The century-old order of the Purgatory Valley was finally undergoing a transformation. The unbreakable rock, which should never have shattered under any circumstances, was now crumbling in dozens of places.
The entire Purgatory Valley was a chaotic mess. Those rocks hadn't been shattered by the shockwave, though. They'd broken apart because they couldn't contain the extreme heat of the flame that had erupted from Charizard. One could imagine just how intense the flames had gotten.
The valley was shrouded in black mist. If anyone had been standing inside, they wouldn't have been able to see their own hand in front of them.
Ash unconsciously lowered his arm from where he'd raised it to shield his face, his gaze fixed on the black mist. Others couldn't see the scene, but he could. Not with his eyes. Through Aura Sight.
Under the guidance of Aura, the situation in the arena was reflected directly into his mind. Charizard X was kneeling on one knee. The Strongest Charizard was standing. Judging by the visual alone, the outcome was already clear.
But the connection between Ash and Charizard told a different story, and Ash's read of Aura signatures was even sharper. Charizard's Aura hadn't dropped past the threshold. He hadn't lost the ability to fight. Even though Ash himself felt he could barely lift a finger, as long as Charizard hadn't lost the ability to fight, it wasn't a defeat.
The Strongest Charizard was the opposite. He was still standing, but his Aura signature was even weaker than Charizard's. At that level, he'd effectively already lost the ability to fight. His current stance was nothing more than lingering obsession keeping him upright.
Ash hobbled forward, finally reaching Charizard's side. "Can you still stand, Charizard?"
"Roar."
Charizard's roar was no longer the deep, resonant sound it had been earlier. It came out weak. Even so, with Ash's support, Charizard pushed himself back onto his feet.
Ash knew Flare Blitz had done damage to him too, and the stamina drop on his side had actually been greater than Charizard's. That was the reason Charizard was still on his feet at all. In a Pokémon battle under Aura fusion, the Trainer took the brunt of the physical toll, and Ash was the one who had absorbed it.
"First ever! We beat the Strongest Charizard!" Seeing that Charizard wasn't in critical condition, Ash finally broke into a bright smile, calling out with real excitement.
They'd cleared both trials of Charicific Valley. However brutal the process had been, however close a call the outcome, a win was a win. By results alone, they'd surpassed Lance's previous record. And now his Charizard had become the new king of Charicific Valley.
For all he'd been through, Ash was still just a fifteen-year-old boy, not even sixteen yet. The title of "King of Charicific Valley" and "Strongest Charizard" being handed to him filled him with genuine excitement. He wasn't some detached figure who claimed to have no interest in fame or achievement. On top of that, this also meant his Charizard had officially reached the top of the world.
That said, in raw one-on-one power without any layered support, his Charizard still had a lot of room to grow. Without Aura fusion and Mega Evolution stacked on him, trying to arm-wrestle the world's peak was still a stretch.
Without Aura fusion and Mega Evolution stacked on him, trying to arm-wrestle the world's peak was still a stretch. But with those two abilities layered on, Ash wasn't afraid to face even a Charizard on Leon's level.
"Wait until I've recovered some strength, then I'll help patch you up. That was one exhausting fight."
Instead of sitting down to rest, Ash helped Charizard limp over to the Strongest Charizard's side, using what steady energy he had left to assess the opponent's condition. After confirming the Strongest Charizard hadn't taken any critically serious injuries, Ash finally set aside the last of his worries and settled in to recover.
Outside.
Roughly thirty minutes had passed since the tremor. The scale of that explosion strongly suggested the battle was nearing its end, but nobody had come out yet. Whether Ash or the Strongest Charizard had won, both sides should have known to head out of the Purgatory Valley first.
The Strongest Charizard could manage the environment inside, but Ash's Charizard would struggle. Even if they'd endured the heat during the fight, resting in that kind of environment after their stamina had been completely drained was straight-up torture. So after the battle ended, whoever had won, they should have left immediately.
Unless both Charizards had passed out inside. That would be a real problem.
Thinking of it, Liza's smiling expression turned serious. She patted Charla beside her.
"Charla, go to the lava chamber and call Blaze. Tell him to come with us into the Purgatory Valley to check what's happening."
Blaze, the Charizard second only to the Strongest Charizard, was one of only two Champion-tier Charizards in the entire valley. He was also the last Charizard Ash had defeated in the first stage.
Even though he'd lost, he hadn't sustained any serious injuries, and after this stretch of recovery he'd be back to a considerable portion of his strength. At the very least, two Charizards and one person entering the Purgatory Valley should be manageable.
Charla nodded and was about to take off, but Brock stopped her.
"There's no need for all that trouble, Miss Liza. Ash and the others are fine."
Liza frowned. "You saw the commotion in the Purgatory Valley just now. At that temperature, even a Champion-tier Charizard probably couldn't hold up, never mind a human. I know Ash has special abilities, but he was using those abilities to boost his Charizard's combat power. There can't be much energy left over for him to defend himself, right?"
She knew Ash possessed a rare ability, a kind of Aura Power. Ash himself could match Champion-tier Pokémon, but that was under normal conditions. The Strongest Charizard was High Champion at minimum, and Ash had fought hundreds of continuous battles with Charizard already, dropping his stamina dramatically.
Just using Aura Power to hold his own against the Strongest Charizard would have been the limit. Where would he find spare energy to hold off the Purgatory Valley's environment on top of that?
So Liza felt Brock's suggestion was reckless. No matter what, they had to go inside and assess the situation first.
"Don't worry, Miss Liza. Ash doesn't only have Aura Power. He also has a very reliable partner. However harsh the Purgatory Valley's environment is, it's not so bad that a certain Pokémon on Ash's team can't withstand it."
Even though Liza had laid out the dangers in detail, Brock showed no concern at all. If anything, he was reassuring Liza rather than the other way around. Liza glanced at Misty and Serena. There was a hint of worry on their faces, but it wasn't major. Just the natural, instinctive kind. In reality they also believed Ash wouldn't be hurt inside.
Was it because of Gardevoir? Gardevoir did possess extraordinarily powerful psychic abilities, but even a Gardevoir couldn't survive long in the Purgatory Valley. Not to mention the aftershocks from the explosions between the Strongest Charizard and Ash's Charizard.
Just as Liza was still running through the possibilities, three figures slowly emerged from the entrance to the Purgatory Valley. She narrowed her eyes and made out Ash, his Charizard, and the Strongest Charizard. Both Charizards were covered in wounds, but their mental state seemed remarkably alert.
What was going on? Had they not actually fought to the finish, and instead sat down partway through to chat? Who had won and who had lost?
"Roar!"
Before Liza could ask, the Strongest Charizard let out a roar. Although Liza couldn't understand Pokémon speech the way Ash could, she could roughly grasp the meaning of a Charizard's roar. Her expression froze.
"You mean, you lost?"
The murmur was filled with disbelief. Ash's Charizard was strong, but he shouldn't have been abnormal like this.
Now, because the Strongest Charizard's injuries hadn't fully healed, his aura was still leaking. Before, Liza hadn't been able to read the Strongest Charizard's level. Now she could see it clearly.
/
Champion Peak.
"You weren't holding back on him, were you?" Liza thought about it for a long time, and the only reason she could come up with was that. She genuinely couldn't figure out how Ash's Charizard had won.
Hearing this, the Strongest Charizard let out a roar of dissatisfaction.
Pure humiliation.
Whether he faced a stronger Charizard or a weaker one, he always fought with his full strength. That accusation wasn't only an insult to him. It was an insult to Ash's Charizard as well. Ash's Charizard had defeated him in a straight-up confrontation. The Strongest Charizard felt that even if he ascended to god level, he probably wouldn't be able to produce a flame of that caliber.
Perhaps only the legendary Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire could rival that black fire.
"Ash, your Charizard, don't tell me he's at god level?"
Her first guess having been rejected, Liza switched straight to her second one. This one was even more absurd than the first, because in the current world, no ordinary Pokémon had ever ascended to god level.
Every god-level Pokémon that had ever appeared publicly had been a Legendary. Without exception.
So Ash's Charizard becoming a god-level Pokémon was even more outrageous than the Strongest Charizard conceding. But apart from that, Liza really couldn't figure out how Ash's Charizard had beaten the Strongest Charizard. To defeat a Champion Peak-tier Pokémon at full strength while your own stamina was nearly out, what could that be other than god level?
Facing Liza's questioning gaze, Ash shook his head. "Don't joke, Miss Liza. My Charizard is only at High Elite Four right now."
Liza rolled her eyes at Ash. High Elite Four? Did he even believe that himself? A High Elite Four Charizard defeating two hundred and eighty-seven Charizards, including a Champion Beginner Charizard, and then, without any advantage of timing or terrain going his way, still defeated a Champion Peak Charizard? If she said that out loud, no one would think she was lying, they'd think her brain had short-circuited.
Ash hadn't lied to Liza, though. Even after defeating the Strongest Charizard, his Charizard hadn't suddenly shot up to Champion or beyond. Overcoming opponents in combat did earn experience, and unleashing his full power did push his physical strength higher.
Charizard's raw power really had improved substantially. But that was all.
Liza's suspicion wasn't unfounded, though. Without god-level power, given the state Charizard had been in at that moment, defeating the Strongest Charizard would have been absolutely impossible.
Charizard's Amaterasu Flame, without Aura fusion with Ash, was essentially unusable. Even though it was Charizard's own weapon, Charizard had no way to draw on it independently.
Only at Champion Peak level or above would he be able to freely use that flame. Before then, using it required entering the Aura fusion state, and it required Ash to channel god-level Aura Power to trigger it. On top of that, once he used the Amaterasu Flame, regardless of whether the opponent lost the ability to fight, Charizard would also lose the ability to keep fighting. It was fundamentally a mutual-destruction move.
The only saving grace was that Charizard didn't fall unconscious afterward, so if the finisher was guaranteed to defeat the opponent, then using it was acceptable. If the Amaterasu Flame went off and still didn't take the opponent down, the fight was directly conceded.
Ash naturally wasn't going to explain all this cause and effect to Liza. The Amaterasu Flame was difficult to explain cleanly, and besides, knowing the result was enough. The mechanics behind the process didn't need that much elaboration.
Under the witness of the Strongest Charizard, Ash's Charizard was confirmed as the new Strongest Charizard of Charicific Valley. That meant if Ash's Charizard was willing to stay in Charicific Valley, he would not only command the other Charizards but would also gain access to the Purgatory Valley, the training ground specifically prepared for the King.
A freshly arrived Charizard directly becoming the King of Charicific Valley, such an absurd thing was hard for ordinary people to accept.
However, the other Charizards of Charicific Valley didn't object to this news. Because Ash's Charizard had defeated each of them one on one through his own strength, and had ultimately beaten the previous king to earn the position.
Regardless of whether this had anything to do with Ash, and regardless of whether Charizard would drop back to his baseline once he left Ash's side, at this moment he was the rightful King of the Charizards.
Ash was still hesitant about staying in Charicific Valley. He didn't think staying there would necessarily be better for Charizard than being at his side. So the question of whether Charizard would stay here still required some thought. But the Charicific Valley Charizard inheritance, the relic, could be received first.