Chapter 3: A Piece of Cake
Kooper, Bow, and Goombario push themselves to the front of a line forming in front of an elevator inside Glitz & Glamour. They got here as quick as they did via the magic of warp pipes.
"What happened here?" Kooper asks on behalf of the group.
"A murder," one of the cops tells him while they inspect the area, all while the crowd continues to form.
"I don't think this is a coincidence, guys," Goombario points out. "Two murders in one day, we're looking for a guy, and he was at the sight of the first. There's no way this isn't connected."
"You don't need to tell me," Bow responds. "I hate the ever-present wild goose chase. Always a waste of time."
"What's this?" one of the cops wonders aloud. Kooper nods toward Bow, causing the ghost to turn invisible and cross the line, ready to inspect the scene. Bow looks inside and sees what they're talking about: a 3 etched into the floor of the elevator, then returns to the others, becoming visible afterwards.
"It's a three..." she tells them, sounding both confused and impatient. "What is it with things like this and-" but the Boo is interrupted as Kooper's cell phone begins to ring. The Koopa withdraws it, looks at the number, then answers.
"Kooper speaking."
On the other end of the line, the Koopa hears the voice of Blanka Micha, "I just wanted to see if you've found anything on that yet."
"We've been at the scene of two murders, if that's what you mean. So far, we have nothing solid."
"I suggest checking out this small island in the Dino Isles. I heard someone has seen him lurking around there. And bring that staff of yours too."
"That old thing? Why?"
"It can harness the power of anger. Using it would make capturing him that much easier on you."
"Hmm... interesting. All right, we'll be there ASAP." Both parties hang up, and Kooper looks visibly shaken upon doing so.
"What? Was it something he said?" Goombario asks seeing this.
"No... it's just... I didn't give him my number."
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"Amazing, ain't it?" Insanee Dayzee asks of her two cohorts as she pushes in the door of the long-abandoned Woohoo Hooniversity. The three step inside, feasting eyes upon much ruin and dread as the walls are filthy, coated in dirt with cobwebs covered in spiders adorning the foundation as well. Insects swarm everywhere and all the lights are out, making the sunlight from the still-open door the only way they are even seeing all of this.
"What happened here?" Mack questions of the Dayzee, interested in knowing of the fall of what was once the Beanbean Kingdom's most prestigious research facility.
"Whenever your former master Cackletta first began the attack that eventually led to her first death, this place was taken over by her during the raid and, as you can clearly see in front of you, no one bothered to refill it, opting to keep their research in the various areas where it had been relocated to. Y'know, if there was a bit of sunlight in here I'd set up this place as my base in a heartbeat!"
"For a crescent moon there coming here we did why?"
Insanee, having taken the time during the trip as an opportunity to learn to understand Bowyer, answers, "See, all the experiments that were here were abandoned. I happen to know via some... unconventional studying, or as some would call it, snooping, that there was an experiment being done involving using a crescent moon's immense power to create a more efficient energy source that would literally power all of Plit for years before needing to be replaced."
"Wait, what were you doing snooping around for anyway?"
"Well, there was some sort of experiment going on to create a cream that could supply its user with eternal youth. I was checking back every so often so as to steal the final result, but luckily somebody beat me to it."
"Let me guess, it made the user younge-"
"No, not at all. Nothing horribly cliched about it. Apparently some demon guy showed up and stole it before I could, but it turned out all it did was remove wrinkles. Like I'd have any use for that."
"But wearing aren't you-"
"Trust me, never insult a lady," Insanee snarls in response, shutting the bow up. The party of three begins to walk forward, Insanee and Bowyer doing what they can to keep insects not only off of them but Mack as well. After getting so far, Insanee digs into her grass skirt and pulls out a flashlight. She turns it on and begins to navigate her way through the dust-filled hallways, Mack and Bowyer both following close behind.
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"How are we supposed to find them anyway?" Koops asks of Vivian as all four of the heroes sit around a campfire in the midst of the woods. "We have no clue where they're operating from."
Vivian thinks for a second, then answers, "In all honesty, I'm not sure. I'd say our best bet would be to trick Mack and Bowyer into divulging the location of their hideout, though Mack is probably smart enough to see through any attempts like this. Bowyer, I doubt it."
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"How are we supposed to get to the Dino Isles quickly enough to catch this guy anyway?" Goombario wonders as he and his two friends stand around at the beach around 100 miles south of said isles.
"You forget," Kooper replies, "Bow can hover there since she is a Boo."
"Exactly," Bow pipes in.
"And as for us, well, I don't like to brag but a Koopa's shell makes an excellent surfboard." Soon all three find themselves on the trip there, Bow flying while Goombario rides atop the blue shell inside which Kooper is ducked into with all of the essentials such as the drawing, the cell phone, etc. being carried by Bow.
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"Boys, here's the first of four!" Insanee shouts to Mack and Bowyer as she kicks in the door to a small laboratory inside the Woohoo Hooniversity, in which lies not only around ten or so Crescent Moons, but a ton of spilt beakers, burnt-out machines, and other junk. Insanee kicks her way through it and grabs one of the moons, dropping it in the bag around Mack's handle.
"Next doing are we what?"
"Let me think..." Mack answers. "Oh yeah, it was a Magic Lamp."
"A Magic Lamp?" Insanee asks, sounding a bit concerned at the idea. "Like the kind you find lying around in the desert?"
"The very same. Let me guess: not interested in coming?"
"What? Of course not! Naturally I'll come; I may be a flower, but I can take the heat!"
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"This will be your grave!" he yelled again, launching another kick into the ribs of his 25-year-old son.
Deathnify shakes his head to rid himself of the rather unpleasant memory, then turns his gaze to the sea.
"I think they should be getting here right about now," the demon snickers as he stands up and reaches his left arm into a grocery bag hanging on his right.
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"Delivery!" Wario hears being yelled from outside his vacation home, sighing and pulling himself from his chair.
"Since when do people deliver here anyway?" he grumbles, opening the door to reveal a Rex wearing a pale green uniform of some sort, likely for working for a company.
"Delivery from a..." the Rex lowers the box in his arms so as to see the tag atop it, "Mona."
Wario guffaws before grabbing the box
with his left hand while using the right to sign off for it. Upon doing
so, he practically slams the door in the face of the Rex and promptly sets
about devouring the cake, all while a particular man watches through the
window.
Chapter 4: Amalgamation
"That you four?" Koops, Vivian, Ms Mowz, and Eggo hear from within a small cave in the mountainside of their current location, a valley in Sarasaland known as Elephant Canyon. They were called and told to come about an hour ago.
"Yes, it is us," Vivian answers on behalf of the group. "And who are you?"
The figure steps out, drawing a gasp from all four. "I think you know," he answers.
"Deathnify?" Eggo asks before drawing an egg and aiming it.
"Don't worry. Even if I wanted to, I can't kill you four. It'd disrupt my plans. And besides..." the demon slides his left hand through his hair, "we have a common enemy."
"What do you know?" Ms. Mowz inquires of the demon suspiciously.
"The person you're after is named Shwerm, though she prefers Kaguya. She's set up her residence inside a pocket dimension accessed via a large mirror on the Snowflake Mountain, in an area known as Snowball Valley."
"A giant mirror?" Koops wonders. "And wait, why should we trust you anyway?"
"I'm getting to that. First of all, to activate the mirror you'll need to take a jewel held by one of her minions here in Elephant Valley known as the Soul Shaker. I'll help you with that. Then you just need to go there, hold the jewel up in front of the mirror, and fight your way through around three lifetimes' worth of zombie minions en route to overthrowing an evil pocket empire. As for me... well, Kaguya is after something I want as part of her spell she's preparing for, so if you happen to see her with a small red stone, could you fetch it for me?"
"Wait a second, tell me more about this Kaguya..." Vivian tells the demon, still sounding a bit tense like the others.
"Well well, lessee... there's no way you can beat her in a straight-up fight."
"Why not?" Eggo questions. "She can't be as tough as Cackletta, or Beldam, or you."
"As tough as me? No. Beldam and Cackletta? Probably. See, thing is, this girl has some type of spell cast on her so that she can see all outcomes of a chain of events in a given world before it even happens. I know quite a lot of magic, but I've never seen anything like that. In other words, if you were to try to fight her, you'd have to fight her in two different worlds at once just to throw off that ability. And that's where the second thing I know of comes in, and the thing I am most interested in. I'm not sure how, but despite being younger than Sharm by only years, she only looks to be around 20, while he's in his late 30's."
"Wait, wait, wait," Koops stops the demon. "How can you tell what she looks like if she's a Shaman?"
"She's not. She's his adopted sister, and is, in fact, a Koopa Troopa much like yourself. Anyway, from what I can tell she's been using magic to go back in time and bend events to go her way via using the other spell and reacting accordingly. What confuses me, however, is that she should be older than per the time she's lived, not younger."
"But why should we trust you?" Ms. Mowz asks. "You've tried to kill us twice and I don't think that makes you very trustworthy."
"Soul harvest."
"Excuse me? Isn't that what Boos do to recruit new souls into their ranks?" Vivian asks.
"Exactly. I've had a working agreement with King Boo ever since he gave me the Sword of Shadows."
Eggo starts to ask, "The wha-" but is interrupted.
"The Sword of Shadows converts other entities into Fallen; soulless, mindless creatures who obey the will of he who has the sword. In exchange for me having this, I use Gateway to supply his army with new recruits. I don't use the Fallen to attack for me; instead I have them work on covering my trail. All because of the Fallen, I just recently constructed a palace to the east, drowned out by a cloaking spell. As I said, I can't kill things at the moment because it would interfere with my plans. Similarly, you four shouldn't kill the Soul Shaker because its magical backfire would likely rip all of you down so far you'd be lucky to have whole atoms left. So I propose we travel together for a few days until we find the Soul Shaker, I turn it into a Fallen, and everyone's happy. Deal?"
"Fine," Koops answers on behalf of the group. "So, we might as well get to know each other then."
"Fair enough. Do you want me to start at the part where my brother cut out my shoulder blade or the part where an old merchant and her two sisters directed me to a Duplighost in the mountains who took me as his apprentice?"
"Wait a second," Vivian says, "Did you just say what I thought you said?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Just making sure is all. Heh heh." Vivian is about to say more, when she suddenly drops to the ground with both hands on her head, moaning as she hears a voice. Though this voice is not Vivian's, it sounds as though it is emerging from Vivian's head rather than an outside source.
You know the truth about what he said, don't you? You remember.
Who is this?
You don't need to know at the moment. Anyway, back to the main point of this little talk. Kaguya is too powerful for you, Vivian. You beat Cackletta on a fluke. You don't have a chance with Kaguya. But I can give you a chance, if you cooperate.
What are you talking about?
Amalgamate with me, Vivian. Become one with me. My magical expertise is what you need, Vivian. You know this. You have the body... I have the mind. Now supply me what I need, and I will do the same for you.
I don't think I will. We're capable of handling Kaguya ourselves, thank you. Confinos!
A sealing spell? I thought you would try that. I'm too far inside for that, sorry. You what they say... if you can't beat them, join them. Keep that in mind.
"Ugh..." Vivian moans as she pulls herself up off of the ground.
"Telekinetic messages," Deathnify mumbles. "So, could you tell who it was or not?"
"No... but this was weirder than past experiences with the spell..."
"How much weirder do you get than having somebody talking to you in your head anyway?" Eggo wonders, drawing a look from both Vivian and Deathnify that seems to suggest that he doesn't want to know.
"So, what was the gist of the conversation?" Ms. Mowz asks Vivian, causing both her and Deathnify to turn away from Eggo.
"Well, whoever it was mentioned that they wanted to take my body, and mentioned their magical expertise. That's all I know."
"Could be the
Soul Shaker trying to get in your head," Deathnify sighs. "It's well-known
for that."
Chapter 5: Some Explanations
Kooper, Bow, and Goombario are thrown onto the ground by a group of six Chomp Bros. that have just dragged them into a cave on the shore of the island. They all pull themselves up to reveal a smiling Duplighost sitting on a boulder just a few feet in front of them. The shapeshifter is wearing a lei of some sort. The Duplighost is wearing a cloak that is green, with seven yellow bars intersecting upon it and forming what appears to be a V intersecting with an upside down V, with three lines running through the center of the formation.
"Welcome!" the Duplighost shouts before standing up and moving forward on the rock enough to be at eye-level with Kooper.
"What's this all about?" Bow asks. "Last I checked, you don't kidnap a princess! Oh, wait..."
"Relax, I'm not kidnapping you," the mimic replies with a laugh.
"What do you call sending a group of six Chomp Bros. to drag us from the shore to here then?" Goombario snaps, annoyed at what he perceives to be arrogance.
"Loosen up. I just had you brought here so that I could explain to you something very important I could tell needed solving after a visit from a Shaman living on the next island over. See, I've heard that you three are hunting for Defiance?"
"Who?" Kooper wonders. "The only person we're after is Dante ‘Deathnify' Noferis."
"Oh yes, right. I forgot he started going by Deathnify... Anyway, I know some things about dealing with him. Things that I learned from my grandfather and could use to save your lives, as you three are currently heading head-on into a collision course with fate. My name is Mahout Doople the 5th. At one time my family was the most powerful Duplighost clan on all of Plit. But my grandfather made a mistake, one that cost the kingdom everything and led to us being forced to take refuge on this island for over 100 years now until a certain person is finally gone from this world.
"You see, many years ago my people had a large empire set up in the mountains around the Crystal Palace. They had obtained the land by making an agreement with the Star Spirits themselves, swearing to guard the sacred palace from those who would wish to destroy it in return for being able to harvest on the otherwise useless tundra.
"One fateful day 125 years ago, there was a knock at my great-grandfather's door. My great-grandfather and his family were long the rulers of the village, and would often take in those who wished to learn our ways. At the door stood a young demon, 23 years of age and badly injured. He asked that he be taken into the tribe and molded into a shapeshifter so that he might one day be able to gain his vengeance on a tribe that had deserted him. My great-grandfather accepted as he did with all of those who came to his door.
"The demon trained for around three years nonstop, showing terrific ability despite not being a Duplighost himself, which usually caused most to fail and likely find themselves stuck in another form for an indefinite period of time. The demon left one morning after seeing three women, the three who had pointed him our way in the first place, traveling through the area, which signaled the annual tournament in his village was to begin very soon as they always came by to peddle and make huge profits off demons removed from the outside world's advancements. My grandfather, at the time a young man who was just beginning to train to take my great-grandfather's place, accompanied him so he could view the tournament. The demon shouted on his way out of my people's village that he would now be known as Defiance, in reference to him defying his father and brothers.
"During the tournament, the demon wore the mask and armor he had been forced to wear the other five times he'd entered the tournament, despite being highly uncomfortable. When he signed up, he used not his real name nor Defiance nor the Swift Deathmask name he used to compete under, but rather Deathnify- a combination of the words ‘death', ‘defy', and ‘nullify'. He entered the tournament and used his shapeshifting abilities to fight his way to the finals through opponents much larger than him, relying on brute force with little magical ability.
"It was in the finals where he met the older of his two elder brothers in combat after slaying the younger in the midst of battle in the semis. Deathnify had sworn that he would defeat and kill both brothers, and in this battle rather than fighting with the shapeshifting trickery he had used before, he simply turned his arms into blades and went head-on against the sword-fighting prowess of his brother.
"Deathnify fought hard against a nearly impossible-to-conquer opponent, and just as it appeared that his brother had the fight in his hands without ever realizing who he was fighting, assuming it to be someone new to take up competing in a similar costume due to his brother's pitiful earlier attempts, Deathnify unmasked, startling a crowd and a brother that thought he had perished in an assault from the brothers three years earlier. Only one person, besides the three merchants, was not surprised- his older sister, who had been the one to save his life and help him escape the village alive. Stunned, his brother fell victim to a lunge from Deathnify, ending the fight with the youngest of four siblings, and who had at one time been considered the weakest demon in the tribe, standing victorious as the toughest in the land.
"But there was one challenger remaining. Following seeing his two favorite sons and planned successors fall to who he considered to be a personified mistake, Blanka Noferis came down from the throne he had sat in as host of the tournament in order to gain revenge on someone who had come for the same on him. Deathnify accepted his challenge and the two clashed, Deathnify fighting like he had against his brother and being overwhelmed. As Blanka was about to finish the fight up, Deathnify pulled out an old memento my great-grandfather had given him as he had no magical expertise and thus could not use its power. At the might of what resembled the alarm clocks of now, the demon warlord fell to his knees, his soul practically being ripped from his body to the awe of the crowd before Deathnify stopped the spell prematurely, walking away without the mask or the trophy, his sister and my grandfather following behind him on his way out of the arena. According to my grandfather, he yelled back that he would not kill his father no matter how much he thought he deserved it."
"And how did that lead to your kingdom being overthrown?" Goombario questions, believing the story to be over.
"Getting to that. Following this, Blanka was enraged, swearing to slaughter all in his path. The oldest of the merchant sisters, the one who had taught Deathnify the ability that made him able to travel through the Shadows and had told of our clan to him, sold out much to the dismay of her other two sisters, offering up information on what had caused his son's drastic improvement. Dante and his wife Micha sent every man in the tribe into our mountains, and there they hit too fast and too hard for my people to think of anything to counter the attack. Within mere minutes my people were fleeing, with the demons burning the village to the ground for good measure before departing.
"We all scattered. My family came to this island where we took to living in caves, waiting for the death of the now very old Blanka to this day so we can move back to our land without fear of reprisal. Some moved back into the Crystal Palace and the encounter was forgotten by most of those. Some crossed the ocean into other countries, and some did what they could to integrate into another society."
Kooper mumbles, "Wait a second... Blanka... Micha... That's-"
"You just now getting this?" Mahout asks. "The guy's been leading you on from the beginning. He was here earlier today, and I overheard him mumbling off his list. Deathnify's using you, Kooper, to create a being whom he can sacrifice for an insane ritual as a personification of anger. That staff does use the power of anger, yes, but it holds a much more sinister ability: for a short term use, there's no better. But with extended contact, even when not in use, the staff will take over you, driving you to snap at the slightest provocation."
"Tell me where this thing came from," Bow tells the Duplighost in what sounds more like a command than a request.
"All right. The staff was confined to the bottom of the Barrel Volcano, where few knew of its existence as the Wand of Zomb; it's true name is the Fire Locust, but it took this name due to its chamber being fairly close to that of the Czar Dragon, which could transform into a being known as Zombone. A Bean man sent a witch, the same who sold out our clan, to retrieve the staff for him. He used it in battle and accidently killed his master in a blind rage before burning to death himself. You found the staff at the site of that fire, Kooper."
"Wait a second," Kooper starts, interrupting. "Why should I hang onto this staff then if its just going to consume me for his needs?"
"It can benefit you too, Kooper. The staff has the ability to summon objects if the user knows the exact location of them. It can also be used for teleportation within a radius of about two miles. But back to the summoning. You see, after Deathnify and Gwaz- that's his sister by the way- set out upon my grandfather's return to the village, they both moved on. Deathnify was always driven to some extent to perform evil, possibly due to being brought up in a village where the men were encouraged to conquer those who stood in their paths, while Gwaz wanted to live her days in peace.
"Despite being the best of friends for all their lives, they got into an argument over the issue once Deathnify mentioned that the only ones he would hesitate to kill were children, animals, and his parents and had a bitter falling out. His sister had held onto the mask during their travels as Deathnify had developed a strange phobia of it, possibly due to his past of being forced to wear it in public. She now lives in the area known as the Snowflake Mountain, high up in the hills there with her husband of the same race and a pair of children. You need to get that mask from her, and place it somewhere where you know it will be perfectly safe as you need to summon that and use it to combat the demon.
"As for this ritual, here's the deal. Deathnify's goal, as his father was nicknamed Death for his brutal battle tactics, has the ultimate goal of avoiding death itself. That wouldn't be so bad in itself, but the thing is that to create what he needs, the Philosopher's Stone, he needs to kill seven people. The first six are pre-chosen and must be carried out in order while the user has an obelisk set up in a spot of his or her choosing with a very complex spell cast on it. There must be seven lines carved into the obelisk: six rounded lines spaced a few inches apart from each other in a circle in order to create an image of the stone. The last line must be located above this and must be exactly 18 centimeters long. The spell is then cast to cause each carving to glow dark red, resembling as though it were painted in blood. Once all seven lines are complete, the stone will appear in the creator's hands, and as long as they have it in their possession in some way, shape, or form, there will be immortality and endless power... at a cost, but I'll get to that in a moment.
"As said, the first six sacrifices must be pre-chosen and followed to a fault with no change whatsoever. The last, rather than being chosen, instead must be a person powered by their own anger, be it only at the moment or in a constant state. In essence, Kooper, he intends to use you as a sacrifice in a grab for immortality.
"That's not all. Bow?"
"Hmm?" the Boo asks, confused why the Duplighost would go out of his way to mention her.
"He intends to use you as well. I overheard him when he was here earlier- there's another death in a house nearby, by the way. I overheard him, and he was listing those he has used, and those he intends to use from here on out. He's killed a king named Ludwig, a Bean named Popple, a Toad named Toaditra, and now the man nearby. His next stop is a Toad gang leader in the town of Anne-Onyx that is more commonly known as the slums of Neon City. After that, he intends to come for you, Bow. I even heard him call you slothful."
"What?! How dare he-"
"Please, there's even more. As I said earlier, there is a price to pay to keep the amulet running its ways. It will eat away the youth of all who live within so much of a radius at a time, and both the speed of the increase in age and the radius will grow as time passes. A dormant stone cannot perform this- only a stone in use, in the hands of one can. This is a major dilemma itself- overthrowing death is one major error in the natural order of things to begin with. But imagine if the entire planet aged at a rate of a few months a day? All would be lost in short order. And it gets even further- Deathnify has a plan to unify the dimensions with the stone- Plit, Earth, and the Shadows. A trinity."
"Trinity?" Goombario asks. "And why only those three? I thought there were many, many dimensions out there."
"See, only three worlds at a time are attached. Thus, they are referred to as a trinity. When one world is destroyed, another forms from the remaining two in the trinity and replaces it. Legend says that long before the existence of the dimensions, there were many beings consisting solely of power, all hoping to overthrow each other and take over all that existed. There was a war that, due to time's lack of existence during this period, went on for an unknown length. Eventually all of these beings were broken down into three sects: three dimensions.
"Plit is one of the newer dimensions: it is true that Earth used to possess magical events like what are now commonplace here, and it is true that the worlds are still connected, and Earth and Plit were one. What happened was that one dimension in the trinity was wiped out when it unsuccessfully tried to open an entrance to the heartland of the Shadows, being consumed and ripped apart by the darkness inside this area. A third of Earth and a third of the Shadows combined, creating Plit: a magical world that retained the general physics and appearance of Earth, but at the same time possessing many more attachments to the Shadows as well as more powerful forms of magic than ever existed on Earth.
"Deathnify's plan is to use the stone as a way to enter the Shadows and take over the otherwise inaccessible heartland, allowing him to cast a spell to unseal the area from Plit. Having such an imbalance would cause the spot of the sole entrance to the Shadows existing on Earth, some mountainous ghost town in Maine, to tip, combining all three universes and killing the trinity. Deathnify wants to do this so as to be able to build up so much power in the stone that he can take over all that exists in every dimension, and essentially become reality. The problem is that if he does unify the dimensions, all of existence will be destroyed as that would cause one of those beings to return, allowing it to take over the other worlds and forever put an end to a chance at any life to ever exist again.
"This is common knowledge in the magical world, and he knows this. But strangely, it seems like he's driven to carry out the task either way. I've heard of the same events happening in several other cases. I can only assume that this means that these beings can manipulate some people into bending to their will and attempting to break the trinity. In summary, Kooper, Bow, and Goombario, the fate of all that has existed, does exist, and will ever exist is in your hands."