The moment Nathan's foot touched the entrance, a bluish-gray light gradually spread and wrapped around his entire body.
In the next instant, Nathan vanished into the depths of Dream Valley.
That bluish-gray entrance lingered in the cave for nearly two hours before it, too, quietly disappeared.
When Nathan opened his eyes again after stepping through, the sight before him left him slightly stunned.
Because right now, he was standing in the middle of a field of ruins.
All around him were nothing but crumbling remains of buildings.
Even though they had long since collapsed into ruins, from the fragments of walls and fallen stones it wasn't hard to imagine what these structures had once looked like in their original state.
They were all built of stone. And this type of architecture, in the outside world, had long since ceased to exist.
"What kind of place is this… exactly?"
Looking at the ruins stretching out in every direction, Nathan couldn't help but murmur under his breath.
Suddenly, his eyes caught sight of a slab of rubble where several lines of text were carved. He quickly walked over.
But when he looked closer, he was shocked to discover that the writing was in a script he had never seen before.
However, thanks to his mastery of languages, he was still able to understand the meaning behind the words.
"I finally have my very first Pokémon. I'm so, so happy. I will definitely raise it into a legendary Pokémon one day!"
Nathan gently traced the carved letters with his fingertips, softly reciting the words aloud.
The writing carried a certain childishness to it. He could tell that it must have been carved by a child.
When he himself had first obtained his starter Pokémon, he too once had such naive and passionate thoughts.
But the timeline didn't match up at all.
By the time Nathan was born, Pokémon had already been appearing in human society for nearly a hundred years.
Yet judging from the state of the ruins around him, this place had at least several hundred years of history—possibly even stretching back a thousand years.
In the outside world, several centuries ago, Pokémon hadn't even existed yet. Back then, people barely ever saw even an oddly shaped animal, let alone an actual Pokémon.
And yet here was evidence that a child, centuries ago, had not only encountered but even managed to capture a Pokémon—one who already knew what it meant to train them.
This could only mean one thing: this was the ruin of another world entirely.
Realizing this, Nathan felt a jolt of shock. He had actually stepped into the remains of a world not his own.
In ruins such as these, sightings of Pokémon were rare to the extreme. And if there were any, they would be ancient creatures that had survived for nearly a millennium—Pokémon at the level of terrifying old monsters.
At the very least, such Pokémon would possess Champion-level strength.
And yet the two children he was searching for weren't even eight years old, and hadn't even received their own Pokémon yet.
If they were to encounter an aggressive Pokémon in a place like this, the outcome could only be death.
"I just hope there aren't any Pokémon here…"
Nathan prayed quietly.
Immediately afterward, he mounted Volcarona and released the rest of his Pokémon.
"Spread out. Search in every direction."
Without the slightest hesitation, he gave his command, his voice sharp and decisive.
His Pokémon scattered in different directions, searching, while Nathan remained airborne on Volcarona, scanning the ruins from above.
Finding those two children was his utmost priority. Even if no Pokémon dwelled in this ruin, the children had been missing for far too long.
Without food, they could easily starve to death in such a place.
Once in the air, Nathan realized that the place he had arrived at earlier was actually the very center of what used to be a small town.
This ruin was the remnant of an ancient town that had stood in an unknown world for more than a hundred years.
He could still make out the old town streets, and it wasn't difficult to see that this town had once been lively and prosperous.
For scattered among the rubble were remnants of many two-story buildings.
And to think: to construct two-story stone buildings was no small feat.
In any world, building such structures required significant labor and wealth.
For this town to possess so many double-story stone houses showed just how prosperous it must have been.
Yes, perhaps they had the aid of Pokémon in building—but did raising Pokémon cost nothing? Of course not.
Flying for some time, Nathan's eyes suddenly caught sight of two unusual points of movement amidst the decaying ruins.
Without a second thought, he urged Volcarona toward them.
As he descended, the two "points" came into focus—and at last, he saw clearly.
It was them. The missing children.
The two were lying among the ruins, surrounded by empty snack packages.
It seemed that for the past several days, they had survived only on those snacks.
Nathan leapt down from Volcarona, kneeling beside them and pressing his hand against their necks.
When he felt a steady pulse beneath his fingers, his heart surged with relief and joy.
Alive. They were still alive!
"Children, wake up! Come on, wake up!"
He gently patted their shoulders, calling softly.
After a while, the children slowly stirred, opening their eyes to see a strange older boy before them.
Startled, they immediately shuffled backward in fear.
"Don't be afraid, children. Your parents asked me to come and find you."
Nathan did his best to soften his expression into a kind, reassuring smile.
Hearing him mention their parents, the children instantly believed him.
Children were always like that—innocent, quick to trust.
"Waaahhh!"
"Waaahhh!"
The two threw themselves into Nathan's arms, bursting into tears. They had been trapped here for far too long.
In this place, there was no sense of day or night—the sky was always the same dim gray.
At first, they had found the strange environment exciting, even fun.
But as time dragged on, fear took hold of their little hearts.
The snacks in their backpacks had long been eaten.
If not for each other's company, they might have broken down completely.
After comforting them for a long while, Nathan finally took out some food from his own pack, handing it to them.
"Thank you, big brother."
The children snatched the food eagerly and devoured it.
Several packs of snacks vanished into their stomachs within minutes, leaving Nathan's heart aching.
What kind of suffering had they endured to be driven to such hunger?
He pulled out two bottles of purified water and handed them over.
They drank greedily, draining nearly half a bottle each in one go.
"Alright, now that you've eaten and drunk, tell me—how did you end up here?"
Nathan asked, fixing them with a serious look.
Yes, they were pitiable. But at the root of it, they were simply being too reckless.
Had they obediently stayed with their parents, none of this would have happened.
"We followed a big sister here. She said she was going to take me to a fun place, so I went along with her."
One chubby child explained.
"Me too. I saw a big sister, and she told me she would take me to play. So I followed her."
Hearing this, Nathan thought grimly to himself: Just as I suspected.
So careless. Following a stranger simply because she seemed nice. If it had been a real villain, a piece of candy would have been enough to lure them away.
"And where is this 'big sister' now?"
He asked.
"We don't know. At first, she would trade us some fruit for our snacks. But after the snacks were gone, she stopped coming."
The fat child answered.
This deepened Nathan's suspicion.
From the way the children described her, this so-called big sister could freely enter and leave this place.
Or at the very least, she knew when the entrance appeared.
But just what was she?
This was an ancient ruin that had existed for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years—and not even of this world.
Could she have been a Ghost-type Pokémon, luring children here just for amusement?
"Forget it. Let's not worry about the big sister for now. First, I need to get you out of here. Once I've delivered you back to your parents, I'll come back and investigate."
Nathan said firmly, looking at the two mischievous children.
He gathered his Pokémon back into their Poké Balls, then brought the children to the place where he had first entered.
They waited for over ten hours before the exit finally reappeared.
During those long hours, Nathan scolded and lectured the children thoroughly.
By the time he was done, they were crying alongside him—especially after hearing how their parents had broken down in tears from worry.
Finally, he brought the two safely out of the ruin. But as soon as they emerged, Nathan released his Pangoro.
"While I'm gone, guard this place. No person or Pokémon is allowed to come near it. Do you understand?"
He instructed sternly.
Then, mounting his Flygon with the children, he set off.
Half an hour later, Nathan succeeded in returning the children to their parents.
The moment the parents saw their children, they rushed forward, embracing them tightly, crying uncontrollably.
At last, the children were safe. The heavy stone pressing on Nathan's heart finally eased.
After two or three days of relentless searching, he was utterly exhausted. At this moment, all he wanted was to collapse into bed and sleep.
"Nathan, thank you for helping us get our children back. But… where exactly did you find them?"
(End of Chapter)