Chapter 795 789: The Sparkling Stone

"Charizard, first let's make a complete circle around the island."

After observing the general situation of the island from afar, Charizard began to fly quickly around it.

"Eh... is this island complete?"

"In theory, the Alola region only has four main islands, so it shouldn't be so small."

"Could it be that this place is not one of the four great islands, but a smaller island belonging to the Alola region?"

After Charizard completed the reconnaissance flight, Ethan frowned slightly, confused.

"Lucario, use Teleport."

After roughly confirming the state of the island, Ethan released Lucario and withdrew Charizard.

As soon as the move Teleport activated, the figures of both disappeared and reappeared inside a dense jungle.

"Lucario, aura power."

In charge of protecting Ethan, Lucario began to use aura power to detect the situation of the surroundings.

At the same time, Ethan also closed his eyes and fused his mental power with Lucario's, receiving in sync all the information returned by the aura.

"This is... a ruin?"

Suddenly, Ethan's expression changed.

In the middle of that thick jungle, he had detected traces of constructions.

"It seems we've found something big."

"Kommo-o, Garchomp, you two come out as well."

Once the next objective was determined, Ethan released the two Pokémon that had just joined the team.

According to what the aura power indicated, quite a few Pokémon also lived within the forest.

Although they could avoid them in advance by using aura, it really was not necessary.

In addition, those Pokémon could also serve as practice for the two new members. It was enough to advance while sweeping through the path.

"It's an Alolan Raticate!"

Looking at an Alolan Raticate that had been defeated in a single blow by Garchomp, Ethan's eyes shone slightly.

Alolan Raticate's body was black, with cheeks rounded like balls, a slightly swollen nose, a round belly as well, and its entire body notably fatter and heavier than the Raticate from other regions.

"Although, yes, this type of Pokémon with regional forms still has not been fully announced in the world. Although some specimens of these regional forms sometimes appear, most people simply consider them another different species."

"But, in reality, a Pokémon with a regional form and the original Pokémon should belong to the same species. That point is indeed worth deeper research."

After reflecting a little, Ethan took out a Poké Ball and directly captured that Alolan Raticate.

He planned to collect some Pokémon from the Alola region to take with him, because regional forms were also, in essence, a transformation of the life state, which had enormous value for the Life Transition experiments they were carrying out.

In addition, the development of Sandslash's hidden Steel-type gene had also been inspired precisely by the Alolan version of Sandslash. If he managed to capture one, perhaps he could further perfect the development of Sandslash's hidden Steel-type gene.

Thus, advancing step by step, Ethan ended up approaching the ruins he had detected through Lucario's aura power.

From their general appearance, those constructions were very destroyed. In some areas, they had even become Pokémon nests, and it was evident that they had been damaged by the Pokémon of the Secret Kingdom themselves.

In addition, many structures had been swallowed by vegetation and were completely unrecognizable, without leaving anything that looked especially valuable at first glance.

"Hmm, wait. That statue is... Tapu Koko?"

Suddenly, Ethan noticed one of the few statues that was still preserved fairly intact.

The statue had an appearance reminiscent of an indigenous person, with hair standing upward, both hands covered by half a shell, and with patterns carved on those shells that, when closed, resembled the head of a bird.

It was precisely Tapu Koko, the guardian of one of the islands of the Alola region: Melemele Island!

"A guardian, huh... It seems that it was precisely the respect the Pokémon of this island feel toward Tapu Koko that allowed this statue to survive."

A hypothesis had already arisen inside Ethan. If the guardian of this island was Tapu Koko, then it was very likely that this place was within the territory corresponding to Melemele.

"Tapu Koko..."

Thinking of that legendary Pokémon, Ethan's gaze became fiery.

In the anime, the guardians were the ones who granted the Z-Rings and also the ones who allowed those bracelets to evolve into Z-Power Rings.

Judging from that, the system of Z-Power seemed to be directly related to those guardians.

If he managed to find one of the guardians, then there was the possibility that he could also obtain Z-Power.

"Sandslash, come out and try to perceive something."

After observing the ruins for a while, Ethan released Sandslash.

Right now, Sandslash measured more than three meters, and it could truly already be described as an enormous beast.

"Sha!"

As soon as it appeared, Sandslash immediately activated the faint Totem aura that enveloped its body.

"Sha?"

Suddenly, an expression of confusion appeared on its face.

Immediately afterward, it fixed its gaze firmly on the statue of Tapu Koko in front of it, its face full of doubts.

"Have you discovered something?"

Ethan also followed Sandslash's gaze and observed the statue before them.

"Sha!"

Sandslash nodded and approached the statue of Tapu Koko.

And then, under Ethan's stunned gaze, Sandslash directly launched a claw strike at the statue!

Boom!

In an instant, stone fragments shot everywhere.

With a single claw strike from Sandslash, the statue was smashed to pieces.

Tap, tap, tap.

From inside the destroyed statue, something suddenly rolled out, striking the hard stone floor and producing a faint sound.

"What is that?"

Ethan directed his gaze toward the object and discovered that it was a stone.

"Wait... from this stone's appearance and the symbol it carries, could it be a Sparkling Stone?"

Suddenly, information about the Sparkling Stone appeared in his mind, and his eyes opened wide.

The Sparkling Stone was considered a stone belonging to Alola's guardians, and it was said that some kind of secret was hidden in its radiance.

And, within Alola's Z system, Z-Rings were precisely made from Sparkling Stones!

"Sha!"

At one side, Sandslash looked at the Sparkling Stone in Ethan's hand, and an intense desire was clearly reflected in its eyes.

The reason Sandslash had destroyed the Tapu Koko statue before was precisely because it had sensed the presence of the Sparkling Stone inside it.

"The Sparkling Stone... could it be related to the Totem aura?"

Ethan fell into deep reflection while looking at the Sparkling Stone he was holding.

The Ultra Research Team had theorized that, in ancient times, the light that leaked out during the battle between Necrozma and the Tapu transformed into the aura of Totem Pokémon.

Then, could it be that this Sparkling Stone was also related to the light spilled in that great battle?

If the Sparkling Stone had truly formed from that leaked light, then the relationship between the Sparkling Stone and the Totem aura could be perfectly explained.

"The Sparkling Stone can transform into Totem aura."

"If that is true, could Sandslash strengthen its Totem aura by absorbing a Sparkling Stone?"

As soon as he thought of that possibility, Ethan's heart began beating violently.