The glowing figure's words hit Aaron like a bomb going off inside his head.
"Two sides?"
The small Arceus-like figure nodded slowly, a thoughtful look passing through its luminous eyes.
"That's right. Think of it as a sphere. The world you live in now is called the Outer World, and it exists on the surface of that sphere. It has day and night, the warmth of the sun, and a vast sky full of stars."
Its voice remained calm, but the space around them seemed to grow quieter with every word.
"But inside that same sphere, another world exists."
"The Inner World."
"There is no sunlight there. No day. Only endless darkness, violence, and slaughter."
"A world like hell."
The light in its eyes dimmed slightly, as though it had sunk into memories older than history itself.
"Long, long ago, before this world fully took shape, everything was still chaos. The world itself already existed in its earliest form, and Arceus was born alongside it as its creator."
"But Arceus was not the only being born from that beginning."
"In the Inner World, another existence came into being as well."
"Shadow Arceus."
Aaron's expression tightened.
"The Original One was born with the primordial power of creation. With that power, she created the three great deities who govern time, space, and the Distortion World: Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina."
"After them, she created one Legendary Pokémon after another, each with its own role. Through them, the world gained seas, mountains, land, air, and sky."
"Little by little, a complete world was formed."
After countless ages, new life finally appeared. Pokémon, humans, and other living beings were born, multiplied, and evolved across the Outer World. Everything seemed to be moving toward a brighter future.
Then, one day, that future was destroyed.
For the first time, the figure's calm voice trembled.
"Giratina, who dwelled within the Distortion World, secretly made a pact with Shadow Arceus of the Inner World. Together, they opened a massive passage between the two sides."
"The Distortion World is the only bridge between the Outer World and the Inner World. Only when the Giratina of both worlds open it together can a true path between them appear."
"And through that passage, Shadow Arceus entered the Outer World."
"With it came the Shadow Legendaries it had created."
The figure lowered its eyes.
"That day, countless lives in the Outer World were slaughtered. Shadow Arceus and its Shadow Pokémon hunted everything they could find."
"Arceus woke from her slumber in fury and led the Legendary Pokémon of the Outer World in a counterattack."
"The war that followed devastated the world. Pokémon and humans were nearly driven to extinction."
The Pokémon of the Inner World had lived in endless conflict for ages. They were stronger, more vicious, and far more used to killing. Against them, the Pokémon of the Outer World were forced back again and again, suffering enormous losses.
"Arceus knew that if the war continued, every living thing in the Outer World would eventually be wiped out."
"So she made a decision."
The starlight around them seemed to dim.
"At the cost of her own life, Arceus gravely wounded Shadow Arceus. Then she used her remaining primordial power to seal the only passage between the two worlds."
"Most of the Shadow Pokémon were forced back into the Inner World, and only then did that thousand-year war finally come to an end."
A deep sadness passed through the figure's eyes.
Aaron stood there in silence, completely shaken.
He had lived in this world for so long, yet he had never imagined another world existed on the other side of it.
So the Shadow Mewtwo, Shadow Lugia, and other variants he remembered from his previous world might not have been strange one-off mutations here.
In this world, they might have been Legendary Pokémon from the Inner World.
Then another memory surfaced.
Back in the forest, Moss's grandfather had once said that the continent where their ancestral tribe lived had been destroyed by a group of pitch-black Pokémon.
So that was what he had meant.
Shadow Pokémon from the Inner World.
For a moment, Aaron's thoughts were a mess. Everything he had just heard had overturned his understanding of the world.
But he was still someone who had transmigrated here. He had awakened a System. He had seen enough impossible things to keep himself from falling apart.
After a few seconds, he forced himself to calm down and looked back at the glowing figure floating in the air.
"You said Arceus sacrificed herself."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Then what are you?"
"You look like Arceus. Are you Arceus, or not?"
A faint light passed through the figure's eyes.
"I am Arceus," it said softly. "But only a fragment of her."
Seeing the confusion in Aaron's eyes, it continued.
"Arceus is the creator born alongside this world. As long as the Outer World has not been destroyed, she cannot truly die."
"In her final moments, Arceus turned the divine power she had left into eighteen sacred Plates, one for each type."
Its voice slowed, as if each name carried weight.
"Insect, Draco, Dread, Pixie, Blank, Spooky, Mind, Fist, and Stone."
A brief pause.
"Then Toxic, Iron, Icicle, Zap, Sky, Flame, Earth, Meadow, and Splash."
"Each one carries a fragment of Arceus's will."
Brilliant light began to radiate from the small figure. Its white eyes shone with blinding intensity, and an ethereal voice echoed through the ninth floor.
"And I..."
"Am one of them."
"The Zap Plate."
KRAKOOOM!
The moment those words fell, storm clouds gathered across the star-filled sky. Thunder rolled through the void, and a massive bolt of lightning descended like a dragon, striking the glowing figure directly.
An ancient, heavy pressure spread outward.
Lightning crackled across its body, and within that radiance, an old stone Plate slowly emerged.
Mysterious patterns were carved across its surface. Terrifying Electric-type energy poured from it, filling the entire ninth floor.
In that instant, the space felt as if a thunder god had descended among the stars.
BOOM!
Countless bolts of lightning roared through the sky and the void, as though welcoming the return of their king.
Aaron stared at the scene, shocked all over again.
"The eighteen Plates of Arceus..."
"The Zap Plate..."
He murmured the words almost unconsciously.
Of course he knew that Arceus had Plates in the world he came from.
But he had never imagined that, in this world, the Plates had such an origin.
Fragments of Arceus's remaining power.
Fragments of the Original One's will.
And one of them was standing right in front of him.
...