The Gizamon before them insisted it was only a runner, a messenger—manual labor, not part of the Dark Army's formal ranks.
Zero figured it wasn't lying. With its current Rookie-level strength, it clearly wasn't qualified for official membership anyway. At best it was an auxiliary grunt—maybe after evolving to Champion it would get a chance for "full employment."
If so, then giving it a chance wasn't unreasonable—especially if it could lead them to this island's rightful master.
"You know where the Gekomon and the island's lord, ShogunGekomon, are being held?"
Gizamon answered instantly, without hesitation. "I do! The Gekomon are working inside the central factory, and ShogunGekomon is imprisoned in an underwater jail beneath the island!"
It seemed MetalSeadramon handled the locals rather carelessly. Aside from locking up the island's strongest defender, ShogunGekomon, in the underwater prison—at least providing a few guards there—the rest of the Gekomon had simply been tossed into the factory as slave labor.
The factory itself only had a handful of overseers, all Champion-level at most. If the Gekomon inside united, they could very likely overpower them.
But the Gekomon weren't afraid of those overseers—they feared the Seadramon forces guarding the whole island, and even more the MetalSeadramon behind them.
The infamous cruelty of the Dark Masters and the Dark Army had crushed all thoughts of rebellion; the Gekomon accepted their enslavement without resistance.
Now that Zero and Hajime had wiped out the Seadramon forces, the island's greatest military strength was already gone. But just as Gizamon started leading them toward the factory, Zero suddenly heard a booming noise from its direction.
"…Not good!"
He immediately understood. A pillar of fire shot skyward—the entire factory was burning under a chain of explosions.
It seemed that once the coastal garrison fell, the overseers inside the factory realized their situation and decided to destroy the factory themselves rather than let it fall into enemy hands.
"Damn it—what about the Gekomon inside?"
Gizamon froze. It had assumed Zero was angry about the factory being destroyed, but instead—
"…Zero was worried about the Gekomon?"
"M-My Lord?" Gizamon stammered in confusion. "The crude oil processed here—there's still a large amount stored in the warehouses. If just the factory explodes, the losses—"
"Who the hell asked about the oil!?" Zero cut it off immediately. "The Gekomon inside—are they going to get caught in the blast?!"
If the overseers had chosen to drag the Gekomon down with them in a final act of spite, things would become far more complicated.
At this, Gizamon finally realized Zero didn't care about the factory at all—he was worried about the Gekomon.
Yet that only confused it further.
The factory and the crude oil were valuable resources. Losing them would be a major blow—so being angry made sense.
But the Gekomon? They were just labor. If they died, the Dark Army could always capture more. In the current Digital World, manual labor was the least scarce resource.
But Zero wasn't alone—Taichi, Hikari, Koushiro, and Rina all reacted immediately.
"He's right—we have to go save them, fast!"
Gatomon, her paw still pressing Gizamon to the ground, gave it a cool sideways glance.
"Hard to understand, isn't it? I used to think this kind of behavior was impossible to understand… But now I think I'm starting to get why someone would think like this~"
Then she kicked Gizamon forward. "Hurry up and lead the way. Move!"
Gizamon didn't dare delay. It quickly pointed the direction—though honestly, with that enormous burst of fire lighting the sky, the factory's location was obvious.
There was no time to travel on foot. Zero and Hajime evolved immediately, wings beating hard as they took off toward the flames.
By the time they arrived, the factory was chaos.
"Hahaha! Destroy everything! If we're losing, then no one gets to take anything! Move faster! All of you!"
Several Seadramon—modified for extended land mobility—were overseeing the destruction, forcing terrified Gekomon to help.
While not nearly as strong on land as in water, these altered Seadramon still made for dangerous ground troops.
With a sharp hiss of wind, Zero descended like a divine weapon and smashed the loudest Seadramon so hard it went from 3D modeling to 2D line art.
"!"
The sudden dimensional reduction stunned the remaining Seadramon.
"Hahaha! Too late! The factory's gone! You bumpkins will never rebuild it in your lifetimes! Oppose the Dark Army and you'll die miserable deaths!"
They clearly understood they couldn't escape, so they chose to die with defiant smiles—if they couldn't win the fight, at least they could win with their mouths.
Zero kindly granted them a spectacular death.
"Angewomon, Mistymon—save the Gekomon!"
"Understood!"
Gatomon and Wizardmon had already evolved. Angewomon released Holy Light, shielding the Gekomon, while Mistymon raised his blade, triggering a mass teleportation to remove them from danger.
Meanwhile, MetalGreymon's missile bays opened—
"Wh—"
The missiles slammed into the Seadramon, carrying them bodily through the burning factory walls. The shock ignited the flames further, triggering a second massive explosion—fireball and mushroom cloud blooming skyward.
The factory was now truly done for.
The Seadramon, thrown into the inferno, screamed in disbelief.
From the first moment… Zero had never cared about the factory. He had rushed here only to save the workers.
Why…?
"…Why would you do this?! DAMN YOU!!!"
Their screams were swallowed whole by the explosion.
The rescued Gekomon, stunned, stared blankly until Zero knelt down and spoke.
"Is everyone alright? Does anyone know where your lord is being held—and how to reach him?"
At that, several Gekomon—clearly higher-ranking members of their tribe—finally snapped out of their shock.
"Y-Yes! Just dive beneath the island! The Dark Army turned the entire lower half of our island into a submerged prison to hold anyone who resisted!"
"Got it~"
With that intel, rescuing ShogunGekomon was simple enough. Diving deep was difficult, but diving a little wasn't a problem at all for Zero now.
...
"What's all that noise…?"
Deep beneath the island, inside the underwater prison, a massive orange-red frog—muscular and imposing—sat confined inside a water cell.
Of course, calling it a "water cell" didn't affect a frog much. But the darkness and cold were unbearable compared to its former palace.
The palace that had long since been destroyed by the Dark Army—rebuilt into the factory above. Its loyal subjects had been enslaved as well.
Back then, ShogunGekomon had commanded his people not to resist. It surrendered itself to imprisonment, trading its freedom to spare the lives of the Gekomon.
A necessary sacrifice—but ShogunGekomon knew that endless forced labor under the Dark Army was hardly better than death.
Still, rumor had reached even this prison—whispers of a Resistance rising against the Dark Masters. That among them was a leader who had broken through the Mega Barrier, reaching the same realm as the Dark Masters themselves.
It dared to hope—just a little—that these heroes might come someday. Even the faintest hope was better than despair.
It had no idea how long it had been imprisoned. The guards—brutal Digimon overseeing the water cell—took great pleasure in beating it regularly.
Its Ultimate-level body meant it could endure such punishment. And since its subjects suffered because of its surrender, it felt it should at least endure the pain for their sake.
But the endless darkness made day and night indistinguishable, time impossible to measure.
Today, however, something changed—distant echoes of battle shaking the water.
But ShogunGekomon could not break the Dark Master's restraints; it could only wait and wonder.
"Hey! Can you hear me, ShogunGekomon?!"
Suddenly, a voice—unfamiliar—echoed through the water.
"My lord! My lord, it's the heroes from the Resistance—they've come to save us!"
That second voice it recognized—one of its faithful retainers.
For a moment, it froze.
The heroes… truly came?
"I—I'm here…"
It answered cautiously. Then the unfamiliar voice spoke again.
"Good. Move back a bit so you don't get hit. I'm breaking the cell open."
ShogunGekomon retreated carefully into a corner—it wasn't easy, given its size.
"Okay… ready…"
Zero nodded, gathered power, and struck.
Even if the prison had been built using Metal Empire technology under MetalSeadramon's orders, before a Zero who had broken the Mega Barrier, it was meaningless.
A brilliant light—sunlike—erupted underwater, illuminating the entire dark chamber.
Within that radiance, ShogunGekomon watched the prison shatter completely.
And a figure appeared before it.
"Don't worry—your subjects are safe. Your decision protected them well. You were a good lord. Now… welcome home."
In that moment, standing within the radiant light, Zero looked almost divine.
---
T/N: its like that mercy coming down to save you
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