Before the Trainers could react, their Pokémon immediately sprang into action.
"Bronzong!"
"Blaze!"
"Gallade!"
"Goo-goo!"
Blue and purple energy flashed throughout the bluestone hall.
The Pokémon's intentions were very clear. They wanted to prevent the mysterious red light from coming into contact with their Trainers.
Who knew what kind of harm this thing could cause? They certainly did not want their Trainers' lives put in danger.
The next moment, when the three different forms of energy collided, a bizarre scene unfolded.
It was as though they were dissolving agents against one another. The red light, Aura, and Psychic energy silently dissipated into the air.
No matter how slow the three Trainers were to react, they understood that this red light was not something to be trifled with.
Without saying another word, they immediately turned and ran back down the passage.
The target of this thing was extremely clear. It was specifically targeting humans, while Pokémon clearly were not on its list of targets.
It made sense when they thought about it.
If this really was an artifact left behind by ancient humans, it obviously could not have been designed to affect Pokémon.
After all, Pokémon that liked digging could easily wander into an underground ruin like this.
If several of them came in, the mask and scepter, which clearly had no obvious source of energy replenishment, would lose their effectiveness much earlier than intended. The ancient people who created them certainly would not have wanted that to happen.
"The two young men from the village earlier were probably controlled by this thing, right?"
Silas and Jasmine simultaneously thought of something similar after recalling what the middle-aged man had told them. Their expressions immediately became extremely serious.
According to the man's account, the fate of those two young men had been extremely tragic.
Neither of them wanted to experience something like that personally.
The three of them fled in a rather disheveled manner.
The four Pokémon behind them were not in particularly good condition either.
While the red light was dissipating their energy, it was also consuming a tremendous amount of their stamina.
"Garde!"
Gallade, whose level was the lowest among them, already had beads of sweat covering its forehead.
In only three or four seconds, it felt more exhausted than it would have after fighting at full strength for ten minutes.
"Blaze!"
Seeing this, Blaziken took a deep breath, and an intense blue light once again burst from its eyes.
Although it did not possess the enormous amount of Aura energy that an Aura Pokémon like Lucario had, its powerful strength allowed it to withstand the red light much better than Gallade.
Noctowl and Bronzong beside them were also struggling to maintain their energy output.
Under the resistance of the four Pokémon, the six beams of red light were visibly close to disappearing completely.
Just when they relaxed slightly, thinking it was finally over,
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
The statue before the throne seemed to sense that its power was being resisted. The mask and the gemstone atop the scepter once again shot out red rays.
This time, there were not six.
There were a full fourteen.
The Pokémon's expressions immediately became extremely grim.
The six beams had already consumed most of their energy. Fourteen would be another matter entirely.
"Bronzong!"
Instead, Bronzong, which had been asleep for such a long time, was the most hot-tempered of them all.
After letting out a deep cry, a dense purple light erupted from its red, ring-shaped eyes.
As a Pokémon that had slept for seven or eight hundred years, it did not possess the accumulation of time that its most ancient predecessors had, having existed for more than two thousand years, but the amount of energy contained within its body was still far beyond what an ordinary Pokémon of the same level could possess.
An astonishing amount of Psychic energy radiated from its body.
An overwhelming sea of purple light seemed ready to completely cover the red beams.
Even so, the other three Pokémon did not relax at all.
From what they could sense, the danger had not diminished.
Although Bronzong indeed possessed an enormous amount of energy within its body, its physical limitations prevented it from releasing all of that energy in an instant.
It was like opening a floodgate.
The opening was only so large, so the amount of water flowing out per unit of time had a fixed upper limit.
Unless it was willing to risk its life.
Otherwise, Bronzong alone could not intercept all the red light.
Under the watchful eyes of the remaining three Pokémon, ten slightly faded red beams broke through Bronzong's blockade and shot directly toward the Trainers fleeing farther down the passage.
"Goo-goo."
Noctowl, flapping its wings as it hovered in the air, let out a helpless cry.
Immediately afterward, an astonishing aura erupted from its body.
However, neither Blaziken nor Gallade showed the slightest surprise.
For Pokémon like them, each possessing special abilities of their own, Noctowl was like a bright light shining in the darkness.
No matter how thoroughly it tried to conceal itself, it was impossible to hide its powerful inner strength from them.
In Violet City, located a full one-third of a Johto away from the ruins,
"Xatu?"
A green bird Pokémon stood on a table and turned its head slightly.
Unlike other bird Pokémon, its wings were folded together in front of its chest like a human's arms.
"What is it, Xatu?"
A gentle male voice sounded.
Walker put down his pen and glanced at his partner.
Without any visible communication between the man and Pokémon, Walker nodded.
"Something happened at the ruins? Looks like it's not a simple place after all.
"But with Jasmine there, along with Noctowl, there shouldn't be any major problems."
Even as he spoke, a trace of worry inevitably flashed through his eyes.
That was what he said, but when Noctowl had set out, the order he had given it was, "Do not act unless absolutely necessary."
Walker found it difficult to imagine.
What kind of ruin could be dangerous enough that, even with an official Gym Leader leading the expedition, such a situation could still occur?
After all, Jasmine's strength was extremely impressive.
"I hope my little boy is all right."
Walker sighed. He no longer had the heart to continue handling his work and quietly stood by the window, gazing into the distance.
How could a Trainer grow without experiencing danger?
All he could do was provide his son with one final layer of protection.
It was already much better than when he had been dragged around by Chuck and recklessly sought danger everywhere.
"Goo-goo."
Inside the ruins, an eerie purple light also blossomed around Noctowl.
Although the quantity was not as great as Bronzong's, there was no doubt that its energy was superior in quality.
The dense purple light surged toward the red beams.
Because it had just been "slacking off desperately" for a while, Noctowl was actually in the best condition among the four Pokémon.
Under its full resistance, the number of red beams continuing forward rapidly decreased.
By the time Noctowl's body began to tremble, only four red beams remained, all of them heading toward Blaziken and Gallade.
"Blaze."
Blaziken nodded toward Gallade, which was currently meditating, signaling that it would deal with them first.
Before Gallade could respond, Blaziken took a single stride forward with its long legs.
Swords Dance, Swords Dance, Focus Energy, Focus Energy.
In the blink of an eye, Blaziken's aura surged dramatically.
Knowing that Bulk Up would be ineffective against something composed purely of energy, Blaziken had simply abandoned it.
A faint, stinging pain spread throughout its body.
With its mind completely focused, Blaziken slowly exhaled.
"Blaze."
It pulled both claws apart before pushing them forward, and a deep blue sphere of light shot rapidly toward the incoming beams.
Those few simple movements seemed to have drained everything from Blaziken.
The moment Aura Sphere was launched, its legs went weak, and it dropped to one knee.
Because Noctowl had been "slacking off" earlier, its condition was still relatively good. However, that also meant that it, Bronzong, and Gallade had expended a tremendous amount of energy.
Blaziken, however, did not think anything was wrong.
Everything was subject to conservation.
If Noctowl had exerted more effort earlier and reduced the amount of energy it needed to expend now, then Noctowl would never have been able to stop all six beams of light by itself.
The result would have been the same either way.
The deep blue sphere of light stood between the remaining beams, like an indestructible shield.
However, its color was gradually fading as time passed.
Beside it, Gallade, which was meditating with its eyes open, once again began squeezing every last bit of mental strength from its mind.
Just a little more.
Just a little more.
It no longer had the luxury of caring about the pain coming from inside its head.
According to its calculations, if it did not finish this second round of meditation and charging quickly, the energy in Blaziken's Aura Sphere would soon be completely exhausted.
Bronzong and Noctowl knew this as well.
But the interception just now had already consumed too much of their strength.
Simply remaining conscious was already the limit of their efforts.
"Hmm~"
Under the watchful eyes of the other two Pokémon, the dust around Gallade suddenly exploded outward.
Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief.
Ahead of them, Blaziken was desperately maintaining Aura Sphere while panting heavily. It had no time to pay attention to Gallade's condition behind it.
Or rather, it completely trusted that this junior would be able to help it.
A faint purple light flashed across Blaziken's vision.
The corners of its mouth curved upward slightly.
The red light had ultimately been unable to withstand so many rounds of attrition.
With Gallade's Psychic power assisting it, the blue and purple light completely surrounded the malicious red beams.
The bluestone hall gradually darkened.
None of the Pokémon had enough strength left to maintain the lighting, even though doing so would have consumed very little energy.
"Is it over?"
In less than half a minute, the three Trainers who had been running for their lives had no idea what had happened behind them.
However, as they felt the energy fluctuations gradually dissipating, all three of them breathed a sigh of relief.
"Why do you two look like you're not surprised at all?"
Falkner slowed down and waited where he was. He was puzzled by how indifferent the other two were toward the powerful aura coming from behind them.
"Walker's Noctowl isn't very good at acting."
Silas tactfully explained the reason.
Otherwise, why would he have mentioned Noctowl to Falkner before they entered?
If he had not seen it wrong, that Noctowl had sneakily moved over to Jasmine's side ahead of time, before Falkner had even given it an order.
Even without Zero's interface, Silas did not believe that a Flying-type Pokémon raised by Falkner would simply ignore its Trainer's orders and act on its own.
There was only one reason it could behave like this.
Noctowl had been sent by Walker to protect Falkner, and the instructions it had received were probably quite strict.
Jasmine nodded in agreement.
She did not have Zero, but Bronzong was right beside her.
The moment Noctowl appeared, Bronzong had already informed her that there was something unusual about it.
"Garde."
Just as Falkner was about to say something else, a white-and-green Pokémon suddenly appeared in front of the three of them.
Immediately afterward, purple light enveloped all three of them.
"Whoosh!"
The next instant, a dark red beam shot straight through the wall.
The entire process took less than a quarter of a second.
Falkner and Jasmine did not even have time to blink.
From Silas's perspective, a red beam passed straight through Gallade, which was standing in front of him, and struck him directly in the chest.
"What the hell?!
Why me?
Is Gallade okay?"
Those thoughts flashed through Silas's mind.
Then everything went dark.
From Jasmine and Falkner's perspective,
after being struck by the red beam, Gallade and Silas fell into an eerie silence.
"What do we do?"
Falkner looked completely at a loss.
Jasmine instinctively took a Poké Ball from her belt.
"Don't panic. Let's see what happens first."
Although the middle-aged man had already described what happened to those who were struck by the red light, she still felt that things could not possibly be that simple.
"Blaze!"
A frantic cry rang out.
With a flash of fire, Blaziken appeared in front of Silas and Gallade, enduring the tearing pain in its muscles.
Noctowl and Bronzong followed closely behind, dragging their exhausted bodies along.
They never would have imagined that those two things above would disregard all rules and launch a sneak attack.
"So you're saying that another red beam appeared at the end, but none of you had the strength left to stop it?"
Jasmine frowned as she held a Poké Ball in one hand and questioned them.
Bronzong swayed its body, indicating agreement.
"Six plus fourteen..."
Jasmine pondered for a moment.
"The final beam came from the scepter?"
She was half guessing and half certain.
"Blaze."
Blaziken came over to her and confirmed her guess.
Then it looked at her with eyes filled with hope.
If this human could figure out what had happened without even being there, then surely she could solve the problem facing its Trainer.
"I am only making a guess."
Jasmine looked toward the motionless Silas and Gallade.
"If I didn't see it wrong at the beginning, the six beams of light were fired separately from the two eyes of the mask and the gemstone on the scepter.
"In other words, under normal circumstances, the second attack should have been a multiple of three.
"But you said there were only fourteen beams.
"That means the final beam most likely came from the gemstone on the scepter.
"But I don't know why Silas ended up like this.
"Moreover, according to my deduction, Gallade shouldn't have been affected either."
She also found the situation extremely difficult to deal with.
Just as everyone and every Pokémon were at a loss, the strongest Pokémon present, Noctowl, was the first to notice that something was wrong.
"Goo-goo!"
It gave an urgent cry as a warning.
"Back!"
Seeing the strange wind beginning to swirl around Silas and the ground beginning to tremble, Jasmine reached out and moved Falkner and the three Pokémon in poor condition behind her.
"Ampharos, protect them."
After giving the instruction to the Ampharos that had been following them, she threw the Poké Ball in her hand.
"Naier, it's up to you!"
A strange crackling of electricity rang out.
A gigantic, four-legged mechanical life-form appeared in the passage.
Its red eyes were filled with cold indifference.
.....
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