48. The Whole Family All at Once, The Red-Rust Giant Dragon Beast

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After bidding farewell to Piximon, Tai and Zeromaru finally set off toward the last stronghold of Molecularmon’s forces.

After half a day of traversing the map, Tai and the others drew ever closer to the inverted pyramid.

The black cables that spread across the entire Server Continent became especially dense here. Unless one carefully dodged them, it was nearly impossible to take a single step without stepping on one.

When they reached the top of a dune, Tai could already see the inverted pyramid standing in the distance, along with a sphinx not far away.

“It’s awfully quiet…”

Tai immediately sensed that something was wrong. He had made no particular effort to avoid the black cables along the way, so Molecularmon’s surveillance equipment must certainly have detected him.

By Tai’s reckoning, Molecularmon should already have deployed a vast army here to welcome his arrival.

Yet looking around, there was not even a single patrol in front of the pyramid, let alone the horde of Ultimate-level Digimon Tai had imagined.

The desert stretched beneath a sky thick with blowing sand, but not a single enemy could be seen.

The eerie atmosphere instead caused Tai’s expression to grow solemn.

“Hey… hey!”

A soft call suddenly came from nearby.

Tai looked over. “It’s you!”

The newcomer was Gazimon, who had once driven Tai and Zeromaru around the arena. Tai had forgotten all about him after that episode ended, so he had never expected the little Digimon to appear again.

“What a coincidence, seeing you here!”

“Keep your voice down, idiot!” Gazimon’s ears sprang up in fright at the volume of Tai’s voice.

Tai raised an eyebrow, realizing that something was wrong.

Gazimon began recounting what had happened to him afterward.

That day, after Tai and Zeromaru had left, Gazimon had sat in the desert with his arms wrapped around his legs and waited for them through the night. Only when he watched the sun rise high in the sky the following day did he realize that he had apparently been abandoned.

“Do you know how cold the desert gets at night?”

As he spoke with deep feeling, Gazimon even shed several tears of pure-hearted sorrow.

Tai and Zeromaru exchanged an awkward glance.

Zeromaru could only console him. “Sorry, but it wasn’t that we disliked you. Tai just has a terrible memory, that’s all!”

“Hey, don’t say things like that about your own partner.” Tai clearly disagreed.

“But it’s true.” Zeromaru cast him a sidelong glance. “Do you even remember how many Digimon you promised you’d visit after finishing whatever business you had?”

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Tai answered almost instinctively, “Do you remember how many slices of bread you’ve eaten? …Wait!”

Zeromaru sighed. “Daisuke was right. Tai, you really do leave a trail of broken hearts wherever you go.”

“What? It isn’t nearly that serious.” The corner of Tai’s mouth twitched, but there was noticeably little conviction in his denial.

Gazimon had been deeply moved earlier, but after watching the farce unfold before him, he was now utterly speechless.

Even so, he had to admit that in this dog-eat-dog world, it was extraordinarily rare for two absurdly powerful monsters like Tai and Zeromaru to be willing to speak to someone like him as an equal.

“Speaking of which, Gazimon, what are you doing here?”

Gazimon sighed and began describing the inner struggles of a Digimon from the lowest rung of society.

His time spent with Tai had brought about a change in his heart.

The arena incident in particular had suddenly made Gazimon realize that he no longer wished to work as a henchman for villains.

Now that KingKongmon had been defeated by Tai, and after spending all that time driving him around, Gazimon had also managed to save quite a bit of money.

He had therefore decided to quit and return to his hometown, using his savings to start a small business and become his own boss.

Even if the venture ultimately failed, it would not matter. At worst, he could go wash dishes at Boss Punimon’s restaurant. He would still be earning American dollars then.

Once he had made up his mind, Gazimon set off for the inverted pyramid, intending to submit his resignation letter to one of his own kind in the human resources department.

The train from Laughing Heaven Gate had already been destroyed by the aftereffects of HighVeedramon’s attack and sent to heaven. Gazimon’s mobility naturally could not compare with Tai and Zeromaru’s, so in truth, he had arrived only a few hours before them.

He had never expected that the moment he stepped into the inverted pyramid, he would witness such a horrifying scene.

To weaken Tai’s strength and prepare for the coming decisive battle, Molecularmon had ordered his subordinates to retrieve the Crest of Hope that had been stored outside.

Together with the Crest of Love already in his possession, Molecularmon and Tai had now gathered all seven Crests that had been scattered across the world.

And in order to defeat Tai and Zeromaru—against whom even Ultimate-level Digimon were no match—Molecularmon had conceived a terrifying plan.

He would use the power of two Crests to evolve two Ultimate-level Digimon, then fuse them into a Mega!

“Molecularmon has completely lost his mind!”

Gazimon could never forget the sight of it. Molecularmon naturally had no way to make the Crests representing Love and Hope emit their proper light.

Instead, he used the black cables to break one screaming, hateful, despairing Digimon after another down into their most primitive data.

Gazimon did not understand why Molecularmon was doing such a thing. The moment he saw it, his body instinctively fled into the distance.

Fortunately, he was still some way from the interior of the pyramid, and Molecularmon did not consider the data of a mere Gazimon worth collecting. That was the only reason he escaped with his life.

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The forces KingKongmon had painstakingly built were wiped out. Apart from the two Digimon Molecularmon had deliberately selected for the quality of their base forms—Triceramon and Megadramon—not even the others’ Digicores remained. They had all been broken down into pure energy.

“No wonder the atmosphere here is so strange.”

Tai nodded silently, his fists tightening before he even realized it.

Molecularmon’s evil and extremism surpassed even that of the fallen Satanmon.

And when people like this committed atrocities that crossed every line, they often obtained exactly what they wanted.

That was what made it so infuriating.

Molecularmon poured all the data brimming with negative emotions into the Crests in a single surge. The Crests were forcibly activated, radiating dense darkness.

The dark light of evolution shone upon Megadramon and Triceramon, causing them to evolve into MetalMegadramon and Triceramon respectively.

Triceramon

“Next…” Molecularmon’s hands trembled as he gripped the two Digivices. What he was about to do would shake the heavens and earth!

“Auntie’s stingy, so let’s eat mud together—DNA Digivolve!”

“Be born from my world-shaking genius, Mega-level!”

The two Digivices began to glow, and the two Ultimate-level Digimon completely absorbed their radiance.

Standing outside the pyramid, Tai saw nothing more than a flash of sparks before his eyes.

“Boom!”

A sudden explosion blasted the entire pyramid outward from within. Violent fluctuations triggered wave after wave of energy, raising a colossal pillar of light that shot toward the heavens.

When the pillar of light vanished, a towering crimson figure emerged from within.

If MetalMegadramon could still be recognized as partly biological through its skin, then the figure before them was what remained after that life-form had been completely remade into a machine.

Mega-level, Cyborg type, Virus attribute—

RustMegadramon!

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