Chapter 641: Luo Mu: Life Dealt Me a Heavy Blow

Long after the exhibition match had ended, even though the two Trainers had already departed, the Battle Tower still echoed with the audience's enthusiastic applause and cheers.

From initially underestimating Luo Mu, to him repeatedly surpassing everyone's expectations, to erupting in a crisis to overturn the situation and defeat Drake, an Elite Four member, before delivering his victory speech.

It could be said that after tonight, his name would resonate throughout the entire Trainer community of the Hoenn region.

Only a very few people knew that Luo Mu hadn't even deployed his main forces in this battle.

Backstage.

Under Professor Lund's arrangement, Luo Mu and Drake had a friendly private exchange.

To Luo Mu's surprise, Drake, who appeared to be quite old-fashioned, serious, and radiating an aura of authority, was actually cold on the outside but warm within, straightforward, approachable, and humorous.

Even when Professor Lund asked his assistant, Miss Yuko, to prepare drinks, Drake specifically requested that his hot milk include sugar.

From his appearance, one could never tell that this elderly man had such a preference.

After chatting at length, Drake left his contact information, expressed his hope to battle Luo Mu's Dragonite someday, mentioned that his ship was still docked at a port near Larousse City, and revealed his intention to depart.

Thinking about the inevitable flurry of events awaiting him tomorrow, Luo Mu naturally did not stop Drake from leaving.

Professor Lund and Miss Yuko personally saw him off.

Not long after Drake's departure, Ash and his group, guided by Xiao Xiao Jian, arrived noisily at this backstage area.

The praise, flattery, and admiration Luo Mu received during this time need not be mentioned.

After all, for him, defeating a slightly stronger Elite Four member was not exactly routine, but there was no need to be overly excited either.

As for the dinner invitation proposed by Ash's group from the movie, Luo Mu also verbally declined.

He used the excuse that Moltres and Victini had expended considerable energy and needed a quiet night to recuperate.

After the group departed noisily, Luo Mu, led by the returning Professor Lund and Miss Yuko, went directly to the accommodation they had arranged for him.

After delivering Luo Mu there, Professor Lund and Miss Yuko apologized, mentioning that some facilities in Larousse City had suffered strange damage and malfunctions today, and they needed to investigate the cause.

Using this as an excuse, the two hurriedly departed again.

Standing by the window of the hotel room, gazing at the tranquil night sky where the aurora had vanished without a trace at some point.

Luo Mu sighed, "Is this the final calm before the storm?"

"Deli?"

The Delibird standing on the windowsill, watching the night sky alongside Luo Mu, tilted its head and let out a confused cry.

"Nothing, everyone rest early and conserve your energy."

Shaking his head at the Delibird, Luo Mu instructed the Luxray and the others behind him.

Although he planned to slack off, that didn't mean he would do absolutely nothing.

As long as it didn't affect the predetermined happy ending, handling matters within his capability was no problem.

The next day.

Luo Mu received an invitation and once again arrived at Professor Lund's laboratory.

Before coming over, he had seen that in the nearby ecological park, Professor Lund's son, Xiao Xiao Jian, was introducing his "friend" to Ash's group and several others.

"What do you think of this proposal?"

Professor Lund's words in his ear brought Luo Mu's attention back to the present.

Gazing at the meteorite preserved inside the culture tank, Luo Mu did not immediately answer Professor Lund's question.

It could only be said that Professor Lund was indeed a genius.

He had discovered Victini's uniqueness and understood it more deeply than most people.

As one of the founders and administrators of Larousse City, in the intervals between dealing with the mysterious malfunctions of the city's facilities, he had impulsively pulled up the data recorded by the Battle Tower from yesterday's exhibition match.

Through this data, he had actually directly perceived that Victini's enhancement of Moltres was far more significant than a simple "Helping Hand" move.

Thus, after a night of contemplation, he had tried seeking Luo Mu's assistance.

According to Professor Lund, this meteorite, which carried the Space Pokémon Deoxys, currently lacked sufficient energy, preventing Deoxys, who existed only as a core crystal, from regenerating.

After four years of research, the method they had summarized was to utilize the energy saved from Larousse City's operations, convert it into a special laser, and use it to activate the core crystal's vitality, thereby achieving self-regeneration.

Regrettably, even though they had scrimped and saved, the energy generated by current methods like wind power was still far short of what was needed to awaken the entity.

After all, what the entity lacked was not a continuous energy supply, but a high-frequency energy activation within a short period to awaken it.

However, Victini's performance last night had ignited new hope in them.

According to Professor Lund's theory, he would design and construct a device within this week capable of absorbing the firepower erupted by Moltres after being enhanced by Victini and converting it into energy.

Obviously, Professor Lund was unaware that Victini's enhancement was a universal, infinite energy source, assuming instead that it could only enhance Moltres, who shared the Fire type.

Luo Mu finally understood why Professor Lund and his team had failed so many times, yet the protagonist group in the movie succeeded on their first try.

It turned out that the energy painstakingly saved during normal operations could not run the awakening device at maximum load to trigger the laser, so only when Larousse City collapsed and most personnel had evacuated, allowing the collection of the entire city's energy, could it be achieved.

But even though he understood this, Luo Mu felt there was really no necessity for him to agree to Professor Lund's request.

—The primary reason being that by the time they spent a week building the energy conversion device, the incident would already be over.

Just as Luo Mu was contemplating how to politely decline, a shrill alarm suddenly sounded within the laboratory.

"What has happened!?"

Professor Lund paused briefly, then shouted to those around him.

However, the researchers working normally were also unclear about the situation.

At that moment, accompanied by a flash on the screen, a live video communication forcibly squeezed onto the screen hanging in the center of the laboratory through high-level authorization.

Miss Miss Junsha, holding a relatively high police rank and possessing a more mature demeanor, appeared on the screen.

Looking at her face, Luo Mu's breathing unconsciously quickened.

He knew that the plot of the movie was about to unfold.

"An emergency situation has occurred, Professor Lund!"

On the screen, Miss Miss Junsha said in a serious tone.

"The air defense system has detected two Rayquaza flying straight toward LaRousse City!"

Luo Mu: "?"

"Why Rayquaza?"

Yuko widened her eyes, muttering to herself.

Professor Lundo also froze for a second; as if recalling something, he remembered a blurry red afterimage captured by the surveillance system last night while searching for the cause of the device malfunction.

Could it be that was another Deoxys?

Or perhaps, just as Luo Mu had warned before.

Our previous protective measures were insufficient, and the repeated awakening operations directly attracted the vindictive Rayquaza?

Numerous guesses flashed through his mind, but Professor Lundo did not panic; instead, he instructed Yuko to immediately access the public surveillance systems using his authorization.

Soon, Yuko spotted the figure of Deoxys flying recklessly within the city.

Seeing this, Professor Lundo immediately issued an order using his authority as the sole LaRousse City administrator currently present in the city.

"There is a Deoxys within the city; it entered LaRousse City at some unknown time, and Rayquaza's target is most likely it."

"If a battle breaks out between them, it could very well result in a tragedy; immediately evacuate the people within the city!"

"Understood!"

Miss Miss Junsha nodded slightly, multitasking as she activated the emergency evacuation system.

Just as she was about to move to the scene to command and evacuate the city's residents, Luo Mu suddenly spoke up.

"Wait a moment, you said, how many Rayquaza are there?"

Miss Miss Junsha's movements paused; seemingly unable to understand why Luo Mu would ask such a question, a look of confusion appeared on her face.

Although the situation was extremely urgent, thinking of Luo Mu's identity as someone invited by Professor Lundo, and that his power might need to be borrowed during the upcoming evacuation, Miss Miss Junsha patiently answered:

"There are two; is there some problem?"

Luo Mu said nothing, but instead, Professor Lundo and Miss Yuko could no longer hold themselves back.

"No, no, no! You said there are two Rayquaza!?"

The two of them, who had initially assumed Miss Miss Junsha had simply misspoken due to the emergency, were stunned.

Wait, where did two Rayquaza come from!?

"It's like this: one of them has a completely different color from the other; it is suspected to be a shiny Pokémon!"

Just as Miss Miss Junsha spoke words that made Luo Mu's expression go numb and began retrieving photos to transmit to them.

Suddenly, a tremendous boom echoed across the sky above LaRousse City.

Even where Luo Mu and Professor Lundo were standing, they could faintly perceive a slight tremor in the buildings and the ground.

On the other end of the feed, Miss Miss Junsha froze, and as if confirming something, she shouted in a shocked tone: "No! The two Rayquaza encountered each other before reaching LaRousse City; a battle has broken out between them!"

The several of them: "????"

At the same time.

All the residents and tourists of LaRousse City were evacuating the city in an orderly and rapid manner under the guidance of the Cube Robots.

Some raised their heads to look at the sky, gazing toward the source of the loud noise, but could only see a fierce explosion on the distant horizon and clouds scattered by the shockwave.

This scene caused everyone to quicken their pace of evacuation, including the duo-and-one-cat combination mixed among them.

Before them, a cross-sea bridge rapidly constructed out of thin air by countless Cube Robots took shape, directly activating the automated walkways of LaRousse City.

Just as Meowth was about to be the first to step onto this bridge, a figure suddenly flew out.

It was a humanoid Pokémon with an orange-red body, gene-helix-shaped arms, and a round, deep-blue crystal in its chest.

"Meow, what is that, meow!"

Meowth was so frightened it directly spoke human language; the two people beside it were completely used to this, merely staring at the figure with Solemn expressions, their instincts making them feel somewhat creepy.

Musashi and Kojiro subconsciously took a step back, and the crowd around them also hesitated to step onto the bridge due to the sudden appearance of this Pokémon.

At this moment, Deoxys paid no attention to these beings, which it viewed merely as interference to biological signal sources.

Its face, lacking a nose and mouth and possessing only two eyes and a slit, lifted to gaze at the sky not far away; its usually expressionless face actually revealed a human-like Solemn look.

Not only was it that Rayquaza which had stopped it from leaving with its companion four years ago, violently erased its body, severely injured it, and caused it to spend four years regenerating.

But there was also another Rayquaza with an even more powerful aura!

There was not so much biological magnetic field interference in the sky to obstruct its vision, so it could clearly capture the other's figure.

The good news was that the two encountering Rayquaza were not holding hands amicably and flying together toward LaRousse City.

They were fighting each other.

The bad news was that even while fighting, the two giant dragons were still firmly targeting this direction, the kind that fights while traveling.

"."

Without understanding that it had generated an emotional fluctuation called speechlessness, Deoxys instantly made a judgment.

Before I find my companion, I cannot let those two enter this city!

Thinking this, amidst the gasps of the crowd constantly retreating behind it, Deoxys began to change its form, its entire body becoming more "streamlined."

This was its innate ability, and also Deoxys's Defense Forme.

Transforming into Defense Forme, Deoxys did not hesitate to clasp its arms together, turning surging psychic energy into an invisible field.

With Deoxys as the foundation, a massive barrier enveloped the entire LaRousse City; even the wind power generation sets built in open areas ceased operation at this time.

This also meant that LaRousse City was now in a state of isolation from the world.

From this moment on, as long as Deoxys's barrier was not breached, the entire LaRousse City would be in a state where neither entry nor exit was possible.

To put it plainly, even though Deoxys's psychic power was as vast as the sea, accomplishing all this still cost it considerable effort.

At least for now, in order to maintain the barrier's existence, most of its psychic power could not be utilized.

But this should at least be able to delay those two Rayquaza somewhat.

Having done all this, Deoxys turned around, its calm gaze falling upon the many "interference signal sources" stranded at the port below.

What needed to be done now was to eliminate these "interference signal sources" that hindered its search for companions; then, it only needed to find its companions before Rayquaza broke through the barrier.

With most of its spiritual power currently unusable, Deoxys planned to use its cloning ability to capture these people and gather them in one place.

—But, it did not have time to implement this plan.

The two Rayquaza fighting each other overhead had already coiled their way down.

The green one was fiercely whipped onto the barrier by the black one's tail, followed immediately by a merciless blast of "Hyper Beam" erupting forth.

Amidst a violent roar, the entire barrier began to tremble.

—Then, something happened that exceeded Deoxys's expectations.

After a crisp cracking sound, the barrier in which it had placed such high hopes shattered directly.

(End of Chapter)