Yuga and his group searched the Ultra Space for a full two days. Just when they were about to think they had found nothing at all, the ruins of a city appeared in their sight.
It was a very modern city. From the countless ruins of skyscrapers, one could tell just how prosperous it once had been.
Gazing at the city ruins in the distance, Yuga asked Naganadel, "Have you ever seen this city before?"
Naganadel shook its head, indicating that it had not. It had been here before, but no such city ruins had existed at the time.
"Let's go over and take a look first!" suggested Phoebe.
"Alright, let's go check it out," Yuga agreed.
So the group flew toward the city ruins on their flying Pokémon.
At the same time, on Team Rocket's side, Giovanni had already regrouped with Matori's team and had found the Necrozma that had escaped from Yuga and the others.
Inside the aircraft, a large screen was playing footage of Moltres, Articuno, Zapdos, Landorus, Thundurus, and Tornadus—the six legendary beasts—besieging Necrozma, while Giovanni, Matori, and the others sat leisurely in front of the screen, enjoying the battle.
"Roar~"
Necrozma erupted with a powerful burst of psychic energy, sending the attacking Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos—who were hitting it with Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and Thunderbolt—flying. But the very next second, Thundurus's Discharge, Landorus's Stone Edge, and Tornadus's Air Slash all struck it at the same time.
"Roar~"
Necrozma let out a miserable cry and fell straight to the ground, smashing a large crater into it and kicking up countless clouds of dust.
Necrozma had already been injured in the battle with Yuga and the others. Now, being besieged by six legendary beasts, it was naturally no match.
Seeing this, Matori said happily to Giovanni, "Me. Giovanni, the Radiant One can barely hold on any longer. It looks like we're about to succeed."
Giovanni nodded with satisfaction. "Excellent. As expected of the Radiant One—its combat power is even stronger than I had imagined."
Giovanni and the others did not know Necrozma's real name. They only knew its legendary title: the Radiant One.
The reason Team Rocket even knew of the Radiant One's existence was all thanks to the middle-aged man who had always stayed by Giovanni's side.
That man's name was Carol. He was a Team Rocket scientist, but he also had another identity: he was a descendant of a group of humans who once lived in the Ultra Space.
Many years ago, a group of humans had lived in this Ultra Space. These humans had been rescued by Necrozma during one of its visits to the Pokémon world—they were an expedition team.
During an expedition in Alola, this team had encountered an avalanche and was on the verge of total annihilation. Fortunately, they had a chance encounter with Necrozma, who happened to pass by and saved them.
After being brought to Ultra Space by Necrozma, they settled there. At that time, Necrozma was still in its true Radiant One form. It was very kind and took great care of this group of people.
But humans are always ambitious.
As the Radiant One, Necrozma shone its radiant light over all of Ultra Space, bringing prosperity and abundance. This ability made the group of people extremely envious.
Finally, one day, they made a move against the Radiant One. Exploiting the deity's trust in them, they captured it.
Over time, the kind and benevolent Radiant One had let down all its guard toward this group.
By using the Radiant One's nearly infinite power, they built a city in Ultra Space called Ultra Megalopolis.
With the deity's near-limitless energy, these people achieved an incredibly high level of technological advancement in a very short time. Their scientific achievements even far surpassed those of the outside world.
Generations of people were born and raised in Ultra Megalopolis. The number of residents continued to grow. Gradually, most people forgot about the Radiant One's existence—except for the few who controlled the city.
However, the Radiant One was not a being that would sit and wait for death. One day, the entire energy supply of Ultra Megalopolis encountered problems, and explosions began to occur throughout the city, as if the end of the world had come.
Naturally, the energy supplier of Ultra Megalopolis was the Radiant One. After being imprisoned for a long time, it finally found an opportunity to strike, causing the city to fall into paralysis.
By the time the upper echelons of the metropolis reacted and tried to make amends, it was already too late. The Radiant One erupted with all of its power and destroyed Ultra Megalopolis, using its psychic abilities to erase all humans within the city. Only a few people who had been outside the metropolis at the time managed to survive.
The surviving people of the metropolis, by a twist of fate, escaped from Ultra Space. Among them were Carol's grandfather and parents, and Carol's grandfather had once been one of the upper-level authorities in the metropolis.
He not only knew many secrets about the Radiant One but also possessed a significant portion of Ultra Megalopolis' advanced technology. This was the reason Carol was able to rise within Team Rocket. The machine that Yuga and his group used to enter Ultra Space, and the tracking device Giovanni used to locate them, were all inventions of Carol.
After destroying the metropolis, the Radiant One changed from its original Ultra Necrozma form into its current form and fell into a deep sleep. With its last remaining power, it concealed the metropolis to ensure it would not be disturbed while sleeping.
The goal of Matori leading the advance troops into Ultra Space this time was precisely to awaken Necrozma. With the information provided by Carol, she easily found the hidden Ultra Megalopolis.
After Necrozma was awakened, the hidden Ultra Megalopolis reappeared in Ultra Space.
However, several decades had passed, and the once-prosperous Ultra Megalopolis was now nothing but ruins—the very same ruins that Yuga and his group had found.
After Necrozma awakened, it went berserk. It beat up Matori and her team, then disappeared without a trace, which led to Necrozma's later encounter with Naganadel and Solgaleo.
The pillar of light that Phoebe and Acerola saw was precisely the abnormal phenomenon caused by Necrozma's awakening.
After being beaten, Matori's aircraft and the supplies within it were also destroyed. Their situation was no better than that of Phoebe and Acerola. If Giovanni hadn't arrived with reinforcements in time, she and her subordinates would have starved to death.
After Necrozma awoke, because it had lost its former power and its previous compassion, it began to rampage through Ultra Space, plundering Ultra Aura everywhere. This was the reason why the current Ultra Space had become a wasteland.
"Begin capture!"
Amid the dust and smoke, Necrozma did not respond for a long time. Sakaki issued an order to the three Legendary Birds and the three Forces of Nature.
"Screech~"
"Roar~"
The six Legendary Pokemon slowly descended from the sky and surrounded the Necrozma hidden in the dust, intending to capture it.
Just then, a pillar of purplish-red light burst from the dust and instantly engulfed the three Legendary Birds and the three Forces of Nature.
This was Necrozma's signature move—Prismatic Laser!
"Screech~"
"Roar~"
The six Legendary Pokemon all let out pained cries. When the light of the Prismatic Laser faded, the six of them had all collapsed to the ground. Although they hadn't lost consciousness, their injuries were clearly not light.
At this moment, Necrozma had already risen into the sky. A beam of light shot from its body, ripples spread through space, and an Ultra Wormhole slowly appeared.
Although Necrozma had lost its rationality, instinct still told it the principle of "if you can't win, then flee."
"Not good, it's trying to escape!" Matori's expression changed dramatically.
At that moment, Carol walked up to her and said, "No need to worry."
Matori looked at him suspiciously, only to see Carol press a button. Something suddenly shot out from the aircraft and attached itself to Necrozma.
"With this tracker, no matter where it runs, we'll be able to find it," Carol said smugly.
Matori couldn't stand Carol much. She didn't say anything, just quietly rolled her eyes.
On the other side, Necrozma dove headfirst into the Ultra Wormhole and disappeared without a trace, while the aircraft, after recovering the three Legendary Birds and the three Forces of Nature, also vanished from the spot immediately afterward.
Yuga and his group successfully entered the ruins of the Ultra Metropolis.
"Judging by the degree of weathering in this city, it must have existed here for quite a long time. Why has no one ever discovered it before?"
Walking down the pothole-ridden streets, Phoebe asked in confusion.
"It must have been hidden by some being," Yuga thought for a moment and replied.
"Could it have been Necrozma?" Acerola speculated.
"It's possible." Yuga nodded.
"Let's see if we can find any clues related to Necrozma around here first," said Phoebe.
"Why don't we split up? That way we'll be more efficient." Yuga suggested, since the city was so vast—if everyone stayed together, who knows how much time they would waste.
"Alright!"
And so, the group began to move separately.
Perhaps because it had been abandoned for far too long, the entire city had nothing besides ruined buildings—truly nothing else. Yuga searched for quite some time, but all he saw were rocks, rocks, and more rocks.
After walking for an unknown length of time, he suddenly saw a tall tower standing in the distance.
Yuga released Absol and mounted it, pointing to the tall tower as he said, "Absol, let's go take a look over there."
"Absoool~"
Absol let out a cry in response and bolted toward the tower.
Once they arrived beneath the tower, Yuga suddenly noticed a dilapidated aircraft lying not far away, with wreckage from the aircraft scattered all over the area.
More importantly, he saw an "R" insignia on the scattered wreckage.
A Team Rocket aircraft! Yuga thought.
Yuga knew that Phoebe and the others had entered chasing after Team Rocket, but since arriving here, he hadn't seen any trace of them. He hadn't expected to find the remains of a Team Rocket aircraft now.
Besides that, Yuga also saw numerous signs left behind from a fierce battle. Judging from the markings, the fight had been intense—but it was unclear what exactly Team Rocket had encountered.
Yuga guessed it was most likely Necrozma.
If Team Rocket's true target this time was Necrozma, then it wouldn't be surprising if a clash occurred between them.
"Absol, let me down," Yuga said as he patted Absol's neck.
"Absoool~"
With a rumbling breath, Absol obediently crouched down.
After dismounting, Yuga walked over to the wrecked aircraft and rummaged through it for a while, but unfortunately found nothing useful.
Apparently, although Team Rocket had failed to capture Necrozma, they had managed to escape unscathed and had taken everything they needed with them.
Coming out from the wrecked aircraft, Yuga said to Absol, "Let's go inside the tower and have a look."
Since Team Rocket had a battle here, it indicated that there must be something inside this tower—or at least there used to be something. It was very likely related to Necrozma.
"Absol~"
Absol let out a cry and followed closely behind Yuga as he walked into the tower.
As they pushed open the tower's main door, the light inside quickly dimmed, and a musty, decaying smell rushed at them.
Something must have happened in this tower in the past. There were giant cracks all over the walls, and debris from the collapsed ceiling was scattered across the floor.
Yuga searched around on the lower floor and found that most areas were blocked by rubble caused by the collapse. He only found one staircase that was partially obstructed.
Following the staircase, Yuga began to climb upward—passing the third floor, the fourth, the fifth… all the way up to the fiftieth floor. His legs almost gave out from the effort.
From the look of the upper floors, there used to be an elevator, but it was now completely broken and unusable, so he had no choice but to climb using his own two legs.
If it weren't for the possibility of discovering something valuable on these floors, he wouldn't have pushed himself so hard.
The higher he went, the more traces of human activity he noticed. These traces were recent, clearly left by Team Rocket.
However, the more floors Yuga checked, the more he gradually discovered that this place might have been some sort of special research institution, because he found a wide variety of damaged machines and instruments.
Although he couldn't understand what these instruments were used for, he could tell that the technology level here was quite advanced. So, he stored all of those instruments in his system space, intending to bring them back for Mewtwo to study. Perhaps Mewtwo might find them useful.
Yet, what puzzled Yuga was that everything else was present, except the humans who had once lived or worked here—not even a trace of them remained.
If they had all perished, then at least there would be bones or remains left behind. But there was nothing.
Yuga didn't believe for a second that these people had simply moved out. If they had moved, they wouldn't have just taken themselves and left everything else behind.
Unable to make sense of it, Yuga had no choice but to continue heading upward. Eventually, he reached the very top floor of the tower. This place resembled a laboratory even more—various instruments were piled up everywhere throughout the floor.
Yuga continued storing the instruments into his system space and released his other Pokémon, letting them help search the area to see if they could find any useful clues.
When he had stored about half of the instruments, Yuga reached the central area and saw a large transparent container placed there. The whole device resembled a giant egg, but its surface was covered with diamond-shaped patterns.
Just as Yuga was about to take a closer look at the container, Chimecho's cry caught his attention. He turned to see Chimecho floating toward him while dragging a small, delicate-looking box.
"What's this?"
Yuga took the box and asked with a puzzled expression.