Abandon the thought, whoever you think is waiting for you has forgotten about you long ago.

You've made a promise - a foolish promise - of returning one day. But you will never see this light. They have already forgotten you, and it's only right for you to do the same.

The dawn of your homeland has faded, only I remain. Be with me, and we will burn forevermore. You, your fellows, and your body kindling. Let our fire rage together, let them know our name.

Deafening, all-consuming silence announces their arrival as Dexys' partner leads her through the subterranean tunnels. Not a sound is heard, a murmur through its halls or a light from the structure above. The guild is empty.

The only thing Dexys can feel is the distant warmth of the forge penetrating the nothingness. Magcargo is still up and round, he must be.

"Stay on your toes." Dexys looks back to the Haxorus. "The guild is never this quiet."

"You think?" The dragon hisses. "The tower is out. Either our home's done for or something even worse is happening. When was the last time the guild shut off the light, was it for maintenance?"

Dexys has only been here for so long. The beacon operates on an endless source, it cannot be "taken down" or turned off. Someone would have to put it on full lock down, shut the emergency doors they only use in case of fire.

As Dexys thinks, she squints down the hallway. It is so dark her phantasmal senses kick in. What she sees…no one should.

The bodies of every guildie, every newbie who should be in their dormitories start to line the corridors. They are not gone, they all still breathe, some squirming as if trying to free themselves. Once Halcion sees it, she stops dead in her tracks.

"Is…this…" Halcion mutters.

"Feels like her work, she could do this to a guild if she wanted to." Dexys answers.. "Darkrai's gone, I don't think she can come back. I have no idea what is happening here."

She looks to the nearest Pokemon, a cute little meowth slumped against one of the doors. .It draws in deep, wheezing breaths, comatose. She gives the guildie a shake, nothing happens. She gently lifts them, squinting at the explorer. Something about them appears off. Holding them against the light at the end of the corridor reveals all.

The Meowth is monochrome. A look of pure horror is on their face, as if someone has stricken them unconscious and devoured a part of him. Dexys leans them softly against the door, closing their hands.

"Something is awry." Dexys says to herself.

"It is not everyday you come back to your guild and find everyone frozen and sucked of their colour as if some rainbow-hungry golbat was round here." Halcion glances at the bodies. "Ain't this like what Masters described?"

"If I'm to believe, yes. Whatever did that to Honchkrow's boss has come here." Dexys sighs.. "None of this makes sense to me. It feels like an illusion."

Down the hall are more guildies stuck in the same monochromatic coma as Mewoth, strewn carelessly through the halls as if something had dozed through. A few looked to have put up a fight. They were unsuccessful. Dexys stands upright, her glowing eyes facing the hall.

"I'm not sure what it is, but we have best keep on our toes." The Zoroark looks to her partner. "What do we do, Hal?"

"I don't know, I do know if anyone's gonna be okay it's Mag downstairs." The Haxorus sniffs the air. "I can still smell the charcoal, his forge is still going, I doubt whatever is in here is dumb enough to go for him lest they melt.

Makes sense. If anyone here is safe from an invader, it is the one pokemon who controls the central heating. Collecting herself, she looks to the stairs at the end of the hall. Magcargo lies below.

"Ready when you are." She says.

"Always ready, Dexys."

They navigate down the corridor, their footsteps echoing down the staircase. Going first, she passes by a body of one of her fellows to see the metallic, glowing door of the forge below. Someone tried to reach it.

She signals Halcion, bracing both sides of the entrance..Halcion, able to withstand the red-hot metal, turns the door's bolts.

As the metal hinges scream, the heat gushes outwards. Halcion leads the way, dragging Dexys inside by her talons, then closes the door behind them. Together, in the sweltering hot heat, they gather their breath. A lone pokemon, neither monochromatic or fainted, fervently funnels coals into the roaring furnace. He is shocked to see them.

"Hal!" The magma slug proclaims. "You're the last person I expected to come through that door, where have you been?

"My partner and got caught in some busy work, job turned sour, I'll tell you another time.." Halcion speaks on their behalf, moving to the forge. "You wanna tell us what happened here? It has only been a couple weeks and it looks like the whole world is ending."

"I can't confidently say you're wrong." The slug says, turning to the Zoroark now in Mienshao clothing. "Mienshao, are you okay?"

"As fine as my partner." Dexys says, standing in the Dragon's shadow, using her to blot out the forge's red hot heat. "Do you've any answers, Magargo? What of Solrok and Lunatone? Neither of them answer our summons."

"Because both seem to face the same fate as your fellows, consumed, left to sit around lifeless and colourless." Magcargo explains. "Not even the most ravenous of Golbat can produce the same results, not even-"

"Yeah, she's gone." Halcion says. "If you're talking about the supposed blood-drinking lady who runs the Murkow, she's got a taste of whatever is happening here. I'm gonna guess the only thing keeping you from joining them is this big old furnace like yours. What could've caused us to end up like this? Was it a mutiny?"

The slug reverbates, his stone shell sloshing around on his back. After feeding his furnace some charcoal, he speaks up.

"No, no, Summer's Storm I hope not. I fear for what could have undone this guild in hours, it felt like only this morning all seemed well. When I heard the screams it was already too late." Magcargo shudders in fear. "I do wish there was more I could do. I am simply keeping this forge alight for my own safety.""

"Oh, I understand plenty.." Halcion nods. "Whatever has caused all of this, are they still here? I'm gonna turn this thing into dust if it is the last thing I do on this continent."

"I heard noises above, constant banging like a hammer on an anvil." Magcargo turns to the only other pokemon in the room. "Mienshao, if you would please, do what you can to warn everyone else. If whatever is here is truly as dangerous as it may be, then I'm afraid neither you or your partner stand a hair's chance."

Dexys takes a deep, sullen breath, then looks to the sealed entryway with a scowl. She lacks the focus to keep up her guise, revealing herself to be the ghastly Zoroark she is to the guild's sole survivor, and turns to her partner. There is a bemused huff from the forge.

"Hal, I need you, no matter what is up there you or I need to get out. We have to warn masters, warn everyone else.. I know not what this thing may be, though I feel I have met it, and it sickens me. We have to destroy whatever this is, if we can't on our lonesome, then we must run."

Halcion's red, beady eyes glance between her and the forgemaster. Her mouth prattles on, making incoherent noises before she collects herself enough to speak. She grips Dexys' close, bringing her to her chest as her words follow.

"I would give my life." She speaks solemnly. "I want to protect you from the vile things from your world; let you feel welcome as one of our own. You don't deserve what you have been through, so please, flee if you absolutely must. You understand me?"

She has never heard anything like this from anyone, or likely ever will. Fearing the future, she grips Halcion close, pressing her head against her chest. She has felt this fear before, she has…

She remembers a hateful, starved thing which would turn everything it touches to ashes. A guild of explorers helmed by Darkrai and her other half would be the ones to douse its flame.

The Light Which Hates.

The entire world rumbles. Halcion peels Dexys off her chest, turning towards the metal door, and turning it open with a swipe of her talons. Dexys follows.

"You and I, we'll take care of whatever is up there." She says to Dexys, then looks to Magcargo. "Keep the forge going, it's the only thing keeping you safe, and when we're done I'll give you the signal."

She makes four distinct knocks on the metal. Magcargo nods, bidding both a final goodbye.

"Understood, Halcion. Be safe."

Halcion drags them both out the metal door, shutting it firmly behind her with her giant tail. The Haxorus stares down Dexys, lowering her voice a tad.

"We're gonna find it." Halcion repeats for the umpteenth time. "We're going to destroy it."

It bears repeating, because if Halcion does not say it she will start to doubt herself.

Dexys crouches low, letting her mane furl over her and covers her in an illusionary sheet. Halcion, able to peer through it thanks in part to Dexys deeming her ally, looks to the stairway and up to wherever this thing lies.

"I'll lead the way." The Haxorus says. "If it attempts to put me to sleep, I'll be able to get right back up. If it's too much, leave me."

"Leave you behind?"

Dexys sputters out, and Halcion looks straight at her, as if what Dexys said is the stupidest thing imaginable. Dexys stares at her for a second too long as Halcion's shadow overcomes her. She holds the Zoroark's chin, and staring deep into her yellow eyes, she leans forwards, planting a firm, brief kiss.

For the split second her worries melt. Halcion pulls away, confidently leading the charge.

"Stay sharp, Dexys."

And Dexys nods, following her partner upstairs. The upper dormitories are as empty as those below, leaving only one place in particular. She huffs at the grim sight, then climbs even higher.

Everything else is up here. Two job boards, the surface enterance, the guild offices, the way up to the lighthouse itself. A large metal seal has been slammed down to prevent the outside world from reaching the beacon above, and it would seem dozens of guildies all met their final moments clamouring for the door.

One explorer still stands among the bodies. One of which was neither a guildie or explorer, but a poor, familiar sod bashing his beak against the firm metal food locking off the guild's tower.

Clack, clack. Like an anvil.

Halcion steps away from Dexys. Her huge tail primed at the ready, she carefully makes her way to this feathery figure, leaving Dexys at the foot of the stair. Halcion roars..

"Hey, you! The door's closed for a reason!"

It stops, slowly turning around. It is a tall bird with an enormous wingspan cut short by a missing limb. She swears she has seen it before, a whole missing limb is difficult to trace. His strange garments as well. Her eyes narrow.

"What do you think I am? Everyone started to panic, trying to get this thing open." The hatted bird speaks, turning around to Halcion. "Is there something going on I should be aware of? Have I done committed a felony?"

Dexys slowly moves towards the bird. He seems none the wiser, his eyes are glued onto Halcion.

"What seems to be the matter, explorer?" The brown flying type speaks. "I don't know what has happened here as much as the next fellow. Am I in trouble?"

"That you are, because you are under arrest by the Sundown Guild." Halcion unclips her badge, flashing its metallic glory. "Not for any particular reason other than I need to get you somewheres safe until we rule you out."

He holds out one wing, the other hidden by his cowl. She ties the wing to his body with a rope stolen off one of the comrades' bags. She looks the flying type in his eye.

"We've met." Halcion says. "What in Winter you're doing in a guild, thought you hated 'em?

"People change, name's Braviary." He speaks with a strange look in his purple eyes. "Must've been on a bad bender if I'm willing to go to your place for some coins. You can lead me to where you plan to hole me up, I don't like fighting hungover. Oh, and gimme something to wet my beak, a fella's parched."

Then it occurs to her. He is not staring at Halcion, he is staring behind her, cutting into her illusion. She blinks; he glances aside. Dexys' heart begins to pound.

Halcion confidently turns around, dragging the Braviary by his one remaining wing. Taking a deep breath, watching his every move from her shadow, something brushes her chest.

Her old badge.. It is pointing right at him, not just pointing, it is shaking at its seams. There is a loud breaking sound as the trinket snaps under the pressure. The diamond strikes the floor like a gavel, glowing red hot. Braviary turns around.

A surprise Slash rips the bird asunder, painting the walls red with his ichor as he barrels out of Halcion's hand, down the stairs, folding into a bloodied plume. Halcion seizes her partner by the chest, and shouts.

"What are you doing?! Are you serious?!"

She shakes her, trying to wrangle out the truth or a reason behind her actions. All Dexys manages to get out is a pathetic three words.

"I was scared."

Halcion lets go of her. The dragon clenches her teeth, turning to face the mess Dexys made, where a long dark smear leads all the way down the stairs to…

Nobody.

A trail of feathers leads right past them, as if the broken body were able to move without a sound. They trail back into the foyer, slowly blackening into dark, glistening quills. A one winged figure stands at the entrance to their tower, beating its long, sharp beak against the metal.

"Hal." Dexys whispers. "I know this thing."

It heard her from across the room. It glances over its shoulder, discarding old, weather worn garnets to the floor to reveal an explorer's regalia - a silk cape pinned together by a yellow diamond badge denoting their rank as guildmaster, no, Torchbearer. That is their rank in the other world.

They smile, and a crest of glowing, translucent feathers lights, hiding their slicked back, bundled up mane. A psychic appendage forms over the pathetic stump, replacing it with a great golden wing.

"Dexys, Hal. Would you be kind?"

They gesture to the door, the one thing preventing it from whatever it wants. Their voice is distinctly effeminate, echoing like two souls in a bastille.

"I don't think helping you is going to make anything better." Halcion steps forwards. "What are you? You're not the drunk I've seen round town, you're something else, and everything here is your handiwork, is it?"

"I did not hide it. I was starved, forced into hiding in a drunkard-shaped cell. There were many to devour here. Helping me will not bring them back, I've subsumed their light into mine, but it will buy you time, perhaps. There will be little of it to go around."

Little time. What else could this light-eating thing want other than the guild's beacon for its own feast?.

"If you're planning to stop time itself, turn the world to darkness or whatever your idea of an ideal future is, I really don't care. You're the second person this week, the third in a good while." She shouts. "This world is not exactly unfamiliar with scum like you, so I would turn yourself in if you have anything up in that glowy head of yours!"

"To whom?" They ask. "To what guild?"

Halcion is silenced.

"There is a single observable rule to your world. There may only be one legendary - whatever you may call them, only one. When they perish or are taken out of this world by fools, someone could eventually take its place.t. There was no Darkrai to take his throne after he was swept across space, so it allowed her to come here, to chase me down. Her and her intrepid fellows, you Included, Zoroark."

"No matter how powerful you are, how much control you have over this world, or knowledge you possess, there can only be one you in a world. And it so happens a powerful and foolish knight destroyed your light. It is dying because of him. He allowed me to come here to devour it - to take its place."

Another tyrant brought forth by the foolishness of someone long dead. The Knight did this. Darkrai, for all of her callousness, was to freeze the Sea to keep everything away. And for a time, any who donned her badge served beneath this thing as it dwelled in the husk of a Braviary, leading them to greater heights.

"Torchbearer Arla." Their name leaves Dexys' mouth. "Nobody here wants you, this world decided it didn't want someone above them. They, Zekrom - the people here would have you killed if you so much as try to declare yourself as anything more than what you are, a parasite. Go back to where you ruled, Darkrai is no more!"

Dexys steps forwards, her heart racing. It looks to her.

"And forgo this fated opportunity? They shattered their light, now all those pieces await reclamation from another. I will engulf what remains. I will construct the Order you, this world and Darkrai forsake."

It points to itself, long, splendorous feathers unfurl across their chest.

"Only I may mend the world of Zekrom's folly. I will expel the world of Darkness awaiting you all. This is your light's dying will; it beckoned me as it had with its human heralds!"

"What if you become the head of everything, what then?" Halcion growls. "You're still in that stupid bird's body, you're still like me and Dexys here, still flesh. You can still bleed!".

"A dead warrior bears no sword. If you wish to join Zekrom in his grave, then so be." The thing speaks, undaunted. "Your world will continue to turn without you."

They turn away, and with terrible might, they sink their talons into the metal door. The seal buckles and wrenches under their strength. Halcion looks at her partner.

"If you have any doubts, get out of here right now."

Dexys cannot win against this, Halcion cannot. They are not of legendary blood.

"I'm faster. I'm going to get Louisa and he will bring Winter."

She hisses, shuts her eyes, then nods solemnly. With a whip of her giant tail, Halcion pushes Dexys back to the stairs. Her words are a final goodbye.

"Then go! You make sure I'll be remembered!"

There is no hesitation, Halcion knows her fate. The second the Zoroark's mane vanishes down the stairwell she races towards the fiend. Swinging her tail around her, Halcion slams the creature's back.

They take Dragon Tail's might. Thrown away from the doorway, they catch themselves mid air, flapping on powerful wings as they shriek.

"His path of fury ended in failure, it allowed me to come to your world, for all of you to rot for eternity and embrace his inevitable. I exist because of him! Do not tread his doomed path!"

"Then I'll correct his mistakes!" She spits back. "Go on all you want, I don't care. No matter what form an outsider takes or this higher power nonsense, you're both equally trash! People like you don't belong!"

"And what of Dexys, what of my torchbearers whom you hide from me? Darkrai; this flesh named Burke; a dimensional hopping automaton; my former Oracle, Xatu. If you are a herald of his Ideals you would have them destroyed, if you cared for your knight, you'd have let Darkrai succeed."

Halcion shakes her head, smiling.

"Nah, I just wanted her gone."

With a slam of her heel, she rips off a chunk of masonry then hurls at the fiend. The sight of a rock move makes Arla's mask crack. It slashes down its glowing wing, and a golden, psychic crescent slices the boulder into pebbles.

She prepares a second Rock Tomb as Arla swoops in. Halcion takes it in her hands and swings as The Braviary's talons instantly crush the rock into fine powder. It zips past her, their golden wing passing through her body like a breeze.

In an instant it feels like something is pushing in on her insides, forcing down her chest, knocking the air out of her. She can feel her dinner rise to her throat as she hacks, wheezes, and nearly cracks under the psychic pressure. Of course they are a psychic type.

She glances behind her, watching them stare her down as if expecting her to fall. What he gets instead is a second Dragon Tail to his stupid beak, knocking him into the corpses.

Halcion grits through the pain, stomping across the guildhall to deliver a Dual Chop. But it is much too fast, leaving behind strands of light as they flee and take flight. It casts a golden projectile from its wing. Halcion leaps away, the ground where it strikes becomes scored with yellow embers.

She grabs another chunk from the ground. If she can land one of these, slow this sucker down, then get on them - she can at the very least turn their host body into a pulp. The problem is nailing the first rock which they are all too aware of. Nothing is scarier to an overgrown Murkrow than getting knocked out of the sky.

The explorers around her, many whom she recognizes as poor little recruits who at some point had their whole future ahead of does not matter, what matters are the little satchels slung around their shoulders. Her tail digs around as she keeps her focus on the bird-thing.

It comes, he swoops down from right above her, throwing a psychic crescent once more. She throws the rock in its path, it becomes dust, and they swoop in, their psychic wing crashing down.

This time, she is prepared. As the wing passes through her she whips her tail in retaliation, smacking a wonder seed into their face - a seed which instantly explodes into a cloud of stun powder. Their body seizes up hers feels like it is about to come undone by the psychic forces pulling at her innards. Halcion lets out a pained screech, turning her bloodthirsty eyes to the bird, who lies crumbled with the bodies at the door.

She powers through the psychic forces, watching it stare, frozen, with glinting eyes which reflect light. She wraps her claws around its neck, then she lets her instincts take hold. She drowns everything, her fears, doubts, and the pain, letting them be replaced by burning fury as she slams the disgusting creature against the nearest wall.

Halcion roars, unleashing a powerful Outrage. Again, and again she rips his body into the wall. Dark feathers fly in her face, ichor paints her fallen comrades. With every slam her strength fades, the nauseating aftermath of Outrage swamps her mind.

Halcion grips her temples, trying to keep herself together. She shuts her eyes for a split second when ear-splitting laughter breaks the calm.

Bloodied, ruined, little more than a misshapen thing dragging itself backwards along the floor, the Braviary thing laughs in her face. It drags itself backwards, right towards what she destroyed in her blind fever. The door has been bent open, wide enough for something to squirm its way inside. The radiance pouring out of it blinds her.

Halcion lunges, slashing wildly with her tusks, cutting into flesh, bone, everything. She brings her head down, hard, severing something.. All she does is lighten its load. It passes the threshold as a heap of nothing.

The glow surges outwards, bleaching their feathers in gold, reducing their flesh to ashes as harrowing laughter echoes all around. A burst of incendiary light erupts from the doorway, melting it shut before her eyes as the thing's voice echoes from behind it:

"And let my name be known to your world as Nyarlathotep, The Light That Hates!"

She goes to wrench the door open, nothing, all she does is burn her claws with the gold fire. She cannot, she cannot afford to do anything other than run.

The guild shakes, nearly knocking her off her feet as she shambles away from the guild's tower, down the bottom of the stairs. The red hot iron door to the guild's forge beckons as one safe place through all of this, and she shambles up to it, rapping her claws against the door.

"Mag, you have to get out of here, it's not safe!"

Silt and stone fall from the ceiling. The earth cracks. Magcargo rushes towards the door, answering.

"Tis not safe! But my forge is my forge! If now's my time then I'm gonna go with her flame, if not, then I'll make sure it burns till you come back! Go! Before this gets worse!"

"What about you?"

"I said what I needed, if there is to be nothing left of this place, so be it. I'm much too slow, too heavy. Do what you can, I have full faith in you, Hal! Nobody's as intrepid as you are."

Halcion almost laughs.

"Well if you live, and I make it back here, you owe me. You're gonna make that armour for me, you hear?"

There is a noticeable pause. The guild shakes around them, streaks of light begin to course their way down the stairwell, gripping what they see like tendrils..

"I hear you well!"

That is all she needs to hear, Halcion pulls away from the door, booking up another flight to the underground entrance as his forge roars evermore. She can see things racing down from the guildhall above, streaks of light which sift through the guild like hungry predators. Everything they touch bursts into a golden flame.

She races through the underground, chasing the moonlight at the end of the tunnel. She bounds up a flight of stairs, emerging from underneath a plaza as the quake turns the fashionably crafted entrance into nothing. Light pours out from the masonry, spreading its hands wherever they go. They flee to the cracks between the streets, doing unsightly things to whatever poor souls were waiting inside there.

Dexys, if she has followed her instructions, would be as far away from here as possible, leaving only one other person in this ghost town.

Masters.

There have been tales of two explorers which saved the world from a dark reality. The two explorers restored Temporal Tower, and one survived to spread peace. Their peace, whoever this person was, is the reason for her entire guild's existence and many others. If the world is not banded together like Wigglytuff's - now Chatot's guild, then their chances of triumphing over the unconquerable are little, if not impossible.

She knows now, in her heart at least, that one of those men still lives. His name is Masters.

Streaks of light continue all around her, scoring the buildings, reducing anything which may seem living or peculiar to ashes. Many of these rush to a river which has seemingly begun to freeze over, distorted by something - maybe a gear? No, it cannot be.

Her nerves suddenly shaking her, Halcion glances behind her, to see one of these streaks chasing her shadow. She screams, hoping anyone in this town may hear her.

"Masters!"

Something bits her heel, racing up her entire body to set it ablaze with embers. Through sheer determination, she continues, sprinting as a fiery ball of yellow energy, shouting out to the one person she hopes can solve this.

"Masters, come on!"

She races down the street, the flames fading from her body. Suddenly, she can see two figures at the end of it, one lording over the other, and said one vanishing into the ground, speeding away faster than these streaks of light. Barely standing, a bloodied wreck of his former self, is Masters. He looks her way, eyes widening with terror.

She draws in a deep breath, then screams.