Absolite Arc: Destination Reached
The next morning, Jacky was still sleeping curled up next to Mari when the black-haired girl woke up. Jayden was snoring away by the campfire, which had since gone out. "Hey, Jacky." Mari shook her gently. She didn't respond. "Hey!" She shook a little harder. "The Mega Stone is waiting for us, now wake up!",
"...Huh?" She slowly opened her eyes and yawned. "... What time is it?"
Mari took a cursory glance at her Xtransceiver. "Half past nine." Jacky straightened up with disheveled hair and tired eyes. "Ouch, my back... I must have slept on a root or something. How was the night? Did you guys talk a lot?",
"Yeah, about unimportant stuff. Nothing big.",
"He's still alive I see, so it wasn't too bad?",
"... He seems okay when he doesn't try to tease me every five seconds.",
"Well then." Jacky yawned again and then got up, tugging her top into place as she did so. "So... Today we should arrive at the summit.",
"That is to be hoped.",
"Jayden, get up!" Jacky looked at the boy who was muttering to himself in his sleep.
"I don't think he can hear you. Leave it to me.",
"Mari, no.",
"Mari, yes." She grinned and knelt down beside him. "I'll show you how to wake people up effectively. Mostly, you need to become more insistant. Like this." She took a deep breath and then yelled into his ear: "GET UP, DAMN IT!",
"WHAT THE-?!" He jumped up sleepily, as if stung by a Beedril. "What was that for?!" Grumbling, he stared at Mari. Leaves of grass stuck to his hair.
"Good morning~" Mari said with a grin.
"Hmph. Normally I'd give my emergency stash for someone to come that close to me to wake me up. But THIS... This was really mean.",
"I probably should have warned you about this..." Jacky sighed apologetically. "That kind of thing does happen when you travel with her.",
"Then, I'll be glad when I'm home again." Jayden grumbled, throwing his bag over his shoulder. "Great. My day's already soured, thank you.",
"We have to go back the Sinnoh Region soon. As you know, an emergency is going on over there. We can't wait for you to deign to get up at some point", Mari commented.
"It's okay, I got it." He stretched his back, yawning. "Anything else would be too sweet to be true too.",
"Hmph." Mari didn't even deem this worth responding to.
"Well then, on to the summit." Jayden tossed a piece of candy into his mouth and took off with them. "Won't be long now, maybe two or three hours." On the way up, they passed more and more stone tablets that had become overgrown with ivy and weathered. All that could be made out were pale symbols carved into them. "Can you read what's written on them?" Mari asked, addressing Jayden. "No, not really..." He shook his head and crunched his teeth. "I'm... not the... reader kind of person... to be honest. Besides... these stone tablets are old, so what's written on them has fallen victim to erosion for the greatest part.",
"What are those, then? Tales of old days?",
"Yes, somewhat. The monastery of Lacunosa is several millenia old already... it was costum to carve the past revelations of Arceus and the history of Unova onto stone tablets and bring them to the sacred mountain of Alcalia, which we now call the 'Temple Mountain'. But after many years have gone by, entering the mountain's grounds has been prohibited completely, and ever since then, no one has taken care of these stone tablets. They were left to fade with time, like everything does eventually.",
"Aren't these, like, super important to the monastery, though?",
"Well... in general, the monastery honors the memories of the past, but the past shall remain in the past. So... they kind of are, but they don't cling to them.",
"I see. Makes sense, I guess... What kind of revelations were those?",
"Uh, I don't know, I usually don't listen to what Grandpa preaches about... But one of them was fairly interesting, so I decided to listen. There apparently were people that have been granted special powers by Arceus in the past. They were called 'Divinely Blessed Heroes'. The people were chosen to use these powers to fight for the greater good, along with their partner Pokémon. It was said that these powers were channelled through their blood, but... just like everything, they were lost to time. There were also people who have made it their life goal to spread the teachings of Arceus out in the world. They were called 'Apostles'. Arceus has shown them its goodwill by marking them with a special symbol. They had no special powers, like the chosen ones did, but were just as valuable. Much like wisdom balancing power. The heroes were not only supposed to use their powers to maintain order, but... they were also supposed to protect the apostles as the ones sharing their knowledge and offering their guidance. But... the apostles started resenting the blessed ones because they themselves lacked power, and the blessed heroes no longer wanted to serve as their guardians, and so, they ended up fighting because of the difference in their ideals. Maybe that's also why the divinely blessed heroes disappeared from history, like they had never existed. Only few know about them. There still are apostles out there, if only few and far between... but the blessed heroes have vanished.",
"Wow... That's a lot of stuff.",
"Yes, right? I mean, it's not like I understood this rhymed language anyway, but Nate was nice enough to translate it into normal human speech for me.",
"Divinely Blessed Heroes and Apostles... what do you know." She tapped her chin thoughtfully.
"Yeah, 'ts crazy what a clash in ideals and views can cause, right? Ultimately, both parties fought for freedom, just with different goals in mind. The Blessed Ones no longer wanted to be forced to protect the Apostles, and the Apostles no longer wanted to be protected by them, but instead, wanted to be strong on their own.",
"Who the hell wants to be a pawn in a game of chess?", Mari asked. "It sounds like the Blessed Heroes were exactly that. Pawns. Powerful, but yet meant to fall instead of those who held knowledge. I can understand why they would refuse to be ordered to throw their lives away for people they most likely didn't even know.",
"Yet they were the ones that vanished." Jayden shrugged. "Perhaps, it's better that way. Humans cannot be entrusted with such powers, there will always be conflict because of it.",
"... Yeah, I guess...",
"Who guaranteed none of them was going to be corrupt and would abuse their powers for their own personal gain? Right, nobody. So... I actually don't think it's a bad thing the Divinely Blessed Heroes no longer exist."
They reached a huge flight of marble stairs. "The altar is up ahead", Jayden explained. "Save your breath, you will need it for this."
Mari looked at the stairs in dismay. "That one sure looks... long.",
"Yeah..." Jacky didn't seem so thrilled either. "So... is this some sort of final test...?",
"Final test?" Jayden asked with his eyebrows raised.
"Well... some sort of way to test if the ones who seek to ascend to the shrine have enough determination to climb those horrible-looking stairs...",
"... Eh... Not that I know of, but if you want, you can view it as such. Well then, let's go... We won't be able to avoid taking these if you want to get to that mega stone.",
"For god's sake..." Mari groaned. "This is gonna kill me..." And so, they started their brutal ascension.
When they finally arrived at the shrine, Jacky dropped to her knees to catch her breath. She had counted the number of stairs in her head, and lost count after 300. Mari panted. "Ugh... this was torture...!"
Even Jayden seemed like he was about to collapse. "Goodness, I've never had to go up stairs this long... This was more than every single staircase in the monastery combined... I need some energy recharge after this..." He rummaged around in his bag on the hunt for sugar. At least he had felt the pain, too.
After a brief pause, Jacky decided to finally approach their destination. The shrine. "So, the mega stone is kept in here?",
"Yes, its inside that shrine." Jayden nodded. The shrine was not a wooden shrine, as they had originally expected. It was made of stone. Its walls were covered with interesting symbols that looked like ancient frescoes, only they weren't painted, they were carved. The entrance was protected by a glowing barrier. "It's shielded," Jacky noted.
"There's a key," Jayden said. "Nate slipped it to me earlier. Wait a minute..." He searched for it in his bag... and took a while.
"I hope you didn't lose it on the way while you were digging around in there for candy," Mari grumbled. Contrary to her expectations, he pulled out an interesting looking key shortly after. "Found it. Surprised, cutiepie?" He couldn't help but grinning, and she would have gladly smacked him in the face for it. He strolled past her and put the key in a hole next to the entrance. The barrier shattered. "There you go. It's open."
Jacky stepped over the threshold and saw the altar in the shrine with something on it. A very ornately carved box. She opened it carefully and revealed what was kept inside- A pretty amulet with a round stone in it. It shimmered in different shades of blue and white. "Wow... So this is the mega stone..." she murmured, reaching for the necklace. She looked at it closely. "Hmm...",
"Let me see." Mari curiously stepped next to her and marveled at the find. "Wow, that's wicked. It looks like the keystone, only not rainbow-colored... but blue. And its larger.",
"I can feel the power emanating from it..." Jacky said. "It feels warm and brimming. So... now, all that's left to do is to find out which Pokémon it resonates with. Corrina said it is related to the colors.",
"She said scientists have already determined which Pokémon are capable of mega evolving", Mari remembered. "So let's start by checking out that list and trying to match the colors.",
"Yes, that's a good start." Jacky nodded.