"How's it going?"
"Still searching for the entrance."
"Hurry up. We don't have much time."
"Yes sir!"
After the commander responded, he continued urging the people working below.
At this moment, within Dragon Nation's borders, an official administrator had already started briefing Rayquaza, indicating there might be need for him soon.
Rayquaza coiled his body, lazily snorted through his nose, turned his head away, and completely ignored the official.
The administrator from the official organization didn't mind. He just smiled at Rayquaza and said: "The legendary Pokémon summoned by Hoopa should all be quite strong."
Rayquaza's ears perked up. Though there wasn't much movement, the administrator knew—Rayquaza was interested.
"Well, since you're not interested, I'll head over first then."
As the administrator spoke, he pretended to turn and leave.
"Whoosh!"
"Ow!"
The administrator's rear was attacked, knocked off balance.
Rayquaza just flicked his tail, turned his head away, and only sneakily watched the administrator from the corner of his eye.
The administrator turned around, picked up the scale Rayquaza had flicked at him from the ground, and said to Rayquaza with a wry smile:
"Alright. When legendary Pokémon appear, we'll notify you."
Hearing this, Rayquaza stopped pretending. He immediately turned his head around and nodded excitedly.
Then, realizing what he'd done, he lay there seriously again, just waving his tail to signal you can leave now.
The administrator naturally understood. He nodded and headed outside.
"THUD!"
"Alright, I know. When we encounter legendary Pokémon, I'll remember to summon you."
Without even turning around, the administrator knew this commotion was definitely Rayquaza's doing. This was him reminding the administrator to remember to summon him.
"Hmph~"
Hearing Rayquaza's satisfied snort, the administrator continued walking outside with a smile.
Calling on Rayquaza this time was mainly to test Hoopa's combat capabilities. This kind of opportunity was rare.
After all, there had been two previous instances of testing legendary Pokémon strength domestically, and the official cleanup costs had been quite substantial.
Later, because of these two cautionary tales, even if legendary Pokémon appeared domestically in the future, officials wouldn't let Rayquaza fight them anymore.
Though Rayquaza loved battling strong opponents, fighting domestically every time was just too costly.
Even regular Pokémon battles were highly destructive. Legendary Pokémon battles—the cleanup scope was measured in cities each time.
But fortunately, this time it was in Mongolia. Though it was a friendly neighboring country, at least it wasn't their own home, so they could fight.
The battle wasn't just to simply satisfy Rayquaza's battle lust. One aspect was testing Hoopa's combat abilities, another was to demonstrate national strength.
And while they were at it, see if they could suppress Hoopa and bring him back. Mongolia didn't have a covenant legendary—Hoopa was in a wild state.
After the administrator came out, he directly sent a message to Ashen.
"Do what you need to. Your country has your back!"
...
"Hoopa, Victini—do you two want to come to my place?"
"Tini~"
"Victini says yes, but Hoopa doesn't seem to be able to. Let Hoopa calculate—Hoopa should still have some grounding period left."
Hoopa got excited for a moment. After various delicacies flashed before his eyes, he looked at the valley around him and remembered he was still grounded—he still needed some time before he could freely go out and play.
"Grounding period?"
Auron seemed to understand somewhat. Perhaps like in the movie, because of Hoopa Unbound, he'd been sealed by Arceus.
He didn't know who had grounded him in reality, but from the looks of things, he probably couldn't leave a certain range.
"Right! Because of big Hoopa, big Hoopa became Hoopa, and then got grounded too. Sigh~"
Hoopa sat on Auron's lap with a distressed expression, his hands supporting his little cheeks.
(Mm, technically Hoopa doesn't have a lower body—his lower body is a little tail, but using the tail as a support point, he should still be able to sit.)
"Alright then. When your grounding ends, you're welcome to visit me."
Hoopa immediately flew up full of energy and pumped his fist at Auron. "Of course! Once Hoopa's grounding ends, Hoopa will definitely visit Little Ze!"
"Tini~"
"Victini says he wants to go out for a walk with Mew first, then come find you, Hoopa~"
Watching Victini in a half-asleep state, Auron couldn't help but laugh and poke his little belly.
"Tini tini~"
After using his hands to push Auron's finger away, Victini rolled over on Auron's lap and fell back asleep.
Seeing this, Auron couldn't help but smile, then gently patted Victini's back, continuing to coax him to sleep.
"Then I'll make more delicious food when I get back. But once it's ready, how do I contact you?"
Hoopa's eyes lit up. He opened a golden ring, reached inside, pulled out a horn, and handed it to Auron. "You can use this to call Hoopa!"
"Just this will work?"
Auron reached out to take the horn from Hoopa and asked curiously.
"Yes! If you talk into this, Hoopa can hear you."
Auron smiled and put the horn away. "Alright. When it's ready, I'll call you."
"Mm mm, Little Ze is so nice~"
"Haha~"
At this moment, on the other side—Snorlax and Darkrai.
"How can he eat so much?"
"How can he eat so much?"
Both Pokémon were extremely puzzled.
Snorlax had truly never seen anyone who could eat more than him. Eating until now, even Grandpa's Bewear would have long since collapsed from overeating. Why was he still eating? And looking like he still had energy to spare?
Snorlax couldn't understand, but Darkrai understood. He'd long since been unable to eat anymore. What Snorlax saw as "able to eat" was just an illusion from him cheating with Dark Void.
If he didn't know that Snorlax wasn't cheating but was genuinely eating, he wouldn't be sighing "how can he eat so much?"
(Can't admit defeat! I'm the Nightmare God! How can I lose to him? Even if I can't eat it all, I can store it!)
Darkrai roared internally, but his face maintained a calm, breezy expression as he continued stuffing food into his mouth.
By this point, most of his thoughts had transformed into: "Secretly store some—otherwise I probably won't get to eat this again later."
Outside the valley, the red-robed archbishop looked at the time, then ordered the commander beside him:
"Blast it open directly. If we wait any longer, Mongolia will catch on."
"Yes sir!"