"A Secret Kingdom fracture connected to another fracture... It seems that this Secret Kingdom and the Nosepass snowy mountain one actually belong to the same place."
"As if a mirror had broken into two halves: the fractures of these two Secret Kingdoms fit together."
Very soon, Ethan reached that conclusion. That one fracture connected with another was, in fact, an explanation that was quite easy to understand.
"That means the Secret Kingdom on the other side is also a part of Mount Coronet. Then, could I use a similar method to explore the complete Mount Coronet through its fractures?"
"And not only Mount Coronet: if I move between Secret Kingdoms through these fractures, perhaps I could even come to explore the entire Pokémon world!"
When he thought of that possibility, Ethan's heart began to beat strongly. Melmetal seemed to have acquired a truly extraordinary ability.
Should he cross over and take a look?
He took a deep breath, while that thought surfaced in him again.
Although he had already gotten a general idea of what was on the other side thanks to Lucario's aura power, the fact that that passage was located in a Secret Kingdom fracture made him distrust the possible danger of crossing it.
"Come out, Litwick. Use Substitute to go to the other side of the Secret Kingdom and take a look."
Following Ethan's orders, a small purple flame separated from Litwick's body.
Then, that flame transformed into a Litwick clone and entered the passage.
After quite a while, Litwick opened its eyes and indicated to him that its clone had successfully crossed to the other side without suffering any danger.
"In that case... we can try."
After a brief hesitation, Ethan decided to try.
Behind that passage, there was probably a Secret Kingdom that was still unexplored.
And if he managed to explore it completely, perhaps he would obtain enormous benefits.
"What comes next will depend on you, Vibrava and Slowking."
After making the decision, Ethan released his two main defensive cores.
At the same time, he also took the Key Stone in his hand, having Melmetal, Lucario, and Litwick remain at his side.
With Melmetal and Mega Lucario as trump cards, he felt that his personal safety could be fairly well guaranteed.
Once all his Pokémon were ready, Ethan began to rise slowly, supported by Vibrava's Levitate ability, and entered the Secret Kingdom passage.
With a flash of light before his eyes, Ethan suddenly found himself in the middle of an immense snowy plain.
He looked behind himself and saw the same chaotic Secret Kingdom fracture.
"Melmetal, can you feel the Secret Kingdom passage?"
Ethan turned toward Melmetal, who was beside him. That was very important, because his decisions from that moment onward would depend on it.
"Zzzt!"
Melmetal nodded, and electric arcs once again covered its body.
After a few moments, Melmetal nodded with its usual innocent air and gave Ethan the good news.
"It really can be done... If that's the case, then I can explore this Secret Kingdom with peace of mind. Even if we encounter any danger, we can always return from where we are."
A smile appeared again on Ethan's face, while he turned his gaze toward the immense white expanse in the distance.
With Melmetal and Lucario at his side, he no longer had to worry about getting lost. Now he could explore with complete confidence.
"Let's go."
Ethan took a deep breath and spoke to all the Pokémon accompanying him.
"Viiibbrraa!"
Vibrava let out a cheerful cry and began to float gently.
At the same time, Litwick placed itself beside Ethan, with the flame burning above its head swaying to help dispel the intense cold.
Lucario, for its part, fully released its aura power, exploring the surroundings in search of any possible danger.
As for Slowking and Melmetal, whose mobility on that terrain was impractical, Ethan preferred to return them to their Poké Balls.
Whoosh, whoosh...
High above, the icy wind blew without pause.
Fortunately, with Vibrava controlling the wind, all those gusts were pushed aside.
Compared with the Nosepass Secret Kingdom, which contained extremely powerful electromagnetic waves, those of this snowy mountain were quite a bit weaker. On the other hand, Ice-type energy was extremely abundant here.
For quite a while, that entire Secret Kingdom showed itself silent and desolate. Up to that moment, Ethan had not managed to see the shadow of a single Pokémon.
"Lucario, have you found anything?"
Ethan turned toward Lucario and asked.
During the exploration, thanks to Lucario's aura power, they had collected a large amount of Ice-type resources.
It was a pity that there were no Ice-type Pokémon on Ethan's team, so he could not directly make use of those materials and would have to exchange them for other resources.
Which was not bad at all, because to achieve Meltan's evolution into Melmetal, he had practically exhausted all the reserves he had and was now rather poor.
If he could exchange all those Ice-type resources for more useful ones, he would once again have a good amount of materials in his hands, which was not bad either.
"Luucaarr!"
At that moment, Lucario suddenly let out an exclamation.
"Have you discovered something else?"
Ethan was surprised for an instant and followed with his gaze the direction Lucario was pointing.
"It's a cave!"
"Vibrava, let's go there."
Ethan became somewhat excited. After having flown for so long, it was already about time to take a break.
"Viiibbrraa!"
Vibrava responded and carried Ethan to the entrance of the cave.
"Come out, Melmetal."
Upon arriving there, Ethan released his most powerful force, Melmetal.
Afterward, he followed Melmetal into the cave, ready to investigate a little.
"These are the tracks of a Pokémon."
At that moment, Ethan discovered several obvious scrape marks on the cave wall.
"Luucaarr!"
Lucario nodded and transmitted new information to him through the mental link.
"Swinub and Piloswine!"
Upon learning what Pokémon inhabited that cave, Ethan's eyes lit up.
The Swinub family was Ground and Ice type, and they could perfectly become members of his sandstorm team.
In addition, Swinub had a third evolution: Mamoswine.
Mamoswine was a Pokémon that had existed since extremely ancient times; specimens preserved in ice layers from ten thousand years ago had even been found.
And for Piloswine to evolve into Mamoswine, it had to learn the move Ancient Power, thus causing its body to return to the prehistoric era.
That return to the primitive state through the move Ancient Power was, in fact, another of the topics Ethan planned to research in the future.
In the original Pokémon world, there existed the theory that Mega Evolution was nothing more than a return to a primordial form, and the fact that a Pokémon like Piloswine completed its evolution thanks to the move Ancient Power could serve as a perfect starting point to study that.
At the same time, Primal Reversion was also an extremely powerful ability of Groudon and Kyogre. Perhaps, through the study of the move Ancient Power, that state of primordial return could also be better analyzed, allowing Pokémon to master Mega Evolution more perfectly.
It was even not impossible that the ideas for achieving autonomous Mega Evolution and the mastery of life energy would arise precisely from the study of the move Ancient Power.
(End of chapter)