Chapter 39: All Things Originate from the Sphere, All Vaccines Are Agaku

However, perhaps due to suffering a fatal attack coupled with the effect of [Power Strike] triggered by Digimon One, that sword slash instantly reduced Garurumon's health by sixty percent. While it wasn't quite a one-hit kill, it was nearly so.

Garurumon let out a howl of pain, only to be sent flying by a powerful punch from the nearby Kongmon Puppet. Whether it was the sheer strength of the puppet, Garurumon's own weakness, or the defense reduction caused by his injuries, that punch cost Garurumon another ten percent of his health.

In this game, there's a mechanism for injury-induced defense reduction. Just like Garurumon, who, though not killed by Digimon One's sword through his head, had the blade pierce his eye, rendering it temporarily blind. Blood continued to stream from the wound, inflicting a bleeding debuff that steadily drained his health. If left unchecked, Garurumon might bleed out from just this debuff, without Digimon One even needing to strike again.

This mechanic had just been added in a recent update. Yet, with so many new features and this one not being especially crucial, it wasn't formally announced beforehand.

Corresponding to Garurumon's bleeding debuff, Digimon One's shoulder was also ruined. After all, Garurumon had bitten down hard, freezing the shoulder in the process.

Both sides suffered in this exchange, but Garurumon's injuries were decidedly more severe.

At that moment, the arrogant man shouted angrily, "Damn it! If you can't win this round, I'll have you reborn as a Digi-Egg!"

Players hold ultimate power over their Digimon. Until a Digimon rebels, the player can revert it to an egg and raise it anew. Most players, however, choose not to do this.

Except for eggs designated by the system to hatch specific Digimon, the others hatch randomly. In other words, if an Alphamon Royal Dragon Sword is reverted to an egg and then hatched and trained again to Ultimate level, there's a chance it could become even a Golden Slimemon.

Most players resort to rebirth only when they've botched their Digimon's training.

For example, while others' Agumon might not aspire to evolve into ShineAngemon: Satan Mode, at the very least evolving into Greymon is easy enough. But if your Agumon can only evolve into Slimemon, Poopmon, or Mudmon, not only is it useless in battle, it's too embarrassing to even show off. Thus, players prefer to rebirth and try again. After all, things can't get much worse.

Yet, from Digimon One's perspective, these people don't understand what it means to be a Digimon. True Digimon are not limited by early weakness or later strength. No matter how weak a Digimon is, as long as it has the determination to grow stronger, it can certainly become powerful.

Take Agumon and ShineAngemon as examples in their growth phase. For ShineAngemon, once successfully corrupted, it becomes ShineAngemon: Fallen Mode, leader of the Seven Demon Lords and rival to the Royal Knights. If it evolves fully, it stands a good chance of becoming ShineAngemon: Satan Mode, a top-tier Ultimate presence.

Agumon, by contrast, is far inferior during the growth phase. A single ShineAngemon could wipe out countless Agumon. But does Agumon have no chance to catch up? On the contrary—he does.

Agumon first evolves into Greymon, but still can't match ShineAngemon. Then he evolves into MetalGreymon, yet remains weaker. Even as WarGreymon, he is not ShineAngemon's equal.

But when WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon fuse into Omnimon, they finally surpass ShineAngemon, nearly matching ShineAngemon: Fallen Mode.

After all, the Seven Demon Lords rival the Thirteen Royal Knights; a single Demon Lord may surpass a Royal Knight. Of course, this excludes the Royal Knights' Seat of Nothingness, Alphamon; otherwise, even all Seven Demon Lords together might not be his match.

If Omnimon X evolves successfully, he becomes Omnimon X, now stronger than ShineAngemon: Fallen Mode, and even against ShineAngemon: Satan Mode, the two are equals.

Moreover, if Agumon doesn't evolve into Greymon but into Seadramon, and then into Sword Godmon at the Mega stage, he has a chance to become Alphamon at Ultimate. Once again, he stands toe-to-toe with ShineAngemon: Satan Mode.

Even if Agumon first becomes Agumon X, then evolves into Failmon, and at the Ultimate stage, he has a chance to become ShineAngemon: Fallen Mode. In other words, he walks the path of ShineAngemon.

Thus, a Digimon's early weakness is unrelated to its eventual strength. It merely requires greater effort, but that effort is never meaningless.

Likewise, if you think possessing a god-tier Digimon means you can slack off, reality will teach you otherwise.

Take ShineAngemon for instance. It can leap to become ShineAngemon: Fallen Mode, but it can just as easily evolve into Angelmon or Demonmon at the mature stage. Without diligent effort, how could it ever reach ShineAngemon: Fallen Mode?

A Digimon's evolution chain is a web. Aside from those with a single, fixed chain, no Digimon is guaranteed to evolve into any particular form.

Again, using Agumon as an example—normally, Agumon has a high chance of evolving into Greymon, but before evolution, it's only a probability. If Agumon could only become Greymon, there would be no talk of all things originating from Ballmon or all vaccines being Agumon, as the saying goes.

Returning to the battle, Garurumon and Digimon One are still locked in combat.