The voice came without warning, like a second consciousness awakening within his own.
"You thought I wouldn't notice you?" Arceus sneered, its form rippling like liquid light.
In the blink of an eye, two glowing stone tablets emerged from within it, one shimmering with a radiant bluish-gold aura, the other faint and gaseous, barely tangible. They floated before Arceus, pulsing faintly.
Dark blotches twisted and shifted across the surface of both Plates, melding with them as if part of their essence. Black lines snaked like tendrils, slithering through the energy.
It was the corruption of Giratina, inflicted by the virus.
Ever since Lucius transformed into the Old One Virus, his infection had transcended both physical and spiritual forms. He could spread through any medium that shared conceptual resonance.
Moments ago, when he tainted a fragment of Giratina's power of Reversal in the Reverse World, he used that unseen connection to infiltrate Giratina. And when Arceus absorbed Giratina, Lucius slipped into the Creator's very body.
But Arceus was no unwitting host. During the absorption, it had drawn the taint into the corresponding Ghost-type and Dragon-type Plates, isolating the infection and halting its spread within itself.
"Even if you've noticed me, so what?" Lucius laughed, voice echoing with malice. "You and I are already one now. Are you willing to sacrifice your own elemental totality just to expel me?"
His corruption didn't just taint the Plates, it had infected the very concepts of Dragon and Ghost themselves. To drive him out, Arceus would have to sever those two aspects entirely. Doing so would leave it incomplete, wounded. Vulnerable.
Arceus snorted but said nothing. Space before it twisted violently, folding into a portal.
It stepped forward, preparing to cross the threshold, but the wormhole quaked, shuddering violently, and collapsed.
What?
That shouldn't be possible. Arceus had reclaimed dominion over space and time. A failure like this, was inconceivable.
It tried again, but the moment the spatial gateway began to form, it flickered and vanished, as though the signal itself had been jammed.
"You... can control the spatial laws of this world?" Arceus' voice trembled, not in fear, but in disbelief.
As the being that once forged the cosmos, Arceus could feel it: this was no mere interference. Someone had used the exact same spatial authority, equal in rank, to block the portal from forming.
"Exactly. Why do you think I brought you into this world?" Lucius' voice came not from a single place, but from everywhere, like millions of fine steel needles whispering directly into Arceus' mind. "Because I'm the one who created this realm."
More than just sound, Arceus could feel it.
The world itself rejected it. Even the air turned hostile, denying it nourishment, refusing to yield a single drop of energy. Meanwhile, microscopic forces, countless as bacteria, gnawed relentlessly at its divine form, draining its power.
This was no accident. This world hated Arceus, and it wouldn't let it leave. It intended to wear the Creator down, devour it piece by piece.
"You think this will stop me?" Arceus growled.
Its golden Cross-Wheel flared, unleashing blinding radiance. The divine light pierced the earth, skewering the infinite depths below like a blade.
Any other Mythical Pokémon would've been overwhelmed by now. No matter how powerful, a single legend was no match for an entire world. Even Xerneas would eventually fall.
But Arceus was different. It had once been a world's will. It held that same authority still. And with its energy reserves intact, it could resist for a long, long time.
Far away, Mewtwo stood before a colossal tree so vast it pierced the heavens. A faint smile touched its lips.
"The Tree of Beginning…"
Black mist coiled in its eyes as it gazed up at the canopy that blotted out the sun. Even Lucius, now riding within Mewtwo's body, couldn't help but marvel. This was no mere plant, it was a miracle carved by the hands of creation itself.
They had arrived in northern Pewter City, at the sacred site protected for a thousand years by the people of Rota, the Tree of Beginning.
It was the first living thing ever formed, the very birthplace of nature. Arceus' earliest dwelling. And the sacred ground from which the first Legendary Pokémon, including Ho-Oh, had emerged.
To this day, one Mythical Pokémon still remained inside, watching over it for Arceus: Mew, the progenitor of all Pokémon born of natural evolution.
Unlike most Mythical Pokémon, Mew was not unique, there existed several across the world. But even so, their numbers were so few that they could be counted on one hand.
"Mii~"
A white creature with a long tail fluttered out from the Tree, blinking at Mewtwo with wide, curious eyes.
It could sense it, something in this newcomer felt intimately familiar.
"…Mew."
Mewtwo stared, momentarily stunned. This wasn't the Mew from which it was cloned. But still, the presence stirred something inside, a deep, ancestral kinship.
"Mii~"
The Mew raised one tiny paw and pointed at Mewtwo. A pulse of crimson energy shot from its fingertip and sank into Mewtwo's body.
A cleansing force—no, more than that. A purging one. The Tree of Beginning's innate antivirus.
This Mew had lived here for countless years, rarely venturing beyond the Tree except for short visits to Rota. But even it recognized the malevolent force that had swept across the world, Lucius' corrupted power.
Lucius felt it instantly. The red energy surged toward him like fire, aiming to engulf and dismantle his essence.
It wasn't ordinary energy. It carried structured rules, true regulatory power.
But the Old One Virus could not be purged so easily. It pushed back, clashing with the red energy in a silent war of contagion versus cleansing.
Lucius already knew the Tree's secret from his access to the memories of certain legendary Pokémon.
This divine tree had been created by Arceus to metabolize the world's spiritual waste. It absorbed the sludge and negativity born from all life, refined it within, and released purified energy back into the world.
Because of this role, and its deep connection to the rules of nature, none of Lucius' viruses could infect it on a fundamental level. That was why he had come himself: to attack it from the inside.
And now that Mew had struck first, there was no longer any need to hold back.
Dark fog poured from Mewtwo's body, rushing toward the Tree's interior.
The Tree was massive, so vast that it housed its own internal world. Within it dwelled many Pokémon attuned to its presence.
Including another group of the Legendary Titans.
These Regi Pokémon had originally been forged by Regigigas as soldiers. Over the millennia, it had created multiple sets, of more than just Ice, Rock, and Steel.
But as ages passed, most Regi constructs had been destroyed. Only the sturdiest, those of Ice, Rock, and Steel, remained intact today.
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