Chapter 216: Jesmon, Sistermon Noir, and Sistermon Blanc
The Royal Knights. A revered title bestowed upon the Holy Knight Digimon gathered by Yggdrasil to govern and protect the Digital World. Stationed at the absolute zenith of network security, they were worshipped as the guardian deities of the digital realm.
Yet, the moment Yggdrasil initiated the apocalyptic X-Program, the once-unified order fractured. Those knights who clung to their inner justice and refused to slaughter the innocent resolutely raised their weapons against their own god.
Their rebellion was met with swift, merciless purging.
First, the boisterous Gankoomon fell beneath the colossal lance of Examon. Soon after, the blinding speed of UlforceVeedramon, the impenetrable shield of Craniamon, and the peerless tactical mind of Duftmon were all snuffed out in the ensuing civil war.
As for Jesmon, Gankoomon's sole apprentice and successor, his fate remained a mystery. In his final moments, Gankoomon had arranged for the Sistermons to drag the young knight away from the slaughter. From that day forward, Jesmon vanished without a trace.
The vast majority of the surviving Royal Knights assumed he had perished in the wasteland. Given his fiercely righteous personality, if he were still breathing, he would have undoubtedly inherited his master's iron will and charged headlong into Yggdrasil's forces once more.
Yet, Gallantmon could never have imagined the truth. Jesmon had been operating right under their very noses the entire time, hidden away in the deepest, most volatile sector of the Digital World: the core data source center.
It was a classic case of the darkest shadow resting directly beneath the candle. Gallantmon tightened his grip on his lance, his crimson cape billowing slightly as he stared at the battered figure of his fellow knight.
Despite belonging to the newer generation alongside Magnamon, Jesmon possessed a terrifying combat prowess that placed him firmly in the upper echelons of their order. Gallantmon had always believed that, given just a few more centuries to temper his blades, the young warrior would have ascended to become one of the absolute strongest existences among them.
But the once-proud savior now knelt before Gallantmon in a state of utter ruin. His gleaming armor was shattered, leaking streams of fragmented code, and his signature blades were chipped and dull.
"Jesmon... I thought you had fallen back then..." Gallantmon stepped forward, his heavy sabatons clanking against the crystalline floor. He caught himself, shaking his head. "No, never mind that. What happened to you? Who could have reduced you to such a state?"
He scanned the empty, desolate space behind the young knight.
"And where are the Sistermons? If I recall correctly, they should have been by your side—"
Gallantmon's voice abruptly died in his throat. His golden eyes widened behind his crimson visor.
Slowly, agonizingly, Jesmon raised a mangled, trembling arm. His metal fingers brushed against a small, cracked pendant hanging from his neck. The young knight's visor was broken, revealing eyes drowning in an ocean of guilt and suffocating sorrow.
"It is all my fault..." Jesmon's voice was a harsh, static-laced rasp. "Master Gankoomon... Noir... Blanc... I could not protect any of them."
"Jesmon..."
Gallantmon reached out, an overwhelming wave of sympathy washing over him. He wanted to offer words of comfort, to tell the young knight that he had done enough. But before his gauntlet could touch the younger knight's shoulder, Jesmon lunged forward with a desperate burst of speed, his broken fingers clamping down on Gallantmon's armored forearm.
"Uncle Gallantmon..." The title slipped out, a remnant of a more peaceful era. "I can trust you, right?"
The sheer desperation in the grip sent a cold spike of unease straight through Gallantmon's digicore. He dropped to one knee, supporting the collapsing warrior. "Jesmon, what on earth happened down here?"
"I am sorry... there is so much I need to tell you." Jesmon's voice flickered, the audio cutting out as his physical form began to glitch. "But I do not have any time left..."
"No time? What are you—"
Before Gallantmon could finish, a blinding light began to leak from the cracks in Jesmon's armor. The edges of his cape and limbs started dissolving into floating, luminescent data particles.
Gallantmon's breath hitched. His internal sensors finally registered the horrifying truth.
Jesmon's digicore had been completely shattered long ago. The only reason the knight was still conscious, still capable of moving and speaking, was due to his signature ability, [OS Generics]. He had been continuously rewriting his own corrupted data, forcing his ruined body to operate far beyond its absolute physical limits.
He was a walking ghost, clinging to his final breath through sheer, unadulterated willpower, just waiting for someone to arrive.
"Uncle Gallantmon, I have condensed my memories... and every last drop of my remaining power into this."
Jesmon reached into his chest cavity, his hand phasing through the dissolving armor. He slowly withdrew a brilliantly glowing data crystal, its core pulsing with a warm, golden light. With trembling fingers, he pressed it into Gallantmon's palm.
"I hope... it can be of help to you..."
The moment the crystal left his hand, the [OS Generics] override failed. Jesmon's body could no longer maintain its structural integrity. With a soft, chiming sound, the young Royal Knight dissolved into a swirling vortex of golden data particles, scattering into the cold, empty void of the core sector.
Gallantmon stared in silence at the glowing crystal resting in his gauntlet. Suspended within the swirling data were the fragmented mementos of Gankoomon, Sistermon Noir, and Sistermon Blanc.
His grip tightened. He did not hesitate. Drawing upon his own core, Gallantmon immediately initiated the absorption process.
The passing of his comrades carved a hollow, aching canyon into his soul. But to stop, to let grief paralyze him, would be the ultimate insult to their memory. It would spit on their sacrifices and render their final stands meaningless.
Having lived through countless centuries of war and loss, Gallantmon knew exactly what duty demanded of him. He had to completely assimilate the legacy Jesmon had left behind. He needed to uncover the truth of what had transpired in this dark abyss over the years. Only by carrying their will forward would he earn the right to shed tears for their passing.
As the pure, concentrated data surged up his arm and flooded his digicore, Gallantmon felt his own previously unstable state rapidly anchoring itself. His damaged circuits repaired, his armor regaining its pristine crimson luster.
Along with the surge of power came a flood of vivid, agonizing memories. The truth of Jesmon's long exile unfolded before his mind's eye.
After Gankoomon was struck down by Examon, the Sistermons had dragged a heavily wounded Jesmon to safety. Refusing to accept his master's death, the young knight had made a desperate gamble. He led the two sisters down into the deepest, most dangerous core area of the Digital World, hoping to sift through the primordial data streams to find Gankoomon's scattered fragments and resurrect him.
But the trio never expected what they would find lurking in the abyss.
It was not an ambush laid by Yggdrasil, nor a patrol of loyalist Royal Knights. Instead, they stumbled into a writhing, endless swarm of grotesque, unknown entities—the Eaters.
Resurrecting his mentor had been his sole driving purpose, but Jesmon was still a Royal Knight. The teachings of Gankoomon were burned into his very code. The moment he witnessed the Eaters devouring the surrounding data, he instantly calculated the catastrophic threat they posed to the entire Digital World.
Without a second thought, Jesmon, flanked by Sistermon Noir and Sistermon Blanc, drew his blades and charged into the horde.
In the beginning, Jesmon's overwhelming combat prowess allowed him to carve through the alien monsters with ease, his blades slicing through their pale, amorphous bodies like a scythe through wheat. But the swarm was infinite. For every Eater he destroyed, ten more crawled out from the shadows to take its place.
The sheer, suffocating volume of enemies eventually began to grind the trio down.
Yet, through years of endless, grueling combat, they never retreated a single step. They held the line in the dark. The heavy mantle of the Royal Knights and the boisterous, unyielding spirit of Gankoomon fueled their strikes. The absolute determination to protect the weak and safeguard their home was etched so deeply into their digicores that surrender simply did not exist.
The toll was devastating. Jesmon's body, never fully healed from the catastrophic injuries inflicted by Examon, was pushed beyond its breaking point. His armor shattered, his blades dulled, his code fraying at the edges.
To buy him time to recover, Sistermon Noir and Sistermon Blanc threw themselves into the swarm, fighting until their data was completely consumed, dying one after the other to shield the young knight they loved.
But their tragic sacrifices were not in vain.
By holding the chokepoint in the core area and slaughtering the Eaters without a single moment of rest for years, this lone trio had drastically suppressed the swarm's numbers. They had single-handedly prevented the Eaters from breaching the surface and consuming the entire Digital World.
In the truest sense, it was a half-dead Jesmon and two devoted Sistermons who had secretly held back the apocalypse in the dark.
"Jesmon... Sistermon Noir... Sistermon Blanc..."
Gallantmon slowly rose to his feet. The memories faded, leaving behind a roaring inferno of resolve.
"And to all the brave souls who sacrificed themselves in the shadows to protect this world..."
A terrifying, majestic aura erupted from Gallantmon's body, bathing the desolate core sector in a brilliant, holy light. His golden eyes locked onto the dark horizon, burning with an unshakeable, absolute conviction. He slammed the butt of his holy lance, Gram, against the crystalline floor, the shockwave echoing through the abyss.
"I, Gallantmon, swear to you upon my honor as a knight!" His voice rang out like thunder. "Your sacrifices will absolutely not be in vain!"
[Akarin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me!
Want to read ahead on our official home, or unlock 50 advanced chapters to feed your addiction? Help keep this shameless translator alive here:
🌐 Read on our site: Search for Elysian Reads on Google or Check the link in my Webnovel Profile bio!
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters & Ad-Free): Search AkarinTL on Patreon
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]