Chapter 7

The Cult of Akuji

Kerrosian Territory - Sandy Slopes

Dillan's eyes opened slowly, his vision fading in and out, almost like a fog settled over his brain, clouding his senses. He could barely make out brick walls on either side from beyond the darkness or the pulsating pain in his head. Not dead just yet…? He thought. He might have smiled if not for the throbbing headache.

He felt his arms bound together just below the fins with rigid, icy chains that clattered in the ghostly talons of his captors - two sort of purple gremlins no taller than his chest (sableye). They dragged him across the sanded ground through a tall, stone archway and into a room lined with crimson torches. The ceiling above stretched tall enough to hold a giant, making Dillan feel very small indeed. He passed a multitude of benches, each occupied by ghost-types (perhaps twelve of them in total), towards an altar at the back of the room covered in purple dust.

The ghosts moved him upright, tugging his arms up one of the stone pillars next to the altar. They strung the chain through an iron ring embedded above in the pillar. And with a metallic groan, Dillan found himself suspended a few inches off the ground.

The gabite looked over at a group of ghost pokemon, each wearing white sashes across their chests with red marks across the front. They stared back with a sort of disturbed restlessness in each breath. Devious looks played across demented smiles like they were plotting gruesome ways in which to carve past Dillan's scaly hide.

The mere thought made Dillan shudder. He looked towards the rusted chains overhead and pulled. He wished he were a ghost, too, so that he could faze through the shackles and float away from their hungry gazes (though given the ghosts they'd just saved, that probably wouldn't be an option, either).

Just what did they want with him?

Their whispers caught Dillan's ear: "A live one?" "He should please Akuji."

The gabite cursed his lack of luck. Of all the places he could have ended up, and he landed in what appeared to be within the grasps of a cult ironically made up of ghosts. And why? For what reason?

Why did he even agree to help Poltress in the first place? It wasn't like they helped him get back to Grace. Why did he waste his time and what appeared to be his life going towards unnecessary danger?

He looked back the way he came to find Ryan and Hazel being dragged towards him in a similar manner, Ryan struggling against his bindings whilst hurling obscenities at the ghosts and Hazel kicking her feet in blind panic whilst gasping for air. With great effort, the ghosts bound them to their own rings on either side of Dillan's, hoisting them by their arms so they dangled much like the gabite. They even managed to suspend Ryan a few feet, laughing to themselves as he swung like a pendulum with each futile kick.

"You goddamn psychos!" the pachirisu snapped, throwing another swipe at the ghosts. "I'll take you all apart!"

"You should be glad!" one of the ghosts, a sort of possessed sword (honedge) laughed. "Akuji hasn't had a living sacrifice in a long while! You'll definitely please him!"

Ryan continued to thrash about against his bindings as the ghosts joined their floating friends on the stone benches.

Dillan bit his lower lip with a groan at the ceiling. Things were going so well before. They had freed most of the captured ghost pokemon. They were supposed to be home free by now. But then things turned on a dime so quickly… He didn't stand a chance against that dusknoir.

This was the second fight he'd ever been in, and they subdued him in a moment's time. How could he be so useless? Why couldn't he stop them?

Yet a sharp breath echoed above his thoughts, attracting Dillan's gaze. There, dangling stiff as a board by her own chains, was Hazel, who desperately scanned the area for some sort of escape.

Her legs tucked inwards towards her body like she was defending herself with what little she could. Her expression looked as though she'd been stabbed - gritted teeth and tension in every muscle.

Dillan tried reaching out to her but found dangling by the arms making it difficult.

"Hazel?" he asked.

But before he could get in another word, the charmeleon's eyes darted across every ghost pokemon in what could only be described as open-mouthed terror. She hyperventilated above their murmurs while her flame flickered wildly, streaking charred marks with every swing of her tail. She tugged at the chains that bound her, trying to break away from sheer force.

"Hazel?" Dillan insisted. "Hazel!"

Yet she didn't seem capable of hearing him, dedicating every ounce of willpower to pulling at the chain. Although Dillan was persistent.

"Hazel!" he snapped with a quick nudge of his foot to her leg.

The charmeleon immediately seized from the mere touch, pulling away from the gabite like he were another one of their captors. Yet as she stared wide-eyed towards him through the corner of her eyes, he merely smiled as soft as his racing heart would allow.

Maybe it was his brotherly instincts that drove him to ignore his own emotions. Maybe there was a part of him that used this as another escape from his problems - one that used this to distract from his own fear. But seeing her like that, he felt the need to reach out in spite of his racing heart.

"You need to take a deep breath," the gabite forced.

"I can't be here!" she cried, gritting her teeth with another yank at the chain. "I can't be here!"

"Good luck being anywhere else!" the ghosts jeered to the delight of its companions. But Dillan pushed their antics out of his head and focused. It was just him and Hazel right now. Him, Hazel, and-

"Is that Hazel?!" Ryan snapped from the other side of the pillar. "Is she alright?!"

"Hazel, breathe," Dillan insisted. "Y-you're panicking right now, and it's not helping. You need to calm down and breathe!" He pushed hard against the chain, feeling its rough edge dig into his fin from the mere movement, yet he managed to keep his own calm.

Hazel sat with his words as her breath steadied, squeezing her chains in her grip like some sort of life-line. Her body slowly began to relax as she allowed herself to dangle from the chains.

"We're going to be okay!" Dillan assured. Her shaky breaths became more stable and controlled as he continued to speak.

"There," the gabite smiled. "You're fine. Just keep breathing, okay?"

"I can't be here!" Hazel insisted once more. "Y-You… You can't s-see me like…"

"What's going on?" Ryan asked with an upturned lip. "Is Hazel okay?"

Dillan huffed at the pachirisu. "She's just scared, Ryan," he said.

"Hazel? The same Hazel that stared down a set of sandslash?" Ryan shook his head in disbelief. "The same Hazel dead-set on being a Guild member? The same Hazel that…" Yet eventually, the longer he sat with it, the more he stared wide-eyed at the door. "Wait…" The pachirisu scoffed aloud. "Oh, my God. Lunch with Drake… And the way you hung back while… You're afraid of ghosts?" Then a look of frustration took hold as Ryan pulled at the chains above. "What the hell, Hazel?!"

Hazel shut her eyes tightly at the question, taking a shaky breath.

Dillan gritted his teeth in irritation."Is this really the best time, Ryan?"

But the pachirisu just gave a false smile. "Oh, my bad. In that case, when's a better time? How about during lunch with a ghost?!"

Hazel bit her lip as she stopped breathing. Her knuckles went white as she yanked once more at the chains. Blood began trickling from her wrists as the chains dug past her scales. Yet eventually, she let go and shouted into the room.

"Let me go!"

"Ryan, please!" Dillan snapped. "You're not helping!"

"Neither was Hazel when we got our asses handed to us! Would have been nice to know she had a fear of ghosts before we went and fought Big Mouthy!" Ryan looked past Dillan through the pillar with daggers in his gaze. "Which reminds me, Hazel! The hell were you when I got thrown down stairs?!"

"I'm sorry!" Hazel squeaked from her corner. She closed her eyes tightly as she pulled at the chains again. "I… I couldn't be around that many g-ghosts…!" she admitted, sounding as if she choked on each word. "I thought if I st-tayed behind, I could be a l-l-look-out…"

"Great job with that one!" Ryan continued. "Really came through when you warned us that dusknoir was coming!"

"I didn't see him, okay?!"

Dillan turned to look at Ryan with a scowl. "Look, I get you're scared!" the gabite snapped. "But blaming Hazel isn't helping anyone right now! Just… shut up!"

Ryan met Dillan's look defiantly and scoffed aloud. "Like I'm making it worse. I don't know if you've taken a good look around, but we're about to be sacrificed to the Blood God! We're way past 'worse'!"

"He's right!" one of the ghosts confirmed.

"What?!" Hazel shrieked from beside Dillan. Her flame flared like a torch doused in oil and a wave of heat hit Dillan's feet, hot enough to make him swing his feet from Hazel as her chains rattled overhead.

Dillan looked towards the ceiling and groaned. He could hear the surrounding pokemon gawking at them, amused at this nonsensical fight. The only thing missing was popcorn!

And whose fault was this fight?

"¡Párale!" Dillan hissed at the pachirisu. The gabite threw his heel towards the pachirisu's side in an attempt at quieting him. Yet he instead found his teeth sinking into his lip in agony as his stubby heel collided with stone, shooting sharp vibrations through his leg.

"D-did you just try to kick me?!" the pachirisu snapped. He swung his small foot towards Dillan but only managed a couple inches distance.

"You're freaking Hazel out…!" Dillan managed through gritted teeth, still working through the pain of kicking stone. He lowered his voice to a whisper and said, "We need to get out, not fight each other!"

"Well, what do you suggest we do?!" Ryan snapped under his breath. "Cause even if we get out, we're surrounded! There's no out here, Dillan! We're straight fucked!"

Hazel yelped through shaky breaths: "I can't be sacrificed!"

"No one's being sacrificed!" Dillan insisted, the panic crawling up his throat and driving his claw towards her hand, only to be restricted again. "Please, try and stay calm!"

But he knew it was no use - she was too focused on desperately prying herself from the pillar. She wouldn't listen: not now.

"Speak up!" one of the surrounding ghosts jeered. "We wanna hear the drama!"

"Ah, shut up!" Ryan snapped with a quick spark of his cheeks.

"Wait," Dillan said, an idea popping into his brain. He looked upwards at the chains, which dug into his fins as he hung. "Maybe I can break it…"

"Oh, sure," the pachirisu said with a roll of the eyes. "And then what? We're still surrounded!"

"We don't have time for that!" Dillan insisted. "They'll sacrifice us either way!" Dillan's eyes instinctually drifted to the altar - to a glistening, black knife that laid atop it.

"God, I should have never gotten involved!" Ryan chided himself, gritting his own teeth. "What made me think law enforcement was a life-long thing?!"

But Dillan was done with Ryan, ignoring him entirely. He focused a surge of energy into his fins, imagining the appendage popping out across the metal, breaking himself free. After that… Well, as much as he wanted a plan, he couldn't think under these conditions. He would just have to wing it…

With gritted teeth and onlooking ghosts, he felt the familiar "pop" in his arm as it shot out into a blade, but the metal cuff ground against his fin with shooting pain.

A holler escaped his maw as he instantly retracted his fin. His teeth gritted together as his body hoisted itself into the fetal position. Shaky breath after shaky breath forced its way out of his mouth.

"Those are made to deal with your kind, Gabite," a chilling voice announced.

The three pokemon each looked towards the entrance into the ritual room. There, hovering underneath the stone archway, sat the dusknoir from before, though it had donned a horned helmet since, along with black, leathery gloves covered in dust. A dark sash hung from its waist, with notches holding a set of bony hilts for various tools.

Hazel's face went pale. "This has to be a nightmare…!" she squeaked. "It can't be real!"

The dusknoir floated right up to Hazel and grabbed her arm. She pulled her head away from him as if to retreat into the pillar itself.

"If you must lie to yourself to make this process better, feel free," the dusknoir shrugged. "Not that it will help."

"C'mon, man!" Ryan snapped from the side. "There are better days to sacrifice someone than… Wednesday… This is a Friday-type deal!"

The dusknoir looked towards Ryan with a scowl. It took a deep breath before turning to the other ghosts. "You hadn't gagged the mouthy one?"

The ghosts all looked amongst themselves, but none of them managed to procure a single thing.

The dusknoir heaved a sigh before shaking its head. "Retrieve Master Akuji so we may begin the ritual."

A couple of the ghosts near the front, who wore white sashes that lacked the red etchings, bowed to the dusknoir before exiting the room.

"Just l-let us go!" Hazel begged. "W-we won't tell a s-s-soul…!"

"Letting you go would be counterproductive, no?" the dusknoir asked, spreading its arms wide like some sort of demonic preacher. "Master Akuji needs sacrifices, otherwise they'll never be awoken."

"Is that what this is about?" Dillan questioned in desperation. "You're just trying to wake up god?"

"Dude! Smelling salts!" Ryan shook his head.

Yet the dusknoir chuckled as it paced the room. "Master Akuji used to watch over these sands," the dusknoir began, making his way to Dillan, who couldn't pull far enough away from his blade. "They brought rain for the river near Poltress, but it has since dried up. However, once Master Akuji awakens, they will bring back the rain, and along with it, food."

"What makes you think killing us will bring Akuji back at all?!" he questioned in a vain attempt at appealing to its sense of reason.

Just then, the sound of a crashing gong rang into the room. All the pokemon who had been seated stood upright, looking towards the entrance with open arms where the two ghosts (honedge and misdreavus) from before walked in. Cradled in the honedge's grasp sat a stone no bigger than Dillan's head with a large crack down the center. It floated towards the dusknoir with a sort of caution in its movement.

"In times of old, our people would gift prisoners to Akuji for rain! And when he was banished years ago, we knew one day the waters that flowed through Poltress would eventually dry. We knew that bringing back Akuji would bring us prosperous harvests, and the only path to that is through sacrifices!"

As the two ghosts stopped before the dusknoir, they each bowed slowly to each other before passing the rock.

"So what you're saying is that you don't even have proof that this will help you guys?!"

The dusknoir looked back through the corner of its darkened eye as a smile crept across its stomach. "We've all seen the visions - this will bring Poltress back from the brink! Akuji's will be done!"

The room echoed in the phrase, "Akuji's will be done!" passing off the tongues of the other ghosts. Their voices echoed and boomed down the hallway. They then floated down into their stony seats.

Dillan couldn't believe what rattled in his ears. He was being sacrificed on some vision? Something that could easily be a crack-induced hallucination? "¡¿Me estás tomando el pelo?!"

"Now you've got him speaking in tongues!" Ryan snapped. "News flash, fatty! We read the ruins from the temple! God's dead!"

"Not dead," the dusknoir said, holding the rock towards the roof. "Merely sealed away in a deep slumber, though that ends today!"

The ghosts all looked towards the stone and cheered amongst themselves. Their cries sounded joyously above the crackling torch fires. And with the dusknoir's fist towards the ceiling, the pokemon all silenced.

"Children of Poltress!" the dusknoir announced, turning from Dillan's group. "I am sorry to say that, on this day, most of our unwilling siblings have been released by this filth."

With a gesture towards Dillan, Ryan, and Hazel, sharp "boo"s rang out across the room, followed by the angry stampings of feet on the sand. Yet with another raise of the dusknoir's fist, the room fell silent.

"Fear not, friends. For the very pokemon who sabotaged our ritual this day will become the prime sacrifices to bring about an end to our strife! No more long nights searching for desert scraps! No more long hauls for mere drops of water! No more need of the Guild who turned its back on us! Today, we bring Akuji back from Their slumber! We will accept Their gifts, and Poltress will rise from its grave, reborn!"

Joyful cheers erupted throughout the room, and a pit in Dillan's stomach began to form. He looked on at the wide smiles amongst pokemon he was sure had bloodied their hands in this very room. They seemed so happy at what amounted to murder. He'd seen this kind of look from Hurste, and he pressed into the pillar hoping it'd shield him from what was to come.

How could anyone become this twisted? Were these pokemon that desperate that they'd turn on their own town?

The dusknoir removed a knife from the altar's top, a serrated blade covered in purple dust whose hilt fit cleanly in the dusknoir's palm. They held it up for everyone to see, including Dillan.

God, was he really going to die here? Sacrificed to some dead god for nothing more than a hunch?

"You can't do this!" Dillan spat, kicking at the dusknoir. "¡Por favor!"

"Akuji deems this necessary," the dusknoir said as it dragged the blade slowly across its finger, edging the metal into its own skin and drawing what looked to be fine dust from the cut. "In the end, this isn't my decision to make." It looked towards the misdreavus and honedge. "Take the mouthy one first."

The misdreavus and honedge each bowed, making their way towards Ryan. Dillan couldn't believe this was actually happening. He kicked his legs towards the ghosts but they paid him no mind, hovering just out of reach. "Stay away from him!"

Hazel shut her eyes tightly as she continued prying at the chains, all the while Ryan started flailing and gnashing his teeth at the spectral beasts.

"I'll take your hands off!" Ryan warned.

The ghosts ignored Ryan's futile attacks, continuing their advance towards the ring above. Dillan continued swinging towards the ghosts in a futile effort at stopping them. However, they quickly loosened the chain suspending Ryan.

As it rattled against the ring, Ryan's feet hit the ground. He tried bolting for the exit, yet the misdreavus grabbed him quickly by the tail with some sort of pink energy.

Instantly, Ryan tried letting out a spark of electricity but the shackles still locked around his arms seemed to carry the charge and disperse it into the ground where it sat.

"Get off of me!" Ryan squirmed.

Dillan tried using Dragon Claw again but found he only managed to further scrape his fins into the rusted cuffs. He even tried hoisting himself further up the chain so he could attack the chains directly, yet exhaustion set in pretty quickly, making it extremely difficult to hoist much of anything, especially with his scrawny, tooth-pick arms.

"¡Maldita sea!" Dillan cursed through gritted teeth, dropping mid-way through a pull-up. He looked with widened eyes as they'd managed to secure the struggling pachirisu to the table with shackles around his arms and legs. They were about to kill him. He needed to do something! It couldn't end like this! He couldn't just let Ryan die! He wouldn't let this happen! Not after everything they'd been through! There had to be a way out! He just had to think of it!

"Hazel!" Dillan said in desperation. "Try melting the chain!"

Yet Hazel didn't seem to even hear him. She just shut her eyes tightly and breathed shallow breaths.

"Hazel!"

"I c-c-can't…!" Hazel squeaked, her flame no larger than a stone, shivering on the tip of her tail. "I c-can't use Flame Th-thrower…!"

"They're going to kill him!" Dillan shouted in desperation. "Please!"

Hazel barely opened her eyes to look at the chain above, then back at Ryan. She bit on her lower lip hard with a few quick breaths. And as she opened her mouth, only a few embers escaped along with a small whimper. "I c-can't…!"

Dillan kicked the pillar once more in frustration. He had to stop them before they killed Ryan! There had to be something he could do! Maybe something he could use to escape!

Then Dillan's eyes drifted down to the Sapphire Star. He recalled Lily's words, how she said it possessed abilities not even she understood. He remembered its strange ability to stop everything in Void Canyon.

Dillan looked down at the stone, dangling by a chain of its own around his neck. He couldn't believe what he was about to ask but the words spilled out of his mouth of their own accord. "Please," he begged the stone. "I don't know if you really are magic, but I'm begging you! Help us get us out of here! Help me save my friend!"

The dusknoir reached behind, drawing its knife. They held it upwards for the entire crowd to see, leveling its blade with Ryan's chest. Ryan continued shooting sparks futilely, prying at the shackles with balled fists and a shaking tail. He shut his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth for the inevitable.

And then, as everything seemed at its worst, the torchlights in the room went pitch black. Hazel's breath quivered from next to Dillan as his own body tensed in horrid anticipation. However, he didn't hear any sort of shout from Ryan. Instead, confused murmurs echoed through the dark as shuffling bodies could be heard.

"Alright. Who snuffed the torches?" a pokemon asked.

"What's happening?" another questioned.

"Just as it was getting good, too…"

Was that… Dillan looked down, expecting to see the faint glow of the sapphire amidst the dark, yet he saw nothing but pitch blackness.

Just as he expected to hear some sort of assurance from the dusknoir, a low growl emanated behind the cultist group. All eyes shifted nervously towards the direction of the entrance. Only the sound of sand sprinkling off the ceiling came from the room, everyone and everything else silent from fear gripping their throats.

"What… was that?" one of the cultists asked.

Then, the growl sounded again.

"Some sort of feral…?"

"No, couldn't be. We're not in a Mystery Dungeon."

"Dillan," Hazel whispered from beside the gabite. Her voice wavered as if still afraid, but Dillan was surprised to hear some nerve return to her voice. "My t-tail flame's out."

"Your…" the gabite began. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Yet scanning his side, he confirmed no light was on the ground. A smile slowly worked its way onto Dillan's face, and a short laugh escaped. "It can't be…"

"Fools!" a voice boomed through the dark, burning fear into the surrounding pokemon. A deep, red light poured into the room from the doorway, casting the shadow of a massive beast across the ghosts with broken spines shooting from its shoulders and rugged shoots for teeth. It stood just as tall as the doorway, lurching into the room with a faint, red glow, and Dillan looked on at a stone ogre of terror.

"It's Chair God!" Dillan whispered in relief.

"I am the spirit Akuji!" the beast demanded, pounding great fists into the stoney floor. "Tremble before my mighty… um… mightiness!"

Another great fist beat against the floor, followed by an array of gasps across the cultists.

"G-Great Akuji!" Dusknoir called out. The knife fell from its hand and clattered against the altar next to Ryan. "Is it really you…?"

"Of course it is, you mortal!" the ogre snarled. "That's literally what I just said! Do you know of any other Akujis?!"

"Stop overselling it, Chuck…" a voice mumbled from below Hazel, barely audible beneath Chair God's rant. Looking down, the gabite saw the faint outline of the shuppet wrapped around Hazel's tail.

Hazel immediately bit her lip to hold back a yelp. All the while Dillan smiled a great, big, stupid grin towards the small pokemon: "Penny!"

"Are you guys hurt?" Drake's voice whispered from beside the gabite.

"No!" Dillan whispered back, looking over and seeing the faint form of a gengar hovering just beside him, barely illuminated by Chair God's red glow. "It's good to see- er… hear you. I was starting to think we wouldn't make it."

"The ghost pokemon you freed told us you'd been taken," Drake said. "We couldn't just leave you behind."

"We had to come save you!" Penny insisted.

Within a moment, Drake floated upwards from beside the gabite, and his shackles popped open. Dillan fell forwards onto the floor, and within an instant, he felt the vibrations of the room shoot up his legs. From that moment of impact on the floor, Dillan found that sixth sense of his from Void Canyon returned to him.

"Woah…" he said in response, able to feel the altar in front of him - but more importantly, Ryan.

"Ryan's on the altar beneath the big one," Dillan explained. "Can you get to him?"

"Not without alerting Jo," Drake whispered beneath Chair God's rant. "Not now, at least."

"Jo?" Dillan questioned. "The big one with the knife? Is that really his name?"

"Yeah," Drake stated. "Joseph Heiter. Why?"

Dillan didn't really have an answer. Truthfully, he expected something more… sinister than just "Jo". Maybe… Well, Dillan couldn't think of any scarier names at the moment. Not that it mattered.

"I'll free Hazel," Drake said beneath his breath. "Wait for Chuck to get Jo away from the altar, and then free Ryan!"

"R-right."

Dillan crept across the floor in the darkness, each step vibrating ahead of him. From the vibrations, Dillan could feel every shuddering eye set on the golem at the back of the room. And within a moment, managed to creep his way to the stony base of the altar. "Ryan?" Dillan whispered, barely audible.

He felt the brush of something fluffy across his face, as well as fur that lodged itself in his mouth. The small hairs slid along his tongue and he resisted the urge to gag.

Yet he froze completely as he realized the dusknoir - Jo - only hovered a couple feet from him.

"Akuji, please!" Jo pleaded. "I don't understand! You want us to… dance?"

"It is not your job to understand," Chair God growled. "Your God commands you to enact the sacred dance of the Sun, as is customary of our ritual sacrifices!"

"B-But Your Graciousness, we looked over every ruin! Every manuscript in your libraries! We never saw anything about a dance ritual-"

"Dance for me!" the stone ogre demanded, shooting a wave of purple flames into the room. The flames spiraled within the center, lighting up the entire place in vivid purples. Multiple cultists shrieked at the sudden attack, and even Jo recoiled next to Dillan.

As the flames cast a bright light across Dillan's face, the gabite's heart began racing a million miles a minute. He became as motionless as a statue, not even risking a breath. Sweat beaded his forehead as his muscles tensed. Yet the flames eventually dissipated, allowing him to relax his shoulders.

"R-right away, Master Akuji," Jo said from beside Dillan. They floated away from his spot and towards Chair God, allowing Dillan to focus on saving Ryan.

The gabite stood up and extended his fin into a glowing dagger of blue. The light played off Ryan's face whose jaw clattered a million miles a minute.

"Are you okay?" the gabite asked out of habit.

But Ryan hardly heard his voice. "Get me out before he guts me!" Ryan squeaked.

"R-right," Dillan responded. He lowered his fin with the shackles and began pressing it against the metal. It fought against Dillan's weight, and Dillan had to put his entire body onto the chain. But eventually, it snapped with a light, "Chink!" setting one of Ryan's hands free. And with a few pressings to the others, Ryan lept from the altar.

"Let's go!" Ryan whispered with a quick jab to Dillan's leg - one of "thanks" that Dillan appreciated.

"Hey," Drake's voice sounded from behind. Dillan looked over to see Drake's shadowy form barely illuminated in Chair God's glow, waving Dillan towards the wall.

The gabite nodded slowly, taking quiet steps in Drake's direction. He felt Ryan's paw grapple onto his cloak as he scrambled onto Dillan's fin. And as Dillan moved towards Drake's direction…

"Wha-" a large thumping sound echoed through the room as Dillan tripped over the hem of his own cloak. All air expelled itself from his lungs and he had to bite his tongue to prevent from wheezing.

"What was that?" Jo's voice sounded from the direction of Chair God.

"Ah…" Chair God began slowly, its shadow looking back and forth across the room. "Must have been the wind."

"What…?" Jo asked in stunned silence.

"You dare question Chair God again, you inolend child?!"

Dillan resisted the great urge to take a sharp breath from the belly-flop, instead forcing himself to stutter a breath.

"We need to go!" Ryan insisted in his ear.

Dillan gritted his teeth, knowing Ryan was right, and stood up only to find a large, orange light - a lit torch in the hands of a haunter - illuminating the confused faces of all the cultists. They looked across the current scene in stunned awe.

At the front of the room stood a decrepit ogre of broken stone with a wide-eyed phantump peeking out from the mass's center. Petrified mid side-skirt across the wall stood a worried Drake, a shivering Hazel, and Penny who still wrapped themselves tightly around Hazel's tail-flame. And in the center of the room, trying to stand from his own clumsiness, was Dillan with a worried smile and Ryan who looked just as stunned at the surrounding cultists.

"Almost had it this time…" Chuck said from within Chair God.

"Scatter!"

Ryan immediately leapt from Dillan's back. He booked it between the still-dumbfounded cultists and out the door.

And in a split second, chaos broke out within the room.

Dillan dodged multiple cultists - all trying to grab a piece of the gabite. He felt claws sink into his cloak. Tearing sounds echoed through the room as they literally ripped the cloth from his shoulders. Dillan shot his fins out and flailed the blades wildly, striking at any ghost ahead. And somehow, he managed to make it out the exit alongside Hazel and Drake, the latter of which held both children under his arms.

"Was this part of the plan?!" Dillan asked.

"Of course it was!" Chuck insisted.

Yet Penny just groaned aloud. "Shut up, Chuck!"

"Not the time, children!" Drake demanded.

They'd managed to catch up to Ryan, who stood idle in wait before matching their pace. "We've got a lot of company right now!" he huffed. "If you've got anything else to your plan, now's the time!"

"The plan was made by a child!" Drake shrugged. "Not much more to work with!"

"That's just great!" Hazel yelped.

Just then, a flurry of black vortexes flew all around them. They soared towards the decaying brick walls and detonated upon impact, causing the ceiling to rumble above. Dust and rubble sprayed atop the fleeing group.

"What are they doing?!" Dillan said, taking a panicked look back towards the psycho ghosts.

"It's Jo!" Drake huffed. He quickly thrusted a child - Penny - into Dillan's confused arms. "Hold onto them and keep running!"

Drake spun quickly, a purple sphere materializing in their free hand. They pitched the orb, striking one of the ghosts dead in the face.

Another set of explosions went off above, the shockwave splintering across the walls and hurling an array of clay shards at the group. Dillan felt the shards slicing across his scales as a sizable chunk embedded itself in the back of his calf.

The floor slammed hard into Dillan's jaw as he moaned in pain. He had only enough time to roll, sheltering Penny from the brunt of the impact.

"Dillan!" Hazel called in a panic, seeing the gabite fall from the blow.

"G-Go!" Dillan made out, struggling onto his feet. He tried running but found the wound in his leg made his pace staggered at best.

Another explosion detonated above, and a spider web of cracks spread overhead. Dillan's heart stopped in his chest as an avalanche of boulders and debris fell towards him from above.

A single breath became stretched out as Dillan watched in terror at what was about to be his own death. Could his body survive the impact? Would it hurt? Would he be gone in an instant? Would Penny be taken with him?

He looked down to the little ghost and gritted his teeth. No, he had to get out. He had to. He needed to get her out!

With a last-ditch roar, Dillan ignored the object in his leg and threw himself forward. A blue flash shot out from his chest and the stone overhead seemed to slow from an invisible force. The gabite soared through the air, feeling his fins catch on the air around and slow his descent. He soared like a dragon through the falling rubble as it crumbled to the floor behind with a loud, "Crash!" burying the ghosts behind.

Dillan landed with another slam to his chin. Pain etched through his calf as his jaw pulsated but he didn't care. He was alive! How he managed to narrowly avoid being crushed, Dillan couldn't tell you. He only knew he was alive! And looking at Penny, the little ghost stared up at him with teary eyes but seemed relatively unharmed.

The group stopped in place, looking back in awe at what had just happened.

Drake quickly broke from the trance, flying towards Dillan at great speed and scooping Penny from his grip.

"Penny!" Drake doted, looking all over their body. "Are you okay?!"

"Woah…" Ryan said with a smirk. "That was cool! You moved so fast! How the hell did you do that?"

"Are they…?" Dillan questioned, looking back at the rubble.

"They're ghosts…" Hazel forced out, grabbing Dillan by the arm and yanking him up. "They'll just be dazed…! W-we don't have any time to-"

Yet as Dillan looked back, he caught a mere glimpse of an infuriated-looking dusknoir materializing through the stone at break-neck speeds.

Within a moment, it closed the gap between the groups and wrapped its hand around Dillan's neck. It didn't waste a moment before shoving Hazel and shattering the stone wall on Dillan's body.

"How dare you taint Akuji's name with that-… that mockery!"

Ryan instantly threw himself at the dusknoir with a charge of electricity. Yet just like before, it only managed to jolt through the beast before Ryan was caught in its free hand. It hurled Ryan off and down the corridor, into the darkness beyond Hazel's flame.

"R-Ry!" Hazel managed but to no response.

Dillan tried fighting the dusknoir's grip but he still felt exhausted from both running and their earlier fight. He could hardly push against its sheer strength.

It stared at him instantly, and its second hand closed around his throat. It watched with malice with a wicked grin as it waited for each of Dillan's squeaking breaths to be his last.

Dillan looked towards Hazel's voice for some kind of help, yet she sat on the ground in terror. Her breath quivered at the mere sight, petrified by fear. Not even Drake made a move, merely looking between Dillan and the children in his arms.

"G-go…!" Dillan demanded through the dusknoir's grasp.

"But… Dillan-" Drake began, but the gabite was insistent.

"Save… them…!" he squeaked.

Dillan took his eyes from the rest of the group and leveled his fin with the dusknoir's arm. His fin shot out into his blue blade, gouging the dusknoir.

A pained shout echoed through the halls as the dusknoir flew back, clutching a fresh wound on its arm that dripped with purple dust.

"You'll pay for that!"

The dusknoir's stomach bore those grotesque fangs and lunged back at Dillan. The gabite threw himself left, driving his shoulder into the wall and narrowly dodging the dusknoir's gnashing teeth. Yet the dusknoir managed to pivot with a swipe at Dillan's chest.

His ribs ached from the impact, but he wasn't allowed a second's respite as the dusknoir spiked him to the floor.

"Weakling!" the dusknoir jeered with another strike to Dillan's back. "Why did you even come here?!"

It grabbed Dillan by the arm. He felt his vision begin to blur again. With a quick bite on his tongue, he fought to stay conscious. But when he regained a fraction of sight, staring past his own dizziness, like staring through a pool of water, he stared into an endless pit beyond the dusknoir's mangled fangs.

"Akuji will forgive me for removing this thorn from my side!" the dusknoir snarled. "After all, we'll just get more of Poltress's pokemon for the ritual! Maybe some travelers on the road west! Even your friends as they try to escape! There's not really a need for you to live!"

And as Dillan raised his arms to shield himself from imminent death, an orange blur leapt onto the ghost's back. The dusknoir stumbled from the sudden weight that pulled him away by the neck. Its grip on Dillan loosened and the gabite clattered to the floor once again.

Through his dizzy vision, Dillan caught brief glimpses of Hazel attacking the dusknoir from its back. Its arms weren't long enough to reach Hazel, who etched through mesh-like skin relentlessly with claws bathed in shadow. The dusknoir threw its back towards the wall, slamming Hazel between itself and brick. Hazel immediately let go, falling once more to the ground.

"P-Pest…!" the dusknoir huffed. It turned to face Hazel in a panting fit. Dust poured off its back, catching on the air. The beast was injured.

Dillan forced himself upwards with a roar. And as his blades extended once more, he leapt at the ghost and etched them across its back.

The dusknoir stumbled onto the ground, barely catching itself on its palms. It staggered upright, bobbing in the air and panting wildly. It floated inches from the ground, a few feet from the two pokemon. All the while, Dillan leaned against the wall for support and leveled his fin at the dusknoir in warning.

The dusknoir looked towards Dillan with a deep scowl. "This isn't over…!" it slowly warned.

"I won't… let you hurt them…!" Dillan barely managed.

The dusknoir's gaze traced the edge of Dillan's blade, and it looked to be contemplating its chances. All the while Dillan stood there, above Hazel's shivering body, daring the dusknoir to try one last time.

With a final huff, the dusknoir's shoulders slumped. "We will be back for the pokemon of Poltress Town…! In Akuji's name, I swear it!" It turned away from Dillan, back towards the rubble, and passed through, disappearing from sight.

His legs gave way like jelly under the weight of a building. Dillan collapsed onto the floor, with his shoulder against the wall, panting madly through sheer pain and exhaustion.

"...Hazel…?" Dillan barely managed beyond his swollen throat, the pain throbbing against his brain. He bit at his own tongue for focus, rolling against the wall to face her.

The charmeleon had tears streaking her face as she stared through the wall. She gave no response to Dillan, and even when he pressed against her, she stayed motionless.

"H-He…" Hazel barely managed. "It… It… almost killed you…" Hazel barely managed.

"I know," he told her, pressing a claw against her shoulder for comfort. "I'm fine, Hazel. And you're fine. Everything's fine now. Everything's fine."

Hazel never looked towards Dillan. She seemed lost in her own head, replaying a scene over and over again. He'd seen this kind of thing before in the hospital Grace stayed at, when doctors had pulled patients from car wrecks they still seemed lost in. And he knew a soft and reassuring touch was all he could do.

"It's over now. You're fine. We're fine. Everything's going to be okay."

The group (who met up with a stumbling Ryan further down the chamber) met no resistance on the way from the chamber. Eventually, they found themselves stumbling from a hole in the stairs with their backs towards the ruins, greeted with twinkling lights above.

The chill of the air became especially worse for Dillan, attacking every cut and bruise on his body, especially his neck. And now that he lacked the protection of Lily's old cloak, he could only huddle close to Hazel's flame for warmth. So, they decided to stop a little way's off and lick their wounds.

Ryan and Drake made a campfire relatively quickly while Hazel worked on Dillan's cut-up heel.

As she rummaged through her bag for some exploding pollen, the charmeleon hardly said a word. She applied a small amount to Dillan's heel (something Dillan was not happy to reexperience) and his wound burned fiercely. But like with his shoulder, he only had to grit his teeth for a moment before the wound had mostly healed.

Upon sitting back, allowing Hazel to hold his heel up, the gabite had a chance to truly digest what had happened.

They almost died down there. Dillan almost died to a knife-wielding psychopath that not only killed people but was also a ghost.

He'd need therapy for sure.

And Hazel… She hardly looked away from everything she did. She was invested in her own work as if a lifeline in the distance, a ray of hope that could keep her from drowning in terrors best left buried in the ruin's rubble.

Her shaky hands wrapped his ankle slowly, and she moved wordlessly back to Ryan and Drake (maintaining a distance from the latter), who had finally started a fire made from spare twigs she kept in her Explorer's bag. She lied down opposite them, staring into the fire.

It was clear being around those ghosts took its toll on her brain, to the point where she kept a great distance from Drake and the kids. And as the group walked away from the flames, Hazel just lied there wordlessly.

Drake floated towards Dillan with a smile on their face. "Thank you once again for all your help," they said, turning from Dillan to Ryan. "Even if you three aren't part of the Guild yet, you helped us like the members from the stories. For that, you have my deepest gratitude."

"What are you gonna do about those cultists?" Ryan asked, crossing his arms. "We didn't stop them. They're still out there.

Drake's brow knitted together. "Honestly, I don't know if there's anything to do," they admitted. "It's not like we have anyone to arrest them. And their group was made up of a sizable portion of Poltress's citizens. To be honest, us and the ones who got away might just abandon the town."

Dillan gritted his teeth and shook his head. "But that's your home!"

"It was," Drake nodded. Though they looked down towards the two kids at their side. "But these two won't be safe in Poltress anymore. We don't have any other options but to move."

"Horace said Oasis City is nice," Penny chimed in with a hopeful look to Drake. "Maybe we could go there?"

A wicked grin planted itself on Chuck's face. "They also have a lot of pokemon to scare! Chair God would be able to play with so many victims! Chaw-haw-haw!"

Penny scoffed aloud. "Chaw-haw-haw?" she stated. "Really? That's your maniacal laugh?"

"It's a good laugh!" Chuck retorted.

"Chuck," Drake said with a sympathetic nod. "No one laughs likes that. No one." Chuck was about to speak but with a snap of Drake's fingers- "Time to leave, kids. And save your bickering for the road."

Chuck pursed their lips with one final stick-of-the-tongue to Penny before hushing up.

"Sorry about your home though," Ryan said.

"We'll manage," Drake said with a wave. He looked back towards Hazel with a small sigh. "And… I know Hazel doesn't mean any offense by not seeing us off. So, tell her we said thanks."

"We'll let her know," Dillan said with a wave. Yet as he looked towards Ryan for confirmation, he found the pachirisu looked very sour indeed, a look Dillan admittedly saw coming.

But Team Terror paid them hardly any mind. They stepped away from the two pokemon and, with a final wave, they disappeared into the darkness.

The two watched them for a long while, and when they left their sight, they still stood there. Waiting.

For minutes upon minutes, they waited in silence. Dillan didn't know exactly what for. Maybe it was a result of today. Maybe Ryan's brain was just trying to process it all like Dillan's. Maybe it was because he knew the kind of conversation that came next - not between him and Hazel, but between the group as a whole. Maybe he wanted to stand there just to avoid the hard talk that came next for as long as possible.

Ryan sighed aloud. He glanced back towards Hazel and shook his head.

"Did you know?" the pachirisu asked.

Dillan sighed as well. "No," he said simply. "She never told me she was afraid of ghosts…"

"'Afraid' is too good a word." Ryan took a long sigh. "Honestly, I don't see this working now."

The statement caught Dillan completely off-guard. He just eyed Ryan in surprise. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ryan crossed his arms at the question: "She put us in danger, Dillan."

The gabite shook his head in protest. "What makes what happened today any different than Void Canyon? I almost died there, too, but we made it out okay."

"Hazel didn't leave us in Void Canyon. She did today. And what's worse, she didn't tell us terrified of ghosts!"

"Like you're not afraid of anything."

"I never put us in danger! Hazel just did!" He pointed sharply towards the charmeleon.

"Hazel saved me, Ryan," the gabite insisted, rubbing his bruised throat. "That ghost thing almost killed me back there, and she saved me from it. You should have seen her wrestling the thing!"

"Yeah, after she put us in his way!" Ryan kicked a plume of sand into the air. "She should have told us this mission was too much for her before we fought the murder cult!"

"Come on, Ryan," Dillan pleaded, slumping over out of pure exhaustion. "I can't fight you right now."

"Then don't!" the pachirisu insisted with open arms. "We don't have to join the Guild, Dillan! We can leave right now! You and me!"

Dillan scoffed at the mere suggestion. "What are you talking about? Where did that come from? Didn't you want to join the Guild?"

"Maybe 'almost dying' puts things in perspective!" the pachirisu questioned. "Maybe - I don't know - this 'team' thing wasn't working for me?"

Dillan pulled at the orbs on his head with his claws. "I can't just stop right now. I need this."

Ryan laughed shrilly. "Why? What's so special about the Guild? Those assholes ignored Poltress, and why?!"

"We don't… know that for sure…" Dillan bargained, though his eyes drifted away from Ryan just saying it.

Ryan scoffed at that answer. "You don't believe that," he said. "So tell me why you need the Guild?"

Dillan opened his mouth to answer but only stuttering came out. He searched his brain for a viable reason but everything he came up with led to admitting he was human. So instead, he just continued to stammer away.

The longer Dillan went on, the more agitated the pachirisu became. His head leaned in closer by the second, an insistent look growing in intensity on Ryan's face. Eventually though, Dillan just scoffed. "I just…! I just need it! Okay?!"

Ryan stepped back and rolled his eyes. "That's not an answer, Dillan."

He crossed his arms insistently. "W-well, it's the only one I have! So, take it or leave it!"

Ryan just shook his head in disbelief. He threw his paws in the air, his tail twitching with irritation: "Fine, man. Don't tell me. Just… whatever."

Ryan got down on all-fours and hopped off towards the edge of the sandy hill, leaving Dillan to drop his arms in shock.

"Where are you going?" the gabite asked.

"To think," Ryan said coldly. "And maybe to sleep. I don't really know. All I know is I need a bit to myself."

Dillan's shoulders slumped at his sides. "Ryan," he called. But it was too late. The pachirisu trudged over the crest of the hill, not saying another word to the gabite as he vanished from sight.

Dillan gritted his teeth as he stared at the endless desert. How else was he supposed to end that conversation? What else could he have done? He couldn't tell him he was human! He couldn't tell him why joining the Guild was so important! What else was he supposed to do?

And Hazel… He looked back at the charmeleon, feeling a mixture of relief and disappointment. Now that the dust had settled, Ryan was right, wasn't he? Even if she came through in the end, did that excuse not being there at the beginning? She did lead them into a world of hell with no explanation. Even now, she sat there without a word. Why didn't she tell them?

The gabite looked towards the sky, wanting to shout in frustration. These questions began pelting his brain like hail on a roof - incessantly bothering him with their unending clatter. How did he get himself into this? Why was he here? Why didn't Hazel tell them? Why didn't he tell Ryan? Could he really be mad at Hazel when he couldn't admit to being human?

All the questions felt like weights on his body. Between that and the pure exhaustion pulling him towards the sand, Dillan found himself falling backwards into a pillowy, "floom."

Maybe he was overthinking things. Was being a human really that big of a deal? After all, didn't that make him just as unique as the electric squirrel or the always-on-fire lizard? What about it mattered so much that he needed to tell them?

Dillan shook his head. In the end, it didn't matter, did it? Soon, he would be lying in his bed once more. He just had to hold out for Kerrosia's library: for the Guild Exam. Kerrosia's Guild held all the answers he'd need, he just knew it. It had to.

He lied there, staring up towards the sky. He looked across its blanket of black for the moon, but he never found it. He only found more darkness and frigid shadows.

(A/N)

Shout-out to

Hey all! Sorry it took so long to get this out. Life's very busy :P

I've been working ont he story the whole time though - whether that's been editing chapters or making notes for myself on things I like to add and/or change to make things better. I'll see about having the next chapter out before the end of next month but I make no promises XD

Hope y'all enjoyed it! Feel free to Favorite the story if you did, or leave a comment telling me how long it's been since I've released a chapter ;)

See you guys next chapter!

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