“Alright, I’ve had enough of this.”

Watching the progressive clusterfuck that was the battle between the fusion of Alphamon and Examon and the darkened Imperialdramon unfold, AncientWisemon felt whatever scant patience he held for The Plan melt away. He’d already openly defied the Sovereign of the East multiple times; and he had little to motivate him away from doing it again as he disconnected himself from his host. 

“Baihumon and Zhuqiaomon are still in the area, Wisemon,” The Ancient Spirit of Steel began to his host, his voice still with the Demon Man as he himself disappeared into the aether of the universe for whatever purpose he had in mind, “Go to them and get the order to start evacuating the area.”

Wisemon’s response was simple; he nodded and snapped his fingers, following the spacial co-ordinates that his master had given him to contact the two Sovereigns nearby. 

__________________________________________

As Arondight was thrust through him, shattering the control over Imperialdramon’s body that he had fought so hard to obtain, Primus screamed in bloody fury. And for the very last time, Imperialdramon took control back over his body. Gazing down at his rapidly disintegrating form, he closed his eyes in resignation.

“So be it. Victory is yours, Examon.”

Examon didn’t even dignify him with a verbal response. As his most hated foe spoke his last, the Dragon Emperor merely raised a foot, placing it upon Imperialdramon’s chest before yanking his blade out with all the care of a child kicking down a sandcastle.

And as Imperialdramon lay dying, he felt his body begin to dissipate even quicker than it should. In fact, it felt as if he were devolving-

That bastard.

Primus was trying to unmerge himself from Imperialdramon! With a startled hiss, the dying First Knight focused all of his remaining power into trying to maintain the DNA Digivolution, resolving to at least take Primus down with him.

And then that proved futile as his chest exploded outwards. 

Screaming a primal, horrifying scream, a black mass emerged from Imperialdramon’s shattered torso, data rushing outwards from the wound and coagulating over it as it began to take shape. 

Seeing this, Examon hissed in disgust, recognizing the mass as the Orci that had sent this entire fight to hell. Still packing unspeakable amounts of frustration from the ordeal he and his comrades had been put through, he merely glared at the creature, power filling Arondight as he prepared to eviscerate Primus-

“Yggdrasil is dead.”

And then he froze up as it spat out those free words.

“... What.”

“Dead’s not the right word, though there’s really not much difference,” The black mass that was Primus hissed, taking the Dragon Emperor’s hesitation as a chance to tear himself fully from the dying Imperialdramon, “But you get the picture. Isn’t that right, Imperialdramon?”

“Hmph.” Imperialdramon leaned back on the ground, closing his eyes. He had failed completely. His Knights had betrayed him, he had fallen in battle, and now his schemes were revealed. There was no point in denying the truth. “What use is a dying ‘god’? We had the chance to be greater than simple servants to a machine, and I took it. But I failed…” And so Imperialdramon breathed his last, his head dissipating into data along with the rest of his body. 

And as his most hated foe faded from the world, Examon Prime just stared off into space. 

Which was all the opportunity that Primus needed to pull Imperialdramon’s data into himself. 
Wasting no words, the black mass sprouted wings as he finished loading the data into himself, and took into the air at high speed, burning through the power from the data in order to escape the battlefield.
Everything had gone to hell here, but he would still have his day. He would just have to wait. 
__________________________________________

And within the space that Baihumon and Zhuqiaomon occupied, there was a hiss as Wisemon took form. 

Closing itself, the book that the Demon Man’s soul resided in moved out from beneath him, rising up further and further into the air before it disappeared in a puff of smoke; as Wisemon descended to stand upon his own two feet.

Kneeling before the two Sovereigns with a sense of casual, unforced reverence, the Demon Man began:

“AncientWisemon has sent me here to request an order for evacuation, my Lords. Under the circumstances, he believes it would be wise to remove the Tamers and their allies from the area whilst Imperialdramon is still occupied with Alphamon and Examon.”

Zhuqiaomon simply turned his attention back to the battle with Imperialdramon, but stopped in surprise as Imperialdramon finally fell on the field. A fraction of a second passed before the Sovereign of the South spread his wings and let loose a triumphant roar at the death of one of his most hated rivals. 

With his gloating done, Zhuqiaomon turned back to Wisemon and let loose a cackle, flames licking around him. 

“Evacuation? The blasted Knight is finally dead! All that’s left is Yggdrasil. Azulongmon’s rambling plans are worthless at this point. No, this ends now. Baihumon, with me!” The phoenix roared, taking to the air with a shriek as he saw the opportunity that Imperialdramon’s death presented. 

Still somewhat stunned by the sudden change in the tide of the battle that had seen Imperialdramon struck down, Baihumon took a moment to respond; when he pulled himself together, his response was a resolute nod, and as he prepared to leap into the fray, he turned his head to Wisemon.

“At least evacuate the wounded and depleted. Any still able to fight, and you direct them to us for the attack on Yggdrasil. Understood?”

“Entirely.” Wisemon responded, his eyes burning with a disturbing glee as he saw Imperialdramon’s life pass before him, before he disappeared into the aether of the universe again, back to the library whence he had came.
_________________________________________

Zhuqiaomon bellowed a furious cry as he unleashed an infernal hellstorm of flame down upon the nearly-ruined fortress of the Royal Knights, hoping to draw Yggdrasil out now that he had no more defenders. 

With the fortress having become completely abandoned as the final stand of the Knights had progressed, Baihumon felt little compunction as he joined in; as a terrifying hail of steel, holy energy and pure hyperdestructive force was released from his digicores and bombarded Yggdrasil’s fortifications below. 

Those in the library were safe; the castle was nothing but Yggdrasil’s shell at this stage, and both Sovereigns knew this as they tore it to shreds. Although in Zhuqiaomon’s case, he wouldn’t have quite cared if there had been anyone caught in the bombardment.

With the level of fortification given to the castle, it would take a decent amount of time for even the Sovereigns to demolish it; and as they gave it their all, the terrifying sight could be seen all the way across the battlefield. 

And in particular, one specific combatant’s attention had snapped towards the sight the very moment the assault had begun.

Black flames roaring around him as he was continuously swarmed by the black cloud of demonic insects released by the lesser Orci a kilometer away, the Black Sovereign let out a hiss as he sensed his brothers take the field. 

His mind, no matter how clouded by bloodlust, hunger, pain and desperation, could immediately recognize the opportunity at hand. He need only to make his away across the battlefield, and then the opportunity to restore himself would present itself. His reserves had made enough from his attack on the Golubac Swarm to allow him to make a clean cut across the battlefield, and so the black flames around him burst outwards into an even more gigantic inferno as he began to move in the direction of Baihumon and Zhuqiaomon. 

However, his assailants were not so willing to give up the meal that they had sensed in him; and they gave chase, with more joining them as they went in order to subdue the possessed Bird Man. 

____

“Mega Barrage!”

A slew of missiles came flying at BanchoLeomon, who dashed to the side and hit the ground running, trying to evade MegaGargomon’s artillery barrage. The explosions from the missiles created a smoke cloud covering the entire area, and BanchoLeomon used it to conceal himself as he made his way towards his foe. As the smoke began to dissipate, the lion Digimon made his move and leapt out, jamming his sword into MegaGargomon’s knee joint before jumping up to catch the green behemoth across the face with a right hook, followed by a roundhouse kick to the snout. Gravity kicked in, and BanchoLeomon fell to the ground, taking hold of his blade and viciously ripping it out of MegaGargomon’s knee as he plummeted towards the earth.

But as he touched down on the ground, BanchoLeomon fell to one knee as he felt his form begin to waver. Shakily raising a hand, he noticed it begin to fizzle out, almost as if his Biomerge was ending.

“This shouldn’t be happening...” He muttered to himself as MegaGargomon recovered, raising one foot to try to stomp BanchoLeomon into the ground, who hurled himself to the side to evade. All the while, he wondered to himself just what the hell was going on. He thought he’d recovered enough data to fight again, but his body was beginning to dissipate, and he started to feel the strain of trying to maintain the Biomerge. Had his Dark Digivolution into Ruin Mode really taken so much out of him? At this point, going into Burst Mode wasn’t even an option, considering how much it hurt to just stay in his base Mega state. Struggling up to his feet, BanchoLeomon realized that the only way he was going to come out of this alive was to kill MegaGargomon quickly and load his data to stabilize his own form.

Just then, MegaGargomon turned his attention from his suddenly weakened opponent for a split-second as he saw his leader fall. Eyes widening, he reached out towards his dying commander, utterly shocked that Imperialdramon had been slain. But that split-second of inattention was all that BanchoLeomon needed. Calling up every last bit of his fluctuating power, he rushed forward and leapt up, calling forth whatever reserves he had left into his left hand to form a lion’s head formed of a blazing orange aura around it and slammed it into MegaGargomon’s throat before taking his right fist and thrusting it up into the massive titan’s jaw in an uppercut. Still not done, the lion Digimon quickly drew his sword with his now-free left hand and thrust into MegaGargomon’s snout, using it as leverage to materialize a Berejena shotgun in his right hand and jam it into the dazed juggernaut’s mouth, pulling the trigger over and over again without hesitation, only stopping when MegaGargomon’s entire body began dissolving into data. Without his foe’s body to use as a foothold, BanchoLeomon plummeted towards the ground, collapsing to one knee with a groan after he landed. But as MegaGargomon’s data flooded into his body, his Biomerge finally stabilized and the pain that wracked his body faded away. Slowly pulling himself up to his feet, BanchoLeomon finally noticed the commotion in the sky. 

As the Orci’s black swarm chased Ravemon, BanchoLeomon raised the Berejena shotgun that he was still clutching and fired up at the veritable cloud of insects, trying to draw their attention away from their current target. 

As it was, he was only partly successful; as part of the swarm was swallowed up in a burst of black energy as the shells from the Berejena found their target, only a small amount of them compared to the swarm as a whole distracted themselves from Ravemon to dive down towards BanchoLeomon. 
However, the sudden intrusion into the battle seemed to surprise Ravemon, and his concentration was momentarily broken as he paused and stared down towards BanchoLeomon.
With two mismatched, empty eyes. 

BanchoLeomon didn’t have time to pay much attention, though, as his attention was focused on shooting down the insects rushing towards him. The wide spread of the Berejena’s scattershot brought down several insects with each shot, and the relatively small swarm was slain in no time at all. With that done, he scanned the sky once more, giving Ravemon only a cursory nod as he noticed Zhuqiaomon and Baihumon in the distance. The Leomon aspect of himself wondered why two of the Four Sovereigns had shown up and leapt off to investigate, trusting that Ravemon could handle the rest of the swarm’s reduced numbers. 
__________________
Whatever response Kappa would have had to EmperorGreymon’s quips was completely lost as he felt something jolt through him; as he felt another one of his brothers fall. 
And as the overwhelming signal of Imperialdramon petered out alongside it, it took all of a few seconds to figure out exactly which one had just shuffled off their mortal coil. 

“Well, that didn’t take long,” The gigantic Hazard-spawn observed drily, allowing himself a small snigger, “Though I suppose I should have expected this. It was only a matter of time before the idiot bit off more than he could chew.”

Continuing to snigger at the thought of his hubris-saturated brother going down with all the dignity and grace of a cat in cement shoes, Kappa turned his head away from EmperorGreymon, Sleipmon and the still-comatose Parasimon to look out across the battlefield. 

Primus, and by extension, Imperialdramon, was all the way over the other side of the battlefield, obscured by a gigantic black cloud and the Royal Knight’s castle.

Which Kappa now noted, with some surprise, to be being blasted to smithereens by a pair of newcomers. And with the frightening haste with which the fortification of Yggdrasil fell to their power, they were likely at levels rivalling the other two heavyweights in this battle. 

“Oh what the fuck,” The Orci deadpanned, thoroughly nonplussed by this new development. This whole situation with the Royal Knight’s final stand was just getting increasingly ridiculous. First, Imperialdramon turned into a being just below a Sovereign in power, and then his father and shown up and belted him and his brothers out. Then some Sovereigns had shown up. Then Alphamon and Examon fused. Then one of his brothers fused with Imperialdramon. Now this shit. 
At this point, Kappa was starting to think that whatever higher powers were overseeing all this were just a bunch of jackasses with no sense of consistency. It would certainly explain a whole lot. Fuck you, Ganon.

“Keep an eye on the Lizard and Daddy Dearest, Horsey Boy,” Kappa chimed towards Sleipmon as he spread his wings, his lance appearing in his hands as he slowly took into the air towards the scene of destruction in the distance, “Gonna go check this shit out.”