A rich aroma drifted through the mountain stream. A big-mouthed seagull that was eating a fish blinked and looked up toward the smoke in the sky.
'What's that?'
'Why does it keep getting more and more fragrant!'
A little while ago it had smelled the scent of barbecue, but didn't think much of it.
After all, although there are usually few people here, every year when the League tournament starts more trainers come by.
Thinking of those trainers' water Pokémon, the big-mouthed seagull felt that it wasn't worth flying over and getting beaten up just for a meal.
But today seemed different.
Amid that rich aroma, the seagull keenly picked up a very special trace of energy.
It seemed that if it ate that food, its strength might get a fairly large boost.
Should it try to find a way to get some?
The big-mouthed seagull ruffled its wings against its head, feeling conflicted.
"Skree!", Suddenly a shriek sounded in the sky.
A blue-bodied Pokémon with a big beak dove down from the sky, heading straight for the source of the scent.
This was the seagull's neighbor, an ancient-moon bird.
Seeing the ancient-moon bird move, the seagull's eyes lit up. It spread its wings and flew into the sky, following from afar.
The seagull remembered clearly that ancient-moon birds are called "swallowers", their minds almost only contain the concepts of eating and fighting.
When they encounter trainers cooking in the wild, those kinds of Pokémon will always rush up without hesitation to grab the food.
In front of food, those Pokémon don't care how strong the trainer cooking it is.
More importantly, the seagull remembered clearly that this ancient-moon bird couldn't beat it.
The seagull figured it out: if the ancient-moon bird managed to grab the food, it would snatch half of it from the bird's beak.
If the ancient-moon bird got beaten, it would just run away.
Either way, it wouldn't lose out, right?
———
"Wow, this smells so good!"
After Axel sprinkled on the seasoning, Cynthia couldn't help twitching her nose. She felt Axel had been holding out on her when he cooked before.
Last time it hadn't tasted this good.
"Hey, I'm a Champion, not some big glutton, okay?"
Axel looked at Cynthia with an amused, exasperated expression.
It was hard to imagine the dignified Cynthia drooling over skewers like this.
Even if the Breeder Master tag were maxed out, it shouldn't be this exaggerated, right?
Axel said it, but his body was honest, he handed Cynthia a few skewers of orange-juice-marinated pork belly.
"Here, eat this first. You'll probably be able to stand up afterward."
"Okay!", Cynthia licked her lips, didn't bother with ceremony, and bit in.
"Ow ow ow, it's hot~ so hot, hiss~ bubbling!"
"Eat slower... otherwise your leg won't heal and you'll burn your mouth."
Axel handed Cynthia a bottle of juice, then turned to examine the skewers he'd made with the Destruction Feathers.
Earlier he had ground the Destruction Feathers and mixed them into a sauce with other breeding materials.
He had expected it to be some dark dish, but the food turned out to have color, aroma, and flavor all intact.
However, this stuff didn't look very suitable for humans to eat.
Yveltal's feathers... ordinary people probably still couldn't digest them.
"Garchomp, Lucario, Pheromosa, you three eat first," Axel thought for a moment and decided to let those three eat first.
He didn't plan to give the Destruction Feathers' material to his other Pokémon.
His Pokémon had already been developing along their own paths, using the Destruction Feathers might instead negatively affect them.
Some simply weren't a good fit or already had a planned breeding route.
Like General Archaludon, Axel intended to develop it toward time-based strength.
Anyway, Dialga is a steel dragon and so is that bridge-dragon, they could still borrow each other's tags.
Who says General can't master time's power?
With a bit of training, maybe Gyarados could even inherit Palkia's power.
But that would require further research. After all, that guy doesn't even have Dragon typing yet.
In short, one thing was certain: Axel wouldn't let the Pokémon who had followed him from the start fall behind easily.
To Axel, that was the meaning of being a trainer.
"ROAR!", Seeing Axel hand over the skewers, Lucario and Garchomp's eyes lit up.
When they were in Aurient before, they had experienced Axel's breeder cuisine.
That stuff was real. It could substitute for long periods of hard training.
After some time away, the energy contained in these foods now was even stronger than before.
The two Pokémon took the food without hesitation and began chewing heartily.
Only Pheromosa showed a hint of disdain in its big eyes.
'These skewers... look so dirty, all covered in black sauce.'
'Cake is tastier~'
Not long after, with a few skewers gone, a flash of black light suddenly erupted from Lucario's body.
A faint aura of destruction flickered over him, and Lucario's muscles noticeably tightened.
Garchomp didn't show as obvious a change, but it was still apparent, a cold gleam flowed from Garchomp's teeth.
Just a few skewers, with the Destruction Feather sauce on them, and two Champion-level Pokémon both received boosts.
"Axel, Lucario leveled up!", Cynthia said excitedly, holding the Pokédex and standing despite her discomfort.
"That's normal," Axel said with a smile.
Lucario had just gone through extremely intense battles under Dialga's hands; with the Destruction Feathers' catalyst, it would be strange if he didn't level up.
"You can eat a bit more. Once your bodies adapt to the Destruction power, the next boost probably won't be as big."
"ROAR!"
Garchomp and Lucario nodded crazily, squatting by the grill. Their hands moved so fast they left afterimages as they shoveled the Destruction-Feather sauce into their mouths and chewed greedily.
"Pheromosa, wait a bit, I'll make you a Destruction-Feather cupcake."
"Oh~"
To Axel's surprise, Pheromosa shook its head, ran to the other side of the grill, and started eating heartily.
At the same time, Axel sensed Pheromosa's thoughts.
'The owner has worked hard to obtain this stuff, it can't all be given to others!"
"This guy's actually learning to look after himself...", Axel couldn't help but chuckle and continued acting as the grill master.
He had more than these few Pokémon to feed; many were still waiting to eat.
Half an hour later, Pheromosa and two other Pokémon had finished all the Destruction-Feather sauce.
The next moment, both Pheromosa and Lucario erupted with a towering pillar of light.
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