LOADING: AREA 3, OSTELLIA

zapdos returns for unovr season 2!

The clouds part, and you're through.

You blink, rain fresh on your face. Your skin is cold, your clothing drenched and torn. Your hair still feels on end from the lightning, and as you relax your hold on Zapdos's feathers you realize your fingers are stiff and cramped from holding on.

You've just spawned in on the far side of a cutscene, a grueling journey across the ocean on the back of a mountain-sized bird. Countless other players appear around you, clinging tight to Zapdos's back. He is so immense, the entire North American playerbase could probably fit on there. Honestly, they probably have. Today is a day nobody wants to miss.

Today, after a wait that felt like forever, you are going to AREA 3: OSTELLIA.

"There is no Corruption in this land," rasps Zapdos as he soars overhead. "But neither do I sense Legendary Pokemon. Or any Pokémon, for that matter."

You see the tops of buildings spearing out of the bay as Zapdos coasts down like a fighter jet, skimming mossy, floating piers before landing in the middle of what had probably once been a busy intersection.

It has since crumbled into dust. Traffic lights hang, broken, from rusted poles, and the asphalt is jagged like broken ice.

"There is no shrine here, naturally," Zapdos observes shrewdly, giant head turning as he surveys the reclaimed city. "Not ideal. But I have a solution."

He moves swiftly, raising the pillar of pure steel that is the Giant Shrine and driving it into the ground. Centuries-old concrete is torn open as the world's biggest nail is driven down into the earth, ripping through old water lines and wedging itself securely in the ground. Water sprays in a thin mist from its base as the underground pressure is released.

"There," rasps Zapdos, satisfied. "That should do."

He fixes his piercing gaze around the gathered group. "Humans, in my stead, I leave you Thunderfall. Trust in it to keep you safe, as you trusted in me to carry you through the storm."

Trust. You might wonder why Zapdos would bestow such a mighty gift— why here, why now, after he fought so hard to keep it out of humankind's hands to begin with. Is it because he trusts you now? Or because he doesn't?

One thing's for sure: there's no returning it to the Steppes now. The newly-named Thunderfall Shrine crackles with blue electricity, and indeed here, in the heart of the urban Nexus, it no longer seems so Giant. Skyscrapers, derelict and overgrown, slump all around it like sleeping passengers.

"No Corruption. No Legendaries. No Pokemon. If there is place where mankind can do no damage, this is it," Zapdos rasps, turning away. "Perhaps this is your Promised Land."

As you look around, you can't help but think there must have been a reason. Must be a reason, still. A thriving human metropolis had fallen into ruin— what besides the Corruption could have caused that? But if that was so, where was it now?

Once, you knew someone with answers. Or at least theories. Someone you could bounce ideas off of, someone who would always hear you out, take notes on what you said, and work towards her own conclusions. Someone who didn't always have the full picture, and who sometimes made mistakes. Someone who did trust you— and still does. Somewhere. Wherever she is now.

Now, you are alone.

"Something is different about this place. If you can find it, perhaps humankind can forge a new weapon against the Corruption." Zapdos beats his wings, and the storm buffets the ruined city. "I go to hold the line in Mistra. Find answers. And do better than those who came before you."

NEW!

New Rarity Type: Invasive (-5)
Tall Grass HP Cap increased to 300
Ostellia Quests: 0/6 Complete
Unlocked - Thunderfall Shrine
Unlocked - Route 7: Drowned Harbor
Unlocked - Route 8: Forgotten Nexus
Unlocked - Route 9: Dune District