Chapter 237: The Only One?

Although Parallel Lucius was clearly startled by his opponent's words, his hands didn't hesitate.

Tiny Hoopa reached into a ring and pulled out a golden pendant.

The pendant gleamed with the same divine radiance as the golden cross-wheel around Arceus's waist.

Lucius recognized it immediately. It was the same item worn by the turbaned man,Ghris, in the original movie, the one who used the Prison Bottle to seal away Hoopa. That pendant had been passed down to his descendants, Meray and Baraz, the sibling pair from the film.

Now, the golden pendant slipped from Hoopa's tiny fingers and floated into the air, aligning itself beside Hoopa's ring.

A blinding golden light erupted from within the ring, a dense torrent of radiant energy pouring outward.

Parallel Lucius let out a peal of laughter.

"If you're stronger than me, let's see if you can handle Him."

Just as Palkia represents space and Dialga time, Hoopa's rings symbolize transference. And due to its Psychic and Ghost typing, Hoopa's summoning isn't just teleportation, it can briefly imprint its own will upon whatever it calls forth.

Empowered by the laws of reality itself, Hoopa at full strength could temporarily override even the wills of some Legendary Pokémon. For ordinary creatures, Hoopa's influence might last a lifetime.

But it wasn't without limits. Hoopa could summon anything from anywhere in the world, anything except Arceus.

Because Arceus's command over reality surpassed even the laws Hoopa's rings obeyed, summoning Him took time.

The golden energy spewing forth had grown so dense it looked almost like molten metal, already beginning to solidify into matter.

Parallel Lucius grinned. Summoning Arceus was risky, but to face an invader from another world, what better weapon than the Creator of this one?

Then, in the very next moment, his smile froze.

His Virus Evolution System began flashing warnings:

[Alert: High-privilege system interference detected.]

[Alert: System breach in progress.]

[Alert: Invasion level 1%.]

[Alert: Invasion level 5%.]

Message after message flooded his interface.

Lucius, the true Lucius, wasn't about to waste time on meaningless chatter. With both combatants being System-bonded, the only way to win was to override his opponent with pure law.

"Damn it…"

Parallel Lucius understood the danger immediately. This intruder from another dimension had access to a higher system tier. Because their Systems were of the same origin, the one with greater authority could suppress the other. His enemy was hacking him in real time.

But so what?

He ignored the alarms and continued the summoning. So long as Arceus appeared, his enemy would have to flee.

Suddenly, another golden ring materialized, this one controlled by Hoopa Unbound under Lucius's command. It too shimmered with the power of transference.

It was like trying to draw water through a pipe, only to have the pipe redirect the flow right back into the reservoir.

The torrent of divine energy, which Parallel Lucius had just summoned, was immediately siphoned off and sent back to where it came from.

His eyes widened in disbelief.

Then, in a flash of psychic light, he was expelled from Hoopa's body.

Lucius seized the moment and took over Hoopa's vessel.

The giant force that had towered like a mountain condensed into a swirling violet-blue storm, rushing into Hoopa's form. Flesh and will merged into one, Lucius had claimed this mythical Pokémon of transference as his own.

"So long as I sever my link with the host, the invasion halts," Parallel Lucius muttered. He had returned to his formless microbial state, floating through the air as he searched for a way to turn the tables.

But before he could finish the thought—

[Alert: Invasion level 31%.]

[Alert: Invasion level 32%.]

…

Impossible.

I already severed from my host...

Then he heard it.

A layered chorus of voices echoed through the surrounding void.

"I am everywhere. So long as you remember me, you can never escape me."

The sound was part demon's whisper, part death's laughter.

Parallel Lucius watched in horror as his trillion-unit health pool began draining at a catastrophic rate.

Unlike Lucius's Emperor Strain, Parallel Lucius's evolutionary path lacked a singular viral core. Every virus, every infected creature, they were all part of him.

Which was exactly why Lucius had wiped out the infected on a massive scale when he destroyed the Umbrella base.

Because as long as a single infected cell or microbe survived, Parallel Lucius couldn't die.

But Lucius's mission wasn't to kill this system-bearer.

It was to destroy this world.

And with his Virus Evolution System operating at a higher privilege, system-level infiltration was the best tool to break his enemy down.

Conceptual viruses don't just infect organisms, they corrupt ideas, principles, systems.

[Invasion level 60%.]

[Invasion level 61%.]

With each notification, Lucius could feel the opposing system's resistance breaking apart.

He held the higher authority, and with that came dominance over the rules themselves.

But something even stranger was happening.

As his virus integrated with Parallel Lucius's system, Lucius began to sense others, countless "kin" scattered like stars across the void.

Others bound to the Virus Evolution System.

Some were versions of himself from different timelines. Others were entirely different entities.

In timelines where the distance from this reality was abstractly vast, system-bearers weren't even human, there were beastkin, slimes, demons, and untold other lifeforms. And those worlds? Not Pokémon worlds at all.

Lucius now stood at the core of a conceptual nexus, plugged into a central server of realities, drinking in forbidden knowledge.

Such is the power of conceptual beings. As long as there's contact, there can be corruption.

Indeed, the timelines are endless. Unless the multiverse itself is annihilated, infinite worlds will continue to be born and destroyed with every heartbeat of existence.

Lucius, now a conceptual entity, had torn himself free from multiversal rule.

But he also understood—

He wasn't yet the conceptual singularity.

Because once he became the One and Only Concept, then across this world, this universe, and all the multiverse, he would be the only "virus."

And at that point, all viruses, and everything derived from them, would fall under his gaze.

And under his control.

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