chapter 209: The Unknown Potion
Will's height shot up.
Under the shocked gazes of Mew and Meowscarada, he rocketed to just over twenty meters, more than four times his previous size.
He turned to look at the Tree of Beginning.
Its form hadn't changed at all.
The [Alpha] tag seemed to have no effect on it.
"Is it only effective on Pokémon?"
Will raised an eyebrow.
He felt he had discovered a rather useless piece of information.
The [Totem] and [Alpha] tags were useless on non-Pokémon creatures.
That meant they were useless on humans, too.
"Mrow~"
Meowscarada's call came from his feet.
Will looked down and felt that Meowscarada now looked like a newborn kitten.
"Getting this big is really inconvenient..."
Will slowly sat down on the ground.
When he was four or five meters tall, he already felt it was quite inconvenient.
And now...
Over twenty meters.
He probably couldn't even go to human cities anymore.
The moment he appeared, it would cause an unimaginable commotion.
Moreover, if he were discovered by humans now, the League would absolutely station people nearby to monitor him.
"Monitoring" sounded harsh, but it was the truth. For a Pokémon of his level, a single tantrum could have an unparalleled impact on the surroundings.
People would have to be stationed nearby to appease him at the first sign of trouble, just to reduce the environmental destruction caused by Alpha-level Pokémon.
"Mrow?"
Meowscarada climbed up Will's body.
Following the curve of his form, she ran all the way to his shoulder and looked at him with worry.
"I don't feel uncomfortable, but it will take time to get used to this body. Stay away from me for the next couple of days; I'm afraid I'll step on you."
Will reached out with a single finger and tapped Meowscarada on the head.
He was so big.
Even patting Meowscarada's head felt unsatisfying.
In the time to come, he would have to adapt to fighting and living with this new size.
"Mrrow?"
"It seems I can't shrink."
Will shook his head.
He couldn't control his size.
It seemed only Legendary Pokémon could do such a thing.
"Mrow..."
Meowscarada looked down, disappointed.
She didn't like Will being like this at all.
Before, Will could hold her. Now, he was so big she could only be cradled in his palm.
"It's fine. After we defeat Shadow Lugia, I'll change back."
Will grinned, trying to be optimistic.
He had become this large because of the [Alpha] status.
As long as he returned the Alpha status to the Tree of Beginning in the future, he should be able to return to his original five-meter height.
Although five meters was still huge, it was much better than this.
"Mrow."
Meowscarada nodded, sitting on Will's shoulder and staring blankly into the distance.
Why did they have to protect this tree?
Meowscarada didn't understand.
And she would never know.
If something happened to the Tree of Beginning, then Kanto, Johto, the neighboring Sinnoh to the north, and the adjacent Orange Archipelago to the south would all be catastrophically affected.
Countless people and Pokémon would be plunged into misery, and many would even lose their lives in the disaster.
And in the southern hemisphere, regions like Kalos, Unova, and Galar...
Although they were farther away and the Tree's crystals were more spread out, they weren't completely absent.
If even one was missed, it would trigger massive wildfires.
Furthermore, most Legendary Pokémon wouldn't bother to intervene in such a disaster.
To put it bluntly, protecting this Tree of Beginning was no different from protecting countless humans and Pokémon.
Most importantly...
It was also equivalent to protecting the lives and homes of all the friends they had made along the way.
This kind of thing should have been handed over to humans to solve themselves.
But the Tree of Beginning did not want humans to know of its existence.
It especially didn't want humans to know about Mew, the Regi trio, and the ancient Pokémon.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have had the Regi trio drive away any humans who came near.
As for the reason... Will understood it well.
The people of this era might not take any drastic measures.
But as long as this matter became known to a large number of humans...
It was entirely predictable what the future would hold.
Setting other organizations aside, just Team Rocket alone would never let go of this place.
So, not only did the Tree of Beginning have to be protected, but they also had to protect it secretly.
However, the reason Will dismissed the idea of seeking help from the League wasn't because he was afraid of humans discovering this place.
The world was about to be destroyed!
Who cared about being discovered?!
The only reason Will didn't go to the humans was because they were too weak.
The strength of the League in this era...
The most powerful trainers were only just reaching the level of the Elite Four.
A League of this caliber would be utterly powerless against Shadow Lugia.
If they lacked the strength but forced their way in, it wouldn't matter how many people and Pokémon they brought. They would just be cannon fodder.
When the great battle began, they might not even get a chance to act before being completely wiped out by the corrosive rain from a flap of Shadow Lugia's wings.
Shadow Lugia wouldn't even need to deal with them personally.
At that point, not only would the humans be unable to help, they would likely just get in the way, and the existence of the Tree of Beginning, Mew, and the others would be exposed.
Therefore, Will simply gave up on asking humans for help.
They had to rely entirely on their own efforts.
At least, based on the intelligence he currently had on Shadow Lugia...
With their current combat strength, they should have no problem fighting it.
A Shadow Lugia that could be severely injured by the Forces of Nature from Unova was, at best, at a mid-Champion level.
At most, its abilities would be a bit tricky.
So Will wasn't panicking at all.
He was just quietly improving his strength while waiting for Shadow Lugia's arrival.
He had a feeling that day would come soon.
Because after he became an Alpha, his life force was terrifyingly high.
He couldn't compare to the Tree of Beginning, of course.
But he probably wasn't far off from Celebi.
Shadow Lugia would definitely be able to sense the combined life aura that he and the Tree of Beginning were emitting.
In the blink of an eye, another half a year passed.
During this half-year, Will's level could still be described as having barely advanced.
However, he had gained perfect control over his suddenly and massively increased size.
There was only one word for it.
Strong.
He wasn't just one or two times stronger than before, but many times more.
The size increase brought by the [Alpha] status and the size increase from natural growth were two completely different concepts.
Natural physical growth was a passive growth.
The body couldn't adapt to the rapidly expanding energy from a fast increase in power, so it stimulated further development to accommodate that energy.
This had no direct positive impact on the Pokémon's strength.
Rather, it was just an external manifestation of the body being affected by its own power.
Large Pokémon are generally strong.
This is mainly because their talent is high and their growth rate is fast, which is clearly reflected in their size.
But this doesn't mean that for the same Pokémon species, an average-sized individual is necessarily weaker than a larger one.
Some Pokémon don't have high talent or a fast growth rate, but they are steady and consistent.
Their strength increases smoothly, and their bodies adapt, so their size doesn't increase, but their combat power is in no way inferior to their larger counterparts.
Will's previously oversized body was partly because his genetic sequence was more ancient and hadn't degraded over time.
The other part was his power.
There were many times when his strength had spiked suddenly over a short period.
Like back when he was wandering around Sinnoh with Meowscarada, that kind of smooth, gradual improvement didn't stimulate his body to grow.
And then there was the [Alpha] status.
This was an active growth.
The size increased first, which then drove the enhancement of power, the reverse of natural growth.
The size increase meant his body could hold more energy, giving Will the same kind of stamina as a Legendary Pokémon, able to battle for days and nights.
At the same time, he could pour a massive amount of energy into a single move to increase its power and duration, no longer needing to worry about energy consumption.
But the most exaggerated change...
Was naturally the attack range of his moves.
Take basic moves like Pound or Dragon Tail, attacks that use the tail.
Now...
One sweep of his tail could cover more than ten meters.
He didn't even need to use a move or hit an opponent; the strong wind from a casual tail sweep was enough to send many weaker Pokémon flying.
He could finally be said to have some of the bearing of a Legendary.
One day, Will was sitting under the rock layer of the Tree of Beginning, resting in the sun.
"Mrrow mrow!"
Meowscarada's voice came from the side.
Will turned his head and saw Meowscarada standing on his shoulder, holding a syringe.
Inside the syringe was a green, opaque, viscous liquid.
It gave off the feeling of being a highly toxic substance.
"What is that? Where did you pick it up?"
Will frowned.
He never allowed Meowscarada to touch unknown things like this.
Especially 'unknown things' made by humans.
Humans often couldn't even control the things they invented.
How many people had died from the viruses and weapons they themselves had created?
Even the world-ending disasters of the future...
Half of them were brought on by humans themselves.
Not even looking that far ahead...
Right here and now, that Shadow Lugia was a creation of the Orre region's Cipher.
"Mrrow mrow."
Meowscarada shook her head, looking a little wronged.
It wasn't like she didn't know all that.
Will had told her so many times, how could she forget?
"Platane sent it? Did she say what it is?"
Will's eyes lit up.
A potion from Platane... could it be that her 'Primal Reversion' project was a success?
Could the potion in this syringe help Will complete his genes and permanently evolve into Mega Sceptile?
"Mrrow mrow."
Meowscarada shrugged.
She said Platane had a friend deliver this "unknown potion."
Platane had used this potion to extend the genetic sequence of a modern Sceptile.
But because she didn't have an ancient Sceptile's genetic sequence to compare it with...
...she couldn't determine if this extended part of the genetic sequence was a random mutation or the restored, missing genes.
According to the patterns of past experiments, the probability of it being the former was much higher.
"So, this thing can only be used as a 'final gamble,' huh."
~~~
Get early access to 30+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
~~~
Every 5 new reviews = 1 extra chapters
Every 150 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter