"Phew, it seems most of Melmetal's abilities have been perfectly preserved."
After seeing the moves Melmetal was capable of using, Ethan finally let out a sigh of relief.
Before Meltan evolved, what worried him most was the disappearance of its Magnet Pull ability.
Now, all of that had been perfectly resolved after Melmetal absorbed the electromagnetic storm and completed its evolution.
Magnetism control, spatial magnetic field, magnetic levitation ability, and electromagnetic cannon.
All of Meltan's main abilities had been preserved, although, having lost the Magnet Pull ability, Melmetal's effect when using them was somewhat inferior.
Nevertheless, once Melmetal completely adapted to its new body and its new abilities, it would undoubtedly be able to train them again until recovering its former level.
And then, relying on Melmetal's strength, the power of those moves would be even more terrifying.
Of course, where one thing is lost, another is gained: after losing the Magnet Pull ability, Melmetal obtained the Iron Fist ability.
The effect of the Iron Fist ability is to increase the power of punching moves.
Now that it had the Iron Fist ability, and added to Melmetal's terrifying physique, the force of its punches was truly frightening.
Unless some unexpected event arose, Melmetal's combat style from now on would undoubtedly be based on its overwhelming physical capacity.
At the same time, after successfully evolving, the repertoire of moves Melmetal could learn had also expanded tremendously, to the point that it could now use a large number of close-combat moves.
"Melmetal, try some of your new moves."
Ethan observed it from top to bottom as he spoke.
"ZZZTTT!"
Melmetal let out a cry, and immediately electricity could be seen enveloping its body.
Several beams of yellow current came out from within it, causing both its body and the area around it to light up yellow.
"That move is... Electric Terrain!"
Seeing the scene, Ethan let out an exclamation.
The effect of the move Electric Terrain is to turn the terrain into an electric area, preventing Pokémon on the ground from falling asleep and also increasing the power of Electric-type moves.
For trainers specialized in Electric-type Pokémon, the move Electric Terrain was an absolute tactical core, with extremely high strategic value.
In the same way, within the League there were still no systematic studies on how to train the move Electric Terrain.
Now, the fact that Melmetal had directly comprehended it after evolving was a huge surprise for Ethan.
After using the move Electric Terrain, Melmetal went on to also use the moves: Thunder Shock, Thunder Wave, Thunderbolt, and Thunder.
Back when it was still Meltan, Electric-type moves had already been trained with special emphasis, so after evolving, the fact that it had now comprehended the moves Electric Terrain and Thunder could be considered completely natural.
"It seems I'm going to be even busier from now on."
After seeing Melmetal's abilities, Ethan smiled with satisfaction.
In terms of energy, as a Mythical Pokémon, Melmetal had already reached the Elite level.
As long as it properly got used to its new body and its new strength, Ethan could already be considered an Elite-level trainer.
During the following days, Ethan had Melmetal absorb electromagnetic energy to train while also adapting to its new body.
It was not until the third day that he finally left the snowy Secret Kingdom together with Melmetal.
"Zzzt!"
Through the use of its spatial magnetic field, Melmetal began to perceive the exit of the Secret Kingdom. But in the middle of that process, an expression of doubt suddenly appeared on its face.
"What's wrong, Melmetal?"
Seeing the change in its expression, Ethan's face tightened slightly.
Could it be possible that, after losing the Magnet Pull ability, Melmetal's spatial magnetic field ability had also changed?
"Zzzt!"
Hearing Ethan's question, Melmetal shook its head and then began to explain itself.
"You mean... you sensed two passages of the Secret Kingdom?"
"That one of the exits is where we entered, but the other passage is in the fracture of the Secret Kingdom?"
After understanding Melmetal's meaning, Ethan's face became thoughtful.
The very existence of the Secret Kingdoms seemed to originate from the fragmentation of the Pokémon world.
As if it were a mirror: the Pokémon world shattered into countless pieces, and those pieces were precisely the Secret Kingdoms.
And a Secret Kingdom fracture was precisely the broken edge of one of those mirrors, so in theory it could coincide with another fracture from another Secret Kingdom.
"Could it be that the passage in that fracture connects to another Secret Kingdom?"
Suddenly, the idea that had just appeared in his mind left Ethan completely surprised.
However, according to the League's records on Secret Kingdoms, passages that allowed travel from one Secret Kingdom to another did exist.
But they were all special cases, and this snowy Secret Kingdom had already been explored and developed by the League, so in principle there should not be any passage in it leading to another Secret Kingdom.
But if Melmetal assured him that there was a passage there, then it was because there really was one. Ethan trusted its abilities very much.
Because of that, there could only be one possibility: after completing its evolution, Melmetal's spatial magnetic field ability had also evolved.
Thanks to its new strength, Melmetal could now detect from the fracture of a Secret Kingdom a passage leading toward another.
"Perhaps it's worth trying."
Ethan took a deep breath and mounted Charizard to head to the fracture area of the Secret Kingdom.
From there, the only thing that could be seen before his eyes was a chaotic scene, as if it were a sea of primordial void.
"Zzzt!"
After arriving at the place indicated by Melmetal, Melmetal's body began to fill with sparks, while a terrifying current ran through its interior and transformed into an extremely powerful magnetic field.
It could be seen how the chaotic space around the fracture began to vibrate nonstop, and small spatial ripples appeared around Melmetal's body.
At that instant, its special spatial magnetic field ability was used to the maximum, until it opened, right in the fracture, a passage leading toward an unknown place.
"Come out, Lucario. Use the power of aura to explore the Secret Kingdom passage."
Lucario nodded and expanded its aura power to the maximum.
Then, through the mental link created by aura, it connected with Ethan's mind and projected into it the images it saw on the other side of the passage.
Immediately, Ethan saw a world covered by snow and ice, which at first glance looked like another Secret Kingdom very similar to the Nosepass snowy mountain.
And when the perspective changed, he saw that the place where the passage had opened on the other side was also located precisely in a Secret Kingdom fracture.
(End of chapter)