Kairos crouched down to meet Axuan's gaze at eye level.
The boy clutched the backpack containing the Candle Spirit tightly against his chest, his eyes still holding traces of worry, but more than anything, they showed trust in Kairos.
After everything they'd been through together, it seemed he'd placed his complete faith in him.
"The place I'm headed is pretty dangerous. You can't come along," Kairos said gently.
"I need you to stay here with Elara and wait for me to get back, alright?"
Axuan glanced at Elara's stern expression, then back at Kairos, and finally gave an obedient nod.
He hesitated for a moment before carefully reaching into the inner pocket of his worn jacket. He pulled something out and pressed it into Kairos's hand.
It was a circuit board about the size of his palm, its edges worn smooth, its surface catching the light with a faint metallic gleam.
"Kairos, this... is for you," Axuan said softly, his eyes bright with hope. "I found it in a trash heap. It's the shiniest one I could find. Keep it with you. It'll protect you."
Kairos looked down at the makeshift good luck charm in his hand, and something tightened in his chest.
In this broken underground world, this kid still held onto such innocent belief. That was pretty rare.
He nodded and carefully tucked the circuit board into his system space, then gave Axuan's shoulder a reassuring pat. "Thank you. I'll keep it safe."
As he stood up, Elara stepped forward with a serious expression. "The Old Data Port is a lot more dangerous than you think."
"The Alliance's automated patrol robots are annoying, but manageable.
The real threat is the 'Data Phantoms' caused by data corruption and equipment failure.
They're not Pokémon. They're holographic glitches and corrupted programs that can mess with your perception, make you see things that aren't there, get you turned around. Watch out for those especially."
Kairos nodded, his expression calm. "I've got it under control."
Remembering the power his Pokémon had just demonstrated, Elara suddenly felt like she might be worrying for nothing.
She said nothing more and handed over a worn, wrinkled map made from some kind of synthetic material.
"This is a hand-drawn structural map that generations of Watchers have secretly pieced together.
It's far from complete. Lots of areas are blank or marked incorrectly. Use it as a reference, but don't rely on it too much."
Kairos took the map and scanned it quickly. The lines were uneven, and many spots were marked with symbols he couldn't decipher.
Crude didn't even begin to cover it.
He tucked the map away, nodded to Elara, then turned toward the base exit and set off alone.
Elara watched his retreating figure, her brow furrowing slightly.
Maybe this mysterious young man from the underground really could bring about some kind of change.
She could only hope her instincts were right.
---
After leaving the Watchers' base, Kairos followed the rough directions on the map, navigating through a maze of pipes and collapsed buildings in the Lower District.
The closer he got to the Old Data Port, the more desolate everything became.
He barely saw another person, just scattered mechanical debris littering the ground.
More than half the lights on the tunnel ceiling were broken, and the rest flickered erratically, making the journey feel endless.
The ground beneath his feet shifted from hard metal to layers of accumulated dust and rubble, soft and nearly silent underfoot.
Even Kairos found the oppressive atmosphere unsettling.
But Gengar seemed to love it. He emerged from the shadows, looking around with keen interest.
As a Ghost-type Pokémon, this kind of environment was practically paradise.
Fortunately, it wasn't long before a massive structure loomed ahead.
The entrance to the Old Data Port was an enormous metal framework.
As far as the eye could see, countless abandoned server cabinets were stacked like mountains, stretching toward the horizon.
Thick cables tangled chaotically between the cabinets, some severed and dangling, sparking intermittently.
The air was heavy with a sharp, acrid smell of burnt circuits. Breathing it in was deeply unpleasant.
"If I get pneumonia from coming to a place like this, I wonder if they'll count it as a work-related injury," Kairos muttered, covering his nose as he carefully ventured deeper into this data graveyard, constantly scanning his surroundings.
Before he'd gone far, a faint buzzing sound reached his ears.
He immediately ducked behind a massive server rack.
Three disc-shaped automated patrol robots with red scanning lights blinking underneath were gliding slowly along a fixed route.
Their shells were covered in scratches and dents, clearly old models, but the short-barreled shock guns and sonic emitters mounted on their frames were still functional.
Obviously well-maintained, they could still pack a punch.
Though dealing with these machines would be easy enough, Kairos didn't want to attract attention.
Using his ability-enhanced coordination, he moved quickly and quietly through the mountains of wreckage.
By sticking to the massive debris piles and scattered metal crates as cover, he easily avoided the robots' red scanning beams.
When he encountered relatively open areas with no way around, Kairos would glance down at his shadow and signal Gengar.
Gengar would then use his psychic power to make a distant canister suddenly roll and create noise, or silently shift aside a plastic barrier blocking the path.
These distractions always drew the patrol robots' attention in the wrong direction.
Throughout it all, Gengar seemed completely at ease. Kairos could even sense a hint of boredom from him, as if he found the task too simple and rather dull.
---
After successfully passing through the outer patrol zone, the surroundings grew even stranger and more unstable.
The already dim overhead lights began flickering wildly, causing violent shifts between light and shadow throughout the space.
Unstable holographic interference began appearing in the air, sometimes briefly forming twisted, indistinct shapes.
Suddenly, Kairos felt a wave of mild dizziness wash over him, as if the ground had dropped away beneath his feet. The scene before him began to distort and stretch.
He saw several figures in white lab coats running, clearly panicked.
Their faces were twisted with fear, mouths open, but producing no sound.
Then a sharp, endlessly repeating electronic alarm blared directly inside his head: "Warning! Maximum threat level! Activate Ark Protocol! Repeat! Activate Ark Protocol!"
Kairos found the phenomenon interesting. These must be the "Data Phantoms" Elara had warned him about.
But as she'd said, while these fragmented holographic images and corrupted signals couldn't cause direct physical harm, they were definitely affecting his mental state.
Kairos felt his sense of direction beginning to blur, the path he'd taken seeming to sway and shift.
However, he took a deep breath, centered himself, and quickly resisted the interference.
His S-rank Dragon-type ability didn't just strengthen his body; it fortified his mind as well.
Through these broken Data Phantoms, Kairos still wasn't entirely clear on what had happened five hundred years ago, but seeing the scientists' desperate faces and hearing the repeating alarms gave him a sense of the scale of the tragedy.
Things must have gone catastrophically wrong back then. Otherwise, these echoes wouldn't still be lingering here.
He continued deeper, following the increasingly strong signal from the chip until he reached a relatively intact section.
This appeared to be an old large-scale server room. The cabinets were neatly arranged, though all had been powered down long ago.
The chip's glow pointed toward an inconspicuous cabinet in the corner.
When he opened it, the chip suddenly began flashing rapidly, as if transmitting some kind of signal.
A hidden compartment popped open, revealing a palm-sized metal box.
Inside the box lay a wafer-thin metallic sheet with a lustrous sheen.
This must be the so-called "remnant page" from the Survivor's Journal.
Kairos picked it up and examined it carefully, only to discover that the densely packed text was written in code he couldn't understand at all.
It didn't match any modern language or programming language he knew.
This was going to be a problem.
It seemed his only option now was to take this back and have them translate it.
Although, thinking about it, if this thing was left behind five hundred years ago in this world, the Watchers probably couldn't read it either, could they?
Kairos felt a headache coming on. If that were really the case... wouldn't he be screwed?
Fortunately, the next moment, a system notification suddenly appeared.
[Unknown encrypted historical document detected. Performing deep analysis and translation. Emotion Points required: 1,000 points.]
[Proceed with payment?]
The system was pretty reliable in situations like this... but...
Kairos's eye twitched. A thousand points?
Since when did the system charge this much?
Last time, maintaining his cover identity only cost about a hundred points, didn't it?
Now that he'd been rolling in points lately from game distribution and completing various tasks, the fees had shot right up...
Wasn't this basically highway robbery?
He sighed.
Whatever. As long as it could translate, that was fine. Better than staring blankly at incomprehensible text.
"Confirm payment."
The instant the points were deducted, the metallic sheet in his hand seemed to warm slightly.
Before he could read the translated text, his vision suddenly blurred and his consciousness was pulled into a vortex.
What appeared before him wasn't text at all, but an incredibly vivid scene that felt like he was actually there, unfolding before his eyes like a cinematic cutscene.
The first thing that came into view was a vibrant city bathed in sunlight.
Skyscraper glass facades reflected golden light. Various hovercars streamed back and forth through the sky.
Streets were filled with bustling crowds, their faces wearing relaxed, contented expressions, as if everyone was genuinely happy.
Occasionally, gentle Flying-type Pokémon like Pidgey and Pidgeotto would dart swiftly across the sky, and familiar Pokémon of all kinds could be seen throughout the city.
This city seemed remarkably peaceful and advanced, perhaps even more so than his own world.
Was this what the surface looked like five hundred years ago?
As Kairos wondered, the scene suddenly shifted.
Above the city, in the clear blue sky, a massive swirling vortex radiating strange purple-black energy tore open without warning.
Kairos recognized it immediately.
An Ultra Wormhole.
Then countless bizarre-looking Pokémon emanating an unsettling aura of savage violence began pouring endlessly from that ominous opening, like a black tide.
Seeing this scene, Kairos's attention sharpened.
The world he came from had recently seen an Ultra Wormhole appear as well, but its scale was nowhere near as massive as the one before him now.
This world had experienced an Ultra Wormhole invasion of this magnitude five hundred years ago?
His thoughts raced.
If the surface world's destruction was caused by an Ultra Beast invasion, then many things suddenly made sense.
Based on the average trainer level he'd observed since arriving in this world, whether it was the underground thugs' weak Voltorbs and Magnemites, or the combat capabilities of Alliance security forces, they stood no chance against Ultra Beasts.
The trainers of this world five hundred years ago might have been somewhat stronger, but probably not by much.
And with so many Ultra Beasts flooding through, this world's defensive forces couldn't possibly have mounted any real resistance.
The entire civilization collapsing in an extremely short time, with survivors retreating to the relative safety of the underground, would have been inevitable.
As Kairos processed this, the scene began to shift.
Sure enough, this world's trainers appeared helpless before the swarm of Ultra Beasts, with virtually no ability to fight back.
However, just as he thought things would continue down that path...
A clear, resonant cry pierced through the chaotic sky.
A brilliant, dazzling light, like a physical manifestation of rainbow glory, came thundering in from the distant horizon.
Everywhere it passed, even the purple-black energy permeating the air retreated.
The light arrived in an instant, stopping above the city and revealing the form of a massive, incredibly majestic bird Pokémon.
Seven-colored halos flowed naturally around its body. Its long tail feathers were like burning flames, radiating a warm and powerful aura of life.
Kairos froze.
Holy shit. Ho-Oh?
This world actually has Ho-Oh?
The trainers in this world were so weak, and they seemed completely ignorant about Legendary Pokémon.
He'd assumed there wouldn't even be any Legendaries here at all.
And this presence, this aura...
Damn. Why does it feel so much stronger than Rayquaza from his game cutscenes?
Weren't these two supposed to be on the same level?
As Kairos tried to make sense of it, Ho-Oh had already begun its attack.
It let out a skyward cry, spread its wings wide, and countless orbs of pure, blazing Sacred Fire rained down like a meteor shower, incinerating every single Ultra Beast in their path.