Chapter 61: X God Awakens (Patreon)

"It's so beautiful~"

Misty stood at the edge of the canyon, gazing at the miraculous sight of evolution before her. She couldn't help letting out a sigh of admiration.

The next second, Renan's telepathic voice rang out abruptly in her mind.

[Misty, sorry to bother you, but could you take all the Moon Stones out of my bag and lay them on the ground?]

"Huh?" The girl froze at his words, but she didn't refuse. She trusted her travel companion quite a lot.

She went and found his backpack, rummaged through it, and tipped out all one hundred and fifty-odd Moon Stones.

At the center of the canyon, while the Clefable clan's ritual was still not quite over, Renan didn't hesitate either. He hurled out another Moonlight.

This time, though, the target wasn't the Cleffa, Clefairy and Clefable standing around the meteorite. It was the Moon Stones heaped into a small pile at Misty's feet.

Now that his mana had undergone some kind of qualitative change, a thought had suddenly flashed through Renan's mind: maybe he could use the moon power still lingering in the surroundings to charge up the Moon Stones.

So he did it. If it failed, and every Moon Stone he owned shattered, he'd only have to put in a bit more time as a miner in Mt. Moon. If it worked, though, it meant the resources for raising Shellder, Glameow and Cleffa were settled. A small loss against a big win. Of course he had to gamble.

The pink moonlight washed over the surface of the stones one by one, and they slowly drank it in.

Then, almost visibly, the quality of the outermost layer of Moon Stones began to rise.

Seeing this, Misty couldn't hide her astonishment. She'd had her suspicions back when she helped fetch the stones, but watching it happen with her own eyes was something else.

Renan, for his part, saw that his instinct hadn't steered him wrong and didn't hesitate any longer. He fired off several more Moonlights, converting every last trace of moon power left in the air around them.

Two-odd minutes later, the energy that had erupted from the giant meteorite was completely spent, and the whole rock had gone plain and ordinary again. But Renan, now a Gym-class psychic, could sense that as moonlight fell from the sky, the moon power inside the meteorite was already gathering anew.

A flicker of surprise crossed his face, then quickly settled. The boy turned to the elderly Clefable beside him. "Elder, our deal is done."

The elderly Clefable seemed to have gained an even longer lifespan now that its type had changed to Fairy. It looked far younger than before.

At Renan's words, the corners of its mouth lifted, and its tone stayed kind. [Lord Renan, thank you for your help. From this day forward, the Clefable clan of Mt. Moon will be your most loyal ally. Whenever you have need, you may call on us at any time.]

"You're too kind, Elder."

…

Almost at the very moment the Clefable clan finished their ritual dance and every member changed from Normal-type to Fairy-type…

Somewhere deep in a forest in Kalos, far from any human footprint, stood a 'tree' made entirely of rainbow-colored crystal. The branches at its crown suddenly trembled.

Xerneas, asleep for nearly a thousand years, stirred out of its haze.

By the world's original course, it shouldn't have woken at this point in time. But because some Pokémon had gained the Fairy type ahead of schedule, it was like an alarm clock sitting by the bedside going off out of nowhere, and it jolted the 'God of Life' straight out of sleep.

Still, that was no great matter.

What truly surprised Xerneas was that among humans, who were not its own kin, a special being had been born who could wield the 'power of life'.

Curious about the unknown, it wanted to meet this person. But although its consciousness had woken early, the strength within its body hadn't yet filled out, so for now Xerneas couldn't go anywhere.

After a moment's thought, it reached out through telepathy and made contact with a certain 'photographer' far away in the Kanto region.

…

Back on Renan's side, the black-haired boy had no idea that a Legendary Pokémon had set its sights on him.

The morning after he'd witnessed the Clefable clan's ritual firsthand, he and Misty said goodbye to the horde of pink little devils. It took them only a single day to cover the rest of the route, and that night they checked into the Pokémon Center at the exit of Mt. Moon.

In the guest room, Renan took stock of his haul. Before long, a smile crept across his lips that he simply couldn't suppress.

Following his instinct last night, he'd put the last bit of moon power from the giant meteorite, power that would otherwise have leaked into the air and been wasted, to use, converting it into Moonlight and spraying it over the Moon Stones.

It was a perfect one-step solution, and it had saved him a huge amount of time collecting resources.

Of those hundred-odd Moon Stones from before, even the lowest-grade ones had reached mid-grade after being charged with moon power. And sixteen of them, which Misty had set on the very top of the pile and which had absorbed the most Moonlight, now qualified as high-grade Moon Stones.

Sixteen high-grade Moon Stones.

Renan knew exactly what that meant.

Through Dragon Tamer Lance or the Cerulean Gym's connections, he could trade the surplus Moon Stones for other resources. Never mind the second-team partners who didn't even exist yet. His first team of Pokémon, at least, could easily be raised to the peak of Elite level within the next half year!

Those with high potential to begin with, like Charmeleon and Shellder, had every chance of going a step further and joining the ranks of Gym-class Pokémon.

With a roster of Gym-class Pokémon challenging the Indigo League, he wouldn't call it a sure thing, but under normal circumstances his odds of taking the final victory were very high.

After all, not everyone had luck as bad as the anime's protagonist Ash, where every time he had a shot at the Pokémon League tournament championship, 'justice' rained down from the sky: either some Legendary Pokémon guy showed up to meddle and snipe him, or his own top ace threw the match.

Of course, more than the resources, what truly thrilled Renan was the growth of his own strength.

Last night, he alone had 'eaten' roughly a third of the moon power in the giant meteorite.

It had triggered an update of his Falna, which pushed both his psychic power and his physique to Gym-class. Even the mana inside his body had undergone a transformation. What had once been relatively pure mental force, or a variant of it, had become a blend of psychic energy and some kind of life energy.

As for what exactly that life energy was…

Renan narrowed his eyes. He thought of the Fairy-type move Moonlight he'd unexpectedly picked up last night.

'So if I classify myself the way Pokémon are classified, my type is now Psychic plus Fairy?'

'Heh, what, a humanoid Gardevoir with a big stalk?' the black-haired Renan joked at himself. Then he smacked his own head. 'Oh, or maybe Mr. Mime.'