Redemption

It didn't take long to reach the location.

Kai flew down to the foot of the mountain where there was an enormous mouth of a cave. Low muffled noises like beasts grunting and snapping at each other were coming from the deep. Kai crept up to the roof of the cave and flew in.

The cave kept becoming narrower as he went deeper. When he reached some 400 meters in, it had become so narrow that a grown man would have to walk on hands and legs to go further. Kai easily glided through this passage too.

The moment he passed a tunnel where one would have to go crawling, lying on their belly, everything suddenly expanded. The noises grew louder, comprehensible, and even the laugh of a boy and a girl was quite distinguishable. For 200 meters, Kai kept flying, keeping himself almost glued to the roof.

Then came the grand opening.

It had been so dark that Kai had felt like he was going down to the depths of the very hell. But what had awaited him at the end of this long cave wasn't a quagmire, but a vista of uncanny beauty.

Kai found himself looking at a hollow under the mountain. It was mysteriously glowing blue everywhere. The hollow was like a sphere, with a dome-like rocky roof. Hundreds of long protrusions of rock were hanging from the roof, pointing murderously at the ground underneath, and all were glowing blue too. The ground was as big as a football field, and on the leftmost side, there was a waterfall. The water was falling into a small puddle. It was shining blue too.

This blue glow was coming from everywhere. From the heavy boulders spread throughout over the ground, from the high walls enclosing the ground, and from the vegetation on his rightmost side. It made it look like it was day within this mountain's womb.

Kai stopped at the mouth of this grand wonder.

He looked down and saw the scene then. Item-M was bloody beyond anyone could get bloodier. She had changed her robe to her usual black greatcoat and black jeans, but even they had been torn apart from everywhere. Just by her side was a Pokemon. It had the body of a canine, with an orange pelt marked by jagged black stripes. Its head, muzzle, and chest were covered in shaggy fur, and its tail was long, furry, and bent from the middle.

'A paper-Pokemon?' Kai guessed.

From time to time, this Pokemon kept growling under its throat at the beings in front of it. Some 100 meters away from the Pokemon was a boy who looked slightly older than Kai. He had black hair and black eyes and was only wearing blue-colored shorts. Behind him, sitting over a boulder, were a boy and a girl.

Kai's eyes narrowed at them. He had already seen them and what they were capable of, using the sacrifice.

"Hand over Arcanine to me, oldy," the boy in shorts said. "Look at you, you haven't been able to make it use a single move so far."

"Carl, that was… your name, right?" Item-M said, catching her breath. "It's my dream to battle Order's Pokemon Trainers. I refuse to use Arcanine powers without seeing your Pokemon."

"Haha!" Carl laughed, looking behind him at the boy. "Are you seeing this? Didn't I tell you having me with you can be helpful?"

The boy said nothing.

Carl looked away, but the hint of a sneer in his eyes was apparent to Kai, even from afar. "Very well," he said, smiling. "Have a look at your doom before dying." Carl's hand flicked, and a Pokeball appeared in his hands. He threw it forward, pressing a button. And a blue ray of light escaped the Pokeball with a brilliant flash.

Time slowed down in Kai's eyes then.

This was it! This was the time he had been waiting for! He must act now!

Now… or never!

Kai didn't know how Item-M had found out which Pokemon Carl had, but this wasn't the moment to think about that. He had a simple thought process. If he was going to risk it, then he would risk it all.

Like a programmed code, Kai took off his armor, putting it in the Inventory, and lunged at the blue ray in a beeline. All noticed Kai almost instantaneously. He was a mass of disgusting, foul, black mist with a shiny blue background. There was no point in hiding.

Kai needed speed and a high response time. Every single point of Agility counted in this situation. He wasn't hot-headed enough to believe that he could get his hands on the Pokemon with the enemy prepared for him.

Still, 4th-floor Contestants weren't someone to make light of. The momentary shock of this unknown element in the setting ran away swiftly from their minds. Both the boy and the girl flicked their hands, taking out their Beyblades in an instant. But when it seemed as if Kai would never make it to the materializing Pokemon, his speed exploded.

Kai put the two unassigned Attribute Points in his Agility too.

This speed in itself matched that of strong 4th-floor Contestants. Not to mention that Kai was flying. Like a bullet, Kai ripped the air apart and landed in front of the Pokemon who had taken the shape.

The Dementor's billowing cloak disappeared, and when Kai's true body entered other's sight, it was already burning red hot, letting out steam. Even the pillar of water hitting the puddle under it had gone into a shocked silence. Such was the nature of this strangest event.

Kai's hazel eyes, full of pure greed and hunger, matched the red menacing pupils of the Pokemon. It's body was blue, and almost as tall as Kai. There was a red gem in the middle of its forehead which glowed as Selene's mist form lunged at it, leaving Kai's body.

For the first time, Selene's Intangibility failed as a red shine covered the silver mist and flung her away.

Kai smiled. He stepped forward as if he had all the leisure in the world, and wrapped his arms and legs around the Pokemon. This scene gobsmacked them all. Whatever happened had happened so fast and so fluently that not even the Pokemon knew why Kai was hugging him so oddly.

And then Kai whispered in its ears, sucking out its happiness with every breath, and freezing its body.

-For how long have you been a prisoner of humans, chained up in a ball?- he hissed, a vertical tear appearing on his chest. -Let my gluttony serve you redemption-

"Blood… Devour!"

Fear possessed the Pokemon. A fear, originating from the very depths of its existence. A fear whose roots ran deep, searching for the essence that made the Pokemon, a Pokemon. But what could you do, when the snake had already tightened its coils around you?

Nothing.

0 minutes to Glitch Hibernation.