Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 488 Eyes Witnessing Miracles

Chapter 490 Eyes Witnessing Miracles

The profession of detective is, in essence, a paradox.

After all, an "event" becomes the past the moment it happens.

When the detective received the commission and finally arrived at the scene, all that remained were a pile of silent physical evidence, a few pairs of terrified eyes, and the cold traces left by the passage of time.

Detectives don't solve cases; all they can do is work backward to deduce what has already happened.

Detectives are not gods; they cannot go back in time to prevent tragedies. Nor are they prophets; they cannot warn future victims in advance.

More often than not, they are simply a group of latecomers, professional "better late than never" types. All they can do is observe and think, nothing more.

However, the allure of the paradox lies precisely in this: because the past cannot be changed, the detective must be the one who "sees most clearly."

Therefore, while everyone's attention is focused on the battle before them, and adrenaline drives the instinctive reaction of every pair of eyes, there must be a few pairs of eyes that pay attention to those "absent" things.

Let's see what happened before the battle began.

See what inappropriate traces are hidden behind those flashy moves.

Examine the crystal's texture to see if it looks natural—is it naturally formed or artificially implanted?

Check if the airflow is abnormal—is there a spot where the airflow shouldn't be disturbed, but is moving anyway?

Go and see those who should have been there—why they were absent.

Because sometimes, the opportunity to defeat the enemy does not lie in the flames of battle.

It may be hiding in some unnoticed corner, quietly waiting for a pair of eyes that have not been blinded by the flames of war.

At this moment, while the three Heavenly Kings and Lila are fighting with all their might against the legendary giant, three pairs of such eyes are taking action.

Chimchar was the first to stop participating in the battle.

At first, it stayed with the other Pokémon, dodging and weaving through the aftershocks of the legendary Pokémon's attacks, helping to absorb the impact. But after the aftershocks of one particular explosion swept over, its actions suddenly changed.

It no longer looked up at the battlefield, but began to run back and forth in the safe zone, sometimes squatting down and tapping the ground with its fingers, sometimes sniffing around in one spot, and then running to another corner to dig through the rubble, as if searching for something lost.

The grass turtle on the side was much quieter—it stretched out its slender grass knot and gently reached towards the huge crystal pillars in the cave.

Grass blades brush against the crystal surface, sometimes cutting off a small fragment, sometimes just lightly touching it. It will move closer to observe the texture of the cut surface, then step back a few steps to examine the growth direction of the entire crystal column, tilting its head from time to time, as if the crystal in front of it were evidence urgently needing examination in a detective agency.

Bogarman's behavior was almost identical to its usual actions. It did nothing, simply standing still, staring blankly into thin air.

He wasn't looking at the battlefield, nor at his teammates; he was just staring at a fixed point in the void, his round eyes unblinking, occasionally shifting slightly to reveal an expression as if he were reading.

And so, the three beginner Pokémon, after each completing such a perplexing activity, suddenly came together.

There was no sound, only the exchange of glances. They huddled together in a tight little circle, exchanged a few hand gestures, and then dispersed in perfect unison, each finding their place and preparing their moves. The focus was no longer the tension of passive defense, but the predatory gaze of a hunter locking onto its prey.

The handsome guy closest to the little fire monkeys noticed this unusual scene.

He didn't understand what these starter Pokémon were planning to do. But they were, after all, Hugo's Pokémon, the trusted detective's partners.

Moreover, given their current strength, whether or not Chimchar participates in the battle, it probably won't change anything in this brutal fight.

Rather, the fact that they are now staying quietly in the back has actually helped the defenses of Frog and Espeon quite a bit.

Thinking this, the handsome man turned his gaze back to the battlefield where the legendary giants had ravaged the land.

Until the moment when Regigigas finally collapsed.

Just as the Heavenly Kings had no time to catch their breath, new enemy silhouettes emerged from the depths of darkness, and despair surged back like a tidal wave.

The three small figures moved.

"Flame Vortex!"

"Magic Leaf"!

"Tide Whirlwind!"

Three attacks of different colors, originating from the small body, were launched simultaneously.

The target was the spot where Pogarman had been staring for so long—the empty air near the rock wall!

The handsome man was too late to stop them. He watched helplessly as the three attacks traced their own trajectories and flew towards the void.

Then, he saw it.

Just as the attack was about to strike, the seemingly empty space suddenly began to ripple with visible force. The air rippled like water, and something transparent was twisting and vibrating there. Something was there!

Now, even the handsome guy finally understood what those three little things had been doing.

Ultimately, everything the group experienced from the moment they stepped into the castle was shrouded in mystery.

Iron Rock, Iron Leaf, Ironhead—how exactly were these paradoxical Pokémon created?

How exactly did the Plasma Group manage to replicate an entire legendary army, including Regigigas?

Where does the energy that drives all of this come from?

Why would Gerald, the "Fortress Builder" renowned for constructing castles, allow a natural crystal cave, so incongruous with steel, to appear at the center of his meticulously designed creation?

And why crystal? Where do these crystallized pieces come from?

All these questions were finally answered the moment the Chimchar and the others' attack hit its target.

First, the Grass Turtle's "Magic Leaf" arrived.

The emerald green leaves did not strike the rock wall behind them in the air, but rather disappeared into an invisible barrier as if they had plunged into water.

Immediately afterwards, Piplup's "Tidal Whirl" and Chimchar's "Flame Vortex" swirled around it, water and fire intertwining to firmly trap the "invisible thing".

The collision of water and flames slightly diminished the power of the attack, but unexpectedly produced a large amount of white steam. It was this spreading steam that gradually revealed the outline of the trapped object—an "eye."

A jet-black, round eyeball darted and darted around in fear amidst the disproportionately large white portion of the eye.

A black body surrounds the eyeballs, growing into strange linear shapes, resembling some kind of ancient symbolic writing.

Unknown totem.

The handsome man's pupils suddenly contracted. He recognized this Pokémon, or rather, this type of Pokémon. Its black body formed a shape similar to a steering wheel, extending out incomplete arcs to the left and right—if the handsome man remembered correctly, that should represent the ancient Chinese character "H".

However, such minor details are no longer important.

The real problem is—

An unknown totem was hidden inside the cave!

Moreover, there is likely far more than one.

At that very moment, countless fragments in the handsome man's mind suddenly pieced together. The absurd Pokémon manufacturing techniques, the sudden appearance of the legendary army, the limitless energy driving the entire castle, the unnatural crystals in the cave—

If these unknown totems have been silently interfering with everything using their superpowers—

From the moment they stepped into this castle, how much of what they saw, perceived, and believed was true?

Shocked, the Interpol agent didn't even care about the legendary legion lurking ahead. He strode forward and loudly showed Lila and the Elite Four their discovery of the little fire monkeys.

And that's how that somewhat awkward scene happened—

On a battlefield surrounded by legendary giants, a group of besieged humans suddenly turned their heads and looked at three tiny beginner Pokémon in the corner, as well as an "eyeball" trapped in steam, turning around in terror.

"This spirit is... an Unknown Totem?"

Upon seeing the prisoners, Wanlong's voice sounded as if something was choking her.

She stared at the black symbol that was bound and trapped, its eyes darting around in terror, and a look of utter shock crossed her face.

"I see—so they are the true hidden core of the 'City Defense Master's' castle?" The novelist's voice trembled slightly as his gaze slowly swept over the surrounding crystal pillars. "In that case, could the crystals in these caves be the crystallization phenomenon that was witnessed in the Johto region?"

"Miss Lila."

Without turning around, Yueju gave the detective beside her a very brief look.

Immediately afterwards, he and Lian Wu gave the same order: the old craftsman and the servant general took a step forward in unison, assuming a menacing battle stance, and stared intently at the legendary legions ahead that had not yet made a move—in case they launched a surprise attack the moment their side was distracted.

Lila understood instantly. With a flick of her wrist, the Poké Ball containing Metagross was launched again, glowing red.

The Iron-Footed Pokémon's heavy body landed on the cave floor.

This Pokémon had exhausted its strength protecting the Blueberry Pokémon, and had only just regained a little strength in the Poké Ball. Its alloy body was still covered with shocking scars and cracks.

"Metamorphosis—can it still move even with a little effort?" Lila's voice carried restrained concern.

Her response was a dull, resolute clang of steel striking the metal.

The battered and bruised Megalodon struggled to regain its footing by bracing itself on all fours.

"Okay." Lila took a deep breath. "Then—'The Eye of Miracles'!"

This is a relatively rare move in combat.

It can detect a Pokémon's true form, nullify the target's evasion boost, render Ghost-type Pokémon vulnerable, and even allow Psychic-type moves to hit Dark-type Pokémon that should be immune. Basically, only a handful of Pokémon can learn it, and Lyra's Metagross was able to master it because her teammate Alakazam taught it to her in his spare time.

At this moment, this obscure move, forgotten in the corner of Pokémon battle tactics, is about to have its true moment of glory.

Metagross sank its four massive steel feet deep into the ground, and the alloy cross on its forehead suddenly glowed with a blinding light. Its red eyes began to gather all the remaining Psychic-type energy in its body, causing the surrounding air to slightly distort due to the shockwaves of the attack—

Suddenly, a bright light flashed!

Pure super-energy light swept outwards like a tidal wave, penetrating the air, penetrating the crystal, and penetrating every inch of seemingly solid rock.

This move has no offensive or destructive power, only an almost tyrannical insight—before this light, any demons or monsters, any disguise or illusion, will have nowhere to hide.

The light swept across every corner of the cave.

The light illuminates the back of each crystal pillar.

The light penetrated every ray of air that seemed empty.

Thus, the illusion was dispelled.

Then-

They saw it.

More "eyes".

eye.

Eyes, eyes.

Eyes, eyes, eyes.

It was a sight that would make anyone with trypophobia faint on the spot. Compared to the Pokémon hordes encountered in the maze corridors, the scene before them was nothing.

Inside the crystal pillar. In the crevices of the rock wall. In the shadows of the cave ceiling. In the void that the kings and detectives had thought was just "air".

Countless dark "eyes" are silently and uniformly staring at them.

Not dozens, not hundreds.

Are there several thousand? Tens of thousands? Or even more?

No one can count them all.

Because they are overlapping.

A single unknown totem might seem somewhat endearing, but a large number of them changes everything. Countless jet-black eyes swirl within disproportionately large, almost morbidly large whites. Their movements vary in rhythm, yet strangely maintain a kind of overall synchronization. These eyes reside on diverse black bodies, each twisted into a different ancient script symbol. They are densely embedded in every inch of the cave, the black symbols intertwining, stacking, and spreading like tangled tentacles. More than a simple arrangement, it's a kind of almost instinctive covering—like living moss, like breathing mold, layer upon layer, clinging to every surface it can reach. Rock walls, between crystal pillars, in the shadows of the dome, in the cracks of the ground—nothing is spared. Each crevice may contain more than ten unknown totems, twisted by insufficient space, their bodies squeezed, folded, and deformed, yet stubbornly still pointing their single eye outwards. The sight instinctively evokes the compound eyes of Bug-type Pokémon—no, it's worse than that.

Compound eyes at least exhibit an ordered geometric arrangement, but the creatures here completely disregard the laws of plane geometry, exhibiting only endless, impenetrable repetition. The sheer number of these Pokémon is terrifying; no one can find a corner without hidden gazes, no empty space where the gaze can linger. Every inch of space is filled, every inch of space is staring, making it hard to breathe. Those gazes surge in from all directions, heavy, damp, relentless, enveloping one in an inescapable cage of stares—

What's even more terrifying is that they've been there for who knows how long.

As for all the legendary Pokémon that the group had been fighting so hard for so long, they were Ironrock, Ironleaf, and Ironhead.

Regirock, Regice, Registeel.

Regigi, Regigidorago, and even the Regigicas who had just risen again.

Their forms, too, began to distort, blur, and become transparent in the light of the "Eye of Miracles"—ultimately melting into the terrifying "eyeball" background before them.

Like a group of creations made of bubbles and illusions, they finally awaited the needle that would puncture them.

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