Chapter 353: Mammon Says He Wants Eternal Life — The Rainbow Deer Is Just Too Selfless
"So here's the thing — I've heard you can share eternal life, Xerneas. Is that true?"
Mammon didn't dance around it, asking Xerneas directly.
Whether Xerneas could genuinely grant eternal life had always been an open question. After all, in the Pokémon world, Pokédex entries are compiled by professors and researchers from gathered observations — a lot of it is genuinely subjective.
And Xerneas's own Pokédex entry reads: Said to be capable of sharing eternal life. It reawakens after sleeping for a thousand years in the form of a tree.
But in practice, Pokédex information isn't always fully accurate — plenty of entries are exaggerated, or genuinely ambiguous in meaning.
Take the classic examples: Gardevoir supposedly conjures a black hole with its bare hands, and Gothitelle can influence the stars tens of thousands of light-years away. If Gardevoir and Gothitelle genuinely had that kind of power, what would there even be left for other Pokémon to do?
Or take the "world's most beautiful Pokémon" title — before Generation VI, that title belonged to Milotic; after Generation VI, Diancie was also credited in the Pokédex as the world's most beautiful. So which one actually IS the "world's most beautiful"?
Mew is another classic example — many people assume Mew carries such prestige because of its supposedly firm status as the "ancestor of all Pokémon." But the actual Pokédex text reads something closer to: Because it can use every move, many scholars believe it to be the ancestor of Pokémon.
Setting aside the fact that the entry itself hedges with "many scholars believe" — the true cosmological origin of the Pokémon world has, by this point, been firmly established: Arceus created the Pokémon universe, and the very first Pokémon to exist were Giratina and the rest of the "six deities." None of that has anything to do with Mew at all. If anything, Mew might be considered the ancestor of ordinary Pokémon specifically — that's not entirely implausible.
As for whether Mew can genuinely use every move — that really depends on how you look at it, since without transforming, Mew actually can't use most moves at all. The Pokédex claim that Mew "can use every move" isn't technically wrong, just imprecise — Mew genuinely can learn every move available through TMs, that part checks out. But there are plenty of other moves, including ones no TM has ever recorded, that Mew simply can't use.
So Pokédex entries carry a lot of subjectivity, speculation, and outright exaggeration — worth taking seriously, but not worth taking as gospel, since in the Pokémon world, Pokédex entries are, after all, written by actual people. Mammon himself could write Pokédex entries if he wanted to — all he'd need to do is petition Professor Oak, Sada, or Turo, or any of the other renowned professors.
Whether Xerneas's own entry held up to scrutiny was simply an unknown — so Mammon asked it directly.
"Strictly speaking, no, I cannot."
Xerneas answered him plainly.
"Could you elaborate?" Mammon wasn't especially surprised. After all, if Xerneas genuinely could grant eternal life outright, why would Lysandre have needed the Ultimate Weapon at all?
Activating the Ultimate Weapon required Xerneas's energy specifically in order to grant eternal life through it. If Xerneas itself could simply confer immortality directly, wouldn't building the Ultimate Weapon be a genuinely redundant exercise?
Unless Xerneas itself was inherently incapable of granting true immortality — and in the games, when Lysandre had actually captured Xerneas himself, that was precisely the realization that led him to fall back on the Ultimate Weapon instead.
"The life force I share can extend the vitality a human needs to keep existing, but your physical bodies will still continue to grow and age regardless."
That explanation made things clear enough for Mammon.
Simply put — the life force Xerneas could provide allowed for extended longevity, but not eternal youth, because the human body itself has its own biological limits.
"Mammon, do you wish for eternal life?"
Xerneas looked at him, seeming to have already sensed the answer.
"That's right. At this point, there's genuinely nothing left I'm lacking, Xerneas — I think you can understand that."
Mammon admitted it plainly.
"For me, essentially everything is within easy reach. My life has grown remarkably close to perfect. But there's still one thing I'm missing."
"Mammon, for you humans, eternal life is by no means synonymous with happiness. A boundlessly long life can just as easily become a curse."
Xerneas said this thoughtfully — being a long-lived species itself, it genuinely understood the yearning a short-lived species like humans might feel toward immortality.
But eternal life... was that genuinely happiness? Xerneas didn't believe so.
"And besides, you will eventually have a wife, children — your family, your friends, every bond you form — you will watch, one by one, as they age and pass away with the flow of time, while you yourself remain eternally young."
"Can you truly accept an outcome like that?"
Xerneas couldn't grant Mammon true immortality — but with its life force, it could genuinely make his inner self undying and considerably slow his body's aging. Even without genuine eternal life, it could easily grant Mammon several hundred years of life.
But that kind of counterfeit longevity wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Hearing Xerneas's words, something tightened in Caitlin's chest.
Yes — if Mammon achieved longevity while she herself faded with the passage of ordinary years, that was genuinely not an outcome she wanted.
"Wouldn't it be simple enough to just have the person I love stay by my side forever too?"
Mammon had, naturally, already considered this himself.
"I see you've already made up your mind."
Xerneas didn't press the matter further — a human's pursuit of eternal life was, after all, an entirely ordinary impulse. Xerneas had offered its warning; it had no intention of dwelling on it any longer.
It simply gave Yveltal, who'd cracked its eyes open again, another swift stomp, sending it back to "sleep" so it wouldn't cause any more trouble.
"Right, I already have a plan in mind, but it requires your help, Xerneas."
Mammon nodded, laying out his plan.
"There's a man of extraordinary talent who's built a device — a 'God's Tool,' if you will — capable of granting me eternal life. But activating that device requires your energy, Xerneas."
"I see." A faint ripple passed through Xerneas's eyes. Humans truly are a species capable of creating miracles.
"Since it's a request from you, Mammon, I'll agree to it."
Xerneas accepted. It didn't consider Mammon achieving eternal life to be a bad thing at all.
It could sense that Mammon wasn't a genuinely evil man — and that, in itself, was enough. A world with a long-lived human like this in it wasn't necessarily a bad thing either.
Besides — if Mammon achieved eternal life, Yveltal would remain permanently by his side going forward, meaning it could no longer go on unchecked rampages. That, too, was a genuinely good thing.
"But, Mammon, please, promise me one thing — if there ever comes a day when you grow weary of this world, please, do not turn to destroying it. Will you promise me that?"
Xerneas's gentle telepathic voice carried an earnest plea.
"When that time comes, please remember your original heart, rather than walking down a path from which there is no return."
Yes — this was Xerneas's final request. If a human like Mammon, granted eternal life, someday sank into a genuinely nihilistic disillusionment with the world, he could become far more terrifying than even Yveltal at its worst.
"Please, don't worry. That won't happen."
Mammon nodded with a smile.
He understood exactly what Xerneas meant, but there was no chance of him "going off the deep end" — after all, Mammon knew perfectly well that even if this world someday lost its entertainment value, there were always parallel worlds left to explore. And besides, he had no intention of living forever alone — he had a wife to share it with, after all.
Xerneas's eyes carried a faint smile as it nodded, then lowered its gaze to Yveltal on the ground.
"Now then, let me go ahead and catch it."
Mammon pulled out an empty Ultra Ball and began the process of catching Yveltal.
Given that this was Yveltal, Mammon didn't bother enlisting Mewtwo's "help" for this part.
Credit where due, the actual catching process really was genuinely difficult. Even unconscious, Yveltal's subconscious resistance alone was already remarkable enough.
It took over two hundred Poké Balls before Yveltal was finally caught — if Mammon hadn't happened to be carrying such an enormous supply of balls on hand, he genuinely might not have had enough.
Worth noting — Yveltal actually stirred back to consciousness several times partway through, but each time, Xerneas cheerfully delivered another well-timed stomp, helping it settle right back to sleep.
Still, the outcome ultimately turned out fine.
"Though, catching it in a ball doesn't really count as fully winning it over yet. I'll still need to have a proper heart-to-heart with it."
Mammon toyed idly with the Poké Ball in his hand, mulling over how best to genuinely bring Yveltal around.
Maybe what it needed was a proper, special "welcome party."
"That's right, but I'm certain you'll be able to manage it, Mammon." Xerneas had genuine confidence in him.
"So, Mammon, do you need my help right now?"
Xerneas asked, thoughtfully.
"Because I'm about to share the rest of my life force with this land, and once I've finished, I'll fall into a deep sleep."
"Will you be able to wake up in the meantime?" Mammon asked, a little troubled — something had suddenly occurred to him.
If he happened to be struck by the Ultimate Weapon's immortality-granting light right around now, would he end up permanently locked in at his current appearance forever?
He was only seventeen right now, after all — he hadn't even finished growing yet!
"Barring some special circumstance, no, I shouldn't be able to. But I can hold back a small reserve of life force — that way, in an emergency, you could use Yveltal to wake me if you truly needed to."
Xerneas considered it and offered this as a solution.
Its dormancy, in truth, was simply the slow process of recovering the life force it had shared away — strictly speaking, it genuinely shouldn't be able to wake mid-sleep. But special circumstances do occasionally arise, don't they?
"Alright, thank you, Xerneas."
"It is I who should thank you, Mammon. Your appearance here has freed me from that painful, endless cycle."
Xerneas's eyes and tone were both suffused with genuine, gentle warmth.
Even Mammon found himself, in that moment, faintly, genuinely moved by it.
Honestly, this was the first time he'd ever encountered a Pokémon this genuinely, thoroughly kind. Objectively, he was the one coming out enormously ahead in this whole exchange — and surely Xerneas understood that perfectly well too. And yet, Xerneas continued to thank him with such selfless, heartfelt, genuine gratitude regardless.
That sincerity left even Mammon feeling something genuinely difficult to describe.
"Well then — I look forward to our next meeting, Mammon."
Xerneas turned toward the lifeless gray expanse of land, took a slow step forward, and its body flared with a dazzling burst of rainbow-colored light.
That light, brimming with vitality, swept across everything before it in an instant.
The dead, ashen gray gradually filled back in with color — flowers, trees, Pokémon, every living thing that had been drained of life by Yveltal's Oblivion Wing was flooded once more with vitality.
And all of it came from Xerneas's own selflessness.
It had shared its own life force with these creatures, giving them their lives back.
This was the "cycle" that bound Xerneas and Yveltal together — Yveltal waking to take, Xerneas waking to give.
But was that genuinely fair? Not at all. What Xerneas shared was the very life force it had only just barely managed to recover through its own long dormancy. It was using its own "life" to replenish the "lives" of these other creatures.
But the ever-compassionate Xerneas had never once kept count of the cost. Every single time it woke, it gave, just as selflessly as always.
As the light finally faded, a landscape brimming once more with life stood revealed before Mammon and Caitlin.
Beautiful flowers, verdant grass and trees, wild Pokémon looking around in dazed but joyful confusion — a genuinely moving sight to behold.
"Xerneas... it's truly magnificent~"
Caitlin, watching this unfold, couldn't help but sigh, genuinely, sincerely moved.
"Yeah. Genuinely magnificent."
Mammon looked toward where Xerneas had stood — but standing there now wasn't the rainbow-colored deer at all, but a great, leafless tree.
It had already slipped into dormancy.
"I look forward to our next meeting too, Xerneas." Mammon gently touched the Tree of Life, murmuring softly.
Then, without hesitation, he pulled out his phone.
Under Caitlin's puzzled gaze, he dialed a number.
"Yeah, Baraz, it's Mammon. Yeah, I need a little help from Hoopa on something — could you call it over for me? Sure, I'll wait."
Mammon didn't hang up, and it wasn't long before—
"Mamon, Mamon~ what's up?"
Hoopa's voice came through.
"It's Mammon, not Mamon," Mammon corrected once more.
"So, Hoopa, I just met Xerneas — we really hit it off, but it's gone to sleep again. I need to move its house, so to speak — could you give me a hand?"
"Huh? Move Xerneas's house?"
"Yeah, first snatch it over to your place, then send it on to Regigigas — think you can manage that?"
Mammon had no other real option here — since Hoopa was currently in its Confined form, it couldn't pass through its own ring itself, otherwise this whole process could've skipped a step entirely. Having Hoopa come straight to him and then deliver the Tree of Life directly would've been simplest — but now it needed an extra hop.
"Ohh~ no problem, Mamon, leave it to me!"
The moment it finished speaking, a spatial ring silently appeared above the Tree of Life, enveloping it completely.
When Mammon looked again, the Tree of Life had vanished entirely.
"Alright, Mamon, I sent Xerneas over to Regigigas. Was Hoopa amazing, or was Hoopa amazing?"
"Hoopa, my superhero~ you're incredible!"
Mammon couldn't help but praise it — he genuinely admired how remarkably useful Hoopa was.
—
Meanwhile.
Deep underground, Regigigas, sound asleep, suddenly felt an itch on top of its head. What is this?
Regigigas thought it over, sat up, and grabbed hold of the thing.
And then...
Regigigas stared down at this strange tree now in its hand, sinking into deep contemplation.
Xerneas: "..."
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