A few seconds later, Muheer's eyes sharpened.
Without a word, he flicked his right hand.
In an instant, countless Aura-conjured artillery shells roared through the air!
To begin with, they were already a renowned mercenary team across the Six Continents, operating with seamless synergy.
Now, after their journey to the Dark Continent, their coordination had reached new heights—they moved in perfect unison without needing signals.
The sky was instantly filled with Aura-shells, tracing elegant arcs before striking the school of fish with pinpoint accuracy.
"BOOM!!"
The thunderous barrage echoed across the sea.
Cheadle was slightly taken aback, feeling the team's response seemed excessive.
Not only were they just fish—their exact appearance still unseen—but they hadn't even caused any damage.
Was such overwhelming firepower really necessary?
By Cheadle's estimate, Muheer's single volley could have leveled an entire village.
Just as Cheadle thought Muheer's team was overreacting, Botobai spoke gravely beside her:
"I believe Muheer made the right call. Even after that bombardment, not all those fish were killed."
Botobai, far stronger than Cheadle and currently the only S- tier fighter among the Zodiac Twelve, possessed a vastly superior En.
He could clearly sense the abnormality of those fish.
Cheadle's expression froze as she looked toward the distant waters.
Amidst the dissipating Aura, countless bizarre fish corpses floated on the surface—each enormous, with swordfish-like spears for noses.
Had they rammed the ship directly, she couldn't guarantee the vessel would have survived.
As Cheadle reflected and assumed the matter concluded, Muheer frowned at the floating fish corpses.
After a moment, he dispensed with hand signals and instead drew his Nen bow, pulling it to full draw with a mighty heave.
The arrows were manifestations of his Nen Ability, so the draw weight matched his maximum strength—no risk of being unable to handle his own weapon.
A pure Aura-arrow streaked forth, slicing through the air with a sharp hiss before vanishing.
"BOOM!"
The arrow struck the water's surface, blasting apart fish that had been playing dead.
Their ruse exposed, the surviving spearfish abandoned pretense and began swimming frantically.
[Just as I suspected]
[Good thing we stayed vigilant] Muheer narrowed his eyes, the Aura around his body fluctuating as the rest of the team also grew serious.
Although this was considered the front section of Mobius Lake, it wasn't surprising for strange things to appear here.
Muheer felt he had learned much from his journey to the Dark Continent.
The most important lesson—one that best ensured his survival—was that even a lion must use its full strength when hunting a rabbit.
Never underestimate anything.
Before their astonished eyes, the swordfish began pressing against one another, merging in the blink of an eye into a single "giant swordfish."
But in reality, it was composed of countless individuals.
"Are there really still so many alive?"
"And... what kind of ability is this?"
Cheadle stared blankly at the school of fish, her shock unceasing since the moment this had begun.
She now fully realized two things.
First, even though they had only just left the waters of the Six Continents, there was no denying they had already entered a dangerous zone.
Here, anything could appear.
Second, her mindset was still confined to her previous way of thinking—approaching the Dark Continent with ordinary logic.
This was unacceptable!
In these waters, and later in the Dark Continent, extreme vigilance was necessary. Underestimating anything was a fatal mistake.
As one of the Twelve Zodiacs' intellectual pillars, Chimera quickly recognized her problem and corrected it.
By the time she snapped out of her daze, the giant swordfish had already been dealt with by Muheer and the others.
The ship could now proceed safely.
Their current route was somewhat similar to the one Akira and his group had taken before, though not entirely identical.
Along this planned course, it wouldn't be long before they spotted the first hypothetical island of the Dark Continent.
...
The next day,
High above a certain region of the Dark Continent, a purple figure streaked through the sky, casually carving sharp currents through the air.
Seated atop this purple figure was a person—
Genesect and Akira!
Akira sat on Genesect's back, gazing down at the vast expanse of barren, chaotic terrain below.
Even after flying a considerable distance, the devastation from yesterday's battle remained visible.
Given Genesect's incredible speed, the fact that the destruction could still be seen after covering so much ground spoke volumes about its sheer scale.
In a way, though, this was also a good thing.
With the terrain already thoroughly wrecked, Akira could head straight for the volcano without hesitation.
No detours were needed—his goal was crystal clear.
Thanks to Genesect's extreme speed, Akira soon arrived at his predetermined destination.
From a distance, he hadn't felt much, but up close, he realized just how absurdly massive these volcanoes were, their sprawling presence dominating the landscape.
Three similarly sized volcanoes stood side by side, and strangely enough, right beside them was a snow-capped mountain.
Volcanoes and a snow mountain.
By all logic, these two names shouldn't belong together.
Yet here they were, coexisting—one side a realm of scorching heat, the other a frozen wasteland.
As they neared the volcano, Akira signaled Genesect to descend.
He intended to land.
He wanted to test something.
'Don' casually found a grassy area at the foot of the volcano and Akira landed directly there.
Thud.
The moment his feet touched the ground, a familiar incubation bar appeared in Akira's mind.
As expected, this volcanic region had an incubation bar.
The only question was—which Pokémon would it be?
There was no denying that Fire-type would definitely be among its attributes.
Moreover, its tier couldn't be low.
With three massive volcanoes stretching across the land, it had to be at least a Legendary Pokémon.
That narrowed the possibilities considerably.
On the lower end, it could be Entei, one of the Legendary Beasts.
Or perhaps Moltres, one of the Legendary Birds.
On the higher end, Ho-Oh, a Mythical Pokémon, was also Fire-type, as was Victini.
Beyond that, the famous Fire/Steel-type Heatran was a volcanic Pokémon, making it a plausible candidate for this location.
Considering the nearby snow-capped mountains, Akira allowed his thoughts to wander—could it even be Volcanion, a Fire/Water-type?
After briefly entertaining these possibilities, Akira began walking around the base of the volcano, surveying the massive structure.
At the same time, he didn't forget his other objective—finding the Kurta Clan in the Dark Continent.
According to Don, the Kurta Clan lived at the foot of the volcano.
A thought flashed through Akira's mind, and a pale purple blob materialized before him.
It was Ditto.
Ditto hadn't been called into action for quite some time—Akira recalled that the last time he had used it was during the battle against the Chimera Ant King.
After encountering so many creatures, Ditto's transformation repertoire had expanded significantly.
Among them were some formidable beings.
For instance, the shadow of the Demon King or an avatar of the Snake Lord.
Akira had already planned ahead—if he ever found himself in urgent need, he could have Ditto transform into an avatar of the Snake Lord.
Then, by unleashing its aura, it could turn countless creatures into Snakeine beings like the Cursed Snake Demon.
However, that seemed like overkill. Akira suspected there might be more critical uses for it later.
For now, though, Akira intended for Ditto to transform into none other than—Don Freecss!
A flash of light erupted from Ditto's body as its elastic form began to twist and morph.
When the glow faded, Ditto had fully assumed Don Freecss's appearance.
Not only did it possess Don's abilities, but it also carried his years of experience.
But these details weren't particularly important to Akira.
His reason for having Ditto transform into Don was simple—to access his memories.
Truthfully, Akira hadn't actually copied Don's memories during their earlier transaction.
He had discovered that Don, having died multiple times, had suffered memory loss despite his soul remaining intact.
Thus, Akira hadn't insisted on copying the memories, as they were likely fragmented.
They might not even contain as much information as the original manuscripts in Don's books.
Now, Akira wanted to test something—having Ditto transform into Don, then letting Porygon-Z perform the memory extraction.
Perhaps this method would yield more complete memories.
'Don' stood motionless as Porygon-Z materialized in the air beside him.
After extensive data collection, Porygon-Z had become far more adept at extracting memories.
Not only was the process smoother, but it was also significantly faster.
Invisible streams of data began drifting from [Don]'s mind, all converging into Porygon-Z's database.
It could be said that a large part of Meowth's experiments relied on Porygon-Z.
While Meowth's inventive abilities were formidable, without the supercomputer brain of Porygon-Z to assist, its creations would have been limited, with much of the data impossible to record.
The combination of the inventor Meowth and the data master Porygon-Z—this was the true technical duo in Akira's hands.
Swish, swish...
As Porygon-Z absorbed the memories, rustling sounds emerged from the nearby bushes.
Akira turned toward the noise and spotted a creature resembling a rat, though far larger—almost the size of a medium-sized dog.
The oversized rodent had dark gray fur, its most distinctive feature being the three smaller rats perched on its back.
Though still larger than normal rats.
[Abnormal Opossum]:
Typically carries its offspring on its back while moving. When facing a powerful enemy, it actively places its young in its mouth for protection.
This triggers a hidden power within its body, causing varying degrees of distortion and mutation, making it highly aggressive.
The opossum showed no reaction upon seeing Akira.
But when it sensed the aura emanating from Porygon-Z as it absorbed memories, its fur instantly stood on end.
With lightning speed, it swallowed the three small opossums on its back, then its body rapidly expanded.
In an instant, its size increased more than tenfold.
Its eyes filled with bloodshot veins, and drool dripped from its gaping maw, reeking of blood.
"So this is an Abnormal Opossum?"
Akira raised an eyebrow, thinking this creature somewhat resembled the [Morphing Rabbit-Man] he'd encountered before.
Though it seemed there were quite a few creatures with such drastic size discrepancies?
Morphing Rabbit-Man, Abnormal Opossum... and Bisky.
The opossum's gaze wasn't fixed on Akira but on Porygon-Z floating in the air.
It took slow, deliberate steps forward, its massive claws sinking deep into the ground with each movement.
But with just one misstep—disaster struck.
"BOOM!!"
A violent explosion erupted as a pillar of fire burst from beneath the ground, engulfing the enormous opossum.
After struggling in the flames for a few moments, its massive body was reduced to ashes, and the fire gradually died down.
Huh?!
Akira's eyes widened as he stared at the opossum's remains... and the large crater beneath them.
He had seen it clearly—the opossum had merely stepped on the grass, yet it triggered something like a landmine.
But a normal landmine wouldn't have harmed this opossum, let alone incinerated it so thoroughly.
So...
There was something beneath the ground?
Akira crossed his arms, sensing that this area might be far more dangerous—like walking through a hidden minefield.
Pure luck determined survival; one wrong step could mean a deadly "prize."
But he didn't need to rely on luck. He already had a rough idea of what was causing this.
With a thought, Diancie appeared beside him.
If it was underground, it was likely caused by some kind of ore—not impossible.
After all, he had once obtained a mineral called [Blastfire Stone], which was highly explosive.
Since it was ore-related, leaving it to the Jewel Princess Diancie was the most fitting solution.
Perhaps they could even find some rare minerals here in the volcanic region.
After all, volcanic areas were known for producing such materials.
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