To a lesser degree, a light surrounded the zorua as well, and Absolution found himself backing away from her subconsciously as the brighter light surrounded her friend.

"What's happening!?" He queried, though not exactly expecting an answer. The light was familiar, as it should be, Absolution had seen plenty of evolution ceremonies in his time, but this was, somehow, different.

At the source of the light was Vanilla, though it didn't make sense. Eevee are no stranger to evolution, but there had been no contact with an Evolution Stone. There was nothing like that kept inside the Forum Chamber.

The whys and hows would have to wait. Absolution didn't have the luxury of letting this eevee gain the upper paw. Just as the light began to dim, he charged up his next attack. Ensuring that his aim was true, the absol unleashed his strongest Shadow Ball yet.

The first thing that Vanilla noticed was that everything was so very bright. The light made everything look small, yet without any loss of detail. The next thing on the list of things to notice was that he was no longer bound to the ground.

Things were moving slowly, but that somehow seemed normal. It gave him time to appreciate the changes he now felt.

Looking at his front paws, he found four orbs floating around them, each a different combination of color. Further up his foreleg, he discovered that his fur seemed to be growing into some sort of indistinct cloud as the strands faded into the very air.

A dark spot filled his vision, growing as its distance decreased. Instinct drove him to manipulate one of the orbs, the marbled white one, and suddenly the dark spot was no more, it's energy redirected violently around his impromptu shielding.

'Fascinating!' Vanilla thought to himself as he wondered what the other three spheres were for.

Once the problem dealt with, the marble shifted away from his paw and into line with the other twelve orbs that orbited his frame. As another orb replaced it, this one filled with green swirls, Vanilla made a new discovery. His ears, and lower torso also ended in the same wispy nothingness he'd found present on his legs. When had that happened?

Another sphere of black formed in his vision. That wasn't normal, was it? He'd have to put a stop to that. Looking to the four spheres in front of him, he chose the one filled with brown, strong-looking, geometric shapes.

This time, the ground erupted underneath the growing black sphere, sending its creator to the side of the room that was the furthest away from a little light nearby.

Vanilla recognized the little light as his friend, but an explanation as to how or why he felt as such eluded him. The real question was why the room seemed to be growing colder.

Swirls of icy shards twirled around a white pokemon, probably the same one displaced by the rocks earlier, the origin was of no real consequence here. The only thing that mattered was that the shards were threatening his little light.

Choosing the brilliant orange orb, the ice in front of it vanished into steam in an instant, the short blast sending the opponent hurtling into the wall behind him. Vapor rose from the surrounding rock as temperatures attempted some form of equilibrium, and the sound of something collapsing drew Vanilla's attention.

No longer bound by ice, another white pokemon slipped into the haze below. Vanilla felt concern, but none of the four spheres he had at his disposal seemed likely to help. Grabbing the swirling purple orb, he discharged its energy. Nothing seemed to happen, but the ball turned gray and moved to the reserves anyway. Maybe its replacement would be of more use.

As soon as Vanilla floated nearer to the collapsed white pokemon, he felt his opponent gain ground. It was almost certainly an attempt to prevent him from using another orb effectively. Though he wasn't sure how he possessed such information, it didn't matter as much as the electrical energy crackled behind him. Thunder wave, most likely.

It would seem his green orb, the first he'd received from the elemental reserve, was next in line. Thick, yet flexible vines tore through the tile and seized the opponent's rear paws, instantly altering his trajectory. The white pokemon hit the ground, hard, his attack interrupted long before it could connect.

Recovering from the fall, the white pokemon was breathing heavily now, and seemed to be having trouble seeing out of one of his eyes. The other, fully functional eye glowed with both hatred and fear.

"What are you!?" Absolution questioned in desperation.

"Curious." His own voice boomed. "An odd question. I'm still me, aren't I? That would make the most sense, and yet, I'm no longer the old me, aren't I? Therefore, to answer your question, I am the same, and yet I am not."

"B-but you've evolved!"

"That would be apparent."

Absolution was only buying time to think about his next course of action. Certainly, Vanilla's change had to have been caused by something, he only needed to discover what it was, then maybe… "How?" he asked.

"To be honest, I'm not really-" Vanilla started before his opponent used Shadow Pulse to remove his bonds.

The evolved eevee wasn't the only thing glowing in the room, Absolution had noticed. His friend, the zorua, was glowing slightly too. Or rather, it was the stone around her neck that was shining. 'That must be it, the key to this whole ordeal!' The absol thought before breaking through the vines with his attack. 'If I can finish the zorua off, it might be enough to subdue the whelp!' he thought as he dashed off.

The eevee, however, had made his move even before he had finished his sentence. Using the misty blue orb, the absol suddenly found himself at the receiving end of his own Thunder Wave.

The paralysis sent him tumbling to the ground in a heap. Struggling to move was just about the only thing he could do. "No!" Absolution shouted. He'd been so close.

"This fight is over. That much should be obvious?"

"It will never be over!" Absolution shouted as he attempted to charge a Shadow Ball. His target was the zorua, but, before he could finish his last-ditch attack, a harsh beam of pure, psychic light smashed into him from above. Not even a dark-type was immune to the level of energy he was being bombarded with, and soon, the absol's ball of shadow slipped away along with his last scrap of consciousness.