Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.
Author Notes: Chapter 31 is here! Enjoy!
I want to give a heartful shoutout to all the people that have decided to support me in my writing endeavors so far!
Thanks to CreeperMaster343, Guardian Lucario, Phoenix the Icetales, Godzillafan86, Aspergillus nidulans, and T_2the_homas77!
Special thanks to SGWarrior, RapidRotation, ZeusDog17, and FinalDragon!
Legendary thanks to ThatAverageDude, Roasted Cashew, and Caitou zzzzzz!
I also want to give a big thank you to my two beta-readers, who always do their best in helping my writing be the best it can be. Thanks, Ri2, for always going over my chapters and making sure my writing looks polished and tidy! And thanks, Shakari, for always being there to go over all the plot, characters, and ideas of every chapter to make sure everything's coherent! The arc that's just begun is very complex and we've spent a lot of time building it, so we hope you enjoy it!
…
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Chapter 31 — Clash of Titans: Ambush
The peaceful visage of a resting black dragoness disappeared in an instant. With her teeth bared ferociously, a pair of yellow eyes snapped open and a harrowing growl that made the sky itself rumble with the unbound power of an enraged goddess thundered throughout the region.
Skailyn abruptly rose from her resting place on the lush grass and took to the sky, uncoiling the full one hundred and forty feet of her great serpentine body in a rapid and smooth motion. The goddess rocketed away as soon as she cleared Emerald Paradise's immediate vicinity, flying at such speed that she disappeared past the horizon near-instantly. By her will, the ensuing sonic boom contained itself and caused no disturbances to the island and its local population.
No words needed to be spoken.
Phaedra rose to her full height, a snarl escaping her jaws as she did so. Her eyes glowed a deep sapphire blue, causing the lake at the center of the island to ripple. A figure made of water rose from it, taking on a shape that heavily resembled that of an avian. A flash of blue energy caused the Substitute to solidify into a near-exact replica of the Lugia who had created it, though only about a third of the size. The light in Phaedra's eyes intensified, causing the replica to glow a deep blue aura as an immense amount of power was fed into it.
Phaedra's eyes dimmed back to normal once she finished creating and programming her Substitute, which calmly walked over to where Silver was looking at her with cautious eyes. Phaedra gave her baby brother a reassuring nod and whirled around while spreading her great wings. With a single powerful flap, she rose into the air, flying briefly before diving into the crystal-clear ocean. The moment she touched the surface, the Lugia's eyes let out a powerful pulse of light that spread throughout the ocean and went far beyond the horizon—an encoded message to her parents.
The waters around the island grew agitated as Phaedra's body whirled ferociously, forming a powerful underwater tornado that gave birth to a new ocean current that surged across the seafloor in the direction of mainland Hoenn.
"Hey, remind me to never try to beat a psychic in a splash fight ever again," Ash said as he stepped out of the ocean until only his ankles were submerged under the gentle waves. He caught a towel that was thrown at him by Brock and used it to dry off his hair and face. "That was rather one-sided."
"Yeah, it was," Pikachu agreed as he skipped out of the water. He stopped a few feet into the sand and shook himself dry.
Latias giggled as she flew past them, her eyes glowing a soft shade of blue from the minute pulse of psychic power that she used to dry off her feathers. "You do that every time we're at a beach or a pool and never learn your lesson."
Ash blinked. "True," he admitted after a moment's thought. "I get caught up in the occasion, I guess."
Latias opened her mouth to reply but froze on the spot instead. Pikachu's ears perked up and his body tensed. Latios shifted to the side and looked toward the open waters apprehensively.
Ash stopped moving, noticing the troubled reaction of the three Pokémon. "Huh, what's—"
A coarse and rumbling sound thundered throughout the area, making the air vibrate with an eerie breeze and the sea's waves kick up ominously. As fast as the sound came it was gone, yet it left an unsettling feeling permeating through the environment.
"What was that?" Bianca asked slowly, looking up at the sky with an unnerved expression on her face.
"That didn't sound good," Pikachu noted while looking around worriedly. "It sounded like a growl, I think."
"It did," Latios said with a shudder. "Something… or someone really big is furious."
"Should we be worried?" Latias asked, glancing at her brother uncertainly.
"I don't know," Latios replied. "It sounded far away. Hopefully, it has nothing to do with us. But considering our recent luck…" He sighed. "I can't be so sure."
"Don't jinx it," Pikachu warned sternly.
"If it's far away, wouldn't that make it even scarier?" Brock wondered, holding a finger to his chin. "We still heard it loud and clear, after all. It can't be good news."
Latias frowned. "I've got a bad feeling about this." Her eyes widened as something she couldn't quite pinpoint suddenly surfaced to her empathic senses. As it became clearer, her attention shifted toward Ash and the flurry of emotions that erupted from him like a maelstrom. Anger. Resentment. Fear. And, above all, determination. Latias narrowed her eyes at him. "Ash?"
Ash let out a profound gasp and fell to his knees, clutching his head in pain.
The sky rumbled and wind currents churned as if voluntarily parting away for Skailyn. The massive black dragoness cruised through the sky at supersonic speeds, heading relentlessly toward Hoenn's coastline. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as the landmass came into view in the distance. 'Azrael, you did not just dare challenge me.' She scowled. 'After all you've put Latios' family through…' Thoughts of the curse of Alto Mare and Latios' death from over a century ago rushed through her mind like vivid flashbacks, only to fade away into a happier memory of the two lovely children who she had been tasked to protect. 'You dare attack our kin again? I will not let you harm the twins!'
Skailyn's head tilted up in a split-second reaction as a massive orb of crackling darkness suddenly burst through the clouds and headed toward her, followed by an equally large beam of volatile orange energy. Skailyn stopped instantly, causing the clouds near her to be blasted outward from the sheer violence of her momentum shift. Her eyes glowed with dark green light as she glared at the incoming Shadow Ball. The ghost-type attack shuddered and then collapsed on itself, violently shredded into nothingness by her unbending willpower.
The goddess then raised her tail so it was in front of her body, intercepting the giant Hyper Beam with the fanned plates at its tip. The beam collided against the plates with potent force, yet failed to make it budge. Skailyn held her tail up for a moment before swatting it to the side, violently dissipating the Hyper Beam into a series of powerful explosions on a wide arc around her.
Skailyn lowered her tail, taking note of the two presences that now levitated before her. A massive Mega Gengar, easily looking to be over a hundred feet tall, and an Alakazam that was only a bit shorter than that. She scoffed while thinking, 'Strange, I couldn't sense them and the wind didn't warn me of their presence either. My connection to the world seems fuzzy as well. It's exactly as every Legendary that's had run-ins with Azrael describes. How does he do that, though?'
"This is as far as you'll go!" the Alakazam shouted challengingly, raising both of his heavy spoons so they were pointed directly at the black Rayquaza.
"Trust me, you don't want to do this," Skailyn advised as she flew ahead. The goddess let out a threatening growl that caused the sky all around them to tremble at the same time as the golden runes that ran down the length of her enormous body began to pulse ominously with dark green energy. "I'll give you one chance to rethink your actions because your 'king' is not worth dying for. Move or die."
The Alakazam froze in place as Skailyn moved closer. Even though the dragoness didn't appear that much larger than him due to her serpentine body, there was something about her that made him feel as if her presence alone towered over the two of them by miles. The utter power in each of her words and the way the sky itself quaked in perfect rhythm with her deep voice left his powerful mind paralyzed with something he had never felt before. Fear. The Alakazam nervously glanced at the worryingly unconcerned Gengar at his side.
Gengar made a thoughtful face, mockingly tapping his chin with one of the claws on his front appendages. "Okay, my actions have been rethought." He chuckled and smirked viciously. "Here's my answer." The eerie third eye on Gengar's forehead opened and focused its attention on the approaching goddess. An emerald-green crystal orb at the center of the pupil shimmered in bright green light, releasing an intense wave of radiating energy from its confines.
Skailyn froze as her eyes focused on the Jade Orb. She snarled as the orb's radiation washed over her, surrounding her in the firm grip of its noxious aura. It felt like a roaring blast full of hate and fury seeping into her and spreading like a deadly poison throughout her being, causing searing pain to violently flare in every fiber of her body as the orb's influence spread deeper and deeper, sadistically clawing through her like serrated icy blades.
Skailyn bared her teeth as she resisted through the pain, refusing to give her assailants even the slightest sign of weakness as her draconic and air powers went completely haywire. The sickening sound of ripping flesh and armor echoed through the air as many armored scales across her body cracked and split open, releasing occasional bursts of dark green energy. Her hands closed tightly and her claws raked her palms. She gritted her teeth and caused some of the scales on her lips to tear from the pressure. She could feel some of her internal muscles rip and spasm under the relentless assault. Through it all, the runes running through her body pulsed erratically with dark green energy as her ghost powers tried desperately to contain the immense damage.
Skailyn's eyes flashed once with pure determination as she raised her head and glared at the two assailants, even as a thick trickle of blood ran down the edge of her mouth. Not once did she allow them to hear a single complaint of pain. "So, is it going to be just you two against me? At least give me a challenge," Skailyn rasped, her voice coming out thick and grated as her body rose proudly to her full height. She locked eyes with the Gengar, glaring at him with such intensity that it caused an involuntary shudder to course through his ghostly form. "When we're done… I'm going to kill you personally, traitor."
"I'd like to see you try." Gengar stopped for a moment, pondering his options. "You said you want a challenge?" He glanced at Alakazam.
Alakazam gave him a nod, reassured by the amount of damage the goddess took. "We'll give you a challenge," he repeated as he held his spoons up. His eyes glowed with vibrant blue light, followed by both of his spoons.
A deafening boom echoed from high above as a titanic Gyarados, almost three times larger than Skailyn was at over four hundred feet long, suddenly teleported into existence. The beast's immense weight caused it to immediately plummet toward her. The Gyarados roared angrily, jaws opening wide as it tumbled down toward the black dragoness like a raging mountain.
"Guess so," Skailyn whispered to herself. She snarled and bared her blood-red teeth, not caring that the vibrations caused a scale on her cheek to crack with a burst of erratic draconic energy. Skailyn let out a massive roar that caused the entire sky to tremble as a thundering wave of her power fiercely spread out in all directions and blasted dozens of clouds away, easily drowning out the Gyarados' roar as if it was a dying whimper. Her battle cry made at full intensity and her challenge laid out, the black Rayquaza lunged upward to meet the incoming threat.
Pikachu tilted his head and looked at the young trainer worriedly. "Ash, are you okay?"
"Something's wrong," Latias said, a concerned expression flashing on her face. "Something's very wrong."
Latios' ears perked up. He turned away from the sea and looked at the scene with a confused expression. "What's going on?"
Brock and Bianca looked at each other uncertainly. Brock hummed in thought and took a few steps forward. "Maybe he's just dizzy or seasick—"
"No, not that. Something… else," Latias clarified. Her eyes glowed as she psychically tried to probe Ash's body and mind for anything suspicious. However, she gasped when she found her psychic powers to be completely ineffective against him. It felt exactly as if she was trying to use them on a dark-type. The sensations picked up by her empathy worsened. "Something is very wrong!"
Latios' gaze focused on Ash, observing the trainer carefully. While he did not possess empathy as his sister did, he trusted her judgment wholeheartedly. "Ash?" he asked tentatively.
Ash's hands balled into fists on the moist sand under him, leaving deep markings that were swiftly swept away by the waves. The young boy slowly stood up as a vile shroud of dark purple and black aura came to life around him. He raised his head and locked eyes with Latios.
Latios' red eyes widened and the world seemed to come to a complete standstill around him. Ash's eyes were lost and empty. Behind them was something that the dragon couldn't quite understand, yet felt eerily familiar at the same time. Through the bond he shared with the trainer ever since the events of Alto Mare came a desperate rattle that struck a deep chord within the dragon. He gasped as a torrent of memories and emotions flooded into his mind from as far back as the time where he was just an egg. It was a primal and instinctual feeling, something far deeper than his consciousness that he couldn't grasp yet almost told a full story. "You're not Ash," he realized at last, recognizing that it was some kind of possession. "You're… from Alto Mare."
The thing that was not Ash smiled. "I'm surprised you recognize me, in a way."
A rampant shockwave tore through the air and the sound of a deafening crash boomed through the heavens as Skailyn and the monstrous Gyarados collided midair in a ferocious clash of titans. Despite the tons upon tons of body mass that just violently crashed into her and worsened the sharp pain she was continuously enduring, Skailyn didn't flinch and her flight did not stutter. The two serpentine beasts coiled around one another, each trying to outdo the other in a deadly dance.
The Gyarados' far superior size finally allowed him to completely coil around the legendary dragon. The monster swung his immense head around while letting out a rumbling triumphant chuckle, powerful jaws wide open and fangs glistening with a sheen of eerie darkness. The jaws completely circled Skailyn's midsection and then crunched down with tremendous force. The weakened scales cracked noticeably where the fangs sunk in and released a steaming eruption of green draconic energy tinted with the red of blood.
"Quick, restrain her!" Gengar commanded hastily. "We need to stall her for as long as possible!" He raised both of his front appendages and then fired off two clawed hands made of purple oozing shadows. The Shadow Claws soared through the air and firmly closed around Skailyn's neck.
Alakazam's eyes and spoons glowed with bright blue light, the black markings tattooed throughout his body shimmering as they augmented his telekinetic powers. With a war cry, the huge psychic-type fired a potent wave of telekinetic energy that surged ahead and surrounded the black dragoness' arms and claws in a bright bind of azure light.
As the three monsters fought to restrain her, Skailyn spared a single side glance at Hoenn's coastline in the distance, behind Alakazam and Gengar. It was as if time slowed down to a crawl for her. There was no hiding from the eyes of a goddess whose gaze could see through all planes of existence. At long last, for the first time in several millennia, Skailyn saw him again. The one entity that she was tasked to stop, the one who caused so much grief to those she considered her family. There he was… with the twins.
'You won't hurt those kids ever again!' Skailyn bared her teeth and shifted her upper body with such strength that the coil of the Gyarados' body that was meant to hold her head in place slipped off her completely, causing her horns to leave two deep gashes on his hide. The black Rayquaza twisted her upper body around, opened her jaws, and lunged down at the Gyarados' head.
Gengar let out an angered roar, pulling Skailyn's neck with his Shadow Claws with as much strength as he could muster. "Stop her!" he shouted desperately.
Alakazam let out a panicked gasp as he shifted part of his psychic grasp to instead wrap it around Skailyn's head in an attempt to immobilize her. The Gyarados' eyes shifted as he noticed the incoming lunge. He freed his tail from the mass of coils, whipped it up, and wrapped it around Skailyn's neck tightly.
Skailyn scoffed as the combined effort of the three beasts only barely managed to grind her head to a halt. She made a slight pause and then pressed ahead with as much physical strength as her badly-wounded body could muster. Skailyn's upper body pushed against the intense restraints on her, bringing her opened jaws closer and closer to the Gyarados' vulnerable head.
The muscles on Gyarados' tail tensed and throbbed painfully as they struggled to keep Skailyn at bay, making the beast let out a growl of discomfort. Gengar and Alakazam both grimaced as their own binds began to falter. Gengar's Shadow Claws crackled and became hazy, and the blue glow around the goddess' arms and head sizzled erratically. Despite their best attempts, Skailyn's arms—along with those deadly claws— and jaws still moved closer to the Gyarados' body every second.
"This isn't working!" Alakazam cried in alarm, glancing at the Gengar uncertainly. "Why are we still here? The others are waiting in the ocean!"
Gengar's body leaned back and his face contorted with visible strain as he desperately pulled with all of his strength. "She was supposed to fall from the sky when Gyarados landed on her! But she didn't!"
Alakazam scowled, eyes and spoons glowing fiercely as he pulled with as much of his vast psychic powers as he could muster. "This won't do," he mumbled while sending a telepathic distress signal to his remaining allies.
The space beside the two titans shimmered for a moment and then ignited in a booming blast due to the giant Claydol teleporting into the area. "I see the plan is already falling apart," it noted drily.
"Bring her down! Bring her down! We can't hold her any longer!" Gengar shouted urgently, ethereal voice strained from the effort.
"Understood." Claydol's eight red eyes glowed with an ominous light. The entire area around the giant combatants churned and flickered with ghastly streaks of purple energy that seemed to magically weave themselves throughout the sky in an eerie manner.
Gengar and Alakazam winced as their bodies became heavier. However, they remained steadfast amid the Claydol's Gravity attack. Claydol's eight eyes flashed again. Far above the struggle between Skailyn and Gyarados, another detonation rippled through the air.
The colossal Feraligatr that materialized above them let out a thundering roar as she immediately succumbed to the effects of the augmented gravity. As the beast plummeted like a raging meteor, her arms and jaws froze with a fearsome sea of jagged icicles.
With a brave war cry, the water-type titan collided into Skailyn and the Gyarados with near immeasurable force as if she was a deadly Avalanche, amplified by the heightened gravity. The collision set forth a crushing shockwave in every direction that violently hurled chunks of ice like a raging blizzard, its howl accompanied by the screech of pain from the Gyarados.
But only his.
The overwhelming weight of the two beasts and the attacks hitting Skailyn finally overpowered her flight and sent her tumbling into the ocean below. Even as the fierce impact tore large chunks of scales off her and agonizingly rattled every nerve of her body which was still burning from the inside out due to her exposure to the Jade Orb, Skailyn didn't give them the pleasure of hearing a single pained grunt from her.
The trio crashed into the ocean and tore apart the once-calm surface with a ferocious impact that sent a towering geyser into the air and caused a large tidal wave to arise in a wide ring. Among the confusion of the violent impact, Skailyn recovered first by far. She immediately spun her body in a sharp turn, using the fall's momentum and the force of their impact to throw the still-rattled Gyarados off her.
Once Skailyn was free of his coils, she swiftly darted upward and broke through the ocean's surface, sending another potent surge of water in every direction in the process. 'They're irrelevant. Azrael is the target.' Skailyn accelerated in an attempt to use her speed to bypass her opponents, the water practically parting in her wake.
Claydol descended from the sky directly above the dragoness' flight trajectory. The two spherical arms at its sides pointed down, spheres of freezing blue energy forming in front of them. Claydol took careful aim, doing its best to calculate the optimal attack vector given the black Rayquaza's daunting speed, and fired the two enormous clusters of ice-cold energy.
Skailyn noticed the incoming Ice Beam attacks out the corner of her eye. She made a seamless swirl with her long body, easily snaking past the two icy beams, which collided against the ocean's surface with such force that it lifted a towering geyser that immediately froze into a pillar of ice along with a large portion of the surrounding surface.
The water in front of Skailyn erupted in a powerful spout as a colossal form emerged from the ocean's depths. With her speed boosted immensely by a torrential Aqua Jet, the Kabutops lunged at the soaring Rayquaza. She roared angrily as a sleek coat of oozing darkness formed on both of her scythes and then swung them in a wide arc. Skailyn snaked around the two Night Slashes and curved her body around Kabutops in a near-instantaneous motion, leaving the fossil Pokémon looking around for her in a confused manner.
Skailyn rocketed ahead with her gaze entirely focused on the horizon where she knew Hoenn's coastline resided, completely ignoring her opponents. More importantly, as she put further distance between her and the Jade Orb, Skailyn could feel its influence on her wane and finally grant her a brief reprieve from the continuous agony it inflicted on her. Yet, it also laid bare the horrifying amount of damage her being had sustained in the civil war between her powers, causing her to let out a worried snarl. 'That thing will either control me or leave me like Kyurem at this rate, I have to—'
It was then that Skailyn felt a vicious tug on her body at the same time as she crashed against a translucent violet-tinted barrier that stopped her in her tracks. 'This is bad, my powers are so messed up I'm not immune to Shadow Tag.' She growled in annoyance, reared back, and then smashed into the barrier again with as much force as she could muster, even though she could feel a deep and painful jab into her spirit as she did so. The barrier cracked noticeably as a pained scream echoed in the distance behind her.
The water under Skailyn burst open as the colossal Feraligatr emerged from it with a great roar, lunging at the dragoness with jaws covered by a sharp array of jagged icicles. Skailyn twisted in place instantly, intercepting the beast's mouth with her tail at such speed that the titan couldn't even react to it. The goddess fully wrapped the end of her tail around the Feraligatr's snout and then tightened the coil.
Feraligatr let out a muffled screech of pain as her mouth was forcefully snapped shut. The jagged icicles of her own Ice Fang attack dug into the gums and the insides of her mouth, drawing out blood and causing deep injuries. She howled, reached up with her clawed hands, and grabbed Skailyn's tail in a desperate attempt to pull it off.
Skailyn wrapped another coil of her long body around the beast's neck and then reared back. She snarled, dragged the monstrous water-type in a wide arc, and then released her hold to throw the Feraligatr almost a mile away into the incoming Kabutops. The two titans let out pained shouts as they collided against each other and disappeared beneath the waves with a ferocious splash. With them taken care of, Skailyn looked up and made eye contact with the Mega Gengar.
Gengar froze on the spot. Even from afar the ghost princess' glare felt deep and piercing, to the point it was as if those sharp yellow eyes were only an inch away from his own. Then her gaze trailed downward ever so slightly, making his eyes follow it. While his regular eyes couldn't see that much more of the world than any other mortal's eyes could, the mystical third eye on his forehead could—especially when enhanced by the Jade Orb. And with it, the giant Gengar could see what she was looking at.
Throughout the infinite complexities of the realm of ghosts and souls, the third eye could see a thread that bound them together. It united the two like a chain, unbroken and unchallenged. The spiritual manifestation of Shadow Tag.
Skailyn raised her tail and wrapped it around the thread. "Not something I look forward to, but I can take the pain of having a part of my soul torn out." She locked eyes with the monstrous Gengar again as her mouth curled into a savage smirk. "Can you?"
Gengar's eyes widened in horror. "You're not—"
Skailyn firmly gripped the thread and aggressively pulled at it. She turned around and smashed into the barrier, once again causing it to crack violently as it struggled to contain the immense goddess. She snarled, feeling the struggling Shadow Tag raking against her spirit and causing the already excruciating pain the Jade Orb was continuously inflicting on both her body and soul to flare once more.
Gengar let out an agonizing scream of pain as his body was tugged forward without remorse. Glowing cracks and crevices formed across his form as it fought to keep Shadow Tag active. He clutched his body with his front appendages and doubled over, almost falling from the sky in the process. Nothing could have ever prepared him for the overwhelming pain that befell him, it was as if his very existence was being torn in half. "Stop her!" he shrieked, voice almost coming out like an indistinguishable gurgle.
The ocean's surface under Skailyn rippled for a moment and then blew up as a massive beam of orange energy erupted from it and collided against her underside. The Hyper Beam detonated with a ferocious explosion considerably larger than she was, tainting air and sea with a large plume of fire and smoke. Gyarados emerged from the ocean with a deep growl, washing away the plumes with a torrent of water, with large and sharp icicles coating his fangs as he lunged at the dragoness.
Skailyn tensed, getting ready to dodge the incoming Ice Fang. Abruptly, everything around her turned blurry and spun around in place as a disturbing essence crept deeply into her consciousness and completely broke her concentration. She growled and closed her eyes, doing her best to push the Jade Orb's enervating presence out of her mind. She shook her head and blinked several times to regain her bearings. Her refocused eyes darted around to survey her surroundings, taking note of the three incoming titans and of two enormous pressures that gripped her sides.
Claydol and Alakazam descended from the clouds, eyes glowing a bright shade of blue as they exerted as much of their vast psychic powers as they could on the goddess' body. Taking advantage of the dragoness' brief distraction and immobilization, the Gyarados successfully adjusted course and aggressively bit down on Skailyn's neck. The ice-laden fangs cracked and pierced through the dragoness' injured and weakened scales, drawing out a noticeable trail of blood from the inflicted wounds.
Skailyn raised her tail in defense. However, Feraligatr burst from the ocean behind her and firmly grabbed onto Skailyn's lower body with her powerful arms, using her immense weight to pin her lower body down. Alakazam and Claydol shifted their psychic focus on her arms and chest, firmly binding them in a thick shroud of psychic energy. Gyarados, now fully in control of how their bodies came into contact, tightly coiled around her using his far superior size and gargantuan weight to further immobilize her.
'Not this again.' Skailyn growled and began to turn her body around, causing the four monsters holding her down to grunt and growl as they tried to match her strength. Even as the Gyarados' titanic weight bore down on her and his vast muscles tensed against her from every angle, even as the three other beasts aided in the desperate struggle to hold her down, the sheer divine strength in the Rayquaza's body proved nigh-impossible to contain.
Gengar floated down to them. His face contorted with a grimace of pain and discomfort while one of his spectral appendages clutched his chest area as if trying to contain a phantom pain. "Why you…" he murmured, words fading into an uncontrolled growl. Taking advantage of her immobilization, the Mega Gengar suddenly shot forward while extending his free appendage forward. "Your power is mine!"
Skailyn narrowed her eyes as he approached her, as if daring him to try. The moment the Gengar's clawed hand touched her forehead, it flashed with disturbing purple energy that oozed unnervingly out of it. Arcs of power flowed out of the black Rayquaza's injured body as the beast tried to assimilate her, causing scales across her neck and face to crack further.
Gengar's eyes widened the moment the first arc of energy touched his arm and seeped into it. He let out a piercing scream as an immense power surged into his body, an infinite torrent that overwhelmed everything around him and blew out his senses into a void. As Skailyn's power seeped further into his being, the appendage exploded in a potent blast of pure power that sent chunks of purple ectoplasm flying in every direction and caused him to violently recoil back.
Skailyn reared back and, even as the four monsters kept trying to hold her down, charged forward with a sudden burst of strength. She didn't care that she could feel the Feraligatr's claws digging further into the sides of her tail, or that the Gyarados' fangs sunk deeper into her lower neck. Her eyes were laser-focused on the emerald-tinted eye on Gengar's forehead and the crystal orb at its center.
The ocean in front of Gengar suddenly burst open in a frenzied blast of water as the Kabutops emerged from it and pushed the injured ghost-type away into safety. A gale of black energy formed at the sharp edge of her right scythe, which solidified into a sleek veil of darkness. Kabutops charged at Skailyn and let out a fierce war cry while swinging the scythe straight at her upper neck.
Skailyn reacted immediately. She lunged at the incoming blade and snapped her jaws shut on it mid-swing. A resounding clang boomed throughout as her teeth tore through the blade and shattered it into many large chunks. The blade's remains scattered about, some landing on her or Gyarados' body, and some landing with large splashes in the water below.
Kabutops looked on in disbelief at her missing scythe, primal eyes blinking in surprise. 'What just happened!?' she wondered in shock as she dived back into the ocean.
The Gyarados let out an angry growl and tightened the hold his coils had on her body and bit down with as much force as he could, visibly angered that despite his best efforts she was still moving.
Skailyn briefly glanced to the side, in the direction of Hoenn's coastline. 'Azrael is having too much time alone with the twins and the Jade Orb is getting too hard to resist. This is taking too long, far too long,' she noted with stark concern. Her eyes shifted to the Mega Gengar who was still recovering from the damage he sustained, and more importantly, on the Jade Orb lodged in the pupil of his third eye. She could still feel the orb clawing at her soul, her powers, and her consciousness, desperate to defeat her valiant efforts to resist it and finally assert its control over her. 'It's a risk, but I have to take it.' Skailyn's eyes flashed with dark green energy.
Skailyn snarled as her yellow eyes darkened into a deep orange hue and black flame-like markings that fanned backward sprouted around them. The draconic powers within her spiked violently and flared throughout her torn body, causing a renewed surge of pain to course through her which she endured.
Skailyn's body glowed a bright green aura and lengthened until it extended a bit past two hundred feet. Her body and arms thickened, while the fins that adorned her sides grew longer and morphed into a streamlined shape with a sharp back spike. The markings on her head morphed into a Delta symbol and the horns on her head grew much larger, with the ones on the underside of her head merging with her jaw and growing until they formed a blade-like shape that extended well past the front of her face.
As the markings throughout Skailyn's immense body became a reddish-gold color, her runes faded into an array of large and gorgeous reddish gems that radiated gallantly with vast power. Four thick and majestic tendrils of pure energy sprouted from each of her horns and extended as far back as her tail, while two smaller tendrils sprouted from the tip of the fins in her tail.
Skailyn let out a threatening growl as her transformation settled down and the glow surrounding her receded. Her growl sounded far deeper and more intimidating than before, causing a chill to run down the spines of her opponents and looks of fear and uncertainty to be exchanged between them.
Gengar's eyes widened as his torn limb regenerated back to normal. He could feel the Jade Orb throbbing against his forehead. "Don't give in to fear, fight!" He opened his enormous jaws as wide as he could. A crackling orb of shadow energy formed within it and kept growing until it was at least a couple dozen feet in diameter. With a fierce roar, the Gengar thrust his head and fired the powerful attack at her.
Skailyn's reddish-gold tendrils of energy—which were free of the binding grasp of the still-larger Gyarados tightly coiled around her—darted up with such speed that their movement became a hazy blur. The tendrils wrapped around the incoming Shadow Ball and then ripped it apart with a violent pull in opposite directions.
As the attack detonated harmlessly in front of her, Skailyn focused on the monsters binding her. With a physical strength that was many orders of magnitude larger than what she possessed before, the dragoness flexed her body and lifted her tail. Even as the colossal Gyarados and Feraligatr tried to keep it down, she easily overpowered them. She violently flicked her tail to the side, hurling the Feraligatr a good distance away.
Skailyn forcefully extended her arms, causing the blue shroud of psychic energy that had coated them to shatter into a swirl of glimmers and its two casters, the Alakazam and Claydol, to recoil at the fierce backlash of having their attacks broken. With her arms free, Skailyn grabbed the nearest coil from the Gyarados at the same time as her tendrils began to weave around his body. With an enormous exertion of strength, Skailyn began to force him off of her.
The Gyarados let out a muffled roar, still biting down as hard as he could on her neck. The black markings on his body pulsed as the beast brought down as much of his weight and strength as he could in a forceful downward tug.
Skailyn smirked and allowed the two to fall and crash into the ocean with an intense splash and slip underwater. The two serpentine entities plunged into the ocean's depths and crashed loudly on the seafloor. The Gyarados growled and tightened his coils and jaws to keep the dragoness bound.
Skailyn chuckled and, instead of fighting his effort to restrain her, wove her own body and tendrils around his, focusing on the upper half of his enormous body which still dwarfed her at nearly twice her length. Skailyn tightened her coils and tensed the powerful muscles beneath her scales the moment she got a good grip on him, even as the action caused them to burn with searing pain from the damage the Jade Orb kept mercilessly inflicting on her.
Gyarados let out a hoarse laugh around the grip his jaws still had on her neck and met her tightening coils with the strength of his own tightening coils. However, as the two kept constricting against each other, the beast's chuckles gradually faded into an annoyed growl because Skailyn's body kept exerting more and more pressure well after he reached the limits of his strength.
Two of Skailyn's tendrils reached up and wrapped around the Gyarados' mouth. Much to the beast's shock, they quite easily pried it open and left a plume of dark red on the water from the resulting injuries. Skailyn scowled and constricted her coils with an overwhelming amount of force that far exceeded the Gyarados' strength and limits.
The Gyarados immediately let out an alarmed roar and struggled against her grip. His immense body thrashed energetically as Skailyn kept tightening the hold her coils had around most of his upper body. His tail swayed violently on the depths, kicking up a thick plume of sand from the seafloor and tossing bedrock about as he tried in vain to free himself from the goddess' death grip.
Skailyn glared at the beast as he desperately thrashed for freedom, having turned his game completely against him. She didn't relent and kept tightening further and further until the Gyarados couldn't even make any more sounds other than those of his bones breaking under the pressure of her divine strength. The thrashing soon subsided and left the seafloor in eerie silence at last.
Skailyn uncoiled herself from the unmoving monster and took a brief moment of calm before swimming up to the ocean's surface. She mentally steeled herself and focused her attention on pushing the Jade Orb's influence as far away from her consciousness as she could, warily noting how much harder it was to resist now. She also worriedly noted that her body was heavily resenting the abuse the orb and the battle had forced her to endure so far. Skailyn's head resurfaced and immediately glanced at her surroundings to take note of the remaining foes, who had by now regrouped into a defensive line with Gengar behind them.
"Where is he?" Feraligatr asked angrily, eyes darting around as if expecting the Gyarados to burst from the ocean at any moment.
"Gone," Alakazam replied as the glow of his eyes receded and his psychic probe ended.
The Gengar growled. "Be extremely careful," he advised to the other titans. "Don't take her on alone. Even with her powers completely deactivated, she's still very dangerous."
"Good tip," Skailyn admitted with a nod. Her snout curled into a vicious grin. "But, what will you do about someone whose powers aren't tearing her apart from the inside?"
The ocean all around the combatants began to churn as if it was growing angry. Like a monstrosity of untold power, an underwater sea current suddenly rose from the depts and tore the ocean's surface apart. As the ocean itself erupted into an enraged frenzy all around Skailyn, it only brushed against her injured body with the gentlest of touches.
Chapter End
Author Notes: At long last, I finally got to writing the first battle involving an actual Legendary Pokémon in my story, and thus showcasing the full godly might that I plan to give them in my works. Pretty scary, isn't it? Granted, Skailyn's having a few performance issues. Only a bit. Lol.
By the way, you think Skailyn is scary? Her parents are even scarier.
Anyway, some extra notes:
Due to the way I handle Legendary Pokémon, I don't actually consider Rayquaza's Mega Evolution as a Mega Evolution, more thematically I consider it a Primal Reversion since I feel it makes more sense. Not a distinction I noted within the contents of this chapter but figured I'd clear it up. Not that its change makes any difference in practice, to be honest.
Also, some conversions notes of the measurement that I gave, for non-American readers:
Skailyn was noted as around 140 ft long, that's about 43 meters. Her Primal Form was noted as a bit over 200 ft long, that's about 60 meters long. The giant Gengar was noted as 100 feet tall, that's about 30 meters tall. And, finally, the giant Gyarados was noted as over 400 ft long, that's 122 meters long. What an absolute unit.
I didn't give any specific measurements of the other four because I didn't want to flood the chapter with a ton of measurements, so you can just imagine them as about the same size as the Gengar (100 ft/30 meters), perhaps the Feraligatr is a bit bigger, while the other three are a bit smaller, but they're all around that ballpark. The only outlier is the Gyarados because… Gyarados.
…
Anyway, I hope you all liked it! This is only part one of the conflict, so I can assure you this will only pick up steam. The next part will focus more on the twins' side of the ordeal, too. So, buckle up!
Lastly, don't forget to leave a REVIEW with your thoughts! I'd love to hear them! I promise the next part of this battle will be insane!