The gallant Knight vs the proud Digimon

One of the two Multiverse ID Red Sun had belonged to Digimon Random World, Kai remembered, entering the Circle of Gallantry.

It was only after bringing Item-R to Harry Potter Random World had Kai hopped into that world, thinking of devouring a Digimon. Moreover, Kai had already confirmed by hopping to Game of Thrones Random World after his return that if he used Multiverse ID to jump dimensions, it would only cost him half of the original mission credits.

It had been a pleasant surprise.

Alas, odd things were bound to happen with Kai.

When the time came to devour a Digimon, the creature had broken down as expected. But it hadn't broken down in mangled flesh. It had turned into digital data.

Of course, the Blood Devour failed because of it.

For long Kai and Rintaro had argued why his Glitch failed when it was obvious from the fear on Digimon's face that it had also sensed the coming of doom.

It hadn't taken them long to come up with a viable theory.

They named it Digimon Duality.

Before breaking down into simplest units, a Digimon behaved and functioned like a magical creature. But the moment it died or disintegrated under the might of Glitch, it behaved like data. And, by nature, all such lifeforms came under the field of SP, like Beyblade Beasts, Tailed Beasts, etc.

Dejected, Kai had changed the directive of the jump from devouring a Digimon to getting another one for Red Sun instead, then. As they had already gone to the Digimon World, it wouldn't have made sense for them to not get something outrageous, either.

What they ended up getting, at last, had surpassed even their hopes.

Kai and others entered a place with no color but grey.

Grey was the color of cracked earth, and grey was the color of the still sky. Even the wind felt grayed somehow to Kai, for no fucking reason.

He felt a bit annoyed at his judgment. Annoyed because when he sensed the Inferi standing in the distance, he again realized that he had judged the situation wrong. It made it the second time for tonight.

It might as well have been the thousandth.

The guardian of 12th Circle should have been Inferi with the strength of a top-level 9th-floor Contestant.

Well, they weren't.

With only one Circle remaining after this one, Kai knew who was he facing surely this time.

Sir Galahad, the greatest knight of the Round Table!

Kai and his team had it easy till now because of the sudden rise in power of all the members. It didn't mean he had been underestimating his opponents or this place.

It also didn't mean he had ample time to finish them.

Now that Kai had entered his Identity Period, he only had some 160 minutes remaining before his forced transfiguration. He wanted to test out his powers with the last guardian. But when he saw and felt the 12th Inferi, it seemed unlikely at a glance.

Sure enough, the greatest was no exaggeration.

There were 5 Sir Galahad, all in rusty silver armor, wielding longswords. All swords were shining like stretched strips of sun, and yet the grayness of this Circle persisted.

All knights were standing in line, their hands resting on the hilt of the sword, with its tip kissing the broken, dry land underneath.

And all had the strength of low-level 10th floor Contestants.

Even if Red Sun was the best of the best among newly ascended 10th-floor Contestants, he was still only that strong. Contestants of mid-level 10th floor he could take on easily. But against the high-level 10th floor, if he were to survive, then it would already be counted as great luck.

The discrepancy between the four levels of the 10th floor was just too great for one to compare them to the four levels of the lower floors.

The 10th floor was where the powerful gathered. The 10th floor was where the true competition begin. All lower floors' businesses and conflicts were nothing but children's squabbles for them.

And Red Sun must take on these beings. He was half lost already. Half lost, if… if he didn't use that Digimon, that is.

The 5 Inferi begin walking toward them, their steps unhurried. They dragged the shining longswords on the grey earth, tearing it apart like paper.

Kai's eyes narrowed. They could survive this, he knew. He wouldn't go from this place without getting all the ingredients. "Take it out," he said.

RizeGreymon jumped into the air above them and rocket-like propulsion burst out from its back, keeping it in the air. Below it, Red Sun took out another Beast Ball. He threw it.

With a bang, a bolt of black electricity shot out of the Beast Ball from midair. The black electricity-like bolt snaked around left and right. Air crackled as it rushed toward the incoming knights, who also shockingly paused, sensing a stupendous threat. But before the bolt reached half the distance, it turned around and entered the Beast Ball.

The Beast Ball snapped shut and fell on the dry earth and rolled away from them.

"…"

"…"

When Kai looked at him, Red Sun was holding his face. Sometimes it was impossible to tell if he was laughing or sighing behind that hand of his.

But the thing was, Red Sun wasn't good enough to keep it hidden, anyway.

"Hehe…" the chuckle reverberated in the silence, Red Sun's massive body shaking. "Hehehe…"

Kai filled his lungs with the hot, grey wind in a long breath, lest he snapped at the grown man.

The Inferi knights seemed to agree with Kai. They lifted their swords, bent their knees, and dashed.

Hundreds of meters got covered in a fraction of a second.

Red Sun's transformation took even less time. A red overcoat appeared around him and his hair became golden yellow. Glasses appear on his face, resting on his nose as if they had always been there.

A long, silver .45 Long Colt appeared in his right hand.

If there was a childishness about Red Sun, then this transformation eradicated it from him in its entirety.

Now he truly looked like one. A 10th-floor Contestant!

What made Red Sun a monster wasn't the Digimon he carried with him or his illogical glib tongue.

Red Sun was the Inheritor of Vash the Stampede from the Trigun Random World… his Initiation Mission.

That's why Initiation Missions were so important, for they dictated the journey of a Contestant in the Primordial Tower. When Kai looked it that way, he still cursed at the Systems for sending him to the Harry Potter World instead, even though he got the Book from it.

Red Sun stepped forward and vanished with a pop.

The bangs echoed in the world almost instantaneously.

From above, RizeGreymon fired multiple short bursts of the revolver, which was also its hand. And standing farther away from the knights, Red Sun fired five shots.

The heavy shots of the Digimon forced them in different directions. Red Sun's shots hit the knights' helmets simultaneously.

A boom rang out as the Inferi got thrown in five directions. However, before they could fall, they spun midair and landed on their feet.

Something did fall, though. The 5 bullets.

Red Sun gaped, his jaw-dropping as low as it could. "What in the name of…?" he cursed.

Two knights dashed toward Red Sun, two flew toward RizeGreymon, and one shot toward Kai and others.

Bang! Bang!

Red Sun kept firing, but the bullets only momentarily paused the knights' advance, doing nothing else.

RizeGreymon flew up, firing shots after shots, but the knights were faster than it.

The remaining one landed 10 ft away from Kai, shattering the earth under its feet.

5 swords flashed simultaneously.

Red Sun dodged one but got hacked down by the other, blood splattering from his back. RizeGreymon's tail fell from above, creating a pit. The Digimon charged the revolver to fire another Trident Revolver move, but the second knight rammed a sword into its chest, making the Digimon return to Beast Ball.

The 5th Sir Galahad flicked the sword up, sending a bright flash of vertical slash toward Kai.

Kai let out the breath he had filled in his lungs beforehand. All of it.

Blood Flames escaped his mouth, hissing out with the speed of a jet. He raised his left hand and the blood flames condensed on it, becoming a red glove, reaching just above his wrist.

The slash arrived, creating sonic booms in its wake, and Kai grabbed it.

BOOM!!!

Kai felt as if an entire mountain had rammed into him. He skidded back and back, creating a sandstorm, grey of color. But just before he could reach the ladies standing behind him, he stopped.

The Inferi growled in the distance as if it couldn't believe it.

Kai looked at it with his dead eyes and squeezed. The vertical slash of brightness shattered like glass under the might of Selfless Breathing, even though the Proficiency had fallen to just over 100%.

"AHHHHH!" Red Sun roared like a mad bull in the distance as he saw RizeGreymon returning to the Beast Ball. "You all made me do this!"

The .45 Long Colt revolver burst out with silver light in Red Sun's hand, and his entire hand transformed into a long, silver cannon, with angelic faces and wings jutting out of it.

The Angel Arm!

"Red Sun!" Kai shouted. "You damn fool!" He spun around hurriedly and looked at Item-M, Item-S, Cersei, and Moraine. Then his feet began to sink in his shadow. The ladies must have sensed the coming of an apocalypse as they jumped down in his shadow as well.

The Shadow Realm was a different dimension altogether, not sharing any physical characteristics with the real world outside.

And yet, Kai could have sworn he felt the tremors.

After a few minutes, when they walked out, the world had changed. The grey of before had gained a silverish-red glow. The broken grey earth had vanished, leaving behind a massive crater as if a meteor had fallen here, ending worldly life.

Kai heard several gulps behind him. He didn't blame them. Kai himself had no way to say for sure if he could survive a head-on blow from this attack. Not without using his Reality Marble, at least.

A dark silhouette rippled out in the distance, taking the shape of a handless Red Sun. It happened whenever he used this attack, losing his right hand in return. His glasses were gone, his hair was disheveled, and his red coat was in tatters.

This was a great price he paid to use this attack… a price worth every penny. The only thing was… this attack was meant to be a sure kill, as it left Red Sun pretty much defenseless and powerless.

So when 3 more silhouettes appeared behind Red Sun, Kai's eyes narrowed into needles.

And when he saw what happened next, his eyes almost popped out.

The 3 silhouettes behind Red Sun belonged to 3 surviving Inferi Knights, their armor gone, bones dangling from here and there. Suddenly, the 3 Inferi walked toward each other… into each other.

A 12 ft tall Inferi appeared in the place of 3 knights, pulsing with the power of a mid-level 10th-floor Contestant.

GRRRRRR!!!

The Inferi let out a mix of piercing, beastly screech and jumped toward Red Sun, the glossy ground beneath its feet shattering upon the push.

Sounga appeared in Kai's hand, the end of his white hair turning yellow.

It was then the black bolt of lightning returned… pretty much out of nowhere.

It struck the ground between Red Sun and the incoming Inferi and condensed, taking the form of something as tall as the Inferi itself.

Vrooom! Vroom!!!

The sound of the Behemoth was so loud that it split apart the dust, wind, and tension.

"Haha!" the laugh reverberated along with the roaring of engines. "Now that's what you call a worthy opponent!"

An enormous bike with a red shield lunged out from the black bolt as it condensed completely.

Sitting on the bike was a huge, humanoid Digimon, wearing a biker's jacket, pants, and boots. He had a bird-like mask on his face and his hair was platinum-gold. From its back, a massive and long, black steel tail whipped at the air, adding to the beastly roar of the behemoth's engines.

The Digimon spun the bike like a master of speed and darkness, taking out a massive shotgun from the holster at its waist. It was the shotgun, Berenjana. There were two of them, Kai noticed. One was still secured fast in another holster at its waist.

Bang!

The Digimon fired, hit the Inferi's chest, and sent it flying into the distance. "Haha!" It laughed, enjoying itself, and chased the Inferi on the bike. The speed was so great that the Digimon caught it before it even fell.

Bang!

Another shot at the Inferi's back sent it up into the sky. With a blur, the Digimon disappeared and reappeared in the sky, his two large shotguns ready and aimed at the rising Inferi.

Vroom!!!

On the burned land, the black-red bike roared out with a Vroom, lifting its front, as if it had a life of its own.

Well, it was alive. The bike was no ordinary tool, but a summoned Digimon itself, named Behemoth.

And the one who had summoned it was none other than the mega-level… Evil King Digimon. One of the seven Great Demon Lords…

The Digimon held out the shotguns and fired them together. The entire Inferi burst apart as the black-purple bullets hit it, shattering it on the impact. "Haha! Damn good!"

… Beelzemon!

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