CH105 (719), The Seal Is Charging

"As I promised, you may capture any of the beaten invaders that you want," Dusknoir declared, causing all present ghosts to turn their full attention to me. "I would however not recommend capturing the leaders since I do not believe that they would cooperate with you even if you captured them due to the manner they were beaten in. There's a risk that they might attack you and forgive me for saying this, but I do not believe that you would be able to subjugate them on your own once they have recovered," Dusknoir followed up, addressing exactly what I was considering even without me bringing it up.

Still, while I was sure that Dusknoir meant well when he said that, and I had to acknowledge here that he was right if we looked at the situation from a normal angle, he did not know of the existence of Utopia. Even if the boss trio and the (sub)bosses disliked me now and did not acknowledge their loss because we mostly ganged up on them after they were exhausted as well as hurt, their attitude would shift to a nonaggressive neutral one once they were inside Utopia, so even if they did not agree to join my team until I could properly beat them in a fair fight, they would still behave appropriately for as long as they stayed inside Utopia.

Moreover, I did not want to pass up the chance to capture and introduce a bunch of platinum-stage Pokemon to Utopia. Even if Utopia's next upgrade condition was to be bonded to and add multiple Stage 6 Pokemon, there were 12 (sub) bosses and 3 bosses in total; I seriously doubted that 15 platinum stage Pokemon ranging from (low) all the way to (high) would not be enough to trigger the update. The only thing I could think of that could become a temporary obstacle was the bond since I was not sure if I needed to have a genuine bond to trigger the update, or if the artificial bond established upon capture was enough.

Even then, it would likely take me less than a year to turn the artificial bond into a genuine one, which was still much faster than waiting for Mothra and co to complete their limit-breaking. That was why I was definitely planning to capture the bosses and (sub)bosses. Heck, since Dusknoir had practically given me a carte blanche, I was considering capturing all invaders. The chance to add thousands of strong ghosts ranging from (low) gold to (high) dark gold was a chance I was reluctant to miss out on. I just had to be sure that Dusknoir was okay with me doing so, but I honestly saw no reason why he would refuse. Unless he was planning to kill or seal away all of them, I was after all practically doing him a favor by removing them from the equation.

"Do you mind if I capture all of them?" I inquired without hesitation, and my question caused quite a bit of shock among the local ghosts. I could feel that even Dusknoir was shocked by my request, likely not having expected me to have such a big appetite, though his surprise settled rather quickly. "Are you sure that you want all of them? Would you be able to handle so many of them? Besides, where would you keep so many ghosts?" Dusknoir responded with a bunch of counterquestions instead of giving me an answer.

Still, I could see that he was trying to look out for me, which was rather nice of him since I was practically a stranger to him. Nonetheless, I remained resolute in my decision. "Yes, senior," I began with a nod. "I want all of them if that is alright with you," I continued, making sure to mention that I would only do so with his approval. "As for handling and keeping so many ghosts, I'm confident that we can handle it. I would not have put forward the request if I was not sure that it wouldn't put us or others at risk," I followed up and I made sure to use my aura to ensure that Dusknoir and everyone else could feel that I was serious. I did not want them to think that I was full of shit or that I was overestimating myself.

"Well, I did promise you that you can take any of the invaders you want, so if you are sure that you can handle it, then you may take them all," Dusknoir said, without showing the reticence I knew he was feeling. "Thank you for trusting me and for the opportunity to capture so many great Pokemon," I returned with heartfelt gratitude. Dusknoir released a hearty laugh before telling me to not mind it. He did turn rather serious after he said that, and it was obvious that the next piece was going to be important.

"While I don't mind letting you capture them, I'll need them for a bit before you do," Dusknoir declared in a no-nonsense tone that brook no argument. "The seal needs to be reinforced and we need some additional energy to close the gate; All of that energy will be drained from the beaten invaders," he elaborated, though the tone he used and his stance made it clear that he was only informing me of what was going to happen and not asking for permission. Still, those were valid demands and I was not sure why he felt the need to be so serious about that. I saw no reason why I would refuse something like that.

"The process will be conducted through the seal, and while the procedure does not pose a mortal risk to the targets, it does quite often cause a regression in strength among them, especially the stronger ones since the seal focuses on them the most. They'll need to train to make up for the lost power, though this bunch is already used to doing that," Dusknoir elaborated and I now understood why he saw fit to share this with me; I also could not help but feel a bit of pity towards Ceruledge and co. 

The way Dusknoir said it, it felt like they had gone through this numerous times, and that was rather pitiful even if they probably deserved it with them being invaders and all that. Still, even if I knew that this process would weaken the ghosts I was planning to capture, it was not like I could refuse. Asking Dusknoir and the defenders to power the seal themselves was impossible since it would compromise their duty, so hoping for the defenders of the seal to weaken themselves just for me was a folly so big I doubted anyone was stupid enough to even consider it. 

All I could hope was that this seal-sucking process would not interfere with my plan to use these ghosts to trigger Utopia's upgrade. Nonetheless, putting aside the irrelevance of my opinion in this matter, this was the first time I actually heard of something capable of forcefully regressing the stage/power of a Pokemon in a permanent fashion. This once again roused my curiosity. I could not help but wonder what was sealed here, though this time my interest in the seal capable of doing the things Dusknoir mentioned surpassed even my interest in the mystery Pokemon.

"That's okay," I simply told Dusknoir. "Say, would it be possible for me to observe the sealing process?" I followed up and Dusknoir replied without delay. "That's not a problem as long as all you do is watch. However, I can't allow you to try to interact with the seal in any fashion. Any attempts of doing so will have serious consequences," Dusknoir agreed, but not without giving a warning, and we could all feel that he was dead serious when he gave that warning. 

While that put a damper on my plan to investigate the seal, I was definitely not going to risk a try since I knew for a fact that doing so would put my life at risk. I felt the briefly deadly intent Dusknoir released when he gave his warning after all, and the way nearly all of my Pokemon stiffened before taking an alert position, I was not the only one.

"I promise to just watch and do nothing else," I promised and Dusknoir nodded before turning towards his minions. He instructed them to gather the fallen invaders at the 12 sealing points they had been defending after ensuring that none of the ghosts were capable of moving/resisting. My Pokemon and I simply gathered close to Dusknoir, with his permission obviously, and watched as they did that. The (sub)bosses were the ones to deal with the invader's (sub)bosses and Dusknoir personally acted when it was the boss trio's turn to be moved.

It took nearly 10 minutes for them to move all the fallen ghosts and I noticed that they did not simply pile them up, but positioned them in a certain fashion. Due to the number of invaders, they still ended up forming a pile, but I was aware that it was not a random pile. I tried to remember the way they placed and stacked the ghosts in case the knowledge ended up useful someday.

Anyway, once all fallen ghosts had been moved Dusknoir ordered the defenders to take their positions, and I watched as they circled the piles while some of them basically formed lines between the 12 seal points. One could see their experience; It took them less than a minute to do so, and Dusknoir began the process directly after they did that. I saw Dusknoir push all his energy into the ground, or rather the seal below the ground, causing the seal to light up again. The light rose in intensity starting from the point Dusknoir fed his energy into, and spread towards the 12 seal points, it rose in intensity as it passed through the areas where the defenders were lined up, and bright light erupted once it reached the seal points.

The light was so bright, that it obscured the ghost piles on them. Unfortunately, while the light made for a great spectacle, it also blocked my vision, messing with my plan to watch the draining process. The light only died down around 8 minutes later and all we saw during that time was a bright white light that turned progressively more purple, which I assumed was due to the energy that was being extracted from the fallen invaders, before turning back to white for a moment following which it began to subside. 

Interestingly enough, there were no cries of pain during the process, which I had honestly kind of expected to hear due to the effect of the process. Yet, all that came from the light was the occasional grunt of discomfort and distress, but the cacophony of pain I was expecting did not happen, which was good I guess. 

Anyway, once the light died down, Dusknoir turned toward me. "The process is over," he confirmed the conclusion of the procedure. "You can now go ahead and capture the ghosts. You don't have to worry about them resisting since none of them will have the energy to put up any struggle. It should take them at least a few days to recover from this enough to even contemplate causing you any trouble," he added with a smile that I was sure was supposed to look friendly, but given what had just happened gave off a somewhat ominous vibe instead.

"Thanks, I'll do that," I replied before heading towards the seal point where I knew the boss Ceruledge had been placed. The platinum-stage Pokemon were my priority, and among them, the boss trio was easily the most important. Thankfully, Ceruledge had been placed at the top of the pile, so I did not have to look for him beneath the other ghosts. I did not bother climbing up the pile and simply used my telekinesis to establish contact with Ceruledge so that I could check his status sheet. When I saw the result of the draining procedure I could not help but release a sigh of disappointment.

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