The sky and ground started crumbling, like reality itself was falling apart.
The Distortion World, a dark mirror of the normal world, packed nearly as much power as the real thing. When that power leaked into the normal world, it brought corruption with it, a creeping darkness that ate away at everything it touched.
The Temple of Sinnoh was transforming before their eyes. Everything except the altar itself was dissolving into nothing under the dark force of Shadow Force.
Mega Gardevoir floated in midair, the primary target. Theoretically, almost all the Distortion World's power should've been focused on destroying her first.
Giratina's strength was undeniable. This was Shadow Force, powered by an entire dimension's worth of energy. Space itself was warping and collapsing around the attack. So why the hell wasn't it working on an ordinary Gardevoir?
It was like... like how she'd been immune to Dragon-type moves earlier.
Could Gardevoir also be immune to Ghost-type moves? That didn't make any sense, she wasn't even a Ghost-type!
John could've answered that question for Volo.
Because the item Gardevoir was holding wasn't just the Fairy-type Pixie Plate, it was also the Ghost-type Spooky Plate.
Normally she carried the AncientAdamant Orb, saving the big reveals for the right moment.
With the AncientAdamant Orb and two Plates at her disposal, Gardevoir was basically untouchable against Giratina.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!!!
Moonlight power flooded the sky and came crashing down like a waterfall from heaven itself, an all-directions barrage hammering Giratina as it poked its head out from the Distortion World.
ROOOAAR!!!
"Giratina, use Shadow Force again!" Volo still refused to believe that some regular Pokemon like Gardevoir could just ignore a legendary deity's signature move.
Giratina, roaring in agony, completely ignored Volo's order.
As one of Arceus's original creations, it had seen the Plates that orbited the Creator. Those objects represented the fundamental forces of the world itself, there was no breaking through them.
It looked up, light gathering in its mouth. A beam of pure destructive energy condensed in an instant and fired!
Hyper Beam!
The scorching ray tore through the sky, blazing hot and brilliant!
'Fine! I don't need Ghost-type or Dragon-type moves, I can still blast you into oblivion, you ordinary Pokemon!'
Facing Hyper Beam, Mega Gardevoir couldn't just tank the hit. She snapped her fingers and teleported away.
The Spooky Plate wasn't the key to victory here, it just stopped Giratina from using the Distortion World's Ghost-type energy, which was good enough.
To beat a Dragon-type, the Pixie Plate was still the MVP.
John suddenly pulled out a Pokeball and recalled Mega Gardevoir from across the battlefield.
Giratina and Volo's heads snapped toward him. Before they could even wonder if John was surrendering, the Pokeball that had just recalled Mega Gardevoir suddenly expanded, growing dozens of times larger.
John gripped the massive Pokeball and hurled it forward.
Silver light rippled through time itself. Mega Gardevoir appeared on the field again.
This time, as Gigantamax Mega Gardevoir!
Standing on Lugia's back, John sized up Gardevoir's new form. Since she didn't have a unique Gigantamax design, she'd just scaled up proportionally in every direction.
Because Gardevoir's fighting style, built around Teleport, favored speed and agility over direct confrontation, John rarely had her go Gigantamax.
But against Giratina? He figured the god deserved to see the full weight of an ultimate move.
He pulled a pink Z-Crystal from his bag and slotted it into his Z-Power Ring.
"First, let's warm up."
"Z-Move, Twinkle Tackle!"