Chapter 851: Her Companions Will Wait For Her Right Where They Are
League Calendar Year 220.
Southern Kanto continent, Cinnabar Town.
Kazuya looked at the empty interior of the volcano, turned around expressionlessly, and left with his four companions.
"Nothing here, let's go."
Eight years had passed since Skitty's death.
They had changed their past style of constantly fleeing.
Kazuya began to lead his companions to actively strike out, searching everywhere for isolated Demon Gods to hunt.
If they could win, they devoured.
If they couldn't win, they fled.
At the same time.
Shadow was also personally leading Demon Gods to hunt or ambush them everywhere.
It had to be mentioned.
After losing the Ghost-type Pokemon army, Palkia, Hoopa, and Giratina—these crucial combat assets.
Shadow had essentially lost His "vision" and "teleportation."
Therefore.
The threat from the Demon God faction towards them had lessened considerably.
Going round and round.
They had also run into Shadow a few times.
But basically, Shadow could only follow behind them eating their dust.
Presumably, eight years ago, Shadow never would have expected it.
That the Demon Gods under His command who possessed spatial jumping abilities would all die so suddenly.
To the extent that now He had almost completely lost the ability to actively launch surprise attacks on Kazuya's group, and could only watch helplessly time and time again as Kazuya and the others slipped away from under His hands.
Of course.
It wasn't without its troubles.
Ever since the Power of Space appeared on Kazuya.
Shadow had already realized.
Kazuya had mastered an ability capable of devouring the power of other Legendary Pokemon.
He instantly guessed that Kazuya had fused the Dread Plate.
But that was no longer important.
This ability made Shadow feel deeply apprehensive.
Thus, He began to actively consolidate the Demon God forces under His command, almost all of them gathering in groups in various regions or simply guarding by Shadow's side.
Now.
It was very difficult for Kazuya and his team to find isolated Demon Gods outside to hunt.
Basically, they either didn't encounter any, or they ran into a huge group all at once and could only flee in panic.
Regarding this.
Kazuya felt slightly disappointed, but not discouraged.
Because.
He discovered that devouring the power of other Demon Gods wasn't entirely a good thing either.
For example, Kazuya now possessed 7 types of divine power on his body.
The extra two.
Were devoured during these eight years.
Originating respectively from...
The "God of Wishes" Jirachi's Power of Wish.
The "God of Spring" Enamorus's Power of Spring.
The Power of Wish.
Could absorb the energy of falling stars to realize some thoughts in one's heart; it was rather abstract.
In this era where the sky was obscured by gray fog.
This was a useless, trash ability.
Even more useless than the Power of Electricity alone.
To the point where Kazuya once regretted devouring this power.
The Power of Spring.
A very pure power.
It drastically increased Kazuya's life energy and had an extremely strong amplifying effect on males.
To put it in game terms...
It meant Kazuya's maximum HP and maximum PP had been massively increased.
Two new abilities.
Plus Kazuya's own Power of Nightmares.
A total of eight divine powers.
Counting Mewtwo.
That made nine.
Which also meant.
Currently, their team.
Was equivalent to constantly emitting the auras of nine "gods."
If in the past they had to change locations every three days.
Now they had to move every half day.
Otherwise.
Shadow's side would immediately perceive their location and lead a team in pursuit of them.
Of course.
Even if Shadow perceived them and led Demon Gods to bear down on them, it didn't matter.
Kazuya would immediately use the Power of Space to take his companions to the other side of the world; it was merely a matter of spending some stamina.
It was just that.
This feeling of constantly exposing their position.
Was indeed quite uncomfortable.
Sometimes it could perhaps be used to lay an ambush.
But more often than not, it made moving around very inconvenient.
That was why Kazuya felt regret over devouring the Power of Wish.
It had no positive effect.
Completely negative effects.
Walking in the scorching, deep tunnels of the Cinnabar Volcano.
"It seems unless we actively bite the bait Shadow throws out, it will be very difficult to devour the power of other Demon Gods again."
Mewtwo's voice sounded beside Kazuya.
Eight years.
They had only hunted two Demon Gods.
One of them was Jirachi, who was used as bait and a sacrificial pawn.
At that time, they hadn't realized Shadow would actively sacrifice powerful Demon God combatants as pawns, only thinking they were lucky to catch an isolated Jirachi.
So they fell into an ambush.
Kazuya could not be interrupted while devouring Jirachi.
Consequently, Scizor and the others suffered a lot to protect Kazuya, to the point where one of Scizor's wings was even broken.
Fortunately, devouring Jirachi didn't take much time.
Kazuya still managed to use the Power of Space at the crucial moment to escape with his companions.
The other was Enamorus, whom they forcefully gnawed out from the encirclement of the Tao Trio and the Hoenn Trio.
Having learned from their previous mistake.
They were smarter this time.
After beating Enamorus half to death, they took Enamorus and warped across space to escape.
Waiting until they were safe before devouring Enamorus.
This time, Shadow suffered a huge loss.
Since then, He also learned His lesson and stopped sending those weaker Demon Gods out as bait.
Other than that.
Kazuya's team hadn't devoured a third Demon God.
Because every time the Demon Gods appeared, Shadow was basically always by Their side.
Even with their five Pokemon combined, they were no match for Shadow.
Therefore.
Only when Shadow was not present.
Would they take a gamble and try to devour one or two Demon Gods.
Whenever Shadow showed even a shadow of Himself.
They would immediately stop fighting and decisively teleport away.
Shadow seemed to have realized this as well.
So in recent months.
He hadn't shown Himself personally, but let the Demon Gods attack on Their own.
But even so.
Kazuya and his team would be extremely careful.
Sometimes even refusing to engage, leaving directly to guard against a sneak attack from Shadow.
In short.
For Kazuya and his team to devour a certain Demon God.
The difficulty was exceedingly high.
Several times they nearly lost their lives and still didn't succeed.
But.
For Shadow to kill them.
He also failed repeatedly.
Over the past eight years, the number of His failures had exceeded fifty no matter how you counted.
Now both sides were in a stage of stalemate.
"It's fine, we aren't the ones who should be anxious; there's no need to take risks."
Kazuya gently shook his head.
As he said.
The ones who should be anxious were not the five of them.
They could stall for time to quickly train and level up, while the Demon Gods lacked the consciousness to level up autonomously.
Even if Shadow made Them brawl with each other.
The efficiency would absolutely be horrifyingly low.
Decades without an inch of progress was entirely possible.
Catching up in levels was just a matter of time for Kazuya and his team.
The longer time dragged on.
The smaller the strength gap between them and those Demon Gods would be.
And the greater the success rate for Kazuya to devour the power of those Demon Gods.
Therefore.
The anxious party.
Should not be the five of them.
It was just that.
There was a problem.
That indeed had to be considered.
And that was the survivors.
The Spirit World was closed, and the cycle of life and death had been broken.
There would be no new births in the world.
As time passed.
The number of humans and Pokemon in this world would grow fewer and fewer, and even the Kalos continent would sink into the sea.
Undoubtedly.
This would decrease the possibility of this world being saved.
Not to mention the distant future.
Just looking at the present.
The number of members in the three major world-saving organizations was dwindling.
Silver, Chloe, AZ.
The manpower available to the three of them was growing scarcer.
Moreover, along with the world's reversal and the regression of technology...
The things the three of them could do were also becoming fewer.
When the future arrives.
The power of the survivors might even disappear completely.
But.
Even so.
Kazuya would not act rashly.
Skitty's death made him much more hardened, and also made him value the lives of the companions beside him even more.
Therefore.
Their growth and safety were already the top priority in Kazuya's heart.
Only when they grew strong.
Would this world have true hope.
However.
This statement of Kazuya's.
Did not receive 100 percent agreement within the team this time.
Looking at the four young companions walking ahead.
Dragonite, standing at the very back, lowered her head.
It was impossible for her not to be anxious.
Because she didn't have much time left.
Eight years.
Kazuya and Scizor's levels had both reached Lv.91.
Lucario hadn't moved, but he was still a steady Master.
Mewtwo had also been at Lv.89 for a long time through frequent, high-intensity battles, and breaking through to Lv.90 was likely a matter of the next few years.
Only Dragonite.
Instead of advancing, she regressed.
Her level had already dropped to Lv.88.
No matter how hard she trained and fought, her level would still drop.
Her body grew weaker year by year.
This made Dragonite feel anxious and panicked in her heart.
She had secretly wiped away tears late at night.
They still had so, so many things to do, but it seemed she could no longer afford to drag it out.
Team Rocket had constantly been helping Kazuya's team develop Reversion Pills.
Relying on these Reversion Pills.
They narrowly escaped death time and time again.
But Dragonite also consumed more and more of her lifespan because of this.
Yet.
The Mega Evolution injection that could increase lifespan was always lacking materials.
The Mega Stone exclusive to Dragonite.
This item.
They had never been able to find.
"Ooh-woo..."
Dragonite's hands wrung together.
She was worried.
That until the day her lifespan ended, the Mega Evolution injection still wouldn't be developed.
And she was even more worried.
That her aged self would not only be unable to help everyone but would instead drag everyone down.
She walked out of the Dragon Clan.
Hoping to be able to help Kazuya.
To send him further along this path, and even walk to the very end with him.
But...
Could she really still do it?
She felt...
As if she had already stopped halfway.
She could only be like she was now, watching her companions head further forward, while she had the will but lacked the strength, unable to keep up with everyone anymore.
"Dragonite."
Kazuya's voice suddenly rang out.
Dragonite woke up with a start from the vortex of negative emotions, raising her head to look at the four figures waiting for her ahead.
"Let's go to the Dragon Clan's territory. Perhaps, a Mega Stone has refreshed there."
His voice slowly floated into Dragonite's ears.
Has Kazuya always been paying attention to my emotions and thoughts?
Dragonite froze for a moment.
Then smiled and obediently nodded.
The two wings behind her flapped gently, and she hurried to catch up.
Her mood instantly improved significantly.
No one could truly say what the future would be like.
However.
Dragonite wasn't afraid at all anymore.
Because.
Her companions would wait for her right where they were.
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