'Assimilate Homeostasis?!'
When Agumon first heard Taichi's idea, he broke out in a cold sweat. That was Homeostasis! The will of the Digital World, the origin of all Digimon emotions, the key to evolution, the existence that balanced Yggdrasil!
Just look at the fate of Apocalymon, who merely slightly infringed upon its interests… the outcome was obvious.
However, after their contact with Hattori and his Kurai, Agumon's mindset underwent a subtle change.
If things were truly as they said, combined with Taichi's current foresight and strategy, this earth-shattering grand plan didn't seem entirely impossible.
To achieve the goal of assimilating Homeostasis, three conditions had to be met.
First, make Homeostasis's true form appear.
This condition seemed simple, but in practice, it was the most difficult.
Ten years ago, even during a crisis as great as Apocalymon, Homeostasis stubbornly hid behind the scenes, manipulating the Chosen Children to fight while remaining concealed. To force it to appear, one had to create a threat even greater than Apocalymon.
"If even the Seven Great Demon Lords aren't enough, then create a new Homeostasis, an existence capable of replacing it!" Hattori's domineering response came through the group chat.
Kurai, as a perfect nascent form of Yggdrasil, naturally possessed the ability to create a 'seed' of Homeostasis.
After days of secret preparation, it gave Taichi the Crest of Heart, representing 'Emotional Power', laying the groundwork for the entire plan.
In Taichi's initial conception, the one to inherit the power of the Crest of Heart wasn't Hikari. It was BlackWarGreymon. This explained everything.
Taichi allowed Leviamon to appear and watched BlackWarGreymon get severely injured, all to temper him, to refine his already pure fighting will to an even higher level through a seemingly undefeatable enemy.
According to Kurai's calculations, by that point, BlackWarGreymon's fusion rate would be at least over 20%, meeting the minimum standard for assimilation. Thus, the first condition would be met.
Next, the second condition: sufficient negative emotional energy.
Compared to the first point, this was much easier. After BlackWarGreymon's severe injury, his vast dark emotional energy continuously spilled out. Such immense, pure negative emotion was enough to disrupt Homeostasis.
The third condition, and the most crucial one…
Absolute, unwavering loyalty to Taichi.
"The ocean of emotions contained within Homeostasis is vaster than you can imagine." Kurai explained expressionlessly to Taichi and Agumon, "It contains the emotional data of countless beings from the long history of both the Digital and real worlds… past and present."
"The candidate you choose must possess an incredibly firm will. Firm enough to cross the river of time, withstand the baptism of the endless emotional ocean, and still maintain a clear mind and eternal, unchanging loyalty to this man."
The 'man' referred to was, naturally, Taichi. For Taichi at that time, the best candidate he could think of was BlackWarGreymon.
And so, this far-reaching, heaven-ambitious grand plan began to slowly advance.
After several twists and turns, even though the final candidate became Hikari, the overall completion of the plan actually exceeded Taichi's expectations.
"If it's Hikari... with her utterly pure heart and the 100% perfect fusion rate of her Heart power... she might really succeed!" Taichi clenched his fists, watching the scene on the screen.
After stepping onto the celestial ladder and entering the formless true body of Homeostasis, Hikari's eyes reflected an incredibly chaotic, starry river world!
'This... this is the Homeostasis that claimed to save the world, the one we once thought was so sacred?!' Hikari's shoulders trembled in shock.
The starry river world before her was completely different from the Homeostasis she had imagined!
Countless fragments of discarded data floated aimlessly in the air like garbage. These data fragments emitted a foul, rotting stench, having existed for who knows how long.
In the vast starry river, the proportion of this garbage data was at least over 99%!
'Are these... all the emotions generated by Digimon and humans?' Filled with shock and doubt, Hikari used the power of the Crest of Heart to gently pick up a fragment of the garbage data.
Whoosh…
A white light flashed before her eyes. Her body jolted violently as if her soul had been pulled out. The next second, she was a Botamon, born in a corner of the Digital World.
Roar!
Before her vision could even clear, before the full picture of the world could appear, a giant foot carrying the force of ten thousand tons came crashing down upon her.
Squish.
Excruciating pain and a burning sensation were the only feelings before death. The only feelings in this Botamon's entire life. Homeostasis had objectively, coldly recorded this emotional fragment and stored it within the vast data starry river. Over time, it became floating garbage.
'What a strange feeling!'
Savoring the emotion of that final moment before death, Hikari picked up another fragment.
Boom!
This time, she became a child being yelled at by a teacher. Head bowed, her heart was full of anger and grievance.
'Again!'
Hikari continuously picked up fragments, experiencing the emotions contained within. The fear before death, the grievance when scolded, the joy of winning another bottle from a cap, the sadness of parting with a good friend...
Looking at this starry river filled with countless floating emotional garbage, Hikari understood.
'These emotions became garbage floating in the air because they are too fleeting, like a meteor's flash, disappearing almost instantly.' Hikari gripped a fragment, exerting a slight force with her right hand, causing its momentary brilliance to flash before it completely vanished from the mental world.
These emotional fragments contained millions of lives. Joy, fear, sadness, sorrow. But they were all brief.
These emotions often lingered in the hearts of Digimon and humans for no more than a second. Fleeting meant weak. So, Homeostasis simply didn't care about these transient emotions, treating them like garbage, scattered randomly.
For it, the truly precious collections were the emotions that lasted longer, the ones closer to eternity.
'These fleeting emotions are dispensable garbage, not touching the core.'
'What's truly important is…'
Hikari's gaze swept across the starry river, finally locking onto a location due north. A dazzling point of starlight enveloped a chaotic, formless enigma, emitting a soul-stirring radiance.
Judging from its exterior...
Homeostasis's regard for it far surpassed that for the garbage fragments by millions of times!