Inside a luxurious villa, Quentin was drinking tea when his communicator suddenly sounded an emergency alert.
Startled, he immediately opened the message.
"Dad, come save me… Aaron is trying to kill me!"
Those glaring red words instantly entered his sight.
CRACK!
The antique teacup in Quentin's hand shattered into pieces.
A naked killing intent flashed through his eyes.
"Aaron…"
"If you kill my son, I'll wipe out your entire family!"
Without hesitation, Quentin released his ace Pokémon, Salamence, leapt onto its back, and shot toward the location attached to the message.
BOOOOM!
Salamence tore through the sky at terrifying speed, leaving a massive white trail behind the clouds.
…
Eastside Ruins.
At that moment, the area resembled a ghostly procession.
Six Ghost-type Pokémon radiating terrifying pressure stared at Greninja's Bond Phenomenon Form with vicious eyes.
Only Gengar's blood-red eyes showed deep caution as it watched Greninja.
After all, it had personally witnessed this monster instantly slaughter four Pokémon.
Of course it was afraid.
The other five Pokémon, however, saw that Greninja's aura was only at late Gym-level strength, and mocking looks appeared in their eyes.
This kind of opponent required all of them together?
Just thinking about it felt humiliating.
"Take this seriously, all of you…"
"This enemy isn't simple!"
Seeing the looks on his Pokémon's faces, the assassin's expression darkened as he shouted coldly.
"Woooooo…"
The Ghost-types let out eerie cries.
"Attack together!"
"Gengar, Shadow Ball!"
"Misdreavus, Shadow Ball too!"
"Banette, Phantom Force!"
"Spiritomb, Dark Pulse!"
"Cofagrigus, Shadow Ball!"
…
The assassin gave every command at once without holding anything back.
"ROAR!"
"Woooo!"
"Keh heh heh…"
For a moment, the entire Eastside Ruins seemed to transform into a nightmare realm of ghosts.
The temperature dropped sharply.
Cold winds howled through the ruins as eerie cries echoed everywhere.
Pitch-black Ghost-type energy surged from the six Pokémon.
Their terrifying power seemed strong enough to swallow even the sunlight.
Dark clouds gathered overhead once more.
Lightning flashed.
Thunder roared.
Then torrential rain crashed down from the sky.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
The assassin's Pokémon condensed terrifying energy as gigantic attacks rapidly formed across the battlefield.
The pressure alone cracked the earth beneath them.
This was no longer just Gengar's strength alone.
The power of all six Ghost-types had combined together.
Lightning flashed wildly through the sky.
Black arcs of energy crackled through the storm clouds.
The ground split apart as though the end of the world had arrived.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
All of the attacks blasted toward Greninja and Aaron at the same time.
Aaron's expression remained calm.
A faint cross-shaped pupil appeared within his dark eyes.
His consciousness had already synchronized with Greninja's.
Man and frog had become one.
Aaron was Greninja.
Greninja was Aaron.
Aaron could even see through Greninja's eyes.
Inside Greninja's vision, everything had slowed down.
The evolution brought by the Bond Phenomenon had pushed his reaction speed to an absurd level.
At this moment, Greninja's neural processing ability was terrifying beyond belief.
Every movement around him was crystal clear.
It felt as though he had become a god.
Then suddenly—
An image flashed through Aaron's mind.
Greninja stood before a gigantic ancient bronze gate.
The ancient bronze gate towered into the sky, covered in mysterious carvings.
Aaron's pupils suddenly shrank.
Because every carving depicted a Legendary Pokémon.
At the very bottom of the gate were Zapdos, Moltres, Articuno, Suicune, Raikou, Entei, and many others.
Higher up were Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, Victini…
Above them were Darkrai, Cresselia, and other Legendary Pokémon.
…
At the very top were Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Dialga, the god of time, Palkia, the god of space, Giratina, the god of antimatter, and many more…
It was as though the gate contained carvings of nearly every Legendary and Mythical Pokémon ever spoken of in legend.
Aaron stared at the scene in complete shock.
In front of the colossal ancient bronze gate, Greninja looked as tiny as an ant.
Are we supposed to open this thing?
Aaron thought silently.
He drifted over to Greninja's side and exchanged a glance with him.
Then man and frog raised their hands together and pushed against the towering ancient bronze gate with all their strength.
But the gate did not move at all.
It was like trying to push a mountain with bare hands.
"Damn it… it's too heavy!"
"How are we supposed to open this!?"
Aaron panted heavily.
It would not budge.
Not even a little.
"Grenin…"
Greninja was exhausted as well. He slowly sat down and looked up at the absurdly massive ancient bronze gate.
Somehow, Aaron felt that both he and Greninja were still missing something.
To him, this gate felt like a threshold.
A threshold leading into an entirely new world.
If they could push it open, then something unbelievable would definitely happen.
That was Aaron's intuition.
At that moment, both Aaron and Greninja suddenly vanished from the space.
Silence returned once more.
Yet not long after they disappeared, a humanoid Pokémon with a pinkish-white body and a long purple tail quietly appeared there.
Its eyes glowed with a mysterious purple light.
Slowly, it stretched out both hands and gently pushed against the ancient bronze gate.
BOOOOM!
A deafening roar echoed throughout the space.
The ancient bronze gate, silent for a hundred years and never once opened by anyone…
was finally pushed open.
…