When Kairos said that, both Will and Marshadow felt the tension inside them finally ease.
Ever since Kairos had been snatched away, they had been stretched to their limits. But now he was standing in front of them, completely unharmed, calmly saying there was a way to fix this. The crushing weight on their chests lifted halfway.
Will wiped the cold sweat from his brow, disbelief plain in his voice.
"You're serious? There's really a solution?"
He was a Champion, the ruler of the Ghost World. And yet even he had felt powerless in the face of that horrifying presence he couldn't even fully understand. Kairos claiming he had an answer made Will want to believe him, but he couldn't shake the fear that it might be wishful thinking.
Kairos didn't reply immediately. Instead, he looked around and assessed the situation.
Although Giratina had suppressed the impostor, the Ghost-type Pokémon controlled by the fog hadn't disappeared. Without a central will directing them, they had only grown more chaotic, rampaging blindly through the mist.
Kairos turned back to them, expression steady.
"The thing sealed away isn't a god. It's actually a spiritomb."
Will and Marshadow froze.
A spiritomb?
That monster that had nearly wiped them out, that had even stood against Ho-Oh's phantom projection, was a spiritomb?
Seeing their stunned faces, Kairos continued.
"A long time ago, it obtained a shard from the Reverse World. That shard carried a trace of Giratina's power. That's how it managed to pass itself off as something divine. It was sealed once before. To break the seal, it's been using the black fog to absorb soul energy."
He pointed toward the distant region still swallowed in darkness.
"That fog is both the key to breaking the seal and the source of its strength. It's been driving those infected Ghost Pokémon to attack living beings for one reason: to harvest souls and erode the seal.
If we defeat the Ghost Pokémon carrying the fog and purify it, we can drastically slow down the seal's collapse. We might even force it back into dormancy."
The information hit all at once.
Will and Marshadow stood there, stunned.
Kairos had only been gone a short time, dragged away by that massive claw, yet he had returned with the enemy's identity, motives, and weakness laid out clearly. It was as if he'd been handed the entire blueprint.
Will opened his mouth, then closed it again. He didn't even know where to begin.
Kairos saw the confusion in his eyes. There was no way to explain the system, and even less chance of casually mentioning that he'd just met Giratina. Will probably didn't even know who that was.
Before he could redirect the conversation, Marshadow suddenly stiffened.
Its large eyes locked onto Kairos's chest. Even the ghostly flames around its body paused.
"Wait. Where's your feather?"
Kairos blinked and looked down.
The Ho-Oh feather was gone.
Now that Marshadow mentioned it, he realized it hadn't been returned. Giratina hadn't said a word about it before sending him back.
Kairos thought it over and decided it wasn't worth worrying about. The feather's one-time protection had already activated. Until it recharged, it was basically just a keepsake. And Giratina, a being on that level, wasn't going to hoard a single feather. It would give it back.
Probably.
And even if it didn't, he now carried divine protection from Giratina itself. It wasn't as though he'd come back empty-handed.
He shrugged.
"Must've dropped it somewhere. Or maybe someone picked it up."
Marshadow immediately puffed up in outrage. The flames around it flared brighter.
"How can you say that so casually? That was a feather from the great Ho-Oh! It's an incredibly precious treasure, capable of restoring life. How could you be so careless?"
To Marshadow, that feather wasn't just an item. It was sacred.
Kairos watched it wave its little arms and couldn't help laughing.
"Alright, alright. That's on me. I shouldn't have brushed it off like that. I'll figure out a way to get it back, okay? Happy?"
He said it mostly to keep Ho-Oh's most devoted follower from lecturing him all day.
Marshadow finally calmed down, though it still looked uneasy. It drifted closer and spoke directly into Kairos's mind.
"Who took it? You're not sloppy. You wouldn't just lose something like that. Was it the one who grabbed you?"
Kairos sighed internally. Sharp as ever.
Since there was no point dodging, he replied through telepathy.
"You guessed right. Someone took it. But I doubt they meant to keep it. They probably just forgot. You know who Giratina is, right?"
The moment the name landed, Marshadow's expression changed completely.
Its body stiffened. Wariness, and something close to disgust, flashed in its eyes.
"It was Giratina?"
There was disbelief in its voice, and concern.
Kairos nodded.
"So you do know it. What's the issue? Is it that infamous?"
Marshadow spun once in the air, clearly unsettled.
"Infamous? That one has a terrible reputation. Violent temper. Unpredictable. It's never gotten along with the great Ho-Oh. If Giratina summoned you, there was nothing you could've done. But daring to take Ho-Oh's feather? That's unacceptable. When I reconnect with Ho-Oh, I'm reporting this."
Then it added quickly:
"And stay away from it from now on. It's powerful, yes, equal to the great one. But it doesn't follow any rules. You don't want to get dragged into whatever it's involved in."
Kairos filed that away.
So Ho-Oh and Giratina really were on bad terms. And Giratina's reputation in the Pokémon world wasn't exactly glowing either. It made sense. A being that ruled the Reverse World and embodied distortion would naturally be feared.
"I'll be careful," Kairos said. "I'm not looking to get tangled up with it. This time wasn't my choice."
Marshadow nodded but kept glancing around warily, as if expecting Giratina to reappear at any second.
Meanwhile, Will stood off to the side, watching the silent exchange between boy and Pokémon. Neither had spoken aloud for a while.
He raised a hand cautiously.
"Um. Mind telling me what's going on?"
For heaven's sake. He was a Champion, one of the strongest trainers in the world, master of the Ghost World. Yet today he had been outmatched, shut out, and left confused again and again.
It was humiliating.
Marshadow turned and rolled its eyes dramatically.
"With your current strength? You don't need to know. Even if we told you, there's nothing you could do. You'd just stress yourself out."
Will nearly choked.
The indignity.
But the worst part was, he couldn't argue. He really hadn't been able to hold his ground earlier.
He wisely chose not to push it further. One more exchange and that little ghost would talk him into the ground.
Drawing a steady breath, he turned back to Kairos.
He could no longer see him as just a talented young trainer. Kairos knew Marshadow. He knew the "great one" it kept referring to. He had been seized by that monstrous claw and returned completely unharmed.
If Will hadn't personally seen the Gengar Kairos raised, he might have suspected Kairos himself was some rare Pokémon in human form.
He cleared his throat.
"Your secrets are yours. I won't pry. You said there's a solution, and I believe you. So what exactly do we do?"
He gave a wry smile.
"We've fought the Ghost Tide and that fog for years. We tried pushing deep into its core, aiming straight for the source."
His expression darkened.
"There were too many infected Pokémon. The area was too vast. And they didn't fear death. Our offensives accomplished almost nothing, and the casualties were devastating. Eventually we had no choice but to retreat and focus on defense, minimizing losses as best we could."
Hard lessons, paid for in blood.
Kairos nodded.
"I understand. In the past, there wasn't much you could do. But that's about to change."
He paused, organizing his thoughts.
He couldn't exactly say, I'm going to roll out a system interface and turn this into a leveling mechanic.
So he chose a safer explanation.
"I can't explain the details. But a certain great being has indicated that something will appear soon. When it does, it will allow all of you to grow stronger."
Will's head started spinning again.
Something will appear? Grow stronger?
Was some powerful entity stepping in to grant strength to the Ghost World out of pity?
That kind of thing belonged in myths.
Yet Kairos looked utterly certain.
Will thought for a long moment. Then his eyes hardened with resolve.
"Whatever it is, if it can resolve this crisis, that's enough. What do you need from me?"
His voice was steady.
As master of this domain, he had long accepted that giving his life to preserve the seal was part of his responsibility. If he needed to serve as bait, or take on some dangerous role, so be it.
So long as the Ghost World survived.
Marshadow's expression grew complicated. It respected Will. He was responsible, honorable. But the situation was far more tangled than he realized. Ho-Oh was missing. Giratina was trapped in the Reverse World.
None of it added up.
Before it could untangle its thoughts, Kairos spoke.
"There is something you can do. In fact, only you can do it, Will."
Will straightened.
"Soon, something will appear before everyone's eyes. It will teach you how to fight the fog and how to coordinate your efforts. Your job is simple. Be the first to trust it. Be the first to use it. Show everyone that it's real. If you take the lead, the others will follow."
Will blinked.
He hadn't understood a single word.
"Something will appear? What exactly is going to show up?"
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones