Kai and Meg booked a room in a nearby hotel named The Slowpoke.

There was no Pokemon Center near the Azalea Town's Port, and Kai had already let Morning Mist know he had some business to take care of in the town. Meg wasn't happy about it. Though she didn't dare to object to Kai anymore.

"I don't understand," she finally said, sitting on a chair across from Kai. "The System has given us a Time Limit of 2 months. That means whatever your Mission is, it needs at least that much time of preparation. I agree you should go to Professor Elm to at least try to get your first Pokemon. But spending 3 to 5 days in Azalea Town makes little sense to me."

Kai looked at her. She talk like old people who have seen too much, he thought. Petyr was right about her. She lacks the thrill of an adventure. She'd rather spend her time walking around Alto Mare's laneways for weeks than using the opportunity to explore the world.

"Not to mention," Meg continued, unaware of Kai's thoughts, "we will have to face a team from the Order, too. Unlike us, they might spend their time reinforcing the defenses, if they have also got to see that movie, don't you think? I don't believe we will return to Alto Mare in time for the Water Chariot Race, either."

Now Kai doubted Meg wanted to take part in the race genuinely. But he had already made plans to return to Water City using Seaplane. Though, it would need a lot of Pokemon Dollars. He reached into the pocket of his jeans and took out the list of tasks he had prepared Meg to do. The moment he threw the list toward Meg, she got a notification of a Side Mission.

Meg raised her eyebrows. "How would I ever steal this much money?" she asked.

Kai didn't answer.

Leaving her in the room, Kai walked out of the hotel and took a deep breath.

The port was busy on this sunny morning, with people running about, doing their work. A part of the crowd belonged to the traveling Pokemon Trainers. He adjusted his blue cap and headed for the local bus stop.

Azalea Town is a major setting in the Pokemon World, Kai recalled. Not only does it have a Gym to which Pokemon Trainer must go to get the Hive Badge, but it is also the hometown of a major main-storyline character, Kurt. No wonder the 4th-floor Order's Contestants didn't go for him and rather kidnapped his granddaughter instead.

Kurt lived in the northwest portion of the town, which was accessible by buses.

He studied Pokeball mechanics and was known far and wide as the Pokeball expert. Kurt specialized in making custom Pokeballs designed to work more effectively against specific types of Pokemon.

"Slowpoke Well…"

"Apricorn Forest…"

"East edge of the Ilex Forest…"

Kai heard the shout of the bus conductors and went for the last one.

Everyone knew Kurt in the town. Kai had found out that many Pokemon Trainers visited the old man, requesting him to make custom Pokeballs using different apricorns. Kai didn't have the luxury to search for the apricorns and then request something like that.

But he did want the famous custom-made Pokeball.

Kai took a ticket to the east edge of the Ilex Forest and sat down in a window seat.

The bus was full of travelers, Pokemon Trainers, and locals. Kai looked at them and couldn't help but recall the thing that he had found quite odd. I didn't get any Title unlocking notification after killing the first Pokemon Trainer, he thought. I wonder if there are some strict conditions to unlock Titles related to the killing. Or is it to prevent massacres by the Contestants? Hmm…

The only reason Kai could think of the unavailability of this Title was that it was too easy to kill Pokemon Trainers in this world, making it highly unnecessary with no benefit. Meg had told him the consequence of killing too many people and Pokemon. He wasn't sure that he wanted to attract the wrath of a Mythical Pokemon.

Kai enjoyed the odd moment of peace, looking at the hustle and bustle outside as the bus made its way out of the port. There was a smile on his face as if he was just going out to enjoy the town's scenery, like any youth of his age.

Though the moment the bus crossed a boundary of some 1 km from the hotel-room Kai and Meg had rented, that smile vanished.

Kai's face became hard, a bloody, murderous expression replacing the calm in his eyes.

"… STOP!" He shouted, controlling his voice as hard as he could.

The bus conductor squinted his eyes at him. "Next stop is still some distance away," he explained. "The Bus doesn't stop in between the bus stops."

Kai gritted his teeth, trying hard to not hiss. "I… forgot…" he began, uttering one word after another. "… my… Poke… mon… belt."

The bus conductor gaped at Kai's stuttering admission. Even the other passengers turned their heads to check out his waist. And, yes. There wasn't a belt holding Pokeballs, or any bag there, confirming Kai's words.

"You will have to go back on foot, young man," the bus conductor said, pulling a chain to ring the bell. The bus stopped, and the conductor looked at Kai with pity as he stepped out.

Kai turned around to look at the crowded buildings of the port, starting some hundred meters away. He made sure that no one was watching him before he called out, "Petyr…"

Petyr walked out of him, wearing a black shirt and black jeans.

"Are you sure?" Kai asked, still looking at the Port, almost in the hotel's direction, The Slowpoke.

Petyr smiled slyly. "Almost," he said. "We will know soon, anyway. I know women like Meg, my lord. They can hardly wait long when the time is ripe. But she is no Cersei Lannister, much less Petyr Baelish."

The merest sight of a black tattered cloak of Dementor flickered around Kai, showing his bloodthirst.

Something was going on behind the scenes. Something sinister.

All schemes were about to come out in the open.

*

*

Morning Mist was old.

She had not thought about her age for the last 30 years.

But she remembered seeing the fall of an Empire like it was a matter of yesterday, and that was some 100 years ago when she had been a youth. It also seemed that only yesterday she had failed her last mission.

Now she was Unworthy.

In the Primordial Tower, all Unworthy were doomed to be thrown into the sea of madness.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I would have suffered the same fate as others, Meg thought, her hands tightening over her long overcoat. I should have suffered the same fate.

She looked outside the room, towards the disappearing sun below the distant horizon. The afternoon had come and gone, yet she had yet to move. When she thought of the reason for her stillness, she shuddered.

"Red…" Meg muttered and gulped heavily. "What in Chaos' name are you?!"

She couldn't fathom his sheer existence.

In one moment, he seemed like any 2nd-floor Contestant. Greedy, ambitious, and always in search of more information. In the next, though, he was a shrewd old man, who could see into the very soul of his target and pry out secrets hidden deep. A killer beyond killers. An emotionless, cold, and raw machine.

She had seen the many victims of this supposed vengeance-seeking Team Rocket. Their eyes were so vacant and dead as if the thing that had made them humans had been sucked out of them. She had suspected Red behind these actions, then. Though she didn't know how he had been doing such things.

I must find out the power behind his confidence, she had thought.

And she did.

Morning Mist had orchestrated her hunt of three Order's Contestants to test out Red’s capabilities. Never had she thought that she would suffer so much because of that.

When the despair had come, overtaking her entire being, it brought out the happiest memories which she had forgotten. Then, she had watched that happiness leaving her, abandoning her, being snatched away from her.

Meg trembled, remembering that feeling of helplessness as if she would never be happy again.

"What are you?" she asked again. "No wonder they are so interested in you."

Suddenly, a bird fluttered into the room through the window.

It looked like a hummingbird, with blue and white colors shining over it as the last ray of the sun hit it. When the bird landed over her shoulder, it brought its beak towards her ears.

What song it sang into Morning Mist's head, none knew.

The blue-white hummingbird then fell lifeless on the floor. Only then one could tell it was a lifeless thing. Not of blood, flesh, and bones, but paper. For a moment, its bulging eyes had seemed to be full of life, but it could have also been an illusion.

If Kai had been here, seeing the bird's erratic movements with his eyes, then he would have to admit that he had guessed Meg's Ability wrong.

It wasn't an Advance, but a Master Ability.

If he had seen a Master Ability before, then he could have guessed it correctly, she thought. Still, for him to have seen or even have an Advance Ability of his own…

Meg dared not think much about it lest her breathing got affected.

The sunset seemed to be some sort of signal, for one more bird came to her, again singing a song into her ears. There was no sound, only the mere knowledge that it was passing information. This bird followed another, and then another. They kept coming, one after another, like a flock.

When the hundredth bird had come, Meg stood up and closed the window.

So he's truly gone to Kurt, the Pokeball expert, she thought. How can he waste his time so?

She looked around the room, then. It was a simple one. Just a bed in a corner, a table, a chair, a wardrobe, and an attached bathroom. On the wall opposite the bed was a TV, but it was off. On the floor was a red mattress with a blue-green floral design.

The clock struck six, and she knew it was now or never.

Her hands flicked, and she took out a fistful of something. Something squirmed within her grip, something almost alive. "Go," she said, throwing the things in her hands into the room. "Search every corner and every hole for anything hidden."

Even under the light of the room, one would have trouble believing about those things' nature.

Beetles, mosquitoes, spiders, and ants. All were made of paper and the correct size. Within moments, these thousands of little white things covered the room's insides like paint. Nothing could have hidden from them, and thus, nothing could hide from Morning Mist near her without her knowing about it.

The little paper insects soon returned to her, disappearing into her Inventory at her merest touch.

When the last insect disappeared, singing no song, she took a breath of relief.

Meg rolled the mattress over the floor and put it in one corner. Her hands reached for something in the air, taking out a small golden-brown box from the Inventory. Her eyes trembled as she looked at it.

There was a symbol at the top of the box. An unnatural glyph.

Its geometry was so distorted that it neither looked like a character nor any known shape. There was a strange sinisterness about it that made her look away from it. She opened the box and looked at the things within it.

It was the oddest collection of things.

She remembered the origins of them all. It had taken her over 50 years to collect these things. Most were given to her, and some she had taken by herself.

There were different colored empty Pokeballs from Pokemon World. A Sling Ring from the Marvel World. The tiniest Kyber Crystal from the Star Wars world. A tiny gun from the World of Men in Black. Two ninja scrolls from the Naruto World.

And one fruit with mysterious shapes over it.

A Devil Fruit! From the One Piece World.

There were other things too, but of less importance. Morning Mist took a deep breath as she took her eyes off them. Her hand went into the box and she took out a long candle of the palest yellow color one could have ever seen.

She went to the middle of the room and placed the candle on her side.

Her hand flicked again, and she took out a dagger. It shone blue as she cut her wrist in one quick slash. The blood streamed down, but before it could run, her other hand went for it, drawing a certain shape.

No one knew, and even she didn't know, how she drew that shape. But when she was finished drawing it, it matched the strange glyph at the top of the chest. Her eyes blurred as she kept looking at it, everything going dark. So she broke eye contact. Then, she put the candle in the middle of this glyph and lit it.

A pale yellow flame flickered into existence. Under the effect of this flame, even the blood shone yellow. Meg sat down on her knees and calmed herself down as she concentrated her gaze on the flame.

It was then she spoke.

“The Dweller in the Depths…”

With her first chant, foul darkness took over the light of the lamps within the room. Only the pale yellow flame seemed to be unaffected, now burning yellower.

“The Bringer of Madness and Doom…"

With her second chant, a wind howled around her. It rattled as if uncountable beings were breathing down her neck, just short of choking her, burying her head down into the flame, which had become larger and longer.

"The King in Yellow…"

With her third chant, all the colors became yellow. This was the color of past, present, and future, the color from beyond. This was Yellow. HIS color.

"HASTUR! I, Priestess Margrethe II of House Ingrid, sacrifice my blood and the Kyber Crystal, and request a cross-dimensional video call with the High Priest."

Margrethe reached for the box and took out the Kyber Crystal, and placed it just below the candle. The yellow flame bulged as if something had just entered it, making the flame its abode. The Kyber Crystal lifted and entered the flame, disappearing eternally.

A video screen appeared above the flames then, seemingly made of the flames themselves. And an old voice crawled out from the other side.

"Ah, Margrethe!" the High Priest said, his voice shaking like the candle flame. "How is he?"

She knew the sacrifice wasn't good enough for the video to even last for a minute. So she hurriedly told the High Priest the most important thing she had found out.

"He is blessed by a Dementor," Meg said. "He has an Advance Ability, and he is too strong for me."

"A… blessing?!" the High Priest muttered as if things didn't seem as he had expected. "Are you certain?"

"I am," Meg answered.

"Very well," the High Priest said. "He knows about the Temple of Hastur. And he has already told someone about it. This Red is too wild. If we can not rein him, then we must kill him. You know what you must do."

"But…" she hesitated and then steeled herself. "But I can't take him on."

"Humph!" the High Priest snorted. "Don't forget why are you still alive? It's HIS mercy. HE only took your Stats away, Margrethe, letting you live an ordinary life in the 1st Set. Now that your services are required, you must serve HIM. If you do this task, then I can think of letting you go back to the 13th floor. Think about it."

"13th floor…" Meg blurted out, old memories coming out from older graves.

The High Priest grunted. "It's time," he said. "May HIS scalloped tatters hide Yhtill forever!"

"May HIS scalloped tatters hide Yhtill forever!" Margrethe echoed with the High Priest, bringing both her hands over her face like putting on a mask.

When she took off her hands, the flame had already died.

The blood that was red before now looked yellow like pus. The darkness had receded, and the howling wind had gone.

Morning Mist cleaned the floor and put the box back into her Inventory. She threw herself on the bed, thinking of the reward promised to her by the High Priest, and all the rewards that the Temple of Hastur had promised her once, but never given.

Time seemed to stretch as tiredness hung, clinging to her eyelashes. As the stars overtook all the sky, she fell asleep.

And when her breathing softened, a mass of spectral silver mist left the room unannounced.