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Hammerlocke Energy Plant
The surest way to keep a secret is to make someone think they already know the answer.
Emrett Dialogues, compiled works
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Bronze Tercano strode over the debris-littered plazcrete floor to come face-to-face with Rose. Twenty Rorian Commandos crouched behind him, ready to strike. The few Gym Leaders that had remained in Hammerlocke and the Pokedex Holders stood even behind them, in the ruin of the blast door. Rose turned away from the remains of a large holocube that had been shattered, looked Bronze in the eye.
"Rose Venport," Bronze said. "You are under arrest for conspiracy, misuse of financial property, mass endangerment, and crimes against humanity amended to apply to starting an Elohim-related event with malice aforethought. Do you want me to put resisting arrest in there?"
"Malice?" Rose said. "Look around you, Tercano! Why do you think the power is coming back on? My plan has been a remarkable success. Galar will now have enough Tachyon Particles to power Dynamax battles for eons!"
"With the unfortunate side effect of destroying the region in the Darkest Day," Henry added. "Rose, how could you not know that this calamity would occur?"
"Destroy Galar?" Rose said, tears in his eyes. "How could you ever say that, Henry? This is my plan to protect Galar, for this generation and the ones that come after! Imagine a spacecraft built in the next decade that can go at near lightspeed! The relativistic effects will allow crews to live for thousands of years. They could return to Galar, and everything would be somewhat familiar."
"I don't see how this has anything to do with lightspeed ships," Piers said. "What has happened is that Dynamaxed Pokemon are running wild over Galar. You're telling us to trust you, with all the lives lost and the property damage that has been caused? Even Sonia's life was put in danger!"
"I know, I understand," Rose muttered. "Sonia..." He looked at her, sweat trickling down his brow. "I must apologize. What Sordward and Sheilbert tried to do was inexcusable. It was careless to have let you overhear my conversation with them. And I knew that these Dynamaxing occurrences would have happened, so I intended to send out task forces to contain the damage with prototype particle absorbers. But then you came in, Bronze. You destroyed my company, but provided more military support than anything I could have ever hoped for! I must thank you for your efforts to contain the crisis."
"And what about Eternatus?" Jake growled. "That thing is no Pokemon. Are those two blowhards going to fight a demon and win?"
"Yes, actually," Rose said, checking his holowatch. "Oh, about time I took my leave, actually. You cheer on the heroes from here!" A holographic screen appeared in midair, showing Sordward and Sheilbert staring down Eternatus on the pinnacle of the tower. "You'll understand that all that ends well ends well."
A Rorian Commando tackled Rose, but the man passed through the hologram. "He's not here, Grand Bashar!" the warrior said. "It was a hologram. We must find him!"
"Another lie, Rose?" Tess said. "You said you would be at Hammerlocke, but it seems as though you are not."
"Oh, I am," Holo-Rose said. "Just not in this particular room. Currently, I am at the tower summit. I'm afraid I cannot afford to let you get in Sordward and Sheilbert's way. They are royalty, that I am sure of. The Sword and Sheild's spells should work for them and defeat the demon lord. Now, watch this battle unfold!"
...
"Bronzong, perform a noble Extrasensory!" Sheilbert said.
"Golisopod, the time has come for a Mud Shot of regal proportions!" Sordward cried. "Songs and legends will be wrapped around this battle against this mockery of a Dark Lord!"
Eternatus howled, absorbing the attacks, still reeling. Bronze saw a fractional fleck of its shell break off under Golisopod's swing in the watcheye footage. "If it bleeds, they can kill it! Unnecessary embellishments aside, at least they are competent at fighting."
"The Ground and Psychic moves worked," Leon said. "Do you think it's a Poison-type?"
"I would not guess at its Type," Tess warned. "This being is beyond any of us in terms of natural power. What abilities it might have cannot be guessed at this point in the fighting. This is a demon that has taken on the characteristics and appearance of something that could be a Pokemon; it is not one."
Eternatus's eyes flashed brilliant crimson, and it spewed out a constant stream of fire from its maw. The inferno struck Bronzong and Golisopod, defeating them instantly. Sordward and Sheilbert stepped backwards, sending out a Klinklang and a Doublade. "Avoid that Flamethrower! Evade all its attacks!"
Golisopod, a Water-type, was defeated in one strike by a Flamethrower! Great Mother, what a beast this creature is!
Raihan pointed to the broken holocube, still milky white. "I've seen that before. They must have kept Eternatus inside it until the time was right to release it. Tercano, I have some information that you haven't heard yet." He told Bronze all that had gone on in the hidden chamber with the Wishing Stars and Rose's strange behavior.
Bronze closed his eyes, and kept his mouth in a hard line. Then he reared up, furious and towering. "That would have been nice to have known sooner, Raihan!"
Raihan cowered. "Sorry, sorry! I feel terrible about my hesitation. But there was no reason in my mind then to speak about Rose's experiments. I thought you had already known. Still, I think we should join the battle on the tower pinnacle. We'll have to go up the stairs again, through those fighting mechs and any resistance from Macro Cosmos that still remains, but I think we can do it."
"I know nothing about this building or thinking machines," Leon said. "But we should at least fight against this monster. When those two can't hold it back anymore, we should attack after observing its movements and behavior. Observe, read, and listen. That's what you do, right, Woodhall?"
"Of course," Tess replied. "If this fight is lost, I cannot even grasp the magnitude of this disaster. The projections I am seeing..." She shook her head. "I can't see how the disaster as it is will destroy the entirety of the world, but that is the path it is on. We must fight. No, we cannot lose. This is the greatest peril that Galar may have ever been in, for it concerns all peoples, not just this one land."
...
On the peak of the tower, the flesh-and-blood Rose watched the battle from the safety of an open-air observation deck. Cloaking shields covered his body, making him nearly invisible to the flying Association dreadnaughts overhead. The elevator had been disabled, and the stairs chocked with rubble and security Pokemon. It would take a very long time for anyone to breach and interfere with the events now transpiring.
He received a call from Oleana, huddled in her hidden outpost. "What's the matter, Oleana, aside from Armageddon and the massive armada trying to kill us?"
"The levels of Galar Particles have increased, yes, but not quite at the levels we expected," Oleana said. "We are not yet sure about the cause, but some of our teams have expressed concerns about the Darkest Day observed in geoglyphs and the tapestries compared to the Darkest Day currently happening. Chances are that Eternatus will shift form or begin to emit more particles to get to absolutely optimum levels in the time period that we still have."
"Thank you, Oleana." Rose left the call, shouted to Sordward and Sheilbert. "You two! The Dark Lord still hasn't gotten really serious about fighting you yet! Please, try harder!"
"How dare he be so arrogant," Sheilbert mumbled. "He's nothing but a now-disposed politician! Rose, stay there and watch us finish off this creature!"
"I noticed that it hasn't been speaking much, strangely," Sordward said. "Still, we are the heroes that will end the Darkest Day! Reveal the Rusted Sword and Rusted Shield!"
The brothers seized the artifacts from the ground, and lifted them up to meet Eternatus's eyes.
"Ah! Foe-Beater and Biter!" Eternatus screeched, recoiling. "The bane of the Spear of the Evil Djinn! The written war-hands of Westernesse! Now I see where my doom lies: in the hands of waifs and outcast, pompous fools!"
"Eternatus, you are not worthy of being feared nor worshipped!" Sordward cried. "Let the holy relics take upon new form! May the judgment of the Original One fill us and strike you down by the hand of Deep Heaven! Death be upon you, Mbelekoro-spawn!"
Eternatus roared, cowering back. Watching the footage, Henry and the others thought that brilliant light would burst forth from the armament and hew Eterantus to crumbeled bone, yet nothing happened. The Rusted Sword and Rusted Shield remained useless and unlovely in the hands of Sordward and Sheilbert.
"What is going on?" Sheilbert said, seeing the curious glint in Eternatus's many eyes. "Are these somehow useless?"
"Hail, Sordward and Sheilbert, descendants from the line of Wulfhere!" Eternatus said, creeping forward. "We meet ere your end. I now see that you have tried to defeat me with the blade and ward of Deep Heaven, and have failed! And now I know you for what you are: stabbers in the dark, treacherous to foes, faithless to friends, and a curse unto your kin! But the worst of all your deeds was not to slay yourselves when you might have. Away with you!"
The demon flicked its tail, striking the two brothers across the chest. The relative inertia of the blow prevented the tail from shattering their chests, but Sordward and Sheilbert went flying, bloodied. The Rusted Sword and Sheild tumbled in the air, before Eteratus batted them away with another swing of its great body. The two relics fell far away, beyond Henry's sight.
Sordward and Sheilbert passed over the rim of the tower, screaming as they fell to their deaths; or until a Ferrothorn extended its tendrils beyond the rim, snagging the brother's feet. Rose appeared above them, gazing at the pathetic, upside-down forms of Sordward and Sheilbert.
"I had a feeling this would happen," Rose said, sighing. "Luckily enough, Eternatus can likely be destroyed without your aid." He gestured to the warships. "I need you not to save Galar, now that I consider the situation again."
"Bastard!" Sordward said, bleeding out of his nose. "You pretended to work with us and then orchestrated our downfall? Get us up here, now!"
"You'll hang there for as long as I want," Rose said. "And don't think that I wanted to see you fail. I wish that the heroism that you said you had, no, what you said you had was indeed one of your characteristics." He turned to Eternatus, who was still lying still as if deep in thought, and messaged Oleana. "Time to move to Plan B. I'll leave the rest to you."
Rose sent out a Copperajah, activated his Dynamax Band. "Now, Eternatus, you've got a new playmate. Fight, you overgrown crab!"
...
In Hammerlocke, Bede's Hatenna sensed something strange.
The battle it had been in was terrifying and strenuous, but Hatenna still remained conscious and fully aware of the Spirit World. Hordes of invisible demonic entities were flocking around Eternatus, as if expecting it. The spiritual realm was in an uproar: the long-battered demons had gained a new leader. Hatenna could do nothing to stop them, but there was another thing that it felt, an issue it could fix.
Bede was helping to clear the rubble out from in the stairwell, so Hatenna slipped away to examine a fluid pipe that lay exposed on the walls. It heard water, the rumor of far-off rivers and clear streams. There were two spirit-likenesses inside, concrete beings, no, Pokemon. They had been brought here by some presence they could not understand, Hatenna knew.
Although Giga and Mega could not see the Swords of Justice that were spurring them on, Hatenna was very aware of them.
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Postwick, the Slumbering Weald
The fair altar remained still. White pillars covered in scrabbling growths of ivy stood silent in the bloodred half-light of the Darkest Day. Even in the Weald, wild Pokemon Dynamaxed and ran rampant, but something, an intangible force, convinced them not to harm the ruins. All was the same in the ruins, as had been for the past thousand and five hundred years.
The smell of burning was in the air from far away, the very scent of death. The Pokemon around the fane were uneasy. All was poised in uncertainty.
But at that moment there was a flash, as if lightning had sprung from the clouds to the shrine. Light was glimmering from the altar! For a searing moment it stood against the green Weald, its pillars like brilliant needles, and then the darkness of the storm closed again.
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"The Hand of Arceus has come to summon us, brother! Our old foe has returned."
"He is too strong. We do not have the Sword and Shield."
"We shall ride out to meet him nonetheless!"
...
Then two shapes like curling smoke appeared, and boldly rode into Galar. Demons stormed at them with shot and blade, and into the jaws of Death, the mouth of Sheol rode the two. They flashed their blades unbarred, and sabred the wicked spirits, plunging into the spiritual darkness. Right through the demon-line they broke, shivering the ranks of the minions of darkness. Their blades shattered and their fellows sundered, the demons shrieked, and flew to their lord at Hammerlocke.
And on they rode, Zacian and Zamazenta, in darkness buried deep. Through Evernight still they neared the domain of the Dark Lord, but until the Darkest Day was yet done, they would not bid the stars farewell.
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Hammerlocke
He who breaks a thing to find out what it is so he can fix it has left the path of wisdom.
-Hisuian fire poetry
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"It's no use!" Leon cried. "It will take at least another half-hour to get through this rubble to the top. The antiaircraft guns will shoot us out of the air if we fly. Eternatus will have already had plenty of time to escape."
"Escape?" Bronze said. "Not at all. Captain Rellus will fire if it attempts to leave. The beast is certainly thinking of some plan of escape from our net of warships. Now that Sordward and Sheilbert have proved themselves to be useless clods, Rose must be having a handful with that demon."
A hologram appeared by the excavation crew, making several soldiers brandish their blades. An image of Oleana stood before Bronze, her hands clasped behind her back. "Chairman Tercano, you will discover that the elevator is working, and the lasers in the shaft are disabled. Rose is fighting against Eternatus as we speak! Gym Leaders, Champion, Men of Roria, Gym Challengers, unite with him to defeat the second Dark Lord!"
Two Commandos checked the elevator controls, and summoned it. "All's working, Grand Bashar. This woman seems to be telling the truth, although she is in no position to barter with us. Should I destroy the holoprojector embedded in the floor?"
"No, I want to hear her out," Bronze said. "What do you gain in this? Are you simply feeling contrary?"
"What we gain?" Oleana said. "The safety of Galar for thousands of years! You might be getting tired of hearing that propaganda, and I understand completely. However, the Chairman might make mistakes in his pride. There are times when his judgment is wrong. Will you fight Eternatus alongside Rose?"
"We will fight Eternatus," Melony said. "And I'll give you the benefit of doubt in this dreadful time. There won't be any chance for forgiveness or justice if we lose others in this fight. The end will justify the means: that's your reasoning. If we act now and keep everyone as safe as we can, we can lay our conscience to rest!"
"Conscience!" Jake snarled. "Conscience is what hurts when the rest of your body feels pleasure...but I will answer its call nonetheless. I can't afford conscience. Bronze can't. We have too much blood on our hands. I can feel its wetness. Terrible purpose." He gave a grim look at Henry and Casey. "You are just beginning to feel it. Soon, I will hear no more childhood in your voices."
"You'll be able to complain about your terrible purpose all you want," Bede said, entering the elevator. "Once Eternatus is destroyed. We need to go!"
...
"G-Max Steel Surge!"
The blast enveloped Eternatus for a moment, making its body smoke red. Still, it looked at the weary form of Rose, its form remaining unchanged. "Help me, would you?" Rose gasped. "Emit more Galar Particles! Perform your duties!"
"What would you have me do?" Eternatus said, taunting him. "Evil have been all your ways, Rose Venport. Unscrupulous rival, now an outlaw, betrayer of your friends, a traitor against a boy's love, usurper of higher powers, captain foolhardy, and deserter of your kin. As a thrall you lived in Galar when you were young, in misery and want. Now you are arrayed as a prince, but your heart is clothed in rags. For Arceus you truly yearn, but He has turned his back on your face. Glad am I to learn that you have done such things, for learn I do."
Then Rose, suddenly under Eternatus's spell, believed his words and saw himself as in a mirror misshaped by malice, and he loathed what he saw. Eterntus's shone his serpent-eyes, and Rose was frozen like stone. Eternatus breathed a great blast of fire, and Rose collapsed with his Pokemon in the flames.
With a sudden motion, the lift doors opened, and the forces of Light poured out onto the tower roof. Nessa's Drednaw and Bronze's Sharpedo extinguished the blaze around Rose. "Chairman, hang in there!" Raihan said. "Don't die on me, not now!"
Eternatus swung a pseudo-limb at Rose and Raihan, but the arm came to a shuddering stop above their heads. Bede's Hatenna tried to direct the strike away with its psychic influence, trembling under the weight of the spiritual evil emitted by Eternatus. "Come now, little imp! You cannot contest with my might."
Light emitted from Hatenna's pores as it evolved. Hattrem found itself mightier than ever before, and pushed Eternatus back with an attack of Dazzling Gleam. The demon lord screamed, skin spewing clouds of fog.
"That attack," Rose said, minding his burns. "It worked! That means its Type is Poison and Dragon. Fight in my stead. Go on without me. Wait till I kick the bucket-"
"Stop complaining." Jake slapped a pair of krimskell-fiber handcuffs over his wrists. "Stay there." He turned to the Rorian Commandos. "Brothers-in-arms! The hour has come for a battle not against just the enemies of the Association, but the enemies of humanity and a servant of the Mbelekoro! Fight until the last man! Give no mercy, for you will be given none. Baruk Roria! Roria-ai-meniu!"
The axes of Roria! The axes of Roria are upon you!
"Strike it low!" Bronze ordered. "Electrivire! Charizard! Magnezone! Steelix! Absol! Sharpedo! Lead my warriors into battle!"
"Time to get serious!" Piers said. "Marnie, Hop, Henry, Casey, and the rest of you! Are you gonna let everything we fought for get destroyed by that thing? No way! Squash that insect!'
...
It was a glorious battle.
Eternatus fought as much as it could, spewing horrible blasphemies and flaming attacks. But the force of Pokemon that was set against it was so overwhelming that it was pushed back to the brink of the arena, safely in the range of the warship guns. A lasbeam struck it across the hide, sending the demon lord spiraling backward across the artificial arena in a whirling gavotte of pain and fatigue.
Casey and Henry found Sordward and Sheilbert hanging from Ferrothorn's tendrils, now moved away from the precarious ledge. "Where are the Rusted Sword and Shield?" Henry said, seizing their collars in his hands. "Tell me, or you'll go the same way as that beast!"
"Who cares about those hunks of rubbish?" Sheilbert said. "They don't even function! We didn't see where they landed. And why bother? The only ones with the power to quell this beast forever are Zacian and Zamazenta! It was a cover-up to preserve our authority, we admit it. Rose thought we had the power to destroy Eternatus as a contingency. Clearly we did not."
"It's amusing," Henry said. "When you erased evidence of the Elohim, the legend itself disappeared from public consciousness. The existence of the heroes and the royal line also was forgotten. Unbelievable! Buried in history! It's what you deserve, by any reckoning."
The elevator dinged, open. "It must be another load of Rorian Commandos," Henry said. "We'll need more to defeat Eternatus quicker."
It was, along with a Falinks and a Stunfisk, both soaking wet. They jumped into Casey's arms, eliciting raucous laughter from the soldiers. "These ones seem to have found their mistress!"
"Mega! Giga!" Casey yelled, and then saw what they were carrying.
"Henry, look! It's the Rusted Sword and Rusted Sheild! They must have gotten them from a water system somewhere, like the river veins that pump under the Energy Plant."
Henry changed before her eyes into an animal, seizing the relics, leering at and pawing them, a foul little creature with greedy eyes and a slobbering mouth. Then the vision passed: he dropped the armament and raised his hands in pain. "Ai! Eternatus's poison is on them! I need a Pecha berry to wash it off. Blast and drat!" He took off his backpack, and cleansed the dark violet ooze away.
"Now, I'll have to reforge and study them," Henry said, getting out his toolkit. As he did, there was a hellish scream, followed by a cumbersome thud. Eternatus's writhing and cursing had ceased.
Casey went up the steep flight of stairs from the observation deck to the arena spire. "Did they beat Eternatus?"
...
Eternatus's body lay like a pile of mangled meat, its limbs crushed, hide shattered and smitten in the demon's ruin. The light in its core had been extinguished, its eyes gone dark. The remains of the monster littered the arena, surrounded by unconscious Pokemon and weary trainers. Casey ran up to the corpse, and saw that the ground around it was covered in dark poison. "We won!"
"Stay back!" Nessa shouted. "Something is wrong. I can feel it!"
"Yes," Tess said, looking alarmed. "No disaster projections have been eliminated! Rather, they have only become more imminent. This makes no logical sense! The attacks we gave it should only have tranquilized it, but it blew to bits! How has its aura only grown stronger?"
"This is what I expected," Rose said. "Eternatus has another form. It must be entering that state, here and now!"
...
Without warning or preceding sound, red light sprang from Eternatus's broken corpse and into the cloud-covered heavens. With burning suddenness there was a flash and a great rumbling, louder and more terrible than before, that rolled in the ground and echoed over the land. In that dark hour of shadow and cold red light it seemed unspeakably violent and fierce. Then came a great crack of thunder from the depths of the Earth.
And the sky answered. There was a flare of livid lightning around a sudden swirling vortex, forks of red and violet light springing out of the sullen clouds and into the encircling Rorian fleet. Ballistas and frigates were struck, falling into ruin. The earth groaned, and out of the air came a rending cry, shivering, rising swiftly to a pitch beyond hearing. Henry and Casey wheeled around to it, and cast themselves down, holding their hands over their ears.
The terrible cry ended as the bloodred light faded, falling back into a long sickening wail, and then silence. Henry raised his head. From the vortex, level with his eyes, a wan claw covered in luminous light emerged.
"Here it is!" Leon said. "Get ready for another fight."