"The forest isn't that big. Where could Elias even hide?"
Diancie was clearly not satisfied with Cogita's explanation.
And she wasn't wrong. Cogita understood it too—if Elias still hadn't come back by now, and no message had come through…
Then he had to have run into serious trouble.
Maybe even…
Cogita didn't dare keep thinking. That outcome made it hard for her to breathe.
"Can you contact Dianna?"
"Carbink should be good at finding people. Have them all come help."
Cogita didn't forget Diancie's identity and offered the suggestion.
Only then did Diancie remember she still carried the title of princess of the Underground Kingdom.
"I can have the Carbink help pass a message."
"But… I want to go there myself."
After thinking for a moment, Diancie answered.
Dianna was far more mature and clever than she was. If she knew what was happening here, maybe she'd have a new idea.
Cogita thought it over and felt Diancie had a point.
"Cogita, you should come too."
Considering Yveltal might come looking, Diancie showed rare concern.
Normally, Cogita would never agree.
But with Enamorus already turned into a stone statue, once Diancie left, Cogita would be all alone.
After a brief pause, she nodded.
At the same time, Cogita didn't forget to leave a note at home.
If Elias came back early, he'd know where they'd gone right away.
...
At the same time—
A group of people in red-and-black uniforms were wandering through the forest.
They were at the exact spot where Elias had fought Yveltal not long ago.
"Lord Lysandre, we've searched the area. We haven't found Mr. Elias."
A young woman with pink hair and orange sunglasses reported to Lysandre.
"Keep looking."
Hearing that, Lysandre's expression darkened, the order squeezed out through clenched teeth.
He was still too late.
The moment he received the distress signal, he'd rushed over without stopping.
But even so, by the time he arrived, the place already looked like the aftermath of a war.
Shattered stone and snapped timber littered the ground—proof enough that a brutal fight had taken place here recently.
And without even needing to analyze it, he could tell the Pokémon Mr. Elias had run into was the one he'd been monitoring this whole time: Yveltal.
Thinking back to how confidently he'd waved around data not long ago, telling Mr. Elias that Yveltal was most likely dormant again…
Lysandre's face burned, and guilt churned in his chest.
He'd let Mr. Elias down.
Hearing Lysandre's order, Malva couldn't help the helpless look that crossed her face.
As one of Team Flare's senior executives, she'd naturally met Mr. Elias before.
And she knew exactly how much he mattered to their leader.
Honestly, sometimes she even wondered if their boss was just the Pyroar he kept around gaining human intelligence…
Grumbling internally, Malva could only nod and return to the search.
She just hoped they could find him soon.
Not long after Malva left, the soil by Lysandre's feet suddenly bulged upward slightly.
The anomaly made Lysandre immediately step back two paces, his gaze sharpening with vigilance.
Bang—!
With a flick of his hand, he released Pyroar.
The next second, something shot straight up from the earth.
It was a Carbink. Seeing Lysandre, it seemed to freeze for a moment, too.
"Are you Mr. Lysandre?"
It compared him to the "lion-head guy" it had heard described, then asked cautiously.
Seeing it was a Carbink, Lysandre seemed to guess what was coming and hurriedly nodded.
The Carbink nodded with satisfaction.
It had guessed right.
"Mr. Elias was saved by our queen, so you don't need to worry anymore."
It delivered its message.
Hearing the answer he'd been expecting, Lysandre let out a fierce breath of relief.
So it really was just as he'd thought—someone had come to report he was safe.
"Thank you for the trouble."
He replied politely, and a small smile finally broke through on his face.
But…
Thinking that Team Flare had been less reliable than a Pokémon tribe, Lysandre felt even more embarrassed.
Reform. When he got back, he was absolutely going to overhaul the organization!
He swore it to himself.
After watching the Carbink leave, Lysandre subconsciously replayed what it had said.
Queen…
Wait. Queen?
If he remembered correctly, the one who stayed by Mr. Elias's side was always called a princess, wasn't she?
He'd assumed that was just how the Carbink tribe worked—that their highest ruler was a princess.
But now…
Was there another one?!
...
[Compared to when you first woke up, your condition has stabilized a little.]
[But unlike the previous times, this time you can clearly feel your body growing weaker.]
[Very slowly—but it was impossible to stop.]
...
Elias sat quietly against a stone chair, carefully sensing the changes inside himself.
It seemed to be related to Yveltal.
That power lingering in his body hadn't dispersed. Instead, it was slowly eroding the Life Energy that was originally within him.
It was extremely similar to what happened with Dianna back then—except the force filling him now was far denser.
Without outside help, his end would be simple: his Life Energy would run out, and his soul-form would disperse.
"Elias… are you feeling unwell?"
Seeing Elias's expression looking a little off, Dianna asked worriedly.
She couldn't diagnose anything—she had no idea what his condition actually was.
But looking at how faded he seemed, it couldn't be good.
"I'm fine…"
Elias hesitated for two seconds, then still shook his head.
There was no need to tell Dianna. It would only add to her worries.
Besides, even if he kept fading at this rate, he still had a year or two before his Life Energy ran out.
"Dianna, how much longer can the giant diamond hold?"
Maybe because time suddenly felt tight, Elias glanced at the diamond outside the window, glittering with radiant light, and asked.
Compared to the first time he'd seen this giant diamond, its color hadn't dulled—it had grown even more dazzling.
Only…
It felt more like a final brilliance before collapse.
Fine cracks webbed across the entire diamond, looking as though it could fall apart at any moment.
---
T/N: 4 chaps meeting this weeks quota, i was too focused on something elseeeeeeeeeeeee ive been playing 7daystodieeeeeeeeeee
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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