After Zygarde split apart, its scattered Cells retained their mythical essence—but individually, they were nearly powerless. Lucius didn't fear resistance. He subdued them one by one with ease.
"Spread them out," he instructed Dolores after the infection was complete.
"You're giving them up?" Dolores was stunned. Securing these had taken immense effort.
"They're more useful out there than rotting in storage." Lucius smiled. "Scatter them near the Lysandre Labs."
Each one, now infected by Leviathan, was a living pathogen—whoever caught them, got infected. The Lysandre Labs would try to secure them all. Every one they touched would fall.
While Lucius managed operations in Kalos, word arrived again from Unova.
Goodshow had carried out a sweeping personnel overhaul within the League—its scale unprecedented in the last thirty years.
As expected, none of those reassigned to Unova were Hive operatives. Every Hive member formerly stationed in Unova had either been laterally transferred or promoted and moved to Kanto, Johto, or Hoenn.
According to Hive's informants, Goodshow had secretly summoned Kalos Champion Diantha, as well as Alola's Island Kahunas, to a closed-door meeting at Unova's League HQ.
Lucius briefly reviewed Goodshow's new appointments. The intent was clear: consolidate all non-Hive League personnel in Unova and Alola.
That move effectively meant abandoning Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Kalos to Hive control.
What boldness. The old man had just severed half the League—an empire he had painstakingly built up over decades.
Anyone else wouldn't even dare imagine it.
But then again, there really was no better choice. Had Lucius been in his position, he'd have done the same.
The virus had already spread too far before the League fully realized the threat. It had propagated rapidly via Team Rocket, the Syndicate, and other large networks. Hoping to eradicate it now was pure fantasy.
Unless they launched a global war. And even then, victory wasn't guaranteed.
So that's why he pulled all infected personnel out of Unova…
Using the deal that dismantled Team Plasma as cover, they quietly evacuated the infected—keeping Unova "pure." Now, Goodshow was gradually relocating the League's core power there to rebuild.
Clearly, the Champions and Elite Four he'd brought into Unova earlier weren't random picks. They were elite assets—hand-selected to preserve the League's top-tier strength.
Lucius stroked his chin and teleported high above the Unova region.
Gazing down at the vast landmass, his suspicions were confirmed: in the psychic realm, the entire continent was shrouded in the energy of that golden cross-ring.
This meant that even the Leviathan Virus could no longer spread here by conventional means.
Lucius smirked and teleported back to Umbrella Pharmaceutical Company's Kanto branch.
"Register more shell companies," he instructed Ophelia. "Spin off the snack and Pokémon food divisions into separate brands. Get those products into every household in Unova and Alola. I want everyone there eating our food."
"Understood." For someone like Ophelia—once a prodigy at Silph Co.—this kind of operation was child's play.
She knew exactly what Lucius was planning. Umbrella had absorbed large segments of Silph's food and Pokémon nutrition business. All that was left was to rebrand under new shells.
Silph's former products had proven popular, which meant the goods themselves were fine. As for the branding—just throw money at it.
Still, Umbrella's new products had something extra: a special kind of protein.
It wasn't viral, so the golden energy barrier didn't filter it out. Both humans and Pokémon could absorb it perfectly.
When to trigger its true effect? That would depend on Hive's next move.
Oh, President Goodshow… you never saw this coming.
With that, Lucius returned to the Indigo Plateau.
Since Goodshow had so generously handed over entire regions, Lucius saw no reason to hold back. Hive and the League might appear unified on paper, but in practice, they now governed independently.
It was time to accelerate the spread.
Lucius pondered for a moment. Only a thin veil separated the two sides now—there was no point restraining himself for the League's sake.
With a single thought, Lucius lifted the virus's restriction on liquid-based transmission.
As far back as the virus's Queen Ant Form, it had been capable of spreading via bodily fluids and waterborne transmission.
Back then, the League had launched an aggressive crackdown after Future Ash's incident. Lucius had feared that a viral explosion might trigger societal collapse, and that the League might respond as brutally as they had on Sunburst Island.
So he'd suppressed that aspect of the infection in all carriers.
But now, with Goodshow relocating the League's key assets and shielding Unova, most of the virus detectors scattered across regions and cities had gradually gone offline.
After all, in virus-ridden regions, the infected had already risen to the top. And in virus-free zones, people had gained defensive capabilities. What was the point of continued detection?
Once Lucius lifted the suppression, he felt it immediately: infection rates surged exponentially.
Thanks to his Collective Will ability, every infected being fed energy back to him. The feedback was impossible to miss.
It was explosive. Where before new infections came in ones and twos—maybe tens at a time—now they came in thousands. Five thousand. Six thousand.
Kisses spread it. Sex spread it. A single sneeze could infect an entire crowd. One person swimming in a pool could contaminate the water for everyone else.
In a Pokémon battle, if one side used Water Gun and the droplets splashed into the crowd, they'd all be infected.
Those infected would then pass it along through their everyday actions.
It spread faster than radiation—faster than anyone could contain.
Lucius smirked. Looks like the campaign to make Volkner a hero really paid off…
He could feel the energy feedback multiplying. His power had grown so immense that it was straining his physical limits.
In under an hour, his infected count had soared past 100,000.
Lucius shifted his consciousness into his psychic ocean. Within the massive Hive structure, new genetic units continuously populated the empty hexagonal cells. Each one contributed to the refinement of his viral genome.
Even if each only improved it by 0.000001%—the sheer scale made the impact inevitable.
Soon, Lucius could sense it clearly: the Leviathan was on the verge of bursting with power. And as the infection count skyrocketed, his own genetic evolution surged ever higher.
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