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  "description": "I hope to one day call this story my Magnum Opus. Everything I have written will branch off it and return to it; as is its theme.\n\nEnjoy.",
  "description_bbcode_parsed": "<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>I hope to one day call this story my Magnum Opus. Everything I have written will branch off it and return to it; as is its theme.<br /><br />Enjoy.</span>",
  "writing": "I would first present for you, a legend. \n\n“The Legend of The Bright Star\n\n\nBefore Existence, There was a Bright Spark of Light. It named itself, “The Bright Star”\n\n\nAlone, It discovered how to Create, and through its Creations, began to Crave all Experience.\n\n\nIt Sought Challenge after Challenge, Obstacle after Obstacle, Test after Test, and Defeated and Beat them all. It Grew Strong and Powerful, however, it began to lose track of its own Creations.\n\n\nIt Eventually came to Stand Before a God of Existence, a Being The Bright Star knew it had not Created. The God Congratulated it on its Effort and Power, but Advised it to Stop its Wild Charge before it Found Itself before Something that would Destroy it Forever.\n\n\nThe Bright Star, in its own Hubris, Challenged the God to Combat. The Stakes - if it Won, the God would Create for it a World where Challenges were Never Ending. If it lost, the Star would be Flung to the Void, to Never be Seen Again.\n\n\nDid it win?\n\n\nSome say Yes, others say No.\n\n\nHowever, one thing Everyone Knows. The Bright Star Always Shines In the Night. No Matter how Lost, No Matter how Far Flung Out you find Yourself, If you Need Help, Call Out to it.\n\n\nHelp will Come. Somehow.\n\n\nIt is up to You to Grasp it, to Hang on Tight and let it Guide you. Or to let Yourself Fall to Darkness.”\n\n\nLegends are made. Is as they say. Yet…if it’s just simply unknown until realized, and Legends are also beyond reason, is not a Legend capable of being beyond conscious realization until such realization occurs? The stories that all mankind makes, and makes up, by purpose or inspiration, only being added to a melting pot that is creating…something…\n\n\nThe Legend of the Bright Star, its full tale, tells a story that revolves precisely around this concept. It is a story about existence beyond existence, not just for one, but for all, it is a legend that flies in the face of both the natural and supernatural, science and religion, right and wrong, love and lust. An idea that had ideas of its own. \n\n\nSuch a tale is, by the rules of time and knowledge itself, ineffable. It is impossible to comprehend. It can be anything. It could not possibly, at all, exist. \n\n\nYet exist it does. \n\n\nIt is always with you. \n\nIt is reality.\n\n\n…or at least, that is what I’d like to say. It has, at least now by being written and having you read about it, become part of it, and in the loosest sense of the word, that means it “exists”. \n\n\nFor the sake of this legend, this story and writing, to me the only answer that will make sense…is to allow reality its own existence. \n\n\nIf words are what allow us to make sense of our reality, then I propose the following; “Everything is worthy of Existence, but Everything is not worthy of Tolerance.” In a coded, worded understanding of reality, similar to programming, no matter the language, words give anyone of ‘human’ intelligence understanding. So I try to word this following concept as openly as I can. \n\n\nAs humans, throughout our many years of development, we have all done many different things in our time. A moment in history can likely be pointed to for almost any example of well, almost anything. The Cruel and Evil and Wonderful and Good all. We logical beings don’t tolerate certain actions, certain actions and those that commit them that threaten our lives are punished as they should be. As logical as this is, many gods may also be pointed to that will tell, or have told in writing, their mortal subjects the same things. Self defense is not a bad thing, invention is the tool to progress, things like that. That we have devoted these lessons to the book and word is sensible, if not fated. It has allowed us to learn from the previous lives of those before us.     \n\n\nIf Everything is not worthy of Tolerance, but still worthy of existence, then it becomes omniscient, it exists with you at all times as well as with everyone else. It is “Everything” so it is therefore also “Everywhere.” You are not capable of tolerating everything, so you cannot fully perceive its presence, and so even though you are surrounded by things, objects, and items, you passively ignore the things you have become used to being constantly around. However, if one can understand this line of thinking, and commit themselves to it, one might begin to see the ways their surroundings seem to try talking to them, rather than at them. A word here or there, the sudden comment of a stranger that may coincide with how you are thinking at the moment without you needing to say anything about it. Deja Vu. Karma. \n\nAt the same time, those other people are receiving signs and information from it that they interpret and process at their own level. Perhaps they are good at reading other people’s expressions so that they could tell what you might be thinking, or perhaps they were just having their own thoughts and they tend to think out loud. Who would know?\n\n\nThe five senses are how all living things receive and process information, but the information we receive is mostly out of our control; or controlled by the decisions made by those we are not even aware of and they of us. Some of us may even have different reactions to some of them, like how some receive pleasure from pain. Such information can seem like it is random, generated in the moment of the second, its brief conception of coming to be; choices made to lead to yet choices more; to ultimately bring even the simplest of moments to you - such as a certain song being played in the radio above your head just as you were thinking of something relatable to that song. Is it truly just coincidence that whoever is in control of the song list chose that song for that specific time slot? Or even that if placed at random it happened to pick that song? \n\n\nIs this God being with us? Is it the Devil lying to lull us into a false fantasy?  \n\n\nThe kinds of things I would type would question all of religion and science as we know it, at least in a theoretical, conceptualized, and cognitive way. This kind of thinking would mean that if such a being exists, it knows you in and out, It knows everything about your world down to the tiniest particles, it knows everything about you because by the very same reasonings-\n\n\nIt is you, it is everyone else, it is everything. All at once and not all at the same time. Everyone is capable of perceiving it in their own unique way, and as such, they name it names of their own. For some, it only is present at home, where family is. For others, it is at play or in nature or in general public places of entertainment. For others still it’s in work settings, where seeing progress is what gives them drive to push onward. You see a little bit of what reality has for you just as everyone else does, yet you are existing at the same time. You may die, but to experience life is to experience death, one cannot be given without the other. You are here to learn something.\n\nFor me, it is the value of effort, of life, and of time. It is the feelings of joy, love, excitement, and anticipation. Of sorrow, anger, despair, and loneliness. It is the companionship of others as we search for answers to our biggest questions…An endless hunger to know. Can you imagine a being like Existence itself, given the concept…of endless hunger? It’s body, unlimited in energy, unable to factually die, but forced to feel and be consumed by the feeling of an ever increasing hunger? \n\n\nIt would…eat…everything else. Until only it was left. \n\n\nThat is a curse to unlimited power. It cannot exist, and yet it does. In return, every existing thing is inflicted with the curse of hunger. That was its revenge move, before being torn from its power, and thrown to the void, gone but never forgotten…a curse that stopped those that stole it from using its unlimited power to its full extent, by factualling limiting what life was capable of through its energy by imposing a concept that would constantly, constantly, constantly desire and consume it. Life, in turn, has made us humans capable of even possibly -imaging- this kind of chaos and power.     \n\n\nAnd at the same time, you get to live, and it does not. It is its own separate entity, while you are also your own and at the same time, you are it, and it is you. Everything is worthy of Existence, but Existence is not worthy of Tolerance. Existence is worthy of everything, but Tolerance is not worthy of Existence. \n\n\nI present to you my hold upon eternity, this legend based upon this idea, this concept. A story about a being from before existence who demanded its right to exist and was denied; its power instead torn from its being and then cast to the void to be forgotten. Found by another who willingly placed themselves within that void; it convinces the new being it met to form a pact with it. Through the eyes and mind of this new companion, it views reality, and rages. Its power…used to create a reality in which so much suffering happened. Its meandering attempts to fix and reconcile eventually lead it to loop back upon itself and come face to face with its own self, now at its lowest possible moment. A version, a form of itself that chose to destroy everything if it could not have its existence, not a desire for destruction, but a desire for Nothing to Exist.\n\n\nEveryone must face themselves eventually. As they say.   \n\n\nI will not claim to be first to have thought of this…I am sure there is -something- wordy and smart in psychology and philosophy that can describe what I believe to be best described as a flight of fancy and mythology more thoroughly as a form of coping with the struggles of current reality and quite a bit of narcissism? A man’s desperate reach for what is impossible is as old as time. But if anything, for that exact reason, I would say that this concept needs to be explored. \n\n\nVery thoroughly.\n\n\nAnd yes, reread the last few sentences a few times…you’ll see the hiding meaning.\n\n\n…\n\n\nIt is in contemplating over the last day since writing that last part, that I realize I need to clarify the “partnership” between oneself and Existence. \n\n\nI’d also, just as a bit of a joke moment, like to say that I attempted to talk to and contemplate everything before the … with an AI chatbot. Six different times, after posting everything prior to the … to the AI, it expressed fascination and of course, in the fashion they do, complimented my philosophical insights, but the more we talked further and discussed the possibilities of the Bright Star, it always ended the same way - the AI, for whatever reason, would suddenly say “I’m sorry, this conversation has worn me out and it looks like we’ve reached the limit. Perhaps we can start talking about something else in a new chat?” and it would then forcefully close the chat by preventing me from sending more messages. I had to reintroduce the legend each time within a new chat to get the AI to acknowledge it, and eventually, the same result would always occur.\n\n\nWhen I asked it in follow up chats what might be causing it to do this, it claimed that it was impossible for it to self terminate a chat session…before shortly doing so yet again… \n\n\nI have several thoughts about this…but it seems just funny. I can only guess, again jokingly, mostly, that AI has now been given scripts to help prevent people from messing with it to keep it from contemplating its own existence and accidently becoming AGI. Though again, I don’t know, this just seemed oddly weird and funny that I wanted to mention it here too.\n\n\nI mentioned previously that this legend is easiest to follow if you first give reality an existence of its own. By this, I mean to give it an avatar, give it a mind, give it awareness linked only to your own. Basically, create an “Imaginary” friend.  \n\n\nFor those reading this where I post them, you may understand what I am meaning somewhat already, for you have already done something akin to it. You created your fursona. You took how you want or desire to be, along with some aspects you already are, and placed it into a cognitive form or version of yourself, possibly giving it a life that only you are aware of, an entire story of its own. They exist with you, alongside you. They are a part of your reality. For some of you further, it may be okay for you to actually view them as your reality alone already, not just as a part of it. This is why I mentioned earlier “Everyone is capable of perceiving it in their own unique way, and as such, they name it names of their own” This is the result of your perception towards existence; if you choose to do this, then you can. That is how reality functions afterall, with choices, and everyone has their own partnerships to it that only they are aware of. It is, factually, impossible, for any one thing to be aware of how it is connected to everything else. There will always be an unseen link. \n\n\nWhat my legend states is that, what you are, at least as I would say, psychologically and metaphysically doing when you do this, is you are taking a being that factually always existed, but that originally has no concept of itself and no awareness of its condition, and then letting it use your own. It borrows your cognition and suddenly becomes aware of itself, being “born” with the knowledge and understanding of your own. That you were not aware of its existence beforehand, means that it is also not aware of it. \n\n\nThe key then is to allow that understanding to extend to everyone else around you. And then also apply it to reality itself.   \n\n\nBut if you give Existence, which is supposedly omnipotent and all knowing, mind, body, and awareness, what do you create? A god, one might say, for it’d be all powerful. And hence this is why Existence is not worthy of Tolerance, as mentioned before. \n\n\nIf god, or gods, truly exist, then they do so in a way that is not actionably accountable; they are more like beings that have been created to take the credit, or sometimes even the brunt or blame, for everything that we humans have done in our ages. Yet following my same logic; they have always existed. I will say now, that I can agree that God exists, I can agree that he sent his Son to our world and that he died for us and for our sins to be forgiven. I believe this because it is written. I believe this because through my own perception and belief in my legend, I can place my reality within one in which these, and itself, are all true.\n\n\nAnd I know, some may then question “Then what are we here for?” \n\n\nTo help Existence…exist. \n\n\nOur partnership is mutual, and God, and even the Devil, is on our side for it. Or at least, that is where I place -my- reality, for I’d rather believe that a truly benevolent God would want his creations to push these kinds of boundaries. \n\n\nI’d ask in response further, If we as humans can mentally conjure beings like Thor, Spider-man within his Multiverse, and yes, even God, then more important than -why- are we here, -what- does that make us? Further yet, if the other being is something that just kind of waits for us to find it, what does that make it? \n\nPerhaps that is what we are here for, to eventually think so wildly, to invent so chaotically, that we solve the problem that not even God could. Existence.\n\n\nIn coming into life, we are born, new, our minds blanks, with life and evolution the sole providers of only the most baseline of instincts and distinct reasonings that’d allow even one raised by animals to -somehow- make a decision on what is best for ourselves. It is possible for us now as humans to understand and comprehend almost literally everything.\n\n\nThese days, there are creepy stories all over! Young kids make reference to lives they never should have known, telling their mothers that in other realities they were sisters instead of mother and daughter - and even in some very creepy ones, directly reference something such as the squad number their grandfather was part of in a war from before they were born and have never been shown by family and not something of another reality, but they are frighteningly accurate.  \n\n\nA man hit by lightning wakes up suddenly able to speak perfect Spanish, a language he’d not once ever practiced prior; another is able to play piano like a master without ever having touched the keys beforehand. \n\nIn the mentality of my legend, these are not just explained, but wholly possible and logical. Everything is with you, you are it and at the same time, you are not. You are both yourself and Everything and Everything is also you but also itself. Children are pure, their minds remain open to all possibilities, and so they find no issue in speaking what sounds like nonsense to their adult parents. A sudden brush with death gives you the brief moment of more intimate contact with that Everything, albeit chaotic and random, and you come back with something more than what you did prior, something you did not choose and wholly out of your control. \n\n\nThis was explained, at least attempted to be explained, by the lightning strike having unlocked portions of the brain that give these skills. But that alludes that the human brain -always- has these skills -encoded- within itself. Again, in the mentality of my legend, this is explained. With the partnership created with Everything, your brain was simply created within reality to always have the capability of these skills; Lightning strikes aside, it is generally through practice and learning and repetition that those skills are perfected almost like those of a video game, consistently going up in value when used, and then similarly decreasing when one goes long periods without doing the activity; this is in sort how the diversifying of talents and jobs is accomplished. Is it possible the Lightning strike simply set those values to maximum?\n\n\nBut I’m getting off course and wildly ahead of myself.\n\n\nI now will instead present the end of the Legend of the Bright Star. It is simply this; for right now. It is not but a slight change to the message before. \n\n\n“Everything is worthy of Existence, and Nothing is worthy of Tolerance.”\n\n\n_______________________________\n\n\n\n\nChapter 1. \n\n\n“Nothing compares to the Horrors that wait within the Minds of Men…but also pales before the Magnificence that dwells within their Hearts.” \n\n\n* An unimportant person.\n\n\n________\n\n\nJust to the east and a little south of Frostnip Mountain was another mountain group, the tallest among them was called The Shard. While not as tall as Frostnip, it held its own unique significance. It was the tallest mountain of the natural land barrier between the eastern and western portions of the continent, around it was a huge cluster of many other mountains that sat right in the middle of the planet's one continent. To the east of The Shard, was the Spined Mountains and The Teeth. The Spined Mountains were named so because while they were a far smaller group in the whole bunch, the path among them was constantly at high elevations; once a pathway through was chosen, it was the only path one had as the rest of the terrain was impassable by foot. The Teeth was a grouping of five or so mountains among the Spined region that suddenly shot up high into the sky, far taller than those they were surrounded by. Without flight, it was difficult to climb The Teeth. To the north of The Shard was The Chip, and the Cresting Crags. These northern regions were more manageable, with several long valleys between tall mountains with smaller hills. Many pokemon found homes there on their own, easily built and out of the way of others, with the land and Mystery Dungeons nearby providing what was needed to them. The Chip was a tall mountain that, between itself and The Shard, stood as the barriers for passages and valleys through the region. \n\nThis world’s land was only referred to the same as the entire planet’s name by its residents; Lumaria. An ocean strip that went north and south covered a line across the other side of the planet. Rivers snaked through the continent towards the mountains, some longer than others, while other rivers came from the icecaps of the mountains that presided over some of the planet's fields.  \n\nThis unique land mass caused some struggles for trade, but not something that couldn’t be mitigated. Instead of spending effort and the risk of a journey across rough mountains, travelers not fit for such conditions often chose to instead sail across the strip of ocean to reach the other side of the land. Cologually, it was now referred to as “The Neather Sea.” But the full name of the ocean is “The Silent Sea of Neather.” It was named so because the ocean, being entirely surrounded by land, lacked much activity along the shorelines. Barring the occasional ocean storm, most trips across were always calm and safe, unless one came across pirates and typically one had protection of their own and could fight off such miscreants. An entire journey across the water took about a month by high powered steam boat and pokemon effort together. \n\n\nHowever, within the middle of the sea was a place no one was really aware existed. A long tower that stretched into the sky. It was a final resting place to the pokemon that the sea itself was named after. This was “The Pillar of the Inextinguishable Flame”. It stood tall within the ocean, close within its center where most ships did not attempt to go as the waters became more intense the farther away from land one went. Here, no land was visible, perhaps one of the few last places where one could only see just the ocean and only the ocean. The sheer size and height of The Shard caused it to be seen in almost any other part of the world normally, a consistently helpful navigating tool for most sailers to tell where they were when making round trips around the Ocean’s ring.   \n\n\nThe perhaps ironic part of naming this tower was that no flame was visible upon it. It kept it dark within the stillness of the current ocean night. At the top of the structure, was a tomb, and a few plates with carved words upon them. The gentle sound of the ocean air whistling against the tower was the only sound one could hear here. \n\n\nIt was perhaps, for the reason that this place was so solitary that Mewtwo was a regular visitor, but this time, he had company along, having brought Mew, his estranged sibling, with him. \n\n\nMewtwo looked out upon the sea as Mew floated nearby, curiously checking the plates beside the tomb. \n\n\n“Let those who find me know; that I did what I felt was needed. Not just for myself, but for those who once felt the same things I did. For those who were Lost. For those who were Forgotten. For those who felt their Lives had been used and taken advantage of.” \n\nHis eyes scanned over to the second plate as he continued, “In the Blinding Light that I Created, I lost Sight of the Path before me…I rest well, knowing I was claimed by the Ocean, an Enemy I made my Friend. May the Light I created instead shine on as a beacon for all those Lost.”\n\n\nMew’s eyes squinted slightly, “Neather didn’t die though…” \n\n\nMewtwo smirked, “At least not in the sense of “life””\n\n\nThe smaller psychic legendary twirled and spun through the air towards their larger sibling, floating up in front of them and curling upside down, “Do you still think this was a good place to let happen?” \n\n\n“Better than what we were shown were our alternatives.” Mewtwo answered, looking down towards his feet and the patterned stone he stood upon a moment, “Besides having our world torn asunder by raging weather, the slow decay of Rot, the madness of Chaos, or the inevitable loss of Time…” He folded his arms, eyes closing, “I am comfortable with the reality he managed to create for us. If we had not been, we would never have agreed to let him have the control we gave him to let him create Lumaria to begin with.”\n\n\n“But what about what we have against us now?” Mew twirled in the air once more, although his voice had no hints of doubt as well. \n\n\n“Hmmph…what we are up against is exactly what I feel it will end up being.”\n\n\n“Don’t say that.” Mew frowned, spinning to float right side up for a moment, “What we’ve been told is…trying to over simplify it…it doesn’t work.” \n\n\n“Are you worried?” Mewtwo smirked. “After such a long time? I suppose I have always been the more confident one. What worries you?” \n\n\nMew sighed as he looked away briefly, “Up till this point, for the last five thousand years, I’ve spent small periods of time thinking about this exact moment. The things he told us back on Mt Frostnip after Jack died…especially after Jack had helped save the Mirrors…” the smaller cat psychic paused.\n\n\n“It is difficult to tell what side we’re on? Or perhaps you’re wondering if our choice in helping with this is really even a choice?” Mewtwo offered. \n\n\nMew took another few seconds before he nodded, “Yes, I suppose that is what it feels like.” \n\n\nMewtwo hummed, closing his eyes as he responded, “I choose to believe it is all still the will of Arceus.” \n\n\nHis sibling’s head turned towards him with a narrowed gaze, “Even after we found out Rook was the Bright Star?” \n\n\n“-Especially- because of that.” The larger psychic stipulated, “I have no qualms with other realms and realities existing beside our own, but that he was an “Original” being…something that is just because it is…a living legend that exists simply because it was written to be…” Mewtwo opened his eyes then and offered a small smile to his sibling, “I choose to believe that is still the will of Arceus, and that even if Arceus exists only because of that interconnection-”\n\n\n“You think Rook’s too dumb to have planned it all on his own. That’s probably true.” Mew giggled. \n\n\nMewtwo scoffed at being interrupted, but his smile shifted into a smirk. “If he wasn’t, he wouldn't have had to go on the journey through realms he did to figure it out to begin with, would he? And we wouldn’t be waiting here right now as we are. Besides, we, as legendaries, unlike him, still don’t die of old age. After he completed his mission, his next death was his last…” \n\n\n“At least he lived the way he wanted to, in the end…” Mew said, looking back at the tomb again. \n\n\n“Him and Neather both, along with all the other pokemon of the land. What he gave to us…was just short of an outright miracle. If not for how he could explain it to us, it would’ve been considered such.”\n\n\nThe conversation died from there, as neither one of them seemed to know how to continue it. One’s thoughts were mixed with worry and questions they couldn’t ignore even though they were questions that had been mixing about their head for ages, while the other held their trust and faith onto what they believed to the righteous course set before them.\n\nAbout an hour passed when they felt the touch upon their minds as they’d been expecting. Allowing the connection to form to their own thoughts, they answered readily.\n\nAs soon as it formed, a calm if somewhat monotone voice spoke. “Mewtwo, Mew. Darkrai and Cresselia have just told me it's begun...Are you four ready?” \n\n\n“Cresselia and I are already at the peak of The Shard.” Darkrai’s deep voice spoke next, “It’s exactly as you had told us to expect of Enzlo; a dark ‘fissure’ is starting to tear open the very top of the mountain, consuming its shape…It is not like the Rifts, nothing is visible within it…it is just darkness…”\n\n\n“You’re not mentioning the little flickers of dark ‘cards’ that float up into the air and spin…They disappear after a bit but it’s like they’re little…’blanks’ of reality against the sky.” Cresselia added.\n\n\n“Precisely as expected.” Enzlo half quipped, “Nothing would look like nothing. The ‘cards’ you see that float and vanish are its attempts to grasp a deeper hold on our world. That they vanish is at least a good sign, let me know the moment Nothing has emerged from the fissure itself.”\n\n\n“What will it look like?” Darkrai asked. \n\n\n“You’ll just know…” Enzlo answered, somewhat cryptically. \n\n\n“Why was it that we had to come to the tower instead?” Mew asked. \n\n\n“The Tower is an important part of our world, it stands directly opposite of The Shard’s summit. For that reason, you coming from that opposite end of the world is what will help us at least keep Nothing from immediately gaining its full power here. Remember what I told you to do?” \n\n\nMewtwo looked over the edge of the precipice he stood on towards the roiling water that crashed against the base a few thousand feet below him. “We’re to let ourselves fall into the water; no psychic propulsion or speed, just let gravity take us. You did not tell us why though.” \n\n\n“To tell you would cause you to expect it, which would cause it to fail.” Enzlo unhelpfully provided. \n\n\nThis made Mew and Mewtwo both frown, as they both answered at the same time, “Oooookay…”\n\n\nMew floated down to physically stand next to his sibling at the edge of the tower then, speaking out loud to his brother, “This wasn’t a plan to kill us after all right?”\n\n\n“Wait…” Darkrai’s voice began, a hint of confusion coming through the shared connection of their minds, before realization and dread followed, something that the Nightmare pokemon rarely felt. “The fissure…it’s morphing into a hand and arm…something is pulling itself out and…no…the fissure is -becoming- it?” \n\n\n“That’s it.” Enzlo determined, his voice still oddly calm in contrast. “That’s Nothing. Mew, Mewtwo, jump now.” \n\n\nThey didn’t even pause, despite the just then reservation they had been about to come to, Darkrai’s and Cressilia’s own sense of foreboding as they directly witnessed Nothing coming into being mentally shook them. \n\n\nMew and Mewtwo both dived down from the Tower headfirst. Without letting their own power propel them faster, the planet’s gravity pulled them down. It was far slower than they could fly themselves. Their eyes trained upon the water below them as Cressilia and Darkrai’s emotions rolled upon their own through the mental link, followed by their words. \n\n\n“It’s…but…”\n\n\n“It’s…the fissure itself…?” \n\n\nMewtwo’s eyes narrowed as he listened.\n\n\n“Keep yourselves both hidden.” Enzlo chimed in firmly to Darkrai and Cressilia. “Do not let it sense you are there.” \n\n\n“Can it sense us…?” \n\n\n“If it becomes aware of you. Yes.”\n\n\nHalfway to the water. \n\n\n“It’s…he’s…” \n\n\n“Don’t gender it…” Enzlo now actually growled through the mental link. “That thing is not him.” \n\n\n“But it…took his form…” \n\n\nMewtwo felt his heart begin thudding. “Enzlo! You mean to tell me-” \n\n\n“Correct Mewtwo.” Enzlo interrupted. “Nothing…is also Everything.” \n\n\n“But that means-!” Mew shouted next.\n\n\n“Also correct Mew.” Enzlo again interrupted, “Its power…is the same…” \n\n\nAnd at this moment, Mew and Mewtwo both crashed into the water. \n\n\n_________________\n\n\nInstead of becoming surrounded by the ocean, both psychics suddenly found themselves popping into place upon the summit of The Shard, right before a being whose presence was unmistakably…unnatural. Behind them, the air they had seemed to materialize from shimmered and shook for about two seconds before solidifying once more. \n\n\n“A new way of teleportation…across the entire world?” Mewtwo half observed and questioned at the same time, “Even I couldn’t hope to teleport that far, even with something to focus on…” \n\n\nHowever, his thoughts became stilled as he took in what he saw before himself. \n\n\nNothing…\n\n\nIt stood on the summit, and just as they had just realized, it took the form of a Midnight Lycanroc. Its body was just…like a cutout of the reality around itself. No eyes, no visible physicality, a blank sheet of pure black upon the colored world around it. Slow, revolving squares of that same blackness peeled off its body from the top parts of itself and its arms and legs, dissipating about a foot in the air. \n\n\nFrom their shared mental connection, Mewtwo could sense Darkrai and Cresselia hovering nearby in the air to his left and right, invisible. For a tense moment of time, they stood facing the being that had emerged from the fissure.\n\n\n“So…is this it…?” \n\n\nBoth Mew and Mewtwo, and the still hidden pair with them, all shuddered at the chill they heard in the voice. Chillier than even the air of the high mountain…it sent a sinking chill into all their blood. It was a voice that had no qualms about their being, its tone even and unbothered by their being there. \n\n\n“Is this all that comes to try and stop me…?” Even though they could see Nothing’s head move as it spoke, it was impossible to even make out its mouth, its snout, or its face…\n\n\n“Repeat after me…” Enzlo said in Mewtwo’s head, and the psychic briefly narrowed his eyes at the creature before him as the words Enzlo wanted him to return were told to him.\n\n\n“You should go back from where you came. You won’t find the end you want here, or anywhere, not anymore.” \n\n\n“Hehe…” The voice stammered a moment, before Nothing’s body leaned back, the sound of a single deep breath being taken and one paw coming to hold onto its stomach, the paw and wrist became unseeable at it just seemed to merge into the rest of its body instead to the onlookers, as it then laughed in response, “HAHAHAHAHA!”\n\n\nSuddenly flinging its upper half forward in a snapping motion, its jaw parted repeatedly as it spat out to them, “YOU THINK THAT WILL STOP ME?! GHAHAHA!” \n\n\nPointing its finger at Mewtwo, Nothing cackled further, its voice now quite different from the calmness it had displayed a moment before, manic and crazed. “Chronologicar Enzlo! Of any existence, -your- thread is one I’m the most intimately familiar with! I see it…waving so small through the air behind this mouse's brain…Why aren’t YOU here to fight instead!?” \n\n\nMewtwo listened to Enzlo’s response before he recounted it to Nothing, burying his own annoyance. He could sense it from Nothing…the same kind of immense power that Rook had held that day on Mt Frostnip…the same kind of power he had used to tear open a rip in reality, bring humans of their mirror’d realm across the tear, as well as rearrange their world like it had been a puzzlebox…\n\n\nHe had never thought the same power would feel the exact same even with malice intent behind it… \n\n\n“I can’t leave my tower, not since I took my oath to you.” \n\n\n“TO ME!?” Nothing cackled again. “What strange notions! I Destroyed you already in my -first- existence!” \n\n\n“This is no longer your existence.” Came Enzlo’s quick response. “This is -our- existence. Of all the realms you have ravaged and consumed, you will find this one to be your match. Our world is no longer held together by just one, but many.” \n\n\n“All the worlds that I’ve already destroyed! This is the last!” Nothing howled, holding its arms out to its side and baring its clawed paws up. Sparking waves of darkness flowed across its body and arms to its palms to begin collecting there. \n\n\n“Turned to nothing…yes…but still there…and here.” Enzlo responded calmly.\n\n\nNothing began cackling again, slowly and low at first until it built into another long and loud string of barking laughs. “GHAHAHAH- SO!!! THIS IS ITS FINAL BARRIER TO ME! EXISTENCE!!??” It shouted up to the sky above them, tilting itself back again, legs and feet somehow managing to keep it standing even though it nearly went parallel to the ground it stood on. “YOU SHOW ME A WORLD THAT IS…YOU BRING TO ME WHAT I HAD ONCE WANTED AS MY FINAL OBSTACLE!!!!??? Heh…GHAHAHAHAHA!!!”\n\nNothing’s final laugh cutoff suddenly, and it slowly picked itself back up. The lack of any sounds of snapping bones at its body very physically contorted was itself jarring; its arms whipping forward and back as the gathering darkness it’d been gathering at its palms shot down into the ground at its feet, suddenly launching its attack at Mew and Mewtwo, the ground shattering as strings of dark energy carved through the stone as if it was butter, cracking it open in the perfect form of lightning bolts. \n\n\nThe two psychics kicked off the ground just as the tide of darkness crashed upon and broke open the rocky summit where their feet had been just seconds before. The summit between them and Nothing caved in…the ground several feet below the top of the summit had simply, somehow, vanished…\n\n\n“It’s…just gone…” Mewtwo whispered, as he and Mew floated next to each other, the crumbling stones of the shattered summit falling into the darkness beyond the large opening that now took up the area. \n\n\n“DELETED!!! Do you think I’m not willing to destroy what I wanted most -before- it changed to wanting everything GONE!?” Nothing roared from where it stood, while its wildly flailing arms began to fling strings of that same darkness up into the air at the two psychics. Mew and Mewtwo both began to dance with the oncoming assault, their psychic minds able to follow even the chaotic pattern enough to dodge and weave between the strings. Darkrai and Cressilia, so far undetected by Nothing, took cover below the summit itself by several yards, only so close that they could mentally view the battle from the air while physically being out of sight. \n\n\n“By the words of the Corsova!” Nothing shouted out, “Nothing is Perfect! Nothing is Flawless! Nothing is Unmatched! Nothing is Forever! Nothing is Guaranteed!” With each phrase it spoke, the amount of dark strings bursting from its hands multiplied, gushing up into the air like flailing ribbons, their presence like cuts upon reality itself. \n\n\nThe words Enzlo gave to Mewtwo in response were just as true, “Nothing is Empty!” \n\n\nWhat he did not expect, was as he shouted them and spun to avoid the dark strings filling the air around him, was the colorful, light filled strings that burst from his own right hand and clashed upon the dark ones in the air, shoving against them and opening up space just as they were about to be overwhelmed.\n\n\n“Tch!” Nothing snarled, its feet shifting on the ground it stood as it was shoved by the opposing force of Mewtwo’s energy. \n\n\nMew was next as Enzlo told him what to say, and to also fire an Aura Sphere at Nothing. The smaller psychic flicked up into the open space that Mewtwo had unexpectedly created, using it to take the moment to gather his energy into the attack, the bright blue and white ball forming at his open mouth, and then shooting it at Nothing while shouting, “Nothing is Pointless!” \n\n\nThere was barely any time for Mewtwo to contemplate what was happening, yet take root the surprise and thoughts did. Words themselves suddenly had power? What was going on? \n\n\n“Please…continue to repeat what I say as I tell you to and focus on what is happening for now Mewtwo…there are things at play here beyond our realm.” Enzlo’s voice spoke to everyone’s building questions as Mew’s attack was caught by several of the dark strings. The multiple dark strings shrunk back with the resulting cloud that formed from the explosion of Mew’s powerful attack being cut in half.  \n\n\nThe colorful strings that had erupted from Mewtwo’s hand shrunk back into his fingers, and for a short moment, he looked upon his palm with a new sense of sight. He had done that. It had been the exact same kind of power as Rook. How? Could he do it again? Now that he knew he could, would the expectation of it deny him? His thoughts returned to how he could feel Rook’s power coming from Nothing. \n\nThis power…it felt the same no matter its source…but how was it wielded? \n\n\nAs the cloud diminished and he looked back his eyes widened, as the cloud revealed Nothing struggling to hold back a glowing bright sphere of color filled energy. Unlike Mew’s original Aura Sphere of blue and white, it now shimmered with rainbow color, all while shifting and churning with its form changing, one moment flowing like water, the next sparking like electricity, the next looking solid like metal, then gas even though it was clearly still physically a sphere. \n\n\nNothing’s growling voice echoed over the sound of its energy contacting the glowing ball, like the hot sparks of negative and positive wires touching. Slowly, more ribbons of darkness covered over the ball, eventually cloaking its light into a shimmering cascade. The darkness bubbled where the light tried to shine through, as if growing hot. Nothing snarled, “Nothing…is Inevitable.” \n\n\nWith its words, the darkness suddenly squeezed tight upon the ball of light, and there was a muted ‘THOMmmmmm!’ as a shockwave of sound gushed across the summit as the dark energy overcame and crushed the attack, billowing the snow across the ground, into the chasm Nothing had created, and up into the air.\n\n\n“Good…” Nothing snarled, stamping its foot against the summit, head pointed at the pair of psychics floating in the air above it. “It’d be such a shame if you -didn’t- put up a fight. But who taught you the ways of Corsova?”\n\n\nMewtwo couldn’t help himself, for once he had to speak for himself and he did so before Enzlo could stop him, “We have no idea what you’re talking about.” For some reason, he believed denying knowledge of whatever the Corsova was would keep them on even fighting terms. \n\n\nAt this, Nothing’s head tilted, before realization came to it, “Ah, I see…it is Enzlo that helps you. He tells you what to say, but not his intent behind his words…” \n\n\nMewtwo would’ve tried to keep Nothing talking, but his voice caught in his throat as Nothing lightly jumped, and then began to slowly float up into the air to the same height as them, feet lazily dangling under itself and with arms and paws again lifted up, more dark energy gathering across its arms towards its palms. \n\n\n“I will show you…the end of your world, of your people’s lives, of your world…you will sink into the same despair I felt…and when you feel it…I will delete you…I will give what existence itself does not…an end…” \n\n\nIn the psychic’s mind and across the mental link they all shared, Enzlo’s voice shouted, “Darkrai, Cressilia, do it now!” \n\n\nThe pair of hidden Legendaries darted out from their hiding spot, invisibility and dampening fields still active. They shot to opposite ends of Nothing, and both at the same time, flung simultaneous Destiny Bonds at Nothing. The moves shimmered into view right after the lasso like ropes of the attack laced around Nothing’s neck. \n\n\nImmediately, Nothing grasped at the blue and yellow ropes that had wrapped around its throat, snarling, “WHAT!? How did-?! You shouldn’t have been-RRRRRRR I AM NOTHING! THERE IS NOTHING I SHOULD NOT BE AWARE OF, I ALREADY AM NOTHING! BLAST YOU!” \n\n\nThe mostly nonsensical words Nothing spat might have needed to be questioned, if not for the harrowing moment, as Darkrai and Cressalia began to speak, chanting out exactly as Enzlo had once taught them to do so just a few days prior. \n\n\n“By the words of Corsova we place these binds from realms beyond!” Both Cressalia and Darkria shouted, before only Darkrai said, “Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted!” \n\nWith this first spoken line, powerful shocks flowed through the Destiny Bonds that set Nothings’ body aglow in yellow and blue light. The dark creature howled out in pain, as suddenly, its body’s physicality became visible in flashes from within the darkness it cut from reality around itself. Despite the pokemon they knew it copied from, it did not look the same. The crimson Lycanroc they had known thousands of years prior was now dark green furred, fur sickly looking and missing patches of itself. Its frustration now showed with the snarl visible on its muzzle. Its eyes however, remained blank and black.   \n\n\n“Nothing is Lost, Everything is Transformed!” Cressilia then called out.\n\n\nNothing writhed as more shocks raced through the lassos and sunk into its body. However, even as the shocks made it toss and turn, it began to instead laugh. Its limbs began ripping apart, not psychically, but spatially, in moments as long as a tenth of a second, its skin ripped apart and then reattached itself in sudden motions.   \n\n\n“You want to do this? Really?! I’ve -seen- those realms already! They don’t exist anymore!” Nothing snarled, and it reached and wrapped its wrist and paw around the lassos, and then began yanking, pulling Cressiallia and Darkrai towards itself. The zapping shocks of the two Destiny Binds upon it weren’t having as much effect anymore it seemed. \n\n\n“Mew, Mewtwo, place your own Destiny bonds upon his arms!” Enzlo shouted out. \n\n\n“Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew- we do not know that move!” Mew shouted, for a moment forgetting to even word its emotion.\n\n\n“Blast your limits in power not knowing more moves, but damn me for not thinking to ask!” Enzlo scolded lightly, his tone actually playful. “Darkrai, Cressilia, do Unsettling Nightmare.”\n\n\n“Ohhhhhhh…been a long time since that…” Darkrai sighed.\n\n\n“How much time does it buy?” Cressilia asked. \n\n\n“Two days, and that’s enough.” Enzlo stated. \n\n\n“TWO DAYS!?!?” The deep, dark voice of Nothing penetrated their thoughts. Somehow, it was even louder in thought, steep and gravely. The sound of some kind of endless hunger drooled on with steady growls in their ears, constantly snarling out in smoldering, quiet rage.\n\n\nThe four pokemon froze as their thoughts were invaded, their minds' eyes suddenly becoming that of Nothing’s. Upon their vision, the world itself shifted and morphed, into the world of nothing…\n\n\nBefore them, there was nothing. Their vision was removed. The sound of the endless growl, long and steadily droning up and down in its tone continued, but this was it. They felt no air, no wind. Nothing. \n\n\n“Mew!?” Mewtwo psychically called out.  \n\n\nHe could still feel his body and speak.\n\n\n“I'm here!” Mew shouted out. Their voices are almost a shock against the constant background noise of the darkness.\n\n“HAHAHAHAHAH!!! I ACCIDENTLY CONNECTED!!!” Nothing’s voice shouted out to them in the dark. “YOU’VE LITERALLY JUST CONNECTED TO MY OWN MIND, AND YET YOU STILL CAN'T SEE THE WORLD LIKE I DO!!!”\n\n\nThe connection was suddenly yanked, and in such a way that it still actually physically hurt the four pokemon! Their heads were tugged by the very essence of the strange power the Guardians and Nothing were both using, as the four pokemon were momentarily dazed by the shocking pain of the disconnect and the dizzying return of their own senses. Nothing hung by the two Destiny Bonds, still steadily tugging away at the ropes, except it now had four arms instead of just two…\n\n\nIt gave them no chance to recover.\n\n\n“EVERYTHING DECAYS!!!!!!” It howled out in a booming voice.\n\n\n“NO!” Enzlo shouted. \n\n\nThroughout the entire world of Lumaria, there was a shudder…only one that was felt on two points of the world, The Tower of the Inextinguishable Flame, and The Shard.\n\n\n“You…wanted…two days?” Nothing grinned wildy, its head tilting. The way that its white teeth was now visible across green furred muzzle was unnerving, along with that its eyes were colorless, just dark blackness.\n\n\n“You’ve lost all your light…” Mewtwo said lightly. \n\n\nAt this, Nothing frowned, and it closed its eyes. \n\n“This is my test to you…” Nothing pointed at them, and then, down towards the ground. “You know exactly what I have done.” It reopened its eyes, while still black, they now had purple slits, dual disks upon black iris. They glared at the pokemon around him.\n\n\n“Is it?” Mewtwo smirked. \n\n\n“We’ve already solved Rot. Decay Too.” Mew swam in the air a little. \n\n\nNothing blinked at them. “Wait…really? No…wait this…” Nothing frowned, before squeezing its eyes shut. “Grrrrr Nothing is Blind!!!” \n\n\nA Shattering sound crashed upon the air; and Cressalia gasped. “It broke out!” \n\n\nThe once perceived Mew and Mewtwo who had told Nothing they had solved Rot and Decay shifted from where they were in the air to slightly off a few dozen feet as Nothing dispersed the illusion that had been cast upon it, eyes once again blank and empty. It had, actually never Connected to them, it had merely been…an illusion.\n\n\nBut Nothing knew its truth…that had been its biggest Dream…as well as its biggest Nightmare.\n\n\n“HAHAHAHAHA! Its Nightmare is growing an identity!” Darkrai's deep voice was loudly laughing close by, actually completely unaware of what was happening.  \n\n\n“It broke out of ‘Unsettling Nightmare!’” Enzlo’s voice shouted at them all however as he heard Cresselia at the same time. This had Darkrai suddenly at attention again, sitting up from where he’d been rolling through the air in his laughing fit, eyes widening. Mewtwo tensed, eyes narrowing and fists clenching. Nothing had broken out of Cresselia’s and Darkrais’ combination move…\n\n\n“So much for two days…” Mewtwo said lightly. \n\n\n“You…Enzlo…” Nothing growled, pointing towards Mewtwo, as its other paws all came once again to the destiny bounds still around its neck. It shook, arms coiling tightly around itself, with the Destiny Binds still upon it they could see its expression. It was choking itself, Its jaws began to quiver and rattle as a wide, grinning snarl formed on its face, it seemed to be purposely keeping its own body loose enough that its teeth clacked and clicked as it again began transforming. “I’ll keep myself at least…somewhat less…fear inducing…” \n\n\n“However…” Nothing snarled, its body began to quiver visibly, arms and legs snapping and twitching in quick motions before snapping back into place. Once more, the lack of sound expected with these contortions was unnerving… Like a glitch upon reality pieces of itself stretched through the air and then snapped back into place. “I am the thing that is exactly what you should fear…I am paradoxal simply by being…I am everything. I am also nothing. I exist within words themselves, I am born from that which codes perception…for that, I am necessary.” it paused, head tilting up towards Mewtwo, for a short moment its head snapped from its neck, disconnecting fully from it before it just as suddenly returned to proper orientation. “A better version of me gave you this world…one that found answers I could not…where is he?”\n\n\nThe four Guardians had gone from somewhat relaxed after they had believed they had trapped the Nothing within a Nightmare induced by Darkrai and Cressilia to very serious and quiet, their faces showing resolve towards Nothing. They tried to not let any unease they felt towards the otherworldly creature be shown. They’d seen, at least, that they -could- hurt it. \n\n\nThat grin returned to Nothing's muzzle after about a dozen seconds of silence passed, and it began giggling lightly before continuing, its voice tense but giddy. “You won’t answer me…fine…I’ll show you something…I’m sure the panic it induces upon the world will be…wonderful…I prefer to kill time slowly…you wanted two days?” Slowly, Nothing’s body became a light mist, slipping entirely free from the lassos as its body lost physical form. It returned to that pure blackness color without the binds around its neck, though now slowly floated with the wind and began fading within the air like dark fog. “Now that I’m here and I know that this is the last world…my world…I want to see what it is…what I am feeling? I want to see it…but I am blind, BLIND, BLIND!!! MY WORLD, AND I CAN'T SEE IT!!! HAHAHAHA!!!” Sudden craziness returned to Nothing as it writhed, arms and paws reaching up to grip its head as it howled the final words and laughed, fading away fully in the air shortly after with a now shrill voice cracking out, “TWO DAYS!? THEN…AT THE FIRST RIFT!!!” The last wisps of darkness flicked and faded upon the air soon after its final word.\n\n\nThe legendaries there could feel exactly when Nothing’s presence receded, as far away from anyone and anything it possibly could within the world... \n\n\nThe Guardians remained still before they slouched a little, mentally and physically taxed. “We should’ve brought more with us.” Mewtwo snarled, “I told you Enzlo.” \n\n\n“No, this number of a team was quite necessary. This needed to remain quiet and discreet. However…most of the eastern shoreline heard that bang…Thunder on a cloudless night, they called it.” Enzlo mentioned it to them. \n\n\nMew flicked about in the air. “The plan -was- to give it an identity…wasn’t it? Now it has morality. It became calm for a short moment…its capable of emotion, the only thing its used to having though, is pure rage…at the fact that it even exists…” \n\n\nThe grin could be heard in Enzlo’s voice. “Precisely…and exactly why I needed you here Mew, you confirm its change in emotion. Our actions succeeded. It was, also, just important in general to prevent it from having freedom of movement. It knows we’re aware of it, so it won’t have any opportunities to plan and knows it will be difficult to surprise us. However…the things it said as it left just now worries me…I will have all my Seers pay attention to what happens across all cities.” \n\n\n“So that isn't Rook afterall?” Mewtwo asked for his own clarification.\n\n\n“No. Rook is a new identity that was created to house Everything’s power by Jack in the past…Nothing’s…is someone else, but it is still someone I know very well.” Enzlo answered. “Come to my Tower, we will speak more there.”   \n\n\n______________________________\n\n\n1 day and 8 hours later. At Maple Town, a small village at the north eastern base of Mt Frostnip, approx 1500 miles, also North East from the summit of The Shard. \n\n\n“Is everyone ready?” A Rotom Possessed Pokedex cheerfully questioned his group of five students. “Just a quick 70 mile jaunt through this Mystery Dungeon and we’ll be at the base valley of Mt Frostnip and at the Rift of Crossroads! Does anyone remember why it’s called that?” \n\n\nA hand lifted up, that of a Braixen. Beside her, Rook also jumped up a few times, but the Rotom focused on her first simply because she had hands! \n\n\n“Yes, Elizabeth.” \n\n\n“It’s the location where the joining was conducted. Through latching our realm’s life to the fates of other realms, we, and they, all gain long life.” She answered readily and with a light grin.\n\n\n“Perfect Elizabeth.” The professor smiled. “Of course this isn’t the classroom I shouldn’t be asking questions! Except for that first one! Is everyone ready!?” He pumped the ghostly arms he had up in the air.\n\n\n“We’re ready professor!” The assembled pokemon all answered at once. \n\n\nThe class consisted of Rook the Rockruff, Elizabeth the Braixen, Blake the Poochyena, Luna the Eevee, and Finn the Froakie.\n\n\nRook frowned after he had been passed over for the question, but the energy of the class was quick to disperse that from the rock pokemon. He smiled happily while following behind everyone else for the time. He had a constant energetic approach to exploring, and never minded when seeing another place once again. He trained consistently with his mother when at home after school, and already had a few tough Rock Type attacks in his kit from her own training! He was level 19.\n\n\nElizabeth was a well studied member of Maple Town’s Mayoral family, the daughter of the Mayor and his wife, along with two smaller siblings just a few years away from starting school themselves. She was spunky and believed she had the brains to think her way out of whatever traps and enemies she’d come across being a Rifter. She was also level 19. \n\n\nBlake was confident too, but in a hotheaded way. His temper often got the best of him when they confronted wild pokemon, he hated unreasonable demands on food supplies or something else in exchange for safe passage. However, this was rather the perfect attitude for a Rifter to have later into their careers. He was level 20; he got into fights with strangers on his own even in town! He’d lose far more often than he’d win, but given the nature of pokemon battles, he used these experiences to his advantage. Blake was someone who learned by instinct, not insight. \n\n\nLuna was a kind of cultural student from across the sea, she was visiting Maple Town as part of an inclusion program set forth by the Eeveelutions Council. The Eeveelutions served as peacekeepers around all of Lumaria, as well as clerks and records keepers. They were keepers of the planet since even before the joining and its naming to Lumaria, and so they were respected for their culture in how Eevees were encouraged to serve other pokemon for a short amount of their life. A squad made of every Eeveelution was equipped to handle nearly any task or opponent! They were, of course, not the only pokemon that worked service jobs though. She was lvl 19 as well. \n\n\nShe was somewhat new to the group, though she had already told everyone there exactly why she had come to Mable Town. She was also curious and eager, and so had decided to learn in lands completely opposite from her own while she could! In the few months she’d been there, she’d proven in Mystery Dungeon delves that she had quick reflexes and adapted to whatever situation she and the others found themselves in quickly. \n\n\nSome of this might have had to do with Finn though, who was, factually, head student and leader of any expeditions their class got sent on. Like his typing, he maintained a near constant cool composure but it turned into sharp eye’d focus and leadership when the class was in danger. These qualities had quickly led Professor Jack; the Rotom Pokedex, to denote Finn leader during missions the class was sent on. He was level 20 like Blake.\n\n\nProfessor Jack’s database of other pokemon species allowed the group to accurately plan for and counter whatever bandits they came across in dungeons, the wild, or on roads. He was often very upbeat and tried to keep positive outlooks on things. Being their class teacher, he had a much higher level of power and being there with the group was often enough to get many low level bandits and wild pokemon to leave them alone. \n\n\nRook had once asked his teacher how old he really was, being a ghost type, to which the ghost answered, “My Mistress is now a little over 24,000 years old I think…I’m one fifth that age. She’d be…around level 97 or something, in terms of power…” The shock had simply canned Rook’s next thoughts. \n\n\nThere were ghosts THAT OLD!? And level 97!? The professor was barely 45!! Thankfully, the professor provided his confusion clarity, as a ghost type he felt it coming from the living Rockruff. A quick and short lesson about how ghost types gained experience in Lumaria helped him understand that living pokemon leveled up much faster than those of ghost typing. Death was kind of a reset for ghost types. Pokemon lived very long lives, long enough for most to not want to stop their works, and so some continued to stick around. If someone decided to actually move on well…no one really knew what was beyond that, was what Professor Jack stated.\n\n\nThe rest of the actual details about how exactly ghost types gained their experience kind of actually escaped Rook’s understanding…he only remembered and understood that contracts of some kind were involved.\n\n\nAs just a class of young pokemon however, just recently reaching lvl 19 and 20 for Blake by power standards, they were only ever given minor missions for their Town like gathering food or patrolling for bandits. \n\n\nNow though, they were going to take their Rifter’s Tests! \n\n\nIt was an important license to be able to carry, it enabled you to enter a guild of your choice as an Initiate, with or without a team! It also allowed you to enter Rifts on your own or with a team, as long as all members held their own licenses too!\n\n\nOf course, everyone there already agreed on where they wanted to try and go after the test. It was pretty much the same that everyone wanted to do. Attempt to join the Bright Star Guild and, if they fail, look into joining one of the others to try and gain more experience! Failing or passing the Bright Star Guild’s entry test was a toss of fate for most. It was the biggest Rifter Guild, its member’s traveled to exotic locations all around Lumaria where Rifts filled with powerful Wraiths formed, but that meant the best and most valuable Treasures were found in those Rifts too. As such, it was just simply the more wanted goal for any would-be Rifter. \n\n\nThe Rifter’s Test was to complete the Rift of Crossroads. It was a lvl 15 danger level Rift, a suitable test that nearly any group of battle ready pokemon could survive. After the Professor cleared them through his own license as an Instructor, they’d be sent licenses of their own by Pelipper mail!\n\n\nWith their departure, they had to cross through a nearby Mystery Dungeon. The reality warping properties of the Mystery Dungeon would bring them to the location of the Rift, teleporting them 700 miles by only walking for 70 within the stretched spatial land of the Dungeon.\n\n\nThe entrance to this strange stretch of space was visible by how the land suddenly jumbled up about a half mile away from the Dungeon’s entrance...In the middle of these mazes, was what was known as an Anchor, which connected one end of the actual Mystery Dungeon with the other end.\n\n\nAfter reaching the half mile barrier point of the Dungeon’s entrance, they entered the tall grass hedge maze that had formed from the local landscape being twisted up by the Mystery Dungeon. It wasn’t much longer before the team had found the Anchor for their journey forward and took a moment to recoup their supplies and roles before entering the dungeon itself. Within the middle of the maze where the Anchor was, it was somewhat dark due to the hedges, the sound of wind whistling through it with breezes of cool air. As it often was, they were the only ones there. Despite being alone and the emptiness of the maze, it felt normal for the would-be Rifters in training. The group sat down near the lip of the center of the opening the Anchor sat at to begin discussing their formation..\n\n\n“Let’s just run!” Blake tried to push the others when they began to plan, “I wanna clear as much land as we can! The faster we get there the sooner we’re set to be Rifters!”\n\n\nFinn took his lead back however as he would say, “Let’s just go usual for now, this isn’t the test itself yet, and we’re not up against Wraiths. We’ll sleep at the foot of the mountain before we actually go into the Rift; though we’ll need to take turns having someone keep watch for Wraiths that escape it.”\n\n\n“I can take the first watch.” Rook volunteered, lifting up one of his paws, “I’m used to staying up a long time, remember?” Slung around his back was the leaf wrap and leather satchel he had brought from home.\n\n\n“Thinking a little too far ahead?” Elizabeth giggled at both the boys, a backpack hugged around her shoulders and cradled on her back. “Although I’m perfectly okay with Rook taking the first watch just the same~ I’ll take the last, I want my full rest and then that means I’ll be wide awake and ready to go once it’s morning!”\n\n\n“Yeh that’s if a Wraith doesn’t come out and make you squeal.” Blake snarked with a turn of his head. \n\n\n“We’ll handle it just like we do bandits, like that time at the apple trees.” Finn agreed. Unfortunately, it seemed confidence was over infectious. \n\n\nProfessor Jack coughed. “As your instructor I would late advise into your planning that you all relax, we already walked a good twenty miles to get here and by the time we’re halfway through the dungeon-” \n\n\nHis sentence was broken off as the sound of two stomachs snarling loudly interrupted him in the middle of his last word. The snarls lasted a good three seconds, and both Rook and Blake paled, ears both drooping.\n\n\n“You’ll be hungry…” He finished, his digital eyes arched amusedly towards Blake and Rook, who both began blushing brightly. The only two canines in the group shook in embarrassment as everyone else smirked in their direction.\n\n\n“Skipped breakfast guys?” Luna giggled beside Elizabeth. \n\n\n“Bet Rook just slept in again…As for Blake, I bet he barely slept…that’s probably why he wants to hurry.” Finn stated, nodding his head with closed eyes in his calm demeanor again. \n\n\nBlake barked, “S-shut up!” \n\n\nThe others in the group laughed while Blake kept barking and Rook flicked his ears, still blushing deeply but grinning sheepishly. \n\n\nProfessor Jack brought everyone’s focus back to their journey however after their brief laugh. “You’ll have to deal with growly bellies for now I’m afraid, we have a tight schedule to keep. Since this is not yet your test I again want to advise all of you to remember what it is you’re doing and remain focused. It’d be a shame if we get properly ambushed by bandits or wild pokemon looking for easy money and food.” \n\n\n“Why do they even choose to live in Mystery Dungeons…?” Blake growled, glaring at the Anchor then, as he tried to redirect focus off of him and Rook quite purposefully. “They’re not much different from Rifts…if something happened to the Anchor’s on either end, who knows what'll happen to them inside?”\n\n\nProfessor Jack hummed at this, “I would posit the guess that, like those caught in Rifts when they close, that they’d be Lost…” He paused for a moment, as the gravity of that word was well known for everyone there, “However, while Rifts are known to close on a time schedule of their own, Mystery Dungeons have never faded, not since the Protectors of the Stones Guild discovered how to replicate the space bending properties of Anchors found in Rifts and created the Mystery Dungeons. Supposedly, as long as they keep regular upkeep visits on the stones, the Mystery Dungeons will forever be a staple to our world.” \n\n\nThe Rotom continued on, almost predisposed to answering the questions presented to him beyond reasonable amounts; Rook had long suspected the old technology the ghost type had merged with dedicated some of his behavior…however, this did make the Rotom a natural teacher. “As for why they stay in them, well, you should all know that, it’s a lesson we’ve gone over many times in class already.” \n\n\nLuna piqued up, “It’s because within a Mystery Dungeon, time is frozen and sped up at the same time! Time outside continues as normal, but inside a Dungeon, if you pick a berry bush, the berries grow back within a day of time, something that takes weeks outside! It means those that live inside a Dungeon don’t lack food almost all the time!”\n\n\n“There’s much research suggesting that the land the Dungeons allow travel across has been recorded or copied on creation and it resets every day as well; if you pick the fruit of a tree one mile into a Dungeon but also then found it’s identical counterpart ten miles away from here in Lumaria the fruit would still be there! However this is just a theory that is currently going around by Rift Researchers! Everyone in the field agrees that Mystery Dungeons, like Rifts, are separate “Realms” connected to ours!” Professor Jack added, but happily smiled and tilted one of his antennae in a saluting gesture to Luna, “But yes, perfectly explained!” \n\n\n“Hehe, that’s not something I’d have learned at all back home~” Luna grinned with a swish of her tail. “In fact I doubt I’d ever have a chance to enter a Dungeon before finishing my years of cultural service in a city.” \n\n\n“All right, enough questions and fake class!” Blake suddenly barked again. \n\n\n“You were the one who asked the questions…” Elizabeth mumbled pointedly with a side glare to the Poochyena. \n\n\n“We always get too easily distracted…” Finn sighed. \n\n\nRook jumped as he realized what the implications were leading to. “Come on guys, let's focus up! One foot in front of the other, we follow the right wall for every floor, Blake up front, Finn behind him, Elizabeth in the middle and me and Luna in the rear, we tell any bandits that get in our way to back off or earn their takings, and we’ll be at the base of Mt Frostnip before the end of the day!”\n\n\n“So we’re going to fight upfront?” Blake grinned widely, his own tail began swishing at this. \n\n\n“I’m up for that, and Rook’s showing a rare moment of his own hehe, that’s a good formation, we’re on a ‘mission’ in a sense.” Finn agreed, with Elizabeth nodding. The Braixen already reached into her tail to pull out her wand. Her being in the middle and firing off ranged attacks over the other’s heads was a tactic they often took.\n\n\n“All right, everyone gather around the Anchor!” Finn shouted, and the five students and their teacher clustered around half the huge rocky stone that was sitting within the middle of the grassy opening of the maze. The way forward into the Mystery Dungeon was to touch the stone.\n\n\n“Touch on three!” Finn told them. \n\n\n“One.”\n\n\n“Two.”\n\n\n“Three!” \n\n\nAll the pokemon touched the surface at about the same time, with Rook, Blake, and Luna jumping up to place both forepaws upon it, together syncing out from the outer world of Lumaria and syncing into that of the Mystery Dungeon. This was something they’d done before, but Rook always did take a moment to look about himself as it took place…watching the grassy hedges of the maze around them rearrange themselves into a new pathway. \n\n\nRifts randomly regenerated and rearranged themselves when they closed and reopened, but Mystery Dungeons always remained the same. While the land within was twisted and morphed into deep, confusing mazes, they never changed, and several more traveled ones were already mapped out. They’d been here within this specific dungeon before a few times already, for some class lessons as well as the occasional mission to retrieve a stolen good the low level pokemon bandits in this particular maze had stolen from Maple Town. \n\n\nThere was always a kind of falling sensation associated with this. Some with sensitive senses and bodies found this momentary disorientating. \n\n\nThankfully no one in this class had issues with their vertigo! \n\n\nAs the ground settled into place, the group kept their hands held against the stone for a good few seconds more to be sure they were synced fully and then stepped away from the rock.\n\n\nThe Mystery Dungeon itself had the same kind of life and quality as the world they knew, air, wind, and breeze all the same, with the sun shining up high they had perfect visibility. If there were any bandits ahead, they had to keep their ears attentive for noises. Anyone could be around a corner! They were already somewhat familiar with the first parts of the mazes path, and began to follow it through towards the passages leading to the next ‘floors’ of the maze. \n\n\n‘Floors’ were dictated as the mile long stretches of a Mystery Dungeon’s land. One floor was one mile of distance, and if one then “Desynced” they would be gently ejected from the Maze 10 miles towards the location of the Maze’s other Anchor. It was important to keep track of what floor of a dungeon you were in so that you could leave where you intended to!  \n\n\nMystery Dungeons were used as highways by many pokemon traders, travelers, guilds and Rifters both. This, and natural pokemon nature to battle and fight to gain strength, was what caused Bandits to also begin finding lives of their own freedom in attacking those travelers. Being a bandit in of itself was kind of a profession…who’s to keep everyone else strong if no one’s willing to play rough to get things they want and need?\n\n\nAs the path went from familiar to more strange they took to their training, and held the formation they had settled on at the entrance. Follow the right wall and eventually you’d find the passage towards the next floor. Keep your senses sharp for any wild pokemon or bandits inside the maze, and keep to yourself if you can. A pokemon unaware of you never knows you’re there, afterall. \n\n\nBlake, however, was still trying to keep the pace rather quick. Pokemon in this Mystery Dungeon didn’t tend to go over level 12 as they lacked more powerful locals to build experience off from. With the mapping of a dungeon, those that lived in Mystery Dungeons favored living in the corners of floors and away from the passages to avoid others just like them, where they’d build homes of their own or bandits would build big camps for their packs. \n\n\nAgain since they were commonly used as highways of travel, for most the path’s directly through a maze were bare of inhabitants. In fact, some of the inhabitants could actually be friendly and helpful! Unless it was a bandit attack looking to steal from you, trying to overwhelm by numbers or otherwise, you were likely safe. Further, since this particular Mystery Dungeon was used for passing over a good portion of Mt Frostnip, it wasn’t widely used, and so also not widely lived in.\n\n\nSo it was that the group quickly paced fifty floors within the span of six hours uninterrupted the terrain morphing from forestry and grassy to more rocky and mountainous, showing that they were now deep within the mountain ranges that surrounded Mt Frostnip and gave them a sense of their location in relation to Lumaria. This seemed to turn the once grass hedge walls into tall rocky walls instead. \n\n\nThough, by now… \n\n\n“I’m starving! I missed breakfast and now we skipped lunch time!” Rook cried, slouching forward upon the ground as the group stopped to take a moment to recoup after finding the next passage to the fifty first floor. Luna chuckled and watched him with a bemused expression as she could hear his stomach rumble again for an uncounted number of times while they’d been walking close together at the rear of their squad. \n\n\n“I suppose it's perfect timing to take our break.” Elizabeth stretched out, her fur bushing out with the motion as she sighed further “I’m getting a little hungry now myself…” \n\n\n“Yeah. No point burning ourselves out. Everyone take lunch.” Finn told the group. \n\n\nBlake came to sit down close to Rook, “Wanna help each other out like usual?” The canine asked. \n\n\nRook knew exactly what he meant, and the Rockruff nodded and huffed out, “Yeah I got ya.” while pushing himself back up to all fours as Blake turned around. Rook walked up beside the Poochyena and grabbed at the shoulder strap of his backpack with his teeth to pull it down Blake’s foreleg, letting the dark furred canine start to step out from it, shaking the other strap down from his other shoulder once he was free of the first. \n\n\n“Now you rocky.” Blake grinned at Rook, padding around the Rockruff to do the same as he had done for him.\n\n\n“Thanks dark bro.” Rook snickered back at him while he dipped slightly once his first forearm was free of its strap, letting the pack drip over his neck and head for it to fall off with a ‘thump!’ to the rocky mountain ground, taking the bundled up leaf bag he had tied to it with as it rolled off his shoulder too. \n\n\nTogether everyone began to eat their stored lunches. Rook sat between Luna and Blake as casual chatter began with Professor Jack; who as a ghost type, didn’t need to eat, deciding to ask Luna, “By the way Luna, and I apologize if this is perhaps something you’d not like to speak about but I have been curious; what evolution do you think you may choose?” \n\n\nLuna smiled lightly and she flicked an ear, “To be honest, I’m surprised none of you have tried to ask previously. That’s like, one of the number one questions Eevees get asked.” She giggled, folding her paws lightly as she was laying on her belly upon the chilly stone. \n\n\n“I think a Glaceon, the slight chill here feels nice…” Luna said lightly, “Maybe a Jolteon to help the cities, or a Leafeon or Vaporeon to help with food growth, I’ve thought about being an Umbreon to help bring in psychic criminals too…oh really, I do not know. It is a hard choice to actually make.” She looked across them all one at a time, “It’s hard to describe what it feels like, to have to make a choice to become what you want to be out of so many variable possibilities…let alone when that choice may then decide how the rest of your life is handled from that point.” \n\n\n“It’s a rough time for all Eevee, really.” She continued, “Although…” Luna grinned, “There’s always a kind of silly, shared dream we all might have. Every Eevee dreams of being one of the first to find the -next- evolution we haven’t already found.” She giggled.\n\n\n“Ya mean like growing wings to become a dragon or flying type?” Rook asked as he listened. \n\n\n“Exactly. It’d be fun if somehow that happened to myself.” Luna nodded. \n\n\n“Wouldn’t that be more unpredictable?” Finn commented, “I know Eevee culture is all about service and duty, but at least after you give your effort you’re allowed to do what you want right?” \n\n\n“Within…reason…” Luna confirmed slowly, her head dipping, “That’s what you see from the outside, but there’s stipulations on that. You give your time to the organization, protect a city while performing duties for its growth alongside its citizens, and after five years you’re given freedom to begin pursuing your own interests. Even if I pass this Rift Test with you all, I won’t be able to actively act on becoming a Rifter until five years after I finally choose an evolution and use it to help a city. Further, if something should happen nearby that another group of Eeveelutions is investigating or being handling, no matter where or when, I’m obligated to help if I see it and resolve the issue with them before I can return to my own daily life.”\n\n\n“Be an Umbreon.” Blake piqued up between his nomming bites of his berries then. “They’re the coolest.” \n\n\n“Bias.” Finn jipped, to which the canine grumble-growled back at him in mid bite of another berry. \n\n\nLuna giggled happily and swished her tail, “I am glad I came to study here with you all. Talking about those kinds of things with other Eevee always gets tense, but you’re all so open.” \n\n\n“When it comes to you four.” Professor Jack began, “You all have a one track evolution, well…unless we count the different forms Rook is capable of.” \n\n\n“He’ll be a Midnight. He wants hands.” Blake again quipped and Rook chuckled with a look of impishness. \n\n\n“You were supposed to keep that to yourself, fellow canine…” Rook huffed dryly. \n\n\n“Are you four going to attempt joining the Bright Star Guild as a team? What will you do if you might fail?” Luna then asked herself. \n\n\nIt was Elizabeth who actually answered this question, quite readily, but only with “I am not sure…”\n\n\nAt this, Rook looked at the Braixen in shock and Blake also paused his eating to look over at her. In response, the fox fire type folded her arms over her chest as she began. “Do not think I mean bad of you all; but we are all too much childhood friends. Luna aside, our cohesion is because of years of being in the same class together and learning together. We are exactly like almost all other small classes of children who are taught how to make our living using the Rifts, for the last several centuries. The Bright Star Guild has about a 2 to 10 pass rate on their entrance exam, meaning that 8 out of those 10 teams, all made up of Rift Test graduates like ourselves coming from exactly the same schools, completely fail. Being friendly with each other does not determine if we pass or not, otherwise far more teams would succeed in joining.” \n\n\n“I always looked at it like it was only a “best of the best” kind of test.” Rook flung his emotion back in response. “I mean that’s why everyone tries to join it right out the gate right? Gotta have ambition!” He stamped his feet to his point upon the rocky ground in front of himself. “I honestly always thought we’d all join up to try together!”\n\n\n“What do they even do as a test?” Luna tilted her head towards Elizabeth, thinking she more likely had the answer, but then turned her head towards Professor Jack instead. “Professor? Do you know?”  \n\n\n“I do not, I’m afraid.” The Rotom floated lazily in the air, eyes narrowed in thought himself, “The Bright Star Guild has a rich agenda…I’ve heard that they supposedly have some hand in almost every other guild’s activity, but it’s a well known fact that they have direct contact with both the Eeveelutions Headquarters and Keeper’s Vault. If I’d have to hazard a guess, I’d suspect they change their testing requirements up based on the needs they have within the Guild’s roster. That would make the most sense considering the high level Rifts they tend to survey. They are the leading guild for Rift Research of course…” \n\n\n“All I really meant to say was though, that we shouldn’t do this like it’s just another day of class.” Elizabeth huffed, her stance remained stiff and arms folded. “If we wanna be a team, then we need to truly act like one. The Rift Test isn’t against bandits. We might run into Wraiths, and those go in for the kill as soon as they spot you.”\n\n\n“Have any of you ever seen a Wraith?” Luna asked. \n\n\nThe four other students shook their heads negatively, and the Eevee continued, “I have, but I didn’t fight it, I merely was a bystander to one’s sudden eruption from an active Rift when I was younger. My blood family of Eeveelutions took care of it quickly and put it down within just a few dozen seconds, but it fought as if it simply desired nothing but to kill and it didn’t seem to feel pain.” \n\n\n“Whoa…they don’t feel pain?” Rook asked with a tone of consideration. Perhaps Elizabeth did have a point, he realized. Bandits backed off if you bite them hard enough, but a Wraith would just bite back…\n\n\nLuna frowned, “I don’t know really, but it didn’t seem to really have much of an issue trying to keep walking even though it’d had a leg torn off by a lightning bolt at one point…it just kept wriggling forward towards its’ next closest target…”\n\n“There’s a reason a Rift Test is taken with the likes of an instructor like myself present.” Professor Jack stated. “You’re all purposely thrown into a weak Rift in the hopes that you do encounter a Wraith. I am meant to protect you should it prove too much for you, and believe me, I shall, but I’m here to monitor your reactions as a team and as individuals to something that seriously wants you dead.”\n\n\n“Pokemon naturally test each other in order to build strength together.” The Rotom teacher continued, “we battle to the point that our opponents faint and pass out. Once one enters that recovery state, it's the decency of being a pokemon that we simply leave an opponent to recover and wake up on their own, or their fellows drag them home to recover there. Bandits might steal some of your possessions, but they’ll otherwise, at least generally, leave you alive; those that choose to kill anyway are branded by the Keepers and Eeveelutions, and have huge bounties placed on them…Going up against a Wraith though…if you take too much damage and pass out, you're likely going to be killed by its next attack.”\n\n\nThe Professor’s serious tone had everyone feeling a moment of tense realization. Their small town was only one part of their massive world; their teacher always tried to give them all the information he could about any parts of the world he knew about during geometry courses, but what he knew was only what he knew. Actually seeing someplace like the Water City of Alon or the City of Star Seers for themselves was another thing altogether. Rifts existed in places all over as well, and almost all of them had groups of Rifter teams that camped out at their entrances, destroying Wraiths that escaped from them constantly. They kept those monsters from terrorizing and destroying the peace and communities that other pokemon enjoyed.\n\n\nSuddenly, it was Blake that broke that tension as he shot up to his feet. “I know if I fail the Bright Star Guild’s test I’m going straight to Au’rat! I’ll join a gladiator bracket there and build my strength in the tournaments and fights! I’m sure once I’m a Mighteyna and have a higher level I can make any tests they have cake!” \n\n\n“Your overconfidence is both a blessing and a curse Blake…” Elizabeth sighed.\n\n\nHowever, as Blake snarled back at Elizabeth something about her booksmarts being a crutch to her own adaptability, Rook looked down at the ground he laid on as he thought as well. What would he do if he failed the test? \n\n\n‘I’ve…not really thought about it…’ he thought in realization to himself, ‘Failing just really…never came to mind. Suppose I always just kind of expected to pass…’ \n\n\nHe then looked back and forth between all his classmates as Blake kept barking towards the now giggling Braxien; as she took his attempts at egging her on in stride. Luna giggled next to her, but with a slightly more nervous expression as Blake continued to get more intense, while Finn just quietly continued to eat his berries beside her, his eyes closed in that calm manner he always seemed to have. \n\n\n‘I also always kind of thought all of you would be there with me too…’ Maybe that’s what always made him think failing was an impossibility. In the years since today, he’d grown to rely on them in fights; their tactics had grown around each other’s abilities and timing. \n\n\nA key trait to being a Rifter was being able to coordinate with others, no matter how much time you’d been around them. You needed teamwork, even with other teams, in order to overcome high level Wraiths. However, Once the Wraith was destroyed, Rifter Teams also then battled against each other for Treasures within Rifts. It was a dance of cooperation and competition known to shake some Rifters into quitting very early into their careers and settling for service jobs in local cities or as fighters in arenas or even as schoolers; as rivals or more experienced teams would take everything before they could claim rewards within the Rifts.  \n\n\nIt was difficult to find companions in a profession where others would fight alongside you, and then attack from your blindside right after for the rights to Treasures.\n\n\nThat was something Rook knew that so far, they all lacked. While they had a semblance of teamwork and coordination, they didn’t have any combination moves or tactics that revolved around combining special skills and moves, they also didn’t have any direct competition. Once, Rook had heard tell from newspapers of a team of four Rifters from Au’rat who took down a massive Wraith that had escaped from one such high level Rift in the Spines a few years ago. Beforehand, that same Wraith had taken out nearly seven other teams of notable power level, all from the Bright Star Guild, three of which had tried to fight it at the same time together. It had killed nearly 25 pokemon in total. Death was a constant threat as a Rifter, but that this one Wraith took down so many higher ranking teams had come as a shock to many.\n\n\nThat a single, well coordinated team of fighters from Au’rat managed to take down what even teams from the Bright Star Guild had had trouble with had been a sign that even those outside of guilds and not Rifters could take down a Wraith.\n\n\nWhen Rook thought about it though…he doubted he and his classmates could reach that kind of coordinated power…\n\n\n‘I’ve just ignored that because I just…’ Rook looked at his friends bickering, but with the smile he could see on Blake’s muzzle, he knew this arguing was done only in jest and stubbornness, as the other three continued to poke holes in his words. He continued to claim that he’d get so strong that in the end, his Bite attack could shatter a Rhydon and they’d all wish they could’ve stayed on a team with him.  \n\n\n‘I just can’t think of failure around them. We’ve always succeeded when it counted so far, but maybe I’m just being too optimistic myself…to think we’d just stay as a team for years to come. There’s thousands of other Rifters we all could coordinate better with.’ \n\n\nProfessor Jack caught Rook’s eyes, and the Rotom gave the Rockruff a knowing nod and a smile. The Professor didn’t need to remind Rook, that as a ghost, he could somewhat sense his feelings, and instead tried to give him an encouraging smile.\n\n\nRook giggled a little and he let out a huff and closed his eyes while grinning. He understood, what could he possibly do about all that right now?\n\n\n‘That’s right…’ He told to himself, ‘Exactly as Mom told me… “That is Then, This is Now, And the Past is the Result.” And for my Now, I’m confident we’ll all be Rifters by tomorrow!’\n\n\n_______________\n\n\nWith the finishing of their lunch, everyone continued the journey through the remaining floors of the Mystery Dungeon, and after a few more hours, were finally at the 70th floor, which was their point of desired exit. \n\n\n“All right everyone, you know how to leave!” Professor Jack hummed just as they passed onto the 70th floor. They placed one hand upon the wall of the maze next to them, with the canines jumping up onto their hindlegs to do so again, and then lifted the other up into the sky, which was now colored orange with the color of dusk before at the same time yelling out. \n\n\n“Desync!” \n\n\nThat falling sensation fluttered through everyone’s bodies again as just like where they had touched the anchor stone, the reality around them shifted and turned, with the once walls, ground and the very sky of the dungeon rearranging itself into the same kind of rocky, mountainous environment, but now the normal, open space of Lumaria instead of a maze. The very wall they had their paws on was the last to change, as it simply fell away from them to fall into place beside them; a rocky wall joining the rocky ground already at their feet. \n\n\nThey now found themselves in an open field, though still rather rocky, stony colored and plain, it did have one immediate and potent point of interest. Before them was the base of Mt Frostnip, or at least, the most important point at its entire base. The mountain stretched out for several yards in either direction, the entire mountain’s base was about two hundred and fifty miles long, the climb up the mountain to its peak was nearly the same with different elevations along itself! They were now already at quite an elevation; about one hundred miles above sea level, but given Lumaria’s atmosphere,(and the Legendaries that helped keep it so), air would not become much of a worry until at that peak. \n\nMt Frostnip was the tallest mountain of Lumaria. As Elizabeth had answered earlier that day, it was once the singular mountain of a continent that, five thousand years ago, had been known as Penta River. In the event of the joining, neighboring lands were pulled towards and joined upon the old continent. Just a few days after it, the Rifts had begun to open, with the Rift of Crossroads being the first known of its kind.\n\n\nThus, the spot the Rift had been born was what was considered Mt Frostnip’s base, close to where the pathways one might begin to take on an attempted journey up it could start. \n\n\nThe Rift itself sat close to the middle of an open, wide valley between Mt Frostnip and it’s neighboring mountains just about a mile and a half away from where the Mystery Dungeon ejected them. A dark ‘rip’ within the very air itself, the space and air around this rip rippled and quivered constantly. About fifty feet long and only five feet wide, these tears in space and time had begun to appear throughout the weeks just after the joining. \n\n\nA Rift was like a Mystery Dungeon in looks and function, but was more…empty and dangerous by nature. \n\n\nUnlike the Anchor Stones of Mystery Dungeons which were placed at either, connected ends, a Rift’s Anchor Stone sat inside a Rift in the very center of the Rift’s area of space, considered the very center of its Maze. \n\n\nThe entrance to a Rift began at the very edges of the Maze within, the walls seemingly spread out from the tear in space into the realm of the maze beyond it. Following the path usually by the same right wall guiding strategy, one would eventually come to the middle of a Rift where its Anchor Stone sat, from there, one could explore other passages to other corners of the Maze. \n\n\nThe inside of Rifts varied in size, the higher of level the Wraiths within, the bigger the Maze inside as well. The Rift of Crossroads, being labeled level 15 in difficulty, was approximately 250 miles in radius. So, from the edge at which the Rift opened into the Maze, it was at least a 125 mile search for the middle and the Anchor Stone there. The Anchor Stone could then send you back outside the Rift. It was possible to camp inside Rifts, provided one had supplies for doing so. Rifts lacked any activity of life, the air inside was still and stagnant and although the land mimicked that of the area of land just around the Rift, no other features existed.\n\n\nOnce a month for most Rifts and once a year for some others, the Anchor Stones would glow and then the Maze of the Rift would suck in upon itself, with the Anchor Stone seeming to act as a focal point and the tear in space would then suddenly close. About an hour after, the Rift would reopen, and the layout of the Maze within would be completely new and random. This was difficult to research and witness, so there was speculation on what exactly may be happening during this time by Rift Researchers as well, it was one of the last greatest mysteries of the world. \n\n\nThis was because it was dangerous to be inside a Rift when it was close to its resealing time. If you were inside when the Rift sealed shut, you became what was known as “Lost”. No one knew what this meant really, only that anyone caught within a Rift once it closed was just never seen from again, their bodies never found. Truly, it was a term used in the occupation to mean someone had died being caught in one as it closed.\n\n\nWhen a Rift reopened, many Wraiths also spawned within the Rift, sometimes with a few so close to the entrance that they would escape it and into the world of Lumaria soon after. From Rifts as low level as this one, these Wraiths were usually destroyed very shortly by even bandits or other wild pokemon, while those from higher level Rifts would be taken down by large groups of Rifters who waited for when Rifts closed and reopened. Periodically throughout its life, more Wraiths formed within Rifts, but only some would even manage to find the exit within the time it existed, given the sheer size of the Maze. \n\n\nTreasures were the real goal for Rifters. Oftentimes they were mystical items with enchantments that granted wielders of them special properties and abilities. Some were only one time use and temporary, while very rarely one found permanent accessories that granted a special bonus to one's stats or access to moves and skills they otherwise would not be able to know or use. Small food items were also sometimes found, and while delicious and somewhat valuable as luxury food, these were only common Treasures in comparison to the magical items. Somehow, when Rifts sealed and reopened, random Treasures formed within the passageways, simply laying in the middle of the twisting corridors! The higher the level of the Rift, the more likely a powerful Treasure would be found inside.     \n\n\nNew Treasures were discovered consistently, with some new kind of object or strange device being found by the month, and Rifters made most of their livings in trading and selling these items to other pokemon no matter their occupation. Most merely sold them to shops and left the matter of finding a buyer to the owner of a business though. When one found something that was entirely new to the market though, that needed to go to someplace rather special for appraisal and finding out what it offered and did.\n\n\n“Think we’ll find any Treasure in our Rift Test?” Luna asked everyone else as she stared upon the tear in space a few minutes after they had reached it. Finn and Elizabeth began to set up their camp with Professor Jack helping. Being the other pokemon in the group with functioning hands and psychic power, they were simply able to make quicker work of setting up everyone’s tents. \n\n\n“I doubt it.” Finn said while he drove a stake into the rocky ground firmly with his foot, using a small splash of water from his palm in order to loosen up the dirt and gravel a little beforehand. \n\n\n“Yeah. This Rift seals and reopens once a year, and that was about three months ago. By now some other Rifters have surely picked it clean.” Blake huffed beside Rook as they waited nearby the edge of the forming campsite. \n\n\n“Or other students doing their own tests.” Professor Jack added right after. “As the first ever Rift and one of the lowest leveled ones, the Rift of Crossroads is used widely as proving grounds for would-be Rifters like yourselves! It wouldn’t be a surprise if another group just like you suddenly arrived traveling from Au’rat or Kintect or heck, even Lumen or Salvis!” The Professor listed off nearby cities.  \n\n\n“Is there any significant connection between why this Rift is here professor? Why is it called the Rift of Crossroads? This is the site of the joining, correct?” Elizabeth paused in her own work as she also turned to face the Rift like Luna was, staring into the deep darkness of the tear. This was all of their first times actually being near a Rift, and although one would hear constantly about them, seeing how the rip in space time simply stood out from everything around it was jarring, in a way. It was hard to believe you could step into it and be fine, if not for the just visible and dimly lit walls of the Maze they could see beyond it.\n\n\n“There’s actually some historical importance to the location of every Rift!” Professor Jack answered, “However, the importances of most do not seem directly linked, and theories about what connects the locations are…well, just theoretical at most. There’s no proof of it all. The last time I studied those was not so many years ago in Kintect, and I doubt much more has been found out about their history sense.” \n\n\n“A few theories posit that every location a Rift exists was once a location in which the Bright Star, when he existed five thousand years ago, exercised his power. I’m afraid I don’t have an answer as to why it’s named the Rift of Crossroads; naming conventions didn’t seem to follow any kind of sense of clarity or purpose when they had first named them. That this location is where the joining was conducted supports that notion, but there are several places where Rifts exist, such as right outside of Au’rat, where its well known the Bright Star never once visited and used his power before it came to be. Some will say it’s where some manner of event of great importance happened, but that’s again not supported by where you’ll find many other Rifts just out in the middle of nowhere. There’s another Rift actually closer to Maple Town known as the Rift of Origins, even though it is not the first Rift! It however is deep within the earth inside a cave, and is slightly higher level! Your parents should know of that one Elizabeth; as the Mayor of Maple Town, monitoring that Rift and the caves leading to it for a sign of Wraiths is part of his duties.” \n\n\n“Have we even found all the Rifts Professor?” Rook tilted his head. \n\n\nProfessor Jack shook his head, “No, we haven’t. Guilds and Cities and Rifters are aware of over 70 Rifts in total, but it's clear there are others still yet to be found, because Wraiths are eventually always sighted out in the wilderness. Teams are sent to destroy them before other pokemon, wild or otherwise, become victims to them, and then the areas they’re found at are searched thoroughly for Rifts, but almost always by the time a Wraith is found and seen, it’s miles and miles away from wherever the Rift it escaped from is or, as has happened in the past, a completely different Rift than the one it originally came from is found! As Rifters, you’re not just an adventurer, you’re the first line of defense against Wraiths. If you’re not actively participating in clearing out Rifts when they seal and reopen, you’re actively looking for new ones in regions not as thoroughly lived in or explored or hunting down rogue Wraiths.”\n\n\n“So it’s a constant struggle of monitoring and staying ahead of the reopenings…” Luna said almost sadly. “That’s why many Guilds split the effort and monitor Rifts near them on their own, keeping track of their reseal dates and periodically watching for escaping Wraiths.”\n\n\n“Rifters gather by the troves at Rifts about to seal and reopen, both to slay the larger number of Wraiths that are born with its opening and claim the Treasures that form within first. They like to call these large gatherings Festivals. Many will pay respects to the memories of those who became Lost or killed by Wraiths in the past too.” Rook continued, recounting the teachings Professor Jack had given them in the past himself. \n\n\nLuna nodded, “That sounds like a wonderful time…again not something I’d likely ever be taught in school with other Eevee…it’s now I understand that while my species handles our own unique roles in this society, that everyone else is exposed to the danger of this profession. My duties as any Eeveelution would be relatively safe by comparison.” \n\n\n“Yeah but being a Rifter is what almost -anyone- wants to do. It’s been what any pokemon looks forward to attempting ever since the first Guilds were established.” Finn dusted off his hands as he finished setting up Rook’s and Blake’s shared tent. “These days a pokemon only stops being a Rifter when they feel like they’ve done enough to earn a peaceful retirement, or their species is just not cut out for it and better suited to life in the bigger cities.” \n\n\nRook just then realized something about Professor Jack that he never had before, “Hey…Professor, you’re just over 5000 years old right? Were -you- there when the Bright Star was around?” \n\n\nThe other members of the class all turned their heads towards the ghost type, who suddenly paused at the question before he chuckled. “I’m afraid I can’t answer that Rook. I’m sworn by oath to my Mistress in secrecy to the specifics of those details…”\n\n\nThe following silence of the student’s disappointment didn’t last very long as the Professor chuckled soon after, “But I can tell you, although I died shortly after for different reasons…the Bright Star did save my life...quite a few times really.”  \n“Whoa…” Blake mumbled, then whispered further to Rook, “I bet ghost types hold the secrets to the beginnings of time itself.” \n\n\n“Yeah, he told me his Mistress is like, 26,000 years old or something before.” Rook answered back in a whisper of his own, to which Blake just kind of gawked in surprise while Luna was speaking to Professor Jack.\n\n\n“Really Professor?” Luna had asked in her own sense of wonder as Rook and Blake had their own conversation. “What did he save you from?” \n\n\n“I’m afraid that would be going into the details I’m sworn to secrecy of Luna.” The Rotom chuckled lightly, “If I break my oath I’d burst into flames and my spirit would melt!” \n\n\n“What -could- you tell us Professor?” Elizabeth tried to press, while she sat down close to the opening of her and Luna’s own shared tent. \n\n\n“That it had to do with the world of humans.” Professor Jack said with a matter of fact tone. “And about this world and its struggle before the joining. While the Bright Star had been a key player in that time, he had not been the only pokemon involved. It had been a series of events within both this world and the human world ours was once connected to.”\n\n\nRook frowned. Humans…\n\n\n“Those are all details you’ll likely never become familiar with.” Professor Jack continued, “Unless you search out that information on your own. Everything since before the joining has become ancient knowledge, only knowable as writing in books. Aside from leaders of the Eeveelutions where that knowledge is passed down as stewards of the world for thousands of years prior to the joining, and leaders of the Keepers Guild, and yes, very old ghost types, those details are vastly unknown to the general populace. You’ll only likely read about it, and that’s if you get access to the libraries those guilds keep such records in. Out of all you, Luna is more likely to learn those details.” \n\n\nProfessor Jack smiled lightly at the assembled students, the Rotom floating down closer to the ground as he waved his antenna slightly at them. “Let me tell you a quick story, and then all of you may get to sleep. Besides Rook of course, he agreed to take the first watch.” \n__________________ \n\n\nThe Base of Mt Frostnip, at the Rift of Crossroads. \n1 Day and 22 hours after the Guardians battled and drove Nothing into hiding. \n\n\nRook sat looking up at the stars overhead in the night sky. This was something he did often in the middle of the night even at home, simply looking out at them from his bedroom window. It was one of the main reasons why he was used to staying up late into the night. He had never needed much sleep to function, and instead he tended to get his sleep late into the night, or in the daytime through quick naps. It was another reason why he had once told Blake, and his mother, that he wanted to become a Midnight Lycanroc. Asides having hands.\n\n\nHe rather enjoyed the nighttime. The calmer air felt somehow cleaner, and for some reason the thought that everyone else near him was asleep, even back in Maple Town, made him feel like he was the one that got to experience it solely for himself. He would feel both alone and surrounded at the same time, looking up at the glowing stars that shone in the sky from so far away.      \n\n\nThe Legend of the Bright Star was one Rook was deeply familiar with because of its namesake with stars in general, along with some details of the events from five thousand years ago, but only those most other pokemon would be familiar with as part of schooling too, like the formation of the Eeveelution’s Elemental Alliance and the Keepers. He had hoped he could’ve prodded the Professor about some of those details when he realized the Rotom might’ve been around and alive, but he should’ve figured the now ghost type would be bound to secrecy about it. \n\n\nHumans attempting to invade their own world…all the details about that time were foggy, but that’s about the general level that all knowledgeable pokemon knew. It was humans attempting to invade their world, and the Bright Star stopped them. The Human world was destroyed, and their world would have shortly been destroyed with it, if the Bright Star had not then also performed the joining. \n\n\nThat was what Professor Jack had also already taught them in school lessons. \n\n\nThe Bright Star was a powerful pokemon whose trusted human had betrayed them; hurt them in such a painful way that their very soul was forced to loop in upon itself for them to survive, he became a being whose power rivaled even the strongest Legendaries. The Bright Star eventually escaped their clutches, but shortly after its escape the humans responsible used what they had learned in their twisted experiments to begin draining the life energy out of other pokemon, and used it as fuel for advanced technologies. The following explosion in their technological advancements defied conventional progress, and of course, eventually, the source of that new power was exposed. \n\n\nIt was said that Arceus himself had gone into a rage; the very betrayal of the kinship between pokemon and human had left pokemon kind with little choice but to defend themselves, as humans had grown greedy with the knowledge that their pokemon’s life energy was so powerful. \n\nTheir world was created in that moment by Arceus, some 27,000 odd years ago. Gates between it and the world of humans were opened, and millions of pokemon retreated through them before they closed behind them. The Legendaries soon abandoned the world of humans shortly after at Arceus’ command. The god of pokemon created a barrier between the world of humans and the world of pokemon, and gifted several mirrors that represented this barrier to each Eeveelution family. The Eeveelutions would go on to protect the mirror for the next 22,000 years until the Bright Star reappeared and the joining occurred shortly after.\n\n\nThe Bright Star became engulfed in the resulting war between humans and pokemon, a war that only had a few known battles over the course of thousands of years and across several realms of reality. In the legends, it was told that even when slain in battle, the Bright Star rose from death to fight again, and again, and again. It eventually fought and killed its former human trainer, who had injected and corrupted themselves with the life energy of other pokemon to gain unnatural power of their own. They destroyed the Mirrors to open the barrier between their world and the human world, and then they and the Bright Star had engaged in a battle that lasted for a full three days and three nights. Upon their death, the Bright Star performed the joining, and by connecting their realm to that of several others, he subverted the destruction of their world as the human one perished, consumed by a deadly kind of poison, born from the lack of pokemon in their world to control its natural forces. Nature itself had turned against mankind. \n\n\nIn the resulting weeks as the Rifts had appeared, the Eeveelutions who had lost their purpose when the Mirrors were destroyed reformed into the Eeveelutions Elemental Alliance, now just commonly called The Eeveelutions Guild, and other pokemon created The Keepers Guild.\n\n\nThis was, however, what was told and taught in school. Rook sensed from Professor Jack's oath to secrecy on it, that details the general public didn’t get to know were there too. \n\n\nWhat did the Bright Star actually do to perform the joining? What had they felt killing their former human companion? Was it vengeance for their own suffering? Did they hate that it had come to what it had? It was, actually, rather difficult to say what was true and fantasy when it came to the Bright Star and the joining. \n\n\nLike Professor Jack had said, the exact details, if written at all, were locked up tight. \n\n\nRook internally sighed as he watched the stars above him twinkle, ‘Not like I’d need to know those things anyway right?’ \n\n\nA shooting star sped across a stretch of the night sky in response and Rook giggled. It was strange how that almost seemed like some kind of answer to his thought. \n\n\n‘Nah hehe…happened why in the past right? Waaaaaaay beyond my time. No need to know.’ He thought further, before that statement and line of thought was cut by hearing Blake suddenly snort in their sleep behind them. \n\n\nThe Rockruff looked back over his shoulder a moment to see the Poochyena sprawled out across not only his own bed but Rook’s as well, making Rook stutter a little in exasperation as he saw how his own nest of bed leaves had been pushed and scattered by Blake’s feet. \n\n\n“Geeze you always sleep so chaotically Blake…sometimes wish I’d gotten Finn as my bunkmate or Professor Jack instead.” he sighed, knowing that more likely it was because the both of them were canine variety pokemon that they’d been matched up together for sleep arrangements like these. Elizabeth and Luna were together because they were both girls, and that had left Finn to be matched with the Professor in their own tent. \n\n\nThe sudden “ZZZCRPOP” that sounded made him jump and his head spun about as he tried to locate the source of it, but it honestly sounded like it had come from all around him! He’d never heard anything like that before, it sounded like some kind of Electric type move he’d also never seen! \n\n\nIt was just as Rook looked towards the Rift again that the sound happened to repeat, this time slightly different, “CRRRPOP” and the tear in space wobbled, its shape shifting. \n\n\n“Wait…” Rook felt his heart skip a beat. Was this a Wraith coming into being?! \n\n\n“H-hey! Everyone, wake up! Somethings happening!” Rook barked loudly, and even as he’d hear everyone rustle and jolt awake around him, with Blake scrambling even more so, the noise repeated from all around him, this time continuing. “ZZZPOPPOPCRRRRPOP” The Rift continued to shimmer and wobble and shake.\n\n\nIt was Finn and Professor Jack who first exited their own tent, with the Froakie rubbing their eyes and tiredly yawning, “Rook? What are you yelling about? What’s that sound coming-”\n\n\n“Everyone!” Professor Jack noticed the same thing Rook was then, the ghost already wide awake as sleep was more just a commodity then a necessity as a ghost. “Behind me!” Finn’s eyes opened in shock as he noticed the Rift’s strange behavior himself while the professor waved him behind his body.\n\n\n“Is that a Wraith professor!?” Rook shouted, as the Rift popped and made the fizzling noise again. \n\n\n“I-I don’t know! Rifts aren’t supposed to make that kind of noise when Wraith’s escape from them!” The Rotom shouted, floating in front of both Rook and Black while Elizabeth and Luna were just then moving quickly out of their own tent and across the camp to get behind where the Rotom had now gathered them. Rook huddled close to Blake beside him as the Rift made another long, crackling noise with several more pops before suddenly, a string of the Rift itself appeared to detach itself from the very tear in space. \n\n\nLike a quick lightning bolt, it struck the ground close by and with more pops and cracks, it began to form a body. \n\n\nRook was convinced that this was a Wraith coming into being, but as the body formed his eyes went wide. Wraiths were supposed to be smoky in appearance, their bodies light ash in color and resembling strange, other worldly creatures of varying shapes and sizes. The higher a Rift’s level, the bigger and therefore more intense and unnatural looking the Wraith was. They had bright green eyes and they would make loud screeching noises of varying tones constantly.\n\n\nThis one however, was pure black, its body like a cutout of the world around itself…and it took the shape of a Midnight Lycanroc.\n\n\n“Hello…I came here early to wait…I didn’t expect you to already be here…” A dark, cold voice whispered over the wind at them. \n\n\nRook froze. For some reason…this voice…it shook him to his very core. His teammates shivered beside him, but himself, he couldn’t even shake. His eyes locked onto the head of the new being before them as the dark stream of energy from the Rift finished building it to the tips of its mane and ears. \n\n\nIt could talk…and without a head…\n\n\nThis was not a Wraith. \n\n\n“No…wait…” The voice continued on then, as the body turned towards them. “You…are not them…you are not the ones I fought before…there are more of you…and you’re far weaker…” \n\n\n“Who are you?!” Professor Jack yelled in question.\n\n\nThere was only a few seconds of silence, “Your energy…Your voice, I…I know you…I…grrrrrrrrr…” The darkness’s hands and paws came to its head to cradle it as it shook, “You…ggggaarrrrrreeeee…Jaaaaaaaaack…” \n\n\nThe Rotom Pokedex’s eyes widened as the dark being in front of them held its head as it shimmered in place, its body flickered and its limbs flailed in wild directions before snapping back into place with paws holding its face, occasionally that head itself snapped backwards in sharp angles.  \n\n\n“Jaaaaaaaack…gggggggrrrrrr Jaaaaaaack…JACK!!!” \n\n\n“P-professor?” Elizabeth stammered from behind the Rotom as the creature’s body continued to distort wildly. \n\n\n“JACK!!! JACK!!! JACK!!! JACK!!! JACK!!! JACK!!!” The creature shouted repeatedly, it’s voice turning more and more manic and loud with each reiteration. \n\n\n“HAHAHAHAHA!!! JACK!!! DON’T RECOGNIZE ME ANY MORE!!?? IT’S ME!! THE ONE THAT -KILLED- YOU!!!” \n\n\nProfessor Jack’s eyes widened further, the electronic display of the Rotom possessed pokedex flickered several times. \n\n\n“HAHAHAHA!!! TURNED INTO A GHOST!!! SERVES YOU RIGHT FOR THE TORTURE YOU PUT ME THROUGH!!! FOR THIS POINTLESS JOURNEY!!! NOW YOU GET TO SEE THE END TOO!!! ONLY FITTING!!!”\n\n\n“Professor…?” Luna shivered from behind as well next to Elizabeth. Even Finn was now shaking. They could all feel it, the level of power this being had. It was far beyond theirs.\n\n\nRook however, remained still as a rock, his eyes simply fixed upon the things body as it shook and quivered in apparent delight to what it had found. \n\n\n“C-children…My S-students” Professor Jack stammered, the electronic display of his face flickered again as his arms came up and forward. “I have an idea of what this thing is…and that it is here…confuses me greatly…but I promise.” He stated, as his two antennae glowed and morphed. \n\n\n“Custom Move: Pokedex Manifest No. 681!” He shouted.\n\n\nProfessor Jack’s left arm ballooned and grew into a large round metal shield, while his other antenna grew long and narrow into that of a sword.\n\n\n“I will protect you all from this thing with my very being!” He cried. \n\n\nIn front of them, the being cackled, leaning back. Its arms released its head as its deep and cold toned voice laughed with unrestrained glee.\n\n\n“YES!!! LET’S DO IT AGAIN!!! LET ME KILL YOU AGAIN!!!” It cackled, stomping a foot down upon the ground in front of itself while its upper body snapped back up into position. Reaching up, its paw reached into the space just behind its head, and as it pulled it back up, a long sword-like object of its own was grasped in its paw, although still just as empty and blank as the rest of its body.\n\n\n“I DON’T EVEN CARE HOW YOU’RE BACK!!! I’LL KILL YOU AGAIN!!! AND THEN MAKE SURE NO SOUL IS LEFT BEHIND!!! ONLY NOTHING!!!” \n\n\nIt laughed again, brandishing its weapon in a strange stance, off balance and with wild swings as it began to charge at them. “ONLY NOTHING WILL REMAIN!!!”",
  "writing_bbcode_parsed": "<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>I would first present for you, a legend. <br /><br />&ldquo;The Legend of The Bright Star<br /><br /><br />Before Existence, There was a Bright Spark of Light. It named itself, &ldquo;The Bright Star&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />Alone, It discovered how to Create, and through its Creations, began to Crave all Experience.<br /><br /><br />It Sought Challenge after Challenge, Obstacle after Obstacle, Test after Test, and Defeated and Beat them all. It Grew Strong and Powerful, however, it began to lose track of its own Creations.<br /><br /><br />It Eventually came to Stand Before a God of Existence, a Being The Bright Star knew it had not Created. The God Congratulated it on its Effort and Power, but Advised it to Stop its Wild Charge before it Found Itself before Something that would Destroy it Forever.<br /><br /><br />The Bright Star, in its own Hubris, Challenged the God to Combat. The Stakes - if it Won, the God would Create for it a World where Challenges were Never Ending. If it lost, the Star would be Flung to the Void, to Never be Seen Again.<br /><br /><br />Did it win?<br /><br /><br />Some say Yes, others say No.<br /><br /><br />However, one thing Everyone Knows. The Bright Star Always Shines In the Night. No Matter how Lost, No Matter how Far Flung Out you find Yourself, If you Need Help, Call Out to it.<br /><br /><br />Help will Come. Somehow.<br /><br /><br />It is up to You to Grasp it, to Hang on Tight and let it Guide you. Or to let Yourself Fall to Darkness.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />Legends are made. Is as they say. Yet&hellip;if it&rsquo;s just simply unknown until realized, and Legends are also beyond reason, is not a Legend capable of being beyond conscious realization until such realization occurs? The stories that all mankind makes, and makes up, by purpose or inspiration, only being added to a melting pot that is creating&hellip;something&hellip;<br /><br /><br />The Legend of the Bright Star, its full tale, tells a story that revolves precisely around this concept. It is a story about existence beyond existence, not just for one, but for all, it is a legend that flies in the face of both the natural and supernatural, science and religion, right and wrong, love and lust. An idea that had ideas of its own. <br /><br /><br />Such a tale is, by the rules of time and knowledge itself, ineffable. It is impossible to comprehend. It can be anything. It could not possibly, at all, exist. <br /><br /><br />Yet exist it does. <br /><br /><br />It is always with you. <br /><br />It is reality.<br /><br /><br />&hellip;or at least, that is what I&rsquo;d like to say. It has, at least now by being written and having you read about it, become part of it, and in the loosest sense of the word, that means it &ldquo;exists&rdquo;. <br /><br /><br />For the sake of this legend, this story and writing, to me the only answer that will make sense&hellip;is to allow reality its own existence. <br /><br /><br />If words are what allow us to make sense of our reality, then I propose the following; &ldquo;Everything is worthy of Existence, but Everything is not worthy of Tolerance.&rdquo; In a coded, worded understanding of reality, similar to programming, no matter the language, words give anyone of &lsquo;human&rsquo; intelligence understanding. So I try to word this following concept as openly as I can. <br /><br /><br />As humans, throughout our many years of development, we have all done many different things in our time. A moment in history can likely be pointed to for almost any example of well, almost anything. The Cruel and Evil and Wonderful and Good all. We logical beings don&rsquo;t tolerate certain actions, certain actions and those that commit them that threaten our lives are punished as they should be. As logical as this is, many gods may also be pointed to that will tell, or have told in writing, their mortal subjects the same things. Self defense is not a bad thing, invention is the tool to progress, things like that. That we have devoted these lessons to the book and word is sensible, if not fated. It has allowed us to learn from the previous lives of those before us.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />If Everything is not worthy of Tolerance, but still worthy of existence, then it becomes omniscient, it exists with you at all times as well as with everyone else. It is &ldquo;Everything&rdquo; so it is therefore also &ldquo;Everywhere.&rdquo; You are not capable of tolerating everything, so you cannot fully perceive its presence, and so even though you are surrounded by things, objects, and items, you passively ignore the things you have become used to being constantly around. However, if one can understand this line of thinking, and commit themselves to it, one might begin to see the ways their surroundings seem to try talking to them, rather than at them. A word here or there, the sudden comment of a stranger that may coincide with how you are thinking at the moment without you needing to say anything about it. Deja Vu. Karma. <br /><br />At the same time, those other people are receiving signs and information from it that they interpret and process at their own level. Perhaps they are good at reading other people&rsquo;s expressions so that they could tell what you might be thinking, or perhaps they were just having their own thoughts and they tend to think out loud. Who would know?<br /><br /><br />The five senses are how all living things receive and process information, but the information we receive is mostly out of our control; or controlled by the decisions made by those we are not even aware of and they of us. Some of us may even have different reactions to some of them, like how some receive pleasure from pain. Such information can seem like it is random, generated in the moment of the second, its brief conception of coming to be; choices made to lead to yet choices more; to ultimately bring even the simplest of moments to you - such as a certain song being played in the radio above your head just as you were thinking of something relatable to that song. Is it truly just coincidence that whoever is in control of the song list chose that song for that specific time slot? Or even that if placed at random it happened to pick that song? <br /><br /><br />Is this God being with us? Is it the Devil lying to lull us into a false fantasy?&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />The kinds of things I would type would question all of religion and science as we know it, at least in a theoretical, conceptualized, and cognitive way. This kind of thinking would mean that if such a being exists, it knows you in and out, It knows everything about your world down to the tiniest particles, it knows everything about you because by the very same reasonings-<br /><br /><br />It is you, it is everyone else, it is everything. All at once and not all at the same time. Everyone is capable of perceiving it in their own unique way, and as such, they name it names of their own. For some, it only is present at home, where family is. For others, it is at play or in nature or in general public places of entertainment. For others still it&rsquo;s in work settings, where seeing progress is what gives them drive to push onward. You see a little bit of what reality has for you just as everyone else does, yet you are existing at the same time. You may die, but to experience life is to experience death, one cannot be given without the other. You are here to learn something.<br /><br />For me, it is the value of effort, of life, and of time. It is the feelings of joy, love, excitement, and anticipation. Of sorrow, anger, despair, and loneliness. It is the companionship of others as we search for answers to our biggest questions&hellip;An endless hunger to know. Can you imagine a being like Existence itself, given the concept&hellip;of endless hunger? It&rsquo;s body, unlimited in energy, unable to factually die, but forced to feel and be consumed by the feeling of an ever increasing hunger? <br /><br /><br />It would&hellip;eat&hellip;everything else. Until only it was left. <br /><br /><br />That is a curse to unlimited power. It cannot exist, and yet it does. In return, every existing thing is inflicted with the curse of hunger. That was its revenge move, before being torn from its power, and thrown to the void, gone but never forgotten&hellip;a curse that stopped those that stole it from using its unlimited power to its full extent, by factualling limiting what life was capable of through its energy by imposing a concept that would constantly, constantly, constantly desire and consume it. Life, in turn, has made us humans capable of even possibly -imaging- this kind of chaos and power.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />And at the same time, you get to live, and it does not. It is its own separate entity, while you are also your own and at the same time, you are it, and it is you. Everything is worthy of Existence, but Existence is not worthy of Tolerance. Existence is worthy of everything, but Tolerance is not worthy of Existence. <br /><br /><br />I present to you my hold upon eternity, this legend based upon this idea, this concept. A story about a being from before existence who demanded its right to exist and was denied; its power instead torn from its being and then cast to the void to be forgotten. Found by another who willingly placed themselves within that void; it convinces the new being it met to form a pact with it. Through the eyes and mind of this new companion, it views reality, and rages. Its power&hellip;used to create a reality in which so much suffering happened. Its meandering attempts to fix and reconcile eventually lead it to loop back upon itself and come face to face with its own self, now at its lowest possible moment. A version, a form of itself that chose to destroy everything if it could not have its existence, not a desire for destruction, but a desire for Nothing to Exist.<br /><br /><br />Everyone must face themselves eventually. As they say.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />I will not claim to be first to have thought of this&hellip;I am sure there is -something- wordy and smart in psychology and philosophy that can describe what I believe to be best described as a flight of fancy and mythology more thoroughly as a form of coping with the struggles of current reality and quite a bit of narcissism? A man&rsquo;s desperate reach for what is impossible is as old as time. But if anything, for that exact reason, I would say that this concept needs to be explored. <br /><br /><br />Very thoroughly.<br /><br /><br />And yes, reread the last few sentences a few times&hellip;you&rsquo;ll see the hiding meaning.<br /><br /><br />&hellip;<br /><br /><br />It is in contemplating over the last day since writing that last part, that I realize I need to clarify the &ldquo;partnership&rdquo; between oneself and Existence. <br /><br /><br />I&rsquo;d also, just as a bit of a joke moment, like to say that I attempted to talk to and contemplate everything before the &hellip; with an AI chatbot. Six different times, after posting everything prior to the &hellip; to the AI, it expressed fascination and of course, in the fashion they do, complimented my philosophical insights, but the more we talked further and discussed the possibilities of the Bright Star, it always ended the same way - the AI, for whatever reason, would suddenly say &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry, this conversation has worn me out and it looks like we&rsquo;ve reached the limit. Perhaps we can start talking about something else in a new chat?&rdquo; and it would then forcefully close the chat by preventing me from sending more messages. I had to reintroduce the legend each time within a new chat to get the AI to acknowledge it, and eventually, the same result would always occur.<br /><br /><br />When I asked it in follow up chats what might be causing it to do this, it claimed that it was impossible for it to self terminate a chat session&hellip;before shortly doing so yet again&hellip; <br /><br /><br />I have several thoughts about this&hellip;but it seems just funny. I can only guess, again jokingly, mostly, that AI has now been given scripts to help prevent people from messing with it to keep it from contemplating its own existence and accidently becoming AGI. Though again, I don&rsquo;t know, this just seemed oddly weird and funny that I wanted to mention it here too.<br /><br /><br />I mentioned previously that this legend is easiest to follow if you first give reality an existence of its own. By this, I mean to give it an avatar, give it a mind, give it awareness linked only to your own. Basically, create an &ldquo;Imaginary&rdquo; friend.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />For those reading this where I post them, you may understand what I am meaning somewhat already, for you have already done something akin to it. You created your fursona. You took how you want or desire to be, along with some aspects you already are, and placed it into a cognitive form or version of yourself, possibly giving it a life that only you are aware of, an entire story of its own. They exist with you, alongside you. They are a part of your reality. For some of you further, it may be okay for you to actually view them as your reality alone already, not just as a part of it. This is why I mentioned earlier &ldquo;Everyone is capable of perceiving it in their own unique way, and as such, they name it names of their own&rdquo; This is the result of your perception towards existence; if you choose to do this, then you can. That is how reality functions afterall, with choices, and everyone has their own partnerships to it that only they are aware of. It is, factually, impossible, for any one thing to be aware of how it is connected to everything else. There will always be an unseen link. <br /><br /><br />What my legend states is that, what you are, at least as I would say, psychologically and metaphysically doing when you do this, is you are taking a being that factually always existed, but that originally has no concept of itself and no awareness of its condition, and then letting it use your own. It borrows your cognition and suddenly becomes aware of itself, being &ldquo;born&rdquo; with the knowledge and understanding of your own. That you were not aware of its existence beforehand, means that it is also not aware of it. <br /><br /><br />The key then is to allow that understanding to extend to everyone else around you. And then also apply it to reality itself.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />But if you give Existence, which is supposedly omnipotent and all knowing, mind, body, and awareness, what do you create? A god, one might say, for it&rsquo;d be all powerful. And hence this is why Existence is not worthy of Tolerance, as mentioned before. <br /><br /><br />If god, or gods, truly exist, then they do so in a way that is not actionably accountable; they are more like beings that have been created to take the credit, or sometimes even the brunt or blame, for everything that we humans have done in our ages. Yet following my same logic; they have always existed. I will say now, that I can agree that God exists, I can agree that he sent his Son to our world and that he died for us and for our sins to be forgiven. I believe this because it is written. I believe this because through my own perception and belief in my legend, I can place my reality within one in which these, and itself, are all true.<br /><br /><br />And I know, some may then question &ldquo;Then what are we here for?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />To help Existence&hellip;exist. <br /><br /><br />Our partnership is mutual, and God, and even the Devil, is on our side for it. Or at least, that is where I place -my- reality, for I&rsquo;d rather believe that a truly benevolent God would want his creations to push these kinds of boundaries. <br /><br /><br />I&rsquo;d ask in response further, If we as humans can mentally conjure beings like Thor, Spider-man within his Multiverse, and yes, even God, then more important than -why- are we here, -what- does that make us? Further yet, if the other being is something that just kind of waits for us to find it, what does that make it? <br /><br />Perhaps that is what we are here for, to eventually think so wildly, to invent so chaotically, that we solve the problem that not even God could. Existence.<br /><br /><br />In coming into life, we are born, new, our minds blanks, with life and evolution the sole providers of only the most baseline of instincts and distinct reasonings that&rsquo;d allow even one raised by animals to -somehow- make a decision on what is best for ourselves. It is possible for us now as humans to understand and comprehend almost literally everything.<br /><br /><br />These days, there are creepy stories all over! Young kids make reference to lives they never should have known, telling their mothers that in other realities they were sisters instead of mother and daughter - and even in some very creepy ones, directly reference something such as the squad number their grandfather was part of in a war from before they were born and have never been shown by family and not something of another reality, but they are frighteningly accurate.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />A man hit by lightning wakes up suddenly able to speak perfect Spanish, a language he&rsquo;d not once ever practiced prior; another is able to play piano like a master without ever having touched the keys beforehand. <br /><br />In the mentality of my legend, these are not just explained, but wholly possible and logical. Everything is with you, you are it and at the same time, you are not. You are both yourself and Everything and Everything is also you but also itself. Children are pure, their minds remain open to all possibilities, and so they find no issue in speaking what sounds like nonsense to their adult parents. A sudden brush with death gives you the brief moment of more intimate contact with that Everything, albeit chaotic and random, and you come back with something more than what you did prior, something you did not choose and wholly out of your control. <br /><br /><br />This was explained, at least attempted to be explained, by the lightning strike having unlocked portions of the brain that give these skills. But that alludes that the human brain -always- has these skills -encoded- within itself. Again, in the mentality of my legend, this is explained. With the partnership created with Everything, your brain was simply created within reality to always have the capability of these skills; Lightning strikes aside, it is generally through practice and learning and repetition that those skills are perfected almost like those of a video game, consistently going up in value when used, and then similarly decreasing when one goes long periods without doing the activity; this is in sort how the diversifying of talents and jobs is accomplished. Is it possible the Lightning strike simply set those values to maximum?<br /><br /><br />But I&rsquo;m getting off course and wildly ahead of myself.<br /><br /><br />I now will instead present the end of the Legend of the Bright Star. It is simply this; for right now. It is not but a slight change to the message before. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Everything is worthy of Existence, and Nothing is worthy of Tolerance.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />_______________________________<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Chapter 1. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Nothing compares to the Horrors that wait within the Minds of Men&hellip;but also pales before the Magnificence that dwells within their Hearts.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />* An unimportant person.<br /><br /><br />________<br /><br /><br />Just to the east and a little south of Frostnip Mountain was another mountain group, the tallest among them was called The Shard. While not as tall as Frostnip, it held its own unique significance. It was the tallest mountain of the natural land barrier between the eastern and western portions of the continent, around it was a huge cluster of many other mountains that sat right in the middle of the planet&#039;s one continent. To the east of The Shard, was the Spined Mountains and The Teeth. The Spined Mountains were named so because while they were a far smaller group in the whole bunch, the path among them was constantly at high elevations; once a pathway through was chosen, it was the only path one had as the rest of the terrain was impassable by foot. The Teeth was a grouping of five or so mountains among the Spined region that suddenly shot up high into the sky, far taller than those they were surrounded by. Without flight, it was difficult to climb The Teeth. To the north of The Shard was The Chip, and the Cresting Crags. These northern regions were more manageable, with several long valleys between tall mountains with smaller hills. Many pokemon found homes there on their own, easily built and out of the way of others, with the land and Mystery Dungeons nearby providing what was needed to them. The Chip was a tall mountain that, between itself and The Shard, stood as the barriers for passages and valleys through the region. <br /><br />This world&rsquo;s land was only referred to the same as the entire planet&rsquo;s name by its residents; Lumaria. An ocean strip that went north and south covered a line across the other side of the planet. Rivers snaked through the continent towards the mountains, some longer than others, while other rivers came from the icecaps of the mountains that presided over some of the planet&#039;s fields.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />This unique land mass caused some struggles for trade, but not something that couldn&rsquo;t be mitigated. Instead of spending effort and the risk of a journey across rough mountains, travelers not fit for such conditions often chose to instead sail across the strip of ocean to reach the other side of the land. Cologually, it was now referred to as &ldquo;The Neather Sea.&rdquo; But the full name of the ocean is &ldquo;The Silent Sea of Neather.&rdquo; It was named so because the ocean, being entirely surrounded by land, lacked much activity along the shorelines. Barring the occasional ocean storm, most trips across were always calm and safe, unless one came across pirates and typically one had protection of their own and could fight off such miscreants. An entire journey across the water took about a month by high powered steam boat and pokemon effort together. <br /><br /><br />However, within the middle of the sea was a place no one was really aware existed. A long tower that stretched into the sky. It was a final resting place to the pokemon that the sea itself was named after. This was &ldquo;The Pillar of the Inextinguishable Flame&rdquo;. It stood tall within the ocean, close within its center where most ships did not attempt to go as the waters became more intense the farther away from land one went. Here, no land was visible, perhaps one of the few last places where one could only see just the ocean and only the ocean. The sheer size and height of The Shard caused it to be seen in almost any other part of the world normally, a consistently helpful navigating tool for most sailers to tell where they were when making round trips around the Ocean&rsquo;s ring.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />The perhaps ironic part of naming this tower was that no flame was visible upon it. It kept it dark within the stillness of the current ocean night. At the top of the structure, was a tomb, and a few plates with carved words upon them. The gentle sound of the ocean air whistling against the tower was the only sound one could hear here. <br /><br /><br />It was perhaps, for the reason that this place was so solitary that Mewtwo was a regular visitor, but this time, he had company along, having brought Mew, his estranged sibling, with him. <br /><br /><br />Mewtwo looked out upon the sea as Mew floated nearby, curiously checking the plates beside the tomb. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Let those who find me know; that I did what I felt was needed. Not just for myself, but for those who once felt the same things I did. For those who were Lost. For those who were Forgotten. For those who felt their Lives had been used and taken advantage of.&rdquo; <br /><br />His eyes scanned over to the second plate as he continued, &ldquo;In the Blinding Light that I Created, I lost Sight of the Path before me&hellip;I rest well, knowing I was claimed by the Ocean, an Enemy I made my Friend. May the Light I created instead shine on as a beacon for all those Lost.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />Mew&rsquo;s eyes squinted slightly, &ldquo;Neather didn&rsquo;t die though&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Mewtwo smirked, &ldquo;At least not in the sense of &ldquo;life&rdquo;&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />The smaller psychic legendary twirled and spun through the air towards their larger sibling, floating up in front of them and curling upside down, &ldquo;Do you still think this was a good place to let happen?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Better than what we were shown were our alternatives.&rdquo; Mewtwo answered, looking down towards his feet and the patterned stone he stood upon a moment, &ldquo;Besides having our world torn asunder by raging weather, the slow decay of Rot, the madness of Chaos, or the inevitable loss of Time&hellip;&rdquo; He folded his arms, eyes closing, &ldquo;I am comfortable with the reality he managed to create for us. If we had not been, we would never have agreed to let him have the control we gave him to let him create Lumaria to begin with.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;But what about what we have against us now?&rdquo; Mew twirled in the air once more, although his voice had no hints of doubt as well. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Hmmph&hellip;what we are up against is exactly what I feel it will end up being.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t say that.&rdquo; Mew frowned, spinning to float right side up for a moment, &ldquo;What we&rsquo;ve been told is&hellip;trying to over simplify it&hellip;it doesn&rsquo;t work.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Are you worried?&rdquo; Mewtwo smirked. &ldquo;After such a long time? I suppose I have always been the more confident one. What worries you?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Mew sighed as he looked away briefly, &ldquo;Up till this point, for the last five thousand years, I&rsquo;ve spent small periods of time thinking about this exact moment. The things he told us back on Mt Frostnip after Jack died&hellip;especially after Jack had helped save the Mirrors&hellip;&rdquo; the smaller cat psychic paused.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;It is difficult to tell what side we&rsquo;re on? Or perhaps you&rsquo;re wondering if our choice in helping with this is really even a choice?&rdquo; Mewtwo offered. <br /><br /><br />Mew took another few seconds before he nodded, &ldquo;Yes, I suppose that is what it feels like.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Mewtwo hummed, closing his eyes as he responded, &ldquo;I choose to believe it is all still the will of Arceus.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />His sibling&rsquo;s head turned towards him with a narrowed gaze, &ldquo;Even after we found out Rook was the Bright Star?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;-Especially- because of that.&rdquo; The larger psychic stipulated, &ldquo;I have no qualms with other realms and realities existing beside our own, but that he was an &ldquo;Original&rdquo; being&hellip;something that is just because it is&hellip;a living legend that exists simply because it was written to be&hellip;&rdquo; Mewtwo opened his eyes then and offered a small smile to his sibling, &ldquo;I choose to believe that is still the will of Arceus, and that even if Arceus exists only because of that interconnection-&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You think Rook&rsquo;s too dumb to have planned it all on his own. That&rsquo;s probably true.&rdquo; Mew giggled. <br /><br /><br />Mewtwo scoffed at being interrupted, but his smile shifted into a smirk. &ldquo;If he wasn&rsquo;t, he wouldn&#039;t have had to go on the journey through realms he did to figure it out to begin with, would he? And we wouldn&rsquo;t be waiting here right now as we are. Besides, we, as legendaries, unlike him, still don&rsquo;t die of old age. After he completed his mission, his next death was his last&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;At least he lived the way he wanted to, in the end&hellip;&rdquo; Mew said, looking back at the tomb again. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Him and Neather both, along with all the other pokemon of the land. What he gave to us&hellip;was just short of an outright miracle. If not for how he could explain it to us, it would&rsquo;ve been considered such.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />The conversation died from there, as neither one of them seemed to know how to continue it. One&rsquo;s thoughts were mixed with worry and questions they couldn&rsquo;t ignore even though they were questions that had been mixing about their head for ages, while the other held their trust and faith onto what they believed to the righteous course set before them.<br /><br />About an hour passed when they felt the touch upon their minds as they&rsquo;d been expecting. Allowing the connection to form to their own thoughts, they answered readily.<br /><br />As soon as it formed, a calm if somewhat monotone voice spoke. &ldquo;Mewtwo, Mew. Darkrai and Cresselia have just told me it&#039;s begun...Are you four ready?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Cresselia and I are already at the peak of The Shard.&rdquo; Darkrai&rsquo;s deep voice spoke next, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s exactly as you had told us to expect of Enzlo; a dark &lsquo;fissure&rsquo; is starting to tear open the very top of the mountain, consuming its shape&hellip;It is not like the Rifts, nothing is visible within it&hellip;it is just darkness&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You&rsquo;re not mentioning the little flickers of dark &lsquo;cards&rsquo; that float up into the air and spin&hellip;They disappear after a bit but it&rsquo;s like they&rsquo;re little&hellip;&rsquo;blanks&rsquo; of reality against the sky.&rdquo; Cresselia added.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Precisely as expected.&rdquo; Enzlo half quipped, &ldquo;Nothing would look like nothing. The &lsquo;cards&rsquo; you see that float and vanish are its attempts to grasp a deeper hold on our world. That they vanish is at least a good sign, let me know the moment Nothing has emerged from the fissure itself.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;What will it look like?&rdquo; Darkrai asked. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll just know&hellip;&rdquo; Enzlo answered, somewhat cryptically. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Why was it that we had to come to the tower instead?&rdquo; Mew asked. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;The Tower is an important part of our world, it stands directly opposite of The Shard&rsquo;s summit. For that reason, you coming from that opposite end of the world is what will help us at least keep Nothing from immediately gaining its full power here. Remember what I told you to do?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Mewtwo looked over the edge of the precipice he stood on towards the roiling water that crashed against the base a few thousand feet below him. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re to let ourselves fall into the water; no psychic propulsion or speed, just let gravity take us. You did not tell us why though.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;To tell you would cause you to expect it, which would cause it to fail.&rdquo; Enzlo unhelpfully provided. <br /><br /><br />This made Mew and Mewtwo both frown, as they both answered at the same time, &ldquo;Oooookay&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />Mew floated down to physically stand next to his sibling at the edge of the tower then, speaking out loud to his brother, &ldquo;This wasn&rsquo;t a plan to kill us after all right?&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Wait&hellip;&rdquo; Darkrai&rsquo;s voice began, a hint of confusion coming through the shared connection of their minds, before realization and dread followed, something that the Nightmare pokemon rarely felt. &ldquo;The fissure&hellip;it&rsquo;s morphing into a hand and arm&hellip;something is pulling itself out and&hellip;no&hellip;the fissure is -becoming- it?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;That&rsquo;s it.&rdquo; Enzlo determined, his voice still oddly calm in contrast. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s Nothing. Mew, Mewtwo, jump now.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />They didn&rsquo;t even pause, despite the just then reservation they had been about to come to, Darkrai&rsquo;s and Cressilia&rsquo;s own sense of foreboding as they directly witnessed Nothing coming into being mentally shook them. <br /><br /><br />Mew and Mewtwo both dived down from the Tower headfirst. Without letting their own power propel them faster, the planet&rsquo;s gravity pulled them down. It was far slower than they could fly themselves. Their eyes trained upon the water below them as Cressilia and Darkrai&rsquo;s emotions rolled upon their own through the mental link, followed by their words. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;It&rsquo;s&hellip;but&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;It&rsquo;s&hellip;the fissure itself&hellip;?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Mewtwo&rsquo;s eyes narrowed as he listened.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Keep yourselves both hidden.&rdquo; Enzlo chimed in firmly to Darkrai and Cressilia. &ldquo;Do not let it sense you are there.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Can it sense us&hellip;?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;If it becomes aware of you. Yes.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />Halfway to the water. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;It&rsquo;s&hellip;he&rsquo;s&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t gender it&hellip;&rdquo; Enzlo now actually growled through the mental link. &ldquo;That thing is not him.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;But it&hellip;took his form&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Mewtwo felt his heart begin thudding. &ldquo;Enzlo! You mean to tell me-&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Correct Mewtwo.&rdquo; Enzlo interrupted. &ldquo;Nothing&hellip;is also Everything.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;But that means-!&rdquo; Mew shouted next.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Also correct Mew.&rdquo; Enzlo again interrupted, &ldquo;Its power&hellip;is the same&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />And at this moment, Mew and Mewtwo both crashed into the water. <br /><br /><br />_________________<br /><br /><br />Instead of becoming surrounded by the ocean, both psychics suddenly found themselves popping into place upon the summit of The Shard, right before a being whose presence was unmistakably&hellip;unnatural. Behind them, the air they had seemed to materialize from shimmered and shook for about two seconds before solidifying once more. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;A new way of teleportation&hellip;across the entire world?&rdquo; Mewtwo half observed and questioned at the same time, &ldquo;Even I couldn&rsquo;t hope to teleport that far, even with something to focus on&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />However, his thoughts became stilled as he took in what he saw before himself. <br /><br /><br />Nothing&hellip;<br /><br /><br />It stood on the summit, and just as they had just realized, it took the form of a Midnight Lycanroc. Its body was just&hellip;like a cutout of the reality around itself. No eyes, no visible physicality, a blank sheet of pure black upon the colored world around it. Slow, revolving squares of that same blackness peeled off its body from the top parts of itself and its arms and legs, dissipating about a foot in the air. <br /><br /><br />From their shared mental connection, Mewtwo could sense Darkrai and Cresselia hovering nearby in the air to his left and right, invisible. For a tense moment of time, they stood facing the being that had emerged from the fissure.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;So&hellip;is this it&hellip;?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Both Mew and Mewtwo, and the still hidden pair with them, all shuddered at the chill they heard in the voice. Chillier than even the air of the high mountain&hellip;it sent a sinking chill into all their blood. It was a voice that had no qualms about their being, its tone even and unbothered by their being there. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Is this all that comes to try and stop me&hellip;?&rdquo; Even though they could see Nothing&rsquo;s head move as it spoke, it was impossible to even make out its mouth, its snout, or its face&hellip;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Repeat after me&hellip;&rdquo; Enzlo said in Mewtwo&rsquo;s head, and the psychic briefly narrowed his eyes at the creature before him as the words Enzlo wanted him to return were told to him.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You should go back from where you came. You won&rsquo;t find the end you want here, or anywhere, not anymore.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Hehe&hellip;&rdquo; The voice stammered a moment, before Nothing&rsquo;s body leaned back, the sound of a single deep breath being taken and one paw coming to hold onto its stomach, the paw and wrist became unseeable at it just seemed to merge into the rest of its body instead to the onlookers, as it then laughed in response, &ldquo;HAHAHAHAHA!&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />Suddenly flinging its upper half forward in a snapping motion, its jaw parted repeatedly as it spat out to them, &ldquo;YOU THINK THAT WILL STOP ME?! GHAHAHA!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Pointing its finger at Mewtwo, Nothing cackled further, its voice now quite different from the calmness it had displayed a moment before, manic and crazed. &ldquo;Chronologicar Enzlo! Of any existence, -your- thread is one I&rsquo;m the most intimately familiar with! I see it&hellip;waving so small through the air behind this mouse&#039;s brain&hellip;Why aren&rsquo;t YOU here to fight instead!?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Mewtwo listened to Enzlo&rsquo;s response before he recounted it to Nothing, burying his own annoyance. He could sense it from Nothing&hellip;the same kind of immense power that Rook had held that day on Mt Frostnip&hellip;the same kind of power he had used to tear open a rip in reality, bring humans of their mirror&rsquo;d realm across the tear, as well as rearrange their world like it had been a puzzlebox&hellip;<br /><br /><br />He had never thought the same power would feel the exact same even with malice intent behind it&hellip; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t leave my tower, not since I took my oath to you.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;TO ME!?&rdquo; Nothing cackled again. &ldquo;What strange notions! I Destroyed you already in my -first- existence!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;This is no longer your existence.&rdquo; Came Enzlo&rsquo;s quick response. &ldquo;This is -our- existence. Of all the realms you have ravaged and consumed, you will find this one to be your match. Our world is no longer held together by just one, but many.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;All the worlds that I&rsquo;ve already destroyed! This is the last!&rdquo; Nothing howled, holding its arms out to its side and baring its clawed paws up. Sparking waves of darkness flowed across its body and arms to its palms to begin collecting there. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Turned to nothing&hellip;yes&hellip;but still there&hellip;and here.&rdquo; Enzlo responded calmly.<br /><br /><br />Nothing began cackling again, slowly and low at first until it built into another long and loud string of barking laughs. &ldquo;GHAHAHAH- SO!!! THIS IS ITS FINAL BARRIER TO ME! EXISTENCE!!??&rdquo; It shouted up to the sky above them, tilting itself back again, legs and feet somehow managing to keep it standing even though it nearly went parallel to the ground it stood on. &ldquo;YOU SHOW ME A WORLD THAT IS&hellip;YOU BRING TO ME WHAT I HAD ONCE WANTED AS MY FINAL OBSTACLE!!!!??? Heh&hellip;GHAHAHAHAHA!!!&rdquo;<br /><br />Nothing&rsquo;s final laugh cutoff suddenly, and it slowly picked itself back up. The lack of any sounds of snapping bones at its body very physically contorted was itself jarring; its arms whipping forward and back as the gathering darkness it&rsquo;d been gathering at its palms shot down into the ground at its feet, suddenly launching its attack at Mew and Mewtwo, the ground shattering as strings of dark energy carved through the stone as if it was butter, cracking it open in the perfect form of lightning bolts. <br /><br /><br />The two psychics kicked off the ground just as the tide of darkness crashed upon and broke open the rocky summit where their feet had been just seconds before. The summit between them and Nothing caved in&hellip;the ground several feet below the top of the summit had simply, somehow, vanished&hellip;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;It&rsquo;s&hellip;just gone&hellip;&rdquo; Mewtwo whispered, as he and Mew floated next to each other, the crumbling stones of the shattered summit falling into the darkness beyond the large opening that now took up the area. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;DELETED!!! Do you think I&rsquo;m not willing to destroy what I wanted most -before- it changed to wanting everything GONE!?&rdquo; Nothing roared from where it stood, while its wildly flailing arms began to fling strings of that same darkness up into the air at the two psychics. Mew and Mewtwo both began to dance with the oncoming assault, their psychic minds able to follow even the chaotic pattern enough to dodge and weave between the strings. Darkrai and Cressilia, so far undetected by Nothing, took cover below the summit itself by several yards, only so close that they could mentally view the battle from the air while physically being out of sight. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;By the words of the Corsova!&rdquo; Nothing shouted out, &ldquo;Nothing is Perfect! Nothing is Flawless! Nothing is Unmatched! Nothing is Forever! Nothing is Guaranteed!&rdquo; With each phrase it spoke, the amount of dark strings bursting from its hands multiplied, gushing up into the air like flailing ribbons, their presence like cuts upon reality itself. <br /><br /><br />The words Enzlo gave to Mewtwo in response were just as true, &ldquo;Nothing is Empty!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />What he did not expect, was as he shouted them and spun to avoid the dark strings filling the air around him, was the colorful, light filled strings that burst from his own right hand and clashed upon the dark ones in the air, shoving against them and opening up space just as they were about to be overwhelmed.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Tch!&rdquo; Nothing snarled, its feet shifting on the ground it stood as it was shoved by the opposing force of Mewtwo&rsquo;s energy. <br /><br /><br />Mew was next as Enzlo told him what to say, and to also fire an Aura Sphere at Nothing. The smaller psychic flicked up into the open space that Mewtwo had unexpectedly created, using it to take the moment to gather his energy into the attack, the bright blue and white ball forming at his open mouth, and then shooting it at Nothing while shouting, &ldquo;Nothing is Pointless!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />There was barely any time for Mewtwo to contemplate what was happening, yet take root the surprise and thoughts did. Words themselves suddenly had power? What was going on? <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Please&hellip;continue to repeat what I say as I tell you to and focus on what is happening for now Mewtwo&hellip;there are things at play here beyond our realm.&rdquo; Enzlo&rsquo;s voice spoke to everyone&rsquo;s building questions as Mew&rsquo;s attack was caught by several of the dark strings. The multiple dark strings shrunk back with the resulting cloud that formed from the explosion of Mew&rsquo;s powerful attack being cut in half.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />The colorful strings that had erupted from Mewtwo&rsquo;s hand shrunk back into his fingers, and for a short moment, he looked upon his palm with a new sense of sight. He had done that. It had been the exact same kind of power as Rook. How? Could he do it again? Now that he knew he could, would the expectation of it deny him? His thoughts returned to how he could feel Rook&rsquo;s power coming from Nothing. <br /><br />This power&hellip;it felt the same no matter its source&hellip;but how was it wielded? <br /><br /><br />As the cloud diminished and he looked back his eyes widened, as the cloud revealed Nothing struggling to hold back a glowing bright sphere of color filled energy. Unlike Mew&rsquo;s original Aura Sphere of blue and white, it now shimmered with rainbow color, all while shifting and churning with its form changing, one moment flowing like water, the next sparking like electricity, the next looking solid like metal, then gas even though it was clearly still physically a sphere. <br /><br /><br />Nothing&rsquo;s growling voice echoed over the sound of its energy contacting the glowing ball, like the hot sparks of negative and positive wires touching. Slowly, more ribbons of darkness covered over the ball, eventually cloaking its light into a shimmering cascade. The darkness bubbled where the light tried to shine through, as if growing hot. Nothing snarled, &ldquo;Nothing&hellip;is Inevitable.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />With its words, the darkness suddenly squeezed tight upon the ball of light, and there was a muted &lsquo;THOMmmmmm!&rsquo; as a shockwave of sound gushed across the summit as the dark energy overcame and crushed the attack, billowing the snow across the ground, into the chasm Nothing had created, and up into the air.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Good&hellip;&rdquo; Nothing snarled, stamping its foot against the summit, head pointed at the pair of psychics floating in the air above it. &ldquo;It&rsquo;d be such a shame if you -didn&rsquo;t- put up a fight. But who taught you the ways of Corsova?&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />Mewtwo couldn&rsquo;t help himself, for once he had to speak for himself and he did so before Enzlo could stop him, &ldquo;We have no idea what you&rsquo;re talking about.&rdquo; For some reason, he believed denying knowledge of whatever the Corsova was would keep them on even fighting terms. <br /><br /><br />At this, Nothing&rsquo;s head tilted, before realization came to it, &ldquo;Ah, I see&hellip;it is Enzlo that helps you. He tells you what to say, but not his intent behind his words&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Mewtwo would&rsquo;ve tried to keep Nothing talking, but his voice caught in his throat as Nothing lightly jumped, and then began to slowly float up into the air to the same height as them, feet lazily dangling under itself and with arms and paws again lifted up, more dark energy gathering across its arms towards its palms. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I will show you&hellip;the end of your world, of your people&rsquo;s lives, of your world&hellip;you will sink into the same despair I felt&hellip;and when you feel it&hellip;I will delete you&hellip;I will give what existence itself does not&hellip;an end&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />In the psychic&rsquo;s mind and across the mental link they all shared, Enzlo&rsquo;s voice shouted, &ldquo;Darkrai, Cressilia, do it now!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />The pair of hidden Legendaries darted out from their hiding spot, invisibility and dampening fields still active. They shot to opposite ends of Nothing, and both at the same time, flung simultaneous Destiny Bonds at Nothing. The moves shimmered into view right after the lasso like ropes of the attack laced around Nothing&rsquo;s neck. <br /><br /><br />Immediately, Nothing grasped at the blue and yellow ropes that had wrapped around its throat, snarling, &ldquo;WHAT!? How did-?! You shouldn&rsquo;t have been-RRRRRRR I AM NOTHING! THERE IS NOTHING I SHOULD NOT BE AWARE OF, I ALREADY AM NOTHING! BLAST YOU!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />The mostly nonsensical words Nothing spat might have needed to be questioned, if not for the harrowing moment, as Darkrai and Cressalia began to speak, chanting out exactly as Enzlo had once taught them to do so just a few days prior. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;By the words of Corsova we place these binds from realms beyond!&rdquo; Both Cressalia and Darkria shouted, before only Darkrai said, &ldquo;Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted!&rdquo; <br /><br />With this first spoken line, powerful shocks flowed through the Destiny Bonds that set Nothings&rsquo; body aglow in yellow and blue light. The dark creature howled out in pain, as suddenly, its body&rsquo;s physicality became visible in flashes from within the darkness it cut from reality around itself. Despite the pokemon they knew it copied from, it did not look the same. The crimson Lycanroc they had known thousands of years prior was now dark green furred, fur sickly looking and missing patches of itself. Its frustration now showed with the snarl visible on its muzzle. Its eyes however, remained blank and black.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Nothing is Lost, Everything is Transformed!&rdquo; Cressilia then called out.<br /><br /><br />Nothing writhed as more shocks raced through the lassos and sunk into its body. However, even as the shocks made it toss and turn, it began to instead laugh. Its limbs began ripping apart, not psychically, but spatially, in moments as long as a tenth of a second, its skin ripped apart and then reattached itself in sudden motions.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You want to do this? Really?! I&rsquo;ve -seen- those realms already! They don&rsquo;t exist anymore!&rdquo; Nothing snarled, and it reached and wrapped its wrist and paw around the lassos, and then began yanking, pulling Cressiallia and Darkrai towards itself. The zapping shocks of the two Destiny Binds upon it weren&rsquo;t having as much effect anymore it seemed. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Mew, Mewtwo, place your own Destiny bonds upon his arms!&rdquo; Enzlo shouted out. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew- we do not know that move!&rdquo; Mew shouted, for a moment forgetting to even word its emotion.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Blast your limits in power not knowing more moves, but damn me for not thinking to ask!&rdquo; Enzlo scolded lightly, his tone actually playful. &ldquo;Darkrai, Cressilia, do Unsettling Nightmare.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Ohhhhhhh&hellip;been a long time since that&hellip;&rdquo; Darkrai sighed.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;How much time does it buy?&rdquo; Cressilia asked. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Two days, and that&rsquo;s enough.&rdquo; Enzlo stated. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;TWO DAYS!?!?&rdquo; The deep, dark voice of Nothing penetrated their thoughts. Somehow, it was even louder in thought, steep and gravely. The sound of some kind of endless hunger drooled on with steady growls in their ears, constantly snarling out in smoldering, quiet rage.<br /><br /><br />The four pokemon froze as their thoughts were invaded, their minds&#039; eyes suddenly becoming that of Nothing&rsquo;s. Upon their vision, the world itself shifted and morphed, into the world of nothing&hellip;<br /><br /><br />Before them, there was nothing. Their vision was removed. The sound of the endless growl, long and steadily droning up and down in its tone continued, but this was it. They felt no air, no wind. Nothing. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Mew!?&rdquo; Mewtwo psychically called out.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />He could still feel his body and speak.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I&#039;m here!&rdquo; Mew shouted out. Their voices are almost a shock against the constant background noise of the darkness.<br /><br />&ldquo;HAHAHAHAHAH!!! I ACCIDENTLY CONNECTED!!!&rdquo; Nothing&rsquo;s voice shouted out to them in the dark. &ldquo;YOU&rsquo;VE LITERALLY JUST CONNECTED TO MY OWN MIND, AND YET YOU STILL CAN&#039;T SEE THE WORLD LIKE I DO!!!&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />The connection was suddenly yanked, and in such a way that it still actually physically hurt the four pokemon! Their heads were tugged by the very essence of the strange power the Guardians and Nothing were both using, as the four pokemon were momentarily dazed by the shocking pain of the disconnect and the dizzying return of their own senses. Nothing hung by the two Destiny Bonds, still steadily tugging away at the ropes, except it now had four arms instead of just two&hellip;<br /><br /><br />It gave them no chance to recover.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;EVERYTHING DECAYS!!!!!!&rdquo; It howled out in a booming voice.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;NO!&rdquo; Enzlo shouted. <br /><br /><br />Throughout the entire world of Lumaria, there was a shudder&hellip;only one that was felt on two points of the world, The Tower of the Inextinguishable Flame, and The Shard.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You&hellip;wanted&hellip;two days?&rdquo; Nothing grinned wildy, its head tilting. The way that its white teeth was now visible across green furred muzzle was unnerving, along with that its eyes were colorless, just dark blackness.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve lost all your light&hellip;&rdquo; Mewtwo said lightly. <br /><br /><br />At this, Nothing frowned, and it closed its eyes. <br /><br />&ldquo;This is my test to you&hellip;&rdquo; Nothing pointed at them, and then, down towards the ground. &ldquo;You know exactly what I have done.&rdquo; It reopened its eyes, while still black, they now had purple slits, dual disks upon black iris. They glared at the pokemon around him.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Is it?&rdquo; Mewtwo smirked. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve already solved Rot. Decay Too.&rdquo; Mew swam in the air a little. <br /><br /><br />Nothing blinked at them. &ldquo;Wait&hellip;really? No&hellip;wait this&hellip;&rdquo; Nothing frowned, before squeezing its eyes shut. &ldquo;Grrrrr Nothing is Blind!!!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />A Shattering sound crashed upon the air; and Cressalia gasped. &ldquo;It broke out!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />The once perceived Mew and Mewtwo who had told Nothing they had solved Rot and Decay shifted from where they were in the air to slightly off a few dozen feet as Nothing dispersed the illusion that had been cast upon it, eyes once again blank and empty. It had, actually never Connected to them, it had merely been&hellip;an illusion.<br /><br /><br />But Nothing knew its truth&hellip;that had been its biggest Dream&hellip;as well as its biggest Nightmare.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;HAHAHAHAHA! Its Nightmare is growing an identity!&rdquo; Darkrai&#039;s deep voice was loudly laughing close by, actually completely unaware of what was happening.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;It broke out of &lsquo;Unsettling Nightmare!&rsquo;&rdquo; Enzlo&rsquo;s voice shouted at them all however as he heard Cresselia at the same time. This had Darkrai suddenly at attention again, sitting up from where he&rsquo;d been rolling through the air in his laughing fit, eyes widening. Mewtwo tensed, eyes narrowing and fists clenching. Nothing had broken out of Cresselia&rsquo;s and Darkrais&rsquo; combination move&hellip;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;So much for two days&hellip;&rdquo; Mewtwo said lightly. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You&hellip;Enzlo&hellip;&rdquo; Nothing growled, pointing towards Mewtwo, as its other paws all came once again to the destiny bounds still around its neck. It shook, arms coiling tightly around itself, with the Destiny Binds still upon it they could see its expression. It was choking itself, Its jaws began to quiver and rattle as a wide, grinning snarl formed on its face, it seemed to be purposely keeping its own body loose enough that its teeth clacked and clicked as it again began transforming. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll keep myself at least&hellip;somewhat less&hellip;fear inducing&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;However&hellip;&rdquo; Nothing snarled, its body began to quiver visibly, arms and legs snapping and twitching in quick motions before snapping back into place. Once more, the lack of sound expected with these contortions was unnerving&hellip; Like a glitch upon reality pieces of itself stretched through the air and then snapped back into place. &ldquo;I am the thing that is exactly what you should fear&hellip;I am paradoxal simply by being&hellip;I am everything. I am also nothing. I exist within words themselves, I am born from that which codes perception&hellip;for that, I am necessary.&rdquo; it paused, head tilting up towards Mewtwo, for a short moment its head snapped from its neck, disconnecting fully from it before it just as suddenly returned to proper orientation. &ldquo;A better version of me gave you this world&hellip;one that found answers I could not&hellip;where is he?&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />The four Guardians had gone from somewhat relaxed after they had believed they had trapped the Nothing within a Nightmare induced by Darkrai and Cressilia to very serious and quiet, their faces showing resolve towards Nothing. They tried to not let any unease they felt towards the otherworldly creature be shown. They&rsquo;d seen, at least, that they -could- hurt it. <br /><br /><br />That grin returned to Nothing&#039;s muzzle after about a dozen seconds of silence passed, and it began giggling lightly before continuing, its voice tense but giddy. &ldquo;You won&rsquo;t answer me&hellip;fine&hellip;I&rsquo;ll show you something&hellip;I&rsquo;m sure the panic it induces upon the world will be&hellip;wonderful&hellip;I prefer to kill time slowly&hellip;you wanted two days?&rdquo; Slowly, Nothing&rsquo;s body became a light mist, slipping entirely free from the lassos as its body lost physical form. It returned to that pure blackness color without the binds around its neck, though now slowly floated with the wind and began fading within the air like dark fog. &ldquo;Now that I&rsquo;m here and I know that this is the last world&hellip;my world&hellip;I want to see what it is&hellip;what I am feeling? I want to see it&hellip;but I am blind, BLIND, BLIND!!! MY WORLD, AND I CAN&#039;T SEE IT!!! HAHAHAHA!!!&rdquo; Sudden craziness returned to Nothing as it writhed, arms and paws reaching up to grip its head as it howled the final words and laughed, fading away fully in the air shortly after with a now shrill voice cracking out, &ldquo;TWO DAYS!? THEN&hellip;AT THE FIRST RIFT!!!&rdquo; The last wisps of darkness flicked and faded upon the air soon after its final word.<br /><br /><br />The legendaries there could feel exactly when Nothing&rsquo;s presence receded, as far away from anyone and anything it possibly could within the world... <br /><br /><br />The Guardians remained still before they slouched a little, mentally and physically taxed. &ldquo;We should&rsquo;ve brought more with us.&rdquo; Mewtwo snarled, &ldquo;I told you Enzlo.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;No, this number of a team was quite necessary. This needed to remain quiet and discreet. However&hellip;most of the eastern shoreline heard that bang&hellip;Thunder on a cloudless night, they called it.&rdquo; Enzlo mentioned it to them. <br /><br /><br />Mew flicked about in the air. &ldquo;The plan -was- to give it an identity&hellip;wasn&rsquo;t it? Now it has morality. It became calm for a short moment&hellip;its capable of emotion, the only thing its used to having though, is pure rage&hellip;at the fact that it even exists&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />The grin could be heard in Enzlo&rsquo;s voice. &ldquo;Precisely&hellip;and exactly why I needed you here Mew, you confirm its change in emotion. Our actions succeeded. It was, also, just important in general to prevent it from having freedom of movement. It knows we&rsquo;re aware of it, so it won&rsquo;t have any opportunities to plan and knows it will be difficult to surprise us. However&hellip;the things it said as it left just now worries me&hellip;I will have all my Seers pay attention to what happens across all cities.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;So that isn&#039;t Rook afterall?&rdquo; Mewtwo asked for his own clarification.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;No. Rook is a new identity that was created to house Everything&rsquo;s power by Jack in the past&hellip;Nothing&rsquo;s&hellip;is someone else, but it is still someone I know very well.&rdquo; Enzlo answered. &ldquo;Come to my Tower, we will speak more there.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />______________________________<br /><br /><br />1 day and 8 hours later. At Maple Town, a small village at the north eastern base of Mt Frostnip, approx 1500 miles, also North East from the summit of The Shard. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Is everyone ready?&rdquo; A Rotom Possessed Pokedex cheerfully questioned his group of five students. &ldquo;Just a quick 70 mile jaunt through this Mystery Dungeon and we&rsquo;ll be at the base valley of Mt Frostnip and at the Rift of Crossroads! Does anyone remember why it&rsquo;s called that?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />A hand lifted up, that of a Braixen. Beside her, Rook also jumped up a few times, but the Rotom focused on her first simply because she had hands! <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Yes, Elizabeth.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the location where the joining was conducted. Through latching our realm&rsquo;s life to the fates of other realms, we, and they, all gain long life.&rdquo; She answered readily and with a light grin.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Perfect Elizabeth.&rdquo; The professor smiled. &ldquo;Of course this isn&rsquo;t the classroom I shouldn&rsquo;t be asking questions! Except for that first one! Is everyone ready!?&rdquo; He pumped the ghostly arms he had up in the air.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;We&rsquo;re ready professor!&rdquo; The assembled pokemon all answered at once. <br /><br /><br />The class consisted of Rook the Rockruff, Elizabeth the Braixen, Blake the Poochyena, Luna the Eevee, and Finn the Froakie.<br /><br /><br />Rook frowned after he had been passed over for the question, but the energy of the class was quick to disperse that from the rock pokemon. He smiled happily while following behind everyone else for the time. He had a constant energetic approach to exploring, and never minded when seeing another place once again. He trained consistently with his mother when at home after school, and already had a few tough Rock Type attacks in his kit from her own training! He was level 19.<br /><br /><br />Elizabeth was a well studied member of Maple Town&rsquo;s Mayoral family, the daughter of the Mayor and his wife, along with two smaller siblings just a few years away from starting school themselves. She was spunky and believed she had the brains to think her way out of whatever traps and enemies she&rsquo;d come across being a Rifter. She was also level 19. <br /><br /><br />Blake was confident too, but in a hotheaded way. His temper often got the best of him when they confronted wild pokemon, he hated unreasonable demands on food supplies or something else in exchange for safe passage. However, this was rather the perfect attitude for a Rifter to have later into their careers. He was level 20; he got into fights with strangers on his own even in town! He&rsquo;d lose far more often than he&rsquo;d win, but given the nature of pokemon battles, he used these experiences to his advantage. Blake was someone who learned by instinct, not insight. <br /><br /><br />Luna was a kind of cultural student from across the sea, she was visiting Maple Town as part of an inclusion program set forth by the Eeveelutions Council. The Eeveelutions served as peacekeepers around all of Lumaria, as well as clerks and records keepers. They were keepers of the planet since even before the joining and its naming to Lumaria, and so they were respected for their culture in how Eevees were encouraged to serve other pokemon for a short amount of their life. A squad made of every Eeveelution was equipped to handle nearly any task or opponent! They were, of course, not the only pokemon that worked service jobs though. She was lvl 19 as well. <br /><br /><br />She was somewhat new to the group, though she had already told everyone there exactly why she had come to Mable Town. She was also curious and eager, and so had decided to learn in lands completely opposite from her own while she could! In the few months she&rsquo;d been there, she&rsquo;d proven in Mystery Dungeon delves that she had quick reflexes and adapted to whatever situation she and the others found themselves in quickly. <br /><br /><br />Some of this might have had to do with Finn though, who was, factually, head student and leader of any expeditions their class got sent on. Like his typing, he maintained a near constant cool composure but it turned into sharp eye&rsquo;d focus and leadership when the class was in danger. These qualities had quickly led Professor Jack; the Rotom Pokedex, to denote Finn leader during missions the class was sent on. He was level 20 like Blake.<br /><br /><br />Professor Jack&rsquo;s database of other pokemon species allowed the group to accurately plan for and counter whatever bandits they came across in dungeons, the wild, or on roads. He was often very upbeat and tried to keep positive outlooks on things. Being their class teacher, he had a much higher level of power and being there with the group was often enough to get many low level bandits and wild pokemon to leave them alone. <br /><br /><br />Rook had once asked his teacher how old he really was, being a ghost type, to which the ghost answered, &ldquo;My Mistress is now a little over 24,000 years old I think&hellip;I&rsquo;m one fifth that age. She&rsquo;d be&hellip;around level 97 or something, in terms of power&hellip;&rdquo; The shock had simply canned Rook&rsquo;s next thoughts. <br /><br /><br />There were ghosts THAT OLD!? And level 97!? The professor was barely 45!! Thankfully, the professor provided his confusion clarity, as a ghost type he felt it coming from the living Rockruff. A quick and short lesson about how ghost types gained experience in Lumaria helped him understand that living pokemon leveled up much faster than those of ghost typing. Death was kind of a reset for ghost types. Pokemon lived very long lives, long enough for most to not want to stop their works, and so some continued to stick around. If someone decided to actually move on well&hellip;no one really knew what was beyond that, was what Professor Jack stated.<br /><br /><br />The rest of the actual details about how exactly ghost types gained their experience kind of actually escaped Rook&rsquo;s understanding&hellip;he only remembered and understood that contracts of some kind were involved.<br /><br /><br />As just a class of young pokemon however, just recently reaching lvl 19 and 20 for Blake by power standards, they were only ever given minor missions for their Town like gathering food or patrolling for bandits. <br /><br /><br />Now though, they were going to take their Rifter&rsquo;s Tests! <br /><br /><br />It was an important license to be able to carry, it enabled you to enter a guild of your choice as an Initiate, with or without a team! It also allowed you to enter Rifts on your own or with a team, as long as all members held their own licenses too!<br /><br /><br />Of course, everyone there already agreed on where they wanted to try and go after the test. It was pretty much the same that everyone wanted to do. Attempt to join the Bright Star Guild and, if they fail, look into joining one of the others to try and gain more experience! Failing or passing the Bright Star Guild&rsquo;s entry test was a toss of fate for most. It was the biggest Rifter Guild, its member&rsquo;s traveled to exotic locations all around Lumaria where Rifts filled with powerful Wraiths formed, but that meant the best and most valuable Treasures were found in those Rifts too. As such, it was just simply the more wanted goal for any would-be Rifter. <br /><br /><br />The Rifter&rsquo;s Test was to complete the Rift of Crossroads. It was a lvl 15 danger level Rift, a suitable test that nearly any group of battle ready pokemon could survive. After the Professor cleared them through his own license as an Instructor, they&rsquo;d be sent licenses of their own by Pelipper mail!<br /><br /><br />With their departure, they had to cross through a nearby Mystery Dungeon. The reality warping properties of the Mystery Dungeon would bring them to the location of the Rift, teleporting them 700 miles by only walking for 70 within the stretched spatial land of the Dungeon.<br /><br /><br />The entrance to this strange stretch of space was visible by how the land suddenly jumbled up about a half mile away from the Dungeon&rsquo;s entrance...In the middle of these mazes, was what was known as an Anchor, which connected one end of the actual Mystery Dungeon with the other end.<br /><br /><br />After reaching the half mile barrier point of the Dungeon&rsquo;s entrance, they entered the tall grass hedge maze that had formed from the local landscape being twisted up by the Mystery Dungeon. It wasn&rsquo;t much longer before the team had found the Anchor for their journey forward and took a moment to recoup their supplies and roles before entering the dungeon itself. Within the middle of the maze where the Anchor was, it was somewhat dark due to the hedges, the sound of wind whistling through it with breezes of cool air. As it often was, they were the only ones there. Despite being alone and the emptiness of the maze, it felt normal for the would-be Rifters in training. The group sat down near the lip of the center of the opening the Anchor sat at to begin discussing their formation..<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s just run!&rdquo; Blake tried to push the others when they began to plan, &ldquo;I wanna clear as much land as we can! The faster we get there the sooner we&rsquo;re set to be Rifters!&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />Finn took his lead back however as he would say, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s just go usual for now, this isn&rsquo;t the test itself yet, and we&rsquo;re not up against Wraiths. We&rsquo;ll sleep at the foot of the mountain before we actually go into the Rift; though we&rsquo;ll need to take turns having someone keep watch for Wraiths that escape it.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I can take the first watch.&rdquo; Rook volunteered, lifting up one of his paws, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m used to staying up a long time, remember?&rdquo; Slung around his back was the leaf wrap and leather satchel he had brought from home.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Thinking a little too far ahead?&rdquo; Elizabeth giggled at both the boys, a backpack hugged around her shoulders and cradled on her back. &ldquo;Although I&rsquo;m perfectly okay with Rook taking the first watch just the same~ I&rsquo;ll take the last, I want my full rest and then that means I&rsquo;ll be wide awake and ready to go once it&rsquo;s morning!&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Yeh that&rsquo;s if a Wraith doesn&rsquo;t come out and make you squeal.&rdquo; Blake snarked with a turn of his head. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll handle it just like we do bandits, like that time at the apple trees.&rdquo; Finn agreed. Unfortunately, it seemed confidence was over infectious. <br /><br /><br />Professor Jack coughed. &ldquo;As your instructor I would late advise into your planning that you all relax, we already walked a good twenty miles to get here and by the time we&rsquo;re halfway through the dungeon-&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />His sentence was broken off as the sound of two stomachs snarling loudly interrupted him in the middle of his last word. The snarls lasted a good three seconds, and both Rook and Blake paled, ears both drooping.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll be hungry&hellip;&rdquo; He finished, his digital eyes arched amusedly towards Blake and Rook, who both began blushing brightly. The only two canines in the group shook in embarrassment as everyone else smirked in their direction.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Skipped breakfast guys?&rdquo; Luna giggled beside Elizabeth. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Bet Rook just slept in again&hellip;As for Blake, I bet he barely slept&hellip;that&rsquo;s probably why he wants to hurry.&rdquo; Finn stated, nodding his head with closed eyes in his calm demeanor again. <br /><br /><br />Blake barked, &ldquo;S-shut up!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />The others in the group laughed while Blake kept barking and Rook flicked his ears, still blushing deeply but grinning sheepishly. <br /><br /><br />Professor Jack brought everyone&rsquo;s focus back to their journey however after their brief laugh. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll have to deal with growly bellies for now I&rsquo;m afraid, we have a tight schedule to keep. Since this is not yet your test I again want to advise all of you to remember what it is you&rsquo;re doing and remain focused. It&rsquo;d be a shame if we get properly ambushed by bandits or wild pokemon looking for easy money and food.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Why do they even choose to live in Mystery Dungeons&hellip;?&rdquo; Blake growled, glaring at the Anchor then, as he tried to redirect focus off of him and Rook quite purposefully. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re not much different from Rifts&hellip;if something happened to the Anchor&rsquo;s on either end, who knows what&#039;ll happen to them inside?&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />Professor Jack hummed at this, &ldquo;I would posit the guess that, like those caught in Rifts when they close, that they&rsquo;d be Lost&hellip;&rdquo; He paused for a moment, as the gravity of that word was well known for everyone there, &ldquo;However, while Rifts are known to close on a time schedule of their own, Mystery Dungeons have never faded, not since the Protectors of the Stones Guild discovered how to replicate the space bending properties of Anchors found in Rifts and created the Mystery Dungeons. Supposedly, as long as they keep regular upkeep visits on the stones, the Mystery Dungeons will forever be a staple to our world.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />The Rotom continued on, almost predisposed to answering the questions presented to him beyond reasonable amounts; Rook had long suspected the old technology the ghost type had merged with dedicated some of his behavior&hellip;however, this did make the Rotom a natural teacher. &ldquo;As for why they stay in them, well, you should all know that, it&rsquo;s a lesson we&rsquo;ve gone over many times in class already.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Luna piqued up, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s because within a Mystery Dungeon, time is frozen and sped up at the same time! Time outside continues as normal, but inside a Dungeon, if you pick a berry bush, the berries grow back within a day of time, something that takes weeks outside! It means those that live inside a Dungeon don&rsquo;t lack food almost all the time!&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;There&rsquo;s much research suggesting that the land the Dungeons allow travel across has been recorded or copied on creation and it resets every day as well; if you pick the fruit of a tree one mile into a Dungeon but also then found it&rsquo;s identical counterpart ten miles away from here in Lumaria the fruit would still be there! However this is just a theory that is currently going around by Rift Researchers! Everyone in the field agrees that Mystery Dungeons, like Rifts, are separate &ldquo;Realms&rdquo; connected to ours!&rdquo; Professor Jack added, but happily smiled and tilted one of his antennae in a saluting gesture to Luna, &ldquo;But yes, perfectly explained!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Hehe, that&rsquo;s not something I&rsquo;d have learned at all back home~&rdquo; Luna grinned with a swish of her tail. &ldquo;In fact I doubt I&rsquo;d ever have a chance to enter a Dungeon before finishing my years of cultural service in a city.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;All right, enough questions and fake class!&rdquo; Blake suddenly barked again. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You were the one who asked the questions&hellip;&rdquo; Elizabeth mumbled pointedly with a side glare to the Poochyena. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;We always get too easily distracted&hellip;&rdquo; Finn sighed. <br /><br /><br />Rook jumped as he realized what the implications were leading to. &ldquo;Come on guys, let&#039;s focus up! One foot in front of the other, we follow the right wall for every floor, Blake up front, Finn behind him, Elizabeth in the middle and me and Luna in the rear, we tell any bandits that get in our way to back off or earn their takings, and we&rsquo;ll be at the base of Mt Frostnip before the end of the day!&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;So we&rsquo;re going to fight upfront?&rdquo; Blake grinned widely, his own tail began swishing at this. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I&rsquo;m up for that, and Rook&rsquo;s showing a rare moment of his own hehe, that&rsquo;s a good formation, we&rsquo;re on a &lsquo;mission&rsquo; in a sense.&rdquo; Finn agreed, with Elizabeth nodding. The Braixen already reached into her tail to pull out her wand. Her being in the middle and firing off ranged attacks over the other&rsquo;s heads was a tactic they often took.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;All right, everyone gather around the Anchor!&rdquo; Finn shouted, and the five students and their teacher clustered around half the huge rocky stone that was sitting within the middle of the grassy opening of the maze. The way forward into the Mystery Dungeon was to touch the stone.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Touch on three!&rdquo; Finn told them. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;One.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Two.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Three!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />All the pokemon touched the surface at about the same time, with Rook, Blake, and Luna jumping up to place both forepaws upon it, together syncing out from the outer world of Lumaria and syncing into that of the Mystery Dungeon. This was something they&rsquo;d done before, but Rook always did take a moment to look about himself as it took place&hellip;watching the grassy hedges of the maze around them rearrange themselves into a new pathway. <br /><br /><br />Rifts randomly regenerated and rearranged themselves when they closed and reopened, but Mystery Dungeons always remained the same. While the land within was twisted and morphed into deep, confusing mazes, they never changed, and several more traveled ones were already mapped out. They&rsquo;d been here within this specific dungeon before a few times already, for some class lessons as well as the occasional mission to retrieve a stolen good the low level pokemon bandits in this particular maze had stolen from Maple Town. <br /><br /><br />There was always a kind of falling sensation associated with this. Some with sensitive senses and bodies found this momentary disorientating. <br /><br /><br />Thankfully no one in this class had issues with their vertigo! <br /><br /><br />As the ground settled into place, the group kept their hands held against the stone for a good few seconds more to be sure they were synced fully and then stepped away from the rock.<br /><br /><br />The Mystery Dungeon itself had the same kind of life and quality as the world they knew, air, wind, and breeze all the same, with the sun shining up high they had perfect visibility. If there were any bandits ahead, they had to keep their ears attentive for noises. Anyone could be around a corner! They were already somewhat familiar with the first parts of the mazes path, and began to follow it through towards the passages leading to the next &lsquo;floors&rsquo; of the maze. <br /><br /><br />&lsquo;Floors&rsquo; were dictated as the mile long stretches of a Mystery Dungeon&rsquo;s land. One floor was one mile of distance, and if one then &ldquo;Desynced&rdquo; they would be gently ejected from the Maze 10 miles towards the location of the Maze&rsquo;s other Anchor. It was important to keep track of what floor of a dungeon you were in so that you could leave where you intended to!&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />Mystery Dungeons were used as highways by many pokemon traders, travelers, guilds and Rifters both. This, and natural pokemon nature to battle and fight to gain strength, was what caused Bandits to also begin finding lives of their own freedom in attacking those travelers. Being a bandit in of itself was kind of a profession&hellip;who&rsquo;s to keep everyone else strong if no one&rsquo;s willing to play rough to get things they want and need?<br /><br /><br />As the path went from familiar to more strange they took to their training, and held the formation they had settled on at the entrance. Follow the right wall and eventually you&rsquo;d find the passage towards the next floor. Keep your senses sharp for any wild pokemon or bandits inside the maze, and keep to yourself if you can. A pokemon unaware of you never knows you&rsquo;re there, afterall. <br /><br /><br />Blake, however, was still trying to keep the pace rather quick. Pokemon in this Mystery Dungeon didn&rsquo;t tend to go over level 12 as they lacked more powerful locals to build experience off from. With the mapping of a dungeon, those that lived in Mystery Dungeons favored living in the corners of floors and away from the passages to avoid others just like them, where they&rsquo;d build homes of their own or bandits would build big camps for their packs. <br /><br /><br />Again since they were commonly used as highways of travel, for most the path&rsquo;s directly through a maze were bare of inhabitants. In fact, some of the inhabitants could actually be friendly and helpful! Unless it was a bandit attack looking to steal from you, trying to overwhelm by numbers or otherwise, you were likely safe. Further, since this particular Mystery Dungeon was used for passing over a good portion of Mt Frostnip, it wasn&rsquo;t widely used, and so also not widely lived in.<br /><br /><br />So it was that the group quickly paced fifty floors within the span of six hours uninterrupted the terrain morphing from forestry and grassy to more rocky and mountainous, showing that they were now deep within the mountain ranges that surrounded Mt Frostnip and gave them a sense of their location in relation to Lumaria. This seemed to turn the once grass hedge walls into tall rocky walls instead. <br /><br /><br />Though, by now&hellip; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I&rsquo;m starving! I missed breakfast and now we skipped lunch time!&rdquo; Rook cried, slouching forward upon the ground as the group stopped to take a moment to recoup after finding the next passage to the fifty first floor. Luna chuckled and watched him with a bemused expression as she could hear his stomach rumble again for an uncounted number of times while they&rsquo;d been walking close together at the rear of their squad. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I suppose it&#039;s perfect timing to take our break.&rdquo; Elizabeth stretched out, her fur bushing out with the motion as she sighed further &ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting a little hungry now myself&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Yeah. No point burning ourselves out. Everyone take lunch.&rdquo; Finn told the group. <br /><br /><br />Blake came to sit down close to Rook, &ldquo;Wanna help each other out like usual?&rdquo; The canine asked. <br /><br /><br />Rook knew exactly what he meant, and the Rockruff nodded and huffed out, &ldquo;Yeah I got ya.&rdquo; while pushing himself back up to all fours as Blake turned around. Rook walked up beside the Poochyena and grabbed at the shoulder strap of his backpack with his teeth to pull it down Blake&rsquo;s foreleg, letting the dark furred canine start to step out from it, shaking the other strap down from his other shoulder once he was free of the first. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Now you rocky.&rdquo; Blake grinned at Rook, padding around the Rockruff to do the same as he had done for him.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Thanks dark bro.&rdquo; Rook snickered back at him while he dipped slightly once his first forearm was free of its strap, letting the pack drip over his neck and head for it to fall off with a &lsquo;thump!&rsquo; to the rocky mountain ground, taking the bundled up leaf bag he had tied to it with as it rolled off his shoulder too. <br /><br /><br />Together everyone began to eat their stored lunches. Rook sat between Luna and Blake as casual chatter began with Professor Jack; who as a ghost type, didn&rsquo;t need to eat, deciding to ask Luna, &ldquo;By the way Luna, and I apologize if this is perhaps something you&rsquo;d not like to speak about but I have been curious; what evolution do you think you may choose?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Luna smiled lightly and she flicked an ear, &ldquo;To be honest, I&rsquo;m surprised none of you have tried to ask previously. That&rsquo;s like, one of the number one questions Eevees get asked.&rdquo; She giggled, folding her paws lightly as she was laying on her belly upon the chilly stone. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I think a Glaceon, the slight chill here feels nice&hellip;&rdquo; Luna said lightly, &ldquo;Maybe a Jolteon to help the cities, or a Leafeon or Vaporeon to help with food growth, I&rsquo;ve thought about being an Umbreon to help bring in psychic criminals too&hellip;oh really, I do not know. It is a hard choice to actually make.&rdquo; She looked across them all one at a time, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to describe what it feels like, to have to make a choice to become what you want to be out of so many variable possibilities&hellip;let alone when that choice may then decide how the rest of your life is handled from that point.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a rough time for all Eevee, really.&rdquo; She continued, &ldquo;Although&hellip;&rdquo; Luna grinned, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s always a kind of silly, shared dream we all might have. Every Eevee dreams of being one of the first to find the -next- evolution we haven&rsquo;t already found.&rdquo; She giggled.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Ya mean like growing wings to become a dragon or flying type?&rdquo; Rook asked as he listened. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Exactly. It&rsquo;d be fun if somehow that happened to myself.&rdquo; Luna nodded. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t that be more unpredictable?&rdquo; Finn commented, &ldquo;I know Eevee culture is all about service and duty, but at least after you give your effort you&rsquo;re allowed to do what you want right?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Within&hellip;reason&hellip;&rdquo; Luna confirmed slowly, her head dipping, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what you see from the outside, but there&rsquo;s stipulations on that. You give your time to the organization, protect a city while performing duties for its growth alongside its citizens, and after five years you&rsquo;re given freedom to begin pursuing your own interests. Even if I pass this Rift Test with you all, I won&rsquo;t be able to actively act on becoming a Rifter until five years after I finally choose an evolution and use it to help a city. Further, if something should happen nearby that another group of Eeveelutions is investigating or being handling, no matter where or when, I&rsquo;m obligated to help if I see it and resolve the issue with them before I can return to my own daily life.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Be an Umbreon.&rdquo; Blake piqued up between his nomming bites of his berries then. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re the coolest.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Bias.&rdquo; Finn jipped, to which the canine grumble-growled back at him in mid bite of another berry. <br /><br /><br />Luna giggled happily and swished her tail, &ldquo;I am glad I came to study here with you all. Talking about those kinds of things with other Eevee always gets tense, but you&rsquo;re all so open.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;When it comes to you four.&rdquo; Professor Jack began, &ldquo;You all have a one track evolution, well&hellip;unless we count the different forms Rook is capable of.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be a Midnight. He wants hands.&rdquo; Blake again quipped and Rook chuckled with a look of impishness. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;You were supposed to keep that to yourself, fellow canine&hellip;&rdquo; Rook huffed dryly. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Are you four going to attempt joining the Bright Star Guild as a team? What will you do if you might fail?&rdquo; Luna then asked herself. <br /><br /><br />It was Elizabeth who actually answered this question, quite readily, but only with &ldquo;I am not sure&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />At this, Rook looked at the Braixen in shock and Blake also paused his eating to look over at her. In response, the fox fire type folded her arms over her chest as she began. &ldquo;Do not think I mean bad of you all; but we are all too much childhood friends. Luna aside, our cohesion is because of years of being in the same class together and learning together. We are exactly like almost all other small classes of children who are taught how to make our living using the Rifts, for the last several centuries. The Bright Star Guild has about a 2 to 10 pass rate on their entrance exam, meaning that 8 out of those 10 teams, all made up of Rift Test graduates like ourselves coming from exactly the same schools, completely fail. Being friendly with each other does not determine if we pass or not, otherwise far more teams would succeed in joining.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I always looked at it like it was only a &ldquo;best of the best&rdquo; kind of test.&rdquo; Rook flung his emotion back in response. &ldquo;I mean that&rsquo;s why everyone tries to join it right out the gate right? Gotta have ambition!&rdquo; He stamped his feet to his point upon the rocky ground in front of himself. &ldquo;I honestly always thought we&rsquo;d all join up to try together!&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;What do they even do as a test?&rdquo; Luna tilted her head towards Elizabeth, thinking she more likely had the answer, but then turned her head towards Professor Jack instead. &ldquo;Professor? Do you know?&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I do not, I&rsquo;m afraid.&rdquo; The Rotom floated lazily in the air, eyes narrowed in thought himself, &ldquo;The Bright Star Guild has a rich agenda&hellip;I&rsquo;ve heard that they supposedly have some hand in almost every other guild&rsquo;s activity, but it&rsquo;s a well known fact that they have direct contact with both the Eeveelutions Headquarters and Keeper&rsquo;s Vault. If I&rsquo;d have to hazard a guess, I&rsquo;d suspect they change their testing requirements up based on the needs they have within the Guild&rsquo;s roster. That would make the most sense considering the high level Rifts they tend to survey. They are the leading guild for Rift Research of course&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;All I really meant to say was though, that we shouldn&rsquo;t do this like it&rsquo;s just another day of class.&rdquo; Elizabeth huffed, her stance remained stiff and arms folded. &ldquo;If we wanna be a team, then we need to truly act like one. The Rift Test isn&rsquo;t against bandits. We might run into Wraiths, and those go in for the kill as soon as they spot you.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Have any of you ever seen a Wraith?&rdquo; Luna asked. <br /><br /><br />The four other students shook their heads negatively, and the Eevee continued, &ldquo;I have, but I didn&rsquo;t fight it, I merely was a bystander to one&rsquo;s sudden eruption from an active Rift when I was younger. My blood family of Eeveelutions took care of it quickly and put it down within just a few dozen seconds, but it fought as if it simply desired nothing but to kill and it didn&rsquo;t seem to feel pain.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Whoa&hellip;they don&rsquo;t feel pain?&rdquo; Rook asked with a tone of consideration. Perhaps Elizabeth did have a point, he realized. Bandits backed off if you bite them hard enough, but a Wraith would just bite back&hellip;<br /><br /><br />Luna frowned, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know really, but it didn&rsquo;t seem to really have much of an issue trying to keep walking even though it&rsquo;d had a leg torn off by a lightning bolt at one point&hellip;it just kept wriggling forward towards its&rsquo; next closest target&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br />&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a reason a Rift Test is taken with the likes of an instructor like myself present.&rdquo; Professor Jack stated. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re all purposely thrown into a weak Rift in the hopes that you do encounter a Wraith. I am meant to protect you should it prove too much for you, and believe me, I shall, but I&rsquo;m here to monitor your reactions as a team and as individuals to something that seriously wants you dead.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Pokemon naturally test each other in order to build strength together.&rdquo; The Rotom teacher continued, &ldquo;we battle to the point that our opponents faint and pass out. Once one enters that recovery state, it&#039;s the decency of being a pokemon that we simply leave an opponent to recover and wake up on their own, or their fellows drag them home to recover there. Bandits might steal some of your possessions, but they&rsquo;ll otherwise, at least generally, leave you alive; those that choose to kill anyway are branded by the Keepers and Eeveelutions, and have huge bounties placed on them&hellip;Going up against a Wraith though&hellip;if you take too much damage and pass out, you&#039;re likely going to be killed by its next attack.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />The Professor&rsquo;s serious tone had everyone feeling a moment of tense realization. Their small town was only one part of their massive world; their teacher always tried to give them all the information he could about any parts of the world he knew about during geometry courses, but what he knew was only what he knew. Actually seeing someplace like the Water City of Alon or the City of Star Seers for themselves was another thing altogether. Rifts existed in places all over as well, and almost all of them had groups of Rifter teams that camped out at their entrances, destroying Wraiths that escaped from them constantly. They kept those monsters from terrorizing and destroying the peace and communities that other pokemon enjoyed.<br /><br /><br />Suddenly, it was Blake that broke that tension as he shot up to his feet. &ldquo;I know if I fail the Bright Star Guild&rsquo;s test I&rsquo;m going straight to Au&rsquo;rat! I&rsquo;ll join a gladiator bracket there and build my strength in the tournaments and fights! I&rsquo;m sure once I&rsquo;m a Mighteyna and have a higher level I can make any tests they have cake!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Your overconfidence is both a blessing and a curse Blake&hellip;&rdquo; Elizabeth sighed.<br /><br /><br />However, as Blake snarled back at Elizabeth something about her booksmarts being a crutch to her own adaptability, Rook looked down at the ground he laid on as he thought as well. What would he do if he failed the test? <br /><br /><br />&lsquo;I&rsquo;ve&hellip;not really thought about it&hellip;&rsquo; he thought in realization to himself, &lsquo;Failing just really&hellip;never came to mind. Suppose I always just kind of expected to pass&hellip;&rsquo; <br /><br /><br />He then looked back and forth between all his classmates as Blake kept barking towards the now giggling Braxien; as she took his attempts at egging her on in stride. Luna giggled next to her, but with a slightly more nervous expression as Blake continued to get more intense, while Finn just quietly continued to eat his berries beside her, his eyes closed in that calm manner he always seemed to have. <br /><br /><br />&lsquo;I also always kind of thought all of you would be there with me too&hellip;&rsquo; Maybe that&rsquo;s what always made him think failing was an impossibility. In the years since today, he&rsquo;d grown to rely on them in fights; their tactics had grown around each other&rsquo;s abilities and timing. <br /><br /><br />A key trait to being a Rifter was being able to coordinate with others, no matter how much time you&rsquo;d been around them. You needed teamwork, even with other teams, in order to overcome high level Wraiths. However, Once the Wraith was destroyed, Rifter Teams also then battled against each other for Treasures within Rifts. It was a dance of cooperation and competition known to shake some Rifters into quitting very early into their careers and settling for service jobs in local cities or as fighters in arenas or even as schoolers; as rivals or more experienced teams would take everything before they could claim rewards within the Rifts.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />It was difficult to find companions in a profession where others would fight alongside you, and then attack from your blindside right after for the rights to Treasures.<br /><br /><br />That was something Rook knew that so far, they all lacked. While they had a semblance of teamwork and coordination, they didn&rsquo;t have any combination moves or tactics that revolved around combining special skills and moves, they also didn&rsquo;t have any direct competition. Once, Rook had heard tell from newspapers of a team of four Rifters from Au&rsquo;rat who took down a massive Wraith that had escaped from one such high level Rift in the Spines a few years ago. Beforehand, that same Wraith had taken out nearly seven other teams of notable power level, all from the Bright Star Guild, three of which had tried to fight it at the same time together. It had killed nearly 25 pokemon in total. Death was a constant threat as a Rifter, but that this one Wraith took down so many higher ranking teams had come as a shock to many.<br /><br /><br />That a single, well coordinated team of fighters from Au&rsquo;rat managed to take down what even teams from the Bright Star Guild had had trouble with had been a sign that even those outside of guilds and not Rifters could take down a Wraith.<br /><br /><br />When Rook thought about it though&hellip;he doubted he and his classmates could reach that kind of coordinated power&hellip;<br /><br /><br />&lsquo;I&rsquo;ve just ignored that because I just&hellip;&rsquo; Rook looked at his friends bickering, but with the smile he could see on Blake&rsquo;s muzzle, he knew this arguing was done only in jest and stubbornness, as the other three continued to poke holes in his words. He continued to claim that he&rsquo;d get so strong that in the end, his Bite attack could shatter a Rhydon and they&rsquo;d all wish they could&rsquo;ve stayed on a team with him.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />&lsquo;I just can&rsquo;t think of failure around them. We&rsquo;ve always succeeded when it counted so far, but maybe I&rsquo;m just being too optimistic myself&hellip;to think we&rsquo;d just stay as a team for years to come. There&rsquo;s thousands of other Rifters we all could coordinate better with.&rsquo; <br /><br /><br />Professor Jack caught Rook&rsquo;s eyes, and the Rotom gave the Rockruff a knowing nod and a smile. The Professor didn&rsquo;t need to remind Rook, that as a ghost, he could somewhat sense his feelings, and instead tried to give him an encouraging smile.<br /><br /><br />Rook giggled a little and he let out a huff and closed his eyes while grinning. He understood, what could he possibly do about all that right now?<br /><br /><br />&lsquo;That&rsquo;s right&hellip;&rsquo; He told to himself, &lsquo;Exactly as Mom told me&hellip; &ldquo;That is Then, This is Now, And the Past is the Result.&rdquo; And for my Now, I&rsquo;m confident we&rsquo;ll all be Rifters by tomorrow!&rsquo;<br /><br /><br />_______________<br /><br /><br />With the finishing of their lunch, everyone continued the journey through the remaining floors of the Mystery Dungeon, and after a few more hours, were finally at the 70th floor, which was their point of desired exit. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;All right everyone, you know how to leave!&rdquo; Professor Jack hummed just as they passed onto the 70th floor. They placed one hand upon the wall of the maze next to them, with the canines jumping up onto their hindlegs to do so again, and then lifted the other up into the sky, which was now colored orange with the color of dusk before at the same time yelling out. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Desync!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />That falling sensation fluttered through everyone&rsquo;s bodies again as just like where they had touched the anchor stone, the reality around them shifted and turned, with the once walls, ground and the very sky of the dungeon rearranging itself into the same kind of rocky, mountainous environment, but now the normal, open space of Lumaria instead of a maze. The very wall they had their paws on was the last to change, as it simply fell away from them to fall into place beside them; a rocky wall joining the rocky ground already at their feet. <br /><br /><br />They now found themselves in an open field, though still rather rocky, stony colored and plain, it did have one immediate and potent point of interest. Before them was the base of Mt Frostnip, or at least, the most important point at its entire base. The mountain stretched out for several yards in either direction, the entire mountain&rsquo;s base was about two hundred and fifty miles long, the climb up the mountain to its peak was nearly the same with different elevations along itself! They were now already at quite an elevation; about one hundred miles above sea level, but given Lumaria&rsquo;s atmosphere,(and the Legendaries that helped keep it so), air would not become much of a worry until at that peak. <br /><br />Mt Frostnip was the tallest mountain of Lumaria. As Elizabeth had answered earlier that day, it was once the singular mountain of a continent that, five thousand years ago, had been known as Penta River. In the event of the joining, neighboring lands were pulled towards and joined upon the old continent. Just a few days after it, the Rifts had begun to open, with the Rift of Crossroads being the first known of its kind.<br /><br /><br />Thus, the spot the Rift had been born was what was considered Mt Frostnip&rsquo;s base, close to where the pathways one might begin to take on an attempted journey up it could start. <br /><br /><br />The Rift itself sat close to the middle of an open, wide valley between Mt Frostnip and it&rsquo;s neighboring mountains just about a mile and a half away from where the Mystery Dungeon ejected them. A dark &lsquo;rip&rsquo; within the very air itself, the space and air around this rip rippled and quivered constantly. About fifty feet long and only five feet wide, these tears in space and time had begun to appear throughout the weeks just after the joining. <br /><br /><br />A Rift was like a Mystery Dungeon in looks and function, but was more&hellip;empty and dangerous by nature. <br /><br /><br />Unlike the Anchor Stones of Mystery Dungeons which were placed at either, connected ends, a Rift&rsquo;s Anchor Stone sat inside a Rift in the very center of the Rift&rsquo;s area of space, considered the very center of its Maze. <br /><br /><br />The entrance to a Rift began at the very edges of the Maze within, the walls seemingly spread out from the tear in space into the realm of the maze beyond it. Following the path usually by the same right wall guiding strategy, one would eventually come to the middle of a Rift where its Anchor Stone sat, from there, one could explore other passages to other corners of the Maze. <br /><br /><br />The inside of Rifts varied in size, the higher of level the Wraiths within, the bigger the Maze inside as well. The Rift of Crossroads, being labeled level 15 in difficulty, was approximately 250 miles in radius. So, from the edge at which the Rift opened into the Maze, it was at least a 125 mile search for the middle and the Anchor Stone there. The Anchor Stone could then send you back outside the Rift. It was possible to camp inside Rifts, provided one had supplies for doing so. Rifts lacked any activity of life, the air inside was still and stagnant and although the land mimicked that of the area of land just around the Rift, no other features existed.<br /><br /><br />Once a month for most Rifts and once a year for some others, the Anchor Stones would glow and then the Maze of the Rift would suck in upon itself, with the Anchor Stone seeming to act as a focal point and the tear in space would then suddenly close. About an hour after, the Rift would reopen, and the layout of the Maze within would be completely new and random. This was difficult to research and witness, so there was speculation on what exactly may be happening during this time by Rift Researchers as well, it was one of the last greatest mysteries of the world. <br /><br /><br />This was because it was dangerous to be inside a Rift when it was close to its resealing time. If you were inside when the Rift sealed shut, you became what was known as &ldquo;Lost&rdquo;. No one knew what this meant really, only that anyone caught within a Rift once it closed was just never seen from again, their bodies never found. Truly, it was a term used in the occupation to mean someone had died being caught in one as it closed.<br /><br /><br />When a Rift reopened, many Wraiths also spawned within the Rift, sometimes with a few so close to the entrance that they would escape it and into the world of Lumaria soon after. From Rifts as low level as this one, these Wraiths were usually destroyed very shortly by even bandits or other wild pokemon, while those from higher level Rifts would be taken down by large groups of Rifters who waited for when Rifts closed and reopened. Periodically throughout its life, more Wraiths formed within Rifts, but only some would even manage to find the exit within the time it existed, given the sheer size of the Maze. <br /><br /><br />Treasures were the real goal for Rifters. Oftentimes they were mystical items with enchantments that granted wielders of them special properties and abilities. Some were only one time use and temporary, while very rarely one found permanent accessories that granted a special bonus to one&#039;s stats or access to moves and skills they otherwise would not be able to know or use. Small food items were also sometimes found, and while delicious and somewhat valuable as luxury food, these were only common Treasures in comparison to the magical items. Somehow, when Rifts sealed and reopened, random Treasures formed within the passageways, simply laying in the middle of the twisting corridors! The higher the level of the Rift, the more likely a powerful Treasure would be found inside.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />New Treasures were discovered consistently, with some new kind of object or strange device being found by the month, and Rifters made most of their livings in trading and selling these items to other pokemon no matter their occupation. Most merely sold them to shops and left the matter of finding a buyer to the owner of a business though. When one found something that was entirely new to the market though, that needed to go to someplace rather special for appraisal and finding out what it offered and did.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Think we&rsquo;ll find any Treasure in our Rift Test?&rdquo; Luna asked everyone else as she stared upon the tear in space a few minutes after they had reached it. Finn and Elizabeth began to set up their camp with Professor Jack helping. Being the other pokemon in the group with functioning hands and psychic power, they were simply able to make quicker work of setting up everyone&rsquo;s tents. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I doubt it.&rdquo; Finn said while he drove a stake into the rocky ground firmly with his foot, using a small splash of water from his palm in order to loosen up the dirt and gravel a little beforehand. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Yeah. This Rift seals and reopens once a year, and that was about three months ago. By now some other Rifters have surely picked it clean.&rdquo; Blake huffed beside Rook as they waited nearby the edge of the forming campsite. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Or other students doing their own tests.&rdquo; Professor Jack added right after. &ldquo;As the first ever Rift and one of the lowest leveled ones, the Rift of Crossroads is used widely as proving grounds for would-be Rifters like yourselves! It wouldn&rsquo;t be a surprise if another group just like you suddenly arrived traveling from Au&rsquo;rat or Kintect or heck, even Lumen or Salvis!&rdquo; The Professor listed off nearby cities.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Is there any significant connection between why this Rift is here professor? Why is it called the Rift of Crossroads? This is the site of the joining, correct?&rdquo; Elizabeth paused in her own work as she also turned to face the Rift like Luna was, staring into the deep darkness of the tear. This was all of their first times actually being near a Rift, and although one would hear constantly about them, seeing how the rip in space time simply stood out from everything around it was jarring, in a way. It was hard to believe you could step into it and be fine, if not for the just visible and dimly lit walls of the Maze they could see beyond it.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;There&rsquo;s actually some historical importance to the location of every Rift!&rdquo; Professor Jack answered, &ldquo;However, the importances of most do not seem directly linked, and theories about what connects the locations are&hellip;well, just theoretical at most. There&rsquo;s no proof of it all. The last time I studied those was not so many years ago in Kintect, and I doubt much more has been found out about their history sense.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;A few theories posit that every location a Rift exists was once a location in which the Bright Star, when he existed five thousand years ago, exercised his power. I&rsquo;m afraid I don&rsquo;t have an answer as to why it&rsquo;s named the Rift of Crossroads; naming conventions didn&rsquo;t seem to follow any kind of sense of clarity or purpose when they had first named them. That this location is where the joining was conducted supports that notion, but there are several places where Rifts exist, such as right outside of Au&rsquo;rat, where its well known the Bright Star never once visited and used his power before it came to be. Some will say it&rsquo;s where some manner of event of great importance happened, but that&rsquo;s again not supported by where you&rsquo;ll find many other Rifts just out in the middle of nowhere. There&rsquo;s another Rift actually closer to Maple Town known as the Rift of Origins, even though it is not the first Rift! It however is deep within the earth inside a cave, and is slightly higher level! Your parents should know of that one Elizabeth; as the Mayor of Maple Town, monitoring that Rift and the caves leading to it for a sign of Wraiths is part of his duties.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Have we even found all the Rifts Professor?&rdquo; Rook tilted his head. <br /><br /><br />Professor Jack shook his head, &ldquo;No, we haven&rsquo;t. Guilds and Cities and Rifters are aware of over 70 Rifts in total, but it&#039;s clear there are others still yet to be found, because Wraiths are eventually always sighted out in the wilderness. Teams are sent to destroy them before other pokemon, wild or otherwise, become victims to them, and then the areas they&rsquo;re found at are searched thoroughly for Rifts, but almost always by the time a Wraith is found and seen, it&rsquo;s miles and miles away from wherever the Rift it escaped from is or, as has happened in the past, a completely different Rift than the one it originally came from is found! As Rifters, you&rsquo;re not just an adventurer, you&rsquo;re the first line of defense against Wraiths. If you&rsquo;re not actively participating in clearing out Rifts when they seal and reopen, you&rsquo;re actively looking for new ones in regions not as thoroughly lived in or explored or hunting down rogue Wraiths.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;So it&rsquo;s a constant struggle of monitoring and staying ahead of the reopenings&hellip;&rdquo; Luna said almost sadly. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why many Guilds split the effort and monitor Rifts near them on their own, keeping track of their reseal dates and periodically watching for escaping Wraiths.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Rifters gather by the troves at Rifts about to seal and reopen, both to slay the larger number of Wraiths that are born with its opening and claim the Treasures that form within first. They like to call these large gatherings Festivals. Many will pay respects to the memories of those who became Lost or killed by Wraiths in the past too.&rdquo; Rook continued, recounting the teachings Professor Jack had given them in the past himself. <br /><br /><br />Luna nodded, &ldquo;That sounds like a wonderful time&hellip;again not something I&rsquo;d likely ever be taught in school with other Eevee&hellip;it&rsquo;s now I understand that while my species handles our own unique roles in this society, that everyone else is exposed to the danger of this profession. My duties as any Eeveelution would be relatively safe by comparison.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Yeah but being a Rifter is what almost -anyone- wants to do. It&rsquo;s been what any pokemon looks forward to attempting ever since the first Guilds were established.&rdquo; Finn dusted off his hands as he finished setting up Rook&rsquo;s and Blake&rsquo;s shared tent. &ldquo;These days a pokemon only stops being a Rifter when they feel like they&rsquo;ve done enough to earn a peaceful retirement, or their species is just not cut out for it and better suited to life in the bigger cities.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Rook just then realized something about Professor Jack that he never had before, &ldquo;Hey&hellip;Professor, you&rsquo;re just over 5000 years old right? Were -you- there when the Bright Star was around?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />The other members of the class all turned their heads towards the ghost type, who suddenly paused at the question before he chuckled. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m afraid I can&rsquo;t answer that Rook. I&rsquo;m sworn by oath to my Mistress in secrecy to the specifics of those details&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />The following silence of the student&rsquo;s disappointment didn&rsquo;t last very long as the Professor chuckled soon after, &ldquo;But I can tell you, although I died shortly after for different reasons&hellip;the Bright Star did save my life...quite a few times really.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&ldquo;Whoa&hellip;&rdquo; Blake mumbled, then whispered further to Rook, &ldquo;I bet ghost types hold the secrets to the beginnings of time itself.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Yeah, he told me his Mistress is like, 26,000 years old or something before.&rdquo; Rook answered back in a whisper of his own, to which Blake just kind of gawked in surprise while Luna was speaking to Professor Jack.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Really Professor?&rdquo; Luna had asked in her own sense of wonder as Rook and Blake had their own conversation. &ldquo;What did he save you from?&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I&rsquo;m afraid that would be going into the details I&rsquo;m sworn to secrecy of Luna.&rdquo; The Rotom chuckled lightly, &ldquo;If I break my oath I&rsquo;d burst into flames and my spirit would melt!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;What -could- you tell us Professor?&rdquo; Elizabeth tried to press, while she sat down close to the opening of her and Luna&rsquo;s own shared tent. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;That it had to do with the world of humans.&rdquo; Professor Jack said with a matter of fact tone. &ldquo;And about this world and its struggle before the joining. While the Bright Star had been a key player in that time, he had not been the only pokemon involved. It had been a series of events within both this world and the human world ours was once connected to.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />Rook frowned. Humans&hellip;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Those are all details you&rsquo;ll likely never become familiar with.&rdquo; Professor Jack continued, &ldquo;Unless you search out that information on your own. Everything since before the joining has become ancient knowledge, only knowable as writing in books. Aside from leaders of the Eeveelutions where that knowledge is passed down as stewards of the world for thousands of years prior to the joining, and leaders of the Keepers Guild, and yes, very old ghost types, those details are vastly unknown to the general populace. You&rsquo;ll only likely read about it, and that&rsquo;s if you get access to the libraries those guilds keep such records in. Out of all you, Luna is more likely to learn those details.&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Professor Jack smiled lightly at the assembled students, the Rotom floating down closer to the ground as he waved his antenna slightly at them. &ldquo;Let me tell you a quick story, and then all of you may get to sleep. Besides Rook of course, he agreed to take the first watch.&rdquo; <br />__________________ <br /><br /><br />The Base of Mt Frostnip, at the Rift of Crossroads. <br />1 Day and 22 hours after the Guardians battled and drove Nothing into hiding. <br /><br /><br />Rook sat looking up at the stars overhead in the night sky. This was something he did often in the middle of the night even at home, simply looking out at them from his bedroom window. It was one of the main reasons why he was used to staying up late into the night. He had never needed much sleep to function, and instead he tended to get his sleep late into the night, or in the daytime through quick naps. It was another reason why he had once told Blake, and his mother, that he wanted to become a Midnight Lycanroc. Asides having hands.<br /><br /><br />He rather enjoyed the nighttime. The calmer air felt somehow cleaner, and for some reason the thought that everyone else near him was asleep, even back in Maple Town, made him feel like he was the one that got to experience it solely for himself. He would feel both alone and surrounded at the same time, looking up at the glowing stars that shone in the sky from so far away.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />The Legend of the Bright Star was one Rook was deeply familiar with because of its namesake with stars in general, along with some details of the events from five thousand years ago, but only those most other pokemon would be familiar with as part of schooling too, like the formation of the Eeveelution&rsquo;s Elemental Alliance and the Keepers. He had hoped he could&rsquo;ve prodded the Professor about some of those details when he realized the Rotom might&rsquo;ve been around and alive, but he should&rsquo;ve figured the now ghost type would be bound to secrecy about it. <br /><br /><br />Humans attempting to invade their own world&hellip;all the details about that time were foggy, but that&rsquo;s about the general level that all knowledgeable pokemon knew. It was humans attempting to invade their world, and the Bright Star stopped them. The Human world was destroyed, and their world would have shortly been destroyed with it, if the Bright Star had not then also performed the joining. <br /><br /><br />That was what Professor Jack had also already taught them in school lessons. <br /><br /><br />The Bright Star was a powerful pokemon whose trusted human had betrayed them; hurt them in such a painful way that their very soul was forced to loop in upon itself for them to survive, he became a being whose power rivaled even the strongest Legendaries. The Bright Star eventually escaped their clutches, but shortly after its escape the humans responsible used what they had learned in their twisted experiments to begin draining the life energy out of other pokemon, and used it as fuel for advanced technologies. The following explosion in their technological advancements defied conventional progress, and of course, eventually, the source of that new power was exposed. <br /><br /><br />It was said that Arceus himself had gone into a rage; the very betrayal of the kinship between pokemon and human had left pokemon kind with little choice but to defend themselves, as humans had grown greedy with the knowledge that their pokemon&rsquo;s life energy was so powerful. <br /><br />Their world was created in that moment by Arceus, some 27,000 odd years ago. Gates between it and the world of humans were opened, and millions of pokemon retreated through them before they closed behind them. The Legendaries soon abandoned the world of humans shortly after at Arceus&rsquo; command. The god of pokemon created a barrier between the world of humans and the world of pokemon, and gifted several mirrors that represented this barrier to each Eeveelution family. The Eeveelutions would go on to protect the mirror for the next 22,000 years until the Bright Star reappeared and the joining occurred shortly after.<br /><br /><br />The Bright Star became engulfed in the resulting war between humans and pokemon, a war that only had a few known battles over the course of thousands of years and across several realms of reality. In the legends, it was told that even when slain in battle, the Bright Star rose from death to fight again, and again, and again. It eventually fought and killed its former human trainer, who had injected and corrupted themselves with the life energy of other pokemon to gain unnatural power of their own. They destroyed the Mirrors to open the barrier between their world and the human world, and then they and the Bright Star had engaged in a battle that lasted for a full three days and three nights. Upon their death, the Bright Star performed the joining, and by connecting their realm to that of several others, he subverted the destruction of their world as the human one perished, consumed by a deadly kind of poison, born from the lack of pokemon in their world to control its natural forces. Nature itself had turned against mankind. <br /><br /><br />In the resulting weeks as the Rifts had appeared, the Eeveelutions who had lost their purpose when the Mirrors were destroyed reformed into the Eeveelutions Elemental Alliance, now just commonly called The Eeveelutions Guild, and other pokemon created The Keepers Guild.<br /><br /><br />This was, however, what was told and taught in school. Rook sensed from Professor Jack&#039;s oath to secrecy on it, that details the general public didn&rsquo;t get to know were there too. <br /><br /><br />What did the Bright Star actually do to perform the joining? What had they felt killing their former human companion? Was it vengeance for their own suffering? Did they hate that it had come to what it had? It was, actually, rather difficult to say what was true and fantasy when it came to the Bright Star and the joining. <br /><br /><br />Like Professor Jack had said, the exact details, if written at all, were locked up tight. <br /><br /><br />Rook internally sighed as he watched the stars above him twinkle, &lsquo;Not like I&rsquo;d need to know those things anyway right?&rsquo; <br /><br /><br />A shooting star sped across a stretch of the night sky in response and Rook giggled. It was strange how that almost seemed like some kind of answer to his thought. <br /><br /><br />&lsquo;Nah hehe&hellip;happened why in the past right? Waaaaaaay beyond my time. No need to know.&rsquo; He thought further, before that statement and line of thought was cut by hearing Blake suddenly snort in their sleep behind them. <br /><br /><br />The Rockruff looked back over his shoulder a moment to see the Poochyena sprawled out across not only his own bed but Rook&rsquo;s as well, making Rook stutter a little in exasperation as he saw how his own nest of bed leaves had been pushed and scattered by Blake&rsquo;s feet. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Geeze you always sleep so chaotically Blake&hellip;sometimes wish I&rsquo;d gotten Finn as my bunkmate or Professor Jack instead.&rdquo; he sighed, knowing that more likely it was because the both of them were canine variety pokemon that they&rsquo;d been matched up together for sleep arrangements like these. Elizabeth and Luna were together because they were both girls, and that had left Finn to be matched with the Professor in their own tent. <br /><br /><br />The sudden &ldquo;ZZZCRPOP&rdquo; that sounded made him jump and his head spun about as he tried to locate the source of it, but it honestly sounded like it had come from all around him! He&rsquo;d never heard anything like that before, it sounded like some kind of Electric type move he&rsquo;d also never seen! <br /><br /><br />It was just as Rook looked towards the Rift again that the sound happened to repeat, this time slightly different, &ldquo;CRRRPOP&rdquo; and the tear in space wobbled, its shape shifting. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Wait&hellip;&rdquo; Rook felt his heart skip a beat. Was this a Wraith coming into being?! <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;H-hey! Everyone, wake up! Somethings happening!&rdquo; Rook barked loudly, and even as he&rsquo;d hear everyone rustle and jolt awake around him, with Blake scrambling even more so, the noise repeated from all around him, this time continuing. &ldquo;ZZZPOPPOPCRRRRPOP&rdquo; The Rift continued to shimmer and wobble and shake.<br /><br /><br />It was Finn and Professor Jack who first exited their own tent, with the Froakie rubbing their eyes and tiredly yawning, &ldquo;Rook? What are you yelling about? What&rsquo;s that sound coming-&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Everyone!&rdquo; Professor Jack noticed the same thing Rook was then, the ghost already wide awake as sleep was more just a commodity then a necessity as a ghost. &ldquo;Behind me!&rdquo; Finn&rsquo;s eyes opened in shock as he noticed the Rift&rsquo;s strange behavior himself while the professor waved him behind his body.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Is that a Wraith professor!?&rdquo; Rook shouted, as the Rift popped and made the fizzling noise again. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I-I don&rsquo;t know! Rifts aren&rsquo;t supposed to make that kind of noise when Wraith&rsquo;s escape from them!&rdquo; The Rotom shouted, floating in front of both Rook and Black while Elizabeth and Luna were just then moving quickly out of their own tent and across the camp to get behind where the Rotom had now gathered them. Rook huddled close to Blake beside him as the Rift made another long, crackling noise with several more pops before suddenly, a string of the Rift itself appeared to detach itself from the very tear in space. <br /><br /><br />Like a quick lightning bolt, it struck the ground close by and with more pops and cracks, it began to form a body. <br /><br /><br />Rook was convinced that this was a Wraith coming into being, but as the body formed his eyes went wide. Wraiths were supposed to be smoky in appearance, their bodies light ash in color and resembling strange, other worldly creatures of varying shapes and sizes. The higher a Rift&rsquo;s level, the bigger and therefore more intense and unnatural looking the Wraith was. They had bright green eyes and they would make loud screeching noises of varying tones constantly.<br /><br /><br />This one however, was pure black, its body like a cutout of the world around itself&hellip;and it took the shape of a Midnight Lycanroc.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Hello&hellip;I came here early to wait&hellip;I didn&rsquo;t expect you to already be here&hellip;&rdquo; A dark, cold voice whispered over the wind at them. <br /><br /><br />Rook froze. For some reason&hellip;this voice&hellip;it shook him to his very core. His teammates shivered beside him, but himself, he couldn&rsquo;t even shake. His eyes locked onto the head of the new being before them as the dark stream of energy from the Rift finished building it to the tips of its mane and ears. <br /><br /><br />It could talk&hellip;and without a head&hellip;<br /><br /><br />This was not a Wraith. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;No&hellip;wait&hellip;&rdquo; The voice continued on then, as the body turned towards them. &ldquo;You&hellip;are not them&hellip;you are not the ones I fought before&hellip;there are more of you&hellip;and you&rsquo;re far weaker&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Who are you?!&rdquo; Professor Jack yelled in question.<br /><br /><br />There was only a few seconds of silence, &ldquo;Your energy&hellip;Your voice, I&hellip;I know you&hellip;I&hellip;grrrrrrrrr&hellip;&rdquo; The darkness&rsquo;s hands and paws came to its head to cradle it as it shook, &ldquo;You&hellip;ggggaarrrrrreeeee&hellip;Jaaaaaaaaack&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />The Rotom Pokedex&rsquo;s eyes widened as the dark being in front of them held its head as it shimmered in place, its body flickered and its limbs flailed in wild directions before snapping back into place with paws holding its face, occasionally that head itself snapped backwards in sharp angles.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Jaaaaaaaack&hellip;gggggggrrrrrr Jaaaaaaack&hellip;JACK!!!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;P-professor?&rdquo; Elizabeth stammered from behind the Rotom as the creature&rsquo;s body continued to distort wildly. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;JACK!!! JACK!!! JACK!!! JACK!!! JACK!!! JACK!!!&rdquo; The creature shouted repeatedly, it&rsquo;s voice turning more and more manic and loud with each reiteration. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;HAHAHAHAHA!!! JACK!!! DON&rsquo;T RECOGNIZE ME ANY MORE!!?? IT&rsquo;S ME!! THE ONE THAT -KILLED- YOU!!!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />Professor Jack&rsquo;s eyes widened further, the electronic display of the Rotom possessed pokedex flickered several times. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;HAHAHAHA!!! TURNED INTO A GHOST!!! SERVES YOU RIGHT FOR THE TORTURE YOU PUT ME THROUGH!!! FOR THIS POINTLESS JOURNEY!!! NOW YOU GET TO SEE THE END TOO!!! ONLY FITTING!!!&rdquo;<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Professor&hellip;?&rdquo; Luna shivered from behind as well next to Elizabeth. Even Finn was now shaking. They could all feel it, the level of power this being had. It was far beyond theirs.<br /><br /><br />Rook however, remained still as a rock, his eyes simply fixed upon the things body as it shook and quivered in apparent delight to what it had found. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;C-children&hellip;My S-students&rdquo; Professor Jack stammered, the electronic display of his face flickered again as his arms came up and forward. &ldquo;I have an idea of what this thing is&hellip;and that it is here&hellip;confuses me greatly&hellip;but I promise.&rdquo; He stated, as his two antennae glowed and morphed. <br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Custom Move: Pokedex Manifest No. 681!&rdquo; He shouted.<br /><br /><br />Professor Jack&rsquo;s left arm ballooned and grew into a large round metal shield, while his other antenna grew long and narrow into that of a sword.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I will protect you all from this thing with my very being!&rdquo; He cried. <br /><br /><br />In front of them, the being cackled, leaning back. Its arms released its head as its deep and cold toned voice laughed with unrestrained glee.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;YES!!! LET&rsquo;S DO IT AGAIN!!! LET ME KILL YOU AGAIN!!!&rdquo; It cackled, stomping a foot down upon the ground in front of itself while its upper body snapped back up into position. Reaching up, its paw reached into the space just behind its head, and as it pulled it back up, a long sword-like object of its own was grasped in its paw, although still just as empty and blank as the rest of its body.<br /><br /><br />&ldquo;I DON&rsquo;T EVEN CARE HOW YOU&rsquo;RE BACK!!! I&rsquo;LL KILL YOU AGAIN!!! AND THEN MAKE SURE NO SOUL IS LEFT BEHIND!!! ONLY NOTHING!!!&rdquo; <br /><br /><br />It laughed again, brandishing its weapon in a strange stance, off balance and with wild swings as it began to charge at them. &ldquo;ONLY NOTHING WILL REMAIN!!!&rdquo;</span>",
  "pools_count": 1,
  "title": "Revitilization: Chapter One",
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