After Tyranitar, Manectric, and Pidgeot completed their Mega Evolutions, they once again charged toward their original opponents.
This time, relying on the power brought about by Mega Evolution, the tide of battle was immediately overturned. The three Mega-Evolved Pokémon seized the absolute upper hand.
After Mega Evolution, the combat strength of the three king-level Pokémon was directly raised by an entire tier. The increase in power was truly enormous.
Of course, this only allowed them to reverse the suppression. Defeating Lilligant, Froslass, and Gardevoir, three of the absolute peak of king-level Pokémon was still far from easy.
Following Aven's orders, the three Pokémon were now focused mainly on stalling for time, doing their utmost to drag out the opponents' Mega Evolution duration.
"ROOAAAR!"
Mega Tyranitar let out continuous furious roars, causing a sandstorm to rise across the entire battlefield.
After successfully completing Mega Evolution, Mega Tyranitar's Sand Stream ability was further strengthened to an astonishing degree.
At this point, even Lilligant's Sunny Day was no longer able to suppress Mega Tyranitar's Sand Stream, causing the entire battlefield to be completely engulfed in a raging sandstorm…
Meanwhile, Lilligant's figure floated in midair. Behind her, it was as if she possessed a pair of invisible wings, allowing her to move at extremely high speed.
After realizing that she could not keep up with her opponent's pace, Mega Tyranitar directly activated its Sand Stream ability to the fullest, causing the sandstorm to surge and instantly envelop Lilligant, with countless fine grains of sand continuously striking her body.
Under sandstorm weather, aside from Ground-, Rock-, Steel-type Pokémon, and a few others with sandstorm-resistant traits, all other Pokémon would directly suffer damage from the sandstorm!
"Lilli! Gant~"
Lilligant danced lightly in midair, while the figure of Mothim was carried on her back.
Facing the rapidly approaching sandstorm, Lilligant narrowed her eyes slightly. In the next instant, a dense surge of natural energy suddenly emerged from her body.
At the same time, Mothim behind her also began to mobilize normal energy, and the two streams of normal energy continuously merged together.
As the normal energy was activated, Mothim swiftly used the move Camouflage. Immediately afterward, it surprisingly began to slowly envelop both itself and Lilligant within it.
At this very moment, dense Ground-type energy surged over both Mothim and Lilligant, causing the attributes of both Pokémon to transform into the Ground type!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The sandstorm swept in rapidly, but when facing Mothim and Lilligant, who had become Ground-type, it failed to cause any significant damage!
"It worked—Camouflage through the application of normal energy," Aven let out a sigh of relief.
During this period of time, Lilligant had never relaxed her training in normal energy, and had even begun using it to simulate the move Camouflage.
Now, with Mothim's assistance, she had finally succeeded in using natural energy to replicate Camouflage, transforming herself into a Ground-type Pokémon and thereby avoiding the damage from the sandstorm!
"Lilli~"
Lilligant herself also breathed a sigh of relief.
After that, Mothim rapidly flapped its wings, carrying Lilligant as they darted swiftly through the sandstorm!
Mothim had fully unleashed its escape capabilities. The antennae atop its head gently swayed, allowing it to sense incoming attacks ahead of time and evade them accordingly.
All of this stemmed from Mothim's Swarm-like instinctive perception. With its single-minded focus on concealment and escape, Mothim had pushed the effects of this instinct to the extreme—so much so that it had even begun to exhibit partial precognitive effects.
Among all of Aven's Pokémon, Lilligant was the one he worried about the most. Seeing that she was safe now, he finally relaxed, shifting his gaze toward the other two battlefields.
Froslass, relying on the fusion of Ghost- and Ice-type energies, had an exceptionally strong restraining effect against the Flying-type Pidgeot, greatly narrowing the gap between them.
Moreover, the move Ominous Wind possessed effects similar to Ancient Power, with a certain chance to comprehensively enhance a Pokémon's physical attributes, allowing its strength to grow even further.
The keystone embedded around her neck was now glowing brightly, continuously releasing the gray mist sealed within it. This caused Froslass's power to surge once again, to the point where she was now able to confront Mega Pidgeot head-on!
Although Lilligant in her normal state might be the strongest among all of Aven's Pokémon, once the gray mist's power was unleashed, Froslass's strength would firmly surpass Lilligant's!
Of course, the gray mist state also placed tremendous strain on Froslass. Prolonged use would cause the mist to continuously erode her body.
However, when facing a powerful opponent like Mega Pidgeot, Froslass showed no hesitation at all in activating the gray mist's power. At the same time, the yellow crystal energy within her body was driven to its absolute limit!
Huuu—huuu—
Fierce winds howled endlessly across the battlefield.
The violent storm and the gray mist collided repeatedly, forming a perfectly evenly matched situation!
Now that she had activated the gray mist's power, Froslass's strength was actually no weaker than that of Mega Pidgeot!
After all, to a certain extent, the gray mist's power could also allow Froslass to undergo a complete transformation. With the gray mist, she was essentially experiencing an evolution of her own!
Lastly, there was Gardevoir.
At this moment, Gardevoir had already activated Azelf's power, faintly establishing a connection with Aven's own psychic force.
The power of will itself belonged to emotional energy. After continuous meditation, Gardevoir had gradually fused this power together with her psychic strength.
Only by completely transforming this power into her own could Gardevoir truly become a powerful Pokémon and free herself from reliance on Azelf's power.
After successfully mobilizing Azelf's power, and with the assistance of her formidable spatial abilities, Gardevoir could rely on Teleport to completely shake off Manectric's even faster pursuit!
"It looks like the situation has stabilized, but maintaining this balance is still extremely difficult," Aven sighed, turning his gaze toward the volcano.
At that very moment, the entire Stark Mountain suddenly began to tremble violently. The magma within the volcano seemed to boil, surging upward continuously.
"The volcano is about to erupt!" Aven's expression sharpened.
At the same time, when the Grand Sorcerers saw this scene, excitement appeared on their faces—they had been waiting for this moment for a very long time!
"Come forth, Heatran!"
The black-robed Grand Sorcerer even stepped forward, his gaze burning as he stared at the erupting volcano.
At the same time, a golden ring had appeared in his hands at some unknown point. He gripped it tightly with both hands, looking eager and ready.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
Under everyone's gaze, the volcano erupted violently. Magma overflowed past the crater, spreading outward in all directions, emitting sizzling sounds of scorching heat wherever it passed.
But just as all the magma within the volcano was about to burst forth, the magma that had already reached the crater suddenly reversed its flow. A faintly visible figure appeared within the volcano!
After this figure emerged, it began greedily absorbing the magma, causing all of it to flow back into the volcano. The eruption that had been imminent was unexpectedly brought to a halt!
When everything finally settled, the volcano once again sank into silence. Then, a Pokémon with a red-brown body appeared—its form resembling a fusion of a turtle and a spider, its body covered with a mix of brown and orange markings.
This was none other than Heatran, exactly as Aven remembered it.
Taking advantage of the impending volcanic eruption, the seal on Heatran's body had finally been lifted, allowing it to emerge before everyone's eyes!
"Heatran has finally appeared!" Upon seeing this figure, the black-robed Grand Sorcerer stepped forward excitedly.
Immediately afterward, the golden ring in his hand shot out, appearing in front of Heatran as if via teleportation, and directly locking around Heatran's neck!
"ROOOAAAAAR!"
In an instant, the newly awakened Heatran was enraged.
It roared continuously, causing the magma that had just calmed down to surge violently once more.
Yet no matter how much it struggled, no matter how terrifying the Fire-type energy erupting from its body became, it was completely unable to break free from the golden ring around its neck.
At the same time, purple-black energy continuously poured out from the ring, invading Heatran's body and attempting to take full control of it!
"It worked. As long as I subdue Heatran, I will possess one of the keys to unlocking the Seal of Creation!" The black-robed Grand Sorcerer's eyes shone with excitement.
Not only that—by borrowing Heatran's power, he could also restore his own combat strength, reclaiming guardian deity-level power and gaining even greater authority!
(End of Chapter)