A Marcus at full strength was exactly the opponent he had always wanted to face.
Marcus stopped holding back. After all, they were all members of the Sacred Church. Why did he have to be the only one to act cautiously?
He took out a Divine Stone and threw it directly at his Houndoom, while fusing his own psychic power with that of his Malamar.
From the very start, he entered his most powerful state. Clearly, he was prepared for total war.
Tony became even more excited. If Marcus used divine power, he could not fall behind. He had suppressed his desire to fight for far too long.
His Alakazam did not lag behind either and used its Divine Stone to Mega Evolve.
Although the Divine Stones of the Sacred Church were weaker than a normal Mega Evolution, the quality of these stones varied greatly. And for figures of the highest level like Marcus and Tony, the Divine Stones they had access to were undoubtedly of the highest quality.
Therefore, the increase in power of their Pokémon was equally astonishing.
Thus, not only Tony's Mega Alakazam, but also Marcus's Mega Houndoom managed to break through the second threshold of the Champion level. Even in the Pokémon world, this placed them among the absolute elite; the power they could unleash in a short time was unimaginable.
If both of them fought with all their might, changing the geography of an entire region would not be a problem.
The plan of the Sacred Church, in fact, was not poorly conceived. Since those who surpassed the second threshold of the Champion level could not enter the Space-Time Continent, it was enough to bring fighters at the limit of that level and, through the temporary enhancement of the Divine Stones, allow them to unleash such power for a short period of time.
When Marcus and Tony truly began to fight, Cain and the others immediately withdrew from the battle. They did not even dare to remain on the mountaintop. With the help of their Pokémon, they kept themselves floating at a certain distance, observing the fight.
In terms of brute strength, Tony had a slight advantage, though it was not very pronounced. Marcus, on the other hand, had the advantage in type affinity. Although Psychic-type Pokémon could use the move Miracle Eye, they still had certain limitations.
Therefore, when Marcus stopped holding back and fought seriously for a while, Tony gradually began to fall into a disadvantage.
However, Tony was a genuine lunatic. Far from feeling pressured by Marcus's strength, he became more and more enthusiastic. Moreover, all the Pokémon he used were of an extremely offensive style, almost without caring about defense. His nickname of madman was not exaggerated at all.
Cain and the others watched without blinking. Who won or lost might not be the most important thing; what mattered was not losing momentum or presence at that critical moment.
But just as everyone was focused on the battle, a new anomaly occurred.
All those present were psychics, and they had also crossed the barrier of the Continent to enter that region, so they had a special sensitivity to space.
At that instant, they all sensed a colossal spatial energy that, like a meteor, slammed violently into the spatial membrane of the continent.
There was no devastating explosion or any visible anomalous phenomenon. That immense spatial energy merged naturally with the surroundings, like a fish returning to water, as if that were the habitat to which it belonged.
The faces hidden behind the psychic layer changed color at once. Even Marcus and Tony, who did not hide their appearance, turned pale.
A name arose in everyone's mind at the same time.
Palkia!
The god of space, Palkia!
"ROOOOAAAR!!!"
A dragon's roar resounded across the entire Continent.
Upon hearing it, countless wild Pokémon fled at top speed toward their caves, hiding deep inside, trembling and not daring to make a sound. Some, weaker and closer to the roar, simply rolled their eyes back and fainted.
The Continent suddenly fell into a deathly silence.
At that moment, fine beads of sweat appeared on the foreheads of Marcus and Tony, because less than a second after entering the continent, Palkia had already appeared on the summit of the continent's central mountain. To him, distance seemed to have no meaning.
Palkia and Dialga, the legendary gods of space and time, were famous for their extremely strong sense of territory. That continent was their joint creation, the result of countless sacrifices.
Although they did not get along with each other, that was their own affair. When an external force intervened, they always acted in unity first against the intruder.
Therefore, both the Sacred Church and the League, from the very beginning, had avoided sending fighters here who surpassed the second threshold of the Champion level. They knew that doing so would undoubtedly attract the attention of those two deities, and that then the situation would no longer be controllable.
The destructive power of those two Pokémon was not something one or two trainers could withstand.
Palkia had a light purple body with theropod-like features, crossed by dark purple stripes, and with the inner parts of its arms colored gray.
On its shoulders were circular structures adorned with purple lines, each inlaid with a pearl and surrounded by gray rings.
Its arms had extensions resembling metallic gauntlets, and on each wrist it wore a purple band.
Palkia's neck was long; its head was crowned with a pointed crest that extended toward its wings. On both sides of its mouth protruded ivory-like fangs, and its tail was thick and powerful.
Its two red eyes looked without the slightest emotion at Marcus's Mega Houndoom and Tony's Mega Alakazam.
Although those two Pokémon did not pose too great a threat to it, they were not completely harmless either.
And any threat, no matter how small, had to be eliminated.
In its territory, nothing—neither object nor living being—could exist that posed even the slightest danger.
At that moment, Mega Houndoom and Mega Alakazam felt as if a terrifying prehistoric beast were staring at them. Before Palkia, they felt as insignificant as chicks, completely out of their league.
Cain and the members of the Sacred Church hid far away, watching in silence, not daring to make the slightest sound for fear of attracting Palkia's attention.
However, from a shadow beside Cain that no one noticed, a humanoid-looking Pokémon with what seemed to be white hair slowly emerged. Its blue eyes fixed themselves on the majestic Palkia.
It was Darkrai, who always hid in Cain's shadow.
At that moment, its appearance drew no one's attention... except for one Pokémon.
Palkia, which had been watching Mega Alakazam and Mega Houndoom, suddenly felt its heart race. Its bestial instinct reacted, making its body bristle.
It immediately turned toward the direction where Cain was. It had sensed a threat even greater than that of those two Pokémon, but when it looked, it found nothing.
Darkrai returned to the shadow at top speed, retreating into its deepest part, while Mismagius used its Ghost-type energy to conceal it completely.
A spark of confusion crossed Palkia's eyes.
It knew it had not been an illusion... but it could not find the source of that latent danger.
(End of chapter)