The river outside the village was far deeper than Yuga and his companions had imagined. The three of them rode on their Water-type Pokémon for quite a while before they finally saw the riverbed.
Yuga was riding Lapras, and at the same time he summoned out Chimecho, which created a psychic barrier around his body. With this, he was able to move freely in the water.
Yuga then took out a flashlight to illuminate the surroundings, and the three began to explore along the riverbed.
The entrance to the cavern that the family of three had gone into was covered by the water weeds at the bottom of the river. It took the three of them quite a while to locate it.
After pushing aside the water weeds, the three thought it over for a moment, then carefully urged their Water-type Pokémon forward and swam inside.
As soon as they entered, the beam of Yuga's flashlight lit up a pair of eyes the size of lanterns. With the help of the light, the three clearly saw the creature in front of them.
...
[ Gyarados (Mutated) ]
Type: Water, Flying
Ability: Intimidate
Gender: Male
Aptitude: Blue
Level: 79
Moves: Bite, Leer, Roar, Uproar, Twister, Ice Fang, Aqua Tail, Scary Face, Dragon Rage, Dragon Dance, Crunch, Hydro Pump, Hurricane, Dark Pulse, Iron Tail, Outrage, Water Pulse.
...
A Pokémon nearly at Champion level standing guard—no wonder those three were beaten back out! Yuga could not help but think.
"Roooaaar~~~!"
Upon seeing intruders once again, Gyarados glared with eyes as big as bronze bells and let out a furious roar. The sound carried the move Roar, and combined with its Intimidate ability, it made Yuga and his companions' hearts contract in shock.
As expected of a Pokémon only one step away from Champion level, and one that had mutated as well.
The Kingdra beneath Seiryu and the Dragonite beneath Iris were immediately forced back into their Poké Balls by Gyarados's Roar. The trainers on their backs were left helplessly struggling in the water.
Chimecho's eyes flashed, and Seiryu and Iris were pulled into its psychic barrier, allowing them to finally breathe smoothly again.
Once that was done, Chimecho glared angrily at Gyarados: How dare you roar at my Yuga? Do you have a death wish?!
Don't be fooled by Chimecho's delicate and adorable appearance—its level spoke for itself. As its aura spread outward, the force radiating from Gyarados faltered, and even its Intimidate ability was unconsciously withdrawn.
Although it felt some fear in its heart, Gyarados did not retreat. It still stood firmly in their way, then opened its massive jaws and lunged at them with Crunch.
But neither Yuga nor Chimecho paid the attack any mind. Gyarados bit down fiercely on the barrier, yet the barrier remained completely unharmed.
At this moment, the Lapras beneath Yuga released a chilling cold breath, and Gyarados's head was instantly encased in ice.
This was even with Lapras holding back—otherwise, Gyarados would likely have been frozen completely.
Now, with only half its body able to move, Gyarados thrashed desperately, its ice-covered head smashing against the cavern wall in an attempt to shatter the ice, stirring the river water into violent turbulence.
Just as Chimecho was about to finish it off, Seiryu suddenly shouted: "Wait!"
Chimecho looked at him in puzzlement, and then heard Seiryu say: "Let me try to communicate with it!"
Yuga thought for a moment: That's right! Aren't there two Remnant of the Dragon Clan right here?
So he nodded toward Chimecho.
Seiryu closed his eyes and began to draw upon his special ability, attempting to communicate with Gyarados.
After a while, Gyarados really did calm down.
It seemed that communication had succeeded.
Reopening his eyes, Seiryu said to Yuga: "Mr. Shimizu, could you please help Gyarados by removing the ice from its head?"
"Alright."
Yuga replied, then looked toward Chimecho. Chimecho understood immediately—its eyes flashed, and the ice encasing Gyarados shattered into powder.
Freed from its frozen prison, Gyarados indeed no longer appeared hostile. The look it gave Seiryu was very gentle.
Just as the information had said, the Remnants of the Dragon Clan truly could help them enter the ruin.
Seeing this, Iris also used her special ability to communicate with Gyarados. Sure enough, she too gained its acknowledgment, and Gyarados's attitude toward her likewise became friendly.
As for Yuga, in light of its earlier miserable defeat, Gyarados looked at him with a faint trace of fear, not even daring to meet his eyes.
Previously, when it regarded Yuga and the others as enemies, Gyarados had no choice but to block the intruders due to its mission. Now that its mission had ended, its gaze toward the strong naturally carried reverence.
No one knew exactly what Seiryu had communicated with Gyarados, but Gyarados took the three of them deeper into the cavern. None of them had expected, however, that the cavern would be so incredibly deep—they swam for a very long time before finally reaching the end.
At the end of the cavern stood a stone gate, about the height of a person. But because it had not been opened for so long, the gate was covered in moss, and the surroundings were overgrown with water weeds, making it difficult even to approach.
Helpless, Yuga summoned out Florges.
Florges's body emitted a soft green glow, and from the water weeds and moss floated little specks of green light that merged into its body.
In the blink of an eye, all of the weeds and moss withered and decayed.
This was a deeper-level application of the move Absorb.
Seeing this scene, both Iris and Seiryu had looks of shock on their faces, they felt that Florges before their eyes should already possess the power to control nature.
And the gaze with which Gyarados looked at Yuga became even more fearful.
This human is terrifying!
After all the moss and water plants were cleared away, Yuga pushed the stone gate with his hands, but he could not move it at all. He turned to look at Gyarados and asked: "How do we get in?"
Gyarados' eyes flickered slightly, and it looked at Seiryu.
Seiryu stepped forward, placed his hand on a circular groove in the middle of the stone gate, mobilized his Dragon Tamer power, and injected it into the groove. Then Yuga saw the stone gate begin to emit a blue-violet glow.
But the glow dimmed halfway through and went out.
Seiryu looked at Yuga and Iris with an apologetic face and said: "Sorry, my ability is not enough, I need Iris' help."
"Got it!"
Iris responded cheerfully, leapt to the front of the stone gate, and also placed her hand into the groove.
The two of them exerted power at the same time, one mobilizing Dragon Tamer power, the other mobilizing Dragon Force power, and the two forces quickly fused together.
Although the special powers of the Dragon Tamer and the Dragon Force had subtle differences, they originated from the same root, both derived from the same kind of power.
As expected, under the efforts of the two, the blue-violet glow radiating from the stone gate grew more and more dazzling. When it brightened to a certain degree, only a loud "rumble" could be heard, and the stone gate opened.
The three of them carefully stepped into the stone gate, and saw that on the other side of the stone gate there was actually a barrier that completely separated the river water from outside.
Inside the barrier was a pure white passage, still glittering and glowing, dazzling to look at.
Yuga thought for a moment and left Lapras outside.
"Lapras, you and Gyarados stay outside, don't let anyone approach the stone gate." Because there was no water on the other side of the stone gate, it would be very inconvenient for Gyarados to enter.
This was both to prevent outsiders from intruding and also to guard against Gyarados turning traitor (although the possibility was small, it was still necessary to guard).
The white passage inside the stone gate was not long, and very quickly Yuga and the others reached its end. At the end of the white passage was a blue-violet whirlpool.
The whirlpool kept rotating endlessly, looking like a spatial passage, leading who knows where.
"Should we go in?"
Iris was a bold girl, very curious about what lay on the other side of the whirlpool, her face showing a look of eager anticipation.
"Of course, we've already come this far, there's no reason to give up halfway." Yuga said.
So the three of them walked to the edge of the whirlpool, and Yuga took out a wooden stick from his space backpack, poking it into the whirlpool.
Seeing that nothing happened to the stick, he let out a sigh of relief and said: "It seems to be safe, but I should go in first to check, if it's fine you can follow in after."
Seiryu hurriedly said: "I should be the one to go in first."
Yuga patted his shoulder and said: "With me, the senior, here, how can I let you juniors take the risk? If word spreads, I'd lose too much face."
Hearing this, Seiryu had no choice but to swallow back the words he had almost spoken, and watched as Yuga walked into the whirlpool.
Yuga first tested with his foot, and when he felt nothing unusual, he strode in with a big step, disappearing into the whirlpool in the blink of an eye.
About two or three minutes later, suddenly Yuga's voice came out from the whirlpool: "Come in, it's safe inside!"
Seiryu and Iris exchanged a glance, and after letting out a breath of relief, they simultaneously lifted their feet and stepped into the whirlpool.
When the two came out from the whirlpool, what entered their sight was a barren red wasteland, and further ahead, at the end of the wasteland, was a cliff, and on the other side of the cliff were floating islands.
Not the kind of floating islands drifting in the sea, but the kind floating in the sky.
"This… where is this?"
Iris widened her eyes in astonishment, Seiryu's mouth also hung slightly open.
"I don't know either." Yuga shook his head and said, "But the scenery here is indeed magnificent!"
"Let's go have a look." Seiryu said.
Yuga and Iris nodded in agreement.
Seiryu and Iris each released Dragonite and rode on them, while Yuga had Gengar carry him flying over.
Yuga's Dragonite and Charizard were at home incubating eggs, so this time when he went out, he didn't bring them along.
Only, when the three of them left the cliff where they had previously been standing, they immediately discovered something unusual: the gravity outside the cliff seemed to be different from that of the outside world.
The gravity outside the cliff was much smaller than that of the outside world, to the extent that when the flying Pokémon tried to fly, it seemed a little difficult for them to control themselves.
What is this place? Could it be a different dimension? Yuga could not help but think.
"Wow, how amazing!"
Iris was the more carefree one, her Dragonite, not being used to the gravity, flew wobbling and crooked, almost throwing her off, but she was still laughing foolishly without stopping.
After spending quite a lot of effort, the three finally succeeded in reaching the floating island that was closest to them. Strangely, the moment they entered the floating island, gravity returned to normal again.
After landing, the three looked around once in a circle, and Iris said: "It's so quiet here, it feels like there's nothing at all."
And indeed it was so. There was no trace of humans, nor the existence of Pokémon, the entire island was excessively quiet, and all that could be seen were grass and trees.
"Let's go further in and have a look." Yuga suggested.
So the three of them, taking their Pokémon along, cautiously explored deeper into the floating island.
Just like outside, there were also no traces of living beings inside the floating island, until they reached the center of the island, where the three finally saw a village.
"Look, it's a village!" Iris shouted excitedly.
"It seems like an abandoned village." Seiryu observed for a moment and said.
The three entered the village, and found that it was indeed a ruin, not a single human figure in sight. Most of the houses in the village had already decayed and collapsed, and on some of the roofs there were even big trees growing directly.
The village did not look large, probably only a few dozen households. Yuga suggested: "Let's split up and look around the village."
"Okay."
"No problem!"
After Iris and Seiryu responded, they each chose a direction to investigate.
Yuga chose a nearby house that had not collapsed and walked in. Most of the other houses were wooden, but this one was made of stone, probably because of the difference in material, this house had not collapsed.
Upon entering the house, Yuga was surprised to discover that the furnishings inside the house were actually very neat: table, chairs, stools… all were there, though all were broken.
Turning around, he went into the other rooms, finding several bedrooms, with beds, quilts, wardrobes and so on all still present, but likewise all had rotted away badly.
From the remnants of the clothing, it could be inferred that the people who once lived here had existed a very long time ago.
On the table in one of the rooms, Yuga even found a book, the cover written with ancient characters, but when Yuga intended to flip it open, it immediately crumbled with a crash into a pile.
After coming out of the stone house, Yuga then went to look at the other houses that could still be entered, and the situation was almost the same as in the stone house.
Judging from the state of the houses, it seemed that the people who had once lived here were not ones who had moved away, but rather had suddenly disappeared.
Not long after, Seiryu and Iris also returned, and what they had seen was almost the same as what Yuga had seen.
"There aren't any clues here, why don't we go take a look at the other floating islands, there are still many floating islands!" Iris said.
"That works too!"
Yuga and Seiryu both nodded in agreement.
This was indeed a very magical place—once they left the floating island, the gravity outside would become much smaller, to the extent that even Yuga and the others, with just a little exertion, could float up. No wonder there would be floating islands here.
Only, what Yuga could not figure out was—where exactly was this place?
The three of them, Yuga, Iris, and Seiryu, checked one floating island after another, and discovered that the situation on each floating island did not seem to be much different.
At the center of every floating island there was an abandoned village, and each and every village was deserted and empty.
One island, two islands, three islands… the three of them in total inspected twelve floating islands, and the situation was always the same.
As for the claim that this place was the ruins of the dragon, the three of them really could not see it. Not a single Dragon-type Pokémon, nor anything related to Dragon-type Pokémon, had they seen.
If it hadn't been that, when entering, they really did need the help of a descendant of the dragon people, Yuga would already be suspecting whether that person named Laks had been lying.
Just when Yuga and the others were planning to head toward the thirteenth floating island to investigate, suddenly, from far away, faint and indistinct bursts of laughter came drifting over.
"Did you hear that?" Yuga asked.
"Hear… heard it."
Iris was a little scared, this feeling was a bit like encountering ghosts.
"It kind of sounds like the laughter of children." Seiryu said.
"Let's go have a look."
As Yuga said this, he had Gengar take him and fly toward the direction from which the sound was coming, and when Seiryu saw this, he hurriedly mounted Dragonite to chase after him.
"Hey~ are we really going? Wait for me!" Iris shouted loudly.