Misty's home was a huge estate, basically located in the central area of Cerulean City.
According to Misty, their family didn't spend much when they bought this piece of land, it used to be a suburb.
After the Cerulean Gym got famous, Friendly Stores and residential buildings all scrambled to move here, and only then did it gradually become the city center.
After returning to the room, Axel comfortably took a bath.
Although he had already been thoroughly cleaned by Pheromosa today, the feeling of being soaked in warm water was still something hard to replace with other things.
Gardevoir and Pheromosa sat one on the left and one on the right, squeezing the originally spacious hot spring pool until it was packed tight.
Gardevoir bit her finger, some human-like worry appearing on her beautiful face.
'This is bad, Pheromosa is acting strange…'
Usually when faced with this kind of situation, she would run as far away as possible, only coming over when summoned.
'But today… this girl came even faster than me!'
Although Pheromosa was the candidate she herself chose to guard against house intruders, if she were to lose the "first blood," it would still be upsetting.
["Master…",] Gardevoir's voice appeared in Axel's mind.
"Mm."
["I learned Substitute today… want to give it a try?"]
"Hmm?"
Axel's eyes immediately lit up.
'So that's how Substitute is used?'
Axel licked his lips and took the Poké Ball placed on the nearby table.
"Pheromosa, you've been fighting all day today, you must be tired, right?"
"Pheromosa~?", Pheromosa tilted her head and looked at Axel, just about to say she wasn't tired.
The next moment, her body was enveloped by the Poké Ball's red light, and she looked at Axel through the glass of the Poké Ball with a resentful gaze.
'Bad master…'
'Let's see what kind of trick you're trying to pull!'
But in the next moment, Pheromosa couldn't help but widen her eyes.
She saw Gardevoir lightly snap her right fingers, and immediately a thick life force emerged from Gardevoir's body, forming another Gardevoir beside her.
Seeing two Gardevoirs with identical faces but completely different expressions and actions, Pheromosa froze hard and flopped onto her little bed.
Accepted her fate, it's still more suitable for her to do security work.
'When it comes to charming the master, I can never beat this Gardevoir in my entire life.'
———
The two Gardevoirs looked exactly the same, with butterflies made of pink energy floating around them.
The light refracted in the water, making the entire room brilliantly colorful.
The Substitute Gardevoir was expressionless, while the original Gardevoir blinked occasionally, almost cute enough to melt someone's heart.
["Master…"]
Axel swallowed hard, feeling his firm resolve crumble completely.
"So, mental power duel again today?"
["Mental power? Master's mental power… is too weak…"]
Gardevoir adjusted her sitting posture.
["I'm a Pokémon specialized in special attack… if Master wants to fight me evenly…"]
["I'm afraid… it has to be close combat."]
'Being looked down on?'
Axel unhesitatingly grabbed the floating grapes on the water's surface. As a super sincere person, his physique in this world was invincible.
["In that case… let me see how strong Master really is!"]
A soft moan, rhythmic slapping sounds echoed across the water.
Dialga noticed something unusual.
Dialga activated Time Acceleration.
———
More than three hours passed, and Axel finally defeated Gardevoir.
As a special attack-type Pokémon, Gardevoir's close combat ability wasn't particularly strong to begin with.
In the just-ended battle, Gardevoir was basically suppressed by Axel the whole time.
If it weren't for the Substitute skill, Gardevoir would've lost even faster.
Just a mere Gym Leader-level Pokémon, easily handled.
After the fierce battle, Axel didn't feel particularly sleepy.
Ever since obtaining Ho-Oh, with several consecutive battles over these days, he hadn't had a good night's sleep in a long while.
After bringing out Ho-Oh, he unlocked the chance to choose another region.
Unfortunately, he had been delayed until now and didn't have much time to enter the dream world.
Seeing Axel fall into a deep sleep, Gardevoir at the side slightly raised the corners of her mouth.
She patted her watermelon-like little belly and also snuggled up next to Axel.
A faint wave of psychic energy spread out, casting Hypnosis on Axel.
This move, aside from being used in battles, was also widely used by psychologists for therapy.
Now Gardevoir used Hypnosis just to help her master sleep well…
———
A strange brilliance flashed.
Axel appeared in a pure white world.
In front of him, nine portals slowly rotated, emitting a faint spatial aura.
Aside from the Kanto portal being green, the others were all white.
According to the system rules, Axel could still enter the Kanto region now, but he wouldn't be able to bring out any Pokémon from it.
It was unclear what the purpose of this function was, could it be that one day there would be a second playthrough?
Just as Axel was puzzled, the system gave an explanation:
[Meeting special conditions can unlock the Movie Version.]
'Movie?', Axel's heartbeat suddenly sped up.
There were many Legendary Pokémon and special items that were extremely hard to find in the game, like Hoopa, Arceus, the Swords of Justice, Victini.
But in the Movie Versions, finding them would be way easier.
Though he still didn't know what the unlocking conditions were, Axel didn't think more about it.
"Better decide which region to go to this time."
In fact, Axel initially planned to go for Alola's Necrozma, or Hoenn's Rayquaza.
But later, he'd had some connections with both regions, so Axel felt he could wait a bit.
If there was a chance to catch them in the real world, he wouldn't waste the opportunity in the dream world.
A few minutes later, Axel settled on a Legendary Pokémon that he absolutely couldn't catch in the real world.
'It's decided then, you're the one, Eternatus of the 8th generation.'
From what Axel knew, the entire Dynamax phenomenon in Galar was caused by Eternatus' appearance.
That alone showed how much face value Eternatus carried.
With a base stat total of 1125 and a terrifying physique maxed out in both defenses and HP.
If it weren't for the Sword and Shield duo being a direct counter to Eternatus, it probably wouldn't even be catchable in the game.
After obtaining it, maybe he could also find a way to reach the Ultra Wormhole sooner and bring his parents back.
He knew what the greater danger mentioned in their letter was, wasn't it Necrozma?
Eternatus would shatter that mirror with one hit, okay?
———
[A Dark World]
Two majestic Pokémon stood in a grand hall, their eyes bright and clean like the sun and moon, currently showing a bit of surprise.
Beside them, two Trainers sat on the ground, holding some stone tablets and writing/drawing on them.
"Dear, according to my research, the entire Ultra Wormhole is getting darker and darker."
"If we can't find enough light sources, Necrozma might truly fall into darkness."
"Before that, we must find Ho-Oh and Moltres's flames to light up the Ultra Wormhole."
"Before the Ultra Wormhole appears, it's best if we can make Necrozma our son's Pokémon!"
"Okay," Father Wood was about to say something when Solgaleo beside them suddenly let out a low roar.
"Dear, Solgaleo says that weird wave around our son showed up again."
"Get the portal ready immediately, contact our son!"
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