Chapter 128: The Chaotic Dark Zone

Upon obtaining the title of the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Feng Xue fully grasped the immense significance of the Seven Great Demon Lords' Crests. It was precisely this understanding that made him realize just how perilous the Dark Area had become.

It was much like the struggle for the primordial saint-hoods; heaven and earth could only sustain a finite number of such positions. Since everyone yearned to ascend, the great powers would naturally go to any lengths to weaken their competitors, bringing them closer to that coveted seat. However, the contest for the Seven Great Demon Lords' Crests was different, for it had a specific, singular target.

To put it in perspective, it was akin to the Imperial Seal of the Realm. Countless warlords had their eyes on the seal; they knew it was hidden away in some museum, but because every single one of them was watching, they checked and balanced one another. No one dared to seize it, fearing a collective assault. Yet, suppose one day, those warlords discovered that a petty thief had made off with the seal. What, then, would happen?

Indeed, that thief would find themselves hunted by every single warlord.

At this moment, Feng Xue was playing the role of that thief.

Fortunately, Feng Xue had not taken the final crest, so the countless Demon Lord-type Digimon did not pursue him with absolute disregard for everything else; they still had to remain vigilant to ensure the remaining three crests were not snatched away by others in the chaos. Nevertheless, this did nothing to ease the turmoil within the Dark Area. Since no one knew who had obtained the Crest of Gluttony, nearly every Demon Lord had become a suspect. Consequently, the entire Dark Area had descended into war, with groups of Perfect-level Digimon locked in slaughter wherever one looked.

Feng Xue had realized the gravity of his situation the moment he entered the Dark Area, yet the crest was impossible to hide—no matter how he tried to conceal it, it would manifest above his head. Thus, the moment he appeared in public, he became the target of every hostile gaze. As an outsider without a legion of his own, he was an easy target for a coordinated siege. Although there was no precedent, the Demon Lords were more than willing to experiment: if they killed him, perhaps they could seize the crest through plunder.

It was as if someone had consumed an elixir of immortality, only for others to capture and boil them, hoping to absorb the essence. Though the odds were slim, these Demon Lords, who had fought for the Seven Great Demon Lords' Crests for eons, were happy to try. What defined a Demon Lord? To act recklessly according to one's own will—that was the essence of a Demon Lord!

Riding Behemoth, Feng Xue maintained a high-speed sprint, for only by doing so could he keep the Crest of Gluttony above his head hidden from the other Digimon. However, evasion was never a permanent solution. Eventually, there would come a day when he could not escape—perhaps spotted by a Digimon with keen vision, or simply caught in the crossfire of a skirmish. Regardless, Feng Xue now had hundreds of Perfect-level Digimon trailing behind him, including three Ultimate-level ones.

"Damn it! And I'm fresh out of syrup!" Feng Xue muttered, twisting the throttle. The pupil of the third eye that had emerged on his forehead shifted into a flame-like shape, reflecting his volatile mood.

He yearned for the transmission beams of the Digital World, but those were essentially data flows from the real world—network transmissions. The Dark Area, however, was a receptacle for the shredded data of the Digital World; it was where data went after being permanently deleted from the Recycle Bin. Consequently, no data flows traversed this place, and thus, no transmission beams could appear. Were it not for this, it would not be known as the greatest prison in the Digital World.

Feng Xue was incredibly anxious. While Beelzemon hadn't laid a hand on the children in the original story, the current situation featured a Piedmon that had evolved from a DemiDevimon! Heaven only knew if this discrepancy would evolve into an irreversible catastrophe. Feng Xue was not an Angel-type Digimon; he possessed no Holy Resurrection light. If the children were turned into dolls, he would be utterly powerless.

Yet, trapped in the Dark Area, he had no other options. Although he possessed a channel to travel between the Dark Area and the real world, he lacked the time to cast the spell. Yes, casting—magic in the Digital World was, in essence, programming. Feng Xue had inherited a portion of this magic from the memories of Phelesmon.

His so-called "teleportation magic" was effectively the act of editing a hyperlink using data power, connecting it to a "Digital Gate" he had previously identified. It was like jumping to another webpage via a hyperlink while browsing the internet. However, he only had the coordinates for the Digital Gate located in the real-world sewer. Crossing worlds and crossing areas were theoretically similar in difficulty, but the workload involved was vastly different. A hyperlink within a local network required only a mouse click, while a cross-border link required firewalls, VPNs, and a series of complex maneuvers.

The problem with Digital World magic was that it produced intense light and shadow effects during programming. The more powerful the magic, the more pronounced these effects became. If Feng Xue were to weave a spell powerful enough to escape the Dark Area, he would surely alert every Demon Lord in the vicinity.

So...

"Damn it! I'm done running!" Feng Xue tightened his legs to secure himself to Behemoth, entrusting the movement entirely to the motorcycle. He unholstered "Feast," drew an orange arrow from his waist, and fired it backward.

"BOOM!" A violent explosion echoed. As expected of an Ultimate-level attack, its power was vastly different from when he was at the Perfect level. If his previous arrows were like hand grenades, this shot possessed the power of an RPG!

However, the Nightmare Soldiers were not called the Nightmare Soldiers for nothing. Not a single Perfect-level Digimon was lost in the blast; the most heavily injured were merely blown away, looking disheveled but suffering no lasting trauma.

"So, it really is just a status effect..." Feng Xue shook his head. While the orange arrow from his Plague Shot caused an explosion, its power was severely mismatched with his current level—it only had the destructive force of a Champion-level when he was a Perfect, and now that he was an Ultimate, it barely reached Perfect-level power. It seemed its true utility lay in its knockback effect.

Realizing this, Feng Xue stopped reaching for his arrows. Instead, he condensed a bolt radiating a black, metallic luster from his own data stream.

"Double Impact!" Accompanied by the signature sound effect of a Digimon special move, the arrow streaked through the air like a black bolt of lightning, aimed directly at the pursuing Digimon.

Having witnessed the previous explosive arrow, the Digimon had dismissed this one with contempt. Yet, the price for their arrogance was paid swiftly. Under this single strike, no fewer than five Perfect-level Digimon were reduced to ash!