At the edge of the scorched, massive crater, arcs of electricity still leaped restlessly, crackling softly.
The area had been utterly annihilated, seemingly void of even dust.
The air was thick with the stench of burnt ozone and destruction left by the lightning strike.
However, just as Laxus's took a step forward, a cracking sound was heard.
Crack.
It was a faint sound, like a rock cracking under pressure.
"Hm?" Laxus halted, his golden pupils contracting abruptly as he stared sharply at the bottom of the scorched pit.
A low, hoarse, pained whimper, as if squeezed from the deepest pits of hell, accompanied by the grinding of bones, emanated from beneath the ground.
The pain and chaos contained within that sound were far deeper and more... unsettling than any roar before it.
"Impossible!"
For the first time, a crack appeared in Laxus's arrogant expression.
BOOM!
An immense skeletal claw, covered in scorched marks and newly grown, pale bone spurs, suddenly burst through the ground and gripped the edge of the crater. It was immediately followed by another bony claw.
Then, a ferocious skull, the red light in its eye sockets nearly extinguished, struggled to emerge from the earth.
It tilted its head back to the sky and let out a roar that was a mixture of endless pain, berserk fury, and some ineffable shriek.
"Still not dead yet? You're kinda tough."
A fierce glint flashed in Laxus's eyes, and he hesitated no longer.
He would absolutely not allow his prey to struggle after taking his strongest blow.
His body transformed into a golden bolt of lightning, instantly crossing dozens of meters to appear before the massive skull of the half-emerged SkullGreymon.
His right fist, wrapped in violent lightning, smashed forward.
"Stay down for good! Thunder Dragon's Crumbling Fist!"
Bang!
SkullGreymon's head was knocked back, and bone fragments flew.
But it did not fall.
Instead, it continued to stare at the nearby Laxus.
Without pausing, Laxus followed up his successful strike by flipping in mid-air.
His left leg whistled through the air and viciously kicked the joint connecting SkullGreymon's neck.
Crack!
SkullGreymon's massive body tilted to one side from the two heavy blows, but its thick bone claws clung tightly to the ground, refusing to fall.
A strange gurgling sound came from deep within its throat, as if it were accumulating something, or perhaps struggling against something.
"Now's the time! Finish it while it's weak!" Laxus pressed his advantage, his body once again turning into a flash of lightning, preparing to launch a continuous assault.
"No! Wait!"
Ace scrambled up from the ground, ignoring the stabbing pain in his mind.
He forcefully concentrated all his will, sending the most desperate call and shout through the faint but re-established bond, deep into SkullGreymon's chaotic and dark consciousness.
'Wake up! SkullGreymon! I know you're in there! You're not a mindless killing machine! You can feel pain, you can feel anger, you can feel unwillingness! You're my partner, the one I raised from a Koromon! you only became like this to protect me! Our memories are inside you! Our bond is inside you!'
'Don't be consumed by darkness! Don't be dominated by the instinct for destruction!'
'Look at me! Listen to my voice! Answer me!'
'You are not alone! I am here! We will continue to move forward together!'
"WAKE UP!!!"
This was a soul resonance into which Ace poured all his Digi-Soul, all his emotions, all the fragments of his memories.
He channeled every little moment spent with Koromon, Agumon, and Greymon—the initial innocence and joy, the excitement of Greymon's evolution, the pain and guilt of its out-of-control evolution to protect him.
SkullGreymon's chaotic and violent consciousness seemed to be struck hard by this sudden, scorching torrent of emotion.
The chaotic vortex in its eye sockets, which burned with red soul-fire, suddenly froze.
A weak, intermittent fragment of thought, filled with confusion and pain, yet distinctly different from the pure desire for destruction of before, was fed back to Ace through the link.
(Created only for battle, no consciousness needed, to become a tool for a strong master in the future.)
More fragmented thoughts emerged, filled with coldness, numbness, and the despair of being shackled.
It was as if it was telling the truth of its "creation" as SkullGreymon—stripped of a complete consciousness, left with only the instincts for battle and destruction, existing as a pure instrument of war.
'No! You are not a tool!' Ace's heart trembled, but he transmitted his thoughts even more desperately.
'You are my partner! A unique life that grew from Koromon! Seize that will that belongs to you!'
As if Ace's call had an effect, or perhaps the trauma and rebirth from the "Raging Bolt" had broken some kind of seal, the chaos and darkness in SkullGreymon's eyes began to fluctuate and clash violently.
"What do you think you're doing? Desperate are you?"
Though Laxus didn't understand what was happening, he lost his patience and raised his right hand again.
Lightning gathered wildly in his palm, preparing for the final blow.
"Thunder Dragon's—"
However, before his magic was complete, a sudden change occurred.
In the distance, several massive rocks the size of houses, which had been affected by the magic, suddenly came whistling down toward Ace's location.
"Ace, look out!" Lisanna screamed.
Ace's face changed.
However, just as the rocks were about to hit—
"ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"
A massive roar, completely different from before, exploded from the scorched pit.
A huge, pale bone claw, moving with astonishing speed, shot out and interposed itself between Ace and the falling rocks.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The giant rocks smashed against the bone claw, creating dull thuds as rubble flew everywhere.
The claw sank slightly under the impact, and new cracks appeared on its surface, but it didn't move an inch, like the most solid rampart, firmly protecting Ace beneath it.
The owner of the claw—SkullGreymon—slowly turned its head.
Its eyes, still burning with flames but with the chaos greatly diminished and replaced by a cold, violent, yet exceptionally clear will, glanced at Ace.
"Skull... SkullGreymon... you..." Ace stared at the bone claw, so close, battered and bruised yet unyielding. He looked at those eyes, so different from before, and a huge wave of joy instantly washed away his fatigue and despair.
"You... have you regain your own consciousness?!"
Although he didn't know how long this consciousness would last or if it was fully awake, at this moment, it was undeniably, autonomously protecting him.
"Now!"
A flash of inspiration hit Ace.
Without hesitation, he activated the precious treasure he had been saving, a reward from the system he had never used—"Light of Evolution (One-time use)."
A warm, pure, golden light, containing infinite life force and evolutionary potential, bloomed from Ace's palm.
It transformed into a gentle yet irresistible stream of light that surged into SkullGreymon's broken, skeletal body.
"ROAR!"
SkullGreymon threw its head back and let out a long howl, a sound interwoven with pain and rebirth.
The pure white light of evolution reacted violently with the deep darkness and residual crimson soul-fire within its body.
Its body was enveloped in a light so dense it formed a massive black shadow.
"What is that?!" Laxus, who had been about to attack, had a drastic change in expression.
He abandoned his attack without a second thought and retreated rapidly.
He could feel that the thing brewing within the black shadow posed a threat far greater than the previous SkullGreymon.
The black shadow seemed to want to tear the sky apart.
An indescribable aura, containing destruction, violence, darkness, and a black storm, erupted from the center of the shadow, sweeping in all directions.
Wherever the storm passed, sand and stones flew, and even light was devoured and distorted.
"What?!" In the distance, Master Makarov felt a black wind blow past.
Erza and Mirajane barely managed to stand their ground, while Gray and the others were sent flying.
Laxus bore the brunt of it.
He crossed his arms in front of him and roared, a dazzling golden light erupting from his body.
BOOM!
The black storm slammed into the lightning.
The immense force pushed Laxus off his feet, causing him to slide back several meters before he managed to stabilize himself.
He lowered his arms, growing curious about what kind of opponent this was.
Ace's eyes widened as he stared at the colossal black shadow that seemed to touch the sky.
He felt the suffocatingly familiar yet strange and terrifying fluctuation coming from within.
An absurd, yet heart-pounding thought uncontrollably surfaced in his mind.
'No... it can't be?! Could it be... that?'
As if to confirm his wild guess, the massive black shadow, after expanding to a certain limit, suddenly contracted inward at an astonishing speed.
The shadow, dozens of meters tall, collapsed, condensed, and took shape in the span of a second...
Finally, what appeared before everyone was not a skeletal beast, but a humanoid dragon warrior, only two or three meters tall, covered from head to toe in deep black armor that gleamed with a cold, metallic luster.
It had a streamlined, explosive physique and black armor.
On its back was a pair of folded shields made of metal and energy, their edges as sharp as blades.
Its hands were covered in heavy armor, the tips of its claws glinting menacingly.
On its chest, an irregular, dark red glowing object, which looked like both a scar and an energy core, pulsed slowly.
BlackWarGreymon descent!
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Ok, Blackwargreymon is op as hell, so Laxus will get a beating of his life right now.