Chapter 100 – The World's Eyes
33. Badly injured. Consciousness fading.
89. Three mutants laying waste to Milli Town. Abandoned. Seven casualties. Three saved, four dead.
1. Continue duties as normal. Requesting status report from 44 on northern vortex.
44. Northern vortex is stable. Dark Matter does not appear to be active.
1. Requesting report from 23 on Lugia.
1. Requesting report from 23 on Lugia.
1. 23?
52. 23 is unconscious at sea. Rescue?
1. Let it die. Continue duties as normal.
Hecto sighed and brightened his red eye, returning his attention to the surrounding aura sea. Roughly a tenth of his copies had been killed during the sudden crisis, which was a serious uptick in deaths compared to his usual casualty rate. A decimation. Most of it was due to the mutants, but the few Zygarde assigned to Lugia had all slowly perished. Those memories were not pleasant to recall.
That wasn't all. Most worrying was how empty the aura sea had become. The passage of spirits from the living world to beyond had been interrupted.
Hecto stood in the now lightless void that was once the glimmering aura sea. All Guardian realms were under attack or disappeared completely, though thankfully those who remained alive were able to fend off the wraiths.
But the likes of Owen, Enet, Gahi, and Eon, whose realms had completely disappeared from the aether, Hecto was less optimistic. He did not know where their spirits went, but it was not across the sea.
Where were they?
Arceus theorized that Dark Matter was taking them, somehow. And if so, to where?
Even more worrisome was that any attempts to locate Step were met with death. He supposed being Ground-Dragon did not help matters, but being in the path of destruction of mutants as the Ice Guardian hunted them down was not easy. Only once did he get injured by Step's residual attacks, but the mutants, who were openly hostile and berserk, possibly agitated by Step's own aura, were much more lethal.
More memories he preferred to not recall.
When mutants died, they did not go to the aura sea for long. Their spirits were tied to Quartz and the Reincarnation Machine. Hecto did not remember how such a machine came into Eon's possession and that irritated him, too, but that was not relevant at the moment. There was something more troublesome.
There had not been a single new incubation since Dark Matter's attack.
The implications were very inconvenient.
More inconvenient was being unable to reach Step to deliver this news in a timely manner. She was ignoring everyone, and traversing the spirit world was dangerous with wraiths out and about. His individual fragments were not powerful. He was meant to watch the world with his hundred pairs of eyes. But perhaps it would be appropriate to gather himself, should his actual power be needed…
Not yet. He had more use spread thin.
1. Requesting report from 62.
62. Nearing Yotta Outskirts. Parts of the forest are frozen over. It is not due to incoming winter cold.
1. Continue following the path. Use caution. Shout if you must if you get close.
62. There are others. The town is populated.
Hecto paused, one of his fingers twitching in thought. He floated idly in the void for a few seconds, considering his options.
1. Who is near Yotta Outskirts?
97.
52.
3.
1. Converge. Save who you can. Hope Step notices you.
And now, Hecto could only wait. He peered into their fragments to see firsthand what was happening…
Step was missing her left arm and that was more trouble than she'd been hoping for. The clearing, beyond the thinned forest, showed huge fields of some crop, though it was empty, perhaps recently cultivated. Good. Then she wouldn't have to worry about destroying it all while defending the town.
With her one good arm, she aimed forward and gathered clouds of frost at the center of her palm. The white beam that followed cracked the air and formed ice crystals along its path, splashing into the chest of a crazed Sawsbuck with the lengthy body of a Linoone. It roared and snorted, its maw glowing with the orange energy of a Hyper Beam, but Step blasted directly into its mouth with a second frosty line.
The crystals coated the roof of its mouth and covered the rest of its head instantly, freezing it in place. She didn't stop; the beam spread, the crystals growing and snapping until its entire body was coated in a gigantic, jagged boulder. Its angry expression was frozen in time.
Step slammed her tail on the ground and pivoted her body, preparing to shatter it like she'd done to so many others.
"Halt!"
That was a new voice, and she'd rarely been spoken to. It was enough to give her pause. To her left was a Zygarde with its leg completely frozen in a patch of icy ground.
"…Please free me and then I would like to talk," Hecto said. "Leave that mutant frozen. We need to prioritize the others in town."
Step narrowed her eyes, approaching with heavy steps. "Fine. I shall free you, Zygarde. But you will—"
"And," Hecto said, "be gentle."
She growled. "You are asking for a lot."
Yotta Outskirts was a mixture of hail and flames. The ice pelted the rooftops while the flames crackled outside, sizzling against any chunks of ice that were unlucky enough to land in the inferno. Frantic and disorganized, Yotta Outskirt's residents scrambled toward Kilo Village where it would be safer, or at least away from town and toward the faraway mountain. The older population was less able, and while several younger Pokémon helped them escape, some were still left behind.
"I can still fight!" shouted an Arbok, hissing at an incoming, berserk Tyranitar with silver scales that jutted out of its body like knives. "You can't get past me!"
"Father!" Leo shouted.
"I'm on it, I'm on it!" Spice sped forward, but Leo's fireball was faster. It flew overhead and slammed into Tyranitar's face. In a rage, it blasted several knife-scales forward, narrowly missing Tari's abdomen.
He weaved out of the way a split-second after the knife had gone past him, and his bold taunts faltered.
"Get back!" Leo shouted, and Spice pulled on Tari so he'd follow. The old Arbok complied, spitting several more curse-laden taunts toward the burning Tyranitar.
"I think that's the last one," Spice panted. "How's your mom doing?"
Leo looked back. She was clutching at her side, where a nasty gash had cut into her fur, leaving crimson to darken the orange coat. She had trouble standing, but that was nothing abnormal, and her conjuring stick was still firmly in her grasp.
"Which way, Leo?"
"Aries," Tari growled, and the Arbok snarled at Spice to let him go. "How dare you force us to flee! What about our pride?!"
"Will you be reasonable for this one fight?!" Spice snapped.
The Tyranitar had its bearings again and curled into a tight ball. Its bladed scales stiffened and pointed outward.
Spice knew what that meant.
"Get back!" Spice shouted, taking long strides to get in front of Tari and Aries. Leo was about to step forward next, but then the Tyranitar erupted with blades of steel. The sound was quick and decisive. Dull thuds from them digging into the dirt came first, but then came cracks of metal clashing against stone, destroying the outer layers. Last, but only by instances, were the ethereal clangs of the blades that bounced off of Spice's black Protect barrier.
All but a few. Spice hadn't felt it at first until she tried to move again, but a sudden, searing pain in her chest made her buckle to the ground.
"Spice!" Leo cried.
There were three blades jammed into her. They'd slipped through before her Protect. One was in her shoulder, which made moving her right arm too painful. The other two were in her chest, and she wasn't sure how serious those ones were. She could breathe. That was a start.
Tyranitar crouched down again, more blades rapidly regrowing. Another volley, already? Spice didn't have the strength to block that one again.
A plume of fire spontaneously enveloped Tyranitar's head. Spice heard the sound of metal grinding against metal as it clawed at its own face, trying to put out the flames that didn't go away.
Behind Spice, Leo held his mother's arm and aimed it forward. Grasped in her paws was her stick, which glowed a bright orange at the tip like a burning coal.
"Am I hitting it, Leo?" Aries asked, her unseeing eyes narrowed.
"Yes," Leo said. "Keep it up and maybe we can keep it back."
"Like I'm gonna let my mate fight without me!" Tari declared while an orange glow danced in the back of his throat. Before anybody could object, a stream of flames joined the ball of heat around Tyranitar's head, and Spice had to duck to make sure she didn't get a scorched scalp.
"Your parents are strong," Spice remarked; even she couldn't stand too close to the heat.
"Just because our bodies are frail doesn't mean our spirits are," Aries said, firing a second fireball from her wand when Tari cut his flames. He coughed a few plumes of smoke, licking his lips with a confident smirk.
Tyranitar slammed its face into the ground. The impact left Spice wobbling where she stood, and she'd looked away from Tyranitar for only a second. That one moment was all that she needed to lose track of it. Gone! Where did—
There was a shadow on the ground without a body.
"Up!" Spice shouted.
It had jumped at least twenty feet into the air and had curled up into a ball of spikes. Tiny shadows speckled the ground, each one a knife that rained down onto the whole street like rain. Blades stuck into the rooftops and clanged off of boulders; they dotted the soil like macabre flowers; but, somehow, the ground around Team Alight and Leo's parents was completely untouched.
A thin, wide barrier above them all turned the sky orange. Flying in from the west was a Smeargle with—was that a Smeargle with wings? Spice squinted, trying to make sure her eyes weren't seeing the wrong thing, but no, that was definitely a Smeargle with black wings. Though, it looked more like a painting.
That was confirmed when the wings disappeared upon landing. A Sketched Fly. His eyes darted left and right, and he called, "Get this way! We're going to evacuate while the Elites can step in!"
"Elites? We have them still?" Spice called back, but she wasn't going to complain. "Angelo, how did you block that?"
"Wide Guard," he replied breathlessly. "Now please, can we hurry? I—I'm not strong enough to fly people too big, but I can at least get us away where we'll lose its trail!"
"Well what about our home?" Tari said. "You expect us to abandon our homes just like that?!"
"Yes, I'm sorry," Angelo replied desperately, but then Tyranitar landed on the ground with a heavy thud, shaking the earth. "No time! We need to run!"
Spice ignored the pain in her chest every time she moved, but it was a struggle. She grunted and was about to pull the spikes out.
"Ah—you're hurt," Angelo said. "L-later. We need to—AAH!"
Tyranitar rapidly shook its body, countless steel knives falling away from its once armored frame. Leaner and lighter, it revealed a disturbingly thin frame that only slightly resembled the bulky Tyranitar it used to be.
"Automatize," Spice hissed. "RUN!"
She didn't have to shout twice, but the Salazzle herself tripped and landed on some of the extra spikes in her chest, driving them further in. She gasped—but her lungs didn't cooperate.
Tyranitar was upon her, claws primed. For just a second, Spice saw something black and sinister in the corners of her vision that nobody else seemed to see. Her heart raced but her body felt cold, scales crawling with something horrible. She felt like laughing in the midst of terror.
But then something wrapped in gold knocked Tyranitar away. Red fur and a black, striped tail—Incineroar? The nurse?
Tyranitar, dazed, shook its head, and Phol followed up his Protect bash with an uppercut wreathed in flames. His flaming knuckles knocked Tyranitar in the jaw, smashing a few steel teeth. Phol spun and raised his leg, smashing it into Tyranitar's side with a thud that shook the knives in Spice's chest. Tyranitar went flying into one of the empty buildings, which collapsed over it.
Phol plucked Spice off the ground. "Let's go!" he shouted. "Elites are here to clean up! I'm part of rescue! Angelo! Ready Trick Room!"
"Trick—right! Right! I forgot!"
"You shouldn't have!"
Mid-stride, Angelo grabbed his tail and sketched another wall of symbols. The ink-black paint twisted and flattened in the air and fell into the ground. Where the drops landed, perfect squares of light appeared.
"What's taking so long?!" Spice hissed as Tyranitar roared. Rubble from the building that should have buried it went flying in all directions.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! This takes a very long time to manifest!" Angelo drew more symbols in the air, faster than before, though he occasionally cursed with each mistake he made. His hands were shaking uncontrollably.
Phol abruptly stopped and crossed his arms, forming a Protect just in time to block a volley of knives, and then kicked away to keep up with the crowd. Tyranitar chased them on all fours with limbs far longer than they should have been.
"Done!"
Tyranitar was seconds away from them, and suddenly a pulse of deep blue light radiated off of the squares that Angelo had left behind, and continued to radiate the more Angelo wrote.
"Everyone, stop running! Walk! Walk slowly!"
Not like they had a choice. Suddenly, the air around them felt thick, like the more they moved, the more the air pushed back against them. It was like quicksand; breathing itself felt difficult and uncomfortably stuffy. Angelo, more practiced with this technique, took slow, steady breaths and walked in a mock-leisurely pace. His eyes were wide with terror.
Angelo whimpered. "Walk… slowly… away."
Behind them, Tyranitar roared, but despite the great strain in its muscles, it could not move more than a few inches every second. It wasn't smart enough, or perhaps it was just too focused on chasing them, to counter the Trick Room's resistant atmosphere.
"Got any more in that bag of tricks you call a tail?" Spice asked, spitting a glob of blood on the ground. "How many moves do you even know?"
"Um—l-lost count." Angelo walked ahead of everyone and helped demonstrate to them the proper pace. "An old blessing that runs in the family." The edge of Trick Room's radius wasn't that far away, and Tyranitar was still trapped in place.
A green-black canine stood at the edge of the Trick Room. When they drew closer, he stepped aside and nodded at them.
"The area west of Yotta Outskirts is clear of mutants and other hostiles. Wait there," the canine reported.
"You're that… what was your species again?" Phol asked.
"Zygarde."
Phol hummed in recognition. "Thank you, Zygarde. What will we be waiting for?"
"I ain't waiting!" Tari shouted, glaring daggers toward Tyranitar. "I'm gonna fight!"
"I shall do the fighting," Zygarde said. "You will be waiting for a Joltik to fly you back."
"Oh. That Joltik," Phol said, growling.
"Joltik?" Aries asked, frowning. She tapped her wand against her chin. "I don't think she can carry all of us, let alone a Delphox like me…"
"It will make sense later," Zygarde said with a nod. "Now, excuse me."
He stepped into the barrier and gently waved a paw forward, like rolling a ball. All around Zygarde, tiny, green arrows emerged from the ground. With another flick, the arrows launched from invisible bows and rained down on Tyranitar, who roared and fought against its invisible binds in vain.
"Go, go, go!" Angelo begged the others. By now, Phol was dragging Tari away, with Leo guiding Aries. Finally, they were able to leave the battlefield behind, but not without seeing the ruin that Yotta Outskirts had been reduced to. Tyranitar had not been the only mutant; a whole slew of them had appeared in a wave of destruction. Where had they come from? As if the world had not already fallen into chaos…
"Angelo," called Zygarde, which confused Angelo. Had Zygarde not been fighting Tyranitar? But no, there was another one beside him, keeping pace as they walked.
"Yes?" Angelo said, looking back, then back at Zygarde.
"You are an inheritor of Mew's Blessing, correct?" Zygarde asked.
"Mew's…" Angelo's voice dies in his throat. All eyes were on him, most of them puzzled.
"Blessing?" Tari said. "Bah! As if someone as scrawny as him would inherit something like that! Besides, kinda meaningless on a Smeargle, eh?"
"I do," Angelo replied. "But…"
"I would like to visit you later," Zygarde replied. "Phol. Your Protect is golden, correct?"
"It is. But my services are dedicated to enchanting empty orbs right now, if you're asking me for something else."
"I see. I will remember that. Thank you. Spice."
"Mine's black. I don't know why," Spice said.
"I understand. Please report to me if or any of the Elites if you learn anything about that."
"Sure. You're an Elite?"
"Yes."
"Never saw you as part of the Hearts."
"They did not have enough badges for all of my bodies. Also, my status as a Legendary Pokémon should be enough."
That was when it all clicked, and Angelo stopped walking to stare, wide-eyed, at Zygarde. "Th-that's right! You… you are a—but I thought the Legends simply disappeared!"
"That is true. I did not."
"Disappeared?" Phol said, frowning. "Not, never existed at all? The Book of Arceus, just like the Book of Mew, is nothing but stories to convey values."
Aries gave Phol a disapproving look.
Phol cleared his throat. "In my opinion, at least."
"It is a mystery that I am trying to decipher now," Zygarde said. "But that is not something you need to worry about. Was I clear with my instructions?"
"Wait for a Joltik," Angelo repeated uncertainly.
"Correct. Goodbye." Without so much as a smile, Zygarde left in an expressionless sprint into town. Angelo, Spice, Leo, and Phol exchanged uneasy glances.
If there was any omen for the world's end, it was the return of Zygarde, the embodiment of balance. The legends stated that it would bring the world to order… but how it did so was ambiguous. It could either be by eliminating the power that was causing the world such strife… or by wiping the slate clean entirely.
71. Approaching Arachno Forest interior. Decayed webbing is abundant.
12. Accompanying 71.
1. Where is 62?
71. Left behind due to getting captured in webbing.
62. Currently captured in webbing. A mutant is near. I may die.
1. Continue onward. You are close. 62, continue attempts to escape and catch up with 71 and 12.
Damp, smashed, decaying spiderwebs covered every inch of this portion of the forest, and the two remaining Hectos had to tread lightly through uneven terrain. This had once been a great labyrinth held by Trina, the heart of her Bug domain. All around them, remnants of that isolated civilizations stood, proud but feeble. There were domes that operated like little huts for Pokémon to live within, propped up, under, and between the trees. Further along, large swaths of webbed fields made for squishy, lumpy silk that they had to regularly help one another out of while in search of what was left of their mutant, former-outlaw civilization.
There was a dim glow of a flame ahead—one that was not part of a forest fire. It had recently rained here, so perhaps if there was a fire, it would have been small or diminishing. But this was the flame of a Charizard—the second Owen, the replacement Owen, Har.
62. False Owen in sight. Very likely to be the new leader.
12. Approaching now.
1. His name is Har.
62. Requesting verification: Har is the preferred title?
1. Most likely.
The webbing dulled their steps, and at first they wondered if Har would be able to see them. Of course he would—he had Perceive, after all. But there did not appear to be anyone else around…
The two Zygarde scanned the immediate area before advancing. This particularly lumpy field was otherwise empty, and Har was slumped over.
62. Subject is not moving, but has a flame.
1. Verify that he is sleeping.
12. There is little reason to sleep out in the open.
The pair approached cautiously, but even that wasn't enough. Without warning, Har abruptly spun around and blasted 12 with a great sphere of fire from his maw, solid and explosive. All 62 could see by the time he had a chance to react was black smoke, and all he heard, aside from the ringing in his ears, was a dull thud of 12 hitting the web behind them.
Har was on his feet, crouched down with a crazed look in his eyes, several feet away from where he had been seconds earlier.
"Hello," 62 greeted. "You are Har?"
His tail kept crackling and flaring like an overfed campfire. 12 didn't move, but he was still alive, because 62 did not receive any of the memories that 12 would have transferred over upon death. He did, however, get a set from 46 a few moments later, though he would sort through that death later, or wait for another copy to report a summary.
"I am here to speak to Trina's allies," 62 reported again. "My name is Hecto."
The crazed look softened. Good. Progress.
"Where is the rest of your team?"
Har watched a while longer, waiting for sudden movements. The pair realized shortly after that perhaps it was because Har was trying to read them. Hecto was notoriously difficult to read. What was it that Star said he had to do in order to be more friendly? Smile, yes. He had to smile.
Hecto curled his lips upward and showed some of his teeth, and tried to flicker his eye lights in a more friendly manner. He did not know what that meant.
Har's eyes softened more, though they were replaced with confusion.
Smiling efforts were less than successful, but the goal was still accomplished. He could work on that later.
"Right, my…" Har rubbed his head. "Sorry. I was… We were in the middle of chasing someone down who had gone berserk, but they had sleeping spores. I took a hit so Lygo could keep going…" He looked back. "They should be ahead."
"Then Trina's former allies are losing themselves?"
Har nodded. "A lot of us are fine, but there are a few that are less stable. They weren't under Trina for as long."
Commenting on the fact that Har also seemed to have lost himself was not worth the risk.
"How many of you are stable?"
"Why are you asking?"
"We are in the process of consolidating power. Anyone capable of fighting Dark Matter and his related forces should gather at Kilo Village for safety."
"Sorry, can't," Har said. "Like I said, we aren't stable enough for that anymore."
"There may be a way to assist in taming that," Hecto said. You will only lose more of your numbers if you continue to stay here and stagnate."
By now, 12 was finally returning, though he had a noticeable limp.
"Sorry for that," Har mumbled apologetically. "Look, we're mutants. We don't pass as safe. I don't know if it's a good idea. One wrong move and…"
"We will vouch for you. Guardians who knew of Trina are there. I highly recommend you gather who you can and arrive. Are you their leader?"
"I guess I am…"
"Understandable. Will you need assistance convincing them?"
"No, I think I'll… Are you really sure we'll be accepted?"
"No. But I will help."
"At least you're honest." Har's wings drooped. "I'll do what I can. Wait here?"
"Of course."
12. Har is leaving to rally the mutants. They are few in number, but they are the most sane of them.
1. Then the others?
64. Likely among the berserk mutants.
1. That explains the increased rate of mutant attacks in this area, particularly Milli Town and Yotta Outskirts west of it. Very well.
12. We will wait for Har to gather them and lead them to Kilo Village. Who will alert the Guardians?
1. I will coordinate. Continue your tasks.
It had been at least a week and Nevren hadn't left his room in all that time. Lavender was starting to get worried. The behemoth paced around the halls that connected to Nevren's room, occasionally stopping to press his head against the doorway that wouldn't open for him. His crest bumped against the steel, but then he pulled away, not wanting to irritate Nevren with all his noise. He was probably deep in concentration.
Lavender didn't know when it happened, but perhaps during the night, Nevren left that room to get food. He still had to eat, right? Or did he have a secret stash of food in his research room? The fiend! He probably kept all the best snacks in there for himself. Like the Leichi Berry Pops that always went faster than the rest. Or the Exeggupuffs. Sure, Eon always said they were unhealthy, but they tasted so good…
The heavy pitter-patter of paws on tile made Lavender's cheek bolts whirr. "Hmm?"
It was Lucas, back in his Mega Houndoom form. That was risky, but as long as he stayed calm, it would be fine, right?
Lavender's concern redoubled when he saw a Cherrim riding on his back. "Um, Lucas!" The Silvally rushed, but then slowed his pacing. "Are you sure you should be carrying Auntie Rim around? She's…"
In reply, Lucas let out a defiant growl and then a snort. How rude to assume he couldn't handle himself around his auntie! Rim was stronger than she looked, even if she was in an unfamiliar body and more or less helpless.
Wait…
A bark snapped Lavender out of his thoughts and he shot to attention.
"Oh! Okay, well, if you're so sure," Lavender said.
And suddenly, the doors to Nevren's door opened, and Lavender as alight with glee. "Father! You're up!"
"Up? I've always been up."
"I mean, out!" His tailfin wagged and he lunged toward Nevren for a tackle.
Nevren disappeared and reappeared behind Lavender, scratching Lucas behind the ears. "Hello, Lucas. Rim, are you feeling well?"
The Cherrim tried to look toward Nevren, but her huge, purple petals got in the way and she fell over. By a Psychic barrier, Nevren kept her up.
"I'm…" Her voice was similar, but still a little off compared to how she used to sound. It was scratchier and had a warble to it.
"I suppose it is quite an adjustment, but unfortunately we cannot afford to spare much power right now to give you your old body," Nevren said with a sigh. "In any case, I shall be going to my motivation quarters. Take care."
Nevren had a room just down the hall that he frequently visited, though he disallowed anybody from entering on their own. Lavender knew what was inside, and it wasn't all that interesting anyway, but the fact that Nevren called it his motivation room always made him curious.
After seeing Nevren holed up in his research quarters for the better part of a week, Lavender had to know. "How come? What are you gonna do in there?"
"Get a few fleeing reminders. It is typically enough."
"Does that mean you aren't feeling very motivated right now?" Lavender trotted after Nevren, and Lucas followed with Rim still on his back.
"I suppose I am," Nevren replied. "A week of nonstop toil can do that to a man. Though I also have lost track of the end goal of some of my inventions and would like to remind myself of them."
In Nevren's hands was a small notebook that looked well-worn but also well-maintained. Lavender tilted his head, wondering which one it was. He kept a lot of those. This one could have been a calendar, or maybe a logbook from his experiments. He was very rigorous about those.
Nevren held his hand in front of the metal door. It slid into the frame, revealing a gray room with countless drawings, posters, words, symbols, and arrows scrawled on all parts of the wall, with a large, brightly-colored word, 'START,' at the very center of the square floor.
It was the 'crazy room,' as Lavender called it, and Nevren stepped in the middle.
"…Would you care to join?" Nevren asked Lavender, whose cheek bolts whirred. His eyes flashed a nervous cyan.
"Okay," Lavender agreed, but then looked back at Lucas and Rim. She seemed very tired. "Um, Lucas? Maybe you should take Auntie Rim back to her room so she can rest."
"Better yet, take her to get some sunlight. Do be careful. Her body will appreciate the sun much more now, after all. Though, Rim, I must say… All things considered, you've adjusted to the Grass type very well. Had I not known any better, I would have assumed you'd always been one."
With her petals in the way, there was no way to tell if she had smiled at that or not, but she did shiver a little. A laugh.
"Rest up, Auntie," Lavender said, nuzzling between two petals.
The great riddle began, of course, with the 'START' in the middle. From there, it pointed forward toward some words Lavender couldn't see from where he stood. Nevren's eyes darted about, and then he scribbled into his notes.
"Now, I know you have quite a few questions," Nevren said. "I will answer them all, but afterward, I expect you to be respectfully quiet. Will that do?"
"Um, okay." Lavender looked at the notebook. "What's that for?"
"These are my questions," Nevren said. "I write down my questions, and then consult this room for answers. I write them down when I realize what it is, before I lose that answer mentally. When written down, it is immortalized, so I may remind myself of my goal on a practical level."
"…How come you don't just write down all your reasoning immediately?" Lavender asked. Scrawled on the eastern wall was a symbol that looked like an eight-sided star, the cardinal directions much longer than the diagonals. But the drawing itself was basic, like lines. Like it should have been colored in.
"Because complete thoughts are erased," Nevren replied. "I can only give myself instructions based on partial data. Any memories and thoughts I do have about what I realize in this room are fleeting, and must be immortalized in writing. But even then, the writing shall become impossible to perceive if I am too thorough."
Lavender stared dumbly toward the southern wall. Here, there were two symbols and a noticeably empty space between them. One was a small, pink creature with a long tail, and another was a large, white creature with a golden ring around its body. Lavender recognized those creatures; he was based off of one, after all. But the way this was arranged, there was something missing between the two of them.
Meanwhile, Nevren stared at the ground, his eyes following arrows faster than Lavender could reason them out. Some were simple words. 'Brightness' or 'after second." Lavender saw a drawing of a strange circle with numbers on the edges, starting from "1" and going to "11." At the top of the block, between 1 and 11, was a skull. Beside the clock were the words, "One hour is three hundred seasons, plus more."
"I don't get it," Lavender said. "These are all weird… drawings, and words, and it doesn't mean anything!"
"It can't mean anything," Nevren replied calmly. "If it meant exactly what the truth was, it would be rendered invisible. Useless. I've had many missteps before I was able to deduce something close enough to the truth that it would not be erased. The great, hidden history that the gods did not want known. I suppose that was due in part to the flaw in the Decree they had hastily cobbled together to hide it."
"Oh… So you can't ever know the full story, but you can give yourself instructions on little pieces before you forget?"
"Yes. Whatever this Decree is hiding, it is only hiding the event itself, and does not seem to prevent me from taking action against whatever it is trying to hide. Thankfully there is no Decree that prevents me from realizing something is hidden in the first place. Now, I do not know what I called this creature before, but I shall refer to it as Prism, based on the symbols that seem to be associated with it. Prism… Prism, Prism, what is important about it…"
Nevren looked at the great symbol on one wall, then at the empty space in another. "That missing space is in the same dimensions as the large symbol there. Ah, yes. I must have done that intentionally… Or perhaps the symbol is already there, and I cannot see it?"
There were many blank spots on the wall where it seemed like the drawing was supposed to continue, yet didn't. "All of these empty parts on the wall." Lavender pointed at one of them. "Is something actually there?"
"Certainly. And at some point, as I drew it, it vanished before my eyes. That is how I knew how to hint at it. I drew hints around the blank spots. I am tiptoeing around the event horizon of the Decree's erasure to deduce properties of what was hidden within." Nevren sighed, wistful. "Perhaps overly poetic, but there is a certain elation in being able to outsmart a god."
"So, the Decree is the thing you're supposed to not know, and this room gives you hints on what you're not supposed to know?"
"Essentially."
They spent a while longer looking through the strange symbols, glyphs, and scribbles, but Lavender couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"…There we are," Nevren said. "Fascinating. I do keep forgetting that Arceus and Star are not our enemies, yet every time I write that down it seems to erase itself. A shame. I need to find a way to keep myself from misattributing malice. Regardless, I believe I have the information I need. We must continue constructing artificial Dungeons. Recover Owen and the rest of Team Alloy. That is our best bet so far, yes."
"Why?" Lavender asked.
"I believe these recent events have solved a longstanding mystery." Nevren jotted down his final few notes. "The Legendary Pokémon, those who used to guard this world, were erased from history some time ago. Their names are stated in the Book of Arceus but are never seen nor remembered. All we have are the likes of Hecto and Emily, and the latter's history is also muddled."
He continued to ramble, writing down more notes in vague instructions, sometimes saying them in repeated or vague ways, as if one that was too specific ran the risk of erasure.
"I'm certain I saw Dialga and Palkia emerge from Anam very briefly during his outburst," Nevren continued. "Anam is connected to Dark Matter, as are these wraiths, and the Dungeons that spawn them. There is a very strong chance that Dungeons are a connection between our world and the world of Dark Matter. I have artifacts from both Dialga and Palkia with me; perhaps I can tune to them wherever they are sealed. If we can control that connection, we may be able to rescue them and resume with our original plans."
"Original plans. Saving the world?"
"Of course."
"From who?" Lavender asked.
Nevren paused, looking at his notes, then at the symbols on the wall. "That is a good question." He shut the book. "I do not believe there is a single person we are saving the world from. Unfortunately, that is too shrouded in secrecy for me to find the true answer. If I had to guess…" He pointed at the blank space on the far wall. "The third god is a risk, as is Dark Matter, and perhaps Arceus and Star themselves. All for different reasons."
"That's… a lot."
"Indeed! Still, we must fight." Looking satisfied, Nevren exited the room. "And as far as I can tell, our first step is harnessing Dungeons the same way Dark Matter is. Ah. Hello, Hecto."
Standing at the entrance was the canid Zygarde, who bowed in greeting.
"It has been quite a few days," Hecto greeted. "Have you found Star?"
"I have not."
"Ah. Anything you are able to tell me?"
"I have halted Step's slaughter of the mutants."
"She has been slaughtering them?"
"Yes."
"That is strange. They have not returned to the Reincarnation Machine."
"That is why I had her stop."
"Ah. That is troublesome."
Lavender didn't quite understand what they meant by that. So, they had to find some of the other mutants, too? Were they okay? When Lavender tried to ask, both Hecto and Nevren did not answer directly.
"Optimistically, they are in the same place Owen and the others have been taken to," Hecto continued.
Nevren nodded, and then said, "Then I shall continue my research on Dungeon harnessing. I suppose you should tell Step to hold off on destroying the mutants, then. I shall try to salvage what I can with the ones we have remaining, who are all stable."
"How many mutants remain with you?" Hecto asked.
"Not very many. Only twenty sets, totaling roughly fifty souls, though we have another few hundred in the power generator. But withdrawing them now would power down the Reincarnation Machine and the rest of the lab's facilities. Quite a conundrum." Nevren studied Hecto. "The Beammaker is next to useless… Ah, and what is your plan?"
"I am nearly done with gathering everyone in Kilo Village," Hecto said. "I assume you shall not be doing this?"
"Oh, certainly not. Many of them likely want my head. I shall remain here in Quartz HQ. If I can assist in the efforts against Dark Matter from a distance, I shall."
"Of course. Then, take care."
Hecto turned, about to leave, but stopped after only a few steps. "Nate," he said. "Do you know anything about him?"
"Unfortunately not."
Lavender made a small barking noise, earning both their attention. "Not even in the crazy room?"
"No, not even in my motivation room. I was not able to deduce much about who or what Nate is yet, as he was only a relatively recent discovery. Before, we thought the pit in the Chasm was merely a manifestation of his Dark power, but it seems that was only a disguise for his true nature. Which we cannot deduce yet. I did not spend time on it."
"His basic shape is something that has been seen in worlds beyond," Hecto said. "A Pokémon of nearly apocalyptic strength and immense, reality-distorting powers. But Nate's form is highly corrupted from what they usually appear as."
"He's certainly friendly, though, is he not?"
"Yes. But as a great unknown, it is still a concern. I advise that you deduce more about him when you can. However, he was the source of a strange attack filled with life energy that was able to severely dampen Dark Matter's assault from Hot Spot. We are going to make use of that again for a counterstrike when everyone is gathered in Kilo Village. Perhaps there is something within Hot Spot cave that can assist us, too."
"I see… Yes. That would certainly help, if he's gathered that power again. An assault… Perhaps that can help us free the spirits Dark Matter has seized. I can only hope they are recoverable. And I imagine you will be trying to find Star?"
Hecto paused for longer than usual. "I am not going to prioritize my feelings over the greater mission."
"Of course. Then we are to gather those who Dark Matter might have imprisoned, including Star."
"That is correct." The Zygarde's eyes flickered. "Then I shall be going."
He left as silently as he had arrived, and Nevren turned his attention to Lavender. "I am going to write a message for you to send to Kilo Village. You must go on foot due to the destruction of the Waypoints, and it may take several weeks on foot."
"Several weeks?" Lavender complained. "But what about Auntie Rim and the other mutants?"
"I shall tend to them. If things go as planned, your trip back will not take nearly as long."
Lavender's cheek bolts whirred and his eyes turned a gloomy blue.
Nevren sighed. "Go with Lucas and Rim, then. But you are to keep her safe." Tending to her would be a bother anyway, and he wanted to focus entirely on his research without those trivial matters. He can keep all the other mutants in Poké Balls anyway. They rarely put up a fuss after that. Submissive by design. Convenient.
"Okay!" Lavender's eyes shifted to an energetic yellow. "I'll get them right now!"
"Take care," Nevren said. "Ah, and don't forget—" Lavender was already gone. "…Your supplies. Mm." He was tempted to revise that moment… but Lavender had already exhausted so much of his patience. It was time to get back to work in peace.
If everyone listened to him obediently, perhaps this mess could have been avoided altogether. That was what Nevren always thought, and the more the world plunged into its inevitable chaos, the more he knew that was true.
1. Announcing that most tasks have been completed. Gather all units to Kilo Village to prepare for an assault against Dark Matter in Hot Spot. Once mobilization is complete, prepare for delving into the labyrinth for supplies.
100. I have another announcement.
1. 100. Your task was to search for Star.
100. I have found a trail toward Star.
1. R-requesting location.
100. Void Basin.