As August entered the ruins, the first thing that greeted him was a vast, empty hall.

  The hall seemed to have suffered a powerful impact in the past—one of its walls had completely colpsed, directly connecting it to the ocean outside.

  The remaining three walls were adorned with ancient, highly abstract murals.

  To his left, the first mural depicted a rge gathering of small human figures. They were arranged in a way that seemed to indicate a hierarchy, converging toward the center where a priest-like figure and a king-like figure stood together, holding up a feather.

  August turned his camera toward the mural.

  “Professor Oak, Professor Cerise, can you see this clearly?”

  "Zhhh… Yes, we can… this mural appears to depict an ancient… ritual… zhhh…"

  Due to signal interference, their voices were cutting in and out, but August could still roughly understand what they were saying.

  Shifting his focus, he examined the second mural.

  This one was much more intense. It was filled with symbols of lightning and violent storms. In the center of the mural, a city was surrounded by towering waves. Among the people depicted, some were accompanied by Pokémon, all in a posture of prayer.

  August could faintly recognize a Pikachu and a Chansey among them, but the rest were drawn too abstractly to identify.

  It seemed to illustrate a city being devastated by disaster, with people desperately praying for salvation.

  "Zhhh… zhhh…"

  The communicator crackled again, this time even worse than before. August couldn’t make out a word.

  No matter—he had recorded everything on video. They could analyze it properly once he resurfaced.

  Finally, he looked at the third mural.

  Here, the central figure finally appeared.

  A highly stylized Lugia was depicted at the top of the mural. The symbols of lightning and storms had vanished, and the ocean had returned to calm. Below, the humans and Pokémon held hands in celebration.

  A feather was shown gently drifting down from the sky.

  Judging by the sequence of events, August realized he had been looking at the murals in the wrong order. The correct sequence should be 2 → 3 → 1.

  However…

  “Isn’t this Lugia way too big…?” August muttered, staring at the massive figure that dominated nearly half the mural.

  Compared to the tiny human figures below, its size difference was even more exaggerated than a Wailord next to a Magikarp.

  "Zhhh… Ancient civilizations often exaggerated the size of their deities… don’t be surprised… zhhh…"

  Professor Oak’s voice came through the communicator.

  “Understood, Professor Oak. I’ve recorded all the murals. I’ll proceed to the next chamber now.”

  With that, August guided Dragonair and Dragonite deeper into the ruins.

  Unlike the damaged main hall, the next room was completely intact.

  Since sunlight couldn’t reach this far down, the chamber was dimly lit.

  More importantly, all signals were completely blocked. No matter how many times August tried, he couldn’t get through to Professor Oak.

  “Well, that’s that.”

  He refocused on his surroundings.

  At the very center of the chamber stood an altar.

  According to Blue, this was where she had found the Silver Wing.

  Swimming closer, August examined the structure carefully. It was made of stone, with a feather-shaped indentation at the top—clearly designed to hold a [Silver Wing].

  Since Blue had already taken the feather, the slot was now empty.

  Out of curiosity, August pced a [Silver Wing] back into the indentation and waited.

  Nothing happened.

  He even tried inserting a [Rainbow Wing], but still—no reaction.

  This was a bit disappointing.

  So the [Silver Wing] isn’t actually a key?

  “Maybe it originally had an effect, but the mechanisms within the ruins have decayed over time. Only the [Silver Wing] itself remained intact due to Lugia’s power.”

  Thinking back to the crumbling structures outside, August found this to be a reasonable theory.

  Shifting his attention to the walls, he saw, just as Blue had described, strange inscriptions covering their surfaces.

  However, upon closer inspection, he noticed something unusual—some of the symbols looked slightly different from the others.

  He quickly took out his phone and captured images of all the inscriptions.

  Then, approaching the wall, he reached out and touched one of the characters.

  The moment his hand made contact—

  The once-motionless symbol suddenly opened its eyes.

  Just as I suspected—Unown!

  August watched as the Unown, startled by the sudden contact, trembled slightly.

  He immediately released his [Viridian Power], sending out waves of calming energy.

  Sensing the peaceful intent, the Unown quickly settled down and curiously observed August.

  “Can you tell me what this pce is?” he attempted to communicate with it, hoping to gain insight into the ruins from its original inhabitants.

  The Unown blinked, seemingly confused by his words.

  “…Yeah, I figured.”

  August had anticipated this outcome.

  After all, these Unown had likely been dormant for centuries. The fact that they could even react at all was already surprising.

  Temporarily leaving the floating Unown alone, August continued exploring the chamber.

  As he searched, he eventually noticed something buried in the corner—a chest.

  It had been casually discarded, half-buried under a pile of rocks. If he hadn’t been searching carefully, he might have missed it.

  The chest’s metal lock had long since corroded. With just a slight pull, it crumbled into dust.

  Opening the lid, August found three items inside.

  One was a fossilized Pokémon egg.

  Another was a small block of bck metal, its material unknown.

  The st was a crown so fragile it looked like it would break apart at a single touch.

  Using his [Viridian Power], August attempted to sense if the egg contained any life.

  Nothing.

  It was a dead egg.

  The only possible way to revive whatever Pokémon had once been inside would be through fossil restoration technology.

  As for the crown—it was likely a [King’s Rock]. A rare item, but nothing unheard of.

  However, being an ancient artifact, it was far more valuable than modern mass-produced versions.

  “…But this metal chunk…?”

  Despite being submerged in seawater for who knows how many years, the bck metal had no signs of rust or corrosion.

  Curious, August reached out to pick it up—

  Only to find that he couldn’t lift it.

  “Huh? This thing’s heavy?”

  Unconvinced, he gripped it with both hands and exerted more force.

  After struggling for a moment, he finally managed to lift it.

  Judging by its weight, this fist-sized metal block had to weigh dozens of kilograms!

  Handing it to Dragonite for safekeeping, he pced the fossilized egg and [King’s Rock] into his bag.

  Just as he was about to leave—

  He turned around and froze.

  Dragonite and Dragonair were also stunned.

  Before them, a massive swarm of Unown—at least a hundred of them—hovered silently in the water, all staring at August.