Novelux Blackglass Caldera Mystery Dungeon

[Ambyssin]

"Statement of the obvious right there!"

And now Nova had a soggy dog on his back, courtesy of Steven. Who was just still floating there. Nova wondered if dungeon deluge could make a metang rust.

He scanned the area. Wasn't easy in a total downpour. But he saw something hazy through the rain. "There!" He kept his head trained ahead of him. "Something's over there. Higher ground, maybe?"

He bounded forward without another thought.

 

[Tetra]

Water lapped at his paws and his anxiety rose a notch. And then Koa recognized that look in Steven's eye a moment too late. His eyes narrowed. "Don't you dar-" And then he was sent arcing up through the air and toward Nova, where he landed with a gentle thump.

A furious annoyance spiked inside his chest that he quashed as Betel spoke and the waters rose higher. His fur and jacket were beginning to get soaked, and he realized wryly how familiar the situation felt. Caught in a storm again.

His gaze turned skyward and he shivered. This was getting bad. He glanced anxiously at Steven, far more worried about him than himself. He half debated running back to him and shoking him, but dimissed the idea.

"We have to find somewhere higher!" He anxiously scanned the area, only for Nova to immediately echo his thought and then take off. He barely managed to cling on in time. Craning his neck, he glanced toward Steven, making sure he was keeping up. He'd empty his pockets and jump after him himself if need be.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

He knew it. He knew it. Would Betel's alarm be so real if this 'hydrodynamic displacement' was also 'just a vision'? At least it seemed Gladion was taking Betel seriously, too, though oddly his crest wasn't the same color as Nova's...

"Right behind you!" Steven called, loud enough to be heard over the hammering rain. He wasn't sure what sort of landform they'd spotted, but he hoped it would be enough to keep the three of them safe, even if he doubted it would be enough.

Levitating himself to stay above the rising water, Steven followed Nova's lead, grimly aware that it wouldn't be much longer before the water went higher than he could.

 

[Jackie Cat]

The Wayfarers hurried further inland, seeking any elevation that could afford them some protection. They found it. Atop the plateau, apparently inattentive to them, were two hazy figures – one dark, one bright. The second figure's wings danced in the air like afterimage light, a bright impression more than anything truly physical.

They stared out at the looming disaster, unresponsive to any attempt to get their attention. Dungeon phantasms, of a sort... but not hostile, at least.

"It would seem your champion has traded one Crisis for another. This one, at least, is survivable by the planet. The Leviathan will spend her energy in due time."

A familiar voice could be heard as they drew near. It sounded faint, somehow, as if it were a long-faded gramophone recording...

"You can't be serious. You talk of waiting it out. Of doing nothing. Of allowing devastation."

"Some devastation is inevitable."

Where Powehi's voice was low and dark, like gravel turning in oil, the second figure's voice was high, clear, an instrument, thrumming with a reverberation that made it sound like a choir all speaking at once.

"You call this 'inevitable'?"

A pause, as Dark Matter ground his teeth.

"No. I do not. This devastation was entirely avoidable, Auriga."

Thunder sounded, the rumble silencing any reply. The world was drowning... But that bright star in the sky was still there. Could it be Victini, charging his power...?

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova kept going toward the two bickering gods and their big ol' platform. They were absolutely apparitions. In his mind, he wanted to see their discussion play out before he potentially broke the illusion and sent the proverbial train off the rails.

 

[Tetra]

A swarm of questions buzzed through Koa's head. How? Was it avoidable? Was there really another way to stop that meteor? What would it do if it had hit Forlas, were they really just supposed to let a disaster happen? What if there was some disaster coming today and that was why Auriga summoned other humans? Was it all doomed to repeat? ...Who was right?

Betel? he asked quietly. Once again he stared skyward at the Victini, wondering what it had felt to be someone summoned from far away. Did he know what he was doing and the consequence it would bring, or was it just some terrible accident?

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion reflexively tried to shake the water out of his coat, even if he was unlikely to be terribly successful for long.

Powehi and Auriga were here as phantasms, it seemed. Arguing. Was this what had triggered that “silence lasting mortal generations” which had closed that possible line to Auriga?

He tried to focus on the appearance of Auriga and Powehi. Was he doing his Lucario thing, and if so was it possible to discern what Auriga was? (Articuno’d heard myths about Powehi as his species. Maybe he could learn about Auriga that way, once he got out of here.)

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Once they crested the plateau, Steven stopped and turned back the way they came, hovering close to the edge. He watched the rising water with deep sorrow.

'Inevitable devastation'?

If he could shiver, he would have. A memory of standing atop the Sootopolis Gym's roof, watching the water lap over the parapet, flashed through his mind. The settlement at the water's edge would be the first of many drowned in Kyogre's wake.

Powehi and Auriga's argument continued behind Steven, and he found himself scowling.

'Entirely avoidable'?

Powehi was blaming Victini for awakening Kyogre. They'd witnessed that much to be true, at least, but the meteor had to be stopped. How could Victini have known their actions would cascade into another crisis? Had there been another way?

The niggling thought once again crept into Steven's mind that wasn't this supposed to be a volcanic caldera in the present?