"What do you mean black?"
Professor Oak froze for a moment.
Then he looked down.
The next second, his expression changed dramatically.
The Silver Wing that had originally been silver and faintly glowing had now become pitch black.
"That's impossible!"
"It was silver before!"
"How did it suddenly turn black?!"
Professor Oak stared in disbelief and muttered to himself.
The upper echelons of the Kanto League all knew one thing:
Lugia was not a solitary Legendary Pokémon.
It had a race.
Although their numbers were incredibly small—fewer than five had ever been discovered.
Among them, the strongest one was known as the God of Ocean Currents and Seasonal Winds.
Its strength was beyond imagination.
The Silver Wing stored within the League Treasury had been left behind by that Lugia.
Back when Professor Oak was still Champion of the League, he had accidentally become friends with another Lugia.
This Silver Wing had been given to him by that Lugia.
According to it, if Professor Oak ever encountered trouble, he could use the feather to summon it.
However, with Professor Oak's strength and status, he had never encountered any situation requiring Lugia's assistance.
As a result, the feather had remained part of his private collection all these years.
Chen Shi's expression became serious.
A troubling possibility suddenly occurred to him.
"Teacher."
"When was the last time you checked this feather?"
Professor Oak scratched his head.
"During the battle between Groudon and Kyogre."
"I was originally planning to use it."
"But then you summoned Rayquaza, so I never needed to."
"It was completely normal at the time."
Hearing that answer, Chen Shi fell silent.
The Groudon-Kyogre incident had happened barely a month ago.
Not much time had passed at all.
How could a perfectly normal Silver Wing suddenly become black?
He carefully considered every possibility.
Eventually, he arrived at a conclusion.
Perhaps something had happened to Lugia itself.
That would explain the feather's transformation.
After all, in his previous life's memories, whenever Lugia became enraged, Silver Wings would turn red.
That alone proved that Lugia's condition could affect its feathers.
After organizing his thoughts, Chen Shi explained his theory.
Professor Oak considered it and nodded.
"That's probably the only explanation."
"Otherwise, I can't understand why a normal Silver Wing would suddenly change like this."
Then he frowned.
"But Lugia is incredibly powerful."
"And it has its own kind."
"How could something happen to it?"
Chen Shi was equally puzzled.
Could it be Shadow Lugia?
The thought surfaced briefly.
But he quickly rejected it.
If it were Shadow Lugia, then it should have been that way from the start.
Why would it suddenly become one?
If it wasn't Shadow Lugia...
Another possibility entered Chen Shi's mind.
And his expression darkened.
Could this have something to do with the darkness that Xerneas mentioned?
"What are you thinking about?"
Cynthia asked.
Snapping back to reality, Chen Shi instinctively wanted to ask Mew.
Then he remembered—
Mew and Jirachi were still downstairs.
They had never come upstairs with him.
Immediately, he turned to Professor Oak.
"Teacher."
"Can we bring this downstairs?"
"I want to find out exactly what caused this."
Even though he wanted nothing to do with this so-called darkness—
Celebi's warning still echoed in his mind.
Which meant he was probably already involved whether he liked it or not.
The most important thing now was figuring out exactly what this darkness was.
Seeing the seriousness in Chen Shi's expression, Professor Oak immediately understood that this was no trivial matter.
So he agreed without hesitation.
The three of them headed downstairs.
In the living room, Ash and Gary were nowhere to be seen.
Only Mew, Jirachi, Victini, Togekiss, and Glaceon remained.
Chen Shi took the metal box from Professor Oak and placed it in front of Mew.
"What's going on here?"
Mew had been lazily lounging on the sofa.
After hearing Chen Shi's question, it opened its eyes.
The moment it saw the black feather inside the box—
Its expression changed.
The aura was extremely familiar.
Exactly the same as Xerneas three thousand years ago.
[Where did you find this?]
Mew's face became unusually serious.
This thing was terrifying.
Back then, even Xerneas had been tortured by it.
Had Arceus not lent Xerneas the Fairy Plate, Xerneas might have completely lost itself and transformed into something else entirely.
Yet now Chen Shi was holding a feather contaminated with that same darkness.
How could Mew not be shocked?
Chen Shi immediately explained.
"This used to be Lugia's Silver Wing."
"My teacher kept it in his collection."
"But now it's suddenly turned black."
"Do you know why?"
A Silver Wing?
Mew fell silent.
Of course it knew what a Silver Wing was.
It was basically one of Lugia's feathers.
But the thing sitting before it now looked nothing like one.
After a moment, Mew replied through telepathy.
[Then something must have happened to that Lugia.]
[The aura on this feather is exactly the same as the aura Xerneas carried in the past.]
Exactly the same?!
Chen Shi's eyes widened.
He nearly cursed aloud.
So it really was the worst possible outcome.
Back then, Xerneas had needed the Fairy Plate just to suppress it.
If Lugia had encountered the same thing—
Then its situation was probably extremely dangerous.
"What exactly is this darkness?"
Chen Shi asked gravely.
Mew scratched its head.
After hesitating for a moment, it finally began talking about events from three thousand years ago.
Three thousand years ago, Xerneas and Yveltal had just finished a battle.
Xerneas had been severely wounded and was on the verge of entering hibernation.
At that moment, it discovered something horrifying.
A strange darkness had begun invading its body.
Xerneas immediately sensed that it was dangerous and tried to purge it.
Unfortunately, its injuries were too severe.
It simply lacked the strength to remove the darkness.
With no other options, Xerneas sought out Mew and asked for help.
Naturally, Mew agreed.
However, when it attempted to remove the darkness, it quickly discovered a terrifying truth.
It couldn't.
No matter what method it used, the darkness remained.
It clung to Xerneas like a parasite attached to bone.
Impossible to separate.
In the end, Mew had no choice.
It took Xerneas across the world in search of help from other Legendary Pokémon.
Perhaps one of them would know a solution.
Many Legendary Pokémon became interested after seeing the strange darkness and agreed to help.
Yet after countless attempts—
They all arrived at the same conclusion.
Nothing worked.
No method could remove it.
Not even Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire had any effect.
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