Chapter 136: The Changes Brought by a Little Devilmon

"This is a Zurumon, the Baby form of Leomon!" Takato said with a carefree grin, looking delighted.

"Leomon?" Feng Xue finally understood the root of everything that had been off—Leomon had actually been resurrected! If that were the case, it would make sense. After all, Leomon was Juri's emotional pillar; if he hadn't truly perished, it was possible for her to open her heart again. But could he really be resurrected?

Of course he could! In reality, the D-Arc already possessed some of the functions of the Village of Beginnings, capable of hatching Digieggs. Guilmon himself had been hatched directly from base data.

But if the D-Arc could re-hatch Digieggs, why did the original story... As he thought this, Feng Xue realized he had fallen into a misconception. Why hadn't Leomon been resurrected in the original story? It wasn't because there wasn't enough time, nor because he had gone to the Village of Beginnings, but because in the original, the one who killed Leomon was Beelzemon! One of the Seven Great Demon Lords!

Of course, the point wasn't Beelzemon; it was the Seven Great Demon Lords themselves. They were fundamentally different from other Digimon. The Digimon they killed would not undergo reincarnation to the Village of Beginnings, even if their data wasn't absorbed. Instead, they were sent directly to the Dark Area, processed through the Gate of Deadly Sins, and transformed into the flesh and blood of the Demon Lords. In other words, those killed by the Seven Great Demon Lords were truly denied any chance of rebirth for all eternity.

Conversely, in this timeline, Leomon had been killed by Piedmon. Although Piedmon held the title of one of the Dark Masters in the first series, it was actually a self-proclaimed title. Even if Piedmon was the leader of the Nightmare Soldiers (in the first series, there weren't many powerful Digimon, so the four masters simply divided the Nightmare Soldiers, Wind Guardians, Deep Savers, and Metal Empire among themselves—in reality, aside from Machinedramon ruling the Metal Empire, Piedmon barely qualified as the head of the Nightmare Soldiers, while the others were mere grunts in the context of the true Wind Guardians and Deep Savers), he held no special bonuses.

After being killed by Piedmon and having most of his data absorbed, the D-Arc had backed up Leomon's memories and stored his original sample, allowing him to be reconstituted into a Digiegg. However, Juri had been so consumed by grief at the time that she hadn't even realized a Digiegg was gestating within the D-Arc. Later, the D-Reaper parasitized Juri and brought her into the real world, trapping her inside the "Kernel" to study her thought patterns. But Juri still clung to memories of Leomon; even in her sorrow, she hadn't discarded the D-Arc, which represented her final bond with him, and thus, the device was brought into the D-Reaper along with her.

It was precisely at this moment that the Digiegg inside the D-Arc hatched. Leomon, having revived as the Baby-form Zurumon, relied on the backed-up data to retain most of his memories. Under the care and guidance of the Zurumon, Juri regained her cheerfulness and waited for the rescue by ChaosPiedmon. With Zurumon by her side, Juri certainly wouldn't have been as sluggish as in the original story, and with their combined efforts, she was successfully rescued.

Having unraveled the twists and turns, Feng Xue finally let out a long breath and felt his heart settle. He hadn't expected that a move he had made as a mere afterthought would have such a profound impact on the story's development!

"Then next, it's time to take down the big guy!" Everyone looked up at the massive red slime covering the entire Metropolitan Government Building, their eyes filled with determination.

"Ruki!" Not long after they had exited the area occupied by the D-Reaper, a voice called out from nearby.

"Mom?" Ruki froze, standing there in a daze, her breathing barely perceptible.

"I knew it, I knew you would come back!" Rumiko Makino rushed forward and hugged the stunned Ruki, tears streaming down her face.

"Mom..." Ruki had shed her usual armor of strength, repeating the word over and over.

Watching this touching scene, everyone began to move on, but Feng Xue gave Ryo Akiyama a sharp flick to the forehead. "Hey, kid, what are you looking at? This is a reunion between mother and daughter, none of your business!"

For some reason, Feng Xue felt no affinity for Ryo Akiyama, even though the latter was the legendary tamer who had defeated the Millenniummon, saved countless parallel worlds, and traversed the entire Digimon series.

The following events were much simpler. Without Juri as a hostage, the D-Reaper, which had not yet fully parsed humanity, failed to develop those large-scale clones. With the concerted efforts of human scientists and the Digimon, the D-Reaper was forced to revert, and the human world returned to peace (the rest of the plot is no different from the original, and I don't want to pad the word count, so we'll end the Digimon world here). How gratifying, how gratifying.

However...

"Why? Why has everyone reverted?"

"Dad, what is going on?" Jianliang turned to look at his father, who was rushing toward them.

"Our plan was a success. The stable boundary between the Digital World and the real world has been re-established..."

"Then what does this have to do with the Digimon?"

"They must return to their own world," Li Zhenyu said, bowing his head in guilt. "If they remain in the real world, they are likely to evolve into terrifying beings just like the D-Reaper."

"But Beelzemon hasn't reverted!" Ruki's voice suddenly drew everyone's attention. Only then did they notice that, unlike the other Digimon who had devolved into Baby forms, Feng Xue still maintained his Mega form.

"How can this be? How is this possible?" The most agitated ones were not the children who saw hope, but the scientists who had arrived with Li Zhenyu; some soldiers cleaning up the scene even drew their pistols at the sight.

"I am one of the Seven Great Demon Lords. How could a mere reversal program possibly compete with the Gate of Deadly Sins, which is supported by the entire world?" Feng Xue laughed wildly. "Even if time is reversed, original sin is always original sin. Unless gluttony ceases to exist in this world, I will never become a memory!"

"Does that mean you can stay?" Ruki suddenly hugged Feng Xue, the surprise and joy on her face unhidden.

"That... I'm afraid that won't work..." Feng Xue stroked Ruki's hair with affection. "Just as they said, if I stay, I might bring irreversible consequences to your world, so..."

"How can you say that?" Ruki pulled away from Feng Xue's hand. "We made a promise! We promised we wouldn't have to be apart again..."

"Don't worry. There is a legend in the Digital World about how to turn a Digimon into a human." Feng Xue cast an illusion, and just as when he was still an Impmon, only the two of them could hear each other's voices now.

"Eh?" Ruki's face suddenly flushed red. "You mean?"

"I will find that method, though it might take a long time..." Feng Xue felt an irresistible force pulling him, as if it were dragging him out of this world. It was clear that his journey in this Digital World was coming to an end.

"No matter how long it takes—one year, five years, even ten or a hundred—I will wait!" Ruki met Feng Xue's eyes (it couldn't be helped; Feng Xue had three eyes now), her firm conviction conveyed through her gaze.

"Is that so..." Feng Xue suddenly laughed, loudly and happily. "Since you have such resolve, what do I have to fear? Wait for me! When I return with enough power to challenge the entire world, I will fulfill our contract!"

As he spoke, a black light shot from his hand, striking Ruki's forehead.

"This is?" Ruki felt something extra in her mind, her expression shifting from surprise to shock, and she looked at Feng Xue with a hint of bewilderment.

"Train hard! Don't forget our contract..." Feng Xue extended a fist.

"Need you tell me?" Ruki smiled, extended her small hand, and bumped it against his fist—

"The strongest in this world!"

...Digimon Arc, concluded...