The air outside the general store was so thick with tension I could practically cut it with a batarang. We stepped out into the bright, sunlight of Primary Village, our newly purchased Ability Gems safely stored in the digital subspace of our Digivices, but the mood was anything but victorious. Nobody was speaking. None of the Digimon would even look at Wally.
Well, Gatomon was looking at him, if you count staring with the intensity of a predator debating whether her prey was worth the calories. Her blue eyes were narrowed into venomous little slits. Wally kept his head down, rubbing the back of his neck, acutely aware that he was currently the most unpopular person on File Island.
I caught Wally's eye and shot him a pointed look. *You need to apologize later. A real one.* Even if you didn't believe in someone else's religion, you still had to show it a basic level of respect, especially when that religion was tangibly real and governed the physics of the dimension you were currently trapped in. Wally offered a weak, apologetic wince in return.
I needed to break the silence before Gatomon decided to test her Lightning Paw attack on a speedster. I scanned our surroundings, looking for anything to shift the focus. My eyes landed on the massive, jagged peak looming in the center of the island, piercing the digital clouds.
"So, I have some more questions for you guys about File Island," I said, my voice intentionally bright and casual. "Like that mountain. Does it have a name or any significance?"
It only took a second for Kaldur and Conner to realize what I was trying to do.
"Yes, I was wondering about that as well," Kaldur chimed in, his tone smooth and authoritative. "It dominates the entire landscape."
Conner crossed his arms, leaning against a restored wooden fence. "Yeah. It's hard to miss. What's the deal with it?"
Gatomon blinked, her ears twitching. She finally tore her death-glare away from Wally and looked up at the mountain. As the oldest of our partners and technically a holy-type Digimon herself, she carried herself with a certain ancient authority when it her turn to answer about the world's lore.
"That is Infinity Mountain," Gatomon answered, her voice dropping into a respectful, quiet cadence. "And yes, it is in fact very significant. It is where the Creator lived as he made the Digital World."
That made all of us pause.
"Whether he is still up there or not, no one truly knows," Gatomon continued, her gaze fixed on the distant peak. "That isn't a place just any Digimon can walk up to anytime they want. The data density near the summit is overwhelming. The only ones who could safely make the journey were the holy Digimon of the church."
I exchanged a surprised look with Kaldur. We were staying right next door to the architect of this entire dimension. The Dungeon God himself might literally be a few miles away, watching us from the top of that spire.
Wally let out a low whistle, seemingly forgetting his precarious social standing. "Wow. You're saying he's probably up there right now? Like, this whole time we've been here? And Devimon still acted like he owned the island? Damn, I can't decide if that's really brave or really stupid. He must have had some real solid faith that Ami—"
Wally choked on the word as Gatomon's head snapped toward him, her fangs lightly bared.
"—sorry, Lord Amir!" Wally corrected frantically, holding his hands up in surrender. "That Lord Amir wouldn't have intervened! Because of the free will thing!"
Gatomon gave a curt, satisfied nod and looked away. Wally let out a breath he had clearly been holding. Note to self: we all needed to be a lot more respectful regarding Amir from now on. The locals did not mess around with blasphemy.
But the lore drop had genuinely hooked my curiosity. We needed more intelligence on Amir. All the other sources we had encountered so far, like our partners, seemed to only know the basic info that everyone knew. Ikaris had given us useless, almost fanatic trivia. And while I hadn't asked Piximon anything regarding Amir yet, I doubted a combat trainer would know much more about the deity's personal motivations than a priest would. Not to mention why said holy Digimon aren't helping out with the darkness were they told not to maybe and if so why.
"You mentioned the holy Digimon of the church earlier," I said, leaning forward. "Is there one nearby we could see? I want to know more about this world and the person who made it."
If we could find a holy Digimon who actually led a church and taught others about Amir, they would have the deep, unredacted history. A trip to the church was definitely in order. I glanced at Kaldur, who gave a subtle nod of agreement.
"If you want to visit the church, there's one right here in the village," Tentomon offered, buzzing his wings thoughtfully. "But as far as I know, all the churches on the island, and even on the Server Continent, have been empty for the last ten years."
I frowned. "Empty? What do you mean?"
"No one knows why, exactly," Tentomon explained, his mechanical voice tinged with sadness. "But most assume it has to do with the corruption. The holy Digimon—except the ones specifically responsible for guarding Dungeon entrances—vanished the exact same day the dark miasma first appeared."
The information hit me like a physical weight. Nearly every single holy Digimon in the world simply vanished on day one? That didn't sound like a coincidence. It sounded like a targeted first strike by the dark forces, taking the Creator's most devout and strongest followers off the board before the war even began.
But the timeline was what really bothered me. Ten years.
When Piximon had told us about the Four Holy Beast Digimon fighting the source of the darkness, I hadn't fully processed the scale of time. Ten years wasn't just *a while ago*; it was a full decade. I could somewhat understand that as an immortal species, their sense of time was probably vastly different than ours. A decade to a Digimon might feel like what a few months do to a human.
But from a tactical perspective, it was a massive problem. Did that mean that even after a full ten years, that some of if not the strongest beings in this world still hadn't solved the problem of the corruption? The only good news I could extract from that grim statistic was that they at least hadn't lost the fight yet. Otherwise, I highly doubted the source of the corruption would just sit around and wait to make a move on the rest of the Digital World.
"Tentomon," I said, my detective instincts fully flaring now. "Can you take us to the church in the village?"
"I can," Tentomon agreed, hovering up to my shoulder. "Just follow me."
***
From the pristine isolation of my throne room, I watched the four heroes and their partners navigate the cobblestone paths of Primary Village.
I smiled, a genuine expression of satisfaction warming my features. Dick Grayson was doing exactly what I knew he would. He was analyzing the breadcrumbs, questioning the established lore, and digging for the hidden truths of the world.
The narrative of the vanished holy Digimon was one of my better additions if I say so to the world's history. When I first generated the Digital World, I needed a reason why an army of powerful, Light-attribute Digimon weren't simply healing the corrupted zones and crusading against the Dark Masters and their servants. The easiest solution was to write them out of the current timeline, creating a compelling mystery that served a dual purpose: it explained the lack of divine intervention and it made the heroes feel completely isolated in their struggle.
Let them search the church. Let them feel the weight of the divine presence I had carefully coded into the architecture. They were looking for a savior, an explanation, a God who cared enough to watch over them. And they were right. I was watching. I just wasn't going to save them but I would give a explanation for my angels once they arrive.
***
We followed Tentomon through the winding, restored pathways of the village, moving away from the bustling commercial district and toward the quieter, northern edge of the settlement. The sounds of baby Digimon playing and Elecmon bustling about slowly faded, replaced by a serene, heavy silence.
Tentomon led us to a large, single-story wooden building. It had multiple tall windows catching the afternoon light, and despite clearly being one of the oldest structures in the village, it was impeccably well taken care of. There was no rot on the wood, no dust on the glass.
But what struck me the hardest was the atmosphere. The moment we stepped within twenty feet of the building, a warm, welcoming sensation washed over me. It felt like walking out of a freezing rainstorm and wrapping yourself in a heated blanket. It was an aura that silently promised that no matter what problem you were facing, as long as you were here, you were safe and loved.
I had been in plenty of churches, temples, and mosques back on Earth. Bruce made sure I understood the cultural and architectural significance of all of them. But none of them had ever made me feel like this. This was clearly magical. This was the church of a God who made absolutely sure you were aware that he cared enough to pay attention to all who entered.
As I pushed open the heavy wooden front doors, the sensation intensified. We all paused on the threshold. I could feel the hairs on my arms standing up. It wasn't the prickle of being watched by an enemy; it was the heavy, undeniable certainty that we were being perceived by something vastly larger than ourselves.
Conner rolled his shoulders, looking slightly uncomfortable with the sensation. Wally was unusually quiet, perhaps terrified of angering the unseen deity by speaking rudely again. We tried to ignore the feeling, stepping into the sanctuary. Since we were the only ones around, I could only assume and hope that it was in fact Lord Amir giving us that feeling, a passive system built into his places of worship.
I looked around the interior. It wasn't actually that much different from any old church you might find on Earth. There were long rows of polished wooden benches, perfectly aligned. At the front of the room stood a simple, elegant podium for speeches.
But it was the wall behind the podium that drew all of our attention.
Mounted on the pristine wood was what I could only assume was Lord Amir's divine symbol. It was a massive, perfectly carved circle interwoven with multiple colored lines that seemed to thrum with a faint, inner light. In the middle of the circle, a dual colored cross was laid inside with one half being black the other white, acting as the structural anchor for the glowing lines.
I stared at it for a long moment, my mind working to place the geometry. Then it clicked.
It looked exactly like the crystalline gate that had brought us here in the first place.
I heard Kaldur take a sharp breath beside me, clearly coming to the same realization. The symbol wasn't just a religious icon; it was a blueprint. A representation of the threshold between the mortal world and the divine space. We just stood there in silence, staring at the gate symbol, letting the overwhelming aura of the sanctuary wash over us. My muscles, which have been slightly tense since the talk about Etemon and Myotismon this morning, finally began to slacken. I genuinely felt safe here.
"It's an addictive feeling, isn't it?"
I nearly jumped out of my skin. Conner spun around, his fists instantly raised, and Wally blurred backward into a defensive crouch.
We turned to see Piximon sitting casually in the very first row of the benches. With how small he was, and how large the wooden pew was, it was no wonder we had missed him when we walked in. He didn't have his spear drawn. He just sat there, his pink wings resting flush against his back.
"That's why I come here," Piximon continued, his voice lacking its usual manic, drill-sergeant edge. He looked less sad now, thankfully, the heavy burden of his lost friends seeming to lift slightly in the church's embrace. "When I need to relax, and take the edge off."
I lowered my hands, my heart hammering against my ribs. "Piximon. You scared the hell out of us. We thought this place was empty."
"It is empty," Piximon said softly, looking up at the glowing symbol of the gate. "Has been for ten years. But the Creator's light doesn't leave just because the priests do."
Kaldur stepped forward, his posture respectful but cautious. "Piximon. Tentomon told us that all the holy Digimon vanished on the exact same day the corruption started. Is there any record of where they went? If they were the only ones who could climb Infinity Mountain, perhaps they retreated there?"
Piximon let out a long, tired sigh. He hopped off the bench, floating a few inches off the floor. "Many have guessed that and it doesn't help that the remaining holy Digimon and Ikaris isn't telling anyone why. But I have flown as high as the data pressure allows, and I have seen no sign of them. If they are up there with Lord Amir, they have not looked down in a decade."
I looked back at the symbol. Ten years of silence. And now, out of nowhere, a gate opens in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, and pulls four human teenagers into a holy war. Why us? Why now?
"Piximon," I said, keeping my voice steady. "When you told us about the Four Holy Beasts fighting the source of the darkness... how exactly does that work? If they've been fighting for ten years, what is taking so long? Are they losing?"
Piximon's small eyes darkened. "The Sovereigns do not lose, human. But they are holding back an ocean of malice with their bare hands. The Dark Masters are merely the generals of this war. The true enemy, the source... it is something older. Something that hates the very concept of data and creation."
"And that would be," Conner asked really hoping Piximon knew.
"I wish I knew I really do," Piximon nodded. "But what I do know is as long as the Sovereigns are holding them back. Locking it away in the deepest void, they cannot intervene here. Which is why Etemon rules the desert, and why Myotismon stalks the shadows. The defense of this world falls to us. And now, to you."
Wally ran a hand through his red hair, looking at the glowing cross. "No pressure or anything."
''No need to worry you are the DigiDestined chosen children of destiny there is no doubt that you will prevail.'' suddenly a voice none of them recognized called out.