“Let’s take them down and have a look.”
Terrance and Albus moved at the same time. One picked the Time Flower, while the other broke off the companion rocks, acting like a swarm of locusts stripping everything bare wherever they passed.
After obtaining the Time Flower, Terrance put on the Aura gloves and released Aura power, wanting to witness the wonder of the Time Flower for himself.
Previously, he had only read about this thing in books. This was his first time seeing it in reality, so naturally he was curious.
“Be careful,” Albus warned, but by then the Time Flower had already been activated by Terrance, enveloping all of them within its effect.
Moments later, numerous phantoms appeared before their eyes. They were scenes from events that had occurred here long, long ago. What this Time Flower replayed was a small fragment of an ancient war.
Armored Pokémon fought one another while serving as soldiers of ancient kingdoms. The endless slaughter had left the area in complete ruin.
The group immersed themselves in this ancient battlefield, their hearts tense as each of them watched history unfold with different emotions.
Terrance focused all of his senses on the fluctuations of the Time Flower. He wanted to understand the essence of this flower, but even after the images completely disappeared, he gained nothing.
“The only thing we can confirm is that the ore used in these Aura gloves is related to the Time Flower.”
Albus spoke slowly. As soon as he finished, Ash subconsciously glanced at the Aura glove on his hand and asked, “You mean this?”
“That’s right.” Albus nodded, but immediately shook his head again.
“Forget it, no point thinking about it too much. Let’s go after Mew.”
The images replayed by the Time Flower had only taken up a short amount of time, and of course they hadn’t forgotten their main objective. After adjusting themselves, they once again hurried in the direction Mew had departed.
“Regirock, Registeel, Regice…”
Perhaps because of Mew’s warning, the eternal Pokémon that should have been guarding different areas of the Tree of Beginning had already reacted and now appeared before Terrance and the others.
After walking for quite some time, the moment they saw these three Pokémon, everyone abruptly stopped. Ash in particular spoke in confusion:
“I remember… Mew already told the Tree of Beginning that we aren’t viruses anymore. So why are Regirock and the others still stopping us?”
“Could it be because of us?” Albus rubbed his chin. “After all, Fujiki and I are here for the first time. Maybe this is some kind of trial. As long as we break through, won’t it be fine?”
Before they could discuss things further, the three Pokémon immediately took action and launched an attack!
At that instant, beams of light shot out from the Poké Balls of Terrance, Albus, and Fujiki. Diancie, Lucario, and Roserade appeared simultaneously and rapidly counterattacked.
After blocking the first wave of attacks from the three eternal Pokémon, Diancie’s Psychic briefly restrained their movements. The next moment, Grassy Terrain spread countless vines that further bound the three eternal Pokémon. Finally, Lucario continuously fired three Aura Spheres, engulfing all three of them in wave explosions.
“It’s useless? Their skins are way too thick.”
The booming explosions echoed continuously, and the smoke lingered for a long time, but the completely unharmed state of the three eternal Pokémon did not escape Albus and the others.
At that moment, Terrance looked up and saw a “Pikachu” perched upside down on a small tree growing from the canyon wall, clutching its stomach in laughter.
“Pikachu? Why would there be a Pikachu in a place like this…”
“I see… Mew, huh…”
After discovering that Mew was spectating the battle, Terrance’s lips curled upward slightly as he said, “I understand now. Albus, Fujiki, let’s attack head-on.”
“What are you trying to do?”
When Terrance spoke up, Albus froze for a moment, but he didn’t object. Lucario was the first to charge forward, while Roserade also began attacking in addition to providing crowd control support.
At the same time, Diancie Mega Evolved instantly, condensing two diamond longswords before leaping forward!
As the sword light formed by Dazzling Gleam swept out, its own speed was even faster than the slash itself. In an instant, it appeared within the area occupied by the three eternal Pokémon, forming a back-to-back stance with Lucario and splitting the battlefield apart.
“Bone Rush!”
Holding bone clubs in both hands, Lucario faced Registeel alone, while Mega Diancie battled the other two eternal Pokémon. With the giant vines controlled by Roserade swinging around to provide support, the two Pokémon launched rapid attacks, their figures flashing forward as they charged the three eternal Pokémon with overwhelming force.
Lucario directly confronting Registeel with Roserade’s support, and Mega Diancie holding off both Regirock and Regice without falling behind, looked like war gods as they unleashed their moves. The violent shockwaves blasted the canyon itself, causing the surrounding mountainsides to collapse. Yet strangely enough, Ash and the others, fully focused on spectating, were completely unaffected, as if the outside environment had been isolated from the battle entirely.
“So this is the strength of an Elite Four?!”
Watching Mega Diancie suppress the two eternal Pokémon, Brock, Misty, and Ash were all utterly shocked. The three of them had also faced these Pokémon before, but back then their only option had been to flee in panic. The thought of fighting them head-on like this had never even crossed their minds.
“You…”
A moment later, under the suppression of Terrance’s group, the three eternal Pokémon lost their will to continue fighting and rapidly retreated from the canyon.
This battle had erupted suddenly, but it also gave Albus a far more direct understanding of Terrance’s strength…
That Mega Diancie—forget Lucario, even if Darkrai and Lucario teamed up together, whether they could defeat it was still another question entirely.
Albus’s emotions churned inside him. He truly lagged far behind Terrance now. They had clearly once been evenly matched, but now…
“Pika~~”
Meanwhile.
After seeing the guardians of the Tree of Beginning leave, the “Pikachu” innocently scratched its head before quickly running down.
“Huh… Why is there a Pikachu here?”
“Wait, this Pikachu… looks a lot like Ash’s Pikachu.” As someone who took even more meticulous care of Pikachu than Ash himself, Brock immediately noticed it’s unusualness.
“It probably transformed using Ash’s Pikachu as a template, right, Mew?”
“Mew~~”
After being recognized by Terrance, the “Pikachu” looked bored and transformed back into Mew before quickly flying over to Ash and dragging the real Pikachu away.
“Pika!”
After seeing Mew, Pikachu acted as though it had met an old friend, happily playing with it.
While Mew and Pikachu played joyfully together, Terrance stared intently at Mew, already reaching a conclusion in his mind.
“Mew Mew”
After playing with Pikachu for a while, Mew flew back up and pointed in a certain direction.
“Is it saying we’ve now earned the qualification to visit the Tree of Beginning as guests?”
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