Tsaimath

Chapter 606

It took us quite a bit of effort to find a suitable location to make a camp for the night. There was simply too much chaos, too many creatures changed by the incredibly volatile Life-aspected Astral Power we had unleashed and infused with the rampaging energy of the Sun, the fusion of those two powers driving them beyond the limits of sanity.

It was as if they had decided that survival of the fittest meant they would survive if everything else died off. And so, they rampaged or fled the...

WO, Ch. 111 - Responsibility

Armed with a whole lot of advice regarding the eventual hatching and later care for a Riolu, I left Professor Carolina’s house late in the evening. The Professor had given me a quite deep look when she had seen me carrying the strange apparatus holding the egg and keeping it safe and in the right conditions. For now, I would have to keep it with me as much as possible until it hatched, the exposure to me and my Pokémon helping the process along. Just from that, it would become attuned to m...

Interlude: Furious Forum Flames

Official Road to Purgatory-Beta Forum

• -Kess, confirmed Beta-Account

For once, I understand the grievance of someone who wants to know how they died. Or maybe that’s why they died?

Either way, I’m trying to figure out if there’s an event going on that I missed, or what I’m missing, why was I ganked by some burning deer on steroids with a high-enough level to return only question marks when using Observe on it?

I’m in the f...

WO, Ch 110 - Dinner

The dinner prepared by Professor Carolina was just incredible, there was no comparison to the simple fare we had eaten during my previous visit. It even compared favourably to the expensive restaurants in Jubilife, let alone in the other towns, it was just too grande. It wasn’t just delicious, there was a sense of grandeur to the dinner, the ambience giving an indescribable feeling. And that feeling affected the, objectively delicious, taste, elevating it to yet another level.

Convers...

Chapter 605

Just touching to pull the crystal out of my Magic Bag was painful. I could feel it drain the life out of my hand, the sensation similar to countless needles piercing my flesh and travelling along through, up my arm.

I didn’t even try holding it, instead, I dropped it next to me and watched the grass and vegetation start to wither around it. Looking at the crystal directly sent a shiver down my spine, a cold sensation that had nothing to do with the temperature swallowing my body. For ...

WO, Ch 109 - Old Friends

A few days of relaxation were the perfect fix for the lingering exhaustion and the small aches of a difficult journey. By the time the weekend, and Professor Carolina’s invitation, rolled around, I was quite ready to head out again and meet some new and exciting Pokémon.

Now, that wasn’t to say that I had only sat around on my bum those few days, I had done some of that, but at the same time, I had dutifully gone to the Gym and the Training Area, to work with my partners.

The...

Chapter 604

There was something other than Sigmir’s comforting smell in the air when I woke back up. It smelled of charcoal, almost as if someone was grilling some delicious meat nearby but once my brain was fully engaged and started to trace the Astral Power that came with those scents, the saliva that had gathered from the smell of grilled meat almost turned into gastric acid and I had to fight my gag reflex.

The air around me was thick with the power of Sun and Life, strong enough to make me n...

WO, Ch 108 - a Charming Sunset

Professor Carolina invited me for dinner, a simple affair cooked by an elderly housekeeper, and during dinner, our conversation soon turned to Pokémon and their training. Just like Cynthia, Professor Carolina had been an expert trainer in her youth, before switching her focus to historical research.

We discussed my previous attempts to help my partners learn new attacks and even debated the question of how a Pokémon lets itself get captured and trained. Curiously, she had a slightly d...

WO, Ch. 107 - Professor Carolina

“That is quite the story you’ve got there,” Professor Carolina chuckled after I finished with my tale so far. I wasn’t offended by her amusement, as even for me, the events that had occurred were somewhat unbelievable. If not for a few, scattered and disjointed dreams, I could have come into existence during that cold winter night, born from the winds on the slopes of Mount Coronet.

“There are a few curiosities I noticed about you,” she continued, her eyes studying me, “On...

Chapter 603

As the waves of power coming from the massive tree became stronger and stronger, we spread our wings, covering Rai and Sigmir beneath them. In unity, we were able to shift the burden away, the differing affinities of our individual parts coming to the fore, both sides necessary to withstand the power flowing around us. If not for our position in the centre of the effect, allowing us to channel the power towards the path it wanted to take anyway and direct it outwards, we wouldn’t have been ...

Chapter 602

We stuck around, watching the purple sprites dance their magical ritual, curious how long it would take. When there hadn’t been any change for over an hour, we realised that it might very well be some sort of permanent, or at least all night, activity. I briefly wondered if we had just happened to arrive during a significant night, something that might boost their powers like the full and new moon had done for me prior to crossing the second Divide, but I couldn’t think of any events of s...

WO, Ch. 106 - Celestic Gym

I went to visit the Gym early the following day, after meeting up with the others for breakfast. During breakfast, we had shared our experiences of the previous evening and discussed our future plans.

The obvious objective was to get the local badge, also known as the Oracle Badge but afterwards, there were quite a few ways we could continue. The most arduous, but likely also the most interesting would be to head north. It was an incredibly long way to Snowpoint City, the northern most ...

Chapter 601

Compared to the weird, almost cartoonishly happy, world the Forlorn Forest had been during the daytime, when we returned during the night, the forest’s name felt a lot more appropriate.

After our sojourn during the day, we hed discussed what we had seen and what it might mean, ultimately coming to the conclusion that things were weird and we needed more information. Hoping that the creatures, as alien and strange as they might be, would be less active during the night, we carefully sn...

WO, Ch. 105 - Free Training

After an excellent dinner, I continued strolling around town with Vio. The more I explored, the more fascinated I became, especially when we reached the area that allowed a view of eastern Sinnoh. While the plateau wasn’t a real cliff, it was steep enough to allow us to see incredibly far, to the point that I thought we could see the ocean on the horizon.

The town itself was impressive as well, there were countless small details I slowly noticed, decorations that blended into the ambi...

WO, Ch. 104 - Celestic Town II

If nothing else, the warm water supply of the Pokéhostel was incredible. Even after standing under the hot spray for the better part of an hour, there was still plenty of hot water, allowing me to indulge to the point that my skin turned wrinkly.

Only once I was well and truly relaxed and all the sweat, grime and exhaustion from the journey was washed off, I left the bathroom and ventured out once more. Remembering how the people were walking around with their Pokémon, I called out Vi...

Chapter 600

With a loud crash, the massive, slate-grey rock bear fell to the ground, the weight enough to cause a perceivable tremble and shake some needles from the nearby trees. Sigmir stood above it, her chest heaving with exertion as she had taken on the bear alone in an effort to diversify the employed methods of death and destruction.

“Well done,” I complimented her, giving her hand a brief squeeze before pulling her into the shadows and the concealment we had prepared beforehand. While w...

Chapter 599

For the next few days, we tried to gather information. The primary problem we had to be keep in mind was that we didn’t want the Sprites and their suspected Overlord to catch wind of our existence, meaning our experiments and attacks had to be spread out and, if at all possible, the methods involved varied. We roamed along the edge of the area and hunted down a wide variety of enemies.

After we destroyed that first copse of Living Trees with Ice-Magic, the next target, a large boar wi...

WO, Ch. 103 - Celestic Town

It took us all a little by surprise when we walked along yet another mountain and noticed something angular in the valley ahead. We had been travelling for eight days, with a few breaks on the way and had anticipated it would take us ten days to get to Celestic Town, but unless there was another town, we were already looking at it.

“We must have made better time than anticipated,” Lucas grinned, sounding enthusiastic. Just seeing the town was enough to lift our spirits, to the point...

Chapter 598

After destroying the small copse of Living Trees, a name I found weirdly amusing, Adra and I quickly noticed something wrong. Their destruction caused a strange, magical echo, almost akin to a beacon.

“What do you think?” she asked me, as we stared at their withered husks, slowly shedding the magic they had devoured in life.

“Not sure, but at a guess, something is coming,” I frowned, considering things for a moment. My first impulse was to retreat, to remain cautious and a...

WO, Ch. 102 - Beating a Path

After the clash against the Nosepass, I pushed my partners to train as much as possible. The constraints were time and how much food I had for my partners, as just being outside their Pokéballs meant they needed more food, but luckily, none of my partners was a particularly heavy eater. Trying to do the same with a Snorlax would quickly break the bank.

The biggest beneficiary of that additional training was little Vio, partially because she needed the least food of my three partners, b...

Chapter 597

Walking into the area of wild magic physically made a massive difference. Compared to my scrying during the night, where the visual changes had been few, to the point that I could barely tell it was an area of wild magic, the changes in the Astral River around us were strong enough to make themselves felt like a hammer blow. The air was almost sparking with magic, the scents and taste in my nostrils and mouth almost overpowering, cloyingly strong and pervasive. Compared to the dry, dusty sens...

WO, Ch. 101 - And no Dalmatians in sight

When we left the secluded valley early in the morning, the Starly and Staravia had recovered but luckily, they didn’t dare mess with us again. Instead, they sat in the cliffs, making an incredible ruckus, some flying around but none swooped down in our direction. Out of caution, I had Su out of his Pokéball and walking next to me, ready to leap at any annoying avian, take it to the ground and teach it a lesson. Luckily, that wasn’t necessary.

The route continued to wind through the...

Chapter 596

When I woke back up, I was lying in Sigmir’s comfortable embrace. When I tried to move, stinging pain in my arm stopped me, making me hiss in discomfort, catching Sigmir’s attention.

“Love, you’re awake,” her voice was gentle as she spoke, though filled with a mix of relief and reprimand, “Are you alright?”

“I think so,” I tried moving again, only for the stinging pain to return. “Though my arm hurts,” I admitted, leaning against her chest. My Astral Power ha...

WO, Ch 100 - Finding Feebas

Once Claire and I had washed up, we switched off with Lucas and Cliff. They got to bathe, while we began to cook dinner. As always, Charm was acting as heat source, allowing us to skip looking for firewood. Otherwise, it would have been a massive annoyance, as there simply were no trees in the higher Coronal Mountains, only a bunch of shrubs and a lot of high grasses. Nothing that would provide real fuel for a fire.

Claire and I were in a most serious discussion about whether shredded n...

Chapter 595

Compared to the way Olivia had entered our companionship, the way she departed was quiet, almost causal and with little fanfare. Two groups, one solely composed of humans, one composed of the four of us, plus our new guide Jenn, met up in front of the rebel village early in the morning.

There was a moment of hesitation and Olivia walked up to Rai, giving him a hug and quietly saying something into his ears, quiet enough so only he could hear. Then, she moved on to Adra and Sigmir, repea...

WO, Ch. 99 - Mountain Lake

As we had hoped, we managed to find the mountain-lake Lucas had read about. We merely had to walk up a side valley and soon, it opened up, forming a vast bowl. From the mountain above us, a small stream was cascading over the rocks, feeding into the lake and we could see a similar stream escape on the other side.

The lake itself was only about a hundred metres across, maybe two hundred in length, Even from afar, we could see a few Pokémon nesting in the cliffs above and it took only mo...

Chapter 594

By early afternoon, we all met again, comparing the information we had found about the place we were supposed to clean up. Sadly, the more we talked, the more it became obvious that the information we had managed to gather wasn’t quite making sense. Some of it meshed well, painting the picture of a magical forest, inhabited by strange spirits, what some called Fey. The image presented was one of mischievous, but ultimately innocuous creatures that merely wanted to exist in their own, little...

WO, Ch 98 - Mountainside Chat

After three days of hiking up the valleys and along the slopes we managed to reach the Celestic Pass. It was the highest point we had to cross between Eterna City and Celestic Town, a largely unremarkable stretch of path between two mountains. Other than a marker, there was nothing there and sadly, the mountains blocked most of the view we might have had otherwise. We joked around for a minute or two, standing in front of the marker so each of our legs was on one side of the divide between Ea...

Chapter 593

The thunderous sound of the explosion was still ringing in my ears, as the door of the strange house in front of us flew open and a soot-covered figure came dashing out. My first instinct was to protect myself and Sigmir, making me jump back and position the blades in front of me, forming them into a petal-like shield. Sigmir moved in a similar fashion, cautiously blocking in front of me, ready to move from defence into offence at the drop of a hat.

Given that the soot-covered guy wasn�...

WO, Ch 97 - Route 2-11

After we received our Badges, we spent two more days in town, preparing for the next part of our journey. Given just how difficult the crossing of the Coronal Mountains was supposed to be, that left little time for other pursuits, though I managed to get some time reading and planning the continued training for my partners. They all had their weaknesses, though Vio had the least pronounced ones and I wanted my partners to have at least some way to defend themselves and me, regardless of what ...