That the Pokémon League was rotten was not the first time Cain had heard that same reasoning from others.
Even Team Rocket, aside from satisfying Giovanni's ambition to a certain extent, also harbored a certain disappointment toward the League.
Giovanni himself had also spent some time within the League; otherwise, he would not have become the Gym Leader of Viridian City.
And since the potential he displayed was quite good, the League also placed great importance on him. However, the more contact Giovanni had with it, the more disappointed he became in the League.
Combined with the fact that he himself was full of ambition, he simply took the great banner of Team Rocket directly from his mother's hands and, in one decisive move, turned Team Rocket into a massive underground organization spanning the two major regions of Kanto and Johto.
Even the current League did not have the certainty of being able to completely uproot an organization like Team Rocket, and that process would undoubtedly cause enormous losses to the League itself.
What Cain did not expect was that the objective of the Sacred Church was also the League.
From the final conversation with Marcus, Cain knew that he had come to fight with the determination to die, so it was impossible to force the answer out of him. He could only circle around the subject and obtain what he wanted indirectly.
When Marcus said that the purpose of the Sacred Church was to eradicate the corrupt League, Cain immediately knew that their target was Mt. Silver in the Kanto region.
Because if one spoke of eradicating the entire Pokémon League, then it could only refer to Mt. Silver, located between the Kanto and Johto regions!
The place where the League headquarters was located, and also the root of all Pokémon Leagues in every region!
For all this time — more than two months!
The Sacred Church had constantly harassed the Leagues of every region, gradually making all of them accustomed to thinking that they could appear at any moment, forcing them to remain prepared to defend themselves.
Although everyone knew that the Sacred Church's plan must target one or perhaps two regions among all of them, since they treated every region equally, it was impossible to distinguish which was their true objective.
Each region would naturally protect its own region first!
As the incursions of the Sacred Church became more frequent, although they remained troublesome, they did not cause too many casualties, so the vigilance of the Leagues of each region gradually began to relax.
In the end, the Sacred Church took advantage of the moment when everyone had relaxed, concentrated its forces, and launched a sudden strike to achieve its objective in one blow.
Unlike Team Rocket, which slowly devoured the entire Pokémon League from below, the Sacred Church either did not appear at all, or when it did, it entered directly with extreme measures.
A direct strike at the heart!
As long as they destroyed the central League, the Leagues of each region would become a scattered mass. Without an absolute central force to balance everything, there would inevitably be those who began to harbor ambitions of their own.
By then, the six great regions where the Pokémon League was established might return to the situation before the League was born, where each acted on its own.
Moreover, Mt. Silver, where the League headquarters was located, undoubtedly possessed something special. Perhaps the purpose of the Sacred Church was not as simple as merely destroying it.
If Cain was not mistaken, those high-level members of the Sacred Church who should have appeared in the Hoenn region had probably already descended upon Mt. Silver.
With so many psychics, if they truly organized themselves, it would not be difficult to seal off Mt. Silver entirely.
Furthermore, since the Kanto and Johto regions also had to guard against the Sacred Church's incursions, if several of their major forces were sent to the outer cities of the regions, then the interior of Mt. Silver would inevitably be poorly defended.
If Cain were the bishop of the Sacred Church, now would undoubtedly be the best moment to attack, and this would also be the only opportunity. Once the League truly discovered their purpose, launching such an attack again would become impossible.
The Sacred Church had hidden itself for so long, not revealing itself openly to the League as Team Rocket had done under everyone's noses, precisely in order to conceal its true objective.
Cain, together with Slowking and Gardevoir, used Teleport without rest, or advanced with the rapid flight speed of his Mega Salamence, supported by the Fragments of Sky Plate, heading toward Mt. Silver in the Kanto region.
The reason he did not bring Steven was that, compared to Cain, Steven's speed was still somewhat slower. Moreover, if the Sacred Church had truly blocked Mt. Silver, Cain might still be able to infiltrate alone, but if he brought Steven with him, the difficulty would increase many times over.
Once discovered, an unavoidable danger might appear.
It was safer and more prudent to let Steven come together with Drake and the others.
By now, it was likely not only Hoenn that had discovered this; perhaps in other regions as well, they were resolving their battles with the Sacred Church as quickly as possible and rushing toward Mt. Silver. Only, compared to Hoenn, they were somewhat farther away.
The psychic power of Cain, Slowking, and Gardevoir was enough to take them to Mt. Silver.
Fortunately, Cain had left quite a few psychic coordinates within Mt. Silver, and that place was probably not the main focus of the Sacred Church, so in theory no one should detect his Teleport into the interior.
When he reappeared once more inside Mt. Silver, looking at the surroundings around him, partly familiar and partly strange, Cain's expression became even more serious.
Just as he had assumed, the summit of Mt. Silver, where the League headquarters was located, was already completely enveloped by a powerful psychic force.
That had to be the work of the Sacred Church, only he still did not know exactly what the situation inside was.
But Cain did not have time at that moment to pay attention to the summit of Mt. Silver, because the environment where he stood was not exactly friendly either.
He did not know why, but the inner area of Mt. Silver had turned into a sea of fire. At a glance, the entire forest seemed to have been submerged in flames.
(End of Chapter)