I watched with amusement as the people of Hoenn gathered in and around Sootopolis and celebrated the coming of the new year on this night of December 31.
While not all humans could come to celebrate with their 'gods' due to obvious reasons, such as keeping this country safe and keeping things running, those who did gather here spent the night away in happy celebrations, indulging in fine food and merrymaking.
Not a bad approach to celebrations in my humble opinion.
And truthfully, I feel happy to see living beings living happy lives like this. It makes me feel good about my own self-appointed task of protecting this world from threats beyond it.
It was the same in the past, when I watched Titans move about either in their packs or by their lonesome, living their happiest lives, and it is the same now, watching these humans that my soul once was a part of so long ago.
If there is anything to complain about, then it is, of course, my siblings.
Kyogre was swimming by the shores of Sootopolis, using the local aquatic population to do some tricks and entertain the humans while Groudon served as both a space heater and a living playground for the children and those adventurous adults.
Honestly, there is nothing bad about their actions by themselves. I even think it does their mental health a lot of good to interact with living beings after spending millions of years isolated by themselves due to their powers. In fact, I am quite shocked by how functional they are despite said isolation.
No. The problem I have is that these actions might have some serious repercussions for the humans, especially since they seem to have become targets for the rest of the humans of the world, according to what I heard from the council.
Unlike the humans of Hoenn, who shared a faint blood relation with my old students from all those years ago and even the other groups of humans that the other Titans or I might have had interactions with in some way in the past, the rest of the humans of the world are not as desensitized to our presence just yet.
This means that they will definitely see us as threats to their 'sovereignty'. Something that my brothers and I think to be rather laughable, given that we have literally been alive for millions of years and, sometimes, even shaped the very lands that they claim to rule.
Still, it can't be denied that this race of slightly more evolved apes will consider us threats and try to either enslave or kill us.
Because when a human fears something, they tend to fall back on their base emotions and instincts for protection.
Again, as I said before, this is not necessarily their fault since it's simple biology and evolution at work, but this does pose a problem for these people that we've taken in as our own.
In simple terms, Hoenn will become a war zone if the leaders of the world lose their cool, and I will have to once again see large-scale bloodshed.
That is something that I cannot stand by anymore, especially since I am already starting to develop a bond with these people despite my hesitance.
As for my brothers? They have already fallen in love with the 'little ones' as they call them, and will probably either drown the world or turn it into a hellscape should something happen to these humans.
This is the reason why I let Groudon go after such a simple punishment as wrapping around him and vibrating at a frequency to make him uncomfortable for a few hours. A very light punishment that can't even be considered a slap on the wrist, given that if it were any other titan in his place, I would have blasted them with a full-powered Macron Cannon to their face or literally thrown them into the sun.
'Still thinking about Groudon's act? Brother?'
I sighed a little at Kyogre's probing.
'Yeah. Just a little bit.'
'I still don't understand what is so bad about gifting the humans with a little bit of that crystal he likes to munch on so much.'
'The problem, Kyogre, is that human greed tends to get the better of them.'
'I do not think they will misuse their power, brother. They seem far too wise for that kind of idiocy.'
'The problem is that they will use it in the first place, Kyogre.'
'The very nature of Human industrialization means that, at some point, the materials that Groudon can give them will not be enough to support their rapid progress in technology. This would eventually lead to them finding 'alternative sources'. Which will inevitably lead to them turning to the Hollow Earth and mining it dry of all its resources, causing untold devastation since those crystals play a large part in the very existence of the Hollow Earth.'
Kyogre fell silent at my words as he thought about what I said.
I know that he has a point. That these humans will probably not misuse the power of the Hollow Earth Crystals, given what I've seen so far.
But the people of Hoenn are not the only people on this planet, and neither are their ideologies shared across the world.
Hell, even within Hoenn, no two humans think alike despite being an extremely united people.
And truthfully? That individuality gives a certain beauty to life. But in this case, it works as an overall negative to this situation.
If the humans really do start mining the Hollow Earth for those crystals, I know for a fact that the Hollow Earth will collapse into a magma-filled realm, incapable of sustaining any kind of life.
I have seen it happen before with the Titan Apes in the Hollow Earth, all those millions of years ago. It was one of the reason why I stepped in back then and cordened off into an isolated pocket of the Hollow Earth and negotiated with their leader.
Those idiots were starting to harness the power of the crystals back then and were on the verge of opening a mine to dig up more of the crystals before I stopped them.
But it was already too late by that point since a small section of their homeland collapsed into the mantle after all of its crystals were dug up, leading to the nullification of the gravitational effect that those crystals produced.
'If it really is that bad, maybe we can convince the humans to stop using those crystals?'
I snorted at the naive words from Kyogre, knowing that he was only trying to advocate for our brother, who was definitely listening in on this conversation with keen interest despite pretending to be busy playing with the humans.
'You think they will stop after getting a taste of the power they could have with those crystals?'
'...Yes?'
'Then you don't understand human nature yet.'
I felt an old bitterness rise to the surface before I squashed it.
These people are not their ancestors and don't deserve to be subjected to such emotions.
Sometimes, a longer lifespan really is more of a detriment than a blessing. Especially when it comes to forgetting bad memories or grudges.
'If we can't stop them now, maybe we should try a way to make more of those crystals ourselves?'
Once again, I snorted at those words.
'The first words you say this entire evening, and it is such a stupid suggestion? Groudon.'
I glanced at Groudon, who stiffened a little, not even daring to meet my eyes like a guilty child caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
'And how do you propose we make more of these crystals? Groudon? Because last I checked, your power is manipulation of the earth, not outright creation.'
'...Maybe plant them like seeds?'
'Plant them like seeds? You clearly have no idea of the difference between...biology....and...hm.'
.....Is this idiot actually a hidden genius, or is this pure luck?
Because his words really do make sense the more I think about it.
The crystals, by nature, are life-nurturing. It is their strange energies that gave birth to the titans in the first place, from what I researched over my long life and countless experiments.
I also know that they are biologically compatible with Titans due to their shared origin.
This means, in theory, we really could plant them like seeds to grow more of them.
Specifically, I can have Groudon use the Hydrothermal method or Czochralski method with shards of the crystals, acting as the 'seed' in question, to provide the crystal lattice template for the molten material to latch onto, producing more of the crystals
The problem is that I've never even thought of doing something like this until now, so I don't know if this will work at all, and even if it does work, the resulting crystals will have the same anomalous energy as the original seed crystal shards.
That being said, the idea has far too many benefits, both for the humans and the titans of Hollow Earth, to discard without testing it.
Now, the problem is where to test it.....Oh. I know where to test it!
I turned to Groudon with a grin, which made my brother shudder in trepidation.
'Get ready for a road trip, brother. We will be testing out your idea in a safe environment.'
'....I am going to regret this, aren't I?'
'Heh. At least you are self-aware.'
Time to see if this idea has any merit.
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Author Notes:
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