As Su Hao's voice fell, Xerneas fell silent.
Since even he had noticed it, Xerneas naturally knew the state of its own body.
Life Deity, endless lifespan... all of that rested on the premise that it itself was in perfect condition.
To Xerneas, sharing its life with ordinary Pokémon and ordinary humans was merely an insignificant fraction of its total vitality.
But what would happen if the recipient were another existence equal to itself?
The answer was—one gained while the other lost.
But this time, the situation was a little different.
If Xerneas merely had to pay the price of remaining weak in order to temporarily balance life and death before...
Then now, it had to expend more than twice as much just to barely maintain that balance.
If not for Viridian Forest—and all of Blue Star, after rebuilding from ruin—having risen to a new level of total vitality compared to ten years ago, Xerneas would not have benefited from it.
Otherwise, when Su Hao returned this time, he might have found Xerneas asleep in a state similar to, or even worse than, its condition in the Life and Death Secret Realm.
—The cause of it all was a God of Death unwilling to plunder life.
Xerneas's loving voice carried a trace of bitterness. "Zygarde's concerns back then were indeed not wrong. The balance of life and death does not only affect the two of us; our conditions can likewise affect that balance."
"Once the balance of life and death collapses, the disorder of order will follow..."
Xerneas understood that even though Viridian Forest now looked prosperous and flourishing, far surpassing its past state...
Extreme prosperity could also bring ruin without warning, impossible to stop.
Xerneas believed it could hold on for a little while longer, but that was only