Chapter 228: Ho-Oh: I'm Sorry, That's Not Happening, Goodbye
Yes — Mammon had called Ho-Oh.
The legendary bird's utility as a free labor source was something Mammon was not going to leave unexploited. Its raw combat output wasn't particularly exceptional by the standards of top-tier legendaries, but what Ho-Oh offered instead was endurance. Its constitution combined with the passive regeneration of Sacred Fire meant it could absorb punishment for an extended period without collapsing — the ideal candidate for the role of tank, soaking damage while others did the heavy lifting.
After making the decision to fight Black Kyurem, Mammon had contacted Ho-Oh through the Rainbow Wing feather.
The complication was distance. Kanto to Unova was not a short flight, and Ho-Oh had been en route since then — still not arrived, still not here, doing its best.
Mammon had originally assumed he might not even need it. Black Rayquaza alone had been handling the fight convincingly, and he'd been mentally workshopping how to soften the blow of having made Ho-Oh fly the entire way for nothing.
That problem had resolved itself.
The energy wrapped around Kyurem dissipated — or rather, collapsed inward, absorbed completely, swallowed the way a flame is swallowed by a bowl of cold water.
Then: sound.
A draconic cry that cracked the remaining ice in the frozen sky, the shockwave of it expanding outward as an actual pressure front. The ruins shuddered again. The temperature in the surrounding air dropped to something that registered as physically hostile.
A dragon, larger than before, stood in the sky.
The presence it projected was not Black Kyurem's presence, or White Kyurem's — it was something that existed behind both of those and was now no longer suppressed. The cold it breathed wasn't a move or a technique. It was simply what it was.
"So this is…" Mammon studied the form. Still grey as the base color, but the black wings, the red-feathered forearms, the turbine at its tail built from both black and white — elements of both previous forms visible in the composite. He could see traces of Black Kyurem and White Kyurem both, but this was neither of those.
"Dragon God Kyurem," Giovanni said quietly, from some distance back.
Mammon considered the name. Close, but not quite accurate. The original Dragon of Unova had split into spirit — Zekrom, Reshiram — and body — Kyurem. Reassembling wasn't resurrection. It was a three-part composition in one frame. Kyurem with everything reclaimed.
"Dragon God Kyurem" would do as a working title. Or just: Kyurem Complete.
Whatever it was called, it was very strong.
"ROOOARR~!!"
Kyurem Complete threw its head back and roared. The sound released some of the pressure building inside it — the energy it had absorbed was nearly more than it could contain. Rain turned to hail in the air around it. The grey sky deepened.
"It got stronger," Giovanni noted.
"Giovanni, we should probably back up a little," Primal Groudon suggested, with the sincerity of something that had taken a personal inventory of its situation and found the math unfavorable.
It could feel the quality of the aura coming off Kyurem Complete. Violent and barely constrained.
"And I'd rather not get caught in whatever happens next through no fault of my own."
"Fair," Giovanni agreed.
They relocated. Quickly.
Giovanni took a moment to observe the other fights. Kagura and Steven were still deadlocked — neither side conceding, though the periodic shockwaves from the main battle complicated their movement. Cynthia had N well in hand, the advantage clear and building.
Leon, against both Caitlin and Colress — that pairing was genuinely impressive to watch. Leon was holding his own against both of them simultaneously and was, if anything, slightly ahead. The undefeated Champion of Galar was living up to the title in a way that was hard to argue with.
Team Rocket's executive bench had grown substantially under Mammon. Four Champion-tier trainers in six months.
Giovanni found himself privately satisfied by this in a way he didn't particularly try to examine.
If I joined the field directly, the whole equation shifts. But the point isn't to clean up Mammon's battles for him.
And more practically: as long as Mammon won against Kyurem, any captures on the League's side became irrelevant. The power differential made hostages meaningless.
"ROOOARR!! (RAYQUAZA!!)"
Kyurem Complete's opening move was Blizzard.
Not targeted. Omnidirectional. The ice storm erupted from its position and expanded in every direction, covering the entire sky, the Primordial Sea rain already present providing abundant material to freeze. In seconds — again — the sky was solid ice.
The ceiling had been recreated.
Black Rayquaza ascended. Not into the Blizzard — above it. It found the ceiling and cleared it, then coiled in the open air above the frozen cloud layer.
The Delta Stream Twister descended.
The same approach as before — the massive spinning vortex pulling the storm into itself, dismantling the Blizzard from above.
Kyurem Complete roared with fury.
"Rayquaza — Dragon Dance!"
Black Rayquaza heard the command and paused for a fraction of a second.
Dragon Dance?
Inside the Twister, concealed by the rotating wall of absorbed storm, it was effectively invisible. And Kyurem was focused on the Twister, not on what was happening inside it.
…That's not a bad idea.
The green light built within the Twister's core — the ancient rhythm of it, that specific quality of accumulated power that came from Dragon Dance — and Black Rayquaza began.
Outside, Kyurem Complete's Ice Beam fired.
The beam hit the Twister and the Twister froze. Section by section, the rotating wind crystallized into a column — a rotating ice spire that stopped turning and simply existed, connecting sky and ground, enormous. Spectacular in the way that things produced by the intersection of forces well beyond human scale are sometimes spectacular.
Inside the frozen spire, Black Rayquaza completed one stage of Dragon Dance and readied to continue.
Kyurem Complete didn't wait.
The turbine blazed. The Freeze Shock ring formed. It launched straight at the frozen Twister, blew through the ice, and Rayquaza had to break off Dragon Dance immediately to avoid taking the full impact.
Fly.
Rayquaza came out of the spire in a drive, green-lit, hitting Kyurem Complete at the intersection with Freeze Shock.
BOOM.
The shockwave this time was — larger than the previous ones. Larger than any collision in the fight so far. The ruins below buckled in a wider radius. The frozen sky above fractured in multiple new locations, curtains of ice-water cascading down at the edges.
Rayquaza and Kyurem separated.
The Fly's green light was being pressed back by the Freeze Shock. The Dragon Dance hadn't been enough — one stage of boost wasn't sufficient to close the gap created by Kyurem's absorption.
"Mewtwo. Kyogre. Use Helping Hand on Rayquaza."
Primal Kyogre processed this instruction with a complicated internal expression.
Helping the black Rayquaza.
That was — a lot to ask.
Dark Mewtwo was already moving, arm raised, the normaltype surge of support energy flowing toward Black Rayquaza without hesitation.
Fine, Kyogre decided, and sent its own Helping Hand out with a motion that was only slightly resentful.
Just this once.
The effect was immediate. Black Rayquaza felt the influx of boosted capability like a second wind — the Fly's green light surged, brightening.
BOOM.
The collision resolved. Kyurem Complete was driven back, Rayquaza pulling free and putting distance between them.
"Rayquaza. Enough?"
"Still not enough." The black dragon's voice was low and flat with honesty. "Even with Helping Hand, I can't overpower it at this level."
Mammon nodded once.
Kyurem Complete came back immediately, pressing the advantage — it wasn't going to give them time to plan.
Rayquaza moved to intercept. It was still the more agile of the two, and if it had to stall for time—
A sound cut through everything else.
Bright, high, piercing. A cry with a specific quality — something alive in it, something that wasn't combat.
A shape in the distance, moving fast. Rainbow-edged light.
"Ho-Oh!" Mammon waved. "You made it just in time!"
The rainbow bird — still flapping with the energy of something that had been flying for a considerable duration — arrived at the site and took in the scene. Kyurem Complete. The frozen sky. The scale of the ongoing damage.
Ho-Oh's flight motion slowed.
"Human." It looked at Mammon. Then at Kyurem Complete. Then back at Mammon. "When you say 'I need help' — your intention is for me to go fight that?"
Its left wing extended toward Kyurem Complete. Its right wing extended toward itself.
"You're asking me."
"Yes," Mammon said. "You can do it."
He didn't hesitate for even a moment.
"I'm sorry."
Ho-Oh turned around.
"That's not happening. Goodbye."
It began to leave.
This person, it thought, wings already carrying it away. This specific person is not well.
Last time it was the black Shiny Mega Rayquaza. This time, Kyurem Complete. What was next time going to be? Arceus?
I made a mistake agreeing to favors. I'm going to be used until I fall apart.
(End of Chapter)
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