Chapter 46: A Monkey's Metal Heart
The city lay draped in golden morning light, its towers sharp against a dark, roiling sky beyond the barrier walls.
Up on the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings—just high enough to catch the scent of smoke and burnt data drifting on the wind—Naruto, Matt, Joe, and Takeru stood like uneasy statues.
Below them, the battlefield writhed like a living thing.
Lightning tore across the horizon where Raikomaru and Machmon danced with death.
And from the dense, corrupted forest that coiled at the city's edge like a serpent's nest, something was coming.
Matt's hand hovered over his Digivice. "Is it Arachne?"
Joe, pale as ever, squinted through his glasses. "I don't see her. It's just shadows… something big's moving."
"I feel something," Naruto said quietly, his cloak rustling behind him like wind over silk. "Chakra... no, something twisted."
The forest trembled.
Something broke free—lumbering, swaggering, and utterly unashamed.
It glinted.
It shone.
It strutted.
And from the dark boughs emerged a shape that was—
"...A metal monkey?" Joe blurted, eyes wide.
The Digimon stomped forward, arms crossed, hips swinging like he'd just stepped onto a stage at a digital disco.
He had sunglasses, for heaven's sake.
Metal Etemon.
Naruto tilted his head. "Is that supposed to be intimidating or... a joke?"
Takeru laughed nervously. "Maybe both?"
Then came the voice.
Not from the monkey—but from somewhere else.
High. Sultry. Teasing.
It echoed off rooftops and shimmered like silk dipped in venom.
"Well, well, well... Isn't this cozy? Four brave little boys playing soldier while the grown-ups take over the battlefield..."
Naruto's eyes sharpened.
"Arachne," he muttered. "Where are you?"
The voice giggled—actually giggled—with theatrical delight.
"Oh darling, I'm just everywhere~ But let me introduce your new best friend."
Metal Etemon posed dramatically, sunglasses glinting. "Long time no see, Naruto-baby."
Naruto blinked. "Do I… know you?"
"Oh-ho-ho!" Etemon cackled, thumping his chest like a gorilla at a karaoke bar. "You should! I was gonna take you kids in as trophies back in the desert. You fried me, sent me flying through six firewalls, and got me caught by her."
The word her dripped with reverence—and fear.
Metal Etemon spun theatrically and pointed both fingers skyward.
"She took me in. Arachne. She—ohhhh, she fixed me. Gave me a home. Filled me with—"
Joe interrupted, eyes now properly horrified. "Parasites? She filled you with parasites, didn't she?"
Metal Etemon grinned wider. "Yup! Thousands of 'em. Whispering little babies in my circuits. But that's love, isn't it? Pain that makes you loyal."
Matt's knuckles turned white. "You're insane."
"No no no. I'm in love," Etemon said, his tone a mix of swoon and metal madness. "And now that I see you lot again… ohoho, it's personal!"
The barrier shimmered as the data-field tightened. The enemy was pressing forward.
Arachne's voice returned like a silk thread winding around their necks.
"You can't stop it. You don't have the numbers. You don't have the strength. This little city, this crumbling wall... it's just a stage, my dear Naruto. And you? You're dancing your final number."
-----------------------------
For a long, breathless moment, the world held its breath.
Then—Digitamamon moved.
He shifted slowly, the eggshell crackling under pressure, like porcelain under a dragon's claw. He didn't raise his voice. He didn't leap or roar. He simply glared.
It was the kind of glare that could sour milk, curdle courage, and stop dancing Metal Digimon mid-moonwalk.
"Nightmare Syndrome."
The moment the words were uttered, the world changed.
A suffocating black mist bled out from beneath Digitamamon's feet, like spilled ink from a cracked soul. It coiled around Metal Etemon like a boa constrictor, and thousands of eyes—gleaming, unblinking, hungry—blinked into existence around him.
A hush fell.
Even Metal Etemon faltered, his sunglasses slipping slightly as the air turned cold and thick with despair.
Digitamamon's voice was silk over steel. "Do you really think a brute can do anything to me?"
But before the darkness could tighten, before the nightmare could seep into Metal Etemon's very circuits—
A tear in the air.
Like reality had been sliced open with a nail-polished claw.
From the rift stepped a vision in red and purple, a spider dipped in high fashion and the venom of a hundred whispered lies.
Arachne.
"Of course not," she purred, her voice the hum of silk over skin. "I was merely checking how durable my little toy was."
The mist was devoured in an instant, sucked into the crack she stepped through. The eldritch eyes fizzled, popped, and vanished like soap bubbles made of fear.
Digitamamon recoiled slightly, his shell twitching.
Arachne stood tall and magnificent under the ruined sky. She was every inch the fashion diva of destruction—red sleeveless dress, short cape with a teasing cowl, long purple gloves with wicked black webbing, and the tall striped sunhat that gave her the absurd elegance of an evil auntie who hosted tea parties in spider lairs.
Atop it all: shades.
Dark purple, golden rimmed, and dangerously concealing.
She adjusted them with two fingers—casually, like a queen pushing back a strand of hair before declaring war.
"Now that I'm here," she said sweetly, "let's be civil. One last time, Naruto—come to me. Join my side. You know I don't ask often, darling."
Her attention flicked to Digitamamon with a grin that dripped like poisoned honey.
"And you, dear egg—do hand over the children. You've played the brave guardian long enough. Haven't you already lost so much? I could've given you all my treasures. If only you'd asked nicely."
Digitamamon snorted. It echoed, hollow and amused.
"Yeah, I don't think you're seeing what I'm seeing."
He leaned forward slightly, the crack in his shell glowing faintly with power.
"You'd have deep-fried me the moment the kids were eaten."
Arachne gasped, mock-hurt, clutching her bejeweled chest. "Moi? Eat you? Digitamamon, please! I'd have at least marinated you first."
Digitamamon's voice sharpened. "I'm quite the delicacy in the digital world, especially for parasites like you. There was no way I was trusting your 'deal.'"
He rolled slightly forward, cracking the digital ground under him. "I'm quite a delicacy, you know. Five stars on EvilEats.com. So there was no way I was trusting your deal."
Arachne tsked, as though he'd spilled her favorite lipstick.
Naruto stepped forward now, his eyes hard as ever.
"Your offer?" he said. "Still trash."
Matt raised an eyebrow. "Not exactly diplomatic."
Naruto grinned. "I'm not here to be polite."
He turned back to Arachne, his voice carrying over the battlefield like a fire in winter.
"I'm not joining someone who kills innocent people. I don't care how shiny your hat is or how well you trained your monkey. You're hurting people—and I'm here to stop you."
Arachne's lips curled upward, amused.
"Oh, Naruto… ever the sentimental fool."
Naruto didn't flinch.
"I've got my friends by my side," he said. "That's all I need."
Behind him, Matt's Digivice glowed. Joe adjusted his glasses with shaking hands but nodded. Takeru grinned nervously, hand on Patamon.
And just like that, the winds shifted.
Arachne may have brought shadows, but Naruto and his team brought light.
And eggs.
Very angry, haunted, breakfast-themed eggs.
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There was something oddly satisfying about a proper battlefield—at least in the way a painter might admire the spread of colors on a canvas… if that canvas was occasionally set on fire and screamed back.
Digitamamon, for one, had no time for poetic metaphors.
With a battle cry that sounded suspiciously like a kettle boiling over, he launched himself at Arachne with the elegance of a cannonball dressed in eggshell. Arachne, of course, sidestepped with the lazy poise of someone browsing high-end shoes rather than dodging an interdimensional breakfast bomb.
"Oh, darling," she said airily, adjusting her gold-rimmed sunglasses. "Have you ever considered a more graceful entrance?"
Digitamamon did not reply. He was too busy unleashing a shadowy energy wave aimed directly at her face.
Meanwhile, high above the city like some strange yet heroic combination of bug and blond, Naruto soared, his arm transformed by the attached Blade Kuwagamon—a living blade Digimon that gleamed with an almost holy menace.
Sage Mode was active. His hair fluttered wildly in the wind, his eyes glowed golden with natural energy, and his face bore the telltale orange markings of a warrior connected to the pulse of the world.
Behind him, a brilliant light erupted like a second sun.
"Patamon digivolve to… MAGNAANGEMON!"
Takeru raised his Digivice high, its screen glowing brighter than ever. The beam of data that enveloped his tiny companion split the clouds, and when the light faded, floating above the battlefield was a majestic warrior in white and violet armor, eight gleaming wings outstretched.
Takeru shouted, "Stat boost—engage!" and MagnaAngemon was wreathed in a shimmering aura of golden energy.
"I feel… mighty!" MagnaAngemon declared, unnecessarily dramatic but no less awesome.
The target of their combined righteous fury?
Metal Etemon.
The golden, chrome-armored mega Digimon stood like a disco ball on legs, flexing his biceps, striking exaggerated poses, and most offensively—singing.
🎵"Love Serenade~! Feel the groove, baby!"🎵
The song wasn't just terrible—it was dangerous. The moment the melody left his lips, waves of sound echoed through the air like sonic syrup, sapping energy and strength, trying to lull enemies into a dazed state of confused affection.
Naruto felt a wave of warmth in his chest, as though he'd just been hugged by a musically-inclined grandmother.
And then he remembered: Nope. Bad monkey. Bad song.
With a grunt, he clapped his hands together and summoned a vortex of slicing wind.
"Sage Art: Wind Release—Silent Shred!"
The wind howled like a furious wolf, nullifying the sound entirely, and Blade Kuwagamon pulsed with approval. Naruto followed up with a blindingly fast slash, a shimmering blade of wind energy arcing out like divine judgment.
The slash carved through the battlefield.
It cleaved hills.
It split a river.
It gouged the earth like tofu under a hot knife.
And Metal Etemon?
He stood there, dusting imaginary lint from his shoulder.
"Oh please," he said with an exaggerated yawn. "You're going to have to do better than that. Chrome Digizoid, baby. You'd have an easier time carving a song outta concrete."
MagnaAngemon soared behind him and unleashed Excalibur-like holy swords, radiant blades descending from the sky like divine lightning. They struck with perfect form and heavenly wrath.
CLANG.
Nothing.
Not even a scratch.
Metal Etemon turned his head lazily over his shoulder. "Well, well… feathers and blades. Are we having a party or what?"
Then came the cables.
Dark, snaking, unnatural cables.
They didn't erupt from Metal Etemon's body.
Oh no.
They ripped open the very sky—slashing through space itself, bursting forth from nowhere and everywhere at once, lashing toward Naruto and MagnaAngemon like demonic tentacles on a caffeine high.
Naruto's danger sense screamed.
"Move!" he shouted, twisting mid-air, performing three backflips and a dive roll before barely dodging one.
MagnaAngemon darted sideways, his wings catching a stray cable that sent sparks flying. "I detest these things," he muttered. "They have no manners!"
But there was no time for complaints.
Metal Etemon had stopped singing. He was dancing now, grinning like a schoolboy at a prank war, and every movement was accompanied by more cables, more chaos, and a growing sense that—if they let their guard down for just one second—he could end the fight in two or three blows.
"Keep your distance!" Naruto yelled, forming a Rasengan laced with lightning and wind. "We hit him from range. Don't give him a chance to grab us!"
MagnaAngemon nodded. "He might be made of chrome… but even chrome melts with enough heat!"
-------------------
The battlefield had shifted into something surreal—a sky painted with streaks of light, the air torn by the cries of digital titans, and the ground trembling from the weight of ancient power.
But amid all this chaos, Metal Etemon's focus was as sharp as a razor.
Naruto Uzumaki.
That blond pest, that mortal troublemaker, the boy who had almost reduced him to digital scrap. The memory still burned in his circuits. That final moment when everything had turned to static, when his dream of becoming Digimon King had nearly been deleted permanently—if not for her.
Arachne.
Oh, she had saved him. The graceful, elegant terror who stepped from the void wearing crimson and gold and shadows like a crown. She was strength, she was mystery, she was wickedly perfect. And now… she was watching.
Metal Etemon straightened his back, his tail cables twitching with anticipation. He couldn't afford to look foolish. Not in front of his queen. He would show her that he was not only worthy… he was glorious.
"Time to end this little reunion tour," he growled, his voice a blend of digital static and sneering charm. "Say cheese, blondie."
With a snap of his metallic fingers, his tail cables shot into the air—dozens of them. From their tips, pulsing orbs formed and fired:
Dark Lasers.
But not just scattered shots—oh no, Metal Etemon was smarter than that. The lasers connected mid-air, weaving together into a glowing net of evil energy, a trap designed to cage Naruto and MagnaAngemon like digital rats.
Naruto's eyes widened. "Trap!"
He didn't hesitate.
"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!"
The glowing buzz-saw of destruction hurled itself into the net, tearing into the dark weave with a howl of sheer power. But Naruto wasn't done. The moment the Rasenshuriken left his hand—
he vanished.
Blade Kuwagamon pulsed with energy on his arm, and Naruto activated its most dangerous move.
Light Blade Mode.
To an outside observer, it was as though Naruto flickered like a star, vanishing and reappearing—each time with a slash of blinding light cutting across Metal Etemon's body.
One.
Two.
Three.
Seven slashes in under a second.
And while the chrome digizoid that made up Metal Etemon's body still held—still gleamed with defiance—it was marked.
Tiny, almost invisible cuts, but cuts all the same.
Metal Etemon's grin twitched. His tail flailed in fury.
"You little glitch!"
But before he could counterattack—
"EXCALIBUR SLASH!"
From above, MagnaAngemon descended, his sword a pillar of burning holy energy. With one mighty swing, he carved the very battlefield in half, a glowing line of light splitting rock, metal, and dirt beneath.
CRACK-THOOM.
The heavens shook. The ground trembled. The air rippled with force.
But…
When the dust cleared, Metal Etemon still stood. A little scratched. A little winded. But very, very alive.
"Is that all the Holy Host can muster?" he chuckled darkly. "Let me show you what real power looks like."
From his outstretched palms, a pulse of energy erupted—black lightning, crackling with raw negativity and data-corrupting hate. It struck MagnaAngemon midair like a divine hammer of wrath.
"GAH—!" MagnaAngemon's body jolted, wings folding as he began to fall.
"MAGNAANGEMON!" Takeru screamed, his Digivice flaring as he poured energy into it. "Holy Barrier—NOW!"
A shimmering dome of golden light flashed around MagnaAngemon just before he hit the ground. The black lightning fizzled against it, unable to corrupt the angel through Takeru's bond.
"Thank… you…" MagnaAngemon gasped, still smoking slightly as he floated back into the air.
Naruto landed next to him, panting slightly, his blade still humming.
"He's tougher than a ramen bowl on discount day," he muttered. "But we're getting to him."
MagnaAngemon gave a tired smile. "Let's cook him, then."
Above them, Metal Etemon was already gathering more cables. His face twisted with rage, with obsession, with something almost tragic.
"You think you're heroes?" he roared. "You're delusions with bad haircuts! I will become Digimon King! I will prove my worth! I will show her!"
From the side, Arachne raised an elegant eyebrow behind her dark shades. "Oh, darling… don't get emotional. You'll crease your chrome."
But Metal Etemon didn't hear her. He was locked in, charging his next attack, eyes wild.