Chapter 370: Mammon: "You Know, I've Always Had a Soft Spot for Kyurem"
Kalos. Still the same featureless desert.
But right now, this once-eternal, barren, peaceful stretch of sand had turned dark and thoroughly ravaged. The Legendary war had left this stretch of sand crying out one shriek after another — fissures torn open, gaping craters, scars genuinely painful to look at.
There were even patches of frost scattered across the ground, jarringly out of place.
"VANISH! VANISH!!!"
BOOM!!
A violent explosion rang out.
"Fweee..."
Another agonized cry, dulled feathers scattering, as Ho-Oh took another direct hit from Evil Hoopa's Hyperspace Fury, crashing hard into the ground once more.
Its aura had grown genuinely weak, both wings now drooping flat against the ground, unable to lift them anymore.
Healing rainbow flame burned ceaselessly across its body, but the damage was simply too severe — even Ho-Oh, right now, genuinely couldn't pull itself back up. It needed a proper moment to recover.
Ho-Oh was genuinely at its limit. Feeling the violent, all-over pain, its avian eyes gazed vacantly up at the sky, thoroughly numb.
Creator above, what sin had it committed to deserve treatment this cruel?
Honestly, this encounter hurt far worse than the previous two combined. This Evil Hoopa really wasn't holding anything back — it was genuinely trying to beat it to death!!
Those fists kept slamming into it over and over, as though Ho-Oh had personally murdered its own father — far, far more brutal than Black Rayquaza or Complete Kyurem had ever been.
And the real problem was — even with Reflect and Light Screen up, it could still feel Evil Hoopa's attacks landing with painful clarity.
This Evil Hoopa's offense really was too much.
And more than anything else —
Where the hell had that human who'd dragged it out here in the first place disappeared to??
"Damn it, where exactly did that human even go?"
Ho-Oh cursed silently, watching Yveltal getting chased down relentlessly by Stellar Terapagos.
Right — Shadow Lugia had already gone down too, badly wounded.
After all, Mammon had earlier asked Shadow Lugia to hold off both Stellar Terapagos and Evil Hoopa simultaneously for a stretch, which had left it genuinely, significantly hurt. With no further support after that, it had eventually been unable to withstand Stellar Terapagos and got shot down, badly injured.
Ho-Oh's own vitality was considerable, and it had Sacred Fire's continuous healing to fall back on — but Shadow Lugia had no equivalent sustained recovery method of its own.
With Ho-Oh, that pesky obstacle, dealt with, Evil Hoopa's crimson eyes locked onto Yveltal. Finally, it could put its full attention toward Confined Hoopa.
Confined Hoopa, perched on Yveltal's back, had already picked up on this and was genuinely, thoroughly anxious.
This was bad!
But right at that moment, Stellar Terapagos, mid-pursuit of Yveltal, suddenly froze in place.
A mysterious, shimmering glow flickered to life.
Confined Hoopa suddenly felt something settle behind it, a weight pressing down, and the familiar touch made it freeze.
Turning around, that familiar face left Confined Hoopa overflowing with delight and relief.
"Mamon!! Mamon, you're finally back!"
Confined Hoopa immediately threw itself into Mammon's arms, burrowing in with all its might, thoroughly overjoyed.
Mammon's sudden disappearance had scared it half to death! Especially in a situation like this — Mammon really had become its own personal anchor of stability.
And it could sense the faint spatiotemporal residue lingering at the spot where Mammon had vanished — that was that naturally-villainous tortoise's doing!!
As a fellow Pokémon that also wielded spatial power, Confined Hoopa's own perceptive ability had admittedly dulled considerably since its power had been sealed — but sensing someone nearby suddenly get teleported away entirely was still something it could pick up on, at least a little.
Confined Hoopa had genuinely been worried — after all, it could tell this wasn't ordinary spatial displacement, but a genuine crossing of time itself, given how unusual that particular ripple of energy had felt.
"Don't worry, don't worry, I'm back, it's fine, it's all fine."
Mammon watched Confined Hoopa clinging to him like this, genuinely amused, and glanced around at his surroundings.
Yeah — still the same familiar "brawl" underway. Though, unlike before he'd vanished through time, Shadow Lugia was now badly injured, and Ho-Oh looked half-dead.
"Hoopa was so worried! Where'd you even go, Mamon?"
Confined Hoopa asked, genuinely puzzled, in its cute little childlike voice.
It could sense it, too — Mammon's mood seemed... genuinely pretty good?
"Went somewhere genuinely nice. I'll fill you in properly later. Hoopa, how long was I gone?"
Mammon recalled Shadow Lugia into its Poké Ball and asked Confined Hoopa.
"About ten minutes or so, I think." Confined Hoopa thought it over — roughly that.
"There's a time discrepancy, then... must be Terapagos's doing?"
Mammon raised an eyebrow — he'd spent close to eight hours in Hisui, at minimum.
Well, no point puzzling over that right now.
Which meant Ho-Oh had actually held out against Evil Hoopa for a full ten minutes. Not bad — worthy of the giant turkey he'd dragged in, genuinely impressive durability there.
"VANISH!!"
Evil Hoopa phased through a spatial ring, reappearing directly in front of Yveltal, roaring furiously at Confined Hoopa.
Confined Hoopa rolled its eyes, genuinely losing interest in responding to Evil Hoopa at all. Same two words over and over — could it not come up with anything new? Genuinely exhausting.
At first, Confined Hoopa had been thoroughly irritated by it, even tempted to shoot back out of pure frustration — but by now, it couldn't even be bothered to respond anymore.
It genuinely wondered — this whole "materialized power" of its, why was it so single-mindedly fixated on it specifically, just because it was the "original body"?
"Cut it out, cut it out, Hoopa's ears are gonna callus over at this point."
Mammon genuinely admired Evil Hoopa's sheer, relentless "persistence."
Evil Hoopa paid Mammon's "mockery" no attention at all, roaring furiously as its six massive demonic arms snapped wide open.
Thick black energy pulsed in the void of its chest — Dark-type Dark Pulse.
"Kyurem, Freeze Shock." Mammon tilted his head slightly.
ROAR!!!
A commanding, overwhelming roar shook the sky as the massive Ice dragon streaked in at high speed, blue lightning crackling ceaselessly, condensing into a beautiful blue-violet, shield-shaped barrier of energy, driving straight toward Evil Hoopa.
Right — Complete Kyurem had already finished off its own opponent!
A terrifying wave of cold swept in violently, and Evil Hoopa's gaze snapped instinctively toward the ferocious ice dragon closing in from the side.
Stellar Terapagos noticed it at the same instant, its crystal formation firing off a massive burst of star-shaped energy.
Tera Starstorm!
Evil Hoopa unleashed its own gathered Dark Pulse at the same time.
BOOM!
Tera Starstorm and Dark Pulse both slammed heavily into Complete Kyurem's Freeze Shock simultaneously.
An overwhelming storm of energy surged violently, howling winds tearing through the air, tangible shockwaves rippling out ring after ring.
Even shielded by Yveltal, Mammon still instinctively raised a hand to shield his face — but his eyes burned with genuine excitement.
Because he could see it clearly — even facing Evil Hoopa and Stellar Terapagos combined, Complete Kyurem's Freeze Shock hadn't yielded an inch, forcibly holding firm against both signature moves at once.
Kyurem!!! Mammon marveled, genuinely impressed. The three-way fused Complete Kyurem really was ferocious.
Worthy of being one of his own favorite Legendaries.
BOOM!
Finally, the strained energy could hold no longer, exploding violently outward, the surging power sending Complete Kyurem staggering back a short distance.
And yet Complete Kyurem's own aura only grew more fierce, its cold, unforgiving golden dragon eyes locked unwaveringly on both opponents.
In turn, Evil Hoopa and Stellar Terapagos were both forced back by the sheer force of the shockwave as well.
Evil Hoopa let out a furious roar — how was this ice dragon even here?!
Evil Hoopa's terrifying eyes shifted to the other side of the battlefield — only to find that Complete Forme Zygarde, which had originally been holding off Complete Kyurem, now lay frozen solid, collapsed on the ground, motionless.
Clearly, Complete Forme Zygarde had already gone down.
"USELESS! USELESS!!"
Evil Hoopa's expression twisted further still. Some "guardian of ecological order" — defeated this fast? What good was it?!
"Genuinely pitiful, that." Mammon studied Complete Forme Zygarde with a note of real fascination — credit where due, this Zygarde genuinely seemed to have some bad luck going for it.
Not too long ago, its Z2 core had been forcibly controlled by Team Flare, then got beaten down by Mega Mewtwo Y. And now, barely any time later, Evil Hoopa comes along, forcibly summons and mind-controls it, and Complete Kyurem beats it senseless all over again.
Zygarde really was having a genuinely rough time of it lately.
Well, that's what you get for a 4x weakness to Ice, getting thoroughly counter-typed by Ice-dragon Kyurem. Sure, Complete Forme Zygarde's HP pool ranked among the thickest of any top-tier Legendary — but against Kyurem, what good was raw HP alone?
What Mammon hadn't expected, though, was that after glaring furiously at Complete Kyurem for a moment, Evil Hoopa suddenly twisted one of its demonic arms.
A spatial ring appeared beside the unconscious Complete Forme Zygarde, teleporting it away instantly.
"Hm?" Mammon blinked at that — but in the next instant, understood exactly what was happening.
Having disposed of the now-useless, defeated Complete Forme Zygarde, Evil Hoopa's claw twisted once more, another spatial ring flaring to life.
"Summoning again? But who else is there left for it to pull in?"
Mammon raised an eyebrow — he genuinely hadn't anticipated Evil Hoopa having this particular maneuver in its arsenal.
Discarding Zygarde the instant it stopped being useful and swapping in a fresh recruit — genuinely clever of Evil Hoopa. But were there even any remaining top-tier Legendaries left out there to summon?
Not really. Most of them were already here. The only two genuinely capable ones left unaccounted for were Eternatus and Necrozma.
But Eternatus, right now, was critically low on energy and genuinely weak, and Necrozma remained sealed — unlikely Evil Hoopa could even summon either of them.
Calyrex's own steeds, Glastrier and Spectrier, maybe?
Mammon considered — sure, the sovereigns themselves were genuinely formidable, arguably qualifying as top-tier Legendaries in their own right. But against Complete Kyurem? Genuinely pointless.
Mammon had no way of stopping Evil Hoopa from summoning more Pokémon, but he wasn't especially worried — after all, Necrozma remained sealed and critically light-starved, unable to reach its Ultra Forme. Eternatus was far too energy-depleted to achieve Eternamax.
Aside from those two genuine threats — unless Evil Hoopa somehow managed to pull the Alpaca itself into this.
But even with its resentment running this deep right now, Evil Hoopa surely couldn't manage that — it simply lacked the capability.
And yet...
Viridian City.
Behind Viridian Gym, in a sprawling grassy enclosure — a space Giovanni typically used to keep his own core team and Gym-battle Pokémon.
A regular-Forme Groudon currently sat on the ground, watching the massive display screen Giovanni had specially set up for it, happily munching on Energy Cubes and the delicious Pokémon food Giovanni had specifically prepared.
Groudon was in genuinely excellent spirits. This was the life — why waste time sleeping when there was TV to watch?
"This Torkoal is genuinely useless — how does it even lose its Lopunny mate to a Sharpedo of all things? Genuinely embarrassing for us Fire-types."
But the longer it watched, the more Groudon felt this Torkoal in the show was simply pathetic, unable to hold back a genuine rant.
What a spineless coward!
But before Groudon could work itself up into a full outraged fury, a spatial ring materialized directly beneath it.
"What the hell? Hoopa?! NO! NOT THIS! I haven't even finished the show yet! Giovanni, SAVE ME!!"
Groudon's entire body was instantly swallowed by the spatial ring.
—
Kalos desert battlefield.
"Wait, hold on, it can pull THIS one in too?"
Mammon stared, genuinely astonished, at Evil Hoopa's newly-summoned reinforcement.
Primal Groudon!
☆☆☆
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