The air in the tunnel became a storm of coordinated violence. Gatomon and BlackGatomon were blurs of white and black, their claws sparking against Gyuukimon's armored legs. It hissed, the bells on its horns letting out a sharp, discordant ring.
Above it, Peter's webs shot out, thick strands wrapping around its upper torso and one massive horn, trying to anchor it to the damp ceiling. "Trying to slow down the freight train!" he called out.
"Renamon, the joint behind its forward left leg!" Gwen commanded, her voice cutting through the chaos.
Renamon flowed like liquid gold, her Power Paw strike hitting the precise spot Gwen indicated. A small crack appeared in the chitinous armor.
Impmon was a purple nuisance around Killgrave's head. "Hey, ugly! Catch!" He lobbed small, sputtering fireballs that forced Killgrave to duck and swat, his perfect composure finally shattering.
"Stop them! Crush them! NOW!" Killgrave shrieked at his Digimon, his voice raw. He wasn't conducting an orchestra anymore. He was screaming at a failing tool.
My Digivice glowed, projecting a shimmering wireframe of Gyuukimon onto the tunnel wall, highlighting the weak spots Renamon had just found. The team saw it, adjusting their attacks. But every hit, while precise, just chipped away. We were sanding down a mountain. We needed a landslide.
The decision was instant. The Beast Spirit flared in my core, a sun being born in my chest.
[SPIRIT EVOLUTION]
The heat wasn't just around me. It was me. My skin became scale and crimson armor, my arms heavy with the weight of the Rudriya Darpaṇa cannons. The tunnel vanished in a blinding, orange-white flash, the damp walls steaming. The roar that tore from my throat wasn't human. It was dragonfire given sound.
BurningGreymon stood where Ethan had been.
I didn't think. I charged. The ground shook. Gyuukimon, struggling against Peter's webs, turned its massive head, its multiple eyes widening.
My cannon-arms came up, already glowing with a heat that rippled the air.
"CORONA BLASTER!"
A searing lance of solar energy tore across the tunnel and hit the ox-spider center-mass. The impact wasn't a chip. It was a quake. Gyuukimon's defiant shriek cut off as it was thrown back, its legs scrabbling for purchase on the slick concrete, a deep, smoking crater now glowing in its chest armor.
It stumbled. For the first time, it looked hurt.
The cracks in Gyuukimon's armor were webs of light, glowing with the heat of my attack. Peter saw the opening.
"On it!" He fired two more web-lines, not to anchor, but to entangle. Thick, white strands crisscrossed over the cracks, wrapping around three of its legs and pulling them together. The monster stumbled, its balance compromised.
"Now, Renamon!" Gwen's voice was sharp, decisive.
Renamon didn't need to be told twice. She was a golden streak, her Power Paw striking not just the leg joint, but the exact center of a glowing crack. A piece of chitin the size of my head splintered off and clattered to the ground.
"You will not—you will OBEY!" Killgrave's scream was ragged, stripped of its cultured calm. Spittle flew from his lips. "Unleash everything! Obliterate them!"
Gyuukimon's bells began to ring in a frantic, discordant rhythm. Its abdomen swelled, preparing to spit its toxic threads.
It never got the chance.
BlackGatomon hit its left flank, her shadow-claw tearing a deep groove. Gatomon was on the right, her Holy Ring blazing as her Lightning Paw struck the same spot a fraction of a second later. The combined impact was a shockwave that traveled up the beast's body, making its head jerk violently. The ringing bells stuttered into silence.
The opening was there. I didn't charge. I appeared.
My fist, wreathed in living flame, drove into the glowing crater on its chest.
"PYRO PUNCH!"
The sound wasn't an impact. It was a detonation. Gyuukimon's massive form left the ground. It flew back, a tumbling, armored wreck, and smashed into the tunnel wall with a crunch that sent dust and chunks of concrete raining down. It slid to the floor, its bells letting out one last, pathetic jangle.
"Pathetic!" Impmon cackled from the shadows near the ceiling. He saw it before any of us—Killgrave, clutching his throbbing hand, the Shadowstone pulsing like an infected heart. The monster was down. The master was exposed.
Impmon dropped like a stone, a tiny purple comet. "This is for my ribs, you creep!"
A compact ball of purple fire, no bigger than a baseball, shot from his palms. It wasn't aimed at Killgrave's head or his chest. It was a surgical strike, straight at the dark gem clutched in his fist.
The fire connected.
Killgrave's shriek was pure, undiluted agony. He recoiled as if electrocuted, his whole body convulsing. The Shadowstone flared, and for that single, frozen second, Gyuukimon's roar of response was a heartbeat too late. The connection wavered.
Killgrave straightened. His face was a mask of twisted fury, all pretense gone. His eyes were fixed on the stone in his palm, not on us. "Mine," he hissed, the word dripping with possessive madness. "You will not take what is MINE!"
He gripped the Shadowstone with both hands, as if trying to crush it.
A wave of cold hit me.
It was wrong. It cut straight through the inferno I was, a deep, marrow-chilling malevolence that made my fiery wings sputter. The purple light from the stone didn't just glow. It bled into the air, thick and suffocating.
Then Gyuukimon moved. Not to attack us.
Its six spider legs retracted into its body with a series of sickening, wet crunches. Its ox-like torso split open vertically, revealing a cavernous maw lined with rows of needle-like fangs that glistened with dark energy.
"No… wait—" Killgrave's snarl turned to a gasp of confusion. He looked from the stone to his Digimon.
The maw lunged. Not at us. At him.
Fangs closed around Zebediah Killgrave. There was a wet, tearing sound, abruptly cut off. He was gone, consumed in an instant, the Shadowstone still visible for a moment in the grip of a vanishing hand.
Then the stone exploded.
Not with fire, but with a blinding, silent surge of pure dark energy. It washed over us, a physical wave of corruption. The tunnel shuddered violently, great cracks racing up the walls. I threw up an arm, the light searing even through my armored eyelids. Gatomon and BlackGatomon hissed in pain, recoiling. Renamon shielded Gwen. Peter swore, ducking behind a web-shield.
The light faded, leaving purple afterimages dancing in my vision.
Where Gyuukimon had fallen, a shuddering, amorphous mass pulsed. It wasn't Digimon or human. It was a grotesque fusion, twisting and expanding. Armor plates, slick with dark fluid, knitted over pulsating flesh. The silhouette grew, hulking and wrong, radiating a malevolent aura that made the air taste like rust and ozone.
My Digivice, still on my belt, screamed. The screen flooded with frantic, corrupted glyphs and error messages.
[DATA CORRUPTION]
[ENTITY: UNIDENTIFIED]
[THREAT LEVEL: ERROR]
The thing finished forming. It stood on two massive, digitigrade legs, its upper body a monstrous blend of Gyuukimon's horned head and a distorted, armored human torso. In the center of its chest, where the heart would be, the Shadowstone was embedded, now grown to the size of a dinner plate, pulsing with a slow, sick rhythm.
It opened a mouth that was all fangs and darkness, and its first roar was a guttural, tearing sound that shook dust from the ceiling and promised only annihilation.
***
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