Pokémon Detective: Cynthia Forces Me to Adopt a Pokémon

Chapter 245 Sweltering Heat - The Black-Clad Detective's Escape Route

In an instant, all was silent.

The torrential rain has vanished, leaving only a bone-chilling cold that underscores the ferocity of "absolute zero."

The ceiling of the fourth floor of the Tower of Heaven is now covered with countless inverted ice spikes. Beneath the thousands of ice needles, no living being can move freely.

The illusion painstakingly constructed by the detective has come to a complete end, and the mass battle triggered by the dream smoke has finally concluded in an extremely tragic manner.

Rainwater became an excellent conductor of low temperatures, freezing everything outside the area centered on where Adek and Double Dodo Ice stood.

The moves were interrupted, the flames went out, the limbs froze, teleportation was restricted, and the spirits were frozen... Countless lifelike "Pokémon ice sculptures" crowded together in an ice and snow forest, maintaining their final state frozen in place.

This naturally includes the Red-faced Dragon, who uses the "Rain Dance" move to assist his companions.

Although Alder also wanted to recall Redface Dragon into its Poké Ball, Gothic, who was mixed in with wild Pokémon, first pinned Redface Dragon's shadow to the field; later, several Ghost-type "Black Eyes" further blocked Redface Dragon's escape route, which further blocked the Champion's idea of ​​rotating Pokémon to avoid damage.

In addition, "Absolute Zero" is a single-target move with an extremely low hit rate. In order to spread the effect of this extreme cold and freezing to the entire space covering the field, it is necessary to rely on the rain curtain of "Rain Prayer" to "connect" the four floors of the Tower of Heaven into a whole.

This indoor downpour was only sustained by the power of the Red-faced Dragon. If it had been removed from the battlefield earlier, the rain would have weakened immediately, and Double Ice's "Absolute Zero" would never have achieved such a perfect effect.

"Ahem, Champion Aldace, you still love to mess around in matches..."

Wanlong Tianwang released the girl he had been shielding behind him, wiping the cold sweat from his cheeks with his free hands. A crystal chandelier spirit, not wild, appeared before the two of them—it was its timely appearance that shielded the two ladies, who were at the edge of the arena, from the aftershocks of "Absolute Zero".

Caught off guard, Victini awkwardly flapped its little wings, as if ashamed that it hadn't been able to use its skills during the rampage.

“Miss Wanlong, did you already guess that Mr. Adek would use this tactic?” Alice asked.

"Hmm, I roughly guessed something when I saw the wild elves."

As he retrieved the crystal chandelier, the novelist gave a shy, wry smile.

"This is the most ingenious of countless endings. Given the gentle nature of our Unova Champion, I think he would most likely adopt this tactic. However, I did not expect the ending to be so tragic. Even that tenacious red-faced dragon fell during the execution of the tactic. Cynthia's brother is truly not to be underestimated."

"Hmm... Is holding an ice sculpture exhibition in a cemetery considered gentle?" The girl was a little confused by the novelist's first sentence.

Wanlong shook his head: "Although 'Absolute Zero' looks scary, in reality, the damage Pokémon suffer while frozen is far less than that caused by other attacks. These wild Ghost-type Pokémon will naturally transform into a spirit state and go into hibernation after being frozen, which is quite a merciful countermeasure. And more importantly—"

Wanlong turned her gaze to the depths of the cemetery.

"This method is the best way to preserve the original state of the tombstones and mausoleum within the four layers."

To err is human, to forgive divine. Having realized his mistake, Adek chose the gentlest tactic for the deceased.

On the other side, the champion, who was at the center of the discussion, ignored the whispers of the audience and went straight to the "ice sculpture" of the Red-faced Dragon. He smashed the ice covering its forehead and pressed the weathered Poké Ball against the rough scales of the Red-faced Dragon.

With a flash of red light symbolizing recycling, the Red-faced Dragon's "ice sculpture" turned into an empty shell, and this cave Pokémon, now unable to battle, officially exited the stage.

This was Alder's second casualty in this battle, and their only achievement was defeating a weak and insignificant beginner Pokémon...

Have they really been defeated?

Having clashed with the detective in black for so long, Aldak had long since abandoned any thought of underestimating his opponent; he had to be prepared for the worst.

The Chimchar that used "Hold On" had only a sliver of strength left. It then forced itself to use "One More Time" on the builder before disappearing into the vast army of wild Pokémon.

Theoretically speaking, if this little Chimchar attracts the attention of any wild Pokémon, no matter how slight the attack, it could render the Pokémon completely unable to battle... But things can change in an unexpected way.

Thinking of this, Adek suddenly looked at the spiral staircase passage at the other end of the cemetery.

Along the winding paths through the snow-covered forest, the champion witnessed the worst possible scene.

Logically speaking, wild elves swarming towards the center of the battlefield shouldn't be deserters; if they were afraid of fighting, they wouldn't be here at all.

However, at the tail end of the wild Pokémon army, frozen into "ice sculptures," near the entrance to the stairs, several "Pokémon ice sculptures" appeared facing the opposite direction. They were not looking at Alder, who had offended the undead, but staring straight down the stairs, as if their attention had been drawn to something there.

Could it be that Chimchar escaped through this passage?

The spiral staircase continues downwards, leading to the dark third floor of the Tower of Heaven, which is also filled with the graveyards of Pokémon.

Now, it really does feel more and more like a tabletop game where you explore an underground castle.

Regardless of whether Chimchar actually escaped death from the fourth floor of the Tower of Heaven, the whereabouts of its trainer, Hugo, are certain; everyone witnessed him running down the spiral staircase to the fifth floor. And now, since the entire fourth floor is frozen and Hugo is nowhere to be seen, he must be on a lower floor.

There is only one path I should take... as if it had been planned out by someone long ago.

Dispelling his hesitation, Alder walked down the stairs. Double Ice, with its two faces, floated leisurely behind its trainer.

But at that moment, the champion of the United States, who was going downstairs, suddenly stumbled. If it weren't for his good sense of balance from regular training, he would have almost fallen on the spiral staircase.

"Mr. Adek, what's wrong?" Alice's concerned voice came from behind. She, Wanlong, and Bictini had caught up again.

Adek steadied himself, waved to the girl to indicate that he was alright: "I'm fine here, but if you're also going down to the third floor, you'd better watch your step now."

"Did Hugo set a trap between the stairs?" Wanlong asked.

“It’s not exactly a trap.” Adek alternately lifted his left and right feet, as if testing the texture of the stairs with his feet. “It’s just that the stairs have been covered with a layer of wet, slippery… mud.”

Adek paused for a moment, seemingly savoring a word from his memory—

"Yes, that's right. It's like a wetland covered in black silt."

.

Downstairs, at the end of the dark spiral staircase, stood two beginner Pokémon from Sinnoh.

Grass turtles, and Bogarman turtles.

They just used different moves at the same time—

"The Oath of Grass" and "The Oath of Water".

The intertwined moves created interesting complex reactions. A path was laid out with grass ropes, followed by a cheerful stream of water, forming a large "wetland" area between the stairwells that would slow down Pokémon.

Having just emerged from the icy cave, they were now trapped in the mud.

The wet, silt flowed down, paving a sticky and twisted path to the championship.

The detective in black was still nowhere to be found.