Author's Note: Hello! It has been quite a while since the AN has been placed at the beginning. This is because I have two things to share that I believe are important to be seen and not skimmed past.

First: In the near future, I will be revisiting every past chapter and providing much needed edits to scenes and general prose. There will be zero edits of the presented story, so you are not required to re-read in order to understand future chapters. However, if you feel you need to revisit past chapters to brush up on your knowledge of the story, or understand how it has reached this point, then I encourage you to do so when the edits are made.

I will make another AN at the end of a future chapter when the edits have been finished.

Second: After the last chapter was posted, I felt I needed to make a proper statement regarding the massive reveal and bombshell that was dropped on you all. Chapter 33 (Grim Reminder) was a very important feat, and something that the story has been building to since its very first chapter. Throughout multiple years of planning and also writing, keen-eyed readers have seen that every step of the way has been building up to this decisive moment that alters the perception of the story entirely.

I would like to personally thank every reader that was here for the initial posting of Chapter 1 and has stuck with the story ever since. Through all the rough moments and all the waits between chapters, you have been through it all to reach this far. All of the theories, all of the comments, and all of the people that have reached out to me via Discord, I appreciate all of it and wish to see even more in the future.

To wrap this up, the events of the last chapter are but a catalyst to everything that occurs next. The true beginning of the story is now revealed. And I am more than eager to show you through the gates that lead into its hidden and closely guarded heart.

So, welcome.

Welcome to The Phantasmagoria.

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Chapter 34

Vendetta

Birds chirped, leaves shuddered, white wallflowers swayed in the wind, and the bright sun was shining overhead.

The rumblings of a car engine scared away a foraging deer as a deep blue pickup truck drove down a dusty road. The vehicle came to a gradual stop along the grassy edges of the trail, next to a mailbox. The driver side door swung open as a young man stepped out of the truck and surveyed the large swathes of grasslands.

He wore a sad smile.

Liam settled his gaze upon the charred remains of a large home taken over by nature. Moss grew alongside the blackened exterior. Black and yellow tape wrapped around wooden posts embedded in the earth fenced the structure in.

The house was soon to be torn down, and this would be the last time he could see it.

He took in the quiet sight with a nostalgic sigh. His hand ran across the mailbox beside him and over the faded words engraved into the wood. Reading them sent a pang through his heart.

'DUM SPIRO, SPERO'.

He walked toward the burned home, only stopping to look up at a sole tree occupying the clearing. He remembered the many times he came home from school and climbed it, wondering how far he could reach each attempt. He suppressed a small urge to revisit traditions and continued on.

He gave a quick glance of his surroundings before ducking underneath the perimeter tape. He ascended the rotting wooden stairs of the porch as small animals were alerted to his presence and scurried underneath the floorboards. He tested the doorknob of the entrance door.

Locked.

A swift kick to the door blew it off its hinges, revealing the dark interior. Liam stepped past the doorway and procured a small flashlight from his pockets. He turned it on and waved the ray of light around as he explored the desolate home.

The flashlight shined upon overturned furniture and dusty tables; across cobweb ridden cabinets and shelves that held painted statues of trees and animals. Liam stopped near a shelf and picked one up that resembled a canine. The text inscribed on the statue's base told him that it was a Black-backed jackal.

He smiled. He had always loved his mother's work.

Liam placed the statue back on the shelf as he kept exploring. The crunching of glass under his shoes alerted him to an assortment of picture frames on the ground. The photographs within were burned, their colors dulled and warped into a charred, indecipherable mess.

Yet, there was one that he could still visualize.

Liam knelt down to grab the smashed frame and took out the photograph within as he stared. He could see the remnants of three faces burned into the paper, their features gone, but were clear in his mind. Only the edges of the photo remained unscathed; cold blue water and warm rays of a rising sun peeking into the frame.

He could picture this photo vividly in his mind. The memory played over in his mind like it was yesterday. The smell of fresh morning dew on the cattail, the feeling of running his hand across the river's current, and the joyous voices he heard calling out to him among the buzzing insects. A mix of bliss and melancholy constricted the young man's heart as he reminisced.

He pocketed the photograph.

The steps of the home's staircase creaked and groaned underneath Liam's shoes. Once reaching the second floor, he waved his flashlight around in the darkness, shining the light on three doors of the hallway. The first door he opened was the room of his parents - only an empty bed left to occupy the space. His eyes lingered on it before he shut the door.

The second door swung open as Liam entered a new room he scarcely remembered. Wallpaper colored a vibrant pink was peeled away or torched a charcoal black. Plush toys huddling in corners were fused into a bundle of twisted, burnt furs. Liam found his attention focusing on something at the far end of the room - a crib. He walked over and rested his hands on its sides, peering inside.

Just like his parent's bed, it was empty.

The third door's knob would not budge but would come crashing down just as easily as the front door had. Liam entered and was immediately hit with a wave of nostalgia.

His room remained untouched.

His bed was just as messy as he remembered it, small clothes that would fit a child littering the floor. His closet was still full of junk he would shove in it to appease his tidy mother. Everything was scorched by the flames of the past, yet he could recognize it all in his mind, before it was all ruined.

Liam turned off the flashlight and let it roll away as he sat down on his bed, taking in the silent yet serene environment. A thought entered his mind as he ducked his head to look under the bed.

There it was. Just as he had left it there so many years ago.

Liam grabbed the wooden banjo from under the bed and brushed away the cobwebs attached to it. He gave the instrument a lookover, noting its strings had been warped or broken by fire damage, rendering it useless. He threw the banjo back into the darkness and flopped his body on the stiff blankets of his bed. His vacant gaze bored into the ceiling.

All of his memories surrounded him, but he knew them to be just memories. Something he could never return to. All of his hopes, of his wishes and desires to reunite with his family, were crushed by the reminder that they would just be that. He wanted to sleep here and awake as a young boy again, to live what was once his, what should be his. And he knew he would do anything to achieve that wish.

Liam closed his eyes.

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Liam opened his eyes.

But the rays of moonlight filtering in from the holes in the ceiling only funneled into only one crimson pupil that expanded to the size of a dinner plate. As his blurry vision cleared, he locked his gaze with the teary eyes of Gloria as she loomed over him.

"Liam!"

The Riolu immediately jumped up and backed up before the Vulpix could tackle him into an embrace. His dazed and startled look shot around the room. He was inside the guild's main foyer. Monferno, Braixen, Roark, and Gloria were all staring at him - covered in ash and soot. The petrified stone statues of his comrades were beside them.

"Where- What is…" Liam mumbled to himself as his shocked gaze swept the room. Everything around him felt familiar but distinctly alien and foreign. His heart picked up in pace. "Am I dreaming? T-this can't be real." He looked down at his bruised and battered body and felt as if he didn't fully recognize the flesh and fur that he was. He lifted his shaky paws and stared at them, then touched the bandage that was wrapped around his left eye.

"It was the best I could do without Hatterene's help," Braixen wistfully said with a sniffle.

Roark raised both claws as he took a step toward Liam. "Kid, just calm down, okay? You're safe. We're all safe right now. The Yveltal is gone… for now, at least." He looked around. "Is everyone accounted for? What about Shaymin?"

Braixen wiped away forming tears. "Monferno and I found her gravely injured near the site of the Eden Theater's collapse, but…" She sniffled. "Another group took her, a-and I don't know where she is. I'm sorry."

Roark sighed in relief. "That's fine. She might still be alive." He looked at Liam. "Kid, can you remember anything from the past few hours? Do you know who did all of that to you?"

The Riolu took another step back as the previous events that led to this moment came rushing through his mind. His expression of shock would then morph into a seething scowl of bared teeth. "... Where is he?"

"Where's who, kid?"

"JACKSON!" Liam roared as he pounded the ceramic flooring with a hind paw. "That son of a bitch did this to me and is behind all of this!"

The room fell silent at his claim, wide-eyed stares focusing on the enraged Riolu.

Braixen felt faint as his words sank in. "... The Guildmaster?"

Monferno gripped Roark's arm and pulled it to steal his attention. "What you saw running over here! Didn't you say that it looked like the Guildmaster was on top of Yveltal as it flew away?!"

Roark slowly nodded, "I did say that, but- " He shook his head. "No. No, that can't be true, kid. There's no way in hell even that shifty Lucario could be capable of something like this. I think you're-"

"You think I'm lying?!" Liam screamed at him. "I saw him control Yveltal with my own two eyes!"

"I didn't say that, kid! What I'm saying is you could be misunderstanding things."

"Misunderstanding?! You look at what he did to me and think this was a misunderstanding?!"

"Please! Stop arguing!" Gloria cried out. She felt fresh tears well up in her eyes as she pressed into Roark's side, who pulled her in and wrapped a comforting arm around her.

Monferno scowled. "Sure as shit doesn't look like he's lying, Roark. But it can't be true, right? It just can't fucking be. If there's anything to know about the Guildmaster, then Scizor would know."

A hollow 'clack' noise resounded throughout the main hall as Scizor emerged from the darkness of the main halls. He wore a sullen look.

"Everything is destroyed," the Bug-type muttered. "The Projection Crystals we've gathered have been smashed. The extra ELE's we had in storage are either missing or smashed. The map of information I worked on for so long has been burned, and all other resources secretly hidden throughout the guild are gone." Scizor closed his eyes. "This destruction was not circumstantial. It was not done by Yveltal, but by another on purpose."

"Then- then that must mean Liam is correct, right?" Braixen spoke through forming tears. "The Guildmaster was the only Pokemon here that wasn't turned to stone. And he knew..."

"No… No. I refuse to believe he would do this," Scizor said, his stark voice cracking. His stomach tightened into knots. "I've known Jackson for twenty five years, and he would never, ever do something like this. All that can we confirm is that that he's missing and-"

"Missing?!" Monferno interrupted as he pointed at a furious Liam. "He's saying otherwise, Roark saw him flying Yveltal out of here, and now all of our work we spent years on is just randomly gone?!" He clenched his hands repeatedly. "I hate to say it but… I'm starting to believe the Guildmaster did this."

Scizor glared at him. "Stop it. Stop it right this instant. Do not make assumptions of Jackson as if you truly understand what has happened."

"I've fucking seen it all happen out there! Out in the city where all those innocent Pokemon and our friends got turned into stone by that thing!" Monferno yelled back. "Everything that we know points to the Guildmaster being behind it! Who else could it be?!"

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Why would he do this, then?!" Scizor screamed in anger. "Tell me why would he destroy everything we have worked for?!" He paused as his voice lowered and his head dropped. "Why would he allow Charizard to succumb like that?"

"Because you don't know what kind of a person he really is!" Liam intervened. "You have no idea what he's done to me before, and what a monster he is!"

"He is not a monster!" Scizor countered. "That is my closest friend and your Guildmaster that you are slandering!"

"Scizor. Listen closely to what everyone is saying," Roark said calmly. "We get it. We all understand that he's your friend and also our leader, but like Monferno said, everything we know points to him. We can't totally confirm it, but the Pokemon you thought you knew…" He sighed. "He could not entirely be who you thought he was."

Roark's words struck Scizor deep as the Bug-type took a step back, his limbs quaking. He attempted to steady them. "... No. No, I do not believe Jackson was behind this. We were so close to uncovering the truth that he would never jeopardize our goal. Our comrades here-"

"Are now fucking dead because of that bastard!" Monferno shouted as tears ran down his cheeks.

"They're not dead," Scizor murmured softly. "Please, trust me when I say they're not dead. If the many legends of Yveltal are true, then the souls of Pokemon it has petrified into stone are sent to a different world parallel to ours - a place void of life. They're alive, but trapped there."

"How do we get them back, then?!" Braixen cried.

"... The only known way would be if Yveltal himself willed for them to be free."

Monferno rubbed his face free of wetness. "Empyrean is destroyed by some Legendary god, our friends are trapped in some hellish world, and our own Guildmaster may have done all of this?" He buried his face into his hands. "This is all so fucked…"

Liam backed up until he hit a wall as he surveyed his surroundings in a panicked state. His paws clutched his head as events previously shrouded in mystery became clear in his mind. "What did I do… I left therapy, I came home, I took those pills and-" His eyes widened. "No, no, no, no-"

The Riolu suddenly bolted out of the guild's mangled double doors as the others bickered.

"LIAM!"

Gloria took off from Roark's side and sprinted after Liam.

"Sis, wait! Gloria!" Roark's yells were met with silence as he growled under his breath. He moved to follow after his sister, glancing back. "Everyone just stay here. We're gonna figure things out once I'm back with those two."

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Liam sprinted through the ruins of Empyrean City as fast as he could.

Utter destruction was visible in the peripherals of his sole, unblinking eye as he ran down the mangled cobblestone streets. The wails of Pokemon around him reached his ears. The rush of hurried footsteps and the spinning wheels of carriages on stone shot past him as they fled the city in a haste. He vaulted over overturned stands and chunks of rock until he reached the main square of the market district. There his gaze would land upon numerous petrified stone statues as Pokemon gathered around and mourned.

He recognized some of the statues. Sylveon. Mayor Empoleon. The Meowstic twins.

Palpable rage bubbled up from within and twisted his horrified expression into one of pure hate and malice. He cast aside his current thoughts as his limbs shook. He took a single step forward before he found his movements stifled by a pair of crimson red claws holding him back.

"Kid. Stop where you're going."

Liam whirled around and threw Roark's claws off of him. "Stay out of this, Roark! I'm not going back until I finish this!"

Roark held up both pairs of claws. "Just calm down, okay? Talk with me. Where did Gloria go? She was following you."

Liam appeared to take his advice as he took a moment to speak, steadying his rapid breaths. "I accidentally yelled at her. She ran off into the city somewhere. But I don't know where."

Roark scowled, "Listen. I don't know what you plan on doing here, but you need to return to the guild. If Jackson is really behind all of this like you say he is, then we need everyone available to sort out this fucking mess."

"Y'all… Y'all don't even know who that monster really is. He took everything from me!" Liam bared his teeth. "My entire life was robbed by him, and he was playing me for a damn fool all this time!"

The gears within Roark's mind began to turn as he regarded the Riolu with a strange look. "Something's changed. This doesn't sound like you, kid. It sounds like-" An epiphany struck him. "No. You regained your memory. That's it, right?"

"Everything. I remember everything now. And I'm not supposed to be this canine… jackal thing! "I'm not a Pokemon. I don't know what this world is but somehow I'm in this place, and somehow Jackson is here with me, too!"

Roark hid his surprise and wonder through a blank look he was finding hard to keep straight. His heart began to race. "I never thought that-" He shook his head. "Look, it doesn't matter right now. What matters is us getting back to the guild and figuring out our next move."

"I'm not going anywhere until Jackson gets what he deserves!"

"Deserves what, kid? What's your plan here?"

Liam's eyes narrowed, "Listen to me. Jackson is a dead man, you hear me?"

"Okay, you're angry - I get it. But what's your plan here? Let's say you do find him, all right? You know you can't take both Jackson and Yveltal down by yourself."

"I'll kill him with my bare hands if I have to!" Liam roared before he calmed down momentarily. "But I need to know where he went. And you saw him fly away."

"I did, but-"

"Where?! What direction did he go in?!"

Roark let out a long sigh. His mind brewed a battle in which he was conflicted on both outcomes. Ultimately, he pointed a claw at the night sky, where a column of Council guards was flying west of the city.

Liam attempted to bolt off in the direction of the guards but was yanked back by Roark. "Let go of me!"

"I'm not letting you run off to your death, kid. Those guards? They're not chasing after Yveltal to defeat it - they're chasing after it to serve as a distraction to help Pokemon here evacuate in case of another attack."

Liam jerked himself out of the fox's grasp. "It doesn't matter! This is personal, and it's between me and Jackson!"

"Can't you see that I have enough on my mind already? With my sister devastated by the loss of her home and friends? With losing all of the others? I can't face the rest of us left if I lose you, too."

"There's nothing you can say that will convince me to stay."

"Just think about this for a single moment! What if this doesn't go the way you think it will? What if you don't come back from this?"

"Then… Then I guess this is goodbye."

Roark's stance slackened. "Liam, don't. Please, let's go back to the guild and form a plan first. We'll even tell the others all about your amnesia!" He clasped his claws together and shook them. "Something... anything!"

There was then silence as the two stared at one another.

Liam hooked a paw on the cosmic themed scarf wrapped around his neck and tugged at it. He unraveled it before tossing it over to Roark, who reluctantly caught it as he stared at the Riolu.

"This is where we go our separate ways."

"Liam…"

Liam put his back to the Zoroark.

"Wait."

Liam stopped.

"You promised me. You promised me that you wouldn't leave her."

Liam turned, his once enraged visage overcome by sorrow. "I'm sorry."

The Riolu began to move and grunted in pain as his numerous wounds flared, yet it did little to stop him. Liam took off down the ravaged streets in the direction of the flying Pokemon overhead. He quickly disappeared from Roark's gaze into the crowd. The Zoroark's claws tightened around the scarf as he let out a guttural growl of frustration.

There was still one thing he knew he had to do.

Roark tucked away the scarf into his mane of fur and scampered down the streets in search of Gloria. As vast as the destroyed city was, and how much chaos it was engulfed in, he knew exactly where his little sister would be.

His search took him to a familiar neighborhood he had been down so many times. Numerous homes were caved in or were reduced to piles of rubble as a thick cloud of dust covered the area. Bands of guards ran past him as they attended to houses ablaze, dousing them with Water-type attacks. Injured Pokemon lying on the street were either being lifted and taken away by flying guards or thrown onto a carriage full of other wounded Pokemon.

Roark's eyes scoured the block until they landed upon the hazy sight of a circular home stylized after a white Vulpix. It looked as if it was miraculously untouched by the attack.

He let out a sigh of relief before sprinting over to it. He threw open the door to the sight of total darkness. He shut the door behind him, his steps on the firm carpet floor careful as his acute hearing picked up something - the sound of muffled sobbing. He quickened his pace and went through an open door in the hallway. As he entered, his eyes laid upon a lump on the bed bundled in a blanket - a blanket he recognized as Gloria's childhood favorite. The sobbing grew louder as he neared the bed.

Roark inhaled deeply before he removed the blanket and revealed the curled up Pokemon underneath.

"Hey, it's me," he said in a hushed voice.

Gloria peered up from the blanket's cover. "R-roark?"

"Yeah, it's me. I'm here, sis." Roark sat on the bed and rested a claw on her form, gently raking them through her fur in an attempt to calm her.

"Liam, h-he-" she blinked away trails of hot tears. "He told me to 'stay away', and I don't know what I did, or why he's acting like this."

Roark frowned, "He's going through some things, sis. It's complicated right now." He sighed, dreading what he was about to do. "I tried to stop him, sis. I really did. But he said it himself that nothing was going to convince him, and the look in his eye said enough."

"W-what do you mean?"

He reached into his mane and procured a black scarf dotted with yellow stars. He held it out for her to see, and another outpouring of emotions escaped the Vulpix as she buried her muzzle into the blanket's wool.

Roark wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close as she sobbed loudly into his fur. "Shh, shh, it's okay. He's gonna come back, sis. I know he is. He's just confused and angry."

"It… happened again," she croaked out. "I wake up and everyone I love is gone. L-leafeon, Sylveon, everyone at the guild. They're all-"

Roark tightened his hold on her. "They're not gone, sis. They're just trapped, and we have to save 'em. Together, you got that?"

"H-how… How can we even save them?"

"I don't know. Not yet, but we will. And we're gonna save them. Trust me on this."

"I can't- I can't do this anymore," she mumbled. "I can't keep going on like this. I c-can't fulfill any promises."

Roark leapt off the bed and kneeled before Gloria to focus her attention on him. "No, no, no, no. Sis, you can't just give up now."

"I-I've lost everything!" Gloria shrieked, ejecting more tears. "Without Liam, without Leafeon, and without everyone else, I'm… I'm nothing." She surrounded herself with more of the blanket in an attempt to block the outside world. "I can't keep doing this. I just want to be left alone…"

Roark cupped her face with his claws and forced her to look at him. "Gloria. You are everything to me. I want- I need you to keep going. I can't have you destroy yourself like this."

"Why? What's the point anymore?"

Roark sat back down on the bed, looking away as silence overtook the room. "I've been through this before, Gloria. I thought that there was no point anymore, and that it was the end for me. When nothing matters, you do insanely stupid things." He paused. "I can't forget what I attempted - it still plays in my mind sometimes."

"W-what plays?"

Roark shut his eyes. "The feeling of your life flashing before your eyes." He let out a strained laugh. "I remember it. The rush of wind, the adrenaline, the fear. I saw Unzefant's face, and it reminded me of how much I screwed up, how I should have listened more to his advice. I thought I saw someone before it was all over... Someone I was searching for. She didn't look like any Pokemon I've seen, but she looked happy, and that made me happy. " His gaze returned to the Vulpix. "I fell. But I'm alive and here now because of you, Gloria. I can't have you fall, too."

Gloria appeared to mull over his words as she sniffled.

Roark got up and walked over to a cream colored dresser up against the walls of the room. He opened the top drawer of it and dug through its contents until his claws latched onto something cold and hard. He lifted the object from the drawer and made his way back over to Gloria, kneeling in front of her again.

"I can't promise things will get better right away. Things will be the toughest they've ever been. Hell, even I'm second guessing what I did earlier, and if I made the right call. But you and I have been through so much, and I know how tough you can be."

Gloria threw off the blanket encasing her, leaning in as Roark extended the object for her to see. It was an icy blue stone that sparkled and glistened in the moonlight peaking through the room's windows. She instantly recognized the unmistakable snowflake pattern of an Ice Stone, the one given to her so long ago by her parents.

"What I can promise is that I will always be there for you. For however long I need to be by your side until I see your purpose fulfilled." He motioned to the Ice Stone. "I think now is the time - more than ever - to take that leap, sis."

Roark awaited her reply as Gloria stared at the shiny stone in silence. He watched her stand up from the bed and hop off it.

She stumbled past him and the stone.

"I need to see the others," she spoke. "I need to see if they're safe before I decide."

Roark celebrated his small victory with a weak smile. "We're gonna figure this out, sis." He shoved the Ice Stone into his mane. "We're gonna learn what's really going on and move past this - together."

He had only wished his hopeful words would be proven correct upon their return.

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"No… No, I refuse to believe any of this."

"And what if it's the truth, Scizor?!" Monferno argued as he paced around the foyer. He stopped. "What if he really was working against us the whole time? Have you even put any thought to that before?! Tell me! Because it could've stopped all of this from happening!"

"Monferno, stop!" Braixen shouted. "That's not fair to him, and you know it!"

"I just-" Monferno clutched the sides of his head as he squeezed his eyes shut. "Just fucking how? How did it all come to this?"

Scizor leaned against the shattered statue of a Milotic and steadied his erratic breathing. "What you're asking me… You're asking me to throw out everything I've ever known about Jackson, about our friendship, about Team Moonlight." He glared at Monferno. "You're saying all the convictions and genuine moments he and I shared over more than half of our lives was just a front?"

"I'm not saying that it was back then. But maybe he changed one day, or he's being forced to-" Monferno shook his head. "I don't know, okay?! This is all such a mess..."

Braixen held both paws against her beating chest. "There has to be something we can do to save the guild! We could go to the Council and tell them everything we know! Or- or we could appeal to other guilds in Celestic! The Cosmic Quilt Guild is the most impor-"

"Braixen. Look around you," Monferno uttered as he stared into her tear filled eyes. "We're all that's left of the guild. And without everyone else to make it function, there's no guild left…"

The reality of his words and their situation finally dawned upon Braixen as she became overwhelmed with emotion. Monferno moved to embrace her as she bawled into his shoulders; for her lost comrades, and for the lost sense of hope she had left. Monferno fought back against his own tears as he glanced over at Scizor, seeing the listless expression across Scizor's face. "With Charizard gone, and whatever happened to Jackson, you're the only leader we have now," he said.

Scizor did not spare the primate a look as he removed himself from the Milotic statue. He lurched toward the broken entrance of the guild.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Monferno questioned.

"We can't stay here. Not anymore," was the Bug-type's hollow response as he stood in the doorway.

Monferno scowled as he helped Braixen walk with him over to Scizor. "Then what's the plan?"

"... I don't know. I don't know if there is one."

"What do you mean you don't know?!"

As Scizor, Monferno, and Braixen all exited the guild and emerged into the outside, they caught a glimpse of two figures sprinting away from the destroyed city in the distance and toward the guild. As they got closer, it was revealed to be Roark and a very despondent looking Gloria.

Roark caught his breath before speaking. "Good. You guys stayed. We're gonna have to find Shaymin's location first before we get started on a plan."

Braixen looked around, "Where's-"

"He's gone… for now, at least." Roark pointed a claw at the cream-colored saddlebag slung around his shoulder. "I gathered as much supplies as I could from our house. Once we find Shaymin and discuss our next move, we should gather anything useful from the guild." He gazed at the wrecked building in front of him. "It's not safe here anymore. Especially if Yveltal returns."

"But what about the others?!" Braixen cried. "We can't just leave them here!"

"... I hate to say it, but we have to leave them here for now. We'll have to figure out a way to save them at a later date."

Unbeknownst to the chattering group, multiple carriages led by heavily armored equine-like Pokemon were rolling across the grasslands and toward their location. The group only noticed when the wooden transports stopped just a few yards away.

On cue, dozens of Pokemon in dusty, brown coats poured out from the carriages and completely encircled the group on all sides. They held their ground - energy of all elements building in their limbs as others brandished rifles and pointed them from a knelt position. The bewildered gaze of the surrounded group darted to each glaring guard. They froze, not daring to make another move.

For a single second, there was stillness.

A Houndoom wearing a ragged, amber colored cloak suddenly pushed past the motionless guards and stood before the group. "By orders of the Council, all members of the Cosmic Quilt Guild are to be placed under arrest effective immediately!" he barked at them.

Scizor looked around in a panic as he held up his pincers. "Wait! This is all a misunderstanding! We have no invol-"

"Silence! You are not to move or say anything further! Or all of you will be lined up against a wall and swiftly executed!"

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Where are we going from here? How do we learn to let go of everything we thought was once true?

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Want to discuss anything related to The Phantasmagoria with the author himself? If so, send a friend request to my Discord linked below!

Discord: z2h2z

Next Time:An Hourglass Shattered And Hubris Unleashed