Chapter 746: Reborn for the Eighth Life, Incarnation of Darkness
Ever since the dark mist enveloped the entire planet forty-nine years ago.
This world had lost the so-called spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The biting cold wind constantly echoed in every corner of the world all year round.
Where could one still see a few touches of green on the once lush Mt. Silver today?
When the thick black mist in the sky began to turn bright and gray.
The creatures in this world could barely heave a sigh.
That meant.
Another long day had been endured.
A grayish, dim light descended from the sky, falling upon the black and gray Mt. Silver.
It was as if the world suddenly remembered this forgotten corner.
Thump.
Thump.
Muffled heartbeats echoed up and down the entirety of Mt. Silver. A black vortex could faintly be seen appearing at the peak of Mt. Silver.
In just the blink of an eye.
That black vortex had completely disappeared, as if it had never appeared at all, just an illusion that left no trace behind.
At the foot of Mt. Silver.
In the outermost area, there was a small, lifeless lake.
Logically speaking.
Although the scale of this lake was relatively small, there should have been at least dozens of Pokémon living in it.
Especially for aquatic Pokémon with tenacious vitality like Magikarp and Feebas, they should be able to survive no matter what kind of place it was.
However.
The fact was.
Not a single trace of vitality could be seen in this lake.
At least, that was the case before today.
At the bottom of the lake.
An egg, so pitch-black that no other color could be seen, lay there quietly. Its darkness seemed to devour all the light in the world, making it truly daunting.
Just one look at its exterior and one would understand.
This egg was absolutely no ordinary thing...
A year quietly slipped by.
On the surface, the gloomy Mt. Silver didn't seem to undergo any changes, but in the shadows, something seemed to have been added.
Before anyone could explain it clearly.
Let's just call it an addition of...
[Hope].
Buzz—!!
A black light containing neon colors shot out from the lake, and the colorful darkness instantly enveloped the entirety of Mt. Silver.
Unfortunately.
Such an astonishing scene.
Didn't seem to affect this world at all.
"Hm... this place seems a bit familiar."
A very magnetic male voice came from the bottom of the lake.
Following closely behind, what emerged from the lake was a figure that seemingly symbolized ominousness and darkness.
Standing quietly on the surface of the lake.
Kazuya looked around.
Surrounding this lake seemed to be a bizarre forest.
The reason it was called "bizarre".
Was because this forest was not made of ordinary trees, but of a strange type of tree.
The leaves of this strange tree were pure black needles, like steel thorns. Let's tentatively call them Iron Thorn Trees.
The bizarre appearance of these trees even made Kazuya doubt whether they could still be considered vegetation; perhaps they didn't even need photosynthesis.
After taking a few more looks.
Kazuya confirmed that he probably hadn't been to this place in his previous lifetimes.
This was his first time seeing such strange trees.
Afterward.
Kazuya looked up at the sky and muttered, "Is the sky still dark? Let's check the panel first."
"Hm?! It's actually Darkrai?!"
The moment Kazuya saw the panel, his eyes widened, and a rare look of pleasant surprise appeared in his pupils.
Reborn for the eighth life.
This was his first time reincarnating as a "God".
And a Mythical Pokémon with fluctuating combat power at that.
Darkrai.
Also known as the "God of Nightmares", "God of Devouring", "God of Darkness"...
The different folk titles stemmed from its own abilities, translated names, classifications...
But they were all titles addressing Darkrai.
A single-type Dark-type Mythical Beast.
Categorized under the "Pitch-Black Pokémon" class.
Possessing the power to control "Nightmares", as well as the signature move "Dark Void".
Among the many Mythical Pokémon.
Whether in terms of popularity, number of appearances, or on-screen combat power, Darkrai was a highly ranked character.
In a "Favorite Mythical Pokémon" poll held before the release of the Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction movie, Darkrai topped the list.
Darkrai being elected.
Probably had little to do with strength.
It was mainly because it was handsome.
After all, strong powerhouses appear every year, and who knows who will get it this year.
But "handsome" was a lifelong thing, it wouldn't change with version updates.
Apart from the [Pitch-Black Pokémon] classification.
Darkrai also belonged to the [Pokémon of Dreams and the Moon], and its counterpart was the Legendary Pokémon Cresselia, known as the "God of Sweet Dreams".
However, although the two were counterparts.
Darkrai firmly crushed Cresselia.
Whether in talent or actual combat power, if the two fought, Cresselia would have a hard time finding a chance to win.
Setting everything else aside.
Just looking at their typings.
Dark-type is immune to the damage of Psychic-type moves.
Both were also single-type Pokémon, which meant the highest level of type advantage against Cresselia.
Moreover.
In the games.
Since the ninth generation.
Cresselia's base stats were cut by 20, making it even worse than ordinary pseudo-legendaries, placing it firmly below Darkrai.
The two could no longer be compared on the same level.
Of course.
In reality.
It definitely couldn't just be based on talent and typing.
At least in Kazuya's understanding, the two on Newmoon Island and Fullmoon Island were evenly matched in strength and had a very good relationship.
Perhaps.
In the real world.
Darkrai might not be considered that powerful among the many Gods, and might not even get much screen time.
But it was a God nonetheless.
Whether it was powerful or not depended on the individual.
The issue couldn't be entirely blamed on the species.
So.
For Kazuya's reincarnation start this time, the starting point was already quite high.
No matter what, it wouldn't be worse than his previous lifetimes.
Moreover.
Mythical Pokémon were a category that heavily relied on their "exclusive abilities".
Their specific strength depended on the development and application of their own abilities.
If developed powerfully enough.
Rivaling first-tier Gods was not impossible.
Simply put.
The combat power of Mythical Pokémon was very "idealistic", similar to Devil Fruit abilities in the One Piece world or Mangekyou Dojutsu in the Naruto world.
Continuing to look down.
The golden potential was within expectations.
But starting at Lv. 80 right from birth, although consistent with Kazuya's understanding, still made him extremely thrilled.
After meeting Volcanion.
Kazuya knew that Mythical Pokémon started at Lv. 80 right from birth.
That is to say.
Born a Champion.
A starting point higher than the endpoint of the vast majority of Pokémon.
Although Lv. 80 was no longer a problem in Kazuya's eyes, this meant he had saved a ton of time.
It was indeed worth rejoicing over.
Further down.
[Held Item: Dread Plate x2]
When he saw this.
Kazuya really couldn't help but laugh.
One must know.
Before this, the Dread Plate was the most useless plate for Kazuya, even less useful than some rare items.
Because the Dark typing was a bit "isolated".
Its offensive coverage was narrow, and its defensive coverage was also narrow.
It could be called a minor Normal-type.
If it weren't for the fact that it perfectly countered the real world's most troublesome Ghost and Psychic types, the Dark type would probably be very weak in reality.
In his previous lifetimes, Kazuya rarely needed to use Dark-type moves, and he didn't suffer Dark-type attacks often.
So there were almost no opportunities for the Dread Plate to be of use.
But this lifetime was completely different!
"No more acting!"
Kazuya waved his hands.
A black-gray plate appeared on both his left and right.
The effects of the plates were stackable.
This meant that for Kazuya, the power of his moves in this life would inherently be increased by 40% on top of the original base!
It was actually this terrifying.
Unfortunately.
The only fly in the ointment.
Was that the Egg Move at the very bottom was actually "Thunderbolt".
Indeed.
The move Thunderbolt spanned the entire history of the Pokémon anime.
If anyone said the move Thunderbolt wasn't strong, the first one to rush up definitely wouldn't be a Super Pallet Town kid, but a certain trio.
But the problem was...
Kazuya was not Pikachu with protagonist plot armor.
His Thunderbolt and Pikachu's Thunderbolt were simply not the same move.
For this Egg Move.
The only advantage was using it for coverage.
Although.
The offensive coverage of the Dark type was narrow.
However.
Darkrai's offensive coverage was not narrow.
The move typings he could learn reached 11, and even if non-damaging moves were excluded, there were still 9.
This was already not a small number.
But the reason the word "coverage" was still used.
Was because Darkrai's move pool was shallow.
That is to say.
Although it covered many typings, there were very few moves it could learn for each typing.
Reality wasn't a game where one could only carry 4 moves.
Nor was it a turn-based battle style.
Where you use a move and that's it, with no follow-up.
Darkrai's Electric-type moves only included Charge Beam, Thunder Wave, and Thunder.
Thunder Wave was a non-damaging status move.
Thunder had enough damage, but its accuracy was low, and it always fell from the sky, leaving almost no room for manipulation.
Charge Beam was just a straight bolt of electricity, which was actually quite easy to dodge.
Thunderbolt was different.
Thunderbolt was a current that could be micro-managed, even capable of being fired around corners, which greatly increased the difficulty of dodging.
In reality.
Such a move had immense significance.
It could drastically improve one's capabilities in battle.
Especially for Darkrai, whose talent points were heavily invested in "Special Attack" and "Mid-to-Long Range Combat".
So.
Overall.
The Egg Move Thunderbolt was not entirely useless.
It still had some utility.
"Not inheriting a Fighting-type or Psychic-type move is already very good."
Kazuya closed the panel and consoled himself a bit.
Because Aura and psychic powers could be self-taught later on, moves of these two typings were the most unnecessary to inherit.
If he really inherited moves of those two typings.
Then it would be truly meaningless.
Looking at it this way.
Thunderbolt was actually not bad.
"Then, next up, first figure out where this place is..."
Kazuya looked up at the sky.
The next second, he flew upwards.
Although he wanted to plan his training for this lifetime, he intended to first understand his current situation.
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