After separating from Misty, Natsui and Ash went up the stairs, continuing their run towards the top of the petal tower.
At this point, Natsui had already figured it out. On each floor, Molly wanted to battle someone. This was the typical "leave one behind at each level" trope, and the reason she was doing it was simply for her own amusement.
Or, to put it another way, she was a little girl who had been lonely for too long and wanted someone to play with her. And her way of playing was to have a Pokémon battle.
From this, it was also clear that under the influence of the Unown and the encouragement of Entei, Molly had become both willful and somewhat reckless.
Thump, thump… thump, thump…
The sound of footsteps and heavy breathing echoed on the staircase.
Below them, Misty and Molly had already begun their battle. The sound of explosions was endless. Misty's Starmie was entangled with the Pokémon that Molly had materialized. And as Natsui and Ash passed through this level, the sea and sky quickly disappeared, and the scenery before them once again turned into that network of crystals.
After running upwards through the network for a few more minutes, until they were panting and their legs felt a bit weak, they finally reached the top of the petal tower.
At this point, both of them were exhausted, covered in sweat. It wasn't that their stamina was poor, but this place was just too high.
Perhaps due to the distorted space, this journey had definitely exceeded the original height of the crystal tower.
Roughly calculating, from the bottom floor, they had been running up the stairs for at least a dozen minutes in total. But from the outside, the height of the crystal tower was less than a hundred meters.
It seemed that everything—the crystals, the manor, Entei, and even Molly—had become detached from reality and could not be measured by common sense.
Coming up through a petal-shaped opening, the two finally arrived in a spacious room.
This was clearly Molly's bedroom.
Natsui looked around. Although the style of the place still looked as strange as before, it was clearly much cozier. And in the bedroom, there was a large, soft bed.
Ash immediately saw Delia sitting on the bed.
"Mom!"
He called out and quickly ran over.
Since this was a mother-son reunion, Natsui didn't go over. After steadying his breath, he took a look at Delia's condition.
Just as they had suspected, Delia was not harmed or restrained, and her mind had returned to normal. It seemed that after arriving here, she had already broken free from Entei's control.
Beside her, Ash had only taken a few steps towards Delia when he noticed a little girl lying on her lap and quickly stopped.
The girl had a face very similar to the one in the photo. It was undoubtedly Molly. But perhaps because her consciousness was downstairs battling Misty, she was currently sound asleep and had not noticed their arrival.
"Mom… are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Delia's voice was very soft, as if afraid of waking Molly. "How did you get here?"
"To rescue you, of course!"
"You child… still as reckless as ever. This is a matter for the police."
It was clear that Delia still didn't know about the many thrilling adventures Ash had experienced since the start of his journey. In her heart, Ash was still a child who would never grow up, and she didn't want to see him risk his life to save her.
Little did she know that whether it was Natsui or Ash, their travel experiences were quite extraordinary, far beyond that of an ordinary trainer. They had encountered situations far more dangerous than this. Why would they be afraid of Entei and the Unown?
"I'm your son, Mom! How could I just stand by and do nothing?" Ash walked up to Delia, then looked at the little girl in her lap and whispered, "Is she Molly? What about the Unown? Are they not here?"
Delia gently pointed to the lower level with her finger. "If you're looking for the Pokémon that brought me here, it just left."
"Actually, that's called Entei. But it's not the real Entei, just an illusion created by the Unown."
Knowing that Delia was not aware of the subsequent events, Ash told her everything about the Unown and Entei.
Seeing the two of them still chatting leisurely, Natsui couldn't help but step forward. "Alright, this is not the time to be idle. Let's get out of here quickly."
But entering was easy; leaving was not so simple.
Just as Delia was about to stand up, Molly suddenly opened her eyes.
"None of you can take my mom away!" Seeing Natsui and Ash, her childish voice was now full of anger. With that, she turned her head to look at Delia. "Mom, don't leave me!"
"Well…" Delia looked troubled. "Molly, I'm not your mom. I'm Ash's mom. Don't you remember? You came to Pallet Town with your parents a few years ago…"
"No… I don't want to hear it! You are my mom!"
Delia's words had clearly triggered Molly, and her emotions became extremely agitated, as if she were unwilling to accept this reality.
And in her angry gaze, countless sharp crystals suddenly shot out from under their feet, spreading out rapidly from Molly as the center.
"Danger!"
Natsui quickly dodged, weaving left and right, just barely avoiding being turned into a pincushion by the crystals.
And a dozen or so seconds later, when everything had calmed down and the crystals had stopped appearing, the entire room was almost completely filled with these sharp spikes.
Natsui had less than a meter of space around him. Looking at Ash, he found that he had been separated from him into a different area.
Just then, with a flash of a shadow, Entei appeared beside Molly, staring coldly at Ash.
"Dad! They want to take Mom away!"
The 'Dad' Molly was referring to was this Entei, which shocked Ash.
Entei exuded a majestic aura, as if it would attack at the slightest disagreement.
"Leave the woman, and get out of here now."
Even with its unfriendly tone and ready-to-pounce posture, now that he was here, how could Ash possibly back down?
Putting Delia behind him, Ash said loudly, "In your dreams!"
In fact, with things having developed to this point, there was no need for more words. It was time to fight.
Molly and Entei naturally wanted to drive Ash away and keep Delia as her mother, while Ash was determined to rescue his mom, find the Unown, and stop this chaos.
It could be said that whoever had the bigger fist and greater strength would have the final say.
Knowing that they couldn't delay any longer, Natsui didn't plan to go to the other side to join Ash. Instead, he shouted to him across the crystals, "Ash, let's split up! I'll leave this to you! You're in charge of taking Aunt Delia back! I'll go find those Unown!"
"Okay! I got it!"
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