Super Paper Mario 2: The Tribe of Darkness (Complete + Art Project)

[Reading]

His site, The Hidden Scepter (?) is another place he posts this.

That's correct. If you haven't seen the thread in General Chat, we're also hosting an event called the "Creation Convention" until the 27th of this month. A link is in my profile.

I've finished Chapters 8-1 and 8-2, but I'm holding off on uploading the entirety of Chapter 8 until the post-convention awards. This event will occur soon after the 27th; the convention awards will be handed out, all the rest of SPM3 will be uploaded, and a new site design will also be introduced.

Incidentally, looking back, I can't believe I thought of this story as a "side project" when I started it. I wasn't even intending to put it on my website (I finally put it on after a month and a half) because it was supposed to be a "fun" side project for the Fungi Forums that simply spawned from my like for Super Paper Mario. This story has actually received more attention than my "main" project, The Hidden Scepter. I'll be sure to "fix" tHS after this, since I've developed most of my current taste in writing from SPM2/3.

And thanks again, Nintendoobsessed. :)

[Nintendoobsessed]

Entered Paper Bowser into competiton

[Reading]

I waited to post Chapter 8 along with the convention awards, so here's the final chapter. I hope you all enjoyed the story. :)


There were now nine heroes in one corner, and Amtakan in the other. Our heroes had reached the true final act - either Amtakan would be defeated and the Chaos Heart and Dark Prognosticus destroyed, or the Chaos Heart reactivated and all of existence sucked into The Void. They have learned almost everything regarding the history of the Tribe of Darkness - and their newest hero, the helpful Novelle. Amtakan was the true author of Dark Prognosticus, authoring it to aid in his evil plans to rid the multiverse of love. The mysterious voice Maia was in fact the Novelle who had guided and assisted our heroes throughout their entire adventure. The heroes plunged into the final door, ready for anything that might come their way. This was it. This was the fate of every universe.

The black door was drawn into existence. Our heroes stepped into the last dimension, greeted by almost total blackness. Once their eyes adjusted, they began to scope out the details of the scenery around them. They were standing on what seemed to be a glass floor. More glass formations, similar in some ways to the corkscrews in the Dimension of Refuge, existed in the distance. There were hexagon-shaped discs that floated in air, some in vertical columns. In these columns, the individual hexagon segments were sometimes oriented in different directions. Different formations such as vertical bars with spikes at each end also existed, as well as sloping spikes emerging from the blackness below. A few very dark red curtains hung from above, ending in two points. Just above the forked bottom was the white Tribe of Darkness emblem - as white as it could be in the almost pitch-black environment.
Mario blinked. "This place is...dark."
"And creepy." Luigi took a single step forward, listening to the faint echo of his shoe hitting the glass. "I'd hate to spend all my time here."
"There's...no emotion here," Tippi reflected. "It's just a black void. Just what Amtakan would like."
Our heroes stood for a few minutes, just staring at the blank scenery that lie before them. "This is it," Novelle sighed. "The World of Amtakan. He's created this loveless paradise for himself and his minions." She turned around. "You know, Mario..."
Novelle looked as if she wanted to say something more, but she was silent for several seconds. "What is it, Novelle?"
The messenger shifted. "Well, I wanted to say something to you...but I don't really know what I was going to say. I...don't even know why I wanted to talk to you. I just did."
"Friends talk to friends," Mario reassured her. "If there's anything on your mind, you can tell us. We'll be there for you, just like you were there for us."
The corners of Novelle's mouth slowly rose until they formed her usual smile. "OK. I know." She turned forward. "Well, no use standing here. Let's go forward. Amtakan must be at the end of this world."
Mario nodded. Our heroes plunged ahead, setting their course through the emotionless void.
The group's path brought them absolutely no obstacles or enemies - just a long, straight hallway with no interaction whatsoever. After entering a dim door, however, things changed. Our heroes found themselves in a narrow passage with glass spikes lining the floor. The ceiling housed a thin metal bar that they could hold onto to cross the spikes. "This shouldn't be too much trouble..." Mario jumped and wrapped his fingers around the horizontal pole, working his way across the spikes. Enemies, however, littered the area. A few enemies that shot fireballs upward made things difficult for the traveling heroes. Once they'd reached the other side, a few platforms led them up to a new area with spikes on the floor, walls, and ceiling, and a few small platforms to get them across. "This looks like it'll be harder than what was in Castle Dimentio," Luigi observed as he jumped from one platform to the next. After this newest spike trap, our heroes were presented with a lower area that featured a locked door. There was no apparent path onward.
"What do we do here?" Tippi set forth.
"Let me flip. I'll see if there's anything." Mario flipped, revealing a square hole in the ground that dropped into a short passage leading to the right. After swinging his hammer and besting the enemy-infested hallway, Mario uncovered a treasure chest with an ominous black key inside. He returned to where the others were standing. "This looks like the key...literally." He unlocked the door, and our heroes proceeded.
Within this door was a square-shaped room. Each of the four sides contained a door, and a pit lay at its center. "This is like in the ice palace, isn't it?" Luigi entered the door on the right, only to reemerge in the exact same room with the others.
"I think we'll know if we've entered a different room..." Tippi mused. "Let's try the other doors, just to be sure." Our heroes went for the door just ahead of them. This room was also square, but contained four spaced-out pillars running from the floor to the ceiling, and a few enemies. The pillars were made of see-through glass, like the rest of the environment, and even through our heroes were boxed within the room, the transparent walls allowed viewing beyond. It was apparently by magic that our heroes couldn't see the rooms beyond the confines of this area, only the eerie glass formations that littered the environment.
"We didn't take the left door last time, so how about this time?" Peach offered. The others followed her into the door on the left, emerging in a new room with some enemies attached to the walls. There was nothing indicating which door to take, so, guessing, Mario led the others through the one on the right. Our heroes reappeared in the room with the pit at its center.
"Looks like we took a wrong turn." Bowser angled his head back and forth, trying unsuccessfully to discern some information from the distance.
The group retraced their path until coming to that room again. This time, our heroes took the door right in front of them. They were greeted with a spike-infested room with another three doors to choose from. After taking the left door and returning to the initial maze room, our heroes chose the door on the right, escaping the door maze. Giant spikes of glass sprouted from the nothingness below and dripped down from the ceiling, directly in our heroes' path. Various other glass formations also filled this space. The bad news was, the ground ended just before them. "How do we get across?" Tippi looked to the other side, noting another door on firm ground past the glass spikes. The Pixl's voice grew softer and worried. "I think we have to...climb across these..."
"Climb on the...gulp...spikes?" Luigi shivered. The spikes were thick enough for our heroes to wrap their arms around, and the other various formations, including floating hexagons, provided platforms for them to jump on, but the entire process looked very, very dangerous.
"Yes, I'm afraid, that's the only way you guys can get across." Novelle surveyed the obstacles. "Unless...I think I could use my power to help you in some way. I could probably alter these glass formations in some way that'll assist you."
"Could yeh add more o' these platforms?" O'Chunks questioned.
"I'm not sure if I could do that, but I might be able to move some glass around to create platforms. Let me see." Novelle drew her wand, manipulating certain sections of the see-though glass. She created a more convenient platform system for our heroes to travel across. "It's not perfect, but it's the best I can do."
"It's fine, Novelle," Mario encouraged. "You're doing all you can." Novelle smiled at Mario again before the hero set off with a bold leap upon the first glass platform. He jumped from there to the nearest glass spike, gripping the area near its sharp top for balance. Mario resisted the temptation to look downward into the black depths below him as he loosened his grip on the spike and planted his feet on the next small platform. He turned back to face the others. "It should be OK, guys."
This was reassurance enough for the others. Luigi bounced into the air and landed on the platform, closely followed by the rest of the heroes who weren't able to fly. "Is that a wall in front of us?" Peach questioned.
Novelle floated closer to the impediment. "Yeah, it looks like a big glass wall." She thought. "Let me try something." The messenger tapped into her magic again, creating a circular hole in the blockade. "It might not be easy to jump through, but it's all I can do."
"Thanks, Novelle." Mario accepted the guide's attempt and carefully leaped through the opening, swiftly grabbing onto another glass spike.
"Oooh...this is unnerving." Bowser marveled at the platforms' ability to hold his weight in the air. "Thanks, Novelle. I don't think I'd have the stomach for this if you hadn't helped out."
"You're welcome, Bowser." Novelle hovered over the pit, close by.
Mario drew close to the other side. With a final jump, he landed on the safe ground at the end of this hallway. "You've almost made it, guys."
"Yeah," said Peach, gauging her next jump. She leaped for the next spike, but misjudged her jump just slightly. This sent her against the side of the spike and downward toward the pit. "AAAIEEE!"
"My lovely wife!" Bowser jumped off his platform, curling into his shell, and smashed through the glass spike, catching Peach as she fell while retaining his foothold in the smashed-out interior.
"Oh...uh...thanks...Bowser." Peach was still in shock as Bowser gently carried her back to the platform.
"Peach...are you OK?" Mario inquired once Bowser had safely escorted Peach to the other side.
"Yes...I'm fine." Bowser gently set the princess down, and she slowly stood up. "That was scary for a few moments."
"But I was there to protect you, right?" Bowser insisted.
"Bowser..." Peach stared at her adversary-turned-temporary-friend. "...Yes, I suppose you were." She turned to Mario. "I know you would've done just the same, Mario," she whispered. The hero smiled.
All of our heroes were now safely positioned on the platform beyond the spike pit. "Well, let's go in this door." The single door provided the only way ahead, so Mario opened the door, allowing him and the others into the next room.
This one was guarded. "So you finally came, huh?" Mortcha pointed. "Ha. I knew you'd get past that really awesome impossible-to-pass spike pit. You just beat all the odds. And it'll be fun to destroy you ourselves. Right, Margaret?"
"Yeah!" Margaret hung behind her creator, her facial expression not quite matching her tone of voice.
Tippi moved forward. "Oh, come on. We defeated you last time. Why couldn't we do it now?"
"Well, if you must know," Mortcha began, "Amtakan respected us individually and trained us to defeat even the most potent of heroes. There's no way any of you could possibily defeat us, so...how about just jumping into that pit over there?" Mortcha extended her arm behind her, motioning to a large pit that contained a multitude of floating glass formations, as well as a few more spikes. There was a door on the other side.
"We're going to get to Amtakan," Mario firmed. "And there's nothing you can do about that."
Novelle shifted. "Morris...don't you remember? When you saw me? It seemed like we were friends then..."
"I'm Mortcha, idiot! And no, you'll never get the chance to talk to your sweet little Morris again. As long as I'm in his body, his soul is floating somewhere in limbo, so as far as I'm concerned, he doesn't exist anymore. It's sad. I know. But live with it."
Bowser put on his best tough guy pose. "Well, as far as I'm concerned, if you don't get out of our way right now, I'm personally going to turn you both into confetti. And you don't want to be turned into confetti."
"OH! A CHALLENGE!" Mortcha approached Bowser with her best "angry mother" look. "Well, Bowser-pie, if you don't get your naughty little rear into that abyss right now, I think I'll turn you into laundry detergent. How would you like THAT?"
Margaret sort of sighed.
"You're on, crazy lady!" Bowser marched toward the witch. "Oh yeah! Here it comes!"

MINIBOSS
Mortcha and Margaret

"Bring it!" Mortcha drew a sapphire-hued stone and flung it toward Bowser, meeting directly with Bowser's fire breath.
"You think that can hurt the Koopa king?" Bowser rushed Mortcha, sending her flying back several feet. "Yeah, take this!" Bowser picked up the fallen stone and threw it at Mortcha, missing and sending it over the pit behind them.
"Oh, it's ON now!" Mortcha pulled out another blue stone and randomly threw it backward over the pit as well.
"Is that your attack? Try actually hitting me!" Bowser nailed the witch with his fire.
"Margaret!" Mortcha shouted. "Don't just stand there! Turn into a spider and destroy these fools!"
"Yeah...OK. Got it!" Margaret gave a clearly fake smile as she snapped her head and performed the transformation unique to her, Mimi, and the other minion. She moved for the heroes, creating a giant sphere of green rocks around her head.
"Mimi, should you go with the spider, too?" Tippi inquired.
"No, Mimi," Blumiere cautioned. "Stay in this form. I can tell Margaret's attacks have a wide range. You're a larger target as a spider, and you're more mobile in this form, so don't transform. You should combine your Rubees with my magic attacks to break this stone shield. Understand?"
"You got it, count...uh, Blumiere!" Mimi and Blumiere worked on destroying Margaret's barrier while the new spider attacked the others with a multitude of duplicated heads. A group of the heads slammed Mario into a corner.
"Agh!" Mario drew his hammer. "You won't get that satisfaction for long." Mario angled his hammer in a neat line, destroying the heads one by one. He resisted the urge to blow on his hammer as he rushed toward Margaret's true location.
"You won't get to attack these heroes!" Novelle moved toward Margaret, shielding the others while helping Mimi and Blumiere remove the bits and pieces of Margaret's shield.
All of the chipped stones provided excellent ammo to attack the minion with. "Why bother?" Nastasia dared. "We can practically do this in our sleep now!" She picked up an armful of the green stones, retreated to the corner where Mario had been assaulted, and started attacking Margaret from a distance.
The minion's shield was nearly depleted. Luigi went in for the kill by sneaking underneath her and springing from below with his Super Jump, coming back down to land on her head with a stomp as well. As the trio of range-attacking heroes continued their drive, Margaret lost two of her six legs. She retaliated by spreading her remaining four outward, attaching them to Luigi, Blumiere, Peach, and O'Chunks. "Mario!" Peach wailed.
"Peach, I'm right behind you!" Mario used his hammer to slice through Margaret's leg as the minion surrounded her head with green stones and spun toward the struggling Blumiere. She had reached O'Chunks as well when Mario freed his brother.
"You big, ugly king." Mortcha insulted Bowser as she and the Koopa king continued their duel.
"Oh, you're asking for it now! I think I'll make you into confetti, and then stuff Margaret with you, and then beat her until you come out!" Bowser sprang into the air and aimed to pound Mortcha into the ground, but the witch swung out of the way and produced a ball of dark energy that she sent at Bowser, propelling him back into the nearby wall. Glass shattered around the area. "You little!" Bowser fell to the ground.
"Not so high and mighty now, are you?" Mortcha prepared more projectiles, but Bowser knew what to do by this point. Just as the minion was about to throw them, Bowser shoved his hand in their direction, breaking them free of Mortcha's grip. Bowser kicked them directly into the witch. "Aaaagh! You..."
The other heroes were busy with Margaret. "I'll teach yeh a lesson yeh'll never forget, bugface!" O'Chunks rose into the air with a flatulent burst and descended directly down on Margaret. He then forcefully grabbed the spider's head, swung it around, and sent it flying over the pit.
"Whoa!" Bowser watched the minion sail above his head. "That's a pretty solid shot, O'Chunks!"
"Aha!" Mortcha used this opportunity to pound the distracted Bowser with lightning-like bolts of dark energy.
"Mwaaaahhh!!!" Bowser struggled against the dark power's paralyzing influence.
"Bowser, we're coming!" Novelle flew to Bowser's side and thrust her wand between Bowser and the energy's path, severing the connection between him and Mortcha.
"Whew...thanks." Weakened somewhat, Bowser began another attack against the witch, but Novelle stopped him.
"Let me handle this." Bowser had severely drained Mortcha's health, so Novelle assisted with her own attacks.
"Oh, you think you can hurt me, you incompetent fairy?" Mortcha sneered. "Let's see you overcome a double attack!" She produced a blue stone as well as a dark energy charge and propelled the stone into Novelle using the energy from the dark magic.
"Aiigh!" Novelle flew back into the wall, cracking the glass barrier.
"You aren't hurting Novelle anymore!" Mario leaped for Mortcha while Peach came in with her parasol as well. Mortcha was soundly knocked out of the fight.
"One down, one to go!" Bowser looked over the wide glass-filled pit, noting the still Margaret. She was standing with both of her two remaining legs on a different glass formation, attacking our heroes with green stones from afar.
"Come over here, you coward!" Blumiere hovered to Margaret's location and attacked her with his body slam. Aggravated, the spider assaulted the former villain with a wave of stones, but Blumiere was too fast. He attacked her again, leaving her with a single leg.
"I'll go over there and help him." Luigi climbed over the glass formations to reach the place where Blumiere and Margaret were dueling. He rose into the air, drawing his first back and delivering a sound punch to Margaret's head. The minion recoiled long enough for Blumiere to assault her with one last blast of magic, defeating her final leg. Margaret wasn't about to admit defeat, however. She shape-shifted into a giant blade, slicing through the glass pillars that Luigi used as platforms. "Aaahhhhh!!" Luigi stumbled across the glass, staying ahead of Margaret by inches, until he reached the main platform. The minion didn't stop, however. She smashed into the safe arena, shattering a large portion of it into flying shards of sparkling glass that rained across the area.
"Gack!" Peach moved away from an incoming glass flyer, only to be sideswiped by another. The glass gouged a small cut in the side of her face, but there was a threat at hand that had to be focused on. The Mushroom Kingdom princess jumped for the standard form of Margaret amidst the settling shards of sharp glass, aided by Luigi and O'Chunks. Our heroes were careful not to slip and fall on the saber-like pieces.
"There's glass everywhere!" Mimi kicked aside a small piece of the ground as she went for Margaret, Rubees ready. Margaret defended herself with a line of produced green stones, but Mimi's Rubees pierced her defense and sent her toppling over. Overconfident, Mimi rushed toward her counterpart - and tripped. Her legs gave way as she fell headfirst, screaming, partially over Margaret, and the other half over the saber-littered floor.
"Mimi!" Blumiere called, but his former minion was in too much shock to respond. Her entire left side had been scratched and cut in an instant by the glass, and despite the rate at which her body healed itself, the volume of injury was large. Mimi stared at Margaret. The entirety of the other minion's backside had been shredded. As Mimi and Margaret slowly pulled themselves up to their feet, our heroes could see that a large mass of Margaret's green blood had leaked from her backside, dripping to the floor in large puddles. Tears leaked from her eyes as well. Neither minion said anything. Finally, Margaret simply flipped out.

Mario absently kicked over more shards of glass. "Margaret didn't speak at all while we were fighting her." He turned to face the others, a quizzical frown on his face. "Did you notice that?"
"She didn't seem herself," Novelle noted. "Not anything like what I saw when you fought her near the ice crater. She was so bratty and self-centered, but now..." Novelle lowered her eyes. "She was quiet. It almost seemed like she didn't want to be here."
"What...happened to her?" Mimi slowly walked over to the others.
"Something, that's for sure..." Novelle looked at Mimi. "Mimi, I think I can speed up your healing." Novelle moved her wand, doing her best to alleviate Mimi's pain. It didn't completely heal the minion, but it cleared most of her scars.
"Thanks, Novelle."
"You're welcome." The messenger looked at the other side of the room. "Well, I guess our path ahead is through that door."
Mario took the first step, jumping to the nearest glass formation. Once all of our heroes had arrived on the other side, they entered the door. "We're another step closer to Amtakan," Mario announced. "Come on, heroes. We have to keep up our fight. Let's go!"

-END OF CHAPTER-

[Reading]

Our heroes entered a small room with nothing but a pit and a large glass spike emerging from it. "What now?" Peach asked.
Mario looked around the room, trying to discern the way forward. "I don't see anything," he finally announced. "It looks like the only way to go is...down."
"Down?" Luigi stared at the void below. "There couldn't possibly be anything down there..."
"Well, let's look around." Tippi hovered around the area, trying to sense anything that could help them. Novelle did the same.
"I don't feel anything around here," the messenger finally announced. "I really think going down is our only option."
"Well..." Luigi sort of stammered. "Should you go down and test it, first?"
"Of course. I'll be right back."

Novelle soon returned. "Yeah, it's safe down there. And not just safe...it's cool. You guys should check it out." Her smile seemed somehow more mysterious and intimidating.
Mario stared at the spiky glass pillar. "All right, then. Let's try this out."
Mario carefully moved toward the spike. With a jump, he aimed for the spike and wrapped his arms around it. He looked below for a moment, then gently eased himself down the glass formation. Darkness surrounded him. He couldn't see the glass spike before his very eyes as he descended into the void, further and further downward. Finally, a crisp yellow light caught his eye against the pitch-dark backdrop. His feet hit something solid as a world of neon-glowing underground passageways appeared before him. "Whoa..." Mario paused for a few moments to look at his surroundings. The landforms were shaped like a typical underground cave, with stalactites and stalagmites replacing the glass spikes of the area above, but they were just neon yellow and purple outlines against the blank backdrop. As Mario continued to stare at the world in front of him, he was reminded of the "underground" cave within the giant castle Bowser had created after stealing the Star Rod.
"Yah-ho!" Luigi shot downward, landing next to his brother. "Wow. Novelle was right. This place is...um...I don't know...awesome? Yeah, that's what it is."
"It is pretty neat," Mario reflected. "I mean, all this is way below the glass landscape above us. It's like a cave. But I don't want to say it's awesome. Amtakan created it and everything..."
"Well, so what? Evil villains always have really cool hideouts. Remember Castle Bleck? The original Castle Bleck, I mean?"
Mario nodded. The photo-negative black-and-white Castle Bleck had displayed an impressive landscape. "Yes, it is cool, I suppose."
"Not just cool. Awesome!"
Bowser had landed, followed by the other six heroes and Tippi. "Well, I'll be! That Amtakan jerk can't even come up with his own ideas!"
Peach turned to face her kidnapper. "I'm just glad you're back to normal, Bowser. Memories and all."
"Why, thank you, my lovely w..." Bowser paused, then scowled. "Oh, yeah, I guess you're really not my wife anymore. Phooey. Ah well..." Bowser seemed to withdraw.
"Bowser..." Novelle approached the Koopa king. Mario would have cautioned her against this if she were anyone else, but our heroes had their reasons never to question her. "You really love Peach, don't you?"
The villain-hero gave Novelle a "duh" look. "Yeah, of course I do! Haven't you heard about all those times I kidnapped her?"
"But Peach doesn't love you."
"Well, uh, you see, ummm...well, yeah, she does! Just look at her! She's giving me a smile, isn't she?"
Peach was frowning.
"I think, Bowser," Novelle continued, "that Peach doesn't love you because she doesn't like being put in a dungeon or wherever else you keep her, against her will. Maybe she wants someone that'll offer her true love. Someone like Mario."
"Mario..." Bowser gave his rival an angry stare. "Yeah, you just keep stealing her from me."
"Have you ever considered that maybe Mario and Peach think you're stealing her away from him?"
"Why would they think that? I've...uh...well, you know, I guess I've never thought of it that way."
Novelle's smile slowly crept onto her face. "I think it would be best if you just left Peach alone. She wants to be with Mario, so if you love her so much, why don't you let her have what she wants?"
Bowser's eyebrows dropped. He considered everything for a few seconds, and then shook his head. "Whatever. I'm not really into deep philosophical discussions, OK? Let's just go for Amtakan and kick his butt." Bowser set the path forward.
As our heroes began their trek through this new area, jumping through obstacles and defeating enemies, Mario hung back and whispered to Novelle. "How did you do that? Bowser sounded like he was actually considering what you said."
Novelle shrugged. "I know a lot about love. And I guess my position would incline Bowser to listen to me more closely, just like all of you."
"But that was amazing. If you could actually convince Bowser to respect Peach's wishes and not kidnap her all the time, that would be...awesome. To put it lightly."
The messenger smiled again. "Well, I can do what I can to help, but I don't think Bowser is going to stop taking Peach anytime soon. He's that stubborn kind of person, you know? You can make him contemplate a few things, and maybe even see a little of the perspective of the other side, but at the end of the day, he's..." Novelle shook her head. "...you know. Bowser."
"Yeah. I guess." "Bowser" would always hold a set definition in Mario's mind. "That was still pretty surprising, though, what you could make Bowser think about."
"He does listen if you pressure him enough. But he's a person with very misguided ideals about love, just like Amtakan and his minions. I wouldn't want to persist beyond what I already have, not at once, anyway, just to ensure that he'll maintain friendly relationships with us. I won't dismiss the possibility that he could change, but even if he doesn't, that just means that nothing will change at all. You're pretty used to having Bowser kidnap Peach all the time, aren't you? Since he's done it, like, 20 times."
Mario was listening carefully to Novelle's breakdown of Bowser's motives. "Well. That's some deep stuff, Novelle."
Novelle took this in stride. "I like to think about deep things. There's been times over the last 4,118 years when I've had nothing better to do."
"4,118 years? Is that really how old you are?"
"Yeah. That's my exact age. 4,118 years, 5 months, and 27 days. I was 17 when Amtakan and I became friends, and I had no idea what was coming for me. People always want to live longer, but you know..." She closed her eyes and sighed. "Being immortal isn't all it's cracked up to be."
"I see. It must get boring at times. And all the knowledge of what was happening..."
"It does. Especially when we knew Amtakan was out there, plotting whatever he was plotting."
"You had to sit through multiple human lifetimes of that uncertainty," Mario sighed. "How did you stand it?"
"It wasn't easy."
Novelle and Mario smiled at each other. The hero just couldn't let go of the thought that the seemingly young girl walking next to him was a 4,000-year-old magician who'd saved the universe from destruction on multiple occasions.
"Whoa! Incoming!" Luigi stood back as a large block slid in our heroes' direction. It abruptly stopped just before reaching them and proceeded in the other direction.
"Looks like a platform obstacle." Mario looked above the moving block, observing several more of various shapes and sizes. "We have to be careful here, or we'll be smashed flat." Mario expertly leaped through a gap between the crushing blocks.
The moving block structure extended upward some way before leading into an open area above with a single door. Our heroes entered it, coming out in a similar area, but with orange and blue neon outlines rather than yellow and purple. "What is this place?" Tippi questioned.
There was a single path in front of them, so our heroes walked toward it, only to encounter another door, as well as a ceiling passage that extended far above them. For those of our heroes who couldn't fly or climb walls, there appeared to be no way to travel upward. "I guess we take the door," Mario announced. He and his team entered this door as well. The scenery was now yellow and purple again, and the room's layout was the exact same except for a few moving platforms providing upward access in the passage. "I think I know what's going on here." Mario jumped upon the nearest platform. "There's two different sides to this area, one that's yellow and one that's orange. When we go in a door, we switch."
"No puzzle is too great for the mind of Mario," Mimi joked.
Our heroes ascended the passage, encountering more doors and solving more mazes on the way. As they traveled to the right, powerful enemies assaulted them, but under Novelle's influence, our heroes managed to get by with relatively few injuries.
Finally, they reached a door that led them to the next minion room. H-X Alpha and B-A Omega were waiting inside. "It's those robots again..." Tippi sighed. Our heroes looked ahead, in their "not-this-again" mindset, until their eyes fell upon B-A Omega.
The robot had not only been repaired, he had been upgraded. Instead of the simple metal beam it once was, Omega's right arm now contained four small gun ends positioned around the main one, as well as a joint in the middle. His left arm contained a joint as well, in addition to two glowing white rings that encircled the arm. His left leg now sported a row of compartments similar to his left arm, and the two-toed foot on the right leg had been replaced with a triangular device that contained several flashing buttons of unknown use.
"You're dead meat now, heroes." B-A Omega spoke with venom.
"Oh...don't be so serious, Omega." H-X Alpha extended a thin metal bar with a blade at its end. "You need to be more serious. Those heroes...they're on us again. I feel so sad." The small robot proceeded to cut himself.
Novelle moved forward. "No matter how many times we do this, it will end the same. Haven't you robots learned your lesson by now? FIVE TIMES these heroes have beaten you, no matter what the situation. Have you ever considered you might be doing the wrong thing?"
"Doing the wrong thing? Hah!" Omega scoffed. "We merely need to improve our strategy using logic and reason. Our tactics always have a scientific basis."
Novelle looked peeved. "You guys have the same problem as the civilization that created the very situation we're in now. What's so scientific about wanting to destroy the world's love and emotion? How could civilization possibly survive without them?"
"The better question is, how can civilization keep on going, with them? They serve no purpose in the grand scheme of things, so we might as well abandon these worthless, time-consuming pursuits in favor of pure reason to create a better plan of existence."
The messenger groaned. "You robots and your philosophy."
"It's got to be a better philosophy than yours, doesn't it? Think about it. What purpose are you doing all this fighting for? To preserve envy, hate, wrath, despair, depression, and all the other emotions that cause the world so much trouble? To preserve the thoughts that drive some to go mad, others to seek power and control at the expense of anyone who stands in their way, and still others to kill themselves? Wouldn't you rather have a world in which everyone is of the same mind and works together to accomplish a single, undisputed goal? And this wouldn't be a robotic society where everyone is exactly the same. Oh no. We'd definitely allow everyone to have their own individual thoughts and personality."
"Wait...what?" Mario stared at the larger robot. "Isn't Amtakan's goal to destroy the universes and their population?"
"Destroy their love and emotion, yes. But destroy existence itself, definitely not. His plan is to create a new world. He plans to take a select few citizens from different dimensions, brainwash them, and have them build the new existence he desires. Isn't that a foolproof plan? Listen, heroes. There's no logical backing behind love and emotion. They are malfunctions of human nature. Why do you even bother coming to this fortress and trying to defeat Amtakan? It's not going to happen. We have the backing of pure reason...of which there is none to oppose us."
Novelle took center stage again. "You can talk all you want, Omega, and make it sound like your argument is the way to go, but no one else will buy it. You know what you're doing? You're selling us a product. You're highlighting the bad aspects of emotion and refusing to even mention the positives that come from it. You're billing it as a 'malfunction of human nature', while not even stopping to consider that love is a force that has brought us together and shaped existence. Or maybe you have considered it - you just don't want to accept it. You're insulting and degrading anyone who disagrees with you - and this is from someone who claims to use logic and reason to guide their behavior!" She was on a roll. "And you know what the sad thing is? You'd probably respond to these allegations with something like 'Novelle has a tiny mind and doesn't know what she's talking about.' Yeah, well, guess what? Anyone can say that. Anyone who can talk is physically capable of forming that sentence and carrying out that intended meaning. Yeah, because you say it, you big paragon of logic-guided relationships, that makes it true? Oh please. You're the least rational person I know. If you really thought you could defeat the heroes with your weapons, you would've specifically decided on what could eliminate them instead of just upgrading the same weapons over and over. And you would've considered the emotional and psychological aspects of fighting instead of just trying to blow the whole thing up. If you want to get rid of a fundamental part of existence, I guess I can't do anything about it, but there's no way in heck I'm going to sit here and live with it!"
Omega was still. "Very nice speech, Novie. Now how about you wait nice and still while Alpha and I destroy you heroes' existence from the space-time continuum and prove your little theory wrong."

MINIBOSS
H-X Alpha and B-A Omega

"Hut!" B-A Omega and H-X Alpha swerved to opposite sides of the dark, outlined battlefield, aiming inward toward our heroes with a multitude of lasers. Omega fired a beam of electricity from one of the five cannons on his right arm, directly hitting Peach.
"Peach!" As Mario's princess struggled in pain, Luigi ran toward the larger robot and swiped through the air, planting his feet into Omega's face.
"Gah!" The robot shut off his beam, and Mario rushed to Peach's side. "Idiots! Wait until you see the real power of pure reason." The glowing rings around the minion's left arm emitted an encompassing radiance that surrounded his body, producing a rapidly spinning field of glowing particles that encircled the robot. He hovered around the room, smashing into our heroes and blasting them to the side with his new attack.
"Omega's really into it this time," Novelle noted. "He's still angry about what happened." The messenger flew in B-A Omega's direction, trying to slow his attack.
"You guys haven't forgotten about the cool one, have you?" H-X Alpha multiplied the blades he'd used to cut himself and fired them in the direction of Mario, Peach, and Nastasia.
"Jump!" The three heroes leaped over the low flying blades as they slammed into the wall, sticking in their positions. Seizing the opportunity, they each pulled one of the knife-like blades from the wall and hurled them at the smaller robot. Alpha managed to hover out of the trajectory of the first two, but the third stuck directly in his left "wing".
"Ouchies! You meanies!" Alpha extended another metal arm and pulled the blade out, but Mario and Nastasia used this time to attack him.
"You're OK, Peach?" Mario called back. Peach was still in pain after being zapped by Omega's attack.
"Just about." Peach waved her arms and legs, making sure everything worked properly.
"Take this, Mr. Biased-Logic!" Mimi leaped into the air and precision-aimed a sharp Rubee at Omega's chest plate as Omega moved toward her, scoring critical motion-augmented damage.
"Oh, you little!" B-A Omega activated his fastest motion setting and dashed for the minion. Mimi wasn't able to defend herself as Omega slammed into her, sending both of them careening into the nearby wall. Mimi struggled, frantically scraping at Omega's blockade with whatever Rubees she could pull out. The two conflicting minions fell to the ground, still clawing at each other. "Bring it, Little Miss Freak!"
"I'm...not...a...FREAK!" Mimi drew her leg up and slammed it into Omega's eye input, yelping as her foot came into contact with stiff metal.
"Ha ha! You see that? You heroes have taken out my visual input one too many times, so I got smart and covered the device with some durable protection. There's no way you'll be able to penetrate THAT, not even with Rubees...freak girl!" B-A Omega rose, charging a massive laser to blast Mimi.
"Why don't you pick on someone of your own totally-non-freak-itude?" Nastasia appeared behind Omega. "Because, you know, getting mortally wounded and then being rebuilt into a half-biological, half-robotic minion really doesn't classify you as a freak by your own definition." Nastasia spin-kicked Omega's right hand, causing the metal arm to ricochet backward and slam into the wall. This tore off one of the metal guns in an explosion of sparks.
"Oh?" Omega grunted. "What makes you-"
"Take this!" Mimi aimed another Rubee straight for the damaged hand, shearing off another gun.
"Grrr! You little minions have grown a bit too annoying for your size." The robot folded back his steel-beam leg. Instead of a laser, the limb rapid-fired a row of shurikens from its knee joint, striking both minions.
"Aaaaaagh!" Nastasia winced as the shuriken scraped her right arm, drawing blood.
"Nastasia..." Mimi's stomach had been struck, provoking large pain, but the knowledge of her fast-healing injuries helped to mentally alleviate the temporary discomfort. "You're OK, aren't you?"
"I would say not!" B-A Omega pulled a row of knives from his left arm and released them with a spinning throw.
"Agck!" Acting without thinking, Mimi dive-tackled Nastasia, sending them both under the assault. The shape-shifting minion pulled out a Rubee under cover of confusion, then sprang up, threw her weapon, and dented Omega's chest plate.
"You heroes..." Omega's visual input device couldn't move, but if he had eyes, his eyebrows would be moving way downward.
"JALAPENO!!!" H-X Alpha's latest attempt to stop our heroes was a series of generated spiked maces that swung in circles around the smaller robot, sweeping a wide area. As Mario and Peach dove out of the way, the spiky balls smashed into O'Chunks's side.
"'OW!" The strong minion didn't have time to examine his injuries as Alpha drew still closer. After a rear assault from Mario to get the robot's attention, however, O'Chunks had some time to ready himself. He released some gas, flew into the air, and gave H-X Alpha the strongest ground pound he could muster, critically damaging the robot.
"No! At this rate, we'll never get the contract signed. I'll pull out my secret legal weapon." H-X Alpha floated to the other side of the room, performing the attack that involved covering himself with a circle of spikes and spinning around the room, similar to what Mimi and her partners could do. This maneuever affected the heroes on B-A Omega's side of the battlefield, as well.
"Why don't I give you heroes a taste of this!" Omega rose above the center of the room and spun his arms around, releasing homing, fast-moving lasers.
"Whaaag-uhh!" Luigi was struck by one of the beams of energy and sent crashing into the wall face-first.
"Feeling a little down, Luigi?" Alpha withdrew his spikes and shot even more lasers toward the green plumber.
"Halt!" Blumiere rushed in front of Luigi and blocked the small robot's lasers with his staff, noting Bowser standing behind Alpha. "It's all yours, Bowser!"
The Koopa king wasted no time. He summoned his hotest fire breath and enshrouded H-X Alpha in the potent stream.
"Ugh...gah..." Alpha's mechanical processes were in danger as the robot sparked and crackled. "I'll...get...you...all!" The minion gave one last attempt to stop the heroes, extending multiple firearms and charging for the ultimate laser. Just before he fired, though, Novelle jumped in front of him and readied her wand. As Alpha fired, Novelle's wand deflected the attack. The laser's line of fire exploded, sending bits of glowing laser fire flying across the room, some of which came back to hit H-X Alpha. The robot's central button panel exploded, incapaciting him.
"He's finished," Mario observed.
B-A Omega stared at his partner. "Help...me...good...friend..." the smaller robot begged.
Omega continued to stare. His eyes didn't give off any expression as usual, but his mouth contained definite traces of intense anger. "You know, Alpha," he said, "in the grand scheme of things, you've done nothing to help me other than blast out your schizophrenic nonsense."
"Whuuuut? I thought that was, liiiiiiike, guuuuuud..."
The larger robot suddenly rose his voice to an alarming level. "It's NOT good, you imbecile! All you do is misuse the great technological advances Amtakan supplies us with, wheras I'm here, using them rationally for the purpose of defeating the heroes. You know what? I think I'm going to be the only robot around here to use the technology." He pointed his right cannon arm's three remaining guns directly at H-X Alpha, and blasted the other robot with a combination of laser, fire, and electricity. The energy overload created a huge glowing explosion in the room's center. Embers, fire, and sparking bits of H-X Alpha rained down.
Our heroes stared at the mess, still shocked, when B-A Omega spoke again. He pointed his cannon arm directly at Mario. "Now you'll see, heroes, why I'm truly, the wielder of the universes' most advanced weapons technology!" Omega threw his arms into the air, charging a strange form of dark energy, and released it across the room. Our heroes felt as if the world had flipped upside-down as they rose away from the ground and collapsed upon the ceiling.
"He's reversed our gravity!" Novelle exclaimed.
"Now!" Omega pointed his fingered hand at our heroes and charged the flaming red jewel. He pulled more shurikens from the arm, set them aflame, and threw them up at our heroes.
"No! Run!" Mario tried his best to keep the others out of harm's way, but our heroes were too disoriented to discern exactly where to dodge. One of the spinning shurikens sideswiped Blumiere's cape, setting it aflame, and another passed Bowser's leg, cutting a deep gash.
"Graaahhh!!" Bowser felt for his injury, oblivious to the new laser Omega had aimed straight for him. The Koopa king was slammed into the ceiling again.
Omega re-issued his gravity maneuever, sending our heroes' gravity to the right. The room was wider than it was tall, so this severely limited our heroes' fighting space. "Aaagh!" Blumiere swatted at his flaming cape, using his staff to alleviate the heat.
"Now do you see my true power?" B-A Omega angled himself to point his cannon arm downward and fired a volley of bullet-like projectiles at the heroes.
"We have to get used to this gravity effect and fight him!" Novelle's statement was obvious, but it was a great initiative for the disoriented others. The messenger rose to Omega's level and charged her wand with an envelope of sparks.
"What're you trying now?" Omega whirled around to confront Novelle, unsuspectingly driving his left hand directly through Novelle's wand. The energy-soaked staff sheared Omega's hand clean off, producing an even larger shower of sparking metal. "Grr!" Omega swiped at Novelle with his other arm. The messenger swerve-ducked out of Omega's range and quickly snapped back up, driving a blast of magic into the minion's damaged chest plate. Omega retaliated by firing a metal bar from his new triangle-shaped right foot. The bar split into six identical segments that spread into a cage-like form and trapped Novelle against the wall, too tightly for the hero to use her wand at all. "It's over now, Novelle."
"Not quite!" Omega became the target of a Rubee assault from Mimi below. The stones were interfering with Omega's aiming, so he flew downward to attack her. At the same time, Blumiere rushed upward and blasted open Novelle's cage.
"Oh!" Novelle's wand well from her grip and plummeted toward the ground. She and Blumiere both dove downward to catch it.
"Interception!" Luigi shouted to warn the two heroes just as Omega blasted through the crowd to capture the magician's wand.
"Oh no you don't!" Novelle swiftly drew her leg back and kicked Omega's chest, enlargening the plate's dent and sending the robot backward. She cooly caught her wand. "I'm not completely defenseless without this thing, you know. And it'll only work for me!" Novelle showed off her weapon's power by blasting Omega with another beam of magic tinted blue-green. The wave sent sparks of blue-hot energy radiating from the damaged robot. Our heroes found themselves falling back to the floor - Novelle's attack had apparently destroyed his gravity-altering mechanism.
When the magical debris had cleared, our heroes observed B-A Omega. All of his right arm's cannons, and part of the main central one, had been destroyed, as well as all of the left arm below the central joint. His chest plate was in shreds, allowing the heroes to see inside the minion's central unit. In the very center of the myriad wires and electrical devices, a red heart-like object pulsated with a regular beat. Our heroes gulped. Had they exposed the only truly biological component of B-A Omega's body?
Novelle waited a few seconds before addressing the minion. "Please, Omega. If you continue to fight us, you could die. We don't want to kill you. Just go back to Amtakan. You want to survive...right?"
Omega didn't respond. He simply continued to stare at Novelle, processing the 4,000-year-old messenger who had been the reason for his transformation into a mechanical cyborg soldier. The same girl who'd attacked him and Hanetul, reducing their bodies to a mess of blood and armor. The same girl who'd foiled his master's plans so many times over the millenia. And now here she was, begging him to leave to save his life. What now?
Well, surviving would be the logical thing to do...
The minion flipped out.

"Well, I'm glad he decided to save his life." Novelle sighed, checking over all of our heroes' injuries. "I'll see if I can help a little with those." The messenger tapped into her magic to heal our heroes' wounds as best she could, but not all of the damage could be repaired.
"That was pretty...noble of you," Nastasia commented.
Novelle smiled weakly. "As long as someone's alive, they have a shot at repentence. I never try to kill anyone unless it's obvious that they're never going to turn away from their ways. Like Amtakan."
"That's what we have to do." Mario looked forward. "All right, gang, our next trial awaits. Let's go." The hero led his group further into the World of Amtakan, knowing that one of the most evil souls he'd ever encountered would be waiting.

-END OF CHAPTER-

[Reading]

Mario blinked as yet another new landscape opened before him. The scenery was pure white, much like the World of Nothing created by The Void, but red volcanoes and other rock formations seemed to exist intermittently in the background. Strange shapes appeared in the foreground as well - floating, polygonal sections of lava, random black areas of similar shapes, and a few other scattered bits and pieces here and there. The ground itself wasn't even consistent; one moment, it was pure black, then a simple black line, then a checkered white-black-red-brown mix. "This place is hot," Luigi observed.
"Yeah. I can feel it already." Mario turned around. "Ready, everyone?"
"Totally!" Bowser approved. "I'm awesome with lava, 'cause I use it in all my castles."
"Be careful, Mario." Novelle gave her typical approval. "Amtakan's sure to up the ante, and we'll probably be up against the Netherclops after this trek. And then all that remains will be Amtakan himself."
"I'm ready." Mario set his jaw. "Be brave, everyone."

The road ahead was littered with enemies, hazards, and, of course, fire. The heroes encountered obstacles like they'd never seen before, such as a block consisting of four rotating squares, two of which were made of lava. They had to run quickly through the block when one of the non-lava sections passed by, making it through before the next lava section came down to broil them alive. "We just have to get through this place and defeat the Netherclops," Mario began. "And then there's nothing stopping us from reaching Amtakan. This is the last minion."
"Amtakan paired up the last two boss rooms," Luigi added, "but it doesn't look like he has anyone to accompany the Netherclops. We'll be fighting him solo."
Novelle shifted. "We've only fought him once before, so he might be more difficult to deal with than Mortcha, and Margaret, and H-X Alpha and B-A Omega. Keep your guard, heroes. He's got all sorts of tricky and probably seductive maneuvers."
"But Amtakan is probably going to pose our greatest challenge..." Tippi looked ahead. "He's somewhere far beyond this void of inferno, waiting for us to come and meet him..." The Pixl looked at her fellow guide. "So, this isn't too complicated of an objective, is it? We just need to destroy Amtakan."
"Yes, that's correct." Novelle sighed. "We must reach the place where he resides and destroy him using any means we can. Once we do that, we'll be able to destroy the Dark Prognosticus, and its power will vanish. All the worlds will finally be safe from its influence once the Prognosticus is destroyed once and for all."
"He has the Light Prognosticus too." Mimi moved her eyes toward Novelle, feeling the instinct to ask her any question she wasn't sure of. "Not to mention the Dark one in the first place. He must be even more powerful than Count Bleck was."
"More powerful, that's for sure. With both books in his hands, he's capable of controlling the very fabric of reality to a small degree. We'll have to be as careful as we can when we confront him. No doubt, he'll use the power of the prophetic books to try and stop us."
"Novelle?" Mario joined the crowd of heroes staring at their new guide. Novelle seemed to be answering our heroes' questions rather bluntly, and with a different tone than her usual. Her head was lowered. "You're OK, aren't you?"
"What? Um, yeah, I suppose..." She stopped walking, tilting her head upward, staring into space with her beautiful violet eyes. "A few days before Amtakan went mad, he told me something. I remember exactly what he said...'Maia, even if the entire world is against us and what we're doing, I'll always be there to support you. You can count on me never to change my mind.' And then, a couple of days later..." She turned around. "He's the most destructive villain existence has ever known."
Novelle was silent for a moment. Our heroes took in what she was saying.
"I guess it's natural that I'd get more upset as we get closer to Amtakan...because...with every step we get closer to him, it's another step we get closer to killing the closest friend I've ever had." Tippi moved toward Novelle, planning to comfort her, but the messenger spoke again. "Well, I guess Mario isn't so far behind." She smiled weakly.
Mario smiled as well. Novelle sure could inject a smile into the most despairing of situations. "We must go forward," he told Novelle. "It's easy for you to give advice, but no advice-giver can do without some advice themself. All we need to do is go forward. Remember what you told me, in the Sereniburg prison? 'You have to convince your mind to move on.' I remember that. When your mind seems like it doesn't want to do what you know you have to do...just convince it. Just keep moving forward."
The messenger's smile widened. "Yes. Thanks, Mario. Gosh, I've given you so much advice. How can you stand it?"
The hero laughed. "A lot of advice is all for the better. The more advice I get, the more likely I am to actually pay attention and apply it."
"That's so true." Novelle sighed. "Well, I guess the only route from here is forward."
"Let's do it." Mario set off.
After jumping to a raised ledge, exploding sounds echoed all around our heroes. They looked around, trying to locate the source of the sounds, until Blumiere finally understood. "It's hailing meteors!" The former count used the magical prowess of his staff to blast the space rock apart.
"Not these again!" Nastasia stared at the blank-white sky, observing the meteors that appeared to be forming from thin air against the blankness.
"Let's make a run for it." As soon as Mario moved his muscle in the forward direction, he stopped. Before our heroes was a gigantic pit of molten lava. Small, rotating circular platforms spanned the magma lake. Some were faster than others, but they all appeared incredibly dangerous. He looked behind again. "This is the review for the final exam of platforming antics, guys. Amtakan's area is probably the final." He utilized his trademark jumping skills and leaped upon the first rotating ball. The meteors were still raining down, and that was a tough obstacle to juggle with the already-dangerous platform.
"Whoaaaa!!" Mimi spun her arms in crazy circles, slowly calming down as the platform's movement carried her to a higher, more stable position. "This is nerve-wracking..."
"Watch out, guys!" Mario pointed to another obstacle, this time coming from the lava below our heroes' feet.
"...You've got to be kidding me." Luigi stared at the dangerous Lava Bubbles that leaped from the boiling liquid below, adding an obstacle from below as well as above. Not to mention the very ground on which our heroes were standing.
"There's no looking back, heroes!" Tippi encouraged, seemingly holding on to whatever last shred of her advice-giver position there might be. "Just go forward and see when to dodge the next obstacle!"
A flaming meteor descended directly for Mario's platform. This was a trick he'd had to pull off only a few times before; he jumped in the direction of backwards, then swerved in mid-air back toward the platform. "Whew." Stable ground was only one more platform away, so Mario took his next route and planted his feet onto the safe ground.
The meteor storm eventually thinned out. Our heroes were welcomed by the relative silence, but that silence was soon replaced by the roar of a large network of lava-falls. The molten rock flowed and dripped downward in a series of rivers and falls, floating in air, as if they were flowing down an invisible mountain range. Another large lava pit formed the collection of the falls' exit points. "So how do we get past this?" Peach stared into the distance, squinting. She couldn't make out any stable land beyond the vast expanse of lava falls.
"I don't see anything." Novelle lifted into the air and moved over the lava falls. "It looks like these falls go on for a really long time," she called back to the others. "And since this is the World of Amtakan, who knows. They could literally go on forever."
"So we're stuck here?" Bowser complained. "OK. Got any solutions?"
"Well, I'm not sure. We'll just have to look around and see if there's anything we can use." Novelle scanned the surrounding area.
Maybe there's some invisible coin blocks? Mario tried jumping around the area, but no hidden blocks revealed themselves. 3-D? He flipped to the third dimension and had a look around, but there were no Flip Blocks or hidden paths to make use of. He flipped back. "There's nothing in that dimension."
"Hmm...I think I see something," Novelle reported. She was staring in our heroes' direction, but downward. "The lava looks like it's flowing into a hole at the bottom of this cliff. Maybe, if we blocked it somehow..."
"I think I can do that." Mimi tossed a Rubee into the fiery chasm, followed by another, and another, and another. The mass of stones finally piled up next to the opening, blocking the liquid's path forward. Without anywhere to go, the lava level began to rise.
"Now what have you gotten us into?" Bowser glared at Novelle.
"Stay calm, Bowser. The lava's got to go somewhere."
As the magma continued to rise, O'Chunks expressed concern. "Shouldn't we be avoidin' this 'ere hot stuff?"
"Well, yes," Tippi explained, "but I don't know where we can go!"
Mario looked at the lava. The boiling liquid was inching closer and closer to where our heroes were standing. Once it reached the ground level, it would spill out and vaporize them all. What could they do? How could they move forward? There wasn't a way forward, so Mario looked back. That's it! Back! "I know what to do! Everyone, follow me! We need to go back!" He began running back.
"Back? What for?" Nastasia questioned the hero, but Mario seemed like he knew what he was doing. The rest of our heroes followed him, back through the hot obstacles and platforms until they came back to the area with the rotating platforms suspended over the lava pit.
"Jump on these and stay there!" Mario jumped to the farthest one. The overflowing lava had already broken free and was flowing in our heroes' direction. It began pouring into the lava lake below our heroes. As it reached the platforms' level, they began to rise. "Yes, I knew it! The lava is carrying these platforms upward. We'll be able to reach a new area."
"Is there anything up there?" Luigi looked into the featureless sky, and he could make out some platforms far above our heroes. Once the lava had risen to their level, our heroes ditched their ride and went with the platforms. There was little interference on their road until they reached a door.
"I think the next minion is beyond this door," Novelle cautioned. "We need to be careful. We've already used a few of our health items."
"Let's do it then." Mario opened the door.
On the other side was another blank-white area, this time with rocky ground and lava beneath it. Waiting for them in its center was the Netherclops.
"Well, well, well. Who have we here?!" The Netherclops focused his giant eye on the crowd of heroes. "Oh, I'm just kidding. I know it couldn't be anyone but those heroes Amtakan hates so much. But really, Novelle, those eyes of yours capture me every single time."
"Let us pass, Netherclops..." Novelle breathed. "Or we'll beat you again. Bad."
"I said don't call me NETHERCLOPS, idiot! Call me Cuddlemuffins. It's so cuddly and nice."
"I'll call you what I flippin' WANT to call you, Muffin Sandwich!" Bowser stepped in front of the cyclops minion. "And before you start hitting on Peach, too, I'm gonna warn you that I won't respond too kindly to that."
"Hey, Peach, you're pretty."
"I warned you!" Bowser breathed the strongest fire blast he could muster, but the Netherclops blocked his hot breath with his staff and blasted it back at the Koopa king in a hyper-concentrated beam of energy, sending Bowser flying backward.
"Any more of you fools want to challenge me?" The minion twirled his staff. "No, you don't want to hurt a creature with such an innocent name as Cuddlemuffins. Ah, I can't wait until Amtakan begins building his new world! A world without true love. I do believe I'll be able to pursue my own loving interests without objectionally moral people like you getting in the way."
"Yeah, that's what you think," Tippi dared. "Amtakan's going to get rid of all emotion! He won't allow any form of love!"
"Are you so sure? Why wouldn't he at least make an exception for me? We're the ones who gave him his power in the first place. Surely he, being the rational person he is, would never think of not repaying us in some form. There's no way he could make us follow his rules, you know. We're just with him 'cause we have a common world-destroying agenda."
"Which means you're villains." Novelle stepped forward. "And that means, as heroes, we're morally obligated to stop your plans. Amtakan wants to get rid of love, but that's stronger than hate."
"Oh, Novelle..." The Netherclops laughed hysterically, although it seemed somewhat artificial. "Listen to yourself. If love is stronger than hate, why don't armies fight with hugs and kisses? Why is it so easy to give into your hateful desires, yet loving ones require so much more attention?"
"Why don't you listen to yourself? Armies fight to destroy. Love does not destroy. If you know what love is, it's easy to keep following that path if you're strong enough. And if you're not strong enough, then become stronger. And that's what we're going to do now."
"Yo ho ho! And a bottle of rum! If you could just hear your-"
"I've had enough!" Luigi ran toward the Netherclops, and before anyone else could speak, launched into the air with his foot aimed directly for the demon's eye.

MINIBOSS
The Netherclops

"Hi-YAAAAHHH!!!" Luigi accented his ninja-style move as the bottom of his foot came in direct contact with the Netherclops' giant eye. He backflipped once his attack had hit and landed smoothly on the ground. "How do you like that, huh?"
"Ouchies! You cheater! The battle wasn't even started yet! Can't we do this, like, in RPG fashion or something?" The minion gathered energy with his staff and fired a blue ray at Luigi, who promptly Super Jumped over his attack and nailed his enemy with a gravity-augmented super-stomp. "Gaah! You heroes just cheat too much." He readied himself. "Well, I'll show you all! How will you be able to fight without a platform to fight on?" The Netherclops thrust his staff into the ground, cracking the rocks beneath. The wide platform split apart, producing a loud cracking sounds as the individual pieces of the large rock slab drifted apart into a field of small platforms floating in the lava.
"There's safe ground over there!" Mario pointed to the area beyond the Netherclops, noting a larger area of ground that contained the passage forward.
"Yeah, there's safe ground over there." The minion moved menacingly toward the general area of rocks our heroes were standing on. "But it's not safe if you never get there, is it, now?" He lifted his arm and rose his staff directly toward the sky. Lightning suddenly shot down from the sky toward our heroes.
"No!" Mario made a jump over the incoming bolts and landed on the Netherclops's platform. "Now who's cheating?" The hero pulled out his hammer and whacked the minion's eye as forcefully as he could.
"There's nothing you can do about me, you know!" Novelle flew toward her adversary and contributed with her own attacks. The Netherclops didn't give them as much time to attack as they'd liked, however. He spun around and encased himself in a transparant pink shield, sending the two heroes to the side. Unfortunately for Mario, to the side was in the lava.
"NO! MARIO!" Novelle dove for the red plumber and caught him in her arms just before he touched down in the boiling liquid. Moving upward with all of her strength, she gently let him down on one of the larger rock platforms.
"Thanks, Novelle." Mario didn't have time to say much else before the Netherclops attacked again, this time rising into the air and extending rays of energy.
"I have a plan!" Our heroes immediately focused their attention on Blumiere. "Everyone, get to the other side while Novelle and I keep him occupied with our energy attacks!"
"Your plans never fail, Count...Blumiere." Nastasia set off across the floating rocks, followed by the other six non-flying heroes, while Blumiere and Novelle hovered around the Netherclops, battling him with their non-direct energy attacks. The three combatants zipped around the air, blasting each other with their powerful attacks as the other heroes crossed the lava pool safely and landed on the larger area of ground ahead.
"Novelle, let's keep him cornered!" Blumiere shouted. Novelle aligned herself so that she, the Netherclops, and Blumiere formed a perfect line, and the two heroes fired at their enemy from both sides. The Netherclops was surrounded.
"Come on! Why gang up on Cuddlemuffins? You know what, I don't want to be called that anymore. How about...Gooshie-Ooshie-Lovie-Dovey-Cuddly-Guy?"
"In your messed-up dreams." As the minion pulled out a fiery ball of energy, Novelle countered with a ray of cold ice that demolished the projectile before he could release it.
"Oh, you've done it now! NOW YOU'LL ALL FEEL THE WRATH OF GOOSHIE-OOSHIE-LOVIE-DOVEY-CUDDLY-GUY!" The Netherclops rose above Novelle and summoned a beam of glowing light that zapped her directly.
"Aaahh!!" In obvious pain, the messenger allowed herself to fall onto one the rocks.
"You will not harm her!" Blumiere body-charged from behind, smacking into the Netherclops and pushing him aside. "Novelle, are you OK?"
"Yeah...I'm OK." Novelle stood up and slowly rose into the air. "Come on. We've got to give him what he deserves."
"What's this I see?" The Netherclops looked over at the crowd of heroes hanging out on stable ground. "You dirty cheats cheated me! I'm never going to call you again!"
"Oh, hooray." Novelle jump-kicked the Netherclops from behind, letting Blumiere send him back again with a shot from his staff. Novelle attacked him again before the minion broke out of their volley and charged straight for the others.
"He's coming this way!" Bowser announced. "Let's get him, everyone!"
"I'm ready!" Peach moved to the front of the group. "I'll bet he won't even move to avoid this." She held out her parasol with the end sticking in the Netherclops's direction, and the minion ran directly into it.
"Oww! Right in the eye!" The Netherclops staggered. "You heroes have been pushing me around for far too long. I'll up the ante." The diamond-shaped stones that surrounded the Netherclops's head area glowed a bright teal and began rotating in a wide circle around the minion's body. "Try avoiding this!" He body-charged around the area, striking our heroes with the orbiting stones. The energy-enhanced obstacles caused massive damage to our heroes.
"We 'ave to git rid o' those diamonds some'ow!" O'Chunks jumped and pounded on one of the stones, but only managed to injure himself further.
"Rubees are hard. Maybe they can do something!" Mimi threw a Rubee at one of the circling diamonds. It appeared to damage the weapon, but didn't have much affect.
"We have to create a stronger impact!" Novelle moved toward Mimi. "Please give me a Rubee." Mimi obeyed. "Thank you. Now hold still, Netherclops..." Novelle threw the Rubee upward and held her wand outward, surrounding the stone in a lavender-colored energy bubble. With a wand swipe, she sent it toward one of the minion's diamonds at a hyper-sonic speed. The object smashed into hundreds of shards, scattering across the arena as the Rubee flew upward, flipping through the air.
"That won't stop me for long! Let's see what else Rubees are good for." The Netherclops magically maneuvered the Rubee and flung it toward Novelle, hitting her face squarely. The messenger recoiled as she rose her hand to her left cheek.
"Novelle!" Mimi rushed to examine her fellow hero as Novelle picked up a drop of blood with her hand. "Oh, I'm sorry! I-"
"You don't have to apologize, Mimi. In fact, give me another one." Mimi produced another Rubee and handed it to Novelle. "Thanks." She destroyed another diamond with the new Rubee, leaving only three.
"Gah! This isn't working like I planned." The Netherclops slowed the rotation of the projectiles. "Maybe some good old bouncing ball tricks will work." He summoned his staff's magic to create a teal sphere of energy that he sent downward at the ground. It flew upwards once it touched down, homing in to smash directly into Luigi. "Yeah, it's homing now! How do you like that?"
"Luigi..." Mario rushed to his brother. "You OK?"
"Sort of." Luigi inhaled deeply. "Oh, but watch-" The ball fell again, striking Mario and sending the two brothers crashing in a heap.
"Come on..." Mario stood up as quickly as he could, feeling the large scrape on his forehead. "Let's move!" Both Mario Brothers dove out of the way just before the ball came down again.
"Nice try!" Novelle shot the ball with another stream of energy, bursting it into thousands of specks. The Netherclops extended his staff and captured the pieces of his weapon, forming them into another blob of energy that he hurtled at Novelle. The messenger promptly blocked his fire, sending it back at the Netherclops.
"Whee! This is fun, isn't it?" the minion taunted, sending the energy away again. "It's like ping-pong!"
"Not for long!" The Netherclops turned to look at Mimi's voice, and Novelle's charged energy slammed him into the ground. Mimi, Nastasia, and O'Chunks promptly gang-tackled the minion and pinned him down.
"Dogpile on the bad guy!" Nastasia threw her hardest punch.
"Get the..." The Netherclops struggled to push the three minions away.
"He's almost down!" Mimi announced. "Come on! We could use some backup!"
"That's what I like, Mimi." The minion turned to look at Novelle. "It's good to see you asserting yourself. Confidence is nice!" Novelle joined the brawl from a distance with her ice ray, Mario and Bowser dashing toward the Netherclops as well.
"NO!" The Netherclops smashed his weapon into the ground again, creating a shockwave and throwing all of our heroes to the side. "Now TAKE THIS!" He rapid-fired energy pulses in our heroes' direction, damaging them heavily.
"We've just got to get one more decent hit in." Mario looked at Bowser, the only other hero who looked to be in near-perfect condition. "Want to give this guy what he deserves?"
"What? Oh, yeah, sure. Got a plan?"
"Yeah. I'll run in front and pretend to attack him. Sneak up from behind and give him a Bowserization he'll remember!"
"Awesome! Now only if you didn't have these planning skills when you attack my castle."
Mario ran toward the Netherclops, pulling his hammer out in a fake preparation for attack. The Netherclops retaliated, blasting the hero with a wide beam of energy. Mario was smashed aside, but behind the minion, Bowser was ready. He leaped into the air and came down directly on the Netherclops's eye with a classic Bowser ground pound. The minion was defeated.
"Rrrrrgaaahh!!! Nooo!!!" The Netherclops lay on the ground, injured. "I...I can't believe this! How could they have...defeated...me?"
Novelle approached the minion. "There's a quality we all have. And none of you do..."
"Is that so..." The Netherclops punctuated his words oddly. Novelle didn't think much of it, but was soon shocked as the Netherclops, in a flash, whipped out his staff and blasted her in the direction of a nearby large rock. Novelle's breath flew out as her back smashed into the stone. She fell to the ground, clutching the back of her left leg. "Ho ho ho ho...Amtakan will still get you guys, you know. And then there'll be no more love to defeat minions with." The Netherclops vanished.

Tippi floated to Novelle, concern in her voice. "Are you hurt, Novelle?"
"...A little." The messenger slowly rose, examining the injuries on the backs of her arms and legs. She sighed. "I've suffered so much for what I believe in."
The other heroes approached their newest member. "That's true," Peach noted. "You've fought for 4,000 years to preserve the existence of love and emotion. Not to mention every dimension."
"Yeah..." Novelle righted herself. "But I'm fine with it, really. I don't mind if I have to get hurt in order to accomplish my goal. That's a small price compared to all of existence being destroyed. Or at least drained of emotion..."
Our heroes looked ahead. A staircase extended before them, leading to a higher area. "There's Amtakan's place," Mario mused. He turned to the other eight heroes. "Let's go. We've got to stop Amtakan as soon as we can." Our heroes rushed up the stairs, drawing closer to their final conflict than ever before.

-END OF CHAPTER-

[Reading]

Our heroes climbed a spiraling staircase of rock as the sky around them grew darker with every step. They could soon barely make out the rock they were stepping on. Eventually, they emerged on a patch of a dark substance against a backdrop of total blackness. None of the group could even tell what they were standing on; it was a rugged, patchy substance that contained random areas of dark red and dark grey, almost as black as the void beyond. It felt solid to their feet, but transmitted no other sensory input like stepping on wood or glass might. They could see a few platforms made of this substance in front of them, but their vision was limited. Whether this was because of the lack of light, or the abundance of darkness, they couldn't tell. Mario looked back at the others. A nod was all he needed to set our heroes forward. They traveled, silent, across their newest and last challenge. This was the end.

Amtakan's area began with a few mild platform exercises. A small assortment of strange enemies fired projectiles as our heroes moved across the silent obstacle course, but there was nothing at the level of what they'd seen in the previous section. "Is this almost too easy?" Luigi whispered.
A few seconds after Luigi finished, a flash of soundless lightning lit up the entire area for a fraction of a second. "Whoa..." Mario kept his voice low as well. The silence hung over our heroes like a thick blanket. It almost seemed like talking loudly would cause something disastrous to happen.
The lightning flash illuminated a large metal bolt attached to a horizontal pole that extended across a pit. "Let me check this out." Mario jumped onto the bolt, walking in place to start it spinning, moving it across the pit to the other platform. When he was about halfway there, however, he was unsuspectingly fired at by a cannon above the start of the next platform. The projectiles were like Bullet Bills in concept, but were flashes of energy; they couldn't be jumped on. Mario was hit, but the hero was careful to maintain his balance despite the shock. Once he reached the other side, he was immediately attacked by a fast-moving, blobby enemy. "Be careful, guys! It's getting harder!"
As our heroes moved on, the difficulty would only increase. The road ahead was littered with traps, puzzles, and obstacles like they'd never seen before. At one point, it took the heroes nearly ten minutes to figure out how to place circle-shaped stones in slots according to color. This was followed by a series of platforms spanning a pit that moved upward toward a spiked ceiling. As the group traveled through all of the dark, emotionless rooms, using doors that were simply barely-visible gray outlines, they were forced to use most of the items they'd brought along. After a certain point, however, they hardly even noticed the passage of time. They had been dodging obstacles and enemies for so long, it felt like an eternity.
A huge, dark-red door graced with the Tribe of Darkness symbol brought our heroes back to full awareness. "Is that Amtakan's door?" Tippi questioned.
"Amtakan's door?" repeated Nastasia. "Wait..." The secretary looked back, noting the door they had used to enter this area. They were at the top of a gigantic staircase with that door far below. "What have we been doing all this time? I can't remember much besides...dodging enemies and stuff."
"And all of that..." Mimi agreed. "Wow, we weren't even fully aware. You've trained us well, Mario."
"Thanks." Mario looked around the room, as if expecting to recieve any vibe other than none.
Tippi floated toward the door. "We've fought long and hard to get here." She paused, seeming to sigh. "And this is where it'll end."
The other eight heroes all looked at Novelle. The room was silent for a minute, before Mario again spoke to her. "Do you think you can do this, Novelle?"
The rest of the group awaited her response. "Yes, I...suppose I can." She looked at the ground. "If I show Amtakan more mercy than I should, please, just...let me know."
"OK," Mario promised. "We will." He turned to the door. "Is everyone ready?"
Our heroes nodded.
"All right. Here we go." He began to open the door, setting our heroes with the same line he'd spoken just before entering Dimentio's room in Castle Dimentio. The utterance of one of Mario's catch phrases in such a solumn tone felt strange to the heroes, and even Mario himself. And yet, it reminded them that even in times like this, Mario was still Mario; the hero who'd willingly endure the bitterest of trials in order to save the world everyone else lived in. The fight, at its core, was between Amtakan and Novelle, but the messenger couldn't have hoped to accomplish it on her own. She and the Ancients had needed more people to enter their side of the fight; the other eight heroes of prophecy. Our heroes walked into the door, knowing they were about to decide the battle once and for all.

They emerged in a room that, if possible, was even darker than the previous areas. It was similar to the final room of Castle Dimentio, except with incredibly-dark-red ground, walls, and ceiling made of the same unknown substance. The dim curtains our heroes had seen in the World of Amtakan's entrance area were also present here, four of them evenly spaced, with the same "white" Tribe of Darkness emblem. Mortcha, Omega, the Netherclops, and a very worried-looking Margaret in a simpler blue dress stood at the far side of this room, with Amtakan himself in front. A thin film of wire had been placed across the area where Omega's chestplate had been. The heroes and villains stared at each other for a few seconds. "So be it," Amtakan finally stated.
Our heroes watched as he hovered toward them, betraying no feelings whatsoever. "Amtakan..." Novelle whispered under her breath.
"You have arrived, Novelle. Arrived to pit your last efforts against my plan...efforts that will fail." Novelle closed her eyes as Amtakan continued. "I will destroy these three minions, as well as the rest of you, and use their energy to reactivate the Chaos Heart once more. With its power, I will wipe all love and emotion from existence! A perfect world awaits us all, Novelle." He extended his hand toward her. "Contrary to what you may think, I am not completely heartless. Although some of you must die in order for my plan to be set into motion, I would be willing to allow the rest of you to live once this world has been destroyed, if you will submit to my will and authority."
"Why would we submit to you?" Novelle demanded sharply.
"Because your choice is between that or death. I know that you still hold a trickle of love for me, Maia..." The villain paused. "And while that love will cease to exist in our new order, you will still be able to like me as another person. I no longer have the ability to sense emotion, but you and your comrades do, and I know that somewhere inside, Maia, you still love me." Amtakan firmed his ancient scepter.
Novelle uttered a noise as she blinked. "Amtakan...why? Why do you want to destroy all of the world's emotion? Why do you want to create such a soulless existence?"
The ancient wizard folded his arms. "Ha ha ha. Why would I not? I see no advantage in allowing these things to remain."
"But why? What advantage would there be in having them not exist? Isn't that the very thing you tried to rebel against when we lived in the same civilization? The absence of emotion? The absence of putting thought into things besides just analyzing them?"
Amtakan uttered a thoughtful "Hmm." He paused. "It is true that they were wrong, Maia."
"Exactly! So why try to force everyone to live that sort of life? Isn't that what you hated from the beginning?"
The villain stared directly into Novelle's eyes, focusing her vision on his own soulless ones. "It was emotion that caused me to become upset. It was emotion that brought us together as a team...a team that eventually failed. It was love that drove your concern for me...while I slumped ever downward."
Novelle blinked again. "Yes, so..."
"Maia, you had no idea how I felt while we were working to solve our civilization's problems. I felt hopeless, abandoned, like no one but you cared in the slightest. I felt that the entire world was against us, against us and what we stood for, simply because we thought differently from their misguided 'established wisdom'. I felt that nothing we could do would ever change things. And I felt that you were just repeating the same things over and over, never actually bothering to help."
Novelle was whispering. "You felt hopelessness...you felt despair...you felt sadness...you felt anger...you felt betrayal..."
"Yes, Maia. I felt all of these things."
"And they are emotions?"
"Yes. The feelings of despair, that nothing would ever change, that the world around us had failed...they were my feelings. And they were emotions, fueled by love. I wanted no one else to ever feel the same kind of pain."
His former friend was silent for a long moment. "And you didn't want anyone else to experience the kind of emotional hurt that you suffered..."
"That is correct, Maia."
Novelle stared at the floor. "Getting rid of emotional pain..." She snapped back up, firming her glare at Amtakan. "But is this really the way to do it?"
"There is no other way. Even with all the encouragement, smiles, and love in the worlds, emotional pain can never completely be eliminated. That is why I must destroy emotion for good and allow none of it to remain. And love is the catalyst that drove so many of these emotional relationships...I will have it gone, as well."
A single tear dropped from Novelle's right eye. "Amtakan...oh, this isn't the way. What good will it be to eliminate negative emotions while doing away with the positive ones, as well? Will you eliminate hope, joy, peace, contentment? Will you destroy everything positive that mankind has ever felt? All to save us from a few of our shortcomings?"
"If it is the only way, Maia...then so be it."
Novelle was silent.
"Now then, heroes." Amtakan readied himself. "Make your final choice. Will you allow me to kill these minions of Blumiere and remain alive to live in the creation of our new world?"
"We will not!" Tippi exclaimed. "We'll never submit to your agenda!"
"Does everyone else agree?"
"Yes." Mario set his position forward as the others nodded.
"Very well." Amtakan pulled his scepter into fighting position. "I'll kill you all by force."
As Mario readied for battle, he looked over at Novelle. "Stay strong..." she was whispering. "Stay focused..."

MINIBOSS
Amtakan

Amtakan hovered away from our heroes, toward his minions, and waved his scepter, creating an irregularly-shaped transluscent shield around himself. "Witness my true power!" The villain produced a bolt of lightning that sailed for Mario, who promptly jumped the assault and leaped toward Amtakan. The hero bounced away from his shield without dealing any damage.
"How do we penetrate that shield?" Mario ducked as Amtakan shot more energy bolts at them.
"It's made of pure energy..." Novelle examined the shield. "I think we can deactivate it if we hit it with a strong enough force."
"What's the most powerful attack we have?" Bowser asked. "If I still had my awesome powers, I could blow him away, but..."
"Novelle and I can attack with magic." Blumiere began planning their attack. "Let's attack from both sides at once until Amtakan's protection wears away."
"We'll go in and distract him." Mario motioned to the other heroes.
"Excellent. Let's go, Novelle." The former Count Bleck led Novelle toward their new villain, swerving to opposite sides to get a good shot at him.
"Take this, heroes!" Amtakan spun around once, forming a greenish cocoon around himself, and air-charged toward Mario's group.
"Dodge!" Mario dove sideways as Amtakan smashed into the wall behind them. A few of the heroes were hit by Amtakan's charge, but his pause that followed allowed Blumiere and Novelle to attack him without interruption for a short period of time.
Luigi jumped around behind Amtakan, trying to get the wizard to attack him. Instead, Amtakan turned his attention to Blumiere and Novelle. "I'll stop you two." He rushed toward them, creating and hurling a series of spiked projectiles at them.
"Watch out, Blumiere!" As one of Amtakan's weapons raced for Blumiere, Novelle impeded its progress with a magical sheild. "Go for it!"
Blumiere wasted no time. He flew above Amtakan's line of fire and descended upon the villain with a bodily charge. His shield had been weakened, but it wasn't broken yet. "You put up a nice challenge, Blumiere." The two magicians rushed for each other with each one's magic staff ready, and collided in an explosion of energy. They both were sent flying against opposite walls, Blumiere in the direction of Amtakan's minions.
"I think I'll take out the rest of this shield!" Bowser delivered a claw attack to what remained of Amtakan's protection, shattering the magic shield and exposing his body to attack.
"Good goin', Bowser!" O'Chunks congratulated. "Now let's dish out some 'urt!" The minion pulled back his fist and slammed Amtakan with an old-style punch.
"Fools!" The villain rose toward the ceiling. "You won't be able to avoid this." He sent a rain of glowing energy drops from the ceiling, creating pools of acid on the floor that damaged our heroes.
Mimi stood in a precarious spot between two acid pools, carefully aimed, and hit Amtakan with a Rubee from below. The acid spots were beginning to fade away, but Amtakan turned around quickly enough to require Mimi to tumble to the side, avoiding his lightning blast and the slowly-deteriorating acid.
Peach stood below Amtakan and used her parasol as a weapon while Luigi also Super Jumped from below. "Enough!" The villain descended to the ground and sent out a wide beam of light that stretched across the room. Our heroes weren't able to dodge the unexpected weapon.
"No!" Novelle ran toward Amtakan and brought her wand directly down on him, slamming him with a spear of energy.
"You're quite competent in battle, Maia. But not competent enough." Maia's enemy surrounded himself in a circle of energy pulses. "Now feel my wrath, heroes!"
"I'll handle him!" Mario flipped to 3D and took a position to the side of Amtakan, swinging his hammer into the villain. He flipped out, reappearing on the left side of the room, and released the energy balls at the other heroes, damaging them severely. Mario returned to 2D and jumped on Amtakan through a new break in his rotating shield.
"Let me get in the action here!" Bowser retreated into his shell and spun for Amtakan, but the magician stopped Bowser with a lightning bolt and sent him backward. He then flipped out, flipping back in on the right side of the room, and flew around the ceiling, dropping more bolts of lightning everywhere he went.
"Mario, slam him with your hammer!" Novelle advised. "I'll get him too." Mario obeyed, swerving to avoid a lightning drop and tossing his hammer up to hit Amtakan. Novelle also hit him with a magical blast.
"We're doing pretty good," Mario exhaled. "Just keep this up, guys." He looked around the room as Amtakan flipped out again, watching for where he might appear again. Once Amtakan had fully vanished, however, he was momentarily distracted by Novelle. "You're doing good, Novelle."
Novelle turned to face Mario. "Yeah. I guess." She looked away for a moment. "Just keep whaling on him. If I tell you to stop, don't listen to me."
"Got it." Mario readied his hammer just as Amtakan flipped back in and rushed for the wizard, spinning his hammer in a freestyle upward flip and landing on his feet in front of the villain.
"You heroes are just as annoying as the last time I fought you." Amtakan again produced the spiky projectiles.
Once a few of them dropped to the floor, Nastasia carefully reached for one. The spike pricked her finger as it made contact. The secretary quickly drew her hand back, and tried more carefully to lift it from the ground this time. "Take this, Amtakan!" She threw the object toward Amtakan as carefully as she could. It hit his stomach squarely, clearly damaging him, but Amtakan didn't appear to be in pain. He attacked Nastasia with another lightning blast. "Aaagh!" The minion fell against the nearby wall, shocked to the core.
"Let's do it, bro!" Luigi motioned to the distracted Amtakan. Mario and Luigi rushed for the villain. The older brother leaped upon Amtakan and ground-pounded, while the younger one Super Jumped and crashed down, dealing a double blow to his head.
"Graaah!" Amtakan spun to face the Mario brothers. "You have no idea what true power is!" He sent a wide vertical beam down on the pair, zapping them into a semi-conscious state.
"Mario! Luigi!" Novelle quickly pulled Mario out of the way of Amtakan's future attacks. "Oh, Luigi!" As Amtakan readied a lightning charge, Novelle swung Luigi over the villain's assault and attacked him from behind. "Peach, make sure they're OK!" Novelle flew in to keep Amtakan occupied.
Peach obeyed. "Mario, Luigi. Are you OK?"
The brothers slowly stood up. "Yeah, I think so." Luigi moved his limbs, making sure everything was working properly.
"We've got decent damage on him," Peach continued. "Let's do it!" The three heroes went for Amtakan and attacked him with everything they had.
"You heroes..." Weary from battle, Amtakan charged for them.
Mario noticed Novelle behind the villain. "Get him!" he shouted.
Novelle wasted no time. She powered up her strongest magic blast and hurled it for her enemy. Amtakan was hit and flung against the far wall. He slowly turned back to face Novelle as the two fighters stared at each other again. Novelle's eyes were wide. Mario hoped she wasn't feeling remorse.
Amtakan finally moved toward the center of the battlefield. "All right. I've toyed with you heroes for far too long."

The Light and Dark Prognosticus flipped in on either side of the villain. "Mortcha, the Prognos is safe, is it not?"
"It sure is." Mortcha caused a small bronze-colored bowl to flip in. It was filled with a thick, dull black liquid that was undoubtedly Prognos.
"Excellent." Amtakan moved toward the minions, then faced the heroes. "While you heroes were fighting Dimentio, I acquired several samples of his Prognos-infused blood in case of the event that I'd have to make modifications to the Dark Prognosticus." He flipped in a feathered writing utensil. "And with the Light Prognosticus in my hands as well...I control fate! I control the very future of every world!" He took the bowl from Mortcha's hands and dipped his pen into the Prognos.
Mario looked at Novelle. The messenger was breathing forcefully, almost hyperventilating.
"I can't directly cause your deaths, because Maia could counter the book's effect, but I can still use the Prognosticuses to grant myself power to a limited degree...and with their power, I will destroy you all! You have made your choice not to side with me, so I will leave none of you standing!"
Our heroes shifted nervously. Novelle opened her mouth, but no words came out.
"Your ultimate fate awaits, heroes." Amtakan began to write.
"Not so fast!" Novelle leaped toward Amtakan and fired a magical blast in his direction. It struck the container of Prognos, blasting it into pieces, and sent both Prognosticuses flying away from Amtakan's grasp. They ricocheted off the far wall, as the liquid Prognos formed a huge puddle on the floor, before landing on the floor between the two groups.
Everyone was silent for a few moments. Suddenly, Novelle and Amtakan both dove for their respective books. Novelle secured the Light Prognosticus, while Amtakan seized the Dark one. "Well, well, well," Amtakan mused. "Both of us have a book of prophecy. I suppose we'll have to decide for ourselves which Prognosticus will truly predict your fate. I will make sure that the Dark Prognosticus will overcome the Light." He drew his scepter, preparing for battle once more. "Maia, your fate has been sealed!"

MINIBOSS
Amtakan and the Dark Prognosticus

Using the still-intact ink on his pen, Amtakan wrote a sentence in the Dark Prognosticus. Gathering his newfound power with his scepter, he created a series of wide flaming darts that rained down from the ceiling. They were very difficult to avoid. "Having a difficult time, heroes? Let's see how well you do when I up the ante even more." He lowered himself to the floor and picked up some more ink from the spillage on the ground.
"Oh!" Not carrying any proper writing utensil, Novelle dropped to her knees and dipped the holding end of her wand into the Prognos. As the heroes scrambled to dodge Amtakan's flaming arrows, she wrote, and said aloud, "The heroes will be protected from Amtakan's next attack!"
As the villain unleashed a gigantic shockwave that spread across the floor, glowing transluscent yellow shields encased our heroes, keeping them safe from any harm. Once the shockwave and the shields had dispersed, O'Chunks looked at Novelle in amazement. "Yeh can really change our fate with that book!"
"Oh, I know what to do." Novelle wrote "None of Amtakan's attacks will effect the heroes."
"Fool." Amtakan stared at Novelle, seeming to glare, but his emotionless-void-for-a-face made it impossible to tell for sure. "You can't permanently protect the heroes, if I assume that's what you're writing. Each Prognosticus can nullify the others' influence with the proper phrase!" Amtakan wrote "The Light Prognosticus's influence will cease to exist" in the Dark Prognosticus.
"Don't even try!" Novelle quickly countered with "The Dark Prognosticus's words will fail to take effect." The Prognosticuses' energies neutralized each other, resulting in no change.
While Novelle and Amtakan were busy with their fate-changing duel, Mario and Blumiere took action with a head-stomp and a body charge, hitting Amtakan twice. "Damage," the villain began, "that can be easily remedied." He wrote "I will not be affected by the heroes' attacks."
Novelle was hot on Amtakan's trail. She wrote "Whatever he just wrote won't happen!"
Mimi and Peach went in for the attack as well, damaging Amtakan with a Rubee and another stomp. "Drat! You seem to be countering my statements." Amtakan picked up more Prognos and wrote again, giving himself another new power.
As he did, Novelle secretly wrote "I'll know what kind of attack he's going to do before he does it." She sensed that Amtakan would freeze the heroes in time and attack them, so she combated his technique with "Time won't be frozen." She dipped her wand again.
Amtakan's attack failed. "Grr!" The villain wrote "I'll have energy spears." Before Novelle could reply, Amtakan had already begun his assault, firing bright orange flashes of energy that pierced the heroes' defenses.
"Novelle, do something qu-" Peach began, but she couldn't finish her statement before one of the glowing spears slammed into her right arm, causing enough pain to disable it. "AAGH!" She clutched her arm with her other hand, shaking in a desperate attempt to ward off the pain.
"I'm trying!" Novelle put down "Amtakan's next attack won't work." Thinking quickly, she also wrote "The heroes will defeat him."
The evil magician's next attack failed, and as he retreated to write another, Luigi and Nastasia rushed to attack him. "How is this possible? I should be destroying you heroes now!" He eyed the Light Prognosticus. "Oh, I know about your little tricks, Novelle." He wrote "I will kill the heroes," followed by another attack that sent a massive ray of dark energy in our heroes' direction. They were all engulfed in the blast, apparently under massive pressure.
"No!" Novelle whispered to herself. She got more Prognos and wrote "Amtakan won't kill or defeat the heroes." While the other heroes were still under Amtakan's fire, she added "And his attack will go away." The villain's attack was promptly removed. "Hmm." Novelle thought, looking at where Amtakan's minions were standing. Could I make them join us? She wrote "Amtakan's minions will turn against him!" Nothing happened, however. Darn! He's probably protected them already. And counteracting that protection would take way too much effort. She looked back at the heroes, who were under fire from Amtakan's regular, non-Prognosticus-augmented attacks.
"I guess he decided to get smart and use the attacks he always can." Mario's voice was weaker than normal. The blast must have taken a lot out of him.
"Mario! Don't you have an Ultra Shake left?"
"I did, but Amtakan must have gotten rid of it!"
"Oh, no." Thinking around the situation, Novelle added "The heroes will be completely healed."
Mario suddenly perked up, but he and the others knew better than to announce this out loud. The heroes rushed for Amtakan, denting him with all the techniques they could use. Astoundingly, although our heroes had damaged the villain heavily since the beginning of their fight, he seemed even stronger and healthier than when it had begun. Of course! Mario thought. He's using the Prognosticus to restore himself! While the others whaled on Amtakan, Mario dropped to Novelle's level. "Can you counteract his self-healing?"
"I figured he was doing that." Mario watched her add "Amtakan's self-healing will fail" to the Light Prognosticus.
"It's amazing," Mario uttered. "Along with all that other stuff you added in there."
"Yeah." Novelle looked at a few of the other entries. "The ones I added remotely weren't truly Prognos, though. I couldn't access it."
"I see...but what about the ones that prophecied? Like the one about Dimentio's secret?"
"I knew that from my limited future-seeing experience with the Ancients. There's some bits and pieces we could figure out, but not the whole story, so we had to make do with what we knew and alter fate accordingly."
"Wow." Mario looked up at the others, who were about to be blown away by a powerful laser from Amtakan. "Watch out!" Mario tackled the nearest heroes, which included Luigi, Mimi, and Blumiere, but everyone else was struck by the laser and flung against the wall. They immediately popped back up from the attack, though, on command from Novelle's Light Prognosticus.
"This is taking far too long." Amtakan wrote "The heroes will be defeated now" and fired another large magic blast. The impact took out all of our heroes' remaining health, but Novelle quickly responded with "That won't have any effect." In turn, Amtakan wrote "The Light Prognosticus will be nullified."
As Novelle and Amtakan unleashed a fury of commanding and counteracting, both our heroes and Amtakan found their strength and vitality sporadically increasing and decreasing. Their inconsistent power made it difficult to judge when and how to attack, not to mention making the outcome of the battle impossible to judge. As Novelle wrote a spell to counteract Amtakan's latest attack, the Light Prognosticus suddenly snapped shut. "What? Hey!" She tried to pry it open with both hands, but it appeared to be held together by some mysterious force.
"Foolish Maia. Didn't think to counteract that action, did you?" Amtakan blasted the heroes with a ray of fire.
What can I do? Novelle watched the heroes' vitality drain away as Amtakan hit them with one attack after another, frantically searching her mind for any way to open the Light Prognosticus. Her eye caught on the pages that formed the Prognosticus's width. Could I... Wasting no time, she turned the book sideways and wrote "I can open this book" on the side of the pages. The Prognosticus opened. Yes! Novelle quickly restored the heroes' health. She considered writing a spell that would "seal off" the Dark Prognosticus, perhaps by sealing it shut and creating a barrier over the pages, but soon realized it wouldn't work; that would involve changing the structure of the book itself.
"You guys are getting nowhere. I think I'll jump in." Mortcha ran for Novelle, attempting to steal the Light Prognosticus. Novelle quickly added "Mortcha won't take this!", preventing the minion from grabbing the book. "Gah! You're clever." She turned to Amtakan. "Hey, Amtakan! Do you want me to take that book? You can just focus on taking these heroes out."
"That would be fine, Mortcha." Amtakan handed her the book and his pen.
"Thanks. OK, what do you want next? How about a super-hard-to-dodge spear attack?"
"That would work fine." Amtakan received his power, rushing for the heroes with his new maneuver.
Mortcha observed Novelle writing furiously to deactivate the villain's new attack. "Go away, Novelle." She shoved the messenger away from the Prognos puddle. "Only people who really know how to control fate allowed."
"We'll see about that!" Novelle sent Mortcha flying away with an energy blast.
"Ugh! Why didn't I think of that?" Mortcha scooped up the Prognosticus. She thought about giving herself an endless supply of Prognos on her pen, but then recalled that Prognos couldn't be created by the Prognosticuses themselves. The pen still had an ample supply, so she wrote "Amtakan will have a super-awesome homing energy attack."
The evil wizard felt the energy of the Dark Prognosticus surge into him. He began his new attack immediately, sending missiles of glowing energy into our heroes. "You'll never defeat me, heroes!"
Mario gritted his teeth as Amtakan's attack hit him, only to be fully restored a moment later. "Novelle, this isn't getting us anywhere. Is there some way you could stop him from using the Dark Prognosticus for good?"
"Nope, I don't think so," she sighed. "The books can't actually be made unusable unless the person who's in 'control' of it dies. And I can't use the book to directly kill him."
"What's the closest you can get?" Mario ducked under a laser shot.
"Hmm...I might be able to drain his health to the point where a few attacks would defeat him. You'd have to get him quick, though, before Mortcha restores his health."
"Go for it." Mario ducked into the crowd and told the nearest heroes of the plan. When Amtakan appeared to have his strength sapped out of him, Mario led Luigi, Bowser, and Blumiere in a dash for the mad villain. He delivered an uppercut with his hammer while Luigi jumped from above, Bowser attacked with fire, and Blumiere swung his staff. Amtakan was nearly defeated, but Mortcha was quick on her fingers, restoring him just before Mario could deal the finishing blow.
"Darn it! This isn't working!" Novelle stared at the puddle of Prognos. It had considerably lessened in size since the spillage with all that she, Amtakan, and Mortcha had taken. Could we stall him until the Prognos runs out? But that could be risky...we'd have a limited amount, and what if I wasn't fast enough? Novelle didn't want to stall, but she saw no other option. She waited for Mario to come around. As the hero backflipped over an energy laser and landed next to her, she got his attention and said, "I think the only way for us to pull this off is to stall until the Prognos is gone. I can only try to counteract whatever he'll have left."
"All right. Give us a warning if there's anything we need to do."
Novelle nodded and returned to the Light Prognosticus. Hmm... She waited for Mortcha to look down at the Dark book and write, and then scooped as much of the dark liquid into her left hand as she could, hoping Mortcha wouldn't notice. Hey, I could do that. She wrote "Mortcha won't notice me taking this Prognos," following with a block for Amtakan's next attack.
The battle wore on, our heroes and Amtakan continually being hit and recovering, Novelle and Mortcha writing, and the puddle of Prognos constantly waning in size. "No! It's almost gone!" Mortcha exclaimed. Novelle quickly took what she thought was the last drop, but Mortcha scooped up the remaining moisture on the ground. The Prognos supply was now exhausted.
Only one chance! I've got to do this! Novelle watched for whatever Mortcha was writing, only to find that she wasn't writing at all. She was saving it to counteract whatever Novelle might write! The messenger put down "Mortcha's attempt to counteract this book will fail." Novelle and Mortcha continued watching the battle. Amtakan appeared to be winning, and both writers had enough ink for one more sentence. Novelle's mind raced. What should she do? Amtakan dealt a definitive blow to our heroes with a wave of dark power. He rose his scepter, aiming to finally defeat them. Novelle knew she had to act. She quickly wrote "Amtakan's attack will fail and the heroes will defeat him!"
When the villain's attack failed to work, our heroes jumped for him. Amtakan was about to be defeated and...Wait! No! Mortcha still has- Without time to think, Novelle threw herself at Mortcha, tackling the minion and causing her to drop the Dark Prognosticus.
"Mwa ha ha. It's too late, Novie." Mortcha sat up and pointed at the last entry she'd written in the book. It read, "Amtakan will kill the heroes and Novelle can't do anything about it."

[Reading]

"It ends now, heroes!" Amtakan produced a lightning bolt that plowed into the group of heroes, knocking all of their remaining energy out. The eight heroes dropped to the floor, breathing forcefully, a single attack away from death. "I will give you one final chance. Will you allow me to kill the minions and live to see the dawn of my new creation?"
Mario breathed. He didn't know what to do. Weary, he looked over at Novelle. The messenger was staring at Amtakan with worried eyes, her mouth half-open.
"If you will not reply, I assume you do not wish to join me." The villain rose his scepter, charging it with energy. "It's been a long and painful fight, heroes. But my purpose has triumphed in the end." He pointed his scepter at the group, ready to fire. "Now it-"
"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Margaret screamed, taking out a green stone and hurling it at Amtakan's scepter with pinpoint accuracy. The villain lost his grip, and the staff flew out of his hand, in our heroes' direction, clinking to the ground.
Amtakan whirled around to stare at the worry-eyed Margaret, but before either of them could speak, B-A Omega broke down. "I assume full responsibility for Margaret's behavior, Amtakan. I've been noticing her diminished enthusiasm for a while, and after you left at our last meeting, she asked about love. I apologize for allowing this to happen by not warning you about it."
Amtakan stared at both of the minions. "Is this true, Margaret?"
The minion was silent. She moved her eyes, looking over at the heroes. Mimi was staring at her with an expression of surprise and confusion.
"It is true," the robot continued. "I had the meeting recorded on my sound drive before the heroes destroyed it, so I can't offer any direct proof, but Margaret's actions and her facial expression should be all the evidence you need."
Our heroes' Dark Prognosticus-augmented weakness had begun to wear off. "Margaret..." Mimi took a few cautious steps toward her counterpart, stopping several paces before reaching Amtakan. "What happened?"
The minion's eyes drooped. "Mimi...you see...Amtakan...and..." She sobbed, lowering her head. "When Amtakan sent me to fight all you guys...it was...well, fun. And I thought I could beat you. But then you defeated me, and Amtakan didn't really seem to care..." She paused again. "I saw how virtuous you heroes were...it was, it was so unlike what I've seen for the past thousand years."
Mimi listened carefully, still shocked.
"Amtakan and his minions and everything...they didn't have any love or emotion or anything. Amtakan was so...nothing...and Alpha and Omega were so soulless...and the Netherclops was so pleasure-seeking...and I was...so self-indulgent..."
The heroes, Amtakan, and the other minions took in every word Margaret spoke, their faces, except for Amtakan's, carrying various forms of disbelief, approval, and anger.
"It made me wonder just what love really is...and then I...uhh...." As the minion looked at Amtakan again, tears began falling from her eyes. "I...I..."
The villain spoke. "You have joined the heroes' cause?"
Margaret was still, apparently deciding how to respond. Finally, she slowly nodded, the space below her eyes wet with the salty tears.
"Then, since you are no longer of any use to me, I will kill you and add your energy to that of Blumiere's minions to reactivate the Chaos Heart." Amtakan lowered to pick up his scepter.
"Oh no you don't!" Mimi scooped up the ancient wizard's weapon before he could lay his hands on it, giving Margaret a quick, awkward smile before turning to face her co-creator. "You know what I always thought about you, Amtakan? You were nice to us, and everything, and let us do stuff...but it seemed like you never really loved us." She slammed the head of the scepter into the ground, producing a loud clank. "Now I know why, and I know that Margaret is absolutely right to desert you." Mimi narrowed her eyes, seeming to bore directly into Amtakan's lack of a face. "And since we're all out of Prognos, I guess we'll beat you now and stop your little plan. And Margaret will live a happy, relaxing life, totally filled with emotion and love and all that stuff you want to get rid of."
Wait...but what about the prophecy that states only one of them will survive? Mario recalled Novelle's addition to the Light Prognosticus. The words on the page didn't have any power by themselves, but could the heroes actually overturn the fate that the Ancients had foreseen?
"Oh, but Mimi, I still have a supply of Prognos."
What? Mimi followed Amtakan's gaze toward Blumiere.
"Blumiere belongs to the Tribe of Darkness's bloodline. His blood contains the Prognos that I need."
"Well, I'm not letting you get to him!" Mimi stood in front of her former master, holding Amtakan's scepter in a menacing position.
"Ha ha ha. My scepter will not work in the hands of anyone else." Amtakan hovered toward Mimi.
"She doesn't need your scepter's power!" Margaret cried, running up to Amtakan and hitting him with another stone.
The villain looked at Margaret again, then at Mortcha. "Mortcha, keep the Dark Prognosticus safe. Omega and Netherclops, come in and assist!"
"You got it!" The Netherclops moved toward Novelle while Omega rushed for Mimi, aiming to reclaim Amtakan's scepter.
"Hi-yah!" Mimi dented the robot's semi-repared right arm with a Rubee. The robot swung his other arm for the scepter, but Mimi drew the object back and smashed his faceplate with the head. "Looks like we destroyed all of your pretty weapons, huh?"
"Not all of them! I can still use most of my non-energy weapons, but they would be useless in a fight like this."
"You aren't taking this book!" Novelle aimed an energy blast at the Netherclops before he could steal the Light Prognosticus. The Netherclops promptly sent one of his diamond rotators at Novelle, knocking her backward. The book flew out of her hand. Novelle quickly snapped back up, and she and the minion grabbed the Prognosticus at the same time. They pulled it toward themselves as hard as they could, fighting to overcome the other's strength and yank it out of their hands.
"Wretcha, give up that Dark Prognosticus!" Margaret demanded, summoning all the courage she could. She rushed for the witch and nailed her with another stone.
"No way, sissy hero-sympathizer!" Mortcha pulled the book away. Margaret lunged for it, knocking both shape-shifters over.
"Urrgh!" Mortcha and Margaret wrestled on the ground, fighting over the prophetic book.
"I must claim the Dark Prognosticus if I am to suceed." Amtakan moved to interfere in Mortcha and Margaret's brawl.
The other heroes stood to the side. They knew that they should help either Mimi, Novelle, or Margaret in their struggle over Amtakan's scepter, the Light Prognosticus, and the Dark one, but they weren't sure exactly what to do. "I'm going to see if I can keep that scepter safe from Omega," Mario announced. "We should split up and help all of them!"
"Got it." Luigi moved toward Novelle and the Netherclops to defend the Light Prognosticus.
Our heroes took their positions, spreading themselves evenly among the three conflicts. Mimi and Omega's fight over the scepter was joined by Mario and O'Chunks. Luigi and Peach moved to help Novelle against the Netherclops, and Bowser, Nastasia, and Blumiere joined Margaret to keep the Dark Prognosticus safe from Mortcha and Amtakan.
"Give it up, Mimi!" The cyborg minion reached and clawed for Amtakan's scepter. "That's Amtakan's weapon! It has no place in the hands of someone like you."
"If you expect me to take that as a logical argument, think again." Mimi swung the scepter in a downward arc to avoid Omega's swipe for it.
"'Ey! Give it up!" O'Chunks threw a punch for the robot's face.
Omega quickly snapped himself backward and then up again. "You're going to have to do better then that, you big oaf!"
"Big...oaf..." O'Chunks's eyebrows moved down. "NOW yer gonna get chunked! An' right'n those silly-lookin' shades!" O'Chunks leaped into the air and crashed down on B-A Omega.
"Oof!" Omega pulled himself free, his faceplate damaged. "Grr! Give me that!" He reached for the scepter. Mimi, who'd been watching O'Chunks, was unprepared. At the last second, Mario dove and blocked Omega's hand with his own. A surge of pain traveled up his right arm as the hero's hand collided with Omega's steel plating.
"Take this!" Mimi swung the scepter into the minion's same hand, almost severing one of the metal fingers.
"I don't need fingers to fight!" Omega moved his right arm like a club against Mimi's weapon. The opposing minions initiated a saber fight between Amtakan's scepter and Omega's steel arm.
"Yah!" As Omega swung for the scepter yet again, Mimi held the scepter downward to block his attack, thinking she must have looked like a medeival knight. The fight wore on.
"Errgh!" With a swift downward cut, Luigi chopped the Light Prognosticus out of Novelle and the Netherclops's grip. It fell to the ground in the space that had formerly contained the Prognos puddle. Peach quickly scooped it up, but just as her fingers touched the book, the Netherclops struck her to the ground with a blast of energy. As the minion reached for the book, Novelle grabbed it again and rebuked the Netherclops with a beam from her own weapon.
"Novelle!" Mustering all of her energy, the princess stood up, unfurled her parasol, and blocked the cyclops's staff from reaching Novelle. While the Netherclops was distracted, Luigi jump-kicked the minion's eye from the side, dealing the minion enough shock to make him stagger backwards.
"Here, Peach!" Peach turned around, and Novelle handed her the Light Prognosticus. "Let's spread out a little and pass it among ourselves. That'll keep him away from it."
Peach and Luigi put Novelle's plan into action immediately, moving back several paces from each other. Peach threw the book to Luigi, and as the Netherclops rushed for it, the green plumber tossed it back to Novelle. "Gah!" Frustrated, the Netherclops tried to attack Novelle, but she blocked his move with her wand and threw the Prognosticus over the minion to Peach.
"Come on...come on!" Luigi glanced at the other conflicts. Mimi, Mario, and O'Chunks were holding up well against Omega, so at least Amtakan's scepter was secured. When Luigi looked to the right to observe the fight over the Dark Prognosticus, however, it was a different story.
"Gaaah!" Bowser was slammed into the wall by Amtakan's powerful arm.
"I am not completely offenseless without my scepter, you know." Amtakan continued to pound on Bowser while Mortcha and Margaret rolled on top of each other, kicking and punching, the Dark Prognosticus shifting endlessly between them. Nastasia's efforts appeared to be little help to the violently brawling minions.
"Aaaaagh!" Margaret recoiled as Mortcha, on her back, slammed her fist into Margaret's left eye. While the minion placed her hand over her injured eye, Mortcha grabbed the Dark Prognosticus from Margaret's loosened grip.
"No!" Nastasia violently kicked Mortcha's left thigh, wrenching the book from her hands. Margaret threw her body in front of Mortcha to block her arms from reaching for the Prognosticus, pulling her right hand up to block her burning eye from a side-kick. Now her hand throbbed as well.
Bowser stuck and weakened in the corner, Amtakan turned his attention to his prophecy. "I believe I'll take the Dark Prognosticus now." He reached for the book in Nastasia's hands.
"N...no! You can't have it!" Nastasia blocked Amtakan's reach, ducking under a swing from his other arm.
"Peach! Novelle!" Luigi passed the Light Prognosticus to Novelle. "You guys can take care of that book. It'll take more than two people to keep the Dark Prognosticus safe from Amtakan!" Luigi ran in the direction of that struggle. "Nastasia!" The secretary turned around, spazed a bit, and thrust the book into Luigi's grip without any further thought.
"You will not take that book!" Amtakan knocked Nastasia aside and reached for the Prognosticus. Luigi retreated, sweating with anxiety, until his back made contact with the wall. He looked to the left in panic, searching for any possible escape routes.
"Hurgh!" Nastasia thrust her arms in front of Amtakan's, initiating a heated struggle between the three fighters.
"Oh, oh!" Margaret got up to help Luigi and Nastasia. As she began to run, however, Mortcha tripped her underfoot.
"Not a chance, goody-goody!" Mortcha grabbed a handful of the back of Margaret's dress. "You're going to stay here and get the punishment you oh-so-deserve."
Margaret struggled, trying to work her way out of Mortcha's grip. Finally, she settled down and turned her head back to face Mortcha. "Wretcha..." She bared her teeth. "You and Amtakan don't rule me anymore!" Margaret lowered her head and sank her teeth into Mortcha's arm.
"Yaaagh!" Mortcha drew her arm back in pain, and Margaret wasted no time in hurrying to assist in the struggle over the Dark Prognosticus.
"Margaret!" Nastasia held the Dark Prognosticus in an iron-death grip, Amtakan clutching the other side.
"Take this, loveless scum!" Margaret rose into the air, formed a circle of green rocks around her body, and hurled them all for Amtakan.
"Grrgh!" Amtakan tried his hardest to maintain his grip on the book of prophecy while under constant fire from Margaret.
Come on, come on! Nastasia watched Margaret mercilessly pelt Amtakan with the sharp weapons. Just a few more, and his grip should-
"Hey, Nastasia!" Nastasia didn't have time to discern Mortcha's position before the witch swiped her foot into Nastasia's, tripping her and causing her to lose her grip on the book.
"No! The Dark Prognosticus!" Nastasia made a mad leap for the book, but it was too late. Amtakan had the book secured within his grip. He flipped it out.
"I believe I'll recover my scepter now. Mortcha, come!"
"Aye aye, Amtacaptain!" Mortcha followed her master to where Mario and O'Chunks were standing with Mimi and B-A Omega.
"Uh oh. Amtakan's coming!" Mario warned Mimi of the impending danger. "Stop fighting and keep the scepter safe!"
"Oh gosh!" Mimi pulled Amtakan's scepter back and retreated to the side of the battlefield. Mario and O'Chunks stood guard.
"Omega and Mortcha, do whatever you can to release the scepter from Mimi's grip."
"Yes, Amtakan." The two minions moved in Mimi's direction, their eyes focused on the magical object.
"Try gettin' in 'ere, yeh buffoons!" O'Chunks blocked Mortcha with his giant fist while holding back Omega with the other.
While O'Chunks kept the two minions in place, Mario jumped to the side to stop Amtakan from taking the scepter. "We're going to triumph in the end, Amtakan. You just watch." He leaped on the villain's head, followed by a hammer strike. If I can wear him down enough...
"How about watching this, Mario?" Mario turned his head just in time to be slammed in the face by one of Mortcha's blue stones. The projectile cut a gash on the right side of his face between his eye and his ear. Mario deftly ducked another stone throw. He was in pain, but he couldn't let Amtakan get his weapon at any cost!
"Mario! Mimi!" Novelle caught the Light Prognosticus from Peach, and flew toward the new struggle. We can't let him have his scepter! Novelle stood with Mario, blocking Amtakan from Mimi.
"Let go!" Omega ducked under O'Chunks's fist and moved toward Mimi, Mario, Novelle, and Amtakan.
"Stay back!" While Novelle and Amtakan were occupied with each other, Mario blocked the robot from reaching Mimi.
"Not a chance!" Nastasia, Peach, Blumiere, and an injured Bowser walked into the fight, as well as the Netherclops. Every hero, villain, and minion was now compacted into a tight space against the wall, fighting each other hand-to-hand or holding back another.
"Gah!" Mortcha and Margaret continued their struggle, Peach and Luigi added to the mix.
Amtakan... Novelle and Mario worked to hold Amtakan off while O'Chunks stood his ground in front of Mimi, trying his absolute best to keep Omega out of Mimi's range.
Blumiere and the Netherclops waged a magic war, attacking each other with the most powerful attacks they could muster. Bowser and Nastasia tried to turn the battle in Blumiere's favor. "Get him!" Bowser clawed the Netherclops's back, sending him foward into the target range of Blumiere's spell.
Even as everyone in the room continued to fight, breaking out in sweat and spasms and sustaining battle injuries, neither side appeared to be definitely winning. Heroes and villains alike fought hard, their strength slowly diminishing. Almost everyone was either in pain or barely had the energy to fight, their sheer willpower being the only force keeping them in action. After several minutes, however, the tide turned.
"Get...off me...you dirty...mannerless...girl!" Mortcha tried unsuccessfully to shove Margaret away, the two shape-shifters' legs caught on each other.
Margaret's face was wet with both sweat and tears as she held on to Mortcha. "You...can't...order...me...around...anymore!" With a violent shake, Margaret threw her legs against the wall, taking Mortcha's with them. Both minions heard a sickening crack as the witch's leg made contact.
"AAAAAGH!" Mortcha knew her leg had been broken as blue blood poured from the injury site. She gritted her teeth, shoving back in Margaret's direction. She grabbed both of Margaret's hands and hurled the younger minion toward the wall. O'Chunks, however, was right in Margaret's path. The two minions collided, causing O'Chunks to stagger backward. This opened Mimi to attack from Omega's direction, and the robot immediately saw his chance. He readied his metal leg and delivered a swift kick in the center of Mimi's stomach.
"Gaaagh!" Mimi's breath flew out as sharp, intense pain overcame her. She bent over and clutched her stomach, forcing her hands to stay closed around Amtakan's scepter as best as she could.
"I believe I'll be taking this." B-A Omega reached for the scepter, trying his hardest to yank it out of Mimi's grip. Mimi tried with all her strength, all her will, and all her determination to retain her control of the scepter, but her efforts went to waste. Omega kicked her stomach again, physically forcing Mimi to loosen her grip as she fell to the ground, tears of pain streaming from her eyes. While Mimi writhed, the robot minion collected the scepter and held it in his master's direction. "Amtakan! Here's the scepter!" He threw it over Mario and Novelle, and Amtakan moved backward, reaching his hand upward to catch it.
"Excellent, Omega." Amtakan moved toward Blumiere, who was still dueling with the Netherclops.
"NO! He's got the scepter!" Novelle shouted and raced toward Amtakan, Mario and O'Chunks hot on her heels.
"Take this, Blumiere!" Amtakan fired a beam at Blumiere that smacked him against the side wall. The unsuspecting Blumiere wasn't able to look and see where the attack came from before firing a blast of his own in the direction the attack seemed to come from. Taking his hand away from his face, he saw Amtakan dodge the attack and come closer, bent on spilling his blood.
"No! You won't!" Blumiere avoided Amtakan, rushing to the other side of the room and attempting to attack Amtakan from afar. "Heroes! We must keep attacking him until his strength is gone!"
It was a nigh-impossible task. Amtakan hadn't been attacked much during the brawl, only held back by Mario and Novelle, not to mention the fact that he was by far the strongest enemy our heroes had faced on their adventure. The five other heroes who felt well enough to fight, Mario, Novelle, O'Chunks, Luigi, and Nastasia, did their best to keep Amtakan away from Blumiere, attacking him however they could, but the villain was too quick to be stopped. He attacked Blumiere over and over, driving him into the walls time and time again. Finally, at the receiving end of a particularly powerful burst of magic, Blumiere was slammed sideways into a wall. His hand was crushed against the weight of his body. As he slowly peeled himself from the wall, a small leak of black liquid fell from his hand.
"N...no...Amtakan...you musn't..." Margaret struggled toward Blumiere. In her current condition, it was a wonder she could even move. Mimi, laying on her side with her eyes half-open, was both surprised and amazed at Margaret's tenacity.
Amtakan gestured toward his renegade minion. "Omega, kill this traitor. Her energy will benefit us."
"Yes, Amtakan. That is the most logical solution." The robot hovered toward Margaret.
He hasn't changed... Novelle sighed amid her surprised expression. Not even after that battle.
"No! You can't...you can't..." Mimi's breath heaved with every syllable as she struggled to move, slowly hobbling toward the two minions.
B-A Omega had the weakened Margaret trapped against the wall. There was no way for her to escape as Omega extended a sword-like blade from his left arm. Slowly, Margaret turned toward Mimi. The minion looked like she was about to cry again, but her face, somehow, carried a sense of hope and determination. And as Mimi listened to her sad, raspy voice and continued to observe her face, there was no mistaking Margaret's expression: it was one of love. "Thank...you...Mimi...I'm...sorry..."
Omega plunged the blade through Margaret's chest. The minion uttered one final grunt of pain, and then, as the weapon pierced her heart, fell silent, her eyes closing and her head lulling to the side. Finally, B-A Omega withdrew his blade, leaving a mess of green blood and purple veins on it, letting Margaret's body drop to the floor. Our heroes were silent, unable to avert their eyes from the morbid scene.
Mimi had reached the area where Omega was standing. As the robot turned to look at her with mild surprise, she wordlessly pulled out a Rubee, drew it back, and heaved it through Omega's wiry chest protection. Omega seemed to deactivate, slowly falling backward as the damage to his biological heart caused his life processes to cease to function. He fell to the floor backwards with a clank of metal, still. The others were doubly shocked, remaining as silent as ever.
Amtakan had watched the entire scene. "Ha ha ha." He flipped in his pen and the Dark Prognosticus. "The loss of Omega won't be a dent in my plans at all." The villain rushed to the small puddle of Blumiere's blood on the floor, loaded his pen, and began to write.
No...no...NO! Novelle sped toward Amtakan, dipped her wand, draining the remaining blood, snapped open the Light Prognosticus and speed-wrote "Amtakan won't kill anyone!"
An explosion of dark light radiated from the room's center. Two bright flashes filled the area for a brief instant. As the silent, unmoving heroes watched, the Chaos Heart slowly materialized in the air. Mario snapped around, looking at Blumiere's minions. They appeared to still be alive, although they were heavily injured.
"Ha ha ha." Amtakan moved toward the artifact of destruction. "I decreed that the heroes would die and the Chaos Heart would be reactivated from the minions' energy along with Margaret's. It appears Novelle protected them from death, but all the power I needed was given to me." Amtakan stared at the object he'd created, with a sense of wonder and familiarity. He moved his hand to touch the Heart, slowly brushing his fingers across its dark surface. "It's been a long, long time since I've seen this Chaos Heart with my own eyes." He turned to Mortcha and the Netherclops, giving a soft, ominous nod.
The two minions apparently understood. The Netherclops helped Mortcha walk toward Amtakan and the Chaos Heart. "We will use the Chaos Heart to join with you again," Mortcha began. "Our power combined with that of the Chaos Heart will make us impossible to defeat."
"And in our new form," the Netherclops continued, "we will destroy these heroes, the Breaker Orbs they collected for the case of this very event, and the Light Prognosticus that has caused us so much trouble."
The three drew closer to the Chaos Heart. Amtakan spoke slowly and solumnly. "It...is...time." He waved his staff. The Chaos Heart extended a flash of dark light. It spread to encompass the entire room, beginning to engulf Amtakan, Mortcha, and the Netherclops. "Open your mouth, darkness!" Amtakan declared. "Consume everything and destroy all worlds!"
The room exploded. The dark violet backdrop of The Void overcame the area as our heroes floated in the gravity-less environment. "Mario..." Novelle uttered. "It's happening...it's happening again!"
The Chaos Heart emitted another rush of darkness. The shapes of the three villains merged into a single entity that surrounded the Chaos Heart, expanding with every moment. As the shape grew, its dark gray color seperated into different shades. The entity formed into three gigantic, wide, straight limbs that extended from the three sides of the Chaos Heart, its two lobes and its pointed bottom, forming perfect triangular angles. The limbs grew large points at their ends as three smaller points extended from the regions between the large ones, giving the entire monster a somewhat compass-like appearance. As the three segments were colored with dark red, dark blue, and dark yellow, curved black spikes appeared all around its edges. Three black shapes extended from the Chaos Heart in the monster's center in the directions of the three large points. Sharp tan shapes extended inward from these regions, making the structure look much an elongated, tri-ended mouth that held the Chaos Heart at its center. Finally, two large, glowing, red, pupil-less eyes appeared in the region of each of the monster's three large points, stacked vertically between the mouth and the end of the point. The monster had six eyes in total, all lining up with the mouth and the points to form a straight line from each of the Heart's three sides, creating an enormous triangular figure centered around the Chaos Heart.
The monster emitted an ear-splitting roar. "We are the Triumvirate!" it shouted in a triple mutation of Amtakan's, Mortcha's, and the Netherclops's voices. "Destroyer of worlds and true leader of the Tribe of Darkness!"
Mario was struck with a sudden realization that he'd seen this monster before. Its shape was very similar to the Tribe of Darkness's emblem!
"We will destroy you heroes and eradicate all love and emotion! We will create a new world and rule over it! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha! It is hopeless, heroes! That meddling Novelle cannot save you now! All worlds will fall!"
Our heroes looked at Novelle. "Can...can we use the Breaker Orbs?" Tippi finally asked. They were in absolutely no shape to fight this monster.
"We might be able to, but...its power is much greater than the last time I saw it. I don't think the Breaker Orbs would seperate them from the Chaos Heart, at least not right away. We'd have to stop the Chaos Heart's energy, but it's being shielded from attack."
"Then how can we break that shield?" Luigi breathed.
Mario looked at Novelle. The messenger appeared to be thinking the same thing he was thinking. "The Pure Hearts," he finally uttered. "We can use them again just like we did the last two times. They'll combat the Chaos Heart."
"Yes!" Novelle exclaimed. "I don't think they'll be able to completely counter the shield, but they'll at least make it possible for us to attack this monster. Let's do it, heroes! Think thoughts of love!"
Our heroes closed their eyes, thinking of as much love as they could. Everyone they'd saved...everyone they'd been concerned for...and everything that existed. They'd fought and explored for a time that seemed amazingly long. Exploring Mount Lineland and finding the desert and ruins beyond. Being trapped in Merlee's Mansion and finding the true Mimi. Journeying through The Bitlands to find the kidnapped Tippi. Plunging into Outer Space to find the mind-boggling Whoa Zone. Trekking through the Land of the Cragnons to find the underground Floro Sapien caverns. Fighting the 100 Sammer Guys only to be transported back to Flipside as the dimension was eaten by The Void. Climbing from The Underwhere to The Overthere above. Making it through Castle Bleck and defeating Super Dimentio. Adventuring across an ocean and defeating the fabled Monster Blooper. Walking across a desert to fight some renegade cowboys. Joining the Bluecaps to fight in their war against the X Faction. Freeing the prisoners of the Animaul Kingdom with help from Kara. Discovering Morris's plot to trap the heroes. Traveling across a desert, a mountain range, and into a volcano to defeat Dimentio's plan to destroy them. Uncovering the ancient underground ice palace and unknowingly freeing Amtakan. Getting through the newly renovated Castle Dimentio, learning Dimentio's true identity, and watching his plan apparently suceed. Receiving instructions to find an orb and venturing through a dusty town and some ancient ruins. Getting more help from the mysterious Maia and fighting a new war machine to find the second orb. Searching around a city with help from Paletta and defeating Morris yet again. Joining a tournament and escaping across the ocean at night. Finding Blumiere's minions and struggling with Wretcha to claim the last two orbs. Defeating Hyper Bowser. Traveling across the cold mountains, finding Novelle, and learning the history of the Ancients. Journeying through the spacey Cybertetra and combating the H-X Alpha Robot Phalanx. And finally, venturing through The World of Amtakan to save every world, once and for all.
The Pure Hearts slowly materialized in the air above our heroes' heads, emitting the colorful, pleasant light they were familiar with. "There they are!" Blumiere exclaimed.
Our heroes' vitality was completely restored as the Pure Hearts formed a circle around the Chaos Heart, destroying the protective barrier. The Triumvirate was apparently unintimidated. "Those Pure Hearts won't do anything!" it asserted. "The Chaos Heart is still protected! You heroes can't get it to it...not before we destroy you first!"
Mario and Novelle looked at each other for what seemed like the hundredth time. They nodded. "Let's do this," Mario declared. "With the power of the Pure Hearts and our own love. We're going to save every world!"

[Reading]

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.

[Reading]

"Mario, you can stop crying now."
Mario slowly looked up from his hands, observing the diamond-filled, tan-colored sky of Flipside. Our heroes were standing atop Flipside Tower. "Yeah...OK." Mario wiped his nose and held his head high. "Luigi, it's just that...well...I...I don't really know."
"Yeah, that's all right. I understand. I'm sad about her, too, but I guess the important thing is to move on. We saved the world, bro! So let's hear it for us! Yeah!" Luigi pumped his fist into the air.
"Indeed," came Merlon's voice from behind. He walked closer to them, clearing his throat. "And you have done it magnificently. Thanks to your efforts, all of the good folks of Flipside, and everywhere else in the worlds, can rest safely knowing that their fate is not to be swallowed up by The Void. The Dark Prognosticus and the Chaos Heart have been destroyed once and for all, and so has the person who was secretly behind all of our troubles: Amtakan."
"Yes," Tippi agreed. "You know, from what Novelle told us, it seemed like Amtakan wasn't really that bad of a guy. He just had a tendency to get upset over things, and one time...that just lead him to make a terrible decision. His intents were noble, and his...I suppose you could say, his heart was in the right place. His desires just twisted and perverted him into eliminating emotion from his being, and once that happened..." Tippi sighed. "There was no turning back."
"But Novelle was there to stop him," Nastasia continued. "Her love for these worlds is what allowed us to stop Amtakan's plot."
"Novelle..." Merlon spoke the word as if tasting it on his tongue. "She arrived mysteriously, and left just as suddenly as she came. It's a shame I never got the opportunity to speak with her for longer. She was a true blessing while she was here. I've never seen anyone so...so...ah, where are the words I'm looking for?"
"I know what you're trying to say," Mimi approved. "But I can't find the words either. Maybe something about love, or nobleness...or something. Like she almost seemed divine. Like an angel or something..."
"Angelic?" Merlon thought about this word. "Perhaps. But she was many other things, too. A fighter, a defender of truth...oh, there's so many things one could say about her. It's just such a shame what had to happen to her. I'm sure she would've wanted to help improve the worlds. I can imagine her now, working to help solve our everyday problems, and smiling all the while..." Merlon sighed.
"Speaking of which," Mario began, "I promised her something before she...left. She wanted me to do my best to preserve the worlds and their love, from anyone who might try to harm them."
"Sounds good," Bowser agreed. "I think I'll do my best, too. As long as you don't try to rescue Peach whenever I kidnap her, you're totally cool with me!"
Our heroes laughed. Bowser would always be Bowser, even if he'd helped them save the universes from a threat much bigger.
Merlon exhaled. "Well, heroes..." He looked at the original four heroes of legend. "I presume you'll be returning to your own dimension now..."
"Yeah, we will," Luigi answered. "Not right away, though. I mean, Flipside is such a great place...we should hang out here a little more! What do you say, bro? Peach? Bowser?"
"Sure, why not?" Peach agreed. "It'll be great to finally be back in the Mushroom Kingdom, but I wouldn't want such a sudden goodbye to this place and all the people I've met since Count Bleck abducted me. We can hang out, relax...and remember all the great times we had. Remember when you guys made me eat that Black Fruit?" Our heroes shared another laugh. "Pbthhh!!! That thing was disgusting!"
"Can we visit the dimensions we've been to?" Luigi asked. "Merlon, you could probably change the doors to go to one of their previous destinations, couldn't you?"
"Indeed, I believe I could." Merlon moved toward the green door. "Say you wanted to revisit Beachfront Town, for instance..."
"Oh, yeah," Bowser exclaimed. "We were going to tell Kara everything she wanted to know about what's beyond that bridge."
"And it'll be good to let Merlrock know we succeeded," Mario added.
"And we can visit Tedac again..." Luigi began. "And Paletta and Merlee and King Sammer and Chip Ahoy and Dusty and all of the other people we've met. Won't it be a blast?"
"Ahhh...yes." Merlon looked at the others. "And what about you, O'Chunks, Mimi, Nastasia, Blumiere, and Lady Timpani? What's next for you all?"
"I know what I'm gonna do," O'Chunks began. "Get some o' those de-LECT-able snacks!"
"Tee hee! You're so silly, O'Chunks!" Mimi teased. "But that does sound good." Mimi sighed. "You know, I am sad that the two friends I've had all my life are gone, but I know Margaret wouldn't want me to just stand here and cry. She'd want me to get active. Bring love to the four corners of the world...or however that saying goes."
"Well, I must admit I don't really know where we want to go from here," said Blumiere, glancing fondly at the now-human Timpani. "But there are so many possibilities, it's hard to even decide where to start."
"The possibilities are never-ending," Timpani agreed. "Who knows where we'll end up? We could do anything. I guess the only thing for certain is that..." She put her arm around her loving husband. "...Whatever we do, we're going to do it together."
"That's right, dear. Despite everything, I really do have Novelle to thank for such a wonderful wife."
Timpani laughed.
"We have her to thank for that and much more," Merlon agreed. He seemed finished. "Well! I do believe someone mentioned snacks?"
"Absolutely!" O'Chunks approved. "We saved all o' those worlds, lads! GRA-GOOGLY-HEY-HOORAH! Why don't we have a wee celebration?"
"A 'wee' celebration?" Mario teased. "Why not a gigantic celebration? If we're ever going to match the scale of everything we did, we'd better start planning now!"
"Then let's get to the fun!" Bowser walked toward the elevator. "I'm beating you guys!"
"Not so fast, Bowser!" Luigi chased Bowser across the tower, and the others followed close behind.
"Whew," Mario breathed as they descended. "That was one exciting adventure. I sure am ready to relax."
"But, you know, the world's always going to be threatened again," Luigi reiterated. "Guys will want to take over the world...someone'll try to activate some other ancient prophecy...Bowser will kidnap Princess Peach..."
"Heh heh. Yep, I know, Luigi. That's what we do." Mario leaned back, closing his eyes. I'm never going to forget you, Maia. I promise you that.
And I'll never forget you, Mario.
Mario's eyes snapped open. What?! He stood for a few seconds, listening for anything within his mind. Maia? Is that you?
No response came.
Huh... Mario didn't know what he'd just experienced. Had that really been her? Had...well, probably Grambi let her contact Mario one last time? Or had that just been a thought within his own head? But it had seemed so real...and at the same time, he couldn't remember exactly what it had felt like. It had came and left so quickly.
The elevator opened onto the second floor of Flipside. Well, whatever that was, I'm going to keep my promise to you, Maia. Mario walked with the others, boldly stepping forth in his old, but somehow new mission. To bring love to everyone...it was such a noble objective.
"Hey, Mario, you coming?" Luigi asked, about to hit the button for the first floor.
"What? Oh, yeah!" Mario joined the others and waited for the elevator.
"So, what's your favorite thing there, Mimi?" As the others drifted into their own conversations, Mario still thought about where he'd go from here. There'd always be something to take care of in the worlds, and he would be there to get it done.
Whatever happens from here, I'll do it. Love.


And so the dark prophecy was, once and for all, destroyed.

Amtakan, destoyer of worlds and love, was defeated.

The citizens of Flipside are at peace once more, knowing that The Void will never again emerge in the sky.

Our heroes celebrate saving the world once again, knowing that whenever trouble appears, they'll be ready.

And so the story of the lost book of prophecies meets its true end.

May we meet again in another time and place...

-STAFF CREDITS-

-Lead Writer-
Reading

-Assistant Writer-
General Stuff

-Original Character Design-
Reading
General Stuff
Xeus

-Artwork-
Reading
General Stuff

-Based on a game created by-
Nintendo

-Special Thanks-
Original Super Paper Mario staff
General Stuff
Xeus
Lady Timpani

Thanks to the original Super Paper Mario staff, again, for creating the game that inspired the project of mine that ran from July 30, 2007 to March 24, 2009. Super Paper Mario was such an amazing game, and I hope I've written a worthy sequel! Well, two, to be exact.

Thanks to General Stuff for reading every new chapter before they were posted and helping weed out any obvious errors and problems. Now get back to work on whatever biography part you were on! :P

Thanks to Xeus for, not only helping me with the H-X Alpha and B-A Omega's design, but also helping me with the design of the Triumvirate, and approving the design for the Chaos Heart's final form. I would never have thought of curved spikes around the edges! You're the man when it comes to sheer coolness.

Thanks to Lady Timpani for reading the whole story and enjoying it, and for proofreading Chapters 8-1, 8-2, and 8-3 before they were posted. You've been a great help, not to mention a great member of the Forums of the Scepter.

And finally, a general thank-you to everyone who's read this story. It's been a long, fun, and sometimes hectic road, but the Super Paper Mario sequel project has finally reached its end. I hope you all enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Now that SPM2/3 is finished, I'll be moving on to other things like The Hidden Scepter. It's been very fun working with this project, but I do believe I've had enough Super Paper Mario for one lifetime (actually, if you do the math, I've actually been working on this project for about one-tenth of my entire lifespan up to this point. Crazy, isn't it?). Nonetheless, it's been a pretty wild ride, with lots of bumps, obstacles, and plot twists, and I'm proud of my accomplishment. So, uh...may we meet again in another time and place!

[Nintendoobsessed]

Congratulations, on not giving up on this. I can only HOPE that my new story lasts half of the time your story took. :)

[Reading]

Thanks. I've been meaning to read your story, actually, and now that the SPM sequel project is finally over, I'll have tons of more time to do that and the other activities I desperately need to catch up on. ;)

[Kimimaru]

Just simply AMAZING! Your story is so well-written that it seems like I'm reading what a professional author wrote. This was definitely the best fan fiction story I have ever read! Congratulations on your accomplishment! I had just as much fun reading it as you did writing it!

[Reading]

Seeing as I finished the PDF version of SPM3, and I put all sorts of character art in there that I didn't post here, I think I'll show the new artwork you guys didn't see last time after I finished SPM2 Chapter 4-4. I'll post those ones here too, just for a complete picture.

I'm also working on a project in Art class at school inspired by SPM and my two sequels. I'll post a picture of it here when it's finished.

Mario


Luigi


Peach


Bowser


Count Bleck


Timpani


Dimentio


O'Chunks


Mimi


Nastasia


The Ruffer Ruffian


Tedac


Radnamok X


H-X Alpha


B-A Omega


Kara


Novelle


Morris


Amtakan


Hyper Dimentio


Mortcha


Hyper Bowser


Margaret


The Netherclops


The Triumvirate


The Chaos Heart

[Nintendoobsessed]

Those boss designs are incredible.

[Reading]

Well, now that school's out and that aforementioned art project is finished, I believe I'll post it here. You should be able to figure out what it's about. :)

Click here to see it.