It was still that familiar voice from back then. He was the embodiment of the underworld’s consciousness. By all logic, the underworld should never have possessed consciousness of its own. It was originally nothing more than the world of the dead.
But countless years ago, the Spooky Plate appeared here. Its power gave rise to this consciousness within the underworld, and over the course of innumerable years, it developed into what it is now.
The underworld also coveted the power contained in the Plate, yet it had no idea how to draw out that power. All it could do was gradually absorb the energy that overflowed from it.
If there had been any other way, it wouldn’t have stepped forward at all.
“Fine. Give me what belongs to my lord, and I’ll naturally leave this place.”
“That’s impossible! That’s my possession!”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Do you know this? My lord is a very easygoing being. Even if you offended him last time, so much time has passed that he might not hold it against you anymore.
“But trying to claim my lord’s treasure. That is an unforgivable crime.”
A hint of killing intent appeared in Darkrai’s eyes. No matter what species it was, attempting to possess a plate while it belonged to Arceus would never end well.
To keep his lord from getting angry, it would be better to eliminate it in advance.
Darkrai thought that this guy, who had been running away from the start and didn’t even come out until he arrived, probably wasn’t much of a threat. But when he made his move, he realized he had underestimated this guy.
A void-like humanoid form appeared before Darkrai and blocked his attack.
Back then, the underworld had been frightened away by Arceus. After all, the underworld was the plane of the dead in this world, and the consciousness of the underworld could represent the power of this place.
Holding its own against Darkrai was not a problem.
“I admit I underestimated you, but now you should cherish what little time you have left. Once my lord arrives, it will be time for you to disappear.”
Darkrai’s words caused the underworld’s phantom to pause for a moment. At this point, it had not yet realized that the “lord” Darkrai spoke of was Arceus, as it was still unclear about the connection between the two.
Anyone whom Darkrai addressed with such reverence was clearly no weakling.
“But you don’t need to worry too much. I don’t want to see an eyesore like you still around when my lord comes.”
As he spoke, Darkrai placed one hand on his abdomen. Under the underworld’s puzzled gaze, Darkrai’s hand actually plunged straight into his own stomach and pulled out a Plate identical to the Spooky Plate he was trying to seize.
“You already have one, why are you still trying to steal mine?!”
“Because that was never yours. Likewise, this isn’t mine either. It’s merely something my lord lent me for temporary use.”
“It’s been by my side ever since I gained consciousness!”
“That’s only because you’re too young.”
After taking out the plate, Darkrai had no intention of continuing to fight the underworld. Instead, he teleported directly in front of the Spooky Plate.
“Don’t even think about it!”
Darkrai was fast, but this was the underworld. As the consciousness of the underworld, everything within it was subject to his control.
The underworld terrain near the Spooky Plate suddenly shifted backward by a great distance, and the underworld’s consciousness also blocked Darkrai’s path. As the underworld closed in, Darkrai did not put away the plate in his hand, but instead hurled it toward the Spooky Plate.
However, before the two could collide, the underworld’s consciousness manipulated the underworld itself to block that plate. It didn’t know what Darkrai intended to do, but stopping Darkrai was certainly the right move.
“You won’t take it away, and you won’t take my underworld with you!”
Earlier, when Darkrai had chased it to the entrance, the underworld’s consciousness had wanted to use the underworld itself to deal with this hidden danger, so it had proactively expanded the underworld’s territory.
In the end, it was a case of inviting the wolf into the house, leading to even more troublesome consequences. Now, the consciousness of the underworld wanted to settle everything before Arceus arrived, so it chose an extremely brutal method. It intended to detonate this portion of the underworld itself.
As long as this area was severed from the underworld and erased, Darkrai would have no way to deal with him. Under the control of the underworld’s consciousness, the souls in the vicinity began to riot, and even the world itself grew unstable.
There were no volcanoes here, yet the underworld’s unique icy springs began to erupt. Even souls would turn into ice the instant they were touched by that liquid.
Darkrai did not merely stand by and watch. A black curtain enveloped the surroundings, and a spatial barrier formed from Dark Void locked the underworld’s consciousness and Darkrai within the same area.
Aside from the underworld’s consciousness, the other incorporeal souls couldn’t even touch the Spooky Plate. All he needed to do was wait for Zeraora to track the battle’s aura and arrive, and the problem here would resolve itself.
However, Zeraora was facing a problem of his own at this moment. It wasn’t just the underworld that was in turmoil, the souls here were as well.
His lightning was ineffective against these souls, leaving him only with ordinary physical attacks to deal with them. Under the onslaught of the tide of souls, their progress was severely slowed, advancing at a painfully sluggish pace.
Zeraora could no way abandon the others in such a situation. Yet at that very moment, someone lost emerged from the surrounding fog.
“Zoro! Not this way!”
Drawn by the resonance of the god of getting lost, Zoro successfully went the wrong way again. He moved farther and farther from the outer region, instead arriving at the most troublesome area, where he saw two figures fighting within a mass of black void.
“Even though this is the underworld, fate isn’t smiling on you today.”
Seeing Zoro intrude, Darkrai suddenly came up with a new idea, and the underworld’s consciousness also realized what the arrival of this living being meant.
This living person might be able to accomplish what Darkrai had just tried to do but had been interrupted from finishing.
The underworld’s consciousness attempted to manipulate the underworld to kill Zoro, only to find that its power was cut off by the Dark Void created by Darkrai.
“Kid! Do me a favor, take that plate to your front-left and move it next to the other identical plate!”
“Don’t help him! You can’t do that!”
“What are you two talking about? Why should I help you do something like that?!”
At this moment, Zoro was being chased everywhere by the erupting icy springs of the underworld. Although the underworld’s consciousness had been restricted, the disturbance it had triggered earlier had not stopped.
If it were released, the underworld’s consciousness would continue to interfere with Darkrai, so Darkrai could only imprison it this way while waiting for the others. A living being like Zoro was the best option available right now.
“It’s simple. This area of the underworld is collapsing, and this guy is the culprit. If you don’t stop it, that little girlfriend of yours will die in the icy springs sooner or later.
“You only need to move two stones to save her. Isn’t that a good deal?”
“What girlfriend? What are you talking about?!”
“That’s not the point. It doesn’t matter what she is to you, whether you do it or not is entirely up to you.”
Darkrai’s words were effective. Earlier, even mere splashes had caused Kuina serious trouble, and the area affected by the erupting springs was still expanding. If this continued, something would inevitably go wrong.
Seeing Zoro waver, the underworld’s consciousness immediately shouted, “Don’t do it! Help me leave this place, and I can stop all of this! I can even grant that soul eternity. After you die, you can be together forever!”
After a brief calculation, Zoro chose the simpler option: moving the Plate.
It was obvious that the phantom couldn’t defeat Darkrai’s shadow, otherwise he wouldn’t have said such things. Moreover, Zoro was more familiar with Darkrai. They had at least exchanged a few words before.
As for the promise made by the lord of the underworld, it sounded absurdly hollow to Zoro’s ears. No matter how he listened to it, it sounded exactly like something a swindler would say.
With the involvement of another living being, the two plates quickly completed their collision, and it was only at this moment that Zeraora finally fought his way out of the sea of souls.
“Zeraora! Catch that green-haired guy, don’t let him die from the fall!”
The instant the plates made contact, a terrifying shockwave burst forth, directly blasting Zoro away. In theory, the fall wouldn’t be fatal, but since Zeraora was already here, he might as well lend a hand.
A vine entwined with flower buds shot out from Meowna’s body, safely carrying Zoro back to the ground, while the result of the collision between the two plates had already manifested.
This plate was the Draco Plate that Arceus had personally handed to Darkrai back when the two met.
Although Darkrai himself couldn’t use this plate, Arceus had already set a program within it. Once it encountered the Spooky Plate, that setup would be completed.
Other powers had also been stored within the Draco Plate. When those powers combined in the sky with the powers of the two plates present, a brand-new Pokémon appeared here.
A golden half-ring encircled its neck from behind, black-and-red stripes were horizontally arrayed across the front of its neck, a pair of ghost-like wings spread from its back, and beneath its body were three pairs of thick, powerful legs.
In terms of appearance, it bore some resemblance to Arceus, and in truth, that was exactly the case.
Born of Dragon and Ghost-type as its core, supported by other energies, this is the Renegade Pokémon-Giratina.
Arceus’s number-one “filial son,” a true Legendary Pokémon that did not exist within some consciousness space, but had physically descended upon the world itself.
“Nice to meet you. My lord will arrive soon. Could you clear up the trouble here?”
This was precisely why Darkrai was not the least bit flustered. From the moment he arrived here, the outcome had already been decided.
In the best-case scenario, he would resolve everything perfectly.
In the worst case, Arceus would arrive and clear the place himself. What was happening now was a compromise: having Giratina handle the overly troublesome matters.
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