After Riley disappeared from their sight, Ange also bid farewell to Ms. Olympia, intending to set off for Terminus Cave immediately.
Ms. Olympia said, "Go ahead, you are always welcome to visit again anytime."
Ange smiled, "I will definitely come back when I have time."
With that, Ange took another box out of his backpack and handed it to Ms. Olympia, "This is for you."
This box was identical to the one Ange had previously given Riley, so Ms. Olympia instantly understood what it contained.
"I won't stand on ceremony!" Ms. Olympia generously accepted the box from Ange's hands.
What Ange had given Riley was red wine, while what he gave Ms. Olympia was fruit wine.
After saying goodbye to Ms. Olympia, Ange mounted Latios and set off toward Terminus Cave.
As for Baltoy, Ange left it behind at Ms. Olympia's place to continue its training.
Terminus Cave was very close to Anistar City, and at Latios's speed, Ange arrived at his destination in less than half an hour of flight.
Descending from Latios, Ange was greeted by an abandoned mine shaft.
That's right, Terminus Cave was originally a mine pit, later abandoned due to resource depletion.
Gradually, a large number of Pokémon gathered here, which in turn attracted many trainers to come on adventures.
Later on, rumors frequently spread by adventuring trainers claimed that monsters haunted the place, and slowly, Terminus Cave became a deserted wasteland.
Ange guessed that the monsters the trainers spoke of were likely Zygarde.
Since Zygarde had settled here, it naturally did not want anyone wandering around and disturbing it.
Ange looked around and found that it was completely quiet, nothing like a place inhabited by a large number of Pokémon.
"Let's go inside!" Ange said to Latios.
"Latios~~" Latios nodded, following closely behind Ange as they flew into the cave.
The rest of Ange's Pokémon had been recalled into their Poké Balls before departure, leaving only Latios to accompany him.
Upon entering the cave, Ange noticed that tracks built for transporting minerals back then still remained, though due to years of disrepair, most of the tracks had already rotted away.
As they walked, Ange suddenly heard the sounds of rocks shattering and falling from overhead. Looking up, he saw several Durant clinging to the cave ceiling and gnawing on minerals.
Noticing Ange looking over, the Durant were startled, hastily dropping the half-eaten minerals and scurrying away like the wind, quickly vanishing into the darkness.
With a clatter, the stones fell down, and Ange walked over to pick one up and take a look, realizing with surprise that it was a Hard Stone.
A Hard Stone was a held item that increased the power of the holder's Rock-type moves by 20%.
These Durant had quite a good diet! Ange couldn't help marveling that they actually treated Hard Stones as food, which explained why they were each as plump as little lambs and gleamed with a bright luster.
These Hard Stones must have formed after the mine was abandoned, otherwise the mine would not have been abandoned in the first place.
A few Hard Stone fragments had been chewed to pieces by the Durant and were clearly no longer usable.
Casually tossing the Hard Stone fragments onto the ground, Ange stood up and looked around.
Since the Durant fed here, the Hard Stones were highly likely found right in this spot.
Sure enough, after searching around, Ange found something unusual in a corner of the cave and pointed at it, telling Latios:
"Latios, Dragon Breath."
"Latios~~"
Latios nodded, opening its mouth to spew a column of green energy. With a loud roar, the rocks in that corner were blasted apart, revealing the Hard Stones hidden inside.
Ange exclaimed in surprise, "So many?"
The wall was completely packed with Hard Stones.
Ange wasn't greedy, though; he walked over, broke off three or four pieces, and then left.
Since these Hard Stones were the Durant's food, it would be too heartless of him to dig them all up.
Just as Ange left, a dozen or so Durant crawled out from the dark once more, embracing the Hard Stones to feast heartily.
The deeper they ventured into Terminus Cave, the dimmer the surrounding light became.
At that moment, Latios's body suddenly radiated a bright glow, illuminating the surroundings brightly.
Ange patted its neck and said, "Thanks for the big help, Latios!"
"Latios~~" Latios smiled and waved a claw at Ange, indicating it was nothing.
Soon, Ange and Latios reached a bend. The moment man and Pokémon rounded the corner, a patch of dark shadows suddenly materialized out of thin air and launched an attack on them.
"Ah~~~"
"Ah~~~"
...
Sharp shrieks echoed from the group of dark shadows, causing Ange and Latios's heads to throb with blinding pain.
It was Supersonic!
Squinting, Ange saw that the ones attacking them were actually a flock of Noibat.
Noibat, the Sound Wave Pokémon, Flying and Dragon type, capable of controlling sound waves of all frequencies, and whose released ultrasonic waves caused dizziness and disorientation.
Clearly, the Noibat had been startled by the bright light released by Latios.
Seeing that the Noibat were emotionally agitated, Ange had no choice but to instruct Latios, "Latios, Psychic!"
As Ange's words fell, blue light flashed in Latios's eyes. In an instant, the Noibat that had been frantically flapping their wings and flying around were frozen mid-air.
Latios applied a little pressure, and the Noibat instantly dropped to the ground like dumplings, the chaotic ultrasonic waves vanishing in an instant.
It's finally quiet! Ange rubbed his still-throbbing temples and let out a long sigh of relief.
Latios hadn't held back with heavy force, so the Noibat were only knocked unconscious and suffered no serious harm.
Ange fed them a bit of fruit juice and milk, and they quickly regained consciousness.
Ange apologized for startling the Noibat, and the Noibat apologized for their panicked attack.
The reason they had made such a fuss was because a group of people had also come here a while ago, doing who knows what inside Terminus Cave, creating a huge commotion and frequently generating blinding lights as well.
The Noibat disliked bright lights and had been thoroughly tormented by the disturbance.
Hearing what the Noibat said, a thought stirred in Ange's mind: could those people possibly be members of Team Flare?
Therefore, he asked, "Do you happen to know where those people are now?"
The Noibat shook their heads one after another; they hadn't heard strange noises echoing in the cave for quite some time, so perhaps they had already left.
Terminus Cave was huge, with tunnels extending in all directions. Aside from the tunnels left behind by the mine, there were passages dug out by Pokémon later on.
The Noibat only lived in a fixed area, so they had no knowledge of conditions in other places.
"I see..." Having failed to glean any useful information, Ange felt somewhat disappointed. "Then do you know anything about Zygarde?"
The Noibat looked at each other blankly upon hearing this.
Zygarde? They didn't know it.
As it turned out, Zygarde had always lived in the deepest recesses of Terminus Cave and almost never showed itself in front of other Pokémon, so most Pokémon in Terminus Cave were unaware of Zygarde's existence.
"Alright then, thank you!" Realizing he couldn't get any answers, Ange stopped wasting time and took out some food to distribute to the Noibat, "Here, this is for you!"
Happily accepting the food, the Noibat flapped their wings and vanished into the darkness.
Bidding farewell to the Noibat, Ange continued his advance deeper into Terminus Cave.
At the exact same time Ange was pressing deeper into Terminus Cave, a fierce battle was erupting in the deepest depths of the cavern.
The opposing sides in the battle were a Salamence and several individuals clad in red uniforms.
Had Ange been present right then, he would surely have recognized this Salamence as the one that had carried Z2 around in flight previously.
"Roar~~"
Salamence was furious at the moment, letting out an angry roar toward the people and Pokémon surrounding it below, and a surging pillar of torrents erupted from its jaws, turning the area below into a sea of raging flames.
"Houndoom!"
At that moment, the leader among them shouted, and a Houndoom leaped out. Opening its mouth to inhale, it swallowed all the raging flames straight into its stomach.
After absorbing the fire, Houndoom not only suffered no damage, but its entire body radiated a bright red glow.
Clearly, this Houndoom's Ability was Flash Fire, and Fire-type moves were incapable of dealing any damage to it.
Once the sea of flames vanished, two more Pokémon leaped out from somewhere, charging at Salamence from both left and right.
Both of these Pokémon were Fairy-type Pokémon that countered Salamence.
One was a Water and Fairy-type Azumarill, and the other a Normal and Fairy-type Wigglytuff.
Azumarill used Play Rough, while Wigglytuff used Dazzling Gleam.
Of course, Salamence was not so easily defeated.
Opening its maw wide, it bit down on the charging Azumarill with Thunder Fang.
Following that, it whipped its blood-red wings hard, sending countless Air Slashes flying outward to instantly overwhelm Wigglytuff.
Azumarill hit the ground and instantly lost the ability to battle, while Wigglytuff, owing to its higher level, managed to stagger back to its feet shakily.
Just as the two Fairy-type Pokémon were beaten back, two Ice-type Pokémon leaped out from the dark.
One was the pure Ice-type Glalie, and the other the Dark and Ice-type Weavile.
Clearly, these individuals had come fully prepared, bringing Pokémon specifically tailored to target Salamence.
As soon as the two Ice-type Pokémon appeared, howling wind and snow materialized out of thin air. Clearly, one of them had used Snowscape.
Snowscape caused the weather to turn to snow and boosted the defense of Ice-type Pokémon, proving extremely disadvantageous for the Dragon and Flying-type Salamence.
Accompanying the snowfall were colossal, ultra-thick icicles suspended directly above Salamence's head, which plummeted downward to smash into it.
It was Icicle Crash!
"Roar~~"
Salamence roared, and raging flames gushed from its mouth. In an instant, all the icicles melted into water vapor and vanished.
Taking advantage of Salamence dealing with the icicles, Weavile and Glalie charged toward it together.
Weavile swung its claws, which overflowed with a bone-chilling frost—Ice Punch; Glalie extended massive fangs from its jaws, similarly radiating a biting chill—Ice Fang.
However, they clearly underestimated Salamence's strength.
Lifting its slender tail, Salamence whipped Glalie with Dragon Tail, sending Glalie crashing hard into a rock wall and directly sharing Azumarill's fate.
Next, it raised its dragon claw and heavily struck Weavile.
Weavile let out a miserable shriek and flew backward. Although its level was slightly higher than Wigglytuff's, it was a glass cannon and thus immediately lost the ability to battle as well.
At that moment, faint wisps of pink mist emerged from Wigglytuff, instantly permeating the entire cave in the blink of an eye.
It was Misty Terrain.
Under Misty Terrain, damage dealt by Dragon-type moves was halved!
Not only that, the Fairy-type energy permeating the battlefield made it extremely uncomfortable for Dragon-type Pokémon.
Snow fell in the air while Misty Terrain misted below, making Salamence feel exceptionally agonizing and driving it into an even more agitated and furious state.
At that moment, the leader made his move once more. Rolling up his sleeve, he revealed a wristband on his arm, upon which a Key Stone was prominently embedded.
He said coldly, "Houndoom, Mega Evolve!"
"Awooo~"
Houndoom let out a sky-ward howl, and the next second, the Mega Stone hidden on its body resonated with the Key Stone on the leader's wrist, erupting with intense light.
Amidst the intense radiance, Houndoom's physique underwent a massive transformation, its height shooting up from under 1.5 meters directly to nearly 2 meters.
The Mega Evolution complete, Houndoom leaped forward, opening its mouth to spew a Dark Pulse attack toward Salamence.
However, Salamence completely disregarded Houndoom. Flapping its wings to effortlessly evade Houndoom's attack, it arrived beside Houndoom in the blink of an eye and raised its dragon claw to strike.
At that moment, a protective barrier materialized around Houndoom, blocking Salamence's attack as it landed easily on the ground.
Salamence attacked again, opening its mouth to sweep a Dragon Pulse across the area. Houndoom, however, moved with extreme speed, dodging the attack through nimbly coordinated leaps while opening its mouth to unleash a series of roars.
It was the Dark-type move Snarl.
Although the move's power wasn't high, it had the advantage of being difficult to block while also lowering the opponent's Special Attack.
Moreover, Houndoom's objective wasn't to attack Salamence anyway.
Under Houndoom's endless Snarls, Salamence grew frantic and vexed. Combined with the lingering Snowscape and Misty Terrain, it felt even more miserable.
While Salamence's attention was distracted, the two individuals hiding in the shadows made their move, each holding a rifle in their hands.
Aiming the gun barrels at Salamence, two piercing sounds split the air as a pair of needles pierced into the vulnerable spots on Salamence's wings, instantly injecting the unknown liquid within the syringes into Salamence's body.
Salamence's body was covered in thick, sturdy dragon scales, rendering ordinary needle tips unable to pierce through. Only the softest inner side of its wings served as its weak point.
Thus, the Azumarill, Wigglytuff, Weavile, and Glalie that had attacked earlier were never meant to defeat Salamence.
Though their types countered Salamence, the massive gap in power made it fundamentally impossible for them to defeat it.
Therefore, their true purpose was merely to harass Salamence.
Houndoom served the exact same purpose.
The medication took effect rapidly. Salamence suddenly felt its head spinning, and the next moment, it felt its body slip out of its control.
"Roar~~ Roar~~" It let out a series of roars, though its voice carried a sense of powerlessness.
Boom~~~
With a deafening crash, Salamence plummeted heavily from the air to the ground, its head tilting as it lost consciousness.
Despicable humans! Before losing consciousness, Salamence thought angrily.
Seeing this, the red-uniformed individuals collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
Just as they intended to step forward and capture Salamence, a blue-and-white beam suddenly shot out, instantly freezing the ground beneath their feet.
Everyone was startled out of their wits, instinctively retreating backward as they watched a Pokémon emerge from the shadows to stand before the unconscious Salamence.