Chapter 354: Steven’s the Craftiest One Here

The scene cut back to beneath the Bell Tower.

Jessie, James, Meowth, and Morty had all landed in one enormous pile.

"Owwwwwwww!!!"

"Who’s crushing my tail, meow?!"

Morty was trapped at the very bottom and could only force out a strained plea.

"Everyone..."

"Could you please get off me first...?"

"Jessie..."

James felt like his waist was about to snap.

"You really need to lose some weight..."

"What did you say?!"

Jessie immediately drove an elbow into James’s face.

"My figure is perfectly standard!"

"How long are you planning to stay piled up like that?"

"The floor’s pretty cold."

Selene stood off to the side with a lollipop in her mouth, speaking at an utterly leisurely pace.

"Boss?!"

Jessie was the first to look up.

"Didn’t we all fall down together?"

"How come you’re completely fine?!"

Selene pulled the lollipop from her mouth and pointed at her own head.

"Psychic."

"I can fly."

"Understand?"

"Then you couldn’t have only saved yourself!"

"You could’ve caught us too!"

"Sorry, sorry."

Selene waved a hand.

"I was too curious about this hole, so I teleported down first to see what was going on."

Morty finally climbed up from the floor.

He pulled out a flashlight and swept its beam around them.

"Anyway..."

"Let’s figure out where we are first."

The light passed over an enormous underground chamber.

The surrounding stone walls were covered with carvings of Ho-Oh spreading its wings, along with rows of ancient writing.

At the center of the chamber stood a stone pillar.

Two recesses sat side by side on its surface.

One was engraved with the image of a sun.

The other with a moon.

Meowth rubbed his tail and looked around.

"Boss, you don’t seem nervous at all, meow."

"What is there to panic about?"

Selene casually waved her lollipop.

"If the sky falls, Big Sis will hold it up."

"If Big Sis can’t handle it, Dad will."

Morty had already entered full research mode.

"These are ancient characters..."

"They record the origin legend of Ho-Oh and the Bell Tower."

"But the later sections seem to have been worn away..."

Selene pointed toward the two recesses on the stone pillar.

"Gym Leader Morty, what are these two slots for?"

"They look like some kind of mechanism."

Morty frowned.

"Since there are two of them..."

"It probably requires two people pressing them simultaneously to activate."

"Like this?"

Selene casually pressed her hand against the moon-shaped recess.

"I just said it probably requires two people at the same—"

Hum—

The stone platform suddenly began vibrating.

A flowing mist of silver light poured out of the moon recess.

The silver mist rapidly condensed in midair—forming an enormous silver moon.

Silver light flashed.

And Selene vanished completely.

"BOSS!!!"

Jessie and James screamed at the same time.

"BOSS, MEOOOOW!!!"

Morty rushed forward and pressed the moon recess.

Nothing happened.

He tried the sun recess next.

Still nothing.

"It doesn’t work."

"There’s no response at all."

James dropped to the floor and began frantically feeling around.

"There aren’t even any seams between these floor tiles!"

"How does a whole person just disappear?!"

Jessie charged up to the pillar and began pressing, slapping, and kicking both recesses.

"OPEN UP!"

"OPEN THE DOOR!"

"OUR BOSS WENT IN THERE!"

"LET US IN TOO!"

Meowth pulled out his employment contract.

He stared at the salary printed on it with tears streaming down his face.

"Three meals included..."

"Lodging included..."

"Such a great job..."

"And now it’s all gone, meow..."

Morty coughed several times and forced himself to calm down.

"Don’t panic yet."

"President Selene should be all right."

"For now, let’s find a way to reactivate the mechanism."

[VIP Chat Group]

[Whitney]: Wait, wait! Selene got sucked inside?! What even was that moon?!

[Falkner]: Hold on. There’s actually an underground space this huge beneath the Bell Tower, and none of us knew about it?! You’ve got to be kidding me!

[Morty]: I thought there was something wrong with my own memory, so I specifically went to inspect the Bell Tower. There isn’t any underground chamber at all! Even that altar where the Ho-Oh feather was placed doesn’t exist!

[Jasmine]: So that altar only exists in the parallel world? But why? If Ho-Oh built it, there shouldn’t be any reason for our world not to have one too.

[Volkner]: That’s normal. Why do you think that altar required Ho-Oh’s feather to activate? And why do you think Asher had Ho-Oh give feathers to both Selene and Aurelia?

[Lucian]: I understand. Another one of Asher’s arrangements.

[Steven]:@Asher, if you’re going to rig things in advance, you’re going to rig things in advance. But you even made the whole thing feel ceremonial. Brother Asher really puts his heart into everything.

[Asher]: Analyze the parallel world if you want... Why the hell are you tagging me?

[Steven]: Ahem. My hand slipped. Just slipped.

[Raihan]: Steven’s the craftiest one here. If he can’t bait Asher into admitting something, he immediately claims his hand slipped.

[Steven]: What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Do I look like that kind of person?

[Wallace]: I don’t know whether you’re that kind of person. But I’m fairly certain that in another moment, Asher is going to turn you into that kind of person.

[Steven]: What kind of person?

[Asher]: Take a guess.

[Steven]: Wait, Brother Asher... We can talk this out—GAAAAAAAH!!!

The video continued playing.

Outside the Bell Tower.

League personnel had already surrounded the area so thoroughly that not even water could get through.

The mayor himself was crouched beside the entrance, despair written all over his face.

"Mayor!"

"The League Champion has arrived!"

"What?!"

"Already?!"

The mayor had barely finished speaking when a streak of blue lightning descended in front of him, carrying a violent gust of wind.

Aurelia flipped down from Latios’s back.

Without saying a word, she immediately headed toward the tower entrance.

"Ch-Champion!"

"Would you like to hear the clues we’ve gathered first...?"

"No."

Aurelia didn’t look back.

"I’ll find her myself."

The mayor opened his mouth.

In the end, he could only obediently follow behind.

"Then..."

"Please be careful."

Aurelia pushed open the tower doors.

The smell of aged wood washed over her.

She closed her eyes.

Her psychic power spread outward, sweeping from the bottom of the tower all the way to the top.

No trace of Selene’s psychic presence.

Aurelia opened her eyes.

She slowly walked toward the altar in the center of the tower.

Ho-Oh’s feather lay quietly atop the stone platform, its gold-and-crimson glow flickering faintly.

Aurelia reached out and picked it up.

The instant the feather touched her hand she recognized it.

This was Selene’s Ho-Oh feather.

"So Selene was here."

Aurelia tightened her grip around the feather and looked around.

The Ho-Oh emblem on this altar was different from every other depiction inside the tower.

All the others showed Ho-Oh soaring with its wings spread wide.

Only this one had its wings folded inward as though it were protecting something.

Aurelia ran her fingers across the engraved lines.

A faint warmth reached her fingertips.

"It requires Ho-Oh’s power to activate..."

Aurelia thought for a moment.

Then she took a Poké Ball from her waist.

Red light flashed.

Ninetales landed elegantly on the floor.

Its nine tails swayed gently within gold-and-crimson flames.

"Ninetales."

"Aim at the altar."

"Use Sacred Fire."

At Aurelia’s command, all nine tails rose simultaneously.

Gold-and-crimson flames gathered overhead—

Forming the phantom of Ho-Oh spreading its wings.

The next second—

Sacred Fire poured downward.

It struck the Ho-Oh emblem at the center of the altar with perfect accuracy.

The emblem instantly erupted with blinding golden light.

The glow spread through its engraved patterns.

The entire Bell Tower began to shake.

BOOM!

The floor at the center of the tower suddenly flipped open.

A pitch-black pit appeared beneath them.

Before Aurelia could even react—she, Ninetales, and the entire line of staff members behind her all dropped straight into the darkness together.