Pokémon: Start with an Admiral Crab!

“Sure enough, there is a cave…”

Wang Yao jumped off Aji and retrieved the locator buried under the snow.

The space in the opening is large, and the size is suitable for Moltres's body.

"Go in and take a look!"

Wang Yao led Aji into the cave on foot.

The entire cave passage is sloped downward...the further down you go, the higher the surrounding temperature becomes.

“It’s getting hotter!”

"According to previous records, flamingos always live near volcanoes..."

Wang Yao released the giant crab and let it spit out moisturizing bubbles to wrap his body.

After walking hundreds of meters underground, the red light of lava finally appeared in front of us.

“It’s near the magma.”

Wang Yao arrived at a platform that emerged from the magma.

Because of the active nature of the Silver Volcano, one does not need to go deep underground to come into contact with the hot magma.

Perhaps Moltres chose to live here because of this.

But this flamingo seemed a little different from what Wang Yao had imagined...

"This... is the flaming bird that provided the sacred fire for the Quartz Conference?"

Wang Yao frowned and walked up to the Moltres.

“Mm…”

Moltres folded its wings and curled up in the middle of the lava platform.

Wang Yao was basically less than one meter away from it, but Moltres didn't make any warning moves...just blinked tiredly.

If Wang Yao hadn't been close enough, he wouldn't even have been able to hear the faint cry of the Moltres.

"...So the divine bird can also age?"

Yes, the Moltres in front of him looked extremely old.

The flames that used to flutter and burn were now clinging to his body, looking like they were about to go out, without any sign of vitality.

Even his sharp eyes, which were once good at glaring, now looked grayish white.

"I thought you could also rise from the ashes?"

Wang Yao tentatively extended his right hand toward Moltres.

But when it was about to touch it, it stopped.

"And the heat... So you're just waiting to die in this lava cave?"

Wang Yao sighed and kicked a piece of gravel at his feet into the lava pool with some disappointment.

The gravel floated on top of the lava and was swallowed up bit by bit, like a nut on a chocolate muffin.

"Ding! Moltres——! The legendary bird Pokémon, everything is unknown!"

Now that he was here, Wang Yao simply took out the illustrated book and collected stamps.

Looking at the molten bird in front of him, Wang Yao roughly guessed the reason for the decline of the armored rhinos' small world.

"I once heard that the flamingo will bring spring to mankind."

"So you are the one who has been maintaining the spring of the armored rhinos?"

The Moltres was too old to maintain the warmth and light needed to keep the small world below running, which was why some of the Iron Rhinos fled into the cave.

Hiding in this lava cave should be able to delay its death.

Wang Yao's words seemed to stir up Moltres's memories.

“Mm…”

The flamingo's wings unfolded slowly like a mechanical gear without lubrication.

The flames around him also moved.

But this action seemed to have exhausted all of Moltres' strength.

As the molten bird's wings drooped weakly again, the flames on its body slowly subsided.

The breath of the flaming bird became even weaker...

"Just lie down if you're tired - I'll help you find a pasture to raise those armored rhinos."

The molten bird in front of me is almost dead of old age. It is estimated that if it is separated from the energy supply of the magma space, this guy will die immediately!

Wang Yao no longer had any intention of conquering him.

“Mm…”

As if it had heard Wang Yao's promise, the aging flamingo slowly closed its eyes.

"Let's go!"

Wang Yao shook his head and was about to leave with Zapdos and Giant Crab.

"Aji, you're not going to end up like this, are you? Hiding in a power station, stealing electricity and waiting to die?"

Wang Yao patted the wings of the Zapdos and asked casually.

"Fu..."

Lightning Bird turned his head away with disdain.

First! My name is not Aji, my name is Zapdos!

Second! If anyone has to die, it should be you, a short-lived trainer, who should die first!

Wang Yao’s Zapdos is in his prime. Not to mention the crisis of aging, he doesn’t even have the crisis of baldness!

Otherwise, the clipped crown feathers will not grow back so quickly.

……

Coming out of the Moltres cave, Wang Yao rode the Zapdos down the mountain.

"What took you so long?"

Shizuka put down the long-handled soup spoon in her hand and asked Wang Yao.

She dissolved Wang Yao's feed in hot water and cooked a large pot of thick soup.

Pokémon's food usually has a strong flavor, and this pot of thick soup smells spicy.

Humans can't eat it with their tongues, but the armored rhinos eat it with gusto.

"There is a flamingo on the mountain, but it is about to die of old age. Aji and I are going to provide hospice care for it..."

Wang Yao touched an armored rhinoceros that was eating and said casually.

"What the hell—what you said can't be true?"

Shizuka first instinctively thought that Wang Yao was bragging, but listening to his calm tone, something seemed to be wrong!

"Of course it's true. Do you want to go and see it too?"

Wang Yao tilted his head and suggested to Shizuka.

"..."

Shizuka didn't know how to answer this question for a moment.

……

ten minutes later.

Driven by her sense of responsibility as a Pokémon nurse, Shizuka still saw the aging Moltres.

"It has very little life force...it probably won't survive this month."

Shizuka looked at the motionless Moltres with some sadness.

Even Jellyfish's nutritional eggs and healing waves had no effect at all.

It turns out that only the poison of time is incurable...

"Lucky..."

This was probably the first time Chansey witnessed a Pokémon's irreversible death.

Without disturbing Moltres's rest, Wang Yao and Shizuka returned to the small basin below.

"I found this feather in the middle of the area where the armored rhinos were warming..."

While feeding the armored rhinos, Shizuka discovered a burning feather.

"It is this flamingo feather that protects the vegetation on this last patch of green land."

The flames on the feathers are still burning and have not been extinguished by the aging of the Flame Bird.

"It probably injected the last bit of its energy into this feather, which is why it aged so quickly in a short period of time."

Wang Yao carefully took the feather and speculated as he looked at the flame that was still burning on it.

Then he took out an oil lamp with a transparent windshield from his backpack, unscrewed the base, took out the oil burner and wick, leaving only the glass cover on the outside.

Wang Yao placed the flamingo feather in a glass cover and preserved it.