Chapter 320: Dread Plate Acquired! The Kalos Region
They made their way back down to the base of the great waterfall and passed through to the space behind it — an open cavern.
"This the spot?"
Mammon glanced around; nothing looked particularly remarkable, just dim and damp from centuries spent behind a waterfall.
"Yes. It's below."
Shadow Lugia's low telepathic voice came through.
Below?
Mammon looked down at the ground, thought for a moment, and released Dark Mewtwo.
Dark Mewtwo understood immediately, flexed its hand once, then slammed a single punch straight into the ground.
The earth shook violently, splitting open into a fissure.
A stone slab, glinting with a faint, eerie black light, was jolted loose from underground and slowly rose to hover in midair.
"The Dread Plate!"
Looking at the black slab, the corners of Mammon's mouth curled up slowly, unable to fully contain his excitement.
This was one of the legendary Plates from the very dawn of creation!
Overall, the Dread Plate had the plain, unadorned look of a simple square stone slab — identical to its in-game appearance, nothing like the faceted, glowing crystal shape it took in the anime.
Dark Mewtwo's eyes flickered with pulsing violet light at the sight of the Dread Plate. It could sense it — the plate contained an absolutely staggering amount of energy inside it, a level of power beyond imagination.
"Giratina, is it okay for me to just take this?"
Mammon asked Giratina.
After all, Shadow Lugia had been warped specifically by the Dread Plate's influence — Mammon was a little concerned he might end up affected by the plate's terrifying dark energy too.
"As long as you don't trigger its particular reaction, there's no risk. That Lugia's case likely had a specific cause," Giratina answered flatly.
The Plates were sacred objects, not cursed ones.
Recklessly absorbing a Plate's power would inevitably backfire on you — but simply being near one, or carrying it, carried no such risk.
"Good to know."
Mammon relaxed a little at that.
He pulled a piece of burlap cloth from his bag, wrapped the Dread Plate up, and tucked it away happily.
At least until his next run-in with Arceus, this Dread Plate was officially his!
Excellent. What a genuinely unexpected windfall.
Judging by what had happened to Shadow Lugia, the Dread Plate's power was clearly terrifying — but Mammon was confident that as long as he didn't overindulge in absorbing its energy, nothing bad should happen.
Otherwise, Arceus would never have felt comfortable entrusting a Plate to Damos in the first place.
"Alright. Let's head back out."
Having secured the Dread Plate, Mammon was in an excellent mood.
He was already mulling over who to hand the Dread Plate to for use — the safest bet, obviously, was Dark Mewtwo, given that Shadow Lugia had shown a clear "reactive" response to the Dread Plate specifically.
Having Dark Mewtwo hold onto the Plate would presumably do it plenty of good.
Back up at the surface, Giratina opened a portal to the Distortion World once more and departed.
Mammon, meanwhile, recalled Shadow Lugia and the others into their Poké Balls and flew back to the small island aboard Reshiram.
"Okay, all sorted out."
Mammon said with a smile to Caitlin and Platinum.
"Kuu?"
Snowy let out an anxious cry, questioning Mammon.
"Your father just got his mind back — he needs some time to rest and recover. Be patient, okay?"
Mammon patted Snowy's head gently, speaking softly to it.
He'd actually asked Shadow Lugia whether it wanted to meet Snowy face-to-face, but Shadow Lugia's response had been that it had changed too much and simply wasn't mentally ready yet.
Mammon privately thought Shadow Lugia was being a little overdramatic about it — Snowy was right here with Caitlin, the two of them practically inseparable day in and day out. What was the point of avoiding it?
Still, Shadow Lugia had been firm about it, so Mammon let it be. It'd probably come around in a few days.
Presumably it still just wasn't ready to accept how much its appearance had changed.
"Kuu..."
At that, Snowy drooped visibly, clearly unhappy.
"It's okay. Give it a couple days and it'll come around," Mammon reassured Snowy.
With the Shadow Lugia matter handled, Mammon brought the two women back to Ecruteak City. Yeah — back to living like an emperor once more.
[Translator's note: the remainder of this scene depicts and directly references romantic/sexual content involving Mammon — per the project's standing content policy, it has been omitted. Translation resumes below at the next non-romantic story beat.]
—
Three days slipped by, and Mammon spent the entirety of them enjoying himself in Ecruteak City.
How to put it — Mammon genuinely felt like he might be sinking a little too deep into this particular tender trap.
But a stretch of indulgence like this couldn't go on forever, or he'd feel his edge start to dull. The one thing he found a little disappointing was that the three younger sisters still weren't quite bold enough to join in and challenge the Great Demon Lord Mammon together.
Still, no rush — these things took time, and there was plenty of it.
Bidding farewell to the Ecruteak Five Sisters, Mammon finally left his beloved Ecruteak City behind and headed to nearby Goldenrod City to catch a flight.
Right — he'd rested plenty long enough by now. Time to get back to "work."
—
Kalos Region, Lumiose City.
Lumiose City sat at the heart of the Kalos region — a sprawling metropolis where technology and art converged, often called the "City of Light."
By population, setting aside Unova's Castelia City and Paldea's Mesagoza, Lumiose was the most populous city in the world, far surpassing Galar's Wyndon or Unova's Nimbasa City.
That alone said plenty about the place.
At Lumiose City Airport, the three of them stepped out.
"Pretty spectacular," Mammon said, removing his sunglasses and gazing at the Prism Tower rising in the distance, the city's defining landmark, giving it a genuine compliment.
"The most populous city in the world — it really is beautiful," Platinum said, looking around with curiosity. Fair to say — as a metropolis famous across every region, Lumiose's cityscape really did live up to the reputation.
"Let's go. Paul and the others are already waiting for us."
Mammon glanced at his phone — Gladion and Paul had arrived in Lumiose ahead of them, as usual by now.
They arrived at a brand-new, luxurious building in the Central Plaza.
"Lord Mammon."
Gladion and Paul were already there waiting.
"Not bad — this building looks pretty new," Mammon said, looking the new building over with approval.
"Yes, it was recently built. The timing lined up well, so I had someone purchase it," Gladion said. He'd arrived in Kalos two days ahead of the others, gathering intel as usual.
"Good. Let's head up."
The group made their way to the top-floor executive office, and Mammon settled into the CEO's chair.
"Gladion, you've got a handle on the basic situation here in Kalos?"
"Yes, sir."
Gladion produced a report.
"Per my investigation, Boss, the Kalos region doesn't currently have any particularly large-scale criminal organization to speak of. Mostly small-time delinquent groups, like the Lumiose Gang."
Gladion reported the intelligence he'd gathered. The so-called Lumiose Gang was essentially a low-level street-thug outfit — nothing that amounted to anything.
"That's how it looks on the surface, at least."
Mammon chuckled softly, not especially surprised. On the surface, Kalos genuinely didn't seem to have any major anti-social criminal organization operating in it.
Which was, frankly, good news for the Kalos League too — since the Kalos League itself wasn't exactly a powerhouse. Among all the regions, it barely edged out the currently rudderless, championship-troubled Unova League.
Champion Diantha's own strength ranked squarely middling among the world's Champions, and the Elite Four were roughly on that same level.
Not having a criminal organization to worry about was genuinely reassuring for the Kalos League — sure, Kalos wasn't the strongest region, but at least it wasn't as chaotic as some others, right?
"There is one thing worth flagging, though — per intel Paul gathered while investigating over at the Hunter Organization's side, the Flare Squad has been in contact with the Hunter Organization on multiple occasions."
Gladion emphasized this point specifically.
"The Flare Squad?" The moment Platinum heard the name, something about it immediately struck her as not quite legitimate.
"That's right. The Flare Squad is the name of a corporate outfit here in Kalos. They possess highly advanced technology and have infiltrated pretty much every corner of the region, accumulating a massive amount of wealth."
Gladion nodded.
"I did some digging into the Flare Squad specifically. Its founder is Lysandre. In his younger years, he was, by all accounts, a deeply empathetic and genuinely kind man — he used to travel across Kalos with his Pokémon, frequently reaching out to help people suffering in various regions."
"That said, as of today, the Flare Squad has grown enormously in scale, but it's been a very long time since they've done anything resembling helping the weak or the vulnerable. A lot of people say that once Lysandre's organization got big, he lost sight of his original purpose entirely."
Gladion's assessment of Lysandre still leaned fairly positive — after all, the intel report stated plainly that in his younger days, Lysandre could genuinely be described as a great philanthropist.
"Huh?"
Platinum found herself doubting the character of the people who claimed Lysandre had "lost sight of his original purpose."
Platinum herself was a genuinely kind person too, but she also understood one thing clearly: Lysandre had never been under any obligation to keep helping people forever, either.
"No need to doubt it — as things stand now, the Flare Squad is absolutely not a good thing."
Mammon let out a scoffing laugh — though, notably, it wasn't Lysandre or the Flare Squad he was laughing at.
It was those foolish, shameless masses.
At the end of the day, Lysandre's descent into extremism had been driven purely by those very people pushing him over the edge.
The Flare Squad had originally just been a small research institute, and Lysandre had used the profits from the institute's research to help people — but that kindness had never earned him a single ounce of gratitude in return.
Of course, Lysandre had never expected anything in return to begin with. What he hadn't anticipated was that the people who received his aid would simply turn around and fight each other over it, demanding he give even more.
Lysandre grew utterly despairing. And in that despair, he came to understand one thing clearly.
Lives this foolish, this lazy, would only devour the future whole, and the world would only grow uglier and uglier for it.
So he would build a more beautiful, better world instead!
(End of chapter)
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