"Then... is there any way to take this stone door with me too?"
Ethan stroked his chin thoughtfully. If he could also take that door, together with all that Smooth Rock, Sandslash's Secret Kingdom could very likely become a second mobile Secret Kingdom.
"Let's test it first."
After thinking for a while, Ethan tried to use the spatial ring.
But that stone door also seemed to be related to space and could not be stored inside the spatial ring.
Next, he called Tyranitar over and asked it to use brute force to try to lift the door.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Accompanied by a great roar, even using all its strength, Tyranitar failed to move the door.
Seeing that, Rhyperior also ran over to help. The two giant beasts embraced the stone door and pulled with all their strength.
"Vibrava, use the Levitate ability!"
"Lucario, Slowking, and Litwick, use your psychic power!"
Seeing the scene, Ethan had all his Pokémon intervene together.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
With the combined effort of all the Pokémon, the stone door finally moved.
Little by little, it could be seen how the door was pulled out of the ground.
Then, they saw Vibrava land on top of the door.
Thanks to its Levitate ability, it managed to make the door float briefly in the air.
However, Vibrava was only capable of keeping it suspended by creating a kind of vacuum zone, but it could not move it.
Fortunately, with the help of the psychic power of Lucario, Slowking, and Litwick, the door was wrapped by that mental force and slowly moved to the side, where it fell to the ground with a loud crash.
"Although it takes quite a bit, we really can take this stone door out of this Secret Kingdom!"
An expression of joy appeared on Ethan's face.
That might be a stone door sealing a legendary Pokémon!
If he managed to move it to Stonefield Town, perhaps, using the laboratory's instruments, they could open it without needing to decipher the ancient inscriptions.
...
Half a month later.
After a long journey, Charizard returned to Stonefield Town dragging the stone door.
"Phew... we finally came back. It really wasn't easy at all."
Riding on Charizard, Ethan patted the door behind him and let out a sigh of relief.
On top of the door, Vibrava was still lying there, also looking completely exhausted.
"Luucaarr!"
"Littwwiikk!"
"Yadon!"
Beside Charizard, Lucario, Slowking, and Litwick also let out a sigh of relief.
That return journey had truly been extremely difficult, but fortunately they had finally reached their destination.
"Come on, let's go to Sandslash's Secret Kingdom."
The few Pokémon gritted their teeth and advanced toward Sandslash's Secret Kingdom.
Meltan opened the way at full speed and opened the Secret Kingdom's gate in the air, allowing all the Pokémon to enter one after another.
Boom!
The stone door fell heavily onto the land of Sandslash's Secret Kingdom, causing the entire ground to tremble.
"Sha!"
"Sha!"
"Sha!"
Upon returning to its birthplace, Sandslash let out cries filled with nostalgia.
At the same time, one could see Sandslash and Sandshrew poking their heads out one after another from the distance, curiously observing that side.
"Tyranitar, this is the new home I prepared for you."
Seeing that, Ethan released all his other Pokémon.
"Tyran!"
Tyranitar looked around.
Then it picked up a stone from the ground, put it into its mouth, bit it, and nodded with satisfaction.
It seemed that the environment there met Tyranitar's requirements fairly well.
"Come on, I've already prepared a place for you to live."
Ethan smiled and led all his Pokémon to a valley.
Deep inside the valley, in the rock wall, there was a huge entrance.
Following the wide passage inward, a gigantic cave soon appeared.
That place was precisely the former lair of the Totem Sandslash. As the former sovereign of Sandslash's Secret Kingdom, its residence could be considered quite luxurious, and now it passed on to benefit Sandslash, Tyranitar, and the others.
Boom, boom, boom!
With the help of Vibrava and other Pokémon, Tyranitar transported the stone door there.
Seeing that, Ethan also took out from the spatial ring all the Smooth Rock they had brought from the ruins.
Afterward, he ordered Tyranitar, Sandslash, and the other Pokémon to dig many holes inside the cave and bury both the stone door and all the Smooth Rock underground.
Under the influence of the stone door and the Smooth Rock, the energy of that area would undoubtedly begin to accumulate rapidly, until it gradually recovered the level it had once had in the ancient ruins.
Of course, that was only the initial conditioning. From then on, Ethan also planned to gather more Smooth Rock, Soft Sand, Hard Stone, and other Rock-type and Ground-type treasures, to continue transforming and perfecting Sandslash's Secret Kingdom, until turning it into a true sacred land for Rock-type and Ground-type Pokémon.
...
After bringing Sandslash and the others back, Ethan stayed quietly in Stonefield Town, waiting for the League's official approval for the laboratory.
During this time, he also completed the next training plan for his twelve main Pokémon.
...
Sandslash's training plan.
It still revolved around the Defense Curl move.
The first phase of training consisted of using the Defense Curl move to influence sand.
The second phase consisted of using the Ice Ball move to train the ability to condense and compress energy through the Defense Curl move.
Sandslash had already mastered that point perfectly, and thanks to that, it had managed to once again double the power of the Rollout move.
In addition, the secondary development of the Defense Curl move and the Rollout move had also allowed Sandslash to create a move similar to the Ice Ball move, but made of sand: a kind of sand ball, which gave it a powerful ranged attack.
Now, what Sandslash had to do was develop the third phase of the Defense Curl move: control sand through that move and reach a manipulation ability similar to Vibrava's Levitate ability.
(End of chapter)