Chapter 348: Mammon: "You Know Who I Am? Backed by the Alpaca!"
Mammon, dressed head-to-toe in black, made his way calmly toward the city center, Caitlin in her fitted pink dress following at a serene, elegant pace behind him.
He hadn't bothered paying any attention to Lysandre's side of things — the moment Lysandre had unleashed Zygarde onto Lumiose City, there had really only been one possible outcome for the rest. Team Flare, of all things, standing a chance against Platinum and the others? Not remotely likely, especially with Duruo, Wuli, and the rest of the crew backing them up too.
Hawlucha descended from the sky, and Diantha landed beside Mammon and Caitlin. Mega Gardevoir came flying in as well, clearly badly hurt.
Yeah — even though Endure had absorbed the initial, most brutal burst of Thousand Arrows, Mega Gardevoir had still taken damage from what followed once Endure wore off.
"Mammon. As we agreed, please stop this Zygarde."
Diantha addressed him. She'd fully accepted the reality now — this Zygarde was well beyond anything she was capable of stopping herself.
"Relax, relax, I was just observing for a moment. Diantha, your skill really isn't up to much, is it? At this rate, you wouldn't even hold up against Serena's charge."
Mammon teased her lightly, his tone and expression both remarkably relaxed — clearly not treating the corrupted Zygarde as any kind of real threat at all.
"If Serena manages to defeat me someday, I'd be thrilled, honestly." Diantha's response, though, remained perfectly composed.
She never held her Champion title especially precious. If Serena someday stood before her as a genuine challenger, Diantha would feel nothing but genuine relief and joy.
The only thing that genuinely troubled her right now was that Serena was currently a member of Team Rocket...
Was it really appropriate for a Team Rocket executive to hold the title of Kalos Champion?
"I see." Mammon wasn't especially surprised by that.
"Zygarde — the mythological Pokémon said to watch over the ecosystem. How did it end up like this?"
Caitlin looked over at the crimson-glowing serpent, genuinely puzzled.
"Probably whatever cruel experiments Team Flare put it through," Mammon mused.
"Resentment and fury — the two emotions have coiled themselves deep into its mind, twisting it into a machine of pure destruction."
Mesprit's body flickered with a faint, glowing light, its telepathic voice carrying a genuinely complex, heavy weight.
As the deity representing "emotion" itself, Mesprit could sense the feelings churning inside Zygarde's mind with total clarity. Nothing but pure, concentrated resentment and rage — Mesprit genuinely couldn't imagine what Team Flare must have done to it to leave it in this state.
"Mammon, please, free it from this. It's in so much pain."
Mesprit pleaded with him.
"Alright."
Mammon gave Mesprit's head an affectionate pat, agreeing.
Honestly, he hadn't originally intended to resolve the corrupted Zygarde quite this quickly — compared to Lysandre, Zygarde was really the strongest boss-tier opponent in this whole affair. Mammon had wanted to whittle Zygarde's strength down to a certain point, then let Platinum and the others team up to finish it off together.
Otherwise, even at fifty percent Forme, Zygarde's raw power still remained genuinely formidable — Platinum and the group, even ganging up, wouldn't have stood much of a chance against it as things currently stood.
Whittling it down to a manageable level and having Platinum push through as a real trial — a battle like that would have taught her a great deal. But given what he'd just learned from Mesprit, he decided to let that plan go.
"Mewtwo."
Mammon threw out Dark Mewtwo's Poké Ball.
Dark Mewtwo hovered in midair, a flash of light marking its Mega Evolution.
"Mewtwo, take it down."
Mammon didn't bother giving any tactical direction. A Zygarde stuck in an incomplete Forme, entirely consumed by resentment and rage — for Mega Mewtwo Y, this was a genuinely trivial matter. If it had been full-Forme Zygarde, that would've warranted some real caution — but this current Forme posed Mega Mewtwo Y absolutely no threat whatsoever.
Especially given Zygarde's Dragon/Ground typing — a "land dragon," so to speak, whose single biggest weakness was still its 4x vulnerability to Ice.
Sure, Mega Mewtwo Y wasn't itself Ice-typed — but it could still learn Ice-type moves. With Mega Mewtwo Y's overwhelming Special Attack, a single Ice Beam alone would probably be enough to leave Zygarde effectively incapacitated.
Mega Mewtwo Y said nothing, its eyes flickering with deep violet flame, condensing a deep-purple psychic barrier around itself.
Then it shot forward like a cannonball, slamming heavily into Zygarde's chest.
Zygarde let out a furious, pained shriek — but it made no difference whatsoever. The sheer force of the impact was simply too much for Zygarde's body to withstand.
Its entire form toppled over, pinned firmly to the ground by Mega Mewtwo Y's braced psychic barrier.
"That's incredible!"
Watching that supposedly overwhelming Zygarde get flattened in a single clash, Diantha's pupils contracted sharply.
But she also felt a genuine wave of relief. With Mammon here, this should be fine.
—
Meanwhile, back inside Lysandre's research institute, Lysandre's own heart was sinking further by the moment. His Pyroar, Honchkrow, and Weavile had all already been knocked out — leaving only his Mega Gyarados still struggling to hold on.
Was there still a chance? No — none at all.
Watching Mega Gyarados get swept off its feet by a Leaf Blade from Mei's Serperior, slamming hard into the ground, the light of Mega Evolution flickered off, forcibly reverting — taking with it the very last flicker of Lysandre's hope.
"Why..."
Lysandre's pupils trembled uncontrollably, his mechanical apparatus overheating from being pushed too far, the red visor snapping open in emergency response.
Lysandre stared at his own unconscious, defeated Gyarados, his expression thick with anguish and pain.
"Why did it come to this..."
Lysandre tried to take a step back, but his body, at some point, had simply given out entirely.
Failed. He'd actually lost to these four girls. He couldn't even overcome these girls.
His vision, his ideal, the future he'd yearned for so desperately — how was any of it supposed to come to pass now?
He barely managed one step before nearly collapsing to the ground.
Lysandre looked at the four girls before him, and he could see it — the pity, and the disappointment, in Serena's eyes.
Serena still believed he was wrong. But Lysandre didn't see it that way.
What he saw was foolish humanity, thinking only of themselves, spiraling toward a future of struggle and competition even worse than the present.
All he'd wanted was a world where warmth and happiness could genuinely be shared between everyone...
Had he really been wrong?
If he'd been right, why was he collapsing here?
"So... I really was just a flower for show, one that would never bear fruit after all..."
The four girls' figures, in Lysandre's vision, began, for some reason, to grow steadily blurred.
He could no longer see... any future at all.
The four girls said nothing, simply watching in silence as the man knelt on the ground, his face twisted in pain and despair.
"He looks like... he's crying..."
Platinum hesitated slightly — she'd noticed the tears gathering at the corners of Lysandre's eyes.
Whatever else, seeing this, Platinum's own feelings remained genuinely complicated.
Serena stayed quiet, saying nothing.
"Because his ideal has been shattered. But his ideal was still wrong," Touko said softly, her expression carrying a certain flicker of sympathy for Lysandre.
That was a path they believed to be genuinely wrong — but to Lysandre, it had been a world he'd genuinely, desperately yearned for. He'd been living that dream this whole time.
And now, his dream had shattered.
"Let's just take the three of them and go — no need to overthink this," Mei said.
They'd already spent far too much time here — no telling how things stood outside.
Still, Zygarde itself, Mei wasn't worried about — she was confident Mammon would handle that one fine.
Confiscating all three prisoners' Poké Balls, Platinum and the rest made their way out of Lysandre's research institute.
The moment they saw the scene outside, all four of them froze in shock.
Massive, twisted vegetation stretched everywhere, erupting up from the ground, tearing straight through roads and buildings.
As far as the eye could see, the entire city had been utterly devastated.
"This is..." Serena stared, stunned.
"That Zygarde thing must have done all of this. This is genuinely awful."
Platinum's delicate brow furrowed. Even inside the research institute, they'd felt the tremors from outside — clearly the disturbance had been massive. But seeing it in person was another level of horror entirely.
"But at least it doesn't look completely destroyed. Mammon's probably already taken care of that Zygarde."
Mei glanced around; without any sound of intense fighting reaching them, that pretty much confirmed Zygarde had already been dealt with. If a creature that massive were still active, there was no way it would be this quiet.
"Yeah. Let's go link up with Duruo and the others first, and get Lysandre and the other two moved out." Touko spoke up.
Lysandre, Malva, and Alan were all Team Flare's leadership — Mammon had specifically said all of Team Flare's leadership needed to be brought in for processing.
"Okay."
—
Central Plaza.
"Well, I did save your other half, and you're still hissing at me — isn't that a little rude?"
Mammon looked, thoroughly amused, at the black-green slender canine creature before him.
Yes — this was Zygarde's other Core, Z1, currently in its ten-percent Cell Forme, dog-shaped. The one just controlled by Team Flare had been Z2.
Clearly, Z1 had sensed Z2's rampage and had come rushing to Lumiose City as a result.
The corrupted Zygarde had already been knocked unconscious by Mega Mewtwo Y, its gathered cells dispersing, causing Z2 to revert back to its original flatworm-like Core form.
And just now, Z1 had suddenly burst in and tried to attack Mammon's group, only to get immediately pinned down by a single Psychic-type mind-control move from Mega Mewtwo Y.
"Nonsense! It was YOU humans who hurt it!"
Z1 struggled uselessly against the hold, baring its teeth and hissing furiously at Mammon, its telepathic voice thick with rage.
It had always known — humans had been trying to capture it and Z2 for some time now. But it had never imagined that Z2 had already fallen entirely into human hands.
"Painting all of us humans with the same brush isn't exactly fair, is it? Do you know who I am?"
Mammon raised an eyebrow.
"I don't care who you are — you humans are nothing but vile, despicable creatures!"
Z1 remained thoroughly furious, especially seeing Z2's current weakened, helpless state.
Mammon clicked his tongue. Unlike the anime, this Z1 was just "Squishy" — it had never crossed paths with Ash, Zuria, or the rest, never traveled alongside them, and naturally held no goodwill toward humans at all.
Especially given what Team Flare had done to Z2 — Z1 clearly had no reason to trust humans at all.
"Humans like you... humans exactly like you..."
Even pinned under Mega Mewtwo Y's Psychic hold, Z1's fury only intensified further.
Green light flared to life across its body, a stream of glowing green motes streaking in from the sky like a brilliant meteor shower.
Aggregation!
This was Zygarde's signature ability, and as one of Zygarde's Cores, Z1 could gather up all its scattered cells to merge into a unified form — fifty percent, one hundred percent, whatever it needed.
Especially with Z2 lying right there beside it — sure, Z2 remained unconscious, but that didn't matter. Z1 could still merge with it, gathering every scattered cell to form Complete Zygarde.
Doing something like this to its other half... humans really are filthy, sinful creatures!
Z1 gathered its cells frantically, a massive stream of Zygarde's scattered cells rushing in at high speed.
"Hold on a second — why don't you take a look at this first?" Mammon raised a hand.
"Nothing can wash away the sins of vile humans — humans like you deserve to be cleansed away entirely..."
Still mid-transformation, Z1 responded with a furious telepathic outburst, still thoroughly worked up.
It wanted to reach Complete Forme, to inflict a heavy, crushing punishment on humanity! Especially this one right in front of it — it had SEEN it, this human was the one who'd struck down Z2! Unforgivable!
But then...
Mid-transformation, Zygarde Z1's gaze caught the golden light flickering in Mammon's hand — and the Azure Flute he held, saturated with the concentrated breath of Creation itself.
Z1 fell silent.
It hesitated, the green light across its body slowly dispersing. It decided to hold off on transforming, for now.
This human's reasons for striking down Z2 — there must have been a genuine cause behind it. It decided it would hear him out first.
(End of chapter)
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