Seeing that many fish, shrimp, and crabs had still not been herded into the fishery, Ange addressed the group, "Alright, everyone worked hard all night. Go back and rest."
Poliwrath swam over to Ange with a hesitant look on its face, looked up at him, and said,
Poli poli~ Poli poli~ "The fish haven't been caught yet."
Ange said, "There is nothing we can do even if they haven't all been caught. Everyone has been working hard in the rain all night. If you get sick from exhaustion over catching fish, the loss will outweigh the gain."
Hearing this, Poliwrath, Poliwhirl, and Azumarill guiltily lowered their heads. Ange had entrusted them with the vital task of guarding the fishery, yet the fishery had suffered such a massive loss on their watch.
It was all because of their poor oversight!
Ange smiled and comforted the group, "Don't look like the sky is falling. If the fish are gone, we can raise more. It's not like all of them are gone anyway. Didn't we catch a portion back? As for the rest, we can slowly catch them later."
Poliwrath said, Poli poli~ "But they will swim down the river and into the Nebel River."
Once the fish entered the Nebel River, they would never be able to catch them again.
Comforting both himself and everyone else, Ange said, "Then consider it a blessing to the Pokémon along the banks. That way, won't everyone be able to catch fish to eat? We can just consider it doing a good deed."
Facing such a huge loss, how could his heart not ache? Yet, what was done was done. As the master of the Nebel Plateau and the backbone of the community, his job was not to hang his head and crush everyone's confidence, but to encourage them to pull themselves together.
Sure enough, under Ange's comforting words, smiles gradually returned to everyone's faces.
"Alright, let's go home. You all go back to sleep first, and then come over to my place for a meal. I'll make something delicious and wait for you," Ange said with a wave of his hand.
Hearing this, the Pokémon burst into enthusiastic cheers, and the fatigue from a busy night vanished instantly.
With that, Ange led a mighty procession of Pokémon toward home.
Halfway there, however, from far in the distance, they saw Yveltal streaking across the sky, clutching a colossal creature.
Ange had exceptional vision and instantly recognized that the creature in Yveltal's clutches was Kyogre.
At that moment, he finally understood why the sudden downpour had occurred.
As for why Kyogre had appeared here, Ange was surprised, but quickly figured out the reason.
This guy had passed right by the Nebel Plateau on its way back to Hoenn!
With that thought, Ange called out to the Pokémon to quicken their pace and run home.
When they reached the doorstep, they saw Kyogre sprawled unconscious on the plaza, with Yveltal crouching in front of it. Volcanion and Xerneas were there as well.
As for the unconscious Absol, Munchlax had already hoisted it indoors to settle it down.
Caught in the fallout of the battle between Kyogre and Yveltal, Absol was severely injured. Even with Xerneas's healing, it had not fully recovered, having clearly sustained damage to its bones and muscles.
When Poliwrath, Azumarill, and the others learned that yesterday's disaster was entirely Kyogre's fault, they angrily stepped forward to punch and kick it, no longer caring whether it was the God of the Sea or not!
Even the traditionally gentle Lapras began spraying water furiously at Kyogre.
Ange was furious too, so he did not stop anyone's actions. Clearly, Kyogre had the ability to control the weather, yet it had let the torrential rain fall unchecked.
One could only imagine that along its journey here, it must have caused plenty of disasters like this one.
What a tyrannical deity!
However, the damage everyone could inflict on Kyogre was extremely limited, amounting to little more than a gentle tickle.
Once they finished venting their anger, everyone drifted back home to rest.
Given Kyogre's detestable behavior, Ange did not heal it, choosing instead to quietly wait by the side for it to wake up.
During the wait, he took out his phone to check the news, and sure enough, he found that recent news reports in the Kalos region featured multiple stories about floods and heavy rain.
The losses Kyogre inflicted on the Kalos region were simply immeasurable.
What surprised Ange, however, was that Groudon did not seem to have caused any strange phenomena in Kalos; he could not find a single report regarding drought or fire.
Could it be that Groudon was actually a gentle-natured Pokémon that deliberately avoided the human world on its return trip?
In reality, what Ange did not know was that Groudon caused no disasters not because of a gentle disposition, but because it had already returned to Hoenn a step ahead of Kyogre and had fallen into a deep sleep inside a volcano.
So how did the wingless Groudon manage to return to Hoenn before Kyogre?
As it turned out, during its journey back, it happened to cross paths with Giratina, who was observing the state of the waking world through the mirror-like surface of a lake.
Despite Giratina's fierce appearance and its role as the ruler of the Distortion World—making it look like some kind of supreme demon king—its personality was actually the mildest among the three Sinnoh creation deities.
Therefore, it took the initiative to appear and help Groudon, sending it directly back to Hoenn through the Distortion World.
The Distortion World was connected to every corner of the waking world, and as its ruler, Giratina could travel through it at will.
It just went to show that those who cannot fly are sometimes luckier than those who can.
After an unknown amount of time, Kyogre slowly regained consciousness. When it saw Ange flanked by Yveltal and Xerneas before it, it froze.
It was him! It instantly recognized Ange, the human who had fought against it back in Dahara City.
Although its glance at Ange back then had been fleeting, the impression had been deep.
"You're finally awake, Kyogre!" Ange said in a chilling tone.
Kyogre thrashed its pectoral fins, instantly intending to manipulate the moisture in the air to fly into the sky and escape.
Although the figure before it looked "frail and delicate," he was capable of commanding two deities. It had a premonition that if this fellow grew angry, the consequences would be severe.
It knew very well what it had done.
Unfortunately, just as Kyogre lifted off the ground, Xerneas leaped forward with agile grace, landing lightly on its back. It raised a hoof and used Close Combat to stomp down ruthlessly on Kyogre's forehead.
Awoo~~~ Kyogre let out a pitiful cry and crashed heavily to the ground, shattering the stone slabs at the entrance of Ange's home.
If Ange was angry, how could Xerneas not be?
It was true that Xerneas possessed a gentle and uncompetitive nature, but it was not so mild-tempered that it could just laugh off its home being ruined by Kyogre!
It loved the Nebel Plateau, loved Ange, and loved everyone here, having long since treated this place as its true home.
Yet because of Kyogre, this place had suffered massive losses and been left in utter ruins.
Already injured, Kyogre had no capability to fight back against Xerneas. With Yveltal and Volcanion glaring menacingly nearby, it could only resign itself to its fate and lie flat on the ground.
Seeing that Kyogre had yielded, Xerneas leaped down from its back.
Wu~ Speak, human. What do you want?
Ange said angrily, "You caused such massive losses to our Nebel Plateau, and you're asking me what I want? Shouldn't you pay compensation?"
Wu~~ What kind of compensation do you want?
Kyogre asked after a brief silence. Of course it didn't want to pay any compensation—it wasn't in its nature—but circumstances dictated obedience!
Wu~~~ Let me make this clear: wanting me to take orders from you is out of the question!
With that, it glanced sidelong at Xerneas and Yveltal.
"Bah!" Ange spat toward Kyogre. "As if I care to have you! Shameless creature!"
Indeed, commanding a deity was a cool and prestigious thing, but Ange would neither force a Pokémon to submit against its will nor covet a Pokémon whose personality clashed with his own.
Otherwise, Darkrai wouldn't still be enduring punishment over at the Royal Capital to this day.
Speak of the devil, right as Ange was negotiating with Kyogre, Darkrai returned from the Royal Capital. Just as it flew down from the third floor, it saw Kyogre sprawled out in a sorry state on the ground.
It was completely baffled. It had only been gone for a single night—what on earth had happened?
In fact, the heavy rain on the Nebel Plateau had also affected the Azoth Royal Capital. It had rained all night there, and the city's drainage system had nearly collapsed.
Furthermore, the water level of the Nebel River had surged, spilling constantly over both banks. The Azoth Royal Capital had come within a hair's breadth of flooding, and the city was currently in utter chaos.
Lila and Edward had been busy since last night; like Ange, they hadn't slept a wink.
Darkrai flew over to Volcanion's side and quietly inquired about the origin of the situation. Volcanion didn't hide it, detailing the entire sequence of events.
Hearing this, Darkrai finally understood. So the previous night's rain had stemmed from this, forcing it to dash through the downpour all night long.
How detestable!
Darkrai instantly shared the universal outrage.
Wu~~ What compensation do you want?
Kyogre asked feebly.
Ange said angrily, "Do you expect me to figure out the compensation for you too? Do you have any sincerity at all?"
Kyogre was choked with indignation.
After a long silence, Kyogre suddenly radiated a bright blue light across its entire body, and a glowing blue orb slowly emerged from within it.
The blue orb flew straight toward Ange, landing in his palm where it transformed into a blue scale about the size of a palm.
The scale was exceptionally beautiful, dazzling like crystal. Ange felt as if he could see ripples of water moving across its surface.
Just looking at it made its extraordinary nature evident, not to mention the fact that Ange could clearly sense a boundless water-type energy radiating from within.
When he inspected the scale using his Eye of Observation, the interface displayed:
[Sea God Scale] [Type: Held item for water-type Pokémon] [Effect: Enhances water-type move power by 50% and subtly alters the holder's affinity for water-type energy. When held by ordinary Pokémon, it increases water-type move power by 20%. (Modded, please don't flame.)]
Reading that, Ange's pupils constricted.
The Sea God Scale was immensely powerful! It was the first time he had ever seen such a powerful item!
However, despite being shocked by the scale's might, Ange maintained an expression of profound dissatisfaction on his face.
"You brought such massive losses to our Nebel Plateau, and you're trying to brush me off with a trinket like this?"
Hearing this, Kyogre was practically fuming with anger!
A trinket? That was a special scale infused with its own power, not just some ordinary scale! Did this human have zero appreciation for value?
Wu~~ Exactly what do you want?
Kyogre asked angrily.
Ange said, "See what else you have that you can compensate me with!"
Driven to rage, Kyogre had been abruptly summoned to the Kalos region by Hoopa—what else could it possibly have on hand besides the scales on its body?
Oh, there was the Blue Orb that allowed its Primal Reversion, but that couldn't be handed over; it was tied to its very life!
Seeing that Kyogre had fallen silent, Ange threatened, "If you don't give me a satisfactory reward today, don't even think about leaving!"
As Ange's voice trailed off, Yveltal and Xerneas stepped forward in tandem, releasing an overwhelming aura toward Kyogre.
While either of them alone would struggle to defeat a Primal Kyogre, if they joined forces, even Primal Reversion would not save it.
Kyogre's eyes widened in disbelief. How could such an unreasonable human exist in this world?
Wu~ I really don't have anything else to give you!
Kyogre protested.
"Then I can't be blamed for keeping you here. Your injuries must feel pretty uncomfortable, right?" Ange said, spreading his hands.
Indeed, they were uncomfortable. Kyogre immediately attempted to use Aqua Ring to heal itself.
Yet the moment the water ring appeared around its body, a beam of light materialized out of nowhere and shattered the ring directly.
It turned out that Yveltal had used Oblivion Wing to stop it.
Kyogre was furious! It couldn't even heal itself?
It glared fiercely at Yveltal.
Meanwhile, Ange smiled and gave Yveltal a thumbs-up.
The normally stern Yveltal allowed a rare trace of a smile to cross its eyes, and it nodded gently toward Ange.
Kyogre: ...
Wu~~ I'll give it to you! I'll give it, alright!
With that, its entire body once again burst into a brilliant blue radiance, and a series of blue light spheres began to materialize beneath Kyogre.
This time, however, Kyogre wasn't offering its scales. As the light dissipated, individual Water Stones formed one after another.
Furthermore, these Water Stones were exceptionally pure.
So many Water Stones! Ange shouted excitedly in his heart.
Under natural conditions, Water Stones took many years to form, much like petroleum. However, as the water-type deity, Kyogre could channel water-type energy to condense a massive quantity of Water Stones instantly.
With these, the Poliwhirls would have more than enough Water Stones to evolve into Poliwrath!
While beckoning Darkrai to help pick up the Water Stones, Ange feigned complete indifference as he said,
"What is this? Just Water Stones? You can buy these things as long as you have money, and I'm not short on cash. Talk about the epitome of uselessness."
Kyogre: Hey, hey, hey! Do me a favor and stop scooping them up so fast while you say that!
"Not enough, nowhere near enough!" Ange said, shaking his head.
Kyogre: ...
This damned human was pushing his luck!
Wu~~ Exactly what do you want? I really don't have anything left to give!
Kyogre tried hard to suppress its anger, speaking in as calm a tone as possible.
Knowing better than to push things too far, Ange pondered for a moment and said, "Alright, I won't make things difficult for you. You just need to agree to one more condition."
Kyogre: Do I need to thank you for this too?!
Wu~ What condition?
Kyogre asked.
Ange said, "Owe me a favor. In the future, if I need your help with something, you'll help me once!"
Though this favor might not necessarily come in handy, having one was better than none!
Hearing this, Kyogre fell silent. It cast another glance at Yveltal and Xerneas before finally nodding. "Fine! As long as it's not an unreasonable request, I can help you!"
A brilliant smile bloomed on Ange's face. "Don't worry, I'm not that thick-skinned."
Kyogre looked at him with profound suspicion: You call that not thick-skinned?!