In an instant, Arceus realized the flaw in Its strategy. But retreat was never an option. The golden light radiating from Its body flared to
In an instant, Arceus realized the flaw in Its strategy. But retreat was never an option. The golden light radiating from Its body flared to an overwhelming brilliance.
Once again, the multicolored radiance of Judgment erupted.
A catastrophic meteor shower, powerful enough to destroy the world anew, rained into the abyssal fissure, painting the chasm in dazzling, chaotic hues.
But this wasn't a last-ditch act of desperation. Arceus understood that all eighteen of Its elemental Plates had already been corrupted. There was no point in holding back. No reason to tread cautiously. The only logical course was to unleash Its strongest attack and obliterate everything in one decisive blow.
Yet to Its dismay, the radiant barrage did not halt the abyss's relentless gravity. The light shattered the energies inside, tore apart elemental forces, but the churning, all-consuming pull remained as fierce as ever.
Just as Arceus prepared to strike again, a colossal shadow fell across Its golden form.
A meteor, tens of miles in diameter, was descending.
The energy field that once encased the meteor had long dissipated. Now, it was being drawn by the abyss's gravitational pull like everything else.
But instead of panic, Arceus was elated.
A meteor this massive... its impact could annihilate half the planet.
And yet, something strange occurred: Lucius, who had conjured the gravity storm, did nothing to counter it. Instead, he amplified the pull.
"…Has he gone mad?" Arceus growled, invoking Extreme Speed, tearing through the overwhelming gravity, racing toward the meteor's impact site.
If that thing struck, the virus wouldn't have time to focus on It. Arceus could use that window to activate a spatial wormhole and escape.
Once back in Its original dimension, It could obliterate every infected entity, even the mythic Pokémon. With Its reclaimed power and mastery over the laws of reality, It would purge every last remnant of the virus from that universe.
And if necessary... It would create the world anew.
But as Arceus neared the edge of the meteor's shadow, ready to make Its escape, the meteor suddenly tilted unnaturally.
"What?" Arceus didn't even need to look back. It felt the change. The meteor had altered course, and was now accelerating directly toward It.
Lucius had used Ruleforce to manipulate the planet's gravitational field, redirecting the meteor at Arceus.
"Raaahh!" Arceus roared.
A radiant orb of celestial energy shot upward, colliding with the meteor mid-air.
BOOM.
The meteor, hurtling at tens of kilometers per second, shattered under the impact of Judgment. The resulting explosion rippled across the upper atmosphere, shaking the heavens themselves.
This wasn't a simple object crashing into the ground, under gravitational acceleration, the meteor's effective mass increased dramatically. As a certain "justice-cloaked" admiral once said: "Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?"
The faster the speed, the greater the destruction.
A ten-kilometer-wide meteor, striking with such force, would unleash the energy equivalent of 90 trillion tons of TNT, dwarfing the 15-kiloton blast of Little Boy dropped on Hiroshima.
Debris from the shattered meteor rained down like a storm of falling stars, blanketing the skies across a million miles.
And Arceus, having launched the counterattack, was caught in the shockwave, a blast powerful enough to rend the atmosphere itself, and hurled down toward the chasm below.
As It plummeted alongside the meteor fragments, poised to be swallowed by the abyss, Arceus summoned Its divine strength.
With immense force of will, It stabilized Its descent, pushing back against the gravity well to achieve equilibrium.
"You belong to this world now. Become one with it."
The whisper came like a devil's lullaby.
From the abyss, countless chains of black mist surged upward, twisting around Arceus's four legs, Its neck, and even the golden wheel at Its waist.
"No—!" Arceus flared with a burst of cerulean light. Time energy surged through Its form.
For a brief moment, the dark chains reversed, retreating through the timestream.
But Lucius was ready. He invoked Ruleforce once again, interfering with time's reversal.
Just as Arceus had once bound the Creation Trio with golden chains, now It was being dragged downward by black mist, ensnared and helpless.
As the God of Creation was pulled into the depths, the great chasm above, like a gaping maw, slowly began to close.
By now, there wasn't a single unbroken landmass left on the surface. The world had shattered into drifting fragments…
Amidst a silent, desolate void, Arceus's consciousness suddenly stirred.
Who am I?
Where is this place?
Confused, Its vast psychic presence unfurled, scanning the world in an instant.
What It found was a planet bordering on death.
There were no other beings like It, no divine creatures, no echoes of familiar life. Only darkness beyond, filled with cosmic radiation and magnetic storms.
On the surface, hurricane-force winds screamed. Oceans boiled and crashed violently against scattered island fragments.
Am I alone?
Arceus pondered. Somehow, It knew this world wasn't as it should be. There should have been other forms of life.
It's too dark… that's no good.
Then, from deep within, a force compelled It to act.
Let there be light.
In an instant, light seeped up from beneath the ground.
The planet began to shine, becoming a beacon itself, illuminating the surrounding void.
Still, the land was too fragmented. That, too, was unacceptable.
So Arceus split off a portion of Its essence and shaped it into a living colossus.
The giant creature stirred, and began dragging the broken islands together, fusing them into larger landmasses.
Like assembling a puzzle piece by piece, it worked tirelessly. Soon, the islands began to resemble a unified continent.
Yes… this is better.
Arceus watched the massive being and, after some thought, gave it a name:
"From now on, you shall be called Regigigas."
As if responding to Its will, the enormous titan glowed faintly, lights flickering across its chest like stars.
...
Holy Leviathan Empire, skies above Unova.
The Unova region was no more.
The last remnants of life on its shattered surface had succumbed to infection, absorbed into the virus's empire.
Aside from a scant few legendary Pokémon, like Zacian, hidden in isolated dimensions, every defender had fallen, whether present in the battle or not.
This world now lay firmly in Lucius's grasp. Once Arceus was fully corrupted, he would seize Its role, becoming the new world's Will.
Under his orders, the Elder Council of the Holy Leviathan Empire broadcast a message across the globe:
"The Pokémon League, once responsible for launching attacks on our Empire, has been annihilated. Its stronghold in Unova has been utterly destroyed in our righteous counteroffensive."
The announcement swept across every remaining continent.
The people, once hopeful, once screaming for rebellion, fell into stunned silence.
They knew the Empire would retaliate. But not like this.
From the moment the League deployed the legendary Pokémon to assault the Empire's strongholds… to the complete destruction of both Unova and the League itself…
It had all happened in a single day.
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