Ash channeled the fragment's power outward in a slow, deliberate pulse.
"ROARRR!!!"
"KREEEE!!!"
Every summoned Aerodactyl and Kabutops across the city let out a final furious cry before dissolving into black mist, the puppet army unraveling all at once across the canal district.
"Pika..." Pikachu sagged where he stood, the relief hitting visibly. The whole team eased out of formation, exhausted in a way none of them had felt since reaching championship level.
...
Latios and Latias touched down a moment later, James and the others arriving close behind on foot. Sabrina had no need to fly, her own psychic reserves more than sufficient to keep pace.
They'd spent the entire fight ferrying civilians out of the blast zones. Despite the scale of the chaos, the casualty count had stayed at zero. Ash's Shadow Clones absorbing the bulk of the swarm had made the difference. Without them, Pikachu and the others alone couldn't have held that many puppets back.
"Is it over?" Sabrina asked, eyes on the broken scepter still in his hand.
"Yeah." Ash turned the fragment over once more, something thoughtful in his expression. "I really did underestimate what's out there. Didn't think something like this actually existed."
Up until now he'd more or less assumed his own strength put him beyond most threats this world could produce. The Sea Crown had been a useful correction. A single average human, granted this thing, could punch at second-tier Legendary strength. Fatal side effects aside, that wasn't something to dismiss.
Still, he wasn't particularly worried for himself. His own power already sat firmly in the upper tier of Legendaries.
"So that's the Sea Crown," Lorenzo said, staring at the broken halves with open awe. Half the city behind him lay in ruins, saved from total collapse only by the forest Ash had grown beneath it.
"You... what did you... do..."
Archer's voice, weak and rasping, cut through the conversation. Everyone turned, tensing on reflex.
The tension didn't last. What stood at the edge of the rubble bore almost no resemblance to the man from an hour ago. Archer was withered, skeletal, white hair where dark green had been, skin paper-thin and sagging. He looked like a strong wind could shatter him.
"You really thought borrowed power came free?" Ash said flatly.
"What!" Archer's hollow eyes snapped to the broken scepter in Ash's grip, and whatever calculation was running behind them arrived a beat too late to matter.
"Is that... what the Crown does to people?" Sabrina asked quietly.
"It's not entirely the Crown's fault," Ash said. "It amplifies the user fifty-fold. If the body underneath can't support that kind of output, this is what happens." He looked down at the wreckage that used to be Team Rocket's top executive. "I'd bet the trainer who attacked this city three hundred years ago burned out the same way. That's probably why Latios actually managed to beat him."
"He couldn't handle his own power," Lorenzo said slowly, understanding dawning.
"Exactly. The Crown can boost an average person to second-tier Legendary output. That's well past what most third-tier Legendaries can manage on their own." Ash glanced at James. "Should we bother bringing him in?"
James studied Archer's ruined form and shook his head slightly. "Doesn't look like there'd be a point."
"There isn't." Ash crouched slightly, reading what remained of Archer's spiritual signature with his Rinnegan. "His soul's already collapsed. Even if I tried to absorb what's left, there'd be nothing usable. No memories, no coherent thought. Just static."
"...Help me." Archer's hand stretched weakly toward him. Whatever ambition had driven him here hadn't fully died, even with his body falling apart around it. "I'm not ready."
Ash crouched down in front of him.
"A lot of people have asked me that," he said. "You'll get the same answer I gave them." He stood. "This is what you earned."
He turned and walked back toward the others without looking back. Sabrina fell into step beside him without a word.
Behind them, Archer collapsed fully to the ground, breathing shallow and ragged. Whether or not anyone tried to help him now, it wouldn't matter. His body had nothing left to recover with, and word of what happened here would reach Giovanni within the day regardless. If Archer somehow lingered, Giovanni's people would finish what the Crown had started.
"We should get out of the city," James said, phone in hand, scrolling through a stream of incoming alerts. "Johto League officials are already being notified about the incident. If they connect you to this before we're gone, they might twist the story. Even if they don't, this is the kind of thing people love to spin against you."
"He's right," Sabrina said. "Let's go before it gets complicated."
Ash looked back once at the wrecked skyline, half of it cradled in new forest growth, and nodded.