Countless cracks had been blasted into the spatial barrier of the Distortion World. The combined power of Ash and all of his Pokémon.
Ash's own Aura had reached Mid god level, but even so, the chasm between Mid and High god level was immense. Fighting across tiers within god level wasn't like crossing gaps at lower ranks.
Take Mewtwo's current Mega Evolution as an example. Even at High god level, Mega Evolution still hadn't pushed it to the next tier. If Mewtwo had been at god-level Peak right now, it could have taken down this weakened Giratina with one hand.
The same was true on Ash's side. Although he combined everything his team had to blast those cracks into the barrier, the attack wasn't enough to shatter it outright. As the power dissipated, the cracks healed rapidly, as if time were flowing backward.
The gap blasted open by seven Pokémon and one human recovered to its original state within a few breaths. Light purple crystals covered the surface once again, smooth as if it had never been touched.
Charon stood on the inner side of the Distortion Space, his shirt drenched in cold sweat. He'd genuinely thought the barrier was about to break. A fifteen-year-old boy, leading seven Pokémon, had forcefully cracked Giratina's Distortion Space. If word of this got out, the researchers at Team Galactic would call him a lunatic.
"Giratina's Distortion Space isn't so easily broken." Charon tried to make his voice sound steady. "Even if you use everything you have, don't think about getting through this barrier."
His hand resting on the back of Molly's chair was still trembling. It had been way too close just now.
Saturn stood behind Giratina, his gaze passing over the intact barrier and landing on the boy opposite him. His expression had finally lost its stillness, and his palms clenched involuntarily.
Ash's power far exceeded his expectations. Who could have imagined that a human could produce god-level output? Team Galactic's research stations had analyzed mountains of data on Legendary Pokémon. Not a single data point could explain the boy standing in front of them. God-level Pokémon were rare but documented. God-level power on a human? That was something else entirely.
"I think I understand now why the Orange Islands operation failed." Saturn's voice was still controlled, but a slight tremor ran through it. "Facing a human with god-level combat power, Charon's defeat isn't so hard to explain."
Ash wasn't listening to him. He knelt on one knee, right hand bracing against the fractured crystal floor, chest heaving. That attack had consumed a massive amount of his power. He might possess god-level Aura, but he didn't have the bottomless stamina reserves of a Legendary Pokémon. Overloaded bursts like that took a real toll.
And it still hadn't been enough. Giratina's Distortion Space was the real deal.
Sweat slid down his temple and dripped onto the light purple crystals with a faint sound.
Pikachu crouched beside him, golden arcs still crackling from his cheeks, breathing just as ragged.
Gardevoir descended from midair, her orange eyes fixed on Ash with undisguised worry. She reached out to support him, but he gently waved her off.
Gengar floated behind Ash, his usually unserious face showing a rare solemnity. He looked at the shadow gradually solidifying inside the barrier, then at the distant battlefield where Mewtwo and Giratina were trading blows, already calculating the next move.
Aerodactyl hovered at low altitude, its eyes on Ash.
Venusaur gave a low rumble, and the huge flower on its back bloomed with a soft emerald-green light. That light fell on every Pokémon around, restoring the stamina they'd just burned through.
Blastoise planted its feet firmly on the fractured ground, the thick cannons on its back still venting white steam.
Lucario stood silently at Ash's side, the light of Aura slowly gathering once more within its crimson eyes.
Ash took a deep breath. Aura Power poured into the Key Stone on his wrist. He raised his head and looked at Saturn and Charon across the barrier.
Charon talked tough, but his body betrayed him. Saturn's composure had cracked. Neither was as calm as they wanted to appear.
"Everyone. One more time. This time, we break through."
Ash pushed himself to his feet, the blue light of Aura reigniting around his body. He looked at his partners beside him, his gaze sweeping over Gengar, Gardevoir, Aerodactyl, Venusaur, Blastoise, and Lucario one by one, finally landing on Pikachu at his feet.
He took off his hat and placed it on Pikachu's head.
Then he raised his arm and shouted.
"Mega Evolution!"
Gardevoir. Lucario. Venusaur. Blastoise. Gengar. Aerodactyl. All six Pokémon flashed with colorful light simultaneously.
Even Saturn's mouth fell open. For the first time, genuine shock broke through his composure.
"Mega Evolution? Six at once?"
As the light slowly dissipated, every Pokémon around Ash had transformed. And Ash's Aura burned even more fiercely than before.
At this moment, fine cracks had already appeared on the surface of the Key Stone. They slowly extended across it, making a faint creaking sound, like something groaning under unbearable strain.
Ash had used Aura to force-charge the Key Stone to full capacity. Not the careful, measured process he normally used. A reckless, all-at-once charge, because he simply couldn't afford to wait and go one by one. The consequence was that the Key Stone burst with so much energy that it was sustaining damage from the output.
He couldn't care about that anymore. This attack would make or break them.
"Everyone." Ash's voice carried a raw, almost reckless edge. "This attack is everything we have."
The blue light of Aura surged out from his body like an invisible net, completely enveloping the six Pokémon that had completed Mega Evolution. Pikachu moved first, injecting his lightning into that stream of Aura. Golden arcs and azure light intertwined, exploding into a blinding sphere at the center of the net.
Gardevoir raised her arms, Spirit Force carrying the source energy of the Psychic-type into the flow.
Lucario's Aura converged from the edges toward the center.
Gengar poured out its mental strength without reservation.
Aerodactyl folded its wings, the power of its ancient bloodline transforming into a red beam that shot into the core.
Venusaur's life-force energy and Blastoise's Hydro Cannon output poured in together.
Ash closed his eyes. This was his first time trying this. In the past, he had always shared his Aura with his Pokémon, filling the gap in their levels and shoring up their stamina. Today it was the reverse. They were pouring their power into him.
Aura fusion, but inverted. The power of all his Pokémon, all Mega Evolved, all at their peak, merging into a single point through his body.
The strain was beyond anything he'd ever experienced. The skin on Ash's arms showed fine cracks, but no blood flowed. The moment it appeared, it was already evaporated by the energy coursing through him.
"You lunatic!" Charon widened his eyes and screamed. "Do you have any idea what you're doing to yourself?"
"Today, I'm bringing Molly back."
Ash slowly placed both hands at his waist. A colorful energy sphere began to form between his palms. Aura Sphere. This one was actually slightly smaller than the previous attempt, but no one looking at it would doubt the power compressed inside. Once Ash fully condensed it, even the Distortion Space would not hold.
On the other side of the tower, Mewtwo and Giratina had long since turned their battlefield into a wasteland. Every clash of energy tore open breaches in the Crystal Tower's walls, which the Unown's power hastily repaired. Mewtwo was doing this deliberately. Every repair the Unown had to make was power diverted away from forming Yveltal's body.
Giratina's massive form flipped in midair, agile in a way that completely defied its size. Shadows surrounding its body transformed into countless dark tentacles, shooting toward Mewtwo like arrows. The tips flickered with ghost-purple light. A single hit on a Psychic-type would be devastating.
Mewtwo raised its arm. A translucent mental barrier materialized out of thin air. The tentacles crashed against it, exploding into patches of purple-black energy fragments, and the stray shockwave shaved the remaining crystals around them into a flat plain.
Giratina lunged forward on the momentum, its Shadow Claw tearing through the air straight at Mewtwo's face. Mewtwo clenched its right fist, light purple mental strength condensing into a rapidly spinning Psystrike. It didn't dodge. Met the Shadow Claw with a punch.
The collision directly blew away the crystal ceiling above them. Large patches of crystals fell from high altitude and were ground into powder by the battle's aftermath before they hit the ground.
Giratina was jolted backward over a hundred meters, smashing the surrounding crystals to pieces. Its crimson dragon pupils stared fixedly at Mewtwo, and within the depths of those pupils, beneath the surging frenzy, something else flickered.
Hope. It was looking forward to Mewtwo defeating it.
The proud ruler of the Distortion World, controlled by a mere human. That was the utmost humiliation. Compared to that, being defeated by another Pokémon was nothing. If Mewtwo could break the chains, Giratina would be free.
Mewtwo shook its arm. The aftermath of the Psystrike explosion hadn't been comfortable for it either. After repelling Giratina, its gaze was drawn to the colorful light building on Ash's side. When it saw what Ash was doing, six simultaneous Mega Evolutions channeled into a single attack through his own body, a slightly helpless look flashed in its eyes.
He still did this. For the sake of others, he didn't even consider his own body.
Charon finally recovered from his shock. He could no longer care about manipulating Molly. "Saturn! Have Giratina stop him! Now!"
Saturn turned. "Giratina..."
He didn't finish the sentence. Mewtwo's hands had already closed together. Mega Mewtwo Y condensed all its mental strength into an invisible chain, directly piercing through Giratina's shadow defense and nailing its massive body in place.
Giratina roared, its six legs struggling frantically, shadow energy pouring outward like a breached flood. But Mewtwo's hands didn't move. Its expression remained indifferent. Fine cracks appeared on the mental chain, and were repaired in less than a second.
Giratina had been holding Mewtwo back before. Now it was Mewtwo's turn.
Go, Ash. Get the girl.
Ash glanced at Mewtwo. The corner of his mouth curved.
The next second, he thrust the colorful Aura Sphere forward. The moment it left his hands, the Mega Evolutions of all six surrounding Pokémon dissolved simultaneously. Ash's own Aura guttered to almost nothing. Every last drop of power had gone into that single shot.
When the Aura Sphere, resembling a colorful meteor, struck the barrier of the Distortion Space, the entire world seemed to fall silent for a split second.
Then it broke.
The explosion was beyond anything that had happened in the Crystal Tower so far. The tower itself was blown to pieces by the shockwave, without even time for the Unown to repair it. The Distortion Space barrier shattered completely. The crystals that had been spreading across the landscape for kilometers were obliterated without a trace.
The aftermath spread all the way to Pallet Town, crashing against the barrier Mewtwo had placed earlier, sending ripples surging across its surface. The barrier held, but just barely, its surface covered in spiderweb cracks.
Pallet Town was thousands of meters from the Crystal Tower. If the aftermath still carried this much force at this distance, the center of the explosion was something else entirely.
Delia and the others were standing on a tall building, gazing out toward the Crystal Tower's location. They saw a colorful light bloom from within the purple-lit tower, and in the next instant, the entire structure burst apart.
Misty tightened her grip on Togepi, her eyes filled with worry.
"Ash. You'd better be safe."