I don't know how much of Blob's words I can believe in but Blob's revelations from that day aside, I have to get to work the next day. We are going to unearth the ancient ruins that lay sleeping beneath the outskirts of Lacunosa Town. I will only have time to investigate what Blob told me that day once this project is over.
'Really? So many people and pokemon just to dig out one measly clump of bricks?'
Blob had decided to tag along today as he hid himself snugly within the pockets of my coat. He just couldn't stop yapping about how boring this entire thing is even if he was the one who made the decision to come here himself. According to him, the only reason he is here is because the sooner I'm done with the project here in Unova, the sooner we can go look for his 'Cells', whatever they are.
Currently, my ground and rock types had all spaced themselves evenly in a huge circle around the area where we had detected the ruins to lay beneath us. Even Rumble is participating. He may still be inexperienced, but this is as good a chance as any to learn and apply from the other members of the team how to properly utilise his ground type techniques. The rest of the team will be doing most of the heavy lifting anyway. Rumble is simply here to learn.
'Don't say I didn't warn you, commoner, but considering the type of soil you are working with here the excavation won't go that smoothly. The moment you dug those bricks out it will simply sink back into the ground. The ground here is just that soft due to the recent rainfall.'
"Planning to harden the ground the moment we got it out." I spoke softly under my breath. Not too loud such that other people can hear me, but loud enough for Blob to hear.
'You overestimated what your pokemon can do. Skilled as they are for mere mortals, I doubt they can make things work the way you envision it to be considering the large size of the brick puzzle you are digging out. No matter, Le Porion is feeling generous today. This magnificent lord shall lend you a hand. Be thankful, human.'
"Why, thank you." I replied dryly, amusement lacing my voice. I looked around, noting the thumbs up the other excavation teams gave me to signal that they are in place and ready. I put my fingers into my mouth and blew a whistle, signalling for my team to start the excavation.
The ground rumbled and shook as my ground and rock types began to work in tandem to unearth the ruins sleeping beneath us. There are a few steps to the entire process. Firstly, we will need to soften the earth enough so that the ruins can easily rise to the surface without obstruction. That can mainly be done with an application of Earth Power but we will need to take note not to accidentally liquify the ruins in the process. Once that is done, then we will need to move the earth to slowly let the ruins rise to the surface. However, like what Blob had reminded me, the ground here is too soft thanks to the recent bouts of rain. An ancient ruin made up of stone bricks and having an estimated size of 40m x 100m x 40m will be extremely heavy. It is going to sink back into the soft earth the moment we dug it out. Thus, we need to harden the earth beneath the ruin the moment we unearthed it. Sounds simple, but it is a delicate and tricky process considering that we don't want to damage the ancient ruin in any shape or form.
'Oh dammit, it really is a bunch of bricks.'
I ignored Blob's words as a silly smile spread across my face upon spotting what I came here for. It took some time, but my pokemon had managed to slowly push the ancient ruin out of the earth. We can already see the roof. It is being preserved in such a perfect condition that many details of the ruin's architecture can still be easily seen. There are already a few cheers from the nearby onlookers the moment they saw the small portion of the ruin peeking out from the ground. A ruin as well-preserved as this is rare to come across.
However, our progress stagnated from there. My pokemon are still trying to shift the earth but only the roof of the ruin peeked through the ground. A telepathic message from Vision told me that they are having trouble trying to solidify the ground beneath the massive ruin. Jaws, Mantle, and Sail are working on it but this is the biggest ruin that we have to uncover to date. It is taking every bit of concentration they have to complete their task. At this rate, they will soon tire and nothing will be accomplished from this.
"Blob? If you really want to help now is the time."
'Hmph. Watch me.'
With a speed faster than what my team could possibly accomplish together, the ancient ruin suddenly began to rise out of the earth again. Within half a minute, the ancient ruin stood before us in its full glory, sand and earth pouring down it as it saw the light of day once more. The earth beneath it had been fully solidified into hard, solid, rock.
Wow. Blob is good. He did all of that from where he is snuggling in my pocket.
'Such an insignificant act and yet you mortals struggled with it. Commoners will remain as commoners.' I heard Blob scoffing at us from within my pocket. I only smiled as I put my hand into the pocket and patted his little head. I don't know what he did, but he clearly did something to help. He really is an extraordinary pokemon despite his size.
"Thanks, Blob."
'Hmph.'
"Alright! Please leave the safety inspection to Team A! Once they give us the all green and confirm that it is safe to enter the ruins, then we can start our work for real!" I called out as the rest of the excavation team gave a chorus of agreement. Once Team A verified that the area is safe and the ruins won't collapse on us, we can begin on our archeological work. Until then, we can take a break.
"Nova!" Asher yelled a greeting over, hand waving in the air. There is a bespectacled woman beside him. "Over here!"
"Oh, Asher! It's nice to see you again!" I greeted him back. I have no idea who the woman standing beside him is, so I asked.
"And this is?"
"Shannon Juniper." Asher formally introduced me to the woman as we both shook hands in greeting. "Shannon, this is Nova."
My eyes widened in pleasant surprise. Shannon Juniper? I've heard about her from my uncle.
"Oh, I heard about you! You conducted some research on how climate change affects migratory behaviour of pokemon in Unova, right? My uncle was very interested in your research." I said in excitement. Anyone who can earn my uncle's praise are definitely people that are worth noting. Getting a praise out of him isn't easy.
"R-Really?" Shannon squeaked out as her face visibly blushed. Huh, she seems the type to suffer from a lack of confidence. Couldn't tell from how well her paper was written.
"I personally think that your work was very good. My uncle had always been interested in making the world a better and more beautiful place, which was why your work caught his attention. He had been working for that cause for as long as I could remember." I told her as I signalled for Mantle to help create a bench made of rocks right beside us and I motioned for Asher and Shannon to sit on it as well while we continue our conversation.
'Yeah, a better and beautiful place.' Blob said in a mocking tone. 'Let's just hope that he doesn't plunge the entire Kalos into disarray while he's at it, that is.'
I ignored Blob's jab as I continued to talk to Shannon and Asher. I don't know why Blob has such a low opinion of my uncle when he wants nothing but the best for Kalos, but I can understand a little from where he is coming from. My uncle can take things to the extreme at times when he becomes obsessed with it.
"Shannon's a Juniper after all! A family of researchers!" Asher exclaimed excitedly with dramatic hand gestures. Shannon's face got redder.
"I-I'm just an ordinary researcher." Shannon visibly stuttered out. "Compared to many others in the world who had published countless works that had made a difference, I had only published one."
"Sometimes, the quality of the work beats the quantity." I tried to say as gently as possible. "Like how a single Relic Crown will sell at the price of 300 pieces of Relic Copper. To my uncle, your work is that Relic Crown. Have faith in yourself. I knew for a fact that your work is starting to garner more international attention in the research field."
"I-I-International?! I-I-I'm not ready for that kind of attention!"
"Then you better be. Who knows? Maybe one day you can be a Pokemon Professor, like Professor Oak of Kanto!" Asher teased and we watched in further amusement as Shannon's face got even redder.
Oh boy, she really needs a little boost in confidence.
There were a lot of things that we uncovered from the ancient ruins in the next few days.
Like we had suspected, this ruin served as a library but at the same time, we found that it also served as a temple of sorts. Our findings led us to believe that this ruin should be a temple that has its own library, a library so huge that it is unprecedented for its time. It is a goldmine of information about the era it was built in. Not only are many of the ancient books we uncovered here are in pristine condition, there are also words written in various ancient languages being carved onto the walls of the temple. Since I had memorised and learnt many ancient languages ever since I had become a historian, the time I had during these last few days since the ruin was unearthed was spent translating every single document that the archeological team had unearthed from the temple. I'm the best person for the job anyway.
From the looks of it so far, the purpose of this library is to store research and findings regarding pokemon that scholars of the past conducted. This is because a lot of the documents we had translated are scholarly documents that the scholars of that period of time had documented about their findings about pokemon, which led us to think this way. Most of what was documented by these ancient scholars, we already knew. Some of it, probably not. I will leave those to the experts, Pokemon Researchers like Aurea and Shannon Juniper. There are also other snippets of Unova's legends that I came across but I will review them later. Something else had popped up.
Someone on the team had stumbled upon an entrance to a secret room. Problem is, the entrance to the secret room is heavily boobytrapped. Asher and I are the strongest trainers around in the team, so we were called to help clear out those traps so that other people can enter. Since I was busy trying to translate these ancient books and documents together with the translation team, Asher had volunteered to get rid of the traps. However, he didn't have any luck in trying to get into the room even after he bypassed the traps. According to him, it's locked shut from within. Blasting the large and heavy stone door open is an option but we are afraid that it might weaken the infrastructure and cause a collapse of the ruins. That is where I come in, because I am a Ground Specialist and my pokemon specialises in liquefying rocks and earth.
'What is this dusty and mouldy place?! This esteemed Porion should not be here!'
"You can always choose to go out. Exit is that way." I retorted as I pointed the way where we came from. With Berg's help in freezing up the holes where the countless arrows, poisonous gas, and many other weird projectiles that are fired from there, reaching that huge stone door is a lot easier. Of course, we only got here that easily because Asher and his team had already helped mark out all the traps' location beforehand.
I continue to ignore Blob's nonsensical rambling as I studied the stone door in front of us. I could get my ground types to slowly break this door down and maybe liquefy it, but I have a feeling that it will cause a structural collapse with how the door was positioned.
"Nova? You there?"
"I'm over here!" I called out when I heard Asher calling for me. The Dark Specialist easily bypassed the traps Berg had frozen earlier. His absol walked beside him in an unhurried manner, looking at its surroundings with obvious distaste. Berg shifted himself a little from where he is beside me, giving Asher some space to come closer.
"So, any luck?"
"No." I shook my head and sighed. "The absurd size and thickness of the door aside, if I break this door down or get my ground types to liquefy it somehow it might cause the entire place to collapse. See how all the weight of the room we are in hinges on the door supporting it? How did someone even manage to create such an architectural design in that era? A door supporting the weight of an entire room? Open it and the entire room will collapse? This thing is less like a door and more like an important pillar that holds up the entire area. It's unheard of. Why create a door that you cannot open?"
"There probably should be a secret switch somewhere." Asher reasoned. "How else are people going to enter the door?"
"But didn't we already search the entire place upside down and found nothing of the sort?" I asked curiously. "Like, we even did the movie cliche thing and touched every single brick on the wall. None of it is a secret switch."
Yeah, that was how desperate we are to find a way to open this impossible door. We actually did the movie cliche thing, much to my embarrassment. .
The both of us fell into silence as we got ourselves lost in our thoughts, staring at the huge stone door in front of us and hoping that doing so can somehow give us the answer on how we can open or bypass it.
'Tsk, to be befuddled by such a simple task, makes me wonder if you two mortals truly have a brain.'
My right eye twitched in annoyance upon hearing Blob's voice in my head again. He is especially grumpy today, which is getting a little annoying.
'This door is designed to keep out everyone who is not meant to enter. You cannot open it. You can only pass through it. Only the one meant to enter can do so.'
I wanted to open my mouth to retort, but held back because Asher is beside me. Blob won't want me to carelessly reveal his existence to anyone else, and if he really somehow is the legendary Zygarde, all the more so.
As if privy to my inner thoughts, Blob spoke to me once more through telepathy.
'Just redirect your thoughts back to me like how you would do to a psychic. Sheesh. Do I still need to teach you how to do this?'
I simply ignored his jab and did what he said.
'Just explain what you mean by not opening it but can only pass through it.'
'You cannot feel it, but pokemon can. If your claydol is out of its pokeball right now it might be able to feel the strong psychic barrier casted on it.'
'In that case, why didn't Asher's dark types detect or break through the barrier? Dark types are immune to psychic type moves.'
'Pfft. I have to explain this too? This barrier is obviously casted by a pokemon way stronger than them. Something on a whole nother level entirely. Think about it this way. Do you think a newborn dark type stands a chance against the psychic type trained by a Pokemon Champion, type advantage or not? Same logic applies here. In the face of absolute power, things like type advantages mean absolutely nothing. The psychic type which casted this barrier is so powerful that it outclassed that moron's dark types. In fact, I won't be surprised if a Mythical or a Legendary was the one who did this. The barrier is just that powerful.'
I bit the inside of my cheeks as I pondered over what Blob had told me. If what he said is true, then this door cannot be opened, it can only be passed through by those who are meant to enter.
'So in order to explore what is within, we have to find the person who is meant to enter it?'
'That's the gist of it.'
Great. How do we know who is meant to enter this room? How are we going to find such a person? Considering the age of the ruin, is there even such a person currently alive?
'Commoner.'
'What?'
'Try it. Just walk through the door.'
'Are you crazy?'
'Are you doubting me? ME? The mighty Porion?'
'At this juncture, yes. You don't simply walk through a stone door at least two stories high and ten meters thick.'
'And why do you think so?'
'Oh, I don't know. Ever heard of common sense?'
'Common sense is a set of rules defined by foolish mortals that can never reach a higher realm. Reality is defined by what we believe to be true. Fact is, there are many things that we thought impossible that are also true. How else are you going to explain your existence? Can you explain that with common sense? Use your puny brain to think, mortal. What really is common sense? Explain to me.'
For once, I cannot think of anything to argue against Blob's logic. He's right, my existence is not supposed to be possible. Common sense dictates that it should be impossible. Yet, here I am.
I glanced in Asher's direction. Hopefully, I don't look too much like a fool for doing this. It will be embarrassing if I simply walk towards the stone door and slam my face into it.
'You better be right, Blob. I will look like an idiot otherwise.'
'Hmph. Has this mighty lord ever lied to you? Hurry with this, then we can be on our way to recover my lost Cells.'
I gulped and took a step forward. I saw Asher's and Berg's surprised looks from the edge of my vision when I did so. I continue to walk forward and when I am just a single step away from knocking my face into the stone wall, I closed my eyes and prayed I didn't just make a fool out of myself.
I took another step. I felt nothing. I opened my eyes again.
Where am I?
"Nova? Nova! Nova!"
I turned around, only to be greeted with a large brick wall. I pressed myself against the wall and pounded my fist on it, but I cannot go back out like how I entered.
"I'm fine!" I shouted back, hoping that Asher could hear me somehow. If his voice could travel in here through the wall my voice should be able to do the reverse. "I'm in the room!"
"Really?! How?! You just… walked through it!"
"I don't know how to explain it!" I tried to gloss over the how as I shouted my reply. Right now, I'm worried that my starter might go berserk now that I just pulled the disappearing act on him. I don't want him to start knocking himself against the stone door and bring the entire ruin down on us in an attempt to get me out. "Berg, can you hear me? Stay calm out there, okay? I'll find a way out, promise!"
I heard Berg giving a low growl from the other side of the wall. He's agitated, that much is obvious, but he should be able to keep his cool now that he heard my voice. If something goes awry I could always call Vision out to teleport me out of here. I will be fine.
After reassuring Asher and Berg that I will be fine and that I will go in deeper to explore the room that I am in, I turned away from the wall to see what the room has in store for me. It's big and dark. I had to use the flashlight function of my Holo Caster to light up the room for me to see anything and even then it did not manage to light up the entire room. The top of the ceiling remains dark. Inscriptions written in a language long lost lined the brick walls. Even I don't know what it meant because I never saw such an ancient language before.
'Interesting.' Blob commented as he poked his little head out of my pocket to look at our surroundings. 'I wonder who or what did this? This place emanates power, power that can only be found in Legendary or Mythical pokemon. Something strong had helped create this room.'
"And if you were to make a guess, who do you think would be behind this?" I asked aloud now that there are only the two of us here. I had also released Tinen and Drift out of their pokeballs just in case I needed their help. I don't know what to expect in this room. Hopefully it is not riddled with traps like how its entrance was guarded.
'No concrete guesses, but considering the impressive psychic barrier outside and the current region we are in, maybe the scoundrel Victini. Walking through a door that cannot be opened? That naughty little tyke loves to play these kinds of games.'
We continue to explore the big room. It didn't take us long to find the only object that lays within the room. Right in the middle of the room is an altar, on it is a stone tablet the size of a book that has the same unknown ancient language written on the walls etched on it. Fearing that there may be unseen traps guarding the altar, I tried to take a closer look at the stone tablet from afar. Part of what is written on it has been erased or eroded due to time, but most of the content is still there.
'Careful, commoner, there is also a psychic barrier protecting that stone tablet.'
Blob's warning got us to stop in our tracks. Tinen lightly tossed a bone towards the stone tablet. True enough, the bone hit an invisible dome and bounced off.
Well, this is a problem. How are we going to retrieve that stone tablet if this is the case?
"Can I just walk through it like how I did for the door?" I asked Blob, who remained deep in thought as he looked at the stone tablet.
'We can give it a try. It doesn't look like the barrier is a malign one given how it simply bounces the bone away. At worst, you will just bump into an invisible wall. There's really nothing much we can do about this psychic barrier, not with me in this state. But if you can walk through that door earlier, you might be able to do the same here as well.'
And so, under Tinen's and Drift's watchful gaze, I slowly reached out a hand towards the stone tablet. I felt an invisible force pushing against my hand when I was about two metres away from it, but I decided to push further. The repulsive force increased in kind and I thought that this was it until the barrier suddenly vanished altogether.
What? What happened?
'Look at it. It seems that you are certainly the one meant to enter this room.'
Blob's comment certainly wasn't helping. I'm still standing there with my hand outstretched, my eyes blinking in confusion and my mind still trying to wrap around just what on earth happened. Why me? Nobody else could enter this room until I came and I've never been to Unova before this. Why me?
Nevertheless, I slowly picked up the stone tablet. It's heavy, but not as heavy as I thought it would be.
It was then I heard it, a whisper at the back of my mind. A whisper that shocked my very being when I first heard it but at the same time had a soothing presence.
We had waited a long time for you, Embodiment of Earth
"Blob, did you say something?" I quickly turned to face Blob, who returned my question with an annoyed look.
'What nonsense are you spouting? I haven't said a single- WOAH!'
The room began to tremble and fall apart. Dust and dirt fell all over us as Tinen and Drift immediately got to my side to shield me from the falling debris. Strangely enough, their protection wasn't needed. None of the debris fell on us. They fell around us.
While the room is crumbling away, the inscriptions on the wall began to glow a bright golden hue, shining brighter by the second. Blob had quickly hid himself back into my pocket as Drift quickly casted a sphere of Protect around us. Tinen held onto her two bones and took a stance, ready to enter battle at the first signs of danger.
Then, it got blindingly bright. So bright that we all had to close our eyes. When we finally reopened our eyes, we were back to staring at that large stone door.
"Nova? What? How?"
Asher's dumbstruck look is probably the same look on my face as well. Somehow, we were teleported back to the entrance of the room, right in front of that same stone door where Asher and Berg were waiting for me. The only difference is that I now have a stone tablet that I am currently holding close to me, the stone tablet that I retrieved from that mysterious room.
"I… I have no clue, Asher." I replied lamely. "I don't know how to explain what happened."
Even when we revisited the large stone door everyday for the next few days, no matter how we tried, there wasn't any progress. Nobody could walk through that door. Even I could no longer walk through it.
The only clue we had is the stone tablet that I brought back, the stone tablet written in a language long lost to man.
Character and pokemon list:
Nova Labelle, Age: 26, Female, Ground Specialist, Historian, Niece of Lysandre
Pokemon on hand:
1. Mamoswine (Berg), Male
2. Golem (Crust), Female
3. Excadrill (Solid), Male
4. Golurk (Drift), Genderless
5. Garchomp (Core), Male
6. Claydol (Vision), Genderless
7. Whiscash (Seis), Male
8. Marowak (Tinen), Female
9. Torterra (Terra), Female
10. Gigalith (Mantle), Male
11. Tyrantrum (Jaws), Male
12. Aurorus (Sail), Female
13. Sandile (Rumble), Male
14. Unknown creature, self-proclaimed Zygarde (Blob), ?
Asher Dandolos, Age: 19, Male, Dark Specialist, Historian, Son of Grimsley of Unova Elite Four
Pokemon on hand:
1. Absol
2. Bisharp
3. Greninja
4. Spiritomb
5. Krookodile
6. Scrafty
7. Mandibuzz
8. Liepard
9. Cacturne
