The ascending passage opened, and Hikaru and Caitlin reached the second floor without triggering the step-count mechanism.
Here, the voices they'd been hearing grew even clearer. Hikaru could make out the muttering of the partners inside their Poké Balls; they were critiquing the ruins with lively commentary.
Caitlin did the same, curiously taking out a Poké Ball and listening closely to the sounds within.
"Although I can usually communicate with them via psychic power, this feeling is still a first for me…"
"No barriers—no script, language, or species," Caitlin murmured, slipping into thought. The experience was truly extraordinary.
Hikaru said, "Understanding a Pokémon's feelings and conversing with no barrier at all—those are not the same thing. This is the legendary power of the Sea King: hearing the voice of all things. It seems the further up we go, the more pronounced this becomes."
To converse—in words or in intent—with different life-forms, even with inanimate things…
Was the slumbering being here truly a Sea King—or the Pirate King?
In any case, this was indeed a trait the Abyssal Ruins showed in that special anime arc.
"A new stone tablet's appeared."
"'To eat is to gain all life,'" Hikaru read. This, too, was a well-known saying across Unova.
As they pressed on, stone tablets kept appearing one after another, each etched message being recorded.
"'Do not waste. To live is to be grateful for all things.'"
"'Do not be cruel. All things are equal and precious.'"
"'There is not only justice and evil; there are degrees and ranges between.'"
"'War produces nothing; it yields only endless sorrow.'"
Caitlin's brows knit ever so slightly.
It wasn't that she disagreed with the words; rather, she vaguely sensed a power of extreme magnitude—and unease—surging nearby.
One of a psychic's faculties: danger foresight.
For Pokémon, this appears as an Ability: when the foe carries a super-effective move, the Pokémon with that Ability grows timid and issues a warning.
For a human, psychic sense only sounds the alarm in situations of genuine, extreme danger.
Truth be told, it wasn't only Caitlin who felt the warning. Hikaru also sensed a sliver of unrest. The crystals' power was agitated; the princes' souls were whispering.
Something here was watching them. The "sons of the king" they might be—but they were still princes, and what slept here was the King.
[The ancient Unovan king's awe blazes strong.]
The yellow crystal's voice held a trace of displeasure. After a long silence, the blue crystal whispered for the first time:
[The king's soul still exists here. In these ruins…the king's soul is present. This power is stronger than us—stronger than even Father.]
[This soul manipulates all and watches all. It can influence the minds of those who enter and lead them astray by their own ambitions, driving them to madness. More than one psychic force moves here; the pressure is…our energy is being suppressed.]
The princes' souls could not contend with the true King—much less when these two crystals were but fragments, not the originals. Their light quickly guttered out. Along with that, an icy, bone-deep gaze and an oppressive weight descended upon the pair.
Yet Hikaru remembered something from the blue crystal's words.
While the Abyssal Ruins here followed the games' original settings rather than the anime's anything-goes approach, that didn't mean the anime's dreadful power had ceased to exist. Giovanni once stood upon an altar within the Abyssal Ruins, using the Reveal Glass and Meloetta to control the Forces of Nature and produce natural disasters without end, intending to conquer Unova.
In the end, of course, the plan rampaged out of control. A blood-red sigil—like the Seal of Orichalcos—appeared on Giovanni's brow, filling him with a lust for ruin and madness.
"So that power is the Sea King's—driving the mad to self-destruction."
If ordinary people came in, this would be just another ruin. But with the ancient crown seemingly stirring, the ruin would be hidden from the unworthy.
"The last tablet on the second floor…"
"'If you would show your understanding of the King, release light here.'"
According to the inscription, using Flash would open an upward path.
But Hikaru himself could make sunlight. As radiance flared, the final red tablet before them rumbled aside, revealing the passage ahead.
[Lore skill "Voice of Another World" has activated!]
[Temporarily acquired power: King's Emotion!]
[Description: The Abyssal Ruins are where the Sea King's remains sleep. This is both the ancient founding place and the royal mausoleum. The King is watching.]
[Effect: All your special powers—Psychic/Awakening, Aura, Wave-Guiding, Creation—are boosted by one tier within the Abyssal Ruins!]
[Note: This ancient city is the fabled City of the Sea, whose patron deity is the Dragon of Origin and Dao. The ancient city's dead summon you to challenge the Sea King, and the Sea King awaits. Beware: many Ancient Guardians lie in ambush!]
Ancient Guardians?
The Abyssal Ruins didn't have those.
In games, manga, or anime, wild Pokémon might suddenly pop up, but they weren't "guards"—more like passersby at play. The deepest chamber was quiet—
—but only when the 300,000-value ancient crown wasn't awakening.
Hikaru noticed the four Stone Plates he had just obtained were glowing. Here in the second-floor corridor, they erupted with tremendous energy—and the corner of Hikaru's eye twitched hard.
"So that's what 'guardians' means!"
Ordinarily these Plates are just Plates. Arceus's Plates are fragments from the world's creation. Aside from the colossal Plate called the "Source of Life" that it keeps with it, the others were scattered across the regions.
Sinnoh's Plates are a bit special, perhaps the first batch, inscribed with a complete myth; later ones are rougher products. That explains why later-generation Plates have almost no engravings on the back. Even when they do, they're vague or incomplete.
And back in ancient Sinnoh—Hisui—the situation was the same.
Back then, nearly every Plate had a powerful Pokémon or human custodian: from kings, to legendary Pokémon, to alpha noble Pokémon, and finally certain humans who obtained Plates—Cogita with the Pixie Plate, Volo with the Spooky Plate, Kamado with the Fist Plate…
They were, in effect, "Guardians of the Plates."
"Electric, Fire, Steel, Fighting…" Caitlin watched the four rays boiling with elemental power, humming lightly—yet with a faint smile.
She craved battle, and the Abyssal Ruins had been a touch too quiet.
Now this was more like it.
The long hush of the ruin had her impatient; her fighting spirit flared bright.
"Are we fighting?" Caitlin blinked, feigning innocence.
Hikaru, however, pondered another problem. "Ojō-sama, if the guardians fight us here, does that count toward the 'steps'?"
Caitlin tilted her head, then closed her eyes. When she opened them again moments later, those beautiful irises had shed all emotion, turning distant and profound.
"I see. I understand."
Her tone carried a trace of genuine regret.
"Then let's settle this in one go. A pity—I was hoping to savor the battle."
The four Pokémon born from the Plates' light appeared at once. Their bodies shone, and their regal bearing recalled the nobles of the Hisui era—yet with notable differences.
They tore through the seam of a dream and spilled down from the rift, all of them dazzling, shiny forms:
Magnezone, Chandelure, Escavalier, Heracross! Four surging presences crashed over like a tidal wave.
Caitlin's expression turned razor-focused and glacial.
An ice-blue glow flooded from her eyes, like a polar fog that never fades. A tidal cyclone of psychic force roared out from her as the center.
The raging arcs around Magnezone, the ghostly cold flames on Chandelure, Escavalier's poised lance, Heracross's tensed-to-charge stance—all of it froze the instant that ice-blue radiance swept past, nailed in place by an invisible shackle.
Only the glint in their eyes showed they were still struggling, straining to break the unseen bonds.
Caitlin stood slender and still at the heart of that storm, the air around her shimmering with visible ripples of warped force.
"The strongest psychic… basically a legendary Pokémon in human shape."
Four shiny Pokémon—the guardians shaped by the Plates and the Sea King—were suppressed with a casual wave.
In formal battles you deploy Pokémon because, well, it's a Pokémon battle. But out in the wild…
As one very "Super Hisui-man" meme puts it—
"Why would I send out a kid weaker than me to fight?"
A mere joke, perhaps.
Yet at that very moment, the icy, bone-deep gaze from the ruin's depths—the King's scrutiny and pressure—surged to many times stronger!
It was no longer a subtle watchfulness but a tangible mental weight. Hikaru's head thrummed, and Caitlin, too, raised a hand to her brow, a trace of pain flickering across her face.
Plainly, the King was observing this trial—only Caitlin's power was too strong, enough to give the King a start.
"What does the King's Aura say?"
Hikaru asked the Riolu in its Poké Ball.
The blue-furred pup, having skimmed the churning Aura of moments ago, let out a low chuckle.
[…You plan to still the ocean too? That's practically cheating.]
So spoke the Aura.
The Sea King had been startled. The line fit because, in legend, the Sea King glimpsed the future and shielded the people from a flood. And the Abyssal Ruins could control the heavens themselves.
Caitlin's state was deteriorating.
It felt like the Sea King was scolding her, and Caitlin did not appreciate that. She even murmured, quite out of character:
"This is an inborn gift—why shouldn't I use it?"
The Sea King did not accept that answer.
You're stronger than the Pokémon I sent. Were my guardians for nothing?
Hence—nerf.
Also, you aren't a candidate…unless you intend to be the queen.
Like a designer teaching players how the game should be played, the Sea King moved to balance things—though the real reason was simply that today's visitor was wildly imbalanced.
He could tell two groups were coming, but Caitlin alone could annihilate the other team if she wished.
To be honest, even the Sea King's lingering soul hadn't expected a human psychic like this—one nearly his equal.
Those guardians he dispatched weren't the true king of Sinnoh's legends, but they were high-fidelity replicas. And you just one-v-foured them with a flick?
You're making the Unovan King lose face.
Are you a legendary Pokémon wearing human skin?
At that knife-edge—mind besieged within and without—
A soft yet unbreakably gentle "mental barrier" closed around Caitlin like the warmest cocoon, muffling the cold gaze and manic whispers to a distant murmur.
The crushing pressure lightened at once, like being hauled from the freezing deep to a sunlit, temperate sea.
A wordless calm surged through her, washing away the chill and unease.
When Caitlin's body rocked under that vast will and her force-field wavered, Hikaru's hand was already there, simply taking hers—steady.
Just like when they first learned to fly together—only now their roles were reversed.
Caitlin's psychic power was tremendous, but her heart's defenses were fragile. Her control over mind was exquisite, yet that was different from the strength of heart.
"Ojō-sama, be at ease. When it comes to the heart, that's my domain."
Sacred aura. Time-Space Voyager. Palkia's Crest. The Vortex of the Heart. Power from the Tree of Linking.
Even with two crystal fragments suppressed, the Sea King was not omniscient. The forces Hikaru could call upon were not limited to the crystals—
The Voice of Another World…King's Emotion…and…the Lustrous Orb!
The Sea King's mental erosion was swept away in an instant. If this were raw pressure, perhaps it would be harder to resolve—but a mental attack? That gave him a line for a counterstroke.
Almost reflexively, Caitlin squeezed that hand back and edged closer to the figure radiating such steady, potent waves of spirit, whispering a soft sigh.
This silent exchange carried more weight than any rousing telepathic burst.
She no longer tried to bear the King's immensity alone. She let the teetering center of her spirit settle—trusting, utterly—into the safe harbor Hikaru had made for her heart.
So quiet… The King's whispers and scolding faded. It felt like slipping back into that dreamscape from before: blue sky, green grass, sitting in tranquil ease, thinking of nothing—only…exerting power.
Her spirit grew gentler and firmer all at once.
And within that flood of power, something else slipped in—subtle, even to her.
"This feeling…isn't bad. Thanks to you." She paused, as if to confirm the peace. "I was a bit too noisy just now."
"Hmph. 'Sea King,' was it?" She frowned. "How we explore these ruins is our business, isn't it? So talkative!"
Irritated by the Sea King's abrupt interference, Caitlin vented on the four guardians. The quartet called from the dream-rift were blasted by psychic shock until they were nearly unable to battle; only Heracross was still wheezing feebly.
"Hmm?"
Hikaru glanced at the Heracross. It looked a bit familiar.
"What, you know that one?" Caitlin noticed his change in expression and, almost imperceptibly, eased her hold on the Heracross.
She let out the faintest, longest breath, as if expelling the last stale air and deep-sea pressure together. Weariness showed for a moment, but her eyes were brilliantly clear.
Yet, feeling the warmth in her hand, Caitlin's lashes quivered. She didn't let go. Her head dipped, gaze falling on their still-clasped hands.
Hmph… This time, you did passably, she thought, lips curving with quiet satisfaction.
The pink rhinoceros beetle blinked dizzily at Hikaru, then started in recognition.
Oh! It's you—the one who grappled with me in the forest!
(End of Chapter)
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