Chapter 752: Nightmare Corridor
Time seemed to have reversed back to 320 years ago.
It filled one's heart with infinite nostalgia.
At the very least, during these past few days, Scizor was extremely happy. This was the happiest time he had spent in recent decades.
Even if.
He had to get scolded over a dozen times a day.
"The abdomen is your weakest point, extremely prone to injury. You must make good use of those pincers to protect this area."
"At the same time, you must know that the abdomen is also the weakest point of the opposing Scizor. Aiming your strikes there will speed up how fast you can take it down."
"After Mega Evolution, the hardness of your body is beyond your imagination. You don't have to forcefully dodge some attacks; taking them head-on won't leave a wound, and it will also prevent you from leaving a larger opening."
On the second to last day.
Kazuya stopped focusing on strengthening Scizor's general fighting abilities. Instead, he began explaining battle tactics specifically tailored against Scizor-type Pokémon.
It was akin to a teacher giving specialized, formulaic solutions for a specific type of question right before a major exam.
Perhaps it was because the "Technician" ability inherently elevated Scizor's technical aptitude in reality, or perhaps Scizor just possessed high natural talent in this area...
Scizor's fighting capabilities improved at a blistering pace.
It was so fast that even Kazuya felt somewhat surprised.
He initially thought his own teaching abilities had improved, but after careful consideration, that didn't seem to be the case.
He hadn't properly taught any Pokémon in over a hundred years.
Not regressing in his teaching ability was already considered pretty good.
Regardless.
This was a good thing.
It allowed Kazuya to stop worrying about Scizor's upcoming battle.
During these few days.
Aside from instructing Scizor, Kazuya didn't forget to allocate some energy toward his own training.
Aura and psychic powers were temporarily pushed back.
Attribute energy had become Kazuya's top priority at the moment.
Darkrai's move pool was simply too barren. Aside from rushing the opponent's face and using Dark Void, he had almost no other means of attack.
Night fell.
Kazuya lay flat in the dark cave, his eyes tightly shut.
He appeared to be asleep.
But in reality, he was not.
He was researching his species' innate ability—a power that could invade the dreams of other living creatures.
In the theatrical movie.
The Darkrai in Alamos Town used this exact ability to inform Satoshi that the deities of Space and Time were about to arrive in the town, wanting him to realize the danger and quickly leave with his companions.
It was just that Satoshi at the time couldn't understand what Darkrai meant.
At first.
Kazuya had accidentally activated this power and entered Scizor's dream.
It was then he realized that his "Bad Dreams" ability was invisibly affecting the creatures around him.
[Bad Dreams] would cause sleeping Pokémon nearby to suffer nightmares, taking continuous mental damage. The power of the damage was linked to Darkrai's personal mental strength.
Kazuya's mental strength only grew stronger with each passing lifetime.
Once he began training his psychic powers later on, it would only become even more exaggerated.
With the Bad Dreams ability placed on him, the effects it would display in the future would be utterly terrifying.
Not to mention the future.
Even its current power was not to be underestimated.
If it continued for an entire night, Scizor would wake up the next day listless, drowsy, and even suffering from a headache.
This would affect Scizor's rest, resulting in half the results for twice the effort in the next day's training.
So Kazuya rushed to figure out how to control his ability.
In half a night.
Kazuya solved the problem.
He successfully managed to control the area of effect of Bad Dreams.
In the second half of the night.
Kazuya started experimenting with this nightmare-invading ability on nearby magical beasts.
Initially, he thought this ability was quite useless.
He felt it wouldn't serve much purpose in a head-on battle.
But he quickly discarded that thought.
He realized the sheer terror of this ability.
This power.
Was derived from the foundation of the [Bad Dreams] ability.
It allowed Kazuya to invade a nightmare born from the influence of Bad Dreams with his mental power, thereby causing a series of other effects.
Including but not limited to:
Kazuya wreaking havoc within the nightmare, violently beating the host of the nightmare—thereby amplifying the mental damage of "Bad Dreams," and even leaving them with lingering psychological trauma.
Kazuya controlling the severity of the nightmare, making it progressively worse so the host sinks deeper and deeper—thereby extending the duration of the "Sleep" status, making it difficult for the target to wake up.
Kazuya learning about certain memories of the target within their nightmare, such as seeing the image of Viridian City being swallowed by a tide of magical beasts in Scizor's dream—thereby gathering intelligence.
In short.
This ability was far more useful than Kazuya had imagined.
Even in a head-on battle, it would be extremely useful and quite terrifying.
As for the exact specifics.
Kazuya couldn't explain them clearly right now.
After all, it had only been a few days since he started studying this ability, and it was still in the developmental stage.
He could only say that it truly lived up to being a Mythical Pokémon's ability.
There was no upper limit to its strength.
Based on the effects it was currently known to produce, Kazuya tentatively named this move:
[Nightmare Corridor].
A move identical to [Dream Eater].
It was a move that could only be used after the opponent had fallen into the [Sleep] status.
This move leaned toward sustained damage and crowd control, whereas Dream Eater leaned toward instant, explosive damage output.
Its specific usage would depend on the situation.
At this very moment.
Kazuya's mental power had already followed the "Bad Dreams" ability and broken into the dreamscape of another Pokémon.
In a nightmare dominated by purple and gray tones.
A Scizor with scarlet eyes was being hunted down by a massive Mega Sceptile.
The former was the magical beast Scizor that had defeated his disciple.
The latter was a "phantom" Kazuya had created—himself from his third life.
Just as Kazuya expected.
This magical beast possessed a certain degree of intelligence, which was why it felt "fear," constantly fleeing in terror of being killed by the God of Wood.
This situation was slightly different from the Shadow Lugia of three hundred years ago.
The reason for this difference was likely the influence of the shadow energy.
He just didn't know.
Whether these magical beasts had adapted to the invasion of shadow energy over a long period of time and thus rebirthed their intelligence.
Or if.
From the very beginning, this shadow energy was different from the one three hundred years ago, acting as an updated and enhanced version.
There was no way to know this yet; he would probably have to find Cipher to uncover the truth.
Overall.
For normal creatures.
This change had both pros and cons.
The pro was that as long as these magical beasts could feel fear, it might not be necessary to fight them to the bitter end.
When the opponent felt the threat of death, they might just run away on their own. He wouldn't have to beat a Lugia to the brink of death just to end the battle like he did three hundred years ago.
The con was...
These magical beasts were harder to kill.
Possessing intelligence, they would not only run away, but might even mimic and think, such as changing their combat style or grouping up to hunt other magical beasts.
But one shouldn't overestimate this newly born intelligence either.
The level of this intelligence was clearly not high.
Just like right now.
The sky appeared purple.
That was a sign that Kazuya was still not proficient enough with this move; his original intention was to make the sky black.
But that magical beast Scizor didn't notice anything wrong, turning a blind eye to the purple sky, completely unaware that this was a dream.
According to Kazuya's estimation.
Once he became fully proficient in controlling this move.
He would be able to make this dream world practically indistinguishable from reality, and then it would truly become a dream cage.
The real Kazuya.
Was currently hiding behind a thick Iron Thorn Tree, quietly observing all of this.
He was studying the weaknesses of [Nightmare Corridor].
At present.
There were only two major weaknesses to the Nightmare Corridor move:
First.
It could not change the nature of the "nightmare."
That is to say.
Kazuya could manipulate the dream to develop in a worse direction, but he couldn't make it beautiful. Perhaps only Cresselia could achieve that.
And the second.
Was that within the nightmare.
Aside from Kazuya and the magical beast Scizor, everything else could be considered an "illusion" or a "fake."
Illusions could not deal damage.
Once an illusion was seen through, it lost all its deterrent power.
The Mega Sceptile couldn't actually kill the magical beast Scizor in the dream; it could only scare it.
But if the magical beast Scizor realized this was a dream, and that this Mega Sceptile was just a phantom using fake bravado...
Then this nightmare would be considered broken.
The opponent would jolt awake from the dream.
However.
As mentioned earlier.
[Aside from Kazuya and the magical beast Scizor].
Which meant.
Within this nightmare.
The two of them could attack each other, and their strength was equivalent to reality.
If Kazuya killed the magical beast Scizor, it would massively amplify the mental damage inflicted by the Nightmare Corridor. The exact amount of damage was unknown; he would have to test it in actual combat to find out.
Conversely.
If the magical beast Scizor killed Kazuya.
Then the nightmare would similarly be broken, the magical beast Scizor would wake up from the dream, and Kazuya would suffer a backlash, having to endure a portion of the Nightmare Corridor's mental damage himself.
This was considered the more obvious weakness of the Nightmare Corridor move.
But.
The flaws did not obscure its virtues.
Overall, the Nightmare Corridor move was still incredibly powerful.
As long as Kazuya didn't show his face, he could continuously torment the target until they were overwhelmed and jolted awake from the dream.
After peeking at the magical beast Scizor in the dream for another night.
Kazuya slowly opened his eyes.
"Phew... very strong, practically invincible in a one-on-one duel. If I can't beat the opponent in reality, I can just open the Nightmare Corridor to control them, and once I've used the Nightmare Corridor to completely break their mental state, I can start round two in reality."
He slowly sat up from the ground.
In the current world.
Most magical beasts lacked high intelligence.
Even if they had intelligence.
It mostly wasn't very high.
This meant that the probability of the opponent realizing it was a dream through various illogical elements within it was exceedingly low.
Correspondingly.
The probability of these magical beasts actively breaking the dream and breaking free from the Nightmare Corridor would also be exceedingly low.
Nightmare Corridor.
Could be considered an ultimate weapon against magical beasts.
Reincarnating as a Darkrai in this life was truly the right choice.
Daytime.
Scizor began his training according to Kazuya's targeted explanations from yesterday.
While Kazuya started researching another ability—turning into a shadow.
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