Giallo was instantly taken aback, stumbling a few paces backward in sudden shock. Very quickly, however, his face flushed with a furious crimson.
"Vio, you are no longer a high-and-mighty Sage of Team Plasma!" Giallo roared. "At present, you are nothing more than a discarded piece of trash evicted from our ranks!"
"Is that so? Are we trying to see who can bark the loudest now?" Vio replied, looking entirely unbothered. "It seems you haven't witnessed my true execution parameters in far too long, and you've completely forgotten your place."
An immensely terrifying, suffocating aura violently exploded from Vio's frame, and Kommo-o materialized from the Poké Ball resting against his waist.
"Show them your fury, girl."
A highly concentrated, visible wave of Dragon Force steadily funneled into Kommo-o's vessel. The Scaled Pokémon rapidly underwent its specialized dragon evolution, thick, unyielding armor plating seamlessly encasing every inch of its body.
Resembling a literal heavy military tank, it threw its head back and unleashed a deafening battle cry.
The shockwave of the war cry was so immense that every single Pokémon within a ten-meter radius felt as though they had been struck dead-center by a speeding automobile. Their bodies were violently launched into the air, crashing ruthlessly into the surrounding walls. Even the units positioned further out were severely caught by the kinetic fallout, dropping to the stone floor entirely incapacitated.
The bedrock beneath Kommo-o's clawed feet split into a massive web of jagged fissures from the sheer acoustic dread of the roar.
"Superb. Now, it is time for us to settle our accounts, Giallo. Let us see if your current parameters can survive a direct encounter with me," Vio said, his sharp eyes locking onto the Sage as the immediate grunts were cleared.
The surrounding Team Plasma grunts felt their legs tremble violently; they understood the absolute terror of Vio, the Dragon Sage, far too well. They rapidly broke formation, parting to clear a straight path between the two rivals. The heavy scales armor-plating Kommo-o clinked and rattled against the air, ringing out with a metallic, resonant warning.
Concurrently, at a secondary coordinates.
Victor and Drayden materialized deep within a separate vault, finding themselves instantly surrounded by a dense blockade of Team Plasma personnel. Drayden calmly tossed a Poké Ball, deploying his primary partner, Haxorus.
"I'm counting on you, old friend."
Drayden gently patted the heavily scarred hide of his Haxorus, before continuously siphoning an endless reservoir of Dragon Force into its core. Instantly, thousands of blood-red energy blades manifested along Haxorus's axe-like tusks.
"That is indeed a formidable Haxorus. However, let us see how many seconds your line can endure under the relentless assault of my Ice-type brigade," a voice called out. "I am Giallo."
Giallo emerged slowly from the shadows, leaning heavily on his staff to reinforce his dramatic entrance. Flanking his position was a massive horde of wild Vanillite and Vanillish.
The Vanillite resembled vanilla soft-serve ice cream cones. They featured deep blue eyes, a pair of distinct diamond-shaped crystalline growths framing their cheeks, and a small blue icicle structure forming their lower half, supported by tiny hands venting a continuous stream of freezing air.
The Vanillish sported a thick layer of snow atop their crowns, flanked by prominent ice blocks along their cheeks. Possessing an upside-down, semi-circular jaw, their lower torso was a solid blue cone that tapered into a literal ice cream handle, dense waves of frost swirling around their limbs. A Vanillish was capable of rapidly lowering the ambient air temperature to synthesize high-velocity ice shards, leveraging the frost cover to either obscure its coordinates or completely flash-freeze a target before shattering them with a heavy headbutt.
Within moments, an endless blizzard violently blanketed the upper reaches of the vault.
"Drayden, Grand Master of the Dragon Clan, this stands as the absolute permanent burial ground I have hand-picked to mark your demise. I hope you appreciate the scenery," Giallo laughed insidiously.
"Victor, I require your tactical support!" Drayden called out, turning his head.
Victor smoothly tossed a capsule, releasing his Hydreigon. "Hydreigon, use Draco Meteor!" He unmasked his intent to serve as Drayden's defensive anchor through immediate action.
Meanwhile, Iris and Jax were noticeably more fortunate; the specific sector they had been displaced into housed only a minor garrison of Team Plasma grunts.
The Sage spearheading the defense line was Rood. He rapidly deployed a Volcarona from his capsule, directing the Sun Pokémon to launch a high-intensity press against Iris's position.
The exact millisecond Feng Che cleared the spatial distortion, he found himself standing inside a colossally massive, open cavern vault. A massive army of Team Plasma personnel was already deployed across the sector, waiting for his arrival.
Sages Bronius and Ryoku stepped forward to greet him.
"Fascinating. To think the two of us would haul in a target of this caliber," Bronius remarked, his voice rich with dynamic satisfaction.
"As long as we systematically dismantle Feng Che right here, the absolute unification of the Unova region under our banner is a foregone conclusion," Ryoku crowed confidently. "Acting Champion, prepare to have the two of us personally escort you to your grave."
"Aren't you even a fraction of a second terrified that your lines will suffer a catastrophic backlash, leaving you completely broken and unable to manage basic daily functions?" Feng Che countered smoothly, his tone dripping with cool amusement. "Lest you forget—I am a verified Champion-rank Trainer."
"Hmph! You've managed to force a single partner to breach the entry thresholds of the Champion rank; there is absolutely nothing impressive about that," Ryoku dismissed the warning with supreme confidence. "Both Bronius and I anchor the absolute peak of the Elite Four tier. Our unified strength is more than enough to permanently erase any obstacle blocking our path."
"Come forth, Vanilluxe!"
"Go, Cryogonal!"
Both Sages were fully aware that Feng Che possessed highly developed Dragon-type partners, prompting them to deploy optimized Ice-type assets designed to exploit a dragon's baseline elemental vulnerabilities.
"Come on out—Ninetales, Alolan Ninetales!"
Feng Che smoothly tossed two Poké Balls, and the twin Ninetales stepped onto the battlefield with seamless, elegant strides.
"All units, do not stand there paralyzed! Launch a unified, maximum-intensity press! The individual who secures the kill on Feng Che shall be officially instated by supreme command to inherit the empty seat on the Seven Sages council!" Ryoku barked to the grunts. "Following Vio's pathetic treason, a permanent vacancy has opened within our ranks! Put your backs into it and claim your place as our true comrade!"
The Team Plasma grunts erupted into a manic frenzy, frantically directing their partners to unleash their most devastating payloads. Thousands of Poison Stings, Flamethrowers, and Air Cutters tore across the cavern space, converging directly on Feng Che's coordinates.
"Ninetales, use Fire Spin!"
"Alolan Ninetales, use Moonblast!"
Feng Che handed down his definitive commands.
Ninetales expelled a sequence of towering fire pillars from its maw, the torrents twisting together to manifest a gargantuan, whirring Fire Spin vortex. Thousands of kinetic sparks tore out from the cyclic inferno, creating an exceptionally dense shield of flame that completely incinerated the incoming projectiles before they could even bridge the distance. The Poison Stings dissolved into harmless plumes of blue smoke, while the Flamethrowers were seamlessly siphoned to accelerate the rotation of the fire shield.
Ninetales systematically directed the Fire Spin to roar straight toward Team Plasma's vanguard line.
Watching the colossal column of roaring fire sweep across the floor, the Team Plasma grunts completely lost their cognitive composure, screaming in terror as they broke formation to scramble away in a frantic stampede.
Bronius and Ryoku looked upon their thoroughly routed vanguard, their expressions turning completely ashen with pure embarrassment.
"Vanilluxe, use Ice Beam!"
"Cryogonal, use Blizzard!"
The combined output of the Blizzard and Ice Beam violently locked down the cavern, flash-freezing the environment into a desolate field of permafrost. Yet, Ninetales's Fire Spin remained completely unyielding, the intense thermal energy effortlessly vaporizing the heavy ice into liquid water wherever its path cleared.