Themis imagines the Boss Battle against the tall bull made out of ice and electricity named

Pikne to
feature the Skillet song "Energy":

"You're a silent rage, you're a hurricane.

You are everything I cannot see and can't explain.
You're an enigma wrapped in a mystery.
Everywhere I go, I can't escape your energy."

Gaia uses Helping Hand to support Themis who attacks with her sword while Uranus goes for Shadow
Ball, Mackenzie uses Fire Punch, Yannick chooses Amnesia (even though he still doesn't have any attacks
using the Special Attack stat) and Alastair goes for Dazzling Gleam. None of these seem to hurt Pikne
though who responds by throwing an electrically charged spiky ice ball, which the characters manage to
dodge. "Okay, damaging this guy normally doesn't work well in this fight either.", Uranus has caught onto
that, with his Dachsbun wife stating: "He can still very much attack us just fine though.", so that she does
something about that by using Memento, defeating herself for the opponent's Attack and Special Attack
stats to be decreased by two stages, so that Pikne doesn't do as much damage as he could against them.
Themis comments on this: "You really like using these two moves, huh? Helping Hand and Memento, all
the time." Meanwhile Yannick didn't catch on yet and uses Play Rough, which expectedly does nothing
against this enemy.
Pikne is then attacking with lightning beams, one of which ends up hitting the Azelf among them, with
Alastair joking: "Sorry, I was too lazy to dodge that." "Fortitude...", Themis tries to figure out if the
narrative theme of this Layer has anything to do with how to win this fight. After all, it wouldn't be the
first time that the name of the Layer connects to it somehow. Then comes Pikne's next turn, with the
electrifying and icy big bull charging at his opponents much like a bull would, with them thankfully
managing to get out of the way in time. It would not be pleasant to be impaled by those horns or run
over by someone of that size after all. "I think we gotta do something unpleasant or maybe even
painful.", the Angel Zorua concludes from her train of thought. "Yeah, that's not vague at all, very
helpful.", Mackenzie sarcastically remarks on that. And then Pikne fires icicles as projectiles at them.
Yannick complains about the dangerousness of that: "Not cool!", though Alastair points out: "It is cool
though. Like, on a literal level." "But aren't icicles made out of boiling water?" "...Why do you think they
are called icicles, Yannick?", Alastair is a bit concerned about the fellow Lake Guardian's lack of
intelligence, despite already knowing the Uxie to lack in that regard.

For his next attack, Pikne is temporarily taking out magical bagpipes and playing a brief melody on it;
with the still fighting team of five (since Gaia already defeated herself) having to learn the hard way how
hearing this bagpipes melody causes damage to them due to the magical nature of this specific
individual instrument. "Okay, gotta cover our ears next time.", Uranus concludes, with Yannick panicking:
"Aahh where are my ears?? I can't find them! I think I lost them!" "Lake Guardians have no visible ears,
silly.", the Mesprit by his side lets him know, "Just cover where your ears would be if they were visible."
"Ooohh so at my belly?" "...What.", Mackenzie is perplexed how he could possibly think that's where his
ears would be, "Your head, stupid. On the sides."
Pikne is then throwing the electrically charged spiky ice ball again, which... Yannick catches intentionally,
exclaiming: "I got it!", before realizing: "...Ow ow ow ow ow it hurts to hold!", then quickly throwing it
back, though Pikne can easily dodge it being thrown back at him since it's literally coming from the
direction he threw it to. However, seeing this play out gives Themis an idea how they're supposed to
beat this boss battle enemy. But for this, they'll have to get to when the opponent uses this particular
attack again.
But for his next turn, Pikne is attacking with lightning beams again. Themis now lets the others know:
"We have to catch the ball! It may hurt to hold it but this is the Fortitude Layer after all." "What's your
idea, to throw it back at him?", Mackenzie questions, "You could see that not working literally just now."
The bull charges at them like a bull again and after they avoid that, the Angel Zorua further explains:
"Pikne could easily dodge because it came right from where he threw it to! Whoever catches the ball has
to throw it to someone else among us. That someone else then gotta throw it at Pikne before he catches
onto where the ball is, that way we can hit him with his own attack which is likely how we're gonna be
able to ultimately win!" "That might work.", Uranus admits, "Let's do my daughter's idea." "I mean.",
Themis points out, "Technically half of the idea came from Yannick."

After using the icicle projectiles again, Pikne uses his magical bagpipes once more, though this time the
characters know to cover their ears. Except for Yannick who forgot about it and gets damaged from it
anyway. Now comes the electrically charged spiky ice ball again, with Themis catching it and throwing it
to her father, Uranus then throwing it right back at Pikne, managing to hit the boss enemy that way and
dealing a much more noticable amount of damage this way. "It works, yes!", the Angel Zoroark knew he
was right in believing in his daughter. With them now having a confirmed way to win, it just becomes a
matter of not getting fully defeated themselves until they can do enough damage with this approach,
with the challenge here not being how quickly it has to be done but moreso how they have to willingly
go through the pain of actually holding the ball in any way for any amount of time. Due to the video
game nature of this reality, Pikne doesn't stop using the ball attack every five turns despite it being the
only attack that allows his opponents to actually damage him. And so, after dealing two more hits
against him that way, Pikne is then defeated.
"Alright, you may continue...", he admits their victory over him. "Yay, progress!", Themis exclaims in
response to that. So now, with that fight out of the way, the group of six continues their way, entering
the portal they can now reach, the portal that brings them into the next Layer of Heaven.

Khamuel the Angel Spidops and the fiery humanoid angel named Puruel are now approaching Arceus,
with Puruel telling the creator of the universe: "Arceus! Thank god that we could find you here." "Thank
god? Your god, which is me, has a name, use it." Puruel just continues: "We found your son Mew! I heard
about you looking for him." "Well, where is he?" So Khamuel and Puruel lead Arceus elsewhere, soon
getting into an alleyway where Mew currently is, but all tied up with spider string. "You could have at
least freed him.", Arceus is too trusting in Puruel to connect the dots just yet, the Mythical Normal Type
Pokémon now just getting to Mew to get him out of the spider string himself. Meanwhile there are
chains hanging right above where this is taking place, Puruel and Khamuel getting ready to let those drop
down on their... well, their boss, technically speaking. Clearly, those must be special chains since Puruel
would know not to use normal chains to restrict a literal God, especially one with a status this high.
However, Mew ends up using Psychic to push Arceus away right before the trap would have worked
successfully, so the two bad guy angels here don't let the chains fall just yet. But Mew pushing him away
did make Arceus aware that something can't be right, turning to Khamuel and Puruel instead now,
starting to actually consider those two angels conspiring against him.

But they've got a Plan B: Khamuel uses spider string to quickly pull the tied up Mew to him, taking the
Psychic Type Pokémon with him as he and Puruel escape into opposing directions, forcing Arceus to
choose which one to chase after. Arceus chooses Puruel due to Puruel's higher rank and therefore the
correct assumption that Khamuel is working for this fiery angel rather than the other way around. Puruel
leads Arceus through the heavenly city Elysium and eventually right into a bigger crowd to force Arceus
to not attack mindlessly. Arceus thinks he is at the advantage now, commanding all those angels here:
"Puruel is a traitor! Capture him immediately!"
But, to Arceus's shock, the angels don't comply, though most of them have a look of uncertainty going
on, as if they're aware of the conspiracy against Arceus but torn between the two sides, with Puruel
notably being more in control, even though Arceus would be more fair. Well, now it's Puruel who
commands the other angels: "Take care of Arceus." The about ten percent of not so uncertain angels do
comply with the bad guy, aiding Puruel in overwhelming Arceus, taking him down, all while Arceus
shouts: "This is mutiny! MUTINY!", with Puruel ultimately knocking him out. "Impressive.", Puruel
admits, "I didn't realize a God of such high rank could be this naive, hehehe... Well, I'm not complaining
about it."