[] Have mercy, he's in pain and won't last much longer. End him yourself.
-[] Before you strike apologies and wish him a better life in his next.
===
Staring down at Chackmon's tiny begging form brings a myriad of emotions. Sadness, regret, anger. He's beaten now, unable to truly fight back.
Honour tells you that striking him down now would be wrong, desire wishes to see him grow stronger as to fight you once more. But
Duty and
Logic wing out in the end. Deleting him is your mission and you can't simply capture him, the risk of him escaping, hurting your allies, or simply being deleted by MagnaAngemon are too great. Other memories flash to the surface, words of heroism. But those are crushed by the stark reality of your situation.
There's only one way his path can end.
Memories flash across your mind, Spark's cruel smile, Fugamon screaming in pain.
And I won't allow more suffering, not when I can stop it.
"I'm... sorry." you murmur, raising your shaking paw back up. "May your next journey have better fortune."
"S-sto-"
Your gauntlet falls, *mercy* is dispensed.
The life of a Legendary Warrior ends.
A light fades, leaving your world forever darker.
"Hrmph. Didn't think you'd do it." Sparks grunts, hopping down to the pile of rapidly fading data.
"Tch, 'twould be wise to stay away from the corrupted parts. Can't believe that power is within thine grasp as well."
You nod silently, not trusting yourself to speak. Anger, the urge to fight; all of it is just... gone. Sparks continues to talk, but the cripple's words are faint, more a distant buzz than anything else. You slump down, letting the world pass on by. All that truly registers is the memory of what you'd done, the crying mon whom you'd slain.
At some point the fighting above you halts, perhaps half of the original group stops on the ground to rest. MagnaAngemon grins at you, saying something that makes the others cheer, but the praise doesn't matter. It's not something you deserve. You sleep the night away, return back to the fort and wait.
Sparks proudly shows you the
digimental he'd acquired a few days back as *an attempt to cheer you up* but you can't really see the connection there. He tries again, helping you write letters for
Lady Ardat and Frigimon, but when that ends you're left back where you started. At least he begins starts tutoring you on spells again.
Beat and Pit invite you for some more kata training and you don't see any reason to refuse. However not even the heavy exertion can bring more than extremely faint tinges of contentment. The Pidmon seems a bit concerned, for what reason you cannot tell, while the Stingmon throws you curious glances every now and then when he thinks you're not paying attention.
The next two days fall into a thick blur of meditation, training, studying and just sitting. Thinking hurts, so you don't.
Storms of wind begin to rip across the lands and even the walls don't provide full protection. Innumerable rocks pelt your body, but are barely felt through the copious amounts of fur.
Finally during the evening of the last day, MagnaAngemon leads what remains of your group to a newly arrived Locomon. According to him, it was time to "join the subjugation force". You can't bring yourself to overly care about that either.
===Stat/Skill Gains:
-4 Strength X7=28
-1 Fortitude X1=6.25
-12 Endurance X5.5=66
-9 Agility X4.75=42.75
-8 SpecialX6.25=50
-8 SpiritX4=32
Strength: 3294.00->3322.00
Fortitude: 2898.25->2904.50
Endurance: 2283.00->2349.00
Agility: 2315.50->2358.25
Special: 2702.25->2752.25
Spirit: 2318.75->2350.75
General Fighting: 90.25/180->96.50
Martial Arts, Maul (Gryzmon) Style: 33.25/60->39.50
Basic High Programming: 59.25/60->64.25/180
Muscle Burst: 2/12->5/12
===
Authors Note: Deleting Chackmon himself wasn't the best choice for Verge's mental state. *Shivers* It was the worst one short term actually. Even if it was the most practical one. Verge will get better from this, (mostly) and long term it's better than letting Sparks do it. The Wizardmon was planning to use fire, without the power boost given from Burst. Verge would have remember those screams for the rest of his life. The narrative *change* from Chackmon's death was intentional as was him referring to Ardat by Lady instead of the usual cutting himself off thing.
Sad thing is that Chackmon... he was actually a fairly good mon. Sure mischievous, childish, lacking retrospection, and kill happy, but he'd have mostly gotten pretty along well with Flamemon if the two ever met.
Good news is that Sparks got five percent of his stats! Which I'll be putting up relatively shortly.
