Chapter 51: No Tea for Spiders
A sticky end for the Dark Weaver
For a heartbeat—just one—the world held its breath.
Then Narutomon vanished again, the Event Horizon Dash lighting up the battlefield with molten streaks as he broke through the air like a sword through silk.
His target: Arachne.
She floated high above the shattered earth, wreathed in smoke and darkness, limbs gliding like silk threads through the gloom. Her long, spindly form had widened, armored and glistening with obsidian sheen. Her eyes—eight and gleaming violet—never blinked. And below her…
Digitamamon was not doing great.
Or rather, he was doing... terrifyingly okay, in his own peculiar way.
His eggshell had transformed. No longer round and oddly adorable—it was jagged, blackened, rimmed with void tendrils that pulsed and writhed like shadows alive. From the broken bottom half of his shell, dozens of tendrils slithered, sharp as knives and whispering nonsense.
But still—he was losing.
"Oh, you sweet breakfast abomination," Arachne purred, lazily flicking one claw to block a tendril whip. "You try so hard."
Digitamamon's voice was dreamy and distant, like a lullaby made of nightmares. "I am the shell... and the scream... the yolk of all that must be broken…"
"Yeah, yeah," Arachne sighed, flipping and landing daintily on a stone spire. "Keep talking. Maybe it'll distract you from the hundred tiny spiders I've implanted under your membrane."
Digitamamon paused. "...You what now?"
But before either could move—
BOOOOOM!
A sonic quake of chakra and molten air cracked the sky. Arachne whirled, eyes narrowing—
"Oh dear."
The Crimson Vortex tore into view, a comet of red and gold light, bearing down on her with one arm glowing and the Kurama Fang Blade unsheathed, already blazing with power.
She barely had a second.
With a hiss, she curled her arms inwards, channeling a dense dark barrier that shimmered violet and black like oil on water.
The impact came—
WHAM!!!
The sky flashed white. Winds tore trees from roots. The ground cratered below from the force.
Narutomon skidded back, blade hissing, watching the spider-shaped dome crack and glow.
Inside the barrier, Arachne stood still. Her clawed hands rested against her hips, her face vaguely annoyed.
"Oh darling," she said, tossing her hair. "Next time you plan to murder a lady, perhaps introduce yourself first?"
Naruto straightened. His chakra blade lowered just slightly. "Name's Naruto Uzumaki. Didn't think I had to introduce myself to bugs before squashing 'em."
Digitamamon, who was slowly regenerating tendrils, piped up: "He introduces himself after the violence. It's a pattern."
Arachne chuckled—a soft, silky sound, maddening in its confidence.
"I must say," she said, floating upwards, her legs spreading to perch mid-air on invisible threads. "This war is going rather poorly for me. My minions? Crushed. My fortress? Imploded. My ally Metal Etemon? A pile of data bits. And now… you."
She pointed one long claw at Naruto.
"You, you golden immortal of war, have come to end me, haven't you?"
Naruto's voice was calm, but sharp. "You bet. This ends now."
"Hmm…" She sighed, dramatically, throwing her head back just a little too much. "You boys and your finales. Always so dramatic."
Digitamamon muttered, "...Says the woman monologuing like she's in a gothic opera."
"Oh hush, Eggshell McAngst. You're one to talk."
She turned back to Naruto, and for the first time—smiled.
It was not a kind smile. It was the smile of a queen who had already predicted the next ten moves and dared you to guess wrong.
"I may be outclassed. I may be outnumbered. But weak? Oh honey, weakness is a costume I do not wear."
Her dark barrier flickered off, revealing her full form—burnt in places, cracked carapace, ichor dripping down her sides—but her posture remained perfect, her presence unbroken.
"Let me show you what it means to be a predator," she whispered.
----------------------
The storm above parted as if the sky itself feared what was about to unfold.
Beneath the blood-red clouds, Naruto stood motionless. His armor glowed with golden chakra, flickering like starlight trapped in motion. Beside him, Digitamamon, now restored but barely holding form, pulsed with abyssal energy. His shell oozed dark fog as he muttered with eerie calm.
"She'll twist the space around you, spawn illusions from your shadow, and strike from behind reality itself." His voice was almost melodic. "I'll cancel her dark domain. That's all I can do."
Naruto nodded. "That's enough."
And then he moved.
PLASMA RIFT BARRAGE — "Let's light up the sky."
His right arm twisted, reshaping itself into a massive cannon of molten gold and crimson plates. A hum like charging thunder rang out as the barrel began to spin—then split into nine blurring ends, each pulsating with contained fury.
FWOOM! FWOOM! FWOOM!
Hundreds of searing plasma bullets burst from the cannon at light-speed, scattering into the air like a firework made of suns. Each bullet twisted mid-flight, bending in arcs, converging into fox-shaped impact clusters. The sky lit up like a festival of war.
But Arachne was already gone.
She blurred forward through the barrage, gliding across invisible threads only she could see. Her dark blade, a wicked scythe of curved obsidian, clashed against Naruto's chakra sword—
CLAAAANG!!!
Shockwaves flattened the land around them. Lava-like energy splashed across shattered stone.
Arachne's eyes gleamed. "Not bad, golden boy. But let's dance for real."
She lunged.
Naruto's Kurama Fang Blade shone with chakra edge, a weapon that could slice atoms from reality. But Arachne's blade, woven from dimensional silk and cursed obsidian, did not break. It shrieked as it met his sword again—
CLANG—SHIIING—CRASH!
Each clash left spiraling shockwaves and cracks in space. They weren't just moving—they were warping the battlefield. Naruto dashed and blinked through horizons, slashing through midair like it were fabric. Arachne spun, her legs twisting in unnatural arcs as she flipped and parried, sword and web dancing in harmony.
She raised her left hand—
THWIP!!
A thousand razor-thin webs shot out.
Naruto dodged three, sliced ten—
But one wrapped around his tail—
"Got you," Arachne hissed—
But Naruto's tail turned cannon, blasting plasma bolts into her midsection at point-blank.
FLASHBIND TAILSTORM — "You want to bind me? Then break these first."
His nine mechanical tails erupted outward, spiraling in arcs like golden serpents. Each wrapped around space itself, extending like coiling dimensions. They targeted Arachne, attempting to bind her mid-air—
But she bent backward—literally folding her upper body through a tear in space—and reappeared behind Naruto with a whisper of smoke.
"Too slow."
She slashed—
But Naruto's tail exploded, sending a chakra burst that vaporized a section of the battlefield. She was thrown back, skidding across the rocks, her feet digging into the stone.
Naruto didn't wait—
EVENT HORIZON DASH — "This ends now."
He vanished again. A flash of light. A line across reality.
His sword—
A crescent of death—
Cut toward Arachne's neck with perfect speed—
She walked through space—disappearing, reappearing behind him with her evil eyes flashing violet—
Naruto froze.
His chakra stalled—
Her paralyzing gaze took hold—
But then—
BOOOOM!!!
A burst of anti-magic shattered her spell like glass—
Digitamamon grinned from afar. "No cheating. Just steel and will."
🌫️ Arachne unleashed her acidic smog—
A jet of green-black poison screamed from her spider-maw, coating the battlefield. The stone hissed. Naruto's armor sizzled—
But he charged through.
Flames erupted around him, his chakra incinerating the air—
Their swords met once more—
CRACK!!!
The blades shattered the terrain, sending lava boiling to the surface.
They stood panting. Blood dripped from Arachne's mouth. Her legs twitched. Her blade cracked. But she smiled—still graceful, still taunting.
"You really are fun, golden boy."
----------------------------
The air shimmered with residual plasma, chakra blasts still glowing red-hot in scattered craters. Smoke curled around them like ghosts reluctant to leave the scene of a war.
Arachne landed with a rough skid, her boots dragging across scorched stone. Her breath came in sharp gasps. Her once-impeccable armor was torn in several places, her webs burned off in chunks, and her elegant black blade now had visible cracks running down its length.
Across the field, Naruto stood firm, his tails fanned behind him like a divine storm. His blade gleamed, unmarred. His eyes, still glowing with fierce focus, locked onto her without hesitation.
Yet… he wasn't charging.
Not yet.
Arachne lifted a shaky hand to block a drip of acidic smog still leaking from her lower jaw. Her voice, however, was unbroken—smooth and sarcastic as ever.
"So… this is what it feels like to be prey," she muttered with a dry laugh.
She turned toward him slowly, both hands raised just slightly, enough to show she wasn't preparing another spell. Her eyes still burned with pride, but there was a flicker of cold calculation too—of acceptance.
"Naruto…" she called out. "What would you say… if I surrender now?"
There was a brief silence.
Even the wind seemed to hesitate.
Digitamamon, from afar, growled lowly. "Be careful. This one lies like she breathes."
Naruto tilted his head slightly, not lowering his weapon. His gaze narrowed. "Surrender?" His voice was calm. "After trying to paralyze me, melt me, and twist reality around me?"
Arachne smirked through the blood on her lip. "Oh, please. You make it sound so personal."
She looked around—at the battlefield strewn with the ashes of her army, at the shattered remnants of her dark magic net, and finally at the Digi-Egg of Evil, still pulsing ominously behind Naruto, anchoring the battlefield in a lock that even she couldn't bypass.
"I can't teleport away. I know that."
"Can't overpower you. I know that too."
"And I'm not fond of… dying needlessly."
She laughed softly, her voice strangely delicate now. "So tell me, golden fox… do you allow a queen to bow gracefully? Or must I fall on my back like a peasant?"
Naruto didn't move for a moment. Then he slowly lowered his sword just slightly—not out of trust, but acknowledgment.
"That depends on what surrender means to you."
Arachne's expression became serious. "It means I don't fight you. I release what remains of my magic. And I answer what questions you may have… within reason."
Digitamamon's eyes narrowed. "And in return?"
She turned toward him, her tone dry. "You don't obliterate me on the spot. Reasonable, no?"
------------------------------
Despite the battlefield's ruin—craters smouldering, webs scorched into ash, and chakra residue painting the air in shimmering streaks—there was something oddly calm in the stillness that followed Arachne's sudden proposal.
Naruto, tall and blazing with light, his mechanical tails gently swaying like a fox-shaped inferno behind him, turned ever so slightly to his side, casting a look at the living enigma beside him.
Digitamamon stood like an obsidian egg cracked with starlight. Steam wafted from his cracked shell, and his abyssal eyes gleamed with the wisdom of someone who had seen far too much nonsense for one day.
"Your city," Naruto said with quiet respect.
"Your call."
Digitamamon's reply came after a long pause—his voice gravelled like ancient rock, soaked in finality.
"End her."
Naruto blinked once. Not surprised. Just... resolved.
"She's like mould in a bakery," the armored egg continued. "Pretty packaging, terrible taste, and never truly gone. Don't be fooled. She won't stop. Not even for tea."
Arachne, whose pride had taken more hits than her armor, raised both hands quickly, her tone skittering into a mock-hurt whine.
"Oh come now, must we be so dramatic?"
"I was only trying to conquer one teeny-tiny city. People have done worse!"
She gave a nervous chuckle that sounded like porcelain spiders tapping glass.
"Look, I'm nothing if not reasonable—" she snapped her fingers, and from a tear in her sleeve she yanked out several glittering objects that floated in the air like little stars: a blood crystal from Demon Realm's treasury, a moonlight spider silk veil, and, rather bizarrely, a signed first edition of "Cooking with Black Magic".
"Bribery? Who said anything about bribery? I call it… magical persuasion."
Digitamamon rolled what could generously be called his eyes.
"Naruto."
"I know."
The sky above split open—not physically, but in sensation. The chakra around Naruto surged like a rising sun pushed through a forge. His armor shifted. Locked plates slid apart and flared open like petals—glowing red-hot with circuitry lines that pulsed with golden fire.
The earth shook.
The wind bent backwards.
Even Arachne's smirk vanished.
Narutomon Overdrive.
His form ignited—red energy flaring so hard the air warped around him like a broken mirror. Sparks of data curled off the ground and into him, as if the world itself had decided to offer him more fuel.
And then he moved.
Light-speed wasn't fast enough to describe it. He blinked out of one place and reappeared behind Arachne without warning, his cannon glowing with a low, haunting rumble.
"You're not slipping away this time."
Tailed Beast Bomb – Omega Collapse
He raised one arm, and the chakra coiled into a black-red sphere—a sun made from hate and justice, compressed to the size of a football. At the same time, his tails joined in, forming glowing golden rings around the bomb like satellites around a dying star.
Arachne backed up, panic overriding pride.
"Wait! Let's talk about this! I can grant you immortality!"
But it was too late.
Naruto vanished again, closing the distance at light-speed.
No sound.
Only the faint, electric hum of destiny being written.
And then—
BOOM—
Not a sound, exactly. More like a silence that devoured. A quiet so deep and wrong it tore through space like a scream made of gravity. The Bijuu Dama Omega Collapse struck the ground—
—and the universe itself folded around the blast. It looked like a hole in creation, a swirling dome of collapsing gravity, pulling in not just the battlefield—but even light, sound, and time bent briefly as if bowing in submission.
Arachne screamed—but not for long. Her body digitized, unraveled into black silk threads, each one sucked into the abyss of Naruto's wrath.
And just like that—
She was gone.
The dust settled slowly. The air crackled with residual heat. Digitamamon hovered beside Naruto, shaking ever so slightly.
"Did you really destroy that signed first edition?" he muttered.
------------------------------
As the smoke from the Omega Collapse faded into nothing but drifting ash and silence, Naruto slowly stepped forward. His armor cooled with each breath, collapsing into place piece by piece like a digital lotus folding inward. The air lost its crimson tint. His golden glow vanished.
And for a moment, it was just him—tired, mortal, and all too human again.
But as soon as he turned his gaze, the victory turned hollow.
Just behind him, Blade Kuwagamon—and Machmon, the biker Digimon with a steel chassis and roaring spirit, had collapsed. Their evolved forms had long shattered away, and now they lay half-formed, bodies phasing in and out, like ghostly embers.
Their data was scattering.
Like grains of sand slipping through his fingers.
Naruto rushed to Machmon's side first. The Digimon's glowing exhaust pipes sputtered, his helmet cracked, but he still managed a half-laugh, raspy and proud.
"Heh... look at me. Always wanted to go out in style... and this?"
"This was the ride of a lifetime, kid."
Machmon's voice carried the kind of stubborn dignity only found in tired racers and old war dogs. He tried to raise a fist, then settled for a twitching wheel.
"If I had one more chance… I'd race with you again."
B.Kuwagamon, ever the quiet soldier, buzzed his wings gently—a salute in vibrations. He didn't speak. He didn't have to. His loyalty was in every digit of code now melting away.
Naruto clenched his fists.
He had power beyond comprehension—but this? This wasn't his world. And his chakra, no matter how divine, wasn't code.
It couldn't fix them.
He turned to the one being who might.
Digitamamon.
The walking cosmic egg was already inspecting Machmon's flickering data with the same expression one might give a dying plant: thoughtful, but not particularly emotional.
"They gave more than they could afford," he said simply. "You made them gods for a moment. But gods burn out fast."
Naruto dropped to his knees beside him, desperate.
"Can you save them?"
Digitamamon's shell gave off a gentle crack as he turned fully to face him.
"Yes. But saving someone like him—" he gestured to Machmon, "—isn't cheap. You want them alive? You want them stable? You want them to follow you?"
He raised one stubby claw.
"Then you're paying. And I don't mean gold."
Naruto didn't even flinch.
"Anything. I don't care about money or treasure. Just tell me."
Digitamamon's eyes pulsed—a strange glint like a loading bar appearing within the void of his face.
"Fine. Don't regret it."
He reached into his shell and pulled out a scroll glowing with central system runes—the markings of Yggdrasil, the system god of the Digital World. With a flick of his claw, the scroll unraveled into the air like a glowing contract.
"This is a soul-binding contract. It ties you, them, and me to the Yggdrasil system. Break it and you'll pay in ways you don't understand yet."
Naruto didn't blink.
He signed with chakra, his symbol glowing golden as it sealed the agreement.
Digitamamon nodded once.
"Then let's begin."
He reached into his shell again—and this time, what he pulled out wasn't a scroll.
It was a crimson sphere, beating slowly like a heart. Energy arced off its surface like digital lightning.
"This… is the Axemon Core. It once belonged to a berserker Digimon."
Machmon, barely coherent, blinked weakly.
"You're… giving me that?"
Digitamamon stared him down.
"You want to run with him, then you need to be something more. Something that can keep up."
He knelt (as much as an egg could), and pressed the core to Machmon's flickering chest.
"But you'll lose your form. Your name. You'll be reborn. Still you, but… different."
Machmon smirked, tears of data streaming down his cheek vents.
"Long as I still got wheels... I'm in."
Machmon and Blade Kuwagamon, despite barely holding together, raised their heads. They looked at each other—and then at Naruto. Neither needed to speak.
Their data flickered like fireflies before merging, converging toward the core like iron to a magnet.
Light burst from the center.
Brilliant.
Blinding.
It spiraled upward in a vortex of digital code, the earth shaking beneath them. The sound was like a thousand swords being drawn at once.
Axemon was born.
A thunderous crash.
From within the dust, a new beast emerged.
A quadrupedal warrior, its body shaped like the blade of an axe, bulky front limbs pounding the cracked stone with each step. Blade-like hind legs, curved and lethal. Two pairs of bladed spikes jutted from its upper back, twitching with static energy.
A golden crest gleamed upon its head, and its eyes burned with the fire of new purpose.
"You… look amazing," Naruto breathed.
The beast let out a low growl that turned into a thunderous roar—a roar that echoed through the ruins like a promise.
"Axemon."
The name fell like thunder from the sky.
Digitamamon chuckled, watching with bemused satisfaction.
"You got your knight, Naruto. Or perhaps… your berserker."
Naruto stepped closer, placing a hand on Axemon's massive, warm hide.
"Then let's win more battles together."
Axemon snorted once, then dashed forward—and even standing still, he left a blur of black light behind him.
Naruto grinned.
"Okay... that's going to take some getting used to."
Digitamamon floated behind him, muttering dryly.
"Try not to let him run through any buildings. He has the steering of a drunk rhinoceros."
-----------------------------
The battlefield still smelled faintly of ozone and burnt circuits.
What had once been a thriving sector of Grid City now resembled the inside of a blender after a wild data storm—buildings cracked open like eggshells, neon streetlights flickering with no rhythm at all, and fragments of code drifting lazily in the air like glowing confetti.
And yet, oddly, the mood was not bleak.
No, it was quite the opposite.
Cheers echoed in the air. Survivors were hugging. Piximon was fluttering overhead, scattering tiny sparkles like a very enthusiastic Christmas fairy with no off switch.
Even Digitamamon, of all creatures, had a rather smugly satisfied look about him—though with his expressionless eggshell face, it was hard to tell. Perhaps it was the way he hovered two inches taller than usual, or the rare, almost scandalously generous words coming out of his usually tight-lipped self.
"They fought," Digitamamon announced, his voice ringing with the solemnity of a priest and the theatrical flair of someone used to charging triple for toast. "They didn't just fade quietly when the world threatened to reset. They went out in a blaze of glory."
The gathered Digimon, Tamer, and humans stood together in the cracked courtyard, surrounded by pixelated wreckage and weeping data-vines. Naruto stood beside Matt, Joe, and Takeru—his hand resting on Axemon's shoulder, who was still twitching with leftover energy like an overexcited puppy made of sharp edges.
Piximon fluttered into view and did a little flip in the air for no reason other than drama.
"So don't be sad!" he chirped. "Cry a little, sure! But also remember—they got to leave a mark! Which is more than most digibugs can say when the world resets and erases everything like a poorly saved file!"
Some chuckles broke through the tears at that.
And then came the big moment.
Digitamamon cleared his nonexistent throat.
"Furthermore…" he said grandly, "in honor of their sacrifice… and this strange child's very expensive soul-binding contract—"
He threw a glance at Naruto, who waved sheepishly.
"—I, Digitamamon, do hereby declare that all food today… shall be… FREE."
You could have heard a pin drop.
Except you couldn't, because the crowd exploded into pandemonium.
"FREE?!"
"Did he say free?!"
"I must be infected with a dream virus—Pinch me, Agumon!"
"Ow! Not so hard!"
Even Joe's glasses nearly slid off his face.
Matt looked genuinely suspicious and nudged Naruto.
"He's kidding, right?"
"Nope," Naruto replied, crossing his arms. "I had to sell what's probably three lifetimes' worth of karma, but it worked."
"And your soul," Digitamamon added helpfully, floating past.
"And my soul," Naruto agreed without missing a beat.
The crowd surged toward the once miserly egg as if he were the last hotdog vendor at a concert. Digimon of every shape and flavor lined up—some weeping with joy, others stuffing food into data pouches, and one Monzaemon attempting to hug Digitamamon, who retaliated by throwing soup at him.
"Boundaries!" Digitamamon shouted, despite offering second helpings.
Meanwhile, the heroes gathered at a half-broken table under a half-broken roof, plates already piled high.
Takeru was feeding crumbs to Tokomon, Joe was cleaning his glasses for the tenth time, and Matt… well, Matt was busy pretending not to cry into his spicy curry.
"So what about Arachne?" Joe asked eventually, his voice tentative.
Digitamamon didn't pause in ladling noodles into a Gotsumon's bowl.
"Oh, she's not really dead," he said airily. "She always left behind clones—old habit. Her original form is toast, though. What's left of her is probably holed up in a basement somewhere, in a weaker body. And with all the predators out there now smelling blood…" he trailed off, shrugging in that egg-shaped way of his.
Piximon twirled again, dusting their table with sparkles and sneeze-inducing glitter.
"She's not your problem anymore," he said. "Let nature take its course. Or, well, Digimon nature."
As the sun finally dipped low over the city, casting long shadows through shattered towers and glowing debris, the people—Digital and otherwise—were laughing, eating, and celebrating the absurd and wonderful reality of simply being alive.
Axemon lounged near the edge, letting a group of fresh-hatched Digimon clamber over his back, giggling as they slid down his blade-like spine.
Naruto looked out over them all, then down at his plate of dumplings and curry.
"Y'know," he muttered, "for a day that started with a nightmare spider queen and a city being destroyed… this turned out kinda nice."
Piximon hovered beside him, cheeks full of cake.
"That's the digital world for you!" he mumbled around frosting. "One minute you're dying, next minute—free cake!"
Digitamamon snorted.
"Just for today."