"That's awesome that you have one too!" Shalin seemed a little too enthusiastic about Theo's water-type. "When we get out of here, I'd love to go swimming together." Thankfully, the running water in said tunnel was shallow enough that the two could wade through it without too much trouble. It slowly curved down to the Forbidden Crypt's lowest level, indicated by a chasm not even Starr's DAZZLING GLEAM could see the bottom of. There was no telling how deep it was, but it was very clearly a fall she would not survive, and one her Beedrill would not be able to carry her back up if she fell.

Not wanting to chance a thing, Shalin looked for a large enough object for the shiny Espeon to ALLY SWITCH with. It did not take the two long to find several large, cracked pots the two could juxtapose with. "Hey Theo, Starr can teleport back to pick you up if you need!" Whether the Espeon's help was further needed or not, the two would be able to cross, many of the floors they walked on being similar to the impassible walls that looked like they were made of restless spirits. Stepping on them and not hearing the sounds of their footsteps would be, to say the least, unsettling, not to mention the lack of more traditional ground beneath.

As Shalin led Theo westward, the girl and Espeon witnessed a large hall with eight inert Golurk scattered about. The Klefki circling Theo immediately reacted with a cry, flying toward the room's tall ceiling. If one of them squinted, they would be able to see a metallic glint inside an ethereal cage similar to the floor they were standing on. The only sections of the hall not covered in these ethereal floors were eight rock pillars neither one of them would be able to see the bottom of. On the west and south walls were pairs of levers. Shalin and her Espeon paced the outer edges of the room. "...They're inactive," she observed aloud, not one of the eight Golurk husks responding to being stared at, or even being touched.

Pulling one of the far left wall levers caused the three inert Golurk husks to briefly light up and hover toward Theo's position, settling back down seconds later with loud thuds. "Curious," Shalin mused aloud, scratching her head, her voice echoing clearly inside the otherwise noiseless giant tomb. Even the movements of the ghost-type husks and the duo's footsteps were silent against a floor only Arceus knew how it was holding them up. She took several steps back and studied the positions of the statues. "I think the order is..." She directed Starr in a zigzagging pattern between the west and south sides, yanking the bottom left, then the top left, and lastly, the top right. The eight husks arranged in a perfect square, they briefly flashed their eyes before returning to an inert state once more, as if responding to one another. The small cage on the ceiling disappeared, the Klefki circling Theo quick to scoop the falling SMALL KEY onto its key ring.

You got a SMALL KEY! This key will open any one lock. You can use it only in this dungeon.

"Nice one! We worked together for that one. There are so many traps down here. This must be why the Halls of Origin have stayed sealed for this long. Who else could break into so many dangerous places and live to tell about it?" Apparently, Shalin Nariya could. She had proven herself to be incredibly resourceful in a variety of environments: clifftops, caves, deserts, palaces of old, and now, a haunted tomb. If anyone deserved to discover and wield the ancient Hoennians' power, it was her. Of course, what would be beyond there was anyone's guess; the Entrance to Death in Sootopolis was the only documentation she could find about it. She would truly be charting new territory, as things were.

After some backtracking, the Klefki Theo had befriended was able to open the locked door on the side opposite the flooded room the two could not see around the corner of. This time, there were four torches to be lit instead of two. Seeing no other way, Shalin swapped out Starr for Kiara once again, her blazing mane providing dim light in the gravestone-filled chamber. The rider commanded her lion mount to light them with her FLAMETHROWER. Once she had lit all four, the gravestones in the room's center clearly visible, another Alolan Marowak, this one holding its bone more like a spellcaster's rod, faded in from the ethereal with a more feminine, but still haunted-sounding voice:

So! You HoPe To BReaK My CuRSe? i'M TouGHeR THaN My BRoTHeR!

The spirit faded between the material and ethereal worlds, pointing its large bone at Shalin and Theo, one end each direction, and discharging dual gouts of FLAMETHROWER toward them. Shalin ducked behind Kiara for her own protection, but by the time she could withdraw her Pokémon for her Kommo-o, it had already disappeared!

The LIFE DEW from Theo's Milotic reached Shalin and her Pokémon as well, soothing her wounds and making her feel good as new. It was a good thing Shalin braced herself against Kiara, as that FLAMETHROWER was so hot that even the Pyroar couldn't completely shrug it off! She snarled, looking like she wanted to fight, too. "Alright, we'll fight together." The rider breathed a deep sigh, hooked her mount's reins at the end of her saddle, and drew her Avian Bow. While the phantom was immune to conventional weaponry, it was not immune to arrows blessed by the Djinni, the wind of which could pierce into the ethereal.

Even double-teamed by the Kommo and Pyroar, this Alolan Marowak was tough to catch. The repeated twin gouts of FLAMETHROWER, despite being used on Pokémon more than adept at handling fire attack, wore the Pokémon. While a few arrows landed, now warping alongside the fire-type, they weren't wearing it down faster than it was tiring them. Shalin had little choice. She guided her Pyroar to a corner of the room while her Kommo-o stood in the center. "Theo, cover your ears!" she requested of her fellow dungeon delver, withdrawing Kiara and likewise following her own request. "Treble, use CLANGING SCALES!"

The dragon-type bellowed a war cry, then loosed a potent, fast rattle from his tail scales that spread to his entire body. He was a mostly stationary blur in the long seconds the sonic madness lasted. While she had her ears covered, she was still able to watch her Kommo-o battle, her jaw wide open. Was that what she rode when she explored the Mirage Palace with Julia Davis ? While she had the time of her life trying to stay balanced on the shredding dragon, it had left her winded to the point where she needed to take quite a long rest at the first convenient opportunity. Doing so inside the Forbidden Crypt, though, was too dangerous. With foes capable of ethereal ambushes, she had to be alert at all times. This was not the time to quite literally rattle her supply of adrenaline dry.

Simultaneously, the wild hurled its burning BONEMERANG toward Treble, which was far too heavy for simple vibration, as powerful as it was, to deflect. The shaking scales turned two hits into many hits, nullifying and even reversing the dragon's property of resisting energy attacks. It had effectively struck him many times in a split second. That, combined with the dizziness of the sonic discharge, was too much for the Kommo-o or the wild to overcome.

"NeXT TiMe i SHaLL LeaVe THiS CRyPT..."

With that, the phantom disappeared in a blistering HEAT WAVE that sapped the rest of Treble's stamina, the dragon unable to remain on his feet. Shalin withdrew the fallen Pokémon, uncovered her ears, and sent her Pyroar back out. "Thanks for the help again, Theo," Shalin gratefully said. "With that Marowak packing, I bet we can get through that flooded room now. Care if I hop on your Milotic and we have a look beneath the waves?"

Provided Theo obliged, his Milotic, even with two riders in tow, would find navigating the underwater obstacles trivial with both the ability to see and the course itself not being on a strict timer. The two would find beneath the waves that there was an entire section of the tomb flooded, held in place by a floodgate the two did not possess a SMALL KEY for. Hordes of Jellicent floated toward the two in the underwater darkness, their only landmark being light filtering in from a far corner above a void they could not see the bottom of. Was the bottom of this place the lakebed? Or something far deeper? Either way, it was spooky to think about.

With Shalin leading the way, the water-type would weave around as many of the Jellicent as possible. With how cold the subterranean tomb's water was, the air inside the beautiful serpent's dive bubble made her shiver. It, in a different way, reminded her of the Crystal Trench's cold she had to brave with Altagracia Contreras . Her eyes shifted downward toward the deep, aquatic void she could not see the bottom of. Even directing the shiny Milotic deeper didn't help her see any better. "I think this goes all the way to the bottom of the lakebed, Theo. Who knows what's lurking down there." With that, she guided the water-type to the surface, catching a look at eerie colors of light filtering from above.

"Theo, I'm gonna have her jump. Hold on tight!" Shalin warned, trying to convince Theo to brace himself for what was to come. Executing the jump would be a little more awkward than the green-head was used to, given she had no reins to flick. She would need to improvise a bit. She shifted her body weight subtly to steer the aquatic serpent, squeezing with her legs to induce a powerful burst of thrust courtesy of the flicking of DRAGON TAIL back and forth. The result was a graceful leap that took the riders two stories above the water's surface, Shalin leaping off Theo's Pokémon and onto solid ground.

At the top awaited an intimidating-looking, candle-lit chamber with an ornate treasure chest in its center, surrounded by what were obviously blade traps in every direction except the very back. A very low ceiling that straddled the border between material and ethereal made it nearly impossible to ride a Pokémon across the pit Shalin could not see the bottom of. Even a low jump on Kiara wasn't an option; Shalin would probably bonk her head on the ceiling. The only obvious way to cross would be by a soul-laden floor patrolled by a paranormal-looking spotlight, said spotlight the only thing making it visible--and solid. It was moving fast, too. With how low the ceiling was, the only way she could make it across was with two quick leaps. On her own.

She was out of her element.

But what choice did she have? Taking a deep breath, she got a running start and thrust herself into a low leap. The first was expertly timed, but her second was slightly off. "Yeow!" she winced in pain, cutting the heels of her feet on the spiked plate next to the heavily-guarded chest deep in the tomb. Within were a pair of black-and-red, vampire-like capes, Ghost-type energy pouring out of them as the backs of her feet continued to thump.

You got the PHANTOM CAPE! You can now briefly pass from the material world to the ethereal world and travel through ethereal walls, just like a ghost Pokémon. You can even use it to briefly hover where there is no solid ground at all! It won't work in sunlight or moonlight, though...

"What in the world are these?" She threw one over her shoulders and immediately felt lighter, as though she was being spirited away by a ghost Pokémon. Experimenting with it, she periodically became transparent as a ghost, but only for about a second and a half at a time. Crouching on top of the chest she closed once more, she again turned transparent, phasing through the low ceiling and onto the chamber's sealed upper level. She tiptoed near where Theo was, but on the upper level, avoiding agitating her punctured heels as much as possible. Now understanding how to use the wearable relic at will, she turned ethereal again, letting herself fall through the floor and next to her explorer partner. "There's... one for you... too..." Shalin panted, leaving the second next to him before finding herself seated on the floor in her dizziness. Repeated jaunts between planes seemed to take a lot out of her...

"For...maybe a second?" Shalin replied, still a bit out of breath. It was little wonder the Rangers didn't want people going inside Mount Pyre; with a subterranean crypt this size, an entire flooded cave, and no cell service, the whole place was one giant death trap! No wonder the Halls of Origin had stayed sealed for the centuries; all but the most intrepid explorers would find it difficult to retrieve even one of the medallions, let alone the six that Shalin already had! She had noticed a pattern, though; find a relic of the ancient past needed to traverse the locale's tricks and traps, use it to pass them, defeat a guardian of some kind, and retrieve the Medallion. This had held so far. It was just a matter of deducing what path being able to hover like this had opened up.

While Theo and the Milotic were resting, Shalin carefully studied her map. Thankfully her phone still worked in local mode! She retraced their steps in her head, attempting to remember every chamber, every trap, and every battle she had fought in the crypt up to this point. When she realized where they needed to go, she groaned and showed Theo. "It's on the same level we are, but on the other side of the floodgate. Remember when that Klefki of yours went crazy?" she pointed to the room in question on the upper level. "I bet the floodgate key is over there. What a trip back, though. When your Milotic is feeling better, we should head back and release all this water."

The trip back was made easier by some shortcuts the duo could take using their newly-acquired wearables, shifting through obstacles they could not before. The crypt's verticality made Shalin appreciate why the Rangers didn't want people coming inside; it was a three-dimensional maze, particularly with the lower level split in two as it was!

On the way back to the other side of the lower level, Shalin had discovered through experimentation that any Pokémon she was riding when she went ethereal also went ethereal with her. That discovery would prove to be instrumental as the first new part of the crypt their PHANTOM CAPEs let them access tested just how well they understood what it could and couldn't do. She sent out Prance and hopped onto the Wyrdeer, then turned transparent. With a split second of hesitation, the duo leaped through the ethereal wall, popping back into the material world just before landing on top of a similar floor. Thankfully for her, the command to use the cape was entirely mental, making it easier to coordinate her Pokémon's leap to the next bit of solid ground. If Theo didn't have a Pokémon that could help him do something similar, Shalin would have Starr use a combination of ALLY SWITCH and ethereal trickery to get them across.

An upward-sloping tunnel led the explorers back to the middle level of the crypt, the Klefki following Theo letting out a cry. In the twilight, the girl could see why the Kiefki was having so much trouble; a giant metal sphere, surrounded by ethereal walls, was blocking the way back down! "Theo, we got this. I remember something like this in the Epoch Ruins. This will just take a little...timing." Backing away from the large, imprisoned ball, she gently pat her Wyrdeer steed's neck. "I go on two, and you fire your PSYSHIELD on three, okay?" There was no mental response from the psychic-type, only a mere nod. "One... two... three!"

On two, Shalin and her Wyrdeer both became transparent, her ride's PSYSHIELD appearing on the inside of the soul-guarded tunnel a second later. Even after they reappeared, the shield was still there. "Perfect." Prance mentally pushed the shield forward, the giant metal ball rolling down the tunnel. It hit the lower level with a crash, landing on the rusted switch they couldn't budge before.

[player]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/713972277909389405/1044300456794529812/secret_sound.mp3[/player]

The sound of a metallic clink followed, the Klefki sounding another cute mew before zipping after it. It was the floodgate KEY!

You got a SMALL KEY! This key will open any one lock. You can use it only in this dungeon.

The backtrack to the lower level's dam was equally long, and would require the service of Theo's Milotic to get to the floodgate again. "Your Milotic is a really good swimmer, right? Cause once we release this water, it's gonna sweep us away unless you've got another way to keep us from falling."

Shalin simply nodded and got back on the Shiny Milotic's back, letting Theo shotgun and be in control. She would wind up being glad she trusted in his and not her own. After turning the FLOODGATE KEY, the dam's gate lowered, Shalin able to feel the amazing strength of the Water-type's tail propelling the two against the immense current the draining water created. She had, for fun and a challenge, rode Levy by his tail once. There was no way she could do that with this Milotic without being flung off. The duo needed every bit of that strength to avoid falling beyond the dam gate's position and over the edge.

The greenhead hopped off the beached Milotic once all the water had drained. "Phew, she is a strong one! So much stronger than my own! Never would have been able to do it without you, even if I came prepared," Shalin gently pat the water-type before seeing what was on the other side of the dam. While a lot of floodwater had flowed to the dry side of the dam, it was not enough to raise the lake level to the point where they would simply be able to swim across the chasm. There were several rock formations jutting up from the now-aquatic abyss, resembling stalagmites with their tops cut off.

Shalin was starting to pay for Letheia's overuse in the Crypt, overly reliant on her DAZZLING GLEAM to light the lower levels. She came out of the trainer's Poké Ball on request, looking tired. "I know you're not feeling great now, and I'm sorry. But I'm going to have to ask this of you," Shalin gently pat the fox, mist seething from the Ice-type's mouth with her heavy breathing. "Can you please bridge these pillars with your ICE BEAM?"

Reluctantly, the fox nodded, loosing an ICE BEAM from the dam's gate to the first capped stalactite. The bridge she had created was slick, but stable. With the deep chamber having more room, Shalin sent out a second Pokémon that hadn't been used too much. It was Prance, her Wyrdeer, the girl climbing aboard within seconds. Though she wore reins like almost all of her trainer's Pokémon, Shalin elected not to use them, instead letting the psychic-type read her mind to discern her will.

The fairy-type had to repeat the process four more times before they could safely cross the underground lake far below. A long, spiraling tunnel downward took them to an overlook, Shalin switching rides back to Kiara so she could get a little more light on the subject below. Several Drifblim floated above a cracked floor that looked like it could give way if pressure was left on it. "We're gonna have to keep moving. And be careful. That floor looks like it could give way," Shalin cautioned, pointing toward it. Furthermore, two of the Drifblim were blocking an opening that was clearly the way forward, if the crypt's map was to be believed. The wild child's first instinct was to hop on her Beedrill and bumble around them, but the Drifblim would surround them in a hurry. With no other flying Pokémon, she would have little choice but to engage them on the unstable ground. And that was a big risk. If the ground fell out from under her Pokémon, it would quickly get out of range of a Poké Ball's withdrawl beam, and it would be lost forever.

Then she had an epiphany.

Thanks to her find alongside Alexei Ivanov , she could fight the Drifblim herself! While traditional weaponry wouldn't work against them due to them being Ghost-types, her Avian Arrows, blessed by the Djinni, could pierce the ethereal by way of the cutting winds that surrounded them after they left the bowstring. "Tilt your head down if you could, Kiara?" Shalin asked, still seated on her Pyroar. Stowing the lion's reins and drawing her Avian Bow, she took aim at the Drifblim, able to hear the swirling winds as soon as she nocked the arrow. Theo could have easily heard them, as well.

The distance made it difficult to strike critical hits, but she was able to take the Drifblim down before they figured out what was up. The only worry Shalin had was had to go into her final bundle of arrows to do so. Once she was out, she was out. Being friends with the Birdfather helped; she could simply have ordinary arrows blessed by Tornadus directly. That wouldn't help her now, though. With the coast clear, Kiara slid down to the lower level and cantered across the floor, not pounding against it hard enough for the floor to crumble straight away, yet also avoid keeping their weight on any one section for too long.

The tunnel opened into another hidden memorial with two graves and four lit box torches, along with two unpleasant spirits the explorers had become quite familiar with. The first, a Hisuian Zoroark. The second, an Alolan Marowak. As they made their presence known, much thicker walls of souls covered both entrances to the memorial. There was no way their PHANTOM CAPEs would let them pass through these. It was fight night!

"We MeeT aGaiN! WiLL You BReaK ouR CuRSe, oR WiLL We BReaK You?!? TiMe WiLL TeLL!"

The two phantoms staggered their appearances, ensuring only one of them would be in the material world at a time. While one hid in the ethereal stalking one of the torches, the other would attack: the Alolan Marowak attempting to club Shalin and the newly-released Kiara with its BONE RUSH. As it vanished, the other's BITTER MALICE would snuff out one of the flames. In the next wave, that BITTER MALICE would be directed to Theo and his Milotic, while the Marowak's MUD-SLAP would threaten to blow out another of their precious lights.

Their synchronization was well-practiced, as though they had been repelling intruders from the tomb for centuries. Theo's BLIZZARD-amplified, frozen wave of water collapsed all over the east side of the chamber, catching the Zoroark off guard as it could not leave the material in time to avoid being trapped underneath the falling, frozen wave of ice. An otherworldly shriek filled the tomb, the ice's weight crushing the ghost-type's soul gem.

"No! NeVeR... i'LL CoMe BaCK To HauNT You!!!"

The wide area of the icy SURF did not come without consequence, though; the attack snuffed out both of the torches on the right side. The Marowak's MUD-SLAP quaffed a third, leaving the duo only able to see in the southwest corner of the room. Blue and purple wisps filled the darkness where light once was, Shalin unable to see beyond the one lit corner. "Kiara, FLAMETHROWER!" The lioness' fire breath re-lit the northwest torch, though it came with a steep cost; a BONE RUSH from behind slammed the rider into the back of her simultaneously tripped and immobile mount's head. She rolled out of the saddle, dazed as the blazing phantom vanished again, set to reappear next to another lit torch and snuff it out. If all four went out... well, she didn't want to think about it.