A thought arose in Cain. He suddenly remembered that there was something very similar to this stone, only before, he had always considered it a legend. He had not expected that a day would truly come when he could see it.
"The... Nightmare God Stone?" Cain murmured. He still was not sure whether such a thing really existed in this world.
Seeing that Darkrai seemed less and less able to restrain himself, Cain frowned.
"Darkrai, endure it a little."
Hearing Cain's words, Darkrai managed with great effort to restrain his gaze and nodded.
Not long afterward, Irene arrived behind Cain together with some remnants of the Sacred Church, and all of them knelt on one knee.
"Lord Cain!"
At first, of course, Cain did not trust Irene's surrender. So, although he could have used Irene to find and resolve Will and the others, he did not do so.
But when he arrived this time at Pacifidlog Town, Cain received the message Irene had left him outside. Because of that, he chose to trust her once and give her a chance.
After all, even without her, Cain had confidence he could resolve everyone present here.
"Mm, rise," Cain nodded slowly. "Tell me, where did you find this stone?"
"Will found it. I do not know exactly where he found it. But as long as a psychic holds this stone in their hand, their psychic power can change. However, it is only a temporary change. After some time, it returns to normal," Irene said respectfully.
"For safety, endure it a little and do not resist."
As he spoke, Cain extended his right hand, wrapped in psychic power, and placed it directly on Irene's forehead.
Irene watched Cain's palm come closer and closer. As a woman, by instinct, she wanted to use psychic power to resist, but reason told her she could not do so.
So she abandoned all resistance and allowed Cain to plant a psychic seed of complete control in her mind.
From that moment on, Irene became Cain's subordinate. In the future, she would very likely also become the Executive of Team Heaven's psychic unit in the Hoenn region, one of Team Heaven's administrators.
After planting the psychic seed, Cain knew she had not lied. Only Will knew the origin of this stone. However, Cain thought that even if Will knew, he would not tell him.
Cain nodded toward Darkrai.
Seeing that Cain finally allowed him to touch that black stone, Darkrai did not hesitate at all and extended his hand to directly grab it.
Fwoosh!
A large amount of black energy, resembling flames, rose from Darkrai's body, as if wrapping him completely in fire.
"DARKRAI!!"
Darkrai screamed frantically.
Cain's face changed abruptly, and he exclaimed, "Darkrai!"
But before he could approach, that flame-like energy produced brutal corrosion on him. Even wrapped in psychic power, he could not get close.
However, what reassured Cain slightly was that Darkrai stopped after the first roar of pain.
When removing the Ghost-type energy from his body, Darkrai had never shown so much suffering. This proved that, as soon as he came into contact this time, he could not help screaming in pain.
But when Darkrai's hands involuntarily opened, the black stone in them had already disappeared completely.
Little by little, Darkrai stabilized.
However, what looked like black flame over his body became more and more intense.
Although, speaking of it, as the flames gradually burned, the Ghost-type energy in Darkrai's body slowly disappeared.
After burning away the Ghost-type energy, in the end, only Dark-type energy remained.
Once the Ghost-type energy was completely eliminated, Darkrai would be able to recover his strength to its peak point.
Cain finally managed to calm down, but suddenly, his eyes opened again.
It was not because of the changes in Darkrai's energy, nor because of changes in his level, but because his aura was getting closer and closer to Tyranitar's.
The aura of the qualification of a Legendary Pokémon!
The Tyranitar from back then, the recent Magearna... the current Cain was already very familiar with this kind of energy fluctuation.
The aura of a true Legendary Pokémon!
Was his Darkrai going to become an authentic Legendary Pokémon?
Become the true God of Nightmares!
From Darkrai's mouth and from Phoebe's grandfather back then, Cain had learned information about the God of Nightmares. Until now, among the Legendary Pokémon of the Darkrai species, a true Legendary Pokémon had still not appeared.
In other words, the divine position that belonged to them had remained vacant until today.
Then, his Darkrai definitely had an opportunity!
The aura of a true Legendary Pokémon became denser and denser. This pressure was even much greater than when Magearna's divine position descended.
But when this aura rose to its peak, it stopped abruptly, then dropped sharply, and finally slowly returned to calm. In the end, only a trace of residual aura remained, just like Tyranitar.
Irene and the others, who were behind Cain, stared blankly at Darkrai.
Although they did not know what had just happened, the aura from a moment ago definitely had not been false. It was far too terrifying!
It was even more oppressive than the aura of Kael's Pokémon back then!
In that instant, Irene suddenly felt that following Cain perhaps was not a bad thing either.
Before, when she contacted Cain, she only did it because she had no other choice. She simply wanted to leave herself an escape route.
But now the feeling was different.
At least, this strength could definitely protect them. Moreover, his own forces were not small either. In the Hoenn region, he dominated both the white side and the black side!
There was almost no one capable of influencing him in the Hoenn region.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that he covered the sky with one hand and hell with the other.
His strength also made Irene and the others feel a distance impossible to cross.
She felt somewhat fortunate that she had not tried, like Will, to smash an egg against a stone.
(End of chapter)