A Dragon's Tail
Intermission I: Freya's Tail - Arrogance
Intermission I-4: Ruins of Pendracomonium
"…"
In the ruined Hidden Village of Dragon of Dragon, a mysterious dragon in a golden armor suit was standing at the center square alone. He slowly gazed around the ruins that were once a place that the dragons who survived the Apocalypse, as well as their descendants, lived together in harmony without associating with the outside world, and the one who brought those dragons to this place, to Valley of No Return, and created this village was none other than himself, Bahamut.
For some reason, Bahamut had mysteriously disappeared from the Valley of No Return some time after Hidden Village of Dragon was found, and he remained in the disappearance until now, when he was able to come back to the place he created for the first time in a long while, but… It was already too late.
Almost everyone who lived in this village had died… And the whole village was destroyed, leaving only a crumbling ruin as a sight of a once-existed village of Dragon type Pokemon…
"…"
Behind the golden helmet that the mysterious dragon wore, no one was able to see his expression after having witnessed the fate of Hidden Village of Dragon. Was he angry? Was he sad? Was he fear? No one would ever know… However, there's one thing that almost everyone would be able to grasp about his current emotion… His emotion right now surely wasn't a positive emotion…
"RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
"!" Bahamut turned his attention to the south of where he was right now, which was also the place where the sound of the Dragon's Roar originated from. It wasn't hard for him to grasp that the Dragon's Roar he heard right now was generated from not only a single dragon. In fact, he could even figure out that the sound of Dragon's Roar he heard was generated by twelve dragons…
"…So, that's their decision…" Bahamut mumbled. "… I see… Then…"
Bahamut then looked up at the crimson sky above the Valley of No Return, before…
"KARRRRRRRRRRRAAAAARRRRRRWWWWWAARRRR!"
Bahamut let out a roar, which joined up with the roar of other 12 dragons, creating a very powerful roar that echoed through everywhere in the Valley of No Return, striking fear into the heart of other living creature within the whole valley.
The roar continued for a few second before it ended, making the whole Valley of No Return calm and silent again. However, within the heart of the dragons who let out the roar earlier, their heart wasn't calm at all. Instead, their heart was beating fast, as if their inner spirit had been awakened…
"… It seems like my work here is almost done… And it means that… I have gotten myself another work to do…" Bahamut mumbled to himself after the Dragon's Roar ended. "And the next thing that I must do is…"
"… Assigning the role to each of us, this is the first thing that we must do." Richard spoke up. "Each of us possesses different skills, abilities and attributes, so assigning the role will help maximizing our performance."
"… I don't understand most of your words, Richard." Zetarus said.
"Basically, he means that we must choose someone among us to be a leader, a second-in-command and everything else." Snow said.
"Then, let's start with the role of a leader and a second-in-command of the Pendragon." Korben spoke up. "Who could they be?"
"Honestly…" Richard spoke up. "Among us, there are only two people who could lead of the Pendragon, Claura and Baromyteus."
"Why us?!" Claura and Baromyteus spoke up at the same time, before both of them turned their face to face each other with a blood-hungry look on their face.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO STEAL MY WORDS, YOU DRAGON JERKY?!" Claura roared at Baromyteus.
"AND SINCE WHEN DID YOU BECOME THE OWNER OF THOSE WORDS, YOU SALTY SEAHORSE?!" Baromyteus roared at Claura.
"Sigh…" Richard facepalmed himself while the other members of the Pendragon had a single drop of sweat appearing on their head. It seemed like, even after they had passed the moment of crisis together, Claura and Baromyteus still didn't seem to get along with each other, or will in a near future.
Among them, there was only one dragon who didn't seem to be concerned with the action of the Kingdra and the Shiny Haxorus...
"This is perfect." Xavier spoke up. "Claura and Baromyteus, one of you can be our leader and the other being our second-in-command."
"WHAT?!" Claura and Baromyteus stopped bickering with each other for a second as they turned their attention to the Dragonite, but once they realized that both of them had just spoke the same word again, they then turned their attention back to each other and was about to resume their bickering when Xavier continued speaking first.
"Because both of you are the two best candidates for being our leader." Xavier said.
"Hm! Fine!" Claura said and turned her attention to Baromyteus. "Listen, you Dragon Jerky, I will be the second-in-command, and you will be the leader of the Pendragon!"
"Why the hell I have to be the leader while you are the second-in-command?!" Baromyteus said. "And more importantly, why should I listen to what you say, you Salty Seahorse?!"
"Because you are OLDER than me." Claura answered and emphasized her word at the 'older' part. "And I am sure that someone as prideful as you won't be able to forgive yourself if you have to work under my lead."
"Yes! I would never do that!" Baromyteus said. "But aren't you proud of your pride?! Would you be able not to damn yourself for being under my lead?!"
"You speak as if you know me that well!" Claura said. "Now shut up and accept it!"
"Hm! Fine!" Baromyteus said. "But don't blame me if you find my leading unacceptable later!"
"Of course! I would never do that!" Claura said.
"…" The other members of the Pendragon watched the bickering between Claura and Baromyteus without saying anything, as it made them speechless. While their action and their words made it seem like both Claura and Baromyteus were angry with each other, the content of their speech spoke otherwise…
Did Claura and Baromyteus really hate each other?
"... And how long are all of you going to stand like a lifeless puppet?!" Baromyteus' voice snapped everyone out of their thought and dragged them back to reality.
"Right." Claura said. "Move it! Now, after we finally get a leader and a second-in-command of the Pendragon, what role must we assign next?"
"I think the next role would be… a strategist, someone who will come up with a plan for us." Diego said. "And who should it be?"
"And again…" Rachael spoke up. "Among all of us, I think Onii-chan and Xavier are the two best candidates for being the strategist of the Pendragon."
"And between them, Richard is more knowledgeable, while Xavier is wiser." Claura commented. "In conclusion, both of them have one strength and one weakness…"
"…" Richard and Xavier said nothing after hearing the words of their friends.
"Then, why don't we make both of them strategists of the Pendragon? Having two strategists will surely be better than having only one." Rachael suggested.
"N… No." Freya spoke up. "While having two strategists seem better than one, but what if it comes to a point where they disagree with the plan of each other?"
"Right." Richard spoke up. "Disagreement between the strategists is inevitable if we have two strategists, and it could lead to a worse situation, so I think we should have only one strategist for the Pendragon."
"But the question is… Who?" Baromyteus said.
After Baromyteus finished his words, the whole area fell into silence as everyone was trying to think of who should be the strategist of the Pendragon. Richard, the knowledgeable Latios and the possessor of the ancient chronicle? Or Xavier, the wise Dragonite and a trained strategist from Kingdom of the Dragonking?
"… So… This is the path you chose…"
"!" The majestic and powerful voice was heard by everyone, and it made everyone turn their attention to the owner of the voice, who was standing at the south of where they were right now.
"… Bahamut?" Richard was the first one who called the name of the owner of the voice, who was none other that the mysterious dragon in a golden armor suit. "I remember that you went to the ruined village to the north of where we are, and how come that you are standing at the south of where we are? I am sure that I didn't see you walking pass us."
"… I am not obliged to sate your curiosity, young Latios." Bahamut answered Richard before turning his attention to everyone of the Pendragon. "But it seems like you all are obliged to follow the same path…"
"Right." Diego said. "We will do what we have to do, because we are the Pendragon."
"Pendragon? So… That's the name of your group…" Bahamut commented. "Not bad, I must say. And… Who is the leader of the Pendragon?"
"This guy is the leader." Claura said and looked at Baromyteus, who did nothing other than crossing his arms and glared at Bahamut with a skeptical feeling toward him. "And I am the second-in-command of the Pendragon."
"I see…" Bahamut said. "If someone with the blood of Drawyvern becomes the leader of the Pendragon, then I have nothing to worry about you."
"Wait a sec…" Korben spoke up. "Aren't you going to join us too?"
"No, I won't join up with all of you… At least for now." Bahamut answered, but he lowered his voice at the last part of his words so that no one would be able to hear him. "I will operate on my own, and you all operate on your own, but we will stay an ally of each other and assist each other in our mission."
"Ally? Tsk…" Richard let out a sarcastic laugh. "And why should we trust you?"
"Onii-chan!" Rachael and some other members of the Pendragon were shocked after hearing the words of the Latios. "Why did you say something like that?"
"Because there's no guarantee that this guy is truly our ally." Richard answered. "His action is suspicious, if you ask me, and he left out most detail regarding him. He didn't even reveal us his face or his specie!"
"You doubt Bahamut just because he refused to answer your question, Richard!" Korben said.
"No, he is right, young Kommo-o." Bahamut said. "I understand that some of you may still suspect me and my action, but let me clarify my standing point right now. No matter what, I won't betray all of you and I will stay as your ally… Unless if any of you possess the Blood of Legend in your veins, then I will become your worst enemy."
"!" Hearing the words of the Pendragon gave a clear astonished to Zetarus, Diego, Anastasia and Baromyteus, as they were the one who...
"… Do not be afraid." Bahamut noticed the reaction of some members of the Pendragon and continued speaking. "You all may be the descendants of the Hero/ine of Legend or the possessors of Blood of Legend at some point, but right now, none of you have a chance to become the Hero/ine of Legend, so you are no longer my enemies."
"…" Hearing the words of Bahamut seemed to calm down Zetarus, Diego and Anastasia, but for Baromyteus…
"… And how did you know that some of us are either the descendants of the Hero/ine of Legend or the former possessors of Blood of Legend?" Bahamut asked with his arms crossed.
"The answer shall be yours one day, but not today." Bahamut answered. "And so, I must take my leave right now. Four Hero/ine of Legend are still roaming the world, and I still have a lot of work to do."
After finished speaking, Bahamut turned his back to the Pendragon again and prepared to walk away when Baromyteus spoke up first.
"Wait." Baromyteus spoke up, which made Bahamut stop his movement. "Before you leave, fight me."
"… And for what reason that I must oblige to your request?" Bahamut asked as he turned back to face Baromyteus and his friends.
"This is not a request. This is a challenge." Bahamut said. "Unless you are a coward who would abandon your pride, face me like a true dragon in a battle."
"… Very well… I accept your challenge, but not today." Bahamut said. "We will fight each other someday, and I trust that you can wait until that day comes, right?"
"… And will you stay true to your words?" Baromyteus continued asking another question. "What I hate most are lies and deception, so I won't tolerate if I found any of your words bogus."
"… For someone who hates lies and deception to the extreme, you should have already realized whether my words are lies or not, young Haxorus." Bahamut said.
"…" Baromyteus said nothing after hearing the words of the mysterious Pokemon in the golden armor suit.
"… Hearing your words reminds me of one more thing I need to tell you all before I depart." Bahamut decided to speak up after seeing that Baromyteus didn't say anything more. "Right now, all of you, the Pendragon, have decided to choose the path of the traitor, a traitor to the World of Pokemon. No one in this world will accept you anymore, so why don't all of you pay a visit to the shrine that once gave you solemn to the south of here? Maybe it would be able to give solemn to the traitors like all of you again this time…"
"Traitors?! Solemn?!" Everyone said. "W… What do you mean by that?"
"It means that all of you, just like me, are now the traitors to the world, but not the dragonkin, which you all loyal to." Bahamut said. "That's the answer I have for all of you, and now. Farewell. May your claws and fangs stay sharp, and your preys stay fresh."
"Wait!" Zetarus tried to call Bahamut again, but it was too late as suddenly, a blue veil of light appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the mysterious dragon in the golden armor suit, and when the veil of light disappeared a few second later, Bahamut was already gone.
"Geez… That axxxxxe…" Diego cursed.
"And how could he call us traitor?!" Richard said.
"But he is right, Richard. We are now the enemies of the Hero/ine of Legend, and that makes us the enemies of the whole world too, so it's understandable for us to be called like that." Xavier said. "Get used to it, Richard. After we left Valley of No Return and step back to the realm of Symmetria again, we will be called like that a lot."
"So… It's true…" Rachael spoke with a sad voice. "We have already betrayed the whole Symmetria, haven't we?"
"…" Everyone fell into silence once again after hearing the words of the Latias, because she was right. The path they chose now forever branded them as the traitors of Symmetria…
"… Hey, Rachael." Zetarus was the first one who spoke up after the moment of silence. "… Do you want to go back? You still have a chance to turn back and live your life like an ordinary Pokemon. With this, you won't have to endure the pain and suffering—"
"No, I won't go back." Rachael said. "I… I have already made up my mind. I will continue walking on this path to the end… No matter how painful it is… And so… I won't go back…"
A smile appeared on everyone's face after hearing the words of the Latias, as this meant that they will stick together to the end, and there's nothing that could tear them apart…
"And so…" Baromyteus spoke up again. "I think before we depart, that Bahamut guy said something cryptic about traitors and solemn, right?"
"Right." Richard spoke up. "He said that we should go to the shrine that we stayed during the time that the barrier was formed over Valley of No Return, for that we may find 'solemn' there, just like when we found 'solemn' there during these 3 years between now and the Dragon Massacre."
"Geez… That guy…" Zetarus said with his arms crossed. "Why can't he speaks with the words that are easier to understand?"
"And because we don't really understand what he meant by that, we should go to the shrine right now." Xavier said. "Maybe we will understand more once we get there."
"Okay." Everyone nodded to the words of the Dragonite, before they started walking toward the south of where they were right now, to the place that gave them solemn during the time between the Dragon Massacre and now, the Dragon Shrine.
-A Few Minutes Later…
Twelve Pokemon slowly walked into the Dragon Shrine, a shrine located to the south of Hidden Village of Dragon. This shrine didn't only mark the southernmost area of Valley of No Return, but it was also a sacred place of the dragons who (once) lived in the village. This shrine also served a crucial role in the Dragon Massacre, which it protected the lives of 12 dragons from being brutally slaughtered.
And now, it will once again serve a crucial role for the Pendragon…
"So… That Bahamut guy wants us to come here, hm?" Diego said as he and other 11 Pokemon stepped into the Dragon Shrine once again. As they look around, they could see that there was nothing different in this shrine from the time when they stayed here for 3 whole years. The only different thing here was the lighting of the shrine. Normally, the light from outside made this shrine dim and a bit dark. When the Dragon Massacre occurred, the shrine was dark red from the battles outside. When the Pendragon woke up from their slumber, the shrine was mysteriously light blue, as if they were lulling the Pendragon not to wake up. However, right now, the inside of the Dragon Shrine was blood red, as if someone 'painted' the light that shone from outside crimson with blood.
"T… This shrine looks so scary now…" Freya commented.
"But I think this place looks rather sad instead…" Anastasia said as she looked around the shrine. "I don't know why, but the shrine right now gave me a feeling that someone is… suffering."
The Pendragon then walked around the shrine, trying to find something that would be a clue to understand Bahamut's words, however, they found none.
"… Let's inspect his words first." Baromyteus decided to speak up, turning the attention of everyone to him. "If I remember correctly, that Bahamut guy said that 'Right now, all of you, the Pendragon, have decided to choose the path of the traitor, a traitor to the World of Pokemon. No one in this world will accept you anymore, so why don't all of you pay a visit to the shrine that once gave you solemn to the south of here? Maybe it would be able to give solemn to the traitors like all of you again this time…'. Xavier, Richard, what do you two think about this?"
"Maybe we should consider the meaning of the word 'Solemn' he mentioned first…" Xavier answered.
"…" Richard didn't answer Baromyteus' question, as he seemed to have his attention on something else…
"I see…" Baromyteus said. "And what could the meaning of 'Solemn' he mentions means?"
"I think… For the word 'solemn', he meant a place for us to stay." Diego spoke up. "After all, our mission of defeating the Hero/ine of Legend is a big one, so we need a place to stay, as our base of operation."
"A team base for us? Sound nice." Zetarus said. "At least we won't have to sleep in the wilderness anymore, and it would be good to finally have a 'home' once in a long while…"
"However, we are now the enemies of the whole Symmetria…" Snow spoke up. "And so, the only place that could serve as our base is a place that located somewhere in the Valley of No Return."
"A place in the Valley of No Return? About 4 of 5 of the valley's areas is a home of many wild Pokemon, so it's not a safe place for us to stay." Korben said. "And so, the only place that could serve as our team base is the Hidden Village of Dragon."
"That won't do." Claura said. "Hidden Village of Dragon was already destroyed, and all the single buildings there were burned down to ashes. The only building that's still remained here is this Dragon Shrine."
"So… That's why Bahamut said that we can find a solemn here…" Rachael said. "He must know that this Dragon Shrine is the only place that could serve as our team base."
"But I think this shrine is too small to serve as our base of operation." Anastasia said. "We need a larger place for all of us to stay."
"But where?" Freya asked.
"Hm…" Everyone paused their current action to think about Freya's question. It's true that the Pendragon needed a place that would serve as their base of operation, but considered that they were now the 'traitors' of the continent of Symmetria, their only choice of a place for their base is Valley of No Return. However, the majority of the area in Valley of No Return was home to many wild Pokemon, which was not a safe place to serve as their base. And so, the area of Hidden Village of Dragon was the only place that could serve as their team base. But again, because of the Dragon Massacre, all houses and buildings in the Hidden Village of Dragon were destroyed, leaving the only building in the entire Valley of No Return that still existed, the Dragon Shrine. However, the Dragon Shrine was not a proper place to serve as the Pendragon's base either… And so, what should they do?
"… Onii-chan?"
Rachael then realized something strange. When everyone was discussing about their team base, or even when Baromyteus asked for his opinion, Richard didn't even let a single word out of his mouth despite that he usually expressed his opinion when everyone was discussing something. But right now, her brother was having his attention on something else…
"…" Richard said nothing. All he did was gazing at the altar that was located at the center point of the Dragon Shrine. This altar was the very same altar that Richard used to cast a spell to create a barrier over the entire Valley of No Return.
"What's wrong, Onii-chan?" Rachael approached her elder brother and asked him a question.
"The altar…" Richard said as his attention was focused at the altar at the center point of the Dragon Shrine. "… It isn't same as before."
"What do you mean by that?" Rachael asked.
"…" Richard said nothing as he approached the altar. He then placed his paw on the altar and started inspecting it…
"Richard, what are you doing?" Baromyteus asked as everyone's attention, including him, was now on the Latios.
"… Found it." Richard said and pointed his paw at the base of the altar. There was an old inscription with several ancient alphabets being scripted there, and these alphabets weren't there when everyone woke up after a long slumber!
"The ancient inscription, hm?" Baromyteus said as he and everyone else approached the altar. "Richard, can you read it?"
"Yes." Richard said. "It says 'When the altar has quenched its thirst with the blood of dragons, a path to the lair of the traitor shall be revealed.'"
"W… What?!" Freya and Rachael said after hearing the interpretation of the words on the altar.
"What does it mean by that?" Zetarus asked.
"Basically, I think if the blood of Dragon type Pokemon is dropped onto this altar, 'The lair of the traitor' shall be revealed." Richard said.
"Blood of Dragon type Pokemon, hm?" Baromyteus said. "Then, I guess my blood would do."
After finished speaking, Baromyteus walked toward the altar, and once he reached the altar, he then scratched his left arm using his claw, making his blood flow out of his arm!
"…" Baromyteus then raised his left arm over the altar, letting his blood drip onto the altar below.
And then…
"…"
"…"
"…"
"… Nothing happens." Diego said with his arms crossed.
"That's strange…" Richard said. "I think that my translation of this inscription isn't flawed… So, why?"
"… You didn't do it wrong, Richard." Xavier spoke up. "It's just that we haven't fulfilled the whole condition to 'quench the thirst' of this altar yet."
"What do you mean by that, Xavier?" Claura asked.
"Can you say the translation of the inscription again, Richard?" Xavier asked.
"Hm? Well… The inscription says 'When the altar has quenched its thirst with the blood of dragons—"
"!" An invisible exclamation mark appeared over everyone's head, as they had just realized something.
"The inscription said that, in order to quench the thirst of the altar, we need the blood of 'dragons', not 'dragon', so the blood of a single dragon isn't enough to do it."
"Then, I guess my blood would do too…" Claura said and was about to moved toward the altar when her cousin spoke up first.
"Actually, Claura…" Xavier spoke up. "Instead of using only your blood and Baromyteus', why don't we use the blood of everyone here?"
"WHAT?!" Everyone, especially Freya, Rachael and Richard, let out a voice of shock after hearing the words of the Dragonite.
"A… Are you serious?!" Richard said.
"Yes." Xavier said. "But if you don't want to donate your blood, then I will not force you to do it."
"… Fine." Richard said.
"Onii-chan…" Rachael said.
"Then, I will go first." Claura said as she approached the altar and then used the tip of her anchor to scratch her tail, letting her blood drip onto the altar.
"And then me…" Xavier said as walked up to the altar before scratched his left arms and let his blood drip onto the altar too.
"My turn." Zetarus said as he used his left claw to create a small cut on his right fin and let his blood drip onto the altar.
"Me too." Korben said as he followed what Xavier and Baromyteus did and let his blood drip onto the altar too.
"Next is…" Diego was about to scratch his left arm using his claw when he suddenly felt a sharp pain running into his spine, and the pain was generated from several sharp objects being pierced into his tail!
"ZETARUS!" Diego roared as he quickly turned back and saw Zetarus biting his tail again, however, this time, the Garchomp bit the Mega Charizard X's tail harder than before! "GET THE FXXK AWAY FROM MY TAIL YOU BXXXXXD!"
Diego then tried to punch the Garchomp using his fiery fist, but Zetarus was too fast as he quickly retreated from Zetarus' tail and moved to the altar before he spewed something from his mouth onto the altar!
"ZETARUS! WHAT THE FXXK ARE YOU DOING?!" Diego roared after seeing the action of the Garchomp.
"I just drop your blood onto the altar, Diego." Zetarus spoke with an 'innocent' voice as if he didn't do anything wrong. He then opened his mouth, showing that some of his fangs were crimson from Diego's blood that had gotten onto his fangs when he bit Diego's tail. "… And maybe some of my saliva."
"EEEEWWWWWWWWWW!" Everyone else in the shrine let out a cry of disgusting at the same time after hearing the words of the Garchomp.
"It's not that bad, everyone." Zetarus continued speaking after seeing the reaction of everyone. "And now, Diego, I have already drunk your blood, which means that your body is already—"
"… How long are you going to keep rambling?" Richard interrupted Zetarus' words, as right now, he was covering Rachael's ears and prevented her from hearing anything that Zetarus said. The same thing went to Korben, who was covering Freya's ears.
"Sigh… Fine." Zetarus said, making Richard and Korben let go of Rachael and Freya's ears. "But Diego, don't forget about this."
"You axxxxxe…" Diego grumbled as he turned his face away from Zetarus, not from his anger toward the Garchomp, but to hide his blushing face from anyone.
"And so…" Anastasia said as she approached the altar and pricked her paw with a small needle that she, for some reason, always carried with her, and let her blood drip onto the altar.
"Here…" Anastasia said as she handed over her needle to Richard, who then had taken about five minutes to make up his mind before he pricked his paw and let his blood drip onto the altar too.
"I… It's not that painful, Rachael… Just thinking that a small ant bite your paw…" Richard said to his younger sister as he pricked her paw and let her blood drip onto the altar. After they finished, Richard then handed over the needle back to Anastasia before moving away from the altar to let the next Pokemon get close to the altar.
"N… Now…" Freya said as she used the rose's thorn on her staff to prick her paw in order to let her blood drip onto the altar.
"… My blood… This is it…" Snow said as he used his Snowflake Dagger to scratch his left fin and let his blood drip onto the altar.
"…" Sirius walked toward the altar once everyone had already let their blood drip onto the altar. It then used its claw to scratch its left front leg and let its blood drip onto the altar…
After the blood of 12 dragons was dropped onto the altar, the altar itself started glowing with a mysterious dark blue aura, and then the altar itself started moving away from the point where it was, revealing a hidden pathway beneath the spot where the altar was located!
"Jackpot." Zetarus said after the hidden pathway was revealed. He and everyone then looked at the newly-revealed path and found that the pathway itself led to somewhere below, into the underground, however, the pathway was too dark, making them unable to see anything far into this pathway. The pathway itself looked very old, indicating that it was created since a very long time ago. Moreover, the pathway itself also looked rather dim and dusty, as if the sun hadn't shone onto this pathway for a very long time, indicating that this pathway was closed and hidden for a very long time, before it was opened at last today.
"Wow…" Korben spoke up. "I… I never know that there's a hidden path in the Dragon Shrine, and I doubt that anyone from my village know of its existence too…"
"And so… This must be a path to the lair of the traitor that the ancient inscription speaking of…" Claura said.
"And maybe… That Bahamut guy… He must already know about this hidden pathway. After all, he was the one who created Hidden Village of Dragon…" Baromyteus spoke up. "And… Could it be that he wants us to discover it?"
"Whatever…" Diego said. "But now, let's get into this pathway and find out what's hiding there."
"W… Wait a second…" Rachael spoke up. "T… This path looks so scary… A… And what if there're wild Pokemon down there?"
"Silly…" Baromyteus said. "This
"Then, allow me…" Richard said as he approached the entrance before he opened his Chronicle of Darkside and used it to scan the pathway and the place it led to, and after a few minutes, Richard closed his Chronicle of Darkside.
"… How's it, Onii-chan?" Rachael asked after her elder brother had finished scanning the hidden pathway.
"The result of this scan shows that this hidden pathway, as well as the place it led to, is void of any living creatures." Richard answered. "In other words, there is no living creature, be Pokemon or anything else, in this path and the place it leads to."
"Really?" Rachael said and let out a sigh of relief. "Whew… It's good to hear that…"
"… However…" Richard continued speaking. "While I was scanning the hidden pathway and the place it leads to, I also tried to create a map of the pathway and the place it leads to too. However, I was unable to do it because a strong force prevented me from doing so."
"A strong force?" Xavier said. "Like some kind of magic or something like that?"
"Yes, but I couldn't tell what it is…" Richard said.
"T… That's still scary…" Rachael said.
"… Well… Sitting here won't do anything good." Baromyteus spoke up. "Everyone, let's go."
"Go? To where?" Rachael asked.
"To here." Baromyteus said and pointed his paw at the hidden pathway that led into the underground that was revealed earlier.
"W… What?!" Rachael said. "B… But…"
"Well… If you are afraid of it, then you can wait here, Rachael." Diego said.
"… Onii-chan, what do you think?" Rachael asked.
"… Let's go, Rachael." Richard answered.
"W… What?!" Rachael said again. "B… But… Aren't you… scared of this pathway? It looks so scary?"
"… I won't deny that this path looks a bit creepy…" Richard said. "However, I have already scanned that there's no living creature down there, and I am 100% sure that there's no mistake in this scanning. Moreover, I am really curious of what's down there, especially after I discover that there was a strong 'force' down there. "
"… Fine… I will go too…" Rachael said.
"Then… Everyone, let's go." Baromyteus said.
"Right." Everyone said, and then Richard summoned two orbs of light and gave one to Baromyteus, who was the first person to enter the hidden pathway, and he was followed by Anastasia, Rachael, Richard, Zetarus, Diego, Korben, Freya, Snow, Claura, Xavier, and the last one who entered the hidden pathway was Sirius, who held the second orb of light that Richard summoned.
The path that led deeper into the earth was very dark, even with two light orbs that Richard summoned were able to give enough light just for everyone to see themselves and their friends, not anything else around them. They couldn't even tell where they were right now or how long had they walked from the entrance of the hidden passage at the Dragon Shrine. The only thing that they could tell was that they were still in the place that seemed to be a corridor of something…
"T… This place is so dark…" Rachael said as she tightly clung onto her elder brother's left arm as everyone continued walking deeper into the passageway.
"No wonder." Diego said. "After all, I would say that this place has never gotten a blessing from the god of sun."
"That's… quite sad." Anastasia commented. "Sun is the primary source of life. Anywhere that the light of the sun couldn't reach, lives could never hope to flourish…"
"But there are some lives that could flourish even in the darkness." Baromyteus said without turning his attention back to everyone because he knew that he would scare some of them. "Think of it. If lives couldn't flourish in the darkness, then how could the nation of Shadowlost Territory exist?"
"Y… You are right, brother…" Anastasia said.
Everyone continued walking along the dark passageway, which, as they went deeper. And they noticed that the path seemed to be larger and larger as they went deeper, as if they were getting closer to the place that this corridor will lead to.
And finally…
"Hm?"
Baromyteus stopped walking as he noticed that he had entered a place where the corridor suddenly became very large, indicating that the corridor was already over, and he was now in the place that this corridor led to, which seemed to be a large room.
"Finally, a large room…" Korben said as he and everyone else got out of the corridor and entered the room that Baromyteus entered first. "But I still can't see anything here."
"Everyone, stay together!" Claura said. "And don't touch anything here. We still don't know what lies in this place."
"But then, how could we know what this place is?" Zetarus asked.
"… Richard." Baromyteus said as he turned his attention to the Latios. "Can you lighten up this whole room?"
"If this place is truly a large room, not a corridor, then I think I can." Richard answered.
"Then, do it." Baromyteus commanded.
Richard nodded to Baromyteus in response as he opened the Chronicle of Darkside and started mumbling something, and several seconds later, the light started emitting from the Chronicle of Darkside. This time, because it was a large room, not a narrow corridor, the light was able to reach everywhere in the room, making it possible for everyone to see the entire room!
"Finally…" Korben said as he and everyone were able to see the place they were right now. "But… Wow… This place…"
Astonishingly, the room that they had just discovered, which it was thought by everyone that it must be a large underground cave due to being a place located underground, was a very large room with a wall made from rock-cut stone with the ancient carving into many pictures, indicating that this room wasn't a natural structure. It was an ancient man-made structure located deep into the ground.
"To think that there's a place like this exist underground…" Snow said as he looked around the room.
"This place seems like a hall of something…" Richard said as he, like everyone else, looked around the hall with a spark of curiosity in his eyes. "But what's the purpose of this place? And who built this place? There're so many unanswered questions…"
"Right." Rachael said as she looked around the hall too. "I wonder if there's anything here, or—EYAAAAA!"
Rachael suddenly let out a scream as she quickly rushed to her elder brother before hiding behind him, with her paws fiercely clung onto his arms.
"W… WHAT?!" Among everyone, Korben was the one who got startled most by Rachael's sudden scream. "W… WHAT THE HELL?!"
"What's wrong, Rachael?!" Richard asked after seeing the sudden reaction of his younger sister, and everyone else was also having their attention on the Latias too. "Is there something wrong?"
"O… O…. Over there…" Rachael said with a shaking voice as she slowly raised her paw and point at the other side of the hall, which was opposite to where the corridor that everyone was passing through was. "T… There's… someone there!"
"!" Everyone immediately turned their attention to where Rachael pointed her paw to, which was the other side of the corridor, and saw a figure of someone there!
The figure was in the shape of a draconic creature of a very large size. This figure was even taller than Snow, who was the tallest member of the Pendragon, and this figure was also much more muscular than everyone else here. The body of this figure was very rugged and rough, especially the part of its belly that had several ellipsoid scutes. This figure had two long arms; each with three sharp conical spikes on the forearm and one on the shoulder, as well three sharp fingers and claws at the paw. This figure's legs, on the other hand, were quite short. Each of them had two sharp conical spikes, one on the upper part of the leg and one on the lower part, as well as three toes and claws at the foot. The long arms and short legs gave this figure an appearance of a hunchback. This figure had a long, rugged tail with four sharp conical spikes on it. This figure also had two medium-sized wings in the shape of the leaves with jagged edged. For the head, this figure had a very rough head with a blunt snout and several fang-like protrusions sprout from its jaws and the edge above its head. This figure also had two ferocious eyes glaring at everyone here, as if it was ready to attack them at any moment!
"… Don't worry, everyone." Xavier was the first one who spoke up after everyone noticed the presence of the figure that made Rachael scream earlier. "That figure in front of us isn't alive. It's just a statue."
As everyone looked closer, they realized that the figure in front of them was entirely ash gray with rough texture, indicating that this figure was actually a stone status that was made into the shape of a certain Dragon type Pokemon. And the Pendragon could just notice that this stone statue also 'wore' a string around its neck like a necklace, with a strange object that shaped like a sharp claw or fang as a 'pendant' attaching to this 'necklace'. Moreover, the reason why this figure was very tall was just because this figure was standing on a stone base. And so, by subtracting the height of the stone base, this statue was actually not that tall, as its height was just a bit more than Korben's.
"Whew…" Rachael, Richard, Freya, Snow and Anastasia let out a sigh of relief after learning that the figure that they saw was just a stone statue. "That's good to hear…"
"But again…" Richard said as he gradually walked closer to the statue. "… As I take a closer look, I must say that the one who crafted this statue must be an excellent craftsman."
"True." Baromyteus said as he looked at the stone statue. "This statue looks so much like its real-life counterpart. I wouldn't be surprised if anyone mistakes this statue as a real Pokemon."
"But…" Freya spoke up. "What's a stone statue doing in a place like this?"
"Hm… Now that you mention it…" Snow spoke up. "I remember reading a book about the structures once, and it said that some ancient structures will have the statues in the shape of monsters in order to protect that structure from the evil spirit. If I remember correctly, I think they call a statue like this 'gargoyle'"
"Gargoyle? I know about this too." Richard said, and everyone else nodded in response. "As you said, Xavier, gargoyle is usually being made to resembled monster or scary creature, and in this case…" Richard looked at the gargoyle on the other side of the hall. "… I think this gargoyle was made to resemble the Pokemon called Druddigon."
"Druddigon? A perfect choice for a gargoyle, if you ask me…" Diego said.
"And… If there's a gargoyle in a place like this, then this place must be the important ancient underground ruins or something like that." Richard continued speaking.
"Ancient underground ruins? I like the sound of that." Diego said. "But… Even thought this room was quite large, I think it's too small to be 'ruins', especially since this room contained nothing more than a single gargoyle."
"Hm…" Xavier said and looked around the room. "If what you said is true, Diego, then it would mean that either this hall isn't the entire area of this ruins or there's something else in this room."
"Something else?!" Claura said as she turned her attention to her cousin, who was still looking around the room before looking up at the ceiling. "Are you blind?! Can't you see that there's nothing else—"
"Nope, you are wrong." Xavier spoke up while he was still looking at the ceiling of the hall. "It looks like we are having a company…"
"A company?" Everyone said before imitating Xavier's action by looking at the ceiling of the hall, and immediately after that…
"!"
"EEYAYAYAAYAYAYAYAAYAAAAAA!"
Once again, Rachael let out a loud scream and quickly hid behind her older brother as well as tightly held onto his arms. However, this time, Freya also did the same thing except that she didn't hide behind anyone. Anastasia, while she didn't scream like Rachael and Freya, was greatly bewildered, and the same reaction also extended to Richard, Snow and Korben. The cause of their sudden shock reaction was nothing more than what they saw as they looked at the ceiling of the hall.
"W…. WHAT THE HELL?!" Korben said.
At the ceiling, everyone could see several small red glowing spots at the dark ceiling of the hall, and as they looked more closely, they realized that what they saw wasn't the glowing spot, but they were several glowing pairs of eye of something!
"SCREEEEECHHH!"
As if knowing that they were finally noticed, the owners of those pairs of eyes let out a loud screech before jumping down from the ceiling, revealing themselves as…
"W… What?!" Diego said as he and everyone saw the appearance of the thing they saw on the ceiling. "Why are other gargoyles here?!"
Diego was right. The mysterious figures that just appeared from the ceiling of the hall were several stone gargoyles with creepy glowing red eyes. While all of them had their appearance differ from the single gargoyle that was standing on the base on the other side of the room, all of them were indeed gargoyles as they all had the appearance of an ugly winged monster. Judge by the point of view of the Pendragon, there must be over 50 of them here, and all of them were holding a spear that's made of stone.
"Well… Gargoyles were made to guard the ancient ruins from the evil spirit…" Xavier said. "And do you think that just a single gargoyle would be enough to do that job?"
"That's not the answer I want!" Diego said and turned his attention to Richard, who was still frightened by the sudden appearance of the gargoyles. "Richard, what I want is why all of them are alive! I thought that gargoyles are just stone statues, not something like this! And you did say that there's no living creature down here before we entered that corridor too!"
"W… Well…" Richard tried not to show how much he was frightened by the gargoyles. "Gargoyles aren't actually alive… But for the one we have here… If I have to guess… It must be some kind of dark magic that controlled them and allows them to be 'alive' like this. So, while they all seem to be alive, they are just the moving stone statues, and it means that they aren't technically alive, so that's why I can't detect them."
"And…" Zetarus spoke up. "And I also want to know why all of them are surrounding us like this?!"
Zetarus was right, as right now, all gargoyles that appeared from the ceiling, arming with their weapons, were surrounding the Pendragon, and all of them were showing a great hostility toward the dragons too!
"Well… Make sense." Xavier said. "After all… Gargoyles are made to be the guardians of this place, and we are all happening to be in the place that these gargoyles guarded…"
"I see…" Claura said. "Basically, we are the intruders of this place, and these gargoyles are the guardians of this place… So…"
"Either way…" Baromyteus said as he drew his Dragon Claw Swords out from their sheath. "These gargoyles aren't going to let us go easily for sure. Everyone, prepare yourself!"
After Baromyteus finished his words, everyone in the Pendragon quickly readied their weapons, with Rachael, Richard, Freya, Snow, Anastasia and Korben did it a bit slower than everyone else because they were still frightened by the sudden appearance of the gargoyles.
"Here they come!" Claura said.
"SCREEECH!" One of the gargoyles dashed up to the Pendragon with a spear in its grasp, but Diego was able to block its attack for the Pendragon with his Silver Naginata.
"SCREEECH!" Two more gargoyles attacked the Pendragon from their left and right flank, but their attacks were blocked by Claura and Korben.
"SCREECH!" Another gargoyle tried to attack the Pendragon from their rear, but Sirius, who was staying at the rear along with Rachael and Richard, was able to block its attack.
"SCREECHHH!"
"GGRRRAAA!" Noticing that another gargoyle was trying to attack him, Baromyteus quickly raised one of his swords to block the incoming attack from the said gargoyle before using the other sword to slash the gargoyle at its body!
"SCREECH!" The gargoyle that was attacked by Baromyteus' sword, which left a huge cut on its body at where it was attacked, staggered back a bit, but a second later, the cut from Baromyteus' sword suddenly vanished, and the gargoyle regained its strength, as if it was never attacked before!
"What the—" Baromyteus said before he noticed two more gargoyles trying to attack him! He then wasted no time by slashing his swords at both gargoyles again. This time, he used his Dragon Claw Swords to cut off the head of both gargoyles!
"…" Baromyteus looked at two gargoyles that got their head cut off by his swords. He then was about to turn his attention to fight other gargoyles when.
"!" While seeming to be already 'dead', the heads of both gargoyles that were cut off from their bodies suddenly returned to their original bodies before they magically merged together with their bodies, and then both gargoyles stood up again as if both of them were never attacked by anyone!
"W… What?!" Baromyteus was shocked after seeing that both gargoyles that he had already 'killed' suddenly became 'alive' again. "How could those gargoyles still alive?! I thought that I already cut their heads off!"
"Oh… I forgot to tell you one thing…" Xavier paused his battle in order to explain to everyone. "Gargoyles usually have an ability to restore their bodies from the damage that was inflicted onto their bodies regardless of how intense the damage they receive is, at a very fast rate. Well… They are the stone statues that were brought to life by magic anyway. So no matter how much we attack them, they will be able to quickly heal or revive themselves anyway."
"What?!" Claura yelled at her cousin. "And why didn't you tell us about this sooner?!"
"Well… I was so sleepy that I forgot to tell you about this… Yawn…" Xavier said before letting out another yawn from his mouth.
"And then, how the hell could we defeat them?!" Diego asked as he, like Baromyteus, was unable to defeat the gargoyles that attacked him because they were able to quickly restore themselves from the damage that Diego inflicted on them.
"SCREECH!" The gargoyles roared as they gradually approached the Pendragon, pointing their weapon at their enemies, and they all seemed to be ready to attack the Pendragon again at any moment!
But then…
"!"
Before any of them started attacking the Pendragon again, all gargoyles suddenly stopped moving, and a few seconds later, all of them put away their weapon and moved away from the Pendragon. Half of them then moved to the left side of the hall while the other half went to the right side. All of them then formed themselves into two lines, one on the left and one on the side, before turning to face each other on the other side of the hall, as if they were a group of soldiers who were preparing a welcome line for the homecoming of the king or queen, with the gap between them as the pathway for the king or queen to walk as they arrived.
"W… What?!" The Pendragon was surprised after seeing the action of the gargoyles. A moment earlier they were attacking them and now they were forming the welcoming lines as if they were welcoming someone…
But… Who?
And then, before the Pendragon was left to wonder for long, the answer they sought was revealed before their eyes…
"!"
Right now, all the gargoyles were forming two lines on the left side and the right side of the hall, making the Pendragon focus their attention on the last side of the hall, which was opposite to the side where they were right now, and apparently, there was only one thing over there, and it was the first thing everyone saw when they entered this hall…
"T… That gargoyle…" Korben said as everyone's attention was on the stone gargoyle, which resembled a Pokemon called Druddigon, that was standing on the statue base on the opposite side of the hall. While the other gargoyles that were staying at the ceiling of the hall suddenly became 'alive', this gargoyle was the only gargoyle in this hall that neither came to live nor attacked the Pendragon. And… Now that the Pendragon looked at it more closely, they realized that this gargoyle had its appearance much more detailed than any other gargoyle in this hall, and its appearance even greatly resembled a real Druddigon. And so, the one who created this gargoyle put much more effect into creating this one more than creating other gargoyles, as if they made this Druddigon Gargoyle to be the leader of all other gargoyles in this hall…
And if this Druddigon Gargoyle was the leader of all gargoyles in this hall, then it would mean that…
"You…" Baromyteus said as he gazed at the Druddigon Gargoyle on the opposite side of the hall.
And then…
"…" As if hearing Baromyteus' word, the 'pendant' and 'necklace' that the Druddigon Gargoyle on the opposite side of the hall was 'wearing' started glowing with a sinister dim light, and the gargoyle itself started moving its body, changing itself from a lifeless stone statue into a 'living' gargoyle. The Druddigon Gargoyle then jumped down from the statue base that it was standing before slowly approaching the Pendragon. Realizing that this gargoyle may trying to attack them like what other gargoyles did, the Pendragon equipped their weapon again and prepared themselves for the battle that was about to come…
… But it never came…
"!" As it reached where the Pendragon stood, instead of attacking the Pendragon, the Druddigon Gargoyle kneeled down onto the floor and bowed down to them, in the manner that a servant kneeling and bowing before their master.
"W… What?!" The Pendragon let out a word of confusion as they didn't expect this action from the gargoyle in front of them. A moment earlier they were attacked by the gargoyles of this hall and now another gargoyle that seemed to be the leader of all other gargoyles were kneeling before them!
However… That wasn't the most surprised thing that they had encountered today yet…
"PLEASE ACCEPT MY WORDS OF APOLOGIZE." Unexpectly, the Druddigon Gargoyle that was kneeling in front the words started speaking with a gruff and unnatural voice. "MY SUBORDINATES MISTOOK ALL OF YOU AS THE INTRUDERS OF THIS PLACE, SO THEY WERE JUST TRYING TO PROTECT THIS PLACE, AND SO, I SINCERE APOLOGIZE FOR OUR RUDE WELCOME."
"W… Wait…" Anastasia was the first one who spoke up after hearing the words of the Druddigon Gargoyle in front of her and her friends. "You… can talk?! But you are a gargoyle…"
"IT'S BECAUSE I WAS MADE TO BE THE LEADER OF THE GUARDIANS." The Druddigon Gargoyle continued speaking. "AND BECAUSE OF THAT, I AM THE ONLY GUARDIAN OF THIS PLACE WHO WAS GRANT AN ABILITY OF COMMUNICATION, AS WELL AS THE POWER THAT EXCEEDS OTHER GUARDIANS OF THIS PLACE."
"And…" Baromyteus spoke up. "Who are all of you? And what is this place?"
"WE ARE THE GUARDIANS OF THIS PLACE." The Druddigon Gargoyle, who was the leader of all gargoyles in this place, answered as it stood up. "AND THIS PLACE IS KNOWN TO BE THE HALL OF THE ANCIENT DRAGON."
"Hall of the ancient dragon?" Claura repeated the words she had just heard. "Is it some kind of the ancient underground ruins?"
"I CAN'T SAY WHAT THIS PLACE IS." The Druddigon Gargoyle answered. "THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN TELL WHAT THIS PLACE ARE IS THE MASTERS OF THIS PLACE."
"MasterS? So… This place is owned by someone, after all…" Diego said.
"And…" Baromyteus spoke up. "Who ARE the 'masters' of this hall?"
"THE MASTERS OF THIS HALL IS ALL OF YOU." The Druddigon gargoyle answered.
"All of—Wait, WHAT?!" Everyone let out a cry of shock and astonish after hearing the words of the Druddigon Gargoyle in front of him.
"H… How could it be that we are the owners of this place!?" Rachael said.
"Right!" Richard nodded. "This is the first time that we arrive at this place, and before that, we didn't even hear or know of this place's existence!"
"THERE'S NO MISTAKE THAT ALL OF YOU ARE THE MASTERS OF THIS HALL." The Druddigon Gargoyle continued speaking. "ALL OF YOU HAVE ALREADY BOUND YOUR BODY AND SOUL WITH THIS PLACE. THE SIGHT OF YOUR BLOOD IS THE PROOF THAT YOU ALL ARE THE MASTERS OF THIS HALL."
"Our blood? Wait…" Baromyteus said before he realized something. "T… That altar at the Dragon Shrine… It must be that thing…"
"… I HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT YOU ARE SPEAKING OF, FOR THAT I HAVE NEVER STEPPED OUTSIDE THIS HALL FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER…" The Druddigon Gargoyle continued speaking. "BUT BEFORE THIS, THIS HALL WAS LEFT WITHOUT ANY MASTER FOR THE COUNTLESS TIME. HOWEVER, A FEW MOMENT EARLIER, I CAN SENSE THAT THE BLOOD THAT HAD BEEN DROPPED FROM THE BODY OF 12 POKEMON HAS BEEN BOUND TO THIS HALL, AND ALL OF YOU ARE THE ONWERS OF THOSE BLOOD, WHICH MADE YOU THE OWNERS OF THIS HALL, AND THUS… ALL OF US, THE GUARDIANS OF THE HALL, ARE BOUND TO SERVE YOU."
"So… As a result of our action at the Dragon Shrine, all we got is the old ruins with these living stone statues…" Zetarus said with a sarcastic voice. "What a good deal…"
"AND NOW…" The Druddigon Gargoyle bowed at the Pendragon before continued speaking. "RIGHT NOW, IS THERE A TASK THAT YOU WANT US TO PERFORM, MASTERS?"
"First, leave us for a few minutes…" Baromyteus said to the gargoyle in front of him before turning his attention to the other members of the Pendragon. "Well… What do you all think of this?"
"This is such a fxxxxxg waste…" Diego said. "We fxxxxxg waste our time by going into that fxxxxxg corridor, and what do we get? A crumbling ruin with these cxxp gargoyles! They said that we are the 'masters' of this hall, but to be honest, who would want to become the master of this fxxxxxg place?! It's just a hall with nothing but those fxxxxxg gargoyles!"
"I agree with Diego." Zetarus said. "I don't think that we can make anything good out of this place."
"A… And…" Freya said. "Those gargoyles are so scary too…"
"And so…" Claura spoke up. "You all suggest that we should turn back and leave this place at once?"
"Onii-chan, what do you think?" Rachael asked her elder brother. "Should we leave this place? For me, this place is quite scary too…"
"… I think that we can make something good out of this hall." Richard spoke up, which surprised everyone who heard him. (Except for the gargoyles that were left out of this conversation.)
"H… How so?!" Snow asked.
"Well…" Like everyone in the Pendragon, Xavier was surprised by Richard's words too, but the reason why he was surprised wasn't the same as everyone else. "Richard, you surprised me. I didn't think that there will be anyone who share the same idea with me too."
"Xavier?!" Claura said as her attention, as well as everyone's, was shifted to the Dragonite. "You too?!"
"Well… What can I say? I am not an 'idiot', after all…" Xavier said. "This place actually has some use for us… Actually, the 'use' of this place for us is actually what we're really desperate for, and it would also fulfill a perfect work for us in that role too."
"Desperate for?" Korben said. "What you're talking about?"
"Think about it." Richard spoke up. "This place is located underground, and the entrance of this place is in the Valley of No Return, meaning that it's a far-from-civilize place that's also hard to access. And so, no one would bother to come to this place…"
"Wait…" Claura spoke up as she started to realize what Richard and Xavier wanted to say. "Don't tell me that…"
"Right." Xavier said. "Everyone, let's make this place our team base."
"Are you serious?!" Claura yelled at her cousin. "What kind of absurd idea is this?!"
"I don't see why not." Xavier said as he looked at everyone, as all of them had a shock expression on their face. "After all… We are trying to find a place that would become our team base, aren't we? But we can't stay in any place on the continent of Symmetria except for Valley of No Return because we are 'traitors', and for Valley of No Return, most area of that place are dangerous with wild Pokemon, so the area of Hidden Village of Dragon is our only choice. However, most buildings of that place were burnt down into ruins, leaving only a single building that we can use as our shelter, the Dragon Shrine. And comparing that shrine with this hall, I would say that this hall is a thousand times better than that shrine as our team base."
"Xavier, take a fxxxxxg look around this fxxxxxg place!" Diego said as he pointed around the hall. "This is just a single square hall! I agree with you that at least this hall is larger than the Dragon Shrine, but a single hall with nothing but gargoyles like this won't do any fxxxxxg good as our team base!"
"… You should be the one who should take another look at this hall." Xavier said. "First, this hall isn't a square hall, but it's a pentagon hall."
Xavier was right. As everyone took another look at the hall, they saw that this hall wasn't a square hall, but it was a hall in the shape of a polygon with five sides instead of four. The five sides were located to the north, northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest, forming into a shape of an upside-down pentagon. The corridor that the Pendragon used to enter this hall was located at the vertex between the southeast side and the southwest side, or in other word, the southernmost point of this 'pentagon'. The spot where the statue base that the leader of the gargoyle were standing earlier was on the north side of this hall. And the other gargoyles were standing in two lines near the other four sides of the hall, one line near the northeast side and southeast side and another one near the southwest side and northwest side.
"See? This hall is a pentagon hall." Xavier said. "Isn't this alone make it a perfect team base for us?"
"I see…" Snow nodded. "A pentagon hall as a team base of us, the Pendragon…"
"But that still doesn't answer all of Diego's questions, Xavier." Zetarus spoke up. "Pentagon or not, in the end, this hall is just a large hall with nothing but gargoyles. How the hell could we use this as our team base?"
"… So you still don't notice it?" Xavier said. "What the shame…"
"What are you trying to say, Xavier?" Baromyteus asked.
"Think about it…" Xavier said. "You said this place is just a large hall with nothing but gargoyles, but look at those gargoyles."
"Hm?" Everyone looked at all the gargoyles in this hall again, but other than what they have already seen, there was nothing they could think of when they saw them…
Except for…
"… I see it now…" Baromyteus said. "You said that this place is just a large hall… But look at those gargoyles… The leader of them said that they are the guardians of this hall, but there must be over 30 of them… More than 50 gargoyles that guard just a single hall? It makes no sense."
"So…" Korben spoke up as he looked at Xavier. "You want to say that this place has more than just a single large hall?"
"Hm… Other than letting me answering your question, why don't we ask someone who actually knows the answer?" Xavier said as he turned his attention back to the Druddigon Gargoyle. "Hey, you. Is this large hall the entire area of this place?"
"NO, MASTERS." The Druddigon Gargoyle answered. "THIS HALL IS ONLY ONE OF FIVE FLOORS OF THIS PLACE."
"Five?!" Rachael said. "This place has that much floors?!"
"CORRECT." The Druddigon Gargoyle SAID. "THE AREA YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN IS THE FOYER OF THIS HALL, WHICH IS THE ENTIRE AREA OF FLOOR B1."
"And so, there's four more floors of this place…" Diego said and tried to look around the hall, as if he was trying to find something. "But I don't see any path that would lead to the other floor of this place…"
"THE PATH DOWN TO THE REMAINING AREA OF THIS HALL IS CURRENTLY SEALED TO PROTECT THE INTRUDERS FROM GAINING THE ACCESS." The Druddigon Gargoyle said as it slowly walked up to a spot left of the statue base that it was standing earlier. It then pointed its 'paw' at the floor at that spot, and suddenly, the stone tile at that spot started moving away, revealing a large spiral staircase that led downward!
"THIS IS THE PATH THAT WILL LEAD ALL OF YOU TO THE REMAINING AREA OF THIS HALL, MASTERS." The Druddigon Gargoyle said as it slowly walked back to where the Pendragon was standing.
"I see… So it's right over there all the time…" Zetarus said.
"And… How about we move downstairs?" Xavier spoke up. "I still have no idea about the remaining area of this hall, but maybe it could be a decent team base for us."
"It could be…" Baromyteus said. "Everyone, let's move."
"Right." Every member of the Pendragon nodded to Baromyteus, except for only one who didn't nod. Actually, he hadn't even said anything after Xavier revealed that this place could be a nice team base for them.
"Onii-chan?" Rachael said as she looked at her elder brother, who didn't say anything for quite some times. "What's wrong, Onii-chan? Is there something on your mind?"
"… Xavier." Instead of answering his younger sister's question, Richard spoke up to the Dragonite who suggested to make this place their team base. "When you said that this place has some use for us, do you really mean that this place can be our team base?"
"Well…If I was actually lying, this guy…" Xavier said as he glanced at Baromyteus for a second before he continued speaking. "… wouldn't let me go unpunished. After all, he seems to be quite 'sensitive' to lie and deception."
"… I see…" Richard said.
"My turn, Richard." Xavier said. "Could it be that when you said that this place could have some use for us, you actually meant otherwise?"
"Right." Richard said. "I was thinking that this place, being the ancient underground ruins that no one had stepped their foot in for such a long time, it may hold so many invaluable knowledge about the ancient world that's waiting for us to discover.
"…" A moment of silence occurred after Richard revealed what was in his mind, and the eyes of the Pendragon were replaced with two small black dots in a comical way, as they didn't know what to say after hearing the words of the Latios.
"Just thinking of what knowledge would we unearth in this ancient hall makes me excite." Richard continued speaking. "But I didn't think that you would mean that you would want to make this place our team base."
"… So…" Xavier was finally able to say something. "You don't like the idea of making this place our team base?"
"On the contrary." Richard said. "Making this place our team base would allow me to research it even better, so I completely agree with your idea, Xavier."
"I… see…" Rachael said after hearing the words of her elder brother.
"Then, let's get ourselves moving, everyone." Baromyteus said. "Before we make a decision, we will need to see the remaining area of this place first."
"Hm." All members of the Pendragon nodded to their leader, and then the Shiny Haxorus turned his attention back to the Druddigon Gargoyle.
"Lead the way." Baromyteus said.
"AS YOU SAY, MASTER." The Druddigon Gargoyle said and bowed at Baromyteus and others. It then waved its paw backward, dismissing all other gargoyles that were standing in this hall and making them jump onto the ceiling before turning into the lifeless stone statues again, just like what they were before the Pendragon arrived at this hall. The Druddigon Gargoyle then slowly walked toward the path that it opened earlier, with the Pendragon following it.
Following the Druddigon Gargoyle, the Pendragon walked along the long spiral staircases down to the lower floor of this place. Because this spiral stairway was quite long, it would take some time before the Pendragon reached the end of the stairway, but it didn't take a long time before the remaining area of this hall unfold before their eyes…
Upon seeing the remaining area of this place, the Pendragon was bewildered by what they had seen. They thought that they were going to the 'remaining' area of this place, but after seeing the hall, they realized that they weren't going to the 'remaining' area, they were just leaving the 'remaining' area of this place.
The first thing that they saw as Floor B2 unfold before their eyes were a large pentagon hall just like the foyer on Floor B1. However, unlike the foyer, the hall of Floor B2 was actually just a corridor along the five sides of the building, with a large opening in the shape of a pentagon in the center, making it possible for everyone to see Floor B3 and even Floor B4 below there. And unlike the foyer that was almost empty except with a single statue base and over 50 gargoyles, the hall of Floor B2 had several ornaments and trinkets such as several wall sconces on the stone wall with the red candles that lit up as the Pendragon walked downstairs, as if they could sense the incoming of their new masters. The most outstanding thing that the Pendragon could see as they reached Floor B2 was a large chandelier that was hanged over the opening area at the center of the Floor B2 hall, which meant that it's also possible for someone who was on Floor B3 and Floor B4 to see the chandelier too. And like the wall sconces, as the Pendragon arrived on the Floor B2, the chandeliers started glowing with a mysterious dark red light, giving this place an eerie look.
However, this hall wasn't the only thing on Floor B2, as on each side of the pentagon corridor, there was a door that led to another room on each side of the hall.
"So… This is Floor B2 of this place…" Anastasia said as she and everyone looked around after they reached the end of the spiral stairway. "This place is so much… cleaner than I expect. It's as if it was built yesterday!"
"Right." Claura said. "I thought that the underground place that was kept hidden for such a long time would be old and dirty, but I was wrong."
"And this place is so big…" Rachael said. "But the chandelier at the center makes this place so scary…"
"Really?" Zetarus said. "I think this… Chun-der-lia-thing makes this place quite lovely, with the glowing light of blood…"
"D… Don't say something like that…" Rachael said.
"But…" Richard said as he looked around the hall again. "… Strange…"
"What are you thinking, Richard?" Diego asked.
"… This place…" Richard said as he continued looking around the hall. "Despite being located underground, the place where the light from the sun would never hope to reach, I don't even feel… uneasy. I thought that an underground place like this will make me feel confining… But… I now feel that this place makes me feel… comfortable."
"You too?" Diego said. "While this place was a dark indoor place like the gladiator quarter back at the Brawl Arena, I don't feel uneasy too. In fact, I must say that I like this place."
"Me too." Zetarus said. "I thought that a dark underground place would be cold like that hellhole I grew up in, but… This place… It's quite warm, and I like it."
"R… Right…" Freya spoke up. "T… The warmness of this place reminds me of the desert in the morning…"
"But then…" Richard spoke up again. "How could an underground place like this to be this warm? It should be much colder than this."
"IF I MAY…" The Druddigon Gargoyle spoke up after hearing the words of the Latios. "THE REASON WHY THE TEMPERATURE OF THIS PLACE IS A BIT HIGHER THAN NORMAL IS BECAUSE THIS PLACE IS LOCATED NEAR THE UNDERGROUND PIT OF MAGMA."
"M… Magma?!" Snow spoke up.
"PLEASE DO NOT BE AFRAID, MASTER." The Druddigon Gargoyle continued speaking. "THE STONE WALL OF THIS PLACE WAS BEING MANTLED WITH A STRONG MAGIC TO EXPEL THE MAGMA THAT WOULD HARM THIS PLACE, SO IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR MAGMA TO FLOW INTO THIS PLACE."
"That's a relief to hear…" Snow said.
"And now…" Xavier spoke up. "After seeing all of this, I think that we may finally have the answer in our mind."
"Answer?" Claura spoke up. "Answer for what?"
"To make this place our team base or not." Xavier answered. "At first, I was already convinced that this place could serve as a decent team base for us, but after this area, I now have no doubt in my thought, as this place is much better than I expect from an ancient underground ruin."
"I think so." Claura said. "This place is located in the Hidden Village of Dragon in the Valley of No Return, which is one of the most isolated places on the continent of Symmetria, so no one would come to this place anyway, making it a perfect place for a group of Symmetria's traitors like us."
"Moreover…" Zetarus spoke up. "Even if they know that we are hiding in the Valley of No Return, they will never know the exact location of our hideout."
"And this place makes us feel really nice too…" Diego said. "I guess the reason why we feel nice in an underground place near a pit of magma like this is because we are Dragon type Pokemon."
"You are right, Diego." Anastasia said. "While I, being a Goodra, don't feel really good when I am in a hot place, I also feel very good inside this place too."
"Us dragons staying in the underground ruins? It sounds so much like the bedtime stories! I like it!" Rachael said.
"One more thing…" Korben spoke up. "Because this place is located in Valley of No Return, we won't have to worry about our food and drink, because we can hunt the wild Pokemon from the Valley of No Return for food and get the water from the river near the village too."
"T… That's good!" Freya spoke up. "And this place is big enough for all of us!"
"As long as everyone is okay, then I am with you too." Snow spoke up.
"…" Sirius nodded to everyone.
"Then, it's settled." Baromyteus spoke up. "From now on, this place shall serve as the team base for the Pendragon!"
"YEAH!" All other members of the Pendragon raised their fist in the air and let their enthusiastic voice out.
"THEN, PLEASE ALLOW ME…" The Druddion Gargoyle said before it clapped its paw one time, summoning all gargoyles from the foyer of this place on this floor! The gargoyles then flew from floor B1 before they stayed behind their leader, with their weapon in their paws. "FROM NOW ON, WE, THE GUARDIANS OF THIS PLACE, SHALL SERVE UNDER ALL OF YOU, OUR NEW MASTERS!"
"SCREECH!" The other gargoyles let out a shrieking voice after their leader finished their words, before they started flying away. However, only less than half of them returned to Floor B1 while the other flew to the other four floors of this place before turning back into the lifeless stone statues at several spots on the wall of each floor.
"FROM NOW ON, WE SHALL STAY IN ALL AREA OF THIS PLACE IN ORDER TO GUARD THIS PLACE FROM THE INTRUDER OF ALL TIME, AS WELL AS GUARD ALL OF YOU DURING YOUR STAY." The Druddion Gargoyle spoke up again after it dismissed other gargoyles. "BUT DO NOT WORRY. WE SHALL STAY FROM YOUR PRIVATE QUARTER TO GIVE YOU PRIVACY."
"Great." Baromyteus said. "That takes care of the security problem. We can leave the guarding work to these gargoyles when we are out, and we can be safe while we stay here too."
"Then, the next thing that we must do is exploring the entire area of this place…" Xavier said.
"No." Richard spoke up. "The next thing we must do is giving a name to this place."
"Name this place?" Zetarus said. "Why the hell must we do something like that?"
"I strongly suggest us to name this place, unless we want to continue calling this place the ancient underground ruins." Richard said.
"You have a point." Baromyteus said before turning his attention to the Druddigon Gargoyle. "Is it alright for us to name this place?"
"ABSOLUTELY, MASTERS." The Druddigon Gargoyle said.
"Then…" Baromyteus said as he turned his attention back to his teammates. "Everyone, give me a suggestion about the name of this place."
"How about… 'Underground Castle'? This place is located underground after all…" Freya suggested.
"Castle? We are dragons, not the knights in the shining armor, Freya." Korben said. "How about 'Lair of No Return'? You know… Dragon's Lair in the Valley of No Return."
"Such a generic name…" Diego said. "I think 'Magma Lair' sounds much better."
"That's even worse, Diego." Claura said. "How about… Pendragon Ruins? We are the Pendragon, and this place is the ancient ruins after all…"
"It sounds like you're suggesting us to end up in ruin, Claura." Xavier said. "Personally, I will just call it 'Our Team Base'."
"No! It's too lazy to call this place with that name, Xavier!" Rachael said. "Why don't we call it 'Little Dragon Cave'? I think it fit us—"
"I think I have a better name." Richard spoke up. "How about 'Ancient Ruins of the Valorous Pendragon in the Realm Beneath the Cursed Earth'?"
"…"
"…"
"…"
A moment of silence followed the words of the Latios, as everyone, including the Druddigon Gargoyle, was cringing after they heard the suggestion from the Latios.
"… Richard, I know that you are smart and knowledgeable…" Zetarus spoke up. "But your skill at naming sucks."
"W… What?!" Rachael spoke up." Why, Zetarus? I thought that Onii-chan's name is quite lovely!"
"That name is too long and too mouthful for us to speak!" Diego said. "It would take me six weeks to even remember that name!"
"Sigh…" Baromyteus sighed. "In the end, it seemed like none of us could come up with a good name."
"But we did come up with a great name for our group, didn't we?" Korben said.
"Now that you say about it…" Claura spoke up. "How could we come up with the name of our group?"
"Well… It was our leader who came up with the name 'Pendragon'." Xavier said as he shifted his attention to the Shiny Haxorus. "Baromyteus, how did you come up with the name 'Pendragon?"
"I don't know…" Baromyteus said. "That name just popped up in my head, and I found it to be a good name for us."
"If I have to guess, the name 'Pendragon' you came up with comes from the words 'Dragon' and 'Paragon', because we are the paragon of the dragons." Richard spoke up. "But again, the word 'Pendragon' may have another meaning…"
"But now, in our current situation…" Diego spoke up. "I don't think that we will have luck with it…"
"Um…" Anastasia, who had been keeping silent for some time, spoke up. "… Can I make a suggestion?"
"Hm? Sure, Anastasia." Baromyteus said.
"How about… 'Pendracomonium'?" Anastasia said.
"Hm?" Everyone's attention was focused at the Goodra after she suggested a name for this place.
"I…. I am sorry…" Thinking that she had made a bad suggestion, Anastasia quickly apologized. "I am sorry that I suggested a bad—"
"Anastasia…" Baromyteus spoke up. "… How did you come up with that name…"
"I don't know…" Anastasia said. "A moment earlier… This name just popped up in my mind, and I think that all of you may like it, so I suggest it… Is it… a bad name?"
"On the contrary…" Baromyteus said. "I kinda like this name myself."
"Me too." Claura said, and Xavier nodded in response with his cousin.
"And this name also suits this place too…" Richard spoke up. "If I have to guess, the name you suggested came from the words 'Pendragon', which is the name of our group, and the word 'Pandemonium'."
"Pande-what?!" Zetarus said. "What the hell is that word?"
"… It will take us quite some time if I explain, so never mind it…" Richard said.
"Nevertheless, it really sounds like a name for a place for us." Diego said.
"Yeah." Zetarus said. "The only thing I don't like about this name is that it will take me at least one week to remember it correctly, which is still acceptable."
"I… I like this name too…" Freya said.
"I, too, have no objection." Snow said.
"And this name also sounds much better than the name all of us suggested." Korben said.
"…" Sirius nodded in agreement with everyone.
"Then it's settled." Baromyteus said. "From now on, this place shall be known as Pendracomonium, dubbed 'Lair of the Pendragon'."
"Right!" Everyone nodded in agreement with the Shiny Haxorus.
"Now that another problem has already been solved…" Xavier said. "Can we finally explore this place?"
"You say that because you just want to see the place where we sleep, Xavier." Claura said.
"Well… I won't deny it. Yawn…" Xavier said before letting a yawn from his mouth.
"THEN, I SHALL INTRODUCE ALL OF YOU TO THE ROOMS OF PENDRACOMONIUM…" The Druddigon Gargoyle spoke up, already adapting the new name of this place. "FIRST, ON FLOOR B1 IS THE FOYER OF PENDRACOMONIUM. THE SAME THING APPLIES FOR FLOOR B5 TOO AS FLOOR B5 OF PENDRACOMONIUM ONLY CONSISTS OF THE MAIN HALL TOO."
"Wait, there's Floor B5?!" Rachael said as she looked below from the opening area in the center of the main hall of Floor B2, but all she could see were Floor B3, which its main hall also, like Floor B2, consisted of a corridor along the five sides of the main hall and a large opening in the shape of a pentagon in the center, making it possible to see even further below to Floor B4 too. Floor B4 also had a main hall too, but the main hall of Floor B4, unlike the main hall of Floor B2 and Floor B3, was, like the foyer on Floor B1, just a large hall in the shape of a pentagon with no opening in the center, making it impossible to tell that there was another floor below Floor B4 by looking from here.
"THERE WAS A SPIRAL STAIRWAY THAT SHALL LEAD YOU DOWN TO FLOOR B5, MASTER, BUT THE STAIRWAY CAN'T BE SEEN FROM HERE." The Druddigon Gargoyle answered Rachael's question. "AND JUST LIKE FROM FLOOR B1 TO FLOOR B2 AND FROM FLOOR B4 TO FLOOR B5, YOU CAN ACCESS TO THE ABOVE FLOOR AND BELOW FLOOR BY USING THE SPIRAL STAIRWAY AT THE MAIN HALL."
"So… While staying here, we will have to run upstairs and downstairs a lot…" Korben said. "Well… I will think of it as training anyway…"
"NEXT…" The Druddigon Gargoyle continued speaking. "UNLIKE FLOOR B1 AND FLOOR B5 WHICH ONLY CONSIST OF A SINGLE MAIN HALL, ON FLOOR B2, THERE WERE FIVE OTHER ROOMS THAT CAN BE ACCESSED BY USING THE DOOR ON EACH SIDE OF THIS MAIN HALL…"
The Pendragon looked around the main hall again and found a door on each side of them. (Since the main hall of Pendracomonium was in the shape of a pentagon, the main hall itself consisted of five sides, which were the north side, northeast side, southeast side, southwest side and northwest side.) This meant that there were five doors on this floor, which can be used to access the other five rooms on this floor.
"THE LAYOUT OF FLOOR B2 ALSO APPLIES TO THE LAYOUT OF FLOOR B4 TOO, EXCEPT THAT EACH ROOM OF FLOOR B4 BARRED THE MAIN HALL WILL ALSO HAVE AN ACCESS TO ANOTHER ROOM ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE MAIN HALL TOO…" The Druddigon Gargoyle explained.
"So… There are five rooms on Floor B2… And another five rooms on Floor B4…" Claura said. "However, there are five more rooms that can be accessed via each room on Floor B4, making it a total of 15 rooms on Floor B2 and Floor B4 combined."
"We will have to find a use for all of them." Baromyteus said.
"And…" Xavier spoke up. "Where will we sleep?"
"THIS WAY, PLEASE…" The Druddigon Gargoyle said as it slowly walked toward the spiral stairway again. However, instead of going up to Floor B1, it went downstairs to the floor below, and the Pendragon followed it.
"This floor…" Richard said as he and the other members of Pendragon reached Floor B3 by following the Druddigon Gargoyle.
As they reached Floor B3, the Pendragon could tell that the layout of Floor B3 was quite different from the layout of Floor B2 and Floor B4. As, unlike Floor B2 and Floor B4 that had a door to the other room on each side of the main hall, Floor B3 instead had another corridor at the center of each side of the main hall. While each corridor led to the dead end, there were two doors there, one to the left of each corridor and another one to the right of each corridor. The only exception of this was the corridor on the north side of the main hall, which had another door at the end of the corridor.
"FLOOR B3 IS THE PLACE THAT ALL OF YOU WILL STAY." The Druddigon Gargoyle explained. "THIS FLOOR CONSISTS OF FIVE WINGS, THE NORTH WING, THE NORTHEAST WING, THE SOUTHEAST WING, THE SOUTHWEST WING AND THE NORTHWEST WING. EACH WING HAS AN ACCESS TO TWO ROOMS ON EACH SIDE OF THE CORRIDOR OF EACH WING, EXCEPT FOR THE NORTH WING THAT HAS AN ACCESS TO THREE ROOMS."
"I see…" Diego said. "Five wings with two rooms on each wing except for one wing with three rooms instead. That would make it… 11 rooms on this floor."
"But there are 12 of us!" Rachael said. "This place is just one room short!"
"…AMONG ALL OF YOU…" Instead of answering the trouble that Rachael stated, the Druddigon Gargoyle asked yet another question. "WHO IS THE LEADER?"
"That would be me." Baromyteus said.
"THEN, YOU WILL BE STAYING AT THE ROOM AT THE END OF NORTHERN CORRIDOR." The Druddigon Gargoyle said as it pointed its paw at the one of three rooms at the North Wing, which was the room at the end of the corridor. "THAT ROOM WAS CREATED AS A PRIVATE QUARTER FOR THE MASTER OF THIS PLACE, SO THAT ROOM IS MORE THAN TWICE LARGER THAN OTHER ROOMS ON THIS FLOOR AS THE SIZE OF THAT ROOM IS EQUAL TO THE SIZE OF TWO SMALL ROOMS AND THE CORRIDOR OF THE SAME WING. HOWEVER, IN THIS CASE, THAT ROOM SHALL BELONG TO THE LEADER OF YOUR GROUP."
"I refused." Baromyteus said.
"W… Why?!" Anastasia asked.
"It's because I am the 'leader' of the Pendragon, not the 'boss'." Baromyteus said. "I chose to be the leader of the Pendragon because everyone said that I am most suited for this role, not that I want a privilege for myself. And so, I refuse to stay in a room that's more than twice larger than other rooms on this floor."
"But that would be a problem because we will be short of one room." Diego said.
"We will still be short of one room regardless of if Baromyteus stays in that large room or not." Richard said.
"Then, why don't we let the leader and the second-in-command of the Pendragon stays in that room together?" Zetarus suggested. "We could have Baromyteus and Claura—"
"NEVER!" Baromyteus and Claura roared at Zetarus at the same time, which shocked the Garchomp. However, as both of them realized that they had said the same word as each other at the same time, the Kingdra and the Shiny Haxorus turned their face to each other and were about to start another bickering when Anastasia and Xavier got between them.
"P… Please calm down, brother…" Anastasia said as she tried to calm her elder brother down.
"Yawn…" Unlike Anastasia, Xavier didn't try very hard to calm his cousin down.
"HM!" Claura and Baromyteus grumbled before turning their face away from each other at the same time.
"Sigh…" Anastasia sighed as she was finally able to calm her brother down.
"Back to our trouble." Xavier spoke up after seeing that Claura and Baromyteus had already somewhat calm down. "What can we do with this problem?"
"But again…" Richard spoke up. "The idea of having two of us staying together in that room is actually not bad…"
"But… Who would stay in that big room?" Korben said. "And it would mean that everyone wouldn't be equal to other too…"
"Um…" Freya spoke up. "Why don't… Why don't we turn that large room into two rooms of the same size as other rooms on this floor? With this, everyone will get their own private room, and all of us would be equal to other too…"
"Yeah, it sounds nice." Zetarus said. "But Freya, how could we turn that large room into two smaller rooms? It's much easier said than done…"
"I CAN HELP YOU WITH THAT, MASTERS." The Druddigon Gargoyle spoke up.
"What?!" Zetarus said as he and everyone else turned their attention to the Druddigon Gargoyle.
"AS THE LEADER OF ALL GUARDIANS OF PENDRACOMONIUM, I HAVE AN ABILITY TO CHANGE THE INTERIOR OF THIS PLACE TO SUIT YOUR NEED, MASTERS."
"Why didn't you just say it in the first place?!" Diego scolded the Druddigon Gargoyle.
"It couldn't be helped. That guy is just a gargoyle, which means that it's just a stone statue that was brought to live by magic." Richard said. "That guy isn't really alive."
"THEN, WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO TURN THE LEADER'S PRIVATE QUARTER INTO TWO PRIVATE QUARTERS?" The Druddigon Gargoyle asked.
"Go ahead." Baromyteus said.
"THEN…" The Druddigon Gargoyle slowly walked to the entrance of the corridor at the North Wing. It then raised its paw and pointed it at the door at the dead end of this corridor, and a second later, the door disappeared, and the dead end of this corridor started expanding until it reached another dead end. This time, there was no more door at the dead end of the northern corridor, but there were two more doors on the corridor that was expanded, one on the left of the corridor and one on the right of the corridor, making it a total of four rooms at the North Wing, with two rooms on the left of the corridor and two rooms on the right of the corridor, and 12 rooms on this floor!
"… I HAVE SUCCESSFULLY TURNED THE LEADER'S PRIVATE QUARTER INTO TWO PRIVATE QUARTERS, MASTERS." The Druddigon Gargoyle said as it slowly walked toward the Pendragon again.
"Great." Baromyteus said. "Now that we have 12 rooms, we can now start choosing which room that each of us will stay."
"Among the five wings of this floor, the North Wing has four rooms while the rest of them has two rooms." Xavier said.
"Then… Rachael and I will take one wing that's not the North Wing for ourselves." Richard spoke up. "I don't want both of us to get to stay too far from each other."
"And I want to stay near Onii-chan too!" Rachael said.
"Agree." Baromyteus said. "And that means that Anastasia and I will also take another wing for ourselves too, so that I will be able to take care of her."
"Okay…" Anastasia nodded to her elder brother.
"If that's so, then I guess Claura and I will take another wing then…" Xavier said. "After all, Claura is helpless without me, so I will have to stick with her."
"You are the one who talk!" Claura said to her cousin.
"Then it would mean that…" Zetarus said as he turned his attention to Diego. "Diego, why don't we take another wing for ourselves? Or maybe we can stay together in the same room. I don't mind."
"Fxxk off." Diego said. "Staying in the same wing is fine, but nothing more."
"What?! Why do you have to say something like that?!" Zetarus said as he looked at the Mega Charizard X with a crafty look on his face. "After all, didn't we stay in the same room while we were in the Hidden Village of Dragon? I still remember the time when I help you with your master—"
"Cough! Cough!" Richard faked his cough to cut of Zetarus' words. "And that would mean that the remaining wing is the North Wing, with four remaining Pokemon." Richard finished his words by looking at Korben, Freya, Snow and Sirius.
"I am completely fine with this." Snow said.
"M… Me too." Freya nodded.
"Hm!" Korben seemed not to be very pleased as it would mean that he had to stay at the same wing as the Pokemon he hated most.
"…" Sirius turned its face away from Korben.
"Then, Korben, Freya, Snow and Sirius, you four decide which room at the North Wing that each of you will stay…" Baromyteus spoke up. "And for the rest, we will decide which wing that each pair of us will stay."
"But before that…" Richard spoke up. "There's one more thing that we must do, or should I say, that we must finish?"
"What is it this time, Richard?" Diego asked.
"Remember shortly after we chose the leader and the second-in-command of the Pendragon?" Richard said. "We were in the middle of choosing the strategist of the Pendragon, but Bahamut appeared before we could reach our agreement."
"Oh, right." Claura said. "I remember that we are choosing between Richard and Xavier about who will be the strategist of the Pendragon."
"Right, and I think that we have finally reached our agreement" Richard said as he moved to the Dragonite. "Xavier, you should be the one who takes the role of strategist."
"Hm?" Xavier looked at the Latios in front of him. "Why me?"
"… I'd hate to say this, but it's because I have already seen that, between both of us, you are far more superior as a strategist than me." Richard said. "After we arrived at the Pendracomonium, I have observed that your skill of judging the situation exceeds mine, and while my knowledge is far more superior than you, I think that an ability to judge a situation is preferred over knowledge for a strategist."
"You think so?" Xavier said. "But that would mean that I will have to work harder… What a pain."
"If you aren't a strategist of the Pendragon, then you will be assigned to the other role anyway, Xavier." Claura said. "And you may not really like the other role that you will get, such as hunting food for us—"
"Fine, I will be the strategist of the Pendragon." Xavier said. "At least I could take a nap while I come up with a plan for us, but hunting food? Forget it… I like blood and killing, but chasing after the preys is still too much of a pain."
"That's settled." Richard said. "Now we can finally decide which room will each of us stay."
"ONE MORE THING, MASTERS." The Druddigon Gargoyle spoke up, turning the attention to everyone to it. "AFTER YOU CHOOSE THE PRIVATE QUARTER FOR YOURSELF, BEFORE ENTERING THE ROOM, PLEASE PLACE YOUR PAW ON THE DOOR FIRST, AND THE INTERIOR OF YOUR PRIVATE QUARTER WILL CHANGE TO SUIT YOUR SPECIE AND YOUR PREFERENCE."
"What?" Zetarus said. "This place can do something like that?!"
"YES, MASTER." The Druddigon Gargoyle said. "THE MAGICAL AURA OF EACH PRIVATE QUARTER WILL RESPOND TO YOUR BODY AND SOUL BEFORE IT ADAPTS THE PRIVATE QUARTER AS YOU WILL."
"Geeze… And I thought that I couldn't like this place better." Zetarus said.
"And it also makes this place much more interesting…" Richard said. "I have never known that there's a place that can change itself like that in this world. It seems like this place isn't ordinary ruins indeed."
"And we are also lucky to discover this place and make it our team base." Korben said.
"AND NOW, IF YOU WILL EXCUSE ME, I SHALL TAKE MY LEAVE RIGHT NOW." The Druddigon Gargoyle spoke up again. "I WILL CONTINUE MY DUTY OF GUARDING THIS PLACE AT THE FOYER OF THE PENDRACOMONIUM. IF YOU NEED A MODIFICATION OF THE INTERIOR OF THIS PLACE TO SUIT YOUR NEED AGAIN OR ANYTHING ELSE REGARDING THIS PLACE, PLEASE TELL ME AND I WILL GRANT YOU YOUR WISH."
"T… Thank you so much, Sir err…" Freya said before she remembered something. "By the way, do you have a name?"
"A… NAME?" The Druddigon Gargoyle said as it looked at the Latias who spoke up earlier.
"R… Right, a name." Freya said. "I… I understand that you are made to be the leader of all gargoyles in this place, and as a leader, you also have several more abilities than other gargoyles too, so I think that… M… Maybe you have a name too?"
"… IF THAT'S YOUR WISH…" The Druddigon Gargoyle slowly spoke up after hearing the words of the Flygon. "THEN YOU MAY CALL ME… RYUGAN."
"Ryugan… S… So, that's your name…" Freya said. "T… Thank you for everything you have done for us, Sir Ryugan."
"I AM NOT WORTHY OF YOUR PRAISE, MASTER." The Druddigon Gargoyle, whose name was Ryugan, said. "AND SO, IF YOU'LL EXCUSED ME, I SHALL TAKE MY LEAVE NOW."
After finished speaking, Ryugan slowly walked toward the spiral stairway before it went upstairs, back to the foyer on Floor B1, to the statue base that it was standing before, leaving the Pendragon on Floor B3.
"Ryugan…" Rachael said. "He seems to be… I don't know, but I feel a strange feeling toward him. I feel that he's… empty. I can't feel any single soul within his body."
"That's because he's a gargoyle, Rachael." Richard spoke up. "As I said before, a gargoyle is just a stone statue that comes to life, not a real living creature, so that guy is only alive because of the magic that commands him, which, if I'm not wrong, is being embedded in that strange object that looks like a claw or a fang that was attached to the string that he was wearing around his neck. He isn't alive because he has a soul within his body like us, or should I say that he isn't actually alive after all."
"That's…" Rachael said.
"Never mind it, Rachael." Claura spoke up. "Now, let's get back to our business. It's time for us to choose our room."
"Finally…" Xavier spoke up.
"Then…" Diego was about to say something when he noticed that Anastasia and Baromyteus didn't have their attention at their current conversation. Instead, they both had their attention at the spiral stairway, the same stairway that led to Floor B2 and Floor B1 above."
"Anastasia, Baromyteus, are you listening to us?" Diego called the name of the Goodra and the Shiny Haxorus.
"Hm? Oh…" Realizing that someone had called them, Anastasia and Baromyteus quickly turned their attention back to the other members of the Pendragon. "Forgive us. We were just spacing out."
"And so…" Xavier said after seeing that Baromyteus and Anastasia had finally turned their attention to their current conversation. "Everyone, which room and which wing would you stay?"
-Five Minutes Later…
While deciding the room, the Pendragon decided to assign a number to each room to make it easier to call them, starting with the room to the right of the corridor of the North Wing (The original room, not the room that was created from the leader's room) as the Room Number 01, and the number of the room rotated clockwise (The room to the left of the corridor of the North Wing as Room Number 02, the room to the right of the corridor of the North Wing as Room Number 03, and so on.), and the number finished at the room to the left of the corridor of the North Wing as the Room Number 10. (The reason why they chose the room to the right of the corridor of the North Wing as Room Number 01 and the room to the left of the corridor of the North Wing as Room Number 10 was because the leader's room, which was being turned into two more rooms, was once located between both rooms on the North Wing.) For the rooms that was created from the original leader's room, both room was given the name of 'Special Room I' and 'Special Room II', with the Special Room I located next to Room Number 01 and Special Room II located next to Room Number 10, because they were created from the original leader's room. (But both special rooms didn't have anything different from the other rooms.)
After five minutes, the Pendragon was finally able to agree on their room, and they were now staying in the room they chose to see the atmosphere that, according to Ryugan, was changed to match the preference of each of them.
-List of the Pendragon's Private Quarters and their themes (Start with Northeast Wing; Rotate Clockwise):
A. Northeast Wing
-Room Number 02
Owner: Claura Pulsawhirl the Kingdra
Theme: Undersea World (The room that resembled world below the surface of the sea where the light from the sun could still reach the bottom of the sea, with many life forms that lived together with the wave in harmony.)
-Room Number 03
Owner: Xavier Stormwing the Dragonite
Theme: Sky Realm (The room that resembled realm beyond the cloud with the sky of various color depended on the time of the day and the fluffy cloud that could immediately sent everyone who laid down onto it to the dream world.)
B. Southeast Wing
-Room Number 04
Owner: Anastasia Wyrmscale the Goodra
Theme: White Darkness (The room with the atmosphere of the land of the everlasting winter that was always veiled in the white embrace of the howling blizzard that could freeze even the hottest flame, which made it almost impossible to see around the world veiled in the white darkness.)
-Room Number 05
Owner: Baromyteus Drawyvern the Shiny Haxorus
Theme: Black Light (The room with the atmosphere of the land covered in the light that always shone down upon and turned the whole room dark. However, despite being veiled in the darkness, one could still see around the room clearly, as if the darkness also worked as a light that opened a new path.)
C. Southwest Wing
-Room Number 06
Owner: Diego Pyrotorch the Mega Charizard X
Theme: Inferno Cavern (The room that resembled the deepest pit of lava deep under the earth, with the fiery lava pit and the burning flame that always burnt and would never die out, just like the flame of hell that would continue burning even after the end of the world.)
-Room Number 07
Owner: Zetarus Quakersand the Garchomp
Theme: Mirage Desert (The room that resembled the vast desert of burning sand of the earth, with the high temperature that could generate the mirage of a haunted past out of nowhere, despite that there was nothing else inside this room other than the sea of sand.)
D. Northwest Wing
-Room Number 08
Owner: Rachael Lustermist the Latias
Theme: Forest of Purity (A room that resembled a forest full with many life forms in the forms of plants, trees and flowers that gave out the purest atmosphere, as if the trees were greeting their guests. This also gave out a feeling that the whole room was alive.)
-Room Number 09
Owner: Richard Lustermist the Latios
Theme: Library of Wisdom (A room that resembled a library decorated in the exotic style to give out a feeling of nostalgic and relaxing, with a vast amount of books inside that one would never hope to finish all of them in their lifetime unless they were immortal.)
E. North Wing
-Room Number 10
Owner: Sirius Xenomask the Type: Null
Theme: Distant Future (The advanced room that was decorated with the decoration of the future civilization of technology to resemble the thought of what would the continent of Symmetria in the future be, which mostly existed as the imagination.)
-Special Room II
Owner: Snow Tundrafrost the Draconic Lapras
Theme: Vintage Hall (The room with the vintage atmosphere of the high-class society with the subtle snowfall occurred outside the room, which gave out the feeling of sipping tea next a fireplace while looking at the windows to see the world outside with the snow that gently fell onto the ground.)
-Special Room I
Owner: Freya Mirasert the Flygon
Theme: Flower Garden (The room that looked like an abundant garden full with many flowers that bloomed into the beautiful flowers to the heart's content, yet no one would ever realize how much obstacles these flowers must endure before they could flourish at last.)
-Room Number 01
Owner: Korben Forcenter the Kommo-o
Theme: Wounded Past (The traditional room that was decorated with the tribal decoration of the Dragon type Pokemon to resemble the primeval civilization of the lost Hidden Village of Dragon, which now only existed in the realm of memory.)
After they finished inspecting their private quarters, the Pendragon spent the rest of the day by exploring the remaining area of Pendracomonium. Other than the foyer on Floor B1, which also served as the Chamber of the Guardian, a place where the 'guardians' of Pendracomonium gathered, and the private quarters on Floor B3, there were still several rooms that were still left empty, including five rooms on Floor B2, ten rooms on Floor B4 and the single hall on Floor B5. Because of this, the Pendragon decided that they will put those rooms into a good use, but for what use?
Other than to find a use for the remaining rooms in the Pendracomonium, the Pendragon also had to assign a role for the remaining members of their group, which they could also do while they were trying to find a use for the remaining rooms
A few hours later, the Pendragon managed to find a use for the remaining rooms in this place, as well as assign a role to the remaining members of the Pendragon, and all of them were happy with the role they received.
While the rooms on Floor B3 was the private quarters of each member of the Pendragon, all rooms on Floor B2 and Floor B4, as well as Floor B5, were turned into the facilities for them to use. Starting with Floor B4, which had five large rooms on each side of the main hall and five small rooms that connected to each large room on this floor. Moreover, each rooms on Floor B4 was unique, so it could be turned into a facility that would put its unique quality to the maximum.
The Small Northwest Room of Floor B4 was turned into a Food Storage as the temperature of this room was much lower than other room in this place, with the outer part of this room had its temperature at lower than 10 degree Celsius while the deeper part of this room had its temperature at even lower than 0 degree Celsius, and only Snow and Anastasia that could enter this room without suffering from Hypothermia. (It was understandable for Snow as he was still the Ice type Pokemon, but no one except Baromyteus understood why Anastasia was able to enter this room with ease.) Richard also mentioned that the reason why this room was much colder than other rooms in the Pendracomonium was because there were several frozen rivers located in the ground nearby this room, as indicated by the soil of this room that was full with the crystals of frozen water. However, while this room was like a frozen hell for the Pendragon, it was a great place for storing fresh food such as vegetable and berries, as well as the meat they got from hunting and the fish they got from fishing. This was the reason why the Small Northwest Room of Floor B4 was turned into a Food Storage.
The Large Northwest Room of Floor B4, being located next to the frozen room, was also colder than other room in the Pendracomonium, albeit not as cold as its smaller counterpart because the heat from the lava pit nearby heated up this room a bit. The heat from the lava pit also melted the frozen rivers in the ground nearby, creating several small waterfalls flowing out of the wall of the room and flowing down through the holes on the floor. Richard also mentioned that, because these waterfalls were created by melting the frozen underground river, the water from these waterfalls was very clear, pure and also drinkable. With all of these reasons, including the fact that this room was located next to the Food Storage, the Large Northwest Room of Floor B4 was turned into a Kitchen, with the waterfalls in this room as the source of water for the Kitchen, both for utilizing and consuming. And so, Snow as appointed to be the Chef of the Pendragon as he was the best at cooking and he was among a few members of the Pendragon who could enter the Food Storage with ease, and Snow happily accepted this duty. However, some members, such as Freya, Rachael and Anastasia, also promised that they will help him cook too if they were free.
The Large Southwest Room of Floor B4 was different from other rooms on this floor too, as this was the only room that other life forms could be found, and in this case, the plants, as there were a few plants that were native to the lightless area growing up in this room. It was because this room had a perfect condition for these plants to flourish, with an appropriate temperature, abundant soil and the source of water in the form of several small waterfalls just like the Kitchen. (But because the waterfalls here came from the normal underground river, not the frozen one, the water from these waterfalls wasn't pure enough for drinking.) This gave Rachael an idea to turn this room into a Greenhouse for growing the plants that would be used as the ingredients for food and potion, and Richard helped his younger sister by dividing this room into two sections, and he then created the artificial sunlight for one of them as it would be the section for growing the normal plants such as berries trees and vegetables trees while leaving the other section of the room in dark for growing the plants that were native to the lightless area, which were mainly used for making potions. And, of course, Rachael was appointed to be the Gardener who would grow and take care of the plants in this garden, as well as harvesting them for food, as Rachael was very good at taking care of plants as she was once lived in the berry farm, and because she loved this work, Rachael happily accepted the job as a Gardener.
The Small Southwest Room had nothing extraordinary inside. However, because this room was located next to the Greenhouse, Richard suggested that this room should be the Laboratory, a place used for researching, as well as a place for Rachael to use for making potions. As potions were quite essential for the Pendragon that always got themselves into a battle, the Pendragon agreed to Richard's suggestion and turned this room into a Laboratory, and Rachael got one more job as an Apothecary, someone who brewed potions, as she was talented at this work.
Other than Rachael working as an Apothecary at the Laboratory, Richard also assigned himself as the Researcher of the Pendragon. His job was researching something new for the Pendragon, as well as uncovering the 'secret' that the Pendragon had encountered. Richard also took the work of managing the move for the Pendragon such as deleting the unwanted move and teaching a new move, both move that was learned naturally and the move that required special machine for teaching. While the Pendragon didn't know that the job as Researcher would be much uses for them, they agreed that the job of managing move was important for them, so they allowed Richard to work as a Researcher. Also, Richard chose the Laboratory that Rachael used for making potions as his workplace too, as he figured that the Laboratory would be able to do more than being a place for Rachael to make her potion. Moreover, Richard also said that this Laboratory shall serve as the First aid Room of the Pendracomonium as Rachael could brew a potion to heal the injured Pendragon and Richard could work as a doctor alongside his sister as he was once lived in a clinic before.
The Large Southeast Room of Floor B4 had a smoother floor and wall than other room on this floor, and this room also had no obstacle such as rock or stone, and so, the Pendragon decided to turn this room into a Training Ground for them, and they appointed Korben as a Training Coach, the one who would help the Pendragon with their training by assigning the best training for them, because he was once trained in the Training Dojo of Hidden Village of Dragon, and his marriage with balance and equality (As stated by Xavier and Baromyteus) ensured that he would manage to find a training that matched the current strength of each member of the Pendragon, not too tense and not too loose.
At first, Korben was a bit scared when he realized that this would mean that he would have to eventually battle Baromyteus, but the Shiny Haxorus ensured the Kommo-o that there was nothing to worry about…
"The person I hate most is already dead by my paw, so I have no need to unleash my rage on you, Korben." Baromyteus said. This put the Kommo-o at ease and he finally accepted the role as the Training Coach of the Pendragon.
For the Small Southeast Room of Floor B4 next to the Training Hall, because the Pendragon couldn't think of any use for this room, this room was turned into a Storage Room that the Pendragon used for storing the non-food objects.
The Small Northeast Room of Floor B4, on the other hand, was unique as this room had an access to the tiny part of the lava pit that was located nearby the Pendracomonium, which was the very same thing that caused the Pendracomonium to be a bit warmer than above the ground. However, because this room had an access to the lava pit, the temperature of this room was higher than other rooms in this place, which caused Snow and Anastasia to feel very uncomfortable, but Diego and Zetarus, on the other hand, found this room comfortable for them. And so, with an access to the lava pit, albeit a tiny part, the Pendragon decided to turn this room into a Forge, a place for forging, upgrading and modifying weapons, and so, Diego was appointed to be the Blacksmith for the Pendragon as he was the only one who knew how to forge, and he could do a very good job in this duty, as well as being one of a few members of the Pendragon who had high heat tolerance, so Diego accepted.
The Large Northeast Room of Floor B4 had nothing extraordinary, but because this room was located next to the Forge, it was turned into a Workshop, a place for Diego to do the work that didn't require the use of the lava pit, as Diego said that he will start working on crafting the defensive gear too.
"From now on, we will always get ourselves into a perilous situation, so I think this would at least help us live a little longer." Diego said.
The North Rooms of Floor B4, both the large room and the small room, like the Kitchen and the Greenhouse, also had waterfalls inside too. However, because this room was located between the Kitchen, a place located next to the frozen rivers, and the Workshop, a place located next to the lava pit, the waterfalls in this room were much larger than the one in the Kitchen and the Greenhouse. And so, the Large North Room of Floor B4 was turned into the Bathroom for the Pendragon. The Bathroom shall be divided into three sections. The first section was the entrance of the room, which covered the area that connected to the main hall. This would be the area that the Pendragon would prepare themselves before going into the bath. The other two sections were the male bath and female bath, with the male bath located to the right and the female bath located to the left. Both sections were technically a mirrored version of each other, with a large bath that covered almost the entire area of the section (The baths themselves seemed more like a hot spring, except that the Pendragon could adjust the temperature of the water to their will as there were two waterfalls in each bath, with one had the 'hot' water that came from the river that passed near the lava pit and the other one had the 'cold' water that was melt from the frozen river.), and a few resting area that the Pendragon used to do everything else while they were taking a bath beside soaking in the bath, such as taking a break from soaking in the bath or changing their cloth. Both male and female sections of the bath had two doors, with one that led to the entrance of the Bathroom and the other one led to the Small North Room of Floor B4, which was turned into the 'Outdoors' Bathroom.
While the Outdoor Bathroom was technically still located indoors, the room was different from the main bathroom as it was decorated with many plants, small trees and flowers, creating the atmosphere that this bathroom was a hot spring located in the middle of the exotic garden, where the Pendragon could enjoy the scenery of nature while they were soaking in the bath, and the bath in the Outhdoors Bathrooms was larger than the baths in the male and the female sections too as it took up almost the entire area of the small room, while the baths in the male and female section only took up almost the entire area of one of three sections of the large room. However, because of all of this, the Outdoors Bathroom had become the shared bathroom, where both male and female could come and enjoy it. Also, the Outdoors Bathroom was a perfect place for Sirius to take a bath as it was a genderless Pokemon.
Floor B5 of Pendracomonium, unlike Floor B2, B3 and B4, only had one single room, which was the main hall. The main hall of this floor, however, was much darker than the other main halls as it was located very deep into the ground, as well as being separated from other main halls, just like the foyer of Floor B1, but as the Pendragon looked around this main hall closely, they found that this hall had an access to another place other than the main hall of Floor B4 too. Nevertheless, another place that Floor B5 had an access to was just a natural cavern, which was very dark as no light could ever shine into that place, and so, there was not much use that the Pendragon could gain from this floor and the cavern… Except that Richard had analyzed that the cavern here was very rich in valuable items such as ores and stones as it was located very deep in the ground, and the lava pit nearby helped too, and those items would be valuable for Diego as he would be able to use them in his as a Blacksmith. However, because the cavern was very dark, and its inside area was mostly uncharted, the only one who could explore this cavern and find the valuable items inside was Sirius, as it could travel in the darkness with ease due to its gene of Dark type allowed it to see in the darkness, and its gene of other types helped it to travel in the uncharted cavern with ease, and so, Sirius was appointed to be the Cavern Explorer, the one who would explore the uncharted cavern and brought the items it found in the cavern back to the Pendragon, and the Type: Null didn't mind doing this job.
While all rooms on Floor B4, as well as the entire Floor B5, were unique, all five rooms on Floor B2 weren't as four of five of them were just a plain room with nothing inside. The only exception was the Northeast Room of Floor B2, which had several warp portals inside…
"YOU CAN USE THESE WARP PORTALS TO TRAVEL TO ANY PLACE THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY VISITED IN THE INSTANT, AND BECAUSE YOU HAVE ALREADY SEALED YOUR BLOOD IN THIS PLACE, YOU CAN ALWAYS RETURN TO THIS PLACE AT ANYTIME YOU WANT BY USING THE TELEPORTATION, WHICH WILL BRING YOU BACK TO THIS ROOM." Ryugan explained as the Pendragon asked him about the warp portals. "THE ONLY THING THAT YOU NEED TO CONSIDER IS THAT YOU MUST REMEMBER ABOUT THAT PLACE. IF YOU HAVE ALREADY VISITED ONE PLACE, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE A MEMORY OF THAT PLACE AT ALL, THE WARP PORTAL WILL NOT RESPOND TO YOUR DESIRE. ALSO, THERE MAY BE SOME PLACES THAT DENY YOU FROM TELEPORTING BACK TO THIS PLACE, SO KEEP THAT IN YOUR MIND, MASTERS."
With this, the Northeast Room of Floor B2 had become a Portal Room, a place that the Pendragon would use to travel around the continent of Symmetria in the part that they had already visited and still remembered about it. (However, considered their status right now, the Pendragon decided that they won't use it for travelling to the other part of Symmetria for now, but they would still use it to travel around the area of Valley of No Return.)
The four other rooms on Floor B2 weren't unique, so the Pendragon could turn each of them into anything they wanted. First, the Northeast Room of Floor B2 was turned into a Dining Hall for the Pendragon to have their meal, as this room was located directly above the Kitchen, so Snow could easily send the food he made from the Kitchen to the Dining Hall directly using a lift that would be installed later.
For the Southwest Room of Floor B2, everyone agreed that this room shall be the Resting Room, a room where the Pendragon would spend their time after hard work by relaxing themselves or playing games with their friends.
For the Southeast Room of Floor B2, while the Pendragon was trying to decide on what would they turn this room into, Anastasia asked that she would turn this room into a Boutique, a place for making cloth and accessory, as some members of the Pendragon such as Rachael, Richard and Anastasia herself didn't wear armor suit in a battle, and it wasn't necessary for the one who wore the armor suit such as Claura, Xavier and Diego to wear it of all time, as they could change from wearing armor suit into wearing cloth too, at least while they were staying in the Pendracomonium, and the accessory would help the Pendragon in some case, so the Pendragon decided to go with Anastasia's suggestion and turned this room into a Boutique, and, of course, Anastasia was appointed to be the Tailor of the Pendragon as she was used to sewing and making cloth since she was a songstress, and she loved sewing too. Moreover, Rachael and Freya asked Anastasia if they would be able to come here and help her sewing cloth some time, and Anastasia happily accepted their offer.
The last room was the North Room of Floor B2. This room was finally decided to be made into the Meeting Room, a room for the Pendragon to assemble and have a meeting about what would they do next in their mission, as well as a working place for Xavier to come up with a plan for the Pendragon.
Then, Freya volunteered herself to work as a Maid who would take care of keeping the Pendracomonium clean, as someone must keep this place clean. Since the foyer on Floor B1 was the domain of the gargoyles, all rooms on Floor B3 were the private quarters, all room on Floor B4 and B5 except for the Bathroom were the working place of the other members of the Pendragon (Such as Snow working in the Kitchen and Korben working in the Training Ground), and the Boutique on Floor B2 was the working place of Anastasia, Freya didn't have to take care of those rooms too, so the rooms that she must keep clean were the Bathroom, both indoors and outdoors, the Resting Room, the Portal Room, the Meeting Room and all Main Halls. (Snow said that he would take care of the Dining Hall by himself.) And so, the Pendragon accepted Freya's volunteer and appointed her to be the Maid of the Pendragon.
At this point, the only member of the Pendragon who hadn't gotten a work yet was Zetarus, which wasn't a much problem since the Pendragon could easily find a suitable job for him. Zetarus then was appointed to be the Hunter of the Pendragon, which was the one who would hunt wild Pokemon in Valley of No Return as a food for the Pendragon, as Valley of No Return was the only place that the Pendragon could hunt their food, which was also a great place for hunting as Valley of No Return was a very abundant place that was full with many kind of wild Pokemon, so they would be able to hunt them for their food with ease. Also, Zetarus was the most skilled hunter in the Pendragon as he used a pistol for hunting, and he could hunt both on the ground, under the water and in the sky as he was a Garchomp. Moreover, Zetarus was more than happy to work as a hunter as he loved killing, so he happily accepted this work. However, because there were so many members in the Pendragon, and several of them were the big eaters, having only one hunter might not be sufficient as, while Zetarus could hunt enough food for the Pendragon in one day, it would require the hunter to work too hard. And so, some members of the Pendragon such as Claura, Baromyteus and Diego agreed to help Zetarus in hunting if they were free.
After assigning the roles to all members of the Pendragon and decided the rooms of Pendracomonium, the Pendragon paid a visit to Ryugan and told him about this, and the Druddigon Gargoyle accepted their order and commanded other gargoyles to renovate and modify the rooms in the Pendracomonium as the Pendragon ordered, as well as installing the tools or objects that would be necessary for each room, which were the cooking appliances, kitchen wares and cooking utensils for the Kitchen, the storage package for the Food Storage and the Storage Room, the training gears for the Training Ground, the garden tools for the Greenhouse, the scientific tools, apparatuses, Technical Machines and first aid kits for the Laboratory, the forging and armory tools for the Forge and Workshop, the bathing equipment for the Bathroom, the explorer kits and a smelter (For smelting ores that were discovered in the cavern into the ready-to-use ingots) for Floor B5, the eating utensils and a lift from the Kitchen for the Dining Hall, several relaxing couches and game sets such as chess and card for the Resting Room, clothing tools for the Boutique and some more things for the Meeting Room. (How these gargoyles were able to find those things and objects for each room remained a mystery as Ryugan didn't say anything about it, and the other gargoyles couldn't speak.) They also added a fireplace to the Dining Hall, Resting Room and Meeting Room too.
"ONE MORE THING, MASTERS." Ryugan spoke up while he was letting other gargoyles renovating the rooms in the Pendracomonium. "WE THE GUARDIANS OF PENDRACOMONIUM WOULD BE GLAD TO LEND YOU OUR HANDS. IF YOU WANT TO, WE CAN HELP YOU IN THE WORKS THAT COULD USE A HELP SUCH AS CAVE EXPLORING AND GARDENING. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT US TO DO AND I WILL ASSIGN MY SUBORDINATE TO DO YOUR BIDDING, BUT KEEP IN MIND THAT WE WOULD ONLY ABLE TO WORK INSIDE THE PENDRACOMONIUM AS THIS PLACE HOUSES THE SOURCE OF OUR LIFE FORCES, SO WE WOULD ABLE TO EXIST IN THIS STATE ONLY INSIDE THE PENDRACOMONIUM, MAKING THE WORKS THAT REQUIRE US TO LEAVE THIS PLACE IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO PERFORM."
"Understood." Korben said. "Thanks for your offer, Ryugan."
With all of this, the Pendragon was finally able to find the team base within the Valley of No Return, a region that was considered to be enigmatic, but for the Pendragon, it was the only place on the continent of Symmetria that belonged to them, as everywhere else in the Land of Equilibrium had already betrayed them, but they would never give up, as they finally found a place that would be used as their lair…
Pendracomonium, lair of the Pendragon…
To Be Continued…
Dragon of Vale: I am sorry that this story has gone on a hiatus after the last chapter, as this chapter took me forever to write down. The reason why it took me so long to write this chapter was because I needed to design the interior of Pendracomonium, as well as the rooms inside and the roles of each member of the Pendragon. However, the hardest part would be the bedrooms of the Pendragon, as well as theme of each of them. It was a bit challenging to create 12 bedrooms in a place that was in the shape of a 5-side polygon. Nevertheless, I was finally able to do it and here we are, the lair of the Pendragon, and I am quite happy with the result.
Also, I understand that the design of the Pendracomonium tended to be confusing. If you have a question regarding the Pendracomonium, feel free to ask me and I will answer you right away, except if the answer of your question was the spoiler of this story.
Anyway, here we are. The Pendragon had finished assigning roles to each of them, and they finally got their team base, which was quite a grandeur, if you ask me. This would serve as their base of operation until the end of the story, except for the parts that they had to travel to the other place. And also, they had gotten a group of gargoyles and their leader that was a Druddigon Gargoyle named Ryugan that would serve under them as the guardians of the Pendracomonium too! How convenient!
And now, after this chapter, the remaining chapters of Intermission I would be much easier for me to write, and I promise you that this intermission would end within this year, and I will start the 7th tail, as well as answering the Q&A, in the next year!
P.S. If I have to choose a theme song that would be played inside the Pendracomonium, I will choose the song 'Castle Frozen In Time' from Final Fantasy IX.