Part 67: The Outer Core

Hello everyone and welcome back. Of the four remaining sidequests, the parcel one is pretty much a nonentity. So we can do all of it before we even start on the real part of today's update.



Sadly there are no quick teleports for us. We have to hike clear across the Dream Realm and back.









These cultists hang around here for the rest of the game.





Even though we walked from one extreme end of the Dream Realm to the other, the whole trip took less than 3 minutes.

Amy, back already, I see. To return Darkrai, I assume? Are you finally going to let me claim what is rightfully mine? No?



I see.



I wonder...



Before Cresselia chose her. Before the Infernal Cult ruined our lives. ...This doesn't change what she did. What she did to me was unforgivable. I won't- no, I can't forget it. She ruined my past. Every rotten speck of my life has been because of her.



Maybe I will go see her again. Someday. When I have Darkrai, for sure. Amy... I can't believe I'm saying this, but... thank you. This picture meant a lot to me. It'll help me pass the time until you release Darkrai, intentionally or not. Here, I guess you want some reward, right? I've got like... 30 of these. I came prepared. I'm sure I could spare one.



This is the third and final guaranteed Master Ball in the game, and I'm saving it for something really special.

Go catch some legendary that's not Darkrai. And stay out of my life, got it?

anything.



Seeya, Persephone. I'm actually glad that after all this she's finally started to grow up just a little bit.



That's the last we'll ever see of her.





The next part of today's odyssey takes us to Telnor Town. This is something we could have done a long time ago.



Congratulations! I'm so proud of you. I'd love to battle you, actually. I'd like to seehow I stand up against you.



Hell yeah, bring it on Sylvan!





No, this isn't the wrong team. I don't know if the game got confused at some point, or if the battles are programmed wrong or what. But for some reason we fight Eevee Sylvan instead of Delta Charmander Sylvan.



This fight would have been a cakewalk with our Champion team. Now, it's kinda sad.





It's barely worth showing what happened.







Until we get to this point. Y'see, I was going to just use Aura Sphere and one shot her Eevee.





Her Eevee becomes Jolteon and then takes off nearly half of ScubaSteve's health.



To his credit, ScubaSteve deals a lot of damage.



Sylvan heals...





And then Eevee-Jolteon KOs ScubaSteve.



Charsi finishes what Steve started.











I should have just used X-Scissor.



But it doesn't matter at all in the end.



This would have been a fun fight at-level, but we did kind of severely overshadow it.



You see... I've really done all the research I can do on these Delta Pokemon. I'd like you to take care of one of them. I feel like you'd be the best caretaker possible for it.



While I'd have loved to have put this to a vote, I recorded this in the middle of the night. Also the game wants an answer now and since this isn't emulated, I can't just savestate. So instead I asked the PokeGoons discord.









Please take good care of it!

There is a way to get the last starter you didn't pick, but it involves going above and beyond. It's something I didn't want to do, but here we are. The final starter is a reward for beating the Elite Four rematch.





All the way to the Dream Realm? I... I wasn't sure if you'd actually do it. Thank you so much. That really means the world to me.



I've been looking hard, but no luck so far. But just in case... well, I think it'd be best if you take care of his Manaphy in the mean time. I think it's what he would have wanted, too.





I'm going to leave the Gym as is- maybe somebody will take over if they're ambitious enough. In the meantime, I'd really like to help out Professor Sylvan. The study of pokemon has always been so interesting to me. Especially rarer ones, like Delta Species.



Honestly, I think they'll be happier off without me.



I definitely wasn't doing them any favours by being around them when I'm this worried about Calreath! Hopefully they'll be happy in the wild.







Poor Diana. But that's the Parcel sidequest finished. And, true to her word, she released her team. In fact, Cresselia is now a roaming legendary. According to the wiki...




Now that we've got all the preamble out of the way, here's Deyraan Town.



Augur! Augur! Oh, thank goodness you're here. I made... I made a huge mistake! I had to make a delivery! For Professor Sylvan! I was curious though- what could be so important? I was told not to, but I took a peek in the box.



Well, I was surprised. The legendary artifact from Sinnoh! In my hands! I was SO surprised, Ms. Augur, ma'am, that I dropped it and it went'a rollin' away! Right into the lava! Into the volcano! Straight down!

You, sir, are a moron.

It went sinking, and I was nervous. Scared. The Professor was going to be so mad! I went to look for a fire type to fish it out, but then the mountain started rumblin'! And just before it rumbled, I thought I saw two pokemon fighting! Two big, scary-looking ones!



There's lava everywhere now! I'm 'fraid it's gonna erupt!

Believe it or not, but I actually trimmed out a bunch of his dialogue. This kid won't shut the fuck up.





Uh...



Why are Heatran and Volcanion fighting here? They're both really far away from where they belong.





This is something we could have gotten a while ago, but I kept forgetting to.









Well, there's Volcanion.



Then it disappeared. Sure, why not?



Chansey, why are you still here?



By the way, the lower floor of this base is now flooded with both magma and wild encounters.



Heatran is down here for a moment.



This is way back near where Amy was imprisoned that one time.



And this is that room that was sealed before.



I can't imagine how hot it is in there, what with lava everywhere.



This should help some.



That's... a lava fall. Yikes.



Then we just walked right through it. What kinda suit is Amy wearing? For that matter, how did Aragog not roast alive? Anyway, we're in the Upper Mantle.



There's a short path and then we have to choose between several different holes to jump into. There's goodies all down on the next floor, including a TM (Trick Room), but I don't care about any of those.



Through the science of blindly picking a hole, we wind up going down this one.





Mmmm. I see.







I don't actually blame anyone for not voting for this sidequest. It's the most boring one, with nothing to say and no familiar faces.



This is the bottom of the Upper Mantle. It's extremely dark.



The flashlight doesn't help, either.



I have questions about how one of Professor Pine's inventions wound up deep beneath a volcano.





There are a lot of items here, but most of them aren't worth picking up.



After some blind wandering, we eventually find this exit.



The Deep Mantle is home to a puzzle.



That's a Tesseract rift.



And this pathway off to the northeast is blocked.





The path is open in the past. Sadly, there's nothing to pick up in the past.



The puzzle is we need to move this Manaphy statue somewhere.



We basically need to wedge the two paths open so they don't become impassable.



Success!



This boulder puzzle isn't as hard as it appears.



You just gotta push at the right spots.







Just how deep are we?



This escape rope respawns every time you reenter the Upper Mantle. Otherwise it would theoretically be possible to softlock yourself in this area.



This stone got some distance. Geez.







Someone, however, doesn't appreciate our interfering.





So this is where you ran off to...







Groudon, by the way, spams Fissure.



Mercifully, none of them connect and we eventually catch it.





Hmmmmm...



That's a nightmare scenario, I'm sure.





Thankfully we don't have to pick one or the other to catch. If we KO Volcanion, it returns to the Cave of Steam. If we KO Heatran, it returns to the Fiery Caverns. And if we KO both, they both go home and stop feuding in the middle of a dormant volcano.







I don't know how y'all'r able to do it. I'm so glad you're the new Augur. I'll finish up delivering this Magma Stone to the Professor. Here. It's not much, but I'd like you to have it for helping me out.



Thank ye again, ma'am. It's been an honour.



And that's a good stopping point.

1. Defeat the Timeless
   
2. Explore the Holon Region
   
3. The Original Dragon
   
4. Missingno
   
5. Relic Song
   
6. The Magma Stone
   
7. Cured Damian
   
8. The Parcel
   
9. "One of you is close to someone who needs help. Find this person fast." (Help Damian explore the Abyssal Base ruins)
   
10. The Finale
    

NEXT TIME: We help our buddy Damian