Chapter 1041: Darkrai’s Dark Fate - Immortality?!

Palkia roared, strange, mystical waves of energy pulsating out of the Space Pokemon.

With a blinding whiteness, all of Alamos Town, or whatever was left of it, distorted as if sucked into a black hole.

In the Pokemon Dimension, the same distortion appeared over a hill.

Alamos Town was located on this hill. However, because of Palkia taking the town to a different dimension, a neat, spherical portion of the hill was missing, as if someone had scooped it off like ice cream.

With an ethereal buzz, space fluctuated in that spherical region before a blur began taking shape.

In the next moment, Alamos Town had already reappeared, perfectly merging with the hill’s missing part.

Something felt odd, though.

The Alamos Town that had reappeared looked exactly like the one that had disappeared.

If it were the original storyline, then it wouldn’t have stood out like a sore thumb. But the Alamos Town of this timeline had already been through so much destruction that it didn’t make sense for it to look so... clear and safe, presently.

It seemed that using Palkia’s act of transferring the town to Pokemon Dimension as a primer, the Timeline had restored the damage caused by the external factors. This would have been outside its authority and would have been an impossible act, needing the help of an Outer One. However, no major Storyline Character was involved in the damage caused by factors other than Palkia and Dialga, allowing the Timeline some leeway.

Such a statement felt outright impossible to imagine, given the scale of attacks Contestants had unleashed. Without an external element watching over the major Storyline Character, they shouldn’t have come out unscathed.

Surprisingly, there was such an element present at the Alamos Town in the face of a black-haired Demon.

It was also because of this parasitic act that Timeline hadn’t interfered, either.

Now, not only the town’s part obliterated under the battle between Red Sun and Zeus was restored, but the thousands of people and Pokemon who had died because of them also returned.

After taking a quick measure of how bad things were and what kind of disaster they had averted, Ash and his friends gathered in the garden next to the Space-Time Towers in evening.

There was no smile on their faces, though.

In their memories, flashes of Darkrai’s last moments kept playing out, tears streaming down their faces.

Darkrai had sacrificed himself to give Ash and Dawn the direly needed time, letting them play Oracion and putting an end to Palkia and Dialga’s madness.

"... And I couldn’t even say Sorry to him..." Ash mumbled, squinting his blurry eyes.

Brock put a hand on his shoulder, all of them looking at the mountains, golden rays of sunset falling on cliffs from behind.

After mourning for Darkrai’s loss, they all turned around to return.

Suddenly, Pikachu shouted at a shadow on the cliff, undulating like water. "Pika..."

Heads turned, and eyes instantly widened.

On the cliff right in front of them, the top of the Space-Time Towers was casting a shadow. Slowly, another shadow, flowing like silk, appeared over it, bathing in the sunset.

Ash and the others ran back toward the garden’s edge and looked up, their eyes glinting, a smile appearing on their faces.

There, standing on the Music Room globe’s roof, was... Darkrai!

...

Darkrai looked at the people cheering for him.

He noticed Alice and Tonio hugging each other.

He looked around and saw the entire garden, where it had all started.

"... Are you ready?"

Darkrai turned around and saw the man who had caught him.

The red-haired Red Sun, now back in his original appearance, wearing a white t-shirt over blue shorts, looked back at the Mythical Pokemon with his green eyes.

But it wasn’t him who had asked the question.

Darkrai looked at the person who stood behind Red Sun, with his face toward the setting sun, who had named himself... Black.

As if sensing his gaze, Black turned around.

Darkrai had always thought he would be able to tell evil when he looked at it. However, he had never considered that there might be people in this world... beyond this world... who couldn’t even be labeled evil because they had gone past the definition of that word.

Black was someone like that.

Others might be fooled by the calmness radiating out of him, but he? Darkrai was Nightmare incarnate. He could see the true nightmare that lay under all that calm. He could see the Source of this person...

It was rotten to the core!

Black smiled amicably.

"So that’s what happens to those who have accepted that being evil is not enough..." Darkrai commented. "How does it feel... constantly knowing that you are the vilest creature walking among the people, but that vileness might not come in useful when you would need it the most?"

"That’s why I am exploring other emotions..." Black replied, walking toward the Pokemon. "Like mercy, friendships, familial bonds..."

"Love?" Darkrai asked.

Black looked over his shoulder at the sunset for a moment and brought his gaze back. "... Not yet," he admitted. "As you said, it’s difficult... constantly knowing who I am and what I am capable of... and what I would have to do ultimately to surpass myself one day..."

Darkrai’s pupil shook as he got a glimpse of destruction in Black’s Source. "...You..."

Black came to a stop in front of the Mythical Pokemon. "Good, Evil, Hero, Villain..." he said, meeting Darkrai’s gaze. "One day, you will realize that in the end... all that matters is one’s attitude. To resist the hand of fate and carve one’s own path... even if it leads to death... That’s how I live. That’s the only thing I look up to. Nothing else."

Even if Black’s words blasted through his consciousness, making him doubt his own ideals, Darkrai didn’t flinch. "One day? You... are not killing me?"

The Mythical Pokemon had thought that this outsider was here to kill him like many others, trying to complete some hunting mission.

Had he been... wrong?

This time when Black smiled, it was much more genuine.

"Death is so absolute," he said, taking out an Item. "Why would I kill you? No. I... I want you to know what immortality feels like."

And, just as the last ray of the setting sun disappeared, a star appeared in the Pokemon world’s sky...

... pulsating hideously yellow!

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Author’s Note: You must have noticed that I included a Game World, which I don’t usually do, if it doesn’t have an Anime/Movie dedicated to it. Including Prototype in the novel was a Glitch Plus Ultra Tier’s member’s request.

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