110: Chapter 110 Hunting Gods (Part 2): Volcanoes and Ice Cores

As Zapdos was locked into the reading cage, the battle situations at the Seafoam Islands and Mt. Ember were also pushed onto the main control screen.

The Power Plant was like a precise surgery, while the other two battlefields were more brutal, like reaching into a beast's throat and pulling out its teeth one by one.

The first to explode was the Seafoam Islands.

That sea area, which was already snow-covered all year round, had now been crushed by rampaging divine power into a massive ice disk emitting a ghostly blue cold light.

Before the waves could crash against the reefs, they froze into ice spears in mid-air, then smashed back onto the sea surface in rows.

In the observation lens, several old patrol boats that hadn't fully evacuated were stuck in the ice, their hulls like bone fragments caught between a beast's teeth, emitting teeth-grinding cracking sounds with the slightest movement.

And at the very center of the ice disk stood that out-of-control Articuno original ice core.

It no longer resembled a normal life form.

When its icy feather phantom unfolded, layers of nearly solid frost mist surged across the feather surface; deep within the two white-blue core spots, there was no anger or reason to be seen, only a coldness that wanted to drag everything into stillness.

With every vibration, the surrounding air emitted small, dense crackling sounds, as if the temperature itself was being forcibly snapped by it.

"How beautiful."

Blaine sighed softly in front of the screen, his tone sounding as if he were looking at a perfect scalpel.

Lynn ignored him.

His gaze fell on a lower position on the Seafoam Islands sea surface.

A black figure was rising through the wind and snow.

That was the Articuno that had been reconstructed by the abyss.

Unlike the ice core phantom above that maintained the natural order, there was no sense of holiness to be seen when it flew.

Its feather color had completely changed from ice blue to a dark black with a withered luster, its edges covered in a layer of fine, sharp gray-white ice crystals, like something dug out of a grave after being frozen to death.

As it swept across the sea surface, the cold frost falling behind it was nearly gray, and even the broken ice floating on the water surface lost its luster.

"It will instinctively reject the bird that took its original position," Lynn said, "and then realize that the other party has no intention of returning to its place at all."

The moment he finished speaking, the two figures above the Seafoam Islands collided.

All flashy preparatory movements were skipped.

Even probing was skipped.

The moment the Abyssal Articuno and the original ice core locked onto each other, they instinctively lunged at each other.

When the original ice core vibrated, large swaths of icy feathers exploded in the air into countless sharp ice shards, slicing down obliquely like a rainstorm; the Abyssal Articuno didn't dodge at all, charging straight into the wind and snow, letting most of the ice shards hit its wing surface and chest.

Those icy shards, which were enough to nail a normal pseudo-legendary to death, only left fine cracks on its body, and were then immediately devoured bit by bit by the death-like frost on its surface.

"It is devouring."

Sabrina's mental ripples swept across that image, her eyes moving slightly.

"This kind of cold has long since changed its flavor," Lynn said. "The original ice core freezes the environment; this one freezes vitality. It's both cold, but they are very different."

On the screen, the Abyssal Articuno withstood an entire round of the ice shard rainstorm and charged in front of its opponent.

The original ice core seemed to notice the incongruity for the first time.

It abruptly raised its altitude, wanting to turn the high sky into its own domain, and then opened its mouth to spew a breath of extreme cold that almost washed the entire image into white.

The sea surface, the air, the camera—everything lost its color at this moment, leaving only a ghastly white that could slow down time itself.

Lynn, however, raised his hand slightly at this moment.

"Tyranitar."

The coast below the Seafoam Islands, which had originally been frozen as hard as an iron plate, suddenly exploded with a fissure.

A giant claw like obsidian reached out from under the ice layer, crushing an entire patch of ice on the spot.

The next second, Abyssal Earth-Bound Tyranitar stood up from the broken ice and seawater, with whole chunks of ice it had forcibly shattered still hanging on its shoulder armor and back spikes.

It didn't even look at the white dead zone spreading down from the sky, opening its mouth to let out a roar that made the entire island shake.

"Sand Stream"

Sand actually rose on the Seafoam Islands.

It was a rock dust storm that Tyranitar had forcibly whipped up using rock layers and crushed ore.

The sky full of gray-yellow particles rolled up into the sky against the snowstorm, as if someone had dismantled a mine and thrown it into the original ice core's home field.

The original ice core's extreme cold breath was instantly stalled.

It was at this instant.

The Abyssal Articuno streaked out obliquely from the center of the wind and snow, its claws precisely locking onto the opponent's right wing joint, its entire body slicing across like a black ice blade.

Amidst an extremely ear-piercing tearing sound, large swaths of blue-white feathers and blood encrusted with frost flew away together.

The ice core phantom let out a shriek that sounded like a furious long cry; the outer bird form lost its balance and plummeted straight toward the ice disk below with half a shattered ice wing.

Catching it below was Tyranitar.

The King of Monsters raised its head, and the moment that ice core phantom was about to crash down, it slammed its hands together, as if catching a massive piece of ice-iron falling from the sky.

With a boom, the entire ice disk collapsed simultaneously.

The ice layer beneath Tyranitar shattered inch by inch, but it still forcibly held that ice core phantom in its arms, letting the opponent's sharp beak and claws scrape white marks onto its shoulders and back.

"Hold it down."

Lynn's order had just fallen.

The Abyssal Articuno had already dived down again.

It gave up on keeping its distance, directly turning itself into a black ice spear, nailing down from the high sky into the broken wing root of the ice core phantom.

The image of the Seafoam Islands became completely garbled at this moment.

All that could be seen in the end was a swirling mass of ice mist, the huge black shadow of Tyranitar pressing down on the ground, and a series of shrieks from the original ice core that were becoming weaker and more chaotic.

"That's enough," Lynn said calmly. "It can't fly anymore."

While the Seafoam Islands battlefield was being suppressed, another main screen had already been burned to a glowing white by Mt. Ember.

It was more straightforward than the ice field.

Calculations were gone.

Traps were gone too.

Only biting and devouring remained.

Above Mt. Ember, Moltres was like a sun hanging low to the mountainside.

When it flapped its wings, golden-white flames spilled out along the wingtips, and sparks quickly condensed into fire cores surrounded by scorching halos.

They landed on the mountain wall; the rock layer first turned red, then white, and finally melted through from the middle on the spot.

The entire area around the crater looked as if someone had forcibly uncovered a second layer of subterranean fire, and the air was so hot that even the lens was slightly distorted.

And above this purgatory, the Skeletal Aerodactyl was circling at high speed, hugging the heat waves.

Its appearance created a stark contrast with Moltres.

One was like a myth still burning.

One was like remains crawling out of a mythical grave.

Moltres was obviously more irritable than Articuno and Zapdos, and looked down on this "dead thing" before it even more.

Its first lunge almost sealed off half the airspace; the sky full of holy flames formed a fan shape and pressed down, as if to burn the entire sky along with that bone dragon into ash.

But the Skeletal Aerodactyl didn't dodge at all.

It even deliberately went to meet it.

The golden-white fire waves slammed between its bone wings and ribs, the flames shining through the gaps in the skeleton, illuminating it like a specimen on fire.

But that was all.

It was only a skeleton; there was no place for burning or charring to take hold.

Those holy flames representing purification and judgment landed on it, only to be immediately entangled, slowed down, and devoured by that layer of death energy deep within the bone gaps that was almost black.

Blaine tapped his fingertips on the console, staring at the screen, and grinned.

"Truly disgusting."

"It suits it very well," Lynn said.

Above Mt. Ember, the Skeletal Aerodactyl took advantage of that head-on intake of fire to forcibly cut into the inner circle of Moltres.

Then it opened its mouth.

It avoided the throat and bit toward the connection between the neck and the right wing, the position closest to the flow of the fire core.

With one bite.

Even the screen seemed to shake along with it.

Moltres let out a long cry filled with rage and pain; its entire body twisted violently in the high sky, and large swaths of holy flames spewed out from around the wound, like a furnace that had been bitten open.

The Skeletal Aerodactyl, however, wouldn't let go, spreading its wings and using the force of the opponent's struggle to press down hard, forcing both top-tier Flying-type individuals toward the rolling crater.

"It is absorbing," Sabrina said softly.

"Mm," Lynn nodded. "The more vigorous Moltres's fire is, the more valuable it is."

This battle was more like feeding.

Biting off the opponent's core fire energy bit by bit and stuffing it into its own skeleton that had already died once.

Moltres was finally afraid.

This fear was even more obvious than the injury.

Because it discovered for the first time that its "divine fire" was only worth as fodder in front of this enemy.

It abruptly spread its wings, attempting to pull up the fire waves of the entire crater and push itself and the opponent away.

But it was at this moment that Lynn gave the final order.

"Stop it."

The rock wall on the flank of Mt. Ember exploded with a roar.

Over a dozen heavy binding stakes that had been set up in advance flipped up simultaneously; black chains with heat-resistant coatings designed for high-temperature environments shot upward from different angles.

These chains could only hold the Legendary Bird for an instant, but that instant was enough.

Moltres had just pulled away half a body length when its right wing and tail feathers were successively entangled by three chains, its speed stalling.

The Skeletal Aerodactyl completed its second lunge on the spot.

This time, its entire body hung on the opponent's back, its sharp claws digging into the thinnest gap between bone and flesh, while its fangs bit back into the same spot, biting down violently.

Moltres's long cry came to an abrupt halt.

All that remained in the lens was a large expanse of platinum fire flow being forcibly torn open, and dark red blood lines spilling out from within.

"That's it."

Lynn said faintly.

"Both sides are severed."

On the Seafoam Islands side, the original ice core had been pressed to death by Tyranitar and the Abyssal Articuno from above and below in the shattered ice disk, its outer ice wings bent at an ugly angle.

On the Mt. Ember side, Moltres was pressed firmly against the edge of the crater by the Skeletal Aerodactyl, the holy flames around the neck wound having significantly weakened.

With this, the battlefields for the two Legendary Birds and one divine position remnant were all brought to a close.

Power Plant: Zapdos was locked down by the reading cage.

Seafoam Islands: The original ice core was devoured and extinguished by the Abyssal Articuno.

Mt. Ember: Moltres had its vital point torn open by the undead bone dragon at close range.

Inside the Abyssal Hall, there was a brief silence for a few seconds.

That silence stemmed from a heavier fact: things had crossed a line.

From this moment on, the war in Lynn's hands had exceeded the scope of what ordinary trainers could understand.

Two regional-level divine individuals and one forcibly excavated divine position core had all fallen into his palm.

Blaine was the first to break the silence.

"Drag them back?"

"Drag Zapdos and Moltres back," Lynn said. "Feed the ice core from the Seafoam Islands to Articuno."

He focused his attention on the three battlefield screens that were gradually stabilizing, a hint of satisfaction emerging in his eyes.

"Natural guardians?"

"From today on, their true bodies, remnants, and authority are only fit to stand before my throne."

Almost at the same moment these words fell, all coastal monitoring equipment suddenly issued alarms collectively that were sharper than before.

Red.

The screen was full of red.

Porygon-Z's voice was faster than usual for the first time.

"Higher-level energy intervention detected."

"Target origin: Off the coast of Johto."

"Overall ocean current displacement is abnormal; the sea level is rising as a whole."

"Speculation: The core individual previously suppressed in the deep layer has made a formal response to the three Legendary Birds' abnormalities and battle losses."

Lynn didn't ask for the name.

Because he knew who it was.

The next second, the coastal transmission feed was forcibly cut into the main screen.

What was seen in the image no longer looked like the sea, but rather an entire sky rising up toward the land.

Behind the pitch-black wall of waves, a silvery-white outline, clearer and more complete than any time before, slowly surfaced from the deepest part of the storm and tsunami.

Just by revealing half its back, the air pressure of the entire open sea had already caused the coastal towers to bend in rows, like a string of wheat heads pressed down.

The real big fish had surfaced at this moment.

When Hunting Gods (II), Volcano and Ice Core came to an end, Kanto still maintained a superficial stability.

That layer of stability was as thin as a piece of paper soaked through by rain.

If Lynn reached out his hand one more time, he could tear the rift behind the paper for everyone to see.