Several days later, Ethan left the Thorne family.
This time, he did not linger for long and mounted Charizard, flying straight toward the Sky Secret Kingdom.
"Charrzz!"
Charizard beat its wings as it flew, visibly excited.
On this journey to the southwestern region of the League, the one who had undoubtedly increased his strength the most was him.
After successfully evolving from Charmeleon to Charizard and mastering the Dragon-type Sunny Day, his power was now sufficient for him to become one of Ethan's main Pokémon.
He was now eager to test himself and measure his strength against those "senior brothers."
On Charizard's back, Riolu sat cross-legged. If one were to compare gains, the Riolu who had mastered the power of aura might have gained even more than Charizard.
Although Riolu's strength could not increase dramatically in the short term, his future was promising; he had already found the path to becoming stronger.
"Viiibbrraa!"
Vibrava landed on Ethan's hand.
This time, it had also gained many benefits. In addition to a balanced increase in all its abilities, it had unexpectedly learned the move Earthquake. Moreover, based on its condition, Ethan had already devised a training plan for it that might allow it to follow its own unique path.
On both sides of Ethan floated Meltan and Litwick. The two Pokémon chatted cheerfully, exchanging experiences about using the move Substitute.
During this journey, Meltan had successfully fused with a nut from another Meltan, allowing Ethan to glimpse the possibility of its evolution.
As long as it could successfully evolve into the Mythical Pokémon Melmetal, Meltan would undoubtedly be able to leap in a single step to become Ethan's strongest Pokémon, and even elevate its power to an entirely new level.
Of course, even if Meltan did not evolve, the Meltan nut alone already represented an enormous improvement for it. After returning, Ethan had already decided to rely on the Pokémon Researchers' Guild to search with all his might for Meltan nuts.
At the same time, from the shadow behind Ethan, Gengar's figure silently poked its head out, watching him with its red eyes.
Ever since learning that it still had the possibility to evolve, Gengar's heart had no longer been calm.
At the same time, it recalled the agreement it had made with Ethan in the past.
"If I can help you complete your evolution, then you will become my Pokémon."
Recalling those words, Gengar felt somewhat conflicted. Although rationally it knew it should not accept, deep down it could not help but want to. Evolution is a leap of life, and very few Pokémon can resist it.
Letting out a soft sigh, Gengar submerged back into Ethan's shadow and disappeared.
Fuuuu.
Accompanied by Charizard's high-speed flight, the wind roared fiercely.
However, Charizard's flying ability had improved tremendously; it could now use its mastery of air currents to offset the resistance of flight.
Riding on Charizard, Ethan only felt a light stream of air brushing past his body, lifting a strand of his hair. The gentle breeze against his face was even refreshing.
"Zzzt!"
At that moment, Meltan, acting as the navigator, had already located the position of the Sky Secret Kingdom through the spatial magnetic field and immediately indicated to the somewhat absent-minded Charizard to fly in that direction.
"Whew, we're finally back. I wonder how everyone is doing."
When Charizard passed through the passage of the Secret Kingdom, Ethan's figure entered a completely new world.
"Ethan, you're back?"
The guard watching over the passage smiled when he saw that it was Ethan and greeted him.
"Yes, thanks for your hard work, my friend."
Ethan returned the guard's smile and mounted Charizard to continue flying toward the main headquarters of the Pokémon Researchers' Guild.
After returning to the main headquarters of the Pokémon Researchers' Guild, Ethan immediately went to report to President Beckett.
When he found him, President Beckett was conducting research in the laboratory. Upon learning that Ethan had returned, he asked him to come to the lab at once.
"It's an Electabuzz... and an Electirizer!"
Upon seeing the experiment being conducted in the laboratory, Ethan was momentarily stunned, but he quickly understood.
The Electirizer was far too similar to the Magmarizer, so President Beckett and the others had quickly arrived at that conclusion.
Although after so much time the electrical energy contained in the Electirizer had completely dissipated, based on the traces of current that remained on it, President Beckett and his team immediately identified its function.
After that, based on the Pokémon evolution notebook that Ethan had provided, they selected the only Electric-type Pokémon with a special evolutionary form: Electabuzz.
In this way, they had essentially determined the method of Electivire's evolution. All that remained was to continue experimenting until it could be achieved.
"Ethan, you're back!"
Upon seeing Ethan enter, Alex Baxter immediately became excited.
"Yes, I'm back."
Ethan smiled faintly and stood beside Alex to observe the ongoing experiment together.
Zzzap, zzzap, zzzap!
At that moment, a massive charging machine could be seen operating at full power.
Placed at the machine's energy output was the Electirizer.
As the current continuously flowed out of the charging machine, it completely enveloped the Electirizer.
Little by little, the current released by the machine dissipated, but the Electirizer remained exactly the same as before, without absorbing even the slightest trace of electricity.
"Another failure." Seeing this, Alex let out a soft sigh.
It seemed that the experiment had not failed just once or twice.
"Ethan, you're here already."
President Beckett walked out of the laboratory and smiled when he saw Ethan.
"Greetings, President."
Ethan hurriedly bowed and greeted him very politely.
"Good. You've arrived just in time, Ethan. Take a look at this experiment and tell me why you think it's failing."
President Beckett rubbed his brow and spoke in a somewhat helpless tone.
After thinking for a moment, Ethan said, "Back then, I didn't try to restore the Magmarizer's energy directly; instead, I let Magmar jump into the magma while carrying the Magmarizer."
"Then, to restore the Electirizer's energy, wouldn't it be necessary to use natural lightning?"
"We already tried that, but it still failed."
Alex shrugged. He himself had carried out that experiment, and it had been useless.
"It failed?"
"I didn't try to restore the Magmarizer either; I simply let Magmar enter the magma directly with it."
"Then... have you tried letting Electabuzz hold the Electirizer and directly absorb the energy of a natural lightning strike?" Ethan thought for a moment and raised the question.
(End of chapter)