Chapter 291: You're Not Asking Me to Help You Fight Arceus, Are You?
Origin Forme Giratina hung suspended in the sky, its overwhelming, crushing divine presence saturating the space between heaven and earth. Rain poured from the blackened clouds above, only deepening the oppressive atmosphere radiating off it.
"This pressure~ this is fantastic!"
A slow grin spread across Mammon's face, baring white teeth. Standing face-to-face with the strongest of Sinnoh's founding Six Gods — this feeling was just incredible.
(Absolutely thrilled right now.jpg)
A low, ragged draconic growl echoed across the sky as Origin Giratina raised its savage head high, a densely concentrated orb of energy gathering before its jaws. The Dragon-type Draco Meteor!
A blast that seemed to contain the entire cosmos within it rose skyward, exploding violently once it reached its peak. Countless meteor-fragments, each trailing its own small tail of flame, rained down in a dazzling, beautiful shower — deadly, every last one of them.
"Protect!"
Mammon gave the order immediately — trading blows head-on with Draco Meteor was simply not the smart move. Primal Kyogre threw up a green Protect barrier at once, while Origin Giratina dove down right behind the falling meteors.
"Psychic!"
Mega Mewtwo Y's eyes ignited with a deep, resonant blue glow, the binding, restrictive Psychic attack aimed straight at Giratina. But Giratina's form flickered intangible once more, and the control-type Psychic passed through, unable to lock onto it.
If Mega Mewtwo Y had eyebrows, they'd have been furrowed by now. How was this even possible? Giratina remained perfectly visible to the naked eye, and yet no attack or move could actually touch it — as though it simply wasn't occupying the same space at all.
"So this is how Shadow Force can be used, in this world."
Mammon narrowed his eyes, fixed on that flickering, ghostly draconic form. No question — this was Giratina's signature move, Shadow Force, without a doubt. In the games, Shadow Force was really just an upgraded version of Shadow Sneak — both Ghost-type physical moves, with Shadow Force hitting harder. In-game, Shadow Sneak simply had the Pokémon slip into a shadowy rift and reappear beside its target to strike. But here, in reality, Shadow Force's manifestation was working entirely differently: while Giratina's body remained visibly intangible, its true form had actually shifted into another dimension entirely — meaning attacks only ever passed through its ghostly afterimage.
Which made the move, functionally, an absolute nightmare to deal with. Because as long as Giratina chose to, its true body could shift into that other dimension at will, cycling endlessly between intangible and solid, letting it dodge attacks effortlessly while closing distance to strike back. A genuinely unfair move.
BOOM! BOOM BOOM!
The meteor-fragments continued pounding down on Spear Pillar, this already-ruined temple — leveled once before by the twin gods' own battle back in the Hisui era — now weathering a fresh bombardment. Deafening explosions rang out endlessly, violent shockwaves rolling out in waves. The Lake Guardians used their psychic power to pull Cynthia and Caitlin back, keeping them clear of the blast radius. Primal Kyogre held its position above, its Protect barrier absorbing meteor after meteor.
When Draco Meteor's assault finally subsided, the barrier shattered, and Primal Kyogre looked up to find Giratina already closing in. Its body flickered with spectral light — Shadow Force!
"Ice Beam!"
Primal Kyogre retreated quickly, ice-blue energy condensing. Even with Primordial Sea's downpour still falling, Giratina, a Dragon-type, was resistant to Water-type attacks — so in practice, Primal Kyogre could only rely on Ice-type moves to actually threaten it. Ice Beam snaked out toward Giratina, but Giratina drove straight into it without slowing.
BOOM!
Giratina slammed hard into the beam, Shadow Force forcibly pushing straight through the ice-light, finally crashing into Primal Kyogre itself. Kyogre let out a pained cry, its enormous body sent skidding backward from the impact. Giratina's eyes remained coldly indifferent as lightning crackled to life across its body — the Electric-type Thunder!
"Dark Pulse!"
Mega Mewtwo Y fired a beam of black energy at once — but Giratina's form flickered intangible again, the attack passing clean through it. Then, clearly visible, the intangible Giratina turned and lunged straight for Mega Mewtwo Y. Seeing this, it retreated at once.
"This move really is absurdly strong." Caitlin's elegant brow furrowed as she watched, unable to help her frustration — this ability to turn intangible on command was simply too unfair. As long as it saw the attack coming, nothing could ever land, could it?
"Mm. It transitions from solid to intangible almost instantly — seemingly less than a second — and doesn't appear to have any real limitation on how often it can do it," Cynthia said, nodding, having watched closely — the shift, both ways, showed no hesitation at all.
"I wonder how Mammon plans to beat it." Caitlin looked over at Mammon, still full of confidence in him. It had to be said — this Giratina was nothing like the Black Shiny Rayquaza or Kyurem they'd faced before. Those two had been pure, exaggerated stat-monsters. Origin Giratina, on the other hand, wasn't just powerful in raw numbers — it was a genuine mechanic-breaker on top of that. Genuinely difficult to deal with.
"Mewtwo!"
The intangible Giratina bore down relentlessly, closing distance fast — but since it remained intangible, there wasn't even a way to stop it with a move. Mega Mewtwo Y could only hold its ground, raising its violet-black psychic barrier.
Seeing this, Giratina immediately solidified, sharp spectral spines along its flanks igniting with ghostly light — the Ghost-type Shadow Claw! Giratina's massive body surged forward, accelerating suddenly as it closed in on Mega Mewtwo Y.
Skreeeee! Skreeeee!
The razor-sharp Shadow Claws raked repeatedly across the psychic barrier, producing a series of teeth-grating, screeching cuts — but Mega Mewtwo Y's barrier held firm regardless. Giratina swept past behind it and spun around instantly, preparing another strike. It could sense Mega Mewtwo Y's psychic power was formidable — but even the strongest reserves ran dry eventually, especially under this kind of sustained assault. All it needed to do was keep attacking, grinding down Mega Mewtwo Y's reserves.
"Psychic — grab it!"
The instant Giratina turned, Mega Mewtwo Y fired off Psychic, attempting to seize hold of it. But Giratina, apparently having anticipated exactly this, opened a dark rift in space directly in front of itself and slipped straight through — Shadow Sneak!
"Impressively battle-tested, isn't it." Mammon raised an eyebrow. In truth, even Mega Mewtwo Y's Psychic wasn't strong enough to genuinely restrain Giratina outright — the goal had only ever been to briefly limit its movement, giving Primal Kyogre an opening to strike. But Giratina simply refused to grant that opening at all.
Giratina was making full use of its own advantages with startling proficiency — nothing like some creature that had spent the entirety of existence shut away since the dawn of creation. Then again, that made sense too — through the Distortion World, Giratina could still observe the physical world, taking in every battle unfolding within it, absorbing an enormous amount of combat "material" over the ages.
Honestly, if it had been Giratina waiting for him back at Lumiose City that time, Mammon genuinely might have had to run. Simply stacking raw stats wasn't going to be enough to match something like this.
"Careful, Kyogre." Mammon's thoughts snapped into focus, calling out a warning.
Primal Kyogre swept its gaze warily around itself — and sure enough, a dark rift soon opened directly behind it. Giratina emerged from within, lunging straight for it.
"Behind you! Ice Beam!"
Kyogre spun around fast, sweeping an icy-blue beam behind itself. Giratina landed the hit first, slamming into Kyogre, who grunted in pain — but the Ice Beam didn't stop, sweeping across Giratina's chest regardless. Ice, super effective against Giratina. It shifted intangible at once to avoid further punishment, retreating in its ghostly state to put distance between itself and Kyogre.
And indeed — Mammon, who'd been about to send Mega Mewtwo Y forward to press the advantage, held off after seeing this.
Origin Giratina's cold gaze swept over Primal Kyogre and Mega Mewtwo Y, then settled on Mammon, still standing on the ground below. Its draconic eyes flickered faintly, unreadable.
"Giratina, I've got no interest in fighting you. Get Dialga and the others back to normal, and I'll leave this place immediately."
Seeing Giratina hold off on pressing the attack further, Mammon offered, after a moment's thought. Honestly, fighting Giratina was proving considerably harder than fighting Kyurem had been — that Shadow Force trick was simply absurd.
Giratina's gaze remained cold, fixed on Mammon, giving no answer — but no refusal either.
"You are impressive."
"?"
Mammon raised an eyebrow — that low, ragged telepathic voice in his ear had unmistakably come from Giratina. Was it... complimenting him?
"An impressive human. Your strength."
Giratina repeated itself, affirming Mammon's power directly. And it genuinely was impressive — even in this brief exchange, Giratina could tell: both Primal Kyogre and Mega Mewtwo Y were exceptionally strong Pokémon.
"Thanks for the compliment," Mammon replied politely.
"I could let them go. But..."
Giratina's telepathy remained detached, its eyes flicking sideways briefly toward its two "brothers," still locked in their aerial demolition derby.
"You will do me a favor."
Giratina continued.
Mammon's mouth twitched faintly. As master of the Distortion World, one of the original Creation Trio — what exactly could he possibly do for something like Giratina?
"If I may ask, bluntly."
Mammon paused a moment, then decided to just come out with it.
"This favor you're talking about — it's not asking me to help you go fight Arceus, is it?"
That was genuinely the only thing he could think of. What else could Giratina possibly need a mere human's help with?
The bigger issue was — fight Arceus?
(End of Chapter)
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