Ken suddenly realized that Ariel, who should have been standing behind them, had vanished.
The surrounding area was empty, save for his fallen companions and the encroaching Team Magma.
"Oh? Ariel?"
Fire Ghost licked his cracked lips, his tone carrying a hint of amusement.
"In other words, there's still a little mouse hiding here?"
His gaze turned solemn as he scanned the surrounding jagged rocks and deep shadows.
"Damn it!"
In the shadows, Ariel clenched his fists tightly.
That useless fool who ruins more than he achieves!
His plan had been seamless.
He would let these three hot-headed idiots draw all the Team Magma's fire, while he used his Pokémon to dig out the ores in the chaos, then find an opportunity to fight his way out and slip away.
Now, Ken's shout had turned him from a hunter into prey.
Fight his way out with the ores?
Dream on. It would be good enough if he could just save his own life now.
"Search for him!" Fire Ghost waved his hand impatiently. "Find him even if you have to dig three feet deep! Don't let a single fly escape!"
The Team Magma members immediately scattered, their flashlight beams sweeping across the dim volcanic crater.
The sounds of footsteps and rocks grinding together drew closer and closer.
Ariel took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
He couldn't take the ores with him.
But he had already memorized the location and the distribution of the ores.
This loss was only temporary.
Next time, he would come alone, and everything here would be his.
The footsteps of two Team Magma members stopped beside the rock where he was hiding.
Their boots crunched on the volcanic ash with a rustling sound. Ariel could even smell the foul stench of cheap tobacco and sulfur on them.
He pressed his hand against a Poké Ball at his waist, his muscles tensing as he prepared for the worst.
A beam of light swept over the rock above his head, then moved downward.
One of them leaned over to peer into the depths of the shadow, but it was empty.
He straightened up and waved to Fire Ghost in the distance, signaling that he had found nothing.
"Nothing over there either!"
"Boss, could that kid be bluffing you?"
Fire Ghost's face darkened as he grabbed Ken by the hair and lifted him up.
"You brat, are you playing me?"
He leaned into Ken's ear, his voice sounding as if it were squeezed through his teeth.
"Where is this Ariel?"
Ken grimaced in pain but still hurriedly tried to explain.
"He was clearly there! He was just with us a moment ago!"
"Oh?"
Fire Ghost laughed out of pure rage, and with a surge of strength, he tore out a clump of Ken's hair.
"You're telling me a grown man just vanished into thin air inside this crater? You think I'm that gullible?"
"Ah—!"
A shrill scream rang out again.
Meanwhile, Ariel was already halfway down Mt. Chimney.
The evening breeze carried a hint of coolness, dispersing the heat and bloodiness of the crater.
He looked back toward the summit, where the fire still reached for the sky, and the faint sound of wailing could still be heard in the wind.
Just a second before those two members had peered in, he had released Malamar.
Without any light or sound, only a faint psychic wave wrapped around him, and in the next instant, he had completed the spatial transfer.
This was his trump card: Teleport.
"The price of being hot-headed..."
Ariel muttered softly, his lips curling into a mocking arc.
"Simply put, it's just the price of stupidity."
He brushed the volcanic ash from his clothes, his eyes as calm as a placid lake.
The value of those strange ores was immeasurable, but it wasn't worth losing his life over them.
A gentleman's revenge is never too late, even after ten years.
A villain steals treasure by waiting and waiting.
He, Ariel, had always been patient.
"Team Magma, and Ken..."
He turned around and walked into the darkness down the mountain, his figure quickly merging into the night.
"We will meet again soon."
---Inside the crater, the air was as thick as congealed blood.
Every breath brought the pungent scent of sulfur and the sickening sweetness of charred flesh.
Ken's screams had become hoarse, like the final groans of a worn-out bellows.
His toes had long since been roasted to charcoal by the magma near the ground; his pain receptors had completely shut down under the extreme torment, leaving only a maddening numbness.
He could even smell the scent of his own bones being charred.
"Ah... ah..."
He lay on the ground, his body twitching uncontrollably from the intense pain, while sweat and tears mixed with volcanic ash to coat his face.
Dead.
Valk was already dead.
The fangs of those Houndoom had torn open his chest, and his warm internal organs had spilled onto the ground, quickly sizzling against the high-temperature earth.
Lele had been dragged into a corner by two Team Magma members; her faint pleas had long since vanished, leaving only occasional, unconscious spasms to prove she still had a breath left.
Despair was hotter than magma, churning in his chest and scorching his last shred of sanity.
Why?
Why did it turn out like this?
That man named Ariel, the companion who had been fighting alongside them just a moment ago—why could he turn away so decisively?
"Ariel... you coward! Deserter!"
Using his last ounce of strength, he squeezed a Curse from the depths of his throat, his voice no longer holding a tune. This Curse was less of a condemnation and more of a plea.
A plea that he had misjudged the man, a plea that it was all just an illusion.
"Heh."
A contemptuous sneer sounded above him.
Fire Ghost picked at an ear that was itching from the shouting, looking down at him as if he were an insect about to be crushed.
"Still thinking about your Ariel?"
He squatted down, a playful smile on his face.
"Kid, listen well. If there really was such a person on this Mt. Chimney who could slip away under my nose, I'll swallow every single grain of volcanic ash on this ground today, one by one!"
Ken's eyes were bloodshot as he glared death at him, his teeth grinding audibly.
"Don't be in such a hurry."
Fire Ghost patted his face with considerable force.
"When I'm done with my business, I'll have plenty of time to let you enjoy yourself. I guarantee it'll be even more 'comfortable' than this."
"Boss, don't waste your breath on these pieces of trash."
A Team Magma member with sharp, monkey-like features approached, smiling flatteringly.
"We're about to strike it rich; it's not worth getting worked up over dead people."
"That's exactly why I'm angry!"
Fire Ghost suddenly stood up and kicked a nearby rock, sending smaller stones cascading down.
"Damn it!"
He cursed under his breath, not at Ken, but at his own frayed nerves.
He lowered his voice, almost shouting into his subordinate's ear.
"Lord Huo Cun entrusted me with such an important task! Next month! Next month, I'll be an official Executive! Do you understand?"
"I understand, I understand! The Boss is mighty!"
"Mighty my ass!"
Fire Ghost paced back and forth irritably, his eyes occasionally darting toward the even deeper darkness within the crater.
"At this critical juncture, forget a Trainer—even if a wild Zubat flies in, you'd better treat it like a Legendary Pokémon! There cannot be a single mistake!"
He pointed into the depths of the crater.
"If anything goes wrong with the thing inside, the Lord will be the first to skin me alive!"
The member shrank his neck back from the shouting and quickly agreed.
"Yes, yes, the Boss is right. Fortunately, it was just a false alarm, just these three blind brats."
"A false alarm?"
Fire Ghost was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, his voice suddenly rising.
"That moment just now nearly scared the soul out of me! I thought some League Investigator had tracked us down!"
He panted heavily, his chest heaving violently, clearly still shaken.
After a good while, he finally calmed down slightly, his gaze becoming incredibly ruthless.
"Listen up!"
He scanned all the subordinates present. "From now on, keep your eyes wide open! No slip-ups allowed! Anyone who dares to cause me trouble..."
He paused, saying each word with deliberate emphasis.
"I. Will. Kill. Them!"
The chilling killing intent made the surrounding temperature seem to drop several degrees.
It was clear that this promotion opportunity meant everything to him.
"Keep a good eye on this place."
Fire Ghost took one last look at Ken, who was like a pile of mud on the ground, and frowned in disgust.
"I'm going ahead to check on the Patrol Team. Remember what I said."
With that, he turned and walked out of the temporary camp, his figure soon disappearing around the corner of the passage.
۞۞۞۞
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