"What exactly happened over there?"
Diantha asked, somewhat confused.
They all knew that Rope was very powerful, but they had never really felt it for themselves. After all, some people are very, very powerful. But these were just things they had heard from others, and they had no real understanding of it.
However, the strange sight of two suns standing side by side in front of them made them truly feel Rope's power.
Diantha looked at Hoopa and Whitley, who should be the ones most familiar with Rope's power at this point. After all, whenever Rope was out, it was usually these two who accompanied him.
But no matter how she looked at it, Diantha felt that the confusion in Whitley and Hoopa's eyes was genuine.
"I don't know..."
Whitley shook her head in confusion. They were indeed familiar with Rope's power, but as far as she knew, Rope's flames should be red. However, on the other side, no matter how she looked at it, the flames were golden-red, like the color of the sun.
Hoopa, on the other hand, felt the intensity of the flames and swallowed hard.
This was a significant step up from the power Rope had displayed when facing Eternatus not long ago. Was Rope's progress really that absurdly fast???
After all, Eternatus was already among the strongest Pokémon in this world.
If Rope's previous performance gave off a sense of overwhelming power, then now, when Rope and Eternatus face off again, it would likely give the impression of Eternatus being like an ant trying to shake a tree.
What surprised them even more was the Pokémon tide on the other side.
They could sense the overwhelming, domineering energy and aura emanating from that side. Such power should undoubtedly belong to a powerful Pokémon.
But... for some reason, that overwhelming aura made Scizor unwilling to relax even a little.
He didn't know what that person was, but he couldn't determine whether they were friend or foe.
"Kah! (Everyone stop and be on guard!)"
Scizor calmly commanded.
They had come here initially to seek revenge, but when they realized that such revenge was impossible, they weren't fools. Now they had become a pawn in the showdown between the gods and humans. Therefore, they had to strive to secure their own interests.
It would be best to secure benefits from both humans and gods.
Playing both sides is what makes a qualified pawn.
Only then is there a chance to transform from a pawn into a player. Of course, Scizor wasn't arrogant enough to think he had the ability to compete with the bigwigs.
Some things, if you weren't born with them, you have to pay a heavy price to obtain them later.
This point is actually felt more deeply by another person.
"That's impossible!"
The black-clad woman's mindset had completely shattered.
"That's solar true fire! Without having come into contact with solar fire, it's impossible to form. But... where in this world could solar fire come from?"
Solar fire is also known as the solar core.
Such a thing is an absolute rarity even within the Void. Logically, Rope should have no way of obtaining it. It's not like the company went mad and gave someone who hasn't even entered the Void a sample of solar fire!
Do they really believe this insignificant person could become the next Supreme Being???
"Three years old shows the future" isn't that exaggerated, is it?
An object of this caliber is something you can't even touch without being at the 9th level, right?
But no matter how absurd it may seem, the young man before him already possesses an object that many people dare not even dream of.
Solar Fire—and he's fully mastered it. This is essentially a direct ticket to the epic tier.
And even the legendary tier, or higher, isn't out of reach.
Ms. Psychic witnessed the black-clad woman's loss of composure. For the first time, she saw this woman who had once manipulated the entire world at her whim in such a disheveled state.
Jealousy, greed, and even fear were all clearly evident in her eyes.
Ms. Psychic, of course, had no idea what the Sun's True Flame was. She only knew that her future was likely to be dire.
The woman in black also realized her own loss of composure. But she had no desire to explain or cover it up to Ms. Psychic.
She merely snorted coldly and then vanished from Ms. Psychic's sight. She intended to ask the elder what this all meant. If she didn't have the appropriate items, she wouldn't even have a chance to confront Rope.
In any case, these people were merely surprised and panicked.
But Katsuhisa… he was truly facing Rope, whose body was enveloped in golden-red solar flames.
The solar flames belonging to Al that Rope had come into contact with in the environment were treasures far more precious than the Azure Flute.
And this was actually the greatest reward Al had given Rope, after all, Rope had indeed helped him verify some things. He was indeed in a state of obsession at the moment. But that didn't mean he was stingy.
If Rope were as versatile as he is, then after that single performance, he could instantly obtain the power of 18 rare void resources.
You must understand that these 18 rare treasures are not easily obtained. Even Year, who can collect them, needs a certain amount of luck.
Don't think that just because Rope obtained such power after a single performance, rare treasures are not that rare. In reality… the likelihood of a powerful individual fully opening their mind and body to you is far smaller than the chance of sitting at home and having eighteen rare artifacts suddenly fall onto your head. Even one's parents couldn't achieve that.
Katsuhisa watched the young man walking in from the valley entrance, swallowed hard, but didn't know what to do.
Those clouds weren't just ordinary clouds.
They were one of his traps.
That cloud could release corrosive rain when necessary. It was a treasure Katsuhisa had "accidentally" obtained. Though it couldn't compare to the Source of Water, it could at least weaken Rope's flames to some extent.
This was also one of the reasons Katsuhisa was so confident in facing Rope.
But now it seemed... this thing was completely useless.
If you said the fireball earlier was Rope's ultimate move, Katsuhisa wouldn't believe it either.
Who would launch their ultimate move and still look unfazed, not even out of breath, as if they were fully healed and energized???
Katsuhisa instinctively felt something was wrong and thought for a moment...
"Maybe we should just leave..." Katsuhisa muttered this involuntarily, but as soon as he said it, he wished he could slap himself.
Damn it, where's your spirit? How can you defeat your opponent if you just run away at the first sign of trouble?
Moreover, based on his observations, Rope is likely to be a creature with a long lifespan, meaning that the possibility of him simply wearing someone down until they give up is virtually nonexistent.
More importantly, Rope will definitely not let him off the hook. Even if he hides, Rope will dig to the ends of the earth to find him.
Therefore, rather than hesitating, it is better to act immediately.
After all, his plan would be incomplete without the Evil Source and Water Source in Rope's possession, the Grass Source by his side, and the Earth Source hidden within the villagers' bodies.
There's also the Dragon's Essence and the General Essence, which still have no leads…
"Come out, Katsuhisa. Don't hide. You're not ambushing me just to watch me dismantle the traps you set, are you?"
Rope casually fired a fireball, incinerating the energy cluster over there, and spoke nonchalantly.
He had initially had some expectations for Katsuhisa's traps, but now that he saw them, he realized that this person's abilities were nothing special.
Before he went to Al to get strengthened, he was still a bit difficult to deal with, but after obtaining the new special flame, Rope felt that Katsuhisa had really become a minor character, rather than a so-called big boss.
After all, the traps before him were truly uninteresting. Thinking this, Rope flicked his finger again, reducing a tree to ashes. As the tree burned in the flames, it emitted a painful wail. Clearly, it was not an ordinary tree.
This was also a drawback of progressing too quickly in strength and reaching the pinnacle of the world.
Without opponents, one cannot truly gauge their own strength. It's like a frog at the bottom of a well, who after defeating ants and insects might think itself invincible. But if it were to challenge a snake that had accidentally fallen into the well with that mindset…
That would be suicide.
Fortunately, Rope had encountered those far stronger than himself.
He doesn't recklessly challenge those he can't possibly defeat.
But Katsuhisa, in a sense, is that frog at the bottom of the well...
As a native of this world, he's never even faced the gods directly; he's only fought against those villages. None of those villages have someone named Konoha... so they're definitely not his opponents, that's for sure.
Therefore, in front of Rope, Katsuhisa was as pitiful as a clown.
He didn't have the heart of a strong person, nor did he possess the strength that a strong person should have. He... had always been a pitiful creature.
Finally, the young man in the black cloak also appeared in Rope's line of sight.
By then, the traps Katsuhisa had set had already been cleared away by Rope.
Katsuhisa watched Rope stroll casually through the pile of traps, feeling a bit helpless. Was his setup really that laughable in Rope's eyes?
"Rope! Do you know about what happened sixty-three years ago now?"
Katsuhisa shouted loudly.
Rope nodded.
Then Katsuhisa shouted again, "Do you know how humiliated I felt at that moment?!"
Rope frowned slightly, then relaxed his brows and said, "No, I've never been humiliated like that!"
If Hoopa and Whitley were here, they would definitely spit in Rope's face.
He had just been toyed with, and toyed with badly!
But for men, it's normal to occasionally forget, especially when pretending to be cool, to forget their own embarrassment!
A vein bulged on Katsuhisa's forehead. No matter how you looked at it, Katsuhisa found the bastard in front of him particularly annoying when he spoke.
"In any case, the insult you've inflicted on me has haunted me for sixty-three years. I can no longer endure it!"
If Katsuhisa had been somewhat timid before facing Rope, he was now truly enraged.
Some things are like that—when you don't think about them, nothing happens, and you can even discuss them calmly. But once you do think about them...
Once you really recall them, the more you think about them, the angrier you get, and the more you feel you've been wronged.
And you have to understand, this guy has endured sixty-three years of what no ordinary person could endure. Such a person must either have an extremely strong mind or be a coward to the extreme.
Though he is indeed a bit cowardly, there's no doubt that Katsuhisa is the former. To stick to a plan for so long is itself a sign of mental strength.
"So today, I will wash away my shame with blood!"
Katsuhisa's gaze grew increasingly calm yet resolute.
"Whether it's yours or mine."
As he said this, Katsuhisa had already condensed an invisible long sword in his hand.
Seeing Katsuhisa assume an attacking stance, Rope naturally wouldn't stand idly by.
Though he despised Katsuhisa, when facing an opponent, even if one intended to humiliate them, one must do so only when certain of victory. For instance, after destroying all the opponent's means of attack.
Thus, Rope also summoned a crimson-gold flame sword in his hand. His face bore the form of a crimson-gold divine dragon. His black hair had transformed into crimson-gold, dancing flames.
His clothing was gradually replaced by flame armor. The crimson-gold armor looked even more splendid and majestic, yet it did not feel ostentatious. The sheer intimidating presence of the armor itself was already more than enough.
Just as Rope had prepared to face Katsuhisa one-on-one, he suddenly felt a sense of alertness.
The next moment, a jet-black thunderbolt struck toward him.
Rope instinctively rolled to the side. Since his control over the Sun Flame was not yet fully mastered, he could not simultaneously wield flame armor and perform elemental transformation.
Thus, he could only evade.
However, at the spot where Rope landed, another black ice pillar pierced toward him.
This time, Rope couldn't dodge it, so he swung his sword directly, shattering the ice pillar into pieces.
Finally steadying himself, Rope looked at Katsuhisa again. Katsuhisa's face bore a faint smile.
"This is the gift I prepared for you, Rope."