Yveltal swooped lower, dark red energy surging from its wings.
"Princess Diancie!"
Diancie turned. Dr. Zuan and Magima were running toward them across the scorched ground.
"Stay back!" Diancie called.
Cynthia bowed her head until her forehead nearly rested against Steven's. She said nothing. She simply waited.
Steven was already unconscious. He had given everything — Mega Evolving three Pokémon at once, enduring Oblivion Wing at close range as it stripped away his life force, and then pushing Metagross through a Z-Move unlike anything he had ever attempted. That Z-Move had been born from six Z-Crystals fused into one. He hadn't even had time to think of a name for it.
Boom!
A beam of pure rainbow light, threaded through with white, slammed into Yveltal with tremendous force.
A soft pink mist drifted through the air. Diancie blinked — and felt something rush back into her body. Warmth. Strength.
She looked up.
Xerneas landed lightly in front of her, its front hooves touching down on the scorched earth with quiet grace. Its antlers had turned a pale beige, the gems adorning them radiating a steady, gentle rainbow glow. Its expression was calm, composed — and from across its entire body, small motes of green light drifted upward like embers rising from a fire. Wherever Xerneas stood, the earth beneath it began to breathe again.
Fairy Aura expanded outward, calm and absolute, and Yveltal's Dark Aura simply dissolved before it.
It was Xerneas's signature move — Geomancy.
High above, Yveltal's crimson eyes slowly shifted back to blue. The dark energy clinging to the air faded completely. Yveltal hovered in place for a moment, gazing down at Xerneas with clear, calm eyes.
Then, without any further ceremony, it turned and flew away.
Trouble caused, mess left behind. Xerneas, as ever, was left to sort it out.
"Xerneas, please — save them."
Diancie hopped quickly to Xerneas's side, looking up with a pleading expression.
Xerneas lowered its head and surveyed the scene. Two people lay huddled together, their hair gone white, their faces aged far beyond their years — barely clinging to life. The Pokémon scattered across the ground around them had not been petrified, but their life force was nearly gone. Every one of them was hanging by a thread.
"I understand," Xerneas said. It lifted its gaze to the sky, now clear and blue once more.
"He did everything in his power to protect this forest. And this forest lent him its strength in return."
Xerneas shimmered with a deep emerald light. Waves of green energy rippled outward in slow, steady pulses.
The petrified trees cracked and softened, bark returning to living wood, stone branches unfurling into leaves. The murky water in the streams ran clear again. The earth itself swelled with new life as countless tiny blades of grass pushed through the soil, stretching toward the light.
The four people who had been turned to stone — along with their Pokémon — stirred and came back to themselves.
"What is this...?" Lylat looked around at the flowing green light, puzzled.
"It's Xerneas," Milis said, adjusting her glasses with a tired smile. "Its power brought us back."
Maryling exhaled quietly, reaching out to take Delphox's hand.
"I think I need to rest for a good while." She had no desire to feel her life draining away a second time.
"Agreed," Lylat said.
They had been used as instruments to awaken Yveltal — the first to pay the price. It was not an experience any of them wanted to revisit.
"Dad?" Milis turned to Argus. "What about you?"
"Me?" Argus laughed, loud and easy. "I'm heading to Hoenn to retire. I hear they've got a new chocolate there!"
Milis stared at him. Words failed her.
Still — whatever else had happened today — they had all been reminded, in the starkest possible terms, of something easy to forget. Life was precious. You only truly understood that when you had lost it, even for a moment.
Xerneas's form slowly began to shift. Its outline blurred and softened, taking on the shape of a great tree, roots reaching deep into the earth. It had chosen this place to slumber. A rich, quiet aura of life settled over the area like a breath finally released.
"Meta... gross?"
Metagross stirred. It rose slowly from the crater it had carved into the ground, joints grinding, and looked toward the two figures still lying together nearby. It let out a careful, uncertain sound.
Cynthia felt it first — the warmth returning. She watched as the white slowly left Steven's hair, silver-blue spreading back from the roots. The lines on his face eased. The hands she had been holding, wrinkled and thin just moments before, became firm and familiar again.
She opened her eyes fully.
Diancie stood watching Xerneas — now still and silent in its new form as the Tree of Life — and her large eyes filled with quiet sorrow.
"There is no need for sadness."
Xerneas's voice reached Diancie gently, as though carried on the wind.
"This is not death. It is the shape of new life. It is... the beginning of hope."
"The beginning of hope..." Diancie repeated softly, her gaze resting on the great tree.
Steven's eyes opened.
The first thing he saw was Cynthia's face — worry etched into every line of it, watching him carefully.
"It seems... Xerneas made it in time," he said, managing a small smile.
Late. But not absent.
"Mm." Cynthia nodded, glancing upward.
Steven followed her gaze to the tall tree standing before Diancie, radiating warmth and life in steady, gentle waves.
He pressed a hand to his head — still swimming — and tried to sit up. Cynthia pulled him gently back down.
"Rest a little longer," she said quietly. "You just scared me half to death."
Steven settled back without argument. He looked at his Pokémon, sitting exhausted on the ground around them, and felt the weight of the last few minutes settle over him like something heavy.
Those two minutes facing Yveltal had felt like a century.
Calling Legendary Pokémon gods was no exaggeration. In just a few short minutes, Yveltal had nearly reduced an ancient primeval forest to ruin. Steven stared up at the sky and thought, with quiet certainty, that he was nowhere near that level of power yet.
"Hm?"
He turned his hand over and looked at his palm.
A soft, verdant green light was glowing there — steady and warm, like sunlight filtered through leaves.
He could feel the energy directly. Not on the surface of his skin, but somewhere deeper — a warmth that seemed to come from the forest itself.
This power had first appeared in Viridian Forest in the Kanto region, and so it was known by that name — Viridian Power, born from the blessing of the woods. Not everyone who carried it had received it from Viridian Forest specifically; the name simply honored where it was first known to emerge. Today, Orses Forest had passed it on to him.
Steven let out a quiet breath, something between a laugh and a sigh.
From today's ordeal, he had gained a fused Z-Crystal — six types merged into one — a Z-Move exclusive to Metagross powerful enough to push back Yveltal itself, and now, the blessing of Orses Forest in the form of Viridian Power.
He looked at the face beside him and, without further protest, let his head rest in Cynthia's lap.
She had told him to rest. He would take her at her word.
Those few minutes had been short.
But they had been exhausting beyond measure.