"So then — could this Sea Pillar of yours have some connection to that priest who tried to steal the god's power?"
After listening to the man in black's account, David couldn't help but voice the thought that had been nagging at him.
According to what he had just been told, it was the mad High Priest's betrayal that had sent Lugia into a rage — and that rage was what had sealed this Sea Temple a thousand meters beneath the ocean floor. Yet somehow, these people had shown up with a token that could activate the ruins.
Lugia had sealed this place in fury, severing all ties with the Sea People. There was no way she would have left behind a way back in for anyone — let alone for this group. The only connection David could think of led back to the other key figure in that story: the arrogant High Priest who had tried to steal divine power.
"This — well, I —"
"Hmm~"
The man in black, who had been speaking so fluently just moments before, suddenly started to stammer. David hummed quietly. Beside him, Dragapult glided forward, and a deep violet glow began to build along its tail.
"No, no, no! I'll talk, I'll talk!"
The man in black swallowed hard and blurted it out, thinking to himself that he had truly stumbled into the worst possible luck today.
"First off — this is a rumor. Just a rumor! I can't vouch for whether it's true."
"That's fine. Say what you know. Don't leave anything out."
With David's go-ahead, the man in black steadied himself and continued.
"Ahem. That branch of the Sea People who left for other lands — they've become one of the largest factions within the Supreme Organization."
"According to what gets passed around internally, the Sea Pillar is said to be a direct descendant of that High Priest. As for the tokens — they were distributed to us at the start of the operation, which was a few months ago."
"My guess is that the High Priest's plan back then didn't completely fall apart. What we had today was probably one of the things he left behind."
He then retrieved the ancient pendant from inside his coat and held it out. David took it and turned it over slowly in his hand. It was old — at least a century, by the feel of it. The man's guess was likely right.
David was about to press further when the pendant suddenly blazed with a sharp white light.
He flinched. If he hadn't sensed that it carried no threatening aura, he might have flung the thing across the room.
"What is this?"
He turned to the man in black.
"That — it's, well, probably — I think it might be —"
The man was fumbling again, stringing words together without saying anything.
"Wait. Something's wrong — Dragapult!"
A thought struck David and he called out to Dragapult — but before the Pokémon could even respond, a wave of white light erupted from the center of the main hall and swept outward across the entire Sea Temple ruins in an instant.
It reached everything. David and the man in black inside the inner hall. The Supreme Organization members and the Sea People trapped outside in the outer chambers. Even the man David had restrained back in the Ice Temple.
Every living person within the ruins was caught in the wave, and each of them began to glow with the same blinding white light.
The light that washed over David carried with it a clear, unmistakable feeling of rejection — as if the space itself were pushing him out.
"Relax. When the token glows like that, it means the Sea Ruins are returning to the real world from their sealed state. To make sure the transition goes smoothly, every living thing inside gets sent out. So — farewell!"
The man in black, who had been stumbling over his words just seconds ago, spoke up with sudden clarity now that the teleportation had already activated. He even managed a parting explanation.
Then the light surged, and in the next instant, contracted at blinding speed. When it faded, every figure in the ruins was gone.
Only the wreckage of battle and the plundered temple remained as proof that anyone had been there at all.
"Ah —"
"Solomon!"
Above the East Sea, just outside the ruins, David was ejected from the Sea Temple and returned to the real world — and found himself in mid-air.
He looked down at the water below. A straight fall from this height would leave even someone with his physical condition bedridden for two days — and that was without accounting for the wound on his arm that still hadn't healed.
He moved quickly. His hand shot to his belt and he yanked out two Poké Balls.
"Lapras, Kirlia — go!"
Both Poké Balls flew from his hand. Lapras materialized and plunged into the sea below — for a Water-type Pokémon, a drop like that from altitude was nothing at all. It resurfaced almost immediately.
Kirlia, appearing alongside it, needed no instruction. Without a word from David, it used Teleport, pulling David and the Zorua on his shoulder out of the air in an instant.
The next moment, David landed safely on Lapras's back and let out a long breath.
Not everyone was so fortunate, though. Plenty of the others caught in the teleportation had Water-type Pokémon with them and at least wouldn't drown — but falling from that height still left most of them dazed and battered. Unlike David, they didn't have a Kirlia, and they certainly didn't share his unusually resilient constitution.
"A fair number of people are going to end up in the hospital after this," David thought, watching as figures dropped from the sky into the water like stones.
The area was already surrounded. Naval vessels had cordoned off the entire stretch of sea, and lifeboats were pushing out in every direction toward the survivors in the water. The lead warship was heading straight for David and Lapras.
As the people who had fallen into the sea were pulled to safety one by one, David felt the tension in his chest ease a little. It didn't look like there would be too many casualties from this.
He even spotted the Supreme Organization members who had been caught in the ruins. They had regrouped in the water, keeping afloat with the help of several Pokémon suited for the sea. Leading them was the man in black — the very one who had slipped free of David's hands moments ago.
David wasn't the only one who noticed. Two more warships immediately changed course and moved in from both sides, closing in like pincers.
Then David felt something cold on his face. He reached up and touched it — a raindrop.
He looked up.
Dark clouds had rolled in from somewhere nearby — far too fast, completely ignoring any natural weather pattern. In moments, they spread across the entire sky, and a heavy, steady rain began to fall.
"Something isn't right."
"This can't be good."
Even near the coast, weather at sea could be unpredictable. But this? Dark clouds appearing out of nowhere moments after stepping out of the ruins — that wasn't natural weather. Something else was at work.
Then the sea responded. Waves surged upward, and even from Lapras's back, David could feel the water churning beneath the surface, restless and building.