Chapter 143: I, Kyogre, Am the Strongest, So There!!
Burn — the status condition that hard-counters physical-attacking powerhouses. And why exactly was Mega Rayquaza so dominant in the first place?
Precisely because the moment a Rayquaza Mega Evolves, its dual offenses become absolutely top-tier!
Physical or special, it made no difference — Mega Rayquaza could look down its nose at nearly every Pokémon in the world.
That overwhelming offensive pressure was Mega Rayquaza's pride and joy.
But once burned, while its physical attacks might still hit hard, they would never again carry that explosive, world-crushing force.
True, the black Rayquaza's special attacks were still formidable — but its threat level had dropped enormously.
Raw special power alone was a far cry from the dreaded "physical-and-special double major."
"RRROAAAR!!"
The black Rayquaza bellowed in fury. These little pests!
The flames of the burn scattered, and a monstrous tornado came howling out of the black Rayquaza's maw.
A Flying-type tempest!
The black Rayquaza understood its own condition, so it switched up its angle of attack.
"Protect!"
Dark Mewtwo threw up a Protect barrier instantly.
The roaring tornado slammed against Dark Mewtwo's Protect, the violent impact making the barrier shudder again and again until it looked ready to shatter at any second.
But Protect held.
"Blizzard!"
Deoxys pressed its palms together, ice-blue energy flaring to life.
But in the next instant — a black dragon-shaped streak came tearing in like lightning and crashed full-force into Deoxys.
Deoxys was sent flying, smashing into the gutted skeleton of a half-collapsed building.
Extreme Speed!
The black Rayquaza whipped its head around, pure dragon-light condensing in its mouth.
Dark Mewtwo immediately unfurled a deep-purple psychic barrier — the black Rayquaza was simply too fast; there was no time to dodge.
BOOM!
The Dragon Pulse lanced out and hammered into Dark Mewtwo's psychic barrier, blasting both Mewtwo and the barrier backward.
Watching both Deoxys and Dark Mewtwo get launched in the span of a few seconds, Mammon raised an eyebrow.
"Ho-Oh — Brave Bird!"
"Kyieee~!"
That rainbow radiance was as gorgeous as ever. Ho-Oh, having recovered a good chunk of its strength, took to the air once more.
Its life force was simply absurd, and that prismatic flame had healing properties too — so the Ho-Oh that had been beaten down to a sorry state by Mega Rayquaza was airborne again.
Wreathed in the magnificent blue fire of the sacred bird, Ho-Oh spread its wings and dove at the black Rayquaza, momentum soaring.
And yet…
The black Rayquaza simply turned its head and loosed another Dragon Pulse, the draconic wave smashing dead-center into the Brave-Bird-charging Ho-Oh.
A thunderous crack — and the sacred blue flame around Ho-Oh was instantly blown to pieces by the Dragon Pulse, the bird itself sent tumbling away in the blast.
Mammon clicked his tongue. This bird couldn't stay cool for one single second.
"RRROAAAR!!!"
The black Rayquaza climbed high and threw back its head in a savage howl, gazing down upon the ruined city below and all the defeated foes scattered across it.
Its sleek black coils wound and spiraled through the air, ringed in gorgeous golden light, the sheer weight of its draconic majesty staggering to behold!
So what if it was burned?
It was still the invincible Rayquaza!!
Off in the distance, the other Rayquaza's eyes were practically glowing. Dad! SO COOL!!
"Rayquaza, Lord of the Skies…"
Cynthia stared at the black Rayquaza — which had fought for this long and yet had taken almost no damage — and felt her heart sink.
Too strong. It was just too strong!
"Is there even a single Pokémon left in this world that could defeat this shiny Rayquaza?" Wallace marveled, his voice thin with disbelief.
What a monster.
Primal Kyogre, Dark Mewtwo, Deoxys, and Ho-Oh rushing in to join the fight — four legendary Pokémon, all told.
And even with Mammon directing them, they'd been all but run straight through by this one black Rayquaza!
Aside from a single burn, this whole drawn-out battle had produced no other results to speak of.
Yet even burned, the black Rayquaza's sheer dominance was that terrifying.
Steven and the others stood silent. Who could say?
Nemona's expression was thrilled, though she fought to suppress it — this black Rayquaza was so overwhelmingly, arrogantly magnificent that it made her want to leap into the sky herself!
Cynthia found herself wondering whether the Palkia of her own region's myths could even stand as a match for this black Rayquaza.
Even Giovanni had fallen into deep thought. Back when he'd launched the Mewtwo project, his whole aim had been to harness Mewtwo's absolute power to rake in more money and dominate the world…
But now, watching Dark Mewtwo get pinned down and pummeled by this black Rayquaza, it suddenly struck him that the world really was, just as Mammon had said, hiding far too many mysteries.
"It never once occurred to me that these legendary Pokémon could possess this kind of power."
Leon couldn't help feeling a flicker of relief that his own Galar region had no legends quite this unrestrained.
Because if it did — watching them tear through human cities like this — there'd be nothing anyone could do.
"It seems even Mammon has no way to defeat this black Rayquaza."
Steven murmured the words, and his heart held both regret and a sliver of relief.
He grieved that Larousse City had ultimately been reduced to rubble. The city's population wasn't large, but people lived here. Failing to protect their homes weighed on Steven, gnawing at him.
But what gave him relief was this: powerful as Mammon was, he too had a limit!
And if that was true — then they weren't completely without a chance.
Because if even this black Rayquaza couldn't beat Mammon, then Steven genuinely had no idea how anyone was supposed to.
"Uuuuun~!"
But at that very moment, a low, drawn-out cry — vast and ancient, like the call of some prehistoric behemoth — echoed across the sky.
Primal Kyogre!
"It's done."
Mammon's mouth curled into a grin as he looked at Primal Kyogre, whose presence had swelled by no small margin.
Six rounds of Calm Mind — complete!
Primal Kyogre's golden beast-eyes were noble and aloof. Feeling the colossal power now surging within its body, it could barely contain the urge to unleash it all.
It felt — terrifyingly strong right now!
Damn, so all it had to do was buff up and it could reach this level?
Only now did Primal Kyogre realize just how dumb it had been before. If it had thought a little faster back in the day — if it had stacked some Calm Mind before picking a fight with that smelly lizard — couldn't it have strung the smelly lizard up and beaten it senseless?
The black Rayquaza's draconic eyes narrowed slightly as it regarded the now formidably imposing Primal Kyogre.
Done buffing, then? But this fat-headed fish was looking a little full of itself now.
The black Rayquaza sensed the eager, itching aggression radiating off Primal Kyogre, and its gaze turned cold.
"Kyogre — Blizzard!"
Mammon gave the order to Primal Kyogre directly.
"Uuuuun~!"
Primal Kyogre's cry rolled endlessly across the heavens, and a sky-blotting storm of ice and snow came surging out, sweeping toward the black Rayquaza.
An Ice-type Blizzard!
The black Rayquaza roared in answer, its raging tornado rising to meet the Blizzard — a Flying-type tempest!
BOOM!
Twister and snowstorm collided violently in midair, the white tempest and the ice-blue Blizzard slamming against each other in a frenzy.
The entire sky changed color, gale-force winds shrieking across heaven and earth.
Even Steven and the others, far from the clash, felt their footing give out, nearly blown off their feet!
Primal Kyogre poured everything it had into the Blizzard — and yet, even so, it could only barely hold the black Rayquaza's tempest in check, unable to break through.
Dammit! How is this black charcoal-briquette of a Rayquaza this strong?!
Primal Kyogre was utterly shaken. It could clearly feel the change the buffing had wrought — an enormous boost!
And yet even buffed, it could only just barely edge out a Rayquaza that hadn't buffed at all — was this some kind of joke?!
What's more, as the black Rayquaza's rage mounted and it madly wrung out the power inside it, the tempest crept back into a dead-even deadlock with the Blizzard.
"Ho-Oh! Mewtwo! Use Helping Hand on Kyogre!"
Mammon's grin widened. He'd seen this coming!
Ho-Oh and Dark Mewtwo appeared behind Primal Kyogre, a mysterious surge of energy flowing into its body.
A Normal-type Helping Hand!
As for why there was no Helping Hand from Deoxys — Deoxys didn't know the move, and besides, Deoxys was the most badly hurt of the lot. After all, it had been the black Rayquaza's guest of honor this whole fight.
Under Ho-Oh and Dark Mewtwo's Helping Hand, Primal Kyogre suddenly felt its whole body brimming with power, the Blizzard's momentum surging up a massive notch and crushing straight over the tempest!
Impossible!!!
The black Rayquaza's draconic eyes shrank to pinpricks, staring in disbelief at the incoming Blizzard — how could this be?!
It had actually lost a head-on clash! It was supposed to be the invincible Rayquaza!
The howling snowstorm swept onward and swallowed the black Rayquaza whole — a dragon now questioning the very meaning of its existence.
The terrifying Blizzard passed like a hurricane, and even the city below was wrapped in blinding white, the temperature in the air plummeting wildly.
The sheer power of that Blizzard was staggering.
The black Rayquaza's entire body was savaged by ice and snow, thick frost crystallizing across it, brutal cold and pain rolling through it in waves until its body plummeted out of its control and slammed heavily into the frost-coated earth.
It was the first time the black Rayquaza had been knocked out of the sky!
"Father!!"
Watching from afar, the wild Rayquaza startled, forcing down the discomfort of the cold and rushing on Extreme Speed toward where the black Rayquaza had fallen.
"HAHAHA~ I knocked this shiny Rayquaza out of the sky in ONE hit!! Smelly lizard, are you watching?! I, Kyogre, am the strongest, so THERE!!"
The fat fish cackled across the telepathic link — it was, frankly, about to lose its entire damn mind with excitement.
Yes, yes, YES!
How long had it been crushed under Rayquaza's heel? It couldn't even remember anymore. And it never, ever imagined that today it would knock a Rayquaza out of the sky in a single move!
And not just any knockdown — it had won the head-on clash to do it!
And against a shiny Mega Rayquaza this powerful, no less. Damn, how could anything feel this good?!
The fat fish had already rehearsed its line for the moment the black Rayquaza got back up.
"Rayquaza — have you ever lost before?"
Just picturing the humiliation that would fill the black Rayquaza's eyes was enough to make the fat fish so excited it wanted to spray water everywhere!
Hahaha~ pity, real pity — that smelly lizard couldn't be here to witness Primal Kyogre's glorious display of might. Truly a shame!
Listening to Primal Kyogre's telepathy rattling around in the back of his skull, Mammon clicked his tongue a couple of times.
This fat fish had, more or less, officially gone unhinged.
(End of chapter)
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