Chapter 120 Victory Road Part 1

When they get outside, they see Solaris standing in front of them, much to their surprise.

Solaris: Stand down, I said, "It is over." "No," The others said, As they turned traitorous tail into that sacred mine. (Turns to Ash and the others) Our purpose is bastardized. They speak only of what they gain from the blasphemous notion of the New World. Where is our family? I turned my back to my allies so that I might have dealt with you, and next I knew, there was a knife in it.

Solaris sends out Garchomp, and from the looks of it, Ash knows he is going for the kill once more.

Solaris: It is for that reason that I must do this. Garchomp, execute! All who oppose Team Meteor must be silenced.

But it turns out, Garchomp just rushes past them and charges at Lin, who is actually behind them this whole time, but Lin seems to block the attack like it is nothing.

Solaris: ...Even those from within the "Team" itself.

Lin: Too little, too late.

Solaris: What manner of devil are you that neither tooth nor nail may stay your cantankerous blight?

Lin: I am inevitability. None are permitted to interfere.

Solaris: Life does not wait around for permission, girl. Neither does death. Your treason has not gone unnoticed, and your comeuppance will not be forgone.

Lin: Incorrect.

Solaris: Cry in protest all you want; I will show you how little you understand.

Just then, Ash, Serena, and Lillie are sent flying to the wall after Lin and Solaris' battle. When they wake up, they are shocked to see what happened. Solaris is dead on the ground, much to their shock.

Serena: Did Lin just...kill him?

Ash: Even though he tried to kill me a lot of times...I didn't want him dead as well...

But there's nothing they can do to revive Solaris, so in the end, they decide to call Delia and the others to send the body of Solaris away, while they decide to continue further on the Victory Road. Before that, they are also tasked by a Spirit Hunter to collect 25 wandering spirits in the Victory Road, much to their surprise, but they decide to do it.


After getting inside Victory Road, they have found a Strength Puzzle, and they decide to solve it until they hear a voice.

?: Ash! Look out!

Just then, an Icicle Crash appears on top of them, and they quickly jump out of the way.

Serena: Who's doing that?

Ash notices that in the distance, there is Sirius, Blake, and Fern, Aya is still being dragged by Sirius.

Fern: Nice miss.

Blake: Thanks, I learned from you. Sirius, consider trying to keep your brat's mouth shut.

Sirius: Consider focusing on your own task.

Blake: Hmph. Hey, zipper-lips, I know you think you're real cool and all making it this far, but newsflash- The only people you've had to face so far has been the team's gutter trash. Zero was already fired, that Terra girl was a joke in the first place, and the Doctor had less of a spine than most Ekans do.

Fern: Even beating gutter trash is a fluke. Ash couldn't skill himself out of a wet paper bag. And if you gotta a problem with me saying so, then come up here and prove otherwise.

Ash: Like I'll be affected by your taunts, you all lost to me at some point, there's no denying it.

Blake: Oh, wait. You can't. There's no way up here. Lin set us up on this nest to make sure you didn't get any further. Good luck finding a way up that doesn't exist. And in the meantime...Sandslash, Icicle Crash!

Before the attack can hit them, Saphira and her Dragonite repels it in time.

Saphira: Not on my watch.

Blake: Oh, look. An entourage of 'deus ex friendshippia' shows up out of nowhere as always.

Fern: It's the only way Ash survives.

Blake: Hey, wasn't digi-tits supposed to make sure only one of them got through?

Sirius: She was, but the result is clear. Find a way to fix it. I'm taking the girl and going ahead. (Drags Aya)

Aya: Ow- stop that, already! Ugh-

Fern: There's nowhere even to go.

Blake: Well, that's their problem, not ours right now. You gonna help out, or what?

Fern: Ash isn't worth the energy.

Blake: That's a convenient excuse.

Fern: What did you just say?

Blake: Couldn't hear me over the sound of your own ego?

Fern: Couldn't hear you over the sound of how pathetic Ash is. It's really deafening. You can deal with this on your own; I'm out of here too. Later, losers. (Leaves)

Blake: It's a sorry state when I, of all people, am the one pulling the weight. Man, I was just in this for the free ride. Now it's this shit show. Whatever. Ash, and... whoever you are, other ladies, Scramble all you want, but this storm isn't stopping.

Saphira: (Turns to Ash, Serena, and Lillie) You three find a way around to deal with it. The golden marks on the floor will show you the main path forward, all the way to the northeast exit. I'll draw his attention so you can move more freely, But be on guard in case he does notice you. The others won't be far behind; Florinia is working fast. Oh, and... thanks for shutting that girl down back there.

Ash: No problem.

Now Ash, Serena, and Lillie are trying to make their way up while dodging Blake's Sandslash's Icicle Crash, and they aren't really liking the whole thing.

Ash: There's a cave, maybe we can try to escape there.

Serena: Yeah. Let's go before the ice hits us.

Lillie: This sure is the hardest Victory Road...

After getting into the room, they find a puzzle and they are confused. At the same time, Cal also arrives.

Cal: Oh, Ash. You're a sight for sore eyes. You'd think after so long I'd be used to my brother effectively trying to kill me, but somehow it still gets me every time. No hard feelings about before, okay? Wasn't exactly the hugest fan of being stuck like that, but it is what it is, and it's fine now. Right now we have a job to finish. (Turns to the machine) So... what's all this?

Lillie: The machine here is still operational. Must be modern. Looks like it's for sorting and classifying excavated minerals. It has a data set loaded...

Cal: (Looks at the machine) Yeah, I don't think the minerals are actually here anymore. And naturally, it says it's locked until the properties are matched. Give me a sec... (Tries to type on the computer) Computers aren't exactly my thing, but this interface is apparently built so that even empty-headed miners can work it. You just have to... push the blocks around? On second thought, that seems horribly inefficient. Well, there are some details here about the minerals, and if we want to unlock the way I guess we'll have to go over them and connect the dots. Or something.

Lillie: So the gist is... we've got a list of details about these missing minerals. They'll have to serve as our clues, so to speak. Looks like there's exactly four of them, and one for each color. It's pretty incomplete, but we'll have to do our best to fill in the holes and figure out the properties each color mineral had. Once we have an idea of it, we'll push the matching blocks into position, matching the screens above them.

Cal: The screens each display properties the minerals can have, or a category thereof. So if we decided that the Emerald had a Hardness of 5, we'd have to push that green block in front of the screen that says "5". Uh, a lower Hardness means it's softer, I guess? ...Frankly, I'm not so sure these are the actual scientific properties, but... whatever they say, I guess. Once everything's in place, I can check it against the registered data set. If it's a perfect match, then it should unlock.

Clues:

1. No two crystals share the same quality.

2. The hardness of the ruby is 7.

3. Ruby is larger than Amethyst, but it is not the largest.

4. Amethyst's Purity is 'Middling.

5. The 'Pure' Gem is Medium-sized.

6. Emerald is less pure than Ruby, but more pure than Sapphire.

7. The smallest gem is also the softest.

8. Sapphire's Hardness is less than Emerald's Hardness.

9. The largest gem is the least pure.

Cal: I get the feeling pen and paper might be helpful for this, if there's anything like that around. What a mess.

The first one is the size, and with Lillie's smart brain helping out, the answer is Sapphire being the largest, then Emerald, Ruby, and Amethyst. Hardness is Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, and Amethyst. And Purity is Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst, and Sapphire.

Cal: I guess it worked? Great job as usual. I'm going to go on ahead then. Someone is going to have to reason with that chump... Well, "reason" may be a generous choice of wording... But we all have to do our part. And as much as I dislike it, he feels like my mess, and my responsibility to clean up. You focus on finding the way forward. If anyone has a chance against Lin... Well, you know. Good luck.

Asb and the others are relieved as they get through the puzzle.

Serena: You're really good at this, Lillie.

Lillie: I guess so.

Then they also find a Wandering Spirit, and they realize that the spirit is going for six on six battles with different field effects, and they are going to be hard to beat. After leaving the puzzle room, they are going to dodge Blake's Icicle Crash again. After that's done, they find a Mine Cart and some tracks that they need to change, after changing, they quickly jump into the cart and go to the next cave.

Serena: That's Blake, right? Why is he trying to kill us?

Ash: For Team Meteor obviously... he tried to stop Heather from saving people in Ametrine. That's when we battled for the first time.

Lillie: He really is mean, Cal sure is different from his mean brother.

After getting into the cave, they find a lot of minecarts with different paths to take, and they have to ride on them to have some hell ride. After managing to solve some puzzle, they hear Charlotte's voice.

Charlotte: Hey, wrecking ball!

Ash: Charlotte! Good to see you.

Charlotte: My sister dropped me off down here to look for you; we got a job. According to the chatterboxes in Team Meteor, they already collapsed all the routes further in, Except for the one right behind that nest they camped up on. If I were more naive, I'd say it was almost smart of them. The whole platform is raised so high up they can see the entire room and attack any point necessary, All while remaining out of the reach of any opposition barring fliers. Which would include my sister, but she took a hit trying to protect me before I knew what was going on.

Lillie: Is she alright?

Charlotte: Don't worry; she's fine. She just needs some time to heal up. But that means it's up to us. And we have a plan. Like I said, that stone nest is almost smart. But there's a glaring weakness. It's only supported by a single rock pillar beneath it. You know where this is going, right?

Serena: We have to break it?

Charlotte: And as some luck would have it, There are explosives lying around all over this place. Not sure whether Team Meteor just left 'em when they were done with their bit, or if they were already here. Apparently, this place is a historical mine or whatever. They say the crystal keys Meteor has been chasing forever ago were originally cut from the stone of this place Or something. I don't care. But I guess it makes sense miners might have used explosives for whatever, especially if they had a death wish. And I know I do. I wish death for Team Meteor. I'll get started while you find a way up here. Let's make Julia proud.

Ash: Sure. (Sees Charlotte leaves)


And I'll end the chapter right here, we're in the Victory Road, but the creators have to make this hard as we have a lot of puzzles, and we also can't stop or else we get hit by the attacks from Team Meteor. I hope you like this chapter.