Chapter 348: The God of Nightmares!! Darkrai!!
On the field, Volcarona looked around vigilantly. Its instincts screamed that a pair of eyes was currently locked onto it from the shadows.
But no matter how hard its compound eyes searched, it couldn't find a single trace of an opponent.
Time ticked by. Finally, Xun Zhurong made the first move.
"Volcarona!! Heat Wave!!"
"Ei...!"
Volcarona let out a sharp cry, its six wings beginning to beat to unleash a wave of scorching air. But in the next heartbeat, its movements froze. It stood paralyzed in mid-air, its body refusing to obey.
Xun's brow shot up. Looking at his frozen Pokémon, a massive alarm bell went off in his head.
Sure enough, a split second later, Kenji's voice cut through the silence.
"Dark Void!!! —"
The moment the command left Kenji's lips, the shadow cast by Volcarona on the sunlit floor began to dilate. At an impossible speed, the darkness expanded across the arena, swallowing the light.
In the blink of an eye, the entire floor of the battlefield was transformed into a void of pure ink.
"What's happening??! Why did the sky turn dark??!"
The audience looked up in shock. There were no clouds, yet the daylight had been suppressed by an eerie, black filter that blanketed the entire Phoenix Nest Battle Arena. It felt as if a heavy, dark curtain had been drawn over the world.
"Is that... Dark Void??!"
High on the VIP platform, Lawson's pupils shrank. Beside him, Yuna Su lost her composure entirely, springing from her seat.
She stared at the gathering gloom, her horror impossible to hide.
"To pierce the arena's energy shields and alter the environment of the entire stadium... that isn't a power any normal Pokémon possesses!!"
"There's only one type of creature capable of this," Lawson whispered, his voice trembling. "A Mythical..."
The identity of the newcomer was already forming in the minds of the experts.
The God of Nightmares!!! Darkrai!!!!
The hundred thousand people in the stadium held their collective breath. The blackened arena had created an atmosphere of an impending apocalypse, a localized distortion of reality that made every trainer's skin crawl.
Under the gaze of the world, a silhouette slowly rose from the pitch-black floor.
Darkrai had arrived.
Its blue eye was cold and depthless. The white, smoke-like "hair" atop its head billowed rhythmically, and a thick, dark mist swirled around its form, making the Mythical Pokémon appear and disappear within the gloom like a phantom.
Xun Zhurong, usually the embodiment of calm arrogance, stood dazed. He forced the name out of his dry throat: "...Darkrai..."
He had anticipated Kenji might have a card even more terrifying than the Dragon-form Arbok. But he never imagined that card would be the master of the dream world itself.
On the high platform, the Elite Four were on high alert.
The power of a Mythical was catastrophic, and their special abilities were notoriously dangerous to bystanders. If Darkrai exerted too much pressure, the safety of the hundred thousand spectators could be at risk. They prepared themselves to intervene, ready to stabilize the arena's barriers if the "nightmare" spiraled out of control.
Darkrai turned slowly, its gaze landing on Kenji.
"Next time you face an opponent this pathetic, don't bother me. You're wasting my time."
The voice was low and resonant, yet it carried clearly to every corner of the stadium.
A wave of shock hit the crowd. Hearing a Pokémon speak human language was a rare, legendary occurrence. But for a Mythical like Darkrai, it felt perfectly natural.
Xun Zhurong's face turned a sickly shade of red, then pale. Anger flared in his eyes. Darkrai's words were a slap in the face—it had just dismissed him and his Champion-level Volcarona as "pathetic" ants not worth its attention.
Kenji gave a helpless shrug. Since Darkrai had reached 4-Stars, its strength had surpassed every other member of his team by a landslide. Only Mega Beedrill could truly keep this guy in line.
Being a Mythical, Darkrai was inherently proud. To it, ordinary Pokémon and humans were no different from the insects in a wall crack. In its eyes, only its trainer, Kenji, was worthy of standing as an equal.
...and perhaps that quiet, hyper-lethal bee Kenji kept in the other ball.
"Return! Volcarona!"
Xun was furious, but he hadn't lost his tactical mind. It was clear Volcarona was outclassed. To avoid a useless sacrifice, he intended to swap to his ultimate Ace—the Sacred Flame-blessed Houndoom.
Darkrai might be a god, but gods could bleed.
Xun remembered that Yuna Su held a Zapdos, yet she was still only an Elite Four member, unable to overcome his Uncle Yun's Blaziken.
Xun refused to believe his Houndoom was inferior to any Mythical. Today, he would step over the body of a god to take the throne!
He clicked his Poké Ball, a beam of red light shooting toward Volcarona.
However, as the light touched the moth, it didn't retract. The red energy simply shattered against Volcarona's body like glass. The moth remained on the field, frozen.
Xun froze, staring at his Poké Ball in confusion.
What? Why can't I recall it???!
At that moment, Darkrai turned its head back toward the center of the field, looking at Volcarona and its trainer.
"I said you weren't worthy of being my opponent. But did you really think this battlefield was a place where you could just come and go as you please?"
Darkrai raised a clawed hand and, mimicking a human gesture, snapped its fingers.
SNAP!!!! —
The sound was like a gunshot in the silent arena.
Its blue eye flared with a sinister black light.
In the next heartbeat, the Volcarona—still hovering in mid-air—suddenly dropped like a stone. It hit the floor with a wet thud, its eyes clamped shut. It had fallen into a deep, supernatural slumber.
Dark Void successfully triggered!!!
Darkrai made a pulling motion with its hand, as if reeling in an invisible thread.
A wisp of red energy drifted out of Volcarona's body—the manifestation of its consciousness being dragged into the nightmare realm.
Currently, the entire arena was the effective range of Darkrai's power.
Within this zone, Darkrai was the absolute master. Unless an opponent's raw power significantly exceeded its own, they were playthings.
Combined with the Shadow Tag ability Kenji had granted it through the Star-Up system, Darkrai's kit was now a mathematical checkmate. Not only could the opponent not switch out, but their very "shadows" were pinned to the earth, rendering them physically immobile even before the sleep kicked in.
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