Across all the regions, the Alola League had always been the last to form. That held true regardless of the timeline. For now, Lucien planned to approach Alola at the very end, once everything else was in place, making contact gradually with its island peoples.
The timing of Groudon and Kyogre's awakening in Hoenn remained unknown, which meant Paldea was the more actionable destination.
He would go to Paldea first.
Kingdom Calendar, Year 156, Month 4. The season had just turned, and spring had arrived in Lucien City with the particular cold that follows melting snow. Water ran slowly along the city's drainage channels, carrying the last of winter's chill.
Guards patrolled in clean rows, armor bright. The residents moved through the streets in the easy manner of people who are not worried about anything, and in the fields beyond the walls, farmers and Pokémon worked side by side in the fresh air.
In the castle garden, Lucien sat with his tea and watched the Pokémon playing in the meadow. Elif stood nearby.
"Your Majesty, do you truly intend to go to the Paldea Region yourself?" Elif asked. Under normal circumstances, visiting a neighboring region warranted sending an envoy first to avoid misunderstandings.
"It's fine," Lucien said. "I only want to see the Pokémon there. I'm not planning to meet the Paldean King. We won't need to mobilize anyone, and we'll be back quickly."
The Great Crater of Paldea. Paradox Pokémon. Area Zero buried deep underground. Ancient and futuristic powers that belonged to no ordinary category. All of it genuinely interested him. And if he happened to encounter a Koraidon, that would be a welcome addition to the trip.
Elif accepted this with characteristic reluctant practicality. The Kingdom was unified, the country was stable, Anna and the Elite Four were fully capable. Whatever His Majesty wanted to do was ultimately his own business.
The next morning, Lucien finished his arrangements, had Hoopa open a ring to the Paldean coast, and stepped through.
A vast land appeared before him. Dragonite spread its wings and rose into the air, the draft lifting the corner of Lucien's dark cloak. They moved quickly toward Paldea.
Below lay a wide, layered landscape: settlements and farmland interspersed, residents in rough linen clothing going about their lives, and throughout the wilderness, Pokémon with a character entirely their own, species that could only have come from this specific land.
Paldea still carried a raw, frontier quality that his own territories had moved past: less ordered, more open, the kind of place where something interesting was always possible just beyond the next ridge.
And at the center of the continent, visible even from altitude: the Great Crater of Paldea.
He went directly to it. No side trips, no detours.
Even before Dragonite had descended fully, Lucien noticed a group below: a five-person expedition team, three Cyclizar loaded with equipment, a camp set up at the crater's edge.
The Great Crater's treasure hunt. He had been expecting this. According to what he knew, the legend of treasure hidden beneath the Great Crater had existed in Paldea for roughly two thousand years, stretching back to the Paldea Empire era which, by his current timeline, meant it had been a legend for essentially as long as the crater had been a subject of human attention. Emperors had dispatched teams into it.
Adventurers had risked their lives for it. None had reached the bottom. It would not be until roughly two hundred years before the modern era that a man named Heath, leading the Area Zero Expedition, became the first person to actually reach the crater's depths, an experience he documented in what became known as the Scarlet and Violet books, widely dismissed as too strange to be taken seriously.
Lucien landed.
The team below looked up and went still.
The leader was a sturdy young man holding a map, in the middle of what had apparently been a debate with his teammates. One of his companions had been expressing hesitation: "Captain, the energy readings inside the crater are unstable. The Cyclizar are having trouble adapting. Should we really go in now?"
The captain, Ars, from what Lucien could piece together, had clearly been in the process of insisting. His grip on his equipment tightened, his expression resolute. "We've been preparing for this for months. We go in."
Then Dragonite's shadow fell across them.
Every person in the camp looked up. What descended from the sky was not something any of them had a ready category for: an enormous Pokémon, and on its head a man in a dark robe, standing with an ease that suggested he was perfectly comfortable at this altitude.
The presence radiating from him was the kind that made people instinctively straighten and then instinctively look away.
Even the Cyclizar lowered their heads.
Lucien stepped down from Dragonite and looked the group over.
Ars recovered faster than the others. He was clearly someone who had spent enough time in unusual places to keep functioning when things didn't fit his expectations. He stepped forward.
"May I ask who you are? We are an expedition team working on behalf of the Paldean Crown. We were preparing to descend into the Great Crater to search for what lies at the bottom."
"My name is Lucien," he said. "I'm also here to enter the Great Crater. This is my first time in Paldea, and I don't know the terrain well. I saw you preparing to descend and thought it would be worth speaking with you first."
Ars took that in. Something in his expression settled.
News of treasure hidden deep within the Great Crater had spread throughout the Paldea Empire. Adventurers and explorers arrived daily, drawn by the legend that whoever found what lay at the bottom would gain wealth and power beyond measure.
"Are you a Trainer, sir?" Ars asked, eyeing Dragonite. They had encountered people who traveled with Pokémon before, like the Cyclizar beside them, but this orange Pokémon was different. Its build carried the weight of genuine training and battle.
"Something like that," Lucien said.
Ars nodded to himself. He had been right. He introduced himself properly and then exchanged a look with his teammates. The Great Crater's interior was known to contain powerful wild Pokémon that ordinary adventurers could not handle. If they had someone like this accompanying them.
"Lord Lucien, if you intend to enter the crater, would you consider joining us? We haven't reached the deepest levels, but we know the upper terrain well," Ars said.
Lucien considered it briefly and nodded. He was genuinely content to experience this as something close to an ordinary traveler.
Ars and the others visibly relaxed.
The descent method was entirely primitive. One team member secured a thick rope at the cliff's edge and lowered it down into the crater. The others gripped the rope and climbed down one by one, the Cyclizar managing it alongside them. By the time all four team members and the Cyclizar had descended, only Lucien and Ars remained at the top.
Ars looked at Lucien with some hesitation. "Would you like to go first?"
Lucien looked at him. Then mounted Dragonite.
Ars had the grace to look briefly embarrassed. He had nearly forgotten. He grabbed the rope and disappeared into the mist below. Lucien guided Dragonite downward at an easy pace, and the white mist closed around them.
They emerged onto a hillside of striking complexity. Ancient ferns grew in dense clusters, the vegetation thick and layered, the air humid and faintly cool. Somewhere not far away, a waterfall made quiet, continuous sound.
"Captain, movement," a team member said in a low voice.
The quiet of the hillside changed. From the bushes came a rustling that grew steadily louder, and then a shape emerged.
It looked something like a Donphan, but older in a way that went beyond size or age. Its body was covered in rough purple armor plate, its limbs heavily built and curved, its entire bearing carrying the particular aura of something that had developed in an environment long before humans existed. The ancient Paradox Pokémon, Great Tusk. The kind of creature that existed only in the deep zones of Area Zero.
The expedition members went pale and stepped back. Even the Cyclizar lowered their heads and went still.
Ars kept his voice controlled. "Nobody move. Don't draw its attention."
Everyone froze.
Great Tusk walked past the group without acknowledging them and disappeared into the undergrowth ahead.
Collective exhale.
Lucien watched it go with faint surprise. It had not been aggressive. Ferocious in presence, certainly, but not looking for conflict.
They pressed on through the dense hillside forest, and then the vegetation opened onto a sloping field where a herd of Girafarig was grazing.
"So many Pokémon," one team member said, taking in the scene.
Then something descended from above.
A creature the deep color of dried blood, a pair of crimson wings, an aura that was not incidentally aggressive but fundamentally so. Roaring Moon. It hit the field like a dropped stone, seized one Girafarig, threw it down, and scattered the herd in every direction.
"That Pokémon..." The team members stared.
Ars made the right call immediately. "Move back, quietly, before it notices..."
Too late. A fleeing Girafarig ran straight toward them. Roaring Moon's red eyes followed the movement and found the group. It released the Girafarig it had been holding and came at them directly.
Ars went white.
"Dragonite," Lucien said.
Dragonite moved in a single motion, the Dragon Claw coming down with a force that cut through Roaring Moon's charge cleanly. Roaring Moon hit the ground hard, bounced once, and reassessed.
Whatever calculation it ran, the conclusion was clear. This was not prey. This was something else, and continuing would be a mistake.
Roaring Moon turned and fled into the deeper vegetation.
Silence on the hillside.
Ars and the team members stood completely still, processing. A moment ago, they had been preparing to die. Now the creature that had been about to kill them was retreating, driven off by one strike from a Pokémon belonging to the quiet man in the dark robe.
They turned to Lucien and bowed deeply.
"Thank you, Lord Lucien. Your strength is beyond anything we could have imagined."
Lucien waved his hand. "A small matter. Let's keep moving."
"Yes!"
The group continued deeper into the Great Crater of Paldea, following the rugged path through layers of mist and ancient growth.
...
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