Cyrus watched him expressionlessly. A crimson pillar of light poured down, turning every molten vein in the gaps of Groudon's armor a dazzling bright red.
A dull grinding sound rose from its throat, rough as stones scraping together, and reached Lin Hao's ears. "Master, this power is too mixed. I can't take it in."
Lin Hao lay against the beast's broad back. Even through his clothes, he could clearly feel the violent tremors beneath its scales as the ancient energy resonated fiercely with its innate power.
"Hold on. Don't let it control you." Lin Hao tightened both hands around its dorsal spikes as cold wind laced with volcanic ash swept across his cheeks.
"It's not a matter of holding on. That power is forcing its way back, but the blue-haired man is intercepting it."
With every word Groudon spoke, another crack opened in the rock beneath its feet.
On the summit platform, Cyrus pushed both hands forward, spreading a dark red curtain of light in midair.
The thick crimson pillar passed through the curtain, which forcibly diverted thirty percent of its power into the towering metal apparatus behind him.
The apparatus was built exactly like the machine beneath Slateport Harbor, massive and towering like a steel spire.
"Did you think that base on the southern slope was my entire plan? It was merely bait to distract you."
Cyrus's flat voice carried across the valley through the summit's loudspeakers. He turned sideways and pointed at the steel behemoth rumbling behind him. "This is the real machine."
The ground beneath Groudon's feet shattered completely. Scalding magma and black smoke erupted from the cracks.
"Give me back my power!" Groudon let out a deafening roar, its golden pupils abruptly narrowing into vertical slits. The sound waves hurled the falling rubble around it back