Finally, with all of Metagross’s effort, Armaldo fell under its iron fists.
However, Kaya still had one more Pokémon hidden. It wasn’t literally on her, but she kept it concealed in a Pokéball that she firmly gripped in her hand. Her fingers remained pressed against the button of the sphere, ready to release the Pokémon at any moment.
That Pokémon turned out to be a Forretress—one that had mastered the move Self-Destruct!
A desperate and brutal tactic, not only against her opponents but also against herself.
But Kaya was that kind of person, one who didn’t fear risking everything to achieve her goal.
Even so, Cain thought she had chosen the wrong path. With her character and abilities, she would have fit perfectly into Team Rocket, where the violent and competitive environment would have allowed her to thrive. However, she chose to stay with the League, which suggested that deep down, perhaps she wished to live under the light of the sun rather than in the shadows.
Forretress never got the chance to explode because before Kaya could release the button, Slowking and Metagross sensed her intention with their psychic abilities. Immediately, they used their powers to block the Pokéball, preventing the Pokémon from emerging.
When he saw the Pokémon inside the Pokéball, Steven couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief at how close they had been to disaster.
Thus, Kaya, as a traitor to the League, was captured by Cain and Steven. However, in the end, she offered little resistance. She was confused and frustrated, unable to comprehend how Cain had managed to anticipate Shedinja.
"When you believe your knowledge is enough, that’s when you become a frog in a well," Cain told her coldly.
Hearing those words, Kaya was left stunned, and her expression darkened. To Cain, her knowledge, which she had prided herself on so much, was nothing more than the limited perspective of someone who had yet to see the world.
The Pokémon world is vast and full of diverse knowledge. No one can claim to know everything. Even Cain, who had access to all the information he had collected in his past life, was constantly searching for new knowledge.
From stealing information at the Lake of Rage research base to the breeding knowledge he had learned from his master, Matsuda Takashi, or the daycare center on the outskirts of Saffron City, Cain never let an opportunity to learn slip by.
Now, his greatest expectation lay in the data that Team Rocket was gathering for their Mew cloning project—knowledge that, if he managed to obtain, could give him an unparalleled advantage.
In this new beginning of his life, Cain’s greatest resource had always been his knowledge. Whether it was his memories of the future or the system he carried with him, knowledge was his true weapon.
The surviving Pokémon were recalled, while those who did not make it through the battle, such as Beedrill and Heracross, were left behind.
These two Pokémon had fought with such intensity that their bodies were completely exhausted. Even before the battle, their physical conditions had already deteriorated due to Kaya’s abuse, as she had prioritized Armaldo’s development over theirs.
Steven silently observed the lifeless bodies of Beedrill and Heracross. He deeply appreciated the loyalty and sacrifice they had shown, but he also lamented how they had been exploited.
Meanwhile, Cain and Floette tended to the injured Pokémon, including Steven’s Aggron and Cain’s Drapion, both severely damaged during the battle.
With the medicine Cain had prepared and Floette’s healing assistance, the wounded Pokémon would not suffer permanent aftereffects, though they would still require considerable time to recover.
Aggron, in particular, had taken the most damage.
"Cain, come quickly and look at this," Steven suddenly called out urgently.
Cain finished treating the last of Aggron’s wounds before walking over to Steven, who had discovered something unsettling.
He had gathered Beedrill and Heracross’s bodies to cremate them and let them rest in this place, but something strange had happened.
The Pokémon’s bodies showed no traces of blood.
Even with visible wounds, they had not left a single drop of blood on the ground.
As Cain approached, he noticed that the blood had not stopped flowing—it was simply being absorbed immediately by the ground.
The sight was so bizarre that both Cain and Steven felt the hairs on their skin stand on end.
Then, Cain remembered something: the inscriptions on the walls of the ruins suggested that this place was once an ancient sacrificial chamber, possibly inhabited by Pokémon that had survived since ancient times.
Armaldo, who had been captured by Kaya, was likely one of these ancient Pokémon that had managed to endure. However, there was much more that Cain and Steven didn’t know—things that perhaps only Kaya had come to understand during her first visit here.
But Kaya remained silent, her gaze lost, refusing to cooperate.
Meanwhile, the blood of the fallen Pokémon began to flow faster, disappearing completely into the ground.
Cain and Steven’s expressions darkened in the face of the unknown. Something was terribly wrong.
Suddenly, the temperature of the ground began rising rapidly. They barely managed to stay safe thanks to the psychic powers of Slowking and Metagross, who lifted them off the ground.
However, the bodies of Beedrill and Heracross were left behind, and before their very eyes, the corpses shriveled and collapsed—like balloons deflating completely.
As they hovered above, the ground beneath them continued to melt, as if it were ice under the sun, revealing something hidden in the depths.
Finally, Cain and Steven caught a glimpse of what had been generating so much heat.