46) Rend the Earth

                                    

                                          
Aldamon flew high above the fortress, his wings beating steadily to keep him afloat. Beside him, Izumi and Yumiko both used their own wings as they surveyed the battlefield below. There were countless Void Fragment Digimon swarming toward the building, far more than Aldamon could have ever imagined. He had been hoping this battle would be somewhat simple, though he was starting to see that was a vain piece of optimism. Of course it was. Alastomon was out for blood after the Legendary Warriors had left him behind, and the best way for him to take over the Digital World was to get rid of its saviors so no one would dare to stand in his way. He knew they would retreat to the fortress since that was the safest place they could hide until all of this blew over.
Aldamon winced at the thought. Alastomon and Biastamon had been the ones to give the group the fortress to begin with. Alastomon had been planning all of this for ages, so it wouldn't have at all been out of the realm of possibility to believe he had been waiting for this day. Alastomon knew this was how it was going to end, and he decided to turn the fortress the Legendary Warriors called their safe space and home base into their prison. After all, if they were completely surrounded, they would have no other choice but to flee, and if they tried to fight, they would be killed in the invasion to follow. Everything had been planned out ages in advance, and the mere idea of it made Alastomon groan. He was tired of this psychological warfare with Alastomon even though he knew he wouldn't be able to end it just because he thought it was obnoxious. 
As soon as Alastomon came to mind, Aldamon began to search through the enemy Digimon for any signs of him. Aldamon could only assume Alastomon was the one responsible for this attack given that the invaders were all Void Fragment Digimon... But Aldamon couldn't find him anywhere. In fact, Alastomon wasn't commanding the enemy forces at all. No matter how many times Aldamon scanned through the Void Fragments, he saw no traces of Alastomon. He wasn't there at all, seemingly having left the charge up to others within his army.
"I don't see Alastomon anywhere," Yumiko frowned. She had started searching for him as well, but just like Takuya, she ultimately came up short. "I would have thought he would want to take us out of the picture himself given how much of a thorn in his side we've been this entire time, but I don't see him at all... Could it be he left this up to some of his other generals?"
"It's certainly seeming that way," Izumi agreed with a sigh. "It makes a lot of sense. Saki said Makuramon was one of the generals of the mastermind. That was what he said when he decided to attack Rubrum a few days ago. It would make sense if there were others as well... All of them waiting for the perfect time to strike."
"Alastomon is probably preparing himself for the final attack against the rest of the Digital World," Aldamon muttered crossly. "He thinks we're going to be wiped out in this invasion, and he's getting ready to take over the rest of the planet as soon as we're out of the picture. After all, there were no armies left behind after the Celestial Three went down. They were the ones leading all the major defensive forces, and with them out of the picture..."
"I would say that I'm impressed with how thoroughly he thought through all of this, but I don't want to give him any credit at all after what he did," Yumiko whispered. "Even if he's not leading this attack, he ordered others in his army to come after us, and that's enough of a reason for us to fight. We can't let them get away. If they do, they're just going to steamroll through the rest of the Digital World, and we have enough problems on our hands even without Alastomon sending his generals to kill everyone who dares to stand up to them."
Aldamon nodded as he turned his attention back to the battlefield before him. There were four Digimon who stood in front of the crowd. The first of them was Makuramon, and as much as Aldamon hated to admit it, he appeared to be the weakest of the bunch. That was just his luck. Alastomon had sent his weakest general to get rid of Saki and Miriamon, so all of his real trump cards were kept secret until the instant he was getting ready to strike against the rest of the Legendary Warriors. He thought Makuramon would win, but even if he failed, he had others in his back pocket as a secret.