They moved like shadows through the acid rains of the Shattered Archipelago's western wastes.
Teo no longer walked with Lucario.
He walked as Lucario.
Their steps were perfectly matched—not by training, but by instinct. Their breathing synced without thought. When Teo saw a threat through his left eye, Lucario's muscles tensed a millisecond before his own. When Lucario felt exhaustion, Teo's body produced adrenaline without command.
They were two, yet one.
Apex Synchronate.
Rin led them now, her acolyte knowledge turning from liability to weapon. She'd decoded the Conclave's transmission: the ritual to "unmake the First Bond" would occur at the Obsidian Spire—a monolithic tower grown from the same black crystal as the Heartscar—during the next Lunar Convergence, when the seven moons of the broken world aligned, amplifying psychic energy a thousandfold.
"Six hours," Rin said, voice tight. "That's all we have."
Yumi walked beside her, cradling the glowing sapling that had sprouted from Trevenant's seed. Its leaves pulsed faintly with every step, as if breathing. She'd named it Bathala—after the ancient Tagalog god of creation.
"It remembers," she signed. "All of them."
The Obsidian Spire rose from the wasteland like a fang of the earth itself—three hundred meters of jagged, light-devouring crystal, humming with stolen aura. At its peak, a vortex of violet energy swirled, fed by chains of captive Pokémon suspended in midair—dozens of them, eyes vacant, bodies drained of color, their bonds forcibly extracted and funneled upward.
At the base, the Veiled Conclave gathered.
Hundreds of robed acolytes. Dozens of Hollow Choir remnants. And at the center—High Ascendant Malrik, a gaunt figure with eyes like polished obsidian and hands wreathed in black flame.
"The final severance begins," Malrik intoned, voice echoing across the wastes. "When the moons align, we shall unmake the First Bond. And from its ashes, a purified world shall rise—free of the sickness of love."
Teo's stomach twisted. "He's not just erasing bonds. He's rewriting evolution."
Rin's hands shook. "If he succeeds, every trainer in every region will forget their Pokémon. Every Pokémon will become feral. The world won't just break—it'll forget how to heal."
Yumi signed: We stop him.
Teo nodded. "But we can't just charge in. They've got hundreds."
Then—a figure stepped from the shadows near the Spire's base.
Kaelen.
His white robes were torn. His face haggard. At his side, Milotic floated—scales dull, eyes empty.
But in his hands, he carried a pulsing black core—ripped from the Spire's lower relay.
He looked directly at Teo.
And detonated it.
The explosion wasn't fire.
It was static—a wave of null-energy that shattered the Spire's lower defenses, sent acolytes screaming as their psychic links overloaded, and freed a dozen captive Pokémon in a cascade of falling chains.
Kaelen turned to Teo one last time.
His lips formed two words:
"I'm sorry."
Then Milotic wrapped around him—and plunged into the Spire's core.
The tower shuddered.
A section of its base collapsed.
Kaelen's sacrifice had bought them an opening.
And maybe, just maybe, redemption.
[ STATUS UPDATE: KAELLEN — DECEASED ]
[ MILLOTIC — BOND RECLAIMED IN FINAL MOMENTS — MEMORIES PRESERVED ]
Teo clenched his fists. "He chose to remember."
Lucario's aura flared in silent salute.
"Then we make it count."
The assault began.
Rin led the way, using her knowledge of Conclave sigils to disable psychic wards. Yumi planted Bathala's sapling at the Spire's broken base—its roots spreading instantly, siphoning corrupted energy and turning it into healing light. Freed Pokémon, dazed but awakening, rallied to their cause.
Teo and Lucario moved as one weapon.
Not with brute force.
With precision.
When an acolyte raised a hand to cast a severing spell, Teo Heartstepped behind them and delivered a sikaran kick infused with Ren—not to kill, but to disrupt neural patterns.
When a Hollow Gengar tried to curse them with despair, Lucario unleashed a vow-enhanced Close Combat, each strike calibrated to shatter its stolen aura without harming its core.
They fought not to destroy.
But to restore.
At the Spire's apex, Malrik awaited.
He stood before a crystalline altar where the extracted bonds swirled like captured stars. Above him, the seven moons aligned—casting beams of silver light that converged into a single, blinding lance aimed at the Heartscar's distant prison.
"You're too late," Malrik sneered. "The severance has begun."
Teo stepped forward, Lucario at his side, aura blazing like twin suns. "No. You're just in time to watch it fail."
Malrik laughed. "You think love can stop logic? That feeling can defeat truth?"
He raised his hands. "I will unmake the First Bond. And with it, your delusion."
He slammed his palms onto the altar.
The vortex above screamed.
And the world began to forget.
Teo felt it instantly—a pull at the edges of his mind, like threads being unraveled.
Rin gasped, clutching her head. "I can't… remember my Ralts's name…"
Yumi fell to her knees, tears streaming.
Even Lucario's aura flickered.
But Teo held on.
Not with memory.
With choice.
He reached into the merged consciousness they now shared and pushed—not with aura, but with everything he was:
The taste of sinigang.
His lola's lullaby.
The weight of Lucario's trust.
The silence of Yumi's hands.
The fire in Rin's defiance.
"I choose to remember," he roared.
And Lucario echoed: "We choose to remember."
Their combined will—fueled by the First Bond itself—slammed into Malrik's ritual like a tidal wave.
The altar cracked.
The vortex collapsed.
Malrik screamed as the stolen bonds rejected him, surging back toward their rightful owners across the world.
The Obsidian Spire began to crumble.
Teo grabbed Rin and Yumi. "Heartstep!"
Lucario teleported them all to the base just as the tower imploded into dust.
Silence fell.
Then—cheers.
From the freed Pokémon.
From the acolytes who'd collapsed, now weeping as forgotten bonds returned.
The world hadn't ended.
It had remembered.
At dawn, they stood at the edge of the ruins.
Bathala's sapling had grown three feet overnight, its leaves shimmering with the memories of every bond restored.
Rin looked at Teo—really looked. "What now?"
Teo gazed east, where the map showed Region 2: The Verdant Maw—a land of living forests and sentient storms, where the Ascension Cult was already experimenting on humans to "awaken" artificial Pokémon-level power.
"The Conclave is broken," he said. "But the real war is just beginning."
He placed a hand on Lucario's shoulder—no longer a gesture of partnership, but of shared existence.
"We go to Region 2."
Yumi signed: Together?
Teo smiled. "Always."
Above them, the seven moons faded.
But the bonds they'd fought for remained.
Unbroken.
Unforgettable.
[ ARC 1 COMPLETE: "THE SHATTERED ARCHIPELAGO" ]
[ SYNCHRONIZATION: 100% — APEX STATUS CONFIRMED ]
[ NEXT OBJECTIVE: HALT THE TRANSCENDENCE DOCTRINE IN REGION 2 — "THE VERDANT MAW" ]
The journey had changed them.
But their purpose was clearer than ever.
Protect the bond.
No matter the cost.