Suddenly, light raindrops began falling from the sky.
At first, there were only a few scattered droplets, but very quickly they connected into streams and transformed into a torrential downpour.
Heavy rain crashed down densely with loud splashing sounds, washing over the land that had already been ravaged into ruin while cleansing the lingering hostility and scorching heat from the air.
At the same time, the pitch black storm clouds in the sky gradually parted, revealing the incomparably massive figure hidden deep within them.
Kyogre's head appeared first.
Its round head, as enormous as a mountain, combined with those sapphire-like eyes gazing down upon the earth, carried an innate majesty that no living creature could ignore.
Everyone present, along with the Pokémon that had only just escaped from the brink of death, stared blankly upward at the Kyogre descending from the heavens.
Their faces were filled with shock and reverence, to the point that even breathing seemed to stop.
But in the very next second, this sea god that appeared so overwhelmingly majestic lowered its gaze toward the furious fake Groudon below.
Its sapphire blue eyes instantly curved slightly.
A surprisingly human-like expression of delight appeared on its face, as though it had suddenly discovered an amusing toy.
Immediately afterward, Kyogre lightly waved its giant wing-like fins.
The surrounding rainwater instantly gathered together, forming an enormous sphere of water.
Like a transparent prison, it precisely enveloped Meta Groudon within it.
Only then did Meta Groudon slowly turn around and raise its head, its scarlet eyes locking firmly onto Kyogre hovering in the sky.
Perhaps because of some instinctive reaction, this replica Meta Groudon, which originally possessed neither emotions nor consciousness, had the madness in its eyes completely ignited the instant it saw Kyogre floating above its head.
Crimson energy continuously gathered and rotated within its chest before gradually condensing into a scorching beam of light.
The beam pointed directly at Kyogre.
It wanted to completely destroy this suddenly appearing, irritating creature floating above it.
Kyogre looked at this tiny furious "little thing," and the amusement in its eyes only deepened further.
When the red laser pierced through the water barrier and screamed toward it, Kyogre showed absolutely no intention of dodging.
Streams of water instantly gathered around its body and formed a thick defensive shield.
With a dull explosive sound, the crimson laser struck the water shield like a pebble falling into the sea, producing only a ripple before vanishing completely.
Immediately afterward, deep blue light slowly began condensing across Kyogre's entire body.
Following a long and majestic whale-like cry, every drop of rain in heaven and earth seemed to receive an invisible summons and rushed toward the water sphere trapping Meta Groudon.
The water prison became increasingly thick and dense while Meta Groudon's red energy beam was firmly sealed inside, unable to escape even slightly.
At the same time, the enormous water sphere slowly began rising into the sky.
Meta Groudon, trapped inside the sphere, finally seemed to panic.
It frantically swung its gigantic claws and repeatedly slammed against the water prison.
Yet no matter how hard it struggled, it could not break through this barrier that appeared soft but was in reality incomparably durable.
As the water sphere continued rising and compressing inward, strands of flowing light gradually emerged from Meta Groudon's body.
The Pokémon that had previously been devoured by it were released alongside those streams of light, falling back onto the ground.
Although they looked weak and exhausted, they had regained their freedom.
At the same time, Meta Groudon's massive body gradually began shrinking smaller and smaller.
Finally, by the time the water sphere floated in front of Kyogre, the nearly seventy meter tall Meta Groudon had already shrunk into a "little doll" only around ten meters tall.
It remained tightly trapped within the water prison, struggling helplessly while flailing its short claws around wildly, looking both fierce and oddly adorable at the same time.
Theo and the others could clearly see that Kyogre was actually controlling its fins with great care.
Tiny strands of golden electricity appeared around them before slowly being injected into the water sphere and flowing into the body of the "Little Groudon."
As the electric currents entered its body, the damaged areas caused earlier by the escaping streams of light actually began repairing themselves little by little.
Once Little Groudon's body had fully recovered, Kyogre happily began playing with the tiny creature in the sky.
It used water currents to create a miniature illusionary clone identical to itself, then began "playing around" with Little Groudon.
Every time the tiny illusionary Kyogre smacked Little Groudon's face with its tail fin, Kyogre's enormous whale-like head would narrow its eyes slightly, revealing an innocent, childlike smile of pure delight.
The people below were left completely dumbfounded by the sight.
After playing around for quite a while, Kyogre finally seemed to remember something and lowered its gaze toward Theo on the ground.
It nodded toward him in satisfaction.
Then, with a gentle tap of its tail fin, a soft deep blue beam of light descended from the sky and precisely entered the necklace around Theo's neck.
The necklace instantly emitted a warm glow as brilliant blue light shimmered gently across its surface. The energy that had previously been completely exhausted from using Origin Pulse was now entirely restored.
After finishing all of this, Kyogre excitedly released another whale cry before flapping its fins and slowly disappearing into the heavens together with its "little toy."
As for Tabitha and Brodie, they had already taken advantage of the chaos while Kyogre was busy playing with Meta Groudon.
After finding their Pokémon that had been swallowed earlier and retrieving them into their Poké Balls, they immediately fled without a second word atop Crobat and Salamence.
None of them dared remain any longer before Kyogre.
Seeing the miserable appearance of that replica Groudon, the members of Team Magma, who revered volcanoes and flames, could not help feeling a deep sense of sympathy, sorrow, and helplessness.
As the dark clouds gradually dispersed, the rain finally stopped.
The brilliant stars once again filled the night sky, making it seem as though the earth shaking battle that had just occurred had never happened at all.
Ash, May, Brock, and Max clearly still had not recovered from the shock of Kyogre's appearance.
Only after a long while did Max suddenly jump up excitedly and shout loudly:
"So that's our Hoenn region's Kyogre?! It's way too amazing!
I was originally planning to visit Sootopolis City someday to see if I might get a chance to see it during the Water Festival, but I never imagined I'd actually witness it with my own eyes! This is unbelievable!"
Brock nodded repeatedly from the side.
"Yeah, Kyogre's power is honestly beyond imagination. No wonder it's called the God of the Sea."
Then he turned toward Ash and smiled.
"Ash, it turns out Theo has a legendary Pokémon friend just like you do. So what do you think? Which one is stronger, Ho-Oh or Kyogre?"
Ash froze for a moment before blurting out instinctively:
"O… of course Kyogre is… wait, no no! Ho-Oh is stronger!"
He hurriedly shook his head and corrected himself.
"Ho-Oh also has Entei, Raikou, and Suicune serving under it! Kyogre doesn't even have companions, so Ho-Oh is definitely stronger!"
"That's not true! Who says having more followers automatically makes you stronger?!"
Max immediately protested unwillingly.
(End of Chapter)