Pokémon Chronicles 零 (ZERO)

Episode 45: A glimmer in the darkest hours

You don't truly know what you have until you no longer have it... only now do I fully understand the weight of those words, walking out into a world without bestia like this.

Simply looking at the drained world was nothing compared to actually being out amongst it all. The air was still and dead, shifting between cold and uncomfortably humid, whichever my body decided to give me more of. The ground felt nothing like the nature it was shaped like, instead retaining a texture unlike anything I had ever felt. We were walking across thin grass, soil, and a bit of rockery thanks to the mountains here, and yet, every last step felt as though I was walking on some sort of hard, dry, immovable clay.

When trees and plants died, they withered, taking on decaying, brown colours. Here, the dead nature took on a colourless appearance instead, a sight so dull that it couldn't even be described as grey or white. Nothing retained the laws of nature, either. The thin blades of grass didn't sway or move when we stepped in between them, instead remaining stiff and unmoving, acting out as little jagged spots of ground that prodded my feet with each step. Rocks did not break or lean or tilt or anything, even if I brushed them. The whole world was truly frozen in darkness.

There weren't even any Pokémon visible around. Normally whenever we left public areas and went out into the wild, it took minutes for feral Pokémon to attack or least be visible, filling the scenery with their herds and migrations. Here, they were so non-existent that the world was almost stark silent, to a point that I could hear my own breathing. The only other noises were blasts caused by the distant war around Dein Nomos.

"Is this what hopelessness looks like in physical form?" I whispered, slowly turning my gaze up into the sky. Despite the fact that the shining blue ocean covered the sky completely, it was seemingly the only thing of colour and light in the entire world. The distant horizon was invisible, completely shrouded in black, and what of the Earth could be seen was nothing but colourless landscape. The sun couldn't even be seen through the barrier of water.

"All living things need water to live, even fire type Pokémon. But with all of the bestia up in the sky, taking the form of the water we need to live, it instead gives us a sense of hopelessness... that the source of healthy life lies beyond our reach, inaccessible due to the course of war and twisted beliefs..." Lucca spoke up, half responding to me. "What have Pokémon of modern times really done to deserve this? Is it because we cling to the past instead of learning from our mistakes, and rely on the legends of Heroica for our bestia energy? Or are we truly the power hungry, war seeking race that causes Pokémon like FinVarra and Panzer to cause such great conflict?"

"Well look at you, getting all poetic all of a sudden," Megan complained.

"That's a good question, though... the whole world relies on us as shining warriors, but... why?" Shelly added. "Outside of our anima power, we're normal Pokémon. Why couldn't anyone else have awakened the bestia fountains?"

"Didn't Angel answer that before? Because we're the bringers of hope and the legendary ones that love the world and all. It's our dreams and ideals that pour outta those fountains!" Megan answered enthusiastically. There was a pause.

"I... I'm sure we all know that... but looking at all this," Shelly moaned, slowing down. We were about to enter a valley that went beside a steep cliff. Further inland was a few more paths of open fields and hills, all of it as dark and colourless as the rest of the scenery. There weren't even any tree trunks, just stumps where trees once stood. "I never could've imagined a world that looks like this... this is like... even if we magically got the bestia energy back, could we really return all this to normal?"

"Tsk, of course we can, we have to. And the sooner we move, the less time we have to spend in this hellhole," Megan argued. All of a sudden, an extremely loud cry shook the ground around us, sounding scarily synthetic and womanlike. It was low and kept the same tone even as the sound dragged on for a alarming length of time.