Paragon

Remnants of the Great War [41]

PARAGON

Remnants of the Great War Arc [41]

Chapter 50 : Aftermath

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Kanto Region - Mount Moon

As Ash peeled himself off the ground, the first thing he realized was that he was still alive. This is getting way too common for comfort, even for me, he thought, though a dull ache rippled through his body as he moved, cutting off any further thoughts. Finding the Electric Plate seemed to have granted him a certain level of confidence in his survivability in life-threatening situations, but the past few hours had thoroughly humbled him. In the end, someone else had needed to save him. A wave of nausea filtered through his body as he stood up.

Right in front of him, Sir Aaron's Mega Lucario groaned softly, padding away from him. Ash took a step closer, but Lucario's body soon began to glow. Azure mist wafted off his body like ash, and he turned his head to Ash, meeting his gaze.

"No," Ash breathed, stepping forward again.

Right before his eyes, Lucario's body began to dissolve, flaking into glowing azure wisps that quickly dissipated in the wind. Before long, Lucario was gone.

Ash stood stunned, his hand still outstretched.

Before the stones, people achieved Mega Evolution by forging an unbreakable bond with their pokémon, so tight that their very souls seemed to meld together, Sir Aaron had said. But that meant the fate of one decided the fate of the other. One could not live without the other.

"Sir Aaron..." Ash said aloud. His eyes widened and ran forward toward the edge of the cliff he found himself on. When he arrived and gazed out at the expanse before him, his stomach dropped in utter shock and horror.

Rota, or what was left of it, lie before him as a desolate wasteland. Far below, not a single tree still stood. There wasn't even a speck of color; stretched out before him was simply a vast plane of rock, burned white. Cameran Palace was nowhere in sight. The lake it'd sat within was now just a depression in the earth, utterly devoid of water. There was no fire, no smoke, and no ash. There was nothing. The entire country had simply been reset.

Even more numbing was the complete disappearance of the Tree of Beginning. It had once towered over mountains and clouds alike. Yet there was absolutely no trace it had ever existed at all. Not even a stump remained. Ash couldn't even tell where he should've been looking. That's how utterly empty the entire landscape was. He opened his mouth and his limbs twitched, subconsciously urging him to move, but what was there to do? The damage had been done. He could feel his blood run through him like molasses.

Rota was gone.

He turned around, clinging to the hope that maybe he was just terribly turned around, and that Rota and the Tree of Beginning were actually behind him, but he gasped at the sight he saw.

Currently, he was on a giant stone plateau that overlooked Rota. But, littering the rocky floor as far as he could see, were the unmoving bodies of Guardians and AZ's acolytes alike, all mixed together with no rhyme or reason as to their layout.

His body started to move on its own as he surged toward them. It was only now that he noticed Riley slumbering on the ground, slightly separated from the rest near the edge, like he'd been. Lucario must have taken them here, but how did everyone else get here?

His stomach started to turn at the thought, until he realized with great relief that many, if not all of the gathered bodies were still alive. Upon closer inspection, he could see them breathing, Guardians and acolytes both.