During his last visit, Kairos had already noticed that flying in the Reverse World was surprisingly easy. Gravity here behaved strangely. The two of them moved one after the other, quickly reaching the core region of the Reverse World.
The space here was extremely unstable, with visible turbulence and twisted bands of light everywhere. At the center of it all, a blue-violet crystal roughly the size of a house floated suspended in midair.
That was the Reverse World fragment they had just retrieved from the Ghost World.
Giratina did not hesitate. It extended its massive tendrils, gently cradled the fragment, and slowly pushed it toward the heart of the turbulence. A low hum resonated through the air.
The moment the fragment made contact, a blinding flash of blue light exploded outward, illuminating the entire Reverse World.
Immediately after, a vast and pure wave of energy erupted from the point of contact and swept in all directions. The previously dim space became brilliantly bright in an instant, and the floating fragments of rock seemed to respond to some invisible summons, beginning to align and rearrange themselves.
Kairos felt the ground beneath him trembling faintly as the landscape around him transformed beyond recognition.
The makeshift structures that had been hastily built for survival began to rapidly grow and expand under the surge of energy. Short buildings grew tall, narrow streets widened and smoothed out, and even the surrounding vegetation became more vibrant and full of life.
The Reverse World was visibly expanding, and that profound sense of fullness filling the air brought comfort to every living creature that called this place home. Kairos raised an eyebrow in genuine surprise.
Just recovering a single fragment had triggered such a dramatic transformation. If all the fragments were gathered, what would happen then?
The light faded. Giratina slowly turned around, a faint glimmer of satisfaction in its crimson eyes.
It lowered its gaze toward Kairos, and then a stone slab radiating a mysterious and profound energy emerged from the void behind it, drifting slowly to rest before him.
This was its promise fulfilled.
The Ghost-type Slate.
The slab was pitch black, its surface covered in intricate, winding violet patterns. Those patterns seemed alive, shifting slowly across the stone and emanating a chilling, unsettling aura. Yet there was nothing malicious about it. If anything, it carried a strangely captivating air of the arcane.
Kairos reached out, and the moment his fingertips touched the slab, an icy sensation traveled from his fingers through his entire body.
At the same time, Gengar, who had been hiding in his shadow, and Chandelure, drifting near his shoulder, both reacted almost simultaneously. The cautious expression Gengar had been wearing vanished in an instant. Its violet body gave a sudden shudder before breaking into an expression of pure bliss. It could feel the power inside itself cheering, as if the slab were calling out to it directly.
Chandelure was no different. The flame atop its head burned fiercer than ever, and the normally pale blue fire began to show faint traces of deep purple, as though even this brief proximity had already given its power a boost.
Kairos focused his thoughts, and the system interface materialized before his eyes.
[Special item detected: Ghost-type Slate (Complete)!]
[Effects are as follows]
[Spectral Grace: Greatly increases the energy recovery speed of Ghost-type Pokémon, passively supplying them with large amounts of energy, increasing their growth efficiency by 50%.]
[Soul Intimidation: Greatly increases the affection and reverence Ghost-type Pokémon feel toward you. Intimacy cap is lifted.]
[Shadow Blessing: The Ghost-type moves used by your Ghost-type Pokémon permanently deal 50% increased damage.]
[Special effect: Locked]
Reading through those blunt, straightforward stat bonuses, Kairos could not help but raise an eyebrow.
Worthy of a complete legendary slate. These effects were genuinely absurd.
Just by keeping it on his person, every Ghost-type Pokémon on his team would passively enjoy a permanent 50% power boost to their moves.
And that was just the passive effect. Factor in the improved training efficiency and faster energy recovery, and this was essentially a permanent cheat code for every Ghost-type he owned.
Gengar and Chandelure had just hit the jackpot. Those two would probably be grinning in their sleep from now on.
Kairos tucked the slab away, feeling quite pleased with himself.
Still, something else was pressing on his mind.
He looked up at Giratina and asked, choosing his words carefully, "By the way, after recovering the fragment and the battle earlier, you must have gathered a fair amount of Faith Energy, right?"
Giratina paused, then slowly shook its enormous head.
No?
Kairos felt a brief sinking feeling, though on reflection, it made perfect sense.
As Marshadow had explained, Faith Energy required intense, positive emotion as its source—things like reverence, gratitude, and fervent adoration. The problem was that Giratina inspired none of those things.
When it had appeared earlier, it had brought with it the aura of something capable of annihilating the sky and earth, leaving the people around it so frightened they could barely speak.
What was running through their heads was most likely something along the lines of please don't kill me. Pure fear like that could never be converted into Faith Energy.
It was not as though Giratina was always this imposing toward the inhabitants of the Reverse World.
The people here held it in awe, but... Marshadow had mentioned that some people worshipped Giratina, though in hindsight, that was probably more about appeasing it out of self-preservation rather than genuine devotion. That kind of prayer did not count.
For something like Giratina, with its particular way of carrying itself, accumulating Faith Energy was genuinely going to be a challenge.
Kairos rubbed his chin, turning the problem over in his mind.
It really did come down to cultural outreach.
He looked at Giratina and, rather than addressing directly why it had no Faith Energy, spoke in deliberately vague terms. "I see. Faith Energy does seem to be quite picky about how it's generated.
That said, I've helped a certain Legendary Pokémon work on building up Faith Energy before, and the results were promising. If you'd ever want help with something like that, I'm happy to think it over with you."
He deliberately avoided mentioning Ho-Oh by name. The relationships between Legendaries were complicated, and the last thing he needed was to get caught in the middle if those two had some kind of history.
Giratina blinked, a flicker of surprise passing through its red eyes.
When they had spoken before, it had not held high expectations for this. What it had not anticipated was that Kairos had genuinely managed it.
This human kept finding ways to surprise it.
Its regard for Kairos rose another notch. Where once it had seen him as an amusing partner, it now began to think that perhaps this human truly had what it took to be something more: its representative in this world.
Giratina let out a low, rumbling cry. Its tendrils wrapped gently around Kairos and carried him toward the spatial rift.
The transaction was complete, and it was time to see its guest home. Besides, it needed to settle in and properly absorb the newly integrated fragment, consolidating the Reverse World's foundation.
Just before they passed through, Giratina's mental resonance reached Kairos's mind with quiet clarity.
"Come back anytime."
Simple words, but from the God of the Reverse World, they were the sincerest invitation it could offer.
As the scenery twisted and warped again, Kairos felt like he had just ridden a roller coaster. Then his feet found solid ground beneath him, and he was back in the real world.
The surroundings were still a field of rubble, though the Champions and other powerful trainers had all departed. Only a few staff members remained in the distance, busy with cleanup.
Kairos brushed off his clothes, ran a hand through his slightly disheveled hair, and glanced up at the sky, where the clouds had completely returned to calm. He smiled.
Finally over.
Honestly, this trip into the Reverse World had yielded more than he had expected.
---
Meanwhile, in the Kanto region, at a secret Team Rocket base.
There were no windows. The walls were built from thick, heavy alloy, and the air carried a cold, oppressive stillness. At the center of the room, a massive screen cast a blue glow, illuminating the stern and imposing face before it.
Giovanni sat upright in a leather chair, a glass of red wine in hand, untouched.
His gaze was locked on the screen, a complex light flickering in his eyes.
The screen was playing back footage from the Ghost World battle.
The recording was shaky, and the energy surges had caused the image to break into static more than once, but none of that diminished the sheer impact of those three Legendary Pokémon on screen. Giratina's reality-tearing spatial power, the terrifying clash of psychic energy between the white Pokémon and Spiritomb, every frame was breathtaking.
Giovanni replayed the video repeatedly, pausing again and again on the white figure.
Honestly, before Mewtwo had escaped, he had always considered it a slightly above-average failure, a far cry from the beings he had seen in the game. He had felt some regret about it, but it had never truly weighed on him.
Looking at this now, he realized he had been wrong.
When it had fled, it had been a raw, unfinished thing. Whatever it had become since, it was nothing short of terrifying.
Giovanni's fingers traced the rim of his wine glass, a trace of regret crossing his eyes.
What a shame. It got away.
Still. No matter.
He slowly turned, his gaze shifting to the shadowed depths of the room.
There, a colossal machine stood in silence. Its silhouette bore an unmistakable resemblance to Mewtwo, but every inch of its body was encased in heavy metal armor. Thick hydraulic tubes connected its joints, a red energy core pulsed at its chest, and its eyes were blank, emotionless electronic crimson lights.
A low, deep electrical hum filled the room, and those red mechanical eyes suddenly lit up, accompanied by the grinding whir of machinery powering on.
It had not yet fully awakened, but the overwhelming pressure it emanated was already enough to make anyone's blood run cold.
Giovanni watched that silhouette, and the smile at the corner of his mouth grew wider.
One Mewtwo made of flesh and blood was already this terrifying. Combined with this Armored Mewtwo, the pinnacle of Team Rocket's technological achievement, what kind of force would that create?
---
The scene shifted to the Sinnoh region, at the Pokémon League headquarters, in the Champion's office.
Steven sat at his desk, holding an urgent report just forwarded by Cynthia, his brow furrowed deeply.
The message Cynthia had sent was a single brief line, attached to a video file.
[Legendary-level Spiritomb and Mewtwo sighted in Ghost World, engaged in conflict with an unknown divine entity.]
The moment Steven read the word "Mewtwo," he froze completely, his hand going still.
Mewtwo?
Sorry, could you say that again?
The memory of that crushing defeat was so deeply etched into him that even thinking about it now made his scalp prickle.
But... that was just a game.
No matter how overpowered something was in a game, it was still just data in a game.
Real-world Pokémon could not possibly be as ridiculously strong as they were in games.
Steven pressed his fingers to his temples, trying to calm himself down.
Maybe Cynthia had made a mistake.
Or maybe it was just some other Pokémon that happened to look like Mewtwo.
Okay, even he could hear how unconvincing that sounded.
Clinging to a faint thread of hope, he clicked on the video file.
A few seconds later, whatever composure had remained on Steven's face dissolved completely. His eyes went wide as saucers, and his mouth dropped open wide enough to swallow a Geodude whole.
In the video, a purple Pokémon hovered in midair, surrounded by a powerful psychic barrier. Faced with an endless barrage of curse-based attacks from Spiritomb, it gave a single casual wave of its hand and conjured an energy storm powerful enough to tear through space.
And that figure...
Steven shot up from his chair so abruptly that he knocked his teacup off the desk.
"What the..."
"This is actually real?"
---
Two days earlier.
While Kairos was still in the Fourth World, at that same moment, the viewer count in Yancy's livestream looked even higher than the day before.
That was hardly surprising.
The footage of Yancy's team clearing the Ho-Oh chapter of the "Temporal Labyrinth" the previous day, along with the heartwarming moment of Wartortle gifting the stone, had already been clipped and shared across every corner of the forums.
[Please tell me today's dungeon has special effects too!]
[Will Yancy finally evolve today?? I can't wait to see what she looks like after!]
[Streamer, is there still an entrance to that special labyrinth? I've been looking forever and can't find it...]
Yancy scanned the flood of comments in the chat, took a deep breath, adjusted her mic, and smiled.
"Welcome back everyone! You all worked hard yesterday, let's keep going today! As for evolving... I want to too, believe me, but it's just not happening. What can you do."
She kept her tone light, though the truth was that no one wanted it more than she did.
The familiar login screen flashed by, and the monitor displayed the entrance lobby of the labyrinth once more: the safe zone.
The other two Pokémon on the team were gathered together, sorting through their bag of items.
Wartortle was still its usual earnest, gentle self, laboriously stuffing several oversized berries into the pack.
Meanwhile, Dragonair hovered in the air above, eyes closed, resting quietly, a soft chill radiating from its body that seemed to lower the temperature of the surrounding air by several degrees.