Time rewound to the moment Shiko defeated Registeel and Melmetal.
The two third-tier Legendaries lay unconscious on the ground, their bodies scorched red by the flames.
Looking at their unconscious forms, Shiko felt a surge of emotion.
For this very moment,
he had been planning for an entire month.
Unable to suppress the joy in his heart,
he quickly stepped forward
and pressed both hands onto Registeel and Melmetal respectively.
Melmetal's body was formed from liquid alloy.
When he pressed down,
it felt like touching a pool of sticky liquid.
The moment his hand sank in, it instantly wrapped around Shiko's claws.
As for Registeel,
its alloy body had been heated red-hot by the raging flames.
Even when Shiko placed his hand on it,
it was still radiating intense heat.
But right now, he had no attention to spare for that.
The instant his palms covered them,
he heard the system's mechanical ding.
Shiko's nerves instantly tightened.
His whole body
trembled slightly with overwhelming excitement.
[Detected powerful Steel-type energy...]
[Energy source stable. Absorbing now...]
The cold, mechanical electronic voice rang out.
The next second,
Shiko felt an intense Steel-type energy aura
pouring into his body without end.
That surging sensation
was like a river suddenly being flooded backward by a raging sea.
The total amount of energy inside his body
was instantly pushed to an entirely new peak.
Thirty-three percent...
Thirty-four percent...
Thirty-five percent...
...
His Steel-type law was rising all the way as well!
This exaggerated increase
was even stronger than when Shiko had previously devoured Regidrago's Dragon-type energy.
Seventy-five percent...
Seventy-six percent...
Several minutes later,
the Steel-type law within Shiko's body
had already skyrocketed wildly to nearly eighty percent!
The texture of the skin on the surface of his body also began to change noticeably.
His rough beast-like hide,
which had been covered in dense patterns and folds,
slowly became smooth and even.
And little by little,
it began to take on a metallic texture!
This was the transformation brought about by the increase in Steel-type law.
Meanwhile, the two third-tier Legendaries lying on the ground
had clearly become much weaker and more dispirited.
The oppressive aura that had constantly surrounded them as third-tier Legendaries had also weakened considerably.
All of this
was because Shiko had stolen the Steel-type law from within their bodies.
Ninety-eight percent...
Ninety-nine percent...
The absorption process was still continuing.
Energy continued to flood in madly without end.
Shiko could feel the Steel-type energy inside his body approaching an extreme limit,
only to seem blocked by a wall, unable to advance further.
His eyes suddenly snapped open.
Two sharp rays of light burst from his gaze like blades.
At this moment,
his expression was incomparably resolute.
Boom!!
A powerful aura erupted from his body and swept outward.
In the next second,
the color on Registeel's and Melmetal's bodies
dimmed dramatically once again in an instant.
Without the slightest hesitation, Shiko drew more power from them.
Rumble!!
He heard an incomparably heavy, enormous sound coming from deep within his own body!
The shackles were shattered, the restraints torn open!
His Steel-type law
had finally reached the most perfect one hundred percent!!
It was as though his entire body
had been reforged into hard alloy!
[Congratulations, Host. You have met the conditions required for evolution! Would you like to evolve?]
The electronic voice rang out,
causing Shiko's emotions to surge once again.
At last!
It was finally happening!
After waiting for so long,
he had truly reached this step at last!
"Evolve!"
Without the slightest hesitation,
he nodded decisively.
He had been waiting for this day ever since he was still inside the Pokémon Egg!
Now that the time had come,
there was naturally no reason to hesitate!
The moment his words fell,
a burst of white light covered his entire body.
Wrapped in the dense light of evolution,
Shiko felt his body gradually breaking apart inch by inch, peeling away, and being slowly remade.
This scene, which looked somewhat eerie and terrifying,
did not bring him the slightest pain.
On the contrary,
Shiko instead felt an intense, gentle warmth.
His consciousness gradually became somewhat blurred.
In his dazed state,
within the world of his consciousness,
a heavy black giant gate appeared once again.
The moment he saw this somewhat familiar gate,
Shiko immediately recognized it.
Back when he had entered the Champion level,
he had already seen it once before.
This gate
was the dividing line between ordinary Pokémon and Legendary Pokémon.
Only by pushing open this gate and crossing through it
could one surpass the limit and step into the ranks of Legendary Pokémon.
And now,
as he faced yet another evolution,
it was only natural
for him to see this gate again.
So this time...
I should be able to push it open now, right!?
Shiko thought to himself.
Slowly, he reached out to touch the great black gate.
At the instant his fingertips touched it,
before he even had time to exert force,
countless cracks suddenly appeared across its surface.
The fractures spread rapidly
until they covered both doors completely.
Then, with a world-shaking crash,
the two great doors shattered into countless black fragments and fell to the ground.
Beyond the gate
was a golden passageway, shining brilliantly, with no visible end.
Shiko looked ahead into the dazzling light.
At the furthest limit his eyes could reach,
he vaguely saw the figure of a noble Pokémon!
That white Pokémon
had a golden ring set around its waist.
Its eyes, deep as though time and space intertwined within them and galaxies shifted inside them,
were fixed on Shiko.
And faintly,
it revealed an expression of astonishment and surprise.
(End of Chapter)
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