Marshadow clearly still harbored serious doubts about Kairos's confident words.
It floated in midair, its tiny hands gesturing in front of its chest, its face written over with disagreement.
"Getting stronger? It's not that simple."
It shook its head, its tone carrying a faint air of superiority that came with being a Mythical Pokémon, though laced with a hint of resignation.
"For beings like us, born with tremendous potential, getting stronger is perhaps only a matter of time. Accumulate enough energy, or encounter the right opportunity, and your power rises naturally."
It paused at that, its gaze drifting toward the trainers locked in combat not far away, its expression growing complicated.
"But for human trainers' Pokémon, getting stronger is genuinely difficult. Especially given the state of this world... you know how it is. Their lifespans are short, and their talents vary wildly. To expect any noticeable improvement in just a few days, or even a few hours... that's impossible, isn't it?" Marshadow felt that Kairos was still too young, or perhaps the fever of the scene before them had gone straight to his head.
Even if morale among these humans looked high right now, morale meant nothing in the face of an overwhelming gap in raw power.
Kairos looked at Marshadow's expression, that unmistakable "you're still too naive" look, and didn't rush to argue.
He simply turned slightly and raised a hand, pointing toward a stretch of rubble not far away.
"Don't jump to conclusions yet. Look over there."
Marshadow followed the direction of Kairos's finger.
It was a relatively narrow battlefield, where a young trainer who couldn't have been very old was fighting fiercely alongside his Blastoise against a Banette. The Banette had clearly been corrupted heavily by the mist, its whole body seeping with an ominous black aura, its movements erratic and elusive as it kept vanishing into the shadows before striking from unexpected angles.
The young trainer's commands were a little rough around the edges, his forehead already beaded with sweat. He was clearly struggling to keep up. Even so, after a grueling exchange, the Banette was finally struck by a decisive Water Gun and lost the ability to fight. The battle was over.
The young trainer gulped down air in ragged breaths, the expression on his face one of someone who had narrowly escaped disaster.
It was then that Marshadow witnessed something that made its eyes go wide.
A ripple spread through empty space in front of the trainer, and then a finely crafted box materialized out of thin air.
As the glowing box opened, a stone radiating a deep blue luster slowly drifted out, hovering before the Blastoise.
That was... a Water Stone?
And from the look of it, this was clearly no ordinary specimen you could pick up anywhere on the market. The light swirling across its surface was even purer than the glow emanating from the corrupted Ghost-type Pokémon nearby.
"This is..."
Marshadow froze.
The next second, the Blastoise, as if drawn by some powerful pull, leaned forward on its own and touched the Water Stone with the top of its head. A Water Stone wasn't merely a tool for evolution; it could also supply a Pokémon with a tremendous surge of Water-type energy.
A visible blue wave instantly washed over the Blastoise from head to toe.
Its body, which had been worn down from battle, seemed to renew itself in that instant. Its muscle definition sharpened and grew more powerful, even the twin water cannons on its back appeared thicker and sturdier, and the moisture in the surrounding air came rushing in as if cheering in celebration. The boost in power wasn't a complete transformation, but it was undeniably immediate.
The young trainer had clearly noticed the change in his partner. He gave Blastoise a happy pat on the head, then dashed off excitedly in another direction, heading toward the next target.
Marshadow stared at the scene, momentarily unable to process what it had just seen.
On instinct, it turned its head and let its gaze sweep across the entire Ghost World.
To its astonishment, it found scenes exactly like this one playing out everywhere.
Some trainers, after finishing their battles, received a small candy, and after their Pokémon ate it, they visibly grew in size and strength.
Others received some kind of powder that instantly restored their injured Pokémon's vitality, leaving them radiating a powerful aura as they threw themselves back into the fight.
There were even a lucky few who received something that caused their Pokémon to learn powerful new moves they hadn't known before, right before everyone's eyes.
When Marshadow considered each individual, the pace of improvement still struck it as pitifully weak, still utterly beneath notice. But there was no denying it: every single one of them was getting stronger.
This made no logical sense whatsoever.
After a brief moment of bewilderment, Marshadow wheeled around and fixed its gaze on Kairos with intense focus.
"Hey. Tell me honestly. What is going on here?"
It drifted up in front of him and grabbed his sleeve tightly, the look on its face saying it would not let this go until it had answers.
"This wasn't that Giratina doing this, was it?"
Marshadow seemed to have already sensed the answer.
"That guy is powerful, sure, but with a personality like his, there's no way he'd hand out this many good things to humans. He can't be bothered to spare them a glance, let alone go to the trouble of preparing rewards. And he doesn't have the ability to conjure all this out of thin air anyway." The more it thought about it, the more something felt off.
Kairos didn't rush to respond. He first reached up and gently pried Marshadow's grip from his sleeve, then said, unhurried, "You already know Giratina doesn't have the time for this, and doesn't have the ability."
"As for some other being being involved... there isn't one."
"All of this, in fact, was prepared by me."
"What?"
Marshadow's mouth fell open wide enough to fit a rice ball.
"You... you're saying you prepared all this?"
It pointed toward the trainers in the distance, frantically collecting their rewards, then back at Kairos, its face a portrait of disbelief.
"You mean all these power-boosting items, and that whole quest system, you put all of that together?"
Kairos nodded.
"That's right."
Marshadow was completely floored.
It looked Kairos up and down as if meeting him for the first time.
It had known Kairos had some ability; after all, he carried Ho-Oh's feather.
But it had never imagined this human's capabilities had already reached this level.
Casually producing this many precious resources, and distributing them to all those humans in such an inconceivable way.
This was almost like... like those "gods" from that other world.
It finally understood completely now, why Kairos had spoken with such confidence earlier about not needing to worry about these people's safety, or their strength.
All along, this person had been pulling the strings behind the scenes.
While Marshadow was still processing this enormous revelation, Kairos spoke again.
His expression had grown serious once more, shifting the conversation away from rewards and growing stronger and back to the core problem facing the Ghost World.
"Still, I think we shouldn't celebrate too soon."
Kairos raised his head, looking toward the black mist not far away.
"Even if everyone eventually grows very strong and clears out most of the fog-infected Ghost-type Pokémon, that won't fully solve the problem." Marshadow snapped out of its shock, blinking.
"Why not?"
It was genuinely puzzled.
"If they can keep getting stronger, won't they be able to clean all of these things up sooner or later?"
Kairos shook his head.
He knew clearly in his own mind that, while he had used the game system to rally these players' enthusiasm and given them meaningful power boosts in a short time through the reward system, an existence at Spiritomb's level simply could not be handled by this kind of grinding effort.
Spiritomb was a Legendary-tier Pokémon. Even in a sealed state, the power it could unleash was far beyond what any of these trainers could withstand.
Beyond that, if Spiritomb truly broke through the seal but didn't immediately display the kind of world-ending destructive force they feared, these players might not even commit to fighting it with everything they had.
After all, their current engagement was driven by the game and the rewards. They were participating actively because they were in a situation of guaranteed safety, pushing themselves to earn more. The moment that safety could no longer be guaranteed, the moment their lives might genuinely be at risk, many of them would likely choose to withdraw or run. That was perfectly natural; that was human nature.
Even in a virtual game, if a boss was too hard, some players would just skip it.
So ultimately, solving Spiritomb would still come down to a being at the level of Ho-Oh or Giratina, or the seal would need to be reinforced to the point where Spiritomb couldn't break through at all.
At this point he was leaning toward Ho-Oh making a move, or reinforcing the seal.
As for Giratina...
Kairos unconsciously pressed a hand to his chest.
He was still dealing with the unresolved issue of being dragged into the Reverse World. Counting on Giratina for help on top of that would be asking too much.
He laid out his thinking plainly for Marshadow.
Marshadow listened, went quiet for a moment, then slowly nodded.
It agreed with what Kairos had said.
"You're right."
Marshadow let out a sigh.
"That Spiritomb... genuinely isn't something these people can handle. The gap is far too wide."
It tilted its head back, gaze reaching toward the sky, as if trying to see through the heavy clouds in search of something.
"So in the end, it really does come down to Ho-Oh stepping in. Only Ho-Oh can completely purify that thing."
At those words, the light in Marshadow's eyes dimmed again.
"But that just loops back to the very first problem: Ho-Oh has been missing for a very long time. And because of the loss of faith energy, her power has likely faded considerably. Even if she could get here now, she might not be able to perform at full strength."
Kairos's eyes brightened slightly at that.
He had been waiting for this topic to come up.
He had heard Marshadow mention something called "faith energy" before, but the situation had been too urgent at the time to ask about it in detail.
Now was the perfect opportunity to ask properly and understand what this so-called faith energy actually was.
"Now we finally have time to talk about it properly."
"What exactly is faith energy? Why does it have such a significant impact on Ho-Oh's power?"
Marshadow saw the look of genuine curiosity on Kairos's face and didn't hold back. After all, Kairos was their partner now, and this wasn't exactly classified information.
It began to explain.
"Faith energy is a power unique to Legendary Pokémon, and it is one of the greatest sources of our strength."
Marshadow's voice carried a trace of reverence.
"When humans feel awe, reverence, gratitude, or even deep dependence toward a Legendary Pokémon, an invisible energy is produced. That is faith energy."
"This faith energy gathers together and becomes the wellspring of a Legendary Pokémon's strength. The greater the faith energy, the more powerful the Legendary Pokémon becomes, even to the point of performing miracles that defy all reason."
It paused, then continued.
"Take Ho-Oh, in the past she stood in the very highest tier. Back then, countless humans worshipped her, grateful for the rainbows she brought and the protection she offered. The Ho-Oh of that era was like the sun itself, dazzling and brilliant, her power beyond anything the imagination could easily grasp."
Kairos nodded. This was beginning to sound like something out of mythology.
But that made it all the more puzzling to him.
If Ho-Oh was that powerful, and by all accounts a positive presence who had brought humans rainbows and protection, then why had no one believed in her anymore? Logically, a figure with that kind of power and that kind of image should have been revered like a god. None of this added up.
"So why did Ho-Oh end up with no one believing in her?"
Kairos voiced the question that had been on his mind.
"By that reasoning, Ho-Oh was immensely strong and acted in ways that were clearly benevolent. She shouldn't have simply lost all her followers out of nowhere."
At the question, Marshadow's expression stiffened noticeably.
It began to hedge, its eyes darting around, looking like someone who wanted to say something but didn't dare.
"That's... well, that's..."
It scratched its head, visibly uneasy.
"The reason is fairly complicated, and... now isn't the right time to tell you."
Marshadow avoided Kairos's gaze, clearly wrestling with something it couldn't bring itself to say.
"Ahem. For now, just know that if you want to permanently deal with that Spiritomb, you still need to help Ho-Oh restore her faith energy in this world, just like we agreed before."
It tried to steer the conversation elsewhere.
"As long as Ho-Oh's faith energy is restored, even just a little, I'll be able to sense her presence and locate her, and then we'll be able to find her."
"It doesn't need to be much. Even a small amount of faith energy would be enough to bring Ho-Oh back to form, and then she can come here and absolutely flatten that thing."
When the subject turned to Ho-Oh, the light in Marshadow's eyes rekindled, burning with adoration and fervent devotion.
Like a devoted fan talking about their idol.
Then it turned back to Kairos.
"So, do you actually have a way to handle something like that?"