Dark Matter

Biodata

Power Progression

Dark Matter gradually strengthens assimilated Pokémon, bypassing their natural potential. These are documented growth estimates for its hosts, not cultivation stages of the substance itself 498.

• Upper limit remains uncertain: Chen Shi suspects that Dark Matter cannot grant the understanding of laws required for Second-Class Deity, but this is not confirmed 498.
• Strengthening does not heal injuries: A wounded Pokémon remains wounded after becoming a Shadow Pokémon 510.

Origin

Mewtwo initially theorized that Dark Matter embodied negative emotions, opposing Chen Shi’s power, which arose from sincere and beautiful feelings. This was confirmed when Mewtwo and Mew examined an extracted sample and perceived a vast black ocean containing the experiences of suffering beings 504 505 506.

One vision followed a boy and his newly hatched Eevee, from their affectionate beginnings to Eevee’s untreated injuries and abandonment. Countless others with similar suffering existed within the ocean. Although humans were largely responsible for Dark Matter’s emergence, not all of these tragedies originated with humanity 504 505 506.

Appearance

• Outside a living body: Described as a cloud of black gas; Dark Eternatus also releases contaminating dark particles during its attempted Eternamax 451 456 466.
• Extracted sample: Appears to ordinary researchers as a tiny quantity of pitch-black liquid 504.
• Psychic perception: Mewtwo and Mew see the same sample as an apparently endless black ocean containing visions of suffering 504 505.
• Visible contamination: Can blacken Pokémon, plants, and entire forests. Steven’s Skarmory turns from silvery white to black after infection 510 521.

Properties & Effects

Infection and Transmission

Dark Matter becomes dangerous when it enters a living organism, where assimilation can occur almost immediately 456.

• Every attack made by a Shadow Pokémon carries Dark Matter and can infect its target 465.
• Escaped particles can contaminate plants, as demonstrated by the cactus infected during Dark Eternatus’s attempted Eternamax 462 466.
• Its suspected host range includes Pokémon, humans, ordinary animals, and vegetation with strong vitality 456.
• Plants are susceptible, but Shadow Pokémon generally prioritize attacking other living creatures rather than trees. Completely assimilated forests are therefore less common away from the World Tree 521.

Genetic Assimilation

Dark Matter destroys, alters, and replaces an organism’s original genetic chains, embedding itself throughout the reconstructed body 464 465.

• An assimilated organism becomes a different kind of life-form rather than merely carrying an external contaminant 456.
• Once assimilation is complete, Dark Matter permeates every part of the host 483.
• Destroying the genes in an infected tissue sample also destroys the associated Dark Matter, preventing straightforward extraction 504.
• Blood testing is used to screen Shelter visitors because contamination alters their genetic chains 474.

Consciousness and Memory

Assimilation devours the host’s consciousness and produces shadow creatures driven by slaughter and spreading infection 465 510.

• Victims unable to resist generally retain no memories of their contamination 455.
• The parallel-world Eternatus remembers resisting the initial invasion, but not events after its complete assimilation 455.
• Holders of divine offices can retain a sliver of reason even under extensive corruption 455 480.
• Shadow Pokémon stop attacking creatures that have become shadow creatures themselves 477.

The World Tree

In Eternatus’s parallel world, Dark Matter began spreading from the World Tree, accelerating the collapse of the surrounding world 457.

• The corruption on the World Tree initially feels denser, more evil, and more advanced than ordinary contamination to Chen Shi 521.
• Parallel-world Mew proposes that this apparent difference comes from the World Tree’s own divine standing: because Dark Matter becomes one with its host, it shares that standing 522.
• This explanation is presented as a possibility, not confirmation of a separate evolved form of Dark Matter 522.
• Purifying the World Tree also restores vegetation throughout its Mystery Realm 521.

Resistance & Countermeasures

Preventing Exposure

• Energy covering: Eternatus advises Pokémon to cover their entire bodies with energy when fighting Shadow Pokémon, preventing Dark Matter from entering 456.
• Protective equipment: Shelter personnel use protective combat suits and helmets outside; Professor Oak wears a bulky protective suit while handling the extracted sample 486 504.
• Sealing: Xerneas contains the infected cactus with the Fairy Plate, allowing Chen Shi to obtain a research specimen 462.

Divine Authority

Divine authority is formed from a portion of the World Rules, which Dark Matter cannot assimilate. Legendary Pokémon possessing it can therefore resist and slowly wear away contamination 455.

• Purging contamination with only a small remnant of reason may take tens of thousands of years 455.
• Xerneas spends three thousand years wearing away its contamination with the Fairy Plate 462.
• Divine authority is resistance, not complete immunity: corrupted Ho-Oh retains enough reason to fear harming others but cannot free itself 480.
• Exceptional power alone does not guarantee safety. An avatar of Arceus is assimilated, forcing Arceus to sever the connection to avoid being corrupted through it 519.

Chen Shi’s Psychic Power

Chen Shi’s special Psychic Power directly counters Dark Matter and can restore assimilated Pokémon 455.

• He purifies Eternatus, Zacian, and Zamazenta, then removes Giratina’s contamination after entering the parallel world 455 472.
• His earlier method requires physical contact and channeling power into the target 517.
• After further awakening, he can send power through the threads of his bonds to purify targets without touching them 517 518.
• Insufficient power fails to complete purification; his initial thread-based attempts require increasing the amount transmitted 518.
• The World Tree requires a much greater expenditure than an ordinary Legendary Pokémon and leaves him exhausted 521.
• Even after learning rapid mass purification, he explicitly cannot purify an unlimited number of Shadow Pokémon 556.

Psychic Power Orbs

Cogita supplies four specially made Orbs capable of storing Chen Shi’s power, allowing others to purify contamination without his direct presence 469.

• Their stored power must be replenished regularly 469.
• Only four are available because manufacturing them is exceptionally difficult 469 520.
• Chen Shi agrees to leave one for the Shelter and have Celebi replenish it 493.
• He refuses to lend that world a second Orb because other corrupted worlds also need help 520.

Other Known Purification Methods

Eternatus’s world discovers three alternatives, all too costly or restrictive for widespread use 455 466.

Unresolved and Rejected Approaches

• Natural bonds: Garchomp, Charizard, and Milotic resist immediate transformation under circumstances Chen Shi cannot fully explain. Bonds may contribute, but a strong Trainer–Pokémon bond alone is not established as sufficient protection 513.
• Psychic reinforcement: Pokémon continuously bolstered by Chen Shi’s power can fight without fearing Dark Matter while the enhancement remains active 516.
• Inherited power: Arceus confirms that Chen Shi’s descendants can inherit his Psychic Power and proposes spreading it through more children. Chen Shi rejects this approach 503 504.

Research

History & Major Incursions

Early Contamination in Chen Shi’s World

Three thousand years before the research effort, Xerneas was contaminated after its battle with the God of Death in Kalos. Mew sought help from nearly every Legendary Pokémon, but none could remove the substance. Arceus eventually provided the Fairy Plate, enabling Xerneas to erode it with the world’s power; this also caused Fairy-type energy throughout the world to disappear 466.

A thousand years before the present, Shadow Deoxys attempted to invade from beyond the universe. Rayquaza drove it away but was infected during the confrontation. More recently, a Lugia associated with Professor Oak became corrupted without anyone initially realizing it 466.

Collapse of Eternatus’s World

The parallel world’s outbreak began at the World Tree and spread faster than its defenders could contain it 455 457.

• Eternatus reports that 98% of the world’s Pokémon have been infected 456.
• Within roughly four months, only about 20,000 humans and 50,000 Pokémon remain 526.
• Survivors retreat to the Mt. Silver Shelter, where food shortages become an immediate threat alongside infection 475 479.
• Giratina initially escapes the outbreak through the Distortion World, but Shadow Marshadow eventually contaminates it there 472.
• Chen Shi’s visit leads to the purification of corrupted Legendary Pokémon and the restoration of the World Tree 491 521 522.

Dahara City and the Research Specimen

Dark Eternatus, Zacian, and Zamazenta enter Chen Shi’s world and battle its defenders. Although the Legendary Pokémon interrupt Eternatus’s attempted Eternamax, a small release of dark particles contaminates a desert cactus 451 466.

Chen Shi purifies the three invaders. Xerneas seals the cactus, and Arceus checks the area for other infected plants or Pokémon. The resulting Dark Cacturne becomes the only known remaining Dark Matter specimen in that world at the time 455 462 466.

The Dark Side’s Counterattack

After discovering that Chen Shi and Autumn are the same person, the Dark Side withdraws its strongest combatants from the parallel world and allows him to purify it. Its leaders then exploit his imprint on that world’s history, traveling into the past to use Soul Freeze on him before launching a mass invasion of the main world 546 552.

During the battle at the World Tree, Chen Shi rapidly purifies attacking Shadow Pokémon, but the spatial passage remains open. After the Dark Arceus escape, enemy reinforcements stop arriving through that passage 556 558.

The retreat does not end the threat. Surviving Dark Side forces can corrupt further parallel worlds and rebuild larger armies, leaving Chen Shi, Arceus, and Necrozma facing repeated invasions rather than a permanent victory 557 558.