Chapter 162: Groudon: Gulp, I really can't fit any more

"Mr. Steven, although I am Team Rocket, I still have human rights, don't I?"

Mamen smiled very brightly, his tone full of innocence.

"Even if you are the Hoenn Champion, Mr. Steven, you can't slander me, right? I've been here playing with you from start to finish; what have I done?"

"You!!"

Even with Steven's self-restraint, he couldn't help but want to rush over and have a real-life brawl with this guy right now.

Mainly, he was truly anxious.

"Calm down, Champion Steven, don't be impulsive."

Leon and Giovanni hurriedly held Steven back.

Zinnia had already flown over on her Mega Salamence, and seeing Steven in this state, the anger she felt from being slighted couldn't help but dissipate; instead, she began to watch the show with great interest.

"Champion Steven, what happened?" Cynthia asked Steven in a low, puzzled voice.

Steven's chest heaved rapidly; it was clear he was trying his best to quickly calm his emotions and settle down.

"Torrential rain. Most of the Hoenn region has been swept up by torrential rain, and the downpour is still spreading. It's estimated that in ten minutes, it will cover all of Hoenn."

Steven said in a deep voice, his tone extremely heavy.

Hearing this, Giovanni and the others were stunned.

"The rain is simply too heavy. Sootopolis City has already started to flood, and Lilycove City... the coastline is rising rapidly. If this continues, the seawater will rise and flood into the cities."

"And Fortree City..."

Silence!

Hearing this, the pupils of Leon and Cynthia both constricted.

This...

No wonder even Steven couldn't stay calm. In this way, this concerned the safety of several cities—no, the key was that the residents of these cities hadn't evacuated yet!

If this continued, the losses would be far more than just a few cities.

"Mamen, did you do this?!"

Giovanni's words were already laced with intense anger.

"How could you involve those innocent people!!"

"There's no need to raise your voice so much, and what are you talking about? I don't understand at all."

Mamen smiled with disdain, not caring in the slightest about Giovanni's glare.

"Primordial Sea! It's the Primordial Sea you mentioned, right? This heavy rain was brought by Primal Kyogre!" Leon said in a deep voice.

"It is indeed caused by the Primordial Sea, but so what?"

Mamen grinned, a very healthy-looking smile.

But this smile made Steven and the others break out in goosebumps all over.

"You can actually still laugh! Mamen! Do you know what you are doing?"

Giovanni was trembling all over with rage.

"How did you become like this! Do you not have a shred of empathy?"

"Sorry, my morality is relatively low; I've never really cared about irrelevant people." Mamen couldn't help but raise an eyebrow upon hearing this.

Moral kidnapping? I don't have any morals at all, yet you're still trying to moral-kidnap me.

"You..." Steven couldn't help but grit his teeth.

How could there be such an evil and cold-hearted person in this world?!!

"Besides, you seem to have misunderstood one thing."

Mamen interrupted Steven, looking at Steven and the others with a half-smile.

"Isn't it you who came to challenge me?"

Silence!

Pitter-patter~

The entire island was now left with only the sound of the violent downpour.

Oh, and the sound coming from the sea surface not far away.

Glug, glug, glug, glug~

Groudon felt its stomach had probably expanded by two sizes; this damn fish, ahhhhh!!

I really can't drink any more, let me up!!

On the island.

Leon and the others were all silent, and Steven's face was pale.

"At the end of the day, if you hadn't wanted to fight me, Kyogre wouldn't have undergone Primal Reversion. Without Primal Reversion, the Primordial Sea wouldn't be operating like this."

The smile at the corner of Mamen's mouth was mocking and sarcastic as he watched these people before him with composure.

The rain kept falling, but Steven hadn't reacted much before; yet at this moment, Steven felt cold all over.

"You seem to have only thought that the pure power of Primal Kyogre was strong, but you never carefully considered why the legendary Kyogre would be the 'Origin of the Sea'."

The black-haired boy's voice sounded ethereal and cold amidst the curtain of rain.

"The black Rayquaza triggered the Delta Stream in LaRousse City, right? You really didn't remember a thing about that scene at the time."

And this sentence instantly made Cynthia and the others recall the scene where the wild wind and currents filled the sky, as if the end of the world had arrived.

That was actually the ability of Mega Rayquaza?!!

But thinking of the torrential rain in the sky now, Cynthia couldn't help but purse her lips, her brows locked tight.

"I just praised you, right? Knowing to find Groudon to deal with Kyogre is a very smart idea, but now I have to 'praise' you again: you are all really so stupid~ Hahaha."

Mamen's mocking laughter was truly too grating, yet the four of them—Leon and the others—could not refute it.

How could they refute it? The battle had only just begun, and the Hoenn region had already started to "take on water."

Not to mention whether they could defeat Mamen next, even if they did, the Hoenn region would already be flooded; what would be the point?

No, rather, the latter was what they fundamentally couldn't bear.

"You should be able to feel it now, right? Why don't you guess how much time it will take for the Primordial Sea to submerge the Hoenn region?"

Mamen still didn't let them off, mocking them wantonly.

"By the way, I'll give you a piece of good news as a bonus? You really should thank me for taking the Red Orb."

"If Groudon were to undergo Primal Reversion, its ability would become Desolate Land, which is on par with Primordial Sea. That is a top-tier weather ability sufficient to dry up the entire Hoenn region."

"It battles Primal Kyogre; how long do you guess it will take for them to decide a winner? And then guess how long it will take for Desolate Land and Primordial Sea to ruin Hoenn?"

Hearing this, Leon and the others felt a jolt in their hearts and subconsciously looked toward the sea not far away.

The sea was still surging with waves, but one could vaguely see a large red lump bobbing up and down in the water.

To be honest, the scene was a bit funny, but Leon couldn't laugh at this moment.

After all, according to what Mamen said, if Groudon underwent Primal Reversion, Desolate Land would shine over all of Hoenn, and under the intense sunlight rivaling this downpour, drying up the entire Hoenn region was definitely not a lie.

"This..."

Leon's expression was extremely ugly; they were truly wrong.

They had only considered the combat power of Primal Kyogre but hadn't thought at all about the harm brought by fighting them.

But could they be blamed for this? They were only coming into contact with such legendary Pokémon for the first time.

But Leon still blamed himself; if they could have investigated Primal Kyogre more thoroughly and analyzed it more, perhaps it could have been avoided.

"It's all my fault..."

Steven clenched his fists tightly, his head lowered, his tone incomparably dry.

The cold rainwater dripped down his hair, but his heart was even colder at this moment.

He had been single-mindedly focused on driving Team Rocket out of the Hoenn region as quickly as possible, and the decision to find Groudon and use Groudon to counter Kyogre was also his.

And now that the situation had turned out like this, he could not shirk the responsibility.

Yes, he had prepared himself; even if it meant sacrificing another "LaRousse City," it would be acceptable as long as Team Rocket could be expelled.

But that was just one "LaRousse City," and now the Primordial Sea had gradually covered the entire Hoenn region.

If it continued, the Hoenn region might even be submerged.

This was definitely not a result Steven could accept, and he couldn't bear such a result either.

"Champion Steven..."

Leon and Cynthia looked at the despondent Steven with complex expressions; although the decision was indeed finalized by Steven.

But they had also agreed, and even initially felt that this plan was completely feasible.

"Zinnia, you go first."

Mamen was in a good mood, even having the leisure to take a few photos of Steven and the others at this moment.

"Alright."

Zinnia felt it was a pity she couldn't continue watching the fun, but business came first.

She patted the back of her Mega Salamence, and the Mega Salamence instantly sped off into the distance, soon disappearing into the endless curtain of rain.

Giovanni and the others also noticed Zinnia's movements, but they had no energy to care about that right now.

Giovanni took a deep breath, his tone softening.

"Mamen, regardless of anything else, this is a grudge between us; I hope you won't involve other innocent people."

Without a doubt, the meaning of this sentence was to concede.

But Leon and Cynthia were both silent and didn't speak; they could only sue for peace now, otherwise what else could they do?

Not to mention those cities already flooded with disaster, if this Primordial Sea continued to operate, the entire Hoenn region would suffer.

"Oh?" Mamen looked at the four of them with great interest.

"My comprehension skills aren't very good, Mr. Steven. Could you please translate for me? What exactly does this esteemed Gym Leader Sakaki mean by his words?"

Mamen curled his lips, his wicked smile appearing like a demon's under the dim, rainy curtain.

He felt no guilt whatsoever; after all, it was Steven and the others who came looking for trouble with him, wasn't it?

He, Mamen, just wanted to diligently develop Team Rocket.

Yet these guys all came charging up, shouting things like "Eliminate the evil Team Rocket" and "For the League and justice"—they couldn't be stopped!

What could he do? He was merely defending himself.

"Mamen, what I mean is..." Sakaki tried to continue.

"Shh—"

Mamen made a silencing gesture toward Sakaki.

"I didn't ask you, my dear Father. I want to hear Mr. Steven translate for me." Mamen's smile grew increasingly dangerous.

"Mamen! Don't go too far..."

Sakaki's tone was extremely low.

But before Sakaki could finish, Steven reached out and stopped him.

"Let me, Gym Leader Sakaki. This is a responsibility I should bear."

Steven took a deep breath, forced himself to pull it together, and looked toward Mamen.

"Mamen, I am very sorry. This incident is my fault. Please forgive me." Steven bowed deeply to Mamen.

Sakaki and the other two watched this scene in silence.

"Tsk—you really are Mr. Steven, aren't you? Able to bend and stretch; you truly are a character."

Seeing this, Mamen couldn't help but click his tongue. This guy Steven really didn't even hesitate.

"I will immediately have the Officer Jennys withdraw, and all captured Team Rocket members will be released. Mamen, please have Kyogre stop the heavy rain."

Steven's face was very pale; he had never imagined that one day he would be begging for peace from a member of an evil organization.

"Since Champion Steven is so sincere, it's not impossible."

Mamen nodded with great satisfaction. He couldn't have kept Primal Kyogre running Primordial Sea forever anyway.

Although Mamen didn't care about ordinary people, if he really sank Hoenn, the sin would be far too heavy. He wasn't some lunatic who wanted to destroy the world.

It wasn't necessary; it really wasn't necessary.

This time was mainly to let Steven and the others suffer a bit and let them witness the power of Primal Kyogre.

Wasn't this going quite smoothly?

As for the losses caused by the rain during this time, that had nothing to do with Mamen.

After all, weren't Steven and the others the ones who wanted to fight?

"Thank you." Hearing this, Steven felt a sense of relief in his heart.

Although Mamen was indeed very evil, keeping his word could be considered one of his few good virtues.

At least it had been that way the previous few times.

But Steven's mood remained heavy; this operation was truly... too much of a failure.

Not only were there no benefits, but it also led to quite a few losses in the end. Steven truly felt he had failed Hoenn; he even had thoughts of resigning to take responsibility.

"Kyogre, hmm?"

Mamen turned toward the direction of Primal Kyogre. The fatty fish should have had enough fun by now, right?

But just as his gaze shifted, Mamen was stunned.

Because right now on the sea surface, a large lump of red stuff was floating there—it was Groudon.

But the most ridiculous thing was that Groudon's belly was bulging high; to put it descriptively, it looked like a pregnant woman ten months along.

Groudon really looked like it was "pregnant," and it didn't look fake!

It was even floating on the sea; this... just how much water did Primal Kyogre pump into its stomach?

And if one looked closely, they would see that Groudon, with its eyes rolled back, had a "trickling stream" constantly flowing from the corner of its mouth—this was the seawater being forced out.

"Gurgle... really... can't stuff any more in..."

(End of chapter)