Just as Metagross was about to use Steel Beam to finish off the Magmortar in front of it, Julian's voice cut through the air.

  "Metagross, stop."

  The deeel Beam slowly disappeared, aagross looked back at Julian in fusion.

  Magmortar, half-kneeling on the ground, looked up as two feet appeared in front of it. It was Julian, standing there, staring down at it.

  Beside him, Metagross stood ready, Steelix was watg closely, and Dragonair hovered above. Magmortar felt the tension in the air and suppressed the urge to sh out.

  "Do something for me, and I'll let you and your men go," Julian said calmly, holding out an obje his hand. "Plus, I'll give you this."

  In Julian's hand was a Magmarizer—a rare item that could evolve a Magmar into a Magmortar.

  This kind of item was incredibly rare in the wild, and even with the advaeology humans had, making one was still a difficult task.

  The Magmortar before him had been lucky enough to evolve with the help of a Magmarizer it had found in the secret realm, but none of the mars had been that fortunate.

  They were all strong, around level 50, but without a Magmarizer, they couldn't evolve.

  Magm the Magmarizer. It remembered finding something simir deep in the magma long ago when it was still a Magmar, which had led to its evolution.

  If it had this Magmarizer, one of its offspring could evolve into a new Magmortar.

  Magmortar k was getting old, its strength fading over time. Soon, it wouldn't be able to protect its or its preagma territory from rivals like the Magcargo .

  Having anmortar to take its pce was essential.

  Magma was very important to the their , it was the key to increase the fire type energy in their bodies.

  Therefore, now that he was old, he had to let one of the Magmar evolve into a Magmortar, so as to ehat at least one of the magma sites beloo them.

  Magmortar looked at its unscious members scattered around and then back at the Magmarizer. It nodded in agreement. Julian held all the cards—the was defeated, and without the Magmarizer, there wasn't much choice.

  Magmrowled: What do you need from me?

  Julian didn't kly what the treasure ihe magma was, but the Dowsing Mae was showing a red dot se it covered ohird of the s, indig that whatever it was, it had to be incredibly valuable.

  In respoo Magmortar's question, Julian said, "I need you to dive into the magma arieve something for me."

  As they spoke, a few Magmars began to stir, slowly regaining sciousness. They stood, shaking off their dizziness, and upon seeing Julian, they prepared to attack again, ready to aveheir earlier defeat.

  Magmortar: stop

  Magmortar immediately stopped the feao attack.

  The Magmar froze, fused by their leader's and. Why was their boss holding them back from fighting?

  Ign their fusion, Magmestured for Julian to follow it back to the edge of the volo.

  Along the way, none of the surrounding Fire-type Pokémon dared to attack, likely out of respeagmortar's authority.

  It seemed that this Magmortar wasn't just the leader of its pack but also the ruler of the entire volo area.

  "Take this and it will tell you where the stuff that you o retrieve is in the va"

  At the volo's edge, Julian hahe Dowsing Mae to Magmortar. Dowsing Mae had the iructible property, so there was o worry that it will be burnt to ashes by va.

  Magmortar took the devid, after giving orders to its remaining scious members, dove into the bubbling magma without hesitation.

  Julian aagross waited patiently at the edge, he used Probing eyes to look at the surrounding Magmar. They were all yellow, and only twreen.

  The previous Magmortar also had green qualification, but it was half to . But it was old and its strength was deing.

  Julian also noticed eight Pokémon eggs led on a nearby rock. They must have been the offspring of the Magmar , but there were no Magby in sight.

  "Why haven't I seen any Magby around?" Julian muttered to himself.

  Curious, he asked one of the Magmar. The response was immediate and full of ahe Magmar angrily gestured, telling Julian a story of ret tragedy. The mar shared the same ed expressions.

  From the fragmeory, Julian gathered that the Magcargo , longtime rivals of the Magmortar family, had attacked retly in a brutal battle for trol over the magma.

  The csh had cost the lives of several Magmar aed in the death of over 20 Magby. Though the Magmortar had fought valiantly, they had suffered heavy losses, and the Magcargo had not fared much better.

  Julian o himself. It was a remihat life in the wild a realms was far more brutal than what he was used to in human civilization. Battles over territory, food, and resources were frequent, and the w of the jungle ruled over everything.

  After about twenty minutes of waiting, the magma began to bubble more violently. Magmortar finally emerged, cradling something in its hands as it approached Julian.

  In Magmortar's hands was a beautiful, crystal-clear stone.

  Julian's eyes lit up the moment he saw it, immediately reizing what it was. He eagerly took the stone from Magmortar, surprised at how cool it felt, despite having just been submerged in molten va.

  The stone was about the size of a fist, pletely transparent, with a deep red hue. As Julian shined his fshlight on it, he could see a faint fme flickering inside.

  "A fire crystal…" Julian whispered in awe.

  These stones, only found in a voloes or those thousands of years old, were incredibly rare.

  Whenever one appeared, it would spark a frenzy among collectors and trainers alike, as they possessed immense fire energy.

  The outer surface of this thing was covered with a yer of red crystal, and this crystal perfectly ed the fme i, and not even a trace of energy could be emitted.

  So this thing had always been in the magma, but Magmortar was never able to find it, and even if he did find it, he might just toss it around as it did any energy and thus be sidered useless.

  This kind of fire crystal had first been discovered by act years ago when a fire type trainer had found one during a volo eruption and taken it home as a decoration.

  By ce, his Freon had eaten the crystal, and the trainer had gone on to bee one of the fire-type Elite in his try.