"No wonder Phoebe said it was something peculiar. Looking at it now, it should be this increasingly dense Ghost-type and Dark-type energy, right?"
After this alternate space swallowed them, Cain also perceived the changes in energy within the space.
His psychic power was being frantically suppressed by the energy surrounding this space. Everywhere there was Ghost-type and Dark-type energy, and as the space closed, those energies became denser and denser.
Cain frowned. Although his psychic power would be suppressed, the members of the Sacred Church on the other side should also be suppressed. Moreover, one of their most important strengths was precisely psychic power. That loss of power should be even greater and more unfavorable for them.
"Are you surprised? Do you feel that this place suppresses your psychic power a lot? HAHAHAHA!" Will burst into laughter.
Hearing this, Cain frowned.
Immediately afterward, he saw Will raise his hand. The originally dense psychic energy in his hand, pink in color, slowly began to transform into a dark-black color, seeming cold and strange.
Fwoosh!
Fwoosh!
At the same time, the other members of the Sacred Church, including Irene, also raised a mass of black energy in their hands.
"This is... Cain, this looks like my Ghost Power," Phoebe said, looking at the masses of energy in those individuals' hands, unable to help exclaiming.
But as soon as she finished speaking, Phoebe immediately contradicted herself: "No, no. This is still somewhat different from my Ghost Power. I feel... I feel that it has greater pressure than my Ghost Power."
Cain nodded. He had also perceived it.
"Did you think that, since we knew you would come here, we would not have prepared anything? This was prepared especially for you!" Will said again with a sinister smile.
Immediately afterward, the energy in the hands of Will and the others rose rapidly, intertwining with each other and outlining an enormous net.
Then that net was seen suddenly tightening, expelling everyone around except Cain.
"Cain!!"
"Champion Cain!!"
"Lord Cain!"
"..."
Everyone's voices disappeared outside the spatial crack!
Only Cain remained!
At the same time, that net wrapped firmly around Cain.
"Is this the trap you prepared for me?" Cain observed their movements, but he was not too worried. Even if these people had expelled Steven and the others, and although they had suppressed his psychic power, with their strength, they did not represent too great a threat to him.
"Hmph! It's you! If it were not for you, our Sacred Church would never have been forced to disband! If the Sacred Church had not disbanded, how would we have ended up running everywhere like homeless dogs being chased and beaten!" Will shouted hysterically. His originally calm appearance had completely disappeared.
From Will's point of view, it had taken him great effort to find such a huge backing as the Sacred Church. Moreover, he had been valued by the bishop of the Sacred Church, and with a large amount of resources tilted toward him, his speed of improvement in strength had increased enormously, allowing him to see the opportunity to try to reach the Master level in his lifetime.
And if the plan of the bishop of the Sacred Church, Kael, had succeeded, Will felt that perhaps Kael, by controlling Giratina, the Dragon of the Underworld, really could have replaced the League and become the ruler of this world.
By then, as one of the two most valued messengers of the Sacred Church, his future strength perhaps could have been pushed to the limit.
But all of that, those beautiful wishes and expectations, turned into bubbles for Will, even into a nightmare.
Will and Irene had followed Kael's orders at that time, leading part of the Sacred Church's members to harass different regions, making it so those regions could not be distracted by Bishop Kael's true objective.
But when their interference was halfway through, those members of the League suddenly received some news and immediately stopped attaching so much importance to them, sending most of the people toward Mt. Silver as reinforcements.
At that time, Will did not understand the situation very well, and thought there had merely been a change in the plan.
Only afterward did he receive news: it was all because Cain, the Sandstorm Elite Four of the Hoenn region, dealt with Marcus, the high executive of the Sacred Church, at the greatest speed, and from his mouth obtained the true objective of the Sacred Church's bishop.
It was also he who first went to help the League headquarters on Mt. Silver, and it was he who publicly sent a request for help to the entire Pokémon League.
Because of that, from Will's point of view, everything was Cain's fault!
"It was all because of your forced intervention that the bishop's plan fell one step short of success! And precisely because you occupied such great merit, you became the Champion of the Hoenn region in one go! You are nothing more than someone with good luck! If I had also had that luck..."
Will looked at Cain while murmuring.
Although his voice was not loud, Cain heard it very clearly.
This person's last hope had been destroyed, so he seemed somewhat hysterical. He even began to abandon himself, attributing the entire origin of his misfortunes to Cain.
But the reality was that Kael's failure did not have too much to do with Cain. His failure was simply because he himself did not understand the situation well and acted rashly against Giratina, which ended with both him and Giratina being gravely injured.
Even if Cain had not arrived at that time, Kael's failure would have been inevitable.
The only difference would have been whether he failed sooner or later.
While Will was venting his resentment there, a voice echoed in Cain's heart. It came from Darkrai, who was inside his shadow.
"I feel that in the deepest part of this space, there is something calling me. It is also precisely because of that object that these people's psychic power has undergone this change."
Hearing Darkrai's words, Cain once again looked at that black net wrapped around him, as well as the aura fluctuations of the energy in those people's hands.
(End of chapter)