Under Alakazam's guidance.
Natsuhiko and several Pokémon followed it toward the direction Jynx had previously come from.
After passing through a not-so-large passageway, they arrived at the deepest part of the Ice Cave.
There were many traces of Jynx's previous activities inside, and the surrounding ice was extremely severe; compared to the outside, the place that should have been warmer was noticeably colder.
However.
Upon a careful scan, there wasn't even a shadow of the stone slab.
Was Alakazam's perception wrong?
Natsuhiko clearly didn't think so; he just silently looked at Alakazam, feeling it must have sensed something, which prompted its previous words.
"Hu-dii—"
Alakazam didn't hesitate either. As the glow of psychic power appeared in its eyes, the two spoons in its hands slowly levitated into the air, refracting two bright beams of light in the center of the spoons.
And as the spoons gradually shifted positions and adjusted the angles of the light beams.
When the two beams completely converged on a point in the Ice Cave's ice layer, a change occurred.
The ice layer gradually melted, and the things sealed within the ice gradually revealed themselves to Natsuhiko's sight.
They were stone slab fragments!
But outside the stone slab fragments was a thin layer of ice crystal, and the same ice crystals that Alakazam could easily melt before did not budge when the light shone on this stone slab.
This ice crystal encasing the stone slab fragments is no ordinary thing.
As they approached.
They didn't feel any special chill.
Alakazam found that it couldn't dispel this ice crystal and approached with curiosity.
Natsuhiko's several Pokémon all gathered around.
Togetic even plopped down beside the stone slab fragments, grasped it with both hands, and lifted upwards.
Not a single inch moved.
"Togetic?"
Togetic, skeptical, tried again with effort, but nothing changed. The ice crystal encasing the stone slab fragments seemed stubbornly glued to the ground.
"Togetic!" Togetic put its hands on its hips, puffed its cheeks, looking a bit angry.
It rolled its eyes, looking at the inquisitive Chimchar perched on Natsuhiko's shoulder, and waved it over.
"Chimchar?"
Chimchar landed lightly on the ground.
Under Togetic's direction, each one grabbed an edge of the ice crystal and exerted force simultaneously.
"Togetic!"
"Chimchar!"
The flames on Chimchar's tail surged, and even its hands flared with intense orange flames.
Yet when the flames touched the ice crystal, instead of melting it, the crystal gleamed even brighter.
"Chimchar?"
Chimchar was shocked.
When it let go of the ice crystal, it discovered that its fiery hands were now covered in a layer of frost.
Instantly, it felt that the outside world was formidable, as its flame couldn't deal with these chilly things.
Togetic saw this and sat down on the ground, folding its arms, sulking.
Natsuhiko watched their series of actions, not stopping them, wanting to see if the flames could be effective.
The result was as he anticipated.
Even Alakazam, reaching the Gym Leader Level, couldn't break the ice layer, so Chimchar's flames were naturally insufficient to melt it.
However.
While observing their actions, Natsuhiko noticed some peculiarities.
Looking from above.
This stone slab fragment was not on a flat surface but in the center of a footprint.
Why call it a footprint?
Because you could see clear paw marks, resembling the footprints his land mount, Mudsdale, would leave behind.
And the ice crystal surrounding the footprint couldn't be broken or melted either.
That's when Natsuhiko realized why Jynx living here didn't choose to move the stone slab fragments but instead encased them in ice.
With Jynx's abilities, it couldn't break the ice layer either.
This left Natsuhiko a bit puzzled.
Footprints resembling a horse, unmelting ice layers, the inward yet indeed present Ice Energy...
Analyzing the collected information piece by piece, Natsuhiko's eyes gradually lit up.
He might have guessed who did it.
"A Pokémon resembling a horse, powerful Ice Energy... but wasn't that Pokémon supposed to reside in the 'Divine Hall of the Crown'?"
The Divine Hall of the Crown is an important castle in the Galar Region, inhabited by a legendary Pokémon, Calyrex, who once ruled the region.
Calyrex had two mounts, also legendary Pokémon, the white horse "Glastrier" and the black horse "Spectrier."
He could only think of Glastrier, one of Calyrex's mounts, as an ice-type, powerful, horse-like Pokémon.
However, supposedly Calyrex stayed in the Divine Hall after its retirement, residing there with its two horses and not venturing out, so how could it have come to Celestial Crown Mountain in the Sinnoh Region and left footprints behind?
And all for a piece of the stone slab fragment.
But this was just Natsuhiko's speculation; he really didn't know the exact situation.
Yet the immediate challenge was.
The stone slab fragment was right there.
He couldn't take it.
He couldn't take it away!
It was like having a mountain of gold before him, akin to... ahem.
Natsuhiko stood in place, watching as the Pokémon tried one by one.
"Perhaps... this might work."
After some thought, Natsuhiko took out a Pokeball, and with a flash of red light, a milky-white cocoon appeared next to the stone slab fragment.
Yes, it was the cocoon of the "Warm Baby" Volcarona.
As Volcarona emerged, the temperature in the confined space noticeably warmed up.
Natsuhiko attempted to move the cocoon closer to the stone slab.
Then.
The thin ice layer covering the stone slab fragment began to melt!
But it melted slowly.
After all, Volcarona was in slumber; it could usually incubate eggs but asking it to melt what might be ice crystals from Glastrier was indeed a challenge.
Nevertheless.
Natsuhiko had another trick up his sleeve.
He took out a dark red stone the size of a washbasin from his backpack.
A sleeping Volcarona wasn't enough, but coupling it with a Shell Fragment from Original Groudon might just do the trick, right?
He placed the Shell Fragment and Volcarona's cocoon together.
Sure enough.
The melting rate of the ice layer increased significantly.
And as the ice layer gradually disappeared, the stone slab fragment, which had been sealed for countless ages, slowly came into Natsuhiko's view.
Yet the appearance of this stone slab fragment surprised Natsuhiko a bit.
He originally thought that since Jynx stumbled upon a piece of the Superpower Stone Plate, it was only logical that the slab fragments encased here would also be from the Superpower Stone Plate, right?
Turns out, he was wrong.
These encased fragments were indeed from stone slabs but weren't entirely from one kind.
Behold.
The palm-sized stone, overall, presented as deep black, radiating strong Dark Energy.
An Evil Face Stone Plate!
A Dark Attribute stone plate!
But Natsuhiko wasn't too disappointed because embedded within the overall black stone slab fragment were several smaller fragments.
For instance, a pink fragment from a Magical Stone Plate, a verdant fragment from a Jade Insect Stone Plate, and a dark brown fragment from an Earth Stone Plate, totaling three kinds of interlaced fragments.
From this, it's evident.
When Arceus once chose to shatter its own stone plates to quell turmoil, the successive explosions of the plates created a massive impact force.
The reason Natsuhiko could not identify their types upon noticing their fall.
The stone slab fragments at the heart of the explosion had, due to the immense impact, fused together.
And the fragment obtained by Jynx was probably one accidentally detached from them.
Now another problem faced Natsuhiko.
How does one separate these fused fragments?
——————
Seeking monthly votes~~