Chapter 316 - 316: The Roster Is Finalized, Ash’s Lily of the Valley Conference!

With the official roster finally announced, all sixty-four Trainers advancing into the Ultra Ball Tier had been decided.

Of course, one particularly popular name was missing from the list—

Iris, the future Champion of Unova.

There was no helping it.

Although Alder's strength had declined considerably, Unova currently lacked any truly powerful Trainer capable of succeeding him as Champion.

As far as Aiden was concerned, N would have been a far better successor than Iris.

After all, N had once overwhelmed Alder using ordinary Pokémon.

He had not merely defeated him.

He had crushed him.

Aiden had never understood why Iris eventually became Unova's Champion instead of N.

Now that the roster had been finalized, the sixty-four qualified Trainers began preparing themselves for the upcoming battles.

However, to ensure that the major regional tournaments could proceed smoothly, the Ultra Ball Tier competition would only begin after each regional League Conference had concluded.

The Wallace Cup also began as scheduled.

Since Aiden was already in Sinnoh, and May was participating in the Wallace Cup, he decided to remain there for the time being.

Perhaps because he was present, May performed far better than she had in the original timeline.

In the finals, she defeated Dawn and claimed the Wallace Cup championship, successfully defending her title as the—

Princess of Hoenn.

After the competition ended, Aiden went to congratulate her.

The two had not seen each other for a long time, so naturally, they spent some intimate time together.

...

After that came Ash's Lily of the Valley Conference.

With Ash's current strength, reaching the semifinals was practically guaranteed.

Paul, after repeatedly suffering crushing defeats at the hands of Ash, Aiden, Harrison, and others, had also grown significantly stronger.

He fought his way into the semifinals, where he finally faced Ash.

Against his greatest rival from this stage of his journey, Ash did not disappoint.

Pikachu first defeated Paul's Honchkrow and Drapion.

Then Infernape followed up with an overwhelming assault, taking down Aggron and Electivire.

By that point, the outcome had become obvious.

In the end, Ash advanced to the finals with four Pokémon still remaining.

His final opponent was one of the three major dark horses who had appeared during the Great Ball Tier—

Tobias.

"This should be interesting."

"Tobias' strength really is difficult to judge."

"If you call him strong, every Pokémon he's revealed is either a secondary Legendary or a Mythical Pokémon."

"But if you call him unbeatable, ordinary secondary Legendaries can still be defeated by regional Champions or Elite Four members."

"I wonder how many Legendary Pokémon the current Ash can force him to reveal."

Aiden's interest was immediately piqued.

When he took his seat in the stands, Brock, May, Dawn, Max, Paul, and the others quickly gathered around him.

Max asked,

"Aiden, who do you think will win this match—Ash or Tobias?"

Everyone immediately turned toward him expectantly.

Seeing their curious expressions, Aiden smiled.

"Ash has become very strong."

"But Tobias is far too mysterious."

"If I had to say who has the better chance of winning, then it depends on whether Tobias possesses a primary Legendary."

"If he does, Ash has no chance."

"But if his team consists only of secondary Legendaries and Mythical Pokémon, then Ash has the better odds."

Hearing that, Ash's former traveling companions and rivals could not help but look worried.

...

The match soon began.

Tobias' first Pokémon appeared—

The Mythical Pokémon Darkrai.

Darkrai possessed a base stat total of six hundred, placing it in the same general category as Latios and Latias.

Against it, Ash immediately threw Sceptile's Poké Ball.

Seeing Sceptile enter the battlefield, Aiden's lips curled upward.

Ash had this match in the bag.

Sure enough, Darkrai—who had defeated every other opponent in the Lily of the Valley Conference with ease—used Hypnosis and put Sceptile to sleep.

Yet through sheer willpower, Sceptile broke free from the nightmare.

It forced its body to move and unleashed Leaf Blade.

With a single slash, it cut Darkrai down.

Ash won the first round.

Seeing that Ash had defeated his first Legendary Pokémon, Tobias showed genuine surprise.

"As expected of someone who qualified for the Ultra Ball Tier."

"I can't afford to underestimate you."

"Let's go, Latios!"

Facing the more powerful Latios, Ash recalled Sceptile and sent out Pikachu.

Through the strength of their bond, Pikachu fought Latios head-on.

After an intense battle, Pikachu narrowly defeated it while barely remaining conscious.

Ash had now claimed two victories.

Tobias threw another Poké Ball.

This time, Latias appeared.

Against such a similar opponent, Ash chose Charizard.

As Ash's true ace, Charizard immediately displayed overwhelming strength and dominated Latias throughout the battle.

After scanning the three Pokémon with the system, Aiden confirmed that none of them possessed Divine Authority.

In that case, losing to Ash was perfectly reasonable.

After Ash secured three consecutive victories, the match entered its halftime break.

When the second half began, Tobias sent out Suicune.

Ash once again used Sceptile.

This time, however, Sceptile failed in its attempt to defeat another Legendary Pokémon and was ultimately taken down.

Ash then sent out Bulbasaur.

After an intense exchange, Bulbasaur and Suicune knocked each other out simultaneously.

Seeing another one of his Pokémon fall, Tobias' expression turned cold.

His fifth Pokémon appeared—

The Lunar Pokémon, Cresselia.

Against this powerful opponent, Charizard and Pikachu both entered the battle in succession.

Yet both were defeated.

With that, each side had only two Pokémon remaining.

The match had returned to a deadlock.

Ash sent out Infernape to confront Cresselia.

Drawing upon the power of Blaze, Infernape pushed beyond its limits and defeated the Legendary Pokémon.

Now Ash still had Infernape and one final Pokémon remaining.

Tobias, meanwhile, had been reduced to his last Pokémon.

"Ash."

"Being able to push me this far is already impressive."

"Let's go, Deoxys!"

Another Deoxys.

Aside from Suicune, nearly every Pokémon Tobias had revealed was Mythical.

And Deoxys' true combat power was sufficient to contend with a primary Legendary.

Could Ash still win?

Unfortunately, Greninja was not here.

Otherwise, he might have had a chance.

Infernape was immediately defeated by a single Psychic.

Ash was now down to his final Pokémon.

"For the last battle..."

"I'm counting on you, Squirtle!"

This time, Ash had recalled even the members of his original team.

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