"Wait... do you even know what's under those devices?!" Hunter G shouted.
Shiro's attention was successfully drawn back.
As Corviknight rose again, the man didn't speak right away. He just looked up at Shiro, then turned his eyes toward the peak of the rocky hill in the distance, where the four Dynamax devices had fused into a single massive beam of light.
That thing triggered the beginning of everything here, but it wasn't the true source of this Dynamax Den.
"What do you mean?" Shiro questioned sharply.
Hunter G kept his eyes on the devices, saying nothing.
"Haunter," Shiro called out, "use Hypnosis."
The Pokémon floated in front of the hunter at once. Its claws spread slightly as waves of soft pink light began to ripple outward.
But Hunter G just stared blankly toward the hilltop. Several seconds passed, and he didn't show even the slightest sign of being hypnotized.
"Haun?"
Haunter let out a confused sound, growing a bit anxious. It didn't want to mess up after finally being useful. So it focused even harder, pouring more effort into the hypnotic waves.
Yet no matter how strongly the waves pulsed, Hunter G showed no response. It was as if Hypnosis had no effect on him at all.
"What's going on?" Shiro asked, puzzled.
"Haun..."
Haunter scratched its head in frustration, both of its purple-black claws twitching awkwardly, not knowing what else to do.
"Don't waste your energy... hehehe." Hunter G suddenly spoke in a strange, eerie tone. "My master is a powerful psychic. He placed a seal in my mind. I can't say anything critical, and I'm immune to tricks like Hypnosis. Besides, everything's already over."
Shiro frowned slightly, a creeping sense of danger running up his spine. He gaze shifted toward the Dynamax devices again.
Drakloak was still flying above, clearing out nearby fleeing hunters with its attack, but two of them were moving the other way, heading toward the devices.
Those two hunters circled around the machines, doing something as they moved. It wasn't clear what they were up to, and nothing seemed to be changing.
Drakloak soon noticed them. While flying around the glowing pillar, it unleashed another blast of Dragon Pulse.
But something was off. Back when Shiro had gone after their leader, every remaining hunter should've been trying to escape. Why were those two still there, lingering around the devices several minutes later?
As Hunter G kept staring at the Dynamax structures, Shiro felt a rising sense of irritation. Realizing he'd get nothing more out of this man, he simply waved his hand.
Corviknight let go.
Hunter G fell like a rag doll, eyes still locked onto the devices even as he plummeted toward Hippopotas.
At the same time, Drakloak, having lost patience with the two rat-like hunters, opened its mouth and fired a powerful Dragon Pulse that blasted both them and the devices.
Boom!
The brilliant bluish-green wave engulfed the red beam for a moment, and the blood-red light in the sky briefly vanished. All four devices crumbled into ash under that one attack, along with the two hunters.
But what made Shiro narrow his eyes... was that the central beam still remained.
The Dynamax phenomenon hadn't stopped at all!
"Hahaha..." Hunter G crashed to the ground, one of his legs snapping with a sickening crack, but the pain only made him laugh louder. "Those devices? You really think they are the source of the Dynamax Den? Huh?!"
Even Hippopotas, charging at him, seemed provoked by the sound. It opened its jaws and bit off his broken leg, chewing and swallowing it whole.
"I only protected the devices because I needed to retrieve the Unown!" Blood poured from Hunter G's lower half, yet somehow he looked more energized, his speech faster, more manic. "Now that I've failed and lost the target... everyone here can die with me! Let the Unown remain buried in the Stony Wilderness!"
He burst into mad laughter again.
Under Shiro's shocked gaze, as if responding to the man's voice, the entire yellowish hill began to tremble. It quaked violently, like something huge hidden deep within was about to break free.
Seeing Hippowdon bite off Hunter G's head in one savage crunch, Shiro hurriedly jumped onto Corviknight and flew toward the hilltop.
The devices weren't the true source of the den…
The realization struck him at once.
Normally, Dynamax energy caused the phenomenon, not the other way around. That meant something here must be absorbing the energy and growing larger.
The Pokémon itself was the origin of the Dynamax Den.
And that Pokémon... was below the four devices. Destroying them didn't make the den disappear, it woke the Dynamax Pokémon slumbering underneath.
As the low hill rose higher, swelling rapidly until it neared the height of the surrounding cliffs of the Stony Wilderness, Shiro quickly recalled Haunter and Vibrava into their Poké Balls.
In this situation, neither of them could do anything.
He urged Corviknight to speed up.
* * *
Meanwhile, Drakloak hovered above the rising hill, still confused, circling the re-formed pillar of Dynamax light. It had clearly destroyed the device that emitted the beam, so why was the light still flaring?
Then, right before its eyes, the beam expanded fast, like a new spatial barrier rippling outward. In an instant, it swept through everything within the original den.
It was like a whole new Dynamax space had just been forged.
Of course, that made sense. The first one was artificially pieced together by those four devices. It wasn't natural. Now that they were gone, the Dynamax Pokémon that had been used as the anchor was awakening.
Moments later, Shiro and Corviknight arrived on the scene.
The low hill continued to swell upward, its yellow rocky surface cracking apart like a shell, creating web-like fissures.
The freshly formed beam of light had already dissipated completely, which meant the Dynamax Pokémon had fully stabilized the space. Only by defeating it could the den be banished.
"Let's go, Drakloak!" Shiro shouted, still atop Corviknight. He didn't bother checking the remains of the devices or inspecting the creature below. They had more urgent things to do.
As the Dragon-type twisted midair and vanished into his shadow, Shiro directed Corviknight toward the grassy slope in the northwest.
If this was a standard Dynamax Den, its borders should still allow free passage—no barriers, no interference. And since a new den had formed, the priority was to leave immediately.
Shiro had no interest in gambling time and energy searching for resources inside this unstable space.
He headed toward the northwest slope because that was where Bewear had been left behind. When he took Haunter with him earlier, it had told the bear to wait there.
He wasn't someone like Ash; if he had the chance to return, he would. As long as Bewear was still there waiting, he'd try to capture it.
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