Zoroark was tremendously excited to finally see a glimmer of hope. It bowed deeply toward Chen Mo, its voice filled with sincere respect.
"Thank you, Lord Chen Mo."
"Don't celebrate too soon."
Chen Mo looked toward the World-Origin Tree, which was already close at hand.
"I only said I'd give it a try. Whether I can actually break the seal of the World-Origin Tree... honestly, I have no idea."
"How could you not?"
Zoroark stood up, its expression filled with absolute certainty.
"Lord Chen Mo, your Aura is the strongest Aura I've ever sensed apart from Lord Aaron's. If even you can't break the seal of the World Tree, then no one can!"
Just what kind of person was Aaron?
Zoroark had actually mentioned it when recalling the past.
Throughout the original Pokémon world, Aaron's Aura could be said to exist on an entirely different level from everyone else's. Because of this, Aaron had been given the title of the "Aura Guardian" by countless humans and even other Aura Guardians.
Hearing Zoroark describe him this way, Chen Mo initially assumed that Zoroark was simply using the word "powerful" out of courtesy and respect for his status as an Aura Guardian.
But now that the livestream was off, Chen Mo felt there was no need to hide anything.
"Zoroark, you may not know my circumstances. My Aura was bestowed upon me by an entity whose exact identity I don't know yet. To be honest, I still can't fully control it."
"Impossible!"
Zoroark shook its head in denial.
"Although I can't sense or control the Aura within myself, according to Lord Aaron, Aura is something every living being possesses from birth. It is a gift from the heavens. I've never heard of anyone having their Aura bestowed upon them by someone else."
"So please believe me, Lord Chen Mo. That must be your own Aura!"
Chen Mo opened his mouth.
Based on his current speculations about the system, he really wanted to say:
For a world with Pokémon in it, wouldn't "the heavens" naturally refer to that certain alpaca...?
Of course.
What Zoroark said wasn't without reason.
It had followed an Aura Guardian who could practically be called legendary for so long. And Chen Mo had come to this secret realm precisely to resolve the problems surrounding his own Aura.
Perhaps he really should think about this more carefully.
After pondering for a while, Chen Mo concealed everything concerning the system and told Zoroark everything about his Aura, from beginning to end.
The large fox was clearly overwhelmed by the succession of bizarre revelations, its expression becoming utterly bewildered.
"How could this be... How could something like this happen..."
Just then.
Zoroark suddenly recalled all the strange things it had witnessed while secretly following Chen Mo earlier that day.
The Time Flowers in particular.
Seeing all those shattered Time Flowers along the way had initially made Zoroark think that Chen Mo was an extremely difficult person to deal with.
But later, after seeing how gently Chen Mo interacted with his Pokémon, Zoroark concluded that perhaps Chen Mo simply didn't know much about Time Flowers.
After much consideration, Zoroark had decided to end its observation early and reveal itself to Chen Mo, intending to give him a warning.
After all.
Time Flowers were incredibly difficult to form in the first place. Now that the World-Origin Tree was in such a dire state, if Chen Mo continued using them in that manner, sooner or later he would exhaust every last Time Flower.
Those had been Zoroark's thoughts.
But now...
There was a much bigger problem!
It wasn't that Chen Mo didn't understand Time Flowers.
There was something seriously wrong with Chen Mo's Aura itself!
Zoroark felt a headache coming on.
"If only Lord Aaron were still here... Or if those things were still here, perhaps we could find a way to solve this..."
"What things?"
"Lord Aaron's notes."
Zoroark spoke softly.
As Aaron's companion, Zoroark had always dreamed of mastering its own Aura.
Although Aaron had always told Zorua that it was incredibly difficult, seeing the innocent Zorua, Aaron had still left it a large number of his personal notes concerning Aura when he left Zorua in the city closest to the World-Origin Tree.
Later, in order to break the seal of the World-Origin Tree, Zorua returned to the town and secretly moved all the books here, silently studying the knowledge concerning Aura.
Listening to Zoroark's explanation, Chen Mo silently complained to himself.
Although all living things possessed Aura, if a Zoroark that could actually use Aura appeared, that would be a little too much of a violation of the rules...
After collecting his thoughts, Chen Mo looked toward the pile of things Zoroark had previously carried out of the tree hollow and pointed toward the ancient books.
"Are those the notes Aaron left behind?"
"Yes."
Zoroark nodded before adding:
"But they're mostly useless travel journals. The most important part has already been given away. I'm very sorry, Lord Chen Mo..."
Zoroark looked apologetic.
Chen Mo waved his hand dismissively.
Just then.
Marshadow's voice sounded in Chen Mo's mind.
"I suddenly have a question. Why can this Zoroark speak the language of your world?"
"That, of course, is because..."
Chen Mo froze.
That's right.
Why could this Zoroark speak their language?
Chen Mo and Legendary Pokémon such as Marshadow could communicate directly without any language barrier because of telepathy, a power capable of transcending language itself.
The movie Zoroark: Master of Illusions had indeed featured a Zorua capable of telepathy.
But the Zoroark before them had never once used telepathy.
It had been speaking directly through its vocal cords from beginning to end, and the language it spoke was none other than orthodox Zhu Xia language.
Strange!
This Zoroark had been surrounded by an inexplicable sense of strangeness from beginning to end.
After hesitating for a while, Chen Mo carefully asked the troubled Zoroark:
"Zoroark, if I remember correctly, the language you're speaking now should be different from the language of the Pokémon world. Why can you speak Zhu Xia language?"
The extraordinary aspect of the Time Flower was that the scenes it reproduced from the past included everything exactly as it had been—even the sounds were recorded without alteration.
Earlier, Chen Mo had been lamenting the fact that when Aaron and Lucario spoke to each other, they had used a language he couldn't understand at all, meaning he hadn't been able to obtain any useful information.
And Zoroark had followed Aaron from a young age.
Even if it could speak human language, it should have been speaking the language Aaron knew.
So how could it possibly be Zhu Xia language...?
Just as Chen Mo was filled with confusion, Zoroark smiled calmly.
"Because, Lord Chen Mo, I already knew that you and I are not from the same world, and that you are not the first human to visit this secret realm."
The secret realm where the World-Origin Tree was located had an extremely strange relationship with time.
Under normal circumstances...
In Alliance Year 1031, Manaphy and the other Pokémon had been transported to the universe containing Earth by the overwhelming power of some unknown entity.
By Chen Mo's reckoning, Manaphy and the others had already been living on Earth for more than a year.
But Zoroark's situation was different.
In Alliance Year 1032, the World-Origin Tree had been on the verge of death because of the disappearance of its light source. According to Zoroark, the secret realm had suddenly formed one night, without the slightest warning.
Setting aside the reason why the secret realm had formed and looking only at the passage of time within it, Zoroark had existed in this secret realm for at least ten years, perhaps even longer.
After all.
There was no alternation between day and night here, so Zoroark had no way of accurately tracking the passage of time.
Even so, when comparing the time when Manaphy and the other Pokémon were transported away with the amount of time Zoroark had spent inside this secret realm, the enormous discrepancy was still astonishing.
It was as though time had been accelerated around Zoroark.
Of course.
It was also possible that this was related to the secret realm's special properties.
After all, judging from the fact that Unown had to open a space-time rift to access it, the secret realm itself existed in a peculiar location where time and space intertwined.
Naturally, it would be more heavily affected by time.
"During the period after I had just evolved, a human young man about the same age as Lord Chen Mo came to the secret realm. When he left, I gave him all of Lord Aaron's notes concerning the knowledge of Aura."
A gentle smile appeared on Zoroark's face.
"If I remember correctly, he should also have been from Zhu Xia. The language I'm using now was taught to me by him."
"A Zhu Xia native..."
Chen Mo's expression gradually became serious.
"What was his name?"
"I'm sorry."
Zoroark gently shook its head.
"Lord Chen Mo, I don't remember."
"Hmm?"
Chen Mo froze.
"You were willing to give him Aaron's notes, which means you must have had a very good relationship with him, right? Didn't he tell you his name before he left?"
"Friend... Yes, he did say that we were friends. And I remember... I think he did tell me his name. I just forgot."
Zoroark's expression became troubled as well.
"Not only his name... His appearance, his voice... So many things about him. I've forgotten them all. Ever since I woke up one day."
"..."
If it had been another Pokémon, Chen Mo might have suspected that the passage of time had simply caused it to forget.
But Zoroark was different.
Earlier, when explaining Zoroark to the audience, Chen Mo had mentioned that the Zoroark family could read memories within their minds and transmit the scenes or images contained within them.
This powerful innate ability essentially gave Zoroark an eidetic memory.
Those people and events that had left particularly deep impressions on it would probably only truly disappear from its memory when Zoroark itself died.
"Strange, isn't it?"
Zoroark, which had also heard Chen Mo's explanation of its species, looked both confused and dejected.
"It was all because of him that I was able to find myself and continue moving forward with determination. Yet I forgot him. I forgot my best friend."
"Find yourself?"
Chen Mo immediately caught the key phrase.
Zoroark extended both of its paws and looked down at them with its pale-blue eyes.
"Perhaps you've already noticed, Lord Chen Mo. But please forgive my rudeness. It isn't that I don't want to appear before you in my true form. It's simply that I don't want to show you the form created by my resentment."
"However, since Lord Chen Mo chose to be honest with me about Aura, I should offer you the same courtesy."
"Please forgive my impoliteness."
As Zoroark's words fell...
Marshadow's figure emerged from the shadows.
It stared solemnly at the Zoroark before it.
"This guy..."
At the same time.
Chen Mo suddenly felt the same sensation he had experienced back in Lavender Town when facing the rampaging Banette.
An intense wave of resentful energy surged continuously from the place where Zoroark stood, like a raging tide.
It spread overwhelmingly in every direction, frightening the timid Jirachi into retreating again and again.
The disguise Zoroark had placed over itself rapidly faded.
Its deep-red mane visibly transformed into a horrifying white.
The blue, pearl-like hair ornament securing the mane finally shattered, sending its hair cascading freely.
Its pale-blue eyes transformed into beastlike yellow eyes, while its entire body changed from gray and black to gray and white.
At that moment.
The energy surrounding Zoroark continuously shifted from the ethereal to the tangible.
Strands of black mist rose around it, twisting and changing.
Under Chen Mo and the other Pokémon's gazes, they eventually transformed into terrifying ghostly figures that continuously snarled at them, as though they hated every living creature in the world.
An indescribable sense of oppression!
It was as though a vengeful ghost had escaped from the depths of hell!
This was...
Zoroark's Hisuian form?
Chen Mo's expression grew solemn.
Ghost-type Pokémon had never exactly been known for following a moderate and peaceful path.
Just as Banette, which fed on curses, could suffer backlash from its own energy, and even a Legendary Pokémon like Marshadow could sometimes lose control of the energy overflowing from its body...
Chen Mo couldn't help but wonder.
Surrounded by such overwhelming resentment and negative energy, could Zoroark still retain its own clear consciousness?
Just as the atmosphere fell into complete silence...
Zoroark raised a paw and casually flicked it.
The resentful energy surrounding its body seemed to be forcibly suppressed.
It gradually disappeared, fleeing back into Zoroark's body as though trying to escape.
Its long, disheveled white hair, with hints of red remaining at the tips, fluttered gently in the wind.
Zoroark continued looking at Chen Mo with the same gentle expression as before and spoke softly.
"Although I'm still not entirely accustomed to it, I won't lose control like I used to."
"Now, I've learned how to face my true self."
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