According to the plan between Giratina and Kael, Arceus was already injured at that moment, to the point that it would barely retain one tenth of its power. They only needed to find within the League headquarters the symbolic object that Arceus had left to the League, summon it, defeat it head-on, and absorb its energy. In that way, Giratina's strength would undoubtedly surge.
After that, everything else would be simpler: allowing its Distortion World to devour the Pokémon world. The benefit it would obtain from that would be even greater than absorbing Arceus's energy.
But now it had heard from the council elder, the very same old man of the League who could confront it face to face, that Arceus was indeed injured, although compared to what Kael had told it — that it retained barely one tenth of its strength — the difference was enormous.
That gave Giratina a very clear feeling that it had been deceived.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Kael seemed like a madman, laughing without stopping. Tears streamed from his eyes. Only when he managed to calm himself slightly did he turn his wild gaze toward Lusamine, the president of the Aether Foundation, and say: "President, proceed with the plan as originally arranged."
Seeing Kael's gaze, even someone like Lusamine could not help but tremble. Her scalp tingled, and for the first time she began to question whether cooperating with such a person had truly been a good idea for the Aether Foundation.
But in order to fulfill her grand dream of collecting Ultra Beasts, she needed that power.
With a wave of her hand, she signaled for all members of the Aether Foundation to act.
It could then be seen that the members of the Aether Foundation, who until that moment had been holding back the League's side, changed direction and surrounded Kael and Giratina.
Then, in each of their hands appeared a special device. From those devices, beams of energy shot out and connected with the devices of the other members, weaving a kind of spherical structure that ultimately enclosed Giratina and Kael within.
"KAEL?! YOU BETRAYED ME?!"
Giratina roared in fury.
It had already suspected something deep down, and this scene confirmed those suspicions, making it erupt in rage.
The Kael who had previously shown extreme respect now displayed absolutely no reverence. Now he looked at it with the eyes one uses to look at an object.
Giratina knew that look very well.
It was the same look with which it usually observed the Pokémon world from the Distortion World.
That look of naked, undisguised desire.
Kael's true objective... was it him?
That thought appeared in Giratina's mind, and even it found the idea utterly absurd.
After all, it was the mighty Giratina, the dragon of the underworld, one of only two Pokémon that possessed its own world, an existence capable of confronting Arceus. How could it possibly be captured by a mere human? That was a ridiculous joke.
But Kael's actions made it clear that this was exactly his intention.
Giratina could feel that after all those people dressed in silver-gray connected their strange devices together, its connection with the Distortion World was gradually weakening, and the energy support it received from it was also steadily decreasing.
It had the feeling that its energy was being drained. It was a sensation it had never experienced before.
Was its strength decreasing?
That caused Giratina to feel both shocked and furious.
It looked at Mega Latios and Mega Latias, the two Pokémon now standing beside Kael, two Pokémon to whom it had once personally taught certain things.
Until now, it was true that it had sensed some threat from them, but it had been a kind of threat it simply did not take seriously. It was merely a threat, nothing more.
But now it felt that the dangerous aura emanating from those two Pokémon was becoming increasingly intense.
Not because they were growing stronger, but because it was growing weaker. The moment Giratina realized that, it truly panicked.
The great dragon of the underworld, Giratina, was feeling real fear! For the first time, it felt panic in front of a human.
Kael, who had not stopped observing Giratina, gradually regained calmness in his expression. The twisted smile disappeared, and he looked at Giratina with absolute coldness, appearing as calm as possible, completely opposite to the madness from just a moment ago.
Especially when he noticed the panic in Giratina's eyes, his expression became even more indifferent. He simply tightened his grip on the white Poké Ball in his hand.
"So even you know what it feels like to be afraid," Kael said with mocking calmness, as if the terrifying dragon of the underworld standing before him were nothing more than an ordinary Pokémon.
"You... from the very beginning... was your true objective me? From the moment you approached me on your own?" Giratina asked in a deep voice. It found it difficult to accept such an outcome.
The piece it believed it firmly held in the palm of its hand, a piece that could not escape, had been mocking it from the very beginning?
It, who throughout its entire existence had grown by absorbing the energy of others, was now about to become the tool through which another would increase his own power?
"Kael saw everything very clearly. Instead of slowly growing until being limited by the potential and natural ceiling of a Pokémon, why not directly capture a first-tier legendary Pokémon, an existence with almost no ceiling? In the entire Pokémon world, what could possess more infinite possibilities than a top-level god?" Cain thought silently, with a certain admiration.
Looking at the almost hysterical Giratina and the calm Kael, he could not help but admit that none of these monsters were simple individuals.
Giovanni was the same, which was why he had preferred to spend countless resources, mobilize enormous manpower and materials, and create a creature capable of matching a first-tier legendary Pokémon.
And Kael had been even more direct: he had endured decades of humiliation and waiting just to find the opportunity to forcibly capture the dragon of the underworld, Giratina.
It could not be said that either of them had done things better, nor that one path was more suitable than the other. It could only be said that both truly deserved to have once been regarded as the future of the League.
(End of chapter)