Anne's descent down the staircase was a race against panic. The metallic clangs from Alpha Scraggy's violent plummet echoing up the shaft.
She hit the bottom, her boots slamming onto solid flooring. She was in a wide tunnel, lit by recessed emergency lights that cast a sickly yellow glow. And there, twenty feet ahead, was Alpha Scraggy.
It had landed in a crater of its own making, the concrete floor spider-webbed with cracks. It was already back on its feet, its head whipping left and right, nostrils flaring as it searched for a scent, any sign of its trainer. Its eyes were wide with rage.
"Scraggy, stop!" Anne hissed, sprinting to catch up. Decidueye landed silently beside her, an arrow already nocked. Staravia fluttered down to her shoulder, its small beak pointing straight.
Alpha Scraggy ignored her. It had caught the scent. With a roar, it broke into a charge down the tunnel, its heavy footsteps echoing.
"Let's go after it!" Anne said, breaking into a run.
The tunnel curved, then opened into a larger, high-ceilinged corridor. This was clearly a main thoroughfare. And it was not empty.
Two Rocket grunts were wheeling a cart of equipment. They froze, their eyes going wide at the sight of the charging Alpha Scraggy.
"What the—?!"
Alpha Scraggy didn't break stride. It lowered its shoulder and plowed through the cart, sending tools and metal parts scattering with a deafening crash. One grunt was bowled over; the other fumbled for his pokeball.
Anne skidded into the corridor behind it.
"Decidueye, silence him!"
Decidueye's bow twanged. An arrow whispered through the air, pinning the grunt's shadow to the floor before he could release his pokemon.
Ahead, Alpha Scraggy had reached a heavy security door. It didn't pause. It drew back its fist, and punched. The door shrieked inward, buckling around its fist.
Through the ruined doorway, Anne caught a glimpse of a vast, well-lit space beyond—a cavern of some kind. And there, in the center of that room, she saw two figures.
One was Giovanni, standing tall and impassive.
The other was Elias, on his knees, bound in wire, his head lifted.
Anne stopped halfway through the door, her eyes widened in surprise.
Alpha Scraggy stood in front of the door, growling in anger, veins popped on its head. Staravia flew from Anne's shoulder to the ground beside Alpha Scraggy.
Giovanni's gaze fell on them, a small smile on his face.
"I thought I said to Ariana I don't wish to be disturbed." His voice was calm, but it carried an edge of authority that seemed to freeze the air in the cavern. His gaze swept over Anne, her pokemon, and the ruined door, but his smile didn't falter. "But I suppose when one's guests are so… determined… to attend, it would be rude to turn them away."
Anne's eyes darted past him, taking in the cavern fully for the first time. The walls behind where Elias knelt were smoothed and reinforced.
A massive, intricate mural was carved into the stone. It depicted a majestic, towering tree with branches that seemed to cradle the sky—Faradity, The Sentient Tree. Around it, smaller figures of humans and pokemon were shown in postures of reverence and peace.
But the mural told a story of fracture.
From the roots of the great tree, a monstrous, bestial form erupted. It was carved like a colossal feline, but its body was a tangle of sharp, black grass and thorns, with two massive fangs protruding from its maw. The scene showed a cataclysmic clash between the tree and the beast, a storm of energy and rending earth.
The final panel showed Faradity, its form now dim and cracked, using the last of its power to bind. Tendrils coiled around the thrashing Corodity, pulling it down, sealing it deep beneath the roots, beneath the very land.
Giovanni followed her gaze, his smile turning into one of scholarly appreciation.
"You see it, don't you? The history of this region."
He took a step towards the mural, his voice dropping into a reverent tone.
"Centuries ago, Faradity was the peacemaker. It made conflict… obsolete. A world where every living thing moved in perfect, willing syncopation. No strife, no rebellion, no pointless struggle." He glanced back at Elias, his expression unreadable. "A silent world. A perfect world."
His hand gestured to the beast in the carving.
"But peace has a shadow. Corodity. The embodiment of primal chaos, of individual will run rampant. It saw Faradity's harmony as a prison and sought to shatter it. Their battle scarred the continent. And in the end, Faradity won, but at a terrible cost. It used the last of its power to seal the beast away and fell into a slumber."
He turned fully to face Anne now, his eyes glinting in the low light. But before he could speak, Elias interrupted him.
"Anne... you have to...
He lifted his head, his left eye now filled with purple fire.
RUN!"
As the final word tore from his throat, the ancient mural behind gave a deep, groaning crack.
A hairline fracture, glowing with purple light, split the stone right down the center. The light pulsed, bleeding out into the cavern like liquid poison, casting long, dancing shadows.
Giovanni's calm demeanor vanished, replaced by sharp focus. He took a swift step back, his eyes widening in interest, a nervous smile on his lips.
Anne moved. Her world narrowed to the boy on his knees.
"ELIAS!"
She lunged forward, hand outstretched, fingers straining to reach him.
She was a foot away.
Then the world exploded.
It was a silence that swallowed all sound, followed by a pressure wave of pure, violent psychic energy. It erupted from the crack in the mural, an expanding sphere of purple force that vaporized the air.
Time seemed to slow. Anne saw the shockwave ripple towards her, saw dust and stone begin to disintegrate in its path.
Then, a blur of feathers slammed into her side.
Decidueye wrapped its wings around Anne in a protective cocoon and used the force of its dive to throw them both backwards, out through the ruined doorway, back into the tunnel they'd come from.
They hit the tunnel floor just as the shockwave reached the threshold.
FWOOOOM!
The air itself screamed as it was torn apart.
A concussive blast of heat and debris chased them down the tunnel, hurling them another twenty feet before they skidded to a stop.
A ringing, deafening silence comes next.
The world was dust, pain, and a deafening roar in her ears. Anne pushed herself up, her vision swimming.
The entrance to the cavern was now destroyed.
She tried to stand, her legs trembling. Decidueye stirred weakly beside her, its feathers singed.
Then, the ground lurched.
THUD.
The half-destroyed tunnel around them groaned. A web of new cracks raced up the walls. From within the purple haze obscuring the cavern, a shape began to rise—enormous, blotting out the light.
A massive, bestial paw, clad in what looked like shifting, living black brambles and thorns, slammed down on the ragged edge of the tunnel. Each claw was a curved sickle of obsidian. The impact crushed rock to powder and sent a fresh tremor through the mountain.
The rest of the creature hauled itself up from the crater of its own awakening.
Corodity.
It was a panther-shaped titan of primordial chaos, its form seemingly woven from shadow, volcanic rock, and wicked, thorned vines that writhed like muscle. Its eyes were pits of the same purple fire that now burned in Elias's left eye. Two massive fangs was curved down from its upper jaw. It shook its massive head, and a roar erupted from its maw—a wave of pressure that flattened Anne back against the wall and made Decidueye cry out in pain.
The purple smoke and dust began to clear, whipped away by the creature's emergence.
And Anne saw them.
There, standing on the broad plateau of Corodity's back, was Elias.
He was free of his bonds. He stood upright, his white hair whipping in the chaotic energy radiating from the legendary pokemon. Both of his eyes were now open. The right was his own sharp gray, but blazing with a fury she had never seen in him. The left was a vortex of that same all-consuming purple fire, perfectly synced with Corodity's own gaze.
And flanking him on the beast's back were Alpha Scraggy and Staravia.
But they were changed. A faint, shimmering purple aura, like a heat haze, clung to their bodies. Alpha Scraggy's muscles bulged, veins standing out under the spectral light, its eyes glowing with the same ferocious purple. Staravia's feathers crackled with volatile energy, its small form radiating a terrifying, amplified power.
Elias's gaze swept down and found Anne, crumpled against the wall. Their eyes met. In that instant, she saw no recognition. She saw the angry, focused will of Corodity mirrored in his expression—a deep, resentful fury against the confinement. It was an anger that had festered for centuries and now had a vessel.
He turned his head, looking up towards the ceiling.
Corodity understood. It threw its head back and roared again that shook the foundations of the mountain. Then it reared up on its hind legs, its thorned forepaws glowing with a savage, purple-black energy.
It slammed its paws into the solid rock of the ceiling.
A tunnel ten feet wide was carved instantaneously. The rock vaporized into shimmering dust that was sucked into the vortex of energy around the beast.
Corodity leaped into the newly carved passage, carrying Elias, Alpha Scraggy, and Staravia with it. The purple light receded, swallowed by the mountain, leaving behind a perfectly smooth, cylindrical tunnel leading straight out to the open sky and the morning light beyond.
Anne slumped against the wall, her breath coming in short, shocked gasps. Decidueye crawled to her side, nudging her hand with its beak.
"Elias..."
***
Outside the mountain...
John and his team of Xycle operatives had just managed a semi-graceful disembarkation from the tilted airship. They formed a line on the steep slope, weapons and pokeballs ready, scanning for a viable path down or an enemy to engage.
John was adjusting his velvet cuff, lamenting the dust on his suit, when the world changed.
A brilliant, violent lance of purple light pierced the mountain's flank directly across from them. It tore through rock and metal as if they were paper, and for a terrifying second, its tip speared straight through the midsection of their already-wrecked airship.
A perfect, molten hole was carved through its hull. The beam retracted as quickly as it appeared, leaving a perfectly cylindrical tunnel in the mountain and the airship.
"What in the name of...?" John breathed, all pretense of calm gone, his eyes wide. The aura radiating from that new hole was palpable—a thick, oppressive malice that made the hair on his arms stand on end.
***
The other side of the mountain...
Rein, Ellen, Faith, and Robert had just squeezed out of the narrow crack into a dimly lit supply corridor when the pressure hit them.
Ellen's Pikachu squealed, hiding behind her legs. Faith's glasses seemed to fog for a second. Robert turned as pale as milk.
"W-What is that?!" Robert shouted, wrapping his arms around himself.
Rein's smirk was long gone. His eyes were alight with intensity.
This wasn't a fight against grunts or admins. This was something else entirely.
"Let's get out here." He said, already running back to where they came from.
***
Inside the mountain...
Caesar and Makarell were moving at a jog, following the trail of destruction. Makarell's Charizard padded behind them, its head low.
They both skidded to a halt at the same moment.
The air grew thick and heavy. The constant hum of the mountain's systems seemed to distort, warping into a whine. A psychic pressure, vast and alien, pressed down on them, a weight that had nothing to do with rock.
Caesar clutched his chest, a memory of lab fires and betrayal flashing behind his eyes—but this felt different.
"What is that?"
Makarell lost his tired slouch, his body going taut.
"That..." He said, his voice uncharacteristically grim and clear. "Is something tiring..."
"Let's go back." Caesar said, and Makarell agreed with him.
Together, they turned and began to run away back towards the shattered hangar door, the oppressive weight of Corodity's awakening pressing at their backs, a promise of chaos unleashed upon the Adele region.