"Reached the very end? What about it?"
Nathan answered with some puzzlement.
What did how far he had gone have to do with this man anyway?
But as soon as Nathan's words fell, the fat man suddenly spread his arms wide in delight.
"You heard it! Nathan himself said he reached the very end! Anyone who bet that Nathan would reach the end, come to me to collect your winnings!"
The man shouted out loudly.
Nathan froze for a moment. He truly hadn't expected that, without realizing it, he had become a tool for someone else's gambling business.
Such a thing was simply outrageous.
Why hadn't anyone told him beforehand? If he'd known, wouldn't he at least have placed a bet on himself?
But since the matter was already over, Nathan didn't dwell on it too much. After all, this sort of thing was nothing more than for fun anyway.
Releasing Volcarona, Nathan climbed onto its back and flew high into the sky, quickly leaving those people behind.
The onlookers who watched him release Volcarona and soar away couldn't help but express their envy.
"Wow~ doesn't it feel like Nathan's Volcarona looks even more beautiful than before? I wish I could have one too!"
"No, look carefully! It's not just that it looks better—Nathan's Volcarona has actually changed! Its size and colors are completely different from before!"
"I need to go online right now and compare pictures!"
…
The moment someone pulled up an old photo of Volcarona and compared it, they were instantly shocked.
As expected of the World Champion. Under Nathan's hand, his Volcarona had actually evolved once again.
Didn't that mean… Volcarona had stepped into the Legendary level?
Or was this perhaps some form of Bond Evolution?
What everyone below thought, Nathan didn't know, nor did he particularly care. What he did know, however, was one crucial fact:
Volcarona had truly learned how to protect him now.
Its current flight speed was just as fast as it had been inside the mystic realm. The difference was, this time there was an additional layer of flame surrounding Nathan.
Encased within this sea of fire, he could feel none of the icy cold winds of high altitude. On the contrary, he felt a comfortable warmth all around him.
In just about two hours, Nathan had returned to Grace City.
Compared to when he first came, his travel speed had nearly doubled.
The very first thing he did upon returning to Grace City was head straight for his mystic realm.
This time, his excursion hadn't lasted long—barely over two days. Originally, his plan had been to spend about a week outside, letting Volcarona steadily level up.
But there had simply been too many powerful Pokémon within the mystic realm, and on top of that, he had run into an entire swarm of Golbat.
That battle had given Volcarona an enormous surge of experience, and in the end, it had even received a large system reward.
With all of those sources of experience combined, Volcarona had broken through to the Legendary tier ahead of schedule. Naturally, there was no need to linger outside any longer.
"I wonder how Mewtwo and the others have been training these past two days?"
As Nathan neared his own mystic realm, he couldn't help but think this to himself.
Two days might not be long, but it should have been enough time for Mewtwo to get the hang of Iron Body.
After all, Pangoro was also inside the mystic realm, and Pangoro had already fully mastered Iron Body.
With Mewtwo's extraordinary intellect and talent, learning a move like Iron Body should be a simple matter.
At the entrance of the mystic realm, several underlings were on guard duty. When they saw a blazing fireball streaking rapidly across the sky toward them, they were instantly terrified.
"Holy crap, a meteor! Run for your lives!"
The first one to notice the fiery glow overhead shouted out loudly, then turned and bolted.
The others panicked as well, scattering in different directions, afraid that the falling meteor would smash them into paste.
Riding upon the speeding Volcarona, Nathan naturally couldn't see what was happening on the ground.
But when he arrived at the entrance to his mystic realm, he noticed that no one was standing guard there. That genuinely surprised him.
Every time he had come to the mystic realm before, there had always been people on duty at the entrance.
Why was it completely deserted now?
Could it be that Grog had taken off with the payroll, and everyone had quit because they weren't being paid?
Meanwhile, one of the underlings who had fled quite a distance finally noticed that there had been no crashing sound of a meteor impact behind him.
Turning his head, he saw that the fiery glow had stopped right at the entrance of the mystic realm.
Through the flames, he caught sight of Volcarona's silhouette.
"Stop running! That's the boss's Volcarona—it's the boss!"
The man shouted, then hurriedly dashed back.
Before long, he returned to the entrance, bowing his head in worry, not daring to meet Nathan's gaze.
"Boss, we were wrong…"
Soon, all the guards had returned, each of them bowing their heads and apologizing.
But Nathan, looking at their heaving chests as they panted for breath, only grew more confused.
"What are you all running for? I just came back to my own mystic realm." He asked curiously.
The men exchanged glances, until one finally stepped forward to explain.
"Boss, when we saw you flying over, you looked exactly like a meteor—burning and blazing fast. So, we…"
Hearing that explanation, Nathan couldn't help but feel both exasperated and amused.
This was the first time he'd ever been mistaken for a meteor. Then again, meteors were nowhere near as beautiful as his Volcarona.
"It's fine. It's a reasonable mistake. Just be more careful next time. But tell me—when a meteor falls, aren't you supposed to make a wish?"
Nathan joked lightly. But as he said those words, a brilliant idea suddenly struck him.
That's right… why couldn't Volcarona itself be used as a meteor?
The destructive force of a meteor was immense!
"Excellent! Not bad at all. You've actually given me a brilliant inspiration. When you get back, go find Grog and collect your reward—twenty thousand Pokécoins each!"
Delighted with this sudden stroke of inspiration, Nathan's mood soared.
Recently, he had been constantly challenging Legendary-level Pokémon. In those battles, he had noticed a recurring problem:
His moves weren't strong enough.
There were only two possible reasons for this. One, the Pokémon themselves weren't strong enough. Or two, the moves themselves were lacking.
In the past, Nathan hadn't paid much attention to this. In his mind, what mattered most was type matchups.
As for moves, his philosophy had always been simple: learn as many as possible, then rely on clever combinations to achieve the desired effect.
But now, with Volcarona and his other Pokémon reaching higher levels of strength, even skillful combinations of existing moves sometimes weren't enough.
Of course, it wasn't that all moves were weak. But what if he could create moves that were stronger?
As a man of action, Nathan's principle had always been the same—if he thought of something, he would immediately do it!
Ignoring the surprised looks from the guards, Nathan stepped into the mystic realm.
Once inside, he didn't even bother to check on Mewtwo and the others. Instead, he pulled Volcarona aside and began to explain his new idea.
"Alright, here's what I want you to do. Push your speed to the very maximum. Cover yourself completely in flames, but the fire needs to be…"
He went on and on, explaining in detail for quite a while. Volcarona listened intently, but Nathan had spoken so much that it couldn't remember everything.
"Nathan, can you say it again? I didn't catch it all."
After Nathan finished, Volcarona spoke up.
Hearing this, Nathan repeated his instructions several times, until Volcarona had fully committed them to memory.
Once it had everything clear, Volcarona immediately began to act.
With a sudden surge, it soared skyward. Within a few breaths, it had already climbed to over two hundred meters in altitude.
With a roar, flames burst across its body. Then, in an instant, Nathan saw Volcarona hurl itself downward at incredible speed.
The sight truly looked like a meteor crashing from the heavens.
Ascending had taken several breaths. Descending, however, took only two seconds.
The sheer speed was astounding.
But what Nathan wanted wasn't just speed. He wanted devastating power.
If it were only about speed, this method wouldn't be necessary.
When he hurried over to where Volcarona had struck, he found it lying in the crater, dazed and dizzy.
"This silly child… don't tell me you actually slammed your head straight into the ground?"
Nathan muttered, stepping down into the pit and gently caressing Volcarona's head.
Sure enough, there was now a large lump swelling on its forehead, making Nathan's heart ache.
"You silly thing. Why would you use your head to smash into the ground? What if next time you hit a Steel-type Pokémon—wouldn't you kill yourself doing that?"
As he scolded gently, he treated Volcarona's injury.
About ten minutes later, Volcarona finally recovered from its dizzy state. Seeing Nathan crouched beside it, it couldn't help but feel ashamed.
Nathan valued it so much, wanting to work together to create a new move, and yet it had made such a fool of itself.
"You did well. But next time, you are absolutely not allowed to use your head to hit the ground! If you do that, it'll hurt me as much as it hurts you."
Though his words carried a trace of reprimand, Volcarona was filled with happiness.
"Mm!"
Thus, man and Pokémon embarked on their journey of creation.
Creating a new move was not as simple as just talking about it. Especially for Nathan.
In many areas of life, Nathan was careless.
When it came to food, drink, or clothing, he never bothered with the details. As long as it worked, that was enough—no need for fuss.
But when it came to Pokémon, Nathan always pursued perfection.
And now that he was creating an entirely new move, perfection was the only acceptable goal.
He didn't know how many times they failed, but at last, Volcarona soared into the sky once more.
This time, it flew to an altitude of several hundred meters. Before it, an enormous spear of fire condensed into being.
The fiery spear was five meters long, and the flames were so hot they burned nearly white.
Under Volcarona's control, the blazing spear stood upright before it. Then, both Volcarona and the spear hurtled downward together.
The extreme heat carved a long crimson trail across the sky.
After countless trials of different methods, Nathan had finally settled on this ultimate form of the fiery spear—combining speed and destructive force into one devastating strike.
(End of Chapter)