BOSS
The Triumvirate
The giant monster rotated so that the red segment, seeming to represent Amtakan, pointed upward. Blobby orange pockets of energy appeared from Amtakan's two red eyes, traveling slowly but homing toward our heroes. "Attack the eyes!" Novelle commanded. "If we can deactivate them, I think the Chaos Heart will be open to attack."
"Got it!" Mario floated up to Amtakan's eyes, avoiding the swarming orange blobs, and smashed the top eye with his hammer.
"Let's split up," Blumiere suggested. "Each group of three will attack the three segment's eyes until the Chaos Heart is open."
"Another great plan from Blumiere!" Nastasia called.
"I'm going with Mario." Luigi moved to help Mario, Peach closely following.
"Let's dish out a little CHUNK 'ere!" O'Chunks moved to the blue head on the bottom-left that appeared to be Wretcha.
"Come on." Blumiere led Bowser and Novelle toward the bottom-right yellow yead, evidently the Netherclops. Our heroes began attacking the eyes as much as they could.
"Take this!" Luigi punched Amtakan's bottom eye over and over, expertly dodging the orange blobs it produced. "Ha! You think we haven't gotten used to zero-gravity physics by now?"
The Triumvirate slowly began to spin clockwise. "Uh oh," Bowser uttered. "What's it doing?"
The monster's rate of rotation increased until it was spinning in fast circles. Finally, it abruptly stopped with the Netherclops's head facing upward. The Chaos Heart fired a trio of dark lasers in the direction of each head, damaging our heroes by surprise.
"Whoa! Watch out for the lasers!" Our heroes hadn't changed their positions, so Luigi now readied to attack the Netherclops's eyes.
He, Mario, and Peach soon defeated both of the demon's eyes, turning them a deactivated black color. "How's it going down there?" Mario shouted to the other two groups.
"Excellent!" Mimi rejoiced, about to take out Amtakan's second eye. The last trio, Blumiere, Bowser, and Novelle, were almost through with Wretcha's eyes as well.
Once all three pairs of eyes were done in, the Chaos Heart's shine diminished, and the Triumvirate roared. "Now's our chance!" Novelle began attacking the Heart from a distance, firing one magic beam after another.
"Yah!" Mimi threw her Rubees at the dark artifact. Everyone else pitched in with their attacks as well.
The monster shook. "What's happening?" Nastasia wondered as the Triumvirate drifted away from our heroes. Its three segments condensed together as the monster began spinning in place with a drill-like motion. It suddenly sped toward our heroes, boring through their ranks with its spinning attack. A few of the heroes were hit by the Triumvirate and knocked away, tumbling through space.
"Luigi!" Mario grabbed his brother's hand and pulled him before he became the victim of a series of compact lasers spawned from the Chaos Heart. Several of the others were hit, but the Triumvirate reopened as the heroes who'd been smacked away space-swam back to attack, giving them more shots at the Chaos Heart.
After a few seconds, the monster's eyes regained their glow, and the Chaos Heart resumed its usual shine. "It's recovered," Novelle lamented. "Come on. We've got to attack those eyes again." Our heroes shifted back to their positions.
The Triumvirate bellowed. Sudden flashes of black lightning exploded from the Chaos Heart, traveling in random directions. Our heroes couldn't dodge most of them in time, and the shock made them temporarily lose control of their bodies. This allowed more of the orange blobs to hit them. "Grrrgh!" Peach was sideswiped by the last bolt to emerge. "We need to be more careful!" She punched Mortcha's bottom eye.
Amid the constant fire of lasers, blobs, and lightning, our heroes managed to defeat all six eyes again, rendering the Chaos Heart vulnerable again. "Now it's our turn!" Mario smacked the Heart with his hammer, O'Chunks dealt his best punches from below, and Blumiere and Novelle attacked from a distance.
The monster roared again, and a heart-shaped pulse of energy extended from the Chaos Heart. It carried a ringing sound that exploded in the heroes' ears as they were pushed away from the center. "Attack from a distance!" Blumiere commanded. Not everyone could, however, so Mario and several others were forced to return to close combat until another energy pulse appeared. They moved closer to the monster's edge, waiting for the wave to disappear, and resumed their assault.
Suddenly, a streak of lightning blasted from the Chaos Heart and zapped Mario and Luigi. While they were still disabled, another pocket of energy extended and wrapped around the brothers, trapping them. "Hang on! I'm coming!" Novelle flew toward the pair and was immediately assaulted by a multitude of dark gray tentacles. They jolted toward her, assaulting her senses whenever they made contact. "Ugh...gghck!" Novelle swatted one away with her wand and blasted two more away. She couldn't physically touch them without her brain seeming to explode.
After several seconds, the messenger managed to clear enough space to break open Mario and Luigi's constricting prison. "Thanks, Novelle." While Luigi rotated to the top-left to attack an open area of the Chaos Heart, Mario used his hammer to bash the rest of the artifact's supernatural tentacles.
"Thanks...Mario." The heroes gave each other a quick smile before resuming their assault.
Three bright flashes suddenly burst from the central Heart, traveling in wide ovals and returning to the center, only to emerge again. The orbiting flashes sent our heroes flying away damaged every time they made contact. "It's pulling out all the tricks," Bowser said. Along with this maneuver, the monster also began rotating again, counter-clockwise this time. It was very difficult to attack the Chaos Heart with all of the obstacles in the way, and by the time the attack had finished, the eyes had re-emerged.
"We've almost got this thing," Novelle rejoiced. "Just one more time should do it!" Filled with hope, our heroes rushed to attack the eyes once more.
Once they had gotten decent damage on the eyes, the entire body of the Triumvirate began to glow as the body began to rotate again. "Watch out!" Novelle warned. "I think it's going to do something!"
The heroes moved out of the monster's way. Finally, spinning as fast as a top, it careened to the right in an energy charge. It slammed into O'Chunks, Bowser, and Novelle, curved downward, circled back around, and flew upwards, colliding with Luigi and continuing on its way. The Triumvirate finally emerged from the left and halted.
"Novelle, how can we heal ourselves?" Bowser asked. "We don't have any more health items!"
"The Pure Hearts' power combined with my own might allow me to do something. Let me see if I can restore some of our health." Novelle tapped into the energy of the Pure Hearts. Our heroes' vitality wasn't restored fully, but enough to allow them to continue fighting.
"All right,
now we're ready ta bring some pain!" O'Chunks punched Wretcha's top eye.
The Chaos Heart charged again as our heroes whittled the eyes down. It fired wide, dark lasers in six directions, following the smaller points between its three main sections as well as those sections themselves. As it maintained the fire, and orange energy blobs still chased our heroes, they were forced to remain within the tight laser-formed sections and avoid the blobs. It was a very difficult task, and our heroes frequently found themselves surrounded and hit.
Faced with a combined assault of five blobs, Luigi deftly spread his body flat in space, making him thin enough to kick off in another direction and avoid the blobs for now. Mario flipped into 3D, allowing him to avoid the lasers altogether, but the energy blobs could transfer to the new dimension. When the lasers receded, Mario flipped back to 2D and continued his attack on the eyes.
The very eyes our heroes were attacking suddenly shot an array of lasers that moved in polygonal patterns around the eyes, making them almost impossible to attack directly. After a while, the laser formations homed in on the fighters. They could continue attacking the eyes, but could only do so for a few seconds at a time. "Are we almost there?" Mimi grunted.
Once the lasers disappeared, the monster gave one last effort to protect the Chaos Heart. It began to spin once more, not attacking but keeping its eyes out of our heroes' reach. "We have to attack them when they pass by!" Novelle ordered, holding her wand out to damage the eyes when they came. As this continued, the Triumvirate sent out the dark lightning flashes again, incapacitating some of the heroes for brief moments, but it wasn't enough to prevent the remaining ones from finally knocking out all six of the monster's eyes. The Triumvirate roared, the Chaos Heart once more availible to hit.
"Now let's do it!" Blumiere sent waves of magic shapes at the Heart, bringing it ever closer to defeat.
After our heroes had attacked it a few times, however, a larger blob of dark energy extended from the Chaos Heart, growing tentacles and other formations all around the center. It began shooting lasers, the slow blobs, and a multitude of other projectiles at the heroes, adding to the already present danger of the far-reaching, disabling tentacles. "No! We were so close!" Novelle began attacking the tentacles with everything she had.
"How can we-" Nastasia began, before being hit by a laser and then engulfed by a tentacle. "Aaggghck!!! H-help-p!"
"I...I'm trying!" Mario swatted a tentacle away and then sliced his hammer through the one that was holding Nastasia, severing it in two. Nastasia's end dissipated.
"Thanks." Nastasia moved above the Chaos Heart toward its right side, two pillars of energy suddenly thrusting vertically in both directions from the Heart. Nastasia was hit, but managed to push over to the right side. Novelle and Blumiere had attacked much of the dark energy on this side, rendering it the most vulnerable, but Luigi, Peach, Mimi, and Bowser were now trapped on the left. The monster's tentacles surrounded them.
"HELP! HELP US!" Mimi struggled amidst the constricting energy, but it was enough of a struggle to remain self-aware while touching the energy-draining tentacles.
If I can just... Novelle measured the amount of dark energy between her and the Chaos Heart. The tentacles were so plentiful, they formed a sort of floor and ceiling above and below her.
It'll be risky, but I have to! The messenger swerved between two reaching tentacles, curved her body and bypassed three more, and fired her most powerful beam straight into the central area. The remaining darkness in that area disappeared, allowing her to fire straight at the Chaos Heart.
The Triumvirate collapsed inward. The power of Novelle's blast sent it backward slightly, and it drifted slowly in space, tilting, floating in the gravity-less environment. The three segments broke apart, each section floating individually, but remaining close to each other.
"Is it over?" Luigi exhaled.
"It might be." Novelle held her arm out. "Be careful. They might have something up their sleeves."
Slowly, three shapeless figures emerged from the Triumvirate's three sections; Amtakan, Wretcha, and the Netherclops. "
The Chaos Heart has been defeated," they intoned. "
But our power will make it whole again. Our cause will never die. The heroes falter...love withers...the Chaos Heart lives on!" The three shapes poured into the Chaos Heart. After a few seconds of silence, the Heart began to grow, pulsing and beating like an actual heart. The three seperated sections of the Triumvirate slowly turned. The three smaller points attached to the larger segments split apart, forming an array of five pointed, finger-like objects on each. As the Chaos Heart reached its maximum size, nearly four times larger than normal, it stopped its pulsing motion and rotated until its characteristic heart shape was upside-down. It began moving away from our heroes, and they continued to watch its transformation.
Four tentacles grew from its sides. The two upper ones, branching from the sloping areas that were actually the bottom of the heart's shape, extended outward for some distance and then pointed upward. The two lower ones also extended outward, for a slightly longer distance, and then curved downward, giving the upside-down Heart a somewhat spider-like appearance. As it stopped its recedement into the background, the original Triumvirate's three sections now pointed toward the Chaos Heart in a triangle formation, appearing to be a formation of three hand-like objects that surrounded the artifact; the red one was on top, the lower-left was blue, and the lower-right was yellow. Finally, three vertical red lines appeared on the Heart, one at its pointed "bottom" and the other two on the ends of its two lobes, forming a right-side-up triangle. As a noise of dark energy pulsed through space, the red lines opened, revealing three large black eyes with glowing blood-red vertical pupils. A transparent red shield formed around the central Chaos Heart.
The transformation was apparently complete. Once our heroes took their eyes off the mutated Chaos Heart, they looked at Novelle. She contemplated. "We need to attack the eyes on its hands," she finally stated. "It'll probably use those hands to attack us, so get them when they come near. Once we're able to attack the Chaos Heart, we'll defeat it again and get rid of its energy for good."
"And then?" Peach asked.
Novelle thought. "And then," she began, "We'll use the Breaker Orbs and the Pure Hearts to seperate Amtakan from the Chaos Heart...and in his weakened state...we'll...destroy him."
Our heroes nodded their approval. "You can do this, Novelle," Mario encouraged. "I know you can."
Novelle's smile contained a twinge of sadness, but she appeared to be doing her absolute best to focus on our heroes' mission. "Yes. I know I can, too."
"Then let's do this." Mario locked his gaze on the Chaos Heart. "For every world."
FINAL BOSS
The Chaos Heart
The monster drew its detached bottom-left hand back and swiped it at the group of heroes. It quickly followed with an attack from the bottom-right, and then a downward thrust from the top hand. They moved back to their respective positions after attacking. "How are we supposed to hit those eyes?!" Peach questioned.
"We'll have to be careful about it." Novelle waited for hands to attack again.
Several miniature Voids flashed into existence in the area our heroes were in. It was somewhat difficult to tell where the Voids' edges were against the identical background, and our heroes were sucked into the vortexes and damaged several times. As this happened, the hands attacked again. All the while, the mutated Chaos Heart remained absolutely still, its tentacles not moving and its eyes not blinking.
"Here it comes!" Mario waited for the lower-left hand to draw near and slammed his weapon into the former Wretcha's lower eye.
"Take this!" Mimi attacked both of the lower-right hand's eyes with Rubees.
The Chaos Heart began to glow, remaining still as a statue, and unleashed a more concentrated laser than before. Our heroes were able to avoid it, but their mad swerves put some of them in the range of one of the small vortexes. All of this while the hands were constantly attacking as well. "Just avoid what you can!" Novelle urged. "My healing power's limited, so if you're going to attack but think you could be hit, wait until you have a clearer shot."
Our heroes followed Novelle's advice. Bringing down the eyes was a long and arduous process, but they eventually persevered with little inujry. When all six eyes had been defeated, the red shield surrounding the Chaos Heart vanished. The Heart itself, however, became active. Its eyes shot energy projectiles as the hands shifted to block the Chaos Heart from harm.
"We need to get through those hands and attack the Heart," Novelle thought. "But its defenses are so strong. I don't think we have much of a chance..."
"There...well, there must be
something we can do!" Bowser asserted. "Come on! There has to be a way to hurt this thing! We didn't come all this way for nothing!"
Novelle smiled. "Yeah. We certainly didn't." She carefully examined the Heart's defenses, contemplating any possible way to reach the Chaos Heart itself and damage it. "I think...I think I could send one of you flying toward the Chaos Heart in an energy charge. You'd have to hit one of the eyes. But if anything managed to hit you, you'd be stopped."
"Then I'll do it." Mario moved toward Novelle. "Send me toward it!"
"OK. Don't hit anything!" Novelle charged her magic and flung Mario toward the Chaos Heart.
"Whooo!" Mario reveled in the thrill of acceleration, but he couldn't enjoy the ride for long. The Chaos Heart's three hands formed a protective barrier. Looking to find any way through, Mario decided to see if he could squeeze through a space between two fingers. He angled his body so that it would fit, and bypassed the monster's defense. The hero immediately came under seige from lasers and other projectiles, but he swerved down and to the right, curved back upward, and slammed directly into the top eye. The Chaos Heart roared as Mario was thrown backward, retreating to where the others were waiting.
"Did you get it?" Tippi observed the Heart as its shield was reactivated. The eye Mario had hit was still intact.
"Nope. Looks like we need to hit it a few more times."
Our heroes geared up to begin a new round of attacking the eyes as the Chaos Heart sent its hands their way. After doing this for a while, the Chaos Heart unleashed a teal-colored beam that swept the entire area. The heroes seemed to be unaffected, until they began to move. They were moving incredibly slowly. "That beam slowed us down!" O'Chunks exclaimed. "Now we're sloshin' around like a bunch o' crumbs in me mum's lard gravy!"
The monster's hands continued to attack our slowed heroes, damaging them before they could get away. "We can still attack!" Novelle urged. "Just keep hitting the eyes! The beam will wear off eventually!"
It did, and they kept attacking. The Heart's energy shield was removed again. "I'll go in there," Luigi volunteered, being the closest to Novelle.
"All right." Novelle readied herself. "Be careful out there." She sent Luigi toward the Chaos Heart.
"Let's see how tough you really are, spider-heart-Amtakan-whatever!" Luigi flew through the hand defense, dodged the lasers, and nailed the top eye again. The monster gave another roar. Luigi returned to the group. "The eye's still there."
"I think one more hit will do it in." Novelle groaned as the shield reappeared. "Just one more time, guys."
After another round of eye-attacking, Peach was sent to hit the top eye on the Heart. She hit her target squarely. The top eye exploded, spewing a mass of metallic red-gray blood across the upper area of the Chaos Heart.
"We got it!" Mario rejoiced. "Now..." He stared at the monster's hands, noting that the eyes hadn't regained their color. "Wait...the shield is back up, isn't it?"
Novelle examined the new shield around the artifact. "Yes, the shield has reappeared. But it seems weaker than before."
The hands continued to attack the heroes as more miniature Voids faded in and out. "Could we break through it?" Mimi asked.
"I...think so. We'll have to get close and attack the shield until it breaks, then go for the eyes."
"But those hands..."
"Well, we'll have to get by them." Novelle moved in the direction of the Chaos Heart.
Golly, she's confident... Mimi followed her endeavor, leading the others toward the center.
As expected, the monster's hands attempted to stop our heroes. The lower-right hand moved in front of them, blocking their progress. "You aren't going to pull that one for long!" Bowser let his fiery breath loose on the hand, damaging it and causing hit to retreat. This opened the path to the center.
"Watch out!" Novelle cautioned as the Chaos Heart fired a gigantic laser in their direction. A few of the heroes were hit, but their sheer willpower gave them enough strength to continue moving in this dangerous direction.
"Yah!" O'Chunks punched the red shield with all of his might.
"Take this!" Mario struck the barrier with his hammer.
"Enjoy this while you still can, Amtakan." Blumiere attacked the shield as well.
As they continued to whale on the shield, the Chaos Heart fired a stream of orange light that coalesced into a mass of spear-like energy pockets. These attacked our heroes, putting a dent in their efforts to deactivate the shield. "Agh!" Nastasia was struck by one of the spears and knocked back.
"Hey..." Mario moved away from the shield and lured one of the energy spears toward himself. He quickly retreated to the other side of the Chaos Heart, and the spear rammed into the shield. "That's how we do it! We use these spears against it!"
"Oh! Great thinking!" Novelle congratulated. Our heroes worked individually to turn the spears around into the shield, and within moments, the barrier had been broken.
"I'll take care of this thing!" Bowser set his eyes on the Heart's lower-left eye and drove his claw into it. Damaged, the Chaos Heart roared, reactivating its shield.
"At least we know how to take care of it now," Novelle approved. Our heroes repeated the process of using the energy spears to dent the shield. This time, however, the Chaos Heart also sent homing lasers at the group. It was difficult to tell whether the fired projectile was a homing spear or a laser before it slammed into them, but through the spears and the occasional direct assault, the heroes managed to lower the shield again. O'Chunks went in for the kill, attacking the bottom-left eye again.
As the shield was restored, a horde of dark energy gathered around the Heart. The paralyzing tentacles that had caused our heroes so much trouble during the previous battle with the Triumvirate appeared again, reaching toward our heroes. "Not these again!" Luigi ducked to avoid one, only to be slammed in the back by another and jolted into semi-consciousness.
"Urgh!" Novelle swatted another one away from Luigi, trying to send a magic blast to one of the shield's exposed areas.
"Novelle, can you attack it?" Mario was busy on the left side of the Chaos Heart spinning his hammer in circles to deflect the tentacles. He occasionally managed to hit the shield.
"Yeah...I think."
Novelle moved around the area, helping the others resist the dangerous energy tentacles. She freed Mimi from one's grip. "Thanks, Novelle." Mimi targeted the shield with Rubees.
"You're-" As she spoke, the same tentacle reached out and grabbed Novelle. "Aaaiighh!!!" She could barely scream under the limb's influence.
"Novelle, the shield's almost down!" Mimi annoucned. "I'll get you out of there!" She produced one last Rubee to aim at the shield, but just before she could throw it, another tentacle suddenly extended and wrapped around her, freezing her in place. "Novelle...Mario...Blumiere..."
"At your service, my loyal minion." Blumiere sent a blast of energy at the shield's open area, deactivating it and causing the tentacles and dark energy to disappear.
"Oh, you don't have to call me 'minion' anymore!" Mimi smiled and hurled another Rubee for the Chaos Heart's bottom-left eye. The eye was shattered, again releasing a hideous mass of blood. The lower-right eye was the only one that remained.
"Yes! We're almost there!" Novelle rejoiced. Her happiness would be short-lived, however. The shield reformed, and a gigantic mass of the dark tentacles extended from the Chaos Heart, growing outward with every moment. "Um...fall back, guys!" Novelle shakily advised.
Our heroes retreated to their original, more distant position as the the dark mass continued to expand. It reached its maximum size, stopping just short of our heroes' position. They now had the dark tentacles, the Chaos Heart's three hands, and the ever-present Voids to deal with. "Can't we just attack the eyes and get rid of the tentacles or something?" Bowser griped. "Compared to this, that was easy!"
"I'm afraid that isn't a solution..." Novelle tried to discern any way to reach the Chaos Heart, noting that the hands' eyes had reactivated. "We will need to attack the eyes again, but that won't get rid of the tentacles, only the shield. We should attack the tentacles too. To get that last eye, you'll need to charge for it again like what we did the first time, but watch out for the tentacles. We'll have to clear a path."
"Let's split up." Blumiere moved his hands to indicate his plan. "Half of us will attack the hands, and half the tentacles."
"Good idea." The heroes moved according to their position. Mario, Bowser, Mimi, and Blumiere attacked the tentacles with their non-direct weapons or magic, and the others worked on the eyes.
The miniature Voids proved more than an obstacle for the hand-attacking heroes, and the ones with the dark tentacles had their hands full as well. When the hand group managed to deactivate all six eyes, the tentacle group hadn't gouged a very deep hole to attack. "I'll help with those," Novelle offered, joining the four heroes in their fight with the tentacles. With Novelle's help, they cleared a larger path, but just as the messenger was about to announce that they were ready to attack, the Chaos Heart's shield reactivated.
"What? How'd the shield get back up?" Mimi complained. She looked at the eyes on the monsters' hands. They'd been restored.
"It looks like the eyes recover on their own," Novelle observed. "We have only a limited amount of time to attack the Chaos Heart. Here, I'll help you guys create a larger gap. When it's large enough, just maintain it, and I'll send someone in to attack!" Novelle pointed at the other members of the hand group. "Attack the hands again, guys!"
"You got it," Nastasia approved. A Void then emerged directly next to her. "Whoaaaaa!" The secretary was pulled in, heavily damaged. "I don't know much longer we can keep this up!"
"You can do it!" Novelle shouted. "I don't think I can heal you any more, but just stay clear of danger! I know you should do it as fast as possible, but not if that makes you get hurt."
"Yeah. That works." Nastasia resumed her assault on the eyes.
Once Mario, Bowser, Mimi, Blumiere, and Novelle had cleared a large enough opening, Novelle called to the other group. "How close are you?"
"Pretty close!" came Luigi's response. "Just one more on Amtakan and Wretcha!"
"Excellent. All right, guys, let's keep this gap open."
The five heroes held their opening, waiting for the others to succeed. Finally, Nastasia called. "We've got it!" The Chaos Heart's shield disappeared.
"Great! We have to keep this open, so I'll send you in to attack, Nastasia." Novelle sent Nastasia hurtling toward the Heart, aiming for the lower-right eye. The minion hit her target and bounced back to the others.
"Looks like two more to go." Mario continued to attack the tentacles with his hammer, the shield reappearing like he expected.
Our heroes worked through another trial of deactivating the eyes and keeping the gap in the tentacles open. Blumiere was the chosen hero to attack again. When Novelle sent him, however, the Chaos Heart had greatly increased the number of tentacles standing between him and his destination. One of these managed to swat him away, sending him tumbling back to the heroes, very hurt. "Blumiere! Are you OK?" Tippi worried.
"Yes, darling. I'm fine." Blumiere slowly recovered his strength. "We've still got time before the shield reappears! Send me again, Novelle!"
"Do it fast!" Novelle repeated her feat, and Blumiere dodged through the waves of tentacles and struck the eye again. The monster roared, and Blumiere returned.
"Only one hit left!" Mimi rejoiced. "Come on! Let's teach this guy a lesson he'll never forget!"
"Yes!" Novelle agreed.
Our heroes resumed their respective tasks, brimming with excitement and determination. The Voids grew ever more plentiful, and the hands more active, but this didn't stop our heroes. They were at the treshold of saving all existence from these villains. They had to do this!
The eyes were defeated. "Let me go this time," Novelle urged. "I'll finish the fight I was drawn into 4,000 years ago."
"You can do it, Novelle." Mario gave her a smile.
Novelle smiled back. "Here I go." She plunged into the mass of tentacles, dodging, rolling, and blasting her way through to reach the Chaos Heart's final eye. She slammed into it with all of her force, breaking it apart and spreading the Heart's blood once more.
The tentacles and dark energy vanished as Novelle retreated to our heroes' position, but the flashing Voids still appeared intact. She looked back at the Chaos Heart. Its empty face seemed to condense into itself, forming a single, much larger eye in the heart's center, and the Heart's red shield was activated once more.
"It's not over," Mario exclaimed.
"No. It's not." Novelle sighed, examining the Chaos Heart's energy levels. "This eye seems less powerful than the others. The Chaos Heart must be holding on to its last bit of power. We just need to attack-"
Suddenly, lasers sprouted from everywhere. The dark lasers erupted from the Chaos Heart's eye and all of the hands' eyes, constantly moving and targeting our heroes. "Whoa!" Luigi uttered. "How are we supposed to attack the hand eyes?"
The miniature Voids appeared as well. Our heroes were heavily damaged by the combined assault. When the lasers finally turned off, Bowser made his move. "Now's our chance!" He dove for the Netherclops's bottom eye. As the others began attacking the three hands, the eyes produced the same orange blobs our heroes had seen in the previous fight, making it incredibly difficult to attack them directly.
"Come...on!" Luigi punched Amtakan's top eye, only to be swept into a Void shortly afterward.
The Chaos Heart fired three lasers in a rotating triangle pattern that swept the area, blocking our heroes' access to the hands. The hands themselves slammed into the heroes, only weakening them. "Come on...come on..." Mimi breathed. "We can...do this..."
"Y...yes!" Bowser defeated Wretcha's top eye. Only Amtakan's bottom eye remained.
"Let's do it!" Nastasia's voice was weak and breath-filled.
The Heart turned off its triangle lasers, only to start firing smaller beams of energy at a much more rapid pace. Bowser was struck by one, knocked just about out of fighting condition. "No...we have to do this!"
"Let me go for it..." Luigi crept up to Amtakan's bottom eye. Slowly, he drew his fist back.
"No! Luigi! Watch out!" Novelle sped in front of the green plumber and blocked a laser shot, allowing Luigi to take out the final eye. The central shield was deactivated.
The Chaos Heart went crazy. Its hands moved and clawed wildly as its eye produced a multitude of lasers, projectiles, spears, and every other weapon our heroes had seen in this battle. "Mario." Novelle called the hero.
"Should I score the final hit?" Mario asked, guessing at what Novelle wanted him for.
"Yes and no. We're both going to do it."
"Both of us?"
"Yes. That's all I have power for, and both of us will guarantee that the eye is finally defeated. We're going to put an end to this menace once and for all."
"I've got it, Novelle." As Novelle prepared, Mario looked at the messenger that had guided the heroes throughout their entire adventure. "You're not sorry for this, are you?"
Novelle sighed, smiling a little. "No...I'm not. We have to defeat him. And I know that no matter how much it pains me, I have to either do this or watch the whole world disappear. And all of its emotion and love." Novelle was ready. "And I know I have to do it right and save everyone from this villain Amtakan. We're going to defeat him now, once and for all. Are you ready?"
Mario nodded.
"Then let's go." Novelle hurled them both toward the Chaos Heart. A laser immediately shot in front of them, but Mario and Novelle ducked down to dodge the blast. More energy spears came their way. The pair temporarily split up to avoid this obstacle, and when more lasers attacked, they moved to opposite sides.
The Chaos Heart was fast approaching. Mario felt Novelle draw closer and close her hand around his. After dodging one more laser swipe, Mario and Novelle struck the Chaos Heart's eye together, defeating it once and for all.
The final eye exploded, the hands deactivated, and the entire monster became devoid of activity. The area was soundless. "Did we do it?" Peach asked.
Novelle was silent. "It's time, isn't it?" Mario asked her. "Now we use the Breaker Orbs."
The messenger sighed. "Yes. That's what we do. Come on." Novelle brought Mario to the Chaos Heart.
Even without its eyes, in the dark Void environment, the deactivated Chaos Heart still appeared somewhat frightening. It was a lone object in the middle of a vast void - and not a Void you'd want to be lost in. Mario watched Novelle as she summoned the orbs. The five orbs, red, yellow, green, blue, and violet, circled around the Chaos Heart, expelling the shapes of Amtakan, Wretcha, and the Netherclops from the artifact.
This was the part Novelle had been dreading from the very beginning. Slowly, she moved toward Amtakan, readying herself to kill him.
Amtakan's voice came, repeating a statement Novelle had heard before. "
Whatever you do to me, Maia, I will have the same done to you. It is in my magic. You cannot harm me without also harming yourself."
"Oh...!" Novelle hadn't considered that. Measuring Amtakan's magic energy, she determined that he could, indeed, kill her if she killed him.
"Can he do it?" Mario asked.
"Yes. He can. And..." Novelle examined the other two souls, as well as the Chaos Heart. "If Amtakan and I kill each other, Wretcha and the Netherclops could recover after a while. And then they'd be free to continue Amtakan's scheme." Novelle looked at Mario with utter sadness in her beautiful eyes.
Mario was pained. Seeing Novelle this sad was a shock to him. And as tears fell from the corners of her eyes, they fell from Mario's as well. "Then what do we do?"
"There's only one thing we can do." Novelle moved between the Chaos Heart and the three souls. "I'll stand here, and with the last of my energy, I'll destroy all of this - Amtakan, Wretcha, the Netherclops, the Chaos Heart, both Prognosticuses, and...myself."
A strange sensation rushed through Mario's body. "You mean..."
"Yes. There's no other way. I must die in order to save the worlds."
"But...but you..."
"It's a sacrifice we all need to make, Mario. I always expected it would come to something like this. I'd need to..." Novelle trailed off, sobbing. She buried her face in her hands. "No! I didn't want this! I didn't want to become the savior of every dimension! I wanted to live a peaceful, normal life, and not have to worry about Amtakan...or Ganter...or Count Bleck...or..." Novelle cried. Mario could already see the tears leaking through her fingers, floating off into the gravity-less space.
Mario moved next to her. He rested his hand on the messenger's shoulder. "I know. If I had to deal with all of that, I probably would've gone insane." He gently moved Novelle's hands from her face. "But you accomplished your task perfectly. You
succeeded. You saved the entire multiverse from complete destruction on three different occasions. And this makes four. That's a
lot more than anyone, even I, can truthfully say they did. You've done wonderfully, Novelle. And I can truthfully say that you are, without a doubt, one of the most amazing people I've ever met. Probably the most."
Novelle raised her head. She smiled, the same smile our heroes had grown familiar with. Knowing that this was probably the last time he'd ever see that smile drove needles of emotional pain into Mario's heart. He hadn't even known she existed until a little while ago, and had known her true identity for an even shorter time, but in that short time, she had done so much, and said so many things, and offered so much insight. To lose her would be...well, painful. Very painful.
"Yes. You're right," Novelle answered. "I did succeed. But you heroes helped out a lot, too. Don't give me all the credit." She continued smiling, looking very innocent, kind, and intelligent - as she was.
Mario nodded. "I guess we did. We both did our best to save the worlds from a man who would cause their destruction. And in the end, we succeeded. But we couldn't have done it without each other."
"That's true." Novelle looked down again.
"Novelle. No, I mean...Maia." The messenger perked up at the mention of her true name. "I want you to know that I'll never forget you. You helped pull our entire adventure together. You guided us when times were tough. You orchestrated the defeat of a plan that would destroy love forever. And you're so kind...and friendly...and happy...and confident. And full of love." Mario lowered his eyes, trying to think of the right words. "As far as people go, you're the closest thing to perfect I've ever seen."
Novelle smiled. It would be the last time anyone alive saw her do it. "Well...thanks...Mario. I'll never forget you, either. You're the greatest hero I've seen. You have the drive, the will, and the power to get things done. You're willing put yourself in danger to protect those you love and...well, anything that needs protection. And, Mario..." Novelle's tears grew more plentiful than ever, but her smile only grew wider. "You can do the craziest platform stunts I've ever seen."
They both laughed. Platforming, indeed, was one thing Mario could do extremely well.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Novelle concluded after they had settled down. "Mario...let me make one final request. Do your best to preserve love in the world. You're going to save the world whenever the next new threat arises, aren't you?"
"Of course I will. It's in my job description." Mario and Novelle shared another quick laugh. "Yes. We'll never truly be free of evil. As long as the world goes on, anyway. But I'll do my best to keep evil out where I can. You never know how long it'll be before someone else decides to destroy the world. Or how long it'll be before you're called to save someone in distress, or..." Mario shook his head. "Yes. I understand, Novelle. I'll do my best."
"Thank you." Novelle nodded one last time, and then began to sob uncontrollably. "Goodbye...Mario."
"Goodbye...Maia."
Mario turned around. He didn't look back as he returned to where the others were waiting. He lowered his face into his hands, crying for a reason he wasn't entirely sure of himself.
Amtakan, Wretcha, the Netherclops, the Chaos Heart, The Void, the Dark Prognosticus, the Light Prognosticus, and Novelle all vanished in one final, cataclysmic explosion.