"Who awakened me?"
The instant that will descended, all sound vanished from Lin Hao's ears.
May was shouting his name, her mouth open, but he could hear nothing.
Cyrus floated in midair, the Red Chain coiled around his limbs. The fervor on his face slowly faded as he looked into the depths of the rift. "God. A true god."
The eye within the white light slowly turned. It had no pupil, only a bottomless expanse of chaos.
Dialga's phantom gave a low roar as the chains dragged its body toward the rift. Palkia's claws tore through space again and again, but with every new tear, the surrounding mountains were ripped into rubble.
"Lin Hao, can you hear me?" May's voice finally came through the Communicator.
"I can. What's happening outside?" Lin Hao pressed his earpiece.
"It's bad. There are space-time anomalies everywhere within thirty kilometers of Mt. Coronet. Some people are trapped in repeating loops of time, and others have appeared in valleys kilometers away." May stared at her terminal, her face pale. "The League is carrying out an emergency evacuation, but the rift is still expanding."
Cyrus suddenly laughed. He stared at the eye in the rift, his face filled with fervor. "Do you see? This is the world's true answer. Dialga and Palkia are nothing more than tools for managing time and space."
Cyrus spread his arms. "And this is the primordial consciousness that existed before time and space were born!"
Arceus's voice sounded in Lin Hao's mind, colder than ever. "Master, leave that place."
"You know it?" Lin Hao asked, surprised.
"I do not know its name, but I remember its presence." Arceus paused. "Before the world had stabilized, it tried to devour time, space, and the Distortion World. It is no god, merely an echo of