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Guzzlord's relentless, storm-like assault left Kael no time to think.
He moved purely on instinct, scrambling between the massive, spike-covered tongues as they lashed down around him.
Thin arcs of blood sprayed into the air again and again, carved from his dark-violet skin by the jagged barbs lining those writhing appendages.
In barely over a minute, Kael's body was already riddled with countless shallow wounds.
None were immediately fatal.
But the problem lay deeper.
The corrosive toxins carried by Guzzlord's body were seeping through the open cuts, spreading rapidly through Kael's bloodstream.
He could feel it clearly.
His nerves were going numb.
If this continued, it was only a matter of time before his movements slowed. One mistake would be all it took for Guzzlord to seize him and crush him into a shapeless mass of flesh.
"This won't work…"
Kael bit down hard on his tongue.
The sharp pain cut through the creeping paralysis, keeping his mind barely clear despite the spreading neurotoxin.
He had just made a promise to Tapu Koko.
He refused to die here.
He had to live.
Yet no matter how he searched, he could not see a way out.
Breaking through with chained skills?
Impossible.
Hoping for someone else to save him?
Delusional.
Kael scoured his mind for any option that might let him escape with his life.
Nothing surfaced.
As the poison stiffened his body further, a faint trace of despair crept into his eyes.
Then—
A spark.
Something clicked.
Kael's movements stuttered mid-dodge.
"Wait."
"I almost forgot."
Just moments ago, after receiving Tapu Koko's final gift, Kael had confirmed that the [Zamazenta's Heart] had been fully restored.
Along with it came an active ability.
[Shield King Form].
But against something like Guzzlord, an Ultra Beast with power rivaling legendary Pokémon, would it really work?
Kael doubted it.
But doubt no longer mattered.
Like a drowning man clutching the last piece of floating debris, even the faintest hope was worth gambling everything on.
His consciousness shifted.
The [Shield Gauge] appeared before his eyes.
The pale crimson energy within it flickered like spectral flame, filled completely to the brim, so saturated it felt ready to overflow at any moment.
Kael locked his focus onto the fully charged bar.
And roared inwardly.
"Shield King Form…"
"Activate!"
RRAAAAAAA—
A thunderous roar erupted from nowhere, as though bellowed from the depths of the void itself.
It carried with it boundless savagery and ancient authority.
Violent air currents surged outward, rolling across the darkened ruins like a crashing tide.
Dust and debris were torn from the ground and hurled skyward.
A deep, metallic rumble followed the roar, growing steadily louder, echoing through the cold air like massive plates of steel grinding together.
It was deafening.
Yet within that overwhelming noise was a strange solemnity.
Almost… sacred.
As though standing inside a grand cathedral forged of iron and will.
A pressure rooted deep within blood and instinct spread outward.
The moment the roar sounded, Guzzlord's whipping tongues froze mid-strike.
They trembled.
And then stopped.
The dark-violet figure that had been Kael vanished entirely.
In its place—
Blinding light.
Crimson-gold spectral flames intertwined with cold, radiant steel, pulsing in rhythm with something vast and distant, as though answering a call from beyond reality itself.
Valor.
Ferocity.
Resolve.
Unyielding will.
Emotions that should not coexist wove together like interlocking threads, radiating outward with the surging light.
Click.
Whirr.
Clang.
The precise sounds of shifting metal echoed from within the radiance.
Something intricate was assembling.
Strange, luminous glyphs shimmered into existence around the forming shape, their symbols alien yet resonant, orbiting the light in slow, deliberate motion.
The [Zamazenta's Heart].
Among the countless items flooding the system shop, it stood unchallenged at the very peak.
Was it because of its fifty-percent damage negation?
No.
Even such an absurd defensive effect alone was not enough to claim the summit.
What truly elevated it above all else was its second attribute.
[Shield King].
To wield the power of a legendary Pokémon in a mortal body.
To shatter the invisible boundary separating the ordinary from the transcendent.
A level of power that countless beings across the multiverse would never touch in their entire existence.
And once the Shield Gauge was filled, that power answered the call, transcending time and descending directly upon flesh and bone.
This was a shortcut.
A direct path toward the distant realm of divinity.
Bathed in that blinding radiance, Guzzlord did not move.
A suffocating scent of blood and war flooded the space, making even an Ultra Beast recoil, as though standing on an ancient battlefield soaked in carnage.
The primal aura stirred something buried deep within Guzzlord's genetic memory.
An instinctual terror older than reason.
Unrelenting battle intent.
Indomitable resolve.
An ironclad will that crushed down upon it from all sides.
Even the Nightmare Seed's whispers and the ravenous hunger flooding its mind were forcibly suppressed.
The crimson-white brilliance before it was unfamiliar.
Yet the overwhelming majesty carried within that light compelled submission.
In that moment, Guzzlord recalled legends whispered even within Ultra Space.
Three figures are spoken of as myths.
Sun.
Moon.
Void.
Blazing hunger that devoured the sun.
Cold radiance that called down the moon.
And the final presence—
The black prism that brought annihilation between dusk and dawn.
Tremble.
Tremble.
The Devouring Lord.
A being capable of reducing worlds to nothingness.
Now shook in fear beneath the radiance before it.
For the first time since its birth, a suffocating shadow of death wrapped around its massive form.
As though the next instant—
It would be erased entirely.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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