Chapter 164: The Death of the Abyss Beast

[Black Requiem]

The next instant, the mouth beneath opened, and a song drifted from unknown origins. Every human and Digimon that heard this melody found the data within their bodies falling into inescapable corruption.

In the end, the bodies of those wretches transformed into spheres of data, streaming directly into the lower mouth of Gulfmon to be absorbed. As more and more data was absorbed, Gulfmon's presence grew increasingly terrifying.

A moment later, Doruguremon emerged from the crater below, immediately sensing the astonishing aura radiating from Gulfmon. In fact, without even needing to sense it, he could plainly see spheres of data vanishing directly into the gaping maw beneath Gulfmon's body.

Witnessing this, Doruguremon's face filled with shock. "I never expected you would go this far."

"Why do you think I was able to break through to the Mega level?" Gulfmon said, staring coldly down at Doruguremon. "During your previous battles, a portion of the data from the defeated and fallen Digimon was absorbed by you, while the remainder was absorbed by me. And just now, amid the chaos upon the surface, yet another batch of data from the fallen was left for me to consume. Thus, relying on this massive influx of data, I finally attained the Mega level."

Doruguremon asked, "So the humans and Digimon evolving into their current state of mutual hostility is also your doing?"

"Of course," Gulfmon replied with a sinister gaze. "Without doing that, the strongest batch of Ultimate-level Digimon would never simply die. If I couldn't absorb their data, even swallowing the data of every other Digimon wouldn't have brought about a qualitative change. However, I am curious—knowing full well that my strength grows stronger with every passing second, why haven't you made a move yet?"

In truth, Gulfmon was quite surprised. He had originally expected Doruguremon to attack the very moment he appeared, and had even prepared defensive measures for that exact scenario. Yet, who could have anticipated that instead of striking, Doruguremon would bombard him with questions?

What did asking questions mean?

It meant stalling for time!

Though he did not know why Doruguremon wished to stall, it was undeniably advantageous to Gulfmon. Therefore, he was more than happy to play along with Doruguremon's delay tactics.

"First, my master is not yet far enough away from the battlefield," Doruguremon said, looking at Gulfmon with a look of disdain laced with cold sarcasm. "Second, I wanted to let you know that no matter how strong you become, you could never be a match for me."

"Arrogant!" The moment Gulfmon uttered the word, he felt his combat power reach its absolute peak, incapable of climbing any higher. Opening his lower mouth wide, he unleashed [Death Howl] directly at Doruguremon.

[Metal Meteor!] Seeing Gulfmon make his move, Doruguremon's lips curved into a confident smile, and the next instant, a counter-shockwave erupted from his side.

Because of the distance between them, the two shockwaves collided almost instantaneously. However, contrary to what Doruguremon might have anticipated—or perhaps exactly as he expected—Gulfmon took the upper hand.

The violent shockwave unleashed by Gulfmon crashed against Doruguremon's attack, instantly overpowering it and surging forward relentlessly toward his opponent.

At this sight, Gulfmon's mouth curled into a smug, frantic smile. Without a doubt, Doruguremon was the only one left who could eliminate him. And now, once Doruguremon perished, he would be free to leisurely harvest every remaining living soul in this place.

When that time came, where couldn't he go? With the vast heavens and the endless void spread before him, who could possibly stop him? At this thought, Gulfmon's wild laughter grew even louder.

Yet, contrasting sharply with Gulfmon's triumph, Doruguremon showed no reaction whatsoever, simply standing his ground and silently withstanding Gulfmon's assault. Before his eyes lay the impending attack—though it seemed there was far more to it than met the eye.

"Your attack may possess immense raw power, but its internal composition is chaotic and impure, strictly limiting its ultimate potential. My attack may appear modest in scale, but its core is pure and unadulterated, rendering its true power far greater than you can possibly imagine," Doruguremon spoke leisurely. As his words fell, his counter-attack steadily pushed back against Gulfmon's onslaught, inching slowly toward the beast.

The contrast between Doruguremon and Gulfmon at this moment was akin to the comparison in *Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils*: the monastic sweepers who toiled for a century of pure cultivation versus powerhouses who surged to greatness through unorthodox techniques like the Northern Demonic Divine Art, the Star-Sucking Art, or the Art of Power Dissipation.

In terms of sheer quantity of internal energy, the monk's meager century of painstaking cultivation naturally fell short of theirs. After all, if a single person possessed twenty years of energy, absorbing five such individuals instantly yielded a century. While a single practitioner with a century of pristine energy was rare, individuals with twenty years of power were dime a dozen.

Yet, if a real fight broke out, that single century of the monk's pure energy would vastly outweigh several centuries of their plundered power. There were two primary reasons for this.

First, the monk's energy was cultivated by his own hands over a hundred years of relentless tempering, making it incomparably refined—qualitatively crushing the energy of others.

Second, because the energy was self-generated, wielding it was as natural as moving one's own fingers. He could effortlessly unleash one hundred percent of his power, or even squeeze out a hundred and twenty percent.

Conversely, energy plundered from others allowed a practitioner to harness perhaps fifty percent of its true potential on a good day, and sometimes as little as ten percent.

Gulfmon was currently suffering from this exact flaw. At first, his overwhelming combat strength was merely a product of quantitative supremacy, used to crush Doruguremon through sheer volume. Once Doruguremon managed to anchor himself and steady his footing, that crude assault ceased to be a threat.

"No, I don't believe it, I won't..." Gulfmon stared in horror as the opposing force inched closer and closer. Desperate, he amplified the output of his digital energy, but it was entirely futile. Before he could even finish his sentence, Doruguremon's attack swept his power aside and arrived right before him.

"BOOM..."