In short, Zero effortlessly tossed all responsibility for Toy Town's damages onto Devimon. Anyway, as File Island's "root of all evil," it's only fair for Devimon to bear this blame.
Even if Devimon wanted to protest, it was obvious who everyone would believe. Besides, given Devimon's personality, he'd probably disdain bothering to defend himself against such accusations anyway.
With the blame successfully shifted, they naturally moved onto the real matter at hand.
"Devimon's injured this time, so he won't recover quickly. If we want to defeat him, this is our best chance."
While the others had only been caught up in the aftershock of Trident Revolver, Devimon had taken ninety percent of the blast directly to the face. Had Zero aimed just a little better, Devimon would've died on the spot.
Zero was different. By devolving back into Koromon, his energy consumption drastically decreased. It was like reducing his max HP from 100 down to 10; naturally, recovering became much easier.
This was also one of the benefits of freely controlling digivolution and de-digivolution—he could stay in a low-energy form to conserve stamina and speed up recovery, then unleash the stored energy exactly when needed in battle.
In contrast, Monzaemon had regained consciousness and some of its fighting strength, but returning to full power would take considerably longer.
Unlike Zero, who could use a Digivice's cloud backup to preserve part of his evolved data, the data Monzaemon lost in battle wasn't something that could be replenished in just a day or two.
Thinking about it now, Digimon partnered with humans really did have a huge advantage over regular Digimon.
Later, whenever the Chosen Children's Digimon evolved to Ultimate level, they'd always revert back to Baby form afterward, allowing them to quickly recover in a more energy-efficient state after each major battle.
Without this convenient setup, recovering from the endless battles later on would have been impossible. The Dark Masters alone could've overwhelmed the main characters just by swarming them with sheer numbers of subordinates.
These were the tiny details you wouldn't notice without careful thought, yet oftentimes, these inconspicuous details decided victory or defeat.
Monzaemon genuinely wanted to help, but like Andromon, who had to remain at the Unmanned Mechanical Factory to protect it and the weaker Digimon seeking refuge there, Monzaemon couldn't casually leave Toy Town either.
Monzaemon still had to prioritize the town's safety. But still…
"…Even though I can't join you to fight Devimon directly, I'll do my best to rescue and protect the nearby Digimon still under his control."
Monzaemon's special move, Hearts Attack, functioned like a mental debuff skill, capable of removing enemies' will to fight. Against Digimon driven berserk by the Black Gears, it indeed had a suppressive effect.
Receiving this promise was enough for Zero. With the Unmanned Mechanical Factory and Toy Town as their strongholds, they could hold their ground, block Devimon's army, and slowly dismantle his forces.
Rina projected a map of File Island from her Digivice. Nearly every region they'd explored was already illuminated, with only a few small patches still shrouded in dark mist.
Looking at the map, it was clear that nearly one-third—no, by now it was almost two-thirds—of File Island had fallen into Devimon's hands, dyed in an ominous black hue.
But within this darkness, two places stood like stubborn nails driven deep, firmly establishing safe territories amidst the chaos.
These two territories were, naturally, Andromon's Unmanned Mechanical Factory and Monzaemon's Toy Town.
Rina tapped a few icons lightly, and soon a pulsating microphone icon appeared beside the map interface. After a few seconds of static, the microphone icon flashed and vanished, replaced by a video call window.
Inside appeared Andromon, surrounded by a group of Baby-level Digimon.
After just a short separation, the number of Baby-level and Rookie-level Digimon gathered around Andromon had noticeably increased.
At once, Rina cheerfully greeted them.
"Andromon, everyone…are you all doing well~?"
Andromon in the video politely nodded back at Rina, while several Baby-level Digimon previously rescued by Zero's party bounced forward excitedly, talking over each other.
"It's Rina and Boss Zero! Eh…"
They seemed to notice Hajime's absence. Rina quickly explained.
"Hajime-chan had some business to handle and isn't here right now. Don't worry, we're all fine~"
After a bit more casual chatting, Toy Town's leader and the guardian of the Unmanned Mechanical Factory—two of the most famous figures on File Island—held their own brief exchange.
Alongside Zero, Rina, and Hajime, this was now the core membership of the newly formed "Anti-Devimon Alliance."
"In my personal opinion, Devimon is injured right now, and recovery won't come easy. This is our best opportunity to eliminate him. But Devimon himself surely knows this too."
Therefore, he would undoubtedly send many subordinates to interfere with Zero's group, prioritizing his own safety.
"We've already successfully freed quite a few Digimon from Devimon's control, and they've agreed to form an alliance. However, they're currently scattered and fighting independently."
Therefore, Zero proposed having the two Ultimate-level Digimon step forward as symbolic banners to unify these scattered forces.
"Our enemy is powerful, their forces almost several times ours. But I believe…a single spark can ignite a prairie fire. If we unite every ally we can, we'll surely claim ultimate victory."
Both Ultimate-level leaders agreed with Zero's suggestion. Even though Zero's group was the main force fighting Devimon, his recent rise to fame on File Island was still brief, and couldn't match the prestige of two established Ultimate-level natives.
This wasn't about ability; it was purely a reputation problem. If you had fame, you could rally everyone under your call…which was exactly what Zero lacked most right now.
But that didn't matter. Fame was something that naturally accumulated with strength. Zero believed there would come a day when he could raise his arm and a million followers would answer.
Of course, no matter how enticing that bright future was, the immediate issue was dealing with the very real problem in front of them.
"We should check on Hajime-chan's recovery. Everyone, we'll take our leave for now…"
Having said what needed saying, they left the rest of the details to the two leaders to handle themselves.
Rina leaned down to pick up Zero, preparing to check on Hajime's condition. After spending so much time together, Zero had become completely used to Rina carrying him around everywhere.
But just as the two stepped outside Monzaemon's Toy Palace, they heard a sudden commotion from inside Toy Town.
"…What's going on?"
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everyone is on vacation so no character notes this week
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