Breakthrough

"Ah!!"

"Aaah!!"

Two screams rang out, then stopped abruptly. The ruins connected to Groudon fell silent once more.

"Lar..."

Larvitar studied a red stone pillar in the ruins, then glanced around. When it saw no one watching, it secretly broke off a piece and swallowed it.

It chewed for a moment, savoring the taste.

"Lar!"

Larvitar's eyes lit up. It began eating openly. Crunch, crunch!

"Esp..."

Espurr tugged at Yue Jifei, who was worried about Dian, and pointed at Larvitar. At least Espurr knew the laws protecting ruins.

"Mm..."

Yue Jifei nodded. "That really isn't good."

She walked over to Larvitar, took out a bottle of Sour Berry juice, and offered it to the Pokémon. "Larvitar, don't just eat rocks. Have something to drink, too."

"Esp..."

Espurr sighed deeply. It felt like it was the only one in the group with any sense of right and wrong.

Step, step, step...

Dian emerged from the stone chamber. Behind him, Misdreavus dragged out two dazed Team Magma members.

"Larvitar..."

He looked at Larvitar, which had already gnawed through one red stone pillar, and discreetly signaled for it to hurry up and eat.

The Pokémon Ranger Union would soon send someone to take over. If Larvitar didn't eat it now, were they supposed to leave it to be confiscated? He wasn't stupid.

Professor Tenben, a leading figure in archaeology, had indeed been imprisoned in the ruins. With her were Trainers from various regions who had been lured there by the treasure map, including Michael.

Team Magma's target wasn't these ruins. Or rather, the ruins had been a target, but they had already finished searching them.

This time, Team Magma was after the ever-elusive Mirage Tower in the Hoenn Great Desert. They had used the treasure map to draw in large numbers of Trainers