After the circus performance ended, the ringmaster, the clown man, planned to go and see how the deputy ringmaster's side of things had gone.
Walking to the outside of the tent, he saw two guards faithfully carrying out their duties. The clown man nodded with satisfaction.
"Ringmaster!"
When they saw the clown man coming, the two guards respectfully gave their greeting.
"Not bad!" The clown man praised the two with a word of approval.
After entering the tent, he surveyed the furnishings inside, and only then did he open the entrance to the basement.
But when he went inside, he was dumbfounded. The basement was a complete mess, obviously having gone through a fierce battle, and as for the deputy ringmaster and that girl, there was not a trace of either of them.
The deputy ringmaster ran away with the people? No, no, no… impossible…
The clown man immediately realized that something bad had happened. He rushed out and grabbed a guard, asking: "Before I came, did anyone else come here?"
The two guards shook their heads blankly.
"Really no one?"
"No." "Truly no."
Getting no useful information from the guards, the clown man decided to leave Verdanturf City immediately. It seemed this place was no longer safe to stay.
He hurriedly left, intending to make preparations to leave Verdanturf City, but he had barely taken a few steps when the people from Verdanturf City's police department surrounded the entire circus.
Not everyone in the circus was aware of the things the ringmaster and other higher-ups were doing. The majority really were just circus employees. Seeing their circus suddenly surrounded, they were both utterly confused and filled with panic.
"Excuse me, where is your ringmaster Lax?" Masato Shirai grabbed one of the circus performers and asked.
"R…Ringmaster? Huh? Where did the ringmaster go? He was just here a moment ago!" The performer looked left and right, but not seeing the ringmaster's figure, could only stammer out a reply.
At the very moment the circus was surrounded, the ringmaster Lax (the clown man) had already quietly concealed himself, intending to escape in secret.
Unfortunately, Masato Shirai worked very meticulously. In the air, many Flying-type Pokémon with the Keen Eye ability had already been stationed to monitor.
Sure enough, as soon as Lax made any suspicious movement, the birds discovered him and began raising frantic alarms. In just an instant, Lax was surrounded by the police who rushed over upon hearing the reports.
Leading the charge, Officer Saskia came with her Arcanine, glaring at Lax with a face full of "ferocity": "You are the ringmaster Lax? Please come with us!"
In his panic, Lax calmed himself down in just an instant. Raising a smile, he asked: "May I ask, Officer Jenny, I don't know what crime I have committed? I have always been a good citizen who abides by the law!"
Saskia waved her hand: "What crime you committed will be known once you arrive at the station. Be good and come with us."
Go with them? That was impossible. If he went, how could he ever come back? Lax knew that if the things they had done were truly exposed, once he entered the police station, he would never be able to come out again.
Thinking this, Lax could not help but curse the deputy ringmaster in his heart. Temporary workers are really unreliable!
The reason he was now in this predicament could only be because something had gone wrong with the deputy ringmaster's side—there was no other possibility.
"Truly sorry!" Lax withdrew the smile from his face. "But there is no way I will go with you, so I must apologize…"
The moment his words fell, by his side appeared a Pokémon—a Typhlosion.
With a roar, Typhlosion spewed out a vast black smoke from its mouth, enveloping and concealing Lax within it.
Just as Lax was about to take advantage of Typhlosion's Smokescreen to flee, suddenly, from above in the sky came a strange laugh.
"Gah gah gah… it's finally my grand time to appear!"
A great wind suddenly arose, and in just an instant it blew away all the smoke, leaving Lax standing with his Typhlosion in plain sight, dumbfounded.
"Gah gah gah… I, your grand master, am indeed awesome!"
Lax raised his head and saw, perched above, a Chatot looking down at him with a mischievous expression.
"Amazing!" Saskia gave Chatot a thumbs up in praise.
"Gah gah gah…"
Chatot laughed even more gleefully, its strange cries ringing out continuously.
Lax was enraged, shouting: "Typhlosion, Flamethrower!" Having failed to escape, he had no choice but to stake everything.
"Roar~"
Typhlosion opened its great mouth, fiery flames gathering within its throat.
Saskia, upon seeing the situation, shouted loudly: "Arcanine!"
Arcanine understood tacitly, leaping forward into the air and landing in front of Typhlosion, and in the very next second the flames were spewed out from Typhlosion's mouth.
"Ah-wooo~"
Arcanine's fiery red fur was fluttering, all the flames that Typhlosion had spewed out were drawn in, condensed onto its body, and then absorbed by it.
It was the Flash Fire ability!
The other officers surrounding Lax saw that he was violently resisting, so they all commanded their partners to attack Lax, and in an instant, multicolored moves drowned Lax.
"Tsk, tsk..." Chatot in the sky who was suppressing the field couldn't help but think: that guy won't really be beaten to death, right?
Of course, Lax wouldn't die that easily, only to see that at the center of those multicolored moves, a purple light sphere suddenly burst out, blasting away all the moves.
By Lax's side, when no one knew exactly when, an Alakazam had appeared, and in its hands, the two spoons crossed, forming an eggshell-shaped psychic shield that protected Typhlosion and Lax within it.
Alakazam was powerful, not at all inferior to the Umbreon they had captured earlier.
The purple light flickered in Alakazam's eyes, which was the sign that it was about to use psychic power once again. Beams of purple rays shot out from within the shield, blasting away the officers and their partners entirely.
Psychic!
Saskia directed Arcanine to attack, but all were blocked by Alakazam's psychic barrier.
Chatot, seeing this, flapped its wings and descended rapidly, arriving directly in front of Alakazam. Alakazam immediately became highly alert, the two spoons in its hands switching stance, but Chatot's attack had already arrived.
Only to see a pillar-shaped soundwave erupting from Chatot's body, crashing fiercely into Alakazam's psychic shield, producing a buzzing sound.
Boomburst!
Alakazam's psychic shield held, though it was already on the verge of collapse.
But before Alakazam and Lax could feel relieved, Chatot's next wave of Boomburst arrived again, and the psychic barrier finally couldn't hold anymore, shattering under the impact of the soundwave.
Alakazam was blown away by the sound pillar, flying backwards all the way, crashing into several tents behind it.
"Typhlosion!"
Lax roared in anger, Typhlosion upon hearing this began to charge its ultimate flamethrower, thick smoke rolling from its back, flames mixed with the thick smoke bursting forth in torrents.
This time Typhlosion's attack range was too large, even Arcanine's Flash Fire ability couldn't handle it.
"Swampert, Muddy Water!"
At this time, a delicate shout suddenly came from behind Saskia, it turned out to be May who is arriving with her Swampert.
May and Rand had earlier been helping Masato Shirai arrest others, but now that most of the people had been caught, she brought Swampert to support Saskia.
Only to see Swampert's surroundings burst with a torrent of muddy water, the water surging and transforming into giant waves, instantly swallowing all of Typhlosion's flames.
Lax still wanted Typhlosion to continue, but the next second Swampert was already at Typhlosion's side, lifting its massive fist and slamming it down hard.
With a miserable scream, Typhlosion fainted and collapsed to the ground.
Lax's eyes widened with rage, shouting out: "Since you are pressing me so hard, then do not blame me for being ruthless."
Upon hearing this, both Saskia and May's hearts skipped a beat, a bad premonition rising spontaneously.
"Alakazam!"
Only to hear Lax shout loudly, then the Alakazam that had been buried in the tents revealed itself, and in the blink of an eye appeared beside Lax.
And in Lax's hand, no one knew when, another Poké Ball had appeared. With a flash of red light, an exceptionally gigantic Golurk appeared beside Lax.
"Alakazam!"
Lax shouted once again, and Alakazam crossed its spoons before its chest, psychic energy transforming into rays that shot directly at Golurk's chest, at the spot where there was a seal shaped like a bandage.
Legend had it that in the seal on Golurk's chest there was an endless power, once opened, the consequences would be endless!
"Gurdong~"
Golurk also roared, slapping a giant hand onto the "bandage" on its chest with a loud smack, then with a sudden yank, that bandage was ripped off.
Hoo hoo~ hoo hoo hoo~
As that "bandage" was casually thrown away by Golurk, the golden crack in its chest began to grow larger and larger.
May and Saskia only heard a loud crack, then Golurk's chest shattered completely, and a black hole appeared there.
Golurk's signs of life ended right then, the light in its eyes suddenly extinguished, standing motionless there, but from the black hole in its chest an immense energy was erupting out, incomparably terrifying.
Under this overwhelming energy impact, May and Saskia couldn't even stand stably, and could only rely on Swampert and Arcanine to shield them.
"Ahhh… what's happening here! Save me…"
Though Chatot was strong, its body was small, and under the energy shock it was flailing about helplessly, nearly like a withered leaf in the west wind, pitiful and powerless.
Yet that was not the most troublesome part, only to see that the black energy pouring out twisted and transformed into ghost-type Pokémon-shaped monsters.
Gastly, Haunter, Gengar, Misdreavus, Mismagius… Duskull, Dusclops, Dusknoir… Shuppet, Banette…
Jie jie jie…
These monsters all without exception had a pair of blood-red eyes.
The outskirts where the circus was located very quickly turned into a pandemonium of demons dancing wildly, a true purgatory. If it weren't for the fact that the police had already evacuated the people before surrounding the place, it would have been a huge disaster by now.
These ghost-type Pokémon did not say a word before launching attacks against the officers. Unlike real Pokémon, they did not use various moves; their methods of attack were very simple, clearly showing that they had no intelligence.
But their numbers were simply too many. Moreover, the body of that dead Golurk was still continuously spewing out black energy. As long as the spewing did not end, and the energy did not dissipate, the monsters would appear endlessly.
"Attack with full force, stop these monsters from spreading to other places!" Masato Shirai roared loudly, commanding Arcanine to attack the monsters.
With one breath of flames from Arcanine, several monsters were burned to ashes, their bones completely gone, but soon after, even more monsters pounced forward.
"Yes!"
The officers responded, one after another commanding their partners to counterattack, and in an instant, the scene became a complete mess.
May and Officer Saskia realized that they had to eliminate that Golurk. Just as they were about to get close, countless monsters lunged forward. Swampert and Arcanine, with only two, could not fight against so many hands at once, and under the monsters' attacks, wounds and gashes were left all over their bodies.
As for Lax along with Alakazam and Typhlosion, they had already been drowned by the sea of monsters. The monsters did not treat them as allies at all.
At this very moment, Yuga was at home watching TV. At first, he felt that inside his own shadow space, the Ghost World Origin Stone seemed a bit abnormal. Then suddenly, he sensed a powerful ghost-type energy erupting in the vicinity of Verdanturf City.
He immediately got up and walked out the door. Following the sense, he looked, and to his shock, in the outskirts of Verdanturf City there were wisps of black mist rising.
Others perhaps could not see them, but Yuga could see them as clearly as daylight. What's more, the power inside his body that belonged to the King of Ghosts had already begun to stir restlessly.
At that moment, Gengar and Mismagius appeared, one on his left and one on his right.
Yuga asked: "You both felt it too?"
"Gengar~"
"Mismagius~"
The two Pokémon nodded.
Yuga lowered his head and looked down, and saw that in his shadow beneath his feet, Palossand had also secretly poked its head out.
That seemed to be the location of that circus that Gothorita and the others had mentioned! Yuga could not help but think in his heart.
"We have to go take a look."
"Gengar~"
"Mismagius~"
After responding with a sound, Gengar and Mismagius dragged Palossand back into the shadow space once again.
Just then Nana happened to come out. Yuga said to it: "Nana, take me to a place?"
Nana suddenly turned its head sharply. The moment Yuga saw its eyes, he instantly knew—this wasn't Nana, this was Shasha.
"Where to?"
But in the next second, Shasha's expression changed again, and a voice followed the change—at this moment it had already switched from Shasha back into Nana, its personality switching was smooth and seamless.
When Nana carried Yuga to the outskirts, what they saw was exactly the scene of pandemonium and demons running wild. Masato Shirai and the other officers had long since been exhausted by the endless monsters.
It was also thanks to their efforts that the monsters had not spread to other places, nor entered Verdanturf City.
The monsters noticed Yuga's arrival, and thus rushed at him one after another, but in the end they were all blocked outside by Nana's psychic power.
With just a casual wave of Nana's hand, a wave of psychic energy swept out, and countless monsters were instantly annihilated.
The commotion caused by Nana drew the attention of Masato Shirai, and he shouted out with joy: "Gym Leader Shimizu!"
Yuga nodded slightly towards him. Although he did not know what had happened, he knew that this was not the time to question things. What mattered most right now was dealing with these monsters.
Even before Yuga could summon them, Gengar and Mismagius had already appeared outside.
The moment Gengar and Mismagius appeared, all the monsters that were rushing forward froze in their movements.
"Gengar~"
Gengar's body suddenly swelled, and its mouth split open like a bottomless abyss. With a fierce inhalation, countless monsters were dragged uncontrollably toward it, then tumbled down into the abyss, devoured by it.
Mismagius refused to be outdone. In an instant, its golden eyes shone with an eerie glow. The monsters that came near it all stopped moving, then began walking forward one by one.
Their destination was none other than Yuga's shadow.
At some point Yuga's shadow had already transformed into the entrance of the shadow space, a bottomless black hole.
The monsters lined up and jumped inside one by one, like puppets being pulled by strings.
Palossand sneaked out, sprawling at the edge of the shadow space like a pancake. It opened its mouth wide, and from time to time several monsters accidentally fell inside.
"Chomp chomp~"
It ate with great delight.
Dealing with these monsters really was, for Yuga, a matter of professional expertise.