-Chapter 24-

...

[Archive Retrieved: God's Fall]

[Achievement-]

[01000101 01010010 01010010 01001111 01010010!]

[ERROR!]

[The Achievement -Information Locked- has been locked by the Administrator: Homeostasis]

[The Achievement -Information Locked- has changed its fetching parameters to -Information Locked-]

[A copy of the Archive: God's Fall has been sent to the Administrator: Homeostasis]

[Archive: God's Fall has been reclassified!]

[The Archive: God's Fall has changed its classification to: Archive Hazard]

[Warning: Archive Hazard! detected!]

[Warning: Digital Hazard detected!]

[New Info: Archives!]

[New Info: Homeostasis!]

[New Info: Digital Hazard]

[New Info: Archive Hazard!]

[Information: Homeostasis Locked by Administrator: Homeostasis]

I looked dazedly at the avalanche of screens that appeared around me as I instinctively took a step back. "What the hell- Agh!"

I let out a cry of pain as I reflexively let go of the book in my hand that seemed to have burned out of nowhere. And just as quickly as it appeared, the pain just as quickly disappeared, leaving me confused as I looked at my hand quizzically.

Suddenly, a red and purple glow brought my vision back to the book, which was now wide open as a strange purple and red mist poured from its pages.

Feeling the hairs all over my body stand up in primal fear, I took several steps backwards as the sinister mist rose into the air before forming a huge figure that easily surpassed Ogremon's height.

I looked up in bewilderment at the immense size of the figure.

The figure must have been at least plus 10 feet tall and seemed to have no distinguishable features, and the strange aura swirled around it as if it were some sort of cloak.

Suddenly, the glowing white eyes of the huge figure were staring at me. I noticed that its eyes seemed to glow with a strange white light that conveyed a very familiar feeling, but try as I might, I couldn't quite recognize it.

After a tense minute of silence, the figure seemed to lose interest in me before turning back into that malicious haze and slowly returning inside the book.

However, just before the figure disappeared, a whisper filled my ears....

...

..

"!!!"

I jumped up as I let out a loud scream, breathing heavily. I shakily placed one of my hands on my chest, feeling the frantic pounding of my heart.

Furthermore, I winced as sharp dizziness slapped my head, as if I had been hit hard with a bat. Distractedly, I realized that the dizziness was possibly from the rude awakening from that strange dream.

"What's wrong with my dreams lately?... Why do strange things happen to me every time I try to sleep?" I mumbled listlessly as I felt the dizziness and the pounding in my chest calm down, as well as my breathing returning to normal.

I turned my lazy gaze to the large stone statue behind the pedestal. I stared at it for a second before nodding to myself, having made up my mind.

"Yeah... nope. We're leaving this church right now" I let out a small laugh before lying back down against one of the pews in the church where I had been sleeping until recently. "I haven't been able to sleep properly for days now; that strange statue feels strange, and my dreams aren't helping at all...I'll rest for a moment before-"

"Noah! Are you okay?! I heard a scream!" TK's familiar voice exclaimed as I listened as his footsteps quickly approached my position.

I rolled my eyes as I let out a small sigh and stood up from the bench to look at a concerned TK.

"Are you okay?" -asked the little boy looking at me with concern, to which I could only smile slightly as I placed a hand on his head, which made him let out a small amused snort as he took my hand and removed it from his head with a pout. "Don't do that! You'll crinkle my hat!"

"I couldn't help it" I said with a laugh as I gave him a lazy smile. "And it was just a weird nightmare; don't worry about it."

I looked around, realizing that there were no Digimon inside the church, which must have been obvious since only TK heard my shout. "Where are BlackGarurumon, Patamon and Herissmon?"

"They're outside. Herissmon said he wanted to try something, although I think he just wanted to train a bit" TK sat down next to me before looking down and pointing at my hand with interest. "Oh! Where did you get that? It's pretty!"

"What are you-" I raised an eyebrow as I looked down at my hand before blinking twice. "What the hell?"

In the palm of my hand was what appeared to be a strange little platelet made of pure gold, said platelet was slightly smaller than my Tamagochi.

I brought the platelet close to my eyes as I twirled it around intently, contemplating how the gold seemed to glint exquisitely against the sunlight. Looking at it more closely, I was able to glare at a small symbol in the middle of the plaque that seemed to be carved with the utmost care.

The symbol appeared to be some sort of elongated 'M' with spikes at its ends, making it appear as if the 'M' was emitting some sort of light.

Suddenly, a strange ringing sound echoed in my ears, causing me to instinctively close my eyes as I barely contained a curse. When I opened my eyes again, I saw a worried TK grabbing my arm.

"Are you sure you're okay?" TK exclaimed as he pointed his finger accusingly at me and pouted, which was quite funny.

"No... it's nothing, sorry, my mind is a little fuzzy from the sudden awakening..." I mumbled apologetically as I scratched my head nervously, which made TK's pout disappear, but he was still looking at me suspiciously. "And no, I have no idea where this thing came from."

I pulled out my Tamagochi and pointed it at the strange platelet...

[-Information Locked-]

'Why am I not surprised...' I thought with my head down before shaking my head and getting up from the bench with a small stretch. 'Well, I guess I can put it away for now.'

That reminds me. "TK, why don't you go back to Patamon? I'll be organizing some things from our inventory; I think we'll be running out of food shortly, and I feel it's about time to leave this place..."

"So soon?!" TK exclaimed in surprise as he looked at me as if I had grown a second head. "B-But it's possible that there are more evil Digimons in the desert! And... I don't think it's that easy to find a place like this..."

"You're right, there's probably nowhere else to take shelter... but even then, we still have the problem of food, and our Digimons don't exactly eat little food, you know?" I pointed out the big problem of it all before crouching down to TK's eye level and putting my hand on his shoulder. "While we could simply go back into the forest to forage for some food, that would only take us back to the beginning of our journey. And if we did that, why did we leave the Village in the first place?"

TK looked at me with confusion, as if he didn't quite understand the reason for the sudden change.

"I'll be honest with you, TK; the truth is, I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time" I admitted frankly as I stared into TK's eyes. The latter looked like he wanted to retort, but I interrupted him before he could say anything. "I don't know what this world is, and I don't know why we were dragged into it. I don't know if what I'm doing is good or bad, and I don't know if I'm making the right choices."

"I'm simply following the rules of this world and adapting as best I can" I grimaced at my own comment before shaking my head. "It's... quite likely that the other kids in the camp are somewhere in this world. And getting stranded in the middle of nowhere to find them."

"I... I know that" He muttered faintly as he wiggled his fingers hesitantly. "But... I'm afraid that some Digimon might..."

"Don't worry, TK." I patted him on the shoulder as I stood back up, giving him a confident smile. "As long as I'm here, nothing bad will happen to us, and that's a promise! Now! Go to BlackGarurumon before he decides to fight Herissmon and Patamon at the same time!"

"Mou... okay!" TK nodded with a smile before turning around and walking back outside the church, leaving me alone.

"Okey... that was... intense, I guess" I let out a low sigh as I felt as if a strange weight on my shoulders had been lifted. I smiled coolly as I ran a hand across my shoulders moving some of my bones before pulling out my Tamagochi.

[=====]

Archive: a collection of information compiled by an Author into a document customized by the same Author. Archives can contain information about almost anything, from memories to dreams, but are often used by some types of Cybernetic Digimon to sort out their internal data more easily. Archives are classified based on the importance of the information inside.

 + -Information Locked-

 + -Information Locked-

 + Hazard File: A file that has been corrupted in some way or another. It is not recommended to open this type of file under any circumstances, as it is quite possible that you will end up with corruption, disappearance or death of your reader. Despite having Hazard in their name, these Files do not usually pose a threat to the Digital World as such.

[=====]

I frowned as I finished reading the new information. Basically, these 'Archives' were like some sort of digital books containing information written by their author. Although it seems that the Archives are quite rare, considering that Digimons don't seem to be able to write normally.

'Wait a minute...' 'If I have the information from the Hazard Files unlocked... that means-'

A new holographic screen appeared before my eyes, confirming my fears.

[=====]

Archive: God's Fall

Classification: Hazard Archive

Date Created: -Corrupt Information-

Author: -Corrupt Information-

It tells the story of how Heaven itself was affected by its own arrogance, of how a benevolent desire came to become malevolent, of how a father's betrayal of his son brought about one of the greatest tragedies ever known.

[=====]

[-Play Archive?-]

[-Y/N-]

My mind went blank before a feeling of apprehension squeezed my chest tightly, cutting off my breath. Immediately, I pressed 'No' fearing what might happen to me if I read a single page of this book... or, well, Archive.

Despite simply reading a few notifications, all the energy I had was gone in the blink of an eye. I didn't even want to know what this Digital Hazard was that was left to review.

Letting out a pathetic grunt, I finally decided to walk over to where the others were training in hopes of clearing my head of everything I had so suddenly discovered.

Only to stop suddenly as I heard a strange distant noise.

"That... is that country music?"

...

A/N: So possibly there will be no chapter next week, again I have to kill myself studying for another exam, they still haven't told me how much I got in the previous one so I'm a little scared. 

I wanted to write some chapters in advance for the Patreon but it doesn't look possible in the short term, oh, and possibly (although I don't know when) I will also publish this FF in AO3.

PS: I hate you Differential Equations.

__________________________________________

Thank you very much for reading! If you liked the chapter you can leave a Power Stone or a Review! You can also join my Patreon to support me!

https://www.patreon.com/rTem