Watching the black vortex in the distant Galar sky vanish in an instant, countless red energy particles scattered like dazzling fireworks.
A man dressed in slovenly clothes, holding a Walking Stick, with long white hair and a hunched back, yet still over 3 meters tall, murmured softly:
"I think I saw this scene once before, 3,000 years ago, but I don't recall seeing these kinds of red fireworks then."
While the tall man sighed, another man with orange-red hair that spiked outwards like a lion's mane, and a matching beard that ran from his chin to his cheeks, blending seamlessly with his hair, spoke.
A man with icy blue eyes, a calm and gentle expression, and dressed in a sharp black suit approached him from behind.
Looking at the gaunt man who was nearly 1 meter taller than himself, Lysandre still found it hard to believe that this was the same king, A Z, who triggered the Kalos disaster 3,000 years ago.
At this moment, AZ looks exactly like a beggar, which is both laughable and pathetic.
"I don't know whether I should call you an ancestor or the creator of the Ultimate Weapon."
Hearing the sound behind him, AZ didn't even bother to turn around.
It's you again?
Didn't I say I wouldn't help you?
"I wouldn't have before, I won't now, and I won't in the future."
When AZ rejected him, Lysandre's calm expression remained unchanged.
"Don't say that. As long as you hand over the Ultimate Weapon to me, I will wipe out all those fools who are corrupting the Kalos Region and create a brand new, kind, and beautiful Kalos Region. Wouldn't that be better?"
As long as there are countless people and Pokémon in the world, the struggle and greed will never end.
Only by washing away the filth can eternal beauty be preserved.
Every time Lysandre uttered those words, his mind would drift into memories.
In his youth, he also traveled around the Kalos Region with his Pokémon, extending a helping hand to those suffering in various areas.
However, those who received his help instead demanded more charity from him, and their entitled faces disgusted him.
From that moment on, he understood a principle: the world is finite, Pokémon. Whether it's money or energy, only by truly harnessing them can one win the world.
But some things cannot be shared. Things that cannot be shared will be fought over, and in the process of fighting over them, something will be lost.
Faced with such people, he began to feel that he could no longer allow these fools to continue to erode the Kalos Region.
In order to live beautifully without struggle, the only way is to reduce the number of lives.
Therefore, he conceived the idea of reshaping the Kalos Region using the Ultimate Weapon that his ancestors called the "God's Tool".
The only place that holds the key to and the location of the "Ultimate Weapon," the divine artifact, is this disheveled man standing before you.
Having heard what Lysandre had said to him countless times, AZ suddenly turned his head and looked at the man whose face was somewhat familiar.
He remembered the person he had forgotten for a thousand years: his younger brother. And the man before him was his brother's bloodline, the sole heir of the Kalos Royal Family.
He once had beautiful red hair, but it turned white the night he heard of Flabébé's death.
He did not want Lysandre to suffer the same fate as himself; let him bear the sins he had committed alone.
AZ said calmly:
Destruction does not bring about new life; destruction is simply destruction, devoid of any meaning.
This answer again! This answer again!!
This time, Lysandre's expression was no longer peaceful. He raised his head to face his ancestor and said, word by word:
"No destruction, no construction; how do you know that new life won't emerge after destruction?"
"Because... because I've tried."
AZ's voice trembled slightly as he said this. 3,000 years ago, his beloved Eternal Flower Floette died in war.
Therefore, he invented the Ultimate Weapon in an attempt to revive it. He slaughtered countless Pokémon to obtain a large amount of Life Energy and successfully activated the Ultimate Weapon.
Eternal Flower Floette also successfully resurrected and returned to the world, but by then he was consumed by grief and determined to take revenge on both sides of the war, his enemies and his own people.
So they used the Ultimate Weapon to destroy everything in the Kalos Region, including innocent people who had nothing to do with the war.
However, after being resurrected, Eternal Flower Floette learned that the Ultimate Weapon had sacrificed a large number of Pokémon and the sins he had committed, and was therefore very disappointed in him, so she left him.
However, because he was affected by the Ultimate Weapon it was activated, he also gained eternal life.
He felt not even a sliver of joy at having obtained that eternal life.
People envy his immortality, but they don't know the price he paid: 3,000 years of loneliness, 3,000 years of being misunderstood, and 3,000 years of searching.
For 3,000 years, a voice in his mind kept telling him that his sins were grave.
A person who should never have lived, and who least wanted to live, somehow gained the power of immortality.
How ridiculous.
Lysandre, on the other hand, didn't listen to or care about AZ's words. He only trusted himself. Since the other party was unwilling to hand over the key to activate the Ultimate Weapon, then he wouldn't be surprised if he took it by force.
"Xerosic, Malva, please... my ancestor, come back to our Team Flare."
No sooner had Lysandre finished speaking than a woman wearing orange sunglasses and a fat man in a red lab coat, wearing a white mask, and with thin flames burning on his head appeared.
Behind them, dozens of soldiers dressed in Team Flare uniforms surrounded them from all sides.
Malva was accompanied by a high-ranking female Pyroar of the High-level Elite Four level, while Xerosic was accompanied by a mid-ranking Magmortar of the Intermediate King level.
Malva for them to proceed and said:
"Please... Mr. AZ."
Seeing that AZ stood still, the Team Flare soldiers exchanged glances and prepared to move according to the original plan.
Just as they were about to make their move, AZ suddenly sprang into action. He knew he was surrounded and that he probably couldn't escape this time. However, even if they captured him, they wouldn't gain anything.
"Let's go, I'm a bit tired anyway, how about we go sit down at your... what's-his-name... team?"
Seeing that AZ did not put up any excessive resistance, the Team Flare soldiers dared not do anything to him. This "great" man was their leader's ancestor, who was said to have lived for thousands of years.
Seeing that AZ had stopped resisting, Lysandre calmly turned around and walked away. He believed that he would get the key and address to activate the Ultimate Weapon from AZ, thus realizing his ideal.
Shortly after Team Flare took AZ away, a small, delicate figure appeared, with a predominantly white body and two long, leaf-shaped eyebrows that were a deep, icy blue.
The lower half of her body had a fishtail-like skirt with an ice-blue tail, and the Flabébé, which were completely different from ordinary ones, appeared in the air above AZ.
What's even more unusual is that she was also holding a Red flower stem tightly in her hands, supporting the huge petals that had only three petals.
With petals that are jet black at the base and edged with intense scarlet, its shape is both eerie and solemn—this is the one and only Eternal Flower in the world.
The beam of light containing black, destructive energy that had gathered on the petals of the Eternal Flower Floette dissipated.
If those people had dared to attack AZ, she would have wiped them out immediately.
What AZ never expected was that the Eternal Flower Floette he had been searching for for 3,000 years had actually been following him all along.
Eternal Flower Floette had actually forgiven AZ hundreds of years after leaving AZ, and had always wanted to reunite with AZ.
But when she found AZ again, wanting to reunite with him, she discovered that a Divine Might emanated from him, separating her from him.
The Divine Might told her that immortality, but also eternal loneliness, was the Punishment the destruction of the Kalos Region in Aztec a thousand years ago, which wiped out countless Pokémon and humans.
She will only be able to reunite with AZ after AZ has served his long sentence.
She could neither defy God's will nor could she disobey it; all she could do was follow behind AZ, silently protecting him and accompanying him through this long and endless sentence.
AZ can't see her and can only keep searching for her; she can see AZ but can't acknowledge her. Isn't this a form of punishment for her?