"ROAR!"
With a tremendous dragon's roar, a black dragon-shaped figure appeared before Axel.
Its body wasn't particularly huge, yet it radiated an aura of absolute majesty.
The Guardian God of Aurient, Shiny Rayquaza.
After appearing, Rayquaza's dark-golden eyes instantly landed on Maylene.
He could clearly sense that this little girl carried a special aura.
Although that aura wasn't on the level of the Black and White Dragons, it was still real.
It felt as if, with just ten or so people like her acknowledging this place as Aurient, he could reproduce the events in Unova, expanding territory once more.
In Rayquaza's mind, a flicker of excitement passed through.
Though already powerful enough now, he was still far from his peak.
Plus, having once died to protect Aurient, and having seen in Gardevoir's memories the destruction of Aurient… Rayquaza's heart carried a pressing urgency to grow stronger.
To expand territory was without a doubt an exciting thing.
Since that's the case… then let's try turning this place into Aurient's land too.
Rayquaza's dark-golden eyes fixed on Maylene.
["Little girl, are you willing to acknowledge this as Aurient's territory?"]
The moment those words fell, Maylene froze for a second, then quickly figured everything out.
With Rayquaza's appearance, she understood it all.
As a regional Gym Leader, Maylene spent most of her time training.
But because of Sinnoh's rich atmosphere of ancient studies, she also knew some old history.
She knew very clearly, black Rayquaza was once the Pokémon of a powerful Aurient monarch, Roy.
And that king's lifelong dream was to unify the entire world.
Everything linked together in Maylene's mind.
Aurient welcomed Rayquaza's revival, and then once again rekindled the ambition of thousands of years ago…
Aside from this explanation, Maylene could think of no one else who could have turned the entire Junsha family and those powerful guys in Galar.
This battle was a battle of survival.
Maylene's expression instantly turned bitter. She looked seriously at Rayquaza, taking in a deep breath.
"Sinnoh will not bow to anyone."
"If you want me to submit, then first step over my corpse!"
Rayquaza blinked, then turned his gaze to Axel behind him.
["Are people nowadays really this old-fashioned?"]
Axel: "..."
'You call this old-fashioned?'
'If it were me, I wouldn't agree either!'
Rayquaza scratched his head, still puzzled.
["But the Black and White Dragons said, changing a name isn't a big deal."]
Axel looked up at the sky, "You're comparing a Gym Leader to those two disgraces of the dragon race?"
"Forget it, let's fight first. I'll explain after…"
"If you really want to strengthen across the whole region, the Gym Leader path definitely won't work."
"You've got to go the divine beast route, because Gym Leaders and divine beasts are different. They're tied to their homeland…"
Halfway through, Axel's tone suddenly grew urgent, "Dragon Dance!"
Hearing Axel's command, Rayquaza immediately used Dragon Dance.
A powerful aura wave shot past his body.
Rayquaza frowned, looking at the Lucario firing Aura Spheres, along with several other Fighting-types charging straight at him.
'These little guys nowadays… none of them play fair.'
Thankfully, Axel hadn't been careless and told him to dodge.
Otherwise, if he got hit by these little ones, it would've been humiliating.
But next, he wasn't going to give them the chance.
Rayquaza's body instantly began to move, twisting nimbly in midair like a writhing dragon, dodging a barrage of attack skills.
At the same time, his speed grew faster and faster, and the aura radiating from him grew more and more violent.
Even Lucario's Aura Spheres, filled with fear, struggled to lock onto Rayquaza's body.
And beneath him, Glastrier had already rushed out without hesitation.
'Want to gang up on my bro?'
'Want to stop me from saving the world?'
'Woman, you're dreaming!'
A few minutes later, all of Maylene's Pokémon lay sprawled on the ground, powerless as they looked at the Rayquaza and Glastrier before them.
Maylene clenched her fists tightly, lips pressed hard together.
Right now she so wished she could see Flint, wished she could have Flint's ability.
Wished she could learn like Flint, shouting just one "hold on" to her Pokémon, and they would stand up again to surround Sinnoh.
But she couldn't…
Maylene's eyes were full of bitterness.
The other side was too strong, so strong she had no strength to fight back at all.
She hadn't even managed to sound the alarm, and was already about to die?
Just as Maylene gritted her fists, trying to attempt an assassination strike at Axel, a familiar, slightly surprised voice came from the gym entrance.
"Axel, I finally found you!"
In Maylene's dead-grey eyes, a flash of hope appeared, looking toward where the voice came from.
Axel as well, his tone full of joy.
"Flint, you remember me?"
"Of course I remember!"
In Maylene's dumbfounded gaze, Flint and his Infernape charged wildly at Axel.
Flint threw his arms around Axel, while Infernape blinked, hands fidgeting, and in the end hugged Glastrier's neck.
One man, one monkey, both snot and tears, poured out their misery, "Bro, life's been so hard for me lately!"
"After coming to Sinnoh, I ended up crossing into many days earlier."
"And now with spacetime having issues, I couldn't even contact Shirona and the others…"
"Luckily I found Denji, and by chance learned you were challenging gyms."
"Let's save Sinnoh together!"
On the side, Maylene was completely stunned.
'What's going on?'
———
A few minutes later, Flint explained everything to Maylene, his situation and Axel's identity.
For this hot-blooded man Flint, Maylene still had great trust.
Her face instantly flushed red, and she bowed deeply to Axel, "S-sorry, I thought you were a bad guy."
"I… I…", Maylene stammered for a long time, but couldn't get the words out.
She wanted to ask Axel if there was anything she could help with, but thinking back to Axel's overwhelming battle power, and how he had handled Team Galactic, Maylene felt she was a bit redundant.
Seeing Maylene's embarrassed look, Axel grinned, "Gym Leader Maylene, I really do have something to trouble you with."
Hearing she could also contribute to saving Sinnoh, Maylene instantly grew excited.
"What is it?"
"Very simple," Axel's lips curled up as he glanced at Maylene's Pokémon, "Could you continue fulfilling your Gym Leader duties, and let the young lady come challenge your gym?"
Maylene froze for a second, lips twitching.
She really wanted to say that just now, in order to stop Axel, all her Pokémon had already been drained of strength by Rayquaza and Glastrier.
But those words simply couldn't leave her mouth.
He's here to save Sinnoh, after all. Could she really not grant even this small request?
Just then, from a corner of the gym, a small Machop walked out from a little room.
Maylene's eyes instantly lit up.
'Baby, your timing of hatching is perfect!'
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