Pokémon Court

Two days later.

At the port in the Fiore region, Terrance looked around and stepped out from the crowd.

"Terrance, where are we going next?"

"Next..."

"Next, we are going on our own." Terrance said to the Rotom Pokédex.

In the span of two days, Terrance had flown from Alola to Sinnoh, and from Sinnoh taken a ship to Fiore. Now, he was already very close to Nightmare Island. From here, he could ride Altaria to get there.

"Looking forward to it, Roto~" The Rotom Pokédex had never seen Terrance's Mismagius before, but before Mismagius had left Terrance's team, most of its data had already been recorded by him.

That data had now been given to the Rotom Pokédex for storage, so it shared Terrance's anticipation for how Mismagius might have changed.

Riding a Flying-type Pokémon to cross the sea was a taboo for ordinary Trainers, but Terrance had ignored this taboo more than once or twice. At the end of the day, it all came down to strength—before taking such a risk, you had to consider whether you had the ability to cross the sea.

The answer was obvious—Terrance did have that ability. So, after arriving at a remote shoreline, he summoned Altaria. In a single leap, their figures took to the sky.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~

Soaring over the vast sea, Terrance braved the wind and waves, and began to speculate inwardly on how much progress Mismagius had made.

Would this "illusion expert" end up surprising him?

"This sea is still as chaotic as ever..." Terrance looked down at the splashing water and surging waves, then quickly pulled his head back.

Although he wasn't afraid of heights, looking down too long still gave him a strange, uneasy feeling.

After flying for some time, Terrance finally saw the distinctively shaped island, surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs. A smile crept onto his face.

"Altaria, speed up." Upon seeing the island, Terrance buried his head in Altaria's feathers and urged it to fly faster. In the next instant, the wind and waves grew even fiercer.

...

Nightmare Island.

Central Cave.

In the pitch-black cave, faint glimmers of light flickered.

An eerie figure, resembling a ghostly sorcerer, floated in the air, chanting a mysterious incantation.

As it chanted, invisible waves pulsed outward from the cave, spreading in all directions with the cave as the center point... expanding… expanding...

The special incantation created sharp soundwaves that swept like a storm through the bodies of nearby creatures, penetrating them one by one and devouring their spirits.

As the chanting came to an end, the figure hidden in the darkness opened its yellow eyes and slowly floated outward.

"Mis~magius~"

A deep, far-reaching sound echoed through the air. As Mismagius floated out from the cave, several Pokémon gazed at it reverently, as though they were looking upon a "god."

These Pokémon, escorting numerous yellow fruits, approached Mismagius as if presenting an offering.

Upon seeing the yellow fruits, Mismagius nodded, let out a cry, and dismissed the Pokémon that had gathered.

"Stench Berry—ranked fifth worst-smelling fruit in the world, oh my god it reeks, Roto~~!"

Just as Mismagius was receiving the fruits, a surprised voice rang out, making Mismagius freeze for a moment before swiftly launching a Shadow Ball in the direction of the sound.

The floating dust obscured Mismagius's view of direction from which the voice had come from. It was about to continue using its illusion skill, but stopped abruptly when it heard the next voice—then showed an expression of overwhelming joy.

"Long time no see, Mismagius. Have you been doing well?"

A familiar voice called out. From within the dust, a figure emerged, covering his mouth and nose, a bitter smile on his face.

Beside him, a red Pokédex hovered, eyeing Mismagius with curiosity.

"Mis~magius~" Mismagius let out a cry. In an instant, it transformed from the "godlike" figure that had just commanded a group of Pokémon into a composed and reliant companion, arriving by Terrance's side.

"These past six months, have you been training that move the whole time?" Before leaving Nightmare Island, Terrance had left Mismagius with sufficient tasks.

One of them was to develop a new illusion skill—following in the steps of "Flash," "Darkness," "Chaos," and "Hypnosis."

An olfactory-based illusion skill centered around the special Berry—the "Stench Berry"—discovered by Terrance during his exploration of Nightmare Island.

Stench Berry—ranked as the fifth worst-smelling fruit in the world. While technically edible, it has almost no nutritional value. Its main feature—aside from being smelly—is simply that it's smelly. The person who gave it its scientific name didn't even bother with subtlety and straightforwardly called it "Stench Berry," which says a lot… about just how foul it really is.

Even in the wild, no Pokémon would eat this Berry unless they were on the verge of starvation.

And yet, Mismagius had spent nearly half a year with this fruit that was essentially a "chemical weapon," all in order to most accurately replicate its original stench as part of a new offensive technique.

"You've worked hard," Terrance said gently.

The stench of the Stench Berry was even more intolerable than the odor released by a Gloom. That Mismagius had been able to persist and complete the training task he left behind without any supervision filled him with joy.

"Although the smell is awful, the training itself wasn't that hard."

As long as it could overcome the stench, the rest of the training wasn't especially difficult. Even so, the fact that Mismagius had persisted with this regimen for half a year, sticking to a regular training routine, was truly commendable.

"Mis~magius~" Mismagius shook its head firmly, signaling that this was something it ought to have done.

The path to strength has no shortcuts.

Terrance had seen the moment when multiple wild Pokémon had offered the Stench Berrys to Mismagius. He hadn't expected that in such a short amount of time, Mismagius would be able to establish such authority on the island.

It seemed that its illusion skills played a major role. Compared to suppressing them through strength, illusion techniques inspired far more fear among wild Pokémon.

Next, Terrance asked Mismagius about its growth. What surprised him most was that he had arrived at the perfect time. Over the past six months, although Mismagius had started off absorbing Fear Energy slowly, its absorption rate had increased as it matured. Now, all the concentrated, dense Fear Energy across the island had already been consumed. Only scattered, drifting energy remained—these were harder to absorb in a consistent way.

In other words, Mismagius, a single Pokémon, absorbed over 90% of the island's resources.

With such an opportunity, Terrance didn't even need to think to know just how incredible Mismagius's progress must be.

Looking at Mismagius's color, physique, and aura, Terrance found himself unable to calm his thoughts. Based on his original estimate, Mismagius should not have been able to digest so many resources in just six months. The only explanation was that Mismagius had undergone extreme training, relentlessly pushing itself, forcing its body to absorb the nutrients to the fullest, and transforming that nourishment into its own strength.

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