PARAGON

  Hisui Incursion Arc [30]

  Chapter 82 : Riley vs Dialga

  Realm of Time

  Cobalt light stretched out as far as the eye could see, lapping and oozing across the infinite cosmos like the shallows of a great galactic ocean. Strands of matter slithered through the air like amoeba, fading in and out of sight with every blink.

  Riley could not help but gape.

  He could see Dialga, many Dialga, countless Dialga, streaking through the esoteric realm like comets, impossibly far away. Yet, it almost felt like he could reach out and touch them, and hold them in his palm. But they, like the rest of this place, remained quiet. Only a faint ringing, like the chime of some far off bell, could be heard.

  Riley was floating, yet when he tried to stand, existence pooled beneath his feet, and then there was ground. He took a step forward, and more light coalesced around his foot, appearing wherever he desired it.

  With his new battlefield set, Riley turned his neck up.

  Dialga—Alpha Dialga—loomed before him, and he’d glanced up just in time to see the portal they’d just come through close behind it. But Dialga looked different now. The metallic parts across its body seemed to have vanished, yet its limbs were longer; it looked less like a quadruped animal, and now more like an extraterrestrial god. The core on its chest now appeared to be lodged in its elongated neck, and it pulsed at the same beat as the world around it. It was difficult to tell because of the dubious lighting of this realm, but its skin also appeared darker.

  “You had a better chance on the mountain.”

  Riley’s eyes widened and he raised a hand to his head. “You can speak…?”

  “Is that so surprising?”

  Riley supposed not, but then again, all it’d done back at Mount Coronet was roar and fire beam after beam at him.

  “This is my home, where my strength is greatest. You have no chance of defeating me here.”

  Riley clenched his teeth involuntarily. “Don’t think you’re invincible. The fact that we’re here means you were scared you’d lose without drawing out more power.”

  “It was your friend alone who marred us, if just barely. Not you.”

  Thanks for the reminder.

  “Why are you serving Volo?” Riley demanded. “You don’t seem to be under his direct control! Why obey him willingly?”

  Dialga remained unmoved. “The Platebearer is of little consequence. We serve at the behest of the Paragon.”

  Riley’s eyes widened. “Giratina…? Why…?”

  “For the same reason your own pokémon serve you.”

  Riley frowned. How did Dialga know he even had pokémon, considering they’d been left behind in the future? Was that the extent of its mastery over time? But, wait…it was saying… “Giratina is your master…? As if it’d captured you in a pokéball…? Just like that?”

  “Not just like that. But close enough. The power of the Paragons are rivaled by Arceus alone. To them, we are little more than cells of power to be wielded as they see fit.”

  Riley narrowed his eyes. “My pokémon are not mere cells, nor does their power belong to me. They are their own beings, separate from me.”

  “Don’t mistake me, Guardian. It is not as if we are being made to act against our own wills. This is just the natural order of things. As certainly as time flows ever onward, so too are pokémon pledged to the Paragons.”

  “It sounds like slavery to me. A creature as powerful as you bowing your head and doing as you’re told? Are you nothing but Giratina’s pup?”

  “Trying to inflame my emotions won’t work, Guardian. And the Paragons live in another echelon of existence compared to us. Shall I deem you a slave as well for submitting to gravity?”

  Riley snorted. Is that what the Paragons were? Creatures of such power their supremacy was a law as unbreakable as gravity? Then why are we even trying to collect the Plates and challenge them?

  No. This was no fool’s task. This was the dying wish of King Aaron.

  Aura flared to life around Riley’s arms and fists. “One question. Can you see the future, O Master of Time?”

  Dialga stamped its feet, sending ripples hurling outward. “I do not need clairvoyance to see the certainty of your death.”

  Dialga’s eyes flashed, and Riley blitzed to the side. A spike of Diaga’s realm had twisted together and shot out to impale him from thin air. A nova to Aura blazed around him and he flew forward, spikes of cosmic energy shooting out behind him.

  “Useless!” Dialga roared.

  Despite the void around him, Riley saw as the edges of Dialga’s realm began to bend toward him, galaxies and distant quasars shining angrily as they fell toward him with a terrifying rumble.

  Isn’t this a bit overkill?! Riley urged more Aura into his limbs, but Dialga did not appear to be getting any closer, while his attack was. He could barely even perceive what was hurling toward him, but it felt as if an entire mountain or ocean was about to be dropped on him.

  Riley glared at Dialga, who remained in place, staring him down with those arrogant eyes. Change your appearance however you like! For all this strength…for all this power…you’re still…just…a pokémon! Dialga! The Temporal Pokémon! A dragon and steel type! His eyes were on Dialga’s core. The way it jutted out, it looked just like a boss’ weak point in a video game. It couldn’t be more obvious.

  Supercharging an Aura Sphere, Riley hurled it forward as he moved. It tore across the cosmic void in an instant, a trail of blue fire in its wake, and slammed into Dialga’s core, and for just a moment, the dimension stabilized. As smoke poured off Dialga’s core, it soon became clear Dialga had sustained no damage.

  Riley spared a glance at the edge of reality rapidly collapsing toward him. It isn’t this entire realm Dialga is controlling! It’s just part of it! A tiny part of it! It’s not the only Dialga here! I just have to outrun it!

  As he thought it, Riley felt the “ground” beneath him fade and disappear, and he grunted, almost tripping. Of course it won’t let me keep my foothold. Realizing that, Riley shifted the allocation of his Aura and continued forward, flying. You may be the master of time, but you’re a dragon before everything. You were a dragon at the beginning of everything. A prideful, pompous, dragon!

  Riley felt the skin on his face dry and stretch as he increased his velocity, plowing across the cosmos as a gleaming azure comet, crackling with Aura. He was glad he’d decided to train his Aura alongside Ash; he would’ve never been capable of this during the fight against AZ’s forces.

  Cobalt light brimmed around Dialga’s form and it suddenly zipped backward across the gleaming void, putting more distance between them. It opened its maw and launched a blistering shaft of energy toward him.

  No you don’t! Riley increased his speed even further, tearing out of the path of Dialga’s Roar of Time. Blood leaked into his throat but he swallowed it and pressed on. I just need to get near it!

  As the cosmos crumpled behind him, Riley shot out of its collapse just in time, positioning himself above Dialga in a flash of azure.

  Blinding stardust burst outward from the point of contact between the two edges of reality, a high-pitched keening blasting outward in a cacophonous nova.

  Blinding light burned Riley’s back and he felt blood leak from his ears, but he ignored it, fully focused on carrying out the next stage of his ludicrous plan. Dialga glared at him from below, sneering in challenge.

  “Elemental Colossus!” Riley roared.

  From deep within him, Riley unsealed the lock over the power he’d been granted. A flood of power surged into his veins, down to the tips of his fingers, blazing to life within his eyes. The sensation was euphoric, so overwhelming it nearly made Riley black out, but he shuddered and forced himself to remain on task.

  A pure white sheen overtook Riley’s body before rippling outward. His eyes burned blue as pure energy blazed to life around him, whipping around him in a searing inferno before coalescing. Lightning crackled across its radiant surface as Riley clenched his fist.

  A pure white avatar towered over the Alpha Dialga, its body and head gleaming with white light, save for its azure eyes, Aura leaking from its edges in a sharpened stream.

  “What is this?” Dialga demanded. “Impossible! You—“

  Riley’s colossus brought its fist down, smashing Dialga in the face, and the legendary dragon hurled downward like a rock, sparks flying from the point of impact. Dialga roared, turning in the air and rocketing back up towards him, fury blazing in its eyes. It opened its maw and unleashed another Roar of Time, but Riley swiveled around it, and launched his massive avatar onward, pulling back his arm for another punch.

  A cloak of swirling energy engulfed Dialga as its velocity increased, and Riley urged himself faster to meet it. As the two collided, the twin novas around them crashed together, each titanic power grating against the other with the force of a small star. In a realm of zero gravity, neither side had the advantage, but using his other hand, Riley grasped one of Dialga’s spearlike legs. The dragon’s eyes widened, the power of its Dragon Rush faltering around it for just a moment. Lightning surged across the colossus’ arm, and Dialga’s veil shattered, Riley’s fist slamming into the dark core in its neck.

  Dialga coughed as it spun away. “H-How? You are no Platebearer! How do you command the power of the Electric Plate?”

  Riley allowed himself a grin, though his colossus had no mouth so Dialga couldn’t see it. “A gift from a friend. A break-in-case-of-emergency type thing. Though it became an emergency the moment you appeared.” Ordinarily, there’d be no way Dialga could hear him, considering he was currently nestled safely within the avatar’s chest, but Riley had a feeling Dialga would hear his voice. This was its realm, after all. Nothing could escape its notice here.

  “Weakling! You could not face me with your own power so you borrow from another?”

  “Indeed,” Riley wheezed. “I’m not nearly strong enough to face you alone. I’m…not like them.” He’d said it to Sabrina once before, but even back then, that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

  Riley was the weakest among them.

  Ash and Sabrina were both like forces of nature, their bodies and souls oozing copious amounts of Aura at all times. Riley had to fight tooth and nail just to barely keep up with them when they weren’t even trying. And King Aaron had tasked him with supporting Ash on his Platebearer quest? How?

  The only thing that kept him going was the belief that King Aaron would not request the impossible.

  But just because Riley himself was not a force of nature didn’t mean he did not have the potential to command the power of one. And it did not mean he should wallow in self-pity and refuse to ask for help from his friends, even the ones he was meant to be guiding.

  That was the conclusion Riley had come to.

  And this was the result.

  Dialga snorted. “This is blasphemous. Only the bearers of the Plates should wield Arceus’ power beyond Arceus himself.”

  “I am a Guardian. We wield Arceus’ power every day.”

  “Only in its raw, untamed form! It should not be possible for a mere Guardian to reshape Aura into that of a specific type. Not even your king was capable of that.”

  A pang of sadness shot through Riley and he glared, the colossus responding accordingly, Aura flaring in its eyes. “King Aaron was a Platebearer himself. It’s not a skill he ever needed to cultivate.”

  “And you think you will succeed in a field your master never even touched? Your hubris will be your undoing. You overestimate your king, and yourself!”

  Riley’s colossus shot forward, readying another punch, and Dialga blitzed through the cosmic void, leaving a trail of glittering cobalt in its wake. As Riley launched another earthshattering punch toward Dialga, the dragon’s form wavered and it teleported behind him. As Riley turned, a barrage of deep indigo comets streaming turquoise fire screamed across the cosmos, slamming against his body and forcing him back. He instinctively raised his arms to protect himself, yet the force of each Draco Meteor hit his body like a truck, threatening to sever his command over the colossus.

  C’mon, Riley urged. I can’t hold this form forever! I need Dialga to delve deeper into its move pool! I need what lies within its time!

  His plan still wasn’t complete. The colossus alone could not defeat Dialga. But Riley was banking on the dragon’s pride pushing it to want to end the fight quickly. Would it really let a weakling like me tie it up for so long?

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  As the storm of meteors ended, a Roar of Time screamed toward Riley, and he barely had enough time to lean out of the way before it ripped past him in a blinding shaft. Knowing he could not spare even a second to catch his breath, Riley surged forward again and powered a kick into Dialga’s midsection. The dragon howled, crumpling backward.

  C’mon! Show me the time I want!

  Dialga screamed, and the stars and galaxies around them seemed to brighten, adding their ethereal essence to the Alpha dragon’s unbridled fury. Riley felt his stomach turn at the sheer breadth of Dialga’s power, yet this was exactly what he wanted, so he steeled himself.

  “SINK NOW, GUARDIAN, INTO AN OCEAN OF DESPAIR FROM WHICH YOU WILL NOT RISE!”

  Light began to seep out from behind Dialga, gleaming outward and racing past Riley like a river. As it got brighter and brighter, the cosmos itself seemed to get swept up into the unstoppable current, stars, planets, comets, and galaxies all whipping past him in a phantasmic blur. As the light around him grew so bright it looked like nothing more than a tunnel of psychedelic colors, impossible to describe with the human eye, Riley felt his consciousness tear away from his body violently.

  Then it stopped.

  Everything stopped.

  Sight, sound, and sensation all vanished, leaving Riley alone in a pitch-black void. This was not death. He could still hear himself think, and he repeated a mantra silently in his head as he awaited what came next.

  The Plate.

  The Plate.

  The Plate.

  Seize the Plate.

  He smelled it first. Smoky rain. Pungent earth. Burning grass. Blood and filth.

  Color blossomed across his vision, a new reality cascading together like buckets of spilled paint. Wind, fire, and rain roared to life around him, and he felt it buffet against his skin.

  Riley’s fist closed around the soft ground, and he opened his hand to reveal a handful of blackened soil. Rubbing it between his fingers, he raised his head.

  Lightning cracked overhead, flashing over a ruined field ringed by a forest of smoldering trees.

  “Oh, dear.”

  The voice came as a dull echo, as if Riley was hearing it through several layers of glass.

  “Not that I ever doubted your strength, but challenging the King of the Aura Guardians and a fully-fledged Platebearer at the same time may have been a tad foolish, your Grace.”

  Riley’s eyes widened as a shock of horror blitzed through his body.

  Across the clearing stood King Aaron and AZ, both sporting a smattering of bruises and other injuries from their climactic final battle at Rota. Ash sat out of the way near the tree line, and he wore a similar gape as Riley, alongside his pokémon and King’s Aaron’s Mega Lucario.

  Shadows dripped to the ruined ground in front of King Aaron, melting away to reveal a man clad in all black, holding the hilt of a dagger that protruded from King Aaron’s chest. He grinned and pulled it out, leaving King Aaron to stumble forward.

  “Sir Aaron!” Ash cried, catching him as he slumped to the ground.

  Sweat spilled down Riley’s skin, his eyes and mouth dry as he took in the scene playing out before his eyes. Even as Pikachu fired lightning at the attacker, Riley simply stared blankly ahead, his gaze locked on King Aaron, whose body flickered as if it were little more than a hologram. His face twitched and his breath came in short bursts.

  “No…” he moaned, crawling forward. “No…”

  Time seemed to slow as he got closer to the men, the expanse of burned grass stretching impossibly between him and his king. Riley crawled forward like he was possessed, yet the air seemed to thicken and solidify, and it soon felt like trying to swim through molasses.

  What is happening? Riley clenched his teeth and forced himself onward. “King Aaron!” he yelled.

  But King Aaron did not acknowledge him, nor did Ash or AZ turn in his direction. Their movements were as sluggish as his.

  Riley glared at King Aaron’s attacker and renewed his push toward them. That’s the man called Zagreus! The traitor!

  Gathering Aura in his palms, Riley hurled two Aura Spheres toward the dark Guardian. But instead of flying toward him, they exploded the moment Riley conjured them, azure smoke blowing past him, swiftly consumed by the surrounding storm.

  Time has slowed! Riley thought, frustration boiling inside him. I can’t…get close!

  Just as he thought he was about to break a bone from pressing against the invisible wall so hard, he suddenly lurched forward, time once again moving normally.

  No, it wasn’t moving normally.

  It was moving faster.

  Riley barely had time to comprehend Ash, Aaron, AZ, and Zagreus’ movements again before their bodies became so fast he couldn’t even tell what was happening anymore. Alongside the resumed battle, the fire around the clearing spread at lightning speed, engulfing the forest with a horrific roar. A blinding explosion flashed before him, searing his eyes before he even had a chance to shield them. Riley screamed, and even that sounded demonic; his body and voice both sped up. His every movement was a mere twitch, leaving him seizing on the ground like a newborn fawn, not even able to stand as the world hurled forth beneath him.

  He thought he saw himself for a moment, but he was gone before he could make sure. The sky above flashed and burned with a terrible light, as if the heavens themselves were falling. The ground shook with the force of an earthquake and the forest around them had now completely burned down, leaving only the blackened skeletons of their former trunks. All the while, an ear-shattering rumble assaulted Riley, and it only got louder by the second, drowning out his own screams of insanity.

  Then, just as Riley was sure he was going to vomit, time slowed again, this time, back to normal. Riley’s eyes watered, black spots dancing in his vision and he groaned, clinging to the ground as if it was the only guarantor of his psyche’s stability. Forcing himself through the feeling of death that penetrated him to the bone, Riley stared ahead, shivering.

  With the forest gone, he could see Cameran Palace smoldering in the distance, and beyond, the towering Tree of Beginning bathed in a violent light.

  “What are you doing?! You couldn’t possibly—“ AZ roared.

  The sky suddenly turned blue, the azure of Aura blazing like divine fire in the sky. Through the blinding incandescence, Riley saw King Aaron’s silhouette within the eye of the storm, Aura roiling around him, his long hair billowing in the hurricane-force gales. Then, two thin strings of Aura shot from his finger, one of them impaling AZ in the chest.

  The entire scene was incomprehensible. Yet Riley knew exactly what was about to happen. Summoning the dregs of strength remaining within him, he surged forward toward the two men, but his gaze caught something else.

  In the distance, a great mass of light, ensnared by King Aaron’s peerless Aura, smashed into the Tree of Beginning. Fissures and cracks webbed across its surface instantaneously, gigantic pieces of it breaking off and avalanching downward. Before it, Cameran Palace crumbled to dust, and a moment later, everything turned white as the decimation engulfed all of Rota.

  “NO!” Riley bellowed, tears streaming down his face.

  As the Tree of Beginning shattered apart, Riley felt his body get thrown back, and his remaining senses were utterly voided.

  After an indeterminate amount of time, Riley was woken by the smell of fire, earth, and blood.

  “Oh, dear.”

  A knife plunged into King Aaron’s chest and blood dumped from the wound, splashing onto the ground. He coughed, and more blood sprayed from his mouth.

  Agony wracked Riley’s head, pain surging through his entire body, and he found it near impossible to breathe. “King…Aaron,” he moaned, whimpering. I’m going insane. My head is splitting apart… My only reprieve from this nightmare is another nightmare… Death…destruction…despair… I…

  I…

  Once again, time started to slow, and Zagreus’ grin began to leak a slow, hellish chortle. His sallow lips stretched impossibly high on his face, his eyes curling into thin arcs. The world seemed to melt around them, darkness and light churning together in an incomprehensible haze.

  Riley clamped his eyes shut, but visions of the bloody King Aaron and the demonic visage of Zagreus assaulted his mind all the same. There was no escape from the nightmare. He tried to summon an Aura Sphere, and surprisingly, he felt his body respond. Glowing Aura spun together in his palm and Riley cracked his eyes open, wrinkling his brows upon seeing Zagreus. Him… At least him… If I can just kill—

  “That’s not why you’re here, is it, Sir Riley?”

  Riley’s eyes snapped open, and the gray oblivion around him stilled, color slowly filtering back in. The fiery forest opened around him again, soon followed by the rest of the scene, its actors frozen in place.

  Within Ash’s arms, the piercing stare of King Aaron bore into Riley.

  “M-My King…?” Riley sputtered.

  “Keep your wits about you, Sir. You were nearly annihilated there.”

  Riley’s heart ached as King Aaron’s voice flooded his mind. The Guardian King’s mouth wasn’t moving, yet his words transmitted all the same. “My King…how…? Is this…real?”

  “I’m afraid there’s no time to address that. You orchestrated these circumstances. You cannot allow the opportunity to slip through your fingers.”

  Riley swallowed. This was a situation he’d dreamed of since King Aaron’s death: the chance for one final conversation with him. So many things he wanted to say, but chief among them… Why?

  Why did you destroy the Tree of Beginning?

  Why did you charge me alone with helping the Origin Child?

  Why did you believe I was capable of helping him?

  Those questions and more ripened and withered in a moment on his mental vine.

  “Y-Yes,” Riley said, pulling himself to his feet. “You’re right.” He began to limp forward, his whole body aching as if he’d been thrown in a washing machine.

  “Voices, memories, souls… These things exist beyond time. Exactly as you foresaw, Dialga is attempting to obliterate you by withdrawing your darkness and forcing you to witness it in an endless loop. What Dialga did not consider was the power that rests dormant within that darkness. Within you.”

  “Do not mistrust your strength. Do not doubt your conviction. And above all, do not question the faith your friends have in you. You cannot summon annihilation at will. Would it surprise you to learn I could not either, without the Plates? It is beyond our ability. But this is no cause for insecurity, Sir Riley. Power manifests differently in all of us. Once you emerge from this battle victorious, I think you’ll come to truly understand that.”

  “I would be remiss if I did not commend your brilliance. Your ambition and determination melded together to produce the germ for a truly terrifying stratagem. I don’t know if it’s something I could replicate under similar circumstances. Certainly, Giratina will remember you for this. On that point, I highly suggest you don’t rest on your laurels. Continue to push onward. Even if it’s just to chase your friends. Against your own assumptions, I think you’ll find yourself keeping a closer pace to them than you expect. Do not keep comparing yourself to me, Riley. What you seek is possible.”

  Riley stopped in front of King Aaron. The Guardian still hadn’t moved, frozen like the others. “Thank you, my King.” He began to turn away.

  “Leaving me behind so soon? I may be decrepit, but I’m still quite powerful. Take some of my Aura with you, won’t you?”

  Without turning back, Riley smiled grimly. “Forgive me for saying so, my King, but there’s something here more powerful than your Aura.”

  He heard King Aaron laugh behind him, and Riley swallowed, a lump of grief in his throat. He forced himself onward, away from King Aaron. As he passed Zagreus, he did not acknowledge the traitor with even a glance.

  Before long, he stood before the towering AZ, his face twisted in thinly repressed anger.

  And he continued past him as well. Each step across the ruined grass felt like a mile, but finally, Riley arrived at his destination.

  Embedded in the ground was a humongous greatsword, its edges jagged, the entire blade gleaming an effulgent white.

  Exhaling, Riley raised his arm and clasped a hand around the sword’s thick hilt. Immediately, he shuddered as the sword’s depthless power flooded his body. Grunting, he ignited his Aura around his arm and hand, then, with one fell swipe, wrenched the sword from the ground

  Time to end this illusion.

  Grasping the sword in both hands, Riley hurled the sword downward with all of his strength. Upon contacting the ground, vicious cracks webbed out around him, cracking the ground, trees, and sky alike. As the burning Rota crumbled into shards of otherworldly glass, Riley closed his eyes.

  I will not fail you, my King. I promise.

  Fire, flora, smoke, and soil all dissipated in a void of gray fog, and that too soon filtered away, plunging Riley back into the familiar cobalt cosmos of the Realm of Time.

  Gripped in the hands of his Elemental Colossus was AZ’s towering, pure white Fairy Plate blade.

  “I-Impossible!” Dialga screeched, a gleaming shadow hanging over its massive body. “That was naught but an illusion!”

  Riley’s avatar rumbled as the massive sword swung through the air, arcing over his head as he raised it. “Sorry, Dialga, but you shouldn’t have shown me that memory. You may be a master of time and space, but I am Guardian! I hold command over Arceus’ essence in its purest form. An illusion it may have been, but I turned it into reality!” If only for a few moments.

  “Lies! That is not the true Fairy Plate! An imitation! Blasphemy!” Fear saturated Dialga’s every word.

  As the sword reached its apex, Riley hurled it downward again, aiming for the core on Dialga’s neck.

  “Damn you!” Dialga opened its maw and unleashed a blazing stream of cobalt energy, its largest Roar of Time yet. The beam screamed through the void and impacted Riley’s sword, igniting a blinding explosion that ripped outward in a flash, a deafening thrum following a half second later. But the beam merely splashed off the sword’s surface, refracting across the cosmos like light hitting a prism.

  Dialga’s eyes widened as the Fairy Plate smashed into it. The blade’s edge raked across its core, and continued down its body, crashing against its chunky legs. Dialga screamed in agony, its eyes rolling back in its head and it dipped backward before flying back through the endless cosmos like a bullet as the sword completed its arc.

  It actually…worked.

  Riley had come up with this plan on the fly as he was dodging Dialga back at Spear Pillar. By tapping into the Aura of the Electric Plate Ash had gifted him, he’d fulfilled three conditions for his victory at once: creating a body powerful enough to contend with Dialga, protecting himself from Dialga’s standard attacks, and forcing it to use its time to withdraw Riley’s memories. He knew Dialga would’ve had no choice but to bypass a contest of pure power after Arceus’ power was unleashed.

  No, it did have a choice. But a legendary like Dialga would not countenance using a prideless plan like exhausting Riley’s colossus and picking him off once it was spent. No, it needed to keep up its assault on him by any means necessary.

  The “memories” within Riley were not true memories; he’d not been present to witness Zagreus’ sneak attack or King Aaron’s final moments with AZ, or the destruction of Rota, after all. But Dialga was the dragon of time. And time was its weapon against him.

  Riley had counted on that. Gaining access to a vision of a Plate… That was the ultimate goal. After that, it was merely a matter of putting into practice everything he’d been working toward since he arrived in Hisui.

  Transmuting normal Aura into that of an elemental type.

  Though in this case, he’d used the template of the Fairy Plate sword as a base. Instead of transmuting his own Aura, he’d used his Aura to transmute the illusion into reality, or at least something fleeting that resembled it.

  And on the back of this victory—not against Dialga necessarily, but in reaching his goal of wielding the power of a Plate—Riley would only continue to grow stronger.

  This experience would not go to waste.

  “Power from the Electric Plate?” Ash asked. “What do you mean?”

  Riley grinned, savoring Ash’s confusion. It wasn’t often one could outwit his expansive imagination. “Think of it as an investment. I’ll store a bit of your power within me, for emergencies only. Seeing it, holding it up close should bring me closer to understanding its true nature, so that I may one day transform my own Aura into something similar.”

  “Store a bit of my power? How would you even do that?”

  Riley opened his palm. “Like this.” A vortex of Aura swirled into view within his palm. “It’s a Guardian technique that allows us to store Aura from others in a sort of invisible vault. Ordinarily, it’s used when Guardians want to lend some of their power to others, but I presume the power of the Plate is similar enough.”

  Ash still looked a tad unconvinced.

  “I understand you want to save your energy for Volo. If you decline, that’s fine. I suppose it’s something we could do after the fight is over.”

  “It’s not that. It’s just…we’re heading to fight Volo in like an hour. Shouldn’t you have asked me this earlier? What kind of studying will you be able to get done between now and then?” His brows furrowed. “Do you actually want it just to study?”

  Riley sighed. “Well, yes. But I don’t think it’d hurt to have a bit of extra power just in case I need it. Though I can’t fathom what Volo could possibly have prepared that would warrant me to use it prematurely.”

  Ash smiled. “Ha ha! No worries, I was just wondering. Of course, I can lend you some of my power.”

  Riley bowed. “Much appreciated.”

  As Ash’s electricity siphoned from his hands into Riley’s Aura vault, Riley met Ash’s gaze.

  “As I said, it’s like an investment. I promise this is the only time you’ll have to do this. Next time, I’ll replicate this energy myself.”

  Next — Chapter 83 : Sabrina vs Palkia