Tovi wakes up with a terrible headache, but when she feels along her head she can't find any suspicious bump. Every movement sends a jolt of pain through her body.
She squints in the dim light. She's in a dark cave. The air feels slightly warm and moist, even though the jagged stone pressing against her from three sides is icy cold. It smells of nothing but water. She rises to her feet and feels the ceiling brush against her ears.
In front of her, scattered along the only way out, a few stones glow faintly blue. They're littered along the narrow tunnel. Tovi picks up a particularly bright stone and holds it aloft as a makeshift torch. She can swear she saw something move inside, but when she looks again, it looks like an ordinary rock.
The blue glow casts an eerie pall over the grey stone. She can't hear anything but the beating of her heart and her own soft pawsteps.
Her last memory, although her head is fuzzy, is crystal clear. She remembers the golden wall of light circling all of them except Kaestra and how impenetrable it was. She remembers Ryvian slamming into it again and again, shattering himself against it in a futile attempt to break it. Janus had grouped their fallen psychics, Sylvia and Cynthia, together in the middle while Tovi, Vee, and Janus shielded them with their own bodies.
The memories come back to her faster than she would have liked. Janus had glared down at them with his cold red eyes, looking sad and disappointed with them, like a parent watching their child. Kaestra had stood next to the Umbreon, slumped and defeated and apathetic all at the same time.
I was a fool for trusting him, Tovi reminds herself, scowling. He must've been in league with Janus the whole time. She tries her best to ignore the part of her that argues. I'm such a fool! Help him! I should've known no one is truly good anymore. Anger rushes through her.
After that, the light had grown brighter and brighter, until she had had to close her eyes against the glow. And then, she had been plunged into darkness- literally and figuratively.
Her pawsteps begin to sound louder. The tunnel begins to widen out so that it no longer presses uncomfortably against her fur. She waves her glowing rock in front of her face. She's entered a wider area with multiple tunnels leading off. A pile of scrap metal and rock lies in the mouth of the leftmost tunnel. The air grows warmer, carrying with it the smell of something that shouldn't be burning.
"You."
Tovi whirls around, but the raspy, parched voice came from the pile in the left tunnel. She holds her glowing rock out between them as if trying to use it as a shield. The blue light reflects off of the metal.
"You." The thing hisses and spits and rises to its feet. Tovi gasps in horror.
It's a Lairon, or the remains of one. The armor that once covered it is fragmented and cracked. There are a few gouges in its left flank that seem to have carved through its armor like wet sand. A steady drip-drip of dark blood runs down both of its front legs. But worst of all is the thing's right eye. It hangs out of the socket, barely connected to his face, covered in a slick pink slime that drips down his face. Its other blue eye skitters crazily around.
"Ryvian?" Tovi backs up, horrifically aware that there is nowhere to run except for past the creature. "Ryvian, what's wrong? What happened to you?"
Ryvian, if that is truly who this monster is, snarls, foam dripping from his mouth. "They killed me," he growls, the words mangled as they tear themselves from his mouth. "Again and again and again-" Blood bubbles up in his throat. His next words come out only as a wet gurgle.
He takes a tottering step forwards. He stumbles but catches himself with his next step, and spits something out. Tovi thinks it might be teeth.
The Minun has never been very good at using her electricity in her forest home. But down underground, surrounded by tons and tons of cold stone, there's almost no chance of sparking enough to damage the Lairon.
She throws her rock at him instead. It nails him right in the face and rips his dangling eyeball off. It falls to the ground and rolls away, leaving behind a trail of slime and goo. Tovi stares in shocked silence for a second.
Then Ryvian shakes himself and hurls himself recklessly at her.
Tovi curses to herself and runs back into the tunnel, kicking rocks harmlessly back at him. They bounce off of his armor and only serve to anger him further.
Ryvian roars and charges after her, tearing chunks out of the tunnel in places he can't fit through. The ground shivers under them. Loose rocks rattle. The tunnel itself groans, threatening to bury the two of them under miles of stone.
All too soon, Tovi finds herself in the cramped space she woke up in with only seconds to spare. She feels around for anything she could use against him. She comes up with a handful of rock dust.
Ryvian's head appears at the end of the tunnel, snapping furiously for her. A few fragments of his armor, which is rapidly dissolving with the disintegrating of the tunnel system, fly over his head and land near Tovi. The smaller fragments fly past her and shatter against the far wall. A few flick across her skin and draw some blood. A fragment the size of her arm clatters to the ground by her feet.
The walls near Ryvian crack and groan until the Lairon's body appears from a cloud of dust. He gives the Minun a sick smile full of broken teeth and bloody gums. He takes a step forwards, reveling in her helplessness.
His smile drops for a moment when his discovers his back foot is stuck momentarily. No matter, he can shake free easily-
Tovi lunges for the fragment of armor next to her and crosses the distance between her and Ryvian, thrusting the sharp end into a chink in his armor between his body and neck just as his great head swings around to her again. He swallows hard. The fragment bobs with the movement of his throat. He takes a shuddering breath and exhales a red mist. The Lairon slumps to the ground, the light dying out of his single eye.
After his body falls to the ground, there's a moment of complete silence when Tovi gasps for air, her breaths shaky. Alive one moment, dead the next. She pulls the knife free amidst a red spray and rubs her paw where the metal cut her. Tell me I didn't just kill Ryvian. Please, please...
And then the world roars.
The ceiling above her trembles and begins to collapse. It buckles on its own weight.
Tovi jumps over the corpse and runs as fast as her legs will take her into the place where she found him. She pauses for a moment as her head whips from the left to the right tunnel. A pile of metal and rock still lies in the left one. She refuses to even look at it. As the cave system continues to collapse behind her, she runs into the right tunnel.
The smell of burning grows stronger. The air grows steadily warmer, but the stone walls still feel as cold as ice and have begun to grow a ruddy red color, like a cloudy sunset. At least, Tovi thinks so. The blue light from the glowing rocks has begun to distort her perception of color.
The collapsing of the tunnel seems to have slowed, Tovi can't feel the ground vibrating harshly anymore. Of course. It collapsed where Ryvian weakened the structure. She stops running when her lungs start burning and her legs begin to tremble. The foul air doesn't help. Tovi stumbles and tries to catch herself against the wall.
It isn't there. Tovi falls to the ground, scraping her legs and reopening the cut on her paw. She winces and cries out. Her voice comes back to her louder than thunder, or so it seems. Heat suddenly burns against her skin.
She looks up, and the rest of her breath catches in her throat.
Blue fire crackles in a perfectly rounded pit in the center of the room, a few yards away. Circles full of the blue rocks ring the great cavern, carved into the perfectly smooth walls. The fire gleams in the rocks, each one reflects the light fiercely. The sudden light dazzles her senses. She squints. Despite the fire, the ground is cold.
The knife suddenly against her throat is also cold, and the smile the pokemon holding it gives her is even icier. "She's warm," it says in a scratchy, gravelly voice. "I thought so. We haven't seen a demon for years."
Tovi swallows hard, feeling the knife acutely against her neck. The Geodude had appeared out of nowhere. More melt out of the stone walls. All of them are some form of Geodude or Graveler. Some of them have blue rocks embedded like tiny stars in their rock-skin. A horrible scraping noise follows as they roll across the room. Now that she looks closer, she can see tiny scratch marks where the rough surfaces of their armor grinds into the floor.
"She's living?"
"It's a demon spy from the abyss!"
"Has it seen the sun?"
A Graveler absolutely studded with blue rolls up to her. A hollowed out blue stone is even fastened around his thick wrist like a bracelet. She gulps. He towers over her, glaring down at her with its dark eyes. "Quiet," he commands, his voice like thunder in the cave. "Douse the fire. She lives. Besides, there are no more ghosts living here. They've all moved on."
The pokemon takes its knife away from her neck but doesn't take his eyes off her.
The group of Geodude, silent for a moment, start talking excitedly again. Their rough voices grate on Tovi's nerves. "Shut up!" she cries, holding her paws against her ears and closing her eyes "Shut up shut up shut up!" She chants it over and over, shaking her head as if this horrible day is just a dream that she can wake herself from.
When she opens them again, the fire is gone without a trace of it existing. The Graveler, now the main source of light, shines like a blue sun in front of her. "Have you seen the sky, stranger?"
Tovi licks her lips. "Y-yes. Please, I just want to go ho-" She cuts herself off midsentence, an unpleasant feeling inside her chest. Where is home?
His eyes bore into her. "Lead us to the surface, and you will go free." His tone makes it clear that she doesn't have a choice.
Tovi closes her eyes again, aware that she's about to make a bad decision. "Okay. Alright. You'll need to dig through the stone upwards-"
A chorus of angry shouts cut her off. "We know how to get up there, otherworlder!" one particularly loud Geodude snaps, shaking a fist at her. "We are trapped down here by the Earth Lord!"
"Quiet!" the Graveler bellows, slamming an arm against the smooth walls of the cave. It cracks and trembles. A chunk of blue stone embedded in the wall rolls out and falls to the floor by Tovi's feet. "You came down from the surface, on the only path, past all of the guardians. How?"
Guardians. Ryvian must've been one of them. "Why- why are you trapped down here?" she asks tentatively. If I tell them I woke up and was teleported down here, they'll surely kill me since I can't help them. Lying has always come easily to her.
The Graveler growls. "The Earth Lord said that our kind were most suited to the dark, deeper than even Zubat will live. He said the surface would only bring us harm. What does this have to do with anything?"
"But I've seen your kind on the surface before," Tovi says. "Most of them were miners and only came out at night, but-"
She's cut off again by the angry outburst of voices that swell through the entire cave system.
"The Earth Lord is a liar! He's been keeping us down here on purpose!"
"He's taken the surface away from us!"
"Shut up! She's lying."
This is probably the most exciting thing that's ever happened to them. Tovi picks up a blue stone and waves it in the air. "Listen! Listeeeeen!" Finally the crowd simmers to a barely controlled murmur. "I killed one of your guardians; the one in the tunnel entrance? He's buried under a thousand tons of stone. I'm sure you can make your way up to the surface."
"If she's telling the truth, then he's gone for good," one of the Geodude says. "How did you do it? The steel beast crushed us under his iron claws."
"Oh, you know, I'm just… just awesome." Tovi's pathetic attempt at humor dies the moment it leaves her mouth. The horror of killing Ryvian still lies with her. "Does it matter? We can get out of here. If you all work together. I really believe it."
The leader stares into the darkness of the tunnel for a long, long time. "We've tried to leave time and again, stranger. We were once a great colony. One couldn't move without tripping over a Geodude." He gestures back at the group of Geodude, no more than three dozen at most. "Why do you think we can go now?"
"We have to try, Rozk," a Geodude murmurs. "For the others. If we fail, then we will join our brothers in the earth."
Another Graveler, unadorned except for a glowing ring, nods. His voice rises as he addresses the group. "Aren't you sick of the darkness? If there's something we can do to break the eternity we've lived in, wouldn't you do it?"
"She killed the steel beast," another says. "If she can do it, so can we!"
Tovi stays silent, aware of how pivotal this moment is. A deep sadness has ingrained itself in her for the rock pokemon. She imagines herself wandering around in the blue light for hundreds of years, lonely in the tiny cave system. Please, please.
"Let's move, then," Rozk says softly. He presses a metal knife into Tovi's paws. She winces but follows him obediently as the horde of rock pokemon rumble through the tunnel. She feels like it should be a triumphant moment, but the mood is somber. She clutches the knife in her paws. I'll do this for you, Ryvian. You haven't died in vain! It feels weird, feeling so guilty over a pokemon she hardly knew.
They move quickly, rolling through the cave system. They come to the fork in the tunnels, turning into the one where Ryvian had once stood. Tovi breaks into a cold sweat. She runs past the Geodude at the end of the train, hating to be alone in the back with the dark. The blue stones dotting the walls have vanished. Their only light are the Geodude who have the stones embedded into their skin.
And then they run into their first enemy.
"Welcome to the face of death."
The party comes to a complete stop, as still and silent as- well, stone. Tovi's breaths echo in her ears, too loudly.
They stand in a cavern the same size as the one the rock pokemon lived in. It sits in darkness, one that feels unnatural.
A white-furred pokemon steps into the blue light. An aura of darkness glows around her. It eats at the light, its tendrils writhing and lashing at the air. The aura seems to emanate from the black horn protruding from her head. "I see you got rid of the Lairon, but you won't get past me, not unless you have another ceiling to collapse." She grins, showing off her impressively gleaming fangs.
"Now that's a demon if I ever saw one," a Geodude mutters.
"Remember the last guardian," Rozk warns. "He didn't die until the stranger crushed him."
Tovi remembers how battered Ryvian looked, how he had been falling apart. The Geodude and Graveler must've used all their strength on him, only to get slaughtered when he rose from blows that would've felled greater pokemon.
The group shuffles backwards, no one willing to be the first to attack the horned pokemon grinning at them. She makes no move to attack them. She must be waiting for them to make the first move. Tovi's heart beats incredibly fast.
Then three Geodude and a Graveler break out and roll at her from three sides, charging at impressive speeds. The ground thunders under their assault. Tovi puts a paw on a pokemon near her, fighting to keep her balance.
The Absol retreats a few steps and slices her horn at them. A wave of energy expands around the weapon, forming a larger version of the horn made out of pure darkness. She yells a battle cry, completely in her element.
Shick.
The four attackers lay in heaps on the floor, their bodies cut cleanly in two. The light gleams unnaturally off of the blood pooling on the floor. The Absol walks between them, flicking fragments of stone off her fur. She glances up, a challenge in her crimson eyes.
"Fire," whispers Tovi, forcing herself to stand still even though every bone in her body screams to run. Run where? There's nowhere to go. "Rozk, we need fire. How did you summon that blue fire?"
Rozk doesn't meet her eyes. "There must be another way, stranger." He shakes himself. "Too many pokemon have already died. I cannot ask-"
Tovi frowns. "I didn't say anything about-"
"What's another life?" The Absol tips her head, her eyes gleaming with interest. "Show me what you can do, monsters. I'll kill you just like the idiots who chose to attack me!"
A cry of fury erupts from the Graveler with the ring. He rips the stone from his finger and shatters the stone over his head. A thick, gooey liquid drips through the cracks of his skin. Continuing his cry, he rushes at the Absol.
She lowers her head, her horn ready to split him apart as he charges. Tovi can imagine the sick grin she's wearing.
The Graveler dashes himself against her energized blade and loses. Thr Abeol skids backwards from the force of the attack and grimaces. The two halves of the Graveler's body fall to the ground with a dull thud. Tovi winces, but she had expected it to happen.
But his blood flies through the air. Where it touches the Absol, blue fire bursts to life on her skin. She screams and rolls on the ground, batting at herself in a futile attempt to extinguish herself.
Tovi gasps, and a few of the Geodude turn away from the horrible sight. The smell of burning flesh forces its way into Tovi's nose.
The fire burns through the Absol's skin with a ferocious hunger. She falls to the ground, sobbing and whimpering to herself. Tovi has to look at the corpses on the ground to force down her pity.
"The fire only burns on living matter," Rozk murmurs bitterly. "When you came into our cave, the fire you saw was one our brothers killing himself to keep us in light for another few days. A surely painful but noble sacrifice."
You're sick.
"Let's keep going," someone says. "I can't keep looking at our brothers' corpses."
They move on, but Tovi stands still, staring at the scene of death in front of her. "Keep going, Tovi," she says to herself, ignoring the feeling of blood on her paws. She drags her feet out of the cave reluctantly.
"Wait… don't leave, please."
Tovi turns slowly, afraid of what she'll see. When she does, she wishes she had kept moving on.
Before her stands the skeleton of the Absol, its bones scorched black. It stands somehow, animated only by the ball of dark energy in its skull. Its voice trembles, and Tovi doesn't want to think about where it comes from. "Please, come back. Don't leave me down here."