BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The battle raged on, shaking the cavern with unending roars.
Up ahead, the battle was still raging on without pause.
Because the terrain here was so narrow, neither side had much space to dodge or maneuver, and thus they had no choice but to clash head-on in violent collisions.
"Luxray, use Discharge!"
Kale's gaze returned firmly to the battlefield.
His eyes flickered with thought. Right now, inside this caverns, it seemed that aside from their group, the only beings present were these Sableye.
If that was the case, then perhaps… so long as they could defeat all the Sableye before them, would that not mean this fight could finally be brought an end to this illusion?
Zzzzt—Zzzzt—Zzzzt!
The moment his voice fell, the Luxray leading the charge instantly unleashed Discharge
In that instant, the surging current inside its body was released without the slightest restraint, exploding outward in every direction, lashing toward everything around it like violent bolts of lightning.
"Meooowr!"
Upon seeing this, Luxio's eyes gleamed with a flash of resolve.
Unlike Luxray, it did not use Discharge. Instead, its body glowed faintly as it used Charge, focusing on absorbing and storing electricity.
Back during training, Luxio had often exercised its power in exactly this way, so the process was something deeply familiar to it.
With Luxio's reminder, the other Luxray in the field suddenly understood as well. One after another, they too switched to using Charge, drawing in electricity into their bodies.
When they had once helped Luxio train in this manner, they had also learned both Discharge and Charge, and now they all brought those moves into play together.
Immediately, the entire passageway was engulfed in a storm of crackling lightning, the energy rampaging through the corridor and blasting directly toward the opposing Sableye.
This kind of indiscriminate attack was extremely difficult to dodge. The Sableye had no choice but to raise their arms and conjure up a mass of ghost energy—dark purple energy gathering quickly before them, forming into shields as they used Shadow Sneak and Night Shade to defend.
Dense ghost-type energy coalesced into barriers that intercepted the flood of lightning. Sparks raged as currents slammed against the shields.
But it did not end there. As soon as the leading Luxray finished releasing its Discharge, another Luxray immediately followed up, its entire body glowing brightly as it discharged the electricity it had just built up.
Because of the power boost granted by Charge, its electrical output had grown far more intense than before. This time, the Discharge technique was unleashed in full, and its destructive force became even greater.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Through the rotation of Charge and Discharge, the Luxray pride perfectly unleashed the full might of their collective strength!
The furious currents surged, merging into the shape of a roaring dragon of lightning. With a deafening crack, the electric dragon charged forward and swallowed every one of the Sableye in its path.
"…Is it over?" Kale's eyes narrowed slightly.
His gaze swept rapidly around him, but he still did not see Empoleon's figure. His brows knitted into a tight frown.
"Kekeke!"
At that very moment, a sinister laugh—mixed with the sound of ragged breathing—echoed eerily once again.
As the smoke and dust of the explosion gradually cleared away, one single Sableye remained standing at the center. Its body was still cloaked in that strange, writhing gray fog, which churned around it ceaselessly.
Meanwhile, the other Sableyes lay sprawled across the ground, lifeless and powerless, as the gray mist that had been clinging to them floated up and away from their bodies.
Then, all of a sudden, the gray mist surged violently, rushing into the lone surviving Sableye. In the blink of an eye, every wisp of gray mist was absorbed into its body.
"Kekekekekeke —!"
As the fog poured into it, the Sableye's aura climbed rapidly, growing stronger and stronger, while its mouth released an unending stream of bone-chilling laughter.
"This is bad… that Sableye is absorbing the power of its companions!" Kale's expression instantly shifted.
He looked quickly toward the Luxray. But just moments ago, their Discharge had consumed the vast majority of their internal electricity. Their states were already weakened and exhausted.
Yet despite that, faced with this Sableye which was steadily recovering and growing stronger, they still forced themselves to rise once again, determined to continue the fight—for the sake of protecting what they had sworn to protect!
"Meooowr!"
And then, at that crucial moment, a single figure suddenly leapt forward, positioning itself firmly in front of the entire pride of Luxray.
It was none other than Luxio. By sheer willpower, it forced the electricity within its body to gather once more.
When the Luxrays saw Luxio standing before them, their minds blurred for an instant.
A memory surfaced all at once—the days long ago, when Luxio was still just a small Shinx. Back then, that tiny kitten had once stood just like this, bracing its frail body against the storm of electricity its companions had generated.
Now, once more, in order to shield them, Luxio chose to persist. The unyielding determination upon its face was exactly the same as it had been back then.
"Meooowrrr!"
The Luxrays exchanged glances with one another. Then, their eyes grew resolute as they all nodded heavily.
All at once, each of them summoned up the very last sparks of electricity left within their bodies. They channeled every bit of that energy toward Luxio.
Zzzzt—Zzzzt—Zzzzt!
The electric light flickered madly, coursing into Luxio. Its whole body trembled as the energy flooded it.
It suddenly turned back, glancing at the Luxray behind it. The expression on its face grew solemn and unwavering.
The next moment, its body lowered slightly as it focused with all its might, absorbing every drop of electricity the Luxray had entrusted to it.
"Meooowr—!"
"Luxio… it's all on you now."
The current in one Luxray's body flickered once, then vanished completely.
It lifted its head weakly, looking at Luxio one last time, before its body collapsed heavily to the ground, unconscious, utterly drained of all strength.
Then the second, the third—one after another, the Luxray fell in exhaustion. One by one, they gave their final sparks of power to Luxio.
At last, when the final Luxray toppled over, it caught sight of Luxio's body suddenly bursting into a radiant white glow. A faint smile curved its lips as it fainted.
"MEOOOWR!"
From Luxio's throat erupted a long, resounding cry as its body was engulfed by the light of evolution.
Within that brilliance, its form grew taller and stronger. And when the light shattered, the figure of a majestic Luxray stood revealed.
"It… it evolved!" Kale stood frozen in disbelief at the sight before him.
Then, his eyes widened further as he saw the newly evolved Luxray, its entire body wreathed in violent, crackling electricity.
Under that terrifying power, every hair of its fur stood on end, its muscles contracting rhythmically with each surge.
Even its eyes now glowed with arcs of lightning, cold and unflinching as they fixed upon the Sableye opposite it.
"Kekeke!..."
As though it sensed the overwhelming strength Luxray now radiated, the gem-like eyes of Sableye flickered with unease.
Then its own body suddenly moved. Ghostly energy mixed with the gray fog surged and roiled, condensing into a massive beam of sinister power.
But before the beam could even fully form, a deafening crack of thunder resounded. It was like the cries of a thousand birds taking flight at once. A flash of lightning tore through the air.
In that instant, time itself seemed to stop. The bolt of electricity appeared and vanished in a blink, leaving only silence, as though nothing at all had happened.
Yet Luxray's figure was no longer where it had been. Instead, it now stood calmly behind the Sableye, its posture steady and composed.
Crack—Crack!
The next second, the sound of shattering crystal rang out.
The red jewel embedded in Sableye's chest split apart without warning, fracturing into pieces as torrents of ghost-type energy exploded outward violently.
The power rampaged uncontrollably, and with it, the gray fog surged wildly until it swallowed Sableye's entire body, before dispersing into thin smoke that gradually faded away.
"We… won. That move just now… it was so strong!" Kale was left utterly astonished by Luxray's strike.
Even though he had often witnessed Empoleon's battles, he could not help but marvel. The sheer speed of that technique had been so absolute that no one could possibly react in time.
"Then… the illusion should have disappeared now, right?"
He quickly turned his gaze around them. Yet the surrounding environment remained unchanged—clearly, the illusion still persisted.
"Meooowr!"
Luxray's eyes swept the area warily. Lightning sparked faintly within them, and invisible electromagnetic waves spread outward.
Through this vision, the space ahead warped strangely. Luxray realized it could now see directly through the solid rock, glimpsing the passage that lay beyond the wall.
As it gathered more energy, its gaze pierced yet another stone barrier. This time, it saw Empoleon running swiftly through another passage.
"Meooow!"
Luxray's heart leapt. It recalled what Lord Aven had once spoken of—the power of "Electric Sight."
Clearly, this was the very ability it had awakened: the gift to ignore all obstacles and perceive what lay beyond.
It looked carefully at the path ahead and noticed that one of the rock walls in the distance was strangely illusory. Gazing deeper, it could already see through to the other side.
With only a brief hesitation, Luxray padded forward. Lifting a paw, it pressed lightly against the wall—only for its paw to pass straight through and land on the ground behind it.
Indeed, this wall was nothing more than part of the illusion.
Not only could Luxray's eyes pierce through physical obstacles, they could also see past the veil of illusion to the truth beyond. In the face of its vision, falsehoods became meaningless!
Meanwhile, within the mysterious spring space, the sorcerer held a dark crystal in his hand.
At that moment, the black crystal still projected the battle between Sableye and Luxray.
But when Luxio's figure completed its evolution, and Luxray struck down the empowered Sableye with a single devastating blow, the image inside the crystal froze abruptly and then went dark.
"Hmph. Useless trash, every last one of them," the sorcerer sneered coldly.
Then his gaze turned toward the waters of the lake before him.
There, a thin crack had formed, resembling a barely opened eyelid that revealed a narrow slit.
From that rift, wisps of gray mist seeped out continually, curling over the surface of the lake and lingering without dispersing.
(End of Chapter)