"Well? Did you figure anything out?"
In a void of formless chaos, Arceus and Ultra Necrozma stood on either side of Chen Shi, who floated in midair between them.
By now, Arceus had cleaned the blood off Chen Shi.
Though his face no longer looked quite so horrifying, his eyes remained tightly shut, and his pale face was utterly bloodless.
Necrozma was at a loss, too. Under their agreement, Necrozma was supposed to guard the world and prevent dark matter from invading.
Arceus was responsible for contacting and guiding Chen Shi.
Everything had been going well. There had been unexpected incidents, but they had all led things in a better direction.
Yet today, Arceus had suddenly dragged Necrozma here in a rush, only for Necrozma to find Chen Shi hovering between life and death.
Necrozma was dumbfounded.
How had someone who had been perfectly fine suddenly ended up half-dead?
Necrozma examined him carefully, then said helplessly, "I've reached the same conclusion as you. No matter how I look at it, this seems to be Kyurem's Soul Freeze."
"That doesn't make sense!" Arceus found the situation equally troubling. "Kyurem's Soul Freeze only freezes the soul. Even an ordinary human would merely fall into a deep sleep at worst."
"How could it possibly leave him bleeding from every orifice?"
"If the World Tree weren't keeping him alive, it's doubtful he'd even still be breathing!"
Necrozma thought for a moment, then said awkwardly, "Do you think he nearly died because the two of us lent our power to the attack?"
"How could we..." Arceus instinctively started to object, only to suddenly remember the hundred-odd versions of Arceus encountered while trying to travel into the future.
Arceus's voice immediately weakened. "Surely not?"
"Why not?" Necrozma pointed at Chen Shi. "Look. His body wasn't severely