Pokextinction

by THE CREATOR and Hydra

The world is on the verge of collapse when a man who despises Pokemon with a burning passion and the ruthless rampaging Necrozma threaten world destruction. With tensions rising between every single Legendary Pokemon, even Arceus and Mew won't be able to stop the coming fire... And when all hope is lost, the world will turn to Ash.

18. Chapter 18: Destruction

"You're...Aura?"

Ash was completely bewildered. Here he was in a white, empty world. He should have been dead after what Necrozma did, and to say it was odd for this being to claim he was still alive despite being in a place like this and talking to, apparently, the creator of everything...well, it seemed like a contradiction to say the least.

Apparently 'Aura' realized this. "YOU MUST BE CONFUSED. THEN, ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN WHAT TRANSPIRED." The white world began to change around them, mystifying Ash. Instead of the empty white light, it darkened and showed, all around them, the scene of the battlefield. "LOST TO GRIEF AFTER THE DEMISE OF YOUR TALONFLAME, YOU ATTEMPTED TO FIGHT NECROZMA ALONE, AND WERE SWIFTLY STRUCK DOWN."

Just as Aura said, the apparent death of Ash replayed before his eyes. It was unendingly weird, almost disturbing to watch himself from a third person perspective. Especially considering he was watching himself die...or not…? The details were still too hard to get a handle on. Luckily for him, Aura explained further. "ORDINARILY, YOU WOULD HAVE DIED, BUT I MANAGED TO SHIELD YOU AND TRANSPORT YOU HERE."

Ash nodded silently, watching the scene play out intently. He felt sickened watching the horror on his friends' faces as they reacted to his 'death.' Especially Serena. Her bloodcurdling scream would haunt him. "I need to go back!" He cried. "I need to help them!"

"I'M AFRAID I CANNOT ALLOW THAT JUST YET."

"Why not?!" Demanded Ash. "My friends are in trouble! I can't let them fight alone!"

The scene surrounding them changed. Now, Necrozma was dueling the Legends on his own. There wasn't a human or Ultra Beast in sight, which made his heart sink. "YOU ARE PARTIALLY CORRECT IN YOUR ASSUMPTIONS," Aura said, "BUT MANY YET LIVE. THE REASON I HAVE BROUGHT YOU HERE, AND CANNOT LET YOU LEAVE YET, IS TO PREVENT THE REST FROM FOLLOWING."

"What do you need from me?!" Demanded Ash. "Please, I'll do anything to save them!"

"WHAT I NEED IS FOR YOU TO LISTEN, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, TO ASK." The scene backpedaled, now once again showing the humans warring with the Ultra Beasts. "THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT TRANSPIRED SINCE YOUR APPARENT DEMISE." Serena, still stricken with grief over the death of Ash, cowered behind her Pokemon in a state of shock as the Ultra Beasts swarmed around on all sides. A stray attack bypassed them, threatening to kill Serena. However, her eyes flashed white for a brief moment and she jumped out of harm's way.

"TO STOP AS MANY UNNECESSARY DEATHS AS POSSIBLE, I DULLED THE EMOTIONS OF THOSE PARTAKING IN THE BATTLE." Next, a crying Pikachu was shown. "BUT THERE WAS ONE SO STRICKEN WITH GRIEF DUE TO HIS BOND WITH YOU THAT HIS GRIEF COULD NOT BE DULLED."

Something occurred to Ash suddenly. "Hold on. Have you been helping us during this battle?"

Though Aura had no describable form, Ash could have sworn he saw it nod. "YOU COULD SAY THAT. THOUGH, MY REACH IS WEAK, AND MY POWER HAD TO BE SPREAD QUITE THIN TO FULLY ENCAPSULATE EVERYONE."

Ash's face lit up. "Then you've gotta be crazy powerful! Could you bring back Talonflame and Hawlucha?!"

"...I CANNOT."

The young trainer felt his heart sink at that. "Wh-what?! Why not?!"

The world around them faded to black, leaving only the iridescence of Aura to illuminate it. "DEATH IS THE ABSENCE OF LIFE. YOU KNOW 'AURA,' THAT POWER YOU AND RILEY WIELD, AS LIFE ITSELF." A stream of blue Aura, flowing like a gentle stream of water, surrounded the two of them in its warm, soothing embrace. Then, suddenly, it shattered like glass and turned to dust, falling into the endless black abyss. "DEATH IS THE ABSENCE OF 'ME.' IT IS...BEYOND MY GRASP. I CAN WORK TO DELAY IT IN CERTAIN INSTANCES, BUT CAN NEVER FULLY PREVENT IT LET ALONE REVERSE IT."

Ash could not grasp that concept. He vigorously shook his head, refusing to accept it. "You're lying! I've seen living things be revived from death tons of times!" The black world changed, showcasing what he meant. First, it showed an old, withering tower. As Ash and Pikachu explored that tower, a chandelier fell on top of them. A Haunter then descended from the roof and pulled their souls from their bodies.

"A SPIRIT CARRIES AURA WITH IT," Countered Aura, "IF YOU HAD TRULY DIED THERE, YOU WOULD HAVE DISAPPEARED ENTIRELY. DEATH DOES NOT COME UNLESS IT IS ACCOMPANIED BY VOID."

Ash opened his mouth to retort, but Aura cut him off by changing the world's landscape to various lands and times. A great swamp where Ash held a deceased Celebi within his arms, only for it to become rejuvenated with life once more. Darkrai placed itself between the dueling Palkia and Dialga's attacks, turning to dust and fading away. But when their battle was finished and the town restored, Darkrai came back with it.

"YOU WERE GOING TO USE THESE AS ARGUMENTS, YES?" Aura asked. "IT IS EXACTLY AS I SAID BEFORE. THEY WERE NOT DEAD. THEY CAME CLOSE, BUT SURVIVED DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCE." The world changed to a black chamber where a horde of rampaging Unown flittered about. Entei stopped their rampaging at the cost of his own life. "WHY DO YOU THINK THIS ONE DID NOT RETURN, THEN?"

The trainer couldn't find the words to come up with a counter. Instead, he balled his hands up into fists and shuddered with rage. "If you can't bring them back…" Having the hope that his slain friends could return, only to have that hope stamped out felt almost like watching them die again. "Then...are you going to save the rest? The others are okay, right?"

Aura was silent for a moment, then replied, "IT IS MY AIM TO SAVE THOSE WHO REMAIN, AS WELL AS STOPPING NECROZMA."

This only made Ash angrier. "Then why didn't you show up at the beginning? Heck, why are you talking with me now instead of fighting Necrozma?!"

"WE CURRENTLY EXIST OUTSIDE OF THE PASSAGE OF TIME," Answered Aura without missing a beat, "SO THERE IS NO THREAT AT THE MOMENT." Once more, the world around them faded to a complete black, save for one brilliant light. "THERE ARE TOO MANY THINGS THAT I MUST TELL YOU, AND SO, I WILL START AT THE BEGINNING."

Thus, Aura began his tale. "I CANNOT REMEMBER MY ORIGIN, IF THAT IS SOMETHING I EVEN POSSESS. ALL I RECALL IS AN ETERNAL LONGING TO CREATE. TO MAKE ENTITIES BEYOND MYSELF." Ten other lights split out from the younger Aura, eventually taking shape as a multitude of creatures of varying forms. Aura himself shrank in scope to accommodate them.

Ash gasped upon recognizing two of them. "Those are-!"

"INDEED." Affirmed Aura, "YOU KNOW THOSE TWO AS ARCEUS AND MEW." Indeed, the two creators of Earth and its inhabitants stood amongst the ten creatures, looking up at their own creator oddly. "I HAD AN IDEA. IT WAS WHAT YOU NOW CALL THE UNIVERSE. AN AREA OF CREATION FOR MY OWN CREATIONS TO ENJOY."

Arceus, Mew and the other ten original creations dispersed throughout the black void, using their power to create brilliant lights everywhere they went. "Are those…?" Began Ash.

"JUST SO, ASH," Aura replied. "WHAT YOU SEE ARE THE FIRST STARS, WHAT WOULD GO ON TO BE THE FIRST PROGENITORS OF LIFE." Soon enough, the original ten creations went their separate ways, leaving their creator behind to sculpt the universe. "AS MY CREATIONS BECAME CREATORS THEMSELVES, I DISTANCED MYSELF FROM THEM TO ALLOW THEM TO GROW ON THEIR OWN, SATISFIED BY MERELY OBSERVING THEM."

Ash turned toward Aura, looking at him oddly. "Why?" He questioned. "What was the point of making them if you didn't want to live with them?"

Aura let out a deep, booming hum of sorts that seemed to shake the entire world. "WHY INDEED, ASH?" The younger Aura was shown growing farther apart from his creations and their universe until they appeared as nothing more than a speck of light to one another. "WHEN I DIVIDED MY POWER TO CREATE THE TEN, I HAD...A PREMONITION." The scene faded, being replaced with a terrible sight of mass destruction on a cosmic scale. The young Aura invaded his creations' universe, tearing apart entire galaxies simply by moving. The ten original creations came together to combat their father, but fell to his might and were re-absorbed into him. Ash felt sickened by what he saw.

"A TERRIBLE SIGHT, IS IT NOT?" With the wave of Aura's arm, the vision of the calamity returned back to the one before. "THAT IS WHY I SEPARATED MYSELF FROM MY CREATIONS. IN FACT, I HAD THEM CREATE THE UNIVERSE IN A SPECIFIC WAY THAT WOULD REPEL ME." Though there were no discernable features on Aura's face, if it even had one, Ash felt a great sorrow from the entity.

"I BELIEVED THAT IF I WERE TO LIVE AMONGST MY CREATIONS, I WOULD GROW BORED OF IDLY WATCHING. I BELIEVED THAT MY PRIDE WOULD GET THE BETTER OF ME, AND I WOULD TRICK MYSELF INTO BELIEVING THAT, BECAUSE I WAS THEIR CREATOR, IT WOULD GIVE ME THE RIGHT TO BE THEIR DESTROYER FOR MY OWN AMUSEMENT. THUS, I SEALED MYSELF AWAY FROM THE UNIVERSE."

The area once again shifted form, now showcasing the ten creations continuing to give the universe form, as well as creating things that weren't just stars. Planets, moons, asteroids and more, eternally drifting through space. They had created innumerable numbers of them, and they weaved together to create galaxies, superclusters and the cosmic web as a whole.

"GIVEN THAT MY CREATIONS WERE BORN OF MY OWN ASPECTS, THEY TOO BEGAN TO YEARN TO CREATE OTHER SENTIENT LIFEFORMS." Ash watched as these beings descended upon various worlds. The mere tap of their feet sent waves of Aura, or life, across the planet. "THUS, THEY WENT FROM PLANET TO PLANET AND CREATED TRILLIONS OF OTHER BEINGS OF INFINITELY VARYING SHAPES, FORMS, MINDS, CULTURES AND MORE."

Then, Ash saw Arceus and Mew. Unlike the others, they did not stray from one another. "YOUR CREATORS ARE UNIQUE AMONGST THE OTHERS IN THE SENSE THAT THEY WORKED TOGETHER TO CREATE THEIR OWN LIFE." The two deities brought together a mass of stone to a blank, empty part of space far outside the rest of what had been created thus far. Then, they merged it together, carefully plotting the space of every last pebble, all the while excitedly talking about what the future of their world would hold.

"This is how our world was formed?" Asked a mystified Ash. "It's...kind of hard to get a grasp on it, even while watching it happen." He was even more caught up in the way the two smiled brightly, laughing together whilst throwing their ideas around. Mew's behavior didn't surprise him, but Arceus… "I never would have expected Arceus to act like this."

"YOU WILL FIND ARCEUS'S BEHAVIOR TO BE EVEN MORE JARRING AS WE MOVE FORWARD," Aura responded, changing the scene once more. Where there was once a single planet and void, there was now several planets and a star. In the far distance, the empty outer space was now adorned with other glittering lights. "ARCEUS AND MEW WANTED TO CREATE LIFE THAT COULD SELF-REPLICATE WITHOUT END RATHER THAN THE SIMPLER LIFEFORMS CREATED BY THE OTHER ORIGINAL CREATIONS, THOUGH THEY TOO WERE ABLE TO PERFORM THIS FEAT LATER ON."

The newly-created Earth and the surrounding planets perfectly weaved around the star in spirals. "THIS IS YOUR SOLAR SYSTEM. TO CREATE A SURVIVABLE GRAVITY FIELD, THEY CREATED THE OTHER PLANETS, AND THE STAR, YOUR SUN, TO WARM IT."

"Why did none of the other planets ever get life?" Asked Ash, his eyes still glued to the scene of creation.

In response, Aura changed the scene back to Arceus and Mew. By now, Palkia, Dialga and Giratina had already been created as well. "ARCEUS AND MEW HAD A VERY SINGULAR IDEA OF WHAT THEIR LIFE SHOULD HAVE BEEN, SO WHEN IT CAME TO BE, THEY COULD NOT BRING THEMSELVES TO LEAVE IT." The Creation Trio flew through space with Arceus and Mew. The looks on their faces were of complete bliss.

"THOUGH ARCEUS AND MEW INITIALLY WISHED TO ISOLATE THEIR WORLD FROM ANYWHERE ELSE," Started Aura, "THEY WERE FORCED TO CREATE A SURROUNDING TO THAT WORLD TO INSTILL A BALANCE THAT WOULD ALLOW THEIR FRAGILE CREATIONS TO LIVE AND PROCREATE WITHOUT THEIR SUPPORT. THEY FIGURED THAT, IN CREATING THOSE THREE, THAT THEY COULD FULFILL BOTH GOALS AT ONCE."

Arceus and Mew, together with their Creation Trio, descended upon the barren Earth. "NOW THAT THE CREATION TRIO HAD GIVEN FORM TO MATTER, TIME AND SPACE FOR THEIR PORTION OF THE UNIVERSE, IT CAME TIME FOR THEM TO MAKE THEIR PLANET INHABITABLE."

Two lights, one red and the other blue, appeared and gave form to new creatures. "Those are...Groudon and Kyogre," Ash said, recognizing the two Legends. Though, their infant forms were vastly different than the towering colossi he knew.

"YOU ARE CORRECT," Aura said. "GROUDON WAS CREATED TO RE-SHAPE AND CONTROL THE FLOW OF THE LAND TO BETTER SUIT LIFE, AND KYOGRE CREATED THE WORLD'S OCEANS THAT COOLED THE EARTH AND ALLOWED FOR THE SUSTAINMENT OF LIVING THINGS."

Arceus and Mew were overjoyed with their progress, as their jubilant expressions certainly showed. "THE TWO BECAME HASTY. EAGER TO CONTINUE WITH THE CREATION OF LIFE." Once more, they descended upon the Earth. This time, Arceus gave Kyogre the authority to rule a greater portion of the world than Groudon, and more of it soon became flooded. "HE IGNORED THE FEELINGS OF GROUDON FOR THE SAKE OF SPEEDING UP THE PROCESS OF HIS PLAN. DESPITE HIS METHODS, IT WORKED OUT IN HIS BENEFIT, AND THE WORLD WAS READY TO SUSTAIN LIFE."

True to Aura's word, Ash watched as other, non-Legendary Pokemon began to appear in the oceans, staring with Omanyte and Kabuto. There were many others, and Ash hadn't even seen most of them. "What happened to those Pokemon?" Ash asked. "I've never seen any of them, or even heard of them before."

Aura eyed the scene before him oddly. "THIS IS...WHAT ARCEUS CONSIDERS TO BE ONE OF HIS GREATEST FOLLIES...AND I FEEL IT IS ONE OF MY OWN AS WELL." The initial ordinary Pokemon bred successfully, just as Arceus and Mew had hoped, but...the older ones began to wither as they grew older, and suffered for it.

The two deities, faced with that horror, then created two new lights. One, a brilliant white, and the other an endlessly black. These turned into Xerneas and Yveltal, the governors of life and death. "APPALLED BY THE AGONY OLD AGE LEFT THEIR CREATIONS IN, ARCEUS AND MEW CREATED DEATH AS A PARALLEL TO LIFE, AS WELL AS THEIR EMBODIMENTS."

A mortified Ash watched as the old Omanyte, now Omastar, and many other Pokemon that had withered and stilled with age died out. Soon enough, their remains disappeared, and plant life grew where they had died. "ARCEUS AND MEW FINALLY ACHIEVED THE CYCLICAL, PROCREATING LIFE THAT THEY WANTED. THOUGH, IT CAME AT THE EXPENSE OF THEIR DISILLUSIONMENT."

By the thousands, the oldest of the original ordinary Pokemon died off, allowing for new life to grow in their place and creating the cycle of birth, life and death. But the Legends, who stood outside that cycle, looked on in horror. Especially Giratina. "THOUGH ARCEUS AND MEW BURIED THEIR GRIEF WITH THE ELATION OF THEIR SUCCESS, THE OTHERS WERE NOT AS JOYOUS. THIS INSTILLED A CERTAIN FEAR WITHIN THEM OF THEIR CREATORS, AND MADE ME REALIZE THAT I WAS RIGHT TO RESTRAIN MYSELF AS A MERE ONLOOKER."

Ash couldn't even begin to process what he had just witnessed. The birth of all life as he knew it. He knew Arceus at least was responsible for the creation of the world, but seeing it unfold before your very eyes...it was mind-boggling to say the least. Just looking at it made him a bit woozy. But Aura was far from finished.

"AS POKEMON AND PLANT LIFE BEGAN BLOSSOMING, ARCEUS AND MEW WERE ELATED, YET STILL UNSATISFIED. WHAT'S MORE, THERE WAS A FEUD BETWEEN TWO LEGENDS." From the raging oceans came Kyogre, and rising from the burning volcanic landscape, Groudon emerged. They roared fiercely at one another, determined to claim the other's territory.

"GROUDON BELIEVED HE HAD BEEN SLIGHTED OF THE DOMINION THAT HAD BEEN GIVEN TO KYOGRE TO HASTEN LIFE'S EMERGENCE," Explained Aura, "AND KYOGRE DID NOT WISH TO GIVE AWAY HIS. WHAT'S MORE, HE BELIEVED THAT, SINCE LIFE COULD ONLY EXIST IN HIS OCEANS AT THAT TIME, THAT HIS DOMAIN SHOULD ENCUMBER THE ENTIRE WORLD."

The duel between Kyogre and Groudon wracked the early world. The land quaked thunderously, churning as if it were liquid and destroying everything on it. The oceans roared, sending colossal waves crashing down at every angle across the entirety of Planet Earth and killing everything that lived within it. The mixture of blood and magma that coated the oceans painted the entire world red.

"THEIR WAR LED TO THE COMPLETE ERASURE OF EVERYTHING THAT ARCEUS AND MEW HAD WORKED SO HARD FOR, AND THEIR FURY CAME SWIFTLY." The dual gods descended upon the Earth to stop their rampaging creations themselves. Above, the Creation Trio watched on, and the creators made no move to stop them from doing so. When Groudon and Kyogre attempted to cry out their grievances, they lashed out at them violently and pelted them with hails of attacks.

"FUELED BY GRIEF, THEY ATTACKED KYOGRE AND GROUDON WITHOUT MERCY, AND WHEN THEY DEFENDED THEMSELVES, STRUCK WITH EVEN GREATER FORCE." Eventually, Kyogre and Groudon ceased movement, and their creators hovered over their body debating with themselves if they should deliver the final blow. "NOT BEING ABLE TO BEAR THE THOUGHT OF KILLING THEIR OWN CREATIONS, THEY SEALED THE TWO AWAY AND CREATED RAYQUAZA TO KEEP BALANCE SHOULD THEY EVER EMERGE AGAIN. AND AS YOU KNOW, THEY HAVE DONE SO MANY TIMES."

"What about Palkia, Dialga and Giratina?" Asked Ash. "Did they do anything about it?"

"NO," Answered Aura swiftly. Ash couldn't tell if he heard anger in his voice...or sorrow. "ARCEUS AND MEW ERASED ALL MEMORIES OF THE INCIDENT AND SWORE SECRECY TO EACH OTHER." In wake of the mass extinction event, Arceus and Mew returned to adorning their planet with life. Groudon and Kyogre needed only to be alive for their effects on the land and sea, allowing the creators to swiftly rekindle life on Earth. But, they soon found themselves growing weaker for it.

"FACED WITH THE REALIZATION THAT BY CREATING LIFE, THEY RAN THE RISK OF RUNNING OUT OF ENERGY AND DYING, ARCEUS AND MEW SOUGHT ANOTHER WAY." The younger creators once again descended upon the world, but this time, it was not to the oceans. It was land. Oddly enough, Groudon and Kyogre's clash allowed for brand new types of life. Eruptions in the ocean formed new land masses, and crashing waves split the already-existing lands and filled it with lakes, rivers and more. This turned the seething hot magmatic rock into soft sediment that would allow for the first land-dwelling life.

"IRONIC, IS IT NOT?" Asked Aura with a chuckle. "SUCH A DEVASTATING TRAVESTY ALLOWED FOR LIFE TO GROW IN A WAY NOT POSSIBLE BEFORE...AND THE CREATORS ERASED IT FROM HISTORY." Ash's eyebrows wrinkled. It wasn't like the Arceus he knew to go and do something like that. But Aura had a point. It was much like how a fire that tears apart a forest leaves flowers in its path in the coming days.

The creator continued. "THEY THEN CAME UP WITH AN IDEA. A COLOSSAL PLANT-LIKE CREATURE TIED TO THE LIFE FORCE OF THE ALREADY-EXISTING XERNEAS." A small plant sprouted up from the brown dirt. When Mew made contact with it, the plant stretched up to colossal proportions and pierced the very sky with its branches.

"DUE TO THEIR ERASURE OF THE MEMORIES OF THE FIRST LAND-WATER WAR, ARCEUS AND MEW MADE IT OUT TO SEEM AS IF THE TREE WAS A NATURAL ENTITY AND THEY SIMPLY IMPROVED UPON IT...HOWEVER…" There was absolutely nothing left in the oceans but scraps of seaweed floating aimlessly. Any remains of the slain Pokemon that had once dwelled in it were either destroyed in the conflict or buried in ash and sand. "IN REALITY, THIS TREE WOULD BECOME THE FIRST LIVING BEING AFTER THE EXTINCTION, AND SINCE MEW MERGED HER OWN LIFE ESSENCE WITH IT, ITS ROOTS STRETCHED OUT ACROSS THE ENTIRE WORLD TO ALLOW LIFE'S FLOW TO BE EVERLASTING."

Aura looked down at Ash. "THIS TREE IS WHY, IN SPITE OF THE UNIVERSE'S INTRINSIC ABILITY TO REPEL ME, I WAS ABLE TO TRAVERSE THROUGH IT AND ARRIVE HERE ON EARTH."

Ash looked at the entity oddly, and asked, "What makes the tree able to do that? It's powerful enough to just...overturn universal rules?" His thought process was that it simply didn't make sense that a tree, albeit large and powerful, could have any effect on something as grand in scope as the universe, which made the tree look microscopic in comparison. Even that didn't even begin to describe the disparity between the two.

"WELL," Started Aura, turning its gaze back upon the vision of the early world, "IT WASN'T EXCLUSIVELY THE TREE. ARCEUS AND MEW CONVERGING TOGETHER TO CREATE YOUR WORLD GAVE IT IMMENSE AMOUNTS OF LIFE." The being turned back toward Ash and asked, "AND WHERE DOES LIFE COME FROM?"

Ash pondered this question, furrowing his brow. After seeing the creation of his planet, he wasn't quite sure how to answer that question. Arceus was the first that came to mind, but then the idea of Mew struck him as well. She did create the Tree of Life after all. But then...there were the other eight Original Creations. Seeing as they shaped the universe itself, wouldn't they technically be life's origin? But then...there was still Aura.

"INDEED," Responded the creator without giving Ash the chance to properly answer, "THOUGH, IT IS NOT THE 'AURA' THAT ENCOMPASSES WHAT I AM. RATHER, IT IS THE 'AURA' YOU KNOW AS THE MALLEABLE FORCE OF LIFE." Aura pointed back to the vision, with Ash's gaze following suit. From the roots of the first tree, Aura flowed freely within the Earth and on its surface. Almost immediately, more living beings appeared on both land and in the oceans, lakes and rivers. And far, far down the line, the first humans emerged over the course of evolution. Though one far different than the one Ash knew.

Ash felt a hand being placed on his shoulder. "YOUR WORLD," Started Aura, "HAS THE HIGHEST CONDENSATION OF 'AURA' ANYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE. THE TREE OF LIFE, BEING THE SOURCE OF THAT 'AURA,' ACTED AS A GUIDING BEACON OF SORTS, ALLOWING ME TO TRAVERSE WHAT WOULD NORMALLY HAVE REPELLED ME."

The god boomed out a deep sigh, ringing out across the mysterious realm as an echoing hum. "OF COURSE, IT WAS STILL DIFFICULT. MY POWERS ARE NOT INFINITE, AND I'VE BEEN USING THEM IN AN ATTEMPT TO SAVE WHOM I CAN."

Raising an eyebrow, Ash asked, "What are you-?" But Aura was far ahead of him. The vision of the early world disappeared, replaced with the current one. More specifically, the battlefield. Now he watched Talonflame's battle against Necrozma from a different perspective. He turned away, but felt Aura's wordless urging for him to look, and upon doing so, found Talonflame's bright glowing form.

"Wait a minute," He said, "That's-!"

"YOU NICKNAMED THIS AS "FIRESTORM," RIGHT?" To spare Ash of seeing Talonflame's demise for a second time, Aura changed the scene to that of a forest. High in the skies above, Talonflame hastily flew away from a horde of angry Spearow with an unconscious Umbreon in its grip. Suddenly, Talonflame turned upwards, threw Umbreon to the sky, and let loose a massive column of fire that eradicated not only the Spearow, but also most of the forest below.

Ash's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "That was you?!"

"THERE WERE MANY TIMES WHERE I AIDED YOU AND YOUR COMPANIONS THROUGH MY LINK WITH YOUR WORLD," Responded Aura, a hint of satisfaction in its voice. "THIS WAS BUT ONE OF MANY."

"Why then," Asked Ash, carefully monitoring his tone, "Did Talonflame die?" To say Ash was angry and confused was an understatement. But then again, Aura saved his life. He was hoping some kind of explanation would abate his anger. That Aura had some form of reasoning behind saving his life instead of his friend's. "What gave my life value over theirs?!"

To that, Ash could practically feel a ringing, hollow sorrow emanating from the creator. "...WERE IT IN MY REALM OF CONTROL, I WOULD HAVE SAVED THEM ALL. NECROZMA WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN ALLOWED TO EXIST...BUT I AM EVER REMINDED OF MY OWN FOOLISHNESS."

Ash allowed his stance to relax, albeit only slightly. "What does that mean?"

"...HAVE YOU EVER FELT, ASH, THAT THERE IS NO RIGHT ANSWER TO A DECISION YOU CHOOSE?" Ash opened his mouth to answer, but hesitated to actually reply. There were certainly many times that fit that description, like when he found a massive family of Pikachu and had to decide between selfishly keeping his partner to himself or allowing him to roam free. Luckily, Pikachu himself made the decision for him, and the rest is history, but...the weight surrounding Aura's question...made that life-changing decision feel small. "...I DON'T EXPECT AN ANSWER. BUT PLEASE, LISTEN TO THE REST OF WHAT I HAVE TO SHOW YOU. THEN YOU WILL UNDERSTAND

Aura changed the world around them once more, back to Arceus. He hovered over Giratina, who laid about, happily chatting with a surrounding group of humans that were either bowing to him, feeding him or fanning him. "CONTRARY TO WHAT YOU MIGHT THINK," Said Aura, "THOSE HUMANS WERE NOT SLAVES. THEY WILLINGLY SERVED GIRATINA, YET ARCEUS FEARED THIS AS AN OFFENSE TO HIS THRONE."

The younger Arceus furiously descended upon Giratina, lashing at him with hails of Judgement without giving him the chance to retaliate. When the early humans tried to defend their chosen ruler, Arceus attacked them as well. "ARCEUS CONSIDERS THIS HIS GREATEST MISTAKE," Aura said to the horrified Ash, "AND I CONSIDER IT ONE OF MINE AS WELL."

"You?" Asked Ash, not being able to turn away from the scene before him. He wanted to stop looking...but there was some morbid attraction stopping him from doing so. "What did you do?"

"IT IS WHAT I DIDN'T DO THAT HAUNTS ME...BUT WHEN I THINK ON IT, I DON'T KNOW IF MY INTERFERENCE WOULD HAVE CAUSED EVEN GREATER SUFFERING." Once again, the vision of Aura laying waste to the universe and his creations surrounded them. "I CAN SEE ALL POSSIBLE OUTCOMES OF ANY AND ALL CHOICES MADE WITHIN THE UNIVERSE, BOTH PERTAINING TO MYSELF AND OTHERS...AND EVERY TIME I PREDICT WHAT MY POSSIBLE INTERFERENCE WOULD DO, I AM BLINDED BY THIS."

The sheer amount of contempt dripping from Aura's voice made Ash shudder. "...THUS, I AM ALWAYS TORN BETWEEN INTERVENING AND NOT, AND THE DECISION DRIVES ME TOWARD THE LATTER BECAUSE I AM UNABLE TO DECIDE. IT IS UTTERLY MADDENING."

The scene changed back to Arceus attacking Giratina. "...AND IT IS ALL THE MORE HAUNTING WHEN I SEE MYSELF IN MY CREATIONS." When Arceus decided he was done with Giratina, a massive black portal opened up beneath the Renegade Pokemon, and despite his pleading and crying for mercy, Arceus allowed his son to be dragged down. He then disappeared without a trace. Then, Arceus turned his ire back upon the terrified humans and, in spite of their begging for mercy, he eradicated their homes and soared back into the sky.

"Those humans who served Giratina," Started Ash, "Did any of them...survive?"

"THE EARLY ARCEUS WAS A RUTHLESS RULER WHEN HIS AUTHORITY WAS QUESTIONED, MAKING MEW THE ONLY SAFE SANCTION THE LEGENDS COULD TURN TO DURING THEIR CHILDHOOD." The world changed to the sight of the Tree of Beginning. Inside, Mew danced and played with many of the smaller Legends. Ash recognized some of them, being Palkia, Dialga, an incredibly small Ho-oh and Lugia and many more. "IF MEW WAS A GOD TO THEM, ARCEUS, AT THE TIME, WAS THE DEVIL HIMSELF YET THAT WOULD BECOME THE OPPOSITE, IN TIME."

The world shifted to that of a human man atop a mountain looking to the skies, watching helplessly as a colossal meteor approached. Ash's face lit up upon recognizing the man. "Hey, that's Damos!"

"INDEED," Responded Aura. "THIS IS WHERE OUR KNOWLEDGE WOULD BEGIN TO CONVENE, YOU AND I." A golden gate tore open the skies below the impending meteor, and Arceus emerged. The Alpha Pokemon shrouded himself in a bright golden glow, gathering a multitude of coffin-shaped plates around his ring. He then soared up to meet the meteor, resulting in a massive, blinding explosion. The silence that followed the explosion brought with it devastation.

Dark clouds blotted out the sky and coated the land in snow. It took only mere minutes for the nearby plant life to wither and die, being crushed underneath mounds of the new winter. "DESPITE HIS CRUELTY, ARCEUS STILL HARBORED A LOVE FOR HIS CREATIONS ABOVE ALL ELSE. HE WAS WILLING TO SACRIFICE HIS LIFE FOR EARTH, AND HE NEARLY LOST IT." A lone human, carrying one of Arceus's fallen plates, began marching toward Arceus. That human was Damos, the same man who watched his land fall to ruin.

"THOUGH IT WAS SAVED, THANKS TO A HUMAN."

Ash recalled the tale told to him by Sheena, Damos's descendant. Just like she had said, Damos's delivering of the plate gave Arceus the strength to retrieve the others, and he was saved from death. "So," Said Ash, "This is what happened."

"IN RESPONSE TO THE SELFLESSNESS OF DAMOS," Started Aura, "ARCEUS ONCE AGAIN PUT HIS LIFE AT RISK TO SAVE HIS CREATIONS." Five of the Alpha's plates merged together, creating a single orb that pulsed with life. Its creation alone immediately restored the lands to their former green glory.

"I...don't understand," Ash said. "One minute Arceus attacks Giratina for no reason, and another, he sacrifices himself to protect Earth? What changed?"

"NOTHING CHANGED, ASH," Aura replied. "THIS WAS ARCEUS'S NATURE FROM THE BEGINNING." Ash pondered this, not quite able to form a proper response to that. So, he continued. "I HOLD A CERTAIN PHILOSOPHY, YOU KNOW. NOT ONE BEING IS WHOLLY GOOD OR EVIL. EVERY LIGHT CASTS A SHADOW, JUST AS IT CASTS WARMTH."

"I've...never really thought about it like that," Admitted Ash, "But I think I get it now."

"THEN WE WILL MOVE FORWARD." Apparently, some time had passed since Arceus's gift of the Jewel of Life, because when the next solar eclipse rose, he returned to the land of Michina. Damos, holding the Jewel of Life within a scepter, told Arceus to follow him within a temple of worship built for the Alpha Pokemon. However, when Arceus entered the temple, he was bombarded by a series of Electric-Type attacks that he no longer had a resistance to, and a hail of massive boulders fell from the ceiling in an attempt to bury him alive.

"I remember this," Ash said with a scowl. "This is when Marcus brainwashed Damos into betraying Arceus."

"INDEED," Affirmed Aura, "BUT DO YOU REALIZE WHY HE DID SO?"

Ash nodded. "It was so he could keep the Jewel of Life to him...self…" Halfway through saying that, he began to doubt his own words. Everything Aura had taught him thus far had been countering much of his way of thinking already. "...But, that's not it, is it?"

Somehow, in its formless scope, Aura nodded. "YOU'RE CATCHING ON." The world around them changed back to the desolate wintery wasteland caused by the meteor's explosion. Pokemon and people alike shuddered from the alien cold, terrified. At least, until Arceus reverted the land to its original state. Among those people was Marcus. "MARCUS BELIEVED HIS ACTIONS TO BE JUST. AFTER ALL, HE WAS CORRECT IN THE END ABOUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THE LAND OF MICHINA. WHEN YOU INTERVENED AND STOPPED THE BETRAYAL, THE LAND FELL TO RUIN."

The scene changed to the second saving of Arceus's life by Ash and Damos, only now it was from Damos's perspective. "YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT OCCURRED THEREAFTER, SO FOR NOW, WE WILL MOVE AHEAD." Arceus rose high into the air, carrying with him the younger Ash and Pikachu before disappearing, sending him and his friends back into the future. But Damos remained in his time, and when he emerged from the temple, he found Marcus's prediction to be true.

"WITH THE JEWEL OF LIFE'S EFFECTS GONE, MICHINA ONCE AGAIN DULLED AND BECAME A COLD, BITTER WASTELAND VOID OF LIFE, AND IT WAS DAMOS'S EFFORTS THAT RETURNED IT TO A NATURAL STATE OF BOUNTY." True to his word, the land eventually rekindled with Damos's help, as well as the people and Pokemon living there.

"THIS CAME TO BE BECAUSE THE WORLD HAD LONG RECOVERED FROM THE METEOR, MAKING IT EASIER FOR MICHINA TO AS WELL. ARCEUS'S JEWEL OF LIFE WAS MEANT TO MITIGATE THE EFFECTS OF THE METEOR UNTIL IT COULD RECOVER NATURALLY."

Ash nodded, understanding the situation. "Okay...so what happened to Arceus after this? Before Necrozma, I only ever saw him once after this, but I never got the chance to talk with him again."

Aura hummed in thought. "TO ANSWER THAT, WE MUST TAKE A FEW STEPS BACKWARDS." The scene changed once more, far more than Ash expected, as he was greeted with the sight of Mew and the young Legends once more. They cowered in fear behind Mew as Arceus approached.

"MEW!" Bellowed Arceus. "Why are you playing with them?! They should be training to better get ahold of their powers!"

Mew merely rolled her eyes nonchalantly. "Oh sod off, Arceus. Let them have fun while they're still young, why don't you?"

Arceus was taken aback by her blatant disregard for his authority. "Wh-what?! Fun?! How much fun do you think they'll be having if they're dead?!" He stomped his foot into the floor, making the colossal tree of life tremble from its force. The Legends shrieked in terror, attempting to make themselves seem as small as possible. "You know as well as I do that there could absolutely be some danger out there, or even here on our world! They must be able to fight against that!"

The Alpha Pokemon glared down at the young Legends, making their blood run cold with fright. "Look at them!" He yelled. "Sniveling, crying and terrified!"

It was then that Mew floated up to meet him. "They're terrified of you, genius! That's all they've ever BEEN scared of!"

"If they're scared of me, then they're in no shape to take on a real danger!" Countered Arceus. "It's been several thousands of years since their creation, and it's high time they grew up! Because if they don't-"

"Then we can take care of it!" Interjected Mew. "They're still too inexperienced for battle! If anything comes our way, you and I are more than powerful enough to defeat it!"

Arceus turned away with a scowl, no longer having the patience to deal with her antics. "Maybe that's the case for now, but that might not be the case forever." With that, he disappeared through a golden gate. Mew huffed in annoyance, turning back around to console her children.

"ARCEUS WAS PARANOID OF ANOTHER EXTINCTION EVENT," Said Aura, "AND RIGHTFULLY SO AFTER THE TRAGEDY ENACTED BY GROUDON AND KYOGRE." He had Ash train his vision upon the still-cowering Legends. "THIS, ALONG WITH THE PRIOR BANISHMENT OF GIRATINA, DEMONIZED ARCEUS IN THE EYES OF THE LEGENDS."

Ash crossed his arms and hummed in thought. "I can see why they'd be scared of him, but from what it looked like, it was almost like...he was even more scared."

"NOT ALMOST," Corrected Aura. "YOU WERE RIGHT. ARCEUS WAS TERRIFIED OF THE PROSPECT OF HIS CREATIONS DYING. IT PLAGUED EVERY WAKING MOMENT OF HIS MIND."

"Then why hasn't he showed up yet to fight Necrozma?!" Barked a furious Ash. "If he was there from the very beginning, then…!"

Aura took a moment to respond. "...IF HE DID, HE WOULD HAVE DIED ALONGSIDE THE OTHERS. RIGHT NOW, ARCEUS IS GATHERING AS MUCH ENERGY AS HE CAN TO COMBAT NECROZMA...AND IS AGONIZING MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE."

The world changed, once again re-telling the betrayal of Arceus. The furious deity burst from the temple's roof, swearing to return for vengeance against all of humanity in five thousand years. "YOU KNOW THAT ARCEUS DISAPPEARED FOR A TIME, ASH. HOWEVER, YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED WITHIN THAT TIME, AND HOW IT SHAPED THE SCOPE OF THE WORLD YOU KNOW TODAY."

Aura first showed him the Tree of Life, now barren of any Legends outside of Mew. "LONG BEFORE MARCUS'S BETRAYAL, THE LEGENDS HAD GROWN OLDER AND TIRED OF MEW'S ANTICS, ABANDONING HER TO LIVE THEIR OWN LIVES. THIS INVITED DISASTER." Several thousands of humans, armed with primitive weaponry like swords, bows and torches, marched toward the tree whilst bellowing war cries.

"AFTER GIRATINA'S BANISHMENT, HUMANITY WAS TREATED WITH CONTEMPT BY MOST POKEMON. THIS LED TO MANY WARS BETWEEN THE RACES, AND CIVIL WARS AS WELL BETWEEN FACTIONS WHO QUESTIONED THIS LINE OF THINKING." To paint the horrid picture, Aura showed him brutal battles for life or death between groups of humans and Pokemon. It ranged from as small as a family warding off an offending Ursarang to entire armies of humans and Pokemon slaughtering one another.

"THE EARLY HUMANS, BELIEVING THE LIVES OF ALL POKEMON TO BE TIED TO THE TREE OF LIFE, BESET UPON IT WITH THE INTENT TO BURN IT TO THE GROUND, BUT…" A furious Mew appeared above the Tree of Life, summoning a colossal ball of blistering fire. To the humans below, it was as if she had created another sun. From the ball, a hailstorm of fiery meteors rained down upon the humans in a terrible calamitous storm.

"This is…" Ash could scarcely believe his eyes. He once saw another terrible war take place at the tree through a Time Flower, but...it didn't compare to this. It wasn't just a war. It was a slaughter. Most of the humans couldn't hope to escape. "This is awful! I can understand Mew wanting to protect the Tree of Life, but...she never gave them a chance!"

"THEY WOULD NOT HAVE LISTENED," Replied Aura. "THE SCARS THEY BORE FROM HOSTILE POKEMON WERE TOO DEEP, AND IN READING THEIR MINDS, MEW KNEW THIS. THEY WOULD HAVE STOOD DOWN FOR NOTHING MORE THAN THE BURNING OF THE TREE, WHICH WOULD HAVE NO DOUBT SPELLED COMPLETE DISASTER FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD."

"Maybe, but-"

Aura interrupted him. "I AM NOT TELLING YOU WHAT IS RIGHT, ASH. SIMPLY, I AM TELLING YOU WHAT IS. YOU WOULD DO WELL NOT TO MISTAKE TRUTH FOR IDEALS, AS ZEKROM AND RESHIRAM WOULD SAY."

Ash knew Aura was right, but it still left a horrid taste in his mouth. The taste of blood. Even though it was just a vision of the past, Ash's own 'Aura' felt incredibly uneasy at watching the slaughter. He could almost feel them dying in his head over and over, and it was sickening beyond belief.

"...NOR," Started Aura, "AM I TELLING YOU THAT YOU SHOULD NOT FEEL FOR THEM. YOU ARE KIND, ASH. NEVER LOSE YOUR EMPATHY TOWARD OTHERS. IT WILL BECOME YOUR GREATEST STRENGTH IN TIME." Once more, the world began to change shape to another scene. "BUT RETURNING TO WHAT OCCURED WHILE ARCEUS WAS AWAY…"

Eventually, an uneasy peace, or rather, a truce between humans and Pokemon appeared to have formed. Without constant attacks from Pokemon, humans began to bloom, creating arts, sciences, math and civilization. They built houses, farms, museums, and even skyscrapers before long. "WHEN ARCEUS BANISHED GIRATINA, HE PLACED A SEAL ON HUMANITY'S ABILITY TO EVOLVE, BOTH GENETICALLY AND IN A WAY A POKEMON WOULD THROUGHOUT ITS LIFE."

Ash doubled over in shock. "W-wait, we used to be able to evolve?!"

Aura responded with a small hum in affirmation. "BY THE TIME THE BANISHMENT OCCURED, HUMANITY WAS A RELATIVELY NEW SPECIES IN COMPARISON TO POKEMON, AND THUS, VERY FEW WERE ABLE TO PERFORM SUCH A FEAT BEFORE IT WAS SEALED AWAY." The deity directed Ash back toward the vision. "AND BESIDES...I BELIEVE WHAT HUMANITY CAME UP WITH ON THEIR OWN TO BE A SUPERIOR ALTERNATIVE."

The trainer gave Aura an odd look. "Alternative…?"

The deity chuckled at Ash's expense. "I DON'T BLAME YOU FOR NOT UNDERSTANDING. WHAT I AM REFERRING TO IS THE CREATION, PRESERVATION AND PASSAGE OF INFORMATION FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT." To show what it meant, Aura motioned to the cars and buildings adorning the world. Schools, factories, scientific facilities, airports and more. "USING PREVIOUSLY-DISCOVERED INFORMATION AS A 'STEPPING STONE' OF SORTS, HUMANS BUILT UPON THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THEIR PREDECESSORS TO CREATE NEW TECHNOLOGY, ESSENTIALLY CREATING THEIR OWN EVOLUTION THAT MOVED FASTER THAN GENETICS COULD EVER HOPE TO MATCH."

Ash couldn't help but feel a twinge of pride at that, even though he knew he didn't exactly contribute to any of that. If he was lucky, he could at least help with the preservation aspect of the "human evolution" by stopping Earth's destruction. Rubbing the back of his head in a humbled embarrassment, Ash couldn't help but chuckle. "Huh...I never thought about it like that before."

"YOU HUMANS, IN THREE HUNDRED YEARS, MANAGED TO MATCH THE PROGRESS OF MILLIONS OF YEARS OF GENETICS," Continued Aura with a hearty laugh. "GIVEN TIME, I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF YOU SURPASSED ARCEUS, OR EVEN I." Aura pretended to cough to rid himself of the laughing fit. "...BUT WE ARE GETTING OFF TRACK."

Next, the world changed to a much darker scene. An endless void filled with dark clouds and Unown, though the Unown soon began to fly away from something rapidly, chittering in fear. "THE UNOWN WERE THE FIRST TO ATTAIN SENTIENCE BESIDES THE ORIGINAL TEN CREATIONS, AND THUS, THEY RELEGATED THEMSELVES TO THE OUTER, EMPTY REALMS." Two figures, one coated in a pink light and the other blue, collided suddenly. The black void ripped open, sending the clouds reeling backwards and sweeping away any Unown in its path.

"SO WHEN DIALGA AND PALKIA, DISTURBED AND AGITATED INTO NIGH MADNESS OVER THE APPARENT LOSS OF THEIR FATHER AND CAME TO BLOWS WITHIN THOSE REALMS, IT SPELLED DISASTER FOR EVERYTHING."

The gods of time and space roared fearsomely at one another, clashing with their signature attacks. The rippling effect from doing so tore holes in time, space and reality itself in patches that decorated the void. "SITUATIONS WITH THE OTHER LEGENDS AROSE AS WELL," Aura said, changing the world back to show Earth. In the lands of Hoenn, Groudon and Kyogre rose up from the land and sea to battle once more. In response, Rayquaza descended from the skies to stop them. "THE RE-AWAKENING OF KYOGRE AND GROUDON WOULD HAPPEN REPEATEDLY THROUGHOUT HISTORY, ESPECIALLY THROUGH THE INTERVENTION OF AMBITIOUS HUMANS."

Numerous men, greed in their eyes, appeared. There was the obvious Archie and Maxie, as well as the Pirate Phantom and many others Ash didn't recognize. "ALL OF THE LEGENDS WERE SHAKEN BY THE LOSS OF ARCEUS. MANY BEGAN RAMPAGING AND HAD TO BE SEALED AWAY. SOME CHOSE TO SEAL THEMSELVES, SUCH AS THE LAKE TRIO...BUT…"

Ash saw the likes of Lugia shepherding the Three Elemental Birds along, finding them a home in the Orange Islands and diving far into the deep blue thereafter. Ho-oh, revered as a deity to the citizens of Ecruteak City, saved three Pokemon from a burning tower and gave them new life. Celebi and most other of the smaller Legends without much responsibility simply disappeared into forests, caves or other areas to become myths, occasionally revealing themselves to a select few. Six of the Legends found themselves under the possession of Tobias, yet reveled in the journeys they undertook with him.

Zekrom and Reshiram had long since sealed themselves away as the Light and Dark Stones whilst Kyurem remained as a shell of his former self in their wake. He was beset upon by three other Legends calling themselves the Swords of Justice, and though they met as bitter enemies, he soon gained respect for their ways, sparring with them from time to time. The aforementioned Swords of Justice stayed far away from mankind, aiding Pokemon whenever a war rang out.

The age-old governors of life, death and the balance between the two wrapped themselves in guises, hiding themselves away for fear of misuse of their power. Their fears would come to fruition many times throughout the years, most notably by a giant of a man who lost his senses to grief and another man with a vision to overturn the world. The Tapus' duties remained constant with or without their creator. Solgaleo and Lunala, eager to return the kindness Arceus showed them by allowing them to live on Earth, made it their duty to ward off stray Ultra Beasts even if it meant sending them back to Necrozma.

"...MOST OF THEM FOUND EITHER A PURPOSE TO FOLLOW, OR A LIFE AMONGST NATURE TO LEAD."

By this point, Ash had an idea of what was about to come. "But it wasn't all good, was it?"

The figure of Aura appeared to nod. "YOU'RE CATCHING ON. INDEED, THOUGH THERE WERE MANY WHO FOUND NEW LIVES, THERE WAS ALSO MUCH TROUBLE...THAT IS WHERE YOU COME IN, ASH KETCHUM." A series of familiar events flashed by before Ash's eyes, with each of them pertaining to a different Legendary Pokemon he had saved, or at least encountered. Yet one of them, apparently having taken place relatively early on in his adventures by the looks of his team and companions, he did not recognize.

"What's this one?" Asked Ash. "I know I have a bad memory, but I feel like I would remember this."

"THIS IS A MEMORY PREVIOUSLY ERASED," Answered Aura, "BY MEWTWO, THAT IS. YOU RECALL THE SECOND TIME YOU ENCOUNTERED HIM, CORRECT? WHEN YOU PREVENTED HIM FROM ERASING YOUR MEMORY A SECOND TIME?"

"Yeah," Replied Ash with a nod, "Though I didn't know it was the second time until just now."

Aura continued. "IT WAS DONE IN THE BELIEF THAT IT WOULD PROTECT HIS KIN, THOUGH AS GIOVANNI'S LATER INTERVENTION WOULD SHOW, IT DID NOT. YOUR INTERVENTION, HOWEVER, PROVED INVALUABLE IN RE-SHAPING THE BALANCE OF THE WORLD ARCEUS LEFT BEHIND."

Ash chuckled sheepishly. "Really? I don't know if I would go that far."

"BEING HUMBLE IS A VIRTUE," Replied Aura, "BUT THERE IS NO PLACE FOR THAT HERE. WERE IT NOT FOR YOU, ARCEUS WOULD HAVE ERADICATED MANKIND UPON RETURNING, PUNISHED HIS CHILDREN MERCILESSLY FOR THEIR BEHAVIOR IN HIS ABSENCE AND RULED THE EARTH WITH UNENDING CRUELTY AND MALICE, BECOMING A MONSTER ALMOST AS NEFARIOUS AS NECROZMA HIMSELF."

Aura showed the boy a terrible vision of what he meant. Descending from the heavens unto Michina Town where Kevin and Sheena awaited, the raging deity laid waste to the land without giving them the opportunity to explain themselves or make amends. The land he'd once saved from a wintery ruin now burned away before his eyes, yet the fire in his eyes burned brighter. Entire cities went up in flame under Arceus's wrath. Not only did he command the Legends to attack them, but the wild Pokemon as well. The ones beholden to trainers were given the choice to obey him or die with their masters, and a horrific war emerged. At the end of it all, Arceus stood atop a blood-soaked world as the apex. An unforgiving, ruthless tyrant without a heart.

"YOU," Spoke Aura, snapping Ash out of his horrified trance, "PREVENTED THIS. IN SAVING ARCEUS AND HIS CHILDREN, YOU SAVED THIS WORLD. SOON ENOUGH, I WILL NEED YOU TO DO IT AGAIN, BUT THAT WILL COME IN TIME."

Before Ash could ask what it meant, Aura continued, reverting the world back to the one Ash had apparently made a reality. Ash, Brock and Dawn overlooked an evening in the town of Michina after having undone the betrayal of Marcus, with Arceus by their side. "For the first time, I feel as if I am actually part of this world," Remarked the deity before disappearing back into the heavens. Knowing what Arceus had worked so hard for, and all the things he had done...those words carried an entire new weight to them to Ash.

Then, Ash was met with an unfamiliar sight. It was a long, white hallway with rows upon rows of seats stretching down a corridor. At the hallway's end was a massive seat that stretched up higher than the others, and another smaller one by its side. In the seats, nearly every single Legendary Pokemon he had ever met sat. They chatted amongst one another until, in a flash of light, Arceus and Mew appeared.

"EVEN THOUGH YOU HAD SAVED ARCEUS'S LIFE AND SHOWED HIM A GREATER PART OF THE WORLD, HE EAGERLY RETURNED BACK TO HIS AUTHORITATIVE ROLE," Explained Aura. True to its word, Arceus happily announced his return, and the other Legends, obviously fearful of what their father would do if they did not celebrate, cheered with him. All but Giratina, who refused to even look at him. Arceus simply ignored him and returned to his self-welcoming party. "...BUT THE OTHERS WERE NOT SO WELCOMING, EVEN IF THEY PRETENDED TO BE."

A few more of these meetings came and went over the next two years, becoming more and more frequent. After one of them, Deoxys stayed behind as the others left to confront Arceus. "IN TIME, A HOPEFUL RESPECT WAS EARNED BACK FROM MANY LEGENDS, WHICH GAVE DEOXYS THE FAITH TO TELL HIM THAT HE BELIEVED NECROZMA WOULD COME TO EARTH NEXT."

Arceus was one day greeted with the horrific sight of Lugia and the three Elemental Birds battered, bruised and bleeding within an inch of their life and an apologizing Rayquaza. "NECROZMA'S FIRST VICTIMS SPARKED SOMETHING WITHIN HIM." He had Xerneas attempt to heal them of their grievous wounds, and in the meantime, visited what remained of the Orange Islands. He summoned five of his plates, re-creating the Jewel of Life.

Ash was taken aback by this. "He tried to use the Jewel again?!"

"MMH," Was Aura's response; apparently meant for affirmation. "HE WAS INSPIRED BY YOUR SELFLESSNESS, ASH. BUT HE WOULD RECEIVE A RUDE AWAKENING." A shocked and frankly disgusted Ash watched as the survivors of the Orange Islands began throwing rocks, trash and anything else they could find up at the Alpha Pokemon. Apparently Arceus felt the same, and Ash's eyes widened as Arceus's eyes glowed with rage. But just as it seemed like he would smite them, Arceus stopped himself, merely glancing at them sorrowfully before disappearing.

It didn't take Ash long to understand that sorrow. "Those...were the survivors, right? They must have lost so much…" He looked up at Aura and asked, "That's why Arceus didn't attack them...right?"

"YOU ARE QUICK TO UNDERSTAND," Commended Aura. "SIR RILEY HAS TRAINED YOU WELL...THOUGH I SUPPOSE IT'S ONLY IN YOUR NATURE TO BE EMPATHETIC TO OTHERS. IN ANY CASE, LET US CONTINUE."

Rayquaza eventually came to blows with Necrozma as well, only he was completely alone. At one point, he found himself in the upper ozone layer...coated in a brilliant white light. Ash's eyes went wide and he was about to question the creator about it, but Aura beat him to the punch. "INDEED, THAT WAS MY POWER. I NEEDED TO GIVE IT TO HIM, ELSE HE WOULD DIE AND ARCEUS WOULD FLY INTO A FIT OF RAGE." He was shown a vision of the Sky High Pokemon, without Aura's light, barreling into Necrozma from space and obliterating himself in the process.

Arceus arrived mere moments later, his fury uprooting the ground around him. The deity clashed with Necrozma, using every last ounce of his energy both within himself and the plates, yet couldn't so much as lay a single scratch upon the demon. Necrozma raised his arm above the fallen god's head and brought it down swiftly, finishing him. "OBVIOUSLY, I COULD NOT ALLOW THAT TO TRANSPIRE. THERE IS A CERTAIN...SEQUENCE OF EVENTS THAT MUST TRANSPIRE TO LEAD TO NECROZMA'S DEMISE."

"Actually," Ash said, "Yeah, what are those? You've been dodging that question."

"IN DUE TIME, ASH."

The vision of Arceus's death changed, though not by much. Arceus could still only scarcely touch Necrozma in their duel, but the demon never had the chance to kill him. Instead, several more Legends arrived in response to sensing their father's battle, which resulted in Yveltal being sent flying into the distance and further sending Arceus into a rage. Then, Necrozma disappeared suddenly, warning them of the war to come.

Necrozma's next appearance was in a forest where he confronted the Swords of Justice. Knowing what would happen to them, Ash balled his hands into fists angrily. "YOU SENSED KELDEO'S SUFFERING JUST BEFORE THE WAR STARTED, DID YOU NOT?" The creator shifted the world once more. "I WILL NOT FORCE YOU TO WATCH IT HAPPEN. ALL I NEED YOU TO KNOW IS THAT IT DID."

Once again, Ash found himself looking into the Hall of Origins where Arceus stood over a beaten and bruised Keldeo who attempted to retell what he had been through between hopeless sobs. Ash felt a sorrowful pang in his heart watching the young Legend. Yet again, the Hall changed, now filled to the brim with Legends. "THIS...IS WHERE ARCEUS TRULY CHANGED HIS WAYS."

A multitude of arguments were sparked up by Giratina, who had become more brazen in his anger. "HE COULD NO LONGER WITHOLD THE ANGER TOWARD ARCEUS THAT HE FELT, AND IT QUICKLY EXTENDED TO MEW." Arceus could not stand Giratina's constant interruptions any longer and ordered him to leave the Hall. Soon after, he dismissed the meeting entirely, but remained upon noticing that Palkia and Dialga had stayed behind.

"GIRATINA HAD TOLD ARCEUS THAT THE LEGENDS, TO THIS DAY, STILL FEARED HIM, AND HIS OTHER SONS CAME TO...ADMIT THAT TO HIM."

"I...have always cherished you…"

Ash couldn't help but to notice Aura pausing for an oddly long time after Arceus said that. As he stared at the being of endless light, he tried reading it with his own 'Aura'...but everything was so complex. He couldn't even begin to understand the emotions he sensed within the creator, and before long, he was forced to pull away. Aura made it clear, albeit silently, that he knew Ash tried to do this and let it happen. Verbally, he did not acknowledge it at all and continued at last.

"...ARCEUS, IN HIS TERROR OF LOSING EVERYTHING HE CREATED A SECOND TIME, BECAME A CRUEL, CONTROLLING TYRANT, EVEN AFTER YOU HAD SAVED HIM." It was then that Ash finally found a resounding emotion that he could understand from Aura. In looking at Arceus's face, who was unable to meet the gazes of his sons, he found it. It was longing. Regret. "BUT AFTER LOSING THE SWORDS OF JUSTICE, HE WAS FINALLY ABLE TO COME TO REALITY. THE REALITY THAT HE WAS HATED BY HIS CHILDREN, AND THEY HAD MASKED THAT HATRED TO EVEN THEMSELVES UNDER A VEIL OF FALSE REVERENCE."

Arceus now stood over a hellish twister of flame. He tore through it and dispersed the black smoke clouds, revealing Necrozma hovering over Ash and his friends. "THIS HAPPENED NEARLY IMMEDIATELY AFTER THAT HALL MEETING. HE WASN'T ABOUT TO LET HIS CHOSEN HUMAN DIE AFTER WHAT HAD JUST HAPPENED." Now, Ash was finally able to witness this fight. Arceus fought with a savagery completely different to the one he showed at Michina Town. It was rage carried by a purpose.

"HE NO LONGER FOUGHT TO PERSIST IN HIS RULE…"

Ash nodded, a smile crawling up his face. "It was to protect us."

"INDEED," Replied Aura. "HE FOUGHT, FOR THE FIRST TIME, NOT AS A RULER OR A CREATOR. BUT AS A FATHER WHO WISHED TO PROTECT HIS CHILDREN...YET, HE LOST, AND HE WAS ONLY SPARED BECAUSE HE KNEW OF MY IMPENDING ARRIVAL AND USED IT AS A BLUFF."

Aura turned toward Ash. "THUS, WE ARE ALMOST TO TODAY."

"Almost?" Asked Ash. "What's left?"

The creator let out a long-winded sight, once again making the entire world creak and groan. "THE DAY BEFORE NECROZMA'S ARRIVAL, ARCEUS SOUGHT TO MAKE AMENDS WITH HIS CHILDREN...BUT IT WAS NOT TO BE." Yet again, Giratina completely dismantled Arceus's plans. When Mew tried to intervene, he did the same, claiming that they were heartless if they wouldn't allow the Legends to speak their minds after all they've lost. Especially Keldeo. The odd thing to Ash was that, knowing what Arceus had done in the past, he couldn't fault Giratina for any of it.

It quickly became apparent that Mew had yet to undergo the same transformation of character Arceus had. She refused to stand down to any of the Legends' pleading for her to join the frey, causing Keldeo and Kyurem to storm out of the meeting. Then, Lugia asked if Arceus could heal a wound Zapdos had gotten on its wing.

"What the-?!" Cried Ash. "That hole in Zapdos's wing goes all the way through! Didn't they already heal the wounds they got from Necrozma?"

"...THEY DID. THAT WOUND CAME FROM ANOTHER ENEMY ENTIRELY." Before Ash could ask what was meant by that, Aura continued. "ARCEUS, BELIEVING ABSOLUTELY EVERY LAST OUNCE OF HIS, MEW'S AND XERNEAS'S ENERGY WAS CRITICAL TO THE SURVIVAL OF EARTH, HE REFUSED LUGIA, DESPISING HIMSELF ALL THE WHILE."

Soon after, Arceus dismissed the other Legends. But Giratina stayed after the others left. He was not yet done with either of them. "GIRATINA SAW WEAKNESS IN HIS FATHER'S NEW ATTITUDE, AND INDIFFERENCE TO SUFFERING IN MEW'S. THUS, HE CONTINUED TO VERBALLY JAB AT THEM. TO VOICE HIS GRIEVANCES THAT HE'D SAVED UP OVER THE PAST SEVERAL THOUSANDS OF YEARS."

Mew suddenly lost it. She gripped Giratina in her Psychic grasp and thrashed him around like a doll, destroying much of the Hall of Origins in the process. Arceus protested, but both Mew and Giratina refused to listen, and by the end of it, the first son of Arceus was thrown right back into the Distortion World with a reverberating howl. Mew didn't wait for Arceus to say anything, merely warping back to the Tree of Life and leaving the Father of Pokemon alone in a broken, dark hall.

Ash couldn't believe what he had seen. "Mew...I never would have expected…"

"UNLIKE ARCEUS, MEW STILL HAD NOT MATURED AS A RULER. NEITHER IN DISCIPLINE NOR IN EMPATHY. SHE VIEWS MOST THINGS AS HER OWN PLAYTHINGS AND NOTHING MORE. THIS IS DUE TO HER ISOLATION WITHIN THE TREE. ARCEUS FILLED IN HER ROLE AS RULER, SO SHE BELIEVED SHE COULD SIMPLY REAP THE BENEFITS WHEN THE TIME WAS RIGHT AND DIDN'T THINK MUCH OF IT."

Aura turned back toward Ash. "AND THAT BRINGS US BACK TO TODAY."

"What...was the point of telling me all of this?" Ash asked. "What made me more special than the others, and what does it have to do with defeating Necrozma?" His eyes went wide suddenly as something occurred to him. "Wait...Necrozma said he's been conquering or destroying worlds for millions of years! Why haven't you stopped him since?!"

Aura paused for a long time. The silence filling the room was utterly deafening, until after minutes of nothing, the god broke it. "...IF ARCEUS CONSIDERS THE BANISHMENT OF GIRATINA HIS GREATEST MISTAKE, THEN I CONSIDER THIS MINE. TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION...WE MUST JOURNEY BACK TO THE BEGINNING. TO THE TEN ORIGINAL BEINGS."

Once again, Ash was shown an empty, black void with eleven lights. There was Aura at the center, and around him, ten beings. Arceus, Mew, and several others he didn't know. This time, the focus was placed on one of them. "I BELIEVE I ONCE TOLD YOU THAT I OFTEN SEE MYSELF IN MY CREATIONS. BETWEEN THIS ONE AND ARCEUS, I'M NOT CERTAIN WHICH THAT IS MORE TRUE FOR." This being hastily separated itself from Aura and the other nine, isolating itself in the void. Then, it began creating.

"FEARING A POTENTIAL CONFLICT BETWEEN EITHER ITSELF OR ITS CREATIONS AND THE OTHER NINE, THIS ONE WARPED SPACE AND TIME TO CREATE AN ENTIRELY NEW REALM. YOU KNOW IT AS ULTRA SPACE."

"...What was its name?" Asked Ash.

"IT NEVER GAVE ITSELF ONE," Replied Aura with a sigh. "THIS ONE...LOVED ITS CREATIONS ABOVE ALL ELSE." Ash watched as the being shaped a vast land that stretched out seemingly forever. In stark contrast to the planetary system he knew, the realm of Ultra Space was one singular gargantuan world. It filled this world with many living beings. Ash recognized some of them from the ones he had fought in the war. The being looked incredibly happy, living amongst its children...but that happiness soon faded.

"MUCH LIKE I, THIS ONE FEARED THAT, ONE DAY, IT WOULD GROW BORED WITH ITS CREATIONS AND KILL THEM FOR ITS OWN AMUSEMENT." The early Ultra Beasts protested as their creator rose high above them. It encased itself in a blinding light, and when that light faded, there was naught left but two crystals, coated in a warm, gentle glow. "IT DESTROYED ITSELF WILLINGLY, AND TURNED ITS BODY INTO AN EVERLASTING POWER SOURCE SO THAT ITS CHILDREN COULD PROSPER."

Ash's eyes widened when he recognized the crystals. "Those are-!"

Aura's shapeless form appeared to nod. "INDEED. THOSE CRYSTALS EVENTUALLY FELL INTO THE HANDS OF NECROZMA. YOU OVERHEARD SOLGALEO AND LUNALA RETELLING NECROZMA'S ORIGIN BEFORE THEIR DEMISE, RIGHT?" Ash nodded, so Aura continued. "MOSTLY, IT IS TRUE. HOWEVER, THERE IS AN ELEMENT THAT NOT EVEN NECROZMA HIMSELF UNDERSTANDS."

Ash was shown a small, roundish creature whose skin looked like a nebula. It dragged two crystals far larger than itself through an arid desert, but soon found itself without the strength to continue and fell flat on its face. "THAT IS WHAT NECROZMA USED TO BE. AN INNOCENT, UNASSUMING CREATURE TOO WEAK TO DEFEND ITSELF FROM ANYTHING." A wormhole appeared before it suddenly, whisking both it and the stolen crystals away. It was dropped in front of a star that sucked it in and burned it to ashes.

"ORDINARILY, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE END OF HIM...BUT…" Inside the star, the two crystals began to shake violently, and then the star in its entirety exploded. "THE CRYSTALS HAD A VIOLENT REACTION TO THE STAR'S HEAT AND GRAVITY, REPELLING IT WITH ITS OWN FORCE AND DESTROYING IT." The remaining trails of flame from the star stopped suddenly, reversing their flight paths back toward something Ash could not see, but as the light was sucked into nothingness, he saw its form as an empty void.

"THE STAR'S EXPLOSION TORE A HOLE IN THE FABRIC OF REALITY ITSELF, CREATING WHAT YOU KNOW AS A 'BLACK HOLE.' IT IS AN INESCAPABLE VOID, DARKER THAN THE ONE THAT SURROUNDS THE UNIVERSE." The black hole sucked in everything nearby until there wasn't so much as a visible light left, and when it, too, disappeared, there was only one thing left. Necrozma. "FROM THAT VOID, NECROZMA WAS BORN. A BEING NOT OF MY OWN CREATION, FUSED WITH THE CRYSTALS. HE GAINED THE POWER TO DEFY DEATH AND RETURN UNIMAGINABLY STRONGER THAN BEFORE.""

A fearsome grumble from the old god shook the world. Ash felt a smothering hatred unlike any other. "MY GREATEST MISTAKE WAS ALLOWING HIS EXISTENCE TO CONTINUE. WHEN I FIRST SAW NECROZMA, I COULD NOT DISCERN HIS FATE LIKE I COULD MY OWN CREATIONS. STILL, I REFUSED TO INTERVENE." The newly born Necrozma looked down at his own body curiously, marveling at his new form. Especially the crystals, which gave off the only form of light visible. To him, nothing had ever shined brighter.

Aura looked down at Ash and said, "NECROZMA WAS GIVEN THE LINGERING MEMORIES OF THE DEAD COSMOG, MAKING HIM THINK THAT HE WAS THAT COSMOG...BUT IN REALITY, HE IS NOT. THAT COSMOG DIED. NECROZMA IS A BEING OF PURE VOID, EMPTY AND HOLLOW TO THE CORE. HE DESERVES NO MERCY, FOR HE WILL USE IT ONLY TO CONTINUE HIS REIGN OF TERROR."

The newborn Necrozma decided to test his newfound power, traversing the universe until he came upon a planet filled to the brim with life. "AT FIRST, NECROZMA WAS MERELY AN EMPTY VESSEL. HE FELT NOTHING, AND NEW NOT THE DIFFERENCE FROM RIGHT AND WRONG...SOON, HE NO LONGER CARED TO KNOW." In the blink of an eye, Necrozma caused the entire planet to explode, wiping away all life with it. He then flew into that planet's host star and absorbed its power until there was nothing left.

The demon then tore open another hole in reality by grinding the two crystals together and eagerly rushed through it, howling with laughter like a madman. "AFTER GETTING A TASTE FOR BLOOD, NECROZMA WENT TO CLAIM VENGEANCE UPON THE ULTRA BEASTS THAT HAD CAUSED HIM SUFFERING." When Necrozma re-entered Ultra Space, he warped every single Ultra Beast in the entire realm beneath him. They saw the crystals lodged in his arm and bowed, apparently believing him to be their creator. They had no idea how to react when Necrozma descended upon them and began slaughtering them.

Eventually, the number of Ultra Beasts was whittled down to the thousands from the billions that had once existed. But suddenly, he stopped, much to the confusion of the terrified beasts. "NECROZMA, HOWEVER, STILL HAD ONE FEAR LINGERING WITHIN HIM THAT PERSISTS TO THIS VERY DAY. BEING ALONE...THOUGH, IT WAS NOT FOR THE SAKE OF COMPANIONSHIP. IT WAS SO THAT HE STILL HAD SOMETHING TO RULE OVER. TO SUBJECT TO HIS ENDLESS TORTURES FOR HIS AMUSEMENT."

Aura let out another weighty sigh. "...ULTRA SPACE'S CREATOR'S GREATEST FEAR HAD COME TO PASS. USING HIS POWER, NECROZMA SUCCESSFULLY TURNED HIS BELOVED CREATIONS INTO SLAVES, WHICH HE THEN USED TO CRUSADE ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, EITHER CONQUERING OR DESTROYING ANY PLANET HE CAME ACROSS."

Continuing, Aura showed Ash a horrible sight: entire planets, one after another, were reduced to dust in the thousands. Those thousands soon turned to millions. "UNIMPEDED, NECROZMA RAMPAGED ACROSS THE UNIVERSE FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS, AND HIS CONFIDENCE WAS STRENGTHENED WITH EACH VICTORY. YET, HE HAS ONE FEAR STILL LINGERING AT THE BACK OF HIS MIND."

"What's that?" Asked Ash.

"...THAT ONE DAY, HE WILL LOSE JOY IN DOING ANYTHING. KILLING, DESTROYING, OR EVEN POTENTIALLY TURNING TO GOOD IF ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF ABATING HIS BOREDOM. IT HANGS OVER HIM LIKE A SMOGGY CLOUD." The young boy was shown an even more terrible sight. Entire galaxies detonating one after another. It was a brilliant display of lights darting across the entire universe, but when those lights faded, there was nothing. Just an empty void. "...IN TIME, HE WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING, BECOME INSANE FROM BEING ALONE IN A VOID OF NOTHINGNESS, AND DESTROY HIMSELF AS WELL."

The vision soon faded, returning the mysterious world back to its bright white coloring. Coughing as if it was clearing its throat, Aura said, "THAT IS WHAT I BELIEVE, ANYWAYS. I HAVE NO WAY TO OBSERVE NECROZMA'S FATE OUTSIDE OF THE FATES OF OTHERS WHO WOULD ENCOUNTER HIM."

Ash looked away from Aura out toward where the vision once was, and after a brief pause, asked, "...So...even Arceus won't be enough?"

"...NO…"

Ash balled his hands into fists. "Then...I know you said it would come later, but I need to know! How do I figure into all of this?! Why did you save me, and not all the others that died?!"

"...I COULD NOT," Answered the so-called god wistfully. "I ATTEMPTED TO, BUT BETWEEN USING MY POWER TO TRAVERSE TO EARTH AND PROTECTING AS MANY AS I COULD...I HAD TO FOCUS MY EFFORTS ON YOU EXCLUSIVELY IN THE END. MY ATTEMPTS FAILED ANYWAYS."

'

"BUT WHY ME?!" Cried Ash once more, shaking his head vigorously. "I refuse to believe that my life is greater than theirs!" He forcefully wiped away a stray tear. "Hawlucha...Talonflame…! What made me special?!"

Aura did not speak for a time, eventually replying with, "...YOU ARE INSTRUMENTAL IN THE DEFEAT OF NECROZMA. IF I DID NOT SAVE YOU, THIS UNIVERSE WOULD PERISH."

"That doesn't answer my question!" Barked Ash. "If anything, I just have more now! What makes me so special?!"

"YOU ARE MY ENVOY, ASH KETCHUM," Replied Aura. "I CREATED YOU FOR THE PURPOSE OF DESTROYING NECROZMA."

Ash was stunned into silence. He felt cold all of a sudden, and his head began to whirl at unbearable speeds. "Wha…"

In an attempt to hopefully spare the boy of this suffering, Aura made the world once again fade to black. Now, the vision showed Aura staring at the universe, far closer than he'd ever been before. "AS I WATCHED NECROZMA'S RAMPAGE, I EVENTUALLY CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT NOTHING BESIDES MYSELF COULD STOP IT. BUT BECAUSE THE UNIVERSE REPELLED ME, I HAD TO FIND ANOTHER WAY." The Aura in the vision created a speck of light barely visible compared to itself and, upon placing it against the universe's wall, it slowly managed to push its way through the wall and down a stream of blue, iridescent light before disappearing from sight.

"I, MYSELF, COULD NOT YET ENTER THE UNIVERSE," Explained Aura, "BUT BY CONCENTRATING MY POWER INTO SOMETHING DIFFERENT FROM MYSELF AND CONNECTING TO THE GREATEST CONCENTRATION OF 'AURA' IN THE UNIVERSE, BEING EARTH, I COULD SEND A SMALL PIECE OF MYSELF THROUGH TO THERE. THAT SLIVER OF 'AURA' BECAME YOU, ASH."

A wide-eyed Ash stepped back from the vision, shaking his head vigorously. "So...all this time...I never had a life of my own?! I was just...your puppet?!"

Aura turned down to him and asked, "WHY DO YOU SAY THAT? ALL BEINGS, SAVE NECROZMA, WERE BORN FROM ME IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT." In the vision, a young, scraggy-haired boy, still clad in his pajamas, raced out from his house in a small town upon realizing that he had woken up too late. "LIKE ANY OTHER BEING, YOU WERE BORN NATURALLY. A LOVING MOTHER AND, EVENTUALLY, SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS. YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS ARE YOUR OWN, LIKE ANY OTHER LIVING BEING."

Ash heaved out a sigh now that his existential crisis had been swept aside. "Boy, that's a relief!" He laughed in embarrassment, attempting to shove his earlier behavior under the rug. "I don't know what came over me!"

The creator let out a low hum, then said, "DO NOT ATTEMPT TO HIDE YOUR GRIEVANCES. YOU STILL HAVE MIXED FEELINGS, CORRECT? I DO NOT BLAME YOU."

Dropping the act, Ash said, "...Yeah, you're right about that. I never really thought of myself as different or above anyone else. Now it feels like I'm somewhere else entirely from everyone else."

Sighing, Aura replied, "I APOLOGIZE FOR THAT. I KNOW IT MUST BE UNENDINGLY JARRING TO SUDDENLY HAVE THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE THRUST UPON YOU, BUT SURELY YOU MUST AGREE THAT THE THREAT OF NECROZMA TRUMPS ALL ELSE?"

Ash nodded. "Of course. After all he's done, there's no way I could let him do the same to anyone else. If you can help me beat Necrozma, I'm all for it."

"IT IS NOT YOU WHO NEEDS MY HELP, ASH," Replied Aura, much to the boy's confusion. "BUT RATHER, IT IS I WHO NEEDS YOURS."

"My help?" Asked Ash. "What use could I be?"

Aura took a moment to respond. "...WHEN I REFERRED TO YOU AS AN ENVOY, PERHAPS 'VESSEL' WOULD HAVE BEEN A MORE ACCURATE DESCRIPTION. YOUR BODY WAS CREATED TO BE ABLE TO WITHHOLD MY POWER, SO LONG AS MY CONSCIOUSNESS ACCOMPANIES IT."

The trainer chuckled dryly. "So, that's it? He looked down at himself, like it was alien to him. "...Well, can I ask a few things first?"

"I OWE YOU THAT MUCH AND MORE."

Ash stared at the god intently, narrowing his eyes. "...What happens when something dies? Do they just...fade away? I need to know what happened to Hawlucha and Talonflame."

"HMMM," Mused Aura. "I'VE OFTEN WONDERED THAT MYSELF. DEATH TRULY OCCURS WHEN ALL AURA LEAVES THEM. EVEN AS SPIRITS, LIFEFORMS CAN HOLD THEMSELVES TOGETHER...WHEN DEATH TRULY COMES, THEY DISAPPEAR ENTIRELY." The god looked up into the black void wistfully. "I WONDER IF THERE TRULY IS A GOD ABOVE ME, SOMEWHERE WHERE I CANNOT REACH. OR OTHER BEINGS AS POWERFUL AS I WITHIN THE INFINITE BLACK VOID."

When Aura caught itself going off track, he went on with his initial point. "IN ANY CASE, I BELIEVE THAT THOSE WHO PASS ON LIVE IN A DREAM-LIKE REALM OF THEIR CHOOSING FOR ALL ETERNITY. THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO BELIEVE, ANYWAYS."

Ash nodded, satisfied with this answer. "Alright. So, do you know who my dad is?"

"BESIDES ME, THE ONE OF YOUR WORLD WHO MARRIED YOUR MOTHER, DELIA, IS VERY SIMILAR TO YOU. HE IS ON A JOURNEY OF HIS OWN AS A TRAINER."

"Where is he-"

The entire world shook with a sudden, violent quake that nearly threw Ash off of his feet. "What is that?!"

Aura looked up to the white sky uncomfortably. "OUR TIME IS RUNNING OUT. NECROZMA IS ON THE VERGE OF VICTORY." Turning its gaze back down upon the boy, he said, "THE TIME HAS COME. IF YOU ALLOW ME TO OVERTAKE YOUR BODY, THE REPELLING SPELL OF THE UNIVERSE WILL BREAK, ALLOWING ME TO USE THE FULL EXTENT OF MY POWER TO COMBAT NECROZMA. WILL YOU ALLOW ME TO DO SO?"

"Time?!" Cried Ash. "I thought you said time didn't exist here!"

"I WILL EXPLAIN LATER," Spoke the deity hastily, "THAT, I PROMISE. BUT NOW, THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE HANGS IN THE BALANCE, AS DOES THE LIVES OF YOUR FRIENDS. WHAT IS YOUR ANSWER, ASH KETCHUM?"

---

Necrozma was carried up through his ship and into the sky by a massive golden pillar, which he promptly pushed himself out of with a small blast from his hand. As he landed upon the ship's roof, Arceus erupted from below with a thunderous crash and stood before him. "It's about time, Arceus!" Jeered Necrozma. "You really know how to keep a guy waiti-"

"AAAAAUUUUUUGHHHHH!"

Arceus reared up on his hind legs, letting loose an agonized wail of a scream to the heavens. Before Necrozma knew what was happening, his adversary had already launched an array of golden lasers his way. The demon's eyes widened as the attacks narrowed in on their target at speeds outpacing light itself, crashing into him one after another and launching him back and forth. The hundreds of stray beams ripped through the roof of the ship as if it were melting butter.

Necrozma unleashed a blast around himself to destroy the beams, only for Arceus to launch himself straight into the demon's chest and drag him across the ship's roofing. The Alpha Pokemon kicked Necrozma higher into the air, warped in his path to stomp him right back below, and warped beneath him once more. Arceus rose up to his hind legs, letting out an animal-like roar that could be heard across the entire world before slamming his front legs back to the ground. A golden pillar of light exploded from his body and barreled into Necrozma. The demon scarcely had the time to cry out before it overtook him.

He was nearly carried into the upper atmosphere until he unleashed a massive explosion that sent a crimson ring across the sky. "Quite impressive, Arceus," He commended, "But this power still won't be enough!" Encasing himself in a sparking, crimson energy, Necrozma blitzed down upon Arceus with his arm pumped back, but when he unleashed the would-be devastating punch to the Alpha's forehead, he was surprised to find that he didn't even flinch. He merely glared a horrible deathly, fiery stare into the demon's eyes. It was a level of untold rage he had never seen before. One that carried not only anger, but a deep, unending sorrow.

"HRAGH!" Bellowed Arceus, throwing Necrozma to the ground with a pulse of energy. He crashed his feet into the ship's roof and summoned an array of balls of light that coated the entire sky. Just as Necrozma launched himself up to rush Arceus, the orbs descended upon him with all the swiftness and rapidity of a hailstorm. With each ball that impacted him and detonated, he was thrown into another which did the same. This happened repeatedly, all the while Arceus charged up another powerful attack, until Necrozma lost patience.

"ENOUGH!" Roared the demon, attempting to dispel the orbs. However, the interference of his own energy with theirs caused them to explode at once. The resulting detonation painted the entire sky white for miles, as well as vigorously shaking the mothership. A massive smokescreen covered the ship's top, and upon Necrozma dispelling it and rushing toward Arceus, he was greeted with the sight of the god's face, and the beam that he'd already charged.

"For those you've ruthlessly crushed under your heel," Spoke Arceus, his reddened eyes flaring brighter than ever, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" A colossal beam was unleashed from Arceus, sweeping across the ship's roof and trailing upward. It was like a blade that cleaved the sky itself in two, along with the mothership. For the first time in what seemed like forever, the few remaining survivors below were granted with the sight of the sky once more.

Necrozma flew from the massive energy blade to descend upon Arceus once more. Gathering energy within his right crystal and making it flare a deep, crimson red, he drove his fist into Arceus's skull and sent him skidding across the ship's roof, which had remained floating in spite of being sliced in half. Arceus leapt up into the air after Necrozma, and the two collided with a resounding force. They became naught but blurs in the sky, unperceivable by mortal and Legend alike. The streaks of light they left in their wake were like stars that shone even in midday. It was truly a battle between gods.

"Father…" Dialga managed to whisper under his breath. "This power...what have you become?"

Necrozma narrowly dodged a side-winding beam from Arceus and rushed past it, dealing a blow to the head that stunned the god long enough for the demon to grab hold of Arceus's ring and throw him back to the ship's top. Arceus crashed into it with thunderous force, but landed on his feet. Upon seeing Necrozma rushing down toward him, he unleashed another pillar of light up to combat it. However, unlike before, Necrozma was able to slowly push through it.

"DIE!" Roared Arceus. "TASTE JUDGEMENT AND DIE!" Millions of golden arrows raced up the pillar, spiraling around it like snakes. They crashed against the demon's armored body and, one by one, let loose a flashing set of explosions. It was like a divine show of fireworks, sending white flashes across the entire sky. But Necrozma's crimson energy raged out against it nonetheless, becoming less and less impeded with each passing second.

At the last second, Arceus back-stepped and allowed Necrozma to fly past him. Necrozma's fist met with one of the ship's halves, and it would have crashed into the ground below had Arceus not stopped it by encasing the half in a golden glow and pulling it back to the sky. But as he did, Necrozma jumped up with an uppercut. Arceus created a golden barrier around himself to block it, but a flash of red from Necrozma's crystal allowed the demon to push past it and deliver the blow to Arceus's chin.

"How pathetic!" Mocked Necrozma with a laugh. "After letting your children die for the sake of gathering energy…" He rushed at Arceus, belting him on the top of his head and hitting him with another uppercut immediately afterwards. Necrozma pointed his hand at the stunned god, his palm lighting up. "THIS is all you can muster?!"

Arceus's brilliant golden energy was suddenly encased in a searing red as his rage re-doubled. An unimaginably smothering force erupted from the enraged deity, crushing the metal roof beneath him with each resounding pulse that was let loose from his body. "I'LL...KILL YOU…!" Seventeen multicolored plates manifested around him suddenly, twirling around Arceus's ring in everlasting circles. "NOT A SHRED OF YOUR BODY WILL REMAIN! DO YOU HEAR ME?!" All of the plates disappeared suddenly, save for one. It was a dark, grassy green, lowering itself to meet Arceus's forehead.

"LIFE WILL NEVER AGAIN WITHER UNDER YOUR HEEL AGAIN! IT WILL BE FREE TO BLOOM! MEADOW PLATE: OPEN!"

A brilliant flash of green ensued, and when it faded, Arceus's golden plate, as well as his eyes, had shifted to match the color of the Meadow Plate. The Alpha Pokemon raised his hooves and slammed them back down upon the ground, resulting in several colossal vines erupting from the ground below, penetrating the ship and coming out the other end in a mere fraction of a second. Necrozma flipped through the air to evade another one of these vines and rocketed toward Arceus. He sidestepped a number of the vines that came his way without much effort, only for dozens more to create a barrier in his path.

The demon merely chuckled at this. "Does he honestly expect mere plants to be able to stop me?!" Necrozma brought his fist back and slammed it into the wall of vines. His eyes went wide when he saw that his strike had no effect. "Wha-?!" His expression of surprise was cut short when the energy that he'd dispersed into the vines upon impact re-manifested where they'd been struck and shot back out into Necrozma's fist, making his hand recoil.

"What the hell are these things?!" He exclaimed. The vines appeared around him en masse and, before he could escape, wrapped around him into a tightly-knit dome. They closed in on the demon, aiming to crush him in their grip. A crimson glow shined out from within, and the vines were blown back by an incredible force. When that force was reflected back upon Necrozma, he unleashed an even greater one that tore through the vines and scattered their remains.

An annoyed Necrozma eyed his surroundings, attempting to locate his adversary through the rain of vine parts. "Right behind you." Necrozma whipped around, only to be blasted by a shimmering, emerald-green beam of light. "SOLARBEAM!" Necrozma was sent flying backwards at the beam's head, but managed to stop himself, by digging his claws into the beam and splitting it in two. He rushed at Arceus with the intent to bash his skull in, but another one of the vines rose up from beneath him, slamming him in the gut and carrying him higher into the air.

Several more vines appeared and rose up alongside Necrozma, and just when the demon was about to destroy them, he was slammed down from behind by Arceus's foot into the vine, which promptly wrapped around and trapped him for the moment. With the demon ensnared, Arceus summoned another Solarbeam, and the tips of the other surrounding vines did the same. The moment Necrozma erupted from the vine, he was met with a wall of emerald green energy on all sides that crushed his body together.

"BASTARD!" He roared, unleashing a blast of his own that completely overpowered the omni-sided Solarbeam. "Your cheap tricks will avail you nothing!"

Arceus descended back to the ship's top, returning his ring to gold and summoning another plate. It was bright red, almost to the level of Necrozma's crystals. "I disagree!" Roared Arceus.

"WITH THESE DIVINE FLAMES, I WILL CAST YOU INTO THE HELLFIRE FROM WHERE YOU SPAWNED! FLAME PLATE: OPEN!"

The jungle of vines he'd created was suddenly, all at once, burned to ashes by an all-encompassing wall of flames. Necrozma scoffed and half-heartedly made an attempt to dispel them with the flick of his wrist, but his eyes went wide with shock when the flames burst straight through his Psychic powers and slammed into him with all the force of a meteor. He was sent hurtling backwards, but quickly regained himself. "BEGONE!" The demon let loose a wave of energy that blasted the fiery wall apart.

Yet, that instance allowed for Arceus, coated in shimmering blue flames, to hurtle himself straight into the demon and sent them spiraling through the air. Arceus warped behind Necrozma and shot him to the ground with a loosely blade-shaped concentration of white-hot fire. "Impudent…!" Cursed Necrozma. Smashing his fists into the ship in annoyance, the demon leapt up into the air to pursue Arceus, to which the furious deity once again coated himself in fire, rushing down to meet him.

Their collison let loose a hellish storm of flaming debris that rained down onto the ship and battlefield below. The survivors flinched and recoiled, but the raining shrapnel never reached the ground. Enshrouded by a golden glow, every last speck stopped in its tracks for a moment before looping back around and flinging themselves at the black demon. This slight moment of distraction allowed for Arceus to overpower the demon and knock him down to the ship's top.

Arceus blasted the fallen Necrozma with another wave of flames, using it to distance himself from the demon. Rearing his head up to the sky, Arceus let loose a roar to the heavens and summoned colossal walls of flame on all sides that blotted out the sky itself. The moment Necrozma backhanded the smoke he was covered in to dispel it, the walls closed in on him and exploded violently. Superheated winds caused the fires to spiral around in circles until, eventually, a gargantuan cyclone that looked to be from hell itself manifested.

An annoyed Necrozma brushed away the flames that consumed him and attempted to fly out of the vortex. He blitzed toward Arceus and prepared to bash his skull in, but his outstretched fist was just short of him before he felt himself slowly start to get pulled back in. The glaring god let loose another deafening roar and unleashed a forceful blast of flame that flung the demon right back in. Necrozma felt the vicious flames lick at his prismatic body and the winds tearing through the air like blades. He couldn't even see any part of the ship anymore, and any stray piece of shrapnel that was sucked into the vortex was incinerated immediately.

Yet, the demon remained unharmed. "You believe this will trap me, do you?!" He crossed his arms over his face, the crystals glowing brightly. "IT MEANS NOTHING!" The vortex of fire was immediately blown apart and destroyed by a massive, world-shaking blast from Necrozma. Yet, he still felt a searing heat on all sides, but especially above him. When he looked up, he found Arceus and a colossal, white-hot ball of fire that dwarfed even the ship. It was like a secondary sun.

Necrozma smirked and pointed his finger up at the ball, aiming to cause it to detonate right in its creator's face, but Arceus disappeared suddenly. Instinctively, the invader whipped around, but he wasn't fast enough. Arceus blasted him dead in the face with a fiery beam that sent him flying straight into the ball, and when he was trapped inside, teleported the ball into the upper atmosphere and detonated it. The resulting explosion nearly wiped away the sky itself, but Arceus made sure to keep it intact.

However, not even this was able to damage the demon. He descended from the explosion with a trail of flame blazing behind him, stopping his momentum when he reached the ship. "Is that all you have?" Mocked Necrozma. "I could do that with my pinky finger if I tried."

"Far from it!" Hissed Arceus, readying another plate. This one was blue, and the scope of its deepness appeared to mimic that of the world's oceans. Yet the hatred in his eyes was infinitely deeper. "I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL EVERY TRACE OF YOUR BODY IS WIPED FROM EXISTENCE!"

"THE OCEANS WERE LIFE'S FIRST ORIGINS, YET THEY WILL BE YOUR FINAL DEMISE! SPLASH PLATE: OPEN!"

When Arceus's ring matched the color of the plate, the fires he created were wiped away instantaneously. Their dying hiss ushered in a cloud of blinding fog, which Necrozma promptly dispelled with the flick of his arm. Above him was Arceus, and a massive form of water was growing above the god's head. Trails of glistening water rose up from seemingly nowhere and gathered into a singular mass. Stretching across the sky like an endless cloud, a veritable ocean was generated in mere seconds.

Necrozma cocked his head back and laughed at Arceus's display of creation. "Water?!" He questioned in disbelief. "You plan to kill me with wa-" He was interrupted when something smashed into his face and knocked him backwards. Something...wet. The demon glared up at his adversary, only to see millions of concentrated jets of water descending upon him with all the haste and frequency as raindrops in a storm.

Time seemed to move slowly for the demon. He weaved through the water jets with ease, a smirk firmly planted in his eyes. But then he noticed that they were gaining pace, and all of a sudden, he was the slow one. He was pelted relentlessly by the water funnels to the point where there was no chance of dodging anymore. When he moved, the jets followed in every direction, and when he warped, so did they. Growing fed up with it, he created a barrier around himself and rocketed up into the ocean in the sky.

"YOUR POWER MEANS NOTHING!" He roared, sending out a shockwave that sent the ocean scattering across the sky. But as the demon grinned down at his handiwork, the falling water stopped in its tracks. Like bullets, the water droplets closed in on Necrozma, to which he once again created a barrier around himself. With his own Psychic power, he stopped the water bullets in place and trained them back upon Arceus. "Let us see if you can withstand your power!"

However, Arceus glared up at Necrozma defiantly and retorted, "Try it, cretin!" Necrozma chuckled and obliged, sending the hellish storm flying down upon its creator. Arceus's glare remained unflinching as they approached, and to the demon's surprise, it had no effect on him. The water was wrenched from Necrozma's grip and re-formed into the massive ocean overhead. "Were you not paying attention during our last bout?!" Demanded Arceus. "My power is mine own! It could never harm me! Can you say the same?!"

Necrozma scoffed in response. "It doesn't matter. I have this new form of yours figured out. Nothing you can do with it can harm me!" He rushed at his adversary with a ball of energy in his hand, to which Arceus shaped the pools of water into spears and hurled them at the demon. The water spears crashed against Necrozma's prismatic body, bouncing off his armor without leaving so much as a scratch. Grinning like a maniac, Necrozma descended upon Arceus and slammed the ball into him...but caught only air.

Arceus disappeared from sight, and when Necrozma whipped his head around to find him, he found that he had become entirely encased in the floating ocean. Far above, Arceus floated in the air with another plate at the ready. It was bright yellow, nearly blinding to look at in the afternoon sun and carried with it the intensity of a lightning bolt.

"IT WAS FROM LIGHTNING THAT SPAWNED THE FIRST FLAME, AND IT WILL BE LIGHTNING THAT SPELLS YOUR END! VANISH INTO NOTHING WITH ALL THE HASTE OF A THUNDERBOLT! ZAP PLATE: OPEN!"

Faster than Necrozma could hope to react, an utterly colossal bolt of lightning tore down from the heavens and wrent the skies in its path. When it made contact with the ocean that encapsulated Necrozma, every inch of it flashed brightly as the lightning coursed through it, and in an instant, it was vaporized. The unharmed demon erupted from the ensuing smoke cloud only to find even greater clouds awaiting him.

Dark clouds filled the sky, smothering it in their umbral grasp. The only source of light was from the constant streaks of stark blue lightning that flittered through it without pause. When one of them dared to crash against Necrozma's skin, it was frozen in place and disintegrated into black, unearthly dust before disappearing from existence entirely. "Where are you hiding, Arceus?!" Roared Necrozma. Another flash of light answered his question.

Enshrouded by the dark clouds, Arceus appeared before the demon. His fiery red glare was the only thing illuminating his figure, much like Necrozma's crystals did for him. Necrozma lurched forward to punch him, but Arceus disappeared in a flash of lightning. He whirled around, expecting to find Arceus, but his punch only met with another lightning bolt. "Enough games!" Cried an annoyed Necrozma. "Show yourself!"

"As you wish."

The demon was suddenly pelted by millions of lightning bolts from all sides. In response, Necrozma let loose an omni-sided blast to dispel the entire storm, but the clouds came back as fast as they went. He sensed Arceus approach from behind and sent a beam his way, and grinned when it met its mark. Arceus's body suddenly dispersed, and the demon laughed, thinking he had won far too easily. Arceus's body turned into another bolt of lightning that crawled up Necrozma's beam and struck at his body.

In surprise, Necrozma actually let out a small yelp, cursing himself for it immediately afterwards. "So, with this form, you can turn yourself into lightning, eh?" The crackling electricity was frozen in place as the demon grabbed hold of it. "A neat party trick at best, "god." The bolt was taken over by a shroud of growing black dust until Necrozma abruptly crushed it in his grasp, sending it into nothingness. Knowing better than to believe Arceus was done just yet after what had already happened, he reached above his head and grabbed another oncoming lightning bolt out of the sky, coated it with his own energy, and hurled it toward Arceus.

With another flash of light, Arceus disappeared and dodged the bolt and allowed it to fly past, tearing through the thick storm clouds like butter. Another lightning strike closed in on Necrozma, but he reached up and grabbed it as well. "Not this time." With a jovial laugh, the demon completely overtook the bolt and infused it with his own energy before hurling it directly above him. When it exploded, he expected the clouds to be completely blown apart. To say he was taken aback when a colossal stream of pure plasma crashed onto him from where he'd thrown it was an understatement.

"Wh-what?!" Necrozma was sent hurtling back onto the ship by the lightning stream, and when it stopped, and he immediately attempted to rise back up only to be stomped back down by Arceus. The deity rose up on his hind legs, his body becoming charged to the brink with electricity. Just before it hit, Necrozma lurched up and grabbed Arceus's foot with an energy ball prepared in his other hand. The moment he threw it, Arceus disappeared in a flash of lightning once more.

The demon jumped back into the air and summoned a barrier around himself to halt any potential attack. He also created a ward that would automatically stop whatever entered it with Psychic. "Make your move!" Challenged Necrozma. "Nothing you could possibly do will so much as even touch me!" A hellstorm of colossal pillars of lightning rained down upon Necrozma from the heavens. They crashed down all around him, with most of them striking his barrier. None of them were able to pierce it.

The demon's booming laughter drowned out even the endless thunder. "Your tricks mean nothing if they cannot be used to harm your opponent!" Then he finally caught sight of Arceus once more, and he had another plate at the ready. It was a bright blue, looking almost more white than the aforementioned color.

"WHEN THE WORLD WAS TOO HOT FOR LIFE TO PERSIST, COLD BROUGHT BALANCE. WITH ICE, I SHALL ONCE AGAIN INSTILL BALANCE AND PUT AN END TO THE HELL YOU'VE CREATED! ICICLE PLATE: OPEN!"

The plate entered Arceus's back, and instantaneously, the pillars of lightning were frozen solid. That included those that attacked Necrozma's barrier, resulting in him being completely encased in a massive ball of solid ice. The storm clouds that raged above cooled immensely, turning the storms into a hailing blizzard.

It didn't take long for the demon to break loose of his frigid cage, evidenced by an iridescent red glow appearing from the inside. Arceus turned the blizzard's winds upon him in an attempt to make the cage even greater, but a crimson blast shattered the ice sphere along with the surrounding pillars. Instead of going to attack Arceus, Necrozma disappeared as a black blur and grabbed hold of one of the following pillars.

"I understand your weakness now!" Claimed Necrozma as he infused the pillar with his own energy and pointed it up at the Alpha Pokemon. "When I threw that bolt I infused with my energy, instead of letting it hit you, you dodged it!" He warped above Arceus, already in mid-swing. "So if my energy overtakes your attacks, I can send everything you throw at me right ba-"

The pillar suddenly exploded, sending shards of ice in every direction. What's more, the shards of ice stuck to his armored flesh and made him feel more sluggish. "Your arrogance is misplaced!" Cried Arceus. "I amassed this power for the sole purpose of killing you! There is nothing you could do to turn it against me!"

Necrozma clapped his hand on his chest and brushed off the encumbering ice. "We shall see." He readied another crimson ball in his hand and hurled it at Arceus, only for it to become encased in ice and shatter when the Alpha flicked it away. The surroundings winds began to pick up all of a sudden, and Necrozma found that the slowing ice began to crawl its way up his body. "Annoying…" The demon struggled against the ice, but every piece he successfully managed to break off was quickly replaced with more. "Worthless…!" His crystals began glowing fiercely, darkening the sky itself in crimson. "PARLOR TRICKS!"

Arceus's eyes went wide as he sensed the demon's strength momentarily skyrocket. He quickly warped out of harm's way just in time to avoid a colossal explosion. The icy clouds were completely blown backwards and consumed by black dust thereafter. Arceus appeared on the ship's top, and Necrozma found him instantly, rocketing toward him with crazed speeds. The Alpha launched himself upwards by manifesting an icy pillar below him that stretched into the sky, and when Necrozma destroyed it with a single punch, he created a multi-layered barrier of concentrated ice.

"YOUR DEFENSES MEAN NOTHING ANYMORE!" Bellowed Necrozma, digging a hand into the ball. The first layer quickly ate away at itself, disappearing into nothingness as more black dust destroyed it. However, Necrozma noticed something odd about the next layer. It was a deep purple, and it seemed to already be melting. Thinking nothing of it, Necrozma fired at the second barrier. The second the hole was punched into it, the barrier unleashed a foul, purple gas that ate away anything it touched, save Necrozma.

"A POISON WILL SPELL DEATH TO ANY WHO COME IN CONTACT WITH IT, BUT DEATH, IN TURN, ALLOWS FOR NEW LIFE. YOUR DEATH WILL ALLOW FOR LIFE TO FLOURISH ACROSS THE UNIVERSE ONCE MORE! TOXIC PLATE: OPEN!"

Soon enough, the entire barrier melted away, becoming mere sludge and eroding away entirely in mere seconds, leaving only a smoldering cloud in its wake. Arceus erupted from that cloud, ramming into Necrozma. He disappeared and re-appeared above the demon, stomping him back down to the ship and crashing down beside him. A sickening purple smoke cloud exploded out from the god's body, completely coating the sky in mere seconds.

Still, Necrozma was not impressed. "Poison?!" He laughed. "You must be truly getting desperate if you believe poison of all things could possibly work on me!" Beneath him, the ship was quickly being eaten away by the corrosive substance like cotton candy meeting water. An oozing spire jutted up from beneath him out of seemingly nowhere, though he easily sidestepped it and banished it with the flick of his wrist. He noticed a shadow slithering through the smog out of the corner of his eye and fired at it, but it disappeared when he did so.

"Enough games!" Roared Necrozma. "If you are going to fight, then fight! Or were the deaths of your children not convincing enough?!" The shadow appeared before him, slamming into him with a force that genuinely surprised him. Necrozma was sent sprawling, and when he looked back up at his attacker, he was met with a violent torrent of purple wind his way. He raised an arm, forming a small shield in front of him, but to his shock, the substance melted straight through it.

He tossed it aside and was once again barreled into by the furious god. He had once again devolved into mad bellowing, proving that his provocation had worked. But by now, Necrozma was beyond done playing games. He stopped Arceus in his tracks with a blow to his chest, resulting in a shockwave that momentarily cast the smog away. Before it could come back, the demon leapt over Arceus's back, grabbed his ring, and hurled him skyward.

The demon pointed his arms up at him. His crystals glowed brightly, sending cascades of crimson plasma running across his entire body and gathering at the palms of his hands. "DIE WITH THE CHILDREN THAT YOU FAILED!" He roared, unleashing a colossal beam. It obliterated the smog completely, absorbing it unto itself and erasing all of it in black dust as it passed. Soon, it crashed into its intended target with a resounding shockwave that sent tremors across the planet. Necrozma grinned up at the smoke cloud, eager to see what remained of his victim. It was wiped off of his face when he heard Arceus's voice.

"CONSCIOUSNESS AND SENTIENCE WERE THE ULTIMATE GIFT WE SHARED WITH OUR CREATIONS. I WILL REVEL IN ERASING YOURS! MIND PLATE: OPEN!"

The world around Necrozma began to twist and turn into unimaginable shapes. It looked as if he had tunnel vision, and the ship began to curve around said tunnel on either side. The result turned the ship into an odd, grey valley that stretched up and consumed the very skies. What was left of said skies was a mismatch of color that was irritating beyond words to look at. Necrozma was having none of it.

"Illusions? More tricks?!" He dug his claws into reality itself, shattering the area he touched like glass and prying it apart. "I'll have you know Deoxys already tried this, and look where he ended up!" Arceus recoiled as his dimensional twist was shattered before his very eyes. The demon gave him no reprieve and launched himself at Arceus, delivering an earth-shattering blow to his skull and sending him sprawling across the battered ship's top. Necrozma warped to Arceus, hovering over him with his fist still smoking from the impact.

"I am DONE with tricks, Arceus. You WILL give me the fight that I crave, and if you cannot, I will tear whoever still remains below us apart and force you to listen to their screams!"

A brilliant, silver-coated light erupted from the fallen god, knocking the demon back. From that pillar of light, Arceus emerged once more. The rage burning in his eyes was completely renewed. "YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!" Bellowed the Father of all Pokemon. "I WON'T LET YOU!" A silverish-gray plate appeared above him, matching the pillar of light that encased him. "THE TIME FOR TALK IS OVER! IRON PLATE: OPEN!"

Necrozma smirked at him in amusement. "It's about time!" Cloaking himself in crimson plasma, Necrozma blitzed at Arceus at unimaginable speeds, once again delivering a blow to the god's skull with even greater force than the last time. His face fell when he saw that Arceus didn't move or even flinch from it. It looked like his entire body had turned into a silvery-chrome metal. There wasn't a single scrape of damage visible on his body. "What?!"

"MY BODY IS A SHIELD THAT PROTECTS MY CHILDREN!" Roared Arceus valiantly. "IT WILL NOT BREAK NOR WAVER! I WILL NOT LET YOUR HARM MY CHILDREN ANY LONGER!"

Arceus blasted the demon away with a brightly-lit Flash Cannon. Though it was easily blocked, it acted as the distraction it needed two. Several blades manifested in mid-air, completely surrounding Necrozma. Thinking nothing of it, Necrozma encased them in his Psychic grip and smirked confidently. That smirk was promptly wiped off of his face when the blades closed in on him regardless. At blinding speeds, they slashed at his body from every possible angle. He was thrown about from blade to blade, but because they were in such close proximity, there wasn't a single nanosecond of time that passed without him being struck.

Necrozma grabbed one of them by the hilt and encased it in his own energy. It became grandiose in scale, larger than even himself, and in a single swipe he sliced the other swords into pieces. "Weaponry?" Asked Necrozma with a half-stifled laugh. "Are you kidding me? Well, it's a step up from meaningless tricks!" He whirled around and hurled the blade back at Arceus, but suddenly, a multitude of silver-coated shields appeared around him and deflected the blow.

Unfazed by this, Necrozma warped above the circle of shields, gathering energy to his fist. "Haven't you learned by now that there is no shield I cannot break?!" The demon descended upon Arceus, smashing his fist into the shields that protected him. A massive shockwave tore through the sky with enough force to move the mothership from the wind alone. Yet, there wasn't even a dent on the barriers. "What?! Well, let's see how you handle a second strike!"

He raised his arm, preparing to land another blow to the shields, but just before his fist met with them, a gap opened up between them. A jagged silver spear shot out from the gap, gliding up the demon's arm and catching him in the eye. Necrozma staggered backwards, letting out a shocked cry. He grabbed the spear by its nape and snapped it, opening his unharmed eyes and glaring at what remained of the spear. He didn't see the second one until it was too late. Nor the third and other seven.

These spears jabbed at Necrozma's body with a rapidity he couldn't seem to counter. His eyes went wide, not knowing what was happening or what was striking him. One of the spears jabbed at the plating in his arm and became lodged, but used that to throw the demon down to where another set of swords awaited him. He was once again caught in their grasp, being sliced at without repose until he was knocked away by a hammer. Above him, a mace spun like a blur, smashing him with tremendous force when he unwittingly approached.

Below, the spears jutted up towards him. He whirled around at the last second, grabbing the first that approached him and using it to bat away the others. "DIE!" He roared, hurling the spear into the shields. Though it didn't pierce through them, it was able to catch itself between the tiny gap in the shields. Necrozma rushed at Arceus before he could do anything about the rogue spear and smashed the end of it, forcing it through. The shields on the other end broke apart as Arceus was knocked back by his own spear.

Necrozma hastily launched himself at his adversary now that he was without protection and slammed his fist into the god's chest. The force behind his punch was able to pierce Arceus's chrome armor, shattering it instantly. However, Arceus was already prepared with the next plate. "INSECT PLATE: OPEN!" He was coated in a lime green light briefly, with his ring taking on the same color.

The demon couldn't help but to cackle at the name of the plate. "'Insect plate'?" He said in disbelief, devolving back into laughter. "So, you finally acknowledge it then? You're all nothing more than worthless insects to by crushed at my heel!"

"SILENCE!" Roared Arceus. "EVERY LIFE, EVEN THOSE OF INSECTS, HAVE VALUE BEYOND YOUR WORTHLESS EXISTENCE! YOU COULD NEVER UNDERSTAND, BECAUSE YOUR LIFE IS A FARCE!"

Millions of small, erratic, multicolored Signal Beams erupted from Arceus's body and descended upon the demon. A smirking Necrozma raced into the fray, whirling though the air and dodging the beams with ease. He batted away any stray ones that came close, but when Arceus combined every single one of them together upon him, he found himself being knocked back. Still, it meant nothing to him. "AS IF I COULD BE STOPPED FOR EVEN A SECOND BY THE 'POWER' OF INSECTS!"

The dark invader dug his claws into the beam, sending his own through it that blasted it apart in a terrible explosion. The once beautiful web of multicolored lasers was destroyed in an instant by the demon's hellish crimson grasp. "You'll have to try harder than that, Arce-" He stopped his taunt midway through when he saw two odd red spheres covering his crystals. They jumped off of him suddenly, flying back toward Arceus.

"Trust me," Spoke Arceus as the energy he'd absorbed from the demon with Leech Life approached. "I know." He glanced over to them, glowering at what he'd taken in disgust. "Your power is revolting. It's not even dark; it's...hollow. Devoid of anything, yet it still has the gall to exist." He turned his fiery glare back upon the monster before him. "It is fitting, I'd say." Still, Arceus forced himself to use the power, merging it with his own and molding it into a terrible black spear. It was devoid of any light. Anything that touched it was immediately erased from existence. He could hear the air itself decaying from touching it.

Eager to rid himself of its presence, he sent it sailing back at the demon. "NOW, DIE BY YOUR OWN POWER!" The pitch black spear hurtled through the air, leaving a black, murky trail behind. Necrozma casually raised a single hand to catch it, but when it crashed into him, his energy began to go wild. Plasma poured from his crystals on masse, destroying entire portions of the ship below.

Still. The demon was hardly phased. "So, you decide to use your pathetic power to copy mine?" His grip on the spear tightened despite the black plasmatic lightning that erupted from it when he did so. Soon enough, it shattered entirely, leaving Necrozma still completely unharmed. "Perhaps that might have done some damage if you were competent, but that is beyond you."

Arceus scowled at him, quickly summoning another plate. "FIST PLATE, OPEN!"

His ring and eyes became a light shade of brownish-red, and with it, a multitude of massive, hulking, ethereal arms appeared all around the two of them. "When I shaped this world," Spoke Arceus, "I did so with the power of my one-thousand hands! Now I call upon that power once more!"

"Hmph," Spat Necrozma. "I'll need only two to tear it all back down." He shot toward Arceus, smashing his fist into the nearest arm. However, its own fist clashed with his as well, and though it shook violently from the impact, it remained steady long enough for two more to close in on his sides. He warped above them, allowing them to collide with one another and would have destroyed them, but another arm slammed into him from beside and sent him tumbling into the grip of another.

The thousand hands wrapped themselves around the demon, attempting to smother him in their collective grasp. A crimson glow shined from inside, and they were, all at once, blown backwards by an all-encompassing blast. He turned his hungry sights upon Arceus and rocketed toward him, only for the arms to appear in his path and block the blow. "How odd," He remarked, creating a barrier around himself as the arms began to encircle him. "I destroyed them all, yet they appear to be able to re-manifest themselves."

The thousand arms opened their hands slowly. Each of their fingers began glowing an iridescent, deep blue. From them, millions of Aura Spheres were launched at Necrozma's barrier. The sheer amount of explosions coated the entire area in a thick smoke, but still, they kept on firing. "AURA IS THE RAW ESSENCE OF LIFE...NO, EXISTENCE ITSELF! IN OTHER WORDS, IT IS YOUR ANTITHESIS!" The arms balled their hands into fists, coating themselves completely in Aura. "DROWN IN IT!"

Several of the fists closed in on the smoke and something that sounded like the shattering of glass rang out from inside. Soon after, Necrozma was launched from the cloud toward more awaiting arms. Oddly enough, Necrozma began to laugh. "Yes, this is starting to become the fight I craved!" At the last second, he swerved over an Aura-coated punch, gliding his claws across the arm as he flew past it. When he next landed, he found that there were no other arms beside or behind him. "Come!" Challenged Necrozma, coating his own arms in crimson plasma. "Let our clash shake the universe itself!"

Arceus rose up onto his hind legs, letting loose a feral roar that made the entire world tremble. In response, his thousand hands closed in on the demon, and he approached them in turn. Their fists met with resounding crashes that made thunderclaps seem pitiful in comparison. Plasmatic sparks raced across the sky from their bout. Necrozma's arms were like blurs as he warded off every last strike that came his way, but Arceus would be damned to let his nemesis win this war.

With a fierce battle cry, Necrozma unleashed a blow so forceful that the thousand hands were scoured in an instant. The sheer force of the blow broke past the atmosphere and out into deep space beyond. However, Arceus himself was nowhere in sight...but there was a colossal shadow above him that seemed to make the entire sky go dark. "STONE PLATE: OPEN!"

In stark contrast to the ocean he'd created with the Splash Plate, with the Stone Plate he had now created an entire new continent. A deafeningly loud series of crunches erupted from it suddenly, irritating even Necrozma, and it seemed to become...smaller? In mere seconds, the continent had become round and condensed down to the size of a Wailord. Arceus sent a glare the demon's way before he, along with the ball, disappeared.

"What is he…?" Necrozma sensed Arceus's presence once more, but it was much farther away. He went to pursue him, but noticed a faint glint in the direction he was about to fly towards. "What is tha-" His eyes suddenly shot wide open and he formed a barrier around himself, but that barrier immediately shattered when it was struck by the meteor Arceus had thrown at speeds dwarfing light. The meteor's impact completely blasted apart one half of the ship and sent its remains scattering across the four corners of the world. Necrozma was mere inches way from the ground when Arceus appeared on the ground and cried out,

"EARTH PLATE: OPEN!"

A massive trench ripped open, splitting the land in two and swallowing Necrozma into its depths. Arceus was about to give chase, but stopped when he saw Rayquaza flying toward him. "Please!" Cried the serpentine Legend. "Let me help you, father! I couldn't save them...I need to make it up to you!"

Arceus stopped him in his tracks, forcibly holding him in place with a gentle golden glow. "...No," Replied Arceus turning down toward the valley. "It is I who must make it up to you. This is no longer your fight. It is my responsibility, as it always should have been!" He dared a glance past Rayquaza, and immediately recoiled when he spotted Dialga...hovering over Palkia's body. "I WON'T LET ANYONE ELSE DIE!" With that, he blitzed down into the trench at breakneck speeds, making sure to close it behind him to prevent Rayquaza from following.

Necrozma eventually stopped his descent by crushing the meteor between his clawed hands, only to be knocked down further when Arceus descended upon him with a stomp to the head that made the cavern they were in quake. The demon was flung down into a pit of crackling magma, but erupted back out of it just as fast as he entered. As he looked around at the new area they were in, he found that everything around him was pitch black save for the constant streams of gravity-defying magma running up and down like an oversized lava lamp.

"Now, isn't this familiar," Remarked Necrozma. "I do believe this is the place where I bludgeoned that worthless clone into submission."

Wordlessly, Arceus descended upon the demon and shoulder-barged him into one of the black walls. Necrozma knocked him away with a small omni-sided blast and charged after him, but stopped when one of the magma streams erupted before him. In fact, it suddenly seemed like the entire pool had curled in on him.

"The Earth Plate," Said Arceus, "Allows me to control the Ground-Typing. In other words, I can control the Earth itself! Can you survive an onslaught from an entire planet?!"

"It wouldn't be the first time," Necrozma retorted, unfazed by the approaching magma. "And your bluffs mean nothing. Just think of what molding the planet would do to its lifeforms." He sent a knowing, cocky smirk at the Alpha that made his blood boil beyond measure. "Though, seeing as what you allowed me to do to your children, perhaps such a thing isn't above you after all."

An ungodly, horrific bellow from Arceus warped the shape of the entire trench. In an instant, solids became liquids and hurtled themselves at the demon who, in turn, weaved around the spirals of magma and rock that came his way with ease. He laughed mockingly at Arceus, who couldn't so much as scratch him. That was, until he suddenly found that he had no room to move. The entire cavern had closed in on itself around him, smothering him beneath its rocky blanket.

A multitude of crimson beams shot out from the warped ground danced about the cavern, cleaving through anything it touched until the demon was freed. He casually dusted himself off, then held up a plasmatic ball threateningly at Arceus. The deity created a barrier around himself, but to his confusion, Necrozma turned it toward the roof of the cavern.

"Your precious children, or whatever is left of them, are just above here, you know." As Arceus's face contorted in horror when he realized what the demon was getting at, Necrozma couldn't help but to let out a low, bone-chilling chuckle. "The tumble down here would be terrifying to be sure, and I doubt many could survive that magma in their current states. Let's see some real carnage, shall we?"

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

Arceus summoned his Sky Plate, turning into a Flying Type and rocketing at the demon. Just before he could fire off the attack, Arceus slammed into him from below, sending the both of them crashing through the valley roof, out the other end and back into the sky. Eventually, the two ended up flying past the remaining half of the mothership and into the outer atmosphere. A hellish wind was spun up, creating twisting whirlwind from all sides that converged around the two dueling gods.

"You…" Arceus whipped his head up, unleashing a volley of winds as sharp as blades. Necrozma caught them, just barely, leaving himself wide open. "Will not…" A twisting mass of wind shot out from the vortex encasing them and slammed into the invader's backside. He was pushed forward into the wind blades, causing them to explode and send him flying to the wall of wind that grinded against his back upon contact. "HURT THEM!" A singular, massive blade of wind emerged from the space above Arceus's head, which he then used to slice straight across Necrozma's midsection. The tornado they were in was cleaved open, to which Arceus took the swirling winds upon his blade and drove it into Necrozma's stomach.

Though the attack didn't pierce Nercrozma's skin, it completely encased him, letting the fierce winds completely coat his body. With a bellow, Arceus sent the blade, and subsequently Necrozma, back down to the remaining half of the ship. The wind blade's tip scarcely pierced the ship's hide, but when Arceus came crashing down upon it, it was buried to the hilt. A flash of crimson light was the only warning before Necrozma exploded with energy, destroying the attack and sending Arceus flying.

Quickly regaining himself in mid-air, Arceus summoned a deep, purple-colored plate. "DRACO PLATE: OPEN!" Arceus was shrouded in a vibrant, glowing energy that matched the coloring of its plating. His form grew until, in a matter of seconds, his size rivaled what was left of the ship, and his form changed greatly. Though almost like liquid in his state, he became a hulking serpentine dragon with a widened face, terrible claws and six massive wings that nearly blotted out the sky with their sheer scope.

The dragon let out a roar with such force that the top of the ship was completely uprooted. Necrozma, however, remained firmly in place, grinning up challengingly at the beast. He leapt up toward its head, but the dragon moved with astonishing speed and trapped him in its jaws. Before Necrozma could do anything about it, the dragon's light grew immensely, and its energy was discharged in a massive explosion.

Necrozma was sent hurtling higher into the sky with Arceus rushing out from the explosion after him, another plate at the ready. "YOU WILL KNOW THE SUFFERING YOU'VE INSTILLED ON THE LIVES TAKEN BY YOUR HAND! THE RAGING SPIRITS WILL HAVE THEIR PENANCE! PHANTOM PLATE: OPEN!"

The moment the new plate merged with Arceus, he disappeared from sight. Necrozma attempted to sense his presence...but felt nothing. Then, several gargantuan...things rose up from below. They were globs of shadow that vaguely resembled hands...only, they were far more grotesque. They disturbed even the likes of Necrozma, albeit only slightly. It seemed like the world around these things was bent out of shape wherever they went, including one another. All of them raced up toward the demon, aiming to drag him back to the hell from where he came.

Necrozma sliced his finger through the air and dispelled the offending arms with an energy-based slash. "Worthless!" Roared the demon. To his shock, the hands began to re-form themselves from the shadow blobs they had become and soon returned to normal. They lurched at him with greater speeds than before from all angles, and though he skillfully managed to evade them for a moment, he was forced to resort to creating a barrier around himself when he no longer had any room to dodge. In seconds, they had all piled onto him.

Of course, the scourge of the universe would not go down so easily.

"Insolent...WORMS!" The demon let out an infuriated roar, unleashing his energy all around himself to rid himself of the horrific ghostly hands. However, they disappeared unexpectedly easily. When they were destroyed, Necrozma now found himself in a world of void. There was nothing, save for an endless black that stretched on forever. The only source of illumination came from his crystals. It reminded him far too much of his first memory after he was reborn. "What...is this?!"

He sent off a laser from his hand into the void to see what would happen, but it simply disappeared into it when he cut it off. He then heard, from seemingly every direction, "DREAD PLATE: OPEN!" and he found himself being assailed from all angles. Barely visible globs of black, as well as spiraling beams of the same color emerged from the void toward him. He went to deflect them with Psychic, but it had no effect on the attacks.

So, Necrozma put up his guard to whether the attacks. They crashed against his shield like a heavy storm's rain against an umbrella. He could sense more of them from...everywhere in this void, so teleporting would not help. "Damn it!" Cursed the demon. "He's changing form with these plates faster than I can adapt!" Necrozma gathered massive amounts of energy to his hands and arms, making his crystals glow to the point his entire barrier was shrouded in a bright red.

"YOU THINK THIS DARKNESS CAN KILL ME?!" He demanded. The force of his voice alone blew back the dark onslaught for a moment. "I WAS BORNE FROM A DARKNESS GREATER THAN THE ENDLESS VOID THAT LIES OUTSIDE CREATION! THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME!" An world-shattering blast with all the force of a supernova erupted from Necrozma's barrier. The dark onslaught was completely destroyed in an instant, and the void itself nearly was as well. Yet, when the unholy eruption was over, it remained.

To further add to Necrozma's frustration, Arceus began to speak once more. "Darkness came before existence. That much is true. Perhaps creation is destined to return to that darkness eventually." The demon turned to his side suddenly upon hearing what sounded like the breaking of glass. A blindingly-white crack in the void had appeared, though it was impossible to gauge how far away it was. "However, that time is NOT today! I will ensure that my children, and the rest of the universe, have a future! In the name of all living things, LET THERE BE LIGHT! PIXIE PLATE: OPEN!"

The black void shattered all of a sudden, returning Necrozma to the normal world. He was given no time to even react to it before Arceus struck him in his side with blinding speeds. Arceus's form dematerialized until he was naught more than a streak of white light that blitzed ahead of Necrozma's unintended flight path and slammed into him once more. He re-materialized, sending up a geyser of light to completely envelop the demon then blitzed into him from above, pushing him down against the geyser.

Necrozma whipped around and grabbed Arceus, aiming to use his own attack against him, but the Alpha de-materialized once more and slipped out of his grasp. He was rammed into once more, making him stagger backwards. Not even a fraction of a second later, he was impacted again, and again, and again. From every conceivable angle at speeds unimaginable, Necrozma was ruthlessly assaulted by the streak of light. And with each blow, Arceus grew faster. Stronger. Brighter. He became like that of a star, aiming to extinguish the darkness before him.

Arceus sailed past Necrozma as he warped out of harm's way, and when he turned back around to resume the attack, the demon matched his force with a punch, forcing the god to re-materialize to keep his shape. Arceus immediately let loose with a beam of light, but Necrozma raced past it, nimbly dodging with flips and spins every time Arceus trained the beam on him. The demon was about to smash his fist straight into Arceus's skull when the Alpha unleashed a storm of beams in every direction.

Forced to back away to avoid being hit by the mass of lasers, Necrozma deflected any that came close to him, but quickly found their numbers too difficult to keep track of and erected a barrier around himself to whether the storm...playing right into Arceus's hand. Arceus concentrated the beams into one singular one, so small that it could not be seen. Yet, it's power was the same, and before long it had pierced through the barrier.

The second Necrozma's barrier was pierced, Arceus let out a fearsome roar and unleashed his absolute might into a massive beam. It ripped open Necrozma's barrier completely, and before the demon's eyes could even widen in shock, he too was overtaken by the laser. Its scope became larger the farther it traversed, eventually becoming visible from space when it broke through the atmosphere. For a brief moment, Arceus believed that he had won...but cast aside that foolish, fleeting feeling as soon as it entered his mind.

"...Were it that easy…"

A giant red shockwave wracked the skies, and Necrozma soon came crashing through the beam, screaming like a madman. Just before his clawed hand met with its target, Arceus de-materialized and warped out of harm's way, re-appearing on top of the ship. A smirking Necrozma followed him. "Finished already?"

"Not on your grave," Spat Arceus with a fiery venom.

Necrozma laughed, shrugging. "Is that so? Well, I've noticed that you've run all out of plates and have yet to even put so much as a scratch on me.".

"I don't see anything of the sort adorning me," Countered Arceus.

Necrozma cracked his knuckles, causing his crystals to flash. "That will be remedied soon enough."

Arceus met Necrozma's hellish gaze with one of his own, not daring to back down in the slightest. Around him, he manifested the fifteen plates, which began floating around the god's body. "Once upon a time, I used this power to create my world. As the years went by, I expended too much of my power and could no longer call upon my true strength." The first of the plates, the Meadow Plate, inserted itself into a slot in Arceus's ring. Though it flashed green for a moment, the god forced back the transformation.

"But now…" Arceus could not help but to laugh under his breath as the next plate entered. "Now, I have the power to do so!" A third plate entered his ring, along with a fourth thereafter. "I have reclaimed my lost strength at last, and now…!" Ten plates had entered the ring. By now, Necrozma could sense something unimaginably powerful welling up from Arceus's body. The sky was flashing and dimming at random, and the metal plating on the ship seemed to be disintegrating from some unseen force.

Thirteen plates entered Arceus's ring, and his laughter became more apparent. "Now," He rasped. "...Now, I have the power to bring you down at last." A fourteenth plate entered the ring. "At first," He said, "I didn't think my body could still handle it...but you know...I don't think I care anymore..." All fifteen of Arceus's life plates entered the ring, creating a prismatic rainbow effect. A terrible energy began swirling around him, completely eradicating anything that it touched.

Deciding to test this, Necrozma shot a small ball of energy at him, but it, too, was destroyed without a trace. Whether Arceus knew about that or not, he didn't show. "All I care about," He said, his voice becoming eerily raspy. "IS KILLING YOU!" The energy unleashed itself in a hellish explosion, eradicating the rest of the ship without so much as a trace. The entire sky was set ablaze, and those were still left alive to look at it were stunned silent.

Necrozma was hurtled uncontrollably across the flaming sky. When he forced himself to stop and created a barrier to protect himself, that barrier was shattered by a tremendous force. Lasers of all colors and sizes decorated the burning heavens alongside an utterly colossal wave of seemingly endless energy. "This power!" Remarked Necrozma. In spite of these new, overwhelming odds, he was utterly ecstatic. "This is what I've been looking for! A battle to end all battles! At last, I can use the full extent of my abilities!"

The demon unleashed his own power, easily knocking away the waves of Arceus's and sending them around him. Then, he waited to see what his mortal enemy could do. Arceus's ring spastically changed color. His own power was completely overwhelming. It felt as if his very body was threatening to crumble like dust under its weight. He couldn't help but to think of what might have happened had he waited until he had finished gathering energy, but snapped out of it when he realized what that time would have cost.

"I'm sorry…" He whispered under his breath. "My children...my beautiful, beautiful children…" He opened his red-hot eyes, letting an Earth-wracking roar pierce the heavens themselves. The entire world trembled under the force of his newly found strength. "I WILL AVENGE YOU!" Every living being heard the roar. It was not one of rage...but one of mourning. Arceus's ring finally took its form, becoming a glowing, pure white effigy with the colorful plates adoring it. The full might of Arceus, the strongest of all Pokemon and creator of the world, had been reborn.

"A-L-L P-L-A-T-E: O-P-E-N!"

An omni-colored wave exploded from the god, sending a cascade of beams of all colors and elements dotting across the entire planet's skies and beyond. Necrozma managed to catch what little of it actually hit him, but was shocked to the point that he nearly allowed it to slip and overcome him due to the sheer amount of force behind it. "Impressive indeed, Arceus," Remarked Necrozma as he dug his claws into the wave. "However…" His crystals glowed red like a dying star, sending crackling plasma out in every direction. He then ripped the wave apart, giving him a clear shot at Arceus.

"IT IS NOT ENOU-" He stopped himself in his tracks suddenly, his eyes going wide. Arceus already had another attack prepared, and Necrozma had just left himself wide open. A blinding, white beam enshrouded with the colors of every type was unleashed from Arceus's body. Its size completely dwarfed the ship, and the sheer force behind it made the ship begin to fall apart. Its remains were slowly swept up into the beam and reduced to nothingness. The same could not be said for Necrozma.

Erupting from the beam's side, Necrozma warped behind Arceus and unleashed a beam of his own. However, Arceus burst right through it and slammed into Necrozma's chest, sending him skyward and calling down a massive bolt of lightning upon him. He was knocked down into the palm of a giant, ghostly hand that lit aflame once it clasped its fingers around him, promptly exploding thereafter. Rising to meet the demon, Arceus drove the jagged end of his foot down into his abdomen.

Necrozma let out a hiss, teleporting away and instinctively checking the stricken area. Though there was still no hint of damage, something almost as horrifying made Necrozma gasp in shock. "This...it can't be…" A small chuckle escaped the demon, which quickly sprouted into full-blown laughter and then a chilling cackle. "This is pain...TRUE pain! Not born from an illusion...something actually made me feel pain!"

He was blasted from behind suddenly, snapping the demon out of his fit of laughter. "You'll be feeling much worse than that by the time we're done!" Roared Arceus, de-materializing into light and blitzing toward his adversary. Necrozma attempted to block the incoming strike with a punch, but to his shock, Arceus deftly evaded the blow by twisting his shapeless form around the arm and re-materializing behind him. The demon whipped around, only to be blasted point-blank with a lightning-infused jet of pressurized fire.

Racing after Necrozma, Arceus shrouded himself in a golden barrier and slammed into Necrozma. The two were dragged down to the ground momentarily until Arceus kicked Necrozma back to the sky. The onlooking survivors were left speechless as they caught only a glimpse of the battle between gods. Arceus raced up to continue his onslaught against the demon, only for him to warp out of harm's way and blast Arceus skyward from behind.

After Arceus quickly regained his composure, he jumped back into the frey and raced after Necrozma. The demon mocked him, urging him to attack with his index finger. The two soared higher into the sky, spiraling around one another and periodically clashing. However, Arceus's blows were more driven. Fueled by hatred, rage and sorrow, the father who had lost his children gradually began to overpower the demon who had still yet to put his all into the fight. This would soon cost them both.

Necrozma's fist slid by Arceus's head, missing him by only a small margin. This allowed for Arceus to swiftly counterattack. He blasted the demon away with a hyper-powered Flamethrower that burned the skies and outmatched anything Groudon could have ever done. He then quickly followed up by having more ghostly hands pile onto the demon and light them with terrible lightning. Using the power of the Draco Plate, he sent thousands of Draco Meteors into the sky that split off and became as numerous as the stars in a night sky.

These draconic falling stars suddenly swerved, closing in on Necrozma and becoming shrouded in darkness. Like bullets, they hailed upon the demon without end. He was about to continue the onslaught, but flinched when a sharp pain in his chest arose. "My body...it's already beginning to crumble?!" He shook his head vigorously, pushing the pain away. "Then I suppose I'll have to make good use of my time!"

Taking hold of the Dark Draco Meteors all at once with Psychic, he sent them all crashing straight into Necrozma instantly and followed up by shrouding his body in metal crashing into him with speeds unimaginable. The demon, taken aback, was too stricken with shock to counter Arceus's new onslaught, and was flung all across the sky like a ragdoll. The god called upon great storm clouds that barraged Necrozma with intensely-pressurized jets of water. Each and every single drop that hit him was coated in lightning.

Arceus froze the raindrops suddenly, and with them, Necrozma. Several gargantuan vines and tree roots rose up from the ground and wrapped themselves around the frozen demon. They glowed a bright, vibrant green for but a swift moment, then exploded into a colossal Solarbeam that stretched out to the heavens. A flash of crimson destroyed the beam, and Necrozma raced out from it to continue his duel with Arceus. To counter this, Arceus combined the Flame and Stone plates to create a colossal meteor above him and hurled it down at the demon.

A smirking Necrozma revved up his right arm, preparing to smash through the meteor like glass. To stop this, Arceus used the Iron Plate and coated the meteor in a thick layer of metal, then sent a massive golden beam down upon it to push it with tremendous force and speed. Still, Necrozma didn't flinch. He rocketed up to challenge the meteor, driving his fist into it. The force behind the blow made the meteor shudder violently, and soon enough, web-like cracks began running all across its surface.

"This won't end well," Arceus said under his breath, "Unless…" He called upon the Mind Plate. Suddenly, the meteor began to shrink. Or rather, to concentrate. Necrozma was surprised when the meteor suddenly disappeared from sight, along with Arceus, and he unwittingly flew past where they had both been. Then, when he turned back around, he saw it. It was scarcely the size of a thimble, but the meteor still existed. Massive amounts of raw energy appeared to be manifesting around it and becoming absorbed into it.

"Another trick?" The demon pointed at the ball, thinking nothing of it, and fired. This proved to be a monumental mistake. The orb released its stored energy in a massive expansion. The world around Necrozma became warped as he was sucked in toward the meteor, until suddenly, it exploded with horrific force. To stop the explosion, Arceus created a barrier around it and sent it into the upper atmosphere. The result was a world-shaking eruption of energy that lit the sky.

By now, Arceus was heaving for air. He felt horrible aches running all across every inch of his body, and his trembling bones threatened to snap under the pressure of his own power. "I need...to end this now!" He attempted to muster more energy, only for his eyes to go wide as another pain shot up his spine into his chest. "N-no!" He cried, hissing in pain. "Not now! Not when I'm so close!"

To his horror, he heard the sound of the demon's terrible roaring from above. Necrozma descended upon him, and though Arceus was able to evade the strike, his adversary suddenly disappeared from sight. Arceus couldn't even question where he'd gone before he was blinded by agony. Necrozma jabbed his fist into Arceus's gut, and Arceus felt the crunching of bone. He was sent flying, only barely managing to catch himself in mid-air.

He couldn't hide the pain and exhaustion from the demon. However, he took notice of something adorning Necrozma's midsection. It was tiny; barely visible to even his eyes...but there was a scrape on the demon's armored body at last. "Oh, this?" Asked Necrozma, looking down at the insignificant wound with an amused chuckle. "Yes, congratulations! You, Arceus, are the first being in all of existence to be able to damage me!" He lightly tapped his finger on the scrape, and to Arceus's horror, it was wiped away without a trace. "But it is a fleeting victory."

Necrozma snapped his fingers, and the collection he'd amassed from Arceus's children appeared around him. Pointing at Arceus, Necrozma leered at him hungrily and said, "I think the next piece of my great collection will be that ring of yours. It's so colorful and vibrant with those plates in it that I couldn't possibly resist!" However, Arceus paid no heed to the demon's threat. Rather, he was glancing at Palkia's pearl with widened eyes. This was something Necrozma took note of.

"Oh?" He levitated the orb into the palm of his hand. "You seem to have quite the eye for treasure. Indeed, it's quite a beautiful gem, but by the hopeful look in your eyes, you see something else within it." He twisted the pearl in his hands, lazily dropping it from one hand to another. "But what could that be? Market value? A collection of your own, perhaps?" He let out a disgustingly hollow chuckle under his breath. "No, a god such as yourself would have no need for that. This pearl...it's for something much greater."

The demon clasped it firmly in his claws, making the pearl tremble. Arceus instinctively reached out to grab it and cursed himself for his foolishness immediately afterwards. This earned another infuriating laugh from Necrozma. "Perhaps…" He looked to the side across the vast battlefield; his unendingly cruel gaze landing upon Dialga, who still hovered over Palkia's body. "It is the key to saving your son?"

Arceus went to say something, but Necrozma forced him into silence holding his throat with Psychic. Without looking over at the god, Necrozma continued fondling the gem in his hand in a disgusting manner to further disturb his adversary. "It's too bad...it was quite the find, I must say." His grip on Palkia's pearl tightened, and though Arceus raged against Necrozma's Psychic hold, the agony he felt all across his body forced him into submission.

"N-no!" Arceus cried between gasps.

His struggles only served to amuse Necrozma. "Yes," He said, "It's quite a shame. But...all good things…" His grip on it increased, sending cracks all along the trembling pearl. "...Must come to an end." Then, the pearl shattered like glass, and Necrozma destroyed what was left with a billowing black dust.

Arceus's heart sank. At first, he felt nothing. Saw nothing. It was like his mind refused to allow him to feel anything...but it couldn't hold it back for long. A raging flood of every emotion imaginable clouded up in his mind like water in a dam. That dam promptly collapsed, and Arceus let loose an agonized wail to the heavens. Necrozma laughed at his adversary's torment. However, as he sensed the sheer power welling up from him, his laughter quickly stopped. Necrozma attempted to restrain Arceus with Psychic once more, but to his shock, his powers no longer worked on him.

Necrozma was blasted at every possible angle and sent into the upper atmosphere with a roaring Arceus rocketing up to meet him. The agonzied god let loose every ounce of energy within him up at Necrozma. Every possible type merged together, creating a storm of color that was never meant to be. It destroyed everything in its path, reaching out across the entire solar system. Stream after stream after stream of the omnicolored energy wracked the skies and beyond, creating a beautiful painting all across the world. A horrible, mournful painting.

The energy impacted every inch of Necrozma's body, neither giving him recourse nor even the chance to think, let alone escape or counter. Yet, Arceus's attacks were not aimed. He was blind with rage and sorrow, as the life of his son was stolen from him not once, but twice. It unearthed the unrelenting agony he felt and burned it anew. His body groaned and cracked under the pressure, but any pain he could have felt from his body was nothing in comparison to the pain of seeing his child die again.

His roars were like those of an animal. They were of rage, that much was for sure, but even greater than that rage was sorrow. Against the protests of his breaking body, Arceus amassed even more power to throw at Necrozma. A swirling, spiraling mass of all the energy he had within him. His body. His mind. His soul. He would throw all of it at Necrozma if it meant killing the monster who took so much from him. A grand Final Judgement using the power that created the world he loved...to destroy the one that had irrevocably scarred it.

"AAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"

Still screaming his limitless sorrows to the heavens above, Arceus unleashed the absolute maximum of his power. It was a colossal, rainbow-hued laser filled to the brim with every element imaginable. Millions of divine arrows spiraled up its length in everlasting circles. The beam and arrows crashed into Necrozma with a force unseen by the universe before. Its only rivalry was that of a supernova, only this was concentrated to hit only the demon.

Necrozma let out a pained scream. "What is this power?!" He shrieked. With tremendous effort, he managed to hold out his arm in a vain attempt to hold back the attack. This elicited an entirely new horror within him. Bright red cracks began appearing all over his body, leaking his energy out. The crimson energy that escaped his body was immediately destroyed by the Final Judgement. "N-no! This can't be happening! I am Necrozma! I am without equal! I cannot be killed! I have transcended death itself!"

His crystals began glowing an impossibly bright shade of red, though most of the light was swept away by the beam that consumed him. "I AM NECROZMA! MY POWER SURPASSES THE LAWS OF REALITY! I CANNOT D-" Several more cracks ripped open his body suddenly, and his unstable energy escaped en masse. The result was a massive explosion that rivaled the size of the planet itself, but it was swept away by the unrelenting force of Arceus's Final Judgement. Necrozma's form completely disappeared within it.

Even after that, Arceus kept screaming and unleashing his power. His rage was not sated. It could not possibly be sated. He was blinded, now no more intelligent than an animal. Or rather, a beast. There was nothing left to attack. No enemy, no demon, nothing. Still, he kept attacking. It was all he could do now. He had pushed away the needs of his body, and in exchange, wired his brain to think of only one thing: To kill.

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, and day to night before Arceus had exhausted himself completely. He was only snapped out of it when his ring, unable to cope with the power any longer, snapped at one of its corners and sent the plates away. A broken Arceus, his duty fulfilled yet his mind and soul empty, stood still between the cusp of his world and the void beyond. He'd won at long last. Yet, celebration never crossed his mind.

Silently, he turned back toward the ground and descended. He no longer had the power to keep himself elevated. As he lowered himself through the clouds, he saw a number of people and Pokemon crowded around Palkia, along with the Legends. There were pitifully few of them compared to how vast their numbers had been before—they couldn't have numbered any greater than a few thousand. Arceus hoped that this wasn't their full numbers...that others had simply ran away.

Articuno, Moltres, Mewtwo, Ho-oh and its beasts, Lugia, Latias, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Uxie, Azelf, Shaymin, Victini, Keldeo, Zekrom, Reshiram, Diancie, Xerneas, Hoopa, the four Tapus...and two of his three firstborn sons...were the Legends that had survived the battle against Necrozma. He saw the corpses of his other children strewn about the battlefield. Of the humans and their Pokemon, he recognized many of Ash's friends and teammates...though not all of them were present. Not a single living being there was free of an injury. From gashes to burns to broken bones...all of them carried a scar from the war.

His heart skipped a beat suddenly. Palkia was...moving. Not only that, but he appeared to be talking to Giratina. "...ease...don't hate...father…" His voice was only a low wheeze or a whisper. "...He loves us...more than...you know…" Giratina's face was scrunched up, his expression twisted. He was undergoing an internal torment, but when he looked up and saw his father coming near, he immediately turned away.

The others, save for Dialga, backed away from Palkia to allow Arceus to land. As he did, he was welcomed with a weak smile from his fallen son. He collapsed to his knees upon landing, no longer having the strength to even stand, and hovered over Palkia. "He's...been holding on for a while now," Dialga told him. "...But he doesn't have much time left."

Palkia's arm began to twitch. He was trying to reach up to his father one last time, but couldn't find the might left within him to do it. His smile soon faded, and he rasped out, "Father...I'm sorry...I failed you…" Arceus hushed him gently, pressing his forehead onto his son's.

"No...it is I who has failed you. You fulfilled your duty...were I stronger, then-!" The deity choked up as a lump built up in his throat. He winced. Two different kinds of tremendous pains wracked every inch of his body. But he forced his eyes open. He would never forgive himself if they were closed when… "I...love you, my son… You...can rest now…" Palkia managed one final smile before he lowered his head from his father's. As it touched the ground, he took in a final breath, let it out, and then...he was gone. A shuddering breath escaped Arceus's mouth, and he began to tremble uncontrollably.

For the first time in the entire history of Arceus's existence, he shed a tear. The god of all Pokemon and creator of the world...wept for his fallen children. Zapdos. Celebi. Latios. Jirachi. Groudon. Mesprit. Heatran. Cresselia. Darkrai. Cobalion. Terrakion. Verizion. Kyurem. Tornadus. Thundurus. Landorus. Meloetta. Volcanion. Solgaleo. Lunala. Deoxys...and Palkia. As well as the countless others that had fallen because he wasn't fast enough.

Everyone that witnessed it was stunned silent. The Legends, Pokemon and humans alike were paralyzed, and their eyes went wide. Never before had Arceus done something like this. For Arceus, their creator, to weep for the dead… Even if it was only but a single tear...they didn't quite know what to make of it. This rang true for none more than Giratina.

Eventually, Arceus raised his head once more. He attempted to stand, but his quivering legs would not let him. "Everyone," He spoke. "...I cannot apologize to you enough. Many of you, if not all of you, have lost so much this day. But...I bring one single sliver of good news: Necrozma is dead!" The survivors' eyes collectively went wide, a series of gasps rising up into the air. Soon enough, the first smiles they wore since the day before appeared on their faces, and they began cheering for their victory. Arceus, however, did not.

"Even still…" His voice caught the attention of the survivors, ushering them into silence. "I cannot truly call this a victory. Too many have died...but at least we can take solace knowing that our world can continue, even if their lives cannot."

"That is not likely."

A series of terrified gasps rang out from the survivors suddenly. A voice all of them knew far too well echoed through their minds, but they did not know where it came from. "No…" Uttered Arceus. "NO!" He wildly searched around for it, his fiery glare returning. Then, he spotted him. The demon, clapping his hands together, descending upon them. Every inch of his body was covered in cracks, and there were pieces of him that were missing entirely. Yet, there the demon was. Still alive even after all Arceus had thrown at him.

"How?!" Demanded Arceus. "How are you still alive?!" He attempted to spring back to his feet to combat his mortal enemy, but his legs gave out immediately.

The demon looked down at his fractured body. "Well, to give you credit, you've proven time and time again to be the one who pushed me closest to death...but death is something I conquered upon birth!"

Against the despair of the other survivors, Serena called out, "Wait! Look at how injured he is!"

Gary nodded, his signature smirk returning. Though, it carried a much darker, almost murderous weight behind it. "Yeah, it looks like the chump's gonna fall apart any second!"

Paul held out his arm toward Necrozma, which instinctively caused his Pokemon to ready for battle. "If there are some Legendary Pokemon that can still fight, we might still have a chance of winning this after all."

The crowd rose up challengingly, barking insults and threats at the demon. The Legends that could still stand forced themselves back to their feet, glaring murderously. Especially Keldeo and Giratina. It appeared that the survivors still had fight left within them. This fire was something Necrozma was quick to douse with a dark, harrowing chuckle, and it caused the survivors to lose a bit of their brazenness.

"Wh-what the hell are you laughing about?!" One of the survivors said. "With all those wounds, it's only a matter of time before we finally bring you down!"

"Oh, these?" Necrozma ran his hand along his cracked body, revealing one of his crystals to them. It was pure black, giving off an eerie glow...or rather, it was destroying any light that came near it. "Yes, these wounds are severe. I never thought I would see the day where it was possible for me to be in this state, but…" A strange wave was emitted from the crystal. It ran over his body and, to the horror of the survivors, completely erased the wounds as it passed until there were none left. "With my newfound power…" He looked down at the black crystals on his arms. "Injuries are meaningless."

Raising an arm over his head, Necrozma generated a massive, black ball of energy that eclipsed the sky. "But in any case…" He glanced over at Arceus. "You gave me the single greatest fight of my life. For that, I will allow this world to die without any further torment."

Arceus's blood ran cold. He looked between Necrozma, the body of his son beneath him and the terrified survivors around him. He needed something...anything to stop this from happening. But he was drained of the power to even move, let alone fight. Any traces of the battle were only on himself, and now Necrozma was more powerful than ever. His children either couldn't fight or could barely fight, and doing so would surely get them killed. No one else stood even the slightest chance. Only one idea; one single sliver of hope still existed, though he loathed to resort to it. But there was no more room for pride.

"Please!" He craned his head down, bowing to Necrozma. "Please, spare us!" He would have to beg for their lives. His only hope lied in that, if their battle truly impressed Necrozma, that he would have some kind of mercy for them. Even if it meant living under his reign, anything was better than annihilation. Everyone collectively turned to Arceus in shock. Some, namely Giratina, in disgust. "I beg of you," Continued Arceus, "We're beaten! You've won! We submit ourselves fully! Please, spare us!"

Necrozma reeled his head back, laughing to the darkened skies. "E-excuse me?!" Cried Necrozma between fits of cackling. "Frankly, I'm disappointed in you, Arceus! I never would have expected this pitiful display as your last words." The colossal sphere of energy above him began to crackle violently. "No, there will be no mercy for you. It would, admittedly, be interesting to keep you around, but all good things must come to an end."

Arceus wrenched his eyes shut. His body and pride were shattered for nothing. He was a failure of a father who could not even protect himself, let alone his children. All of his options were exhausted. He had failed. "Please," He whispered under his breath, "Forgive me…"

Again, Necrozma let out a mad cackle as the orb was completed. "You know," He said, "I've met other beings that claimed to have created worlds before. They reminded me of you, though none of them could compare to your might." He eyed the fallen god maliciously. "I wonder if I could find them as well...but that's a thought for another day." The survivors clung to one another, closing their eyes in terror. The Legends bowed in defeat, glowering at the ground and cursing themselves for their helplessness. But Giratina's glare was locked solely on Arceus.

"FAREWELL, ARCEUS! FAREWELL, EARTH! LET YOUR DESTRUCTION MARK A NEW AGE IN MY UNIVERSAL CONQUE-"

Far off to the demon's side, a blinding white light unlike anything the universe had ever seen before erupted. It swept away the orb in one fell swoop and coated the entire battlefield in its light. It stung every inch of Necrozma's body just from being in its presence. Arceus and the survivors, their mouths just as agape as the demon's, stared at the light in...a feeling they couldn't begin to describe. Whatever this light was, it made all of them, even Necrozma, tremble to their core.

"What is…?!"

Arceus vigorously shook his head, not believing his eyes. "There's...there's no way!" He knew this presence by heart. It was his very first memory. A being unimaginably powerful. A being that existed before creation. His creator.

A being of pure white, looking vaguely humanoid in shape, was at the center of that light. Or rather, it was the light. Its presence began scouring the landscape, sending violent vortexes up all across the battlefield and scouring the lands to the skies. It was like reality itself was rejecting this being, but it could not get rid of it. However, even as the battlefield further turned to ruin, none of the survivors were put in danger. Every single speck of debris, no matter how big or small, never came near them.

It took a step forward, resulting in ungodly recourse. The light emanating from the being consumed everything that saw it, and the entire planet, for a brief time, was coated in it like a blanket. The entire universe seemed to shudder at the new intruder, but could do nothing to stop it. This being of pure light turned its head to Necrozma and took another step forward.

Regaining his composure, Necrozma said, "How interesting. It would seem that this planet is simply ripe with surprises. If that light show of yours is telling of your strength, you might make for a fair challenge." The demon set his murderous sights back upon the survivors, his hand glowing red. "In the meantime, allow me to finish what I started." Before the survivors could so much as scream, they were overtaken by a massive crimson beam of light.

A wincing Serena dared to open her eyes upon not feeling any particular burn or sting, and when she did, she let out a gasp. The survivors were all left stunned when they followed in Serena's footsteps and saw that the beam had curved around them, and surrounded them on all sides like a tunnel. Arceus, however, though equally wide-eyed, had his sights on something else. Right in front of him, the being held out its hand and stopped Necrozma's blast. It then balled its hand into a fist suddenly, crushing the beam and dispersing it.

Necrozma was taken aback. "When did you-?!" He shook his head and laughed. "It doesn't matter. If you're so eager to die, then-" Necrozma doubled over suddenly, letting out a pained grunt. The being had driven its fist straight through the demon's chest, piercing his armor. Before Necrozma could do anything about it, the hand that pierced him glowed brightly to the point its light had begun to shine out from the demon's crimson eyes. A wall of white erupted from it, enveloping Necrozma in its wake and sending him flying into its depths.

Retracting its hand, the being wiped away the wall suddenly and spoke. "I AM THE ORIGIN. I AM THE END. I AM LIFE AND I AM DEATH. TIME, SPACE, REALITY, MATTER. THEY ARE ALL BORN FROM WHAT I AM." The mysterious entity spread its arms out, allowing its brilliant light to enshroud it and explode outward. "I AM AURA! I WAS HERE IN THE BEGINNING, AND I WILL PROCLAIM THE END."

A furious Necrozma burst out from a pile of debris with his hand over the wound in his chest. When he removed it, the hole had disappeared completely. "I've heard that spiel about ten dozen times now, and frankly, I'm sick of it!" Encasing himself in a horrid, pitch-black energy that seemed to eat away at the air and ground around him, Necrozma blitzed toward Aura. However, Aura caught his blow before anyone else could even see what had happened. "Wh-wha-?!"

Necrozma was blasted away once more, with the creator launching himself in hot pursuit. He kicked at the demon from above, and though he warped out of the strike's way, Aura effortlessly blocked the next attack from behind. "YOU WILL NOT SUCCEED!" Declared Aura, encasing Necrozma in a blinding light, "YOUR REIGN IS AT AN END!" A pillar of light exploded out from Necrozma's body, carrying him higher into the sky.

It didn't take long for the pillar to dissolve into black dust before disappearing entirely. "You are strong," Commended Necrozma, "And I don't know where the hell you crawled out of, but with my new power…" His black energy erupted around him, darkening the sky they fought in. "It means nothing!"

That darkness was soon combatted by an equally-powerful light from Aura. "LONG HAVE I SUFFOCATED IN MY OWN REGRETS," Spoke Aura, raising a questioning brow from the demon, "BUT NO LONGER. I WILL CORRECT MY GREATEST MISTAKE HERE AND NOW!"

The two forces ate away at one another in a constant state of creation and destruction. Their masters raced toward one another, and when their fists collided, hell was raised. The gods raced across the sky, crashing together and leaving only chaos in their wake. Their divine dance spiraled higher and higher into the air until they were scarcely visible, but to the onlookers of their bout, the energy they left in their wake still lit up the sky even when they were gone.

Out of anyone there, Arceus was in disbelief the most. "I-I can't believe it!" He exclaimed, his eyes glued to the bout. "It's...unbelievable. Now, of all times, he appears?!"

This definitely caught the attention of the humans. "Wait," Said Gary, "You know that guy?!"

Arceus shakily nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat. "...Indeed. If I'm not wrong...that is my creator. If there's any hope left for us, it lies within them…"

An array of shocked gasps rose up from the survivors, and they began bombarding their creator with questions regarding Aura. In the midst of that, Serena and Pikachu walked past them and stared up into the sky with glimmering eyes at the dueling gods. They recognized something within the mysterious new being that had apparently come to save them in their time of need that no one else did. "...Ash…?"

When Aura lurched toward Necrozma, the demon instinctively raised his arms to block the attack. Aura recoiled, tearing its arm back. It saw in Necrozma's crystals, even in the deathly state they were currently in, its fallen creation. "Oh?" Inquired Necrozma, looking down at the crystals. "Do these gems paralyze you with fear? ...No, you recognize something within them, don't you. If you are truly this 'origin' that you speak of, then perhaps you could tell me about them?"

Aura let out a low, furious growl. "EVERY SINGLE SECOND THOSE CRYSTALS ARE STILL SUBJECTED TO YOUR CURSE IS ANOTHER SECOND I CANNOT STAND!" It unleashed a wave of light, momentarily overpowering Necrozma's destructive energy. Below, entire chunks of the already-desolate battlefield were raised into the sky to surround the god. Aura clasped its hands together, resulting in the masses of land being crushed together and becoming pure, raw energy.

The energy was dispersed up at the demon in a hail of blinding meteors. "Mere child's play," Remarked a smirking Necrozma. He dispelled the debris into dust, but that dust served as cover for the god to burst through and strike at the demon. Smirking, Necrozma raised his arm and parried the blow, but when he went to counter, Aura grabbed his other arm and threw him higher.

Once more they began spiraling around one another higher and higher into the sky, sending shockwaves darting across the sky with every collision. At their reality-shattering speeds, it didn't take long before the sky became dark at their height, and it wasn't due to Necrozma's destructive energy. Nearing the edge of space, Aura and Necrozma's duel only heightened in intensity.

Another clash sent them both flying backwards, though they pushed past it and closed in on one another once more. Their fists narrowly missed each other, instead soaring past and landing right into the other's face. Being the first to react thereafter, Aura kicked up at Necrozma's underside and, before the attack could launch the demon upward, warped up and delivered an axe kick to his head. Necrozma was sent hurtling back down to Earth with Aura in hot pursuit and a ball of light in its hand.

Forcefully stopping the descent, Necrozma blitzed back up and crashed straight into Aura's midsection, resulting in them rocketing back up to untold heights. Aura unleashed a fearsome pulse in all directions that managed to knock Necrozma off of them. Aura lurched forward at Necrozma, who it believed to be stunned, and jabbed at his midsection with the intent to impale him on its arm like it did before. However, much to Aura's chagrin, Necrozma caught the blow by the wrist and chuckled mockingly at him before casually throwing him off.

"That may have worked on me once," He said, "But you, my friend, no longer carry the element of surprise on your side, and my power is only rising by the second!"

Aura's blank, humanoid form began sparking with energy at the seams. The creator could not contain his loathing and hatred for the creature that had destroyed so much of the universe and desecrated everything its children had accomplished. Especially the father of Ultra Space, who had done something far braver than anything Aura had done: obliterated its own consciousness to serve as unending fuel for his own creations.

"YOU…!" Seethed the mournful god. It could not form words to describe the unending depths of his hatred. Aura's white energy exploded around itself, and it let out an infuriated roar. Aura crashed into Necrozma at speeds the demon wasn't expecting, and the two rocketed off far outside the Earth's gravitational influence. The two gods, cloaked in a spiraling black and white as they fought for dominance and destroyed all in their path, soared through the black void of space until they smashed down into the moon's surface.

The sheer power behind their impact caused quakes all across the celestial body, as well as a massive crater that spanned almost its entire visible surface. Another explosion of light and dark sent the foes flying back from one another and eradicating anything unfortunate enough to have been nearby. "What's wrong?" Taunted Necrozma. "It's unbecoming of a 'god' to give in to anger, you know."

"TO HELL WITH THAT!" Bellowed Aura in response. The weight behind its voice shook the moon, and sent even more quakes all across it. However, as it marched toward the demon, Aura's innate creation abilities melded together any cracks it touched. In stark contrast, the chuckling Necrozma destroyed everything he touched as he did the same.

Once again, Aura and Necrozma hurled themselves at one another. The collision of their fists spurred a shockwave that split the moon's surface, cutting a ravine down so far that it threatened the core. Aura pushed his fist forward, unrelenting. Necrozma, who still smirked at the creator's rage, followed suit. Bolts of intense plasma exploded out from between their fists and scarred the ground around them to the point that it began to melt.

To the demon's shock, he felt himself getting pushed back. Aura glared hatefully into his eyes despite seemingly possessing none of its own, and the glow of the god's body soon outshined the brilliance of the sun itself. A colossal explosion sent Necrozma reeling backwards, giving Aura the perfect opportunity to smash his fist straight through Necrozma's abdomen once more and unleash a divine ray of light within his body.

Necrozma yelled out in agony as the beam wracked his body, obliterating chunks of his armor. Yet, the demon managed to grab hold of Aura's wrist and wrench it from his body enough so that he could warp away. Leaping off of the ground, Aura cried, "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!" Then teleported in pursuit of the demon. The light it left in its wake coated the moon like a blanket, completely removing the damage that had been caused.

Aura found the demon now upon Mars, and to the creator's infuriation, he had already healed the inflicted wounds. Necrozma leapt out of harm's way just as Aura smashed its fist into where he had once been standing. "That was quick," Remarked Necrozma, though there was no fear in his voice. "To be honest, I thought you had me for a moment!"

The creator responded in kind by ripping his hand from the ground, and with it, a massive eruption of light that threatened to consume the demon. Smirking, Necrozma dug his hands into the light and blasted it apart. Aura had already rushed up to the demon by the time the attack was destroyed, but Necrozma anticipated it and ducked underneath. Aura's punch sent a colossal wall of white over the demon's head. Its sheer size rivaled the red planet itself in scope, though it meant nothing to Necrozma, whom it didn't hit.

Chuckling, Necrozma lurched up and smashed the palm of his hand into Aura's abdomen. A geyser of pure, lightless black was unleashed into the god. It was a massive, swirling mass of darkness that completely dwarfed Aura's previous attack and nearly annihilated the entirety of Mars to boot. A beam of light cut through the darkness and sliced it in two. When it touched the shattered planet, the destruction that had been caused was all but undone. Necrozma used this chance to blindside Aura and ram his jagged fist into its face, sending him sprawling toward Jupiter.

Before they reached the gas giant, Aura stopped himself in a field of asteroids. It quickly grabbed one and imbued it with light, bashing it into the oncoming Necrozma and momentarily stunning him. Aura used the opportunity to grab hold of Necrozma and hurled him further toward the giant planet with a beam before rocketing off after him. The force behind Necrozma's speed obliterated the asteroids as he passed, but when Aura followed, they were restored.

Throwing off the beam, Necrozma grabbed Aura by the throat, to which Aura followed suit, and they began falling into Jupiter's gravitational pull in the midst of their clash. When they entered Jupiter, they were surrounded on all sides by fearsome, raging winds and almost complete darkness. Yet, neither one even so much as felt the ravaging hellscape. Their fists clashed with such force that the winds were blown back and left them in an area of complete, empty space. A large chunk of Jupiter's surface was completely erased from the collision.

Necrozma smirked. "How far will you go to kill me, god?" He summoned a black, bubbling ball within his hands. "How much of your precious creation will you destroy to rid it of me? You can't keep repairing what I destroy forever if you wish to do so."

Aura glowered at him. Indeed, it seemed like the more Necrozma destroyed, the more powerful he became. Yet the creator's own energy was being expended, and though it cost virtually nothing, the destruction that could be caused from their duel might become impossible to fix. "WHAT I MUST," Hissed Aura in response. How true it could stay to its words, Aura didn't know.

Grinning challengingly at the creator, Necrozma whipped around with his arm outstretched and dispelled much of Jupiter's gasses. They were given a clear sight of Earth, though it was only a barely-visible glimmer at their distance. "Would that sentiment include your precious Earth?" He chuckled to himself, pointing a glowing finger at the planet. "I assume you care more about this one than the others considering you left them to die."

Aura disappeared from sight and grabbed Necrozma's arm. Before he could even look at the entity, he was blasted down farther into the gas giant's depths, with the creator rocketing after him. Aura smashed his fist into Necrozma's abdomen, with the demon responding in kind by grabbing his wrist and sailing deeper into the planet. As they descended, the temperature become unimaginably hot, which Necrozma used to his advantage.

Necrozma whirled around and held Aura down at the oncoming fiery gasses rising up from the planet's core. This did no discernable damage to the god, and blew Necrozma off with a pulse. Aura flipped around, landing on Jupiter's molten core. Necrozma flew down and did the same, his ever-existing smirk infuriating the god to no end. They raised their arms to the sky, wherever that might have been, gathering the powers of creation and destruction into their fists, reeling backwards, and then colliding.

The entirety of Jupiter seemed to explode in a brilliant flash of light, but before the plasmatic flames could touch the other planets, it suddenly stopped and began to return to its original position like time itself had been reversed. Even its moons were completely repaired. Aura was launched from the gasses of the planet with Necrozma racing after it in hot pursuit, already having a black fog readied in his hand. When the creator landed upon one of the asteroids making up Saturn's rings, Necrozma barreled into him with an energy of pure, raw destruction.

In an instant, the rings caught up in the mere presence of the attack were disintegrated into black dust. Aura and Necrozma flew through the rings, spiraling around one another and clashing, uncaring of the gravitational pull of the planet pulling them into itself. Just before touching the planet's surface, Aura grabbed an asteroid, condensed it into a spear of light and then hurled it toward the demon. In turn, Necrozma grabbed the spear and attempted to crush it in his hand, but in doing so, caused it to explode violently.

Aura warped behind the stunned Necrozma and grabbed him by the back. "AURA SPHERE!" Roared the creator valiantly. Necrozma found himself encased in a blinding ball of swirling light that was soon launched into the planet. However, when Aura gave chase, he stopped when a pitch black blast erupted from the planet and annihilated a portion of its surface. Necrozma flew out from the blast and dug his jagged claws into Aura's head.

Seeing that his attack worked, Necrozma smirked. "That was disappointingly easy." His fist became encased in black energy, and his hand snapped shut. Aura's head was completely disintegrated, and Necrozma blasted away the rest of its body into a glimmering white dust. "I wanted to test the limits of my new power, but it seems that not even 'God' himself can match my might!" He hungrily turned his sights back upon Earth and was about to take off to finish what he had started when he felt something grab his arm.

"NOT LIKELY." Aura's form re-manifested behind Necrozma, its fist already pumped back. Necrozma was sent hurtling upwards with a devastating uppercut that sent Saturn's rings sailing off in all directions. Ignoring the destruction he'd caused for the moment in favor of savoring his energy, Aura raced after Necrozma, planting the palm of his hand into the demon's chest. "AURA PULSE!" The demon was once again hurtled away, encased in a trail of pure light.

Necrozma found himself sailing helplessly throughout space, past the blue Uranus and Neptune until he landed with a thunderous crash upon the rocky surface of Pluto. The demon bashed his hand into the ground in annoyance before lurching back up to combat his foe. "Still got some fight, then? All the better!" Aura closed in on him, but Necrozma warped behind him and knocked him into the ground with a double-handed bash to its back. He then sent a blast trailing after Aura.

Aura flipped over and dug its heels into the ground to stop his momentum. It lurched up and smashed his fist into the oncoming orb, scattering it and sending its remains all across the empty sky of the tiny world. Necrozma warped beneath Aura, aiming to drive his fist into the god, but Aura wrapped his own arm around Necrozma to bind him at the elbow and smashed his own fist into his face. He was almost knocked away but his body snapped back due to Aura's grip, which he used to then tear the arm straight off and obliterate it.

To the god's horror, this only caused Necrozma to chuckle. Vast, untold amounts of raw destruction surged out from the empty socket. Aura raised his arms to guard against it, shrouding himself in a protective barrier. Pluto was not so lucky. In mere seconds, the dwarf planet was completely and utterly consumed and eaten away at, leaving nothing left. When the fog dispersed, so did any view of Necrozma. Aura frantically whipped around to search for him, but when he did, he was met with the sight of the demon pointing his other arm at him.

A colossal black wave completely encased Aura and Pluto's moon, erasing the latter in an instant. Aura was hurtled through space at immense speeds, to the point that reality appeared to become thin for but a moment until they came to a sudden halt upon crashing into ground of some kind. The first thing Aura noticed was that it was raining heavily, and the sky was filled to the brim with sickly greenish-yellow clouds. In less than a second, Necrozma had launched Aura from Pluto to Venus.

The demon, now having healed his arm, appeared before Aura and lifted them into the air with Psychic. He whipped around, aiming to hurl Aura into a nearby mountain, but the deity warped out of Necrozma's grip and in front of him, where it kicked him up into the air. Once more, Aura teleported up to Necrozma and drove its fist into his abdomen. It was going to slam Necrozma into the ground, but just before landing, the demon teleported out of harm's way.

Aura's blow sent massive waves of light across the planet's surface, though it meant nothing if they couldn't hit their target. The creator ripped its glowing hand from the ground just in time to block a blow from behind. Aura whipped around and fired a spear of light at the demon, but yet again, he disappeared from sight and let the spear pierce through the acidic clouds, parting them for the moment. Aura whipped around and blasted whatever was behind him, only to yet again find nothing.

Necrozma appeared where Aura had once been facing and smashed his fist into the back of Aura's head, driving it into the wet ground. The creator severely regretted being unable to discern Necrozma's fate and use it to predict what he might do like it could do with its own creations. The ground around them lit a blinding light before exploding up into a crackling geyser. Aura rocketed through it, and hurled a ball of hyper-intensified light up at Necrozma.

The demon quickly recovered from the geyser's impact and caught the ball, erasing it in his destructive grasp. His clawed fingers pierced the edges of the pillar, and it, too, was dispersed into naught more than black dust before long. "Come, now!" Mocked the demon. "Is there not more a god can-"

"BE SILENT!" Interrupted Aura, launching himself up at the demon like a bullet. Surprised at its speed, Necrozma created a barrier around himself. Aura stopped just before the barrier, holding one of his arms at his opposite side. A blinding glint of light forced Necrozma to shield his eyes, giving Aura the perfect chance to strike. "AURA BLADE!" The glint of light sliced across the barrier, appearing only for but a fraction of a second before disappearing.

Necrozma appeared to be frozen in shock. The barrier shattered like glass all of a sudden, making the demon recoil. Aura used this opportunity to land a devastating kick to Necrozma's abdomen. The force behind the attack shattered a portion of Necrozma's armor and sent him careening up back into space. Aura blitzed after him, barreling its body into the demon's and pushing him toward the next planet: Mercury.

When the two landed, they were greeted with an unrelenting, smeltering heat and an empty expanse of blackish-grey desert on Mercury. Though, to the two gods, it was nothing. Necrozma blasted Aura off of him and repaired the injured area, glowering at Aura. "All right," Said the demon. "Now you've got my attention."

Aura gracefully landed upon the ground. Its energy skyrocketed, allowing flowers to grow at its feet from his mere presence. Though, when he took a step toward Necrozma, they were immediately incinerated. "THE ONLY THING I NEED OF YOU," Spoke the god, "IS YOUR HEAD!" The blinding entity launched himself at Necrozma, to which the demon did the same. When their fists first clashed, a gargantuan crater was ripped open beneath their feet that stretched farther than the eye could see. Necrozma smirked at it and, with his free hand, reached up toward the sky. It was almost entirely drowned in the light of the sun.

The demon made a grabbing motion with his hand, causing immense amounts of black energy to erupt from it and swirl around himself, then he threw something at the entity. A wave of dread suddenly struck the old god, and it summoned an array of barriers around himself that grew larger with each new one. The blinding sky itself seemed to descend down upon the entirety of Mercury, consuming it in an unimaginably colossal, searing flare from the sun.

Aura quickly channeled the barriers to its feet and, subsequently, the planet itself. The solar flare Necrozma had wrought utterly eclipsed it in size, and it would have surely spelled utter doom for it and, potentially, Earth. Though, by saving Mercury, Aura allowed the flare to strike itself. The god and demon bathed in the hellish flames of sunlight, facing off once more. They launched themselves at one another, with the demon catching Aura's blow in his black hands. They somehow managed to remain as frigid as the void in spite of the flare.

"I wonder," Said Necrozma. "Just how long can you keep protecting this miserable, lifeless world?" His claws clenched into Aura's hand, though if it caused the god any pain, it made no motion or sound to indicate so. "How long can you protect yourself along with it?!"

Streams of white light erupted from between Necrozma's fingers and, before the demon could react, blew his arm clean off and sent him sprawling across the burning barrier that coated the world. "HOWEVER LONG I MUST!" Retorted Aura. Necrozma, furious, jumped up to send a deathly glare at Aura, only for his eyes to immediately go wide in horror. Aura had raised its arm up to the sky, and the colossal solar eruption began to curl around its hand.

It swirled around and around, pulling and condensing the entire solar flare into a single point between Aura's fingers. Necrozma swiftly created a barrier around himself and reached for his arm to regenerate it. He was never given the chance. Aura warped through his barrier and slammed the flare through Necrozma's arm and into his chest, making him let out a cry of shock, and unleashed it in a single, colossal blast right back into the sun.

Aura took one last look at the grey planet to retract the barrier, then raced up to the solar body in pursuit of the demon. When Aura's foot touched down upon the burning mass of plasma, it scanned the landscape, if it could even be called that, for the demon. The sun reacted violently to their contact, sending erratic streaks of lightning all across the sky as well as towering flares that danced across its surface. Though, they couldn't put so much as a scratch upon the god's divine form.

Apparently, they could not do so to the demon either, as he soon erupted from the sun's fiery surface with nary a wound upon his body. Despite Necrozma sending Aura his version of a coy grin, Aura could sense a deep fury emanating from him. "These stars, you know, are so dreadfully bright," He said, raising his hand above himself. A bubbling mass of raw darkness emerged from between his fingers over his palm. "I have half a mind to SNUFF THE ANNOYING THING OUT!" If the old god had a heart, it would have surely skipped a beat when Necrozma jerked down toward the star's surface. It dove down in Necrozma's way, catching the black ball and the demon's fist in its hand. Yet, it had no effect in the end.

At Aura's sides, a black fog corroded at the sun's surface, slowly eating away at everything it touched. "NO!" Cried the god, all the while Necrozma merely laughed. This battle, Aura realized, was far too great to be held so close to Earth, or life in general. In an act of desperation, he erased the decaying sun, immediately re-created it, and disappeared along with Necrozma without a trace.

When the god next appeared it was in a black void only lit by the endless twinkling stars unimaginably far off in the distance. Necrozma pushed himself away from Aura, looking around in confusion. "What in the-?! Where did you take us?!"

"A GALAXY TOWARD THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE," Answered Aura. "ONE DEVOID OF LIFE." A swirling mass of white exploded out from the god's body, making Necrozma recoil and futilely attempted to cover his eyes. "THAT MEANS I NO LONGER HAVE TO HOLD BACK." Aura launched itself at Necrozma, driving its fist into his chest. The demon let out a guttural groan of pain, his eyes going wide for the split second he was allowed before the two of them hurtled across the black space, eventually crashing into a planet with such force that its surface was blown open.

With a savage roar, Aura threw Necrozma into the planet's core along with a blast that subsequently caused the entire planet to explode. The god warped out from the explosion, looking on at it from a safe distance. It readied a white ball of energy in his hands, which he promptly buried in the demon's abdomen the moment he warped behind it. "DIE!" Bellowed the god. The white ball erupted, blasting Necrozma away with a stream of light.

A frustrated Necrozma dug his claws into it, attempting to pry it apart to free himself from its grasp, but to his shock, he found that it was much more difficult than he thought. "What?!" He bellowed. "What is this?! How did he become so powerful all of a sudden?!" The demon's crystals began glowing their sinister black glow. "Then...I will simply have to match his power!" With a reality-shaking roar, Necrozma pried the stream in two and cast aside its remains, making sure to coat it with his destructive essence so they fell to oblivion.

Black energy coursed from Necrozma's crystals, coating every crevice on his body. It raced all throughout him like raging rivers of pure, raw destruction. "Come on! I'll destroy everything you mean to protect!" Necrozma rocketed at Aura, and the collision of their fists sent a ripple throughout the cosmos. Stars, planets and anything else began drifting at monumental speeds toward the dueling gods, overturning the flow of gravity itself.

When the first planet began closing in on them, it was immediately reduced to rubble by their flaring energies. Necrozma grabbed a shattered continent with Psychic, sharpened it into the shape of a spear, and sent it hurtling toward his adversary. In turn, Aura launched himself at it, smashing straight through the colossal spear and infusing its broken remains with light that he threw back at the demon. They surrounded him on all sides and closed in, unleashing massive waves of light upon detonating.

Necrozma emerged from the explosion without a scratch and descended upon Aura once more. Their fists scarcely grazed one another, flying past the other's head, but the force behind their punches reduced the planets, their moons and asteroids to mere dust in an instant. Necrozma drove his fist into Aura's chest, hurtling him through clouds of asteroids and rubble until the god landed upon one, halted its momentum entirely, and used it to flip around the oncoming Necrozma. Aura grabbed the back of Necrozma's arm and threw him below.

Aura enshrouded himself in light before sailing down after the demon, smashing into him with the full brunt of his body. When they crashed straight through the next planet as if it were paper and scattered its pieces, Necrozma managed to separate himself from Aura, though it didn't take long for the god to come flying back around for another strike. Not being one to take this sitting down, Necrozma flared his own dark energy and met Aura's power with his own.

Their initial collision completely atomized their surroundings, yet the force behind it yanked other cosmic bodies toward them. Necrozma and Aura launched themselves at one another again, repeating their demise. The dueling gods spiraled around one another, launching their full might at each other over and over again, repeatedly forcing the planets to march to their own demise. Perhaps these countless worlds could have, one day, grown life of their own. Aura unwittingly entertained the idea, but was quick to dispel it as if it were trash. It mattered not right now. His innumerable regrets could wait until he remedied the one before him.

Aura ceased their collisions for the moment, racing out to a nearby cluster of stars, with Necrozma following in hot pursuit. The demon appeared to be closing in and gathered energy to his fist, but when he swung at Aura's back, it disappeared. He swifty looked around in confusion, eventually spotting it unimaginably far off in the distance. The demon was about to race after him, but the surrounding stars suddenly became unbearably bright, forcing him to shield his eyes instead.

"NECROZMA!" Roared Aura, gathering the cluster of stars in his divine grasp. "YOU SHALL RETURN TO THE VOID FROM WHERE YOU CAME!" Aura closed his arms together, making the stars, in turn, close in on themselves. Before Necrozma knew what was happening, he was crushed between the immense heat and gravity of the stars. Their collision with one another ushered in a horrific explosion unlike anything the universe had ever seen before.

Aura itself was forced to warp far out of harm's way for fear of being caught up in the blast. Something far beyond a supernova, a hypernova, erupted from the colliding stars and drowned thousands upon thousands of planets in the light of its explosion, eradicating them all without a trace. Millions of gamma ray burst erupted from the explosion like marvelous glowing serpents that devoured any star or planet they came across.

The god watched on as a small portion of the galaxy was consumed in the hellish mass of light he wrought. Aura clenched its fist, pleading with its conscience to allow it to feel that the sacrifice was worth it...but wasn't even given that. The explosion and gamma rays froze in place suddenly before being sucked back into their source. A supermassive black hole greater than any other in the universe, darker than even the empty void outside the universe, appeared.

Soon, it too, froze, and dark red cracks crawled along the horrified god's visage of the void before it shattered entirely. Necrozma appeared before Aura, his body disheveled and cracked at the seams. Before Aura could take advantage of it, a black wave crawled up Necrozma's body and erased the wounds. "I haven't felt that great since I was first reborn!" Cried the demon. When he sensed Aura's emotions, the demon let out a chuckle. "Come now, did you really believe the void that birthed me could possibly spell my end?"

Aura glowered at him, letting out a low growl as it let out a searing eruption of energy out in all directions. "...NO, I SUPPOSE NOT." Their next collision sent a ripple throughout the entire galaxy, momentarily halting its spiraling motion and hurtling untold amounts of cosmic bodies into the empty depths of space. They danced upon the fiery hellscape of a star's surface, and with each traded blow, erasing a part of it. Aura descended below, with Necrozma eagerly jumping in after.

When they reached the star's core, Aura turned his gaze up at Necrozma and unleashed a beam of light his way. Necrozma smirked, driving his fist into the attack and sending it scattering across the star's interior. He then crashed down onto the core, attempting to bury his claws into the god but only managing to do it to the star's core, causing it to explode. Unimpeded by that explosion as if it weren't happening around them at all, Aura and Necrozma continued to trade blows.

The force of their strikes sent colossal waves of plasma from the detonated star into planets and other nearby, smaller stars, drowning them in it. The planets were erased immediately, but the stars recoiled at the impact and caused their cores to become unstable. Their lives were uncontrollably snuffed out in the form of gamma ray bursts that erupted from them. Aura stopped a multitude of them in their tracks at his sides and turned them upon the demon.

A smirking Necrozma raced through the deathly gauntlet of light, digging his claws into the edges of the bursts as he flew by and allowing his energy to reduce them to nothingness. One burst managed to strike him dead on, only for Necrozma to dispel it from within immediately after. With nothing left to impede him, Necrozma raced at Aura, who had already pumped their fist back. However, their next collision was catastrophic.

Reality itself appeared to reject the two, and when their fists connected, both of their eyes went wide. A massive gathering of energy and friction blew them both away from one another to either side of the galaxy's ends. Though, the galaxy itself no longer had much shape to it. Planets, stars, quasars, nebulas...everything that made that galaxy up was reduced to nothing more than masses of gas and raw energy that sent the world around them into a brilliant blaze of meshing color.

The entire universe was trembling. Galaxies, quasars, superclusters. Even the cosmic web itself. All of existence was at the mercy of the dueling gods of creation and destruction. And though one of them wished above all else to protect it, they were beginning to doubt that the ever-increasing scale of their battle would not mean its end as well. However, losing would certainly mean it, and Aura would be damned to let that happen so long as it existed.

Though they were on completely opposite sides of the galaxy, Aura and Necrozma saw one another clearly with their fiery, hateful glares. They could only see one one another. In the blink of an eye, they blitzed at one another once more and their fists clashed together. Once more, reality itself attempted to force them apart, but they refused to part. Their hatred for one another pushed them past the force that attempted to pry them apart, causing a catastrophe that dwarfed even the colliding stars.

Planets and stars, or what remained of them, began closing in on the gods, and when they approached, they were reduced to nothingness. A great void erupted from between their fists that consumed and erased everything it touched except for them. Everything that had once made up the galaxy began to implode in on itself, and the spiraling motion of the galaxy itself began to halt as its mass was being eaten away from the inside.

Between Aura and Necrozma, a force and friction constantly erupted. It was so great in power that the gods' bodies began to disappear. Still, they refused to give in, as it would certainly spell the end if it did. This continued until, eventually, the entire galaxy had disappeared between them and naught but void was left. A pure, empty blackness fueled by the limitless energy exploding from the gods. The destruction of creation and the creation of void. It was a microcosm of the macrocosm itself.

Two beams of light pierced the darkness suddenly, and with it, a force that should never have been able to exist. The entire energy that they had unleashed, along with the collective energy of the galaxy crushed between them, erupted in an instant. There was an unbelievably bright flash of light that rivaled the luminosity of Aura itself. It consumed Aura and Necrozma, erasing the massive void and the galaxy itself before vanishing just as quickly as it had come.

In an empty part of deep space, Necrozma and Aura floated across from one another motionlessly. Their bodies were heavily scarred by what had just transpired, but in an odd way. Their "wounds" were more akin to misfigurations. Parts of their bodies were either twisted into unknowable shapes or half-faded. But death could not take these two so easily. Aura's body began to glow brightly, and Necrozma's eyes flashed red once more.

The parallel gods let out horrific roars and unleashed all-consuming explosions of light and dark that clashed against one another violently before hurtling their bodies into each other once more. Though at that point, their bodies were practically raw energy as well, used to their utmost maximum. As the forces of creation and destruction clashed at the peak of their power, other galaxies in their entirety were misshapen into nothing more than trails of light that were subsequently crushed in the gravity between them.

By the thousands, galaxies were swallowed whole by the ever-increasing gravity. A natural void, completely different than that of a black whole, began to form in their place. It soon became so grand in scope that the universe itself appeared to have a hole in it that grew larger with each passing moment. The combined power of Aura and Necrozma...of creation and destruction...was unmatched. The only thing their might could not match was that of infinity itself.

However, Aura and Necrozma could not keep at it for long. The reason why such a grand display of power was not accompanied, this time, by a black hole in contrast to the initial galaxy-destroying clash was because their power was all but expended by it. There was no universe-shattering explosion...but rather, a great erasure of matter. Aura counted his lucky stars, if there were any of them, that he had teleported himself and Necrozma toward the edge of the universe because if he was any closer to the core, untold amounts of life would have been lost.

As their power faded, Aura and Necrozma could scarcely even hold their arms up any longer, and lowered them to their sides. Still, the demon had a sickeningly elated look plastered upon his face. "This…" He said with a weak wheeze, "Is what I've been looking for! At last, a game I can actually partake in!"

Aura shook its head. "I...CANNOT EVEN BE SURPRISED BY YOU ANYMORE. YOU TRULY KNOW NOTHING!" Necrozma raised a questioning brow, so Aura asked, "WHAT WILL YOU DO IF YOU KILL ME? YOU'LL CONTINUE TO DESTROY UNTIL THERE'S NOTHING LEFT! THEN, WITH NOTHING ELSE TO DESTROY, YOU'LL END YOUR OWN EXISTENCE AFTER BEING DRIVEN MAD!"

To Aura's surprise, Necrozma merely chuckled at that. "Perhaps that was the case before," He said. The demon eyed Aura hungrily. "But now I see you truly are God. When I kill you, I can take your power and your title! I'll be able to create entire universes and destroy them without end! My reign will last forever!" Aura's energy began to flare up around them as he silently seethed. In turn, Necrozma urged the god to look to their side. Confused but obliging out of its own curiosity, Aura turned toward where the demon was looking, and felt a pang of horror run all throughout its body.

Somehow, their battle had led them back just outside the Milky Way. Before Aura could do anything, Necrozma grabbed the back of its head and hurtled them both toward Earth. Below, one of the trainers gathered around Arceus noticed a growing glint in the sky and pointed it out. When they saw who it was, their eyes went wide with horror. Aura and Necrozma fell to the ground not too far away from them, with the former making sure to dull their impact to prevent a catastrophic scenario.

Aura threw Necrozma off, silently cursing to itself when it noticed Arceus and the other survivors so close. Teleporting would be useless now with how little energy the god had left. It would only serve to give Necrozma an advantage, and so they were forced to keep the fight on Earth. Aura took a small solace knowing that Necrozma was unlikely to have the power to destroy the planet at this point, if what was left of its own strength was anything to go by.

"JUST HOLD ON A LITTLE LONGER," Aura whispered under its breath. "THIS WAR...IS ALMOST OVER!"

Necrozma erupted from a cloud of dust and blitzed toward Aura, who ducked underneath the demon's jab and planted its palm into the demon's chest. "HAAAAH!" A white pulse erupted from Aura's hand, blasting Necrozma away and taking off a small piece of his armor. Necrozma hissed in pain and dug his claws into the ground to halt his momentum, then threw himself back at his adversary. Aura raised its arms to guard, but Necrozma rushed around to Aura's backside, grabbed their head, and slammed it into the ground. Many white particles fell from Aura's body upon the impact.

Several jets of concentrated light erupted from Aura's body, punching holes through Necrozma's armor. The god shakily got to its feet before turning its head up to the demon. Necrozma, furious, lunged down at Aura with his fist pumped back, missing their head by only a hair, but managing to slice halfway through Aura's chest before crashing into the ground. Aura staggered backwards, putting a hand to the wound. It stared down at it for a moment before eventually shaking its head and facing the demon.

For a fourth time, their fists clashed together. Now, though, there was no grand destruction or explosion. The blow destroyed both of their arms completely, though it didn't phase either in the slightest. With a small wave of darkness and a gathering of white particles, their arms re-formed. Aura smashed its fist into the demon's chest, blowing it open but destroying its arm once again. After healing the wound, Necrozma bashed his fist into Aura's head, making it snap backwards and sending a flurry of particles up into the air before they eventually disappeared entirely.

Aura retaliated with a jab to Necrozma's head, shattering the area that encompassed his eye. Necrozma staggered backwards, clutching at the wound. The god stepped forward, attempting to follow up on the attack with another, but found, in its weakness, that it nearly fell flat onto its face trying. The god forced itself to stay on its feet. It would not dare fall in front of its onlooking children, and it would be damned to do so before Necrozma.

After healing the wound to his face, Necrozma snarled at the god ferociously and leapt at it. Aura was struck across the head, nearly sending them onto its back. However, Aura managed to dig its heels into the dirt to stop itself from falling and retaliated with another weak punch to the demon's face. The blow sent Necrozma back slightly, and though the demon reacted in genuine pain to it, it was clear that neither of their attacks were even doing visible damage to one another anymore.

Again and again, the forces of creation and destruction went back and forth delivering pitiable attacks to each other, each with declining force as their already-feeble energy dwindled. Yet, their will never dwindled. The will to save its children from an unending fate of destruction and recreation, and the will to never fall to madness or die. Even though their power failed them, their will forced their bodies to keep moving. To keep attacking. To survive. Because if one gave in, the other won, and they would lose everything.

The survivors could only watch on in confusion and abject horror. These two beings with unparalleled, godlike strength were now ruthlessly beating each other with only their fists. They were no longer watching a battle between gods. It was more akin to two dying candle flames attempting to burn the other out...while the candlestick itself had long since burnt out.

Aura managed to catch Necrozma's arm by the crystal and pried it off, throwing it to the wayside. "Wh-what?!" Stammered Necrozma. "You-!" The demon attempted to dig his claws into Aura's head, but the god caught the arm's crystal as well and shattered it in their grip. However, the amount of power that it took to do such a thing caused the arm Aura used to shatter, reducing it to white dust that soon disappeared.

Necrozma backed away from Aura, looking down at where his crystals once were in horror. "No!" He cried, falling to his knees. "What have you done?!" With whatever energy was left in his body, a rage-fueled Necrozma lunged at Aura, only to soon find a hole punched through his chest. With Aura's remaining arm, they had impaled Necrozma upon it. Necrozma was stunned silent and frozen, unable to even move any longer.

Aura's brilliant white glow faded, and the hand inside Necrozma's chest heightened to the point that the demon's entire body was overcome by the light. "This ends now!" Declared Aura, its light growing brighter even still. "No longer will you haunt my children! No longer will you take lives for the sake of your sickening entertainment!" At Aura's side, the other arm re-formed, and it drove the appendage into Necrozma's chest as well. "Your time has come! The crystals you've corrupted cannot save you any longer! DIIIIIIIE!"

Whatever final shriek Necrozma could have screamed out was drowned in Aura's brilliant light. His body shattered, and the fragments were swallowed and destroyed without so much as a trace. A single pillar of light carried away Necrozma's life into the cold nothingness of space. When Aura was finished, they collapsed to the ground onto their knees, no longer able to move. Yet, the exhaustion and pain it felt was nothing in comparison to its happiness. The scourge that terrorized the universe and its children was gone. At last, Necrozma was dead.

Aura was next greeted with the wonderful sounds of cheering from the survivors. The survivors, their Pokemon and even the proudest of the Legends were cheering for their victory. For the first time in years, Arceus wore a genuine smile upon his face. It didn't take long for most of them to start crowding around Aura and bombarding him with praise and questions, especially Riley and Lucario. It simply laughed, unable to keep up with their energy.

Serena and Pikachu, with Hydreigon timidly attempting to hide itself behind them, slowly approached and caught the god's attention. "You…" She started, trying to find the right words in spite of her awe. "You...wouldn't happen to know anything about a boy named Ash...would you?" The other survivors went silent after hearing that. The thought of Arceus's chosen one and the close friend of many hadn't crossed their mind much after he disappeared, but to say they weren't curious now would be a lie.

"...WELL," Said the creator. "YOU CAN SAY THAT. IT'S THANKS TO HIM THAT I WAS ABLE TO STOP NECROZMA IN THE FIRST PLACE. IF ANYONE SHOULD BE PRAISED FOR THE VICTORY, IT SHOULD FALL TO HIM.." When the eyes of the survivors collectively went wide, Aura chuckled. "REST ASSURED, ASH IS ALIVE AND WELL."

At that, Serena let out a long-held sigh of relief, falling to her knees. The trainers whooped and hollered in celebration. In a small town by a coast, a woman with brown hair felt peace for the first time in weeks. A limping Arceus, accompanied and held steady by Dialga, made his way toward Aura. The survivors parted, allowing him to meet with their savior and, unbeknownst to them, the creator of their own creator.

When Arceus actually made it, he wasn't quite sure what to say. "I…" He couldn't even begin to express what he wanted to say. What could he say? There were millions of thoughts running through Arceus's mind, but their sheer numbers merely paralyzed him in the end. Eventually, Aura merely sighed and shook its head.

"PERHAPS," They said, "IT IS BETTER IF WE DO NOT SPEAK WITH ONE ANOTHER. MY INTERFERENCE IS ALREADY ENOUGH OF A DISTURBANCE TO THE UNIVERSE."

Arceus was taken aback by this, but he soon came to agree with them, even if it saddened him. He sensed a great sorrow from his creator that mirrored his own. "...Yes, perhaps you are right. In any case, I wish you well...and I thank you for what you have done for us."

Aura managed to stand to its feet once more and made their way outside of the crowd. It looked up to the sky, preparing to free Ash from its grasp at last before returning to the infinite void. It decided, before that, to give one last goodbye to its creations before leaving. "FAREWELL!" It cried to them. "MY TIME IN YOUR WORLD IS AT AN END NOW THAT NECROZMA HAS FALLEN. I...AM TRULY GLAD TO HAVE GOTTEN TO SEE YOU ALL."

The god looked down at the blackened ground, clenching its fist. "...I FELT, FOR A MOMENT, THE WONDROUS FEELING OF BELONGING...BUT THAT FEELING IS RIGHTFULLY FLEETING. I WISH YOU ALL WONDERFUL LIVES, AND I CAN ONLY APOLOGIZE FOR NOT-"

The entire world seemingly went dark in an instant, with swirling black winds consuming everything. Aura could no longer see anything except for those winds and the ground beneath its feet. For a moment, it could hear panicked screams, but even those were drowned out by the dark cyclone. "WHA-?!" A sudden pulse of energy from behind not only knocked Aura to the ground, but completely dispelled his form, leaving only a wide-eyed Ash behind.

In that moment, the darkness spread. It took mere seconds for it to spread to the other planets, the sun, other stars and entire galaxies to be enshrouded by the darkness. Then, the universe itself was consumed as well. From the winds, a being stepped forward and hovered over Ash. It was unmistakably Necrozma, only now, the demon had a new, more terrible visage.

Though his head remained the same, it now sat upon broad shoulders with two jagged, prismatic spikes jutting up from just before its shoulders and curling inward slightly. His arms were larger, reaching down to his abdomen in jagged segments. Now, though, no crystals accommodated them. His hands now bore five claws each instead of three. His chest was broad, but it exposed his hollow insides, where a swirling void endlessly poured dark energy all throughout his body. Two long legs had replaced the short, twig-like ones he possessed before, as well as clawed feet akin to those on his hands. In general, he almost looked...humanoid. Like he was attempting to mimic what he saw of Aura.

"There's no way!" Cried Ash. "I saw you die!"

Ash was expecting some kind of sickening laugh or mocking chuckle from the demon, but what he received instead was...somehow even more chilling. Though Necrozma looked down at him, his black glance made it feel like he was looking straight through him. "I...RECEIVED A REVELATION," Spoke Necrozma in a deep, booming voice.

"I AM DEATH. I AM THE INFINITE VOID GIVEN FORM." The embodiment of nonexistence raised his arm to the sky, and a swirling mass of black that was somehow even darker than the surrounding winds emerged from it. "MY PURPOSE IS TO ERASE CREATION. TO DESTROY EVERYTHING, THEN TO RETURN TO OBLIVION MYSELF!"

Ash pitifully tried to stand to his feet, but the powerful winds began roaring even more fiercely as their speed intensified, and he was thrown back to the ground. "THERE IS NO LONGER ROOM FOR FEAR! FOR YOU...NOR MYSELF. I WILL SNUFF OUT THE UNIVERSE'S LIGHT ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

All Ash could do was cover his eyes as the winds overtook him. The darkness that ensnared the universe now coated it entirely in black. Before Necrozma's very eyes, reality itself was being dragged away by the winds. His winds. He thought for a moment, as everything began to fade, that he felt joy. But...he felt nothing. The void had taken that as well. Soon enough, the winds died out. The universe had disappeared; dragged away into the black of night. Now, it was his turn. Necrozma turned around to face oblivion...finding light instead.

"WHAT?!" Shrieked Necrozma, recoiling.

"I DIDN'T KNOW IF I'D MAKE IT," Admitted Aura, shaking its head. "TO THINK YOU WOULD PUSH ME THIS FAR…"

Necrozma's face contorted with a returning rage. "YOU ARE NOTHING TO ME NOW! I CANNOT FATHOM HOW YOU SURVIVED, BUT I WILL MAKE SURE TO-" As Necrozma spoke, he formed another black mass in his hand and launched it at Aura...or at least, he believed he did. In all reality, nothing actually happened. "WH-WHAT IN THE-?!"

Aura stepped toward Necrozma, causing the entire void to tremble and making the demon recoil. "IN TRUTH, YOU ALMOST HAD ME. IT WAS A SPLIT SECOND DECISION, BUT...I FORCED MYSELF TO TAKE THE UNIVERSE...MY CREATION...UNTO MYSELF ONCE MORE. WHAT YOU NOW SEE BEFORE YOU...IS A SINGULARITY."

The god pointed its finger at Necrozma, and in the blink of an eye, a jet of light rushed out from it. The jet pierced straight through Necrozma, shattering his armor and reducing him back to his previous form. Necrozma screamed in agony, clutching at his chest. "N-NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! MY POWER IS WITHOUT LIMIT!"

"...YOU GENUINELY TERRIFY ME," Admitted Aura, even as he hovered over the demon's broken body. "A BEING OF THE VOID WITH THE ABILITY TO COME BACK FROM DEATH AND BE STRONGER FOR IT. IF THERE ARE OTHER UNIVERSES OUT THERE, I SHUDDER TO THINK WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED TO THEM IF THEY MANAGED TO KILL YOU AGAIN."

In a desperate last-ditch effort, Necrozma pointed a finger at Aura, only for it to be destroyed by a swipe from Aura's own. "BUT THAT NIGHTMARE WILL NEVER COME TO BE! I WILL CUT YOUR POWER OFF AT ITS SOURCE BY DEFYING DEATH AS WELL!" The infinite, unending darkness that surrounded them gave way to light. One by one, beings began to appear by Aura's side. First was Ash, who stood by his side. Behind him were the humans and Pokemon. Nigh uncountable others manifested as well, spanning the white void farther than Necrozma's eyes could perceive.

Aura held its hand out toward Necrozma, making the demon stagger backwards in fear. "I AM THE BEGINNING. I AM THE END. I AM LIFE, AND I AM DEATH. I AM TIME, SPACE, AND REALITY ITSELF. I AM ALL THAT EXISTS. I AM THE UNIVERSE. AND YOU, NECROZMA, ARE NOT WELCOME IN IT!"

Suddenly, the other life-forms of the universe raised their hands at Necrozma, mimicking Aura. Long had the time come for their vengeance. No longer would they fall prey to the demon's wrath. Hand in hand with their creator, they would take back their lives. "I WAS HERE IN THE BEGINNING," Spoke Aura. Following them, every other existing lifeform spoke as well. "AND WE SHALL PROCLAIM THE END!"

Then, everything went white.

---

When Ash next came to, he was back upon the scarred battleground. Before him was a small, glimmering white orb. "Aura?" The boy asked. "What...happened?"

"...I RECREATED THE UNIVERSE," Answered Aura, "JUST AS IT WAS BEFORE THE SINGULARITY. NO ONE BUT US WILL REMEMBER THAT PART. SUCH A THING WOULD BE...TAXING ON MORTAL MIND, SO TO THEM, NECROZMA FELL BEFORE HIS TRANSFORMATION. BUT...PLEASE, FORGIVE ME."

Ash looked at him questioningly. "Forgive you? What are you talking about? I couldn't even begin to thank you for all you've-"

"I COULDN'T BRING THEM BACK."

Ash's eyes went wide. "...What?"

"THE ONES WHO FELL IN THE BATTLE," Continued Aura. "WHEN I RE-CREATED THE UNIVERSE, I WAS ABLE TO BRING BACK THOSE WHO STILL YET LIVED BECAUSE THEY YET LIVED. THOSE WHO DID NOT SURVIVE...WERE NOT A PART OF ME ANY LONGER."

Still, Ash remained optimistic. "You've done more than enough for us, so don't worry about it." He looked off in the distance, smiling at the other survivors, who were running toward him. "I'm sure many of us will be hurting, but all wounds heal in time."

Aura shuddered, its breath shaking. Ash could not possibly understand the weight of what he just said. "...I LIED TO YOU, ASH," It said.

Ash turned toward them with another questioning expression. "What? What are you talking about?"

"...ABOUT TIME BEING NONEXISTENT WHEN I SPOKE TO YOU INITIALLY," Answered Aura, making Ash's blood run cold. "I NEEDED YOU TO WILLINGLY ALLOW ME TO MERGE WITH YOU IN ORDER TO DEFEAT NECROZMA. I NEEDED YOU TO TRUST ME SO THAT I MIGHT IMPART THE KNOWLEDGE YOU WILL NEED IN THE COMING YEARS TO AVERT FURTHER TRAGEDY."

"...I NEEDED TO CONSERVE MY STRENGTH, LEST I FEAR I WOULD NOT HAVE HAD THE POWER TO KILL NECROZMA."

Ash was left stunned. If Aura had not frozen time, then...what happened while they were talking? "Aura...what…?"

"...WHEN I GAZED INTO YOUR POSSIBLE FUTURES BEFORE I ARRIVED ON EARTH," Started Aura, "I SAW THAT, IF I TOLD YOU WHAT WAS TRULY HAPPENING TO YOUR FRIENDS, YOU WOULD HAVE GONE INTO A PANICKED STATE. LIKE I SAID, I HAD TO CONSERVE ENERGY, AND THAT POCKET DIMENSION WE SPOKE IN WAS SMALL AND WEAK. YOU WOULD HAVE ESCAPED AND MARCHED TO YOUR OWN DEMISE ATTEMPTING TO SAVE YOUR FRIENDS, DOOMING THE UNIVERSE."

Though Aura spoke what it believed to be the truth...what it believed to have been right...it was trembling. It felt rage and sorrow, both directed back to itself in remorse for what it had done. "SO I LIED TO YOU...AND I CANNOT APOLOGIZE ENOUGH FOR THAT. I KNOW IT MEANS NOTHING, BUT I AM SORRY, ASH. IT WAS A DECISION BETWEEN THE FEW AND THE MANY...AND SO I CHOSE THE MANY."

Aura began to float away from Ash up into the sky, its form dwindling. Ash yearned to reach out to stop them. To demand answers...but the horrifying knowledge that he would receive them in due time paralyzed him. "NOW, I WILL RETURN TO THE VOID TO OVERSEE THE UNIVERSE. BY RE-CREATING THE UNIVERSE AS IT ONCE WAS, I EXPENDED NEARLY ALL OF MY STRENGTH. IT IS UNLIKELY THAT WE WILL EVER MEET AGAIN."

Ash noticed a faint white glow from his hands. Unbeknownst to him, his eyes shared that same color. "MY PRESENCE IN YOUR BODY HAS LEFT RESIDUAL EFFECTS. I KNOW IT CANNOT EVEN HOPE TO BEGIN TO MAKE UP FOR WHAT I'VE DONE...BUT I HOPE THAT IT WILL SERVE YOU WELL. PROTECT WHAT I COULD NOT, ASH KETCHUM."

Then, Aura disappeared.

Ash was grabbed from behind by the cheering survivors. They playfully shook him, cheering and whooping vigorously in celebration. Serena pushed her way to the front of the crowd with Pikachu on her shoulder. The trusty yellow mouse hopped upon his signature spot on Ash's shoulder, happily nuzzling his trainer's cheek. To the shock of most and jubilation of some, Serena planted her lips upon Ash's, embracing him tightly and earning a few whistles.

Though, when Serena parted from him with a bright smile on her face, it fell when she saw Ash's expression. It was blank, and his eyes were wide and dull. He stared out into nothingness, unmoving. "Ash?" She asked. "Are...you okay?"

"...Say, Serena?" He asked. His voice was barely audible—a mere, droll whisper.

"Y-yeah, Ash?"

"...What happened...while I was gone?"

---

A large cloud of dust hung over a portion of the battlefield like a smothering blanket. There was an eerie stillness and silence, deafening to anything that could have been nearby. But there was nothing left. No living being existed here any more. Simply lost souls buried underneath unending layers of blackened rubble and burned ground. Of course, there was one being, though it was never alive to begin with. This being was Necrozma. His body was irrevocably broken. His legs were gone, his armor all but shattered, only having one arm and no crystal to perch on it.

The demon awoke with a start, gasping for air for the first time in his existence. The feeling was completely alien to him, and it made his blood run cold. Blood. Blood blacker than night seeped from his wounds onto the ground and encumbered him in a puddle. "Wh-what is- A-AUGH!" An agony unlike anything he had ever felt wracked every inch of his body, and he let out an ear-piercing scream to the unhearing heavens above.

Still, even amidst this waking nightmare, Necrozma realized one thing. "I...am alive…?" A jubilant laugh escaped from the cracks in his hollow armor. "I am alive! Not even god himself could kill me!" The demon attempted to stand up, but merely fell flat onto his face instead. Still, this did not ruin the demon's mood. He noticed, somewhere far in the distance, a single tiny glint of light piercing through the dust. Necrozma immediately recognized it as the crystal Aura had ripped off and thrown away before his transformation.

Another laugh, more maniacal and victorious than the first, was let out by the demon. He gripped at the dirt beneath him, failing to crush it in his grasp. "That fool!" With his remaining arm, Necrozma began pulling himself toward the crystal. Little by little, he came closer toward his lifeline. "How I wish I could see that imbecile's face when it realized what it left behind!" Necrozma dug his hand into the dirt, painstakingly dragging his marred body across the obsidian ground.

The pain meant little to him. His victory was all but in hand now. The lifeforms on Earth were nearly on death's doorstep as it was. Aura had disappeared, that much he was sure of. "Once I get my hands on that...I've won!" He continued rambling to himself as he dragged himself along. The nearer he got to the crystal, the more nonsensical and spastic his rambling became. Then, he noticed the sound of wind and rotating blades ahead.

On the opposite side of the crystal, a helicopter parted the dust cloud before touching down. The moment it met with the ground, a single Man walked out. He quickly made His way toward the crystal, coming to a halt when He came across it. It was in shambles. There were cracks adorning every inch of it, and its glow had largely faded. Some parts of it had been shattered altogether, and they now lay at the crystals sides in tiny pieces.

Still, The Man collected those smaller pieces, shoveling them into a bag and placing it into a pocket in His large, white trench coat. Then, He took the larger crystal into His hands, marvelling at it with a smirk He couldn't help but to let crawl up His face. Necrozma recognized The Man as his partner and pleaded with Him.

"Quick, give it to me!" He demanded, holding his hand up to Him. "Once my power is restored, nothing will stop us from ruling the universe for all eternity!"

The Man scoffed. "You sure seem to believe I'm a dumbass despite the shape your own stupidity has put you in. I told you to be diligent, you know, but you just couldn't wait."

Necrozma retracted his hand, his face contorting with rage. "That was an offer you won't get a second time." He reached his hand out toward The Man's jacket, attempting to use Psychic to forcibly retrieve the crystal. To his horror, nothing happened. "What?!" He tried again and again, eventually looking down at his remaining hand with widened eyes. "What's happening?! Why won't my powers work?!"

The Man shook His head. "How pathetic. The terror once known and feared all across the universe now reduced to a weak, powerless state like this." He couldn't help but to chuckle. "You wasted your power. It had no purpose but mindless destruction all for the sake of entertainment." He gazed down at the crystal in His hands. "Still, I suppose you had some use. You did take down Arceus, the Legends and so many others, leaving me in a position greater than I could have ever hoped for."

"Imbecile!" Roared Necrozma. "That power cannot be controlled by a weak peon like you!"

The Man merely laughed at the demon's attempts to rile His anger. "I told you I was the most powerful being on this planet, didn't I? It's simply a...different kind of power."

Necrozma's eyes went wide. "Wait a second," He said. "All of this...no, you couldn't possibly have known! Do you have the ability to see the future or something?!"

Again, The Man chuckled. "See the future? No, it was simply just so easy to predict an arrogant fool like you. You played right into my hand at nearly every turn, and when you didn't you simply made my situation even better than I had hoped for." He took out a metal device. A small firearm. It was a light black shade with a glass chamber on its underside. In that chamber, a crystal was suspended in its center.

"What?!" Shrieked a wide-eyed Necrozma. "How the hell did you get that?!"

"You really shouldn't leave important things like these lying around, you know," Replied The Man coyly, cocking the weapon. "Surely you noticed it was missing. This small piece must have gotten loose in your initial battle with Arceus."

Necrozma vigorously shook his head. "That's impossible! The entire area was destroyed! How could you have found it?!"

The Man stepped forward, hovering over the fallen demon. "Diligence is key. You can't leave any stone unturned in a business like mine." He pointed the weapon down at Necrozma's head and pulled the trigger. Instead of firing, the gun began to let out a high-pitched whir. The crystal, in its chamber, began spinning like a drill, making the gun shine brightly. Tiny streaks of plasma erupted from two holes on either side of the barrel, slowly travelling up until it touched the front.

"Unfortunately for you," Said The Man, "You no longer serve a purpose. Still, you were useful enough, so…" Another smirk slowly crawled up the side of his face. "I'll make it quick."

Necrozma barked out a laugh. "You think my own power can harm me?!"

"Are you sure it's even yours anymore?" Retorted The Man. He let go of the trigger, and the bullet was fired. It bounced off of the demon's armored exterior, eventually digging into the burnt ground and coming to a stop.

Necrozma laughed once more. "I told you, you fool! My power could never possibly harm m-" He let out a sudden gasp as if the air in his throat was ripped out. Black dust appeared from the area the bullet struck and quickly began crawling up the rest of his body. "Wh-what?!" The demon dug his claws into the affected area and ripped it off, but the dust climbed onto his hand as well. "No, this isn't possible! I am Necrozma! I am the one above all! Not even God himself could strike me down! I will not fall to the hands of…"

The Man turned away from him, walking over to retrieve the bullet and pocketing it thereafter. Glancing back at the demon, He said, "It only takes one bullet," Then began walking back toward the helicopter.

The demon let out a low growl, glaring fiercely at The Man. Before the dust consumed his eye, he spat, "We will see," Then disappeared into nothingness. He could cheat death no longer.

Necrozma, at last, was dead.

---

Author's Note

Creator- At last, after two long, grueling years and far too many hiatus's, Pokextinction has come to an end. I must thank you all for joining us on this journey. I personally consider Arceus VS Necrozma to be better than Aura VS Necrozma in my opinion, though they both have their merits. I also consider these two to be great characters, and even greater parallels to one another. Two gods made into fathers. They are terrified of the prospect of hurting their loved ones and fight with their lives to protect them...yet any decision they make is a wrong one, even if it was for the best.

Also, Necrozma has got to have more fake deaths than Loki by now. Good lord. I dare someone to try and count them all.

Hydra- hehehe well Necrozma has FINALLY met his end, I'm sure a lot of you were waiting for this moment and like I said it finally came. Now the question is were you expecting him to go out the way he did.

EeviumZ- "Off in the distance, an Eevee is seen at a complicated-looking control center. It looks at you like it's been slapped, and stiffly hits a large red button labeled PANIC. It then proceeds to spontaneously combust out of, well, panic.*

All I can say about this one... it lives up to the name of the chapter. Death. Death everywhere.

I... don't really know what to say about this one. You said that this chapter would make the last one look like a stroll through a flower garden. You weren't effing kidding.

Favourite-chapter wise? I'll have to reread every single one... which will be quite the task.

See you in the next chapter... and I can tell it's going to be really good."

Creator- I hope this chapter lived up to your expectations. It's a bit short, but quality is better than quantity. I'll also be looking forward to your answer about your favorite chapter.

Hydra- I hope this one exceeded your expectations because certain sections of this chapter literally made my brain almost explode lol.

DarkPugLord23- "HOLY F*CK! Well, when you said this chapter was a bloodbath, you weren't kidding. And a great job killing off pretty much 85% of the characters; not many fics I've seen do that, so props to you! (Also, I do love me an intense bloodbath) And now with Arceus going through his 'Anime Protagonist' phase, one can only wonder what will happen next.

As for my favourite chapter? I'd say it's a tie between this one and the previous."

Creator- I do love a good bloodbath myself as well. Though, I did reveal that more Legends survived than you probably thought...but a whole lotta other people are dead. Just think of all those trainers' families. Hoo boy.

Hydra- Yeah it sure was a slaughter, pretty much half the hall of origins was completely wiped out, the legends are definitely in a bad position at the moment.

Amourshipper35- "I really really hope they can end this and fast and I hope ash will will come back soon"

Creator- Ah, our most loyal reviewer. I trust this chapter lived up to your expectations?

Hydra- Well ash finally saved the day as for it being fast however well Necrozma doesn't go down so easily.

KaiserFaust- "Oh yeah, it's all coming together. I'm pretty sure I haven't been this excited since the Slave Knight Gael boss fight in Dark Souls 3, and I thought nothing could beat a broken greatsword-swinging, Machine Gun-crossbow firing, miracle-throwing embodiment of Mankind's Soul. Well, congratulations lads, you just made something equal to that level of brilliance, excitement and sheer awesomeness. Now.

Hand it over. That thing.

Your grand finale.

For all of us readers."

Creator- A fellow Dark Souls fan. A man of quality, I see. Soul of Cinder's my personal favorite boss, but Gael is a close second. Dear oh dear. What was it? The war? The death? Or the horrible Necrozma? It always comes down to the writer's reviewers to clean up these sorts of messes…

...Tonight, "Destruction" joins the chapters.

Hydra- We definitely put our all into this one hopefully it was a satisfying end for you and the rest of the readers I will say though I don't think people thought Necrozma would go out the way he did.

Savannah-ya-YEET

- (Chapter 6). "I loved this chapter a lot! Because I get to read about misty and I miss her so much! I love it so far. "

- (Chapter 14) "So far this is my favorite chapter I just love mewtwo and mew ughh I'm in love with this whole story already heh"

Creator- Your reviews, especially in the streams, are always fun to look at. It always puts a smile on our faces seeing people react to our writing. P.S.: Hydra is Xrayeyes36. I'm simply the handyman.

Hydra- Hi Wolfie! Hope your having a good day. I LOVED chapter 14 as well it was so cool seeing Mewtwo get his mega evolution and seeing him and Rayquaza form a friendship that was definitely one of my favorite chapters in the fic. lol you would reference my stream Creator.

Creator- Now there's only one chapter left, you know. The epilogue...where we get to see a whole lot of crying most likely. Considering how many of the world's population was trainers and how there's only a couple thousand of them that survived, well… This is something that will not be soon forgotten. We also get to see Ash and the others react to a...few key deaths. And Aura won't be holding back anyone's emotions this time. See you all in the epilogue.

Hydra- Well boys this was by far our most ambitious chapter yet. I really hoped you guys enjoyed the reveal of Aura and demise of Necrozma Ash finally got that god power up and I'd definitely say things went off the rails lol. Well boys I hope you guys loved the chapter as much as we do and I shall see you all on the next one peace out.