Chapter 127: The Shadow Cast by the Demon Kin

“This is hardly evolution; his entire clothing style has changed!” Rika pouted in complaint. There was no helping it. Feng Xue had always been dressed in elegant white, no matter how he evolved, but now he had suddenly turned completely black. It was practically a reversal!

Feng Xue himself could do nothing about it. His previous white clothing, wings included, had existed because he possessed too many holy factors within his body. To prevent those holy factors from causing rejection, he could only condense them into garments. After undergoing the baptism of the Gate of Sin, however, many of those holy factors had been directly transformed into dark factors. Naturally, he could no longer go around dressed in white.

That said, his Ultimate form was truly worlds apart from that of an ordinary Beelzemon. Common Beelzemon only grew wings after entering Gale Mode—although the national dub translated it as Blast Mode, it was not actually a Blast Mode, but Beelzemon’s exclusive Gale Mode, rather like Gallantmon’s Crimson Mode. Feng Xue, by contrast, already possessed a pair of wings in his ordinary form.

The wings protruding from beneath his trench coat were admittedly somewhat strange, but once one grew accustomed to the style, they were undeniably rather impressive.

Yet just as everyone was growing excited over Feng Xue’s new form, lava suddenly erupted from a rift in the distance. An ominous humanoid Digimon leaped out of it. After casting the group a sidelong glance, it turned around and left without hesitation. From the four swords on its back, all they could determine was that it was probably a Piedmon.

“That just now was…” Although none of the others had paid it much attention, Feng Xue’s expression had turned grim.

If he remembered correctly, then in the original story, Behemoth had fallen into a river of lava, after which the Impmon within the lava river had evolved into Beelzemon. But now, what had appeared in the lava river was a Demon Man-type Piedmon. He could not help but wonder whether it was actually something that had evolved from an Impmon.

One had to understand that although Piedmon was a Demon Man-type, its combat power was in no way inferior to that of an ordinary Demon Lord-type. Its signature technique could even pierce through Chrome Digizoid with ease!

The Piedmon in the first season had been defeated entirely because of the protagonist’s halo. If MagnaAngemon had not suddenly exploded with power, the Chosen Children would have been wiped out long ago. Seriously, a Piedmon at the Ultimate level, yet its physical skills were inferior to an Angemon’s? What a ridiculous joke! Even if its technique was mediocre, the amount of data possessed by an Ultimate was a million times that of a Champion. Wouldn’t sheer strength alone have been enough to crush its opponent? It was just like when Leomon seized Beelzemon in the third season: Beelzemon merely flicked him away, and Leomon was killed on the spot. That had nothing to do with combat experience; it was simply an overwhelming difference in strength.

“What’s wrong?” Rika asked curiously. She rarely saw Feng Xue look like this. Could a Digimon’s personality change along with its evolution? Then again, didn’t that happen to most of them?

“Nothing. That Digimon just now seemed strangely familiar…” Feng Xue shook his head. He had the feeling that some kind of crisis was drawing near. But even if that Piedmon really had evolved from an Impmon and was destined to replace Beelzemon’s role from the original story, Feng Xue was now one of the Seven Great Demon Lords, protected by the Gate of Sin. Even the Four Sovereigns would be easy enough for him to confront head-on, much less a mere Piedmon.

Yet fate always possessed its own means of correcting deviations from history, while the protagonist’s halo was a mighty force even greater than fate itself. In the original story, Impmon could practically be considered one of the two central protagonists of Digimon Tamers. Now that its position had been taken by a DemiDevimon, that DemiDevimon naturally inherited a corresponding protagonist’s halo.

Thus, at that very moment, the sphere in the real world suddenly projected a colossal pillar of light. Although it vanished in the blink of an eye, by the time everyone had realized what was happening, Feng Xue had already disappeared.

Leaving Rika and the others to continue their adventure much as they had in the original story, Feng Xue now stared at the suddenly transformed surroundings with a headache fit to split his skull.

“Damn it. It actually sent me to a place like this!”

Feng Xue’s expression was frighteningly dark, because the place he now occupied was none other than the Dark Area, known throughout the Digimon world as its great prison. It was home to the most vicious and heinous Digimon factions in existence. Any single one of them possessed strength at least in the upper ranks of the Perfect level.

Even more terrifying was the fact that these Digimon lived in groups.

Only here did the name “Nightmare Soldiers” acquire its deeper meaning.

In the Dark Area, Digimon truly existed in the form of legions.

The power structure here resembled the era of warlords. Every renowned strongman possessed followers of his own, while army after army composed of Digimon fought one another for status.

This struggle was not meaningless. Beyond the acquisition of greater quantities of data, it also signified authority over the Digital World.

The authority of a Demon Lord.

When Feng Xue had previously seen the Gate of Sin, three crests upon it had already been illuminated. This meant that, counting himself, four of the Seven Great Demon Lords had already gathered.

Three remained without masters.

Not every Digimon could be as fortunate as Feng Xue. Thanks to the innate nature of a Gourmet Demon, he had possessed an incomplete Crest of Gluttony from birth. He had then completed the crest by drawing upon Behemoth’s immense data stream, allowing him to connect directly to the Gate of Sin through the Crest of Gluttony and obtain the authority of Gluttony.

Under normal circumstances, a Digimon first had to reach the Ultimate level before qualifying to approach the Gate of Sin. Then, after enduring severe trials—the data currents near the Gate of Sin were exceptionally chaotic, making it extremely difficult to draw close—a Digimon would finally earn the right to touch the gate.

But being able to touch the Gate of Sin was not enough. The Gate of Sin itself chose the Demon Lords. Unless one had obtained a Crest of Original Sin before touching it, as Feng Xue had, one had to undergo the gate’s judgment. Only when the Gate of Sin acknowledged that the Digimon touching it possessed the capacity to bear original sin would it bestow a crest upon that Digimon. Only then could the Digimon become one of the Seven Great Demon Lords.

In truth, however, touching the Gate of Sin was far more difficult than anyone imagined, because there were only seven positions.

The Seven Great Demon Lords represented more than mere strength. Possessing that title meant being acknowledged by the entire Digital World. Even after death and rebirth in the Village of Beginnings, one could recover one’s memories through the Gate of Sin. It was practically equivalent to immortality.

The temptation of eternal life was just as immense for Digimon. Thus, any powerful Digimon who knew of the Gate of Sin would do everything possible to prevent other Digimon from approaching it, while simultaneously striving with all their might to reach it themselves.

Yet breaking through the total blockade imposed by other factions was unbelievably difficult. Consequently, throughout history, only three Digimon had ever gained the recognition of the Gate of Sin. Even counting Feng Xue, who had simply stumbled into extraordinary luck, there were still only four.