He cast out his spiritual senses.
His body was missing, and his spirit was floating in a strange void.
That was all he could discern before his Qi ran dry, numbing him to complete unconsciousness.
Cynthia tore her eyes away from his lifeless body, a much more immediate concern breaking her out of her shocked state and demanding her attention. Luxio had seen Longwei and—
Luxio Roared.
Cynthia had just enough time to cover her ears before three Roars joined it, their combined volume practically shaking the world around them.
Milotic, Gastrodon, and worst of all Gabite had joined Luxio in going berserk. Their eyes were glowing red, and a sort of pressure was emanating from each of them as they continued Roaring. Their combined roars upset the focus of each pokémon present, preventing any from using a move and temporarily halting the clash.
For miles around many weaker pokémon fled in absolute terror, while the alphas organized the pokémon around them and prepared for the worst.
She knew they were now on a timer. The berserk pokémon would run out of steam soon; none of her team had been trained to battle under the effects of a Roar, and she doubted Luxio had either. They had to end this quick.
Given the context behind what had made them Roar, she knew it wouldn't end there. But those men hadn't given her a choice. Hadn't given him a choice.
An ace trainer covers their bases, and Cynthia had been sure to cover hers. She had prepared each of her team on what to do in the event the others on the team succumbed to a Roar.
The Roars soon came to an end. Without needing a command, her sane pokémon sprung into action to cover for their berserk teammates.
Cynthia meanwhile moved close to Mr Mime.
Luxio was the first to run off, coating herself in Spark and chasing after the sableye that fled towards the forest.
Roserade immediately surrounded herself in a Petal Blizzard and followed after the Bulldozing Gabite. Cynthia's thinking was that Roserade was small and agile enough to work around Gabite just like Lucario, but unlike Lucario Roserade wasn't weak to Ground attacks which made her better suited for the task. Plus Gabite was resistant to Poison and was only neutrally effected by Grass, which would let Roserade be more liberal with her Sludge Bombs and Grass moves than if she were with Milotic or Gastrodon.
Lucario took formation a few feet by Milotic's side, supporting her Ice Beam with his own Flash Cannon. Milotic had been trained to fight both at long range and up close, so Lucario's flexibility would help him be useful for whichever Milotic chose. Roserade could fulfill that role too, but Lucario's typing simply worked better with Milotic's.
Spiritomb remained close by Gastrodon and continued firing Shadow Balls, keeping her ghostly form much more close to her keystone now that the risk of spontaneous friendly fire was possible. A berserk pokémon wasn't likely to deliberately attack close friends, but they also weren't like to take them into consideration while fighting either, so Spiritomb was best off keeping her form compact to better evade the numerous wide-effect moves Gastrodon was likely to use. Luckily for her that wasn't a problem right now, as Gastrodon was focusing all her anger on attempting to make the ground under the enemy erupt with Earth Power, battling against the enemy Ground users for dominance over the earth much like Gabite was earlier.
A battle which Gastrodon won by default after Gabite barreled through the center of the enemy's line regardless of the fire she was taking, smashing straight through the defenders and knocking one of the krookodile to the floor while catching the other in her flaming jaws.
Gastrodon was now facing no resistant now and a sudden eruption of earth followed immediately after, the berserk-strengthened Earth Power catching several of the enemy's pokémon in its blast due to their tight formation and blasting them away. Roserade, who was following too far behind to get caught in the Earth Power, immediately sought out the second krookodile within the chaos and drove the bulk of her Petal Blizzard into its torso, knocking it out as well before quickly leaping away from a retaliatory Night Slash by the kingambit's gauntleted arms.
Things quickly fell to chaos afterwards. With the enemy's battle line thrown into disarray there simply were no longer enough projectiles to oppose Cynthia's side, and very quickly attacks began to breach through.
The larger and slower pokémon were the first to fall. Malamar quickly found itself the target of an Ice Beam, throwing itself out of the way just in time only to be caught by a Flash Cannon. Drapion and Skuntank stood their ground defiantly against a series of Shadow Balls to protect the kingambit behind them, only for the ground underneath them to erupt and knock them to the side. Kingambit's honed senses warned it of the incoming Shadow Balls, turning just in time to intercept them with a continuous Dark Pulse fired from its outstretched hand.
Sudden bursts of elemental gunfire rang out amidst the chaos. Two halves of one of the human soldiers sailed upwards in separate arcs, blood spraying out from each. The gunfire continued for two seconds more before coming to a stop.
Cynthia had watched it as it happened. She knew it would happen given what had caused the Roars, but she was still horrified.
Gabite had evidently become tunnel visioned on the humans, completely disregarding the houndooms and bisharp that had latched onto her. Her form was covered in cuts, bites, and burns. Within her mouth she Crunched down on the final human, snuffing whatever remnants of life remained and causing more of their blood to spill down her form.
Two chandelure rose up from the one mostly intact body on the floor and they immediately launched a stream of Flamethrowers from the tops of their candles towards Gabite.
Cynthia focused on what was important, the adrenaline keeping her from reacting as she usually might. She hastily analyzed the situation and saw that Roserade was unable to deal with the pokémon attacking Gabite due to a weavile, scrafty, liepard, and bisharp that wouldn't relent. Roserade was agile enough to evade most of their attacks, but she couldn't afford to do much else without putting herself at risk.
The buddy system wasn't working. It was meant to mitigate the damage caused by the berserk pokémon and to keep them safe if they ran off into the wilderness alone. This didn't work in a real battle where all pokémon were engaged, meaning whichever duo ran in alone would be quickly overwhelmed.
Seeing the flaw in her original plan, Cynthia quickly shouted for Lucario and Spiritomb to move in and provide back up. Milotic, seeing Lucario rush in, followed as well with a furious trill.
What followed was a complete mess.
Gabite, now done with the humans, focused on the two chandelure in front of her. She lunged forward with surprising speed, catching one in her jaws and another in her claws, then dove into the ground with Dig, shaking off the two houndoom and one bisharp in the process.
Those shaken pokémon immediately changed targets to Roserade, and very quickly the rosey pokémon began taking heavy damage as she was overwhelmed by seven pokémon at once. One strike lead into another, tossing her around like a pinball.
Kingambit lowered his stool to the floor and narrowed his eyes as Lucario burst into the melee with Extreme Speed, snatching Roserade from the air and taking her out of danger.
Kingambit eyed the following milotic with just as much caution, watching the eel pokémon recklessly ignore him and throw herself into the melee. Kingambit did not intercept.
The spiritomb fired three Shadow Balls as it flew past, but Kingambit casually blocked them with a lone hand empowered by Night Slash.
A Mud Bomb from the approaching gastrodon sailed by to strike something further behind him, but Kingambit did not move since the attack was not meant for him nor was the gastrodon approaching him directly.
Finally, the thing Kingambit had been waiting for occurred. The ground beneath him began to shake, but it wasn't from an Earth Power. Kingambit's eyes hardened, his muscles tensed, and he shot back a couple feet, completely evading Gabite's jaws as she surfaced from the earth.
Kingambit's sword atop his head shone black as he swung it down with all the force he could muster, cutting down the center of Gabite's back with a perfectly executed Kowtow Cleave and drawing a guttural roar of pain from the dragon.
A veteran of war, Kingambit knew Gabite would not go down so easy. Already he prepared a Sucker Punch, and the instant the dragon whirled around mid-air to lash out with a Dragon Tail he surged upwards, striking Gabite in the torso and knocking the dragon to the side.
Gabite skid across the grass floor, unconscious. A red beam returned her not even a second later, barely an instant before a followup Kowtow Cleave could deliver a decapitating strike.
Kingambit took in the battlefield without taking his gaze away from the surviving human. He knew the few surviving allies behind him were being quickly brought down. With each fallen ally, his strength surged. But even with the power he gained from their defeat he knew he would not be powerful enough to win the battle, no matter the tricks he employed.
So be it then. If he could not win the battle, then he would contribute to winning the war.
With determined resignation, Kingambit got off his hovering stool and stood on his own two feet, the metallic hair composing the chair falling into place behind him. He began walking towards the human, destroying a Fairy attack the mr mime sent his way with Metal Claw and only taking minor damage.
Cynthia, seeing the kingambit approach her directly, suddenly remembered the infamous ability kingambit were known to have. The sudden events had caused her to forget.
She took a step back in fear and shouted for her pokémon to focus him down quickly.
Kingambit's eyes never once strayed from the human's own as he walked forward. Because of this, he saw her vision shift ever so slightly away from him and to something behind him, letting him know exactly where the attack was coming from.
He readied his trick, already knowing who the one to reach him would be.
Turning around to see a white blur of a Lucario speeding towards him, Kingambit feigned shock, taking a step back in false-surprise and allowing the Lucario to crash into him.
He accepted the Force Palm and took heavy damage, but he did not lose his footing. The Force Palm was expected, and he needed the Lucario close for the trick to work.
The metal blades around Kingambit's waist closed in.
Despite Kingambit's intent to kill, Lucario was resilient. Lucario had not been harmed much throughout the battle and had plenty of stamina to spare, so their spirit had the power to resist most of the attack.
Kingambit strained himself nonetheless, but eventually the energy in Guillotine gave out and Lucario fell to the floor, unconscious.
Kingambit did not care to followup the Guillotine, to do so would only buy time for the others to stop him. So he instead immediately turned back around and began sprinting towards the human, who now had a panicked terror on her face and was screaming for help. Several projectiles struck him from behind but he did not concern himself with them. Mr Mime shot out several more attacks of a variety of types, but just as before Kingambit destroyed them with ease.
The human had to die.
A purplish glow began to form over the human and the mr mime, but Kingambit would not let them escape. His form became engulfed in Dark energy and he surged forwards with Pursuit—
He suddenly felt a strange and powerful gaze wash over him, one he had grown intimately familiar with over the last couple days. 'The child has returned!?'
Before he could even glance up to where he knew the gaze originated, a massive pink beam crashed down upon him. It did not relent even after he was pressed deeper, and deeper into the ground.
In his painful final moments, he knew that this was not the child.
Nothing remained of Kingambit once the beam ended. He and the ground around him had been destroyed utterly, leaving a perfectly-circular several-foot hole carved into the ground.
Cynthia's and Mr Mime's gaze turned up to where the attack came from.
Hovering several dozen feet in the air was an adult man with long blue hair. He was wearing a black and white butler's uniform and looked almost like a slightly less rugged Professor Rowan without the facial hair. Held in his arm by the waist was the young red-headed girl from before, now wearing a red dress instead of ragged clothes.
The man observed the battlefield with a cold expression, watching as the last of the offending pokémon were felled by Cynthia's. He was above them all, literally and figuratively.
With all their enemies defeated, Milotic and Gastrodon let out a final victory roar, joined shortly by a third from Luxio somewhere in the forest.
The blue-haired man lowered himself to the floor besides Cynthia, looking towards the main battlefield with a flat expression.
With him so close Cynthia could now notice that his body was also unnaturally still. There were no signs of breathing or blinking, and even his hair seemed perfectly still despite its length. As if to confirm her suspicions that this man had something off about him, Mr Mime was watching him with wide-eyed caution.
He spoke without breaking his forward gaze, but his mouth did not move and his voice had a strange echo to it. "You have saved my niece. For that you have our thanks. Please allow us to thank you."
He reached a hand into his vest and pulled out a small hammerspace purse. From that he took out many expensive healing items and released them in the air around them, each item hovering in place via his Psychic powers.
She had no idea who this man was.
"Bring me your wounded so I may heal them."
But he had just erased that kingambit, so she wasn't about to antagonize him.
By now her pokémon had begun returning to her on their own, each staring at the man as they approached. She returned Milotic and Gastrodon before they got too close; they were still a bit unstable and weren't hurt that bad, so keeping them out would only be a risk. Spiritomb skittered over using small ghostly spider-like legs to move, carrying a still conscious but heavily battered Roserade in a cupped hand.
After that she quickly took out Gabite's and Lucario's pokéball, releasing them both in front of her. Gabite's prone form was covered in a litany of wounds, but the most egregious of them all was the cut that went straight down her back, splitting her dorsal fin In half. Lucario was relatively unharmed save for some shallow cuts on the sides of his waist, but he was still unconscious nonetheless.
Spiritomb allowed Roserade to hop off once they got near. Roserade winced when her two legs hit the ground and she quickly decided to take a seat, looking almost as bad as Gabite did.
The man got to work immediately, the many floating items darting about and applying themselves to each of her pokémon. A large amount of bandages were also quickly applied to keep Gabite's split dorsal fin held together and to stem its bleeding.
She'd recover, Cynthia knew. It would be a while, but she would. Pokémon were tough.
Suddenly remembering they were missing one, Cynthia quickly turned to the man. "We're missing Luxio!"
He turned to face her with that same impassive stare of his. "Wait here." his voice echoed out before he and the girl vanished in a fast Teleport.
Mr Mime tapped her on the shoulder and gave her a serious expression. She then felt a psychic prod at the front of her mind, and allowed it entry.
In her mind she saw crude shapes of her team, Mr Mime, Luxio, and the pokémon they just fought all standing together. Standing away from them was the blue-haired man, but he was only colored in up to his knees. Between the two groups was a large equals sign. Mr Mime then ended their connection.
Cynthia grimaced. "I kinda guessed that, yeah…"
Ghostly cackling drew her attention away and towards… Spiritomb. Spiritomb's form had surrounded the spot and she was beckoning Cynthia over with a clawed hand curling its finger.
Cynthia hesitantly approached. She didn't want to look at what happened, but Spiritomb wouldn't be mean enough to make her look without reason. "What is it?"
Spiritomb's ghostly form began to part away and Cynthia braced herself as the body was revealed. 'There's so much blood—' she shook her head, focusing on what Spiritomb's ghostly hand was directing her to look at.
His throat was intact. Scarred, but intact.
She hurriedly dropped to her knees to check him for a pulse. But there was no pulse, not even after checking several times.
Cynthia's shoulders sagged and she shook her head. "Thanks, Spiritomb. But… he's gone."
But to her surprise Spiritomb reacted angrily, forcefully pushing her away with a ghostly hand and continuing to surround the body. Spiritomb was even glaring at her!
The clap of a teleport rang out behind her, and the powerful Psychic reappeared with a roughed up and despondent Luxio holding a large blue gemstone in her teeth.
Spiritomb immediately cackled/snarled something. Everyone looked over to see Spiritomb now beckoning the man over.
"Hrm?!" the man expressionlessly replied with a bit of a growl. Luxio looked up with a spark of hope.
The man gently let the girl in his arm down and hovered towards Spiritomb. Spiritomb parted away to let him in, and the man examined the body without even crouching down.
"… I see. Then let us accelerate the process."
The man held out a hand and began to cast Heal Pulse.
He cast out his spiritual senses. Consciousness had returned to him due to some force providing consistent rejuvenation and he was not about to waste it. He quickly discerned that his body was still missing and that he was still in a void— but now there was a large hand holding him?!
The mostly gray and black entity with bits of yellow was bulbous, had two arms, no legs, a strange antenna on the top of its head, and overall it was positively huge. So huge that it could hold him within a single hand, so huge that you would need several Longwei's just to reach its head from the bottom!
Longwei knew what this creature was: a dusknoir! And he knew they were evil entities who masqueraded as heroes all while abducting innocent souls to tamper with the time stream in the service of their dark god!
"Hmmm, it seems I won't have to after all." a sage-like male voice coming from the dusknoir said aloud.
Terrified by the implications, Longwei reacted with extreme hostility! "You are courting death! Unhand me!" His Qi Struggled and flared with a null-element once more, making the dusknoir let go and pull its arm back by reflex!
"What do you think you're doing?" the dusknoir asked the odd human spirit while hovering a bit further away. "I am only trying to help."
"Help yourself to my fists!" Longwei shouted, using Qi to accelerate himself towards them with a glowing black fist outstretched. He had used a new technique instinctually, unknowingly casting Shadow Punch! "Hrah!"
Dusknoir narrowed his lone eye at the human oddity. "There is no way you can actually—!" but the Shadow Punch struck true, knocking Dusknoir… not even a millimeter backwards!
Yet Longwei was not done! A flurry of furious blows followed, each strike coated with the new element Longwei had discovered and further enhanced by Longwei's Technical skill! "Atatatatatatatatatata!"
Dusknoir looked down at the human harmlessly punching his belly with complete bewilderment.
Longwei wound back his arm to finish the combo strong. "Waa-taaaaa!" His fist connected flat onto the center of Dusknoir's tummy, succeeding in knocking him back a quarter of a centimeter!
Longwei let out a hearty exhale. "Hooooh."
"Alright, you've had your fun."
The large hand grabbed him once more. Longwei was powerless to resist!
Dusknoir raised his hand to look directly into Longwei's orange and yellow spiritual eyes. "But you really need to go back now."
Longwei dared to use spirit sight to appraise the entity's cultivation, and what he saw truck him with unfathomable terror! "Wait!" Longwei shouted as Dusknoir's eyes shone purple with Hypnosis. "Have mercy, great spirit! This one is but a humble elder and holds no ill will towards your esteemed greatness!"
But Longwei's pleas fell on deaf ears, and soon he succumbed to complete sleep once more.
AN: Not happy with this chapter, but it hurts to try fixing it so I'll leave it as is for the sake of my sanity.