"Even with its golden rings, it would be powerless against the combined attack of the four Legendary Dragon."
Reshiram raised an energy barrier, yet its body was still involuntarily pushed backward by the terrifying explosion.
Sitting on Reshiram's back, Lucas narrowed his eyes slightly. His silver-white hair fluttered wildly in the shockwave, yet he remained calm and composed.
Was Evil Hoopa strong? Of course it was strong—absurdly strong even. But against the joint siege of four peak top-tier Legendary Pokémon, it couldn't even fight back.
"Lucas…"
"What is it, Hoopa?"
"M-My… my power won't be gone, right?"
Hoopa stared blankly at the terrifying explosion in front of them. Although it badly wanted that hateful evil-self to be beaten senseless…
…that didn't mean it wanted it completely annihilated! If it were really destroyed, then what would it do in the future?
"…"
Lucas paused for a moment.
"It… shouldn't be that fragile… right?"
…
"Mew!! Mew, Meeew, Mew!!!"
"All right, all right, I know we were wrong, okay? Once we get home, I'll have Marnie prepare you a huge feast."
A tiny pink kitten floated angrily in the air, cheeks puffed adorably as it scolded a certain someone.
It was Mew.
Good grief—Mew had been sleeping so comfortably before. No matter how earth-shattering the battle outside was, it had nothing to do with Mew at all.
But the moment it woke up, it saw a shockwave right in front of its face, its little soul nearly flew out from fright.
Green raised her hands innocently in surrender, hurriedly reassuring the little cutie.
Mew's eyes sparkled, and with a satisfied nod, it forgave Green for the disrespect.
Then, with a flash of light, Mew turned into a small blue turtle and floated comfortably into Green's arms.
"Th-The… the mountain is gone…"
Meraz didn't notice Mew at all. She simply stared blankly into the distance.
The Arche Valley was located between mountain ranges, and because the surrounding area was filled with mountains, the place had always been secluded and hidden. But now…
The mountain range that had stretched endlessly to their east—was now completely empty.
Yes. Completely empty. In the massive energy explosion from earlier, the entire eastern mountain range had been utterly pulverized.
For Meraz, who had been born and raised here, the visual shock was simply too overwhelming. Her mind had gone completely blank.
"What a magnificent sight… We'll have to redraw the map of this entire region," Giovanni said with a faint smile. Truly, this was an epic, grand-scale battle of Legendaries.
"We should be thankful most of the fighting happened in the sky. Otherwise this whole place might have been flattened entirely," Sabrina said quietly, her voice as calm and cool as always.
And she was right. Redrawing continents was nothing unusual for top-tier Legendary Pokémon.
In fact, Sabrina felt that the disappearance of only one mountain range was "quite minimal."
If the battle hadn't taken place mostly in the air, the damage to the ground would have been catastrophic.
"It's finally ending. My legs are getting tired just from standing here."
Green stretched her body. The previous attacks had been the most terrifying she had ever seen. If Evil Hoopa could still endure something like that…
…then that would simply be unbelievable.
And as Green expected, the combined blast of Ice Burn, Core Enforcer, and Ultra Necrozma's Prism Laser—
—had directly and completely obliterated Evil Hoopa's ability to fight.
…
BOOM!
Mega Mewtwo Y's Psystrike clashed with the Behemoth Blade of Zacian.
The shockwave blasting both backward.
Mewtwo Y raised its arm, preparing to attack again, but the red glow in its eyes slowly faded.
"Hm? Wait—!"
Mewtwo Y looked at its own hand in confusion, when suddenly an intense sense of danger surged through its mind.
It looked up, only to see the rapidly approaching figure of Zacian.
Metal Claw!
Mewtwo Y quickly retreated, raising a green barrier to block the incoming strike, and hurriedly shouted at Zacian.
Zacian halted, tilting its head in confusion. Something did feel off.
The oppressive malice it had sensed earlier… was gone.
"I'm not being controlled anymore!"
Mewtwo Y raised its hands to show it had regained full consciousness.
Although it had been influenced by Evil Hoopa's resentment, that didn't mean Mewtwo had completely lost awareness.
Now that its mind was clear, the recent events flooded through its memory at once, letting it understand exactly what had happened.
Damn it.
It was Mewtwo—Mewtwo! And yet somehow, it had been summoned to act as someone else's hired muscle?!
Meanwhile, on the other side—
Giratina, which had been preparing to attack Eternatus, also had the sinister red glow fade from its eyes. Its pupils cleared.
Giratina stared around blankly, still dazed.
But a second later—
A massive bone-like tail wrapped in green light slammed into Giratina's face. Before it could even react—
A blinding crimson light filled its vision and made its pupils contract violently.
Eternatus's Dynamax Cannon!
BOOM!
The explosive blast echoed across the battlefield.
Eternatus let out a delighted roar. It had no idea why Giratina had suddenly stopped to daydream, but who cared?
It didn't matter whether Giratina's brain had suddenly short-circuited.
Lucas had told it clearly:
During a fight, if it saw an opening, hit the opponent as hard as possible!
With that in mind, Eternatus lunged forward, its long claws slashing viciously at Giratina.
Giratina was utterly stunned.
It had just regained control of its mind, and its head was still spinning, unable to process everything that had happened.
And now it was being attacked nonstop?!
What in the world was going on?!
…
"Looks like Evil Hoopa really was defeated. But what's with Eternatus and Giratina over there?"
Lucas watched Mega Mewtwo return to normal. The disappearance of the controlling resentment proved that Evil Hoopa had indeed been beaten.
But strangely…
Why did he feel like Eternatus and Giratina were still fighting?
Well, whatever. Not a big deal.
"Apologies… It seems I caused trouble for all of you."
Mewtwo's deep telepathic voice echoed.
It had a good impression of Lucas. But this time, not only did it fail to help, it ended up causing chaos.
"It's fine. This wasn't your intention. But Mewtwo… you really created your own Mega Evolution?"
Lucas smiled lightly, curious.
"Ah… I suppose you could call it that," Mewtwo said, frowning as though troubled.
"You can't fully control it yet?"
"No. The Mega Evolution itself went smoothly."
Mewtwo placed a paw on its chest.
A glow flashed—and a beautiful Mega Stone materialized.
It was Mewtwo's own Mega Stone.
"I studied a large amount of Mega Evolution data and extracted my own genes, along with the necessary material components, to create this Mega Stone."
"The experiment was successful. It's just that—" Mewtwo began explaining.
"That's already incredible. Your power earlier was extremely impressive."
Lucas's eyes shone with amazement.
Mewtwo was an artificially created Legendary Pokémon. Theoretically, a natural Mega Stone for Mewtwo shouldn't exist.
After all, ancient humans couldn't have predicted that future scientists would create Mewtwo.
But Mewtwo had somehow researched and manufactured its own Mega Stone.
This was…
Insane. Absolutely insane.
As expected of Mewtwo!
"The problem is… this isn't the Mega form I envisioned."
"Huh?" Lucas stared.
"I prefer close-range combat. But this form—the enhancements focus heavily on psychic power instead."
Mewtwo sighed regretfully. Indeed, it simply disliked its Mewtwo-Y form.
A real fighter should charge in head-first and brawl!
But its Mega Evolution made it more of a ranged spellcaster.
Yet Mewtwo believed it should be a proper melee warrior!
It wasn't happy at all. This form didn't bring it joy.
It didn't want to be a mage anymore!
It wanted to be a warrior! A true warrior!
"Ah… this…" Lucas was stunned speechless.
Reshiram: "Can you not…?"
Zacian: "Hmm…"
When Reshiram heard Mewtwo complain about its Mega form, it felt its heart turn sour.
To have Mega Evolution yet still be dissatisfied?! To even complain?!
Did it have any idea what it had just done?
Mewtwo-Y had fought on equal footing with Kyurem and Zacian!
Meanwhile, Reshiram… had spent most of the battle acting as a flying mount.
Shameful! Unbelievably sour!
"Well, keep working on it. I'm sure you can create the form you want."
Lucas offered a polite smile.
What was wrong with being a ranged caster?
Personally, Lucas preferred the Y form. Psystrike was a special-attack move, which suited Mewtwo-Y.
But perhaps Mewtwo simply loved the satisfying thud of fist-to-face combat…
Though Lucas didn't quite understand. After all, even base Mewtwo was more suited for special attacks.
…Still, canon Mewtwo did love close combat. In "Mewtwo Strikes Back," in the manga special, and even in the Genesect movie, Mega Mewtwo Y had a bad habit of charging into melee.
Completely incomprehensible.
"I'll continue researching!"
Mewtwo said with utmost seriousness.
It believed it could definitely succeed!
The muscular Mega-Mewtwo of its dreams awaited!
Lucas sighed helplessly and signaled Reshiram to fly toward Evil Hoopa.
In a gigantic crater, Evil Hoopa lay gravely wounded, collapsed on the ground.
Even the red light in its eyes had dimmed significantly.
Its injuries were severe, having taken three powerful ultimate attacks with zero defense, it had nearly gone to meet Arceus.
But Evil Hoopa had not lost consciousness completely. The faint red in its eyes stared fixedly at the confined Hoopa in Lucas's arms.
But due to its extreme weakness, it didn't even have the strength to use telepathy. It could only glare hatefully.
Hoopa's tiny face tightened as it met Evil Hoopa's gaze.
Seeing Evil Hoopa's miserable and weakened state, Hoopa felt a deep, complicated emotion rise inside.
Conflicting emotions.
No matter what, no matter how much Evil Hoopa hated it—this power and this resentment were still its own.
"What should we do with this one?"
Zacian asked after a brief silence, staring at the powerless Evil Hoopa.
Kyurem glanced once at Evil Hoopa, then turned its head away. It had no interest in finishing off helpless foes.
Cleanup was not its concern.
"Eliminate it. It is far too dangerous."
Black Rayquaza's deep telepathy echoed.
The Rayquaza line protected the planet's ozone layer. Toward any dangerous outsider, their attitude was always to destroy without hesitation.
And in its eyes, Evil Hoopa was far more dangerous than those so-called outsiders.
Evil Hoopa's resentment could even influence and control Legendary Pokémon—
What kind of concept was that?
If left unchecked, Evil Hoopa would be a calamity on a global scale.
Zacian remained silent but did not object. Its judgment aligned with Black Rayquaza's.
Evil Hoopa was far too dangerous. Had Lucas not been here today, Evil Hoopa might have unleashed six top-tier Legendaries upon the world, possibly more devastating than Eternamax Eternatus from three thousand years ago.
Such a threat must be destroyed entirely.
Ultra Necrozma said nothing. Zygarde also stayed quiet. As the guardian of ecological order, Zygarde actually agreed completely with Rayquaza.
But because it knew Hoopa personally, it didn't speak first.
"Hoopa, what do you think?"
Lucas looked toward Hoopa.
"What do you mean 'eliminate it'?! That's Hoopa's power!"
Hoopa floated up angrily without even thinking.
This was its power. If it were destroyed, wouldn't it be stuck as Hoopa Confined forever?
Black Rayquaza narrowed its eyes, just about to speak.
"Although the Prison Bottle is broken, Baraz should be able to fix it. We can reseal this one again," Lucas said calmly.
He had sent Baraz to the villagers of the Valley earlier.
Baraz and Meraz weren't as skilled as their grandfather in using the power of creation, but the bottle fragments still existed.
Repairing the Prison Bottle was possible.
"But that's only a temporary fix. Hoopa—this power is yours. Its resentment came from you, too."
Lucas smiled gently, his eyes soft.
"Do you have the courage to face it?"
Ah. Time to raise Hoopa's affection again.
(End of Chapter)