Northern Village Secret Realm, Part Seven

In truth, Greavard and its three retainers had been no match for Ogerpon when it possessed its masks.

But they had begun by pretending to be friendly, causing the kind villagers who had taken in Ogerpon—once called an oni—to accept them as well.

Then, one night, Greavard presented every villager with food laced with its poison as a gift. The villagers, who ate without a shred of suspicion, were all controlled.

That was when Greavard and the others revealed their hidden greed, beginning to seize Ogerpon's four unique masks that could shine with light.

Ogerpon could not attack the controlled villagers. It had considered bypassing them to attack Greavard and the others, but those despicable creatures directly used the villagers as shields and threatened Ogerpon with their lives, demanding that it hand over the masks.

With no other choice, Ogerpon could only surrender all four masks. Just as Greavard was about to control Ogerpon as well, a powerful surge of Terastal Energy erupted from the mountaintop—where Su Hao now stood—and the violent wind pressure seemed capable of blowing everything away.

At the same time, the mysterious gray-black force field that now separated the inside from the outside appeared out of nowhere, descending over the village and mountain to cut them off from the outside world.

Greavard and its three retainers were blown away by the wind pressure and slammed hard into the force field. The four masks that had slipped from their grasp fell straight out of the field.

Ogerpon, meanwhile, was blown toward the mountain. After exploring for some time, it discovered the Crystal Light Pool that had suddenly appeared atop the once-barren mountain, as well as the fact that the Terastal Energy seemed to repel Greavard and the others.

Using the mountaintop as a safe haven, Ogerpon, having