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This was, after all, a Dragonite. Shocking as it was to look at, the crowd held itself together. If this had been a Salamence instead, the unease would have likely tipped into real panic. And if it had been a Hydreigon looming out of the mist, the reaction would have been something far worse.
David stared up at the colossal Dragonite and turned the question over in his mind. Was this its natural permanent form — something like a unique Gigantamax? Or was this more like the famous Dragonite that had once lived in the Vermilion City Lighthouse, a rare special individual that had simply grown far beyond what its species normally allowed?
Even Gigantamax had its limits. This went beyond them. A Dragonite of this scale, David reasoned, could probably generate typhoons and trigger tsunamis just by spreading its wings.
His system quietly scanned the data.
Name: Dragonite (Super-Giant Size · Special Individual)
Type: Dragon / Flying
Gender: —
Energy Level: 95 (Legendary Realm)
Ability: Multiscale
Potential: Silver
Rule Domain: Storm
Held Item: Dragon Scale
Moves: Dragon Breath, Extreme Speed, Water Pulse, Flamethrower, Thunder, Thunder Wave, Roost, Dragon Rush, Dragon Dance, Aqua Tail, Agility, Rain Dance, Draco Meteor, Dragon Claw, Hurricane, Safeguard, Blizzard, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Hydro Pump, Iron Tail...
David took in the readout with a quiet, unsurprised expression.
Above Red potential sat Silver — a tier that, as far as he could tell, was territory only Legendary Pokémon ever reached. The Dragonite standing before him still carried its species name, but it had long since left behind whatever innate ceiling ordinary Pokémon were born with. Calling it a Legendary Pokémon wearing a Dragonite's body would not be much of an exaggeration.
In terms of what it actually was, it had become something like the Legendary Birds or the Legendary Beasts — or the Forces of Nature, with Hisuian Enamorus now bringing that group to four. It had claimed a portion of the world's natural order for itself: the domain of storms.
That was the real reason Legendary and Mythical Pokémon stood apart from everything else. It was not simply a matter of raw power. They were born with a partial claim over some aspect of the world's rules. The most exceptional among them held a divine position — an absolute authority over a specific domain. Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, for instance, served under Lugia as the guardian of the sea, each one governing its respective element at the highest level a primary Legendary could reach.
Most secondary Legendary Pokémon, even without dedicated training, could generally reach Champion-level strength simply by maturing. Given enough time, many would climb further still. But the divine positions — those were something else entirely, and holding one did not automatically mean being able to defeat every other Legendary in existence.
One detail in the data, though, brought David up short.
Why does it have a Dragon Scale?
Dragon Scale was a held item used specifically to evolve Seadra into Kingdra. A Dragonite had no use for it. The item made no sense on something like this.
He was still puzzling over it when the answer arrived on its own.
The colossal Dragonite drew slowly closer, its movements unhurried but heavy enough to make the ground tremble with each step. It raised one massive forelimb, and a single scale drifted upward from its open palm — jet-black, and shimmering with a strange, vivid light that seemed to shift and catch colors that had no name.
Wait...
David felt something click in the back of his mind. He called for a scan immediately.
Ding~ Host request detected. Scanning...
Black Sacred Scale:A scale from the claw of the Legendary Pokémon Rayquaza. It carries concentrated Dragon-type energy and a faint trace of the Sky domain's aura. Even after a thousand years, its divine power remains intact, as potent as the day it was given.
As expected.
The pieces fell into place. According to the family's oldest records, the Cloudspire Empire had chosen the black dragon as its founding symbol because Lloyd Moore— the ancestral Dragon Emperor of the Moore family — had once earned the recognition of a black Rayquaza. That Rayquaza had aided him greatly during the empire's early days, and in acknowledgment of their bond, it had left behind this scale.
A Trainer who earned the recognition of a Legendary Pokémon and was entrusted with even a fragment of its power was given a title in those times: a God-Wielder. The Dragon Emperor had been the first such person in recorded human history.
The Black Sacred Scale was the inheritance he had left behind. For nearly a thousand years, it had served as the Moore family's most important instrument for the Dragon Festival.
David stared at the scale floating in the air and felt a pull he could not quite suppress — even knowing it belonged to his family. The scale was the real thing: a genuine Legendary resource from a primary Legendary Pokémon. Its standing was probably comparable to Lugia's Silver Wing or Ho-Oh's Rainbow Wing.
He caught himself wondering, briefly, what would happen if a Seadra somehow evolved using this scale. That was probably not a practical thought, but it crossed his mind anyway.
While David was still somewhere between reverence and idle speculation, the giant Dragonite pressed its power into the floating scale.
The effect was immediate.
The area around the scale seemed to hollow out, like a vacuum had opened at its center. A powerful gravitational pull took hold, and the immense Dragon-type energy spread across the Dragon Tomb began pouring steadily inward. The flow was continuous and relentless. After several minutes, even the pale purple mist that had always filled the deeper valley had visibly thinned.
It was only then that David understood what that mist had always been. The haze blanketing the Dragon Tomb was not ordinary fog — it was Dragon-type energy, so concentrated over centuries that it had taken on a visible form.
When the scale had drawn in all it could hold, it seemed almost animated — it traced a few loose circles through the air above the crowd, as if pleased with itself. Then a light broke from it, steady and warm, and streams of golden particles cascaded downward over the young Pokémon gathered across the plaza.
David watched as the Dragon-type aura of the younglings around him began to rise.
Dragon-type Pokémon naturally carried an aura — something like an early, undeveloped form of the Intimidate Ability. Powerful ones could unsettle weaker Pokémon simply by being present. What was happening now was different. The aura rising from the younglings was not passive presence — it was their Dragon bloodline responding and awakening, growing stronger in a way it normally could not on its own.
What no one noticed — including David, at first — was that a small thread of the scale's Sky domain aura had separated quietly from the main light. It descended on its own, finding Bagon with quiet precision.
Once the light had finished its work, the Black Sacred Scale looked diminished — smaller, drained, its surface dull where it had shimmered brilliantly before.
And the moment the light faded, dozens of white flashes erupted across the plaza at once.
Many of the young Pokémon had already been close to their next evolution before the ceremony. The bloodline boost the scale had given them was enough to close the gap. They began evolving right there, one after another.
Bagon was among them.
David turned. His Bagon was surrounded by white light, its form lost inside it. When the light finally cleared, the small, round shape David had caught just yesterday was gone.
In its place stood a much larger silhouette — armored, sealed within a thick protective shell.
Shelgon.