Shiko glanced at Registeel.
Not long after the liquid alloy had been poured over its body,
he could clearly feel it.
The Steel-type aura filling the entire space had begun to grow unstable.
Registeel's breathing rhythm had also changed.
It seemed to have sensed what was happening to its body.
Its sleeping body was waking up.
A powerful energy was spreading outward in suppressed but restless waves.
Retreat!
The moment he sensed this, Shiko decisively turned and left the cave.
What a joke.
If Registeel woke up and the first Pokémon it saw was him,
then there was no doubt
that it would vent all of its anger on him.
If he wanted to reap the benefits like a fisherman profiting from the fight,
then he had to find the right place for it.
He had to wait until both sides were badly weakened.
Quickening his pace,
Shiko passed through the alloy passage and returned to the entrance before him.
Then,
he found a high spot with a good view on the opposite side of the cave.
After climbing up,
he quietly observed the cave entrance and waited.
Meanwhile,
several hundred meters above the mountain,
the Military's surveillance officer
also saw Shiko come out of Registeel's cave
through the lens of his binoculars.
"Everything seems normal..."
After staring at GeoGreymon for a while,
and noticing that there did not seem to be anything unusual about him, the surveillance officer muttered softly.
Then he shifted his gaze to the cave entrance.
Quietly.
Everything was normal, and there was nothing unusual happening nearby.
"Hm? What is he staying there for?"
Through the binoculars,
after hurrying to a high point on the opposite side, Shiko stopped moving.
Hidden among layers of overlapping silver trees,
his eyes were fixed on that cave entrance,
as though he were carefully observing the situation.
That somewhat unusual behavior of his
caught the attention of the surveillance officer.
Originally, he had wanted to report this information
to Minister Kenjiro right away.
But after thinking it over,
there was no crisis at the moment.
GeoGreymon had also already come out of the cave.
Everything was normal.
Naturally, there was no need to make a report.
So,
he could only continue doing his job and keep watching the situation below.
Inside a hidden and deep cave somewhere in the Mt. Silver range,
that nut-shaped Pokémon
was trying once again
to gather together the large amount of memory alloy before it.
The liquid alloy flowed and condensed,
forming a tall humanoid body.
A powerful Steel-type aura circulated through it.
A surging, terrifying pressure followed and spread outward.
The natural pressure belonging to a third-tier Legendary swept through the area.
Shiko, waiting on the distant high ground,
instantly sensed that wave of aura
the moment it appeared.
His gaze unconsciously followed the flow of that aura
and turned toward the deepest southern part of the Mt. Silver range.
So it's there!?
Staring at those blurry mountain peaks,
Shiko said inwardly.
The body remained solid for several minutes.
Splash!!
A crisp sound rang out.
That condensed body of liquid alloy
suddenly shattered apart
and fell to the ground, spreading out into a thin layer of memory alloy.
It had failed again!
Sure enough, missing that piece of alloy from back then was a huge problem.
And besides,
during this past month,
for some unknown reason,
even though the entire Mt. Silver range should, in theory,
have been extremely rich in Steel-type materials and resources,
for a full half month,
it had been as if something
was competing with it for those resources.
The nut-shaped Pokémon looked extremely irritated.
That black eyeball of its
kept spinning nonstop inside the hex nut.
Hm!?
At that moment,
it suddenly sensed a familiar aura.
This...
Could it be the missing part of its alloy!?
It instantly became excited.
Holding its breath,
it carefully sensed the faint aura fluctuations in the distance.
No mistake!
It really was!
That uniquely rich aura
was without question the missing piece of itself!
It had finally found it!
It trembled with excitement
and forcibly tried to establish a connection with that puddle of alloy,
wanting to draw it back.
Yet unexpectedly,
no matter how hard it tried,
aside from being able to sense that trace of aura,
that puddle of alloy
seemed to have completely broken free of its command and control.
And furthermore,
it seemed to have found some kind of rare and powerful Steel-type material
and was frantically devouring and absorbing it without restraint.
The nut-shaped Pokémon did not think too much about it.
Its desire for a complete form filled its mind so thoroughly
that all it could think about now
was taking back this final piece of liquid memory alloy.
The liquid alloy on the ground gathered together,
formed into a ball,
and then
quickly rolled away
in the direction of the aura it had sensed.
Within the dense silver forest,
Shiko waited patiently.
From the moment that powerful aura had appeared
from the deep southern reaches of Mt. Silver,
Shiko had begun to feel excited and full of anticipation.
Half an hour after that aura disappeared,
Shiko finally
spotted, at the entrance of Registeel's sleeping cave,
a large puddle of inconspicuous silver liquid alloy that almost blended completely into the surroundings.
If not for the dense Steel-type aura radiating from the alloy,
Shiko would most likely have overlooked it.
It's finally here!!!
Looking at that large mass of alloy,
Shiko held his breath.
His eyes grew feverish.
Things really were developing in exactly the direction he had planned.
That mass of alloy stopped at the cave entrance,
as if it had stiffened and frozen in place.
Then in the very next second,
that puddle of alloy began writhing rapidly.
It piled itself together madly, condensing at incredible speed.
In the end, it formed into a silver-white, sturdy humanoid body.
Above its body
was a hex-nut-shaped head.
That distinctive appearance
made Shiko recognize its identity at a glance.
A pure Steel-type third-tier Legendary—Melmetal!!!
(End of Chapter)
[200 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter]
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