It was a strike rising from below toward the heavens.
Like a meteor reversing the order of the world itself, turning sky and earth upside down—so much so that one could no longer tell whether they stood upon the sky or the ground.
Looking at the figure charging toward him with that familiar impact, a deep terror rose within Lance's heart.
In Logan, Lance saw the same overwhelming force the masked man had displayed earlier when he froze the entire world.
It was as if Logan had become one with nature itself, inseparable from it, determined to shatter everything standing in his way.
Yet this scene was even more awe-inspiring than the frozen world.
For a moment, Lance even wondered if he was hallucinating.
Within Garchomp's knight-like charge, he seemed to see the vision of a sky filled with dragons—
As though ten thousand dragons roared together with earth-shaking fury.
The sky was torn apart.
The earth trembled violently.
The Dragon Legion opened the path with thunderous roars.
Ten thousand dragons gathered together, their collective howl shaking the heavens and seas, their momentum overwhelming the world until even the winds and clouds changed color.
If Pokémon could be divided into ordinary and legendary—
Then this was the legendary secret art of dragons, the supreme power capable of shattering heaven and earth itself.
"Why… why… why is it always you…?"
Lance's hoarse roar echoed through the sky.
His gaze was completely stolen by the radiant light surrounding Garchomp.
In Lance's eyes, it was no longer Garchomp piercing the sky.
Instead, he saw himself standing pitifully upon the ground, looking up as the dragons descended from the heavens.
This had once been the power Lance was most proud of.
The power of his Dragon Legion.
But now—
He felt an even greater dragon power within another person.
It crushed him completely, overturning the Dragon Tamer himself and casting him down like a powerless insect trembling in the shadows while staring up at the dragons in the sky.
Countless memories flashed through Lance's mind.
He had been born in Viridian City, yet rejected by the Dragon Clan of Blackthorn City.
He had been a child the Dragon Clan refused to acknowledge.
But he possessed the true Dragon Power from birth.
And the Viridian Forest had bestowed upon him the Viridian Power, as though he had been born into this world to fulfill a destined mission.
When the Dragon Clan of Blackthorn City discovered his power, they accepted him with ecstatic joy and treated him as the future heir of the clan.
But Lance had no interest in that.
To him, the Dragon Clan trapped within Blackthorn City did not truly understand what Dragon Power meant.
They simply basked in the glory of their ancestors—ordinary people who did not even possess Dragon Power themselves.
Among everyone in Blackthorn City, there was only one person Lance remembered.
His younger cousin Clair.
The girl who used to follow behind him with teary eyes, hugging her Horsea while playing with him.
He still remembered her crying face when he refused the Dragon Clan's prepared starter Pokémon and returned to Viridian City.
He still remembered pulling a dying Dratini from a filthy river filled with poison.
That day he cried.
He grieved.
He wondered why humans harmed such wonderful Pokémon.
It was at that moment—
When Lance was still a child—
That he made his decision.
He would do something for these Pokémon.
He would create a kingdom that belonged only to them.
Years passed.
He grew incredibly powerful.
The people of Blackthorn called him the Dragon Tamer.
He became the Commander of the Kanto Elite Four.
He stood at the very pinnacle of the world as a Dragon-type master.
He had obtained almost everything a person could gain in this world.
Unmatched strength.
Supreme honor.
Everything people dreamed of.
Everything—
Except the one ideal he had never achieved.
Over the past decade, human society had changed greatly.
Polluting factories were shut down.
People began to respect nature more and more.
But Lance believed it was still not enough.
Humanity had not yet paid the price for their past greed.
He believed that even if humanity regretted its actions now, someday it would repeat its sins.
Or perhaps—
This was only an excuse Lance used to convince himself.
Because after gaining everything, that ideal was the only thing he had left.
And yet—
Even someone as perfect as him…
Why had he encountered another person so similar—
Yet far more perfect?
That man possessed even stronger Dragon Power.
He possessed the determination to fight desperately for his goals.
In such a short time, he had achieved everything Lance had spent years obtaining.
Even the ultimate natural secret art Lance had dreamed of—
That man had acquired it so effortlessly.
Lance knew these thoughts were wrong.
They were the thoughts of weakness.
But at that moment—
A single emotion still emerged.
Jealousy.
If the heavens had allowed him, the Dragon Tamer, to be born into this world—
Why had they allowed another man to appear twenty years later and crush every bit of his pride beneath his feet?
"I refuse!"
"I refuse to accept this!!!"
"My ideal is not wrong!"
"It is not wrong!!!"
"Zekrom—Fusion Bolt!!"
Lance screamed with all his strength, ordering Zekrom to unleash its final attack.
"ROOOOAAARRR—!!!"
Zekrom lifted its head and roared thunderously.
Its crimson eyes contained nothing else now—
Only the incoming Garchomp.
For that moment—
Just that moment—
It forgot its destined rival Reshiram.
Everything in its heart was filled only with Garchomp.
In that moment, Garchomp became a rival greater than Reshiram—
A rival worthy of everything it could give.
Because the power displayed by Garchomp was something no Pokémon could achieve alone.
Only a Pokémon and trainer who had endured countless hardships together could create such a legendary secret art.
"BOOOOOOM—!!!"
Lightning surged forward with Zekrom's determination.
But before the legendary secret art "Ultimate Dragon: Heaven-Shaking Cataclysm", the lightning capable of splitting a mountain silently vanished.
Watching Garchomp pierce the sky with unstoppable momentum—
Lance suddenly made a move that even shocked Logan.
He jumped off Zekrom.
Falling through the air, he grabbed onto Lugia's feathers.
Zekrom clearly had not expected this.
It raised its claws to block Garchomp's dive.
But the moment they collided—
It was as if a massive ship weighing hundreds of thousands of tons had slammed into it at unimaginable speed.
Cracks spread across Zekrom's steel-like body.
Dragon blood sprayed across the sky.
Its entire body shot away like an arrow.
It flew for dozens of miles—
Smashing through the mountain of another Cerise Island before finally slowing down.
Seeing Zekrom blasted to the far horizon, Logan immediately recalled it into its Poké Ball.
After Mega Evolution and unleashing the legendary secret art, Garchomp had also reached its limit.
…
"Lance… the moment you abandoned Zekrom, you abandoned your ideal."
After recalling Garchomp, Mega Mewtwo Y teleported beside Logan and allowed him to remain floating in the sky.
Lance hung from Lugia's feathers.
A thousand meters of empty sky stretched beneath his feet.
His face was covered in blood.
He looked like someone making a final desperate struggle before death.
"No… I won't lose like this…"
"I spent fifteen years… fifteen whole years to reach this point…"
"How could I give up right before the finish…?"
"I won't lose…"
"I won't lose!"
"Logan!!! I will never give up!!!"
Lance screamed one final time as he tried to climb onto Lugia's back.
Logan knew Lance had not abandoned Zekrom because he feared death.
He had already gone mad.
His mind could hold nothing except his ideal.
If Logan imagined himself spending fifteen years pursuing a goal—
Only to have it destroyed at the final moment—
Anyone would go insane trying to grasp the last straw of hope.
"…Sigh."
Logan sighed softly.
Then he raised one hand high.
"Mewtwo."
"Let us fire a salute for our Dragon Tamer."
"Let us rescue him from the shattered river of his ideals."
Logan inhaled deeply.
Then his arm swung downward.
"—Supreme Psychic Devastation!!!"
"Nooooooooo!!!"
Lance's cry of despair echoed across the sky.
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