The waiting time was very slow and boring.
But there was not a single person who was idle; whether communicating with people from their own region or trying to establish some kind of verbal alliance with people from other regions.
For example, Cynthia from the Sinnoh region, after briefly conversing with Cain together with her two companions, reached a basic verbal cooperation agreement. The terms of this agreement were quite simple: if they encountered each other on the continent of time and space and there was no conflict of interests, they could cooperate in certain actions.
Cain and Steven, as well as Phoebe and even Wallace, were quite familiar with Cynthia, so they knew and recognized her way of being. Although she was not good at speaking, her character was beyond question.
In addition to Cynthia, Diantha from the Kalos region did the same. All of this could be considered preparation in advance for entering an unknown environment.
However, what Cain did not expect was that this time only two people from the Kanto region were preparing to enter: Lance and Lorelei, both already having become members of the Elite Four.
What kind of sparks would arise when these two people met was unknown.
As for the Johto region, this time four people could enter; the four new members of the Elite Four would enter together. It seemed that Kanto and Johto had reached some kind of agreement, which probably had a lot to do with Kanto fully inheriting the four Elite Four members of the original Kanto region.
After a long wait, the moment to begin the teleportation finally arrived.
The teleportation device looked like a small passage. Under Agatha's direction, Cain and the others entered the conduit one by one. With the fluctuations of spatial energy, the people who entered quickly disappeared, indicating that they had been sent to the continent of time and space.
When Cain, with a hint of curiosity, entered the teleportation device, he felt a surge of spatial energy head-on and immediately discovered that he had completely lost the sensation of gravity.
When he opened his eyes again, the surroundings had completely changed: he was now in the middle of a primitive forest.
Cain shook his head, still somewhat dizzy, unfastened his belt, and threw several Poké Balls at the same time.
Gengar, Darkrai, Venusaur, and Lucario.
After appearing, Gengar and Darkrai very consciously slipped into Cain's shadow. In an unknown and dangerous environment like this, the first thing Cain needed to do was ensure his own safety.
Letting Gengar and Darkrai, Champion-level Pokémon, protect him was undoubtedly the safest option.
At present, Darkrai's level was still only level 80, but it had already completely familiarized itself with the power it had recovered. If an appropriate opportunity arose, Cain would prepare a new recovery medicine for it to restore even more strength. This would not only increase Darkrai's power, but also allow Cain to move more safely in this place.
As for Venusaur and Lucario, both were Pokémon that Cain needed to focus on especially at this moment. Moreover, their appearance would not cause too many changes in the primitive forest nor draw unnecessary attention.
Having just arrived, Cain truly was not sure what level of power the Pokémon on this continent would have.
After all, this was an environment with almost no human interference. In addition to natural selection, many Pokémon would undoubtedly survive; over time, their strength would inevitably increase. And once strengthened, their lives would become less dangerous and they would have more resources. To a large extent, as long as they managed to survive, everything would enter a positive cycle.
After preliminarily confirming his safety, Cain had time to observe the surroundings more carefully.
He extended his hand and gently drew a line in the air. His eyebrows arched slightly before knitting together again.
"Just as I imagined... spatial energy is everywhere here. In the Pokémon world, I can tear space apart with ease, but here I don't even have the ability to create a spatial crack."
"It seems that even at the moment when spatial energy is at its weakest, it's not so easy to break the restrictions of space."
As he said this, Cain's hand stopped in midair and then came down forcefully. A spatial crack about the thickness of a thumb appeared in front of him.
Upon seeing that crack, Cain's expression grew even more serious.
"Using all my strength, I can barely create a crack like this... it seems that the move Teleport will be very difficult to use here."
The limitation of the move Teleport for Slowking and Gardevoir greatly affected Cain's mobility.
Then Cain closed his eyes and silently sensed the fluctuations of his psychic power.
"Is the distance too great, making it so I can't perceive at all the psychic energy I left behind...?" Cain murmured.
Before entering here, Cain had not only left threads of psychic power on Koga's body, but also on Steven, Phoebe, and Wallace. He even left psychic threads on Cynthia and Diantha. Originally, he had planned to gather them once they entered this space.
He had not expected the internal situation to be like this.
Then there was no choice but to do as Juan had said and use the points marked on the map as meeting locations.
What was regrettable was that this continent of time and space was truly too large. According to the map, its area was approximately equivalent to half of the Hoenn region.
"There are three forested zones on the map. I don't know which one I'm in right now," Cain said while looking at the map in his hand.
Moreover, with a time flow rate five times faster, the maps drawn by the ancient predecessors would not necessarily be completely accurate.
With the power of a Champion-level Pokémon, changing the topography of an entire region after a large-scale battle was something very easy.
But since everything around was covered by trees of a primitive forest, this terrain probably had not been formed due to battles.
Cain mounted Venusaur's back and moved in a certain direction.
There was another detail worth mentioning: on this continent there was neither a sun nor a moon, yet the sky still changed in brightness. This was probably due to a special energy invoked after the integration of Dialga's and Palkia's powers.
Thanks to this, the vegetation and Pokémon of the continent could grow and perpetuate properly.
"Lucaar!"
With a flash, Lucario appeared beside Cain, its eyes fixed intensely on the depths of the distant forest.
Cain immediately understood the meaning. With Lucario's aura power, it could perceive any hostility toward their group within a radius of one kilometer.
Evidently, it had detected danger, which was why it immediately appeared next to Cain.
Bzzz—bzzz—bzzz—
Accompanied by a series of piercing noises, a swarm of Pokémon appeared in front of Cain.
Seeing them, a smile appeared on Cain's face.
"It really has been a long time since the last time I saw them... Beedrill..."
(End of chapter)