Chapter 881: Reinforcements Enter the Fray (Part 1)
Bang!
As another Focus Punch hammered flush into Arceus's body.
Crack!
The sharp, brittle sound of shattering glass resonated simultaneously from the far end of the ocean horizon.
Kazuya had no luxury to spare a glance toward where the sound came from.
Instead, he dove straight into a spatial wormhole at the first possible instant, evading a savage claw strike that Shadow whipped right on his heels.
He was carrying Cynthia on his back.
He could not take on two Lv. 100 Demon Gods—Shadow and Arceus—simultaneously.
If he could evade.
There was zero need to trade blows.
When Kazuya's silhouette remanifested above the sea's surface.
Shadow snapped Her head around and rocketed toward his coordinates like a streak of black lightning cutting across the waves.
In the blink of an eye.
The gap between Shadow and Kazuya had narrowed to barely twenty meters.
Yet right up until this split second.
Kazuya still made no defensive move.
He merely stared in blank astonishment toward the eastern sea.
Using Her peripheral vision, Shadow instinctively glanced east—only to see a green streak of lightning moving with a velocity barely inferior to Her own, driving a flying kick straight toward Her!
Bang!
A concussive, muffled detonation erupted.
Shadow was kicked clean into the distance by this abruptly arriving green Pokémon, skipping violently across the sea's surface several times like a skimming stone.
And when Shadow finally arrested Her momentum and looked upon the newcomer, Her eyes widened in absolute shock, freezing Her dead in Her tracks.
She saw another Meowscarada, looking identical to Herself!
No.
More precisely.
That fellow looked far more like the genuine Meowscarada than She ever did.
"Kazuya!!"
Meowscarada flailed both arms as she launched herself forward in a flying pounce toward Kazuya.
She wrapped around him like an octopus from the front, her large bushy tail wagging frantically back and forth, the very picture of unbridled joy.
Prying the large cat off him, Kazuya held her before him and examined her over and over, until a warm, genuine smile finally spread across his face: "Meowscarada."
He had finally found his daughter.
Kazuya didn't say much; he simply pulled Meowscarada tightly into his embrace and rubbed his face affectionately against hers.
"Hehehe~"
Meowscarada didn't mind the squeeze in the least, tilting her head to nuzzle her ears against Kazuya's cheek.
"Hmm?"
Cynthia poked her head out from behind Kazuya's shoulder.
"Valerie?!"
Meowscarada jumped in fright, both ears perking straight up.
Yet taking a closer look, she realized this woman was vastly different from Valerie.
She didn't look like Valerie.
She looked like the blonde woman her father had defeated on the tournament stage alongside that red-haired fellow during his fourth life.
"Kazuya, I know you're thrilled to see this child, but that Shadow over there seems thoroughly provoked. Besides, we still have Arceus to deal with."
Cynthia raised a hand to gently smooth Kazuya's head, offering a quiet reminder.
The three turned their gazes toward the nearby Shadow.
They saw that the dark counterpart seemed to have slipped into an even more feral, berserk frenzy.
Only now.
Her target of pure hatred had shifted from Kazuya to Meowscarada.
"Kazuya, I'll handle this knockoff! Hurry and beat Arceus into the dirt, everyone is still waiting outside!"
Meowscarada glared with wide eyes, baring her fangs at Shadow.
Then she waved her paw, signaling Kazuya to leave this sector to her.
"You... alright, hold the line first."
Kazuya hesitated for a fraction of a second, then gave a solemn nod.
Meowscarada was not weak.
From that flying kick alone.
Kazuya had already deduced her caliber.
The current Meowscarada sat at least at Lv. 98, surpassing even Mewtwo's level.
Even if she might still be outmatched by Shadow in raw stats.
Holding Her off for a while was definitely within her capabilities.
"Don't worry!"
Meowscarada grinned, a comforting, delightful floral scent blooming from her body.
This fragrance.
Truly had been missed for ages.
On countless bright, sunlit afternoons, Kazuya had dozed off while breathing in this very floral aroma.
What a pity.
Now was hardly the time for a nap.
"Once this battle concludes, I'll hold the big cat tight and have a proper, peaceful sleep."
Kazuya muttered under his breath.
The next second.
His silhouette vanished from the spot, rocketing toward the distant Arceus.
On this side.
Shadow and Meowscarada locked eyes for two seconds.
Immediately after, Meowscarada spun on her heel and bolted!
Meowscarada was hardly a mindless fool who lost her composure; clever as she was, she understood how to stall for time far better than anyone.
"Stop right there, you damned counterfeit!"
With a bloodthirsty snarl, Shadow gave chase with crimson, manic eyes.
Her sanity had been entirely swallowed the instant she saw Kazuya and Meowscarada embracing.
She hadn't even received a warm reunion embrace from Kazuya.
On what grounds did this counterfeit that sprang out of nowhere deserve one?!
"You're the counterfeit! The cheap knockoff! Hmph!"
Meowscarada shot back over her shoulder.
Her paws never slowed for a second, sprinting across the ocean's surface with blinding agility, kicking up trails of white sea spray.
Back on the battlefield between Kazuya and Arceus.
Without Shadow, a fellow Lv. 100 Demon God, interfering, the remaining Demon Gods stood zero chance of stopping Kazuya from mounting a one-sided beatdown against Arceus.
When a savage Close Combat roundhouse kick whipped right across Arceus's neck.
From the far reaches of the sea.
That long-awaited sound of shattering glass rang out once more.
Crack!
This time.
The sound was exponentially louder than before.
Just as Kazuya prepared to press the advantage.
Mega Mewtwo Y materialized instantly behind him via Teleport.
The second Mega Mewtwo Y raised Its arm to unleash an attack.
Black, white, and blue.
Three silhouettes materialized simultaneously at Its flanks and overhead.
Dialga.
Palkia.
Darkrai.
Roar of Time!
Spacial Rend!
Dark Void!
Three ultimate attacks point-blank in Its face detonated an unprecedented, colossal explosion across Mega Mewtwo Y's body in an instant.
Even space-time rifts nearly tore open once again.
Thankfully, this time around.
The deities of Time and Space had learned their lesson, holding their divine output slightly in check.
Kazuya glanced back.
Saying nothing.
He offered a nod with a confident smile.
The three deities nodded in return.
Kazuya surged toward Arceus once more, raising an arm to condense a golden spiraling orb.
Arceus refused to back down, unleashing a devastating Hyper Beam from Its maw.
Screeech!!
The two moves compressed against each other, tearing the surrounding atmosphere to shreds.
Bang!
An explosion billowed at the climax of the collision.
Waves of white mist kicked up by the dispersing energy saturated the entire battlefield.
Before Arceus could even react.
Kazuya burst straight through the white fog, a massive rainbow-colored fireball held in his grasp, slamming it flush into Arceus's face.
Sacred Fire!
Boom!
Iridescent flames swallowed Arceus whole in an instant, painting charred black scorch marks across Its pristine white frame.
Crack!
Aeroblast!
A silvery-white storm vortex pressed the assault without missing a beat.
Slamming hard against Arceus's chest, accelerating Its downward plunge toward the waves.
Crack!
Dark Void!
A black sphere of energy compressed to its absolute physical limit was hurled toward Arceus with a single flick of Kazuya's wrist.
If this strike landed cleanly.
Then Arceus was finished right here!
Yet matters were never that simple.
Arceus still had a multitude of Demon Gods acting as meat shields and vanguards.
Just like right now.
Flash!
Shimmering with incandescent golden radiance, Ultra Necrozma blocked the path before Arceus, barely parrying Kazuya's Dark Void with a burst of Prismatic Laser.
In this moment.
It felt as though It were the blazing sun itself!
"Leave this to us."
A wild, deep, masculine voice resonated above Kazuya's head.
The next second.
The God of the Sky, stretching hundreds of meters long, soared across the heavens, engulfed in blistering flames as It rammed headfirst into Ultra Necrozma.
Dragon Ascent!
And that was far from all.
Reflected in Kazuya's widening eyes.
Trailing right behind Rayquaza were actually twenty Deoxys!
Twenty of them!!
Had every Deoxys across the entire universe of the second world shown up?!
"To think in this day and age, we'd actually get to see Rayquaza fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with Deoxys," Cynthia, resting behind him, couldn't help chuckling in amusement.
"Yeah. May Arceus have mercy on Necrozma," Kazuya nodded with deep emotion.
Rumble!
Rayquaza rammed Ultra Necrozma straight into the sea with a single headbutt.
The twenty Deoxys shifted into their Attack Formes and dove beneath the waves in unison, joining Rayquaza to mercilessly beat the drowning dragon.
"Kazuya."
"I know."
Kazuya nodded softly.
A flick of his fingers.
And he remanifested directly behind Arceus.
Extreme Speed Earthquake!
A devastating kick slammed right into Arceus's flank.
Sending It tumbling head-over-heels through the air.
"Heal Block, prevent It from using Recover!"
Cynthia's voice rang clear beside his ear.
"Understood!"
Kazuya pounced forward without missing a beat, laying down a Heal Block.
Followed immediately by a roaring Thunderbolt.
Bzzzt!
The outcome was magnificent.
Barely inferior to Ash's Pikachu!
Crack!
Crack!
Two more crisp sounds of shattering glass resounded.
The space-time barrier overhead was now thoroughly fractured, riddled with numerous translucent holes visible to the naked eye.
"Arceus won't be able to hold out much longer."
"Mm."
Kazuya glanced upward, then lowered his gaze.
At that moment, his eyelids twitched.
The vast ocean beneath his feet.
Had morphed into an entirely different landscape without him realizing it.
The sea had been divided into three distinct realms!
One-quarter solid land, one-quarter churning ocean, and one-half frozen tundra.
Kazuya didn't even need to think.
To know who had arrived this time.
"You really managed to haul over every shred of my connections, didn't you?"
Kazuya cast an amused smile at Cynthia behind him.
He even reached back to affectionately pat her on the backside.
"You call that 'a shred'?! If not for Dialga and Palkia helping, I wouldn't have known how many tens of thousands of years it would take to gather them all!"
The blonde Champion ground her teeth in mock annoyance at the remark.
Heaven only knew how much grueling effort she had expended to track down this pantheon of gods.
She had been 38 when she left Cameron Palace.
Now she was already 48.
It was only thanks to Dialga's temporal assistance.
That Cynthia's physical appearance had not aged at all, actually rewinding back to how she looked at 32.
While the two indulged in a few brief lines of banter.
Zygarde had already charged right before Kazuya.
Seemingly intent on having another brawl with him.
Unfortunately.
A certain dragon had zero intention of granting that opening.
Glaciate!
A biting, howling polar blizzard descended from the north, blasting Zygarde clean off its feet and encasing both its arms in a thick layer of rime.
Boom!
"Roar——!!"
A colossal ice dragon descended from the heavens, crushing countless sheets of frost beneath its talons.
Kyurem threw its head back and bellowed into the sky, its roar brimming with boundless, unrestrained exhilaration.
It had spent far too long languishing inside the Giant Chasm.
Today, it could finally stretch its limbs properly!
Before Zygarde could mount a response.
A barrage of dark-purple energy rays struck Zygarde in succession, locking the titan into paralyzed rigidity.
These were unmistakably the high-tech thermal weapons engineered specifically by Team Flare to neutralize Zygarde.
"Truly an irredeemable world, wouldn't you agree, Cynthia, Kazuya?"
A mature, chilling man's voice rang out.
Kazuya paused.
Turning his head to look.
It was that very man!!
"Long time no see."
Cyrus smiled faintly.
A hollow, skin-deep smile that sent shivers straight down one's spine.
Good grief!
Even Team Galactic, the notorious former villains of the Sinnoh region, had arrived to join the fray!
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