Ariel pressed his body even lower, the cold touch of the rock seeping through his thin clothing, keeping him absolutely alert.
In the sky above, that god-like battle continued; every clash of energy made the ground beneath his feet let out a faint cry of distress.
Pebbles tumbled down the rock face, not from the wind, but because of that invisible pressure—like deep-sea water pressure—squeezing from all directions. The air became thick, and every breath carried a heavy resistance.
Beside him, Yule's situation was much worse than his.
She was half-kneeling on the ground, one hand gripping a rocky protrusion while the other tightly clutched a Poké Ball, her knuckles white from the strain.
Her face was as pale as paper, and the strands of hair on her forehead were soaked with cold sweat, clinging to her skin.
She tried hard to control her trembling, but her body's instinctive reaction betrayed her.
"Is this... the organization's strongest weapon?"
Her voice was very soft, carrying a trace of an imperceptible tremor, as if she were afraid of disturbing the gods in the sky,
"Those two... legendary pokémon, actually..."
She didn't continue, but the meaning was already self-evident.
They were completely powerless to fight back.
Ariel didn't answer; his eyes never left the sky.
Yule saw an invincible power, a despair-inducing force.
But what Ariel saw was far more than that.
His gaze pierced through that cold Restraint Armor, seeing beneath it, within that forcibly created body, what kind of twisted and pure rage was surging.
That wasn't the savagery of a beast, nor the fury of a warrior.
It was a kind of... hatred and denial of its own existence.
A madness that wanted to destroy everything, including itself.
He saw Mewtwo's power clearly.
Wasn't this the very power he had always pursued—the kind sufficient to crush all rules and flip every chessboard?
As long as he possessed this power, what families, what rules, what fate? They would be nothing more than pebbles in his path, to be kicked aside with a single step.
His heart beat heavily and powerfully in his chest, not from fear, but from a near-greedy longing.
He looked at Mewtwo like a dying traveler in the desert seeing an oasis, a scorching fire burning in his eyes.
This power—he wanted it.
...
High in the sky, Mewtwo's patience seemed to have run out.
It stopped its probing attacks and instead concentrated its massive psychic power into a single point.
Invisible fluctuations condensed in front of it, causing the surrounding space to warp visibly to the naked eye.
"Bang!"
A dull sound, so heavy it seemed capable of shattering one's soul.
This Psyshock was far more intense than any before.
Latios let out a cry of pain, the blue glow on its body dimming to the extreme in an instant, like a candle in the wind.
The final psychic barrier protecting the siblings shattered, and the violent force struck its back squarely.
It could no longer maintain its flight.
Like two meteors with broken wings, it and the already unconscious Latias in its arms trailed a turbulent airflow, falling straight down toward the bottomless azure sea below.
The wind whistled in its ears; the shadow of death had never been so close.
Mewtwo floated silently in its original position, its silver-white armor reflecting emotionless white light in the midday sun. It slowly lowered its arm, the red electronic eyes beneath its helmet looking down indifferently at the two accelerating lives.
Its gaze was calm and rippleless, as if it had simply stepped on two meddlesome ants.
For a weapon, completing the mission was the entire meaning of its existence.
Falling.
A sense of weightlessness enveloped everything.
Latios's consciousness began to blur, the intense pain in its body making every breath feel like a knife cut.
It could feel that the sister in its arms was growing colder and colder, her life force fading rapidly.
No...
It couldn't end like this...
A powerful thought flashed through its chaotic mind like lightning.
Using the last of its strength, it adjusted its posture, trying to use its firmer back to meet the cold sea surface below, protecting its sister's soft belly above.
Even if it meant death, it would die before its sister!
Just then, the long-unconscious Latias's long eyelashes fluttered slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes.
She saw her brother's eyes, once as brilliant as gold, now dim and lusterless.
She saw the crisscrossing wounds on his body and the feathers stained red with blood, no longer smooth.
She saw her brother stubbornly holding her in his arms at the last moment of his life, using his body to build the final barrier for her.
A hot tear fell from her golden eyes, instantly scattered by the whistling wind.
No... Brother...
Two weak wills, in the rapid fall, crossed the barriers of language and flesh, achieving the deepest resonance.
Protect!
I must protect her!
I must protect him!
This was the only and purest thought in their minds at this moment.
Just a moment before they were about to plunge into the sea, a sudden change occurred!
On Latios's chest, the blue triangle pattern representing "Infinity," and on Latias's chest, the red circle pattern representing "Infinity," simultaneously erupted with an incredibly blinding light!
One was a deep azure like the universe, the other a fiery crimson like the source of life.
The two lights met in the air; instead of the expected energy explosion, they merged like water and milk, gently enveloping their tottering bodies.
At the center of the light, countless Gene Chains shimmering with rainbow light, invisible to the naked eye, extended from a mysterious stone within their bodies, crossing the short distance to tightly connect, intertwine, and fuse together!
On the high ground of the Isolated Island.
Ariel's pupils constricted to the extreme at this moment.
He suddenly stood up from behind the rock, completely disregarding the risk of exposing himself, and stared fixedly at the orb of light above the sea that was impossible to look at directly.
"key stone... the Bond between Trainer and pokémon... these are the conditions for Mega Evolution..."
He muttered to himself subconsciously, his voice filled with a shock he hadn't even noticed.
As a Transmigrator, he knew better than anyone in this world,
what harsh conditions were required to trigger the miracle of Mega Evolution, this leap in the level of life.
However, the scene unfolding before him completely overturned his understanding!
No Trainer! No key stone! Not even the most basic Bond Link existed!
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