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The pounding of his pulse in his head threatened to drown out all other noise, and Eldes cursed silently to himself at the realization. He wouldn’t be able to hear his enemy, wouldn’t be able to get any forewarning before it was too late…
Keep moving. Even if they can hear you.
Ignoring the weary burning in his limbs, Eldes forced himself to keep running. The light of the full moon above trickled through the trees, painting the forest floor in speckled patterns that only partially illuminated his path ahead. He knew he was breathing hard and that branches snapped under his heavy footsteps, but he had to keep going. If he could just reach the temple…
An unholy screech ripped through the quiet night yet again. Eldes flinched instinctively, his hand reaching for the gun holster under his left arm. But he realized the sound was more in front of him than it was behind him. He reached for the sword at his back instead, an enormous blade that would have dragged along the ground were it not for his own impressive height. His fingers wrapped around the hilt but did not draw it yet; instead, he redoubled his efforts forward, leaping over fallen logs and dodging tree trunks until he finally cleared the forest. The beautiful silhouette of the Agate Temple rose into the sky before him, framed by the mountain and moon behind it in perfect detail.
His heart fluttered with hope, but not enough to distract him from drawing his sword. In one powerful motion, Eldes whirled and swung the enormous flamberge, feeling the satisfying thud of the blade meeting its target before he even saw the Shadow’s face. His eyes behind his dark glasses narrowed, as he gazed into the eyes of the twitching, choking creature, blood dribbling from its mouth before he ripped his sword free and watched the Shadow collapse.
Angry snarls filled the air, and Eldes tensed to see two more Shadows leap from the trees, racing on all fours like some kind of beast rather than the humans they once were. He gripped the handle of his sword once again… only to hear two whistling sounds pierce the air. In an instant, the two Shadows stopped in their tracks and slumped, unmoving, to the ground, a crossbow bolt embedded in each of their foreheads.
“You made it, brother. Good.”
Eldes nodded, turning to see the familiar sight of his twin, Ardos, stepping into view from behind a tree, holding a small crossbow in each hand. Ardos wore dark glasses and a similar long jacket to Eldes’s own, which billowed behind him slightly as he moved to inspect the dead bodies. “That these Shadows are overrunning the grounds outside the temple is a bad sign,” he remarked to Eldes, disdainfully. “Let’s make sure the shrine is secure and that the power we seek is still safe.”
“I think we should be making sure the priestess is safe,” Eldes pointed out with a frown, but Ardos was already continuing forward, inspecting the area to make sure there were no more immediate threats.
The two brothers moved in tandem toward the temple gate. However, instead of knocking or announcing their presence, they simply broke into a sprint, before taking three steps up the side of the wall and leaping over it to the other side. They landed heavily in the middle of the temple grounds, a calm, quiet, and deserted space.
“No Shadows. Good,” Eldes concluded, with a sigh of relief. “Let’s find the priestess.”
They inspected each of the smaller shrines nearby, before concluding that the far building within the temple walls must be the primary one they were looking for. They walked toward it, side by side, with purpose. All the while, Eldes stole small glances at Ardos, trying to ensure his brother wasn’t hiding any injuries. If he had been wounded in the flight to the temple, Ardos certainly wasn’t showing it. As usual, his twin exuded confidence, strength, and cold determination. The frostier sibling in comparison to Eldes’s warmer and more expressive demeanor. But it gave Eldes reassurance in what was otherwise a dangerous situation.
The primary shrine of the Agate Temple was a work of art, a magnificently crafted building with an elaborate roof. Stone statues of an indistinct guardian Pokémon lined the walkway up to the shrine, and upon passing these statues, Eldes and Ardos were surprised to see a large clear space between them and the front doors of the shrine. In the middle of this space knelt a young woman wearing a kimono with furisode-style sleeves, the pleasant colors and patterns upon it in stark contrast to the dark and solemn surroundings. She had put her red hair up with a flower-themed hair pin, and her hands were pressed together as she faced the shrine’s doors. She was chanting something under her breath, too quiet even for Eldes to hear.
Though Eldes wavered, unwilling to interrupt whatever the woman was doing but desperate to speak to her, Ardos had no such inhibitions. He stepped forward boldly, his voice loud in the previous silence of the sacred space. “Are you the priestess of the temple?” he asked. “There are Shadows prowling around your gates this very instant. You need to take shelter!”
Eldes could see the woman flinch at Ardos practically shouting at her, but she did not otherwise respond. He approached Ardos quickly, trying to shush him. “Brother!” he hissed, in a half-whispered plea. “She is clearly busy—”
“We don’t have time for prayers!” Ardos snapped back. “It’s too late for that. But if the priestess grants us the power enshrined here… we’ll be able to protect the temple and destroy these monsters!"
“Perhaps so, but you can’t just barge in like this and demand it!” Eldes turned to the priestess, who still wasn’t looking at either of them. She remained locked in prayer, facing the shrine. “Forgive us, my lady. My name is Eldes, and this is my brother Ardos. We’re Shadow Hunters, and we would like to help defend this temple from the Shadows that have swarmed here. Can you assist us?”
The woman still didn’t respond, and Ardos huffed in annoyance. “Time is running out, and this could very well be the power we need to rid Orre of these Shadows once and for all!” he growled. He took another few steps toward the priestess. But just before he could enter the space she was in… a rush of wind made him recoil, and a powerful Air Slash cut into the dirt right in front of Ardos.
The two brothers immediately whipped their heads up to where the attack had come from. Descending from the air, and landing several feet away from them, was a large and gleaming bird Pokémon—a Skarmory. It clacked its metallic beak threateningly, tilting its head as it inspected the newcomers.
“What?! Where did you come from?” Ardos asked, angry at the unexpected attack. “We’re here to protect this backwater temple; how dare you threaten us!”
“If it’s so backwater… I have to question how you showed up here in the first place.”
An unexpected voice filled the air, and Eldes froze. It was a male voice, calm yet firm, and he couldn’t detect exactly where it was coming from. His eyes darted to the priestess, concerned, but she still hadn’t moved. However, she had paused, her head tilting a little at the sound of the voice.
“I suspect you two aren’t here for purely altruistic reasons… are you?”
Ardos whipped out one of his crossbows, finger tensing on the trigger as he pointed it around, searching for a target. “Show yourself!” he demanded.
Eldes reached for the gun at his side, but yet again was reluctant to draw it. He searched the area around them frantically, until at last his attention was caught by the faintest of movement. It looked almost like mist, swirling and distorting the edges of the nearby wall, and as his eyes roamed over it… something stepped out of the shadows. First, two little forms… an Espeon and an Umbreon. The Umbreon’s gold rings on its body glowed softly with yellow light, while the Espeon’s jewel on its forehead glowed with a red one. But he was startled to see who followed them… a man, dressed in nearly all black. His long jacket fluttered in the breeze behind him as he approached the twins, and his eerie gold eyes were intense, studying both men before he smiled faintly.
“You cannot disturb the priestess,” he stated. The Espeon and Umbreon at his side growled softly, and the Skarmory clicked its beak again. “Leave this space. The temple will be safe without your interference.”
Ardos and Eldes exchanged a look, before they moved to stand next to each other, facing the newcomer. “Do not tell us what to do,” Ardos spat, pointing his crossbow at the man. “We aren’t leaving. The Relic Stone’s power may be the only thing that can stop the Shadows that infest our land.”
The man chuckled a little, lifting a hand to smooth through his short blond hair before he took another step closer, despite Ardos’s weapon aimed right at him. Eldes frowned; there was something too… unnatural about this man. Too sensual, too intense, too liminal. Not like a Shadow, but… not like a human.
“And you just assume the priestess will hand it over?” the man asked, smiling darkly. “To a pair of halfbloods she doesn’t know, hoping to redeem themselves…?”
Eldes gasped, and Ardos growled. His finger squeezed the trigger, and the crossbow bolt flew straight and true for the man’s heart—
—only to be stopped in midair.
Eldes gave a start, as his eyes went from the bolt… to the skeletal fingers wrapped around it… to what looked like wings that had, in an instant, materialized from the man’s back.
Well, one wing. On his left, a large, purple-black leathery wing stretched out menacingly. Instead of normal ribbing on the bat-like wing, however, it was lined with visible white bone.
On his right, there was no wing at all. It was entirely bone, and not even like a skeletal wing. It looked like a human arm, if a human arm were much larger and had three joints. All the same, it terminated into a skeletal hand that somehow had snatched the crossbow bolt before it could hit its target. The man’s grin widened, and only then did Eldes see the fangs.
This time, he did draw his pistol, heart pounding as he looked at Ardos. “Brother,” he warned, an involuntary hint of panic in his voice, “he’s a vampire!”
Ardos took a step back, quickly reloading. “I see that,” he muttered, before he reached up to pull his glasses away. His red eyes, matching Eldes’s, pierced the dim light as he glared at the figure before them. “So. You smell your own kind, then?”
The vampire chuckled, and his Pokémon seemed to do the same, making small sounds reminiscent of laughter. “If you mean the fact that we are all unfortunate children, created to function in a world not meant for us…” he mused, his skeletal arm tossing the bolt aside as if it was nothing. “Then… yes, I suppose we are kin. But I assure you, halfblood… your power is nothing compared to mine. And I am warning you now to leave, before it is too late.”
Eldes trembled, glancing at his gun, before reluctantly lifting his arm to point it at the vampire. “We will protect this temple,” he stated. “And if that means slaying you along with the other Shadows that threaten it… then we will. Whoever you are.”
The vampire’s eyes darkened, and in the blink of an eye, the skeletal arm had changed to match the other wing, with both fanning behind him in a rush of wind. Skarmory gave a metallic screech and flapped its wings, flying up into the air, while Espeon and Umbreon took off in opposite directions, flanking the twins and eyeing them dangerously as they made low growls.
“You misunderstand me,” he spoke, his own eyes shifting from gold to red. “The Shadows are the least of your concern… and so am I, for that matter. But if you mean to threaten the shrine and take the power here… I will have to stop you.”
“Like hell you will.” Ardos pulled out his second crossbow, and fired two bolts at the vampire in rapid succession.
In a burst of unnatural speed, the vampire vaulted out of the way with the help of his wings, and his Pokémon took this as a signal to move as well. Skarmory seemed to circle overhead, holding any attacks, and Eldes noted it was hovering mostly around where the priestess was still praying. Perhaps it meant to protect her. He made a quick note to avoid the area near the shrine, and instead focused on assisting Ardos in battle against the vampire. But as he cocked his gun and waited for a clean shot, he realized it would not be an easy matter. Not with the vampire’s Espeon and Umbreon weaving around the twins, eyes glowing with fury. Umbreon raced in to try and bite at Ardos’s ankles, while Espeon attempted to yank the gun from Eldes’s hand with its psychic abilities.
Ardos swore under his breath, his next shot going wide as Umbreon snapped at him. “Irritating,” he growled, pointing his other crossbow at the Dark-type. His shot thudded into the ground as Umbreon leapt aside.
Despite his agreement with the sentiment, Eldes couldn’t help but frown at his brother’s callousness. He instead reached for two Pokéballs on his belt, releasing them in two bursts of light. “Marowak, Manectric, it’s time to battle!” he shouted, eyes flaring red behind his dark glasses.
The two Pokémon fixed their attentions on Espeon and Umbreon, giving angry battle cries before they charged. Marowak flung its bone weapon toward Umbreon, driving it away from Ardos, while Manectric and Espeon began chasing each other, firing bursts of electric and psychic energy back and forth.
Satisfied, Eldes turned his attention back to the vampire—only to see him in flight, moving impossibly fast toward him. He immediately threw himself to the side, rolling out of the way. The vampire’s clawed wing grazed his shoulder, sending a brief flash of pain through his arm, but he gritted his teeth and aimed his gun before firing. The shot, disappointingly, went wide of the target, as the vampire dipped to the side. Two high-pitched whistles sang past immediately after, and Eldes’s heart leaped to see one bolt catch the vampire in the wing. Though he tumbled to the ground, he landed on his feet, blood spattering from his wound. His eyes narrowed as he watched Ardos come up alongside Eldes, crossbows at the ready.
“Not bad,” the vampire grinned, his gaze shifting from one twin to the other. “My turn, then.”
Both brothers tensed, as the vampire suddenly moved toward them again with inhuman speed. Fortunately, they, too, were equipped with similar speed, and reacted accordingly. Eldes holstered his gun and grabbed the hilt of his sword, drawing it in one smooth move. He swung as Ardos fired his crossbows again; the vampire leaped to dodge Eldes’s horizontal swing, barely missing both crossbow bolts as he lashed out and kicked Ardos solidly in the chest. The hunter gave a choked grunt as he was flung backward, tumbling across the temple grounds. Eldes swung again in an overhead strike, hoping to take advantage of the vampire’s distraction, but to his surprise, the vampire turned and caught the sword before it could come down on his head. The two struggled, with Eldes attempting to bring the weapon further down, but the vampire was strong and the sword remained still. Steady rivulets of blood trickled down the vampire’s arm as his grip on the blade tightened.
“Get away from him.” Ardos’s voice echoed across the temple grounds, and both the vampire and Eldes looked to see the hunter pointing his crossbow at the priestess’s head. She remained in the same position she was in before, but even from this distance, Eldes could see she had shrunk down a little in fear. Skarmory landed nearby, fanning its wings out and clacking its beak angrily, but it did not dare to move closer out of concern for the priestess.
The vampire growled, while Eldes blanched in shock. “W-What are you doing, brother?” he asked.
“We don’t have time for these games, and this woman is doing a piss-poor job of protecting her temple,” Ardos snapped back, finger tightening on the trigger. “I won’t kill her if she coughs up the Relic Stone, though.”
Eldes felt the vampire’s grip shake a little, where he held the flamberge in his bloody hand. “Rui,” he began, his tone suddenly different. Less harsh, less certain, less filled with bravado—
The woman lifted her head, turning to look back at the vampire. Her blue eyes were wide with concern, but her voice was firm. “Wes, don’t worry about me,” she said. “Focus on the Shadows. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Ardos glared at her, the crossbow pushing closer to her head. “Start by giving me the Relic Stone, now! The Shadows are at your doorstep and we—”
The scratching sounds at the front gate made them all freeze.
Wes swore under his breath, pushing Eldes’s sword aside and taking several steps back. “The exterior wards failed,” he hissed, eyes darting to Eldes for a moment before he turned toward the source of the noises. His Espeon and Umbreon also backed away from their fight with Marowak and Manectric, scampering to their master’s side.
Eldes could smell the danger in the air, too, even before the scrabbling at the walls began. He swallowed hard before he brought his sword to the ready, just in time to see the heads of the first Shadows making their way over the walls like so many swarming insects.
Shadows. Those who were once humans, turned not by a bite, but by an unholy experiment attempting to duplicate the vampiric curse. It rendered them powerful, but nearly feral, overcome with monstrous impulses to devour the living and revel in their newfound strength. Their teeth and nails grew sharp and long, their faces twisted in maddened grins. Even now, they raced across the temple grounds toward their targets with hungry fervor, ready to rip all in their path to shreds.
“Don’t hold back!” Wes snapped, and his Pokémon barked their acknowledgement. Skarmory took flight again, and with a few beats of its wings, unleashed an Air Cutter attack that sliced through the first two Shadows and buffeted several others backward. Likewise, Espeon and Umbreon began to unleash powerful psychic and dark attacks at the incoming enemies. After a pause, Marowak and Manectric nodded to one another, and followed suit with their own attacks.
Wes spread his wings, eyes reddening with an almost blinding red light as he raced forward to the next approaching Shadows. From his back, two more limbs materialized, this time as two skeletal arms that reached forward, gripping the arms of Wes’s opponent as Wes himself seized the Shadow by his throat. With a horrifying burst of strength, he ripped the Shadow apart like a toy, his torso thudding to the ground while Wes threw the arms and head in every other direction. A few Shadows stopped their charge to pursue these new sources of flesh, greedily grabbing and biting into them.
Ardos gritted his teeth, eyeing Rui and the shrine in front of her, before he cursed and moved away from her to face the incoming horde as well. While Eldes began slicing through the Shadows with his sword, Ardos steadily picked them off from a distance with his crossbows.
“This won’t work forever!” he shouted at the still-kneeling priestess. “Where is your Relic Stone? Why do you insist on not using its power?!”
Rui shook her head and took a deep breath, closing her eyes and focusing once again. “The Relic Stone is not the weapon you’re looking for. You should not have come here,” she replied. “This temple doesn’t need your help to defend itself.”
“Why, cause you have a vampire as your champion?” he spat, with obvious disgust.
Eldes weaved and dodged as he faced down each new Shadow, cutting through them as they tried to attack. Though each individual one could be slain easily, in numbers they were proving dangerous. He sucked in a painful breath as another claw swung past his defenses, catching him in the side, and he dropped to one knee. But before the Shadow could take advantage of Eldes’s weakness, a skeletal arm suddenly burst through his chest from behind, eliciting a brief scream before the Shadow collapsed to the ground. Wes kicked the corpse aside and whirled, his clawed wing slicing another Shadow in half.
“Double back to where Rui and your brother are,” he suggested, holding out his hand for Eldes to take.
Surprised, the hunter accepted, grunting in pain, and Wes helped him back up. “R-Right,” he agreed, adjusting his grip on his sword and backing away to where the shrine was. Ardos picked off several Shadows attempting to pursue the two as they ran over to where he and Rui were.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” Rui spoke softly, her eyes lifting toward the shrine again. “I can’t… protect you from it…”
“Then give us the power that will protect us!” Ardos shouted, his patience at its limits. He advanced on Rui, and Wes stepped between them.
“Don’t fucking touch her,” he snarled, wings fanning out defensively.
Eldes glanced nervously at his brother, then at the advancing horde of Shadows. Then he realized that the Shadows had paused, growling like beasts as they sniffed the air and looked around nervously. “Um… Ardos…?” he questioned, a bad feeling prickling down his back. “Something is… wrong.”
Wes and Ardos both froze, apparently sensing the same thing he did. Ardos looked around with a scowl, while Wes just growled and backed away, closer to Rui. “I told you the Shadows were the least of your concerns…” he muttered.
“Indeed, little one. Right as always.”
A deep, rich voice filled the air, making Wes wince and the twin hunters raise their weapons. As the assembled Shadows all snarled and hissed at the unseen threat, what appeared to be a series of large, white… tendrils?... erupted from the ground, wrapping around several of them and crushing them gruesomely in their grips. The other Shadows screeched and attempted to back away from this new, incomprehensible threat.
In the midst of these tendrils, another figure suddenly leaped down from the walls into view. He was a tall man, eyes blazing a harsh red, and he moved like liquid as he stepped forward. He was dressed finely in what looked like form-fitting, dark clothing, but more of note was the wild abundance of white hair that billowed from his head in impossibly long strands.
Strands that… looked like tendrils…
Wes took a trembling breath, his lip curling to reveal his fangs. “Nascour.”
The newcomer grinned, his own fangs gleaming in the moonlight. “Wesley, my dear progeny. And… what a surprise. Little halfbloods.” His eyes scanned both Eldes and Ardos clinically. “I do not recall allowing you two to enter my territory.”
The twins glanced at one another, and a chill ran down Eldes’s spine. He and Ardos were versed in hunting Shadows, even a vampire or two… but immediately he could tell this was not like any enemy they had encountered before.
“I will be removing the unwelcome… filth from my domain,” Nascour continued, waving his hand at the Shadows, and keeping his eyes trained on the twin hunters. “As for you, Wesley, you get one chance to leave. As a courtesy.”
“I’m not fucking leaving,” Wes snapped, hands balling into fists. “Get out of this temple.”
Nascour chuckled again, the sound echoing across the temple grounds. “Why, do you think you belong here instead?” he questioned, and the large tendrils rose threateningly, as if preparing to strike. “You can’t find refuge in the pure and holy anymore… just accept it.” He glanced over at Rui, and his tongue ran across his lower lip. “Just give in to what you know you want. After all, she does look quite tasty…”
Enraged, Wes’s wings flared out again, and he lunged at Nascour with a cry.
As if startled into action once more, the Shadows screeched and began to move, spurred by the sudden movement and hoping to take advantage of the distraction. Some flung themselves angrily at the tendrils, trying to tear them apart, while others began running at the assembled people once more. Nascour calmly swept aside a few with a wave of his hand, the tendrils slamming into the pouncing Shadows accordingly, before he snarled and leapt to meet Wes’s attack. While Wes’s fist connected with his face, Nascour immediately followed through with a slash of his claws that knocked Wes backward and slammed him hard against the ground.
Ardos’s jaw clenched at the casual way this vampire threw Wes aside. He shot a few more Shadows clamoring toward him and Ardos, before he looked at Eldes. “We should retreat, brother,” he muttered.
Eldes hesitated, looking at Rui and Wes. “I… I don’t know if we can,” he stammered, bringing his sword to bear against the Shadows in front of him. “If we leave, this vampire will get the Relic Stone…”
“The Relic Stone… yes,” Nascour purred, landing on the ground. He advanced on the twins with graceful, assured steps. “I suppose the little halfbloods thought they could wield it against the darkness that infests Orre like a creeping virus. But it is not a power meant for you.” He reached out his hand, and his hair fanned around him like a horrible aura. The large tendrils shot forward, as if to strike the priestess still kneeling and whispering a prayer through frightened tears.
Eldes reacted, almost as if by instinct. With a cry, he swung his blade, cutting through the tendrils before they could reach their mark. The cut ends of the tendrils floated to the ground as numerous long white hairs, scattering harmlessly about.
Nascour recoiled as if in pain, eyes flaring angrily. “Insolent!” he screeched, his hair billowing wildly around him as he eyed Eldes. “Your blood will paint the walls of this temple first…!”
Another white tendril snaked across the ground, seeking to coil around Eldes’s legs, but a loud gunshot tore through the air and the tendril blew apart. Wes flew down and landed beside Eldes, panting heavily as he pressed his left hand into his bleeding side. His right hand clutched an enormous pistol, still smoking slightly from the last fired round.
“Can’t make it too easy for you, Nascour,” he taunted, through gritted teeth.
Nascour’s eyes narrowed, though he was unable to hide a brief smile. “I do hope not,” he said simply, before he charged forward.
Wes fired again, and Ardos followed up with several shots from his crossbows as well. The .50 caliber bullet tore through another tendril, while one of the crossbow bolts managed to find its mark in Nascour’s upper chest. The vampire snarled in pain, but did not lose momentum, slamming into Eldes’s blade as he held it up defensively. Eldes was flung backwards, hitting the ground several feet away with a pained gasp. Nascour leaped into the air, before coming down with claws poised, ready to stab down into Eldes’s helpless body.
Just before the vampire could hit his mark, though, something flew from behind him and buried itself into his back, causing Nascour to screech in agony and tumble to the ground, landing next to Eldes. Ardos closed the distance and drew a second ice axe from his belt, hoping to finish the vampire with another well-aimed attack to the head…
…Before he stopped short, a choked gasp escaping his lips.
Eldes stared in horror, seeing the white tendril pierced through Ardos’s chest like some kind of spear from behind, leaving his brother transfixed. “No!” he screamed, helplessly.
Nascour slowly forced himself back to a standing position, reaching back and ripping the first ice pick from his back with an agonized grunt. He threw it aside contemptuously as he approached Ardos, glaring at him as he struggled for breath and blood ran down his chin.
“Brave little halfblood,” Nascour noted, grabbing Ardos by the jaw. “Too bad your blood would taste disgusting. I might have partaken.”
“W-What a shame,” Ardos sneered, face twisted in pain. “I would have loved to see you choke on it.”
Nascour growled, his grip growing tighter, his claws digging into Ardos's skin as he leaned in closer...
Another gunshot pierced the night, but it didn’t sound like Wes’s gun. Immediately Nascour arched his back in pain, eyes widening as he crumpled from the shot.
Eldes sat up, tears pricking at his eyes as he held his gun steady and kept it pointed at the vampire writhing on the ground in pain. “Don’t you touch him!” he shouted.
“Y-You… W-What did you…?” Nascour writhed on the ground, as if the pain were consuming him like a fire. His tendril withdrew and dropped Ardos, instead reaching to wrap around Nascour and pull him away into a protective circle of tendrils several yards away.
“The bullets were blessed by Suicune’s sacred spring,” Eldes explained, immediately going to Ardos’s side and wrapping his free arm around him. “Choke on that for a while.”
Wes glanced at the twin hunters, a mildly-impressed expression on his face, before he fixed his attention on Rui all of a sudden. She had clapped her hands together, bowing down to touch her head to the ground. “Please…” she breathed, barely loud enough for Eldes to catch. “Sacred guardian…”
The space around her began to glow in a circle, starting dimly but slowly intensifying. Wes’s jaw tensed, before he looked at the two brothers. “You need to leave,” he warned, but this time it sounded more like concern than a threat. “It won’t see you as an ally…”
Confused, Eldes wanted to question what he meant, but as the circle glowed brighter, he could see the magical runes written into the glowing light. He knew enough about the symbols to recognize a summoning circle… and he could feel in the pit of his stomach that something was coming. Something strong.
“Ardos,” he whispered, glancing at his deeply-wounded brother. Though bloodied, Ardos responded by gripping his arm desperately, wheezing in pain. “We’re leaving. Just hang in there.”
Eldes’s two Pokémon followed as he managed to help his twin along, running to the edge of the temple grounds. He then pulled Ardos onto his back and leaped up on top of the wall. He glanced back at Wes, still standing closely to Rui as she held out her hands. The circle exploded with light, blinding Eldes briefly. Then, when it faded, he saw an enormous brown and red Pokémon standing before Rui, a deep, rolling growl rumbling forth. Lifting its head, it tentatively sniffed the air.
Rui backed away instinctually in response, eyes wide as she hugged Wes’s arm. “Entei…” she breathed, voice filled with both fear and awe.
Hearing her voice, the Legendary beast blinked its eyes down at Rui, taking note of how she clung to Wes. Then it looked at Wes’s Pokémon, acknowledging their presence.
And then it looked at Nascour and the remaining Shadows… and a roar tore its way from its throat as it stepped forward.
Eldes didn’t stop to see what happened next. He realized with a shudder that Wes had been right after all—the temple never needed their help to defend itself. Gripping Ardos tight to him, he jumped from the wall and began running into the forest, as far and as fast as his legs would take him.
In the distance behind him, the night sky filled with the red glow of flames.