Chapter 178: Can I Be Like You?
This feeling... it was far too familiar.
No, familiar was the wrong word. It was an exact mirror image.
The current state of MetalGarurumon X was a perfect reflection of how he himself used to be in the past. What kind of sick joke was this? This cyborg wolf had spent his entire existence drowning in hesitation. WarGreymon X despised indecision. He loathed those who second-guessed their every step when lives were on the line.
Yet now... why?
Watching MetalGarurumon X finally stand his ground with absolute, unwavering resolve, a violent surge of irritation clawed at WarGreymon X's core. His jaw locked. The thrusters on his back flared. He moved.
Facing the stumbling wolf, he extended his Dramon Killers. A cold, lethal light flashed across the battlefield. The sickening crunch of tearing metal and shattering mechanical parts echoed through the air as WarGreymon X drove his claws straight through his opponent's body in a single, brutal strike.
"MetalGarurumon X!"
DoruGreymon screamed. She had been pacing restlessly on the sidelines, her claws digging trenches into the earth, but this was the breaking point. She lunged forward, Breakdramon right beside her, desperate to intervene.
Before either dragon could close the distance, a massive crimson cape swept across their path. Gallantmon caught them both by the shoulders, his grip like a vice, hauling them back.
"Gallantmon, what are you doing?" DoruGreymon snarled, thrashing against his hold. "Are you blind? MetalGarurumon X is going to die!"
Breakdramon whined, heavy tears welling in his massive eyes. "No... no more fighting..."
"Didn't you want them to fuse?" DoruGreymon demanded, her voice cracking with panic. "Didn't you need them to become Omnimon? Why are you just standing there watching him get slaughtered?"
Gallantmon met her furious glare and Breakdramon's weeping eyes with absolute stillness. For a long moment, the Royal Knight said nothing. He simply shook his head, the motion slow and deliberate.
"This battle belongs entirely to them," Gallantmon said, his voice a low, steady rumble. "If we interfere now, we will only shatter whatever fragile path they are trying to forge."
"But we can't just let him—"
"Do not forget," Gallantmon interrupted, shifting his gaze slightly. "He is watching."
Those words struck DoruGreymon like cold water. She blinked, her frantic struggles ceasing as she followed the knight's line of sight toward Mizuki.
The human youth stood perfectly still amidst the swirling dust. A faint, ethereal radiance pulsed across his skin, his Digi-Soul reacting to the intense emotional gravity of the battlefield. His dark eyes were locked onto the two warring X-Antibody Digimon, calculating and calm. His posture was relaxed, his hands resting easily at his sides. He showed absolutely zero intention of stepping in.
"Rest assured, DoruGreymon," Gallantmon continued softly. "He will not allow them to perish."
The knight paused, a deep respect softening the edges of his visor. "After all..."
'He is a gentle soul, just like our sovereign, Yggdrasil...'
Gallantmon left the thought unspoken, but the heavy silence conveyed his absolute faith. DoruGreymon swallowed hard. The knot of anxiety in her chest remained, but she forced herself to exhale. Nodding slowly, she turned her massive head to nuzzle the trembling Breakdramon, offering quiet murmurs of comfort.
A sudden shift in the wind drew their attention back to the crater.
Despite the gaping, charred hole already blasted through his chest armor, and despite being impaled once again by the Dramon Killers, MetalGarurumon X did not scream. He did not even flinch.
Blood and data leaked from the wound, but the strike had missed his Digi-Core entirely. The razor-sharp blades had only sheared through the thick armor of his shoulder. A flesh wound. In the grand scheme of this brutal clash, it barely registered as a threat.
MetalGarurumon X coughed, a low, metallic chuckle vibrating in his throat.
"WarGreymon X... what exactly are you aiming at?" The cyborg wolf tilted his head, his optic sensors glowing with a teasing light. "Are you trying to make me laugh with an attack this pathetic?"
"Shut your mouth!" WarGreymon X roared. The taunt grated against his nerves like shattered glass. With a violent jerk of his arm, he ripped his claws free and hurled the wolf across the dirt.
MetalGarurumon X crashed heavily, tumbling through the rubble. His Chrome Digizoid plating was a ruined, tattered mess. Sparks spat from exposed wiring, and his entire chassis groaned under the accumulated damage. Yet, as he lay in the dirt, the corners of his metallic maw curled upward.
He was smiling.
It was a genuine, radiant smile that completely defied the agonizing state of his body.
Under WarGreymon X's furious, bewildered stare, the ruined wolf planted his paws into the earth. Joints screaming, servos whining in protest, MetalGarurumon X forced himself back onto his feet.
"Do you know something, WarGreymon X?" The wolf's voice was raspy, laced with static, yet incredibly clear. "I have always envied you."
WarGreymon X froze, his claws twitching.
"I envied that unbreakable will of yours," MetalGarurumon X continued, taking a slow, agonizing step forward. "I envied that blinding, shining courage. Whenever the rest of us were paralyzed by fear, lost in the dark, you were always the one to take that first, impossible step forward. You led us."
The wolf lowered his head. "But... but look at you now."
MetalGarurumon X drew in a massive, shuddering breath. Wild, unstable arcs of blue electricity began to dance across his ruined armor, his internal reactor flaring to life.
He threw his head back and unleashed a deafening roar, pouring every ounce of his remaining soul into the sound.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"
The shockwave of his voice tore through the battlefield.
"Why are you hesitating?! Why did you stop?!" MetalGarurumon X snarled, his eyes burning with fierce disappointment. "Have you lost your nerve? Have you forgotten who you are?! You were the hero who marched at the vanguard of all Digimon! You feared nothing!"
The wolf slammed a heavy paw into the ground, cracking the bedrock. "And now? Now you stand here, completely and utterly lost!"
The accusations struck WarGreymon X like physical blows. His gauntlets creaked as his fists clenched tight enough to warp the metal. He opened his mouth to scream a retort, to deny everything, but the words died in his throat. A suffocating weight pressed down on his lungs.
He couldn't deny it. The wolf's fangs had sunk directly into the darkest, most fragile corner of his heart.
It was true. Once, he had been the battle-hardened vanguard. He had wielded a resolve as bright and absolute as the sun, charging into the abyss without a second thought.
But then came the slaughter. That tragic, blood-soaked rebellion.
He had survived. Only him.
He told himself he didn't regret fighting back, but in the quiet hours of the night, the doubt crept in like a poison. He hated to admit it, but the question haunted him relentlessly: If he hadn't stood up... if he hadn't rallied all those Digimon to raise their weapons against Yggdrasil... would they still be alive today? Had his shining courage only led his friends to the slaughterhouse?
'No!'WarGreymon X squeezed his eyes shut. The memory of shattered Digi-Cores and fading data flashed behind his eyelids.'I cannot think like this! I refuse!'
To doubt now was to spit on their graves. It was the ultimate insult to the crushing weight he carried on his shoulders. He had forfeited the right to live for himself a long time ago. His life belonged to the comrades who had bled out in the dirt. It belonged to the countless innocent lives extinguished by the Royal Knights, erased by the cold decree of Yggdrasil.
For their sake, he had to keep moving.
Even if he had to crawl. Even if he had to scavenge and fight like a rabid, stray dog wandering a dead earth.
He would keep running until his flesh rotted and his bones turned to dust!
A heaven-shaking roar tore from WarGreymon X's throat, shattering the silence of the wasteland. The golden aura surrounding his body erupted into a violent, surging hurricane, blasting outward in shockwave after devastating shockwave. The earth beneath his feet cratered under the sheer pressure of his rising power.
His eyes snapped open, blazing with renewed, terrifying clarity. He locked his gaze onto the battered wolf.
"MetalGarurumon X! I am not lost!"
His voice boomed like thunder, echoing with the weight of a thousand fallen souls.
"I will move forward! I will never stop!" WarGreymon X raised his claws, the air around them warping from the intense heat. "I carry the victims! I carry the innocent! I carry the weight of all life upon my back!"
He crouched low, the ground splintering beneath his boots.
"And I will carry them all the way to the end!"
[Afterburst!]
The massive thrusters on his back detonated with blinding force. But he didn't stop there. The exhaust vents built directly into his Dramon Killers ignited simultaneously, providing a terrifying, secondary layer of propulsion.
Propelled by the combined thrust, WarGreymon X vanished. He transformed into a streak of apocalyptic golden light—a meteor heralding the end of the world. The sheer friction of his passage incinerated the air, turning the very dust in his wake to ash.
[Terra Force ZERO!]
Facing the unstoppable golden meteor hurtling toward him, MetalGarurumon X did something entirely unexpected.
He lowered his weapons. The tattered, smoking Gatling gun on his snout dropped toward the earth.
Was he surrendering? Was he accepting death?
Absolutely not.
Despite his ruined chassis, despite the catastrophic damage alarms screaming in his HUD, a brilliant, unyielding light ignited within his optic sensors. He was staring death in the face, and he refused to blink.
He had spoken the absolute truth. He had spent his entire life envying the old WarGreymon X.
He had spent thousands of years wandering the Digital World, paralyzed by hesitation, suffocated by his own caution. But today, right here, right now... he wanted to try.
He wanted to chase the back of that fearless hero. He wanted to experience the sheer, intoxicating freedom of abandoning all logic, disregarding all fear, and simply pressing forward.
They always said that a Digimon's core personality could never change, not even in death.
'But,'MetalGarurumon X thought, the hum of his reactor drowning out the roar of the approaching meteor.'I was infected by the X-Program. My data was eroded to the brink of deletion before the X-Antibody awakened. Technically speaking... I have already died once.'The edges of his metallic jaw tightened into a fierce grin.'Since that is the case... I have nothing left to fear!'
The golden light consumed his vision. WarGreymon X was already upon him.
The distance had been closed in less than a tenth of a second. The strike was impossibly swift, carrying enough kinetic force to shatter a mountain range.
Yet, fueled by a will that refused to break, MetalGarurumon X's internal systems bypassed every safety protocol. His Digi-Core spun into a catastrophic overdrive, running at a speed that threatened to melt his very data.
He didn't care about the overload. He only cared about the present.
And in that state of absolute, burning focus, his processing speed shattered its own limits. He captured the microscopic, fleeting gap in WarGreymon X's flawless assault.
Suddenly, time lost all meaning.
The roaring wind, the blinding light, the falling debris—everything ground to a dead halt, as if the entire world had been paused by an invisible hand.
In this silent, frozen realm where only MetalGarurumon X could perceive his own existence, he moved.
It was not a devastating counterattack. It was a simple, almost insignificant shift in posture, a precise realignment of his remaining weaponry. But it was enough. It struck the exact, microscopic flaw in WarGreymon X's momentum.
The instant time resumed its natural flow, reality violently snapped back into place.
A catastrophic eruption of pure, blinding energy detonated at the point of impact, instantly swallowing the figures of both MetalGarurumon X and WarGreymon X.
On the sidelines, Belle reacted instantly, throwing herself in front of Mizuki to shield his human body from the incoming shockwave. Beside them, Gallantmon slammed his massive shield, the Aegis, into the earth, bracing against the gale.
The sheer density of the exploding energy was suffocating, tearing the very atmosphere apart.
Yet, safely tucked behind Belle's protective embrace, Mizuki didn't flinch. He stared fixedly into the heart of the blinding white explosion, a strange, knowing glint flashing in his dark eyes.
'If my eyes aren't playing tricks on me...'Mizuki mused silently, analyzing the impossible sequence of events he had just witnessed.'That wasn't time stopping. That was his battle sense and raw potential being stimulated to their absolute, theoretical limits. He was reading the future possibilities of the battle before they even happened.'A slow smirk tugged at the corner of Mizuki's mouth.'The [Omega InForce]... so it finally begins.'
Amidst his quiet murmurs, the raging storm of energy at the center of the crater finally reached its peak. Slowly, the blinding light began to recede, the deafening roar fading into the hiss of scorched earth and settling dust.
At long last, this brutal, desperate clash between two lost souls was coming to an end...
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