(A/N: Alright getting back to normal schedule of 1 chapter per day for now!)
The sky above was black, illuminated only by golden sparks crackling through the air.
John felt like he'd entered a secret underground facility. There was no sun to be seen, only the glow of artificial lighting powered by electricity.
Looking into the distance, John quickly spotted a towering structure with a massive light bulb crowning its peak, casting golden illumination across the entire world.
Glancing around, John noticed the ground beneath his feet was barren black soil. Every flower, plant, and tree visible had withered and died.
Mega Gardevoir materialized beside John, maintaining constant vigilance as its Confusion slowly expanded outward.
John extended his hand, and Gengar immediately emerged from the shadow at his feet, opening its mouth wide.
The "Spatial Locator" was drawn from Gengar's maw.
Currently, the spatial locator showed no response, presumably the battle between Saul and Landorus wasn't over yet. Once Saul was safe, he would use the spatial locator to contact him.
"I wonder who'll win the fight between Saul and Landorus," John murmured.
Could an Dynamaxed Machamp + aura power + the self-created movecompete with an Landorus?
If it weren't for the mission to rescue Scarlett, John really wanted to witness the conclusion firsthand.
Collecting himself, John reminded himself that his Mentorwas fighting outside, he needed to hurry and handle the mission at hand.
"Gardevoir, use Psychic to search the surroundings. Look for any traces of Scarlett," John ordered, standing in place to wait.
Regarding the world within spatial cracks, he'd read research materials from various scholars before coming here.
Scholars generally believed that worlds within spatial rifts were actually fragments of Earth, torn away by special circumstances, such as battles between powerful Pokemon that ripped through space itself, sending portions of land into dimensional tears.
Basically, worlds existing in spatial cracks were very small and barren.
There was no sunlight in spatial rifts, which meant losing the primary energy source. Even if abundant resources existed when first entering the spatial rift, over time, no matter how plentiful, everything would eventually be exhausted.
Until finally becoming barren wasteland without any life, at most, there might be Ghost Pokemon formed from the unwilling souls of countless dead Pokemon.
However, there were exceptions.
A powerful trainer had once discovered a world within a spatial crack that defied these rules.
That world was the size of a town, with no sunlight source. Yet humans, Pokemon, and all creatures within didn't experience birth, aging, sickness, or death, as if time had pressed the pause button there.
Scholars speculated this world's special nature in the spatial rift related to when it was sent into the tear.
For example, it might result from two Pokemon with temporal powers battling, their abilities affecting the town during the conflict.
But this was just speculation, no one knew the true reason, not even the people from that city.
Later, when people from this city left the spatial rift, their life timeline resumed normal flow. But people who entered the spatial crack afterward didn't experience the same time-suspension effect.
This example reminded John of a movie he'd seen in his previous life.
He remembered the title: "The Rise of Darkrai: Dialga VS Palkia."
The battle between Dialga, the god of time, and Palkia, the god of space, had caused "Alamos Town" to be enveloped by temporal and spatial powers, nearly dragging it into a spatial crack.
If Alamos Town hadn't had protagonists like Ash and a Darkrai capable of fighting the two great gods, it probably would have become the special case John had read about in the research materials.
"I wonder if this current world is a special case?" John gazed at the tall tower with its lights.
Light required energy, and the tower was emitting light, continuously consuming power.
Either this world had fallen into the spatial crack recently and the tower's energy hadn't been exhausted yet, or this place was similar to the example John had read about in the materials, a special location.
"I wonder how Scarlett is doing here..."
Within minutes, Gardevoir completed its exploration, using psychic power to construct a blue sand table with a three-dimensional model before John.
"It's quite large..." John muttered, examining the sand table.
The psychic power possessed by Mega Gardevoir after Mega Evolution could cover a 10,000-meter radius.
So the sand table displayed before John was only two meters long and two meters wide, but included everything within a 10,000-meter radius. Every plant and tree could be enlarged or reduced according to John's wishes for detailed examination.
This world was larger than John had guessed. With a 10,000-meter radius, no end was detected in one direction, not even the tall power generation tower John was observing.
The only expected finding was that it was indeed a barren place, with no life detected, no Pokemon, and no Ghost Pokemon either.
"Beep~~" The spatial positioning device chimed.
John quickly answered.
"John, please respond," Saul Badman's voice came through the spatial positioning device.
"Yes, I've successfully entered the world behind the spatial rift," John replied quickly, then asked, "What about you? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, what could happen to me? Just a few minutes after fighting with Landorus, it got blown away by Regigigas," Saul Badman said with slight regret, as if he hadn't enjoyed the fight enough.
John breathed a sigh of relief, though he felt somewhat sympathetic toward Landorus.
This was the third time it had been slapped away by Regigigas.
But this also proved one thing, Regigigas was likely the guardian of The Mayan Forest, and Pokemon like Landorus that could easily cause great harm would be suppressed with a single slap once they acted up.
"So... Teacher, what should I do next?"
"Next, I'll return to Riverstone University. The spatial channel device needs adjustment and preparation. This will take about 12 hours. I'll contact you through the spatial positioning device as soon as it's completed," Saul Badman explained.
"Your job is to find Scarlett within this timeframe."