When Lin Feng asked the question, Zoroark's expression froze for a moment.
But soon, the corners of its mouth curled upward into a mocking smile.
[Zoro...]
(I realized something.)
(Whether the earth vein is destroyed or not has nothing to do with us Pokémon.)
(It has nothing to do with the guardians either.)
(It only has to do with the people themselves.)
(Your actions have already proven that trying to suppress information was the wrong choice.)
(When the earth vein begins to stir and the earth starts roaring, some people may finally regret what they have done.)
(People only realize their mistakes after experiencing the consequences.)
Lin Feng listened to it and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"...What happened to 'bringing suffering to the world'?"
[All right, all right. I won't ask you about that anymore.]
[Then let me ask you something else.]
[Why do you want to travel back to the past so badly?]
[Your Trainer seems to have died during that period.]
The moment Lin Feng brought up that subject, Zoroark fell silent.
Even the expression on its face was hidden beneath its thick fur.
Clearly, it did not want Lin Feng to see what it was feeling.
[You want to go back and save your Trainer, don't you?]
Lin Feng exposed its thoughts with a single sentence.
[You can't hide those feelings from me.]
After all, he had already sensed them through the Verdant Force.
Zoroark's emotions suddenly surged.
The fur covering its body stood on end, and its expression twisted with pain.
It clenched its claws into fists and roared.
[Zoro...]
(So what if I do?)
(I know you're incredibly powerful.)
(You don't even need to use force to stop those people from touching the earth vein.)
(And even if you didn't have that authority, you still have the strength.)
(If you really wanted to, you could deal with all of them effortlessly.)
(You're so powerful that you can even fight Pokémon comparable to the Earth God, and you were able to escape from it alive.)
(But we didn't have that kind of strength back then.)
(We were once just like you.)
(We tried to spread the truth and warn everyone, hoping that would solve the problem.)
(But they didn't believe us!)
(Nobody believed us!)
(Roya could only take us there again and again to stop them.)
(But he wasn't just fighting those people.)
(Even the Alliance believed them back then.)
(What could Roya possibly have done?)
Zoroark's voice trembled.
Its claws tightened.
[Why did he have to die there?]
[He shouldn't have...]
[He put so much effort into everything.]
[And now, after all these years, there are still people trying to interfere with the earth vein...]
[Why should he have cared?]
[He shouldn't have cared at all!]
[It would have been better if everything had simply fallen apart!]
Its words became increasingly disjointed.
Its emotions were overwhelming it, making it difficult for it to speak clearly.
Fortunately, Lin Feng possessed Aura.
He could clearly sense every emotion surging through Zoroark.
The helplessness.
The conflict.
The doubt that had never truly disappeared.
It had been carrying all of this for more than ten years.
Zoroark's sudden breakdown even made Dragonite beside Lin Feng become wary.
Lin Feng patted Dragonite on the shoulder, signaling that everything was fine.
Then he said something that shattered the last bit of hope Zoroark had been holding onto.
[But Celebi won't be able to send you back to that exact moment.]
[It can only send you back to the time period you originally traveled from.]
Those words immediately caused Zoroark's fur, which had been standing on end moments earlier, to fall flat.
It became completely still.
Perhaps it had silently accepted Lin Feng's words.
Or perhaps it was thinking about them.
Lin Feng looked at it.
"Do you really have to go back?"
"Zoro..."
Zoroark lowered its head.
Lin Feng was silent for a moment before speaking again.
"What if I told you that your Trainer, Roya, might not actually be dead?"
Roya.
That was the name of the young Trainer from back then.
"Zoro?"
Zoroark's head shot up.
Its eyes widened in shock as it stared at Lin Feng.
[Zoro!]
(What are you talking about?)
"I'm only saying it's possible."
"You remember those two children from earlier, right?"
"Think about it."
"Why do they know so much about the earth vein when everyone else knows nothing?"
Lin Feng paused.
Then he added,
"If he's still alive, where do you think he would be?"
Zoroark froze.
Its expression changed instantly.
It seemed to be thinking about something.
Then, without another word, it turned and sprinted into the forest.
It leaped from tree to tree, its body moving through the branches at incredible speed.
Lin Feng immediately climbed onto Dragonite.
"Let's follow it from above."
Dragonite spread its wings and soared into the sky.
Below them, a red-and-white blur flashed through the forest.
Perhaps because Zoroark was desperate, it was moving incredibly fast.
About ten minutes later, the red-and-white figure suddenly stopped.
And below them, a small wooden cabin appeared in Lin Feng's sight.
Clearly...
Things were unfolding exactly as he had predicted.
For some unknown reason, the young Trainer from the past had not actually died.
Perhaps he had merely collapsed in front of Zoroark.
Then, overwhelmed by grief, Zoroark had traveled more than ten years into the future with Celebi.
During those years, perhaps because it was afraid to return or because it had become convinced that the future held no place for it, Zoroark had wandered throughout the Earth God Mountain Range.
It had waited there for Qin Shu to arrive.
It had never returned here.
As for the young Trainer...
After Zoroark disappeared, perhaps he had searched for it countless times.
But after failing to find it, he eventually returned to this place.
The place where he and Zoroark had first met.
The two of them had therefore spent all these years believing that the other had died.
Neither had ever realized that the other was still alive.
Dragonite slowly descended to the ground.
By the time Zoroark reached the cabin, its expression had become one of absolute disbelief.
Then came excitement.
It quickly scanned the area around the wooden cabin.
Its gaze eventually locked onto the building.
But when it reached the door, its movements became strangely cautious.
Zoroark slowly lifted the latch.
The door opened.
It stepped inside.
Familiar furnishings.
Familiar clothes.
A familiar whistle hanging behind the door.
A clean table.
A neatly made bed.
Everything inside told the same story.
Someone had been living here recently.
He was here.
He was alive!
At that moment, only one thought remained in Zoroark's mind.
It rushed out of the cabin.
When it saw Lin Feng approaching behind it, it cried out excitedly.
[Zoro! Zoro!]
(He's here! He's here!)
Then its voice suddenly faltered.
[Zoro...]
(He's not here...)
(He's not here...)
Lin Feng immediately understood what Zoroark meant.
The first "he's here" meant that Roya was alive.
The second "he's not here" meant that he simply wasn't home.
"So where do you think he is now?"
Zoroark reacted almost instantly.
It leaped onto a tree and began racing through the forest again.
Lin Feng climbed onto Dragonite and followed from above.
But at that very moment...
The earth beneath them suddenly began to move.
It felt as though the ground had turned into the surface of a restless sea.
At first, it was only a faint tremor.
Then, in an astonishingly short amount of time, the shaking grew violently stronger.
Zoroark, which had been racing through the forest, suddenly stopped.
Its expression changed.
For some reason, a terrible feeling had appeared in its heart.
An ominous premonition.
And at that moment, only one thought remained in its mind.
[Zoro...]
(Faster!)
(This time, we have to be fast...)
Meanwhile, several minutes earlier...
At the earth vein...
.....
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