Chapter 274: She's Arceus's Own Daughter — How Are You Supposed to Compete With That?
The Plates. Sacred artifacts of Law, formed from fragments born at the birth of the universe.
The number of Plates corresponds to the eighteen types — but in truth, above and beyond those eighteen, there exists a nineteenth!
It holds within it the power of all things. Whoever wields this Plate gains access to every type's power at once.
Its name: the Legendary Plate.
Truly, in every sense, one Plate worth ten of the other eighteen.
As is widely known, every Plate carries its own inscription. And the inscription on the Legendary Plate reads:
"In every universe there is, it watches over Pokémon and humankind."
That line describes nothing less than Arceus's true form.
Beyond question, the true body of Arceus possesses every Plate — the Legendary Plate included. But as the "Alpha Pokémon," it is capable of creating all things itself — including its own splinter selves, and including Plates.
So it wasn't impossible that some particular Alpaca-splinter out there happened to hold the Legendary Plate.
That, too, might explain why this world's Arceus didn't seem to care much about the Jewel of Life's Plates.
Or, of course, it might simply be that to this world's Alpaca, a Plate was just a Plate — not a "life source" at all. In which case it wouldn't put much stock in them; maybe it just figured things would work out on their own.
Or maybe — this world's Alpaca had just plain overslept. For an Alpaca, sleeping a few thousand years straight was hardly out of the ordinary.
Who could say?
"Arceus~"
Having heard Sheena's account of the legend, Cynthia let out a thoughtful sigh.
"I'd never once heard a story involving the name 'Arceus' before," Caitlin said, tapping her elegant chin.
"Mm~ that's because the story of Arceus goes back a very, very long way. But you two have probably heard it under a different name," Sheena said with a smile.
"Back in the age of Hisui, Arceus was known as the Sinnoh Deity!"
It was plain from the way Sheena spoke that her reverence for Arceus ran deep.
"The Sinnoh Deity is Arceus?" Caitlin blinked, surprised.
"That's right. So really, Arceus has been watching over us this whole time," Sheena said, almost wistfully.
"'A being of light unto itself, shining down upon the land of Hisui from the heavens, guiding and guarding Pokémon by that very light.'"
Mammon, chin resting on his hand, recited the line aloud.
"Eh? You've heard of this too, sir? That's the honorific title given to the Sinnoh Deity back in the Hisui era."
Sheena looked at him with obvious surprise.
"I know a little," Mammon said, smiling and nodding — he was, in fact, quoting straight from the Hisui-era Pokédex entry on Arceus.
"You seem to know quite a lot about the Hisui era, Miss Sheena," Cynthia observed.
"Ah~ not really that much. But my ancestors did leave behind some old texts, and some rubbings of ancient verses. Would any of you be interested?"
Sheena offered this quite openly. The Michina Ruins weren't large — after all, they'd only ever been the remains of a single shrine. But since the lineage here had never been broken, generation after generation of Sheena's family had accumulated no small collection of old relics.
"Might we see them?" Cynthia's interest was immediately piqued.
"For anyone else, I'd have to think it over. But for you, Champion Cynthia — of course."
Sheena clearly trusted Cynthia deeply; after all, this was the woman who, as Champion, watched over the whole of Sinnoh.
"Thank you so much." Cynthia bowed politely.
"Please wait just a moment, the three of you — I'll go dig them out." Sheena headed off into the depths of the ruins.
"Tch — Cynthia, your reputation around Sinnoh really is something else."
Mammon couldn't resist a bit of teasing. Not that Cynthia was the only one — back at Mt. Ember, he'd borrowed Wallace's name to talk an old couple out of two orbs, after all.
"It's the trust people place in me. Which is exactly why I'd never betray it," Cynthia said, shaking her head.
Mammon raised an eyebrow. True enough — the people of Sinnoh trusted their Champion deeply, and Cynthia protected them in turn. Which, from where Mammon stood, wasn't exactly good news — he did want to corrupt Cynthia eventually, but that particular project was proving to be a real uphill climb.
"Sorry to keep you waiting — I haven't really sorted through these, so please excuse the mess."
Sheena soon returned, cradling a modest cardboard box. Mammon stepped forward to take it from her and set it down on the stone table.
"These are... ancient verses?"
Cynthia's eyes narrowed slightly as she looked over the aged sheets of paper in her hands.
The Ancient Verses — twenty poems unearthed from the Hisui era, recording a wealth of history and myth. Some of the content in the "Legends of Sinnoh" collection at the Canalave City library was said to trace back to these very verses. And the Ancient Verses themselves were said to have been recorded by a woman named Wusi.
"They're not the originals, mind you — just a set of transcriptions my ancestors happened to come into."
"Even so, this is incredible! I've never seen ancient verses preserved this well before! Sheena, this whole box is a treasure trove!"
Cynthia's voice carried a rare note of excitement. For someone who loved digging into history and myth as much as she did, these verses were priceless.
"Feel free to look through them — just be careful, please. They've survived this long, but even well-preserved as they are, they're still easy to damage."
"Of course."
Mammon pulled on a pair of gloves and lifted one of the verses.
"Of old, two sovereigns existed side by side — one watching the flow of time, the other the breadth of earth and sky."
"Seeking the future beyond all futures, they sought to plumb the ends of heaven and earth beyond all ends."
"Each sovereign walked its own path, ever at the Sinnoh Deity's side."
Mammon read the verse softly aloud.
"The two sovereigns must mean Palkia and Dialga," Caitlin said, picking up a verse of her own.
The one Mammon had just read was easy enough to parse — it described the relationship between the mythic Dialga, Palkia, and Arceus.
"That's right. Palkia and Dialga were both created by Arceus, and they govern this world's space and time. Both of them are extraordinary Pokémon."
Sheena's smile was bright and easy. Unlike the others, she genuinely understood Dialga and Palkia — because she'd been born with the Empathic Gift. To transcend, to reach beyond limits — that was the meaning behind it. So she was even able to reach across space-time to commune with them.
Unfortunately, though, even when she asked Palkia and Dialga directly, neither of them knew anything about Arceus's present whereabouts — Arceus, after all, dwelt within the Original World, a dimension that belonged to Arceus and Arceus alone.
Caitlin looked down at the verse in her hand.
"Once, there was a hero. That hero, leading ten Pokémon, rose to challenge Sinnoh itself."
"In that great battle, humankind proved its own resilience."
"Sinnoh, recognizing that resilience, withdrew to a world not meant for human hands."
Caitlin finished reading, faintly stunned.
"A human... challenged a god?"
"That's right. And it was precisely that act which showed Arceus the strength of human will. A truly great hero." Sheena spoke with feeling. In truth, the second and third of the Ancient Verses described just how fragile humanity had been back then. Lightning had struck down and touched ten Pokémon, and from that moment those ten became humanity's allies — though whether that had been some act of divine mercy, no one could say.
"Courage really is priceless. So who were these ten Pokémon?"
Cynthia, who'd been absorbed in her own reading, looked up at that, curious.
"Umm... I only know that five of the ten were 'monarchs' of some kind, but as for exactly which ten Pokémon..." Sheena trailed off, hesitant — her own knowledge here wasn't complete.
"Were there any Legendary Pokémon among them?" Caitlin asked, equally curious. Surely the hero hadn't marched up to challenge Arceus with ten ordinary Pokémon in tow — that would take an almost reckless amount of nerve.
"No Legendaries," Mammon said, shaking his head.
"Kleavor, Lord of the Woodlands. Lilligant, Lady of the Slopes. Arcanine, Lord of the Isles. Electrode, Lord of the Mine. Avalugg, Lord of the Icelands. And then Wyrdeer, Ursaluna, Basculegion, Sneasler, and Braviary."
Mammon rattled off all ten without hesitation — having played through Pokémon Legends: Arceus himself, he still remembered them clearly.
Hearing him list off, with total ease, ten Pokémon of such monumental significance to Hisui's history, Sheena's eyes went wide.
What in the world?
Even she couldn't name all ten off the top of her head — so how did this man know them so well?
"Kleavor, Wyrdeer, Ursaluna... I've never even heard of these Pokémon," Cynthia murmured, lost in thought.
"Regional differences. You both know how it works — different environments shape how Pokémon grow and develop differently."
"Sinnoh is, of course, the Hisui of old — but the environment back then was nothing like it is now. So plenty of Pokémon ended up with different forms, and different evolutions, than what we're used to."
Mammon shrugged. The clearest example was Ursaluna. Ursaluna is the evolved form of Ursaring — but for an Ursaring to evolve into Ursaluna, it has to happen on Hisuian soil specifically.
And here was something else worth mentioning: back in the Hisui era, one particular Ursaluna crossed the sea all the way to Kitakami, and under Kitakami's peculiar local conditions, transformed into its Bloodmoon form. To this day, that very Bloodmoon Ursaluna is said to still be living somewhere in Kitakami — worth catching, if he ever found the time.
"What a shame," Cynthia said, genuinely wistful — sorry she'd never get the chance to see those unique Hisuian Pokémon for herself.
"It really is," Mammon agreed, nodding. A shame indeed.
Though — not entirely without hope. If Dialga were ever willing to lend a hand down the line, there was a real chance of traveling back to the Hisui era, and catching those special Pokémon right there in their own time.
And while he was at it...
He could also go check whether Akari — the protagonist of Legends: Arceus — happened to be around!
Every generation's protagonist could fairly be called a chosen one, blessed with monstrous natural talent, every single one of them. But if you had to crown a single strongest protagonist of them all, there was no question who'd take that title: Akari.
Mitsuki might have the single most absurd track record of any protagonist — she'd genuinely gone toe-to-toe with Necrozma and beaten it down three separate times, including once in its Ultra form, before finally subduing and catching it outright. And then, facing down Rainbow Rocket, the strongest villainous organization ever to cross parallel timelines, Mitsuki had single-handedly wiped out the entire operation by herself.
A record that could only be called terrifying.
And yet, even with all that, Mitsuki still couldn't hold a candle to Akari.
After all — Akari had been personally singled out and sent back to the Hisui era by Arceus itself from the start. And in the end, Arceus's true body had personally gifted her one of its own splinter selves, along with the Legendary Plate.
That kind of treatment was basically Arceus's own biological daughter. How was anyone supposed to compete with that?
"Now that I think about it — Akari was sent from the present back to ancient times by the Alpaca. But if a person like Akari actually existed, why has no one ever heard of her? Or... is she someone from a later generation?"
The thought suddenly struck Mammon.
And come to think of it — Akari's appearance was practically identical to Platinum's. But he'd never once heard of Platinum having an older or younger sister.
(End of Chapter)