The number of Shadow Unown was increasing rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, the sky became densely packed with darkness.
"Quick, hide!" shouted Yuga to the three elders when he saw this scene.
However, before Mr. Harrison and the others had time to dodge, the Shadow Unown launched their attack. A massive pillar of black energy, formed by their combined efforts, surged forward with a speed faster than the blink of an eye, blasting toward Yuga and the others.
"Latias~"
"Latios~"
Latias and Latios simultaneously fired off Dragon Pulse, which collided with the black energy pillar.
Although a single Shadow Unown was pitifully weak in terms of level, the attack they unleashed together actually managed to match the strength of two legendary Pokémon...
No, it should be said they had the upper hand — after a few dozen seconds of stalemate between the black energy pillar and Dragon Pulse, the energy pillar suddenly overwhelmed the Dragon Pulse and crashed into Latias and Latios.
A massive group of Shadow Unown, linked together by psychic power, had formed an inseparable whole, unleashing a force strong enough to rival that of legendary Pokémon!
"Latias~"
"Latios~"
The two legendary Pokémon fell from the sky, smashing a large pit into the ground, but they immediately took flight again. A flash of light shimmered across their bodies, and all their wounds disappeared without a trace.
It was the power of Recover!
At that moment, Yuga and the three elders quickly released their other Pokémon to assist Latias and Latios.
All three elders were high-ranking breeders. Although they were not good at battle, they did have high-level Pokémon on hand. While they might not be able to offer a significant advantage, at the very least, they had no problem protecting themselves.
Yuga released his Vivillon. As a Bug-type Pokémon, Vivillon held a strong advantage over the combination of Psychic and Dark types.
"Vivillon, use Quiver Dance, then Bug Buzz!"
Taking advantage of the fact that Latias and Latios could still hold off the Shadow Unown, Yuga gave the command to Vivillon.
"Vivillon~"
Vivillon rapidly flapped its wings, dancing gracefully in the air, completing several rounds of stat boosts in the blink of an eye. Then it let out a piercing cry, so sharp that Yuga and the three elders involuntarily covered their ears.
The sound waves from Bug Buzz spread outward from Vivillon as the center, creating visible ripples in the air. Under this intense vibration, the originally unified Shadow Unown were instantly scattered.
The disconnected Shadow Unown flew chaotically in the air like scattered sand. No longer possessing the strength to match Latias and Latios, they even seemed to forget how to attack.
Just as Latias and Latios were preparing to finish off the scattered Shadow Unown, a sudden change occurred — a Mew covered in strange black markings appeared in the sky.
The moment this Mew appeared, the panicked Unown immediately calmed down, regrouping into a cohesive unit once again and encircling the Mew like loyal guards.
The Mew, surrounded like stars encircling the moon, cast a cold gaze at Yuga and the others. The chill in its eyes was completely at odds with its adorable appearance.
The moment he saw this Mew, Mr. Kaga was struck as if by lightning, muttering "I knew it" repeatedly under his breath.
Yuga activated the Insight skill to examine the Mew.
...
[ Mew (Corrupted) ]
Type: Psychic, Dark
Ability: Synchronize
Gender: None
Potential: Unknown
Level: Unknown
Moves: Pound, Reflect Type, Transform, Mega Punch, Metronome, Psychic, Barrier, Ancient Power, Amnesia, Baton Pass, Trick, Aura Sphere, Psyshock, Calm Mind, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Light Screen, Safeguard, Thunderbolt, Solar Beam, Thunder, Shadow Ball, Brick Break, Bulk Up, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Rock Tomb, Aerial Ace, Rest, Echoed Voice, Energy Ball, Shadow Claw, Acrobatics, Stone Edge, Imprison, Poison Jab, Dream Eater, U-turn, Flash Cannon, Volt Tackle, Fire Punch, Hyper Voice, Dark Pulse, Dazzling Gleam, Signal Beam, Giga Impact, Grudge, Focus Punch.
..
After reading the information, Yuga was extremely astonished. He suspected that the Mew in front of him was an ancient being—it was very, very powerful.
Just as Yuga finished reading Mew's data, it launched an attack. Its small mouth opened, and an enormous sound wave spread outward. The black energy ripple knocked Latias, Latios, and Vivillon from the sky simultaneously.
Latias and Latios were much stronger than Vivillon and could forcibly withstand Mew's Boomburst, but Vivillon could not. It immediately lost the ability to battle.
Yuga quickly retrieved it into its Poké Ball.
Latias and Latios activated Recover once again. The wounds on their bodies slowly disappeared, and then they used the move Dragon Breath.
Two green waves of energy intertwined and blasted toward Mew.
The Shadow Unown surrounding Mew surged forward like a tide, forming a black wall in front of it, blocking the Dragon Breath attack.
At this point, Mew had also joined the mental link of the Unown and had become their core, controlling them. With the Unown's power, Mew used an even stronger Light Screen.
After blocking Latias and Latios' attack, the Shadow Unown swiftly retreated to Mew's sides and behind it. Then, under Mew's control, a Dark Pulse shot toward Latias and Latios.
Latias and Latios quickly split apart. Mew's Dark Pulse missed, but Yuga noticed that the ground struck by Mew's attack slowly formed a thin layer of pink crystal.
So, the one who froze Zenith Academy... was this Mew in front of them...
After dodging Mew's Dark Pulse, Latias and Latios simultaneously used Helping Hand on each other and then launched Dragon Pulse together.
Two blue-purple dragon-shaped energy waves merged into one, transforming into a larger dragon that lunged toward Mew with fangs bared and claws extended.
However, the Shadow Unown gathered once again in front of Mew and, under its control, used Light Screen to block the Dragon Pulse.
For a moment, Latias and Latios' attacks seemed completely ineffective against Mew.
"Chimecho~"
At that moment, the Chimecho above Yuga's head flew up again.
Seeing this, Yuga shouted, "Chimecho, come back! You haven't recovered yet!"
But Chimecho didn't respond to Yuga's call. It flew into the air, and black patterns reappeared all over its body. A large number of Unown poured out from it.
These Unown surrounded Chimecho, forming a massive symbol that wrapped around it.
At this point, Chimecho had entered the same state as Mew. It had become the core of the Unown and gained the power to control them.
"Chimecho~"
From within the mysterious Unown symbol came Chimecho's voice. It used Hidden Power. A massive rainbow-colored energy pillar shot out from the symbol, directly targeting Mew surrounded by the Shadow Unown.
Hidden Power is a very special move. Although it's a Normal-type move, its power varies depending on the user.
It is the only move that Unown can learn.
Hidden Power of different types has different colors. The Hidden Powers unleashed by countless Unown combined under Chimecho's control, forming a dazzling, multicolored energy pillar.
Mew was not to be outdone either—it gathered the power of the Shadow Unown and used Dark Pulse.
Although both Pokémon had become the core of the Unown, the way they used moves in battle was vastly different.
Chimecho was integrating and controlling the power of all the Unown, enhancing this power to form an attack; while Mew, on the other hand, absorbed the power of the Shadow Unown into itself, strengthening its own power.
The black and multicolored energy beams collided in midair. The massive shockwave flipped over Yuga and the others below. The three elderly men were only saved from being blown away with the help of their own Pokémon.
Latias and Latios weren't idle either.
Latios took the opportunity to launch a powerful Dragon-type move—Draco Meteor. Countless meteors streaked across the sky, trailing flames as they crashed down hard toward Mew, who was locked in a beam struggle with Chimecho.
The Shadow Unown instinctively gathered in front of Mew once more, forming a black wall. They attempted to defend against Latios's Draco Meteor with Light Screen.
At this moment, Latias made her move. Air currents surged in front of her, and under her control, a strong wind blew toward the Shadow Unown. Though it seemed gentle, it actually dispersed the black wall.
It was the move Defog.
On Chimecho's side, even with the help of the Unown, its power was ultimately still far below Mew's. After holding on for a while in the beam clash between Synchronoise and Dark Pulse, it gradually began to falter and was on the verge of being overwhelmed by Dark Pulse.
Then, suddenly, Mew was struck by a meteor. Synchronoise immediately gained the upper hand, pushing back Dark Pulse and engulfing Mew and the surrounding Unown.
The link between Mew and the Shadow Unown was forcibly severed, and they were forced to disperse.
The injured Mew gathered the scattered darkness back together, then cast a fierce glare at Chimecho, Latias, and Latios. With a small wave of its hand, it disappeared into a pitch-black vortex along with the Shadow Unown.
Yuga didn't expect Mew to retreat so decisively. For a moment, he was caught off guard.
"Ah… look over there!"
Just then, Mr. Ross suddenly cried out in alarm and pointed into the distance.
Yuga and the others looked ahead and saw that the egg-shaped spatial barrier was actually shrinking. The spatial rift that Zenith Academy had fallen into was getting smaller and smaller.
Mr. Harrison said, "This must be the doing of the Unown and that Mew. At this rate, the academy will eventually be completely eroded. What will happen to the students and teachers still inside?"
Yuga frowned and asked, "Does anyone know the origins of those Unown and that Mew?"
"I know a bit," came the dejected voice of Mr. Kaga.
Everyone turned toward him upon hearing this.
Mr. Kaga continued, "Mr. Shimizu should know about our people, the Fairy Remnants."
"I do," Yuga nodded, though he hadn't expected Mr. Kaga to be one of them.
"In fact, that Mew is a Pokémon we, the Fairy Remnants, were tasked to suppress and guard," Mr. Kaga explained.
The origins of Mew could be traced back to a very long time ago. At that time, although various branches of the ancient peoples had scattered across the world, there were four that happened to live near one another: the Dark Remnants, the Fairy, the Wind Remnants, and the Psychic Remnants.
The god worshipped by the Dark Remnants at the time was a Darkrai; the god of the Psychic Remnants was the very Mew they were seeing now; the Fairy Remnants worshipped Diancie; and the Wind Remnants worshipped Lugia.
Among them, the Dark Remnants and the Wind Remnants had migrated to this area later, but they had always lived in peace with the others.
At that time, legendary Pokémon had not yet declined. The Lugia worshipped by the Wind Remnants in this region was quite unique—it was a mutated form, having lost its Psychic typing and gained the Dark typing instead.
It was the Shadow Lugia that Yuga and the others had encountered later on.
But not long after, the world underwent a tremendous change. A large number of Legendary Pokemon died one after another, including the Darkrai of the Dark Remnants and the Diancie of the Fairy Remnants.
Some members of the Dark Remnants could not accept the death of their deity, so they set their sights on the Lugia of the Wind Remnants.
Of course, they weren't planning to worship Lugia as their new god—instead, they intended to use Lugia to resurrect Darkrai.
And so, the ill-intentioned Dark Remnants poisoned the water source of the Wind Remnants. Caught completely off guard, the Wind Remnants fell into the trap, and the entire clan was exterminated, with Lugia captured.
Although the clans lived close to each other, there was still some distance between them. So at first, the Fairy Remnants and the Psychic Remnants didn't realize what had happened to the Wind Remnants. By the time they discovered it, it was already too late.
No one knew how, but the Dark Remnants actually managed to gain control of the Shadow Lugia.
The Fairy Remnants and the Psychic Remnants were outraged by the actions of the Dark Remnants, and a great war broke out between the sides.
In this battle, both sides suffered heavy losses. The Psychic Remnants, which served as the main fighting force, was completely wiped out, leaving behind only a single Mew that had been corrupted by the power of Shadow Lugia.
After the war, the Dark Remnants disappeared without a trace, taking with them Shadow Lugia and the corpse of Darkrai, while the Fairy Remnants stayed behind to recuperate and rebuild.
Later, the people of the Fairy Remnants discovered that the corrupted Mew had begun to lose its sense of self and started attacking people indiscriminately, so they had no choice but to seal it away.
Helping them seal Lugia were the people from the Arche Valley. Those Unown were left behind by the Arche Valley to suppress Mew.
However, as time went on, the power of the corrupted Mew continued to grow stronger and stronger, and even the Unown that sealed it began to be corrupted as well.
That is, until several hundred years ago, when Magearna was born. Magearna used its own power to reinforce the seal on Mew, giving the Fairy Remnants (who by then could only be called the Remnants of the Fairies) some time to breathe.
In order to prevent the news of Mew from leaking out, the existence of Magearna and the seal had always been a secret of the Fairy Remnants. Even within the clan, very few people knew about it.
However, Magearna's seal only treated the symptoms and not the root cause. After several hundred years had passed, Magearna itself began to be affected by Mew's corruption.
Although later Yuga helped Magearna twice, now it seems that Mew has ultimately broken free.
After hearing Mr. Kaga's explanation, Yuga fell into deep thought. These hidden stories astonishingly connected with the rumors he had heard back in Yushan Town of the Johto region. Although there were some discrepancies, the differences weren't significant.
The Dark Remnants from that region must have been the very same group that disappeared from here!