Corrupted Earth [N-Rank Mission] 5/5

Ikkakumon looked on as the other Digimon did their best to solve the puzzle. "I don't have any healing techniques," he lamented, "otherwise I'd love to help out..." It made him a little upset that he was unable to do anything, but he figured that saving his strength for whatever may lie ahead was more pressing.

Oboro was still doing literally anything other than looking at that boring statue. It seemed he was completely distracted for the moment.

Now alone Tsukaimon had better understanding of the power within the ruins, he tried to focus. The lesson from the book he really had paid attention to after reading about the ways to appease Gaia was to find out how they healed each other, did it come from the statue itself and if so what kind of ritual did they use or was it some kind of hospital wing slash temple for wounded digimon? (OOC: Please tell me what answer Tsukaimon discovered from the book he just read. This counts as "yes, Tsukaimon wants to read").

With that knowledge in his head, Tsukaimon turned back into a digimon and flew out of the left path. Luck would have it that the next patch he choose to explore was the center path. While you would normally expect Tsukaimon to be annoyed about the discovery that humans were already there among him, he was suspiciously chill about the fact this time around.

The sight of the 20 meters tall statue of Gaia impressed Tsukaimon, then he wondered whether she was a member of the Olympus 12.

While Gryz was busy meditating Tsukaimon flew in and read the plaque on the statue for himself, as it turns out it had some digicode on that he first read now.

The spiraling thing at the center caught Tsukaimon's interest that had to be the strange power he was reading about. Now the question remained, "how could he get it for himself?" Tsukaimon pondered. He can't take it by force and he didn't knew any healing techniques either.

He eventually just sat back and asked while pretending this was all a new experience for him.

"So what is up with the statue?"

Oboro's interest was immediately piqued when something actually happened! It seemed that whatever Gryz and the others had done revealed a staircase to another room!

"You did it!" he exclaimed. "Let's keep going!"

"Nice job, everyone," Ikkakumon said pleasantly, still somewhat upset that he hadn't been able to help more. He quickly went over to follow Oboro into the cavern below.

Whatever the children did seemed to have an effect on the statue. Kan would frown slightly as it seemed far too easy. But perhaps it made sense that healing was the answer here. If none of them had healing abilities they certainly would of been toast. Shaking his head slightly the spirit user found himself staring into the entrance. If anything screamed trap it was this; but he had to go along with everything. He was expecting full payment for this investigation that was slowly getting more and more convoluted.

"If anything was a trap, this certainly is. First sign of trouble and I'm popping into a higher tier digivolution..."

With a grumble the spirit user followed after the other two; he wasn't really looking forward to where this no doubtfully was heading. But he had to deal with it; after all this would reflect badly on him if it didn't go through to the end of things...

As the group continued down the stairs, the black data became so thick that it was hard to see more than four metres. Even the light from the luminous wall crystals and fungus was very dim. All it could do was light the steps below their feet and little more.

Eventually, at the bottom, they would come to a large chamber, fifty metres long, wide and ten metres high. The ground below was soil. Not sand, as one would expect, but a hard, compacted ashen earth that was grey in color.

A noise could be heard from the other end of the room. A deep, rumbling noise, followed by footsteps. The black data thins slightly, so their shapes could be seen. Two digimon were present. Their eyes glow red, their hide covered with eerie black digicode. One giant and lumbering, one small and impish. They see you, the ground shakes a little as the large one moves.

Then, at once, the foggy black data disperses, withdrawing into one, pulsating purple sphere at the back of the room. A black shield surrounds it. It would seem that this is in fact the true source of the corruption. And, it seemed, it had two guardians.

They could now be seen in the yellow-red light from the fungi and crystals. One is a Minotaurmon - at least four metres high and bulked with muscle. The other, a Grumblemon, riding his shoulder, standing under a metre in height. A large hammer was held in his hands. But for now, only the Minotaurmon moved. Neither of them attacked, however. They regarded the intruders with a hesitant stare.

"What... you... purpose?" the Grumblemon asked, his voice rasping and slow, as though speaking was a concept he had not used for a long time. "You... replace... us?" he asked.

Gryz eyed the Tsukaimon momentarily. He still doesn't get what the hell did he want, but antagonizing people stronger than him definitely a bad idea. Is it why he's just stayed silent? However, he's not a mind reader... and he'd rather stay that way. If he could read that vile creature's mind, just how much will he tempted to kill it? He decided to ignore it for now, this desire to eliminate the greatest threat to their teamwork and instead focusing of what's ahead.

Unfortunately, their descent just showed just how much fouler this place is than he thought. He's attuned to the earth, and all he can think when he saw this is... the earth is crying. Crying, angry, and maybe blaming... he have no idea. The swirl of negative emotions that wells up in his chest as he dwells on it.

"It's getting darker, huh?" suddenly his partner's voice snapped from from his thoughts.

"It's scaree, huh? D'ya wanna hold hands?"

Tetsu offered his hand to his partner, who noticed that the boy perhaps has noticed his internal swirl of feelings. Still, Gryz can't help but to chuckle and gently headbutted him, but not enough to make him fall of course.

"Silly boy, I don't have bipedal paws now."

"Aw, too bad."

He got a small urge to tease his partner for being scared, but it doesn't came out. Instead, he silently thanked the boy for his kindness.

The moment they arrived on the end... Gryz cannot help but to groan at how intense was the corruption. Had Tetsu not snapped him out of his trance, he might would puke now and then. The big bear glared at the two guardians, and then the orb there... The talk about replacing felt odd for the Gryzmon. Who wanted to replace them? Then again...

The other guy seem to answer what he had in mind. Even so, the evolution looks a bit nasty, making Tetsu shudder a bit.

"Gryz..."

"...What is it, Tetsu?" he asked back, even though his eyes did not leave the two figure.

"...If we kill them... they'll die for real, won't they?"

"...Most likely, it's the case," Gryz answered, pained look obvious on his face. Pang of guilt made the boy looked down, but... Suddenly, almost as if he found light in the depth of this corruption, the boy quickly called out to his partner again.

"...Gryz. Let's go back."

"Tetsu?" he was taken aback by the boy's declaration, but what came afterward shook him even further.

"Everyone! Please buy us time! I'll come back quickly. Gryz have power to heal... and if healing could deal with this corruption, we might could save those two before we take on the source of this corruption! The statue of Gaia... might be the answer!"

Without even caring about the reply, the boy started his dash toward the stairs. He doesn't even care who was it that going to stop him. He need to do what he felt is right. It might be naivety, but the boy's heart screamed at him that he cannot let those Digimons die without being purified. Gryz quickly followed behind, intent on getting this done right.

Oboro stared at the strange Digimon, a little nervous. He hadn't seen anything like this before, and it freaked him out. "Tetsu," he called out as the other boy walked away, "stay alert. We may need Blizzarmon for this one."

Ikkakumon stood between Oboro and the two of them, ready to fight just in case. "We'll hold them off while Tetsu and Gryz try to take care of it!" He waited for a sign of movement before getting into a fight. He didn't know how to deal with these.