Chapter 62 Swapping Pokémon
There were two Pokémon. One of them had a dark gray body; aside from its grayish-black upper body, only a ghostly tail drifted from its lower half in the torrential rain. At the top of its forehead was a yellow band, resembling an antenna, capable of receiving messages from the spirit world. Its entire face featured only a single, immensely terrifying giant eye, gazing fixedly at Xia Yu and Long Yanning.
It had a yellow iris, a red pupil, and a black sclera, reminiscent of the Grim Reaper's stare. The pattern on its chest resembled an angry face, and on its back was a similar facial pattern, though the eye-shaped markings were circular, and the line like a mouth curved into a smile.
Dusknoir!
Dusknoir travels back and forth between this world and the next, and no one knows whether it possesses consciousness. It can walk within the spirit world and drag people into it. At the same time, it approaches those whose time is near, guiding their souls to the underworld, occasionally mistakenly taking the souls of those whose lifespans have not yet expired. Dusknoir uses the mouth on its abdomen to swallow its prey whole, consuming only their souls and spitting out the physical bodies when it departs. It is said to be feared because it sucks lost souls into its elastic body and carries them off to another world.
In the games, Dusknoir is merely a powerful defensive tank Pokémon, but in reality, Dusknoir is one of the most frightening and terrifying Ghost-type Pokémon.
Dusknoir possesses the ability to freely enter and exit the spirit world, as well as the power to drag living people into it. Some benevolent Dusknoir only bring the souls of the dead into the spirit world to help them find release. However, there are exceptions to everything; individual malevolent Dusknoir choose to hunt humans, drag the living into the spirit world, kill them, and devour their souls to continuously grow stronger. This type of Dusknoir is the most terrifying Pokémon of all.
Because of this, the Pokémon Association explicitly stipulates that all trainers who own Pokémon from the Dusknoir evolutionary line must register their real names; otherwise, it is illegal.
Much like possessing a gun permit in his previous life, Dusknoir is akin to a firearm. Ordinary people have no ability to counter it whatsoever, necessitating strict supervision.
Any unregistered possession is illegal, which goes to show how strictly the Pokémon Association regulates Dusknoir.
At the same time, Xia Yu finally understood why the Pokémon Association had dispatched so many people yet still failed to find the evil Pokémon. Dusknoir could enter the spirit world at any time, killing people and then hiding within the spirit world. Unless one encountered an Elite-Four-level Psychic or Ghost-type Pokémon specifically searching for it with knowledge of its location, it was completely undetectable.
However, this was not what terrified Xia Yu the most. What terrified him even more was the other, blood-red Pokémon.
A massive, blood-red sword blade, stained with the driver's fresh blood, stared at Xia Yu and Long Yanning with the single eye on its blade. Paired with a black and gold shield, it looked exceptionally eerie in the driving rain.
This was a Shiny Aegislash!
Rumors say that Aegislash loves to use its powerful spiritual energy to control humans and Pokémon, building a kingdom suited for its own lifestyle. It seems capable of discerning which person has the potential to become a king, and it is said that the person it acknowledges will ultimately become a monarch. It once followed successive kings, using spiritual power to control the hearts of humans and Pokémon, making them submissive. Although the kings who possessed Aegislash once dominated entire nations, in the end, every single one of them had their life force sucked dry by it, and their nations perished along with them.
The single eye on the blood-red blade gazed greedily at Xia Yu and Long Yanning. Its blade slowly pierced into the driver's body, greedily absorbing the driver's life force and channeling it into the sword. The driver withered into a mummified corpse at a visible rate, while Aegislash's body grew increasingly bizarre and crimson.
When the driver's corpse had completely shriveled, Dusknoir suddenly opened its mouth, sucking the soul right out of the withered body and swallowing it into its belly. After feeding, a look of satisfaction appeared on its face.
What the hell, a bundled package deal?
Aegislash sucks out people's life force, and Dusknoir sucks out their souls—a win-win cooperation, right? No wonder those three people died in such a miserable state.
Xia Yu felt his scalp tingle. He realized he had still underestimated this Pokémon world; this was the first time he had ever witnessed such a bizarre and terrifying combination.
Two terrifying Ghost-type Pokémon survived and hunted through a symbiotic relationship. Dusknoir brought Aegislash to launch surprise attacks while hiding in the spirit world, hunting humans. Aegislash needed the life force of human bodies, while Dusknoir only wanted human souls—truly a flawless combination.
It was just unclear whether these two Pokémon had a trainer behind them. No, or rather, there was an extremely high probability that a trainer stood behind them.
Because Aegislash requires a Dusk Stone to evolve.
At the same time, although Dusknoir's evolution in reality does not require trading via link cable, it still requires a Reaper Cloth.
This was also the reason why these two Pokémon rarely appeared in the wild, leading Xia Yu to guess that they most likely had a trainer behind them!
A quasi-Elite-Four-level Dusknoir, and another Aegislash with strength reaching the Elite-Four level—on top of that, it was a Shiny. Just thinking about it made Xia Yu scratch his head in frustration.
Facing these two powerful Pokémon, Long Yanning also wore a solemn expression, but she unhesitatingly stepped in front of Xia Yu. Even though she was half a head shorter than him, she firmly protected him behind her.
The feeling of being protected by a woman was not a great one, but Xia Yu had no other choice. His stomach wasn't great, so eating some soft food didn't matter much either.
"Xia Yu, hide behind me." Long Yanning pulled out all her Poké Balls and tossed them forward.
Noibat, Haxorus, Kommo-o, Gyarados, Ampharos, and Hydreigon—all six Pokémon entered the fray.
This was a life-or-death battle, so naturally, there was no such thing as a fair duel. When your life was on the line, you naturally sent out as many as you possibly could.
Among them, the strengths of Noibat, Haxorus, and Kommo-o had already reached the quasi-Elite-Four level, while Long Yanning's Gyarados and Ampharos were only Gym Leader level. Hydreigon was even weaker, still in the midst of growth, having just evolved from Deino to Zweilous, with its strength just reaching the Gym Leader level.
As for Xia Yu, he also released his three Pokémon. Although the gap in strength was immense, adding even a tiny bit of combat power helped.
Noibat could still use Supersonic, though it might not necessarily be effective. Grovyle could set up Grassy Terrain, and Shiny Charmander—well, a Charmander with exclusively offensive moves could only act as a spectator.
Nine against two; it seemed as though Xia Yu and Long Yanning's side held an absolute advantage, but when combining the overall combat power, they were actually slightly weaker, especially that blood-red Aegislash, which gave off an utterly terrifying vibe.
"Teacher Long, the call won't go through." At the same time, Xia Yu was attempting to make a call, only to find there was no signal at all. He guessed that it was very likely because they had been dragged into the spirit world by Dusknoir, cutting off contact with the outside world. The sudden sense of stagnation in the car earlier must have been the moment they entered the spirit world.
To return, they had to rely on powerful Psychic, Ghost, or Dark-type Pokémon. Regrettably, neither of them owned a single Pokémon meeting that requirement, so their only way out was to defeat Dusknoir and that Aegislash.