After they came outside, Julian said to Metagross, “Bury this entrance.”
Metagross nodded and quickly destroyed the exit, completely sealing it off.
Of course, doing this wouldn't be enough to stop the Celestrians and Gallians from getting out, but it would at least delay them to some extent.
Pierce had originally planned to set up some traps near the exit, but now that Julian had already destroyed it, he gave up on that idea.
He didn’t blame Julian, though. After all, he didn’t believe that the traps he set would go unnoticed by the Celestrians and the others anyway.
“By the way, now that we’re with them, will we be exposed?” Julian suddenly thought of this issue.
From the Celestrians' perspective, the Drakorian trainers weren’t on this island, so they could confidently pursue the Volkarian team.
But now Julian and his group had arrived on the island and even found the Volkarian trainers—something the Celestrians didn’t know yet.
This meant Julian’s team could take advantage of the situation to catch them off guard.
However, if the seer from Celestria used divination and saw Julian’s group, then their plan would be very hard to pull off.
“Not sure, but it’s definitely possible,” Pierce said.
Divination was far too mysterious. He didn’t know much about it, and Kate's family had also kept their abilities fairly secret.
“If Kate is only divining our location, then she’ll only see images of the surroundings and a general direction—she won’t see us. But if she’s divining fortune or misfortune, then she’ll see the people who bring them danger or luck,” Sophia explained from the side.
Because of the Celestrians' schemes, Volkaria had lost two Champions, which was why they failed to become a superpower.
So this was a blood feud of the deepest kind.
Naturally, Volkaria had done everything to take revenge, sending numerous spies into Celestria—including within Kate's family.
“In that case, it’s useless even if we split up,” Asher shrugged.
Unless they chose not to attack the Celestrians at all, then the Celestrians wouldn’t be in danger, and Kate’s divination wouldn’t show their images.
“No need to worry too much. If Kate performs a fortune/misfortune divination, she’ll be mentally weakened for half a month. Right now, they probably think they have us cornered and don’t see the need to go that far.”
“And once she uses a fortune divination, she won’t have any strength left to locate us.”
Sophia clearly had quite a bit of intel. It seemed that Kate's family had already been deeply infiltrated by Volkarian spies.
“You sure know a lot,” Rowan remarked, clearly surprised.
“She told all of this to her boyfriend,” Sophia said casually. “And her boyfriend was one of our people.”
'Damn'. Julian could only marvel at the sheer audacity.
That kind of skill really was impressive.
From now on, even dating would need to be done carefully—what if the other person was a spy from an enemy nation?
Of course, this kind of tactic only targeted top-tier geniuses or powerful individuals. Otherwise, you wouldn’t even be worth the effort.
"Should you really be telling us this?" Pierce frowned, wondering if Sophia considered them close confidants now that they’d saved her life—why else would she reveal such sensitive intel?
Of course, it was also possible she was feeding them this information deliberately.
“Because that guy is now her ex-ex-ex-boyfriend.”
'Oh. So she dumped him.'
“But her current boyfriend, and the boyfriends before him, were also our people.”
As she said this, Sophia even showed a proud little smile.
Julian and the others: ⊙o⊙
Their worldview had just been shattered. This was downright inhuman.
If Kate ever found out that all her boyfriends had been enemy spies, she’d probably lose her mind.
At this point, she was completely under Volkaria’s control.
In that moment, all five of them felt somewhat thankful that Volkaria was their ally.
Still, Sophia’s words had planted a seed of paranoia in their hearts. From now on, they’d probably be second-guessing every potential romantic partner.
Julian: 'So why bother with women at all?'
“Sophia, and our friends from Drakoria—what should we do now?”
It was Alexei who spoke.
By the way, this guy was bald.
“Of course, we find a good spot and set up a proper ambush for them.”
Sophia’s lips curled slightly. After being hunted for so long, now that they had reinforcements, it was time to settle the score.
“If you ask me, why not just go head-on with them? We’ve got the numbers now,” Anton said brashly.
At present, they had ten people and the Celestrian group only had seven.
If they fought directly, they had a high chance of winning.
But the moment he finished speaking, Sophia shot him a glare.
“We want to win with the least cost for the greatest gain. Only idiots choose to fight fair.”
A full-on brawl would mean high risks—both for them and their Pokémon. Casualties were almost guaranteed.
Right now, they had the advantage of being in the dark while the enemy was in the light. Throwing that away for a reckless fight? That was just plain stupid.
Anton gave an awkward laugh and immediately shut up.
Julian looked at the guy—he looked refined and scholarly, nothing like a brute.
Just based on appearance, the bald Alexei looked more like the reckless type.
The Volkarian team's five members were:
Captain Sophia – Rock-type specialist, late-stage Elite.
Anton – Fire-type specialist, mid-stage Elite.
Alexei – Fighting-type specialist, mid-stage Elite.
Roman – Electric-type specialist, late-stage Elite.
Valery – Ground-type specialist, mid-stage Elite.
Three mid-stage Elites, and two late-stage Elites.
Compared to before entering the secret realm, all five of them had clearly grown stronger.
As for Julian’s group:
Currently, Pierce, Ember, and Asher were all at the late-stage of Elite.
Rowan, having obtained the Ice-type treasure 'Ice Core', had his Abomasnow break through to the peak of the Elite tier.
And Julian—after capturing the pseudo-Champion Moltres—could now be considered a pseudo-Champion level trainer himself.
In terms of pure strength, their team was undoubtedly superior to Volkaria’s—especially with Julian as their trump card.
Since they were planning their strategy, it was only natural to get a clear understanding of each other's strength and capabilities.
Of course, when the Volkarian team learned that Julian was already at the pseudo-Champion level, even the usually calm and composed Sophia froze in shock for a moment.
A pseudo-Champion. A twenty-year-old pseudo-Champion.
In all of human history, there were only a handful who had reached such heights.
Before entering the secret realm, she knew that none of the hundred trainers were pseudo-Champions. Now, Julian had broken through to that level—clearly thanks to the opportunities within the secret realm.
This new Top-tier secret realm was full of opportunities. Thanks to its resources and treasures, they too had grown significantly stronger over the past five months.
So if Julian had stumbled upon some great opportunity and reached pseudo-Champion level, it wasn’t entirely unbelievable.
Of course, his pseudo-Champion status had a bit of an asterisk—after all, Moltres wasn’t a Pokémon he had trained himself.
But calling him a pseudo-Champion wasn’t wrong either—his Metagross already had pseudo-Champion level strength, and once it Mega Evolved, beating Moltres was no problem at all.
Upto 30 chapters ahead on :-