When he saw Ho-Oh, Zygarde once again used Extreme Speed, planning to get close to Ho-Oh and ask what exactly had happened to Aurient.
Zygarde still had a lot of faith in Ho-Oh, who was a symbol of good fortune for mankind.
Even if there were only Ho-Oh and himself left among all the legendary beasts in the world, and one of them was a bad guy, Zygarde would still feel that Ho-Oh was the good one.
That was reputation.
Suddenly, a huge cross-shaped crack appeared in midair. A shrill roar came through the crack and the terrifying aura of destruction swept across the whole of the former Deadwood Forest in an instant.
Chaotic spatial currents raged. Yellow, semi-transparent Reverse Power surged out from within, carrying the strength to destroy, as if an entire broken world was smashing toward Aurient.
Zygarde froze on the spot and looked warily at that crack in space.
'Is Giratina about to charge out?'
'No, that is not Giratina.'
He could vaguely see a huge red dragon's phantom inside, and that red dragon was releasing a terrifying aura.
And the Reverse World where Giratina hid looked like a void of nothingness. At least within the visible range of this crack, Zygarde couldn't see much energy at all.
Strange, ominous.
While Zygarde was staring at Eternatus, Axel also noticed Zygarde's body.
The third god of the Kalos region, the symbol of order, extremely skilled at using the power of auras, someone who could easily suppress Yveltal by himself.
He had heard from Professor Oak that Diao Chan's Gardevoir's god-ascending process had been interrupted by this guy.
He couldn't help looking at Zygarde, wanting to see what this guy's goal was.
No way he came to cause trouble for him, right?
"ROAR!"
Feeling Axel's thoughts, Eternatus twisted its huge head around, forcefully squeezed partway out of the crack in space, and stared straight at Zygarde with glowing, fierce eyes, not showing even a hint of fear.
Feeling the erupting destructive power coming from Eternatus, Zygarde instinctively backed away and returned to Rayquaza's side.
He clearly sensed that this enormous red dragon was fundamentally different from Giratina and had the ability to destroy an entire region.
He believed that when facing a matter of right versus wrong, Rayquaza would stand with him.
["Rayquaza, let's make a move."]
["Sure."]
Hearing Rayquaza's reply, Zygarde showed a rare smile at the corner of his mouth. It seemed this guy wasn't totally corrupted, most likely just bewitched.
But right after that, Zygarde felt a pain at the back of his head. He looked at Rayquaza in shock.
["Why did you hit me?"]
Rayquaza also looked at Zygarde in shock, ["You clearly said to make a move, so why aren't you hitting me?"]
Zygarde: "..."
["Hit that monster overflowing with destruction. Why are you hitting me?"]
Rayquaza pouted, ["You just have something against my Pokémon, don't you? Little Eternatus is such a good kid, how could you even lift a hand against him?"]
Zygarde froze again. His mind went numb and he felt dizzy.
Right now, he really wanted to press a big hand against Rayquaza's forehead and check if this guy was running a fever.
Facing something that terrifying, Rayquaza actually said the words "can't bring myself to hit him."
"Easy there, little guy," Somehow, Eternatus's huge head was already beside Zygarde.
Axel soothed Eternatus a bit and looked at Zygarde with curiosity.
"Hello. Let me introduce myself. I'm their trainer. What did you come here for today?"
["Their?"], Zygarde instantly caught the key information in Axel's words. All the Pokémon here were actually raised by Axel.
He instinctively stepped back, afraid that the next second a Poké Ball would smack him on the forehead.
If Giratina failed to deal with him and he ended up getting caught instead, that would be embarrassing.
["I'm just here to catch Giratina,"] Zygarde decisively hid the part about wanting to take Gardevoir away, afraid he would be smashed to bits.
"Really?", Axel asked back, feeling that what Zygarde said didn't match history at all.
"You didn't come to catch my Gardevoir, did you?"
["How could that be!"], Zygarde panicked. While brushing off Axel's suspicion, he quietly gathered Extreme Speed and shot straight into the sky without hesitation.
Eternatus tried to squeeze out of the crack to chase him, but Axel raised a hand to stop him.
In any world, it was impossible to kill these gods who carried important divine duties.
Axel just wanted to find a new training path for Gardevoir and do some traveling. He never intended to seek death and start a fight with Arceus.
———
After the battle ended, Axel recalled all his Pokémon and returned to Xiapi City with the two Gardevoirs.
After another round of welcomes, Axel rubbed his stiff face hard and sat on Diao Chan's carriage.
"Whew, the people of Xiapi City are really enthusiastic."
"That's only toward you. If that Cao thief entered the city, someone might risk being killed just to throw a rotten egg at him."
Diao Chan looked at Axel with shining eyes. Even seeing it with her own eyes, she still found it hard to imagine that someone could raise so many gods on his own.
Even that god called Order was scared into fleeing without a fight by Axel.
Most likely after this battle, Xiapi City would become a place blessed by the gods and would never again be ravaged by war.
"What are your plans next?", Diao Chan waved at the people outside through the window, but her attention was on Axel and her heart was nervous.
Judging by her past experiences, Axel should now be telling her she would have to serve him from here on out.
It wasn't strange that Diao Chan would think this way. Her life since childhood had always been like that.
Whenever a powerful man appeared, he would try to take her away by any means.
If it weren't for Gardevoir, Diao Chan even felt she would have long become someone's plaything.
"Plans?", Axel froze when Diao Chan asked this.
He suddenly remembered that his real purpose in coming here was traveling and battling with Diao Chan's Gardevoir.
Constant interruptions from Cao's army and Zygarde had made him think he was playing a live-action war simulator.
He needed to hurry and get back on track.
Even though Gardevoir already had the Mind Sync entry, no one would ever dislike having stronger perception.
In these past days, Axel also discovered that the amount of dog food needed to level up entries wasn't fixed.
The deeper the perception of the entry, the less dog food it would take to level up.
Which meant every battle Gardevoir fought was basically helping Axel reduce the cost of upgrading entries.
In the dream world, Axel always had to stand there stupidly.
But in the real world, he could lie on a lounge chair eating grapes and watching shows, with a little Gible or Boss Cat in his arms.
Anyone in his place would want to fight a few more battles outside.
Thinking this, Axel seriously turned around and grabbed Diao Chan's arm.
"In the next few days, you and Gardevoir might have to put up with some hardship."
Diao Chan: "Huh?"
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