This was it.

After many visits to Mount Pyre, Josh was ready to free the souls of SHAWN EDWARDS and the ten other people that lost their lives to dorian westcliff 's senseless attack on Mauville Gym last year. Those souls, trapped within the Border for a year, would know peace. They would get their eternal rest. And once Josh's time was up, he would live with them forever in paradise. Raptured by the Great One, to revere and worship Her for all eternity.

And what better Pokémon to avenge them with than the Hoennian Beasts: some of the fastest Pokémon in the world. Seated astride his Raging Bolt, Raikou, Josh leaned left to see around the paradox Pokémon's long neck. Flanking him were his Gouging Fire, Entei, and his Walking Wake, Suicune. Only the electric-type was equipped for riding; the others were not trusting of Josh enough to be willing to be saddled.

"Thanks for the help, Thomas," Josh's voice echoed over the mostly empty, otherworldly sky. "Any sign of that snow cat?" he asked, the RAINBOW FEATHER pinned to his inert SYGNA SUIT gleaming. "My primary objective is still to release the souls of the eleven that died, but if we run into it again, I want to catch it." Little did he know that the Chien-Pao would never align itself with a trainer as pure as Josh...

Josh tilted his head toward Thomas, who was also on a powerful paradox Pokémon's back. "Yo, Thomas! Sick ride you've got there," he complimented. From his knowledge of the species via Sigmund, he expected to be able to push Raikou the Raging Bolt quite fast. Not all-out, as there were very few Pokémon that could keep up at such a blistering clip, but fast enough to get the adrenaline flowing, as well as the Infinity Energy if he were to send Saber out as well. "Galar brings back some memories. You know, Thomas, all I need is that sword, and I'll be a Knight of Thunder again."

The encouragement was appreciated, emboldening him to continue on his dangerous endeavor. "You know me by now. Legendary Pokémon or no, there's no appropriately-shaped Pokémon I can't saddle. Have you seen how fast that cat runs? It would be perfect for me," he bragged, half daydreaming about how he could slice through even the most wicked curves atop the ruinous creature.

As the legendary look-alikes continued deeper, the canyon opened into a vast field, statues of people and Pokémon dotting it. He recognized several of them. "Thomas, look at them," he pointed to a group of them, a sense of fear and dread making his hair stand on end beneath his suit. "They're... they're the people who died in the Gym attack last year," he slowly reported before shouting fruitlessly. "Shawn! Shawn! Where are you?!"

The talk of the snow cat brought back some memories of his own, both fond and harrowing. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same one," Josh added. "You know Raikiri, my Zeraora? The one that runs on all fours? I traded a Marshadow I befriended to Kyle to get him. Ended up having to battle that very same Marshadow as part of the title match with him."

As Josh heeded Thomas' alert, an enormous, three-armed figure cast a giant shadow over the petrified graveyard. Raikou purred, then let out a roar, the Raging Bolt on edge at the presence above as well as Adrian Malcolm . As the shadow passed over the Champion and the long-necked Beast, he began to shake with the sensation of Infinity Energy being drawn from him, whether it was from his suit, his mount, or from him directly. It was a cold feeling, freezing him from the inside out.

Josh was about to say something to Thomas when the shadow slowly became larger. The source of that three-armed shadow had marked him for death. It was a Pokémon that Adrian Malcolm and Thomas Benoit would be intimately familiar with.

YVELTAL.

The dark-type legendary bird was beyond terrifying; it was as though the being pilfered life itself in its wake. "Raikou, EXTREME SPEED!" Josh cried, desperately trying to get out of the wake of the Yveltal's deadly claw-tail. What followed was not the move he ordered, but the Raging Bolt's own version of the ultrafast move: THUNDERCLAP. In a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder, the paradox Pokémon narrowly avoided being struck.

Josh himself wasn't so lucky.

The death-dealer's tail raked at Josh, tearing three gashes through his Sygna Suit and into the skin beneath. The flesh turned to stone, crawling down his shoulders, then his arms, then his legs, and lastly, up his neck and head. As he felt his body become stiff and heavy, he let out a desperate wail, his head tilted upward only to see the souls of not just those who died in the Gym attacks, but that of kyle lopez as well. "Thomas Benoit ! Avenge Shawn and Kyle--"

And those were the last words of the Champion before his body turned completely to stone, now but a statue in the Raging Bolt's saddle.

In his last moments, Josh reached toward Thomas Benoit , but he could not verbally respond, his mouth wide open as the last of his flesh turned to stone. Raikou felt Josh's weight multiply as his trainer had become a stone statue. The extra weight didn't slow the Raging Bolt down; if anything, his anger made him faster. The Iron Crown's ELECTRIC TERRAIN made him even faster, able to outrun even the ashen Beast were Josh able to bring him out. As a hunk of stone firmly stuck in Raikou's saddle, he wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon.

The DAZZLING GLEAM caused Yveltal to swerve hard, its tail bouncing off Josh's petrified body with a loud thud. The Fairy-type strike had garnered the legendary Pokémon's wrath, spreading its OBLIVION WINGS wide toward the Iron Crown. In the confusion of battle, the sound of crumbling stone was barely audible. Were Thomas and Adrian Malcolm to glance in Josh's direction, his shoes would once again have color to them...!