Sorry! I made a mistake and skipped the chapter 😅
Continuing their descent, Kai and Gengar eventually reached the lowest level of the Crystal Tower the location James had mentioned.
As Gengar landed, Kai leaped off its back and approached the room cautiously. The door had clearly been smashed open with brute force likely the result of Team Rocket's frantic escape.
Before he could step closer, Gengar's expression turned grim.
"Watch out," it warned. "Something's off. I'm sensing a surge of unstable energy inside dangerous energy."
That was enough to set Kai on edge. Even without Gengar's warning, he could already tell that this was the epicenter of the crystal's power. It was bound to be the most dangerous place in the tower.
Nodding silently, Kai crept up to the doorway and peered inside.
It had once been a large parlor, but now, like the rest of the tower, it was completely overtaken by shimmering crystalline growths. The entire room sparkled like a world carved from diamonds. In the corners, purple crystal blossoms had sprouted, beautiful yet unsettling.
Suspended in the air, dozens of Unown were floating in a perfect circle, rotating in sync like a ritual. At the center of the formation hovered a pulsating red energy mass, crackling with static, radiating an ominous glow.
But the energy was unstable its form constantly shifting, expanding, twitching. One wrong move, and it could explode.
Kai frowned. One look was enough. This had to be the aftermath of Molly's earlier breakdown. If left unchecked, that unstable energy could tear the tower apart.
Taking no chances, Kai summoned both Gardevoir and Charizard to join Gengar. With the three of them by his side, he felt a little more confident.
Surprisingly, the Unown made no move as he entered. They simply continued their eerie, rhythmic orbit, as if nothing around them mattered. Perhaps they had no faces, or perhaps emotions just didn't show but if they were angry or alarmed, there was no way to tell.
From a safe distance, Kai studied the Unown closely.
They were shaped like floating Latin letters from A to Z, along with a few punctuation marks like question marks and exclamation points. Each one had a single, oversized eye at its center watchful, unknowable.
"What now?" Gengar whispered beside him. "If you're thinking of stopping them… how?"
Kai was quiet for a moment.
"The safest route is probably to let Ash defeat Entei, which would help Molly heal emotionally. That way, the Unown will disperse on their own. But… I don't like relying on others for something this critical. And if things go south up there, it'll be too late to intervene."
Gengar sighed. He knew what that meant. Kai intended to take matters into his own hands.
"This energy's way too volatile. If we can interrupt the Unown's ritual first disrupt their buildup we might buy time to redirect or diffuse the power before it blows."
Kai nodded. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was the only one they had.
"Let's start by stopping the rotation."
He turned to Gardevoir. She nodded silently, her eyes glowing as she focused on one of the Unown. With a tug of her psychic power, she pulled it from formation.
The Unown resisted, its tiny body straining against her grip, but Gardevoir poured her strength into the attack. Bit by bit, she dragged it away from the others.
The rest of the Unown shuddered violently in unison—alarmed, reactive.
"Let it go!" Kai ordered quickly.
Gardevoir released the struggling Unown, which floated shakily back into position.
Kai let out a sharp breath, then turned to Gengar. "Your turn. Try Hypnosis."
Without hesitation, Gengar's eyes glowed with swirling spirals. Waves of hypnotic light washed over the circle of Unown.
They didn't even flinch.
"Maybe they don't sleep," Gengar muttered, puzzled. "Or maybe the ritual's shielding them."
Another tactic failed.
Kai's mind raced. There had to be another way—
Suddenly, a burst of force shattered the far wall.
From the rubble emerged a massive beast Entei.
'What? Entei was supposed to be fighting Ash at the top of the tower!'
'This wasn't the same one. It couldn't be. Was Ash defeated? Or had the Unown conjured a second Entei?'
Either way, it changed everything.
Entei stepped into the room slowly, its eyes scanning the chamber, landing on Kai and the swirling mass of Unown. Its expression was thoughtful… uncertain.
Kai clenched his fists.
If this Entei was another illusion born of the Unown's power, then maybe, just maybe, defeating it would weaken the energy core at the center of the ritual.
"Target the illusion!" Kai barked. "Take it down!"
Charizard and Gardevoir flanked Entei from both sides, launching a coordinated attack.
But just as the attacks were about to land, Entei turned and fled through the hole it had come from.
Kai's eyes widened in surprise. "It ran?"
He glanced at the energy core, realization dawning.
"It doesn't want to risk setting off an explosion…"
Even a phantom of Entei knew that if that unstable energy erupted, it could destroy everything including the Unown themselves.
"Perfect," Kai muttered. "That saves us a fight."
Without hesitation, he turned to his team. "Let's go."
Together with Gardevoir, Gengar, and Charizard, Kai slipped through the gap in the wall, pursuing the mysterious second Entei.
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