Chapter 73: Arrival

“What little trick are you playing this time?” The Ape Beast bared its teeth, scanning the five Loretta Beasts, who looked no different from one another, with irritation.

Spreading its fingers wide, it unleashed five miniature dark necro-spheres, each hurtling toward one of the Loretta Beasts, as if probing for the truth behind their formation.

But Loretta Beast had no intention of taking the Ape Beast’s ultimate move head-on. The five figures moved in perfect unison, flashing aside to avoid the incoming energy balls, and quickly leaped behind the Ape Beast.

The Ape Beast’s gaze followed Loretta Beast’s motion, turning to ward off her attack. Yet, as the battle wore on, he began to realize that Loretta Beast showed no sign of evolving.

Something was off. The Ape Beast knew that without evolution, she could never defeat him. She was merely relying on her clones to confuse him for a while. Once he deciphered her attack rhythm, her defeat would be a matter of time.

This wasn’t right; she couldn’t possibly be oblivious to this fact.

“What are you up to?!” The Ape Beast grew increasingly uneasy. The Loretta Beasts before him weren’t fighting with any real intent; it seemed they were merely… distracting him?

A sudden jolt of realization struck him. He quickly turned toward where Qin Fei had been. Sure enough, his unease manifested—the child’s figure had vanished without a trace.

“Damn it, I didn’t see where he escaped!” The Ape Beast was flooded by the sense of having been duped; his composure shattered.

“You dare to toy with me! Since that child is gone, I’ll deal with you first!” The enraged Ape Beast exploded with blinding speed, attacking each of Loretta Beast’s five figures in succession.

“Ugh!” A muffled groan reached his ears, and he felt his attack connect with one of the figures.

“Hahaha, I’ve found the real you!” Roaring, the Ape Beast lunged at the second figure from the right among the five, reaching out with a speed Loretta Beast could barely match, his hand closing in on her slender neck—almost touching her delicate skin.

Yet Loretta Beast merely smirked coldly, making no attempt to dodge as the Ape Beast reached for her.

“How… how is this possible?!” Watching his hand pass through her neck without any tactile sensation, the Ape Beast realized he had been mistaken.

“You can shift your true form among the five figures at will?!”

Now things were complicated. The Ape Beast knew that attacking all five each time would waste tremendous energy and time, perhaps even allowing the children to escape.

Clearly, this was intolerable.

Just as the Ape Beast pondered how to quickly subdue Loretta Beast, she slowly retreated toward the high-voltage electric fence, clearly preparing to escape herself.

“I won’t let you succeed!”

With a furious roar, the Ape Beast lunged to intercept her, only to find himself passing through yet another phantom, his hand even brushing the electric fence.

A surge of powerful current shot through the Ape Beast’s body. Even as a fully evolved Digimon, the immense voltage was enough to give him a rough time.

Seeing the Ape Beast paralyzed for a moment, Loretta Beast seized the opportunity to silently slip through the electric fence behind her.

“How did it go?” On the other side of the fence, Qin Fei watched Loretta Beast emerge through the wall and asked.

“The Ape Beast won’t catch up for a while. He doesn’t know the location of the true secret passage. My clones have confounded him.”

“That’s good. Let’s go find Izzy and the others.” Qin Fei nodded, having waited here to rendezvous with Loretta Beast.

After all, as a fragile human child, Qin Fei had none of the abilities of Marcus Damon from season five—he couldn’t physically fight Digimon.

“Do you know the way?”

“I glanced at Izzy’s route map; it’s no problem.” Loretta Beast nodded, and without further hesitation, Qin Fei headed downward.

…

“I didn’t expect you to find me here so quickly. Truly, I’m astonished.” The molecular beast looked at the defeated Greymon and company, its expression tinged with surprise. It had thought its hiding place secret enough, yet in the blink of an eye, they had tracked it down.

Qin Fei’s precognition combined with Izzy’s advanced computer skills had indeed led events beyond the molecular beast’s expectations.

Yet it felt no concern. In fact, seeing Sora arrive as well brought a hint of delight to its face.

Though its power hadn’t fully recovered, an injured ultimate-level Digimon was still no match for three ordinary champion-level Digimon.

“There should be one more child, yet only three of you came. Never mind; the most dangerous one isn’t here, which is a great relief for me.”

With that, the molecular beast prepared to lift the exhausted Sora onto the lab table.

“Don’t touch her, molecular beast!” Tai and Izzy, confined by the molecular beast to the other side, watched as Sora and Biyomon were taken away, their anxiety mounting.

“Qin Fei should be arriving soon,” Izzy calmly warned the molecular beast, having sensed it harbored some inexplicable wariness toward Qin Fei.

“Hehehe, if my guess is correct, that child is entangled with the Ape Beast and won’t have time to save you.”

The molecular beast believed it had exposed Izzy’s lie, then turned to Sora, who was bound to the lab table, and took out something everyone recognized instantly.

It was a pink heart-shaped crest.

“That’s—!”

“Sora’s crest! It really was in the molecular beast’s hands.”

Tai and Izzy exclaimed in surprise.

“What are you planning?” Sora asked uneasily, seeing the molecular beast holding her crest.

“I’m going to make a copy of you…”

“Huh?” Hearing this explanation, everyone’s expressions turned to disbelief.

“You haven’t fully unleashed the power of your crest, so I’ll use your duplicate to bring out its full strength.”

With those words, the molecular beast inserted the heart crest into Sora’s Digivolution Key. Sure enough, the combined Digivolution Key burst forth with a gentle radiance.

“Despicable! Unable to win, so you use someone else’s power!” Sora immediately rebuked.

The molecular beast didn’t retort, but instead began recounting its past.

“I once fought the Ape Beast, but I lost and nearly lost all my memories…”

“Lost memories never return. Do you know that pain? Not knowing your past, nor your future, only confusion, emptiness, and aimlessness…”

As it spoke, the red light in its mechanical eye flashed ever more rapidly, like a bomb about to explode.

“So all I can do is seek revenge on the Ape Beast, by any means necessary.”

Watching the molecular beast, driven mad by hatred, Tai and the others swallowed nervously, not daring to speak further.

“Scissor Arm!”

Just as the molecular beast lost focus venting its hatred, a petite figure flashed by behind it.

“Who’s there?!”

The molecular beast spun around, its mechanical eye flickering red.

But only a severed mechanical arm remained, sparking violently.

Loretta Beast had sliced off the arm holding Sora’s Digivolution Key and holy plan, tossing it to the boy on the other side.

“I’m not too late, am I?” Qin Fei caught Sora’s Digivolution Key and holy plan, smiling and waving to them.

“Qin Fei!!!” Seeing the boy’s handsome face appear suddenly, Sora cried out with delight.

Tai and Izzy’s faces brightened at once, as if a heavy stone in their hearts had finally been lifted.