Another chapter featuring  Kiya Drakon You're an awesome friend. And I'm sure you of all people will understand the joke at the end ;3 enjoy!

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Tree beast


Kiya followed Flash to the supposed shrine that Ebonwumon was said to reside at, and the further into the area they got, the more believable it was. Now the tree's were large enough to form a comfortable and protective shield around the village, but now as they entered the sacred shrine, they started towering hundreds of feet into the air.

"You seem nervous. Don't be, Ebonwumon is a gentle spirit, and he wouldn't bring harm to the chosen." Flash stated calmly, keeping up his pace until they found themselves infront of a massive hundreds of feet tall and more than a couple huts wide, It wasn't until Kiya got a better look at the thing that he realized the tree was HOLLOW!

Kiya just stared at the massive structure, both made sure his expression didn't go overbored and quickly recomposed himself as he stepped into the hollow entrance. He looked around for any sign of Ebonwumon but he didn't even have a clue what this digimon looked like. But when he looked around the walls of the structure he realized that stairs had been built into it, spiraling quite a ways up. "Hold on...we have to go up those stairs?"

Snickering, Flash started flying upward, shouting to Kiya. "YOU may have to go up those stairs! Just go all the way to the top, if you can't get past this small obstacle you won't be able to meet Ebonwumon! I'll be waiting for you up top!"

Kiya started stamping his feet on the ground, growling. "Damnit! I should have known! Ugh now I wish I was in my dragon form...Longer legs would have came in handy here." At this point, Flash was already gone, so he started stretching his legs out. "Well...better take it slow for Scav." He started rubbbing the top of his friends egg and began his ascent up the long spiraled stairs.


Meanwhile back in the west, Max was just starting to wake from his slumber, he woke with a start when he found himself in an unfamiliar place. By his side was a Dorumon who fell asleep sitting on a wooden stool.

"Zzzzz hey...stop taking all of the buttered rolls..." he could hear the Dorumon mutter in it's sleep. It got a snicker out of Max, it seemed that all digimon thought about was food. The guilmon started pulling himself out of the bed, but this seemed to wake the Dorumon who started rubbing it's eyes in confusion. "Mmmm oh...you're finally awake huh? I've been keeping an eye on you all night. You've been out for nearly five hours now."

Max cringed, he didn't expect to be out for so long. But the Dorumon didn't seem hostile at least, given his condition he could have wound up a meal to any digimon hanging around the streets and nobody would have known. "Thank you very much. I guess I have you to thank for me not waking up within a hot confined space."

"Erm yeah." Dorumon had an awkward smile on his face as he helped Max out of bed. "Believe me a few Goburimon were giving you hungry looks when you first stumbled in. But Were set them straight! Oh...Were is my Weregarurumon friend. We don't have OFFICIAL names like some digimon so we just named ourselves after the first four letters of our species."

That was interesting, I guess not every digimon has their own unique name like Blade, so...do they come up with the names themselves or do their parents just not care? "So then...your name is Doru then?"

Doru nodded, smiling as he started leading Max downstairs into the Foyer. "That's right! And erm...you're the guilmon from the tournament right? The one that digivolved?"

"So many questions..." Max pointed to a stool in the middle of the room and sat down after Dorumon helped him to it. "Yeah I am. I can digivolve to Growlmon and back to this form. Erm...My name is Max by the way. And how long until the tournament starts up again?"

Doru giggled, walking behind the counter to get Max a drink, he brought over a soda which Max gratefully guzzled down. "Not for a few more hours. You don't look like you'll be in any condition to be fighting anyway. What happened? Don't worry, the Tavern doesn't open up for an hour or so. So unless a paying guest wakes up and comes down here we have privacy."

Max didn't know if he could entirely trust Doru, but the little guy seemed to be harmless enough. Heck he deserved some sort of explaination after putting the beast type through a night of guard duty. "I really don't know how much I can tell you without risking an outroar with the public...Just know that I was confronted by a digimon that didn't want me to advance to the next round. And I think he succeeded in doing so."

"Well you're conscious right now... Besides I'm sure a good meal is all you need to get your strengths up. Or are you planning on giving up?" Doru asked, his expression turning into one of dissapointment.

"Of course not!" Max pulled himself off the stool, but quickly placed a paw around it to balance himself. "I have to keep fighting, even if my body isn't ready. But I think food WOULD help out a bit. Maybe give me some of my strength back."

Doru nodded, cheering as he went to grab a few things from behind the counter, returning with a bowl full of assorted fruits. Going from oranges to bananna's. "Then eat up. I'm sure Were won't mind at all."

Max stared at the fruits laid out before him and laughed. "Is Were the owner of this place? In which case it would be a better idea to ASK before I take any of it."

"Smart mon." Came a voice from upstairs. A Weregarurumon made his way down the stairway to join them. Looking at the bowl of fruit. "I heard noises down here so I came to make sure my guests weren't starting a ruckus. Turns out I didn't have anything to worry about. But why is competing in this tournament so important that you can't sit it out to recover?"

Max coughed to clear his throat, he looked at Doru who looked just as intrigued, and he doubted he'd get anywhere if he kept an ULTIMATE out of the loop. "The digital world is changing, not for the better, but for the worse. Things have been happening in the human world that are having an immediate effect here. Me and my friends are trying to put things back into their rightful places. And a few digimon in Starlight are trying to break the peace."

Were started rubbing his chin, as if something Max said struck a chord in him. "Of course...That explains why such a big shot like Blade is in the tournament. He wouldn't sail all the way to the west just to scope out the competition. He must be trying to do the same thing."

"Right!" Max replied with a sigh. "We don't really know what Blade is up to. But he hurt one of my friends. I'm just hoping that he isn't one of the bad guys, I had an encounter last night with, well..."

"Myotismon, right?" Were moved over to the counter, getting everything set up for when they finally open up the tavern. "There have been rumors spreading lately that he's been making digimon go crazy, some keep their sanity and work for him in exchange for a boost in power."

This caught the Guilmon off guard. Just how much did Were know, and was he one of these so called agents. "It was a copy. There's no way a Rookie like me could defeat the real Myotismon at my current level of skill."

Were nodded in understanding, he brought the bowl of fruits closer. "Eat. You can pay me back by winning today's round."

Max wasn't about to argue there he was hungry, and any chance he had to restore any strength at all he had to take so with that he grabbed the closest orange and stuffed it into his mouth whole, skin and all and swallowed. Soon after he went on a frenzy on the bowl, eating as much as he could.


Meanwhile, Kiya finally made it to the top of the stairs and what awaited him next was clear skys. It was strange, the stairs lead him right outside on the top of the tree, thankfully the tree's branches and leaves were thick enough that he wouldn't fall through, as he soon found out. "How is this even possible, someone has one hell of a green thumb to make this possible, unless it's a natural formation..."

"The digital world is full of strange things, most that wouldn't even be physically possible in your 'real world' " A two headed turtle called out, stepping over to Kiya with Flash at it's side. Not only did it have two heads, but it had a large tree of it's own mounted on it's back. "When you go back down, please tell Lyle thank you for resolving the Stingmon tribes issue, and for rebuilding the homes of those destroyed."

"No problem..." Kiya panted, he pulled himself and sat upright, Scavenger's egg resting just between his legs as if he were nursing it. "Erm but why have your place so high up? Is it to protect from invaders?"

Both heads shook sideways. The left speaking. "Just the opposite. I like to be able to get a good view of the surrounding area. From here I can see everything going on in my section of the digital world without leaving my bounds. From there, Flash investigates if I feel anything is...out of the ordinary."

"The entire tree is our shrine, so we're free to walk up and down the tree as we see fit. We just prefer it up here because it's better than being stuck in a cramped hollow space. In any case Baihumon already informed us on you coming so we already know what you're looking for. Information I gather?" The right head inquired, leaning down to stand just inches from Kiya's.

"I see!" Kiya exclaimed, leaning back as the head approached him, he smiled nervously. "Well...it'd be rude to just outright demand explainations. But I'd like to know if you heard of anything about this darkness organization that Belphemon's leading. Or if failing that...maybe something about how the darkness originated?"

Ebonwumon stared over Kiya before smiling. "Well first things first son...how about we wake up your friend. I'd step away from the egg if I were you. Unless you wanna get squished..."

This confused the green Dracomon, but he followed Ebonwumon's advice and stepped away from Scav's egg. A moment later a bright light enveloped the egg, it looked like Ebonwumon was forcing Scavenger to hatch but at the same time he even spurred on his growth. Scav didn't hatch right into his base Agumon form, instead he CONTINUED to grow. His yellow body shifting into a darker shade of orange, pointed spikes forming around the corner of his upper jaw and three horns protruding from the top of his head, one on each side of his forehead and the third just above his nose, it wasn't until the glowing had stopped that Kiya realized that it was an armored shell that was covering the top half of Scav's skull, red stripes decorating each horn and the tip of each spike. Two sharp spikes protruded out of his shoulders next, one on each with a blue tip. Once that was done his body started expanding, easily growing twenty feet in size, even his tail had a massive growth spurt as it was easily the same as his body length, the last thing that Kiya noticed, which not surprising given how small the detail was compared to the rest of his friends new form was the blue stripes marking his body, as well as the training straps wrapped around the newly evolved Geogreymon's wrists.

"Woah...now that's what I call an evolution...did I look that cool when I first digivolved into Coredramon?" Kiya asked, half hoping for an answer and half just staring in awe at his buds new form.

"Erm...I dunno. Maybe a tiny bit cooler?" Scav asked, pinching his claws together then smiling. "I feel so giant. And erm...how can these tree limbs support my weight? and why are we on top of a massive tree to begin with?" Scav had so many questions, and he knew a lot happened since he was away if it it WAS just for a couple hours.

Ebonwumon's two heads laughed, the left addressing Scavenger. "Looks like your body didn't have any major color alterations for this evolution. Orange and blue seem to be your definining traits. As are Geogreymon's, I expected you to follow the traditional Greymon line." After introducing himself, and explaining everything that happened since Kiya had devoured him, Ebonwumon continued. "I really don't have much news regarding this organization. I know that Belphemon is leading the attack in the west. The only news worthy of sharing to you is this. Half of the demon lords are not involved with the darkness. I suggest rallying your forces with the remaining half of demon lords to squash the darkness. They too understand the implications if one side holds too much power."

Scav scratched his left horn and smiled. "Well...I know of Bang, he's in the human world though."

Flash looked up at Ebonwumon, then gave a short bow. "You speak of the Beelzemon? He may not be destined to come and join this battle. Still, I'd suggest searching around. Leviamon storms the seas, and as long as you don't upset him...or find him when he's hungry, I'm sure you could ally yourself with him and get to the remaining two holy lords faster than it took your trip here."

Scavenger looked at Kiya, the two nodding in unison. "We'll see what we can do. But I'd hate for this trip to have been a waste. Can you tell us...how the darkness came forth?"

Ebonwumon's two heads smiled, they shook their heads. "To explain that would take centuries. Let's just say it wasn't born or created. It's always been here. It's simply that now it's learned how to take on physical shape much like the D-reaper. I will say this though. The key to defeating the Darkness isn't to remove it entirely." Both heads leaned against Scav and Kiya, touching each other's snouts before the two dragons started to glow. "I've shared a portion of my power to both of you. I hope that you learn how to use it when the time comes."

Scav rubbed over his chest, before chuckling. "Great, I glow twice in one day. Erm...guess we have a bit of a walk to get through now huh? Well...you have fun with that Kiya...as for me..." Scav looked down where Kiya had walked into and grinned. "See ya all the way down!" Scavenger shouted, leaping right down, avoiding the stairs to fall hundreds of feet in the air, the tree shook once he hit the bottom and he called out to them. "I'm okay!"

Kiya facepalmed, that was the first time Scav had done that since he'd known him, but I guess digivolution or heck even turning digi changes them all. He gave a short bow to both Ebonwumon and Flash before he started running down the stairs, shouting at Scav. "You crazy dragon, what if you broke your legs?!"

"Well then you'd have to eat me again!" Scav shouted back, getting a snicker out of Ebonwumon as he heard the friends arguing as Kiya made his way down. The fate of the digital world rested on those two and their friends. He hoped that they were making the right decision in entrusting it's future to them, given their recent impressions.

(To be continued)