Chapter Two: The Confusion Brought by Arceus

Like Dialga, Palkia stared at him without moving, a strange gleam in its eyes. Yet Zhao Fang couldn’t discern its meaning. Still, he reached out his hand, sliding it into Palkia’s form, and pulled out a fragment emitting a radiant purple glow—apparently taken from Palkia itself.

Once the fragment was removed, Palkia vanished. Only then did Zhao Fang realize he was still standing before Palkia’s mural. Had he not held the fragment in his hand, he might have doubted whether everything that had just happened was merely a dream.

“Truly worthy of being the god of space— even a fragment possesses such formidable power?” Zhao Fang sat on the ground, resting for a good while before feeling some of his strength return.

He approached the hidden compartment and pressed Palkia’s fragment against it. The purple light barrier dissipated, revealing another luminous shield beneath. Zhao Fang’s eyes widened.

In his mind, after overcoming the trials of the twin temporal gods, he had expected Dialga’s light shield to appear next. Yet before him was a pure white barrier, leaving him puzzled. Dialga, after all, had little association with the color white.

Tentatively, Zhao Fang touched the white barrier.

[The radiant shield fashioned by the power of the Creator God can only be dispelled by the Creator’s might.]

“Could Dialga be on the next level down?” Zhao Fang wondered, confused but also uncertain. From previous experiences, he knew the fragments nullifying these barriers had all been taken from the original owner. While the twin gods made sense, why had the illustrious Arceus also lost a fragment?

Was Ultra Necrozma’s power truly so terrifying?

Though baffled, Zhao Fang stood before Arceus’s mural, reaching out to confirm that he needed physical contact. Then, with Gyarados supporting him on its back, he rose on tiptoe to touch the mural.

The instant Zhao Fang made contact, a sudden shock coursed through his body, and he blacked out immediately.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in an entirely white space. The surroundings were pure white, and before him stood Arceus, gazing silently. What surprised Zhao Fang was the many floating tablets surrounding Arceus, each representing all the elemental types—none missing.

Was this Arceus in its complete form?

A theory flickered through Zhao Fang’s mind, but he rose to his feet. The trials of Dialga and Palkia had taught him that obtaining these legendary fragments was no simple feat. Yet he wondered what kind of test the Creator God would present.

Zhao Fang stood there for a long while, but Arceus showed no sign of movement or attack—simply watching him. This left Zhao Fang puzzled.

Tentatively, he reached out his hand. In the next moment, Arceus transformed into a beam of light, flying directly into his palm and becoming a pure white fragment. The surrounding space shattered, and Zhao Fang found himself once more before the mural.

Gyarados and the Ice Dragon anxiously watched nearby and relaxed somewhat upon seeing him emerge.

“What just happened?” Zhao Fang was deeply perplexed. He touched the fragment in his hand.

Indeed, it was the fragment of the Creator God, nothing strange about it. Yet something felt off.

When he placed the fragment to dissolve the white light barrier, it vanished, revealing a small, nondescript box made of an unknown material.

Zhao Fang frowned, reached out, and lifted the box.

[Hidden Box at the Base of the Altar]

The description was simple. Zhao Fang called Gyarados and the Ice Dragon aside and carefully opened the box. Inside lay a massive, pitch-black scale emitting a dark mist.

Zhao Fang picked up the scale and noticed a sheet of paper beneath it.

[Scale of Giratina, containing abundant energy and apocalyptic danger]

His pupils contracted sharply. It was indeed Giratina’s scale. He’d wondered why, after Palkia’s barrier came Arceus’s, and after dissolving Arceus’s barrier, he hadn’t seen Giratina’s. Now he understood: Giratina had been waiting here.

Recalling that strange Arceus, Zhao Fang suspected that in ancient times, the gray-robed organizations must have meddled with something grave, and that significant events had unfolded—though whether the truth had been recorded, no one knew.

He lifted the paper beneath the scale. It bore strange writing he couldn’t decipher. He planned to take it back to Cynthia or consult the scholar who had previously helped decode the Tower’s inscriptions.

But as Zhao Fang prepared to store the paper, it turned to dust and scattered. Strangely, the text was fully imprinted in his mind.

“So, what exactly did it say?” Zhao Fang wondered, still dazed.

Another question troubled him: how was he to leave this ghostly place?

His gaze shifted to Giratina’s mural. He had touched three murals in total and obtained three fragments from the legendary beasts; only Giratina’s remained untouched.

Resolving to try, Zhao Fang reached out and placed his hand on Giratina’s mural.

[A mural recording ancient events; touching Giratina’s may transport the toucher out.]

Seeing these words, Zhao Fang sighed in relief and quickly laid his hand on Giratina. Instantly, the entire rock face trembled, the altar shook violently, and massive stones fell from above. Zhao Fang was frozen in place.

Just as he feared being crushed, his figure flickered, and he reappeared in the temple from before. The surroundings were unchanged. He saw Cynthia’s astonished face.

Though Miss Jia was absent, off somewhere unknown.

“Zhao Fang!” Cynthia exclaimed in surprise.

Zhao Fang was about to explain the inscriptions he had memorized when Cynthia grabbed his arm and dragged him outside. Before he could react, she pushed him off the cliff.