PARAGON
Hisui Incursion Arc [9]
Chapter 61 : Adventure in the Land of Legend
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Hisui Region - Obsidian Fieldlands
Laventon’s bottom lip quivered as he raised a shaky finger in Yura’s direction. “Y…Y…Y-Yura…?!”
Beside the hole it’d popped out of, Shieldon groaned, a low, metallic grinding emanating from its stony throat, ready to defend its young master.
The shock of seeing Yura aside, this was also Ash’s first time seeing Shieldon in the daylight, and now that it was well-illuminated, he noticed something strange about this one.
Unlike the Shieldon of the modern age, this one’s metal skull was a far darker shade, nearly black. He hadn’t noticed before in the darkness of night, but this one’s head almost appeared to be made of obsidian rather than iron. Its eyes held the same wild look as the other pokémon of this time and its body was covered in dirt and gravel.
“W-What are you…?” Sabrina stammered.
“What’s going on? Are they there?” another voice echoed from within the hole.
Ash, Sabrina, and Riley all exchanged a look.
Yura looked down the hole, then back up. Scarlet bloomed across her cheeks and she clambered out. Shieldon stalked toward her protectively.
Rei’s head popped up next and he took one look at the others before all the color drained from his face.
After an awkward pause, Riley extended a hand, and as if on autopilot, Rei accepted it, and the Guardian hauled him out.
Akari was last and it took less than a second for her to realize what was going on. “Oh…,” she breathed. Her face and clothes were smeared in dirt as well but Riley wasted no time in offering his hand.
Laventon’s eyes were closed, yet his whole body trembled as he stood in place. Ash glanced between their now bloated party, but all eyes were trained on the Professor, awaiting his judgment with trepidation. Wind whistled through the trees like roaring laughter, but no one was smiling.
Finally, the Professor stopped shaking and he unballed his fists. Rei swallowed, and Akari and Yura clutched each others’ hands so tightly it looked painful.
“We’re turning back,” Laventon said in a low voice.
“Wait, Professor, please just let us explain, we—“ Rei sputtered.
“We’re turning back!” Laventon roared in a voice completely different from how Ash had ever heard before. And given Rei and Akari’s wincing reactions, it wasn’t something they’d ever heard either. “You two, I understand!” he said, jabbing a finger at his disciples. “You could say I expected it! But what on earth possessed you to bring Yura all this way?!”
“Please, Professor!” Akari wailed. “We’ve been talking! She just wants to find her home—“
“So you took her beyond the safety of the walls?! This is a child!”
“She has a pokémon!” Rei offered.
“Don’t try to justify your reckless foolishness!” Laventon snarled. “Not only have you put her in mortal peril, but you’ve endangered yourselves and us as well! The journey simply cannot continue! It’s done! It’s—“
A hand came down on the Professor’s shoulder and he whipped around. Ash smiled sympathetically.
“We don’t want to invite any wild pokémon over,” he said.
Laventon opened his mouth, then nodded, and nodded again to keep himself quiet.
“Sabrina, Riley, can you watch our front and back while we chat?” Ash said.
After a moment, Sabrina and Riley both nodded and moved around the group to their respective sides.
Laventon’s legs buckled under him and he plopped down on the ground. “What were you three thinking?” he hissed.
Rei knelt down slowly next to Laventon, his eyes locked on the Professor’s downcast gaze. “Please don’t be mad at them, Professor. It was all my idea. I forced Akari and Yura to come along with me… I just couldn’t stand the thought that you all were going to explore the rift without me. I…I’m sorry.”
Laventon grunted. “Noble, Rei. But I’ve known you long enough to know that this nonsense was concocted by the both of you. No, all three of you. I’ll have the truth, and I’ll have it now.”
Without delay, Yura squatted down in front of Laventon, her brows furrowed into a tight knit. “It was me, sir. I…forced them to take me. I…just thought…” Her eyes shimmered, but she glared at the ground and wiped them furiously. “I thought this would be the best chance for me to find my home!”
Even Shieldon groaned sadly and mimicked its master in lowering its head.
Laventon reached out a hand and placed it on Yura’s head. “How old are you again?”
“Nine, sir.”
“And you say you forced those two to do your bidding?”
Yura pursed her lips. “Shieldon helped.”
Laventon raised a brow and glanced at the other two. “It seems you two need better training, hm?”
Rei and Akari nodded furiously as the Professor stood up and dusted himself off.
“My decision remains the same. We’re turning back.”
Yura looked up, agony in her eyes as the two older ones surged forward.
“Professor, please!” Rei begged. “We’re strong enough, I promise!”
“This isn’t about that, we don’t have the means! And we’re meant to be moving quickly! That’s impossible with a group this size!”
“Professor.” Ash raised his hand. “We’d like to continue, if possible. Because of what we just told you.”
Laventon looked over and his movements slowed as he glanced between Ash, and Sabrina and Riley, as if realizing just how much firepower he’d be losing without them on his side.
“I’ll go with them!” Yura said, clamping her arms around Sabrina’s leg and burying her face in it before anyone had a chance to deny her.
Laventon looked at Rei and Akari. He sighed and held his head in his hand. “What is the point if only we return?” he bit out.
Rei looked up hopefully as Akari held her breath.
“You can trust us to look after the others, I promise,” Ash said cautiously.
Laventon didn’t move.
“Each of us will take personal responsibility for one of them,” Riley offered. “To the extent of sacrificing our lives, if necessary.”
Sabrina didn’t even blink at the declaration and Ash’s gaze was still trained on Laventon.
After what seemed like an hour, the Professor sighed and rubbed his face. “Cyllene’s going to bury us all,” he muttered.
A grin broke across Rei and Akari’s faces and they exchanged an elated look.
“Let’s move!” Laventon barked before they could celebrate. “We’ve lost enough time already and we won’t be able to maintain the same pace either.” He picked up his backpack and slung it back over his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Professor, we brought our own supplies too,” Rei said. He ducked his head back down the hole they came from and heaved out a backpack of similar size as the other three. “You have no idea how heavy…” He glanced around. “…Er, never mind.”
“Pilfered from the Church’s storerooms, I’m sure,” Laventon sighed.
“Most of it came from Volo’s carts,” Akari murmured, but it didn’t seem like Laventon had heard.
“I’ll watch over Yura,” Sabrina said as Ash was picking up their bags.
“Ash, I can protect Akari and Rei both,” Riley said as he watched Ash sling both backpacks back over his shoulders. Pikachu scampered up onto his head and crossed his stubby arms.
“Awesome, thanks,” Ash grunted.
“…If you carry my bag as well.”
“Rei, you’re with me,” Ash said as he started forward again. “Pikachu.”
The mouse jumped and landed on Rei’s shoulder as Riley smirked, and the younger boy recoiled, but didn’t shoo him off. After Pikachu seemed to settle in, Rei eased up and straightened, though he stared at his new protector warily. He lifted his own bag over his other shoulder and glanced back at Akari, who stifled a giggle next to Riley.
“Now!” Yura shouted. “Let the Galaxy Expebitio… M-Mission…set off, again!”
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Laventon led the way at the front trekking ahead in silence, and no one uttered a word for the next hour for fear of him changing his mind. Emerald light filtered through the gaps in the leaves above and this forest was clean, for lack of a better word. The grass at their feet was just as bright and no branches or twigs cracked beneath them either. They did not encounter any pokémon either, the size of their group likely making any potential onlookers second guess getting a closer look.
Every so often, Laventon glanced down at his map but his pace never slowed. That said, their overall speed compared to before the others had joined them had plummeted, and the Professor didn’t seem to be making an effort at getting it back up. They were now walking through the forest at a gait that reminded Ash of his many miles of journey with his friends across the various regions before he’d become World Champion.
As he’d kind of expected, Rei was the first to break the silence, though he was wise enough to keep it down.
“So you guys are from the future, huh?” he said, walking next to Ash. “That’s pretty cool.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Ash frowned. “You guys heard that?”
“Yeah, sorry about that. Didn’t mean to eavesdrop or anything, but we realized you guys had stopped and we weren’t sure when to pop up.”
“Well, guess the secret’s out then,” Ash smiled, scratching the back of his head. “By the way, how in the world did you guys follow us so far anyway? I didn’t notice we were being followed at all.”
“Oh, it was all Shieldon,” Rei grinned. “That thing’s a total beast. We slipped out of the Sanctuary and it started digging almost right away. Somehow, it always knew where you guys were, all we had to do was keep up.”
“The tunnel was big enough for you to stand in?”
“Yeah, but barely! Still impressive for how much smaller it is than us. He didn’t even slow down at all either. And I gotta hand it to Yura. She kept up the whole way too.”
Ash glanced back at Sabrina and Yura as subtly as he could. The two were walking hand in hand and Shieldon had been recalled. Sabrina didn’t seem to mind how filthy the little girl was after running underground all morning, and he looked away before she could meet her eye. Indeed, Yura didn’t even look tired.
“That one’s a trooper,” Ash muttered. Though since it concerned her supposed home, maybe that was to be expected.
“Thanks for taking our side, by the way,” Rei said. “I guess we didn’t really realize it’d put you guys in an awkward spot if we suddenly showed up.” He looked down in shame.
Ash smiled. “Of course. Really, I should be thanking you for thinking of Yura. I…wanted to do something to help her, but I wasn’t sure what. I hope we can help her find her home.”
“Oh, yeah, ‘course!” Rei chuckled nervously. “But to be perfectly honest, we didn’t just do it ‘cause of her. Me and Akari wanted to tag along no matter what.”
Ash looked over at him. “How did you two meet the Professor? It seems like you both care about him a lot. If you don’t mind me asking,” he added quickly.
Rei shook his head and shrugged. “Nah, not at all. Me and Akari’s parents died when we were super young and he took us in.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be. It’s pretty common for people to pass away like that here. Though that winter was particularly hard on the Sanctuary so it means a lot that he took us both in when he did. Neither of us remember it, but Cyllene let us know, er…when we were getting chewed out by her one time. So…I guess we’re both still trying to pay it forward to him.”
“Does tagging along on an expedition you weren’t assigned to help with that?” Ash teased.
“Definitely, man!” Rei exclaimed, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You know what kind of trouble the Professor gets himself into! I mean, he scooped you guys up!”
Pikachu sent a jolt of electricity into Rei and the boy yelped loud enough for Laventon to turn around and shoot him an evil eye. Rei whipped toward Ash but he shrugged innocently.
Surprisingly, as their conversation continued, Rei never ended up asking him anything about the future. Maybe it was his way of being considerate or something, or maybe he’d simply heard Laventon get shut down by Riley earlier, but the boy never said a word about it.
When they emerged from the forest, the sun shined white against a sprawling blue vista cut with milky clouds. The snow-tipped mountaintops that stood before the horizon glimmered a soft amethyst in the winter sunlight. Rivers and streams trickled like silver veins across the plains below and pokémon sipped from ponds and lakes whose edges glowed blue with frost.
Yura let go of Sabrina’s hand for the first time since they’d set off and ran up beside Laventon. “It’s beautiful…,” she breathed.
“Indeed,” Laventon agreed, his voice wistful.
Yura dug around in her pocket and released Shieldon. “Look, Shieldon! It’s—“
But the shield pokémon remained fast asleep as it coalesced onto the ground at her side, and even her call didn’t wake it. She frowned in dismay and recalled him.
“I guess Shieldon’s still tired,” Akari said, resting her hand on the young girl’s shoulder. “We put him through a lot of work.”
Laventon didn’t react. His eyes were transfixed on the eerie storm above Mount Coronet. The dark fracture crackled and rumbled in the far distance, almost as if it were alive, and hungry.
Riley stepped up beside Ash. “What’s your read, Ash?” he asked quietly.
Ash’s brows furrowed. “It looks similar to what Team Galactic did, but somehow different. More powerful. Whatever caused that rift… It’s far more dangerous than Team Galactic ever was.” He turned to Riley. “Are the Paragons really that much stronger than the pokémon of time and space?”
“For a certainty,” Riley nodded. “Dialga and Palkia are like ministers of said aspects. For the Paragons, they rewrite the laws of nature and existence with their every breath… Reality bends to their will. It’s why this world is so badly maimed by their mere approach.”
“Why would the rift appear here though? And why now?”
Riley’s eyes darkened like jade. “I don’t know. I hope we can find King Aaron in the north and get some answers.”
Ash’s gaze remained on the rift. But try as he might, he could not pierce its murky identity. The Electric Plate didn’t react to it at all the way it had with AZ. With how strong the Paragon within supposedly was, he thought for sure he could at least confirm it, but alas…
He shivered, but immediately clutched his arms to get himself to stop.
“Are you cold, Ash?” Sabrina walked up to his other side. She looked at him with concern.
“You said I have to become strong enough to take on something as powerful as that?” Ash asked, his grip tightening on his arms. He seemed not to hear Sabrina.
Riley hesitated, but nodded. “Yes.”
Sabrina glanced between them, having only heard of their conversation about the Paragon of Darkness in summary form later the next day.
Ash looked over at Pikachu, still relaxing on Rei’s shoulder. Then, he pulled his hands off his arms and looked down at them. …Me? I…
“Let’s continue,” Laventon called. “We’ll hike to that lake down there and camp there for the night,” he said, pointing.
Rei, Akari, and Yura looked back curiously, but having all three of them staring at him snapped Ash out of his trance. “Sounds good, Professor!” He pushed ahead, his two bags bouncing against his back with each step.
Sabrina and Riley glanced between each other before silently following after.
They’d come out of the forest atop a rather steep hill so descending it took longer than it initially seemed like it would. Rock jutted out from its gravelly face in gray-speckled patches, creating a quasi-path down. This time, Ash and Rei led the way, with Rei’s stony Growlithe smoothing their path as best it could with head bashes and streams of hot fire that sliced through cragged bushes now bare of their leaves.
The sky was beginning to change color as they finally reached the mountain’s foot, but now, it was flat as far as the horizon. Pokémon grazed in the balding fields, but there appeared to be less now than there’d been earlier when they were looking down from above. Perhaps they were returning home to their hill holes and forest dwellings before night fell. Luckily, that meant an easier journey across the land for them.
“Ah, a herd of Stantler, look,” Laventon said as they crossed a grassy glen covered in small flowers.
A pack of thirty or forty tread across their path up ahead, and though a few of them glanced their way, the herd didn’t break formation.
Yura bounced up to the front beside Ash and Rei and put her hand over her eyes. “Ooooooohhhhh!” she cooed. “So many!”
Ash smiled. “You don’t usually see that many together like that. I bet they’re coming down from the north for winter.”
“You know so much about pokémon!” Akari chirped. “It seems like you know something about every pokémon we come across!”
“Ha ha, I’ve just traveled around a lot,” Ash said, slightly embarrassed. “I don’t know about every pokémon.” His brows furrowed. “Like Rei’s Growlithe. The Growlithe I’ve seen don’t look like yours.”
“Yes, Hisui’s Growlithe and Arcanine are a local variant,” Laventon said. “Trainers from Kanto and beyond have come to Hisui before and expressed similar confusion. Our Growlithe and Arcanine are far sturdier. They sport the rock-type alongside their fire.”
“Rock-type…” Ash repeated. That lined up with his initial observations. “What about Hisui’s Decidueye? Like the one that attacked the Sanctuary?”
“Grass and Fighting,” Laventon answered. “Is there another Decidueye variant elsewhere? I haven’t heard of any others besides this one.”
“There’s a Grass and Ghost one,” Sabrina said, joining them at the front next to Yura. “It’s…actually, never mind. Sorry…”
Laventon smiled. “Wisdom from the future, hm? Ah, no need to apologize. I don’t want to meddle in anything I shouldn’t.”
“Could at least give us a hint where it lives,” Rei muttered under his breath.
“Actually, seeing those Stantler reminds me of something I completely forgot to ask,” Riley said. “That pokémon Leader Kamado mentioned…Wyrdeer, I believe it was called. I’ve never heard of a pokémon like that, but if it has ‘deer’ in its name, is it perhaps related to Stantler?”
Laventon nodded. “Yes! That’s exactly right. Stantler evolves into Wyrdeer, though we’re not sure how. The Wyrdeer that lives within the Church has protected it for several generations now. It’s far older than any of us, but it treats the Church like its own child. No harm has ever befallen the Church under its mystical watch.”
“Hah! So there are some pokémon you guys haven’t heard of, huh?” Rei grinned.
“Such is the vastness of the mysteries of this world,” Laventon mused.
“Though maybe that’s not such a good thing,” Akari said. “It means some knowledge was lost between now and then.”
“The ebb and flow of time is unceasing,” Riley said. “Not everything survives to the future, no matter how calm the current.”
“What does that mean?” Yura said.
“It means you better eat your veggies if you want to grow up big and strong,” Ash grinned, but he saw Sabrina shoot him a dirty look out of the corner of his eye and quickly wiped it off.
“Let’s not worry about the future,” Rei said. “That’s for these guys to handle.”
Yura’s cheeks puffed up as she pouted and she stared at Riley as they continued their lively trek.
The surface of the lake shimmered silently when they arrived at dusk. The sun was beginning to pass behind the mountains, darkening the Fieldlands so it looked later than it actually was. Yura started running off toward it but Sabrina pulled her back.
“We’ll set up camp here for tonight,” Laventon declared, throwing his backpack down and sitting on a rock. “Rei, if you please.”
“On it!”
Before Ash could ask what, he ran off, with Akari trailing behind.
“Those two will take care of firewood. In the meantime, let’s get dinner started.”
Within their bags, they all carried an assortment of food. Laventon unclipped the iron pot attached to his pack and Riley offered to fill it with water. In the mean time, Sabrina dug out a handful of root vegetables and started chopping them up on a small chopping board, while Ash tore up strips of dried fish.
“It’s our first night beyond the walls. I say we indulge a bit,” Laventon proclaimed. “Tonight, we feast like kings!”
The fire glowed and crackled, illuminating their small camp as they all sat around it. Akari took charge in stirring everything together, and tasting and spicing as needed. Before long, their stew was done, and luckily, Rei, Akari, and Yura had packed bowls for themselves.
Pikachu, Growlithe, and Akari’s Staravia patrolled the camp as they ate, weaving in and out of the light cast by the fire in accordance with sounds they heard in the shadowy distance. The stars lit up their lakeside camp, but it was still plenty dark away from the fire.
“So,” Laventon said as they ate. “Let’s talk about our change of plans.”
Akari and Rei glanced between each other, knowing this conversation had to happen at some point. But they weren’t the only ones that’d catalyzed the change.
“We’re heading to the Alabaster Icelands now, with a planned stop at the Pearl Settlement. Right now, we’re on the edge of a place called the Horseshoe Plains. From here, we turn north.”
“Over the Coronet foothills?” Akari asked.
“Indeed. That will take us into the Icelands. We’ll resupply at the Pearl Settlement and gather information on our man in the north. Then, whether we find him or not, we’ll make the final journey up Mount Coronet to the summit.” Laventon turned. “On our way back, we’ll sweep the northern Highlands once again for Yura’s village.”
The little girl had been slouching against Sabrina, but she now stood up and put her bowl down carefully, then bowed. “Thank you, sir! Really, thank you so much!”
Laventon smiled. “Just Professor is fine.”
Rei put his empty bowl to the side. “Professor…not to be nitpicky, especially since we’ve already caused so many problems, but is there a reason you waited so long to tell us the plan? How come you didn’t lay all this out earlier?”
The fire flickered as Rei’s question hung in the air for a moment. “Perhaps I wanted you to stew in your guilt a bit longer,” the Professor said. But he smiled. “No, I waited on purpose. For my own sake. I wanted us to be far enough along the northern route that I’d have no choice but to follow through with this plan.”
“Scared?” Rei asked, but his tone only sounded half teasing.
“For my own safety? No. But for all of you…”
“Not to worry, Professor,” Ash said. “That’s a burden we’ll share with you. Please don’t think you have to shoulder it alone.”
Laventon smiled. “I’m grateful. But, our journey will be fraught with danger all the same. The Fieldlands are nothing compared to where we’re going. We’re going to the Icelands, in the winter, no less. The pokémon there are far less docile than they are here. And Mount Coronet is in a league of its own altogether.” He laced his fingers together. “If there is anything about the future that would increase the safety of this expedition, I must demand to hear it now.”
Ash met his eye. “I’ve told you everything helpful I know already. I’ve been to Mount Coronet before, and the area called the Icelands, but Hisui is a completely different place two thousand years from now. I’d rather heed your warnings than trust my experience, in this case.”
Laventon nodded slowly. “Very well. We’ll continue with the northern plan you and Miss Cyllene drew up. We have an interesting road ahead of us.” He stroked his chin, a small smile ghosting his lips. “Especially in three days time, at our pace.”
“What happens in three days?” Yura asked.
Laventon’s eye gleamed. “We encounter our first Alpha Pokémon.”
Next — Chapter 62 : Incarnation of Violence
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Apologies for the delay. I had the chapter finished on time but I was busy playing games, ha ha.