Chapter 35: The Stormspire Prison

  Ash drifted over the ground like slow, gray snow, carried by a wind too faint to feel. The forest stretched endlessly in every direction, scorched, cracked, and shimmering faintly under a pale sun. Behind them, the Obsidian Caverns brooded in silence, a black wound in the earth still pulsing with faint veins of molten red. It looked like it might breathe at any moment.

  Auri stirred first. His fur crackled weakly as he sat up, the static breaking and fading in uneven flickers. Every muscle in his body protested, his limbs heavy, and his head still buzzing He rubbed his face with the back of a paw, blinking away the grit that still clung to his whiskers.

  He looked around. Their camp, if one could call it that, was nothing more than a patch of blackened ground beside a half-melted rock. Yuki lay nearby, curled tight, snoring quietly. After the effects of her ability Speed Boost had worn off after she left the Dungeon behind, she'd become just as tired and exhausted as he had been. They had decided to rest for the remaining day and the night, instead of instantly continuing.

  He stretched, wincing. His joints crackled. His fur still felt like it had absorbed half the Dungeon’s smoke and none of its heat had truly left his bones. He took a slow breath. The air was still sharp, dry, and metallic, but at least he knew that would change soon, once they entered the forest. Behind him, the Cavern’s faint red glow flickered. He didn’t turn around. He’d had enough of that place for a lifetime.

  A rustle. Then a soft groan. "...Mmmhh. Tell me we actually got out and survived because right now I feel, like, very dead," Yuki moaned without moving at all.

  Auri exhaled slowly, the edge of tension fading from his shoulders. "Well, we did get out alive. Even if I still feel roasted from the inside."

  She cracked one eye open. "Oh thank Arceus…" She pushed herself upright, shaking soot from her feathers. "That's something, I guess, though I could definitely do without all the pain!"

  Auri gave a small smile. It wasn’t much of a smile, but it was something.

  Then Yuki’s eyes really focused on him and the humor vanished. "You still look awful."

  "I probably feelbetter than I look."

  "Auri that's a lie and we both know it. Now shut up and let me take a look." She frowned, stepping closer to inspect him. The once-bright sheen of his fur had dulled to a matte gray-brown, streaked with soot and faint scorch marks. His cheeks were faintly tinted from static build-up, as he very well knew. And his reserve... well, he had still not fully recovered all of his type energy. Mainly because of how much of it went into restoring his physical condition.

  "You pushed too hard again. You knew exactly how hard that Dungeon would be on you, didn't you?"

  He didn’t answer.

  "You did!" she concluded with a glare. "Why, Auri? If you knew just how dangerous that Dungeon would be to you, why didn't we just go around!? Sure, it would've taken far longer, but you cannot risk your life like that!"

  "I had to!" Auri cut in, voice firm. "We know Miu is trying to get me killed and I'm sure if we just give her enough time she will find a way to skirt the rules prohibiting her to do so! The only way I do not end up dead is by finding Sia as fast as possible!"

  For a moment, neither spoke. The wind stirred between them, dragging a thin line of ash across the stone. Yuki sighed. "You and your stupid worrying... Miu already tried to find a way for multiple months. Without any success, might I add. A week more wouldn't have made a difference. Right now you're doing exactly what she wants you to! You're risking your life on multiple occasions, trying to find a solution of your own to stop her from killing you. Something we don't even know if she actually even can, no matter how hard she tries! The easiest solution for her would still be you dying in some Dungeon so stop. Making. That. More. Likely!"

  Auri slightly wilted at her harsh words. "I know," he whispered while looking towards the forrest. "But that knowledge will not take the pressure away. Only finding Sia will."

  For a while, they just sat there. Not in silence, exactly, but in a calm kind of stillness. Yuki stretched, her small body arching like a cat before she flopped back down beside him.

  "So," she said finally, "what’s the plan for today? Another day of rest or do we continue?"

  Auri brushed a paw through the ash beside him. "We move. North, probably. Into the forest. The old ruins cannot be far."

  Yuki frowned. "As long as you're sure you're already up to traveling again."

  "I will not delay on that last stretch any longer."

  "I know. But you can at least eat something first!"

  Auri hesitated. "I’m fine."

  "You’re not fine!" She nudged a small, half-cooked berry toward him. "C'mon, humor me! I’d rather not have you collapse halfway up a hill because you’re trying to prove you’re made of steel!"

  He eyed the berry suspiciously. "That’s half-burnt."

  "It’s warmly roasted, thank you very much! And we don't have much left that isn't somewhat cooked after yesterday!"

  He sighed, then took a reluctant bite. As expected, it was both dry and bitter.

  Yuki grinned, a little spark of energy returning to her expression. "See? It's not that bad!"

  Auri made a face. "It tastes like ash."

  Yuki scoffed. "You'll live. And as I said, still preferable to you eating nothing at all. We can go and gather some more berries in the evening."

  After a moment, Yuki’s tone changed, becoming more contemplating. "Auri?"

  "Yeah?"

  She hesitated. "How likely do you think is it that this all just turns out to be one big trap from Miu? I know I've asked that multiple times already, and I know that Mythicals cannot lie, but still. What if she tricked us somehow?"

  Auri froze mid-motion. "I honestly don’t know how she'd be capable of something like that," he said quietly. "I believe it to be a possibility, yes. But no matter how much I think about it, how could it be a trap?"

  Yuki frowned, her wings twitching. "I mean... she only promised us that Sia would come when we get there. That implies that us being there is something Sia would instantly find out about and would be of ennough consequence for her to come and meet us. She never said anything about it not being dangerous to us."

  "I think…" He searched for the right words. "...Miu doesn’t always mean what she says. Not exactly."

  "That’s a nice way of saying you don’t trust her claims."

  "Oh, I absolutely trust everything she claimed. I just wonder how much she didn't actually tell us. It would be foolish to believe that an ancient Mythical didn't manage to trick us somehow. But the truth at hand is still simple. The moment Sia appears, we are safe. And if Sia appears when we reach that ruin as promised... I don't worry overly much. There's not much strong enough or even just willing to pick a fight with Sia."

  The silence stretched again. Then, faintly, they heard a low distant rumble. Auri’s ears twitched.

  Yuki blinked. "Was that thunder?"

  It came again, faint but unmistakable, crawling across the forest. The sound rolled in long, slow waves, too far to be immediate, too close to be imagined. Auri glanced up. The sky above was a clear pale blue, washed of any clouds.

  "...No clouds," Yuki murmured with a frown, following his gaze. "You hear that too, right?"

  He nodded.

  "That’s… weird. Like, very weird. But I guess that's just stuff that happens up here in unclaimed territory?"

  Auri didn’t answer. He was staring toward the horizon where the light shimmered strangely, as if heat were twisting the air. He could feel it through his fur, through the faint static crawling along his skin. Something was building up. Maybe he was wrong, but it felt like-

  Yuki noticed his silence and frowned. "Auri?"

  "Nothing." He shook his head, forcing the tension away. Another quick check with his senses told him nothing was out of order. He must've imagined it. "Probably just echoes. The Caverns ran deep. Maybe the sound’s trapped or something."

  Yuki gave him a look that said she didn’t buy it, but let it go. "Right… echoes," she muttered, picking up her scarf and shaking off soot. "Well, let’s hope the sky doesn’t start yelling too!"

  Auri stood, brushing once more ash from his fur. The wind picked up slightly, carrying faint lines of white dust that swirled across the stone. The thunder rolled again, softer this time, though neither of them acknowledged it.

  Yuki led at first, her steps leaving faint marks of heat on the ground. Auri followed, his pace steady still. The air changed as they walked.

  At first, it was only the air, cooler now that they distanced themselves from the Obsidian Caverns. The ground beneath their paws began to shift too, the black obsidian giving way to coarse, fractured stone, and then, little by little, to a forest not unlike they one around Newleaf Village.

  However, it was silent. No sounds of Dungeon Pokemon roaming outside their Dungeons. Only the rustle of leaves, their own steps, and the occasional thunder.

  Suddenly, Auri felt it. A tremor, deep in the air. Barely perceptible at first, just a faint vibration of electric-type energy against his fur, like the distant echo of thunder too small to hear. Then it grew stronger. His own electric-type energy began to react in response, a rhythm that didn’t match his heartbeat. He stopped.

  Yuki glanced back. "What’s wrong?"

  Auri’s ears flicked. "The air. It’s more charged by electric-type energy than it should be."

  "Charged?" She tilted her head, feathers puffing slightly. "I don’t feel-"

  Before she could finish, a faint crackle ran through the ground. Small sparks crawled across a nearby rock, tracing thin glowing lines through the cracks like tiny rivers of light.

  Yuki jumped back with a startled chirp. "Whoa! Okay, yeah, I feel that now!"

  Auri crouched, paw brushing the ground. His fur stood on end, faint arcs dancing between his whiskers. "There must be an incredibly powerful electric-type Dungeon ahead," he muttered. "Or something else that has frankly incredible electric-type energy."

  "An electric-type Dungeon?" Yuki blinked. "Here? In the Umbral Abyss?"

  He nodded. "Maybe. It would be a strange find, but why shouldn't the natural energy flow gather electric-type energy up here?"

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "I mean, I guess?" Yuki shrugged unconvinved. "It's just that I never heard of an electric-type Dungeon existing within the crater. But to be fair, no one ever explored the unclaimed territory either, so it could be possible."

  They continued, but they walked slower now. The path continued to wound upward between the trees. Slowly but surely, the remnants of something ancient began to show through the terrain, the faint, unnatural symmetry of stone foundations buried in roots and ash. Soemthing clearly Pokemon-made.

  Minutes later, they saw it. A big stony spire sprouting into the air. It rose from the slope ahead like a jagged tooth of the world, a broken tower of stone, twisted and blackened by centuries of fire and lightning. The upper half had sheared away long ago, leaving a hollow column that hummed faintly as wind passed through it. Etched along its surface were patterns. Lines, curves, and strange sigils that glowed faintly when the light shifted.

  Yuki stopped dead, feathers bristling, but her eyes lighting up in excitement. "What… is that?"

  Auri took a step forward, eyes narrowing. "If I had to guess, that's the ruin Miu mentioned. The one where we should be able to meet Sia."

  They approached slowly. The air grew thicker the closer they got, charged with invisible current. The humming was faint, but Auri could feel it deep in his chest, like standing too close to a thunderhead. The electric-type energy he'd mistaken for a Dungeon seemingly came from here.

  The symbols on the stone pulsed, slow and uneven. Yuki hesitated, then reached out with one claw and touched one of the sigils. A soft vibration passed through her body, enough to make her feathers ruffle. She pulled back slightly, blinking. "That's electric-type energy, isn't it?"

  Auri frowned. "It's the big source of electric-type energy I talked about. Either, inside that ruin starts a Dungeon, or something else generates or stores electric-type energy here. Like the stone formation at the Mirror of the Abyss, essentially."

  For a long moment, they simply stood there, staring at the ruin as the faint hum filled the silence only broken by the irregular thunder strikes in the surroundings. A few moments later they shared a determined nod and resumed their climb. Whether it was a Dungeon or some ancient ritual, they would not be stopped this close to their goal!

  The slope grew steeper the further they went, the ruins becoming more frequent as well. Broken pillars half-buried in dirt, fragments of crystalline panels scattered among roots, and the faint traces of structures long eroded by thunder. Some were still humming faintly, their metal interiors glowing with dim veins of blue-white light. The electric-type energy got denser the further they went as well.

  Yuki’s feathers occasionally crackled when she brushed against stone. "Are we sure this is safe? If that's really a Dungeon it could turn very dangerous very fast!"

  "It shouldn't be? But who knows with this place, really," Auri replied with a shrug.

  "Great!" Yuki muttered, voice full of sarcasm. She exhaled, trying to shake off her nerves. “"ou know, I’m really starting to miss boring Dungeons. The kind where you just fight some rock monster and leave."

  "Me too," Auri admitted quietly.

  They reached a small plateau halfway up the ridge, a flat space between two leaning towers, both half-melted from past storms. The air here was colder somehow, despite the charged energy around them.

  "Break time!" Yuki announced and Auri nodded in agreement. Though, to be honest, he would've prefered if they just continued climbing instead.

  Just as they sat down, however, a soft crack echoed through the air, a fissure splitting across the stone beside them, faint arcs of lightning flickering inside it.

  Yuki jumped to her feet. "Auri-!"

  "I know!" He was already standing, fur bristling, eyes scanning the horizon. The charge in the air had intensified suddenly, sharp and unpredictable. His cheeks flickered with involuntary sparks and he quickly surpressed his ability. The last thing they needed right now was for him to become a living lightning rod in an area that incredibly charged up.

  However, just as quickly as it had come, the vibration subsided. The hum faded back into its low rhythm. Yuki let out a long breath. "Okay. So that was new. I expect something like that from a Dungeon, but not from a normal landscape!"

  He turned toward the ridge again. "We keep moving."

  Yuki frowned. "Are you sure? Both of us, especially you, could use a break!"

  "No," he said. "But I have a bad feeling. Just... trust me on this?"

  She stared at him a moment longer, then sighed and followed. "As if I ever didn't trust your bad ideas."

  The two climbed on, their silhouettes small against the towering spires. Not long after, the ridge flattened at last, and the forest broke apart into a clearing. Before them rose the actual ruin they had searched for. Or at least, so Auri believed.

  It wasn’t a single structure but a complex, fragments of towers, bridges, and walls weirdly fused together by... something. The metal and stone had warped into strange, organic curves, like something had tried to melt and twist it into place again after it fell. A pale haze drifted above the ground, carrying a dry, metallic tang.

  Yuki whistled low under her breath. "I'd guess we found it!"

  Auri didn’t answer. His fur prickled just looking at the place. Even from here, the air trembled from the density of electric-type energy in the air. By now he seriously started worrying that this was a Dungeon in truth. Still, they walked closer.

  The ground shifted from soil to scorched stone, streaked with thin veins of glowing silver that pulsed faintly, almost like veins beneath skin. At the center of the ruins stood what was probably the main gate, a fractured archway of fused metal and obsidian, tall enough to swallow the trees behind them. The stone around it was scorched black, the surface glassy and smooth as if a storm had struck it and never fully faded.

  Yuki was still looking around. "It almost looks like something tried to destroy this place, but unwillingly? Maybe collateral damage in a fight between two Mythicals? Though I've got no idea when or what even build these ruins. I never heard of them before Miu mentioned them!" Yuki’s eyes flicked toward him. "You’re thinking the same thing I am, right?"

  "Probably not," Auri said quietly. For his part, he was done. They'd reached the old ruins. If Miu's words were true, they only had to wait here until Sia came.

  She rolled her eyes. "I’m thinking we should go in!"

  He exhaled, studying the static that danced faintly between the broken stones. "Of course you would."

  Yuki’s beak twitched in a grin. "C'mon! After all that lava and lightning, I deserve to do a bit of safe exploring! Should this prove to be a Dungeon we can turn around immediately! And we can wait for Sia inside just as good as out here!"

  Auri frowned at that. He had a bad feeling regarding the situation. Something was tickling his mind, but he just couldn't make the connection. And it's nut like he didn't understand Yuki's urge to explore the ruin.

  "...Feine. But let's reman careful and not split up, okay?" he agreed with a sigh and Yuki agreed with an ethusiastic nod."

  "That’s fine!" she said lightly, barely able to contain her excitement at exploring to her previously unknown ruins. "We'll be careful!"

  She stepped forward first, her talons clicking against the fused floor. A faint ripple spread out from where she crossed the archway, a single burst of electric-type energy burst through the entire strucutre.

  Auri froze. "Yuki Wait-!"

  But she was already through. Dust rained down from the arch, blue sparks briefly danced along the seams between the stones, crawling like living veins before fading again.

  Auri’s fur rose all at once. "Something’s active here. Something that holds incredible amounts of electric-type energy."

  Yuki turned back, eyes wide. "Another ritual?"

  "I believe so. It's definitely not a Dungeon." He stepped forward cautiously, crossing the threshold. The moment he did, another surge of electric-type energy shot through the structure before vanishing again. He had no idea where it went.

  The hallway beyond stretched wide and long, lined with broken pillars and collapsed supports. The walls were carved with shallow reliefs, half-erased by time, swirling patterns that might have once been clouds or waves. Each carried deep scars where lightning had struck and burned through the stone.

  Yuki’s small flame cast uneven light as she walked, her eyes flicking from one carving to the next. "Huh. Some of these look like…" She trailed off.

  Shapes wound through the engravings, outlines of figures chained within storms, silhouettes of creatures reaching toward jagged skies.

  Auri slowed beside her, his expression unreadable. "This wasn’t just some random temple, was it?"

  "No kidding!" She tilted her head. "Looks more like a warning?"

  They moved on, very careful and slow. The hallway stretched on, its far end swallowed by dim light. Every few steps, faint blue sparks flickered along the cracks in the floor, like distant lightning trapped under glass.

  Auri’s instincts screamed louder with each pulse. Something old was still watching these halls.

  But Yuki didn’t stop. Her optimism was too stubborn to be shaken completely. "You said it yourself, this isn't from a Dungeon or a Pokemon. It has to be only some kind of construct. And the energy density, while high, is still very much below an actual Dungeon threshold!"

  They came to a wide open space where the hall split into two directions. One led deeper, into darkness flickering faintly with electric light. The other curved upward toward a half-collapsed platform where part of the roof had caved in.

  Yuki paused, studying both. "Which way?"

  Auri closed his eyes, focusing on the electric-type energy all around them. It was stronger on the left. He opened his eyes again. "Down, if my senses don't betray me."

  "Of course it’s down," Yuki muttered. "It’s always down!"

  He gave a faint, humorless smile. "We could just wait here for Sia, you know?"

  "Not a chance!"

  Together, they descended the left path. The air grew cooler. The light dimmed further until only Yuki’s flame was all that illuminated the walls. They wouldn't waste one of their Luminous Stones here. The carvings changed as well, less of storms, more of spiraling shapes, sigils almost like binding marks. Auri’s fur buzzed faintly each time he passed one, all of them still carrying electric-type energy.

  As they rounded a corner, the electric-type energy suddenly and completely disappeared. Yuki’s flame flickered low, even her fire-type energy reacting to the sudden drop in energy density. She whispered, "Auri…?"

  He was already staring ahead. The hallway opened into a vast chamber. Its entrance was framed by a circular gate of fused stone and metal, etched with the same sigils they’d seen, only here, they glowed faintly, alive with soft blue light. Beyond that threshold, they could see only darkness, the faint shimmer of air bending under power.

  Yuki’s voice was a whisper. "What is that?"

  "I don’t know," Auri said, though his tone made it clear he didn’t like how it felt. It was electric-type energy, but also not. It was some strange variant that he could instinctively tell wouldn't bow to his command at all, even if he dared to try. because this weird electric-type energy? It formed some kind of shield. And somethin dangerous lurked beyond that gate, he was sure of that.

  Yuki stepped closer, flame trembling but bright. "Well… we made it."

  Auri’s gaze lingered on the sigils pulsing faintly. His voice was barely audible. “Yeah.”

  But his instincts screamed the same word again and again, sharp and certain. He should run. Preferably right now.

  "Don’t!" he calls out as Yuki was about to take another step towards the sigils blocking the gate.

  She halts mid-stride, feathers bristling. "What is it?"

  "Yuki, this thing... I don't know what it is, but it's incredibly dangerous! My energy senses scream at me to run, right now and as fast as possible. Whatever you do, do not touch these sigals or try to step thorugh this gateway!"

  Yuki nodded grimly in acknowledgement, but continued to edge closer to the entrance, careful not to cross the broken line of stone and bluish sigils that marked its threshold. From there, they managed to somewhat peer past the barrier. On the other side a vast, circular chamber seemingly stretched into dim golden haze.

  At the very center lay a seal, a massive circle carved into the floor, its edges glowing faintly as if fed by the current running through the ruins. Inside that ring something sat. Neither of them spoke at first. The figure was still, hunched, cross-legged. Between the barrier and the haze of the sigil the figure sat on, it was impossible to point out what that figure was.

  Yuki swallowed. "Auri," she whispered, "what… what is that place? And is that a Pokemon?"

  Her voice echoed oddly, a split-second delay that made the sound feel wrong, like a recording played on a faulty device. The echo faded, and the silence that followed was thick enough to hear.

  Auri’s instincts jabbed at him. Every sense told him to turn and run. He narrowed his eyes, studying the seal’s patterns from where he stood. The lines were precise, symmetrical. This was some kind of holding mechanism, wasn't it?

  "That's a containment field," he told Yuki, relatively sure that his guess was right.

  She glanced at him sharply. "Containment for what?"

  Before he could answer, the ground underfoot trembled. Dust trickled from the arch in front of them. The glow of the sigils all around them , especially the one the figure sat on, flared brighter. The barrier, somewhat translucent before, turned into a blinding light blue.

  Auri moved first, pulling Yuki back by the wing. "Move!" he shouted trying to get as far away from the containment field as possible. Then the air cracked.

  A pressure wave struck them, sudden and enormous, like a stormfront collapsing into the ruins. The stones around the gate sang with electricity, sparks laced along the carved seams and leapt between the pillars. They had not crossed the threshold, and yet the energy hit them as if they had stood inside the heart of a storm. Static made the breath rasp in their chests, the world seemed to hum with raw power.

  Within the seal the motionless silhouette twitched once. Two brightly gloing blue eyes opened, ancient and furious as it looked directly at them.

  Auri’s limbs froze. The pressure of the electric-type energy all around pulled at his muscles and pinned him toward the ground. Yuki gasped beside him, being driven into the ground just as hard as he was. Just by the other Pokemon's pressure alone, and through two different containment fields, its power was still enough to completely immobilise them.

  The figure inside the ring rose slowly. Each movement set a rumble moving through the foundation of the ruins like distant thunder. For a heartbeat the outline sharpened and Auri saw it, a mane that seemed to crackle with stormfire, the lean frame of some great feline, the suggestion of lightning coiling along its shoulders. The air around the Pokemon warped.

  Auri’s heart thudded in his throat. "…No," he breathed. Next to him Yuki let out a strangled cry as well as she saw the form of the Pokemon caught within the containment field.

  The golden light swelled and beat outward like a living thing, stopping at the gate as if the barrier itself forbade it to pass. Even at that distance the pressure was unbearable. Then a voice rolled out of the center, deep and distorted, each syllable charged and resonant, like thunder given speech.

  "This is the price I paid for my folly."

  The sound seemed to move through the ruins, and the carved veins along the walls brightened as if answering. Lightning crawled through the cracks in the stone like molten gold. A pause stretched after the words. The light flared higher, and the seal throbbed as if strained under the presence they were holding back.

  "Welcome… to the Stormspire Prison."

  When the light finally eased, the seal’s glow reverted to the slow pulse of a heartbeat too vast to measure. The 'Storm Menace', for who else could it be, sagged back down. The ancient Zeraora, a Lesser Legendary, watched them with emotionless eyes, the rage Auri had seen for a brief moment practically gone now.

  Auri and Yuki stayed where they were, still pressed on the ground and unable to move under the pressure the Storm Menace was still radiating.

  "I, as you undoubtedly know, am Zuko, the one known as the 'Storm Menace'. And these ruins have become my cage."

  Important characters in the chapter:

  Pikachu (Auri) – Level 16

  Ability: Lightning Rod

  Battle Nature: Lonely

  Stats:

  TE Pool (Health/AP): 75

  Attack: 49

  Ranged Attack: 44

  Defense: 52

  Speed: 58

  Total: 278 (Strength Level: Teenager)

  Moves:

  Close Combat Moves: [Nuzzle], [Tail Whip], [Quick Attack], [Brick Break], [Thunder Wave], [Feint]

  Ranged Combat Moves: [Thunder Shock], [Electro Ball], [Swift], [Thunderbolt], [Discharge]

  Utility Moves: [Nasty Plot], [Charm], [Double Team], [Growl], [Agility], [Dig]

  Torchic (Yuki) – Level 17 (Evolution Requirements Not Met, Stat Boost Applied)

  Ability: Speed Boost

  Battle Nature: Hasty

  Stats:

  TE Pool (Health/AP): 84

  Attack: 49

  Ranged Attack: 49

  Defense: 57

  Speed: 42

  Total: 281 (Strength Level: Teenager)

  Moves:

  Close Combat Moves: [Scratch], [Quick Attack], [Feint], [Fire Spin], [Flame Charge], [Aerial Ace], [Counter], [Slash]

  Ranged Combat Moves: [Ember], [Sand Attack], [Overheat]

  Utility Moves: [Growl], [Detect], [Dig]