Chapter 495: The Domineering Dragon God

Riding a dragon for the third time.

Baimu had long grown accustomed to the gale-force winds of the high sky.

He looked down at the shiny Rayquaza, immersed in soaring, then glanced at the Hoenn Rayquaza churning in the far distance; the two had already dropped their Mega Evolution forms, yet their majesty remained undiminished.

After waiting all morning without this fellow returning, the disappointment and regret in his heart were plain to see.

Although his bond with the shiny Rayquaza had lasted only a day and a half, Baimu undoubtedly longed to forge a closer connection with it; and seeing the former fight in such perfect sync with the Hoenn Rayquaza against the two ancient Pokémon, he strangely felt a pang of sourness similar to what Ash felt when he sent off Butterfree.

Without a doubt, the Heart of God had influenced not only the shiny Rayquaza, but also him, its wielder.

So when the shiny Rayquaza once again lowered its head toward him, hoping he would mount it, Baimu recalled Dragapult without hesitation and leapt on, without caring why this fellow had come looking for him or whether there might be danger.

Thinking about it, he was probably no different from Suicune's "North Wind Avatar" pursuer, Eusine (Minaki)—except one involved a Pokémon and a person drawing closer to each other, while the other never once received a second glance from the other party.

So right now, Baimu was content.

But once the contentment passed, he inevitably began to consider practical matters; he also intended to use his Ability to attempt a mind-link, yet worried it might interfere with the shiny Rayquaza's flight.

"Where are you planning to take me?"

He leaned forward and shouted the question.

The shiny Rayquaza tilted its head slightly and answered him with an indescribable roar.

…Can't understand a word.

Baimu pulled out his phone to ask Porygon2; the latter replied that the shiny Rayquaza hadn't said anything, and opened the GPS navigation to make a prediction.

Reading body language has its limits after all—in a complicated situation like this, even if he understood the shiny Rayquaza's personality to some degree, he couldn't imagine what it was about to do without a corresponding guess in his head.

Hmm.

It's really not chasing the submarine—so… planning to go to the Sky Pillar? No way?

He stared blankly at the red location dot on his phone steadily approaching eastern Hoenn; through his earpiece, Porygon2 also told him via a special channel that, based on the flight trajectory prediction, it was indeed the Sky Pillar.

Baimu: "…"

Was the Hoenn Rayquaza planning to bring the shiny Rayquaza over as a guest? Or was the shiny Rayquaza crashing the party uninvited?

Beep.

The soft chime of a message interrupted his thoughts.

—Liza had finished the Mega Ring and was asking when he wanted it.

Baimu: 'Sorry, I can't get away right now. I'll come grab it when I get the chance.'

Liza: 'Can't get away? Didn't you guys already come back? It should be over by now, right?'

Baimu: 'It is over, but you probably won't believe this—I'm sitting on a black Rayquaza right now, looking down at the Hoenn land below.'

Liza: '…Huh?'

She sent a Slowpoke scratching its head with a face full of question marks.

Baimu: 'Literally what I said. Not gonna explain more—let me see if Rayquaza sheds any scales; if it does, I'll snag you a whole one.'

Liza: 'Huh???'

This Miss's psychological resilience is way too weak—not like Candice, who accepted with total ease the fact that he was hanging out with two legendary Pokémon.

Baimu clicked his tongue as he closed his phone, then felt a bit of anticipation for Master Liu Ge and Flobber, who were about to spring into action.

Champion Dawu plus Miss Xijiana, plus these two professionals—when the time comes, if he had the chance, he'd go join in too; no matter how you looked at it, there was no way Lysandre could carry out his original plan smoothly.

Also, it was necessary to win over the Fire-type Elite Four, Malva.

The anime version of Malva didn't have the unshakable stance she did in the special chapter—she was a sentimental person who could be moved by the battle between Ash and Alain, so presumably she could still be reasoned with.

Too bad Alain's long fainting spell earlier had given him the chance to gather evidence, but who would've thought the shiny Rayquaza would suddenly whisk him away… Not being able to use it didn't matter; worst case, he'd keep it for himself or give it away.

It wasn't some counterfeit Mega Ring—just without the black tech from Lysandre's lab inside.

As Baimu was thinking, the shiny Rayquaza beneath him let out a long howl and dropped from the high sky.

"Ssshhhraa—"

They'd arrived.

He gazed at the magnificent Sky Pillar faintly revealing its outer outline, thinking how the shiny Rayquaza had actually followed the Hoenn Rayquaza right to its home; just what kind of relationship had the two built in just a few short hours?

On the mysterious triangular altar.

The Hoenn Rayquaza settled at the very center and coiled up, gazing at the shiny Rayquaza that had landed before it, and at the human who had flipped down from atop the shiny Rayquaza's head.

That one carried a scent it knew well.

Its long life had not given the Hoenn Rayquaza many distinct memories; all the more so now, standing in such a special environment, it instantly understood the identity of this human youth before it.

The other party bowed slightly and said, "It is an honor to meet you. I am a descendant of the People of the Meteors—Baimu. I recently passed the trial of the Inheritor within the Sky Pillar, and I hope you will grant me the status of Inheritor."

Just as expected.

No emotion showed in the Hoenn Rayquaza's eyes; the People of the Meteors were the human group it had encountered most often. They tended to revere it beyond imagination—not only building it different resting places all over the world, but even handing over the decision of who would inherit their lineage to it.

And all it had to give in return was a single, expected act of lending a hand, plus a slight nod to the chosen one.

These humans would be overjoyed beyond measure.

"…"

The Hoenn Rayquaza raised its golden eyes, looking at the shiny Rayquaza directly opposite; the other's expression was full of all sorts of strange vitality, very different from its own.

Hmph.

The very person it revered was getting intimate with another Rayquaza—if it showed a bit of anger, just how panicked would this human be?

A long-absent hint of teasing stirred in the Hoenn Rayquaza's heart, but in the end it didn't do that; it had more important matters.

"…Roar!"

It let out a low growl like muffled thunder, yet the gust of breath from its mouth nearly knocked the other off balance.

This sight left it slightly dissatisfied—with such a frail constitution, how was it supposed to convey its thoughts? Through telepathy? It didn't know how to do that.

As if sensing the Hoenn Rayquaza's mood, the shiny Rayquaza suddenly stepped forward and circled it, gently lowering its head to rest against its side.

You tell me?

Sure.

The Hoenn Rayquaza did not feel offended. What it cared about most was its own territory, and only secondarily those humans who called themselves the People of the Meteor. Having long known the purpose of the shiny Rayquaza, it held not the slightest vigilance toward it.

Meanwhile.

All Baimu, who had been worrying that he had just offended the Hoenn Rayquaza, looked at the shiny Rayquaza that had drawn close to him, somewhat at a loss.

He had been protected?

No, that wasn't right.

The shiny Rayquaza wanted to communicate with him.

He looked again at the Hoenn Rayquaza, saw that its face was still neither sorrowful nor joyful, betraying no extra emotion, and knew he would have to use the Heart of Spirit.

So All Baimu gathered himself briefly, touched the brow of the shiny Rayquaza, and the two of them entered a golden mindscape together.

And upon seeing the golden-yellow radiance spreading from his hand, a hint of surprise flickered in the Hoenn Rayquaza's eyes.

A human with a special ability!

This thing was rare indeed. In all its world travels it had hardly ever come across one, and for a moment the way it looked at All Baimu was like looking at an SSR character card in a game.

Of course, the Hoenn Rayquaza did not, out of curiosity, go interrupt the two's mind-link; it merely thought that since this human was one of the People of the Meteor, it should be no problem for it to have him satisfy its curiosity later—

For a Pokémon like it, possessed of advanced intelligence and a lifespan stretching without limit, only all manner of novel things could hold its interest.

But unlike the shiny Rayquaza, which would draw closer whenever it grew curious, the Hoenn Rayquaza, unless it had to, would likewise not expend the effort to satisfy its own curiosity; its pursuits differed from the former's.

At the same time.

All Baimu's side had finally reached a conclusion.

He opened his eyes, his expression somewhat strange.

The Hoenn Rayquaza's behavior, and what had happened after the shiny Rayquaza gave chase—everything had been explained in the mind-link.

He sorted out the rough information he had obtained.

First, the Hoenn Rayquaza's pursuit of the Mega Stone was absolutely not to claim it for itself; on the contrary, it intended to destroy the Mega Stone completely.

One reason was that it regarded the Hoenn continent as its own preserve. The Mega Stone would, as it had a thousand years ago, spark conflict between Kyogre and Groudon, churning the climate and robbing it of sleep.

It was already the strongest being on the Hoenn continent; what was the point of growing stronger still? It sufficed to prevent other beings from growing stronger and challenging it.

The second reason was that it believed humans could not properly make use of the energy contained within the Mega Stone. A thousand years ago it had given humans a chance, but regrettably, even though the people of that era possessed a splendid civilization and all manner of mysterious black technology, they had still failed to benefit the world, and instead had filled the Hoenn continent with strife.

Hence the Hoenn Rayquaza decided to destroy the Mega Stone—"I don't want it, and neither shall any of you!"

Unfortunately, though this thing looked like a stone, it was not in fact a stone; a casual attack would only make it vanish as suddenly as it had under the meteor shower earlier.

So the Hoenn Rayquaza, which had recently defeated Kyogre and Groudon, had for a long time made no move to take the Mega Stone away. At the time it was mulling over how to destroy the thing—who could have expected humans to be so unsportsmanlike, suddenly tossing a flash bomb and snatching it.

Having lost its target, the Rayquaza naturally did not keep pursuing; in any case it felt that as long as the Mega Stone did not stay on the Hoenn continent, it could go anywhere.

—At least, that was what it had thought at first.

But upon seeing All Baimu, it felt it might as well let humans think of a way to destroy it. Although each of these beings, taken individually, could be called weak, once they gathered together, the destructive force they could unleash was even greater than its own.

The Hoenn Rayquaza closed its eyes. The experience, some years back, of being inexplicably swamped by a host of strange things while chasing two extraterrestrials in a human city was still vivid in its memory.

"Too overbearing."

How could All Baimu have guessed that the Hoenn Rayquaza's thinking was so extreme? It felt just like a grown-up watching a few kids fighting over a lollipop, snatching it away, slapping the two biggest ones each once, and then trying to stomp it into the ground.

But as for destroying the Mega Stone…he recalled that in the plot, even after it was finally released from its Zygarde state, the thing had not been destroyed; on the contrary, it had vanished once more—its tenacity was downright terrifying.

From this it was not hard to see that this lollipop was made of no candy at all; it was plainly made of alloy!

This is a tough one, boss!

All Baimu looked at the Hoenn Rayquaza in great difficulty. Moreover, compared with destroying the Mega Stone, he truly felt that having the Devon Corporation properly develop it into clean energy had prospects.

He'd think later about how to persuade this boss, to give humans a chance.

He mulled it over, and inevitably thought as well about the exchange between the shiny Rayquaza and the Hoenn Rayquaza.

Most legendary Pokémon expressed their emotions in line with their personalities, and very directly—just like the Hoenn Rayquaza, which treasured its territory beyond measure, and after being offended by the shiny Rayquaza had a fierce exchange with it high above the atmosphere.

When they found they could do nothing to each other, they chose to open communication.

The Hoenn Rayquaza assumed the shiny Rayquaza had come to steal its territory and the Mega Stone, and adamantly refused to give up an inch of land; the Mega Stone it could take and be gone with, and never come back to the Hoenn region.

The shiny Rayquaza said what the hell was the Mega Stone, it had just come over to join the fun and satisfy its curiosity; it didn't want the territory either, it had simply been drawn here by a human.

The Hoenn Rayquaza took one look, saw that this kid showed signs of being a bit of a dimwit, and magnanimously stopped holding it against it; it even invited it to look for the Mega Stone together and figure out how to destroy the thing.

The shiny Rayquaza agreed, but first turned back to look for All Baimu. Only by then All Baimu had already set out and arrived at Sootopolis City, so the two did not meet; it had no choice but to follow the Hoenn Rayquaza to the sea outside Sootopolis City to fight, while also searching for All Baimu.

That was the whole sequence of events.

All Baimu fell silent after taking it all in.

Between Pokémon…truly, whether legendary or not, they were all very pure. This attitude of throwing a punch first and then asking all the questions afterward fully displayed the beastliness that mingled the sentimental and the rational within them.

As for why the earlier battle with the Deoxys had been so brutal…

There was no helping it.

The Hoenn Rayquaza, after the fight, let out a roar: "Where the hell are you from!?"

Deoxys One: "……(fires Aurora Beam)"

The Hoenn Rayquaza: "You speak Draconic!?"

Deoxys One: "……(fires Aurora Beam)"

Given the former's irritable temperament, with that level of communication efficiency, how could it not get worked up? The two weren't even on the same language system. The Deoxys probably felt it had been wronged to death too; they really were outsiders, but that didn't mean they didn't know manners.

You can't understand the "dialect"—what are we supposed to do? It's not like we speak "Mandarin."

Fortunately, the ending was a good one.

Though they couldn't speak the same language, actions could convey attitude.

For example, after the Hoenn Rayquaza had been swamped by the block-shaped robots, the attitude of the two Deoxys in lending a hand was proof enough of their friendliness.

Baimu thought for a moment, then raised his palm and looked toward Hoenn Rayquaza, figuring that using his Heart of Soul on the latter would most likely not anger it.