Chapter 510: To Slay a God and Break Its Spirit
Celebi's cry made Arthur finally understand why the sky was brightening at three in the morning. It was Groudon's ability: Drought. The moment it entered a battle state, the surrounding area would be plunged into intense sunlight.
A Legendary's ability was on a completely different level from an ordinary Pokémon's. The sunlight Groudon brought wasn't the light orb of the move Sunny Day; it was a real, blazing sun. Ordinary weather-changing moves stood no chance against it.
"Holy—! What in the—?! What is that?!"
The manager Arthur had captured was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
After bursting from the ground, Groudon's body began to grow. At first, it was only about ten feet tall, similar to the Krookodile Chieftain. But in a few breaths, it had swelled to over fifty feet, towering over all the surrounding dunes and rock formations. Bright golden, lava-like patterns began to appear on its red armor, and the ambient temperature skyrocketed like a runaway train.
"ROAR!!"
With a furious roar, the entire earth seemed to respond to its call.
"Crap! It's going all-out from the start! Why is it so angry...?" Even Arthur couldn't hide his shock.
Groudon was showing no mercy. The moment it appeared, it had entered its strongest battle mode: its giant, Primal Reversion form. Its ability had also changed to its most powerful, Desolate Land. The weather was now permanently set to extreme sunlight. Rain Dance, Hail, and Sandstorm were now completely negated in this area. And the power of Water-type moves was reduced to almost nothing.
Waves of scorching heat rolled up from the ground. A Groudon in this state was a contender for the title of the strongest Legendary. And this particular Groudon was an ancient one, having existed for over a thousand years, its energy reserves terrifyingly vast.
The moment it appeared, Celebi immediately started tugging on Arthur's clothes, trying to flee. "We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die! Let's run!"
Arthur flicked it on the forehead. "Can you not be such a coward? Aren't you a Mythical Pokémon too?"
"But I can't beat it..."
"Then can't you go and talk to it? We're on its side, you know!"
Even now, Arthur hadn't fully grasped the severity of the situation. He was shocked by Groudon's appearance, but not panicked. As he had said, they should be on the same side.
But then, Celebi let out a pitiful whimper. "I tried! I tried the moment it appeared, but it's no use! Groudon's mind is in chaos! It seems to have lost control in its anger. It won't listen to me. It just keeps roaring about killing all the damn humans! It almost attacked me!"
"Hiss!"
The manager and the two workers gasped. They no longer cared about Arthur's threats. Even with their hands tied, they scrambled to their feet and began to run, stumbling over each other.
"Help! Great Legendary, spare me! It has nothing to do with me! I'm just a worker! The manager made me do it!"
"You bastard! I didn't make you do anything! Crap! Wait a minute! We didn't do anything! Why are we running?"
"You son of a—! Can you not trip me when you're saying that?! You're the one running the fastest!"
Arthur couldn't be bothered with the three stooges. Hearing that Groudon had lost control, he finally realized how serious this was. "It's lived for over a thousand years! Are its nerves really that fragile?!" he couldn't help but shout.
Suddenly, he, Specter, and Skarner all looked up. An incredibly powerful wave of psychic energy had just swept over them. This powerful psychic force was indiscriminately broadcasting a single thought, a thought that finally answered many of Arthur's questions.
"These humans killed the desert guardian you appointed! Shouldn't you be angry?! Shouldn't you roar?! Kill them all! Kill your way to the human world in the south! Let the humans taste your fury!"
Skarner and Arthur exchanged a look of horror. Skarner said angrily, "Someone's pulling the strings! Groudon's rampage is being controlled!"
But Arthur saw even more. "This psychic wave... the one behind it is at least a Champion-level Psychic-type Pokémon! And there's probably more than one! A Champion is involved! The Sinnoh League!"
Another of his worst fears had been confirmed. The mastermind behind this was indeed the Sinnoh League. Aside from the world's three major powers, Arthur had never heard of any other alliance having a Champion.
The appearance of this psychic wave also connected all the dots that had been bothering him. "Damn it! They're not waiting anymore! The people behind this have likely gathered all the Seeds. They're planning to kill the current Groudon ahead of schedule!"
"Huh?" Skarner couldn't follow Arthur's leap in logic. Isn't this the part where Groudon makes its grand entrance and shakes the world? Its sixty-foot—no, it's over seventy feet now—form is terrifying just to look at! How can you tell someone is trying to kill it? It looks like it's about to slaughter everyone here!
But Arthur saw much further than Skarner. He explained quickly, "Groudon is only truly invincible in the center of the desert. Because a Legendary's call to ordinary Pokémon is absolute. To fight Groudon in the center of the desert is to fight the entire desert ecosystem. The Sinnoh League can't win that. But if it leaves the center of the desert and enters the human world, it's a completely different story! And most importantly, in the current international climate of peace, you need a very good reason to kill a Legendary. Otherwise, you'll become a global enemy. The resistance to directly killing Groudon is too great. But if Groudon slaughters a human city first... that's a different story."
In that moment, Arthur finally understood why the Silph Co. team was here. They had been used. The information about the fall of the Kommo-o had been deliberately sold to them by the Stitched Shadow Army, who had used their greed to turn them into a sacrifice to ignite Groudon's rage. The dismembered body of the Phantom of the South was still here. From Groudon's perspective, the culprits were humans. There was no doubt about it. Its anger was further stoked.
And Skarner had given him another, seemingly insignificant, piece of information earlier, which now fell into place: they were not far from the Syndicate Alliance to the south, only about sixty miles.
Arthur understood everything. No wonder the Stitched Shadow Army, which had been operating in the shadows for months, had suddenly acted with such decisiveness, killing the Phantom of the South at any cost. Because the Three Phantoms were highly regarded by the current Groudon, and because the Phantom of the South's territory was close to human cities.
They needed to use this to enrage Groudon, to make it lose control, to make it go on a rampage, to make it destroy cities. That way, the Sinnoh military, who were pulling the strings, could step in and "righteously" kill it. And neither the Kubfu Alliance nor any other Legendaries who might come to help would have anything to say.
This time, they didn't just want to slay a god; they wanted to break its spirit.
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