"Meeeow!" Gatomon let out a high-pitched cry.
The pure white fur on her body stood on end without any wind, and a fierce, tyrannical golden fighting spirit phantom, filled with the will to tear things apart, faintly appeared behind her small body like an illusion, vaguely resembling the silhouette of BanchoLeomon.
Empowered by this external force, Gatomon felt an unprecedented, terrifying power surge into her front paws, a power capable of tearing the earth asunder.
She combined this power with her own holy power and, facing the airborne Erigor who was immobilized by "Cat's Eye," she swung her claws fiercely.
"Lion Wave Slash!"
The Lion Wave Slash tore through the air, following a trajectory that seemed slow but was in fact uncannily fast, and instantly swept across Erigor's body.
This attack was not a pure physical cut; it also contained a strange effect that distorted local gravity.
Splat!
The magic shield on Erigor's body shattered like paper.
A deep wound, revealing the bone beneath, appeared from his chest to his abdomen, and blood sprayed wildly.
The gravity around him seemed to multiply several times in an instant.
As if struck by a huge, invisible hand, he screamed and plummeted from the sky.
The cursed flute "Lullaby" in his hand also flew from his grasp, landing not far away.
"Nice job, Gatomon!" Agunimon (Ace) landed on the ground, reverted to his human form, and gave Gatomon a thumbs-up.
Their coordination just now had been perfect.
Gatomon elegantly flicked her tail and lifted her chin slightly, indicating that it was a piece of cake.
But the slightly twitching tip of her tail betrayed her small sense of pride.
"Aye! You got him!" Happy flew over.
"Tch!" Natsu walked over, carrying the unconscious Erigor, a hint of annoyance on his face.
"One step behind you again, Ace. It's all because this guy's underlings were so annoying!"
However, at that moment, another unexpected event occurred.
A shadow, black as ink and swift as a ghost, shot out from the shade of a nearby ruin without any warning.
With the speed of a lightning bolt, it snatched Lullaby from the ground.
After succeeding, the person didn't linger at all and fled madly toward the depths of the ruins.
His speed was astonishingly fast; he had clearly planned this and was skilled in stealth and speed.
"After him!" Erza was the first to give chase, with the others close behind.
"Put Lullaby down!" Natsu roared, about to charge forward.
"Don't come any closer!" The man spun around abruptly, revealing a withered face covered in strange black patterns.
He had clearly been mentally eroded by Lullaby's curse.
"It's useless... It's too late..." The man caressed Lullaby obsessively, murmuring, "It has already awakened... It craves souls... It craves destruction..."
As if to prove his words, the Lullaby in his hands suddenly lit up with a blindingly intense, deep purple, evil light.
A terrifying cursed aura, a hundred times denser than before, erupted from the flute's body like a volcanic eruption.
The shadow bore the brunt of it. Before he could even scream, his entire body dissolved and was annihilated in the purple light, turning into a stream of pure dark energy that was absorbed by Lullaby.
Lullaby's evil light flared.
It automatically levitated into the air and transformed into a massive purple cocoon of light over ten meters in diameter, made of pure curse and malice.
The cocoon throbbed violently like a heart, and hair-raising roars and whispers emanated from within.
"Oh no!" Lucy's face was pale.
BOOM!
The cocoon exploded.
Endless purple-black evil energy filled the stone chamber.
A terrifying demon phantom over thirty meters tall slowly condensed and manifested within the evil energy. Its mere presence caused the air to stagnate and the light to dim.
The ancient sealing runes on the stone walls flickered, as if they could collapse at any moment.
"ROOOOAR!"
The demon's single eye locked onto the people in the chamber and let out a deafening roar that struck directly at their souls.
Terrifying sound waves mixed with tangible cursed energy swept over them like a tsunami.
"Everyone, get back!" Ace stepped forward, shielding the others behind him as he looked at the behemoth before him.
"Ace, what do we do?" Gatomon leaped onto Ace's shoulder, her fur standing on end.
She stared intently at the demon, feeling the intensely repulsive dark and cursed power emanating from it.
"That's right, maybe we should use that, Ace," Gatomon said suddenly, her sapphire-like eyes shining with a determined light.
"I can feel the power inside me boiling... This demon's darkness has stimulated my light. Help me with your power, and together, we'll purify it!"
Ace looked at Gatomon and saw unprecedented determination and courage in the little one's eyes.
He nodded and gently placed his hand on Gatomon's head, continuously pouring his pure Digital Soul and magic power into the Digivice.
"Alright! Then let's fight together!"
Feeling the vast and warm power transmitted from Ace, Gatomon let out a clear, long cry.
Her body erupted in an incomparably brilliant, pure white holy light that seemed capable of dispelling all darkness.
Within this holy light, her form began to evolve and transform once more.
The evolution completed, and the holy light slowly receded, but the sacred, majestic, and purifying pressure spread out as if it were tangible, dispelling much of the coldness and despair brought by the cursed demon.
"Th-That's..." Lucy looked up at the eight-winged, extraordinarily divine figure in the air.
Angewomon.
"Heaven's Charm!"
This purple light, so sacred it was sublime, contained the power of purification and judgment.
A huge, condensed, cross-shaped beam of violet light erupted from the center of Angewomon's crossed palms, striking the enemy head-on.
"Wuuuuaaaargh!"
The demon Lullaby let out a scream of extreme agony.
Heaven's Charm fiercely burned and purified it, and the purple-black evil energy on its body evaporated and dissipated like snow on hot oil.
Ace and the airborne Angewomon were connected by mind.
A bow of light appeared in Angewomon's hands.
A point of white light, so condensed it seemed solid and emitted ripples in space, began to gather—it was highly compressed holy power, forming the prototype of a Celestial Arrow.
At the same time, she accepted the Digital Soul Ace transmitted to her.
In an instant, the golden point of light on the bowstring flared brightly.
Its size didn't increase much, but the energy fluctuations it emitted suddenly rose by several levels.
The Celestial Arrow left the string, becoming a trajectory of pure, ultimate light that instantly cut through the darkness and evil energy.
As if it had traveled through time and space, it silently sank into the single eye on the demon Lullaby's forehead before it could even react.
In just two or three seconds, the massive body of the cursed demon Lullaby, completely dissipated in the pure, holy white light, leaving not a single trace behind, as if it had never existed.
All that remained was the bizarrely shaped cursed flute, "Lullaby."
Angewomon's wings of light slowly folded.
She descended lightly from the air and stood beside Ace.
The light of evolution shone again, her body shrinking and her six wings retracting, returning her to Gatomon's form.
She looked a little tired, but her eyes were bright, and she affectionately rubbed her head against Ace's hand.
Only then did Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Happy, and even Erza slowly recover from the sacred and shocking scene.
"Is... is it over?" Lucy still couldn't quite believe it.
Erza walked over to the pile of ash and checked it, confirming that no curse remained before finally letting out a sigh of relief.
She turned to look at Ace and Gatomon, her eyes filled with undisguised admiration and a hint of complexity.
"Ace. And... Gatomon, thank you. Without you, the outcome of this mission would have been unpredictable."
"This was our mission together, Erza," Ace said with a smile as he stood up.
Lucy also ran over, her eyes shining as she looked at Gatomon. "What was that... just now? So strong! So beautiful! It's like the power of Celestial Spirits, but different... Are there any Celestial Spirits as beautiful as her?"
Gatomon lifted her chin slightly, accepting the praise, but the twitching of her ear tips showed she was in a good mood.
---------
Read 40 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator