God level.
Ash quietly buried this information deep in his heart, not showing the slightest reaction on his face. Mewtwo's choice to tell only him made the meaning clear. The fewer people who knew, the better. Otherwise, Misty and Brock would be the first to stand in front of him and block his path.
"It's just a Champion Peak Entei." Ash raised his hand and stretched his wrist, his tone casual. "I beat Brandon's three Regis. Why would I be afraid of Entei?"
He flashed a confident grin. "I already fought Raikou and Suicune in Ecruteak City. One more Legendary Beast isn't anything new. Don't worry. I'll be right back."
Misty's grip on Togepi tightened. She opened her mouth to say something, but swallowed it. She knew Ash had Mewtwo with him, a god-level existence. Counting Mega Evolution, even a Champion-level Peak opponent couldn't do anything to Mewtwo.
And even if something inside the tower was beyond their ability to handle, escape was never an issue with Mewtwo's Teleport.
"Then be careful." She said only those four words.
Delia stood in the crowd, her gaze on her son. Her lips moved, but nothing came out.
Brock walked over to Delia's side and nodded to her. "Don't worry, ma'am. It's actually better for Ash to go alone. More people would just get in the way."
Serena didn't say much either, only waving her fist to cheer Ash on. She was no longer the inexperienced girl from before. She understood the gap between Champion Peak and god level. The scene of Ash's battle at Shamouti Island was still vivid in her memory.
Danger of that scale hadn't been able to harm Ash, so a crisis of this level shouldn't either. Probably.
Professor Oak turned around and took a silver-gray device the size of a fingernail from the console, handing it to Ash. "The Crystal Tower hasn't blocked electronic signals. Take this camera. We'll be able to see the situation inside through it."
Ash took the tiny device, looked it over, and stuck it onto his collar. It lit up briefly, then blended seamlessly into the fabric.
"I'm off."
A pale purple light enveloped Ash and Pikachu. In the next second, both vanished from the lab.
Misty subconsciously took a step forward, then stopped herself. Delia turned her face away so no one could see her expression.
Come back safe.
The pale purple light dispersed inside the Crystal Tower. The moment Ash's feet touched the ground, the first thing he felt was a bone-chilling coldness. Not a coldness of temperature, but something deeper, as if it penetrated his skin and seeped into his bones. Less like frost, more like the chill of death itself.
The ground beneath his feet, the surrounding walls, the ceiling overhead, all composed of pale purple crystals. Their facets reflected his and Pikachu's silhouettes, extending layer upon layer into the depths like countless distorted mirrors.
Pikachu jumped down from Ash's shoulder. The moment his paws touched the ground, a golden arc of electricity crackled from his cheeks. He didn't like this place. Something floated in the air that he couldn't quite describe, making his fur stand on end, causing him to unconsciously mobilize his power just to resist the feeling.
Ash's gaze fell on the tall crystal seat directly ahead.
The seat rose nearly two meters above the ground, carved entirely from a single block of deeper-colored crystal. The back of the chair was covered in dense patterns that looked like ancient script at first glance, but upon closer inspection, resembled half-open eyes.
A little girl under ten years old sat there quietly, holding a palm-sized stone tile in her arms. Molly.
But Ash's gaze only lingered on her for an instant before snapping to the two figures standing on either side of the seat.
One was a slightly chubby old man with white hair, balding, wearing a gray beret and a lab coat, with small glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. When Mewtwo teleported Ash in, he'd clearly been startled. His glasses had slipped halfway down, and his cloudy eyes were wide with shock.
"Charon."
Ash's voice turned ice-cold.
This Team Galactic executive, whom he had personally captured in the Orange Islands and handed over to the League for detention, was standing right in front of him in perfect health.
Were the people at the League completely useless? Overlooking the Team Rocket Trio escaping repeatedly was one thing. But Charon was one of Team Galactic's four executives, a researcher who held countless core technologies and secrets. Once someone like that was captured by the League, they should have been locked in the most heavily guarded prison available.
How could he possibly be free? And standing right next to Molly, inside the Crystal Tower?
The other figure was a tall, thin, blue-haired man with his hair styled into a pair of horns. He showed almost no panic. Compared to Charon's ghost-seeing expression, he merely squinted slightly, as if only mildly surprised by the sudden addition of a person at the entrance.
Saturn. Another of Team Galactic's four executives.
He'd never met Ash before. Seeing Ash appear, his only thought was how this person had gotten inside when Entei was supposed to be guarding the exterior.
Ash's gaze swept across the two of them, then landed on the shadow slowly taking shape behind the seat.
It was a pitch-black giant bird with a blurry outline, as if it hadn't fully broken free from something yet. Its entire body was wrapped in layers of pale purple crystals, surging in from all directions like vines, clinging to its body and solidifying around it.
Ash recognized the essence of that power. The Power of Death unique to Yveltal, the god of destruction. He had felt this same energy on both Lugia and the young Lugia at Shamouti Island.
What the hell were these guys plotting now?
Charon finally snapped out of his shock, his voice cracking. "You. How are you here?"
He took a step back, his back bumping into the armrest of the crystal seat, nearly losing his balance. The crushing defeat at Shamouti Island was still nightmare material. The image of that boy commanding Mewtwo to punch through a god-level Peak Lugia was burned into his memory.
How could he ever forget this person?
"How did you escape from the League?" Ash didn't answer. He asked his own question instead.
Saturn didn't respond. He just unhurriedly raised his right hand and pulled a crimson Poké Ball from the cuff of his silver-gray uniform. His demeanor was completely different from Charon's. Even standing before the person who had single-handedly destroyed their Orange Islands operation, his expression remained calm.
"Charon." Saturn's voice was level. "Keep talking to the girl. I'll handle this."
Charon gritted his teeth, turned around, and squatted back down next to Molly's seat.
Saturn's gaze fixed on Ash. He had already recognized him. How could he not know the person who had caused Team Galactic's entire Orange Islands plan to collapse?
Since it was their first meeting, Saturn hadn't reacted immediately. But even after recognizing Ash, he showed no fear. No large emotional fluctuation at all. No matter who came today, they could not stop Team Galactic from achieving their goal.
Molly sat on the crystal seat, still looking dazed. The stone tile in her arms glowed with a faint light. She raised her head to look at Charon, who had walked over, but her eyes lacked focus, as if she were looking at something through a layer of mist.
"Molly, listen to me. The power in this place isn't stable enough yet. You need to guide more of it over here. Yes, just like that. Make those Unown obey your command. Tell them your wish. Tell them you want your father to come back. Tell them you want your father to be resurrected."
Charon's voice was very soft, very gentle. Like comforting a child who had just had a nightmare.
With his guidance, the growth rate of the surrounding crystals accelerated, and the crystals covering Yveltal's phantom were almost about to wrap it completely.
Ash didn't know what would happen if Yveltal's phantom was fully encased, but he knew that this man's actions had already pushed him past his limit. That kind, gentle expression combined with what was actually coming out of Charon's mouth made an unquenchable anger burn in Ash's chest.
He was manipulating a grieving child to resurrect a god of destruction.
"Shut up!" Ash stepped forward. Pikachu's limbs tensed, his body erupting with brilliant electrical sparks.
Thunderbolt.
A crystal wall shot up in front of Charon and Saturn, blocking Pikachu's attack. Inside the Crystal Tower, the Unown's power was even more terrifying than outside. Even Pikachu's Elite Four Peak-level output failed to shatter the crystal.
Though Pikachu hadn't gone all out. Molly was right next to Charon. The attack had been instinctive, driven by the rage pouring through the Aura fusion link from Ash's heart.
Ash glared at the two of them. He'd already pieced together the full picture.
Team Galactic had Yveltal's power in their hands. Perhaps Yveltal's true body hadn't been captured, but they possessed its source power and were using it to cause chaos. It had been the same with Lugia at Shamouti Island. The same playbook, different target.
Professor Oak had explained that Unown were useless individually, but when gathered together, they triggered miraculous reactions. They could even grant the inner wishes of humans. Like a legendary wishing machine.
But wishes like that didn't come free. The Unown had bound themselves to Molly, and they were granting what she wanted most. Her father's return. These two Team Galactic executives had found out about this and come to guide Molly into unleashing even more of the Unown's power. And with that unleashed power, they were creating a pseudo-Yveltal.
That presence is indeed the god-level power I sensed. Mewtwo's voice echoed in Ash's mind. No wonder it felt familiar yet revolting. It's that same power again.
Mewtwo had figured it out too. The power inside the Crystal Tower was Yveltal's. Not long ago, it had fought a Lugia possessed by Yveltal's power. Without the mysterious boost Ash had used in that battle, Mewtwo estimated it wouldn't have had even a ten percent chance of winning. So it remembered the Power of Death very well.
However, Yveltal's power on Lugia had merely been attached to an existing body. This was a direct manifestation. The difference was why Mewtwo hadn't recognized it immediately.
"It's truly hard to imagine that a kid your age could possess god-level combat power." Saturn's face was as still as an ancient well, as if he were making a casual observation. "This world really is unfair. That's exactly why the master wants to create a new world."
Ash only felt that this person had lost his mind. What new world? What unfairness? Was that their excuse for using an innocent little girl and innocent Pokémon as tools?
"Mewtwo, I'm counting on you." Ash pulled the black-and-gold Poké Ball and released Mewtwo directly.
The priority was stopping Molly from continuing to trigger the Unown's power, and then arresting these two. He didn't know how Charon had escaped from the League, but he knew that if he caught him this time, the man was never getting free again.
Mewtwo's figure appeared on the field. The pressure it radiated caused both Saturn and Charon to change color. This was god-level power, and not just ordinary god level.
"Fortunately, the master anticipated this kind of emergency." Saturn's voice remained level. "He left me a contingency."
He threw the crimson Poké Ball.
It exploded. Literally exploded. The entire Poké Ball shattered into fragments that drifted to the ground. And along with the shattering, a behemoth appeared.
A Pokémon whose entire body was as pitch-black as an abyss. Six thick legs supported a metal-cold torso. Two pairs of wings on its back were thick and broad, their edges glowing with dark red phosphorescence.
A ring of golden bony spikes half-encircled its neck, and similarly thorn-like golden horns on its head slanted backward, looking very much like a battered crown.
"Giratina?"