The lights glinting below him might have looked pretty, thought Sven as he gazed at the expanse of his army from above. His nose inches from the glass window, he smirked. There was no 'pretty' in war, no beauty in the maze of blood and fire he had set up. There was pure destruction and rage, and nothing less. He had successfully awakened every soldier- every man and woman commanded at least one soul. The process had been surprisingly easy once the scientists had figured it out.
Sven remembered the tiny moment of panic he had when he found out that Ash Ketchum had invaded his lair. He hadn't cared for the prisoners, or for their Pokemon. He did not care for the men Ketchum had felled- to care was to be weak. But he had been afraid that the Ketchum boy would find the secret he had been keeping for so long. In its prenatal stages, interference would be fatal to his cause. He knew that, had Ketchum found the secret laboratory several levels below Gary Oak's cell, the boy would have destroyed every single one of the intricate machines being experimented with. He perhaps would not have understood the powers they unleashed, but he most definitely would have seen it as vital to Sven's plan. Had those been destroyed, his plan would have taken several hundred steps backward.
The solution was not to analyze, he understood that now. That was the fortunate mistake Oak and Birch seemed to be making- thinking that the stones and artifacts uncovered from centuries ago needed to be studied, and not used. Once Sven had realized this, he had begun to use the Stones, and the Moral Disk had been a key in everything he did. Admittedly, analysis was impossible because the Disk, being the most revered and ancient artifact from the beginning of time, was magically protected in every possible way. Sven turned on his heel to look at the Disk, which was affixed to a stand right in the center of his room. Measuring seven feet in diameter, the circular object had illegible runes all over it. Once his scientists had told him, to his fury, that they had had no success in interpreting the Disk, he had changed his mind. The designs were slowly completed, and once he himself finished training to drain the powers of the Pokemon soul on his own, he knew how the process worked.
The first design had been an ultimate failure, though he sought to eventually perfect it. The machine was designed to be 'all-powerful'- to seek out powerful Pokemon souls all over the world and pull them out of bodies without actually being in contact with them. The magical ghostly claw that appeared to tug out a soul had been a frightfully perfect weapon for Sven, but when it was deemed to not be all-powerful, he dropped the idea. The claw could be defeated with enough power, power which his enemies possessed. Long-distance soul capture was too weak to use, and this was proved when the machine finally splintered into pieces when trying to capture a soul from Lavaridge Town over a month ago. Sven did not see it as a coincidence that Ash Ketchum returned to the scene immediately after this.
And now, the machine created by his loyal followers was the epitome of perfection. With a sleek silver contraption that attached to a Pokemon, and powered purely by electricity and the Moral Disk, the machine could forcefully release the soul- and if the Pokemon resisted too much, there would be failure on both sides. The machine would release its hold, and the Pokemon would die. Soon, the machine was too powerful to resist, and could be hooked to a human being to create an artificial bond between soul and human. The result was something that Ash Ketchum could not counter. A bond between Pokemon and trainer can release the soul and make the pair hundreds of times stronger, but when the bond was forcefully made, and the soul was subservient, the strength was multiplied by the thousands.
The army of souls was just that- an army. These were creatures to command, not to request- these were beasts that were meant to obey and not share a personal relationship with. This power had left his soldiers brutal in combat.
But Sven had a very small, very minute, bit of doubt in his mind. That doubt was Ash Ketchum and his friends. His spies had spread themselves thin all over Hoenn, and had reported the massing of an army large enough to attempt to oppose him. The spies had also reported sightings of reappearing Gym leaders and one Gary Oak. But nothing was said of Ash Ketchum. His assassination squad led by Blaine had never reported back, and he had originally assumed they had failed and Ketchum had left them dead. But not one of his trained spies had seen the trainer. He had seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet…
Had he run away? Gone back into hiding like a scared rat? No, this one would not do that. The doubt that stemmed from Ketchum's absence would not be erased until the total annihilation of the rebels. Would Ketchum eventually reappear? Sven smiled. If he did, there would be a corpse in his place, just an empty vessel after Sven was done with him.
Then there was the problem of Gary Oak and Robin Molly. Sven had not expected the move to unite the Rangers and the Trainers- he would not have thought it possible for the two bands to come together. But of course, in the face of any conflict, the people came together- against a common enemy- him. Gary Oak troubled him more than anything. If Oak was the boy he had been years ago, Sven would have to deal with him personally, just like his Pallet Town comrade. The fury that Oak could display towards his opponents was a characteristic Sven believed vital to winning any conquest. But the dangerous creature that was Umbreon had apparently been killed a long time ago, at around the same time Ketchum's electric rat had crumbled. Sven whispered their names to himself.
"Ash Ketchum, Gary Oak…"
Names that would no longer be uttered once he took hold of the world.
"Oak."
"Oak."
"Mmh, what is it?"
"It's done."
"What is done. The night? Let me sleep, Birch."
"OAK. The computer is done. The translation is done."
Professor Oak slowly raised his head from the desk it had been resting on. His eyes, still half-closed, began opening as he processed what his colleague had said. He looked at Birch for confirmation. The other Professor nodded grimly. The two had been waiting for the final translation to complete, so they could finally understand the complicated runes on the Law Stone, but had promptly fallen asleep on their desks. It was still early in the morning, not yet dawn, so the lab was deserted and in darkness, apart from white light bursting from the computer screen, splashing onto Birch's face. Oak sat up stiffly as he noticed the seriousness in Birch's dimly lit face.
"Well, read it out." Oak said, pulling out the notepad from underneath the desk.
"Here lies writ in stone the account of the First Sage, from the beginning of time and space, from the end of nothing and the beginning of everything.
"From the soil of the earth, the waters of the oceans, and the air of the sky, I have created a beast. Every creation is new and unlike the other. The beasts do not attack me- they wait for my order. I am the Creator, the builder of all things."
Oak began to burn with curiosity.
"They have powers, much like me. When I release my magic from inside, they respond by releasing theirs. It is the same type of magic."
Birch paused.
"The magic from inside. The soul, no doubt about it." He said. Oak nodded. Birch continued.
"After many suns and moons, I have understood. I ingested their magic on the first moon. I commanded their fiery powers on the second moon, and I understood. These are not powers to be controlled or commanded by ordinary mortals. But I am no ordinary mortal. I have seen the magic, and the power that almost consumed me by the thirty sixth moon.
"I have decided that this power can never be held, never be touched, never be controlled by the others. This power should not be wielded, not even by me. I have created the Gates. Five there will be, each one of sacrifice and suffering, each one of toil and trouble. If the Gates are passed through, the power to control my magic will be available to the seeker of power. But for a limited time. I will provide the seeker with unlimited power, all the fire, all the anger, all the control, but he will have to walk the Paths."
"The paths?"
"The Path of Blood. The Path of Fire. The Path of Pain."
Oak repeated those words in his head before Birch went on.
"The Path of Blood is a test as well as a boon to the seeker. Darkness and blood will envelop him, leaving him vulnerable to the feeling of bloodlust and power. He will forget his life and his loves, and nothing but hate will reside within his soul.
"The Path of Fire is an unsurmountable rage, rage that no creature can mimic. Within this inferno, he will be a complete monster of wrath.
"The Path of Pain is the last, and the final path he can walk. He will understand what it is to be a lone soul, without the bonds of humanity and fragility, and he will feel it tearing at his heart. This will be his final walk of life, he will walk no more."
Silence enveloped the laboratory. Birch and Oak could only understand one thing: the weight of the words they just listened to. But they did not understand much else, until Oak found himself shivering violently. Images of icy caves and frigid energies hit him harder than stones on his old bones. Everything seemed to be tied to this.
"Ash." he whispered.
"What?" Birch looked up, startled. His expression transformed from shock into horror as he recounted Oak's stories, and of the grim conversation Ash had had with the Professor before he…disappeared underwater.
"Gary said there had been a barrier they needed to cross, a barrier that Ash crossed on his own. Could it be..?" Birch asked, fearing Oak's answer. Professor Oak nodded slowly, as if every movement had a different burden.
"I fear…I fear that Ash has, or is, passing through these…Gates."
"But the Paths.. they end with.."
"His final walk of life. His end."
Oak was stunned.
His end.