To ensure the Firewall Plan's success, nearly a hundred server stations had been prepared worldwide.
Among these, seven key mega-stations served as critical nodes. Losing one or two of the other stations wouldn't impact the overall plan, but if even one of these seven mega-stations fell, the entire project would collapse.
The Dark Army aimed to sabotage the plan with a frontal assault in cyberspace, personally led by MetalSeadramon, one of the Dark Masters, commanding his entire Ocean Legion—a clear sign of how seriously they took this threat.
Of course, sending all four Dark Masters together would've been safer—at least for now, Zero would have absolutely no chance against all four combined.
But the barrier between the Real World and Digital World wasn't easy to breach. The stronger the Digimon, the greater the resistance they faced. Data volumes as massive as those of the Dark Masters were effectively rejected by the entire world's security.
It was already remarkable that one of them could manifest in cyberspace at all. If it had been easy, the Dark Masters wouldn't have needed to construct Spiral Mountain in the first place; they could've simply seized Myotismon's portal directly.
An all-out invasion by the Dark Army was impossible for now—but that hardly meant the other three Dark Masters intended to sit idly by, watching the show from afar.
The Dark Army had prepared one more hidden card… LadyDevimon, secretly sent into the Real World beforehand, carried a special mission: coordinate an internal attack alongside MetalSeadramon's oceanic forces, targeting one of the seven crucial mega-stations.
One would be enough—destroying even one station would paralyze the Firewall Plan completely.
The Dark Masters had spent ages preparing Spiral Mountain, gaining deep insight into its programming. Since the Firewall Plan essentially inverted those principles, they could naturally deduce its weaknesses from past experience.
Thus, armed with intelligence from Piedmon, LadyDevimon set her plans in motion…
…Her decision on which of the seven mega-stations to attack was straightforward. Theoretically, all were equal targets, so she simply chose the closest one.
Zero and Gatomon, the two troublesome primary fighters, were undoubtedly preoccupied by MetalSeadramon's Ocean Legion. Compared to them, the Real World's minimal defensive forces were barely worth her consideration.
Even an armed-to-the-teeth, fully-equipped human army theoretically couldn't slow her down.
Clearly, even the enemy shared that assumption, since when LadyDevimon reached her target mega-station, she found only a server core about half the size of a basketball court, a few busy technicians, and a handful of scattered guards.
The guards appeared professional and well-trained, but numbered fewer than twenty—in LadyDevimon's eyes, this counted as practically undefended.
She slipped in silently, gliding through shadows, ghost-like, until she stood behind a heavily muscled guard. She gently tapped a finger on his back.
The guard never sensed her approach. The instant her fingertip touched him, his face turned deathly pale.
He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound emerged. Blood bubbled out, and after a weak shudder, he collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
As he fell, everyone around snapped out of their daze, suddenly noticing the white-haired woman with tattered demon wings—a creature clearly not human.
Several guards reached into their jackets, likely for weapons—but LadyDevimon casually waved a hand.
A bloody red claw slashed horizontally through empty air. The muscular guards, each easily 180 pounds, flew into the air as though made of paper.
They were intact when launched upwards, but landed split neatly in half.
Even a casual attack from an Ultimate-level Digimon could shatter stone and cleave mountains. Dealing with ordinary humans was little more than flicking a finger.
This bloody display immediately stunned everyone present. No one dared approach again…
…LadyDevimon sneered softly, raised her hand, and aimed at the server core. Her attack struck true.
The enormous server, nearly half a basketball court in size, twisted and shattered instantly, sparks bursting violently into flames and engulfing the equipment in a fiery explosion.
"Heh heh, mission accomplished as Master instructed… Hm?!"
Just as her face relaxed into a triumphant smile, LadyDevimon felt something wrong.
The moment she noticed it, the entire underground room distorted rapidly. The burning servers, corpses, and panicked staff blurred like reflections on water, turning into twisted illusions.
"An illusion?!"
Realizing her mistake, she quickly dodged aside. The instant she moved, dozens of lightning bolts, each as thick as barrels, crashed down exactly where she'd stood moments earlier.
If not for her timely reaction, the relaxed moment after completing her mission might've cost her half her life.
"Such a shame. If only you'd stayed put, it could've ended right there…"
LadyDevimon whipped around toward the voice, seeing a distortion in the air as Wizardmon appeared, gripping his staff. Without a doubt, that attack had been cast by this "old friend."
As Wizardmon was her former "defeated opponent," LadyDevimon didn't take him seriously, instinctively looking down on him.
After all, their power differed by a full evolutionary stage. Wizardmon was a scholarly Digimon specializing in various magical tricks—a knowledgeable academic type rather than a combat specialist.
While Wizardmon knew some offensive magic, his attacks lacked potency. Without type advantages, he posed little threat to most Ultimates.
LadyDevimon cursed herself inwardly for almost falling into such a careless trap.
Why was I so negligent…? Tch, is it because I absorbed too many negative human emotions?
Pride and arrogance—foremost among the seven deadly sins—were universally recognized as harmful traits. But who truly treated everything equally, without even a hint of pride or superiority?
Normally, rationality helped suppress pride, but LadyDevimon had absorbed excessive negative human emotions, letting pride run utterly rampant within her.
Negative emotions weren't necessarily weaker than positive emotions like courage or friendship—although positive ones were easier to control…
But fully mastering these primal sins, turning them into one's own strength, was indeed one viable path toward the Demon Lord-type—a legitimate route to breaking the barrier to Mega-level evolution.
Unfortunately, LadyDevimon currently lacked the qualifications for that path—even though her direct evolutionary line did include corresponding Demon Lord Digimon.
"You were my defeated foe so I underestimated you… How did you know I'd come here and set this trap in advance?"
A trap sophisticated enough to fool an Ultimate like LadyDevimon couldn't have been improvised on the spot; extensive preparations must've been made beforehand.
"Excellent question… Guess it yourself. I'm not obligated to satisfy your curiosity~"
But Wizardmon refused to follow any villainous convention, fully aware of the rule that too much talking meant certain defeat—he didn't want to waste a single word.
He spun his staff, firing another Magical Lightning attack immediately.
"…Without your little tricks, do you honestly think you're a match for me?"
LadyDevimon flipped her palm upward, forming blood-red energy into countless crimson bats, sending them swarming toward Wizardmon…
…In their last encounter, LadyDevimon had casually attacked, taking a slight edge. With their gap in raw power, Wizardmon was at a disadvantage.
But this time, LadyDevimon didn't hesitate at all. Believing she knew Wizardmon's limits, she unleashed her full strength immediately, hoping to finish him off instantly—but…
"Hmph, who knows!"
Wizardmon gripped his staff with both hands and twisted sharply. The lightning spraying from its tip rapidly compressed into a flickering, razor-sharp blade!
Sweeping this Lightning Blade horizontally, Wizardmon released a chain of interlocking lightning arcs, instantly forming a dense electric net that wrapped around and shredded the crimson bats…
…instantly annihilating every last one.
"!"
LadyDevimon stared in disbelief. To her shock, Wizardmon's body now bore a glowing purple pattern: two interlocking circles of differing sizes. She blurted out instinctively—
"…A Crest?!"
Having destroyed the blood bats, Wizardmon's eyes sharpened.
Incredible…so this is the Crest's power? It's surprisingly easy to wield, even though it's my first time using it…
This wasn't particularly strange. Crests had affinity pairings: giving Hikari the Crest of Courage or Taichi the Crest of Light would likely reduce effectiveness…
…Though unexpected combinations could also produce surprising results, who knew?
Regardless, Wizardmon partnered with Koushiro and the Crest of Knowledge was undoubtedly a perfect match.
Both were scholarly types, driven by curiosity about the unknown. While Taichi might need danger to spark his Courage, Koushiro barely needed practice at all.
Just investigating the Crest's mysteries was enough to fulfill its conditions. Combining this with his natural talents, the Crest of Knowledge shone brilliantly from the start.
"…"
LadyDevimon turned sharply, preparing to flee without hesitation…
…Although she wasn't incapable of fighting, Wizardmon's strength, even boosted by the Crest, merely matched hers. She could still win if she fought desperately—but LadyDevimon wasn't the type to stake her life pointlessly. Retreating to attack another station made far more sense.
Seeing LadyDevimon about to flee, Wizardmon sighed softly.
"Trying to run, huh? That's definitely the correct judgment right now—which is precisely why I can't let you go!"
To catch a slippery enemy like LadyDevimon, this moment—when she was guaranteed to attack—was his best chance. If he let her escape now, he'd never catch her again.
So…
"…Koushiro, lend me your strength!"
Hidden in shadows by magic, Koushiro stared at his laptop filled with densely packed code—the very code he'd decoded with Wizardmon from the Crest of Knowledge. Although unsure exactly what would happen, Koushiro pressed "Enter" without hesitation…and at that instant, his Crest of Knowledge and the Tag at his waist simultaneously erupted into blinding brilliance!
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