Knocking on Heaven's door (Armor Hunt/Solo)
Apr 2, 2018 3:39:50 GMT
Post by Carlos Rey on Apr 2, 2018 3:39:50 GMT
Luminas, the city of angels.
While it wasn’t as big as Terminus (specially not as big and complex as Old Terminus), it was still an imposing sight, between the bright splendorous buildings, the bright golden entrances and archways adorning even the most mundane of homes, even the sky up here seemed to radiate more brightly than usual, not a single cloud getting in the way. If you asked anyone back on Earth tell you how Heaven looked like, chances are it would look very similar to Luminas.
And Dio loathed every single part of it. He hated the look of the place, the stuck up people living here and their complete disregard for the world below, he hated…you get the picture. Furthermore, it seemed just being on the city had worsened Dio’s state. A headache was seeping into his head, and it wasn’t just because everything seemed too bright for his eyes. It’s as if the city has this presence, this odd aura interfering with his Virus coding, rejecting him and trying to get him to leave.
And knowing how little the people here thought of his “kind”, that was probably a fair assumption.
“I hate this place. So much.” He complained in a monotone and loath filled tone, walking through the street a bit behind Carlos. His expression was one of complete and utter apathy.
“I know, I heard you the first five times.” Carlos replied, rolling his eyes, his gaze switching between his digivice and the road ahead. “Look, if it’s any consolation, I’m not exactly enjoying myself either.”
“It’s not, but I appreciate the attempt.” He said, sighing a bit.
Truth be told, they would have gladly not even entered the city in the first place, as they were just making a small pit stop to allow their ride there (a rather disgruntled Birdramon) to take care of some errands on his way to Terminus. They were originally just going to stay on the outskirts of the city while they waited…but then Carlos’ digivice began emitting a low hum for a moment, followed by the screen suddenly lighting up and a small arrow pointing in the general direction of the city of Luminas.
While neither of them knew what this meant, regardless of what it actually was, both partners had agreed on at the very least checking it out. If it was important enough that the digivice seemed to be physically drawn to the location, it probably concerned both of them.
While getting into Luminas had proven to be relatively easy (ignoring the dirty looks the guards had given them while they entered), it was proving increasingly difficult to find a reason to stay around and not simply hightail it out of there. Everywhere they went, it was clear they were not welcome. None of the locals so far had proven to be of any help, as most of them seemed to purposely ignore the duo, not even acknowledging their presence.
And those were the nicer ones. Some of the less “tolerant” ones glared at the two as they passed by, their gaze filled with contempt at best and sheer hatred at worst. Some Rookies even went as far as yelling obscenities and curses at them.
As painful as some of them were, Dio had heard all of those before, and plenty of times too. Most had lost any impact they could have had on him just through sheer force of repetition. After being called “dark area gutter trash”, or “monster”, or “abomination” over ten times it started to lose its edge, becoming less a hurtful insult and rather just another word. Not that it helped them any, as this whole experience was making both of them feel rather miserable.
Carlos in particular was feeling more and more upset as they made their way into the city looking for…whatever it was they were looking for. The sheer disdain and verbal abuse every single soul they came across was throwing at his partner was almost unbearable. Had they been in any other place, he would have gladly punched someone right about now, but he knew better than to try to attack a digimon by now.
And, to his partner’s credit, he had not even attempted to threaten any of them, or even talk back to them. Either some of his training with K had gotten results...or maybe he was afraid that using the wrong words would cause every armed guard on the city to come shooting down on the two of them. But…even he could see that Dio’s impassive and stoic expression was a façade, one that was threatening to break down at any minute, as evidenced by the way his hands had closed into trembling fists.
Yet they both stayed quiet for the rest of the walk. After a good thirty minutes of walking, the arrow suddenly turned to point to the right of them, into a side street away from the city’s center road. Seeing there were barely any digimon in that direction came almost as a relief. What wasn’t a relief was where the device was leading them: a small, slightly discolored building that seemed like a small church.
Call it instinct, but going into a church in what was basically digital heaven while accompanied by what was for all intents and purposes a kid demon didn’t seem like a good idea to Carlos. But…they had come all this way, so why stop now?
Taking a deep breath, the slinked through the open doors into the building, his partner following close behind.
Much to their surprise, the inside of the chapel was mostly empty, save for a few snuffed out candles hanging on the wall, a few chairs and what seemed to be a small altar on the back of the building, a small spherical object on top of it. Had it been a bit more furnished, this place would have looked just like the church that Carlos’ grandmother forced the family to frequent every Sunday when they visited her back in Buenos Aires. Boy did that brought back some bad, dull memories.
Regardless of past experiences with churches,the two partners slowly approached the altar, the digivice’s beeping growing more and more frantic with every step. On top of said altar laid an egg shaped relic the size of a tennis ball. The small thing was of a dark, purplish color (not unlike that of Dio’s body), seemed to have a couple of small black leather belts wrapped around it and, perhaps most amusingly, what seemed like a thing resembling a small blue domino mask sticking to the front.
“What is this, some sort of porcelain egg?” Carlos wondered aloud, not sure what to make of this. His question was met with Dio’s face palming.
“You idiot, that’s a freaking Digimental!” The dark lord said, annoyed. Seeing Carlos’ still clueless expression, the imp let out an annoyed sigh, and explained further, “It’s an ancient artifact that can you digivolve easily.”
“Oh, sweet! Uuhh, should we take it though? Isn’t this basically stealing?” He asked, somewhat hesitant. Last thing he wanted was to spend his whole life on a maximum security digimon prison just for stealing. At the very least, if he had to go to prison it should be for something cooler…
“Feh, the digivice was attracted to it; this thing clearly was calling out for us to find it.” He said, dismissively. “Besides, who’s going to know?”
“Stop right there, you heathens!” A booming, commanding voice cried out behind the duo, startling both of them enough that they let go of the egg and immediately turned around.
“In the name of the Light we forbid you from touching that unholy artifact!”
A group of angry looking digimon had gathered in front of them, blocking the only exit.
A sorcerimon that was dressed in long, bright white cloaks with golden trimmings stood in front of a small group formed entirely out of rookie level digimon. A liolmon, labramon, bakumon and a kudamon were all flocking close to the priest looking sorcerimon, who was clearly the one in command.
“We have come to purge this unholy abomination out from our beloved city.” The sorcerimon spoke once again, his loud voice resonating on the walls around them. So they had preachers in here too, great, just great.
“Oh come now. I haven’t done anything wrong, didn’t even tried to break any of your stupid laws. So let’s all forget about this, and go each our separate ways, alright?” Carlos could tell he was making an enourmous effort just to appear civil and collected. And to not bring up any of his Dark Lord talk, as even he knew that would only bring trouble.
“Silence, your continued existence alone is an insult to our laws and everything we stand for!” The sorcerimon wasn’t having it however; he was clearly out for blood. “And if that wasn’t enough, you were attempting to steal the Digimental I was charged with protecting with by the holy Light!”
Carlos sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Clearly, this digimon was so entranced by his own belief that would not listen to reason…either that or he had one or two screws loose. Against his better judgment, the man took a step forward, wanting to attempt to defuse the situation before everything went to hell.
“Listen, it was my mistake, we’ll just…leave the digimental here and leave. And nobody has to be purged.” True they would be throwing away the chance for Dio to digivolve with that, but it was preferable to being killed. Sadly, sorcerimon wasn’t willing to listen.
“Stand aside human, this doesn’t concern you.”
“Hey!” Dio chimed in, angrily. “You can’t order him around, that’s what I do!”
“I said SILENCE!” The priest digimon bellowed out, his staff glowing with intensity for a moment before sending out a barrage of hail. The small imp, caught by surprise, didn’t have the time to react to the attack in time, and when all the balls of ice impacted against him Dio was swiftly knocked to the ground, letting out a pained cry.
The man’s eyes widened in shock and anger, completely taken aback by this. Dio gritted his teeth, trying his hardest to get back up on his feet, but it was no use, that attack had taken too much of a toll on him.
“You bastard! Leave him alone!” Carlos practically yelled out, furious.
“Listen to yourself, this wicked beast has obscured your good judgment with his lies and deceit! But it’s not too late for you to see the real light: stay out of the way and let us enact justice on the unholy one, so that you may walk away free of his corruption!”
Carlos stared at the opposing force, his expression one of defiance, and with one calm, deliberate step, he put himself in between the fallen Dio and the angry mob.
“Like hell I will.”
The insane, hate filled eyes of the priest seemed to widen even more. “Heretic! You’d be willing to sacrifice salvation over this wretc-“
“Shut up you idiotic scarecrow, that’s my partner you’re insulting!” Carlos interrupted the sorcerimon, having had enough of listening to his insane ranting.
“I don’t care what any of you might think of him, he’s not the evil monster you take him for. Sure, he might be a angry jerk sometimes, hell even a downright dick at the worst of times, but you know what? At least he’s trying to get better; I’ve seen it firsthand.”
“And that’s more than what I can say of everyone here, that keep calling us out, insulting us, belittling us before we even have a chance to do anything, not to mention perfectly willing to murder someone just because they’re different or disagree with you. For all his talk of being a dark lord, he’s actually far more pleasant than any angel we’ve have come across.”
As he kept saying this he slowly backed away from the mob, getting closer to his fallen partner with every step. Unbeknown to anyone present there, the man’s digivice was starting to emit a faint glow as he started to get closer to his partner…and so was the digimental.
“Carlos?...” Dio looked up at the man with an almost surprised expression. Was that how he really felt all this time? Carlos was now a mere step away from his partner, still looking at the group defiantly, still putting himself as a human shield between the zealots and his partner.
“Fate could have given me any other partner, but it didn’t just do that. It decided to give me Dio. And for that I’m glad. If it weren’t for him, I’d still be back home, missing out on what’s probably the biggest adventure I could ever live. I know it won’t be easy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He continued, his voice growing louder and more passionate with each moment. He turned momentarily to look at Dio, before giving him a small, but sincere smile.
“… I’m proud of having you as a partner.”
The man’s words resonated for a moment within the church, bouncing between the walls like an echo. It was then that Carlos looked down to notice just how bright his digivice was getting. It was almost too bright to make out, but he could almost make out the words on the device’s screen.
The digimental began to levitate just above the two partners glowing uncontrollably as it began radiating waves and pulses of pure power. The whole building shook violently, the chairs and candles falling to the ground from the sheer force of it. The incredible force and pressure surrounding the digimental grew and grew, until reaching an almost unbearable point.
A red and blue light soon erupted out of the digivice, enveloping both digimental and Dio for a moment, before flooding the whole inside of the chapel with luminosity. After what felt like an eternity (though in reality had probably only been a couple seconds at most) the light finally receded, and much to Carlos’ surprise, nobody had been vaporized or raptured. In fact, everything looked exactly the same as it did a moment ago…
…except for his own partner that is. The small imp was now nowhere to be found, having been replaced by large feline that was slightly bigger than a very large tiger, except this one had purplish fur, blue armor protecting his white face, and a long red slightly tattered scarf tied around his neck. The digital creature known as Pantheramon let out a loud, proud roar that made the ground tremble, shaking up both man and mob.
Even sorcerimon seemed visibly agitated, pointing with his staff at the Armor Champion, his whole body trembling with both outrage…and fear.
“Y-you heathen! Demon! You taken the power of Pride for yourself!”
“That I have.” The panther replied, his deep voice carrying an unmistakable air of smugness to it…as well as danger. “I am also strong enough to kill with the same ease as you would crush an insect.”
“H-hah! Void threats, I could smite you were you stand!” The priest talked back, but his tone wasn’t convinced.
“Perhaps, or perhaps I would slay you and your flock right here.” He sneered, taking one small step forward. “The question is: are you willing to take that risk? Or would you rather live to fight another day?” He asked, an eerie smile etched on his face.
They both stood silent for a moment, staring each other into their eyes. The moment soon passed however, and with a small gesture of sorcerimon’s hand, the whole congregation of rookies slowly backed away from the two and went back outside, soon followed by the priest. They didn’t even had the gall to talk back, simply glaring daggers at the duo until they were out of the building, after which they all quickly disappeared down the street.
Both partners waited for a moment still on guard, until they were sure the group wouldn’t come back, only then were they able to relax their posture.
“Dio, you look so…” The man was the first to talk, looking at his partner with an awed look.
“Fearsome? Mighty? Powerful?” The large cat asked, pure smugness and self love in his tone, which made Carlos chuckle a bit. Yep, this was his partner, alright.
“Yeah, but you also look kinda cute.” He said somewhat jokingly, scratching the panther behind the ears. Dio rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything, too happy with this turn of events to be bothered by anything anymore.
After they walked back outside the church however, the digimon would turn his head to look at the human. “Carlos I…wanted to thank you for uh…standing up to me. I…never expected anyone to do that for me.” Despite his somewhat embarrassed tone, it was clear Dio was very grateful at Carlos, not just for saving his life, but actually helping him achieving something he didn’t thought possible.
The man simply gave him a warm smile in return, as well as a pat in the back. “Any time…friend.” The weight of that last word hanged in the air as they made their way back from where they came. There was a sort of unspoken agreement that, after the things that had happened today, the term “partner” just wasn’t enough.
“ I knew it was a mistake to let you two inside the city.” Said one of the holy angemon guarding the gates that served as an entrance to the city, arms folded and shaking his head in disapproval as he stared down Carlos and a now de evolved Impmon who was holding the digimental under his arm.
The holy guard had had some doubts at letting a Virus type inside the holy city, and now that he had gotten some reports they had caused a commotion downtown he was sure his decition was the wrong one.
“Hey, those weirdoes started it.”
“That I can believe.” The angel noded slightly. “We’ve been having some trouble with a group of…less call them vigilantes trying to take matters into their own hands and attempting to delete everyone they consider a criminal, ignoring due process. And your story and some witness accounts do fit with the description and M.O.”
“As far as I’m concerned, without enough evidence to prove otherwise, you haven’t broken any real laws, as much as it pains me to say, so I can’t detain you.” The angel said, sounding almost disappointed at this. Apparently he really wanted to dispense some justice of his own as well. “That said, your presence here has caused a large amount of strife and discomfort to the poor residents of the city. I rather not take more chances: I want you two to get out of this city now, and never come back.”
“With pleasure. Let’s go, Carlos.” The digimon said almost ecstatically, walking in direction to the nearest exit without a second thought. Carlos wasn’t far behind, hurriedly walking by his side, glad that they could finally leave this awful place behind.
It didn’t took long for them to find the Birdramon that would take them back down. After exchanging some pleasantries, the duo climbed on the bird’s back, and together began their decent back to the city of Terminus. There was a sense of accomplishment in the hearts of the duo, something deep within the two that made them somewhat glad that they had taken their chance with the holy city, even if their victory was a small one in the grand scheme of things.
It was pride.
[EXIT]
Wordcount: 3285so sorry for the lenght, bleh
While it wasn’t as big as Terminus (specially not as big and complex as Old Terminus), it was still an imposing sight, between the bright splendorous buildings, the bright golden entrances and archways adorning even the most mundane of homes, even the sky up here seemed to radiate more brightly than usual, not a single cloud getting in the way. If you asked anyone back on Earth tell you how Heaven looked like, chances are it would look very similar to Luminas.
And Dio loathed every single part of it. He hated the look of the place, the stuck up people living here and their complete disregard for the world below, he hated…you get the picture. Furthermore, it seemed just being on the city had worsened Dio’s state. A headache was seeping into his head, and it wasn’t just because everything seemed too bright for his eyes. It’s as if the city has this presence, this odd aura interfering with his Virus coding, rejecting him and trying to get him to leave.
And knowing how little the people here thought of his “kind”, that was probably a fair assumption.
“I hate this place. So much.” He complained in a monotone and loath filled tone, walking through the street a bit behind Carlos. His expression was one of complete and utter apathy.
“I know, I heard you the first five times.” Carlos replied, rolling his eyes, his gaze switching between his digivice and the road ahead. “Look, if it’s any consolation, I’m not exactly enjoying myself either.”
“It’s not, but I appreciate the attempt.” He said, sighing a bit.
Truth be told, they would have gladly not even entered the city in the first place, as they were just making a small pit stop to allow their ride there (a rather disgruntled Birdramon) to take care of some errands on his way to Terminus. They were originally just going to stay on the outskirts of the city while they waited…but then Carlos’ digivice began emitting a low hum for a moment, followed by the screen suddenly lighting up and a small arrow pointing in the general direction of the city of Luminas.
While neither of them knew what this meant, regardless of what it actually was, both partners had agreed on at the very least checking it out. If it was important enough that the digivice seemed to be physically drawn to the location, it probably concerned both of them.
While getting into Luminas had proven to be relatively easy (ignoring the dirty looks the guards had given them while they entered), it was proving increasingly difficult to find a reason to stay around and not simply hightail it out of there. Everywhere they went, it was clear they were not welcome. None of the locals so far had proven to be of any help, as most of them seemed to purposely ignore the duo, not even acknowledging their presence.
And those were the nicer ones. Some of the less “tolerant” ones glared at the two as they passed by, their gaze filled with contempt at best and sheer hatred at worst. Some Rookies even went as far as yelling obscenities and curses at them.
As painful as some of them were, Dio had heard all of those before, and plenty of times too. Most had lost any impact they could have had on him just through sheer force of repetition. After being called “dark area gutter trash”, or “monster”, or “abomination” over ten times it started to lose its edge, becoming less a hurtful insult and rather just another word. Not that it helped them any, as this whole experience was making both of them feel rather miserable.
Carlos in particular was feeling more and more upset as they made their way into the city looking for…whatever it was they were looking for. The sheer disdain and verbal abuse every single soul they came across was throwing at his partner was almost unbearable. Had they been in any other place, he would have gladly punched someone right about now, but he knew better than to try to attack a digimon by now.
And, to his partner’s credit, he had not even attempted to threaten any of them, or even talk back to them. Either some of his training with K had gotten results...or maybe he was afraid that using the wrong words would cause every armed guard on the city to come shooting down on the two of them. But…even he could see that Dio’s impassive and stoic expression was a façade, one that was threatening to break down at any minute, as evidenced by the way his hands had closed into trembling fists.
Yet they both stayed quiet for the rest of the walk. After a good thirty minutes of walking, the arrow suddenly turned to point to the right of them, into a side street away from the city’s center road. Seeing there were barely any digimon in that direction came almost as a relief. What wasn’t a relief was where the device was leading them: a small, slightly discolored building that seemed like a small church.
Call it instinct, but going into a church in what was basically digital heaven while accompanied by what was for all intents and purposes a kid demon didn’t seem like a good idea to Carlos. But…they had come all this way, so why stop now?
Taking a deep breath, the slinked through the open doors into the building, his partner following close behind.
Much to their surprise, the inside of the chapel was mostly empty, save for a few snuffed out candles hanging on the wall, a few chairs and what seemed to be a small altar on the back of the building, a small spherical object on top of it. Had it been a bit more furnished, this place would have looked just like the church that Carlos’ grandmother forced the family to frequent every Sunday when they visited her back in Buenos Aires. Boy did that brought back some bad, dull memories.
Regardless of past experiences with churches,the two partners slowly approached the altar, the digivice’s beeping growing more and more frantic with every step. On top of said altar laid an egg shaped relic the size of a tennis ball. The small thing was of a dark, purplish color (not unlike that of Dio’s body), seemed to have a couple of small black leather belts wrapped around it and, perhaps most amusingly, what seemed like a thing resembling a small blue domino mask sticking to the front.
“What is this, some sort of porcelain egg?” Carlos wondered aloud, not sure what to make of this. His question was met with Dio’s face palming.
“You idiot, that’s a freaking Digimental!” The dark lord said, annoyed. Seeing Carlos’ still clueless expression, the imp let out an annoyed sigh, and explained further, “It’s an ancient artifact that can you digivolve easily.”
“Oh, sweet! Uuhh, should we take it though? Isn’t this basically stealing?” He asked, somewhat hesitant. Last thing he wanted was to spend his whole life on a maximum security digimon prison just for stealing. At the very least, if he had to go to prison it should be for something cooler…
“Feh, the digivice was attracted to it; this thing clearly was calling out for us to find it.” He said, dismissively. “Besides, who’s going to know?”
“Stop right there, you heathens!” A booming, commanding voice cried out behind the duo, startling both of them enough that they let go of the egg and immediately turned around.
“In the name of the Light we forbid you from touching that unholy artifact!”
A group of angry looking digimon had gathered in front of them, blocking the only exit.
A sorcerimon that was dressed in long, bright white cloaks with golden trimmings stood in front of a small group formed entirely out of rookie level digimon. A liolmon, labramon, bakumon and a kudamon were all flocking close to the priest looking sorcerimon, who was clearly the one in command.
“We have come to purge this unholy abomination out from our beloved city.” The sorcerimon spoke once again, his loud voice resonating on the walls around them. So they had preachers in here too, great, just great.
“Oh come now. I haven’t done anything wrong, didn’t even tried to break any of your stupid laws. So let’s all forget about this, and go each our separate ways, alright?” Carlos could tell he was making an enourmous effort just to appear civil and collected. And to not bring up any of his Dark Lord talk, as even he knew that would only bring trouble.
“Silence, your continued existence alone is an insult to our laws and everything we stand for!” The sorcerimon wasn’t having it however; he was clearly out for blood. “And if that wasn’t enough, you were attempting to steal the Digimental I was charged with protecting with by the holy Light!”
Carlos sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Clearly, this digimon was so entranced by his own belief that would not listen to reason…either that or he had one or two screws loose. Against his better judgment, the man took a step forward, wanting to attempt to defuse the situation before everything went to hell.
“Listen, it was my mistake, we’ll just…leave the digimental here and leave. And nobody has to be purged.” True they would be throwing away the chance for Dio to digivolve with that, but it was preferable to being killed. Sadly, sorcerimon wasn’t willing to listen.
“Stand aside human, this doesn’t concern you.”
“Hey!” Dio chimed in, angrily. “You can’t order him around, that’s what I do!”
“I said SILENCE!” The priest digimon bellowed out, his staff glowing with intensity for a moment before sending out a barrage of hail. The small imp, caught by surprise, didn’t have the time to react to the attack in time, and when all the balls of ice impacted against him Dio was swiftly knocked to the ground, letting out a pained cry.
The man’s eyes widened in shock and anger, completely taken aback by this. Dio gritted his teeth, trying his hardest to get back up on his feet, but it was no use, that attack had taken too much of a toll on him.
“You bastard! Leave him alone!” Carlos practically yelled out, furious.
“Listen to yourself, this wicked beast has obscured your good judgment with his lies and deceit! But it’s not too late for you to see the real light: stay out of the way and let us enact justice on the unholy one, so that you may walk away free of his corruption!”
Carlos stared at the opposing force, his expression one of defiance, and with one calm, deliberate step, he put himself in between the fallen Dio and the angry mob.
“Like hell I will.”
The insane, hate filled eyes of the priest seemed to widen even more. “Heretic! You’d be willing to sacrifice salvation over this wretc-“
“Shut up you idiotic scarecrow, that’s my partner you’re insulting!” Carlos interrupted the sorcerimon, having had enough of listening to his insane ranting.
“I don’t care what any of you might think of him, he’s not the evil monster you take him for. Sure, he might be a angry jerk sometimes, hell even a downright dick at the worst of times, but you know what? At least he’s trying to get better; I’ve seen it firsthand.”
“And that’s more than what I can say of everyone here, that keep calling us out, insulting us, belittling us before we even have a chance to do anything, not to mention perfectly willing to murder someone just because they’re different or disagree with you. For all his talk of being a dark lord, he’s actually far more pleasant than any angel we’ve have come across.”
As he kept saying this he slowly backed away from the mob, getting closer to his fallen partner with every step. Unbeknown to anyone present there, the man’s digivice was starting to emit a faint glow as he started to get closer to his partner…and so was the digimental.
“Carlos?...” Dio looked up at the man with an almost surprised expression. Was that how he really felt all this time? Carlos was now a mere step away from his partner, still looking at the group defiantly, still putting himself as a human shield between the zealots and his partner.
“Fate could have given me any other partner, but it didn’t just do that. It decided to give me Dio. And for that I’m glad. If it weren’t for him, I’d still be back home, missing out on what’s probably the biggest adventure I could ever live. I know it won’t be easy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He continued, his voice growing louder and more passionate with each moment. He turned momentarily to look at Dio, before giving him a small, but sincere smile.
“… I’m proud of having you as a partner.”
The man’s words resonated for a moment within the church, bouncing between the walls like an echo. It was then that Carlos looked down to notice just how bright his digivice was getting. It was almost too bright to make out, but he could almost make out the words on the device’s screen.
“Armor Digivolution”
The digimental began to levitate just above the two partners glowing uncontrollably as it began radiating waves and pulses of pure power. The whole building shook violently, the chairs and candles falling to the ground from the sheer force of it. The incredible force and pressure surrounding the digimental grew and grew, until reaching an almost unbearable point.
A red and blue light soon erupted out of the digivice, enveloping both digimental and Dio for a moment, before flooding the whole inside of the chapel with luminosity. After what felt like an eternity (though in reality had probably only been a couple seconds at most) the light finally receded, and much to Carlos’ surprise, nobody had been vaporized or raptured. In fact, everything looked exactly the same as it did a moment ago…
…except for his own partner that is. The small imp was now nowhere to be found, having been replaced by large feline that was slightly bigger than a very large tiger, except this one had purplish fur, blue armor protecting his white face, and a long red slightly tattered scarf tied around his neck. The digital creature known as Pantheramon let out a loud, proud roar that made the ground tremble, shaking up both man and mob.
Even sorcerimon seemed visibly agitated, pointing with his staff at the Armor Champion, his whole body trembling with both outrage…and fear.
“Y-you heathen! Demon! You taken the power of Pride for yourself!”
“That I have.” The panther replied, his deep voice carrying an unmistakable air of smugness to it…as well as danger. “I am also strong enough to kill with the same ease as you would crush an insect.”
“H-hah! Void threats, I could smite you were you stand!” The priest talked back, but his tone wasn’t convinced.
“Perhaps, or perhaps I would slay you and your flock right here.” He sneered, taking one small step forward. “The question is: are you willing to take that risk? Or would you rather live to fight another day?” He asked, an eerie smile etched on his face.
They both stood silent for a moment, staring each other into their eyes. The moment soon passed however, and with a small gesture of sorcerimon’s hand, the whole congregation of rookies slowly backed away from the two and went back outside, soon followed by the priest. They didn’t even had the gall to talk back, simply glaring daggers at the duo until they were out of the building, after which they all quickly disappeared down the street.
Both partners waited for a moment still on guard, until they were sure the group wouldn’t come back, only then were they able to relax their posture.
“Dio, you look so…” The man was the first to talk, looking at his partner with an awed look.
“Fearsome? Mighty? Powerful?” The large cat asked, pure smugness and self love in his tone, which made Carlos chuckle a bit. Yep, this was his partner, alright.
“Yeah, but you also look kinda cute.” He said somewhat jokingly, scratching the panther behind the ears. Dio rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything, too happy with this turn of events to be bothered by anything anymore.
After they walked back outside the church however, the digimon would turn his head to look at the human. “Carlos I…wanted to thank you for uh…standing up to me. I…never expected anyone to do that for me.” Despite his somewhat embarrassed tone, it was clear Dio was very grateful at Carlos, not just for saving his life, but actually helping him achieving something he didn’t thought possible.
The man simply gave him a warm smile in return, as well as a pat in the back. “Any time…friend.” The weight of that last word hanged in the air as they made their way back from where they came. There was a sort of unspoken agreement that, after the things that had happened today, the term “partner” just wasn’t enough.
“ I knew it was a mistake to let you two inside the city.” Said one of the holy angemon guarding the gates that served as an entrance to the city, arms folded and shaking his head in disapproval as he stared down Carlos and a now de evolved Impmon who was holding the digimental under his arm.
The holy guard had had some doubts at letting a Virus type inside the holy city, and now that he had gotten some reports they had caused a commotion downtown he was sure his decition was the wrong one.
“Hey, those weirdoes started it.”
“That I can believe.” The angel noded slightly. “We’ve been having some trouble with a group of…less call them vigilantes trying to take matters into their own hands and attempting to delete everyone they consider a criminal, ignoring due process. And your story and some witness accounts do fit with the description and M.O.”
“As far as I’m concerned, without enough evidence to prove otherwise, you haven’t broken any real laws, as much as it pains me to say, so I can’t detain you.” The angel said, sounding almost disappointed at this. Apparently he really wanted to dispense some justice of his own as well. “That said, your presence here has caused a large amount of strife and discomfort to the poor residents of the city. I rather not take more chances: I want you two to get out of this city now, and never come back.”
“With pleasure. Let’s go, Carlos.” The digimon said almost ecstatically, walking in direction to the nearest exit without a second thought. Carlos wasn’t far behind, hurriedly walking by his side, glad that they could finally leave this awful place behind.
It didn’t took long for them to find the Birdramon that would take them back down. After exchanging some pleasantries, the duo climbed on the bird’s back, and together began their decent back to the city of Terminus. There was a sense of accomplishment in the hearts of the duo, something deep within the two that made them somewhat glad that they had taken their chance with the holy city, even if their victory was a small one in the grand scheme of things.
It was pride.
[EXIT]
Wordcount: 3285
