Chapter 661: Hero of Ice
~Third POV~
[Unova Region, Next Day, Route 16]
The morning air over Route 16 carried the crisp, damp scent of dew-kissed grass and the distant, rhythmic hum of the giant Ferris wheel turning lazily on the horizon of Nimbasa City. It was supposed to be a day off.
Black was currently knee-deep in the chaotic machinery of show business, helping White manage rehearsals at the Musical Dome alongside Azure's Gardevoir, Milotic, and the ever-dramatic Meloetta—though the latter was currently elsewhere, likely driving White up the wall with a characteristic mix of haughty sighs and dramatic, huffing tsundere complaints about her stage placement.
For Azure, however, 'days off' rarely meant resting. As a four-time League Champion, a veteran of the Hoenn and Sinnoh Frontiers, and the man who had quite literally punched gravity in the face to save Earth from Grand Meteor Delta, stillness felt unnatural.
Yet, today, he had carved out time simply to let his Unova team decompress and grow. His active rotation was still green, still learning the complex choreography of high-level Unovan battling. Then, the hair on the back of his neck stood up.
*Shiver*
It wasn't a sudden draft or the rustle of a wild Patrat in the tall grass.
It was a heavy, suffocating weight that pressed down on his chest, bending the blades of grass beneath his boots...
*THWUMP*
Legendary pressure.
Azure stopped walking. On his right shoulder, Pikachu's ears twitched sharply, the yellow mouse letting out a low, warning pika. Atop his head, Eevee dug her paws into his cap, ears flattening against her skull. Inside his jacket pocket, the disguised Mew—masquerading as a sleepy Pichu—let out a soft, psychic yawn that rippled against Azure's ribs.
Azure muttered, exhaling a plume of white breath into the cool morning air, "Well… Can't even enjoy a walk."
Floating invisibly just beside his left ear, Victini's tiny telepathic voice piped up, tinged with a mix of curiosity and indignation, 'Someone is staring at us, Azure! They feel big. Really big! Like a stubbed toe kind of big!'
Azure corrected mentally, 'More like an absolute pain in the ass.'
He turned his gaze toward the towering, moss-draped canopy of the Lostlorn Forest. The tree line seemed to pulse with a low, vibrating hum of hostility. He muttered, "Sigh... Let's go save them the trouble of stalking us."
With a flick of his wrist, Azure adjusted the strap of his bag and took a deliberate detour, stepping off the paved cobblestones of Route 16 and plunging straight into the shadowed embrace of the Lostlorn Forest.
/////
[Unova Region, Route 16 – Lostlorn Forest]
*Crunch—Snap*
The ambient sounds of chirping Pidove and rustling Sewaddle died away the deeper he walked, replaced by an eerie, heavy silence. The sunlight struggled to pierce the dense, interlocking branches above, casting long, skeletal shadows across the damp earth.
*Hummm*
Azure kept his hands tucked casually in his pockets.
His internal Aura flared just enough to shield his mind from the creeping psychological dread that the stalkers were trying to project. He stepped into a wide, sun-dappled clearing choked with thick ferns and ancient, gnarled stumps.
Azure called out, his voice echoing off the ancient bark, "Alright… I know you've been trailing me since Nimbasa city limits. If you're going to ambush me, do it now. I've got a league to prep for, and I really don't like wasting daylight."
Silence answered him…
*CRACK*
Then, a sharp CRACK of splitting wood echoed from the treeline. The pressure doubled, tripled, forcing the very air to distort with shimmering waves of heat and malice. From the shadows of the towering oaks, two massive figures stepped into the clearing.
*THUD*
Terrakion's heavy hooves cratered the soil, its boulder-like body radiating an earthy, unyielding wrath. Beside it, moving with an eerie, silent grace, Virizion stepped out from a curtain of ferns, its emerald-and-pink coat gleaming in a stray shaft of light. Its eyes locked onto Azure with absolute, icy disdain.
Azure raised a single eyebrow, his expression shifting from mild annoyance to mild amusement at the scene. He couldn't help but say in a mocking tone, "Well, look who it is. Half the management team."
Victini squeaked invisibly, hovering closer to his coat, 'Azure! Those are the big deer-dog things! One of them looks like it wants to headbutt our teeth in!'
Azure thought back, 'I can see that, Victini.'
He glanced at Virizion. He then said calmly, "I'm surprised you're back, Virizion. Thought I taught you some manners back in Pinwheel Forest when Pikachu and I thoroughly rearranged your pride, caught you, and then let you go."
At the reminder of her humiliating defeat, Virizion's nostrils flared, a soft, warning hiss escaping her lips. But it was Terrakion who stepped forward, lowering its massive, horn-plated head with a pissed expression. A deep, seismic rumble vibrated from the beast's chest, shaking the loose pebbles on the ground.
Terrakion's voice echoed directly into Azure's mind, heavy and grinding like tectonic plates shifting: 'HUMAN!!! YOU DARE UTTER WORDS OF ARROGANCE. YOU DARE CLAIM YOU SHALL CAPTURE OUR APPRENTICE. OUR STUDENT. KELDEO!!'
Azure blinked, resting a hand on his hip. Then he muttered absentmindedly, "Oh, right. I did say that when I let her go, didn't I?"
He smiled brightly, a grin that practically radiated sunshine. He said casually, "You know, seeing as you're both here... did you come to drop him off? I'll make a Champion out of the little colt yet. Give him some proper combat seasoning, teach him how to use Iron Head with actual frame-data precision."
*THUD*
Terrakion slammed a massive hoof into the earth, sending a shockwave of cracked soil rippling toward Azure's boots!
Rotom's voice buzzed loudly from the Arc Phone in Azure's pocket, the ghost-type's digitized face popping up on the screen with flashing red warning lights, "Hoo boy! Alert! Alert! Hostile intent detected! Target's combat readiness is off the charts! Shall I calculate an escape route, or are we going to commit property damage?!"
Azure muttered under his breath, keeping his eyes locked on the raging rock-type, "Calm down, Rotom. We're not running."
Terrakion bellowed mentally, 'YOUR INSOLENCE ENDS HERE!'
*SHIING*
Terrakion's horn began to glow with a blinding, iridescent light—the unmistakable prelude to the Sacred Sword. Virizion remained still, though her own horn began to hum with a sharp, blade-like resonance, clearly ready to back up her comrade despite her cooler temperament.
Azure sighed, shaking his head. He commented, "Honestly? My Unova team is still way too green to handle a 2-on-1 Legend fight without taking heavy structural damage. Pignite and Fraxure are tough, but they aren't ready for this tier yet."
He reached down to his belt, his fingers bypassing his standard spheres and wrapping around a heavy, slate-gray sphere etched with glowing purple circuitry—a Master Ball. He muttered casually, "Guess it's time to bring out the big guns."
With a flick of his wrist, Azure tossed the Master Ball high into the air…
*FLASH*
The ball burst open, but there was no celebratory chime, no flash of bright, comforting red energy. Instead, an absolute, bone-fracturing, frost-bitten blizzard exploded into the clearing. The temperature plummeted from a mild autumn morning to deep-arctic sub-zero in less than a microsecond.
*WHOOSH*
A massive wall of howling, freezing-cold wind and razor-sharp ice shards slammed into Terrakion and Virizion, violently pushing the two legendary Pokémon backward. Their hooves skidded across the rapidly freezing mud as a thick, jagged sheet of blue-white ice instantly coated the entire clearing, turning the ancient forest floor into a glittering wasteland of frost.
*THUD-CRASH*
With the weight of a falling glacier, Kyurem landed squarely in the center of the clearing. The boundary between dragon and husk, the hollow shell of the Original Dragon, loomed over the two Swords of Justice.
Its jagged, asymmetrical wings scraped the frozen air, and its single, glowing blue eye glared down at them with an apathy so profound it felt insulting. Virizion and Terrakion gasped, their eyes widening in sheer, unadulterated shock.
Even through the biting cold, sweat beaded on Terrakion's massive brow. They both thought in realization, 'A third Dragon of Unova…!'
*Hummm*
Azure stood calmly amidst the freezing gale, completely unbothered. His internal Aura flared into a protective, shimmering golden sheath around his skin, keeping the killing frost at bay. On his shoulder, Pikachu had tucked himself tightly inside a fold of Azure's scarf, while Eevee shivered happily, her thick winter coat fluffed out.
From Azure's pocket, Gengar's voice rasped out in a low, ghostly whisper, vibrating against his ribs, "Hehehe... Look at the big ponies. They look like they just swallowed a whole Rawst Berry, thorns and all."
Azure thought back, watching Kyurem, 'Quiet, Gengar.'
The icy dragon let out a long, slow snort. A plume of freezing mist billowed from its asymmetrical jaw. Then, Kyurem spoke—not aloud, but directly into the minds of everyone present. Its voice was a flat, grating ledger of absolute indifference, dripping with aristocratic disdain.
Kyurem's telepathic voice scraped across their consciousness like ice being ground beneath a boot heel: 'Foolish fools. To challenge my Hero of Ice 2-on-1... and to do so in such a pathetic, uncoordinated, dishonorable display. You bring shame to the very legends you claim to uphold.'
Azure smirked, folding his arms. He knew what Kyurem meant. The dragons of Unova were forces of fundamental concepts. Reshiram was the Hero of Truth, the consuming fire of reality. Zekrom was the Hero of Ideals, the roaring lightning of ambition.
But Kyurem?
Kyurem was something else entirely.
And this Kyurem was terrifyingly strong.
During a brief window in his journey, Azure had utilized Mew's teleportation to slip over to Kanto for a few days, specifically to spar with Mewtwo, one of his strongest Pokémon. He had put Kyurem through the absolute training grinder against the engineered psychic god, drilling the dragon relentlessly in the ancient, fluid combat arts of the Strong and Agile Styles. Kyurem's instincts had been honed from a lumbering myth into a razor-sharp apex predator.
And it didn't even have Reshiram or Zekrom fused yet...
Beside Azure, little Victini was staring up at the massive dragon with wide, starry eyes, its tiny wings buzzing rapidly to keep it afloat. She said in awe, 'Whoa... the ice-dragon is scarier than the green doggies!'
Terrakion and Virizion gritted their teeth, their pride refusing to let them cower. Despite the trembling in their legs, both Swords of Justice planted their hooves into the cracking ice, their horns igniting with blinding, multi-colored martial energy.
*Hummm*
Both readied their blades. They roared in unison, preparing to launch a desperate, coordinated blitz: 'Sacred Sword!'
Azure commanded casually, his voice cutting through the howling wind, "Kyurem. Show them what happens when you skip defense training. Strong Style…"
Kyurem didn't even flinch. It simply opened its jagged maw, gathering the ambient freezing moisture of the entire Lostlorn Forest into a single, blinding focal point. Kyurem echoed apathetically, "… Glaciate."
*BOOM*
A concentrated torrent of absolute zero energy blasted forward. It wasn't just a wave of ice; it was a pressurized beam of localized winter. Before Terrakion and Virizion could take a single step forward, the blue-white light engulfed them.
*CRACK-SHATTER-FREEZE*
In less than a heartbeat, the two legendary Pokémon were locked tight, encased within a massive, opaque pillar of thick, diamond-hard ice. The battle was over before it had even truly begun. The forest fell into an instantaneous, ringing silence, broken only by the soft whistling of the wind tapering off.
Azure walked forward, his boots clicking lightly against the frozen ground. He looked up at the ice sculpture containing the two legendary beasts, then glanced back at the towering dragon standing perfectly in place.
Azure asked curiously whilst he knocked his fist lightly on the encased Swords, "You kept the structural damage contained, right?"
Kyurem shifted its weight, the ice beneath its claws groaning in protest. Kyurem stated bluntly, 'I am a creature of precision, human. I am not some mindless brute. The trees remain standing. Mostly...'
Azure nodded, accepting the answer. Then he replied calmly, "Good. Let them out. We've made our point."
*Hissss*
With a flick of Kyurem's tail, the ice encasing Terrakion and Virizion instantly dissolved into thin air, evaporating into a fine mist.
The two legendary Pokémon stumbled forward, gasping for breath, their bodies shivering violently from the residual cold as they collapsed into the slush.
*Thud*
They were uninjured, but their pride had been utterly atomized. With a wave of his hand, Azure flicked a heavy pouch from his bag, spilling a massive pile of sweet, nutrient-rich Oran and Sitrus Berries onto the frozen moss right in front of them.
Azure said smoothly, turning on his heel away from them, "Eat up. You'll need the sugar to recover your body temperature."
Kyurem looked down at the berries, then shifted its single eye toward Azure. The Dragon asked apathetically to him, 'You take your leave, Hero? Or do you require further cleansing of pests?'
Azure replied, offering the dragon a small, appreciative nod, "Nah, we're done here. Thanks for the assist, Kyurem. You handled that like a true Noble Dragon."
Kyurem gave a slow, dignified dip of its massive head. As it prepared to return to its ball, a low, rumbling thought echoed from the dragon into Azure's mind—one of quiet determination: 'Remember your promise, human. Help me become whole once more. Restore my Ideals. Restore my Truth. I wish to return to the Original Dragon.'
Azure stopped mid-step, looking back at the colossal ice-type. A thoughtful expression crossed his features. Before recalling him, he asked a question that had lingered in the back of his mind since he first caught the beast. He couldn't help but ask curiously from the Dragon's mouth, "Curious... if Zekrom represents Ideals, and Reshiram represents Truth... what do you represent, Kyurem? Just as you are now?"
Kyurem paused, its glowing eye dimming slightly with a strange, hollow melancholy. The Ice Dragon whispered into his mind, the word carrying the weight of a thousand silent winters, echoing in his mind: 'Emptiness… The absence of all. The shell left behind when the whole was torn apart.'
Azure stood quietly for a moment, absorbing the profound, crushing weight of the answer. Then he asked curiously, "If that's the case, I must ask: how would you deal with Reshiram and Zekrom's wills? They'll put up a fight to reject you even if you forcibly devour them; how exactly do you deal with that?"
A long moment passed before Kyurem's ancient voice finally answered before going quiet in the end, "My power alone is insufficient. Reshiram and Zekrom were awakened by the will of humanity. They now possess their own souls and consciousness. Unless a human exists who carries both Reshiram's Truth and Zekrom's Ideals within their heart, and gains the approval of both dragons, and mine, as their empty shell. Only then will three parts willingly merge to restore the Original Dragon… That path… has unimaginable difficulty."
Kyurem didn't voice the final part, but Azure understood. Then, he offered a gentle, understanding smile as he said politely, "Got it. Rest up, partner. We'll find your missing pieces before you know it."
*Flash-Click*
In a flash of red light, the Master Ball reclaimed Kyurem, absorbing the colossal dragon back into its steel-and-circuitry confines with a soft click. Azure clipped the ball back onto his belt...
*Hummm*
As he turned to walk back toward Route 16, his heightened Aura sensing flickered, picking up a distinct, lingering ripple in the spiritual energy of the forest. It was a third presence—one that had been silently observing the entire encounter from the deep brush just behind Terrakion and Virizion.
Cobalion.
The leader of the Swords of Justice had watched his comrades get utterly dismantled in a single exchange, and had chosen to stay hidden, recognizing the absolute gulf in power standing before them.
Azure didn't call him out. He simply offered a silent nod to the empty trees, adjusted his cap, and began the walk back to civilization.
He had a league to conquer, a show business agency to check in on, and a bunch of green team members waiting for their afternoon training session in much-needed level grinding. Behind him, in the freezing shadows of the Lostlorn Forest, two proud guardians sat in the snow, unconscious, humbled by the Hero of Ice.
/////
[Unova Region, Later, Route 16 – Lostlorn Forest]
The frost did not bite with the cruel, jagged teeth of a natural blizzard; it carved.
Where Kyurem's Glaciate had swept through the damp undergrowth of Lostlorn Forest, the pine needles and ancient oak bark were not destroyed—they were preserved, sheathed in a crystalline amber of absolute zero that held every vein of the leaves in stark, blue-white relief.
The air smelled of frost and ancient, frozen stone, heavy with the lingering echo of a telepathic voice that sounded like grinding glaciers and the deep, low groan of continental plates shifting in the dark.
*Clink—Shard*
A single icicle, longer than a spear and twice as thick, detached itself from the bough of a weeping willow overhead and shattered against the frozen turf below. Terrakion was the first to stir awake.
*Rmbl*
The massive rock-and-fighting bull-type let out a low, gravelly rumble that shook the pine needles free from his slate-gray shoulders. His massive horns, notched and scarred from centuries of territorial disputes, scraped against the ice that still crusted the ground as he hauled his two-thousand-pound frame upright.
His eyes scanned the glade, taking in the unnatural neatness of the frostline. Terrakion's voice was a seismic tremor, vibrating through the roots of the ancient trees, 'Hrgh... The... the coward. He didn't even stay to finish the judgment.'
Beside him, Virizion uncoiled her slender, emerald-green limbs with the grace of a falling leaf. Her head-blades—sharp enough to cleave a boulder—trembled slightly, not from fear, but from the residual chill that clung to her joints like lead.
She looked down at her forelegs, where a thin rime of frost dissolved into tiny droplets of water as her body temperature struggled to normalize. A voice murmured from the shadows of the double-trunked beech tree to the left, "Not a coward."
Cobalion stepped out from the gloom.
The leader of the Swords of Justice moved without a sound, his coat catching the pale filtered sunlight that managed to pierce the canopy. His eyes, wise with the accumulated patience of an era before human roads scarred the Unova mainland, were fixed on the exact center of the clearing.
There, arranged in two neat, symmetrical pyramids upon a broad stump of white cedar, sat a pile of vibrant, dew-kissed Oran and Sitrus berries. Terrakion's nostrils flared, smelling the sweet, tangy aroma of the fruit through the deadening scent of ice.
Terrakion asked in confusion, 'Berries? The human left us... charity?'
Cobalion corrected, his tone flat, steady, and laden with a heavy, contemplative sorrow, 'He left us a warning.'
He walked slowly toward the cedar stump, his hooves clicking softly on the frost-nipped earth. Cobalion added, 'And more importantly, he left us life.'
*THWUMP*
Terrakion struck the ground with a massive forehoof, sending a spiderweb of cracks through the frozen mud, 'He mocked us! He spoke of Keldeo as if the little one were a stray foal he intended to break for his stable! A champion? To chain our student to the human bloodsport of the League? And then—that monster. That third dragon...'
Terrakion shuddered, though he would have died before admitting it was from the memory of Kyurem's unblinking eye and PTSD. Terrakion took a few moments to collect himself as Virizion said, her voice like wind through autumn grass, though her teeth were still slightly chattering, 'We knew only of Reshiram and Zekrom…'
She stepped up beside Cobalion, her gaze fixed on the berries. She stated mentally, 'The tales of the Twin Dragons who split the hero's heart. But this one... it had no fire. It had no lightning. It was... nothing.'
Cobalion said, quoting the telepathic resonance he had intercepted from the edge of the clearing while they were entombed, 'Emptiness…'
He closed his eyes, remembering the way Kyurem's aura had felt—not like the burning truth of the white dragon or the crackling ideal of the black, but like a vacuum. A space where a world used to be before the glaciers came. Cobalion stated, 'The dragon called itself the absence of all. Yet it moved with the precision of a master whose blade has been whetted on the edge of eternity.'
Virizion noted, tilting her head in a confused tone, 'You were close by, Cobalion. Why did you not intervene?'
Cobalion said simply, his gaze meeting hers without a flicker of shame, 'Because if I had stepped into that frost, there would be three statues in this forest instead of two. The human—Azure—did not command the dragon with fear. He commanded it with the ease of one who has looked into the abyss of legend and found a mirror.'
Terrakion grunted, his massive chest heaving as he finally reached out and plucked a large Sitrus berry from the pile, tossing it into his mouth and crushing it with a loud crunch. The sweet juices seemed to soothe the deep ache in his jaw where the cold had bitten through his defenses.
Terrakion demanded in a fierce tone, juice staining his heavy jowls, 'So what now? We sit here and eat the human's pity while he marches toward Nimbasa? While he grooms Keldeo to be his weapon?'
Cobalion did not answer immediately. He picked up an Oran berry with delicate precision, tasting the tart skin before swallowing. His mind was elsewhere, drifting back across the decades to the days when humans still lived in grass huts, and the borders of the Giant Chasm were still a green valley rather than a scar of scorched stone.
Cobalion said at last, turning his head toward the southern edge of the forest where the hum of Route 16's distant electric cables could barely be heard, 'The boy is not a common trainer. I felt the weight of his spirit as he stood before the dragon. He carries an aura unlike any we have ever met. He has walked through the halls of masters whose names have turned to dust in our memory.'
Terrakion scoffed, though he took a second berry, saying, 'He's an upstart from some dirt-path town in the south.'
Cobalion corrected softly to his fellow Sword, turning to them, 'He is a conqueror. I listened to the whispers of the little red creature that floated beside him—the one that smelled of burnt sugar and ancient hearths. It spoke to a ghost within his jacket, a small pink phantom that speaks in riddles. And tucked within his belt... I counted the weight of a dozen different souls, each one bound to him not by the red glare of capture, but by the gray light of absolute loyalty.'
Virizion looked down at her own knees, where the green fur was slowly drying. She said mentally, 'Keldeo is young. He lacks the discipline of the forest. When he spoke of leaving the sacred springs to follow the scent of the city—to see the metal beasts and the great towers—we thought he was merely being foolish. But if the human claims he will make him a champion...'
Terrakion growled, hearing Virizion's topic interrupted in a rough tone, 'A champion of what? Glory? Applause? The roar of a stadium where tiny creatures beat each other bloody for the amusement of children?'
Cobalion said, his eyes sharpening, 'No. A champion of will. The dragon Kyurem spoke of the Hero of Ice. Not the Hero of Truth, nor the Hero of Ideals. The one who stands in the center when both sides have destroyed each other.'
Cobalion turned his back to them, looking deep into the tangled undergrowth where the ancient trees gave way to the marshlands. Cobalion said firmly, 'The boy is going to the Unova League. He intends to take the crown not to rule, but to test the very foundations of this region's beliefs. He is collecting legends the way a child collects pebbles on a riverbank—not to hoard them, but to see if they float.'
Terrakion said, stamping his foot again, though with less conviction this time, 'Then we take Keldeo back before he reaches the next city.'
Cobalion said sternly, his voice dropping into that tone that brooked no argument, the tone that had kept the four of them alive through the burning years of the Unova wars in the past, 'No… We follow.'
Virizion blinked and asked, 'Follow? To the city?'
Cobalion corrected, taking a step toward the treeline explained, 'Not into the city. The asphalt and the glass towers choke our kind. But we will walk the perimeter. We will watch the training. And when Keldeo realizes that the human's path is too heavy for a little colt to bear... we will be there to catch him.'
Cobalion paused, his gaze drifting back to the small heap of uneaten berries. The leader added with a rare, faint hint of dry amusement touching the corners of his dark muzzle, 'Besides, it is not every day that a human leaves us provisions after nearly freezing our marrow into glass. It would be impolite not to see how his story ends.'
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A/n: Hope you like the chapter!