Meanwhile, on the battlefield.
Hydreigon raised its commanding dragon heads high, its fierce gaze locked tightly onto Bouffalant's every single movement. Saturated under the corrupting influence of the Sky Fiend, the Bash Buffalo Pokémon had completely lost its cognitive sanity. It snorted heavily several times, venting massive plumes of thick steam as it beat its three pairs of illusionary wings engineered by the fiend.
"Bouffalant, use Superpower!"
Alder raised his brow toward Bouffalant. In his perception, the divine authority of the Sky Fiend was absolute and peerless. After all, under the passive influence of that corrupt power, Bouffalant had actually grown wings.
Bouffalant charged ruthlessly toward Hydreigon's coordinates, its sheer brute strength hammering against the earth until the solid ground fractured into a massive web of deep fissures. A primal, wild aura bled out from its frame, forcing everyone present to feel the weight of a terrifying pressure.
This current image of Bouffalant bears a striking resemblance to the ancient mythical beast, Qiongqi, Feng Che thought, stroking his chin as he analyzed the transformation. In ancient lore, Qiongqi was a cataclysmic monster possessing two distinct morphologies: a wild bull form and a winged tiger form.
Hydreigon felt the very space surrounding its vessel grow constricted under the sheer kinetic dread of Bouffalant's Superpower. However, having integrated the unified legacy of the Tao Trio, its baseline parameters were exceptionally immense.
Its left head instantly manifested the distinct traits of a permafrost dragon. Opening its jaws wide, it exhaled a torrent of absolute-zero air. The freezing front slammed squarely into Bouffalant, flash-freezing the Wild Bull Pokémon into a solid block of ice right on the spot. The frozen sculpture was lifelike, capturing the beast mid-charge with all four hooves suspended off the ground.
Seizing the opening, Hydreigon beat its wings to launch itself high into the upper atmosphere.
"Curse it... We missed the window!" Alder snarled. "Bouffalant, burn it away with Hellfire!"
The black hellfire of the Sky Fiend ignited violently across the surface of the frozen block. Leveraging the intense thermal energy of the dark flames, Bouffalant successfully shattered the ice encasing its frame. Beating its wings with frantic power, it soared into the high sky to give chase.
Feng Che could distinctly see the colossal phantom of the Sky Fiend hovering right behind Bouffalant's silhouette. Rather than an official duel between Hydreigon and Bouffalant, this had escalated into a direct war between Hydreigon and the Sky Fiend itself, with the ancient entity actively piloting Bouffalant's vessel to execute its assault.
Sky Fiend: Brat Feng Che, I shall seize this exact hour to tear your vessel to absolute pieces, before binding your spirit to burn upon the pillars of hellfire for eternity!
Sky Fiend: Even if this physical asset fails, I lose nothing. I will still harvest the powerful soul of a regional Champion to supplement my unsealing.
Bouffalant transformed into a high-speed streak of pitch-black light, colliding repeatedly against Hydreigon as the two entities traded cataclysmic blows across the upper reaches.
"Hydreigon, activate the Tao Trio mode. Your baseline parameters are not enough to override the direct influence of the Sky Fiend," Feng Che directed via telepathy, linking his mind with his partner.
The forces of permafrost, incandescent fire, and high-voltage electricity instantly converged across Hydreigon's frame. Its three heads shifted dramatically: its left head was completely encrusted in thick permafrost, its right head ignited with a roaring aura of flame, and its central head was wreathed in an infinite vortex of electrical currents. Even the three pairs of black wings backing its chassis were independently swathed in frost, fire, and lightning.
This was Hydreigon's ultimate Tao Trio state—the single strongest divine legacy housed within Feng Che's active roster.
"Hydreigon, use Dragon Pulse!"
Three distinct beams of Dragon Pulse, each infused with a different elemental attribute, erupted concurrently from Hydreigon's maws. The colossal energy waves wove together, intending to swallow Bouffalant whole.
Wrapped in a heavy shroud of hellfire, Bouffalant sprinted across the air at a manic velocity. Channeling every ounce of its brute force, it charged straight into the center of the Dragon Pulse, violently shattering and dispersing the oncoming energy through raw physical momentum alone. Shards of red, yellow, and blue light scattered across the atmosphere like fading embers.
"Bouffalant, use Take Down!"
"Hydreigon, counter with the Tri-Elemental Fangs!"
The specialized fangs referred to Fire Fang, Ice Fang, and Thunder Fang. A massive reservoir of elemental energy condensed within Hydreigon's three jaws as it snapped its teeth ruthlessly toward the target.
Bouffalant slammed heavily into Hydreigon's chassis, the thick afro atop its skull violently detonating upon impact. With a deafening explosion, a massive cloud of black smoke blanketed the sky. Hydreigon's form shot out from the smoke ring to re-establish spatial distance, with Bouffalant tracking its movement immediately to maintain the offensive press.
"Bouffalant, use Stomp!"
Bouffalant channeled an immense kinetic weight, executing a heavy Stomp directly from its elevated position. A crushing, visible shockwave of compressed space surged down toward Hydreigon.
"Hydreigon, execute Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and Thunderbolt concurrently!"
This was the absolute anatomical advantage of possessing three distinct heads. Much like a Dodrio, Hydreigon could seamlessly coordinate its individual brains to manifest a flawless Tri-Attack. The composite beam sliced through the air, violently neutralizing the descending spatial shockwave. The raw clashing frequencies left the localized airspace wavering with deep structural instability.
"Magnificent! Now, Bouffalant, execute our ultimate combination: the Afro Giga Impact!" Alder roared triumphantly. "I developed this layout decades ago, and backed by the divine parameters of the Sky God, I can finally unleash its true capacity!"
The Afro Giga Impact wove together the absolute kinetic parameters of Head Charge, Megahorn, and Giga Impact. Leveraging the acceleration of gravitational velocity from its elevated position, it formed an apocalyptic, world-shaking strike.
"In that case, Hydreigon, show no further reservations. Deliver our definitive, final technique!"
Hydreigon's ultimate technique was the unified execution of the signature moves of the Tao Trio. Its left permafrost head prepared Glaciate, drawing thick currents of absolute-zero frost into its maw. Its right flame head channeled Blue Flare, wreathed entirely in a brilliant shroud of blazing white fire. Its central electrical head pooled Bolt Strike, siphoning an endless reservoir of high-voltage currents straight from the dense storm clouds overhead.
Bouffalant plummeted from the highest reaches like a terminal meteor, massive streams of black miasma flooding into the kinetic vortex surrounding its frame. Thousands of hellfire lotuses bloomed across the path of the storm; the Sky Fiend intended to sink the entirety of Opelucid City with this single strike.
Right at that exact millisecond, the phantoms of three majestic divine dragons erupted from Hydreigon's three maws. The cataclysmic energies collided dead-center.
A blinding, white-hot flash illuminated the sky as a terrifying concussive shockwave violently tore across the atmosphere, instantly vaporizing the dense canopy of storm clouds hovering over Opelucid City. Kyurem and Zekrom, operating from deep within the ancestral grounds, had already pulsed maximum-output defensive barriers to barely shield the city center from the aerial fallout.
As the kinetic wave expanded outward, the entire perimeter surrounding the arena was cleanly leveled into a gargantuan, yawning crater, as if a hydrogen bomb had been detonated directly atop the basin. The subterranean waters from the fractured iron-vein river systems began to steadily flood into the depression, beginning the gradual formation of a massive lake.
Bouffalant's physical vessel had been completely vaporized into nothingness under the sheer intensity of the elemental clash.
Feng Che, leveraging Mewtwo's residual psychic barriers, successfully shielded Hydreigon and the group of frozen League investigators from the concussive trauma.
Right then, a figure dragged himself out from the pulverized bedrock below—it was Alder. The Champion looked exceptionally disheveled, his clothes thoroughly torn and coated in thick stone dust.
"Curse it... How can the unified power of the Tao Trio be this staggeringly immense? Even the divine majesty of the Sky Fiend was completely overridden..."
Alder finally realized the absolute gravity of his operational failure. But before he could take a single step, a roaring column of pitch-black fire violently ignited across his body.