Darkest Day (Pokémon Sw/Sh fanfic - rewrite available and in progress)

Wishing Stars and Legends

The scream that both Leon and Hop made after the three had teleported was priceless. Never before had Eliana seen Leon so terrified. To save her hide from being discovered, she came up with the excuse that she had a powerful psychic-type on her team so Hop wouldn't get suspicious.

Eliana retreated to her room in the Inn while Leon went to join Raihan and Hop had gone to sign up for the challenge admissions. Nothing else interesting happened that night, other than some reading through an old book she had discovered under her bed.

"The Darkest Day and Other Galarian Tales," Eliana read aloud. The title was worn away by time, but the imprints of the gold letters remained behind. It was very dusty as well, the red cover reverted to a dirty gray. Even the binding was worn, but the gold casing was still there. Pure gold, too.

She flipped it open to a random page, careful not to rip it. A black-and-white image of a knight revealed itself to her. He donned a sword and a shield, battle-ready and raring to fight an unseen opponent in the sky. Eliana flicked her gaze down to the caption, reading it in her head this time.

The Knight of Galar was aided by the legendary Sword and Shield in his quest to vanquish the Darkest Day. While no one knows what the real source of the said apocalypse was, most believe it to be a very powerful pokémon, given the name Eternatus for its power to bring about an eternal night. (See page 213)

Curious, Eliana searched for that page. She was faced with the figure of a very frightening-looking pokémon. It looked to be made of crystal, with light protruding from the gaps in its body. It appeared almost skeletal. Most importantly, it looked to be a dragon-type.

Eternatus, also known as the Bringer of Destruction, was revered as a god up until a couple thousand years ago. It was feared by all, and made people believe that Wishing Stars were its source of power. While these mysterious crystals are now used for dynamaxing pokémon, there is much more to be learned about them. Eternatus is said to have two enemies, who are the only ones able to bring it down in its reign of destruction. Only when the Sword and Shield are united can the Darkest Day truly be conquered.

This page had what seemed to be notes tucked along the margins. She didn't recognize the handwriting, and it was almost too small to read. But she did see some words in the true text underlined, which provided some sort of clue as to what the notes were about. The words "Wishing Stars" were even highlighted. Someone must have been desperate for answers.

Eliana flipped to other random pages, trying to find out more about the Sword and Shield. But to her amazement, those pages had been torn out. Whoever had owned this book must not have wanted anyone to discover what they were.

She turned to the very last page, which was meant to be blank. In the bottom right corner, there was a small symbol. It looked to be a flower, but not just any flower.

It was a rose.

It was the next morning. It was a few hours before the championship entries began, so Eliana took the liberty to read more in the mysterious book. She had took a trip to the Motostoke library in hopes to find more references to the Sword and Shield. The librarian had given her a strange look, but lead her into the furthest part of the building nonetheless. This section was filled with old books, while the ones closer to the entryway were stacked with newer ones. Eliana was given a stack of books, though she was slightly disappointed to find that they were only mere legends. No sign of a scientific study or the likes.

She was deep into reading one of the legends when she was greeted with a crash from the other side of the room, followed by colorful cursing. It was too dark to see who it was from where she was sitting, so of course she got up to get closer to the source of the noise.