The Guardromon began carrying out their programmed orders—repairing the damaged walls and gates, clearing away the wreckage of destroyed Guardromon, and using the debris to fill in the torn-up ground. Watching the remaining Digimon displayed on the screen, the Digimon Emperor felt sick with frustration. To take this city, he'd practically gambled away everything he had.
What was even more infuriating was that he couldn't deploy the Guardromon outside of Tai City. Even though the Dark Rings had them under control, their core operating program was set so that Guardromon were not allowed to leave this place. Even if he tried to force orders through the Dark Rings, the Guardromon would ignore him and instead follow their original programming, patrolling the streets.
"Damn it… damn it! How dare you not listen to me—damn it!" The Digimon Emperor pounded the control console so hard that veins bulged on his forehead.
"Ken, don't be mad. At least we've taken the city," Wormmon tried to comfort him.
"Shut up." The Digimon Emperor snapped his head around, glared at Wormmon, and kicked him away. "Useless… useless!"
He was furious, but with no better options, the Digimon Emperor could only withdraw and move his base away—leaving behind the map's last white dot, now turned black.
Meanwhile, Mimi and Yolei—still waiting for their friends to rescue them—heard a rustling sound coming from the dark forest behind them.
"What was that?" Yolei instinctively edged closer to Mimi, and Mimi did the same. The two girls pressed together, shivering from head to toe.
Hawkmon and Palmon shielded Mimi and Yolei, staring into the darkness with wary eyes, ready to strike at the first sign of an attack.
"Ladies, why the long faces?" Two pitch-black shapes rose up from the ground.
"AAAAAH!!" A scream ripped through the air.
"Hehehe! Want to go on a date with us?" When they finally got a good look, the two "black shapes" were actually two Roachmon.
Roachmon's glossy black body looked exactly like the cockroach everyone hates. It has the ability to avoid being noticed, moving quietly and scurrying around fast—and when it runs away, it's faster than anyone can catch. You can't expect much offense or defense from it, but thanks to its outrageous vitality, it shines in battles of endurance. Its special move is Dream Dust, scattering garbage everywhere. The power isn't huge, but very few Digimon are willing to take it head-on.
"No! Cockroaches!" Mimi and Yolei clung to each other and shouted.
"We won't let you do whatever you want!" Hawkmon and Palmon yelled in unison, standing in front of them.
"That's cold, Roachmon Senior. Let's take her out."
"Great idea, Roachmon Junior."
"Are you two… brothers?" Yolei asked, curious despite herself.
"We're the Roachmon brothers. Got a problem with that?" they answered together.
"Nope." Yolei immediately buried her face back against Mimi.
"Then you go first, Roachmon Senior."
"No, no—Roachmon Junior, you go first."
"You two are really close," Mimi said, genuinely impressed.
"We're close—got a problem with that?" Roachmon Senior snapped again.
"No," Mimi said helplessly.
"Then let's do it together, Roachmon Senior!"
"Great idea, Roachmon Junior!"
After agreeing, the two Roachmon flew up into the air. "Dream Dust!" Mimi and Yolei looked up in horror as mountains of trash came raining down on them—milk bottles, torn stuffed toys, half-eaten fruit cores, and all kinds of other household garbage—burying Mimi and Yolei, along with Hawkmon and Palmon, under a pile of junk.
Mimi popped up with a lunchbox stuck on her head and a strip of vegetable leaf clinging to her, clenched her fists, and shouted angrily at the two Roachmon, "So what?! It's just garbage!"
The two Roachmon that had been snickering froze—and their eyes instantly turned red.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Yolei finally crawled out too, confused. Following Mimi's gaze, she saw a black dot in the sky growing larger and larger—
A piano dropped straight down.
Mimi and Yolei locked eyes, both seeing the same pure terror.
"So it's not just garbage…" Mimi desperately wanted to take back what she'd just said, because the Roachmon brothers were now making it very clear that what they were dropping wasn't limited to "garbage."
They looked up again—
A refrigerator came crashing down.
"AAAH! AAAH! AAAH!" Mimi and Yolei screamed as they grabbed their Digimon and ran for their lives.
As they ran, more and more "junk" kept falling behind them—stools, tables, beds, televisions… The two girls didn't dare slow down for even a second, terrified of getting flattened by the larger debris.
"AAAH! I can't take this anymore—Hawkmon, Armor Digivolve!"
"Hawkmon, Armor Digivolve—the flapping wings of love… Halsemon!"
Halsemon spread its wings wide, swooped low, and caught Yolei as she jumped up. Then it shot into the sky, flying straight at the two Roachmon.
"Red Sun!" Two beams of glowing energy fired from Halsemon's eyes, striking the Roachmon brothers.
The Roachmon were shocked and couldn't react in time—but when the flames and smoke cleared, they only had damaged wings. There wasn't any other serious injury.
Furious, the Roachmon brothers launched their finishing move. "Roachmon Brothers Kick!" They started kicking back and forth in tandem, but Halsemon dodged nimbly, making their "ultimate move" completely useless.
"Roachmon Brothers Charge!" Halsemon just tilted its body slightly and avoided it again. The two idiots slammed straight into the forest, kicking up a cloud of dust. Dizzy and spinning, they tried yet another "ultimate move"—"Roachmon Brothers Fly!"—charging like two dive-bombers.
With Mimi's hint, Yolei had Halsemon lure the Roachmon brothers toward the Control Spire. Then she used a searchlight to blind them. Unable to handle the impact, the Roachmon brothers smashed into the Control Spire—punching a huge hole straight through it.
"Yes! Palmon!" Mimi shouted happily.
"Yeah. Palmon, Digivolve to… Togemon!"
The two Roachmon, still dazed, stuck their heads out from the gaping hole in the Control Spire. Realizing they'd been played, they got furious all over again.
"Needle Spray!" Togemon fired out countless spikes, making the Roachmon cry out in pain.
"Red Sun!" Halsemon fired two more beams, slicing the Control Spire clean in half.
At that moment, while returning to his base, the Digimon Emperor noticed that yet another black square on the map had turned white. "What an unpleasant weekend." And it really was unpleasant—he'd only just barely taken Tai City at enormous cost, and now another region's Control Spire had been destroyed. How could he possibly be in a good mood?
"Yolei! Mimi!" A familiar voice called out from the distance.
Yolei and Mimi turned—and saw Davis and the others running toward them, waving.
"We finally found you!" Davis panted.
"Why does this place look like this?" Kari asked, staring at the dark surroundings in confusion.
"Huh?" Only now did everyone realize how different it was. It had been daytime just a moment ago, but somewhere along the way while running here, it had turned pitch-black without them even noticing.
"This feels really creepy," T.K. said with a frown.
"Yeah." It seemed like everyone agreed.
"We should get out of here fast." Kari said it with a grim look—she'd felt uncomfortable ever since they stepped into this area.
"Yeah." The kids quickly turned, getting ready to leave.
Two green beams struck Halsemon in the abdomen mid-flight.
"AAAH!" Halsemon cried out in pain and lost control, dropping downward. Yolei screamed in panic as she fell with it.
"Gatomon!" Kari shouted to her partner.
"Right." Gatomon nodded, showing it was ready. "Gatomon, Armor Digivolve—the smile of light… Darcmon!"
A holy angel caught Yolei as she fell. Light poured from Darcmon's body, illuminating a radius of several dozen meters around the kids—but beyond that, nothing could be seen. The darkness here was so thick that even light couldn't pierce the black fog.
As soon as Yolei landed, she worriedly checked on her partner. "Are you okay, Halsemon?"
"I'm fine, Yolei… I'm sorry." Halsemon sounded deeply guilty for making her fall again.
"It's okay, Halsemon."
"But still… where did that attack come from?" T.K. stared into the dark forest. The woods had gone quiet again, so calm it didn't look like danger had ever been there at all.
"I don't know. I can't detect any enemy around us." Darcmon hovered in the air, watching carefully—but the attacker was completely hidden.
"Shhh—shhh—shhh!" Six red flashes appeared out of nowhere, shooting straight at Darcmon in midair.
"Dancing Sword!" Darcmon swung the slender sword in its hand, slicing each incoming attack cleanly in half with elegant swordplay.
"Where are you?!" Darcmon scanned the darkness. After attacking, the enemy vanished again, leaving not a trace of presence behind.
"This is terrifying…" Mimi hugged her arms, trembling.
"SHH!" A sudden tearing sound split the air. The Togemon that had been standing there went down with a heavy thud, collapsing onto the ground.
"What?!" The kids spun around, staring at the fallen Togemon in shock. Darcmon looked at it in disbelief—she had been watching the area the entire time, yet she hadn't seen any attack at all. Togemon had simply dropped after that single ripping sound.
Black fog wrapped around the group. The pitch-dark forest concealed an unknown number of attackers. The oppressive, terrifying atmosphere pressed down on everyone's chest like a weight.
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