In the Black World —
Ash wiped his face, which had been streaked with tears for some time, then looked at Vicious, still unconscious beside him. His gaze had turned fierce.
Red had vanished, but many mysteries remained unsolved: the origins of Rainbow Rocket, their specific combat capabilities and limitations.
Fortunately, Vicious was still alive… Ash hoped to extract as much information as possible from this man.
"Sabrina, can you use Hypnosis?"
"Mm." Sabrina nodded gently, asking Brock to remove Vicious's mask and open his eyes.
Then, Sabrina mobilized the Psychic power within her and began to hypnotize Vicious.
However, the next second, Sabrina grunted and stumbled backward as if struck hard.
Simultaneously, a trickle of blood emerged from her red eyes, delicate nose, cherry lips, and ears.
This was… Psychic backlash!
"Sabrina! Are you alright?!"
Ash's expression shifted drastically. He rushed over and caught Sabrina as she was about to collapse.
At this moment, Sabrina's mind was clearly affected. She didn't reply immediately.
After a few minutes, she slowly opened her bright purple eyes, showing a trace of apology.
"Sorry, Ash… That Vicious has a powerful Psychic Lock in his mind… I tried to break through it, but it backfired."
"That's not important right now. How are you feeling?"
Ash's first concern was Sabrina's condition.
Hearing this, Sabrina smiled and slowly shook her head.
"There's nothing wrong with me. Just a small backlash. I'll be fine after resting. But that Psychic Lock…"
"Rest first. I'll try. If I can't break through… we'll knock him unconscious and keep him with us until Mewtwo finishes his breakthrough. Then we can have him and Lugia try together!"
If Vicious could hear Ash's words, he would surely shout, Are you a devil?!
Who says things like knock him unconscious and carry him around?
It wasn't that Ash was being too cruel, but this man had too many tricks. He'd even had a way to escape at the end—for some reason, he'd hesitated, and that hesitation had allowed Ash and the others to capture him.
Ash gently moved Sabrina aside, propping her against a tree, and let Misty and the others look after her.
Suicune walked gracefully to Sabrina's side. A blue light slowly emanated from its body, the soft glow making Sabrina feel warm. Her depleted mental energy began recovering rapidly.
Trivia: The Legendary Beasts could all use Psychic-type moves to some extent, and they were quite proficient with mental power.
After Ash thanked Suicune, he walked over to Vicious and placed his palm over Vicious's head.
The vast Aura within him converted to Psychic power and surged inward.
He didn't know how to use Psychic for various skills—he'd never learned—but if it was just about breaking through a mental barrier… that required no skill at all. Just brute force!
It was a contest of sheer Psychic strength!
Of course, Ash's Psychic power was somewhat unique—it was converted from his Aura, unrelated to his own mental capacity.
As the Psychic power poured into Vicious's mind,
Ash perceived a black sphere composed entirely of mental energy.
This must be what Sabrina called the Psychic Lock.
Without breaking through this barrier, hypnotizing Vicious would be impossible.
So this was the preparation Rainbow Rocket had made…
What a terrifying organization!
Sighing inwardly, Ash began to assault the barrier.
Misty and the others watched nervously, afraid Ash might suffer the same backlash as Sabrina. But they couldn't stop him—someone had to do this, sooner or later.
If the world was destroyed… everything would be over.
For that reason, obtaining as much information as possible now was the optimal strategy.
Even if it meant injury, there was no choice…
Time passed. After a few minutes,
Ash's forehead was already dotted with beads of sweat.
Misty took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the sweat away, her expression pained.
Damn Rainbow Rocket… If not for them,
Ash wouldn't have to bear such an enormous burden. They could all just travel happily, challenge Leagues…
Now, a heavy responsibility rested on Ash's small shoulders.
He had no choice but to keep moving forward, because if he retreated, everyone he cherished would be lost—himself included…
The boy who dreamed of becoming a Pokémon Master was now forced to save countless parallel worlds… Destiny truly played cruel jokes.
Under everyone's tense gaze, Ash finally opened his eyes.
He breathed softly and showed everyone a sunny smile.
"Fortunately, I didn't fail."
Though there had been some difficulties, he'd broken through the Psychic Lock!
Now they just had to wait for Sabrina to recover some mental strength and perform the hypnosis.
"Ash, help me open his eyes."
Sabrina steadied herself on her red dress and stood slowly.
Ash wanted her to rest—Psychic backlash was no joke—but
Sabrina shook her head.
With Suicune's help, she had recovered considerably.
Simple hypnosis wouldn't consume much mental energy.
Ash couldn't win against Sabrina's determination, so he relented.
After Ash opened Vicious's eyes,
Sabrina's charming red eyes glowed blue once more.
A moment later, Sabrina closed her eyes and slowly exhaled.
"Phew—done. Ash, you can ask him whatever questions you want now. I've successfully hypnotized him and forced this guy awake."
Hearing this, Ash released Vicious and found that Vicious could sit up on his own without support.
Just as Sabrina said, she had forced Vicious awake. Dealing with this kind of villain, why would she be gentle and wait for him to wake naturally?
As for any damage to his mind… Haha, she had only two words for that: serves him right!
"What is your name?"
"Vicious."
"What is your position in Rainbow Rocket?"
"Senior Cadre."
Ash asked Vicious a few simple questions, and Vicious responded mechanically like a blunt instrument.
After confirming the hypnosis was working properly, Ash took a deep breath and began asking the questions that truly mattered.
"How many Legendary Pokémon does Rainbow Rocket currently possess?"
Seven parallel worlds combined… there were probably countless Legendaries, right?
"I don't know. Not every cadre can own a Legendary. Only senior cadres like me are given a Legendary comparable to Legendary-tier."
Ash frowned and continued.
"How many parallel worlds do you rule?"
"Nine."
Nine… Wait, it wasn't seven-in-one, it was nine-in-one?!
How could they fight a nine-in-one Arceus?
Never mind, he'd worry about that later.
"Since you rule nine parallel worlds, why do you possess so few Legendary Pokémon?"
Vicious's eyes were dull, emotionless words emerging from his mouth.
"Because quantity is useless. Our Rainbow Rocket cadres possess unique corrupted Legendaries, which can devour other Legendaries to grow."
"It's because of this that our leader, Boss Giovanni, possesses a Pokémon comparable to the Creation-tier, and the other deputy leaders each possess at least one Ultra Beast–level Pokémon."
"As for the remaining Legendary-tier beings… the number is probably over twenty. The number of Sub-Legendary-tier beings is relatively rare—around seven."
Over twenty Legendary-tier beings, seven Sub-Legendary-tier, all leaders possessing Ultra Beasts, and Giovanni with a Creation-tier being—Dark Mewtwo. The numbers truly sounded despairing.
But… it was still fewer than expected.
If they didn't count the Ultra Beasts, their world actually had more Legendary-tier beings than Rainbow Rocket, didn't they?
They shouldn't have so few Legendaries…
Ash asked the question weighing on his mind, and Vicious continued answering faithfully.
"Devouring Legendaries isn't 100% successful. Some Legendaries with strong wills and fierce resistance can even negatively affect our corrupted Legendaries."
"Moreover, once a Legendary is corrupted by us, we can only rely on devouring the same kind of Legendary to increase its strength."
"So after a long period of integration, these are the only corrupted Legendaries we can control."
Ash nodded in understanding.
In other words… Rainbow Rocket's corrupted Legendaries couldn't improve through training.
To grow stronger, they had to devour Legendaries of the same species.
But the devouring method wasn't guaranteed to succeed.
It was like enhancement equipment in games—successful enhancement naturally increased power; failure dropped the level…
This meant Rainbow Rocket's high-end combat power wasn't as overwhelmingly numerous as Ash had imagined.
This could be considered good news among the bad…
Assuming each villain organization deputy leader possessed at least ten Ultra Beasts, their world would need at least ten Ultra Beasts to match…
Unless the enemy came one by one to deliver themselves, even if his Pikachu could handle Dark Mewtwo and the God of Chaos… Forget it. No point in such dreams.
Sure enough, he still couldn't envision a way to victory!
Ash weakly pressed his forehead.
When he glanced at his palm, his expression froze… Then he realized something.
On his side… it seemed he had more combat power than just Pikachu!
If Pikachu could fuse the power of all Legendaries plus the Plates, then with Aura Fusion, he could possess combat power equal to Pikachu's!
Plus Arceus itself… three Creation-tier beings might not necessarily lose!!
Of course, the premise was that his Pikachu could truly combine the power of all Legendaries and the eighteen Plates as Red had said…
"How did you enter this world?"
Ash asked the next question.
According to Red, theoretically it would take about five years for outsiders to invade this world.
So how had Vicious gotten in?
"The organization expended enormous resources to open a small spatial channel, capable of transmitting only one person."
"Because of this, the channel the organization originally expected to open in two years will now take nearly five years."
The time originally left for them… was only two years?
Why would Rainbow Rocket do such a thing?
They already ruled nine parallel worlds. Only their world remained. Would Rainbow Rocket become impatient now?
"Why did Rainbow Rocket do this?"
"Because even if they successfully open the channel, the leaders aren't 100% certain of conquering the world."
"Boss Giovanni calls this world the Prime World among the ten parallel worlds—the most important world."
"Once they devour this world, the forces of justice will have no hope of recovery."
"Simultaneously, Boss Giovanni and the others gained the power to challenge Arceus's true form. The Arceus clones from the ten parallel worlds, having fallen and merged into one, were sufficient to challenge the original."
"Therefore, Boss Giovanni chose caution. He selected me, a trusted subordinate, to come to this world, replace the original Vicious, successfully conceal the truth, and be recognized by this world as a native."
"At the same time, Boss Giovanni gave me a Corruption Serum and a detection device to identify individuals bearing the world's power. Every time I kill such a person, the suppression of this world's rules weakens."
"If I could kill this world's Protagonist, this world would be severely damaged, essentially handing it to us on a silver platter."
Vicious spoke with a dull expression, his words chilling everyone to the bone.
So this was Rainbow Rocket's true purpose.
Vicious was an undercover agent, equipped with means to detect those carrying the world's power.
If not for the chance encounter between Ash and Red here,
Rainbow Rocket's plan might very well have succeeded!
Also… in the Prime World, what was this "clone of Arceus" they mentioned?
The clones of Arceus across ten parallel worlds…
Were they saying the Arceus here was merely a clone of the true Arceus?
A clone possessed Creation-tier strength—how powerful must the true body be?
And with Rainbow Rocket having achieved this much, would Arceus's true form truly do nothing?
Ash felt his head might explode.
Could he convert the information in Vicious's mind into data and store it in his Pokédex?
With so many words, who could remember it all?!
But… there was finally good news.
Because their world was the Prime World, just as Red had said, when invaders came, their strength would be suppressed. Even if the spatial channel fully opened, suppression likely wouldn't disappear entirely. Otherwise, with their power, simply opening the channel and pushing forward at 3.4 force would guarantee effortless victory.
But they couldn't be blindly optimistic.
Ash guessed that Giovanni, Rainbow Rocket's boss, might be cautious to the point of paranoia.
Even with a nine-to-one winning ratio, he didn't want to take risks. So he'd rather delay three years, send Vicious in to quietly dismantle the world's barriers from within. Once their world no longer suppressed Rainbow Rocket's synthetic Pokémon—the God of Chaos—they would invade without hesitation!
Fortunately… Fortunately, this world had the variable called Red. Otherwise, the consequences would be truly unimaginable!
…
[Lance]: Arceus… is just a clone? Holy—how powerful must the true form be?!
[Professor Oak]: It seems Rainbow Rocket's research on parallel spacetime has reached an extremely advanced level. They've even concluded that the Arceus in parallel worlds are merely clones.
[Flint]: I never expected our world's rules to be so solid! The suppression of outsiders made even Rainbow Rocket, rulers of nine parallel worlds, dare not attack recklessly. They had to resort to underhanded tactics.
[Cynthia]: I'm not so sure… Perhaps Giovanni was simply overly cautious, choosing the safest path.
[Cynthia]: In the mind of Rainbow Rocket's Giovanni, even if we had a 10% chance of victory, he'd consider that too advantageous for us. So he chose the safest method: infiltration from within!
[Cynthia]: In fact, if not for Red's appearance, judging by the original world's trajectory—that is, the White World—Ash would never have been able to compete with Vicious from another world!
[Cynthia]: By then… our world's fall would have been all but certain!
Red… was the most critical variable in the Black World.
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