Cain, Slowking, and Gardevoir stayed behind, erasing all traces of the Teleport move, including spatial traces and psychic power signatures that could be tracked.
Soon, they landed atop a small hill.
Cain was the first to act: he threw a Poké Ball and summoned Drapion.
He was going to... dig.
Seeing this, everyone was momentarily bewildered, but they quickly reacted and summoned their own Pokémon to help. In a short time, they excavated a cave large enough to accommodate everyone, and Cain personally sealed the entrance.
Only after everything was finished did Cain let out a long sigh of relief.
Steven and the others didn't know what had happened, but from Cain's reaction they understood that it was no simple matter. When had they ever seen him this tense?
"Cain, what exactly happened? Why are you so nervous?" Steven asked, voicing what everyone was thinking. Even Phoebe, who had been with Cain the whole time, didn't understand the situation.
"The problem has already arrived," Cain replied with a serious expression.
...
At the place where Cain and Will had previously confronted each other, after Cain and Phoebe left, spatial fluctuations began to appear one after another.
After a brief tremor of space, a figure was the first to force his way through.
Stretching lazily and cracking his bones, he spoke lightly: "The spatial blockade has finally been lifted. I finally got in... don't you think you took far too long?"
But after saying that, quite some time passed with no response. Only then did he realize that there was no one else there; the place was desolate.
If, at that moment, two Murkrow had flown by, they surely would have cawed: "fool... fool..."
"Ahem..." the man coughed awkwardly, trying to ease his own embarrassment.
Even though no one was watching him, he himself felt uncomfortable.
Soon after, he frowned and examined the surroundings. Aside from terrain that had clearly been disturbed, there was no trace of battle whatsoever.
The spatial instrument that the Sacred Church had created at enormous cost had been tossed aside after completing its mission.
That was very strange. Even if its function had ended, the value of the device was still high; at the very least, it should have been recovered. Moreover, according to the plan, there were supposed to be two guardians protecting it.
The situation didn't add up at all.
With a wave of his hand, the spatial device flew toward him wrapped in psychic power, and he put it away.
With another gesture, the earth churned up by Tyranitar stirred, and the corpse of the man in yellow slowly emerged to the surface.
The man's frown deepened further. He crouched down and, without caring about getting dirty, searched the body, but found nothing.
His expression turned grim, and he spat out two cold words: "Trash."
As his anger rose, a terrifying psychic power spread across the entire area. If Cain had been there, he would have understood just how monstrous that force was; as an advanced-level psychic, Cain would have been nothing in front of him.
This was probably the true "advanced-level psychic" spoken of by the Sacred Church. By comparison, someone like Cain, in ancient times, would barely have been considered intermediate.
Very soon, his psychic power detected two spatial transport channels.
"Tsk, let's go take a look."
His expression changed instantly, like summer weather shifting from an impending storm to springlike calm. Not only his face, but even his aura softened.
After finishing his words, he vanished in an instant.
With power like that, it was no longer clear whether he should be called human or Pokémon.
At that level, the difference was minimal.
When he reappeared, he was suspended in midair, exactly where Cain and Slowking had arrived via the Teleport move.
"Huh?" He showed surprise. "The channel ends here, which means they teleported to this place."
However, after scanning the surroundings with his psychic power, he found no trace at all.
No traces of psychic power, no spatial energy, not even traces of Pokémon—neither wild nor trainer-owned. Nothing. Only wind and air.
"Interesting... quite cautious. Cleaning everything up like this means they also noticed something. Are they one of ours... or from the other side? Or perhaps...?"
He murmured to himself in the air, and after finishing, disappeared once again.
When the sky returned to absolute silence and another five minutes passed, the man returned.
This time, his psychic power swept across the ground.
Finding nothing, he frowned, pondered for a moment, and let out a long sigh. Then he smiled indifferently.
"Bah, let someone else worry about it. I just came as filler."
And then he truly left.
...
Directly below, in the small mountainous forest, inside the cave that Cain and the others had dug out.
When Cain felt that immense psychic pressure finally retreat, he released the breath he had been holding and withdrew all the psychic power he had expanded to its limit, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
Steven and the others were still tense; only when they saw Cain relax a little did they carefully ask:
"Did he leave?"
Cain nodded, his mood heavy.
The people of the Sacred Church had arrived far too suddenly. He hadn't had time to prepare; fortunately, he had reacted in time, or the problem would have been enormous.
It wasn't that Cain feared the man with terrifying psychic power they had seen in the air. After all, there were seven powerful people there; even the weakest was at the Quasi-Champion level. A group like that could dominate an entire region of the Pokémon world; they wouldn't be afraid of a single person.
The reason for such caution was that Cain had sensed many presences trying to force their way in from outside space.
Without a spatial blockade, any sufficiently powerful psychic could enter.
And the man who arrived first was undoubtedly the strongest among the members of the Sacred Church. If he managed to hold them back even for a moment, and the rest of the Church entered, Cain and the others would be practically doomed.
Before understanding the enemy's numbers, strength, and objectives, Cain was unwilling to come into direct contact with them.
Until he clarified those points, he preferred to avoid them at all costs.
"Then, going back to what you were saying," Lance spoke gravely, "the spatial blockade no longer works and the Sacred Church is invading en masse? Is it possible that the League hasn't even noticed yet?"
If it was really as Cain said, the situation was extremely dangerous.
(End of chapter)