Chapter 867: Shadow Arrives, Flower Trick
Scizor stepped in to confront Rayquaza.
That left Mewtwo with no choice but to help Kazuya deal with Dialga.
What He needed to do was quite straightforward.
Whenever Kazuya landed an attack, He simply had to follow up with an assault of His own, denying Dialga any window to cast Roar of Time.
However.
Saying it was easy.
Mewtwo's attacks were well within the realm of what Dialga could comfortably shrug off.
At times.
Even if It took Mewtwo's strikes head-on.
Dialga would still unleash Roar of Time upon Itself.
Under such grinding conditions, the battle dragged on for over half an hour.
The victor remained undecided.
Strangely enough.
Kazuya figured Shadow should have shown up long ago.
A dozen minutes earlier.
He had already prepared himself to evacuate Scizor and Mewtwo at a moment's notice.
Yet even now, the adversary had not manifested. It seemed Lucario, AZ, and the others had left behind a parting gift for Shadow.
Regardless.
This window had to be seized.
Presently.
Over on the neighboring field, both Scizor and Rayquaza were battered to within an inch of their lives.
Scizor's state was an entire tier worse than Rayquaza's.
He had already slain Kyurem beforehand, expending a massive reserve of his strength.
Furthermore.
In both raw stats and typing, Scizor was outmatched by Rayquaza.
Most critically.
Scizor couldn't fly!
That was the fatal handicap when facing Mega Rayquaza.
It left Scizor forced into reactive counter-punches, with precious few openings to mount proactive strikes.
He was pinned in an absolute disadvantage.
It was only natural that his condition deteriorated much faster.
On the other side.
Mewtwo had already retreated to the earth below.
Having first suffered a relentless pummeling from Rayquaza, and then facing target fire from Dialga.
His condition was dire in the extreme.
To prevent Mewtwo from completely losing all combat capability in the event of an unforeseen crisis, Kazuya ordered Him to drop down to the ground first to cast Recover.
As for Kazuya himself.
There were virtually no visible wounds across his entire body.
Not because he hadn't taken hits.
Rather, every bit of damage sustained had already been mended by the Power of Creation.
Even if his HP wasn't at a full 100%, it was sitting at 98% and ticking steadily upward.
The real crisis lay elsewhere.
His energy was almost entirely dry.
To disrupt Dialga from executing Roar of Time, he had bombarded It with attacks without the slightest reservation, draining his energy reserves at lightspeed.
What he could muster right now.
Consisted almost exclusively of Ground, Electric, and Psychic-type moves.
Because the Power of the Earth, the Power of Electricity, and the Power of Mind helped replenish the elemental reserves of those three typings.
Looking across at the adversary.
Dialga's condition was equally wretched.
Among the five Pokémon on the field, Its state was the worst of all.
Unable to even sustain Its Origin Forme, It had regressed to Its Altered Forme, Its combat strength cratering once more.
Kazuya reckoned.
This clash had shattered the Adamant Crystal within Dialga's body.
Perhaps from this day onward.
Dialga might never assume Its Origin Forme again.
At this juncture.
Kazuya manifested atop Dialga via Teleport, raising an arm to summon a bolt crashing down from the heavens.
Thunder!
Rumble!!
"Aang-woo~"
The titanic pillar of lightning slammed into Dialga, forcing It to throw Its head back in a ragged wail, coughing up a plume of black smoke.
Yet It did not freeze.
With a blur of motion.
It dissolved into a shimmering silhouette, rewinding back to the coordinates It held five seconds prior.
Just as Dialga prepared to unleash Roar of Time to patch Its wounds.
Scizor, throwing caution to the wind despite knowing it might leave him vulnerable to a catastrophic strike from Rayquaza, hammered a brutal fist straight across!
Reversal!
The more battered the user's state, the greater the catastrophic power unleashed.
Clang!
A leaden, titanic wall of iron slammed directly into the crown of Dialga's head.
The dragon gritted Its teeth and held out against the weight for two agonizing seconds, but ultimately buckled, crashing headlong toward the earth.
At the exact same instant.
Mega Rayquaza's Dragon Ascent surged right behind Scizor.
A pair of jagged golden fangs clamped down around his waist, dragging Scizor plunging down toward the earth below.
Boom——!!
Two colossal explosions erupted simultaneously.
The entire Hoenn continent trembled violently.
Dust plumes billowed across Mauville City in the far distance, as countless skyscrapers shook and collapsed.
Down on the battlefield.
Two massive craters were blasted into the earth.
One spanned over four hundred meters across, while the other was twice that size.
Within the smaller crater.
Dialga thrashed desperately, jaws snapping, struggling to rise and fire Roar of Time.
Yet Its two forelegs gave out, causing It to crash flat onto the ground.
On the other side.
Scizor was gravely battered, on the very threshold of death.
Mewtwo lingered no longer, using Teleport to pull him out of the crater's depths, dodging Rayquaza's follow-up onslaught.
"Master! I'm fine! Take Him now!"
Scizor roared at the top of his lungs.
Kazuya's gaze locked in.
He shot toward Dialga's position at maximum speed.
Before he even dropped into the crater.
Kazuya had already hurled a Dark Void straight onto Dialga's form.
"Hum~"
Dialga let out a final, drawn-out groan.
Then slumped forward, face planted against the dirt.
It hadn't died.
If Dialga perished outright, the Power of Time would scatter into the cosmos, denying Kazuya any chance to devour it.
Presently, Dialga had been plunged into slumber by Dark Void.
Battered to the edge of death.
Dialga had lost all resistance against the hypnotic pull of Dark Void.
Once Its state within the nightmare deteriorated past a certain threshold, Kazuya would thoroughly devour Its life and the Power of Time.
Though Dark Void had landed.
Kazuya did not halt his pace in the slightest.
He continued rushing toward Dialga's coordinates at top speed.
The devouring had not yet commenced.
Once it began.
The process could not suffer a single interruption.
To say nothing of the Mega Rayquaza still looming over this battlefield, who knew when Shadow would arrive.
Kazuya had to relocate Dialga to another location before the devouring process began if he wanted peace of mind.
Yet right at that second.
"Kazuya——!!"
An anxious, furious roar echoed from the horizon.
"So He came."
Kazuya glanced back.
Sure enough.
Shadow was riding atop Ho-Oh, hurtling in this direction at breakneck speed.
And hurtling even further ahead of Them.
Was a serpentine dragon shimmering with rich Grass-type energy.
Leaf Song?!
Kazuya's eyes widened in disbelief.
Wasn't this move.
The original technique he had forged back then to overcome Lugia?!
A move adapted and engineered from Leaf Storm.
"As expected, another me..."
Kazuya gritted his teeth and looked away.
His stride did not falter, sprinting straight for Dialga.
He had no luxury to worry about the fallout of taking this strike!
Devouring Dialga.
Was down to this singular final step.
As long as he seized It and escaped with the Power of Space.
Shadow's faction would suffer a devastating blow.
If he spared the attention to counter this move, how could he possibly extract Dialga?
Shadow's speed was no joke.
In the span of a single blink.
He had closed the gap from a thousand meters away to the edge of the crater.
That blistering pace.
Actually outstripped Kazuya even with the Power of Racing Thunder active!
Dialga was right before him.
Kazuya extended his arm, reaching out to grasp It.
He caught It!
Squelch!
Shadow's leaf dragon slammed into Kazuya at the exact same moment.
His jaw parted, his head dropping down to look at his chest.
A massive hole had been blasted clean through his torso.
And on the ground right before him.
A wooden branch was planted in the soil.
Atop the branch bloomed a radiant pink cherry blossom, accompanied by a still-throbbing, pitch-black heart.
With a single strike.
Kazuya's heart had been blasted right out of his body.
Such sheer destructive force.
Left Kazuya wondering if Shadow's level had already reached Lv. 100!
Did this fellow truly slay Arceus with His own hands?
Kazuya's vision swam into a blur.
His gaze dropped uncontrollably.
Landing right upon that branch sticking out of the ground.
That single glance.
Snapped Kazuya's fading consciousness instantly awake.
"Not Leaf Storm? It's... Flower Trick!"
The signature move awakened by Meowscarada upon evolution.
Flower Trick!
Kazuya's pupils contracted violently as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
He had no time left to process it.
Clinging to his fraying sanity, he clamped his right hand onto Dialga, while tearing his left hand across empty air.
A spatial wormhole unfurled before him.
Kazuya threw himself headlong toward the opening.
Simultaneously.
Shadow had already arrived behind him, trailing a swirling tempest of pink petals.
Petal Blizzard.
A relentless storm of petals battered Kazuya's back.
Some even tore straight through the cavity in his chest, surging into the spatial wormhole.
Shadow reached down, seizing Dialga's hind leg and yanking It back toward Himself.
At the same time, He drove a vicious kick into Kazuya ahead.
Play Rough.
Rip!
The arm Kazuya used to grip Dialga was torn clean away, and Dialga was wrenched back into Shadow's grasp.
Kazuya himself.
Was sent hurtling into the wormhole by the immense force of the kick.
The next second.
The wormhole ripped open beside Scizor and Mewtwo.
Kazuya's figure tumbled out, crashing onto the earth as blood pooled beneath him.
Through blurred vision, he looked toward his right side.
The arm was gone.
Worst of all.
Dialga had not been brought back.
His eyes rolled back.
Kazuya blacked out on the spot.
Watching this unfold, both Scizor and Mewtwo were struck with profound shock.
How formidable Kazuya was.
They knew better than anyone.
Trash like Ho-Oh couldn't even withstand a fifth blow against him.
Yet.
Before this Shadow.
Kazuya had lasted barely three exchanges!
Despair washed over Mewtwo in an instant.
Kazuya had fallen unconscious, rendering the Power of Space unusable.
Could they truly escape from Shadow's clutches?
While Mewtwo stood dazed.
A beam of red light flared.
Kazuya was recalled into the Heal Ball resting in Scizor's claw.
Mewtwo looked up at him, only to discover that Scizor was terrifyingly calm at this moment.
He had always been this way.
Whenever Kazuya wasn't around or lost consciousness.
Scizor would mature in an instant.
"Take Master and go. I'll stay behind to hold the rear. Don't worry, within five minutes, no one will be able to pursue you."
Scizor shoved the Heal Ball containing Kazuya into Mewtwo's chest, then reached out to snatch a few Reversion Pills back from His person.
"Scizor."
Clutching the Heal Ball tightly, Mewtwo called out.
He desperately wanted to stay and fight by his side.
Even if death was the certain outcome.
However.
Five minutes...
They might truly have a shot at getting away.
Mewtwo could not discard this fragile hope of Kazuya's survival.
"Save the chatter, get moving."
"I'm just heading back to find that dog."
"If not for that fellow, we might have already extracted Dialga."
"Damn it, if I don't catch up and land a punch on him, I'll never find peace."
"Besides."
"If I don't step forward now, what was the point of acquiring all this strength?"
Scizor waved his claw.
Striding forward toward the direction where Shadow stood.
Mewtwo stared at his retreating back, gritted His teeth, and turned to sprint toward Mauville City.
Scizor cast a brief glance over his shoulder.
A trace of quiet serenity washed over his eyes.
"It seems my journey ends right here."
"A pity..."
"I couldn't even say goodbye to Master."
"Still..."
"Being able to protect you until the very end is my honor. An ending like this isn't bad at all."
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