Chapter 516: Almost Done

Di Ya Lu Ka roared onto the scene, Huo La leapt, broke through the roof, surged skyward, and officially entered the battlefield.

The Underworld King, meanwhile, still sat leisurely in his chair inside the room, quietly watching the fierce clash outside the window with an indifferent expression, calmly observing the whole time.

The battle situation was instantly rewritten.

Previously, Red's Charizard could only barely hold back Di Ya Lu Ka, fighting with great difficulty. But with Huo La's arrival, wielding the full Time and Space divine power, the situation reversed in an instant.

The previously stalemated battle tilted completely within minutes, fully crushing Chi Ri's side.

Seeing this, Chi Ri gritted his teeth and released Palkia, the two divine beasts joining forces to counterattack, trying to turn the disadvantage around.

Huo La likewise released a Palkia.

However, the two cloned Divine Beasts were already energy‑depleted and weakened, unable to withstand the full Time and Space power combined with Mega Charizard's assault, and ultimately could not endure.

The skyward offense and defense grew ever more fierce, and the roar of clashing skills rang continuously.

Finally, under an ultimate combined strike, terrifying energy swept in all directions.

The deafening boom shook the heavens, and the aftershock toppled several nearby small buildings, scattering stones and dust everywhere.

As the smoke and dust slowly cleared, a huge crater was revealed in the ground.

Chi Ri fell in a pitiful heap, slumped at the bottom of the crater, his body covered with wounds.

The Di Ya Lu Ka and Palkia clones beside him were completely stripped of combat power, both collapsing into unconsciousness, unable to rise again.

"It's about time to end."

The Underworld King rose slowly, completely ignoring the vigilant Paipa and Bilan watching him, and walked straight toward Chi Ri's fallen crater.

When he reached the crater's edge, Huo La and Red had already landed, one on each side, tightly surrounding Chi Ri and sealing off any escape.

Chi Ri propped up his battered body, lifted his hand to wipe the blood from his mouth corner, and stared dead‑ahead at the approaching Underworld King, his eyes filled with incredulous anger and disappointment.

"It's you!" he croaked hoarsely, with utter astonishment: "I never imagined that the one who finally betrayed me would be you!"

The Underworld King stepped before him, calmly adjusted his glasses, hands clasped behind his back, his expression serene and unmoving.

"Lord Chi Ri, that statement is inaccurate."

"It's not betrayal. I have always simply followed my own judgment, doing what I deem the most correct, the thing that must be done."

"Is that what you consider the right thing?!"

Chi Ri, his body riddled with injuries, his voice hoarse and raging, almost a roar, "You and I clearly share the same ideals, the same aspirations! Why do you turn against me!"

The Underworld King shook his head lightly, his expression flat, showing no remorse.

"Lord Chi Ri, you're mistaken."

"The me you recognize as a kindred spirit exists in your world, or in your perception of the Underworld King, not the me of this world. We have never been the same person."

Upon hearing that, Chi Ri was startled.

Seconds later, he suddenly threw his head back and laughed wildly, his hoarse, mournful laugh full of self‑mockery.

"Hahaha… so that's it! In the end, the one who's always been self‑righteous and clever turns out to be me!"

He abruptly curbed his laughter, his eyes darkening, his tone suddenly cold: "But do you truly think the outcome before you is a future I have never seen?"

The moment he heard those words, Huo La's complexion changed dramatically, a profound sense of crisis flaring instantly within him.

"Bad!"

Huo La had just blurted those two words when Chi Ri suddenly shouted loudly, "Stabilize Star!"

Boom—!

A deep, muffled boom erupted from the ground.

Immediately, a series of explosive booms rang out, and the entire Galaxy Team Headquarters was instantly engulfed in flames, fire shooting skyward, stones, metal sheets and thick smoke billowing, the whole area plunged into a sea of fire.

The flames roared, and heat waves swept the entire scene.

"Chi Ri! What on earth are you doing!" Huo La gritted his teeth, asked in a low voice, his pupils narrowing.

In the dire situation, Chi Ri's mouth curled a cold, lingering grin; though his body was a wreck, his aura remained terrifying.

"Want to know my purpose?"

He gave a low smile, with bone‑deep obsession, "As long as you can survive today, you'll eventually understand. As for me… reaching this point is already enough."

As his words faded, he swiftly retrieved the two Pokeballs containing the unconscious Di Ya Lu Ka and Palkia, swung them back with force, and accurately tossed them toward Huo La.

Almost the moment the Pokeballs left his hands, the ground beneath Chi Ri collapsed in a massive sinkhole, a black spatial rift instantly devouring the entire area; as smoke swirled, Chi Ri's figure vanished completely.

Huo La instinctively raised his hand and caught the two Pokeballs.

But in that instant, right beside him, a devastating explosion detonated!

The scorching firewave instantly engulfed his body, the massive impact hurling him violently into the nearby raging flames and thick smoke.

The flames surged, the smoke blotted out the sun.

After the firestorm subsided, the spot was empty, Huo La's figure completely vanished within the endless blaze.

————

"Where am I… my head hurts."

Huo La, supporting his sore body, struggled to crawl up from the ground, his head throbbing with a dull, piercing pain, as if the blast's impact still lingered on him.

The surroundings were pure blackness, dead silence.

Only within about a meter around his body was a faint glow, just enough to make out his own limbs; beyond that, in every direction, endless darkness stretched, seeing nothing.

"Anyone there?"

"What exactly is this place?"

Huo La tried to shout, his voice emitted but received no echo, instantly swallowed by the boundless darkness.

He persisted, calling out repeatedly.

"Paipa?"

"Bilan?"

"A Er Zhou Si?"

"Ma Shu Mu?"

A string of calls fell, and the only response to him was still the cold emptiness and dead silence.

A twitch at the corner of Huo La's mouth, and a few absurd strands of helplessness rose in his heart.

"No way... Did I just get blown up to death just now, and this is the afterlife?"

It wasn't his first time experiencing death, but this time the feeling was especially different. No weightlessness, no dispersal, no illusion of reincarnation—only a swath of dead, empty void, oddly eerie.

Just as he muttered to himself, full of doubt, a clear, familiar male voice suddenly rang out in the darkness.

"You haven't died."

"This is a memory I stored in advance; your consciousness has merely been pulled into my memory now."

The moment the voice fell, the pitch‑black space rippled slightly, and a slender figure materialized out of thin air, standing quietly in the nearby darkness.

It was Chi Ri.