On the fourth night after the events of Area Zero had ended,
Geeta, having finished a day's work at Pokémon League headquarters and gotten some rest, had a somewhat strange dream.
What appeared before her was a giant tower with a crystallized exterior, one that also seemed to still be under construction.
The tower had only three floors. The areas above that were shrouded in dense mist that made them impossible to make out.
And the surrounding environment looked like the sort of rest area found before challenging a Pokémon League in other regions, complete with something like a Pokémon Center and healing machines.
There was also an obvious shop area, though there was no clerk selling anything there.
Of course, when a person is dreaming, it is usually very difficult to tell whether they are in a dream or not. Only in a few rare cases can someone realize they are conscious.
Oddly enough, Geeta could clearly tell right now that she was in a dream.
She did not know why she was so certain, but that thought kept surfacing in her mind as if beyond her control.
Then a voice sounded behind her.
"That tower has only just begun construction, Top Champion Geeta. Would you like to go in and give it a try?"
"After all, the tower's functions still need a bit of simple testing. During the construction period, there probably won't be too many rounds of 'testing work' that require your help for now."
Geeta was very familiar with that voice. She turned in surprise while still maintaining the dignity expected of the league chairwoman.
"Elite Four Hikaru?"
"How strange. This should be a dream, shouldn't it? For some reason, I'm simply certain of that... In that case, can you explain what exactly is going on here?"
Geeta kept her trademark smile. She already knew Hikaru possessed certain special powers.
To Geeta, a region like Paldea, where "psychics" were nearly nonexistent, still found the whole field of extraordinary humans and the effects they could produce to be something relatively unfamiliar.
Still, she believed that this newly appointed Elite Four member, who had just resolved Paldea's hidden crisis and proposed all kinds of development plans, would not do anything harmful to her.
"This tower is one established by a god."
"150 years ago, there was no tower here. There was only a hall, a place known as the Hall of Origin."
Within the dream world, Hikaru explained things to Geeta:
"In the same way, in the distant past, only a single person ever battled here, and that person completed the entire challenge."
"After that, the challenge was sealed away for 150 years, and it has only now been restarted..."
"Top Champion Geeta, don't you want to try challenging it? This tower can greatly temper your strength, and after the challenge is over, the god will distribute certain special prizes."
"For those who love battling, this tower is a wonderful place where you can fight anytime, anywhere."
"Of course, just as I said before, now still isn't the time for it to open to the public. I'm only asking you to test it, because as Paldea's Top Champion, only you have the strength for something like this."
"Should I say I'm deeply honored?" Geeta folded one arm behind her back and rubbed her brow with the other. "Although I have no idea what kind of god you're talking about, I assume I'll find out sooner or later."
"If I clear this tower, will you tell me everything in detail? I'm a little interested."
"No problem. It is the Pokémon known as god, the one that created this world." Hikaru made a welcoming gesture, and only then did Geeta notice a lion-like Pokémon near the crystal tower.
Geeta recognized this Pokémon.
After all, the "legendary beasts of Ho-Oh" were fairly famous among the many legends of the world. And with Rika's hometown being in Johto, Geeta had naturally looked into the legends surrounding Ho-Oh's legendary beasts.
Geeta was rather surprised. "One of Ho-Oh's legendary beasts, Entei?"
"You may think of me as Entei, though I am also somewhat different." Entei stared at Geeta.
"I am one of the builders of this tower. In order to temper and train powerful Trainers, and for the sake of my human daughter becoming an excellent Trainer as well, I accepted this job."
Yet when Geeta heard that, her eyes lit up slightly.
"One of Ho-Oh's legendary beasts is actually connected to some human girl? Interesting. Though you say you aren't exactly the legendary Entei..."
"...Remarkable. Even if this is just a dream, to actually see a Legendary Pokémon here... Elite Four Hikaru, just how many more surprises are you capable of bringing me?"
"Once we're back at league headquarters, please explain all of this to me in detail."
Geeta smiled and did not continue. As the Top Champion of the League, she had her own pride.
Encountering something this bizarre in a dream certainly aroused her curiosity, but this experience was still, at least on the surface, nothing more than an unusual dream.
Besides, she had become a little rusty when it came to battling, and she really did need some time to train again. Unfortunately, her recent workload had only increased, which gave Geeta a slight headache. It made her both happy and miserable at the same time.
She was happy because Paldea's future looked bright.
She was miserable because, as Top Champion, she no longer had time to train.
But the plan she had originally had, to go out into the wild and seek powerful Pokémon to battle in order to sharpen herself, now seemed unnecessary.
"This tower is filled with powerful presences. What kind of opponents will I meet inside?"
"Humans, or... something else?"
Although the tower looked like it had only just begun construction and still had only three floors, Geeta was already filled with anticipation.
Then she saw the silhouette of a white giant.
Its whole body radiated tremendous light. Strange dot-like runes marked its face. That immense body looked like some colossal deity straight out of a myth from a faraway land.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Faced with the white giant that had appeared before her, Geeta's expression changed drastically. She took a deep breath.
It had been far too long since she had brought out her true strength.
Come to think of it, even though this was clearly a dream, all of her Poké Balls were still on her. This challenge facility was pretty well synchronized, wasn't it?
It seemed the giant before her was worthy of battle.
"Go, Glimmora! Use-"
Geeta's command had only just been given.
Then a blast of psychic force struck Glimmora's body with such ferocity that Geeta's hair was whipped back by the shockwave.
"...That was Zen Headbutt!"
"What is this power?!"
Outside the tower,
Entei curiously looked at the three-story structure.
"If I build it by myself alone, the progress will be much slower. This tower is a commission from Arceus. Although ordinary crystallization can ensure the tower suffers no damage even during high-intensity battles, the moment I fall unconscious or lose my power, the tower will immediately collapse."
"Just as when Arceus's divine power disappears, the Dream-Sky Gauntlet will vanish as well."
"Therefore, during the construction process, we not only need to add crystallization energy, but also dream power and divine power, along with the power of the Hall of Origin itself, which serves as the foundation. All of those energies need to be fused into one."
"In the revelation I received, there were also a few suggestions. One of them was to use the power of the Plates so this tower can become truly immovable, standing in the dream world like the dream-tree itself. It must become a tower that exists here forever."
"And just so happens, didn't you already learn how to use Plates to make a Life Orb? There are still many stone tablets scattered across the world. If you can find them, bring them back. Of course, if you can't, that's fine too. It's only one method of reinforcement."
"Anything with tremendous energy can become part of this tower and make it sturdier. For example, the gigantic meteor that is about to strike the world, though has not yet done so - once that meteor is shattered, the meteor fragments scattered from it can also serve as excellent building materials."
Hikaru was rather surprised. "The Hall of Origin encompasses the power of every type, so no matter what it is, as long as it's a material with immense energy, it'll accept it?"
Entei said, "Exactly. That includes Origin Ore as well."
"I don't know what that ore is, but Arceus's revelation wasn't clear on that point. If it didn't tell you to go find it, then that means that stone probably isn't needed for the time being."
Hikaru nodded. "Origin Ore is something that can be used to create the special item known as the Origin Ball. It's an ore with incredible power. There are myths in the world saying it contains the power of Almighty Sinnoh."
"But I've got a floor tile from the Hall of Origin, so that should be the same kind of thing."
Back then, the description had only said it was the same kind of thing. As for the floor tile's true purpose, Hikaru had once felt that using the brick to smash people would probably be pretty effective, but there was no need for that now.
Entei shook its head and said to Hikaru,
"There's one more thing... I brought a friend with me. You probably haven't seen it in quite a while."
At Entei's roar, a strange spatial distortion appeared within the misty space around the tower. And from within those gorgeous colors of interwoven spacetime, the Pokémon summoned into the dream world to help with the work was one Hikaru knew extremely well.
"Unown~!"
"Unown E!"
Although he wanted to say it had been a long time, the truth was that not much time had passed since he had left Sinjoh. Even so, he still felt a little moved.
He had barely seen E at all on Calyrex's farm. Perhaps because, for the first time in a thousand years, it had finally been able to communicate with large numbers of Pokémon in reality, it had lost interest in drifting through the dream world.
It had not been called here until now.
"How is everyone back home?"
"Unown!"
Unown E happily bobbed through the air and explained in detail what had been going on back home.
The original-form Lilligant had continued tending the garden, and they had grown a great many medicinal herbs.
Hisuian Electrode and Voltorb had already stored up a huge amount of electric juice and regularly handed it out for the forest's Pokémon friends to drink.
Dusknoir kept traveling between the spirit world and the real world, and every now and then it would bring back something nice from the spirit world and leave it in your workshop.
"Unown~!"
As for the legendary giants, they were protecting that land, while more and more Pokémon had gathered there, handing out the various items they had made for other Pokémon to use, until one day, waves of dense mist appeared in the wilderness arena you had built.
Then the Pokémon heard some strange voices. I know whose voice that was - it was the voice of supreme Sinnoh speaking!
"That arena is connected to this place now..."
Hikaru immediately understood what was happening.
Just as the alpaca had said, not only humans could challenge the tower. Pokémon could challenge it on their own too!
"If you ever take part in battle later, don't embarrass Sinjoh!"
Hikaru joked, but what Unown said next made him fall silent in thought.
"Unown..."
After you left Sinjoh, those lands that had already become connected formed a separate dimension, but they still continued to be affected by the weather outside.
Now all the Pokémon gather around the temple or near the greenhouse by the workshop, because those places are less affected.
For some reason, Sinjoh is now being lashed by a vast blizzard, and the people in the village seem to have vanished, as if they had never existed at all.
It is as though the people left their homeland, with only the Pokémon remaining there.
"Ancient Verse 20."
"This is the sun. When the sun hides away, all people sigh in sorrow. Pursuing the sun, the masses all leave for distant lands. Only Pokémon remain in this place."
Hikaru froze for a moment.
Sinjoh's history really had come to an end.
What Arceus and the old man of the mountains had said might have carried some kind of implication.
The people in the village had probably migrated, perhaps northward toward somewhere closer to Sinnoh, or perhaps...
"When the sun hides away... right. Aside from the 'Darkness' caused by Necrozma, a violent blizzard can also blot out the sky and cut the world off from the light."
"In ancient legend, Sinjoh was a place buried beneath a wall of blizzards. In the manga special, even after being sealed into another dimension, it still remained locked in endless snow and wind all year round."
"To return to that homeland buried beneath freezing snow, fire power alone won't be enough. There is only one kind of Pokémon capable of smashing through that wall of blizzards and moving freely in and out of it, and that is the giant-bodied Avalugg...!"
"But outside of Sinjoh, Hisuian Avalugg can no longer be found..."
"Unown!" Unown E shook its body and traced special symbols in the air.
That's right. To clear away the wall of blizzards and break through the storm, there is only one kind of Pokémon that can do it.
A homeland is something to be remembered, so there is no need to worry about us. Just keep moving forward!
We can meet again in dreams!
"Unown are the fundamental runes from the creation of the world. They are Pokémon born for the sake of 'creation.'"
Entei spoke to Hikaru, though it also sounded somewhat puzzled.
"Even though I am one of the builders, this giant tower being built with the Hall of Origin as its foundation... during the challenge process, will it really, just as you said, bring forth difficult opponents, even Legendary Pokémon on the level of the pillars of the world?"
"And it will encompass legends from multiple regions as well. Are these Pokémon being summoned from their dreams, or are they phantoms manifested by god?"
"Listen to the sounds of fierce battle coming from inside. Ordinary Pokémon shouldn't possess that kind of power, should they?"
Hikaru also gathered his thoughts again. Looking at Unown, who was still happily enjoying their reunion after such a long separation, he felt as though everything that had happened in Sinjoh had been a dream.
His homeland was cheering him on.
So he would keep moving forward.
"Some of them are summoned here. Some of them are phantoms created by god. That's the kind of place the Dream-Sky Gauntlet is. Most of the Legendary Pokémon are illusions created by Arceus."
"Of course, the rules of this tower have now been updated, so real legendary dreams will also appear within it. And judging by the fierce sounds of battle coming from inside... I'd say the first stage probably ran into an unexpected opponent."
Entei said, "An unexpected opponent?"
Hikaru replied, "Yes. In the old Dream-Sky Gauntlet, the first battle could be selected from among three randomly generated opponent types. The opponent sent out would vary depending on the type you chose."
"For some of those types, one random Pokémon of that type would be sent out. For others, it would send out a group of Pokémon of that type."
"But since this tower is currently still a test version, the first floor's default battle seems to be against a powerful Normal-type Pokémon."
"Normal-type. Ordinary, common, not unusual. The type favored by Mr. Larry, one of Paldea's Elite Four, even though he personally gets made to use Flying-types to increase the difficulty. But there are actually lots of powerful Normal-types, like Snorlax and Mega Kangaskhan."
"And in the first stage, there is also a certain chance of encountering..."
"Regigigas."
As Hikaru said that, Entei immediately thought of the Regigigas in Unova, and its expression turned quite complicated.
A normal titan king, thanks to Slow Start, was basically nothing special.
But if it was a titan king without Slow Start, and instead had a whole series of switchable Abilities like Huge Power, on top of heaven-granted divine strength...
A star guardian!
If the opponent only had one Pokémon, then lock onto it and erase every extra power placed upon it!
Entei said, "...In front of a titan king with heaven-granted divine strength, stat changes become meaningless. Which brings us to the question: does the titan king itself know boosting moves?"
Hikaru considered that for a moment. "Depending on the place, titan kings may have different capabilities due to local conditions. But at least the one in Unova..."
"It knows Psych Up."
"And in terms of recovery, while the Unova titan king's move pool doesn't include healing moves, the Galarian titan king can, in fact, learn Drain Punch."
"The titan king's move pool should probably be universal."
The atmosphere fell silent for a moment. Entei shook its head and looked toward another figure in the mist.
"Forget it. Let's just have the second challenger give it a try."
Hikaru looked the same way. There, a green-haired woman, muttering in confusion to herself as she kept pushing through the mist in the dream, was making her way over.
"Rika, over here! We're here!"
Back then, you were the one who said you wanted to come to this facility, remember?
Hikaru waved to the utterly bewildered Rika, then began introducing everything here all over again.
The titan king of Unova had a dream as well.
Although it wandered near Twist Mountain and practiced punching the mountain face, it always did so without disturbing the local Pokémon or the miners at work.
Now that its strength had recovered, the titan king no longer needed to keep acting as a statue idle in the mountains. It now frequently moved through the western lands of Unova.
The western lands led toward Nimbasa and the nature preserve, and there were plenty of mountain ranges there. Going farther away than Twist Mountain meant it would not disturb anyone.
Before leaving Twist Mountain, just as it had promised before, the titan king spent some time training with Marshal of the Unova Elite Four.
That human was diligent, powerful, and even used the Fighting type that countered it.
But Regigigas still easily won in the end.
There had not even been much technique involved.
It was just the passionate combination move of Huge Power plus Zen Headbutt or Crush Grip.
Battling strong human opponents was beneficial.
And so Regigigas decided to continue going out and training so its body could become completely active again.
If only it could learn Bulk Up or Swords Dance too.
So, in its dream, it heard a familiar voice.
Then it had a dream where it could battle to its heart's content.
And it had a heated fight with a black-haired human woman and a whole bunch of Pokémon it had never seen before.
An ostrich, a goat, a cod, an ice table, a tough one that kept bowing its head, and some kind of bronze flower?
How should one put it... it was all pretty distinctive, really.
[No idea what was going on, but that fight was a blast. A quick Psych Up copied the opponent's stat changes, then Drain Punch restored the HP I'd lost.]
[Good thing I know a lot of moves. In the end, I still managed a difficult victory by a narrow margin.]
[I won. What an interesting duel!]
At Paldea League headquarters,
Geeta abruptly opened her eyes. The battle spirit still lingering in her pupils had not yet faded. Although she was exhausted, her mood was excellent.
As chairwoman, she was often buried in work and rarely had opportunities to battle so freely anymore.
But fighting in a dream... and then waking up with all those battle scenes still vivid in her mind, as if they had really happened...
Even so, she had still lost in the end.
"I couldn't even clear the first stage. How did I get beaten that badly? What kind of Pokémon was that giant? I'll need to look it up in the Pokédex... Hmm. Though this was only a dream, right?"
"And I even saw Hikaru and Entei. Those things have no connection at all. Was I just too tired? What a strange-"
Geeta's words stopped abruptly.
She saw that there were now things on the edge of her desk that had not been there before.
A seed, and a small jar of candy?
And attached to them was a special note.
[This is a Mastery Seed. Give it to the appropriate person, and it can allow a Pokémon to master certain moves.]
[This is Pokémon Candy. Give it to a Pokémon, and it will turn into the corresponding Pokémon's candy, slightly raising all five of that Pokémon's stats.]
[Although the challenge ended in failure, there is still a consolation prize for the first test. I hope next time you'll help participate in the Dream-Sky Tower's challenge testing again, or defend a stage... Please keep it up, Chairwoman Geeta. We look forward to your victory next time.]
Geeta glanced at the door.
She was certain no one had entered her office.
Which meant what she had experienced in the dream was real.
"Honestly, this kind of thing..."
Geeta rubbed her brow.
"How did I end up being dragged into overtime? I actually got outranked from below!"
"But if it's for the sake of guiding Paldea's young sprouts even better... then I suppose I can put in a little extra overtime."
"Though... defend a stage?"
Geeta sharply caught the unmistakable scent of a 996 schedule.
(End of Chapter)
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