The speed of Mega Salamence was enough to make most Pokémon cower just from seeing it.
Cain rapidly approached the spot not far from where the psychic mark on Phoebe's body had disappeared. There, he could already clearly feel the fluctuations of spatial energy around him.
This type of spatial oscillation had already become very familiar to Cain after experiencing it several times.
A spatial device of the Sacred Church!
Just as he had suspected, among the people who had entered this place there was not only Irene, the infiltrator of the Sacred Church. There was at least one more person just like her!
Given that there were already Irene and Jacob in the desert—two trainers with Champion-level strength—it was very likely that there were also at least two trainers of that same level here.
Although he did not know exactly who that other infiltrator was, whoever it might be, for Cain—who was acting alone—it represented an enormous threat.
Therefore, no matter what happened next, anyone other than Phoebe who dared to block his path would receive a Salamence attack as a gift.
Cain had no intention of slowing down. At that moment, slowing down could mean falling directly into a trap. As long as he maintained a sufficiently high speed, no one would be able to stop him.
Not only the wild Pokémon of the area, but even the people of the Sacred Church would never imagine that Cain could move so fast.
If he did not know what they were doing there, he might have hesitated before charging in headfirst. But now that he knew they were opening a spatial rift, he dared to break in directly.
When the time came, he could rescue Phoebe immediately, or feign an attack on the spatial device, use an encircling tactic to force a retreat, and then save her. Everything was possible.
Of course, if upon arriving he discovered that Phoebe was already dead, then even if Cain had to reveal all his cards, he would make sure that no one in that place left alive. And even if he could not hold them back, Steven and the others, who would arrive later, would definitely not be merciful.
From quite far away, one could already see the enormous vertical spatial rift suspended in the air. It was much larger than the aerial rift he himself had destroyed before, which showed that it had been open for quite some time. Phoebe had very likely been lured by that rift.
Cain extended his psychic power to the maximum, as far as it could reach, locking his target just beneath the spatial rift.
The enemy might be waiting for reinforcements, but they would never guess from which direction they would arrive. In this way, Cain could obtain information first without being detected, greatly increasing the chances of a successful surprise attack.
In an instant that tore through the sky, Cain's psychic power finally sensed the opponents.
"Two people!" Cain's eyes narrowed.
Not only did he know that there were two of them, but he also discovered exactly who the person was who had decided to join the Sacred Church alongside Irene.
Will, the Psychic-type Elite Four of the Johto region!
There was something unexpected about it, but upon thinking about it calmly, everything fit. Cain was not as surprised as one might have expected.
In fact, the new Elite Four of Johto, including Koga, had been suspicious to Cain from the very beginning.
The truth was that Cain felt a strange admiration for the upper echelon of the Johto League: they only had four people in the Elite Four, and of those, three were already infiltrators from other organizations.
Koga from Team Rocket, Will and Irene from the Sacred Church. As for the last one, Karen, the Dark-type Elite Four, he did not yet know whether she hid another identity; but even if she was truly loyal to the League, she was still the weakest of the group.
Only one thing could be said: the Johto League... was incredibly "powerful."
That, of course, was a complaint born from Cain's ignorance of the true internal situation, seen from the perspective of an external observer.
For Cain, knowing the identity of one of the enemies in advance only made things simpler.
He lightly patted Mega Salamence on the back, signaling it to hold on a bit longer.
Covering such a long distance at that speed was an enormous burden even for Salamence. Although it had received multiple enhancements and broken through several limits, it was already close to its limit at that moment.
However, after receiving Cain's instruction, Mega Salamence not only did not reduce its speed, but increased it slightly more. It was determined to use all the energy it had left; the battle that followed would have nothing to do with it anymore.
Just as Will finished tying up Phoebe and threw her to the side, he saw the middle-aged man dressed in yellow, who had previously been sitting calmly on a rock, immediately leap up, with two Poké Balls in his hand.
His expression was an intense mix of emotions, though shock predominated.
"What an absurd speed!"
Upon hearing this and seeing his reaction, Will understood that someone had arrived. However, compared to the psychic power of the man in yellow, his own was clearly inferior.
He had no time to investigate further, because the figure approaching at full speed had already appeared in the sky not far away.
In the blink of an eye, it went from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a fist; in another blink, it seemed to be right in front of them.
Up until that moment, Will had not had a clear notion of what "fast" meant. But when he realized that he could not even follow the opponent with his eyes, he understood how terrifying that surprise-attack speed truly was.
Just in terms of speed alone, it had already completely surpassed his comprehension.
Fortunately, the man in yellow reacted quickly. He threw two Poké Balls, and an Ampharos and a Jolteon appeared in front of him.
Powerful electrical currents erupted from both Pokémon, accompanied by a deafening crackling sound.
Two huge, dazzling yellow bolts of lightning shot out from Ampharos and Jolteon, aiming directly at the Mega Salamence flying at full speed.
The flight speed of Mega Salamence surpassed even the imagination of the man in yellow, so from the very start he used all his strength, summoning his two most powerful Pokémon.
Deep down, he knew that such speed was only possible in a long-distance straight-line flight. In a real battle, with lateral movements, it was practically impossible to maintain something like that.
(End of chapter)