Passing through Prism Tower, Aiden led Ansha and little Hoopa towards the road heading to Autumn Avenue.
After a whole day of cleanup work, Lumiose City—which had been covered in rubble and building debris—was gradually restoring order.
Conkeldurr and Machamp methodically carried away the remaining waste, while Excadrill and Golurk went all out hammering at the Precipice Blades left behind by Primal Groudon.
Attacks that directly altered the strata structure were simply too violent; repairing the damage they left behind was a very troublesome task for ordinary Pokémon.
However, from the current look of things, the results weren't bad?
With probably another week of work, the stratum bulge caused by the Precipice Blades could be completely flattened.
"As expected, a terrifying battle really took place here before!"
Ansha looked around curiously, subconsciously letting out a sigh of admiration.
Because of Uncle Aiden's request at the time, she had been taken to a safe place by that talking Meowth and two weird "aunties and uncles," so she didn't get to witness yesterday's battle with her own eyes.
"Don't talk about that anymore!"
Little Hoopa, floating next to her, seemed a bit embarrassed, so it took the initiative to step forward and push Ansha's shoulder, signaling her to walk faster.
Although all of this was caused by that bad Hoopa, they were essentially one and the same entity.
So it felt like it was the chief culprit responsible for the current miserable state—
If Uncle Aiden hadn't told it that was unacceptable, Hoopa would probably have already ducked into an interdimensional ring and given the treasures it "borrowed" from other dimensions to the locals as compensation.
"Past this street, and we'll be at Lysandre Café."
Walking in front of them, Aiden, who hadn't participated in the conversation, suddenly turned his head and said to the two.
His gaze fell on Ansha, a hint of oddness in his eyes.
"Ansha, are you sure Lysandre is a good person five years from now?"
After speaking, Aiden began to recall the intel regarding "Team Flare Boss Lysandre."
Lysandre, a famous scientist and philanthropist in the Kalos region.
Among the "Holo Caster" technology currently popularizing worldwide alongside Rotom Phones, many of the patents came from the hands of this genius.
Just the usage fees provided by these technologies every year was an astronomical figure, which was why Lysandre Labs far surpassed Professor Sycamore's lab in scale.
Logically speaking, a man like him who had already achieved financial freedom and gained both fame and fortune shouldn't generally turn to the dark side—
But his ideas happened to be quite extreme. Due to some incidents during his philanthropic work when he was young, the notion that "these foolish people can no longer be allowed to continue corrupting Kalos" gradually took root.
This ultimately led to Lysandre founding Team Flare and secretly gathering intel on the "Ultimate Weapon."
Because he was disappointed in humans who argued with each other and couldn't empathize with others, he simply decided to use the legendary weapon that nearly destroyed the world to wipe out all living things at once.
Among all the villains in Pokémon history, he was definitely the most extreme.
And in the game storyline, he, who ultimately failed, should have been swallowed by the aftermath of the Ultimate Weapon. How could he possibly have lived to five years later—
"Yeah! After the Mega Evolution incident, Mr. Lysandre protected Lumiose City!"
Ansha nodded.
Seeing this, Aiden didn't say anything more.
Perhaps Lysandre in this world, like Cyrus, had also been affected by the butterfly effect?
Indeed, one shouldn't jump to conclusions before things even happened.
"I'm really sorry, Mr. Lysandre is not in Lumiose City recently."
"We are just a café that sells coffee, not some Lysandre Labs."
After arriving at Lysandre Café, Aiden's blunt questions were indeed met with consecutive denials from the staff.
"Is that so?"
He wasn't surprised by this either.
"Then give us a few Caramel Macchiatos. It's rare to find a coffee shop operating normally after a disaster."
After speaking, Aiden directly found a quiet corner and sat down.
"Uncle Aiden, it feels like you have no talent for being a detective—"
Sitting on the other side, little Hoopa squinted its eyes into two slits, floating over to Aiden's side with a teasing smile.
"Asking so bluntly, even if the staff really knew something, they definitely wouldn't say it!"
"I know." Aiden nodded.
"But this isn't some detective game. Even if they don't say it, I have ways to find the answer myself."
His gaze looked at the paintings in the shop.
Unlike other highly bourgeois coffee shops, the overall layout of Lysandre Café was dominated by bright red, which always gave a weird sense of visual oppression.
Besides the photos of Lysandre with Diantha and Professor Sycamore, many of the paintings hanging on the wall were about Kalos history.
The protagonist was naturally that king from three thousand years ago.
"Three thousand years ago, that King of Kalos created the Ultimate Weapon for his own selfish desires, sacrificing countless lives to resurrect a soul that should have died."
"It is said that the king did not die, and to this day is still searching for the Eternal Flower that keeps avoiding him."
Aiden briefly summarized the content on the painting.
"Although he did cause a tragedy, he also cleansed the world's sins, conforming to the balance of 'giving and taking'."
The last sentence was the text Lysandre had left on the painting.
"Umm— Hoopa doesn't understand."
Hoopa scratched its head, looking at Ansha for help.
"The 'giving and taking' Mr. Lysandre mentioned should refer to the two gods X and Y in Kalos legends, right?"
"Am I right, Uncle Aiden?"
Meeting Ansha's gaze, Aiden nodded slowly.
"Indeed, Xerneas and Yveltal."
The power of the Ultimate Weapon was related to these two local Kalos gods.
And adding the ecosystem guardian Zygarde, the XYZ trio exactly corresponded to the three biological components of an ecosystem.
Actually, after seeing the text Lysandre left, Aiden knew he had probably gone down the wrong path again.
So, he thought for a moment and simply took a Poké Ball from his pocket.
With a flash of red light, a small pinkish-purple Pokémon with an incredibly sharp gaze appeared beside him.
"What is it?"
Mewtwo looked up at Aiden.
"Yeah, help me use your psychic powers to scan the basement of this café."
"If you sense an aura related to a Legendary Pokémon, don't alert them yet."
Aiden patted Mewtwo's shoulder with a smile.
"I'll leave it to you, Dora-Mewtwo!"
"—What a weird name."
Mewtwo seemingly pouted in dissatisfaction, but its perked-up tail had already exposed its true feelings.
Aiden saw through it but didn't point it out, silently waiting for Mewtwo to give the answer.
Mewtwo and Lucario, these two "top-tier carries," directly gave him an X-ray ability.
One could observe Aura; no living thing could escape the Aura network in its eyes;
The other was even more sinister—formless psychic power could easily pass through walls, scanning every detail within a radius of several hundred meters.
If the range wasn't enough, Mewtwo also had the trick of Mega Evolution. Going all out, it could even temporarily cover the entire Lumiose City with its psychic power—
Much more reliable than a satellite.
Under Aiden's expectant gaze, a blue light immediately emerged in Mewtwo's gently closed eyes.
Soon after, they snapped open.
"Found it, on the third basement level."
"It's a large stone cocoon, emitting an ominous aura. I can faintly hear a heartbeat coming from inside."
After Mewtwo finished reporting, Aiden sighed.
As expected, it's the Cocoon of Destruction.
Moreover, it was clearly in an active state. It was estimated that soon, the Y bird Yveltal that brought death would revive from the cocoon, dealing another heavy blow to Lumiose City, which had just endured a disaster.
"Why does it feel like Lumiose City is so disaster-prone—"
Aiden suddenly felt emotional.
No wonder Ansha said that in the future, Lumiose City would specifically carve out special zones for Pokémon to inhabit.
So they were usually the muscle kept in the city, so that at critical moments, they could rely on these wild Pokémon to temporarily hold off a crisis?
Hmm— That seems a bit different from the "harmonious coexistence" I imagined.
"Uncle Aiden, are we going to snatch Yveltal back?"
Ansha seemed to have seen the world too; even knowing the embodiment of death was right beneath her feet, she didn't show any nervousness.
Instead, she seemed a bit excited?
"Don't worry, Uncle Aiden, Hoopa will protect Ansha!"
Seeing this, Hoopa immediately leaned in and said proactively.
"No rush to alert them. It would be troublesome if the Cocoon of Destruction revived right in the center of Lumiose City."
Aiden reached out and patted Hoopa's head.
Yveltal itself actually wasn't that hard to deal with, but as everyone knows, every (crossed out) most Legendary Pokémon have their own unique mechanics.
And the mechanic of the X deer and the Y bird was the powerful aura they naturally emitted.
Xerneas's Fairy Aura was full of vitality; any Pokémon that absorbed its power would immediately be filled with life energy, hence the title of "God of Life" being passed down since ancient times.
Yveltal, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of the X deer. Its Dark Aura instead plundered the vitality of all creatures within the affected range and petrified them all.
A god that brought death had always been the existence most feared by all living things.
If the Y bird awakened directly in Lysandre Labs near the city center, the lethality would be too terrifying—
That was why even the Yveltal summoned by Hoopa Unbound required all of the Kalos League's top combat power to step out together, only then barely managing to draw it to a relatively safe place.
Wait, maybe it was precisely because of the Dark Aura emitted by that Y bird yesterday that activated the Cocoon of Destruction?
The more Aiden thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
But there was nothing that could be done about it; was this the chain reaction Arceus was talking about?
It indeed had to be handled carefully. The Cocoon of Destruction remaining in Lumiose City was like a nuclear bomb that could go off at any time; its lethality was too terrifying.
The safest solution would probably be to directly have Hoopa use its interdimensional ring to send it to the forest where the X deer roosted, letting their battle draw out Zygarde to directly "mediate the conflict"?
Anyway, when the Y bird appears, the X deer would awaken alongside it. Might as well let them fight it out to their heart's content, and then go back to sleep for another thousand years after they're done.
However, he didn't seem to know the exact location of the X deer either—
Just as Aiden was thinking, he suddenly sensed something and looked up outside the café's main doors.
Through the glass door, a strange Pokémon with a pink circular diamond on its head and a crown made of six pink diamonds behind its head appeared in his vision.
Its white dress-like lower body fluttered in the wind with its bouncing little movements, revealing the hard rock structure of its lower half and a large pink diamond embedded within it.
Diancie?
Aiden froze for a moment, while an incredibly familiar name appeared in his mind.
Kalos region, the Diamond Domain.
This was a paradise far from human society; countless crystal ores and jewels extremely precious to humans were exposed on the surface of the mine tunnels, shining brilliantly the moment sunlight hit the ground.
At the same time, this was also the origin of the Kalos leylines.
Only a few lucky wild Pokémon lived here, guarding their home for generations.
A strange Pokémon named Carbink was the main member among them.
They were the guardians of this land. Even though their entire bodies were made of diamonds and rocks, they possessed intelligence no less than humans, having built their kingdom here thousands of years ago.
In the core area of the leylines where the Carbink lived, a giant diamond shining with a pale pink halo floated in the air, continuously radiating life energy outward with it as the center.
Under the power of the Heart Diamond, nearby crystals could regenerate and grow at an extremely fast speed, becoming the main food source for the Carbink.
It was said that because of the nourishment of this power, every thousand years a special Carbink would be born extraordinary, becoming the princess of their kingdom.
That special Carbink was called "Diancie."
However—
Just yesterday, the Heart Diamond, which was crucial to the Diamond Domain, suddenly became dim and lusterless, and even began to emit an ominous black aura.
"This is—"
When the bouncing Princess Diancie came before the Heart Diamond, she was immediately frightened by this hellish sight.
For hundreds of years, the Heart Diamond had never been like this.
Could it be that the end of the world was coming?
Just as Princess Diancie was at a loss, an "old Carbink" with a white beard suddenly appeared beside her.
"Princess, the power of the Heart Diamond is rapidly dissipating. It looks like that black monster bird is about to revive—"
"Dace?"
Princess Diancie blinked.
"How do you know this?"
"Because a thousand years ago, a similar situation occurred as well."
Dace shook his head, his tone carrying a hint of nostalgia.
Saying a thousand years ago, this time was actually quite a bit earlier than usual.
According to the records left by the successive "Diamond Ministers" of the Diamond Domain, every thousand years, the Heart Diamond would lose its power due to the revival of that God of Death.
Whenever this happened, the next Princess Diancie had to set out for the human world, search for the traces of the God of Life, and assist it in defeating the invading black monster bird.
Therefore—
"Princess Diancie, please immediately search for Lord Xerneas who is said to release life energy in legends, and let It bestow upon you the power of Mega Evolution!"
"Huh?"
Diancie couldn't understand.
After all, she had never left the Diamond Domain before.
But, this seemed to be part of her mission too—
For the safety of her people, she could only bite the bullet and go search!
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