Even if Lucia made direct contact with Nala's blazing mane, it wouldn't hurt her. Like many fire Pokémon such as Ponyta, the Pyroar could suppress her heat, making her body feel refreshingly warm instead of blistering hot. If there was anything uncomfortable about sitting in Nala's saddle, it was feeling vibrations from her purring. Josh loved them; it was a sign of just how powerful the normal-type's Hyper Voice could be.

Josh and Raikiri led the way down the winding trail to this unexplored corner of the Giant Chasm. "I bet there are a lot of people down here in pursuit of power. There's these robotic Pokémon that look like legendary Pokémon. Tyrfing is one of them. Looks like kyle lopez 's Sacred Sword, Terrakion. Plus, my favorite three Pokémon of all time have been spotted down here. Raikou, Entei, and Suicune have all been spotted down here." Josh was mistaking Raging Bolt and the others for the Pokémon they bore features of. It was a reasonable assumption to believe they were akin to regional variants, such as Alolan and Galarian Meowth. Little did he know they were their own species. "And it's been healthy for me. After fourteen years of chasing him, I am at long last friends with Raikou."

If Lucia wanted to slide down to the bottom of the ravine with Nala, the Pyroar was more than confident to do so, as were Josh and Raikiri. Their sharp claws gave them a lot of control, even on slopes too steep to stand on. The ride down would be longer, but with how fast these big cats could run, it wouldn't be ages longer. "They were just discovered about a month ago. They look like the Sacred Swords. I really wanted the one that looks like Virizion; she's my favorite of the three. Somehow, I wound up with both of the other two." It wound up being a good thing, too; in the distant future the paradox Pokémon was from, Terrakion had morphed from being the slowest of the Swords to being by far the fastest.

"They are," Josh answered. "Not the Raikou, but a Raikou. It's not the same Entei that Kyle uses, either. I had for a long time speculated that legendary Pokémon can split off a piece of their essence. Have you ever wondered what happens when a legendary Pokémon gets captured in a Poké Ball?"

Josh would give a chance for Lucia to answer before continuing on, riding alongside Nala while still treading cautiously toward the bottom of the ravine. For unbeknownst to them, something wicked awaited them at its bottom.

"Raikou checks all the boxes for me. He's super fast, he's an electric Pokémon, and he's a big cat. I love them all. Him being legendary has nothing to do with why I love him. I love the others, too, but Raikou is... special." His love of Raikou was so great that at one point he thought Raikiri, the unique quadrupedal Zeraora, was a reincarnation of the Raikou that many believed to have died during the Kanto invasion.

Josh smiled at Lucia's mention of sitting astride an Iron Crown. "Oh, it is," he replied with confidence. "Maybe if we run into each other again down here, you'll get to see Sigmund." The steel-type was only placid enough to ride within Area Zero, as was demonstrated the last time he used the paradox Pokémon. Outside the Terastal Caverns' boundaries, he was almost uncontrollable, having tortured Josh in front of Yuina Higashi with his powerful mind. "We still don't know a lot about them."

Josh breathed a deep sigh. She understood some, but not all of the theory, it seemed. It was, of course, all conjecture; many secrets of the gods would never be gazed upon by mortal eyes, past, present, or future. "So a popular theory is when a legendary Pokémon gets captured, it splits off a piece of its essence into what's called a shard legendary, and that's what gets captured. A physical copy of the god, but without the divinity that makes the god... well, a god." He felt that Avatars, many wielders of Legendaries with a capital L, held powers that humans couldn't be trusted to wield.

That, as well as how many Patrons manipulated their Avatars into slaves, was the biggest reason the young man had no desire to be one. He would only receive such a blessing if it was forced upon him.

As the Pyroar and Zeraora galloped toward the bottom of the chasm, Josh heard three clicks from his belt. The switches on Tyrfing's, Aleph's, and Zaborg's Poké Balls turned red: an indicator that they had all succumbed to their poisoning and could no longer battle. "Ugh, Glimmora are the worst down here," Josh moaned. "It's just Nala, Raikiri, and Mastema, my Togekiss, now. We... really need to be ready to retreat at a moment's notice."