In a city filled with towering buildings, a fiery and agile figure galloped forward on all fours, majestic and imposing.
It was Arcanine, partner of the highest-ranking Officer Jenny in LaRousse City. Arcanine carried Officer Jenny on its back as it chased the two figures ahead with all its might.
The two Pokémon that could even make an Arcanine struggle to keep up were naturally no ordinary beings.
At the very front was a long, dragon-like green body soaring freely between the buildings, stirring up rumbling sonic booms—the Hoenn Rayquaza.
Closely behind it was a muscular, water-blue figure. With terrifying explosive power, every step the opponent took left patches of sunken and cracked ground. Combined with its body structure's technique of using air to propel itself, the Mega Swampert was able to stay right on the Hoenn Rayquaza's heels.
The cost, however, was unavoidable. Mega Swampert had pursued ultimate burst power at the expense of agility. To keep up with the opponent's flying speed, it had no choice but to smash through windows, walls, and other obstacles in the high-rise buildings along the way.
Officer Jenny understood this and knew it was far better than letting Rayquaza rampage and destroy the city unchecked. She said nothing, simply holding the temporarily disassembled communicator connected to a loudspeaker, following behind Mega Swampert to ensure the Trainer's instructions reached its ears instantly.
The Hoenn Rayquaza's flight speed was extremely fast. In no time, the ecological park and laboratory shimmering with auroras above came into view.
Seeing this, the Hoenn Rayquaza unhesitatingly accelerated once more while energy began accumulating in its mouth. This time, it would blow up everything there so the invaders could never regenerate.
"Chirp!"
A high-pitched cry suddenly rang out. A divine bird wreathed in fierce orange-yellow flames soared up from the top of the ecological park. Blazing flames poured from its mouth, blocking the Hoenn Rayquaza's field of vision and sealing its path forward.
Since Lucas had ordered it to guard this place to the death, even if the opponent was Rayquaza, Moltres would not retreat in the slightest.
At the same time, cries of Pokémon rose one after another from the ecological park below. Politoed, Alolan Ninetales, and Milotic jointly unleashed extreme cold beams. Ash, Brock, May, Tory, and the other youths sent out all their Pokémon, releasing attacks with all their might.
Under the overwhelming barrage, even the Hoenn Rayquaza—which relied on its tough hide and thick flesh rather than the smooth movements of the Shiny Rayquaza—would not keep exposing itself to so many strikes. But making it leave was absolutely impossible.
Enduring the successive bombardments, the Hoenn Rayquaza halted its forward charge and instead soared upward to attack from a different angle.
It was precisely this opening that gave Mega Swampert the chance to catch up. Its attention drawn to the front and feeling somewhat anxious, the Hoenn Rayquaza did not notice the danger coming from above.
After all, in the Hoenn Rayquaza's cognition, the sky was its domain. No one dared to show off in front of it.
But this time, the remotely commanding Lucas took advantage of the Hoenn Rayquaza's habitual thinking and found the opportunity.
Using the rooftop of a nearly 100-meter-tall building as a springboard, Mega Swampert leaped high into the air. Its clenched fists trailed frost and cold mist as they descended like a heavy hammer!
By the time the Hoenn Rayquaza noticed the attack from above, it was already too late. The terrifying power granted by gravity acceleration and air-compression acceleration in the extreme-cold double fists slammed viciously onto its torso.
"Roar—!"
Accompanied by the Hoenn Rayquaza's uncontrollable pained roar, violent tremors spread far and wide.
The Hoenn Rayquaza was instantly smashed into the ground, creating a massive crater like the impact of a meteorite. Due to the leaking cold air, the entire crater surface was covered in a thick layer of frost, with pale cold mist drifting outward.
Ash, knocked onto his backside by the violent tremors, stared blankly at the scene. His speech function completely lost due to shock, he could only repeatedly mutter "So awesome" to himself.
The others fared no better, all wearing expressions of shock. Even the usually boastful Max could not, against his conscience, claim that his father Norman's ace Slaking could hammer a Rayquaza into the ground with brute force.
This strike had shot down a legend!
In a place out of sight for Ash and the others, within the space mixed with smoke and ice mist, the Hoenn Rayquaza took quite a while in the large pit before slowly straightening its body again.
How long had it been since it had been this disheveled? Even when struck by that ground-walking idiot's Precipice Blades, it had not felt this uncomfortable. Quadruple weakness, gravity acceleration, air sac acceleration—even a tough legendary Pokémon like the Hoenn Rayquaza found it hard to endure, nearly blacking out.
Fortunately, it ultimately held on.
Shaking off the ice shards on its body, the Hoenn Rayquaza looked mockingly toward the Mega Swampert nearby, whose condition was not much better than its own. It only needed to wait a bit longer to largely regain mobility, but what about Mega Swampert?
Its skydiving-like action had also placed a heavy burden on its body. If not for having the Rayquaza as a cushion below, Mega Swampert might not have been able to maintain its Mega Evolved state.
"—Swampert."
Panting heavily, Mega Swampert calmly propped up its body, completely unconcerned by the Hoenn Rayquaza's mockery. Its personality was very reserved. Rather than expressing thoughts through excited emotions, it preferred to act or fight silently.
Just like how it had unhesitatingly leaped from the tall building moments ago and smashed the Hoenn Rayquaza into the ground with full force.
Mega Swampert believed that since Lucas had given the instruction, he had already considered what came next. No matter whether its combat power recovered faster than the Hoenn Rayquaza's or not, there would be follow-up preparations targeting it.
In a field sparkling with electric light, Luxray cloaked in thunder summoned dense lightning from thunderclouds, pursuing and intercepting the Shiny Rayquaza.
The Shiny Rayquaza's long dragon body was like a fish swimming in water, weaving through the overwhelming lightning without being touched in the slightest.
Even though a mysterious fluctuation immediately dispersed the thunderclouds, Luxray—standing on the Electric Terrain, having completed Terastallization, and possessing nearly inexhaustible electricity—paid it no mind.
What motivated Luxray even more was that its vision could now keep up with the Shiny Rayquaza's flight speed. Every sway of the opponent's body left a clear, visible trajectory in Luxray's eyes.
Its eyes were exceptionally bright at this moment. The unyielding efforts of the past half-year were bearing fruit today.
Luxray began intentionally controlling the trajectory of the falling lightning, preemptively blocking positions where the Shiny Rayquaza might move. This was the so-called prediction.
Experienced as the Shiny Rayquaza was, how could it fail to notice what Luxray was attempting? But it sneered, not believing Luxray had the reflexes to match its speed.
The Shiny Rayquaza had its pride. Its arrogance would not allow the slightest weakness in its area of expertise.
So it immediately abandoned the idea of using Extreme Speed for a straight-line acceleration to escape the sea of lightning, then twisting to deliver a decisive Dragon Ascent. As if competing with Luxray, it shuttled even faster through the gaps between lightning bolts. From time to time, it even fired an instant Hyper Beam at Luxray as provocation.
Whether it hit or not was irrelevant to the Shiny Rayquaza; it did not lack the energy. It wanted, through this method, to declare that it was a stronger and more powerful existence than Luxray—even while dodging, it still had the leisure to turn and attack.
The gap between them was obvious.
Lucas was not idle either. From previous exchanges with Calyrex, he had roughly understood the Shiny Rayquaza's personality. Because of this, he easily saw through the Shiny Rayquaza's current thoughts.
He could understand the opponent's arrogance. If it were him, he might have been even more arrogant than the Shiny Rayquaza. But this did not prevent him from exploiting that arrogance to open a path to victory for Luxray.
"Position… well maintained near the Battle Tower."
"Environment… after the barrier disappeared, the security cube robots that were shut down and restarted have gathered."
"And Luxray is currently in excellent condition."
Watching Luxray's figure bathed in thunder, a trace of gratification flashed in Lucas's eyes.
Compared to its past rise, it had indeed gone through a rather long trough period. First, because it could not Mega Evolve and with extremely unfavorable type matchups, it had its position as the team's number one taken by Mega Swampert for a long time. Then, it suddenly encountered the arriving Shiny Rayquaza, with no way to deal with the opponent, ending up covered in wounds and exhausted instead.
Fortunately, before meeting him, when it was still a Shinx, Luxray had already forged an indomitable heart through solitary life, and it had carried that spirit through to the end.
He and Luxray had encountered countless difficulties and insurmountable mountains. But in the end, they had overcome and surpassed them all.
Lucas thought this time would be no exception.
Because he had seen Luxray's efforts over the past year clearly. Sparring with companions, under Calyrex's piercing cold snow spears and its bizzare yet dominant starlight, Luxray had stood up time and again.
Everything from the past had forged the result of today.
The speed of the falling lightning grew faster and faster, the predicted positions increasingly precise. At this moment, Luxray was constantly improving, turning a year's worth of effort into nutrients, pushing itself toward an even stronger realm and completing its own evolution!
At some point, the Shiny Rayquaza realized its movements to dodge the lightning were becoming more labored, and quite a few bolts had already struck its body. Although the powerful lightning caused some scales to lift slightly, this level of injury was still within the Shiny Rayquaza's expectations.
What it found truly unacceptable was that no matter how it dodged—using buildings, stone pillars, or even lifeless cube robots to conceal its movement trajectory—it clearly sensed a pair of bright golden beast eyes, like the blazing sun overhead, piercing through all obstacles and firmly locking onto its position.
Even if it wanted to, it could end this meaningless chase-and-dodge battle at any time. But the Shiny Rayquaza's arrogant psyche could not accept a result equivalent to admitting defeat.
"Roar—!" (What a joke—!)
Issuing a somehow stifled roar, the Shiny Rayquaza looked as if flames were about to burst from its eyes.
Then, it saw the green cube robots gathered under the corridor bridge near the Battle Tower, blocking its forward path. Toward these lifeless things, the Shiny Rayquaza had always been merciless. A Hyper Beam blasted open a passage wide enough for itself, and with a flick of its tail, it passed through.
Luxray, firmly following behind, silently stopped its steps and ceased releasing thunder.
Because the goal had been achieved.
In a corner the Shiny Rayquaza did not care about, on the face of a green cube robot flipped onto the ground, footage of the Shiny Rayquaza flashing by was replaying on loop. A mechanically synthesized, emotionless voice echoed continuously.
[Danger!]
[Danger!]
[Commence elimination!]
In an instant, all unresponsive cube robots across LaRousse City completed their restart, surging toward the Battle Tower like a tidal wave from all directions. But they did not go out of control; instead, they quietly hovered, awaiting instructions from the main control—Professor Lund.
Before setting out, Lucas had already informed Professor Lund to simply have the cube robots on standby.
Thus, after the Shiny Rayquaza flew a circle around the Battle Tower without receiving further attacks from Luxray and returned in a rage, it saw it.
Luxray standing atop countless calmly hovering green cubes, and behind it, the figure of Lucas.
The Electric Terrain beneath its feet became the best relay, connecting the dense cube robots that could almost cover the entire Battle Tower.
"Absorb the electricity to your heart's content!"
As he issued the command, Lucas raised his wrist. On the Z-Ring prepared long ago was embedded a sparkling Electric-type Z-Crystal.
As Lucas's finger lightly touched the Z-Crystal, brilliant light burst forth.
An intense sense of crisis surged in the Shiny Rayquaza's heart. Reason urged it to evade, but with rage already clouding its mind, it now only wanted to crush Lucas and Luxray with its own power. Its pride roared for it to advance!
Raising its head, it unleashed a Draco Meteor that seemed capable of destroying everything. At the same time, the Shiny Rayquaza roared as it spiraled upward in a serpentine motion, then straightened its body horizontally, enveloping itself in vast energy and charging toward Luxray as a sky-blue line.
Its dashing form was like a supersonic intercontinental missile; the mere stirring airflow was enough to tear apart any solid steel.
Dragon Ascent!
In response, Lucas calmly uttered the move's name.
"Gigavolt Havoc Volt Tackle!"
At this moment, Luxray—frantically absorbing all the electricity stored in the countless surrounding cube robots—had already transformed into a dazzling ball of plasma. The intense light of the Z-Move poured into its crystal-like body without the slightest obstruction. Instead, they complemented each other, fully activating the terrifying electricity stored within Luxray.
"Roar—!"
Raising its head and issuing a hoarse yet domineering roar, Luxray stepped forward, charging toward the Shiny Rayquaza against the backdrop of the sky full of Draco Meteors!
As the two sides collided violently, vast energy poured out in an earth-shaking massive explosion.
Boom!!!
The shockwave mercilessly shattered all fragile glass. The collision area was enveloped in a hemispherical energy dissipation zone pressed against the ground. With the addition of the descending Draco Meteors, it once again produced a towering mushroom cloud.
If not for Terapagos stepping forward, Lucas—who was closest—would likely have been the first to perish in the face of such a massive disturbance.
Even in the city on the other side of the sea separating LaRousse City, one could faintly glimpse this earth-shaking explosion within the city.
A long time passed before the aftershocks of the explosion finally subsided.
The collapsed ruins of the Battle Tower were filled with the smoke of gunpowder. Lucas, carrying Terapagos, crossed countless rubble and reached the top.
Then, he saw it with his own eyes.
The majestic back of Luxray, standing tall with its head high despite being covered in wounds—and the Shiny Rayquaza, with most of its body buried under the rubble, its dragon eyes filled with disbelief. No matter how it struggled, it had temporarily lost all mobility.
The once proudly overlooking all beings from the sky, the Shiny Rayquaza, could now only raise its head to look up at Luxray.
At this moment, their positions were completely reversed.
The proud Dragon of the Skies had fallen here.
…