Chapter 121: The Idiotic Teammate Who Drags Everyone Down

The magic Feng Xue inherited from Pharoahmon’s memory was nowhere near as efficient as Taomon’s "Death Spell," at least not when it came to blocking bizarre attacks like these. Unlike Taomon, who could conjure a barrier with a flick of a rune, Feng Xue had to mobilize various magical forces—essentially programming languages—to edit a defensive subroutine on the fly.

He had not been a programmer for over a millennium! Had it not been for the modular runes embedded in Pharoahmon's memories, he would have been forced to call "game over" long ago. Yet, even after managing to save himself and Lopmon, he realized the situation was far more dire than he had imagined.

The original lore regarding the "Shaggai" program never detailed its mechanics, merely mentioning black holes and physical-layer suppression. Feng Xue had dismissed it as hyperbole, but who could have known it was actually a literal, miniature black hole?

It functioned by aggressively compressing data, causing the volume of data units to increase exponentially. Through reverse-engineering the principles of Digimon materialization, it performed a counter-operation that digitized Digimon in the real world and funneled them into a "singularity" constructed entirely of data. Once reduced to a part of this black hole, a Digimon destroyed by Shaggai could not even return to the Primary Village.

"What a bunch of absolute morons!" Feng Xue cursed viciously. If he had known Shaggai was this dangerous, he would have hunted down Mitsuo Yamaki long before Rika even got involved!

His complaints were useless. The sky now resembled a burning cloud, radiating an orange-red glow as it swirled and ground against itself, forming a massive vortex directly above the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. It exuded a terrifying gravitational pull; it seemed as though anything originating from the Digital World would be consumed by it.

"Where the hell did Vajramon go?" Feng Xue found himself desperately missing that monkey. According to his fading memories of the plot, that monkey was the key to stopping Shaggai.

Meanwhile, the three human protagonists had yet to grasp the horror of the situation. Takato was even paralyzed by fear at the sight of the gargantuan Digimon, staring blankly at WarGrowlmon, who was being pinned to the ground by an orange-red sphere of light.

"Takato! What’s wrong?" Henry Wong shook Takato’s shoulders, but the boy remained frozen.

"I don’t understand..."

"What don't you understand?"

"I don't understand why Digimon get bigger and stronger when they evolve, but they stop feeling like friends... Is this what evolution is? Is this what you call evolution?" Takato muttered, as if talking to himself or questioning Rika and Henry.

"They are still our friends!" Rika blurted out without a second thought. Her decisiveness made the other two look at her in surprise. "No matter how big or strong they get, Feng Xue is still the same as when he was Impmon! He will always be my friend!"

"Rika..."

"Digimon grow larger and stronger for reasons beyond their control," Henry said, looking at the massive Vajramon with a sudden realization. However, just as the three were debating the existential meaning of evolution, the influence of Shaggai finally spread to the physical layer.

The sky tore open like a golden wound, and pillars of light poured down. Everything rooted in the Digital World began to be pulled toward the center. It seemed that one moment of carelessness would result in being sucked into that massive vortex, never to return.

The immense suction was tearing through the magic barrier Feng Xue had constructed. Even as a Perfect-level Digimon, he knew that in another minute or two, he would be unable to resist the pull and would be scattered into dust within the network.

Just then, Feng Xue heard a shriek—not a cry of fear, but a roar of vented rage. A figure shot up into the sky nearby and hurled a crystal orb toward the massive vortex.

"Is that Kumbhiramon?" A flicker of hope ignited in Feng Xue’s eyes, for the crystal orb clearly contained the power of the Digimon Sovereigns. It was the artifact held by the monkey-type Digimon—the "Jewel"!

Pulled by Shaggai, the Jewel drifted toward the center of the black hole, turning into a beam of light that pierced the singularity. There was no violent explosion, no flashing lights; only two flashes of electricity, and then the massive vortex suddenly went calm. Immediately afterward, something surged out, and an explosion rocked a section of the Metropolitan Government Building.

"It’s over!" Realizing the gravitational pull had vanished, Feng Xue immediately dispelled his barrier. He hadn't forgotten that there was still a giant boar to deal with below!

Sure enough, Vajramon sensed the cessation of Shaggai even earlier than Feng Xue. The moment it regained its mobility, it spat out a crimson orb of light, its destructive power hammering the surrounding buildings. The beast had clearly gone berserk!

"Damn it!" Feng Xue dodged the "Vajra Wheel" aimed at him and, without hesitation, drew an arrow and fired it at Vajramon.

Shaggai wasn't entirely negative; at the very least, it had severed the data stream feeding Vajramon. If the Digimon had been allowed to continue absorbing data, heaven knows how strong it would have become.

However, neither Feng Xue nor Lopmon was the type to excel at protracted siege warfare. If his opponent were human-sized, Feng Xue had a hundred ways to beat them into the ground, even if they were clad in Gold Digizoid armor (the strongest known form of Chrono Digizoid). But facing Vajramon, Feng Xue could only admit the truth: this thing was just too big. Even if he used a "Crushing Fist," it was difficult for his force to penetrate the thick hide and fat, let alone reach the internal organs.

In that moment, Feng Xue realized his deficiency: he lacked a city-level attack. No, even city-level was a stretch; most of his abilities were single-target, and even his army-level capabilities were pitifully scarce. This meant that when facing a large number of enemies, he had to take them out one by one, which was devastatingly taxing on his stamina.

Just as Feng Xue was fretting over his lack of offensive power, Takato seemed to have experienced an epiphany. He rushed to the side of WarGrowlmon, who was still pinned under the orange-red light, and began what could only be called "buffing through shouting."

Accompanied by Takato’s roars, WarGrowlmon seemed to truly gain strength. For the first time, the power of a Tamer’s emotions bypassed the D-Power as a medium and flooded directly into the Digimon’s body.

Fueled by Takato’s emotional surge, WarGrowlmon went wild. The blades forged from Digizoid slashed through the light wheel Vajramon had unleashed. The two "monsters," one large and one small, actually began a contest of raw strength!

Yet, WarGrowlmon didn't play by the rules. While locked in a struggle, he suddenly unleashed his "Atomic Blaster"!

"You son of a... you’re using a cannon in a knife fight?!" With that roar of indignation, Vajramon disintegrated into a sea of data.