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Nearly two hours had passed since the incident began.
Outside the sealed zone, the Belon City coastal defense forces and the various personnel who had been seconded to assist were still deep in their preparations when something in the sky caught everyone's attention at once.
A figure streaked overhead like a falling star, trailing a streak of brilliant purple light.
Under the collective gaze of the crowd, the radiant "meteor" began to visibly decelerate, slowing until it came to a hover directly in front of the lead warship.
"Raaawr!"
A dragon's roar rang out — deep and resonant, the kind that rattled the chest.
The purple haze surrounding the shape exploded outward, scattering into motes of light that drifted down through the air like embers.
What hovered before the warship, revealed beneath that fading glow, was a Dragonite — and not an ordinary one.
The moment its gaze swept across the fleet, every soldier and staff member on the surrounding ships felt an involuntary tightening in their throats. There was no hostility in those eyes, no aggression at all, and still — breath quickened, posture stiffened. The sheer pressure of its presence was enough.
After a brief scan of the area, the Dragonite descended to deck level, and a figure dropped from its back onto the warship in a single, practiced motion.
"What's the current situation?"
David's father, Derren, had arrived. The moment his feet hit the deck he was already asking, his voice controlled — calm in the way that a calm sea is calm before a storm front moves in. The restraint in it was unmistakable, and it put everyone around him on edge in a way that open anger might not have.
The truth was, David had slightly underestimated his father's speed. Derren had been in the middle of business at a Gym in the Imperial City when the call came through. In under an hour he had crossed the distance from there to Belon City — a feat that said everything about what it meant to be a top-level Trainer.
A Dragonite using Extreme Speed travels at many times the speed of even the most advanced aircraft. It was a reminder of why those who reach the highest ranks of Pokémon training are spoken of in the same breath as national forces. A Champion-level Pokémon carries the power to level a city, paired with movement speed that no machine can match — a combination that, when you stopped to think about it, was genuinely staggering.
"Senior, the incident zone has been fully cordoned off. Based on the research team's analysis, the Sea God's Relic should fully emerge from its sealed space and integrate with the surrounding reality in approximately two more hours."
Naomi stepped forward promptly to brief him. From the ease of her manner, it was clear the two had met before.
"Naomi! It's been a while." Derren's expression softened for just a moment as he recognized her, but the pleasantries were brief — he had no room for them right now. "What's the state of things inside the relic? Is there any way to force an entry from out here?"
"Due to the interference of a special energy field, we haven't been able to establish any contact with the interior of the relic."
"As for a forced entry—" Naomi hesitated, then shook her head. "The seal has been confirmed to be the work of Lugia's power. Without overwhelming force to match it, breaking through isn't realistic. However—"
"Not even with a quasi-Legendary?"
Derren cut in before she could finish, still facing the water, his eyes fixed on the faint outline of the relic beneath the surface.
"No. The problem is that any force strong enough to break through could destabilize the space before it's fully merged. The impact alone could fracture the relic's spatial structure entirely — and if it collapses into spatial turbulence, even with Lugia's power preserved within the temple, there's no guarantee it ever makes it back to reality."
It wasn't the answer Naomi wanted to give, but given the stakes, she had no choice but to be direct.
Thud.
Derren's fist came down on the deck railing — a single, restrained impact that was somehow more alarming than if he had thrown a full swing.
Supreme Organization. If anything happens to David, I will not stop until every last one of you is gone.
He kept the words inside, but the thought burned clearly enough.
He steadied himself. David still had Dragapult — that counted for something. And there was no concrete reason to assume the worst yet. But this was a relic that a true Legendary Pokémon had visited time and again — a place where Lugia's power still lingered. Counting on things going smoothly felt like a risk he wasn't willing to take.
"Notify me the moment the sealed space stabilizes and fully merges with the surface," he said.
Then he turned back to the railing and stood there, watching the distant shimmer on the water with unbroken focus.
The personnel around him exchanged quiet glances. Derren was well known — not just in Cloudspire, but across the broader world of Pokémon training. Among those of Gym Leader standing and above, he occupied a particularly visible place, and even outside that circle, skilled Trainers commanded a level of public attention that most celebrities could only envy.
More than a few of the staff on deck were, quietly, fans of his. Under any other circumstances, someone probably would have worked up the nerve to ask for an autograph. But the situation was obvious — he had family trapped inside that relic — and so everyone kept their distance and left him to his thoughts.
What none of them could have known, of course, was that the person they were all so worried about was currently in rather fine shape on the other side of that sealed barrier. David had already secured two Legendary resources, and was now, with very little hesitation, making his way toward whatever Lugia might have left behind in the Main Temple.