After everyone roughly understood the principle behind the Stonehenge formation, they all fell into deep thought.
Even if they understood the principle, how were they supposed to get across?
Sam picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it onto one of the floating boulders.
The stone landed steadily on top of it, and the boulder didn't collapse.
"Does that mean it's safe?" Sam asked.
Sabrina shook her head.
"No. The stones only react when they come into contact with living creatures."
That immediately ruined the idea of testing the path through trial and error.
Sam thought for a moment before adding, "Then why don't we just fly across?"
This time, he threw another rock toward the opposite side with all his strength.
But halfway through the air, the stone suddenly stopped and dropped straight downward.
Sam frowned.
Did he throw it wrong?
He picked up another stone and tried again.
The result was exactly the same.
The rock abruptly lost momentum in midair and fell directly into the abyss below.
"What kind of strange principle is this?" Sam muttered. "How can rocks suddenly change trajectory like that?"
"This cliff can't be crossed by flying," Sabrina explained seriously. "There's a mysterious force here that prevents anything from passing through the air directly."
"In other words, we can only solve the Stonehenge puzzle," Misty said helplessly.
"But how are we supposed to solve it?" she added.
Sabrina spread her hands slightly.
"I don't know yet."
Everyone fell silent again.
Just then, Blaine's voice suddenly rang out.
"Look! There's a stone tablet over here!"
Everyone hurried over.
The words carved onto the stone tablet were blurry and difficult to make out.
Ash squinted carefully as he read.
"These look like elemental symbols… This one should represent water… and this one represents fire…"
Everyone examined it closely.
Sure enough, the symbols did seem to represent elemental attributes.
"But what does that even mean?" Sam asked, confused.
Ash scratched his head irritably.
"Seriously, there aren't any actual clues here at all!"
Everyone looked troubled.
Then Sabrina's eyes suddenly lit up.
"I think I understand now."
Everyone immediately turned toward her.
"It's a correspondence between elements," Sabrina explained calmly. "Each element symbol corresponds to a specific floating boulder."
The group listened carefully to her explanation.
The more they listened, the more reasonable it sounded.
Sam quickly grasped part of the logic.
"Let's try it your way," he said decisively.
Following Sabrina's calculations, everyone carefully stepped onto the first floating stone.
The instant they landed, everyone tensed nervously.
But the stone remained perfectly stable, floating firmly in place without any sign of collapsing.
"It worked!"
The group immediately cheered.
Following Sabrina's method, they continued crossing from stone to stone.
Soon, everyone successfully passed through the Stonehenge formation and arrived at the next area.
The third stage was a mysterious chamber.
The moment they stepped inside, lights suddenly illuminated the room, and a mechanical voice echoed around them.
"Welcome, Trainers. Here, we will test your strength to determine whether you are qualified to enter Cerulean Cave."
"What kind of test is this?" Sam muttered.
As long as it wasn't another puzzle like Stonehenge, he was fine with it.
A straight battle would honestly be much better.
Soon, mechanisms activated in front of them, revealing several capsule-like devices resembling sleeping pods.
"Please place the Pokémon you wish to battle into the circular slot. Then all Trainers may enter the sleep chambers."
Everyone followed the instructions.
Sam also placed Charizard's Poké Ball into the mechanism before entering one of the pods himself.
As the machine activated, Sam suddenly felt his consciousness being pulled into a strange space.
It was an extremely mysterious world.
The walls around him seemed indestructible, and there was no visible exit anywhere.
"So this is the battle arena?" Sam murmured.
At that moment, a flash of white light appeared.
A Pokémon materialized before him.
[Pokémon] Charizard
[Attribute] Fire/Flying
[Category] Flame Pokémon
[Ability] Blaze
[Hidden Ability] Solar Power
[Strength] Mid Champion Rank
Sam's eyes widened.
"Charizard?!"
But he quickly noticed something strange.
This Charizard hadn't fused with the Four-Tails.
Aside from lacking the fusion, however, everything else about it was almost identical to his own Charizard.
At that moment, a Poké Ball rolled to Sam's feet.
Confused, he picked it up and released the Pokémon inside.
Another Charizard appeared.
[Pokémon] Charizard
[Attribute] Fire/Flying
[Category] Flame Pokémon
[Fusion Rate] 100% — Four-Tails Sun Wukong Fusion
[Ability] Blaze
[Hidden Ability] Solar Power
[Strength] Mid Champion Rank
This one was his real Charizard.
Sam stared at the two nearly identical Pokémon.
The only visible difference was that his fused Charizard possessed dark golden flame patterns across its body.
What exactly was going on here?