Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Hands of Creation

Chapter 75 - Descend

He's supposed to be dead!

Star could barely run. Barely focus to fire an Aura Sphere, or anything, at what Anam had become. The sight of Owen and Eon being consumed by the wraiths had left her not knowing how to feel. Disbelief—that was all she could feel. That this had all been a single, giant nightmare, a warning that she should have just worked with them all from the start.

But she wasn't waking up. By now, Hecto would have nudged her awake, told her it was alright, and asked to talk about it. That wasn't happening. Hecto was nowhere. He still hadn't found Amia. And Anam had become the demon they thought they had annihilated a thousand years ago.

Amia's soulless body lay on the ground where Owen had been taken. There was no way that they could have saved her in time; the wraiths wrapped around her next. Gahi, stunned only for a second, shook his head and flew backward. He was too panicked to use his Psychic powers. Now that he was back to normal, did he even know how to tap into them again?

Star tried to find her voice—she wanted to shout, to remind him, to do anything in this useless body of Manny's. No—it wasn't his fault. She had exerted herself too much, and now...

"And now, the useless one... is you."

Star swung her arm to her right, screaming. She hit something and it dissolved into mist.

Wraiths flooded the caverns. Step blasted several with Ice Beams; ADAM stayed close to her, while Enet scrambled away from a horde. Her illusions didn't work well here. All of the smoke left clear disturbances whenever the Zoroark moved invisibly.

"And it's all your fault."

Star spun around, using her momentum for a powerful kick on another formless wraith. She stumbled after it passed through, surprised at Manny's strength, and fell on her back. She squeaked—her tail bent in an odd direction.

She rolled back to her feet, only to see Anam's blackened form staring down at her, towering over the Lucario.

"If only they would listen."

Star flinched, taking another step back. She blasted Anam with an Aura Sphere, then fired a half-formed one from her other paw. Neither did anything; ADAM's 'Normalize' aura had worn off. Perhaps it was because the Porygon-Z had fled the entryway.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Step had rammed her way through the wraiths, losing only an icy arm and part of her tail in the process, while carrying ADAM under her remaining arm. The wraiths tried to ambush her, but she radiated too much icy energy—like a sort of frosted Protect—for them to break through as easily. Willow was balanced on the top of Zena's horn, zapping several wraiths from her vantage point. But the Milotic was surrounded, and despite Anam being so focused on Star, the wraiths acted on their own.

Zena screamed for Owen again—Star didn't know if that had been the first time, or the first one that she had noticed. Demitri and Mispy, still fused as Mimi, couldn't find a way out of the caves. Still, it wasn't like they were trying anymore.

Enet and the rest of Team Alloy had stayed behind with Zena, perhaps in an effort to free Owen from the wraiths that had enveloped him. "No!" Star yelled. "Run away! He's already gone!"

"They would never trust you."

Anam blasted Star with another beam of shadows. She wailed, the force of the explosion sending her tumbling across the cave. The wraiths swelled, covering huge swaths of the floor in their shapeless darkness. They concentrated around Zena next, latching onto her lower half in an effort to pull her under. Some readied weak beams of shadow at her sides, but Enet blasted several of them with more electricity and dark slashes.