There were rebuttals Bahamut could make. Like how he couldn't properly fight despite millennia as a killer. Or the fact that Owen would sickeningly find the good in everyone, including her. Or the fact that Diyem won't be able to send her home until the crisis is taken care of because his powers are out of whack.
But the time for talk had run its course. Trying to talk with someone whose shadows were being this persistent despite the complete lack of battling going on.
Even if Bahamut hadn't properly tested this technique, now was the time for action. He silently leveled an upper wing. It crackled with an otherworldly aura about it, flickering with distortion. A few seconds later, black chains spawned from Bahamut's wing and wrapped themselves around Mellow's shadow.
"I'll be taking this."
The necrozma whipped his wing back, yanking the shadow toward him. It lost its form and, by the time it was at Bahamut's side, had transformed into a replica of his base form. However, black mist swirled around it. An eerie red glow emanated from what passed for the shadow's core. It sized Mellow up, completely unreadable due to the lack of a face.
"You think you're the only one struggling with this ordeal? Hardly." Red and black spiraled in Bahamut's eyes as mist swirled around the phantom he'd created. "Likewise, there isn't a single soul on this team who is truly in their element, save perhaps for Owen. The others just appear to be better at hiding these facts than you. They've already written me off, so I have no need to try and appease them anymore. I can continue to be the devil in their eyes. My conscience will not suffer for it because mine eroded a long time ago.
"But you... even if you are not a social beautifly, you need to start leaning more on others besides that familiar for support," Bahamut growled. "You've aided the strongest fighters in battle. If they don't acknowledge you at first, then you use that as leverage to get them to listen. Or you could just start with Owen because the kid doesn't have enough of a backbone to say no to people."
Bahamut leaned forward, his gray head hovering above Mellow. "Or you can continue to let these... hitches get under your scales. You can run." The phantom hovered forward. Its wispy arms crackled with black lightning. "But then you will have no say whatsoever in how things turn out. You will be leaving your fate to the rest of us. Is that what you want?"
