Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 509 Altar and Bear Trap

Before us lies the castle control room, which 'City Defense Master' Jero had gone to great lengths to hide.

Despite the absence of any identifiable signs or clues nearby, the King and the detectives stopped in their tracks as soon as they stepped onto its edge.

The shared instinct of those who actually engage in combat tells them that this is the end.

Holt breathed a sigh of relief.

Even though countless details along the way had confirmed his guess, it was only at this moment that the former inspector of the alliance finally dared to confirm that the map in his mind, which he had built brick by brick over two years, was not a coincidence pieced together from fantasy.

It really exists.

This group, which came together by chance, had already arrived at the true core of Team Plasma's castle without knowing about the changes in the outside world.

At this moment, the last steel door stood before them.

It was clearly thicker and heavier than any of the doors the group had encountered along the way.

The surface is coated with a matte dark gray coating, which seems to be the kind of material that can reduce the power of special attack moves, occasionally used in high-level battle arenas.

The welded seams along the edges of the iron gate were so smooth it looked like it had been cast in one go by a machine. There was no hinge-like structure, and certainly no handle for pulling from the outside. As a result, it didn't look like a door at all, but rather like a solid block of steel deliberately embedded at the end of a passage. It even made one wonder, since this door was so indestructible, why not just dig a hole in the wall next to it and go around it?

However, the latter approach would only trigger more structural mechanics problems. If it caused the load-bearing walls to collapse, the group would need to spend even more time clearing the passage. Moreover, given the Alliance's ample fighting force at this moment, even genuine superalloy steel blocks would likely be unable to stop the invaders.

Wanlong's Crystal Lamp Fire Spirit made the first move.

Following the trainer's command, the purplish-red flames of "Fire Blast" instantly covered the surface of the iron gate like a giant hand.

Against a top-tier main force, the expensive coating material didn't even serve to buy time. The metal quickly lost its strength under high temperature, and in the blink of an eye, the surface peeled off, revealing the dark red core underneath.

On the other side, as the Crystal Chandelier Spirit unleashed its full power, the Blueberry Servant General immediately filled the gap in perfect coordination.

The continuous "metal claws" precisely cut into the edges of the expanding and deformed steel, peeling off the brittle reinforcement layers one by one, and cutting off the exposed connecting steel bars as well.

Finally, Lian Wu, who was the last to speak, raised his hand.

The old craftsman stepped forward, easily gripping two thick concrete pillars with one arm as if they were two stacks of newspapers. He clenched his other hand into a fist, took a half step back, and briefly gathered his strength.

Then, he unleashed a simple and unadorned "True Qi Fist".

boom.

This trick has been used many times during the exploration of the maze, and even the last of the PP potions were used twice to repair the old craftsman's skill.

However, unlike the same scene along the way, this time, there was no crisp cracking sound from the other side of the wall, only a dull, almost distorted, loud bang.

Immediately afterwards, the entire steel door was like a piece of clay being pushed out of a mold.

First, the entire surface is concave, then it slowly loosens along the bottom, continuously emitting a metallic groan.

After a long time, the huge piece of metal was forced to deform by the weight of the iron gate itself, and finally crashed onto the ground on the other side, stirring up a cloud of dust.

After the dust settled, the scene that unfolded before everyone's eyes was completely different from any place they had seen on the way there.

Before me lay neither the ornate Gothic corridors nor the monotonous, seemingly endless space of a pure white maze; neither the eerie jungle of the energy core, its every crevice covered in unknown totem crystals, nor the ancient, rough-hewn ruins where Holt had been imprisoned—

Before me stood a brand-new temple.

It is grand in scale, solemn on all four sides, and the dome is so high that it almost disappears into the light overhead.

The ground is paved with neatly cut pure white stone bricks, and there is no trace of wear on the surface.

A continuous band of reliefs encircles the wall, with neat and orderly patterns, but without any figurative images.

There are no characters from legends here, no mythical Pokémon figures, and not even the coded symbols found in the Meteor Ruins of the Hoenn region.

It simply covers the entire high wall with white geometric patterns, like a book stripped of all narrative, leaving only the binding pattern on the spine.

Even light poured down from above, giving the impression of being bathed in sunlight in this dark maze.

In the very center of the vast space stood a square altar made entirely of white.

The altar was completely empty; there were no offerings, no inscriptions, and no ritual implements.

It simply stands there.

"Hey. With such a variety of styles, did you Team Plasma build your castle to theme park standards?"

""

The sound of blueberries spread under the dome.

He had already seen the outline of the yellow robe on the altar, and the gaze cast from there.

Since there was no longer any need to hide, the Dark Elite Four member simply raised its mocking tone by half a octave, letting it roll across the empty ground like a stone.

"It looks a bit like an altar dedicated to Arceus, the creator god."

Wanlong adjusted her glasses, her gaze slowly moving along the reliefs on the wall.

"The style should lean towards Sinnoh, especially those abandoned ancient altars near Veilwall Regalia. But it's still a bit strange—why choose this theme? Shouldn't Unova prioritize the mythology of the twin dragons from the founding era?"

As Wanlong was filled with doubt, behind her, Lianwu turned his head and winked at the old craftsman.

The latter silently picked up the concrete column again, turned to face the passage they had come from, and began to widen the gap that had been pried open at the entrance—to make more room for the group's next move.

"I simply restored the original appearance of this underground building."

"7

On the altar, the yellow figure spoke slowly, as if trying to explain something.

And at the very moment his words fell, whoosh!

A bolt of lightning shot out from the direction of the cave entrance!

That speed was almost beyond the limits of what the eyes could capture.

The golden arc of light traced a straight path through the air, like a taut optical fiber piercing straight towards the center of the altar.

It is the Thunder God.

It leaves the ground on all fours, its mane flying backward at high speed, its entire body enveloped in compressed air that only legendary Pokémon would create when unleashing their full power.

"Lightning speed!"

Lila made her move.

It carried the momentum of a fatal blow.

This commander of the frontier zone, contrary to his usual upright and honorable demeanor as an Interpol officer, launched a surprise attack the moment he stepped into the hall without any warning.

Given the circumstances, there was hardly any morality to speak of between them and the "city defense master" who had personally designed the entire treacherous castle.

Ultimately, however, that psychological preparation doesn't require much effort. Police routine arrests are mostly surprise raids, and Lila, with her strong abilities and always making a grand entrance before each operation, is an anomaly in Interpol.

Now, she is simply relearning the most basic lessons she learned during her police academy training.

Then, golden lightning passed through.

Jero's figure remained unharmed, unyielding, and unmoved.

The yellow robe faded the moment the thunder god touched its edge, like a slideshow whose power had been cut off.

Even the white altar beneath him blurred out.

"Is it just a smokescreen?" Lila wasn't too surprised.

The previous Phantom Paradox had already allowed her to figure out the true nature of this "City Defender"—the imposter would never place his real form where his opponent could see it at first glance.

She calmly recalled the Thunder God, placing it on standby beside her, while scanning the entire hall for a new opportunity.

"It's a projection created by the 'Light Wall'," Wanlong said, her gaze still following the remaining fragments of superpower in the air. "Don't panic. Superpowers have limited range. Jero and the real altar must be in this temple."

She was speaking to Holt, who was in the distance.

The latter's face flashed with an expression of despair the instant Jero's phantom disappeared. Wanlong's timely confirmation made him regain his composure.

But Lian Wu and Yueju's expressions were even more tense than before.

"Something's not right," Lian Wu said in a low voice.

Linguine's gaze had already fallen on the wall.

Those silent, geometrically patterned reliefs, which had been quietly spreading along the four walls, now showed subtle abnormalities.

"There's something hidden in the relief." He was certain.

But what exactly is the anomaly?

If the three starter Pokémon entrusted by the current champion were still with them, they would have discovered the enemy's hiding place much sooner.

However, like Holt, who was leading the way, those little guys were of little use in the final battle. So they remained at a distance behind the battlefield, where the alert and handsome guy was responsible for protecting them while providing support.

When Yueju first set up the team this way, she was worried that the other side might use these vulnerable points to launch a hostage-taking tactic. But as the battle went on, it was actually the "rear team" led by her senior who repeatedly played an unexpected role without making a sound.

And the same is true now.

Hiding behind the handsome detective, Bogarman nudged the delinquent frog squatting beside him.

The latter seemed to understand the advice of the beginner Pokémon, and began to puff out its cheeks, emitting a series of short and low croaks—"bluff".

The sound waves spread outward at frequencies that are difficult for the human ear to detect, echoing and swirling between the walls along the castle's enclosed structure.

At first there was no reaction, but as time went on, a response actually appeared on the wall on the side closest to the bad frog.

It was a buzzing sound made up of countless breathing sounds and the rustling of fabric, like a giant pupa turning over inside the wall.

This is purely psychological harassment, without any actual lethality, yet it is enough to expose the flaws of anything that is holding its breath and lurking.

The originally still hiders could not maintain their composure under the noisy buzzing and instead exposed themselves.

"There are people hiding in the surrounding walls!"

The moment he noticed the sound, the handsome guy immediately shouted a warning to his teammates in front of him.

Before those words had even finished, the entire temple went dark.

It wasn't that the overhead light source was cut off, but rather that the relief patterns on the wall began to slowly bulge outwards.

Those geometric lines that were originally thought to be simple reliefs began to rise from the flat surface amidst the rough grinding sound of the rock.

The edges went from blurry to sharp, as if countless black spikes suddenly rose from the words on the pages of a book you were reading.

"Heh, it seems that pretending really is pointless."

Jero's voice came again from the direction of the dome.

This time, he appeared alongside his true form, standing atop the geometric patterns at the very top of the temple wall, directly opposite the passage opened up by the old craftsman.

The "City Defense Master" stood on a pattern resembling an altar, the hem of his yellow sage's robe hanging down, the gold-trimmed edges swaying flamboyantly in the air currents.

Appearing at the same time as him were countless members of the Plasma Group.

Within seconds, the entire temple went from empty to crowded.

Those figures stood silently, as if a massacre to annihilate the gods was about to begin.

The sheer number of them surprised even the Heavenly Kings, who were unaware of the changing situation outside—it was as if they had gathered all the available troops in the entire castle here.

Don't they need to defend against the Allied forces besieging them on the ground?

What exactly are the champion and the police doing?

"Your ability to get this far has certainly exceeded my expectations."

The "City Defense Master" opened his mouth with a sharp voice, the tone like a piece of metal scraping on sandpaper.

"One reason is that the castle was forced to divert energy to external defense, resulting in insufficient output efficiency of the castle's mechanisms, which gave you an opportunity to take advantage. However, this in turn gave us the opportunity to mobilize our forces."

As they spoke, the members of Team Plasma began to change their formation.

Countless Pokémon appeared around them, as if new patterns had suddenly appeared on an otherwise empty relief.

Each Pokémon is paired with its trainer in a strict system, and has a special communicator worn on it to receive commands.

In such a crowded space, this one-person-one-pet cooperation method is far more efficient than a simple beast horde—if they just swarm in, these Pokémon are no different in combat power from the Pokémon colony that can be found all over the castle; but if each one strictly follows the trainer's instructions, then it is a different level of combat power.

"Strength cannot overcome the masses, and wisdom cannot exhaust all resources."

The "City Defense Master" chanted from his high vantage point, his gaze sweeping over his prey as if he were looking down at a pack of wild beasts that had already fallen into a trap.