Chapter 841: Digging One's Own Grave With Great Effort
The pure white, massive building resembled a White House on the sea, looking luxurious yet filled with solemnity.
The entrance gates to Aether Paradise were tightly shut.
This was normal.
If that place was open, it was inevitable that magical beasts from the sea would sneak in.
Moreover.
Whether this entrance was open or closed.
It didn't affect them much.
Kazuya casually waved his hand.
An ocean current surged up from beneath their feet, acting like a surf to propel the six Pokémon toward the B2 floor of Aether Paradise.
The speed of this mode of travel was slow.
Completely incomparable to the speed of them flying themselves.
But the advantage was obvious.
It allowed Scizor, Lucario, and Skitty—the three who couldn't fly—to move through the air as well.
Watching Samiya in the distance sink back into the seawater.
Kazuya's group didn't stand on ceremony either.
With one punch, he shattered the glass of a corridor on the B2 floor.
The six Pokémon filed in, successfully arriving at the location Colress mentioned.
"This place has been kept running all this time."
Lucario's ears twitched.
He heard the faint sound of electrical current on the nearby wall.
"Aether Paradise is powered by a tidal generator, so no matter what the world becomes, or whether there is staff to maintain it, this island will keep operating."
An electronic voice sounded from above.
The six Pokémon looked up, only to see a screen lower from above.
Two figures appeared on the screen.
One was naturally Colress himself, a former boss of Team Plasma and later a League-recognized Pokémon Professor.
As for the other.
It was the Porygon-Z mentioned in Sycamore's research diary earlier.
Not going to lie.
Even for Kazuya.
This was his first time seeing a Pokémon like Porygon-Z.
In the past, he had only seen Porygon and Porygon2.
"Colress..."
Kazuya muttered, looking up and staring at this man.
The Colress on the screen looked very young.
It seemed that in the digital world.
He could freely control his appearance.
"It seems you know me?"
"I don't know you, but I've heard of you. We originally planned to come here to see if we could find any technology you left behind, thinking it might be useful."
Kazuya didn't hide their original intention.
After all, his words could be considered an indirect compliment to Colress.
Since the beginning of the League Era.
There have been thousands of Pokémon Professors in this world.
But there were truly very few who would make Kazuya personally come knocking to rummage through their boxes, and most of those were associated with evil organizations.
To tell the truth.
The truly badass researchers.
Basically all had ties to those evil organizations.
Mr. Fuji, Giovanni, Colress, Sycamore, Lysandre, Charon...
That involves evil organizations from four different regions.
There was truly no other way.
As official Professors and researchers of the Pokémon League, many of their studies were restricted and simply couldn't proceed.
Only in those places where they could conduct experiments without scruples could the talents of these scientists truly develop.
"You have a good eye."
Hearing Kazuya's words, Colress lifted his chin, not modest in the slightest, and continued, "Although you're too late, I do indeed have things here that you can use. Follow my instructions and come over."
As his voice fell.
The electronic screen retracted.
But a series of green arrows appeared on the pure white floor.
The group followed the arrows all the way.
And finally arrived at the Ultra Space Research Lab.
It was still glaringly pure white.
Making one feel a sense of tedium.
But in the center of this whiteness.
Inside a vertical glass cylinder, a brain quietly floated.
Looking extremely eerie.
Kazuya didn't expect that he would actually see a scene that could only be seen in sci-fi movies or anime.
"That is my brain, how is it? Does it look full of wisdom?"
Colress's voice sounded from the side.
The massive computer screen next to it automatically lit up, and he was sitting inside the screen.
Meanwhile, Porygon-Z was constantly spinning around him, seemingly dancing.
Ever since Porygon2 evolved.
Porygon-Z's movements had become bizarre and unpredictable.
This unstable behavior led some to believe Porygon-Z was a case of failed evolution.
Of course.
Different people have different views.
Like right now.
At least from Sycamore and Colress's perspective.
Porygon-Z seemed to be highly regarded.
"..." x 6
Colress's question went unanswered.
Kazuya felt this person's brain was already abnormal.
In his impression.
Colress started as the template of a cold, emotionless researcher, but after leaving Team Plasma, he gained humanity and understood what bonds were.
But he still shouldn't be asking questions like this.
Could he have been infected with a digital virus by Porygon-Z?
"Never mind, that's not the point. Even the most intelligent brain doesn't have many years left to live."
Colress casually spread his hands. "Welcome. I am very happy to be able to see you before I die."
His words.
Were not hard to understand.
Colress's brain was here, which was why he wouldn't be refreshed.
But when the world reversed a few more years.
Reversing to a point in time before Aether Paradise was born.
Then Colress's brain would definitely no longer have the conditions to 'survive'.
At that time, Colress would inevitably face death.
Regarding this point.
Kazuya and his party had no solution either.
Unless they could stop the world from reversing within these few years.
But that was clearly not something they could achieve right now.
"Alright, let's start with the most important matter first, something that happened over a century ago..."
Colress sighed and paused.
Immediately after.
He raised a hand and tapped the dancing Porygon-Z beside him.
Porygon-Z dropped frames for a moment.
Then a series of new images appeared before the six Pokémon, accompanied by Colress's explanation.
[131 years ago, which is League Calendar Year 240, a group of people clearly possessing Orre features attacked the Indigo League and Team Rocket, snatching a broken wing of Celebi and an eyelash of Mew, respectively.]
As this sentence fell.
Kazuya and the others could see the scene displayed on the screen:
A group of people wearing black cloaks, wielding firearms that could shoot black energy, forcefully broke into the two bases.
Any Pokémon hit by that black energy would instantly go berserk and attack their companions, causing chaos in the two bases.
[The Indigo League launched a pursuit against this group, while Team Rocket directly led people into the Orre region to investigate, ultimately discovering that the group was connected to Team Snagem, which was wiped out over three hundred years ago.]
[A new Team Snagem was born in the Orre region. The boss, Shadow, seemed to be a descendant of the Team Snagem leader from three hundred years ago.]
[He rebuilt Team Snagem for unknown purposes.]
[At that time, the boss of Team Rocket was still Giovanni. Shadow intended to cooperate with Giovanni.]
[But unfortunately, the Giovanni of that time had no other thoughts besides handing Team Rocket over to Silver, so he directly ordered Team Rocket to annihilate Team Snagem.]
[However, Shadow still managed to escape with a group of people.]
The scene shifted.
In a certain deep-sea base.
Shadow, leading a group of people and utilizing the stolen wing and eyelash, embarked on their path of ambition.
They used Mew's genes to restore Celebi's genes, and then created a Dark Celebi!
The Dark Celebi was seen opening a portal.
Immediately, the group from Team Snagem disappeared.
But soon.
They reappeared.
Only this time when they reappeared, they had many more injuries on their bodies.
And their spoils of war were just a pile of leaves and a pile of fur.
"..." x 5
Kazuya stared blankly at that pile of leaves.
Because.
He was very certain.
Those were the leaves from his third life as a Sceptile.
And they were the leaves dropped during his Alpha Mega Sceptile state.
Only the leaves from that specific time would be so massive, sharp, and radiant.
"Master..."
Scizor beside him also noticed this, widening his eyes and looking at Kazuya, having realized something.
Kazuya shook his head.
Signaling him to be quiet.
[These contents were all deduced based on intelligence we collected later.]
[There might be discrepancies in the details, but the process should be fairly accurate.]
[This group from Team Snagem used the power of Dark Celebi to return to the few days after the battle between the Hero of the Leaves and Dark Lugia three hundred years ago, collecting the body fragments dropped by the Hero of the Leaves and the God of Falling Cherry Blossoms during the battle!]
[Undoubtedly, they intended to create a Dark Hero of the Leaves and a Dark God of Falling Cherry Blossoms!]
"...Idiots."
Kazuya muttered in his heart.
He truly hadn't cursed in a long time.
But this time, he truly couldn't hold it back.
Hero of the Leaves and God of Falling Cherry Blossoms were just nice-sounding titles.
But in reality, how much stronger were they than ordinary Sceptiles and Meowscaradas?
Even if one had to point out a special trait.
That was only because Kazuya had received Celebi's blessing.
They were strong.
Because they were Kazuya and Meowscarada.
What the hell did that have to do with the genes of Sceptile and Meowscarada?
This Team Snagem went through all that trouble just to go back and grab some of their dead skin?
[The Hero of the Leaves was a powerhouse who crushed two Dark Lugias in a one-on-two battle. If Team Snagem succeeded, it would absolutely be a disaster for the whole world.]
[And in fact, it was exactly so.]
[Team Snagem spent 40 years and successfully created the Dark Hero of the Leaves and the Dark God of Falling Cherry Blossoms in League Calendar Year 280.]
[And then they were wiped out by these two gods.]
On the screen, Team Snagem was completely annihilated.
Even that guy Shadow was choked to death with one hand by the Dark God of Falling Cherry Blossoms.
"..." x 6
The six Pokémon were dumbfounded.
This Team Snagem.
What on earth were they trying to do?
They watched from beginning to end, but simply couldn't understand what Team Snagem's objective actually was.
[We never figured out what Team Snagem's purpose in creating gods was until the very end.]
[Perhaps it was to inherit the unfulfilled ambitions of Team Snagem? Or to avenge their ancestors by killing Ho-Oh? Or maybe there was some other purpose...]
[None of that matters anymore.]
[Perhaps even they didn't anticipate that just as their plan made progress, everything would come to an end.]
[But that's not important. What's important is that the Dark Hero of the Leaves and the Dark God of Falling Cherry Blossoms survived.]
[And...]
[They possess the ability to spread and control shadow energy!]
[And this is the origin of the Great Darkness incident, and the reason why the sun is obscured by gray fog.]
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