(The following is first-person; this is the Black-Robed Man's recollection.)
A voice said to me, "From today on, you are one of the BraveBeasts." Then I was thrown into a bizarre, kaleidoscopic gate. I have no memory of what happened in there. When I could remember again, I was already lying on the ground. Even though my body was incomplete, at least I had arrived where I was meant to.
Back then, the Digital World had not existed for long. Yggdrasill—the host computer of the Digital World—and the Thirteen Royal Knights under it were maintaining the peace. Under their protection, the Digital World kept growing and moving toward maturity, and Digimon lived happily. But the Digital World depends on the human world to exist, and in time the things of the human world began to affect it.
The Digimon born in Primary Village were all Data-type and Vaccine-type, but once the human world had computers, it soon created viruses. Those network viruses traveled through the net into the Digital World. Countless Digimon were infected by human-world network viruses, becoming Virus-type Digimon—violent and highly aggressive.
Yggdrasill dispatched the Royal Knights, together with various holy-attribute Digimon, to purify the Virus-type Digimon and send the viruses out of the Digital World to a dark, sphere-like other space called "Nothingness."
At first, when Virus-type Digimon began appearing, the Royal Knights could still eliminate the network viruses. But as more and more viruses flowed in from the human world—and as they grew stronger—the Royal Knights gradually found it impossible to completely purge them.
So Yggdrasill built a channel between the Digital World and the human world's network, directly transmitting those viruses to the other space. Yet with time, the viruses accumulated more and more. And within the Digital World, Virus-type Digimon grew in number, evolved to higher stages, and began slipping beyond the Royal Knights' control.
At some point, the amassed viruses in that other space developed a will. It called itself Millenniummon. Millenniummon searched the Digital World for seven of the most powerful Virus-type Digimon and poured tremendous power into them, elevating them to Mega level. They became known as the Seven Great Demon Lords. That other space turned into the Dark Area—the "graveyard of erased data," composed of pure darkness and negative energy, at the deepest reaches bordering the Net Ocean—a lethal zone for non-dark Digimon.
Led by Millenniummon, the Dark Area began opposing Yggdrasill and the Royal Knights, attempting to seize control of the Digital World. Their war dragged on. But because the Digital World is a parallel world born of the network, it connects to people who come and go in the real-world net—their thoughts and feelings flow into it. In particular, negative emotions—hatred, lamentation, jealousy—condense into dark power and pour into the Dark Area. That gave them nearly inexhaustible energy to sustain their armies. Meanwhile, Yggdrasill and the Royal Knights were weaker than Millenniummon's side to begin with, and a portion of their power had to be devoted to keeping the Digital World running. Yggdrasill and the Royal Knights slowly fell behind. Millenniummon and the Seven Great Demon Lords broke into the Digital World, occupied part of it, and began establishing their own forces.
Seeing the destruction Millenniummon's side was wreaking upon the Digital World and wanting to stop them, I joined Yggdrasill and the Royal Knights and began fighting Millenniummon's forces. Because of my particular nature, I can split so long as there is enough data; with that, we stalemated Millenniummon for a time.
Then Millenniummon's side developed a Digimon-modification technology and established the Steel Empire. They mass-modified Digimon, vastly increasing their strength, and the balance of victory tilted toward Millenniummon. Worse still, years of continuous warfare had pushed this world to the brink of collapse; it was barely breathing. Many Digimon believed the fighting would never end, right up until the world's annihilation.
The Steel Empire's terrifying productivity soon showed its edge. At full output, its mechanical soldiers swept across almost the entire Digital World. Yggdrasill, the Royal Knights, and I simply could not resist those seemingly endless mechanical troops. Just when we thought all was lost, the Steel Empire's controller—Deathmon—refused to remain beneath Millenniummon, and, believing we were already powerless to resist, led his legion in an assault on Millenniummon, coveting the throne of the Dark King.
Millenniummon halted the offensive against us and moved to suppress the rebellion. While they were locked in fierce internal conflict, Yggdrasill and I launched a counterattack. Even though the infighting had drained a great deal of their strength, what remained was still formidable.
In the end, we imprisoned the Demon Lord–type Digimon and other rebellious Digimon within the Dark Area. It became a prison for the most dangerous and wicked Digimon—the domain of devils and fallen angels—where many Demon Lords are sealed. When a Digimon bearing the title of one of the Seven Great Demon Lords is laid to rest, its data does not reincarnate; it is sent to the Dark Area's center to become the Demon Lords' flesh and blood. Over time, the Dark Area formed its own hierarchy, and many other demon-class Digimon were born there. Its center, ruled by nobles, became a nest of demonic Digimon; most of the armies led by those nobles came to be called the "Nightmare Legion."
At the last moment, Millenniummon—though gravely wounded—managed to escape into the Dark Ocean, a malevolent region formed from the grudges of countless Virus-type Digimon after their deaths. After sealing those Demon Lords, our remaining strength was nearly exhausted. The Dark Ocean is vast, and it is not a place where we can survive; there, we must constantly expend power to resist its corrosion. We lacked the power to search the Dark Ocean for Millenniummon. All we could do was place seals across the Dark Ocean, leave one BraveBeasts avatar there to keep watch, and then all of us returned to the Digital World.
Although we repelled Millenniummon's invasion, our losses were catastrophic. Yggdrasill and the Royal Knights were nearly spent. As for our source—the true body of the BraveBeasts—it unleashed every last ounce of power at the end to grievously wound Millenniummon and win us the war. The BraveBeasts' true body was also badly injured; a full recovery was a distant hope.
And it still wasn't over. The Dark Area's Millenniummon had been defeated, but many dark Digimon still remained there. The Dark Ocean continued eroding the Digital World. Our top-tier strength was almost entirely gone.
At this critical moment, Yggdrasill sacrificed itself, becoming a firewall to block the encroachment from the Dark Area and sealing the gate that led from the Dark Area to the Digital World.
After years of war, the Digital World was on the verge of collapse, so Yggdrasill split off Holy Stones to stabilize it. The Royal Knights also turned themselves into primal power, attached to the Holy Stones to buttress the Digital World. Before the end, Yggdrasill left a segment of data within the Digital World. Absorbing data and dispersing throughout the world, that segment called itself the Agents—proxies administering the Digital World on Yggdrasill's behalf. They defend against external invasion, keep the Digital World running properly, and erase data that should not exist.
Through this war, we and the Agents realized the human world's impact on the Digital World was simply too great. We needed to detach the Digital World from the human world's influence. Thus we drafted a plan to "upgrade" the Digital World into a fully material world, no longer affected by the human realm.
We wanted to do it quickly, but this could not be achieved in a short time, and it required a colossal amount of energy—far more than we possessed. Just as we were at our wits' end, Millenniummon awakened and offered us a deal.
He said he could provide the energy needed to upgrade the Digital World; however, his power is entirely dark, so he proposed that he be the one to control the Digital World and use dark power to complete the upgrade.
Such a plan was unacceptable—letting Millenniummon control the Digital World was impossible. Yet we could not produce the necessary energy either, so we would have to use dark power to accomplish it, because we dared not imagine how many more viruses the human world would dump into the Digital World during the time it would take us otherwise. In the end, we reached an agreement: Millenniummon would dispatch Demon Lords to "govern" the Digital World, but their power could not exceed Mega level; using dark power, the upgrade of the Digital World would proceed. But we would need additional strength to pin down those Demon Lords.
At that moment, a DigiEgg was generated in the human world's network and landed in your home. You and Kari evolved that DigiEgg to Champion in a short time. From you two, we saw the tremendous significance humans hold for Digimon. We resolved to borrow your strength and drafted a plan—the Digivice.
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