Boom.
"What was that?!"
In the middle of the fierce exchange between the Elite-level Pokémon, the ground lurched. The entire Sea Temple shuddered as though struck from below, a tremor that ran through the walls and floor like an earthquake.
David's head snapped upward from his perch on the wall.
Above the ruins, the pale membrane of light that had encased the entire temple — the seal that had held this place apart from the world for two centuries — was showing fractures. Fine lines of darkness spread across it like cracking ice.
It wouldn't be long now. Within minutes, the Sea Temple would break free from its sealed space entirely.
Down in the plaza, the standoff had not broken.
"Are you certain you want to keep this up until we've all destroyed each other?" The black-clad man shifted tactics, his voice dropping into something measured and deliberate. "The Sea Clan hasn't exactly been thriving lately, has it? If all of you die here — and then our organization turns its attention to what's left of your family — think carefully about what that means for the people you left behind."
"Then we die here." The Sea Clan leader's answer came without hesitation. "One more or less makes no difference to your organization. But can you say the same for yours?"
David, listening from above, felt a deep wave of contempt. Threatening a man's family to break his resolve — it was exactly the kind of move you'd expect from people like this.
He knew about the Sea Clan. He had come across their history before — a lineage that had built its entire identity around devotion to Lugia, and a small number of whom were said to carry an inherited gift of special power. In the height of the ancient Cloudspire Empire, they had been formidable: their reach had extended across nearly every sea and coastal region of the known eastern lands. For a time, almost every ship that put out to sea flew an emblem of Lugia — the Sea Clan's mark. Their influence had been that complete.
But the black-clad man wasn't entirely wrong, either. Since roughly two hundred years ago, the Sea Clan had all but vanished from the Cloudspire Alliance's records. During their peak, they had counted more than one Champion among their ranks, and reportedly even Trainers of a level beyond that. Looking now at these few Pokémon who had only just reached Elite level — it was clear that what stood before him was the shadow of what the Sea Clan had once been.
The black-clad man seemed to believe his threat had landed. The Sea Clan members were visibly shaken, their eyes moving to their leader.
He thought he had won.
"No matter what happens — we will not allow you to lay hands on what the Sea God left behind. Even if it costs us our lives."
The leader's voice was quiet but absolute.
The hesitation in the others vanished the moment he spoke. They settled back into their stances without another word.
"Damn it." The black-clad man's jaw tightened. He looked at the fracturing seal overhead, and something in his expression shifted from fury to decision. "Use it. You two — hold them. I'll go for the treasure myself."
He left his full complement of Elite Pokémon to hold the line, taking only his own Pokémon with him as he broke from the group and moved swiftly toward the inner sanctum of the temple.
The gamble had to be made. If he came away from all of this with only the Fire Feather — and without even the Ice Feather, which he still didn't know had already found its way into David's pocket — it wouldn't come close to meeting what the organization expected. In a hierarchy that ran entirely on results, failing at this scale had one well-known outcome. His appointment with Giratina would come sooner rather than later.
David had already slipped down from the wall and was easing closer through the shadows, and the sight of the man moving for the inner hall told him something was wrong. There would be no traps or mechanisms inside — this was a temple built in reverence to Lugia. Desecrating it with crude defences would be unthinkable. Whatever was in there, it wasn't going to stop the black-clad man on its own.
David watched the man's silhouette disappear through the main doors and picked up his pace, keeping Zorua's illusion wrapped tightly around him.
"Stop! You are not setting foot in there!"
A Sea Clan member nearby roared and surged forward, Samurott at his side — a Pokémon that had reached Gym level — charging straight after the black-clad man.
The two subordinates who had just been given their orders, however, did not reach for their Poké Balls.
They simply stood there.
For a moment, no one was sure what they were doing.
Then David saw it.
"Get down — everyone get down!"
The warning tore out of him before he'd fully processed what he was seeing. Because he had seen it before.
The two men — who had looked perfectly human just seconds ago — were coming apart. Cracks spread across their skin in an instant, dark red light bleeding out through every fracture. Black and red filaments began pushing through the splits in their faces and arms, splitting the flesh like something was forcing its way out from inside. Several of the Pokémon standing near them had begun the same transformation.
David recognised it immediately. On the road to Cloud City, when Mr. K's plan had been derailed and he had chosen to destroy himself rather than be captured, it had looked exactly like this.
These organisations were connected. He didn't believe for a second that two separate groups had independently developed something like this without some degree of cooperation or shared resources.
The explosion threw him sideways. The shockwave hit like a physical wall, slamming into David hard enough that his vision flickered and his thoughts scattered for half a second. Even Zorua's illusion wavered under the force of the pressure wave — her normally unshakeable disguise stuttering at the edges, nearly dropping entirely.
But the blast worked in his favour.
In the chaos and noise of the explosion, with Zorua pulling the illusion back together and Dragapult moving in close on his other side, David crossed the remaining distance to the inner hall's entrance without a single person noticing.
The black-clad man was now inside with only his own Pokémon. Obstagoon had been left outside with the rest. There was no one in there who could pose a real threat.
The mantis had gone for the cicada. The cicada had done its part without knowing it.
Now it was the hunter's turn.