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Mismagius was the sickly old man's right-hand partner. There was no way Sato would pass up a chance to defeat it—especially now that it had walked straight into his trap. Since the enemy delivered itself to him, he naturally wouldn't be polite about it.
The moment Mismagius was struck by Crobat's Mean Look, its long battle experience told it immediately that escape was impossible.
Yet instead of panicking, it turned toward Sato and revealed a twisted, eerie grin.
Suddenly, the gemstone on its neck burst into a blinding crimson glow. A surge of powerful energy erupted from it.
In the next instant, the strange wave of energy washed over Sato, Roserade, Kecleon, Crobat, and Tentacruel—causing all of their eyes to dim. Each of them had been dragged into a nightmare illusion created by Mismagius's nightmare energy.
But Sato's spiritual power far surpassed that of ordinary humans or Pokémon. In less than half a second, he broke free from the illusion and immediately used telepathy to call out to Roserade, Kecleon, Crobat, and Tentacruel.
By this time, Mismagius had already bared its fangs. Under its control, several clusters of pale ghostly fire shot rapidly toward Sato.
On the other side, the still-standing Sandslash seized the opportunity to leap at Sato with its sharpened claws.
Even so, Sato did not panic. A hundred thoughts raced through his mind—should he teleport away, or release Pikachu and his other Pokémon to counter the threat?
But unexpectedly, a chilling presence burst up from the ground in front of him— a Sableye.
Its arms became coated in pure Ghost-type energy as it activated Shadow Claw, slashing toward both the incoming magical flames from Mismagius and the charging Sandslash.
This Sableye was one of Altaria's Four Commander Pokémon. It had witnessed Sato's earlier righteous actions and thus chose to intervene the moment it saw Sato in mortal danger.
As expected of a wild Pokémon only two levels away from Elite-Four rank, Sableye's Shadow Claw unleashed a ferocious wind. The ghostly flames vanished instantly upon impact, and Sandslash was struck so hard it flew backward, collapsing unconscious.
"Ge-ge-ge~~"
After helping Sato, Sableye turned and let out a raspy laugh before beginning to sink back into the ground.
"Thanks, Sableye."
Just as Sableye was about to disappear, Sato used telepathy to express his gratitude. The Sableye froze mid-descent, scratched its head in surprise, glanced back at Sato, and then fully slipped into the ground.
Meanwhile, Crobat and Kecleon—both deeply bonded with Sato—woke up from the nightmare illusion the moment he called them. They immediately counterattacked Mismagius with Shadow Ball and Lick.
Mismagius never expected the two to break free so quickly. Caught off guard, it was struck by both attacks simultaneously.
"Yao—!!"
Both moves were super effective against it. Even though Mismagius was a much higher level than Crobat and Kecleon, its frail body couldn't withstand such hits. It cried out in agony.
"Gengar! Stop dawdling and support Mismagius!"
Hearing his Mismagius scream, the sickly old man turned pale. He could no longer focus on commanding his men to fight Onix, Cradily, Turtonator, and Aggron. He desperately shouted at his Gengar, who was still locked in combat with Nidoking.
Gengar's ever-present mischievous smile vanished. Its crimson eyes flared with violent red light.
The next second, its body dissolved into a shadow.
Then—shockingly—the shadow split into three, forming three Gengars.
Although smaller than the original, they were unmistakably real.
Nidoking was startled to see his opponent suddenly multiply. Still, he didn't hesitate, firing more earth-colored beams generated by Earth Power toward the three Gengars and the waiting Manectric.
But with three bodies now in play—and Manectric eyeing him from the flank—it was impossible for Nidoking to block them all. Within moments, two of the Gengars broke through his defenses.
"Shadow Split Technique… Looks like this Malevolent Ghost group possesses rare training texts for raising Gengars. And this Gengar's talent is exceptional—to have mastered such a difficult innate move."
Through psychic detection, Sato immediately understood what Gengar had done.
Ever since reading The Grimoire of Dark Spirits, he had thoroughly familiarized himself with innate abilities and moves of Ghost-type Pokémon—especially Gengar's.
Gengar's innate specialty was manipulating shadows. Among its unique moves, the Shadow Split Technique was the pinnacle: a self-developed technique using that innate ability.
But the difficulty was extremely high, because learning it required enduring excruciating pain—splitting one's shadow was akin to slicing off a piece of one's own body.
However, its power was terrifying. Once mastered, Gengar could fight outnumbered—and win.
Every split Gengar was real. Although weaker than the original, the difference was only about seven to eight levels at most.
The real danger lay in the mind.
If Gengar lacked the control to manage all the copies simultaneously, he could lose them permanently—never able to reabsorb them—and his own strength would be permanently crippled.
Even worse, a split shadow could gradually awaken its own independent mind and become a true, separate Gengar.
But since such a Gengar was born from a fragment, it was inherently flawed, and to grow stronger… it would need to devour its original body.
Thus, the Shadow Split Technique carried incredible risks.
Judging from the scene, the sickly old man's Gengar had mastered triple-split control, successfully producing and coordinating two shadow clones.
The two Gengars that broke through Nidoking's defense immediately rushed to aid the injured Mismagius. A barrage of powerful Shadow Balls began forming in their hands as they launched their counterattack.