The passage narrowed as Skylar led the way, his boots crunching against cold stone. With every step deeper into Mt. Moon, the air grew heavier—drier—yet still electric, as though something beneath the earth thrummed with silent intent.
Behind him, Misty followed with Froakie perched on her shoulder and Starmie floating silently at her side, its gem dimly pulsing. The only sound was the soft hum of Gardevoir's aura field, brushing against the cavern walls like a sixth sense reaching out into the dark.
No Zubat screeches. No dripping water.Just silence.
Then—
The tunnel opened.
A natural chamber unfolded before them—spacious, circular, untouched by miners or Trainers. Pale bioluminescent moss clung to the ceiling in veins, giving just enough light to reveal what stood at the center of the room:
A stone ring.
Perfectly round. Embedded into the ground.
Cracks radiated out from it like something had crashed—but the object was gone. All that remained was this crater-shaped seal, humming gently with a pulse that wasn't quite sound.
Skylar knelt beside it. "It's not just a landing site. It's… an impact scar. Something burned its way into the world here."
Misty crouched opposite him, brushing her fingers over the ring's edge. "These markings… they're not Unown. They're not even written—they're grown. Like the rock itself was rewritten."
Even Gardevoir looked uneasy.
Then the pulse stopped.
Suddenly.
The moss above dimmed. Charmeleon's flame flickered. Starmie's gem faltered for a heartbeat.
Something had noticed them.
Skylar stood instantly, scanning the chamber.
—"Gardevoir?" he asked. "Do you sense anything?"
She didn't answer.
She was staring at the far wall.
The stone there… was breathing.
No, not breathing. Shifting.
Something peeled itself off the wall—slowly, silently.
It wasn't Zubat.It wasn't Geodude.It wasn't anything they'd ever seen.
The creature was slender, almost serpentine, about the size of a Growlithe but shaped all wrong. It had no eyes—only a smooth black face like obsidian glass. Its body was covered in rippling layers of sleek shadow-flesh that shimmered with violet lines—similar to the corrupted Nidoking they had faced, but more controlled. Smarter.
It made no noise.
It didn't growl or hiss.
It simply stood.
Watching them.
Froakie growled low from Misty's shoulder.
Skylar raised a hand. "Don't engage yet…"
The creature tilted its head—mechanically, like a puppet that had never seen a human before.
Then, with one smooth motion, it slipped behind a stone pillar.
Gone.
Misty stepped back. "What was that?"
Skylar's voice was a whisper. "Something new."
Gardevoir floated forward, her aura bristling. "It was not born of this world. Nor shaped by evolution. It was… foreign."
Skylar turned toward the seal again.
The air around it shimmered, almost imperceptibly—like heat off hot metal.
—"It didn't come alone," he said. "The meteorite—it wasn't just a rock. It was a vessel."
Misty looked toward the pillar where the creature had vanished. "Do you think there are more?"
Skylar didn't answer.
Because deep within the chamber, behind the stone ring, something else pulsed.
Not energy.
Awareness.
The seal wasn't broken.
Not yet.
But it was cracking.