Chapter 1238: Long He Finale_2

As long as they can escape successfully, everything he has done will not be in vain,

this life.

There is a lot of regret, but there has never been anything to regret.

Long He knows that even if time were to reverse and try again, he would still turn back to find Banette, find this poor little guy.

After all.

He cannot abandon his companion.

The sound of barking faintly comes through, and Long He struggles to reach the back of the mine cart, like an old and rusty machine, slowly pushing it forward.

Screech—crack—

The mine cart moves slowly forward.

With each step, Long He can feel liquid flowing from the cavity behind him, as if it wants to drain him dry. And the pain feels like a drill, constantly drilling into his will.

Drop by drop.

Drop by drop.

But thinking about the Banette urgently evacuating with the miners, he gains a surge of strength and grits his teeth to continue forward.

Not the time yet.

Just a little more, he cannot fall, at least let them escape.

Move!

Must move!

“Ah!!” Long He roars, and the mine cart pushed to the highest point finally shows signs of sliding downward. The footsteps approaching are also getting closer.

He leaps forward, rolling into the mine cart’s bin, using the weak force to propel the mine cart forward, then starts sliding.

The slope is unexpectedly steep.

This causes the mine cart, which was supposed to be pulled by a machine, to slide forward at a not-slow speed, and within the bin, Long He barely manages to turn over, half-squatting inside, pulling out the remaining explosives from his chest.

Only two packs left.

It’s probably not enough to blow those guys sky high, but at least it can block their way.

Long He’s gaze moves from vacant to resolute, and upon seeing the glaring light from afar, he couldn’t help but laugh, suppressing his pain: “Hehe, hehehehe—”

The laughter resounds loudly, spreading far through the passage.

The arena henchmen and Pokémon chasing him stop instinctively upon seeing the approaching mine cart and Long He inside, feeling the man in the dark covered in blood is too strange.

What’s up with this guy?

Something’s odd!

They’ve seen more dead people today than they have in the past dozen years, each dying a gruesome death, saying that it didn’t leave a shadow in their hearts is impossible.

For Pokémon with keen senses, the shock of lifelessness is indeed doubled.

“Pretending to be a ghost! Everyone get up! Capture this bastard!” The leader commanding the henchmen shouts, kicking a few people on their butts before they charge forward.

Closer.

Come closer.

Long He perceives the mine cart slowing down, looking at the leader standing at the back, eyes full of regret.

If possible, he wants to take more pursuers away.

To buy Banette and them some more time.

He tremblingly stands, fearlessly facing Mightyena’s biting and the pursuers’ rope dragging, while gazing at the rock ceiling above, as if he could penetrate through it to see the vast blue sky.

“—Lord Dragon God! May the next life still be under the same sky with you!”

In the high-spirited shout.

Long He resolutely throws the bomb toward the ceiling ahead.

Mightyena and the henchmen’s expressions twist quickly at the sight of the explosives, the leader at the far end also widens his eyes, looking incredulous.

The next moment.

A flame that seems able to devour everything explodes from the ceiling, rapidly engulfing the mine’s front and back passage, drowning everything!

Rumble—!!

The terrifying roar far exceeds the previous explosives Long He used to blow up the first wave of pursuers.

The reason being they combined with the miners’ secretly collected small amount of high explosives, mixed with waste from Weezing and the feces of Skuntank.

A multipronged approach created such an unassuming-looking, yet explosively earth-shattering mixed explosive.

This allowed Long He to have his wish fulfilled.

Large stones rolled down, the entire mine’s ceiling collapsed, burying everything visible, whether human or Pokémon.

The flames gradually diminish.

The mine completely sinks into darkness, silent.

A few minutes later.

A small figure hurriedly arrives, panic mixed with urgency and fear, shouting continuously toward the buried mine path: “Chupei! Chupei!!”

Suddenly.

It finds a familiar piece of clothing beneath a rock, immediately goes mad, frantically digging through the pile of stones, but unfortunately, it’s small and lacks strength, ultimately only managing to uncover a hand.

Banette looks dumbfounded at the hand.

Until it twitches slightly, it quickly snaps to and desperately continues digging.

“Banette… is it you…”

A particularly weak voice comes through the gaps in the stones, Banette quickly responds, speeding up its digging actions, but ultimately exhausting its energy, only managing to expose half of Long He’s face, unable to move anymore.

“Chupei!”

It sobbed while continuously pushing the boulder.

Long He squinted his eyes, half his face covered in blood and grime, “You… why are you being so disobedient today… I told you not to come back…”

“Chiu-pei!”

“Leave this place quickly… Banette… I am beyond saving…”

“Chiu-pei—”

“Listen to me…”

“Chiu-pei!”

Banette suddenly sat down, at a loss and wanting to cry out for help but fearing it might attract new enemies, it could only lean close to Long He’s face, attempting to pull him out.

Ultimately, it was futile.

Long He’s lips slowly curved into a smile, still warm in the darkness.

“You’ve already worked very hard… you’ve done really well… It’s alright… Banette…”

“Being able to see you one last time… it’s really great…”

“It’s such a pity… so close… to showing you the starry sky of Meteor Village… to see the meteor shower…”

“Go on… embrace your freedom… Banette… leave Salamence and the others to you… A Dragon Tamer will surely find you in the future…”

“I really wish… I could travel with you…”

A long sigh, a hand covered in wounds steadily raised, placed atop Banette’s head.

The pupils gradually lost focus.

The last shred of words from his mouth, feebly spilled out.

“And also… thank you…”

After which.

The darkness returned once more to silence.

Banette knelt on the ground, in front of it was Long He with a vacant stare, its doll-like face filled with confusion and fear.

It tremblingly raised its claws, cautiously wanting to touch that face, only to shrink back like an electric shock.

“Chiu-pei, chiu-pei!”

Do Ghost-type Pokémon have hearts?

Yes, they do.

At this moment, Banette fully realized what it means to have heart-wrenching pain, Long He’s hand on its head still held residual warmth.

But it knew, it was too late.

Everything was too late.

A Ghostly body, no power of healing.

“!!!”

Banette’s claws dug deeply into the ground, its face and body seemed to tremble as though about to contort.

Tears flowed steadily.

But the extreme sorrow rendered it unable to make any sound, its mind flashed with countless images, countless moments spent with Long He.

It refused to believe Long He could die.

They had promised to go out together, promised to find it no matter when, and someday would travel together.

Why.

Why why!

The agreed things, why not keep them!

I will curse you! I will curse you to return! Curse you to come back to everyone!

“Chiu—pei—!!”

Blood tears streamed down Banette’s face, and black flames ignited on its body, a deep dark light gathered from all directions, flying in from countless grotesque corpses, merging into its body.

And in the entirely buried bottom arena.

A phantom door slowly opened.

——

“Ugh!”

Baimu awoke from his sleep, repeatedly recalling the scenes that had just occurred.

Shanren, who had been napping with eyes closed on the single-person sofa, and Furong, who had been snuggling with Dusknoir on the long sofa, both awoke simultaneously, each looking at Baimu, who seemed slightly absent-minded on the bed.

“What’s the situation?”

“How did the Spirit Communication Dream go?”

They each asked.

Baimu dazedly looked at Furong and said, “Isn’t the Spirit Communication Dream supposed to be a dream from the perspective of the spirit being communicated with?”

“Did you have a third-person perspective dream? Ah, that’s normal too; memory fragments are fragments because they might mix with other things, as long as it’s roughly accurate, it’s fine.”

Furong didn’t mind, yawning as she spoke, “So did you figure out the answer?”

Baimu nodded with a complex expression, “Assuming nothing unexpected…”

Beside him.

Shanren shook his phone, “The kinship test results are out, let me see—uh!? No blood relation!?”

He opened his mouth wide in astonishment.

“Real relics, fake body… this lunatic.” Baimu sighed.