Chen Kai—is he in there?
Swablu!
Suddenly, a clear and slightly anxious girl's cry, along with a familiar and pleasant bird's chirp, seemed to pierce through the thick walls of the supermarket, faintly echoing from outside.
Chen Kai stiffened, his recently calmed heartbeat instantly accelerating again, almost leaping into his throat.
He recognized it as Acerola's voice and Swablu's Growl.
He quickly hid the Ghostium Z, then sharply looked up, warily scanning the dim and dilapidated interior of the supermarket.
Is this an illusion? Again?
A chill crept up his spine, and he instinctively clenched his fists, preparing to face a potential renewed attack.
"Don't be too nervous," Iron Hands' voice came from within its Poké Ball.
Iron Thorns' voice followed immediately: "We heard it this time too. If there's trouble, we'll help you."
Hearing their words, Chen Kai breathed a sigh of relief.
With the three of them, even if Mimikyu reappeared, he wouldn't be as flustered.
At the same time, he noticed that Dominant Gengar, who had been quietly floating nearby, somewhat silently, stirred slightly after hearing the calls from outside, then rose and floated out with a hint of joy.
Seeing this, Chen Kai recalled Xiao Mei, quickly followed Gengar, passed through the aisle filled with debris and collapsed shelves, and carefully made his way outside the supermarket.
"Whew—"
A rush of cool night air instantly filled his nostrils, replacing the stale, decaying smell inside the supermarket.
Chen Kai stepped out, and his vision immediately cleared; it was no longer a dim interior, but an open area bathed in moonlight like water.
Looking up, a bright moon hung high in the sky, its silver glow illuminating the land, clearly outlining the surrounding abandoned buildings and the overgrown ground.
Not far away, a figure stood gracefully.
The moonlight clearly illuminated her: beneath a striking mane of purple hair, her vibrant face smiled and waved hello to Chen Kai, holding a Swablu that resembled a fluffy cloud in her arms.
Swablu, seeing Chen Kai, flapped its wings, trying to break free, but the purple-haired girl held it tighter, and it couldn't escape.
"Acerola!" Chen Kai's heart relaxed, and a sense of familiarity welled up within him; he quickly waved back, "How did you know I was here?"
Acerola explained, "Gastly and the others said you were causing a ruckus in this supermarket, so I rushed over. I also happened to see this Swablu that was scared unconscious. Is it your Pokemon?"
Chen Kai looked at Swablu with a hint of exasperation: "That's right, this guy ran off and gave me quite a hard time looking for it."
Acerola handed Swablu to Chen Kai, then reached out and stroked the head of Dominant Gengar, who had been waiting patiently nearby.
Gengar, completely unlike its previous demeanor in the supermarket, narrowed its eyes in apparent enjoyment and smiled.
"These little guys are just a bit mischievous; they like to scare new people they occasionally meet, but they won't hurt anyone. You two shouldn't fight, okay?" Acerola thought Chen Kai and Gengar had gotten into a fight.
Chen Kai quickly took Swablu, but Swablu tried to peck him again.
Strangely, Chen Kai's skin was unusually tough; even with added elemental energy, Swablu found it even harder to peck through.
Seeing Swablu still pecking him relentlessly, Chen Kai also lost his temper, and the human and Pokemon started bickering.
Fortunately, Chen Kai's skin was truly tough; Swablu's white beak even hurt from the recoil, but Chen Kai's hand didn't even break the skin.
Taking advantage of this lull, Chen Kai found a moment to speak with Acerola: "Acerola, Gengar and I weren't fighting."
Gengar quickly nodded:
"Gengar, Gengar!" (That's right, I wouldn't bother bullying people!)
Acerola put her hands on her hips and said, "Then why did Gastly and the others say you almost tore down the supermarket?"
Gengar leaned into Acerola's ear, its large body now like a student tattling to a teacher:
"Gengar, Gengar, Gengar! (Little Acerola, you need to be careful; this person might not be quite right in the head, hitting the air wildly!)"
Although Chen Kai couldn't understand Gengar's words, he could roughly guess from its expression.
He finally seized an opportunity, grabbed Swablu's wing, restrained it, and turned to Acerola, asking, "Were you not in the supermarket just now?"
Acerola looked puzzled: "I just came from the library."
"Then were there any Pokemon like Dominant Mimikyu, or Jellicent, or Banette in the supermarket?" Chen Kai continued to inquire carefully, desperately wanting to understand what had just happened.
Acerola shook her head: "I can't say about others, but Dominant Mimikyu absolutely cannot be in the supermarket. A region usually only has one Dominant Pokemon; otherwise, how could it be called Dominant?"
Gengar also grumbled discontentedly:
"Gengar, Gengar!" (Exactly, you human are really impolite.)
"That's strange then. I felt like I was genuinely attacked by Dominant Mimikyu, Banette, and Jellicent. Look, they even dropped this." Saying this, Chen Kai took out the Ghostium Z-Crystal to show Acerola.
"Oh! You actually found this ancient crystal!" Acerola glanced at the Ghostium Z-Crystal, not appearing too surprised.
Then she explained:
"My family has many of them; people occasionally find them on the island. This doesn't prove anything. I heard that when the Tapus were frequently active, these crystals had some use, but now not many people know what they are specifically for."
"Is that so?" Chen Kai scratched his head, thinking, could it be that he was really too tired recently and was hallucinating?
So Chen Kai asked with some uncertainty, "Acerola, can you see that phantom behind you? Is that also a normal phenomenon?"
Acerola chuckled dryly and turned to look behind her: "Chen Kai, you can't fool me; I'm an expert at training Ghost-type Pokemon..."
Halfway through her sentence, Acerola froze, because through the light of Chen Kai's phone, she indeed saw a white phantom behind her.
And this phantom was getting closer and closer, with faint wavy blue light visible on its head, almost touching Acerola's body!
"Ahhh! Why didn't you say so earlier? This is not normal!"
Acerola's scream rang out.
At the same time, deep within the heart of the island, at an altar, only the whispers of time had echoed for a long time.
The heavy red lid embedded in the altar's base was covered in decades of dust and stillness.
Suddenly, the red lid violently pulsed!
Dust, like a solidified dense fog, erupted with a roar, filling the entire confined space.
The dust gradually settled, and then, a massive, pitch-black shadow slowly rose from the bottomless darkness.
First, the tips of huge, rock-rough horns, covered in thick dust, then the broad, ridge-like contours of its shoulders and back, and finally, its entire massive and oppressive body.
It stood silently on the broken base, dust cascading like a waterfall from its pitch-black body.
Tapu Bulu!
This guardian deity of Ula'ula Island, an ancient being that had slumbered for decades, was awakened by the sudden, violent, and powerful energy fluctuations.
It raised its head, its gaze piercing through the thick rock walls of the ruins, as if it could directly "see" the invisible and distorted anomalous energy flow above the island.
In recent months, it had already sensed something amiss and had already awakened. Now, this extraterrestrial creature had finally fully appeared and was even attempting to violate the ordinary beings on the island, which it absolutely could not tolerate.
It released a wisp of pink Fairy-type energy to envelop its entire body, arriving near the extraterrestrial creature almost instantaneously.
And that eerie presence—Nihilego—was currently condensing a Power Gem containing terrifying power.
The gem spun and hummed madly, countless sharp, blade-like brown energies compressing and condensing within it, emitting a grating, sharp hiss.
Its target was the two children and a few ordinary Pokemon at the old supermarket site below!
One of the humans and a white-feathered bird Pokemon appeared to be already injured.
In Tapu Bulu's eyes, rage burned like a tangible flame.
It didn't even bother to look down at those tiny lives; the instinct to protect drove it to act swiftly.
Vast green energy instantly surged from its massive body, wildly gathering and solidifying in front of its fists! The light abruptly intensified!
A pair of enormous wooden hammers, composed of pure emerald-green energy, radiating life force and ancient patterns, appeared out of thin air outside its clenched fists.
These wooden hammers were not illusory; their surfaces flowed with brilliant light patterns like new leaf veins, exuding a heavy and solid oppressive force, as if they condensed the tenacious will of the entire island's forests.
"Hum—!"
Nihilego's core Power Gem finally reached its limit, and several incredibly thick energy beams, wrapped in destructive brown lightning—"Power Gem"—like several venomous snakes pouncing on prey, tore through the air, carrying an annihilating momentum, and slammed down from different angles towards the ground below! Their speed was despair-inducing!
Just at this critical moment!
Tapu Bulu let out a mountain-shaking roar! Its massive body erupted with a terrifying, dazzling speed utterly disproportionate to its size!
The huge green energy wooden hammers seemed weightless in its hands, transforming into two blurry green afterimages!
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang—!"
A series of heavy, dense explosions, like giant trees striking bedrock, instantly erupted!
In mid-air, several energy flowers, intertwined with emerald green and deep brown, seemed to bloom simultaneously!
Tapu Bulu's arms danced like the wind! The huge wooden hammers struck each incoming brown beam with incredible precision and overwhelming force, like a tempest!
The several "Power Gem" attacks, powerful enough to pierce steel and turn green land into scorched earth, were shattered like fragile glass in mid-air under the furious and precise continuous blows of the green giant hammers!
Brown energy fragments scattered like broken crystals, hissing sharply as they flew, and then quickly annihilated in the air!
Blinding light and violent shockwaves exploded, kicking up dust and shattered rocks, cracking the rocks at the cliff edge again, but the people and Pokemon below were unharmed!
Someone shouted, "Holy crap, the Chaotic Cloak Hammer Technique!"
This shout made both combatants pause for a moment.
Fortunately, Tapu Bulu quickly recovered. It raised its head, its eyes like a beast locking onto its prey, and a powerful will originating from the earth, forest, and ocean began to condense wildly around it!
The island was responding to its anger!
The rocks beneath its feet resonated with tremors, the surrounding vegetation swayed wildly, and countless emerald, earthy yellow, and sky blue light points rose from all directions of the island, like summoned spirits, wildly converging towards the hammer-like horns on Tapu Bulu's head!
The pink river of light flowing on its horns instantly blazed like molten lava, the light soaring into the sky, illuminating the night like day!
An ancient, majestic, terrifying energy, as if the entire island had transformed into it, compressed and boiled on its horn-hammers!
Nature's Madness!
Tapu Bulu let out a sky-shaking roar, its massive body, carrying immense momentum, violently swung its horn-hammers, which had condensed the angry will of the entire island, forward!
"Whoosh—Boom—!!!"
A torrent of violent energy, a fusion of earth's pulse, forest's breath, and ocean's tides, burst forth from its horn-hammers!
Like a roaring tempest, or a surging mountain flood, carrying an overwhelming force that crushed everything, it instantly swallowed space and swept towards Nihilego, which had just begun to condense its violent brown energy!
Nihilego's Power Gem attack had only just begun to form a dangerous glowing proto-sphere, and in the face of this torrent representing the island's own fury, it appeared so rushed and powerless!
"Sizzle—Boom!!!"
That wild brown energy, along with the few small shields hastily constructed by Nihilego, were instantly completely swallowed and torn apart by the torrent of Nature's Madness, like thin ice under a scorching sun!
Not even a decent resistance could be formed!
The torrent continued unabated, slamming squarely and without reservation into Nihilego's translucent body!
"Whoosh—!!!"
Nihilego let out a sharp, soul-piercing scream of pain!
Its body violently twisted and shook, like a candle in the wind.
The powerful impact slammed it like a broken doll towards the distant, rocky coastline!
"Rumble!!!"
Accompanied by the deafening crash of shattering rocks and towering waves, Nihilego fell miserably into the rocky beach, its surrounding brown energy chaotic and unstable, its light flickering erratically, its tentacles weakly slapping the rocks, its core gem faintly shimmering, filled with terror and incredulous weakness.
Above the cliff, Tapu Bulu slowly retracted its horn-hammers, and the surging natural energy around its body gradually subsided.
The lingering pink glow on its pitch-black body flickered and disappeared.
Its dark blue eyes, like the sharpest lighthouses, coldly locked onto the struggling intruder on the distant rocky beach, and it snorted:
"Hmph—Is that all? And you dare to run wild on my territory?"
Just as Tapu Bulu's words fell, someone below shouted a warning: "Be careful, there might be more than one!"
Before the words finished, Tapu Bulu's surroundings seemed to be infiltrated; in the air at the cliff's edge, without warning, faint, jellyfish-like white and blue glows appeared.
These glows rapidly expanded and stretched, outlining translucent, flickering silhouettes.
One, two, three... in the blink of an eye!
More than a dozen translucent figures, identical in form to the fallen Nihilego, silently and completely surrounded Tapu Bulu, which stood at the cliff's peak, like ghosts precipitated from another dimension!