Chapter 241: Massacre

As Rayquaza, Zekrom, Reshiram, and others were obliterated into nothingness, the burden on the remaining mythic Pokémon, Hoopa, Ho-Oh, and a few others freed by Lucius, grew heavier still.

At Lucius's command, they launched a desperate charge directly at Arceus's true body, choosing to trade blow for blow, sacrificing their own vitality to slow the absorption of Primal Energy. [TN: prev. as Primordial Energy.]

Even if it meant harming themselves threefold just to wound their enemy slightly, it was a price they were willing to pay.

They didn't need to defeat Arceus. They just needed to buy time—disrupt its assimilation of the world's primal essence.

"Fools," Arceus growled, its eyes radiating a piercing, divine brilliance.

That light flared with substance, a holy blade slicing through the sky like divine judgment. It pierced Hoopa's golden ring, then its skull.

Sacred Sword.

"Hoop…pa…" Hoopa's mountainous form trembled, eyes wide with disbelief.

That strike hadn't been diverted through the dimensional portals in its rings. Instead, it pierced directly through the spatial warp, striking its true body hidden within.

A heartbeat later, a storm of radiant blades rained down.

Golden swords of pure energy descended like an apocalyptic deluge, shattering Hoopa's colossal body into scattered, bloodied fragments.

Sacred Sword.

Unlike the eerie, arcane grace of Secret Sword, Sacred Sword was majestic and absolute, radiating a righteous fury that tore through all evil with unstoppable force.

With Hoopa slain, Arceus's clones had already overpowered and killed Ho-Oh on the other front.

Now, of all the mythic Pokémon infected in this world, only Kyogre and Lugia remained, and they too were being forced into a corner by Arceus's relentless assault.

Elsewhere, the trio of Dark Time-Space gods clashed in a cataclysmic battle against invading mythic forces from other realms.

Despite holding dominion over time and space, the power gap between the factions was too vast. Even with their divine authority, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina were being driven back, inch by desperate inch.

With all life already extinguished from the world, there was no longer any reason to hold back. Elemental forces surged freely, tearing continents asunder. The once-protective atmosphere was ripped apart by shockwaves and gales, exposing the planet to a flood of cosmic radiation.

The once-pure motes of primal energy scattered across the world were now warped into unnatural, flickering forms by the battle's aftershocks.

For Arceus, this corruption of Primal Energy was disastrous, but for Lucius, it was inconsequential. His absorption process had always been a kind of corruption itself.

And now, amidst the chaos of gods clashing, Lucius's infection had spread to more than half of the world's essence.

Just then, a rain of shimmering, multicolored light burst across the skies, each drop radiating apocalyptic power as it crashed down upon Lucius's summoned mythic Pokémon.

Judgment.

Arceus's signature move.

Having slain the remaining defenders, Arceus had reclaimed all eighteen Plates, and now turned its focus toward reinforcing the embattled Time-Space Trinity.

This wasn't an attack one could simply evade. The moment it locked onto a target, escape, even into subspace, was futile. And with all eighteen types embodied in every strike, any hit would be super effective, regardless of the target.

Yet none of the mythic Pokémon fled or shielded themselves. Instead, they unleashed their full might in response.

Corrupted Flame.

Air Burst.

Origin Pulse.

Wings of Death.

Psycut…

An arsenal of devastating moves erupted toward the heavens, clashing with the falling Judgment like two storms colliding.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Explosions shattered mountains and reversed rivers. The land split open in a chasm tens of thousands of meters long, hundreds wide. It looked as though the planet's face had been slashed. Even the upper atmosphere was ripped apart, allowing waves of cosmic rays to flood in.

It was a strike of apocalyptic proportions.

Had it struck a normal world, this one exchange alone would have wiped out over 60% of all life.

As the echoes of the detonation faded, a strange, ethereal sound drifted through the ruined skies—eerie, haunting, and beautiful.

A song.

Lucius had never heard it before. But from the way the surviving mythic Pokémon reacted, he knew, this was no lullaby.

Perish Song.

As the last note lingered, a chilling premonition bloomed in Lucius's heart. He felt as though an invisible shackle had bound him, like the countdown of life itself had begun.

Focusing his psychic energy, Lucius activated a Psychic-type move: Future Sight.

The world around him fragmented into probability.

Visions flashed before his eyes.

In one vision, all his summoned mythic Pokémon perished within seconds. The virus he had introduced into this world died conceptually, unable to persist, and he was forcibly ejected back to his original reality.

"Heh… clever trick," he muttered. "But you think I'll just let you win that easily?"

Simultaneously, Mewtwo, Yveltal, and the black Ho-Oh ignited in dark energy. Those shadows twisted across space with unnatural trajectories, wrapping themselves around Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina.

At that moment, Lucius tore open another blood-red wormhole, evacuating the remaining mythic Pokémon, excluding Mewtwo, Yveltal, and black Ho-Oh, back to their homeworlds.

Realizing what was happening, Arceus's eyes flared with divine light as it raised a surge of Dark-type energy to sever the links.

But a swirling black wind erupted from below, condensing into a massive shadowy hand that smashed Arceus from the sky, violently disrupting its spell.

"No…!" Arceus roared as it fell.

And then, Mewtwo, Yveltal, and black Ho-Oh disintegrated, bursting into radiant motes of light.

And with them, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina followed. Their forms cracked and unraveled, their essence scattering to the wind.

Destiny Bond.

A Ghost-type move that links a user's life to its target. If the user dies, so too does the opponent, instantaneously.

From the moment Arceus cast Perish Song, Lucius had prepared. He had ordered Mewtwo, Yveltal, and Shadow Ho-Oh to cast Destiny Bond, tethering their fates to the Time-Space Trinity.

Then, he had withdrawn all other mythic Pokémon back to their native worlds, beyond the reach of this reality's rules.

Though Arceus attempted to counter with Dark-type energy, the manifested hand of Lucius's virus struck too quickly, shattering its focus.

And so Arceus could only watch, helpless, as three of its greatest aspects perished before its eyes.

Now, in this desolate world, only one god remained.

No, two.

The air screamed. The earth trembled.

All across the ravaged planet, the scattered Primal Energy, once dispersed by the fury of battle, now surged toward a single point, drawn by an overwhelming will.

And from it, a colossal figure emerged, vast enough to blot out the sky.

-------

Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my Patreon ——— patreon(.)com/Madbot635 [remove the parentheses ( )]