History (Part 1)

When Yuga and the others emerged, they found that it was already nighttime outside, surrounded by pitch darkness where nothing could be seen.

Due to the nervousness in the labyrinth earlier, Yuga hadn't thought to check the time, only to realize that it was already night upon exiting.

At this point, Yuga was mentally exhausted, so he didn't hesitate. Ignoring any potential danger around, he took out his tent and sleeping bag from his backpack, preparing to get some rest.

Yuga was awakened by the heat the next day.

Daytime temperatures in the desert could become extremely high, and that's what woke Yuga up.

By the time Yuga woke up, Swellow, Linoone, and Audino had already woken up too. They didn't want to disturb Yuga, so they sat quietly on the side, keeping watch over him.

Yuga was deeply moved by Audino's behavior. After a quick tidying up, he released the other Pokémon, gave them food, and then took a closer look at his surroundings. Because it had been too dark the previous night, he hadn't really seen where they were.

However, the desert environment was mostly uniform: yellow sand, sparse vegetation, rolling sand dunes. Currently, they were beneath a massive sand dune, with the entrance they had come out from last night behind them.

After some thought, Yuga decided to use a large amount of sand to block the entrance to the underground labyrinth. It was best not to let anyone discover it; although it was unlikely anyone would come here, it was safer to bury it.

Only now did Yuga start counting his gains from this trip in the underground labyrinth.

Gligars, including the Gligar Leader, totaled 87. There were also several Gligar eggs, all with green potential.

Flygons, a total of 22, all with green potential. Additionally, there was one leader with blue potential. Then, 285 Trapinchs, with 3 having blue potential, while the rest had green potential. Lastly, there were several Pokémon eggs, with 6 having blue potential and the others having green potential.

After counting these, Yuga remembered he also brought out an orb and a stone tablet.

Yuga examined the orb closely and noticed a luminous flow within it. A vibrant life force seemed to emanate continuously from the orb. Both Yuga and Audino beside him could feel a gentle aura, as if a spring breeze was brushing against their faces.

While Yuga knew the orb was undoubtedly a powerful treasure, he didn't know its specific use. So, he put it aside and focused on the stone tablet covered in text.

After the system translated the inscriptions on the stone tablet, Yuga uncovered a glimpse of Arus Empire's history and learned about the circumstances surrounding the creation of the underground labyrinth.

Arus was a country over a millennium ago, known as the Arus Empire back then.

It was a prosperous nation located where the current Hoenn Desert is situated.

The stone tablet recorded that a minister under Arus' king returned from travels abroad.

He claimed to the king that he had visited another continent, completely different from Arus, characterized by vast and steep mountain ranges and year-round unsolitary snow.

Importantly, he visited a country there, wealthier even than Arus.

That country possessed a treasure that had led to its prosperity. However, what that treasure was and how it came to be, the minister didn't manage to ascertain.

Nevertheless, to understand the specifics of that treasure, the minister secretly conducted an investigation within that country.

The stone tablet didn't record what the minister ultimately found out, but not long after, the minister returned to his homeland continent, met with the king, and recounted his experiences.

At that time, the King of Arus heard about the treasure and became very intrigued. However, ancient transportation wasn't as convenient as it is now, let alone over a millennium ago. The King Arus learned about the existence of other continents beyond his own for the first time, so he had no means to cross the seas to seize or acquire the treasure.

Then, the minister suggested that while they might not be able to obtain the treasure, they could create one themselves.

The King was captivated by the minister's suggestion. The two conspired, and thus began the plan to create a treasure.

Subsequently, they pooled the country's resources, and countless rare and precious items were brought into the palace to create this treasure. However, simply relying on these items wasn't enough to create the treasure; they needed four elemental energies.

These four elemental energies were water, grass, earth, and the power of dragons. But where could they find these four elemental energies?

Eventually, spurred by the minister, the King resorted to killing four monsters, protectors of the palace whose strength was near reach Legendary Pokémon. They retrieved the most precious elemental energies from within these monsters.

These four monsters were Swampert, Sceptile, Gliscor, and Salamence. Each of them had been painstakingly nurtured by the ancestors of the Arus Empire and were fiercely loyal to the empire.

However, merging such powerful elemental energies was no simple task. Each type of elemental energy was a king in its own right, and it wasn't easy to unite them.

The King had become obsessed with creating this treasure. He had already sacrificed the four guardians of the palace; if he couldn't succeed, what was the point of his efforts? What were the sacrifices of the guardians for?

Thus, the King tried everything to merge these four energies, but all his attempts failed.

Finally, the minister proposed another idea: if there was a force stronger than these four energies, wouldn't it be easy to merge them together?

Hearing the minister's words, the already obsessed King turned his attention to the empire's guardian deity.

Indeed, with a force stronger than these four energies, couldn't they be suppressed? And there was only one kind of force stronger than them: the power of a deity.

The empire's guardian deity, as the name implies, existed to protect the empire. As long as the empire wasn't in a life-threatening crisis, the guardian deity wouldn't intervene.

Why not transform this force, which was beyond their control, into something they could manipulate? That was the King's idea at the time.

So, during the annual deity worship ceremony, the King Arus unexpectedly captured the guardian deity in front of all the empire's citizens.

The empire's guardian deity never expected that the King, who had protected the country for so many years, would turn against it, seeking to kill it!