Pokemon Paldea [331-332] (Patreon)

Chapter 331: Golurk and the Bloom Doom

"Also, although during the Paldea Empire the nobles and the emperor were so extravagant that even high officials had their tomb chambers built extremely sturdy…"

"If possible, it's still best to finish this quickly. After all, this structure has probably been buried beneath this blazing desert for at least a thousand years; how sturdy it still is remains unknown."

"Besides, you wouldn't want to get buried alive, would you?"

Raifort's tone was a bit flippant, but Lucas knew she was using that to defuse her nerves.

Without wasting words, Lucas simply nodded slightly. Holding a Poké Ball, he let his actions answer.

Raifort took a deep breath and opened the already-rotten great door. Having been the vanguard the whole time, she flashed with nimble movements to Lucas's back. When their eyes met, she showed an awkward yet polite smile.

"."

Lucas gave her a helpless look, accepted his fate, and walked forward. He passed through the doorway into a vast, empty space.

Even a high-powered flashlight couldn't fully illuminate the surroundings—evidence enough of how large the space was.

But extreme spaciousness also meant heightened danger.

Crouched behind Lucas, Raifort craned her neck to look around, beam sweeping the darkness.

Aside from a few meaningless murals on the walls recounting the tomb owner's amorous exploits, the place looked devoid of useful information. Yet Raifort's instincts—ex–tomb raider, now archaeologist—told her it wasn't that simple.

Danger often appears at the moment you relax the most.

Sure enough, when her beam fell on four circular floor tiles ahead that looked ordinary but bore odd patterns, change erupted!
Whether the light had triggered a mechanism, or it was inevitable the moment they set foot here, who could tell—

The four identical tiles flared dazzlingly, and in the next instant a huge round object, patterned exactly like the floor stone, rose up—like an enormous Pokémon egg!

"As expected. Though modern Paldea has no distribution of Golurk, the old Paldea Empire, which frequently contacted the outside world, did obtain the technique to make Golurk guardians and placed them in tombs and ruins."

"Rich as sin, huh? Four Golurk guardians for your tomb—just how many bribes did you take while alive?!"

Raifort shouted through the suit's comms to warn Lucas, while griping at the lavish, nameless high official she'd never met.

The egg seemed to complete its hatching: bright purple cracks spread in an instant like a spiderweb.

Four brilliant white-violet halos burst across the cracked egg, and a violent shockwave swept outward. In the blinding glare that could dazzle, four massive giants of earth appeared as if just born, materializing in the wide chamber!
Thanks to the suit's glare protection, Raifort's vision held.

Staring at the four hulking brutes, she cried, "Golurk giants were city-defense cores made by the ancients. When they awaken, it's time to fight—they'll indiscriminately attack any living thing!"

"These ones look at least three to four meters tall. Ordinary Golurks are only about 2.8 meters—these are special within their kind. Be careful, Mr. Lucas!"

Lucas had already sent out Serperior, which coiled to shield them from the shockwave. He nodded slightly, wasted no breath, and said in a low voice, "Serperior, we end this fast. Leaf Storm!"

Serperior's long body slipped nimbly into the ring formed by the four giants—so fast Raifort couldn't even react.

She wanted to ask if not sending out Dragonite to help was really okay, but remembered she was a novice at battling. Better to trust the pro.

Keeping her mouth shut and not making trouble would be contribution enough.

All four giants fixed on Serperior boldly entering their range.

Serperior raised its proud head. It looked less like it was surrounded by them than like one serpent surrounding four golems.

On what must be their faces or heads, dazzling radiance gathered and became thick, black-violet beams of dreadful energy. The air trembled as the beams tore through it, shrieking toward Serperior at center!

Locked onto by four Hyper Beams, Serperior showed no tension.

Its tailtip lifted; emerald leaves gathered and, in a blink, became a terrifying blade-storm. The spinning leaves even sheared through energy beams; the gale shredded the beams into a rain of beautiful sparks, making the scene look more like a Contest than a sudden battle.

Seeing Hyper Beam so cleanly neutralized, the four giants seemed to grow angry. They clenched massive fists, which burst into roaring flame.

Clearly, they'd judged Serperior's typing and chose Fire Punch!

Power and size at a certain level make speed less necessary—that truth was embodied in the giants' Fire Punches.

Each swing sent a searing fist-wind first; that wind alone might match air currents from a typical Flying-type—and it came scorching hot from the flames.

Yet what would be hard for most Pokémon to dodge—even one punch—Serperior, faced with four giants and four pairs of fists, evaded entirely through extreme agility and snakelike footwork, even luring the flaming blows into striking the giants' own allies.

Boom—crash!

While one giant whiffed again, Serperior seized the opening, coiling like a spring and vaulting through the gap with astonishing bounce.

Before the four could lock on again for Hyper Beam, Serperior's Leaf Storm erupted once more, wringing pained looks from the massive foes.

One giant bellowed thunderously, making the chamber tremble.

This time, not just the fists were aflame.

Its whole body burst into blazing fire—preparing to use Heat Crash, banking on its massive size against Serperior to settle the fight in one blow.

Serperior narrowed its eyes—no chance given. Its tail became a keen green blade aimed at the giant's chest to throw it off balance.

Just then, Lucas—silent since his initial "finish it fast"—spoke again: "Don't hit its chest. Aim for its feet!"

Serperior's gemlike red eyes flashed. Its long-held trust obeyed instantly; the Leaf Blade, mid-swing toward the chest, was forced under precise control to switch targets and cleave at the feet!

In a flash, the giant primed for Heat Crash lost balance and howled from pain in both feet, toppling backward and interrupting its windup.

Serperior didn't spare it a glance, relying on terrifying combat awareness to handle the other three with ease and counterattack methodically.

Raifort opened her mouth, then thought better and closed it.

Her gaze toward Lucas and Serperior held new shock—and thoughtful respect.

She'd been about to warn that the golem's chest housed the construct that sealed and drove its massive energy. Destroying that would send its internal energy berserk.

But Lucas plainly knew; he'd let Serperior solo, and when he did give orders, it was at decisive moments. So this is what a truly strong Trainer is…

As for Serperior's battle poise—even her swiftest, Zoroark and Gengar, would likely fluster and get hurt under a four-giant onslaught of such oppressive force.

Serperior, however, perfectly embodied "I, a single serpent, have surrounded the four of you."

Barely two minutes in, the tide had fully turned.

After one last Leaf Storm boost, Serperior eyed the still-sturdy giants and, unusually, smiled.

Let's see if you can withstand this.

Under Raifort's astonished gaze, the bracelet on the outside of Lucas's suit burst into golden light, which gathered onto Serperior. Its already formidable presence climbed higher still, enough to make the giants display fear.

Sticking to the swift-victory plan, with Serperior at +6 Sp. Atk from Contrary-boosted Leaf Storms, Lucas didn't hesitate to choose the strongest move in hand and wipe their HP bars in one go!

"Bloom Doom."

As Lucas's calm voice fell, the ground around them was carpeted in a brilliant sea of flowers.

A heartbeat later, a firefly-like mote rose from every blossom.

Individually, each glow seemed feeble, with barely any energy ripple—like a light that would snuff out at a breath.

But what if every flower across this vast space kindled a light?

The giants' sight was drowned in endless luminescence; each mote detonated violently upon them, explosions rolling again and again. The supereffective barrage stripped their strength, drawing unwilling, pained roars.

Serperior stood at the sea's heart, like a sovereign, delivering judgment.

Chapter 332: The Journal and the Method to Purify the Treasures of Ruin

The Grass Z-Crystal on Lucas's wrist went dim, as if completely spent.

He knew it was on cooldown. Next, it would recharge by absorbing sunlight and moonlight from the heavens—but they'd have to leave the tomb first.

With Serperior at +6 Sp. Atk and the Z-Move "Bloom Doom" built on Leaf Storm, the giants' bulk meant nothing; their HP was erased in one sweep.

Defeated, their massive bodies dissolved into bright violet motes, illuminating the chamber, then surged like a river back into the patterned circular floor tiles.

Lucas's expression didn't change, but the fatigue tugged at his brow; a bad feeling crept up.

Don't tell me… a second wave?

Fortunately, the ancients could make constructs like Golurks and Magearna, but not conjure energy from nothing and recharge in one second.

After the motes returned to the floor, there was no sign of a reappearance.

The phenomenon did pique the pair's interest.

Modern Trainers who use Golurks see them collapse like other Pokémon when defeated, not flow back into the floor to some unseen space.

After a brief discussion, they agreed:

The Paldea Empire likely had some technology akin to modern Poké Balls, letting the bound golems return to their ball after defeat and reawaken once recharged.

Alternatively, the Empire modified them to be deeply bound to the land they guarded, giving them a chance to rise again even after defeat.

Either way, with Lucas and Serperior's true finishing, the four giants fell before they could affect the structure.

The battle aftershocks Raifort feared might destabilize the tomb never materialized.

Past the vast space, two passages lay ahead, their destinations unknown.

Pitch-black and deep, they were like a beast's gaping maw, ready to swallow any who entered.

Raifort's left hand shot out to bar Lucas and asked him to wait.

Since he'd handled the fight, choosing between the two and ensuring safety fell to her.

She didn't rush into either passage. From her pack, she pulled several gadgets and deftly installed them at the arching edges.

As she worked, she explained:

"This is to prevent a door from sealing behind us after we enter, trapping us inside—an absolute must."

Lucas watched her bustle about, releasing Zoroark and Malamar to assist, and understood her sensitivity to these arch-like doors.

Like in horror or tomb-raiding films:

The protagonists enter a corridor, a door slams behind them, locks engage, and they're forced to press on.

Raifort was preventing exactly that.

Moments later, her prep finished, she exchanged a glance with Lucas, casually chose the left passage, and moved to explore further.

By her logic, left or right didn't matter.

There was a 50% chance of success—or a dead end. Even if it dead-ended, they could return and take the correct path.

The only cost was time spent testing.

Within the passage, their silhouettes receded with the beam until swallowed by darkness.

A short while later—

"Something's off. Way off."

They'd walked maybe ten-plus minutes. By Raifort's understanding, after the final defense—those golems—the true treasure or important chamber should be near.

But this corridor, all twists and turns, dragged on; she hadn't spotted a single trap—totally undefended.

That didn't match the earlier gauntlet of devious traps—and four giant guardians. Now you're playing innocent?

Only when the flashlight reached a terminal wall did she confirm it: dead end.

Except—

"What's that?"

Eyes narrowed against the light, Raifort peered at a strange stone at the end, puzzled.

It was a dirt-yellow stone riddled with cracks. It looked like some common roadside rock—utterly unremarkable.

If it hadn't been alone in a place with nothing but walls, floor, and ceiling, she wouldn't have noticed it.

She was about to say something when a hand reached over and snapped off her flashlight. Another waved in front of her visor: be quiet.

Raifort stiffened slightly.

She didn't know why Lucas reacted so strongly, but she kept her mouth shut, followed his look, and silently backed out of the left passage.

The round trip wasted over half an hour.

Back outside, they found at the passage's edge that a stone-door-like slab had tried to slide shut, only to be jammed tight by Raifort's precautions.

So the left was indeed wrong.

Seeing her puzzled look, Lucas explained, "That thing just now is a Keystone—the vessel for a Pokémon called Spiritomb."

Legend says Spiritomb is formed from 108 souls. With malevolent spirits mixed in, it's notorious for evil deeds.

There are good ones—like Cynthia's Spiritomb.

But between the passage's uncanny chill and the Keystone's ominous aura, Lucas judged the Spiritomb at that dead end wouldn't be easy to handle.

Ghost-types are tricky and unpredictable. Lucas hadn't brought Mimikyu this time; all told, better to act like they never saw the stone and leave.

Luckily, the tomb seemed untouched. The Spiritomb inside was likely asleep; as long as no one made a ruckus to wake it, it wouldn't stir.

Learning that stone was a Keystone, Raifort was shocked—and relieved.

If she could help it, she didn't want to face a Ghost-type famed for eerie powers—especially Spiritomb, dreaded even among tomb raiders.

"Let's take the right passage this time."

They spoke in unison.

This corridor was shorter, and the main chamber appeared at its end as expected.

They opened the heavy stone door; accumulated dust fell. Their suit visors handled it fine—no risk of respiratory issues.

Inside, it looked less like a tomb and more like a big room composed of many little rooms.

Raifort eagerly searched for the room holding written materials.

Lucas, meanwhile, looked around.

In the center stood a sarcophagus draped in silks and jewels—testament that the owner had lined his pockets in life.

Around it lay burial goods—pottery, jade, bronze—finely crafted, relics of the Paldea Empire's glory, and catnip for collectors.

But neither Lucas nor the now washed-hands Raifort had any interest in those.

Lucas shone his beam along the walls.

As expected, there were abstract murals and ancient text he couldn't read.

Still, he could guess the gist:

As Raifort had said—accounts of the tomb owner, a close attendant to the emperor, and his amorous history—nearly useless.

Then Raifort's excited voice rang from the second room on the left.

"Found it—his journal records what happened!"

"Absorbing desires and malice over time, the auspicious tools in the emperor's hands fully inverted—becoming the four Treasures of Ruin."

"The crisis at the Paldea royal city was suppressed by a Pokémon tamer, and the four were sealed in four shrines with eight stakes each."

"The story is true—it really happened in the river of history!"

When Lucas stepped into the room strewn with parchment and old books, he saw Raifort's eyes shining as she murmured with irrepressible delight over a yellowed parchment.

Clearly, she was thrilled that the legends were real.

"Right, maybe other journal fragments mention clues about the 32 stakes and the sealing shrines!"

She resumed searching.

Lucas frowned slightly. "Once you find the stakes and shrines, what then—break the seal?"

". There should be other parchment notes with fragments."

Dodging the question, she picked up another parchment and began to decipher the script.

Silence fell until she finished and read aloud:

"The Pokémon tamer used their life to subdue the four Treasures of Ruin. Later, the tomb owner contacted the tamer's descendants and learned more."

"One Pokémon per shrine; the eight stakes around each suppress the ruinous power."

"In other words, pull all corresponding stakes and you can release the Treasures."

"But to pull the stakes, one must be free of distracting thoughts…"

The more she read, the tighter her brow knit.

She coveted the Treasures as the prize of her dreams, to prove their existence and claim them.

Could someone like her really pull those stakes?

Seeing her fall silent, Lucas stressed, "Paldea is peaceful now, thriving. If you unseal them rashly, those Treasures, twisted by selfish and greedy desires, will rampage across this land again."

"You can't break the seals unprepared—that would be acting purely for yourself."

Raifort flushed, unable to refute him.

She wanted to witness the legend, best to claim it—but had never considered the consequences.

Yet this goal drove her to go straight, earn credentials, and join Naranja Academy. How could she give up now?

She knew if she insisted, Lucas would subdue her.

She'd enjoyed the convenience of his company, but couldn't avoid the changes it brought.

Was there no way to have both?

Unwilling to relent, she kept reading—until she found something that made her light up with renewed hope. "Quick, look—somewhere in this room or tomb there should be a bamboo slip recording something important!"

"What's on it might be a perfect way to satisfy both of us!"

Lucas held her gaze, said nothing, and began searching.

He soon found it.

Amid grave goods near the sarcophagus lay a bamboo slip steeped in age.

He picked it up and handed it to the eager Raifort.

He'd looked at the writing—couldn't say he didn't recognize the characters; he just couldn't make heads or tails of the glyphs.

Moments later, she finished deciphering and shared the tomb official's true mission in meeting the tamer's heirs—and the unfinished work the first tamer couldn't complete.

After the royal city's destruction and during reconstruction, the emperor whose actions had awakened the Treasures fell gravely ill and died before rebuilding was done.

His successor was, for once, a wise ruler.

Knowing his father's sins, and wishing to atone, he sent the tomb's owner to contact the descendants of the tamer who had sealed the four Treasures.

Hence the frequent mentions in the journal.

The journal was fragmented.

The bamboo slip recorded all causes and outcomes.

The 32 stakes weren't merely suppressors; their true purpose was, via their connection to the Treasures' sources of curses, desire, and malice, to purify them at the root.

Once purification was complete, the Treasures would revert to auspicious instruments of peace and harmony; then the seals could be opened, letting the four Treasures of Ruin—see the light again.

Unfortunately, the far-sighted tamer died of exhaustion after subduing them. The second-generation tamer was far weaker, and the sudden death created a gap in knowledge.

Even with imperial help, the tomb official and the second tamer wandered many lands but could not find the necessary item to cleanse the cursed desires and malice polluting the artifacts.

"…The necessary item is a clear water that purifies all defilement. Find it, pour it evenly over the stakes until thick black smoke rises—then one stake is purified."

"Purify all eight corresponding stakes, then go to the shrine's site, and you can unseal the now-restored auspicious Pokémon."

"These were things the first tamer mentioned, but we never grasped what that 'clear water' was. Even with the Empire's intelligence network, we could not learn anything useful from other realms."

"We crossed myriad rivers and mountains, searched nearly ten years, and found nothing. The sorrowful emperor, fretting over seals that might fail for future generations, passed away."

Raifort finished the final lines, looking troubled.

She loved history and legend, but like the second tamer and the tomb official, she had no clue about this "clear water that purifies all defilement."

Lucas, however, felt a spark of insight.

Perhaps his question had prompted Raifort to keep searching here—otherwise they wouldn't have found this bamboo slip, absent in the games, nor a chance to purify the Treasures' corruption.

On "purification," he recalled several Pokémon capable of it.

Like Suicune cleansing tainted waters.

But if limited to "clear water that purifies all defilement," one figure surfaced: a black, mermaidlike body with flowing hair—

Tapu Fini, colleague and counterpart to Tapu Bulu, who taught Eldegoss and Comfey special Grassy Terrain, and taught Mudsdale how to Rototiller the richest soil.

Tapu Fini, Water/Fairy, guardian deity of Alola's Poni Island.

Tapu Fini rules water and dwells deep within Poni beneath thick fog, revered and feared.

If Tapu Lele was someone Lucas preferred to avoid, Tapu Fini in some sense was even more so.

Tapu Fini manipulates water and conjures fog.

To avoid injury, it prefers to fog minds, causing foes to become confused and self-destruct.

The fog has another power: it lets people or Pokémon see the departed most precious to them.

Like in the Sun/Moon anime: Mallow entered Tapu Fini's mist, met her late mother, then encountered Shaymin, possibly her mother's reincarnation.

Ash's Litten saw the Stoutland that had died and learned Fire Fang from it.

Though reluctant, Lucas had long thought of meeting Tapu Fini.

To resolve the Dragonite Leader's heart-knot, aside from Celebi and Dialga—unpredictable in their comings and goings—Tapu Fini's fog, at a fixed abode, was easier.

And Tapu Fini had yet another power:

It could create special water that purifies body and spirit, removing defilement.

This "Purifying Water" matched the bamboo slip's "clear water that purifies all defilement" exactly.

If Tapu Fini's Purifying Water was that very thing, it explained why the second tamer and tomb official never found it—

Alola then was isolated from the world.

Even in the last century, Alola only began frequent exchange with other regions.

The logic fit perfectly.

To obtain the water, one must endure Tapu Fini's mists and earn its recognition.

"…That's almost too coincidental."

Lucas widened his eyes, stunned by the chain of coincidences.

Looks like another trip to Alola needs to go on the schedule?