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Scarlet didn't follow Kael and Earl back toward Ignis City.
Though the mission had gone terribly wrong, her teammates were dead, her Pokémon gravely wounded, and the supply convoy still had to reach the Town.
As the only remaining Trainer in the group, she had no choice but to stay. They were close now; just a few more miles.
The odds of another nightmare Pokémon encounter were nearly zero. She wanted to finish the job and to finally see her parents again, to tell them what she'd survived.
With one last wave to Kael and Earl, she climbed into the truck.
The engines rumbled to life, black smoke rising into the brightening sky.
The convoy rolled out in a line of steel and dust, vanishing slowly down the road.
Kael and Earl stood watching until the vehicles dwindled to dots on the horizon.
Then, hearing the faint jingle of a bell from the departing caravan, Kael turned his gaze east toward their next destination.
---
Ignis City was once one of the nine great human bastions.
Centuries ago, it had been a fortress against the tide of nightmare Pokémon. Its name came from the dragon that once guarded it: a champion-level Dragonite, the "Flame of Dawn."
Even after the monster assaults had slowed and the world quieted, legends said the guardian still lingered, watching from the storm-scarred skies to keep the city safe.
By midday, after hours of walking, Kael finally saw it.
A towering wall forty meters high loomed across the horizon.
Dark gray stone mixed with gleaming alloy, its surface scarred by old battles and streaked with ancient, rust-colored stains.
It radiated the weight of centuries, the smell of iron and blood.
Kael stood beneath it, head tilted back.
His chest tightened not with fear, but with awe.
He could feel it.
The wall wasn't just a barrier of stone. It pulsed faintly with the remnants of battle, with the psychic echoes of warriors who had fought and died here.
A million voices rage, courage, pain whispered just beneath the surface.
For a Pokémon with heightened senses like Kael, it was overwhelming.
Power and memory bled into his mind, flooding him with ghostly images of soldiers standing their ground, of dragons roaring through smoke.
He shuddered, forcing himself to breathe.
If he let his focus slip, he could lose himself in those memories forever.
"Still too sensitive…" he muttered, shaking off the trance.
He ran a hand along the wall's cold surface. To his surprise, the chill seemed to fade beneath his touch, replaced by an echo of warmth like the heartbeat of the city itself.
He quickly pulled back, exhaling sharply. "Close one."
Kael tightened his aura, locking away his overflowing perception before it could drown him again.
Earl, who'd been watching in confusion, blinked up at him.
Kael offered a small nod. "I'm fine. Let's go in."
---
The city gates towered even higher than he expected massive slabs of dark metal that gleamed faintly in the sunlight.
Despite the wall's grim scars, life thrived here.
Traders moved in and out. Soldiers chatted by the checkpoint. The air was busy, alive.
Kael had half-expected a wasteland a city limping through ruin.
Instead, Ignis City was… peaceful.
People wore simple clothes, not ragged ones.
Children ran laughing near the gate. There wasn't a beggar in sight.
He didn't know that decades had passed since the nightmare invasions ended.
The surrounding wilderness had long been cleansed, and the city's recovery, while slow, had endured.
Even the weakest Pokémon now helped humans rebuild a Bellsprout nurturing crops, a Magnemite keeping lights powered, and a Machop hauling stone for reconstruction.
The world hadn't healed completely.
But standing beneath the monumental walls of Ignis City, Kael could feel it as a heartbeat of civilization, stubborn and strong.
He looked down at Earl, who gazed at the city with wide eyes full of wonder.
"Welcome," Kael said quietly, "to what's left of the human world."
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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