Chapter 221: Mammon, When You Die I'm Absolutely Going Down With You — Yo!!
"ROOOARR!!"
The draconic cry rolled across the sky from somewhere not yet visible — immense, violent, the kind of sound that made the air feel different.
N's expression changed the moment he heard it. He stared toward the distance, jaw tight.
"Mammon!! Put me in the ball!! Kyurem is coming!!"
Reshiram's telepathy was — not calm.
"You're going to protect me in a moment. Relax."
Mammon's face twitched.
Reshiram: (°︵°)
He immediately released Kyogre and had it start stacking Calm Minds. Then he looked toward the horizon.
Black Kyurem arrived fast.
The grey-black draconic shape tore through the sky and came to a stop in the air above Reshiram, looking down from altitude, its golden eyes cold and violent. The presence it exerted was immediate and physical — a pressure in the chest, a drop in ambient temperature.
"This is… Kyurem. The strongest dragon."
Caitlin's eyes moved across the shape of it, her expression carefully composed. The aura coming off Black Kyurem was extraordinary — the draconic pressure it exerted was comparable to, possibly matching, the black Shiny Mega Rayquaza. Though that was purely from the weight of it; whether the actual combat capability was equivalent was another question. Black Kyurem's hostility radiated differently from Rayquaza — rawer, less controlled, which made it feel more immediately threatening even if the ceiling might differ.
"White dragon. You finally came out."
Black Kyurem's jaws pulled back in something that wasn't quite a smile. The malice in its mental voice was unmistakable.
It had spent days looking for this.
"..."
Reshiram didn't respond. It held its position — chin slightly raised, posture perfectly composed, projecting the image of serene dignity.
"MAMMON!! What do I do what do I do I'm so scared—"
Its private telepathy to Mammon was a somewhat different picture.
I genuinely cannot.
Mammon stared up at his legendary Dragon of Truth and took a moment to appreciate what was happening.
"Not speaking? That's fine." Black Kyurem's tone was unconcerned. "White dragon — the black dragon is inside me right now, and it's been asking about you. It says it misses you. It would like you to come keep it company."
A beam of Ice Beam condensed and fired, straight at Reshiram.
"MAMMON SAVE ME!!"
Reshiram's composure evaporated instantly.
"Hydro Pump!!"
Hmmmmmm~!
Primal Kyogre's ancient cry resonated as it rose, vast body shifting, and a column of water erupted upward to intercept the incoming Ice Beam.
Water vs. Ice — the two slammed together in mid-air, the cold energy fracturing the water at the contact point, ice crystals forming and bursting at the collision zone, before the combined impact detonated in an explosion of frozen spray.
Primal Kyogre's golden eyes settled on Black Kyurem with the calm patience of something that had existed for geological ages. The weight of its presence expanded outward.
Reshiram, meanwhile, was no longer standing at the top of the ruins. It had relocated — very quickly — to a position behind Mammon.
"Reshiram."
"Yes?"
"Get in front of me."
Mammon said it with the deliberate enunciation of someone working very hard to maintain composure.
This white dragon. He'd told it to protect him. Not to use him as a shield. Not to position him between itself and the enemy.
The Hero of Truth was standing in front of the Dragon of Truth. The Dragon of Truth was behind the Hero of Truth.
The Dragon of Truth had made this choice.
"Oh—"
Reshiram registered the issue with visible awkwardness and repositioned — moving to Mammon's front-left, at an angle that covered him without blocking his view of the battle.
"Interesting."
Black Kyurem's gaze dropped from Reshiram to Primal Kyogre. Something shifted in its expression — an assessment.
That presence. Strong. Comparable to the fire-colored creature it had encountered in the glacier canyon.
"Unusual. So you're the one they mentioned."
It lowered its gaze further, to Mammon.
"They who?" Mammon asked.
"Several humans came to my resting place and disturbed my sleep. They asked me to deal with you."
A beat of silence across the entire group.
Kagura, Colress — both registered the information simultaneously. N's expression shifted.
"…Unova League." N murmured it quietly.
So Kyurem's emergence hadn't been random. There had been a reason. Someone had gone to wake it up.
He understood that the League had been trying to counter Mammon — he didn't blame them for that. But Zekrom had been caught in the middle, and the consequences had landed on him. Even N, who could rationally account for the League's intentions, felt the weight of that sitting somewhere it shouldn't.
"Those PEOPLE!! They're rotten to the CORE!! That's DESPICABLE!!"
Reshiram's private voice in Mammon's head was significantly less diplomatic.
"If you want to fight Mammon, come fight him properly!! What kind of cowardly move is that — sending Kyurem—"
"Interesting." Mammon kept his voice pleasant, directing his attention back to Black Kyurem. "The strongest dragon, running errands for humans it doesn't know. That's unexpected."
"Amusing."
Black Kyurem made a sound of dismissal.
"They don't mean anything to me. You think something like that could ask me for anything?"
It raised its chin, golden eyes brightening with something that was building toward hostility.
"Though I'll say — for reasons I'm not entirely sure of, my assessment of you is relatively favorable. So I'll offer you this: give me the white dragon, and I'll let you leave."
The quality of the mental transmission was the unmistakable register of something that had never in its existence needed to justify itself to anyone.
Reshiram instantly went rigid with indignation.
Did Kyurem just try to—
It turned its head and stared at Black Kyurem with open fury, which lasted approximately as long as it took for Black Kyurem to stare directly back.
Under the full weight of that gaze, Reshiram's neck made a very small movement that could only be described as a flinch. It moved closer to Mammon.
It GLARED at me!! Mammon, the ice dragon GLARED at me!!
"That's not happening." Mammon's voice was unhurried but entirely clear.
Around him, Primal Kyogre was holding its position, its light flickering — four Calm Mind boosts in, more to go.
"Reshiram, whatever it may be, is my partner. I don't have many strong points." He let the sentence sit for exactly one beat. "But I don't abandon the Pokémon that chose to be with me. I selected each of them personally."
Reshiram went very quiet.
Then:
"Mammon~!!"
Its voice had gone considerably softer.
"You really are the best Hero of Truth. Don't worry — when you die, I'll transform back into the Light Stone and be buried with you. I'll be with you for at least a thousand years!!"
Mammon's expression twitched twice.
I am truly overcome with gratitude.
Black Kyurem, from its position above, let out a sound of contempt.
"A meaningless, absurd reason. Fine then — watch me take your white dragon."
"ROOOARR!!"
Black Kyurem threw its head back. The turbine at its tail blazed to life — blue electricity pouring out in a torrent, wrapping the dragon's entire body in a circling ring of lightning.
Cross Thunder.
It drove downward at full speed toward Primal Kyogre.
"Kyogre! Origin Pulse!!"
Hmmmm~!
The sky responded first. Black stormclouds piled upward with impossible speed, layer on layer, until the light changed. Rain came down in curtains — the particular quality of rain under Primordial Sea, heavy and purposeful.
Primal Kyogre pulled back, and spheres of water condensed before it, each one pulsing with blue light. Then they fired — a spread of blue-white beams cutting through the downpour, striking Black Kyurem at the center of its dive.
Origin Pulse vs. Cross Thunder.
BOOM. BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.
The detonations were consecutive, each one overlapping the last, the combined shockwaves washing outward in expanding rings. The sound was physically uncomfortable at close range.
Black Kyurem tore through the explosion zone and emerged on the other side — the Cross Thunder ring noticeably dimmed, significantly more faded than when the exchange had begun.
Under Primordial Sea's rain, Origin Pulse hit hard. Harder than expected, given Black Kyurem's resistance to the type.
And Kyogre had been stacking. Four Calm Minds. The special attack multiplier was significant.
Still not enough.
Mammon's internal assessment was clear. They needed more time.
"Mewtwo. Rayquaza. Genesect."
Three Poké Balls in rapid succession. Three flashes.
Dark Mewtwo, the young Rayquaza, and the Shiny Genesect materialized in the air around Mammon.
"Oh, how delightful."
Colress had been watching the incoming shapes in the distance, and his expression had shifted to something that expressed genuine intellectual interest.
"It appears we have some interesting visitors arriving."
He glanced toward the far end of the ruins, where figures were becoming visible — Alder's group, coming in fast.
(End of Chapter)
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