For the second time, the people of the world witnessed the terrifying power of Shadow Lugia, and the atmosphere was so suffocating that no one dared to breathe. Caishen's voice echoed once again:
"Now, I present the people of the Pokémon world with two choices."
"Leave the League and submit to the rule of our Shadows."
"Otherwise... die."
For a moment, the world fell into dead silence.
The forces on both sides of the battlefield stopped their actions, quietly waiting for the world's response.
No one noticed that, in a corner of the battlefield, a young girl holding a yellow-furred rodent had appeared.
"This is... ugh—ugh!"
Sonia, who had just been watching television in her grandmother's research lab, suddenly found the scene before her eyes transformed into a blood-soaked battlefield.
Corpses of trainers and Pokémon, even severed limbs, were scattered everywhere.
The sight made the girl, no older than fifteen, retch violently.
Nearby, Lorelei, who was unable to move due to a leg injury, stared at her in disbelief.
W-where did this girl come from!?
"Pikachu, you..."
After retching for a while, Sonia barely regained some strength and looked down at the yellow-furred rodent in her arms.
Thud!
But before she could ask anything, Sonia suddenly heard the sound of something falling to the ground.
She turned toward the direction of the sound.
Not far from her, at the entrance to the arena, a member of the Shadows in a white uniform suddenly collapsed.
Thud!
Immediately after, a police officer from the Indigo League, standing nearby, also fell to the ground.
In an instant, Sonia remembered something her friend had once told her—about the power someone had displayed at Master Mustard's dojo.
Thud, thud!
One by one, whether they were from the League or the Shadows, anyone standing near the main gate of the arena collapsed with their eyes rolling back.
Finally, Sonia saw it.
Strolling into the center of the battlefield was a figure, accompanied by a Bewear that followed like a bodyguard. The aura of this individual could only be described as divine descent.
"So... so imposing..."
Sonia muttered these words without even realizing it.
"Hey! Look over there!"
At the headquarters of the Hoenn League, Roxanne pointed to the lower right corner of the television screen.
Winona, Juan, and the others squinted and looked carefully.
In the corner of the live broadcast, they saw one person after another collapsing.
"What is that?"
"What's happening? Are they reinforcements, or is it a new enemy!?"
At the same time, in the headquarters of the Unova, Kalos, and Paldea Leagues, and even across the entire world, many sharp-eyed viewers noticed the anomaly.
Above the battlefield, a small plane bearing the Unova League's insignia flew over the Indigo Plateau.
Alder, looking out the hatch, swallowed hard.
Even at a distance of hundreds of meters, he could feel the soul-piercing intimidation emanating from that presence.
And with every step that person and the Bewear took, it was as if they were treading on the hearts of everyone in the Pokémon world.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The sound of footsteps echoed across the battlefield.
Whether it was the Shadows' officers or the League's Gym Leaders and Elite Four, they all paused their actions and stared blankly at the figure that had now reached the center of the battlefield.
This scene filled them with awe, reverence, and even... a sense of divinity.
At the registration desk for the Indigo Tournament, Lorelei, who was now too injured to fight, gazed at the figure in the center of the battlefield.
Her pink lips parted into a large "O."
By this point, apart from the Shadows' core officers and the League's Gym Leader-level elites, everyone else—trainers and their Pokémon—lay motionless on the ground.
"Apologies," Stephen lifted his head slightly as if stating something trivial.
"From the start, I decided to make an impression."
The world was in shock!
No one had expected events to unfold in this way.
The entire battlefield was silent.
Under the influence of Shadow Lugia, the once cloudless sky had been shrouded in darkness.
Yet somehow, it seemed as though a single ray of sunlight shone upon Stephen and the Bewear at the center of the battlefield.
It was as if the entire world had hit the pause button.
"Brother Stephen! Go for it!"
At this moment, a girl's voice of encouragement came from the base of the Indigo Plateau.
Cynthia, standing on the edge of the Sky Island, turned her head to look down.
She spotted a bespectacled 10-year-old girl waving enthusiastically from the top of the mountain.
Beside her, a more energetic girl with pink and blue hair grabbed the bespectacled girl's hand and pulled her away.
"You can do it!"
At the same time, a young trainer from the League who had survived the battle so far clenched his fists and shouted words of encouragement toward Stephen in the center of the battlefield.
Then came a second, a third, a fourth...
"You can do it!"
"Please, Doctor!"
"Save this world!"
The shouts came one after another as if pressing the play button on time itself.
Not only on the battlefield but also across the world, people separated by thousands of miles began cheering and shouting.
"Dr. Stephen!"
"Dr. Stephen!!"
"Dr. Stephen!!!"
The world's knowledge of Stephen's strength largely came from a video uploaded two months ago by Iono, in which Stephen commanded a Bewear to help Will capture the Galarian Articuno.
However, Stephen's entrance, walking with his Bewear from the gate to the center of the battlefield in a manner that resembled an epic film, had stirred emotions around the globe.
Combined with the sight of League and Shadows trainers collapsing left and right, the scene was nothing short of a heroic entrance in the eyes of directors from Unova and Kalos.
Sitting on a private jet arranged by the Kalos League en route to the Indigo Plateau, Diantha couldn't help but think—though now wasn't the time—that she wanted to collaborate with Stephen on a film.
In the Galar region.
At Magnolia's lab, Nessa collapsed onto the couch, clutching tightly to the notebook Stephen had entrusted to her before leaving.
In Spikemuth, in the living room of the town's gym, a girl the same age as Ash, with a slightly mischievous air but an undeniably adorable face, stared intently at the screen, her black pearl-like eyes glued to the heroic figure in the center.
In the Alola region.
Lusamine and Lillie covered their mouths, trying hard not to cry.
But the tears streaming down their faces betrayed their inner feelings completely.
...
Having fled back to Viridian City, the group from Pallet Town watched the battlefield unfold on public television at the Pokémon Center, gritting their teeth.
They, too, had seen the video of Bewear fighting Galarian Articuno, and they had even witnessed it single-handedly defeating Professor Oak's Dragonite in an iconic scene.
Red and the others knew Stephen's Bewear was strong.
But the power displayed by Shadow Lugia... was on another level entirely.
"It's happening!"
Red, usually silent, suddenly spoke.
High in the sky, the Shadow Lugia, once ruling over the entire Indigo Plateau, glared with an intensified ferocity in its eyes.
A dark hurricane erupted from it, surging forward with overwhelming force, directly targeting Stephen and the Bewear standing opposite it.
Dark Power!
"Don-Ah!"
Behind Stephen, the Bewear, who seemed like a guardian spirit, softly muttered with half-closed eyes.
In the final moment, just as the Dark Power was about to descend upon them—
The Bewear's half-closed eyes suddenly widened, its pupils contracting sharply.
Zi—Boom!
An aura no weaker than Shadow Lugia's Dark Power roared out from the Bewear's body, forcefully pushing back the dark energy that was about to engulf Stephen and itself.
To the left and right, the dark and crimson auras clashed fiercely, pressing against one another, igniting dark flames and crimson lightning in the air.
"Ugh…!"
In an instant, the elite Gym Leaders of both sides—Falkner, Clair, Erika from the League, and Vazil from the Shadows—collapsed to the ground, their vision blacking out.
"Even the Gym Leaders are…"
Wallace's face turned pale. Without hesitation, he released all his Pokémon and shouted:
"Evacuate the injured immediately!"
The few elite Gym Leaders who remained conscious, though less than one in ten, also released their entire teams to assist in carrying their comrades to safety.
However, there was a stark contrast:
On the Shadows' side, most were focused on saving themselves, only aiding their close allies if at all.
On the League's side, whether it was Wallace, who was struggling under the pressure of the Shadows' legendary Pokémon, or Lucian and Alder, who had just arrived at the scene, they all evacuated people indiscriminately—whether they belonged to the League or the Shadows.
This shocking scene was broadcast worldwide through the camera beside Caishen.
"It's begun…"
Master Mustard sat cross-legged in front of the television, even forgetting his catchphrase at the end of his sentences.
"The clash between the Overlord and the Darkness—who will emerge victorious?"
...
The collision continued for over ten seconds.
The sheer force of it cleared the battlefield of anyone below the level of an elite Gym Leader.
"Unlike other dark Pokémon that merely inject Dark Power into their bodies, this one has fully fused with the Dark Power itself. So this is Shadow Lugia?"
Seeing the opposing side retract its Dark Power, Stephen also instructed Bewear to withdraw its Conqueror Haki. He raised his gaze, studying the enemy.
"The most outstanding scientific genius since the League's founding—Dr. Stephen. I've heard of you."
Caishen finally emerged from his airship, no longer seated.
Rising into the air on a throne with flight capabilities, his short stature floated out of the ship, eerily reminiscent of Lord Frieza.
"It seems your brilliance isn't limited to research and invention. Your skill in Pokémon training is equally exceptional."
Caishen narrowed his eyes, glancing at the Bewear. "That power just now… I've never seen it before."
"Likewise. When I first encountered Dark Power, I had the same feeling."
Stephen responded coolly.
Suddenly, Caishen's lips curled into a smirk as he extended an invitation to Stephen:
"What do you say? Want to join the Shadows? Whatever you desire, I can give it to you."
The moment these words were spoken—
Lucian, Alder, and the others, who were busy evacuating the injured, nearly stumbled to the ground.
"As a scientist, what do you desire? A massive research budget? Rare Pokémon? I can provide all of that. Look at the strength of the Shadows—you should understand I have the means to deliver."
Caishen's tone exuded absolute confidence and an undeniable authority.
"Anything else is negotiable too. Power? As long as you make enough contributions, I can grant you a position second only to me. As for women—well, that's a given. So, what do you think? The League could never offer you so much. Why risk your life for them?"
"Stephen, don't listen to him!"
Goodshow couldn't hold back his shout.
Although he trusted Stephen's character, the temptation Caishen was offering was immense—who could remain rational in the face of such allure?
Even Goodshow himself had a dark side he wasn't proud of.
For instance, when Mr. Stone proposed the Rayquaza Capture Plan, Goodshow approved it.
At the time, he had justified it with concerns about Joker's trio defeating the dream team of Lance, Cynthia, and Steven. He thought that with Rayquaza's power, they wouldn't need to worry.
If an elder like Goodshow could succumb to such thoughts, how could a 14-year-old boy like Stephen resist?
"Dr. Stephen! Even if the Shadows are powerful, their tyrannical rule won't last long. Don't let them deceive you!"
Cynthia, who had no personal connection to Stephen, couldn't help but shout.
Her understanding of him was limited to the video of him defeating Galar's Articuno, but Bewear's display of power was enough to prove that Stephen could challenge Caishen—or at least affect the balance of the battle.
"Dr. Stephen! A rule maintained through oppression is destined to fail. Even if successful, it will only earn a place on the pillar of shame in history."
Alder added:
"You've made great contributions to the peaceful coexistence of humans and Pokémon! If you have any needs, just communicate with us—we'll help you! There's no need to side with these villains!"
Lance interjected coldly, "If you choose to side with evil, I will personally arrest you!"
His words caused Cynthia and Alder to curse him internally for being an idiot.
At this moment, they needed to persuade Stephen, not threaten him!
Lucian, maintaining a professionally calm expression, was already calculating how to deal with Lance later.
"Enough."
Under the gaze of the entire world, Stephen finally spoke:
"Do I need you to give me what I want?"
Sensing the disdain in Stephen's tone, Caishen's eyes behind his glasses turned dangerous. "What do you mean?"
"Power, rare Pokémon, women… If I want any of those, I can get them myself. Why would I listen to some old man like you?"
Stephen replied with a calm smile.
"Smart, but lacking situational awareness. Then… die!"
Caishen raised his small hand and swung it down fiercely.
Shadow Lugia's body erupted with dark flames, its size doubling as it transformed into a massive dark phoenix, diving from the sky.
Dark Charge!
"As long as you're with me, I fear nothing. Go, Bewear."
Stephen spoke calmly.
Bewear leaped into the air, its right arm turning jet black and shimmering with crimson arcs of electricity as it met Shadow Lugia's attack head-on.
Armament: Megaton Punch!
Under the watchful eyes of the world, something incredible happened.
Shadow Lugia's fierce charge and Bewear's megaton punch approached each other at incredible speed but suddenly froze just meters apart as if an invisible barrier stood between them.
Boom—Rumble!
In the next instant, a black-and-red dual-colored shockwave erupted from the clash, shooting into the sky and tearing through the dark clouds.
The entire scene—Indigo Plateau, nearby Victory Road, and even cities like Viridian City and Pewter City—witnessed the sky above the plateau being torn in half, as if by an invisible hand.
A massive chasm of unpredictable length, width, and even depth split the Indigo Plateau in two from the middle… no! It was as if it had directly divided the entire region of Johto and Kanto in half!
...
In New Bark Town, a boy of the same age as Ash, wearing his cap backward and with an Aipom perched on his head, looked up at the enormous rift in the eastern sky. His pupils trembled violently. "Th-that… what is that?"
Meanwhile, Ash, Gary, and others of this world, who had fled to Viridian City, stepped out of the Pokémon Center one after another to gaze westward at the sky.
"Clouds… no, the sky has been torn apart!?"