Something's wrong.
I've been detecting this... increasing resonance between Dreamweaver and Zodiark. I thought at first it was merely the interplay between the former's power and the latter's knowledge. But a more recent analysis suggests this resonance is far more... antagonistic. My previous hypothesis was that Dreamweaver was simply a well of power. However, it seems like Dreamweaver might actually be some sort of entity like Zodiark.
These two entities feel like they're trying to undermine one another. It's producing... concerning readouts. I must find a way to counter this resonance. Otherwise, I fear the Space Globe may begin to destabilize.
Fortunately, I have an idea. If I can tap into aspects of both Dreamweaver and Zodiark, I may be able to devise a program that can counter their virtual quarreling.
Noctum sat on a steel beam, lazily swinging his dangling legs. He looked across the rocky crags and interwoven machinery of Iron Island. Much of the equipment warped and contorted as the anomaly inched forward. It had already grown to encompass half of the island.
And yet, no Eternatus Troopers had shown up. Valkyrie and Jade even found the unconscious victini from the video feed, taken them back to the outpost, and returned to join him without any issue.
Naturally, that meant the garchomp was on guard, pacing back and forth along a rock face and gazing out at the ocean. "Tell me you're at least a bit on edge," Valkyrie growled.
"I am." The cosmic charizard rubbed the back of his head. "Because of the rift. Leo just... dove into it. And our communications are still down, too." Noctum leaned forward slightly. "At least the ocean breeze is nice, though. We don't have that back home."
"Why are we sticking around here, anyway?" Jade sat on the opposite side of the metal beam. She dangled a hard hat from the tip of her tail. "If Leo seals the mystery dungeon, he'll go back to the outpost. Maybe we ought to try and go to Herbrides? That's where the others were supposed to be, right?"
Noctum sat up straight. It wasn't a bad idea...
"Someone has to keep an eye on this this place," Valkyrie huffed. "You're just worried because Yuna's there and she's got your mate in her chest crystal."
She looked down, squinting. "Which is a sentence of all time."
Jade sighed. "Why couldn't he be in my chest instead?"
Noctum tilted his head. "Wouldn't you rather he not be stuck as a spirit?"
Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "She was joking, you dork."
"Yeah." Jade brushed a wing along her belly. "This scale-feather mix isn't comfy, anyway. But Cece's floofy chest is soooo dreamyyyyyyy~"
The cosmic charziard looked over his shoulder, hoping for any excuse to stop the conversation before it went further. And he immediately found one when he realized all the metal scaffolding and equipment was back to normal.
"Wait." Noctum's starry tail flame rippled. He flapped his wings once to rise off the steel beam. "The rift is gone!"
Noctum flew forward, scanning the area. There was no static or anything. "Did Leo seal it?"
Valkyrie ran across the steel beam. "Cid, you read us?"
"Ah, I do! Thank goodness!" The orbeetle laughed nervously. "And I'm picking you up with my Dynascan. What happened?"
"Rift disappeared," Valkyrie said, tapping her right foot against the beam. "What's happening in Herbrides? Is your signal back there?"
"I'm afraid not." Cid tittered. "There are plenty of folks here on standby who could go there. I think."
The garchomp frowned. "Have any of them actually been to Herbrides? As far as I know, Leo's the only one who's made rifts to places he doesn't know!"
Noctum's tail flame grew. "I've gone to the Herbrides Lines!" He spun around in midair. "It's not exactly in the city itself, though."
"Good enough!" Valkyrie clapped her claws together. "Let's get some reinforcements at the outpost then head over ASAP."
"Can we get some snacks, too?" Jade flew over to them. "I'm hungry."
Valkyrie glared at her.
"N-Never mind. Quick outpost stop it is."
Perhaps Yuna should've expected the dungeon core to take the form of an ethereal graveyard. What else could mix ground, ghost, and dark-types together so effectively? The dragapult floated past rows of black tombstones shaped to resemble everything from gengar to absol to sandaconda.
However, she was too focused on the cosmic arceus trotting ahead of her to care what form the core took. "I asked you a question, Leo. Why did you run off without telling anyone?"
"You were already heading through the rift." Leo shook his head and kept walking. "I thought I sensed that kid in the Terarium. Got a bad vibe." He swished his cosmic mane. "That was right, B-T-dubs."
There was that slang again. Had Leo acted like that the entire time he fought Gilgamesh? "You still could've said you'd catch up with us," Yuna said. "I was worried sick!"
Liar. She'd gotten so preoccupied with Ting-Lu that Leo had practically sipped her mind while fighting it. But he didn't need to hear that.
"Well, like I said. I gamed." Leo's hooves crunched against brown soil. Brown and dark gray glows shimmered a few hundred meters ahead of the cosmic arceus. There was a black void between them. Yuna sure hoped that was the dark-type plate.
"Whisper was friendly, anyway," Leo continued. "Friendly enough, at least. Never in any real danger."
"And you think that excuses it?" Yuna's tail rippled. "Maybe nothing bad happened this time. But what about the next time you pull a stunt like that? We both know how much is at stake he—"
Leo whirled on her, his starry fur flickering. "That's exactly why I had to do this!"
Yuna froze beside a morgrem-shaped tombstone. "What?"
"I'm Arceus." Leo's wheel dimmed. "At the end of the day, I have to fix our world. How can I possibly think I'm capable of doing that if I'm always sitting on the sidelines while you guys do all the fighting?"
"Well, that's—" Yuna stopped. Could she even call Leo a child anymore?
Certainly not based on the way he acted. And what Alder had told her he'd read in his archives, to boot.
"Okay." The dragapult held her hands up. "You've got a point. I guess I hadn't stopped to consider your, uh, changes because of how fast this anomaly popped up and how quickly it was growing. And I treated you like you were still a kid as a result."
Leo stood a bit taller. He had no mouth, but Yuna felt like he was somehow smirking. She sternly crossed her arms.
"With that said, though, you still shouldn't dive into the fray on your own." Yuna floated up to the cosmic arceus and put a hand on his shoulder. "We're a team. Maybe you're the one who has to fix our world. But this," she gestured toward the plates floating ahead of them, "is something you have backup for. You've got to use it."
She straightened up. Was there a comparison that could help Yuna get the message across?
Well, given some of his new behavior...
"Even Gene can't do this stuff on his own. He at least had Cyril before the rest of us came into the picture."
Leo shifted his weight uneasily. "But I had Kieran acting as my trainer..."
He looked down silently. Slowly but surely, guilt bubbled up in the cosmic arceus' eyes. His starry pelt and golden wheel dimmed.
"Aww, man. I almost threw big time, huh?"
Yuna didn't want to ask Leo what that meant. "Let's just agree to learn from this mistake, okay?"
He nodded. "Can I get my plates now?"
"Yeah."
They continued down the graveyard. The pokémon-shaped tombstones shifted to mixtures of dark gray and black. After another minute, they found the three plates floating in midair. A triangle of brown light, dark gray light, and black shadows swirled around them.
"Let's see what they say."
Yuna leaned forward. Her core burned in her chest, as usual. She resisted in order to read the engravings on the three plates.
When the universe was created, its shards became this Plate.
The other side of this world was given by the Original One to its raging third.
Two make matter, and three make spirit, shaping the world.
Yuna backed away. She gave Leo a go-ahead signal with her tail. Leo walked up toward them. The plates' glow reflected off his golden wheel.
One of the engravings was quite clear. And it lined up with Yaldabaoth's claims about being the reverse world's guardian. Of course a giratina would guard a realm that was created for it.
Yuna drew blanks on the other two, though. The shards of what became the ground-type plate? Arceus? Was that why Leo grew with every plate he absorbed?
And that last one... her memories of that Temporal Tower place showed five pokémon wrapped in the Red Chain besides Arceus. What were the odds those were the five that plate referred to?
She threw her up to block flashes of brown and gray light. When Yuna lowered her arm, Leo was now taller than her. Black vapor and gray ectoplasm swirled around his legs while his mane was now made of sand.
"Neat, huh?" Will-O-Wisps spun around Leo's neck.
"Yeah." Yuna tilted her head. "I think you should seal the core, though. It's growing fast, remember?"
"Right." Leo turned around. He traced that familiar pattern of circles, squares, and triangles in the air. "Oh, uh, Mom? About before..."
"Something wrong?"
"I'm staying back this time," Leo said.
Yuna's tail crinkled. "Excuse me?"
"It won't be for long!" Leo said. "I just... I need to try something. It involves that purple koraidon."
"Leo..."
"I'll be quick, I promise." Leo's wheel lit up.
Yuna felt an invisible force grabbing hold of her. "Wait! At least tell me what you're planning!"
"I'm trying to find the guy Vince works for," Leo said as Yuna grew further away from him. "If it doesn't work, I'll bring Vince back with me."
"But how do you know you can get back?"
It was too late, though. Leo became a tiny speck in a matter of seconds, then white light swallowed Yuna up.
Seifer's heart pounded in his chest as he passed by familiar buildings, warped and distorted by purple cracks and fissures in the air. To his right, purple light spilled over one of his favorite bakeries, draining the green and white awning over the entrance of its color. The windows shattered and black berries tumbled out onto the street.
"You guys are seeing this too, right?" Artemis used a small plume of water to carry himself past Seifer. "Everything's turning into fruit!"
Static engulfed a cafe a block ahead of the keldeo. The outdoor furniture morphed into asparagus that fell apart while dark gray nanab berries replaced the door handles.
"Yeah." Cyril was ahead of them, his starcloud mane even wilder than usual. "I don't think this is the distortion we were tracking. It's gotta be an anomaly."
Then there must have been a portal somewhere, right? Seifer galloped after Cyril, wincing from berry juice staining his hooves. Screams and footsteps echoed around him. People who were no doubt trying to flee.
"We have to try and direct these people out of the city!" Seifer insisted. Another small rift opened overhead. "Look out!" He slung an Aura Sphere from his horn, blowing apart... more berries.
"Augh!" Juice rained on Cyril. The zoroark's starry mane deflated. "Okay, it's annoying, but not deadly." He tried to shake himself dry, but the juice was too sticky. "I don't know this place well and Cid's not an option."
Artemis dropped to the ground by the fruit and juice-covered cafe. "Isn't there an exit a few blocks north of here?" He gestured forward with a ribbon.
Seifer nodded. "Yes. There's a large road that connects to the byway leading to Tulpise." He galloped past the cafe, scanning the surrounding buildings. Seifer needed higher ground... and a way to project his voice. "I don't suppose you brought any, like, megaphones in your gear, did you?"
Cyril lifted his sticky mane to show his dumbfounded expression. "No? Who brings a megaphone to a scouting mission?"
Fair. Seifer would have to improvise, then. He headed left for a two-story square building relatively untouched save for giant lettuce leaves in place of its windows. Hydro Pumps from Seifer's hooves carried him onto the roof. It was still sturdy.
Most people were moving north already. But there was a lot of confusion. A tauros bucked a marshtomp and quilladin couple out of his way and was about to trample over a family of dedenne. People kept shoving a mandibuzz, stopping her from taking off with her vullaby chick in tow.
This was bad. Even if the rifts were just making fruit, people were getting hurt.
Seifer took a deep breath.
"EVERYONE NEEDS TO REMAIN CALM!"
The shout's intensity surprised Seifer. For a moment, he found himself looking not at the crowded street but at a black void that lit up blue with energy from a furious roar.
"It's Commander Seifer!"
"Is the Radiant Guard here?"
"I thought he got sacked!"
"Ow, you're stepping on my tail, you bitch!"
"Then don't shove it in my face!"
Seifer snapped to attention. Focus.
"I need everyone to head north in an orderly fashion!" The keldeo pointed his right forehoof down the street. "Those of you closest to me, move to Granger Street." He jerked his head back. "Those furthest from me, cross to Bartlett Street." Seifer moved his right forehoof so it pointed at the street behind the buildings opposite him.
"Keep your pace uniform!" Seifer continued. "Larger 'mon have to carry smaller 'mon!" He stomped his forehoof on the street. "Let's go, let's go! No chit chat or dawdling!"
People began to fan out from the street by the office building. Another wall of purple light raced across the area. Seifer suppressed a wince. "Remain calm! We have this under control!" He looked over his shoulder. Cyril and Artemis had managed to climb up a nearby three-story brick building's emergency stairwell. They were on the roof, scanning the sky for signs of trouble.
Seifer nodded to them, then jetted over to the next building north of him with Hydro Pumps. "Keep it up!" he said. The keldeo narrowed his eyes at a skittish ursaring about to barrel into a quagsire. "Hey, Ursaring! No shoving! Carry Quagsire if you have to!"
Another purple wall rippled through the air. This time a rift opened behind Seifer. He saw a large orange roll out onto the street. It would bowl the civilians over if Seifer didn't do something!
The keldeo leaped from the building roof, using Hydro Pumps from his hooves to safely land behind the group of people. He stared down the giant orange. Oh, if only he could still use Secret Sword!
Aura Sphere will have to do! Seifer shot the blue energy ball from his horn. It hit dead center, dimpling the peel and slowing the orange. Seifer shot another one, leaving another dimple.
It was getting closer. Seifer backed away. He shot a third Aura Sphere.
That one did the trick! The peel tore open and large orange slices toppled over.
The Spacial Rend crescents broke apart, warping the void around him.
"Pathetic!" Seifer sneered. "But I'm not surprised. You can't match up to me!"
Loud crashes jolted Seifer. Two orange slices struck the side of the house on Seifer's right, breaking the outer walls and window. The house's foundations surprisingly held, but Seifer didn't want to stick around.
Hydro Pump jets carried him back to the top of the same building he'd jumped off of. Things were quiet. The streets were totally empty! Where were the people?
Cyril was waving him down from the same building as before.
"What happened?" Seifer asked.
"The lot of 'em got levitated away." The cosmic zoroark pointed skyward. "I think Boss Kitty's aware of the situation."
Seifer looked around but saw no signs of a shadowy mewtwo in the area. "He grabbed them from... somewhere else in the city entirely?" That was an impressive and concerning amount of range.
Maybe Starlene is here and powered him up?
Raspy laughter filled the air before Seifer could suggest they head back into the city to find Gene. His blood ran cold. And judging from the flash of panic in Artemis' eyes, the milotic must've realized the same thing.
"We have to go!" Artemis' eyes darted around, trying to find the source.
"Agreed." Seifer galloped toward the edge of the building roof, only to skid to a halt before a small dome of black shadows.
"Seif!" Cyril shouted from the other roof. He and Artemis scrambled for the emergency stairwell.
Chained, chitinous forelegs emerged from the shadows, followed by the rest of Xeromus' cloaked body. His beady gray eyes were unreadable beneath his stone mask.
"The veil is lifting," the helmeted silvally said. He let out a few raucous coughs. "Your shoulders are heavy with the burden of truth. Keh heh." Xeromus sucked in a sharp breath. "An incomplete truth, perhaps. But enough for you to realize just how special you all are. The great potential dwelling within!"
Seifer remained tense. Ready to blast this freak with Hydro Pumps at a moment's notice. Yet Xeromus sounded different this time. He wasn't spouting his usual nonsense about futility.
"We got some folks out of here, but there's trouble!" Cyril shouted, but it didn't sound like he was talking to Seifer. Were the X-transceivers back up? "Something's really wrong here!"
"You clawed your way out toward rebirth to right an egregious wrong," Xeromus continued, eyeing Seifer with interest. Chains scraped the brick rooftop as he slowly paced to the keldeo's right. "You can condemn chaos. You can walk a path of valor toward a bright, eternal future! Guided by the Affirmer!"
That sounded a bit more like his earlier crazy talk. Which was more than enough for Seifer. He shot water jets from his forehooves. Xeromus' cloak bristled and some sort of shadowy canine emerged to swallow the attacks up like they were nothing.
Seifer tensed. Igneous had mentioned a spectral beast. Now that Seifer saw it for himself, though, it looked... a bit similar to Queen Calliope. Except for the almost shield-shaped head.
"Ha ha..." Xeromus shook his head. "I get it. Why trust the word of a lowly omen acting as a stepping stone for everyone to become part of something greater?"
"I don't think you get anything," Seifer countered. "If you did, you'd be fighting whatever forces are doing this to you!" He stomped a forehoof down. "It's Zodiark, isn't it? Just like how they control Whispers! But you're better than that! I know you're capable of doing good, Nova."
"̷̢̳͐Ḭ̸͑̒ ̶̛̺͂a̴̗̔ͅm̸̖̏͝ ̷̹̦̉̄d̷̜͈͝ỏ̷͙̝͌i̶̘̒͘n̴̫͂g̸͙͂ ̶̩͑́g̴͇̋͑ơ̵̝͑ŏ̵̼d̵͎̓.̶̨̄ ̵͋̑͜Y̴̛̦̬o̸̖̓ù̵̖̟r̴͈̮͒ ̸̡̱͗o̴̟̓͐l̴̹̬͋d̵͚͍̈́̈ ̴̨͋̒ș̴̓͑o̸̜̲͝u̸̙̟͒l̶̥͊̄ ̶͓̀̋s̶̛̭i̸͕͐m̸̞͂p̷̦͙̅l̵̢̢̈́͝ỷ̶͉̔ ̵͈̌̈́s̸͇͆i̴̭̒̒ṃ̶̒́p̷̌̍͜l̶͍̾y̶̼̮̎̀ ̴̠̈́ṟ̴̢̓̚ȇ̴̢f̴̙̪͒́u̴̳̬͘ş̷̀e̵̠͔̔̃ş̸̆̕ ̸̲͒t̴̡̍ȯ̸͍̔ ̵͍͎̌ċ̵̫h̴̻̺̒̓ḁ̶̟̀n̸͛ͅg̸͕͘͠e̵̞̍͌͜.̷̰͇̆͆"̶̻͇̿̌
"You're supposed to be better than this!"
Seifer reared up his hind legs. His blue-gray body rippled with a metallic sheen. "Yet time and time again you cause nothing but problems and headaches? Why can you not be still in your pocket and focus on your duty?"
Across from him, Space's pink shoulder gems bristled with energy. "I didn't do anything wrong! You always assume! Rush to conclusions! You're the embodiment of time! Where's your patience?!"
"Seifer, look out!"
Cyril's scream brought the keldeo to attention. Yellow crystals emerged from a larger specter behind Xeromus. Seifer dove to his right. The crystals struck the brick roof and shattered. Seifer scrambled to the edge of the roof, barely dodging yellow sparks.
Electricity? He looked at Xeromus, who had stepped to the side to reveal the familiar four-legged cloud monster from Tulpise. Its legs were now completely covered in those strange crystals. Were they responsible for the lightning?
"Tum sachmuch badle nahi ho."
The cloud daemon's body rippled. A larger version of Leo briefly appeared in its place, with pristine white fur instead of Leo's starry, blue-purple pelt. Then it melted away, revealing the cloud daemon now had a crystal wheel around its torso. Just like Leo's.
The Creator stared down at Seifer in disapproval. Golden light poured down from the heavens.
"It's not my fault!" Seifer cried. "It's Palkia! It's always Palkia!"
Seifer caught a yellow flash out of the corner of his eye. He fired Hydro Pumps and blasted the yellow crystals away.
"Get away from him!" Cyril growled. He and Artemis had gotten up on the same roof. The cosmic zoroark tossed a Shadow Ball toward the cloud daemon. Xeromus' cloak bristled, however. The spectral wolf reappeared and swallowed the shadow ball in its wispy maw.
"Your mind is struggling," Xeromus said. His gaze was firmly fixed on Seifer. As was the cloud daemon. "But there is not as much to reconcile between past and present as you think. Your vanity. Your arrogance. Your sins. They are the same now as they were before."
"Don't listen to him," Cyril scoffed. Ghostly energy swirled around his mane. "They're just trying to distract us. Because it's all they can do."
"Right!" Seifer reared up, pointing one foreleg toward Xeromus and the other toward the cloud daemon. No way Xeromus could block both the Hydro Pumps that followed at once, right?
Sure enough, the wolf appeared to protect the cloud daemon, leaving Xeromus to get doused. He stood tall, however, shaking his helmeted head.
A colorless crystal sprouted from the rooftop, stopping scalding hot water from hitting the cloud daemon's left side. Artemis shrank back, curling up his ribbons.
"Damn it," he muttered.
"It's so tragic." Xeromus took ragged breaths. "All this time apart. You'd think you'd recognize your creator. The rightful arceus of this world."
The gems on the cloud daemon's legs turned yellow. Stormy clouds formed over the roof.
"Move!" Seifer barked, waiting until he saw yellow flashes overhead to dash left. He barely skirted the lightning bolts that followed. Cyril had managed to yank Artemis out of the way, too.
Seifer stepped out of the rift, eyeing the small contingent of humans standing in their temple dedicated to the Creator.
He eyed the small sphere in the black-haired girl's hand. Palkia was inside the thing. He was sure of it.
Foolishness. Utter foolishness. Palkia let a human capture them?
Then Seifer was right. He was the better of the two. And now he would prove it!
He roared. Multicolored light poured out in a dome around the temple.
"Down, Seif!"
The keldeo dropped to his belly. Yellow gemstones whizzed over him. Static ran down the tip of his horn. His mane puffed out a bit.
"The truth is right in front of you!" Xeromus spat. "And yet you're happy to blindly follow the status quo! To let chaos reign and follow Giratina's lead!" There was a flicker of... something in Xeromus' beady gray eyes, but Seifer wasn't sure what.
"Why else would you feed Arceus' power to some pretender?"
Seifer fired an Aura Sphere from his horn. Cyril and Artemis followed his lead, adding a Shadow Ball and Scald stream.
Another large colorless crystal emerged from the ground to deflect the attacks, then quickly disappeared.
"Tumhara ghamandh tumhara ant hoga."
Palkia emerged from the ball and guarded the humans against Seifer's Roar of Time. The roof and pillars of the temple exploded. Marble debris tumbled down the mountain.
The humans looked to Palkia with admiration. Even the one with blue hair — who had offered Seifer prayers so many times before — looked aghast at his actions.
He wouldn't stand for this! Seifer absorbed the lingering energy around him. His body morphed and twisted, gradually resembling the Creator's form.
Seifer was better. He would show these humans that Time was superior to Space!
"It's tragic." Xeromus' raspy laughter carried across the rooftop. "In the end, you still haven't learned to swallow your pride and put others before yourself. Time truly is a flat circle."
The cloud da— no, Arceus' leg crystals were turning yellow again.
"You're wrong, Nova!"
Seifer's neck prickled at Cyril's harsh interjection. The zoroark's starcloud mane rippled.
"He's not selfish! Far from it!" Cyril had a Shadow Ball in each hand. He tossed one toward Arceus and the other toward Xeromus. "He's here, isn't he? Putting his life on the line to try and save this world!"
Crystals and the spectral wolf easily stopped Cyril's attacks before they could hurt their targets.
"Hell, he was working to get the people here to safety!" Cyril continued. "And that's after this kingdom treated him like dirt and his shitty dad and uncle all but disowned him! If that's not selfless, I don't know what is!"
While Cyril spoke, Seifer saw Artemis slithering along the side of the roof. The milotic managed to sneak in a small Scald that splashed against Arceus' left foreleg crystal. It staggered back. A distorted hiss filled the air.
Seifer winced. Artemis flickered in and out with the silhouette of a blue-haired human.
The keldeo's breath caught in his throat.
"Akari's right." The blue-haired man looked at Seifer, arms crossed. "You have to bury the hatchet with Palkia." He scratched the back of his head. "Much like we ought to do with the Pearl Clan."
"You can lead them by example," the black-haired girl said, patting Seifer's metallic foreleg.
Arceus roared once again. A harsh wind whipped up across the rooftop. Seifer dug his hooves in to stay rooted to the ground as best he could, but he was unprepared for Xeromus' chains unraveling from his legs and slashing at him repeatedly.
"Aggggh!" Seifer's legs buckled. The winds pushed him back. He tried to call out to Cyril and Artemis. The cosmic zoroark was on all fours, digging his claws into the brick and gritting his teeth.
"Heeeelp! Heeeeeeeeelp!"
Artemis was pinned against the far corner of the roof. Arceus had turned to the milotic, lightning crackling around its crystals.
"Arte— nngh!"
Xeromus chains sliced at Seifer's torso. Blue fur dropped to the ground, followed by red splotches.
"Seif!"
The wind was howling. Cyril's mane muffled his cries. Thunderclouds gathered over Arceus and Artemis. The milotic's eyes were full of dread.
Full of dread... like the day he failed to stand up for Artemis. The day Vortex kicked him out of Horizon Academy. The day Artemis lost his future.
The blue-haired man looked at his transformation with eyes full of dread.
Seifer galloped forward. Through the pain and the wind. He saw the yellow light forming overhead.
"Tum kismat se ladh nahi sakte!"
"SEIFER, NO!"
The keldeo summoned a Protect shield and leaped into the air. At first, it held against the massive lightning surge. Artemis had managed to slip out from underneath Seifer.
Then the shield shattered. Yellow flooded Seifer's vision. His prosthetic horn was a veritable lightning rod funneling the electricity through him. Pure agony drew the briefest of screams.
Giratina's Earth Power toppled Seifer, taking the last of his strength with him. As his vision blurred, he saw the other human — the one whose hair resembled the Creator's — smirking at him. Practically laughing at his failure.
Purple shadows spread across him. A mask of the creator's wheel covered his face.
"Defeated again, Dialga. Because that is your fate."
The horrifying pain stopped. Seifer managed one final, ragged breath, before the last of his consciousness was plunged into an endless black abyss.
~Resurgent Creator: Dreamweaver Risen~
Red Chain in hand, the Affirmer believed a world without humans would provide refuge from the Renegade. Yet still, they tailed Him. He remained in hiding, biding His time until the Renegade took pity on a dying riolu. While they were preoccupied, He unleashed the Red Chain on that world's creators.
Salvation was within reach, only to be denied at the last second when the Renegade lashed out.
Path of Valor Almanac
"Samay khatam" is Hindi for "out of time."
"Tum sachmuch badle nahi ho" is Hindi for "you haven't really changed."
"Tumhara ghamandh tumhara ant hoga" is Hindi for "your pride will be your end."
"Tum kismat se ladh nahi sakte" is Hindi for "you cannot fight fate."
Thanks to ExplosiveTurkey for his help with the Hindi translations.
