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Novelux Blackglass Caldera Mystery Dungeon

"Hmm. Lotta sharp rocks."

Nova looked toward some of the pointed obsidian. At the vague outline of his distorted reflection. Then he saw Gladion trying to gauge just how hot the lava might have been. Nova went up to what looked to be some of the loose obsidian spikes. While he doubted this would work, he figured he could try. Perhaps it was a dungeon environmental equivalent of Stealth Rocks. After taking several seconds to adjust his aura's tuning, Nova released cool gray air all around him and the stones.

Nova used Defog!
 
"Is it a soul thing?" Sage, Nova and himself all seemed to function differently. "That's where these bodies come from, no? If we've got our own expectations for how our species should work, or something like that. The whole Radiant Knight thing is unique to Forlas, and neither of us have shown any greater production of Radiance than any other wayfarers. Same with Shadow."

Betel hummed again. A strange sound – not that it was really a sound, being conveyed through telepathy...

It is true that your bodies are dependent on your souls. Not all forms are permitted on Forlas, but perhaps those forms that are need not function identically to native counterparts. Strange to think, but plausible nevertheless...

Was it hot hot lava, or close enough to cooling that he could handle it?

It was damn hot, hot enough to feel on one's skin from twenty paces. It would ignite a normal 'mon's body on contact, peeling away skin like so much paper in a bonfire. But Gladion could take it. He'd grown that strong, now – far stronger even than tough, veteran Forlasan 'mon like the Rangers... If he kept a decent pace, he could cross it bare-foot. Like a human walking across hot coals. It just took boldness.

With both chimeras able to take on Fire-typing, Steven able to levitate, and Koa able to ride a silvally, they could all cross.

After taking several seconds to adjust his aura's tuning, Nova released cool gray air all around him and the stones.

The glassy scree blew apart and skittered across the rock, away from the path ahead and into the crevices and burning streams on all sides. The Wayfarers could proceed more easily without worrying about injuring themselves on such shards.

Doing so, the dungeon changed again. No more rim. No more lava. Just...

...fields? Pale grasses and cereal crops waving in the wind. The sky overhead, grey as unpolished ivory. The lakefront, not far off, deep blue as ever. And south-east, not Novelux – not the city of light – but a humble Taleska village of wooden homesteads.

What was this?
 
Oh. The volcanic area decided to take a siesta. That was... something. And Nova was not prepared for the sudden shift in biome. It was... almost familiar to him. Almost.

"I don't think this is a matter of where we're looking at, but when," he mused. "This has gotta be, like, a historical snapshot or something."
 
As they descended, it had begun to grow hot. Not wholly unexpected, seeing as they were delving into the depths of a caldera, but still it was hot. Even though he had no feet to touch the ground, Steven could feel the heat seeping into his metal body as he followed the path down; moving twice as fast over the lava flows lest he start to glow orange along with the molten rock. Hopefully the few times he offered a ride to Koa, the metal of his body wasn't too hot for the Electrike's paws.

All in all, heat had never really bothered him much. It was much more pleasant than the windy cold of Malantau. But what he wouldn't give for the cool kiss of undisturbed cave air, or even a gentle breeze--

Nova's defog cleared the path ahead of them in a woosh of mist and the gentle clinking of obsidian shards.

"I wouldn't mind if you did that again," Steven began, eyes partially open in relief. Okay maybe the heat was getting to him. Tropical climate and active volcano were not the same thing. But as he focused on their surroundings once more, the active volcano was suddenly gone.

And not in the "back on the surface where the lava is cool" kind of way. In more of a "this is definitely what this place looked like before there was an active volcano" kind of way.

"Betel, are you seeing this?" Steven asked. "Is this what you meant by 'cognitively compromised'?"

He reached down to brush a claw against the carpet of grasses before them, trying to confirm if what they were seeing was more than mere illusion.
 
Koa was more than happy to hitch a ride on Steven, and his paw pads were equally grateful. The rocks were incredibly unpleasant, even as tough as his paws were. And he was glad of the brief guidance from the wild rock-type. It would have felt odd to pick a fight with a wild mon here, if it didn't want to battle.

When the dungeon shifted, a thrill of excitement mingled with unease swelled in him. "This... this must be one of those strange dungeon visions." He glanced around from his perch on top of Steven, then gently, hesitantly dismounted. He wanted to see if it would feel like grasses or spiky obsidian rocks underpaw.

"Can you sense a change, Betel?"
 
Gladion felt a wave of cooler air and let out a breath he'd been holding out of concern that the volcanic air would hurt his lungs. This was a lot nicer than the last cycle had been. Was that lake what would later become the maws of the caldera? He'd never have known if not for what he'd just been through. That suggested this was before everything went to shit here. Which meant they'd skipped over the critical moment.

"This is too far back. Think it'll take us forward to the moment of it if we keep going?"

The dungeon didn't seem to be challenging them at all in this strata, at least so far. It wasn't hostile terrain, and he didn't see anyone right off the cuff.

"Do you think there's anyone here? And if we do see someone, do you think they'd be feral, or... d'you think the dungeon can remember people?"
 
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"Only way to find out is to investigate that 'village,'" Nova said. Bobbing his head, the silvally headed toward it.
 
The grass underfoot felt real enough. Steppe grasses. Thin and tall and bearing feathery flowers. Just like the countryside of modern-day Taleska...

It appears that you have stepped into the heart of the dungeon... It is an especially peculiar rift-heart. It appears stable – I believe you are where you need to be.

Heading towards the Taleska village, the party would find that it never seemed to grow any closer, always remaining on the horizon. The sky, however, did change – it grew darker, not with night but with heavy clouds, grey columns and towers to fortify the horizon. And yet, even through that darkness, there was a bright dot larger than any star, growing and growing...

Soon it would rival the moon itself.

Wayfarers... I sense a crisis! What is happening in there? Is there some natural disaster? Is the volcano emerging for th—

Something impossibly bright twinkled – warm and golden as the sun – behind the meteor. Miles below, the atmosphere shifted, as if the planet itself were holding a breath.
 
Still in awe, Koa wandered alongside Steven. So this was the heart of the dungeon... They were so close to the truth that Powehi spoke of.

And then he saw the light. Was that... a meteor? Panic flared through him and he stopped, staring up at the sky. Could a vision meteor hurt them? He unconsciously moved closer to Steven.

"Betel? Are you okay? I see... some kind of light?" 'Light' seemed inadequate to describe what he was seeing. More like Sunny Day times ten.
 
It takes only seconds.

An incandescent lance rips through the cloud cover. Not from below – from above. Far above. The unmatched power of the sun, narrowed to a needle-point so bright that it sears the eye to witness. The sky splits and burns like wet paper.

Time stutters.

The meteor cracks and bursts, like an overripe fruit split by a sledgehammer, its molten fragments raining down like shooting stars. The lance of light impacts the lake. There is a delay of several seconds, then the sound of a billion tons of water evaporating impacts the ear, a vibration too fundamental to even register as noise. The planet groans. Steam erupts as if from an apocalyptic geyser. As the lance peters out it rips across the shoreline – a mile of sand instantly vitrified.

The beam is gone. The thin, white-hot line remains, its afterimage burned into your retinas, into your memory, into whatever mechanism records trauma in the soul.

Some part of you wonders if you should kneel and worship the sun.


Reality reasserted itself – unsteadily, as if the world were just jolted awake by a fall. The lakewater rushed into itself with a crash felt in the bones. In a dark halo, sparing a wide circle surrounding the impact site, it began to rain.
 
Even without consciously thinking about it in that moment, Gladion was distantly aware that his father told him about how his ancestors used to worship the cosmos themselves. He’d always liked space in a scientific way, but that perspective made it was hard to wrap his head around the idea that people once thought of the sun and moon as deities, or thought that the stars guided people’s souls into the afterlife. He couldn’t understand how someone could look at the sun and think it could be a god.

Until. Now.

What he consciously thought, as light washed over him, was that he wasn’t sure if Betel cutting out meant they’d be unable to reach him if he died. He chose to trust that if The Sun did wipe him off the face of this planet like so much dust, that he would get to see Hazel again, and not become the second Mohn to die stranded so far from home that their own stars couldn’t even see them.

But he wouldn’t find out which of those two would happen. It was over, and yet here he remained. Still a Silvally. (Why’d he feel human again for a moment? As if, for a moment, the difference between his two bodies had melted away into indistinction.)

“Oh, stars…

The took a moment to reassemble his thoughts. Or more accurately, to grow new ones from the ashes of those which had been vapourized by cosmic radiation.

“That was… Victini did that? And that’s why… why Powehi… Too many humans and it all goes… like that?
 
Nova gazed ahead. His crest tightened, then expanded, then tightened again.

"So... the thing that made them overexert themselves... was a giant meteor?"

After an Iron Defense and a Rebellious Soul to shore up his defenses (just in case), Nova headed closer to the impact site. Something was there. Something more had to be there.
 
The burn on his eyes was nothing against the fire the sight lit in Koa's heart. A roaring blaze of awe that burned and burned, until all his wonder became bitter ashes in his throat. In its place, reverence and discomfort grew. This must be the danger Powehi spoke of, the truth he had wanted them to see.

Salvation and destruction, all at once.

Was this the power of the Saint Victini...?

It was terrifying. And yet, somewhere beneath all the caution he knew he should feel, was... admiration? Envy? Desire? Something he couldn't place his paw on. He understood now more than ever why ancient cultures in Sinnoh would worship legends.

What would have happened to Forlas without intervention? The legends spoke of the sun going dark after... Was the cost of victory worth that price? A tall mountain, its peak now cloaked in distorted shadow...

Finally, he blinked, and then blinked again, trying to clear his vision. Swallowing, he reminded himself of their goal. Gather information and learn about what happened here. Was there more to see? Would the dungeon show them the aftermath?

He started forward, toward the line of dark sand and falling rain. Betel?
 
...I only have a limited perception right now, but it does appear that whatever just happened was an attack performed by a Victini, yes. They do not register as a living soul, of course – this is an illusory dungeon environment and they are but a phantasm – but it would certainly seem that you are witnessing the actions of the human Victini five thousand years ago, as alluded to by Powehi...

"Powehi..."


What was that? Did you hear that?

The voice was gone, lost in the increasingly torrential downpour. Thunder cracked and shuddered through the rush of rainfall, and the dark clouds began to circle, orbiting the impact site of the Radiant lance. A mile or so out from the shore, a maelstrom had begun to form...

"Auriga. What have you done?"

High in the air, a brilliant ember descended from the upper atmosphere – Victini, still burning with Radiance. A star-like speck, flickering in the storm.

Below, the lake churned. Beneath the darkness of the waves, something bright and mesmerising pierced through to the surface. An eerie glow like a pair of eyes, paler patterns forming a glyph between them. Even far from the shoreline as the Wayfarers were, they could feel the power. Whatever creature lay submerged in the lake must be truly leviathan.

Oh dear.

...Can you all swim?
 
Nova skidded to a halt, eyes wide and crest fanning out. His drive opened up to eject his disk as he hastily scrambled to switch it out for a blue one. Blues spread over his glowing parts as his type shifted. And suddenly the deluge was less obnoxious and more... inviting. Rain cascaded off his fur and bright blue feathers.

The silvally's tail moved back and forth rapidly. Like the motor of a ship. So, that still worked like he remembered. Good. The giant eyesore of a tail was finally worth something.

"I'm good. But who needs a lift?"
 
"W-What the fuck?"

Thoughts fought for Gladion's attention, a gnashing maelstrom of anxieties and uncertainties that wanted to consume him. Powehi was yelling at Auriga? She was here? Did that make her Victini? By that logic, was Auriga a former human? What was that thing in the lake? Why was he getting... so cold, shouldn't the water have been warmer after all the energy that just got pumped into it? It felt like it was leaching away all of his body heat. Was he gonna get hypothermia?

...Was he still fire type? He was, wasn't he? He didn't have time to guess what his water type would be, and even if he did his top ten guesses wouldn't be anywhere within the same continent as what he was feeling right now. There was no choice but to push through and hope whatever type resulted from that would stop his muscles from freezing up, because asphyxiation was a terrifying why to die. He felt the RKS system fizzle again, even if the sound was drowned out by the rain. His anxiety was met with electricity.

It wasn't the ideal type, but the water didn't feel as dangerously cold anymore. Not that cold was the only kind of dangerous it was about to be, but he could defer those problems for a few seconds.
 
Steven stared, dumbfounded at where the meteor used to be. The searing afterimage of Victini's attack still carving its path through the sky in his vision. It took everything to resist the urge to flatten himself to the earth and hold on for dear life.

That much power in one being? One human?

It was an ascension to godhood.

Images of the mural in Granite Cave flickered through his mind. A cycle beyond mortal comprehension, an endless dance to which they were merely an audience. A cycle which was now disrupted by the presence of another; an interloper, an extra cog in the machine.

Something stirred beneath the waters, and as the dark clouds overhead opened up, something in Steven's soul clenched with an overwhelming sense of dread. It froze him to the spot.

He remembered the name of the lake system on the map.

> Can you all swim?

No. He couldn't. Not then. Not now. Not here. Not again.

Logic might dictate him wondering if that was even necessary given his species. It might even quash the growing fear by reminding him that this was a vision of the past and they currently stood in the caldera of a volcano, not drowning in an endless sea.

But logic was nowhere to be found. Lost in his terror, Steven was standing in a white crater-- not a black one-- as a human that needed oxygen to live.

Kyogre was awake.
 
Auriga...? And Powehi's voice... Another dungeon memory?

He stared uncomprehendingly as Victini descended, then his gaze fell upon the water. A shiver ran down his spine and his tail drooped. He knew that feeling. The presence of a legendary. Except not one that felt friendly.

Could someone drown from a dungeon vision? He tried to tell himself he'd be fine. He'd done enough swimming back home, even in this body he would be okay...

Then, from the corner of his eye, Koa saw Steven's paralyzed form, his gaze locked onto the distant lake. His eyes were blank and faraway. Koa's heart lurched as he remembered what happened in Steven's world. "It's only a vision." He didn't know what else to say, so he reached over and grabbed the Metang's steely arm tightly.
 
Steven jumped when he felt a hand on his arm. No one was supposed to be there with him. They'd evacuated Sootopolis, and he'd sent Wallace and the Elites on their missions--

He turned to see who had disobeyed the evacuation orders, only to be met with a blue paw and a concerned Electrike's gaze. Wide, terror-laced eyes met Koa's, and it was like the trance was broken. Right. That was the past. This was now. Snap out of it, Stone. It was happening again. Reality came swimming back, but it did little to quell Steven's panic.

"Just a vision?" he replied, voice strained. Did Koa not feel the heat from Victini's attack? Could he not hear the rain hammering down all around them? Did he not see the lakefront swell growing and growing?

Maybe this was all just a fancy show, but he'd been in enough dungeons by now not to assume anything. Not when they were running out of time. Kyogre was coming. And he'd seen firsthand what it was capable of.

Without warning, Steven reached out and grabbed Koa by the foreleg a little too tightly. He could feel the presence of the lodestone in Koa's pocket. For just a moment longer, he held Koa's gaze. Long enough for the younger trainer to see the resolution in his eyes.

"That's not a risk I'm willing to take."

In one smooth motion Steven turned and pushed, neatly plucking Koa from the ground and lobbing him towards Nova so that he'd land on the chimera's back.

"Look after him for me!" he called out. He'd seen that Nova's feathers had turned blue. A water type affinity would be much more help to Koa; the air-breathing creatures should stick together and forget about an anchor like him.
 
The storm rapidly eclipsed any mundane weather, the water plunging to earth as if it meant to drown the world. It was supernatural – divine. The volume was so great and its onset so rapid that the saturated earth couldn't swallow it all, and it began to rise up around the party's feet. Water from above; water from below. Thunder crashed and tumbled in their ears.

In the distance, the lightning illuminated dark mountains on the other side of the lake.

Oh my. Do not be alarmed, heroic spirits; I am attempting to coax the rift to produce an exit for you. Still, I would be remiss not to advise you that there is a massive hydrodynamic displacement approaching your location. You should seek higher ground if at all possible.
 
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