Winds continued to whir around the dragon's head. The hot air it left behind distorted the view of anything beyond it. The flaming mass soared straight through the air until its glow disappeared. The lack of light revealed its white body being overtaken with black burn marks.
The pokemon roared out in pain, flapping its wings and gliding to keep flying. With another push, its thick tail ignited into flames again. It kicked up splashes of water from the ocean as it blasted up to the sky again.
Light's sight of the dragon faded into black. The bright, blue light of the sky took its place. Clouds almost seemed to appear as they came into focus. He dragged his arm over gritty sand to his forehead to shade his eyes.
Light sat up and got to his feet. He felt dizzy, and his muscles wobbled under his weight. The proportion of it felt different and drew his eyes to his own body.
His white fur somehow seemed to be even whiter than before. It almost hurt his own eyes to look at. His chin brushed fur as he looked down that he didn't notice until he looked down.
He had a gray, fluffy mane of fur surrounding his head, and when he looked back, his tail was the same color. The frizzle made it look like two storm clouds hanging on his body. All of his fur had gotten longer than it ever had been.
Light noticed all the changes individually at a quickening pace until he realized just how he changed. He had become a Flareon, but it wasn't how he thought he'd look.
He didn't have a single normal color for his species on his body, shiny gene or otherwise. The fur that should've been red or gold was white, and the fur that should've been yellow was gray.
Light didn't expect to look quite normal. His pure white fur as an Eevee was always a little too bright. He was curious about his gray mane and tail, but questioned how he evolved in the first place more than that.
After Light got himself together, he noticed he stood on white sand that had gotten all over him. He shook himself off and started to get his bearings.
Light could hear the sounds of waves. He turned his body in a circle. White sand and water rising and falling against it greet him from all directions. A palm tree standing behind where he was facing had its top ripped off with dark black marks stretching down its trunk a short way. The shards of wood and green top of the tree were on the ground. The leaves on the ground gave a gentle wave with help from the sea breeze.
Eventually, Light gazed past the remnants of the palm tree and saw a much larger beach across the water attached to green land. He walked to the other side of the tiny island he was on and planned out a short course to swim. Only water type energy from other pokemon would hurt him as a Flareon, but he still tested out touching his paw against the surf.
The seawater felt cool and sharp, but it didn't hurt. Light walked out and started to paddle when the water reached his chin. He kept his head above water and straight towards the land.
When Flareon Light reached the other beach, he switched from a paddling motion to walking as soon as his arm touched the sand underwater. He got himself onto the dry part of the beach before shaking off the water and wiping his hands to get rid of the gritty feeling from the salt.
The beach curved up into an area of tall grass and trees. There were normal things like shells, but he wondered about countless tiny and large crystals that were making the whole beach sparkle up close. He caressed the ground till his fingers found a shard of it and pulled it out of the sand.
It was see-through and crystalline; Light guessed glass. As he studied the beach, he noticed the amount of glass increased the further inland he looked. As his gaze lifted, he noticed trees that made his jaw open to the cool sea air.
Huge razors of glass stabbed straight through tree trunks, and other trees were cut completely and leaning on the others.
Light went up the beach, dropping the glass shard where he found it. To keep the glass from cutting him, he passed a light pulse of energy in his paws and kept moving.
In the dense forest ahead, beads of water dripped from most leaves in the trees and on the bushes Light pushed aside to enter. The dark brown soil ground felt wet and gross wherever he stepped. Ferns and weeds moved on occasion against his big tail. It felt humid, and the trees seemed to follow a different pattern. There were a lot more roots than he was used to seeing out in the open, and every rock boasted a thick coat of moss.
As he continued down the trail, larger and larger shards of glass appeared, jutting out from the ground and stabbing more and more trees. Light cringed at a few and rubbed his arms when he saw their jagged edges.
One shard of glass with sharp, spiky edges stood straight up on the side of the path. A few ferns covered the bottom, but Light could still see his whole body in its distorted reflection. The Flareon's gray tail was a lot bigger than he had realized; almost the size of the rest of his body. He swished it in the air a few times as quick practice to keep as many plants away from it as he could.
Not long after Light continued past it, the ground ahead completely turned into glass. It felt like walking on pins, needles, and spikes. He swung his paws low to the ground to break some of it up as he went instead of stepping on them. Signs of the forest being in this area were gone.
Up ahead, a maze made from pure glass in random shapes loomed over him. Spikes of it towered as high as the trees he passed earlier, casting terrifying shadows and glares. There wasn't much else to do but investigate.
Light walked into the maze, trying to keep his eyes away from the reflective glass to keep himself from getting confused on where he was. There were small inclines he had to step over, but there were also walls of it he had to maneuver around.
After a few turns, the whole area seemed to open up. A clearing of uneven glass ahead formed in a ring-like a crater. The walls looked like frozen, spiky water of a whirlpool from a different world.
In the dead center glass whirlpool, a massive white pokemon began to unfurl its body. Its wings rose as it stood up on avian legs like tree trunks with vicious claws. Its blue eyes gazed at him as its head rose into the air.
Its voice started to ring out in varying tones, as if it couldn't control it.
"Eventually, nothing will remain in the universe," the pokemon said. "Everything will be lost to entropy. And then, another infinity after, even black holes and white dwarfs will lose everything as the last possible bastions of life in the universe, and it all fades to black. Then there's nothing left but the next universe where what happened here somehow still matters."
Light continued to stare back. He wished it wasn't talking to him. He glanced back where he came from, but it wasn't there anymore.
Glass appeared out of nowhere and had blocked his only way out.
"There will be nothing left in the end. No stories. No sounds. No stars. No planets. No legacy. Beautiful and empty. Like this glass. A legacy you can't see and can't live up to. Those who have fallen here have nothing to remember them by. Burned the same by the rules of a fallen universe. And you. Standing there not knowing a single name. Unable to bring them back."
Light felt his heartbeat in his head. The dragon spoke like it couldn't control how its deep voice's tone went up and down. He had never heard anything like it.
"And when you join in the glass and no one knows your name, you will marvel at a blank, night sky forever. A black hole in the world just for you."
Sunlight poured through tears in the dragon's wings as it raised them up to the sky.
"You shouldn't have tried to have me killed. But I'll accept your apology if you lay right here and let me burn you into the glass. Then you can apologize to all of the life here that you failed."
The pokemon jumped into the air. Glass at its feet cracked and splintered apart.
It flew straight at the sun as its body ignited like a candle. Its flapping wings vanished under a sea of fire, and its motion started to become like a comet. Circling like a crow, embers torched the sky and fell down to the ground as it laughed.
Light decided to use Shadow Ball. He aimed his head up and shot it at the dragon. By the time it reached it, it already flew to the other side of the sky. A ring of embers burst out from behind the comet along with a noise from the pokemon. It swirled in the air, gaining speed as more rings came off of it.
"Hey, White Star!"
Light looked around as if someone called his name.
From over the top of the glass walls, a dark figure hopped off of them from in front of the sun. Two long strands of shadows followed it to the ground, settling from high on his body when he landed. With the reflections of light in the glass, Light couldn't make out the pokemon's species until it was close.
It was a Lopunny, running forward with his elbows at sharp points and a serious look in his hazel eyes. Energy ran along his fur like static electricity. He stopped when he reached Light's side a few paces away.
Lopunny did an uppercut motion. A gold lightning bolt shot up in the air from his hand and struck the comet. As it exploded, some of the fires weakened as the dragon waved its wings in the air to re-balance itself.
"I'll help you out!" Lopunny shouted. "Let's do this!"
Flareon Light tried to make eye contact with Lopunny, but his gaze fixated on the sky. Light didn't mind the help at all, but had a lot to ask.
"It's gonna come at us now," Lopunny said. "Get ready."
The dragon continued to move in long, straight paths until it made a small swirl and changed directions to collide with them.
"Nothing else to do!" Lopunny said.
Lopunny tensed and put his whole body into a stance ready to use an uppercut. His tan fur started to glow a bright yellow while Light copied him.
It moved too fast for Light to even think about dying. It felt like punching a wall, and he didn't know if he would get crushed or lift it off of him.
The last thing Light expected was the wall to crumble and fall back away from them. Lopunny's violent energy sent it into the sky back in a gold lightning strike. It managed to right itself in the air, flapping its wings and hissing at them.
Its wings moved slower and slower as it dropped back down to the ground. Lopunny moved in front of Light. He raised his arm straight out in front of him.
The dragon's white fur started to sparkle. Glass grew out of its skin all over its body at random. The edges of its wings started to reflect light from the glass tipping them, and tears were being filled with glass.
"Welp, that's weird," said Lopunny. "Split up and break it apart with ranged attacks. We can leave a mark, just don't get close to… all that nonsense."
The dragon dipped its head low and did a sweeping motion with its mouth open, shooting out indigo flames from Dragonbreath. Light bolted to the right with the attack behind him while Lopunny took a huge leap over it.
After running a good distance, the attack weakened enough to the point Light waved his arm to get rid of the flames' leftovers. The Lopunny fired strange attacks of that gold energy at the pokemon from his fists while he was falling. He managed to break off some chunks of glass on the dragon's chest. Light watched the dragon retaliate with a Flamethrower.
With no way to land, Lopunny curled and covered himself a bit with his ears. Some of the flames bounced onto and off of Lopunny's body as he went down. Just before landing in the dragon's mouth, he uncurled his body and pushed the flames off of him. He gave a hard punch on the top of the dragon's head.
The dragon reeled back and screeched as Lopunny landed. Glass from the walls punctured its wing as it tumbled, causing it to pull forward again and jump into the air. Light closed his eyes and covered his whole body with his tail when the gusts from its wings flapping sent a storm of glass shards in his direction.
When Light uncovered himself and looked around in the sky, the dragon was flying away. It was spinning as it struggled with its wing. With it flying away, he turned his attention to the slightly burnt Lopunny and ran to him.
Lopunny pushed himself off the ground. He brought his head up and looked to the sky. When he didn't see the dragon, he simply stood up before Light got to him.
"Hey," Lopunny said, "you good?"
"Are you okay?" Light asked.
Lopunny took a deep breath and placed a hand on his hip.
"Well, y'know," Lopunny said.
Lopunny pushed in on his hip, cracking his back. He grunted, letting out a deep breath through his nose.
Light studied up and down Lopunny's body. The edges of his ears and other random spots had some light burns. He was shaking, but he seemed alright. He looked a couple years older than him, probably in his early twenties.
"Who are you?" Light asked.
"Well, ah. Luke," Lopunny answered. "And I'm an explorer. Doing the hero thing."
"Do you know what's going on?"
"Well, for now... I need you to head back to the beach for me, okay? I'll be there soon."
With no warning or indication, Lopunny punched towards the back wall of glass that covered the entrance Light used to get into the air. A gold streak of light shot through the glass. It shattered and made a pile of it on the sides of the hole.
"I'm gonna investigate and do super cool stuff. Y'know," Luke said. "You go back to the ship I came on and have a warm meal and bath and all that super fun stuff."
"Are you sure you're okay, Luke?" Light asked.
"Just catching my breath. Go on now. There are people who'll help you out."
Luke hunched down with his elbows on his knees. He stared off in the distance at the ground, taking deep breaths. The silence after what just happened felt odd, but Light accepted it.
Light backed away and turned around to head was still resting when Light checked one last time before walking ahead.
He'd never seen a pokemon use their energy like Luke just did. From his wild accent, he probably wasn't lying about being a traveler.
Something clicked in Light's mind enough to make him stop walking. He felt his throat, although of course he didn't feel any difference there.
He hadn't stuttered while talking to him. That wasn't normal for him, either.