Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Centurnum
Chapter 6
The Turn of the New Era
Three hours.
Three hours ago, an ambitious, masterfully crafted plan filled with contingencies and gallant men served to trap and destroy a god foreign to Paldea's shores. Artificial rockslides; barring the skies with thunder and bolts; weapons and armor purpose-built for this one encounter, and spared no expense; and raze-cannons ripped directly from airships and modified for use on the ground.
All that, just to fail to a wildcard Anton had not- could not have predicted.
A trophy hung above the windows in front of him. When he had first acquired that splendid golden sheen, it had been the mark of an excellent shot within a blinding, howling blizzard; a memento of another nation he would yet take for the people and honor of the Paldean Empire. A trophy worthy of being hung in his personal office amongst other prizes.
'Bendición económica de Padea vinculada a oleadas de posiciones en la fábrica.'
'¿Ingenuidad o magia? El misterio detrás de la 'Energía Tera'; Reportada la fuente del reciente estímulo tecnológico.'
'Gloria al imperio: Un vistazo a Anton W., el líder de Tiempos de Cambio.'
These newspaper clippings, amongst other personal trophies, had always put a broad smile on his face as he reflected on his past works. They retold perfectly executed plans, victories for his nation and its people, of a coming change. But staring at that pinned ninetales' tail now amongst them, he felt only anger.
He took another long draw of his cigar, staring out large windows into the working chasm below, smeared with early-morning darkness, gentle rain, and floating debris.
This area had been the cornerstone of this proud country he served, the source of their great leaps and strides in technology and capabilities. Tall crystals that stood higher than a man, or small glittering deposits only a thorough examination could notice; all shining in every vivid color known to man. These tera crystals were abundant, powerful, and found in large quantities within this grand hole in the earth, sheltered by enclosing jaws of peaks and ridges.
Once upon a time, this may have been a tranquil place, secluded from the rest of the world, knowing only what rested within its stony cage and running streams, with the only markers for time passing above as celestial bodies came and went. So quiet it would have been, that you could hear the wind speak.
Now, it had not been so without purpose.
Rail-tracks, chains, cargo-lines, and paths and pits, all sporadically raced across the chasm before him. Numerous distortions of space and time- big and small- would sporadically, frequently appear within the crater, hugging rugged walls or swirl on its floors, and just as quickly dissipate. Cranes worked tirelessly lowering and lifting every facet of this great operation to and from the crater. Temporary elevators had been constructed at every cardinal direction around the perimeter, forever lowering and raising countless men and supplies within steel boxes held aloft by only thin cables. Only two of these four elevators would ever be in use at the same time; two would always be temporarily decommissioned in the presence of nearby distortions. The roar of trains always screamed throughout the day, ferrying lines of newly mined crystals out of the pit, over the perpetually muddy terrain, to be used for the glory of the Paldean Empire.
Area Zero.
His greatest tribute.
The tera crystals were one half of this operation's principal export. As for the other half… something needed to fuel these endeavors. Something to fill the canisters they used to power everything in their reborn society, from the trains to the airships to the lights on the streets.
A clock's rhythmic ticking allured his attention to its arrows, and he stood up, snuffing his cigar in a tray on his large desk. It had been time to harvest more energy.
As Anton paced to the exit which would lead him down a worn path, to the creaking gates of one of these elevators, he had taken a moment to examine a special map on his wall. It had detailed the layout of Area Zero, painting its many paths and subdivisions into a complex array of lines and charts, and laden with small, electric lights at many points. Some suddenly turned on and began humming, whilst others would become dark. There was no rhythm or reason to their pattern. A small speaker beside it repeated distorted words and repetitions, relaying constantly updating information on the area with static and faltering volumes entwined.
Observing it, he picked a route without any of the lights illuminated; any other path, and he would be stopped by a distortion having appeared there for a time.
Shortly after entering the elevator's crude frame, he shut the flimsy gate and pushed a dull button to the lowest floor.
The pistons seated atop the ceiling above him churned to life, turning croaking gears and strained pulleys, slowly lowering him down further within the groaning metal box. And further. And further. Deeper within the dark crater. Past the layer of fog so thick, it may as well have been clouds.
Anton reached for the wall closest to him, grabbing one of the many thick respirator masks offered for deeper treks like this. It would be necessary.
Soon, all natural light had disappeared, leaving only the small, flickering bulbs of the elevator to fend off the encroaching darkness. Putting on the mask, it weighed heavily against his head and held an awkward center of balance that pulled too much to the right- but it served to protect him. The filter within was rated for a few hours at most in the coming conditions; more than enough time for him.
Small particulates, flickering particles in the air that shone like colored dust, began to seep in from every loose opening and crevice within the elevator, filling the air around him with a slow death. This dust- 'Muerte Negra,' as those who have stepped down here have named it- does things.
It came as a result of their mining, particularly crystal deposits, gradually filling the site and sinking to lower and lower depths, suffocating the air. Men who have breathed it would first start hallucinating, describing outrageous visions, then acting madly in longer exposures, assaulting all indiscriminately. Termination at this stage was certain. There had been no possible way to reverse the effects once they had taken hold; no known cure.
As for the wildlife that had lived in the shadows down here, Muerte Negra behaved differently. Little documentation or evidence exists, but hushed words claim sightings of strange, never-before-seen plants or mushrooms that had evolved within the presence of Muerte Negra, embodying certain elemental types within their physiology; others claim that the few carbinks, noibats, and other Pokémon that reside here have become… smarter. They hide from light, stole food that whilst backs are turned, and seem to be found in larger groups than normal, found in greater numbers further within the depths.
All just rumors of strained minds looking for superstition, excitement, in their revolutionary though tedious work, of course.
The elevator crept to a stop, gently thudding against the ground, and the gates parted with a splitting creak.
The path ahead was narrow, suffocated by an ill, dark mist in the air that irritated the eye, wedged between enclosing stone walls. It had not been dark in here, only short-sighted; many outcrops of humming crystals that had long been a part of the splintering tunnels shone warm light, peering out of piles of black dust. A string of dim lights above were all that served to illuminate the correct way, wrapping around corners and hanging loosely from rows of stalactites imposing as carnivorous teeth.
Following the snaking bulbs, navigating through tight turns and junctions, many dull signs and posted warnings and policies darted the way. Many warned of inhalation of the disastrous dust, others reminded the consequences of loose lips; they all slowly turned into warnings fervently instructing quiet- for not a single sound to be made. Fingers pushed to lips, crossed-out images of manual labor with tools, and the slumbering eyes of a nondescript beast. These had been the images plastered more and more.
At the final junction where other lights coming from elsewhere had also ended, he found the door. It was embedded in a thick wall of rusted steel that had been constructed to cover one path, and guarded by two men thickly covered in fatigues, both wearing the same mask he was. Recognizing him immediately, they curled their hands into fists and laid them across their hearts without a word, then one grabbed the lever of the door for him without hesitation. The lever groaned quietly as it twisted it up slowly, delicately, and the heavy door was softly opened without so much as a sound. Once it was open, one of the two pulled out a small bottle of oil, and began gingerly rubbing the black liquid into the joints of the door and lever.
Anton stepped inside, not hearing as the door closed behind him.
This had been one of many stations assembled at numerous points of Area Zero, housing creased documents, dinged and scratched mechanical instruments, and ceaseless ambition.
Inside the dark room, it was filled with softly hissing pipes and rattling dials. Only a few others were inside, bent over tables of byzantine data and charts with only a feeble candlelight to help, taking careful steps around the room to avoid knocking over one of countless canisters propped in corners and along walls. Loose papers, sketches, graphs littered tables and the floor like leaves in the forest in fall. A map similar to the one in his office flashed the same pattern of lights his own had shown, confirming routes and offering warnings.
He crossed over to the large dashboard positioned in front of dull windows, one laden with knobs and buttons, gauges and flickering lights, and a small open cavity for a ball-like object to be inserted. Reaching below, he picked up a meager box and placed it in front of him.
Undoing its latch, he flipped it open, grabbing the priceless tool of ingenuity within. It was round, small, and hollow. A glass covering enveloped one half, containing flickering colors of dust-like particulates and prismatic light within, drifting like leaves in the wind amongst a setting sun.
A Tera Orb.
He grasped a paper laid beside him and peered it over. Today's batch of energy would require a fine mixture of various elemental quantities; no abnormalities nor deviations had been observed within the last few hours, so no adjustment was needed. He looked past his reflection in the windows, towards the beast that lay within. Many crystals were within the cave beyond, but they lacked luster, sheen, energy; having been drained. Only by peering could he see the faint, enormous outline like a mountain resting inside, rising and falling with each breath. No further details could be found in such darkness.
When they had found the massive creature, it had been resting like this- so tranquil, so still. So near death. It was within the first documented instance of a distortion, one that found itself on the Paldean Empire's shores whilst these phenomena were not the familiar sights they were today. The decision had been made to quickly retrieve and relocate the beast into the heart of Area Zero, secluded from the rest of the world as they studied it intensively in the secrecy of darkness and mountain ranges. There had been nothing like seen before.
He had his men scour every text, every line of text and myth and fable, searching for anything that could point to what it was. From black-and-white, hazy photos of ruined walls laden with hieroglyphics in Hoenn, to even bedtime stories told in Alola to children. Anything.
They had gotten a lead some time later. Old texts from the kingdom of Galar detailed the myths of a dragon from space, clad in reflective scales, a body like a skeleton, and fueled by mysterious energy reserves rumored to be buried within spots in the region. This had been a near perfect match, but something was wrong.
The texts detailed a mighty dragon, as long as a field and made from bones, covered in gloomy, poisonous purple, with a crystal present in its hollow chest beneath a ruby crown. These details were lost. It did not have purple scales; a large frill around its head was certainly not crystalline; and the jewel in its chest had not reacted to samples from Galar, but the Tera crystals within Area Zero.
It had been a paradox. Like so many other Pokémon found in peculiar distortions after it, it held strong resemblances to the known, but skewed and monstrified into a creature apathetic to expectations and reality. Here within the chasm's depths, surrounded by Tera energy, the giant dragon rested in darkness, slowly absorbing the energy around it for no known purpose. It did not matter; they had found a way to harness this power into canisters and weapons for the greatness of Paldea.
Iron Treads, Great Tusks; Slither Wing, Iron Thorns; Iron Engine, Long Legs. These had been some of the titles given to paradoxical lifeforms found in distortions, based on prominent attributes of their characteristics.
Crowned Deliverance found itself on that list.
The scientists within the room had silently gathered to his sides, lining themselves along the lengthy dashboard with him, whilst a few others began carefully gathering empty canisters and attaching them to a strange machine of hoses and wires in the back of the room. Once they were finished, they began twisting valves along a pipe that ran low along the wall, leading to the chamber beyond the windows. A quiet hiss confirmed that the depressant gas had begun filling that cavern, slowing the beast's rising and falling chest to glacial paces.
It was safe to collect.
Anton placed the Tera Orb into the open capacitor, and jammed it down until it was locked in. A bright light began shimmering from the orb, its fragmented bits and pieces of shattered crystals beginning to rattle against the glass. The dashboard itself began to whir to life, many gauges and dials straining against themselves as power surged; a low growl of machinery growing. Within the cavern ahead, many cords and wires that had been invisible to the eye before made themselves known, now refracting electrical sparks and pulses as they traveled down their length, into the body of the beast they were hooked within. Within their hum, one tube thicker than the rest traveled back out, heading towards the room they were in and towards where the wall filled with empty canisters had been.
He flipped a switch, one whose only difference from the countless others around it was a singular, red highlight. The Tera Orb began to instantly quake, the rattling so intense it threatened to shatter the glassy sphere. Gauges, dials, valves; all hit their limit, screaming in hisses and rampant quiverings that nearly broke them off their apparatuses. Within the chamber beyond the glass, a blazing violet light began shining out from a large crystal in the chest of Crowned Deliverance, blinding all who dared to look. A deafening roar shook them all.
The myriad of empty canisters connected to thick hoses behind them began to quake, a gauge on them all slowly filling past markers and thresholds, climbing to a peak. Once they were full, the hoses immediately snapped off on their own, wildly flailing about the air. Gas began pouring out of them, clouding the room with the deathly dust.
Anton flipped the red switch again, and the room soon returned to calm. The dials fell, the Tera Orb quieted, and the light dissipated.
Calm had returned.
The beast inside the chamber returned to slumber, lulled to its sleep by the gas still flooding into the room. The scientists around Anton stood stiffly and covered in dust, but were otherwise fine, having worn protective respirators. With no more energy being drawn from Crowned Deliverance, the hoses fell silent and lifeless.
This latest batch of fuel cells would serve their nation well.
His gaze fell to the flickering map at the back of the room. Nearly every light on it had begun pulsing on and off since they had started, indicating that many areas and routes in Area Zero had detected presences of distortions. This had always happened: they would collect energy and rouse Crowned Deliverance as a consequence, before luring it back to sleep with gas. In that time, without fail, numerous space-time distortions would flood the site and areas around for a time.
There had been a theory Anton had heard of some time ago, back when these anomalies were first beginning to become investigated and documented alongside their study into Tera energy. It was an outlandish theory that had been discarded, having been too brazen and nonsensical for its time. But staring at that map now, every route warning of distortions after every extraction, his own feelings on it had begun to change over time.
There had been no concrete proof, no shred of evidence, but a few brilliant minds had theorized that Tera energy could yield a technological revolution in the future that would go beyond what was thought possible. Thinking machines, machinations that moved of their own will, and even time-travel into separate realities. Ideas that could only be achieved with technology the nation had not yet possessed. Their reasoning had been Crowned Deliverance itself. It was found within the first space-time distortion, and ever since its relocation into Area Zero where it siphoned Tera energy, these discrepancies amongst nature only grew more frequent; especially once it once agitated. This led to another theory, one that held more credibility in the eyes of the general.
That with each heartbeat of Crowned Deliverance, a new space-time distortion is born, somewhere in the world.
The mythical being had sucked much energy out of the Tera crystals within Area Zero, and they in turn have gathered energy from it. It could easily escape if it had desired. Its sheer size and power far outmatched anything they could counter with. Yet here it remained, as if drawn to the depths of Area Zero itself. That of course, leant to a creeping question: if they had not sedated the beast's ferocity, and if it were to gather energy without interruption- if it roused from its slumber, freed, what would happen?
The answer to that question would hopefully never arrive.
These lamenting thoughts always had occupied Anton's head in the dark recesses of this room, always seemed to slither forth from a knowing yet unacknowledged corner of his mind. They distracted him from the future ahead.
Until, a small shudder seemed to be felt within the soles at his feet and along his palms as they rested against the dashboard- so little it was felt it could be disregarded as imaginary.
Then another shake, this one not so subtle. The others around him seemed to notice it too, as did a pen as it tumbled off the table.
They all looked to one another.
A large crash roared from above them, echoing within the depth's walls, sounding almost like an explosion. The distant rumblings of collapsing rocks grew loud before slamming into the cavern ahead of them with an enormous thud. The glass instantly shattered towards them, slicing and pelting many as dust and debris poured in. One scientist had been knocked to the floor and laid covered in Muerte Negra; his mask had been poked full of holes by the flying shards, and it did not take long for him to begin coughing, clawing at his own throat..
"¡Sálvame!" was all he could spit out as he lay writhing.
The room's attention had been elsewhere.
The falling debris continued to pour down like sleet and battered Crowned Deliverance's thick coat with hearty slams. Its body began moving, growing more and more agitated as a head clad in darkness rose from the rubble, only a piercing eye shining like sulfur being gleaned from the dark mass.
Those who could still stand had reached above the fractured window and slammed down an emergency shutter, closing off the room once more from the cavern with plates of iron and steel. Red, blaring lights flooded the room at the same time; a howling alarm screamed through the rolling thunder of demolition, being heard in their isolated room, as did panicked whimpering that came from low from the ground turning to manic laughter with each breath.
They were under attack.
"¡Maldita sea! What is happening?" Anton shouted. He made for the exit, as did all others, save one. Opening the door himself, he waved out each passing man so they could escape, but stopped the last one, stepping in front of him.
The robed worker looked at him with shaken eyes. "Anton; sir?" he asked, muffled by a mask.
Anton grabbed his shoulders and spun him around, pointing to the gas pipe laying to the wall that still pumped depressants into Crowned Deliverance's chamber. "Supressment of the beast cannot be compromised, my brother. Under no circumstances can we allow it to be fully awakened again."
The man glanced to the pipe, then to Anton, then to the one laughing on the floor, picking at his own skin. Swallowing his fear, he faced Anton again, eyes becoming stoic as he stared at his trusted leader. "I understand, sir. And what of him?"
Anton reached for his side, feeling iron. "He is already lost." Pulling out his revolver, he spun it about the trigger-guard and flipped the barrel towards himself, offering the handle to the man. "He was our brother. Don't make him wait."
A hand reached out, pausing a moment before firmly grasping the handle. "It will be done."
Offering one last clasp on the scientist's shoulder, Anton's face tightened. "Good man. No matter what, do not let this beast awaken."
The man nodded.
Anton spun around, quickly exiting the room and shutting the heavy door behind him. Another dull boom shook the wires and ceiling above, flickering the lights as pebbles and dust showered down. A few others had waited at the junction ahead of him, their heads on a swivel as they looked to the trembling rocks and stone above. Anton stomped past them, his pace swift and each step resolved. "Come," he ordered, raising a hand behind him.
A steady stream of leathery footsteps joined behind them, matching his stride. "I counted six; there's only four of us here," a voice raised over the aches of the cave. "What about the last two?"
A muffled pop roared from the station behind them, dampened by the thick door and walls.
"It's all in control," Anton calmly replied.
Continuing through the crooked tunnels and encroaching walls, led by failing lights, the group drew closer to the elevator shaft. A mechanical hail of rattling chains and groaning metal told them it was in use, even out of sight. Turning the last corner they saw it lowering to the cave floor once more, a single armored soldier on board. He threw the gate open and held it against the wall, waiting as the group clambered on board before shutting it again and fervently pressing the button. The chains started to rattle once more, and they were moving.
"Tell me," Anton spoke, not even looking at the soldier. "What's going on up there? We've never had a racket this bad."
The soldier could only let out a stuttering mess of letters as he scoured his thoughts for the right words, his inflections and tone concealed behind thick metal plates. "Keep your head down when we get top-side!" he finally spoke. "We're under attack!"
"¿Qué?" Anton repeated. A chorus of gasps and jumbling questions raised themselves within the elevator. Anton reached out, grabbing the man by the shoulders. "Explain!"
"It's an invasion!" he blurted "Unova has come to our shores!"
—-
The air was heavy, thickened by a cloud of dust, dirt, and debris grew with each thunderous boom on the mountain's ridge.
The horizon was dim; covered with a lazy haze of drizzling clouds. Yet in that gray smear above, loomed disastrous figures that poured smoke and roared across the sky like meteors, flying with no wings. There were countless of them flooding the sky, all burning towards the mountain's center.
No matter how fast Hachi moved, how nimbly she bound up ledges and scampered over loose rocks, she was far too slow to beat them to the peak.
Already there had been terrible noises above, booms like thunder and ceaseless bangs and pops like metallic drums forever rang out. Smears of light, flashes that disappeared as quickly as they came into existence, and tumbling rocks scattering about the mountainside.
Her mind drifted back to that ancient relic, the one Ho-Oh incinerated into slag metal. It had warned with eager breath of an attack on this land, that whoever these were, they sought revenge for an attack: unknowingly playing into a horrendous, evil scheme by the Sacred Fire. She did not know the details of the plot; only that she knew she could not stand idle whilst Ho-Oh still ravaged innocent lives.
She finally made it closer, pulling herself over one last ridge into the fray.
Those figures she had seen streak the sky, the ones that still came without end, were machinations she had never seen before. Brutes made of granite and stone, heralding arms and as thick as tree trunks, a shining metal clasp buried into a crack on their chest. Uncountable amounts of them were attempting to land on the mountain range, choking it with their presence. The air was littered with beams of light, the same cannons used last night against Ho-Oh now rending the sky and slicing what machines they could into vicious explosions. For every one that was destroyed, it seemed as if three more would take its place.
On their backs were round, stone balls that rolled off once the machines landed, sprouting small heads, arms, and legs once they were off; appearing almost as if smaller versions of the machines. A few of them carried humans- people- who were dressed far differently than the olive tones and metallic armor she had grown to expect with Paldeans. They wore looser fatigues, colored in tones of gray, and had shining visors that covered their eyes and reflected the dulling colors of the world around them. Their tongues were foreign to this land, speaking slower and with a far different language: yet amongst these words, 'golurk' and 'golett' were common amongst their orders.
Hachi slunk close to the muddy ground. Everywhere she looked, it had shown her images of destruction, of chaos and despair. Blots of distortions appeared without rhythm, without reason, swallowing the land in disorderly spheres. The golurks and goletts were advancing towards the crater center, their arms outstretched and hands sheathed, either firing wavering orbs cloaked in shadow, or plunging their fists into the earth and erupting it with power someplace else.
She knew not of what she could do. No matter where she looked, she was just as powerless as in Ecruteak, lost within this battle.
Smoke, booms, screams. Each rising from the crust of the mountain, no end in sight.
'It is glorious, is it not?'
Hachi's brows smoldered. Turning around, she found Ho-Oh's large frame beating their wings in the sky above, looking down on it all. A deep tear from last night's ambush still resided on their wing, splitting it down midway- not that the Sacred Fire seemed to care now.
'I must admit: I have outdone myself this time. To think that all it would take to rouse spirits for an attack across seas, was little more for them to find a humble little flag I had taken prior, and the smoldering pillars and ash of some nowhere town. Take it all in, engrave this morning into your worthless heart, you disposable cur- it is infinitely more than you deserve. You bear witness to a grand stage for the birth of a new era. For time eternal, history is oft marked by periods of tranquility; of seasons when fields blossom in the breeze, flourish in clean air, untouched by steel nor anger.' A familiar, sinister grin along their beak pulled up into tight corners. 'But ask yourself this: why is it so that these periods of boredom, of playing and sleepy afternoons, are so fondly lavished over? How is it that I had garnered such a small- but admittedly devoted- faith amongst calm mountains and singing trees? How did I attract those to worship me and this cycle of eternal return, with nary an appearance?'
Ho-Oh's presence had long been noticed by some on the ground now.
A shadow ball screamed through the air towards them, hurling itself past their body as Ho-Oh simply avoided the attack by listing to the side. The golurk and the man beside it had not escaped the Sacred Fire's vengeful glare. An outstretched arm from the foreigner was pointed at Ho-Oh, directing the golurk's attack to them.
A death sentence.
Hissing, they folded their wings and dived towards the pair, closing the distance in an instant, spinning past another shadow ball, and clutching the golurk's head from above with demonic strength and burying talons. Throwing their whole weight, the phoenix toppled the stone golem onto the earth with an enormous slam. The machine reached up, rock-faced fingers heading towards the daggers that had been lodged in its head. A sudden, tightening grip crushed its head into stony fragments, showering the ground. The machine made no more attempt to resist, falling still.
The human beside it had been knocked low by the quaking slam and was shakingly crawling away. A pair of talons grasped them around the body, raising them into the air to meet Ho-Oh' cold glare, absent of recognition, of value in what they held.
'Why is it that many cherish those still moments, I ask?'
A charring glow of red began to seep out of their beak, their talons tightening as they drew the writhing man closer to themselves, sweating them in the flame.
'Because they know it can be so much worse.'
Ho-Oh's beak widened, preparing to douse the man in flames.
As they pried open their maw, a sharp, piercing stab in the back of their neck stopped them, replacing cinders with howling pain.
Hachi had lunged to Ho-Oh's back in their momentary distraction, and was now clamping down on the base on their neck with all the force they could muster into their fangs, digging deep, tasting pouring iron. Ho-Oh's neck writhed as they swung their body to-and-through amidst sharp screeches, frantically trying to throw her off. In their hectic movements, the man had been released and was dropped to the ground, fleeing behind rocks without a second thought.
Gathering a flare within their mouth, Ho-Oh spun their head around and engulfed Hachi in a deluge of crimson blaze that left ashes of rocks caught in the wake below, enveloping her in a stream of fire that threatened to sweep her away. She held fast and firm, her tenacity and judgement of the Sacred Fire fueling her grip- and feeling her own fire flash within herself, having been exposed to flame. Directing all that energy, all that seering anger and righteous vengeance for every sin and injustice Ho-Oh had so willingly committed, so lavishly took pleasure in, her fangs buried in the phoenix shone blue, pulsating immolating heat.
Ho-Oh froze, their head locked skyward and their pose stiff as they felt flesh boil, having no immunity to fire as did the ninetales. Hachi's head wrenched ferociously to the sides, feeling as muscles and tendons in the body became liberated, incinerated in her fangs. With one last pull, she fell off Ho-Oh's back as the beast stumbled forward, breathing heavily as streams of scarlet trickled down their back.
In that moment, the world became silent to her. The rings of explosions, the roar of battle, it did not fall silent. It had been pushed to the corners of her mind, her focus devoted entirely on the hunched figure ahead of her. They were leering at her from sunken eyes, every ounce of mutual loathing and hatred shared so openly between the two in but a glance. It was then Hachi realized that she had felt something light and damp within her mouth. Without looking away, she spat out the messy ball of ruined feathers crushed together with a small amount of shredded flesh, letting it fall with a splat into the mud.
There had been nothing else. Only the rain, wind, and mud surrounding them mattered now. Eyes betraying no temperance, no reasoning bore their way into her from sunken eye-sockets, imagining every way they might see her torn limb from limb. Within that deafness of mind, the invigorating immersion of soul, and the thrums of her heartbeat growing louder, and louder, Hachi knew: that had been the last of Ho-Oh's 'infinite mercy.'
Their head pulled back, chest rising as they sucked in air; lurching forward, a heavy talon slammed into the earth with a booming crash, their head and neck thrashing in the air in front of them as an ear-splitting screech assaulted Hachi's ears.
Ho-Oh quickly hopped into the air and grasped the chest of the fallen golurk with both talons, twisting their legs with such vigorous momentum that stone giant was spun like a doll across the ground, and then thrown across the open air towards Hachi with incomprehensible, godly strength.
Hachi wasted no time and leapt away. Despite her quick movements, the golurk was so large that even the sizable gap she had moved to avoid it only just barely allowed her to evade the slung body, feeling as her bones recoiled as the giant crashed into the rocks near her.
Hachi regained her focus. She despised Ho-Oh, but knew to trust her fears: she could not win against the legendary in a head-to-head fight. She needed to wear them out. Her gaze fell to one of the many violet bubbles that engulfed the area, distortions that led to other lands and threatening Pokémon without pattern, without reason.
They would do.
She made for one such distortion close by, resting beyond a jagged slope. Her ears pricked as she ran, betraying the movements of the flying monster chasing her. Bolting left and right, and narrowly avoided the grasping talons of Ho-Oh as they screeched and lunged at her from the air, crushing the rocks that had been below her a second ago.
She made to the distortion's entrance and flung herself inside without hesitation, feeling the tickle and crackle of unknowable energy swallow her whole, blinding her within the passage. As soon as her first step touched the sand within the rift, her balance waned and she tripped, falling to her side and scrambling back up again, fur coat littered with grains of the beach. Her vision cleared itself quickly, permitting her to observe the new world she had stepped into: a sunset beach, the lap of tireless, glistening waves collapsing against the shore, and round rocks strewn about the sand. As her footfalls collected in the sand within her mad dash to the other side, she knew this peace would not last.
Something else bothered her. It could have been an echo, but a low growl had filled the air from the chasm below after that screech once Ho-Oh grew furious; only just barely audible over the sounds of booms and bangs that clustered the air.
'I gave you a position countless would kill for,' Ho-Oh's voice, dripping with venom and shuddering with anger, entered unbidden into her mind. It seemed her brief moment of reflection was up. Long behind her, she spied Ho-Oh's gliding form breach the purple boundary and steadily homing in on her, throwing up sand and dust in their approach. 'Do not think your immunity to fire will save you; you will find I am most creative when it comes to lamenting blights on my realm.'
Hachi did not stop, continuing onward. The boundary of the distortion was in sight, growing nearer with each heartbeat.
Ho-Oh's head twisted back, gathering fine lines of energy and numerous grains of sand to their beak, forming a shroud. Once enough had gathered, traveling with them like a dust-storm, Ho-Oh belched a commanding shriek. The sand stopped in its place, floating in the air before collapsing to the ground.
Hachi only had a moment to ponder what had happened when she felt the sand beneath her suddenly shift, shaking more and more violently until she was knocked down in the tremors. The waves had begun surging, chaotically rising and falling in crashes, and the world seemed to be crashing around her as palm trees became leveled and rocks tumbled in the sudden earthquake.
'I know of your hidden power,' Ho-Oh continued. 'You can summon the soul of the forest, the spirits of the blades of grass to conquer your weaknesses to ground, rock, and water. But you cannot beckon nature's power as I; cannot herald the sea, the earth, wind and sky as I do.'
It had been as Ho-Oh had said: their nature power had transformed into a heinous earthquake in the presence of so much sand.
Hachi struggled to find her footing on the loose, trembling beach, unable to stand back up without immediately falling back over from a sudden spasm in the ground. Ho-Oh drew closer in their approach, talons poised for the catch. In a desperate gambit, Hachi shot forth a wave of fire from her lying position into the eyes of Ho-Oh. The attack did little to stop their approach, but it had been just enough of a distraction for the phoenix to miss their mark by inches, grasping the air beside her as they regained their sighting.
The shaking had ceased, and she found herself able to stand once more. Heaving with heavy, labored breaths, a strange sight caught her eyes.
From around the beach, from where the smooth rocks and stones lay, she saw the stones moving, rising from the sand. They had not been rocks, but smooth balls of steel dirtied by lying on the beach, and standing on large magnets clustered with fine shards of metal, their bodies embedded with screws. They looked almost like magnetons, yet were not. There had been many of them all across the shore, each slowly rising and staring towards with a myriad of manic eyes. The earthquake had disturbed their rest, and now they sought to attack.
Just as she had hoped, these distortions held life looking for trouble.
Ho-Oh had not noticed, their vile anger still focused on the ninetales below them; an unfortunate thing for them then when a thunderbolt streaked across the air and crashed into the Sacred Fire, booming as electricity zapped them.
Ho-Oh's attention swung towards the marching group of ancient magnetons, a vicarious, vengeful inferno building in their throat. Unthreatened, the walking magnets threw out their arms and screeched, welcoming the challenge with primal glee.
Sensing her opportunity, Hachi got back and bolted across the sand, reaching the boundary of the distortion and exiting as the sounds of lightning and the blaze of fire filled the air behind her.
Once the crackle and tickle of the energy field left her and she regained sight, she was standing back on the cold mountain range, pattered by falling rain, surrounded by loud bangs and smoke. She looked for another distortion; she knew Ho-Oh would only be hindered for a moment.
Another one caught her attention a small distance away, positioned beyond a small gap and nestled between two peaks in the mountain's maw. Caught in her path had been more of those marching stone machines, arms leveled towards a line of cannons splitting their arriving numbers into scrap with piercing beams.
She hurried, leaping over the drop with grace and quickly snaking around the thudding footsteps of the golurks who seemed indifferent to her presence, only focused on the mission at hand. As she carefully navigated as to not be flattened by their advance, a horrific beam from one of the cannons swept over the golurks around her, splitting many of them in half at the waist. Their legs dropped to their knees and their torsos slammed to the earth as Hachi leapt away to avoid one falling giant. Yet remarkably, that had not been enough to stop them. The legless bodies raised their arms and crawled towards the line of fire, not yet out of commission. From behind her, a distinct whirring noise told her all she needed to know, and she ducked just in time as a shadow ball was fired over her into the cannons beyond, throwing up a thick cloud of dust in the resulting boom. She could not see them clearly, but shapes of people had been thrown back in the smoke, whilst others ran.
From the distortion she had left, Ho-Oh finally burst out in a frenzied rage: their mangled feathers stood fully from their battered body; their eyes fervently scanning the area for her, a deep vitriolic hatred oozing with every glance. In their talons, they held what had been left of one of the strange magnetons- it had only been slag now, oozing from Ho-Oh's grasp with a burning glow. Their attention fell to Hachi and they immediately began frantically speeding towards her, tossing the mass of molten metal down the chasm.
The slag disappeared into the sea of clouds before, a faint echo ringing out as it crashed into something unseen.
From the depths of the fathomless opening, there could be no mistake: a low roar ruptured the soul, bellowing into the air. The world seemed to freeze as all stopped in its wake.
Whatever had been down there, had been disturbed.
Ho-Oh had not been so impressed, closing the distance quickly. One of the many golurks laid-low thrusted out their hand, grasping the Sacred Fire's leg and pulling them down into another clenched fist, cleaning socking the phoenix with a perfect slam into their body. Ho-Oh quickly tried to fly away, but the grip was too tight and the weight too heavy. It was not long until other golurks still capable of moving crawled towards the pile and began pummeling the god.
In between each blemishing punch and battering, a sinister blue flame grew within Ho-Oh's maw.
They would not be held long. With the next distortion so close, Hachi leapt in, feeling as the boundary swallowed her once more.
Her feet did not touch any ground. She felt no surface, no sand nor grass; nothing but the howl of wind as she fell.
She was airborne.
Her breath left her in shock as she tumbled through the air, engulfed by bittercold and stinging winds of a fierce, howling blizzard. The distortion she had thrown herself into had deposited her stories above a snowy slope, at least a fifty-foot drop; all she could do was tuck herself into as compact a ball as possible.
The impact instantly broke her poise, sprawling out her limbs as she crashed hard against the slope, losing all control as she spun down the snowed incline and felt as every protruding rock and shard of ice she slammed into battered her whole being as she tumbled like a boulder.
She finally came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, and just laid sprawled in the snow, her many tails the last to rest on the white powder as they drifted with the wind. Each leg felt brutalized, throbbing with pain; her head still spinning as thoughts ran away from her. Her breath gradually slowed, tempted to stop and rest by the blissful touch of soft snow gently gathering over her like a blanket, beckoning her to sleep. Images of swaying cherry trees, calm fields of rice, and smiling faces creeped into her vision.
The pain was endless. But she could not stop here.
Slowly prying herself off the ground, each leg feeling the pain renewed as she put weight back on them, she stumbled onward to find the exit. Ho-Oh would be here soon.
The furnace that burned within herself had dulled; she felt as the encroaching cold nipped at her marrow, biting deep. She needed to find an exit.
Her footsteps were light and taken in an irregular gait. The snow-coated pines she passed had been numerous, bloating the white landscape in their coverage, making the already poor visibility near nonexistent.
'I know you're here.'
She disregarded the voice. She slipped between another bundle of dark trunks, continuing against the bitter wind. The beating of wings grew louder in her head; just above, snow began to tumble on top of her from branches as a large figure concealed in howling wind and blustering sleet passed overhead, missing her presence.
'The life I have gifted you. I will be taking it back.'
An opening presented itself through some of the woodwork. A flat field of deep snow, dusted by the blizzard, leading to another boundary out. There were no trees to offer their concealment beyond.
'Once you are strewn about the mountainside, I will end this battle that plagues this mountain so,' they continued. 'I will repel these 'unforeseen' invaders to this land, and be worshipped as the righteous savior and merciful benefactor that I am: praised and loved by countless. These Paldeans do so love their tales of heroism, of grandeur and bravado. They and I are far more alike in that, and are far more agreeable than that small village which had grown so tiresome.'
Hachi looked up, scanning the buffeting skies, finding nothing. She looked left, right, and center, still finding no sign of the Sacred Fire within the blizzard.
'Reverence, power, love.'
She stepped out of her cover, achingly making her way across the open snowbank on exhausted legs. She stumbled across the open, each bit of progress sinking into the blanket of snow, tiring her with each step. The exit was so close now, just a few more steps until she was free of the blizzard.
'I want what is mine.'
From above, large, jagged icicles began to coalesce and form in the middle of the air, crashing down in front of Hachi and forming an icy wall. She turned around too slowly, only seeing the fleeting image of Ho-Oh's maw covered in fine snow, having used nature power again, and their talons reaching out to bestow death
Her sides were crushed as the claws wrapped themselves around her; the two of them both crashing through the wall of ice in a spray of mist of bitter cold, showering their forms with raining shards as they flew through the boundary. The world was a jumbled mess of gray and brown both above and below as Ho-Oh's hectic flying spun them about. Their own body was badly battered, seared and charred by the attack that grazed them last night, and from the skirmishes they had been caught in this morning. The leg that had not been grappling them seemed almost bent at an unnatural angle' many red stains dying their white undercoat.
Ho-Oh's neck craned back, their sinister beak poised to plunge into Hachi's head. In a quick thrust that would have turned the ninetales' head into mist, Hachi lurched her head to the side with what little movement she had remaining with their grasp. A searing pain like scalding iron cut through her face as the beak sliced flesh. Blood began to pool onto Ho-Oh's talons, pouring from Hachi's right side where an eye once was. But she had been still alive, still blazing through the pain on a resurgence of adrenaline and sheer will that fueled each fighting breath.
Through what vision remained, half the world now missing, she saw as Ho-Oh sought to rectify their mistake. Their grip squeezed her into a choke, and their mouth opened to tear her head from her body. In the small seconds she had, Hachi snarled, calling forth another glowing, emerald bulb, into the open mouth of Ho-Oh at the furthest reaches of their throat.
The hidden power burst with a brilliant sheen, erupting a strange noise out Ho-Oh's throat as their eyes betrayed the unfathomable pain they had experienced. The wings that ferried them began beating without uniform, struggling to keep in the air. It was not long until both Ho-Oh and Hachi found themselves swerving towards one of the industrial cranes that rose from the mountain as they careened towards the earth. The grip that ensnared Hachi had loosened; writhing and wiggling, she slipped out from the grasp, tumbling to the steel platform below that upheld the tower.
Ho-Oh slammed into the framework of the great crane's arm, their body becoming wedged between iron bars and tangled in the internal steel wire as the tower groaned beneath the sudden force. Bolts and wires began to snap and pop in a chorus as the crane began to list; a roar of metal filling the air as the tower came crashing down onto the steel platform with a thunderous crash. The arm of the crane, the same arm that held a barely conscious Ho-Oh trapped within it, teetered over the sea of clouds.
Ho-Oh looked down, espying their certain death below. Feebly, they tried to force themselves out of the cage that had found themselves ensnared in, but could not bend the bars. Breathing in, they blew out fire to melt the iron; but their neck had been just as imprisoned, not allowing them to turn and incinerate their prison.
From the corner of their vision, a blurred vision of matted gold fur was slowly inching towards them, trailed by eight tails.
'My champion,' a voice spoke in Hachi's head, speaking softly, 'melt these bars that have trapped me so. Must I remind you it was I who has gifted you a second chance? A second life? This world is lost without my guiding presence. Do your utmost due diligence, and free me.'
With blurred vision, half the world forever lost to her, Hachi quietly examined the fallen crane that yet rested by her. It was an intertwining network of large steel bars and bolts, but most importantly, there had been only four key beams that supported Ho-Oh on the far other side.
Ho-Oh's face twisted. 'What are you waiting for? A grand invitation?' Their words dropped the grating false act instantly. 'I am your savior! I am the one whom the masses adorn! I am your god! And you would keep me waiting as that worthless head of yours laments what? Of forgotten days? Of coming to realize your position as ordained by me? This is not a gentle prodding: I am demanding that you melt these bars!'
Hachi's fangs flared, brandishing fire. Hobbling her way over to the crane's side, she raised her head and gently clenched the first topmost metal in her mouth, and began melting the beam with stern heat burning it cherry-red.
The beam had been one of the supportive four pillars of metal that kept Ho-Oh teetering above the chasm.
A new emotion arose from the Sacred Fire, one Hachi had never seen before from the phoenix. Their head wanted to pull back, to attempt to free themselves once again with no result as it slammed and pressed itself against iron. Their whole body writhed in the same effort, still unable to become unwedged from the misshapen bars.
'What do you think you are doing?! Do you even comprehend what my death means for this world? I am the fountain of which joy and blessings flow from! And you mean to staunch this flow?' A loud pop as metal broke from metal rang out: one beam had snapped, shifting the crane a little. Moving onward, Hachi began to liquify the beam below it. 'Cease your folly at once! Release me, and I can deliver you to any far-flung forest you desire, be it tucked in the mountains or nestled in undergrowth, back to the world you came from- back to freedom and released from the mantle of responsibility.'
Another bar popped. The crane seemed to begin slowly twisting down, besieged by weight. Only two more. Hachi moved to the next beam, lifting her head again.
Ho-Oh stopped fighting, their wings and body falling limp as they waited, watching the clouds below. 'So, this is how my legacy ends? To the mange'd cur that comes from nowhere, and loves people who did nothing? What a waste.'
Another pop. The tower groaned, only upheld by one last beam lying on the ground. There had been no mistake: the tower was bending, sinking closer and closer off the edge, dipping Ho-Oh lower and lower. Hachi's mouth tasted like iron, filled with blood and burning metal whose heat she was thankfully immune from. Rekindling her fangs, she bit down on the last beam and began turning the dull metal bright red.
'Do as you will." That voice had been plain, derived from any and all flair or grandeur. It had been earnest. 'If you had forgotten, I am a god- the god of eternal return, who has governed rebirth and reincarnation. I have died many times before, and have been reborn in equal turns. A tyranitar lording over mountains, a king heralding their kingdom: I've had plenty of choice, ample lives to fulfill my destiny whilst my true form was reborn. This shall be no different.'
Their head twisted back as far as it was able, meeting Hachi's eyes with a promise. 'So be it if I am to die here. I shall wait, wait for the perfect opportunity to be reborn, and rend your flesh from your body. I do not care how it is done: I might be reborn as a friend in your future, only to rip your throat out in your sleep; maybe I shall slither in the shadows behind your every footstep, choking the life out of you in the darkest corner where no one will ever find your rotting corpse. Then, when I am truly reborn into this body once again, I will govern every reincarnation, every insignificant life of yours from here to eternity, condemning your soul across every life to every horrific torment without end.'
A final, deep pop rang as the last beam melted at its middle. The newly severed half of the crane began to slowly scrape against the floor as sparks trailed beneath it, inching closer and closer to the edge and off the chasm with Ho-Oh trapped inside.
'Just as the sun falls from view, obfuscated by mountains, oceans, the horizon…'
The crane's end lifted, then plummeted off the side without a sound as Ho-Oh disappeared from sight, lost within the sea of rolling clouds below, no struggle left in them.
'I will see you again.'
That was the last Hachi had heard from the Sacred Fire.
It took seconds, but the hollow boom of metal becoming crushed, bending and breaking, echoed from deep below, speaking of a great change.
Hachi stood silent, her head hanging over the ledge as she peered below as if something might fly out from the fathomless depths any second. There was always a chance.
She waited.
And waited.
Nothing rose from that darkness.
She turned around, looking over her shoulder back to the edge as she stepped away.
And felt a small rumble as the platform shifted beneath her.
Then another.
And another.
Growing in intensity; becoming fiercer; stronger. It had not been just where she stood that these reverberations quaked. Pebbles popped into the air with each beat, rocks became dislodged and tumbled down the mountain-face.
Something was alive down there.
A low hum tickled her ears like a whisper of wind, reserved and hushed, growing more confident, bellowing like thunder.
Hachi hurried back to the ledge and looked down into churning clouds, restlessly rising and falling over each other like waves on a stormy beach, growing dark sinister.
There was a murky silhouette rising from the center, growing large and fast, rising with the thunder.
That was all Hachi was able to register before she was thrown onto her back, blown back by force. Clouds erupted from the chasm, spouting into the air as if a twister had just burst into existence, throwing rocks and debris as if they were toys.
Hachi fought to remain grounded herself, feeling her body slide across the platform as if to be plucked and added to the havoc danced in the sky.
A deafening roar peeled over the thunder, a cry of dominance falling on the land.
A death knell.
Something passed within the twister; a large mass of scales, claws and crystals cloaked in clouds and rain hurdled to the sky through the platform, smashing it into bits and pieces with no effort as it flew upward, coiling itself in the heavens.
All around, flashes of light burst as distortions flashed into existence, one after another. They were endless, appearing without end, consuming the mountain in a deep hue of purple as they crackled into reality.
The sudden gale died, and Hachi was able to stand once more. The drizzle had functionally transformed into a waterfall from the sky: it had grown so dark so quickly, everything becoming doused so fast it was as if the seas themselves had rose and assailed the land below. The mountains, the dirt paths, everything became deluged.
It pained her to look up as rain battered her deep gash where an eye once had been, but she looked.
Faint beams of light were rising from the mountain, from the chasm. From small crystal patches lying on the road, to large carts on tracks along the walls: they fed their energy up into the sky, gathering at the center of the storm where the leviathan had curled within clouds. A glint, a light, shone from the gleaming jewel in the sky.
Hachi finally became aware of the screams around her.
The Paldeans, the ones who had claimed this land, the ones adorning thick plates of armor and wielding terrific weapons.
They were fleeing.
Many had seen it too. The light in the sky. And unlike her, they knew what had been coming. None seemed to even glance in her direction as they fled down the mountain, only few caring to look at what golurks remained stomping behind. It did not matter how they escaped, if they could: the roads became clogged as countless figures rushed to roads leading down the mountain, some even stepping off the path and rushing down the steep slope, only to slip and hurdle down the slickened surface. Other groups had been within her sight one moment, then gone the next as a distortion would suddenly swallow them whole, vanishing them into a rift of space and time.
The light was growing brighter, growing stronger as crystals fed energy into it from the whole of the locale. The winds howled; the rain poured; and calamity loomed.
She needed to leave.
Now.
Her sogged tails trailed behind her as she clambered over wet rocks, trying to flee alongside the shimmering group close by. Crumbled buildings, the shattered remains of machines and those fallen, deep holes in paths once flat. She could not stop. Down the mountain path, down, leaping lower and lower from outcrop to outcrop as fast as she could, failing to judge distance and crashing into rocks, snarling as each exhausted leg screamed at her to stop. Rocks and boulders would tumble past her from the ruinous mountain, disappearing into the green below. A distortion would appear suddenly without reason, and she would need to detour around it. The forests that filled the mountain's base came closer and closer.
With one last pained jump, she fell to the grassy, muddy floor at the mountain's end. Yet even here, distant voices and lantern lights kept moving away. Peering through the canopy, the light shimmered even brighter, like a star heralding destruction. So strong it had grown it cast shadows amidst the black storm, long shadows of trees and falling rain.
She kept moving. Through the forest, her deathly legs carried her over roots exposed as dirt was washed away, over limbs that cracked from the sky and fell to the sodden earth. She would trip over protruding rocks and the lips of ledges, having not seen them in her blind-side. Through the crowds of tree trunks, she could espy crackling boundaries, more distortions popping into existence, consuming even the forest now.
It took time, time longer than she wanted with her scarred vision and a body wanting to collapse, but she managed to find a break in the trees, leaving to open plains and distant shores. The turbulent wind parted canopies behind her; a waterfall from the sky filling dips and valleys between hills and ridges with knee-high water in such a small time. The men, the soldiers, they broke away from each other, running where they could. The wild could sense it too. Stantlers, deerlings, pidgeys and wattrels- however they could, they fled from their dissolving homes. Together, they were powerless.
A cataclysmic whir of colors, dancing in the wind and shrouded in a red veil, summarized in the eye of the storm. The great dragon that hid itself away in the ceaseless clouds could not be seen, only its dark silhouette glimpsed with each splitting bolt that cracked across the rolling clouds, drinking deeply from the energy offered from the chasm below.
The world dimmed, cast in shadow as the brilliant light grew to rival the sun's blinding omniscience
The light on the mountain, hovering above, reached its finality.
The wind had stopped its bellowing. The rain relented. The world fell silent.
The light, the jewel that had shone so brilliantly in the sky, was released from the clouds.
It fell silently, slowly, into the maw of the mountain, its light disappearing behind the range.
There, it was unseen. Left to fall to the abyss of darkness.
Once it had found its mark, deep within the bowels of Paldea, the next light blinded all who dared to look.
It was as if the sun had suddenly appeared within the mountain range; a light so pure and inexorable it cast the world in tones of black and white. There had been an explosion. Only a fleeting moment of it had been heard from Hachi before she lost her hearing, a dull drone filling her head as shockwaves leveled the tall forests into blown-away shrubbery and limbs. The mountain's maw had been broken; its range blown away into the valleys around it. Even so far away, so distant from its center, Hachi only just realized she had been lying pressed against a rock's face once her vision returned to her, her body unable to process the force it had been subject to.
The mountain was revolted; its body defiled by machinery and tracks, now broken by calamity. In its hate, its vitriol, it spewed- spewed an eruption of black smoke, black mist, black fog into the heavens, a torrent of death flooding the realm above.
It quickly filled the air.
Quickly smothered the sky in black.
And only kept growing.
The stars that Hachi had cherished, the fading night sky that bled into the coming morning, the wondrous, calm view she had always counted on visiting every night for much of her life- it vanished. The stars were choked out by black. Never to be seen again.
The world became dark, a veil like the deepest night enshrouding the world. It fell to the earth, led by gravity, like falling snow. Dust, black as obsidian, drifted down from the choking sea above.
A fleck fell onto her snout. It glistened softly, faint glints shimmering off its black body. More fell around her, carried by wind, slowly blanketing the grass and ground.
Her hearing crept back to her, the shrill piercing drone falling back. She heard coughing. A few of the men who had fled who happened to be close at hand, lying in muck that painted their armor, they heaved more and more as the dust coated them.
Blackness. A heavy, stifling air. Quiet filled by gasping breaths.
Hachi picked herself up. She needed to find someplace to rest, to gather what energy she could. Then, she did not know what. She had no plan, no sense of direction for this dream, this nightmare she might wake up from.
She only hoped it would all go away.
.
.
.
Author's Note
Ooh, we have reached the big climax of the story! It took some time, but we got there! And I thank those of you who have stuck with me!
Now to bring some news of sorts: The next chapters of Centurnum while be under considerable delay, as I have largely finished the outlining of the sequel this fic (and Dare To Dream) was meant to world-build and buy time for! That's right, soon, we'll be getting back the old gang is the next fic (titled Roads To Remedy) with Felix; Star; everyone's favorite Petilil, Petal; and Perro. And about time, to! Largely because the next half of this story better tonally fits closer to that fic's tone and world due to the circumstances of the story going forward.
I've been busy trying to make this story the best it can be, and I think I've come to point where I'm ready to start working on it. I wish I could divulge more, but spoilers, obviously, but I can say it is in a spot I am happy with, filled with great plot beats of determination and excellent, lovable characters, if I do say so myself, thanks in part to working alongside/ receiving help from others in the Pokemon Mystery Diner discord server. (also, because I have nowhere else to put it, do try to read Roads To Remedy if you're interested on Ao3, as that site is far more easy for me to work with and allows me to include pictures I myself have made!)
To summarize: Centurnum is not over, but the next chapters will come as appropriate in-line with Roads To Remedy.