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Kael froze.
It took him a heartbeat to realize that the voice echoing inside his consciousness did not belong to his own thoughts.
It was coming from the guardian before him.
"…But—"
He lifted his head, hesitation flickering in his crimson eyes as he looked at the radiant figure slowly descending from the sky, as if wanting to say something.
"There is no need to doubt."
Tapu Koko landed on the ground.
The piercing shriek of electricity gradually receded, and with the blinding lightning gone, the abnormal weakness in its body became impossible to ignore.
"The venomous blood of the Nightmare Seed has already spread throughout my entire being."
Invisible electromagnetic fluctuations rippled through the air, carrying structured information directly into Kael's awareness, allowing him to comprehend Tapu Koko's meaning without spoken words.
"But you're not like the Nightmare Pokémon I've seen before," Kael said slowly. "They lose themselves. They become nothing but killing machines."
Tapu Koko let out a faint, almost amused sound and shook its head.
"The Nightmare Seed does not spread like a conventional disease."
"Isolation is meaningless. Physical separation, cutting off contact with other lifeforms, consuming only purified water, even sealing oneself in a perfect vacuum all of these fail to prevent infection."
"This anomaly originates from outside our reality. Its transmission exists somewhere between time and space."
"The moment it breached the boundary and entered the Pokémon world, every being capable of sustaining it became potential soil."
"Only a very small number of Pokémon, possessing unknown anomalous traits, were spared."
Kael frowned, about to interrupt—
But Tapu Koko's gaze stilled him, urging silence.
He listened.
"We do not know what those traits are," the guardian continued. "But one thing is certain."
"The vast majority of legendary Pokémon do not possess them."
Kael's confusion finally boiled over.
"Then why hasn't the world already ended?"
"If even legendary Pokémon are infected, this planet should have collapsed long ago."
"And you said yourself that you're infected, yet you're nothing like the mindless monsters I've fought."
Tapu Koko nodded.
"You are correct."
"If we had all fallen into complete madness, extinction would already be inevitable."
"But there is a reason your kind refers to us as 'legendary Pokémon.'"
Tapu Koko raised a claw, pointing toward its own eyes now completely clouded in dark, murky red.
"The Nightmare Seed creates monsters by embedding itself deep within a Pokémon's mental domain, continuously releasing waves of malignant cognitive signals."
"These signals steep the mind endlessly, like tea leaves soaking in boiling water."
"Over time, they rewrite thought patterns, reshape perception, and reduce living beings into engines of negative emotion, feeding the Seed's growth."
"We are no different from ordinary Pokémon in origin."
"But because we are favored by nature itself, our mental capacity and inherent sanctity far exceed the norm."
"To a degree, this allows us to resist the mental restructuring imposed by the Nightmare Seed."
"That is why I am still standing before you."
The voice in Kael's mind fell silent.
He stood there, absorbing the weight of what he had just heard.
After a long pause, he finally spoke again.
"If legendary Pokémon can remain conscious," he asked quietly, "Then why allow the Nightmare Pokémon to run rampant?"
"Pokémon like Lugia or Kyogre would never tolerate their seas being corrupted."
"And an island guardian like you should be even less willing to stand aside."
Tapu Koko shook its head slowly.
"You know more than you should."
"While we can suppress the Seed's influence, we cannot erase it."
"Even the smallest daily intrusion accumulates over centuries."
"To prevent ourselves from becoming true monsters, most legendary Pokémon chose sleep."
"Endless sleep."
"By reducing mental activity to the absolute minimum, they slow the spread effectively freezing the Nightmare Seed within their consciousness."
Kael stared at Tapu Koko's eyes, now completely swallowed by that murky darkness.
Concern stirred deep in his chest.
He wanted to speak.
The words reached his throat—
Then he swallowed them back down.
Tapu Koko gave a soft, tired chuckle.
"I know what you want to ask."
"Why did I not choose to sleep like the others?"
Kael felt a bit embarrassed at having his thoughts read so easily, but still nodded.
"…Yes."
Tapu Koko did not answer immediately.
Instead, it looked directly into Kael's eyes.
Past the crimson glow.
Past the surface.
As if peering into the deepest layers of his soul.
The wind howled across the ruins, grains of sand scraping against shattered concrete.
After a long moment, Tapu Koko finally looked away.
"…Come with me."
Before Kael could respond, a sharp crack of electricity snapped from Tapu Koko's body.
A powerful electromagnetic field surged outward, washing over him like a tide.
Gravity vanished.
The pull of the earth was gently neutralized, replaced by controlled magnetic levitation.
The hum of electricity filled his ears.
Kael's feet lifted from the ground.
Wrapped in a dense magnetic field, he rose into the air—
Floating alongside Tapu Koko.
And together, they ascended.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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