Kalos—still that fearless desert.
However, right now, this desert that used to be eternally bleak and peaceful was in utter chaos.
Legendary big battle after big battle had the sand let out one "wail" after another.
Cracks here, gaps there—each one was a horrifying "wound" you could see with your own eyes.
And there were even patches of frost traces.
So obvious.
"Disappear! Disappear!!!"
Boom!!
The violent blast rattled the air.
"Chiu…"
Another painful cry.
Feathers, dimmed of color, scattered down.
Ho-Oh got smashed again by Hoopa Unbound's Hyperspace Fury, crashing heavily to the ground.
Its aura was already extremely weakened.
Its two wings drooped on the dirt now, unable to lift at all.
Healing rainbow-colored flames kept burning over it.
But the injuries were just too heavy.
Even Ho-Oh, right now, really couldn't get up.
It had to catch its breath properly.
Ho-Oh was truly taking too much.
Feeling the brutal pain all over its body, Ho-Oh's lifeless bird eyes stared at the sky—
it was numb.
Creator above…
what kind of sin did it commit to be treated this brutally?!
Honestly, it felt like this time hurt even more than the first two times.
This Hoopa Unbound was really beating it up without holding back!!
Each punch landed on its body, one after another—
like Ho-Oh was its father's sworn enemy.
It was way harsher than Shiny Rayquaza and Dragon Kyurem.
The key was—
even with Reflect and Light Screen up,
it could still clearly feel the pain caused by Hoopa Unbound's attacks.
This Hoopa Unbound's aggression was just way too strong.
And most importantly…
where the hell were the humans who came to help?!
"Damn it.
Where the hell did that humans go?"
Ho-Oh silently cursed to itself, staring at the Yveltal being chased and beaten by Stellar Form Terapagos.
That was right.
Even Shadow Lugia had already been badly hurt and gone down.
Earlier, Damian had made Shadow Lugia block Stellar Form Terapagos and Hoopa Unbound at the same time for a short period.
That's why Shadow Lugia got injured pretty badly.
And after that, there were no reinforcements.
In the end, it still couldn't hold out.
After it took serious damage, Stellar Form Terapagos got knocked down.
With that annoying problem handled—Hoopa Unbound's blood-red pupils locked onto Yveltal.
Finally.
It could focus fully on dealing with its Mischief Hoopa.
And right now, Mischief Hoopa on Yveltal's back also noticed this.
It was terrified.
Over.
But just then—
the Stellar Form Terapagos that was pursuing Yveltal suddenly jerked up.
A mysterious, dazzling light shimmered.
Mischief Hoopa suddenly felt its body sink.
The sensation on its back made Mischief Hoopa freeze.
It turned its head.
That familiar face made Mischief Hoopa instantly explode with surprise and excitement.
"Mae!!
Mae, you finally came back!"
Mischief Hoopa immediately threw itself into Damian's arms, pushing hard and wriggling with all its strength.
It was so happy.
Damian suddenly disappeared—
that seriously scared it.
Especially in a situation like this.
Damian was really the "anchor" in its heart.
And it could feel the faint time-space aura at the location Damian vanished to.
It was that bastard Terapagos of Born Evil!!
As a Pokémon that had also mastered space power,
Mischief Hoopa, even with its strength sealed,
couldn't sense as well as before.
But when the person right beside it got teleported away suddenly—
Mischief Hoopa could still sense something.
It was genuinely worried.
Because it could tell—
this wasn't a simple spatial shift.
It was a time-space crossing.
The ripple was just too distinctive.
"Don't be scared, don't be scared.
I'm back.
It's fine, it's fine."
Damian looked amused at Mischief Hoopa, like it was being spoiled.
He glanced at the surrounding battlefield.
Yeah.
Still that familiar "full-on brawl."
But unlike when he time-space traveled earlier—
Shadow Lugia was already seriously damaged.
And Ho-Oh looked half-dead too.
"Hoopa was worried.
Mae, where did you go just now?"
"Damm—powered up my body elsewhere, I guess.
I'll explain later.
How long was I gone, Hoopa?"
Damian recalled Shadow Lugia with a Poké Ball and asked Mischief Hoopa.
"Around ten minutes, give or take."
Mischief Hoopa thought about it.
Yeah—roughly about that.
"There's a time difference…
Is it because of Terapagos?"
Damian raised a brow.
He'd been in Hisui for close to eight hours at least.
Forget it.
That wasn't something he should dwell on right now.
So—
Ho-Oh actually managed to hold out for ten minutes under Hoopa Unbound.
Not bad.
As expected.
My overgrown roast bird really is tough as nails.
"Disappear!!"
Hoopa Unbound passed through its Spatial rings.
It appeared in front of Yveltal and roared at Mischief Hoopa.
Mischief Hoopa rolled its eyes.
It didn't even really want to bother with Hoopa Unbound.
Shouting the same two words over and over with zero creativity?
That was just exhausting.
At first, Mischief Hoopa was really pissed.
It might've answered back out of anger.
But now?
It couldn't be bothered.
It even wanted to know—
how could its "sentient" power be so obsessed with itself?
Just because it was the "true body"?
"Stop yelling.
Hoopa, your ears are probably about to grow calluses already, huh?"
Damian also genuinely admired Hoopa Unbound's "grit."
Hoopa Unbound didn't even pay attention to Damian's "mockery."
It roared and heavily opened six Demon god severed arms.
Dense black energy jumped in the emptiness in front of its chest—
Dark-type Dark Pulse.
"Kyurem, Freeze Shock."
A dominating presence of roars ripped across the heavens.
The huge Kyurem rocketed toward them at high speed.
Blue lightning kept crackling.
Beautiful blue-purple energy formed into a circular, barrier-like shape.
It slammed straight into Hoopa Unbound.
That's right.
Dragon Kyurem had already handled its opponent!
Terror's chilling pressure crazily crashed in.
Hoopa Unbound subconsciously looked at the berserk Kyurem coming in from the side.
Stellar Form Terapagos also looked right away—
and blasted a huge number of star-like energy from its body.
Starstorm!
Hoopa Unbound also released its stored Dark Pulse.
Boom!
Starstorm and Dark Pulse struck Dragon Kyurem's Freeze Shock at the same time.
An extremely strong energy storm erupted.
Gusty winds howled violently.
Gales and rushing air formed tangible shockwaves—
one ring after another, shaking everything.
Even with Yveltal's protection,
Damian still couldn't help lifting a hand to shield his face—
but his eyes were burning hot.
Because he could see it.
Even against Hoopa Unbound and Stellar Form Terapagos together—
Dragon Kyurem's Freeze Shock still wasn't losing.
It forced itself to power through the impact of both techniques.
Kyurem!!!
Damian was absolutely blown away.
A three-in-one Kyurem was just too vicious.
As expected—
the legend I'm into.
Boom!
Finally, the energy standoff broke.
Everything exploded with a heavy burst.
Surging energy crazily surged outward—
it even shoved Dragon Kyurem back by a small distance.
However, Dragon Kyurem's aura was even more vicious.
Its cold, unfriendly golden dragon eyes stared dead ahead at those two opponents.
Meanwhile—
Hoopa Unbound and Stellar Form Terapagos were also pushed back by that brutal shockwave.
Hoopa Unbound's furious roar screamed out.
How was this Kyurem here?!
Hoopa Unbound's terrifying, horrifying eyes looked toward Elsewhere—
and it saw that Complete Forme Zygarde, which had been blocking Dragon Kyurem…
had already turned into ice crystals and collapsed on the ground, unmoving.
Clearly, Complete Forme Zygarde had already gone down.
"Trash!
Trash!!"
Hoopa Unbound looked even more vicious.
An eco-order guardian?
You got beaten this fast?
What good were you even for?!
"That's just sad."
Damian clicked his tongue and closely watched Complete Forme Zygarde.
To be fair…
it really did seem like Zygarde was a bit unlucky.
Not long ago, Z2 got forced-controlled by Team Flare.
Then Damian had beaten it up using Mega Shadow Mewtwo Y.
Not that long after—
it got force-summoned again by Hoopa Unbound, and its mind got thrown off.
Then Dragon Kyurem got to give it a brutal beatdown.
Zygarde was just too unfortunate.
But seriously—
why was Complete Forme Zygarde four-times weak to Ice?
Kyurem beats it.
Sure, Complete Forme Zygarde had one of the thickest HP bars among top-tier legendaries.
But against Kyurem?
What good did "thick HP" do you?
But what Damian didn't expect was—
after glaring at Dragon Kyurem for a moment,
Hoopa Unbound twisted one of its Demon god severed arms.
A Spatial ring appeared beside the unconscious Complete Forme Zygarde.
It threw it straight away and teleported it off.
"Huh?"
Damian froze.
But the next moment, Damian understood.
After sending off Complete Forme Zygarde—which had lost its combat value—
Hoopa Unbound twisted its claw again.
The Spatial rings shimmered once more.
"Summon again?
But then… who else can you summon?"
Damian raised a brow.
He really hadn't expected Hoopa Unbound to pull off something like this.
When Zygarde lost its usefulness, it simply kicked it away and swapped to another.
Hoopa Unbound really was smart.
But right now, did there even exist any other top-tier legendary outside?
There wasn't.
Basically everything that could fight was already here.
The only two truly capable ones left were Eternatus and Necrozma.
However, Eternatus was low on energy right now and was weak.
Necrozma was still sealed.
So it probably couldn't be summoned.
Zacian and Zamazenta?
Damian thought it over.
Yeah, it made sense.
Zacian and Zamazenta's strength was indeed great.
They could be counted as top-tier legendary Pokémon too.
But it didn't matter.
Not in front of Dragon Kyurem!
Damian couldn't stop Hoopa Unbound from summoning Pokémon.
But he wasn't worried.
Necrozma was sealed.
And it was severely starved for light.
It couldn't possibly become its Ultra form.
Eternatus was too low on energy to even Dynamax.
Besides those two that could fight—
unless Hoopa Unbound could drag Arceus over.
But even with resentment this deep,
Hoopa Unbound still couldn't go drag Arceus.
It didn't have that kind of ability.
However…
Viridian City.
Viridian Gym backyard.
This was a huge grass-field space.
Giovanni used it to raise his wielded main roster and the Pokémon he used for gym battles.
A certain non-flying Normal Form Pokémon sat on the ground right now, looking happily at the giant display TV Giovanni had specially arranged.
It was munching Pokéblocks and Giovanni's specially prepared delicious Pokémon food.
Not flying.
So the mood was perfect.
Enjoy life.
Why sleep?
What's so good about sleeping?
"Is this Torkoal seriously that useless?
Why even Lopunny wife got stolen by a Sharpedo?
That's embarrassing for us Fire type Pokémon."
But while watching, Groudon felt the Torkoal in the TV drama was just too useless.
It couldn't help itself and wanted to start ranting.
It was just way too pathetic!
But before Groudon could get even more worked up—
a Spatial rings appeared beneath its body.
"What is this?!
Hoopa?!
No—no, don't do this!
I'm not even done watching this series yet!
Giovanni, save me!!"
In an instant, Groudon's body got swallowed into the Spatial rings.
Kalos desert region.
"Not you guys—
you can even pull something like this over?"
Damian stared at the new helpers Hoopa Unbound had just summoned.
He was stunned.
~~
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