Chapter 6

Sanded Tomb

Kerrosian Territory - North of Poltress

The sun sat at its peak in the sky, as its beams sear the ground beneath the pokemon's feet. To Dillan, it felt like walking on a warm towel that had just come out of the dryer. But for Ryan, it felt like he was going to be perched on the gabite's fin for the remainder of the journey.

The pachirisu kicked back upon his spine, attempting to get some more rest before they arrived at their destination: Sandy Slopes. Meanwhile, Dillan followed their ghastly companions and moved northward, with Drake heading the group.

"There's a set of ruins towards the center of Sandy Slopes," Drake the gengar explained. "The theory is that's where the Red Eye is keeping Poltress's pokemon."

"But you guys aren't sure?" Dillan asked.

Drake shook his head. "We'd sent others to investigate when we had the mon power but none of them ever came back."

"Vanished without a trace," Chuck whispered ominously.

"Sounds like a good guess then," Dillan surmised.

The sound of kicked-up sand came from behind. Looking back to the source, Dillan saw Hazel, who had been tailing the group at a bit of a distance, in the middle of picking herself up after a stumble. She jumped back up awfully quickly with knitted brows directed towards the ghosts.

Dillan stopped in his tracks for a moment, allowing her the chance to catch up. She gave him a light smile, assuring him she was fine.

"Are you okay?" Dillan asked, noting her clenched fists and the biting of the charmeleon's lower lip. He matched Hazel's pace and continued. "You don't look great."

"I am," Hazel quickly assured. Yet she still didn't look Dillan in the eyes.

The gabite smiled at her with a quick nudge of her shoulder with his own. "Really. What's going on with you?"

The charmeleon's eyes narrowed on the sand underfoot with her claws clenched around her satchel's strap. "It's nothing," Hazel said. "I'm fine, okay?"

Yet the answer still didn't satisfy the gabite.

Dillan opened his maw to say something - an attempt at encouraging her to open up. However, the charmeleon didn't bother waiting for him to say another word, instead walking on with her head hung low, leaving Dillan to stare at her back in surprise.

"What's with her?" Ryan asked from Dillan's back, arms still crossed behind his head.

"I don't know…" Dillan admitted. "But she's definitely acting weird."

"Maybe that berry from lunch didn't agree with her."

Yet the gabite didn't think that was it, recalling how she hardly touched it at all. Nevertheless, he didn't think he was about to reach an answer anytime soon: especially with the charmeleon acting, what Dillan thought was, uncharacteristically dodgy. So he merely shrugged her odd behavior off and continued walking.

"What about you?" he asked, glancing back at the pachirisu, who started picking his teeth with what appeared to be one of the berry spines from before.

"What about me?" he asked with a slight smile to Dillan.

Dillan shrugged. "You've been acting weird, too, you know."

A small smirk played off Ryan's face. "How do you figure?"

"Well, when the ghosts treated us to lunch, for instance. I don't think I've ever seen you excited to take on… well, anything really."

"What? You never get any ideas about hunting ghosts as a kid?"

"Maybe a few," the gabite said with a smile. "But I don't think this is the same thing for you, which leads me to asking why you're excited for it at all."

Ryan's smile persisted for a while but eventually faded with a sigh. "Now, I'm not saying this is the case," he began, flicking the spine from his paw.

"Sure," Dillan said, playing along.

"But…" Ryan paused for a moment. "Maybe… there are mistakes a guy can make that you can't really fix no matter how hard you try, you know? Maybe those mistakes make you stay up all night just thinking… 'What could I have done differently? What could I have done to prevent that mistake from happening? What can I do now to fix what I did.' And eventually, you come to a point where you realize…" A sigh escaped Ryan's mouth as he sat up on Dillan's fin. "There are some mistakes that you can't fix. Those mistakes are made, and the past is the past at this point. Nothing you can do but stare at the sky each night and hope you never make the same mistake twice…" A slight smile came to settle on Ryan's face as he breathed calmly.

"But… maybe there comes an opportunity to make the world better in some way… to fix the mistakes you made before. Maybe you want to take the opportunity in your own, two paws and make things right for someone else, even if you can't for the ones you hurt. Maybe… Maybe you can forgive yourself for a moment if…"

Ryan's voice trailed off at the end as he continued staring at the sky. The words seemed to catch in his throat, leaving the pachirisu mouthing soundless words that twisted his face into a stiff expression. Yet the truth was, Dillan didn't need to hear anything more to understand.

"I get it."

Ryan snickered above Dillan's head. "Don't make fun of me," he said.

"I'm not," Dillan assured, looking over his shoulder with a smile. "I mean it."

His mind wandered back to the human world - back to his shadowed spot in the park. "You know, I spent a lot of time watching the world pass me by from underneath a tree. I remember lying there for hours, and listening to the wind in the branches. On hot days, the shade kept me from overheating. On colder days, the sun warmed me up. And I even got so still that, sometimes, the birds would sit above me and sing."

Dillan closed his eyes and took a deep breath of fresh air, just like he used to do underneath the tree in the park. And with a slow exhale, his heart felt completely still.

"Sounds peaceful," Ryan said, eyeing Dillan curiously. "But… what's your point?"

"I used it as an escape," Dillan admitted outright.

"An escape?" Ryan asked, turning his head to get a better view of Dillan. "From what?"

"From my sister, Grace," Dillan explained, feeling a pit in his stomach beginning to form. "She used to get under my skin when we'd hang out. My parents called her, "Regalo de Dios" because they thought of her like an angel, but they didn't understand what kind of a menace she was when they weren't looking.

"I remember having to pick her up from school everyday, but I normally let myself fall asleep for hours underneath that tree, leaving Grace to wait for me alone."

"That's not too bad," Ryan snickered. "My brothers used to do worse."

But Dillan shook his head. His smile faded as he opened his mouth to speak, but he had to force the words to come out: "One day, I went to her school after a nap but she wasn't at the usual place. When I'd asked around to find out where she'd gone, one of the teachers told me she passed out and banged her head real bad, and she was at the hospital now."

Ryan sat up completely on Dillan's fin, turning to the gabite with a knitted brow. "Oh my God."

Dillan just shook his head again, taking a bite of his lower lip. "Turns out she was sick with some tumor in her brain, and she ended up collapsing while I took a nap. And I wasn't there to help…" He felt the pit in his stomach growing, thinking about that day - his biggest regret. If he had fists, they would be clenched.

With a quick breath of fresh air, Dillan continued. "I was with her every day to try and make up for not being there, but I still feel guilty for letting her down like that."

"I'm so sorry that happened," Ryan said with a couple pats to the gabite's shoulder. "That really sucks, man."

"Nothing I can do to change it," Dillan said with a quick smile at Ryan. "So I'm just trying to be better, which is also why I know you're doing this because you blame yourself for what happened with the nuzleaf."

The pachirisu's eyes widened. "Th-that's…" But eventually, he gave a light laugh. "What tipped you off?"

"This is a kidnapping mission," the gabite shrugged. "Kind of obvious when you think about it."

Ryan slowly nodded before his eyes narrowed on the hill ahead. He seemed determined at that moment, his voice like an unshakable mountain: "I'm not gonna leave anyone behind this time." Ryan reached out with a fist over Dillan's shoulder.

Dillan reached back and gave him a little bump of the claw. "Wouldn't think of it."

"Hey you two!" Drake's voice called from ahead, atop a large sandy hill. "Hurry on up here!"

"Coming!" Dillan shouted up, making to scale the sandy hill.

He took a breath before planting his feet in the sand, trying to focus on the task ahead instead of his sister. It helped that he had a new goal in-mind, and that Ryan had the same one. Eventually, he would conquer this mission and get back to Grace. He just needed to scale this mound first.

"How much longer do you think we have until we get to wherever we're going?" Ryan asked.

Yet the question came before Dillan could answer as they reached the crest of a hill, standing next to Hazel in awe at the sight below.

The sandy hill sloped downward into a sort of valley with a stone, box-like structure with open walls and a canopy of stone held up by snake-like pillars running up its edges. A multitude of stone buildings encircled the structure, like little homes built upon the sand.

"There it is," Drake said with a grim look. "Those are the ruins."

"You think Poltress's pokemon are being held down there?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah!" Penny answered.

"We don't know for certain," Drake corrected. "But it's the only theory we have."

"Then we'll investigate," Dillan assured.

"We'll wait for you here," Drake said. "I don't want to risk the childrens' safety, just in case the Red Eye really is down there."

The smallest smile escaped Hazel's lips. "Probably for the best," she said, almost sighing in relief.

"If you find our friends, meet back with us here."

"Will do," Ryan said with a quick tap of his heels against Dillan's side. "Onward!"

Dillan planted his feet in the sand. "Ryan, really. I'm not a pony."

Ryan smirked downward towards Dillan. "Well, it's that or you're giving me a piggy-back ride. You decide."

Dillan pursed his lips at the pachirisu. He thought about protesting further, but now that he mentioned it, he could understand why it'd feel awkward. So Dillan heaved a sigh and a half-hearted, "neigh."

"That's the spirit!" Ryan said with another tap-of-the-heels. "Yip yip!"

The group of three stepped towards one of the buildings, deciding the best place to start was just to walk into one at random. As they walked up sand-covered steps, they each marveled at the sheer height of the red structures. They each must have stood at nearly thirty-feet, and the tallest one towards the center easily reached fifty.

Stepping into the building and beneath the shadow, Ryan took that as his cue to dismount Dillan's shoulders and take a look around.

The inside was surprisingly cool considering the outside. Red pillars made from the same stone as the exterior ran along the building's center, forming a path towards what appeared to be a mural in the back. Rows upon rows of shelves sat embedded within the walls, with scrolls lining each and every one. Even more scrolls littered the floor carelessly as if tossed aside after being read.

Hazel stepped towards one of the pillars. She dragged a claw through the stone, picking up some of the dust underneath her nail. "These buildings are made from Lannite," she said. She turned her head back towards Dillan and Ryan with an excited grin, showing off the dust like it were gold.

"Cool," Dillan said with a forced smile.

"What's so special about that?" Ryan asked.

"It means you can date the buildings!" Hazel said with another stary look at the buildings.

Ryan crossed his arms with a shit-eating grin towards Hazel. "You wanna take it out somewhere nice?"

Hazel looked back towards Ryan with a look of stunned silence. In contrast, a short laugh managed to squeeze its way through Dillan's teeth. This alone made Ryan exceedingly proud of himself.

"How long did that take you?" Dillan asked.

Ryan scanned his paws as he said, "Not long at all, actually."

"Moving on," Hazel began, looking over the stone once more. "Stone like this aged with the discovery of lime, as you could find more of it wherever. And the way it seems to come apart from a scratch to the surface… It means it's been exposed to the air for a really long time: probably since before the Armadine kings came to power."

"So… we're talking ancient?" Dillan said, staring up at the building.

"Let's just say if buildings could talk, they'd have hundreds of year's worth of experience to share."

"Well, I think I found its voice," Ryan said, picking up a scroll. "This might have been some sort of ancient library."

"Sounds about right," Dillan said, looking again over other scrolls that littered the floor. He took a step towards one of them and nudged it open with his foot, revealing what appeared to be a vast array of footprints arranged vertically.

"Footprint runes," Hazel started with a starry-eyed gaze. She moved quickly to scoop the parchment up, her eyes moving from corner to corner.

"What does it say?" Dillan asked.

Hazel looked up from the page with a blinking expression before her tail slinked closely around her ankles. "O-oh… Well, to tell the truth, I can't read this."

"I can," Ryan said, stepping towards Hazel and pulling the page out of Hazel's hands.

Hazel was taken aback at the mere suggestion. "Where did you learn that?"

"I picked it up when I was with my old teammate," Ryan explained as though this were a simple fact. "We took lessons from some old guy in Castellum."

Ryan flicked the scroll out, sending dust into the air, before he lifted it up to his eyes. Ryan's brow grew tighter and tighter with each footprint scanned. And as he stopped on a single rune, his lip upturned itself.

"Something wrong?" Dillan asked, wondering if, somehow, the footprint spelled out some sort of slur.

"This is literally just some loser's shopping list," Ryan groaned, tossing the scroll to the floor. "What a waste of time."

"Well, how about that?" Hazel asked, taking the lead towards the back of the room.

The group of three all stepped up to a big mosaic mural. Black forms seemed to be surrounding some sort of table as red as the surrounding walls. Upon the table seemed to sit a smiling creature Dillan thought looked similar to the lycanrocs back in Howling Fields. It smiled, raising its paws skyward and emitting a white swirl of squares towards a purple vortex sitting above it. And just as Hazel said, just below the mural, sat footprints etched into the stone itself.

"Let me see…" the pachirisu said, taking a step back. He ushered for Hazel and Dillan to step off to the sides and squinted at the words.

"What do they say?" Dillan asked, stepping away from the lettering.

"Apparently, these pokemon used to worship some god they call… Akji… No, wait. Akuji.

"This god brought them tons of food and rain to the river whenever the pokemon asked… He even…" Ryan stopped at one of the footprints. His cheeks grew a rosy color as he seemed at a loss for words. "W-well… let's just say that Akuji's guests weren't treated very kindly.

"Anyway, this place seems to be an offertory building to store literature, like a sort of treasury for scrolls. Offering knowledge was one of the ways whoever built this prayed to Akuji. The other, and apparently their favorite, was ritual sacrifice."

With that statement, Dillan took a second look at the mural's smiling lycanroc perched on the table. "Ah."

Ryan took a step towards the carvings and wiped away at the wall just below, revealing another set of runes etched into the wall. He traced the runes with his hand and tilted his head.

"These aren't part of the original inscriptions."

"No?" Hazel questioned, stepping next to Ryan and kneeling down to get a closer look. "What's it say?"

"It's… talking about abandoning… Sangu? Might be their name for the temple… It's saying something about a purple, winged beast sealing Akuji in a cursed stone. With Akuji gone, there's no food or water left for this place. They go on to curse out the beast, and that's the end of it."

"You really can read footprint runes!" Hazel said with a great smile to Ryan. "That's awesome!"

Ryan merely shrugged the compliment off, though he couldn't help but smile himself. "It was nothing special."

"So this place used to be an ancient town?" Dillan said, taking a look around at the building. "That's pretty cool…"

"Minus the sacrificing-to-your-god part, yeah," Ryan shrugged, stepping off to a window at the side of the mural. "I can agree."

Hazel stepped back and observed the mural once more. "This place holds so much knowledge… Even that grocery list says something about who used to live here. I bet the Guild would love to study this whole thing!"

Yet with a quick whistle from Ryan, the group looked towards him. "Hey, back on topic, I think I found the missing ghosts." He pointed a finger out the window.

Dillan and Hazel stepped to either side behind Ryan, crowding around the window to get a good look at the outside. Ryan's finger pointed towards the stone canopy from before. There, sitting in the shadow of the canopy against one of the pillars, sat a multitude of purple pokemon. They each sat with their backs to the pillar, bound by their arms, cuffed to chains and pulled upwards.

Seeing this sight sent Dillan back to his first night in Ganderosa. The fin on his back arched, remembering how it felt to bend against the tree with those damned binding ropes. He remembered looking across the other captives' faces and remembering how afraid they all felt. He remembered that cruel cackling which still seemed to invade his dreams.

Suddenly, the ghost pokemon below began lashing out against their bindings. Their shouts barely reached the group in their window: pleads for help, for rescue, to be left alone. And then, he saw it.

A shiver raced down Dillan's spine as his own breath drowned out his hearing as he spotted a bulbous, gray monster floating just before the captives. It reached a withered, white-gloved hand out to one of them before looking over the shivering ghost's features with its one, glowing, red eye. And Dillan gasped as a fowl jumble of teeth stretched open across its stomach, like a giant mouth filled with fangs.

"What the hell is that…?" Dillan asked slowly.

"A dusknoir…" Ryan stared down with a snarl.

"That thing's… not gonna eat them… right?"

Dillan couldn't say why he looked towards Ryan as though he could provide some sort of assurance to the contrary. Ryan didn't have any more information than he did.

He started to shake his head, denying the possibility. But the more he stared, the more his head slowed as if starting to lean towards Dillan's way of thinking. "We should… probably do something before that happens…"

"R-r-right…" Hazel's voice stuttered from beside the pachirisu.

Both Dillan and Ryan looked towards a shivering Hazel. Her breath shook while her teeth clenched, biting back a scream. She stared down at the dusknoir, unmoving, as if afraid the slightest movement would alert it to their presence.

"Hazel…?" Ryan started, pressing a paw to Hazel's leg. "Are you alright?"

"F-fine…" Hazel made out. "Let's… uh… take care of this…"

"Hazel…" Dillan began.

But the charmeleon didn't listen. She shut her eyes tightly as she pried her own body from the window, forcing herself to walk away and towards the exit. She didn't say another word as she left Dillan and Ryan at the window.

"What's up with her?" Ryan asked.

Dillan just watched her shivering form as she moved quickly towards the exit. Her tail-flame flared wildly and she never looked back towards the two, seeming determined to keep herself fixated on the floor ahead.

Dillan finally answered with a shake of his head. "I'm not sure…"

"Whatever," Ryan said with a shrug, walking in Hazel's direction. "I guess it can wait. Let's go save some ghosts."

A serious air enveloped the area as the group followed Hazel's lead. They approached the box-like structure slowly, as Hazel took deep breaths with each step, while clenched fists hovered at her sides. She led them up stone stairs towards one of the pillars before pressing her back against it. She took a careful look around the corner.

Dillan followed her lead, taking up the opposite side of the pillar and glancing around. His eyes went from pillar to pillar, spotting a multitude of shackles. Most held ghost pokemon captive - maybe twenty in total - all in the same manner, though some chains hung empty. And with another look, not a sign of the dusknoir to be seen.

Dillan's eyes scanned the surrounding area in a panic. "Where did he go…?!" Dillan questioned. His head began racing with fears - perhaps the brute had seen them approaching somehow and he hid in the shadows? Would he pounce them at any moment now? If they were caught off-guard, could they win a fight?

Ryan snuck around Dillan's ankles, following his gaze. "I dunno where he went," he admitted. "I didn't see him leave."

"We should probably save them while he's gone…" Dillan said slowly, shaking vigorously as his mind flashed with images of what that thing's ravenous fangs could do to him. Wherever the brute was, he didn't want to give it the chance to stop them.

"Agreed," Ryan stated, sneaking out from behind the pillar.

Dillan and Ryan made quick work closing the distance between them and the captives. A couple of the ghosts looked up from the floor, and a sparkle filled their eyes.

"Oh, Arceus!" one of them - a kind of purple cloak of a pokemon (mismagius) said with tears in their eyes. "A-are you two with the Guild?! Are you going to free us?!"

The ghost pokemon all looked up, spotting the two pokemon with gleeful murmurs. Tears filled their eyes, and they seemed on the verge of shouting with exuberance.

"Shhh!" Ryan said with a forceful finger to his buck-teeth. "We're not saving anyone if you get us caught! Understand?"

Dillan stepped up towards the chains, which seemed to glow with a faint purple around the captive mismagius. Dillan focused his energy into his fin and leveled it to the chain, striking it with a loud, "Clang!"

The chain shattered upon impact, sending metallic splinters in every direction. The ghosts all stumbled to the floor, freed from the pillar.

"Could you do that any louder?!" Ryan snapped.

"It's metal!" Dillan countered. "You try quietly breaking it!"

Dillan stepped to the mismagius, who still laid weak on the ground, and offered a claw. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yes," the mismagius stuttered. It set a clothy, arm-like appendage on Dillan's claw and, with his help, floated upright. "How did you find us?"

"Drake sent us," Dillan said. "They're waiting for you guys to the south."

"You guys should get out of here," Ryan insisted. "And make sure you don't let that dusknoir see you, alright?"

"Thank you!" the mismagius said with a quick bow. And just like that, it gathered up the other freed pokemon and floated down the stairs.

"Let's hurry!" Ryan said, making his way to one of the other ghosts. He quickly jumped towards the pillar, scaling it like a squirrel to a tree… obviously. Grasping the chain with his paws, Ryan opened his mouth wide, and his fangs glowed a dim white in the same manner as Dillan's fin. He bit down hard on the chain with another "Clang!" of shattering metal.

"Go on!" Ryan insisted to the ghosts.

The two continued, making their way to each pillar and breaking the chains, freeing each teary-eyed ghost from captivity.

The gabite went from chain after chain. And when he freed the ghosts, most forgot to even thank them for the rescue. They all bolted as fast as they could towards the same staircase as the mismagius. Some shivered from the mere feeling of freedom while those who were still chained up looked at Dillan like some sort of savior. The occasional few seemed to mumble about the Red Eye, as well.

Just what did that thing do here? Why was it capturing these pokemon to begin with? Was he some sort of deranged serial killer? Did he take joy in making these guys suffer? Perhaps he was just like Hurste?

The gabite grit his teeth, swinging at another chain as his mind flashed with that sadistic nuzleaf on top of his leg. The joy it took from causing him pain… Was that the dusknoir's goal? Or was it something else?

Regardless, this was a twisted act Dillan found hard to comprehend. And he wouldn't let it persist.

As Dillan finished freeing another set of ghosts, he looked around to see how many he had left to save. It wasn't until then that he realized something was wrong.

He saw Ryan scurrying towards one of the last two pillars, yet he didn't see even a glint of his fiery friend.

Dillan stepped away from the pillars deeper into the room, spinning round and round to find Hazel's fiery light. Yet he only saw the distant sandy hills, pillars, and Ryan finishing off one more chain.

"Dillan?" the pachirisu began, making his way from the fleeing prisoners.

"Where's Hazel?" the gabite asked.

Just then, as if to answer his own question, a scream rang out from beyond the pillars, followed by a few more behind the gabite - some of the ghost pokemon, who began thrashing at their bindings. The chain clattered from behind.

Dillan hardly got a chance to turn round before a white hand as cold as death snatched him up by the neck, lifting him from the ground.

Dillan's face went pale as he stared deep into a red orb, hovering as if suspended inside a void surrounded by a cloth-like hood. Its cold breaths became lodged in his throat like ice.

"Who are you?" a deep, dark void of a voice questioned, frightening Dillan out of his wits.

The gabite moved his fins towards the arm that held him suspended, and with a jolt they became blades. Yet the arm quickly released Dillan before the blow landed.

The gabite stumbled away from the pillar and fell backwards onto the stone. He quickly looked towards the source of the voice, spotting the bulbous creature from before - dusknoir. In its grip sat the neck of a petrified charmeleon, who just gasped in slack-jawed horror, prying at its hand futilely.

"H-Hazel!" Dillan shouted.

The dusknoir looked down nonchalantly towards Hazel. "I found this one cowering behind a pillar. I assumed she had simply wandered too far from the path on her lonesome, but your reaction says she's with you."

"Hey buddy!" Ryan snapped, stepping towards the dusknoir with sparking cheeks. "Take your hand off of her!"

"Just who are you three?" the dusknoir said, looking from Hazel to Dillan and Ryan. "Perhaps members of the Guild…" He took a closer look with that red eye towards Dillan's cloak: "Although you do lack the badges. Does that make you three aspiring members or simply fools?"

"We're the guys who are gonna kick your ass!" Ryan snapped. "So you should really put our friend down!"

The dusknoir looked back towards Hazel, who clawed at its hand futilely. Her entire body shook ferociously with a million-mile stare into that glowing, red orb floating within the dusknoir's face. She gasped for air like an asthmatic while her heart beat out of her chest. Yet within a moment, her body seized in one final breath before her eyes rolled into the back of her skull and she went limp.

"Hazel?!" Dillan and Ryan both shouted towards the charmeleon, but she didn't say a word.

Dillan sprang up towards the dusknoir, yet with a quick flick of the wrist, it hurled the charmeleon effortlessly towards Dillan. Hazel soared through the air and forced the gabite to the ground in a crash.

Dillan shot up onto his backside quickly, looking down into Hazel's blank face. "H-Hazel?!" he shouted desperately, pressing the base of his claw to her nostril. He felt her breath brush across his scales, if only lightly.

Anger rose through the gabite's chest as a snarl overtook him. "What did you do?!"

"Nothing at all," the dusknoir shrugged. "She merely passed out from fear."

"Fear?!" Ryan questioned. He snarled as well with a fury of sparks.

"Simply look at her," the dusknoir urged. "Fear is like a plant. It can shatter any stone if its roots are allowed to fester, and this fear seems deeply ingrained within your friend."

"If you hurt her-" Dillan began, but was abruptly cut off by a sigh from the dusknoir.

"Enough of this frivolity. I'm not interested in your empty threats. I'm much more interested in knowing whether Drake is involved with this escapade."

"D-Drake?" Dillan questioned. "You know them?"

The corners of its stretched mouth-stomach gave the faintest of smiles. "Drake's my neighbor."

Ryan blinked a couple times in surprise. "You lived in Poltress?"

"Hard to believe?" the dusknoir questioned.

"Why attack your own town?" the gabite asked.

"Attack?" The dusknoir raised its head in defiance. Its arms knit together as it started with discontempt. "How dare you accuse me of mere assault! We're not aggressors, but saviors!"

"Really?" Ryan questioned, throwing a hand towards the still-chained captives. "Cause you look like a kidnapper to me."

"We're saving Poltress from extinction!" the dusknoir demanded. "We are on the verge of death, and I am simply bringing us all back from the brink!"

Dillan set Hazel carefully on the ground before standing. "If you think kidnapping others makes that happen, you're insane!"

The dusknoir shook its head with anger. "You aren't listening!" The dusknoir shook its head. "We're not simple kidnappers! We're worshippers! We're devotees to God himself!"

"Now I'm even more lost," Dillan blinked.

"Look, crazy!" Ryan said. "I'm giving you one last chance to get out of this standing! Let! Them! Go!"

"Unacceptable!" the dusknoir snapped. "I won't let you take our offerings!"

"Offerings…?" Dillan questioned slowly, the word and all its implications settling into Dillan's brain.

Both Ryan and Dillan stopped at that. They looked back at the pillars - the shackles - the fearful looks. And a look of recognition dawned on Dillan. "Akuji…"

The corners of the dusknoir's eye lifted as the mouth across its stomach twisted into a sinister smile. "So you know of God yet you resist?"

"That's the god on the mural…" Ryan said, finally understanding. "You guys are sacrificing ghosts for some dead god?"

"Our town is on the brink of destruction!" the dusknoir snarled. "And the Guild does nothing to help! So now we turn to God in our time of need!"

The dusknoir paused, looking from Dillan to Ryan, then to Hazel. Its eye shrunk within that hood-like head as a devilish smile set across its face. "Perhaps I should be thanking you for coming all this way. After all, Akuji hasn't seemed pleased with the souls of ghosts."

The dusknoir's body contorted in a horrific display, while the teeth-like spines that lined its stomach opened wide. Behind the spines slithered a forked tongue, making its way across each tooth.

The mere sight sent Dillan's heart into a sprint. He felt each breath squeeze between his teeth as sweat built up on his brow.

"Perhaps the living will suffice!"

"That's not happening," the pachirisu said without fear.

Ryan took off in an instant, diving head-first at the dusknoir.

The dusknoir was quick to move, raising its hand and moving to catch Ryan. But with a quick, blinding flash of sparks, Ryan managed to avoid the dusknoir's grasp.

He clambered up Dusknoir's back, shouting, "Go after the ghosts!"

"R-right!" Dillan agreed, rushing past Hazel's still-limp body towards the ghosts. His fin shot out into his blue blade which he leveled at the chain. Yet before he could strike, he heard a swish of air behind him followed by a forceful impact to his back.

Dillan belly-flopped onto the floor and took a shaky inhale, while the sound of a grumbling pachirisu came from his back.

"Really…?" Dillan asked slowly, making his way to his feet.

"I don't wanna hear it," Ryan groaned, twisting his own neck with a small "pop".

"Did you think I'd just allow you to escape with more of Akuji's sacrifices?" the dusknoir called, creeping towards the two. Its hands shot to either side as purple vortexes twisted just above his palms. They swirled with some sort of dark energy that made Dillan shudder simply looking at them.

"Go!" Ryan shouted with a quick shove to Dillan before taking off in the opposite direction.

Dillan didn't need another second before sprinting with his fins out towards the nearby pillar. The dusknoir shot the purple orbs towards Ryan and Dillan simultaneously. They pummeled the floor just behind Dillan, throwing plumes of orange dust and shards of stone into the air, pelting Dillan's back. Dillan dove head-first behind the pillar before slapping his back to its stone.

If Dillan wasn't worried before, he sure was now. "Why can he make explosives?!" he barely made out between panicked breaths. "Why is that a thing?!"

"You will all make wonderful sacrifices!" the dusknoir cheered. "You have so much spunk, unlike the others! So bland!"

The sound of crackling electricity shot through the air, followed by a couple more explosions. Dillan guessed the dusknoir fired off a couple more spheres towards Ryan as no explosions went off near him. Looking back at the pillar, he saw the prisoners still strung up, all whimpering in fear.

Dillan gritted his teeth, immediately realizing his mistake. Great move, Dillan, the gabite chided himself. Hiding behind prisoners is just the coolest move ever!

Dillan focused on his fin once more before slashing the chains above. And with a metallic scraping sound ringing in his ears, the chains shattered and fell to the floor.

Immediately, the remaining ghost pokemon looked at their restraints before booking it towards the nearest exit. With another explosion, they shrieked, attracting the dusknoir's sharp, red gaze.

Immediately, the dusknoir took its attention from Ryan. It sped through the air, a snarling monstrosity. "How dare you!" it roared at Dillan. "Akuji will have your head for this!"

Dillan let out a less-than-manly squeak upon seeing the speeding demon descending upon him. Its pale hands summoned more darkened spheres before pressing them together. And with a shrieking sound, it detonated, sending a large wave of dark, sparking energy at Dillan.

The gabite hid once more behind the pillar. The wave slammed into the stone, shattering it into chunks of rock that bludgeoned Dillan's body.

The gabite fell forwards, thrown from the structure and onto the stone steps. He had no clue a person could bounce the way he did until he slammed into step after step. Each one felt like stone trying to merge with his bones before eating a face-full of sand with a great, "thud!"

Dillan's head spun from the fall. He spat sand from his mouth and attempted to quickly stand, but gravity had other plans and his spinning head was all-too-happy to oblige.

"D-damn it…" Dillan made out, attempting to stand once more.

Before he could do anything else, a stone-cold hand wrapped its fingers around his neck. Within an instant, Dillan couldn't breathe. He found himself hoisted up, dangling and grasping at the fingers futilely. All the while a breath as rough as the sand attacked his back.

"Not much spunk at the end of the day," the dusknoir hissed from behind. Its voice slithered its way into Dillan's ear like a worm burrowing into his brain. He tried swiping back towards the dusknoir but his fin never collided with a thing. He was left struggling against its iron grip, trying desperately for another breath.

"Dillan!" Ryan shouted from atop the structure. He dove head-first towards the two pokemon. His cheeks sparked, arcing electricity through the air towards the two. Dillan and the dusknoir lit up in an instant, but neither of them seemed to feel the electrical surge.

Ryan lunged at the dusknoir but not even his attack did a thing as the enemy reached through the lunge and grabbed Ryan by the face.

"Weak."

The dusknoir threw Ryan into the step below, and in an instant, Dillan watched through the corner of his eye as the pachirisu staggered.

Dillan's vision began to darken. He assumed it was due to the lack of oxygen. He wondered if this was the end of him.

If you told him weeks ago he would die to some spirit in the middle of nowhere, he would have laughed. "What a story!" he would say. But now, faced with such a reality, he couldn't laugh. He could only choke on sand as darkness overtook him.

(A/N)

Hello all!

Hope you're all doing okay :D

Sorry for the late post. Christmas is busy and Secret Santas are time-consuming.

I'm also going to have to break the posting schedule on January 13th for personal reasons, so the 8th chapter will have to go up on January 20th instead. Thank you in advance for your patience :)

That's all for now! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Lmk what you're thinking about the story so far in a comment, and follow and favorite the story!

Thanks again for reading, guys! Stay awesome!

Beta-Reader for the chapter: StarLord98