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Mimikyu was the closest to Roy, so it could immediately sense that something was wrong with him.
"Kyu?"
Are you okay?
Roy forced a smile, wanting to comfort Mimikyu, but then he remembered that Mimikyu couldn't actually see through its disguise.
So Roy lifted his hand and gently patted Mimikyu's head.
"I'm fine."
Drip
A single drop of water landed on Roy's foot, and the sensation sent a sudden chill through his entire body.
Mimikyu immediately straightened up and became alert.
"Kyu!"
Something's here!
Then Roy felt it too through his Aura powers—an overwhelming sense of malice.
The sudden surge of hostile intent caught Roy completely off guard.
A massive flock of crow-like Pokémon appeared from nowhere, their wings beating frantically as they swooped over Roy and his team with clear malicious intent.
The passage was extremely narrow, and in the darkness, some of the crows' wings actually scraped against Roy's face as they flew past.
In the pitch-black tunnel, Roy could only hear the sounds of flapping wings. He couldn't make out what kind of creatures they were.
Mimikyu was desperately trying to knock the enemies out of the air, while Lucario was thrown off balance by the sudden ambush.
"Move!"
Roy charged forward with his arms covering his head, his Pokémon following close behind.
But after just a few steps, those Flying-type Pokémon had vanished completely. In their place came an eerie laughing sound from behind them.
The laughter echoed back and forth through the empty passage, filling the air with an inexplicable sense of dread.
Mimikyu was so frightened that it dove straight into Roy's arms.
At that moment, Lucario demonstrated its composure as the senior member of the team.
Lucario stepped forward to face the direction of the strange voice, arching its back slightly into an attack stance.
Roy had originally planned to contact Tapu Koko immediately if anything happened, but now it was far too late for that.
He couldn't tell how massive the creature's body was, but it had completely blocked the passage entrance when it appeared.
What made matters worse was how narrow the corridor was. The reason Roy had chosen Lucario and Mimikyu to come along in the first place was precisely because of their manageable size.
If he had brought larger Pokémon like Blastoise or Salamence, there would be no way to maneuver in this passage, let alone engage in battle.
"Who's there?!"
Perhaps Roy raised his voice in an attempt to bolster his own courage.
Right after Roy finished speaking, the creature suddenly fell completely silent.
However, based on the information transmitted through his Aura powers and Mimikyu's senses, the creature was still standing there, not moving at all.
Roy couldn't help but recall scenes from the horror movies he used to watch back home.
"Roy?"
Suddenly an unfamiliar voice echoed through the passage. The voice was hoarse and unpleasant, and Roy wasn't even sure if it was actually calling his name.
Now Roy truly regretted not bringing a Fire-type Pokémon along—at least it could have provided some light at a moment like this.
This was Roy's own carelessness. He had made assumptions, subconsciously thinking that the second passage would have the same torches as the first one.
But after walking for so long, there had been no light whatsoever in the second passage.
Lucario was standing right beside Roy, which gave him the courage to continue speaking.
"Who are you?"
Those three words echoed throughout the tunnel because Roy had suddenly increased his volume.
Fortunately, this time the creature responded.
"Roy?"
Roy and Lucario turned to look at each other, but realized they couldn't actually see each other at all in the darkness, so they gave up.
But this time, Roy was more certain that the voice was being made by that creature, though it happened to sound remarkably similar to his own name.
Lucario seemed to suddenly think of something, and Roy saw it raise one of its paws.
Energy began gathering at its fingertips, and in the next instant, that power transformed into small flames.
The firelight grew brighter and brighter as Lucario continued channeling energy into it.
Although it couldn't illuminate the entire passage, for Roy, this light was more than enough to provide comfort.
It was a variation of Fire Punch.
Roy was impressed that Lucario could think of using Fire Punch this way in such a difficult situation.
Roy stroked Lucario's head encouragingly.
"You're so smart."
Lucario scratched its head with its other paw, smiling bashfully as if to say it was nothing special.
When Roy looked up again, he could now make out the vague outline of the creature's body.
The passage was still very dark, so he couldn't see its face clearly.
The creature appeared to have two enormous pincers, but its body filled the entire width of the tunnel, making it look nothing like a crab.
Its whole body resembled a sphere, and Roy could only vaguely make out what seemed to be a massive mouth. Even with the firelight, there was no way to see where this creature's eyes were through light reflection.
Perhaps it should be said that it had no eyes to begin with!
Neither Lucario nor the Alola-native Mimikyu had ever seen a Pokémon like this before.
However, for Roy, who possessed memories from two lifetimes, this was one of the most familiar villainous Pokémon he knew.
It was Guzzlord.
When Roy had played the games in his previous life, he had been tormented by Guzzlord in Resolution Cave for quite some time before finally clearing that challenge.
But speaking of Guzzlord, wasn't it supposed to be in Resolution Cave?
He remembered clearly that they had entered a cave in Poni Meadow.
Wait a minute! Resolution Cave was just northwest of Poni Meadow!
Perhaps they had accidentally entered Resolution Cave because they couldn't see the path clearly in the darkness.
"I thought this place seemed familiar."
Roy thought to himself, recalling the terrain when they had first entered the cave together.
Weren't those the four passages in Resolution Cave?
But if that was the case, then there shouldn't be any Murkrow in this cave, right?
In the very next moment, Roy completely overturned his own hypothesis.
Thanks to the light from Lucario's flames, he could now see black feathers scattered across the ground. The sound of flapping wings came from behind them once more.
That sound perfectly matched both the earlier attack and the battle that had taken place in Vast Poni Canyon.
Still unwilling to accept it, Roy quickly turned his head toward the source of the sound behind him.
It was indeed Murkrow.
The revelation left Roy completely speechless.
He looked back at the Guzzlord in front of them. So it turned out that this creature was the mastermind behind everything.
According to legend, Guzzlord was a creature that lived in Ultra Megalopolis, which happened to have some connection to Necrozma.
Were they all here for Necrozma?
Thinking about everything they had experienced during this period, Roy felt like he was just one piece away from connecting all the dots together.