Paragon

Hisui Incursion [29]

PARAGON

Hisui Incursion Arc [29]

Chapter 81 : Light Against The Darkness

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"Voidestria!" Volo roared, and a tidal wave of darkness rippled outward from him in a putrid blossom.

Ash gritted his teeth at the fast-approaching miasma. He could see Volo's twisted smile beyond the smoky distortion.

I can try and protect myself from it, like I did with the Sanguinesilica...but I don't know how this technique works! If all it needs to do is touch me, then it'll be over right here!

Ash glared at the darkness, now bearing down on him, and noticed the two Koraidon standing within the darkness unperturbed. Is it targeted directly at me, leaving the Koraidon unaffected? No, it doesn't matter! I need to dodge! I can't let it touch me!

"Dodge, Pikachu!" Ash yelled, and at the same time, he flooded his own body with electricity and blitzed out of the way, into the sky. Lightning trailed behind him in a blinding burst and he angled himself toward the nearest pillar and grabbed it.

The miasma of darkness passed beneath him, pouring out of the temple like a carnivorous fog. He had his arm wrapped around the pillar, clinging to it, and he quickly found Pikachu doing the same to the pillar across from him, his claws embedded in the ancient stone. Ash's eyes flicked over to Volo and his Koraidon, yet none of them had moved. If he was a smarter trainer, he would've used this moment to attack us.

As the darkness flowed beneath Ash, it began to fade, blowing away in the mountain wind breezing in from outside.

Perhaps his Voidestria technique required a certain level of concentration, given its utterly incapacitating effect. However, not a second after he thought it, the crimson darkness once again flared to life around Volo, this time concentrating around his fist.

"Kill his pokémon!" Volo snarled, leaping into the air toward Ash, pitch-black darkness burning on his fist.

As the black Koraidon tore toward Pikachu, the red one opened its mouth and began charging draconic energy that snapped as ferally as the pit it'd come from.

Still imbued with electricity, Ash forced more power into his own fist, gusts of wind blustering around him as white lightning began to crackle across his forearm. Shifting his weight, he kicked off the pillar with both legs, launching toward the evil Platebearer.

"Volo!" Ash roared.

"Ash!" Volo spat.

As both men brought their fists forward in a vicious arc, divine energy seared to life within the cramped temple, half of blinding brightness, half of oily darkness. As the two suns of light and dark concentrated around their fists collided, a cacophonous explosion echoed outward, tearing through the temple in rippling walls of pure power. The walls and floor turned orange, embers burning on their scorched surfaces, but the ceiling could not handle the two Platebearers' proximity. Cracks webbed out across its formerly pristine surface and chunks of stone began to fall. However, before they could crush the two combatants, they were annihilated into minuscule fragments before they could get close.

With the roof of the temple now gone, the rift above yawned over them in full force, an abyssal pit beyond which Giratina was surely watching.

Ash's eyes burned from the blaze of their collision, but he forced more power into his vision, piercing the grayish void left in the wake of the two fading powers. As he expected, Volo wasn't finished.