Just like the legendary Senbonzakura, Roselia directed twin pillars of swirling flower petals that surged forward from both flanks, closing in on Articuno and Beautifly.
March didn't sense anything extraordinary at first glance, assuming Argenti had simply shifted his tactics once more. Such sudden adjustments were common on the Contest stage, and she calmly called out her counters.
"Articuno, Hurricane!"
"Beautifly, Gust!"
Even bound into dense pillars, petals were still fragile foliage. With two overlapping wind techniques, March was confident she could sweep away the flashy display.
The moment the twin gales struck, however, the pink wall held firm. While the outermost blossoms dispersed in the turbulence, countless fresh petals rushed in behind them, weaving the two floral columns into a tight, spiraling drill that ground through the wind pressure.
Even against the gale-force winds of two flying partners, the floral wave pushed steadily forward.
While the petals weathered the storm, Milotic's Hydro Pump proved entirely unstoppable.
The roaring torrent cut through the headwind, surging straight for Beautifly.
Having just completed Gust, Beautifly was locked in place with zero room to evade. March hastily called for Protect.
A jade barrier snapped into place, but a Hydro Pump delivered sustained, continuous pressure. The barrier held for only a split second before trembling under the weight of the stream. Sensing the shield about to buckle, Beautifly tried to peel away.
Yet they had underestimated the sheer force behind the blast. A fraction of a second too late, the rushing current clipped the lower half of its right wing.
Under ordinary circumstances, a quick flutter would be enough to shake off the stray water pressure.
Argenti's strike, however, was no ordinary Hydro Pump; it was a sub-zero, Glacial Hydro Pump woven with genuine Ice-type energy.
The clipped tip of the wing flash-froze in a dense layer of rime. The splashing water droplets coated its torso, crystallizing into heavy ice on contact. The freezing weight not only dealt heavy damage, but crippled Beautifly's flight balance entirely.
It actually worked!
Argenti felt a wave of pure exhilaration.
Roselia's technique was simply a fusion of two familiar Grass-type moves, which he had practiced before. Milotic's move, however, was a spontaneous synthesis of Water and Ice.
Across millions of active players, countless Trainers had likely attempted dual-element combinations, and if the system allowed it, word would have spread across the forums long ago.
Yet he had chosen to gamble everything on that single strike, carrying the blessing of the vision he had just witnessed.
Why should a follower of beauty be bound by common limitations?
While the audience cheered the visual spectacle, Julian sat frozen in his chair at the judges' desk, completely baffled.
Fusing two moves of the same typing to create an advanced technique was fully accounted for in the game engine. But weaving Water and Ice into a single blended strike? He knew for a fact that the underlying game rules contained no such mechanic!
Could someone have tampered with the game servers mid-match?
That made little sense. With the security network established by Stephen and Silver Wolf, not even another member of the Genius Society could slip past their perimeter unnoticed.
Keeping his eyes locked on the stage, Julian subtly pulled up his private comms, pinging both of them to investigate the anomaly.
He knew Argenti's character intimately; the honorable knight would never resort to cheap exploits. Something else had to be happening under the hood.
Down in the arena, Argenti noted that the physical toll on his partners was significantly steeper than usual.
Milotic had unleashed only a single fused blast, yet its breathing mirrored the exhaustion of firing off several maximum-power moves in rapid succession. Outsiders might not catch the strain beneath its regal poise, but Argenti, who shared every waking hour with his partner, felt the shift in its pulse instantly.
Roselia, having poured every drop of its energy into the floral storm, was equally drained.
We need to bring this to a close, right now.
Argenti pressed his counter-assault, catching March off guard with unpredictable, hybrid attack vectors.
The closing score gap was the least of March's worries; Argenti's strikes hit with crushing weight. With Beautifly grounded and battered by frostbite, a single misstep would result in a direct knockout.
A chime buzzed on Julian's comm terminal. As expected, both Silver Wolf and Stephen were watching the broadcast live.
Silver Wolf: I took a look. The network is clean. No unauthorized intrusions, zero external manipulation of the source code.
Stephen: I have two theories. First, an active blessing from an Aeon-level entity. Second, an autonomous threshold judgment by the creature's behavioral system. Under extreme conditions, Milotic's behavioral model can theoretically trigger a dual-type breakthrough.
Silver Wolf: Wait, you actually built an override like that into the behavioral layer? That's neat.
Since Stephen had joined the development loop, Silver Wolf had stepped back from structural programming, preferring to engage purely as a player. She had no idea Stephen had tucked such an adaptive protocol into the core engine.
Stephen: Julian asked us to build these companions to match real-world biological and spiritual depth, didn't he? In real life, sentient beings regularly shatter their personal limits when pushed into desperate corners. I naturally incorporated a system for that.
Stephen: Though pulling it off is absurdly difficult. The baseline data constraints are massive. For an entity's behavioral logic to override its standard code limits... frankly, it requires conviction on par with catching the direct gaze of an Aeon.
Catching the direct gaze of a god was no trivial matter. Countless beings trod the Path as Pathstriders, drawing upon the ambient energy woven into cosmic laws.
Yet an Aeon's true gaze represented personal, divine recognition. To put it in grander terms, it marked a mortal as a potential candidate for an Emanator.
Since Nous had ascended, centuries had passed, yet the mechanical god had turned its gaze upon barely eighty individuals. The Aeon of Abundance, Yaoshi, was not known to single out mortals with Her gaze; mortals sought Her out, made their desperate prayers, and received Her unconditional mutations.
Stephen's comparison captured just how vanishingly rare such an occurrence truly was.
Julian: I see your point. But looking at the state he's in, it might very well be both at once.
Julian glanced down at the arena, watching Argenti radiate an almost transcendent, radiant focus that went far beyond his usual knightly poise.
Silver Wolf: Wait, you mean the Aeon of Beauty? Didn't Idrila fall eons ago?
Julian: Who confirmed that? Did Elio tell you?
Silver Wolf: ...No, he didn't.
Julian: There you have it. The nature of the Path of Beauty means that every soul perceives beauty through a unique lens. That divergence is likely why the universe believes Idrila has vanished. If Her consciousness has truly dispersed, consider it a wild guess. You can ask Elio for me later; I'm curious as well.
Silver Wolf: You really are something else...
Closing the private channel, Julian let out an appreciative breath.
He hadn't anticipated seeing an extraordinary will shatter system limitations play out right before his eyes on this very stage. Even if the adaptive protocol was technically rooted in Stephen's underlying code, witnessing a partner break past its parameters brought him the exact same quiet awe that visionary game designers felt when their creations took on a life of their own.
Down on the platform, March could not hold the line against Argenti's unprecedented hybrid combinations.
Under the relentless onslaught of glacial water and razor-sharp petals, both Articuno and Beautifly were eventually worn down.
Though March managed to focus her final volley to knock Roselia out of the ring, Milotic held its ground, standing tall amid the settling mist.
With one partner still standing as the final buzzer echoed through the hall, the victory belonged decisively to Argenti!
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