"Ptooey!"
Rock spat the dirt from his mouth, his expression already darkening considerably.
He lifted his head.
The crooked power tower was now just ahead.
Haunter seemed unusually frightened. Its two hands were firmly clamped onto the top of Rock's head, refusing to let go.
"Don't be afraid, Haunter. I'll protect you."
A faint smile appeared on Rock's grim face. He reached up and gently patted Haunter's body.
Through their mental link, Rock could sense Haunter's emotions. Right now, the little Ghost-type was extremely uneasy.
"We're close… That guy really is strong. It's only natural that this little one is frightened…"
From within Rock's shadow, the dry voice surprisingly refrained from mocking Haunter.
"This abandoned power station… I heard it used to supply electricity to more than three major cities. Although during the Paradise Era, thermal power plants like this one were gradually phased out…"
"Quite impressive."
Rock ignored the voice and simply stared silently at the enormous power station before him, its grounds stretching as far as the eye could see.
Clearly, Rock had studied the history of the Paradise Era quite well.
Through their mental link, Haunter could transmit its emotions to him.
However, it couldn't describe its thoughts in any great detail.
It could only convey simple feelings such as happiness, excitement, fear, and the like.
Naturally, Rock assumed that whatever Haunter and Shadow were afraid of was the same thing.
"Whatever happens, we have to face it eventually…
Rock took a deep breath and sent a command through their mental connection.
"If I die… run. Run as far away as you can."
Haunter froze.
It stared at its master in confusion.
Its hands tightened around Rock's hair.
........
"He went inside…"
High above the clouds, Su Bai watched Rock stride into the power station and let out a quiet sigh.
"So his target really is Zapdos…"
At this point, Su Bai wasn't naïve enough to believe that Rock had merely happened to stumble upon this place.
After all, the man had been walking in a straight line the entire time.
Aside from battling the wild Pokémon along the way with Haunter, he had barely stopped at all.
And after that bizarre business of "eating dirt," he had become even more hurried.
Judging from his speed, he had apparently even used a Sprint Potion.
"How did someone from the capital acquire a way to sense the locations of the three Legendary Birds?"
Su Bai watched thoughtfully as Rock disappeared into the power station.
If Zapdos really was Rock's target, how had he managed to locate it?
The power station was actually in a rather remote location. Otherwise, Wang Tao and the others would probably have arrived here by now.
"Wait… Am I seeing things?"
Su Bai suddenly rubbed his eyes.
Within his field of vision, the surroundings around Rock seemed to distort ever so slightly.
.............
"It really is here…"
Rock stared at a nearby pillar twisted into the shape of a snake and took a deep breath.
"Some of the pillars around those influencers during the Paradise Era apparently looked like this too…"
"Stop hiding. Come out!"
Rock suddenly looked around and shouted.
Without warning, a crooked pillar was ripped straight out of the ground by some unknown force.
Silently, it shot toward Rock like a howling projectile!
"Yui! Yui!"
Haunter, which had been visibly frightened ever since entering the power station, suddenly cried out several times and bravely flew toward the pillar.
However, a Ghost-type Pokémon was rather helpless against a purely physical attack like this.
Haunter's courageous attempt didn't even buy its master a fraction of a second.
The pillar passed straight through Haunter's balloon-like body without the slightest resistance and continued roaring toward Rock.
.........,.
"Damn it!"
Su Bai's expression tightened atop Charizard.
Just moments ago, he had still been wondering why such strange phenomena were occurring inside a power station where Zapdos might be hiding.
And now Rock was already in danger!
Regardless of everything else, Rock's identity as the heir to the Rock family was an enormous headache.
If Rock really died here, even if Su Bai wasn't afraid of the so-called Rock family, the trouble that followed would come one wave after another.
"We're too high up. We won't make it in time!"
Charizard was fast, but no matter how fast it was, it couldn't possibly cross the distance in an instant.
The pillar was about to pierce Rock!
"Wait… What the hell is that?"
But in the next instant, Su Bai rubbed his eyes again, genuinely questioning reality.
Rock's entire body suddenly seemed to melt.
Then, just like that, he sank into the ground.
A moment later, he emerged from the ground some distance away and stood upright once more.
"How did he do that?"
Su Bai stared at the scene in disbelief, running through every skill listed in his textbooks.
As one of the top students at Haicheng No. 1 High School, he could say with absolute certainty that there wasn't a single known profession capable of using such a bizarre ability.
And if he remembered correctly…
Rock was supposed to be a Contract Master!
Just then, the Charizard beneath him suddenly let out a loud sneeze.
It raised one foreleg and somewhat irritably rubbed its nose, tiny sparks flickering around its nostrils.
"Hmm? Did you smell something?"
Su Bai thoughtfully patted Charizard's massive head.
The look of disgust on Charizard's face made a certain possibility suddenly occur to him.
..........
After regaining his footing, Rock beckoned to Haunter.
The bewildered Haunter stared at its master in disbelief before quickly flying back to his side..
Facing the distorted space surrounding them, Rock spoke slowly.
"You're already here. There's no point hiding anymore…"
"I can smell your scent even from ten miles away…"
"A stench of rotting decay."
As Rock spoke, a dense mass of darkness began gathering in front of him.
A tall figure gradually emerged from the shadows.
"Interesting… Very interesting…"
A voice filled with malicious amusement and boundless hostility slowly drifted out of the darkness.
The man's figure had now fully taken shape.
He regarded Rock with an amused expression before bursting into laughter.
"I thought you were just another one of those Awakened who are no better than trash…"
"This ability… I seem to remember hearing about it somewhere."
He scratched his chin, pretending to be deep in thought.
At the same time, Rock silently sized up the target he had been tracking all this way.
The man appeared to be a burly fellow nearly six feet four inches tall.
But aside from the hand scratching his chin, his other arm was missing.
A thick layer of frost covered the stump where it had been severed.
"I remember now!"
The burly man slapped his forehead as though he had just had a sudden revelation.
Then he excitedly said, "You're one of those… Twelve Zodiac guys, right?"
"Someone with this ability was killed by Scorpion."
As he spoke, a vicious grin spread across his face.
"Want to hear what that guy Scorpion thought of your predecessor?"
Behind Rock, the air silently warped.
Deathly aura twisted and coiled together, forming a long spear.
While the burly man continued speaking, it silently thrust toward Rock's back.
"His exact words were…"
"The Twelve Zodiac are so weak. So incredibly weak…"
"Humans actually expect such pathetic creatures to protect them?"
"That's absolutely hilarious."