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Brilliant white light engulfed Kael's battered body. The air rang with a clear chime, delicate yet piercing, echoing like bells across the arena.
Deep inside, dormant strands of ancient code stirred awake. Bloodlines hidden in his cells boiled forth, transmuting agony into raw vitality.
The small, scorched Flaaffy on the floor blurred into a cocoon of radiance. Light became a cradle, sheltering his fragile form while rewriting it.
Around his neck, the Thunder Stone he'd carried flared. Lifted gently by the glow, the stone shattered without a sound its energy liquefying into streams of concentrated plasma.
The essence folded into the cocoon, becoming food for metamorphosis.
From even deeper within, veins of violet-blue draconic energy built up over months of absorbing a Dragon Crystal, and surged forth, entwining with the gold. Lightning and dragonfire braided together, chanting a hymn for rebirth.
Goodra stopped cold.
It could interrupt. A single strike would shatter the cocoon and scar its foe forever.
But it didn't.
A Dragon's pride demanded fair combat. Better to crush an opponent at their strongest than cripple them crawling.
So Goodra stepped back, breathing hard, and waited.
From Nolan's side of the field, the light reflected in his eyes and stoked his fire.
"Yes…" His smile widened, teeth flashing. The warmth in his face twisted into something hungry, almost manic.
"That's it!"
His final Poké Ball quivered faintly at his belt, responding to its master's anticipation.
Up in the box, Damalanth froze mid-stretch. He didn't sit again; instead, he stood, watching, surprise and delight dancing in his eyes.
On broadcast screens across the world, chatter erupted:
"It's evolving!"
"Lanny's Flaaffy, no, it's evolving right now in the finals!"
Audrey surged to her feet, bracing herself on the desk. "Unbelievable…! Evolution on the championship stage this is beyond rare!"
Even Professor Ashford adjusted his glasses, voice steady but tinged with awe.
"Most competitors here have long since finished evolving their teams. To see one undergo metamorphosis at this level… in the finals… extraordinary."
He was right. Kael's evolution set two records at once: the first Flaaffy to ever battle in a League finals and the first Pokémon to complete evolution during the final itself.
The hum deepened, light growing unbearable. Inside, Kael writhed, his body tearing and knitting at once. Pain lanced with itching fire as his form expanded, bones and sinew re-forged.
Then the light folded inward. Cocoon compressed.
At the instant it touched his skin, it detonated.
White motes scattered like falling stars across the stadium, twinkling as they faded.
When they cleared, a new silhouette stood.
Smooth, resilient skin glowed a burnished amber, faint purple-blue undertones glimmering beneath the residue of Dragon power.
On his forehead and at the end of his long tail, two crystalline red orbs gleamed, pulsing with golden light. Within them, fluid arcs of electricity flowed like molten rivers.
Black oval markings coiled across his body like runes. Air itself warped faintly around his ears, heat shimmering at his command.
From Johto's legends, Ampharos had arrived.
Kael blinked, stunned by himself.
Evolution wasn't new to him, but never like this. His body was an ocean without shorelines, filled with roaring power.
He raised a hand and closed his fist.
Whummm—
The air collapsed with a violent pop. Electricity surged outward, a golden half-dome rippling across the battlefield.
Goodra staggered, arms raised to shield itself from the mere backlash. Its eyes widened this wasn't the same opponent it had nearly crushed moments ago.
Kael steadied, rolling his neck. Then, like cards flipped in his mind, new techniques slotted into memory.
One glowed brightest.
"…Charge Beam?"
Zzzrak—
Golden orbs blinked into existence around him, each humming with rings of energy. Within each sphere burned as much force as one of his old Thunder Shocks.
They layered, stacked until at the center, a single bead of blinding white formed, dazzling as a solar flare.
With a roar, the beam fired.
Fwoooosh!
Air split with a tearing shriek. Heat sheared apart the atmosphere, condensation blooming into thick white mist across the field.
BOOOOM!
Light, heat, and sound fused into devastation swallowing Goodra whole.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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