Chapter 566. Post-Apocalyptic Future

Four years passed quickly after Alex returned from Pokopia. He spent three of those years resting with family and the remaining year conducting two expeditions into other dimensions. Nothing particularly noteworthy happened during that time. After all, the dimensions he had visited turned out to be remarkably peaceful Pokémon worlds, leaving little for him to do beyond resource gathering.

His trips into Ultra Space, however, proved far more productive. Alex gathered roughly 3 billion credits’ worth of resources while also collecting the Sparkling Stones needed to restore Ultra Necrozma. They didn’t encounter another Necrozma during their expeditions, but that hardly mattered. Ultra Necrozma had now reached 95% completion, leaving only a final expedition before it could potentially regain its full power.

That prospect left Alex feeling strangely tense.

His relationship with Ultra Necrozma was still based on little more than mutual understanding, much like his arrangement with Guzzlord. Worse, despite everything they had been through, Ultra Necrozma had refused to form a bond with him.

Alex had no guarantee that it would remain once their agreement was fulfilled. It might simply leave. If that happened, Alex would lose not only a powerful ally but also his access to Ultra Space and the near-limitless supply of valuable resources he could harvest from it.

Whether Ultra Necrozma decided to leave or stay would depend on how this final dimensional expedition with it would go.

Once the multicolored light of dimensional travel faded, Alex found himself standing in a world that immediately reminded him of the Ultra Ruins. The resemblance, however, ended there.

The sky above was almost completely black, buried beneath layers of enormous thunderclouds that stretched from horizon to horizon. Lightning flashed within them at irregular intervals, briefly illuminating a landscape of impossible proportions.

Towering skyscrapers dominated the horizon, some rising more than a kilometer into the sky. Their designs were unmistakably futuristic, far beyond even the technology Alex had grown accustomed to in his own world. Sleek structures of glass and metal pierced the clouds, interconnected by elevated highways, transit rails, and massive bridges that now hung broken between buildings. Some skyscrapers remained standing despite having entire sections sheared away, their shattered glass exposing countless floors to the elements. Others leaned at impossible angles, supported by nothing but twisted frameworks, while still more had collapsed completely and now lay scattered across the streets as mountains of debris.

Whatever had happened here had not been a simple disaster. This was an upheaval on a scale that had brought an advanced civilization to its knees.

The remnants of that civilization were everywhere. Abandoned vehicles littered the streets, many of them unlike anything Alex had ever seen. Automated machinery had frozen in place, their once-pristine surfaces buried beneath layers of grime and rust. Giant holographic displays flickered weakly across the sides of buildings, displaying fragments of advertisements and warning messages before abruptly going dark. Some structures still had power, their interiors glowing faintly through broken windows, while others had been completely swallowed by darkness.

Nature had begun reclaiming everything.

Thick vines crawled over shattered buildings, trees pushed through cracked pavement, and entire sections of the ruined city had become overgrown wilderness. Pokémon moved freely through the devastation, scavenging through piles of debris, hunting among abandoned structures, or nesting inside the hollow remains of skyscrapers. They behaved much like the wild Pokémon Alex was accustomed to seeing in peaceful dimensions, seemingly unconcerned with the ruins of the civilization that had once surrounded them.

Yet Alex quickly realized that something was very different about this world. He could sense multiple powerful presences nearby, each one reaching the Master rank. Several of them were close enough that he could feel their overwhelming presence without even trying.

Alex's expression gradually hardened as he surveyed the ruined city. Whatever had caused this apocalypse had not merely destroyed the technology of this world. It had created an environment where Pokémon powerful enough to reach the highest known rank could roam freely among the ruins.

Judging by the number of Master ranked presences surrounding him, Alex had a strong suspicion that the destruction of this world had something to do with them.

Unwilling to immediately get into a fight, Alex cloaked himself in Dark type energy and hid among the ruins, watching as an approaching Master ranked Pokémon lumbered its way past. Its footsteps were heavy enough to shake loose debris, yet it was deceptively small, standing only around 5 feet tall, shorter than Alex.

The Pokémon stopped every so often to overturn pieces of rubble, searching for bits of metal that had somehow avoided rusting. Whenever it found one, it simply popped the metal into its mouth and swallowed it whole. Alex watched curiously, taking in its strange green metallic body and the jagged, green crystals protruding from its back.

It took him a moment to recognize it, but there was no mistaking it once he did.

Iron Thorns, a Future Paradox Pokémon.

Alex's eyes narrowed as he watched it continue scavenging through the ruins. If Iron Thorns could reach the Master rank, then this world clearly had far more dangerous inhabitants than he had initially expected.

Looking up at the heavy thunderclouds, Alex doubted Rotom would be able to access any satellites. Even if it could, the fact that they were in the distant future meant the satellites might no longer exist, and any surviving network could be completely incompatible with Rotom’s systems. He would have to find information about this world another way, particularly about where they were, what had happened here, and, most importantly, what he could gain from it.

The most obvious benefit was the Master ranked Paradox Pokémon roaming the ruins. Their corpses could potentially be worth a fortune, but the sheer number of powerful Pokémon in the city made hunting them dangerous. Alex could easily kill one only to attract the attention of a dozen and find himself swarmed. He also had no idea whether their numbers were simply concentrated within the city or if they were connected by some kind of collective intelligence.

The darkened skies and ruined civilization already suggested another post-apocalyptic world, and the presence of Future Paradox Pokémon only strengthened the possibility that some form of artificial intelligence had played a role in its downfall. Until Alex understood what he was dealing with, provoking the inhabitants was a needless risk. For now, gathering information and securing his own safety would take priority over harvesting resources.

Alex turned his attention from the dark, storm-filled skies to the surrounding skyscrapers. Before doing anything else, it seemed wise to survey his surroundings and get a better idea of where he was. His Dark type energy should be powerful enough to conceal his presence even from the most perceptive Pokémon, allowing him to move through the ruins without drawing unwanted attention.

He hurried deeper into the building he was using as cover and found an emergency stairwell. The steps were broken and the walls were crumbling, but Alex was more than strong enough to leap several stories at a time. Rather than bother with the stairs, he began jumping upward, quickly making his way toward the roof.

Unfortunately, the view from the top was disappointing. Skyscrapers stretched in every direction, blocking his view of anything beyond the city. If he wanted to understand the scale of the place, he would have to climb higher.

Alex selected another skyscraper nearby and carefully scanned it for any signs of Pokémon before making his move. Once he was certain the building was clear, he leapt across the enormous gap between them, landing effortlessly before continuing upward. He repeated the process again and again, moving from building to building until he finally reached a height where the surrounding city came fully into view.

The sight left him stunned.

The city was easily larger than any metropolis Alex had ever seen. It stretched across the horizon in every direction, a seemingly endless forest of futuristic skyscrapers and elevated infrastructure. He had no doubt that the city could have once housed billions of people simply from its sheer scale.

Yet despite the density of the buildings, enormous green spaces had been integrated throughout the metropolis. Parks contained not only grass and trees but entire mountains and sprawling lakes, all nestled between the towering structures. Some of these artificial wildernesses were so large that they could have passed for national parks on their own.

It was an astonishing feat of civilization. Whoever had built this city had somehow managed to accommodate an enormous population while still preserving vast expanses of nature within its boundaries.

Still, the view told him little about his current situation beyond confirming that he was unlikely to find any survivors simply by surveying the city from above. Alex focused his senses and scanned the surrounding area, detecting no immediate threats. Satisfied that the area was safe for the moment, he headed back down into the building and searched the upper floors until he found what appeared to have once been a luxury suite.

He eventually discovered a tablet lying carelessly on a table. Alex released Rotom and handed it over.

“Can you charge this and see what information you can find?” Alex asked.

Rotom nodded before zapping into the device. The tablet immediately displayed a charging icon before booting up. For a brief moment, everything seemed normal.

Then red warning lights began flashing across the screen.

Alex barely had time to react before the tablet exploded in his hand. Rotom shot out of the device and returned to his normal form, staring at the smoking remains in shock.