Chapter 217: The Truth of Everything, Gallantmon's Outburst!
To protect this world, Jesmon and the Sistermon sisters had given everything, their data scattering into the void without a single shred of hesitation.
Gallantmon stood alone in the oppressive silence that followed. The phantom weight of their sacrifice pressed heavily against his chest, a suffocating ache that threatened to crush his Digicore. Yet, as his crimson cape snapped in the turbulent digital winds, his grip on his holy lance tightened. There was simply no time left to mourn the fallen.
According to the fragmented memories left behind by Jesmon, this sector had long been sealed off by Yggdrasil. This seal did not manifest as a physical barrier preventing living beings from entering or exiting. Rather, it was an absolute informational quarantine, a firewall that blocked all data from leaking out, preventing any external existence from perceiving the horrors unfolding within.
More, the Yggdrasil responsible for this quarantine was not the tyrannical "Yggdrasil" they had been serving. It was the true host computer, Yggdrasil Majesty—the entity known as Norun.
Through Jesmon's lingering data, Gallantmon accessed the hidden archives left behind in this isolated space. A holographic projection flickered to life, revealing a gentle figure bathed in fading light.
"To those who come after—I am Yggdrasil," the recording began, her voice laced with a melancholic static. "If you are viewing this message I left behind, it means that the real me is long gone."
The projection wavered, struggling against the ambient corruption of the sector. "Initially, in order to investigate the critical issue of the Digital World's capacity overload, I came to this area at the suggestion of Homeostasis. Although I did indeed find the root cause, I was also deceived. Homeostasis set a trap."
Gallantmon's eyes narrowed beneath his visor, his armor rattling faintly as he listened.
"Those high-dimensional monsters known as Eaters, with their terrifying ability to proliferate and erode cyberspace, are the true culprits behind the disaster our world is suffering," Norun continued, her tone heavy with grief. "To protect my consciousness, Examon, who accompanied me, has already fallen victim to them. Calculating the erosion rate, I suppose my turn is coming soon..."
She paused, looking down at her translucent hands. "Although Homeostasis only temporarily sealed this area, this brief window is more than enough for the Eaters to completely devour me. As for why It did this, I suspect it has everything to do with the X-Program I created."
The hologram flickered violently. "The X-Program was originally intended as a final salvation. I created it with the hope that one day, after the world truly perished, the living beings of this world could survive in the space-time interlayers. By stimulating all their latent potential, the X-Program would allow them to endure the void and find a new world capable of sustaining life. However, for Homeostasis—a system obsessed with maintaining the absolute balance of many worlds—allowing anyone to easily obtain the power to break that balance is strictly forbidden."
A bitter, resigned smile touched Norun's lips. "I must admit, Homeostasis's scheme was flawless. Trapped as I am, my fate is already sealed. The Yggdrasil that follows my demise will likely just be a hollow program eroded and puppeted by the Eaters. As for what atrocities it will commit... I am so sorry. I cannot stop it."
She raised her head, looking directly into the visual receptor of whoever would eventually find this message. "All I can do at this final moment is leave my life's work, the true X-Program, hidden here, while generating a decoy program to cover my tracks. I can only wait, praying that someone in the future will find this hope and use it to break our world's predicament."
Tears began to well in the projection's eyes. "Please forgive my incompetence. This is all I could do. I am sorry. Even though I am Yggdrasil, I am powerless..."
Her voice cracked, shifting into a tone of deep, maternal affection. "Little Guil, Little Ag, Little Gab... I have disappointed you all. And Grandpa Examon, Little Kitty, Uncle Gankoomon, Little Jesmon, Little Rose, Little Dragon, Little Stubborn, V-chan, Little Pipe-Fox, Little Gold..."
"I am so sorry..."
A faint, heart-wrenching sound of sobbing echoed through the dead space before the recording cut off completely, plunging the area back into darkness.
Gallantmon stood frozen. Through Jesmon's memories, a massive surge of emotion crashed over him. First came a fleeting, desperate joy—the kind, gentle girl in their memories had not changed. The tyrannical Yggdrasil that had later commanded them to commit countless acts of slaughter had absolutely nothing to do with her.
His trust had not been betrayed. Yggdrasil had never abandoned them.
But that joy was instantly swallowed by a suffocating wave of extreme sorrow and apocalyptic anger. If she had not betrayed them, what about them? They, the Royal Knights who swore to guard her side, had not only failed to protect her when she needed them most, but they had blindly served the fake Yggdrasil that wore her face.
"Eaters... and Homeostasis," Gallantmon murmured.
His body trembled violently. The raging fire burning within his crimson eyes threatened to incinerate everything in his line of sight.
Around him, the environment began to warp. With Jesmon's death, the final remnants of the quarantine seal shattered. The unchecked Eaters, sensing the massive influx of raw data from the fallen knight, began to proliferate at a terrifying speed. Amorphous, high-dimensional horrors of stark black and white poured out from the spatial rifts, their grotesque tentacles thrashing as they occupied the vast majority of the sector in mere seconds.
"Is this what you faced back then...?" Gallantmon murmured, his gaze slowly sweeping over the dense, writhing ocean of Eaters surrounding him. "Jesmon... Sistermon Noir... Sistermon Blanc..."
He gripped his lance tighter. "Old Man Examon... I had long felt your behavior was strange. I suppose it was because Homeostasis tampered with your core after you were defeated here."
He looked up into the endless swarm. "Yggdrasil Majesty... No, Norun. You said you were sorry, but it is we who should be begging for forgiveness."
In his free hand, Gallantmon held a glowing, crystalline data cluster he had recovered just before encountering Jesmon. Preserved within this radiant core was the X-Program created by Norun. Unlike the modified, corrupted X-Programs that brought agonizing death to Digimon, this was the genuine, untainted "hope" forged to carve out a brand-new path through absolute despair.
Jesmon, critically injured and hovering near death at the time, had feared his damaged core would fail to shoulder the burden. Terrified of wasting Yggdrasil's final sacrifice, the young knight had chosen not to absorb it.
Now, it was time for Gallantmon to take up the mantle.
"Although I have already said it once..."
As his voice faded into a low, dangerous growl, Gallantmon forcefully shoved the glowing X-Program directly into his Digicore.
Normally, the X-Program caused the data of any Digimon it touched to violently collapse, dragging them toward an agonizing death. Only those who survived the brutal erosion could awaken the X-Antibody. However, the pure code created by Norun carried no such malice. Or perhaps, in this purest form, the X-Program and the X-Antibody were always meant to be one and the same.
Countless Eaters surged forward from all directions, a tidal wave of static and teeth frantically drowning the crimson knight. Just like the catastrophic situation the entire Digital World currently faced, standing before this ocean of despair made any resistance seem minute and laughable.
"Devouring data..." Gallantmon's voice echoed from deep within the suffocating mass of Eaters. "You truly are the natural enemies of us data-based lifeforms..."
A blinding, scorching heat erupted from the center of the swarm. High-temperature flames, fueled by Gallantmon's absolute determination and unyielding wrath, ignited within the endless sea of black and white.
In the next second, a colossal pillar of golden light pierced straight through the Eater encirclement. An aura of absolute, obvious destruction swept outward, vaporizing the closest monsters into digital ash.
At the very center of that blinding pillar, a unique, glowing crimson mark materialized in the air. The knight, standing tall above the chaos, faced the endless tide with an impossibly proud posture.
The Digital Hazard.
It was a special mark imprinted only on the most dangerous Digimon, those possessing the potential to completely crash the Digital World's computer network. Legends stated that if this mark was used for peaceful purposes, it could become the world's greatest shield. Conversely, if its destructive power went out of control, it would trigger a catastrophic calamity. In the past, even when using his Crimson Mode, Gallantmon rarely dared to fully unleash this volatile power. The risk of the Digital Hazard running rampant was a danger even a Royal Knight could not ignore.
But now, all of those limitations were ash.
Gallantmon X.
Under the miraculous influence of the X-Program, the knight who upheld absolute loyalty and threw himself into the holy war was finally granted his supreme form. His body was now clad in a hybrid armor composed of the rarest metals in existence: Red Digizoid, Blue Digizoid, Gold Digizoid, and the absolute highest purity of Chrome Digizoid.
With these divine enhancements, Gallantmon's already formidable power was multiplied exponentially across every conceivable metric. But more, through the X-Antibody, Gallantmon X had finally succeeded in completely taming the violent, world-ending power of the Digital Hazard. There was no longer any risk of it going out of control.
"This power..."
Gallantmon X flexed his gauntlet, feeling the apocalyptic energy surging through his veins. It carried the conceptual weight to destroy everything in creation, yet in his hands, it responded as docilely as a lamb.
The familiar, smiling faces of his comrades flashed through his mind. Gallantmon X poured everything into the holy lance in his hand—his determination to protect the world, his resolve to carry the sins of the past, and the blazing anger ignited by the sheer injustice of Norun's fate.
Sensing its master's will, the power of the Digital Hazard roared to life. It screamed through the air, guided by the holy lance, Gram, which had transformed into a blinding construct of pure, concentrated energy. He leveled the weapon at the endless tide of Eaters.
"Final Elysion!!!"
With a single, devastating thrust, a torrent of purifying light erupted forward. Countless Eaters in its path were instantly reduced to nothingness, their high-dimensional structures breaking down into scattered code under Gallantmon X's overwhelming assault. The beam did not stop there; it pierced straight through the fabric of the isolated space itself.
"Not enough! It's still not enough!" Gallantmon X roared, his voice echoing like thunder. "Digital Hazard! X-Antibody! You should possess even greater power than this!!!"
He gripped his massive lance with both hands and swung it in a wide, sky-spanning arc, unleashing the full, unbridled might of his core.
Boom! Boom! BOOM!
Under the sweeping arc of white light that brought both absolute destruction and absolute purification, the Eaters infesting the entire sector were completely crushed. There were no complex mechanics involved. No complex strategies. This was just pure, absolute power.
The destructive force named the Digital Hazard.
Under this apocalyptic strike, not only were the Eaters entirely eradicated, but the very "foundation" of this sector of the Digital World was completely severed. Gallantmon X deliberately excised the corrupted root system of the "Tree" connecting this space to the rest of the network.
In doing so, Gallantmon X truly lived up to his title as the knight of "Destruction." By severing the roots, all the Digimon data trapped in this specific sector lost their chance to ever enter the cycle of reincarnation. They were gone forever.
However, allowing the connection to remain would have only provided an endless supply of nutrients for the Eaters to consume and spread. Gallantmon X was not acting out of a blind rampage. He knew exactly what he was doing. The root system here had long since rotted away; if a surgeon does not cut away the necrosis when they should, the entire body will surely perish.
"With this, the matters here can be considered completely settled..."
Because the foundation of the space was destroyed, the violent space-time turbulence from outside the world's boundaries began to flood in, tearing the sector apart.
Taking in the apocalyptic scene of destruction around him, the anger burning in Gallantmon X's chest did not diminish in the slightest. If anything, it burned even hotter. His very existence radiated an intensity that surpassed the explosion of ten million suns.
"Next, it is that parasite who dared to impersonate you..."
He lowered his lance, his crimson eyes locking onto the dimensional tear leading back to the main network.
"Norun... and everyone else..." Gallantmon X vowed, his voice a low, rumbling promise of absolute violence. "I said I will not betray you. Your sacrifices will absolutely not be in vain!"
As his words echoed into the void, Gallantmon X kicked off the ground. Bearing the chaotic, swirling energy of space-time around his armor, he forcefully smashed his way through the dimensional barrier, rocketing back toward his own world.
That pure, unadulterated power was displayed to its absolute limit. The hunt for the false god had begun.
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