Diancie guided them by feel, her small hands stretched forward as she traced the faint traces of Fairy Aura that Xerneas had left behind.
Steven and Cynthia picked up the pace — Cynthia on Garchomp, with Diancie cradled in her arms, and Steven on Metagross, a Carbink perched on each of its four folded legs as it cut through the air.
They traveled until the sky darkened from gold to deep blue. When the stars began to appear, Steven chose a quiet stretch of forest and brought them down to rest for the night.
He still had a few Rock-type energy cubes in his bag — enough to feed Diancie and the Carbink for the evening. The four Carbink, once they had eaten, settled together in a small huddle, leaning against one another as they drifted off.
Steven and Cynthia had only one sleeping bag between them. It hadn't been part of the plan — neither of them had expected to be camping when they set out on what was supposed to be a quiet vacation. The bag was one Steven had carried during his earlier travels as a Champion, worn in but reliable.
He suggested Cynthia take it for herself while he leaned against a nearby tree. She refused immediately, and with some firmness. So they shared it.
Cynthia fell asleep quickly, curled against Steven with her arms around him. The long day had tired her out.
Steven, however, lay with his eyes open, watching the stars through the gaps in the canopy above.
It wasn't the warmth beside him keeping him awake — though he was certainly aware of it. His thoughts kept drifting back to the Diamond Domain. If the Sacred Diamond failed entirely, if the Domain collapsed… what would happen to the minerals underground? To the structures below?
He stopped himself before the thought went too far. It was too grim to follow to its conclusion.
It's like the day Cynthia woke up to find every myth she had ever studied completely disproved, he thought. That kind of loss.
Hmm.
He turned his head.
Diancie was awake. She was slipping away from the group, stepping quietly through the undergrowth, the soft rhythm of her movement just audible in the stillness. Steven carefully untangled himself from Cynthia's arms and eased out of the sleeping bag.
Cynthia stirred. Her brow furrowed faintly in her sleep, and she murmured something.
"Don't go…"
Steven froze. He waited, watching her face for a long moment, until the tension eased out of her expression and her breathing settled again. He let out a quiet breath.
He turned and followed Diancie.
He found her beside a small stream, her hands raised in front of her. Clusters of soft pink energy gathered between her palms, growing and shaping itself — and for a moment it held the form of a large, brilliant diamond.
Crack.
The diamond shattered. The light vanished.
Diancie stared at her hands.
"It really won't work, will it," she said quietly.
"Don't worry."
She turned. Steven walked over and sat down on the bank beside her.
"Steven — you couldn't sleep either?"
"Not really," he said with a small nod. "Every time I think about the Diamond Domain, the sleepiness goes away on its own."
He meant it. The scale of what could happen weighed on him more than he let on.
"Do you think… I can really save the Diamond Domain?" Diancie asked. Her voice was small and uncertain in a way it never was in front of the Carbink. In front of her people, she had been a princess. Out here, in the dark, she was just Diancie.
Steven looked at her for a moment.
"Of course you can," he said simply. "You're Diancie."
He glanced up. A streak of light crossed the sky — brief, clean, gone.
"Make a wish, Diancie."
She looked at him, puzzled. "A wish?"
"When a shooting star passes by," he explained, "it's said that if you make your wish before Rayquaza catches it, the wish will come true."
"Rayquaza?" Diancie tilted her head.
She had spent her whole life underground. Of course she didn't know.
"Never mind that for now," Steven said with a quiet laugh. "Make a wish."
"All right… I'll try."
Diancie clasped her hands together and shut her eyes as the next star traced across the dark.
Steven closed his eyes too.
"I hope Diancie can create the Sacred Diamond," he said softly.
Diancie's eyes opened. She stared at him.
Steven opened his eyes, glanced over at her, and smiled faintly. "They say a wish won't come true if you speak it aloud. But what I said just now isn't a wish."
"It's something that's already going to happen."
Diancie was quiet for a moment. Something in her expression shifted.
She turned back toward the stream, looking up at the sky, and slowly raised her hands.
Between her palms, a faint pink light began to glow.
The next morning, they set off again — Steven on Metagross, Cynthia on Garchomp, Diancie held in Cynthia's arms with her hands stretched out ahead of her, reading the Aura.
"I feel it!"
Diancie's eyes snapped open. "In that forest — just ahead — there's a very strong Fairy Aura! I can feel it clearly!"
"This is…" Dr. Zuan's expression was troubled.
"Orses Forest."
"Orses Forest?" Steven looked at him sharply.
Cynthia's brow furrowed. She spoke carefully. "There are old accounts of a great catastrophe that struck Orses Forest long ago — a disaster so complete that all life vanished from it entirely."
Steven had a guess already forming. Yveltal.
"That is correct," Dr. Zuan said, confirming what none of them wanted to hear. "The one responsible for the catastrophe was Yveltal — the Destruction Pokémon. After it had taken everything, it transformed into a cocoon and went dormant. Orses Forest has been a forbidden place ever since."
He paused, his long beard shifting as he looked at the distant treeline.
"The legends say that anyone who disturbs the Cocoon of Destruction will face its punishment."
Steven let out a slow breath.
Of all the Legendary Pokémon he might have encountered on this trip, Yveltal was the last one he would have chosen. But the situation left no room for hesitation.
"We go in," he said. "There's no other way to reach Xerneas."
"Steven…" Diancie looked up at him, worry written plainly across her face.
Cynthia glanced down at Diancie in her arms. "It's all right," she said gently. "We told you we'd see you safely to Xerneas. Trust us — both of us."
Diancie gave a quiet nod and turned her gaze toward the forest ahead.
Metagross and Garchomp descended into the trees and touched down on the forest floor. From the ground, it looked nothing like a place that had once been completely lifeless. Green covered everything — tall trees, thick undergrowth, and somewhere in the branches above, the distant sounds of Pokémon going about their lives as if nothing had ever been wrong here.
"Xerneas!"
Diancie felt it — a surge of Fairy Aura, strong and close — and bolted forward before anyone could react.
"Diancie, wait!"
Steven and Cynthia sprinted after her.
"That's — Xerneas!" Dr. Zuan's voice cracked with awe.
There, beneath a column of light filtering down through the leaves, stood a Pokémon unlike any other.
It had the form of a great deer, its body dark blue and black, carrying a stillness that felt ancient. Eight branching horns extended from its head, the tips glowing faintly in hues of blue and gold. Its eyes held the same deep blue as its fur, the pupils shaped like an X. Viewed from the front, its entire body echoed that shape — two sweeping lines that formed a cross. Its forelegs bore intricate patterns along their lower edges, and four hook-like hooves curved forward from each leg. A small, dark tail curled at the base of its spine.
The Life Pokémon — Xerneas.
Xerneas turned slowly, regarding them. Then, with a single graceful leap, it covered dozens of metres and disappeared into the light as if it had simply stepped out of the world.
"Wait! Xerneas, please!"
Diancie ran after it, eyes fixed forward — too fixed. She didn't see the thick root crossing the path ahead. Her foot caught it and she went down hard, tumbling toward the edge of a slope.
A hoof came down in front of her. Firm. Steady. It stopped her rolling before she could fall.
Diancie looked up slowly.
"Xerneas…"