"So, does this ceremony also coincide with the moment when the spatial energy around that space is at its weakest? Will the League send people immediately after everything is over?" Cain asked.
"That's right. According to the plan, that should indeed be the case. And given the current situation, there will definitely be a spot reserved for you on Hoenn's list," Lance said, nodding.
Hearing this, Cain finally understood why Alexandra had said from the very beginning that she had received orders to prevent him from participating in this ceremony: she did not want him to enter that strange space that could allow him to soar all at once.
"Don't you feel that this miraculous continent resembles a certain legend very closely?" Cain murmured to himself.
"What?" Lance didn't hear what Cain said clearly.
"Nothing. I'm just wondering why the chairman didn't tell me about this when he asked me to come," Cain said with some doubt.
With Juan's identity, it was impossible that he was not fully aware of this matter. However, he did not tell him directly, instead allowing him to learn about it through Lance.
At this, Lance did not seem too surprised. "I suppose he didn't want to tell you in advance—maybe he wanted to give you a surprise. Or perhaps it's due to the League's confidentiality agreement: before the time comes, this information cannot be disclosed to anyone. After all, even though it's something that happens every five years, there are still quite a few people who know this secret."
"So, before entering, everyone is required to sign a confidentiality agreement."
"Then is there no problem with you telling me directly?" Cain asked.
Lance shrugged. "I haven't entered yet, so I haven't signed any agreement. It was the chairman who, when assigning us the mission, explained this to us so everything would go more smoothly. Both Lady Agatha and Bruno have already entered, and both Lorelei and I will definitely have a spot as well, so there's no problem in knowing it."
"Besides, you will definitely have a slot. You will enter no matter what, so telling you in advance isn't a problem either."
Although it sounded a bit forced, Cain thought that was probably the only reasonable explanation.
However, given that the Sacred Church had decided to send people at precisely that time to stop him, that meant they also knew about this matter. And the Sacred Church choosing to appear during that period was likely related to that place.
The Sacred Church had been appearing for quite some time; even its minor subordinates possessed strong psychic abilities. As leaders, they undoubtedly had even more experts, and perhaps among them there was someone extremely sensitive to spatial abilities, capable of locating that continent by taking advantage of that period.
That place which the League regarded as a mountain of gold was surely also a target that the Sacred Church had inferred.
The best course of action, undoubtedly, was to find the infiltrators or those bought off by the Sacred Church before entering. As long as there were no internal traitors, for the Sacred Church to find that place would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
In that way, Juan's reserved behavior became understandable to a certain extent.
After chatting a bit more, Cain and Lance continued walking toward the interior of the League building. After all, Lance, as one of the hosts, was quite busy.
Cain, who found a room where he could rest properly, sat down on the sofa and once again fell into deep contemplation.
"So that's where it was!" Cain's eyes suddenly lit up, revealing an expression of sudden understanding.
More than a year earlier, in order to participate in the Sinnoh Tournament, he had traveled to that region. With Cynthia's help, Cain learned the secret that Cynthia's family had protected for generations: the legend of the gods of time and space, Dialga and Palkia.
According to the legend, these two divine Pokémon were born in an unknown space, far away from the Pokémon World, together with the Dragon of the Underworld, Giratina. These three Pokémon slept in the form of eggs until the creator god Arceus awakened them, as Arceus wanted to use Dialga's and Palkia's powers of time and space to perfect the Pokémon World.
However, Dialga and Palkia were naturally incompatible; their energies clashed with each other. In order to make those energies merge, Arceus ordered them to jointly create a mysterious continent that floated in space, a continent whose whereabouts had never been discovered.
But now, it seemed that this mysterious continent, which fused extremely powerful space and time energy, was not undiscovered—it had already been found. It was simply that people did not know it was the continent of the legend, or perhaps only a few who knew Sinnoh's legends were aware of it.
In that way, it became clear why something that appeared to be the size of a pebble was actually a continent, and why the flow of time inside it was five times that of the Pokémon World.
With the abilities of Dialga and Palkia, achieving something like this was entirely possible. After all, from the moment of their birth, they represented time and space.
"Seen this way, this special place is truly worth a visit. Not even talking about how much one could improve in five months—just the amount of natural treasures that grow on that continent alone is already an almost astronomical wealth," the gleam in Cain's eyes grew ever more intense.
Its time of existence was incalculable, probably even older than humanity itself. It had not experienced a large influx of external beings due to its special environment, and coupled with a temporal flow five times faster, the materials that grew there would have an unimaginable age.
In the Pokémon World, some materials of great antiquity and enormous value were already practically unattainable. How many of those would there be on that continent?
Wouldn't a poor person, just by going in and wandering around, picking up anything at random, become a millionaire?
But in contrast, if the materials could have greater age, the Pokémon living there would undoubtedly possess vastly greater strength.
After all, aside from natural predators, their growth environment hardly suffered any external interference.
That place was even more primitive and dangerous than the interior of Mt. Silver.
Such a dangerous environment meant that at any moment someone could lose their life. Moreover, from a certain point of view, once inside, wild Pokémon would not necessarily be the greatest threat; people with malicious intentions could be even more terrifying, since there were no rules restricting their behavior.
The facts proved that this was very possible, because among all the people who entered, there was always a portion that did not return. Currently, the overall survival rate was seventy percent.
A high reward represented a high risk. Therefore, some more conservative regions did not send their best talents, but rather people of relatively lesser strength to try their luck. If they were lost, it would not hurt as much; and if they survived and gained benefits, perhaps they really could rise in a single leap.
Undoubtedly, many were willing to gamble. After all, for some people, if they only grew steadily, they would never be able to catch up to the true geniuses.
(End of chapter)