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?

 

[Jackie Cat]

Betel?

I am with you, Koamaru. I can hear you.

It seems you have reached relative safety. How does the situation appear down there? I do not wish to retrieve you from the rift prematurely...

In crossing a few dozen yards to the plateau, they had put another couple miles or so between them and the lake. The oncoming tsunami would spare them. The town not far from the shore, however...

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.)

Powehi was in his Lucario form, but he would be nigh unrecogniseable were it not for his grinding, stygian voice. Instead of a tattered cloak, he wore a black linen robe, and his eye bore no scar. There was no grey in his fur, no tarnish on his bracelets. He stood upright and tall, perhaps taller than he was in the present day. His eyes were brooding, intense and full of Shadowed vigour. He did not look tired, or sad, or old. He looked young.

Auriga, meanwhile, once Gladion drew near enough to see her properly, was clearly a dragon. A long neck, a long tail, great wings that caught what little light there was as if they were fashioned from stained glass. Her eyes, too, gleamed the same way... No— Not eyes. Lenses that covered the eyes, gleaming with an inner light, as if they were there not to protect their wearer, but to protect onlookers from the flood of Radiance that poured from within. When she opened her mouth to speak, light spilled out – endlessly – as if she contained an infinity of it. She was a Flygon, or rather – she wore the mortal frame of one. The entity within was clearly something more.

The Jackal of Lethe and the Voice of the Desert.

Dark Matter and the World-Spirit.

Powehi and Auriga.

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?

Victini continued to flit about in the sky, a golden star fallen from the heavens. As if he were searching for something, perhaps? It was impossible to tell from so far off. Faintly, an echo sounded in the Wayfarers' heads, a Radiant voice calling out...

"Amida! The water, I— It's too much, please, we have to help those 'mon! Amida, where are you!? I need you! Amida!!"

...and another in reply...

"Lorrel! I'm here! I have but one chance to stop this, and I must try...!"

Not far from the plateau, another star erupted into coruscating light, the colour of amber and autumn leaves. Below it, the earth opened like a wound, eliciting a low rumble from within, and soon the frost-bitten grass around it began to steam. Magma was rising from the planet's veins, red and hot and violent. Suspended in the air, 'Amida' glowed like a second sun.

"You must see where this will lead," Powehi implored his counterpart. "Tell them they must stop. Tell them to stay their hands."

"No," replied Auriga. "I can't. I can't. I can't tell them to watch this happen. To be bystanders to such death."

"How many more deaths will come from this?" snarled Powehi. "Shall I number them for you, my light?"

What was it that Powehi foresaw? As Dark Matter, he was despair manifest – he was this world's shepherd of the dead, and he could surely see with clear eyes any oncoming disaster. Would Lorrel and Amida's efforts surely lead to more deaths...?

 

[Ambyssin]

"The caldera erupting," Nova mumbled. "To stop the water... they went and made this place erupt?"

 

[Tetra]

Koa felt distantly ill the longer he watched. Was that what Powehi expected? For them to just sit back as a meteor annihilated a chunk of the continent? Or to let a tsunami wipe out a town? ...Was he right?

We're... safe, he said to Betel, his thoughts distracted by the vision unfolding. So those were the two heroes from long ago. Lorrel and Amida. How could it be wrong to try and prevent such a terrible disaster? It was hard not to find himself on Auriga's side. All she was trying to do was prevent a disaster, to not let the two heroes be bystanders...

Luz's words came back to him.

"'Course, an eruption that world-shakin' only went and set off some kinda reaction across the entire fuckin' planet. It weren't 'some caldera' – that 'mon fifty centuries back wielded that eruption as some kinda attack, or somethin', only to watch in horrified awe as the planet discharged hot smog into the heavens fer weeks on end, not just here, but everywhere."

"I think I know what comes next." He spoke quietly, still loss in a sea of thought. Unconsciously, he shifted closer to Steven and his gaze fell upon the distant form of Amida. The Living Sun. "Luz talked about this story. I think it's tied to the myths from Sunward," he murmured to him. "The eruption."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Koa had it exactly right.

The world seemed to bleed in slow-motion, lava welling up from the crust and flowing towards the lake, directed by the shining pokémon overhead. She was clothed in bright ribbons, and her moth-like body cocooned in white fur. She seemed to dance in the air, her sunspot-mottled wings fluttering like rays of light, and the lava moved with her – as if the very heat itself were simply an extension of her supernaturally powerful aura. More and more of the viscous rock poured out, forming a glowing red and black tide that rushed to meet the oncoming tsunami. Then more— More and more of it streamed from widening cracks in the ground, until a wall of lava now hurtled towards the shore.

With a great rumbling, something inside the earth broke.

"Here it comes."

The towering red wave smouldered in Powehi's eyes as he watched the collision of tsunami and earthsblood, crashing together on the shore. It hurt the eye to watch – kilotons of water vaporised in an instant made for quite the flash – but he did not flinch away. An ocean of steam exploded from the clash. Volcanic glass formed, rippled, and ruptured in mere seconds, chunks of still-molten rock blowing out of the crest and raining down on the shore. Above, Amida cried out as her efforts reached a peak, and then the summoned edifice of lava crumbled into so much obsidian slag.

Behind her, from the cracks in the earth, sulfurous black smog had been pouring forth. Now it did so all the more, the ground belching up great plumes of smoke and dust. A chain reaction tumbled out from the initial eruption, dark clouds spilling from more landforms, then still more, for miles and miles as far as the eye could see. Rolling thunder sounded over and over and over – not from lightning, but from continuous eruptions as the planet's crust yielded to the Volcarona's power.

This, then, was what Luz and Powehi had each described. This was Amida's apocalypse.

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova followed the ash and smoke. From the cracks to the ground to the ever-expanding clouds in the sky.

So, in trying to stop a tragedy... they created another one.

"What do you do... when there is no perfect solution to a problem?" he wondered aloud. "In the moment... it's not like they could have imagined this is what would happen. They saw what was in front of them." His claws dug into the rock bed. "Kind of like us. Only we haven't had to deal with anything as catastrophic as a giant meteor."

 

[Jackie Cat]

The sulfurous volcanic smog poured into the sky without end. Even without Kyogre's thunderstorm, the sky would soon be blackened, and remain so, swallowing the sun for days, weeks, even months to come. A low wail of horror reverberated from the sky. If it weren't for the hot dust and smoke overhead, it would soon have been spring.

"What do you do... when there is no perfect solution to a problem?" he wondered aloud. "In the moment... it's not like they could have imagined this is what would happen. They saw what was in front of them." His claws dug into the rock bed. "Kind of like us. Only we haven't had to deal with anything as catastrophic as a giant meteor."

Powehi turned to Nova, and fixed him with an unseeing stare. The apparition, it seemed, had some limited ability to respond...

"I warned them," he said, in a low voice. "I told them to plan carefully. I told them to seek aid. I told them to evacuate the nearby settlements. Yet they faced this threat as if it were target practice. That boy blasted it from above, fool that he is, and his Radiance set Leviathan to a frenzy..."

"They couldn't have known this would happen," whispered the brilliant Flygon at his side, her golden lenses seeming to gaze on whichever Wayfarer was nearest to listen. "They only wanted to help. How cold must one's heart be, to see danger and not fight to help?"

 

[Ambyssin]

"How long did they know this was coming?" Nova asked. Did they even know this was coming? "What sort of planning did they try?" He looked out over the scene. "If you're even aware of that."

 

[Tetra]

"Was there another way?" Koa barked out the demand, suddenly frustrated. He hoped Auriga back then had been more forthcoming and helpful than she was now, here.

"Did you tell them what was coming Auriga?"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion coughed and forced himself into the poison type.

"I get wanting to help. I really do..." Even though this wasn't real anymore, his gut was telling him that the right thing to do was to try to do some kind of damage control. "But... This is not going well."

Was there even a point in saying that? They couldn’t change the past. And even if they changed Auriga’s mind on something, it didn’t really matter. They were here to learn things, not weigh in on a debate.

“So you’re Auriga? Didn’t imagine we’d meet like this.”

What was he trying to do? This past version of Auriga was in the middle of a traumatic event. Even if the ways to reach her hadn’t changed she was gonna have other priorities right now.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven raised an arm to shield against the light and heat that poured forth from the clash. It was awe-inspiring, the sheer energy on display in the formation of the namesake's caldera. It was still unbelievable that a single human and their partner could be responsible for all this.

As the steam cleared, Steven peered over at Koa's words. "Sunward?" he asked. They were nowhere near the Fort. What did this have to do with--

"It is written that in a time not long after pokémon began to gather in communities, make culture together, and share common tongues, there came about a great disaster that threatened to destroy all civilisation. A foul, black cloud spewed from ruptures in the skin of the planet, and covered up the sun for many days. The skies darkened, and the earth grew cold, and all were afraid that life could not survive."

The blackened sky, the ash and gases pouring from the earth in the wake of the heroes' power. The great disaster that threatened the planet was created at the hands of those trying to save it in the first place.

"Her name was Amida," he murmured low and sorrowful, keeping his gaze on the shining Volcarona in the sky. "The Sun's name was Amida."

And she sacrificed herself to atone for the tragedy of her own doing.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"How long did they know this was coming?" Nova asked. Did they even know this was coming? "What sort of planning did they try?" He looked out over the scene. "If you're even aware of that."

"Was there another way?" Koa barked. "Did you tell them what was coming Auriga?"

"I told them that disaster was coming. That the world needed their strength to protect it."

"She gave them months to prepare. They trusted in their own strength over all else. They chose not to depend on others. They trained."

Up high, the two Radiant stars found each other, and circled one another in the sky, orbiting tighter and tighter. They came together. They remained together. Taking comfort in each other, perhaps. Maybe they didn't have anyone else.

"In all of history, no mortal has ever been so mighty as Lady Surekhi, Noble of the Volcarona."

"Her name was Amida. Just... Amida."

"But that is not how she will be remembered. Not after this. She will now and forevermore be called Surekhi, the Living Sun."

Faintly, the Wayfarers could hear Lorrel protesting, begging, as he realised what she intended to do.

It was too late. The star that was Amida had already begun to glow.

"I get wanting to help. I really do... But... This is not going well."

“So you’re Auriga? Didn’t imagine we’d meet like this.”

The Flygon fixed Gladion with a dazzling stare. Returning her gaze, one could feel as if they were going to explode from somewhere within, as if their heart were catching fire, as if they could run without rest for a thousand nights and days.

"I am but an echo of Auriga. I am she as she was five thousand years ago. Forever. Until the world's end."

The entity – the dungeon phantasm – seemed to appraise Gladion closely. He would feel an unaccountable certainty that the apparition was weeping, inside those burning lenses.

"Your soul is brilliant... Heroic Spirit. Did I summon you?"

No. You did not. I did. I summoned him. I summoned him.

"Her name was Amida," he murmured low and sorrowful, keeping his gaze on the shining Volcarona in the sky. "The Sun's name was Amida."

And she sacrificed herself to atone for the tragedy of her own doing.

Steven understood. That ready sacrifice that Amida had made... had been motivated not by pure selflessness, but by guilt. She had been responsible for the very same tragedy she had perished for. This was something Steven could understand...

Some deep part of him might intuit that this was worth remembering.

The dream environment that was the Caldera's heart shifted again, and the party was now stood not amidst spewing lava and burning steppes grasses, but on a cold and darkened shore rent-through with vitrified sand and volcanic slag.

A small pokémon, golden-furred and sodden with lakewater, knelt on the beach. He wore a simple tunic and cloak, with a hood that fell from his head, revealing his face. His uncovered ears formed a prominent 'V' shape. This, then, was Victini Lorrel. The Saint of Victory himself.

"She won't survive this," he said, his voice thick with grief. "Nobody can take that much Radiance for so long."

High above, lighting up the dark clouds overhead with a Radiant glow, Volcarona Amida had become a living sun. Over and over, she pulsed with light, casting some sorcerous aura technique on a loop, maintaining her boundless flame. The world beneath was kissed by a sickly, honeyed light, and a warmth like that of a meagre campfire. The sand underfoot was cold, but not so cold as a winter without sun. Crops would grow. Young 'mon would not perish in the darkness. The world below would yet live, because of Amida.

Lorrel dug his fingers into the sand and grit his teeth against a sob.

"I didn't want this," he said, quietly. "I didn't want this. I didn't want this."

 

[Tetra]

Koa's soul burned with emotion he couldn't identify as he stared at the Victini. All this devastation, all this grief... A heavy knot tightened around his chest and he dug his paws into the hardened earth.

"Why didn't you tell them?" His voice came out as pained growl and he advanced on Auriga, nearly glaring. "Why didn't you explain yourself!" His heart hammered in his chest as he looked back at the apparition of Lorrel, broken and sobbing. All he'd wanted to do was some good, to stop a disaster. Try to help.

Koa's eyes burned as he looked up at the blinding light that had once been Amida. She hadn't meant to... He blinked away the watery sensation in his eyes, fought against the tide of emotions bubbling up inside his chest. "You just brought them here and told them nothing and left them in the dark."