Chapter 144: You Lost, Rayquaza!
Mammon could understand Primal Kyogre's excitement, though.
After all…
Anyone who'd spent several thousand years getting sat on by the same Pokémon would have accumulated a few grievances.
Sure, Groudon was obviously the one Primal Kyogre cared about most — but to say Kyogre had zero feelings about Rayquaza? Completely impossible.
But what could it do when it couldn't win? Bottle it up and suffer.
And now, at long last, Primal Kyogre had gotten to let it all out.
"Don't pop the champagne yet — we haven't won," Mammon reminded it.
That last Blizzard had been tremendous, yes, and it had knocked the black Rayquaza out of the sky. But that was all it had done.
Besides, with Delta Stream active, one Blizzard was never going to defeat the black Rayquaza — odds were it couldn't even land a critical blow.
"Got it!"
Primal Kyogre was surprisingly obedient. It had genuinely come around on this particular human — he'd really taken it to fight Rayquaza! Sure, it was a group beatdown. But whoever said a group beatdown didn't count?
"RRRROAAAR!!"
And then, right on cue, a furious draconic roar split the heavens.
The Blizzard had faded, stray snowflakes still drifting lazily through the air, and the black dragon climbed high once more, its draconic eyes blazing with pure, undiluted rage as it glared down at Primal Kyogre and the Ho-Oh and Dark Mewtwo ranked behind it.
Its magnificent pitch-black scales were now marred by pale blue frost, a look that was, frankly, rather undignified.
And yet the black Rayquaza's pressure — if anything — was more savage and violent than before.
The wild Rayquaza, which had been flying over to check, stopped and held its distance. It could feel it. Its father was furious right now.
"RRROAAAR!!"
The black Rayquaza roared at Primal Kyogre, its long serpentine body thrashing through the air, a howling wind building across the sky.
The heavens turned a flat, murky grey. Biting air currents and spiraling vortexes tore through the atmosphere.
The world narrowed to the sight of visible shockwaves and the sound of wind screaming like a wounded beast.
It could not accept this. It had actually lost a head-on clash — to a fish?!
"Delta Stream."
Mammon's eyes narrowed slightly. His clothes and hair were being whipped around wildly by the raging turbulence.
If Lunala weren't running Protect over him, he'd have been blown away by now.
This was the black Rayquaza's ability, Delta Stream — and right now it was cranking it to full power.
This supreme ability weather, at its core, was no less destructive to the environment than Desolate Land or Primordial Sea.
Primordial Sea left unchecked — its deluge would eventually drown the entire world in a vast ocean.
Desolate Land left unchecked — the planet would be scorched into a desert by endless blazing sunlight, every living thing withering under that merciless glare.
And Delta Stream left unchecked — the world would be plunged into infinite, unceasing gale-force chaos.
Under normal circumstances, Mega Rayquaza never activated Delta Stream this recklessly. Heavy rain gave Primal Kyogre a Water-type boost; harsh sunlight gave Primal Groudon a Fire-type boost. Technically, howling turbulent winds offered Mega Rayquaza an invisible edge too — but Mega Rayquaza had never needed it.
After all, the most important thing Delta Stream did was neutralize Mega Rayquaza's Flying-type weakness. It didn't need to be cranked up to full; as long as Delta Stream wreathed Mega Rayquaza's body, that was enough.
So under normal conditions, Mega Rayquaza wouldn't max out Delta Stream, because the turbulence it inflicted on the surrounding environment was itself catastrophically severe.
As evidenced by right now — the entire city of Larousse had been engulfed in hurricane-force chaos.
Grey, howling vortexes blanketed heaven and earth. For anyone still inside Larousse, it was the end of the world made real.
"This is—"
Steven and the others had completely lost their footing. With their Pokémon's help, they'd retreated into a building, and only then did the wind pressure ease enough to breathe.
"Has Rayquaza gone completely berserk?"
Nemona barely managed a sigh of relief. The howling outside was still terrifying, but at least she wasn't in danger of being launched into the sky.
"Yeah. This is probably its last push." Leon's expression was grim.
He'd caught a glimpse earlier — even the wild Rayquaza had coiled itself around a building just to keep from being swept away.
Which meant the wind pressure out there, in the open sky, was unimaginably worse than what they were feeling in here.
"RRROAAAR!!"
In the howling chaos, the black Rayquaza's roar rang out once more, and a ferocious tornado came surging out, supercharged by Delta Stream.
Flying-type Gust!
This Gust was far, far stronger than anything it had thrown before.
"Blizzard!"
Mammon's eyes hardened.
Primal Kyogre went deadly serious, condensing its Ice-type energy with absolute focus.
"Helping Hand!"
Ho-Oh and Dark Mewtwo were already moving, flooding Primal Kyogre with the Normal-type boost.
With Helping Hand active, a move's power surged enormously. Buffed by both Ho-Oh and Dark Mewtwo, Primal Kyogre felt power flood every inch of its body.
That feeling of expanding strength — it almost gave it the delusion that it was invincible.
"Uuuuun~!"
Primal Kyogre opened its mouth and unleashed a raging Blizzard.
Blizzard vs. Gust!
The two attacks collided violently in midair for the second time, the shockwave expanding outward in a ring the moment they met.
BOOM!
The colossal pressure left the sky in total ruin. The blinding white snowstorm and the grey-black twisting winds slammed into each other with everything they had.
And the result was — a dead stalemate.
"Tch."
Mammon narrowed his eyes, watching the two attacks grind against each other in a near-perfect standoff. This was genuinely absurd.
One second. Two seconds. Three…
After a full five seconds, neither side could hold the balance any longer. With a shattering crack —
The raging Gust and the Blizzard both burst at once, the catastrophic energy shockwave exploding outward and sending the black Rayquaza and Primal Kyogre alike hurtling away.
The grey clouds blanketing the sky were blown apart in the blast, revealing a stretch of open blue above.
THUD!
Primal Kyogre crashed into the earth, squeezing its eyes shut against the pain. The landing itself wasn't too bad.
But the energy shockwave from the mutual detonation — that had been brutal. Primal Kyogre felt like its entire body was screaming at once.
Dark Mewtwo was fired straight down and embedded itself into the ground. Ho-Oh slammed down too, unable to get up.
But the black Rayquaza fared no better — it was thrown into a distant building, which buckled and collapsed around it, burying it completely. Only a length of tail stuck out from the rubble.
The green Protect barrier gradually dissolved into motes of light. Lunala let out a very human sigh of relief. They'd made it through.
For a moment it had felt like even Protect was about to be shattered by the residual shockwave.
The world out there was terrifying.
This was the first time the big bat had left Alola for another region, and Lunala was struggling — the sheer intensity of this battle felt completely beyond anything it could participate in.
"This Rayquaza is something else~!"
Mammon surveyed the utterly obliterated city below and let out a genuinely heartfelt sigh of admiration.
But the look in his eyes was growing more and more heated.
So strong. And precisely because of that, his desire for the black Rayquaza burned even brighter. He wanted it. He wanted it on his team!
Power like that deserved to belong to him!
"Lunala — take me down."
Mammon waited a moment, saw that Primal Kyogre and the others still hadn't gotten airborne, and turned to Lunala.
Lunala descended, carrying Mammon as it flew toward the ground.
"Ho-Oh first."
Rubble had fallen over Ho-Oh, half-burying it — but a flame was already burning, soft rainbow light, not scorching hot, slowly spreading across the feathers.
It looked like fire. It felt nothing like fire. Instead it hummed with vibrant, surging vitality.
Thwump.
A wing pushed the rubble aside. Ho-Oh, its whole body alight with rainbow flame, struggled slowly, painfully, to its feet. Its ragged breathing was gradually steadying.
"I knew you could pull through. Ho-Oh, I never doubted you for a second."
Mammon looked at it with genuine admiration. Ho-Oh really was the perfect tank.
"I nearly blacked out just now!"
Ho-Oh, for its part, did not appreciate the praise. Its telepathic voice was heavy with aggrieved suffering.
It was the legendary Ho-Oh. And it had almost been knocked unconscious by the residual shockwave of a move clash. If word got out, it would be laughed out of existence.
"But you didn't. Kyogre took some heavy damage too — Ho-Oh, I need you to go heal it up."
Mammon sent a tendril of green light drifting toward Ho-Oh, then pulled out a spray canister and gave it several long spritzes.
Grey powder mixed with mist scattered across Ho-Oh's feathers, restoring the damage on its body.
"Hm? What is this?"
Ho-Oh sniffed it, blinked, and stared at the canister in Mammon's hand. Something about that scent…
"Sacred Ash Spray. Pretty impressive, right? Its healing effect beats every recovery spray on the human market."
Mammon grinned.
"I feel like…"
"You're thinking exactly what you think you're thinking. Ground-up Ho-Oh feathers, pressed into a spray." Mammon said it without even the faintest trace of embarrassment.
Ho-Oh's brain crashed.
"My feathers?"
"That's right. You shed quite a few during your fight with Dark Mewtwo last time — I collected them all. See? Put them to good use."
Mammon flashed a blinding smile.
"Oh, and this time around you dropped quite a few feathers again. I've already had my Pokémon collect those too."
"…"
Ho-Oh went silent. It had several things it wanted to say, and none of them were polite.
Between the rainbow flame, the Power of Viridian, and the Sacred Ash Spray, Ho-Oh's condition recovered quickly enough. It took to the air again.
The mental exhaustion couldn't be fixed so fast — but physically, at least, it was much improved.
They moved straight to where Primal Kyogre had gone down, ran the same triple-treatment, and got it back into fighting shape as well.
Deoxys came flying back with Dark Mewtwo in tow.
Then Mammon led them all toward where the black Rayquaza had fallen.
The black Rayquaza's injuries were severe. The wild Rayquaza had already cleared the rubble off it, but the black Rayquaza was still struggling to pull itself together.
"RRROAAAR!!"
The moment Primal Kyogre and the others approached, it snapped a furious warning roar at them.
The black Rayquaza slowly raised its upper body, eyes cold and threaded with fury. It was badly weakened right now — but if these creatures thought they could push their luck, it would not be taking that lying down.
"Easy. We're not here to gloat."
Mammon's voice carried over to them.
Both Rayquaza — father and son — turned their gaze down toward him.
"It wasn't exactly a fair fight — but through the advantage of numbers, we did beat you. Wouldn't you say so, shiny Rayquaza?"
Mammon spoke with a measured, almost objective tone, his smile easy.
"You're badly hurt. Our side is still in decent shape. If we keep fighting, the gap only widens — you have no path to victory."
The perks of having a healer on the team!!
"…"
The black Rayquaza said nothing. It was furious. It was not particularly willing to accept this.
But it could not deny that if the fighting continued, its defeat was certain.
The Delta Stream-powered Gust just now had been the strongest attack it currently had access to — and it still hadn't been enough to push through Primal Kyogre's Blizzard.
Seeing the black Rayquaza offer no rebuttal, Primal Kyogre's mouth dropped open in a grin so wide its face was practically splitting.
"I understand why you came — to eliminate Deoxys. And I can understand that reasoning." Mammon continued.
"But I can promise you that the Deoxys in my care are Pokémon capable of peaceful coexistence. They came to this planet by accident, not by choice."
"I'm asking you to give them a chance. If Deoxys causes harm in the future — I will personally be the one to end them. Does that work?"
His tone was sincere.
Defeating these two dragons was one thing. But the real issue was this: if he couldn't resolve their hostility toward Deoxys, they'd be back. And that solved nothing.
Mammon kept his voice measured, non-threatening, and went out of his way to leave a decent impression on both Rayquaza.
Because, well…
He was very hungry for this black Rayquaza.
Once the Deoxys situation was sorted, one way or another he was going to test whether he and the black Rayquaza could become partners.
Even if now wasn't the time — he still needed to make sure it knew where he stood.
(End of chapter)
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