Rope and his Pokémon erupted in flames simultaneously. The flames spread wildly, engulfing the surrounding area. They surged across the sky like waves, emitting a roaring sound.
Halley immediately raised her shield without hesitation. She knew that this area-of-effect skill was undoubtedly a buff for herself. However, she currently lacked the ability to interrupt the opponent's attack.
Rope looked at Halley before him with a hint of resignation. This shield wasn't easy to break.
And summoning allies wasn't his true intention; it was more that Halley had indeed put pressure on Rope.
After all, as a veteran who had been roaming the void for years, Halley could easily overwhelm Rope with her abundant combat experience. The fact that Rope could match Halley was simply because Rope was exceptional.
But now that Rope was calling for reinforcements, Halley had nothing to say.
As Rope himself had said, he was a summoner, so this wasn't really calling for reinforcements, but rather summoning his friends.
However, Halley was well aware of his situation. At this point, there was no way he could gain an advantage over Rope. He had to figure out how to resolve this situation first.
To cause enough destruction to force the Thousand-Armed God out is no easy feat.
With Rope in the way, it's even harder.
Halley knows that relying on her own strength is unlikely to succeed. So she naturally chooses... to call for backup.
Halley retracted the ribbon in front of her that had been in an attacking stance. Though the Undersea Flower was powerful, it couldn't withstand the combined assault of Arceus and the other two Pokémon. It soon chose to self-destruct, leaving Arceus and the others with minor injuries.
This was already quite impressive. After all, Rope wasn't stupid; he had undoubtedly anticipated the Undersea Flower's self-destruct move from the start. Therefore, Arceus and the others were naturally prepared as well. However, even with their preparations, they were still blown into a lightly injured state, which was sufficient to demonstrate the power of this move.
Thus, Rope looked at Halley with even greater caution.
Halley would naturally not just surrender like this... so there must be some other scheme behind this.
In the blink of an eye, Rope thought he had figured out Halley's intentions.
He was about to ask, but just as he opened his mouth, he heard Halley's voice.
"I surrender."
Halley said with a charming smile.
Rope felt a surge of anger welling up in his chest, but he couldn't release it.
Wait... why aren't you playing by the rules?
Halley wasn't stupid. Why should she go to such great lengths to deal with Rope? She could just shift the blame onto someone else.
After all, wasn't the boss there to take the fall?
So, facing Rope's momentary astonishment, Halley said calmly, "From now on, your opponent is no longer me."
As she said this, Halley herself sighed in relief.
Damn it, this kid is really troublesome. She really doesn't want to waste her energy on him. She can't win, and there's no real need to.
Isn't her boss in a hurry to deal with him? Then let him do it. She has no intention of getting involved in this nonsense.
She's tired. Destroy him. She no longer wants to fight against such a genius. To be honest, when she saw Rope freeze for a moment, she felt pretty satisfied. It seemed like there were still unforeseen circumstances on Rope's side.
In the distance, Ms. Psychic, who was stalling with Aki, was overjoyed when she received Halley's instructions. A bright smile curved her lips, and she immediately crushed her black stone.
As the power surged up, Ms. Psychic's face lit up with joy, while Aki tensed up instantly.
"Sabrina! Something's wrong! Stop immediately!"
Aki shouted without hesitation.
He had previously discussed with Rope why Halley insisted on bringing Ms. Psychic—the Sabrina from another world, who was essentially a liability as a teammate.
Rope pondered the matter with a heart that couldn't exactly be called pure. He reasoned that if he were in that person's shoes, it must be because that person could provide him with an irreplaceable benefit.
For example... a scapegoat.
Aki found Rope's reasoning quite plausible. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why someone like Ms. Psychic, a Husky, would appear in a team like Katsuhisa and Halley's.
She wasn't even a vase, after all. Halley himself looked better than Ms. Psychic, who had lost her sharpness after enduring so much hardship.
And now, to be honest, Aki felt that Rope might have hit the nail on the head…
But it was still the same old story. Good words couldn't persuade a damned ghost.
Ms. Psychic clearly had no intention of heeding Aki's advice.
After all, this was what she was pursuing. All the tragedies were because of her own lack of strength. If she had enough strength, none of this would have happened.
She could have stayed with her parents, even if she had to force them to stay.
She could have saved that world that was still somewhat kind to her, sparing it from the tragedy of destruction.
She could have killed her counterpart in this world and taken her place.
In short, everything was due to her lack of strength, leading to the current tragedy.
"What I pursue is absolute power!"
"Even if it's just for an instant!"
Ms. Psychic's voice became eerily echoing, as if two people were speaking at the same time.
Feeling the immense pressure, Aki even felt an urge to kneel down, but his firm resolve ultimately helped him.
Further away, Katsuhisa and Red were also filled with horror.
This power that left them all in awe... Even Rope probably didn't have it...
Cynthia, who briefly possessed the same power as Rope, felt this rapidly growing aura and was on high alert.
Before she had Rope's power, she didn't know how strong Rope's opponents really were.
Now that she had Rope's power, Cynthia felt she could easily destroy an entire city.
But now... the aura across from her was far stronger than she had ever imagined.
So Cynthia naturally looked toward Rope with some concern.
She wondered if Rope could handle the situation on his own.
Cynthia had only temporarily obtained power on par with Rope's. However, due to a lack of experience and knowledge, she couldn't fully assess her own strength or that of her opponents.
Rope, on the other hand, wasn't even considering whether he could handle the situation.
He sensed the aura from the other side.
He was already thinking about calling for backup.