"So soon? How did it go?"
Liu Xiangjun hadn't been able to accompany Lu Ze to watch the Deoxys versus Rayquaza match — confidentiality reasons. But even at home, she was dying to know how it had gone.
"We lost."
Lu Ze put on a mournful face as he spoke to Liu Xiangjun.
"Obviously." Liu Xiangjun rolled her eyes. "You winning would be the strange thing."
Lu Ze grinned and popped a grape into Mini Dragon's mouth.
"The gap was huge. No match at all."
Lu Ze recalled the details of the battle — how Rayquaza had fought the entire thing with a completely casual attitude, casually defeating Deoxys, which could freely shift between forms.
In truth, after Deoxys in Attack Forme landed a Shadow Ball and an Ice Beam simultaneously on Rayquaza, Rayquaza had basically shrugged it off, burst straight out of the crater, and immediately counterattacked Deoxys.
That alone told you how overwhelming Rayquaza was.
In a same-level exchange, if Deoxys in Attack Forme landed a Shadow Ball and an Ice Beam at the same time, Rayquaza would have been finished for sure.
But in reality, Rayquaza hadn't taken so much as a scratch.
Though there were differences between the real world and the games, a gap that massive could only come down to raw power.
And this was still Rayquaza's strength without Mega Evolution.
"Whoa!"
"What? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing."
After Lu Ze's involuntary gasp, he frowned in thought.
Rayquaza was already demolishing a whole tier of Legendary Pokémon without even Mega Evolving — if it did Mega Evolve, could it possibly go over to America's territory and just pummel Yveltal?
The thought made Lu Ze light up for a moment.
But only a moment. Then he wilted again.
There wasn't a single七彩纹陨石 anywhere in the National Vault — so trying to find one elsewhere would be even harder.
Lu Ze let out a sigh.
"Besides Rayquaza, there's only Mewtwo, Diancie, and Latios and Latias left."
Suddenly, his eyes sparked.
He had Mega Evolution stones for Mewtwo, Diancie, and Latios and Latias!
And on top of that, he knew where Latios and Latias were.
He didn't count the ones in the Water Capital overseas — those were Legendary Pact Pokémon and couldn't be captured.
But there were also Latios and Latias within the country. Not long ago, the news that Rayquaza had clashed with Latios had been trending across the entire network.
"Deoxys should be fine with this."
The more Lu Ze thought, the brighter his eyes became. It had been said before — Legendaries could be captured. The difficulty was just extraordinarily high.
Beyond earning the Legendary's recognition, one could capture it by single-handedly overpowering the Legendary while the Legendary didn't dislike you.
But very few people ever managed it — because overpowering a Legendary one-on-one was already an absurdly difficult task.
But Lu Ze had the right conditions. Deoxys's ability to freely shift between forms was an absolute game-breaker in the real world.
Just looking at how Deoxys, purely by reshaping its form, could go head-to-head with the Dragon Kingdom's guardian at roughly fifty-fifty while Rayquaza wasn't even taking things seriously — it should have no trouble handling Latios.
"It's just a shame timing doesn't work out. School starts again soon. If I had more time, I'd definitely make the trip to Zhejiang Province to battle Latios."
"What's wrong with this kid?"
Liu Xiangjun watched Lu Ze on the sofa, cradling Mini Dragon — switching from despondent to worried to smiling in the span of seconds — and found it genuinely unsettling.
"Did something break in there?"
Liu Xiangjun's imagination kicked in, and she began to worry.
"Xiao Ze…"
"Hm? What's up, Grandma?"
Lu Ze, who had been lost in a fantasy of capturing Latios and Mega Evolving to dominate foreign challengers, snapped back to reality and looked up at Liu Xiangjun in confusion.
"You lost, okay? It's Rayquaza. Losing to it is completely normal. Do you have any idea what happened to France's Dialga when Rayquaza went after it?"
"Eh? What happened?"
Lu Ze asked reflexively, then caught himself — the real point of the conversation clearly wasn't that.
Liu Xiangjun also realized she had gotten sidetracked. Was the real point that losing to Rayquaza was normal? Yes. That was the real point.
"Uh… it was like that, I guess."
Liu Xiangjun wasn't sure how to continue. Had Dialga been pummeled by Rayquaza?
Pummeled? Yes.
But was it a惨 defeat?
Honestly? Not really. Dialga couldn't match Rayquaza, but Rayquaza didn't have an easy time either.
So why did Rayquaza end up winning in the end?
Because the French side simply forfeited. And a lot of people switched their devotion on the spot.
They went from worshipping Dialga to worshipping Rayquaza.
A black Eastern dragon this strong? Switching my allegiance isn't too much to ask.
Indeed it wasn't — because Dialga barely moved from where it stood.
Its pact with France existed purely for the sake of the Legendary Pact title.
Legendary Pact Pokémon couldn't be captured — so no one bothered it.
Most Legendary Pact Pokémon held this same attitude. Lugia was the same way. So was Regigigas.
Lugia just wanted to rest quietly at the bottom of the sea with its family.
Regigigas also just wanted to lie there and not move. Its[Slow Start]nature meant it was basically the same as a Snorlax — anything it could avoid, it would avoid.
So Regigigas's pact nation, Bearussia, had also come to an understanding: we don't move, and you don't come looking for us either.
As for Rayquaza and Yveltal — that was different.
Rayquaza had entered a pact with the Dragon Kingdom simply because the Dragon Kingdom faced too many enemies. Rayquaza had simply gotten excited about that.
After entering the pact with the Dragon Kingdom, it had predictably gone out and had a grand old time fighting.
Its later reason for not dissolving the pact was simple — the Dragon Kingdom was pretty all right.
And so Rayquaza had remained in a pact with the Dragon Kingdom ever since.
Yveltal and America's pact was a straightforward利益交换 — everyone knew how that worked. America's早期行为 and all that.
"That's not the point!"
Liu Xiangjun caught herself and said, somewhat exasperated.
"What I mean is, losing to Rayquaza isn't a big deal. You're still a rookie trainer."
"Uh… that…" Lu Ze raised a hand and blinked at Liu Xiangjun. "I've already upgraded to Junior Trainer. And I don't think there's anything wrong with me losing to Rayquaza."
"Then what were you switching between sulking and smiling just now?"
"Oh, I was just thinking something through."
Liu Xiangjun relaxed. She teased: "What kind of thing makes you go from frowning to smiling? You better not be in a relationship or something."
"Get out of here." Lu Ze waved a hand dismissively. "I was thinking — if regular Pokémon can Mega Evolve, could Legendaries Mega Evolve too?"
(End of chapter)
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