"Ahhh! Ahhh! Ahhh!"
Yolei, currently demonstrating the purest form of free fall, squeezed her eyes shut and screamed out all the fear bottled up in her heart.
Then, all of a sudden, she felt herself fall into a warm embrace.
She forced her eyes open and lifted her head. The sight before her made her jaw drop.
"Th-this…"
She couldn't even finish the sentence.
Down on the ground, Davis and Cody were hardly any better off. Both of them stared up in total shock at the holy angel, Darcmon, born from Gatomon's Armor Digivolution.
Davis looked at his own Flamedramon, then at Kari's Darcmon…
In the end, he drooped his head and gave up comparing.
Darcmon gently set Yolei down on the ground. With a sweep of her wings, her body shot back into the air, rising in a flash.
In an instant, she was hovering in front of the Snimon and Waspmon, blocking their path.
"Shadow Sickle!"
"Tail Stinger!"
Without hesitation, the Snimon launched their scythe-like blades and the Waspmon fired their stingers straight at Darcmon.
"Holy Shield."
With a swift motion of her right hand, a silver barrier appeared in front of Darcmon. It stopped the incoming attacks cold—then reflected them back, slamming into the Snimon and Waspmon themselves.
"La Pucelle."
At Darcmon's clear shout, the holy rings on both her hands flashed, releasing light that condensed into two slender swords.
"Baptême d'Amour!"
Darcmon vanished from where she'd been. When she reappeared, she was already right in front of the Snimon.
Her blades blurred as she struck. Her figure flashed around the Snimon and Waspmon, weaving between them like a streak of golden light.
By the time she stopped moving, the Dark Rings around their necks were all shattered into pieces.
"What? That's impossible! You'll pay for this, remember that!"
Throwing out one last line to save face, the Digimon Emperor beat a hasty retreat.
Under everyone's stunned gaze, Darcmon slowly descended to land beside Kari. A flash of silver light wrapped around her form, and she turned back into Gatomon.
"Kari, how'd I do just now?"
Gatomon puffed out her chest, clearly fishing for praise as she looked up at Kari in anticipation.
Kari pressed her lips together in a smile and scooped Gatomon into her arms.
"Mm-hmm. You were amazing, Gatomon."
"That was… awesome…" Davis muttered, completely dazed.
Pegasusmon touched down nearby, and T.K. slid off his back. Light flared again, and Pegasusmon returned to Patamon.
T.K. walked over, staring at Gatomon's harmless, cuddly face. It was hard to reconcile this little cat with the angel who'd just torn through the enemy like a force of nature.
Everyone had a stomach full of questions they wanted to ask, but it was getting late. They had no choice but to hurry back first.
Back in the computer lab, Gatomon could only watch in exasperation as DemiVeemon and the others happily gobbled up the snacks Yolei had brought, noisy and excited.
"You know, everyone's Armor Digi-Eggs really are different," Cody said, lifting his head to look around at the others.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Davis asked.
"Well, the Armor Digivolutions for your Digimon, mine, and Yolei's all came from new Digimon hatching out of our Armor Digi-Eggs. But T.K.'s and Kari's are different. T.K.'s Armor Digi-Egg didn't produce any new Digimon at all—his original partner can just Armor Digivolve on its own.
"And Kari's Armor Digi-Egg was given to her by Tai. But the Digimon she gets after Armor Digivolution is way stronger than ours."
Cody kept explaining, piecing the logic together as he went.
Izzy stood up from in front of his computer.
"Speaking of which, Tai—how did you even get Kari's Armor Digi-Egg? And why is Gatomon's Armor form so much stronger than Davis and the others' Digimon when they Armor Digivolve?
"Darcmon's combat strength is easily on par with an Ultimate-level Digimon. But when Davis's group Armor Digivolve, their Digimon, while clearly stronger than ordinary Champions, are still far weaker than Ultimates. Why is that?"
As he talked, Izzy's expression grew more and more thoughtful.
"Anyway, Darcmon is seriously incredible. And she's really pretty, too," Davis said excitedly. "DemiVeemon, you've got to get that strong someday, okay?"
"I'll do my best, Davis!"
"How about everyone comes over to my place in a little while? I'll explain a few things then," Tai said with a slight smile.
Night fell quickly.
Tai's mother, Mrs. Kamiya, looked on in surprise as the children arrived one after another to visit.
"There are so many of you today!"
Other than Mimi, who was still in America and couldn't make it, there were ten kids and ten Digimon packed into the room once you counted Davis, Cody, and Yolei. The place was completely full.
"All right, looks like everyone's here."
Tai glanced around the room and began.
"I'm going to explain a few things to you."
"The very first Armor Digivolutions go all the way back to when the Digital World itself was just taking shape. Back then, time flowed incredibly fast there. One year in the real world equaled thousands, even tens of thousands of years in the Digital World."
"Tens of thousands of years?"
Davis was so shocked he couldn't even form proper words. He stuck both hands out and started trying to count.
"So one second would be, like… several hours in the Digital World? H-how is that even possible?"
"There's nothing impossible about it."
Izzy stepped in smoothly to help.
"When we went on our adventure, one second in the human world equaled a full hour in the Digital World. If it hadn't been for what Apocalymon did later, the time ratio never would've become what it is now."
"You went on an adventure?" Yolei asked, seizing on the part she didn't understand.
"That's a long story," Izzy said. "I'll tell you about it in a bit. Let Tai finish first."
"When we say 'Ancient Digital World era,' we're talking about the early period right after the Digital World was born," Tai continued.
"In that age, the Digimon that flourished there were what we now call the Ancient species. Ancient-species Digimon had far greater potential power than today's modern Digimon.
"But they came with a huge drawback: the emotions of Ancient Digimon fluctuated much more wildly than modern ones, and their data overwrote itself and rewrote far more frequently. Because of that, their lifespans were extremely short.
"And since their time was so limited, the range of forms they could evolve into was very narrow. Most Ancient Digimon could never go beyond Rookie or Champion; the number that could reach Ultimate was tiny. Ancient Ultimate-level Digimon were practically considered myths.
"Because their chances of evolving were so low, the ruling power of the Digital World at the time—the Machine Nation known as the Metal Empire—developed a technology called 'Digi-Armor' to compensate for the lack of combat strength in non-mechanical Ancient species.
"Those early armor techniques didn't rely on a Digimon's own power. Instead, they used the hidden energy stored inside the Digi-Armor itself, reducing the strain on the Digimon's body."
"But Tai," Sora spoke up, "when we had our adventure in the Digital World, I don't remember us ever running into a single Armor-level Digimon."
"Right." Tai nodded.
"The reason we didn't see any Armor Digimon back then is that Armor Digivolution was originally a special evolution only Ancient-species Digimon could use during the 'Ancient Digital World era'—that time of prosperity for the Ancient species."
"Why's that?" Izzy asked immediately.
"Because the core data inside a modern Digimon just can't compare to that of an Ancient one," Tai said.
"Ancient Digimon had their data updating at such incredible speed that their data cores were unbelievably strong—strong enough to endure the immense strain of Armor Digivolution.
"By the time we went on our adventure, Ancient Digimon were already almost extinct. And more importantly, there'd been a war that swept across the entire Digital World and destroyed the Metal Empire. Along with it, the technology of Armor Digivolution was lost.
"On top of that, by then, almost all the Digimon in the Digital World were modern species. Normal evolution gave them much greater potential than Armor Digivolution, and it was far more widely applicable. So no one really remembered Armor Digivolution anymore, despite how glorious it once was during the Ancient era."
"If only Ancient Digimon were supposed to be able to evolve that way, then how can Patamon and the others Armor Digivolve now?" T.K. asked, worried. "It doesn't hurt them, right?"
"Even though the Ancient species are gone, the Digital World still has their 'descendants'—Digimon that inherited powerful fragments of Ancient data. Those are the 'Ancient-line descendants' among modern species.
"And even among purely modern Digimon, some still have genetic data left behind from the Ancient species. That hidden data is what lets them draw on power similar to those descendants and use Armor Digivolution.
"But whether they're true descendants or modern Digimon with inherited Ancient data, they can't bear the full burden of Armor Digivolution on their own—not like real Ancient Digimon could.
"That's why we use the D-3 Digivices, D-Terminals, and the Digi-Armor itself to share the strain on their cores when they evolve into Armor forms."
"In that case, there must be more Armor Digi-Eggs than the ones we've seen so far, right?" Matt asked.
"We've already got the Digi-Eggs of Courage, Knowledge, Love, Light, and Hope. But my Crest of Friendship, Joe's Crest of Reliability, and Mimi's Crest of Sincerity should all have their own Armor Digi-Eggs too, shouldn't they?"
"Exactly." Tai nodded.
"In fact, there are twelve kinds of Armor Digi-Eggs altogether: the Flame of Courage, the Thunder of Friendship, the Wind of Love, the Wood of Sincerity—Purity in your case, Mimi—the Earth of Knowledge, the Water of Reliability, the Light of Light, the Holy Hope, the Pure Kindness, the Metallic Miracles, the Metallic Destiny, and the Dark Darkness."
"So you said twelve kinds… not twelve eggs?" Izzy jumped on the wording right away.
"That's right. There's more than one of each type of Armor Digi-Egg. If there were only one of each, the Metal Empire wouldn't have bothered developing a technology that focused so much on quantity.
"All twelve types of Armor Digi-Egg can be mass-produced."
"So that means Hawkmon could have twelve different evolution forms!" Yolei said, thrilled.
"Pretty much," Tai agreed.
"That's awesome! I wonder what Veemon will turn into with all the other Armor Digi-Eggs…" Davis said dreamily.
"But that's only in theory. In practice, no Digimon can actually use that many different Armor forms."
"Whaaat? How come?"
Everyone deflated.
"It's simple. Even though modern Digimon have inherited some Ancient data, they're still not Ancient Digimon. Even with the D-3 Digivices and D-Terminals sharing the strain, they just can't manage that many different Armor evolutions."
"Then… why?" Cody asked, curiosity burning in his eyes.
"Why is it impossible?"
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810