CHAPTER 140

The Lost Tower looked a lot bigger from up close. For some reason, it had been built in a hole of some sort, where huge stairs led to the gaping entrance. There was no door or guards, nor were there any other trainers near here. After taking a deep breath, I stared up, counting five floors. Each would get progressively worse, and there were stories about the fifth floor being impossible to escape from.

We were only going to the first floor though, which was only slightly more dangerous than the route, which meant not at all.

"Come on guys, in and out," Denzel said.

"I hate these types of places. Gives me the creeps," Pauline shuddered. "The sooner we're out, the sooner I can go back to finding a Mankey."

"Try to not get attacked by an Ursaring this time," I said.

"Pfft, we manhandled that thing."

We slowly stepped down the stairs, and it felt like the temperature was lowering with each step we took. Even though this was supposed to be safe, we had taken as many precautions as we could. I had Honey and Buddy with me, which would be able to sense ghosts, and Denzel had his Froslass, which was not helping with the cold. Cecilia released her Zweilous as soon as we reached the entrance, while Justin had his Audino, which he had taught Heal Pulse. Pauline had her Charmeleon up to help with the cold and the lighting. I squinted at the tower's entrance, unable to see anything but darkness. It seemed that sunlight simply couldn't penetrate past the door.

Denzel stepped inside first, and he disappeared into the dark. Pauline quickly followed behind him, and soon enough, we were all inside of the tower. Blue torches adorned the walls, lighting up the entire floor, but whenever I stopped paying attention, they seemed to shift places, never staying in one spot for long. The floor was made out of teal bricks, and patches of grass and moss grew in between the cracks. Layers and layers of graves were laid out all across the ground, for humans and Pokemon alike.

Maurice Walburton - 1357-1412 - A brilliant mind and fearless explorer of the unknown (Innovator, Chemist, Traveler). Died doing what he loved, charting the Land Of The Fog. His map was never recovered.

Salla (Gigalith) - 988-1399 - Solaceon's trusted guardian. Enjoyed soaking in the sunlight. Died failing to protect the village from pack of Weaviles.

Died… failing? What a morbid thing to put on a grave. Now that I was looking, all graves seemingly had a negative message at the end of them.

Ediva Hunter - 971-1000 - Friend of Pokemon, Pokemon interpreter, a friendly woman born into a world of sorrow (Breeder, Architect). Died before she could open her breeding business.

Well, that one was at least alright, by comparison, but she died terribly young.

"These are all from hundreds of years ago," Cecilia breathed.

"The tower's hundreds of years old, so yeah," Denzel whispered.

All of these graves did share one thing. All of these people and Pokemon had their lives cut short due to some strange, unexplainable death or perished in a tragic way. No one here had gone peacefully in their sleep or of old age. What I was also learning was that a lot of Pokemon lived incredibly long lives. For example, a lot of rock types seemed to live for hundreds of years, and some had been so old that their birth year hadn't even been recorded.

"They don't bury anyone here anymore though," Denzel continued. Froslass' eyes flickered and warily wandered toward the stairs to the second floor off in the distance. "The latest dates are all around 1450."

"I wonder what happened…" Justin muttered.

"Maybe they just ran out of space," Pauline said. "Sh—shit!"

Our heads whirled toward where she was looking, and a Litwick disappeared with a high-pitched laugh.

"Little fucker was staring at us," she said, sighing in relief. "No signs of Golett, though, and the floor isn't that big."

I turned toward Electabuzz and Jellicent. They had both been supposed to sense that. "What happened?"

In short, there was too much ghostly energy here for them to discern any individual ghosts. Their senses were getting overwhelmed, and that meant that we would be going in blind. I didn't like the sound of this one bit.

"I think we should probably leave," Cecilia said. "Something about this feels off."

I wiped the sweat off my forehead and hesitantly nodded to agree. "I mean, it's not like there's any hidden spots. We can see the whole floor, and there isn't much of anything there."

"I think I'll just swallow my pride and buy a Golett instead. They're expensive in Sinnoh, but—"

"Are you children looking for a Golett, perchance?"

We all screamed, and our Pokemon immediately got into positions to battle. Justin fell on the floor, scrambling backwards, and Electabuzz stuck close to me, surrounding me with Protect. Zweilous snarled at the source of the voice with flames gathering in their mouths. Pauline crouched, placed her hands on her ears, and shut her eyes with an ear-piercing shriek.

An extremely old woman stood before us, cane in one hand and teacup in another. She wore thick, transparent spectacles, along with white and purple robes. There not even a single inch of her skin was left untouched by wrinkles and creases. Her hands had strange blue colorations that I often saw in older people, and her lips were so thin they were barely visible. Her eyes were sunken and dull, almost unmoving.

"Who the hell are you?!" Denzel screamed. "Our Pokemon could have killed you! Don't just jump out like that!"

The old woman laughed. "Hoho, I am the Tower's Overseer, young man. One of two."

The Overseer spoke so slowly that it was almost irritating, but that was probably me being petty about how badly she had scared us. She also had a weird accent that I couldn't exactly place. Eastern Sinnohans and Western Sinnohans spoke slightly differently, but this was on another level. If I didn't hang onto her every word, I risked missing something.

"So you tend to the graves and things like that?" I asked, relaxing slightly.

"Among other things," she said, her hand trembling. "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation about a Golett?"

"I am looking for one," Cece said.

"You won't find any on the first floor, my dear. The Golett here have long been taken by trainers passing through. There are a few left on the second floor, however. They help tend to the graves. It is their life's work."

"But I was sure…" Denzel trailed off. "My information said that there'd be some left."

"Your information was incorrect."

"And you don't care if we take one? Doesn't that mean more work for you?" I asked.

The old woman sipped on her purple-tinted tea and grinned. She was missing almost all of her teeth. "This is a sunken place, children. Long forgotten despite its proximity to civilization. No one dares to come here any longer. Every few years, a few children come, look around the first floor and leave. No one ever comes to honor the dead."

"I noticed that everyone buried here came from Solaceon," Justin said.

"This place was originally built to bury the dead from there when it was but a simple village," she nodded. "But it is not a normal cemetery."

"The deaths," I declared, echoing my previous thoughts. "They're all tragic in some way."

"My, my, what an interesting group you are," she smiled. "But if you want your Golett, you will have to venture to the second floor. I am willing to guide you there if you wish."

"Do you have any Pokemon to defend yourself?" Justin asked.

The Overseer snorted. "Nothing of the sort."

We all looked at each other, considering our options. If a woman this old was capable of going through all the floors to manage this place, then the threat was probably overblown. We agreed and decided to follow her up the second floor, which would… take a while, with how slow she walked.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Mathilda."

No last name? Well, alright.

"Is your colleague around? We wouldn't want to intrude…" Denzel said.

"She is on the top floor, at the moment. Do not worry about her, she follows quite a different philosophy than I do. You will not meet her today."

"So, Mathilda," I said, trying to fill in the silence. "When's the last time you received visitors?"

"A month ago or so, but they quickly left before I could say hello," she sighed. "The last time I spoke to anyone must have been at least eight years ago, if memory serves me well."

"Don't you get lonely? I guess you have your friend, but—"

"Friend? Ruth and I are nothing of the sort," the Overseer said, her eyes narrowing.

I bit the inside of my mouth and stopped talking. Angering her when she was helping us would be a terrible idea.

"But I would be wrong to scorn you," she said. "Especially when you discovered the true meaning behind the tower."

"The deaths, you mean?" I asked. We were almost reaching the stairs now.

Mathilda nodded. "Let me teach you a lesson, children. Why do you think a tower like this one attracts and creates ghosts when normal cemeteries do not?"

Well, the answer was obvious now, but I still had to do a double-take at the fact that this tower apparently formed ghosts. I had known that many ghosts would be there, but that hadn't even been on my radar.

"Well, I guess it has to do with the context of the deaths," I said. "But cemeteries have a lot of people that died early too."

"Dying early is often, but not always tragic," she shook her head. "In certain cases, the lives led were still fulfilling. Tragic implies that something was left unfinished."

My mind flashed back to the first grave I had seen. The man had died charting the land of the fog, whatever that was, so it implied that he hadn't finished doing so. Personally, I found that a horribly arbitrary way to define a tragic death, but maybe it was simply a difference in philosophy.

"When someone commits to an ideal or a goal and does not finish it in their lifetimes," she started. "A residual, negative energy begins to gather. It has multiple names, but I prefer to call it Miasma. If you want to really get technical about it, the energy does not exactly come from this plane of existence, but the deaths… facilitate its transfer into this realm."

"From that energy, ghosts are born? So it's like reincarnation, then?" Denzel tried as we stepped up the stairs.

"No, it is not that simple. It takes hundreds of deaths to form a ghost, and even then, the Miasma must be packed so tightly together… this tower itself only births a single ghost every few decades from the residual Miasma that remains here. What comes into the world does not have any memories from the humans and Pokemon it was born out of. The ghost… is an echo. It can hold similar personality traits, likes and dislikes from the living things it was made of, but not always. The more tragic and numerous the deaths are, the more powerful the ghost. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, like with that Froslass of yours, or Spiritomb. Your Jellicent holds potential too. Perhaps explore options to increase his ghostliness."

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Buddy stared into the back of her head like a hungry Talonflame but said nothing.

Meanwhile, I swallowed at that name. The little information the public had about Spiritomb was already enough to keep me up at night.

"How do you think this tower is arranged?"

"The… the more tragic the deaths, the higher in the tower they're buried," Justin guessed.

The Overseer grinned. "Welcome to the second floor, children. The Hall of Memories."

I blinked a few times, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. The second floor was somehow bigger than the first, even though that made no sense with how the tower was built from the outside, and there were a lot more graves. There was a lot more grass here than on the first floor, and it almost overwhelmed the teal bricks. The room seemed to be obscured by a perpetual, thin fog. There were windows that supposedly led to the outside, but the openings were just shrouded in darkness. I shivered. It was like we were completely cut off from the outside world. In the distance, a few Golett walked in a robot-like fashion, their eyes and rune illuminating the dim room. Some of them were pulling weeds, while others swept the floor with thick brooms. Some even shined the graves with tissues. The others were simply standing at attention, probably waiting for something to necessitate their movement. On this floor, the deaths were a lot sadder, but some of them were not at all gruesome.

Amice Keriell - 1366-1383 - A bright child, sick from birth, that vowed to survive and live a normal life. Tricked by the whims of the fae. Let this be a lesson to all to not bargain with what we cannot understand.

The whims of the fae…? I stopped and stared at the grave, trying to decipher what it could mean. I didn't like the tone of it one bit.

"Ah, this one," The Overseer smiled. "He ventured into the woods to the northeast and asked for a fairy to cure his illness. A foolish endeavor, but it was not his fault. There were a lot of legends about the fae in those times, including the one that they could grant wishes, although for a heavy price. But as you know, all rumors are born from a hint of truth."

"What… what happened to him?"

"Well, I do not know," she said. "The fae can be ruthless, just like they can be kindness incarnate. It would depend on which one he met and if he offended it. He died, so his offer must not have gone over well."

I frowned, feeling more uncomfortable than I had since I stepped foot into the tower. That was an overgeneralization if I ever saw one.

Aethelred (Bronzong) - ?-1415 - Bringer of rains, protector of our crop, lover of plays. Died mysteriously in the night. Could not prevent the coming famine caused by drought.

Camilla (Luxio) - 1434-1450 - Went on a rampage, then starved herself after failing to protect her life companion from harm. May they rest together—

That was it. I was done with reading anything. This was just the second floor. I wanted to get out of here as fast as I could.

"So do I just… catch one?" Cecilia asked, pointing toward one of the Golett. "Can I choose the biggest one?"

"Go ahead, young one," she said, sipping on her tea. "They will not resist a Pokeball's hold. They lack the individuality to do so."

Was that cup even emptying itself?

"I don't want a mindless drone, I want a Pokemon," Cecilia said.

"They are Pokemon. They were built in ancient times for manual labor, so this is what you will be getting, I am afraid."

"You'll be able to breathe life into it," I said. "I'm sure of it."

Cecilia hesitantly approached the largest Golett that reached up to her waist, and bumped its forehead. The Pokeball chimed without even shaking. That was it. Cecilia had caught her fifth Pokemon.

"So we can dip now, right?" Pauline nervously asked.

"I don't see why not. We got what we came here for," Denzel said.

"Won't you stay to honor the dead?" Mathilda asked.

"Erm, no," Pauline said. "I… uh, respect your job, this place and what you're trying to do, but it's giving us the creeps."

"Very well," she said, dipping her head. "I will lead you back to the exit. No ghosts will attack you in my presence—"

Shadows slipped through the cracks in the floor, lashing out and destroying some of the bricks. The darkness coalesced into the form of an old woman that looked exactly like Mathilda. The clothes, the face, the exact same wrinkles. This went beyond genes, this was… like a reflection of her.

"Mathilda," the voice echoed throughout the room. "You dare bring humans into this sacred place?"

"Step aside, Ruth."

"That's Ruth? Is she even human?!" Denzel yelled.

"Obviously not!" Pauline said.

"Silence!" Ruth screamed. My ears rang, giving me a headache. "We had a deal, Mathilda. No humans past the Foyer."

The Foyer… that must have been the first floor. Our Pokemon all tensed, readying their attacks in case everything went south.

"You are stuck in the past. Nothing is forever, Ruth, no matter how long we may live," Mathilda said, her voice turning otherworldly. "Some rules can be bent to make our time here a little easier."

"That is humorous coming from you, of all people! What are you thinking, Mathilda? Do you want this tower to fall into ruin?"

I didn't understand. Why would we coming here mean that the tower would become ruined?

"Ironic, is it not? The people buried here failed to achieve their goals, and yet we were given a goal we are incapable of reaching. An unending task. How much longer, Ruth? One hundred years? Five hundred? A thousand? You have asked me plenty, and I know you would not like the answer."

My eyes bulged. These two were ghosts! But what ghost could even turn into a human?!

"If I am kept here, then the next best thing is following our directive."

"You are not focused on your task, Ruth. Hatred still drives you."

"Hatred for you! I am focusing on my task, while you play with humans! They will spread rumors about this place, and trainers will come to ransack this tower. I will not let them leave."

"Do not be foolish, Ruth. You are not thinking clearly."

"You and your love for humans!" She spat. "I should have done this centuries ago!"

Shadows were thrashing under both of their feet, now, and I knew there were about to fight. I stared at my friends, and we carefully stepped back. Electabuzz placed a hand on my shoulder to stop my trembling, and I took a deep breath. I needed to think. Why did Ruth seem to care so much about guarding the tower if she hated humans so much? Did she just care about the graves for Pokemon? No… it seemed that she cared for everyone here. Mathilda's words were strange too. It seemed that she wanted to change things, but there was something about her words that made it seem like Ruth wanted to lea—

"Do not leave me!" Mathilda called out to us. "The ghosts here are beyond your capabilities. If you are without me, you will get attacked."

"Even on the second floor?" Justin harrowingly said.

"I will only say this one more time, Ruth. Step aside, or I will kill you, and we will talk about this when you are done clearing your head in the Dusk."

"You make me sick. You're the one keeping me—"

Mathilda took a deep breath. "Stick close to me. Do not engage, you will just make her focus on you instead of me."

Suddenly, she was sucked into her teacup, becoming a Sinistea, and Ruth's arms bulged, separating into segments that were thinly linked by darkness. Red runes were inscribed on her skin, which turned into a dull gray, and then turned into thick rocks. A single purple eye stared at us with unending hatred.

It was a Runerigus. Native and only found in Galar, and yet somehow, it was here.

How was a Sinistea supposed to win against that? Never mind that they could somehow turn into humans that were exact copies of each other!

A ball of green energy shot out of the teacup, and Runerigus let out a hellish scream, somehow jumping toward us with both of her hands coated in sharp shadows. The Energy Ball crashed into her, but she ignored it, swatting Sinistea away like a bug. The teacup flew into a grave, destroying it and sending Runerigus even further into her unhinged rage.

Sinistea appeared fine, and she floated upward with another Energy Ball charged up. This time, the ball split into ten smaller ones, and she sent them flying forward like a machine gun. The ground type brought both of her arms forward, blocking the attack with Protect, and created two Night Shades alongside her.

She sicked them after us and then returned to fight Sinistea.

We all issued a flurry of orders, and every attack under the sun crashed against the two Night Shades. Dragon Pulse, Flamethrower, Icy Wind, Disarming Voice, Shadow Ball and Thunderbolt all impacted them, but they seemed completely unfazed by the attacks. The first shade slashed across Froslass, and she flickered in and out of reality as the temperature dropped and frost started to coat the graves and the floor.

"Recall your fucking Froslass!" Pauline yelled as Electabuzz shielded her from a Shadow Claw. "She can't control herself if she's not focusing!"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Denzel yelled, scrambling at his belt. He recalled the ice type and sent out his Roselia instead. "Roselia, battle! Focus on the Night Shades!"

Jellicent's entire face was destroyed in a single attack from one of the shades, and he flew off to regenerate. Roselia brought a flower forward, spraying one of the shades with Venoshock, but it had no effect at all. Electabuzz was working overtime to shield anyone in danger with Protect, but one slipped through and slammed his arm so hard that it bent wrong. I felt my stomach drop and immediately recalled him.

"Angel," I breathed out as soon as I sent him out. "Battle, restrain the Night Shades."

If we didn't have Protect, then his vines were the best we had for protection. The grass type coated them in dark type energy and wrapped as many as he could around the two shades, but it was barely restraining their movement. Still, it was enough for us to run and get out of harm's way most of the time. To our left, Sinistea sent out a Shadow Ball toward Runerigus, and she was finally starting to crack her stone armor that hid her true body underneath.

As Justin released his Krokorok, I was starting to understand something. Their attacks were all incredibly impressive, and beyond what we could hope to achieve. They charged faster, were stronger, and had more versatility than I'd ever seen from a wild Pokemon, and yet—

The Night Shades, Sinistea and Runerigus were all holding back to protect the graves.

Still, we were on the verge of getting annihilated by something that wasn't even its real body. The Night Shade let out a silent scream, tearing more of Tangrowth's vine apart as Charmeleon's Flamethrower coated its body. Krokorok attempted to slow the other one down with Sand Tomb, but it could apparently fucking fly too. The shade slammed him away, and Audino hurriedly dealt with the worse of the damage with Heal Pulse.

"Knock Off, Angel!" I yelled. If I couldn't restrain them with vines, the best we could do was deal as much damage as possible in hopes of finally dealing with them. The grass type's vines tensed, and he slapped a Night Shade away from Pauline, finally dealing real damage. "Dark type moves! Only dark type moves work!" I yelled.

"Zweilous, Crunch!"

"You too Charmeleon!" Pauline yelled, releasing her Gothorita. "Payback!"

"Not them!" I countered. "It's too dangerous!"

Only Zweilous, Tangrowth, and Jellicent could take any hits. For the others, one or two, and they'd have to be recalled to avoid dying or being irreparably wounded. Zweilous ran up to one of the shades as darkness danced in their mouths, and both of the heads bit down, destroying a part of the shadow, and another one of Jellicent's Shadow Balls slammed into it right after.

Its eye just glinted as it regenerated the damage immediately.

I flinched as the real Runerigus crashed into a mass of graves and an unsuspecting Golett, which were all destroyed. The ground type was barely a thin, long shadow now, and all of its armor had been destroyed. Sinistea used the opportunity and helped us dispatch the Night Shades with two Shadow Balls that were bigger than I'd ever seen. When I looked into them, it was like staring into the abyss itself. I was hypnotized by the sheer amount of grief and emptiness present in the ghostly spheres.

Grief, not hate.

Two was all it took. We were truly outclassed at every level.

The teacup flew in between us and the shades, shielding us from the explosion that came with their destruction with a Protect of her own. I didn't know how, but somehow, a non-fully evolved Pokemon was winning against a fully-evolved one. Were they so old that it truly did not matter? Or was something else at play? I took my first full breath since the battle started and assessed the damage. Aside from the three I mentioned earlier and Audino thanks to his normal typing, our Pokemon were horribly wounded.

Krokorok was worse off than anyone else, however. Even with Heal Pulse, he had lost so much blood. Audino used another Heal Pulse, and Justin quickly recalled the ground type with tears in his eyes. It seemed that Audino was capable of healing broken bones, at the very least, so we wouldn't have to rush to the Pokemon Center.

Runerigus had been reduced to a shadow, and it quickly turned back into Ruth. Sinistea did the same, and a body just squeezed out of the cup.

"You disappoint me, Ruth. So many graves damaged because of your childish antics. So many names and memories lost forever."

"I despise you. Just kill me already, there is no need to gloat. If the tower falls, then you will only have yourself to blame. At least I will be able to be free."

"Why fight change, Ruth? A ghost might be eternal, but the world is not. You must have known that things would not stay the same forever. The inside of this tower will stand until the end of time, but we can commit to making our fate a little easier until the time comes."

"I despise this fate," the ghost said, more saddened than I expected. "Banished to care for graves for eternity."

"And yet, you do it diligently, because it is your purpose. Our purpose. Things cannot be any different."

"They are all gone, Mathilda. All gone. And we are condemned to a life that cannot end. Even after the world is reduced to dust and ash with nothing left to protect the tower from, only ghosts will remain."

"A tragic fate for we, who were borne of tragic deaths. And yet it must be done."

"Enough of this. I am done with conversing. A trip to the Dusk will do me some good."

"Do not try to avoid hard conversation through death. It will have to happen either way."

"Fine then. I love this place, but I grow tired of it. I want to leave."

Mathilda's face darkened, and I felt my palms moisten. An uncomfortable dryness overtook my throat.

"You know as well as I do that the answer is no. You cannot abandon your purpose. Our purpose."

I stared at both of them confusedly. This made no sense… it was like the roles had switched. Ruth was now the one wishing for change, and Mathilda was the one wanting to keep things the same. But why? Were these two so old that I just couldn't understand?

"So you bring humans to taint this sacred place, and yet you cling to tradition? What a joke," Ruth chuckled sadly. "You are as hypocritical as always, Mathilda."

"Humans coming here will give us a break from the dullness," she explained. "But we will not leave. I am a force for change, but that is the line we must not cross. You cling to the status quo to avoid experiencing what could have been if we had not been given this task, but in truth, you want to leave. Every time you see a human, it reminds you of Him, does it not? I know it is painful. You spend decades at a time grieving next to His grave."

"And you spend decades ignoring Him. You never come to the top floor, Mathilda."

"It is too sorrowful for even I."

Ruth sighed. "We are both slaves to the purpose we were given in different ways, it seems."

"You would have known this had you not decided to give me the silent treatment for the last three hundred years," she said, turning toward us. "I will lead you to the exit, children. Thank you for keeping us company."

"If you know what's good for you, you won't come back. You thought I was a threat? You have not seen what she is capable of."

Mathilda spared a look at her fellow Overseer. "How much longer, Ruth?" She repeated. "The answer is forever."