FLOOD [Pokémon]

Chapter 37

^ "Heavenly Love" (10-13-2020)

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LIOR

"It is a lovely place," Titus rumbled. "Coming here is like going back to an older age."

"It is from an older age," Phinebas said thinly. "If by that you mean the Era of the Kingdoms. One of the last remnants of life from that bygone time. These walls have stood since before my great-great-grandmother was but a passing thought in the mind of Arceus."

Lior studied what lay before them from where he floated behind Enos, with the rest of the Army couriers. "Lovely" wasn't exactly the word he would've chosen to describe the place — it was...well, it was a ruin. The Ruins, as Lady Tirza called them.

They'd emerged out of the trench the Kyogre Clan now called home, and found that their old abode lay in a similar concavity in the seafloor, albeit shallower, allowing for swaths of sunshine to ripple over the barren wrinkles in the seabed here. At the top of this gray cliff, the ravine punched down into a chute that went about fifty feet, and hiding beneath the jutting lip of a shelf of conglomerate, Lior could just make out the walls of a structure that had long since been eaten away by the hungry waves of the ocean. Buttresses, columns, maybe even a staircase... They were all just barely visible from up here, and only if you stopped to study it for more than a moment.

Titus appeared to agree — fifty or so soldiers and support staff had accompanied him for his "demonstration" today, and floated with Phinebas and some of the other clan members at the head, peering down into the chute where the Ruins lay. "It would appear that the original architects were skilled in their construction," he remarked. "However, I can't say that I'm surprised that you have been forced to abandon your home — my scouts have told me that a human city lays less than half a day's march from here. It's a miracle that you haven't had trouble with them before now."

Phinebas's wrinkled upper lip twisted a little. "Things have changed, I'm afraid," he growled. "There was once a time when this area was quite dangerous — the humans declared these as protected waters in order to safeguard the various reefs that used to blanket the area, and these reefs attracted water-type Pokémon and hungry Gyaradoses and Sharpedoes.

"But in the passing years, pollution has caused these natural safeguards and the reef itself to decay, and in the wake of the exodus of water-type Pokémon and their predators, human traffic and recreational activity has become more common and harder to avoid. And..." Phinebas's lip wavered again. "Here we are."

"And there they are," General Mattathias said, pointing. Lior looked up and saw long shapes approaching in the distance, moving across the water and leaving a frothing wake in their path.

Phinebas hissed. "Arceus's sake."

Titus raised a brow at him. "Like clockwork?"

"Close enough. Scholars, or some such — they come nearly every day, bringing their strange instruments with them. It would appear that they're making a study out of the area."

"How close have they come to the Ruins?"

Phinebas pulled up his hood and backed away. "Too close."

"Then let's make today their last day." Titus glanced behind him to some of the other clan members, and his eyes stopped on Tirza Mari. "Have you located Lord Kygriss-Mari?"

"No," she said softly. "Reuben is searching high and low for him, but..."

"Why aren't you with him?" Phinebas snapped. "I thought I told you both to look. You are his retainer — your place is at his side. Or has your illicit jaunt around the globe made you forget?"