Chapter 802: I Wanted to Ignore You
Early the next morning.
The group of Pokémon traveled light.
After leaving their important items at Carolina's house, they all headed towards Mt. Coronet.
Celestic Town was right at the foot of Mt. Coronet.
So the distance wasn't considered far. They reached halfway up Mt. Coronet in just an hour.
"Will that guy really come?"
Cofagrigus turned to look at the Magma Stone Kazuya had placed on a stone pillar.
"If Heatran is truly in the Mt. Coronet range, It will definitely come. We just don't know how long we have to wait."
Kazuya lay on a stone tablet, waving his hand leisurely.
They were currently in the ruins of an ancient site.
These ruins had existed for over a thousand years. In his second life, Kazuya had even specifically come here with Cynthia to investigate.
Hearing Kazuya say this, the other Pokémon could only be patient and wait.
The Mt. Coronet of the past was a place of beautiful scenery, but after the world lost its sunlight, it looked like a massive mass grave.
From Kazuya's location, looking into the distance, one could even see a graveyard somewhere on Mt. Coronet, and Ghost-type magical beasts wandering within it.
An unknown amount of time passed.
Rumble—!!
At a certain moment, a nearby small mountain suddenly erupted with magma.
Of course.
The main point was that above the magma flow, a giant fireball was plunging towards their location.
"Finally here, huh?"
Cofagrigus rubbed his eyes; he was almost falling asleep.
"Prepare for battle, everyone. Don't use Poison, Bug, Steel, Grass, Ice, or Fairy-type moves."
Kazuya rolled over, grabbed the Magma Stone, and floated in mid-air.
Heatran, with Its Fire/Steel dual typing.
Although It had that fatal 4x weakness to Ground, compared to Its absurd resistances, that weakness seemed somewhat insignificant.
As Kazuya's voice fell.
The other six Pokémon all looked up at the sky.
At the same time.
The giant fireball in the sky revealed Its true form as the flames surrounding It receded.
The face revealed below was exactly the Heatran they had been waiting for.
"Long time no see! Heatran! Consider this thing as an apology gift for what's about to happen!"
Kazuya threw the Magma Stone in his hand towards the sky.
"Gwooh—!!"
The corrupted Heatran caught the Magma Stone in Its mouth, crushed it in one bite, and immediately spewed a blazing pillar of fire at Kazuya.
"Not bad, Your strength has grown a lot. You finally look somewhat like a 'god'."
Kazuya grinned, a trace of nostalgia flashing in his eyes.
This Heatran, like the Regice in the Alabaster Icelands, was a deity that transformed from the natural environment later on. Therefore, Their strength at birth didn't start at the Champion level.
He remembered three hundred years ago, this Heatran's strength was merely around the Elite Four level.
Now, three hundred years later.
Heatran's strength had reached the mid-Champion level, finally resembling the God of Volcanoes to some degree.
Facing Heatran's rather rough greeting.
Kazuya didn't choose to dodge.
He puffed out his chest, and then a thick Hydro Pump shot out from his mouth in retaliation.
The Flamethrower and Hydro Pump collided in mid-air.
Even though Heatran was a higher level, the momentum of the Flamethrower was extinguished first.
The water current still had residual power and surged towards Heatran.
*Smack!*
Suspended in mid-air, Heatran couldn't dodge in time and took a face full of water.
The damage wasn't high.
But it was highly insulting.
Anyway, as soon as Heatran's four feet landed firmly, Its gaze immediately locked onto Kazuya's face. Clearly, all Its hatred was now focused on him.
"Sorry, Your opponents are Them."
Facing Heatran's glare, Kazuya shrugged, then turned and ran towards the volcano that was still spewing magma.
He hadn't forgotten the purpose of this trip.
Heatran wasn't the main point; the main point was to see if the Flame Plate was in Its nest.
They had planned this long ago.
After luring Heatran out, Kazuya's six companions would work together to stall or finish It off.
While Kazuya used this opportunity to go to Heatran's lair to search for traces of the Flame Plate.
If Kazuya found the Flame Plate, or discovered it wasn't there, he would immediately rush back and lead everyone away.
There was no absolute need to decide a victor in this battle.
If they fought to the bitter end.
It might cause some unexpected situations at the Spear Pillar at the peak of Mt. Coronet.
Kazuya didn't want to clash with the Creation Trio right now.
Watching Kazuya move away.
Heatran wanted to move Its four legs to give chase.
However, the next second, It stopped.
The six Pokémon had surrounded It.
The aura and oppressive feeling emanating from this group of Pokémon made Heatran instinctively realize It couldn't ignore them.
"None of you interfere! I'm going to duel this guy!"
"Hey, Scizor, what's wrong with you suddenly? That'll waste too much time."
Skitty cursed at Scizor.
She, Kazuya, and Meowscarada were friends, so no matter how you looked at it, her seniority wasn't lower than Scizor's, which was why she could speak more bluntly normally.
"Hehe, it's just that he minds Kazuya telling him not to fight Heatran one-on-one earlier."
Cofagrigus revealed a sinister smile.
"Hmph! I want to prove to Master that I can take this guy down in a one-on-one fight too."
Scizor raised his chin, not denying it.
Immediately.
He didn't wait for everyone to respond.
He directly charged at Heatran on his own.
The two Pokémon were engaged in battle in an instant.
Although Scizor was about three levels higher than Heatran, there was a reason Kazuya didn't want him to fight Heatran one-on-one.
As a Bug/Steel-type Pokémon.
Not only was Scizor 4x weak to Fire.
His STAB Bug and Steel-type moves were both 4x resisted by Heatran.
Coupled with the fact that a Pokémon like Scizor has a relatively rigid move pool.
He truly had very few effective damaging moves to use against Heatran.
"Hey!"
Skitty chased for two steps, but with her short legs, she couldn't stop him at all.
"Little Mantis cares too much about what his Master thinks of him, but because of that, he failed to understand Kazuya's intention. He probably just didn't want Scizor to get hurt."
Dragonite sighed helplessly and turned to look at Cofagrigus, "What should we do?"
In terms of seniority.
Kazuya, Dragonite, and Cofagrigus were the parents among the group of seven, so they would occasionally discuss their course of action together.
"How about letting him suffer a bit?"
"Kazuya will be sad."
Dragonite shook her head.
"Then should we step in and help now?"
"Little Mantis will be angry."
Dragonite shook her head again.
"...What do you want to do?"
"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you."
Dragonite shook her head yet again.
Cofagrigus: "..."
With Kazuya absent.
The team had a serious disagreement.
Lucario and Skitty thought they should intervene.
Mewtwo and Cofagrigus leaned towards letting Scizor handle it himself.
Dragonite was caught in the middle, hesitating.
A group of dragons without a leader.
On the other side.
Looking at the small mountain with rolling magma already overflowing the crater, Kazuya fell into a moment of hesitation.
If this were his Charizard lifetime.
This magma would just be a hot spring.
But now...
He would get burned.
Kazuya carefully approached the crater, slightly frowning at the wave of heat that hit his face.
He closed his eyes.
Controlling his Aura and psychic powers simultaneously, he sent his perception deep into the magma.
There was a strong energy source there.
"The Flame Plate, it really is here."
Kazuya opened his eyes, a look of pleasant surprise appearing in his pupils.
Originally, he hadn't held much hope.
After all, Kazuya felt that the big boss behind the scenes definitely wouldn't leave something like a Plate behind.
But he didn't expect.
That they would actually find the Flame Plate.
Although it wasn't one of the eight Plates that could save the world, finding a Plate so quickly was enough to uplift everyone's spirits.
Right at this moment.
"Wait..."
Kazuya suddenly frowned deeply.
The Flame Plate...
Is moving?
"How could the Flame Plate be moving? Some creature is holding it and coming towards me."
Kazuya sensed that powerful life aura "awakening," and his expression gradually turned solemn.
Could it be.
That they had truly walked into an ambush?
If that were the case, he wouldn't be surprised.
Using a Plate as bait to set an ambush was quite a normal thing to do.
Kazuya's gaze slowly followed that aura, and his own position gradually elevated.
He was already prepared to run.
If a Demon God he absolutely couldn't defeat appeared, then he would just give up on the Flame Plate; it wasn't worth agonizing over.
However.
When that figure walked out of the tunnel of the small mountain.
Kazuya froze on the spot.
Looking at the ice pillar appearing halfway up the mountain, he couldn't react for a long time: "Regice..."
Snowflakes began to fall slowly from the dark gray sky, forming a stark contrast with the scorching volcanic magma beneath their feet.
Appearing before him.
Was exactly the friend Kazuya and Meowscarada had made in the Alabaster Icelands back then, the "God of Ice Pillars," Regice.
He remembered that Regice had just awakened from its slumber at the time.
It was Kazuya who taught It to control Its abilities.
At the time, Regice had even given him an Eternal Ice Crystal Plate.
Both as an expression of gratitude and friendship to Kazuya, and as an apology for failing to protect the flower specimen.
Later, in his fourth life.
Kazuya and Lorelei encountered an avalanche in the Alabaster Icelands.
It was also Regice who appeared and saved him.
He never expected.
That meeting again now.
Would be under these circumstances.
Kazuya's pupils trembled slightly as he looked at the adorkable ice pillar raising Its hands towards him in the sky. He couldn't help but sigh: "I wanted to ignore You."
He knew Regice definitely hadn't left the Alabaster Icelands.
So he originally planned to lead his companions to bypass that place and travel to Newmoon Island from further out at sea.
"I really didn't want to run into You, and I really didn't want to fight You."
A drop of sweat appeared on Kazuya's forehead. He lowered his head and clenched his fists, "But why, why must the Flame Plate be inside Your body?"
He raised his gaze.
Staring intently at the touch of red deep within that body of ice.
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