To be fair, if you dropped a physicist here, they would probably feel their entire worldview collapse on the spot. Everything in this place was inverted, and not just the massive geometric structures floating in the air.
Even the light itself was reversed. What should have been sunlight streaming down from above was instead shooting up from the abyss below their feet, blazing straight toward the deep crimson sky. And if that were not strange enough,
Kairos could clearly feel the presence of wind, except this wind blew in the wrong direction too.
It did not brush against his face. Instead, it felt like countless invisible hands grabbing at his clothes and hair, trying to drag him upward into the sky. The intense sensation of weightlessness and disorientation forced him to dedicate the better part of his concentration just to keeping his balance.
But what truly made his skin crawl was not any of these violations of the natural order. It was the strange shadows he noticed in the surrounding area. Near those enormous inverted stone pillars and spires, vague humanoid figures were shifting about.
No, not just humans. Pokémon too.
They were walking along the surfaces of those structures.
Walking, literally walking, even though those structures were suspended upside down in the air. They moved with complete steadiness, as though gravity simply did not apply to them. Kairos narrowed his eyes and tried to make out what those things actually were.
The longer he stared, the clearer the shadows became.
They had the outlines of humans and Pokémon, but they had no faces. Where features should have been, there was only a smooth expanse of gray-white, radiating an indescribable quality of eeriness and deathly stillness.
And these faceless shadows were not motionless. They were busy going about their business in this upside-down world, some carrying things, some looking around. He could not make out any expressions, yet Kairos felt a suffocating sense of oppression rolling off them in waves.
There was no doubt about it. This was the Reverse World.
He was still working hard to adjust to this inverted reality, his mind spinning rapidly in search of a plan, when an overwhelmingly powerful sensation of being watched struck him without warning.
The feeling was unmistakable, like something terrifying had locked its gaze onto him.
He snapped his head up and looked toward the sky.
Something was there, lurking within that twisted violet-crimson cloud layer.
Soon enough, he could make it out clearly. It was an enormous spectral silhouette.
And it looked almost identical to the dark shape that had crawled out of that coffin a short while ago.
The same dragon-like body. The same enormous wing structure.
But Kairos quickly noticed the differences.
The silhouette before him had its eyes closed.
And the aura it emanated was nothing like that of the creature from the coffin, which had been saturated with savagery and bloodlust. This one felt far more ancient, far more profound, carrying a majesty that made him want to bow his head without quite knowing why.
The feeling was as if he stood before a true sovereign, a deity who ruled over this entire dimension.
Kairos's expression shifted into something peculiar.
Because he had just figured out something very important. If the thing in that coffin had truly been Giratina, his Legendary Pokédex would have reacted long ago.
Yet when he had stood before that coffin earlier, his system panel had not made a single sound.
So whatever that had been, it was not Giratina.
But now, things were different.
The moment he looked up at this silhouette, that familiar system notification chime finally rang out in his mind.
[Encountered the God of the Reverse World: Giratina!]
The golden text pulsed across his vision, almost painfully bright.
This closed-eyed silhouette before him was the true Giratina.
The aura it gave off matched perfectly with what he had sensed from those ancient murals.
While his thoughts were still racing, the silhouette in the sky moved.
Slowly, it opened its eyes.
Crimson pupils, deep and fathomless as a bottomless abyss. That red gaze drifted down and settled on Kairos with an almost lazy ease.
In that single instant, Kairos felt as though he had been laid completely bare. Every secret, every thought, seemed to have nowhere to hide beneath that gaze.
Then a deep, resonant voice rang out directly in the depths of his mind, carrying a terrifying weight of authority.
"Human..."
The voice came again, reverberating through the entire space.
"I am the lord of inversion. State your name."
Kairos took a slow, deep breath and worked to steady himself.
Fortunately, the other party did not seem hostile.
Because if Giratina had wanted to act, Kairos would already be dust.
And the fact that it had bothered to ask his name meant there was room for conversation.
The pressure radiating from this entity was at least ten times more crushing than what that thing in the coffin had given off, but as long as communication was possible, that was a good sign. Even so, he would need to tread carefully.
Kairos exhaled and did his best to keep his voice steady.
"Hello. My name is Kairos."
He answered with his mouth while his mind kept working without pause.
Now that he had actually encountered the real Giratina, he needed to learn as much about it as he could, and fast.
Know yourself and know your enemy. It would not guarantee victory, but it could only help in a situation like this.
With a mental nudge, he quickly opened his Legendary Pokédex.
Countless golden pages flashed through his mind at high speed, the entries of various Legendary Pokémon flickering past one after another. His target was clear: the entry for Giratina.
The golden page stopped.
It displayed Giratina's basic information.
But most of the critical details were obscured behind a veil of mist, completely illegible. Paid content.
A system prompt box immediately popped up.
[Viewing detailed records requires 5,000 Emotion Points. Use?]
Kairos winced inwardly.
Five thousand points?
Was this system trying to rob him? This was pure highway robbery.
He was pretty sure checking Gouging Fire had only cost around two thousand. Now it wanted five.
Then again, thinking it through, Giratina's tier was incomparably higher than Gouging Fire's, so it probably made sense that it cost more. No use agonizing over it. Spend it.
The moment five thousand Emotion Points were deducted, the obscuring mist finally dispersed, and detailed information about Giratina appeared before him in dense text.
Kairos scanned it rapidly, terrified of missing anything critical.
[Name: Giratina.]
[Identity: Sovereign of the Reverse World, God of Boundaries Broken.]
[Likes: Darkness, the respect of humans and Pokémon, interesting new things.]
[Dislikes: Confinement, rude humans, combat.]
[Current Affection Level: None.]
Kairos froze.
This personality... was really like this?
His mental image of Giratina had always been something cold and utterly remote from human concerns, or else an explosive-tempered entity prone to threatening to destroy the world. He had never expected that this one's preferences would be so... grounded.
It liked being respected. It liked interesting new things.
What surprised him most was that it apparently disliked combat.
Still, knowing the other party's preferences made things much easier to work with.
Kairos cleared his throat quietly and adjusted his composure.
He arranged his expression into one of polite respect and spoke with genuine courtesy.
"If I may ask, esteemed Lord Giratina, what is it that has led you to summon me here? And what is this magnificent and extraordinary space? Where exactly am I?"
A deliberate question, given that he already had a strong suspicion.
The effect was immediate. The suffocating pressure that had been radiating from Giratina's silhouette genuinely eased by a degree. Kairos felt the tension in his chest loosen slightly.
So the information from the Legendary Pokédex really was accurate. This creature did respond well to this kind of approach.
As long as he remained respectful, it would not act recklessly.
The red gaze continued to watch him, but the stinging intensity had faded considerably.
Giratina's voice rang out in his mind once more.
[It was I who pulled you here. I require your assistance with a matter.]
Kairos felt a small jolt of surprise.
It had brought him here because it needed help from him?
What could he possibly do for the lord of the Reverse World?
Though his mind was full of questions, he let none of it show on his face. Keeping his relaxed and natural demeanor, he spoke casually.
"May I ask why you chose me? There was a Trainer named Will nearby. His strength far surpasses mine, and he has several powerful Pokémon at his side. Wouldn't he be a better fit if you need assistance?"
The question was posed diplomatically and politely.
Kairos was genuinely curious. Will was at the pinnacle of Champion-tier ability, carrying multiple formidable Pokémon. By any objective measure, his strength was far greater.
Giratina did not answer right away.
It simply raised one of its claws slightly.
Before Kairos could figure out what it was doing, he felt a ripple in the space around him.
Then a beam of iridescent light came flying out of his pocket.
The feather. Ho-Oh's feather.
The feather he had been carrying with him all this time was now glowing with a soft, gentle radiance, hovering motionlessly in the air between them.
When Giratina looked at that feather, something different entered its voice.
[To have earned the recognition of that one, you are no ordinary being.]
Kairos understood immediately.
So it was because of this feather.
It seemed Giratina recognized Ho-Oh, and judging by the tone, the relationship between the two was not unfriendly. That implied Giratina probably had existing ties to other Legendary Pokémon, maybe even knowledge of them.
That was good news.
Before he could ask anything further about Ho-Oh, however, Giratina's voice turned serious once more.
[To speak plainly, I need you to go and eliminate that worthless thing that dares to act in my name.]
[I cannot leave this place. Therefore, I require you to act.]
Kairos went still for a moment, then immediately understood.
An imposter. That had to mean the dark shape that had crawled out of the coffin.
But... eliminate it?
The whole issue had come full circle back to the same fundamental problem.
He had already seen the strength of that silhouette firsthand. Even the spectral projection of Ho-Oh that Marshadow had summoned had only barely deflected its first assault, and afterward had been completely unable to resist it, forced to take them and flee.
He had not even had a chance to say anything before Giratina's voice rang out again.
[If you help me deal with that filth, I give you my word: within this Reverse World, there will be a place for you. You will be granted the right to reside here, under my protection.]
It sounded tempting enough on the surface.
Receiving the protection of a Legendary Pokémon, and a place to live in a realm as extraordinary as the Reverse World.
Yeah, no thank you.
Kairos instinctively glanced to the side. He looked at the faceless shadows walking along those inverted structures.
Blurry, featureless, radiating deathly stillness and uncanny silence.
If he lived here, these things would be his neighbors every single day. How horrifying would that be?
And on top of that, this place operated on inverted physical laws. If he stayed long enough, his brain would probably ooze out through his ears.
Not to mention, if he came to the Reverse World, would he eventually end up like these shadows?
This was one offer he could gladly do without.
Kairos felt his scalp prickling with discomfort. This was not a blessing he was equipped to receive.
He was racking his brain trying to figure out how to phrase a refusal that would be neither offensive nor blunt when Giratina seemed to read his thoughts.
A flicker of something almost amused passed through those red eyes. It did not appear surprised by Kairos's reluctance at all.
[Oh? You would rather not?]
Kairos was about to explain himself when Giratina raised a claw and cut him off.
[Perhaps, then, I can offer you something else instead.]
As its words faded, its other claw swept through the air in a slow, unhurried gesture. A mass of pitch-black substance, dark as ink, materialized from nothing and drifted slowly toward Kairos until it hovered right in front of him.
The thing was not large, only about the size of a palm, and its shape was irregular, like a fragment of something shattered. But the presence it radiated was extraordinary. It was a pure, concentrated aura of darkness, and yet that darkness did not feel malevolent. If anything, it gave off a sense of profound quiet, something ancient and mysterious.
Before Kairos could even get a proper look, the system prompt in front of his eyes began flashing wildly.
This time the prompt box was solid gold, the same as a particular occasion he remembered from before, and it stood out brilliantly.
[Legendary-tier item detected!]
[Arceus Slate Fragment: Ghost!]
The inside of Kairos's head rang like a struck bell.
Another Arceus Slate fragment?
And unlike the one he had obtained in the Second World, this one's typing actually aligned with his current two Pokémon. Ghost-type.
It was still a fragment, but compared to the previous one, this piece was visibly more intact, the aura and energy it gave off were considerably stronger, and its overall condition was clearly superior.
Repairing this one would probably be significantly easier.
Now this was what he was talking about. This was a real prize. Something like this was infinitely more appealing than residency rights in the Reverse World.
Giratina watched his reaction, and its voice came again.
"This was something I claimed in a battle long ago. It contains the primal power of the Ghost-type. Accept the condition I have laid out, and this is yours. It will be of considerable benefit to your companions."
Faced with these terms, Kairos did not hesitate for even a moment.
Dealing with the Ghost World was already what he had been planning to do in the first place. Giratina's request and his own objective were perfectly aligned.
But still.
The problem remained exactly the same as before.
How on earth was he supposed to take down that thing?