The rhythmic earthquake-like stomping of Nirvana's six colossal stone legs echoed through the dark labyrinthine corridors of the ancient city.
Dust and debris rained down from the cracked ceilings with every step, but Ace and Wendy didn't slow down.
"We're getting close," Ace said, his boots clicking rapidly against the steep, winding stone staircase.
"The magical density is suffocating up here. This has to be the central control spire."
Wendy followed closely behind, clutching Carla.
Despite her exhaustion, a fierce determination burned in the young Dragon Slayer's eyes.
She was channeling her Sky Dragon magic into their legs, passively casting a lightweight enchantment that allowed them to scale the massive tower without draining their stamina.
"I can hear the machinery," Carla noted, her feline ears twitching. "It sounds like a massive lacrima engine."
Ace pushed open a set of towering, heavy brass doors.
They swung inward with a loud, metallic groan, revealing a vast, spherical chamber.
At the center of the room floated a massive, glowing black lacrima crystal, pulsing with the same sickly purple light that had pierced the sky.
Surrounding the crystal was a complex network of stone dials and magical control runes.
Standing in front of the control sphere, his hands resting on the ancient stone console, was Brain.
The leader of the Oración Seis turned around, his dark, tattooed face twisting into a scowl.
"The Summoner and the Sky Maiden. You are surprisingly persistent pests. But you are too late. The coordinates are locked. In less than twenty minutes, Nirvana will fire its main cannon and wipe Cait Shelter from the face of Earthland."
Wendy gasped, her eyes welling with tears. "No! Why are you doing this?! My guild has never done anything to you!"
"Your guild represents the descendants of the Nirvit, the original creators of this city," Brain stated coldly, his staff glowing with dark, swirling energy.
"They are the only ones who know how to seal it back away. Eradicating them is simply tying up loose ends."
Ace stepped in front of Wendy, his eyes narrowing.
He could feel the chaotic energy pulsing from Brain, but something else felt off.
Through his D-Tector's link to his monsters, he could sense a strange, erratic fluctuation in Brain's magic—like a dam threatening to burst.
"You aren't firing anything," Ace said, raising his hand. "Your guild is finished, Brain. Racer is bound. Angel is in custody. Hoteye switched sides. And my companions have already taken down Cobra and Midnight. You're the only one left."
Brain froze.
For a fraction of a second, genuine shock widened his eyes.
But instead of despair, his face contorted into an expression of manic horror.
He reached up, his trembling fingers grazing the dark, tribal tattoos etched across his face.
"Midnight... defeated?" Brain whispered, his voice cracking. "No... that fool. He was the final lock."
Ace frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"You arrogant children," Brain sneered, though sweat was pouring down his face. "You don't understand what you've done. The Oración Seis wasn't just a guild created to conquer... it was a chain! A living, breathing seal to lock away a monster that even I cannot control!"
Suddenly, one of the thick, dark lines tattooed across Brain's cheek vanished, fading into his skin.
Brain screamed, falling to his knees as a terrifying, pitch-black aura erupted from his body.
"No! The seal is breaking! He's coming out!"
Ace didn't wait to see what happened.
His combat instincts screamed at him to end the fight immediately.
He pulled his D-Tector, the device blazing with a brilliant, blinding blue light.
"Patamon! Armadillomon!" Ace yelled.
Twin streams of data shot from the device, manifesting into the small flying mammal and the yellow armored beast.
But Ace didn't stop there.
Patamon Digivolve to... Angemon!
Armadillomon Digivolve to... Ankylomon!
The blinding light expanded, pushing back the dark, oppressive atmosphere of the control room.
The angelic warrior with six pristine wings descended from the ceiling, his golden staff in hand.
Beside him, the massive, spike-studded armored dinosaur hit the stone floor with a heavy, earth-shaking thud.
But as the holy light faded, the dark aura emanating from the center of the room didn't retreat. It surged.
Brain skin had turned deathly pale, and his eyes... his eyes were completely bloodshot, burning with a chaotic, unadulterated bloodlust that made the air itself feel like razor blades.
The dark tribal tattoos that had covered his face were completely gone.
"So..." a raspy, demonic voice echoed from the man's throat.
"The six locks have been broken. The chains are shattered. How long has it been since I tasted the air?"
Wendy stumbled backward, falling onto her hands and knees. "His magic... it's completely different! It's so cold!"
Ace clenched his fists. The man standing before them wasn't Brain anymore.
"I am Zero," the man declared, his blood-red eyes locking onto Ace and the two Champion-level Digimon.
A sinister, wide grin stretched across his face, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
"And I am going to reduce everything in this world to absolute nothingness."
"Take him down!" Ace commanded.
Angemon moved first.
He soared into the air, spinning his staff to generate a powerful, cutting gale before pulling his right arm back.
Holy energy concentrated around his fist, burning like a miniature sun.
"Heaven's Knuckle!"
Angemon thrust his fist forward, unleashing a massive, blinding beam of golden light directly at Zero's chest.
At the exact same moment, Ankylomon roared, curling his massive heavy body into a tight spiked sphere.
"Megaton Press!"
Ankylomon launched himself through the air like a living cannonball, timing his strike to hit Zero the exact second the holy light connected.
It was a perfectly synchronized, devastating cross-attack.
But Zero didn't dodge.
He simply raised his bare hands.
BOOM!
The control room shook violently. Smoke and cracked stone filled the air, but as the debris cleared, Ace's was surprised.
Zero stood in the exact same spot.
His left hand was buried in Ankylomon's hardened shell, having stopped the multi-ton spinning dinosaur entirely by raw physical strength.
His right hand was outstretched, holding back the beam of holy light.
The golden energy hissed and burned against his skin, but Zero merely laughed.
"Is this it? Is this the light that thinks it can pierce my darkness?" Zero mocked. He tightened his grip.
With a sickening crack, the holy beam shattered like glass.
"Dark Capriccio!"
A highly compressed whip of dark, destructive magic lashed out from Zero's fingertips.
It slammed across Angemon's chest, instantly tearing through his holy defenses.
The angel let out a cry of pain, his wings faltering as he was blasted out of the sky and sent crashing into the stone wall.
"Angemon!"
"You should worry about the big one," Zero sneered.
He yanked his left arm back, pulling Ankylomon toward him, and drove a magic-laced knee directly into the dinosaur's jaw.
The heavy, spiked armor cracked.
Ankylomon roared in agony as Zero followed up with a sweeping backhand cloaked in dark energy.
The massive beast was sent tumbling across the chamber, carving a deep, ragged trench into the floor before coming to a halt near Wendy.
Wendy screamed, throwing her arms over her head as debris rained down around them.
Angemon and Ankylomon were incredibly powerful Champion-level Digimon.
They had easily handled Racer.
But the sheer, monstrous output of Zero's magic was on an entirely different spectrum.
Angemon struggled to his feet, leaning heavily on his golden staff.
His silver helmet was dented, and several of his white feathers drifted to the floor, singed with dark magic.
Ankylomon slowly uncurled, his breathing ragged, a large, glowing crack spider-webbing across his golden back-plating.
"They're tough toys, I'll give you that," Zero chuckled, cracking his neck.
The chaotic magic swirling around him grew denser, ripping chunks of stone from the floor simply by existing near them.
"But trash is still trash."
Ace stepped forward, putting himself between Zero and his battered partners.
'Hmm.. so Champion-level wasn't going to cut it against a Guild Master of the Balam Alliance, i guess i need to use that for a change,'
"You want to erase things, Zero?" Ace said, his voice dropping to a deadly, icy calm.
"Let's see how your darkness handles the peak of the Digital World."
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