Chapter 749: A World of Despair - Great Darkness
Even though Kazuya revealed his identity to Scizor, he didn't gain the latter's trust. Instead, it was met with a wary gaze.
It wasn't until Kazuya recounted some trivial matters from back in Laverre City.
That Scizor stared at Kazuya with a shocked look for a long, long time, until his eyes filled with tears, and he aggrievedly lowered his head, covering his face with his arms.
For Scizor.
Kazuya was already a figure from three hundred years ago.
That's right.
Three hundred years had passed since Kazuya last parted with Scizor.
After all, during his fourth life.
Kazuya hadn't met Scizor.
Even if the latter had heard the title "God of the Sea," he hadn't seen Kazuya's true form in his fourth life.
Nor would he know that the God of the Sea and the God of Wood were actually the same person.
"What's wrong?"
Kazuya raised his hand and patted his head, asking patiently.
"Master... everyone died, this world is already finished... You shouldn't have reappeared..."
Scizor raised a hand to wipe his tears. Aside from despair, there was also heavy worry in his eyes.
This worry stemmed from his understanding of his master.
He knew what kind of choice this master would ultimately make.
But such a choice was tantamount to seeking death.
"Tell me about it. What exactly happened to this world for you to say such things?"
Kazuya sighed.
Judging by Scizor's words, the situation in this world seemed even more severe than he had imagined.
Based on the strength the other party showed just now.
He had probably reached the level of a high-tier Champion.
Coupled with this Mega form.
His strength should be extremely terrifying.
Yet, despite possessing such strength, Scizor still frankly stated that this was a finished world.
Clearly.
The problems facing this world.
Were already at a level of difficulty that a high-tier Champion couldn't even remotely solve.
Thinking back to what Scizor said when they first met...
Kazuya suspected that those Mythical and Legendary Beast friends of his in this world had probably all met with misfortune one by one.
He truly lived up to being someone who had experienced countless major disasters.
Even before Scizor started mentioning anything about this world, Kazuya had already anticipated part of the situation.
Meowscarada is actually still in this world? But I clearly searched before...
This doubt couldn't help but arise in Kazuya's heart.
Meanwhile.
Scizor also began to tell Kazuya about the current First World.
"So-rai..."
The changes all trace back to 70 years ago.
"Wait a minute, what year is it now?"
"So-rai..."
League Calendar Year 250...
Scizor spread his hands, hesitating to speak, his sentence unfinished.
"How is that possible?!"
Kazuya's eyes widened, and huge waves surged in his heart.
His time of death in his fourth life was League Calendar Year 270!
How could the current timeline be 20 years earlier than his time of death?!
"So-rai."
Please hear me out.
Scizor hurriedly raised his hand to stop Kazuya from thinking further.
And Kazuya also calmed down, intending to quietly listen to the other party explain clearly.
Through Scizor's explanation.
Kazuya finally gained an understanding of this familiar yet unfamiliar world.
The timeline hadn't gone wrong.
It was indeed League Calendar Year 250 now.
Also known as the New Magical Beast Era Year 50.
And the "70 years ago" Scizor mentioned referred to League Calendar Year 280.
The reason for the temporal discrepancy was that on the day of League Calendar Year 300, time worldwide began to flow backward!
If the timeline hadn't flowed backward but had progressed normally.
Then it would actually be League Calendar Year 350 now!
It was also starting from League Calendar Year 300 that the League Era met its end, and the New Magical Beast Era drew back its curtains.
No one knew why the time in this world flowed backward, but what was certain was that it was absolutely related to the "Great Darkness" event that started 70 years ago and lasted for 20 years before ending.
[Great Darkness].
That was an event that occurred in League Calendar Year 280, exactly 10 years after Kazuya's death.
The location of the incident was Phenac City in the Orre region.
On that day, the underground of Phenac City suddenly exploded, the entire city continuously collapsed, and endless shadow energy poured out from beneath Phenac City, infecting all the Pokémon in the entire city into mindless "magical beasts".
[Magical Beasts].
An ancient title originating from the Magical Beast Era, it was revived in the current New Magical Beast Era to distinguish normal Pokémon from those polluted by shadow energy.
No one knew what happened in Phenac City that day.
Because since that day.
Phenac City became a dead city.
Humans outside couldn't get in, nor could they investigate clearly what had happened.
And no one had ever seen humans or normal Pokémon come out of it; perhaps they were already all dead.
Humanity's reaction was not slow.
The Pokémon League immediately dispatched the Unova Champion, who was nearby at the time, to investigate.
The price was the Unova Champion's death, and his Pokémon being reduced to magical beasts.
Later on, they sent additional personnel several times.
Without exception.
They all perished.
Those sacrifices were not meaningless.
At least humanity discovered two important pieces of intelligence.
[Shadow energy will invade a Pokémon's body through wounds, gradually infecting it. Only an extremely small number of powerful Pokémon can offset the shadow energy in their bodies over a long period of time.]
[Once shadow energy merges with a Pokémon, even attempting to dispel the shadow energy will result in the Pokémon's death. Therefore, as long as it is infected by shadow energy, it is basically equivalent to the Pokémon being dead.]
The Pokémon League hid nothing.
Instead, they immediately announced this matter to the whole world.
And notified all Trainers absolutely not to let their Pokémon battle against magical beasts!
At the same time.
The Pokémon League also immediately began building defensive lines and shelters, their speed of action incredibly fast.
But the invasion of darkness was more turbulent than a rising tide.
In just about a short week.
The entire Orre region completely fell.
And what was even more terrifying was the speed at which the oceans fell!
How many Pokémon were there in the sea?
And how many places in the sea were there for those aquatic Pokémon to escape to?
When the sea completely fell.
How many regions in this world could be spared?
The answer, of course, was none.
A disaster sweeping across the entire world completely erupted, and the situation of the entire world underwent a massive reversal.
During the Magical Beast Era.
It was friendly Pokémon protecting humans.
In the New Magical Beast Era, it was reversed.
It became humans protecting Pokémon.
A long tug-of-war began from then on.
Whether humans or Mythical and Legendary Beasts, as long as they were creatures that still possessed self-awareness, it was inevitable.
Countless humans sacrificed themselves to protect their cherished Pokémon, and some Trainers were even killed by their own Pokémon, leading to infinitely miserable endings.
Groudon, Kyogre, Regigigas, and a bunch of other Legendary Pokémon who were still sleeping were engulfed by shadow energy unknowingly, becoming puppets of the shadow energy used against other Legendary Pokémon before they could even make a move.
Ho-Oh, Lugia, Rayquaza, and other Legendary Pokémon appeared to actively attack, but they were all ultimately infected by shadow energy.
Even the legendary Arceus couldn't be spared.
Even if Legendary Pokémon tried to hide.
They would always be quickly found and besieged until they were reduced to puppets of shadow energy.
The Pokémon League stood at the forefront of all Trainers and fought for 20 years, but in the end, they were completely dismantled. Until everything fell apart, the Pokémon League hadn't found a way to solve the shadow energy.
Fortunately.
During those 20 years.
The Pokémon League had built many underground shelters in various regions.
This allowed a small portion of humans and Pokémon to survive, avoiding complete extinction.
Up until this moment.
League Calendar Year 300.
The Great Darkness event ended, drawing to a close with the complete defeat of humans and Pokémon.
From this day on.
The sunlight of this world was shrouded in thick black-gray fog.
The entire world permanently lost its "daytime".
Of course.
The humans and ordinary Pokémon who had been forced to hide underground had already lost the qualification to see the light of day again, and had no time at all to care about the state of the sky in this world.
The New Magical Beast Era began.
The destruction caused by shadow energy did not end there.
Magical beasts would also slaughter each other, treating each other as prey to hunt. Some magical beasts even possessed a certain degree of intelligence, knowing they needed to gang up to attack other magical beasts to gain a greater chance of survival.
The surface had been reduced to a hunting ground for magical beasts.
The humans and normal Pokémon underground also lived in agonizing pain, with countless things to worry about.
The total number of living creatures worldwide decreased sharply year by year.
But the despair didn't come to an abrupt halt there.
Something that shocked everyone occurred on a certain day in the League Calendar.
[The world's time is flowing backward!]
More accurately speaking.
It was the terrain of this world that was regressing, while everything else was unaffected.
Humans expanded the scope of the underground world on Wednesday, but when they wanted to continue expanding on Thursday, they found that the original land would turn into what it was on Tuesday!
When Friday arrived, that land would turn back into what it was on Monday.
No matter how much was dug today.
This world would always continue moving forward unaffected.
Humans could only watch helplessly as their underground living space grew smaller and smaller.
Despair.
Thus completely permeated the whole world.
Humanity had to accept reality and began recalculating time.
When the time progressed from New Magical Beast Year 1 to Year 20.
It meant that the world had actually regressed from League Calendar Year 300 back to Year 280.
Humanity lost all their underground shelters.
However.
Evil organizations in various regions had once dug countless bases and research institutes underground!
Especially in the Kanto and Johto regions.
They actually found over sixty ruins of Team Rocket's underground bases from decades ago!
There was no time to complain.
Humanity finally regained hope for survival.
Even if this hope was incredibly small, so small that it was almost invisible to the naked eye.
But some people still survived.
Until today, League Calendar Year 250.
Even if there weren't many normal creatures left in this world.
At least humans and Pokémon weren't completely extinct yet.
Because the number of magical beasts was also sharply decreasing, humans and ordinary Pokémon even had the opportunity to come to the surface to search for survival resources.
It was just that...
Undeniably.
This was indeed a world of despair.
And it indeed looked like one that was destined to be finished.
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