Solo Leveling: Digispirit.

We’re fucked.

That was Takuya’s first thought. He had just regained his senses, finally reached Vritramon, and now standing before him was someone near the absolute peak of the evolutionary scale—and he wasn’t talking about NoblePumpkinmon, even if Halloween was already a Mega.

What stood before Takuya was LordKnightmon, a Mega-level Digimon. Takuya could only hope this was some random LordKnightmon and not the LordKnightmon from the Royal Knights. If it was just a normal member of the species, then maybe they could defeat him with all of them working together. If Veemon evolved into AeroVeedramon, combined with Cha Hae, Creed, Halloween, and himself, they might actually have a chance.

But if this was the LordKnightmon from the Royal Knights, one of the Digimon responsible for protecting the Digital World under King Drasil’s command...

They were done for.

Then, despite standing five meters tall in his Vritramon form, Takuya suddenly felt a tiny figure land on his shoulder. Veemon casually patted his head and spoke in his usual cheerful tone. "Don’t worry. Everything will be answered in time. For now, just be clear about one thing: as long as you’re a good Digimon with good intentions, I’ll be your ally. Leave this one to me. He’s kind of persistent, so I’ll have to keep him in check."

"He is..." Takuya started to ask, wanting to make absolutely sure.

LordKnightmon answered for him.

"I am LordKnightmon, Royal Knight under the command of the great Host, King Drasil. And now, I truly consider all of you a threat to the stability of our Digital Server, especially considering that I can detect traces of data from the Shambala Server. For that reason, all of you will be eliminated."

Yup.

They were fucked.

Before Takuya could even react, however, he felt another pat on his head and heard Veemon quietly mutter one word.

"Warp."

The instant Takuya heard it, he felt all the data around them react. Even space itself seemed to move according to the will of that tiny Veemon. His body shone and rapidly expanded, the entire transformation happening almost instantly, yet Takuya could feel every second of it. The atmosphere became heavy, and the pressure suddenly turned absurd.

How the fuck did the final boss suddenly appear here?

These digimon were beyond Monarch level.

Even beyond Antares.

Where Veemon had been standing moments ago, there was now a warrior even larger than Takuya himself, roughly seven meters tall. His body was covered in blue armor, with enormous wings extending behind him almost like a cloak, while a blade of light extended from one of his forearms.

UlforceVeedramon.

Another Royal Knight.

"LordKnightmon, they aren’t a threat. They’re simply my friends. Your paranoia is becoming exhausting. If you insist on attacking them just because they come from another Server, you’re welcome to try," UlforceVeedramon said without the slightest trace of fear.

LordKnightmon looked down at all of them from above. "So they’re simply your friends," the Mega Digimon muttered as his gaze moved from one person to another. "Fighting you would be... inconvenient."

And it really would be. UlforceVeedramon was strong, but more importantly, he was fast. Extremely fast. On top of that, there was another Mega present, two Perfects, and another unknown being whose power seemed comparable to a strong Perfect. Individually, most of them were ants compared to a Royal Knight.

But with UlforceVeedramon among them?

That made the situation considerably more troublesome.

"It could be," Ulforce replied. "Especially considering you don’t even have a real reason to attack them. Why exactly do you think they’re a threat to the stability of the Server in the first place?"

LordKnightmon tilted his head slightly. "You."

UlforceVeedramon remained silent.

"You don’t move unless something important is happening. And your idealism often causes you to make... questionable decisions. So while I don’t distrust your intentions, your actions themselves remain a possible source of instability," LordKnightmon explained.

"Well, that’s from your perspective. That doesn’t mean I see everyone as disposable pawns like you do with the Knightmon under your command. I have friends, you know. And if you try to do something to them, I’ll defend them," Ulforce replied.

"Oh, really?" LordKnightmon moved. Takuya didn’t even see what happened.

One moment, both Royal Knights were standing there. The next, they disappeared.

Then everyone was sent flying.

The shockwave from their collision blasted Takuya and the others away, not merely dozens or even hundreds of meters, but almost two kilometers. Several floating islands shattered simultaneously from the sheer force of the impact.

Halloween immediately flew toward Creed and grabbed him, keeping both of them in the air, while Takuya rushed toward Cha Hae and allowed her to land across his shoulder.

Then the next thing they saw was a pink figure being launched through the Digital Dimension at an incredible speed far away from them.

An instant later, UlforceVeedramon appeared before them.

"He’s kind of persistent. However, he isn’t going all out. He’s mostly testing me, so I think we’ll have to end the tour here," Ulforce said. "See you later, my new friends. I’ll send you back to your respective Servers. Once he calms down, we can continue exploring."

Then he turned toward Takuya.

"Takuya, from now on, until you’re ready, I recommend that you don’t come back here unless it’s absolutely necessary. If he noticed something strange, then most likely other entities have noticed it too."

UlforceVeedramon raised one hand.

Space shattered like glass.

Two fractures opened simultaneously.

Takuya and Cha Hae were sent through one of them, while Halloween and Creed disappeared through the other.

Almost immediately after they were gone, LordKnightmon appeared before UlforceVeedramon once again.

"You sent them back to their Servers?" LordKnightmon asked coldly. "So they are indeed from another part of the Cluster. Then allow me to ask you something. What business does a Royal Knight have with a NoblePumpkinmon, a BlackWereGarurumon, and two unknown Perfect-level beings? I didn’t recognize the latter two. Exclusive species from where? Shambala? That’s what I sensed. Or are they from Illiad? Perhaps another smaller world somewhere in the Cluster?"

"Well, I met them while exploring the other Servers. They were nice Digimon, we got along, and that was all. Does that satisfy your absurd paranoia?" Ulforce asked.

"That’s precisely the problem, Ulforce. You were in other Servers. What is a Royal Knight doing inside foreign Servers, especially now that we’ve been detecting spatial anomalies throughout the entire Digital Cluster? Your absence could be fatal. If the other security orders discover that you’re entering their Servers without authorization, then instead of one problem, we will have two: a confrontation between security forces and the existing instability of the Digital Space. And now I find you here playing with Digimon."

LordKnightmon raised his weapon and pointed it directly toward UlforceVeedramon.

"LordKnightmon. I was traveling for exactly the same reason, only as a Veemon. I was practically invisible. And unlike you, I intended to ask my friends, not my pawns, to inform me if they encountered spatial anomalies." Ulforce’s voice remained controlled, but the irritation behind it was obvious. "However, your paranoia got the better of you, and now you’re suspicious of me too, aren’t you? Look, I understand that you don’t like the way I think or act, and I don’t particularly like you either. But at least I understand why King Drasil put two completely opposite Digimon on the same team, and I stay out of your way. Now, thanks to you, years of work have been ruined."

LordKnightmon didn’t answer.

However, UlforceVeedramon already knew what this meant.

He was being watched now.

There were inconsistencies in his explanation, and LordKnightmon wasn’t the kind of Digimon who would simply forget about them. He would continue investigating. Which meant Ulforce would have to rely on others to continue what he had been doing.

Back in the Human World, Takuya—still transformed into Vritramon—burst out of the ground and was launched high into the sky. Cha Hae appeared beside him in much the same way, both of them now hundreds of meters above the island. Takuya immediately flew toward her, allowing Cha Hae to land across his back before descending safely toward the same island where the entire trial had begun.

The moment they landed, Takuya looked around and finally returned to his human form.

He had done it. He had finally reached the Perfect stage.

And immediately afterward, he had gotten the scare of his fucking life.

Two Royal Knights.

Just what the fuck?

There were a few things Takuya could understand from what had just happened. First, UlforceVeedramon was clearly acting independently. Whoever or whatever had created the D-Scan somehow had the cooperation of a Royal Knight. The second thing was that LordKnightmon apparently had absolutely no idea what was happening and had been willing to eliminate everyone simply because they might represent a threat.

What an extreme asshole. And of all the Royal Knights it could have been, it was the same one the original Takuya had fought in the series. That was crazy.

There were also far more things Takuya needed to understand now, and for the first time, he genuinely regretted being only a casual Digimon fan. Couldn’t whoever brought him here have chosen some hardcore fan instead?

First of all, who had created the D-Scan?Who had brought him here? King Drasil? Homeros?Maybe someone else?

He knew there were at least two major god-like entities associated with different Digital Worlds. There was also Homeostasis, but Takuya didn’t know exactly what the fuck that thing even was.

But could another entity convince a Royal Knight to help him? And if so, why?

The problem was that he currently had exactly zero answers. And more importantly... Cha Hae was staring at him with wide eyes.

Genuine fear covered her expression. She was sweating cold, and when she finally spoke, it was so completely out of character for her that Takuya almost forgot everything else.

"What the fuck was that?!"She wasn’t asking. She was yelling.

"Was that where you disappeared to?! That place?! And how the hell were those things that strong?! That was a casual attack, Takuya! They erased almost two kilometers around themselves like it was nothing!"

Oh. She wasn’t finished.

"Well... yes, mostly. I was inside the Digital Dimension, although those floating islands were new to me too," Takuya admitted.

At this point, there was absolutely no point in trying to hide everything from Cha Hae.

"And what were those monsters? Some of them were your friends, and what about the pink one? How was it that strong? And why do they change forms? Can they come here? No, wait, they can. I saw the pumpkin on the security cameras!" Cha Hae continued.

To her, this wasn’t simply shocking news. It was terrifying. She had seen those creatures.

More importantly, she had seen what they were capable of.

So the best thing Takuya could do was explain as much as he actually knew. After all, during his time in the Digital World, he had asked a lot of questions. He might not know everything, but he at least understood more than he had before.

"First, I don’t know everything about that world. But to reassure you, they can’t simply come here. At least, it isn’t that easy. Stronger ones especially have a harder time crossing over." Takuya paused, thinking about how to explain his theory. "I think—and this is only a hypothesis—that excessive amounts of data are rejected by our world. It’s probably similar to S-Rank Gates. The stronger the thing trying to cross over, the harder it is for the connection to form."

Cha Hae remained silent, so Takuya continued.

"They’re Digimon. Digital Monsters. They come in every possible shape and size, from literal monsters to things that look almost human except they’re wearing armor. There are thousands of different species. All of them can evolve and become stronger, but Evolution isn’t easy. Most of the ones I’ve met would probably be somewhere around E to C Rank if we compared them to Hunters."

"And the last two?" Cha Hae interrupted immediately. "They were monsters above the Sv rank you know? Even your pumpkin friend was absurdly strong."

"Halloween reached his final Evolution. It’s called Mega. Almost every Mega Digimon is absurdly strong, but they’re rare." Takuya paused. "As for the other two, they’re part of an organization called the Royal Knights. They basically maintain order in parts of the Digital World. They’re among the strongest warriors there. Like... the top of the top."

"And those two were at least National Level," Cha Hae muttered with a deep frown. Then she reconsidered her own words. "No. More than that. A National Level Hunter could look like a child beside them."

Takuya wasn’t going to tell her that they were probably even stronger than she currently imagined.

Better to leave that thought alone.

"Yeah. Now, in my defense, I had absolutely no idea Veemon was one of them. I thought he was just a friendly Digimon," Takuya said with a shrug.

Cha Hae sighed deeply.

"And why didn’t you tell us anything about this? This is important, you know. We’re talking about a potential world-level threat."

Takuya simply raised an eyebrow.

His expression practically said, Really?

"We need to inform the Bureau. We need to prepare in case something happens," Cha Hae continued.

"That’s not a good idea." Takuya said

Cha Hae frowned.

"Humans don’t know about Digimon, and honestly, that’s probably for the best. If people learn they exist—or worse, if that information becomes public—they’ll start investigating Digital World technology. Think about it. I can hurt dungeon monsters using attacks that are basically impossible with normal human technology. If governments or corporations discover Digimon and realize what their data can do, they’ll try to weaponize it." Takuya’s expression became much more serious. "And believe me, if they eventually run into the wrong Digimon while doing that..."

He remembered LordKnightmon. UlforceVeedramon.

The shockwave that had destroyed multiple floating islands simply because the two of them exchanged a single attack. "It would be bad. Really bad. For everyone." Exclaimed takuya

Cha Hae remained silent.

Her mind returned to the two Royal Knights. She hadn’t been able to follow their movements.

Not even remotely. Especially the blue one.

She hadn’t seen him move. There had been no blur. No acceleration. Nothing. One moment he was there. The next, he wasn’t. It had genuinely looked like teleportation.

Maybe Takuya was right.

But even if telling everyone wasn’t the answer, they still needed some kind of plan.