Chapter 874: The Final God
Rumble——!!
Right at the instant Kazuya and Mewtwo sprang into motion.
The stationary Arceus abruptly launched a dazzling golden pillar of light straight into the heavens.
The beam wasn't aimed directly at Kazuya and Mewtwo.
Yet they had no choice but to remain exceedingly vigilant.
That was Arceus's signature move: Judgment.
Once it ascended to a certain altitude, it would detonate into countless radiant meteors raining down toward their targets.
Visually, this move bore some resemblance to the Dragon-type special ultimate, Draco Meteor.
Yet in reality.
The disparity between the two was vast.
Draco Meteor was strictly locked to the Dragon typing.
Although its base power reached a staggering 130, its accuracy was inconsistent, and its severe recoil drastically crippled the user's Special Attack afterward.
Judgment was an entirely different beast.
Kazuya possessed a solid understanding of this technique.
That knowledge came from the intel provided by Regigigas and Rayquaza in the second world.
Both were Pokémon that had once challenged Arceus's divine authority, having experienced the terror of this technique firsthand.
In the games.
Arceus altered Judgment's type and shifted its own typing through the Multitype Ability strictly based on whichever Plate it held.
However, the real Arceus was far less shackled by the Plates.
The Plates undeniably amplified Its might.
Yet even without them.
It remained overwhelmingly formidable, retaining full command over Judgment's elemental nature.
In reality.
Arceus's Multitype Ability did not degenerate into uselessness simply because the Plates were absent.
Its influence extended directly to Judgment.
Under this Ability's guidance.
Judgment's typing was inherently fluid.
When striking Darkrai, it became Fighting, Bug, or Fairy...
When striking Mewtwo, it became Bug, Ghost, or Dark...
In short.
The type of this move.
Would perpetually calibrate to exploit the target's elemental weaknesses.
Terrifying beyond measure!
Precisely because of this.
If someone underestimated this technique simply because Judgment held a base power of 100 on paper, they would pay a catastrophic price!
The true effective base power of this move sat at a minimum baseline of 200.
Against certain dual-typed Pokémon, it could easily hit for 400.
If it landed as a critical hit, that soared to 800.
And if Arceus had the raw damage multipliers of the Plates on top of that...
This was the Alpha Pokémon.
It stood at the pinnacle of this world simply because It was sufficiently peerless, with no other caveats required.
Both Kazuya and Mewtwo understood this all too well.
Thus, facing Judgment, they dared not harbor the faintest trace of complacency.
When those pink meteors rained down from the sky, curving along trajectories that aggressively pursued Kazuya and Mewtwo.
Shadow instantly wore an elated grin.
She couldn't control Arceus.
So She had no clue what this fellow was playing at by showing up here.
Bringing so many Demon Gods and magical beasts along wasn't just to see if She could butcher Kazuya and Mewtwo.
It was equally meant to counter unexpected crises, preventing Arceus from suddenly going berserk and turning on Her.
Shadow did not fear Arceus.
Having broken Lucario's seal, Her strength had returned to its peak; in both levels and base stats, She had no reason to flinch before Arceus.
What She feared was Kazuya and Mewtwo teaming up alongside Arceus the moment It acted.
However.
Now that Arceus had made Its stance clear.
Shadow held no further reservations.
With a sweeping wave of Her arm.
Dark clouds rolled in like an iron cage, suffocating the horizon.
A multitude of Pokémon numbering in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps even a million, surged across the sky and sea to drown those black and white silhouettes beneath an ocean of bodies.
A confident smirk curled on Shadow's lips.
As the saying went:
Enough ants can bite an elephant to death.
This adage applied flawlessly to the Pokémon world.
No matter how mighty a god was, it would ultimately buckle beneath sheer numerical superiority.
Let alone Kazuya and Mewtwo.
Even Arceus.
Could never stand alone against countless myriads.
If every god in this world united their strength, Arceus would stand zero chance against them.
Unless the true divine body intervened directly.
Otherwise, Arceus's avatar was destined to fall.
This was simply not a world where omnipotence was consolidated into a single vessel.
If it were.
Concepts like companions and bonds.
Would never have burned with such blinding brilliance across this land.
Shadow understood this as well.
Hence.
Her confidence was supreme.
After all, She commanded millions of magical beasts beneath Her banner.
Within this massive crucible of slaughter, every magical beast that had survived to this day was a hardened monster born of endless butchery.
With so many monsters resting in Her grasp.
How could Shadow not be confident?
Moreover.
In Her eyes.
She and Arceus alone.
Ought to be more than enough to obliterate Kazuya and Mewtwo.
It was only out of caution born from past setbacks that Shadow held back from rushing in.
Once Her expendable vanguard of Demon Gods and magical beasts ground down their stamina.
She would deliver the finishing blow.
On the other side.
The moment Kazuya and Mewtwo realized they were the designated targets of Judgment, they sprang into motion immediately.
An ordinary Pokémon.
Would likely scramble frantically trying to evade Arceus's onslaught.
However...
Kazuya was rich in battle experience.
And Mewtwo possessed an exceptionally sharp intellect.
Having waged war against Shadow's faction for two centuries.
They wouldn't settle for mere evasion.
They intended to use Judgment against these Demon Gods!
Kazuya and Mewtwo crushed three Reversion Pills between their teeth, swept their gazes across the battlefield, and locked onto the Demon Gods nearest to them.
Thus.
They raced ahead in the lead.
While the radiant projectiles of Judgment gave relentless chase behind.
The instant they closed in on Yveltal and Lunala respectively.
Both used Teleport simultaneously, vanishing into thin air.
Boom, boom, crash!
The concussive blasts of Judgment striking true echoed across the sky.
"Roar——!!"
Both Yveltal and Lunala plummeted from the heavens, heavily battered.
They might not be dead.
Yet for the foreseeable future, they wouldn't muster any combat effectiveness.
"Arceus!"
Shadow's furious roar cut across the ocean.
She was beginning to suspect Arceus was actually siding with Kazuya and Mewtwo to sabotage Her.
However.
When Shadow saw Arceus launch an Extreme Speed Giga Impact directly at Kazuya.
Her jaws snapped shut again.
Arceus wasn't scheming with Kazuya and Mewtwo behind Her back.
It genuinely had no mind left.
It only knew how to mindlessly direct Its destruction toward Kazuya.
Factoring in nothing else.
"Dialga, find an opening."
Shadow patted the steed beneath Her.
Among the Demon Gods under Her command.
She still found Dialga the most reliable.
The Power of Time was simply too potent.
Particularly Roar of Time infused with the Draco Plate; its utility was extraordinary, providing peerless sustain.
With Dialga serving as support.
Both She and Arceus were practically half-immortals.
While Shadow directed the battlefield from the rear.
Kazuya found himself dealing with quite a headache.
His perspective mirrored Shadow's.
In a one-on-one duel, he had no reason to fear Arceus.
Arceus might well be Lv. 100.
Yet who said Kazuya wasn't?
His base level on paper was Lv. 99, but he possessed Victini's Power of Victory, allowing him to forcefully scale his level up to Lv. 100.
With no massive gulf separating their overall base stats.
Kazuya was confident that his centuries of battle experience could conquer an Arceus stripped of its reasoning.
The prerequisite was.
The surrounding Demon Gods and magical beasts not interfering.
Yet that was clearly impossible.
Shadow would never grant him such an opening.
Consequently.
Amid the dense, drizzling torrent of incoming attacks, Kazuya found no room to mount a counteroffensive.
For now, he could still dodge every projectile relying on the Power of Racing Thunder.
Yet the moment he halted.
He would be greeted by an indiscriminate saturation bombardment.
Taking a stray hit or two was trivial; the Power of Creation could mend him in under a second.
The issue was that it wouldn't be just a hit or two.
There were hundreds of thousands of magical beasts hurling attacks toward him right now.
Many strikes ended up hitting other magical beasts in the crossfire, yet these mindless thralls couldn't care less.
"No good, I can't let Arceus ram into me like this."
Kazuya glanced back at Arceus trailing behind him.
Under the combined acceleration of the Power of Racing Thunder and Extreme Speed.
His velocity was blistering.
If he refused to stop.
Arceus could only eat his dust, rendering even Extreme Speed and Giga Impact meaningless.
Yet he couldn't compete with Arceus in a war of attrition.
The Power of Victory didn't bolster his stamina; it accelerated its consumption.
Moreover.
His adversary wasn't just Arceus alone.
He couldn't burn all his energy dealing with the llama; he had to eliminate this relentless stalker as quickly as possible.
Kazuya's gaze turned dark, sweeping toward Shadow.
His eyes narrowed.
Arresting his momentum abruptly, he spun around while tearing both arms across the air, ripping open a gargantuan spatial wormhole before himself.
Kazuya didn't intend to dive through it.
He intended to let Arceus charge headlong inside, while opening the exit directly behind Shadow, borrowing an enemy blade to slay another.
Even though this opening would allow countless attacks from the surrounding swarm to land flush on his frame.
If it succeeded.
The payoff was undeniably worth the gamble.
In the distance, Shadow sensed Kazuya's piercing gaze.
Instinctive dread flared within Her, and She screamed: "Dialga!!"
Simultaneously.
Shadow seized the moment to unleash the coiled verdant dragon of foliage straight toward Kazuya!
She intended to use the very Leaf Song Her father had forged to execute him!
On the other side.
Dialga, who had been lurking in the shadows awaiting an opening, sprang forth at Her command.
Rumble——!!
Roar of Time blasted outward.
Crossing layers of warped space in an instant to strike straight at Kazuya.
Hearing Shadow's shriek, Mewtwo instinctively turned His head to look.
That single glance.
Sent shock and horror tearing through Him.
Arceus's Extreme Speed Giga Impact, Dialga's Roar of Time, Shadow's Leaf Storm...
Three catastrophic ultimates converging upon Kazuya from three distinct vectors!
Mewtwo's mind raced at breakneck speed.
Recalling the Plates Kazuya carried, He reached an immediate verdict: against these three ultimates, Kazuya held immunity to not a single one.
And with Roar of Time pinning down the coordinates.
Kazuya had no way to slip away using the Power of Space.
There was no time left to deliberate.
With a flicker of motion, Mewtwo materialized right beside Kazuya.
Driving a leg outward, He booted Kazuya hurtling down toward the ocean below.
The next second.
Kinetic force, temporal force, spatial force, and shadow force.
Four supreme primordial powers converged violently upon a singular point.
Boom——!!
An abyssal black vortex manifested in the firmament.
It was no longer merely a space-time rift.
The very barrier of the world had been blasted open into a void!
None could tell where that hole led.
Yet Mewtwo's silhouette was gone.
Even if He still drew breath, there was no telling which universe He had tumbled into.
And in this primary world.
Kazuya.
Had truly, definitively become the final god.
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