Chapter 7: Mystery Foretold and the Darkness Within
There was nothing but darkness in this dungeon. The air was stagnant, and no other sounds can be heard except her breathing. She casted Shining Spheres and saw engravings on the walls of the only room of this floor. It was a poem without punctuations at the end of each sentences and the words were written in a way she could understand. It stated:
At first there was Darkness
Then it gained consciousness
It created Light as its companion
And they were together as equals
As Light radiates, Darkness expands
But gradually in time, they were not the same
Light was losing its life
Before it disappeared, it gave Darkness hope
Darkness mourned for its death
In the midst of despair, New Light appeared
New light brought joy to Darkness
And they were together as equals once more
After she had read it, a stairs appeared to lead her to another floor. There, a treasure chest was in the centre of the room and another poem was written.
One day, Darkness gave a gift to New Light
It was delighted and it opened it
To find that it was empty
But it understood the meaning of it
It embraced Darkness in happiness
And created Life
She opened the treasure chest and found a sling bag she always wanted. She strapped it on her shoulder and admired the light brown colour of the bag with daisy flower design on the front pocket. Then, another stairs appeared and she had no choice but to move on. In the next room, there was just the poem. She read:
New Light took the role of being giving Life to the realm
And Darkness helped by giving it a peaceful end
The cycle went on for finite times
One day, Darkness asked New Light whether it could create Life
New Light disagreed at first, but willing to let it try
Instead of light in Life, it created darkness
A contradictory to Life itself
Life that carried darkness could not live normally
As it could not die
And it lived painfully
Even in the pits of Netherworld
Feeling regret of what Darkness had done
It asked New Light for help
New Light took the role of Darkness
And gave the pitiful Life a proper rest
A stairs appeared once more. Eterna was curious of what next poem could be and she made her way to the next room. This time it was lengthy than the previous one and it was something extraordinary.
Darkness and New Light blessed Life that carried darkness
It was able to reborn anew as a female being
This time, she could live and die normally
Thanks to the rule of the world implemented by New Light
But one day, fate brought her into another world where strange creatures roamed
The female being had no choice but to awaken the darkness within her
To save the creatures from their doom
Knowing that she needed more help, New Light instructed one of her subjects
To give her the power of light to balance the darkness within her
And now holding the power of bright and blight
She wielded them to end the suffering of the creatures in the world they lived in
Eterna was dumbfounded. She believed that the fourth poem was depicting her. She could not understand who wrote the poems and knew what was going on even before life was created. Also, the poems added more confusion of her existence. Was she really that special after all? Did her past self as a dragon was actually immortal so New Light intervened to end its life? Now she wondered if there was another stairs in the room, would the poem showed her future? But alias, only the Warp Tile appeared. That means she could exit the dungeon now.
Feeling disappointed, she stood on Warp Tile and warped out of the dungeon. She was backed with the group so she diminished her Shining Spheres so that they would not be blind by them. She was relieved that the sling bag she wanted was strapped around her. Chestnut, Timburr and Snover wasted no time and bombarded her with questions.
"So who beat you up then?" asked Snover.
"Nothing. I just saw poems for four levels."
"Poems? That is odd. I heard Pokémons stated they encountered many Ghost and Dark types at their final stage of evolution cornered them when they lit up the room. So why is it different for you?"
"No idea. The poems were stating the relationship of light and darkness. But the last poem intrigued me..."
"What is it?" asked Timburr.
"I can say that there are beings up there watching me and helping me along the way."
"If only they can do more than helping you; such as saving this world." said Chestnut.
She smiled a little, "If they do so, you lots will depend on them for your every need. And that will make you all not truly living at all."
"Hmmm. I agree. But sometimes we just can't accept the unfairness upon us." Chestnut looked at the dead forest and continued, "Well we should move on now. I don't want to be stuck in this place at night when the mist shrouded here. Those dark Pokémons can attack us easily. "
"And we shall." replied Aura.
During their flight, there were not a single village in sight. All there could see were the gloomy Pokémons moving around. They don't talk or fight with each other; they just do what they needed to survive. There was nothing lively about this place. They stopped peering down the Pokémons and looked for the sea ahead.
They reached the shore by evening. Eterna felt ominous when the sun set in an area where there were no vibrant life. To her, the sun was the only thing that brought joy to this miserable place. It might be the same for the other Pokémons as well. And seeing that they don't move to the Xerneas' territory meant that they had no other places to live.
Aura managed to snag a 35cm long Magikarp and placed it on the sand. It flopped around, looking nervously at the group staring at it. Snover was the first to speak.
"You know…I don't feel like eating this fish. I can satisfy myself by absorbing whatever nutrients left in the soil."
"Yeah, me too." agreed Chestnut.
"I eat fishes all the time, but this is the first time I see a fish with expression. I lose my appetite by just looking at it..." said Eterna.
"I thought you Pokémons want something good to eat, and this is the easiest I can catch." commented Aura.
"Hey, stop complaining. We had to eat something nutritious since we are already out of rations long time ago. We should eat it." demanded Timburr.
Eterna was disgusted, but she knew it was better not to keep eating yucky dried grass all the time, "Argh… I know. Oh man, this Pokémon is just too cute to be eaten…"
All of a sudden, Magikarp used Flail on Eterna's face that she almost felt her jaws dislocated. Rage swelled within her and she shot out a Flamethrower and instantly barbequed the red carp before it could cry out for the last time.
Eterna closed her eyes tightly and said with horror, "Oh crap…I just killed it..."
Snover and Chestnut were petrified of the sight as well.
On the other hand, Timburr knelt beside cooked Magikarp and prayed, "Sorry that we have to eat you Magikarp. Your body will provide us the strength we need." Then, he faced Eterna, "Miss Eterna, since it is already barbequed, we should not waste it."
She screamed in her head, "You heartless bastard! Why aren't you fazed? Oh." She saw Timburr wiped out some tears off his face. She replied to him softly, "Well…okay. I shall eat then."
Snover and Chesnut still insisted of using Ingrain to leech the nutrients out of the soil, so Eterna and Timburr, except Aura, ate the fish without a word. The white meat tasted sweet, milky and a little tough; almost taste like Pacific Cod. It would be a delicious meal if they stopped thinking of eating a Pokémon for the first time.
It took an hour to finish the fish and whatever was left behind, Aura absorbed them. Timburr knew that Snover and Chestnut needed more food so he grabbed the seaweeds growing on rocks, swung them to get rid of some of the salt water and passed them to Snover and Chestnut. They graciously took the seaweeds and munched them. Next, the group need freshwater. Snover sliced the dead tree trunk and craved it into two giant bowls and a plank. Timburr scooped the seawater using one of the bowls while Chesnut gathered the remains of what Snover had discarded when craving and lumped them together. Timburr also gathered rocks to place around the sliced wood. Then, Timburr placed the bowl of seawater on the sliced wood and Chesnut put two long sticks in the sand out of harm way of the fire to add as support for the plank. The other bowl was placed at the lowest dip of the plank. Once they were done, Eterna exhaled string of fire to light up the sliced wood. They waited for the empty bowl to be filled with distilled water and to do so Timburr had to scoop another bowl of seawater so the distilled water in that bowl could be full. This process took almost an hour as the wooden plank did not add as a good collector of water vapour. But there were no smooth green leaves around so they had no choice but to stick to inefficient method.
They shared the distilled water among themselves. The light and the apparatus attracted a small group of four thirsty Mightyenas and a Poochyena. Eterna and her friends were willing to help and give them the remaining distilled water to drink. However, the dogs were still thirsty and doing another distillation would be testing their patience. All they could do was to wait for another bowl of distilled water.
Eventually, they got what they wanted and thanked the group for quenching their thirst. In return, they could lead them to a village for them to rest. It was situated somewhat near Unfathomable Cavern and that mystery dungeon was the only place that provided berries and seeds. Eterna had no doubt that it could be the only settlement in this part of the continent. They accepted the offer and Eterna suggested that they should travel on air. As usual, Chestnut was overly concerned for her.
"But how are you able to ferry all of them? They put a lot of strain in her head!"
"Still, it is faster to be in air than on ground isn't it? I don't want to eat another Pokémon again."
She was happy that she could at least overexert herself for someone. Living in a world of danger could be what she needed to trust herself more. Without further arguments, they moved on. Eterna chauffeured the dogs in her Shadowable's small commercial plane form. She belted them before taking off. She did not need to taxi on the ground since she could just levitated the plant into the air.
The leader of the pack directed her to where the village was. Aura carrying the rest was behind her. Because of the capacity of the plane, Eterna could only move it about 100km/h in the air. After five hours of night flight, the group finally spotted the lamp lights of the village. The village looked like the size of her town district and the houses were neatly in place by the side of the dirt road. Despite that, there were no guards and there were not much noise coming out of the houses. It was like the town folks had given up on living and awaiting their deaths. Mightyena, the leader of the pack told Eterna that he wanted the town folks to be lively again. If only they acknowledged a Pokémon worthy as a hero to bring down The End. Eterna did not reply. She knew too well if they knew there was a hero capable of bring The End down, their lives would be in danger as he could wipe them out.
The group landed at the entrance of the town. The entrance had two lamps lighting the worn out signboard stating 'Welcome to Mystical Hub'. The dog pack entered the town first to alert the village chief of the arrival of travellers. In a matter of minutes together with the pack of dogs, a Pokémon floated towards them. It looked like a stalk grew out of a pumpkin. Its leaves worked like hands. Despite the creepy look of the pumpkin as the main body, its small eyes and a wide smile of its face toned down its scary appearance.
"Hello," it spoke in a male tone, "welcome to my village Mystical Hub. My name is Gourgeist. Thank you for helping my fellow villagers. As you can see, the mood in this town is rather gloomy. No thanks to what The End had done to this land."
Timburr nodded, "Yes it is horrible. Mister Gourgeist, we have come quite a vast distance to reach here. Can we take a rest here?"
He smiled, "By all means, yes! Come, I shall lead you all to an empty house."
As they walked, Chestnut spoke to the rest of the group, "How long are we gonna rest here?"
Timburr answered, "As long as we want to. Won't be nice to have some beddings to sleep on once in a while? And we can top up our water and food supplies as well."
Snover stretched his arms and smiled, "Ah, it is nice to sleep in a house protected by winds, sun and rain. It is better that we are all rest up for the journey ahead; good for our body and mind."
"I agree." said Eterna. "It is my first time on an adventure and so I am the easiest to be burnt out."
They reached the empty house. The house was made up of wood and the wooden windows could only be closed by swinging inwards. In the interior of the house, the floor were covered in dried shred grass and smelled like tatami. At the left there was a huge basin of freshwater with some bowls placed beside it for drinking. There was a basket of seven berries at the right and a lamp was hanged at the centre of the house. Gourgeist lit the lamp using Will-of-the Wisp so that the group would not have trouble putting their stuff on the floor. Eterna felt that the village chief had prepared these in anticipation of travellers visiting the place. She could not but help to ask him why.
"Mister Gourgeist, are these empty houses are always serviced or something? I didn't expect there are things in the house for our comfort."
"We have travellers come from Magica Settlement where the Magician Pokémons roam. They come here to rest and gather ingredients from Unfathomable Cavern to make potions and other sorcery items. And so, I instructed the villagers to clean and resupply the houses after the magicians left or every month. Alright! Enjoy your stay."
The group thanked him and the dog pack and entered the house once they had moved away. Snover was the first one to lie on the grassy floor and rolled all over. Eterna giggled at the sight of it and Timburr immediately stopped him for messing up. Eventually they settled in for the night and went into a deep sleep with the lamp light blown out. Aura did not need to sleep and kept on a constant lookout for dangers.
After an hour or so, it heard some commotions outside and listened to a female whispered something.
"Remember to put them into a trance state so that they will not wake up till we reach to Unearthly Domain. They must not be hurt at all cost."
That was enough to alert Aura of the danger they going to face. It instantly phased through the walls of the house and encountered a group of five Mismagiuses surprised of its appearance.
Aura spoke coldly, "Not when I'm around."
It lashed out a blast of black smoke at them. The ghost Pokémons managed to protect themselves using Safeguard and one of them entered the house. Aura chased after her but the rest pinned it down using Dazzling Gleam. It struggled under the light and trying its best to not be vaporise away. In desperation, it called its friends to wake up.
As for its friends, they were already casted under a spell by Mismagius and could not able to hear its voice. She used Psychic to carry the group out of the house and left the battle in her gang's hands. Aura would not give up and concentrated a little of its aura and sent it away to the direction of its friends were. There, it entered Eterna's body, and Aura hoped it was enough to break the spell.
However, it did not just break the spell. A huge gush of black aura emerged out of her. Mismagius who used Psychic to carry them stopped doing so and Chesnut, Timburr and Snover were dropped onto the ground, but only Eterna levitated and moved towards her. The ghost Pokémon was fearful and backed away from her, until Eterna's black aura formed into ropes and wrapped her up tightly. Then, she opened her eyes and they were beaming in red.
She spoke, "You dare to cast a spell on me when I was asleep? How cowardly! How about I show you my own?"
Her body changed into ash white in a flash. She read Mismagius's mind first and grinned maniacally. Then, she lifted her right paw at her, saying, "Essence Lock."
A strong curse was imposed on the ghost and the black roped turned into her flaming containment. The flames even filtered any screams from her and when the flames went out, she became in a vegetable state and floated down onto the ground. The four other Mismagiuses were terrified and self-consciously weakened Dazzling Light; letting Aura had some time regenerating its power.
Eterna floated down at Mismagius side and said, "Well then, how is it like to have your spirit sealed? Enjoy till the end of your life haha!" Then, she faced the other four, "Do you pesky ghosts want to suffer the same fate as her? If not, cease your light attacks."
They were shaken and ended their attacks.
She smiled, "Good. Now take your friend and leave."
Without a word, they quickly retrieved their friend and floated away. Once the gang were out of sight, she undid the curse she placed on their friend. Next, she moved to Aura and commented, "You have the guts to awaken me Aura. I could end you in your weaken state for robbing all my power during our first encounter, but not today."
Aura asked cautiously, "Eterna, is it really you?"
"Yes and no. What you did was you pulled out my darkest conscious of my mind which removes all my fear and morality. I can tell you truthfully that I do not feel any guilt from killing you. The only thing I hold back my action is I know you are important to me. And so, you must not awaken me again. Understand?"
Aura explained, "The situation called for it and I could only summoned your dark power within you."
"No matter how treacherous position we are in, do not do this again. I do not just curse any beings; I can instantly eliminate anyone as well. You don't want me to kill your friends aren't you?" Then, she looked at her sleeping friends, "Speaking of friends, maybe I should help them as well since now I am sane."
She shot a black flame at Chestnut, Timburr and Snover to remove the spell. They were giddy and sore from the fall and they opened their eyes and saw Eterna in her other form.
"Eterna?" appalled Chestnut. His body shivered at the sight of her as he reminisced what she had done in his hometown that time.
"And now," she continued, "drain my power again Aura before I change my mind in killing you all. Ah yes, I found out that fulgy pumpkin had sent those frill dressed ghosts after us. Do whatever you want with him."
Chestnut could not believe what he had heard, "Mister Gourgeist? What did he…"
Aura did as what Eterna requested and took all the power out of her. She had transformed back to her normal self and fainted on the ground. Chestnut, Timburr and Snover rushed to her. They demanded Aura to tell them why Eterna was in her other form once again and why the village chief was mentioned by her. Their loud words had woken some of the villagers and they opened the door to see what was going on. Aura had no choice but to tell its friends that they had to leave this place and it would reveal what had happened.
