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by BloodOfPhantoms
Time remains like a circle. And with that, actions are bound to repeat themselves again and again, until the days meet their final end, and only darkness remains. (Based on two past stories of my own "Eromaner: The Lost Ones" and "Crystalia: The Perfect Ones", feel free to check them out if you wish to do so.)
Chapter One
Once, when Eromaner and Crystalia were one, the land was called Reveren, of the rivers and of the land. This, being the biggest of all the lands of the world, would soon become populated with many different Pokemon in only a short amount of time. The seasons of Reveren were normal, and it was regarded as one of the greatest places to live and to witness 'life' due to nature being found almost everywhere in sight. Everything remained rather peaceful as time passed, and with time came buildings, economy and the like. Of course, with the addition of these things, there would be people to break the rules- burglars, killers, etc. However, barely any of those people existed in Reveren, and when it did, the cases would be rare, and only happen periodically. However, even though the citizens' ignorance seems bliss, it would be the reason it led to the downfall of Reveren in the first place. 60 years before Eromaner and Crystalia. Friday. "This place makes me sick," A Lucario said in his head, right before jumping up and spiraling into a kick mid-air, the force of the kick sending a Dewott flying to the right, then landing on the grass with a soft thud. The crowd around them sat on seats that were placed around the area they were fighting in and had mixed emotions of the fight. As was expected, some wanted the Dewott to win, and the others wanted the Lucario to pound the Dewott to the ground and finish him. To show this, some shouted out to both of them in the fight, while others just whispered to themselves or said nothing at all, not wanting to add too much noise to the ongoing battle. "I do see that-" The Dewott grunted as he got up from the kick, "I do see that it's not going to be easy to defeat you, Devalis, but I still gotta try..." Picking up his two scalchops from the ground, he got ready to attack the Lucario, or Devalis, once again. "He's still going to try, huh," Devalis sighed, "well, no more playing around, then." Just as the Dewott was about to charge at him into an X-Scissor, Devalis ran at him with such a fast speed that the Dewott could hardly react before he got blown away by an Aura Sphere that hit him directly in the chest, exploding into a large blue blast that once again, sent the Dewott flying through the air, but this time made him faint on contact. "Boring," Devalis muttered right before adjusting his stance back to normal, then walked away from the fight, ignoring the crowd that watched him as he let their voices fade into the artificial silence he surrounded himself with, as per usual. All he longed for was a good opponent to actually make him feel true pain and to give him a fair enough challenge, but he never got that... even as a Riolu. So, because of this 'wish' he had, he decided to change his plan in life from what his parents wanted him to do orginally to what he wanted to do. His parents wanted him to be one of those typical doctors that probably didn't even enjoy what they did, most likely, but just did it for the money. Instead, he chose to be a professional fighter, and had to attend an academy, or more specifically the Pokemon Battle Academy in this case, to prove himself. Devalis had high hopes of this place being the one that would lead him to fighting people that would fulfill his wishes, but it just really didn't seem like it. He was placed as #1 in the academy after just a month of official ranking exams, and because of this, people, just like the Dewott, often challenged him to try to take his spot of being considered #1. Imagine how foolish they would've felt when all their hopes would've been crushed in just mere seconds, when Devalis decided to try instead of just yawning in his mind at his so called opponents. He was also quite emotionless, to be fair, because he knew that his emotions could lead to slip-ups in battle that he just didn't want happening, so he suppressed them as best as possible. Luckily for Devalis, these nuisances of people would eventually leave him alone once he left the academy after completing his final test, where he would, once again, fight the best of the academy in a tournament style exam, leaving only the greatest to come out on top. Obviously, being a Lucario, he had a pretty good advantage for being able to sense the aura of others, which did, in the past, lead to many of his kind graduating from the academy with flying colors, but he was the first Lucario that held the first place spot. Besides, other Pokemon had abilities that helped them with battling too, so maybe he was just... different. Knowing that later that day would've just been more practicing with the officials which were the ones that taught techniques, correct movement, etc, he decided to skip practice, for like, the hundreth time and went to the place where everyone knew no officials would choose to look unless they were on high alert, and scaled the fence that was to the far right side of the building, giving him cover due to the actual academy building being large enough to do so. There were fences on all sides covering the main academy building, but the right side was by far the best one for skipping class. It was a longer walk than jumping the gate that led to the dorms which was his destination, but that had a more likely chance of being caught because of the general location of that spot compared to the one he took, which provided a lot more cover from the building than the former and because of the fact that the gate was really tall, but still able to be leaped over by most Pokemon. Walking around and going up the stairs to the dorms, the motion detecting doors opened for him as he stepped inside. "Hey Devalis," Phia, the receptionist, A shiny Lopunny in a pink t-shirt and a pink dress with floral patterns which matched her general overall look behind the counter called out to him, taking her eyes off the computer in front of her, "you're skipping practice again, aren't you?" He nodded, walking over to her slowly. "It's something to skip when they just teach the same thing over and over again until everyone gets it right." Devalis replied, taking a break from talking to yawn. Almost all of the people that attended the academy were teenagers, except for those rare occasions of people on the exact age to be considered an adult, and those were the only exceptions, really. This was as a result of most of the staff, more specifically the officials and higher, having high standards for those who attended, simply because it was the only academy in Reveren that specialized in the arts of fighting, and thus, this gave them permission to do as they liked. However, many other academies existed all around the world, and the PBA remained competitive with the rest of them regardless of the location, placing in the top 5's most of the time with the average percentage of the official exams worldwide. The officials seemed fine with Devalis skipping classes, as they never really called him up on it, even with the role-call being mandatory most of the time. It was probably just because they knew he was going to do well anyway, so they didn't really bother with doing so. Still, he tried not to take any chances, which is why he still took the better route to the dorms rather than the regular one by the gate. Phia had attended the academy as well, and was already considered an adult, even though she still acted like a teenager. She often managed to make friends with the others that stayed here, and generally just played games on the computer they gave her to pass the time until she actually had important things to do or attend to. Devalis held his paw out for the electronic card to his room that he gave to her in the morning to hold for him. "Oh, you're not sticking around to talk a little? I get bored of this place too, as you may already know," She opened a drawer below the counter and placed the card in his hand. "Maybe some other time," Devalis took the card and started walking over to the left where some stairs were, "I'm gonna go take a nap soon, anyway." "Hm, okay, have fun with that, I guess." Phia then went back to what she was playing, gaining back her focus on it. After going up two flights of stairs and heading to his room, he heard fast footsteps coming from the stairs and knew who it was from sensing their aura, but he didn't bother to look at them, and got pulled into a tight hug as a result of that. "How dare you run off like that without even saying goodbye!" Irielle, the only other Lucario in the academy at the time, looked up at him, to which he immediately shoved her off. "...Will you ever leave me alone for once?" He then proceeded to use the card, swiping it on the scanner to hear a click as the door opened, "Besides, you're supposed to be busy right now, and not here." "I can skip practice whenever I want, just like you do." She grabbed his paw before he could go inside, which made him growl in response and look back at her, pissed. "I want to talk to you for a bit, please." "..." Devalis took a few seconds to think before responding, "Fine, I'll give you a chance, but make it quick." Irielle smiled, then went inside with him as the door's mechanism made it shut automatically behind them with a quiet creak.
Chapter Two
Devalis' room was kept tidy, especially since he didn't have to share with a roommate. It could've easily been the most tidy of all in the boys' dorms, knowing their reputation for keeping things somewhat of a mess. Having been in the academy for quite some time, specifically about 2 years, he had customized it with a lot of extra items as well, but nothing too extravagant, and just some of his electronic possessions, which mostly laid on the desk half of the time until he chose to use them on his bed or otherwise instead, as almost all of them were portable. "Oh, you've never showed me your room before," Irielle walked over to his bed and jumped on it, then knelt down afterwards, looking at him as he sat down on the bed. "I didn't have to, honestly." Devalis sighed, taking a peek at the clock that was at the top on the wall of his room. 3:00 PM. "I was wondering if you could... help me train for the exam on Monday, pretty please?" She held both her paws together to beg. "No." His response was almost as fast as a lightning strike. "But wh-" "You're not the first to ask me this... and you may not even be the last... either way, my decision remains final." He stated coldly, then shifted himself to lay down sideways on the bed, the size of it being big enough to do so. "You haven't even told me a good enough reason yet..." Irielle looked down at him from where she was, "But we're friends, and it'd really help if you'd train me so that I could at least place 7th..." Devalis rolled his eyes. "I never said we were friends, hell, we aren't close to begin with other than you randomly stalking me at times, and secondly, you're not going to succeed if you have that much low expectations to consider yourself being 7th." "H-" "And from what I've seen from your exam fights, you don't even try hard enough, which makes 12th seem like the perfect ranking for you, really," Devalis cut her off by continuing, "plus, if I were to train you, 7th would be a fucking joke, thank you very much." She leaned over and stared deeply into his red eyes, which resembled the abyss. "Then train me, so that you can prove that what you say isn't just a lie..." "No thanks," He replied, closing his eyes and putting his paws behind his head, "I'll stick to my decision, like I always do." "...Come on, pleaaaaaaase?" "No." Irielle took a deep breath in. "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeee-" Devalis opened his eyes and put his left paw on her mouth. Irielle moved the paw afterwards, "Fine, but I really hope you reconsider... honestly." "I won't." "Well, you better anyway..." She then got up and began to walk to the door, but stopped and turned around to look at Devalis once more. "By the way, which colors do you like more, yellow and purple, or green and red? Just a random question." "The first one, because green and red together would be just a mess." "Yeah, I totally agree!" She smiled, right before the bell rang, signalling the end of the classes that were going on. "Fuck, it can't be 3:30 already..." Irielle groaned, taking a look at the clock above, "Arceus, I should've planned this better." "You shouldn't have planned it at all," Devalis raised himself up from the bed and remained in a sitting position at the left side of it, "it seemed kinda pointless to me." "Whatever, it was still fun anyway... but uh, reconsider the training thing, and bye!" She said right before closing the door behind her and rushing off to the girl dorms. Devalis stood up and rested himself on the bed properly with the pillows. "Good thing time flies fast when you're being annoyed..." He whispered to himself before turning to the right and closing his eyes once more, ready to drift off to sleep. The air grew colder, and the winds outside grew stronger... For whatever came with these winds would surely lead to disaster. And so they blew.
Chapter Three
Devalis slept through quite the storm. Those winds, continually blowing like some kind of hell. Like some kind of... adrenaline fueling hell. The weather took everything by surprise, as classes were closing for everyone to just retire into their dorms, bit by bit... and then, all at once. No teacher would be able to instruct anything in such a storm. Day was quickly becoming night, and what followed through this transition was male laughter... Endless laughter. Devalis could only hear this with his eyes closed... unable to move, and flinching and rolling with slight groans along his bed as the loudness within the cackling grew exponentially. "Agh..." He tried raising himself up, but to no avail... and as soon as he found himself unable to breathe, he made one last-ditch attempt to whip up all the strength he had left within his body, and with one push, he raised himself up from the bed. The male was in a cold sweat and pant... never having experienced anything like this as he looked around the bright, evening light of the room. Back and forth, his head spun around to view everything inside with a frantic expression transfixed along his face. For some reason, the laughter had just stopped as soon as he got up... so he figured it must have been a nightmare. But just as he was about to turn and go back to sleep... a chuckle could be heard which sent Devalis right back into that state of lookout, and panic. It was bothersome... not even that of a challenge, he thought. Just straight *bothersome*. And as he tried to scan for the aura within the room... He realized that he could not. And the voice's laughter became ever the more frequent, and frightening. "Who are you?!" Devalis shouted out, getting up from his bed, "I'll murder—" "...Wait," He paused, and eyed out the window at the evening light. "There's... no sign of a storm at all," He speaks solely in his mind then, heart beating fast in his chest. "And there's no way my aura didn't work before... s-so—" "So then I must be...!" "Dreaming." A voice says for him, as the laughter pauses and a black shadow appears at the very edge of his vision, intensifying greatly. "Khuhuhuhu~" It was only then that he could sense this aura, even without looking towards it directly; it caught him by surprise, and he could only stand there in that still, cold sweat, unable to move his body for some reason again no matter how hard he tried. Had he become... paralyzed with fear? "Gosh, you're not even going to look at me?" The voice snickered, moving around his red-eyed gaze while he still couldn't move a muscle, a frigid chill passing along his back each time it moved, "And they call you the strongest in this academy... how weak." Suddenly, Devalis came under a fit of rage, and spun around to slam a direct Force Palm into the spirit at full speed. But by the time he spun around, he could only realize that he was still there... paralyzed, and forced to look out the window. "What?!" Exclaiming in his mind, Devalis growled with teeth bared to that incessant laughter again... clutching his paw into a form resembling a fist in great annoyance. "It was a good attempt," It spoke, "But you are under *my* control, now." Then, all of a sudden he could feel the sensation of sharp, dirty claws lacing around, and then digging their way into his throat. Devalis struggled, groaning out and coughing in pain as the blood grew and grew... and he could feel himself spitting it out by the very source of his breath. All the while, he could feel his breath slipping more and more with each wheeze he heaved out, heavier than the last... all while the spirits' insane laughter resonated inside of his head, echoed over the walls... and almost became a part of him in the process. "...We'll meet again."