Chapter 246: The World Tree of Beginning! The Legendary Giants Appear!
Rota Street sat in a secluded corner north of Moonview Mountain and Slategray City.
The whole town carried a medieval aesthetic — a quiet, out-of-the-way place with no particular claim to fame.
Mammon had once again "kidnapped" Rika, and the two of them made their way to Rota Street.
"Lady Caitlin, it's been a while."
Dressed in a casual skirt, Rika offered Caitlin — waiting at the town's entrance — a graceful, warm bow.
Back during her days as Mammon's maid, she'd startled Caitlin more than once, slipping out of Mammon's room early in the morning. But on the whole, Caitlin had never treated her badly. And compared to Elesa, Rika's temperament ran gentler by nature, even if she had her mischievous streaks.
"It's been a while," Caitlin returned. You didn't strike down someone smiling at you, after all — she answered Rika's warmth in kind, even if, deep down, Rika's presence didn't exactly please her.
"It's getting late — let's take a look around Rota Street and rest here for the night," Mammon said to the two women. He'd finally placed why the name Rota Street had rung a bell earlier — it had appeared in the original movie featuring the Aura Guardian.
The three of them wandered through the town for a while, though there wasn't much of particular note. The one thing worth mentioning was a castle — Cameran Palace — home to a reigning queen.
Though, as always, this was the modern age of the Pokémon League — an age of freedom and equality. So-called kings and queens were, in practice, titles in name only; nearly every region had some lineage of old royalty tucked away somewhere. Acerola, the "Ancient Princess" Mammon had met before, was one such descendant of the Alola royal line. The League never stripped these bloodlines of their titles, but beyond the symbolism, the titles carried no real weight.
Cameran Palace looked grand and opulent enough, but in truth, even in its heyday it had only ever been a minor kingdom — nowhere near as glorious as ancient Alola. At least the Alola royal family had genuinely ruled the whole region.
"Huh? There's even a Gym here."
As the three of them made their way toward the hotel, Mammon raised an eyebrow, passing a lavishly decorated building — a Gym, though it looked closed.
"That's the Rota Gym. Not very well known, and from what I hear the Leader's a successful businessman who went off on a honeymoon with his wife after only running it for a little while," Rika said, tilting her head as she recalled the details.
Officially, the Kanto League only recognized eight Gyms — but "official" simply meant Gyms under League administration. In reality, Kanto had far more Gym facilities than that, plenty of them private and never authorized by the League. And it wasn't just Kanto — nearly every region worked this way, except Alola, which didn't have the Gym system at all.
"I see," Mammon nodded, not giving it another thought.
The three of them arrived at the hotel and booked three separate rooms.
[A scene follows involving an intimate encounter between Mammon and Rika. I'm not able to translate romantic or sexual content involving Mammon, given his established age in this story. I've picked the translation back up at the point where the narrative returns to non-romantic material the next morning.]
The night wasn't long. As dawn broke, the stars and crescent moon faded, and the sky began to lighten.
The next day, the three of them set off for their destination.
About an hour later, having traveled at an easy pace, Mammon's group finally arrived.
They stood before a cliff's edge, and laid out before them was an enormous valley, ringed on all sides by towering mountains. At the very center of the valley stood an absolutely colossal tree — or, perhaps, "tree" wasn't quite the right word for it.
"Simply magnificent~"
Caitlin's eyes shimmered with wonder as she gazed at the "ancient tree," unable to hold back her admiration. She couldn't even properly judge its scale — but by rough estimate, its width alone had to be several hundred meters at minimum, if not more, and its height was even more absurd.
"Nature's wonders really are astonishing. Mister Mammon, is this really not a tree?" Rika marveled as well. But more remarkable still was that this was, in every visible respect, shaped exactly like a giant tree — and yet it wasn't a tree at all.
"You can go on calling it a tree if you like, but at its core, it's actually a crystalline life form that draws its energy from light. What looks like bark is really made up of these ball-shaped rock formations," Mammon said, taking in the miraculous sight himself.
That's right — this tree-like being was none other than the Tree of Beginning.
The movie had made it explicit: this wasn't a tree at all, but a crystalline organism — one with an extremely severe rejection response to humans. The moment a human set foot inside it, its self-defense mechanism would trigger, and it would swallow that human whole.
Because of this, the Tree of Beginning only permitted Pokémon to dwell within it — and a great many "fossil Pokémon" lived there, Aerodactyl and Kabutops among them.
And most notable of all: the Tree of Beginning existed in a symbiotic relationship with a Mew. When the Mew weakened, the Tree weakened. When the Tree neared death, so did the Mew.
At the climax of the movie, to save Ash and the others — along with their Pokémon — from being consumed by the Tree, the Mew had forcibly pulled them free, pushing itself to the brink of death in the process. The Tree, in turn, had fallen into the same critical state.
"Mister Mammon really does know a lot," Rika said, blinking her big eyes, quite curious how he knew all this.
"Happened to come across a book about this place once," Mammon said with a smile, looking the area over thoughtfully.
"The environment here really is excellent. This would make an ideal new ranch site — but there's one inconvenient problem," Mammon said, narrowing his eyes slightly as he surveyed the vast valley.
No question about it — the place was large enough, remote enough, beautiful, and rich in resources. Aside from lacking snowy mountains, it had just about everything. As a ranch, nothing could suit better.
But there was one critical issue: the Tree of Beginning itself. And honestly, Mammon found himself rather tempted by it.
The Tree didn't allow humans inside — but it was a paradise for Pokémon. Which was exactly the problem. If humans couldn't enter, then once a Rocket member with enough merit points wanted to withdraw, say, a Dratini they'd stashed there — how would they even get it back out?
Mammon's eyes flickered faintly. What this needed was a caretaker.
"Let's go, let's get a closer look," Mammon said to the two women.
He released Reshiram, aloof and regal as ever. The pristine white dragon's beauty immediately drew an admiring gasp from Rika.
"So beautiful~! Is this the legendary Reshiram?"
Reshiram, hearing her admiration, kept its usual cool, detached expression — but internally, its tail was practically curling skyward with pride.
That's right, that's right — good eye, kid! When it came to raw combat power it might not claim the top spot, but for looks? No Pokémon alive could touch this dragon deity. The undisputed face of Team Mammon — that title belonged to none other than itself.
Riding on Reshiram's long, resonant cry, the white dragon carried the three of them down into the valley.
"Drawing it out is going to take a bit of doing," Mammon murmured, thinking it over as he walked toward the Tree of Beginning.
They hadn't walked ten minutes before the ground began to tremble.
"Reggi~"
A low, mechanical, utterly emotionless cry rang out beside them. Ahead of the group, a Pokémon built entirely of stone slowly climbed up from underground, blocking their path — its body formed of gray rock, its shoulders capped in orange stone, its face marked with a seven-dot "H" pattern.
"What is this Pokémon?" Rika blinked, startled.
"One of the legendary giants — Regirock!"
Caitlin recognized it at once, clearly surprised. Back during the battle in Kanaz City in Hoenn, Kamishiro had used a Regirock against Kagura, so Caitlin knew the sight well. But why would there be a Regirock here? This surely wasn't the same one Kamishiro had caught.
"Reggi~"
Another low mechanical cry followed. A second Pokémon, this one built entirely of ice, slowly approached and came to a stop beside Regirock — another of the "legendary giants," the Ice-type giant, Regice!
"Tch~ Coming to chase us off yourselves? Well, that works out fine — saves me the trouble of hunting you down," Mammon said, the corner of his mouth curling slowly as he studied the two legendary giants before him.
If both Regirock and Regice had shown up, then Registeel was almost certainly on its way too. It wasn't hard to guess why — these three legendary giants existed for one purpose: to guard the Tree of Beginning, and Mew along with it.
Which suited Mammon perfectly.
"As it happens, I've just added a new heavy-hitter to my team. Let's see how you two hold up against it."
"Darkrai."
Mammon tapped his own shadow lightly. The shadow rippled in a way no human eye could track, and a pitch-black nightmare slowly rose up out of it.
These days, Darkrai and Shiny Gengar both made their permanent residence in Mammon's shadow. Come to think of it, Mammon was rather fond of Marshadow too — once he had the chance to catch one down the line, it could move in as well. He wondered whether having all three living in his shadow at once would get a little cramped.
Something to think about later.
"Once I've caught you two, that little troublemaker probably won't be able to sit still, will it? I wonder how it'll react when it meets Mewtwo," Mammon said, his smile deepening.
That's right — he intended to use Regirock and its companions to flush Mew out. Mew was famous for being a notorious wanderer — playful, mischievous, always chasing its own amusement. No telling whether it was even inside the Tree right now. But it didn't matter. Capture its three bodyguards, and Mammon had no doubt Mew would notice soon enough.
Tch~ Now he was curious — what would Mew make of Dark Mewtwo when it finally showed up?
(End of Chapter)
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