"Lucian, think of something quick!!!"
Central area of Lumiose City, near Prism Tower.
After riding Rapidash to accelerate and dodge the energy wave bombarding from behind, Flint, whose face was already pale as a sheet, looked up and shouted at Lucian. Lucian was being carried by Alakazam's telekinesis, flying at high speed through the air.
Damn it, according to the plan, they were supposed to split into six groups and head to six relatively open squares to distract the Legendary Pokémon.
As Sinnoh Elite Four members, the three of them naturally grouped up with their boss Cynthia to provide a flank diversion.
But now everything had gone completely haywire—
Why did Lord Giratina of Sinnoh have to target the three of them specifically?!!!
This powerful deity was not something three rookie Elite Four members could handle; just running for their lives took everything they had!
"Idiot—"
Lucian helplessly held his forehead, squinting as he looked down.
Because they were flying so fast, his glasses had been blown away by the wind at some point.
So his vision was extremely limited right now; he could only roughly judge Flint's position based on Rapidash's eye-catching tail flame.
"If Giratina really wanted to take us out, it would just enter the Distortion World and teleport right in front of us. We'd hardly be able to react in time."
"But it didn't choose to do that. Instead, it's keeping up its speed behind us, occasionally using moves like Shadow Ball—"
"Don't you think it's being very half-hearted?"
"—Now that you mention it, it really does seem like it?"
Behind Flint, Aaron, who was riding on Drapion's back, nodded.
With the power of a Legendary Pokémon, whether three Elite Four members could last five minutes in front of it was questionable.
Only a Champion could forcibly delay their pace, and even then, only if they fought desperately might they temporarily hold their own.
But that was all.
The very existence of Legendaries was a dimensional strike against humans and ordinary Pokémon.
"As expected, even Lord Giratina from another world still retains its rationality."
"So our goal is just to cooperate with it and keep circling around until Teacher Azure resolves the problem over there, right?"
"Exactly."
Lucian nodded as well, looking relieved.
Before being dragged away by Flint to flee, he had noticed that the Giratina from the other world had brief eye contact with Teacher Azure.
Perhaps at that moment, Aiden had already managed to turn it to his side.
What a terrifying man. Does he only need a glance to communicate with Legendary Pokémon now?
"Hey! It's easy for you to say!"
"But why the hell are all of that Giratina's attacks aimed at me?!!!"
Wrapping his arms around Rapidash's neck and using an emergency turn to dodge another Shadow Ball, Flint roared upwards again.
"Maybe it just doesn't like you?"
"No, but whyyyyyy?!!!"
In the sky, blue flames and lightning intertwined; the black-and-white dragons clashed fiercely in the air.
[My foolish brother, even coming from another dimension, you are still so rigid and inflexible.]
Spitting out another breath of blue flame, Reshiram revealed a mocking smile and provocatively grinned at Zekrom, whose face was looking very unpleasant.
[Heh— Didn't expect that you, sister, still only know how to run your mouth.]
Zekrom rolled its eyes, its expression full of disdain.
Although they were existences from the same root, as expected, no matter how many dimensions they crossed, whenever they met, they would only make each other uncomfortable.
[So, does the 'you' in this world think you're all that again? Or have you finally found a "Hero of Truth" you're satisfied with?]
[Naturally.]
Hearing Zekrom bring it up proactively, the turbine flame burning fiercely at the tip of Reshiram's tail suddenly extinguished, and the smile on its face became even more "true."
Seeing this, Zekrom also stopped maintaining the lightning cloak wrapped around its body, and followed Reshiram's gaze downward.
That young man fighting the "Evil God" should be the "Hero of Truth" of this world, right?
Let me see, just how good my sister's taste is this time—
Previously, its attention was entirely drawn to the white dragon and that Mewtwo, so it really hadn't noticed that human much.
But after just one glance, Zekrom's eyes suddenly widened.
Wait—
How does he have the aura of the Creation God?
Not sure, take another look.
Zekrom rubbed its eyes, then turned its head to stare intently at Aiden's back for a good while.
Holy crap, it's real!
Wait, on what grounds?!
Is the me in this world completely useless? How did sister manage to latch onto such an overpowered backer?
Isn't that just the grand finale right there? Why the hell are we even fighting?!
The black dragon suddenly lost its cool, and when it looked up at its smug sister, its expression clearly held a few traces of resentment.
It was actually flexed on by the other side—
Unbearable!
"Roar——!"
Zekrom directly turned off its telepathy, electricity flickered at the tip of its tail again, and another full-power Bolt Strike struck towards Reshiram.
As the blue flames and lightning violently collided, the smile on the white dragon's face remained impossible to suppress.
My foolish brother, the expression you have right now is exactly what I was hoping for~
"Hoopa—, battle!"
"Beedrill, keep suppressing with Pin Missile."
"Sylveon, Blood Moon!"
Under the combined forces of multiple Pokémon, the previously arrogant Hoopa Unbound now looked extremely miserable.
Every time Beedrill fired its needles, visible wounds were left on its body.
And the several rays of moonlight that fell after Sylveon released its aura made Hoopa's already dire situation even worse.
Not to mention the black Rayquaza in the sky continuously crashing downwards; every full-power slam drove Hoopa Unbound deeper into the earth's surface, leaving it completely unable to gather the strength to resist.
"So pitiful—"
Even on the face of the little Hoopa behind Aiden, a hint of fear emerged.
If it were subjected to the continuous attacks that even that big guy couldn't withstand, it would have probably passed out long ago!
Good thing it hadn't done anything bad recently.
Turning over a new leaf was definitely the right choice!
However, even though Hoopa Unbound was temporarily suppressed, Aiden's expression remained extremely grave.
This guy, why won't it just quiet down—
As expected of the "Evil Shadow" split from little Hoopa; it seemed that unless it was completely purified, the problem would never be thoroughly resolved.
Trying hard to recall the movie plot that he had mostly forgotten, Aiden suddenly remembered the only highlight moment of the entire movie—that's right, it couldn't fly—
No wait, it was little Hoopa redeeming big Hoopa!
"Hoopa, the final step is up to you."
Aiden suddenly turned his head, looking at little Hoopa, who still had a lingering fear on its face.
"Regardless of everything, the shadow is also a part of your power."
"If we use the Prison Bottle to forcefully purify it again— you might very well disappear along with it."
"So, remember the true meaning of 'discipline'!"
"Hoopa—"
After being persuaded by Aiden, little Hoopa immediately frowned.
The meaning of discipline?
It only remembered that its original self crossed time and space to come to this world in order to become friends with humans—
So, Hoopa shared endless treasures from other worlds with humans, and the humans therefore had smiles on their faces, treating Hoopa as an important partner—
But why did everything turn out like this?
After wandering for thousands of years, Hoopa began to think about this simplest question for the first time.
What exactly was the power it had always pursued?
Hoopa recalled how it threw a tantrum because of its desire to become stronger, recalled how most of its power was sealed in the Valley of Overcoming, recalled being taught and disciplined by Ghris—
Of course, more importantly, it recalled the self from half a year ago after meeting Meray, finally experiencing the feeling of having a "family."
The villagers back then had deceived it—
It turned out that without power, it could still be so happy.
Time passed little by little.
Aiden watched as the frowning little Hoopa gradually relaxed its brows, and then suddenly snapped its eyes open.
"Hoopa understands!"
"Hoopa's feelings must also be properly conveyed to the shadow!"
Little Hoopa's face was filled with resolve, and it immediately dove down.
"Will it be okay?"
Mewtwo Y frowned, subconsciously turning its head to look at Aiden.
Seeing Aiden shake his head, it lowered its subconsciously raised arm, quietly waiting to see what would happen below.
"Hoopa—, battle—, become stronger—"
Seeing that Hoopa Unbound had almost lost consciousness, yet was still repeating the same words, little Hoopa suddenly felt a bit of heartache.
So this obsession was still affecting it even to this day.
"There's no need to fight anymore~"
Little Hoopa reached out and patted Hoopa Unbound's head.
At the same time, its body suddenly released several rays of light, as if enveloped by holy light.
"The Hoopa of the future will find interesting friends, a family that can trust each other, and spend very fun times with them~"
"So, there's no need to become stronger just to gain human recognition anymore!"
After little Hoopa finished speaking, its forehead gently touched Hoopa Unbound's.
Hoopa Unbound, with a mountainous body, opened its eyes, and its body suddenly transformed into a burst of light, pouring entirely into little Hoopa's body.
Little Hoopa's body gradually grew larger after absorbing the light, and it gathered all the scattered interdimensional rings around it into the hollow space in the center of its chest.
Until the light gradually dimmed, "Big Hoopa" suddenly shrank back to its original appearance with a *poof*.
"Hoopa~"
Hoopa looked up and gave a thumbs up to Aiden, who had a relieved expression in the sky.
"Looks like it did it."
Mewtwo Y breathed a sigh of relief and was just about to revert to its normal form when it suddenly frowned again.
Wait!
Mewtwo and Aiden simultaneously looked up at the sky.
A black dome suddenly appeared in the originally cloud-covered sky, seemingly isolating the outside world completely, forming a special barrier that divided space and time.
At the same time, the ground of Lumiose City immediately began to tremble.
Primal Groudon: ???
Because Hoopa Unbound disappeared, Primal Groudon, who was summoned from another world, had just regained consciousness when it felt that abnormal tremor.
This power—
Before it could react, its body suddenly turned into countless particles and disappeared, returning to its original space-time the next moment.
The same situation also happened to the other Legendary Pokémon summoned by Hoopa Unbound.
Not only the real world, but the Distortion World as well.
The Space-Time Dragons, who were begging for mercy and trying to awaken their brother's rationality, suddenly disappeared, leaving Giratina, who had lunged at nothing, with a blank face.
"—Looks like it should be over, right?"
After finally getting rid of Groudon's pursuit, Steven took a long sigh of relief.
But before he could be happy, he looked up and noticed the "anomaly" in the sky.
"Is this— is space-time about to collapse?!"
Professor Oak looked grave, clearly realizing that the current situation was very wrong.
"Because too many Legendary Pokémon from different space-times were summoned, their power has broken the restrictions left by Arceus, so—"
"Is His defense mechanism kicking in?"
If locked on by the space-time storm completely, more than half of Lumiose City would likely disappear right off the map—
"Marshadow!!! Quickly call in the Space-Time Dragons, we need their power now!"
Seeing the bad situation, Aiden immediately shouted into his shadow.
"Marsha!"
Along with Marshadow's response, two Legendary Pokémon also popped out of Salamence's shadow.
Palkia's Spacial Rend immediately slashed out, merging with Dialga's Roar of Time, trying to stop the formation of the space-time storm.
"Roar——!"
The black Rayquaza in the sky closely followed, condensing a burst of power, turning it into a Draco Meteor shooting towards the space-time storm.
However, as soon as all the moves were swept into that massive space-time storm, they immediately vanished without a trace.
"—"
Caitlin suddenly cried with a miserable face, hugging Cynthia with a desperate tone.
"It's over, it's over. If even Legendary Pokémon can't handle this, we're all doomed this time—"
"No, there's still hope."
Cynthia comforted the disheartened Caitlin while turning her head to look into the distance.
"Wait— how come even you two can't handle a space-time storm?"
Aiden was also feeling a bit of a breakdown at this point. If even the professional Space-Time Dragons were helpless against it, then summoning more Legendary Pokémon over probably wouldn't do any good—
Sure enough, a pair of total chokers when it matters!
He lowered his head and looked at little Hoopa on the ground.
If they used the power of the interdimensional rings, they could evacuate everyone safely.
But— Lumiose City would probably be leveled to the ground.
And there was no telling whether the stripped space-time would have after-effects.
So, they really had to bite the bullet and solve this thing!
Aiden sighed.
At this point, he only had one last resort left— "Arceus, if you don't do something about this, I'm going to drop dead right in front of you!!!"
Standing on the earth, Giovanni, who remained expressionless even as doomsday approached, raised his head, his expression suddenly somewhat stunned.
Did Aiden just say something absolutely outrageous?
Was he threatening Arceus, the God of Creation?
And what terrified Giovanni even more was—
Right after Aiden spoke, a white light suddenly flashed in the void outside the barrier.
Then, that alpaca-like Creator actually crossed the void, appearing as a golden phantom on the other side of the space-time storm.
Arceus did not speak, only casting a benevolent gaze downward.
More accurately—
It was looking at Aiden's position.
Although there was no actual proof, everyone simultaneously made the same judgment.
"Holy shit— Did Teacher Azure just call in Arceus???"
Below Prism Tower, Aaron was dumbfounded.
Even Lucian, who was always calm, had his pupils shaking violently.
"No, if you have such OP backing, you should have brought it out earlier—"
Flint muttered a complaint, then simply didn't care about his image anymore and plopped right down on the ground.
Since even the God of Creation was going to step in, they might as well have just summoned the most badass Legendary Pokémon from the very start!
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