Even the mightiest of Legendary Pokémon understand this simple truth: when the lips perish, the teeth grow cold.
With the dimensional space now sealed, and their allies completely infected, escape was no longer an option. Dialga and Palkia were pushing their powers to the brink, desperate to protect Ho-Oh and Yveltal.
On the battlefield where Yveltal was surrounded, Dialga unleashed Roar of Time repeatedly, trying to rewind the area's temporal state to before the electric grid had sealed them in.
But Dawn Wings Necrozma, a Mythical Pokémon with partial control over time and space, disrupted Dialga's power with a burst of Ultra Energy, distorting the flow of time and weakening the effect.
In the back-and-forth clash, Yveltal finally succumbed to the dual assault, inside and out, of the virus and plummeted from the sky.
Dialga, refusing to let another god fall, activated its time powers again, rewinding Yveltal's personal timeline by ten minutes.
The virus within Yveltal resisted fiercely, its corruption fighting against the time manipulation. But in the end, it was weakened, allowing Yveltal to return to a state before full infection.
Had the virus not been the Divine Gene-infused Leviathan Virus, Dialga could have restored Yveltal to complete purity. But even a ten-minute reversal reclaimed a crucial Mythical ally.
On the other front, Palkia wasn't so fortunate. Though it wielded the power of space, it lacked Dialga's ability to directly counter the virus. It couldn't extract a pathogen that had already fused with Ho-Oh's cells.
As time passed, the infection within Ho-Oh deepened. Tendrils of flesh and sinew erupted from its body like chains, wrapping around it tightly.
These tendrils were part of it, grown from within, and not even its radiant, sacred flames could burn them away.
Then came the transformation.
The gem-like glint in Ho-Oh's eyes faded, replaced by a haunting, blood-red glow.
Its massive body, once the image of celestial grace, began to swell. Its vibrant crimson feathers darkened to pitch black. Its golden tail plumage grew several times longer, turning a sinister shade of bronze.
The divine flames that once danced along its body, pure white and majestic, became polluted, sinking into ashen black.
Since the dawn of creation, Ho-Oh had stood as a beacon of hope and rebirth, revered by generations. Now, corrupted by the virus, it had fallen… reborn as a Black Phoenix, cloaked in malevolent gray fire.
The Fallen Ho-Oh let out a chilling cry, a roar of anguish and power, forcing both Rayquaza to retreat.
Its flames no longer blazed with noble fury, they had turned sinister and venomous. They clung to their targets like cursed wounds, burning away life itself.
Ho-Oh was the first Mythical Pokémon to mutate.
Lucius had never transformed any of the Mythical Pokémon he'd infected before, only controlled them. They were already powerful, and altering them carried the risk of damaging their original abilities.
Now, with Ho-Oh, the answer was clear: mutation did affect them. Its Sacred Fire was no longer the same.
Only Entei now remained as the sole wielder of the true Sacred Fire.
The Black Phoenix wheeled through the sky, then turned on its former comrade. With a scream, it unleashed a jet of infernal fire at Palkia.
Palkia's pupils shrank. Violet light surged around its arm as it retaliated with a slash of Spacial Rend.
Gray flames and dimensional energy collided, triggering a blast that churned both sky and sea.
The battle had shifted, from three-versus-two, to four-versus-one. Palkia had no chance of victory.
The virus surged again, aiming to engulf Palkia entirely.
Yet Palkia, master of space, fought back. While evading the four opponents, it used its spatial power to displace the virus, teleporting each strand away as it approached.
As long as it remained uninjured, it could continue this dance indefinitely.
But Lucius's clones weren't rushing. With four attackers pressuring Palkia, it was only a matter of time before a wound would end the game.
Just then, the sea quaked.
The submarine hidden beneath the waves began to twist inward, as if crushed by an invisible force. Steel crumpled like paper, then exploded.
Groudon had stood guard nearby, ready to protect the vessel from stray attacks. Yet even it hadn't noticed the assault. Clearly, this wasn't Palkia's doing.
From the wreckage, a glowing blue sphere, just two meters across, burst into the air.
Compared to the towering hundred-meter titans around it, it was minuscule. But no one could ignore the storm of power it carried.
The artificial Pokémon, Mewtwo, had arrived.
Palkia's eyes lit up. Reinforcements.
Even with Mewtwo, they couldn't possibly defeat four Mythical Pokémon. But with the submarine destroyed, the electric field was gone. They could now open a spatial rift and retreat.
Their enemies realized this too, and immediately launched a barrage of area-wide attacks, anything to prevent Palkia from focusing long enough to open a wormhole.
…
Elsewhere, Dialga rewound Yveltal's time once more, dragging it back from its second full infection in the same battle.
But the virus's hold couldn't be completely broken, only weakened.
Then came another flash of divine intervention.
A wild bolt of golden lightning split the sky, crashing into the remnants of the electric grid. Overloaded, the power conduits aboard the submarine sparked violently, then died.
A jet-black dragon descended, the embodiment of Ideals, Zekrom.
With Zekrom's arrival, the battlefield reshaped once again.
Now it was Xerneas, Zygarde, and Dawn Wings Necrozma versus Yveltal, Dialga, and Zekrom.
…
At the World Base, a massive stone fist, like a mountain come alive, suddenly exploded outward.
From the shrapnel, a terrifying figure launched into the sky, so fast it shattered the sound barrier again and again, causing thunderclaps with each beat of its wings.
It was Lugia, but no longer as it once was.
Its wingspan had grown from a hundred meters to one-fifty. Its silvery feathers were now dark violet. The blue fins along its eyes and back had turned pitch black. Its powerful tail lashed like a whip.
Lugia had been fully infected, and mutated.
Before it, the air shimmered. A prismatic portal twisted open.
Lugia beat its wings once and vanished inside.
The space shifted.
Lugia reappeared, hovering over an endless stretch of blue sea.
-------
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my Patreon ——— patreon(.)com/Madbot635 [remove the parentheses ( )]