-Chapter 52-
...
Deep in a dense, dark forest, a small flickering orange light stood out above everything else. The small light pushed away the ominous darkness around it with ease, despite its diminutive size.
The world (if it could be called that) around the small flame just seemed to be an endless forest; if you looked hard enough, it seemed as if the forest repeated itself indefinitely as far as the eye could see. As if it were repeating on an infinite loop.
But what was most remarkable to the naked eye about this strange landscape were the trees themselves that surrounded the little llama.
The trees were strange, or exotic, depending on who you ask; the leaves had a triangular shaped tip in addition to having an abnormal purple and magenta color; the color of the trunk was a very dark fuchsia, almost reaching the black color.
In the middle of the tree, the trunk twisted on itself, creating a sort of spirals in random directions as it grew upwards. From these spirals grew several branches that, like the trunk, seemed to twist at strange and random angles, forming an eerie spectacle. Finally, the branches from which the leaves grew seemed to fall under the weight of gravity, leaving the top of the tree without a single leaf and the middle part full of them.
All this, combined with a splendid blue moon shining in the sky along with the stars, gave an unnatural and mysterious air to the world.
Suddenly, a gloved hand threw a branch over the small flame, feeding it and keeping it alive for a few more minutes.
The cause of extending the life of the little llama was a boy with brown hair and deep blue eyes who was dressed in rather extravagant clothes.
In his hands, he wore thin brown leather gloves that had small metallic notches on the knuckles. A simple gray shirt matched his green pants; his shoes were a bizarre combination of brown sneakers and climbing shoes with white decorations. In addition to wearing a crimson-colored scarf tied around his neck.
This boy was none other than Ryo Akiyama, the first Tamer.
Ryo threw another branch into the fire before returning to read the new notifications and claimed some new achievements. The brown boy hummed a song as he reminisced about his time on The Net.
It had been about 8 months since he had been sent here to combat Human Emotions trying to cross over into the Digital World, as well as some Digital World Data trying to cross over into the Human World. During that time he had explored dozens of different and strange places, from a desert with iron sand to a place where there were only zeppelins that functioned as islands and sailed in an endless sky.
'And now I find myself here. It's not the strangest place I've been to, but it's definitely one of the spookiest,' Ryo thought absentmindedly as he closed the notifications. 'Possibly the strangest is that maze, where I had to play with the perspective of different objects to move forward and get out'
"I wonder how much longer I'll have to do this..." Letting out a sigh, Ryo threw his head back as he gazed impassively at the flashing moon.
As Ryo lost his mind, his lost gaze finally focused on something that definitely hadn't been there moments ago. Squinting his eyes, the brown boy managed to watch as a small, multicolored, crystal-like scream began to form and spread across the sky.
Before he could say or do anything, an extremely strong wind shook the silent forest, carrying with it hundreds of small leaves and branches. Covering his face with his hands, Ryo looked around in confusion before a new notification appeared in front of him.
[-It h-has de-detected: ERROR! E-ER-E-E-E-E-E-E-E... -]
Closing the notification, Ryo turned his gaze skyward and couldn't help but widen his eyes like saucers.
"What the-"
The small, crystalline scream seemed to open with a loud pulse that shook the world around him.
The sky looked as if it had been completely ripped from reality, where once there was a clearly artificial and completely static moon. Now there was a slash that stretched across the entire sky and beyond, generating a light show.
Ryo watched in bewilderment as the world around him seemed to light up with rainbow colors as the rift warped the sky, folding and unfolding it upon itself; it was like watching various geometrically impossible figures constantly forming and warping.
Wandering data with these geometric shapes coming from the crack began to fall from the sky as if it were a kind of rain.
Clicking his tongue to shake himself out of his daze, Ryo quickly pulled his Digivice out of his pocket and raised it above his head.
"Barrier!"
With that simple phrase, the device quickly began to form a giant dome made of a cold mist. Said mist seemed to be thick enough to block the view of any person or Digimon, but to Ryo it was as if the mist was superimposed over the world, allowing him to see normally.
The brown-haired boy looked up, observing how the strange Data rain was repelled by the fog with ease. Ryo squinted at the Data in an attempt to analyze it and decipher its affinity or purpose, but was unable to glean any useful information from it beyond being very, very basic programs with contradictory, random or poorly programmed commands.
"This is the first time I've seen this kind of Data" Ryo muttered to himself as he scratched his head with confusion painted on his face. He took back what he said a few moments ago—this was the strangest place he had ever been.
"That's not surprising, considering they're an incomplete mix between both worlds."
Ryo jumped before looking to the side to see a small but familiar figure made entirely of darkness. It was like seeing a three-dimensional shadow, but that definition didn't seem right, or at least, not entirely.
Frowning hard, Ryo stood in front of the girl as he pointed his finger at her.
"This is when you decide to show up?! Do you know how long I've been screaming for you to show up?! The damn Mayans would be proud of all the summoning rites I did!" Exclaimed the boy angrily as he clenched his fists tightly.
The girl looked, or well, seemed to look at Ryo blankly for a few seconds.
"I cannot manifest easily in this dimensional plane as it does not follow the rules of my world, and therefore its parameters are incompatible with the fundamental programming of my being. Or, in simple words, I am completely bound to the Digital World" Explained the girl as she folded her arms and began to levitate, slightly rising high enough to face Ryo. "The only exception might be Mirage Lake, as it is close enough to the Digital World for me to manifest without much trouble, and even then I possibly have a delay in my actions or communication."
"Ryo" The deep voice of his fellow Digimon stopped Ryo's retort in its tracks as the boy turned and looked up to look his faithful companion in the eye.
Strikedramon was an 8-foot tall (242 cm) Humanoid Dragon Digimon. His skin seemed to be covered with hard blue scales; on his chest he wore a kind of flame-like symbol of reddish-orange color that matched his hair of the same color. On his hands and legs, he wore what appeared to be some sort of strange metallic armor that covered his palms and feet but left his sharp white claws in the open air. He wore forest green pants, metallic shoulder pads and, the most striking thing about the dragon to the naked eye, a metal mask that covered his entire face.
This huge dragon capable of taking on several Digimons Adults at the same time was moving cautiously.
Reading the body language of his fellow Digimon, Ryo couldn't help but feel confused. Strikedramon was a Digimon of few words and extremely serious, something that caused some friction between him and Ryo. However, this might be the first time the brown boy has seen Strikedramon so nervous.
"Who is-" Strikedramon interrupted himself as he took a step back uneasily to Ryo's surprise. "What is... that?"
Ryo turned his gaze back to the girl before analyzing her, but....
[-Information Locked-]
'That's not scary at all,' Ryo thought sarcastically, cursing internally. 'God, why do I always get into these messes?!'
The girl-, no, the girl-shaped thing looked at Strikedramon impassively before muttering, "Interesting."
"Okay, well. I feel like it's kind of stupid to ask now, and even stupider not to have asked before, but what exactly are you?" Ryo asked tentatively as he scratched his head and discreetly stood behind Strikedramon. "You're clearly not Human or Digimon; you're not some form of Data that took human form; hell, you're not even an Eater."
"Eater?" asked the girl, tilting her head.
"That's what I call them Human Emotions that come here; they usually take on, well, human forms, but they're usually deformed or twisted in some way. And while you fit that description... I don't feel like you're one of them, then-" Ryo folded his arms as, through his link, he signaled Strikedramon to prepare an attack, just in case. "-What are you really?"
The brown boy and the girl-shaped thing stared at each other for a long second.
"I'm a system" The girl said in a flat voice.
"A system?" Ryo grimacing in confusion.
"Yes."
...
"And...?" Ryo asked as he gestured for the girl to keep talking. "Name? Function?"
"I won't reveal any more information than necessary; if it makes you feel any better, I don't plan on attacking you or Strikedramon. Nor could I even if I tried" Replied the girl with a shrug.
"Okay, uh, next question: you said earlier that The Net parameters prevented you from being able to manifest, but I see you here alive and kicking," Ryo asked, purposely ignoring that the girl possibly didn't even have life in the first place. "How does that work?"
"That knowledge is irrelevant to your purpose. But it does satisfy your curiosity" The girl spoke with disinterest as she focused her gaze on the large crack stretching across the sky and pointed her finger at it. "The reason I was able to manifest, is because of that crack in the sky, that crack was caused by an overload of information and an imbalance in the parameters of power set in the Digital World."
Lowering her hand, the girl snapped her fingers.
In an instant, it was as if the entire world had decayed to its most primitive and basic form. Ryo and Strikedramon watched in awe as the entire world opened up before them, showing all the ones and zeros that made up each bit of data.
"In order for the system not to collapse in on itself, I opened a tunnel for the information to flow and disperse without problem or delay; this was the only feasible way, though I must admit I did not expect this level of disaster that my decision caused."
Looking up, Strikedramon watched as, in the middle of the scream, a massive cumulus of data swarmed over itself, scattering all over The Net.
"... What kind of Digimons could cause this?" Strikedramon muttered through his teeth as he watched the spectacle outside the barrier.
The girl-shaped system remained completely silent for a moment before summoning a figure formed of eight cubes (a tesseract to be more specific) in his hand and began to manipulate it with his other hand.
"The Digital World is in a... delicate state. The wounds and scars left by a certain conflict in the World are too long-lasting and deep for me alone to fix them all; some of them haven't even begun to heal."
With another snap of his fingers, a notification appeared in front of Ryo.
[=====]
-PERCENTAGE OF DATA RESET-
Kernel: 99%
Net Ocean: 76%
Folder Continent: 24%
WWW Continent: -Recovery Status: Impossible-
Server Continent: 11%
Apache Island: 2%
Island...
[=====]
"W-What happened to the WWW Continent?"
"It was completely destroyed during the conflict," Replied the girl as if talking about the landscape.
Ryo felt a lump form in his throat- "An entire Continent?! How?!"
"An unstoppable force met an immovable object."
At that explanation, Ryo's eyebrows furrowed again in confusion.
Seeing this, the girl-shaped system shrugged as it hummed absentmindedly.
"Space was bent, time lost its meaning, life and death could come and go in the blink of an eye," Murmured the girl with an emotion Ryo couldn't identify. "The reality is... that conflict was so immense that no matter the parameters, the rules, the morals, the philosophies. In the end, everything was destroyed in one way or another; the World itself was degraded to a breaking point. I'm just... I'm just doing the duty I was programmed for."
Both Ryo and Strikedramon paled as they tried to comprehend that level of power; it was simply absurd. It had to be a joke, they both thought, but they knew that, whatever they had in front of them witnessed everything firsthand and was just relating the story as if it were a fairy tale.
"How did all that happen in the first place, and... and how come it didn't affect the Humans?" Strikedramon, putting aside his thoughts about the previous statement.
"That's-" Before the girl could say anything, the scream in the sky seemed to contract in on itself, making the world shriek in pain. "Never mind. It looks like we're out of time, but before that-"
With another snap of his fingers, a new notification appeared in front of Ryo.
[-File Retrieved: Yesterday's Stories-]
"You should get out of this World before it collapses in on itself" The girl's voice made Ryo take notice of her. "Once that happens, I'll open many Dat-, I mean, Eaters roaming around the other Worlds because of the scream. Like a horde of sorts."
Without deigning to answer Ryo's question, the strange entity turned around and let out one last mutter before disappearing.
"Good luck, Tamer"
...
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