When he was very young, Yang Yu once heard a story.

That's what all the young children of the Flame People must have heard, and it's a story about the "Niwa God" who sleeps in Mt. Aso.

Five hundred years ago, a war broke out in the southern archipelago. In order to defend their comrades and the ground beneath their feet, the Flame's family joined the battle with blades in hand.

And the god of Niwa could not tolerate the bloodshed and sacrifice of people with red hair and red eyes. It distributes its power to its people, guarding them like an impregnable wall, just as it has done countless times over the centuries.

Only this time, their enemies were too strong - in order to protect their people, the god of Niwa ran out of strength, was seriously injured and fell into the lava of Mt. Aso, where he has slept to this day.

Time passes, and the Flame People still remember and are grateful. They sing the story of the gods and have guarded the land of Mt. Aso for 500 years. They envied their ancestors who had witnessed the gods and fought alongside them, but they also knew that the gods of Niwa had not abandoned them even when they were asleep.

The scorching energy seeped out of the bird's body, flowed down the lava, and eventually condensed into countless red crystals beneath the land of Mt. Aso, providing the Flame Folk with the "fuel" to survive - even if the resulting depletion would cause them to sleep and heal for longer. The people who live in the Valley of the Flames are heartily grateful for the generosity of the Niwa gods, and even three-year-old children know that as Niwa dependents, they have the right to enjoy the gifts of the gods and the obligation to protect their gods from harm.

The "Divine Servant" is an existence that protects each other with the gods. A thousand years ago, this was common knowledge to everyone.

If I don't do anything, what will happen next?, the red-haired boy thought to himself, staring at the ancient instrument in front of him.

It was as if he had seen what the future would look like in the near future. The angry gods believed the message of the fake drum and woke up before the people could see it, and then, rightfully seeing the other inhabitants of the island as "foreign enemies", did not hesitate to spit out the fire of the red lotus in order to save the "isolated people".

Even if it wasn't intended, the god of Niwa, who had harmed innocents and possessed too much power, would definitely be labeled a "disaster" by the four major divisions of the alliance, just like the three gods that attacked Red Lotus City. At that time, did the gods and their dependents really have a place to stay?

No devout flame people would allow such a thing to happen.

The words left by the girl before leaving flashed through her mind. Yang Yu can't claim that he has such a resolute will as "even if he hurts others, he must protect it", but at least he ......

If he had beaten the drum, he would have regretted it, but if he hadn't, he would have regretted it for the rest of his life.

The boy gently wiped the dust off the drum surface with his hands, and his eyes grew brighter as if they contained flames.

He knew what he had to do.

Crater observatory, behind the tall instruments.

The purple-haired girl calmed down her breath, which was slightly anxious due to the high temperature, closed her eyes and silently counted in her heart, holding a poke ball tightly in her hand. A black shadow loomed beside him, as if he couldn't hold back his desire to attack.

Xiao Ye is not impatient, but calmly counts patiently according to the beating of the pulse. Until a certain moment -

The thunderous drums suddenly rang out. The sound passed through the underground corridor, piercing through the dirt, and the heavy rhythm was transmitted throughout Mt. Aso.

At this moment, countless people living on Xiangtang Island woke up from their sleep and looked at the dark night sky in amazement. Xiao Ye, who was only two walls away from the sound source, and even the eardrum was shaken to the point of pain, did not show any surprise, but smiled.

She believes that even if she doesn't say anything, the teenager in the name of Flame will make the same choice. She's just getting ahead of what is going to happen, isn't she?

The girl made a pre-arranged gesture.

The black-robed guards surrounding the crater subconsciously looked around due to the impact of the drums, and the delicate network of sights dispersed for a few seconds. A shadow silently streaked across the ground, engulfing something and sinking into the smoke rising above the lava.

The deafening sound of drums drowned out the slightest movement of the Poké Balls as they opened. By the time someone's peripheral vision caught the unusual sight, the lava was already agitated.

The flames enveloped the magma and soared into the sky from the bottom up, lighting up the night sky of Mt. Aso. The scorching wind and the blinding light of the fire swept in their faces, and the people on the crater edge instinctively covered their faces with their hands and retreated. The drillhorned rhinoceros that was guarding the side immediately stepped forward and blocked the flying sparks.

The black-robed man at the top of the station hurriedly opened the communication channel, and the message "The Flame Bird has awakened" had just been sent out halfway through, when he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

The pillar of fire in front of him looked bluffing at first glance, but it was still too small compared to the battle that the divine bird should have awakened. The temperature of the air did not rise sharply, and the earth did not shake, how could a powerful creature that had been immersed in anger for five hundred years wake up so "restrained"?

He narrowed his eyes, and suddenly caught an undetectable blue glow hidden in the pillar of flame light.

The black-robed man's eyelids jumped, and without hesitation, he gave the order to attack everyone guarding the crater. The drillhorned rhinoceros roared in unison, and the rock blades staggered and instantly tore apart the pillar of fire that only bluffed on the outside, revealing the appearance of the Pokémon within.

The orange fire dragon was carrying an inconspicuous human and was flying upwards with all its might. Lan Mang cut the hard rope that bound the "sacrifice", and the girl in the white dress fell silently, being caught by the fire-breathing dragon trainer.

The expressions of the people in black robes suddenly became gloomy.

Xiao Ye, who was high in the air, faintly heard an angry roar from below. The Sharp Stone Attack rained down like a gravity-defying rainstorm, weaving a deadly web across the sky.

Of course, she had no intention of fighting, and the turquoise light shroud spread behind her, briefly intercepting the attack of the Rock Blade. As soon as the crack appeared in the first light mask, the exact same move was unleashed, seamlessly forming an absolute defensive shield for just a few seconds.

Charizard, which had just used the temperature of the lava to set off a wave of fire, was covered in hot wind, and even the tips of its claws were hot. Xiao Ye hugged the unconscious Haruna in her arms, and carefully placed her left hand under the back of the opponent's head, isolating the fragile head of the unconscious person from the burning skin of Yan Long, but she seemed to be unaware of the pain, allowing the back of her hand to be scorched. She stuck in time to retrieve the Poké Ball from the Snow Boy who had unfolded her protective moves, and then gave an order, "Smoke Screen!"

The thick black smoke instantly enveloped the orange fire dragon, and the wind brought by the flapping of its wings spread rapidly outward. But that didn't mean safety - they had been in the air for too short a time, far from the range of the Sharp Rock Attack, and before the smoke screen could spread, there were already countless sharp blades in the air, pointing at Charizard's wings.

The Diamondhorn Rhinoceros has a powerful move, and even if it is hit by one of the rock blades, there is only one way to fall for Charizard.

The moment the second guard disappeared, the blue light in Xiao Ye's palm suddenly brightened, turning into a huge lightsaber. The force of the waveguide locked onto the position of each blade, and she swung her blade behind her without looking back, the hard rock making a scalp-tinging noise as it met the blade.

The sweeping crystal blue blades blocked nearly every blade that could touch Charizard. It's just that the seven drillhorned rhinoceros are so dense that there are inevitably omissions - thankfully, Charizard's trainers are very good at controlling where this "omission" occurs.

The pointed stone attack aimed at Charizard's wings was slashed in two, one of the fish that slipped through the net grazed Charizard's leg, causing it to let out a painful roar without affecting its speed, while the other blade went straight at the trainer, stabbing it into the right shoulder, blooming with a huge flower of blood.

It was all buried in the dark smoke and melted into the night.

A few seconds after the target was out of range, the man riding the head of a crow appeared silently above the crater.

The smoke screen obscured the flames from Charizard's tail tip, but the smell was too pungent for Pokémon to be just as obvious as a signpost. The crow heads followed the scent and began to track them like the most skilled hunters.

The scent was directed straight to the Valley of Flames—the expected answer.

However, after chasing halfway, the crow head found that the traces and smell of smoke and dust had disappeared. And the night sky in front of him was unobstructed, and there was no shadow of Charizard at all.

- Directly above the crater, high in the air where only large birds occasionally tread, Charizard is carefully holding the tip of its tail, lest the light of the flames leak down and disturb the enemy.

A few minutes later, the figure of the dark purple ghost slowly emerged, smirking and circling around the trainer a few times.

One person and one dragon breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

"Well done, Ghost Stone. Saya pulls the big ghost with a hippie smile back into the ball.

The Poké Ball carrying Charizard approaches the magma lake, unleashes its first hold move, and creates a false smoke screen to lure away enemies - the ghost-type Pokémon Ghost Stone who can be invisible is the real hole card of Xiaoye's "suicide rescue" this time.

Sayo changed her position to prevent the blood dripping from her shoulders from staining Hauna's white dress. Then, she said succinctly, "Go to the Valley of the Flames." ”

The orange dragon quietly accelerated in the night sky, speeding in the direction of the valley.

The cry of the Uber drum has awakened everyone in the Valley of Flames. The young patriarch rushed out of the house dressed in a single garment, frowning as he recognized the meaning of the drum.

The thunderous sound didn't last long, only repeating a short melody three times before it was silent. A few minutes later, another earthquake struck the flame-dwellers who ran toward the plaza to a crooked mass, dust and gravel rising and drowning out the light of the torches.

The complexion of karma has long been extremely grim.

For the people of the Valley of Flames, these two days were terrible - a day earlier, at dusk, their guard captain Yasumu Hihara, a tourist with the power of a waveguide, and Hibara Hiwa, who was traveling with him, disappeared at the same time, and their whereabouts are still unknown, and their fate is still unknown. On the second day, Ye led a group to look for them, but on the way, he was attacked by the black-robed people riding on the head of a crow, and even the patriarch himself was injured, and his arm was wrapped in a snow-white bandage that had just been changed.

And now, they're receiving messages from someone they don't know.

[The god of Niwa is enraged and is about to wake up early. 】

The method of playing the Upe drums is a secret of the Flame People, and everyone quickly thinks of the missing Jingmu and Yang Yu—no doubt a warning from their compatriots.

The disheveled flame people gathered in the square in a panic, and for a time the six gods were gone. Their patriarch, on the other hand, seemed quite calm, and after calming everyone in a few words, he quickly gave the order.

The Valley of the Flames enters a state of war, gathering forces to defend their homeland and not allowing anyone to invade, while the Guards follow their patriarch to the summit of Mount Aso to prepare to meet their gods—or to confront the mastermind behind it.

The karma team was given 10 minutes to reorganize and assemble. At the end of the short meeting, all the members disbanded on the spot, and Kari immediately returned to his room, intending to retrieve his Pokémon and weapons.

His residence is close to the central square, and people often walk back and forth. And now everyone is busy returning home to rectify, and there is no one in the vicinity for a while.

Halfway through the road, he meets Harina, who is panting and running towards him.

"Patriarch, it's not good......" The successor, who had not recovered from his injuries, was obviously not suitable for such strenuous exercise, holding his knees and unable to speak for a while.

"Haruna, what are you doing here?" Ye had seen how deep the wound on Haruna's back was, and hurriedly stepped forward to help her, "It's dangerous outside now, go back to the infirmary......"

Before the words fell, the young patriarch suddenly felt a cold hair stand up, and a huge sense of crisis came to his heart.

The instincts honed on the battlefield in Somiana saved his life. Instinctively, karma retreated, and then felt a sudden sharp pain.

A dagger stabbed him in the abdomen.

The look of worry on his face had not yet faded, mixed with a hint of confusion, as if he could not understand what was happening for a moment. "Harina"'s expression was covered by heavy bangs, casting only a shadow. She stabbed the dagger again with great speed, aiming it straight at the opponent's neck, and the wounded man who fell to the ground didn't have time to lift his strength—

"Boom!!"

Beams of blazing flames rained down from the sky and struck in front of karma, almost devouring the woman with the blade in her hand. "Harina" seemed to sense the danger at the last moment, and suddenly turned back, narrowly avoiding the flames.

But there are too many flaws in the hasty change of tactics. The next moment, a thunderbolt-like blue light flashed, and "Harina" was violently knocked into the air, planted into a pile of abandoned wood on the side, and stirred up a puff of smoke and dust.

The person in the thunder light turned from movement to stillness, and his figure was clearly revealed.

The girl, who had been missing for a day, looked really embarrassed. The original white coat was covered with dust, and the corners of the clothes were covered with scorched black marks. Her right shoulder seemed to be badly wounded, crimson spreading from her shoulder all the way to her cuffs, and blood still dripping slowly downward.

The fire-breathing dragon that followed behind glared angrily, but its movements were very cautious, and it seemed that there was another person on its back—

When he saw the face of the sleepy man on Charizard's back, the young patriarch was stunned like a stone sculpture.

In silence, the crystal blue turned into a sharp blade in the palm of Xiao Ye's palm, pointing at the gray figure in the smoke and dust.

"Mr. Ye, that guy is an impostor. ”

She said succinctly and clearly.

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Small Theatre:

- Directly above the crater, high in the air where only large birds occasionally tread, Charizard is carefully holding the tip of its tail, lest the light of the flames leak down and disturb the enemy.

Charizard: Thanks to the fact that I flew like a ball for a long time, I didn't get noticed by the enemy!