"A little more heat—just a little more, Charizard." Mateo focused intently on shaping the glasswork, carefully molding it in the flames to achieve the perfect form.
"Almost there... just a little more..." He scrutinized the half-human-sized Charizard glass sculpture before him, meticulously adjusting the details to make it flawless.
Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead from the intense heat and prolonged concentration.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Open the door! Please, open the door!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The sudden pounding on the door and frantic shouting startled him, causing his hands to tremble. In an instant, a wing of the glass Charizard snapped off.
ヾ(﹏)
"Who the hell is making such a ruckus this late at night? Can't they see the 'Do Not Disturb' sign outside?" Mateo seethed with frustration. His masterpiece, into which he had poured his heart and soul, was now irreparably damaged.
He was a glass artisan, and ever since inheriting this glass shop from his grandfather a few years ago, he had struggled to create anything truly satisfying. The business had been on the verge of collapse due to poor sales.
That was until a few months ago, when he and three visiting Pokémon Trainers unexpectedly discovered the legendary Crystal Onix.
As a breathtaking creation of nature itself, the Crystal Onix possessed an elegance, harmony, and perfection that inspired him beyond measure. From that moment, he finally grasped the essence of crafting glass Pokémon.
Over the past few months, he had moved beyond small glass figurines, experimenting instead with medium-sized sculptures.
But crafting larger sculptures wasn't just a matter of scale—it involved intricate, almost inexplicable complexities. He had failed multiple times.
This Charizard sculpture had been a long time in the making. Observing his own Charizard for countless hours, he had meticulously planned its design. He had been working on it since morning, and it was nearly finished—until that cursed knocking ruined everything.
"Please! Open the door! Help me! There's a monster—AHHHH!"
The banging did not cease despite his shouting. Instead, it became even more frantic.
"A monster...?" Mateo furrowed his brow. He didn't believe in monsters—at worst, it was probably just an unfamiliar Pokémon. Hardly a reason to panic.
Just as he moved to open the door, it suddenly exploded inward. Splinters of wood flew everywhere as a powerful force sent him crashing backward, shattering his ruined Charizard sculpture beneath him.
"AHHH!" Mateo let out a cry of agony. The still-hot shards of glass embedded themselves into his back, searing his flesh with unbearable pain.
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to look up—only to see a grotesque creature lunging at him.
Its body was an unnatural shade of grayish-green, with three legs, five arms, and an insect-like face lined with jagged, grinding mandibles.
"No—stay back!" As a simple glass artisan, he had no combat skills whatsoever. Instinctively, he raised his arms to shield his face.
"ROAR!"
A searing wave of heat suddenly filled the room.
"Charizard!" Mateo gasped, heart pounding.
At the last moment, his Charizard had reacted swiftly, unleashing a Flamethrower that forced the monster back and saved his life.
"What the hell is that thing...?!" Ignoring the burning pain in his back, Mateo watched in horror as the creature flailed wildly, its body rolling across the shop, setting everything around it ablaze.
Despite its grotesque mutations, remnants of human features were still visible. Once, it had been a person. But now, its body had undergone horrific distortions—an extra leg resembling an insect limb jutted out from its left hip, while three elongated, jointed arms sprouted from its right side, ending in clawed fingers. Its soulless white eyes stretched unnaturally across its misshapen face.
It shrieked in the flames, its mouth lined with several rows of rotating, saw-like teeth, still dripping with blood and flesh.
As a craftsman who shaped beauty from fire, Mateo found this twisted abomination to be an affront to nature itself.
Fighting back the urge to vomit, he shouted, "Charizard! Use Flamethrower! Burn it—burn it to ash!"
"ROOAAARR!" Charizard intensified its flames, engulfing the creature in an inferno.
The monster thrashed violently, letting out ear-piercing screams as its flesh crackled and blackened. A nauseating stench filled the air.
Yet, whether due to Charizard's exhaustion from a long day's work or the creature's unnatural resistance to fire, it did not perish immediately. Instead, still ablaze, it shrieked in agony, then crashed through the shop's wall and fled into the night.
Mateo stood frozen amid the wreckage of his once-pristine shop, his heart hammering against his ribs.
A sharp pain in his back snapped him back to reality. "My sister!"
Cold sweat drenched his body as he sprinted toward the living quarters at the back of the shop. His little sister, Marissa, should have been in her room.
"Marissa!" Mateo shoved open the door—
The wall had been torn apart, a massive hole gaping where it once stood.
Her room was empty.
His sister, not even ten years old, was gone.
Beyond his ruined shop, the island's once-tranquil night had erupted into chaos. Fires raged, screams filled the air, and inhuman roars echoed through the darkness. The night had transformed into a symphony of bloodshed and madness.
—
Elsewhere, in a dimly lit alley behind a bar...
"Hey there, sweetheart. It's pretty late—shouldn't you be heading home? If you're bored, why not come have some fun with us?" A sleazy young man in a tank top leered at a woman who was leaning against the wall, seemingly too drunk to stand upright.
The woman had an alluring figure and wore a provocative outfit, but she swayed unsteadily, her heavy breathing causing her chest to rise and fall dramatically.
"Tch, with a body like that, she's gotta have a pretty face too." The thug glanced around—the alley was shrouded in shadows, devoid of witnesses.
Lucky night.
He grinned wickedly and reached out to brush aside the woman's long hair, eager to see her face.
"Heh heh heh—"
His laughter died instantly.
His entire body stiffened as he stared in sheer terror at the woman's face—split down the middle, revealing a horrific, gaping wound lined with writhing, segmented tendrils.
"G-gh...!" He tried to scream, but the tendrils shot forward, burrowing into his eyes, nostrils, ears, and mouth, silencing him instantly.
The grotesque appendages coiled around his twitching body, lifting him effortlessly off the ground.
His limbs convulsed in spasms, blood dripping from every orifice, as his life force was drained into the monstrous woman's gaping maw.
The scene was a grotesque masterpiece of horror.
—
"They're multiplying... and the infection is spreading quickly."
Aboard a speeding motorboat en route to Sunburst Island, Lucius sat silently, his mind connected to the evolving mutations spreading across the island.
By now, the forty-plus Team Rocket members who had originally been scattered across Sunburst Island, along with a few hosts that had been infected on Mandarin Island*, had all begun undergoing varying degrees of mutation.
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TL/N:
Apologies for the wrong translation.
The Kumquat Island from the previous chapters is actually Mandarin Island.
I mistakenly translated Mandarin Island as Kumquat Island because the two has similar characters except for the first character.
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