Chapter 824: Shadow's "Eyes"
"Even that didn't kill It?"
Watching the green Cells dancing in the sky, Kazuya's face instantly darkened.
He believed that the power of that shot just now.
Even surpassed the full-power strike of the Ultimate Weapon in the second world.
With such firepower, never mind replicating the destruction of half of Kalos three thousand years ago.
It would be enough to obliterate Xerneas or Yveltal in a single shot.
Yet, it still couldn't kill Zygarde; it only managed to blast It apart.
Was Its vitality really that tenacious?!
At this time.
Scizor approached, pointed at Z2 in Kazuya's hand, and said: "Master, if you kill this thing in your hand, will it affect Zygarde?"
His line of thought made Lucario's eyes light up, thinking it was a very good idea.
Since Cores are so important to Zygarde.
Then killing this Z2.
Should logically cripple half of Zygarde, right?
Lucario looked inquiringly at Greninja, but the latter shook his head, seemingly not very clear about this matter either.
And facing the glaring Scizor.
Z2 was extremely angry!
But it was completely useless.
It was quite miraculous, really.
Although Cores are extremely weak, as long as they aren't severely injured, they can summon a massive amount of Cells in a short time to change forms.
But this ordinary glass container AZ made seemed able to block the summoning signal Z2 emitted, preventing other Cells from receiving Its call.
"Eh? I don't know, let's see what AZ thinks."
Kazuya was stunned for a moment and shook his head blankly.
He wasn't very familiar with the god Zygarde.
In his previous seven lives, he had never interacted with Zygarde, let alone fought It.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be so shocked by Zygarde's tenacious vitality.
In this situation.
He had to ask AZ, who had stayed in Kalos for over three thousand years.
Those who learn the truth first, those who specialize in a profession.
When it comes to dealing with Zygarde, if AZ claimed second, only the dead Lysandre would dare claim first.
But now, Lysandre's technology had all fallen into AZ's hands.
So AZ was undisputedly the number one expert in dealing with Zygarde.
Just then.
AZ had already walked over, saying as he walked, "It seems that to kill Zygarde, we'll need to do some serious research. I intend to emulate Its Core Enforcer and attempt to destroy Z1 in one fell swoop during the next attack."
Hearing his words.
Everyone looked at each other in dismay.
Kazuya raised the small jar in his palm.
AZ's gaze shifted over.
Everyone else's gaze shifted over as well.
Z2: "..."
Z2 survived.
But it would become AZ's research specimen.
AZ intended to find a method from Z2 that could directly obliterate Z1 next time, rather than just blasting it apart.
The reason for not killing Z2 now.
There were many reasons...
Killing a lone Zygarde Core is very easy.
Otherwise, in the anime, these two Cores wouldn't have been chased all over the place by a bunch of Team Flare grunts.
However.
According to AZ's theory and the records Lysandre left behind.
Zygarde has two lives.
Namely, Z1 and Z2.
Z1 and Z2 must die at the same time.
For It to truly die.
Killing just one of them is meaningless; it would be reborn from a certain Cell in a matter of years.
And right now.
Even if they killed Z2, they had no way to kill Z1 in a short period.
So doing it would be completely meaningless.
It would be better to keep Z2 for research, and also to continue using it as bait to lure Z1 back.
"Based on my estimation, it will take Z1 at least three years to regather all Its Cells this time. The next time it comes to Lumiose City, it should be five years from now."
"That's not a short time."
"But it's not very long either. I will try my best to replicate Core Enforcer within five years. Greninja, I'll need you to come here in five years."
After saying this, AZ turned to the lumberjack frog behind him.
He didn't say this to Kazuya's group.
After all, with Kazuya and Mewtwo around, they couldn't stay in the Kalos region for long.
If they stayed for too long.
Demon Gods from all over the world would converge on the Kalos region.
When that time came, they wouldn't just be dealing with one Zygarde.
"Kouka."
Greninja waved his hand.
It wasn't an apology.
It meant "no need to say more."
Subsequently.
AZ shifted his gaze back to Kazuya, his eyes growing profound. "Alright, Kazuya, please have your companions escort the Team Flare members back. We cannot afford any mistakes while transporting the Ultimate Weapon, the Master, and Z2. I need to take you somewhere."
He had something to say.
But it was inconvenient to let too many people know.
"...Alright."
Kazuya nodded and lifted his chin at his companions.
Not long after.
Kazuya and AZ separated from the main group.
The direction was still Lumiose City.
But their speed was faster; they would arrive a day or two earlier.
"What do you want to say?"
Kazuya didn't ask AZ where they were going, but asked directly.
He felt what AZ said just now was just an excuse to send the others away.
"Regarding some of the things you mentioned about the Spirit World. I need you to explain the existence of the Spirit World to me in detail. You should be the one who understands it best among them, right?"
"Mm."
Kazuya nodded.
Before meeting Cofagrigus, his companions didn't know much about the Spirit World.
The one who knew the most was Lucario, but even that was limited to having heard many rumors.
Only he.
Had truly been to the Spirit World, and even accomplished a great feat there.
So he was indeed the creature who understood the Spirit World best in the team.
Kazuya didn't hide anything.
He told AZ everything about the Spirit World.
After hearing it, the latter nodded and asked again, "Do you think that Lord of the Spirit World has the spare energy to do other things after killing Giratina?"
"My intuition tells me that Yui and Cofagrigus wouldn't just want to kill Giratina. But considering reality, for them to kill Giratina amidst a horde of magical beasts and Demon Gods is already pushing their limits. It's highly unlikely they have the spare energy to do anything else."
Kazuya lowered his head, pursed his lips, and shared his thoughts.
"However, the fact is, they do seem to have done something incredible."
"How do you know?"
"Well, this brings us to the situation us survivors have always been in."
AZ pulled a pocket watch from his chest.
Opened the cover.
An electronic screen was revealed.
It was a radar, but there were no markers appearing on the screen.
Afterwards.
AZ told Kazuya something.
That there were Shadow's "eyes" everywhere in this world.
Just like how the World Tree could monitor the world through crystals scattered across the globe, Shadow also possessed a similar ability, though not as powerful as the World Tree's.
This point was collectively discovered through testing by the three major world-saving organizations.
And to avoid being seen by Shadow's "eyes" during operations, they developed this radar.
The radar's function is very simple.
It detects the locations of surrounding Ghost-type Pokémon.
"Shadow's eyes are actually individual Ghost-type magical beasts. Generally speaking, there are magical beasts everywhere in this world, especially when our Team Flare conducts special operations, there are particularly many around. But since seven days ago, all these Ghost-type magical beasts have disappeared."
AZ held up the radar in his hand and showed it to Kazuya.
If AZ wasn't so certain.
Kazuya would have thought this radar was broken.
And regarding what he said.
Kazuya didn't doubt it either.
After all, the memory of that Gengar on Four Island was still fresh, and they had killed quite a few Ghost-type magical beasts on their journey over the past decade or so.
Initially, they were curious why these magical beasts didn't attack them.
Now they knew they intended to secretly monitor or track them.
But this was practically impossible.
Not to mention Kazuya, a dual-cultivator of special abilities.
Just Lucario's Aura perception and Mewtwo's psychic perception were not something these Ghost-type magical beasts could evade.
"So, you think Yui and Cofagrigus did something to make the Ghost-type Pokémon in this world disappear?"
Kazuya turned to look at AZ.
He found AZ's theory very interesting.
If all this was true.
Then Yui and Cofagrigus had truly done something incredibly significant.
Ghost-type magical beasts were the tools Shadow used to monitor the world; their action was no less than poking out one of Shadow's "eyes."
In the future.
Whether it was Kazuya or the survivor organizations.
They would have far fewer worries when taking action.
For example.
Team Flare's operation against Zygarde.
In the past.
Shadow might have learned of this intelligence through Ghost-type magical beasts, thereby controlling Zygarde to suppress Its instincts and not rescue Z2.
But now.
Shadow wouldn't even know such a thing was happening.
He might not even know that Zygarde had already been blasted apart.
"You said before that only the Gatekeeper and the Lord of the Spirit World can open the Gate to the Spirit World. Besides them, there's also Palkia... But when the Lord of the Spirit World dies, the Spirit World will automatically seal itself off, isolating itself from the outside world until the birth of the next Lord of the Spirit World..."
AZ pinched his chin and continued to think.
"That's right."
Kazuya nodded.
This intelligence came not only from Cofagrigus but also from his journey to the Spirit World in his fourth life.
"But Palkia's ability seems to have a flaw. It can only perform spatial jumps between two connected worlds. If the connection between two worlds is severed, then there is no way to cross through space... This is the research finding of Dr. Carolina in the Sinnoh region. It is said that evidence was obtained from the Lake Guardians."
"..."
"..."
Hearing AZ's words, Kazuya's brain stalled for a moment.
More accurately.
He was searching his past memories to verify if Carolina's conclusion was correct.
Carolina was, after all, the grandmother of the first world's Cynthia and the mother of Auntie Carolina.
Even if one doesn't look at the monk's face, one should look at the Buddha's face. (Give respect where it's due)
Her words truly needed to be considered carefully.
Moreover, Carolina was the undisputed authority on the Creation Trio and creation legends, the absolute expert in researching the Creation Trio.
Furthermore.
There was AZ's mention of the Lake Guardians.
Also known as the "Lake Trio."
Although these three little beings' base stats place them in the "second-tier god" category, their status is infinitely high, belonging to the same generation as the Creation Trio.
The Creation Trio are the three cornerstones of the material world.
While the Lake Guardians are the three cornerstones of the spiritual world.
And these three little mushrooms spend most of their time in their own spiritual worlds, so they can be considered gods with independent alternate dimensions.
Saying that evidence was obtained from Them was not an unfounded claim.