CH107 (721), Truth Behind The Seal (1)

He seemed to appreciate my attitude, but Dusknoir still said that I did not need to thank him since I, or rather we earned it through our actions. I could feel that all my Pokemon seemed pretty happy with the acknowledgment, which was not surprising since it came from a Pokemon that was pretty high up the totem pole. Pretty close to the peak of the totem pole within the human/alliance territory actually, though that was ignoring that the world outside our place had much stronger Pokemon.

Anyway, I asked Dusknoir if it was okay if I asked him some questions, and he said that was fine, though it would have to wait until the gate had been resealed; He then told me they would start on that now before requesting that I move to my previous "hiding" place. Dusknoir then began giving out orders to the defenders, and while he did that I made my way behind the stalagmite like Dusknoir asked me to. My Pokemon all followed suit and after thanking them for helping me out, I shifted nearly all of them to Utopia.

While I was pretty sure that nothing bad would happen since Dusknoir had left me with a reliable impression through his actions and my various senses that had been active the entire time, I still wanted to be sure that I could retreat as quickly as possible if it came down to it, which was why everyone except for Mothra/Butterfree, Horus/Xatu, Nyx/Umbreon, and Tatsumaki/Alakazam was moved to Utopia. Hades/Gengar was still inside my shadow, so he was still outside as well.

If for some reason shit hit the fan, I would have an easier time escaping with just those 4.5 than I would have with everyone being outside; With Dusknoir's power and the support of his minions fighting was not an option after all, so if it came down to it escaping was all I/we could do. Not that I really thought it would come to that, I just wanted to make sure because of that "what if". I guess it was because I had seen Dusknoir's attitude regarding the seal and I was planning to ask some questions about it that I felt this way.

In fact, if not for the fact that I was absolutely sure that Dusknoir could not stop me from moving to Utopia if necessary, I probably would have kept quiet and ignored my curiosity. However, I knew that I could retreat, so I quietly watched as Dusknoir directed his ghosts and triggered the seal for a second time. We watched attentively as the seal began to shine brightly and observed moments later how the gate began to shrink until it eventually completely vanished.

The seal shone for a few additional seconds before it began to "power" down, returning the cave to its previous calm. Once that happened, Dusknoir addressed the other ghosts; He thanked them for their cooperation before informing them that the outbreak was officially over and that they were allowed to leave/return to their own places. All ghosts bowed toward Dusknoir after he said that; They thanked him for leading them and for his hard work before dispersing.

We watched as nearly 80% of them left the chamber, leaving less than 200 of them. Thankfully, all of the Dusclops and Dusknoir were included in that since seeing the ghosts leave like that made me think of the Duskull I had captured and promised to release before leaving. I had not forgotten that the little guy had broken the curfew imposed by the ghost leaders, so if he was not back to his tribe's home before his tribe leaders/elders were back, he would get in a lot of trouble.

Hence, I immediately called out Hades from my shadow and handed him the Pokeball containing Duskull after turning off the stasis mode. I telepathically told him to leave the chamber and put some distance between himself and the core room before releasing Duskull as I had promised. I empathized that he should hurry up since I was not sure how long it would take for the Dusclops and Dusknoir to leave. Anyone among them could be a member of little Duskull's group, so as soon as the first one left, Duskull's cover was at risk.

Hades saluted before putting the ball into his shadow. After that, he rushed into the tunnel behind us and vanished. We continued to watch Dusknoir, who was talking with the 3 Dusknoir (sub)bosses, while we waited for Hades to return, and he did so a bit less than a minute later. He had a proud grin and gave me a thumbs up to show that he had done his part before pulling out/returning a now-empty PokeBall. I praised him over our telepathic channel before asking him for some details. Hades shared that he had rushed to roughly the halfway point between the chamber and the place where we captured Duskull before releasing the little guy from the PokeBall while triggering the bond-severing function of the PokeBall. 

Hades also made sure to tell Duskull that the outbreak was over and that his elders were likely to return any moment now, which had the little ghost bow and thank him/us for keeping our word before rushing away. We acted just in time as well since around a minute after Hades' return the Dusknoir finished up their conversation, following which the Dusclops/Dusknoir (sub) dispersed as well, finally leaving Bossnoir free for me to approach.

"Well, what would you like to know young man?" Dusknoir said warmly after I approached him with Mothra, Horus, and the others in tow. I noticed his gaze lingering longer on Horus than it did on the others, and he even looked at my shadow, though I guess it was no surprise that he had noticed Hades in there. "If it is possible, I would like to know what exactly is sealed here and if the gate is a result of it or if the gate existed before the seal," I inquired after making it clear that I would respect his decision even if he refused to answer. I waited for Dusknoir to speak up and I could see him consider my question.

"It is not impossible for me to answer your questions," Dusknoir began after nearly half a minute of silent rumination. "While I don't mind sharing some information on the gate with you, the information on the seal necessitates some precautions before I can tell you anything about it," he said seriously; "What kind of precautions are we talking about?" I questioned. There were too many things that could mean, and I was honestly not interested in signing any contracts or agreeing to any potential security curses.

"There are two ways; The first one is a curse, specifically a security curse. While I doubt you would accept a curse, even if it was a security one, I would accept it if either your Butterfree or your Gengar took on the curse in your stead," Dusknoir said and I directly shook my head. I was sure they would agree, but I couldn't and wouldn't agree to either of them taking on such a burden.

"If that is not an option," Dusknoir followed up after seeing me shake my head, "then you'll either have to agree to a psychic geass to ensure you keep the secret, or you'll have to bare open your soul and promise me you'll keep quiet while I observe your soul to ensure you're being truthful," he finished and while the first one was definitely out for the same reason as the curse, I could not help but consider the second option even though I was skeptical about doing anything that involved the soul.

"How would I bare my soul for you to see exactly," I questioned, genuinely curious how that would work since I was not a Spiritualist or anything, so my using astral projection or something along those lines was not possible. "I don't think you'll accept the easy way, so you'll have to go with the slightly more cumbersome option," Dusknoir replied; "I want you to focus on your bond with your Gengar, and send energy into it," He followed up and I did as he requested.

"That's right, just like that," Dusknoir declared seemingly satisfied. "Alright; Now let me ask you a few questions that I want you to answer truthfully," Dusknoir continued and I nodded to tell him to go ahead. "Would you keep the existence of this tunnel system a secret if I asked you to?" He asked first, and even though it was not related to the seal, I still answered truthfully. "I would," I replied and he gave a happy nod at that.

"Would you keep the existence of the gate and the seal a secret if I asked you to?" He asked and I once again replied with "I would", but this time I added a provision. "However, only if I'm sure that keeping the secret won't endanger Hoenn. This battle was a bit too risky in my opinion," I answered honestly, and thankfully Dusknoir did not seem to mind. He just gave a satisfied nod before asking his next question. "Would you believe my explanation if I told you why you won't have to worry about us risking Hoenn?" He inquired, and I could feel that he was truly curious about my answer.

"I would," I once again declared since he had not bothered masking his emotions until now, and everything would be fine as long as he did not start doing that. "Alright, that's enough," Dusknoir proclaimed. "Let me answer your questions regarding the safety of Hoenn before I tell you about the gate and what is locked behind the seal," he followed up.

"Please, go ahead," I told him and everyone listened attentively. Dusknoir actually used his energy to create a barrier around us, and I could not help but raise an eyebrow in surprise. "Just a precaution. Most ghosts do not know what I'm about to tell you and I would prefer it if it remained like that," he clarified before continuing his explanation. 

"The seal has a failsafe that triggers once more than 80% of the seal points have been breached. The moment that happens, the seal will forcefully draw upon all energy within a 1-kilometer radius, free-floating or not, before triggering a dimensional shift that will cause everything within that kilometer radius to move to the Spirit World where there is nearly unlimited spectral energy to power it. The shift will also cause the permanent closure of the gate you saw, so you won't have to worry about any future intrusions even without us around to safeguard the gate," Dusknoir explained and I had to agree that it was a good and effective failsafe, though I could not help but feel a bit alarmed at the not so nice surprise we ended up avoiding.

I understood why he said that he wouldn't be around anymore if that happened since he would no doubt be within the 1-kilometer radius when the shift happened, along with all defenders and invaders, meaning they would all be transported to the Spirit World without an easy way back home. Considering that the defenders were made up of the strongest ghosts within the cave system, this would leave the various ghost groups/tribes quite weakened. Not to mention the impact the shift would probably have on the environment.

"What would happen to the cave system if that happened," I decided to ask, curious to see if Dusknoir was aware of the consequences of such a scenario. Dusknoir looked a bit grim for a moment before he answered. "We would be gone, leaving our families weakened. Furthermore, the disappearance of the seal and the permanent closure of the gate would result in a considerable reduction of the abundance of spectral energy since there would be no further periodic release of spectral energy from either the seal or the Spirit World," he paused for a moment at this point before continuing.

"While this would not be felt immediately, the spectral energy concentration would fall over time until it fell to and stabilized at around 20 to 30% of the current density. Thankfully it would not vanish entirely due to the transformation and adaptation of the cave system to spectral energy, meaning that our families would not be forced to leave, but it would still result in a reduction of resources and advancement speed. That is exactly why everyone is willing to work together like this because they know that they can never allow this to happen," Dusknoir declared full of conviction, showing that he was fully aware of the consequences of such a scenario.

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