Chapter 125: Black Silk Pheromosa
In the distance, Xue Tong's figure had just burst out of the cave.
Before she even had a chance to fly higher and create distance, a "black-silk Pokémon" followed right on her heels.
It lunged into a frantic melee with Xue Tong's six Pokémon once again.
The speed of this "black-silk Pokémon" was mind-blowingly fast.
Even though Xue Tong had used her psychic powers to buff her partners to their absolute limits, they couldn't touch a single hair on the enemy.
The opponent's short-range movement speed was virtually indistinguishable from Teleportation.
Teleportation at least has a microscopic cast time; this creature moved like a ghost, dodging every move effortlessly.
Xue Tong had already abandoned any hope of winning the fight.
This Pokémon... or rather, this Ultra Beast (UB), was terrifyingly powerful.
It was stronger than any Beast she had encountered in her two years exploring the Ultra Wormholes.
Based on that movement speed alone, even the regional Champions she knew would probably feel inadequate.
Luckily, the creature didn't seem to be fighting with lethal intent.
It was only because it was "playing" that she had the chance to use Ally Switch to keep rotating her targets and survive.
Simultaneously, Xue Tong checked the specialized device on her wrist to confirm her coordinates.
The GPS pinned her position near the base of Mount Everest.
She realized with a surge of relief that she had finally made it back to Blue Star.
It hadn't been easy.
During this trip into the Ultra Wormhole, she had been lost for a long time, trapped in a bizarre dimension without supplies.
She had honestly thought she would die there.
But she had encountered a mysterious individual who helped her escape.
She had gathered a mountain of intel regarding other worlds and needed to get it to the authorities immediately.
The second she re-entered the atmosphere, the government should have picked up her signal.
Reinforcements would arrive soon.
She just prayed that nothing else would go wrong before they got here...
"Goddess Xue Tong! Are you hurt?"
"..."
Fine. Spoke too soon.
Just as Xue Tong prepared to wait for backup, a familiar voice she never expected to hear here drifted through the air.
She turned her head in shock.
Not far away, on the snowy plain, little Lorze and her family were gathered, waving at her.
Xue Tong's face darkened instantly.
This is not the time for a family reunion!
Can't you see I'm being suppressed by a lethal Ultra Beast?
Why didn't you hide?! Why are you exposing yourselves?!
If that black-silk monster targeted them, how was she supposed to protect them?
In fact, it would be weirder if the monster didn't target them.
Just as she feared, the black-silk beast noticed the commotion.
It broke off its engagement with the six Pokémon and turned its gaze toward the group.
Its eyes swept over them with total indifference, pausing for a few seconds on Zoroark.
It sensed that the fox might be a slight nuisance.
But only slight.
However, the actions of a certain boy caught its intense curiosity.
As its gaze reached the boy, he seemed to sense the danger and immediately covered a girl's eyes.
"Anna, don't look at it. Its mental aura is a hazard." Lorze whispered, keeping his hand over Anna Lee's face.
He never dreamed he'd run into his beloved Goddess Xue Tong in this frozen wasteland.
Even less did he expect to run into the Ultra Beast, Pheromosa.
How to describe this UB... it was a Pokémon that people both loved and felt conflicted about.
People loved her humanoid appearance and her stunning "Beauty Pokémon" status.
The amount of erotic fanart of her could probably wrap around the Earth twice.
The only reason for the conflict was... her biological design was based on a cockroach.
Does that bother you?
You'd be a liar if you said it didn't bother you at all.
But looking at that gorgeous, slender form, the "roach" part seemed like a minor detail.
Plenty of people like characters with "insect" motifs if they look that good.
In the official lore, Pheromosa is obsessed with cleanliness—she's a total germaphobe.
She views almost everything in this world as filthy and refuses to touch anything with her hands.
Even during the fight with Xue Tong's team, she had only used her legs to strike.
She refused to let her hands be "contaminated" by her opponents.
Only things she deemed "pure" or "equally beautiful" were worthy of being touched by her hands or "collected."
Yes, she had a collection fetish.
In the anime, she caused a disaster just to collect Z-Crystals before being beaten down by a Bewear.
And now, this Shiny Pheromosa was hunting Xue Tong.
The logic was simple yet chilling.
Why was there a deep claw mark on Xue Tong's arm?
Why had it been pulling its punches instead of killing her?
In Pheromosa's eyes, was Xue Tong a "pure and beautiful thing"?
It wanted to use its claws to touch her and then "collect" her as its private property.
Lorze figured the probability was high; Xue Tong was breathtakingly beautiful, an ice queen with a kind heart.
Anyone who saw her would want to possess her~.
But that wasn't why Lorze covered Anna's eyes.
The real danger was that Pheromosa likely possessed two Abilities.
The first was the standard Beast Boost, which increased its power with every kill.
The second was Beauty (or an enhanced Cute Charm).
Anyone who looked at it, regardless of gender, would fall under its spell and lose their will to fight.
Anna Lee didn't have the "Vixen Queen" aura of the Xue women; she couldn't resist the mental feedback.
If she stared at Pheromosa's body for too long, she'd be charmed into a submissive trance.
That would be NTR right in front of my face!
Lorze wasn't about to let that happen. He activated his own Cute Charm aura, pulling Anna deep into his chest.
Nobody steals my wives!
Because he went full throttle with his own charm, Pheromosa sensed a familiar vibration coming from the boy.
For a moment, it felt a bizarre sense of kinship—as if the boy were its own kind.
Pheromosa was a "Beautiful Thing," so its kin must also be beautiful.
It stared at Lorze, its previously bored, half-lidded eyes widening as if it had found a legendary treasure.
It completely forgot about "collecting" Xue Tong.
Its entire focus shifted to the boy.
Its "Collection Addiction" was flaring up.