The days in the Silent Palace settled into a rhythm of deceptive tranquility. Mornings were for family, a chaotic and joyful affair where the gardens echoed with the laughter of three powerful children and the occasional exasperated sigh of a celestial dragon. Afternoons were a quiet hum of shared purpose, with Xue Lian and Lan Yue working side by side in the war room, piecing together the fragments of Elder Feng's conspiracy from Vex'aal's intelligence reports. The nights were theirs alone, a slow, tender rediscovery of a love that had survived a decade of winter. It was a fragile, beautiful peace, and they both knew it was borrowed time.
The end of that time arrived with the silent, sudden appearance of Vex'aal in the middle of a strategy session. The spymaster's shadowy form was more agitated than they had ever seen it, her usual eerie calm shattered by an aura of raw, undiluted dread.
"Your Majesties," she whispered, forgoing all protocol, her voice a frantic, chilling rustle. "It has begun."
She raised a hand, and a shimmering, horrifying image projected into the center of the war room. It showed a vast, spiraling vortex of absolute darkness, a serpent made of the void itself, descending from a stormy sky upon a mortal village. The Bakunawa. It was larger, more terrifying than any text had described. It did not roar; it simply consumed, and a wave of silent, grey death radiated from it, turning buildings, trees, and people into fine, lifeless dust.
"The reports are coming in from every spy we have left in the mortal realm," Vex'aal's voice was strained. "It appeared three days ago in the southern provinces and has been carving a path of absolute annihilation ever since. It does not distinguish between mortal or demon. It devours everything."
Xue Lian's blood ran cold. "Is its path random?"
"No, Your Majesty," Vex'aal confirmed their deepest fear. "Its trajectory is erratic, but its general direction is unwavering." She traced a line on the illusory map with a shadowy finger, a path of destruction that led from the southern provinces, through the heart of the mortal realm, heading directly for the Dragon's Tooth mountains. "It is heading for the Whispering Pass. It is coming for us."
A new image flooded the scrying illusion. It showed a mountain fortress, its banners bearing the proud insignia of the Azure Blade Valley sect one of the major righteous powers. The fortress was now a ruin, a great, gaping hole torn in its side. Disciples in blue and white robes lay scattered like broken dolls, their life force completely extinguished.
"The righteous sects have tried to stop it," Vex'aal reported, her voice grim. "The Azure Blade Valley and the Crimson Fist Temple formed a joint task force to intercept the beast. They were annihilated. Their spiritual arts, their sacred weapons… they were simply consumed. The Bakunawa feeds on their power."
Lan Yue stared at the image of the ruined fortress, her face pale. These were not men like Feng or Wei Chen. They were honorable cultivators, warriors who had died trying to protect their world. And their strength had only made the monster stronger.
Xue Lian's mind, the mind of the 21st century strategist, processed the horrific data with a chilling clarity. "It's following the spiritual ley lines," she breathed, her eyes wide with a terrible understanding. "It's a predator hunting the richest sources of power. And it's heading for the single greatest concentration of it on this continent… the Luminous Dynasty."
The pieces clicked into place. Feng's ritual had not just summoned the beast; it had pointed it like a loaded gun at the heart of their home.
The information war, the quiet game of whispers and secrets, was over. The time for subtlety had been consumed by a creature of absolute hunger. The final battle, the one the System had tried to force, the fated confrontation between the Moon Eater and the Celestial Moon, was no longer a distant threat. It was a raging, unstoppable storm, and it was just on the other side of their door.
Xue Lian looked at Lan Yue, her amber eyes full of a grim, unwavering resolve. The fear was gone, replaced by the cold certainty of a queen whose home was about to be invaded.
"It seems," she said, her voice a low, deadly promise, "that our legendary Pokemon battle is arriving ahead of schedule."