had been by his side since that day in the library. Said platelet now glowed brightly as a notification from the Digivice blocked his view momentarily.

[Courage Emblem Detected - Status: Active!]

Suddenly a memory that was not his, but at the same time was, emerged from Noah's mind.

The Fire of Courage.

Before Noah could think of anything, the notification disappeared, and with it, the memory faded into the depths of his mind. Despite the distance, the children could clearly see how the solar pillar was consumed by the black hole that seemed to become more unstable with each passing second changing the image inside with a speed imperceptible to the human eye creating a kind of rainbow of colors inside.

When the final flames were absorbed by the hole, two figures were also dragged with them.

Falling from the sky at great speed, Tai's tired and dazed mind looked around to see the small silhouette of Agumon at his side. And that was all it took for Tai to let his mind, body and soul be consumed by the black hole...

... making him disappear from this World.

...

And with this, after many months, finally the Etemon Arc is finally finished. I'm still a bit worried about the fact that only two arcs took more than a year, but well, I'm quite satisfied with the result, I hope you are too.

Now, for the final act of Digimon 01, the Myotismon arc. Finally, I may deviate from canon as I please, you'll probably see what I mean in the next few chapters. If you want to share your thoughts on everything that happened, it's a good time to do so.

Thank you very much for reading!

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