Ch 36 – It’s a Long Way to the Top

As the green aura began its process of materializing into Zygarde, no one wanted to make the same mistake they did with Hydreigon. Rune immediately fired an Ice Beam at the ethereal hue, while the Duke shot out a stream of fire at Absol.

The silhouette of the newcomer faltered as the attacks came in. It wasn’t quite clear whether it was Rune or the Duke who caused it, but both targets were stunned just long enough to create an opening.

Blizz wasted no time to dash in with Quick Attack, trying to slam into Absol. The dark type recovered in moments though, intercepting the inbound Treecko with a Night Slash.

The attack easily overpowered Blizz’s, sending him flying back to the human’s main line. To make things worse, the distraction did nothing to stop the summoning process, as the green figure fully materialized.

Now opposing the ten humans was a Zygarde who towered over everyone else on the battlefield.

“Dispatch them,” Absol commanded as he turned back to the conduits. “Do not allow them to draw close to me.”

“Everyone get close to him!” Blizz shouted. “I have no clue what he’s doing, but we need to break those conduits!”

In light of the ten explorers advancing forwards, Zygarde’s green scales began to glow. Within moments, ripples of green surged out of him, tossing up snow as they raced towards the humans.

Ride was able to soar above the attack, but her teammates weren’t as lucky. The Thousand Waves’ force scattered the humans around the plateau, completely disintegrating anything that resembled a front line.

The good news was that the attack wasn’t devastating. Even after the direct hit, no one was out of the battle yet. However, there was now an ethereal energy tethering them to this plateau, like a particularly strong Arena Trap. There would be no retreating from this battle, not that anyone was really considering that option in the first place.

Being the only one to fully evade the attack, Ride attempted to fly over Zygarde and hit the general vicinity of Absol with an Air Slash. Of the three projectiles, one fizzled out in the snow, one exploded on Absol’s back, and one made a small scratch in the conduit Absol was currently working on.

“Zygarde!” Absol angrily shot a Dark Pulse at Ride, forcing her to back off. “I instructed you to keep them away!”

Zygarde gave a nod and turned their lumbering body to face the Taillow. Once again their scales lit up a bright green, and hundreds of gem-shaped blades shot towards the sky.

On the other side of the plateau, Leaf’s glasses were glowing a similar shade of green as he tried to analyze the trajectory of the Thousand Arrows. His eyes widened in horror as they began to descend.

“Ride! Get out of there as fast as you can! You can’t avoid those!”

Ride heeded the warning immediately, but it wasn’t fast enough. One gem grazed her tail feathers, causing her to lose stability and spiral downwards. Four more gems managed to nail her at the same time. She was spiked into the ground, the gemstones pinning her against the rock and snow.

“Ride!” Angel charged head-first into the end of the arrow storm, trying to free her teammate from arrows pinning her down.

“Cover her!” Blizz shouted, creating dozens of duplicates with Double Team. All the Blizz’s ran forward in an attempt to disorient Zygarde.

Heeding Blizz’s call, the Prince, Rune, and the Duke fired off ranged attacks at the same time. While the Shadow Ball and Flamethrower did very little against the serpent, Rune’s Ice Beam caused it to recoil in pain.

Just as Zygarde was preparing a counterattack towards Ride and the Blizz duplicates, they heard the sound of someone clearing a throat behind them.

“Ahem, your attention please?” Emerging from the ground, Fanita fired a Confuse Ray point blank.

With Zygarde being almost completely stationary for the battle so far, there was no avoiding it. The moment the psychic orbs made contact, Zygarde started thrashing as confusion settled in. Their scales began glowing once again, preparing its next attack.

“Zygarde, calm yourself!” With his ally partly debilitated, Absol had to abandon his work on the conduits and join the battle himself.

While this bought them some more time in stopping whatever Absol was planning, Fanita was currently cut off between a famous explorer and a rampaging legendary.

She tried to send a modified Blast Seed in Absol’s direction, but was too slow as the dark type nailed her with a Night Slash. The super effective hit sent her flying away and forced her to drop the seed, falling into the snow.

As all this was going on, Mira slowly snuck her way around both Zygarde and Absol. Using a carefully maintained illusion, she kept herself invisible as she tried to reach the conduits.

As she reached the closest antennae, she tried to remember the schematic Leaf showed her. Taking out the lake trio’s water should make them unusable, all she had to do was cut into the right spot.

Dropping her illusion, she jumped at the conduit, her claws covered in gray energy. She managed to get in three Fury Swipes before the move’s energy faded. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to pierce the conduit, and now Absol was acutely aware of her presence.

Much more concerning, Zygarde had a brief moment of lucidity, seeing the Zorua as well. Their scales lit up green once more, carving the shape of a Z into the earth surrounding Mira. It lingered there for a moment before a surge of dragon energy shot out, completely enveloping the Zorua.

Mira couldn’t do anything else but take the full force of the Core Enforcer. It felt as if she was being inundated with energy trying to tear her apart. As the attack faded, she desperately tried to summon an illusion to cover her retreat, only to not feel anything; it was as if that side of her was completely locked away.

While Mira was not in a very good spot at the moment, focusing solely on her meant that neither Absol or Zygarde was paying attention to the rapidly-approaching army of Blizz duplicates.

The real Blizz knocked over one of the conduits, continuing his war path towards Absol while Zygarde tried to use Crunch on the many fakes.

“What the hell are you even doing here?” Blizz asked, crashing into Absol with Quick Attack. “Couldn’t stand living in the shitshow you created?”

“I am removing the problem at its source,” Absol replied. His horn began glowing purple as he attempted to get the Treecko away from him with a Night Slash.

“Yeah you’ve been saying that a lot,” Blizz said, jumping over the horn and onto Absol’s back. His hands hummed with a green glow, recovering a bit of the energy he lost from Zygarde’s earlier attack with a Giga Drain.

While Blizz and Absol were locked into their duel, the other humans were busy trying to contain Zygarde or help their injured comrades. The flurry of shouting and ranged attacks were just white noise to the two, too focused on fighting each other to pay much attention to the surrounding battle.

“I understand why you might be worried about what I’ve done in the past-” Absol shook Blizz off, following up with a Sucker Punch. “But I don’t believe you’ll have any reservations about my current target.”

Blizz was sent tumbling, having to slide a couple yards through the snow to regain his footing. Absol was stronger and more durable than him, and now it looked like he could keep up in speed as well. The only point in Blizz’s favor was the terrain— navigating the snow was second nature to him. While Absol was constantly thrown off by a leg sinking a little too deep, or wasting an extra half second pushing through a layer of ice, Blizz was able to glide over it.

“Well you kinda fucked over all of Varin, not really sure who else you can go for.”

Too far away for a melee attack, Blizz tried to launch an Energy Ball at Absol. Absol countered with a Dark Pulse, demolishing the grass type attack and slamming into Blizz.

“I haven’t reached all of Varin yet,” Absol stated as he retreated back towards his conduits. As if on cue, all four of them started to let out a shrill buzzing. His expression quickly turned to joy as he looked back.

“Zygarde! End this now and prepare the gateway!”

While Absol was shouting, Blizz felt his headache from earlier return tenfold. Not only were the conduits active, they were much stronger than anything he felt back in Nova Town or at the encampment. He writhed around on the floor, desperately fumbling through his bag for anything that felt like a Persim berry.

Zygarde was focused on the other humans, their scales shining much brighter than any attack they’ve attempted up to this point.

“Watch out!” Kibo shouted, racing alongside Angel to cover the still-incapacitated Mira, Fanita, and Ride. “Something big’s coming!”

Rune stepped backwards trying to figure out what she could do. There was nowhere for her to hide.

The Prince came to a similar conclusion, crouching down in preparation. Whatever was to come next, he would face it with dignity.

Zygarde slammed their tail downwards, causing the ground beneath them began to shake violently. The land abruptly split open and folded in on itself, creating dozens of crevices that opened for a second before slamming shut, and multiple jagged stones that burst out of the earth.

The Land’s Wrath expanded out to the nine explorers, only sparing Absol and Blizz by virtue of the two being behind Zygarde.

Angel and Kibo went down together, falling into a fissure. It slammed open and shut three times, before launching their unconscious bodies into the sky atop a jagged stone spire.

The injured Pokémon behind them stood no chance, each getting impaled by their own personal stalagmite jutting out of the ground.

The Duke attempted to fight the incoming attack, shooting out a Flamethrower in a desperate attempt to melt the ground and cushion its impact. Of course, this proved futile, and the Flareon was easily overpowered.

The Prince seemed to be doing the best of all of them. He ran headfirst into the carnage, leaping from spire to spire and taking care to never remain in one spot for too long. The Land’s Wrath seemed to stop expanding outwards as it focused all of its effort on ensnaring the Umbreon.

Ultimately, the Prince’s approach couldn’t last. Right as he was about to jump off from one spire, it quickly retracted back into the ground, leaving him in the air for a moment with nowhere to go. That moment was all Zygarde needed. The Prince quickly found himself beaten around by walls of rock before falling into a chasm that closed over him.

With the Prince down, that only left one target. Knowing full well that she couldn’t match the Prince’s agility, Rune settled on a last-ditch effort to help Blizz. As the uprooted earth surged forwards her, she looked straight at Zygarde, launching a Sheer Cold.

Rune was consumed the moment after she fired the attack. But the slow moving wave of freezing cold air pressed onwards, taking its time to fly over the battered ground.

Unfortunately the distance was just too great. By the time it actually reached Zygarde, it had lost all of its energy. A tiny part of Zygarde’s head froze over briefly before the ice shattered. Zygarde took no damage from the attack.

The Land’s Wrath had completely destroyed the plateau. What was once a serene snow-capped mountain top was now a hellscape of torn up earth. The only specs of color beyond the snow and stone were the unconscious humans randomly scattered about the landscape.

Content with Zygarde’s process, Absol approached Blizz. The Treecko was still in far too much pain to offer any resistance as Absol lifted his bag off. Absol looked through it for a moment before removing a Persim berry, gently setting it into Blizz’s mouth.

Blizz could barely register what was happening, but bit down, letting the berry dispel the worst of the headache.

He slowly sat back up. Even with the berry, the migraine still felt like it threatened to split his head open. He was in no condition to fight, and it seemed like Absol recognized that too. The dark type looked down at the Treecko with a hopeful expression.

“…It will end soon. Then we will all be free from this curse.”

Zygarde slithered to the center of the plateau. The distorted earth around them warped back to normal as a stark green glow covered them.

Unlike the previous times when Zygarde was preparing an attack, this glow completely surrounded the serpent. It slowly grew upwards, forming a pillar of green light.

The pillar expanded gradually at first, but began to speed up the higher it went. After a minute, it was impossible to see the top as it spread out into space.

Absol looked on in awe, before turning back to Blizz. “…Breach Mountain is the highest point in Varin. It is said that this is where mortals are closest to the gods, hence the spiritual significance.”

Blizz only looked on in a resigned silence. He had no idea what was happening, nor was he in any position to stop it.

Seeing that neither Blizz nor Zygarde seemed to be much for conversation at this moment, Absol continued. “The name Breach Mountain is surprisingly accurate. This is the only point in all of Varin where the domain of mortals can breach into that of the gods.”

The sky above the green pillar of light seemed to distort as a white and gold ring formed. It slowly expanded, a picture becoming more and more visible on the other side.

The first thing Blizz noticed was a series of magnificent white pillars that seemed to practically sparkle. Each one of them was rooted into a chain of intricately detailed slate-colored tiles that formed the flooring of the great hall.

As the breach widened, Blizz could make out more of the hall’s interior. The walls were just as ornate as the pillars and flooring, covered in inscriptions that seemed to depict various Pokémon and symbols he’d never seen before.

There were also numerous pristine white, metal doors built into the walls, all of which wildly varied in size. Some were too small for a human to fit through, others easily towered over 20 meters tall.

The more the breach expanded, the more Blizz could realize the full scale of what he was looking at. An utterly gigantic hall with an unmistakable divine aura to it.

“The Hall of Origin,” Absol commented, staring up with the same sense of awe as Blizz. “The home of almost all legendary Pokémon. Virtually everyone who resides here permanently can look on as a spectator at the crises their negligence causes. At long last, they will understand what it feels like to be made victim to forces completely beyond your control.”

The conduits beside Absol whirred to life once again as the breach lowered itself further. Now directly in front of Zygarde, it was close enough to the ground where Blizz or Absol could simply step through.

For a few moments, there were no sounds. Blizz and Absol wordlessly stared at the portal to the home of the gods, which was now being filled with a radio wave designed to drive all the legendaries mad before effectively killing them.

Eventually, the stillness was broken by a Pokémon emerging from one of the hall’s doors. Latios darted out through the portal, coming to an abrupt stop as it approached Zygarde, Absol, and Blizz.

“What the hell do you think you’re- AHHHHH!”

Latios crashed to the ground mid-sentence, desperately scratching at his head the entire time. The scene only lasted a few seconds though. Latios’ eyes were quickly filled with an emptiness as his entire body went limp.

In all of ten seconds, a legendary Pokémon had become a husk.

The sight finally spurred Blizz to action, as he desperately tried to summon an Energy Ball and throw it at the closest conduit. But trying to summon the attack made his headache far worse and caused him to lose focus. The result was a weak and unstable Energy Ball that Absol was able to quickly intercept with Night Slash, stopping it before it could even get close to the conduit.

“Please, do not do this now,” Absol asked. “You are far too weak, and it is too late to reverse it now.”

As Absol spoke, more legendary Pokémon emerged into the hall, going into a frenzy for a few seconds before collapsing. Most could barely make it out of their doors before falling over, though a couple almost made it through the portal.

“You can’t kill all of them…” Blizz’s voice was shaking, both from the pain and his own disbelief at what he was seeing.

“They have killed far more,” Absol responded, not bothering to look back at his fellow human. “Anyone who lives here has willingly cut themselves off from the mortal world. There are several legendary Pokémon who deserve respect. Not a single one of them live here.”

Blizz could only look on helplessly as more Pokémon collapsed. It was one thing to see the minor legendaries keel over— they’ve fought and won against minor legendaries before, but watching a Pokémon like Groudon let out a defiant roar before collapsing to the ground was a surreal experience.

“Please Ab-Alex…” Blizz looked directly at Absol with a pleading expression. “You can’t… I don’t want everyone to be gone.”

“Everyone who is important will be saved.” Absol didn’t return Blizz’s gaze, too entranced by the sound of more legendary Pokémon succumbing to the Resonance.

The Treecko turned away, limping towards his bag. The evidence of Absol rummaging through it earlier was obvious, but the Z-Crystal was still there. Blizz popped another Persim berry, before gripping onto the crystal.

All of his friends were unconscious. He was too weak to even scale the wreckage of the battle to deliver Reviver Seeds. The only way he could imagine doing anything here is somehow figuring out how to make the crystal work.

He squeezed it in his hand, as if that would somehow draw a use out of it. However, no such use was forthcoming.

He noticed that while the crystal was still transparent, the cracks he’d seen in it before were completely gone now. He tried charging up a less-demanding Leafage, hoping that perhaps that would reveal the crystal’s use.

This time, there was… something. The crystal briefly lit up with a flash of green, before going back to its normal transparent form. But before Blizz could investigate further, a voice shouted inside his head.

“Your battle is not over yet.” While it sounded familiar, trying to figure out the source was overshadowed by the fact that there was a detached voice speaking in his head as his migraine was still going on.

“What the fuck…”

If the voice noticed Blizz’s confusion, it didn’t say anything.

“Before the crisis began, Calyrex demanded that all spatial anomalies be suspended, for fear that this kind of reality manipulation would destabilize Varin further.”

Blizz did not understand anything the detached voice was saying, but he did start to put together who the source was. “…Mewtwo?”

Meanwhile, Absol turned back to Blizz with a concerned stare. “…I apologize, the Resonance must be placing you into a state of delirium.”

“Correct. Now that Calyrex has succumbed to the Resonance, his orders are void. Therefore, it should now be possible to-“

Mewtwo’s words cut off as a new, very odd sensation suddenly struck Blizz. A white light completely enveloped him and took away his ability to see, as all of his limbs suddenly felt like they were getting stretched apart. But it wasn’t painful, more just… awkward. When the light faded and he could see again, he found he was a fair bit higher off the ground than he was just a moment ago.

His goggles pressed into his face, suddenly having become way too tight. Also jarring was the fact that his tail no longer felt like it had any weight to it, and his arms felt heavier than normal. He looked down, and saw a body that very definitely wasn’t his the last time he checked.

Absol looked on in shock. “…You evolved.”

As he said that, a series of white flashes just like Blizz’s shot out from the remains of the battlefield. Stone prisons and impaled rock began to crumble as their prisoners’ bodies forced themselves through.

The first sign of life Blizz saw was a yellow and orange fist punching up through the ground, being followed by the head of a Hakamo-o. He gave Blizz a smile, as he lifted the rest of his body out.

This was quickly succeeded by a Shelgon, getting some help from the Hakamo-o to escape her tomb.

On the other side of the battlefield, a blue and red blur took off to the sky. A Zoroark clawed after her, jumping atop the stone spire and giving a look of pure malice towards Absol.

Mira and Kibo turned right back around, digging into the ground with renewed strength to get their teammates out.

Absol was too stunned to react, while Zygarde stood motionless maintaining the portal. First there was a Lava Plume, melting the rock and allowing a Flareon to jump out. Then came a more conventional explosion, as Fanita and Leaf freed themselves.

Still exhausted from her previous Sheer Cold attempt, Kibo had to dig into the ground to drag Rune out. But it only took a couple Dragon Claws to make an opening big enough to force a Reviver Seed through, and an icy explosion did the rest of the work.

The Prince was the last one to be freed, as Mira concentrated a Night Daze to make a hole big enough where she could lower an Oran. Soon enough, the Umbreon popped out of Blizz’s shadow, giving Absol a smug grin.

Blizz took one last glance at his new arms and the long strands of leaf dangling off them, before turning back to Absol. His headache was almost completely gone, all of his teammates had freed themselves, and half of them evolved.

“Shut it down now.” Blizz’s voice was slightly deeper now, which only served to drive home the weight behind his command to Absol.

Absol slowly shook his head as faint nervousness crossed his face. “I can’t, this has to happen-”

“Then we’re gonna stop you!” Kibo shouted, his voice now booming.

“I wish you the best of luck.” Blizz couldn’t tell if Mewtwo’s voice was quieter, or if the chatter of his teammates drowned it out more.

Absol shook his head, finally breaking out of his stupor. All of the humans he had just defeated were back with a second wind, and looked to be a hell of a lot stronger than before. This wasn’t going to be quite as straightforward as he originally hoped.

“Zygarde, summon all your cells!” After he gave the instruction, Absol quickly gathered all the conduits and leaped into the Hall of Origin.

But before any of the explorers could follow him, Zygarde stepped in front of the portal. Dozens of green beams of energy seemed to fly out from the hall into Zygarde, each one making the legendary Pokémon stand slightly taller.

Blizz tried to run around Zygarde, but was blocked by a pillar of stone shooting up from the ground. When he looked back to the source, he realized the legendary looked very different than they did earlier.

The best way Blizz could describe it was a mecha. It was humanoid-ish, with legs, arms, and a helmet at the top. Joining the black and green color palette were a few streaks of red and blue on its left and right sides. Zygarde was easily twice as tall as they were before, and looked like they had the strength to match.

Moreover, it happened to position itself directly between the portal to the Hall of Origin and the explorers. If they were going to stop Absol, they had to take down a Complete Forme Zygarde first.

“Alright, let’s kick his ass!” Blizz shouted, secretly enjoying the extra depth his voice now had. “We know his tricks now!”

“He appears to be much stronger than before,” the Duke commented, surveying the battlefield they had to fight on.

“Yeah, it’s like all his power multiplied by two!” Leaf reported, his glasses having just finished their scan.

“Now if only all of us had a comparable power increase,” Fanita mused.

“Everyone who evolved, be careful,” Mira asked, opening and closing her new claws. “We don’t know how our new bodies work. Especially for anyone who’s changed the number of legs they walk on.”

“I feel strong as heck though!” Kibo shouted.

“What am I supposed to do?” Angel asked. “I can barely move like this.”

Kibo looked at the Shelgon, an idea forming. “Don’t worry, I got you!” With that as a warning, Kibo picked up Angel, tossed her in the air, and spiked her at Zygarde with a Dragon Tail.

Angel soared through the air, her shell glowing white as she prepared a Headbutt. “HELL YEAH! I’M COMING FOR YOU!”

The ballistic dragon type crashed into Zygarde, causing the titan to stumble back.

With that, the battle began once again. Using his newfound speed, Blizz dashed in to back up Angel. As he leaped through the air, he found himself channeling an energy he was both familiar with and had never used before— All he had to do was just focus and try to bring it out.

After months of waiting and complaining, Blizz finally learned Leaf Blade. The blades of grass stemming from his arms extended as they took on a green glow. He let out a yell of excitement as he slashed at the legendary’s chest.

Before Zygarde could react, streams of ice and fire soared in from either side of Blizz. Rune’s Ice Beam did significantly more, but both allowed Blizz to kick Angel back to his allies and get away himself before Zygarde could counter.

When the titan could see again, they tried to go for another Thousand Waves.

“Try to dodge those!” Mira shouted, watching the green shockwaves travel towards them. “If you get hit, it’ll lock you into this battle! You won’t be able to go after Absol!”

Angel, of course, stood no chance of being able to dodge the hits. The good news was that her new shell seemed to absorb almost all of the incoming damage— she didn’t so much as flinch as waves crashed into her.

Kibo made an attempt but gave up quickly, opting to shield himself instead.

Blizz managed to jump over each shockwave, taking full advantage of Grovyle’s increased agility. As he cleared the last ring, he looked back to evaluate his teammates.

Kibo and Angel were definitely hit, he had no doubts about that. The Prince and the Duke looked fine but were wincing; they probably got grazed. Fanita floated comfortably off the ground, while Leaf was lying face down in a pile of snow.

Above him, Ride was carrying Rune in her talons, both rapidly closing in on Zygarde. Using the Vulpix as a cannon she circled over Zygarde, letting the ice type dish out massive super effective damage.

The wings dangling behind Zygarde shot up, preparing to unleash a Thousand Arrows barrage to shoot the Swellow-Vulpix combo down. But before they could launch, dozens of copies of the duo filled the sky. If Blizz didn’t have personal experience with it, he would have assumed it was a Double Team.

Instead, he looked back to see Mira’s eyes glowing as she projected an illusion across the entire battlefield.

Zygarde appeared to realize this as well, canceling the Thousand Arrows to deal with the more concerning threat. A flash of green shot out from the ground, snaking towards Mira in a Z shape.

Mira tried to run, but was still grazed by the Core Enforcer. Immediately, all the illusions fell out of the sky as Mira felt her ability be locked away once again. Unlike last time, she was still on her feet after being hit by the attack. She wouldn’t be leaving the fight that quickly.

Fanita, meanwhile, tried to creep through the ground towards Zygarde as they readied another Thousand Arrows. Once again, she popped up behind the titan, yet Zygarde wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice. The moment Fanita appeared and could use another Confuse Ray, Zygarde’s attack unleashed.

Unlike last time, only half the arrows flew up into the sky. The other half was launched directly towards Fanita, immediately knocking her out.

Still, 500 arrows was much easier to dodge than 1000. And despite carrying Rune in her talons, the evolution made Ride much faster. She was easily able to fly out of the onslaught’s range, keeping herself and Rune safe.

As the combo flew over their fellow explorers, Blizz tossed a Reviver Seed up. “Give that to Fanita!”

Rune caught it with her paws, giving Blizz a quick nod as they whizzed by.

Once all the arrows had fallen, they doubled back around, coming in for another attack run and to give Fanita her present.

This time their approach was covered by two dragon types; Kibo and Angel were closing in. Kibo decided to not launch the Shelgon this time, instead dribbling her like an oversized soccer ball. Angel didn’t seem to mind much, knowing that she was way too slow to take on Zygarde without help.

Zygarde readied another volley of Thousand Arrows, but Kibo lashed out at their head with a Dragon Claw. The legendary appeared to flinch slightly, assisted by a Headbutt coming from Angel.

The distraction delayed the next arrow volley, allowing Ride to fly over the unconscious Misdreavus and Rune to drop a Reviver Seed directly over her. The seed sailed through the air, landing on top of Fanita where it broke apart.

The energy coursed through her, causing her to open her eyes and immediately sink back into the ground.

Meanwhile, with the airborne duo already out of range once again, Zygarde was forced to direct his attack towards the only targets he could reach: Kibo and Angel.

Another barrage of green gems rained down, though most of them bounced harmlessly off the ground. Between Kibo’s Bulletproof ability and Angel’s near-impenetrable shell, neither of them felt very much from the attack.

Somehow, the near-completely stoic Zygarde looked like they were getting frustrated. The few movements it made were much more erratic, and while their attacks had more power than they did before, the accuracy was reduced. Fed up with this battle, they lowered themself to the ground with their entire body glowing green once again.

“The big fucking attack’s coming again!” Blizz shouted, running around to take stock of his teammates. Everyone was at least conscious and on their feet, which was more than they could say about last time.

But that didn’t change the fact that Ride was the only one who had any feasible way of evading it. And Blizz had no idea how much stronger the attack would be now that Zygarde was a lot tougher than before.

He found his hand moving to the Z-Crystal once again. When Hydreigon used his Z-Move, it was enough to knock out Lucario’s Xerneas in one hit. If there was a chance…

He shot out a hasty Energy Ball at Zygarde, his other hand gripping the crystal. Just like last time, it took on a green tint.

Meanwhile, the Prince was observing Blizz, an idea of his own forming. “Blizz, give me the crystal.”

“Huh?” While he was confused, no one had any time for doubt here. He tossed the crystal to the Prince, who caught it in his mouth.

With the crystal secure, the Prince readied a Shadow Ball of his own. In a single swift motion, he leaped upwards and lobbed it at Zygarde. The color of the crystal shifted from green to black. Equally noticeable, the crystal became slightly more opaque.

But the Prince had no time to rest. He quickly tossed it to the next closest teammate, who happened to be Kibo. “Ready an attack and pass off the crystal!”

“Gotcha!” Kibo released a bit of pent-up frustration at the titan, jumping at them with a Dragon Tail. Zygarde, who was still preparing their Land’s Wrath, had no choice but to take the full force of the Texan’s rage.

Once again, the crystal shifted color, turning yellow and becoming even more opaque. As Kibo considered who to give it to next, he realized that Angel would probably struggle with actually holding it. As a substitute, he just pressed the crystal against her shell while she shot out a Dragon Breath.

By this point, everyone who had already used the crystal were beginning to feel something. It was a vague feeling of energy buzzing through them, like a faint trickle of electricity constantly jolting them.

Meanwhile, Zygarde had finished charging their attack. The Land’s Wrath shot out, beginning the process of tearing up the already-destroyed mountaintop once again in a bid to finally subdue the explorers.

Recognizing the urgency, Kibo tossed the crystal all the way to the back of their line. It sailed through the air as Leaf desperately ran out to catch it. It almost slipped through his flippers, but after fumbling around a few times, he managed to get a solid grip. Immediately, he shot a Bubblebeam into the oncoming Land’s Wrath.

Fanita was next, using a Psychic to lift the now-baby blue crystal out of Leaf’s grip. It wasn’t often she would use an attacking move for the purpose of attacking, but if that was what it took for the Z-Crystal to work, who was she to judge? She tried to fire a Psybeam in Zygarde’s direction, but it was blocked by a spire of stone rocketing out from the ground.

Oh well. The crystal was purple now, which meant she did her part. The Land’s Wrath was rapidly expanding though, and had already swallowed up Kibo and Angel. With a bit of urgency, she floated the crystal to Mira.

Mira was running directly into the Land’s Wrath, still enjoying the feeling of being bipedal again. She jumped onto the spire that just blocked Fanita’s attack, climbing to the top and firing a Night Daze down onto Zygarde.

The crystal now red, she jumped across the battlefield, handing it off to the Duke. The Flareon wasted no time in unleashing a Flamethrower, which while missing the mark did manage to slow down the Land’s Wrath.

He threw the crystal upward, Ride soaring by to catch it in her beak. She wasted no time, flying above the Land’s Wrath and nailing Zygarde with an Air Slash.

Rune, still firmly in Ride’s talons, was the last one to get her paws on it. It was practically glowing by this point, the energy electrifying the entire mountaintop. Rune gestured for Ride to fly in close, to which the Swellow obliged.

Soaring over Zygarde, Rune got ready to line up her shot. As soon as Zygarde was in range, she fired the Sheer Cold.

It was a direct hit, causing Zygarde to slowly become coated in shards of ice. After Yveltal, Rune had no delusions that it would be a one-hit KO, but it also had to do something. So while it did exhaust her, she figured it would be worth it.

Rune dropped the crystal back onto Blizz, who was jumping through the Land’s Wrath in an attempt to avoid being swallowed by the ground. The crystal was charged with energy now, none of them had any doubt about that. The only thing left to do was figure out how to bring it out.

For that, Blizz just tried to follow his instinct. He stopped bothering with dodging the attack unfolding beneath him, diverting his full focus to the budding Z-Move. Even as the sunlight was locked away above him, he didn’t worry.

Energy slowly leaked out of the crystal and into Blizz as he channeled… something. It was almost like a basic attack, in the sense that it had an energy behind it that didn’t belong to any one type. Unlike a basic attack, this felt much, much stronger.

A white orb slowly formed in front of him, steadily growing in size. Its glow lit up the chasm that was trying to kill Blizz, but the Grovyle could barely feel anything now. He continued pushing more energy from the crystal into the orb.

Then it abruptly stopped, the energy from the crystal having ran dry. But the orb was almost Blizz’s size now, which was a lot more impressive now that he’s evolved. He knew the attack was missing something, that it needed just a little more power to reach its full potential. But he had no way of pushing through the final amount, there was just nothing left.

So despite feeling like it was incomplete, he launched the Z-Move as is.

Immediately, a flurry of multicolored beams flew out from orb, directly upwards. It smashed through the rocky prison Blizz was held in, allowing him to crawl out back to the surface.

Up in the sky above the battlefield, all the different beams began to coalesce and fly in circles. They rapidly increased in speed until all that was left was a rainbow colored spinning wheel.

Notably, there was a single transparent vacancy in the wheel, right between its red and purple segments.

It spun around for a few more moments, the concentrated energy not concerned in the slightest about the Land’s Wrath decimating the explorers.

Then, just when it seemed like it was done charging up, the beams of light exploded.

This wasn’t a good explosion, like when a Shadow Ball would detonate against a feral, or when Leaf would lay down a Blast Seed and detonate it from range. This was a violent, loud explosion that rocked the entire mountaintop. Energy surged outwards, hitting everyone present, not only Zygarde.

The blast was simultaneously filled with type energy and yet had no type. Just like a basic attack, everyone was affected equally as it knocked Pokémon off their feet. Not even Zygarde was spared from this fate, the titan finally being knocked over for the first time since the battle began.

For Blizz, it was particularly painful, as the crystal he was holding onto violently exploded out into hundreds of tiny shards. His left hand was covered in cuts and bleeding, on top of the damage from the Land’s Wrath and failed Z-Move catching up to him.

Right then, Blizz had no clue what was going on. The sound of rock structures collapsing filled the mountaintop, but he had no idea if that was just the Land’s Wrath or the blast knocking over everything. Did Zygarde get hit at all by this?

But before he could linger on it for too long, he felt a berry get nudged into his mouth. Without thinking, he bit down and swallowed. He recognized the taste of a Sitrus berry, immediately closing up his open cuts and getting rid of his aches.

He looked up to the source, seeing an equally battered Prince standing over him. “Hurry onwards, we only have a few moments before Zygarde recollects himself.”

“Shit, right.” Feeling the dull buzz of the Sitrus Berry patching up some of his injuries, Blizz ran forward, trying to make it through the portal Zygarde was guarding before they could get up. As he was running, he quickly realized that there were no other pairs of footsteps joining him.

He dove over the titan, making it into the Hall of Origin, before he turned back to see what was going on. All the other former humans were dusting themselves off or getting into battle positions around Zygarde— no one else was going with him.

“Keep going!” Mira shouted, delivering a Night Shade to Zygarde’s chest as the legendary was beginning to rise back to his feet. “Most of us got hit by the Thousand Waves earlier, we can’t follow you!”

“You got this Blizz!” Kibo agreed, delivering a right hook to Zygarde’s face. That wasn’t even a move, Kibo just decided to punch the titan.

“Stop Absol,” Rune cheered, her voice fluctuating between louder and quieter as Ride carried her around the battlefield.

“Be sure to remember everything you have at your disposal,” Fanita gave Blizz a wink, as his bag suddenly felt slightly heavier.

Blizz looked over himself. Dealing with Absol on his own was not what he was expecting, but with Zygarde blocking the portal again, it looks like they made the decision for him.

No way in hell he can let them down now.

“Fuck yeah I will!” With the final burst of motivation, the Grovyle took off into the great hall.

The Hall of Origin felt much more divine now that he was actually in it. The very atmosphere was thick and regal, ornate to the point that even the Prince would feel uncomfortable here. Each set of doors Blizz ran past looked to be more sophisticated than the last— different colors started to emerge, as the engravings became infinitesimally smaller, to the point that he could no longer make it out with just his naked eye.

At last, the hall ended, widening out into a gigantic circular room. The walls and roof looked as if it was made out of space itself, while the floor was a divine glass that appeared to overlook the entire continent of Varin. At the far edge rested a golden throne, with its owner missing.

Between Blizz and the throne rested four metal antennas, a couple legendary Pokémon who had become husks, and Absol.

The dark type looked back at the other former human, letting out a sigh. “Once again, it is just us. Please, let me convince you-”

“Shut the fuck up!” At this point, Blizz was just tired of Absol’s attempts at “reasoning.” He’s had every opportunity to turn back and not kill off an entire species of sentient creatures, yet the former human persisted. At this point, there was no more need to talk.

Blizz lunged forward with a Leaf Blade, meeting Absol’s Night Slash head on. The two engaged in a clash of power for a moment, before Blizz pulled back. Even now that he was evolved, Absol could still overpower him quite easily, and he was aware of that.

Instead, he tried playing to his advantages. Jumping back onto the mystic glass, he crouched down and produced dozens of duplicates with a Double Team.

Absol, meanwhile, didn’t initially react. Instead, he reached for a small seed dangling off his necklace, and bit down onto it. Immediately, the dark type was surrounded by an orb of pink and orange energy, which Blizz could recognize very well by this point.

As soon as Mega Absol emerged, he wasted no time in unleashing a wide-ranged Dark Pulse, trying to dispel as many of the fake Grovyles as possible.

“All I want is for the cycle to end,” he said mid-attack. “This suffering isn’t just our own, it is the burden of every Pokémon across Varin.”

“That’s a bitch take and you know it.” Blizz shot back with an Energy Ball, giving away his real location but managing to get some decent damage in.

Absol immediately darted after the real Blizz, readying another Night Slash. Now that Absol was mega-evolved, the attack looked a lot more intimidating than it did earlier.

Using Quick Attack, he ran towards and over Absol, taking the dark type by surprise and throwing off his attack. This was immediately followed by two Leaf Blades directed towards Absol’s pseudo-wings.

Absol let out a grunt as Blizz lashed out at him, pivoting around to deliver another Night Slash. From this position, Blizz stood no chance of dodging. He felt the dark type energy cut into him and send him flying, causing him to bounce over the glass floor with a series of dull thuds.

Blizz reached into his bag, looking for an Oran Berry while there was still some distance between him and Absol. Instead, he found what felt like an oversized seed that was definitely not there 10 minutes ago.

He dove out of the way of an incoming Dark Pulse, taking the mystery object out of his bag. It was an oversized blast seed, with some marks along the bottom half denoting someone had hollowed it out. Engraved onto the front was a heart surrounding the words with love.

Blizz looked to the bundle of conduits Absol had set up, and back at his gift from Fanita. It was one of her and Leaf’s improvised explosives, the type they would use to cut through the floors and walls of mystery dungeons. Normally they have a fuse attached to them, but there was no way he could set something like that up while also fighting Absol.

So a much worse idea crossed his mind.

He dashed forward with another Quick Attack, once again having no intention of ramming into Absol with it. Instead, he ran towards the conduits, holding the blast seed out to the side.

It didn’t take long for Absol to realize Blizz’s plan, desperately shooting another Night Pulse ahead of Blizz. “Do not do that! The floor might not be able to-”

“Eat shit.” Blizz slid underneath the helix of energy, continuing his warpath to the conduits. For less than a fraction of a second, there was some doubt in his mind. What if it didn’t work? What if the explosive didn’t go off, or worse, it went off but didn’t destroy the conduits?

Those doubts were beaten away as soon as they entered his mind. At the end of everything, he had to trust his teammates, even Fanita. And if taking down Absol was as difficult as it was appearing to be, then this was the only real alternative.

Absol ran forward, horn shining purple, making one last desperate attempt to stop Blizz. “Please, do not do this! You are worth more than every-”

Blizz didn’t hesitate. He tossed the bomb into the air, and split it with a Leaf Blade.

---

It was kinda ironic, in a way. When he fought Hydreigon and Yveltal, he got to experience what it felt like to die. The feeling of his soul being drawn out of his body and eradicated by the god of death was not something he ever wished to relive. That death was almost hollow, like he couldn’t feel anything except for an indescribable, ubiquitous pain. Then he got to remember what it was like to die as a human. Being trapped and not having the strength to do so much as move a finger, wondering whether it would be hypothermia or asphyxiation that would get him first. That death was cold.

Now, he got to feel fire. Compared to his other experiences, this was an average way to die. Less painful than his soul being forcefully extracted from his body, more painful than running out of oxygen in an icy tomb. A nice, morbid, middle ground.

Blizz could feel the burns covering his entire body the moment the flash of orange entered his field of vision. Aside from the blast, he could also make out the sound of glass shattering, and wind rushing against his face.

He tried to open his eyes. The goggles gave him some protection from the blast, though the right lens shattered and embedded some plastic into his eye. Still, his left was functional, allowing him to see his surroundings.

He was high above Varin, in a free fall. Surrounding him were dozens of pieces of debris, including components of the conduits. Good, he managed to get those.

Notably, Absol was missing. The dark type probably was able to get out of the way of the blast, or at least got knocked off the glass section. But even if Absol was still alive and kicking, now that the conduits were broken and deactivated, Mewtwo could come back and take Absol down. Or maybe his teammates could do that first. Who knew?

The free fall continued. He could start to see the torn up summit of Breach Mountain now.

The end of his fall was approaching.

A part of him was sad at the way it ended. If sacrificing himself meant that the others could live on, then he would’ve done it in a heartbeat. The problem was he didn’t completely know.

Did Zar make it out alright? She wasn’t very far from the conduit when Absol activated it. Hopefully she didn’t become a husk.

He could see specks of color on the mountaintop now. His teammates.

Over on the edge, an imposing black figure was sprawled out on the floor.

Good, they beat Zygarde. Things would probably be fine then.

As he continued to fall, he noticed a small yellow orb fall alongside him. It started from his head, and slowly moved down to his feet before fading away.

Then it did it again. And again.

Somewhere in this process, he felt something violently crash into him, and his descent slowed down slightly. A blur of blue and red feathers. Was Ride trying to save him?

Not worth it. Even if the fall didn’t kill him, the burns would.

Ride was yelling something, but everything was too loud. Blizz couldn’t make it out.

All the while, the yellow orb kept appearing and disappearing. Eventually, it was joined by another. And a third.

Ride appeared to have something similar going on as well. So he wasn’t the only one?

More orbs kept coming. It started becoming very difficult to see past them.

Eventually, a quiet voice spoke out. It wasn’t coming from Ride, himself, or even Mewtwo. It was something deep— simultaneously gentle yet full of authority as it reverberated inside his mind.

“You have done well.”

Did he? Blizz supposed it was passable. Everyone sorta died, but they could be brought back by Mewtwo or someone.

“Do not worry, this is now our problem to resolve.”

Reassuring.

“Be at rest now. For your service, you will be returned to your home. Thank you, young man. It was yours, and all your allies’ determination that allowed life to continue.”

So he’s going back to Nova Town? Seems like an odd place to take him.

“…Not Nova Town.”

Blizz didn’t know what that meant. It pretty much was his home, right?

Ride’s feathers were impossible to see now, completely blocked out by the golden hue.

The feelings of pain began to fade away. The burning sensation covering his body, the aches from the countless days of fighting, the plastic pressed deep into his right eye, all of it began to subside.

The howling of the wind became duller and duller, until it ceased completely. The pain was completely gone by this point, as was most other feeling in his body.

The last thing to go was his eyesight. The golden hue that surrounded him became dimmer and dimmer, until everything went black.

---

No Pokémon ended up crashing into the ground. The only thing that did was a leather bag missing its owner, and a pair of damaged All-Weather Goggles.

As the remains of conduits and pieces of the Hall of Origin rained down over the continent, ten Pokémon faded away from Varin.