-Chapter 31-

A/N: Sorry for the delay, I was literally three fucking days without electricity in my city.

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<Unknown > <POV - Third Person>

Within a huge castle surrounded by a deserted and lifeless wasteland, a certain figure could be seen seated firmly upon a large and imposing throne decorated with the most luxurious and durable minerals the World had ever seen. Said figure, though blurred, appeared tall and imposing while emitting a powerful aura that would make Ogremon himself fall to his knees and beg for his life.

Said figure, emitted a curious humming sound before suddenly stopping.

"So... the Fire has been corrupted..." Murmured the figure with mild interest before letting out a sigh. "What a disappointment, I was hoping that your next heir would be worthy of your power... but it seems that I set the bar too high"

With those words spoken, the mysterious figure rose from his throne and disappeared into the shadows of his palace.

***

<Digital World  Server Continent  Ancient Colosseum>

The bright, hot sun flashed its rays of light over the vast desert that covered most of the Server Continent. To the south of the large continent, a large circular structure could be seen that stood out in comparison to the hot wasteland.

"Greymon use Mega Flame!" A boy with goggles confidently exclaimed as he pointed to a large blue T-Rex. Not far from the boy was another T-Rex quite similar to the one the boy was pointing at but noticeably friendlier than the blue one.

As if the child's shout was any indication, both T-Rexes began to take a deep breath as a plume of smoke billowed from their jaws.

""Mega Flame!""

With a war cry, both dinosaurs released a huge flare of fire towards each other.

The two flares crashed into each other, sending a rain of flames into the sky. Both Greymon finally stopped their attacks as a thick curtain of black smoke blocked the vision of both T-Rexes.

Taking quick breaths, Greymon closed his eyes for a second as he felt his body heat slowly diminish. He had never kept Mega Flame active this long, and it was quite exhausting. He had a feeling that if he kept the attack active much longer, his insides would burn from the intense heat.

"Great-"

Greymon's eyes snapped open to watch as the Blue Greymon suddenly burst through the thick smoke as it made a wild charge towards his position.

"-Antler!"

Having been taken by surprise, Greymon could only take the blow head-on.

SMASH!

Letting out a painful sound, Greymon shot through the air before crashing shatteringly into one of the coliseum's walls generating a large cloud of dust that covered the orange dinosaur's figure.

The Blue Greymon staggered in place while shaking its head from side to side, it seemed that the heavy blow had also taken its toll on it. Tai watched with his heart in his throat as the dust cloud slowly dissipated revealing the collapsed figure of the Greymon.

Letting out a sigh of relief Tai smiled for a moment before frowning and giving a command to his fellow Digimon. "Stand up Greymon! Stand up!"

The collapsed dinosaur let out a short grunt of effort as his whole body had small tremors from the great effort the big orange T-Rex was making to stand up again.

Finally, Greymon managed to lift a part of its body...

Pump!

Only to fall face first to the ground again.

"I can't... stand up..." An exhausted whisper from Greymon escaped his lips as his gaze spun around.

Ignoring Tai's demands, Greymon fixed his gaze on the other battles taking place throughout the coliseum arena.

Snimon was fighting Ikkakumon, Togemon and Kabuterimon in a fight that was practically won, the praying mantis was simply too much for them, even Greymon just watching the fight knew he would need quite a bit of help to lead with the mantis.

Snimon was fast despite its colossal size, strong despite its insect-like structure, and tough beyond belief.

Even as three Digimons of his same Evolutionary Stage engaged him in a fight that for any other Digimon would seem impossible, Snimon remained unmoved as he dodged, slashed and countered relentlessly.

Looking across the arena, Greymon watched as Garurumon and Birdramon fought relentlessly against Tyranomon, using a simple but effective tactic given the circumstances.

Hit-and-run.

Garurumon would freeze Tyranomon's legs, while Birdramon would bombard him from the skies with his fire, causing enormous damage to Tyranomon. And while Tyranomon was busy defending himself from the phoenix's bombardment, Garurumon would attack his blind spots for sure.

But there was something that all the Children had overlooked that Greymon had noticed.

Ikakumon's effort to move.

Togemon's few attacks.

Kabuterimon's weak flapping.

Garurumon's heavy breathing.

Birdramon's low flight.

The realization dawned on Greymon's mind.

'At this rate, we'll run out of strength.'

The last time the group ate properly was during the Gazimon Village incident, where most of our energy was spent escaping and crossing the desert with barely a few breaks.

It was only a matter of time before all the Digimons lost their strength and-

"What do you mean, you can't?! Remember who we are, Greymon! We are the strongest! We are the bravest! Show that bravery!" Tai's angry shout brought Greymon out of his thoughts. Looking at his partner, Greymon couldn't help but feel a spice that ignited in his Digicore and spread throughout his lines of code at the sight of Tai. "Come on, Greymon stand up! Stand up! I SAID: STAND UP!"

With a deep grunt of effort, Greymon staggered back to his feet. He glared at Greymon Blue angrily, but the latter only returned a hungry, mocking look. Greymon's eyes sharpened noticeably, giving him a feral, reptilian look.

"Greymon!" Raising a fist in the air with a confident grin, Tai pointed at the Blue Greymon without noticing that his Emblem was beginning to emit a peculiar flash of light. "Finish him off!"

Without further ado, Greymon lunged wildly at its blue version, giving it a powerful headbutt to the chest that unsettled its opponent for a second—a second that Greymon took advantage of to spin around with its tail and punch Blue Greymon in the face, knocking it to the ground.

Staring at his cheap copy on the ground, Greymon's features became even sharper as, with a crazed snarl, he opened his mouth and-

"Burning Salamander!"

With a flash that blinded everyone in the coliseum, Greymon unleashed a brutal solar flare that struck, aimed to completely vaporize the Blue T-Rex.

Said T-Rex tried to respond to the attack with Mega Flame but-"

"GUAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

Greymon's attack was simply too powerful for that pittance of flame to counter the sun itself.

When the flash of light disappeared, only Greymon Virus Data was left in the air, which was quickly adsorbed by Greymon.

"Haha! Well done, Greymon!" Tai exclaimed, giving a small jump in the air, before looking at Greymon with a smile—a smile that was replaced by a look of confusion. "Huh... Greymon?"

Greymon stared at the Blue Greymon Data with a blank stare before a low growl came out of the T-Rex's mouth. Tai continued to call out to his fellow Digimon, but the latter only seemed to stagger in place as more growls came out of its mouth.

Unbeknownst to Tai, he had screwed up the situation big time.

A dark cloud began to emerge from the arena floor, causing all fighting to come to a sudden halt. Even Etemon's chattering stopped as the thick darkness quickly emerged from the ground and gathered around Greymon hiding his figure from everyone's eyes.

Letting out an ominous scream into the darkness, Greymon's figure began to distort and stretch up to 4 times his height.

Until finally.

[-Greymon Dark Evolution to...-]

A true natural disaster made its presence felt in the Digital World.

...

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