As time went by, Torterra grew increasingly powerful, and its defense became more exaggerated than ever. Yuga and his team were completely helpless against it.
Suddenly, Yuga noticed that the frequency of the tree on Torterra's back withering and then regrowing lush branches and leaves had significantly increased.
Just as he was pondering the reason, Torterra suddenly became overwhelmed with pain. It stopped devouring the forest and began rolling on the ground in agony.
A sudden realization struck Yuga—could it be Celebi?
In the blink of an eye, the large tree on Torterra's back withered completely.
Unlike before, when the tree would only lose its leaves or a few branches and could quickly regrow with the nourishment of absorbed life energy, this time, the entire tree instantly turned to ash. Just like how Torterra had previously drained the life from the forest—it couldn't regrow something out of nothing!
The role of the tree on Torterra's back was clear. Now that it had disintegrated into ashes, Torterra instantly lost half its vigor and collapsed weakly onto the ground.
Moreover, the green parts of its shell and back gradually turned a withered yellow, like flowers that had lost all their moisture.
Witnessing this unexpected turn of events, Yuga and all the Pokémon were overjoyed.
"Rooaaar…"
Due to the rapid loss of power, Torterra's roar turned into a pained whimper. It pushed up with its limbs, trying to stand again to continue devouring the forest to regain strength, but it stumbled after just a few steps and fell back to the ground.
A heavy thud echoed across the land as Torterra crashed to the bare earth, sending up clouds of dust.
"Rooar… rooar…"
Torterra's cries grew weaker and lower, filled with nothing but exhaustion. Its eyes remained fixated in one direction, full of unwillingness.
No one knew how much time passed before Torterra's body completely transformed into decayed wood. Yuga could no longer feel even the slightest trace of life from it.
A Pokémon that was like a walking disaster had just died like that.
At that moment, a beam of green light flew out from the enormous wooden remains of Torterra. When Yuga saw clearly, he shouted joyfully.
"Celebi!"
So Celebi really hadn't died—his hunch had been correct.
But just as he finished speaking, another beam of green light shot out, and another Celebi appeared—this one in a different color.
This newly emerged Celebi was pink.
What was going on?
Yuga was stunned for a moment. A clone from Double Team move? But he had never heard of a clone from Double Team move being a different color!
"Celebi~ Celebi~"
The green Celebi flew excitedly to Yuga, waving its hands and feet energetically. Only then did Yuga realize that this was a real Celebi, not some kind of clone.
"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you." When the pink Celebi flew closer, Yuga greeted it politely, then asked, "You know what happened with this Torterra, right?"
Only up close did Yuga sense the powerful aura unconsciously radiating from the pink Celebi. It was almost on par with that Torterra in strength. Compared to this one, the current forest deity Celebi paled in comparison.
The pink Celebi nodded and signaled for Yuga and the others to follow it down.
The pink Celebi led Yuga and his group to descend in front of the massive wooden remains that Torterra had turned into. There, it began to tell them the story of Torterra's origin. Only then did Yuga realize that this Torterra had once been someone's Pokémon.
How powerful must that person have been! Yuga couldn't even begin to imagine it.
That person was indeed incredibly powerful—otherwise, the Sinnoh League at the time wouldn't have had to mobilize its most elite forces and join hands with the forest deity back then just to bring him down.
The pink Celebi sank into memories. In fact, it was the forest god from back then. But unlike what the League had believed—that it had quietly left—in reality, it had never left at all. It had become part of the force sealing Torterra, though no one knew about it.
Just imagine: that Torterra back then had already become unimaginably powerful. Even the League couldn't do anything about it. There was no way the newly born Celebi—today's forest god—could suppress it alone. It was only because this pink Celebi had been secretly assisting all along.
It was just that neither the new forest god nor the people of the Sinnoh League knew about this.
The pink Celebi had stayed behind to help seal Torterra precisely because it knew it had played a part in creating such a monstrous being—and it bore deep guilt for it.
Only the combined power of the two Celebi had truly sealed Torterra.
Unfortunately, the injury the forest god suffered this time disrupted the seal. Before Yuga brought it back, the pink Celebi had already been trying its best to suppress Torterra, but in the end, its strength wasn't enough.
Holding out until the forest god Celebi returned had already pushed it to its limits.
The pink Celebi had nearly reached the end of its rope. If Torterra had continued to devour the forest unchecked, it would've soon grown into something that no one could stop.
But what the pink Celebi hadn't expected… was that Torterra would actually swallow the forest god Celebi.
The pink Celebi hadn't spent all those years on Torterra's back doing nothing. It had been secretly planning to take back the power that had been stolen from it. It was just that things went wrong before its preparations were complete.
But once the forest god Celebi entered Torterra's body, it presented the perfect opportunity. The pink Celebi used the forest god's power to silently siphon some of the life force Torterra had devoured into itself. When it had regained enough strength, it finally snatched back the original power that belonged to it.
After all, the reason Torterra had become so terrifying was because it had stolen that original power from the pink Celebi.
Once it regained its origin power, the pink Celebi used the immense life energy Torterra had absorbed to return to its peak condition. Then, working together with the forest deity Celebi, they brought down Torterra.
"Celebi~ Celebi~"
It's such a pitiful creature.
The pink Celebi sighed in the end.
Torterra ended up the way it did largely because of its trainer. If its trainer's ambition hadn't spiraled out of control, maybe it would still be living a peaceful life today.
"Are we just going to leave Torterra like this?" Yuga asked, looking at the massive, mountain-like body.
"Celebi~ Celebi~"
The pink Celebi thought for a moment, then called out twice to the forest god Celebi. The green Celebi happily flew high into the sky.
"Celebi~ Celebi~ Celebi~"
The forest god Celebi's call echoed throughout the entire forest.
Before long, Yuga could hear the sound of countless birds flapping their wings. A massive number of bird Pokémon came flying over, each carrying seeds in their beaks, which they then dropped onto the wooden remains of Torterra.
The two Celebi flew above the wooden remains, circling continuously. Countless pale green light particles rained down onto the wood, and before long, the surface was blooming with flowers and covered in growing trees.
From now on, this place would be the new home of Celebi.
Torterra had been turned into a disaster because of a curse. Even though it was now dead, its corpse would inevitably retain some faint traces of resentment. But now that it would become the new home of the forest god Celebi, that lingering resentment would slowly be purified over time by Celebi.
Once the wooden remains had become full of life, the birds still didn't stop scattering seeds. They continued dropping seeds over the bare, barren land that had been left behind by Torterra's devouring. The two Celebi worked together to help the exposed earth become covered in greenery once again.
However, although part of the vitality of the land was restored, the damaged ley lines beneath it were something that Celebi simply couldn't repair. After all, Celebi was the forest god—not the deity of the land.
Restoring ley lines… that would likely require Pokémon such as Groudon, Landorus, Regigigas, or Zygarde. But none of these Pokémon were in Sinnoh.
With the ley lines damaged, this region would remain severely barren for a long, long time.
Wasn't it the destruction of the ley lines in their ancestral land that caused the People of the Land in the Unova region to leave their homeland in the first place? Ever since then, they'd been wanting to return to their ancestral land, and in doing so had stirred up quite a few incidents.
Once everything was finally taken care of, the pink Celebi turned to everyone and said, "I must go."
The forest deity Celebi looked reluctant to see it leave.
The pink Celebi explained, "I must search for a way to restore the ley lines. This land has become what it is now, and I cannot shirk responsibility. If I don't bring it back to its former state, how could I face the Pokémon who live on this land?"
Now that it was no longer a forest deity, it could freely travel anywhere. Surely it would be able to find a way to restore the ley lines.
"How can ley lines be restored?" Yuga asked curiously.
So the pink Celebi told Yuga about the few Pokémon capable of restoring ley lines.
As it happened, Yuga knew the location of a Regigigas, so he told the pink Celebi. The pink Celebi was very grateful.
"You give me a strangely familiar feeling," the pink Celebi suddenly said to Yuga. "And so does she." As it spoke, it turned to look at Florges.
Both Yuga and Florges were stunned.
If they had anything in common, it would be the blessing of Celebi.
The pink Celebi flew in a circle around Yuga and Florges, then suddenly said, "Ah, so it was them!" Evidently, it recognized the mysterious Celebi that had given Yuga and Florges their blessing.
This pink Celebi was also a very ancient being.
It flew in front of Florges and gently pressed its forehead to hers. The two Pokémon were immediately enveloped in a soft green light.
When the green light faded, Florges felt that her mind had suddenly been filled with countless new pieces of information.
"Flooorges~"
Realizing what great benefits she had just received, Florges gratefully thanked the pink Celebi.
The pink Celebi thought for a moment, then gestured toward the giant mountain-like wooden body that had once been Torterra. Soon, two glowing orbs—one yellow and one green—flew out from within.
The pink Celebi carried the orbs to Yuga and gently pushed them toward him.
"These are for me?" Yuga asked in surprise.
The pink Celebi nodded. These orbs were the crystallized essence of Torterra's own power—extremely rare and precious. At first, the pink Celebi had planned to give them to the forest deity Celebi, but now it had changed its mind.
The forest god had no objections. After all, Yuga had not only rescued it from Team Rocket but had also helped stop Torterra from devouring the forest.
If not for Yuga's intervention, Torterra might have long since destroyed the forest and the land completely.
"Then I'll gratefully accept them," Yuga said without any false modesty.
He was indeed excited about the two items, so he didn't pretend otherwise.
After explaining everything, the pink Celebi said to everyone, "Well then, everyone—goodbye!"
With that, it vanished into the sky.