History repeated itself.
Jin, struck by Marshadow's casual kick, crumpled into an even more exaggerated, twisted shape.
Despite his evolution, Jin seemed to have made no progress—still helpless against his foes.
Because the enemy he faced was the Mythical Pokémon—Marshadow!Jin's eyes widened as an immense force struck from the right—an overwhelming power impossible to resist!
"Boom!!"
Twisted into an unnatural posture, Jin shot toward the left like a launched missile.
As expected, he crashed into the rocky wall once more, leaving yet another "impression" of himself in the cavern.
"Heheheh..."
Amidst the ruins, Jin's face was twisted into an extremely grim expression.
The confident demeanor he had worn moments ago was now contorted with pain.
He violently spat out a large mass of mixed substances, gasping for breath as his chest heaved dramatically.
His body bore numerous wounds, especially around his right waist—an injury that had barely healed before being shattered once more.
This time, it was far worse. His entire right side was now riddled with interconnected cracks, and the gaping hole revealed his diamond-like core, glaringly visible to the naked eye.
If compared to a human, Jin had essentially been gutted by just a casual kick from Marshadow.
Hiss… Damn it!
How could it possess such overwhelming power?
Not only was Jin's face twisted in agony, but his mind was also seething with curses and fury.
Paired with his ghastly appearance, the sight was utterly terrifying.
Perhaps it was Marshadow's deliberate doing—the ruins Jin now lay in were the very ones he had been smashed into moments ago.
He had thought that unleashing his trump card would easily crush his enemy, but instead, he found himself beaten to an even more pitiful state.
The euphoria of his earlier power high had shattered, leaving him unable to accept reality.
His sanity crumbled, teetering on the brink of madness.
If that's how it is… Jin's ragged breathing gradually steadied, but the crimson glow in his eyes burned brighter than ever.
He stretched his arms out to either side, pressing his palms firmly against the rocky surface around him.
Then, an endless surge of energy erupted from his body.
A diamond-like sheen spread over the blackened rocks, washing away the debris as an eerie transformation took place within.
Jin's face twisted into a manic grin as he intensified the energy output from his core.
Soon, the diamond radiance surged outward like a tidal wave, engulfing the surrounding rocks in an ever-expanding radius.
The stones, originally composed of Black Tremor Rock, began morphing under Jin's control—their structure shifting toward the hardness of diamond.
But he wasn't after useless gems.
What he sought was power—power to turn the tide of battle in his favor!
The glow grew fiercer, illuminating Jin's sinister, grotesque face, now completely devoid of restraint.
His already depleted energy reserves poured out recklessly, all for the sake of victory in the coming fight.
Now he fully understood why his enemy hadn't pressed the attack while he lay wounded and helpless…
Because they hadn't even deemed him a threat!
Jin gnashed his teeth, the grinding sound piercing the air.
His eyes bulged with fury, his expression utterly horrifying.
...
Outside the cavern,
The area remained a scene of devastation, though now littered with countless new additions—the corpses of stone giants.
The fallen giants came in all varieties—Silver Giants, Rock Giants, even mutated aberrations.
But now, they all shared one thing in common.
They were dead.
"No, no… we can't win!!"
A towering Silver Giant wore an expression of human-like terror, its gaze fixed straight ahead.
Before it lay a hellish landscape, strewn with the bodies of its kin—no different from a slaughterhouse.
They had come here intending to tear their enemies apart, only to be dismantled themselves at an alarming speed.
And at the center of the carnage stood three colossal figures, their overwhelming auras radiating unchecked!
Like three bottomless black holes, they were about to be sucked in, never to see the light of day again!
They had arrived in overwhelming numbers, fierce and formidable, yet in no time at all, only a small fraction of their kin remained alive.
One of the Silver Giants stumbled back a few steps before abruptly turning around and fleeing without hesitation in the direction it had come from.
Faced with the threat of death, they no longer cared about leaders or their kind...
Survival was all that mattered!
Once one took the lead, the remaining Stone Giants unanimously chose to flee, their inner resolve quietly vanishing.
Just run faster... no!
Just run faster than the others!
In that moment, every Stone Giant summoned all its strength, pouring every ounce of energy into escaping.
Their heavy footsteps pounded the ground, sending tremors through the earth.
Some even resorted to desperate measures, betraying their companions to buy themselves a little more time.
As a result, before the Pokémon could even strike, the remaining Stone Giants began fighting among themselves in their frantic escape.
Little did they know, all their efforts were in vain.
Gardevoir's brow furrowed slightly as she gave her skirt a gentle sway, her graceful figure vanishing from sight.
When she reappeared, she stood before the fleeing Stone Giants.
Her pair of crimson eyes fixed on them, filling their hearts with dread and snuffing out any last hope of survival.
They were trapped between two forces!
...
Inside the cavern chamber,
"Ding!"
"Pokémon incubation complete!"
Akira blinked in surprise before realizing—the new incubation bar had reached its end.
What kind of Pokémon would this incubation bar produce?
Even now, Akira couldn't guess what it might be, though he suspected it was likely related to the Bone Clan.
So...
Would it be a Pokémon associated with bones?
Like Cubone or Marowak?
With eager anticipation, Akira focused his mind, eager to see what this new Pokémon would be.
The new Pokémon's appearance was utterly bizarre—nothing like a normal Pokémon.
It was almost two-dimensional.
Its entire body seemed to exist on a single plane, resembling what one might call a "paper cutout," a far cry from ordinary Pokémon.
Its color scheme was black and white, surrounded by a ring of black wheels, with a single large eyeball at its center.
The eyeball had a black dot in the middle, the rest pure white.
At first glance, it looked like the letter "O" had come to life—a perfectly symmetrical shape.
It was unmistakably the Symbol Pokémon, Unown!
An Unown, of all things?
Akira's eyes widened slightly as he stared at the peculiar figure, thoroughly surprised.
He hadn't expected it to be an Unown.
And judging by its form, this Unown appeared to be the letter "O."
Unown were an exceptionally unique type of Pokémon.
Their bodies resembled ancient script, with 28 different forms corresponding to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus an exclamation mark and a question mark.
The question mark and exclamation mark forms had half-closed eyes.
They often appeared in ruins, seemingly holding the key to deciphering ancient texts.
But upon reflection, Akira realized the appearance of an Unown made perfect sense.
And it aligned perfectly with his own thoughts.
Clearly, the appearance of this Unown had nothing to do with the stone giants, nor was it related to the ubiquitous ores here.
It was the Bone Clan!
Or rather, the culture and history represented by the Bone Clan!
Thinking about it this way, the emergence of Unown made perfect sense.
As for why it was the letter O form of Unown...
Perhaps it was random?
At least for now, Akira couldn't find any reason why it was the letter O instead of A, B, or others.
While quite peculiar, a single Unown was indeed rather useless.
Whether in terms of individual values or movepool, it was completely impractical.
Its movepool contained only Hidden Power, identical to Pokémon like Ditto and Smeargle—all having just one move.
But at least Ditto's Transform could mimic other Pokémon and use their moves.
After using Smeargle's Sketch, it could copy the opponent's last move, making it somewhat useful.
Akira had even tried in games before—using Smeargle's Sketch to copy signature moves of some Legendary Pokémon.
In short, a single Unown wasn't particularly valuable.
The only noteworthy aspect was their extremely special origin—they could be said to symbolize the textual origins of the Pokémon world.
But Unown weren't entirely useless; their power manifested in groups.
A single Unown was weak, but when combined, they could produce tremendous power.
This was glimpsed in the anime.
Akira vaguely remembered an episode in Pokémon Journeys where just five Unown could keep an entire city in perpetual nighttime.
They could even summon illusions of other Pokémon.
They had conjured phantom Pokémon as powerful as Cynthia's Garchomp and Ash's Pikachu.
In movies, they had even manifested the Legendary Pokémon Entei.
Thus, Unown's special ability was the materialization of thoughts—bringing imagined concepts into reality.
Though not particularly strong Pokémon, Akira wasn't disappointed. On the contrary, he was quite intrigued by these novel Pokémon.
Just as he was about to use Restriction and Vow as usual, he realized Unown didn't need it at all.
Name: Unown (Letter O)
Ability: Levitate
Type: Psychic
Strength: Undefined
Move: Hidden Power
Unown's Power: Can materialize imagined concepts. The more Unown gathered, the greater the power that can be unleashed.
Unown born in a certain place can grant trainers innate understanding of the local culture, language, and writing.
When all forms of Unown are collected, a surprise will occur.
...
Akira immediately noticed that the "Strength" field was labeled as "Undefined"!
Having encountered several Pokémon with undefined strength before, Akira wasn't overly surprised.
In fact, he preferred seeing Pokémon with undefined strength.
Looking through all the Pokémon he owned, every one with undefined strength was extraordinary without exception.
Ditto, which could perfectly copy and transform into any creature it saw; Shedinja with its Sturdy ability and undying nature; Meowth, the great inventor...
Without fail, they were all far more special than ordinary Pokémon, with abilities bordering on the absurd.
Just as expected!
When Akira saw the last column, he thought to himself that this basically confirmed his idea.
Unown still had great potential!
First, according to the Pokédex information, wherever he hatched an Unown, he could easily grasp the local language and culture.
In other words, since this Unown was hatched in the Bone Clan's territory, he could effortlessly learn the Bone Clan's language and writing system.
Second, Unown could manifest his thoughts, which intrigued Akira greatly.
Who knows—if he imagined a car, maybe the Unown would materialize one?
Even if it didn't work right away, it didn't matter. The more Unown he had, the stronger their combined power would be.
No matter how fantastical or difficult the idea, as long as there were enough Unown, it might still be possible to achieve.
Finally, and most importantly—
Once he collected all forms of Unown, a surprise would await him. So, what could that surprise be?
Maybe it would allow him to manifest something incredibly overpowered?
Or perhaps grant him a special Pokémon?
Or even fulfill a wish?
Akira shook his head imperceptibly.
No matter how much he speculated now, it wouldn't help. The answer would only become clear once he achieved it.
But that day might still be far off.
A single Otherhuman settlement or ruin could hatch one Unown.
Not to mention the possibility of duplicates—even if there were none, it would still be a grueling task.
He'd have to visit a full twenty-eight Otherhuman locations to collect all Unown forms.
Fortunately, the Dark Continent was vast, and Otherhumans were surely plentiful.
Akira estimated that gathering twenty-eight wouldn't be too hard.
It was also easier because ruined Otherhuman settlements still counted.
The Bone Clan was a perfect example.
Even if all its people were dead, an Unown could still be hatched there.
If the requirement had been that the Otherhumans had to be alive, Akira wouldn't have been so confident about finding twenty-eight on the Dark Continent.
In a way, this fit the lore.
Unown were among the rarest Pokémon to encounter, and even when found, most people only saw a few forms.
Very few had ever seen all forms of Unown.
So achieving this feat would still pose a significant challenge.
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