With Palkia down, more than half of the crisis in the Arche Valley was resolved.
Without sparing a glance at the already unconscious Palkia, Zygarde and Lunala turned their gaze toward Dialga, who was still entangled in battle with Giratina.
In the blink of an eye, Dialga was surrounded by three Legendary Pokémon—Giratina, Lunala, and Zygarde.
Furious, Dialga had no concept of "a wise man submits to circumstances." It was determined to fight to the end, launching another Draco Meteor right at their heads.
However, it had already used Draco Meteor once before, so the power of this attack was far inferior to the previous one.
Giratina, Lunala, and Zygarde deftly maneuvered through the falling meteor shower without getting hit in the slightest.
As the Draco Meteor ended, Giratina, Lunala, and Zygarde respectively launched Dragon Pulse, Moonblast, and Land's Wrath at Dialga. The enraged and irrational Dialga stubbornly refused to dodge, opening its mouth to fire a Roar of Time to counter.
But there was only one Roar of Time. It managed to block Zygarde's Land's Wrath, but was hit simultaneously by Giratina's Dragon Pulse and Lunala's Moonblast.
"Roooar~"
With a miserable cry, Dialga plummeted from the sky and crashed once again into the wheat fields of the Celestials, destroying the last remaining bit of crops.
However, the elders of the Transcendence Clan had no time to mourn their wheat. All of them watched the battle among the four Legendary Pokémon with tense expressions, afraid something unexpected might happen.
Now that Palkia had been defeated, as long as they could bring down Dialga as well, the crisis in the Arche Valley would be over.
Dialga, lying on the ground, was still struggling to get up when Giratina descended from above and stomped on its head.
To be honest, Giratina was truly enraged at this point.
Dialga and Palkia had been fighting each other for eons—it wasn't their first time. Every time they fought, it would escalate into an uncontrollable mess, and Giratina often had to come out and clean up after them.
During this recent battle, Dialga hadn't held back in the slightest. A blow or two, Giratina could endure. But after several attacks, the fury inside it finally ignited!
Dialga, pinned underfoot, kept struggling, trying to throw Giratina off. But Giratina didn't give it a chance—it raised a claw and slammed down with a Dragon Claw.
That swipe left Dialga dizzy and reeling, though it hadn't completely lost consciousness yet.
Zygarde and Lunala arrived from front and back, both filled with anger—one furious that Dialga and Palkia had gone berserk in its territory, the other enraged from taking so many hits.
And so, Dialga suffered two more heavy blows from the two Pokémon and finally blacked out.
With Dialga down, Yuga and the elders of the Transcendence Clan simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.
Riding Latios, Yuga flew to Giratina's side and solemnly expressed his gratitude.
Only then did the Transcendence Clan realize—seeing Yuga and Giratina's closeness—that Giratina had been invited by Yuga to help. No wonder it had arrived so promptly!
Both Giratina and Lunala had sustained varying degrees of injury. Yuga and Latios teamed up to heal them.
After recalling Lunala into the shadow space to rest, Yuga and Giratina approached Zygarde. They still didn't know why Zygarde had shown up and needed to ask.
Zygarde gave Giratina face and explained to Yuga and Giratina why it had appeared, also shedding light on the cause of the conflict between Dialga and Palkia.
Yuga was stunned after hearing this—he hadn't expected Ariana to be the one behind everything, and that she had even been killed by Hoopa.
Truly… truly the work of fate!
After Yuga and the others finished talking, the only two remaining elders of the Transcendence Clan came forward.
Seeing that the situation was resolved, Zygarde originally planned to leave, but stayed at Yuga's request.
Since the fight between Dialga and Palkia had been a misunderstanding, it was only right to explain things to them afterward. They needed Zygarde to serve as a witness—otherwise, those two might not believe it.
However, Zygarde wasn't keen on interacting with others, so when the two elders of the Transcendence Clan approached, it kept its distance.
The two elders who hadn't been trapped in the cages were named Pat and Musta. Among them, Pat was a Master level Trainer and ranked second only to the Chief Ghris.
The two elders were quite old and had just endured a great battle. They were utterly exhausted as they walked over and gratefully said to Yuga, "It's all thanks to you, Mr. Shimizu, for lending your hand this time."
The one speaking was Elder Pat. He had never met Yuga before, but since there was only one outsider in the entire Arche Valley, it was naturally impossible for him not to know who Yuga was.
Yuga humbly said, "Since I happened to be here, of course I couldn't just stand by and do nothing. Right now, the most urgent matter is to deal with the aftermath." As he spoke, he glanced at the now shattered Arche Valley.
Elder Pat and Elder Musta both wore expressions of grief. The place where their people had lived for generations had been destroyed just like that. No one knew how long it would take to restore it.
Elder Pat glanced at the massive black hole still hanging in the sky above the Arche Valley. Although Dialga and Palkia had been defeated, the black hole had not disappeared.
After a long while, Elder Pat finally said to Elder Musta, "Go inform the clanspeople to return."
Musta respectfully responded, "Yes," then hurriedly left.
The recovery abilities of Tier 1 Legendary Pokémon were extremely strong. Besides, Giratina and the others hadn't intended to kill Dialga and Palkia, so the two Pokémon quickly regained consciousness.
After taking a thorough beating, their senses had returned.
With Giratina's explanation and Zygarde's corroboration, the two Pokémon finally cleared up the misunderstanding.
Once the misunderstanding was resolved, they looked again at the Arche Valley and the people of the Transcendence Clan with eyes full of apology.
When the Transcendence clanspeople returned and saw the devastated Arche Valley, some showed sorrow on their faces, while others collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably — a sight that moved everyone present.
Seeing this, Dialga and Palkia exchanged a glance. Suddenly, purple and blue light radiated from their bodies, and all the elders and their Pokémon who had been trapped in time and space cages were released one after another.
At the same time, the shattered space of the Arche Valley began to gradually return to its original state.
In the end, only the massive black hole in the sky remained.
Dialga and Palkia flew into the black hole one after the other, and shortly after, they emerged again with several people — among them were Chief Ghris and Meray's parents.
Seeing that Chief Ghris was safe and sound, Yuga breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn't afford any delay in rescuing Chimecho.
In the distance, Zygarde, who originally had no intention of interfering, saw the grief of the Transcendence people and hesitated. After a moment of thought, its body suddenly emitted a golden light. A golden ring of light spread out from its center.
Wherever the ring passed, the shattered land was restored to completeness. Even the deep chasm Zygarde had created earlier at the bottom of the lake vanished.
However, while the land was restored, Zygarde couldn't do anything about the destroyed plants, farmland, and houses.
Upon witnessing this, the people of the Transcendence Clan all prostrated themselves on the ground, kowtowing in worship toward Zygarde.
The people of the Arche Valley had lived in seclusion for many years, still preserving the ancient custom of worshipping gods. Though they didn't specifically worship Zygarde, the God of Order, it didn't stop them from expressing their gratitude.
Zygarde didn't care about this expression of thanks. After doing all it could, countless green lights burst forth from its body in all directions. It then shifted from its serpent form (50% Forme) into its canine form (10% Forme), turned, and ran toward the exit of the Arche Valley. In just moments, it vanished from sight.
After releasing the people trapped in the black hole, Dialga and Palkia joined forces to eliminate the black hole.
Seeing that Dialga and Palkia had regained their senses, Giratina no longer wished to linger. It let out a cry toward Yuga — a farewell gesture.
Yuga gratefully said to it, "Thanks so much for this. Come hang out at my place sometime!"
Now, he no longer felt pained that Giratina always drained the Ghost Sea every time it visited — after all, it had come through for him in a critical moment.
Hearing Yuga's words, Giratina let out another call, this time with a tone of joy.
Before, it used to feel a little guilty draining the life force from Yuga's Ghost Sea whenever it visited. Next time, it could do it guilt-free.
In a good mood, Giratina dove headfirst into a river that had yet to dry up, and in the blink of an eye, it vanished.
After Giratina left, Dialga and Palkia didn't linger either. However, before leaving, they each left a gem — one blue and one pink — for the Transcendence Clan, as compensation for the damage they had caused to the Arche Valley.
After leaving the gems, the two legendary Pokémon soared into the sky and each unleashed a ring of light. Two spatial portals opened. In the next second, they dove into the portals and disappeared.
When Dialga and Palkia departed, the people of the Transcendence Clan finally breathed a sigh of relief. Those two Legendary Pokémon were truly beyond what they could handle.
Still, when Arceus awakens someday, they wouldn't mind filing a complaint.
That's right—although Arceus had been asleep for over a thousand years, the Arche Valley still retained the ability to communicate with it.
Over a thousand years ago, when Arceus first fell asleep, the Arche Valley, which had always maintained contact with it, suddenly lost all connection. This caused great panic among the Transcendence Clan at the time and directly prompted the valley's decision to isolate itself from the world.
More than a thousand years later, when Arceus awakened again—albeit briefly—the Transcendence Clan did manage to reestablish contact with it, even if only for a short while.
This was the reason they were well-informed about Arceus's current condition.
Among the crowd, Meray and Bazar rushed toward their parents the moment they saw they were safe.
Their parents had been trapped for days, during which Meray and Bazar had barely eaten or slept—they had been worried sick. Their parents, however, had felt nothing at all. Within the time-space prison, both time and space were at a standstill; they couldn't even perceive the passage of time.
Once the Legendary Pokémon departed, the members of the Transcendence Clan began cleaning up their ravaged homeland. Fortunately, not all of the village houses were destroyed—some were still habitable—otherwise, the entire clan would have had to sleep under the open sky.
Soon, night fell. As the savior of the Arche Valley, Yuga was given a particularly nice house all to himself and enjoyed a peaceful, restful night.
The next morning, as soon as he woke up, Mayali brought him breakfast. After eating, he went to see Ghris.
Things had been too chaotic the previous day—Chief Ghris had not only been injured but also had many tribal matters to attend to. He had only exchanged a few brief words with Yuga before leaving.
"Mr. Shimizu, we of the Arche Valley will never forget the debt we owe you," Chief Ghris said sincerely, once again expressing his deep gratitude to Yuga.
Since he had been trapped in the space-time prison created by the black hole, he wasn't aware of the full scope of yesterday's battle. However, from Max's vivid retelling, he had already learned how Yuga had stood up against the two gods of time and space.
Yuga nodded and asked, "I wonder when Chief Ghris will be able to help me remove the seal on Chimecho?"
Ghris cleared his throat and said with a troubled expression, "The seal itself isn't particularly difficult to undo. It's just that I've sustained some injuries. I don't know if Mr. Shimizu would be willing to wait two more days? Once I and Sigilyph have recovered, the seal can be lifted at any time."
It was only then that Yuga noticed how pale Ghris's face was. He thought to himself that at such an advanced age, it must not have been easy on him. So he nodded in agreement—after all, it was only two more days.
Ghris said, "Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Shimizu."
Then, he took something out and placed it in front of Yuga—it was none other than the pink gem Palkia had left behind when it departed, now gifted to the Transcendence Clan.
"Chief Ghris, this is…" Yuga's eyes widened in astonishment.
Chief Ghris smiled and said, "Mr. Shimizu, you've done us a tremendous favor—one that essentially saved the entire Arche Valley. Please accept this as a token of our gratitude."
The night before, the elders had held a long meeting. After a full night of discussion, they finally came to this decision. Although they were reluctant to part with the gem, they had no regrets.
After all, they still had one more gem in their possession. Though it was incredibly precious, had Yuga not been there, they wouldn't have ended up with any at all. In fact, the entire clan might have been wiped out. So gifting one to Yuga was more than appropriate.
It truly must be said: no wonder this was a clan chosen by Arceus to be its guardians—their integrity was beyond reproach.
Yuga was deeply tempted, but hesitated and said with difficulty, "This is far too valuable, I…"
Before he could finish, Chief Ghris interrupted him, "Please don't refuse, Mr. Shimizu. Compared to what you've done for the Arche Valley, this small gift is nothing!"
Yuga could only say, "In that case, I'll thicken my skin and accept it."
Seeing Yuga accept the gem brought a smile to Ghris's face. Giving him the gem was not only a gesture of thanks, but also a way to form a closer bond.
Yuga was still so young yet possessed such incredible strength, and he also had a close relationship with Giratina, the ruler of the Distortion World. Building ties with him could only bring benefits, never harm.