The old woman stood rooted to the spot, her clouded eyes almost bulging out of their sunken sockets. Her face, covered in volcanic ash and furrowed by age, was filled with indescribable horror. What had she just seen? That pitch-black Pokémon had strolled into the Glorious Sacred Fire, hot enough to liquefy steel in an instant, and emerged unscathed. Those flames, embodying Moltres's sacred and violent will, had been as docile as a tame house cat before Umbreon, parting to make way. This overturned everything she had known throughout her decades guarding this place and shattered her last line of defense. She finally understood that the young man and his Pokémon before her were not the ordinary, greed-driven people she had imagined. A higher power flowed through them, something she could neither comprehend nor resist.
When Umbreon stepped elegantly out of the Sacred Fire and gently set the Fire Orb at Ye Li's feet, its surface as smooth as jade and its interior seemingly imprisoning a miniature sun, the old woman's taut body went completely slack. The volcanic rock staff in her hand fell to the ground with a clear clatter, jolting every stunned Team Rocket member present back to their senses.
She no longer barred their way, and her volcanic hostility vanished without a trace. Slowly, with an almost reverent bearing, she approached, lifted the Fire Orb in her rough hands, and respectfully offered it to Ye Li.
"So... the legend was true." The old woman's voice had lost its fiery edge, replaced by a hint of hoarseness and relief, as though she had survived a catastrophe. "You... really are people chosen by the gods."
Ye Li accepted the warm orb. He could clearly sense the pure energy within it, so immense that it could drive any Fire-type Pokémon