"Get lost."
Alfred spoke coldly and was just about to activate the crystal when a powerful gust of wind suddenly swept past. Beneath the crimson mist, the massive shadow let out an excited laugh.
"Geeengar!" (Perfect timing!)
Alfred's expression froze. A black face he had never expected to see and a pair of red eyes filled with delight suddenly occupied his entire field of vision.
Mega Gengar!
When did it...
No, that's not right! How could Mega Evolution last this long? And how many times had it Mega Evolved today already? There was no way a trainer's stamina could support that...
There was no time to question it or feel fear. Mega Gengar had a clear objective as its claw shot straight toward the bright yellow crystal in Alfred's hand.
Shiro had specifically instructed it. It could ignore everything else. It didn't matter what happened to the crystal either. The important thing was to separate Hunter A from the yellow crystal first.
Gengar remembered those words clearly. Its black claw struck with a speed no one could have anticipated.
Alfred's face twisted violently and his eyes nearly burst from their sockets. If that claw hit him, it might sever his entire arm at the shoulder. More importantly, he could very well die here.
But Mega Gengar had appeared too suddenly. There was no time to react.
Alfred roared inwardly, 'Great God of Knowledge!'
The psychic crystal in his hand suddenly lit up. The instant Gengar's claw touched his arm, it vanished without a trace. In its place appeared a belt with several Poké Balls attached to it.
Alfred could feel that the psychic crystal had been transferred into his pocket.
Relief had only just surfaced when a sharp pain shot from his arm straight into his brain. He bit down so hard that his mouth nearly bled, barely managing to stop himself from screaming.
Blood sprayed through the air as an arm fell from the sky.
Mega Gengar glanced at it, only to discover that what remained in the severed hand was not the psychic crystal at all. It had become nothing more than an ordinary belt.
"Gen?"
Its eyes widened instantly. Its entire body tensed as it accelerated again, the speed of its claws becoming so fast that their movements could no longer be seen clearly.
Shiro's words echoed in its mind. It had to separate that yellow crystal.
Mega Gengar's gaze locked onto Alfred's lower back once more. There was a black shoulder bag hidden beneath the cloak, forming a noticeable bulge.
"Gengaar!"
Alfred saw only a blur of black rushing toward him. In a situation where death could come at any second, the tension in his mind had reached its limit. It felt as though a tightly stretched string inside his head was about to snap.
"Teleport!"
He shouted with every ounce of strength he had left.
At the same time, Gengar's claw struck something and tore it apart. Medicines, Pokéblocks, and various materials scattered everywhere. Three strange iron boxes, each about the size of a human head, tumbled out and fell through the air.
A flash of yellow psychic light appeared, and the man had already disappeared.
"Geeengar..."
Mega Gengar stared at the now-empty space above Weezing's head as a genuine sense of disappointment rose within it. Not only had it failed to complete the mission, but it had also let the target escape.
Everything had happened too quickly, and the night sky remained eerily quiet, as if nothing had happened at all.
"That was..." Jan frowned as he recalled the yellow flash from earlier. For some reason, it felt familiar. It seemed like he had seen a similar psychic power somewhere before.
Having finally caught his breath, Lance still felt suffocated from the intense exchange moments ago.
On a standard battlefield, it was hard to say, but in a real combat situation, that Mega Gengar could definitely unleash power far beyond the average Champion-level Pokémon.
Was Mega Evolution really that powerful? Compared to it, Dragon-type Pokémon did not seem all that impressive.
Lance began questioning himself.
At that moment, Shiro suddenly shouted anxiously, "Gengar! Stop spacing out! Forget about the items too... move, now!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Corviknight had already turned around. Its wings beat hard as it used Tailwind to accelerate away, while Gengar did not hesitate and immediately chased after it. Once they had put some distance between themselves and the battlefield, Shiro quickly pressed the Poké Ball button and recalled it.
Hearing the shout, Jan also sensed that something was wrong. When he turned around, he discovered that Weezing's body had turned bright red. It looked as though molten lava was about to erupt from inside it.
Explosion.
Weezing had been given a very simple command. The moment it could no longer sense its trainer's location, it was to unleash the strongest Explosion possible.
In other words, it would burn through its life force without restraint. It would destroy itself completely while dragging every living thing nearby down with it.
The ultimate Explosion of a Champion-level Weezing was powerful enough to turn everything within several kilometers into scorched wasteland. The devastation was comparable to what a Legendary Pokémon could cause.
It could not be stopped. It could not be controlled either.
This was a technique fueled by Weezing's remaining life force. Any attack would only make the explosion come sooner.
Fortunately, many of the Pokémon in the forest below had already fled because of the earlier battle and would not be caught in the blast.
The problem was the three people still here. If they were too slow, it could cost them their lives.
"Solrock! Teleport!" Jan's face twitched as he shouted, his voice nearly cracking. Too many things had happened in too short a time. He had completely forgotten about this ticking time bomb.
Solrock narrowed its eyes. Psychic energy enveloped Jan, who immediately recalled Aerodactyl, and teleported him as far away as possible.
Lance, lacking experience, was still standing there in a daze. However, Dragonite beneath him had already sensed the danger. A chill ran down its spine and, after flapping its small wings twice, it unleashed Extreme Speed with all its might, streaking through the sky like an orange meteor.
When Shiro saw Jan already standing atop a distant mountain and Dragonite rapidly closing in on Corviknight, he immediately called out, "G, Teleport!"
Light flashed as he and Corviknight vanished from the spot.
* * *
Northeast of Twinleaf Town, in the forest east of Lake Verity, a brilliant white light suddenly bloomed in the middle of the night.
For an instant, it shone with the brilliance of a second sun. Then the white light disappeared.
A crimson glow then shot into the sky while dust clouds exploded outward. The shockwave moved so fast that the naked eye could barely follow it as it roared across the land, engulfing the surrounding grass and trees.
Dragonite and Corviknight both felt an overwhelming force pushing against their backs. The fierce wind and relentless waves of heat scorched them, forcing them to fly even faster.
After another Teleport, Shiro arrived at the edge of Lake Verity. Jan and Lance arrived shortly afterward.
The raging winds behind them gradually died down, but the heat still washed over them in waves.
To the east of Lake Verity, beneath the night sky, stretched an unimaginable expanse of blackened earth. The dark scorched land glowed with a deep crimson light, as though molten lava were hidden beneath the cracked stones. The wasteland extended all the way to the mountainside east of the lake before finally stopping.
Many Pokémon that had failed to escape had been reduced to ashes instantly. Their remains were no longer recognizable, appearing only as black patches scattered across the charred ground. A single gust of wind was enough to turn them into drifting black dust.
One Staraptor had been just a little too slow. The entire rear half of its body had been vaporized. With half its body glowing red-hot, it continued flying forward from sheer momentum before finally crashing into a charred tree trunk and dying.
By the lakeshore, the three men stared at the hellish scene before them.
For a long time, none of them spoke.
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