52. The Flashback Begins

A red fiery aura surged across Deathmon's body.

Driven by Deathmon's power, even space and time were distorted, opening a wormhole behind it that projected directly into the human world.

At that moment, Tai's heart skipped a beat. Without even having time to observe the situation in the human world, his body reacted by reflex, using his cloak to shield himself and Gazimon together.

The red aura spread outward, and centered on Deathmon, a massive series of chain explosions erupted.

The yellow sands covering the ground were blasted into the sky, and right beneath Deathmon's feet, a giant crater a hundred meters in radius emerged.

Protected by the Digisoul, Tai remained completely unharmed.

However...

Glancing around at the tragic devastation, Tai looked at Gazimon: "Gazimon, run away quickly."

"Eh...?" Gazimon, who had practically brushed past death, had a blank mind at that moment.

"I can't guarantee I'll be able to protect you in the upcoming battle. Run! Run dozens of kilometers away, far beyond the point where you can still see us."

Seeing Gazimon still standing stiffly with blank, glazed eyes, Tai forced an angry expression and shouted, "I told you to get lost!"

The voice finally reached Gazimon's ears, and its body instinctively moved its legs, sprinting far away.

After running several hundred meters, Gazimon finally regained its senses and screamed at the top of its lungs:

"You must win! Tai, Zeromaru!"

Hearing this, Tai looked toward Deathmon and the corners of his lips curved upward: "It seems even your former subordinate is wishing for your death."

"..." Facing Tai's provocation, Deathmon remained silent. The will of Piemon, battered by the corrosion of dark energy, had been completely distorted into unrecognizable hatred within the depths of its mind.

Hatred toward Tai, hatred toward Daemon, and the hatred harbored by all the Digimon it had once dismantled directed back at itself.

These contradictory, twisted hatreds transformed into ultimate rage under the power of Daemon.

This was the brand-new power Daemon had acquired: the ability to manipulate the intensity of wrath.

The fury tore at Deathmon's will, driving it mad, making it yearn for destruction.

And above all, it made it stronger.

If, prior to its evolution, Piemon still harbored dreams of becoming a god of the Digital World,

then at this moment, all Deathmon desired was pure destruction.

To destroy the entire world—whether darkness or light—with its own hands.

In the end, even Deathmon itself would be burned to ashes beneath this raging fire.

So right now, in the eyes of Deathmon, the destroyer of worlds, what did it see?

Naturally, it was Tai, the person it loathed the most.

Apart from the largest single eye on its body, Deathmon's palms each possessed an evil eye.

Now, all three eyes fixed on Tai, and the hatred belonging to Piemon seemed to be fully ignited. Deathmon let out a furious roar, shooting a barrage of blindingly fast blood-red arrows from the evil eyes in its palms.

This was Deathmon's ultimate signature move, Death Arrow.

"Dodge!"

With Tai's command, he and Zeromaru leaped sideways.

The Death Arrows blasted two-meter-wide, bottomless craters into the desert sands.

Although the destructive radius was far smaller than the previous explosion, it was because Death Arrows concentrated energy comparable to a Terror Electromagnetic Beam into a single point. While the destruction radius shrank, its lethality and firing speed grew exponentially.

For Tai and Zeromaru, this was the most formidable enemy they had ever faced.

Just as he was thinking this, Tai suddenly noticed a shift in the wind direction.

Looking up, he saw that Deathmon had already closed the distance right in front of him. Could that pair of tattered wings on its back provide this kind of explosive acceleration?!

Without a second thought, Tai ignited his Digisoul. Seven Crests shone simultaneously, and Zeromaru burst into a brilliant white light.

Under the blessing of holy power, Zeromaru took the initiative, unleashing the white V-Wing Blade.

To Tai's surprise, however, when the V-Wing Blade struck Deathmon, it was like a lead pellet hitting Luffy; the white light sank only slightly into Deathmon's skin before Deathmon simply puffed out its chest and deflected it away.

How weak...

A flash of furious rage crossed Deathmon's eyes.

Was I actually defeated by this kind of trash before?!

The red aura erupted, and Deathmon's power instantly skyrocketed.

Its two arms turned into blurred afterimages as they rained blows down on Tai and Zeromaru.

"As expected of a Demon Lord type." Tai burned with the strongest Digisoul of his life, yet under Deathmon's overwhelming pressure, he was still forced back step by step.

Zeromaru was no different. Clearly pushing Overdrive to its absolute limits, the chasm between the Adult and Ultimate levels was simply too vast.

If given enough time, Tai believed Zeromaru could certainly train to a level capable of defeating Deathmon while remaining in its Veedramon form.

Yet the time required was far too long, and Deathmon was right here, right now.

"Boom—!"

Amidst the explosive concussive blast, Deathmon suddenly augmented its strength once more, sending Tai and Zeromaru instantly flying backward through the air.

Their bodies felt as though they were about to fall apart, and the excruciating pain radiating from inside out left Tai unable even to breathe.

Yet within his gaze, there was still not a shred of cowardice. In fact, Deathmon even had the eerie feeling that Tai was spacing out at a time like this...

Gwah—! While you're fighting me, how dare you think about other things? I am so furious!

Deathmon's power surged explosively yet again.

As his body slid backward from the sheer impact, fragments of a quiet conversation between himself and Piximon just before parting flickered through Tai's mind.

Standing at the entrance of Piximon's mountaintop temple, Zeromaru had already walked ahead down the mountain, while Tai had been held back by Piximon.

Tai looked at Piximon, puzzled: "Is there really something you needed to discuss with me alone?"

Seeing that Zeromaru's figure had completely vanished into the sea of trees down the mountain, Piximon finally spoke.

"Pii... Yes, there is. It's about Zeromaru."

Piximon continued, "You've probably been wondering too. Even though Zeromaru is already stronger than most Perfect levels, and the volume of data inside him reached the threshold for evolution long ago, why hasn't he been able to evolve until now?"

Tai's heart skipped a beat. It was a question he had pondered long ago: "Could there be something wrong with Ah Zero's body?!"

At the mere thought of this possibility, panic instantly seized Tai.

Though he checked Zeromaru's physical condition with his Digivice every single morning and before bed, there was always the chance Zeromaru had contracted some virus incapable of being scanned by the device.

Guilt washed over him. He had noticed something was amiss long ago; he should have taken him to a proper doctor for a thorough check-up back then. Instead, he hadn't taken it seriously, leading to the situation where Zeromaru...

As a Tamer, I am an utter failure!

"Calm down!" Seeing Tai adopt an expression as though he wanted to hurl himself off the mountain and sustain a minor, week-long hospitalization injury just to punish himself, Piximon hurriedly intervened.

"I didn't say there's something wrong with Zeromaru's body, pii!" Piximon expended immense effort to hold Tai back.

"Honestly, you always look so collected, yet the moment anyone mentions Zeromaru, you fly completely off the handle."

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Piximon sighed half in exasperation, half in admiration. "Still, it's precisely because of this deep affection you hold for him that Zeromaru loves you so much."

"Eh?" Tai froze in blank surprise.

"Don't worry, pii. Zeromaru's body is very healthy, and his fur is soft and glossy. It's clear you haven't skimped on his nutrition, pii."

Relieved, Tai smiled. "Of course, I've fed him so well he's practically getting plump."

Piximon went on, "Zeromaru loves you, pii—so much that he wants to stay in his current state with you forever, to the point where he's even afraid that evolving might alter the relationship between the two of you, pii."

Tai was dumbfounded. He never, in his wildest dreams, expected that what held Zeromaru back from evolving, and what mattered more to him than evolution itself, was none other than himself.

Yet upon careful reflection, Tai realized it made complete sense. After all, to Zeromaru, Tai was also something far more precious than his own life.

It was only because he had been trapped in the perspective of the person directly involved that Tai had never realized it until now.