Chapter 111

The party of four set out to investigate and traverse the cave now flooded with seawater, Harry noticed the cave had changed a bit over the years as it seemed bigger and there were even more tunnels around.

He did wonder how those tunnels came to be but in the end, he supposed that it must have been a monster trying to burrow or make some sort of home for itself.

Still, all of these new tunnels could compromise the structure of the cave so he kept a close eye as he followed both Eri and Lily deeper into the cave along with Jessica.

Lily was at the front with Eri behind her as they both walked a bit ahead of both adults of their party, Lily kept a close eye on everything happening around her and the sea monster roaming about.

Eventually, they reached a big chamber and Lily noticed right away a bunch of chests spread around the place, she smiled knowing that there was probably something useful in them.

Though she tilted her head and seemed lost in thought for a few seconds, the group waited for her to get her thoughts together which she did a few seconds later.

The little Princess of Trodain turned her head towards Harry "Papa Harry! Do you know where the treasure that we find in chests comes from? I asked Mommy and Daddy before but they didn't know".

Harry chuckled and smiled at Lily "Ah, your mom asked the same question before and to be honest at the time I didn't have a clue, I even searched all over the world once for answers to that question but I've never found it".

Lily frowned and sighed but Harry patted her head causing her to look up at her godfather who continued speaking "But that was then, now that I have far more abilities I can see divine power coming from those chests, I think the Goddess of this world creates those chest and leaves things inside them to help heroes, though some are human-made and only have things that were stored in them".

Jessica hummed and crossed her arms "I see... I've always wondered where some of these chests came from but it makes sense that the Goddess is the one putting them there, especially how we found some in some places where there's no way other humans got there".

Eri brightly smiled "Ah! The Goddess of this world must be really nice~ I even heard that it's thanks to her power that the church can do everything it does~ I wanted to meet her!".

-----

In Heaven, a young-looking goddess was looking down towards the mortal realm, and having heard Eri's praises made her blush though she still had a happy smile on her face.

She had been surprised when one of her heroes had returned and even more so when he had reached a realm of power and station way above hers but she was glad to see that her little dragon hero was still as kind as ever "He's a little rough around the edges but the little dragon has grown into a fine man".

The goddess smiled happily to see how much that small and skinny boy she saw traveling her world had grown.

-----

Lily scratched her head and awkwardly giggled "I guess I should visit the church more often and say thank you to the goddess... Mom is never going to let me live it down though".

Harry chuckled in amusement, after that little talk both girls continue forward, a bunch of khalamari kids attacked the girls but they quickly took them down with physical strength alone.

Punching and whacking over their heads with a staff seemed very effective ways to deal with such monsters, though the girls did have to be careful when fighting the man o'wars.

Despite looking like they belong to the slime family of monsters the fact is that they're sea monsters and very dangerous one that have a habit of breathing a paralyzing breath attack.

Despite being very agile the close space and the fact that these monsters attacked in hordes made it a bit difficult for the girls to fully dodge their attacks, Lily in fact was hit and paralyzed a couple of times and left floating in the water unable to move forcing Eri to stop attacking and chase Lily's floating body before it drifted away.

Though Harry and Jessica found it funny how Lily would be yelling at the monsters for being cheaters as her paralyzed body slowly floated away in the water.

But eventually, the girls were able to reach the chests and look inside, Eri and Lily obtained some very basic but useful items like a chimera wing, an item that can teleport you to the last town you visited, a great item to have in case of emergency.

Some herbs that Lily was planning to take to her Granny Tsunade and even a leather hat that Lily put on with a smile on her face since it was the first piece of gear she ever found.

Harry smiled at the girls as they had fun and eventually reached the second level of the cave where the whole area was completely flooded, Lily looked down at the water with a frown "How can we continue on? The water is too deep and we can't really fight monsters underwater...".

Jessica grinned "Don't worry, there are magic spells that can help with situations like these! Just give me a second" Jessica closed her eyes and began to chant a long spell.

Once she was done everyone's body glowed blue for a few seconds, Lily looked around her body in awe "Whoa! What was that Aunty Jessica?".

Jessica grinned "It's a spell that helps with water exploration, it allows you to breath underwater and move around as if you were on the surface".

Eri was already taking notes so she could go look for this spell in the library and learn it later, Lily was awed at such a useful spell "That's amazing! I don't think I've ever heard of such a useful spell before".

Harry smiled at his Goddaughter "That's because it's a magic spell from my world, Yokai use it when they have to do something underwater though it is a very common spell that it's used by other races".

Lily looked very excited about the notion of a spell from another world, she had of course heard about it before but it was still amazing for her nonetheless "Do you think I can learn magic from another world too!".

Harry nodded "Sure you can, after our little trip around the World of Light I'll give you a few useful perks and skills and take you to the Potter Household! There you can use the library and learn anything you want plus if you need instructions all you have to do is ask someone and I'm sure they'll be more than happy to teach you".

Lily looked rather excited and happily nodded, she then suddenly jumped into the water, Harry sweatdropped but then chuckled "Jeez... she's like Medea, no sense of danger or caution whatsoever".

-----

In Castle Trodain, Medea was happily humming a tune while writing something for her next book, Hiro was with her smiling as he watched her work.

Suddenly Medea sneezed surprising Hiro, Medea looked up and her eyebrows twitch in annoyance "I don't know why but I feel like Harry said something rude about me...".

Hiro grinned, even now Harry is the only one who can make the prim and proper Medea act like her kid self and he wasn't even in the castle anymore, still, it was funny to see his wife act like that.

-----

Everyone followed Lily's lead and jumped into the water and found Lily fighting two big abyss divers, which surprised Harry and Jessica quite a bit.

Eri immediately took off to join Lily in her fight, the little Princess of Trodain blocked a swipe from the marine dragon's clawed flipper with her shield but the force of the attack pushed her back.

Lily grunted and stabbed her sword into the ground to stop herself from sliding back, suddenly the abyss divers were blasted away a bit by a blast of mana coming from Eri's Staff.

Eri walked up to Lily's side "Are you okay Lily?".

Lily nodded and stood up straight "Yeah... they just caught me off guard a bit, I really didn't expect to find dragon-type monsters in this cave".

Eri turned her head towards the monsters who roared in anger "I can't use fire or lighting magic underwater much less ice or explosion magic since they would be dampened by the water or we might hurt ourselves"

Lily nodded already having thought about that "What are you going to do? Those are the only elemental magics that we can use".

Eri smiled at Lily "From this world that is, don't worry I can use other types of magic just be careful, we both know that dragons can not be underestimated".

Lily nodded in agreement "Okay!".

The Princess of Trodain took off running while Eri swung her staff above her head and then slam the tip on the ground as she began to chant "'O roar of the earth, bring forth the fangs of the mighty dragon... Ground Dasher!'".

The abyss dragons were suddenly assaulted by a big number of sharp rock stalagmites that burst out from underneath them, the spell caused massive damage to the marine dragons and distracted them so that Lily could finish them off.

Lily reached the abyss divers with her sword glowing orange, she jumped up and came down in front of one of the abyss divers with a strong downward slash while yelling out her attack "'Dragon Slash!'".

The attack was very effective against the abyss dragon and was cut in half, the monster vanished in whisps of light a few seconds later while Lily immediately launched herself towards the other abyss diver, her sword once again lit up with orange energy.

She reached the abyss dragon who was reeling in pain from Eri's earth spell in a matter of seconds and before it could even blink Lily lashed out with her attack "'Dragon Slash!'".

This time she swung her attack at the neck of the abyss diver whose head was instantly cut off and sent flying, the monster vanish in whisps of light before its head could even touch the ground.

Lily landed on her feet and stood at the ready while looking around for more monsters, once she made sure that there were none left she relaxed, Eri walked up to her and fist pump in victory.

Lily grinned and also fist-pumped as well, Harry and Jessica smiled at them happy that they were working as a team despite having just met a few days ago.

Harry however frowned and looked around "I didn't expect high-level monsters and dragon types much less to be roaming around in here...".

Jessica nodded "Something very serious is going on in this cave, you didn't notice anything weird back when you first came here?".

Harry shook his head "No, not really... but even if there was anything weird going on back then I don't think I would have noticed... I wasn't as powerful nor did I have the many skill I do now though... I always thought it was weird a merman found its way in here".

Jessica frowned "A merman? Oh! You mean that merman that got hit by Kalderasha's magic crystal ball right?".

Harry nodded "Back then I didn't think much about it but how did a sea monster like a merman find its way in here? This is a freshwater cave and even more so with the waterfall it's named after in here".

Jessica crossed her arms "Now that you mentioned it does seem strange... you don't think this cave connects to the sea, do you? We're pretty far from any seawater after all"

Harry hummed "That's the only explanation I can think of and it would explain how monsters like abyss dragons got in here" Harry turned his face towards Jessica "We can't leave things like this, this could become a bigger problem than we thought".

Jessica nodded "Yeah... no one on this continent is powerful enough to deal with these types of monsters except Hiro and Medea".

Harry turned to look at the girls who were excitedly talking with each other and smiled "For now let's trust the girls to handle this, we will step in if it gets too crazy".

Jessica nodded, sure she was a bit concerned with what was going on right now but she knew she could trust the girls to handle it for now and so the party of four took off to continue to investigate.

The group traversed the now underwater cave with relative ease and luckily they didn't find any other monsters like the abyss divers but they were big numbers of other smaller types of monsters.

Eri's wide area of effect magic spells came in handy and Lily focused on taking out any single monsters that either avoided the spells or weren't reached by them.

Though Harry did notice that he would have to teach Lily some more techniques to widen her skill set and some wide area of effect or multi-target skills to help her with big groups.

Eventually, the group reached a fork in the tunnel, Harry knowing there was a chest in the tunnel to the left told the girls about it and they excitedly headed down the tunnel right away to the amusement of Harry and Jessica.

At the end of the the tunnel, they found an exit and once they walked out of it they reached a big chamber of sorts that was completely flooded with seawater and in front of them, they found a chest.

Lily walked up to it and opened it to see what they can find inside, she giggled when she found a copper sword and showed it to Eri who giggled as well, she didn't need the sword anymore but decided to keep it as a souvenir.

After that, they walked back into the tunnel and headed to the other side until they found a set of stairs leading down both Harry and Jessica felt a dark presence below and frowned.

Eri felt it as well and stopped Lily from walking down "Wait... there's something strong down there Lily".

Lily stopped and turned her head towards Eri "Eh? Really?" Lily turned her head back towards the staircase leading down and frowned "You think we can handle it, or should we let Papa Harry and Aunty Jessica have at it?".

Eri hummed as she thought about it, Harry and Jessica, however, were really proud that Lily was smart enough to consider her options but then again she is the Princess of Trodain so she has to be level-headed.

Eri turned her ruby-red eyes towards Lily and smiled "I think we can handle it but we need some preparations and a bit of backup as well, just in case".

Lily tilted her head and watched as Eri took out her phone and summoned her Digimon partners to her side with it, the Nyaromon immediately began to hop around, the cheerful Nyaromon spoke up "Oh! Hey Eri! Want some help~".

The calm Nyaromon smiled up at Eri "We'll be more than happy to help in any way Eri".

Eri smiled and nodded at her partners "Yes, down these stairs" Eri pointed down towards the bottom of the stairs and the Nyaromon looked down as she continued speaking "There's a strong monster so I need you to fight in the front lines with Lily and help her".

The Nyaromon nodded and then turned towards Lily to give her a big smile, Lily smiled back at them "I'm counting on you guys!".

The Digimon hopped around while cheering, Eri giggled "Alright, alright settle down guys, now let me get us prepared before we jumped in".

Both Nyaromon stood to Lily's sides and nodded, Eri then pointed her staff towards Lily and The Nyaromon "'Shellaga', 'Protectga', 'Hasteaga', 'Bravery', 'Faith'~".

Lily and the Nyaromon's bodies lit up in different colors for a few seconds, Eri smiled and nodded "Okay this will give you three a boost but it's temporary so keep that in mind, this is only a precaution just in case we get ambushed or something like that okay?".

Lily and the Nyaromon nodded, after that everyone then walked down the stairs while being fully alert for anything that might be waiting for them at the end of this cave.

-----

Once they reached the bottom of the flooded cavern and walked forwards they found a massive chamber and inside they witnessed how some sort of barrier was creating some sort of air bubble inside.

They sensed an evil and dark presence nearby as well, they could barely sense it before but they can clearly feel it now and it was very obvious that some very powerful and evil was waiting for the party but this didn't deter Lily nor Eri.

Both wanted to resolve this and even though they just found out about this situation by chance they still wanted to help.

It was obvious that if things were left as they were the town of Farebury would eventually be flooded not only by seawater but by also very powerful monsters and that's something the girls couldn't ignore.

So Lily and the Nyaromon walked forward and through the barrier that was creating an air bubble followed next by Eri, Harry, and Jessica.

As soon as Lily walked through the barrier she saw a very big and muscular merman sitting on a throne made of stone, the monster had its eyes closed and was holding some sort of bladed staff weapon in its hands.

Eri frowned the moment she saw the monster and instantly knew that this one wasn't like the other monsters they faced before, in fact to her this monster felt like a floor boss from the Natural Dungeon back at Neo Kyoto and that made this situation a rather dangerous one.

Jessica tilted her head in confusion, she'd never seen a monster like the one before them and she was pretty sure she had seen them all, she turned her head towards Harry "I don't think we've seen a monster like this one before right? It even feels different".

Harry nodded "Yeah... this monster is known as Gracos, a very ancient and powerful monster, in terms of power I would say he's high-end ultimate rank, or in this world, he's at least a rank A monster".

Jessica raised an eyebrow "That's a rank below Dhoulmagus in his demon form... how did a monster this dangerous arrive here unnoticed?".

The monster suddenly spoke surprising everyone "The dark power of the one known as Raphtorn awakened me but by the time I recovered from my slumber he had already been slayed... so I hid in here and patiently began to flood this cave, soon my influence and power will grow and flood this world... I will become the next Demonlord and plunge this world into despair".

Gracos opened his eyes and glared at the party, Lily frowned and pointed her Dragovian God Sword at him "We won't let you! We'll stop you and end your plans here and now!".

The Gracos frowned "And what could a small child possibly hope to be able to do to me? I've been alive since before even your great-grandfathers were born!".

Gracos then stood up from his throne and began to float in the air with its magic alone, Lily glared at the monster "I'm Lily! the Princess of Trodain! and I won't let you destroy my world!".

Lily then took off running towards the Gracos as fast as she could, the monster's eyes widen in surprise at the speed Lily used but it was still able to react fast enough to parry the downward slash sent his way by Lily.

The Gracos twirled its bladed polearm around Lily's sword as he parried her slash and then flung her to the side using her momentum, but Lily twirled in mid-air and landed on her feet.

Before the Gracos could continue its attack he was suddenly attacked by the cheerful Nyaromon who jumped and whipped her tail at the monster's face "'Atomic Bomber Tail!'".

But the Gracos dodged it quickly by moving its head away as the cheerful Nyaromon's tail cracked in the air, Gracos swung its massive fist to punch the cheerful Nyaromon but her sister the serious Nyaromon jumped and whipped her tail at the Gracos's wrist just in time "'Atomic Bomber Tail!'".

The monster's arm was slapped away from the cheerful Nyaromon with a loud crack from the serious Nyaromon's attack, Eri took advantage of the opening and pointed her staff at the Gracos "'Kaswooshle!'".

A blast of sharp wind emerged from beneath the Gracos, the monster growled in pain but then swung its bladed pole and dissipated the wind, only to be slashed in the back by Lily who had taken advantage of Gracos being distracted.

The monster grunted but then began to twirl its bladed pole above its head and created a sandstorm forcing Lily and the Nyaromon to jump away and cover their faces to avoid getting blinded by the sand.

Eri frowned and then took out her wand, she then waved it and then flicked it in the direction of the sand turning it into flower petals, Gracos growled in confusion while Eri called out to Lily and her Digimon partners "Guys! Go!".

Lily and the Nyaromon uncovered their eyes and saw that there was no more sand, Lily raised her sword above her head and it began to glow with light while the Nyaromon launched themselves toward Gracos.

The sea monster was forced to block a barrage of tail whip attacks with his bladed pole while Lily then ran forward as fast as she could until she arrived in front of Gracos and unleashed her holy light attack "'Brightsplitter!'".

Lily swung her Dragovian God Sword in a wide arc and hit Gracos with a light elemental energy wave in the chest pushing it back a bit.

The Nyaromon then jump up and lashed out with a twin Atomic Bomber Tail that hit Graco in the face since he was still reeling from Lily's attack but Gracos recovered quickly and swung at the Nyaromon with its weapon, Lily appeared in front of them with her shield and blocked the attack.

But the attack itself was strong enough to send Lily and the Nyaromon flying back, Eri's eyes widened in worry "Guys!".

She was about to run and attack the Gracos while they recovered but her daddy's voice stopped her mid-step "Eri, you can help Lily and the Nyaromon but you have to trust them and believe in them, remember sweetie a Digimon can only show its true power when it's partnered human synchronizes with them".

Eri turned her head towards her daddy and stared into his eyes while Harry smiled at her, she then took out her phone and stared at the Digivice App "... Alright! Nyaromon! We can do it! come on!".

The Nyaromon who were on the floor quickly rolled upwards and as they heard Eri's voice both of their eyes widen as they felt Eri's trust and love for them, Lily sat up and rubbed her head in pain while the Gracos got ready to attack them.

But the Nyaromon's body suddenly exploded with light forcing both Gracos and Lily to cover their eyes though Lily gasped having heard of this from her mom and dad.

Her godfather's Digimon partner Dorumon was pretty famous around the Kingdom of Trodain so everyone knew about digivolution so Lily grinned in excitement "Yeah! Go guys!".

(Play Digimon Ghost Game Evolution Theme Song - First Riders)

Both Nyaromon suddenly called out from within of light "Nyaromon Digivolve to!...".

Eri's smartphone began to vibrate with energy as zeros and ones began to flow out of it, meanwhile, both Nyaromon were suddenly engulfed in an egg of energy which pulsated once before cracking and then shattering.

Once the eggs of energy exploded outwards they revealed both Digimon to everyone but they now looked completely different from their previous forms.

One was now a white cream puppy with a golden holy ring on its neck while the other looked like a guinea pig with bat-like ears, the puppy Digimon let out a cute bark "Salamon!".

The purple guinea pig like Digimon mischievously giggled and flapped its bat-like ears "Tsukaimon!".

Both Digimon stood proudly in front of Lily and stared down at Gracos who uncovered his eyes and looked rather confused at what happened, Tsukaimon grinned and decided to go on the offensive "Let see you block this you big oaf! 'Purple Haze!'".

Tsukaimon took a big breath and then breathed out a deep purple-colored poisonous fog towards Gracos who swung his bladed pole to disperse it but it was too thick and the poisonous fog ended up hitting Gracos who began to hack and gasp for air.

Salamon then smiled and nodded "Good job sister it's my turn now!" Gracos growled and launched itself toward the Digimon in fury but Salamon took a big breath and let out a loud howl "'Puppy Howling!'".

Gracos stopped moving halfway from reaching the Digimon and seemed to be struggling to move, Tsukaimon turned her head towards Lily "Hurry! It won't hold him down for long so give him a good wallop!".

Lily grinned and then jumped to her feet and raised her sword up which lit up with flames, the little princess then jumped up towards Gracos and came down while slashing her sword in a wide arc down towards the paralyzed monster "'Flame Slash!'".

Unable to move or dodge, Graco took the attack full on, and as soon as Lily's sword slashed his entire body, the monster was then engulfed in a spiraling pillar of flames.

Graco let out a roar of pain, Lily, Tsukaimon, and Salamon jumped back while Eri pointed her staff at the now flailing and screaming monster "'Kafrizzle!'".

Mana coalesced on the tip of Eri's Staff into a massive fireball that fired forward soon after toward Gracos.

The massive fireball sailed through the air until it crashed against Gracos and violently exploded engulfing the sea monster in even more flames, Gracos was even sent flying back and crashing against his stone throne.

Lily wasted no time and took off running at full speed with her sword pointing forward, Gracos groaned and sat up but before he could even do anything Lily appeared in front of him in a blur and stabbed her Dragovian God Sword straight into his chest.

Gracos let out a shocked gasp of pain and then glared at Lily, he then tried to reach over and claw her face but Salamon appeared out of nowhere and headbutted Gracos's claw away from Lily.

Tsukaimon then appeared above Lily's head flying with her bat wing ears and fired a small fireball at Gracos's face causing the monster to growl in pain, Tsukaimon then yelled out at Lily "Quickly finish the oaf off!".

Lily growled and then gathered her mana and transferred it into her sword, the blade lit up with energy and Gracos roared in pain as the energy began to destroy him from the inside out.

Lily then twisted her Dragovian God Sword causing Gracos to roar again but then he froze mid-roar and twitched once before exploding in a massive storm of light wisps signaling its defeat.

Lily sighed and then fell on her butt breathing hard, Salamon sat on her hunches and sighed "Well... he was tough, that's for sure".

Tsukaimon grinned and floated down into the ground "Hahaha take that! It didn't have a chance against awesome us!".

Lily giggled at Tsukaimon while Salamon sighed and shook her head "Sister... that was intense, not fun...".

Tsukaimon just widely smiled at her sister, Eri suddenly ran towards her friends and hugged all three of them "We did it!".

Lily, Tsukaimon, and Salamon smiled and hugged Eri back while the party of four cheered for their victory but suddenly the ground began to shake alerting the girls and Digimon.

Then they saw all the water begin to drop and leave the cave until it finally lowered all the way down the massive chamber, Lily and Eri looked around in awe not knowing what was happening.

Until Harry's voice called out from behind them "Without Gracos's evil influence the seawater couldn't maintain its rise and so everything went back as it should be, good job girls you saved the continent from a boss-type monster, one that was known as the fiend of the seas in ancient times".

Harry smiled at the girls as they blushed from his praises, the Dragon God then turn his head and smiled at the Digimon "and congratulations on reaching your rookie forms".

Both Digimon smiled at Harry proud that they had reached a new level of power, Jessica walked up to Harry's side and smiled at the girls "Now that all of this is resolved how about we go back outside and re-".

But she was suddenly cut off when Eri and Lily's bellies growled causing both girls to blush in embarrassment while Harry chuckled, Jessica grinned and then put her hands on her hips "But first let's have dinner shall we?".

But the girls groaned in embarrassment as the Digimon, Harry, and Jessica laughed a bit much to their dismay.

-----

In Farebury watching the whole thing was a smiling Valentina, her father sighed and shook his head causing Valentina to giggle "See? I told you we didn't have to worry".

Kalderasha huffed "Right, right you were correct with your prediction, still you have to admit that things could have gone sideways with a monster of that caliber out and about".

Valentina nodded "Yeah but I saw in my vision how a little witch, a little princess knight, a light, and a darkness would save us all and defeat Gracos and as you saw, it happened as I predicted".

Kalderasha grinned and nodded "Well you certainly have become an extraordinary fortune teller Valentina".

Valentina smiled "Just like my father~".

Both father and daughter shared a laugh and then decided to go to sleep, tomorrow was another busy day in Farebury after all.

-----

By the time everyone made it out of the cave, it was already getting dark so they decided to camp out and so everyone worked together to get everything ready.

Harry set up the magic tent he had brought with him while Jessica was preparing dinner, Lily was digging a hole for the campfire while Eri went to look for firewood with Tsukaimon and Salamon.

After about half an hour or so they had everything ready and as Jessica cooked Harry, Lily, and Eri along with Tsukaimon and Salamon talked about their fight with Gracos.

According to her daddy, Eri came to learn that Gracos had the potential to reach a level of power a demonlord of this world can obtain and that made it extremely dangerous.

Lily scratched her head confused as to why her godfather would trust them to handle it when he could have dealt with it himself and probably very easily especially since it was a very dangerous situation, to begin with.

Harry smiled at Lily and explained how he wanted to give them a chance to grow and learn, Gracos was powerful but he knew that she and Eri were more than enough to handle him.

In fact, he confessed that Lily was already more powerful than her dad Hiro was by the end of their adventures and that what she needed the most right now was experience.

Of course, the little Princess of Trodain was shocked to learn this but was also excited about the fact that she had gotten so strong on her own, her godfather smiled and nodded at her.

He then told her that she should be proud of the strength she had obtained from her hard word, that even if she was a Dragon Knight she still had to have put in the effort to learn and train.

Hearing that from her godfather made Lily very happy, after their little talk Jessica began to serve the stew she had made and everyone enjoyed a family dinner among the stars.