Knowily what Duke was thinking, John smirked slightly. Taking advantage of his height, he tilted his head down to look at Duke, his tone ced with disdain.

  "Just that little granddaughter of yours, do you really think she's worthy of my grandson?"

  John's smug demeanor perfectly embodied the phrase 'a petty man intoxicated by success.'

  Duke gritted his teeth as he gred at him aed, enunciating each word, "Why wouldn't my granddaughter be worthy of Julian? She's the top student in her freshman year at the Research Academy."

  If Kyogre hadn't been nearby, Duke would've already throunch at John. What was there to be so smug about? Just because you have a talented grandson? Once my granddaughter wins over yrandson, what will you have left to funt?

  "She's not even a trainer. How could she possibly share a on nguage with my grandson? And having on ground is very important," John replied nontly.

  "Cut the crap," Duke snapped, "Just answer me: yes or no. If it's a no, then fet it."

  He could see John was deliberately trying to rile him up. If he tihe versation, the jerk would just find more ways to annoy him.

  "Alright, fine, si's yranddaughter, I'll let her i with my grandson."

  "Oh, and make sure she takes the initiative. There are too many people chasing after my grandson. If she doesn't step up, she won't stand a ce," John added as a final jab.

  His grandson was excellent in every way—talented and filial. Just retly, Julian had sent him some Water Moon Grass, which helped his Metagross upgrade its potential from blue to purple. Julian had pyed a signifit role in that.

  Su outstanding grandson, but his personality was a bit tohtforward. He didn't know how to woo girls, and that roblem.

  "Low emotional intelligence is low emotional intelligeop making excuses"

  Duke shot back with a sful gre, 'Everyone knows yrandson's ck of EQ, its among the aristocratic families.'

  "Hmph, what do you know?, My grandson is still young. Retionships would only dey his path to being a Champion," John said dismissively.

  While the two were bickering, Julian had already instructed Mewtwo to act. Using Teleport, they entered a hidden chamber 500 meters underground.

  At this moment, 15 seds remained until Mewtwo's disappearance.

  Ihe secret chamber, Julian spotted a man wearing a Charizard mask. Most importantly, the man was holding a transparent box taining her thahical Pokémon, Manaphy.

  "Weezing, Self-Destruct!"

  The masked ma Julian with a twisted expression. He never imagihat his pn would fail because of a mere student.

  Although Kyogre's in Pulse had destroyed a third of Haitian City and caused signifit casualties, most of them were trated in the ter of Haitian City.

  The number of souls lost was still far from enough for his delure to reach Champion-level.

  With Mewtwo present, the pair of Weezing never even had a ce to use Self-Destruct. In an instant, they were knocked unscious by Mewtwo's psychic power.

  "Knock him out," Julian instructed.

  The masked man was the primary culprit behind the Haitian City disaster. Whether he had aplices or not would require interrogation to uncover.

  Under Mewtwo's Hypnosis, the masked man didn't even have the strength to resist. His head tilted, and he colpsed to the ground.

  Moments ter, Mewtwo vanished as well.

  Mewtwo summoned using ten fragments oed for five minutes. Now that the time , it naturally disappeared—but not before subduing the masked man.

  Julian g his remainiwments: 15 pieces left. This meant he could summowo one more time, and future missions would also reward additional fragments.

  Summoniwo for five minutes with ten fragments had now bee Julian's ultimate trump card.

  Just think; aside from other first-css Legendaries, what could possibly rival Mewtwo?

  As Mewtwo disappeared, Julian approached the unsasked man and reached out to remove his mask. However, just as his fingers were about to touch it, a delure phased through the wall aered the chamber.

  Its blue fmes, flickering from its head and hands, glowed with an eerie brilliance.

  delure had just ed the souls of tens of thousands of people. While this wasn't enough to elevate it to Champion level, its strength had heless increased signifitly.

  Through the Probing Eyes, Julian could clearly see its level.

  It was at the peak of pseudo-Champion tier.

  With Mewtwo gohe stro Pokémon by Julian's side was Akazam, who was only at the peak of Elite tier.

  He had miscalcuted. He should've brought his grandfather along.

  As Julian gritted his teeth and prepared to e aen fragments to summowo again, the delure made an ued move—it didn't attack him. Instead, it grabbed the masked man and vanished on the spot.

  "Ehe Spirit Realm, huh?"

  Julian muttered to himself. delure couldn't use Teleport, so the only pusible expnation was that it had taken the masked man into the Spirit Realm.

  With the masked man gone, only two corpses remained in the hidden chamber. Julian turoward the isotion box. Inside, Manaphy was looking at him curiously.

  It wasn't afraid of Julian; after all, he had driven away the one who harmed it. To Manaphy, Julian was a good person.

  "Don't be afraid. I'm here to save you," Julian said softly.

  He opehe box, emitting a gentle wave of Aura, and pced his haly on Manaphy's head.

  Having been born just a few ho, Manaphy had been in a stant state of fear and paniow that it felt safe and was soothed by Julian's calming aura, its tiny body rexed, and it fell into a deep sleep.

  Julian didn't rush t Manaphy to Kyogre right away. After all, Kyogre had given him two hours, and only a few minutes had passed so far.

  He decided to let Manaphy rest for a while.

  Of course, he wouldn't admit that he wao bond with Manaphy after it woke up. Building a good retionship now might make it willing to help him iure if needed.

  He had no iion of capturing Manaphy and Kyogre wouldn't allow it anyway. Manaphy was destio fulfill its duties at the Sea Temple. Making it his Pokémon would be inappropriate and disrespectful.

  Meanwhile, Kyogre on the West Coast had already sensed Manaphy's presehe moment Julian opehe isotion box.

  Realizing that Julian had successfully rescued Manaphy, Kyogre's regard for him increased a little.

  Holding the sleeping Manaphy, Julian couldn't help but find the little creature's sleeping expression incredibly adorable.

  Manaphy was a Water-type mythical Pokémon, and its appearance bore a striking resembo another Water-type Pokémon—Phione.

  However, Phione couldn't evolve into Manaphy. The reason for their simirity was that Phione was born when Manaphy bred with a Ditto.

  In this world, however, Phione did—at least not yet. After all, Manaphy had only just appeared.

  Julian took nearly a hundred photos of the sleeping Manaphy from every possible ahese photos were invaluable research material.