"I'll do my best!" Cole said with determination.
While Lugia still maintained its sanity, Articuno shattered the ice encasing its spirit, allowing it to return to its body.
Articuno warned him, "Lugia can only stay conscious briefly. You must work together quickly to remove Yveltal's tail feather!"
Cole nodded and strode to the black egg, placing his hand upon it.
The moment he touched it, countless crimson energies lunged at him like wild beasts.
When the crimson energy made contact, the Special Energy inside his body immediately began to boil, fiercely counterattacking and repelling the assault.
These crimson energies seemed to possess consciousness — after being suppressed by the Special Energy, they grew wary. They circled his body, probing, but no longer dared to enter.
Cole directed his golden finger energy into the black egg. In an instant, his consciousness was pulled away, and he found himself in what appeared to be outer space, with a massive Lugia floating at its center.
This Lugia was pitch black, emanating an aura of malevolence.
"You've come!" The Shadow Lugia's eyes snapped open, fixing upon him.
"Y-yes..." Cole struggled under Lugia's overwhelming presence.
"Thank you for helping." Lugia said calmly, "If we cannot succeed, please leave quickly — I wouldn't want to harm you!"
The Lugia that had regained its sanity was truly kind-hearted.
In the next moment, Cole appeared at its side. He was no longer in physical form but in spirit form like Lugia, his essence following his Special Energy into its body. He wasn't sure why things were happening this way — he was acting purely on instinct.
Suddenly, milky white bands of light emerged from Cole's spirit form, and he guided them into Lugia's body. These bands of Special Energy wandered through its form, swiftly locating the Yveltal tail feather Articuno had mentioned.
The Yveltal tail feather was lodged directly in Lugia's heart — no wonder it had such a powerful effect!
The feather was strip-shaped and completely black, emanating an eerie ghostly light while endless crimson energy poured from it.
Is that it?
Cole carefully directed his Special Energy bands toward it. Upon contact, the crimson energies churned violently like clashing waves, attacking the intruding force.
But his Special Energy proved formidable. As the crimson energy attacked, it raised its "little whips" and struck back fiercely, making the crimson energy recoil.
While Cole's Special Energy clearly had the power to suppress the crimson force, it was still too weak. After a brief surge, it quickly found itself overwhelmed. Though separated from its source, the Yveltal tail feather still contained a deity's power — far beyond his current abilities to combat.
At that moment, bands of blue-purple light descended from above, instantly binding the Yveltal tail feather with stunning speed.
This was Lugia taking action!
Lugia successfully grabbed the Yveltal tail feather because Cole had drawn away all the crimson energy's attention.
Though the crimson energy appeared conscious, it only possessed basic instincts. When faced with Cole's suppressive Special Ability, it was instinctively drawn to him, despite his relative weakness.
The crimson energy never anticipated a sneak attack, leaving it vulnerable to Lugia's blue-purple bands of light.
Seizing this chance, Cole directed his Special Energy bands to bind the Yveltal tail feather. Though not at full strength, his energy still suppressed Yveltal's power, causing the crimson energy flow to diminish significantly.
Lugia began pulling the tail feather free while Cole lent his Special Energy to help. They combined their strength in the effort.
The crimson energy lashed out frantically at their light bands, but Cole and Lugia remained focused solely on extracting the tail feather.
At last, the tail feather in Lugia's heart began to loosen.
Desperate now, the crimson energy's attacks intensified, wearing down both sets of light bands until they grew dangerously thin.
Yet Cole and Lugia persisted, pulling with unwavering determination.
Finally, with their combined effort, they wrenched the tail feather from Lugia's heart. The crimson energy immediately weakened.
Both light bands had worn nearly through, with Cole's Special Energy on the verge of breaking.
"Lugia, let's continue!" He shouted.
Removing the tail feather from Lugia's heart was only the first step — they needed to expel it completely from Lugia's body.
With one final surge of power, just as Cole's Special Energy snapped, they pulled the Yveltal tail feather free.
Success!
"Human, thank you for your help!" Lugia's exhausted voice rang out.
"N-no need to thank me." Cole stammered.
"Hehe..." Lugia chuckled softly, "I'm about to fall into a deep sleep to repair my body. Before we part, I'll give you a gift."
As it spoke, its eyes blazed with brilliant purple light, and a purple mist enveloped Cole's spirit form.
"W-what is this?" He was completely puzzled.
"You'll know in the future." Lugia's voice seemed even more exhausted, "Alright, it's time for you to leave."
As its words faded, Cole's spirit form darkened and vanished from the starry space.
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Outside, Articuno watched as crimson energy churned and boiled around the black egg, while rising black mist nearly engulfed Cole.
The violent crimson energy forced Articuno to step back. It hesitated, worried about the human child's safety and unsure whether to pull him away.
But then Articuno spotted a black strip-shaped object slowly emerging from the black egg.
The Yveltal tail feather!
Articuno's heart soared — Cole had succeeded!
As the Yveltal tail feather pulled free from the black egg, Cole's eyes snapped open, and the surrounding black mist and crimson energy gradually dissipated.
Bang~
With a sharp crack, the black egg transformed into a small Lugia, tiny and endearing.
Despite its diminutive size, its aura remained terrifying.
Though freed from the tail feather, Lugia retained its pitch-black coloring — evidence of residual crimson energy that would need to clear on its own, as Cole could do nothing more to help.
"Phew~" He collapsed to the ground, utterly drained, his eyelids heavy as lead.
He wondered about Lugia's parting gift, looking himself over but finding nothing different.
Suddenly, the Yveltal tail feather, refusing to accept defeat, released black mist that formed into a miniature Yveltal. The creature roared and lunged at Cole.
Articuno reacted instantly, unleashing a blast of cold air that froze it solid — at last, this source of evil was neutralized.
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The moment the tail feather froze, deep beneath a nameless forest's central lake, a pair of crimson eyes flickered open with an enraged roar.
Terrified Pokémon fled the area, never daring to return to the lake.
After its outburst, the crimson eyes closed, and tranquility returned to the lake as if nothing had happened.
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After tending to the unconscious Lugia, Articuno told Cole to rest, promising to keep watch.
Without hesitation, he collapsed into sleep, completely exhausted.
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When he woke up again, seven or eight hours had passed.
After eating a few berries, Cole felt fully revitalized, his fatigue completely gone. He immediately volunteered to help remove the crimson energy from Zapdos and Moltres.
Articuno was overjoyed at his offer. Though its two companions remained unconscious, they hadn't tended to them earlier because of Lugia's more urgent situation. Now that the crisis had passed, Articuno had naturally begun worrying about their condition.
Cole spent another two days at the white pillar removing the crimson energy from Zapdos and Moltres. Meanwhile, Articuno returned to report the good news to Diantha and the others.
Upon learning of Cole's success, everyone — Diantha, Lysandre, Daisy, Popplio, Helioptile, and Talonflame — breathed silent sighs of relief.
Two days later, Articuno carried Cole back outside the giant crater.
After setting him down, Articuno said sincerely, "Thanks to your help, Lugia has been freed. You may make one request of us — if it's within our power, we'll do our best to fulfill it."
Cole's eyes lit up — was this really happening? But after careful thought, he realized he didn't actually need anything from the Legendary Birds.
Then an idea struck him. Looking at the forest outside the crater, he asked, "Could I take some fruit trees and their seeds from here back with me?"
"Just that?" The three birds were taken aback by his modest request.
In truth, it could hardly be considered a request at all, since they hadn't planted those fruit trees — they had grown naturally when the Sea Spirit's Den was established.
Articuno nodded, "Of course you can. You're welcome to take any trees and seeds you like from here."
Cole was overjoyed. Many of the Berry trees here were thousands of years old, and even without careful cultivation, their energy levels had reached incredible heights through time's accumulation.
If he used seeds from these trees to cultivate new ones, he might be able to grow Grade A Berries.
Grade A and Grade B Berries existed on completely different levels. While Grade B Berries could still be bought in markets, Grade A were practically impossible to obtain. For any organization or institution, trees producing Grade A Berries were fundamental assets, kept strictly for their own use — selling them was unthinkable.
Moreover, because the trees here had grown in such a high-energy environment for so long, the survivors had undergone fascinating mutations that Cole found worthy of research.
"Then I won't be modest about it."
He began collecting seeds in the forest with Daisy and the others, while Diantha and Lysandre, having nothing else to do, came to help.
While the Legendary Birds were happy to reward Cole, they showed no kindness to Diantha and Lysandre. The pair hadn't helped at all — in the birds' view, they were merely troublemaking adventurers.
The two had no complaints about this; the experience itself had already left them in awe, everything else was secondary.
After diligent collecting, Cole had gathered many Berry tree seeds, completely filling his spatial backpack.
He also wanted many of the fruit trees, but his spatial backpack's capacity was limited. With seeds already taking up so much space, he could only fit two or three whole trees at most — not worth the trade-off. It made more sense to focus on collecting seeds.
Lysandre, being quite perceptive, noticed Cole's predicament. After reorganizing his belongings, he offered his emptied spatial backpack to the boy.
"If you need more space, take mine."
Cole hesitated, "That's too much!"
Spatial backpacks were generally very expensive.
Lysandre waved it off, "It's just a spatial backpack. It's yours — if it weren't for you, who knows how long Articuno and the others would have berated us!"
"Well, alright then, thank you!" Cole happily accepted the spatial backpack.
"Take mine too!" Diantha chimed in.
This time Cole didn't hesitate and accepted her spatial backpack directly.
Lysandre and Diantha's spatial backpacks were much larger than his own, especially Lysandre's, which was currently the largest type available on the market. Its worth was nearly equivalent to all of Cole's current assets.
While Diantha's wasn't quite as impressive, it was still very valuable.
After seeing the capacity of the two spatial backpacks, Cole resolved to return them once he had transferred out the fruit trees. They were simply too precious — he felt unworthy of such gifts.
Even though for wealthy people like these two, such spatial backpacks might not mean much, he had his own principles and didn't want to take excessive advantage of their generosity.
Many of the Berry Trees here grew exceptionally tall, so even with the gifted spatial backpacks, Cole could only take away a small portion.
After collecting the seeds and trees, they returned to the Legendary Birds' side, waiting to be escorted out of the Sea Spirit's Den. While it had taken great effort for Cole and his group to enter, Articuno explained they had their own shortcuts for entering and exiting the place.
When Cole returned, Articuno presented him with several items.
"What are these?" He asked curiously.
Before him lay six crystal-clear deep blue stones and a dark green Pokémon egg.
The deep blue crystals were unmistakably Water Stones of exceptionally high purity. The dark green Pokémon egg was unfamiliar to him — besides Lugia's black egg, he had never seen another Pokémon egg before.
"Screech~" — These are for you!
Articuno said.
Cole had helped them resolve a thousand-year-old problem — the Legendary Birds felt that just fruit trees weren't enough of a reward.
The Sea Spirit's Den, under Kyogre's influence, produced many Water Stones. While these were unnecessary for the Legendary Birds themselves, they were occasionally used to evolve the water-type Pokémon living there.
They had chosen the purest stones to give to Cole, knowing such high-quality Water Stones were valuable in the outside world. They had also included the Pokémon egg, aware that human trainers prized rare Pokémon.
Moltres had discovered this egg during one of its periodic trips outside.
Since the Sea Spirit's Den wasn't ideal for fire-types like Moltres to stay permanently, it would venture out regularly. During one such journey, it had found this egg beside its dying mother.
Moltres recognized the egg as something special, and after consulting with Zapdos and Articuno, they decided to entrust it to Cole.
"What kind of Pokémon egg is it?" He asked curiously. If it was ordinary, he wasn't particularly interested in raising it.
"We'll keep that a surprise, but you can look forward to it. By human standards, it's considered quite rare." Moltres said playfully. Now that Lugia's crisis was resolved, it seemed more relaxed, revealing a different side of its personality.
"Alright then, I'll look forward to it."
Given Moltres's words, this might indeed be a rare Pokémon, perhaps even a pseudo-legendary.
It was definitely worth looking forward to.
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