Chapter 351: Xerneas Loves Everything — Except Yveltal
Mammon genuinely felt like he was doing this world an enormous favor.
Legendary Pokémon with genuinely bizarre personalities are practically a dime a dozen — some chasing purity of spirit, some chasing natural energy, some chasing ideal truth, and so on.
But if you had to name a truly evil, chaotic-aligned Legendary among them — who would even qualify?
Honestly, not many. If you really had to pick, there were only three: post-sealing Necrozma, its light stolen away; energy-starved Eternatus; and freshly-awakened Yveltal!
If you absolutely insisted on naming names, those three were really it.
Necrozma's temperament turned extreme and violent because its Light had once been stolen by the people of Ultra Megalopolis, leaving it sealed away indefinitely — you could see the seeds of that in its Pokédex entry alone.
Eternatus, meanwhile, acted out of pure inherent nature — a species utterly dependent on energy, energy being its very lifeblood, meaning it had no choice but to constantly seek it out regardless of consequence. That's exactly why, thousands of years ago, Eternatus triggered the "Darkest Day," attempting to absorb all the energy across Galar to sustain itself, nearly destroying the entire region in the process.
If not for the Swords King and Shield King, Galar would have been wiped from history long ago.
But for Eternatus, that was simply an instinctive act of self-preservation — sustaining its own basic vital functions. Of course, Eternatus itself surely never cared one bit whether Galar lived or died either way.
But at the end of the day, both Necrozma and Eternatus acted for identifiable reasons.
Yveltal, though, was different.
"Giving" and "Taking" — those were the exact words Lysandre had used to describe the fundamental natures of Xerneas and Yveltal respectively. In the Pokédex, Yveltal is explicitly classified as the Destruction Pokémon — its entire reason for existing represents death and destruction itself.
Just as Zekrom pursues ideals, and Reshiram pursues truth, because that is quite literally the meaning of their existence — for Yveltal, its very essence works exactly the same way.
Oblivion Wing, draining the life from every living thing around it — to Yveltal, that's simply the natural order of things. It feels not the slightest hint of guilt over it, nor does it consider this reckless harvesting of other lives' vitality to be wrong in any way.
Because it IS "destruction" itself.
If it doesn't go around destroying things, what exactly is it supposed to do instead — help little old ladies cross the street?
You genuinely can't even fault Yveltal for behaving this way, because Yveltal exists purely for the sake of "destruction" and "taking" — without that, it would have no meaning to exist at all.
And besides, Yveltal's personality was, frankly, inherently violent and malicious to begin with — it genuinely enjoyed the sensation of stealing the life force from other living things.
So... Mammon decided he'd help free it from this particular "instinct" of its!
"Mewtwo."
Mammon called Dark Mewtwo over.
Light flashed across Dark Mewtwo's body, and in the blink of an eye, it shifted into its Y form.
Mega Mewtwo Y versus "the Y god," Yveltal — genuinely fitting, don't you think?
Mega Mewtwo Y's body slowly rose into the air, its deep-violet, psychically-charged eyes carrying a genuinely dreadful, malevolent glint, its overwhelming, crushing presence weighing further on Yveltal's mind.
It could sense it clearly — sure, this creature's body had shrunk considerably, but the pressure it now radiated had grown at least tenfold in comparison.
"If I had my way, I'd rather not resort to violence to deal with you, Yveltal."
The corner of Mammon's mouth curled up slowly, gazing up at Yveltal in the sky.
Yveltal: "?"
"But given your temperament, I doubt reasoning with you would get us anywhere anyway, so I suppose we'll have to go the rough route instead. Besides, if I want you to genuinely accept this, showing off a little muscle beforehand seems necessary."
Yveltal: "??"
"This is going to hurt a bit — please bear with it. And this way, I get a good look at your actual strength too."
Yveltal: "???"
"SCREEEE—!"
Yveltal let out an irritated, piercing shriek, ominous crimson energy condensing ceaselessly around it.
This human — spouting nonsense like that? Acting like he could just casually handle me?
I'm YVELTAL, dammit!!
The black-and-red malevolent bird drew its wings together, crimson death energy condensing.
Oblivion Wing!
A massive crimson beam of light tore through the air, driving straight down toward Mammon and Caitlin on the ground.
That's right — Yveltal's target wasn't Mega Mewtwo Y at all. It was Mammon.
"No sense of fair play, huh?"
Mammon chuckled lightly, entirely unsurprised.
"Dark Terminus Nova."
Mega Mewtwo Y appeared instantly in front of Mammon, right arm raised high, deep purple-black energy condensing rapidly into a massive orb.
Dark-type Dark Terminus Nova!
BOOM!
Dark Terminus Nova and Oblivion Wing collided head-on, a violent shockwave of energy rippling outward, purple-black and crimson light lighting up the entire sky.
But what Yveltal never could have anticipated was this:
Barely a moment into the clash between the two signature moves, Oblivion Wing was completely shattered and broken straight through by Dark Terminus Nova.
Dark Terminus Nova's remaining momentum surged onward, slamming forcefully into Yveltal itself.
RUMBLE-BOOM!
Like a supernova detonating, a thunderous roar echoed across the entire land, purple-black energy sweeping outward violently, swallowing the sky whole.
Yveltal's entire body was battered relentlessly by the raw force of Dark Terminus Nova, drawing a pained, piercing shriek from it. Sure, being Dark-typed itself, Yveltal held some resistance against Dark Terminus Nova — but it still hurt like hell regardless.
Another thunderous crash followed, and as the wave of energy from Dark Terminus Nova gradually receded, Yveltal's battered, disheveled body barely managed to stay aloft.
But only just barely — the strain was plainly, unmistakably visible.
"Dark Mewtwo's gotten stronger again."
Caitlin's eyes flickered slightly as she watched Mega Mewtwo Y's small frame, sensing exactly that.
No question about it — Mega Mewtwo Y's strength had climbed even further.
"Of course it has." Mammon's smile deepened.
Dark Mewtwo had been the very first high-tier Legendary he'd ever obtained, and he'd personally watched it "grow up" over time — Mammon genuinely valued Dark Mewtwo enormously. And personally, for Mammon, Dark Mewtwo also happened to be one of his single most useful Pokémon, on top of carrying genuinely enormous long-term potential.
So, after running his experiments on the Dread Plate and confirming it wouldn't compromise a Dark-type Pokémon's sanity, Mammon had had Dark Mewtwo carry the Dread Plate.
Of course, wary of a repeat of Shadow Lugia's situation, Mammon had specifically warned Dark Mewtwo not to greedily gorge on the Dread Plate's power all at once — absorb it slowly, safely, under strict guarantee that its own mind never became compromised in the process.
Dark Mewtwo understood perfectly well, having personally witnessed Shadow Lugia's own descent into that berserk, irrational state firsthand.
But even absorbing it slowly, the Dread Plate's power was steadily, consistently strengthening Dark Mewtwo's overall combat ability. Mammon had every reason to believe that, at this rate, Dark Mewtwo would sooner or later become the undisputed number-one Pokémon in his entire roster!
"SCREEEE—!"
Yveltal, meanwhile, was thoroughly enraged, its cold, savage eyes fixed on Mega Mewtwo Y. This creature actually dared hit it THIS hard? Not even Xerneas had ever struck it this hard, damn it!
Yveltal's piercing shriek rang out across the sky, its wings snapping forward violently, launching into a high-speed flight straight at Mega Mewtwo Y.
Crimson divine-bird flame condensed across its body — Flying-type Brave Bird!
It was going to smash this dark little creature into oblivion!
"Thunder!"
Mammon let out a light chuckle at the sight.
Mega Mewtwo Y's expression stayed perfectly calm, its right hand extending toward the incoming Yveltal, golden lightning crackling to life.
Electric-type Thunder!
BOOM!
A massive bolt of lightning slammed directly into the charging divine bird, Yveltal's momentum halting instantly, Thunder's electricity ravaging its body without mercy.
Before long, the powerful lightning burned straight through the flames of Brave Bird, striking Yveltal's body with brutal force.
Yveltal let out an agonized shriek — Electric-type Thunder was super effective against its Flying typing, dealing far more damage than the previous Dark Terminus Nova had.
With a final thunderous crash, Yveltal, finally unable to hold on any longer, came crashing down from the sky, smoke rising off its body, slamming hard into the ground.
That Thunder strike had genuinely been devastating.
"Still fairly easy, all things considered." Mammon watched Yveltal, sprawled on the ground in the distance.
Beating Yveltal really hadn't been especially difficult for him — sure, it represented "destruction" itself, but its overall raw strength really only ranked somewhat above a typical high-tier Legendary. Still a good stretch below true top-tier Legendary strength. The genuinely difficult part, though, would be the actual capture process ahead.
Just as Mammon was mulling over whether to have Mega Mewtwo Y land one more Thunder to knock Yveltal fully unconscious, Mega Mewtwo Y suddenly turned its attention toward something in the distance.
Mammon, seeming to sense the same thing, turned his gaze to the left.
There, standing atop a stretch of gray, lifeless earth, was a slender, blue-black-bodied deer, its presence unnoticed until just now, standing tall, gazing in their direction.
Its antlers flickered with shifting rainbow-colored light, gleaming beautifully from a distance, as though wreathed in a genuine spectrum of color.
Xerneas.
"This is... Xerneas?" Caitlin recognized it immediately.
The gentle, benevolent aura this Pokémon radiated was remarkably rare — Caitlin placed it almost instantly.
"Yeah, probably sensed Yveltal waking up and came rushing over."
Mammon wasn't remotely surprised. Xerneas and Yveltal's oppositional relationship was, arguably, the most extreme of any "cover legendary" pair across every region.
Benevolent Xerneas, savage Yveltal — the dynamic between the two spoke for itself.
If Xerneas weren't around to constantly clean up after Yveltal, at least half of the Kalos region — at minimum — would already have become permanent dead zones. It was precisely because of Xerneas's selfless, boundless compassion that Kalos remained safe and intact today.
Honestly, Mammon genuinely believed both Xerneas and Yveltal carried significant issues of their own — Yveltal for its purely extreme destructiveness, and Xerneas, in its own way, for being equally, extremely benevolent.
Xerneas noticed the three of them watching and gave a gentle nod in acknowledgment, expressing its own goodwill. Then it took a slow step forward, walking gradually toward Yveltal.
"The legendary Life Pokémon — said to be capable of sharing eternal life, the most benevolent and selfless Pokémon in the world."
Caitlin murmured softly, watching the beautiful, flawless rainbow-hued deer.
"That's right. In terms of pure reverence and love for life, no Pokémon can match Xerneas — it loves every living thing, without exception."
Mammon agreed with that assessment; he knew perfectly well that no other Pokémon could match Xerneas's boundless compassion toward life. Not even Ho-Oh could match it.
Sure, Ho-Oh itself possessed incredibly potent life-restoring power, even capable of reviving the dead — but Ho-Oh was genuinely selective about it. If it happened to dislike a particular human, it really would leave them to their fate without a second thought.
Xerneas was different — it treated every living thing with total equality, carrying the single deepest, most profound compassion of any creature in existence.
You could honestly say Xerneas was the single most perfect saintly mother-figure in the entire Pokémon world. (Meant sincerely — a genuine saintly figure is a different thing entirely from a "sanctimonious" hypocrite.)
It couldn't bear to watch any life slip away before its eyes, let alone lives stolen away by Yveltal specifically. So it selflessly shared every last bit of its own life force, reviving creatures whose vitality had been drained by Yveltal.
And because it gave away all of its own life force this way, Xerneas would, in turn, be forced to transform into a tree and slip into dormancy, slowly recovering its vitality over time.
This selfless cycle had repeated endlessly throughout Xerneas's entire existence, never once broken.
How many years had this gone on? Who could even say — but Xerneas had remained utterly consistent through it all, never once hesitating, never once regretting it.
Which really said everything about just how genuinely magnificent Xerneas truly was.
"SCREEEE!!!"
The badly wounded Yveltal, spotting Xerneas approaching, let out a piercing shriek of warning. But with the damage from Thunder still weighing so heavily on it, getting airborne again right now was genuinely difficult.
Xerneas, though, completely ignored Yveltal's warning, continuing to approach it step by unhurried step.
Seeing the rainbow-colored deer disregard it so completely only enraged Yveltal further, black-red energy condensing around it.
But in the very next instant—
A pink orb of energy struck first, slamming heavily into Yveltal.
Xerneas's own Moonblast!
BOOM!
The Moonblast detonated, and Yveltal let out an agonized shriek, its body collapsing weakly to the ground.
Moonblast — super effective against Yveltal's typing, and it hurt, badly, especially given how thoroughly worn down Yveltal already was.
"A thousand years have passed again, Yveltal, and you're still exactly the same. Look at this land — the one you've ravaged."
Xerneas walked slowly up to Yveltal, sighing with weary resignation, its eyes full of disappointment and pity — provoking another furious, piercing shriek from Yveltal.
"Still trying to attack me, even in this state? How pitiful."
Xerneas's gentle, sorrowful telepathic tone didn't slow its movements at all — it raised its right hoof and brought it down directly on Yveltal.
THUD!
Yveltal's head lolled completely to one side, dropping into a deep, unconscious sleep.
Having ruthlessly stomped Yveltal unconscious, Xerneas lifted its head slightly, its compassionate eyes sweeping across the surroundings, letting out another weary sigh.
Caitlin: "..."
"Maybe the one living thing Xerneas genuinely doesn't love... might just be Yveltal itself?"
Mammon hesitated a moment, deciding to walk back his earlier statement.
Yeah — Xerneas not loving Yveltal specifically didn't really undermine its established character at all.
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