Previously, in Pokémon: The Lost Child, Prinplup and Grovyle were practicing their new team-up moves when they encountered Exploud spouting insanity about the end of the world. After it started attacking them, Prinplup and Grovyle were forced to fight and take it down. A Zangoose showed up to take Exploud away and invited the two to their village.
"So this is my house. Make yourselves comfortable during your stay," Zangoose said.
"We appreciate your hospitality, Zangoose," Prinplup said.
"Hey Zangoose, while we are here, I am wondering what exactly is the deal with Exploud?" Grovyle asked.
"It is rather complicated. He has some sort of problem where he thinks that there is a conspiracy involved in everything and everyone is out to get him."
"So there is nothing to what he says other than him being crazy?" Prinplup asked.
"Yeah, there isn't anything. You don't need to worry about anything, whatever he might have told you."
"By the way, Zangoose, I am wondering if you know what the deal with Arceus is."
"Oh, he must have mentioned that. He has been on recently about how Arceus is part of some conspiracy and is behind everything and is out to get him."
"I am wondering if you know anything about who or what Arceus is," Prinplup asked.
"Honestly, I can't tell you any more than anyone else knows, which is mostly just legends."
"Me and Grovyle don't know much, so any info would be helpful."
"Nobody knows exactly who or what Arceus is. Nobody even really knows for sure if it exists, but legend says that it's the creator of the entire Pokémon world as well as everything in it."
"So that is what Arceus is," Prinplup commented.
"As I said, all of these are only legends. I have no idea if any of them is true. Nobody knows for sure. There have been some Pokémon who have claimed to have met Arceus. I choose to take what they say as sketchy."
"Do you have any of these Pokémon? I would be interested in talking to them," Prinplup asked.
"There is only one I know of in this village, he is our village elder, a Slowking to be exact. If you want to meet him, I can give you his location."
"Well, that's a good start," Prinplup said.
"Hey Prinplup, can I talk to you for a second?" Grovyle asked as he drew Prinplup close to him for a private conversation.
"Yeah, what's the problem, Grovyle?" Prinplup asked.
"Are you sure that we want to pursue this? It just seems so unneeded to me. We don't even know if this Arceus even exists, and even if he managed to find that much, what benefit is it going to serve us?"
"I thought you would be more curious to discover more about the world," Prinplup said.
"I do also need to think practically. I don't see anything beneficial that could come out of this."
"That may be true, but I don't see any harm in doing this; if you don't want to go, you don't have to," Prinplup responded.
"Well, I guess I have to since it seems like I won't be able to stop you," Grovyle says, then turns around to Zangoose to say, "Alright Zangoose, we decided to go visit this Slowking. Could you give us the location now?"
Zangoose told Prinplup and Grovyle the exact location of Slowking, and they walked through the village, heading over to the place ready to learn more about this mysterious Arceus.
"What do you think, Grovyle, about the idea of this Arceus being the creator of the entire Pokémon world?" Prinplup asked.
"I am not a big believer in gods. I am thinking that all of this Arceus stuff is just some sort of myth created to explain the existence of our world."
"Well, I would like to believe it's real," Prinplup responded.
"Of course, you will go for the belief, but having blind faith is not always going to be helpful," Grovyle said.
"I know that, but I do want to believe that there is something much greater than ourselves, I did have the thought of where exactly Pokémon came from."
"That is admittedly something I can't explain, but I would like to think there is some perfectly logical explanation behind it. Well anyway, we have now arrived at Slowking's place, which is a bit more basic than I expected," Grovyle responded.
"Hello, is anyone in there?" Yelled Prinplup.
The mysterious voice coming from the house said, "I have been expecting you two to come inside and I will tell you what you have always wanted to know." Prinplup and Grovyle opened the door and walked inside. It was rather odd. There was just random stuff all over the place. The house was very cramped, with almost no space. Slowking, the one they were sent to talk to, was just standing in the middle, completely still.
"Hello, Slowking. We were told that you have information on Arceus." Right as Prinplup said the word, Arceus Slowking's eyes opened too fast for Prinplup to even react to it. Slowking may be slow, but it can open its eyes quickly.
Slowking replied, "You have come to gather more information on the lord Arceus. You are hardly the only one who has done so, but only those who are worthy get this knowledge."
"This is a waste of time. Let's go, Prinplup," Grovyle said.
"No wait, Grovyle, I think I can handle this."
"Stand still. I will read into your soul and tell you what your true destiny is. From there, I will judge you as worthy to wield the ultimate knowledge."
"I will go first just to get this over with," Grovyle said. Grovyle stood completely still as Slowking said. Slowking was deep in thought, getting a read on Grovyle's soul. He saw many things but eventually was able to judge if he was worthy or not.
"You are not worthy, Grovyle."
"I knew this would be a waste of time if you want to go feel free, Prinplup, but I would just leave now."
"I will still give this a shot, Grovyle, Slowking read my soul."
Prinplup would stand still as Slowking read his soul. However, something was very wrong. Slowking was seeing visions of things he never thought imaginable. It was overwhelming for his mind. Slowking started breathing heavily with an extremely worried look, panicking and talking to himself. But Prinplup couldn't help but hear, so he opened his eyes and saw what was going on.
"Are you okay, Slowking? You do not look well?" Prinplup asked.
"It can't be, this can't be, what do I do? I can't say anything, I can't do anything, ahhhh," Slowking said while screeching in pain.
"Slowking what's happening, hang in there, get some help, Grovyle," Prinplup said. Grovyle ran to get some help as he could tell something was wrong with Slowking.
"You must know, Arceus is real. Arceus is real. You must meet him, ahhhhhhhh," Slowking said, while in even more pain and overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge.
"Slowking, what's going on? What did you see?" Prinplup asked, even more confused than before.
"I can't take it anymore, ahhhh." Slowking, soon after, could not take the amount of pain he was in and ended his own life by using his psychic powers to blow up his head. Prinplup saw him do this with his own eyes and was quite shaken up and also very confused.
Grovyle came back with Zangoose and saw Slowking dead on the ground with his head completely gone.
"What happened, Prinplup?" Grovyle asked.
"I don't understand. He started talking about stuff about how Arceus is real and then he blew his head off using his psychic powers."
"Man, poor guy. I wish that this had never really happened," Zangoose said.
"What do you mean by that?" Grovyle asked.
"This isn't the first time something like this has happened. Slowking sometimes gets overwhelmed by his visions. This time he must have seen so much that he couldn't take it and killed himself."
"What could he have possibly seen with me that caused this bad of a reaction?" Prinplup asked.
"I wish I could tell you, but I don't know. I need to get Slowking to the other elders for the funeral. One thing I will tell you, Prinplup, is don't blame yourself for what happened. You had no way of knowing that this would happen," Zangoose replied.
"I do have one question: why did Slowking continue with this when, as you said, he had incidents like this before," Grovyle asked.
"I wish I could understand that we tried to get him to stop, but he insisted on continuing, hoping to find the "worthy one," as he put it."
Zangoose leaves the room, and Prinplup and Grovyle follow shortly after. They go their separate ways after that. Zangoose tells the elders what happened, while Prinplup and Grovyle wallow in it.
"I don't understand anything, Grovyle. Why did any of that happen? What did I do?" Prinplup exclaimed, panicked and more perplexed than ever.
"I honestly don't understand why Slowking had that bad of a reaction. What could he have possibly seen with you specifically that caused that to happen? Was it something bad?" Grovyle wondered.
"You think I'm destined to walk a dark path, but that can't be right, can it?" Prinplup asked, more worried than ever now that that thought had been placed inside his head.
"I wish I could say no, but I honestly don't know. I do hope that isn't the case though. Especially since I want to believe that we have some level of free will in this world. If someone wants to walk down a dark path, then it's their choice to make, but it would also be others' choice to stop them."
"I hope you are right about that."
Prinplup and Grovyle walk away from the village, mourning the passing of Slowking but also pondering what this means for them, Prinplup especially.