Frontiers Unexplored

49) Shattered Soul

Aethermon and Ceruleamon had already come to replace Mayumi and Hinoka respectively by the time that Rhihimon flew into view. Nyaromon was tucked under one of his arms for safekeeping, and the small Digimon jumped free of the Warrior of Darkness' grasp before landing on the ground safely. Her gaze drifted to the sky where Leopardmon could be seen overhead. 

The Royal Knight had been merciful thus far, having not yet done anything to attack the Legendary Warriors. Aethermon assumed that this was because Rhihimon's sudden arrival had offered enough of a distraction to keep her from rushing into the battle prematurely. She silently thanked him for coming when he did before setting her full attention on the Royal Knight in question, thinking about the best method to defeat her. 

"I didn't expect any of you to be alive after Alphamon arrived at Abraxas," Leopardmon said simply, her voice as even and monotonous as it could have possibly been. "He's not exactly the same breed as the rest of us. He'll see a battle through no matter what happens, and he can be ruthless as all hell to those who stand in his path. It was coincidence that he met with you there, but he was positive that you were all dead when we spoke a short while ago."

Aethermon began to immediately piece together a timeline of events regarding Leopardmon's words. As far as she could tell, the Royal Knights had divided only for Alphamon and Leopardmon to see each other again shortly before the current fight. If that was true, perhaps the rest of the Royal Knights were still separated. That was certainly going to make it much easier to take out those who were still left. 

"If you managed to get through that, maybe you'll be lucky enough to survive what I have coming for you," Leopardmon continued. She slammed into the ground, her foot outstretched as she made contact with the moon. The Fractal Code of Rubrum appeared for a flash of a moment before disappearing, retreating back into the glow of crimson scarlet from whence it came. 

"I thought that Fractal Code was supposed to be hidden," Ceruleamon murmured when she saw Leopardmon hit the cratered ground of the moon. "As far as we were made aware, you had to find the key piece in order to take it from a given area."

"There's a key thread to any creation. However, if you do enough pulling, you're bound to make it fall apart regardless of if you find the vital components or not," Leopardmon pointed out. "You never had the power to hit something hard enough to find the Fractal Code by force, but I'm not like you. None of us are. There's a reason that the original Legendary Warriors died in the war while we Royal Knights survived."

"And yet, you lost the fight regardless," Aethermon commented, doing her best to not come off as too snarky. She could tell that Leopardmon was far from being someone that she wanted to poke too much, but part of her still took enjoyment from the Royal Knight being forced to face the truth of her past failures. 

However, it was made clear very soon after the words left Aethermon's lips that Leopardmon didn't like the taunting in the slightest. A snarl spread across her features as she slammed her fist into the ground below. The Fractal Code shuddered once more before hiding. "I would suggest keeping your tongue to yourself unless you want to die," she commented with a growl rising in the back of her throat. "I'm a merciful person, but that doesn't mean that I have to be. I won't hesitate to strike any of you down for getting in our way. We spared you before because of our morals as a group, but if you keep stepping in the way of our goals to resurrect Lord Lucemon... Well, let's just say that all of our ethics are up for debate."

Aethermon took a step back when Leopardmon rose to her feet, and the Royal Knight suddenly charged in Ceruleamon's direction. The Warrior of Water was hit by the initial punch from Leopardmon, but she kicked off the ground before a second strike could make contact. As she rose into the air, wings of water appeared behind her, and she held out her staff in a defensive position. Ceruleamon extended the weapon in Leopardmon's direction a moment later, and the air around the sapphire stone atop her staff began to glimmer.