Chapter 289: Giratina's Here! This Sneaky Old Bastard!
Spear Pillar, Mt. Coronet.
The mythic Dialga and Palkia hung in the air, sovereigns of time and space, their draconic eyes still glowing with a faint, ominous red. The crimson divine chain remained coiled around both bodies, binding and controlling them still. The only way to restore their senses was to shatter that chain entirely.
"Kyogre, Blizzard!"
Mammon looked up at the two dragons above. He had to admit — the sheer weight of divine presence radiating off these two was genuinely heavy. Whether that was purely psychological or a reflection of their actual cosmic standing, he couldn't say — but even Unova's Kyurem, even the Black Shiny Rayquaza, hadn't carried quite this much pressure in Mammon's estimation. Of course, presence and raw combat power were two entirely different things.
Primal Kyogre let out a cry that seemed to echo up from primordial ages, and dark rain clouds instantly swallowed the entire sky.
Primordial Sea!
Torrential rain from the Primordial Sea poured down, blanketing the whole of Mt. Coronet. In the next instant, a churning wall of white blizzard erupted from the clouded sky, surging toward Dialga and Palkia.
"Dialga!"
Dialga let out a draconic cry, an uncanny light flickering in its eyes. Almost visibly, the once-ferocious blizzard began slowing down — visibly, unmistakably slowing. The entire storm crept forward now at a crawl; what should have reached Dialga and Palkia within two seconds might now take ten seconds or longer to arrive at all.
This bizarre, unprecedented phenomenon made Mammon's brow lift.
"Is that... Dialga's power over time?"
Cynthia and Caitlin startled — was that even possible? Legend held that Dialga's very birth was what had given the world "time" as a concept in the first place. Mythology told that time itself flowed in rhythm with the beating of Dialga's heart, granting it the power to warp time — speeding it up, slowing it down, even stopping it outright. But could Dialga really slow down someone else's signature move like this? That seemed genuinely absurd.
"No — it's not slowing the blizzard itself. It's slowing time within the region the blizzard occupies, which has the effect of slowing the blizzard down," Mammon said, narrowing his eyes, confirming the distinction.
"Hahaha~ you see that? This is the power of the Dragon of Time! And with Dialga under my command, I am the very god of space and time itself!"
Cyrus laughed madly.
"Palkia!"
A low, continuous draconic growl rolled out as Palkia raised its right arm, pink energy condensing along the blade-like claw. A resonant hum of space itself rang out, almost mournful. In the next instant, Palkia swung its arm down hard, and a massive crescent-shaped blade of pink light tore through the air.
Palkia's signature move — the Dragon-type Spacial Rend, an attack powerful enough to tear and warp space itself. Spacial Rend closed the distance at blinding speed, colliding head-on with Primal Kyogre's blizzard — and, unsurprisingly, the razor-sharp Spacial Rend simply cut straight through the storm, continuing to advance.
"Protect."
Mammon gave the order instantly. Primal Kyogre abandoned the blizzard, a green Protect barrier flaring to life.
But Dialga's eyes lit with that same uncanny light once more. The slowed region of time snapped back to full speed in an instant, and Spacial Rend, like a blinding streak of light, closed the remaining distance to Primal Kyogre in a heartbeat.
BOOM!
Amid a thunderous explosion, Primal Kyogre let out a pained cry, its massive body knocked back several steps. Accelerated by Dialga's power, the Spacial Rend had arrived far too fast — Primal Kyogre's Protect hadn't even finished forming before it was struck.
"Tch~ so they're coordinating too, huh."
Mammon clicked his tongue at the sight, glancing over at Dialga. He had to admit — using Dialga's time-manipulation as pure support like that was genuinely effective.
"Your ability really is beyond what I expected. But did you see that? Dialga and Palkia are unstoppable!"
Cyrus was thoroughly pleased with himself. He had no idea who this young man was or where he'd come from — not that it mattered. There was no way he could actually be a threat.
"Is that so? You seem awfully pleased with yourself." Mammon scoffed, glancing down at Cyrus's feet.
An ominous black shadow had already begun spreading there — and Cyrus himself remained completely oblivious.
"You bastard!" Cyrus's expression darkened instantly. This young man infuriated him beyond words.
"Seems you still don't fully understand. Well then — Dialga—"
Cyrus had made up his mind: he'd make this man understand what true despair really felt like.
But before he could finish, a smear of black crept into the edge of his vision. He looked down — and his pupils blew wide in an instant.
At some point, without him noticing, a black, ominous mist had blanketed the entire center of Spear Pillar.
What is this??
A visceral surge of danger flooded through Cyrus, and he stumbled backward without thinking.
The black substance flowed thick and viscous, like wet cement, dripping and pooling around his retreating footsteps. Two crimson, terrifying eyes ignited within the black shadow.
"What is—?!"
The sight was so genuinely horrifying that Cynthia felt her heart skip a beat.
"The master of the broken world. Giratina's here," Mammon said quietly.
There was no mistaking it — this could only be Giratina!
The black substance began to flow like living mercury, and a grotesque, snarling head slowly rose from within the eerie black mass, its cold, savage crimson eyes utterly bone-chilling. The visual impact of the sight was overwhelming enough that both Cynthia's and Caitlin's pupils contracted involuntarily — let alone Cyrus, who now stood only a stone's throw from the creature.
"Dialga! Palkia!"
Cyrus's face twisted with pure, bone-deep terror, screaming out to the only things he had left to rely on.
Bound as they were by the red chain, the twin gods moved instantly — Dialga's massive jaws snapping open, Palkia's right arm rising. Diamond and pearl light condensed together, blue and pink energy flaring in unison.
Roar of Time! Spacial Rend!
Beam and blade tore through the air simultaneously, both converging on Giratina below.
A deep, resonant draconic growl rumbled from Giratina's twisted, grotesque maw as its enormous, centipede-like body writhed fully free of the shadow. The Roar of Time and Spacial Rend struck home — and yet Giratina's body flickered instantaneously into a semi-intangible state, and both devastating attacks passed clean through it, as if they'd struck nothing at all.
In the next instant, Giratina's body solidified once more, jaws opening wide as it lunged straight at Cyrus.
"No! No!! Dialga! Palkia! Save me!!"
Cyrus's pupils shrank to pinpricks, his terror-stricken shriek cutting sharply through the air.
He'd already obtained Dialga and Palkia. He was supposed to become this world's god. How could he possibly die somewhere like this?!
But no amount of screaming or pleading made any difference. Giratina's terrifying eyes showed not a flicker of emotion as its cavernous jaws closed around Cyrus whole, swallowing him in a single bite. Its massive form sank back into the black shadow, vanishing without leaving a single trace behind.
Cynthia, having witnessed the entire thing with her own eyes, found her composure shaken for a long, long moment.
"That was... Giratina?"
"That's right. The Legendary Pokémon embodying 'antimatter' itself. Its standing is equal to Dialga's, Palkia's, and the Lake Guardians' — one of the 'Six Gods' from the very dawn of creation."
Mammon studied the still-lingering shadowy rift in the ground, unmistakably the doorway to the Distortion World. Giratina hadn't left — and it wasn't about to leave easily either.
"..." Cynthia's composure remained shaken for quite some time.
"Mammon, I feel like you might be overrating us a bit..." Mesprit tilted its head — what had the three of them ever done to be spoken of as equals to Giratina?
"The gap between us and the twin sovereigns and Giratina really is enormous..." Azelf's usually bright telepathy carried real discomfort now.
"Don't sell yourselves so short. Sure, your raw strength is on the weak side — even those Galactic losers managed to capture and drain you — but your standing genuinely isn't beneath Giratina's or theirs. Have a little confidence."
"And besides — Dialga and the others might be stronger than you, but are they anywhere near as cute?"
Mammon reached out and gave Azelf's head an affectionate rub. Ever since the trio's little "blessing" ceremony, his opinion of these three had shot straight through the roof.
Uxie: "..." The embodiment of "wisdom" sat in quiet contemplation, genuinely unable to determine whether Mammon's remark had just been a compliment or an insult.
"Cyrus is probably done for, then. So — the red chain?"
Mammon looked up at Dialga and Palkia, still hovering in the air. With Cyrus swallowed whole and vanished into the Distortion World, the two dragons, their controller suddenly gone, seemed to have entered a kind of "system freeze."
"Even without an operator, the red chain will continue to bind them, Mammon. You should go break their restraints," Uxie said.
"No problem there — but what about Giratina? It hasn't left."
Mammon glanced down at the shifting black shadow and quicksilver mass still pooling on the ground.
"It's likely waiting for the twin sovereigns to be freed as well," Uxie considered, then answered.
"Understood. Mewtwo."
Mammon nodded — Giratina was waiting for the red chain around Dialga and Palkia to shatter, which was exactly why it hadn't simply left yet.
"Dark Pulse!"
Mega Mewtwo Y raised an arm, a black wave of energy leaping forth, splitting into two beams that shot toward Dialga and Palkia respectively.
BOOM! BOOM!!
The Dark Pulse struck true, hitting the red chains coiled around both dragons.
Crack—
Cracks spread across the surface of the red chain, its ominous glow dimming, before it finally shattered apart entirely. But at the very same moment, deep within the shadow on the ground, that same ominous red gaze began to flicker back to life.
The red chain fell away from Dialga and Palkia's bodies, and with the chain's influence gone, clarity returned to both dragons' eyes. Both lowered their heads — Dialga looking directly at Mammon, ripples of recognition passing through its draconic eyes. Of course it remembered this human.
"Human. Thank you, I—"
Dialga's telepathy cut off mid-sentence, as if sensing something, its head snapping upward abruptly.
ROOOAR—
A low, savage draconic roar seemed to echo in from some other dimension entirely. High above, a jet-black rift in space-time tore open with a sharp crack, and two bolts of pitch-black lightning plunged down from it, striking Dialga and Palkia both without warning.
Both dragons let out pained, guttural cries, black lightning crackling wildly across their bodies.
"Figures. This sneaky old bastard Giratina was waiting for exactly this."
Mammon showed not a hint of surprise.
Origin Forme Giratina — its massive, centipede-like body trailing six ghostly wings — rose slowly from the Distortion World, its cold, draconic eyes fixed on Dialga and Palkia. As the lightning faded, Dialga and Palkia both let out furious, savage roars — their eyes, having only just been restored to clarity, now filled once more with volatile, violent rage.
Right — even without the red chain, Giratina's lightning alone was enough to plunge them straight back into a berserk state. This was one of Giratina's special abilities: the power to tear open rifts through space-time and unleash maddening bolts of lightning down through them onto other Pokémon.
(End of Chapter)
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