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At that mont, Ian was taken away by Phoenix, the entire town fell into a brief silence.
Those who had been imrsed in the miracle and joy of Phoenix's arrival were frozen in place, staring at the golden motes of light slowly fading above the cliff.
It was as if they had not yet processed what had just happened.
Phoenix's golden flas still lingered in the air, like a sunset gradually fading from view. The crowd in the square appeared to have been hit with a Body-Bind Curse as hundreds of eyes were fixed blankly on the empty center of the plaza.
The silence lasted for a long while.
"D-disappeared…?"
The fish-selling uncle murmured senselessly. His octopus assistant was also shocked, its tentacles loosening and causing several silver-scaled fish to fall into the tank with plopping sounds and splash everywhere.
"Just now… was that Lord Phoenix taking Ian away?"
"He's gone!"
Only then did the crowd erupt into noise.
Voices rose and fell chaotically, like a pot of boiling soup.
Bud was the first to react. She rushed into the central plaza but could not find a trace of Ian. In the end, all she could do was tilt her head back and shout,
"Brother Ian!"
Her voice echoed across the empty square but there was no answer.
Ian had indeed been taken away by the massive phoenix, not flown upward into the sky. When the townspeople realized this, the already chaotic crowd erupted once more.
"The Lord Phoenix took the outsider Hero away!"
"I told you he wasn't a normal trainer!"
"Lord Phoenix must be taking him to the Sacred Land!"
"Nonsense! Clearly, he's testing him because of his extraordinary power!"
"You all don't understand! This is the 'Guiding Ritual' described in the legend. I read about it in a book by an author from the neighboring island. Books don't lie!"
"Did you see it!? Lord Phoenix let him touch its foot! I've never heard of anyone being able to touch Lord Phoenix's foot!"
…
The blacksmith's booming voice drowned out everyone else's. Perhaps due to a certain foot fetish, he fixated on that point so much that many townspeople could not help but glance sideways at him.
On the other side, a group of young trainers had surrounded Kongo, the magical creature standing closest to Ian, and bombarded it with questions.
"You were closest just now, what did you see?"
"Did that wizard activate so new superpower? It must've been him carrying Phoenix away, not Phoenix carrying him! Adults aren't as clever as we are!"
"Could he actually be a legendary magical creature in disguise?"
…
One had to admit that the younger generation's imagination was truly sothing else.
Kongo scratched its head at their questions.
It let out a confused gū lū~ sound.
After gesturing with its large hands for a long ti, it finally managed to express that what it saw was no different from what everyone else saw. After all, a magical creature's eyes were not so different from human eyes.
At least, that's how it looked.
However, the young trainers failed to understand Kongo, leaving the Iron-Pald Kongo speechless. In the end, all Kongo could do was imitate Ian grabbing Phoenix's little talon by grabbing its trainer.
'How should one put it?'
'It reproduced the scene too faithfully.'
But it used far too much strength and it accidentally tore the trainer's shoe clean in half.
This drew a loud burst of laughter, of course.
The young trainers were shocked that Lord Phoenix had chosen Ian, but, unlike the adults, they had not yet begun to gossip about why.
Of course...
So of the young ones still cared quite a lot.
Bud was feeling rather lancholy. The new friend she'd just made hadn't said "see you again" to her yet.
"Why would Lord Phoenix take wizard brother away?" Odin lay beside her, drawing crooked little wizard figures on the ground with a stick as he asked. "Elder Sister, will brother co back?"
Bud gathered herself, brushing aside her sadness.
"He probably will?"
She wasn't very sure herself.
At that mont...
"This matter is also ntioned in ancient records." An elderly woman supporting herself against a wall spoke in a tone of astonished revelation as if she had just uncovered the truth. "Lord Phoenix never appears lightly, much less carries away a mortal without reason. Could it be that the Outsider Hero is one of the Chosen Children?"
Her words carried uncertainty, and the term she used left the others bewildered.
"Chosen? What does that an?" A young mother holding her child asked curiously.
"You don't know?" Another old man continued. "In legend, the phoenix descends once every fifty years. Besides granting us healing power, she also takes one child from each island. That child receives a quest from the phoenix and obtains a magical creature capable of continuous evolution as their partner."
One had to admit that the sense of déjà vu was undeniable.
If Ian were here, he would definitely have complained. It was clear that this Titan stitched in not only Pokémon lore but also Digimon plotlines.
Who knew where this Titan was getting its information?
"So there's such a thing?" Upon hearing the elder, many townsfolk didn't doubt it for a mont. Instead, they collectively realized sothing new.
There was no skepticism at all.
They simply felt they had learned sothing new.
"Will those Chosen Children ever co back?" Bud didn't question the elders either. She was simply troubled by Ian's sudden disappearance.
Odin dearly wanted to see him again, too.
"They do co back, though most don't stay ho for long. Those who grow accustod to adventure can never truly settle down." The elder explained softly, clarifying why no one in town had ever seen the previous generation of "Chosen Children."
"Every Chosen Child is extraordinary. Each one has the potential to beco a Super Trainer. It's said that by the ti they reach their full potential, their partners can even stand against Legend-class magical creatures."
The old man's tone carried deep envy. Clearly, he had lived through the previous selection process but had not been chosen, leaving him with a lifelong regret. Many of the children in the crowd shared that sa envious look.
"But that hero isn't from our island, right?" Soone asked in confusion.
"Well, that may be true, but he is a hero. You all saw it, Lord Phoenix looked at him, recognized him as a hero, and took him away."
"This is destiny's calling."
The elder quickly found a fitting explanation.
The person who had questioned him nodded, agreeing that it made sense.
At least no one was "blinded by envy."
More and more people gradually gathered in the plaza, forming discussion circles about everything that had just happened.
"May Lord Phoenix bless Ian and bring him ho safely."
"May he fulfill his mission and return with new blessings."
The sun dipped toward the horizon.
Golden light shimred across the sea's surface, echoing the townspeople's prayers. At that mont, none of them knew that Ian had already crossed the boundary between reality and illusion.
He had entered a world unlike any he had ever known. Had he truly beco one of the Chosen Children?
Of course not.
When Ian opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the plaza. Soft grass lay beneath his feet, and the air was filled with the fragrance of flowers. Birdsong and the murmur of flowing water drifted in from afar. When he looked up, he realized that he was standing on an island floating in the starry sky.
Yes.
It's an island in the cosmos itself.
In the distance, Ian could see the pitch-black backdrop of space scattered with cascading stars. The island floated in the universe, and the vast Earth lay below it.
The blue-white sphere rotated silently, emitting a gentle glow amid the darkness. Endless stars stretched around him, like a dream.
As for why Ian could still breathe, he raised his head and saw that the entire island was enclosed within a transparent bubble. The bubble wrapped around the island completely, like a protective barrier.
Clearly, this bubble was what allowed air, water, and life to exist here.
"What... is this place?" Ian murmured.
The Ancient Phoenix stood not far away. Its feathers still shimred with a faint golden light.
"Hey... Bro? Sis? Mind explaining what's going on here?"
Ian tried again to communicate with the massive phoenix.
This ti, however, the phoenix did not respond. Nor did it respond to his request.
The Phoenix did not look at Ian again nor make a sound. It simply flapped its wings gently, rose into the air, and turned into a streak of flowing light, vanishing into the night sky. Ian stared blankly at its departing silhouette, his mind filled with confusion.
Yet, before he could sort out his thoughts, the surrounding scenery shocked him completely.
The vegetation on the island was unnaturally lush. Towering ancient trees blocked out the sky. Vines twisted and coiled around the trees, and enormous, vividly colored flowers blood everywhere, like flora from an entirely different planet.
Within the forest, countless familiar silhouettes darted between the trees. As Ian slowly turned to take in the floating island, the corner of his mouth began to twitch.
A yellow electric mouse shot out of a bush, its tail unmistakably shaped like a lightning bolt.
Several turtles were lined up by the pond, practicing Water Gun. The water spout on the back of the middle turtle could not have been more recognizable.
The most outrageous thing of all were the cocoons hanging from the distant branches, exact replicas of tapods!
Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Dratini were creatures that should not exist in this world. Yet, they were right there, moving vividly before Ian's eyes.
They were vibrant and lifelike with shining coats and agile movents, like perfect, high-resolution models from the ga.
Ian's eyes widened. He could hardly believe what he was seeing.
What kind of international joke was this?
He was supposed to be in the magical world of Harry Potter.
How were creatures whose entire art style contradicted the wizarding world suddenly appearing here?
"Are these really Pokémon?"
He slowly approached a small Dratini nibbling on fruit. It wasn't afraid at all. Rather, it tilted its head curiously at him, and the fla on its tail gently flickered.
"You...you're not supposed to exist here." Ian squatted down and reached out to pat it, but it slipped away lightly. The little dragon hopped twice, then bounded off.
There was no hostility. But it didn't like being touched.
Ian blinked thoughtfully. He stood and surveyed the area, realizing that the entire island was like an enormous ecosystem, with Pokémon living freely and interacting naturally.
The appearance of a human didn't seem to surprise them in the slightest. Many Pokémon didn't even bother to look at him.
"This...this is practically a fully recreated world." Ian couldn't help but speak in awe.
"That Titan must have played the ga. With its own power, it replicated these Pokémon one to one through so kind of biological alchemy."
"But it didn't release them onto Earth..." Ian had no idea how the Titan played the ga. Or perhaps it only saw pictures and concept art?
All he knew was that what he was experiencing now was nothing short of fantastical.
"Truly... wildly absurd."
Ian continued walking slowly through the jungle on the island, surrounded by dense, flourishing vegetation.
The trees were not tall, as most reached only his shoulders but their branches and leaves were unusually dense. The foliage had a strange blue-green hue and swayed gently in the breeze as if dyed by starlight itself. Vines coiled around the trunks, and the small, delicate flowers were astonishingly vivid—like masterpieces painted stroke by stroke with the finest pignts.
"The plants here are smaller than those on Earth," Ian observed, "but they're still much larger than the flora of later eras."
For Ian, this was good news as at least he wouldn't faint from oxygen intoxication.
The air carried a faint fragrance, and the oxygen level seed similar to that of future Earth, not overly concentrated and without the suffocating, fear-inducing atmosphere one felt when facing colossal gafauna.
No high-oxygen environnt.
Which ant ultra-large organisms were unlikely to exist here.
However, just as he thought he was beginning to understand this world, a low, chanical growl echoed beside his ear.
Ian froze and turned sharply toward the sound.
Through a sparse thicket, he saw a dinosaur-like creature covered in tal armor lowering its head to gnaw on fruit scattered across the ground. Its limbs were thick and powerful, and its back was equipped with devices that unmistakably looked like missile launchers.
Its eyes glead with a faint blue light.
"Bloody hell— talGreymon!"
Ian almost couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Not just Pokémon... even Digimon are here?" He rubbed his temples hard, trying to calm himself. Everything he had seen so far was ridiculous beyond belief.
"What kind of ultimate mashup is this? Am I really the only one who crossed over? Or did soone else cross over into ancient tis and beco a Titan Giant?"
Ian stood rooted in place, staring silently for a long ti.
He didn't know how to begin to evaluate what he was witnessing.
Not shock. Not fear. Rather, it was a profound mixture of awe and utter confusion.
If he wanted answers, he would obviously need to find that Titan. He didn't believe the massive phoenix had brought him there for no reason.
Perhaps the Titan lived sowhere above this star-filled realm.
From the ancient gods of Earth...
To an Astral Wanderer?
Ian kept moving forward. After passing through the dense jungle, his view opened up. At the far end of the floating island, he saw an enormous stone house, exactly the kind of residence one might imagine a giant titan would live in.
Smoke curled lazily from the chimney.
Soone was definitely there.
Ian quickly pulled his cloak tighter and rushed toward the house.
He knew that the answers to all his bewildering discoveries lay just ahead.
(End of this chapter)
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