The lead grunt stepped into the flickering torchlight. Bronze sent his Pokémon forward, and Ryan sent out his remaining Pokémon as well. The lead grunt sent out a Treavenent in response. Smiling contentedly at the twos angry faces, the leader introduced himself. "I am Captain Spyro of the Eclipse Alliance. Please, step aside and allow us to breach the doors. My master requires victory, something that we will receive in unlimited supply!"
"I don't care who you are, or what you want with those doors, but I am the Gym Leader and Prince of Aredia City, and I will defend those doors to the death! I hardly think you'll be able to without dying anyway. If you leave, I will not be forced to harm you." Ryan's Steelix leered menacingly at Spyro.
Spyro cleared his throat. "Excuse me, I would like to elaborate my terms. We detected you in here before entering, and judged that you two are trainers quite capable of defeating us. In the effort to avoid a distasteful Pokémon battle, we decided to gain leverage to our position by placing several explosives along the pressure points of the ruins. If I say so, my Treavenent will active them, causing the entire ruin structure to collapse. We should be safe in the central chamber, but untold amounts of explorers and Pokémon will be killed, and a historical monument will be destroyed. What do you say?"
Bronze knew that Spyro wasn't bluffing. He hadn't noticed it before, but the Treavenent had stuck a small root through a crack on the floor, and it had probably reached the explosives. Ryan looked very conflicted. As much as he didn't want Team Eclipse to breach the doors, he would not have the blood on his hands from the deaths that would result as a result of the blast.
"Ryan, I think you should give it to them." Bronze said. "If the legend is true, then they won't make it out." Spyro clucked his tongue. "Bold words, Pokedex Holder. But I am still set on opening those gates! Now, I require the red jewel. Please, my patience is running scant."
Ryan reluctantly took his crown off and popped of the largest red jewel of it, and handed it to Spyro. The captain smiled, and motioned for his grunts to follow him as he went to the lock.
Inserting the red jewel in the foremost slot, several other compartments opened with a creaking noise all around the chamber. Spyro directed the grunts to retrieve them, and the other jewels were placed in the lock. A earsplitting groaning noise made everyone cover their ears, and then the door slowly, ponderously, opened.
Bronze's eyes widened at the sheer amount of riches. Piles of gold, silver, gems and precious metal and artifact of every kind were strewn about the massive, columned vault, along with a massive central dais with a crumbling skeleton on it, holding a brittle sword. Spyro danced with glee out of greed as he saw the treasure. "Yes! Yes! The master will be most pleased. Everyone, find the Pokémon! It has to be in here somewhere!"
The grunts looked about through the treasure, occasionally stuffing some gold into their uniform pockets. As no black fire came to destroy them, Bronze worried that he had made a terrible mistake advising Ryan to give Spyro the jewel.
Spyro was putting some golden cups into a sack when the grunts came back to report on what they had found. "Nothing, sir. We couldn't find any Pokémon, although the treasure is a nice bonus." Spyro glared. "Look again! It could be hiding. Look for secret compartments and then we can finally pack the treasure and get out of this stinking pit!"
"STINKING PIT?" roared a terrible, hollow voice from inside the tomb. "HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY DWELLING! BEGONE!"
Blazing rods of black fire poured from rifts in space, incinerating the grunts with terrible heat. Spyro turned to run, but he was prevented from exiting the tomb by some unseen forces. With a final, terrified look, he too was consumed.
The fire retreated to the dais, enveloping the skeleton. The mass solidified into a upright, skeletal corpse clad in regal garments, with undead Pokémon surrounding it. Bronze cautiously stepped back from the open doors. The undead king looked at Ryan and Bronze, and then began to trot to them.
"WHO ARE YOU? WHY DO YOU DISTURB ME FROM MY LONG SLUMBER? I SHOULD DO TO YOU AS I DID TO THOSE MEN, CONSUMED BY GREED AS THEY WERE!"
Ryan respectfully addressed the king. "Please, my lord, we had no part in your awakening. I am the rightful descendent of your chosen heir, and I have guarded the key to your tomb as my own limb. It was seized from me by force, and we were unable to fight back. We shall close the doors momentarily, o king."
"I THINK NOT!" The corpse bellowed. "I WILL NOT ALLOW SUCH A THING! LONG HAVE I BEEN IMPRISONED IN THIS DETESTABLE HALF-LIFE, DEVOID OF COMFORT OR REST! THE CLOSING OF THE DOORS WILL MARK MY CONTINUED CURSE! SEEING YOUR MISGUIDANCE, I SHALL CUT YOU DOWN WHERE YOU STAND! NIDOKING, CRUSH CLAW-"
The wight never had a chance to finish. Bronze had commanded Charizard to blast the king back with a burst of flame. Surprisingly, the wight-Pokémon disappeared instantly, and the king lay twitching against the dais. Bronze and Ryan ran to approach the wight.
"Ahhhhhh," the King muttered, very faintly, as from far, far away. "I see now. You have bested me. You are worthy of the possession of the Prince of Victory. I befriended it in ages past, and it has returned to my side after long years of absence. I believed I could control it, but it escaped my grasp, and the power it gave became my downfall. Do not become entrapped with the lust for cold and dead things, as I had. Perhaps, one day, I may rest." The corpse stopped talking, and laid back, content.
A small shape appeared on the dais with a flash. Victini, Prince of Victory, had returned.
Victini flew down to the side of the pitiful shell and reached for it. Touching its chest, a remarkable transformation occurred. The flesh on the corpse seemed to increase, and become healthy once again. The brittle bone strengthened as the new skin covered them, and red hair sprouted out from under the golden crown. The king's eyelids reappeared, and upon opening them, new eyes appeared. Now, a healthy young man lay next to Victini, overcome with emotion.
"I'm...free?" He gasped. Then he smiled, closed his eyes, and dissolved into a white mist which floated away into the dark.
Victini gave a final look at Bronze and Ryan, and flew back into a small chamber which Bronze had not noticed before. A strong wind pushed the two back out of the tomb, and the doors swung shut with a crash. The curse was ended.
Now the ruins did not grim and terrible, but old, venerable, and full of hidden mysteries that were waiting to be uncovered. Ryan was almost in shock. "I...didn't know. It is gone." He turned to Bronze. "We have done something truly great in this world, Bronze. The power of evil had been diminished a bit more. Perhaps the real victory was not preventing Team Eclipse from controlling another Pokémon, but freeing one entrapped by greed." Ryan paused. "Bronze, what do you fight for?"
"I fight to defeat Team Eclipse." Bronze replied matter-of-factly. Ryan was not deterred. "But that's not all, correct?" Bronze was surprised. "Well, no. I also fight just to prove that some people are never quite too gone, even Cypress. He saw cruelty and injustice, but he took the wrong path to eliminate it, and is now a slave of absolute evil. No one human is truly evil, because of the imprint of good in their souls. I suppose nothing is evil in the beginning, not even the Enemy, whoever he was."
"Yes," Ryan said. "But you know that one may surrender all reason and logic to the dark powers. Then their heart may be hardened beyond all redemption, good destering them forever. Perhaps the remnant of good you may have seen in Cypress is a phantom of your own devising, footed only in folly. I do not deny that evil can be amended, but think of the old Hisuian proverb:"
"Who can make straight what He hath made crooked,"
"And who can mar what He hath made good?"
"Yes, but that is only by the will of Arceus," Bronze responded. "Not by Man, or Pokémon, or the Powers."
Ryan looked down. "Perhaps you are correct. The old king was saved even after millennia of imprisonment and greed. Perhaps your adversaries can be redeemed, as you wish. For your efforts, please take the Crater Badge. This event is as monumental as a Gym Battle!" Bronze took the badge and pinned it to his bag.
"Goodbye, Bronze. Perhaps we will meet again, on the field of battle!" Bronze waved goodbye, and left the chamber to travel back to the sun and sky.